by Brian Harmon
Danni aimed carefully and fired, but the gun only clicked. She was spent.
But Poppy was already moving. With remarkable speed, she parked herself between the imp and its intended victim. Predictably, the ugly creature simply leapt onto her instead, snapping and snarling and slashing at her with its vicious claws.
“Go!” she shouted at the woman. “Get out of here!”
The woman bolted from the room, nearly colliding with a tall, bespectacled teenager who was lingering in the doorway, her curiosity having gotten the better of her.
For a girl in a wheelchair, Poppy was surprisingly spry. She threw her weight left and then right and then tipped the chair onto its side, pinning the little beast beneath it.
Danni promptly rushed to her and clubbed the creature to death with the butt of her rifle.
Meanwhile, Eric drove the table leg into the throat of the imp he’d pinned against the sofa, finally putting an end to its struggles.
Only one remained. The final member of the pack lunged at Holly as she ran to Poppy’s aid. Clara stepped up to bat and knocked the ugly creature off its too-big feet with a well-aimed swing of the navy umbrella.
Before it could regain its feet, Danni was on it. She’d been frightening when firing the weapon, but the sight of her swinging the rifle over her head as she beat the vile creature into a gory, smoking pulp was utterly terrifying.
Eric did not want to ever cross that woman.
The five of them (seven if you counted the bespectacled teen and the small, dark-haired woman still lurking in the doorways, their eyes wide with disbelief) were silent now as they all looked around to see if it was really over.
All in all, Eric wasn’t overly impressed with these imps. Sure, they were a serious pain in the ass, but as far as monsters went, he’d faced far tougher.
But if they kept coming at them in greater and greater numbers, eventually they were going to win. That was just simple math.
“Does somebody want to tell me why my living room was just turned into a war zone?” demanded Clara.
Poppy was sprawled on the floor beside her overturned wheelchair. Holly was kneeling beside her. Both of them looked at each other and then at Eric. None of them had any idea what to say.
“Anybody?”
“We’re witches?” tried Poppy.
Danni stared at her as if this were the most insane thing she’d ever heard. (And it probably was.)
Clara closed her eyes. Eric thought she was going to lose it, but she just sighed and said, “Okay.”
“‘Okay?’” said Eric, surprised.
“A pack of little monsters just burst into my home like a scene out of an eighties horror movie,” she told him. “I watched Red over there cut one of them down with some kind of Jedi move. If witches is the explanation I’m going to get, then I guess I’ll take it.”
“You’re an open-minded woman,” he told her. “And a nightmare with an umbrella. I’m impressed.”
She spread her arms and gave him a tired smile.
“Okay…so…what the hell are they doing in our house?” demanded Danni.
“There’s a really bad man trying to kill us,” Poppy explained. “He made those things.”
Clara nodded, her eyes brightening. Monsters and witches was one thing, but a dangerous man who wanted to hurt an innocent woman… This was something she understood. “Well, that’s what I do. I protect women from bad men. What do you need from me?”
“I need to get them both home,” Eric said.
“And away from here,” agreed Poppy.
“It’s us he wants,” added Holly. “If we leave, he shouldn’t have any interest in anyone else.”
“We know how to protect ourselves here,” Danni assured them.
“That’s right,” agreed Clara. “You won’t find a safer place than this within a hundred miles.”
“Not against this guy,” said Poppy. “This guy’s a whole new kind of bad news.”
But Clara wasn’t impressed. “I told you I’d look after you, and I meant it. I won’t let this man hurt you or anyone else in my house.”
“That’s admirable,” Poppy replied, “but this guy isn’t some drunk husband. He’s a monster. A real one. He made these things. He can do much more than that. He’ll kill everybody to get to me. And you made the same promise to take care of everyone else in this house, too.”
Clara was clearly divided at the thought of this. She looked both terrified by the idea of such a dangerous killer and insulted by the suggestion that there existed a man that she couldn’t handle.
More women began gathering in the doorways again, their curiosity outweighing their fear now that the commotion had stopped.
“Besides,” added Poppy. “It’s not like I don’t have anywhere to go. You’re not the first woman I’ve met who’s devoted her life to saving girls in need.”
This seemed to be what Clara needed to hear. She stood up a little straighter. “I see.”
Eric’s cell phone chimed at him and he pulled it from his pocket.
I FEEL IT! THE SAME THING I FELT AT THE CLUB! IT’S IN THE HOUSE!
Eric felt his stomach tighten. The magic man was here.
Now he understood why the first imp had bothered to ring the doorbell. These things were only a distraction while the magic man slipped inside elsewhere.
Before anyone could say anything more, a loud, shrill alarm sounded from the back of the house. The smoke alarm. As soon as he heard it, Eric realized that he could smell something burning.
Someone shouted about a fire in the kitchen and Danni and Clara ran from the room as the other women scattered from the doorways like a frightened flock of pigeons.
Eric and Holly’s eyes met. Fire. It was a fire that broke out at the club as they were fleeing the scene and it was a fire that had taken poor Sylvia. And it had been a fire that broke out on the night the magic man murdered Grandpa. This was no coincidence. Eric didn’t need a magic spell to tell him that it was fire that claimed Regina and Marie before he arrived here, too.
