First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) (18 page)

“Sure.”

“How? Do you have a computer dweeb’s master code or something?” asked Smoke.

“Nah,” said Amber pulling out her cell phone, “depending on how predictable this guy is there are four common numbers people use when they have a four, six, or eight-number code to remember.”

“And?” prompted Smoke.

“And the most common is their birthdate.” She slid her finger over the flat screen and connected to the internet. After a few minutes search she located Karl Benn’s social media page and there, nice and convenient, was his birthdate.

She compared the numbers to the wear areas on the keypad. “Yes, look, his birthday is ten, eleven, and the number one on the pad is almost worn away.”

She tapped in the code and twisted the handle; then they all charged into the store. Smoke managed to reach the fallen man first. Karl was sprawled on the narrow fold-out bed, one arm twisted up across his chest. His lips were blue and his face covered in perspiration. Smoke pressed two stubby fingers to the side of his neck and let out a sigh of relief.

“He has a pulse and he’s breathing,” said Smoke, “but God, his color is awful.”

Amber touched her own fingers to his throat. Relief weakened her legs, and she sank down beside him when she felt a steady beat. She brushed the sweaty curls back off his forehead, let a little of the borrowed strength leak from her to him. Not too much. His weakened system couldn’t take much.

“Stay with us, Karl,” she whispered as she dialed 911.

“But the cops?” cried Rust. “How do we explain being in here?”

“Obviously, we couldn’t have gotten in unless we were friends enough for him to give us his passcode. Let them think I came over for some midnight nookie. Who cares? And I’m going to talk to him before the cops ask questions.” Her face tightened. “He needs help. They almost killed him last night.”

“With four friends? Kinky,” said Lightning and Rust hit him.

“So? You guys hit the bricks before the cops arrive.”

“They who?” demanded Smoke.

“The wolves. The wolves in that dream. They were feeding on him. Feeding on me and thousands of others. And it has got to stop.”

Amber paused at the hospital room door peering through a tiny window. Wires, tubes, and who knew what else were coming out of Karl. His face was pale, haggard, but with the oxygen being given to him, his lips were no longer a ghastly shade of blue. Amber swallowed down rising nausea and forced a smile onto her face. He did look better than a few hours ago. Then again, a few hours ago she’d thought he was dead.

She’d spent hours pacing the ICU waiting room floor, hoping she’d been in time. And fighting guilt. She believed he wasn’t the bad guy, but what happened to Karl in the nightmare was a cruel way to have it proven.

“Are you sure I can’t see him? Speak to him?” she asked the nurse on duty for the fourth time that day.

“Have you become his family since this morning?” asked the nurse. She was professionally sympathetic and no doubt reassuring to the families, but she annoyed the heck out of Amber.

“You mean have I married him since you last asked? No.”

“Then, no, we can’t let you in.”

Amber waited until the nurse gathered her equipment together and went on to her next patient. There was nothing for it. She couldn’t let Karl talk to anyone before she talked to him. She needed to find out exactly what was going on with the bookstore, with the web, and with the attack this morning. And she had to make sure he didn’t complain about her breaking into his store.

Police. Good when needed, inconvenient when not.

She’d needed to do two Elemental energy draws since the attack. One to get on her feet and out of the house and again while waiting for the ambulance. She was so tired she could feel her heart missing a beat here and there. She’d drawn mostly from Earth, directing energy to healing. Karl didn’t have that ability.

The nurse had her back turned, finally. Amber took a little energy from Air and closed her eyes as she cast her spell. If the nurse was sufficiently busy, sufficiently distracted the see-me-not spell that Amber had created for being ignored by police while driving might just get her into Karl’s room. It didn’t make her invisible, just not important.

His head turned as soon as she entered and he blinked at her vaguely. It took a few moments before his mind focused and his eyes became alert. He scowled and clenched his hand on the sheets reaching vainly for the nurse call button that was just inches away.

“We meet again,” said Amber.

The machines over his head registered a jump in heartbeat as she walked toward him.

