Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) (19 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

T
hey said their
goodbyes.

Owen took Meaghan through a very quick hypnosis session to reinforce his earlier work. “It should be enough to get you back through the tunnel.” He said. “We can do more later if you’re interested.”

With all the magic, nobody’s phone worked, so they couldn’t call Jamie to tell him about Owen. Instead, Natalie told Owen something only she and Jamie would know to help prove he was on their side, then Annie boosted him through the hole in the pile again. He took the flashlight with him.

With the help of a little ball of light conjured by Natalie, the only magic she could manage without activating the tunnel’s existing protection spell, they followed the tunnel back to the historical society and cautiously opened the trapdoor. The house remained dark and silent.

“Okay,” Meaghan said as she climbed out of the tunnel, “that’s that last time I’m going in there tonight. Gah.”

“You’re still really calm,” Annie said.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have been for much longer.” She laughed. “Yes, Natalie, I know I’m a talented bullshit artist just like Dad.”

“I never said that.” Natalie was the last one out of the hole. She closed the trapdoor behind her, but didn’t lock it.

“No, but you might as well have,” Meaghan said. “Seriously, though, I’m surprisingly good.”

“So what do we do now?” Annie asked.

Meaghan shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s get outside and see if we can call Jamie. Maybe he can create a diversion, and we can sneak in the back way, but we can’t risk them getting hold of Natalie.”

“And if we can’t sneak in?”

“No idea,” Meaghan said. “But I can’t shake the feeling that I need to be in there. Why, I don’t know. I don’t have any power.”

“What was it Owen said about the prophecy?” Natalie asked. “The daughter with the gift of plain sight? They can’t baffle you with magic. You can see their true faces.”

“Owen said something similar the first time I met him.” Meaghan nodded. “Eliot, too.” She sighed. “But these things are strong. I doubt seeing what they really look like will make any difference. Look what they’re doing to Jamie. And what they did to poor Alastair Eldrich.”

“With magic, which doesn’t work on you.” Natalie said. “And Jamie’s fighting back and winning.”

“For now,” Meaghan said, “but only because the drug he’s taking is goosing his psychic abilities.”

His psychic abilities
 . . . she thought about what Matthew had said to her in Fahraya when she had been tripping on Jhoro’s hallucinogenic scorpion antidote. “Psychic isn’t magic, it’s organic.”

“What?” Natalie looked puzzled.

“Something Dad said when I was high in Fahraya. Explaining to me why being impervious wouldn’t interfere with the psychic effects of the drug.” Meaghan thought a moment. “There’s . . . I think there’s a connection here somewhere. Like maybe it goes both ways?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Natalie asked, a worried look on her face.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Meaghan said. “Being impervious doesn’t prevent me from accessing occasional psychic abilities, right? And Jamie’s supercharged mind skills are blocking powerful black magic right now. And Jhoro—”

“Is manifesting psychic crap I’ve never seen before,” Annie said.

Meaghan nodded. “And it seems to be messing with the magic. What if . . . We know psychic ability isn’t magical. I’m impervious and I can use it. Magic can amplify it, otherwise Jamie wouldn’t have—”

“Superpowers,” Natalie said.

“Right, but magic doesn’t seem to be able to control it, at least not well. And these psychic skills of Jamie’s and Jhoro’s also seem to have some capacity to mess with magic. The Order uses magic as a weapon and shield against us. Maybe we can do the same thing against them with psychic energy.”

Natalie nodded, staring into the distance. “Like maybe activating enough psychic ability could make people . . . impervious?”

“Yeah,” Meaghan said. “Sort of. But, that’s only half of it. What if somebody could learn to use psychic energy as a weapon as well as a shield?”

“And,” Natalie said, her voice trembling, “somebody like you, with the inborn trait, would only have to learn the weapon side. If you could wield psychic energy like Jamie currently can, only without the magical interference, you could be . . . unbeatable.”

Meaghan nodded slowly. “The impervious witch scenario, only without the witch.”

Natalie, eyes wide, took a shaky breath. “You’re the one they should be scared of.”

Meaghan snorted. “In theory, yeah, assuming I’m right about this. But Jamie only has psychic skills because the drugs and magic aren’t working well together and I don’t have any psychic abilities at all.”

The three women stared at each other for a long moment, then Meaghan shrugged. “I know, Annie, but where am I going to get Fahrayan peyote?”

