The Trouble With Witches (15 page)
"Better?" Abby asked
,
her face still pinched with worry.
Wordlessly, I nodded.
"Good. Here, drink this," she said, handing me a cup from the nightstand.
While I held the warm cup, its heat soaked into my very soul, chasing the last of the cold away, and its fragrant aroma cleared my mind. I took a cautious sip, but didn't recognize the taste.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, passing a hand over my eyes.
"I don't know," Abby said. "I'd just finished smudging the cabin when Walks Quietly appeared at the door, with you in his arms—unconscious. He went straight to your room and put you on the bed. Then he gave me a packet of herbs from his pocket and told me to make tea with it—"
"You don't know what this is?" I interrupted, eyeing the cup with suspicion.
"No," Abby replied calmly.
I felt a look of horror on my face. "What if he's trying to poison me?" I shoved the cup toward her. "I get the distinct impression he doesn't like us."
"Nonsense, he wouldn't poison you," Abby said, refusing to take the cup. "If he'd wanted to get rid of you, he wouldn't have hauled you clear across the lake. He would have left you where he found you. He was trying to help you. When I came back in with the tea, he was muttering words in a native tongue and rubbing something on your forehead."
My hand flew to my brow. Feeling an oily smudge, I rubbed at the spot, transferring some of the substance to my fingers. I held them under my nose and inhaled. "What is this?" I asked, extending my hand.
Abby sniffed at the stuff on my fingers and shook her head. "I don't know." Taking my hand in hers, she glanced out the window, then back at me. "I need to know what happened."
With a sigh, I relaxed against the pillows and quickly related my story.
"… and another thing," I continued, "
the
cabin wasn't on Rick's map."
"Maybe he didn't know it was there."
"Well, somebody did. And they laid some kind of protective spell around it, using the cedar and sage. I messed with it when I tried to feel what lurked on the other side." I shuddered at the memory. "Abby, whatever's in there isn't just bad, it's the total absence of good—it's absolute evil."
"Hmm, I see," she said thoughtfully. "I imagine Walks Quietly had something to do with the spell, with the
magick
."
"Did he say anything?"
"No. He didn't offer any explanation. You were so pale and cold, I didn't take the time to ask questions. I simply did what he told me." Abby looked over her shoulder. "I'd hoped to talk to him after we took care of you, but I see he's gone."
"Yup, gone like a puff of smoke." Now hot, I wiggled out from underneath the covers. "Do you think the cabin had anything to do with Brandi's disappearance?"
"Maybe.
Since
it's
obvious Walks Quietly doesn't want to tell us about the cabin, I think we should take another look at it."
I jumped out of the bed, sloshing the tea I still had in my hand. "Are you crazy? I told you whatever's there is evil." I shook my head until I almost felt my brain rattle. "No way am I going back there. And absolutely, positively, I'm not letting you go!"
Abby arched an eyebrow as if to say,
Oh yeah
?
I shoved my hands in my pockets and started pacing the small room. "Nope, not going to happen, we're not going to do it—"
Abby's voiced stopped my pacing. "Ophelia, what if Brandi
is
in that cabin?" she asked softly. "Don't her parents have the right to know what happened to her?"
An image of a pile of bleached bones in an empty field flashed through my mind. I wasn't able to bring closure to the missing man's family in
Taking my hands from my pockets, I looked down at Abby, sitting on the bed, her hands calmly folded in her lap. "It's dangerous."
She nodded wisely. "I know, and it would be foolish to go rushing back to the cabin. But there are ways, things we can do to protect ourselves."
"Yeah?
Like what?" I asked skeptically.
Abby cocked her head. "Well, we can—"
A knock at the cabin door interrupted her.
"That may be Walks Quietly," she said, rising from the bed and hurrying from the room.
I went to the window overlooking the lake and stared across the water. What crept around in those woods?
In the cabin?
Was it the ghost of Violet Butler's crazy brother, Fred Albert? Did I want to get up close and personal with whatever it was again? A shudder shook my shoulders. Not really. And I didn't want to drag my grandmother into it, either.
Abby's excited voice broke into my thoughts.
"What a surprise! What are you doing in
She sounded happy to see whoever it was. Leaving the bedroom, I rounded the corner of the kitchen to take a look at our surprise guest. I stopped dead.
Darci
stood in the middle of the kitchen, hugging Abby. And right behind her, a mound of luggage.
My face screwed up in a frown, but before I could voice what I thought,
Darci
took charge of the situation.
"Hi, Ophelia.
Surprise!" she squealed, rushing at me and throwing her arms around me.
Awkwardly, I hugged her back. "Yeah, what a surprise," I said, my voice tinged with sarcasm. "How did you manage to finagle this one,
Darci
?"
She released me and took a step back. A wounded look crossed her face, but I wasn't buying it.
"What do you mean?" she
asked,
her voice full of innocence.
