Chapter 5
BY THE TIME I reached the house, Leonard Wolfbrane and his crew had arrived. Kelson had shown them in and they were waiting for me in the kitchen. She had found a package of cookies and spread them out on a platter, and offered the men coffee. Leonard stood up as I entered the room. He was moderate height, well muscled, and had short, sandy hair. His eyes were pale gray, common to many wolf shifters, and he nodded to me, waiting for me to hold out my hand. I extended my hand and he shook it formally.
“I’m so glad you could make it today. There are several things we need to talk about besides the roof.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. First, I need your opinion about whether we can wait on a new roof for a while longer. Ideally, I’d like to wait until spring, but if you think the patch job won’t hold, or if it looks like there are other problem areas that are just waiting for a storm, then I suppose we better have a new one now. One way or another, the roof needs to be fixed. I also want you guys to open up something in the attic. When the tree branch punched through the roof, we found a hidden room on the other side of the attic wall. We traced out the area on the paneling that leads to the doorway, and I’m wondering if you could open that up for me today.”
Leonard scratched his head. “A secret room? Really? Isn’t that a little on point?”
“Didn’t you get the memo? All mansions are required to have a secret room somewhere.” I laughed, and he joined me.
“I’ll remember that next time. Okay, why don’t you take me and the boys up to this room, and we’ll take care of that before we head up onto the roof. You said you wanted an estimate before we do any work up top?” The tool belt around his waist jangled as we headed upstairs.
“Yeah, an estimate for just a patch job if we can leave it at that, and also what we can expect to pay for a new roof.”
I showed them the trapdoor that led into the attic crawl space. They opened it in the blink of an eye, and I slowly ascended the ladder, Leonard behind me. Once we were in the attic, I led them over to the wall, flashing a light on the paneling. “I’m a little afraid to turn on the lights up here. I don’t know if any of the wiring was damaged when the tree broke through the roof. So, better safe than sorry.”
“We can take a look at that, too. So this is the area that you want cut open?” He traced all around the pencil marks. “That’s a short door.”
“I know. Actually, if you could just remove all of the paneling, I’d like to see if there’s anything else behind there that we should know about.”
Leonard motioned for me to get out of the way. “You don’t want to be in the way if any nails go flying,” he said. Like most werewolves, especially the men, Leonard was a little presumptive, but that was just the way of shifters in general. Werewolves were definitely patriarchal. So were lion shifters, but bear shifters—on the other hand—were matriarchal.
I crossed to the other side of the attic, sitting down on a box to wait. I had to admit, I wasn’t comfortable in the attic. I seldom came up here and I used a small spare room on the second floor to store most of my things instead of putting them up in here. We were slowly clearing the basement, and when it was empty we would put the trunks and boxes down there. But something about the attic had always bothered me. Perhaps it was that you had to climb a generally hidden ladder to reach it. Or perhaps I just didn’t like the claustrophobic space. There was barely enough room to stand up straight.
The Alpha-Pack made quick work of the paneling, pulling it off the wall in three pieces. When they were done, Leonard motioned for me to join him. I made my way back across the unfinished plywood floor, stopping as I stared at the door that had been covered up. Max had left it open, and now, the pale sun flickered through the tarp into both the attic and the secret room.
“Do you think they built this room as an add-on? Was it originally part of the attic, or can you tell?” I asked.
Leonard and his men examined the wall. It didn’t take long before he had an answer.
“Oh, they walled this off after the original attic was built. So yeah, they closed it off sometime after the house was built. Do you want to do the honors, and go through first?”
I took the flashlight from him, and ducked as I stepped through the door.
As I entered the secret room, it was still hard to see into the corners. Even though sunlight was creeping through the tarp, the room seemed to extend back quite a ways. I realized that the attic actually extended the full length of the house rather than half of it as we had originally thought.
“Hold on, wait just a minute.” Leonard motioned to one of his men. “John, bring up the LED lantern.”
John ducked back into the other part of the attic and returned with a large battery-operated LED lantern. The light illuminated most of the room with a surprising brilliance. I stared at the walls, trying to comprehend what I was seeing.
In this part of the attic, the walls had once been painted a dark blue, with silver trim. There was something at the end of the room, a large table that looked like it might be marble. On the table was a jug, with a narrow bottom, a wide body, and a narrow neck, plugged by a stone stopper. The floor itself was painted a faded silver, and as I headed for the table with Leonard behind me, I realized there appeared to be paintings on the walls. They were tone on tone—a light blue against the dark, and hard to see, even with the LED light. I couldn’t quite make them out, but they seemed to be life-size figures with pictograms or glyphs written between them.