Annie looked at Meaghan in shock. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

“What? About the peyote?”

Annie nodded, her face pale in the dim light.

“You didn’t say that out loud?”

Now Natalie looked shocked. “No. She didn’t.” She scrutinized Meaghan’s face, then understanding dawned on hers. “We were under city hall.”

“What are you talking about? Quit looking at me like that. You’re freaking me out.”

“The hypnosis,” Natalie said. “It woke up something.”

Annie nodded, eyes wide. She said to Meaghan, “What am I thinking?”

“Um . . . I don’t—”

“Don’t think about it. Blurt it out. What am I thinking?”

“You’re wishing I’d locked you in the forge with Russ because you’re scared, and you’re not sure how much more running around you can take,” Meaghan said in a rush. “You keep flashing back to the image of Jhoro ripping his clothes off, and you’re wondering if that’s the spell or because it’s been a while since you’ve been with anyone. Not as long as me, but still a decent while. And your feet hurt, and you’d really like a glass of wine and a hot bath.”

Annie and Natalie stared at her, their mouths open.

“Oh, shit,” Meaghan said. “I must be having a flashback or something.”

They were silent a moment until Annie said, “Well, that’s not a bad thing, is it? You were worried you didn’t have any power. Now you do. Maybe a whole lot more than we think.”

“Sounds good,” Meaghan said, “except you don’t really believe that. You’re trying not to freak out at the implications of me with big psychic skills and trying not to admit to yourself that you’re a little bit jealous because now you aren’t the only special one.” She looked at Natalie. “So are you. Sorry. So, the hypnosis—wait, this isn’t some leprechaun thing, is it? Did he do something sneaky?”

Natalie shook her head. “I’ve been reading up on them since the thing out at John’s house and nothing’s mentioned about them making people psychic. This is something else. How long have you been noticing it?”

“I haven’t,” Meaghan said. “Not until right now.” She thought a moment. “The last little bit of hypnosis, what did he say? I went right under.”

“Um, that all the courage and strength you needed you already had within you, and you could handle whatever came your way,” Natalie said.

“Oh,” Annie added, “and something about how harnessing the power of your own mind would make you strong.”

Meaghan nodded. “And he said all that while we were standing under city hall. A great big magnifier of magical and psychic energy, which is now gushing all over the place instead of being channeled neatly into Jamie’s office.”

The three women stood in silence for a long moment.

“Well, shit,” Meaghan finally said.

“I don’t suppose the psychic mojo is helping you come up with a plan,” Natalie said. “Sid said in Fahraya you were totally confident that you’d have a plan when you needed it.”

“Yeah,” Meaghan said. “Some plan. I planted a big sloppy kiss on John to push the bad guy’s magic out of his head.”

“I told you so,” Annie said to Natalie. “You owe me five bucks.”

Meaghan looked at Natalie. “You made a bet?”

“Um, is this really the time to worry about that?” Natalie looked sheepish. “Are you going to start yelling at us again?”

Meaghan rolled her eyes. “No. Geez. Have I really been doing that?”

“Yes,” Annie and Natalie said.

“I was tripping pretty hard in Fahraya. I got way less confident as the drugs wore off.”

“And the psychic stuff faded with the high?” Annie asked.

Meaghan nodded.

“But how do you feel now?” Natalie gazed at her intently. “Are you high again?”

“Honestly, I’m too damn tired to feel anything right now,” Meaghan said. “I feel like I’m on Xanax or something. Kind of flat. Not anxious or confident or happy or sad. I’m—”

A cold spike of pain slammed through her forehead and down into her stomach. She felt herself falling until Natalie and Annie caught her arms and lowered her to the floor. She pulled herself onto her hands and knees and threw up on the cold cement.

“Jamie,” she gasped. “He’s . . .” She crawled away from the steaming puddle of vomit and curled into a ball as another wave of nausea struck her. Deep in her mind she could hear screaming, an electric shriek of fury and pain. “I think they got in. The Order . . . Jamie.” Now a wave of terror and pain struck her. “And Marnie. I feel Marnie.” She burst into tears as the full force of Marnie’s emotions struck her. Even stronger than her fear was her shame. “Oh, God. They . . .”

“They what?” Natalie asked. “What are they doing?”

