by Lynn Red
He blinked twice in quick succession and then turned his gaze away. Almost immediately, she came back to herself, although with a distant look behind her eyes.
“Mitzi,” Professor Graves said in a low, mesmerizing way, “what would your father think?”
“My... father?” she stared blankly, trying to process what he said. “What does he have to do with anything?”
Graves smiled. He had her. “Just imagine, Mitzi. You’re home across town, daddy is watching baseball, and he asks you about school. Just asks you how you’re doing, how your classes are going, that kind of thing. Does he do that? I’m sure he does.”
Mitzi was nodding, but Graves was on a roll. He wasn’t going to stop to let her respond, because any interruption in his hex could mean a break in the spell’s working. “What if, instead of saying ‘oh, it’s going fine,’ you had to admit you were thrown out? Expelled?”
Her eyes were getting big. The wider they got, the more Graves’s excitement bubbled up. And the more excited he got, the more he turned on the drama.
“Banished?” he started to boom. Mitzi shrank back into her couch. “Tossed to the wolves? So to speak.”
She was shaking her head, almost trembling.
There it is, he thought. That fear, that terror I wanted to taste. Mmm, and it’s even better now than I imagined.
Mitzi’s growing horror slid up and down Graves’s skin, prickling his forearms with goosebumps. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck, but they didn’t grow.
That, he thought, will change soon enough.
“What are we going to do about this?” he asked. There was a slight hiss in his voice, barely noticeable but definitely there. “We can’t let you have to admit to your daddy that you cheated on a paper, can we?”
His eyes, if Mitzi was aware, were sparkling and swirling. An old mesmerist’s trick he picked up at some point down the line. He was able to channel his energy into controlling the flow of hers, and so he could adjust the way emotions affected her. Slowing her heart for a second, he made sure that every beat felt like thunder in her chest.
Fear is the easiest thing in the world to mimic. A little heart pounding, a little sweat...
Just as he thought it, beads of moisture started to appear on Mitzi’s upper lip. Then a second later, a trickle ran down the side of her face, and she began to breathe a little harder than before. “Handkerchief?” he offered her, handing over a hexed cloth. As soon as she touched it to her face, she was his.
A series of runes were embroidered on the swatch of blue-gray cloth that were almost indistinguishable from the rest of the patterns. They were powerful runes that when activated by touch, implanted very powerful ideas in the mind. Terror was only the beginning.
Panic would soon follow, and then all that sweating and faked heart pounding would give way to utter exasperation. The best part, of course, is that she’d have no idea what was happening to her, and so any help he offered would be most welcome.
“Are you feeling all right?” Graves asked in a soft, practiced voice. This one was more difficult to tame than the unicorn, but he’d break her eventually – if he hadn’t managed already. “You’re clutching that cloth like it’s the only thing keeping you from falling apart.”
He offered his hand, which she filled with the handkerchief, its magic exhausted and already working. “Would you like some water? Where is your kitchen?”
Mitzi nodded, not entirely sure what was going on inside her head, but keenly aware of how uncomfortable she was. “Just down that way,” she tilted her head to the left. “Glasses are in the cabinet to the right of the sink.” Her normally perky, bubbly voice was drained, tired, and devoid of joy.
Just the way Graves wanted her to feel.
Hopeless, helpless, friendless. He wanted her to know – to believe deep down – that the only person who could help her was the one bringing a cup of water from the kitchen. By the time she took the first swallow, the powder was completely dissolved.
It wasn’t a knockout drug, or anything that would make her feel loopy or high. Graves needed her to be aware, to be awake, for his mind games to work correctly. The drug he’d given her was a mixture of anise, and a mysterious powder created by grinding an exotic sort of moss. The recipe, of course, came from Eldred’s pages, back when the two of them were on... better terms.
“There, there,” he said softly. “Drink up. Water will make you feel less nervous, less frightened. I didn’t mean to upset you,” he lied. “I only wanted you to realize the gravity of your situation.”
