That Old Witch Magic (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 2)

by J. D. Winters

  There was something in the darkness that seemed guaranteed to excite the senses. The air was unusually warm, coming up from the desert and sparking excitement everywhere its breezes touched. I hurried along, heading for the Sheriff’s Station. But I couldn’t go through the park. Not in the middle of the night. The very thought made me quiver a little.

  Instead, I stayed on the sidewalk, making the wide rectangular journey around the park and past all the danger points. I got to walk past all the cute little local stores with their cartoonish and colorful facades, making the area feel like a fairy tale village, even in the dark.

  As I made the second perpendicular turn onto the main street, the scene before me made me gasp and head for the bushes along the side. I could see Bentley’s law offices ahead, lit up like a Christmas tree. There were sheriff’s cars parked out front and men coming in and out of the building. Even from this distance I could hear people complaining about the maze enclosing the entrance.

  “Of all the dirt-fool crazy ideas I’ve ever seen, a maze for people trying to come into your place of business is about the stupidest I’ve come across.”

  That sounded like Sheriff Hayes’ voice blaring out into the midnight calm like a blowtorch. It was a good thing most of the structures around Bentley’s were commercial concerns and not residential homes with people sound asleep inside. With all the noise and commotion, I could probably have walked right by without drawing any attention.

  But I wanted to find out what was going on, and I didn’t want the official version. Slinking back into the overgrown yard of Bentley’s neighbor, a taxidermist with stuffed elk and buffalo heads on his walls, spotlighted in his big front showcase of a window, I thought I knew a way to avoid the maze and end up in Bentley’s backyard with the chessboard—and hopefully not be noticed by anyone.

  My plan worked perfectly—right up until the end. I moved in stealthily. Most of the cops were still whining about how hard it was to negotiate the maze, and those that had made it in were searching the whole place from the sounds of it. I went from behind a bush to behind a tree and to another bush—and made my way right up to the back window. There was a little stoop that I meant to climb to get a toehold in a space where I could look in and see what they were doing. I’d just jumped up onto the stoop and was waving my arms to get my balance—it was a bit precarious. The stoop wasn’t wide enough for both my feet and I was working hard at it. And then a voice came from behind that knocked me right down onto the ground again.

  “Looking for something, Haley?”

  It was Shane. Of course it was Shane. Every time I managed to make myself look like a fool, there was Shane, bearing witness. I glared at him.

  “Just out for an evening’s walk,” I said sarcastically.

  He didn’t smile. “So you take your walks in Bentley’s yard?” he said.

  “Why not? Nobody else is supposed to be here at this time of night. That’s what makes it so interesting that you and your crew are. Here I mean.”

  He was giving me that great sheriff-style stone face he was so good at.

  “We’re here on official business.”

  “I can see that. What are you looking for?”

  “That’s official information.”

  “But you’ve already searched the house, haven’t you? What’s new that requires a whole new search?”

  He frowned, looking at me speculatively. “If I ask you a direct question, will you give me a full and true answer?” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at me with those distant eyes.

  I thought about that for a few seconds. “I’m not sure,” I told him. I was only being honest. At this point, Bentley’s well-being was pretty important to me.

  He looked annoyed, but asked me anyway. “Do you know of any secret passages or hidden rooms or anything of that sort in Bentley’s place?”

  “Oh, so you’re looking for a place where he might have hidden something?” My thoughts immediately flashed to the wooden box, and I very carefully made my mind go blank about it. Shane had shown evidence of mind reading ability in the past. I had to be careful.

  “Not exactly,” Shane told me. “What we’re looking for is Bentley.”

  “Bentley?” I stared at him. “But…”

  “Your pal Bentley has made a prison break. If you want to know the truth, the fact that you’re here wondering what is going on is sort of comforting to me. I was afraid you might have had something to do with it.”

  All I could do was shake my head, my mouth hanging open stupidly.

  “How…?”

