Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem) (32 page)

I had to force myself not to pull away when he reached over and picked up my hand from where it lay on the table next to my cup.  For a long, tense moment he just sat there and played with my fingers like he was distracted.  Just when I thought the stinging pain of his touch would drive me mad—or that I would gag from being that close to him—he let go of my hand and sat back in his seat, his evil little smirk firmly back in place.

“Very well, Ember, I accept your terms,” he said.  I had to really work to keep the smile off my face.  “You may have your time to say goodbye.  But.”  Yeah, because I didn’t see
that
coming.  “If you try to run, I
will
hunt you.  And when I catch you, you will wish for death.”

“I won’t run,” I told him quietly, not having to force the tremor into my voice.  Seriously, as threats go, that was pretty damn chilling.  “Where should I meet you?”

“Oh, I’ll find you, have no fear,” he crooned. 

And then he was gone.  Just like that.  One second he was sitting there grinning at me, the next it was like he’d never been there to start with.  I glanced around the coffee shop, sure everyone would be staring at the empty space across from me, but the other patrons seemed a bit
too
engrossed in what they were doing.  Even when I slid out of the booth, forcing my wobbly knees to bear my weight, nobody looked in my direction.  It was almost like they’d been ordered not to look my way.  And, for all I knew, they had been.

When I stepped out of the coffee shop, my feet froze beneath me and refused to move.  Even as a child I had never been afraid of the dark, but suddenly there seemed to be glowing red eyes watching me from every shadow.  Every sound was the sound of footsteps coming after me.  Every gust of wind was the cold breath of death stalking me.

“Get a damn grip!” I told myself shakily, forcing my feet to move and carry me away from the coffee shop.

I stopped on the corner and looked around again and felt a leap of hope when I saw a bright green, glowing ATM sign at the end of the next street.  There was only forty dollars left in my personal checking account, but I had overdraft protection and I was more than willing to pay the overdraft fee if it meant getting somewhere well-lit and warm—and with a lot of locks on the door.  I even briefly considered doing something crazy to get Sheriff Martin to arrest me…and then decided I’d rather tangle with a demon than let Deputy Donut put me in a cell.  I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction even if it meant becoming demon kibble.

“Please work, please work, please work,” I chanted as I ran to the ATM and dropped my bags.  I dug in my purse until I found my wallet and then held my breath as I slid my debit card in the slot.  I’m pretty sure Grams heard my sigh of relief all the way in Washington when the screen lit up and a mechanical female voice asked me for my PIN.  With the speed of someone who’s had a lot of practice—and who was on a terror-induced adrenaline high—my finger flew over the touch-activated screen.  I held my breath again when the ‘Processing Transaction’ screen popped up, then giggled in hysterical relief when the machine popped out ten crisp twenties.

“Okay, now to find a pay phone,” I said, continuing my self-motivational pep talk as I retrieved my card from the ATM.  “Call a cab, find a hotel, barricade yourself in and get ready to banish your last demon.”

In an attempt to follow my own orders, I grabbed my bags and practically sprinted away from the ATM and down the street toward the second glowing beacon of hope I’d seen that night—the neon signs shining through the windows of the local bar.  I thought I might have made a major mistake, though, when I threw open the door and found myself staring through the smoke at what appeared to be a frigging army…like,
literally
.  There were soldiers everywhere, and more than one was giving me an appreciative look.

“ID please,” a rough, gravelly voice said to my right, causing me to jump.  I whirled around to find a tough-looking older man sitting on a stool that was tilted back on two legs with his hand held out.

“Oh…I’m not staying,” I told him, quickly, forcing myself to smile.  “I just need to use your phone.”

“Still need the ID and the cover is twelve dollars,” he said in a surly tone of voice.

Scowling at him, I dropped my bags again and dug my wallet out of my purse again.  He examined my ID for about two seconds before handing it back to me.  When he kept his hand out even after I took my license back, I glared at him again and slapped one of my new twenties into his palm.  In return, I got a big black X on my hand to show that I was a minor, no change, and a grim smile.

“Have a good time, cutie,” he said, grinning, when I picked up my bags. 

