by Amity Hope
“Nothing will go wrong that we can’t handle,” she amended.
“We’re going up against two Striga. Two really powerful Striga that have an accumulation of magic,” I reminded her.
“We’re not completely lacking in magic ourselves,” Riley said, sounding offended. “Not to mention that we have the element of surprise on our side. That right there is huge. Those two are not going to know what hit them.”
She spoke with a firmness I didn’t dare argue with. As the rest of our group moved along behind us, chatting, laughing, and making the occasional joke, I realized something. Riley seemed as anxious as I was. As if she had as much riding on this as I did.
We walked in silence for a while. Our footsteps were hurried. We had a lot of ground to cover. To my relief, and to her credit, Daphne didn’t complain once. The entire group that was behind us kept pace, but stayed back a bit.
When the first glimmer of a town came into view, I released a sigh of relief.
Riley turned to me with a nervous smile.
“Can I ask you something?” I said to her.
Riley nodded. “Sure.”
“It might be kind of personal,” I warned.
She half-laughed, half-scoffed. “What can be more personal than finding out about my deepest, darkest secret?”
“Actually, it’s kind of about that,” I admitted. “About you being a Striga, I mean.”
Her smile faded. I could see her mentally brace herself. “Okay. Go for it.”
“You said that you weren’t very nice to Jude when he told you how he felt about you.”
“Right,” she said. Her tone was tense but her expression was confused. It was clear she didn’t realize this would be my line of questioning.
“Did that have something to do with you being Striga?” I wondered.
She shook her head and a miserable laugh tumbled out of her mouth. We walked along for a while before she finally answered.
“It had everything to do with that.”
I nodded. “Yeah. That was Tristan’s problem too. When I let him know how I felt about him, he didn’t take it well.”
She sliced a look my way. “Really?”
“Yeah,” I scoffed as I remembered his mini-freak out after our kiss. “He said some things that weren’t very nice. I realize now he was intentionally trying to push me away. He thought he was doing the right thing at the time.”
“Because it’s not fair to be with someone when you have to lie to them,” she guessed.
“That’s pretty much what he said,” I agreed.
“But you two worked it out?”
“I think so. I mean, he disappeared so quickly after. But yeah, when we get him back, I think things will have worked out. Maybe you just need to trust Jude with the truth,” I suggested.
We walked along. Our feet crunching on the gravel. I was grateful I’d had the foresight to wear decent shoes. I could hear Daphne trying to joke with Caleb. His grumbled responses were too muted to hear.
Riley tossed a glance over her shoulder. She seemed satisfied that the rest of the group was a good enough distance behind us. No one would be able to overhear her.
“It’s not that simple,” she started. “My whole life my parents have ingrained in me that we never tell anyone what we are. They would never approve of me telling Jude. What if he freaks out? What if he wants nothing to do with me? Worse yet, what if he tells people?” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can take that chance.”
“What if he realizes you were part of a crazy rescue mission that set out to save him? What if he finds out how incredibly talented and brave you are? What if he realizes that you’re even more terrific than he originally thought?” I countered.
She gave me a small smile. “You really think he’ll feel that way?”
“If he doesn’t, it’s his loss.”
“And if he doesn’t and he freaks over me being Striga?”
I nudged her shoulder. “Then we’ll have Fin whip up a potion to wipe the boy’s memory clean. Or you can just cast a spell. Either way, no harm done.” I was teasing, of course.
Memory spells were nothing to mess around with.
Regardless, my words had the desired effect. Riley giggled. “Fine. When this is all over with, I’ll tell him.” She cast another glance over her shoulder. “You’re sure Daphne won’t mind?”
I looked over my shoulder as well. Finola and Alex were walking hand in hand. Their heads were bowed together. They appeared to be lost in their own little world of two. Daphne, on the other hand, was trying valiantly to claim some of Caleb’s attention. He plodded along, scoping out the woods on each side. When Daphne veered toward him, he swerved into the ditch.
“I think Daphne is otherwise preoccupied.” I laughed lightly as I turned back around.
“Yeah, I guess she is,” Riley agreed.
“Not so sure Caleb is interested, though,” I muttered quietly so that Daphne wouldn’t overhear.
“Oh, trust me. He’s interested. He just likes playing hard to get,” Riley assured me.
“Check it out!” Caleb bellowed from behind us. “Straight ahead! Civilization!”
Alex and Finola picked up their pace until they caught up to Riley and me.
“If I remember correctly, there’s a crossroads up ahead. We’ll take a left. The motel should be just a few blocks down,” Alex said.
Now that we’d fully rounded a curve in the road, the town was in plain sight. Buildings and businesses were scattered across the horizon. Cars zoomed across the main road ahead, the road that crossed with this old gravel road.
My stomach flooded with conflicting feelings of dread and excitement.
Beside me, Riley picked up her pace once again. I hurried right alongside her.
~*~*~
“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Alex said.
