Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (18 page)

Chase hated to see his mom looking so sad.
"Grandfather?" he said. "Now that Aunt Clair is feeling better,
will she go look for our dad again?"

He shook his head. "No, Chase, she
won't."

"Will
you
go look for him?"

"I have no idea where he is," answered
Grandfather sadly. "Two days ago, Clair was conscious enough for a
moment to tell me where the building they were held in was located.
So, to ease her mind, I teleported to Blackshire to see if he had
been recaptured. He wasn't there."

"And you didn't tell us?" said Chase, looking
outraged.

"I didn't want to get your hopes up regarding
Clair's condition or finding Benjamin," said Grandfather. "I'm
sorry."

Chase slumped against the counter. "They
probably have him someplace else," he muttered.

"I knew he must have a reason for leaving us.
I never dreamed he was being held captive!" said a bewildered Anne.
"Why? What would anyone want with Ben?"

"Andy and I asked the same thing," said
Chase. He flicked a chunk of bacon lying on the counter. It flew
through the air and plopped into Grandfather's coffee. "It's
because of our magic."

"You mean my kids are in danger too?" she
cried. "Who
are
these people? Do you even know?"

"I have some idea," said Grandfather
gravely.

"And you boys have known about this?" Anne
asked Chase.

"Some of it," he mumbled.

"I can't believe Ben kept so much from me!"
said Anne, shaking her head. "I feel so stupid."

"It's not your fault, Anne, and I don't want
anyone to worry," said Grandfather as he patted her hand.
"Everything will be fine."

She slid off her stool and began pacing the
kitchen. "Fine? Things haven't been fine for a long time! I have to
take my kids away to someplace safe. I can't let anything happen to
them too!"

"Anne, this
is
the safest place," said
Grandfather.

"And you!" she snapped at Grandfather as if
he hadn't spoken. "You knew what was going on and you never came to
me. You had no right to do this!"

"We were hoping to find Ben—"

"I had a right to know, Hiram!" she yelled.
"Instead, you show up and take my kids away, insisting it's because
they need to learn about their so-called magical heritage."

"The boys had to know about their family and
their abilities. Benjamin was wrong to ignore it!"

"If you know who these people are, why don't
you do something to stop them?"

"I'm working on that," Grandfather said, "but
it's proving to be more difficult than I've foreseen." He looked as
if he wanted to say more, but decided not to.

Chase watched his mom stride back and forth,
muttering under her breath.

"I want to go to the zoo," he announced.

Anne stopped and stared at her son.
"What—?"

"Brilliant idea, Chase!" exclaimed
Grandfather, rubbing his hands together and looking happy to get
off the Benjamin subject. "We'll make a day of it. We'll ride over
on the ferry, visit the zoo, and have dinner at the top of the
Space Needle. Come along, let's get ready to go."

Anne propped her fists on her hips and
sputtered, "What? To the zoo! Now? But—but Chase, we're talking
about keeping you safe and you want to go running off to a huge
public place. And everything with your dad..."

Chase shrugged and smiled half-heartedly. "It
might be kinda fun, don't you think?"

C
hase felt lighter,
and rather festive, as they strolled along the zoo's tree-lined
walkways. He took a deep breath, sucking in the mingling scents of
animals, plants and flowers, and hot, buttered popcorn floating on
the breeze. Being there made it a little easier to push thoughts of
his missing dad to the back of his mind.

His mom, hiding behind her dark sunglasses,
wasn't relaxing as much as he'd hoped, however. She kept peeking
behind every trash can and tree as if she expected someone to
pounce on them at any moment.

"I don't know why I let you talk me into
this," she muttered to Chase.

"We can't let those creeps who took dad
control our lives," he whispered back.

"Hey, let's go see the snakes," said Andy,
checking the zoo map. "Look, the reptiles are by the penguins,
Persephone's favorite bird."

"I'm looking forward to seeing the giraffes,"
said Grandfather. He wore his usual bow-tie, but looked a little
less stuffy in loose-fitting blue-jeans and sneakers. "Lovely
creatures."

"All right!" said Anne, her anger with Hiram
making her sound snappy. "Snakes, it is. Andy, lead the way."

