Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam Book 2) Page 17

  “Sit. I have tea on the stove.” She vanished through the door to the kitchen.

  I glanced over at the fireplace. It was warm and inviting, and the flames crackled along, shifting color as they burned. The room was a kaleidoscope of curios, but each felt secure in its place, like part of a puzzle, and the clutter fell together so seamlessly that it seemed quite organized.

  When Auntie Tautau returned, she was carrying a tray with a teapot and three cups. She eased it down onto the coffee table and poured the tea, handing it round. A creamer and sugar bowl, as well as a bowl of sliced lemon wedges, took up the rest of the tray. I added a dollop of cream and then stirred my cup, inhaling the fresh hints of black currant.

  “So, you came to me about a problem, and I take it the problem has not been solved?”

  “That’s right.” I frowned. “I’m sorry, I realize that it seems rude. I haven’t come to visit since the last time I was facing a crisis.” Suddenly, I felt bad, and glanced over at Sandy, who blushed.

  But Auntie Tautau laughed. “I’m not offended. We Aunties deliberately keep a low profile. We come to mind when we need to come to mind. As for company, trust me, I have my share and they aren’t all seeking my aid. No foul, girl. No foul. Now tell me, what seems to be the problem?”

  A sudden wave of relief swept over me. Telling an Auntie about a problem might not solve it, but it felt then like the issue was off my shoulders—that I wasn’t the only one bearing the burden. I told her about the Arcānus Nocturni Society, and about Essie, Thornton, and the hex. And then I told her about the book I had found.

  “So, you do have a problem indeed. And not one easily compartmentalized. What I can do is to take that book from you and keep it for you. I cannot destroy it, but no one will find it here until you decide to give it away, and no one will be able to forcibly evict the knowledge of where it is from your tongue.”

  I looked over at Sandy. “That means if they try to force the knowledge out of me…”

  “You would die before telling,” Auntie Tautau said.

  “That’s a terrifying thought, but also oddly comforting.” I could see no other way. It didn’t solve my problem with Essie, but it would make certain those spells didn’t reach her grubby fingers. But could she find copies of them again without a problem? At first I dithered, but then it occurred to me that if she did have easy access to other copies, she wouldn’t be so anxious to gain control over Thornton’s journal.

  “I’ll bring it to you this afternoon, before she has a chance to wake up. I’d feel better with it out of my house and in safe hands.” I glanced at the clock. “I should go home and get it now.”

  Auntie Tautau nodded. “A good move. And Maddy, be aware, Essie is no more looking for the spotlight to be turned on her than you are. Her agendas run deep and long, and while she is a problem, she is by far one of the least that you will face in the coming years. There’s a tightrope to be walked, and you are firmly on that path.”

  Great. Just what I wanted to hear. But I thanked her and we headed for Sandy’s car. My phone beeped and I glanced at the reminder.

  “Crap, I forgot. There’s a city council meeting tonight I have to be at. We’re endorsing Delia as the mayor officially, rather than as a stand-in.” Linda, the former leader of our coven, had also been the mayor of Bedlam. I had no desire to take over that part of her job. By now, Delia had proven herself more than capable.

  “Let’s go. We’ll get the book, drop it off, then I’ll take you back home. I don’t want you riding alone with that thing until it’s safely under Auntie Tautau’s roof.” Sandy glanced at her watch. “It’s well past lunch time. We’ll stop on the way back for a sandwich.”

  My mouth watered. “I want chicken. Fried chicken and don’t you tell me it’s not good for me. I’m under a lot of stress. I’ll forgo a shake, though.”

  Sandy laughed. “One step at a time, I guess. Chicken it is.”

  Chapter 15

  AFTER STOPPING AT Chicken-Chicken, we hurried back to my house. The shadow warriors were in place, and everything seemed fine. Bubba perked up when I came in, and I realized that with all the commotion lately, he was lonely and still nervous.

  I turned to Maddy. “Can Bubba visit Mr. Peabody this afternoon? I hate leaving him here in this colossal house with nobody for company. Franny can’t exactly pet him and she seems to think he’s more of a piece of furniture than family. I could pick him up after the meeting tonight.”

