Mathilda, SuperWitch (6 page)

When Rory got back, I said, “Rory honey, go get me a glass of water… hurry.”

Then I thought about the black dragon again.

(I know what you’re thinking but what else could I do?)

Rory brought the water, I threw it in her face, she groaned, moaned and her head lolled around and then nothing.

I thought of the black dragon again. (Bloody Sebastian was taking his time.)

I got a big pan of water and threw it in her face and this time she began mumbling with more lolling. I asked Rory where the bathroom was and with a herculean effort (I thought) I dragged her off the couch and halfway across the room when Sebastian strolled in (yes,
strolled
, ack!). He took one look at me dragging the woman across the floor and asked, “What’s going on?”

I wanted to say, “We’re dancing,” but instead I just bugged my eyes out at him and then gestured to Rory and thought, “Suicide,” in my head hoping he’d catch my drift and then…

“Fuck,” he muttered.

No kidding.

“Did you call 999?” he asked as he pulled her out of my arms and picked her up like she weighed about five pounds.

“Of course I did.” What does he think I am, a moron? (Don’t answer that.)

He dumped her in the tub, turned on the shower and gently slapped her about the face. I could have told him that water and slappage were not really working but then she mumbled some more and opened her eyes (of course, Sebastian dousing and slapping her would work).

She took awhile to focus on Sebastian then looked at me and then said, “Help me.”

Straight out, she said it.

“Help me.”

Yay!

If that’s not permission to meddle then nothing is.

Then she said, “They’re trying to kill me. You have to take care of Rory.”

Sebastian looked at me, I looked at Sebastian and the Mom started sobbing.

Then the ambulance people came and took her away.

* * * * *

Sebastian and I took Rory (in Sebastian’s lush platinum-colored Jaguar XJS) to hospital.

* * * * *

Her name is Josephine McShane (I grabbed her purse before getting in Lush Jag and I looked through her wallet) and hospital people told us she’d taken a whole load of pills.

Stuffy person arrived and asked if we were family (while glancing indiscreetly at Rory).

I pinched the back of Sebastian’s arm and said yes, we were his Auntie Mathilda and Uncle Ash (good nickname, eh? – took me awhile to come up with that one but one cannot keep saying (or writing) Sebastian all the time – too much) and we’d most certainly look after Rory.

Sebastian did not appear too happy (but may have pinched pretty hard, er… accidentally).

Hospital people came back out and told me Josephine wanted to talk to me.

When I arrived in her room, she looked exhausted, pale and terrified.

She waited until I sat by her bedside and leaned in. Her lips were all chapped and looked sore and I made a mental note to bring lip balm on my next visit.

“I’ve been poisoned…” she started.

Ack!

“Hunh?” I asked.

“Poisoned. I know it sounds crazy but please believe me. I know who you are, what you are… I, um, don’t believe in that stuff but I’m at my wit’s end.”

I gathered she was talking about Magic.

“That’s why I came to town, I’d heard about what happens here… that people could find help here. I’m so tired… scared for Rory. And he’s been so good. I got him that puppy and…” She trailed off, possibly remembering she’s a psycho then she asked, “What did I do to make them come after me?”

I had no answer for that and thought maybe I should go tell Stuffy Social Services Person that Josephine had lost her mind then she said, “They said your name, ‘Mathilda’. They said it the first time they tried to get him. They said, ‘He’s on the Mathilda Register’. When Aidan told me…”

Aidan! Ack!

Mathilda Register?!? Ack! Ack!

“He was working with a lady named Mathilda I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know if it was good or bad. But I went in your café, The Witches Dozen, right? Witches. Yes. And you were so nice and Rory hasn’t talked to anyone like that in so long.”

“When you say ‘they’ who do you mean?” I asked.

She didn’t know, but “they” were always there… she has moved and moved, everywhere, to France, Amsterdam, Ireland, bladity, blah, blah and she can’t get away from “them”. She has no money, she’s working two jobs, taking in laundry (do people still take in laundry? – can’t believe that!), cleaning houses. She can’t let Rory out of her sight (except school and is even terrified of that, every day is a nightmare, she said) for fear they’ll get him.

“I’m trying to protect him, be a good Mum and…”

She was working herself up so I patted her hand and said, “He’s staying with Mavis and I tonight. Don’t worry, Josephine, he’s safe with us. You just rest. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

It took awhile to get her calmed down but she finally slept. I watched her for a moment and then it came, lightheadedness and flashes in eyes and I was back at the window that night with BecBec, looking in, watching Josephine about to hit Rory and then she collapsed to her knees on the floor. She grabbed him to her and hugged him, sobbing sloppily and apologizing and then they walked together out of the room with little Rory trying hard to be a big man and take care of his Mama.

Jeez.

Thank goodness Sebastian stopped me from zapping her.

I grabbed the phone in the room and called Mavis. Gave her a quick briefing and told her we needed to activate the coven and get a protection spell put on the hospital room.

“Oh, my darling, your first Spellbound!”

She’s very excited.

Personally, I’m scared shitless.

* * * * *

Sebastian and I gathered up Rory, his stuff, his dog and headed to The Gables.

I settled Rory and Cosmo in the Trunk Room, gave him a little potion to help him sleep (don’t get excited, it was a child’s dose of Night Nurse), tried my hardest to tell him everything was going to be okay (I don’t think he believed me) and explained that I was just a moment away, he only had to call and I’d be there.

