“Open it,” Johnathan whispered.
I lifted the lid. Inside were several items. The usual lock of hair was there, the same dirty blonde as Alec’s. Also inside were a couple of restaurant receipts, a simple gold chain, a small diamond stud earring and a picture. The woman in the picture had hazel-brown eyes and medium length, dirty blonde hair. She had a beautiful smile that made her eyes sparkle and showed off the dimples in her cheeks.
“What’s that?” Alec asked, moving to where Johnathan and I stood.
I handed him the box. “I think it might be your mom.”
Everyone gathered around as Alec took the items out and inspected them one by one. “Why do you think it’s my mom?”
“The dates. You would have been conceived in November, assuming you were born at full term. And, the picture. You look like her.”
Alec pulled the picture from the box and studied it. “She’s beautiful.”
He replaced the picture and took the gold chain out. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small heart locket. When he held it next to the chain, it was obvious they were made out of the same material. The colors matched perfectly. He opened the locket. “It’s her.”
He handed it to me. There was a cracked and faded picture of just her face, but it was definitely the same woman. “Where did this come from? I’ve never seen it before.”
Alec shrugged. “I’ve always had it. I guess my mom left it at the hospital before she ran off. The nurses gave it to the Social Services people. One of them, her name was Cheri, saved it for me until I was eight. She figured I was old enough then to keep track of it myself. I’ve kept it with me ever since.”
Seth laid his hand on Alec’s shoulder. “I guess he really is your dad, then. Merlin.”
Alec elbowed him in the gut. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Alec looked at Joe. “Do you think she could still be alive?”
Joe considered before answering. “It’s a possibility. She was alive when she fled from the hospital. If the pregnancy and birth didn’t kill her, she could still be alive.”
Alec looked down at the picture in the box and whispered, “How can we find her?” He sat on the floor of the closet, staring at the box in his lap.
Joe sat beside him. “With her hair. We can trace her with her hair.”
Alec whipped his head up to look at Joe. “Are you serious? We can do that?”
Joe nodded. “But, you have to be prepared. You might not like what we find, Alec.”
“I just want to know what happened to her. If she’s still alive. If she even remembers having me.” His voice got quiet.
“She may well be alive. She just might not be… all there. Mentally. The Incubus, the pregnancy, would have affected her mentally, Alec. I just want you to be prepared for that very likely possibility. If she’s even still alive.”
“Anything we find out will be better than not knowing.”
With a single nod of his head, Joe stood. “Okay, everyone to the kitchen. I’m going to teach you how to perform a tracking spell.”
Alec remained on the floor, looking at the items in the box, as the rest of us shuffled out of the ginormous closet. I’d always suspected his nonchalance about his mom, and why she’d abandoned him the day he was born, was nothing but an act.
Johnathan grabbed a hold of my hand and started to walk out of the room with the others. I stopped him. “Wait just a minute, ‘kay?”
“Okay.” He squeezed my hand before letting go. Having physical contact with Johnathan again felt like having a severed limb returned. I yearned for some alone time with him. I frowned; it didn’t look like that would happen anytime soon.
I went back into the closet and sat next to Alec on the floor. He looked over at me and then away, as he wiped his eyes. In a hoarse voice he said, “It’s dusty in here… bad for my allergies.”
I smiled. “Allergies, huh? I’ve never known you to have allergies before.”
“Yeah, well, I do.”
“Okay, whatever you say, tough guy. You wanna talk a little before we go to the kitchen with the others?”
He shrugged and looked at me from the corner of his eye. “I just never let myself believe she was alive. Or that I’d ever be able to find her.”
I laid my hand on his arm. “And now that it’s a possibility?”
He dropped the chain back into the box. “I don’t know. It seems crazy. Why am I so anxious to see the woman who abandoned me? She obviously didn’t want me. What makes me think she’ll want to see me now?”
