After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1)

by Patricia Proctor

  Xavier shakes his head, tired of always having to have all the answers, he says, “Just leave it to me, brother. As always, just leave it all to me.”

  Chapter 21

  Liam calls his grandfather’s house before he is even out of the library. When it goes straight to voicemail, he tries his grandfather’s cell and gets no answer. Before he calls Marcus, he calls the station. “Margo, it’s Liam. Tell me what you’ve got.”

  Amy explains that about ten minutes ago 911 received a call from Peter’s house, but no contact with the caller. After a moment of dead air, the call was disconnected. When the dispatcher called back, the call went straight to voicemail. Amy adds that she also called Marcus since he lived near Peter, but she didn’t get an answer.

  “Thanks, Amy. I’m on my way over there now. Keep trying my dad and I’ll try to get in touch with him, too. Let me know if anything else comes in.”

  Before Liam even disconnects the call, Chloe, impatient to find out what is happening, asks, “Dad, what’s going on? What happened to GG Peter?”

  “I know as much as you do, Chloe,” he replies, before remembering what she said at the library and adding, “Well, actually you must know something that I don’t know. What happened last night?”

  Chloe explains for the second time that day about the white Mercedes tailgating them and how frightened they were. She also explains their concerns that Selene was either at GG Peter’s when they got there or she was following them since it would be the only way she would know that it was them in the Forester.

  “Chloe? I have to ask… are you absolutely certain she was acting in a threatening way? Could you be suspicious of her because of what you know about her? Maybe she just drives really aggressively and didn’t even know it was you guys?”

  “Dad! I can’t believe you are even asking that question,” Kaiden says.

  Rowan adds, “We know that she knew it was us and even if she didn’t, what was she doing on the back road to GG Peter’s late on a Friday night?”

  “All right. I see your point, but I just have to make sure,” Liam concedes. “And you’re sure that it wasn’t one of the kids?” he asks.

  “Positive,” Chloe responds. “We brought it up to them and by their reactions I’d say they knew nothing about it.” Chloe looks at Rowan who is obviously remembering the pain in Xavier’s eyes.

  “Okay, now what the hell was she doing out there?” Liam asks, thinking out loud.

  “I wonder if somehow she found out that GG Peter is digging into her life,” Kaiden suggests.

  Liam takes his eyes from the road, looks at Kaiden and realizes that he is probably right, making the 911 call from his grandfather’s house even more serious than he first thought. He steps on the gas and blows through a red light when he sees no oncoming traffic.

  His phone chirps and he grabs it without seeing who’s calling.

  “Liam, it’s Dad,” Marcus says.

  “Thank God,” Liam says before asking, “Have you talked to Gramps today?”

  Marcus indicates that he hasn’t but he got the message from the station. “I’m on my way there now,” Marcus says. “I just wanted to check in and make sure you know where the kids are. It’s time to circle the wagons.”

  “They’re fine, Dad. They’re with me now,” Liam responds.

  “What? Why are they with you now, Liam? We don’t know what we are going to find up there…”

  “They were with me when I got the call,” Liam replies, looking back at Chloe in the rearview mirror, “and they wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Liam fills Marcus in on what happened with the kids on the way home and they both agree that whatever they find, it may be time to talk to Selene Silvan.

  “Dad, I’m pulling in now. How far out are you?” Liam asks.

  “I’m right behind you, son.” Marcus replies. Liam looks in the rearview mirror and sees Marcus pull in right behind him. Liam tells the kids to stay in the car until he tells them it’s okay to get out. “I mean it, Chloe, Kaiden, and Rowan. Stay. Put.”

  He locks the jeep doors and waits for Marcus to get out of his truck before heading up the sidewalk. They agree to do a quick walk around the property before going in. Everything seems secure from the outside and when Marcus looks in the back windows, he doesn’t see anything suspicious. The only thing out of the ordinary is the front window curtain, which is closed. Peter always leaves the curtains open.

