Slightly Spellbound (26 page)

Mercutio thought about it in silence.

“The answer is: Yeah, he would. It’s still possible her stepmother grabbed her, bespelled her, and left her for dead. Oatha might be setting up an alibi for herself. If the coroner says that Vangie died while Oatha was safely back in Dallas, Oatha could get away with murder, right?”

Merc meowed.

“Right. Of course, if Oatha and her people did leave Vangie alone, that’ll make rescuing her easier for us.”

Merc agreed.

I pulled Doc Barnaby’s station wagon up to the curb outside the golf course, got out, and tucked the keys up under the bumper. If I carried them, they’d be too likely to get lost.

With some major effort, I climbed the fence. Mercutio watched me with interest and, to his credit, no mocking. Then he darted through the iron rails as easy as can be.

“I’d like to see you do that if you were human-sized,” I grumbled. We hurried across the course. As a sport, golf never seemed like much exercise to me, but after five holes’ worth of walking I changed my mind.

“I could steal a golf cart,” I said, swinging my flashlight from side to side. “But I guess they’re locked in the clubhouse garage, which is out of our way.” If I’d thought the club would have an all-terrain vehicle, I’d have taken the detour. But since we’d have to go on foot outside the course, it didn’t seem worth the effort.

When we finally got off the golf course and into the woods, I found several trails. Mercutio had caught the scent of something, and he led the way.

“So let’s say it wasn’t Vangie’s steps who took her. And let’s assume it wasn’t her betrothed. Who does that even leave?”

Mercutio yowled, and I blinked.

“Who?”

Whiz, whiz, whiz
came the arrows, one, two, three, pinning my pajama top and sweater to a tree I’d been passing.

“Hey!” I yelled, trying to jerk free. Cotton tore, and cold air nipped at my side.

Mercutio rushed forward, and Crux emerged from the woods pointing his bow and arrow at Merc. I yelled and Mercutio darted away. Crux lowered his bow, apparently not intending to shoot Mercutio, but not intending to be chewed on by him either. Crux grabbed my bow, which I’d barely had a grip on with my sleeve stuck to the tree trunk.

He tossed my bow aside.

“You!” I said. “What are you doing?”

He smiled. “Sneaking up on you, which you make quite easy.”

I glared at him. He removed the arrows that pinned me and in the process made rips in my clothes. He dropped the arrows into his quiver.

“Turn back,” he said. “You’re not to continue this way.”

“Why not?” I said, poking a finger through a quarter-sized hole. “You ruined my pajamas!” I said, shaking a fist at him.

He leaned against the curve of a tree. “If you want to stalk things in the night, you should stop talking and listen.”

I closed my mouth and did just that. All I heard was the normal rustling and whispering of trees and grass and vines.

“Who covered you in a magic spell?”

“No one,” I said, taken aback. “Oh, wait.” I realized Bryn’s spell might still be on me. The one that protected me from malicious voodoo doll magic. “None of your business. What are you doing out here? Did you kidnap my friend Evangeline?”

It made some sense. Witches and faeries didn’t get along. Vangie was a witch. This guy was a faery.

“Not I,” he said.

“Do you know who did?” I demanded.

“By name? No,” he said. “I’ve seen him, though, and you’re no match for him, Halfling, untrained and noisy as you are. Return to your home.”

“I’m not returning anywhere. I had to steal—I mean borrow—a car and walk about a thousand miles with a sore butt to get here. I’m fixin’ to find my friend.”

“No.”

I tried to stroll past him to where my crossbow lay, but his arm snaked out and caught me around the waist and yanked me against his body.

“If you want to be a match for a warrior, you’d better get one to train you.”

“Like who? You?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, kicking and thrashing. I elbowed him in his ribs, but he barely acknowledged the blow. When my foot thumped him between the legs, his breath came out in a whoosh and he dropped me as he landed on his knees. Nice to know faery men weren’t so different from regular ones.

I dove forward, yanking an arrow from my quiver with one hand as my other grabbed the bow. I had it loaded by the time I rolled onto my back. I aimed at him but found he was already aiming at me.

“Dang. You recover fast.”

“Lower your bow,” he said menacingly. “I’m a fae knight. You’re a Halfling. Obey me now or the punishment will be flogging with a thorny switch.”

“You can kiss my antibiotic shot.”

He quirked a brow.

“My butt,” I clarified.

