T*Witches: Split Decision

by Reisfeld, Randi

  Finally, he began. “What must you think of me, Apolla, in view of the poison that’s been fed to you?”

  Cam leveled her gaze at him. Tongues of flame reflecting from the fireplace shone in his coal-black eyes. It was summer yet the fire in the hearth was lit — which seemed reasonable, Cam thought, considering the icy coldness her uncle displayed. She tried not to glare at him. What must I think of you, she echoed silently. I think you’re a snake and a murderer. Fredo may have done the actual execution of my father, but somehow, someway, he was acting for you.

  Thantos, of course, intercepted the thought and smirked. “You’ve been taught to hate me since the day you learned of my existence,” he reminded her. “But ask yourself this: If I am the murdering snake you’d have me be, why isn’t your mother afraid of me? My dear brother Aron was not just your father, he was Miranda’s husband. And she trusts me.”

  Cam didn’t know. And it was not the first time she’d wondered about it.

  Ileana, his own daughter, believed Thantos DuBaer was evil incarnate. Miranda, his widowed sister-in-law, regarded him highly, was grateful to him, had elected to live under his roof. These were strong, passionate, smart women, dedicated to the protection and nurture of the twins and to the benevolent Coventry credo. How could they clash so vehemently over the character of this frightening man?

  Thantos crossed his long legs. “I don’t claim to know why you are here now. But I choose to take it as a sign.”

  “Of what?”

  The hulking tracker cleared his throat. “This is difficult for someone in my position to admit. But I have not always been the best… well, man I could be, or wanted to be. I have not always acted fairly toward —”

  “— your daughter?” Cam interrupted.

  “I knew you’d bring that up. Ileana is bitter; she has every right to be.”

  Cam arched her eyebrows. Ya think?

  Her insolence had definitely annoyed him. “There were reasons, complications you can’t possibly understand,” he shot back at her. “Not yet. Soon you will learn more. You have my word on that.”

  Your word. Which is worth —?

  He tilted his head and regarded her sternly. Even if she could have tapped into his mind, she didn’t have to. It was easy to see what he was thinking: This was supposed to be the passive twin, the easily influenced one?

  Thantos held his temper in check. “I want things to be better. I want the best for you. I always have.”

  “You have a strange way of showing it,” Cam shot back. “Or am I expected to forget all the times you tried to snatch us, lure us, trick us, kill us?”

  The tracker drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. His voice rose. “I’m not a patient man, Apolla. If I’d wanted you dead, I could have left you in the quicksand. If I really wanted to kill you, I would have. I’ve had the opportunity many times.”

  “Just not the success,” Cam contradicted. “You were foiled every time by Ileana and Lord Karsh.”

  “We had a deal,” he angrily reminded her. “You were to listen to me. Without prejudice.”

  Cam cupped her ears and cocked her head. “I’m all ears,” she chided him.

  “You mock me!” Thantos sprang up and hovered over her. “This is how you thank me for saving your life?”

  If he expected her to cower at his outburst, he was wrong. Cam merely apologized.

  Her uncle strode to the fireplace and stared at the portrait of Jacob DuBaer. Without turning from his austere ancestor, he spoke quietly, but deliberately. “There’s something … a secret I’ve held close to my heart for many, many years. I want to share it with you now.”

  Was this the same important thing Miranda had been talking about? The one she and Ileana would not reveal until Alex got there?

  Breaking into her thoughts again, Thantos spun and said, “Your sister needn’t be here. You’re the one I want to tell.”

  Now he had Cam’s attention.

  “On the day you were born, the tragic day your father was killed, I swore to take care of his family in every possible way. You were stolen, taken from me, but thankfully, I was able to fulfill that promise for Miranda. I arranged the best care money could buy for your devastated mother. For all these years, I never once wavered in my duty.”

  “My mother believed we were dead, that’s why it took all those years for her to be healed,” Cam challenged softly. “Only you knew we weren’t dead.”

