Legacy Of Magick (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 1) (23 page)

Earth Witch, he had called me
.
That was interesting...

“I can see that pathetic little shield you built up around yourself.” He said dismissively.

“That’s nice. I’ve been practicing.” I said, sounding like a bubblehead.

Julian huffed out a breath in annoyance, as I pulled a mum from its pot. Seeing that the roots were packed tight, I decided to make a few quick clean cuts along the root ball of the mum, so its roots could open up and spread out better. I pulled out my utility knife to do so, and to my surprise Julian jumped back like I had a rattlesnake in my hands.

“Damn it, woman! I only wanted to talk.” He snarled at me.

I looked up at him incredulously.
First he was condescending, and now he was afraid?
“Relax. It’s a utility knife, Julian. I’m not planning to cut you.” Just to gauge his reaction, I flipped the knife up in the air end over end, caught it neatly, and watched him cringe.

He obviously was not amused. He raised a hand, and I saw red, angry-looking energy swirl and gather in his open palm. Right there, about ten feet from my cousin and in the middle of that little suburban sidewalk where kids were playing and riding their bikes, Julian acted like he was about to throw down some major magick.

“Are you nuts!” I hissed at him. “Don’t toss that! There are kids around here, they could get hurt!”

His eyes wide, Julian looked at me. “Drop the knife and I’ll drop this.” He titled his head towards the energy ball that pulsed in his open hand.

I immediately dropped the knife on the ground next to the flower bed. When I did, he let that energy ball fade out. So as not to startle him again, I stood up slowly. I honesty wasn’t worried about not having a retractable bladed knife. It wouldn’t be worth a damn as a weapon anyway. The shovel on the other hand...

“You wanted to talk? So talk.” I said to him, and wondered how long it would be before Duncan got back.

“Have you found the Blood Moon Grimoire?” His eyes shifted back and forth.

I checked on Ivy, she was working on the moon shaped bed, and singing away to ‘Tainted Love’, her back still turned to us. Knowing that Julian wouldn’t see a shovel as a weapon, I casually tugged it out of the ground before I answered his question. “No. I haven’t.”

“You must find it. And as soon as possible.” His voice was strained, and I could see that Julian was struggling with something. It was there in his eyes. He was
nervous
. Part of him hated this.

“You know Julian, you are respected at the museum. I’ve seen the work you do. You really don’t strike me as the type to be your father’s minion.” I said, hoping to get through to him.

“I’m no one’s minion!” His eyes narrowed and I realized that I had struck a nerve. “You have no idea of the things I can do, or even the things I have done!” And then he softly laughed.

As soon as he did, I got an intuitive flash.
His laugh
. I had heard that before, the day at the club pool when the little boy was drowning. And I knew. Call it The Sight, intuition, postcognition, or a good old fashioned gut hunch. “You used magick to try and drown that little boy.”

“No!” He recoiled. “I only manipulated him with magick so he’d swim out to the deep end. He went under on his own. Your cousin rescued him, so there wasn’t any harm. I had to find a way to see if you had any psychic abilities or powers. And it worked.” He explained, as if that made it all better.

I could only stand there and stare at him as Julian’s mood shifted again.

“You have no idea of the pressure I am under...
no
idea.” He said, as his eye started to twitch.

I knew he was spoiled, privileged, and suave in a creepy way — but it was becoming very clear to me that he had an emotional problem as well.

“Duncan won’t even speak to me now that he’s figured it out. Damn boy scout.” Julian practically snorted with derision. “He thinks too much of himself, and his morals, to work magick with the rest of the family.”

“What
rest of the family
?” I asked him.

“It doesn’t matter.” Julian waved that off. “Listen to me,” Now his voice took on a coaxing tone. “If you did find the grimoire, and you brought it to me, I’d see to it that you’d win a graduate assistanceship position at the museum. Your tuition would be completely covered.”

I tried to keep up with his changing moods. “What, threats didn’t get you what you wanted, so now you’re going to try and bribe me?” Damn, he was pissing me off.

“I like you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

And that was way out of left field. I hoisted the shovel, blade end up, and had the pleasure of seeing Julian’s eyes widen in fear, again. “You should get out of here, before I decide to test my own morals.” I told him.