“What the hell?” I asked.
Leonard had stopped a few steps behind me. His eyes were wide and I recognize the scent of fear emanating off of him.
“Maddy, there’s some strong magic here. Can you feel it? It’s raising my hackles.” Werewolves didn’t like magic very much.
I stopped, closing my eyes and holding out my hands as I tried to sense what was going on around me. And then it hit me, full force. A heavy magic lingering from years past. It was ritual magic, structured and ancient, and it was trapped here in this room. I had no idea what we were dealing with, but it set my stomach to quivering, and I had a distinct feeling that we were walking in dangerous territory.
“I can feel it too. I suggest that perhaps we should exit this room—” I started to say, but was interrupted when one of the workmen raced by into the room, screaming at the top of his lungs. His arms were flailing, and the scent of sheer terror lingered in his wake.
“Come back!” I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t want him near that table. There was something there that was dangerous, something old and gnarled and twisted. I started to run forward, trying to stop him, when he lurched into the table, crashing against it.
He fell back, sprawling on the floor.
I watched as the urn tilted from the impact and went hurtling down to land next to him. The urn hit the wood and shattered on impact. A plume of black powder filled the air, roiling into smoke, and I screeched to a halt, trying to avoid it. Unfortunately, I was too close and found myself breathing in the acrid smoke that boiled up from the powder.
I scrambled back, trying to get away from it.
The workman was on the floor, flailing and screaming. The next moment, he went limp. I turned to see Leonard snap out of his paralysis. He motioned for me to get out of the way as he ran toward his worker.
“Trey! Are you all right?” Leonard started to cough as he entered the smoke-filled area. He leaned over, slipping his hands beneath Trey’s underarms and dragging him back away from the table. The other men had fled, running into the other part of the attic. I hurried over to help Leonard pull Trey through the door, then slammed it shut.
“Quick, get him down the ladder,” I said, still coughing.
A couple of the men had come to their senses and were standing next to the trapdoor. One of them scrambled down, holding his arms up for Trey. Together, he and Leonard managed to wrangle the unconscious werewolf down the ladder into the hallway. Leonard called for me to head down the ladder.
“I’ll shut the door from up here, and go out through the roof. We don’t want to leave the trapdoor open into your hallway. Robert, go get the ladder and prop it up next to the roof so I can climb down.”
Within minutes, I was standing in the hallway, watching as the other workmen carried Trey’s unconscious form toward the stairs. Robert had run on ahead, to do as Leonard asked. I glanced back up at the trapdoor. What the hell had just happened? What was in that room?
My mind filled with questions, I headed downstairs to join the Alpha-Pack.
THE FIRST THING we did was ascertain Trey’s condition. He was still unconscious, and Kelson had cleared off the dining room table so the men could lay him there.
She looked up as I came in. “We’d better call the doctor. He’s not coming around.”
I nodded, tapping Leonard on the shoulder. “Does he have a doctor? I can call Jordan Farrows. He specializes in magical afflictions. I used to go to a different doctor, but he’s extraordinarily competent.”
“I’m not sure who Trey’s doctor is, so go ahead. Please, hurry. His breathing sounds labored.”
I stepped away from the pack and put in a call to Jordan. He had helped us out on numerous occasions now, so I had him on speed dial. He answered on the third ring.
“Maddy? What’s up? What happened?”
On one hand, I hated that his first response was to ask me what was wrong. But it had become par for the course.
“The Alpha-Pack came to check out my roof. Long story short, one of the workmen is unconscious. He inhaled some sort of magical smoke.” I began to cough, feeling the residue rumble around in my own lungs. “So did I. But whatever it was knocked him out. Can you come over right away? His breathing is shallow and we’re worried about him.”
“I’m on my way. You said he’s a werewolf?”
“Yeah. One of the Alpha-Pack.”
Jordan signed off. Returning to the table, I told them he was on his way.
“Should we do anything until he gets there?” Robert asked.
Leonard shook his head. “I don’t think so. We don’t want to make a bad situation worse.”
He glanced around at the men, then over at me. They were milling around, looking mildly agitated. Leonard knew as well as I did that you don’t let werewolves get antsy or have too much downtime.
“Why don’t you guys head up to the roof and start assessing the situation? Everything should be okay up there. Just don’t take the tarp off. Take a look for any other leaks. I’ll wait here for the doctor.”
“What about Trey?” one of the men said.
“There’s nothing you can do until the doctor gets here. So you might as well get on with the job. That’s what we’re here for.” Leonard shooed them out the door. They seemed relieved to have something to do.