  Marcus twists the door handle and finds it locked. “Same as the back and side doors,” he says to Liam. He takes out his key and unlocks the door. They draw their weapons, prepared for anything, and push the door in slowly.

  As soon as they walk in, they see Peter snoring in his recliner with a basketball game playing in the background. Marcus and Liam look at each other quickly, then Marcus walks over and shakes his dad awake. Liam opens the front curtains to let in more light, and once open, he looks around the room.

  “What? What the hell?” Peter says, as he is startled awake. “What the hell are you two doing? Are you trying to kill me? Liam, why do you have your gun drawn? What the hell is going on?”

  “Dad, are you okay?” Marcus asks.

  “I was okay, but now my damn heart is pounding out of my chest. What the hell are you two doing here?”

  Liam explains that they received a 911 call from the house and since they weren’t getting an answer when they called, they came here to check on him.

  “Dad, I’m going to have a quick look around,” Marcus says as he walks toward the back of the house. Peter attempts to stand up and quickly falls back into his recliner. “Whew… I feel a little dizzy.”

  Liam walks over to the recliner and checks his grandfather’s pulse. “It’s a little fast, but that’s probably from the scare we gave you. Other than feeling dizzy, do you feel anything else?”

  He nods and says, “A little nauseated too, but that could be from the beer I had at the start of the game.” He looks at the TV and says, “How long was I asleep? Is it halftime yet?”

  “Gramps, what game were you watching?” Liam asks, checking him for disorientation. “Duke and UNC,” Peter replies, annoyed at the line of questioning. “Alright, alright, I’m just making sure. There’s about three minutes left in the second half.”

  “Damn! I missed the whole damn game,” Peter says.

  Marcus walks back into the room carrying a piece of paper.

  “What have you got?” Liam asks, straightening up. “

  It looks like you’ve had some company, Dad,” Marcus answers and holds out the paper to Liam and Peter. They read:

  You have something of mine — I want it back.

  Peter pales when he reads the words. She knows, he thinks to himself, and hopes that Liam and Marcus didn’t notice his reaction.

  “It had to be Selene,” Liam says, “seeing as how she was already snooping around the property.” Peter surprised that Liam has already made the connection, blanches.

  “Why would she call 911?” Marcus asks. “Why would she want us all to be here to find this note together? What do we have of hers?”

  Of course she wanted Marcus and Peter to see the note, Peter thinks. It was meant for them, not him. If he were the only one to see it, it wouldn’t cause nearly as much trouble as both of them reading it would. She wanted to make sure they saw it so they would start asking him questions. Questions he does not want to answer.

  “I’m pretty sure she put a spell on Gramps,” Liam says. “And I’m concerned that the only reason she didn’t do it last night was because we were all here, which means she’s probably been watching the house. Did you notice anything unusual, Gramps?”

  “No, nothing at all,” Peter replies, but then he thinks about it more and asks, “How would she have gotten in? I keep the door locked all the time. Was it locked when you got here just now?”

  Liam and Marcus both nod and they all look at each other trying to make sense of something that doesn’t make any sense at all.

  “She
must have used some kind of magic to put you into a trance so that you wouldn’t remember opening the door to her. Think harder, Dad.” Marcus pushes.

  Before Peter has a chance to reply, they hear a car pull into the driveway.

  “The kids!” Liam yells as he and Marcus run to the door.

  The Subaru Forester pulls up behind Marcus’s truck and before Liam can register the strangeness of the situation, the Silvan kids jump out of the car.

  “What the hell?” Liam says as he pushes past his dad.

  Chloe is the first one out of the jeep when she sees the car pull into the driveway. She looks in the pocket of her backpack for the keys and of course, discovers that they aren’t there.

  “How did…” Rowan starts, but doesn’t finish when she sees their dad charge down the driveway toward the Silvans.

  “Was all of this part of the plan?” he asks aggressively, focusing on Xavier. “Trick my kids into meeting you at the library so you can steal the car and see your aunt’s handiwork?” He stops just in front of Xavier and asks, “What’s the matter, kid? You hate that you got busted?”

