Vendetta (Deadly Curiosities Book 2) Read online

  I bent down and picked up the pieces. Someone had gone to a lot of effort to create the memorial for two young men who died before their time. I had already felt the initial images from the memorial when the ghosts appeared, so handling the wooden pieces now didn’t send me into a swoon. Still, the longing and loss was clear, as was the love that went into the homemade marker. I resolved to replace it. That’s when I looked up and saw the ghosts of the two young men standing by my car, waiting with me until help arrived.

  The police sirens were so loud that I thought my head would explode. A police car, an ambulance and a fire truck roared down the road and stopped when they saw my car.

  “What happened?” the officer asked, taking in my disheveled condition and the ruined car.

  “Deer,” I said. “Came out of nowhere. Wrecked my car,” I said ruefully.

  The rest of the questions were a blur, and since I felt woozy, I mostly concentrated on not passing out. I must have looked pretty bad, because the cop never even tried to ask me about the scorch mark on the pavement.

  Two very nice EMTs loaded me onto a gurney. “A precaution,” one said as I tried to object.

  “My car –” I protested.

  One of the EMTs, a big man who looked more like a linebacker than an emergency medical technician shook his head. “Honey,” he said, “that car’s not going anywhere. They’re gonna have to haul it out.”

  I blinked back tears. Then I got mad. It didn’t matter that the monster who wrecked my Mini Cooper had been run over, shot, and incinerated. Someone had sent him, and he, she or it was going to answer to me before this was over.

  I don’t remember much about the time at the hospital. I was poked and prodded and asked the same questions over and over again. They made me take a Breathalyzer test and took blood to make sure I wasn’t on something. Huh. If I’d have told them what really happened, they’d have been sure I was using.

  Finally, when they had cleaned me up and run all their tests, they let Teag come in to see me. He paused in the doorway and shook his head. “Oh Cassidy,” he said with a little moan. “I am so sorry I didn’t go with you.”

  I dismissed his comment with a gesture. “Someone had to mind the store. Maggie couldn’t do it alone,” I said. “And it’s not as bad as it looks. Scalp wounds bleed a lot. I’m going to have a nasty bruise from the seatbelt, but other than some sore muscles, I’m good to go.”

  “I found out where they towed the Mini Cooper,” he said. “No estimate yet, but I made sure they had your contact information.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. I wanted to tell him what really happened, but there were too many people around. From the look he gave me, I was pretty sure that he had figured out it wasn’t as simple as I had made it sound.

  Another hour passed before they let me leave. The emergency room doctor gave me a bottle of pain pills and instructions on what to watch out for. The worst part was having to leave in a wheelchair, but Teag didn’t mind pushing me out.

  “Anthony insisted I take his car so you’d be more comfortable,” Teag said. His old Volvo was reliable and safe, but Anthony referred to it as a beater. To be honest, I didn’t mind, although the Lexus was more like sitting on a leather couch in a comfortable, mobile living room.

  “Tell him thanks for me,” I mumbled. Despite the pills, every movement hurt.

  I swore a lot as Teag helped me into the car. He waited until we were out of the parking lot before he stole a sideways glance at me. “Okay. Spill.”

  I gave him a very abbreviated recap of what Father Anne and I did at the cemetery, about the monster’s appearance, and Daniel Hunter’s unexpected arrival.

  “I don’t know whether to be annoyed because he was following you, or happy that he saved you,” Teag replied.

  “Yeah, I’m with you,” I agreed. “But on the whole, I’m glad he showed up.”

  “You didn’t see him tailing you?”

  “No. I checked on the way out.” I paused, because it hurt to talk too much. “Maybe he didn’t follow me. If he’s a supernatural hit man with woo-woo powers, maybe he was tracking the monster.”

  Teag shrugged. “Possible. I wish we knew more about him. I’m still not sure I trust him.”

  Neither did I. On the other hand, Daniel didn’t like monsters, and that was a point in his favor.

  It was dark by the time I got home. I was surprised to see that the lights were on in my house. I turned to Teag, but before I could ask, he chuckled.

