Making Magic: Books of the Kindling, Book 3

by Donna June Cooper

  Greg made helpless noises as he tried to talk, jaw locked in place.

  That would teach him not to start monologuing like some damn comic book villain.

  But he knew why Greg had wasted time bragging. Jake was holding the reason in his arms. And Greg was only a low-level wannabe in this shadowy organization of his or Jake would eat his hat.

  “Mom, are you okay?” Jake called into the kitchen.

  There was a long pause. He leaned back to see where she was and found her standing next to the breakfast bar, a cell phone in her hand. Nick hurried over and put his arm around her.

  “Why don’t you sit back down, Marilyn. Right here.” Nick took the cell from her hand and helped her get back up on the stool.

  “Can somebody help me?” Sarah whined from the floor.

  Nick nodded for Eddie to do the honors. “I think we might want to take the batteries out of these phones, especially Thea’s.”

  Jake nodded in agreement. “I have a pretty good idea how he got all that information about us.”

  “Give me my phone,” Thea said in a raspy voice. “I know exactly where to shove it.”

  Jake looked down and smiled with relief.

  “And she’s back,” he said.

  “Eddie, get a box and put all those phones in it,” Nick said. “Emmy, can you get Thea’s phone out of her bag for me?”

  There was a flurry of barking at the front door and the sound of raised voices approaching.

  “Dammit. I hope that’s not Charlie. We need some time to deal with all this,” Jake said.

  “It’s Miz Mel,” Emmy said. “I can hear her. And Mr. Daniel too!”

  Greg thrashed around, his face red as he tried to find a way to get free.

  “Greg, stay calm and do what you’re told,” Thea said. Her voice had that strange echoing resonance again. “Can I have something to drink?”

  Jake was staring at Greg, who had settled down, although his mouth was still locked shut. Jake knew how he felt. When Thea had told him not to touch her it had simply been impossible, no amount of force or will could change that.

  “Is anyone else out there?” Nick asked Emmy.

  “A lady, I think.” Emmy concentrated for a moment. “It’s Miss Ouida.”

  Nick grinned at the girl. “That’s some talent you’ve got there.”

  Emmy’s face lit up as she handed him Thea’s phone.

  “Aaron, can you go let them in?” Nick asked.

  “And lock the door behind them,” Jake added again.

  “Don’t let Pooka in yet!” Grace said.

  “Get me up afore you let that beast in!” Sarah yelled.

  Nick walked over to where Eddie was struggling to get Sarah off the floor and helped the handyman lift her back into the chair.

  “I’m all bruised up and I didn’t do nothing,” she complained. “I need something for the pain.”

  The charlatan looked like hell. She had sweated off her old-lady makeup and she was clearly jaundiced. Jake would bet she was jonesing for oxycodone.

  “Please?” Sarah whined.

  “Stay quiet and do what you’re told, Sarah,” Thea said without even looking. Dang, she was a lot more comfortable throwing that voice around now. She reached up to feel the wads of scarf and tape still stuck to the back of her head and the ragged hair around her face. Tugging at one end of the dangling tape, she winced when it wouldn’t come loose. “Where are those scissors? Get this garbage out of my hair.”

  “But—”

  “It grows back, Jake. Chop it off,” she said and went back to wiping oil off her face with a paper towel. She didn’t seem too surprised to see the blood mixed with it.

  Damn. Jake sighed and started cutting her hair right above the tape.

  “Get up here and say hello to your niece, Thea,” Grace said. “And can you bring Sarah over here, Jake?”

  Jake frowned. “Sure.”

  Thea looked at him. “Did I fade out for a while? Where did your shirt go?”

  “Can you stand?” Jake asked.

  Thea looked down at the chunks of tape stuck to scarf and hair on the floor. Then she reached up to explore the job he had done on her hair.

  “Sorry. I tried to make it match the sides, but I’m not a—”

  “No, it’s fantastic. I’m a trendsetter.”