  Xavier grits his teeth and says, “They invited us to the library — not the other way around.”

  Chloe runs over to Liam, “Dad! Stop! Why are you flipping out? What happened to GG Peter?”

  Liam, not taking his eyes off of Xavier, answers, “He’s fine, Chloe. Just a little shaken up by the spell put on him.”

  Brianna inhales sharply, “No!” she says.

  Liam looks away from Xavier to Brianna who is clearly shocked at what he said. He realizes that maybe they really don’t have any idea of what their aunt has been up to. With this realization comes the knowledge that he has a unique opportunity to find out what he can about Selene Silvan, from the people closest to her.

  Backing away from Xavier, Liam says, “Okay, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. So, what are you doing here and why are you driving our car?”

  Xavier holds out the keys to Liam, who ignores him. “We found these in the conference room after you guys left. We found the address on the insurance papers in the glove box and figured this would be the best place to drop off the car.”

  Liam thinks for a minute and asks, “Why wouldn’t you just turn the keys in at lost and found at the library?”

  Xavier shrugs his shoulders and Cian steps up and says, “Look, we know our Aunt Selene is somehow involved in whatever happened here and we thought it would be best if we came here to tell you that whatever is going on has nothing to do with us.”

  Xavier looks away, avoiding eye contact with Liam.

  Liam sees truth in what Cian says, but instead of replying he waits to hear more. When Cian doesn’t offer anything else, Liam asks, “Okay, so how did you plan to get home from here? It’s an awfully long walk back to town…”

  “We hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Cian replies without breaking eye contact with Liam.

  After a minute, Liam grabs the keys from Xavier and says, “I’ll give you a ride back into town.” To Marcus, he says, “Dad, I think Gramps should stay with one of us for awhile. I don’t want him to be alone out here and I definitely don’t want the kids driving alone either. Once Gramps gets his stuff together, will you follow them back to the house? When I get home we can figure out what’s what…”

  Marcus nods and to Rowan, Kaiden, and Chloe, he says, “C’mon you three, let’s help GG pack some things so we can get out of here.”

  Liam glances around, looking for Selene Silvan. He’s sure she’s somewhere nearby watching all of this unfold. No way she would set up such an elaborate scheme and not watch the pieces fall. He wonders what she thought when she saw her niece and nephews show up here.

  Liam hands Chloe the keys as she walks past and rather than looking at him, Chloe turns to Cian and Xavier and says, “Thank you.”

  The Silvans climb into the jeep and before they put on their seatbelts Liam asks, “So where’s your aunt now?”

  Xavier stops, and too quickly, responds, “We have no idea.”

  Liam knows the kid is lying. Rather than push the issue, he puts his own seatbelt on and starts up the jeep. He maneuvers around the cars parked behind him and heads for town. “Safe to assume you want me to drop you off at the library and not your house? Wouldn’t want to cause any trouble on the home front…”

  Xavier nods and as he looks out the window, he sees the white Mercedes parked on the side of the road. It’s clear that Selene has used some kind of magic to hide the car because Liam didn’t notice it parked there. Just as he wonders if Cian and Brianna saw the car, he hears Brianna gasp audibly.

  Cian clears his throat and says, “Chief Alexander, umm… you need to know something, but you can’t do anything about it right now…” Xavier twists around in his seat, glares at his brother and shakes his head.

  Not to be deterred, Cian continues, “My aunt is parked at the side of the road at the end of the driveway, but, don’t stop!”

  Liam takes his foot off the gas and looks in the rearview mirror.

  “Please! Don’t stop!” Brianna repeats. “She can’t know that you know. We didn’t see her when we were pulling up, her magic must have disguised the car, but somehow she is visible to us now. Please, she doesn’t know we saw her so we have to be very careful,” Brianna says.

  Liam continues searching the rearview mirror and still not seeing anything he asks, “Is my family safe?”

  Cian replies, “For now, they are. She won’t do anything else today, especially with both Marcus and Peter there, but you have to know this spell is only the beginning.”

