Wicked by Any Other Name (19 page)

“You're dead!” Jazz groaned. “You haven't suffered from arthritis since 1956!”

“I still feel it,” she stiffly informed the witch.

“Perhaps you don't feel the cold the way we do, but it can still affect you,” Jazz reminded the vampire.

“It's not far, so I'll be fine.” He sipped his coffee. Even if his diet was iron-rich, he was able to enjoy most liquids with beer, wine, and coffee being his drinks of choice.

“Then I'm going with you.”

“I don't think so.”

Jazz opened her mouth to argue her point when she caught Stasi's pained expression. She mouthed
I'm sorry
and returned to her coffee.

“I'm going to visit The Library tomorrow,” Stasi said in a tone that brooked no argument.

“I'll go with you,” Trev told Stasi.

“I can do this on my own. You have a client to consider.”

Trev listened to her words—she wasn't leaving him with any options. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to accompany her.

Stasi closed her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to forget the past two weeks. The town she loved, her retreat, had been severely damaged. She feared it would never return to the way it used to be.

***

“Whew! I thought we'd never get back!” Blair laughed, stumbling into the kitchen with Jake behind her. Both carried bags that exuded the welcome scents of rich spices and beef. Jake pushed the door against the snowy onslaught. “Jake has a great sense of direction. I was ready to use a ball of light to guide us, but he had no problem.”

“I'm sure he didn't.” Trev exchanged a knowing look with the carpenter.

Blair dropped the bags on the table. “Grady's gone over to the dark side,” she informed them.

Jake shifted uncomfortably. “He saw us approaching and told us to go to the back door. He's afraid he'll lose business if he serves you.”

“I wasn't going to take the food, but Jake disagreed. I never thought Grady was a coward,” Blair muttered. “I think the only reason he even gave us the food was because Jake was with me.”

“You can't blame him. He doesn't want his business to end up like ours.” Stasi picked at her sandwich.

Suddenly no one had much of an appetite, but they ate because they knew they needed to.

“I'm going to take a turn around the town. See if I can hear anything.” Jake pulled on his heavy jacket.

“With this snow I can't imagine anyone will be out,” Blair said.

“You'd be surprised.”

“I'll check the lake now.” Nick helped clean up and balled the bags into a trash bag.

“I'll go with you.” Trev grabbed his jacket.

“Be careful,” Stasi urged, more worried than ever.

Trev walked over and leaned down, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead where the skin was raw and scabbing from the cut. “I'm always careful,” he whispered.

Stasi had no idea she had a dreamy look on her face as she watched the wizard and vampire leave.

“What?” She noticed the expressions on Blair, Jazz, and Jake's faces.

“It's your face, honey,” Irma said. “Go look at it.”

“She's right. Take a look.”

“What? Do I have some kind of rash now?” she laughed, heading down the hall for her bathroom. She always felt soothed when she walked into the room that she had fixed up as a sanctuary with dark rose and cream towels and a tub that invited relaxation. It wasn't until she stood at the pedestal sink and looked into the mirror that she understood her friends' surprise.

While the cut on her cheek was still reddened and scabbing, the one on her forehead was almost completely healed and showed no sign of scarring. She was positive within an hour there would be no sign she had even been injured.

“How?”

“When he kissed you.” Blair leaned against the doorjamb. “You didn't need a healing poultice. All you needed was a kiss from Wizard Charming.”

“When he comes back, you should have him kiss your cheek,” Jazz suggested. “He acted as if he has no healing powers, but this is proof he does.”

Blair shook her head. “I bet it has something to do with Cupid's decree that they're right for each other.”

“Love is a crazy thing,” Jazz intoned.

“Shut up, both of you!” Stasi threw up her hands then was stunned by the sparks that jumped from her fingertips. Both Blair and Jazz hopped backwards. Stasi pushed past them and walked into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Blair and Jazz looked as if a sweet puppy had leaped up and gnawed their fingers off.

“I think it might be a good idea to leave her alone,” Blair muttered, retreating to the family room. “She's had a hard day.”

“I agree.” Jazz followed her.

Irma sat in an easy chair with Sirius lying at her feet and Fluff and Puff now curled up in a corner of the couch.