Kelson returned from the kitchen with a cold washcloth, which she laid over Trey’s forehead. “He seemed a little hot to me.” She motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen. “What happened? I didn’t want to ask the men because they seem so freaked.”
I told her. “There was something up in that room. I felt it wake up. I have no idea what it is, but I guarantee you it isn’t anything good.”
“Is it loose in the house?”
I shrugged. “I think so. I’m hoping it was just residue energy that was trapped within the urn. But we need to figure out what the writing on the wall is, and what the pictographs mean. I didn’t recognize it, so we should bring in a linguist, I suppose.”
“Maybe one of the professors from Neverfall could tell you?”
That was a good idea. Neverfall had a plethora of instructors from all walks of magical life. They had to have someone who specialized in ancient languages.
“I’ll give Leroy a call as soon as Jordan gets here and we figure out what’s wrong with Trey. Meanwhile, why don’t you put on some coffee and get some refreshments for the men. I have a feeling they’re going to need something to bolster their spirits. You wouldn’t believe how afraid that pack of werewolves was up there.” I paused. “Or maybe you would. You’re a werewolf yourself. The magic was overwhelming, Kelson. It scared me, and I’m used to magic.”
She frowned, a worried look in her eyes. “If it’s that strong, then I’m afraid we might be in trouble.”
“Just watch out when you’re around upstairs. Or I guess anywhere in the house. Hopefully, the energy just swooped up and out the roof. But until we know for sure, just be cautious.”
She shook her head. “Don’t go up there alone, Maddy—you’re a powerful witch, but there are some things more powerful than you are.”
“Trust me, I know that. I have to think about this for a while.” I stopped when the doorbell rang. As Kelson went to answer it, I returned to the dining room, where Trey was still unconscious on the table.
Leonard walked over to my side. He stared at his friend for a moment, then looked at me. “What do you think that thing was?”
I grimaced. “I have no idea, but it scared me, too. Whatever that smoke was, it hit my lungs as well. And I can tell you right now, it didn’t feel good.”
“Are you all right?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel…unsettled. But at least I’m not unconscious.”
Kelson returned, with Jordan Farrows behind her. He set his bag on the table next to Trey. “What happened?”
“Basically, an urn broke, a bunch of black powder hit the floor and smoke rose from it, and Trey was caught in it.”
“Anybody else?”
“I got slammed by it too, but didn’t lose consciousness.” I pointed to the ceiling. “Apparently, we have a secret room in my attic. It looks like it might have been used for some sort of ritual magic, but I can’t read the glyphs that are painted on the wall.”
Jordan frowned. “Let me examine him, then I also want to check your vitals, too.”
Kelson and I retreated to the kitchen, leaving Trey to Jordan. Leonard stayed with them.
“Seriously, how are you feeling?” Kelson asked me, firing up the espresso machine.
I tried to assess my state of health, but it was difficult to tell whether I felt off because of what had happened, or because of my emotional reaction.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t tell. I think the storm fried my senses a little bit. Plus, what happened upstairs left me feeling shaky.”
She slid a double shot mocha in front of me, adding a dollop of whipped cream. “Maybe this will help.”
“Well, it can’t hurt,” I said.
A few moments later, Jordan entered the room. Leonard had stayed in the dining room.
“What’s wrong with him?” I hoped to hell it was fixable.
“To be honest? I don’t have a clue of why he’s unconscious. Everything checks out. His blood pressure is fine. His blood sugar is normal. His heart sounds okay, his pulse is normal. The man should be awake, but he’s not. I’m going to take him back to my office for a complete battery of tests. Now, let me take a look at you.”
He took my blood pressure, checked my heart and pulse, and asked me how I was feeling. I told him exactly what I had told Kelson.
“Well, if you start feeling the least bit off, give me a call. Meanwhile I’d like to see that room. I might be able to figure out something if I recognize any of the glyphs on the wall.”
“I’m leery of going back upstairs.” I really didn’t want to go back in that attic again. “Are you sure you want to go look?”
Jordan took my hands in his. “Maddy, I know you’re nervous. But you’re the High Priestess on this island. You’re the leader of the Moonrise Coven. I’m afraid the buck stops with you, especially when it comes to your own house.”
I rubbed my forehead. I had been promoted to the coven’s High Priestess shortly after I first arrived on the island. I was still getting used to the responsibility. “I never thought about it like that. But hell, you’re right. Okay, I’ll go up with you, but I need someone to pull down that ladder. I’m not tall enough to reach it.”
“I’ll help,” Leonard said from the doorway. He was leaning against the frame, arms crossed. “Come on.”