Fire was the magic man’s signature.
And his murder weapon of choice.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” said Holly.
Eric nodded. “We have to go.”
“We can’t just leave them,” said Poppy as she sat up and arranged her legs beneath her. “I can’t go until I know they’re going to be okay.”
Of course not, thought Eric. It was just like Holly running back into the club. He admired their determination to protect their friends, but why couldn’t these things ever be easy for him? Why couldn’t they just run away from the bad guy?
“Check on them in the kitchen,” she begged. “Please.”
He hesitated.
“I’ll watch her,” Holly promised. “I’ll yell if we need you.”
Reluctantly, he nodded and ran for the kitchen.
He found Danni wielding a fire extinguisher as a half dozen women stood behind her with identical, terrified expressions on their faces. Somehow, the entire outer wall was in flames. The counters, cabinets, windowsill and even the microwave were blazing. Even the sink was on fire, as if it had been filled with lighter fluid and set alight.
“What’s going on?” asked Clara.
“Gather everyone together in one place,” he told her. “Make sure you know where everyone is. Be ready to get out of the house if you have to, but only if you have to. There might be more imps out there.”
She nodded and repeated the order to the women around her, sending them scrambling to gather the rest of the house into the garage.
Eric turned and grabbed the extinguisher from Danni. “Let me do that. You go reload your rifle. If you have any other guns, you’d better bring them, too.”
“What are we up against?”
“Hopefully nothing. I need you and Clara to defend the house while I get Poppy and Holly out and lead this guy away from here.”
Danni nodded and bolted for the stairs.
He
finished putting out the fire and then placed the extinguisher on the counter. He then ran back to the living room to find Holly and Poppy waiting right where he left them. No more imps had appeared from the broken window and no magic man had entered the room in his absence.
“Time to go,” he said.
Clara appeared at the doorway. “Everyone’s accounted for,” she announced. “But there’re more fires upstairs. I’m worried. I think this guy’s trying to smoke you out.”
Eric nodded. “You might be right.”
“You think he’s trying to make us run?” asked Poppy. “A trap?”
“Maybe. But we don’t have much choice. If Delphinium’s right, we don’t stand a chance against him on our own.”
She looked worried. Eric didn’t blame her.
“We’ll be okay,” said Holly. “We have Eric. Del said he’d protect us. She’s never wrong.”
She was wrong about me protecting Sylvia, he thought, but didn’t dare say. He still wasn’t sure. He still didn’t understand how he could possibly make a difference in this struggle. And yet, Holly seemed to really believe with all her heart that it was true. Perhaps she was merely clinging to the only shred of hope she could find.
Clara looked back and forth from him to Poppy. “Is this a witch thing?” she asked.
Poppy smiled. “Yeah. It is.”
She sighed. “Then I guess you’ll know best.”
Poppy looked at Holly. “If Del says so, then it must be true.”
Holly nodded. “It always is.”
Danni appeared in the doorway beside Clara, her freshly loaded rifle at her side. “Fire department’s already on the way. “It doesn’t make any sense. How’s he starting all these fires? There’s nobody here. I’ve checked every room.”
He’s definitely here, thought Eric. The real question was, why hadn’t he torched the room his targets were actually in? “Better start getting everyone out,” he told them. “We’ll go out the front.”
“I’ll go with you,” Danni announced. “Cover fire. Just in case.” She turned to Clara and said, “You go get the others out through the garage.”
Clara nodded.
Eric walked over and scooped Poppy into his arms. “I think we’d better forget the chair,” he told her.
“I think you’re right.”
Clara walked over and took one of Poppy’s hands in both of hers. “If you ever need me, you know where to find me.”
“I do. And thank you for everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Then her eyes fixed on Eric. “You’d better take good care of her.”
“Absolutely,” promised Eric.
Clara gave Poppy one last look and then turned and hurried toward the kitchen.
“Will they be okay?” Poppy asked.
Eric honestly didn’t know, but he nodded anyway. “I wouldn’t mess with that woman if I were the magic man.” And this was the truth. His head was still aching from her umbrella assault in the foyer.
Cradling her against him, he turned and followed Holly and Danni down the front hallway and out of the Wordsley House.
Danni stopped at the bottom of the steps and turned around, scanning the front yard for any sign of danger. “Go on!” she shouted. “Get out of here!”
“Be careful!” called Poppy. “Don’t try to take him on if you see him!”
“Don’t worry,” Danni yelled back. “I really don’t think I want to.”
In the distance, they could hear sirens approaching. The fire department would be here in a moment. Hopefully, the magic man would choose to leave before they arrived.
Poppy stared back over his shoulder. “I feel so bad. I never should’ve come here.”
“You didn’t know.”
“Still…”
Holly slid open the side door of the minivan and looked back at the house as he eased Poppy into the back seat. “Eric!”
He followed her gaze, expecting to see someone emerging from the doors, right behind Danni. Instead, his eyes were drawn to a second floor window where firelight flickered. A dark shadow was silhouetted there, a figure cloaked in a hood, watching them.
