Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf (8 page)

"He had a lot of nerve telling you that
you
were reckless when he kept a secret like that,” Charlotte said.

Emilie entered the kitchen with a newly delivered pepperoni pizza. She sat their dinner on the table and slid into the seat opposite her cousin. Charlotte's green eyes held disdain for the Garrison brothers.

"It wasn't an easy secret for him to tell.” Emilie's heart still ached for Daniel, and her body did, too, but she refused to dwell on that now. With Charlotte here, they had to concentrate on their spell work.

"You had no idea your spell would set off a transformation. God, you might have set them
both
off."

Emilie shook her head as she dug into her pizza. It was good to have Charlotte around. Her presence would keep Emilie's thoughts on the business at hand. “Daniel can't transform. He's second generation, only a quarter wolf, and he's never been bitten."

"The spell could have triggered a similar reaction in him, though.” Charlotte rolled her eyes and reached for a can of soda. “You could have ended up with the two of them battling it out over who got to eat your spleen."

"Nice image.” Emilie gave her pepperoni a skeptical look. “Thanks!"

"We've got sixteen days until the next full moon. It seems like a lot of time, but we can't waste it. The sooner we get this done, the better off Vance will be. I suggest when we do the spell, we chain them up just to be sure."

Emilie sighed. “I told you, Daniel doesn't transform."

"So he says. But who knows what else he hasn't told you? For all you know, he's a vampire, too, and just hasn't mentioned it yet."

"I doubt that. I've seen him in daylight."

Charlotte smirked. “But have you seen him naked?"

Emilie groaned. Just exactly what she was trying not to think about. “What's that got to do with him being a vampire?"

Her cousin shrugged. “Nothing. I was just wondering if you were heeding my sage advice not to get involved with him."

"Yes, I have heeded your advice.” Emilie kept her voice neutral. Lying to Charlotte was damn near impossible, but she had no intention of admitting that she'd been having impure thoughts about Daniel. In fact, she'd been plagued by them since he'd left her apartment on Saturday night. She still wondered why she'd let him go and had not invited him to spend the night. Maybe because she would have felt like a guy—taking advantage of his emotional state to sate her own desires. That's what Charlotte would say, of course.

Hopefully, with her cousin staying until the next full moon, Emilie would be able to refrain from doing something she'd regret, like inviting Daniel over for coffee, or dinner—or sex.

"All right. Why don't we start by taking a supply inventory?” Charlotte's segue to business interrupted another foray into Emilie's carnal fantasies.

"Good idea. I'm pretty sure we'll need some fresh wolfsbane."

"And chains. Don't forget the chains."

"So what do you think of our new resident witch?” Bethany asked over breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Daniel nearly sucked coffee into his lungs at her question. He swallowed hard and coughed. On the far side of the breakfast table, Vance gaped.

"Who—?” Daniel's voice hadn't cracked so badly since the age of thirteen. He coughed again. It had been hard enough keeping Emilie out of his thoughts since he'd left her on Saturday night. But having Beth ask about her nearly caused him a heart attack.

"Don't play coy.” She grinned knowingly. “I saw you going into her magick shop last week. I hope you're not still trying to get the poor girl kicked out of town.” Beth's blue eyes twinkled, and she winked at Daniel over her glass of orange juice. “I stopped in there the other day to look around. She has some adorable things. Everything smells so good in there. I bought a set of wedding blessing candles to burn at the rehearsal dinner. I think I might go back and get one of her wreaths to put on our front door.” She nudged Vance, who had managed to wipe the look of shock off his face. “When we actually
have
a front door. So what were you doing there?"

"I just stopped in to check out the place.” Daniel put on his disapproving face. “No sign of trouble."

"I can't believe you're still holding it against her—that the previous owner was some kind of pervert."

"I'm not. I just ... looked around. That's all."

"Did you talk to her?” All innocence, Bethany dug into her scrambled eggs and waited for his reply.

"Not really."

"She's very pretty. A little lonely, I think. Oh, I heard someone threw a rock through her front window. Isn't that awful?"