  “You look great,” Jake said.

  Thea gave him a skeptical look, tinged with oil and blood.

  “Okay, you look fine,” Jake corrected.

  “Thea,” Grace said, motioning with her fingers. “Up here.”

  Jake helped Thea to her feet.

  “I’m covered in…What is this?” She sniffed the paper towel. “Olive oil? I’m going to ruin the couch.”

  “Trust me, this couch is beyond ruined,” Grace said, patting the space next to her. “Sit down right here.”

  Thea sat down, then leaned over to coo at her niece.

  Grace touched Jake’s arm. “Thank you for coming to our rescue, Sheriff Moser.”

  He grinned. “You’re welcome.” Everyone kept calling him that. And he didn’t deny the title. After tonight, he knew he’d have to keep his hand in at the department, if only in reserve.

  There was the sound of voices from the foyer, then running footsteps and clattering paws as the screen door slammed.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t stop him,” Aaron called out from the other room.

  Pooka barreled in looking around for any threat. He went over to sniff at Sarah, who tried to make herself as small as possible. The hound seemed satisfied that his quarry was treed and went off to find his mistress.

  “Nick?” Daniel stopped at the archway and looked around the room. “What happened?”

  “Oh, the baby’s here!” Mel cried out, prepared to run to her new niece before Daniel held her back.

  Ouida and Aaron joined them, both laden down with Ouida’s shopping bags. “Oh, my goodness!” Ouida said. “What a mess.”

  “Everything’s under control,” Nick said. “For the moment.”

  “But we’ve got some major cleanup to do,” Jake added. Pooka loped over to sniff at Greg next. Thea’s gift really worked. Even now, the man was calm and collected. Pooka moved on past to poke his nose over the couch arm at Grace’s head, sniff the top of baby Lily’s head, then sit patiently beside the couch.

  “Someone is going to explain all of this to me—tonight,” Ouida said, heading for her kitchen with Aaron following behind. “But right now what we need around here is food,” she declared, wielding the chief weapon of every good Southern woman since settlers crossed these mountains.

  “Is anyone hurt?” Daniel asked, looking at the blood splattered ruins in Jake’s hand.

  Jake stared down at what was left of his shirt.

  “Thea got a nosebleed,” he replied.

  Nick headed for the master bedroom with the box. “I’m going to neutralize these phones and get you one of my shirts, Jake. Then we’ll figure out what to do next. The situation’s gotten complicated.”

  “I had a completely different word in mind,” Jake yelled after him. “And it starts with ‘cluster’.”

  Jake turned back to Greg and wondered who the man really worked for. It was a scenario that had worried him for a while—a black hole where faceless people used his ability for their own agenda. And if Greg was to be believed, they already had at least two gifted people in their grasp and perhaps others on their payroll.

  For what? He shuddered thinking of what those two could be going through. Two people with abilities who could easily have been Aaron or Emmy or Grace or Thea.

  That vast black hole threatened everyone in this house, maybe everyone on this mountain, including the woman he loved.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thea yelled, “Bailey! Bailey, girl! Baile
y! Come on, girl.” She whistled. The poor dog must be so confused after being abandoned, then rescued, then kicked out the door. Damn that drug-crazed witch.

  She walked back around the front of the house, glancing up at the window of the office. She could see shadows moving.

  Jake and Nick had disappeared in there with the cell phones after Thea had persuaded Greg to give them his passcode and his car keys. Nick, the former government agent, knew all the tricks of the trade and helped Thea limit the questions she’d had to ask Greg—for the moment anyway.

  The slimeball had given Thea’s phone a little software upgrade, but thankfully hadn’t planted anything else.

  She stood by the edge of the driveway looking out into the darkness of the mountain. “Bailey!”

  Running her hand through her chopped hair, she knew she smelled like a salad and looked like a refugee from a trendy hair salon. All she needed now was a neon dye job. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe Bailey didn’t recognize her.

