Spellcasters (68 page)

“Have you called for help?” I said.

“Call—?” Sean’s voice was distant, confused.

“Nine-one-one or whoever. Somebody, anybody, just call!”

“I have it,” Lucas said. “Take over here.”

We switched places. I put my hands over the boy’s chest and leaned forward to pump, but his skin was so slick with blood that my hands slid off. I stabilized my balance and pushed his chest, counting fifteen repetitions.

I pinched the boy’s nose, bent over his mouth, and exhaled twice. Lucas gave instructions to the dispatcher. I pumped the boy’s chest again. The blood seemed to have stopped flowing. I told myself I was mistaken. I had to be.

As I swiveled back to his mouth, Lucas took over chest compressions. I leaned over the boy. As my lips touched his, something hit me, a full-bodied smack like an airbag going off. For a second, I was airborne. Then I crashed backward to the pavement. Pain ripped the breath from my lungs in a ragged gasp and everything went black for a split second.

I recovered just in time to see a blond man dive at me, face twisted with rage. Before he could reach me, Lucas slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. As I scrambled away, the blond man’s hand shot up, fingers outstretched toward me, but Lucas pinned both his arms down, which for a sorcerer was as effective a power-buster as gagging was to a druid. The man struggled but, as he quickly learned, Lucas was a lot stronger than he looked.

“My son—she was—”

“Trying to save his life,” Lucas said. “We’ve called an ambulance. Unless you know CPR, let us—”

The screech of tires cut him off. An unmarked minivan whipped into the parking lot. Before it even stopped, two paramedics leapt out. I tried to stand, but the force of the blow had set my stomach wound ablaze. Lucas knelt beside me.

“Can you get up?” he asked.

“I’m trying,” I said. “Doesn’t look like it, I know, but I am trying.”

He put his arms around me and lifted me gingerly. “We can’t do anything here. Let’s get you inside.”

As Lucas stooped to put my arm around his neck, I saw the blond man kneeling beside the boy, gripping his hand. The crowd around him parted and Thomas Nast walked through. The old man stopped. He swayed. Two or three men lunged to steady him, but he pushed them away, walked over, looked down at his bloodied grandchild, and dropped his face into his hands.

With the scene unfolding outside, the courthouse was empty and still. Lucas led me to a sofa in a back room and helped me lie down. Once I was comfortable, he slipped out, spell-locking the door behind him. Moments later, he returned with a paramedic. The man examined me. He found my stitches strained but not burst, and advised bed rest, painkillers, and a formal checkup in the morning.

When the man left, I forced myself to acknowledge the obvious. If the paramedic had time to look after my minor injuries, that could only mean one thing.

“He didn’t make it, did he?” I whispered.

Lucas shook his head.

“If we’d called sooner—”

“It didn’t matter. By the time we got to him, it was already too late.”

I thought of the boy. Savannah’s cousin. Yet another member of her family she’d never met, didn’t even know existed. And now, he didn’t.

A commotion in the hall cut my thoughts short, the thunder of footsteps and angry voices. Lucas started a lock spell, but before he could finish, the door banged open and Thomas Nast strode through, Sean at his heels, eyes red.

“You did this,” he said, bearing down on Lucas. “Don’t tell me you didn’t.”

Lucas’s hand shot out and waved a circle as he murmured the words to a barrier spell. Nast hit it and stopped short. Sean caught his grandfather’s arm and tugged him back.

“He didn’t do anything, Granddad,” Sean said. “We told you that. Lucas was doing CPR on Joey, then had to call for help, so Paige took over.”

Nast’s face contorted. “This witch touched my grandson?”

“To help him,” Sean said. “Bryce and I didn’t know how. They were there and—”

“Of course they were there. They killed him.”

“No, Granddad, they didn’t. Bryce and I followed them from the courthouse. We were right behind them the whole time. They didn’t do anything.”

The door opened again and two men came in. The first waved a notepad—our notepad—dropped in the parking lot.

“This is yours, isn’t it?” he said to Lucas. “I saw you writing in it during the trial.”

Lucas murmured an affirmation and reached for the pad, but the man snapped it out of his reach. Sean Nast snatched the pad from behind and peered at it, then glanced up at us.

“You were preparing an appeal,” Sean said. “You didn’t think Weber did it.”

