Making Magic (37 page)

Thea kept calling as she walked across the drive. “Bailey! Come on, baby. Come here.”

From the noises coming through the mud room’s screen door, it sounded like Eddie was already at work in the ruined laundry room. Ouida had loaded down the breakfast bar with snacks and drinks, then shepherded Grace and the baby off to “freshen up a bit”. Thea glanced up the hill at a light coming from one of the cabin windows. Someone was up, even at this unholy hour. She needed to warn Daniel to keep Aaron’s exhibition on the porch to a minimum.

It was the wee hours of the morning and she was dead on her feet. She needed coffee and something in her stomach. She went up the steps and leaned against the railing.

“
Bailey! Come here now!
” If Bailey was in earshot, she would be compelled to come. If not, any further search would have to wait until it was light. She strained, searching for any sign of a furry white form hurtling through the darkness.

A warm hand clasped her shoulder. “We’ll find her,” Jake said. “Once we get this mess straightened out, we’ll scour the mountain if we have to. Maybe she’ll come home on her own first.”

Thea turned and buried her face in his shirt. “She’s barely been rescued.” She was a bit ashamed to hear her voice break. “She might not know where to come home
to.
” She almost added “like me”.

His fingers ran through her hair, still sticky with residue. But since he also smelled like olive oil, they were kind of even.

“You know that anyone who belongs up here finds their way home eventually.” His voice rumbled beneath her ear.

“I shouldn’t have brought her up here. Now she’s out there with all those bears and that big cat and who knows what else.” She leaned back to glare at the house. “And I shouldn’t have brought
him
up here. I led Greg and his…his whoever they are right to the mountain.”

Jake took her face in his hands. “And you and that amazing gift of yours are going to send him packing none the wiser. In fact, once you get through with him, I suspect they won’t ever look at this mountain again.”

She frowned at him. “How—”

“Come on.” He took her arm and guided her through the mud room and into the kitchen. “You need lots of caffeine and one of Ouida’s biscuits. Maybe two.”

Thea sighed.

Mel was sitting next to Jake’s mom at the breakfast bar. Marilyn still appeared shell-shocked.

Someone had finally moved Sarah and Greg. She glanced around but they were nowhere to be seen. They had been rendered quiet and obedient by one command from her. “
Do what you’re told.
” Thea hoped someone remembered to give them a bathroom break.

She leaned on the counter while Jake poured her a much needed cup of cappuccino from that gorgeous copper monstrosity in the kitchen. She would have preferred something fizzy and alcoholic, but she was going to need all her wits and her energy for the next couple of hours. They all were.

“Stubborn woman won’t go to bed like any other new mother would.” Ouida said from the archway.

Grace came into the kitchen carrying Lily in some kind of wraparound sling. She didn’t look at all like she had just delivered a baby while being held hostage. Daniel and Marty Croate followed behind her, equally enthralled by the new arrival.

The talk Daniel had with the Croates seemed to have gone well, if Aaron’s and Emmy’s expressions were any indication. Although Al’s face was hard to read as he stepped quietly into the kitchen.

It was a good thing that Pops had designed the kitchen to serve as the heart of the house because right now it was full to overflowing. Even Pooka, who was usually banned from the kitchen, was weaving around underfoot. Jake waved a napkin-wrapped biscuit under Thea’s nose. She took it along with the steaming mug he set before her.

“Biscuit with butter and honey. Come over this way.” He guided her into the great room, away from most of the hubbub.

She took a bite of the fluffy biscuit and closed her eyes. Perfection. Then followed up with a gulp of coffee. Exactly the way she liked it. “Good idea not to let me sit down. I might doze off.”

He slid an arm around her. “I know. And I’m sorry. But we need you to stay conscious for a while. Drink up.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you are a huge control freak?”

“It takes one to know one.”

Thea had to think about that one while she gulped the coffee and took another bite. “What exactly am I staying conscious for?”

Thea felt him tense up a bit. “You’re going to send a couple of us away from here with very different memories of tonight.”

She shook her head. “We can’t use the voice, Jake. It’s not reliable enough for something like this. I told you what happened with my dad and—”

“Finish that and we’ll go see how reliable your voice really is.”

Jake stood with his arm around her, as if he wanted to make certain she stayed on her feet as she finished. He took the empty napkin and mug away from her and guided her toward the stairs.

“Where are we—”

“We’ve got Greg in the powder room under the stairs.”

“Terrific. Are you going to let me punch him?”

“If you want to. But…think about it, Thea. The only reason you doubt your gift is what you heard from this asshole.” Jake opened the door.

Thea looked from Jake’s face to Greg’s. The man seemed eerily calm, even though he was firmly secured on the toilet seat. She would almost prefer some sign of anger or fear to that blank serenity. She stood in front of Greg and crossed her arms.

“Did my father really fire you?”

Greg looked like would swallow his tongue if he could.

“
Tell the truth. Did my father fire you?
”

“No,” Greg said. The tic under his eye was out of control.

So Greg had lied. Her list of demands—her commands to her father were working.

“
Was he really testing Woodruff Herbs
?”

“Yes.”

“
Did he stop testing them
?”

Beads of sweat appeared on Greg’s forehead. “Yes.”

“
Do you know why he was testing them
?”

He was shaking a bit. “No.”

“
Did he shut down the experiments in India?
” One of the many things on her list she’d wanted to verify.

“Yes.”

Satisfied, Thea started to leave, then almost knocked Jake over as she went back to Greg.

