Feeding Frenzy: Curse of the Necromancer (Loon Lake Magic Book 1)

by Maaja Wentz

  Suddenly, Tonya grabbed the steering wheel and aimed them at an old stone fence.

  “What are you doing?” Priya gripped the wheel in her left hand and tried to shove Tonya away with her right.

  Tonya grabbed the wheel with both hands. Priya resisted, jerking the wheel left and right but the fence kept growing larger in the windshield. Priya braked but Tonya stomped on the gas. The tires spun, and the car smelled of burning oil. Priya stood on the brakes and wouldn’t budge.

  “Let go!” Priya punched Tonya in the head.

  Tonya fell back, until she gripped Priya’s neck and started choking her.

  Priya saw stars. Her hands loosened on the wheel. Before she could pass out, Priya heaved on the parking brake, sending everyone flying against their seat belts.

  Drake grabbed Tonya from behind and wrestled her off Priya.

  “I’m so sorry!” Tonya sobbed.

  “Out of my car! I’m not driving another inch until she’s outta here.”

  “It wasn’t me. I wasn’t in control.” Tonya’s face was red.

  “You tried to kill us.”

  “Let me hold her in the back seat.”

  “No.”

  “Could I ride in the trunk?” Tonya beseeched with clasped hands. “If Waldock’s men find me, they’ll kill me.”

  “Why? You seem to be working for them.”

  “Please.”

  Priya scowled. “Lock her in the trunk, but if she tries anything . . .”

  She waited while Drake helped Tonya into the trunk. “Make sure it’s locked,” she called out the window. When he was finished, Drake came to sit in the passenger seat.

  “I’m going to keep trying till we find open road. If I have to explore every side street and cut across every farmer’s field, I’m getting us out of this place.”

  TRUNK

  Inside the trunk, Tonya’s head hit the roof every time they hit a bump. That pain was nothing compared to the emotional bruising. Who could she trust after her own brain betrayed her? Waldock had weaponized her against her friends. He’d done it by invading her mind.

  Could she force herself into his consciousness along the same pathway? She remembered the sensations just before Waldock seized control of her body. There had been a tingling, and then a rush of his power flowing into her, first a trickle and then a torrent, obliterating her ability to resist. Reaching out with her mind, she tried to force her will back along the same energy path.

  Nothing. She sensed no trace of the route he used to get into her head. This energy transfer stuff was too new to her.

  Aunt Helen had never taught her how to use her powers and now she expected her to fight Waldock? And how was it Waldock had prevented his Entity from burning underground, even after Tonya soaked the earth in gasoline?

  Protective wards were her aunt’s specialty. Could she be conspiring with Waldock? Maybe she had lied about needing help to fix her tire. Wasn’t a tire made of rubber, a natural substance that she could heal? Did Aunt Helen separate Tonya from her friends and delay their reunion so the Entity could rise unopposed? She could have lied about the cancer too. It seemed very convenient that her aunt reappeared just long enough to tell her to fight Waldock, alone.

  Yet Helen had killed Len. Either she was on Tonya’s side or there were more than two sides.

  Her phone buzzed with a text from Aunt Helen. She braced herself to read it in the rattling trunk.

  Aunt Helen had spotted the pearls-and-heels doctor from the farm working on her hospital floor. Despite being hit with a two-by-four, the lady didn’t have a scratch on her. Not only that, the growth in Aunt Helen’s stomach was expanding daily. What the hell, Tonya wondered, was really growing in there?

  Aunt Helen’s message instructed Tonya to collect a hand from the fridge in her apartment and bring it to Toronto. Tonya banged on the trunk, but the car kept moving. She texted Drake.

  Tonya: My aunt made an unusual request. Let me back into the car and I’ll show you.

  Drake: Nice try [Priya made me write that]

  Tonya: I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. Call my aunt yourself at this number . . .

  Eventually, the car slowed, and Tonya felt the gravel crackle under the tires as they pulled onto the shoulder.

  The trunk opened, but she was so stiff and bruised, Drake had to help her out.

