How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) (16 page)

January knew it took everything he had to say those words without exploding, but she loved him even more for it—even if she couldn’t breathe. Even if her whole world was now in the hands of that maniac.

“Okay, here’s how it’s gon’ go down, y’all. Somebody’s gotta stay here and watch the babies,” Darnell pointed out. “Somebody strong with a lil’ bit o’ magic to fight off anybody who might show up wantin’ to create some trouble. You men go with your women. The Doc, me, Arch, Carl, and Farley’ll keep watch here.”

But January shook her head, even as it spun in circles. There was one thing she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. No way was she staying behind.

“No! Absolutely not. If I have nothing, I have a wand that will fuck a bitch up if need be. Fuck the white witch way. Fuck peace and love. This is my
child
we’re talking about. I will not let that monster hurt my baby!”

“Slow your roll, Mini-Nina!” Wanda ordered, whirling January around to face her, the warm evening wind tearing at her perfect updo. “When we do this, we each have to have a specific role. We can’t just run in there like we’re on fire. Hear me? No wild magic wand tricks unless it’s necessary. My experience with crazies like this makes me very skeptical Artem doesn’t have a backup plan. Understood? You follow the rules and listen to us.”

January brushed the hair from her eyes, her jaw firmly set in determination. “I’ll do whatever you say. Anything at all, but I’m not staying behind.”

Galen opened his mouth to protest, she knew that was where he was headed, so she cut him off at the pass. “Don’t you say a word, Vampire! I can take care of myself and I wield a mighty wand when needed. I love you, Galen Marcus, but back off!”

He held up his hands in submission, though the vein above his eye pulsed. “Okay. But I need you to promise to stay close to someone who has superior strength, January. While your wand is pretty potent, you need someone with speed and power.”

“Then let’s get to this, shall we?” Heath encouraged as they all headed back into the house.

She fought a wave of nausea as she put one foot in front of the other, clinging to Galen’s hand and following everyone inside.

Her coven and peace and harmony be damned.

This was GD war.

* * * *

“You sure this is the right place?” Heath whispered with a hiss in the dark.

“I know the scent of my own damn wife, Jefferson!” Greg hissed back.

“He’s right. I definitely smell Nina and that bowl of clam chowder she had this afternoon,” Galen agreed.

“Looks damn deserted,” Keegan commented.

They were behind a row of shortly trimmed hedges surrounding Artem’s vast property, hunkered down and assessing the situation.

Wanda rolled her eyes as Marty retied her shoe. “Boys, shut up! God, we never have this much conversation when we’re going after some fruitcake. And they say women are chatty? Please. Now all of you can it and let us canvass. No one moves. Stay put. Marty, January? Come with. And keep that badass wand handy, Doc.”

Never was January ever as grateful to have vampires on their side as she was tonight. Their noses had led them directly to Artem’s front door. A front door attached to an amazing cabin at least ten times bigger than the one they were sharing right now.

Built almost in the vein of a castle, and made of a gorgeous combination of logs and stone, it had two turrets, a guesthouse, property as far as the eye could see and eleventy-billion rooms—but not a sign of a single soul.

As they snuck around the back of the enormous structure, January struggled to keep up and wondered if this was how Nina felt these days. She was a witch with nothing more than a semi-powerful wand between her and the eerie darkness. She didn’t have super speed, couldn’t see in the dark, couldn’t smell anything but freshly mown grass.

There was little in the way of landscape lighting, making it even harder to keep up, and as they crept around the first corner, she tripped over something. Maybe a root or a rock, she couldn’t be sure, but the fall she took was jolting, leaving her breathless.

As January rose to try to catch up, she squinted into the near pitch-black dark of the night and couldn’t make out a thing. Stuffing her wand inside her sweater, she began to go in the direction she’d last seen Wanda and Marty heading—when she was suddenly steamrolled.

Whoever it was came at her so fast, she didn’t even realize she was on the ground until he was hauling her back up and shaking her so hard her teeth rattled.

“Who the hell are you?” he gritted out, the scent of his overpowering cologne assaulting her senses.

As January fought to push air into her lungs, she held up a finger for a much needed moment to gather herself.