Mitzi nodded and looked up at him with scared eyes as he sat beside her. The couch squeaked, protesting the only way furniture can, when it doesn’t like whatever is about to happen on top of it.
“Why are you doing this?” Mitzi asked. “Why wouldn’t you just turn me in and be done with it? I mean, this is so much trouble for you, I can’t even begin to imagine how busy you are with grading and lecturing and everything else... to come all the way over here, I just—”
“Hush, hush,” Graves said. His eyes had gone from their natural pale blue color to a cold, stony, slate gray. “Make no worries about any of that. I don’t actually grade anything until the very last day of the semester, and I get my lessons straight out of a book I bought. Half the things I say are made up, but none of you would ever know.”
She cocked her head. He loved these times, when he was about to get his hooks in someone, and could tell them anything he wanted. She was so enthralled that nothing he said would ever escape her lips. In fact, as soon as he ended the spell, she’d forget any of this happened at all.
Graves chuckled lightly, thinking how this was better than talking to your favorite dog for therapy. After all, enthralled people don’t even give you the judgmental looks that dogs can give.
“But you sound so knowledgeable in class,” Mitzi said. “What do you mean it’s all made up?”
Graves smiled. He had one tooth that was slightly crooked in his bottom row of teeth, but other than that, his mouth was a perfectly straight line of pearly whites. All of them were the same color, the same size. He had no canines, and the only molars in his mouth were way in the back. He remembered a dentist once saying something about how odd it was.
That dentist ended up taking his own laughing gas.
Langston was just a boy then – hardly more than ten years old. That was the first time he realized what sort of power he had, although he wasn’t aware of any way to control his mind-melting powers. He just seemed to get everything he wanted. How he got it remained a secret known only to him.
That is, until that damn book came into his life.
“I’m controlled by an angry djinn,” he said frankly.
“A... djinn?” Mitzi asked. “Isn’t that like a genie?”
That crooked, twisted smile spread back across Graves’s face. “In a way. The main difference is that djinn are real.”
“They... are? I thought those were Disney movie things, you know? Like the blue singing one in Aladdin?”
Graves laughed a hollow, awful laugh. “Oh yes, no djinn are very real and nowhere near as funny as Robin Williams. They are ancient spirits, all with their own agendas.” He leaned closer to Mitzi, relishing both his ritual confession and the vague, fading smell of Chanel that drifted off her neck and into his nose.
“Can I tell you a secret?” he whispered. “You have to promise never to let it out, not ever.”
“I... guess so?” Mitzi replied.
“That doesn’t sound too certain,” Graves said, pretending to be concerned. He was in absolute control, but the more she thought he wasn’t the more real the illusion became. It was a game to him, really, a back and forth to which he already knew the ending.
Mitzi chewed her lip gently between her pointed canines. Her slightly puffy pony tail slipped a bit, and a curly tendril fell out, and then coiled around her ear. “Oh, uh I mean yes, of course.”
“Say sir,” he whispered. “It makes thi
ngs feel more formal, more... real.”
Graves’s breath on her neck was hot, but Mitzi was only barely aware that he was present at all, never mind the way his breath felt on her skin.
For a moment the two of them just sat in silence until Graves cleared his throat.
“Oh!” Mitzi gasped. “Yeah, of course. Yes, sir, I mean.”
“Good,” he said, leaning in close again.
Outside, Jeffress turned his mechanical head. The automaton’s ears opened, the way they did when the professor was giving a command, but it wasn’t Graves in Jeffress’s head this time. As soon as the mechanical man was in position, he froze again, returning to his normal lifelessness.
“I have a plan,” he whispered.
Jeffress’s eyes opened wide. If anyone had been around, they would have heard an ancient, hollow laugh coming out of his unopened mouth.
“I’m going to suck you dry,” Graves whispered. “I’m going to take your power, just like I did with your unicorn friend. And then I’m going to do the same thing to your hyena friend.”
