Chapter 2
THE PARKING LOT of Straitwater Hospital was relatively empty and I found a spot near the building. I pocketed my keys and hurried over to the ER. As I entered the waiting room, I saw that Max had beat me there. The tall, brawny man jumped out of his chair and I threw my arms around him, hugging him tightly. He was shaking. His late wife had died in a car crash and he had never fully forgiven himself.
“How is she?” I glanced around, looking for a doctor.
An odd thing about emergency rooms that had always struck me. While frantic attempts to save lives were going on behind closed doors, in the waiting room, time seemed to stand still, the hands of the clock barely moving as minutes and hours passed by in limbo.
“I don’t know. They said the doctor would be out to talk to me in a while.” For being so tanned, Max looked extraordinarily pale.
I took him by the arm and walked him back to the banquette under the windows that overlooked the patient loading zone. We sat in silence, Max leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared at the floor. I rubbed his back lightly, watching the emergency room doors, willing the doctor to come talk to us. It seemed like an eternity, but finally, the doors opened and a woman in a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck headed our way, a chart in her hand.
Max slowly stood, a stark look on his face.
I stepped forward and offered my hand to the doctor. “I’m Maudlin Gallowglass, Sandy’s best friend. This is Max Davenport, her…” Boyfriend seemed such a flimsy word. “Her beau.”
The doctor seemed to understand my meaning. She nodded, then consulted her chart.
“I’m Dr. Beems, and Ms. Clauson has given me permission to talk to both of you—also ‘Aegis’?” She looked around.
“He’s not here right now. He’s my…partner.” Again, the word “boyfriend” seemed ridiculous for our situation and ages, but I didn’t want to use the word lover, which wasn’t a total fit either. “How is she? Will she be all right?”
“What happened?” Max asked hoarsely.
“Have a seat, please.” The doctor directed us back to the bench and pulled up a side chair. She consulted her chart. “First, Cassandra will be all right, so take a deep breath and then let it out slowly.” Dr. Beems sounded like she was used to dealing with frantic friends and family. She had an air of patience that I envied.
“At approximately seven-thirty this evening, Ms. Clauson stopped at Kroner’s Grocery. As she headed toward the entrance, a car swung around the corner and slammed into her.”
I winced, trying not to visualize the scene. Max let out a small sound that reminded me of a kitten who had been startled.
“The car then turned and headed toward her again, so we know it had to be deliberate. Cassandra managed to stumble out of the zone for direct impact, but the car did manage to hit her again. It sideswiped her, then drove away as bystanders ran over to help her. She passed out and was unconscious till about half an hour ago.”
The full impact of what the doctor was saying hit me. It hadn’t been an accident. Someone had deliberately tried to run Sandy down and might have succeeded if other shoppers hadn’t been there to intervene.
“Oh great gods, somebody tried to kill her?” Max’s eyes grew wide, then narrowed as the realization sank in that somebody had targeted the woman he loved.
“Yes. Ms. Clauson—Sandy—has a broken arm, a severely bruised hip, and she’s covered with bruises and scratches. She also has a sprained ankle. But she’s lucky it wasn’t worse.”
I blinked back tears. “But she’s going to be all right, you said?”
“Yes, though with that concussion, I want to keep her here tonight to keep a watch on her. She’s going to need care at home for a while. If she didn’t have the sprained ankle, I’d say she could walk out without much of a worry tomorrow, but with her left arm broken and her left ankle swollen, I think she’ll have trouble living alone. Do you know if she has someone who can help her?”
“She has a personal assistant. Alex will be glad to help. And her ward might be able to. I can spend several hours a day helping her.” I was already making a mental list of care-package items, starting with a good bottle of stiff vodka.
“I’ll take a few days off and move in with her. I don’t have any business trips to make for a month or so.” Max glanced at me. “Between Maddy and me, we’ll make sure she’s looked after. When can we see her?”
“Follow me, please. When the sheriff gets here, I’ll have her brought right back.” She turned to the receptionist and whispered with her.
