“What is it?” asked Kitty. “Did the car overheat?”
“Nope. There’s a trail of gas all along the road. Something’s happened to the fuel pump, we think,” replied Annalise.
Michelle stood by the open passenger door. “It’s no accident. Someone jammed a screwdriver or something into the fuel line.”
“Sabotage?” said Étoile, opening the back door, swinging her legs out. She fished her phone out of her pocket. She tapped a message and pressed “send.” “I let Evan know what happened so he doesn’t worry if we’re late,” she told us, peering at the screen. “Oh, reception isn’t great here.”
“It’s too open for us to just wait out here, given the circumstances,” said Michelle, turning to look up and down the road. “And not many other people are going to drive out this way.”
“Should we head back to town?” I asked. Kitty and I had gotten out of the car and we were standing in a huddle on the tarmac.
“Nah. If we cut through the woods, we’ll come out through the woods at the back of my house,” said Annalise, pointing to the trees. “It’s not far.”
“You sure?”
“I’ve spent a lot of years running these words, honey. Course, I’m sure.”
Michelle nodded. “I’d rather do that than wait here to see if whoever fucked up the fuel line comes along to see how we’re doing.”
We contemplated that for a moment. “Let’s go,” said Étoile, deciding for us. “Grab your stuff.”
“I’m going to go wolf, just in case,” announced Michelle, stepping out of the way, just as I slid out. She peeled off her shirt, jeans and boots and tossed them onto the passenger seat. I turned away politely, not before wondering if Gage would appreciate the view, and walked around to the other side of the car where a grassy strip separated us from the trees. A moment later, a reddish brown wolf circled the car and paused next to us. With a yip, she sprang forwards, quickly lost to the woods.
“Lead the way,” Étoile said to Annalise, then turning to Kitty and me, “Stay together.” Only a few minutes’ walk took us into the denser trees. The cool, blue sky came close to being obscured by a thick, leafy canopy as the spring leaves were starting fill in. I could smell earth and the faintest scent of animal. Annalise was inhaling deeply, her keen wolf nose far more likely to pick up something than our human senses.
“Men have been here recently,” she said, looking around. “Very recently, but I couldn’t tell you who. This is private land so maybe it’s the owner. There’s no border between his property and ours.” We pressed on, the trees parting ahead into a clearing.
I knew there was something wrong as soon as we stepped into the clearing. A quick glance towards Étoile and Kitty confirmed my suspicions. They felt it too. It was the quiet that got me first. We should hear birds, insects, small animals, but they were gone. Even the light breeze was absent.
Turning in a small circle, I looked through the clearing to the woods surrounding us. Annalise sniffed again. In a low voice she said, “Something’s not right. The scent is stronger, more recent here. I don’t like this. Let’s call Gage. Maybe he knows who’s been using the woods.”
I tugged my phone out of the bag and squinted at the screen. The bars had all gone. “No coverage.”
“Me neither,” added Kitty.
Annalise breathed deeply through her nose, exhaling cold air that clouded in front of us. “I’m going wolf,” she decided. “I’ll be faster than you two-feet folk. I’ll head back to the car, change, and call Beau or Jay and get them to meet us. Maybe we should have just waited? I’m sorry, this was a bad idea. I just thought it would be quicker than waiting in the open. I’ll do a circuit of the area and come find you. You want me to call Evan too?”
“He said he’d be back in a few minutes, so I guess so. He isn’t far away.”
“No problem. Grab my clothes, okay?”
“Hey, Annalise, should we keep moving?” Étoile asked, tapping her arm to get her attention before she undressed.
“Uh, stay in the clearing, just in case, until I come back. It’s probably nothing,” Annalise said, perhaps a touch to hopefully.
“Sure.”
Annalise stripped deftly and her change was fast and assured. The pale wolf shot into the woods and she was quickly lost from view. I scooped up her clothes and boots and tried to make them into a neat parcel to carry, along with my own jacket. We poked around for a while in the clearing before standing and looking at each other.
“I don’t see anything,” I said, feeling relieved. “I mean, it’s quiet but I don’t see any footprints or litter or anything that says someone has been waiting here. Maybe the owner had a hunting party or something?” I had no idea how these things worked, but that was the best I could come up with for why Annalise smelled a scent she hadn’t expected.
“I’m glad we don’t do any of the naked witches in the woods stuff,” I said. “I don’t think I could get comfortable with that.”
“You should meet my mom,” replied Étoile.
We waited, poking around the clearing, not wanting to move any further away. “Annalise has been gone too long. Let’s start making our way back. Maybe she got someone to patch up the car,” said Étoile, grabbing both Kitty and me by the hands and tugging so that we started to follow our own tracks across the clearing. “No point waiting around here if Annalise and Michelle are waiting by the car.”
We followed swiftly, pausing at the edge of the clearing when Étoile touched my arm then put a finger to her lips, silencing us both. “Shh! I hear something.”