  “When Maggie heard me on the phone with you, she insisted on staying the night with you,” Teag said. “She’s already taken Baxter out and given him his dinner.”

  “What a pair we’ll make,” I said ruefully. “She’s on crutches, and I look like I hit the side of a building.”

  “You got lucky,” Teag replied, and all the humor had gone out of his voice. “You might not have been able to fight off the monster on your own if Daniel hadn’t shown up. That move with the car was suicidal – and brilliant. But it put you right where another driver didn’t get to walk away from a wreck.”

  I told him about the ghosts of the two young men, and the bits of the broken memorial I had saved to reconstruct. The power the ghosts had shared with me when I made my last stand against the monster played a big role in my survival. I wasn’t sure how I could thank them, but I was resolved to try.

  “Oh, and I left a message for Sorren.” Teag tried to sound off-handed about it, but I glared at him. “Hey,” he said defensively. “It’s not like it was an average traffic accident and after the attack in Boston and the other stuff you told me about, he’d want to know. Something big, brutal, and supernatural is going out of its way to stalk you. That’s not the kind of thing we can keep from Sorren.”

  I wanted to argue, but I didn’t have the energy. So, I glared at him.

  He grinned patiently. “Sucks when I’m right.”

  Baxter greeted me with bounces and yips, and I coveted Sorren’s ability to glamour him. Glad as I was to be loved, right now those high-pitched barks felt like ice picks in my brain. I scooped Baxter up and he tried to lick me, then he stopped cold at the strange antiseptic smells and gave me a curious look. I cuddled him close as Maggie bustled up.

  “Oh my goodness,” she said shaking her head. “You are a hot mess.”

  “Bed,” I managed. After the ride with Teag, I was talked out, and totally exhausted.

  “Good heavens, go right ahead,” Maggie said, overflowing with maternal concern. I noticed that she was dressed in a pair of classic men’s-style linen PJs with a terrycloth robe over the top. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about taking the stairs, so I made a bed for you on the couch. Teag got your roll-away out of the guest room, and set it up for me in the dining room. That way, if you need anything I can hear you.”

  I hugged Baxter, looked at Maggie with her crutches and then looked back to Teag and felt overwhelmed at my good fortune. “You are both the absolute best,” I said, trying not to tear up because I knew it would make my headache worse.

  “Get some sleep,” Teag said. “Don’t worry about the store tomorrow, either of you. I can handle it myself.”

  “Thank you both so much,” I said, suddenly too weary to stay awake. I noticed that someone had set out my pajamas on the couch, and I headed into the bathroom to change while Teag and Maggie conspired near the front door. On one hand, it tweaked my pride to need help. On the other, I was exhausted and in pain, and couldn’t do for myself. I decided to leave off thinking about it until tomorrow. Teag was gone by the time I came out of the bathroom.

  “Do you want a cup of hot chocolate? Or tea?” Maggie asked. “Bourbon, maybe?” I remembered that she had children and grandchildren. Mothering seemed to come naturally to her. I managed a wan smile.

  “No thanks. Just bed.”

  “You go ahead and get comfortable,” Maggie said, bustling around despite her crutches. “I’ll make sure all the doors are locked and turn out the lights.”

&nb
sp; I was too tired to argue. Every muscle and joint hurt as I eased myself onto the couch and lifted Baxter up to nestle in to the bend of my knees. I was home. I was safe. I was among friends.

  Just in case, I made sure that my athame and the walking stick were within reach.

  I INSISTED ON going in to the store around noon the next day, and Maggie refused to let me come by myself, so we drove together in the rental car Teag had arranged. Fortunately, things were quiet, and both of us could spend the afternoon seated behind the counter. That was good, since we were still recuperating.

  “If you feel up to it, Anthony wanted me to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night,” Teag said after we closed up at the end of the day and Maggie had gone. “Nothing fancy,” he added. “He’s planning to pick up take-out, but he said he’s found out a couple of things and he wanted to tell you about them. Oh, and I did talk to Sorren. He was really worried about you but he knew Maggie was at your house, so he grilled me on the details and gave me strict orders for both of us to take full precautions. He said we’re not to go anywhere without our ‘tools’. He’s really upset, Cassidy. I’ve never heard him so distracted. But on the Boston situation, he did say the other guy is going to pull through and that he’d connect with us as soon as he possibly could.”