“You girls don't seem to have good luck with men or with what's going on with your lives,” Irma commented.

“Says the woman whose husband cheated on her with the town skank and she took it so hard she killed herself in her husband's beloved car just to get back at him.” Jazz dropped onto the couch near the slippers, who promptly slid down and complained until she pulled off her Uggs so they could cover her feet.

“A great car you wouldn't be driving today if I hadn't.”

“She's right, you know.” Blair took a spot on the other end of the couch and curled her legs up under her.

“No reason to remind her,” Jazz muttered.

***

The bitter cold assaulted the two men as they stood in snow that was rapidly covering their boots.

The barrier Stasi and Blair had first encountered had lost the crisscrossing lines and now sported a silvery-black sheen that reflected the water, where waves had frozen into place, making the scene before them look like a surrealist painting.

“Why is this happening now?” Nick asked again, not expecting an answer. “There've been Mercury retrogrades and lunar eclipses at the same time before, but there hasn't been a problem like this.”

“It really does feel personal. Someone's targeting Stasi and Blair,” Trev said, walking toward the trees. He placed his hand against a few different tree trunks then walked further down. Nick noticed his direction and followed.

“Other than your client, you mean. Tell me something, wizard, why did you take on the case? Couldn't you sense this Carrie didn't have all her marbles and was on the warpath?”

“Have you taken on cases involving humans and vampires?” Trev asked him.

Nick nodded. “Only if I feel the human needs protection or would be in danger if they tried it on their own.”

Trev noticed his expression. “But it hasn't always gone well,” he guessed.

“A mortal woman wanted to see her son who'd been turned. I set up a meeting with him in a Were coffee shop that doubles as neutral territory,” Nick said quietly.

“But she didn't just want to see him, did she?”

“No, she felt she was saving him by staking him. Luckily, his sire, who was present, didn't demand retribution.” Nick idly kicked a stone away. “So once again, why did you deal with a mortal who obviously is missing more than a few gears and has issues with Stasi?”

“At first glance, the case appeared credible and during her first visit Carrie put on a good face as the wronged one. She laid out a good story that I believed. It wasn't until I started a deeper investigation into the case that I learned there was more vengeance in her mind than lawful retribution. It was all my fault. I'd just come off a case that required a lot of work and emotional energy. I was exhausted and all I saw was a woman whose marriage was ruined by a spell.” Trev shook his head.

“You really fucked up there.” Nick suddenly laughed. “Of course, if you hadn't taken the case, you wouldn't have met Stasi.”

Trev's grin grew wider. “Yeah.”

“And if you ever hurt her, I will take you apart and scatter you to the Four Winds.” Nick's tone was so affable he could have been talking about the weather, but there was no denying he'd just made a vow he would keep.

Trev knew the truth when he heard it. “If I hurt her, I will let you do that and more.” He looked back at the frozen lake and noticed an area in the very center that seemed to bubble up like a lava pool. “Why would someone target the lake? What does it have to do with what's going on in town?”

“The lake means a lot to the witches. They come here every month on the first night of the full moon and hold a small ceremony. Jazz says it centers them. Moonstone means sanctuary and they want to keep it that way.”

“Except this month is giving them a lunar eclipse the first night of the full moon and Mercury retrograde is adding to the insanity.” Trev sighed, turning to walk back toward the building and the stairs that led to what he was quickly considering a piece of his heart.

“We're in here!” Jazz shouted from the family room when the kitchen door opened and closed.

“What did you find?” Blair asked, barely lifting her head from the back of her chair.

“It's not getting better. Where's Stasi?” Trev knew she wasn't in the room even before he entered.

“In her room.”

He nodded and walked away. He tapped lightly on her bedroom door and walked in.

Stasi was still in her robe and curled up on her bed with a paperback romance novel in her hands. One lamp was on in the corner, lending a soft light to the room.

Trev stayed in his spot studying her. Her mint green fleece robe wasn't the least bit sexy, but he reacted as if she wore nothing at all. He mentally cursed his hard-on since he didn't think this was an appropriate moment to strip her out of the robe and make love to her until they were both breathless. Instead, he stood there enjoying how the color accented her delicate rosy skin and the blond highlights in her hair. She wore it tucked behind her ears, a hint of curl in the ends. For once he didn't feel as if the red hearts above her head were mocking him. He was seeing them as a sign of what was to be.