I flipped him off in reply and his laughter followed me into the crowd of khaki clad soldiers…none of whom seemed to have any manners.  By the time I made it over to the bar, I’d been groped so many times I’d lost count.

“What can I get you, love?” a cheerful British voice asked as I dropped my bags next to the only empty stool at the end of the bar.

I whirled around and stared at the familiar handsome face staring back at me, his expression shocked.  I let my eyes graze over every inch of his face, sure that I must be mistaken.  There were no bruises, no cuts, no broken bones.  There was only smooth, bronze skin where there should have been purple, swelling masses.  But, how could that be?  After the beating he’d taken, he should have been in ICU, not standing behind the bar in the local watering hole.

“You’re okay,” Tyler whispered, still looking like he’d seen a ghost.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I told him, just as shocked by finding him there as he seemed to be by my appearance.  “Are
you
okay?”

“I am now,” he said, his lips turning up in a brilliant smile.  “I’ve been worried sick about you, beautiful.  I guess, in the end, I wasn’t much of a hero, huh?”

“You were awesome,” I told him, returning his smile.  “But, how…?”  I let my voice trail off and waved my hand around my face to indicate his lack of war wounds.

“Oh, that,” he said, smiling sheepishly and running his hand over the back of his neck.  “Let’s just say I heal fast.  It helped that your boyfriend hits like a girl.  What about you?  How did you get away?”

“He let me go,” I told him, shrugging.  He gave me a disbelieving look and I smiled.  “Okay, so I stole his car again and caught a flight home.  At least I didn’t run over him this time.”

“Somehow, I find that hard to believe.  The part about you not running over him again, that is,” he said, leaning on the bar and giving me another one of those bright smiles that made me feel warm and safe.  It was magic, the way he could do that.  And I needed that kind of magic right then.  The kind that didn’t come with any strings attached—and didn’t cause anything to explode.   “Well, since you’re here, can I get you something?  Or did you just come in for the atmosphere?”

 “A phone, the number for Mac’s taxi, and a decent hotel that won’t mind if I banish a demon on the premises,” I told him, hopping up on the stool next to me and giving the soldier on my other side a ‘Don’t even think about it’ look when he turned to look me over like I was a nice, juicy steak.

“Ah, well, the phone and the cab I can help you with,” Tyler said, placing an ice-cold soda in front of me.  Little drops of condensation were already beading up on the glass, and it was only then that I realized just how thirsty I was.  “The hotel, though, may be a bit of a problem.  This very manly group you see here are here for intelligence training.  I’m not sure there’s a room left in town.”

Intelligence training?  I lifted a skeptical eyebrow at that.  After having just run the gauntlet of grabby hands and less than subtle invitations, I was pretty sure they didn’t have a brain between them.  In my opinion, they needed a sexual harassment class, not intelligence training.

“She can share my room,” the intoxicated soldier on the stool next to me slurred, grinning lasciviously.  “I like redheads.  They’re
hot
.”

“You’re going to see just how hot I can get if you don’t get your hand off me,” I snarled when he started sliding his hand up my thigh.

I’m not sure what he saw in my face, but he paled slightly and swallowed hard before snatching his hand back like I was going to bite it off.  Taking his drink, he immediately jumped up and left.  Tyler, having watched the whole thing, smiled and winked at me.

“Well done,” he said, leaning on the counter again and giving me an appraising kind of look.  I was ready to give him a medal when his gaze stayed steady on my face and not my chest.  “Okay, listen, I obviously have a soft spot for damsels in distress, so I’ll help you out.”  Reaching beneath the counter, he grabbed a napkin and a pen and jotted down a number, an address, and a name for me.  “I’ve been staying at a B&B over on Morgan Street.  A few of the higher ranking officers are staying there, but it’s a big house and there might still be a room left.  Give Mac that address and go around to the back door.  Make sure to knock really loud.  Amelia’s room is right off the kitchen, but she’s about eighty and there are times when I think she’s going deaf.  Tell her I sent you.  She’ll give you a room.”

I took the napkin from him but didn’t immediately reply.  I knew the B&B he was talking about.  Winters
Bed & Breakfast was kind of an urban legend in Moonlight.  Hell House.  That’s what they called it.  According to the story, no young woman ever walked out of it alive. 

