Pranic, Pregnant, and Petrified (The Montgomery Chronicles Book 3) Page 19

  The emotionality was normal, something I’d experienced before. I cried at everything. I cried because I was happy, sad, hungry, cold, hot - you name it, there were dozens and dozens of reasons why I cried.

  When I was done, I grabbed a tissue, dried my eyes, blew my nose and fought back the urge to take a nap. I didn’t feel all that comfy sleeping here. I didn’t know if someone was going to come out of the closet attired in a ski mask again.

  Would it be really rude and insulting to order room service, especially when the whole of the castle was catering Thanksgiving dinner? I could always order turkey with a cheesecake chaser. I decided to wait a little while, so my absence wasn’t that blatant.

  The knock on the door made me wonder if there were such things as mind reading fairies at Arthur’s Folly. Please let them have interpreted the part about the cheesecake right. Oh, hell, who was I kidding? I’d take a taco or two. Or even turkey, if push came to shove. Maybe a little dressing, some rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy?

  Bring on the carbs, please.

  I opened the door, my smile already in place. It took a lot of effort to keep it there once I saw who it was.

  Diane Trenton had a body made for fooling around. The emerald sheath she wore left no doubt of it. I would bet, however, that her boobs were courtesy of one of the best plastic surgeons in San Antonio.

  We eyed each other for a moment. The seconds ticked past without anyone to witness our mutual antipathy. I knew why I didn’t like her. I was jealous. There was no way to pretty it up or make it sound more noble. She worked closely with Dan every single day. She was gorgeous. She was probably smart, too. Not a combination to warm the cockles of my heart.

  The question was: why did she dislike me?

  “Is this yours?” she asked.

  She shoved something at me, and I automatically reached out to take it. As I did, I felt the corridor drop about forty degrees. No, that was me.

  I stared down at the evening bag. I hadn’t seen it since the night Niccolo Maddock had raped me. Call it what you will, a chemically induced seduction was rape and I would never forgive him.

  My hands began to shake, the sequins on the bag’s surface seeming to pick up the vibration.

  “Where did you get this?” Something was wrong with my voice. It sounded thin and reedy, as if I rarely spoke.

  I forced myself to look at her rather than the bag.

  “It was on Dan’s desk. I went to the office to see if he’d left any kind of note or message.”

  She didn’t know it, but the bag was a message. It was a clue as big as China and one that had stripped all the warmth from me.

  “I looked inside,” she said.

  I only nodded. I didn’t give a flying flip if she’d used my lipstick or run my debit card. That wasn’t the important thing about the bag. Its presence indicated where Dan was. The vampires had him.

  Maddock had him.

  I nodded again, forcing the words from my lips. “Thank you.”

  She didn’t say anything, just frowned at me. A moment later she turned and walked away, leaving me still standing in the doorway, holding onto the damn evening bag.

  Maddock had him. I knew what that meant, even as my stomach did a somersault. Maddock wanted a trade for me and if it didn’t happen, Dan would never come home.

  Like hell.

  I closed the door, went to the intercom and asked the person who answered to convey a message to Mrs. Travis. I wanted her to meet me in the Knights of the Round Table room as soon as possible.

  Call me Buffy; I was going vampire hunting and the witches were going to help me.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Smite, Smote, Smitten

  I locked my suite and returned to Dan’s set of rooms. I hadn’t been back since learning that he was missing. The rooms felt empty. Not the empty feeling you get when a house in temporarily unoccupied. This was the hollowness of a home vacated by its owner. A cave whose bear had awakened and left until next season. The den of a fox who’d been hunted and killed.

  My skin crawled. I felt like something was watching me and wondered if any of the witches visiting Arthur’s Folly had remote viewing abilities. For that matter, did Janet? Had she turned the tables on me?

  I looked up and around, checking for cameras, wondering if Dan would have allowed them in his rooms. I doubted it.

  I tried to dismiss the feeling as I walked into the sitting room.

