Witches (Runes series Book 6) (21 page)

“Why? Don’t you have enough on your plate?”

“He needs help, Mom. I don’t want him to fail.”

She studied my face and sighed. “How many times a week?”

“Today and tomorrow. Sunday. Next week too. If he passes on Friday, that’s it. If he needs my help until the end of the semester, that’s fine too.”

She sighed again. “Okay. Fine. Help him, but talk to Torin about it so you can use his place. We have too many things going on here without worrying about Mortals underfoot.”

I went upstairs to get my copy of
The Scarlet Letter
. Torin’s place was in darkness, but I wasn’t worried. Now that I knew the Earl was out of the picture, I could breathe easier. I’d bet he’d already been imagining Torin turning him into a Valkyrie or helping him form an army of Immortals. He looked like the type that would have delusions of grandeur and plot to take over the world.

Then there was Andris. I felt bad for him. I bet there was something Torin could do to keep him here. We’d gone through so much together and he was part of our group. A group I might no longer be a part of if the Norns or the gods had their way.

Seven o’clock came and passed, and no truck pulled up outside our house. I alternated between checking my watch and outside.

Seven-ten. I started getting pissed. I had cleared my schedule for him. Blew off my boyfriend.

Seven-fifteen. Onyx hopped onto the window seat and sat on her hind legs. After a few minutes of feeling her eyes on me, I glanced down. “What?”

What’s wrong?

I really didn’t want to deal with her right now. “Thanks for saving me from that
Draugr
,” I said.

Your boyfriend told you?

“His name is Torin. Just like mine is Raine. Not cow foot. Or fish belly. Or mouse.” Hel’s Mist, I was taking out my frustration on a cat. “Sorry. I’m disappointed by someone and I’m taking it out on you.” I sat next to Onyx. “Yes, Torin told me. He said you shifted into a larger cat.”

Onyx nodded.
I have to when I deal with larger prey.

“Can you show me sometime?”

If you promise to practice with me. You haven’t mimicked since the night the goddess left me here.

“Actually I have. I practice in the shower or bathroom, but it’s a deal.” I extended my hand, palm up and she placed her paw on it. How human-like she was. She curled up next to me. It wasn’t my lap, but we’d made progress. I glanced outside again.

Nothing.

I couldn’t believe Beau had blown me off. I’d even given him my cell phone number.

I can hear your teeth grinding. What’s wrong?

“I was supposed to tutor some guy from school, and he stood me up. I hate flaky guys. And then there’s the problem with Andris.”

Pretty boy?

“Andris,” I corrected.

What’s wrong with Andris?

Should I trust her? What had she told me before? The gods didn’t do anything without a reason. She’d been honest with me from the beginning. Even hinted that Goddess Freya and Odin’s wife might be plotting something. “Yes. He might be in trouble.”

She lifted her head, ears alert.
What kind of trouble?

“He said something he shouldn’t have and everything is changing too fast for him to catch up.”

Are you going to help him?

“Yes.” Andris would do the same for me.

Can I help?

Only if she could convince Goddess Freya to make Andris an Idun-valkyrie too. “Do you know who promotes Valkyries to Idun-valkyries?”

The Council. It has Odin and Freya, and other gods. Why? What are you planning?
She sat up.

I stroked her head. “I’ll let you know when I have a plan, Fur-ball.”

She didn’t push me away, and her voice wasn’t scathing when she said,
you do know I hate that name as much as I hate Onyx.

“Would you prefer Emerald?”

No. I only know one Emerald and she’s a boyfriend-stealing, attention-hogging meinfretr!

I laughed. “Do tell. I thought you only reserved insults for me. When and where did she steal your boyfriend? And where is she so I can pull her tail?”

Your boyfriend is here.

The words barely registered when the portal opened and a barefoot Torin entered. His hair was wet and his sweatpants rode so low on his hips I could see the skin between his waistband and the white T-shirt.

“Where did you shower?”

He grinned. “I went for a swim at the mansion. Why? Did you want to join me?”

“I didn’t even know you were back. Onyx knew you were coming before the portal opened. How smart is that?” I stood and realized I was still holding
The
Scarlet Letter
. I put it on the headboard bookshelf, careful not to knock over the blown glass gifts he’d bought me then walked into his arms.

He leaned back and studied my face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Definitely something.” He scooped me up, and we settled on the bed. He wrapped his arms around my mid-section and rested his head on my chest. “Hmm, you smell nice. I’m here when you’re ready to talk. And FYI, there’s no way Onyx can feel me coming. She’s linked to your energy, not mine.”

I tried to remember something the cat had told me about Torin’s energy. “Onyx, what was that you said about our energies?”