“Oh shit…” said Poppy.
Holly jumped into the van and closed the side door.
Eric slid behind the wheel, never taking his eyes off the man in the window. “Get to the others!” he called out to Danni. “Now!”
Danni nodded and began backing toward the corner of the house.
“God, I hope they’ll be okay,” worried Poppy.
“They’ll be safer when we’re gone,” Eric assured her. He slammed the minivan in gear and drove away as fast as he could, the tires spinning gravel as they sped down the driveway.
Chapter Fourteen
Eric’s cell phone rang and he wrestled it from the depths of his pocket again.
“I know I say this a lot, but that was terrifying,” said Isabelle as soon as he lifted it to his ear.
“I know. Do you have anything for me?”
“Well, it was definitely the same thing I felt entering the club as you and Holly were leaving.”
“The magic man?”
“I couldn’t tell you. But it was definitely the same energy. It was similar to what I felt centered around Delphinium when you first met her. I don’t know if it’s really magic, but the two are definitely related.”
“Who’s he talking to?” asked Poppy.
“Isabelle,” Holly whispered back at her. “The girl in his phone.”
“What, like Siri?”
Holly looked puzzled. “Who’s Siri?”
Poppy rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
“The real question,” continued Isabelle, “is how this guy keeps finding you.”
“I know,” agreed Eric. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he keeps turning up everywhere we go. Is he following us somehow?”
“I didn’t feel him at the motel,” Isabelle recalled. “He was already gone when you got there.”
She was right, he realized. He’d gotten ahead of them somehow. At least for a little while.
“You didn’t go straight there from the club. You went back to Delphinium first. He could easily have gotten there before you.”
That was definitely true, but it brought to light another question: “If he already knew where she was, why would he wait so long? The first attack was two days ago.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” agreed Isabelle. “You should talk to Delphinium again. Maybe she has some ideas.”
Eric nodded. She was right, of course.
“I’ll keep an eye out from here, but watch out for those imps. I still can’t feel them.”
Eric promised he would do that and then hung up. “Are you two okay?” he asked his passengers.
“I’m fine,” said Holly.
“Me too,” said Poppy. “But I’m worried about the girls at the shelter.”
“I think they’ll be okay,” Eric assured her. “He seemed to leave the other people in the club alone after we left.”
“That’s right,” recalled Holly. “Annie said no one was hurt.”
“He has no reason to be interested in civilians,” reasoned Eric. “He wants you girls. I don’t know why.”
“Some kind of dominance thing, maybe?” suggested Poppy. “He’s trying to prove he’s the best, so he’s wiping out anyone with power?”
Holly shook her head. “It’s revenge. Grandpa defeated him years ago. He always told us that. He came back to settle the score.”
“But he would’ve had his revenge. He murdered Grandpa.”
“He’s not satisfied,” said Holly. “He wants to kill his whole family.”
“That’s the problem with revenge,” Eric agreed. “A lot of times, it’s never enough. It’s insatiable.”
Poppy shook her head. “I never believed in the magic man. It was just a story to scare us into not showing off with our talents.”
“I’m still a little hazy on who this magic man is,” said Eric.
“Grandpa had an arch nemesis?”
“He never told us much about who he was before he was the magic man,” Poppy explained. It was the same thing Jude told him. “But he was someone from Grandpa’s past. They became bitter enemies somehow and it all boiled down to some kind of crazy, magical showdown. He always made it sound like some kind of epic fantasy battle.”
“He used to show us the scar on his chest,” recalled Holly.
Poppy nodded. “Yeah. In the end Grandpa won and the magic man vanished. He always said he could return any time and that we had to be careful.”
Eric thought it definitely sounded like the kind of made-up, cautionary tale one might tell to a child with unusual abilities to frighten her into being discrete about them.
Except that the magic man had come back. Eric had now seen him with his own eyes.
It seemed that Grandpa was the only one who could tell him exactly who the magic man was, and that wasn’t going to be happening.
“Anyway,” said Poppy, wiping at her eyes. Recalling Grandpa’s stories had apparently brought on a deluge of unwanted emotions. “I’m still a little unclear about how you fit into all of this.”
Eric nodded. “Yeah. Me too.”
“Del found him with her magic,” Holly explained. “She said it warned her that we were all doomed without him.”
“I see,” said Poppy. “And yet, you don’t have any useful abilities?”
“I’m very knowledgeable about British literature.”
“Oh,” said Poppy. “So you could bore the magic man to death. That’s good to know.”
“He saved me,” said Holly. “And Del believes in him. That’s good enough for me.”
Poppy shrugged. “Okay then. Me, too. I guess. He is pretty handy with imps, I suppose. For a muggle.”
Eric chuckled. “I do my best.”
“Is this your first time dealing with them?” she pressed.
“Never met an imp before today,” Eric replied.
“Impressive.”
“I’ve met a few golems and a jinn, though.”
“Now you’re making fun of us,” said Poppy.
“Not at all.”
“Seriously?”
Holly gave Eric a sweet smile. “Del said he was special.”
“I guess so…” She looked from Eric to Holly and back again. “So have you two known each other very long then?”
