Protector (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 5)

by Christine Pope

  They all fell silent then. Alex wished he could think of something to say that would break the tension in the room, but every option that crossed his mind sounded worse than the last. Glad to see you’re putting that communications degree to good use, he thought, even though he knew none of the classes he’d taken at U of A had exactly covered this type of situation.

  The sound of the French door opening made everyone look up. A spark of hope flared in Caitlin’s eyes as Marie entered the room, but the grim expression on the older woman’s face told them all that she’d had no luck, even when granted the peace and quiet she’d requested.

  “Nothing,” she said, crossing the living room and setting Danica’s bracelet down on the coffee table. “Normally, I should have been able to pick up something, even if I couldn’t get a great deal of detail. But it’s as if she’s hidden behind some kind of dark curtain, some sort of barrier that my Sight can’t penetrate.” Marie’s brows drew together, and she shook her head, lips compressing into a tight line that was already familiar to Alex. “If that had been Roslyn’s bracelet, I might have understood it more. I don’t know the girl — I might have seen her in passing at a family gathering here or there, but that would be the extent of our contact. But Danica? I’ve known her since she was born. I should have been able to detect some trace of her.” Her gaze sharpened, that laser-beam focus falling on Caitlin, who flinched. “How is that you’re able to have visions of her, when you’ve only been friends for a few months?”

  “More than a year,” Caitlin said. Her tone was quiet but firm, and her chin lifted as she looked up at the other woman. “We’ve been friends for over a year now. I wouldn’t have moved in with someone I’d only known for a few months.”

  That show of defiance, mild as it was, made Alex think that Caitlin wasn’t quite as ready to get walked over by Marie Begonie as he’d worried she might be. And Marie seemed to notice, too; she didn’t quite scowl down at Caitlin, but her expression turned even more grim.

  “Be that as it may, it still doesn’t explain how you’re able to see her when someone who’s known Danica her entire life cannot.”

  “Maybe we won’t ever be able to explain it,” Andre said thoughtfully, and Marie’s gaze shifted to him, then softened. Prickly she might be, but that prickliness didn’t appear to extend to her husband. “We’re talking about magic here, talents that run in our blood. This isn’t science, where things can be measured exactly, and where certain inputs will always return the same results. Perhaps we’re meant to trust in Caitlin’s talents and see what they can do for Danica and Roslyn.”

  That sounded sensible to Alex, but, judging by the stricken look on her face, it seemed Caitlin didn’t entirely agree. No doubt she’d been hoping that Marie would swoop in and pinpoint exactly where the two kidnapped girls had been taken, and that would be the end of it.

  Unfortunately, these things were rarely that easy.

  “You may be right,” Marie said, and she let out a very small sigh, the first sign of anything less than absolute certainty Alex had seen in her. “At any rate, I can tell that I need to let it go for now. I’ll try again — later tonight, most likely.”

  She nodded toward Andre, and he stood up.

  Alex said, “Are you sure there isn’t anything else you could try?” Not that he really wanted to prolong their visit, but at the same time, he hated the look of helpless worry on Caitlin’s face, the realization that she really might have to do this on her own.

  Well, not entirely on her own. He’d make sure he stuck with her until this thing came to its conclusion…whatever that might turn out to be.

  “No,” Marie said flatly. “Not now. There is no point in beating my head against a wall. As I said, I will try again when I’ve given myself a chance to rest.”

  Caitlin got up then as well, asking, “Are you staying in town?”

  “For the night, yes. Although I doubt there’s any reason for us to stay.” She’d set her purse down next to the coffee table, and now she bent to retrieve it. “If I have any news, I will let you know. Alex, your mother gave me your cell number. I assume it’s all right for me to call you if anything changes?”

  “Sure,” he said, although he could think of roughly a hundred other people he’d rather have his phone number than Marie Begonie.

  Something around her mouth seemed to twitch, as if she’d guessed what he was thinking. But then her gaze moved past him to Caitlin, and Marie added, “If you should have any more visions, let me know immediately. My own cell number was in the email Alex’s mother sent him this morning.”

  Caitlin nodded. “Of course. Even if it’s the middle of the night?”

  “Yes, even then.”

  Andre didn’t look entirely thrilled at that prospect, but seemed to know better than to protest. “Thank you for letting us come by,” he said.

  “No problem,” Alex said, the automatic response. After that, he led them to the front door, Caitlin a pace or two behind them. She gave one last reassurance that she would call if anything changed or she saw anything else, and then they were gone. He closed the door and let out a relieved sigh. “Well, we survived.”

  Caitlin gave a half-hearted nod but didn’t appear entirely convinced.

  “Come on,” he said. There wasn’t much he could do to help her at the moment, but he wanted to try, wanted to do something to help remove the anxious expression from her face. “While we’re waiting for those visions to come, let me show you around a bit.”

  9

  Even a house as nice as Alex’s could seem confining after a while. Caitlin was forced to admit that it felt good to get out, to let the sun warm her skin and the breeze blow through her hair. He drove them away from his neighborhood up in the hills, back down toward the center of Tucson proper.