We followed him back upstairs, stopping below the trapdoor leading into the attic. Leonard let out a long sigh. “All right, here goes nothing.”
He used a chair to reach the trapdoor, then extended the ladder so that it rested on the floor. After that, he cautiously lifted himself into the opening. Jordan followed him, and then I climbed up, steeling myself. Once we were up in the attic, the men on the roof waved down from the roof.
“Hey boss, how’s Trey?” Robert called.
“Still unconscious, but he’s in stable condition,” Jordan answered for Leonard.
“How’s the roof look?” I asked.
Robert shook his head. “You definitely need a new one, but I’m pretty sure we can patch it for now until you can make arrangements. Be best to replace it in spring when the weather’s better. What about it, Len? Should we start in putting on the patches?”
“Get everything ready. In a few minutes, I’ll come up to take a look at what you found.” Leonard waved him away. “Be careful up there.”
While he was chatting with his men, I led Jordan over to the door to the secret room.
“This was hidden behind paneling. I had no idea it was here when I bought the house. Leonard thinks it was walled off after the original attic was built, and Franny doesn’t remember the room being separate, so he’s probably right.” I handed Jordan a flashlight. “Get ready. I’m not sure if there’s anything in there, but I want to be prepared.”
I cautiously turned the handle, opening the door. As the hinges creaked and the door swung wide, I tensed, waiting for something huge and horrible to come shrieking at us. But nothing happened, and after a moment, I took a deep breath and plunged inside, followed by Jordan.
Jordan flashed his light on the walls, then walked over to look at the glyphs. While he did that, I slowly crossed to the table in the back. The pieces of the urn were scattered on the ground, along with the remains of the blackened powder. The smoke had vanished and I prayed that meant it was gone for good. I knelt, cautious to avoid touching the powder, and picked up a shard from the urn. As I turned it over, I saw that it was made from some form of pottery, a yellowish clay that looked to be very, very old. There were glyphs on the shard, as well. I had no clue what they meant, but they were very angular and reminded me of Egyptian hieroglyphics, though something told me they weren’t.
Jordan was examining the wall. “This is a cuneiform script, that much I can tell you. I have no idea what it means, though. And the paintings are two dimensional, like Egyptian art, but it doesn’t have that feel to it.”
“That’s what I was thinking. The broken urn has the same sort of writing on it.” I stared down at the powder. “You may want to take some of this powder for examination.”
He joined me, frowning at the black granules. “Yeah, I should. You say the powder spilled out when the urn broke?”
“Along with a mass of black smoke. At first I thought maybe the spilled powder caused the smoke, but I’m thinking maybe that’s not actually the case.” I didn’t want to touch it. There was something greasy feeling about the powder—about its energy. I kept thinking that if I touched it, I’d never be able to get it off my fingers.
Jordan slipped on a pair of plastic gloves, then scooped up some of the powder into a small container. He closed it, tucking it into his pocket. “I took enough for analysis, but I suggest you leave this until I’ve had a chance to examine it further. Who knows if I’ll need more?” He glanced up at the hole in the roof. “There’s something very uncomfortable about this setup, but I can’t tell you exactly what or why. It makes me nervous, though.”
“It makes me nervous, too,” I said. “I don’t like the idea that it’s here, in my house.”
“I understand. Well, I’ll get back to the office and start running tests on both Trey and this powder. Hopefully, I’ll know more in a few hours.” He motioned for me to follow him and we made our way back to the trapdoor.
Leonard had swung himself up on the roof, through the hole. “I’ll duck back down to talk to you in about ten minutes, when I’ve looked over what my men found.”
“We’ll be downstairs,” I waved at him as I turned and began to descend the ladder. Jordan followed me.
JORDAN HAD ORDERED an ambulance to take Trey back to his office. As they headed out, Kelson washed the table and began to lay a cloth on it for dinner. I went into my office, feeling tired and listless. Even the extra caffeine hadn’t done anything to pick me up. I glanced out the window. The sun had vanished behind the clouds again, and we looked in for another rainstorm. Usually, I loved the rain, but today it just felt dreary. I finally decided to throw myself into holiday plans since we were guestless, except for Henry, and likely to stay that way for a few days. I pulled up Aegis’s notes with the Thanksgiving menu he had planned and looked over it.
Sandy, Max, and Jenna would be here. As would Henry. We’d have guests, the gods willing. I was reading through the list of dishes Aegis wanted to make when my cell phone rang. I frowned, not recognizing the number, and answered it.
“Maddy?” The voice was low but smooth, and the man had an English accent. I had lost my Irish accent decades ago. “Hi. This is Gregory, your brother.”
