Something to Curse About (14 page)

“Who doesn’t?” Terra asked, climbing to her feet. I hugged her and Logan both.

“Thanks for taking care of me. Sorry about running off. And I am totally going to pay you back for the vet and stuff.”

Logan smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Sorry I fed you dog food. What do you need a truck for?”

“There’s some dogs that helped me. I promised to find them homes, and I have to go to meet them after dark.” I paused for air. “After that, I’m going to show the police where they’ve been keeping the dogs so that they can bust up the dog-fighting ring, and someone involved in that better volunteer some info about Crazy Curseman.” I turned to Thorandryll. “Thanks for helping me.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome. I’ll be in touch, Miss Jones.”

“Oh, yeah, about that,” I stopped, because he had disappeared. “Man, I hate when other people do that.”

NINETEEN

Kate and Jo followed me upstairs. We all kept emergency bags at the shop, with changes of clothes and whatnot in them. I explained everything that had happened since I’d left the garage in my car, and Kate went to call Damian and fill him in.

“I wonder how long the growlies are going to last.”

Jo snorted. “I’m wondering if the elf slipped something in the potion to make them permanent. Be hard to keep a relationship going with Nick if you bite him every time he gets close.”

Shampoo stung my eyes. “Ow.” I splashed water. “Kate watched him, wouldn’t she know?”

“Elves know a lot more about magical uses for herbs than we do. He could’ve slipped something past her.”

I scowled at the ceiling while leaning back into the spray to rinse my hair. “If he did, I’ll smack him into a wall until he undoes it.”

She chuckled. “I want to watch.”

“Deal.” I conditioned my hair and let it set while scrubbing. “I’m guessing someone called my parents?”

“Mr. Whitehaven. Oh, I’d better check and see if anyone’s called and told him it worked.” She left the bathroom.

I’d call my parents myself, and go see them both as soon as possible. Hurrying through the rest of my shower, I rinsed and turned the water off. While drying, I wondered how to get around the leftover doggy instincts. It’d be nice to spend the night cuddled up to my boyfriend. It wasn’t fair to have to keep him at arm’s length after he’d spent the past couple of days trying to find me and worried to death.

Dinner with the elf wasn’t a big thing. I’d go since that was the price I had agreed to, and he couldn’t use any magic on me.

I dressed, skipping makeup. Logan and Terra were waiting to drive me to the Palisades to pick up Bone and his pack. After gathering my dirty clothes, I went downstairs, where David silently offered me a shopping bag to stick them in. “Thanks.”

“My nose’s pleasure. Did you roll in garbage?”

“No. Geeze. Leglin.”

The hound turned his head. “
Mistress?
”

“Hey, I can still understand you. Cool. Do you want us to drop you off, or you going with?”

“
I prefer to stay by your side
.”

“He’s going with,” I said to Logan.

“So am I.” Nick blocked my path toward the door and stuck his hand in my face. “Feel like biting me?”

I sniffed. “No. What did you do?”

He pointed at a small cloth bag hanging from a leather cord around his neck. “David whipped up a scent blocker.”

“Yay!” I threw my arms around his neck. Nick’s lips met mine, and I almost forgot I needed to get moving. Places to go, dogs to see. Breaking off the kiss, I fanned my face and stepped back to grab his hand. “Come on. We’ll see you guys later.”

“Don’t get it wet!” David called as we trooped out the door.

“We can work around that,” Nick assured me.

Since he could go, I double-checked if the other two still wanted to. Terra answered for them both. “I want to see how everything turns out. Besides, they’ll need baths and stuff. It’ll be faster if you have help.”

Logan agreed, and they took his truck. We followed in Nick’s, with Leglin in the back seat. “I’ll stay in the truck or whatever, so I don’t spook them.”

“Okay.” I laid my head on his shoulder and raised my hands to wiggle my fingers. “Feels weird to be me again. Oh, I need to call my parents. Where’s my phone?”

“Evidence. Use mine.” He pulled his from a jacket pocket.

I called Mom first, and she rushed to speak before I could say hello. “Nick? Have you found her?”