Over the years, several young women had disappeared in the area near the boarding house and it was widely whispered that their disappearances were somehow linked to the boarding house itself.  I had never believed that crap, of course, but then Alana Price, a girl from my school, had gone missing while she was out jogging one afternoon my freshman year.  Rumors said she had called to tell her parents that she had twisted her ankle and had called a friend to pick her up.  It was the last time anyone heard from her.

The number she had called from had been listed as Winters Bed & Breakfast.

“Is this place…safe?” I asked Tyler, worried that I was about to make another wrong move and land myself in even more trouble than I was already in.

“You’ll be perfectly safe, you have my word,” he said, smiling at me again.  “Just stay right there, I’m going to go call you a cab.  Try not to hurt any of these poor sots before I get back, all right?”

“I’ll do my best,” I promised, smiling.  “Oh!  And thanks, Tyler.”

“Anytime, beautiful,” he said with another wink.  With that, he disappeared through the swinging door behind him, already pressing his cell phone to his ear.

Feeling a little better since I knew I had some place to go—scary house of horrors it might be—I leaned back and took a sip of my soda.  I had twelve hours to prepare myself to face Jack.  Twelve hours before I either got my life back or lost it altogether.

I can do this,
I thought. 
I can banish him.  I’ve done it a hundred times.

But there was still that nagging little doubt in the back of my mind.  What if I
couldn’t
do it?  What if he was stronger than the others or knew some trick the others didn’t know.   What if Nathan was right and I wasn’t ready?

Oddly enough, it was the thought of Nathan’s constant reminders that I wasn’t strong enough or capable enough to face Jack that steeled my resolve.  I
was
ready.  I
was
going to banish Jack to the lost plane and get my life back.  And I was going to do it all by my helpless little self.  I wasn’t going to be a victim anymore.  It was my life, and
I
was going to take it back.  I didn’t need Nathan or anyone else to help me do it. 

“Mac said it might be a while,” Tyler said when he came back from calling my cab.  He looked me over and I saw an almost sympathetic flash in his pretty, golden-colored eyes.  “You want something stronger than that Coke?  You look you’ve been through the wringer, beautiful.”

In answer, I held up my X-marked hand and smiled.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” he said, grinning. 

“Nah, not tonight,” I told him, waving off his offer of a stiff drink.  I was going to need a clear head to take on Jack.  “Maybe some other time, though.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said with a grin just as an extremely drunk soldier started banging on the counter to get his attention.  Rolling his eyes, he turned and yelled over his shoulder, “Keep your bloody knickers on!  That tequila isn’t going anywhere, genius!” 

With that, he went back to fixing drinks and joking with the soldiers, and I sat there surrounded by horny guys with grabby hands and felt perfectly safe.  I was starting to wonder if the cab was ever going to get there, though, when Tyler pulled his phone out and glanced at it before smiling over at me. 

“Your cab’s here.”

“The driver sent you a text?” I asked, smiling as I slid off the stool and started picking up my luggage.

“Yeah, Mac and I are mates,” he said, hopping over the bar and taking the suitcase from me.  “Come on, I’ll walk you out and hold off this lot of predators while you make your escape.  You’re the prettiest thing to walk in all night.  They’re not going to be happy to see you go.”

I rolled my eyes at that but smiled, anyway.  With a single glance around the room I could have pointed out ten girls who were prettier than me.  It was sweet of him, though, so I didn’t call him on the exaggeration like I usually would have.

“New lovey, Ty?” the cabbie asked in a really bad imitation of a British accent when Tyler and I finally made it through the crowd and out the door. 

“That old wreck of yours break down again, Mac?” Tyler countered with a grin.

“Bessie?” Mac asked in mock outrage, patting the trunk of the ancient car that made up the entire fleet of cabs in Moonlight.  “Now, Tyler.  Be nice.  She’ll hear you…and she’s
sensitive
.”

I smirked at that.  The thing was a death trap, and the old man knew it as well as anyone else who might be looking at it.  There wasn’t a soul in Moonlight who hadn’t seen him stranded on the side of the road as smoke billowed from beneath Bessie’s hood.  He’d been YouTubed more than once kicking the poor thing and damning it to the darkest pits of Hell.