Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) (14 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

J
amie picked up
on the second ring. “Nat?”

“It’s Meaghan.”

“Meaghan?” He took a ragged breath and said in a rush, “I’m sorry I’ve been such an asshole since we got back.” Before she could say anything, he continued. “I never thanked you for saving me. You came and got me. You said you would and you did and I never said thanks because I was so busy feeling sorry for myself and it wasn’t only you—”

“Breathe, okay? You’re welcome. You’re forgiven. It’s all good.”

He took another ragged breath. “No. It’s not all good. I . . . how do I make things right with Patrice? After what I did to her?”

“You get better,” Meaghan said, feeling her eyes fill with tears. The phone was corded—the only corded home phone Meaghan had seen in years—to better function in the presence of big magic. “Hang on a sec.” The long cord stretched enough to let her move into the powder room in the hall and shut the door if she sat on the floor. “Okay.”

“Where are you?” he asked. “It sounds like a party.”

“Late dinner with a lot of people very relieved you aren’t being screwed with further by our wizard friends.”

“For now,” he said. “I’ve still got this shit all over my chest and back and the things in my head aren’t gone, only drowned out by this other shit in my head, which is loud, I gotta tell you.” He took another breath. “Sorry. I know I’m talking really fast. Do you know where my family is?”

“Jamie, I’m not sure that’s a good idea—”

“Agreed. It’s better I don’t know. I just want to make sure you do. Natalie said she’d talked to Patrice and she’s safe and the kids are safe and they’re all away from here.” He paused a second, then plunged on. “How do I get them back? How do I fix this?”

“Honey, you get better.”

“But we don’t know what the sigils—”

“I’m not talking about the sigils. We’ll figure that out. I’m talking about the trauma. I think you have PTSD.”

“Oh,
that
,” Jamie said.

“What do you mean ‘oh,
that
’?”

“Well, I figured that would, you know, work itself out if I didn’t have all this other shit to deal with.”

“Like it worked itself out for your dad?”

“Yeah . . . but . . .” He sighed. “Shit. So I have to deal with that, too?”

“Well, yeah, dopey,” Meaghan said with a small laugh. “What did you think? It’s not the sigils and the energy vortex in your office that are causing you to go all Carrie-at-the-prom. It’s the trauma.”

He was silent for a long moment, then said, “Hang on. I’ve got wizard trouble.”

She heard the phone clunk on Emily’s desk and then Jamie shouting, “You want another gargoyle dropped on your heads? I got plenty more. See?” She heard a wrenching noise and a loud crash. “You aren’t getting in here, assholes. Give it up.”

He picked up the phone. “You there? Had to drop some masonry on them. Speaking of which, I sort of . . . blew up the solicitor’s office.”

Meaghan let that news sink in a moment. “Blew up how?”

“Uh, well, it’s . . . kind of . . . gone. Not gone exactly, but there’s a giant hole where my office used to be and your office isn’t exactly round anymore. Or totally indoors. And the ceiling is on top of the floor. The beams are still there, I didn’t get that crazy, but it’s a mess. Sorry.”

Her office. Meaghan loved her round office. She let herself feel a moment of grief before moving on. “We’ll deal with it. And at least now I don’t have to worry about finding you a new non-mystical office.”

“Well, actually you do, along with everybody else . . . did you hear what I said?”

“Yes,” Meaghan said. “But now I can get money from the council to rebuild the suite and we can design around the vortex and—”

“We have to plug the vortex. Even if it means I have to blow up the whole building. I’m the only thing standing between us and
them
. I think I’m some kind of key or password to access something really bad. I think that’s why they wanted Emily to make me change in city hall. It triggered something. And why they came after me in the hospital. They didn’t count on me fighting back. And if they get past me . . . if it comes to it . . .”

She heard him take another ragged breath.

“They need me alive to make this work. If it comes to it, I’ll bring the whole building down on top of us. Right now I think I’m strong enough to do it.”

Meaghan’s heart dropped. “Jamie, you can’t.”

“Yeah, I can, and I will if I have to. Did you feel like you had a choice when you came after me in Fahraya?”

“No.” She gripped the phone tightly, knowing what she was about to say. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t bring you home or die trying.”

