“But why now? What set it off? I feel like there’s more to this issue than just Essie suddenly deciding to make a move. Something isn’t clicking for me. I feel like I don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle.” I sorted through everything I could think of that had happened since my account got hacked.
“Did anybody new come into your life recently? Beside Snow and the dwarves, I mean.”
“I can’t think of…wait.” I glanced back at the house. “Well, there’s Mr. Mosswood, but I really can’t see him as the problem and he’s been here several weeks. A few other guests came and went without anything seeming askew.”
“Anybody besides guests?”
“No. Wait. Trina left and…Thornton. He’s new. I hired him about a week before the shit hit the fan. Sandy, you don’t suppose he’s working for Essie? He’s not a vampire.”
“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean much. Essie has a lot of human groupies. You know how some of them get crazed about the vampire thing. They geek out over the blood-and-goth set and line up for a chance to get fanged. You have to admit, the proximity between when he showed up and when all this freakshow stuff started happening—it’s way too convenient.” Sandy winced and stared at her hand. “Damn, this hurts.”
“It will, for a while.”
“Sucks. Anyway, did you check out Thornton’s references?”
“Yes, and they all checked out. Except…” I paused, thinking for a moment. “He has a gap of about five years between his last job and now. He said he was in a relationship that didn’t work out and that he had been out of the workforce during that time. I know that happens, so I just let it be—especially when everything else checked out all right.”
“You need to find out where he was during those five years.” Sandy paused as a butterfly circled around the table. She held out her hand and the gorgeous swallowtail landed on her finger. A few moments later, the butterfly took wing again and flew off.
“I think you’re right, but how do I go about it without sounding like I’m prying? And if he is in cahoots with Essie, won’t I alert them by asking? I suppose I can start with Delia. If he has any sort of record, she can tell me.”
I glanced at the sky. The clouds were building again, but we wouldn’t see rain before nightfall, by the smell of the air. The storm was out over the water and was moving slowly onshore. The birds, though, were picking up on the incoming moisture, and singing loud and clear about it.
“Sometimes, I think about the way the world was when we were young. No technology, really, beyond primitive basics. Cities were few and far between, and the world seemed so incredibly large. Now, everything seems so immediate and close together. I sometimes miss those days.” I shrugged. “But I don’t miss the backward attitudes. The witch hunters and the slavers and the bigots—”
“Oh, we still have those,” Sandy said. “Unfortunately, there will always be people who hate what they don’t understand. Or hate who might threaten to tip the status quo that might be in force. I’d like to say I think we’ll see a day when peace governs the land, but honestly? Right now, I’d like to just see peace govern one city.”
I leaned my elbows on the table. “So how’s it going with Max?”
A smile crept across her face. “Good. It’s so good that it’s scary. You know me—I shy away from any real relationships because, hey, I’m over three hundred and I’ve never found one that has lasted.”
“Honey, you find a relationship that outlasts sixty or seventy years, let me know.”
“Right. Let me just put it this way. It’s too soon to tell, but I’m having fun and he hasn’t pissed me off yet. And that’s a miracle.”
“I guess we give thanks for whatever sort of miracles come our way.” I let out a long sigh. “I guess I should call Delia while we’re out here, huh?”
Sandy leaned her elbows on the picnic table. “Yeah. I think you should.”
I pulled out my phone and, once again, put in a call to the sheriff.
DELIA HAD PROMISED to find out everything she could. She wasn’t pleased to hear that Essie might be up to her old tricks again. And she was none too happy to hear that someone was practicing Dirt Magic in Bedlam.
“Dirt Magic isn’t forbidden, but we discourage it, you know. Linda wrote that into the charter.” Delia paused, and I could hear the tap of her pencil on the desk. “Maddy, given you’re the High Priestess of the Moonrise Coven, I think you need to understand that you will attract enemies. I don’t think that fact has set in yet. Essie wasn’t the only one who was out to snare Linda into her own agenda. There are other groups on the island who would love to have you in their back pocket.”
