Lucky Stars (71 page)

Three, Miles was picking up Olive from the airstrip and, due to the weather, had called some time earlier when he’d learned her small commuter flight had been delayed. But still, even though the weather was worsening, they were later than expected and no call had come to explain why.

And four, Angus had not come down to have drinks and regale them with stories past of “wee
ghosties
”.

Baron and
Gretl
could be napping somewhere.

Myrtle and Lewis might be there but since Jack was, they hadn’t shown themselves.

And the weather
was
bad. Maybe Miles just assumed they’d understand this and didn’t want to interrupt the festivities with an unnecessary call.

But Angus didn’t often miss a chance to imbibe. He left a month ago, promising, like Cassandra had, to continue researching and looking for someone who might be able to assist them in getting Myrtle and Lewis home. That didn’t mean he hadn’t been around, mostly to check in, check Cassandra’s protection spells, eat their food, drink their booze and regale them with stories past of “wee
ghosties
”.

As quick as her strappy sandals would allow her to do so, she moved to Jack’s study to look for the dogs.

When she got there, she flipped on the light.

No dogs.

“Strange,” she whispered, turned off the light, closed the door and was about to retrace her steps to go to the staircase and Angus’s room when she heard a noise come from the other end of the hall.

That was probably Elaine,
Gemma
or Carrie. Elaine was cooking.
Gemma
and Carrie were serving.

Belle smiled to herself. A dinner party at home with family and friends and the women were all in gowns, the men in formal attire and they were being waited on.

“I suppose I’ll eventually get used to it,” she murmured, thinking it wouldn’t be hard. She liked to dress up, especially since Jack so obviously appreciated it. She also liked to see Jack dressed up. He was beautiful always but criminally attractive became (nearly) unbearably attractive when he was in his well-cut tuxedo.

She began to move again toward the stairwell but another noise came from the other end of the hall. She stopped and looked that way.

“Elaine?” she called and there was no answer.

She took one step in that direction.

“
Gemma
?” she tried and when she got nothing she tried again. “Carrie?”

She took two more steps then suddenly the hall was plunged into darkness as the lights went out. A nanosecond later, the space was lit by a flash of lightning which was followed by a deep, bellowed roll of thunder.

“The storm,” she muttered. “The electricity went out because of the storm.”

She had no idea why she was talking to herself. She only thought it best to get back to Jack. He was protective, she’d been gone for a bit and there were no lights in the house. He’d want to know where she was. She’d go to him and ask him to find Angus and the dogs.

She turned back toward the drawing room just as another flash of lightning lit the hall.

And right before her stood a woman, her wide eyes bright with an unnatural light, her lips curled into an evil smile.

Belle opened her mouth to scream and braced to flee and in her terror missed the fact that the woman’s arm was raised over her head so she also missed that arm slamming down.

She didn’t miss the pain that radiated throughout her skull when something crashed into it.

However, this lasted nary a moment before all went black and Belle Abbot collapsed to the thick carpet covering the stone floor of one of the many halls in
Chy
An
Als
Point.

* * * * *

Jack

The feeling seized him, so
fierce,
he was paralysed for a split second.

Then he moved and spoke, the piercing pain in his gut intensified to such an extreme, it was nearly debilitating.

But he didn’t hesitate.

“Jensen,” he barked, “
come
with me. I’ll get you a torch. Then you find Angus. Mum, Lila, Rachel, you stay here.”

He was striding to the door as her heard his mother start, “Jack, what on –?”

And
Lila’s,
“Is something –?”

As well as Rachel’s, “Where’s Belle?”

He stopped at the door and saw Jensen close. The man didn’t ask a single question. He was a man. He was also a father. He felt Jack’s mood and he wasn’t wasting time.

“None of you leave this room,” Jack ordered.

“Jack, darling, what –?”
Joy began.

“Do not…
leave…
this room,” he clipped, jerked his chin up to Jensen and prowled out.

He was stalking down the hall, Jensen on heels when Jensen asked, “Dude, you gonna fill me in?”

Jack didn’t tell him that he knew. That he simply, for no reason that was sane,
knew
that Belle was in danger.

Instead, he shared, “The lights are out. The phones are out. Both Belle and my mobiles have disappeared. The dogs have disappeared. Angus has not joined us. Cassandra and Yasmin have not yet arrived. And Belle went to the bathroom too fucking long ago. None of this is a coincidence. Something’s wrong.”

“The storm –” Jensen started.

“The storm does not explain
two
missing mobiles, Angus’s unusual delay in taking the opportunity to drink whisky and my dogs disappearing.”

“Cassandra’s protection –”

“Is magical,” Jack finished for him. “If the threat to Belle is real, human, in this fucking realm, it doesn’t…”

He turned into the kitchen, trailed off and stopped dead.

This was because he found the kitchen dark and deserted. No Elaine. No staff.

This was also because his mind’s eye brought up a picture of Belle.

Always but always she wore Cassandra’s protection amulet around her neck. Even to bed.

Tonight, she was wearing his diamonds around her neck.

No amulet.