“Everything will be all right,” I murmured to Max. But I wasn’t sure I believed it.
Dr. Beems led us back to the room to see Sandy. The smells of disinfectant hung heavy in the air, and beneath that, I could smell the scent of pain. Humans, shifters, witches, even the Fae—when we’re in pain, it produces a faint odor, which is why animals do their best to cover up their pain so the vulnerability doesn’t show. But witches and shifters—and vampires—all had the ability to smell scents that were too faint for most humans.
We passed through a cold space in the hall and somebody passed through me. I jerked around just in time to see the faint outline of a woman gliding by. She didn’t notice me, and I realized that she had no awareness of the living. She was holding on to this plane by a thin cord, and part of me longed to reach out and cut it for her, to set her free, but that wasn’t my focus and wasn’t why I was here.
Sandy was in a room near the back of the emergency ward. As we tiptoed in, she turned to look at us. Her face was bruised and contused. Her lip was swollen, split in one place, and her left eye was also swollen. Her left arm was in a splint, and her left ankle was elevated, wrapped in a compression bandage.
Max let out a curse under his breath. I wanted to run to her, but I hung back. Even though Sandy and I went back over three hundred years, Max needed to reassure himself that she was, indeed, alive and all right. After he gently kissed her head and murmured something to her that I couldn’t catch, I closed in on her other side.
“If you wanted to get out of the coven meeting, I wish you had just said so. You didn’t have to go to these lengths,” I said, winking at her.
Sandy wrinkled her nose, then groaned. “Ow. Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”
“Seriously, Sandy. Who the hell tried to run you down?”
She gave us a tight shake of the head. “Dunno. Damn, my tongue hurts. I bit it when I fell, I think.” She sucked in a deep breath, wincing. “Even my ribs ache, though the doc said they’re bruised, not broken. Thank heavens for small favors.”
The nurse pointed out the chairs we could sit in. “Twenty minutes. We don’t want to tire her out.” She was strong enough and tough enough that neither Max nor I was going to argue with her.
I sat on Sandy’s left side, staring at the broken arm. Max stood to her right, her hand in his. We sat there in silence for a moment before the doctor returned with Delia in tow.
Delia Waters was a short woman, sturdy and strong, and she had straw-blond hair that she wore in a shag. She whipped out a notepad and motioned for Max to stand back.
“I don’t want to interrupt, but I need to ask Sandy some questions,” she said.
Sandy winced as she shifted but said, “Ask away. I doubt if I’ll be very helpful, though.”
As the interview proceeded, Sandy told us that she had been on her way to the coven meeting when she decided to stop off at Kroner’s Grocery for cupcakes.
“I pulled into the lot and parked in one of the second-row spaces—not right in front of the grocery store. I try to walk a few extra steps wherever I go,” she added.
“Good exercise,” Delia murmured. “What happened then?”
“I was crossing the drive right in front of the store when I heard a screeching sound. I turned to my right just in time to see a car swing around one of the rows. It was headed toward me and it wasn’t slowing down. I tried to jump but not in time, so it knocked me off my feet. I thought it had been an accident—reckless teens or something. I was dazed and was just sitting there when the car made a u-turn and headed back toward me.”
“Did you see it coming for you?”
“Somebody screamed, I think. That’s when I noticed it was barreling down on me again. I managed to get to my feet, but I couldn’t quite clear it. I was trying to jump between two other parked cars when it hit me again, but on my left side and that time I managed to roll out of the way. I think that’s when I twisted my ankle, and then my head started to hurt and I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up a little while ago.”
Sandy fell silent. Her eyes teared up.
“Don’t tire yourself,” Dr. Beems said.
“I’ll give you a moment,” Delia said, staring at her notes. “Meanwhile, we got the same story from witnesses—though nobody noticed when the car first hit you. But everything else jibes with what you are saying so you’re remembering it correctly.” She paused. “Do you remember what the car looked like?”