By then all the Cabal CEOs, including Benicio, had crowded into the small room, and Lucas had to admit we had questions about Weber’s guilt, which led to the obvious question of why no one had been apprised of our suspicions. Lucas would never lower himself to “I told you so”
even when so richly deserved. I might have filled in the blank had Benicio not done so himself. His admission won him no brownie points for honesty, and the other Cabals jumped on him, accusations flying.

That only opened the floodgates to more finger-pointing. Within minutes, everyone had a theory on who was behind the murders, and they all involved another Cabal. The Cortezes had covered up Weber’s innocence because the real killer was one of their own. The Nasts lived nearest to Weber, so they’d planted evidence and launched the SWAT attack, again to hide the real killer in their midst. The Boyds were the only Cabal the killer hadn’t attacked, so they were obviously behind it. And the St. Cloud Cabal? Well, no evidence pointed to them as the culprits, which was only proof that they were.

In the midst of all this, Lucas quietly retrieved our notepad and helped me sneak out the door. My incision still felt as if it had been ripped open and stuffed with hot coals, so I had to lean heavily on Lucas, and our progress was slow. Once again we made it halfway across the parking lot before someone hailed us.

“Where do you think you’re going?” William called.

“Don’t stop,” I murmured to Lucas.

“I wasn’t going to.”

William strode around and blocked our path. “You can’t just run out on this.”

“Sadly, no,” I said. “But I can hobble, and believe me, I’m hobbling as fast as I can.”

Lucas started to skirt his brother, but William stepped in front of us.

“Move,” I said. “Now.”

William glared at me. “Don’t you—”

“Don’t
you
,” I snarled back. “I just saw a boy die because you people executed the wrong man. I’m mad as hell and my pain medication ran out hours ago, so get out of my way or I’ll blast your ass back into that courtroom.”

A whoop of laughter, and Carlos sauntered over to us. “Whoo-hoo. You’ve got a real spitfire there, Lucas. I gotta hand it to you. You done good.”

“She’s had a difficult day, William,” Lucas said. “I’d get out of her way.”

William strode toward me. “No little witch is going to—”

I flicked my fingers and he stumbled backward.

Carlos laughed. “The girl knows sorcerer magic. Maybe you should listen to her, Will.”

“Maybe Lucas shouldn’t be teaching her tricks,” William said, bearing down on me again. “Sorcerer magic is for sorcerers.”

“And witch magic is for witches,” I said.

I recited an incantation and William inhaled sharply as the air was sucked from his lungs. His mouth opened and closed, struggling to breathe. I mentally counted to twenty, then ended the spell. He doubled over, gasping.

“Shit,” Carlos said. “Never seen witch magic like that.”

“And, on that note, we’ll take our leave,” Lucas said. “Good night.”

He led me around William and out of the courthouse parking lot.

“We need to stay on this case,” I said as Lucas lowered me onto the hotel room bed. “Now more than ever. If the Cabals keep bickering, the killer will have a heyday.”

“Um-hmm.”

Lucas bent to tug off my pumps. I pulled my leg back to do it myself, but he waved me away and removed them, then folded back the covers. I started unbuttoning my blouse. He nudged my hands aside and did it for me.

“Weber didn’t just coincidentally create that list of potential victims,” I said. “He did it for someone. He had access to the files and knew how to extract the data. If we can contact his spirit, he should be able to lead us to the killer … or point us in the right direction.”

“Um-hmm.” Lucas tugged off my skirt and folded it.

“I know a few good necros. We can call one in the morning.”

Lucas tucked my legs under the covers. “Um-hmm.”

“First thing we need to do is—”

I crashed into sleep.

I was in a forest, doing a ceremony with Lucas. Someone banged on a door, which, of course, seemed odd under the circumstances, but my brain, perhaps recognizing I was asleep, overlooked the illogic, and my dream-self yelled at the intruder to leave us alone.

Another triple knock, louder this time. The forest evaporated and I clawed up from bed. Lucas’s arms went around me, gently restraining.

“Shhh,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

Another knock. I jumped, but he ignored it.

“They’ll go away,” he said.

And they did. I snuggled against his bare chest. Sleep tugged at me. I surrendered and felt myself drifting under again when the bedside phone buzzed.

“Ignore it,” Lucas whispered.