  She stood behind the car and Drake stared at her. Under normal circumstances she would have welcomed the attention, but he didn’t smile.

  “It’s safe to come out,” he called to Priya.

  “Let me put her on speaker phone.” Tonya punched in Aunt Helen’s number as Priya joined them.

  “Hello?” her aunt wheezed.

  “Priya and Drake will to come to Toronto, but we can’t bring the hand.”

  “You must.”

  “Why?”

  “Without it, I can’t stop Waldock.” Aunt Helen coughed weakly.

  “I left it in my dorm, but there’s a police cordon around campus. It’s under quarantine.”

  “You have to get it.”

  “Think of something else.”

  “Bring it, or Waldock wins.”

  “Why didn’t you say something before?”

  Priya nodded and crossed her arms.

  “Is that how you talk to a dying woman?”

  “Campus is too close to the cemetery. If I go near it, Waldock will get in my head again.”

  Priya took the phone. “She says he made her grab the wheel and try to drive us into a wall.”

  “She has more power than she realizes.”

  Tonya took back the phone. “I didn’t even know I was doing it. One minute I blacked out, the next I had my foot on the accelerator. Drake had to pull me off Priya before I strangled her.”

  “To overcome a mind like yours takes a lot of power. Jack won’t be able to control you and a crowd of people, especially if you can lure him out of Loon Lake. Your friends can help.”

  “All these years you never trained me in magic, never warned me about the dangers. Why?”

  “Your mother would have got a restraining order.”

  “When I worked in your shop, you could have at least taught me some self-defense. Now you’re too sick to fight and I don’t know what to do.”

  “This was never supposed to happen. I took care of Jack,” said Aunt Helen.

  “Is that why he’s picking on me and my friends?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  Drake stepped close to the phone. “Tell us everything, or Tonya goes nowhere.”

  There was a long pause. Helen’s voice went softer. “Jack and I . . . used to be close. He promised never to touch my family, but I was a fool to trust him. When I was in high school he seemed so daring, channeling life energy through me at first, and then we experimented in the cemetery.”

  “Death energy?” Tonya raised an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t know what we were doing. When my hair turned white it scared me and I quit, but not before I learned what he was. Any piece of Jack’s original body will remain linked to him. I buried him, but I kept his hand just in case. Promise you’ll bring it.”

  “We’ll try.” She disconnected and turned to her friends. “You can’t go with me. It’s too dangerous.”

  Drake put a hand on her shoulder and moved in close. “You heard your aunt, you need me.”

  “And you need my car,” said Priya.

  “Waldock could make me attack you again.”

  “Maybe,” said Drake, “but I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  “Me neither.” Priya crossed her arms.

  Tonya threw her arms wide. “I could kiss you both!”

  BAR FRIDGE

  They drove onto campus. The police were gone, and students were sparse. Perhaps they had run out of food and shambled to the grocery store. Perhaps they were quarantined at the health center. Perhaps the risen Entity no longer needed them.

  Priya parked in a tow-away zone right in front
of Mackenzie College. “Let’s be quick.”

  As they waited for the elevator, the routine action gave Tonya a sense of normalcy, as if when they got to her floor, the common room would be full of students.

  Instead, the corridor was empty except for Roberto, waiting outside her door. “Thank God you’re here. Everybody’s gone, and I can’t find Lynette.”

  “Neither can we.” Drake looked away

  “Help me look?”

  “We have to go to Toronto,” said Tonya.

  “I’m coming with you.” He followed them into the room.

  “There’s no space in the car,” said Priya.

  “Be careful if you find Lynette,” said Drake. “She’s acting strange.”

  “She’ll be fine.” Roberto’s mouth was impassive, but his eyes darted around the room, scanning shelves and corners.

  His odd response made Tonya wary. She took off her bandanna and grabbed the jar from the bar fridge. As she took it out, she wrapped it in cloth and held it to her chest.

  Roberto dashed to her side, his hand reaching for the jar. “Let me carry that for you.”

  “Don’t bother.”

  “I insist.” Roberto lunged for the jar.