“Same situation. If I don’t keep these things out, none of us will live. None of us. Except these wizard shitheads who are trying to make this happen. Why the fuck is everybody in such a hurry for the world to end?”

Meaghan could hear the rising panic in his voice. “I don’t know, honey.”

“This isn’t suicide talk like last night. I want to live.”

“Then,” Meaghan said, trying to hide her own panic, “let’s put these bastards down. Is there a way you can . . .” She was about to ask him to commit murder. She took a deep breath. “Is there a way you can end them without ending yourself?”

“I almost killed one,” he said. “They’re easy enough if you get them one at time. But, then I thought what if he was like that kid they sent after you in June? Being used by remote control? What if I killed some abused kid who didn’t choose to be here?”

The wizard Meaghan had vanquished with the saucepan had turned out to be a terrified, half-starved, twenty-year-old boy with no memory of how he’d gotten there. Caleb had spent almost his entire life with the Order, which had brutalized him along with other children in its control in order to feed their pain and fear to the Power.

Possessed by a powerful wizard, Caleb had broken into Meaghan’s house and tried to hex her. When it didn’t work, he was abandoned, bleeding on her kitchen floor. All it had taken was a little food and kindness to flip him to their side.

“Oh, God,” Meaghan said. “You’re right.” Her mind was churning. They needed a plan. First things first, she decided. “Do you have any food? How long can you hold out?”

Jamie snorted. “There’s enough junk food stashed in the council break room to open a minimart. I can hold out for a week if I have to.”

“Okay.” What next? “Do you know about the secret exit?”

“The what?”

“The magical safe room with the secret exit out of the building. It’s in the mayor’s private office.”

“Is that the little room behind the steel door in the closet? Natalie showed me that a while back. I didn’t know it had a secret exit.”

“Yeah,” Meaghan said. “That’s how Annie and I got out of the building when you first arrived. We were in that office at the time.”

“Oh, shit, I didn’t hurt you guys, did I? I tried to blast the glass outward at the wizards.”

“No, we’re fine. The ghosts warned Annie you were coming in the front door and she dragged us in there. It goes to an internal stairwell that leads down to the basement and a tunnel over to the historical society house.”

“The big yellow one?”

“Yeah. But the safe room’s locked from the inside and—”

“I’m not leaving,” he said, his voice firm.

“I know that, but it might be a way we can get in.” She shuddered. She’d rather face the wizards head on than crawl back through that tunnel and up those narrow dusty stairs. “So we can back you up. Without the Order knowing. We have our own wizard now, by the way.”

“Yeah, I heard. Can we trust him?”

She thought a moment. Owen seemed to trust Eliot, but Owen, despite having proved himself helpful so far, was a leprechaun, and Meaghan knew she shouldn’t trust him, even if she wanted to.

Sid also trusted Eliot, but Sid was keeping secrets from her. But she couldn’t bring herself to believe he’d betray her. Not after Fahraya. If she started mistrusting everyone, she’d end up alone. Again. “Yeah, I think we can.”

They were silent for a long moment.

“Are you sleeping with my father?” Jamie asked.

Meaghan choked. “Really? You want to talk about that
now
?”

“Yeah. I do. I’m really weirded out by it, but if you . . . please be careful, okay? I don’t want you to end up like my mom.”

“If you were anybody else, I’d tell you to mind your own goddamn business. No, I’m not sleeping with your father.” She took a deep breath. “Yet. I’m being very careful, but I really . . . I’m being careful. You really need to talk to him. You need to give him a chance to be there for you.”

“I . . . Let me save the world first, okay? Then I’ll talk to him.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Meaghan said. “Like I did. Even though I got to make things right with Dad after he died, I missed his life. And I will regret that forever.” She felt the tears well up again. She reached over and grabbed a wad of toilet paper. “Don’t make that mistake.”

“I wo—”

The phone went dead. And then the lights went out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

M
eaghan scrambled to
her feet, the phone receiver clattering on the tile, and pressed her ear against the bathroom door. The laughter and chatter had turned to shouts of alarm. She pulled open the door.

The entire house was dark. Then she saw a dim white light—a flashlight, it looked like—appear from the kitchen. “Relax,” she heard her brother say. “It’s probably a fuse. I’ll run downstairs and—”

“Don’t,” Meaghan shouted. “The phone’s dead, too.”