“Alec, I really don’t believe she didn’t want you. I think Joe must be right, her exposure to the Incubus made her… not right. She didn’t understand what she was doing. Maybe, if she’s alive and we’re able to find her, it’ll bring you both some happiness. And no matter what the outcome, at least it’ll give you some answers.”
He looked at me and wiped away another allergy-induced tear. “What if the answers I get aren’t the ones I want?”
“Then you deal with it. And, we help you. I promise to help you better than you helped me with Johnathan.” I slugged his arm.
He smiled and ducked his head. “Yeah, I kinda messed that one up a little, huh?”
“You did. But, we worked it out just like you will, no matter what we find out about your mom.”
Alec sighed and put the lid on the box in his hands. “Let’s go learn how to make a tracking spell.” He stood and helped me up. Johnathan waited just outside the open closet and the three of us walked to the kitchen together.
Joe stood on the kitchen side of the large island and the five of us sat on the stools on the other side, facing him. He’d gathered together a rather odd collection of items: a toothpick, a stick pin, a Styrofoam cup, and an eye dropper. He had water boiling in a small pan on the stove.
In his best teacher voice he said, “If I had a simple compass, I wouldn’t need most of this stuff, but, since I don’t—”
“I have a compass,” Seth interrupted.
“That would have been nice to know before I went on a treasure hunt for this stuff. Can I borrow it? It should work just fine after the spell wears off.”
“Sure.” Seth unzipped a pouch on his gear belt and dug around for a few seconds before presenting Joe with a small Boy Scout compass.
“Great. This will be much better,” Joe said, smiling. “There are several different ways to track someone. The way I’m going to show you is simple and involves no Dark Magic. The other ways involve Dark Magic and I won’t be showing you those.
“Alec, hand me a strand of your mom’s hair, please.”
Alec carefully separated a single strand of hair from the others and handed it to Joe. Joe placed the hair in the small amount of boiling water. “Now, Alec, I need you to come say some words of magic and seal it with your magical will while the water boils down to just a drop or two.”
Alec slid off his stool and walked around the island to stand next to Joe by the stove.
Joe put his hand on Alec’s shoulder. “The words are, invinio-constitui-aucupo—to find, to locate, to seek. Repeat them three times, infusing your will into the water.”
Alec took a deep breath and closed his eyes in concentration. “Invinio, constitui, aucupo. Invinio, constitui, aucupo. Invinio, constitui, aucupo.”
As the last word left his mouth, a small cloud of green smoke puffed up out of the pan.
“Perfect!” Joe removed the pan from the stove and turned the burner off. He picked up the eye dropper. “I cleaned this out thoroughly and let it dry. You have to be sure you, or anyone else, don’t touch the part of the dropper that is going to retrieve the potion. Otherwise it’ll be contaminated and you could end up following the trail of the last person to touch the dropper instead of the person you intended to follow.”
Joe handed the dropper to Alec and said, “Suck the remaining water up into the dropper and drop it onto the needle of the compass.” Joe opened the glass top of the compass as Alec got the water.
> Alec’s hand shook so badly I was sure he would drip the water onto the counter instead of onto the compass needle. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. It helped a little; the shakiness improved. Two drops of potion splashed onto the needle. He released the dropper and let it fall to the counter.
“Okay. This compass should work to find her for about twenty-four hours. If it takes us longer than that, we’ll have to redo the spell. You can reuse the same hair over and over. That’s why hair is the preferred object to use in a tracking spell. You can use blood or other bodily fluids, but you can only use them once.”
I thought about Shalbriri and the fact that he had some of my hair. I shivered and Johnathan put an arm around me.
“That was pretty easy.” Halli tilted her head. “I have a question, though. How are we going to find Alec’s mom without transportation? She could be anywhere and we’re on foot.”
Joe’s smile faded to a frown. “Hmm. Yeah. I guess we should’ve thought of that before invoking the spell. Any ideas?”