  “It’s quite alright.” She yanked it out of range.

  Roberto grabbed for it, trying to wrest it from her hands.

  “Here!” Tonya threw it to Drake who caught it and ran out.

  “Don’t let him get it!” Priya yelled.

  They ran out the door after Drake and down the fire exit stairs.

  Tonya couldn’t believe it. There was a guy with a tow truck preparing to hook up Priya’s car. Armageddon had come, but they still worried about illegal parking. The driver turned to face them.

  “Hey, that’s Zain!” Drake pointed at the driver.

  “Give me the hand back before you talk to him.”

  Drake tossed the jar to Tonya before he followed after Priya.

  “Get away from Baby!” Priya shoved Zain who stumbled back.

  The three friends dashed into the car and slammed the doors, but Tonya was too slow. Roberto caught her door and pushed himself into the back seat with her.

  “Get out!” She kicked him in the chest but instead of falling back, he grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her out of the car. The back of her head connected with cement and she saw stars.

  “Give me the hand or I’ll kill her!” said Roberto.

  “They can’t,” said Tonya. Roberto had to be under Waldock’s control.

  Certainly, but you are missing the obvious. Did you really think a man powerful enough to resurrect himself would choose to inhabit a body of dirt and bone? It took a long time to find a body worthy of me, from a suitably magical family.

  “Roberto is Waldock!” she shouted. Tonya curled her body around the jar while Roberto/Waldock tried to pry her open like a starfish. Priya and Drake leaped out of the car and tried to haul Roberto off her just as Zain joined the fray. Roberto lifted her over his head like a barbell.

  “Stand back. I’ll drop her!”

  Holding her body rigid, Tonya carefully unscrewed the jar and slipped the wet hand into her jacket pocket. Noiselessly, she resealed it and tied it back into her bandana to obscure its emptiness. She braced herself to hit the ground.

  Drake and Priya grabbed her arms and legs and tried to wrestle her away from Roberto but Zain grabbed her around the middle and hauled her away from the others. When Roberto pried her hands open, she shouted: “No!”

  Roberto and Zain took the jar and, laughing, jumped into the tow truck and sped away.

  Tonya hurried her friends into their car and told Priya to head for Toronto.

  “Shouldn’t we get the hand back?”

  “Let’s just go,” said Tonya.

  Priya shook her head. She drove them on a circuitous route out of town then headed east, circling back down to the highway west. When they had been driving for ten minutes, without a roadblock in sight, Tonya held her jacket open to let Drake peek at the hand.

  “Ugh!” Priya wrinkled her nose. “What’s that smell?”

  “The hand. We have to get it to Aunt Helen before Waldock realizes I still have it.”

  TORONTO

  It would take over two hours to drive to Toronto, more in traffic. Tonya kept an eye out for Waldock’s police minions while Priya sped as fast as she dared.

  Tonya’s stomach fluttered. While they wasted time fighting Waldock’s giant decoy, their true opponent had taken permanent form.

  “Can your aunt stop Waldock without hurting Roberto?” asked Priya.

  “Oh my god, Lynette!” said Tonya. “She’ll be devastated when she finds out Roberto isn’t Roberto.”

  “We might not get a chance to tell her,” said Drake. “We shouldn’t have left her behind.”

  “What choice did we have?” asked Priya.

  It occurred to Tonya that if Waldock controlled Lynette’s mind, she and Roberto could live happily ever after, hunting down innocent people like Tonya and her friends. “I hope she’s okay.”

  The car decelerated to stop-and-go as the two-lane highway backed up with cars.

  “This better just be a tractor or something,” muttered Priya.

  It took five minutes of crawl before Tonya could see the cause of the slowdown. Police had parked a pair of vehicles across the road and were forcing cars to U-turn.

  “Hold on people, I’m going around!”

  “How?” asked Drake.

  Tonya felt the roar as Priya hit the gas. With a sudden swerve, they crossed the oncoming lane and turned onto the gravel on the far side of the road. Tonya clenched her teeth.

  Through the rear window, Tonya watched two officers rush into their car to give chase. Priya drove back onto the road and gunned it.