  “Sure, I think Mr. Peabody would like that.” She glanced down at Bubba. “You want to go hang out with my skunk?”

  Bubba let out a chirp, then he said, “Mrow,” which pretty much meant “You betcha, I need love and fun.”

  I found his carrier and he willingly jumped inside. If I didn’t lie to him about where he was going—no “We’re going out for some fun” when I was actually taking him to the doctor—then Bubba was pretty good about the whole transportation issue.

  As I darted down to the basement to grab the book, I glanced again at Aegis’s door. Once again, a feeling of loneliness swept over me and I realized that I hadn’t called the boys in the band to tell them what was going on. They must have been ringing his phone off the hook the night before and I hadn’t heard it, since it would be with his clothes in his lair.

  I hurried back up the steps and made certain the door was barred. While it meant he couldn’t get out unless he figured out how to open Bubba’s secret entrance, it also meant nobody could get in. The thought of leaving a bat-door open for him to get outside was tempting, but too scary, given the number of vampire hunters on the loose.

  I quickly showed Sandy the book. “That script is ancient. And I’ll bet you if you have the paper analyzed, that’s going to be at least five hundred years.”

  “I don’t think this is Essie’s handwriting,” she said.

  “It can’t be. She’s not that old. She was born in 1844 in New Orleans. She had to have ripped off some member of the Arcānus Nocturni. She won’t dare let them find out. If one of those vampires found out she stole something from them? It would be good-bye, Essie.”

  “Yeah, well, that would be one way to be rid of her.” Sandy laughed. “I know it’s mean to say, but it would be handy to have somebody else take her off our hands.”

  “You don’t want anybody from the Arcānus Nocturni to take her place. Think about it for a moment. A vampire king or queen walking around in daylight, and us being unable to tell who they are? We still don’t know what agenda the vamps are brewing in their lairs—or even if there is a general, vampire-worldwide agenda. But even if it’s only a local issue, it’s bad enough.”

  “Come on, let’s go. I’ll bring you back as soon as we drop off the book and Bubba.”

  Grateful for her company—I didn’t want to be driving around with that journal alone, either—I slid into her car again after depositing the carrier in the back seat, along with the suitcases full of Thornton’s things. Bubba had curled up and was sleeping peacefully.

  We drove back to Auntie Tautau’s, where she took the journal from me and shooed me on my way again. Another stop to drop off Thornton’s effects at the sheriff’s office—where I had hoped to talk to Delia, but she was out—and we headed over to Sandy’s.

  As we entered the kitchen, Alex came bustling out from the kitchen. Her personal assistant, he was as necessary to her life as air. Alex had been, for a short while, her lover, but they both realized it wasn’t going to work and they played together better as boss/employee, and as friends. They hadn’t been immersed enough in the relationship for it to color their friendship and so things had returned to normal between them and Alex watched over her like an old mother hen. He was the perfect example of a metrosexual—and was pretty much the gayest straight man I had ever met.

  “Maddy, love, you look wonderful,” he said, breezing past me. He stopped long enough for a kiss-kiss on the cheek, and a wink, and then immediately was back in motion, a whirlwind
of efficiency.

  “Max called, he wants you to call him back as soon as possible. I told him to try your cell but he said that he was in the middle of a meeting. The funeral home called—they want to know if you have Bart’s obituary ready for the paper. I told them I’d fax it to them by tomorrow. They also asked again if you would consider burial and I told them that if they didn’t stop hounding you about it, they’d be left with no client whatsoever. They’re as bad as ambulance chasers. Burials are big business, you know, where cremation, not so much. Anyway, I took care of them, and then I also rescheduled your meeting with the board of Sand Witch Delights. I figured you wouldn’t have time tomorrow morning because Bart’s parents are coming into town for the service.” He let out a long breath, suddenly out of words.

  “Thanks, Alex. Can you bring Mr. Peabody in? We brought Bubba home for the evening.”