Sandy shook her head. “No, just a flash of blue and that it was some sort of sedan. Everything got fuzzy after it hit me the first time.”
“According to witnesses, it was a navy blue sedan, four door. Nobody noticed what the driver looked like, or whether there was another person in the car. They were focused on you at the time.” Delia let out a grunt. “Is there any chance you remember any part of the license plate?”
Sandy closed her eyes and laid her head back against the pillow. After a few minutes, she shook her head. “I think there was a three and a two in it, but as hard as I try, it’s all a blur.”
“Three and a two. Check. Do you know why anybody would want to run you down?”
That elicited a rough laugh. Sandy winced and held her good arm to her ribs. “Oh, Delia, I’ve made a lot of enemies over the years. And trust me, there have been a lot of years. But lately? None that I know of.” She winced. “My arm’s starting to hurt again, Dr. Beems.”
Dr. Beems glanced at the chart, then motioned to us. “I’m afraid that’s all the visiting I can allow. Cassandra needs her rest.”
“I’d like to post a guard,” Delia said. “Whoever this freak was, they’re obviously out to hurt her. Likely fact is that they know they didn’t finish the job.”
“We can accommodate an officer here. I’ll make arrangements for one specific nurse to check on you every half hour, Sandy. Medically, I don’t think there’s going to be any trauma other than what you’ve already suffered. I’ll be right back.” Dr. Beems slipped out the door.
Delia turned to Max and me. “Don’t get it into your head to go sniffing around before I can do my job. Whoever tried to mow Sandy down could easily include you as targets the next time.”
I blinked. “What makes you think we’d try anything of the sort?”
“I know you, Maudlin Gallowglass. And that one,” she said, gesturing with her thumb at Max, “is head over heels. He’s the type to do anything to protect his woman. Or are you going to try to tell me I’m wrong?” She stared at Max. He just blinked. “I thought so. Get along, you two. I’ll stay here until my officer arrives, and make certain Sandy’s under surveillance all night.”
Reluctantly, Max kissed Sandy, promising to pick her up as soon as she could be released the next day. I followed him, giving her a peck on the cheek.
“You be careful, Cassandra Clauson. And don’t you worry. We’ll figure this out.” I brushed her hair out of her eyes.
“Jenna—what if whoever this is targets her because she’s my ward? I can get her tomorrow, but what about tonight?”
Before I could promise to drive up to Neverfall to talk to the head of the school, Max interrupted. “I’ll drive over tonight. I’ll make sure that she’s all right.”
With that, Dr. Beems returned and shooed us out.
Once we were outside the door, in the hall, I turned to Max. “Are you sure? I can take Jenna for the night.”
“They won’t let her leave without Sandy’s permission and she’s in no state to call the headmaster. I’ll drive up there and make enough of a fuss that they’ll keep an eye on her. I’ll stay there till morning.”
I nodded, not exactly feeling useless, but wishing there was more that I could do. We left the hospital and he walked me back to my car, leaning on the doorframe as I slipped inside.
“Maddy, do you know who could be behind this? Has Sandy said anything to you about anybody bothering her lately?”
I thought back, but most of our conversations lately had been focused on our businesses, on staging a massive late-summer blowout party for our friends, and on Aegis and Max.
“No, honestly, this comes from completely out of the blue. I can’t think of who would want to hurt her. I’m more likely to be a target, to be honest.”
He nodded, his lips pressed together solemnly. The weretiger was tall, though not as tall as Aegis, and he was beefy with wheat-colored hair. He had a scar—long healed—that traced down to his chin, starting at the top of his left temple. He was tanned in the way weretigers always seemed to be. They liked the sun, and most tiger-shifters were athletic as hell.
“Max, she’s going to be okay. We’ll figure out who did this, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“I’ll tell you this,” he said. “If I catch whoever it was who tried to kill her before Delia does, they won’t be around long enough to ever see the inside of a jail cell.” And with that, he shut the door and motioned for me to lock it, then headed back to his own car.