“It’s me, Mom. I’ll explain it all later. Just wanted to let you know I’m fine and everything’s okay now. I wasn’t hurt or anything.”

“Oh, Cordi.” The relief in her voice caused a wave of guilt to wash over me. She always worried about me so much. “Are you sure you’re all right? Where’ve you been?”

“I, uh, kind of got turned into a dog. I’ve been with Logan and Terra, but they didn’t know it was me.” Dead silence. I pulled the phone away to make certain the connection hadn’t dropped. “Mom?”

“You were a dog?”

I had to laugh at her disbelief. “Yeah, it’s weird, I know. I’m so sorry I worried you like that.”

“A dog,” she repeated. “What was that like?”

“Really weird and interesting. I promise to tell you all about it soon. I need to call Dad, okay?”

“Right. Okay. Call or come see me as soon as you can.”

“I will. Love you.” Ending the call, I dialed my dad’s number. Betty answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Betty. It’s…”

She shrieked my dad’s name. “Ben! It’s Cordi!” In a less ear-piercing tone, she asked, “Are you all right? What happened?”

Hearing the real concern in her voice, I smiled. “I’m okay. I…”

“Here’s your father.”

“Cordi?” Dad sounded as relieved as Mom had.

“Hi, Dad. I have to go with the short version: I was turned into a dog by the dude who’s been cursing people. I’ve been with Logan and Terra, they just didn’t know I was me. But I’m me again, and not a dog any more, and I’m so sorry I worried you guys.”

He started laughing. I heard Betty ask him why, and he tried to explain, sputtering words out. Her “She was a what?” set me off into a giggling fit.

“I demand a full accounting as soon as possible.” Dad hiccupped, chuckled, and hiccupped again.

“Promise. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Call ended, I gave Nick the phone back. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He sounded a little cool, and there was a faint frown on his face.

I snuggled back against his side. “I’m sorry.”

“You’ve got to quit taking off by yourself.”

Aw, crap. “I tried to call you. It went straight to voicemail.”

His frown became a full-fledged scowl. “You could’ve taken Leglin with you. Damn it, Cordi, every time you go off alone, you end up hurt.”

I sat up. I hadn’t actually gotten hurt this time. Just, you know, changed into a dog. “Can we not fight right now? Please?”

“Who’s fighting? I’m stating facts.” The steering wheel creaked as he tightened his grip. “Let’s see, right after we met, you went off by yourself and got attacked by a fake elf who nearly strangled you. Then you went off, and got your skull cracked. After that, you went off and got attacked by vampires. That was two cases I know of. And now this time, you went off and were turned into a damn dog. Plus, before we met, you…”

I crossed my arms and stared out the windshield. “Enough, dude. I told you this job doesn’t exactly come with a guarantee of safety.”

“Then you should quit and find something else to do.”

“Excuse me? Now you’re telling me what I can do for a career?” Unbuckling my seatbelt, I scooted down to the passenger side and buckled back in. I needed the distance, little as it was. “I can’t believe…”

“I love you.”

Mouth open, I turned to look at him with absolutely no clue how to respond. We hadn’t been dating long enough for the L word to fly out of anyone’s mouth. At least not in my book. Closing my mouth, I swallowed. “What?”

“I love you, and I want you to be safe. You’re not safe doing this work.” Nick glanced at me. “Guess that makes me a bad guy, wanting you to find something where you’re not always getting hurt, huh? A, what do you call it…egotistical male pig or something?”

“No, it doesn’t, but,” I had to stop, my anger warring with disbelief and the fact I did really care for him. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what to say. “I have to believe I have these abilities for a reason, Nick. I don’t think that reason’s to stand behind a cash register or whatever. I think it’s so I can help people who need it, and I’m not going to quit my job. Not as long as I’m able to help people.”

“What about helping yourself? Cordi, you’re in danger all the time just because you’re a psychic. A powerful one. You heard what the mayor said: You’re on lists.” He shook his head, narrowly avoiding rear-ending Logan’s truck as the other braked for a light. “You don’t want to be on those kinds of lists.”

“Dude, I’m on them whether I quit or not. It’s not like I can disappear.” I hadn’t even thought about what the mayor had said.

