It Never Rhines but It Pours (15 page)

Her eyes turned dark and sad. “I was faced with the same choice, and I chose to continue my existence. Even at the sacrifice of the human I had been.”

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

She shook her head as if to clear it of depressing memories. “If you refuse to take the easy path, then we
must
find the true killer quickly.”

“Agreed,” I said, having no idea how we were going to go about that. “We need to talk to people who have reason to hate Pravus. I have a feeling that could be a long list, and he’s not talking.”

“No matter,” Cecily smiled her freaky vampire smile. “I have made enquires and I believe that there are only two plausible suspects in Florida. None of the other possibilities have traveled by Zipline during the necessary time frame. Plus, they all have alibis.” Zipline was a magical way of getting from one point to another in a hurry. I’d only traveled from Melbourne to Orlando, but it made the hour drive take only a second. Drive in one end and, presto-chango, arrive out the other end at your destination.

Cecily continued “So, it stands to reason that our best choice is enemies of Pravus currently living in Florida.”

I felt a lifting of my spirits. Only two? Were things finally looking up? Of course, that meant we would be that much closer to having to kill someone. Or that much closer to total failure. I didn’t know what to hope for. Murder or death? What a choice! Why couldn’t cake be one of the options?
I’ll take the cake, please!

Cecily had kept talking while I went down my Monty Python rabbit trail. She had asked a question and was waiting for me to respond. “I wasn’t listening,” I confessed.

She gave me the eye and repeated, “Are you free tomorrow night?”

“I don’t know. I could be. I’ll have to talk to Mark,” I said.

“Good,” she said, taking it as a given, “We’ll leave here around …” she stopped to think. Whatever time we left would be way too early for her. She decided there was no good option and sighed. “… say five o’clock.”

“Why so early?” I asked.

Cecily made a face. “Our first stop is in Volusia County.”

“Volusia!” I’d lived in Florida all my life, but I still wasn’t completely sure where all the counties were. “Isn’t that way North of us?”

“It’s probably about a two hour drive. We’ll be going to Astor, Florida.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s right in the Ocala National Forest. I’ll drive. You and Sarah be ready to go at five tomorrow night.”

“Yes, Captain,” I said under my breath.

“You would rather drive?” Cecily asked innocently.

I shook my head. I should have remembered her superior hearing. “Who are we going to talk to?” I had another thought, “Is this going to be dangerous? One of these people, hopefully, is the killer who framed Pravus. Whoever it is can’t be a very nice person.”

“There might be some who would think ridding the world of a witch as a good thing,” Cecily replied.

“At the cost of two lives?” I was indignant.

“Some might think it a fair exchange.”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “I’ve often noticed how people are much quicker to sacrifice someone else than sacrifice themselves. It’s one thing to exchange another man’s life, it’s quite another to exchange your own.”

Cecily nodded. “You are right. And perhaps it is not right to talk of a fair exchange when you are not the one paying.”

“You’ve got that right. So, like I said, this person is not going to like us poking around. Who are we going to find?”

Cecily opened her mouth and then closed it, thinking. “I’d rather not tell you just yet.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I do not believe that the person we find tomorrow night is the one we are looking for. However, we must eliminate all possibilities. I would rather you come to this meeting with an open mind.”

I glared at her. “I have an open mind.”

She grinned. “Perhaps, and it will be even more open if I don’t tell you what you should be expecting. Sometimes we see things that are not there, or miss things that are, because of our expectations.”

I blew air out through my lips. “Fine. Have it your way. Be all mysterious, Master Yoda. I’ll be ready to go tomorrow night.”

“Sarah as well?”

“Sarah too.”

I could tell there was still something she wanted to say. I waited as patiently as I could. That lasted for about five seconds. “Out with it,” I said.

She looked me straight in the eyes, “We have three days, Piper.”

“I know.” We’d been over that.

“I do not wish to be hunted down by the Guardians.”

Hello, Captain Obvious. “Me neither.”

“I have made hard choices before, and, when the time comes, I want you to know that I am ready to make them again.” She was deadly serious.

I swallowed. I didn’t know if she was implying that she would kill Pravus to save us all, or that she would kill me and Sarah to save herself. Either way, I hoped it never came to that.

“Cecily, sometimes you have to do what you have to do,” I said without really knowing what that meant in this situation. She seemed to take some understanding from it and walked me to the door.

“Very well then. Until tomorrow.”

Chapter Fifteen
:

Words We Don’t Say

The next morning I awoke thinking about humans and the USB. There was a lot of pressure on Sarah and me, as the only known humans with abilities. The witches had been arguing ever since we joined that we were freaks and should just be killed so as not to cause confusion. Some other members thought that we should have joined another group instead of joining as humans. The bottom line was that there were not enough of us.

Things had been rather quiet on the alien front. Apparently, space travel is not like Star Trek and Star Wars show it. It takes years to even cross our little solar system. I didn’t know where the aliens were in relation to Earth, or how they had even been spotted. For a while I had hoped that the USB was wrong, since nothing was being said at NASA. Then I realized that the last thing the government wanted was mass panic. We wouldn’t be told about an alien threat until we were being served up as hors d’oeuvres.

The great push to open up hunting on humans had been a political move. No one knew how big a threat the aliens would be, or even if they were a threat. Some species just saw a prime time to gain a little power and support for themselves. And hey, who didn’t want the freedom to kill humans whenever they wanted? Win, win for everyone! That is, until Sarah and I came along. Now, those same species were looking at us as the one thing standing in their way. Which brought me back to an earlier thought. There just wasn’t enough of us.