The reptile house was cool and dim—and filled
with some hideous creatures, as Chase found out when he peered
through the glass partitions. He was ogling an orange-spotted gecko
with a huge head, a pink tongue and weird buggy eyes when someone
tugged on his sleeve. "Chase," whispered Janie, "you have to tell
Grandfather about last night's intruder."

Glancing around, he saw his mom and Andy
staring at a fat, reddish-orange frog a few windows down. "Not
now!" he growled. "I don't want my mom to hear. She's already been
through enough."

"Okay," she said. "But you better promise me
you'll tell him today." She narrowed her eyes. "Or I'll let it slip
to Aunt Anne."

"I'll take care of it!" muttered Chase,
jerking his sleeve away and wishing he'd left her at home brooding
instead of insisting she come. "No need to get all freaked
out."

"What are you two whispering about over
here?" asked Anne from behind them, making the two kids jump about
a foot in the air.

"Janie wishes she had a pet boa constrictor."
Chase smirked at his cousin. "Don't you, Janie?"

"Oh, yeah," said Janie, smiling brightly.
"Love 'em."

"Uh, how…nice, Janie," Anne said, looking as
though she was trying not to look too revolted. "Maybe you can get
one for your next birthday. Anyway, let's go. Andy wants to see the
bugs."

"Sure, Mom," said Chase, sending Jane one
last glare behind his mom's back.

They made the rounds, visiting the penguins,
the aviary, Bug World, the orangutans, zebras, giraffes and
elephants. As Chase and the others wandered through the park, at
first, everything was fine, but at the lions' habitat, the large
cats looked tense and angry. They prowled back and forth and
snarled at the people staring in. The tigers, too, stalked and
rumbled deep in their throats, their amber eyes glinting with
madness.

When they reached the wolves, the largest one
bared its teeth, growled and hurled itself at the glass barrier. He
crashed into it then tumbled to the ground, his eyes rolling back
into his head.

Everyone screamed and scooted away. Chase
stared at the other agitated animals. What the heck was wrong with
them? After all, they should be used to crowds of gawking
people.

Then he remembered something Grandfather had
told him and Andy on the ferryboat their first day in Seattle:
"Animals with higher intelligence can usually sense magic. Good or
bad." And Chase knew only dark magic would make them act this
crazy.

He scanned the crowd. As he did, his ears
began to ring and the warm air seemed to crackle with magical
energy. All around them the trees and buildings cast strange,
menacing shadows. He heard Persephone talking next to him, as if
from a long distance.

"Mr. Hiram, why would it want to attack us
like that?"

Chase didn't hear the answer, because all of
a sudden he caught sight of a familiar blond head disappearing
around a loop in the pathway. He sprinted after it.

"Chase! Come back!" yelled his mom.

Ignoring her, he bolted past the park
workers, who were rushing to see what all the commotion was about.
Swooping and zigzagging around baby strollers, children and harried
parents, he tried to keep up with the fleeing man.

Losing sight of him, Chase paused to catch
his breath. With a swift glance around, he saw that the closest
place for anyone to hide was the wallaby and kookaburra house. He
dashed inside.

The sudden change from sunlight to dimmer
indoor light caused dark spots to bob in front of his eyes. Before
he could blink them away, he slammed into something hard and
tumbled to the ground. What the heck was that, a runaway
hippopotamus? Through a haze of pain, he squinted up at whatever
he'd crashed into.

Nope. This was no hippo. A man towered over
Chase. The guy's top lip was curled up in a snarl and his cold,
light-blue eyes were mean and dangerous-looking. He had long,
dark-blond hair pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck. His
thin, pale face had a hard, sinister look. A frightening chill
swept over Chase, crushing him to the floor.

"We're watching you, Tinker," said the man in
a deep, raspy voice that was also thick with a British accent. "It
won't be long now. Remember, the worst is coming."

The kookaburras clamored and flapped wildly
around in their cage. Their laughing calls made a deafening noise
which drowned out the pounding of Chase's heart. He squeezed his
eyes shut and waited for something bad to happen.
If you're
going to pound me to a pulp,
he thought,
at least make it
quick.