Everyone stopped talking.

Meaghan fumbled her way down the hallway toward the living room and peered out the window. Holly Lane, which was a dead-end street, was dark but she could see lights in the houses on Sycamore. It could be merely downed lines somewhere, but Meaghan knew in her gut it wasn’t. The Order was paying them a visit.

Sid appeared at her side. Troon had night vision far superior to humans, and Sid’s eyes didn’t require time to adjust to the darkness. He peered out the window. “There,” he said a moment later, pointing toward the street. “And there.” His hand began to tremble. “I see five of them so far. We’re outgunned.”

“The hell we are,” Meaghan answered, feeling anger bubble up inside her. This was the second time the bastards had attacked her in her own home. “We’ve got a witch, a wizard, and a leprechaun. As well as three big, strong men with excellent fighting skills and a powerful medium.”

“And we’ve got you. And your temper,” Sid said, his voice now shaking. “What about me?”

“Night vision. You can see better than any of us right now, including the wizards if they start throwing flashy spells around.”

Sid took a deep breath and, his voice steadier, said, “Okay, boss. What do we do?”

They were all calling Meaghan “boss” now. She’d never thought of herself as a leader, but in Eldrich, even surrounded by people and beings far more powerful than she, Meaghan had developed an easy authority to which everyone responded. She wasn’t in charge—not officially—of anything but the solicitor’s office, but as soon as things got dicey, magically or not, everyone started looking to her for answers.

Which really freaked her out sometimes. But now, under attack, she had no time for doubt. Time to lead the troops. “First thing, magical barriers.”

Natalie crept up beside her. “Done. Eliot’s watching the back door. And John and the boys are closing and locking all the windows and looking for weak spots where they might be able to get in.”

“What’s Owen doing?”

“I’m behaving myself,” she heard him say behind her. “I really wish you’d trust me.”

“That’s not why I asked,” Meaghan said. “You said in my office that you had powerful magic. What can you do to help us here?”

“Uh, well, I might have exaggerated a little bit.”

Meaghan snorted. “And you wonder why people don’t trust you. Can you do anything to help us?”

“Yeah, I’m not completely useless. I’ve got certain . . . I’m really good at hiding—”

Now Sid snorted. “Our hero. You’re even more useless than I am.”

“Watch it, Blue,” Owen said. “I don’t know what your problem is, but—”

“Shut up, both of you. Now.” Meaghan turned to Owen. “Is there anything else you can do?”

“If I’d been allowed to finish,” Owen said in a haughty tone as Sid snorted and stomped back to the kitchen, “I would have told you that I’m really good at hiding in plain sight. If I don’t want to be seen, you won’t see me. And with a little magical boost from Red here, the person with me will be just as hard to spot.”

Natalie giggled. Owen grinned at her.

“That might be very useful,” Meaghan said. “Can you hide all of us?”

“Not at once. But I could sneak us out of here one at a time. Everyone but you, of course. My magic won’t work on you.”

A blinding flash of green light knifed through the window accompanied by a loud sizzle.

“Gah.” Meaghan shook her head. “There goes my night vision. What the hell was that?”

Natalie peeked over the window sill. “My spell wall doing its thing.” She extended her middle finger at the wizards outside and shouted, “How you like chick magic now, assholes? Effective enough for you?”

The Order believed that women were incapable of doing
real
magic, whatever that was, and shouldn’t be allowed to use it. It appeared to be a sore spot with Natalie.

“Don’t taunt them,” Meaghan said, even as she wished she’d been the one to flip them off.

“Why not?” Natalie slumped down next to Meaghan.

“It tells them our position in the house. We need to get back to the kitchen and make a plan. If we can’t outgun them, then we might need to let Owen escort you all out. C’mon. Stay low.”

Crouched, they stumbled back to the kitchen. Meaghan, her eyes still not recovered, tripped over someone right inside the door.

“Ow. Watch it,” Russ said.

“What are you doing down there?”

“Looking for that saucepan. The wizard beater.”

“Ha, ha,” Meaghan said. “Not a great time to be a smartass.”

“No, I mean it. Eliot,” he called. “Tell her.”

“Iron is impervious, right?” she heard Eliot say from the other side of the kitchen. “Like you. Means you’re our best shot at taking out these idiots.”