“They hurt her. They hurt her so bad and now they’re going to burn her. It was you they were trying to get in the first place, but they’ll settle for Marnie.” Meaghan tried to shove Marnie and Jamie’s emotions aside enough to let her think. “For now. They’ll settle for her for now.”

“Did Owen sell us out?” Natalie asked, her voice grim.

“I don’t . . .” Meaghan closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing. “Let me find him.” She tried to reach out with her senses like she had in Fahraya. Jamie and Marnie were so loud, their presences so huge, that Meaghan couldn’t get around them. “Too much. Jamie and Marnie. It’s too much. I don’t know where he is.”

“Hiding in plain sight maybe,” Annie said, nodding. “If we can get close enough, maybe I can talk to the ghosts in city hall and find out what’s going on. One in particular, I think.”

Meaghan had never heard Annie differentiate between them before. She wiped her eyes and croaked, “Who?”

“I never knew his name until today.” Annie pointed at the ceiling. “His portrait’s upstairs. We’re in his house. Welland Eldrich. He never left city hall.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“
W
ait,” Natalie said.
“Bat-shit-crazy Welland Eldrich?”

Annie nodded. “Help me get Meaghan upstairs.”

They both pulled Meaghan to her feet and half-dragged, half-carried her out of the basement.

“Let go of me,” she said when they got to the top of the stairs. “I’m not an invalid.”

“Right now you are,” Natalie said. “Annie, let’s get her into the break room. Clean her up a little.”

“Clean me up?” Meaghan looked down at her black V-neck T-shirt, now splattered with vomit. “Aw, shit.”

“No, sis,” Natalie said. “That’s puke. Please tell me you didn’t crap your pants, too.”

“Bite me,” Meaghan gasped. “Bitch.”

“Atta girl,” Natalie said with a wan smile. “You can always tell she’s feeling better when she starts swearing.”

They settled Meaghan into a chair, and Natalie handed her a wet paper towel. “Here.”

Meaghan dabbed ineffectually at her fouled T-shirt.

“Take that off,” Annie said. “I’ll rinse it out and get you a clean shirt.”

Meaghan nodded and pulled her shirt over her head. At least her bra was still dry. The cannon blasts of emotion had receded, leaving Meaghan numb. She’d failed. She hadn’t saved him this time. Or Marnie. What advantage was there to being psychic again if all it let her do was hear their final agony?

She looked up at Natalie. “I don’t know what to do.”

Natalie plunked a plastic cup half full of a clear liquid in front of her. “Drink this.”

“What is it?”

“Drink it. Throw it back. Don’t sip.”

Meaghan drank as instructed. Liquid fire engulfed her throat and stomach. The taste was pungent, almost antiseptic. The fog in her brain boiled into steam and evaporated. Eyes watering, Meaghan coughed convulsively for a moment, then caught her breath. “Holy hell. What is this shit?

“Moonshine. I found a jar of it stuffed in the back of a cabinet.”

“Moonshine? Really?”

“Yeah. I know the folks who make it. Way back in the woods.”

“Human?” Meaghan asked before dissolving into another coughing fit.

“Mostly,” Natalie said. “Feel a little clearer now?”

“Yeah. Like a window sprayed with glass cleaner.”

Natalie smiled. “Nah. This is stronger than glass cleaner.”

“I get now why they call it white lightning,” Meaghan said. “Yikes.” She looked down at her dingy bra and bare stomach. “I had to put on this bra? I gotta die in this bra?”

“No. Nobody’s dying,” Annie said. “At least not on our side.” She handed Meaghan a red T-shirt. “It’ll probably be a little big. All they had in the gift shop was kids’ sizes and men’s XXL.”

Meaghan held it up. A drawing of city hall with the words “City of Eldrich” above and “Founded 1844” below it covered the front. She pulled it over her head. The sleeves hung to her elbows and the hem hung at mid-thigh. The fit wasn’t the least bit flattering, but at least it wasn’t stained with vomit.

“Here,” she heard Natalie say, then Annie started coughing.

“Hoo-whee,” Annie said. “The Millers?”

Natalie nodded. She poured herself a shot, screwed the lid back on the Mason jar, and put it back in the cupboard. “If we survive this, we need to bring by a fresh pint and a couple of bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies.” She held up the cup. “Cheers.” She threw it back, then stomped her foot hard a couple of times. “Damn.” She coughed. “Damn.”