  “Good question. I’ve got a few answers, but they’re not good ones.”

  “Hey guys.” Tommy had opened the window I had recently been trying to look through and was hanging out, looking at us.

  “Get back in, Tommy,” Shane advised wearily.

  “Oh, I will. I just wanted you to know that Alessandro just called in. He talked to the Sheriff. He’s got a posse together and they’re on the move, going after the vampire.”

  “A posse!” I was horrified. “What do you mean?”

  “Hey,” Tommy said. “Alessandro is a great hunter. If anyone can catch Bentley, it’ll be him.”

  “Tommy!” Shane’s voice held a warning and Tommy began to pull back.

  “But wait,” he was saying at the same time. “I need to tell you this. We found something. An address book. Sheriff Hayes thinks we should check every address.”

  Shane swore softly. “I told him most of those addresses were useless. I’ve already tried them.” He pulled a wad of small papers out of his pocket and showed Tommy. “They’re mostly from out of town.”

  Tommy shrugged and reached up to close the window, then stopped again. “Oh, I forgot. That Sheriff in Seattle wants you to call him back. I left a message on your pad. Did you get it?”

  “I got it.” He swore again, sounding impatient, as though events were getting out of control or something. “I’ve got to go in and talk to the Sheriff,” he said. Shoving the papers back into his pocket, he turned for the backdoor, then hesitated. Reaching out, he grabbed my arm to pull me close so that he could mutter right to my ear, “If you see Alessandro, avoid him at all costs. You got me?”

  That surprised me. “But…?”

  “I mean it. Call me if you see him. In the meantime, you wait right here. I’ll be back to take you home.” One of his wad of papers floated down and landed on the ground as he walked away. I picked it up and looked at it. There was a name scrawled on it, but I hardly noticed. I shoved it into my front pocket. I could give it back to him later. Right now my mind was on what he’d said about Alessandro. I had a feeling he didn’t approve of the man putting together a posse—and neither did I. I had to get out there and look for Bentley before anyone else found him. Something told me he might not survive an encounter with Alessandro. I shuddered.

  I had no intention of waiting for Shane and he probably knew it, but the moment he disappeared into the building, I turned and headed for home on my own. I needed to get there fast if I had any hope of using my car to drive out to the area where Bentley had been hiding before without a deputy or two on my tail.

  That also meant I was going to have to cut through the park. As I jogged across the street and started into the shadowy darkness, my heart began to pound. I didn’t like doing this at this time of night, didn’t like it at all. But there was no time to waste.

  Chapter 12

  The park wasn’t entirely dark. Lights had been strung out for late visitors who might be in town for the festival, and though it wasn’t exactly well-lit, it did help a little. At the same time, the dim, intermittent lighting helped create some pretty scary shadows for those of us already suspicious of just what was out there, lurking in the dark. I shoved back the fears and concentrated on finding the best path through the thickest trees. And then I let my mind wander back to the subject of the night.

  Bentley was on the lam. That just seemed impossible. How could he have do
ne it? Where did he even get the energy? The man I’d seen just a few hours before had given up. Men like that don’t break out of jail too often.

  He must have used magic. I just couldn’t see any other way. And now he was out there somewhere, and I had a very bad feeling about his chances. They were going to find him. They’d found him out by the caves before, why wouldn’t they go right back and look there again? Of course they would. But Bentley had to know that, too. So he wouldn’t go right back to the same place.

  Unless…unless he had some sort of magic that could cloak his presence or something similar. But Shane, being a hunter, should be able to see through things like that. Shouldn’t he? I shook my head. I didn’t know for sure and it was giving me a headache trying to untangle all these elements.

  But wait. I hadn’t been paying attention and now I had wandered into an area I didn’t recognize. I seemed to be climbing some sort of slope and….

  Alarm shivered through me. Wait a minute. This was just like what had happened to me a few weeks ago, when I’d first come to Moonhaven. I’d come into the area, begun chasing Toto and suddenly found myself on a mountain trail, high above the park and dangerously close to a steep cliff—a place that no one else could see and only I ever went to. Was it happening again?

