“I should call my brother in to meet you, too. He and I own the apartment complex a few blocks over. We were just heading to get some supplies. The Williams’ kid flushed a wad of toilet paper so big that it’s jammed the works like cement. I’m going to have to replace the whole fixture. He’s a great kid, but dang. We figured we could get your paint while we were there if you’ve made up your mind yet.” Sebastian shook his head while laughing. Elaine did not find the idea amusing, however.
“My daughter will be hiring someone to paint the house in order to prepare it for sale. If you include house painting as one of the services you provide, you are welcome to give me a quote.” Elaine’s gaze turned even chillier. It was not lost on her that he had put his hand on Sarah’s shoulder while he spoke.
“Mom. I’m not selling this house, and there’s nothing you can do that will force me to. I am an adult, and this is my life, not yours. I’m staying here.” Sarah knew she was drawing courage from having Sebastian there with her. Alone, she might not have been able to stand in the same room as her mother and speak up at all. Elaine moved her icy gaze back to her daughter and Sarah shivered under it.
“I will stay here until Friday. I will arrange for my lawyer to provide the necessary papers for you to transfer this property to me to dispose of. They will have them ready for you to sign tomorrow in all likelihood, the day after at the latest. Then we will return home where you will live in my apartment until you can regain your senses. I will make some calls to find you a new position somewhere, though considering how you left your previous job I am not certain how easy it will be. Perhaps you should reconsider Kenneth’s proposal, I know he is still interested in you, and as his wife you would at least be taken care of and kept safe.” Her gaze flickered across Sebastian as she swept back out the door. “I will return tomorrow morning with the paperwork.”
They stood there for a moment, letting the warmth return to the room with Elaine’s departure before Sebastian shook his head.
“I know she’s your mother and that it’s none of my business, Sarah. I do. But sweet Jesus, you grew up with that woman? How did you turn out so well?”
Sarah sat back and sighed, a punctuation on the end of her useful workday. The sun was long gone and the darkness surrounding the house had closed in, but Sarah blocked it out with her new curtains. They were a total impulse purchase, but the fabric had caught her eye as they’d walked past it that afternoon, and she’d run in to buy enough to cover the living room and the kitchen at least. It hadn’t been cheap but she’d felt defiant and brave over the purchase, and looking at them make her happy.
The guys had offered to stay and help with the curtains and the paint, since they had plenty of handyman experience, but Sarah had felt like at least this coat was a job for herself. After the scene with her mother she’d called Jennifer to make sure that Elaine couldn’t take the house by force. Since the answer was that unless Elaine could convince a court that Sarah couldn’t care for herself, then no. So Sarah had wanted to put her own mark on the place right away.
Now her back ached and her hair had paint in it and she had an entire wall full of yellow paint. It was far from perfect—uneven, blotchy, and in one small area covered in a handprint where she’d put her hand out after tripping and let it dry while she washed her hand. I’ll have to do another coat tomorrow. Maybe two. She thought to herself, but that didn’t dent her feeling of accomplishment.
The macaroni and cheese she had covered in tin foil and reheated, staying warm in the oven suddenly smelled like the most amazing thing ever. She had made that, too, yesterday when she’d decided to pull out one of Gran’s recipes from the file, though she’d had a lot of help from Doc on keeping the sauce from scorching. It tasted like her childhood and she’d eaten about half of it while Doc sat there and laughed and told stories about her friend Rosie.
They’d talked about magic as well.
“Our sort of magic is, well, at it’s most basic I suppose it’s a way to focus our will and drive it to do something. Like when I put that spell on my teas, I have words that I say, but they’re like a lens. They gather my thoughts on a particular goal, to promote health and happiness in those who drink my tea.” Doc said, sipping her wine.
“No magic wands or whatever? I thought you needed all sorts of stuff and rituals and things.” Sarah asked, curious now. “I mean I’m assuming the cauldron and cackling and black cat stuff is optional already.”
