First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) (27 page)

Karl grunted, shouldering his bag and starting out of the room. Amber planted herself in the doorway and held up her arms. Karl cursed as he bumped up against her. Hitting Amber was like hitting a mountain. He tried to shove her to one side, but she didn’t shift a fraction of an inch. Amber pushed back. Karl’s trainers squeaked as they slid across the polished wood floor. He growled as he tried to brace himself against her advance. And failed.

“I channeled Earth energy this morning for our recharge,” Amber told him, as she pushed him back toward the bed. “You’d have to hit me pretty hard to leave a bruise. Mind you, you’d likely break your hand trying. Now sit down and talk to me. You’ve just been struck by an idea, a memory. What?”

With one last shove she toppled him onto the twisted blankets.

“Typical,” snarled Karl. “You have the power and everyone else is your victim.”

Amber rolled her eyes and lifted her hands in supplication.

“Why me?” she whispered and returned her gaze to Karl. “Hold out your hands.”

“What?”

“Hold out your hands!” she shouted.

Karl extended his hands toward her, taking the opportunity to make a rude gesture. His upper arms twitched and shivered under the fabric of his sleeves. His fingers shook like leaves in a heavy gale. He bit his lip bloody in his struggle to stop the trembling. The harder he concentrated the more his fingers shook.

“Dammit,” he swore, clenching his fists and pulling his arms back, wrapping them about his body. “That doesn’t prove anything. If you would give me a decent dose of … strength, I’d be fine.”

“No. Additional Elemental energy wouldn’t help you right now. You’re suffering from pent up …” she sighed. “I suppose
will
is the closest word to it. You’ve wanted to do things for years and those wills, wants, and desires have all been trapped. Run. Jump. Leap. Dance. You couldn’t. The spells were dragging you down. Now I’ve taken off the least little spell, given you some of the strength you’ve lacked the last few years and you feel like the flood gates are opened and if you’re not careful you’re going to want to fly in all sorts of directions. You’re out of control. The spell’s control and your own. If you had the brains the Elementals gave an ant you’d rest, let the energy sort itself out.”

Karl muttered a soft suggestion that Amber decided that she didn’t want to understand.

“What did you want to do this morning?” she asked with artfully feigned patience.

“I’ve got to go to Buffalo. I’ve got to … I think I’ve got to go back to my alma mater.”

“College? Why?”

Karl climbed off the bed and started pacing.

“Remember that blasted nightmare? You said that you’d seen a wolf die.”

Amber nodded.

“Well, the next day I got a call from my mother. A friend of …” He growled and his hands flexed. “Someone I knew from college died that night. I went back for his funeral. His parents gave me this necklace he wore all the time. Said that when he talked about me he would rub the pendant. Look at it.” He searched through his jacket pocket and pulled out the silver chain with its hunting wolf figure and shoved it into Amber’s face. “When they gave it to me, it was as if I sort of remembered something, but it didn’t make sense until you showed me the nightmare.”

He grabbed her hand, slammed the pendant onto her palm, then turned and walked over to the bay windows. She could feel distress, grief rolling off him. Wherever his thoughts were he deserved a little privacy.

“His father said he found Mike in bed with his throat torn out. That’s what you saw, isn’t it. You saw Mike die.”

Amber froze, her thoughts racing.

“You knew?” she demanded. “You really knew one of the wolves? As a person? A friend? It can’t have been random your being brought into the nightmare; it might …” She jumped to her feet. “You might be part of the original spell. One of the first victims. That might explain how the web is shaped. The cord to you is different. Stronger, heavier, and directly attached to the apartment I went to on the Ethereal Planes.”

“If that’s true then I have to go back to college. I met Mike in high school, but the first time I – we, ran into magic was at college.”

“You’re in no fit shape to go anywhere, let alone driving all the way to Buffalo,” protested Amber, her voice sharp. “You can barely walk across the room. Besides, what about the bookstore?”

Karl swung away from the window and stalked across the room until he was standing nose to nose with her.

“Nothing is going to go right in that damned store until whatever is hanging onto it, and me, is gone. I know that. You know that.” He slammed his palm against his chest. “We gotta get this damn thing out of me.”