  The suit I was wearing was my armor. I felt comfortable in it and I knew I looked good. I wondered if that’s how most women considered their clothes. I didn’t change, even though I did slip off the heels and replace them with sneakers.

  I dared someone to say something to me. In the mood I was in, it wouldn’t be a good idea.

  I’d smite them, a word that sounded right and one I intended to use again. It beat the heck out of zapping someone. I shall smite them. Didn’t that sound all goddessy?

  I checked my makeup, another form of armor, and got rid of the mascara that had melted when I’d had my crying jag. Had Trenton seen me looking this ragged? Damn it. I reapplied my mascara, added some lipstick, then grabbed my evening bag, and made my way to the Knights of the Round Table room.

  On my way there, I investigated the contents of the bag. My old phone was still there. It wasn’t as fancy as the one Dan had gotten for me, but at least I had a way to communicate now. I tucked it into my bra since my suit didn’t have pockets.

  I entered the Knight’s room. The last time I’d been here, the witches had convened to hear Dan’s idea of them supporting me. That ship had sailed. They better damn well support me or I would zap them - oops, smite them - into kingdom come. Or whatever the witchy equivalent was. We were talking life and death here.

  Could Dan be made a vampire? Did the vampires know he was a wizard? Could he fight them off?

  Okay, enough with the questions. In the next hour, I was damn well going to get some answers. I’d just about had it with being ignorant and left out of the loop.

  Nobody was there when I entered.

  When I’d first seen the room, I’d been startled by the fourteen suits of shiny silver armor placed along the circular wall, each of them positioned behind a throne-like chair. Now I hardly noticed them, being so used to Arthur Peterson’s love of all things medieval and Arthurian.

  Above me was a chandelier equal in circumference to the polished table. On my last visit the candles had been lit. No doubt to lend atmosphere to the room. The sun had set in the last few minutes, but there was enough light still coming through the mullioned windows.

  I sat in the chair Dan had occupied last time. When the door opened a few minutes later and Janet entered, I didn’t spend any time on pleasantries.

  “The vampires have him,” I said.

  She didn’t say a word. That was left to Nonnie, who followed her into the room.

  “How do you know, Marcie?”

  I held up the evening bag. “I left this at Maddock’s house when I escaped. It was on Dan’s desk. Either he had a visitor, or someone sent it as a lure. I doubt if he would have opened the doors to a vampire willingly.”

  “My daughter,” Janet said, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting heavily. “He would have if they promised news of Nancy.”

  I had already come to that conclusion, so I only nodded.

  “We can’t wait,” she said. “We must do the ceremony now. As a wizard, Dan can defeat them. Cloaked, he’s only as strong as a human.”

  Even human, Dan was pretty damn awe-inspiring. I wouldn’t count him out in whatever guise he was in, but I agreed with her. Although I didn’t know everything a wizard could do, I was all for giving him every asset he could handle.

  “I’ll gather up the people who are here,” Janet said.

  “Do you want me to call my sisters of the faith?” Nonnie asked.

  “Can they be here in less than an hour?” Janet stood and walked back to the door.

  “Yes.”

&nb
sp; I swear, my grandmother could read minds. She turned to me and smiled.

  “No, Marcie, they won’t be using brooms, either.”

  “She really doesn’t know very much about witchcraft, does she?” Janet asked.

  "It was thought that keeping her in ignorance would be safer for all of us," Nonnie said, her voice sounding strong and commanding.

  To my surprise, Janet looked rebuked.

  Of the two of them, who was the more powerful?

  I agreed to meet them in yet another large room at the castle. I hadn’t seen this one, either. The sparring room was evidently off the gym - another room I hadn’t visited - and its main claim to fame was that it didn’t have windows.

  “We don’t want to put anyone in danger,” Janet said cryptically before disappearing down the corridor with my grandmother.

  What the hell were we going to do that might blow out the windows?

  I guess I was going to find out.