  I felt chills down my spine. Sorren was our rock and to think of him being rattled was more than a little disconcerting – but then he’d just lost a friend and seen others he’d known for years get hurt. That’s when I remembered my promise to Kell.

  “What are you doing tonight?” I asked. “Valerie wants me to go on one of her ghost tours to see the kind of weird stuff that’s going on, and then Kell wants us to go through a haunted house where he found some more weird stuff.” I sighed. “And I also told Kell that I’d see if I could find some kind of charms to protect the ghosts that are causing his people so much trouble.”

  “If the disturbances they’re seeing are tied into what happened to Tad’s ghost and the Ghost Bikers, maybe Kell’s ghosts have a reason to be agitated,” Teag said. “How about this? I’m overdue to go see Mrs. Teller. I’ll ask her for some Hoodoo charms to help Kell’s ghosts, and then I’ll plan on going with you on the ghost tour and to the haunted house.” He managed a grin. “After what happened at the cemetery, I vote for strength in numbers.”

  “Works for me. I just need to swing by the house to take Baxter for a walk and make sure he gets his dinner.” Until we knew what we were fighting, I was not taking Baxter beyond my own little walled garden.

  “When are we supposed to meet up with Valerie?” Teag asked.

  “Six. At the carriage stable. So we should be done in plenty of time to meet up with Kell and his SPOOK folks at the old house.”

  “I’ll see you there,” Teag said. “Sounds like fun.”

  After the shop closed, I went home and grabbed leftovers for dinner while Baxter ate. After what happened the last time we took a walk, tonight we played in my garden to burn off some of Bax’s energy. He loves to chase a Frisbee, and so I threw and he chased until his tongue was hanging out. It was good exercise for both of us. Back in college, I had actually won a few Frisbee golf tournaments. Nice to see that my aim was still good.

  We came back inside, and I selected a few items from the drawer where I keep most of my magical protections. Not all supernatural threats react to the same charms or defenses. Just in the time I’d taken over Trifles and Folly, we’d faced enough ghouls, demons, and otherworldly bad guys for me to have amassed a growing collection of tools to help keep them at bay and keep me relatively safe.

  I gulped a couple of ibuprofen tablets and made sure to take some of the odd ‘tea’ Niella had dropped off earlier in the day for me and Maggie. I don’t know what Mrs. Teller put into her mixture, but I credited it with making both of us feel much more recovered from our injuries.

  I wasn’t going to take any chances tonight, walking around with Valerie. From what she had already seen, the ghosts weren’t in a good mood, as the incidents with the Ghost Bikers confirmed. Kell’s experiences made it even more likely that frightened ghosts could cause trouble. And then there was Daniel Hunter, the wild card. Despite his help at the cemetery, the guy seemed like trouble and I didn’t put it past him to shadow me. Not to mention wraiths and homicidal underwear models.

  I pulled several defensive amulets out of the drawer and put them in my oversized purse, then picked up the antique walking stick Sorren had given me. It had belonged to his maker, Alard, and my touch magic activated Alard’s memories and the residue of his power. And of course, I had my spoon-athame and Bo’s collar.

  After dinner, I took Baxter out again and sat on the steps while he explored the garden, giving myself a chance to decompress and just enjoy the beautiful day. Which meant that I was doubly annoyed when I spotted a figure near my gate and Baxter began to growl.

  Daniel Hunter was lurking outside my house. “I need to talk to you,” he said over top of my gate.

  I backed away from him, and Baxter started to go ballistic. “You need to see me at my store during business hours,” I said. “Thanks for your help yesterday. I did deliver your message to Sorren. But don’t stalk me at my house.”

  “Maybe I was just in the neighborhood.” His smirk let me know he was baiting me.

  “You want to talk to Sorren, talk to Sorren,” I replied, wondering whether the wardings on my house would keep Daniel at bay.