He frowned at me, but took a step back. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I raised up the shovel like a baseball bat and got ready to swing for the fences. Before I could do anything stupid, Duncan’s truck whipped into the driveway.

“Autumn!” Duncan called out. He jumped out and stalked towards his cousin, with both fists clenched.

“I’m leaving. I’m leaving!” Julian said and backed away from me. “Do yourself a favor.” Julian told Duncan. “Convince her to find that grimoire.” Then he took off at a quick jog down the street and ducked into a fancy sports car. He gunned the engine loudly as he drove past Duncan and I, as we stood at end of the driveway.

As the car roared past, Ivy pulled her earbuds out and looked up at the two of us, blissfully unaware of what had recently transpired. “Oh good, lunch is here!” She hopped up and was all smiles. “I’m
starving
!” She said dramatically.

“Are you okay?” Duncan asked me quietly.

“Not in front of Ivy.” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

“I want to take some pictures of my flowers.” Ivy said and pulled out her cell phone to take several shots of her nearly completed flower bed.

I admired the neat and tidy flower bed with its mixture of perennials and annuals. The Ornamental kale glowed purple, the autumn joy sedum added some structure and height. The yellow and white mums were bright and perky, and the pansies Ivy had started to plant, filled in the bed with a happy rainbow of colors.

I put my arm around her shoulder. Partly for comfort, and partly because I was proud of the work she had done. “You did a great job, now let’s eat.”

Lunch was handed out and the three of us sat on the side of the house in the shade. The planting was mostly done, and I could have the mulch spread out and the gardens watered by the end of the afternoon.

Ivy announced she wanted to finish up her planting before Holly came by to see the house. I watched her tuck her little purple garden trowel in her cargo pocket, put her earbuds in place, and crank up her iPod. She grabbed the last flat of autumn pansies as she walked around to the front yard. As soon as she went around the corner, I filled Duncan in on what had transpired.

“I think something is seriously wrong with your cousin.” I confided to Duncan.

“There’s a news flash.”

“No really, I’m serious. Julian was afraid.”

“He’s going to be the next time I see him.” Duncan growled.

“No,
listen
to me.” I grabbed Duncan’s arm and felt that familiar zip of energy shoot up from my hand to my shoulder. “He seemed jumpy, nervous, and desperate. When I pulled out my utility knife, to free up the roots on the chrysanthemums, he literally jumped back.”

“He should have been more afraid of you decking him with the business end of the shovel.” Duncan brushed away my concerns, reached down, and planted a quick kiss on my mouth. “I love a woman who can threaten a man with a garden tool.”

I laughed at his teasing, and then tried to relax against him. I sighed, and laid my cheek against his chest for a few moments. We stood there in the shade as he held me. Then I remembered that Ivy was right around the corner. “Let’s go finish up.” I suggested. I gathered up the trash from lunch, and almost walked smack into Holly.

“Hi!” Holly said. “The yard looks so pretty!” She twinkled up at Duncan and I had a moment to regret how dirty and sweaty I was. Confronted with my young, gorgeous, and fresh-as-a-daisy cousin, there was no contest as to who looked better. As if he knew my thoughts, Duncan wrapped an arm around my waist.

“Hey, Blondie.” I said in greeting.

“Wow, you got so much done today! I can’t wait to see Ivy and ask her which bed she planted.”

“She’s right there in the front, planting pansies by the flagstone garden path.” I told Holly.

“I didn’t see her, but I figured that was the bed she was working on. It was a mess.” Holly giggled.

“What do you mean a mess?” I asked her. “Ivy’s been doing a great job all day.”

The three of us walked around the corner, and Ivy was no where to be seen in the small front yard. The once pristine bed she had worked on so diligently, now looked trashed and flowers lay broken and uprooted. What in the world?

“Maybe she went in the house.” Duncan guessed and went to check inside. I backtracked to the back yard. “She’s not back there.” I said a few moments later.

“Where’d she go?’ Duncan frowned at me, while Holly got out her cell phone and started texting. A second later we heard a familiar text tone alert sound, and I walked over to the flower bed where Ivy had been working, to find her cell phone lying in a clump of uprooted pansies.