I sobered at her tone. “I am starting to get the picture.”
“We haven’t gotten around to discussing this yet, but you need to be aware that Bedlam isn’t as rosy on the underside as it seems on the surface. There are dark secrets in this town. My father was sheriff before me, and I remember the days when he would come home, unable to talk about the problems on the job, but he would pace the floor half the night.”
“I thought you took over from your grandfather?”
“I did. He retired when I was old enough for the job. But my father was sheriff for a while before that. Ma begged him to quit. She wanted him to buy a little farm where we could just sit back and raise chickens and grow fruit trees. But he would always say, ‘Margie, I can’t do that. Folks depend on me.’ After Da was killed, Grandpa took over until I grew up and decided I wanted the job. Now folks depend on me, and I wish I knew half of what my father did.” Delia let out a sigh. “Grandpa never bothered to look below the surface. He moved away last year to Montana to stay with my aunt. But he walked softly after my father was killed, and he tried to talk me into doing the same.”
I didn’t remember her grandfather—but then, even though I had been coming over to Bedlam since the 1950s for coven activities, I hadn’t ever had much cause to talk to the law.
“Delia, what happened to your father? Who killed him?” While I’d had plenty of chances to talk to her, I really didn’t know her all that well.
Delia paused, then said, “Da was out on a call, checking out reports of suspicious activity on the south side of the island. He radioed in that he was on the trail of something that—in his words—‘looks mighty suspect.’ That was the last they heard from him. When a couple of the detectives went out to check on why he wasn’t answering the radio, they found him dead. No signs of struggle, but it wasn’t of natural causes, either.”
“Did they ever ascertain the cause of his death?”
“Yes, but that led to its own cascade of unsolved questions. The medical examiner discovered that he was poisoned. But even though the doc went over his body with a fine-tooth comb, he couldn’t find any marks to indicate a bug bite or snake bite. The venom was still in his system but didn’t match anything on record. Whatever it was, was highly toxic and would have killed him within seconds of being administered. Da…was just…dead. There was nothing to indicate suicide, and the case is still open and deemed suspicious, but nobody ever found out what happened.”
I wanted to ask if that was why she decided to run for sheriff—to find her father’s killer—but that seemed like prying. If she wanted me to know, she’d tell me.
“Anyway, the reason I’m telling you about all this is so that you’re aware there are undertones to this island. I know you have been coming out here for over sixty years, but Maddy, don’t make the mistake of thinking Bedlam is what it seems on the surface. It’s a wonderful town, and magical and full of friendly people, but there’s always a shadow side.”
“Just like there is to magic,” I murmured. “All right. Find out what you can about Essie and Thornton, and then get back to me. Meanwhile, I’m going to check on Bubba again tonight and start looking through my house for whatever it is that brought the hex in with it. Jordan Farrows said it has to be an object—Dirt Magic needs an anchor.”
As I hung up, my mind was churning. I already knew about undertones and shadow sides, but Delia’s story about her father stuck with me. What could he have found that got him killed?
“Penny for your thoughts,” Sandy said.
“Just musing over something Delia told me. She’s going to do some background checks on Thornton for me, as well as seeing if Essie might be up to anything. Meanwhile, I was thinking. We might want to go down and buy a bug finder—the electronic kind.”
“We might also want to check with Krenshaw’s Magic Supplies. They might have something to find magical bugs as well.”
I stood and stretched. “I’ll grab my keys and we’ll head out. Then let’s take a sweep through the house to see if we can find any eavesdroppers, and maybe—if we’re lucky—whatever is anchoring the hex.”
And with that, we got busy.
Chapter 10
BY THE TIME we had both a wireless bug detector and a magical bug finder, it was almost five-thirty. Of course, we had stopped for a late lunch—and by lunch, I mean shakes and fries. We arrived home to find that Thornton was out. He left a note saying he was on a date and would be home late.