NEXT MORNING, MY alarm broke through the fog of my dreams. I flailed around, trying to turn it off, then remembered that I had set my phone alarm and it was on my nightstand. I managed to fumble it into my hand without dropping it and turned off the blaring strains of the Black Angels. As much as I loved the band, they were just too psychedelic for morning.
Once the music was off, I lay back, breathing deeply. I shaded my eyes from the sun peeking through the French doors that led out to my balcony. My bedroom was painted in a pale green color—the color of bamboo shoots. The room was large, with a sitting area complete with loveseat and rocking chair. To one side was my vanity against the wall near the door. I had bought a bedspread in a swirl of green and purple that wasn’t too busy for the king-sized bed.
Artwork that I had collected over the centuries hung on the wall, including one that was an original Waterhouse. Nobody realized it was an original painting, and I kept it that way. No use inviting thieves into my room. But I had a brief tryst with the artist before he met the love of his life, and when we parted ways—amicably—he gave me a small painting as a gift. The painting was actually of me, and I treasured it.
As I was drifting in the memory, the covers shifted and the next thing I knew, Bubba landed on my chest, all fifteen pounds of him.
“Morning, Bubba. Hasn’t Kelson fed you yet?” I shifted him so he wasn’t planted on my boob. Fifteen pounds of cat could leave quite the footprint and I often found little paw-printed bruises on my body where Bubba decided to body-slam me.
“Mrow.” Bubba began to knead me, staring down his nose at me.
“You’re hungry?” But when he headbutted my chin, I realized he wanted to be petted. I scooted up, gathering him in my arms so that he was snuggled against me. “You lonely, Bubs? I have been pretty busy lately, and with Aegis gone, I guess the house has seemed kind of empty.”
I didn’t suggest he find Franny and talk to her. Franny, the house ghost, was as impressed with Bubba as he was with her, and they politely ignored each other.
“I see he woke you up.”
Speak of the devil. Or the ghost, rather. Franny was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I had ordered her to stay out of it because I really didn’t want her interrupting Aegis and me when we were having sex.
“Morning, Franny.”
She swished her muslin gown and let out a long-suffering sigh. In addition to being dead, Franny was quite the martyr about it. She had somehow been trapped in the house, and she had been here a long, long time—for over two hundred years. I had done my best to make life easier for her. I had to admit, she was a lot less annoying than she had first been.
“Good morning, Maddy. I was hoping you’d be awake. I wonder if you can check the computer? Something happened and it turned itself off.” She looked a little flustered.
“Did you try to touch it again?” I had set a computer up with an e-reader app, and programmed it to answer to Franny’s voice commands. She had loved to read when she was alive, and it was the least I could do for her. But when she got too close to the actual computer, sometimes her energy fritzed it out and it would turn off.
“Noooo.” But by the way she dragged out the word, I suspected she had. There was no use in lecturing her, though. Sometimes Franny’s eagerness translated into forgetting practicality. She couldn’t open doors, and she couldn’t move the mouse, no matter how much she wanted to see something besides the book on the screen.
“No? Maybe a power surge turned it off. I’ll check on it after I get dressed.”
“Thank you.” Satisfied, she vanished.
I shook my head. “Sometimes I wish—” I froze. I was absent-mindedly stroking Bubba’s belly.
He glanced up at me, his eyes all too bright. “Mrp?”
“No, no, Bubs. I don’t want anything. I’m not making a wish! Really.” I quickly removed my hands from near his belly and scratched him behind the ears instead. “See?”
Bubba was a cjinn. Rub his belly and make a wish and he might—might—give you what you asked for. Or he might take it into his furry little head to twist your words and give you something he thought you might like. Or that might amuse him. Cjinns were part djinn, all cat, and they were from the elemental plane of fire. I had found Bubba when he was a baby and he had been with me ever since, a faithful, caring, somewhat demented companion.
Bubba let out a loud purr and rolled over, showing his belly to me. He waved one paw in a come-hither gesture. “Mrp?”
