Weddings Bells Times Four (7 page)

“This is my horror showcase. I love old horror shows. I love Vincent Price.” Dred, Edward and Avril stepped into the room behind her and Rock.

Laughing, Dred looked all around the room. “You are amazing. Wait till you see our horror collection and if I’m not right, Edward, don’t you have a whole room filled with Vampire movie memorabilia?” Dred asked and picked up an old werewolf bust she had found at an auction.

“It seems we all have something in common. I can see why you hated to leave this place. Show us the rest. I feel as if I’m a small boy waiting to see what else you’re going to surprise us with.” He laughed as he followed her out of her horror showroom and back into the main office area.

“Just as Avril has a bedroom attached to his room, so do I.” She leaned over to the control panel and flicked the switch up. The back walls parted and opened to show a 16 by 20 foot room.

Inside her room, were some of her more personal items, ones that she’d hadn’t shown anyone. Not even Nora. Beth stopped and took a deep breath. Still it hurt to even think of her friend, but there was nothing she could do, and that hurt all the more.

Pictures of her mother and father hung on the walls, and recordings of holidays and such stuffed away in the box under the bed. “This is my haven. When things get a little overwhelming, I come here. In some ways my parents are still here. Even though you’ve seen my father, it’s not the same. Here is Dad and Mom, not the magical royalty they had come to be.” She picked up a picture of all four of them.

Even at the age of five, her brother frowned at the camera as her mother held her in her arms and her father stood behind them. “Even at five you could see the anger swirling around his eyes. I don’t know what happened, what made him so jaded and hateful.”

“No one knows how a child is going to turn out. We can only do our best and hope they will become productive, warm people,” Edward wrapped his arms around her and kissed the side of her neck. “Come, you have to show us our room next.”

She laughed and put the picture down. “Come on little boys. Let’s go see your room.” She squealed the last part when Dred smacked her butt on the way out of the room after she locked everything up.

“We’ll show you boys later tonight,” he teased. All three of them seemed to be more relaxed and she knew it was the magic down here. It had a tendency to just engulf you when you stepped into this part of the house.

Walking down to the end of the hallway, she opened a door on the left. “This is the bathroom. There is a shower and bath here too. As you noted when you came down the stairs, there’s a full kitchen in the main room. This house was set up so that we could live down here if we needed to for over a year in case of attack. Mom was paranoid after seeing what Brian had done.”

Warm strong fingers rubbed her shoulders. “We’ll find him,” Dred reassured her and she nodded.

“This door is the storage area where mom kept MRI’s and everything else you can think of.” She flicked the switch to the light and Dred whistled which made it bounce off the concrete walls.

“Isn’t some of this stuff outdated?” Rock asked as they stepped inside.

“Nope, every six months I come down here and take out what is about to expire and donate it to the homeless shelters around. Then I replace it with newer stuff. It’s a revolving thing my Mom taught me and it’s all computerized too.” She smiled as they stepped back into the hall.

In front of her all three men stared at the door behind her. “This was my father’s domain. It’s the largest room in the house and the most powerful. All of you have a little magic inside you. Edward, you have a little more than Dred and Rock, but once you enter here…” She shook her head. “There are no words.” She opened the door and stepped aside letting all three men into the room, the heart of the house.

Edward trembled like a schoolboy amazed at the amount of power in the room. He had never experienced such awe as when he walked into this part of the house. When his Little Witch said there were no words to describe it, she hadn’t been kidding.

It was if the magic around him gave his inert power a tenfold boost. He laughed and everyone looked at him. “Sorry I was just thinking I was feeling like the Energizer Bunny when we stepped in here. You were right, Beth, there are no words.”

She smiled and headed to a door. “This is a smaller space. My father really didn’t use it, but I thought one of you could set an office up in here. There is another one across the way, both have bathrooms attached. The main office is at the very back along with my father’s library, which is now yours, Edward.”