  Alex suppressed a smile, but solemnly carted in the skunk, cradling him like a baby. He set Mr. Peabody down on the ottoman and I opened Bubba’s carrier. Bubba leaped out, alert and ready to play. Sandy and I had arranged several play dates for the pair, and they seemed happy enough together, so we assumed that everything was going fine.

  Mr. Peabody waddled up to Bubba and sniffed him, then let out a series of happy-sounding squeaks. Bubba brightened up, reached out, bopped him on the nose, and then bounded away with Mr. Peabody struggling to keep up.

  “I guess all is well. I still have a bad feeling that one day Bubba’s going to offer Mr. Peabody a wish and…well…we have no clue what kind of mayhem could ensue.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure I want to find out, either, but it’s all good.” Feeling relieved, I headed for the door. “I’d better get home and prepare for the meeting. You’re coming, aren’t you? As my second in command, you should be there.”

  “Can I beg off tonight? I have so much to do with the funeral.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry. Okay, but I’m calling you after to tell you how it went. Unless you and Max are going to be knocking bits. If you don’t answer, I’ll leave a text.”

  She laughed at that. “I wish we were, but tonight is all about preparing for Bart’s parents. You’ll be at the service, right?” She was smiling but the pain in her voice was raw, and I knew that the moment she was alone, she’d be crying again.

  “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it, hon. I’ll be there to support you. I just wish I could do more.”

  And on that note, she drove me home.

  RELIEVED THAT THE journal was out of the house, I took a quick shower and foraged through the cupboards till I found a can of stew. Figuring it was healthy enough, I nuked it and ate standing up by the sink.

  I wanted to go check on Aegis, but it wasn’t sunset yet, and he would still be asleep. Deciding that I’d make sure he was okay, anyway, I darted down into the basement. His coffin was secure and he was sleeping on top of it in his bat form. The sun couldn’t reach this room, so no matter whether he slept in the coffin or out of it, he’d be okay down here. In human form, he didn’t mind. I could see how it would be terrifying—he wasn’t strong enough as a bat to lift the lid and get out of it.

  I went over to the white board on the wall and wrote a note in huge letters—bats weren’t that good with their sight. I wasn’t even sure if he could read while in bat form, but it couldn’t hurt. I wrote that I had gone to the city council meeting, that Bubba was over at Sandy’s, and for him to use the secret cat door into the basement if he wanted to fly around the house. I’d leave it ajar just enough so he could get through. I added “I love you” and a note about tomorrow I’d be picking up the hex-breaker, and that was all the room there was on the board.

  Standing back, I knew I had done all I could. Resigned to yet another night of this mess, I left the lights on, returned to the kitchen, grabbed my purse, and headed out for the meeting.

  THE BEDLAM TOWN council was made up of the mayor and a number of representatives from the various PretCom races. Leonard Wolfbrane was leader of the Alpha Pack. Brentwood, a rabbit shifter, was the representative from the rodentia shifters. Two members of the Fae Courts—Naia from Summer, and Ateria from Winter—were here. Ralph Greyhoof represented the satyrs. I glared at him and he glared back. Elsa Liftwing spoke for the avian shifters. There were also reps from the werepumas, weretigers, werebears, elk shifters, a member of the Woodland Fae, and a human. I represented the witches as High Priestess of the Moonrise Coven.

  Goblins, ogres, and their ilk weren’t allowed to sit on the council. While vampires were allowed to live in Bedlam, they were under the rules imposed by the coven and weren’t allowed to speak at council. Other more nefarious creatures were deported whenever they were found on the island. They were generally up to no good, and couldn’t be trusted to keep to a treaty.

  As I entered the room, it looked like everybody else was already there.

  “Sorry I’m late. I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately. Somebody hexed my household.” I wasn’t feeling in the mood to gloss over matters.

  “I heard you paid a visit to Garret James,” Leonard said. “Be cautious. He’s not all that friendly.”

  “He seemed fine to me, and what matters most is that he thinks he can break the hex.” I slapped the agenda that someone handed me on the table. “Let’s take care of the important matters first, all right? Delia? Do you mind? I’d like to call for a vote on keeping Delia as mayor. I’m happy with her. I think we’re all happy with her. Delia, are you willing to continue with the job?”