  She gasped when Aaron Croate appeared on the porch above her out of nowhere. He grinned down at her and waved, then turned around and went right back through the wall again. Thea shook her head. Nick had invited the kids’ parents up the mountain. They were in the dining alcove with Daniel, who seemed to be helping them explain and demonstrate their gifts to their incredulous mother and father.

  Thea kept calling as she walked across the drive. “Bailey! Come on, baby. Come here.”

  From the noises coming through the mud room’s screen door, it sounded like Eddie was already at work in the ruined laundry room. Ouida had loaded down the breakfast bar with snacks and drinks, then shepherded Grace and the baby off to “freshen up a bit”. Thea glanced up the hill at a light coming from one of the cabin windows. Someone was up, even at this unholy hour. She needed to warn Daniel to keep Aaron’s exhibition on the porch to a minimum.

  It was the wee hours of the morning and she was dead on her feet. She needed coffee and something in her stomach. She went up the steps and leaned against the railing.

  “Bailey! Come here now!” If Bailey was in earshot, she would be compelled to come. If not, any further search would have to wait until it was light. She strained, searching for any sign of a furry white form hurtling through the darkness.

  A warm hand clasped her shoulder. “We’ll find her,” Jake said. “Once we get this mess straightened out, we’ll scour the mountain if we have to. Maybe she’ll come home on her own first.”

  Thea turned and buried her face in his shirt. “She’s barely been rescued.” She was a bit ashamed to hear her voice break. “She might not know where to come home to.” She almost added “like me”.

  His fingers ran through her hair, still sticky with residue. But since he also smelled like olive oil, they were kind of even.

  “You know that anyone who belongs up here finds their way home eventually.” His voice rumbled beneath her ear.

  “I shouldn’t have brought her up here. Now she’s out there with all those bears and that big cat and who knows what else.” She leaned back to glare at the house. “And I shouldn’t have brought him up here. I led Greg and his…his whoever they are right to the mountain.”

  Jake took her face in his hands. “And you and that amazing gift of yours are going to send him packing none the wiser. In fact, once you get through with him, I suspect they won’t ever look at this mountain again.”

  She frowned at him. “How—”

  “Come on.” He took her arm and guided her through the mud room and into the kitchen. “You need lots of caffeine and one of Ouida’s biscuits. Maybe two.”

  Thea sighed.

  Mel was sitting next to Jake’s mom at the breakfast bar. Marilyn still appeared shell-shocked.

  Someone had finally moved Sarah and Greg. She glanced around but they were nowhere to be seen. They had been rendered quiet and obedient by one command from her. “Do what you’re told.” Thea hoped someone remembered to give them a bathroom break.

  She leaned on the counter while Jake poured her a much needed cup of cappuccino from that gorgeous copper monstrosity in the kitchen. She would have preferred something fizzy and alcoholic, but she was going to need all her wits and her energy for the next couple of hours. They all were.

  “Stubborn woman won’t go to bed like any other new mother would.” Ouida said from the archway.

  Grace came into the kitchen carrying Lily in some kind of wraparound sling. She didn’t look at all like she had just delivered a baby while being held hostage. Daniel and Marty Croate followed behind her, equally enthralled by the new arrival.

  The talk Daniel had with the Croates seemed to have gone well, if Aaron’s and Emmy’s expressions were any indication. Although Al’s face was hard to read as he stepped quietly into the kitchen.

  It was a good thing that Pops had designed the kitchen to serve as the heart of the house because right now it was full to overflowing. Even Pooka, who was usually banned from the kitchen, was weaving around underfoot. Jake waved a napkin-wrapped biscuit under Thea’s nose. She took it along with the steaming mug he set before her.

  “Biscuit with butter and honey. Come over this way.” He guided her into the great room, away from most of the hubbub.

  She took a bite of the fluffy biscuit and closed her eyes. Perfection. Then followed up with a gulp of coffee. Exactly the way she liked it. “Good idea not to let me sit down. I might doze off.”