“Oh,” Mitzi said, her voice hollow and empty. “Why?”
“No one gave you permission to talk, child,” Graves growled. “I’m going to drain you, and I’m going to give myself what I’ve always wanted. I always get what I want, but this is the first time I’ve had my ultimate desire within reach. For years I’ve dominated minds, broken wills. I’ve made myself rich, made myself powerful, but now I’m going to get what I’ve always wanted. Do you know what that is?”
Mitzi shook her head. Outside, Jeffress and his magical parasite perked up, as much as a mechanized automaton can perk.
“I’m going to make myself... transform.”
-19-
Lilah
“Just tell me one thing,” Cooper said after I’d explained everything about the apparent kidnapping, and how generally weird Dr. Graves was. “The zombie – did he smell like lilacs?”
“I, uh, what? We were talking about my sister’s friend.”
“I know,” he said. Nodding eagerly, he continued. “It’s just that there are hyenas on the way to your place. They’re going to take Winter back to her place and keep her under watch. Past that, there ain’t a whole lot else needs doing. And, I gotta admit, I’ve been curious for a time now.”
I stared at him with my mouth hanging slightly open. “Yeah, yep. Smells like lilacs. Apparently he drinks lilac water? I don’t know, but Jenga – Dr. Cranston – said he also uses a lot of lotion.”
“What a strange business,” Cooper said, wistfully. “A zombie bear who drinks lilac water and insists on moisturizing. Just don’t seem right, does it?”
I shrugged. “He seems nice enough. I don’t know why it’s so odd that he thinks about skin care. I mean, he thinks, I guess, so why not about his skin? He probably doesn’t have too many things to worry about.”
“Fair enough,” he said.
“He seemed kind of lonely, though,” I said, smiling wistfully. Thinking back, the big zombie did seem to be pining a little. I imagined Rex acting pretty much like he did during lonely times. I laughed thinking about Rex petting my hair and groaning, but then again, it really wasn’t all that far off.
Coop shook his head. “I don’t know about all that business. Lonely zombie,” he said. “Who’da thunk it?”
Chuckling to himself, he turned back to the crossword puzzle he was using to keep himself awake during his long and apparently uneventful overnight shift. I stood there, nervously tapping my fingers on the desk, and adjusting my glasses and bandana over and over again.
“Somethin’ bothering you, Lilah?” Cooper finally asked. With a sigh, he put his newspaper down and set his pen on top. “You look like someone cast a spell on you.”
I didn’t want to answer. I mean, it was as obvious an anything – my sister told me as much – but coming clean about Rex and I being a couple? I knew Cooper was rooting for us, but I just couldn’t make the words.
Says something about my mental state, probably, but hey, at least I’m not lying to myself.
“Magic is out of the question,” I said. “At least I think it is. But yeah, I’m a little out of my own head. I’m scared about my sister and her friends, but...”
“Hey, hand me one a’them, would ya?” Cooper pointed at one of the jelly donuts that were sitting on a repurposed nightstand behind me. “Been lookin’ at ‘em all night. Can’t hurt if Elma doesn’t know about it, right?”
I grinned, feeling slightly guilty for being company to a conspiracy to jelly donut without remorse, but he was right. He’s a skinny hyena with a little bit of a belly that hangs out over his Deputy uniform.
“I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?” He bit in, swirled his tongue around his lips, closing his eyes. A second later, he let out an almost sexual moaning sound as the last bits of powdered sugar that he missed with his tongue fell onto the desk in front of him. “The hard version of the New York Times crossword? It’s just practice. Ain’t really so much about knowing the words as it is about knowing how to work the puzzles.”
“No,” I said with a little bit of an in-laugh. “No, the donuts. We’ve known each other most of my life, and for a whole lot of it, I’ve been bribing you with donuts. How do you eat so many of them and never, you know, puff out?”
“It’s the pushups,” he said with a grin. “Ten a day will keep you in top fightin’ shape.”