The idea of being with this witch who had a soul for love and romance no longer seemed foreign to him. In fact, he longed to move forward with Stasi, to find out everything he could about her.

He straightened up when she looked up and stared at him, expressionless. There was no sign of the wound on her forehead. Then he recalled he had kissed her on the forehead, on the damaged site, before he left. He'd used no magick in the kiss, yet somehow it had healed her. For a wizard who had no talent for healing so much as a paper cut, this was something he hadn't expected. He wondered if that was another sign that they were meant to be together.

The longer he looked at her, the stronger the emotion washed over him—he wanted nothing more than to have the chance to heal all of her.

“Stop looking at me,” she spoke so softly he almost didn't hear the words.

“I can't help it.”

She grimaced as she ducked her head. She slipped off her bed and walked over to the bathroom door.

“Tell the others I'll be right out. It's time we took some action.” She closed the door in his face.

Trev remained in the same spot, grinning when he heard Horace's plaintive plea.

“Could someone please take this cover off me?”

“No.”

“I promise not to watch you get dressed. You spoil all my fun!”

His grin widened. “I know the feeling, gargoyle,” he whispered, returning to the family room, where he heard the others talking fast and furious. Nick stood in a corner, his head bent as he spoke into his cell phone.

“Krebs and Letiticia are still up at the resort. They can't get anywhere near the town,” Nick announced, closing up his cell phone. “Letiticia said they could only drive so far on the road and the car just stops. They even tried walking and all of a sudden they couldn't take another step. She said whatever is doing it is targeting mortals and the supernatural alike. People up at the resort are agitated because they can't get down the road. She said she sensed that same disturbance that she and Krebs had.”

“Even more spells,” Jazz groaned.

“Stasi has a plan,” Trev declared.

Jazz eyed Trev as he settled in a chair. “Tell me something, wizard, why are you helping us? Your client has developed a nasty dislike for Stasi and it's pretty much spilled over onto the rest of us. She wouldn't like it if she knew you were here.”

His usually easygoing nature was gone and something cold and hard replaced it. “I don't like bullies.”

“Then we agree on two things.”

“Two?”

Jazz nodded. “Stasi and disliking bullies.”

Trev stilled. He knew his feelings had been growing more jumbled where Stasi was concerned. He was already aware he could no longer blame it on Cupid. Not after the night they'd shared. A night he was hoping to repeat very soon.

“Why don't we figure out what's happening here first, then we can decide what to do with Caustic Carrie,” Blair suggested.

“We might be able to do something about the situation here once we do some research. The problem is we don't know what we're dealing with.” Stasi walked in wearing a pair of navy yoga pants that rested on her hips and a pink t-shirt that stopped short of her navel. Her feet were bare and her broom anklet sparkled when she walked.

She chose to sit on the arm of Trev's chair. He rested his hand just above the waistband of her pants, savoring the warmth of her bare skin.

Jazz buried her face in her hands. “There must be another way.”

“There's no better place to look for answers,” Stasi pointed out. “Who's with me?”

“Correction, there's no better place to be humiliated and receive more questions than answers,” the red-haired witch argued. “The last time I had to go there I was directed to the middle of the La Brea Tar Pits. That damn realm was literally in the middle of the pits! Even magick couldn't easily peel that nasty gunk off my skin. The time before that he sent me to a swamp.”

“There aren't any swamps in LA,” Blair said.

“He found one.” Her lip curled up in a snarl.

“Maybe if you returned your books on time you wouldn't be in so much trouble there,” Stasi pointed out. “Fine, then don't go with us.”

“Oh, I'm going. Maybe with you asking for the entrance, I'll see something nicer.”

“Are you talking about The Library?” Trev asked.

Stasi nodded. “Jazz and The Librarian,” she pronounced “the” with a long e, “don't get along.” She ignored Jazz's mutterings about a smarmy pompous egotistical ass disguised as a lowly librarian.

Trev grinned. He looked up, missing the warmth of Stasi's skin when she rose to her feet.

Jazz and Blair stood up while Nick remained seated. Since vampires weren't welcome at The Library, he was content to stay behind.