Don’t remember. I say a lot of things. Now can you zip it? I’m trying to sleep here.

“She’s in one of her moods.” Torin’s eyes were closed, his ridiculous lashes forming canopies over his cheeks. I stroked his hair away from his face. His birthday was next week on Friday. On prom night. “We forgot to talk about your birthday.”

“Not important. Can you turn off the lights? I’m exhausted.”

I ignored his request. “It’s only seven…” I looked at the clock. “Seven-thirty.” I glanced outside. “How old are you going to be?”

“Eight hundred and something,” he mumbled. “I stopped counting after five centuries.”

I lifted his head, but his eyes stayed closed. “I’m not going to let you go to sleep until we talk. We need to do something fun, and I want to know what you plan to do about Andris. He’s one of us.”

Torin opened one eye, then another. “I just spent the past several hours trying to talk to him. Several times. Each time, one of us ended with a broken neck. I’m exhausted. He’s impossible. Can you let go of my head now?”

I did. “What did you two fight about?”

“No idea. I tried to find out what’s wrong with him, and he kept acting like a douche.”

Men! “Do you know why?”

“Nope.” He was getting pissed. “I can’t read his mind.”

I sighed. “You two have been together for… what?”

“Almost seven centuries.”

“And you’re about to leave. Since he reaps for Goddess Freya’s Hall, they’ll have to find your replacement to reap for Valhalla. He’s having a hard time with that. Your relationship is going to change and he’s dealing with it.”

“By being a jackass?”

“No, by putting some distance between you. This way it won’t hurt so much when you finally go your separate ways.”

Torin sat up. “The idiot. Why didn’t he just say so?”

“Didn’t you realize your promotion would change things between you two?”

“Not really. I mean we’d still stay together and… Oh.” He cursed. “Okay. I’ll take care of it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.” He planted a quick one on my lips and scooted off the bed. “Thanks, luv. I’m going to talk to him now. Idiot,” he murmured again before the door closed.

Shaking my head, I changed into my pajamas and went to brush my teeth. As I stared at my reflection, it finally hit me. I was the idiot. Beau might have blown me off. Or maybe he couldn’t come. Or maybe his car broke down or…

Crap! What if his stepfather had decided to forget about me and what I’d threatened to do three nights ago?

“Onyx.”
 
I walked to where the cat slept and yelled, “Onyx!”

She jumped, hair sticking out, eyes wide.
What? What’s going on?

“You’re coming with me. We’re going to check on our first case.”

Jace?

“No. Beau. Engage your runes, so he can’t see us.” I let Beau’s bedroom fill my head, then engaged my runes. In seconds, I was staring at his empty bedroom.

Sounds were coming from upstairs. Muffled voices. An awful sputtering sound and thuds.

If his stepfather was hurting them again…

Using Beau as my focal point, I created a portal. It led to their driveway. A one-eared dog rested on the steps, and several people sat on their porch. His mother stood to my right. She had a cast on her arm and was wearing a sling. His stepfather chugged beer with some guy a few feet away and sat on a rocking chair.

I was so relieved there was no fighting, I laughed.
 
I looked around for Beau. His truck was in the driveway, and a man had his head in the hood. He must have been the one making all the ruckus. Despite the darkness, I recognized Beau behind the wheel of his Chevrolet.

The mechanic straightened and yelled, “Try it now!”

Beau cranked up the engine and it sputtered and coughed to life. It sounded like it was on its last breath. The mechanic laughed and slammed the hood shut, then walked to the window and bumped fists with Beau.

“Thanks, Uncle Heaney,” Beau said, then looked over his shoulder straight at me. The instinct to step back was natural. I always forgot Mortals couldn’t see portals. When he said, “Ma, my phone,” I realized he was looking at his mother, not me.

“I’ll try and find it. I hope you make it to your class.”

His uncle stepped from the truck and opened the door, and said, “In, boy.”

The dog trotted off the porch and hopped in the passenger seat. Beau took off with squealing wheels.

His mother entered the house. Before the door closed, the stepfather yelled after her, “Bring us more beer, Janice!” Then he reached into the pocket of his plaid shirt and removed something. I recognized the skull and crossbones on the cell cover. That was Beau’s phone. “That boy thinks he can lie and get away with it? Study group. At night? He’s probably late for a humping date with one of his girlfriends.”

The mother, who was still in the doorway and overhead him, went back and tried to snatch the phone from his hand. “How could you do that, Joe? Beau is not lying. He cares about school.”

“He cares about baseball and how many girls he can screw. But he’ll end up like all of us here. Yep, breaking his back at Chandler for a woman who doesn’t know how to listen. Where’s my beer?”