  “I can’t find him. That’s why I need you to help me connect.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that Sorren will let you find him when he’s damn good and ready?” I snapped. “I’m not his appointment-keeper. I already told you: I delivered your message. You want more? Give me a business card. Or a cell phone number. I’ll make sure he gets it. ”

  Daniel tried to open my gate. There was a shimmer of light and a spark of electricity as the wards flared, then a deep, warning growl and Bo’s ghost stood between the gate and me. Most people aren’t afraid of Golden Retrievers. But any time a big dog bares its teeth, raises its hackles and advances with its head down, it’s time to pay attention, especially when in life that dog could put ninety pounds of muscle behind a flying leap.

  “Just back away slowly,” I said, enjoying the startled look on Daniel’s face. “My house is warded. I’m tired of playing games. You show up and drop cryptic warnings about Watchers but you’re not giving me information I can give to Sorren that will actually do any good. So, give me your phone number if you really want to help out.” To my surprise, he rattled off a number, and then repeated it so I could store it in my cell phone.

  I glared at him mistrustfully. “All right. Thanks. But I’m still not okay with you just showing up here. I’m going in my house now, and when I come back out, you’d better be gone.”

  Daniel gave me an appraising look. “I hope you’ve got more tricks up your sleeve,” he said. “Because Watchers are bad news and Reapers are nothing to fool with.”

  “Are you going to keep lurking around the shadows?” I raised my chin defiantly.

  Daniel’s glare gave me the impression he wasn’t used to being challenged. “Tell Sorren ‘Alliance protocols’. He’ll know what that means.” Then he turned and walked down the street, and disappeared around a corner.

  Bo’s ghost raised his head, gave me the wide doggy smile I remembered, wagged his tail and vanished. Baxter stopped going absolutely nuts once Daniel walked away. Bo and Baxter seemed to have an understanding. I leaned on the front porch and tried to stop shaking.

  “Come on, Bax,” I said. “We’ve got things to do.”

  I changed clothes and gathered my things to go out. Baxter gave me his best little blinky-eyed guilt-producing stare as I got ready. “I won’t be long,” I promised. “Then you can sit on the couch with me and we’ll watch a movie. With popcorn.” Baxter likes popcorn, and I knew from the wag of his tail that he was fine with that plan.

  Teag and I met up with Valerie at the downtown barn where the
carriage horses stay during the day. Andrews Carriage Rides has its barn near the Charleston City Market. Tourists love to come in and see the horses, and getting to walk through the stables is one of my favorite things, too. Drea’s family has always been exceptionally careful about how the horses are treated. She says that she dotes on the horses the way I spoil Baxter.

  Valerie was waiting for us. Teag had brought Anthony along, and they both waved. “Hey, it’s a rare chance to combine work and a romantic nighttime walk past haunted houses,” Teag joked. I noticed he had his messenger bag with him, likely full of some of his magical tools. He also carried his long staff, and I saw him note my walking stick. Anthony was wearing a scarf Teag had woven, and I was willing to bet that it had protective magic bound into its threads and into the weaving itself.

  “Please don’t think I’m a cheap date,” Anthony deadpanned. Valerie and I laughed. Anthony rocked GQ style, while Teag was more on the Rolling Stone or rumpled grad student side of fashion. Somehow, they looked right together.

  “Thanks for coming,” Valerie said. I was surprised that she seemed a little nervous. Valerie is a history geek and a big Charleston supporter, so writing and researching the tours she gives is a dream job for her. She’s usually incredibly happy when she’s leading tours, and getting to work with the horses is the icing on the cake.

  Tonight, Valerie seemed subdued. Due to noise restrictions, horse-drawn carriages can’t go through certain parts of the city after business hours, so most evening tours are done on foot. That made for an up-close experience that tourists usually enjoyed, but if the ghosts decided to be dangerous, being on foot could cause some real problems.

  “Would you rather drive the route in a car?” I asked.

  Valerie shook her head. “That’s the thing – I’m going to have to do the route on foot all the other times, so if there’s something out there that shouldn’t be, I need to know now, and not when I’ve got a group full of tourists.”