We were able to get two adjoining rooms at the crummy motel along the edge of town. I tried to avoid the grime. With any luck, we’d barely be spending any time here at all. At the moment the six of us were crammed into one room. Caleb had dropped into a wobbly chair. Daphne had seated herself in the chair opposite. Alex and Finola sat on the edge of one bed, Riley and I sat on the edge of the other.
“I will cast a locator spell,” Caleb stated. “With the assistance of Riley.”
“We should be close enough that a locator spell will work,” Riley stated.
With any luck, both Tristan and Jude were within the vicinity. The spell should work. Especially since Caleb, a full blood Striga planned on casting it.
If they had moved on from here, we would be in trouble. I didn’t want to think of that. I had to trust that The Council’s information was accurate.
“Once we find them,” Daphne said with a grin. “I get to play my part.”
“Hopefully they won’t be able to resist your charm,” Caleb wryly replied.
“I don’t know why they would even want to try,” Daphne boldly countered.
“I just wish that we’d had time to talk to Jude’s parents,” Riley lamented.
We all nodded somberly. Without Jude’s spirit in our possession, Alex couldn’t readily slip it back into Jude’s body. The potion that Finola had created, the one that would make the drinker of the potion compliant, was our best weapon right now.
“We couldn’t risk them going to The Council,” Finola gently reminded.
“I know,” Riley sighed. “And I know we have a contingency plan. I just don’t like that we have to put off helping Jude.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder. “We won’t be putting it off for long. As soon as Alex helps Tristan, we’re out of here. We’ll take Jude back to Granite Falls and help him there. It’ll be okay.”
“We’ll get him to go back with us, one way or another,” Caleb said. He pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his bag. “These babies are charmed to the max. Slip these on him and even after Fin’s potion wears off, he’ll go wherever we want him to go.”
Riley grimaced.
Caleb slid out of his chair.
“Where are you going?” Daphne asked.
He gave her a look of irritation. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back soon enough.”
Alex frowned at him but didn’t say a word as Caleb sauntered out of the room and disappeared into the hallway.
I looked to Riley for answers since she knew him best.
“If he says he’ll be back, he’ll be back.”
“In the meantime, what are we supposed to do? Don’t you need him for the locator spell?” Daphne asked.
Riley let out a huff as she glared at the door. “That does pose a problem, doesn’t it?”
“Um…guys?”
We all turned to Finola. A moment ago I’d noticed that she was rummaging around in the nightstand. I’d assumed she was looking for a pen and a notepad. Maybe she had been. But now she sat with an opened phonebook in her lap. Her finger rested halfway down a page.
“Everett Julene? He’s one of our guys, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” I quickly answered.
“One twenty-four Juniper Lane.” She rattled off the address, then she glanced up at me. “That can’t be it, can it? That’s too easy.”
I tugged the phone book off her lap. I scanned the page, found the name, and read the address for myself.
“Everett is listed. But not Calvin.” My heart banged around. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but if only one of them was listed, I was glad it was Everett because he was the one in possession of Tristan.
“Then we talk to Everett and find out where Calvin is,” Finola said.
“No locater spell needed,” Riley said brightly. “Who would’ve thought?”
“I think we should do this tonight,” Daphne said. “Right now.”
I turned to Riley, my stomach a mess of squirmy nerves. “Now?”
“We don’t have time to waste,” Alex said. “Not if they’re this easy to find.”
Daphne shot to her feet. She swiped her traveling bag off the floor and headed for the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” Riley asked.
“I’ve got some boys to get pretty for,” she answered. “I need to get busy primping, plucking, moisturizing and all of that lovely stuff.” She disappeared into the questionably grimy bathroom. The door clicked shut behind her.
Riley turned to me. “That’s not a bad idea. We should all be primping and plucking and whatever.” She turned to Alex next and regretfully motioned to the door that connected the joining rooms. “You should probably scoot on out of here. We have some moisturizing to do.”
Alex slid to his feet. Instead of heading toward the door that connected the rooms, he headed toward the door that led to the hallway. “I think I’m going to try to hunt down Caleb.”
Half an hour later, Daphne emerged from the bathroom looking spectacular. Her long, chocolate-cherry colored locks were sleekly smoothed out. Her make-up expertly applied. Her simple little black dress didn’t look simple at all on her. It was tight, low cut and shorter than anything I would ever dare to wear.
“Look at you,” she said.
“Me?” I echoed. Once I’d seen Daphne I’d forgotten that I’d done some primping of my own. I’d curled the ends of my hair so that long, loose ringlets rested around my shoulders. I’d borrowed an outfit from Daphne. I’d refused the little red dress she’d offered me before leaving Granite Falls so she’d packed me her favorite outfit instead.
She was a bit thinner than me so the hot pink skinny jeans I now wore may as well have been airbrushed on. The black halter top showed an ample amount of cleavage, more than I’d ever purposefully shown before. The outfit was topped off by a pair of black wedge sandals. The outfit was simple, but hopefully alluring.
Riley had applied my make-up so it wasn’t the hasty application I was used to.
“Samara, you look amazing,” Finola assured me.
I knew I could never compare to Daphne, but still. We were girls on a mission. A mission to entice. So I had dressed the part.