  “Anything in particular you want to see?” he asked, once they were driving south on the freeway.

  By then it was around two-thirty, late for lunch, far too early for dinner. She thought she could eat something, but at the same time, she was feeling on edge after that meeting with Marie, her stomach sort of jumpy and nervous. Better to hold out on any real eating for a few more hours.

  “The university?” Caitlin responded. That sort of came out of nowhere, but she thought it would be interesting to see where Alex had gone to college, and whether it was so very different from Northern Pines.

  “Thinking of transferring?” he asked with a grin.

  Maybe, if it meant being closer to you. Then she wanted to smack herself. A day around this guy, and she was already thinking about possible ways she could spend more time with him? It was ridiculous. Focus. She really needed to focus.

  “No,” she replied, taking care to keep her tone light. “It’s just — Northern Pines is the only other university I’ve ever seen, and even that’s super-recent. Up until a few years ago, it might as well have been on the moon.”

  He must have caught something in her inflection, because he glanced over at her for a second before returning his attention to the freeway. There was traffic, but it moved well enough. “I guess I always took it for granted that I could go to college — whether here or up at ASU. But you McAllisters didn’t have any real universities in your territory, did you?”

  “No, only a community college. That’s where I was going, actually. But then everything changed.” There was an understatement. A feud that had lasted for generations, wiped away as if it had never existed. Well, almost. Caitlin knew that among her own generation, most people, whether Wilcox or McAllister, didn’t have too hard a time adjusting to the change in the status quo. With the older set, that sort of acceptance was a little more spotty. Her mother and father hadn’t been terribly thrilled when she announced she was transferring to Northern Pines so she could get a real degree, but after some family drama, they’d eventually settled down.

  “Let me guess — mass influx of McAllisters?” Alex asked, that same grin flashing at her, making her just weak enough in the knees that she
was glad she was sitting down.

  “I don’t know about ‘mass,’ but there were a few…maybe enough to make someone at the registrar’s office wonder why so many of their incoming students had the same last name.” It was funny, because she’d never thought about it that way before. Then again, not all of her fellow clan members who’d transferred to Northern Pines even had the last name of McAllister, although of course they were all related in one way or another.

  “Well, it makes sense. It would be a big deal to me, too, if I’d spent my life in a small territory like yours, and then had the chance to get out.” He seemed to stop himself, adding, “Sorry — I didn’t mean it that way. Jerome is great, from what I saw of it.”

  “I’m not offended,” she replied, and offered him a smile of her own. “That is, our territory is a lot more than just Jerome, but compared to what the de la Paz clan controls, or even the Wilcoxes…yeah, it’s sort of underwhelming.”

  “All the more reason for you to get out and stretch your legs.” He pulled off the freeway then, crossing back under it before heading…east? Northeast? It was hard for Caitlin to say for sure, since she really hadn’t gotten her bearings yet, and the position of the sun wasn’t telling her much, either.

  They were headed up a main street, she could see that much, and the area around the freeway didn’t look too promising. It did improve, however, as they drove along, until suddenly on either side of the boulevard were official-looking buildings in a variety of different architectural styles.

  “This is it,” Alex said.

  Caitlin blinked. “You mean…you have this big road just going through the middle of your campus?” Not that Northern Pines didn’t have its own access roads, but the campus still felt somewhat segregated from the city around it. Here, the school seemed to have been plunked down right in the middle of town.

  “Basically, yes. So what did you want to see?”

  “I don’t know…where did you hang out?”

  He didn’t exactly frown, but he also didn’t look quite as cheerful as he had a minute or two earlier when he’d been teasing her about the McAllisters invading Northern Pines. “I worked part-time at the store the whole time I was in college, so I didn’t do a lot of hanging out. But there was a coffee place I’d go to between classes. I think the Caffe Lucé espresso kept me alive during finals a few times.”

  “Oh,” she said, her tone flat. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting him to say, but telling her that a coffeehouse had been one of his favorite haunts hadn’t even occurred to her.

  “Right, you’re not a coffee drinker. They have tea, though, and good pastries, if you can grab one before they sell out.” A quick glance over at her before he turned right down another street whose name she didn’t quite catch. “Does that sound okay?”

  It sounded way more than okay. Right then she knew she’d never make it to dinner without having something a little more than the few handfuls of grapes she’d eaten while Alex had his sandwich. “You had me at pastries.”

  His smile returned, and after they’d gone another block or two, they came up to a row of shops dominated by a Trader Joe’s. The street parking was dicey, but he found a spot just as someone was pulling out, and so was able to park his SUV there. “Right this way.”

  Because it was a dead time in the afternoon, they didn’t have too much trouble finding a place to sit after placing their orders for coffee and tea. “Should I feel guilty for snagging the last coconut raspberry scone?” Caitlin asked.

  “Only if you want to.” Alex picked up his coffee and took a measured sip.

  “Then I won’t.” She drank some of her iced tea, then broke off a piece of scone. “You want some?”

  “I’m good. I had an actual lunch, remember?”