“You expect me to fight wizards with a saucepan?” Meaghan moved next to him and looked out the window. She still couldn’t see a damn thing.

Eliot shrugged. “You’ve done it before. Brian will tell you that you should never draw a weapon you don’t know how to use. You’ve already shown what you can do with that saucepan.”

“But—”

“Look,” Eliot said. “They’re not getting through our defenses right now, but we can’t attack them without dropping the wall. Which turns this into a siege. I thought you were bullshitting me about the saucepan, but Russ says it’s true, and since you and the pan are both impervious, you can stroll right through both our barriers and start swatting.”

“That was a skinny kid. If they sent the muscle, they won’t need magic to stop me. Those guys who took Jamie were huge.” She looked around the room. She could see several figures, but couldn’t tell who was there. “Is everybody okay?”

“Yeah,” she heard Ruth say. “I think.”

“Is everybody here?”

“No, the Fahrayans and the cop are upstairs shutting and locking windows.”

There was a clatter of feet on the stairs and John and Jhoro entered the kitchen, followed by Brian. “The upper stories are secured,” he said, all business now. “Is the perimeter in place?”

“Yes, sir,” said Natalie. “You’re kind of cute when you’re being the Man.”

Brian ignored her. “Do we have a plan yet?”

“Working on it,” Meaghan said. “Any suggestions?”

“We either stay put or get out. Do we know how many we’re dealing with?”

“I saw five,” Sid said.

“Out front?”

“Yeah. Do you want me to check again? I’ve got the best night vision.”

“How good?”

“I don’t need to adjust between light and dark.”

“All right,” Brian said. “You’re reconnaissance. Get us a head count—front, back, and sides of the house, and anything else you notice.”

“Check how big they are,” Meaghan said. “They’re not all half-starved like Caleb was. See if they sent the big guys.”

“On it,” Sid said as he started looking out the kitchen windows.

“We’re safe here for now?” Brian asked. “Magically?”

“For now,” Eliot said. “But if enough of them show up, they’ll eventually out-hex us.”

“But they won’t want to siphon too many from city hall,” Meaghan said. “That’s their primary goal. They need to get inside and they need Jamie alive and under their control to do whatever it is they want to do.”

“Any thoughts on how we can get out of here?” Brian asked.

“If they’re the skinny, starved wizards,” Meaghan said. “I can take out at least one or two with my trusty saucepan. If they’re the big guys, no. But Owen’s got the power to hide in plain sight, and with a magical assist, he can get the rest of you out of here one at a time. But I don’t know where we go then. The cars are all in the driveway or out front.”

“Not all of them,” Russ said, with a sigh. “My food truck’s in the alley space, behind the garage.”

“What kind of truck?” Eliot asked.

Russ sighed again. “Big boxy delivery truck.”

“Can we all fit?”

“Yeah,” Natalie said. “The thing is huge.”

“And it’s made of steel, I bet,” Eliot said.

“Yeah,” Russ said morosely. “And I just bought it. I had to go all the way to Scranton to get it. Please don’t blow it up.”

“Don’t worry,” Annie said taking his hand.

“Okay,” he said with a goofy grin, his concern for his truck forgotten.

Meaghan had almost managed to forget the love spell in all the excitement. “Marnie’s spell—Eliot, you said you had it handled
here
. What about out there? What are we driving into?”

“Yeah,” Eliot said. “That’s a problem. Hopefully everybody’s getting it on in the privacy of their own homes, but we probably should keep Jhoro under wraps until we know for sure. We don’t need a mob of the lovesick trying to kill each other to get to him.”

“Under wraps magically?” Meaghan asked.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a ponytail, ball cap, and baggier clothes. There’s enough magic flying around him as it is.”

Meaghan nodded. “Not sure about the bigger clothes. Russ?”

“There’s a bag of stuff somebody dropped by for the Fahrayans I haven’t looked at yet. Let me see what we’ve got.” He grinned at Annie. “C’mon, you. Let’s go shopping.”

“You cook me dinner and then you want to go shopping?” Annie giggled. “You’re the perfect man.”

“Find clothes for Jhoro,” Meaghan said. “Save the canoodling for when the world isn’t about to end.”