Five rings. Then silence. I relaxed again, stretched out—
Da-da-di. Da-da-di
.

“Isn’t that …” I mumbled into a yawn.

“My cell phone.” A sigh rippled through him. “I should have turned it off. I’ll answer it and get rid of him. Perhaps I can reach—” He twisted and sighed again. “Of course not.”

He slid from the bed and retrieved the cell phone from his suit coat. When his tone changed, I knew it wasn’t Benicio. I propped myself up on the pillow. His gaze shunted to me, brows knitting. I mouthed, “Who is it?”

“Yes, well, your timing is … interesting,” he said into the phone. “Just a moment, please.” He covered the mouthpiece. “It’s Jaime.”

“Did you call her?”

He shook his head. “She heard what happened today and thinks she might be able to help. She’s outside.”

I pushed back the covers and swung out my feet. “Perfect. Not my first choice, but the sooner we can contact Weber, the better.”

He opened his mouth, as if to argue, then snapped it shut, and told Jaime he’d be right there.

S
ince we’d missed dinner and it looked as if we weren’t going back to bed anytime soon, Lucas went to get us something to eat. He was gone before I finished dressing. A quick hair-brushing and face wash and I was presentable, but nothing more. When I saw Jaime pacing the living-area carpet, my first thought was “Geez, she looks almost as bad as I do.”

Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, no makeup, Jaime was hardly the picture of showbiz celebrity. Though I’d originally guessed her age at late thirties, Lucas said she’d passed forty a couple of years ago. Today, she looked it. Maybe dressing down was intentional, a disguise to avoid recognition … although she hadn’t struck me as the type who
would
try to avoid recognition.

I walked into the room, trying not to stagger.

“Jesus, are you okay?” she said.

She hurried to help me, but I waved her back.

“Of course you’re not okay,” she continued. “I heard what happened in California. I should have thought—I can talk to Lucas if you want to go back to sleep.”

“I’m fine.” I considered the sofa, but the recliner seemed as if it would offer more support. “So you heard about the trial?”

Jaime hovered until I was seated, then dropped onto the sofa. “Cabal gossip flies faster than a spooked spirit. I asked the guy who took my deposition to call me when a verdict came in, but I still haven’t heard from him. Probably never will. I’m necromancer non grata with the Cabals.”

“Really? With your grandmother, you should be prime recruitment material and, God knows, they hate to offend anyone they can use.”

Jaime twisted her rings. “Well, I’m not quite the necro my nan was. And, of course, my high profile doesn’t sit well with the Cabals. When I started hitting the big time, they wanted me to shut up and shut down. Lucas helped me with that. They leave me alone now.”

The door lock clicked. Lucas pushed the door open with his foot, both
hands occupied with a tray of food. Jaime watched him struggle for a moment, then jumped up and went over to help.

“Mmm, that smells great,” I said. “Soup?”

“Seafood chowder. Not quite the caliber you’re accustomed to, but it was this or split-pea.”

“Good choice.” I picked up a crystal glass of ruby red liquid. “Wine?”

“Not when you’re taking these,” he said, plunking my medication bottle on the tray. “It’s cranberry juice. Dessert is crème brûlée—a more appetizing alternative to pudding.”

I grinned up at him. “You’re the best.”

“No shit,” Jaime said. “Last time I was sick, the guy I was seeing brought me a bottle of ginger ale … and expected me to pay him back for it.”

Lucas took a mug and a second crème brûlée from my tray and laid them in front of Jaime. “If you’d prefer something else, the kitchen is open for a few more minutes.” He placed cream and sugar containers beside the coffee. “And, no, you don’t have to pay me back for it.”

“I am definitely dating the wrong guys.”

Lucas started unwrapping his sandwich, then paused. “Should we eat on the road?”

“Ten minutes isn’t going to make a difference. Eat your sandwich, then we’ll go.”

“Go where?” Jaime said.

I explained the evidence against Weber, and how we were certain he’d obtained those lists for the killer. “The only way we’re going to find out who wanted those lists is to talk to Weber. So you can help us by doing that, if that’s okay.”

“Well, umm, sure. Anything I can do. I thought we’d start by contacting Dana again but, well, I guess contacting this Weber guy makes more sense. We know where he’s buried, right?”

“Oh, I’m sure they haven’t buried him yet,” I said.