“What? It should be yours.” He watched as she shook her head.

“No. I don’t want any part of these books. I have all I need to know, Edward. You and Avril can go through them, but Edward, there are some that shouldn’t leave this place. Father has put spells on them to prevent them from getting into the wrong hands. For example my brother, the power in those enchantments, along with our history, is just too much to allow the public access to it. That’s why you should have them.” She stepped around a chair and reached into a decorative pot, pulling out a gold chain.

“My father wore this all the time. He has charmed it so that the person who next wears this will personally own it and the house. You will feel when the house is being threatened or is expanding itself and, yes, it can do that.” She nodded to the two doors were the offices were. “There was only one other office here. The house knew you three would each need a room. Just like when we have children, the house will grow.”

He lowered his head as she held up the thick antique chain. “This has been in my family for centuries. It is yours now.” She stepped around him as he kneeled so Beth could fasten the chain. It was almost a choker, but a little bit less tight. As soon as she fastened it, Edward fell forward, almost falling flat on his face.

Closing his eyes, Edward waited as all this new information came seeping into his head. The hidden rooms, the spells that protected the house and the actual connection to the house itself which was a real entity saturated his brain. He slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes. Spells and creatures he’d never seen floated around the room. “What?”

“They’re called
Yewlocks
.” She sat down on the edge of a table. “You can show them if you want. They don’t hurt anything. They’ve lived here for over a hundred years.”

“What is she talking about?” Dred asked and he grinned as he opened the door to their link. Both men stumbled and grabbed the wall next to them. “Damn it, Edward, warn us when you are going to do something like that.”

He snorted and stood. “Welcome to my world. Little Witch, why don’t you and Avril go do what you were going to do before we interrupted?” He walked over and kissed the top of her head.

“All you had to do was ask me to leave. I know you need to discuss things with them.” She shook her head and made her way to the door, but stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Oh, and Edward…”

“Yes.” He lifted his head and looked at her. She fidgeted for a minute before she rushed out and said, “I know my father was a sadist, if you know what I mean. He has a room around here that he and my mother used. I don’t want to see it. If you want a playroom, please make it your own.” She shivered. “The thought of being in the same room and using the same things is just too much. Not to mention their personal energies, or whatever you call it, will be there.”

“Go on, we’ll take care of it,” Edward smiled and nodded to Avril who escorted her down the hall.

“I take it the room is in here?” Dred asked, knowing the brothers didn’t see all. Only what the entity allowed them to see.

Sitting down on one of the couches, Edward leaned forward and nodded. “But that isn’t the problem. It seems we have more than books here to be protected. I now know why her brother wants this house. It has nothing to do with her, but I’m sure it’s a bonus to get her.”

Dred and Rock frowned at him and took up seats across from him. “Well don’t keep us in suspense, what is he after?”

“He wants the house itself. I don’t know if…” His words died out when both Dred and Rock fell back against the sofa they were on and shook their heads.

“What the hell was that?” Dred snarled and looked to him, but stopped. “Did you know there are these things behind you?”

“As I was saying, there are other entities that live here. They protect the house and our Little Witch. It seems our Beth attracts not only her brother because of her power, but other entities. From what I can understand from them…” he turned and cocked his head to the side.

Females
one of the
Yewlocks
sent to him. “I guess it’s in her family, the females attract others from different worlds. These small creatures here not only protect her from her own kind, but from aliens, so to speak. They block her aura from leaving Earth’s atmosphere. When Brian was born, he saw these
Yewlocks
and knew they protected his mother and sister. He wants their power. He’s taken two of them already when he was smaller, before his father and mother found out, hence the strange power coming off of him when he attacked Beth.”

“Then how do we fight him? How do we protect her if we don’t understand what we are dealing with? She won’t stay locked up here forever. No wonder he didn’t attack till she came back here. I bet he’s been looking at ways to get in here since she was at the castle. That’s how he got past their protection, and with Nora’s help.” Dred said, the frustration pouring off of him.