Amber jumped back then nodded slowly. “True, we have to get it out of both of us. But it isn’t safe for you to be active. You’re weak and your energy is confused.”

“Then fill me up,” he pushed up his sleeve and pointed to his arm. “Latch yourself on and pour it in. I have things to do and you’re wasting my time.”

“Greedy and acting like a drug addict.”

Amber reached out and pushed gently, but firmly against his shoulder. The Earth energy was fading fast, but there was little Karl could do against the solidity she could still summon. He toppled back into the bed.

She’d chosen to take energy from the Earth Element that morning as she’d found Air energy made her prone to be ditzy. She couldn’t stand herself when she was that eccentric. Earth energy moved slower, but helped keep her grounded. As far as she could see, both she and Karl needed some serious grounding.

“I can’t keep pouring energy into us,” she said flatly. “It’s dangerous.”

“Someone is pulling it out of us; we can’t function without getting strength from somewhere.”

“Food would be traditional,” suggested Amber.

Karl responded with another rude gesture.

Amber groaned and dragged the palms of her hands over her face. He was not going to listen. She could see his rage, his distrust. Years of being limited and now she was saying slow down when his heart and spirit cried out
run
.

“I can’t keep infusing us with Elemental energy,” she repeated, enunciating each word carefully. “Our bodies aren’t designed to be sustained that way. We’re
supposed
to get our energy from food. Remember food? That stuff with calories, protein? Chocolate? Café Latte? Steak? French fries? Pancakes. Ohhhhh. Pancakes. Smoke makes the best banana pancakes. I’ll ask him to make breakfast.”

Karl continued to glare at her, arms folded, legs planted as hard as he could on the floor. The assertive posture was not aided by the trembling of his legs. Amber pursed her lips and sighed.

“Okay, listen. When a witch pulls in energy for a spell it isn’t in her body for long. Everyone warns against it. If you pull in the power of the universe and hang onto it, then you won’t be able to sleep, you’ll get fidgety and unsettled. Nothing you try to do will work because that sort of energy is supposed to flow. To move on. So a witch will pull in what she needs, shape it with a spell, and send it out – fast. What I’ve been doing …
we’ve
been doing is pulling in a little and holding it, and it’s starting to wear on us. I can’t do it too much. It’s like trying to run a nine-volt toy with a nuclear engine. We will fry ourselves from the inside out if we keep this up.”

“We’re doing all right so far,” grumbled Karl and Amber laughed.

“You must be really fried or you would see just how far from fine we are. Like eating fire for real and washing it down with a hit of kerosene.”

“You’re doing okay,” snarled Karl. “Strong as a mountain.”

“Listen, you moron,” Amber grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him across the room to where an antique mirror in a bentwood frame hung. “Look at me. My hair. Look. Do you see the grey? That wasn’t there yesterday. The Elemental energy is aging me!” Amber left him swaying in front of the mirror and sank down into a nearby rocking chair. “Besides, any power I pull in gets stolen from me the next morning and I don’t want to give those parasites anything more than I have to.”

“That’s the real reason,” said Karl, stabbing a finger at her. “You don’t want to give anything to the other witches.”

“They are both the real reason,” replied Amber. “Stop giving me a hard time about it. I’m telling you the truth. We will die if we try to use too much Elemental energy. We’ll take just a little, just enough to keep moving. Besides, I agree with you. We need to find out where this started. And if you feel it’s in Buffalo, then to Buffalo we will go. Together. After breakfast. Pancakes.”

Chapter Nine

“I do not understand why you drive that blasted thing,” Karl complained as he carried his overnight bag across the forecourt to the antique VW camper. Then he looked around, stunned.

“Where the hell is my car?” he demanded. “It was bad enough when the color changed, but this is theft.”

Smoke chuckled as Amber joined them and they watched Karl staring at a blank section of gravel.

“Where’s my car?” Karl repeated, refraining only through weakness from grabbing one or the other of the cousins and shaking them. “You can’t have started it. I had the distributor cap. If you don’t bring it back I’m calling the cops.”

“Planning on telling them that a house stole your car?” asked Smoke.

