“All right? I just saw this corpse who I once knew, live and in color. He was … stone gray.” Alex covered her face. “All except for that arm, which looked nothing like eczema. And his fingers were sprouting yellow claws! ”
“I know. It was gross. OMG, you’re going to lose it—”
“I am not!” Alex insisted, standing suddenly “I already did! About two minutes after you did. At the morgue,” she added sheepishly. “I don’t think it was an accident. Ike, I mean. I don’t think he just had this heart attack and brain blowout because some possum surprised him in the trailer.”
“Claws. Lizard skin. Could Ike have been a warlock, too?” Cam asked.
“I thought of that. But, no, I just never got that vibe from him. Plus he was a loser. If he’d been able to cast spells, make potions, or shape-shift, he wouldn’t have owed everybody something.”
“I guess,” Cam tentatively agreed.
“My take.” Alex began to pace. “Something seriously horrible shocked or scared old Ike so bad it blew his mind, literally. Although that doesn’t explain what happened to his arm. Or that nauseating odor —”
“That’s why I thought it was Fredo — or Fredo’s doing,” Cam explained.
“But he’s so lame.” Alex shook her head. “Lucky for us, he’s always botched things.”
“He’s not Thantos,” Cam added.
Alex nodded and, a moment later, tried out a new possibility. “Thantos killed Ike — and made it look like a heart attack or whatever.”
“He probably went to the trailer looking for us!” Cam gasped.
“Remember that ranch you and your family used the first time you came out here?” Alex sat again on the edge of her bed and leaned toward her sister. “And that portrait you saw of the black-bearded man — SOT NAHT — who turned out to be Thantos. It was his place, Cam. He’s here. In Montana!”
“I just had this whack thought,” Cam whispered, hugging herself against the cold bolt of fright slashing at her chest. “Maybe he’s behind Evan’s troubles, too. Maybe Thantos put Ev in danger just to lure us here.”
Alex thrust her palm at her twin, signaling her to stop, to be quiet. A second later, she jumped up from the bed, crossed the room in three strides, and listened at the door. “Someone’s coming.”
“Mrs. Bass?”
Alex sniffed the air. “No way.”
“Could you have picked a trashier town? As if the cold on Coventry Island weren’t enough.” Ileana was at the door, stamping her feet and shivering in her velvet cape. “Hello. Gape much?” Trailing a scent of pine needles and mint, their guardian swept into the room, slamming the door behind her.
“Ileana, what are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same question. I thought you were safe and settled in Marble Bay. But wouldn’t that be too convenient? As for me, I’m multitasking,” the beautiful witch answered. “One of your uncles is on the loose again and as determined as ever to catch and control you. So, you know the drill, beware.”
“Beware?” Cam said sourly. “Is that it? That’s what you came to tell us?”
No, Alex thought suddenly. She came because of Ike. She knew something terrible had happened to him.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the serene, accepting twin?” Ileana ignored Alex and raised an eyebrow at Cam. “No, that is not it. I’m here to offer you a handy hint. Apparently, Lord Thantos has forbidden his numbskull brother to play his favorite and only trick. Under threat of severe pain and punishment, Fredo is no longer permitted to shape-shift into a lizard. Without that ability, he’s little more than a heartless, evil-tempered coward. Which means you won’t really need me hanging around to hold your hands, will you? I mean, I do have other interests.”
“Where’s Mrs. Bass?” Alex asked.
“Gone biddy-bye. I expect she’s arriving at the library by now. A little birdie told her she was desperately needed there.”
Alex smiled. It seemed like years since she’d done it. Her face muscles felt rusty.
“But what about Thantos?” Cam began.
“Hello. Not finished,” Ileana declared. With a flourish, she drew from her cape a supermarket tabloid with its usual shocker headline. This one read: MYSTERY MAN UNMASKED! And under a blurry close-up of a huge bearded brute glaring threateningly at the camera: BILLIONAIRE RECLUSE SNAPPED BY STARSTRUCK’S INTREPID CAMERAMAN.
“It’s Thantos!” Alex marveled.