But he was of the impatient kind. “
Who. Are. You?
” He growled the demand, his face a dark mask with no discernible features in the cloak of night.

“Lawn Doctor. Heard you have grubs. Came to inspect,” she said on a wheeze, still winded.

He pulled her even closer—close enough that she could finally make out bits of his face—and leered at her with glittering eyes. “At one in the morning?”

Squirming, January tried to extricate herself from his iron grip, to no avail. “Needed to get a head start. Early birds and worms and all,” she huffed.

“I’ll ask one more time.
Who the hell are you and what do you want?
”

Letting herself go limp, she rasped a defeated sigh and began to explain in the hopes she could stall him until someone came to help.

“Okay, I’m not really from Lawn Doctor. I couldn’t give a damn about landscaping. I’m really a Girl Scout and my troop, bunch of bloodthirsty, money-hungry chicks in berets and ugly sashes, have all sorts of connections. They sell more cookies than a damn plastic surgeon with a half-off silicone sale. I’m sick of it. How will I ever get to the mission in Beirut to help all those sick kids if I can’t sell any cookies? So I thought I’d get a leg up. The guy who lives here looks rich. Can I interest him in some Thin Mints? Samoas?”

“You’re coming with me!” he growled between clenched teeth as he literally tucked her under his arm and made a run for the back of the house.

So that was when she screamed—as loud and as long as her vocal chords would allow. “Martyyyy! Wandaaa! Run!” she called out. “Bad guy alert!”

Those were the last words she managed because she was too busy spitting the gnats out of her mouth due to the speed with which the guy was running across the lawn with her tucked under his arm. Like some freakishly fast football player running for the goal.

Everything went blurry, the dizzying motion almost making her retch until he pulled up short with a grunt. When they reached what looked like a storm cellar, he flung the doors open wide and simply dropped her in the gaping black hole, head first.

As what sounded like a heavy lock creaked above her, she tumbled down concrete steps, bucking and grunting her pain the entire way until a wall thwarted her, slamming right into the side of her face.

Rolling to her back, the first thing January did, before she acknowledged her battered body and bloody nose, was feel for her wand. Thank God it was still in her sweater. She might not be a vampire, but she could certainly create a diversion.

“Doc?”

Her eyes flew open and she found herself staring directly into a pair of dark eyes highlighted by a very dim bulb in the ceiling. “Ingrid?”

“Oh my God! Doc, are you okay? Gimme your hand and I’ll help you up.”

As Ingrid reached for her, January winced, the burn and ache in her right side a sure sign she’d possibly broken a rib.

“Easy, Doc,” Ingrid urged, helping her to a stack of crates, where she sat January gently before kneeling down in front of her.

“Is Teddy here?” she asked breathlessly, squinting into the room to scan the length of the dank cellar before getting a good look at Ingrid, her dress torn and stained with blood.

Ingrid bit her lip. “Bad news.”

January froze, gripping Ingrid’s hands. “What?”

“She’s here, but she’s out like she’s been on a weeklong pub crawl. They drugged her or something. I don’t know. It’s all kinda hazy, but I remember as they were dragging us down here to Chez Dungeon, someone saying she had to be kept quiet because she was a bear. Obviously I was no big thang, because I’m human and don’t have the strength to gnaw my way through cinder blocks with my bare teeth.”

Fear sped up her spine, making her grip Ingrid’s hand. “Is she hurt? Show me where she is! For that matter, are
you
hurt?”

Ingrid waved a dismissive hand and shook her head as though a good pounding was no big deal. “Just some bruises, my ego amongst them. I’m fine. Really. But
you’re
not fine. You’re bleeding, Doc.” Using the edge of her skimpy skirt, Ingrid pressed it to January’s nose.

Now January waved
her
away. “I’m fine, too. And I brought something that’ll help.” She drew the wand from her sweater, showing it to Ingrid.

Ingrid beamed a smile and did a little dance. “Oh, happy day! Can you zap us out of here?”

“I wish I could. I don’t have the gift of teleportation, but I can heal my ribs and maybe wake Teddy.” Raising the wand, January began the chant. “Ease this ache, heal this pain, remove all memory, of which I complain!” Pressing her wand to her side, she let her magic flow through her, allowing the soothing vibrations to heal and mend.

