Hidden Magic (22 page)

A flash of lightning lit up the room for a split second followed by a clap of thunder. The cat bolted off the counter and hunkered down near Jilly’s feet.

She quietly uttered a spell of protection as fast as she could. “All three elements of astral, I summon thee. The strength of the elements by my side, no rules magic I shall abide.”

Taking her cell from her pocket, she started toward the store room. “Eloise? Are you all right?”

A floorboard creaked from the back of the store. Or had it just been the wind straining the old wooden building. She stopped, held her breath. “Hello?” Her heart pounded as she took another step. She slipped her free hand into her pocket and fingered the small knife there.

As she crossed the threshold, she paused. Something that resembled a large sack filled a dark corner. Something that hadn’t been there yesterday.

A form moved in the shadows on the opposite side of the room. The black aura stole her energy, as it always had. His unmistakable scent filled the air. Why hadn’t she noticed when she’d entered the store? Her body grew limp yet her feet were leaden, unwilling to move.

“Where’s Eloise?”

His laugh held so much malice it made her shudder. “Right there.” Jamal stepped toward her and tipped his chin toward the lump in the corner.

Eloise! 
She rushed to her friend’s side, crouching over her still body. “What did you do to her?” When Eloise let out a quiet moan, Jilly offered up her appreciation to the Goddess that her friend was alive. She hit nine-one-one on her phone.

Jamal roughly grabbed her arm and hauled her up. He snatched the phone from her and chucked it hard against the wall. “Not a fraction of what I’ve got planned for you. I’ve been waiting for this reunion for a long time. Did you miss me, baby?”

Her skin crawled. She tried to free herself to check on Eloise but his grip was firm. She focused all her energy on sending healing indigo light to her boss. “How could you hurt an old woman? She never did anything to you.” Her hand was so close to her knife but Jamal had both her arms pinned.

“It’s your fault she had to get hurt. You hurt
me
bad. Stabbing me and running away. After everything I did for you.” He shoved her out of the store room in front of him, never releasing his hold on her.

She had to get free. Eloise needed help. “What do you want from me?”

Another mean laugh. His breath on her neck made her cringe with revulsion.

“What do I want? A pound of flesh. An eye for an eye. You carved me up. I plan to do the same to you.”

Her blood pounded in her ears. “I-I was only trying to get away. I didn’t want to be abused anymore.”

He forced her arms closer together behind her back. Sharp pains tore through her shoulders. If he’d only let go for a moment she could grab her knife. “Eloise has nothing to do with this. I’ve got to help her. Please.”

“You only have yourself to blame.”

The truth of his words stung. If she’d been honest with Eloise, she’d have taken precautions. “I’ll do whatever you want, just let me get her some help. She could die if you don’t.”

He marched her out of the store room to the front door. A car pulled into the lot and a woman got out and started toward the restaurant.

“Help!” she shouted through the glass at the lady.

Jamal slammed her against the wall, leaving her dizzy for several seconds.

As soon as she recovered, she called out to the woman with her mind.

Look over here!

She managed to kick the glass door, but the woman just continued inside the restaurant without ever glancing her way.

Jamal yanked her away from the door and smacked her face hard. The click of the lock echoed in the silence. She’d sealed her own fate a year ago when she’d stabbed him.

No.

She wasn’t Lauren anymore. Lauren was a victim. Jilly had fought off an attacker more than once. And she could do it again. Not with physical strength, but with the power of her mind.

Jamal took her back to the store room and used some sort of wire to tie her hands and ankles to a chair, so tight her wrists and shoulders ached. She tuned out the pain as she concentrated on reaching out to Haley, the most powerful psychic she knew beside herself.

Send help to
Mind’s Eye, she repeated over and over in her head. But would her message be too little too late? She thought of Eloise, possibly dying any minute.

Jamal paced the floor saying something about the night she’d stabbed him, how he had nearly bled to death. She tuned him out and covertly wriggled in the seat, worked at moving her right hand to the pocket that held her knife.