With more humans with abilities, it would be harder to wipe us out. We would carry more sway in USB meetings. We would have greater protection and safety. Not to mention, how cool it would be to find others like myself! So, what was I waiting for? There had to be more of us out there. Maybe I should be exerting a little time and effort to finding them. But how? That was the question that stumped me.

I stared at the ceiling for a bit, trying to find an answer in the stucco. I found a bit that looked like a dog, and part that looked like a catfish, but no clue to finding other humans with abilities. I heard the girls’ door slam, which meant that they were up and playing. I’d better get my lazy butt out of bed and into the shower if I wanted to start the day clean and fresh. Mark was still sleeping, no surprise there. If I didn’t kick him out of bed in the morning he could sleep all day. It ticked me off sometimes. I’d like to be able to sleep all day, but no one ever offered to let me. And, even if they did, I doubted I would be able to. I would be too busy thinking about all the things I wasn’t getting done to be able to sleep. Such is the life of a mother.

I poked Mark a few times until he grunted. “Time to get up!” I chirped.

He mumbled something and pulled the pillow over his head. I yanked on the covers until he had to sit up to grab them or be exposed to the cold. Not that it was that cold, this was Florida after all. If the house got down to seventy-seven at night it felt freezing. But compared to the warm snugness of the bed the temperature felt chilly.

“Come on, Piper,” he moaned. “I don’t have to get up yet.”

“What do I look like?” I asked, “Your mother? Do you think it’s my job to make sure you get to work on time? This is the one wake-up call you get, and you get it when I feel like giving it. If you want to go back to sleep you are on your own, mister!”

As threats go, it was a good one. He knew darn well that he hadn’t set his alarm clock and that if he went back to sleep and I didn’t wake him, he would miss the whole day. He gave me an evil look and slowly got out of bed. I knew he was headed for the bathroom so I jumped up and beat him to it. Hey, first come, first served. He tried to grab me as I scooted past but I was expecting it and ducked at the right moment.

We bickered a bit about who got to do what first, but I won out in the end. I was showered and dressed and getting the girls breakfast by the time he came out of our room. Mark wasn’t watching where he was stepping and he tripped over a princess wand and skidded on some books.

“Girls,” I scolded. “You shouldn’t leave your toys there for people to step on!”

Mark bent down and picked up an ABC book. It was open to the letter “F.” He grinned and said, “What the ‘F!’” holding up the book and pointing to the letter.

“Mark!” I was not pleased. “Don’t talk like that in front of the girls!”

“You should say ‘heck,’” Megan instructed, wisely.

“What?” I turned on her.

“Heck,” she said.

“No, you shouldn’t say ‘heck,’ honey. That’s not a nice word.”

Mark was snickering. Not helping.

“What does heck mean?” Megan asked.

“It’s another word for the bad place,” I said, pointing down.

“Oh. you mean ‘hell,’” Megan said.

“Hell, hell, hell,” Cassidy chanted.

“What’s feck mean?” Megan continued before I could think of an appropriate response.

“Feck?” Mark asked, openly laughing.

“Yes, you just said ‘feck,’” Megan was curious.

“No, I said—”

I cut him off, “—Mark!” I turned to the girls, “Daddy didn’t say anything. And we don’t talk like that in this family.”

“Daddy do,” Cassie said.

I glared at Mark. “He’d better not.”

“Only when I stub my toe on toys,” he assured me.

“Is it okay to say bad words when you hurt yourself?” Megan asked.

“No!” I said at the same time that Mark said, “Yes.” I glared at him some more.

“No,” he amended. “It’s not okay, and Daddy shouldn’t talk like that either.”

“Thank you,” I said sarcastically.

“Mommy say ‘crap,’” Cassie added.

“I do not!” I protested. “Well, sometimes. Mommy shouldn’t say that either.”

“Does crap mean hell, too?” Megan asked, trying to get things straight in her mind.

“No, Megan,” Mark started to explain. “Crap means—”

I cut him off again, “It means a word that you shouldn’t say. Thank you, Daddy, for your help.”

“No problem, honey.” He gave me a kiss. “Is there anything else you would like me to teach the girls before I go off to work?”

I smacked his arm. “I think that’s enough for one day. Maybe tomorrow you can teach them about tequila shots and chewing tobacco.”

Mark laughed and gave each of us another kiss before heading out the door. Drat! I’d forgotten to ask him to come home early so I could go out with Cecily. I could run out and catch him in the driveway but I hadn’t thought of a good lie yet to explain why I needed to go. I closed my eyes and banged my head into the front of the refrigerator a couple times. I hated lying to Mark.

“Mommy?” Megan was standing at my side with a worried look on her face.

“Yes, baby?”

“Do you need to say a bad word?”

I snorted with laughter. “No, honey. Mommy just … umm, forgot something.”

“Ok,” she sat back down, totally reassured.

I tried to think of a good excuse that would explain why I needed to be gone a couple nights in a row. I could tell him my grandmother was in town and I needed to go spend some time with her. But he might call my mom and find out I wasn’t there. I could say I was doing intervention with Sarah over her latest boyfriend. But would that really take two or three nights? Usually, when Sarah and I disagreed on something, we got into such a huge fight that we didn’t speak for a few days. Going out several nights in a row might look suspicious.

Aha! I had an idea. Mark’s birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks. I could say that I was birthday shopping and then all the cloak-and-dagger would make sense! He would think that I was just hiding a great present from him. Of course, I would have to really come up with a great present, and that would be hard, but it was the best idea I had. I picked up the phone.

Mark’s line beeped to show that he was on the other line. I was about to leave him a message but then decided to just text him so he didn’t have to go through the rigmarole Verizon puts you through to check your messages. That done, I had all day long to worry about the coming evening.