Red Witch: Book Two of the Wizard Born Series (2 page)

“For what?”

“For killing him.”

“No.” Her expression softened as she regarded her only grandchild. “I’m not. You did the right thing, Jamie.” She suddenly looked at Carl. “I think everybody’s hungry. Are the hamburgers ready yet?”

* * *

Later, Jamie walked his grandmother out to her car.

“That was quite a night, Jamie,” she said as she pulled her keys out of her purse.

“Yes ma’am, it was. Are you sure you’re not mad at me for not telling you sooner?”

“I’m not mad, for the tenth time.” She leaned against the car door and crossed her arms. “Are you going to tell anyone else?”

“Mom and Dad think I should tell everybody in the family —Aunt Connie, Uncle Ray, and Gina and Cory — because they might find out anyway and tell somebody else. We decided it’s better to bring them into our confidence than risk a slip up. That way we can get them to say the oath and they won’t tell.”

Evelyn looked at her hand and slowly shook her head. “That oath is something, isn’t it? Do you and Fred really feel that tingle all the time?”

“Most of the time.” He glanced at his feet for a moment. “I was so afraid you’d be mad or disappointed.”

“You know me better than that.” She put her arms around him and patted his back. “I’d have to say I’m proud of you.”

“Really?”

She nodded and let him go. “I knew you were going through a really hard time there for a while, but I thought it was just problems with Fred or typical teenage stuff. But now that I know you were dealing with all that pressure…being hunted by a psychotic serial killer! I think you handled it very well.” She patted his face. “I think we raised you right.”

“Thanks.” He kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll tell the rest of the family soon, I promise.”

She smiled. “I can’t wait to see Connie and Ray’s faces when you take them to that other world.”

“We’re going to need a bigger picnic table.”

She chuckled and got into her car. Jamie stood in the driveway until she drove out of sight.

* * *

Fred was reading in bed when she heard the knock. “Yes?”

Lisa opened the door a crack and said, “Am I disturbing you?”

“No, Mom. Come on in.”

Lisa closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of Fred’s canopy bed. Fred lay on top of her red comforter, surrounded by lace-covered pillows and stuffed animals. Lisa said, “That was really something, what Jamie showed us tonight.” She pulled at a strand of her shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair, watching Fred as she did. “I’m still trying to get my head around it, though.”

“Dad seemed to warm up to it, don’t you think?”

“Hah!” Lisa shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “Once Jamie started showing off and blasting rocks to smithereens.”

“Jamie’s always keen to blast things. He doesn’t get much of a chance.”

“I’m sure.” She tapped her knee and bit one corner of her lower lip. “Tell me, that tingle. Do you and Jamie really feel that every time you kiss?”

“Well, not every time. Not if I give him a little peck on the cheek or something. But a real kiss?” Fred shivered. “Ooh, yeah.”

Lisa stared at her, eyes wide. “I wonder what it’s like.”

“Why don’t you kiss Jamie and find out?” Fred laughed with her mother. “Wouldn’t work, though. Only does for me and Jamie.”

“Do you think it goes back to that time when I was pregnant and touched bellies with Rachel?”

“Probably. But now we’re marked for life.” She smiled wistfully at her mother. “I’ll never be able to kiss another boy now.”

“You don’t want to, anyway, right?”

“Is that a real question?” she said with a straight face, then laughed. “No, we are in
love
, Mom.”

“I know, I know. He told me, too, and I think that’s sweet. But do you think you’d love him even if you didn’t have the tingle?”

“Of course! You know Jamie. He’s the absolute
best
person, and he’s cute as he can be, and he’s—”

“He’s got his father’s jaw. I think he’s more handsome than cute, especially now that he’s getting older.”

“But he’s got his mother’s blue eyes, and his hair is so blonde and curly and,
oh!…
I want to kiss him right now just thinking about it.”

“About the kissing, Honey.” Lisa pressed her lips tightly together before continuing. “I’m happy that you’re in love, and I’m thrilled that it’s with Jamie, but could you be a little more discreet around your father? You know he likes Jamie a lot, but your father’s having a hard time dealing with you being so…affectionate in front of him.”

Fred scrunched her face. “Dad’s a prude.”

“Not really. He’s just a little conservative that way. I don’t think he kissed me in front of his parents until our wedding.”

“Well, that’s his problem, not mine.”