“Billionaire Recluse? It can’t be,” Cam said, though it certainly looked like their hulking uncle. With a nod from Ileana, they flipped to the article on the inside page. It was headed, CAMERA-SHY TECHNOLOGY BILLIONAIRE, SOT NAHT DUBAER, ENTERS CLINIC.
The story described their uncle as the rarely seen but powerful head of a computer empire begun in partnership with his brilliant, mysteriously murdered brother, Aron. It didn’t say where the photo had been taken, or at which clinic — just that it was a rehab center for wealthy people.
“So you see, the bearded one has left the building. Lord Thantos is no longer in this tacky neighborhood. I also came to help you with your … other issue.” Ileana peeked out the window, then stepped back so that Cam and Alex could see Lucinda climbing out of her father’s car. “In response, of course, to someone’s 911.”
Alex glanced at Cam, who shrugged. “I didn’t, like, really ask,” she protested. “I only wished Karsh were here. You were the one who called for help at the stream.”
“I am your guardian,” Ileana reminded them. “Anyway, Lord Karsh is far too … busy. And I haven’t got a lot of time myself. You wanted help with what?”
“My friend Evan’s in trouble,” Alex said, “but he refuses to talk about what’s going on.”
“And Lucinda knows something about it but doesn’t want to tell,” Cam jumped in.
“For that, you summoned me?” Ileana rolled her lovely gray eyes. “Surely you can pick the girl’s brain. It doesn’t look that formidable —”
“It’s not just Luce,” Alex pointed out. She wanted to talk about Ike, to ask Ileana if she knew what had happened. But the witch’s flashing eyes told her not to. “What I mean,” Alex backpedaled, “is even if we can persuade Luce to tell us what she knows, there are three bad guys involved who could seriously get in the way of our trying to help Evan.”
The doorbell rang downstairs. And Ileana, as if she were answering Alex’s unspoken question, said pointedly, “The nice thing about having heartless, evil-tempered uncles, is that if you want somebody out of the way, you always have help.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE TRUTH INDUCER
As Alex and Cam let Lucinda in, Ileana sailed toward the kitchen. By the time Cam rushed after her, the edgy witch was gone. The only clues to her whereabouts were a fading scent of pine needles and mint and the squeak of the back-porch door as it swung open and shut in the wind.
“You’re supposed to help us!” Cam called angrily into the stormy afternoon, then slammed the porch door. On her way back into the kitchen, she stumbled over a midnight-blue pouch lying on the floor.
Inside the velvet sack, she found a large glinting crystal, a little herb bouquet, and a tiny book of spells. Cam sniffed at the fragrant herbs, then tasted one. It left an odd but pleasant tangy sweetness on her tongue.
A moment later, she heard herself say, “I miss Shane but Andy Yatz is such the bomb. If Lucinda wasn’t desperately crushed on him, I’d so make a play for the boy.”
Stunned, Cam nearly dropped the petite bouquet. Where had that speech come from, she wondered. Never mind that it was the truth, what had made her blurt it out? She glanced suspiciously at the herbs, then smiled slyly.
When she returned to the living room, she was carrying a cup of cocoa. “You must be freezing,” she said compassionately to Lucinda. “Here, this will warm you up.”
Gratefully, Luce took the cup, while Alex stared steely-eyed at her sister. What’s with the Henrietta Homemaker moment?
“Whoops. Right back,” Ca
m said, still wearing her gracious hostess grin. “I left something in the kitchen —”
Leafing through the miniature book, she returned to the living room, where Alex grumpily reported, Nothing. No deal. Her head is totally clogged with Andy. It’s all she can talk or think about.
Cam dropped the velvet pouch into her sister’s lap. Compliments of Karsh’s picky partner. Plus she left this informative little study guide. Ah, here’s a nice one. It’s called the Truth Inducer —”
“So, anyway,” Lucinda continued, oblivious, “he’s, like, so brave. I mean, I always knew he was so cute, so fine. But I never suspected how, like, you know, brave he could be. I mean, did you even see the way he stood up to those snakes? I just wanted to —”
Alex was examining Ileana’s crystal. Glancing at Cam, who nodded, she tossed the glittering stone to Luce.
“Lucinda,” Cam said to the startled girl. “You want us to help Evan, right?”