“I can ask Mariah if she’ll drive us. She told me her uncle has a really old truck with a camper on it. I bet if we all ride in the camper, the engine won’t be affected.” Alec stopped to look at me. “Unless someone pisses Paige off and gets her mojo-magic all riled up that is.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
Joe furrowed his brows. “The old truck is a good idea, older vehicles don’t have as much technology for your magic to screw up. What are you going to tell Mariah, though?”
Alec shrugged. “The truth. She already knows we’re magical… she saw Paige disappear right in front of her, remember? Plus, I might have, kind of, shown her a trick or two before that. Magic is a great way to impress the ladies.” He grinned.
Joe shook his head. He’d never told us we couldn’t tell anyone, we’d just thought it safest to keep our talents to ourselves as much as possible. I wasn’t at all surprised Alec had used his abilities to pick up a girl.
“Well, let’s go then,” I said. “Get your jackets, it’s cold out there.”
Johnathan waited by my bedroom door while I grabbed a jacket and ran a brush through my tangled hair. As soon as I walked out into the hallway he lifted me up so I looked down into his gorgeous face. I ran my fingers through his messy curls.
He closed his eyes as I played with his hair. “I just need another kiss. Who knows when we’ll be able to be alone again?”
I obliged his request. I pulled a little on the back of his hair to tilt his head up then I pressed my lips to his, soft and teasing. His arms tightened around me and he growled deep in his throat. I pulled my mouth away from his and, as he let out a sound of protest, I kissed his forehead, his nose, his cheeks. I teasingly brushed my lips across his, light as an artist’s delicate brush stroke.
“Paige…”
That’s what I was waiting for. The sound of his voice, the need in his voice, as he said my name. I pressed my lips to his and tightened my grip on his hair, pushing his lips closer to mine.
We reluctantly ended the kiss when Halli poked her head into the hallway. “Come on, you two lovebirds. Let’s go.”
Johnathan let me slide down the front of him until my feet were firmly on the floor. “I love you, Paige.” He kissed the top of my head.
“I love you, too.” I gave him one last squeeze before letting go. He took my hand and we met the others in the entryway.
I must admit I was a little happy about the fact that we were going to Mariah’s apartment. I kind of, okay really, wanted to see Katrina’s face when she saw me with Johnathan. I wanted to be sure she understood he was mine. Not because I wanted to rub it in her face or anything, I just didn’t want there to be any more confusion over the matter. Mostly.
e reached Mariah’s apartment around lunchtime. The air had turned from chilly to bitter cold as ominous dark clouds blanketed the sky and blotted out the sun.
Mariah looked surprised to see all of us at her door, especially me. She took my hand in both of hers and said, “I’m so sorry about my roommate, Paige. She’s a hopeless flirt. I told her to stay away from Johnathan. I don’t think that’ll be a problem, now. She was a little freaked out when you disappeared, then, when she saw how upset Johnathan was I think she realized it was a hopeless cause.” She smiled and squeezed my hand before letting go. “Oh, and I’m really glad you got your eyesight back.”
“Thank you, Mariah. I won’t hold your roommate’s actions against you. Just make sure she knows I’m a little like the Hulk—she won’t like me when I’m angry.”
“That’s no joke!” Alec said. He surprised me a little when he leaned in and kissed Mariah quickly on the mouth. I hadn’t realized their relationship had developed that much.
“You guys come in out of the cold. Have you had lunch? I can whip up some sandwiches and hot chocolate.”
“That’d be great, I’m starving.” Alec stepped all the way inside.
The small apartment was warm and became even warmer in a short time with all of us crammed inside. Halli and I sat on the small couch next to a girl that I decided must be Claire. Johnathan and Seth sat on the floor, Johnathan leaned his back against my legs. Joe sat in the only chair in the room and Alec followed Mariah into the adjoining kitchen area to help her make sandwiches.
Alec yelled from the kitchen, even though it was all just one big room and we could hear him fine without yelling, “Johnny! What do you want on your sandwich?”