I tried to focus on my surroundings, searching for whatever it was Étoile could hear. Then I heard it. A shuffling sort of sound in the undergrowth, then a whistling as something sailed past us to land in the dry grass off to our left.
Fire erupted in front of us, spreading quickly in lines to the right and left, cutting us off from the path. I smelled gasoline. With horror, I realised it was poured onto the grass before we’d arrived, ready to be lit. Étoile and I stepped one way, and as a wall of fire sliced past us, I saw with terror that Kitty had lurched in a different direction. I could hear her screaming our names as the fire cut us off. In the distance, a wolf howled, a shrill, aggrieved sound.
Wheeling around, I could see Kitty, just as the flames grew upwards. She was cut off from two sides. On the third and far side, I got the briefest glimpse of a man standing near the tree line before that edge caught fire too, trapping her in a triangle.
Kitty screamed my name and I felt something shift in the air, the cold turning into something more substantial. The air felt wet. Kitty was trying to make it rain, but, though the air was getting heavier, nothing happened.
“They’ve made some kind of protective circle,” Étoile hissed, holding my hand as we stepped back, away from the hungry licks of the fire. “I think I can shimmer us out of here, but I don’t know if I can get back for Kitty.”
“Can we get through the flames at least? Maybe if all three of us are together we can power off each other?”
“The fire’s intense, but you’re right, we should...” Étoile didn’t get a chance to finish what she was going to say. I had the strangest feeling of my ears beginning to pop, then an intense blast of heat before the world went dark.
A moment later, and everything was gone, the woods and the fire... and Kitty. Instead, we were in what looked like a hallway of a house. I stood on large black tiles, a set of wooden double doors behind me. Looking around, I took in white walls and a small amount of nice furniture; a console table with a pair of lamps, a single upholstered chair. We were standing in the hallway of someone’s house, a very impressive space with a double level that reached up to a soaring ceiling. The height was emphasised by a staircase, upstairs a glass balustrade spanned the hallway’s width. Behind me was another door, closed. It was darkly glamourous in a masculine sort of way.
I still had Annalise’s bundle and my jacket under my arm and Étoile was sliding her hand out o
f mine.
Evan was next to us, rolling his shoulders.
I blinked, adjusting my eyes. They stung from the smoke. “What just happened?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“You couldn’t get out, but I could get in and out. The magic protecting that circle was for witches only. Like a loophole.”
“Where’s Kitty?”
He paused for a moment. “I couldn’t get you all.”
I felt like screaming at him. Instead, I dropped Annalise’s bundle and battered my fists against his chest for all the good it did me. “You left her there to die?” I choked through tears that sprang to my eyes as the force of Kitty’s anguished cries sounded in my ears. It was a good job I was in control of my emotions these days. Things could have been a lot worse if my magic took over. The long, modern chandelier in the hallway didn’t deserve to shatter.
“Hell, no!” Evan looked appalled. “I got Étoile’s message about the car being sabotaged just as I was checking out the arm. I’d already decided to come get you once I saw the message but the arm sealed it. Then, Annalise called Beau, and he called me, told me to get my ass over to you all, seeing as I could get there faster. He was worried someone might have followed you. We got there just as the fire started and split up. I got you two, they went for Kitty. No problem.”
“Are you sure?” I patted my pockets for my phone, found it and started scrawling my call list until I found Kitty’s number. I got her voicemail and left a panicked message, telling her to call me, right now. “How come you got to us so quickly?”
Evan ran his hands over my arms and stared down at me. “Beau was already driving and it took me about thirty seconds, since you weren’t far.” He released me with a sigh, and started walking further into the building beckoning for us to follow. I took a moment to look around.
“What did Annalise say when she called? Where is she? Hey, where are we anyway?” I asked, following him after a glance at Étoile. She shrugged and shook her head.
Evan looked back at us and gave me a cautious sort of smile as if he weren’t quite sure that I would like what he was going to say. “My house,” he answered.
Six
“Your house?” I repeated, realisation dawning on me as I followed him along the broad hallway.. Nothing cluttered the space and it smelled faintly of lemon cleaning solution, like someone had mopped the tiles recently. My voice was slightly incredulous as I clarified, “In Texas?” In all the time we’d been dating, well, if you call moving in together dating, I’d never been to his house although we often talked about it. It was a case of one thing or the other that stopped us from making the trip together: work, lessons... evil.
Evan didn’t pause to answer, just saying, “That’s the one.”
My phone rang then, showing Kitty’s number and I stopped, bringing the phone to my ear. “I’m fine,” she panted on the line. “Well, except for some minor burns on my arms. Beau helped me, and a couple of the guys. Gage just picked us up and we’re heading back to his place. They’re sending a tow truck for Annalise’s car.”
“Oh, thank God. I’m so glad you’re okay, except for the burns, obviously.” I didn’t like to ponder on luck, but it seemed more than serendipitous that the wolves had arrived at just the right time.
“They’ll heal, though I smell like a really nasty barbecue. We aren’t going to be able to grill for a while. Where are you anyway? Evan got you both, right?”