  “I knew nothing of the sort!” he thundered, losing it. “Karsh was wily. He had ways of keeping me in the dark about your fate. It was years before I learned you were alive. I vowed to find you, bring you together — no matter how long it took.”

  Someone suddenly came into the room and spoke. “Isn’t it convenient, then, that while they were ‘missing,’ you took the next decade to run the DuBaer dynasty, to put your stamp on it. How deliciously pernicious.”

  Thantos and Cam whirled toward the intruder.

  Ileana had returned. The majestic, mercurial blond witch dropped her suitcase on the floor with a deliberate thud. And shot Thantos a look of pure venom.

  He narrowed his eyes. “This is a private conversation, Ileana. Leave.”

  “Leave? I only just arrived. Called back from my vacation early. I see why.” She folded her arms defiantly.

  Thantos ordered Cam, “Tell her this is between the two of us.”

  Cam was surprised and more than glad to see her guardian, but Ileana’s timing couldn’t have been worse. She’d interrupted the most interesting conversation — and the longest — Cam had ever had with her fearsome uncle. Whether he was telling the truth or spinning a web of lies, it seemed important to hear what their nemesis had to say.

  “You read Apolla’s mind,” Thantos growled. “Or are your undependable powers on the fritz again? Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”

  Ileana’s gray eyes connected momentarily with Cam’s. Then she turned abruptly and stalked out, slamming the door behind her.

  “She’s jealous, of course. Always has been of the attention you and your sister receive.” Thantos dismissed his daughter and resumed his monologue. “Through the years of Miranda’s medical confinement, we became … close. Picture it, Apolla. I was her only visitor, caring for her, talking to her, trying to keep her spirits up, even in the most desperate times. Then something happened —”

  “You were the only one who knew where she was, or even that she was alive!” Cam burst in angrily.

  “I fell,” Thantos continued, unfazed, “I… fell in love with her.”

  What? Cam went slack-jawed. No way! She had so not heard that.

  “Miranda, alas, did not return my affection. How could she? My beloved was in mourning.” The tracker began to pace the room. “For her dead husband, her daughters. She needed to be healed, to be reunited with her lost babies. I made that my life’s work. It took longer than it should have only because, as you so adroitly pointed out, Karsh and Ileana blocked my way every time. Finally, I got my chance through that girl… that friend of yours …”

  What girl? Cam was completely confused.

  “The sickly wraith, the skinny girl,” Thantos said impatiently. “I had her placed in the same clinic as Miranda, knowing they would meet. Once Miranda discovered the connection, there was nothing Karsh or Ileana could do to stop me.”

  Cam shook her head trying to clear it. Her friend Brianna had become anorexic, and gone into a clinic. Thantos was saying he deliberately placed her where Miranda was? How could that be? Instantly, Cam answered her own question. He’d gotten to Brianna’s movie producer father through Brice Stanley, once a Coventry-bred warlock, now a bona fide Hollywood movie star. Brice had recommended the California clinic to Bree’s dad.

  “But how did you know Bree needed … care?” Cam challenged, feeling creepy and invaded. “Were you watching me? Watching Alex and me and our friends … clocking our every …” Shaken, she trailed off.

  “Never underestimate me, Apolla, never,
” Thantos roared unexpectedly.

  His deep voice boomed through the high-ceilinged room, making Cam jump, making her heart race with fear. Light-headed and hyperventilating, she couldn’t listen anymore. While her uncle blustered on, she tried to digest what she’d already heard —

  Frustrated, after a moment he shook her by the shoulders. “I will marry your mother,” he said clearly, coldly. “You will help bring us together. We will be a family, Apolla. My family.”

  Ileana had walked out, but not away. Just outside the door, she pressed her back against the wall, hanging on her vile father’s every word. She hadn’t summoned Miranda to join her eavesdropping; it would have meant missing some part of Thantos’s stunning speech. Ah, but she almost wished she had run and gotten the twins’ mother.

  He loved Miranda! What a crock. Thantos was merely but masterfully manipulating Cam, attempting to lure her to his side — and keep Miranda there, too. This was nothing but another devious scam to worm his way into Camryn’s goodwill, to force the girl to doubt everything Ileana and Karsh had taught her.