“I’m glad he’s gone,” I mouthed to Sandy as we began our sweep. We silently went through every room, opened every closet, poked under every bed and in every cupboard. An hour later, we were back in the living room.
“Nothing. The house isn’t bugged. That’s one relief. Now I just need to figure out what the anchor is—”
“Anchors work when they’re triggered. Which means whatever it was had to have a point that set it off. Which means either you, or someone in the house, had to have done something that released the magic.” Sandy sat down. “My feet hurt. You sure have a lot of house. I thought mine was big, but the Bewitching Bedlam? Huge.”
My mansion had two stories, not including the attic and basement, and fifteen rooms, not including the bathrooms, the basement, or the attic. Five bedrooms, a maid’s room, the kitchen, butler’s pantry, dining room, living room, laundry, parlor, grand ballroom, office, and the library. The basement had an additional three rooms for storage.
My phone rang and I glanced at the Caller ID. Delia. I answered it as I sat down at the dining room table. “Hello?”
“Maddy? I found out a few things. Brace yourself.”
That didn’t sound good. “What’s up?”
“Thornton was Essie’s favorite boy toy until two weeks ago. He was with her for almost five years. I’m not sure what happened, but he stormed out on her. If she found out that he’s working for you…”
“Yeah.” My stomach roiled. Essie would consider this an act of war, especially if she hadn’t given him the go-ahead to leave. “Crap. Do you know why he left?”
“No, but I do know that once you’re mixed up with Essie, you don’t just walk away. Be careful, Maddy. This isn’t going to go down easy.” She hung up.
I sat back, contemplating my options.
“What is it?” Sandy tapped me on the knee.
“I know where Thornton spent the last five years.”
“Where?”
“Under Essie Vanderbilt’s rule. He was her boy toy until about two weeks ago when, apparently, he stormed out. And bingo, look who hired him and took him in.” I rubbed my forehead, trying to decide whether to throw myself at Essie’s mercy, or maybe just knock Thornton a good one over the head and drop him off in front of her house. “This is a delicate situation.”
“Delicate situation? This is material for a full-blown war. You’ve hired the vampire queen’s favorite. It won’t matter that he stormed out on her. Nobody who pledges themselves to Essie ever leaves. Nobody gets out alive, anyway—not anyone who volunteers for her. You’ve got to fire him, or Essie’s going to have your head.”
“She had to be the one who set the hex on me. And in doing so, she’s hurt my sweet Bubba and bilked me out of fifty-four grand. I don’t care that I got the money back. The fact is she’s a menace.” I was getting angrier by the minute. “I agree, Thornton was an idiot for staying around Bedlam, but I won’t throw him to the wolves. Or rather, to the bats.” I paused, trying to think my way through the situation. “Essie Vanderbilt is not going to chase me out and she’s not getting away with this bullshit.”
“Let’s find the anchor and destroy it, then we can concentrate on turning the tables on her, then. But what are you going to do about Thornton?”
“First, he and I need to have a long talk. He can’t just put my household in danger without taking responsibility. He has to know Essie would come after him.” I pushed myself away from the table. “I’ve brought a lot of things into the house, but now I know it has to have arrived after Thornton started working for me.” I paused, then turned to Sandy. “That pin. The one that came the night that you and Max were here—the heart-shaped pin with the ruby? I put it on because I thought a friend had sent it.”
“Crap. Where is it now?” She hustled me to the stairs. “In your room?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.” We raced upstairs and I sorted through the jewelry lying loose on my vanity table. There was the pin, and as I picked it up, in the pit of my stomach I knew this was the culprit. “This is it.”
She held out her hand. “Let me see. I’m not quite so biased, given that I’m not the target.”
I cautiously placed the heart in her hand and she closed her fingers over it, focusing on the pin. After a few minutes, she let out a slow breath. “The energy is cloudy and makes me cringe. Did you try to cleanse it after you got it?”