“How about filling us in on everything you know?” Alex pressed.
Guiltily, Luce looked down at the faceted rock in her hands. “I… you guys, I really can’t tell you any more than I already did —”
“But not because you don’t know,” Alex said.
Lucinda began to mindlessly rub the crystal. “I promised him. He made me promise. I wish I could —”
At least she’s telling the truth about that, Alex told her sister. What happened to the Truth Inducer?
You won’t believe this. Cam was grinning. It’s an incantation we already know. “How’s that cocoa?” she asked Luce.
“Oh,” the befuddled girl answered, “I haven’t tasted it yet.” She took a big sip, smiled, then began to cough.
“Lucinda.” Alex leaned toward her as Cam handed the sputtering girl a napkin. “We can’t help Evan without your help.”
Luce’s eyes were watering. She blotted her lips and cleared her throat. “That is, like, the finest hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.”
“Isn’t it just deliciously sweet but with a spicy edge?”
Yo, Martha Stewart, get on with it! Alex silently urged her sister. Enchant the girl.
“No probs,” Cam said brightly. “Remember this one? Oh, sun that gives us light and cheer, shine through me now to banish fear —”
Hold your sun charm, Alex instructed. Grasping her own hammered-gold moon amulet, she recited, “Free Lucinda from doubt and blame. Let us win her trust —”
“And lift her shame,” Cam finished, feeling the heat of her necklace ripple through her fingertips.
“Evan told me not to go to the Crow Creek High football game this Sunday. It’s a home game,” Lucinda said, then took another sip of cocoa — while Cam and Alex glanced at each other, pleased that the spell seemed to be working.
“He wouldn’t tell me why, but he was, like, really serious,” Luce said, licking her lips. “I’m afraid something bad is going to happen. I mean, really bad.”
The moment she finished, Lucinda’s eyes flooded with tears.
“So something bad is going to happen at the school football game?” Alex tried to lead her gently.
“Like what?” Cam asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Luce.
“I don’t know. Evan wouldn’t tell me,” Lucinda answered. “I mean, of course, I could be getting creeped out over nothing —”
“How bad?” Alex cut her off. “Like weapons?”
“I don’t know,” Lucinda cried.
Were they going to stab someone at the game? Cam wondered, horrified. Was that why there was a knife in Evan’s locker? Could they be involved in Ike’s death?
Cam shuddered. It wasn’t Evan’s crew who’d killed Ike, even if somehow they had busted into that sardine can her sister had once called home. It had to be Thantos. He had killed before. He had killed their father. He was a tracker, a powerful warlock. He could be at a clinic in Kathmandu one minute and a Montana mobile home the next.
Cam closed her eyes and tried to call up the images of her vision. Was Thantos there, lurking in the shadows? Who was the crying woman in black? Cam tried to hone in on the red container being passed to Evan by … Kyle. Yes, she recognized the ponytailed, chip-toothed boy now. It was definitely Kyle Applebee. But what was in the container that Evan kept trying to push away?
A bomb? Alex suggested silently.
Now you’re breaking into my visions?! Cam shot back, annoyed.
I was trying to help, Alex answered defensively. And this is not the time to get possessive about your powers!
“Luce.” Alex put her arm around her frightened friend. “Something’s going to happen first. Before school starts. Before the football game. Something at” — she looked to her sister for confirmation — “Big Sky?”
Cam nodded. “The place where Alex and I met, where you and Evan and Als worked last summer.”
“Oh, you mean the tattoo thing?” Luce asked innocently.
“Tattoo?” Alex echoed.
“Um, yeah, Ev said something about getting one of those rattlesnake tattoos. But it can’t be at Big Sky. The park is closed for the winter —”
“That’s where it’s going to happen.” Cam was suddenly sure.
“Where what’s going to happen?” Luce asked.
Realizing her mistake, Cam sent her sister the rest of the message silently. That’s where Kyle is going to force him to take whatever is in that container and to do what he doesn’t want to do. We’ve got to get to Evan, warn him.