I started to pick it up, and then stopped. I shouldn’t disturb it. As I looked around more carefully, my heart started to beat hard in my chest. I noticed a trail of soil that was messily smeared along the flagstone garden path, and a bit farther along I saw her red iPod lying in the driveway. “Something’s wrong.” I said and yanked my hand away from her phone.

“Wait, let me try something.” Holly said. She hunkered down next to the flower bed and held her hands right above the soil. She turned slightly back and forth and then her eyes snapped open. “Someone’s taken her.” Holly began to cry.

“Duncan.” I said. “Call the police.”

I shouldn’t have wasted my breath. He was already dialing 911.

***    

You know, in the movies they make an investigation from the police department seem so quick and orderly, but in reality it is not. While Duncan called the police and then Bran (God, who was going to tell Aunt Gwen?), Holly and I sat on the front porch step of the pretty little house, looked over at the mess of the once charming garden that Ivy had been so proud to plant, and held onto each other.

“I can’t feel her.” Holly whispered, stricken.

“You mean like a twin thing?” I asked.

“I can’t feel her at all.” Holly told me.

I refused to think about what that could mean. Maybe she was unconscious? “Is there something we can do magickally to help find her — before the police arrive?” I asked Duncan, as he ended his call to Bran.

“They’re on the way.” He said, and I knew he was referring to Gwen and Bran, not the police.

“I’m supposed to have The Sight.” I got up and stalked over the edge of the flower bed and kicked at the grass. “Some Seer I turned out to be! Why didn’t I
see
this?” I said disgustedly to no one in particular.

Then I felt like an ass for shooting off my mouth as Holly started to sob again. I could hear the sirens getting closer, so I went to sit with her, and I put my arm around her shoulders. Duncan walked up, and I scooted over on the front porch so he could sit with the both of us.

When the police arrived, they took over the scene. Five minutes later, when Gwen and Bran showed up, a crowd had gathered out on the sidewalk, and the police were starting their interviews. Part of me was waiting for the classic, “She’s a teenager, maybe she ran off,” but the police treated it like a possible abduction from the moment they showed up and saw the obvious signs of a struggle. Most importantly, the purple handled garden trowel that Ivy had been using—had been found at the end of the driveway, half under the mums I had just planted, and smeared in blood.

Once the trowel was recovered, they herded us all into Duncan’s empty rehabbed house, and were keeping us close by and out of the loop at the same time. When Gwen and Holly found out what the police had me identify, they had started to cry. But I knew. Whoever had nabbed Ivy had gotten more than they bargained for. She had fought back, and fought back hard. I told Gwen that, and it seemed to steady her somewhat.

I wondered if Gwen would tell the police that we’d been threatened by Thomas Drake, but I bet that she wouldn’t. I mean, unless she wanted the police officers to think we were stark raving mad. So there was no mention of witchcraft, missing grimoires, or magickal feuds in front of the police.

Eventually, they told us we could go home. The garden of the pretty little house was looking all a mess, but it was being treated as a crime scene now, so there was no point in worrying over a stray shovel or rake. Not when my cousin was missing. As we went to leave, I walked around the flower bed, away from the smeared flagstone path, and felt a sharp tug at my mid section.

I didn’t question it. I quickly followed the tug, and the direction it seemed to be coming from. I started to scan the ground.
There was something here... something important. Something everyone had missed.
What was I looking for? I had no clue. But as I began to walk around the far side of the flower bed, away from where the struggle had taken place, I felt a burning in my belly. “You’re warm...” I heard myself say.

Holly grabbed my hand. “I feel that.” She whispered to me. “Go with it. Follow the energetic trail.” She explained.

I didn’t bother to ask her what she meant by energetic trail, I only followed the tug at my solar plexus and heard in my own mind;
You’re getting warmer.
As if I was a child playing a game. Then the pull became stronger.
You’re getting hot... so hot you should be on fire!

The pull became almost magnetic, and I felt myself tugged sharply down. Abruptly I knelt and put my hands down in the thick grass that was about three feet out from the flower bed Ivy had been working in. I didn’t run my hands back and forth, I simply reached straight down, and my fingers closed on a round metal object. I felt a thrill go through me, and I heard myself say, “Gotcha.” I lifted up to the late afternoon light, a silver cuff link.