“Fred, do it for me. Please?”

Fred looked at her mother for a long moment, bottom lip tucked under a tooth. “O — kay,” she said reluctantly. “I’ll try. But how about Jamie’s parents? Do they have a problem with it?”

“I know Rachel doesn’t, and I don’t think Carl is as bad as your father. But try to be considerate when you’re around other people. Nobody wants to see you smooching Jamie all the time.” She leaned over and kissed Fred on the cheek. “Except for me.”

They laughed, and Lisa left Fred to her book. Fred watched her mother walk out and thought,
She’s the only one who really knows how much in love Jamie and I are.

* * *

A lone witch, dressed all in black, staggered down a dark Louisiana road on a moonless night. The neon lights of the bar were hundreds of yards behind her, and the music from the jukebox had long since been swallowed up by the warm humid air. Her graying hair and her clothes reeked of cigarettes; the raunchy tune she sang was punctuated by frequent hiccups, accompanied by the croaking frogs and the occasional alligator bellow from the marsh on her left.

The shoulder of the road was uneven, full of holes and high weeds, so she walked on the asphalt, not exactly in a straight line, but in the general direction of home. There were no streetlights, no porch lights, and few headlights to illuminate her way, just the feel of the hard pavement beneath her old boots to assure her she was on the right path.

Her shadow stretched before her as the light from an approaching vehicle grew. She heard the roaring engine behind her but didn’t turn, stepping off the road onto the shoulder. But when her foot landed in a hole, she lost her balance and stumbled back onto the highway.

Chapter 2

Jamie sat behind the steering wheel and watched Rollie slide into the back seat of Jamie’s old blue Buick, the car that had formerly belonged to his grandmother. Fred was already in the front next to Jamie.

“Dude,” Rollie said, “I’m so glad your parents finally let you drive to school. I’m tired of riding the bus. There oughta be a law that says seniors shouldn’t have to do that.”

Fred leaned across the seat and kissed Jamie on the cheek with a loud smack. She looked back at Rollie. “Does it bother you when I do that?”

Rollie fastened his seat belt. “Nah. I’m used to it.”

“My mom says that people don’t want to see it.”

“Don’t care. Kiss him all you want.”

Jamie looked at Rollie in the rear view mirror as he started the car. “Where’s your bag?”

“My football bag? Don’t need it. I’m quitting.”

“Dude! Are you serious?”

“Yep. I’m still third string and I haven’t played a down in either of our first two games, so I’m done. My parents want me to focus on my grades, anyway.”

“They sound like mine.”

“Yeah, and I talked to the basketball coach, and he said I’ve got a real good chance of getting some playing time this year if I keep working on my three-point shot.”

“Even though you’re only five-seven?”

“Huh,” Rollie grunted. “But I can knock down the outside shot, Baby.”

“Well, you know Fred and I will be there cheering for you, ’cause we’re the Crew, right?”

“We can’t be beat,” Rollie said, a grinning splitting his dark face.

Together they shouted, “Everybody smell our feet!”

* * *

Carl shared an office with two other detectives. One wall was lined with filing cabinets and a whiteboard; two others were filled with shelves overflowing with books and papers. One wall was dominated by a long window with open blinds that looked out on a long room where the uniformed officers worked.

On his desk was a file, an unsolved case, of the murder of shopkeeper Sheldon Steinhauer. Inside were two photos of the deceased’s head, showing the small hole in his forehead and the exit wound on the back of his skull. The skin around the holes was cauterized, suggesting high heat. A sticky note was pasted to one photo that had “Possible laser?” written on it in green ink.

Carl had talked to Jamie about it a few days ago, and Jamie, his science-freak son, had assured him that a laser powerful enough to burn through a human skull would only be found in a research institute or an industrial facility and would be too massive to be portable. Jamie had taken his father to the back of their yard and demonstrated how Renn might’ve killed the shopkeeper. Jamie shot a white-hot pencil-thin beam from his finger that burned through a watermelon in a microsecond.

It’s a good thing that psychotic wizard is dead
, Carl thought. Then he realized something even more important:
It’s a good thing Jamie’s a good kid. With the power he has, he could be a monster like nobody’s ever seen around here
. Carl closed the file and dropped it on the far edge of his desk.