  He slid an arm around her. “I know. And I’m sorry. But we need you to stay conscious for a while. Drink up.”

  “Did anyone ever tell you that you are a huge control freak?”

  “It takes one to know one.”

  Thea had to think about that one while she gulped the coffee and took another bite. “What exactly am I staying conscious for?”

  Thea felt him tense up a bit. “You’re going to send a couple of us away from here with very different memories of tonight.”

  She shook her head. “We can’t use the voice, Jake. It’s not reliable enough for something like this. I told you what happened with my dad and—”

  “Finish that and we’ll go see how reliable your voice really is.”

  Jake stood with his arm around her, as if he wanted to make certain she stayed on her feet as she finished. He took the empty napkin and mug away from her and guided her toward the stairs.

  “Where are we—”

  “We’ve got Greg in the powder room under the stairs.”

  “Terrific. Are you going to let me punch him?”

  “If you want to. But…think about it, Thea. The only reason you doubt your gift is what you heard from this asshole.” Jake opened the door.

  Thea looked from Jake’s face to Greg’s. The man seemed eerily calm, even though he was firmly secured on the toilet seat. She would almost prefer some sign of anger or fear to that blank serenity. She stood in front of Greg and crossed her arms.

  “Did my father really fire you?”

  Greg looked like would swallow his tongue if he could.

  “Tell the truth. Did my father fire you?”

  “No,” Greg said. The tic under his eye was out of control.

  So Greg had lied. Her list of demands—her commands to her father were working.

  “Was he really testing Woodruff Herbs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he stop testing them?”

  Beads of sweat appeared on Greg’s forehead. “Yes.”

  “Do you know why he was testing them?”

  He was shaking a bit. “No.”

  “Did he shut down the experiments in India?” One of the many things on her list she’d wanted to verify.

  “Yes.”

  Satisfied, Thea started to leave, then almost knocked Jake over as she went back to Greg.

  “Do you know where those two captives are being held?”


  “No.”

  Thea sighed. He was just a lowly drone in that black ops hive of his. He didn’t know anything. But maybe her question was too specific.

  “Do you have any idea at all about where they are being held?”

  “Yes.”

  Blood trickled out of his nose.

  Shit. She grabbed Jake’s arm. “Get Grace.”

  Jake escorted Grace and Thea back into the kitchen. Grace had checked Greg over and repaired the damage Thea had done. Apparently, it was a side effect when people tried too hard to resist her will. Even though Grace had assured her that it didn’t appear to be permanent, it had upset Thea enough to make her stop questioning Greg and mutter about her gift working too damn well now.

  But from the expression on Thea’s face, Jake could tell she had figured it out. Her gift was reliable after all.

  Thea had told his mom never to say what she had said that night at the festival again and she hadn’t. But when she had seen those flickering flames of hers around Thea again, his mom had thrown similar accusations at her—but never used those exact same words. There were plenty of ways to say pretty much the same thing and his mom had, without ever repeating what she had said that night.

  Ouida was hovering over the stove, as usual, cooking even more food. Marty Croate stood next to her, talking while her husband was propped against the refrigerator. The kids were at the breakfast bar, eating what was either a very late supper or a very early breakfast. Either way, they looked sleepy.

  To ensure that she didn’t head out the door to look for Bailey again, he followed Thea as she poured herself another mug of coffee and grabbed another biscuit. She returned to the breakfast bar and sat across from his mom and Mel.

  Mel looked up at them. “Marilyn has been telling me some interesting things.”

  “Has she now?” Jake said with a hint of sarcasm, angling a hip on the tall chair beside Thea.

  “Yes, she has. Haven’t you, Marilyn?”

  Everyone in the kitchen was listening now, except for the kids, who looked like they were going to fall into their food. It was so quiet that they all heard Daniel tell Eddie to leave the repairs until tomorrow before he came to join them in the kitchen.