I sat back in my chair, blinking. The last person I had expected to hear from was Gregory.
He was my half-brother, actually. We hadn’t even known about each other until a few months ago. Right before my mother died, she broke down and told me about him. Forced to give him up when she was young—five years before I came along—Zara had kept a long-distance watch on him, making sure the couple who took him in raised him with love. But she never reached out to him, terrified of rejection. She had made me promise not to contact him until after she died and I begrudgingly agreed. I had emailed him, and we had exchanged a few letters since then, but we had never talked on the phone, nor had we met. Gregory had needed time to process everything.
“Gregory…” I stumbled for the right words. “Hi, hello—I didn’t expect your call.” It wasn’t the brightest thing to say, but I had to say something.
“I know, and I apologize. But I’m leaving for America tomorrow, and I’ll be in the Seattle area for a couple of days before heading to New York for a conference. I thought, if you’d like, we can meet.”
Again, my heart thudded in my chest. “I’d love that. Will you be able to come up to Bedlam?” I held my breath, hoping he would say yes.
Gregory paused, then cleared his throat. “If you like, yes. I can take an extra day or two and come visit you.” Another moment, then he added, “You’re sure you want to meet me, now?”
“Yes, I do! Please come.” I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me, but all of a sudden all I could think about was meeting Gregory and getting to know him.
“It’s set, then. I’ll email you my itinerary. I’ll arrive in Seattle on Friday, the sixteenth. I’ll rent a car and drive up to the island. Email me the details of how best to get to your place.” With little more than a quick good-bye, he signed off.
Thoroughly flustered and unable to focus on what I had intended to do—which was balance my checkbook—I jumped up and ran in the kitchen.
“Kelson! Kelson, we need to make sure the place is sparkling by Friday. My brother’s coming to visit.” I froze, hearing the excitement in my voice.
Kelson watched me for a moment. “What’s wrong? I saw that shift in your expression.”
I jumped up on the counter, swinging my legs as I sat there. “It just occurred to me. What if…what if we don’t like each other? I never knew I had a half-brother until recently, but I’ve been thinking a lot about him since then. What if he doesn’t measure up to what my imagination has been spinning out for me? What if I don’t meet his expectations?”
“That’s always a risk. But what else are you going to do? Pretend you aren’t excited? Stifle yourself? Refuse to meet him because you’re afraid it won’t be what you hoped for?” Kelson wiped her hands on a dishtowel and leaned against the counter next to me.
“I hear what you’re saying and no, I’m not going to back away because I’m afraid this won’t be the reunion I hope it will be. But I am scared, Kelson. And I don’t really know how to talk about it, because I don’t even know what I want out of this relationship.”
And there was the crux of the problem. I didn’t know what I wanted out of Gregory. Did I want long talks on the phone, brother to sister, where we shared our secrets and hopes? That seemed like something reserved for childhood, but our childhoods were long gone. Did I want an easy relationship, where we sent holiday cards and called each other for a few minutes each month? Did I want him as a friend or as the protector big brothers sometimes were?
The phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. As I glanced at it, half-expecting it to be Gregory, cancelling plans, I saw that it was Jordan. I punched the talk button.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“What’s up is that Trey’s in trouble. I need to talk to Leonard and I don’t have his number. Is he still there?”
Wanting to ask what was wrong, I suppressed the urge. I turned to Kelson and motioned to her. “Can you take my phone out to Leonard? Jordan needs to talk to him, stat.”
Kelson nodded, jogging into the back yard with my phone. I walked over to the dishwasher she had been unloading and began to take out dishes. I had set three glasses on the counter and was reaching for a fourth when one of the glasses whipped off the granite counter and wheeled past me, missing my head by less than an inch. Instinctively, I ducked, and it was a good thing, because the other two glasses sailed right past where I had been standing, smashing into the wall.
I slammed the dishwasher closed, breathing hard, as I stared at the broken glass. What the fuck?
“Franny? Did you do that?” I knew it couldn’t have been her, but right now, my thinking cap wasn’t on straight.
“Maudlin, help me!” Franny came flying out of the wall into the powder room, a panicked look on her face. As she whirled in the air, colliding with the refrigerator and passing through it, a dark form rose up from the wall behind her, emerging in a smoky mist. It looked one hell of a lot like the mist I had seen upstairs.
I held up my hands, intent on creating a wall between it and me, but the next thing I knew, that little zing I got when casting a spell sputtered and died.
The shadow form turned away from Franny, toward me, and began to advance. As I backed up, all I could feel was a wash of fear racing through me. What the hell was this thing, and what did it want?