  “Where’d you learn to drive?” said Drake.

  “From a cousin who loves NASCAR racing. Never underestimate the power of big family.”

  Tonya saw police lights flashing in the back window. “They’re gaining on us.”

  “Don’t stress.” Priya handled the wheel like a stock car racer, all concentration and grace. Seated beside her, Drake chattered about the “cool” ways they were going to rain down fire on Waldock, like the final battle in King Kong. It seemed both he and Priya trusted her again.

  She shared a smile with Drake and the butterflies in Tonya’s stomach gave way to a strange elation. She had her friends back and with Priya driving, she felt like they could outrun anybody.

  To lose their pursuers, Priya executed a series of quick turns in a complex of big box stores, industrial units, and farmers’ co-ops, then pulled in behind a parked tractor trailer to wait.

  “Score!” cheered Drake as they watched the cops drive past, sirens blaring.

  “Finally, we’re free of them. Where to?”

  “Let’s head northwest for a bit before we head south again,” said Tonya. “They won’t expect it.”

  On open roads, Priya’s heavy pedal foot helped eat up the miles but an hour and a half later, traffic bunched up as she approached the city. Drake offered to navigate using his phone’s GPS but all routes into Toronto were congested.

  “Uh, guys. I got a text from my aunt. They’re prepping her for surgery.”

  “Tell her to wait.” Priya goosed the accelerator.

  Tonya texted back: Don’t sign the waiver.

  Aunt Helen: Sorry love, no choice.

  “Once she’s anaesthetized, she can’t help us fight. She can’t even tell us what we need the hand for.”

  Priya pulled out and passed a row of cars caught behind a dawdling van but even the fast lane was slow.

  “Can’t it wait?” Drake’s voice was soft.

  “The oncologist says it would be fatal.”

  “We’re almost there. Maybe we’ll be in time to speak to her.” Priya exited the highway onto a westbound artery.

  Tonya was relieved to reach the city. Priya seemed to know her way around. She pulled up in fro
nt of the hospital amidst an explosion of car horns.

  “You two get out and go ahead. I’ll park and meet you in the room.”

  TAR AND BUBBLES

  Slipping past the nursing station, Tonya and Drake went to Aunt Helen’s room. A woman in a white lab coat brushed by Tonya on her way out the door.

  “Sorry,” said Tonya, although the woman had pushed her out of the way. The lady didn’t stop either, averting her face as she rushed off. Something about her angora sweater felt familiar . . . The farm house doctor with the pearls!

  “Stop!” Tonya was about to run after her when her aunt’s feeble voice came from the room. “Let her go.”

  Tonya entered a semi-private room with a high ceiling. There was a curtain pulled around the far bed, partially blocking the window. Her aunt lay in the bed closest to the door. Drawn back in a messy ponytail, her hair was greasy and pale, to match the skin stretched over her cheekbones.

  “Promise you’ll stay with me, until I wake up again.”

  “Of course.” Tonya swallowed hard.

  Firm and round, her aunt’s stomach stood like a camel hump on her thin body,

  “We’re not going anywhere.” Drake shot her aunt a shy smile.

  “Is campus still overrun with students gorging themselves?”

  “Worse,” said Drake. “Waldock has taken over Roberto’s body.”

  “Can we save him?” Tonya asked. “And what about my roommate Lynette?”

  “Tonya found her,” said Drake.

  “Under the Ash Tree. We couldn’t wake her until I channeled some life energy into her.”

  “Did you now?” Her aunt rose an eyebrow. “Show me the hand?”

  Tonya opened her coat to reveal it. “What will you do?”

  “I have one chance to end this before my surgery.” She reached for Tonya who approached her bedside, expecting a hug.

  “Give it to me.”

  Tonya felt a burden lift as she passed it over. She had been trying to save the whole town with only Mundanes to help her. Aunt Helen knew Waldock, and she had a lifetime of experience with magic. She would take care of it now and Tonya, who hated fighting and who found magic exhausting, could leave everything to her aunt.