Broke my heart the way he looked in that big bed. Scared and alone. Poor Rory.

I found Sebastian in the library.

“Don’t even start,” I warned before he could speak.

But then this was Sebastian, he had no intention of speaking just scowling at me and making me feel like an idiot.

I glared back at him for a second then muttered, “Right.”

Then he asked, “Ash?” with an eyebrow raised and in a voice that pretty much said he didn’t like his nickname.

I ignored that and said, “You ever heard of something called ‘The Mathilda Register’?”

Then came the first shock of many that night.

Sebastian reacted.

I could see it in his eyes, the way his body tensed. One minute he was oh-so-nonchalantly leaning against the desk with legs stretched out and his arms crossed on his chest and then he was not-so-nonchalantly leaning.

“Where did you hear that?” he asked.

“Josephine.”

“Who?”

Of course, he didn’t know her name. In the World of Sebastian, she was unimportant (what is, I wonder?).

“Rory’s mother.”

He just looked at me.

“Well?” I prompted.

“Well what?”

Ack! The nerve.

“The Mathilda Register?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Sebastian is most provoking.

The library is huge and very Professor Higgins in
My Fair Lady
but bigger. There are two spiral staircases on either side of the room leading to wrought iron railed landings. Books piled upon books shoved here, there and everywhere (even, in some cases, stacked up in piles on the floors and tables). There is a huge fireplace a la
Citizen Kane
(okay, not that big) faced by a couple of worn, comfy couches and lazy, lovely velvet chairs with ottomans with tassels and in front of the window a big, heavy, carved wooden desk with some wing-backed leather chairs around it.

In short, the library was like everything in The Gables, huge, preposterously imposing yet relaxed and welcoming.

Freakish, I know.

There was an enormous book on a podium, handwritten (unbelievable) which held the list and location of every book in the library (including the ones stacked on the floors and tables and those that had been “checked out” – crazy – what’s crazier is that it rewrites itself every time you take a book or move a book, I’m not kidding).

I walked to it and looked up my name (should have done this ages ago, maybe, but who has time?).

There it was,
The Mathilda Register, The Myth of
by Hamish Wilding.

And also,
Mathilda Honeycutt, The Prophesies
also by Hamish Wilding.

Fuck!

“Mathilda.” This was a warning from Sebastian.

I ignored him and started for the M’s.

He followed me.

I speeded up.

(Damn his long legs!)

He caught me at the waist and swung me around (no mean feat) and, half carrying, half dragging me, started marching toward the door of the library.

There was a little tussle, one, not surprisingly, that I didn’t win but did end up thrown on a couch with Sebastian standing over me, breathing kind of hard and staring down with this intense expression on his face.

I stared back at him and was (humiliatingly) downright panting.

Unfortunately, at this point, I kinda forgot about the books and got really turned on by Sebastian staring at me like that. So I licked my suddenly very dry lips and tried to think of something else.

Anything else.

But
his
lips.

And the idea of his lips…

On my lips.

And on other parts of me.

Yikes.

Ended up staring at his mouth.

He looked away, raked a hand through his (fabulous) dark hair and then muttered, “Fucking hell.”

And.

You… will not…
believe
this.

He leaned down, grabbed hold of me and hauled me off the couch.

I thought he was going to toss me over his shoulder and carry me out of the room to chain me up somewhere (mm) and then go tell Mavis on me or something.

But instead he slammed me against his body and
started to kiss me!

Oh my.

Oh my.

Was not just whisper-soft kiss but was full on, open-mouthed, sexual onslaught.

Oh
my
.

Whole body (most especially certain obvious parts) got very, very into the kiss.

He wrapped one arm around my waist to hold me close while the other hand went down over my bottom and the back of my thigh. Then he leaned over, hooked his hand behind my knee and pulled it up so jeans did very, very pleasant thing at my crotch while he wrapped my leg around his hip and then I thought we’d fall back onto the couch and get serious when…

“
Oh darlings. My, my, my… Sebastian. You know it’s
far
too early for that.”

Ack!

Auntie Mavis.

Instead of jumping away from each other like naughty teenagers, Sebastian’s arm tightened (though, he did drop my knee). He kept me where I was and took a deep breath. His eyes were closed.

“Mavis,” he said softly with what sounded like a load of regret and not a little bit of impatience and then he opened his eyes and looked at me and – I kid you not – I thought I was going to have an orgasm just from the way he looked at me!

Sweet goddess, Mother Earth and all things charmed and bewitched.

He looked at me like I look at clotted cream, like it was the divine, ambrosia of the gods and I intended to devour, with extreme pleasure, every last bit of it and then lick the container clean at the end.

Fucking hell indeed.

Then he let me go.

I turned and kinda wobbled and Sebastian caught me by the waistband of my jeans and steadied me until I slowly lowered myself to the arm of the couch.

Then he let go and walked away.

Far away.

All the way across the room to stand behind the desk and stare out the huge arched window there.

Brooding Sebastian was back.

Auntie Mavis trucked in carrying a tray with tea, sandwiches and biscuits on it. Bless her, she was after this girl’s heart with the food but she could have waited at least fifteen (thirty, mm, maybe forty-five, er…) minutes.