“No. They’d think I was crazy. I’m beginning to think that myself. Come on, the house has to do what you say; you’re the witches. God above, did I really say that?”

He leaned against the fender of the VW which creaked and shifted away. Karl stood up fast.

“I,” said Amber, dropping her case and the emergency magic bag onto the ground, “have a midnight black Aztec. New, midnight black Aztec. The house, for reasons no one can explain, has hidden my car and insists on giving me Uncle Robyn’s … thing.” She waved her hand vaguely in its direction, glaring at the peeling paint and bumper bar held on with wire. “It isn’t even a car. It’s a formation flying rust team held together by paint and the belief that it was once an automobile.”

“Make it give me back my car,” demanded Karl.

“I can’t even get it to give me mine. I’ve been in and out of the house for half an hour arguing with it and this is all I have to show for it and I can’t even drive the van. I’m too tall!”

Karl blinked.

“I know I’m going to regret asking this, but how, exactly, do you argue with a house?”

“Don’t ask. And if you ever accuse me of enjoying magic too much I will throw things at you. Starting with the house.”

“All of this is beside the point,” said Karl. “We need a decent car to get to Buffalo. This thing won’t even get us as far as a rental place. How old is it anyway?”

“Oh, over thirty easily,” said Amber. “Maybe more. Who knows. It doesn’t work. And the house hates me. I know it does. Why else would it punish me by giving me this heap of junk to drive?”

Karl studied her pouting lip and bright eyes and laughed for the first time in days. She sounded close to tears. He didn’t blame her; it just struck him as funny.

“Why doesn’t the house fix the car?” said Karl, then added to himself. “Did I really ask that question?”

“That’s easy enough to answer,” said Smoke, coming over to pat the side panels of the old van companionably. “Robyn won’t let the house repair this old lady. He says that cars are real and their repairs should be real, too. Only Robyn is a busy man; he never has time to take this old girl in for work.”

Amber stopped dead, staring up at the house.

“It couldn’t be that simple,” she whispered, “and it could be a sign that the house believes that Lucinda and Robyn are still alive.”

She cast a brilliant grin to Karl and Smoke.

Smoke shrugged although his dour expression lightened a little.

“And if I put this thing in for repairs it would have to give me my car,” Amber cried, almost danced with delight.

Karl laughed, watching her slender form disappearing into the hall. He surprised even himself with the emotion. He wasn’t certain why he felt a sense of accomplishment. He didn’t understand half of what was going on whenever Amber was about. The laugh choked off and he slung his overnight bag over his shoulder.

With her in the house, this was his chance to leave. There was no reason for her to accompany him to Buffalo. He would go, find out what there was to find out, and if he thought she needed the information, he’d tell her. He’d … how the hell would he get away from here? They were miles from the nearest town and his cell phone wasn’t picking up a signal.

There was a dull crunch behind them and Karl spun. His car rested a few feet away. There were no marks on the gravel to reveal where the hidden garage was. No engine sounds as it approached. Nothing.

It was amazing what you could get used to, he thought, moving his hand over the smooth skin of his car. Caring about the opinion of a house, for God’s sake. Cars changing colors. Appearing, disappearing.

Whatever the reason the house had returned his car and not Amber’s, he was not going to wait around to discuss it.

Karl glanced toward the house then flung his overnight case into the back seat. He was about to jump into the front seat when he turned and saw Smoke leaning casually against the front grill.

There was nothing threatening in his posture. Certainly the smaller man could not stop the car from moving if Karl started to drive away. But there was something heavy and permanent in Smoke’s amused eyes that made Karl pause.

Amber came charging out of the house, breathless but laughing, her computer bag bouncing against her hip. Smoke stood back, brushing his hands together and nodded in Karl’s direction.

“I called around,” said Amber. “There’s a classic car restoration company that will come down and pick up the van tomorrow or the next day. I told them to restore it to bright and shiny new.”

“That’s going to cost a fortune,” Karl warned.

“Money isn’t important,” Amber and Smoke chorused.

Amber ducked past Karl and scrambled over the door to land in the driver’s seat leaving a scrape and dust on the door from her shoes.

“Keys, please,” she said, holding out her hand.