Rock leaned forward. “I don’t get it. If they are here to protect her, did they follow her to the castle? If they didn’t, did others from…” he waved to up above them. “The different worlds come or are they coming? Can they protect her if she leaves this place?”

It was hard to listen to Rock and Dred’s questions, while information was being sent to him from these
Yewlocks.
“Okay, hold on all of you!” Edward got up and started pacing. “This is too much. Rock, from what I can tell or the information that is being implanted into my head, Beth will always be protected. If the protection somehow weakens from attack or something like that…” He frowned. “Oh, okay, she’ll feel like she’s homesick and needs to come back here. Where they’ll do their stuff.”

They both shook their heads. “You know this isn’t going to work. We’ve already discussed this. Sure you two can stay here on and off, but the both of you should be at the castle. Edward, you’re a king and the two of you are to help bring together all the races. This is not the place for it.”

“Excuse me, but I’ve got supper cooking. Are you guys going to come up or not? You’ve been down here for over three hours,” Beth asked, poking her head in the door, shocking all three of them.

“Well hell, where did the time go?” Edward looked at Dred who shrugged and got up, stretching.

“It’s the
Yewlock
s. When you are in their presence time more or less stops or crawls. I’ll tell Avril to throw the steaks on to give you guys a few more minutes.” She closed the door behind her.

“Let’s go help with supper. I’ve put the question to the
Yewlocks.
We’ll see what they have for us later, along with the house. Let’s not forget the house itself is a separate entity,” Edward said as the slight pounding in his head eased up. They made their way up the stairs coming to a dead stop in the kitchen.

The man giving Dred so much trouble in the pack stood in the kitchen with two of his close friends. Their backs were to them, so they hadn’t seen them come up the stairs. Edward nodded for Dred and Roc to go around through the dining room and come back out through the hallway door.

Feeling the threat, the house closed the door behind him so no one would know about the lower level. “Little Witch, who is this?” Edward asked, having all three men jump and spin towards him ready to do battle.

“Are you threatening me? In my own home?” Edward raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest waiting.

***

Beth was furious with herself. Why hadn’t she known these were the men giving her men a hard time with the pack? Now they stood in their kitchen already threatening Edward. WRONG thing to do that was for sure.

Their scent came to her before Beth saw them. Dred and Rock were behind her and moving in through the hallway. She threw up her hands and turned to finish making supper. “Please take it outside so I can get stuff done.” She looked over her shoulder at the brothers, who nodded.

“Paul, Sam, Greg let’s move this to the yard, shall we?” Dred ordered, breaking the tension between them and Edward.

Not even bothering to look up, she continued to peel the potatoes and stared out the window. “You didn’t know who they were. It’s not your fault, Little Witch.” Edward hugged her

from behind and nuzzled her neck.

She threw the knife down in the sink and turned into his arms. “I hate this! I feel as if I’ve missed everything. That there is a huge gap in my life, even tonight cooking it reminds me of that night. I want my life back, damn it.” She pouted and her lip trembled. “I even missed you claiming Dred and Rock. I wanted to watch that.”

He leaned down and bit her nose. “Maybe next time you won’t take off and call for help.” Edward released her and followed Dred and Rock.

Here she opened her heart and Edward just walked away. Taking two deep breaths, Beth turned back to peeling the potatoes. Next time she would just keep everything to herself. “I used to be able to talk to you, Nora. Now I have no one.” She wrapped up the peels and turned to throw them away, spotting Avril.

“Sorry, didn’t know you were there.” She opened the trash and dumped the peels. “Must look like a real winner. Ha, just what your King needs.” Beth didn’t wait for him to say anything and went to finish supper.

“I owe you an apology and I want to say thank you for saving my life. If you need someone to talk to, I’d be more than happy to listen. We are going to be together quite often.” He sat down on one of the seats at the island with his long legs in front of him.