  It was too dark to know for sure, but it would seem so. My heart was pounding. Last time, I ended up shoving Scotty over the cliff and watching him fall to sure death below. Only he really hadn’t done any such thing. But I only knew that when I got back to the café and talked to Luanne. And he was actually killed later that night.

  I didn’t like this. Not again. So far I hadn’t met anyone on the trail this time, but the danger was still palpable. Something was going to happen. Something I wasn’t going to like.

  And then I saw him. It was the Inspector, coming down the trail toward me, marching my way with a look of cold determination on his face. I gasped and shrank back against the rocky face of the road cut. No! He was already dead. Was I supposed to kill him again? Shove him over the side like I had Scotty…or at least the pretend Scotty.

  Pretend. That was exactly what all this was, wasn’t it? And who was the architect and choreographer of all my scary pretend episodes? My grand mother, of course. Gran Ana.

  “No!” I shouted to the swirling wind. “No! I won’t do it again!”

  “Uh…Haley.”

  I heard the voice and I spun, trying to locate where it was coming from.

  “Up here. On top of the rock behind you.”

  I looked up angrily, ready to fight anyone and anything. But it was Oliver in raven form, gazing down on me with his stern face.

  “What?” I yelled up, in no mood to be placated.

  “Listen, dear,” the huge bird said. “You can’t act like this. Your grandmother has gone to a lot of trouble to set up opportunities for you to learn your craft. Here is your spell, the one that will get you out of this.” He released a piece of paper that floated down to where I stood. “Use it and learn something.”

  I looked out into the night. The faux Inspector was still coming toward me, looking mean. The wind was tearing at my clothes, slashing at my hair, making me feel as though I was about to be blown off the mountain trail. Everything was aligned against me. My breath was coming fast, almost choking me. I was going to need that spell. Maybe…maybe I ought to use it. Maybe I had to.

  I snatched it out of the wind. There were tears of anger in my eyes. I didn’t want to do it this way. This wasn’t me. This wasn’t the way I wanted to live my life. How dare my grandmother force it on me this way!

  I looked up. Oliver sat above me, waiting. I could tell he wanted to send a report to my grandmother. He was just here to let her know she’d finally forced me to comply, forced me under her thumb. I heard the Inspector yell. He was almost here, almost close enough to get me. I couldn’t wait any longer. I looked at the paper, looked at the spell, and knew I was going to do something---but not that. I put it into my back pocket. Not my grandmother’s spell. Never!

  “No!” I yelled, throwing out my arms. “No, I won’t. I want all this to stop right now. Stop! Cut it out. Leave me alone. Let me have a real life, the life I was meant to live. None of this nonsense. Stop!”

  Almost hysterical, I took a deep breath, ready to meet the Inspector and do what I had to do. I turned, my feet set wide apart, preparing for a collision of some sort. I was going to stand strong. Only…only he wasn’t coming at me any longer. Where had he gone? I looked around, puzzled. And then I realized that the mountain trail had melted away. I was back on level ground. Somehow, I’d ruined the whole thing, but not in a good way.

  I looked up. Oliver was in the tree above me. “Well, there you go,” I said to him bitterly. “You can go back and tell my grandmother that I failed again. I didn’t use her spell and I didn’t get anything accomplished. So there.”

  My shoulders sagged with the sadness of defeat and I turned away. I didn’t seem to be able to do anything right. And now I was probably too late to get out to the caves and help Bentley. I was stuck here in this torturous park, and my grandmother would probably thwart anything I tried to do.

  “Uh…Haley?” Oliver was still there above me. “Uh…listen, is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Leave me alone,” I muttered, holding back tears. “Just leave me alone.”

  “No,” he said. “I mean, like take you to where Bentley is or something?”

  I looked up at him, his words sparking new hope in my heart. “Do you know where he is?” I cried.