"Terrible.” Daniel looked at Vance. His brother shrugged, then grinned at his fiancée. “I've got to get to work. Are you two going house hunting again today?"

"We're going back to see that cape on Morningstar,” Beth said, while Daniel congratulated himself on successfully changing the subject. “We really need to make a decision on it before Vance leaves."

"Leaves?"

"On my
trip
, the week after next,” Vance replied.

"Right. You'd better make an offer before someone beats you to it."

"That's what I said.” Beth plunked down her juice glass and nudged her fiancé again. “Mr. Indecision wants to look at split levels."

"I just don't want to make a hasty decision.” Vance defensively spread his hands. “The right place will come along and I'll know it when I see it."

"Just so long as you know it before someone else's name is on the mailbox."

Daniel gulped the last of his coffee as Beth and Vance merged in a passionate kiss. He rolled his eyes and got up to leave. “Whatever place you pick will be great. Good luck."

The ride to work took him past Mystikal Excursions as usual. Today, instead of craning his neck to catch a glimpse of Emilie through the window, he parked across the street. A small crowd had gathered on the sidewalk outside the shop, and a police cruiser had pulled up directly in front.

Daniel hurried across the street just as the officer parted the curious group. Daniel's heart dropped into his stomach when he saw the red puddle oozing from under the shop's front door, which still bore the “Closed” sign hanging untouched from its pewter chain. The officer waved people away from the viscous, transparent fluid.

"It's blood,” someone said.

Daniel stepped forward, pushing through the crowd. He kept his distance from the red stain. “What happened?"

"Is this your property, sir?” the officer asked.

"No, but I—"

"Then please step back."

"It's my store.” Emilie appeared with a tall redhead striding behind her. Her cousin from Seattle, Daniel assumed. The two women elbowed through the crowd. “What's happening?"

"Witches,” someone hissed.

Daniel glared at the onlookers, but no one made further comment. The redhead assessed Daniel with a searing gaze, then looked away.

"There seems to be something leaking out of the premises, ma'am,” the officer said. “It looks like blood."

Emilie glanced through the window. “It's all over the floor inside,” she said, pulling out her keys.

Charlotte bent down and boldly stuck her fingers in the substance. She brought the red fluid to her nose and sniffed. “It doesn't smell like blood."

"You shouldn't do that, miss,” the officer protested. “You don't know what it is."

"It's floor stain, probably Cedar.” Charlotte straightened and held out her fingers for the cop's perusal. “Looks like someone poured it under the door from the outside."

"What for?” Emilie gave an exasperated sigh as she jammed her key in the lock.

The officer began herding people away. “Move along, everyone. Looks like it's just an accident."

The crowd thinned, but a few onlookers kept careful watch on Emilie and Charlotte as the women climbed over the thick red puddle and through the shop's front door. Daniel and the officer followed as soon as the last of the curious residents wandered away.

"It wasn't an accident,” Charlotte said under her breath.

The cop pulled out his notepad. “Do you want to make a report, ma'am? Any idea who might want to cause you trouble?"

Emilie's gaze rested on Daniel. “No, I don't."

"I'll write it up as vandalism, then. If you have any more problems like this, be sure to call them in."

They waited quietly until the officer finished taking notes and left.

Charlotte gave Daniel a disparaging look. “Nice work."

"What are you blaming me for—"

Emilie stepped between them. “Charlotte, don't. It's not Daniel's fault. We need to get this stuff cleaned up."

"I'll see if I can find out where it might have come from,” Daniel said, careful to step around both Charlotte and the sticky puddle.

Emilie shrugged. “Thanks, but I don't know how much good that will do."

"Arresting someone for vandalism will do a
lot
of good.” He tried to keep his voice level, but his guilt ate at him. He wanted to touch Emilie, to comfort her, but her stiff posture and Charlotte's dark glare told him to stay away. Maybe Emilie's cousin was right to blame this on him. He'd set the stage for reactions like this. “I'll call you later. If you need any help ... let me know and—"

"We can handle this, thanks,” Charlotte said. Her disapproval seemed to follow him out of the store.