  Surely Camryn would reject this balderdash. Surely she could see the lying schemer for what he was. A power-mad warlock who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted: complete control over the rich and revered DuBaer dynasty.

  But it was not his to have. Lord Karsh’s journal had made that clear. Control of the family and its fortune was to pass into the hands of Aron’s daughters.

  Oh, he was good, that father of hers, Ileana mused, fuming. But so was she. He’d refused to raise or even acknowledge her. But she had his blood, his DNA, and she could be every bit as crafty.

  What she must not do, she realized, was allow her fury, her righteous rage, to weaken her. Time and again, Karsh had cautioned her about that. And Karsh, the beloved warlock who had reared Ileana, had made her the guardian of the twins for just this reason. Not simply to protect and serve them, but for her to learn how to master her quick and violent emotions.

  Well, she would do the memory of the wise old warlock proud. She would, indeed, protect Cam from the most serious threat she had yet encountered. And she would proceed cautiously, pounce when the time was right. Not now, not yet.

  Ileana took a round gold coin etched with a dancing bear out of her pocket. As Cam — who looked like she was in a trance — left the salon, Ileana slipped it into the girl’s palm. The DuBaer family amulet held great power. Cam would need it.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HELLO, I MUST BE GOING

  She was lost when she should have been found; weighed down when she’d expected to feel lighter; poor when she’d hoped to be enriched. It was morning when Alex stumbled back home. Closure had left her an open wound.

  She’d been granted a miracle. She’d gotten the chance to see Sara again — and to assure her single mom that the daughter she’d left behind was safe, secure, doing well. She’d been able to ask for forgiveness, to let go of the guilt plaguing her for not being able to save her mother’s life.

  Redemption. Asked and granted.

  Nothing came for free, though. Hadn’t Sara taught her that? There had been a high price for today’s otherworldly visit. It had forced Alex to look at her new life and admit to herself that she appreciated and even loved much of it.

  Now her dead mother was telling her she had to leave it all behind.

  Alex was not analytical. She rarely waited to figure things out before acting. Cam was the patient, think-it-through sister. But as she dragged herself up the lushly carpeted staircase to their room, Alex tried to find her inner Cam. She needed to reason like her twin.

  Once inside, she grabbed a spiral-bound notebook from her backpack and flopped down on her bed. She headed the first page I know this much is true.

  Karsh had brought her here to Marble Bay, to the Barneses. The beloved old warlock had her best interests at heart. He’d been protecting her since the day she was born.

  If it had really been her destiny to stay behind after Sara died, to work her magick in Montana, why had he moved her across the country and deposited her here?

  One year ago.

  Was that it, then?

  She’d gotten only a year to connect with Cam? Twelve measly months to find out who she was and sample the life she was destined for — before returning to Crow Creek.

  Exhausted, Alex closed the notebook, let the pen drop to the floor, and picked up the phone. It was only five A.M. in Montana, but she had a lot to do. Alex had been keeping up with her Montana buds. Especially in the beginning. But maybe not so much lately, she thought guiltily.

  Alex dialed her old friend Lucinda. Just to touch base, she told herself, just to hear Luce’s bubbly voice again.

  She knew at the first ring that she would not dump on her bud about what had gone down yesterday. How could she? What could she possibly say that wouldn’t sound like she’d gone mental?

  Once Alex assured the surprised girl she wasn’t dreaming, and that no, nothing was wrong, Lucinda got her chatterbox on.

  She was totally psyched to hear from Als and demanded to know every single “thingle” about Cade — except that she couldn’t help breaking into blab about Andy Yatz, her once-and-forever crush. Still her old upbeat, uncomplicated self, Luce made Alex laugh, and made her homesick a little, too, dishing about Big Sky Frontier Town, the amusement park where Alex used to work. “Business is up,” Luce informed her. “Lot of people are staying home, boning up on Americana — like this place ever represented the real thing!”