“I'm going too.” Trev stood up, remaining standing behind Stasi. “Wizards are allowed there,” he reminded her. “I can help you. With more of us there, we could find answers faster.”

“I could go,” Irma volunteered.

“The Librarian doesn't like ghosts any more than he likes vampires,” Nick spoke up. “We'll sit here and watch the snowfall.”

“Maybe we can find something good on cable.”

Stasi looked down at her clothing. “I'd better put on some warmer clothes. I'll be right back.” True to her word, she returned in less than five minutes now dressed in jeans, a sky-blue wool sweater, and hiking boots. She turned to Nick. “We'll set the wards to protect the building from intruders, but they'll allow you and Irma to come and go if you need to.”

He nodded. “Safe journey. If anyone does try anything I know what to do.” His eyes abruptly glowed a dark reddish black and his fangs extended.

“This is why I love my bad boy.” Jazz wound a dark red wool scarf around her neck and reached for her coat.

Stasi, Trev, Blair, and Jazz bundled up and walked out to the corner of the yard behind the building where they couldn't be seen by anyone on the street. Just to be safe, the witches set up a ward that screened them from view. Stasi knew watching them perform magick would endear them even less to the residents.

“Your idea. Your request,” Jazz said. “If I ask, we could end up in the middle of a volcano. Although right now, that might not be such a bad idea.” She stamped her feet against the cold ground.

Stasi closed her eyes and centered herself. She opened them and held her palm up. “I humbly request entrance to the realm that will offer me guidance that I can find nowhere else. We wish to visit The Library.”

Within seconds a tiny golden glowing ball of light hovered in front of her face.

“Hello.” She smiled. “Will you take us to the door, please?”

The ball pulsed twice then floated around the side of the building.

“At least it's late, so there shouldn't be too many people out.” Stasi stuck her hands in her pockets and trudged down the wooden sidewalk. “So you use The Library too?” she asked Trev who walked beside her.

He nodded. “There's an excellent legal archive there.”

“Wow, quick trip and nothing disgusting around,” Jazz commented when the ball stopped in front of a shop halfway down the street. “The candy shop? From now on you can ask for The Library realm every time.”

Stasi stood before the shop, the other three behind her. “I seek The Library,” she spoke in a clear voice. The windows divided in half and slid backwards, revealing a massive, ornately carved wooden door. Stasi stepped forward, gently palmed the large bronze griffin-shaped doorknocker, and rapped it three times against the door.

The griffin opened its citrine colored eyes and peered closely at Stasi and the others. For a moment, his gaze centered on the red hearts floating over Stasi and Trev's heads. “What is your purpose here, wizard and witchlings?”

“I require counsel I can find only here. May we be allowed to enter?” Stasi waited, knowing it was up to the guardian of The Library's door whether they would be admitted or not.

The griffin smiled. “You may all enter.” The door slowly swung open with nary a creak or groan.

“No password? You always make me give you a damn password,” Jazz grumbled.

The griffin cocked his head to one side. “When it's just you, you require one, as does the other witchling.“

“Don't provoke him,” Stasi said under her breath as she practically pushed the others inside.

After the winter cold outside, the warmth inside The Library caused them to slip off their jackets.

Stasi closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of ages—old dust, paper, and materials that fairly screamed the magick embedded in them. At one time, she had thought of applying to be a Library Matron—she loved the history the realm held. But her banishment cancelled that dream. After all these centuries, she suddenly felt it didn't matter, because she had found something even more worthwhile. She glanced at Trev, who smiled back at her. Oh yes, very worthwhile.

As they walked through the dim vestibule, torches adorning the wall burst into flame, lighting their way until they reached the end of a passage that expanded into a room that seemed to go on for miles. Rows of intricately carved shelves held ancient grimoires, books, scrolls, and parchments. Stasi recalled a rumor that a portion of Alexander's library was back among the stacks, but in all her visits here she hadn't discovered them and her questions about the scrolls was only met with silence.

Stasi stopped at the front counter and smiled at the man seated on a stool behind it. In all the times she'd been here over the decades, she had never seen him wear anything other than bottle green, old-fashioned knee britches with off-white stockings, a faded green brocade waistcoat over a linen shirt the color of old parchment, and a bottle green, long-tailed coat. Just as he always had stacks of ancient scrolls, leather bound books, and even a few stone tablets carefully arranged on the counter near his spot of power.