“
Do you know where those two captives are being held?
”

“No.”

Thea sighed. He was just a lowly drone in that black ops hive of his. He didn’t know anything. But maybe her question was too specific.

“
Do you have any idea at all about where they are being held?
”

“Yes.”

Blood trickled out of his nose.

Shit.
She grabbed Jake’s arm. “Get Grace.”

Jake escorted Grace and Thea back into the kitchen. Grace had checked Greg over and repaired the damage Thea had done. Apparently, it was a side effect when people tried too hard to resist her will. Even though Grace had assured her that it didn’t appear to be permanent, it had upset Thea enough to make her stop questioning Greg and mutter about her gift working too damn well now.

But from the expression on Thea’s face, Jake could tell she had figured it out. Her gift was reliable after all.

Thea had told his mom never to say what she had said that night at the festival again and she hadn’t. But when she had seen those flickering flames of hers around Thea again, his mom had thrown similar accusations at her—but never used those exact same words. There were plenty of ways to say pretty much the same thing and his mom had, without ever repeating what she had said that night.

Ouida was hovering over the stove, as usual, cooking even more food. Marty Croate stood next to her, talking while her husband was propped against the refrigerator. The kids were at the breakfast bar, eating what was either a very late supper or a very early breakfast. Either way, they looked sleepy.

To ensure that she didn’t head out the door to look for Bailey again, he followed Thea as she poured herself another mug of coffee and grabbed another biscuit. She returned to the breakfast bar and sat across from his mom and Mel.

Mel looked up at them. “Marilyn has been telling me some interesting things.”

“Has she now?” Jake said with a hint of sarcasm, angling a hip on the tall chair beside Thea.

“Yes, she has. Haven’t you, Marilyn?”

Everyone in the kitchen was listening now, except for the kids, who looked like they were going to fall into their food. It was so quiet that they all heard Daniel tell Eddie to leave the repairs until tomorrow before he came to join them in the kitchen.

“What have you been telling Mel, Mom?” Jake asked.

“About the flickering,” his mom said. “Like I was trying to tell you this afternoon. The flares of light that I started seeing coming off people, back when you were a boy.”

Jake frowned. Was that this afternoon? “Sorry about this. She—”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Mel said. “Your mother has a rather unique ability.”

Jake noticed that Mel had his mom’s fingers woven into her own. Nick had said that Mel could control emotions. That’s why his mom was so calm now. But an ability? What was she talking about?

“I see them around almost all of you,” his mom said. “Grace and Thea and Daniel. You.”

“Me?” Jake said.

“Yes. Yours was the first one I ever saw. Well…” She swallowed, looking briefly distressed, then her face cleared. “Except for myself, of course. I saw mine first.” She held up her hand and seemed to admire it. “Then yours and then Eric’s.”

Eric? Jake knew his mouth had dropped open. “B-Becca?”

She shook her head.

“Who else, Marilyn?” Mel asked in a soft voice.

“Those children.” She pointed to Aaron and Emmy and their parents. “There’ve been a few other people in town over the years—mostly tourists. The new preacher at my old church. Some of the folks who come to your cabins.” She looked at Jake guiltily. “And this one man at my…at the meetings in Asheville. And—”

“That’s why you switched churches,” Jake said.

She nodded. “But I kept going to those meetings. I just changed to a different night. I want to get better. I really want to get better.”

“I know you do, Mom.” Jake’s throat tightened.

His mom had a gift of her own. Greg’s puppet masters would love to get their hands on someone like her.

“Do you see any of these flickering auras around anyone else in the house?” Grace asked. “Sarah or Greg or Ouida?”

“No. Sorry. But Mel, of course.” She looked at Mel. “Yours is a rosy color. It suits you. Oh, and your parents, too. I saw them at the wedding along with a few others. And that little helper of yours, the grubby one who cleans up so pretty.”

“Jamie?” Daniel’s eyes widened.

“Yes, Jamie. She… Hers comes and goes. It’s very odd.”

“She can help us find them.” Grace sounded like Jake felt, a bit awestruck.

Thea’s fingers curled around Jake’s.

“Mom,” Jake spoke up, his voice sounded loud to him. “When you started seeing these lights—”

“It’s more like little flames, really.”

Jake tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He didn’t want to embarrass her, but he had to know.

“When you started seeing these…flames, is that when you started drinking?”

His mom looked down at her hand intertwined with Mel’s.

“It looked a bit as if people were covered in little flames, like a gas cooker, but they didn’t burn. When I drank, the flames faded.” When she looked back up, her eyes shone with tears. “But then the flames came back in the morning. Always burning. Never consumed. I thought I was seeing people who were possessed, but that meant that
I
was and
you
were too.” She looked at Jake. “Sometimes I thought I was insane.”

Jake heard a sob and saw Marty crying in her husband’s arms. Their children got up and wrapped their arms around both of them. Ouida stood next to them, patting Marty’s back. Daniel had spent some time explaining things to Ouida and Eddie, and Ouida’s expression seemed to hint that she wasn’t too surprised.

“I thought the Woodruffs started it all and they were…they were taking people over in some sort of cult. I was worried they would get Becca next. That’s why I…”

That’s why she took her home the night of the accident.

She looked around at all of them. “Everyone knew from a long time back that the Woodsman was into a lot of those pagan and shaman things. Things our old preacher said were wicked. I was afraid.” She finally looked at Jake. “I was just afraid.” She paused, uncertain.