Alex agreed and leaped up. “Thanks, Luce. Gotta go now,” she announced. Halfway to her jacket, which was hanging in the hall, she screeched to a stop. “How?!” she moaned. Turning back to Lucinda, she asked urgently, “When’s your dad picking you up?”
“Um, I told him I’d get a lift home with Mrs. Bass,” Luce answered, startled, coming out of her trance.
Without warning, a cheery voice — that seemed to be coming from Lucinda’s hip — chimed, “You’ve got mail!” Luce yipped and jumped off the sofa.
“My laptop!” Cam exclaimed, fishing the compact little computer from between the couch cushions where it had slid. She opened the machine and there it was, a message from [email protected] — also known as Ileana. Task three, successfully completed. Sit tight, the e-mail read. Your friend is on his way.
“Evan’s here!” Lucinda called out.
Cam and Alex hurried after her to the door. One look at the befuddled boy told them that he didn’t know any more than they did. Possibly even less, Alex decided, since she and Cam thought Thantos might be involved.
“Oh, wow, we were just talking about you.” Lucinda, who hadn’t read Cam’s e-mail, pulled Evan inside.
Smiling glumly, he said, “Yeah, I had a feeling. I guess that’s why I came. I mean, I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Something told me to drive over —”
“Well, have some cocoa and relax,” Alex coaxed him.
“Hey, look at this.” As if she were working with them, Lucinda tossed Evan the crystal.
“Cam,” Alex called, “come into the kitchen with me. Let’s get some hot chocolate for Ev.”
“It’s totally yummy,” Luce told him, draining her cup, as the twins left the room.
“Will the incantation work from in here?” Alex asked.
“Worth a try.”
After reciting the spell and keeping Luce from drinking most of Evan’s cocoa, the boy and his brain were wide open to them. It took less than five minutes to check out their hunch that he was clueless about what was really going to happen at Big Sky.
Evan actually believed he was going to the deserted park for some bogus ceremony that included getting a rattlesnake tattoo. But when they quizzed him about why he’d told Lucinda not to show up at the football game, he broke down, big-time.
It had all gotten way out of hand, he insisted. At first they were just going to scare a teacher and some kids the Applebees had it in for. Then, slowly, he’d realized they were crazier than he’d thought. Totally ballisti
c. They’d started talking about torching the school — with everyone watching, everyone there for the big football game. And Evan was supposed to be the lookout.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Alex demanded.
“I tried!” Evan shouted back. “I wrote a note to Mr. Adamson, the coach, telling him there was trouble coming. But he took it personally, thought someone was threatening him, not the whole school. And he recognized my handwriting and I got suspended! I know it’s lame. I could have told someone else. Done something else. But by then the knife thing had gone down and Kyle had warned me about my moms —”
“What about her?” Cam pressed.
“He said if anything went wrong, if I chickened out, they’d get my moms, hurt her bad, get her locked away in some nuthouse or arrested for neglecting the kids —”
Lucinda put her arm around Evan’s shoulder.
“When is this ceremony supposed to happen?” Alex asked.
“Tonight,” Evan said. Saturday night.
CHAPTER TWELVE
AN UNCLE IN EVAN’S CLOTHING
“We’re going with you,” Alex decided. “You go home and get ready. Pick us up on your way to Big Sky.”
“Get out!” Lucinda was thrilled. “I knew you’d help! ”
But Evan looked more troubled than grateful. “Forget it. The two of you against the Applebees and Derek Jasper? It won’t work. You can’t help me. I’ve got to handle this alone.”
“Trust me,” Alex urged him. “We’re stronger than we look — ”
“Whatever.” Evan cut off the discussion. “I appreciate it, you guys. Honest. But I’ll find a way… to stop them, talk them out of it —”
“Evan, you’ve got to believe me. We can help. Just stop by and get us tonight, okay?” Alex persisted, walking Luce and Evan to the door.
“Als, what if we can’t stop the bad guys? Shouldn’t we tell someone what we think is going to happen?” Cam asked when her sister returned. “Maybe not the cops yet because Evan’s in the middle. But think of all the kids who knew what was going on before things went down at other schools. Big things, with guns and bombs. The kids who knew could have prevented it if they’d only told a teacher about it —”
T*Witches: Dead Wrong Page 7