There was a little twinkle in Officer Cooper’s sixty-some odd year old, pale brown eyes that made me feel comfortable. Whenever I had a problem, for as long as I could remember, I brought them to Coop, and he’d listen to whatever silly thing it was, then impart some good old, Matlock-style country wisdom.
No matter what dumb problem I tossed his way, Coop always had an answer for me, and it was usually a good one. Sometimes – like the time I had a boyfriend cheat on me in high school, and he cooked up this ridiculously long revenge fantasy that involved bowling, milk shakes, and then faking a military enlistment document to get the guy put on an aircraft carrier in the south Pacific – his advice was slightly unsound, but, yeah mostly everything he said was gold.
“That ain’t what’s bothering you though. Sit down, little girl, tell uncle Cooper all about whatever’s making you fuss and fidget like that. Is it something to do with your new boyfriend?”
My cheeks immediately started burning. “What? Wait, wait – how did you...?”
He cocked an eyebrow and smiled to himself. “Ain’t hard to tell when someone’s flipped for someone else. There’s this light in your eyes I don’t see very much. In fact, I don’t know if ever I have.”
“I just don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “There’s... well okay yes, first of all yes it has to do with Rex.”
“Damn good man, you know. All the Lees are good folks, but that one... you know what happened with his mate, don’t ‘cha?”
I shook my head. “I know she’s dead, but that’s about the extent of it. And that he’s raising his cute little cub all by himself.”
“Laura, Lily? Something like that?” he asked. “Far as his mate goes, she never was exactly well. When they both lived here, she was a frail one. Finally caught up with her. Nothing out of the ordinary, from what I understand. That little cub was only a couple years old.”
“Leena,” I said. When I did, I felt myself smiling for some reason. I imagined myself back at the house watching him cook and her harass him. I started getting misty-eyed again.
Oh God, I thought. Is this what all those women on talk shows mean about their biological clocks ticking? That can’t be me. No damn way. Nope, no way.
“I see something in your eyes I’ve seen exactly one other time, and that was when you were a real little girl.”
“I... really?” I asked. I’m sure my eyes were sparkling. I couldn’t help it – everything about Rex made me feel safe and loved and—
That was the first time I thought that word. Before right that second
, I’d thought all kinds of things. I thought about how he made my stomach tingle, how he made the skin on the back of my neck get all wiggly and sweet and tickly. I thought about his hands on my arms, his scent and the way he tasted on my lips just after we kissed.
But I hadn’t thought love.
“Somethin’ just clicked in that noggin of yours,” Cooper said. “I’d know the look of a raccoon under epiphany any day of the week.”
I shook my head, way too embarrassed to admit what I’d just been thinking. It’s crazy, Cooper, I just realized I’m in love with a bear I met in jail and I want to be a mommy to the little girl who reminds me of me is what I wanted to say. The words were right on the tip of my tongue.
“I think I’m falling for him pretty hard,” is what I actually said. Yeah, as if understatements could get any more understated. “And I can’t talk to my parents about this sort of thing. I mean,” what did I mean? I wondered. “I guess I mean I love them both dearly, but I get a little weirded out talking about...”
“It’s all right, little lady,” Coop said. “I think everyone gets a little hitch in their throat when they think about talking love with their parents.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Are you sure you want to listen to me? I mean, I know you’re busy and all.”
A smile stretched across Cooper’s face. “Like I said, you could do a lot worse than a Lee. For instance, an Edgewood would be a whole hell of a lot worse.” He winked and pointed at the box of donuts, completely ignoring my question.
“I feed you sugar and you tell me what to do?” I asked.
“Sounds like my kind of deal, little lady,” Cooper said, scratching at his arm. “Do a raspberry this time. They’re the ones... yeah with the red jelly leaking out. Oh boy, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
The amount of sensuality and almost carnal excitement he showed when he took that first bite almost made me uncomfortable. But then, Cooper looked over at me and laughed as he tongue-kissed the filling.