“We also need to pay for this shirt,” Meaghan said. “Should we leave a note?”

“Forget the note,” Annie said, her voice sounding strained. “Forget the cookies. What are we going to do now? Owen’s missing, Jamie’s been taken, and they’re about to kill Marnie. We didn’t have much of a plan before, but without Jamie, we’ve got nothing.”

Meaghan buried her face in her hands and slumped into her chair. “Let me think a minute.”

But no thoughts came. She had no idea what to do next. Every plan she’d come up with had been blocked. Her troops had been injured and scattered. The power of plain sight, and now psychically charged sight, was less than useless if all it showed her were the people she loved—people she’d pledged to protect—being hurt and killed.

Under the blankness, panic began to bubble once again. Annie and Natalie were staring at her and she still didn’t know what to do.

Through the roiling fear, a memory rose clear and fresh in her mind. She was sitting at the kitchen table in the Tarrytown house, when Matthew was working for the law firm in Manhattan, long before his breakdown and their move to Arizona. Meaghan was so small her feet didn’t reach the floor. Duke, her childhood dog, still young himself, slept next to her chair.

She squinted at a math workbook, a fat pencil in her small fist, frustrated and nearly in tears.

Matthew sat next to her, his arm around her. “Don’t worry about the answer yet,” he said. “We’ll get there. Remember how I said to solve one problem at a time? Well, each problem is really only a set of smaller problems. Solve the smaller problems, one step at a time, and the answer will take care of itself.”

Meaghan took a few deep breaths and felt the panic evaporate. Smaller problems. Solve the smaller problems. She pushed down the wave of emotion that was trying to follow the memory. She’d spent so much time over the years focusing on negative memories of her father that she’d forgotten she had any good ones.

“Okay,” Meaghan said. “We still need to try to get into city hall. But first we need more information. I felt strong emotion, but I don’t know what it means. We need to figure out if we’ve lost Jamie or if he can still help. And we need to find out if Owen is still in play.”

“And Sid and Jhoro,” Natalie said. “We have no idea what happened to them.”

“And Jhoro’s got some power of his own,” Annie said, sounding calmer. “And while the love spell’s still working, he’s a powerful diversion.” The strain crept back into her voice. “Assuming he’s still alive. He and Sid.”

“Something else we need to figure out,” Meaghan said, pushing down her worry for Jhoro. “I watched Sid take a knife to the chest in Fahraya. Him I’m not worried about. He’s a lot tougher than he looks. What time is it?”

“A little past four,” Natalie answered. “It should start getting light in another hour or so.”

“Which gives us another hour of cover.” Meaghan stood up. “Time to go. We need to get a look at city hall and the square. See what’s going on outside. We’ll have to create our own diversion.” She looked at Annie. “You think the ghosts can help us if you get close enough to talk to them?”

Annie got to her feet, a wan smile on her face. “Only one way to find out.” She turned to Natalie. “C’mon, Little Orphan Annie. Shake those orange curls. We got wizards to fight.”

They left an IOU on the fridge and headed out into the night, Meaghan in the lead. Once she’d recovered from the blast she’d gotten from Jamie and Marnie, Meaghan realized that whatever psychic power she had this time was merely an echo of what she’d experienced in Fahraya. She could feel strong emotion around her, but she couldn’t pinpoint it.

Which made her feel better about her ongoing inability to sense Jhoro. In Fahraya, he’d felt like a roaring fire, but, assuming he was still alive, his energy was now lost in the crowd.

“You feel anything?” Natalie asked in a whisper as they crept down Iron Street toward the square.

Meaghan shook her head. “It’s only noise. No help at all.”

“That blast from Jamie and Marnie . . .” Natalie grabbed Meaghan’s arm to stop her, a look of cautious hope on her face. “Is there a chance you got it wrong?”

From the back of the line, Annie whispered, “Got what wrong? Why are we stopping?”

“Jamie and Marnie,” Natalie said. “Are you sure about them?”

Meaghan sighed. “I’m not sure about any of this. But, as much as I wish I was wrong, I wasn’t. That blast was clear. I think whatever Owen did to me was temporary and it’s already wearing off. So now I have no power again.”

Annie scowled. “Yes, you do. They can’t bullshit you, remember?”

“Not with magic, no, but I’m as flammable as anybody else.” Meaghan began moving down the sidewalk. “C’mon. We need to get in there before the sun comes up.”