“You could.” Nick licked his lips. “You could marry me and come live with my pack on our territory. You’d be safe there.”

He may as well have punched me in the stomach, because all the air whooshed out of my lungs, strangling my voice. “Marry you?”

Letting go of the steering wheel, Nick stuck a hand inside his jacket and I caught a flash of something gold and shiny from his mind. Oh, God, he had a ring? I shook my head. “Oh, don’t. Not right now, please. I can’t handle it right now.”

He stopped, his shoulders rounding, and turned his head to look out the side window. “You’re saying no.”

“I’m saying this is too much right this second.” I sounded like a coward, but what else could I say? My emotions were trying to strangle me. I cared for him a whole lot, and enjoyed being with him, but love? Love and marriage? Those were big steps, especially for someone still freaking out over the idea of buying a house. I needed time to process everything. “I’m not saying no.”

“You’re not saying yes,” he pointed out, letting off the brake as Logan’s truck began moving again.

“But I’m not saying no.” Boy, that sounded lame. When had I turned yellow? “I’m saying it’s a big thing to think about and I just became me again. Don’t be mad, Nick.”

“I’m not mad.” He didn’t look mad. He didn’t look anything, his expression smooth and offering absolutely no hint of what he was feeling. I winced.

“I just need some time to think about it, okay? I mean, we’ve only known each other a couple of months. That’s not long to be making a huge decision like this.”

“I know that I want to spend my life with you,” he quietly said. “I can wait until you feel the same way.”

“Okay. Good.” I forced a smile. “Time is a good thing.”

His return smile didn’t look any more real than mine felt, and we didn’t talk for the rest of the drive.

***

Nick stayed in his truck once we arrived. I let Leglin out, and bent to hug him before we joined Logan and Terra by the other truck. They traded a glance before Logan asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Let me try calling them.” I turned away from them. “Bone! It’s me, Cordi! I’m here!”

No response. I sighed. “Maybe they haven’t gotten here yet. It’s only been dark for a few minutes.”

“We can wait.” Terra moved to my side and slipped her arm around my waist. She leaned her head against my shoulder. “What’s wrong? You’re nervous.”

I really wanted to talk to someone, and none of my witch buds were on hand. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slow. “Nick wants to get married.”

She lifted her head, and I heard a weird sound from Logan’s direction, like he’d sucked in a bug and was trying to quietly spit it out. “Oh. Um, do you want to get married?”

“Sure, some day, I guess. I mean, maybe someday. I don’t know. It’s a big thing.” I ran my hand through my hair, which was still damp. “A really big thing.”

“What did you tell him?”

I covered my eyes. “I wimped completely out. Told him I needed to time to think about it.” Dropping my hand, I scowled at the broken-down porch of the house we were facing. “I mean, I care for him a lot and like being with him, but getting married? That’s like the biggest thing ever except for having kids. I’m still running a few years behind and trying to catch up to where I should be. I don’t even know if I want to get married at all yet.”

“Then don’t. If he loves you, he’ll wait,” she said.

“That’s what he said.” I put my hands up to my mouth. “Bone! Hey! Where are you?”

Leglin growled, the sound faint. We all looked at him. “What?”

“
I smell tigers
.”

“Well, Logan and Terra are right here.”

The hound shook his head and sneezed. “
Not them. Others
.”

Uh oh. “He says he smells tigers.”

Logan’s eyes widened as he looked around, sniffing the air. “Get in the truck, Terra.”

She began to obey, but I grabbed her arm as things began moving on the roofs of the houses. “Wait.”

Nearly a dozen figures settled on their haunches, staring down at us. I heard Nick getting out of his truck. Another figure walked out of the house right in front of us. He was a tall guy with more muscles than I’d seen on anyone other than body builders on TV. “We’ve come for the White Queen.”

“That’s too bad, because you can’t have her,” Logan replied, stepping in front of us.

The other man grinned, picking his way off the porch. It creaked with each step. “I don’t have a problem going through you.”

“Wait a minute, let’s not jump straight to the bloody stuff.” I’d barely finished speaking when Nick grabbed my arm. “Hey.”