  Phony or not, the theme park had finally raised Luce’s paltry salary. Not much, but enough for her to start putting something away for college. Lucinda had always been a dreamer. These days, it looked like the girl was working to make her dreams come true.

  They gabbed for over an hour. Then Alex woke her next victim: Evan, the boy from yesterday, the friend for always.

  Dreadlock boy was doing amazingly well. His mom, a recovering alcoholic, had been sober for several months, gainfully employed, and happier than ever. Like Luce, Ev still worked at Big Sky, collecting summer coin to help pay the rent, with a little something left over for a new used guitar. There was a girl, too, Evan told her shyly.

  Doris Bass, the town librarian and a true family friend, had been up for hours by the time Alex reached her. She was tickled to hear from “the library’s former best source of revenue — the winner of the most late-book fines in town.” Cheerfully, she told Alex that money had been pumped into Crow Creek from the government as part of rural reconstruction, and from private industry, too. There were more jobs to be had. The surplus in the town till was slated for upgrading the schools.

  Everyone sounded hopeful.

  Crow Creek, Montana, needed Alex? Less than ever. Still…

  The last call she made before showering and dressing was to PITS. Only her second day at work and already she was calling in late.

  “Yo, Dilbert.” Alex punctuated her tease by knocking hard enough on Cade’s cubicle to shake the corrugated wallboards.

  She’d startled him by showing up at his job unannounced. Instead of being flustered, his face registered pure delight. He gave as good as he got, a quip-pro-quo comeback. “Yo, purple princess, how’d you get through security?”

  “Got nothing to hide.” She raised her arms and turned to show off her lavender tank top, threadbare jeans, and plum-colored moccasins.

  “I get it,” he teased. “You dazzled the rent-a-cops.”

  She blushed unexpectedly. Then went from pink to crimson when, impulsively, Cade wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her to him, and kissed her.

  Alex caught her breath. “We need to talk.”

  He arched his eyebrows. “Uh-oh, this can’t be good.”

  Right. She probably shouldn’t have opened with that. Few sentences started that way and ended on an up note. She slipped her arm around his waist. Color him warned.

  “I’m gonna guess we need privacy,” he surmised, leading her away from cubicle nation. “I
have it on good authority that Luke McDonald is out on a long lunch break. We can use his office. I’m sure he won’t mind, if all we’re doing is talking.”

  With a sigh of regret, Alex confirmed that it was. Just talk. She knew what she had to tell him. She just hadn’t planned how.

  Cade’s immediate clan, she knew, consisted of his dad and older sister — no mom in the picture. She died when he was about six, he had told her. Cade’s dad pretty much brought the kids up on his own. He was a really cool guy, Cade had told her.

  “Cade,” she now began earnestly, “if you could talk to her … your mom … one more time, what would you say?”

  Cade’s face registered surprise. “Talk to her? You mean, like in a séance, or through a psychic? That whole ‘other side’ thing?”

  Sort of, sort of not. Alex nodded. “Is there something you always wanted to ask her, or to tell her?”

  Cade shrugged. “Not really. I was so little when she died — not like your situation. Anyway, I don’t believe in all that stuff. I think it’s a scam, playing on people’s weaknesses.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure. When you lose someone you love, you’re naturally vulnerable and needy. So a direct connect to the land-of-the-lost sounds incredibly cool. People want to believe so badly, that they’re easily conned, swindled out of their money. Me? I believe when you’re dead, you’re dead. Want to grab some lunch?”

  Of course Cade would think that. He wasn’t a warlock. To him, the whole idea of communing with spirits was nothing but a scam.

  Alex had come to the fork in the road. She’d known it would be there but hadn’t wanted to reach it. She was a witch, he wasn’t. She struggled with what to do next. She hedged. “I had a dream about my mom last night. A really … vivid one.”

  “Okay,” he said, waiting for her to go on.

  “She … she, um, suggested …” Alex couldn’t look him in the eye. “No, she told me …” Alex dropped her head and stared at her gross, bitten fingernails. “That I need to go back … go home to Montana. Soon.”