“Give me the phone first,” she said and reached for it.

He pushed her arm away, then for whatever reason changed his mind and shoved the phone into her hand. She left the porch and headed toward the kitchen, which still had dirty dinner plates on the counter. How the hell was she going to clean those with one arm? I checked my watch. It was going to take Beau ten minutes to get to my house, which was enough time to teach step-daddy a lesson.

I turned and almost stepped on Onyx. She’d been quiet since we arrived. I reached down and picked her up.
You okay?

She glared.
No. I’m assuming the one who left with squealing wheels and a dog is coming to our house.
She shuddered.
I hate dogs.

Really? You can shift into something bigger than a dog and you have claws.

Her eyes narrowed.
And your point is?

His stepfather is a bully who likes to beat his mother or Beau, if he gets in the way of his punches. He and I had a brief chat and I thought that he learned his lesson. It’s time for lesson number two. Go home and keep an eye out for Beau. If his truck makes it to my place, come get me.

As long as he’s not bringing that mangy canine inside our house.

I didn’t respond, just put her down and followed Mrs. Hardshaw to the kitchen. She had already removed one can of beer and was pressing it against her chest with her injured hand as she reached for a second one. The first one slipped and fell. I almost stretched out my hand to catch it, but stopped myself. For seconds, she stared at it, fighting tears, shoulders drooping with fatigue.

You’re tired and sleepy. So sleepy you cannot keep your eyes open. Go to the bedroom and lie down. If you hear noises, ignore them.

She put the can of beer back on the counter, ignored the one she’d dropped and staggered out of the kitchen. I followed her, stopped in the doorway and watched her go down the hallway to their bedroom. When the door closed behind her, I checked my watch. I had time.

Grinning, I pointed at the front door and opened it. Slammed it shut. Opened. Shut. Opened again. Slammed.

“Damn it, woman!” Hardshaw senior bellowed and got his fat ass off the rocking chair. “Where’s my beer? And why is the door…” He realized his wife was not in the kitchen. He gripped the door and looked behind it. “Huh?”

I grinned. I had so many ways I could screw with his head. I dragged him inside the room and then slammed the door shut, forcing him to jump out of the way. His friend was still outside. I got rid of my invisibility runes and his eyes widened.

“You,” he said in a strangled voice.

“Mr. Hardshaw, I told you I’d be back.” I crossed my arms. “Taking Beau’s phone? That was just mean. Did you mess with his engine too?”

He looked at the door as though deciding whether to bolt or not, and shook his head. I walked toward him and he inched away from the door. “What do you want?”

“Checking on how things are going. He wasn’t lying about studying. You should have given him your truck.”

“He’s lied before.”

“He didn’t this time.” I locked the door and turned. He was already halfway to the kitchen. “You should have a little faith, Mr. Hardshaw. One day he’ll thank you for taking care of him and his mother, but only if you do the right thing. I don’t understand why you are so mean to him and his mother. She has a broken arm and can barely lift a thing and you have her running up and down, fetching drinks for you. Why are you so determined to be a terrible father and husband?”

“You don’t know anything about me,” he said.

“Actually I do.” I engaged my speed runes and appeared beside him. Before he could react, I grabbed his arm and prayed I got a vision. At first, I got nothing and he tried to break free from my hold. “Stand still.”

His life flashed by. I checked my watch and was surprised to see that only a minute had passed. I let him go and he staggered backwards and grabbed a phone.

“Who are you trying to call now?”

“The police,” he said.

“And tell them what? That someone they can’t see is harassing you?” I engaged my invisibility runes for a few seconds and watched him look around frantically. I got rid of them and reappeared. The look on his face was hilarious. “Put the phone down and listen to me, because if I have to come back here again, I’m coming back with soul reapers.”

That got his attention. He put the phone down and swallowed.

“You were a star athlete too. Kayville High’s finest until you were injured.” He blinked. “I told you I knew about you. With your knee shot, you lost your chance of making it to college on a scholarship. The woman you loved, Lucy Carmichael, left you. You lost everything, and all because of a stupid prank. Without the scholarship, you followed in your father’s footsteps and started working at Chandler Factory. You don’t like it, but you do it anyway. Why? For your family, because you are that kind of man. The one who gets up every morning and goes to do a job he hates, because he wants to put food on the table and a roof over the head of his family.”

He was finally listening to me. But I didn’t have much time to continue stroking his ego without throwing in how he could help Beau. Any second, I expected a portal to open and Onyx to appear.

“You make sacrifices every day for your family, Mr. Hardshaw. You take more night shifts to make more money. You stopped driving the trucks because you were spending too much time away from home. You almost drove off the road the other night because you were so tired.” I’d seen that in my vision and had no idea when it happened, but he nodded. “You could have been killed.” He nodded again. “And that back ache problem you complain about will only get worse.”