“Optional, but fun!” Doc laughed. “Cooking together always does end up with laughing, I think, I mean look at us! Although I don’t think the stainless steel saucepan made a very good cauldron. Maybe a Dutch oven next time?” They both laughed now, and Sarah topped up their wine glasses. “But honestly, no, none of that stuff is strictly necessary. It is very helpful though. There’s a reason people have rituals. Get up, wash face, make coffee. That’s a ritual, and it helps focus your mind for the day ahead. If you don’t get through it you feel unbalanced, right? So we make rituals and spells and use whatever tools we feel comfortable with as a framework for our magic.”
“Wow. That’s really interesting. So if I wanted I could just concentrate really hard and, I don’t know, levitate something? Like that spoon?” Sarah pointed at the wooden spoon they’d used to make the sauce that was sitting in a pot on the stove. She felt like she’d suddenly gotten super powers. Maybe she should work on a superhero costume! Doc laughed again.
“Well that’s pretty advanced, and it would take an awful lot of power my dear, but yes. It’s not impossible. The rituals and the tools make it a great deal easier. Although why you would want to levitate it when it would be faster and easier to just go get it?” The conversation had slid downhill from there to getting the TV remote when you’re sick, and the two had ended up laughing till tears ran down their faces and they had to switch from pasta and wine to ice cream and tea.
That’s what this place is, Sarah thought as she bustled around the kitchen, cleaning herself up and getting her dinner ready, late though it was. It’s a place for family and friends to gather and laugh and enjoy each other’s company. It’s a place to be busy and putter in the garden or in the kitchen. Maybe she’d take a sewing class and learn to putter in the craft took as well?
She served up the gooey pasta onto a paper plate and that did make her pause. Gran’s lovely dishes were all gone. All the laughing and friendly cooking help and talk of magic wouldn’t change the fact that someone was apparently after her. Her house had been broken into and her grandmother’s things smashed up and even though she loved the yellow paint, the fact of it even being there was a reaction to someone else’s vitriol. And then the dream attack. What was that about?
Sarah sat down at the table and chewed thoughtfully. Doc was right, though. Even though she couldn’t remember her dream, she vividly remembered her reaction to Kai coming into the room the next morning. It was similar enough to her reaction when she saw that wight that she wanted to never have that feeling again. Terror and horror and panic all at once, and Kai was absolutely the last person in the world to threaten her o that reaction had to be a result of the dream and thus was a deliberately instilled fear.
She could see how Kai took care of everyone in the Village and she knew, somehow, that she’d been adopted by the residents and so he would take care of her the same way. At first Sarah figured that they were just being kind to her because she was Rosie’s granddaughter, but now Sarah was hoping that they actually liked her for herself. She just felt like she fit in here, finally. For the first time in her life she really felt like she had a home instead of just a place to live.
But was it safe to stay here? That was the real question. Someone could break in again anytime. She had new locks, but clearly that hadn’t mattered much in the first place, and if someone really wanted to get in, smashing a window isn’t difficult. Granted, there were also new wards up, with extra power boosts from several Village residents. They were almost treating it like her house was an outl
ying, detached part of their community, which was really sweet. But then the wards hadn’t stopped the vandal that first time.
As for the dreams, Doc had taught her a way to protect herself while she slept, a sort of dream ward. And it was true that she hadn’t had any more nightmares since that day. Her dreams had been fairly pleasant, in fact, mostly about everyday life but some about exciting adventures that were odd, but never scary. Actually, she’d dreamed of Mr Young in one way or another fairly often. He was there in a lot of the dreams she remembered, and suddenly she wondered just how old Mr Young actually was. And what sort of spirit. She would have to ask.
Seventeen
Sarah reached out and groped blindly on the bedside table to find her phone. She knew it was there somewhere and he needed to make it stop ringing. Her fingers finally brushed across it and she managed to drag it back to her face.
“Hello?” she mumbled into it.