“Yeah. We’re at his house.”
“In Texas!” Kitty squeaked. “I thought he’d take you to your house, not across the damn country. You need to get back here, like now.”
“What’s going on? Is Annalise mad that I’ve still got her clothes?” Not only that, I had her boots too and it was cold. At least Michelle had the good sense to toss hers in the car.
“No, it’s not that. Well, she probably will be but... We were just a distraction, honey.” Kitty rushed on, hardly taking pause to breathe, “The Brotherhood got Annalise. They must have known they were being watched. Gage said Jones and the other guy were followed as far as the plane. But this ambush definitely smacks of Brotherhood, so we missed something, somehow. Maybe they just got lucky and decided to snatch Annalise because she was on her own, and we were with you.”
A familiar feeling of guilt crept over me and I had to put my hand against the pristine white wall to steady myself. “Are you sure they have her?”
“Yeah, the keys were still in the ignition and the guys caught a couple of scents. They think Annalise got grabbed as soon as the fire started, cutting us off from the road. They knew we wouldn’t let them get you, honey.” Kitty paused then said, softly, “There was a lot of blood on the door. She fought back.”
I choked back the sob rising in my throat. There was no telling what they would do to Annalise now. “What about Michelle?”
“We found her out cold next to the car. I think she came to help Annalise and someone hit her over the head. Jay took her to the hospital. Listen, there was a letter left on the windscreen addressed to you.”
“Open it.” Evan and Étoile both stepped closer, waiting.
I fiddled with the phone, hitting “speaker” before holding it out in my palm. There was a sound of tearing and then rustling like Kitty was juggling the phone as well as the envelope. Over all that, I heard the hum of the engine and the occasional word from Gage, talking to someone. “It’s just a short note,” she said after a long moment. “It says, ’Got your wolf friend. Accept the invitation or she bites it.’ Do you think that was a bad pun? There’s another plane ticket, too. First class. It’s for tonight.”
My stomach plummeted. “I’ve got to go,” I whispered.
“Yeah, you should talk this over with Evan and Étoile.”
“No, I mean, I’ve got to go. To England.”
Kitty made a little clicking noise with her tongue. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t have a choice. I can’t let them hurt Annalise.”
I heard an angry growl in the background, then the low hum of a car engine cutting out while a door opened. Someone was muttering the things they would do if Annalise got hurt. It sounded like her boyfriend, Beau. Considering how big he was, and his military service, I was glad he was on our side, but my heart wept for him.
“What does Étoile think?”
“Étoile thinks we’re in deep shit,” said Étoile, leaning in.
“What she said,” I added. “Listen, I’m coming back. I’ll meet you at my house. We’ll make a plan as soon as I get there.”
“Hurry, Stella.” Kitty clicked off and I slid the phone back in my pocket.
“They’ve got Annalise,” I whispered, even though they already knew that.
“Shit.” Evan ran a hand through his short hair, looking perturbed.
Something occurred to me. “That witch I saw today in Wilding. I didn’t recognise her. Do you think she could have anything to do with this?”
“Maybe,” Étoile said. “But it’s unlikely. What would a witch have to do with any of this?”
“She could make a car break down at exactly the right place.” I’ve been thinking about that, how the gas trailed out just at the spot where the Brotherhood were waiting. It was a huge coincidence that we broke down where we did, if not.
“Hold on,” said Evan. “We’re talking about a conspiracy between witches and the Brotherhood, two factions that hate each other.”
“There’s a whole lot wrong with this situation.” Another thought occurred to me. “Jones said someone told him where I was. What if this is Georgia Thomas’ way of getting back at me?”
“Shit,” cussed Evan.
“Yeah, we got that far. I have to go back.” The mileage between Evan’s house and mine was almost impossible to gauge. All I knew was it was further than I had ever travelled before. No one knew for sure how shimmering worked, but, thanks to my bonded connection to my house, I was pretty sure I could transport myself back there if my need was strong enoug
h. Neither Étoile nor Evan would have any problems following. Both of them had long distance experience while I was strictly a short-hop wonder. This morning, I was thrilled to do a few miles. Now I was planning something that would make a shimmering marathon look like a hop around my living room.
Evan shook his head. “No, you don’t. You go back there, they know exactly where you are and they can come for you anytime. We don’t know how many are in the area or where they are. It’s too dangerous. Look what happened to Annalise! That could have been you!” he finished sharply.
“I can’t stay! They’re taking Annalise to England and I have to go after her. It’s me they want, not her.”
“Let the wolves look after one of their own. They’ll get her back.”
“And risk their lives because of me? Annalise’s life? What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help?”
“The kind of friend who didn’t get herself killed on a wild goose chase to another country on the pretext that her friend might be alive. Stella, I didn’t want to say this, but Annalise might be dead already. They could be putting her in a shallow grave somewhere near Wilding and you’re chasing nothing.”
I fought back tears. “I can’t do nothing!”
Devious Magic Page 8