  Liam asks, “Do you know why she was here? What she wanted?”

  Cian admits truthfully that he does not know what she wants from Peter or why she was at the house, but stops at telling him that she wants Liam’s house and land. Even though he wants and needs Liam to trust him, he can’t see far enough into the future to know what will happen if he tells him everything. Cian hopes when the time is right, that he will get a sign and will be able to tell Liam what he needs to know to protect his family.

  As if reading his mind, Liam says, “Thanks for being honest, Cian and Brianna. Let me ask you this, Xavier. What do you have to gain from lying to me that these two don’t? They seem to be consistently honest with me, so why aren’t you?”

  Xavier looks out the side window and lets out a sigh, “It’s complicated, Chief Alexander… It’s complicated.”

  Liam drops them off at the entrance to the library and decides to stick around to make sure their aunt shows up. He parks across the street at City Hall and waits.

  Chapter 22

  For Selene, the last 24 hours have been exhilarating. Last night she stood at the side door of Peter Alexander’s house about to cast a spell when the jeep pulled into the driveway. She quickly hid in the only place she could find, behind the garbage can, and watched Liam and the kids go into the house. She sat crouched for about ten minutes before realizing the ridiculousness of the situation.

  Finally she decided she would have to wait for another opportunity. She was frustrated that her plans had to be put on hold and, yet, relieved that she hadn’t already been in the house when they arrived. She made her way down the side yard to her car parked in the woods. Her initial plan was to have the 911 call dispatched in the middle of the night, in order to wreak maximum havoc on the family. Instead, she would just have to wait for tomorrow when Liam was on duty.

  Just as she was about to climb into her car, she heard the front door close and watched the three kids walk down the driveway and climb into the old Subaru. She smiled and thanked her dark Goddess for providing her with an excellent opportunity.

  She waited a good five minutes after the kids left before pulling out after them. She wanted to be sure that Liam was staying put for a while longer, since her quick plan required time, and did not include him pulling up behind her. She didn’t have what she needed to cast a disguise spell and she knew she was taking a big risk, b
ut opportunities like this didn’t come along everyday. If all went according to her plan there would be no survivors to tell anyone what they saw anyway.

  She sped off toward the kids, hoping that their inexperienced driving would give her the edge. All she had to do was give them a little nudge at the right moment and be gone before Liam made his way back home. She followed them from a distance without lights so they would be surprised when she made her presence known. She wanted it to appear as if she came out of nowhere.

  She quickly caught up to the car and gleefully anticipated their fear once they realized it wasn’t their dad barreling down the road after them. She considered ramming the car right away, but decided it would be more fun to play cat and mouse with them for a bit. She flashed her bright lights and was thrilled when she caught panicked eyes in the rearview mirror. She smiled in pleasure at the fear. She flashed her lights several more times and drove right up on the bumper hoping to get another look at their scared faces. Selene could feel the fear as it rolled off of them and knew they would eventually have to pull over, speed up, or slow down.

  She was prepared for whatever choice they made. No matter how it happened, it would not end well for the Alexanders tonight. As anticipated, the car slowed down and just as she was about to bump the rear fender, she felt a shield lower around their car. She was so surprised that she momentarily lost control of the Mercedes, as they sped across the bridge. Fortunately, she quickly regained control and turned toward the main road into town. She didn’t know how it happened so quickly, but she knew for sure that someone in that car used magic.

  She only allowed herself a moment to be angry before she rationalized that it was not really a setback. She finally found out what she was waiting for Xavier, Cian, and Brianna to find out for her, which was just confirmation of what she already suspected anyway. At least one, if not all, of the Alexander kids knew of their abilities and were using them openly.

  She reminded herself that tomorrow she would put things in motion with Peter Alexander, and from that point forward things would happen quickly. Now that she knew the kids tapped into their magic, she would just move up the timeline before they could get any stronger. No problem, she thought as she continued on her way to the rented house, I’m ready to go home.