  He nodded. “I think I do. I can take you there if you want. Like I did yesterday.”

  A surge of adrenalin. I still had a chance!

  “Oh wow. Hey, Oliver. Thank you. You are the best.”

  And I really, really meant it.

  When Oliver enveloped me in his wings and rushed me away this time, it felt somehow different from the last. This time it was like I’d taken a leap, and then gravity said that’s enough of Haley, and it let me go. I kept flying up, up, up, only it didn’t feel like flying at all. More like falling, but in the wrong direction.

  I was shocked when I landed on my feet. Physically, there wasn’t any momentum. It wasn’t like I had actually fallen a large distance to hit the ground, but my brain thought I should have. That part was like falling in a dream, where you jerk yourself awake. It was my treacherous mind that made me flop forward, landing on my hands and knees in front of Bentley’s cave.

  I blinked at the darkness all around me, feeling anxious, nervous, scared, even a little sick. All of these things. Magic was… Magic was like diving into a pool of cold water, I decided. How ever many times you did it, that initial shock wasn’t something you could get used to.

  Oliver hovered over me for one last moment. “Take care my dear,” he said in his rusty voice. “There is evil here. Be on guard. And don’t let foolish pride keep you from using your grandmother’s spells if they can help you.”

  And then he was gone. I heard his wings in the darkness as he left. It was misty here, and damp with chill. The only source of light was the half-moon glowing in the sky, giving a sick pale tint that turned everything gray. Leaves, rocks, trees, all swayed in a gentle, discomfiting breeze. It made the forest feel like a dark living thing--waiting for me to make a mistake, so it could pounce.

  I shook my head, getting those cobwebby thoughts out of there so I could concentrate on the task at hand. If I only knew what that was, the concentrating would go so much easier. Let’s say Bentley was here, in the gloomy darkness that opened in front of me, like a wide mouth into the earth.

  Or let’s not say like a wide mouth. I didn’t like the thought of being eaten, particularly when it was a vampire I was dealing with. A good guy, a good vampire, maybe, but still somebody who bites. And who knew what his mental state was right now?

  If he was here… what was I going to do? Convince him to go back to his cell? For all I knew the hunters would take this escape as an admissio
n of guilt. That’s what it felt like, after all. The guilty flee, et cetera. If I tried to bring Bentley back to them, it might be as good as signing his death sentence.

  Or was I going to help him get away? I couldn’t do that either. I was setting down roots in this town, getting a fresh start. Fresh as possible, since I only had a few months worth of memories to tie me to any one place. And you didn’t become a successful small town sandwich magnate by helping fugitives escape what was widely considered justice. It was frowned upon.

  And what would it look like, from Bentley’s perspective? The last time I found him, hunters were in tow. Completely by accident, completely coincidentally, but he couldn’t know that. He might lash out, from fear or anger or…

  “Haley,” I whispered to myself, so quietly the words were barely there. “You’re making excuses. Left foot, right foot, march.”

  I placed my left foot forward, stepping as lightly as I could on the fallen pine needles. But there’s no light way to crunch down on dry needles, however delicately trained you are. Or so I thought, until someone snuck up behind me, completely silent, and placed his hand on my shoulder.

  I spun, instincts taking over completely. My hands were on the intruder in a flash, my body whipping down. I was transferring the momentum of my attacker forward, bringing all my weight down and slamming him over my head, to sprawl on the ground in front of me.

  Well, that was the theory, anyway. That was what my instincts told me should happen. Instead, I had my hands on an arm that was tight and strong as a tree branch, and which held me in the air as I dangled from it, uselessly. My fingers didn’t even grip right - a heavy metal object on the wrist stopped me from getting a proper hold.

  I dropped to the ground the instant I recognized the throw had not worked. My instincts went through two or three different tumbles I could use to get myself into position to launch another attack, but that instinct was squelched by my frontal lobe, recognizing the voice of the man who’d grabbed me.