  Caitlin nodded before popping the bit of scone in her mouth. It was very good, rich but not too sweet. Rachel McAllister would have approved. “I know I should have eaten something, but….”

  “But you were mildly freaked about having to deal with Marie.”

  “Something like that.” She washed the scone down with another swallow of tea. “Actually, for her, she was kind of mellow. I kept expecting her to rip me a new one for hiding my seer abilities from the clan.” Alex’s gaze slid away from her at that remark — just for a second, but enough that she thought he didn’t entirely agree with her. “What…did she say something while I was off getting Danica’s bracelet?”

  “Not about that exactly.” He picked up a stir stick and ran it through his coffee, even though he was drinking it black and didn’t really need to stir anything. “She just…well, it wasn’t as if she said it in so many words, but she made it pretty clear that the wrath of both the McAllisters and the Wilcoxes would fall on the de la Paz clan if we don’t get Danica and Roslyn back safely.”

  Caitlin wanted to protest that he must have misunderstood her, that Marie had meant something else entirely, whatever she’d said to him. But although she couldn’t claim to know Marie well, Caitlin did know that the other seer wasn’t exactly the world’s most tactful person. However you wanted to paint it, the kidnappings had taken place on de la Paz soil. That meant their clan was partially responsible, since if Maya had been fully functioning as a prima, she should have known interlopers from another clan were in her territory, and taken steps to have them sent back to wherever they’d come from.

  However, Caitlin also knew that Alex knew all that as well, so there was no reason to point it out to him. Instead, she broke off another piece of scone, then said, “We all know that Angela and Connor will never retaliate. No matter” —her voice felt oddly dry, and she set down the bit of scone and instead took another pull at her iced tea— “no matter what might happen.”

  “Maybe they wouldn’t. But what about your other clan members?”

  He would have to ask that. Caitlin stalled by eating the piece of scone she’d broken off. “They wouldn’t go against their prima’s wishes. And neither would the Wilcox clan.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  His dark eyes searched her face. She could see the doubt in his expression, the worry that Angela and Connor might be the prima and primus of their respective clans, but they were also, in the eyes of a lot of those same witches and warlocks, only a couple of kids in their twenties, not ready for the kind of responsibility this crisis had created.

  “Well, I can’t speak for everyone,” Caitlin said, knowing she was hedging but at the same time realizing that she couldn’t possibly give him a definitive answer. “But even though they haven’t been the heads of their clans for all that long, no one can say they haven’t been doing a good job. I’d like to think everyone would give them the benefit of the doubt.”

  For a few painful seconds, Alex didn’t say anything. Then his shoulders lifted, although she got the feeling the shrug was intended more to show her that he didn’t feel like arguing the subject, rather than because he agreed with her.

  “The best thing we can do is find them,” she went on. “Which is why it’s so frustrating to sit here and know that I should be doing something besides having scones and tea. It’s just not right.”

  “What else could you do?” he asked reasonably. “You’ve tried summoning the visions, and that didn’t work. In the meantime, you still have to eat and drink and carry on like a normal person. I doubt you’ll do them any more good by continually stressing until your focus is totally shot.”

  She couldn’t really argue with that. At the same time, she couldn’t help feeling angry with herself for being here and finding any kind of enjoyment in the pastry she was eating, or even simply being able to look across the table and see Alex’s earnest gaze on her, the warmth of his voice. Something about the way he spoke always sounded unruffled, always in control, although she knew that wasn’t entirely the case. There were things that worried and upset him, just as they would anyone.

  “You’re right,” she said, trying not to sigh. At the same time, she couldn’t help feeling
impatient with that supposed third eye of hers, or whatever it was. If time was of the essence, why wasn’t she being bombarded with a string of images that would lead her straight to wherever Danica and Roslyn were being held?

  Alex’s phone went off then — another email, judging by the alert sound.

  “I’d better check that,” he said. “That’s usually how my mother gets in touch with me. She hates texting, and I hate getting interrupted by phone calls, so the emails are our compromise.”

  “Maybe she has some new information for us,” Caitlin suggested.

  “Yeah…or maybe she’s emailing to give me a ration of shit about how that interview with Marie went.”

  “Ouch.”

  He smiled then. “Yeah, that about sums it up.” But he reached into his pocket and dug out his iPhone, then unlocked it so he could access his emails.

  Caitlin watched as he scanned the message from his mother, the movements of his eyes almost hidden under the dark sweep of his eyelashes. Was he even aware of how good-looking he really was? He definitely didn’t dress all that flashy; when she’d first met him, he’d had on dark khaki pants and a white button-down for work, and today he was wearing nicely faded jeans and an untucked polo shirt along with some well-broken-in cross-trainers.

  “Well, that’s interesting,” he said at last, setting the phone down on the tabletop so he could pick up his neglected coffee and take a sip.

  “What is?”

  “We have someone in the clan — my cousin Miguel, who lives up in Mesa — who’s a private investigator. His talent is always being able to tell when someone is lying. Convenient for his line of work.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Anyway, my mother had him look into that house where Matías and the others took you, to see if there was any kind of a connection between them and the house.”