“I didn’t think it would be magical. I thought it was new.” I stared at the heart, wanting to tear the thing to shreds. “The good thing is, if I destroy this, Bubba will be all right, I think. Let me call Dr. Farrows.”
Farrows answered within three rings.
“I found the anchor. What do I do with it? Can we help Bubba with it?”
He sounded pleased. “Definitely. But you should know that with a hex like this one—that probably bounced off of you—destroying the anchor will not remove the entire curse. If you want to break the curse on Bubba, bring it over and I can destroy it here and take care of the hex on him.”
“Will it right everything else?”
“Not necessarily. For a hex as strong as this one, you really need a hex-breaker to take care of the entire muddle.”
I paused, thinking. Other things had gone wrong, but nothing as serious as Bubba. At least nothing as serious for me. “Will having the anchor intact make it easier to create a hex-breaker?”
“Not necessarily. Not for a powerful-enough Dirt Witch.”
That sealed it. I wasn’t leaving Bubba in distress any longer than I had to. If needed, I’d take a plane down South to find me a Dirt Witch.
“All right, be right over.” I hung up, scribbled a note for Aegis—who would be waking up in about half an hour—and then Sandy and I hightailed it out to my CR-V. We were at the doctor’s office within fifteen minutes.
He examined the brooch, dunking it into some sort of solution. It turned a bright red for a moment. “Yes, this has Dirt Magic permeating all through it. I’m going to be destroying the brooch, the ruby and all. You do realize that?”
“Go right ahead. Be my guest. If I never see it again, it will be too soon.” Sandy and I backed away as he placed it into a large stone container. I wasn’t sure what he was planning on doing with it, but another moment answered my question as he poured a vile-smelling concoction over the brooch, just barely covering it. The pin instantly began to bubble and disintegrate.
“What the hell is that stuff?” Sandy tried to get a closer peek, but neither she nor I really had any interest in getting too close.
“Oh, I have a number of acids at hand that can destroy bone, metal, you name it.” He laughed his best villain laugh. “Mwahaha!”
“Dude, if you want to play mad scientist, now’s not the time. Not to be a buzzkill, but…Bubba…” I bit my lip, tryin
g not to cry.
Farrows sobered immediately. “I get it. Sorry, Maddy.” He moved to the table, where he gave Bubba a shot of something. Another moment, and the heart was totally gone. Bubba began to stir, and Jordan picked him up and carried him out of the magic-free room, with Sandy and me following.
We went into an exam room and waited. Bubba blinked, shaking his head, and woozily tried to get to his feet. He was still in cat form.
“Looks like it worked. Bubba won’t be changing back into his human form.”
“Oh, thank gods. Bubba—you’re okay.” I leaned down and kissed his head.
“Murrow?” Bubba hiccupped as he mewed.
“I know you don’t understand exactly what’s going on, but I’ll do my best to explain later.”
Jordan gave him a thorough examination. “Good news. The hex is gone—at least from Bubba. This doesn’t guarantee that you and your house are clear, though. But, on the plus side, the moment the anchor was destroyed, it should have put a stop to anything new coming in. As for everyone who’s been affected? You’ll have to have a professional lift the curse, because it can still work on those who were touched by it.”
“What about me?” I wasn’t entirely clear on how this worked. “Is there a way to tell if I’m still being affected by the hex?”
“Chances are, you are. I can examine you and find out, now that I know what to look for.” He glanced at Sandy’s hand. “How did you get that?”
I answered for her. “Would you mind examining her, too? I’m thinking she ended up with that injury as a result of being near me. She was there the night the heart brooch arrived and I activated it—I assume just by pinning it on.”
Jordan had us line up on the examination table. He checked our vitals, then proceeded to draw a vial of blood from each of us, carefully labeling the glass tubes. As we watched, he dropped three drops of a clear reagent into each vial.