  I didn’t know what to do with the evening bag. Neither Nonnie nor Janet had seemed very interested in using it. I’d thought they could do a directional spell or some kind of who-used-this-last potion. I really did have a lot to learn about witches. I decided to drop it off in Dan’s room so I headed in that direction.

  I put the bag on the chaise and made my way to the surveillance room. I wasn’t all that technologically adept, but one thing I had in my favor right now was that I wasn’t timid. I needed to know everything I could and if that meant screwing up along the way, that was okay with me.

  I fiddled with some of the settings until other scenes appeared on the screens in front of me. I saw the kitchen, a massive expanse of stainless steel counters, shelves, and equipment, suitable for preparing meals for an institution. Right now they were bustling. I lost count of the number of turkey carcasses being put into a large vat for boiling. Waste not, want not, a comment my grandmother had often made in my childhood. Evidently, we were going to have gallons of turkey soup and other turkey based leftovers.

  Hopefully, there’d be some stuffing left.

  I tuned into the garage next, then the Great Hall. People were milling about. Had they finished their meal and were hoping for some entertainment? Had Dan planned for any? I felt inept and wishing I’d known the schedule for the day, but I am not now - nor have I ever been - the world’s greatest hostess. If the situation had been different, I would have offered to lead a team in charades or something, but I was more intent on saving Dan than rescuing his party.

  No matter what I did, I couldn’t figure out how to rewind the surveillance footage to the night before. What I did see didn’t strike me as odd. All I was left with was a better idea of how big Arthur’s Folly was and how well it was run. What I needed to do was touch base with the center of video operations and this wasn’t it.

  Dan, being a military man, would have set up a chain of command. With Mike ill, who was next in charge? Whoever it was, I needed to find him, get into the real nerve center of the castle, and see if Dan had been taken from the castle or left of his own accord. I had a feeling it was the latter, but until I actually saw with my own eyes, I couldn’t be sure.

  Janet had given us an hour to do everything we needed to do to prepare for the ceremony. I didn’t know where to start, so I began with the intercom. My question seemed to stump the young thing on the other end of the line. I finally thanked her and hung up, realizing that there was one person in the castle who would know, damn it, and I had to talk to her.

  I used the intercom again, got Diane Trenton’s phone number and dialed her. She was probably looking at the phone as it went into voice mail.

  I left her a message, trying to imbue my tone with some warmth. If I never had to talk to the woman again, I’d be happy, but this task was more important than my feelings.

  “I need to know who has access to the surveillance video from last night. The nearest I can figure is that Dan disappeared after nine. Did he leave the castle on his own? Or was he helped?”

  I decided to throw myself on Diane’s mercy. Besides, I was going to go into an uncloaking ceremony and it might drain me down to the bone. Let her feel important. Let her be important, for that matter.

  “Look, I need help. We need to find Dan. Can you look through the footage?”

  I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that Dan would have disappeared without alerting someone to his whereabouts. Unless that was part of the deal. Come with us and we’ll lead you to your sister, but tell no one. No, it still didn’t compute. Dan would have found a way to let someone know where he was going. Unless he was so independent that he thought he could handle the situation on his own. No, he wasn’t that foolhardy. Besides, he had all those paramilitary guys at his command.

  “I’ll be with Dan’s mother,” I said. “I’ll check in with you later.”

  I didn’t know how much later. Hopefully, I’d given Diane enough information to start working on the problem. I knew the woman was competitive. I’d seen it in her eyes. She would move heaven and earth to get the information I needed, and that was fine with me. I’d give her all the credit she desired.

  My ego wasn’t important right now. All I cared about was finding Dan.

  On my way to the gym, I decided to make a side trip to the kennels and pick up Charlie. The witches had considered him my familiar, and it might be helpful to get Opie’s take on everything. Besides, it would be a good idea to mend fences there. All the liver treats in the world wouldn’t make a difference if Opie was really mad.