Narrowed black eyes peered at her over the rim of ancient half-spectacles perched on his beak-like nose. His thinning brown hair was pulled back into a queue neatly tied with a black grosgrain ribbon, and he appeared ageless even though she had seen him from time to time over the last seven hundred years. Stasi didn't mind his constant lectures on the “do's” and “don'ts” that he made sound like law.

His lips pursed tightly as his gaze swept over them. Like the griffin, he stared at the red hearts but said nothing about them, to Stasi's great relief. “You did not consider dressing appropriately?”

Stasi inwardly winced. The (pronounced with a long e, thank you very much) Librarian had rules that were unbreakable. His idea of proper decorum and dress headed the list.

“This was an emergency, sir,” she said respectfully. “I hope you will understand.”

He inclined his head in barely a nod before he turned to Trev. “And you, young wizard, what are you doing in the company of these witches?” A faint curl of the lip appeared when he gazed at Jazz, who merely smiled back and, for once, kept her mouth shut.

Trev smiled and bowed. “I am helping them solve a mystery in their town, Uncle Peredur.”

Uncle Peredur?
The two words rang in Stasi's head and, judging by the shocked expressions on Blair and Jazz's faces, they felt the same.

“He's your
uncle?
” Jazz may as well have asked if the wizard Librarian was Hades, Lord of the Underworld.

“On my mother's side.”

“Unfortunately, the upstart took after his father.” The Librarian swung back to Stasi. “What do you wish?”

“We believe there is a type of water magick harming our town and we hoped to find materials that would help us discover a way to combat it,” Stasi replied.

He peered at her over his spectacles. “And why do you believe that, witchling, when you left the Witches' Academy before you even finished your advanced classes on other magicks?”

“It's all up to you,” Blair whispered.

Stasi took a deep breath and began to tell the story of the barrier around the lake, the shifts in energy in the town, and the sense of unease that had been moving through the area.

“One of my human clients is suing Stasi, and I am beginning to think that the lawsuit is also part of this,” Trev spoke up.

“The barrier around the lake is able to defend itself, so that we can't take it down,” Jazz chimed in.

The Librarian's bony shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh. “I would suppose you used witchflame.” His attention swung to Blair. “And you?”

“I was ready to take down the human who has made Stasi's life a living hell,” she freely admitted.

He turned away and consulted a stone tablet, then a scroll. “I do not believe this is merely water magick, but Fae. Try section 8,000,038.”

The Librarian snapped his fingers, and a two-foot-high green marble hourglass appeared on the counter. He turned it over, the white sand flowing downward.

“Stennert will guide you.” He flicked his fingers to the right.

The nine-foot-tall creature standing at the head of the passage could have doubled as Sasquatch's brother.

“I can't believe he's your uncle,” Stasi muttered when Trev stepped up the pace to walk beside her.

“Could he have been adopted?” Jazz asked. “I see absolutely no family resemblance. I mean, he's so… and you're so…”

“
Quiet.
” Stennert's voice rumbled in the passage like rolling thunder. His monster-size feet created mini-earthquakes on the floor every time he took a step, and they grabbed hold of each other to remain upright.

Stasi was positive they'd walked miles, but she knew the various realms The Library resided in were deceptive since they spanned time and space in a way she doubted she would ever understand.

Any time she visited The Library she was used to seeing visitors from various time periods using the facility, and this occasion was no different. She noticed a wizard dressed in the form fitting pants, elegant black coat, and elaborately knotted cravat made famous by Beau Brummel.

She was so engrossed in looking through the portals to see who was there that if Trev hadn't taken hold of her arm she would have slammed into the furry Stennert when he halted.

“In here,” he growled, throwing out a long arm ending in dark talons. “I will return.”

Jazz turned to Blair. “Didn't Arnie say that?”

Blair shook her head. “‘I'll be back' was his.”

The four stepped through the portal, feeling a tremendous shift of power as they crossed through.

Stasi smelled herbs used to keep the fragile contents of the library from crumbling into dust. While they didn't smell bad, she could still feel her nose tickling. The sheer size of the cavernous room caused her hopes to plummet.