“Sarah? It’s Kai. I’m sorry to wake you so early, but you’re involved in all this so I though you should know. Mr. Young seems to have made some sort of discovery about the wights and we’re having a council meeting. Think you could make it?” He spoke quickly and Sarah could hear muffled noises in the background. She thought she heard Doc’s voice, but it was all muffled.
“What time is it?” Sarah asked. She was still half asleep and it was hard to process so much too fast.
“It’s just after six. Like I said, I’m sorry to call so early, but we thought you’d want to be here for this. Sebastian’s half out the door already to come get you. I hope that’s okay cause I don’t think I can catch him at this point.” He did sound apologetic, but more than that he sounded determined. And angry. Sarah realized that she’d never heard Kai sound angry before—upset, sure, and worried— but if this was a hint of it, she hoped she never pissed him off herself.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get dressed. Sorry, is there coffee? I didn’t get much sleep.” She swung out of the bed and winced as her feet his the freezing cold wood floor.
“Nightmares?” Kai’s voice was blade sharp.
“No! No nightmares. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. No, I was up late thinking, actually. Mom showing up yesterday and everything had me really wound up. I’m going to get dressed and wait for Sebastian. See you soon, okay?” Sarah put the phone down again and hurried to get ready. She was just getting her shoes on when there was a knock on the door.
“Great timing, I’m ready to go!” she said as she pulled it open.
“Glad to hear it,” a dark voice growled. Sarah screamed as the hand shot out and fastened around her wrist. “Struggling will only hurt you, won’t hurt me at all.”
“Let me go! Who are you, what do you want?” Sarah knew that the questions were both cliche and not going to be answered, but they came tumbling out anyway as she yanked back on her arm.
“Hey!” Sebastian sounded livid as he slammed through the gate. The stranger swore violently and as he turned Sarah threw herself back and broke free from the manacle of his hand. Sebastian rushed at him, but the stranger threw a wild punch which connected square in Sebastian’s eye and took off running down the street like the hounds of hell were chasing him. From the expression, Sebastian wore the stranger wasn’t far off.
“Oh my god, Sebastian, are you okay?” Sarah rushed over to him.
“I’m fine, are you okay? Who was that?” He glared at the corner the man disappeared around.
“I think I’m okay. Physically, I mean. I’m kind of freaked out otherwise.” Sarah ran back to the kitchen and filled a bag with ice. She wrapped a clean dishtowel around it as she hurried back to where he stood in the doorway. “I have no idea who that was. I heard the knock and opened the door without looking because I thought it was you. Sebastian, what’s going on around here?” Sarah knew her eyes were huge as she laid the icepack against his cheek.
“I don’t know.” He met her gaze and winced when he tried to frown. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we are sure as hell going to find out.”
Their entrance into the building marked ‘leasing office’ was more dramatic than they’d intended thanks to the bruise forming over Seb’s eye. Sebastian explained that he and Kai actually lived there, but the bottom floor was all office space for running the Village and for keeping up the appearance of a normal apartment complex. He led the way to a meeting room where everyone was waiting. Mr. Young sipped tea quietly at the head of the table while everyone else huddled around coffee cups. Ellie looked like she hadn’t slept in days, and everyone looked tired. Kai was pacing.
“What the hell took you so long?” Kai demanded as they stepped in, then he noticed the ice pack. “What is Sarah that violent in the morning before coffee?”
“No. We have more problems.” Sebastian filled them all in on the attempted kidnapping. Doc hustled over to look at Sarah’s wrist which had bruised.
“Did you get a look at the guy?” Kai asked. Sarah shook her head.
“Not really. It sounds so stupid, but it really did just happen so fast. At first, I thought it was Sebastian so I didn’t even look, then I was just fighting the guy. I think he had black hair, but I couldn’t swear to it. His voice was really deep. That’s all I can tell you.”
“He had magic,” Sebastian said. “I couldn’t catch if it was human magic or not, but that punch he threw had an assist. He made sure that my vision blurred for a minute so I couldn’t chase him.”
“Shit.” Kai scowled. “I was about to suggest that you and Sarah go call the cops, but at this point…” he looked over at Mr. Young, who frowned and shook his head.