I gave her a knowing look. "Let's go for a walk, shall we?" I grabbed
Darci's
arm and tugged her toward the door.
"But Ophelia…" A whiny tone crept into her voice. "I just got here."
"A walk will be good for you after your long trip," I said, motioning her out the door.
By now it was late afternoon, and the trees cast long shadows across the road. I saw a flash of red in the leaves above us as a cardinal flitted from branch to branch.
Darci
walked beside me without speaking, waiting for me to speak first.
She didn't have to wait long.
I got straight to the point. "I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing here? And who's running the library?"
"Nobody—it's closed. The day after you left, the air conditioner went on the fritz—"
"Great. How long will it take for them to fix it?" I asked, breaking in.
"At least a week.
The thing's so
old,
they had to order the part from Chicago. Since the
library's
closed, the library board decided it would be a good time to fumigate the library. The building will have to air out for a couple of days after they spray."
"I guess that's good, then," I said, and picked up a branch lying across the road. "The bugs were taking over."
Darci
gave me a big smile. "I saw it as a sign."
Stopping, I looked over at her. "The bugs taking over were a sign?" I asked.
"No, silly.
The library closing was a sign. A sign I was supposed to help you out on this latest caper." Her eyes sparkled as she said it. "I mean, it's not like I had anything else to do."
"
Darci
," I groaned, and threw the branch into the woods. "You've been reading too many detective novels. This isn't a 'caper,' this is serious. There's a young woman missing, and we haven't got a clue why."
Walking away from her, I decided now was not the time to tell
Darci
about my experience at the abandoned cabin. Not if I intended to try and convince her to go back to
well,
it wouldn't be something she'd leave alone.
"I can help you. You know I can," she pleaded while she hurried to catch up with me. "I've helped you before—"
"You're right, you have helped me," I said, interrupting. "But I don't see how you can this time."
She stopped and tossed her head indignantly. "Humph, I can help in a lot of ways. I may not be psychic, like you and Abby, but I'm very good at worming information out of people."
I stopped, too, and snorted. She had that right. I'd seen her in action. People, especially men, always focused on the way
Darci
looked. They never suspected that behind the naive, "I'm so helpless" act, she was busy learning all kinds of information about them. Information that would be committed to her incredible memory and called forth at any time she wanted.
"Well?" she said, crossing her arms.
I gave a quick nod. "Yes, you're very good at getting people to.
tell
you things."
"Thank you. So I can stay?"
"No."
Darci's
eyes filled with tears.
"Why not?"
Crap, now I'd hurt her feelings.
I reached over and patted her arm. "
Darci
, it's not because you aren't a very talented woman, and it's not because I don't want your help—"
"Then why?" she asked before I could continue.
"Because, like I told you before, the situation could be
dangerous
," I said, trying to place as much emphasis on the word "dangerous" as possible. Maybe I could scare her.
She sniffed again. "I can take care of myself."
"I know you can," I replied, my voice placating. "But we've only been here a couple of days and already there have been incidents."
"What kind of incidents?" Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
"
Ahh
, well…" My voice trailed off.
Dang, now
Darci
was worming information out of me
. I watched her face while I tried to think of a way out of the corner I'd put myself in. How much could I tell her without giving away what had really happened that morning? As I thought about what to say, I saw that her tear-filled eyes weren't quite as "teary" as they had been. The tears seemed to be drying up.
Why, the little trickster!
Placing my hands on my hips, I suddenly smiled. "Okay, knock it off. I'm wise to you—you're running a con. If you make me feel guilty enough, I'll agree to let you stay with Abby and me.
Right?"
She lifted one shoulder carelessly. "Hey, it was worth a shot. Almost worked, too, didn't it?" she asked with a grin, the tears completely gone now.
My smile broadened. "Yeah, it did."
Linking my arm with hers, she pulled me back toward the cabin. "Look at it this way, Ophelia, if I can almost fool you into doing what I want—and you know me—just think what I can accomplish with people who
don't
know me."
"You don't have to prove anything to me,
Darce
," I said, matching my stride to hers.
"Okay, then let me help you and Abby find this girl. I promise I'll stay out of the hocus-pocus stuff. All I'll do is ask questions. See what I can find out from the people who live here."
If
Darci
worked the community angle, and Abby and I worked on Jason and his crew, we might learn more, and faster.
The image of a ticking clock flashed through my mind.
I skidded to a stop, pulling
Darci
around. "Okay, do you promise," I said, shaking my finger at her, "and I mean promise, that you'll only ask questions? And at the first sign of trouble, you'll back off?"
"Of course," she replied with a toss of her head.
I put my hands on my hips and stared at her.
"
Darci
?"
"Oh all right. I promise." She lifted a hand to her chest. "Cross my heart and hope to—"
I held up my hand to stop her. "Don't—"
"—die."
"—say it," I finished in a whisper.
Chapter Thirteen