Eloise groaned. Jamal stopped talking for a moment. When he started up again, his tone was angrier. His aura was turning redder. She was running out of time. The wire around her wrists cut into her skin but she didn’t care.

He was watching her way too closely for her to just reach into her pocket even if she could work her hand free. She had to distract him. She swallowed, tasted her own blood. “My boyfriend will be here any moment.”

His eyes widened for a second. Then a slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth. He came closer and held the edge of a long blade against her neck. “You think you’re so damn smart because you landed some cracker mother fucker white boy cop, don’t you? You’re still nothing but trash.”

She tried not to swallow for fear the knife would cut her. If he knew about Zander he’d been watching her. When he finally backed off, she let out the breath she’d been holding. “I bet he’s pulling up to the store right now. What do you think he’s going to do when he finds it locked?”

Jamal glanced toward the front of the building, long enough for her to work her hand closer to her pocket. The wire bit into her skin.

Goddess, hear my plea and help me. Loosen my bindings.

She worked the wire farther up her wrist and reached her fingers into her pocket. Then she froze when Jamal met her stare. Did he see what she was trying to do? All the moisture wicked from her mouth.

Eloise made a noise and Jamal shifted his gaze to her.

Jilly’s fingertip touched metal and she nearly cheered aloud. But with her hands tied up, even if she was able to grab her knife, she didn’t have the freedom to do anything with it.

Think!

“Listen to me,” she started. “Just let me give Eloise an insulin injection. I swear I’ll do whatever you want if you do.” All her boss had at the shop was a test kit and some pills, but Jamal didn’t need to know that. If he untied her she could at least get to her knife.

“Why should I? You think I give a damn about her?” He roughly lifted her chin and bent down so their eyes were inches apart. “All I care about, all I’ve lived for the past year has been finding you and making you pay for what you did to me.” He yanked her hair so hard her eyes started tearing up despite her resolve to keep from crying.

When he let go, his gaze slid down to her chest.

No, please.

She concentrated all her psychic energy on holding him off.

His hands shook as he reached for her shirt. “Stop that, witch! Quit laying that juju on me or I swear, it’ll be a hundred times worse for you.”

Ignoring his threat, she strengthened her magical shield. The bindings around her wrist loosened enough for her to slip her hand free. She blocked out the pain from the cut. Instinct took over as she dug the weapon from her pocket, pushed the button to open it as she’d practiced so many times. Then she plunged the blade into Jamal’s neck.

He gasped and stumbled back. Before Jilly could free herself, he swung at her. His fist connected with the side of her head. The pain took a moment to register.

Stars swam before her eyes. She fought the dizziness.

I can’t pass out or I’ll die.

But the blackness engulfed her.

* * * * *

Zander didn’t even turn off his motor when he got to
Mind’s Eye.
A few weeks ago he’d have blown off the frantic phone call from Jilly’s friend Haley, but he was a believer now. She’d told him Jilly sent her a psychic call for help. He prayed Haley was wrong but he wasn’t taking any chances.

He’d tried phoning Jilly’s cell with no luck. All he could think about was what if. What if he lost her…no. He couldn’t go there.

When he found the front door locked, he ran back to his car to retrieve his flashlight. Protocol was to investigate further before damaging property by breaking in but the rules be damned.

He didn’t even consider knocking before he smashed the glass door with the heavy cylinder, reached his hand through and unlocked it.

Everything was too still inside. The only sound was the tap, tap, tap of rain pelting the roof. Had Haley been mistaken? The alarm system hadn’t gone off when he broke in even though Jilly was vigilant now about keeping it on when they left the shop or while she was there alone.

His cop senses were on high alert and he smelled something amiss. He saw the line of smeared blood on the wood floor stretching between two doorways in the back of the building and his darkest fears flared to life. The room on the right was where Jilly worked. His chest tightened.

Please let her be all right.

Heart racing, he set his flashlight down and drew his weapon.

He nudged open the door to her room with the barrel of his Glock. A black man lay bleeding from his mouth and neck on the floor, barely conscious. He lifted a hand as if asking for help. The man met his stare and Zander instantly knew who it was.