He moved in a blur and an arrow shot through the edge of my shirt. I tried to roll, but it pinned me. A moment later, he flung me over. My bow hit the dirt and bounced out of my grasp. A second later, the back of my shirt was pulled up and something swished across my back. The stings were razor sharp and stole my breath. I screamed and heard Mercutio’s matching rebel yowl. Crux jerked and yelled something—probably a curse—in a foreign language. Mercutio had jumped on his back and been flung off.

Mercutio landed and sprang back at him. Crux threw an arm up and deflected Mercutio. Crux cut the drawstring of my PJ bottoms. I struggled and they slid down. Then warm lips landed on my penicillin-filled butt cheek and kissed it.

I howled in fury, arched, and twisted. My fingers grabbed his hair and yanked, and Merc landed on his back. Crux grabbed my wrist with one hand and jerked. I came away with a clump of his hair for my trouble and he yelled some more.

He rolled free and jabbed Mercutio with an arrow. Merc twisted, but his teeth sank into Crux’s neck.

“Cat!” Crux roared, whipping him with an arrow shaft. “I’ll kill you if you don’t let go.”

I jumped to my feet, which ripped my shirt open. My pajama bottoms fell off and tripped me as I launched myself forward.
Naked again, darn it all.

I grabbed a loose arrow and went for Crux’s throat. He disappeared and reappeared a few feet away. My momentum carried me into a tree trunk with a slamming force and I fell back, the arrow stuck in the bark.

“Sorry, Tree,” I murmured, dazed. A moment later, I whirled. Crux raised an arrow to skewer Mercutio, and I launched myself off the ground, grabbing Crux’s arm with both my hands and hanging with all my weight. Jerking his arm down pointed the arrow at the dirt and away from Merc.

“Stop, Merc,” I yelled, but Mercutio’s teeth tore flesh as he jerked his head and then hopped off Crux.

Crux’s neck bled reddish gold, and he gasped for breath. He dropped to his knees, clutching his neck with both hands.

Then he laughed, reinforcing my belief that faeries are crazy. Mercutio and I exchanged a quick look.

Crux wheezed in a breath, nodded at us, and disappeared.

“Lunatic faery! There’s no disappearing in fighting!” I yelled. Mercutio and I stood back-to-back and circled, watching the woods, waiting for the next attack. “Show yourself and fight like a man! Or a manlike creature!” When at least ten minutes had passed and my heart had stopped hammering, I said, “Mercutio, I don’t know that he’s coming back. I think maybe we won. What do you think?”

Mercutio licked blood from his whiskers.

“All right, then. Victory it is.” I glanced down at my undies and torn shirt and sweater. “Yeah,” I said. “Except for my clothes, we’re totally triumphant.” I twisted and my back stung. I walked over to where my pajama bottoms were and found a discarded rose stem. The thorns were tipped with my blood.

“That faery is a real asshole,” I snapped, but the stinging cuts on my back didn’t hurt that much. I climbed into my pajama bottoms and had to knot the drawstring to hold my pants on my hips.

I collected my bow, quiver, and flashlight. “Let’s get on with finding us a Vangie.”

Merc finished grooming, got up, and led me farther north. We’d probably walked for about forty minutes when he stopped and pawed the ground.

“What did you find?” I asked, pointing the flashlight down. There was dried brown stuff, the color of steak sauce, staining the tall grass. I crouched and there, tangled among the grass blades, was Vangie’s charm bracelet. For a moment, my heart stopped, but then I reasoned that at least now I knew we were on the right track.

“Good job, Merc. You found clues,” I said, grabbing the bracelet and tucking it into the pocket of my pajama top. “What do you think of that brown stuff? Not A-1, I don’t guess. Is that blood?”

Merc yowled.

“Yeah, I figured.” I took a breath. “Is it Vangie’s blood?”

Merc’s tongue tip touched the grass and his head bobbed.

“Not good. At least there’s no fresh blood. This could’ve happened anytime yesterday. Probably during the abduction. I saw her tonight in the marshmallow bowl, so she’s still alive. I know it,” I said, trying to stay positive. “Let’s keep going. Let’s rescue her.”

Mercutio turned and plowed through the grass. I followed him until we hit a trail that led to a small clearing. As soon as I got free of the tall grass, two trees’ worth of dusky sparrows fluttered from the treetops and flew away chirping.

“What the Sam Houston?”

Mercutio crouched. Merc taking that posture meant trouble, so I turned off my flashlight, tiptoed to his side, and dropped down to one knee. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I waited.