I bet Jamie is the only sorcerer who goes to church every Sunday
. He laughed to himself.
I also bet he’s the only one who has a grandmother like Evelyn Wallace.

* * *

Jamie was in the boys’ locker room after school, sitting on a wooden bench, dressing out for cross country practice, when Bryce walked up. “Hey, Jamie, you know that new guy, Spencer?”

Jamie leaned past Bryce to peer down the row of lockers.

“Don’t look.” Bryce said in a low voice.

“What about him?” Jamie leaned back and brushed off his bare foot before pulling on a short white sock.

“I heard he’s been talking trash about you and me. Seems he’s upset that we got named captains.”

“What’s the big deal?” Jamie pulled on the other sock. “He’s just a junior anyway, and coach won’t let juniors be captain. We’re the two fastest guys right now, too.”

“Well,” Bryce leaned closer, “I heard his dad donated some big bucks to the athletic booster fund, and for some reason he thinks that makes him entitled to it.”

“So what?” Jamie slipped on a running shoe. “Your dad donated, too. You’re Richie Rich, right?”

Bryce’s face clouded. “Wish you wouldn’t call me that.”

“Manny did.” An image of last year’s team star popped into Jamie’s mind.

“Well, that was Manny, and he’s gone off to college now.”

“He’s probably got some nicknames for his college teammates already, I bet.” Jamie pulled on his other shoe.

“So what do you think we oughta do about Spencer? If he’s gonna run his mouth, he’ll hurt the team.”

Jamie rubbed his chin for a moment. “We could talk to the coach, but I don’t think that’ll fix the problem.” He stood and straightened his shirt. “How ’bout if we run some of Manny’s workouts this week? We’ll tell Spencer that if he can keep up, we’ll suggest that he ought to be a captain.”

Bryce laughed. “If he can keep up on one of Manny’s workouts, he deserves to be captain!”

* * *

Late Thursday afternoon, Jamie and Bryce were already in the school parking lot, walking around and warming down after a hard workout, when Spencer plodded up, gasping and red-faced.

“Hey, Spencer!” Bryce looked at his watch. “You’re two-and-a-half minutes behind.”

Spencer staggered past them, bent over and heaved.

“Yeah, running those last two miles under eleven minutes used to get to me all the time,” Jamie said. “Especially after running those first eight miles hard.”

“Next week we gotta run the last two under ten-thirty,” Bryce said. “That’ll be fun.”

Spencer retched again and Bryce said, “Hey, you still want me to talk to Coach about you being captain?”

Spencer shook his head wordlessly, still bent over, hands on his knees. Bryce elbowed Jamie and grinned as they walked toward the locker room.

* * *

Saturday morning, Jamie and Bryce ran shoulder-to-shoulder across the back field of their high school toward the meager crowd that waited in the sunshine. Jamie glanced over his shoulder to see the nearest runner dozens of yards behind. “Wanna kick?”

“Nah,” Bryce said between breaths. Two strides before the finish, Jamie slowed and Bryce finished first, a half-second ahead of Jamie. They slapped hands and Jamie glanced at his watch. “Good race, Buddy.”

As they walked around, catching their breath, someone called Jamie’s name. He looked over to see his parents with his grandmother.

“Nice race, Son,” Carl said when Jamie joined them.

Rachel handed Jamie a water bottle. “Why did you slow up?”

“It was Bryce’s turn to win,” Jamie said, still breathing heavily. “We have an agreement to take turns if it’s an easy meet.”

Evelyn frowned. “Sounds a little cocky to me.”

“I didn’t mean to. It’s just that we were pretty sure one of us would win, but neither of us is shooting for a cross country scholarship, so….” He shrugged.

“Okay, that makes sense,” Carl said.

“Jamie,” Rachel said, “today’s your Great Uncle Ray’s birthday, and we thought maybe we could celebrate with a picnic.” She winked. “At our special spot. The one that’s
out of this world
.”

Jamie laughed. “Do you want to tell them about you-know-what tonight?”

“If it’s okay. Connie, Gina, and Cory are coming, too.”

“Oh, wow.” Jamie ran one hand through his sweaty, curly hair. “I guess we’ll tell the whole family at once. That’ll be interesting.”

“Don’t forget about my sister,” Rachel said. “But if we tell Sophie, it’ll have to wait until she comes for Thanksgiving.”

“What can I get Uncle Ray for his birthday?”