“Where is she?” When Jamal didn’t answer, he kicked him in the gut as hard as he could.

Jamal moaned and curled into a ball but didn’t answer.

A sound drew his attention to the other room, like something sliding across the floor. He took no chances as he quickly cuffed Jamal then headed into the store room. It was too dark to see much without any natural light coming inside.

He found Jilly on the floor, her feet tied to the legs of a wooden chair. A large bruise on her cheek was swelling enough to take over half her face, but she seemed otherwise unhurt.

He immediately freed her then pulled her into his arms just to assure himself she was okay.

She whimpered and grasped his arm. “Eloise is in the corner.” She pointed weakly toward the lump in the back of the room. “Please help her.”

He called for an ambulance and backup as he headed over the older woman and crouched next to her. Feeling for a pulse, he released a breath. “She’s alive.”

Eloise’s eyes fluttered but then closed again. He lifted her up and carried her out into the main room and set her on a bench near the door. Then he rushed back to the storeroom for Jilly.

Her bruise was turning a nasty shade of purple, which made him want to give Jamal an even worse injury. Better that he didn’t go back there or he might do just that. 

“Are you okay?” He stared down into her eyes and his chest tightened at her nod.

“I stabbed him again. I had to.” Tears streaked her cheeks.

“It’s okay. He’ll never hurt you again.” He sat on a loveseat near the book section of the store and kissed the top of her head.

The whir of sirens suddenly filled the air. Blue and red lights bounced off the glass. He cradled Jilly in his arms until the EMT’s urged him to release her.

Thank God he hadn’t lost her.

* * * * *

Jilly handed Zander the end of a long white ribbon attached to the Maypole. He looked so handsome in khaki shorts and an earth-tone t-shirt. And his smile was so warm and genuine.

The drummers started drumming and along with her coven and dozens of guests, she and Zander circled the pole in opposite directions, wrapping it in symbolic red and white strips. She waved to Eloise, who watched the spectacle from the sidelines.

Thank the Goddess her boss had only suffered a concussion from the pistol whipping she’d suffered at Jamal’s hands last week, which could have been so much worse.

Zander passed her going the opposite direction. She owed him so much. He’d rescued her twice from Lee Saxon but
she’d
saved herself and Eloise from Jamal, who was now in jail, where he belonged.

Despite getting predictably tangled up in the shorter and shorter ribbons, she felt freer than ever before.

Zander helped her slip under the bindings when it was all over. “That was fun. I never realized Maypoles were a pagan thing.” He draped his arm over her shoulder as he led her to the food table.

She breathed in the raw male scent of him and moved closer. Her only appetite was for him. But it went way beyond sex. He’d come to the day’s Beltane festivities because he seemed genuinely interested in her beliefs. “Do you know what the red and white ribbons symbolize?”

He stopped and stared at her, amusement flashing in his eyes. “A barbershop’s pole?”

She laughed. “Nope. The red is for menstrual blood and the white is for semen.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Wow. You witches are always thinking about sex. I love that about you.”

She glanced toward the sumptuous spread set up nearby. “I’m not really hungry. You?”

One side of his lips lifted in a sexy grin. “Oh I’m hungry all right. But it has nothing to do with food.”

His warm breath fanned over her neck as he whispered in her ear. “I want
you.”

A pleasant shiver rolled over her skin. Before could tell him that she returned the sentiment, Taryn and Haley came over.

Taryn swiped a celery stick from the feast. “Are we supposed to keep calling you Jilly or would you prefer Lauren?”

Jilly hadn’t told everyone in the coven about her past but she had confided in her two best friends. She thought about the question only a second. “Lauren’s gone. I’m Jilly now.”

“What’d you think of the ritual?” Haley asked Zander.

He took Jilly’s hand. “It was interesting. I don’t envision becoming a witch or anything, but you might see me at these events if Jilly will have me.”

She smiled. He was a good man. Not only had he worked tirelessly to find Hannah, but after she’d turned up, he hadn’t let up on the DA until all the charges were dropped. “Yup, I think I’ll keep you around for a while.”