“No, you don’t. Come on, time to get up.” I slid out from beneath the covers. I padded to the closet and poked around, deciding what to wear. It was supposed to be warm and balmy, with a breeze coming in off the straits today. I decided on a pair of cutoffs and a tank top. The shorts definitely weren’t daisy dukes. I wore low-cut tops and liked showing cleavage, but I most decidedly did not want my butt cheeks flopping out. As I dressed, it suddenly hit me that Aegis hadn’t called the night before. By the time I had arrived home from the hospital, I had been frazzled and preoccupied with what had happened to Sandy, and I hadn’t really noticed before I crashed for the night. But now, it hit me that he hadn’t called at all.
Or had he?
After I zipped up my shorts and fastened my bra, I grabbed my phone and checked it. Damn—I had muted the ringer while we were in the hospital and forgotten to turn it back on. My alarm worked just fine, but I hadn’t received any notifications of texts or phone calls.
I checked. Sure enough, two calls had come in from Aegis at around eleven. And there were three texts from him, along with one from Sandy this morning. I read hers first, given the circumstances.
i’m bored. when are you and max coming to get me?
I texted back:
we’ll be there soon. will the doctor let you out?
Then, I flipped over to Aegis’s texts.
love, haven’t heard from you. is everything all right?
And then, a half-hour later:
i tried to call. no answer. what’s going on? are you all right?
Finally:
i called again. you didn’t answer. i’ll be home as soon as i can. we just finished the last gig tonight. i don’t have the time to make it back before sunrise, but first thing tomorrow night at sunset, i’ll head out and probably be home by midnight. love you.
Damn it. I hated worrying him. I pulled on my tank top and slid my feet into a pair of ballerina flats. I sat at my vanity table and texted him back so he’d see it first thing when he woke up.
sandy was in a bad accident. somebody tried to run her down. i was at the hospital with max and muted my phone and forgot to take it off when we left. i’m going over to help out today. she has a broken arm and a sprained ankle. i’m all right. love you. miss you. xxoo—maddy.
After texting him, I brushed my hair back into a high ponytail and put on my makeup. Bubba let out a cat-sized sigh and wandered out of the room. Finally feeling pulled together enough to go in search of caffeine, I headed downstairs.
Kelson was serving breakfast in the dining room to our guests. Mr. Henry Mosswood was there—he had taken up what seemed like permanent residence at the Bewitching Bedlam. Human, he was a researcher who was deep in the throes of writing a book about Bedlam. I had the feeling that he just liked hanging around the town, and he was a retired teacher so he didn’t have much else to do. He paid his bill on time and was a model guest, so I didn’t object to his continued presence. In fact, I had negotiated a reduced rate with him in return for housecleaning every three days instead of every day.
In addition to Henry, we also had a young couple staying with us. They were newlyweds. Winter Fae, they had come up from Missouri where they had been born and raised. Once they got married, they decided that they wanted to live in the north, closer to the Winter Court. They were staying at the Bewitching Bedlam while they looked for a place to live.
I peeked in on them, waving. “Good morning. I hope you’re enjoying your stay with us.”
The wife—Cera—gave me a broad smile. “Oh, it’s lovely. And it’s so much nicer here during the summer, a lot cooler.”
“Usually. We have our moments where the sun gets a bit much, but Bedlam is fairly temperate. Have you had any luck house hunting yet?”
She shrugged. “We’re looking. We are going to visit the Winter Court today. Ideally we’d like to live there, but they are very picky about who’s allowed to emigrate.”
The Winter and Summer Fae Courts weren’t quite in the same dimension as we were. There were specified gateways that led into them. Bedlam was one of them. We had gateways into both the courts of Winter and Summer here, but they were heavily guarded and nobody got through without permission. I had never attempted to visit either court. The Fae could be scary as hell when they wanted to be, both the light and the dark.
“Well, good luck with your quest. I wish you the best.” Turning to our other guest, I said, “Morning, Henry.”