Wings fluttered and a whistling sound rang out. Mercutio’s body tensed and so did mine. I loaded the crossbow and rested it on my elbow to steady myself to take aim.

The creature’s skeletal face grimaced in the sliver of moonlight. It was Skeleton Guy from my tree.

Something slammed into us with a gust of hurricane-strength wind. I fired the bow, and the arrow arced up even as I tumbled backward. Mercutio landed on top of me and we scrambled into the tall grass for cover.

“Magic,” I realized. “He hit us with magic.”

Mercutio crouched, baring his teeth.

“Hang on, Merc,” I said. “Let’s think this over. This might not be the best kind of fight to jump into. What do you say we sneak around him and just keep on going?”

Mercutio stalked through the grass. So far, he was going with my plan, which surprised me. But once the creature landed in the clearing and we got behind him, Mercutio went flying out of the grass toward it. Mercutio hadn’t been going along with me. He’d just been getting into position. Cats like to attack from behind.

“I thought we were leaving!” I hissed when he landed on the skeleton creature with a clatter. A pulse of magic flung Mercutio backward. I barely managed to catch him before the thing turned.

“I told you we should’ve kept on going,” I said, dropping Mercutio to the ground. I loaded an arrow in an instant and let it fly, but a wave of the creature’s bony hand sent it wide.

“That’s really not good,” I said as the arrow poked into the ground several feet behind Skeleton Guy. The creature raised its chin and its teeth clattered. A roar of wind issued forth, its intensity hot and blistering.

“Shoot,” I said, dropping down to brace myself and shield Mercutio as it rolled over us, searing my skin. I dragged us behind a tree, panting. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger bow.”

29

I RAN OUT of arrows, and it quickly became apparent that fury and a can-do attitude weren’t going to cut it. Skeleton Guy just kept coming. He was strong and magical and didn’t have any muscles or flesh to get pierced or pummeled. I was pretty sure that the only thing keeping me from being reduced to pulp was Bryn’s protection spell because zaps of electricity popped off me when Skeleton Guy tried to pound on me. The spell’s energy drove him back. Sort of. I needed to crack his bones to really slow him down.

I swung my empty crossbow and knocked him aside and then scooped Mercutio up and dove into the tall grass, panting and sweating despite the cold. I had to do something. I had to try a spell.

We can’t win on strength alone against this bony ape.

Got nothing else to try right now so know we must escape.

The skull came barreling into the grass right above us. I gasped and flung us back, the rest of my impromptu spell whistling past my lips.

Good guys win, let me make this clear

Shrink that spellcaster, now disappear

The creature froze, gnashing its teeth and looking from side to side. I’d hoped to shrink him or at least to shrink his magic. Even better would’ve been if I’d made him disappear, as I’d once done to my town nemesis. At first I’d thought I’d disintegrated her, but she’d actually been shrunken down to a bite-sized candy bar. Unfortunately, Skeleton Guy didn’t look the slightest bit smaller. He just seemed confused because he didn’t come barreling into the grass after us.

I took this as a sign from God and the universe to haul butt out of there. Mercutio writhed to get free, but I clutched him to my chest and held tight. He might not know when to quit, but I did. Before we went head to skull with Skeleton Guy again, we had to figure out what he was and, more importantly, what his weaknesses were.

I raced through the grass due east to the Amanos. A few times grass crunched behind us, and I pictured him hot on our trail. When the river came into view, I didn’t slow. My legs pumped, my chest heaved, and I ran straight off the bank.

With a freezing splash, we landed in the water. The shock of it made my whole body clench. Up to my chin in cold water, I howled and sputtered curses. I let go of Mercutio, who made furious sounds, too. He’s not crazy about being submerged at the best of times.

Why do I keep ending up in the water? Winter’s no time for swimming.

The sweater grew heavy and dragged me down. I pulled it off, and my cramping fingers released it. The current was fast, especially with water levels still high from the flood. We were swept past the golf course in a matter of minutes.

As soon as we got to the residential area of Shoreside Oaks, Mercutio swam to the bank and got out. It was a good idea, since my limbs were almost completely numb with cold, but I knew I couldn’t jog through Bryn’s neighborhood in my torn and soaked pajamas. I was surprised Mercutio didn’t run alongside me. When I was in the river, he usually stuck with me, making sure he was there if I needed help. This time, though, he sauntered along, falling behind, like he didn’t even care if I made it out of the water alive. He was obviously mad as hell that I’d abandoned the fight.