Loud knocking erupted from the other side of the door.
“I’ll get it,” Finola said as she hurried across the room.
She pulled the door open. Caleb barged in with Alex right behind him.
He wore a cocky grin while he dangled a set of keys in his hands.
His grin faded as his gaze got stuck on Daphne. “Damn,” he muttered.
“Thank you,” she flirted back.
He blinked at her, as if unaware that he’d even spoken. He visibly shook himself before glancing around at the rest of us.
“So, hey, I got us a vehicle,” he said.
Alex said nothing but I could tell he wasn’t pleased.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
Caleb winked at me. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to. Now, Alex told me we’ve got an address. So what are we waiting for? Let’s roll!”
We followed him out of the motel room. It led straight into the parking lot. Parked directly in front of us was an enormous, beat up, silver van.
Caleb grinned proudly at it.
“This?” Daphne asked. “This is the vehicle we have to arrive in?”
“Hey, it was the best I could do. There are six of us, you know. And soon to be more,” he reminded her. “Now come on! We’re wasting daylight!”
Chapter 12
“That’s it, right there,” Riley told us, in case one of us missed the fact that we’d stopped in front of this particular house for a reason.
We were parked in front of a well-maintained but dreary looking brick house. Scraggly clumps of flowers sprouted from the gardens that lined the front of the house. No lights shone through the windows. I tried not to be discouraged. It was late afternoon, the time of day when lights weren’t quite a necessity, though they would be nice. Maybe they were trying to conserve on their electric bill.
“Let’s do this,” Daphne said from the passenger seat.
Finola grabbed her arm. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
Daphne glanced at Riley and me. “The three of us are going in. They won’t be suspecting anything. We’ll be fine.”
Finola nodded somberly. “Be careful.”
“We will,” I assured. “We’ll give you the sign as soon as it’s safe for you all to come in.”
Daphne alighted from the van through the passenger door. Riley and I tumbled over the seat as we followed her out.
I readjusted my jeans.
Daphne flipped her hair over her shoulder.
Riley tapped her purse, feeling for Finola’s potions, which were tucked safely inside.
“Okay, we get them to invite us in,” Daphne said. “It should be easy. We’re three damsels in distress. We’re lost and need directions. We need to use their phone to let our uncle know we’re running late.”
“Right. Because they’re not going to wonder why we didn’t just stop at a gas station. And they’re never going to question why not one of us has a cell phone,” I muttered.
“They’re going to get one look at us, and they’re not going to care.” This had been Daphne’s argument all along.
“Worst case scenario, they don’t let us in. We’ll just have to do a stake-out, follow them, and try a different tactic,” Riley cheerily replied.
I clamped my lips shut. Daphne had already scolded me once for the negative energy I was emitting.
I clenched my hands into fists when I realized they were shaking. Somewhere, in that house, were the men who’d overtaken Tristan and Jude. Suddenly it didn’t matter if Daphne’s plan had flaws. It was a plan. It was going to work. I’d make it work. We were going to get our friends back.
Without waiting for further prompting, I took off across the street. Daphne’s heels clicked along behind me. I could hear the faint tapping of Riley’s sandals as she kept up with us.
The house had a decent sized yard with neighbors flanking each side. The walkway led from the sidewalk along the
street to the house’s front door. The mailbox hung right next to the front door, 124 clearly noted on the front of it.
I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. My heartbeat seemed to be in perfect synchronization with my footsteps. My feet hit the sidewalk, directly in front of the house and my heart rate kicked up a few notches. I climbed the three shorts steps that led to the porch. In four steps I was across the porch and standing in front of the dark green door.
I lifted my finger to the doorbell and pressed.
And then I waited.
And waited.
And we waited some more.
“Oh, come on,” Riley murmured.
I reached for the doorbell again. I jabbed it with my finger. Just in case the doorbell wasn’t working, I assaulted the door with three hard knocks.
Still nothing.
I turned to my friends and let out a little whimper of defeat.
“It’s okay,” Riley said. “We knew this could be a possibility. We can either go back to the motel room and try the locator spell, or we can find somewhere to watch the house. We’ll wait for them to come back.”
“Or,” I said as my eyes scanned the street, “we could check in with a neighbor.”
Daphne followed my gaze. An elderly man was sitting on the porch of a house across the street. He sipped his lemonade and made no secret of the fact that he was eyeing us with curiosity.
I took off down the steps.
Daphne quickly caught up.
“Sam! We need a plan!” She whispered the warning loudly into my ear.
“I’ve got this,” I said. “You two please wait by the van.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to say, but I was going to come up with something. So far my friends had been working on potions and perfecting spells. I felt as though I’d been no help at all. This was my chance to step up. I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.
“Hello,” I called to the man on the porch.
He gave me a nod in return.
That was all the invitation I needed.
“I’m looking for the man who lives in that house. Have you seen him?”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m a relative. Everett is my uncle,” I said. “I haven’t seen him in a while. We’re passing through town and thought we’d stop by.”