"Chase! Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes. Instead of the tall,
terrifying man, his family and Persephone were clustered around
him.

"You're bleeding!" cried Anne as she unzipped
her handbag and yanked a wad of tissues from it.

He jerked his arm away when she bent down and
rubbed the oozing gash on his elbow. "Ow! That hurts. I can do it."
He grabbed the tissues from her. "Where is he? Where did he
go?"

"Who?" they said in unison, sounding like a
pack of owls.

"A tall, blond man with a ponytail, that's
who! Didn't any of you see him?"

"We didn't see anyone in here but you," said
Janie, looking at Chase like he'd just sprouted purple spots and a
six-inch nose.

Scrambling to his feet, he looked up and down
the wide corridor. How was it possible for someone to disappear so
quickly? His shoulders drooped as blood dribbled down his arm and
dripped onto the pavement.

"Chase, what's going on?" asked Anne, with a
worried frown.

"Nothing," he mumbled. "I—I thought I
recognized someone from New York, is all."

"You scared the daylights out of me!" Anne
shook her head. "It was very irresponsible to go running off like
that."

"I know, I know," said Chase. "I'm
sorry."

"Chase, you're messing up the place," said
Andy, pointing down at the blood spatters.

"That definitely needs antiseptic and a
dressing," said Anne in her nurse's voice.

The kookaburras were calming down as they
left the building to find a place for Chase to wash his cut.
Finding a restroom nearby, Grandfather went inside with his
grandson to help him clean up.

"All right, Chase, what
is
going on?"
he asked. He checked to make sure they were alone before twirling
his finger and conjuring disinfectant and a bandage.

Chase gazed into the mirror over the sink.
His reflected eyes met those of his grandfather's. He could hear
Janie's voice inside his head like a squawking parrot, nagging him
to spill it. He ran his arm and elbow under the faucet's cool
stream, took a deep breath and told Grandfather everything: about
being chased after the fireworks show, how they'd hidden in the old
shed until they thought it safe enough to come out, and seeing the
intruder in his room.

Grandfather leaned against a sink, crossed
his arms and frowned. "Why didn't you tell me any of this
sooner?"

Chase shrugged as he dried his arm with paper
towels. "You have enough to worry about with Aunt Clair and other
things. We didn't want to add to it. And now, I don't want to worry
my mom any more than she already is." He wadded the towels and
slam-dunked them into the trash bin.

Grandfather nodded as he spritzed Chase's
injury with the antiseptic. "So what happened today?"

"The animals were acting way weird and I
remembered you said they can sense magic, and the air was, like,
filled with this dark, magical energy. Didn't you feel it too?"

"Of course, but running off alone and
unprepared did not seem like a wise decision."

Chase hung his head. "I thought I saw someone
suspicious. When I lost him in the crowd, I went to check in that
building and I bumped into this tall, creepy dude." He shoved his
hands into his back pockets and in a shaky voice told Grandfather
what the man had said. "And then he vanished! I closed my eyes for
a second and, bam, he was gone."

"Was he the same person from last night?"
asked Grandfather, sounding more serious than Chase had ever heard
him.

Chase wrinkled his brow as he thought about
it. "Maybe. They both had the same creepy blue eyes." Looking into
his grandfather's worried eyes, he asked, "Is it just me, or does
someone really hate the Tinkers?"

"No, Chase, it's not just you."

"Is it the people who took my dad?"

Grandfather's answer was interrupted by a
group of boys pushing and punching each other playfully as they
slammed open the restroom door and stumbled into the room.
Grandfather led the way back out into the sunshine. Chase shuffled
along behind, disappointed because he had a feeling Grandfather had
been about to share some of his secrets.

"What took so long?" asked Andy when he saw
them. "I want to go see the otters."

Chase wrapped his arm around Andy's neck and
rubbed the top of his head with his clenched fist. "Don't you care
I was bleeding to death?" he teased. "Blood spurted all over the
place. Drenching the walls, the floor, everything."

"Yeah, right," said Andy, giving Chase a
shove. "No it didn't."