Closing her eyes, January let the process complete itself before she opened them and braced for the answer to her next question. On a deep breath, she asked, “Are Nina and Calista here?”

Ingrid froze and grabbed her hand, eyes wide. “What? No! Why would they be here?”

“It’s a long story; I’ll tell you all about it. Just get me to Teddy. She might be our only hope of getting out of here unless someone from the group finds us.”

As Ingrid led her deeper into the cellar, January noted its depth. It was as deep as the house, spanning the structure with room after room of nothing but dark openings and spider webs.

Teddy was slumped in a corner of a room at least two hundred feet deep into the musty space. Her lightly tanned face was pale, her blonde hair matted against her face with blood, her shoes gone, her dress torn.

“Oh, Goddess, did they hurt her?” January asked, dropping to her knees to run her hands over Teddy’s face and neck to check for damage.

“She put up a hella fight, our girl. But there were too many of them. She was bound to get some bruises.” Ingrid slid down on the other side of Teddy, gripping her limp hand. “What happened with that spell by the way? I mean, one minute he thought I was a tasty vampire morsel, the next he was screaming ‘infiltrator’ and calling in the hounds.”

January held her wand over Teddy, keeping it perpendicular to her body, and began to move it up and down, using it to heal every exposed inch of her. “He spilled blood on you, didn’t he?”

“Shit, shit, shit!” Ingrid cried, using the heel of her hand to thump her forehead. “I forgot we couldn’t get wet, Obiwan. Like that movie with all those fuzzy things, right?”

“
Gremlins.
It’s sorta like that. When he spilled the blood on you, it broke the spell and revealed your scent to him.”

Ingrid held a fist upward and shook it. “Damn. I’m sorry, January. It was an accident. He had me pressed so hard up against that wall I thought I’d have to become one with the hinky-ass wallpaper. And he was strong. Really strong. I couldn’t get away from him and I lost my grip on my tray and then everything went to total shit.”

January patted her hand to console her as she took in the creepy, mostly dark cellar with its long and winding halls. “It’s all right. You did the right thing, Ingrid. Now, gimme a sec and let me see if I can’t wake up our pretty Amazon.” January repeated the spell she’d used on herself and focused so she wouldn’t miss a single hair.

As Teddy began to stir and moan, January explained to Ingrid their theory on how Nina and Calista were taken.

Teddy’s head popped up as she braced her palms on the floor to keep from wobbling. “They have Nina and Calista? Those stupid, stupid bastards! C’mon, we need to get the hell out of here before someone comes back and wants to finish what they started.”

“But where
is
Nina? Where’s Calista?” January asked, trying to keep her panic out of her voice. Knowing Calista was likely with Nina helped a little. She knew Nina would do whatever it took to protect her. But only if she was actually allowed to stay close to the baby. Terror began to seep its way back into her psyche in full force.

Don’t let your mind wander, January. Stay focused.

“Any thoughts on how they found out where Nina was to begin with?” Ingrid mused as they began retracing their steps and peering into each dark room in the cellar.

“Our scents must’ve led them right to you. They retraced our scents back to the cabin, found out Nina was there, probably assumed we were doing exactly what we
were
doing—spying on Artem—and as a revenge tactic, took Nina and Calista. Fuck all, this is a mess!” Teddy spat. Then she stopped dead and held up a hand.

“What?” January hissed, banging into her back.

“Do you hear that?” she asked, making them all lean in and listen.

As they paused, January keened her ears, but heard nothing…

Until there was a soft coo.

She froze, her limbs dead weight, her pulse the only thing moving at breakneck speed.

“There!” Ingrid whispered as another tiny coo rang out.

January’s heart crashed in her chest, her pulse racing, her limbs weak in relief. Calista was somewhere in this damn moldy and musty den of spider webs.

And if she had to tear it down with her bare hands, she was going to find her.

T
eddy began pulling her toward the cooing noises, her legs moving so quickly, and she easily took one stride to January’s three. Down a winding hallway, across two connecting rooms, deeper and deeper they went until they came to a tunnel, making Teddy pause.

Calista burbled a laugh, tiny, soft, innocent, and January tried to dart after it, to follow the sound, but Teddy yanked her back, almost dislocating her arm.