  Jen wasn’t there, but David was, and so was a whole pumpkin pie. My stomach growled and I lectured it sternly. I didn’t know what I was going to have to face in the uncloaking ceremony. It was probably better that I wasn’t going into the situation with a full stomach.

  “Back for Charlie?” he asked, looking up from his slice of pie.

  I nodded.

  “How was the banquet?”

  “Very nice,” I said, not mentioning that I hadn’t stayed for the food. The decorations were beautiful and the guests were all well dressed and attractive. The banquet hall was equally impressive. What was there not to like?

  The fact that Dan was missing was one.

  I paced in the waiting area until Charlie arrived. When he approached me, a little less enthusiastically than before, I understood. Opie was in charge, which meant that she was pissed. I doubted she wanted to attend the banquet for the food as much as the human interaction. Being a woman trapped in a dog must be a little brain draining. Not that Charlie wasn’t a very smart dog.

  I took the end of the leash from David, thanked him and wished him Happy Thanksgiving again. I was going to wait until I hit the elevator to talk to Opie and then only surreptitiously. I needed to warn her about where we were going.

  I didn’t get the chance. Outside the kennel I was bodily assaulted by Kenisha. She grabbed me and hugged me, so tight that I thought I’d lose what breath I had. She was crying so hard my heart sank.

  Please, no.

  I dropped the leash and hugged Kenisha back.

  “K-girl, what’s wrong?”

  I was vaguely aware that Opie was talking. We hadn’t moved far from the kennel door and there was a camera mounted on the ceiling nearby. I knew her voice was more mental than audible. In other words, people overhearing our conversation might hear me, see Charlie’s mouth open, but I’m not sure they would hear Opie’s voice like I did.

  Still, when Kenisha pulled away and looked at her, I was worried. I wasn’t really keen about someone watching either one of us talk to a dog. Either we’d be labeled for the loony bin or they might suspect there was something to our conversation. Neither one was a good option.

  “There’s a camera up there,” I whispered to Kenisha, who understood immediately.

  Opie, however, was a little slow on the uptake. Either that, or she didn’t give a flying flea.

  “What’s wrong, K-girl?”

  I had to shut her up.

  I bent, scratc
hed her behind the ears, smiling as I whispered, “Camera, Opie. Stop talking.”

  I’d given Trenton a job to do. I didn’t have any doubt that she would be monitoring my movements as well as trying to find Dan. It’s what I would do. Confession might be good for the soul, but it made me feel a little like a weasel. I needed to advance beyond my lesser nature.

  I straightened and faced Kenisha.

  “Is Mike worse?” I asked.

  “No, he’s better. So much better.”

  “Mike’s okay?” I asked, hope buoying my words and my mood.

  She nodded, still smiling, even as she brushed away her tears.

  “He’s better than okay. He’s going to live, the doctor says.”

  Now was not the time to ask how he was going to live, as a human or a vampire or something more. I’d leave that for later.

  “Dr. Fernandez did give him the rabies vaccine, right?”

  She nodded again. “He said he didn’t think it was necessary, but he listened to Dan.”

  Fernandez and I were going to have to have a heart to heart one of these days. The man was a throwback to an era when the little woman read magazines all day, worried only about what was for dinner and if she looked good enough for her husband. Not that life was ever that way, but men like Fernandez thought it had been and fervently wished it replicated.

  Good luck with that.

  Charlie parked himself on Kenisha’s feet. I knew that was Opie again.

  “I need you,” I said, hoping the camera thought I was talking to Kenisha. “We have an uncloaking ceremony to attend.” I’d tell her about the participation part later.

  She looked between me and Kenisha. Great. I was odd man out again. I wouldn’t have minded all that much but I was already feeling a little vulnerable, scared, and nearly sick with worry.

  “You don’t have to come,” I said. “You can go with Kenisha.”

  It was Kenisha’s turn to do the tennis look from one of us to the other.

  “I think you should go with Marcie. I’ll be fine.”