Playing with Magic (Elemental Trilogy Book 2) (14 page)

She smelled the first two, but the last two were very hard to smell. “Maybe she just liked the color?”

“You’re not dumb either, Grandmother.  You know she has something planned.”

“Oh, how nice,” Shantaina said, walking in with a feather duster. “Bath salt.”

Autumn handed it to her. “You can have it. Bath salt makes me all itchy.”

“Thanks!” she said, taking it to her room towards the back of the house. Autumn smiled, thinking of the nice bath Stefan and she would share tonight. She sighed as she thought of her guys, and it made her heart ache.

****

Anatha wrote about her learning in her journal. Pyrus had told them to keep one, so there was an account of the elements in human form by the elements themselves. Big deal, right? But when she thought about it, it made a little sense. A bright red dragonfly buzzed by her head, and she zoned out,  watching it flutter around. She heard a noise behind her and turned, waiting to see probably her brother, but Dack came out of the bushes.

“Bad!” He cried out at the top of his lungs. “Bad!” he shrieked even louder. She felt a push of energy. Dark energy, nothing natural.

He pulled something from his pocket and held it high. Panic swept over her as she saw the dagger come swishing down at her, giving her no time to think or react. She put her arm over her face. Nothing happened, but she heard a sound as if something wet and thick had snapped.

“Bad!” she heard Dack shout again.

She looked down to see him being held by Davies. A police officer ran over after he had seen what happened while across the street at the park. “Are you all right, Miss?” he asked as he handcuffed Dack, who was putting up a fight.

“He just tried to kill me, so does that sound like I’m all right?” She was too shaken up to feel any real anger towards the crazy little man.

“I’ll take him in and give your grandmother a call. You will have to come down later and fill out some papers. Pavana is not going to like this, but Dack has always been somewhat strange.”

“Come on,” Davies said. “I’ll take you home.”

“I don’t know if I want to go back right now.”

“Fine, we can go somewhere else?”

“We can go get lunch. I haven’t eaten yet,” she said. Food, her real comfort. Whenever in doubt, she ate.

“Sure,” he said.

****

“Pavana, still nothing,” Yelena, second elder, said over the cordless phone. Her eyes were looking across the street at the three story bed and breakfast owned by Pyrus. She used her free hand to water her flowers and bushes with the pea green water hose her husband had bought her seven years ago, before he died. She had never told anyone but with that very hose, she had strangled the life out of him. It had been set up to look like a heart attack afterwards. Her glamour magic had been very good then, and now he was nothing but bones. She had no intention of letting the stars fall. It had pointed out his death, and when nothing had happened that day, she took it upon herself. The stars had to be right, or else, chaos. Autumn and Mabon came out and sat, talking on the porch.

“Autumn and Mabon are out right now, talking,” her dark eyes watched Aarawn walk over to them. He sat on the other side of Autumn. “Aarawn is sitting with them now. They look as if they are chatting about something.”

****

“You guys do know we are being watched?” Aarawn asked as he spied Yelena from the corner of his eyes. “Gossip queen.” He gave a slight motion with his head.

“I know,” Mabon whispered, smiling.

“Take my hand, Aarawn,” Autumn said. “I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Follow me,” she said as their hands met. Their power mingled. Closing her eyes, Autumn directed them. She used Aarawn to transport them over. They entered into the woman’s mind easily. Aarawn looked over at her as they stood in a library.

“Where are we?”

“Our mind is creating the library because we can’t comprehend the brain aspect we are in.” She put her hand in front of a book. Her head filled with images of Yelena’s own father as an elder. How he had liked poor little Yelena more than all the other girls, and how he enjoyed spanking her on her bare bottom. But she enjoyed it. As an adult, she could never get off without being spanked before sex. Her husband had hated it.

Autumn put the book back. “Too much information there.”

Aarawn pulled out another book. “Shit,” he said, closing it. “She did kill her husband.” He put the book back and gripped Autumn’s shoulders, turning her to look at him. “Do you know what we can do with this? We can enter into anyone’s head. She is a top elder, and we had no problems.”

A cool moist energy pulled them back into their bodies. They looked around, both dizzy. “Damn, Mabon,” Aarawn said, putting his palm to his forehead. “That sort of hurt.”

“Look,” Mabon said, pointing across the street.

Yelena was on the ground with blood dripping from her nose. Another neighbor was helping her to her feet. “She murdered her husband, because the stars said he was going to die that day. When nothing happened, she killed him with her water hose,” Aarawn said in a whisper.

“Her father said they must always make sure the stars are fulfilled as he spanked her, which went on into her mid-teens. She then had the boys she liked spank her. Heck, she has Mr. Rosher spank her weekly. My gods, I don’t even know who Mr. Rosher is,” Autumn said.

“He is the editor at the paper.” Mabon made a face. “Gross, old people sex.”

“Old people kinky sex, which is even worse.” Autumn felt she needed to scrub her eyes with a Brillo Pad.

“Spanking,” Aarawn said. “I figured she killed her husband but not the spanking thing. Makes me wonder.”

“The stars, it explains the bath salt Pavana gave me. They make the stars happen.”

“Why would they do that?” Mabon asked.

Pyrus came out of the house, her magic draped around her heavy with worry. “Dack tried to hurt Anatha. Davies saved her, and the police took Dack to jail.”

Aarawn jumped to his feet. “Where is she?”

Pyrus shrugged, looking across the street. “What happened to Yelena?”

“Don’t know, but I’m going to find Anatha. You two coming along?” Aarawn didn’t even stop when he asked. He was already to the sidewalk.