"So that's big brother,” Charlotte said when Daniel's car pulled into traffic.

Emilie scowled at her cousin's back. “You didn't have to be so rude to him. He wanted to help."

"Help get himself out of his own mess. Where's your mop?"

"In the back.” Emilie began moving display racks to make room for their cleanup effort. Her gaze wandered out to the street, where everything had returned to normal.

Charlotte retrieved the mop and bucket from the bathroom. “You saw the looks on their faces outside. Everyone was scared. They think it's only a matter of time before your legion of flying monkeys swoops through town to carry off their babies."

"That's not true.” In fact, very few residents of Cypress Park actually knew the whole truth about Chester Creek's dealings in black magick. Most of them thought he'd been selling drugs, not conjuring demons.

"It
is
true. And Daniel is to blame."

"Chester Creek is to blame. And I've got to undo the damage he did here.” Emilie put her hands on her hips. “I never thought it would be easy."

"With Daniel Garrison on your side, it'll certainly be a lot harder.” Charlotte punctuated her statement by stabbing the mop into the puddle.

Emilie rolled her eyes. “That doesn't even make sense."

"Em, he's part of the problem, not part of the solution. And to top it off, he's drop-dead gorgeous, making it impossible for you to be properly repulsed by him. What does his brother look like anyway?"

"Just as hot, but with dark hair and glasses. The studious type."

"Engaged, you said?"

"Yeah."

Charlotte sighed and began mopping in earnest. “Too bad."

Two and a half weeks later

One night before the full moon

"Is this really necessary?” Vance asked.

Using iron manacles, Charlotte secured his wrists to the sides of a chair. Another chain held his ankles secure and a third circled his waist. He tugged at the bonds and gave her a skeptical look.

"Do you want a repeat of last time?” she asked, handing Emilie the key to the manacles.

Emilie stepped back to survey her cousin's work and bumped into Daniel. She'd won the argument with Charlotte, so they hadn't brought chains for him as well.

Despite the tension, Daniel grinned at his brother. “Now that he's chained up, I can tell you about the time when he was seven and he tried on Mom's—"

"That's enough!” Vance paled. “I won't be chained up forever, and when I get loose, I
will
hurt you."

Charlotte checked her watch. “All right, we've got seven minutes until moonrise.” She backed away from Vance and handed small silver mirrors to Daniel and Emilie.

"Keep these facing Vance, and stand back,” Emilie said, adjusting Daniel's mirror.

Charlotte picked up a third mirror and a smoldering sage bundle from a shell bowl on the basement floor. Even though they were one night short of the full moon, she'd decided they'd be better off underground where there would be no chance of moonlight touching Vance during the spell. If he transformed again tonight, he wouldn't remain in wolf form for long, and hopefully he wouldn't be able to break through the chains that bound him.

With the circle of protection complete, Charlotte took up a spot between Emilie and Daniel. They all faced Vance, and she and Emilie began the incantation that would, if all went as planned, separate him completely from the beast. The mirrors would reflect the wolf aspect of his soul back to him and contain his transformation while the beast lost its anchor within him.

As they walked the circle of protection widdershins around Vance, they spoke the incantation Charlotte had prepared...

Joined together, blood and bone.

An ancient curse made one alone.

Defy the evil curse within,

What now is one, make two again!

Everyone held his or her breath, staring at Vance, during the ten-second lull that followed. Emilie started to declare the spell a failure when a rush of sparkling air surged around the room like a miniature whirlwind and drove itself into Vance's chest.

A howl escaped his lips. Within seconds, his face began to transform. Eyes gleaming yellow, fangs protruding from his suddenly elongated face, Vance screamed at his captors. He growled and slavered as the transformation contorted his body.

Daniel took a step toward his brother.

Emilie grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Keep the mirror aimed at him—make him look at himself."

Vance's hands curled into claws. His long black nails scraped at the chair's wooden arms. He bucked against the chains and snarled each time he caught a glimpse of his grotesque visage in the silver mirrors.