  She tugged at her collar. “Well, it’s a lot of work, but I can do it. However, I’m going to need to hire another deputy to take up some of the slack over at the sheriff’s office.”

  “That’s fine, don’t you think?” I looked around. Just about everybody nodded. “Bedlam’s budget is pretty healthy. So I motion to make Delia’s temporary position as mayor permanent. Next election is in three years.” We all knew that the elections were only a matter of formality here on Bedlam, at least as far as the position of mayor went.

  “Second the motion,” Elsa said, raising her hand.

  “Show of hands, please,” Naia said.

  Everybody but Ralph raised their hands. When the rest of us stared at him, he hesitantly joined us.

  “Motion carried. Delia, congratulations, the job is yours for the next three years at least.” I reached over, picked up her gavel, and banged it.

  She grabbed the wooden gavel away from me, grinning. “Gee, thanks. All right, so that’s taken care of. Next on the agenda, we have a request from the neighborhood around Fourth and Yew Streets for a stoplight. Apparently some of the teens like to use the street for racing at night and there are a lot of kids on the block. I recommend we assign someone to conduct a feasibility study on Bedlam as a whole. We’ve grown by about five hundred over the past couple years, and it might be time to start beefing up our infrastructure. Until then, we can always put in a three-way stop sign at the intersection. Yew ends at Fourth.”

  As the debate spilled over into stop sign discussions and from there into requests for business licenses and so forth, I lost track of the conversation. By the time the evening ended, I had no clue of what we had discussed, except for the fact that we had voted Delia into office, and also agreed that we needed a three-way stop sign on one intersection, and a roundabout on another.

  I didn’t stick around for the after-meeting cake and coffee, but headed for the door.

  “Maddy? Are you all right?” Ateria caught up with me before I exited the room.

  “Not really. I mean, I’m fine, but we’ve had one hell of a week over at my house and frankly, I can’t wait until tomorrow. Leonard’s right—I consulted Garret James, and he’s making me up a hex-breaker. Until then, I’m just holding my breath and trying to get through this.” I paused. One thing I had learned about Ateria over the past couple months was that she was nobody’s fool and she didn’t cave to popular opinion. “Do you think I’m making a mistake by dealin
g with Garret?”

  She considered the question, then let out a soft laugh. “Maddy, Garret might frighten a number of people around the area, but he’s got nothing on the Winter Fae. We make him look like a cuddly baby and you know it. I think you have to do what you need to in order to protect your loved ones. If hiring Garret brings you peace, don’t let anybody stop you. We’re all in this life with a limited amount of time and resources—even the Fae, though it may not seem like it. You can’t make everybody happy, so you make those happy who mean the most to you.”

  She wrinkled her nose, then turned away. Naia glanced at her retreating form, then walked over to me. “I know Summer and Winter are always at odds, but I heard what she said and I agree. Garret’s not so bad. I met him some time back and while his root magic is rudimentary compared to what we work with, it’s effective enough when it needs to be. He makes no pretenses to be anything other than he is. I like his honesty.”

  I paused, then headed over to congratulate Delia before I left. She was just finishing a sweet bun, and was already on a second cup of coffee. Werewolves seemed to have an uncanny nature for assimilating caffeine. I drank a lot of it, but she swam in it.

  “So Garret’s helping you?” She glanced at me, a question in her eyes.

  I nodded. “Dirt Magic, yes.” I debated telling her what I had found out about Thornton’s journal. And then, I realized I hadn’t even told her about Thornton. I motioned for her to join me in the corner where we wouldn’t be overheard. “Last night, Thornton showed up.”

  “What? But…” Delia stiffened. “Vampire?”

  “Vampire, yes. And now, dust. Delia, I know why Essie’s so damned insistent on getting his things back. I dropped them off earlier today, but she’s not going to be happy.” I was struggling with the decision what to tell her about the journal. It wasn’t information to be passed out lightly, and yet, she was both the sheriff and the mayor. She deserved to know what was going on in Bedlam. And I had already warned her about the Arcānus Nocturni.