“Yeah. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the same guy is involved in all of our problems.” Kai scrubbed his hand over his head.
“Why don’t you tell us what we’re all here for at this bullshit hour of the morning,” Ellie grumbled. “Some of us have stuff to do.” Alex poked Ellie’s arm, but there was a murmur of agreement.
“Well, it seems that Mr Young has found something. As near as I can tell, there have been attractors planted around the Village and a few surrounding locations. Things that draw the wights to them somehow. I’m not totally clear on the specifics of how they work, but he took me out to see one before he destroyed it, and the thing was nasty. I felt greasy just looking at it, and a wight showed up while we were there, in case I doubted.” He glanced at Mr Young who inclined his head in confirmation. “You destroyed, what, a dozen of them?” Kai asked, and again the elderly Asian nodded. Someone whistled. Everyone looked shocked.
“Wight bait?”
“Why on earth would anyone do that”
“The hell would you do that for?”
“Who would even think to do that?”
“There’s more.” Kai cut off the rumble of chatter. Everyone snapped their attention back to him and Sarah felt goosebumps break out all over her skin. She squeezed closer to Sebastian who put his arm around her shoulders even though he looked just as shaken as she felt.
“In order to make these bait stations— for lack of a better name— in order to make them effective really, there has to be a place nearby for the wights to come from. After all, if you put bait out where there’s nothing to attract what good is that? So some asshole either found or somehow lured a bunch of wights to someplace nearby then deliberately unleashed them on the Village.” Kai looked around the table. Sarah watched the dawning horror creep across everyone’s faces. After a few minutes of stunned silence, Nick said what everyone was thinking now.
“We’re under attack. Deliberate, organized attack.” He said. Kai nodded, scowling. Even Mr. Young looked angry. His eyes flashed, literally, and Sarah’s hair started to stand on end, reacting to the electricity in the air.
“So. They have an army of wights. We have us.” Ellie said, banging her cup on the table. “Like hell we’ll let some dumbass chase us out of our home.” Sebastian squeezed Sarah’s shoulder.
“So. What do we do, Kai? I vote we find them and get this guy
. If he’s lured wights around then he’s probably a warlock, which means he’s also probably the guy who tried to mess with Sarah’s dreams. It seems unlikely that there would be two within blocks of each other.” Sebastian’s eyes narrowed and Sarah caught a flash of amber in them. “I would love to get my hands on this jerk. I have a few points I want to get across. And I owe him anyway.” Everyone around the table nodded.
Sarah looked around and everyone was wearing similar expressions and she could sense a tingle of… something… in the atmosphere of the room. Where Sebastian’s arm brushed against her skin it felt like a faint tingle of electricity on the back of her neck. Jennifer’s face looked sharper and her fingers curved sharply on the table. Nick and Alex looked bigger. Kai’s eyes were practically glowing yellow. Only Doc, Ellie and Mr Young looked relatively unchanged, though Ellie’s green hair was moving slightly, as if there was a breeze in the room and Mr Young had an expression of displeasure on his normally contented face.
“Okay everyone, unleashing your power here in the boardroom won’t solve anything.” Doc interrupted whoever Let’s take a deep breath. Do we know where these wights are during the day? Because it seems to me that it’s just past dawn and daylight hours would be an excellent time to end this if we can.”
“Good point, Doc. Anyone have a thought on that?” Kai looked around the room. Everybody was frowning and shaking their heads. “Okay then. I suggest that we fan out and search physically. We all have our phones on us, right? Call if we see anything or run into any trouble.”
“I’ll call my boys in as well. How…” Jennifer trailed off for a moment, pursing her lips. “How do we feel about daytime flying?” She looked up at Kai, who stopped moving to consider the question. After a moment he took a deep breath.
“These monsters will attack anyone they come across, spirit or human, they don’t care. We have to dig them out for the safety of the whole area. Can you blur yourself a bit if it comes to that?” He met her eyes.
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