“Yeah,” Mabon said as he gripped Autumn’s hand. They shared a power together. Earth fed on water, and Autumn wondered how she had lived without her brother for so long.

****

Pavana stood over her son. He laughed at her hysterically as he struggled to get out of the bed he was strapped to. “Bad!” he shouted, which ended in manic weeping, which then turned into crazy laughter. They had to restrain his hands. With them free, he would murmur Anatha’s name and rub the bulge at his crotch with no care as to who was in the room with him.

“He tried to kill Fire,” Agnes, third elder, said, standing across from her, trying to avoid looking at the crazy man.

“Do you think the Elements had anything to do with this?” Pavana asked, staring down at her mad child.

Agnes shook her head. “He was going after Fire. He had a ceremonial dagger” She looked around. “I thought we had those locked up. You know the blood on them? It could mean a death sentence for us all. Plus he says her name, and is masturbating to it.”

“I knew he liked her, but to hurt her, he could do no such thing.”

The doctor came in with a syringe and inserted it into Dack’s arm. “He’ll sleep now. My day is sort of busy. Yelena is in the other room with a bloody nose and migraine.”

“I was talking to her when it hit,” Pavana said.

“Does she usually get migraines?” Agnes asked after the doctor left.

Pavana shook her head, “And she’s not prone to bloody noses either.”

Agnes locked the door. “Pavana, is this all coincidence?”

“I feel it’s not.”

“What of the stars?”

“Something is brewing, which I don’t like. It is taking a path that is in no one’s stars.”

****

Aarawn and the others walked by the café. He paused and turned back, looking in the window. He saw Anatha chatting with Davies. “Did you find her?” Autumn said, holding Mabon’s arm. She was still a little weak from being pulled out of Yelena’s brain. Her brother’s power watered her like a plant, and it was soothing.

Anatha felt her brother watching and turned her attention to him. She gazed out the window and nodded. He stalked in and over to their table. “You should have come home. You worried me,” he said, looking down at her.

“I’m fine. Davies helped, and we came here to have lunch.”

“We have to talk.”

She looked at him and then to Autumn and Mabon. “You guys find out something?”

They all nodded. “Hey, it’s okay,” Davies said. “I have some things to do anyway.”

“You sure?” He nodded. “Mind if I stop in tonight?”

“Not at all. I’ll see you later,” he said and leaned over, planting a kiss on her lips before getting up.

“Sure,” she said, her eyes watching his ass as he left. He had a nice ass. She couldn’t wait to get to him tonight.  All she could think of was how much she wanted to see him naked. She frowned, looking at her brother. Why did they always ruin her plans? If they hadn’t come looking for her, she would probably be walking out with Davies now. “So what happened now?”

“We need to go check on something,” Mabon whispered.

“What?”

“Not here,” Autumn said, giving her a peculiar look.

“Oh, okay.”

****

“What a weird week,” River said. “And we found nothing.” He sat heavily on his bed.

Rowan nodded. He was doodling in a small notebook he picked up at the store two days ago. “Something’s just not fitting.”

“I heard a noise last night,” River whispered.

“See,” Rowan said, sitting up straighter. They eyed the door. “It sounded like moaning or something, huh?”

“Yeah, it reminded me of the mall. Late at night you could hear the moaning from behind the glass.”

“You don’t think?” Rowan asked.

“Boys! Dinner!” Nancy shouted, interrupting them.

“My, your mom sure has a way of bugging us when we’re thinking,” Rowan said, going to the door.

“Or other things,” River said, winking at him.

Before Rowan opened the door, they shared a hug and were about to kiss when River’s mom shouted again. “Hurry. We have guests!”

“Uh oh.” River whispered as they walked out of the room and down the steps.

Both guys stopped dead when they entered the kitchen. Misty and some other girl stared at them, smiling. “Kelsey,” Rowan said, his voice uneven. She nodded, her brown frizzed hair barely moving on her head. He looked at River, who was looking at him. They stared back at the table. Nancy turned with a meat lump in her hands.

“Eep,” River said almost to himself.

“Right on time, boys. Sit and eat.”

“Yes, join us,” Misty said in her new distant voice, which was now common for everyone in the town, even the children. It was very unnerving.

“You know, I’m not really hungry,” River finally spoke up. It was the first time he had ever passed up food. This whole thing was getting out of hand, and he just wanted something normal. Something he knew. He just wanted to go home and see Autumn. He loved his mom, but she was not who she used to be. Now she was sort of like a zombie.

“Me either,” Rowan said, and they ran from the kitchen. They headed over to their parked Winnebago. River threw open the door, and they both collapsed inside. “Your mom is going way out.”

“I want to go home,” River said as Rowan hugged him.

“Me too.” They sat there, holding each other in silence, for some time. Hoping the crazy would disband and they could hide back in their room.

****

“What now, Nancy?” Misty asked.

Nancy shook her head. “The boys better see what I’m doing. It’s for their own good. We have another sacrifice happening soon, and I don’t want to see Rowan added to the list.  He is a very good and helpful boy, and they are very hard to come by at this time. He means so much to River.”

“Why Rowan? What about River?” Misty asked in a high-pitched whine. “He is your son.”

“My baby will do as his mother wants him to do,” she said, her voice threatening as she slammed the meat lump on the table, making the women jump. “He always does as mommy says.”

****

Autumn felt ill.
What are you two up to
, she thought of Rowan and River. Why must you two make me sick? She hoped with everything inside of her that they were okay.  She would give this all up to be with them. She went back to looking through the book in her hands. They were at the town library, looking through the magic history section.

“Clearly, someone has added pages. The older pages are yellowed and the ink is different. The newer entries are clearer and the paper is white.” Autumn whispered to Aarawn.