He glanced up from his paper. “Good morning, Maudlin. You’re looking particularly fetching today.” He blushed as he said it and I grinned. He flirted with me very lightly, but I knew it wasn’t serious. He knew that I knew. It had developed over the past few months and was just his way of being polite. He never overstepped his boundaries, and even Aegis wasn’t bothered by it.
“Well, thank you. I’m going to be out today, so Kelson will see to your needs if you have any specific requests. Remember: don’t rub Bubba’s belly. He’s in a mood today and I have the feeling you’d get more than you asked for.”
They laughed as I headed into the kitchen. There, Kelson had already warmed up my espresso machine and she was fixing me some eggs and toast.
“Bless you. I didn’t want to make a sandwich today.” Over the past few months I had broadened my repertoire, learning how to make a few simple dishes, but the simple truth was that I didn’t enjoy cooking. I enjoyed the results of cooking—I loved to eat—but I didn’t enjoy the process it took to produce the food. So any meals I pulled together tended to be quick. Sandwiches, nuking leftovers in the microwave, opening a can of something.
While Kelson was cooking, I told her what had happened to Sandy.
“It seems to me that if somebody is out to hurt her, they aren’t going to rest on one attempt. Not with that violent of an attack. She’d better be careful.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me.” I hadn’t really even thought of that, I had been so focused on how badly she had been bruised up.
She dished up the eggs, buttered the toast and set it on the side, and then added a bowl of fresh berries before carrying it over to the table by the sliding door that led out to the backyard. I fired off five shots of espresso, added milk, ice, and some raspberry flavoring, then slid into a chair and began to eat.
“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked her.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. She was a werewolf, but she was a domestic goddess. At fifty, she was still young, as far as werewolves went. Her hair, though, was stark white and I wasn’t sure if she had dyed it that way or if she had been born with it. She wore it in a bun that gave her the impression of being longer and leaner than she actually was. Around five-nine, she didn’t have an ounce of extra fat on her, and she tended to wear long rayon skirts, and button-down shirts that gave the impression she was older than she was.
“I thought I’d tackle the attic today. There are some things that need cleaning up there. And it’s laundry day. I also thought, since Aegis won’t be back in time to make dinner, that I’d stop at the Calou Bakery and pick up a cake for dessert.”
We offered dinner to our guests as well as breakfast, if they wanted. Mr. Mosswood almost always ate in, though the newlyweds had chosen to eat out at different restaurants. Aegis usually cooked. Breakfast for the guests was continental—muffins, Danish, coffee, fruit, and cheese. Dinner, if they indicated they would be eating in, was some gourmet treat whipped up by my vampire lover, who happened to be a foodie. But since he had been gone on tour, Kelson had volunteered to step in. While she made a mean spaghetti and meatloaf, she wasn’t so handy with baking. So we had been ordering the breakfast goodies and forgoing dessert at dinner.
“That sounds good. Chocolate, if you can find it. Black forest cake would be yummy.” I had a sweet tooth. My trainer had done his best to curb it, and I had been fairly good about swearing off about seventy percent of the junk food I used to eat. I had finally accepted that I’d never like shopping at the health food store for carob and bean sprouts.
“I’ll see what I can do. Are you going to be home for lunch?”
I shook my head. “I’ll be over at Sandy’s most of the day. I’ll try to be back in time for dinner. Keep it simple—maybe a sandwich bar. Bread, lunch meats, lettuce, tomato, you know the drill.”
“That’s easy enough.” She finished her coffee. “I’d better get to my work for the day.”
As she carried our plates over to the sink, I picked up Bubba, who was hanging out on a chair near the table, kissed him on the nose, and grabbed my purse and keys.
“Be good, you. Don’t hassle Kelson.” Then, remembering Franny’s request, I dashed into the library, where I rebooted the computer. She flickered into sight as I was finishing. “Don’t touch it this time. I mean it. There, your book is set and the voice commands are working.”
And with that, I headed out to meet Max at the hospital.