“Are hospital rooms going to be the equivalent of ‘our song’?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

She idly began arranging flowers on his bedside table. If anyone except that nurse walked by she now had established her right to be in this room.

“I’m hoping not. I don’t like hospitals that much.” Amber snorted and smiled. “Different at least, I suppose.”

“They tell me that you called the ambulance this time,” said Karl, “Mind if I ask what the hell you were doing in my shop at that hour?”

“I don’t mind at all. I knew you’d had a heart attack while being drained of psychic and life energy and I was trying to find out where you lived. Your shop was the logical place to start. How was I to know that you actually lived in the store? Why are you sleeping in your store, by the way? Are book thieves rife in the Poconos?”

Karl frowned and shook his head.

“I moved into the shop when I first bought it, to save money. And when the store didn’t take off I stayed there for the same reason. But I don’t understand how you knew I was sick.”

“We shared a nightmare,” said Amber, patiently seating herself in the visitor’s chair. “I was drawn in, probably by the web bonds we share and I saw you collapse.”

Karl stared at her as if she’d grown a second head and neither of them had a brain.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

He listened, close-mouthed as Amber described the massive web on the store and the Ethereal Planes, the strands that bound him and her, and the nightmare wolf attack.

“Orange sky and purple rocks. The drugs you’re taking don’t agree with you,” said Karl disgustedly and lay back against his pillows, turning his face away.

“You don’t remember?” demanded Amber, fists on hips. “You were on your back surrounded by a pack of wolves that were
killing
you and you don’t remember?”

“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You didn’t wake up at five sixteen this morning feeling like every member of the World Wide Wrestling League had body slammed you to the ground? And yesterday? The day before?”

Karl’s eyes opened, pale and bloodshot. He pulled the oxygen cannula away from his nose and sat up.

“Five sixteen?” he asked, suddenly alert.

“Yeah,” Amber stepped back, squelching her temper and leaned against the bedside table. “You know what I’m talking about now?”

“No. This can’t be right,” Karl ran his fingers through his tangled curls and shook his head. “That is, yes, I wake up every morning at that time. Exactly five sixteen. Have for years. Don’t need an alarm clock.”

“How many years?”

“Since college,” he stared off toward the window.

“You can’t have gone through that sort of energy drain every morning for years,” murmured Amber. “Not and survive.”

“I don’t know about energy drain,” said Karl thoughtfully. “I wake up feeling like I’ve run a marathon. Weak, shaking. Sometimes there’s blood on the sheets and scratches on my feet.” He gave Amber a suspicious look. “You’re saying that
magic
is doing this.”

“Exactly.”

“Get out!”

“No, really.” She smiled, relieved he finally understood.

“I mean, get out!” Karl shouted. “Get out of this room. Take your insane ideas and get away from me. I will not have a spirit channeling, mother earther, macrobiotic, rebirthing
witch
trying to heal my inner child, okay? I want you out.”

Amber stood and glared down at him. She only had minutes, seconds, before the nurses came in response to his shout. She crossed to the bed and leaned down over him.

“You and I have a problem,
Mister
Benn. A couple of days ago I walked up to your bookstore, touched the door, and I was attacked.”

“Now listen …”

“You listen,” Amber’s face flushed. “I was attacked magically. Something … something attached itself to me. Something that came from
your store
. All of my strength left me. You saw me before they took me to the hospital. I was drained. It took hours for me to recover. Since then I’ve been investigating this attack and I’ve seen some things that you will not believe unless you see them for yourself.”

Karl raised his pale face to hers and snarled. “I don’t trust witches. From my experience they are one step down from politicians, con artists, and thieves. I’m going to be very hard to convince,” He stabbed a finger at Amber. “If it turns out that you’re running a con, then you’re not going to enjoy the legal repercussions of this. I will find a crime to accuse you of and I will pursue you until I run out of money or legal means.”

Amber shrugged, entirely unimpressed.

“Magic’s not against the law … anymore,” she said. “And it would be a little hard to prove that I benefited in any way from being attacked by a big black web that no one else can see. So feel free to go right ahead and try. In the meantime, you’ve got to come with me.”