Not even a second later, Katrina came bounding out of a doorway in the small hallway, dressed only in a T-shirt that barely reached below her butt cheeks. “Why didn’t you tell me Johnny was here…” Her face went as white as her bleached out hair when she saw me.
Everyone went silent. I smiled, my teeth grinding together. “Katrina. We should talk.” I stood; Johnathan scooted out of my way. I looked back at him as I stepped toward Katrina—his face paled like he was ready to throw up.
Halli started to stand. “Maybe I’ll just come with you.”
I waved her off.
I had to give the girl credit. Even though her eyes darted around like a scared rabbit—like she wanted to bolt out of there—she stood her ground. She pulled at the hem of her T-shirt anxiously as I neared her. She took an involuntary step back when I purposefully invaded her bubble of space. I stepped with her, to keep the distance between us only inches. She had nowhere to go then, the wall impeded her retreat.
“I want to make one thing perfectly clear, Katrina,” I said, in my best psycho girlfriend voice. “Johnathan is mine. Stay away from him. I’m giving you a break this time because I’m not sure you knew that. Now you know.”
She swallowed and brushed her hair back from her face with one hand. “What if”—she swallowed again—“What if he wants me?” Her eyes darted behind me, to where Johnathan sat ten feet away on the floor.
“He doesn’t.” Johnathan’s voice was firm, leaving no question as to his feelings on the matter.
Katrina looked back at me and I smiled. She tossed her head and hurried back into her room, slamming the door shut behind her. I returned to my seat on the couch, brushing my hand against Johnathan’s face as I sat.
Claire, still sitting on the couch, looked over at me nervously. “Umm, Seth doesn’t have a girlfriend, does he?”
I shook my head. “He’s all yours. Flirt away, Claire. Although, you do realize he’s only fifteen, right?”
She smiled at me and then at Seth, who sat cross-legged on the floor near her, partially facing her. His face turned pink, but he smiled back at her. “I know,” she said. “I’m only seventeen. I graduated early and came out here to work at the park.”
Alec and Mariah brought in a huge plate of sandwiches and a bag of potato chips. Halli jumped up to help them bring in unmatched mugs of hot chocolate. We all dug in. I was starving. I really hadn’t had anything to eat since Joe’s omelet the day before. I think I ate three sandwiches by myself.
“Alec,” I said between bite
s. “Are you going to ask Mariah about the favor we need?”
He swallowed the enormous bite he had in his mouth. “Oh, yeah. We need a ride… somewhere. Remember how I said technology doesn’t get along with our magic real well? So, newer cars are out of the question, because of all the computer chips and stuff. You told me your uncle that lives nearby has an old truck with a camper… which would be perfect for us. We could ride in the camper, far away from the engine that probably wouldn’t react too bad to us anyway.” He looked at her hopefully.
“Okay… I’m sure my uncle would let me borrow it. Where do you need a ride to and when?”
“Well, the where is kind of up in the air. We’ll be following a tracking device. The when is as soon as we can, today, right now if possible.”
Mariah shook her head. “I have to work this afternoon. Any idea how far this is?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Alec’s look of disappointment was so pathetic, I don’t think anyone could have rejected his request at that point. “Is there any way you could get out of working today?”
She looked at Claire.
Claire sighed. “I can cover for you. But, you’ll have to take my shift this weekend; Jay won’t want to pay me any overtime.”
Alec smiled. “How soon can you get the truck?”
“It’ll take me about ten minutes to drive over there and back. Can you be a little more specific about where we’re going?”
Alec’s grin disappeared and his face turned serious. “To find my mom. Maybe. I don’t even know if she’s still alive, but we found a way we might be able to track her.”
“I thought you were abandoned as a baby.” Mariah looked at him as she gathered cups and plates to take to the kitchen.
“I was. It’s a long story. I didn’t know anything about her until just recently. Now I know enough to maybe find her.”
Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) Page 14