“
Fuck!
” he hissed then strode to the drawer with the torches.

“Jack,” Jensen
whispered,
his concern heavy in his tone.

He handed Jensen a torch and tagged one for himself.

Then he issued orders, “Find Angus. As you try to find him, find
your
mobile or
any
mobile. Get it to Lila. She calls 999. She calls Cassandra. She calls and checks on Yasmin if Yasmin is not with Cassandra. Then she calls Lachlan and Lorna and she tells them to get to The Point as soon as they can.
In that order.
You don’t wait for her to make these calls. You keep searching for Angus and my fucking dogs.”

“Right,” Jensen whispered, didn’t hesitate and Jack saw the torchlight bobbing as the older man raced from the kitchen.

Taking a deep breath even as he moved swiftly, Jack turned on his own torch and strode to the door he’d exited months ago with Belle the night they met when he was guiding her out to show her the stables.

He moved into the dense fog and pouring rain as lightning lit the night, bouncing against the looming fog, making it eerie, threatening. And he moved through it as the flash disappeared and the thunder rolled.

But he wasn’t headed to the stables.

He was headed in a sprint to Belle’s cliff.

The site of Brenna Addison’s murder.

* * * * *

Mickey

“We have to land, mate. This storm, this fog –” his pilot friend said into Mickey’s earphones.

“We’re over Devon,” Mickey cut him off.

“We won’t make it to Cornwall in this weather,” his friend retorted as the plane bounced alarmingly in the storm.

“Try,” Mickey bit out.

“Mick –”

“
Try,
” Mickey growled.

The pilot growled back but it was merely an angry, worried sound, not an intelligible word and he flew on thinking if they got out of this alive, Mickey Dempsey was going to owe him big.

Huge.

* * * * *

Lorna

Lorna, driving too fast on the rain-slicked roads through the fog so thick she could barely see past the headlamps on her car, took her life in her hands (further) when she snatched up the ringing mobile sitting on the seat beside her.

She didn’t look at the display. She just took the call and put it to her ear.

“Talk to me,” she ordered.

“You close?”
Lach
asked in her ear.

“The good news is
,
no one but me is stupid enough to be on the roads tonight, even the police so I’ve got a straight shot. The bad news is, I’ve called Cass three times since I connected with her and got no answer. I’ve called The Point, no answer. Belle, Jack, Lila –”

“Me too,” he interrupted her. “And I’ve called Uncle Angus six times.
Nothing.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,
Lach
,” she
warned,
her voice low.

“Me either, love,” he whispered. “Can you think of anyone close we can send there?”

“Nope,” she answered.

“Fuck,” he muttered then, louder, he ordered, “Drive but
be
safe. I’ll see you there.”

“See you there.”

She disconnected, tossed the phone on the seat beside her, concentrated as best she could and drove.

Fast.

* * * * *

Jack

She wasn’t there.

Belle wasn’t on her cliff.

Brenna’s cliff.

Breathing heavily, soaked to the skin, terrified out of his mind, he looked up at the dim shadow of The Point looming over him in the fog.

Lightning rent the air followed by thunder and he saw them.

He saw them.

Two children in the window at the landing on the stairwell in the eastern turret.
Two children who looked to be shouting and banging their fists against an invisible barrier.

Myrtle and Lewis.

Jack Bennett blinked.

And when his eyes opened, he was no longer Jack.

He was Joshua.

And his children were up there.

So without hesitation, his long legs moved, racing toward The Point.

Racing to his children.

* * * * *

Caleb

Caleb Caldwell’s body swayed violently and he blinked.

Then he felt it.

Rain pummelling his skin.

Earth beneath his feet.

He looked down.

Earth beneath his feet, solid, real,
right there.

He was not in Bennett’s brother.

He was real.

He was himself.

He was back.

His head shot up and his eyes focused on the drifting fog, seeing James Bennett racing through it toward The Point.

Caleb smiled.

Then he raced after him.

* * * * *

Angus

“Dude, you okay?
Dude?
Angus?
Angus?
”

Jensen was shaking him. Angus, head foggy and killing him, blinked, feeling thick moisture on his face as he pushed up.

“God, man,
God!
I can’t find any fucking phones and, dude, you totally need an ambulance.”

Angus heard his voice, saw his shadow but it penetrated that the room he was in and beyond was dark.

Then he remembered.

“The other,” he whispered.

Jensen ignored his whisper and ranted on. “Something’s
whacked,
man.
Whacked.
I found those girls, the woman, you know, the servants. They were asleep, dude.
Asleep.
All piled on top of each other in a corner in a room off the kitchen.
Nothin
’ I could do would wake ‘
em
, Angus. They… were…
out.
”

“The other,” Angus repeated on a whisper.

“What?” Jensen asked.

He tried to focus on the man’s shadow.
“The other.”

“You’re fucked up, dude. You got a head wound. Sit tight, I’m gonna –”

His hand darting out, with fierce strength he latched onto Jensen Abbot’s forearm.

“There is another,” he declared, his voice getting stronger.
“A partner.
A woman.
A
witch.
Belle’s in danger.”