“Where?”

“To my aunt’s home. I have to do some magic … show you.”

“No magic. I will not …”

Amber leaned close and growled in a tone she’d learned from Smoke – a sound that went straight to the lizard brain and spoke to the deepest, primal fears.

“Karl, this morning someone took your strength until your heart failed. Do you hear me? Your heart stopped. I felt it happen. I shared that pain. The doctors told me and I’m sure they told you that your blood chemistry says you had a heart attack. They’ve been working you up all day and with all their medical tests they can’t find what’s wrong. No blocked blood vessels, no plaque. No predisposing factors. They have no idea why you have all the symptoms but actually didn’t have a medical reason to have one. They certainly can’t help you. A few more mornings like this one and
you will be dead.
Don’t you want to find out why? And who?” She paused to catch her breath. Damn it, the energy pulls should be holding her longer. Why was she so damned weak? “If you want to live you have to let me investigate this.”

Karl threw off his sheets and swung his feet to the floor. Amber thought about reaching to help him but didn’t. He wouldn’t have let her; and in her current state they’d both end up on the floor.

“If you’re setting me up for something,” he said. “Remember, there’s no hole deep enough or mountain high enough for you to hide from me.”

He sat on the edge of the bed with his whole body shaking.

“Yeah, now I’m scared,” muttered Amber.

He grabbed the EKG leads hanging from his chest and pulled them off, throwing them from him. The machines above his head started alarming and the nurses ran in, scowling.

“Get back in bed, Karl,” warned the nurse, reaching for the dangling leads and pulling a replacement package of contact pads out of her pocket.

“I’m leaving,” said Karl.

“Yeah,” said the nurse cheerfully. “In your condition I’d like to see you try.”

Karl glared at her but remained seated on the side of the bed.

“Tell you what,” continued the nurse smugly. “If you can walk to the door unassisted we’ll let you out.”

“Uh huh,” said Amber. “Wait a sec, Karl. Let me give you some incentive.”

“You what?” demanded Karl but he wasn’t fast enough to move away.

Amber chose to pull in Air and Water energy thinking that Karl’s abused psychic pathways would tolerate these smoother energies. She crossed the room and pressed a soft kiss on his lips and released the energy slowly into his system.

His mouth was warm and her own system started to hum when he deepened the kiss, putting one hand behind her neck to hold her close, but she couldn’t enjoy the touch. He needed … needed … life.

She was right about the abuse. He cringed away gasping as the energy leaked into him, but soon enough his color was better. She could feel his heartbeat strengthen under her hand. Eventually she broke the connection and stepped away, walking as steadily as she could to the other side of the room. It would not be a good idea to give the impression he needed her help to stand up.

Giving the nurse a narrow-eyed stare Karl walked across the room, tapped the door with his knuckles, and walked back to the bed.

“Get me my clothes,” he commanded. “I’m out of here.” He shot a deadly look at Amber. “And I’m driving myself.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Amber, knowing it was useless to argue with an angry man. “I’ll leave you directions. When you are ready to find out what’s really happening, drop on by.”

Karl turned into the gravel driveway and pulled his Mustang to the side of a large forecourt. He’d thought about, seriously thought about, staying home or staying in the hospital. Instead he’d gone to sleep for a few hours, signed himself out of the hospital, and driven up here.

He didn’t see any other cars parked in front of the three-story red brick … castle?
Where would you expect a witch to live,
he thought, climbing out of the car,
a moldering cottage in a dark forest?

There were brick crenulations across the front of the third story and wrought iron over the windows, and bay balconies at every window. He was particularly impressed with what looked like a “captive princess” tower on one side of the house, rising like a rocket above the main building and topped with stained glass. How that glass roof survived the Poconos winters he had no idea.

The word
magic
occurred to him and was pushed away with vicious force.

Karl walked up the front steps and hesitated, one hand raised, in front of the twisted rose patterned stained glass door. There was no knocker and no doorbell. He tapped firmly on the wood panel beside the door and waited.