“You know about my back?”

“Of course.” I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms. I was beginning to get cold. The pajama bottoms didn’t cover much and the robe was flimsy. “But a time will arrive when you can’t provide for your family, and guess who will help you?”

A sheepish expression crossed his face.

“Yes, your wife and your son. You might have been in love with Lucy in high school, but Janice, the girl you didn’t notice when you were a star football player, was the one who came to see you at the hospital. You weren’t nice to her, but she came anyway. And years later when you met her again, you saw the goodness in her and fell in love with her. You didn’t care that she had a son with another guy. You raised him as your own. Beau is smart, and he works hard at school. Encourage him and he will be there for you when you need him. All the sacrifices you’re making now will be worth it.”

He was frowning now. I had him. His friend was knocking at the door, but he ignored him.

“Your wife and your son need you, Mr. Hardshaw. Stop pushing them away. She’s sleeping now because she’s exhausted and her arm hurts. I told her to go rest, please don’t take it out on her. Show her you are the man she fell in love with. Help around the house a bit. Give Beau some attention. Go watch him play. Ask him about school.”

A small portal opened and Onyx stared at me.

“I don’t want to come back here, Mr. Hardshaw. I have other people who need my help. You don’t. You can change whenever you want to. You can stop drinking and be a loving father and husband, or you can choose not to stop. The choice is yours.”

He didn’t nod this time. He was lost in thought.

“I have to go now. See you around.” I engaged my runes and cloaked. He didn’t even look around. I opened a portal. The last image I had of him was reaching down to pick up the can of beer his wife had dropped.

~*~

Voices reached me as soon as I entered my room. I pulled on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and then headed downstairs. Mom had opened the door for Beau and was laughing at something he’d said. He stood on the step, one hand in his pocket and the other on his dog’s neck.

 
“I’m here,” I said and started down the stairs.

“Were you…?” Mom caught herself before she finished the sentence, but I knew what she was going to ask: was I out of the house?

“Yes. Thanks, Mom.” I waited until she left before inching closer. Any second, I expected Beau’s dog to start growling. “Hey.” I glanced at my watch. “Seven-forty-five.”

He shot me a lop-sided grin. “Sorry about that. You won’t believe this, but my engine conked out and, uh, this might sound even lamer. I lost my phone, so I couldn’t call you to cancel. So here I am, apologizing in person.”

He got kudos for that. “Does that mean I rearranged my schedule for nothing?”

“It depends. How much can you show me in fifteen minutes?”

That was a cheap come on. I shook my head. “You didn’t bring your books and you have a dog.”

“Bono. Sit.” The dog sat.

This was the first time a dog wasn’t growling at me. “What breed is he?”

“A mongrel.”

“It has only one ear.”

Beau shrugged. “Made him stand out from all the ugly ones at the pound.”

So he deliberately chose a deformed dog. I knew there was more to him. “Right. Do you have a copy of
The Scarlet Letter
?”

He pulled it from behind him along with the packet Mr. Gentry had given him. “I always come prepared.”

He and I needed to discuss his flirtatious behavior. I nodded at the dog. “Will he be okay out there? I mean he could come inside, but I have a cat and she doesn’t like dogs.”

“He’ll be fine. Bono. Stay.”

Onyx was on the stairs and watched the dog until Beau closed the door. She followed us to the kitchen. Mom and Femi were having tea and catching up on the news on the kitchen TV.

“Femi, this is Beau. Beau, Femi, a family friend. You’ve already met my mom. Could we use the kitchen?” I asked, my eyes volleying between Mom and Femi.

Mom patted the table where they were seated. “Sure, hun. Don’t mind us.”

Was she serious? “Mom,” I said. More like whined. “We talked about this and you promised you guys wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m just kidding.” She stood, planted a kiss on my temple, and patted my cheek. “Come on, Femi. Nice to meet you Beau.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Cooper.” Then he had the nerve to turn and watch them walk away. He even turned his head sideways.

“Hey!”

He gave me an innocent look. “What?”

“That’s my mother you are ogling, you perv,” I whispered.

He shrugged. “She’s hot.” He glanced toward the living room. “And so is her friend.”

This time, I grabbed his head and forced him to face the window. Mom and Femi disappeared toward the wet bar in the living room.

“Sit.” I waited until he sat and placed his book on the table. “Okay, before we start. Some ground rules. No flirting. No winking at me in school and come up with a better reason for this.” I pointed at the book. “You can’t tell lies to your friends about us or no more tutoring.”