Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) (20 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

T
hey made it
halfway to Main Street. The dimly lit square lay a block ahead.

Then hands reached out of the darkness and yanked them to the ground.

Meaghan felt a rough palm clamp over her mouth. She felt a flare of panic followed immediately by a wave of rage. With adrenaline-fueled strength, she kicked out hard, making contact with flesh. Her attacker rolled off her with a groan.

She scrambled to her feet, then heard a male voice gasp, “Dude, we’re on your side.”

Meaghan looked around. She saw Natalie lying on top of somebody, kissing him frantically. Annie was crouched by the sidewalk, her hand over her heart, nodding at the small figure standing next to her.

Meaghan looked down at her attacker.

Nate, the tattooed co-proprietor of Eldrich Brew, lay curled in a ball on the grass, trying to get his breath back.

“Nate? What are you doing here?” Meaghan crouched next to him. “You okay?”

“No,” he whimpered. “You got me right in the ’nads. Gimme a minute.” He drew in another ragged breath. “God, that hurt. Never sneaking up on you again.”

“What are
you
doing here?”

Meaghan jumped at the sound of the annoyed voice behind her and turned her head.

Sid stood with his hands on his hips. His clothes were torn and dirty, but he looked otherwise unharmed. “Why aren’t you in city hall? Didn’t you get to the historical society?”

“We did,” Meaghan said. “The tunnel was blocked. Owen got through, but we had to turn back.”

“The
leprechaun?
” Sid hissed. “
He’s
in there with the wizards? You showed him the way in? You can’t trust him. Why can’t you see that?”

“Can’t trust
him?”
Meaghan’s rage, barely abated, rose up again. “He’s the only one lately I do trust. The only one who’s not keeping secrets from me.”

“Oh, he’s got secrets. Did he tell you why he’s such a different type of leprechaun, why the rest of them won’t have anything to do with him?” Sid looked furious.

“No,” Meaghan said. “He hasn’t told me the details yet because we haven’t had time. But he hasn’t tried to hide it from me.”

Sid shook his head. “You still don’t get it.”

“No, Sid, I don’t get it. Because no one will tell me the complete truth. Owen at least admits things are being kept from me. Which is more than you’ve ever done. And he’s answered every question with a minimum of bullshit.”

Shaking with anger, she turned back to Nate. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Can you stand up?”

He nodded and she helped him to his feet.

“What’s going on?” Meaghan peered over at Natalie, who was still kissing somebody on the ground. It was too dark to make out who it was. “Please tell me that’s not Jhoro.”

Nate shook his head. “Brian. Jhoro’s—”

“Brian?
What’s he doing here?”

“Got his people copacetic in Williamsport and cruised back to help.”

“So where’s Jhoro?”

“Gone,” Sid said behind her, his voice shaking. “The mob took him. There were too many of them. Emily did her best to—”

“Emily?
Did her best to what?” Meaghan grabbed Sid’s shoulder. “Kill him? Is she leading that mob?”

“No,” a soft voice said at her elbow. “I understand why you’d think that, but I tried to save him.”

Meaghan spun around and there stood Emily Procter, hater of all things Fahrayan and Meaghan’s nemesis.

“Em’s been great,” Nate said with a beaming smile. “Kicking ass and taking names.”

Emily gave him a nervous smile. “I put up some shield charms to make us a little less visible, but we need to keep our voices down and stay in the shadows.” She turned her attention to Meaghan. “You have no reason to trust me, I know.”

“You hate Fahrayans,” Meaghan hissed. “Remember? You started this whole mess.”

Emily nodded, her eyes shiny. “I did.”

Meaghan took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. Emily
had
started the whole mess by helping the Order take Jamie, but she’d had her reasons, it turned out.

Adopted from foster care at age four by a couple who soon conceived another child, Emily had been eight years old when a band of rogue Fahrayans, still tiny and winged, had flown through the Eldrich gateway to raid. Seeing what he thought were fairies, Emily’s three-year-old brother followed them into the trees. Emily ran after him and found Toby being brutally attacked by a swarm of tiny flying men. She saved him, screaming and throwing rocks at the Fahrayans until they withdrew, but when her father arrived, all he saw was Emily standing over her bloody brother, a stone still in her hand.

Her story—that Toby had been set upon by vicious fairies and she’d chased them off—had been dismissed as a fantastical lie to cover up a violent jealousy-infused assault. When she stuck, adamantly, to her story, mental illness was assumed.

Emily’s terrified parents—faced with the prospect of raising a violent, mentally ill, adopted daughter who had already attacked their biological son—abandoned her at the hospital she’d been sent to for evaluation. Soon after, they terminated their parental rights and Emily was returned to foster care.

In Emily’s mind, the Fahrayans had stolen her family from her. She’d nursed a grudge for over thirty years. When Jamie came to work at city hall, Emily finally had a single focus for her rage and pain. For a long time, she limited her revenge to trying to make his work life miserable.

Until the Order approached her with warnings that Jamie intended to seize control of Fahraya and resume raiding in the human world. When they asked for her help in stopping him, she gladly agreed. Not only had she torn off his amulet in city hall, forcing his conversion to his Fahrayan form, but she’d helped the wizards kidnap Jamie from his home.

Emily hadn’t appeared particularly chastened by her role in Jamie’s ordeal, but neither had she gloated. Meaghan had given her a wide berth, partly out of caution, but more out of the knowledge that if Emily pushed her, even a little, Meaghan would explode into rage and say or do something she couldn’t take back.

Like she might right now, except for that tiny voice of reason in the back of her head.
Get a grip on yourself. Hear her
out
.

With heroic effort, Meaghan forced herself to take a few deep breaths before saying, through gritted teeth, “You expect me to believe you’d help Jhoro? Why would you do that?”

To her credit, Emily met Meaghan’s furious glare and didn’t look away. “I helped him because he helped me. He showed me . . .” Her eyes filled and a tear slipped down her cheek. “He showed me what his people really were. And what they’ve lost. What I helped take from them.”

Meaghan’s rage evaporated. She’d seen enough of Emily faking friendly feelings to be able to tell she was now sincere. How long it might last was anybody’s guess, but at this moment she was an ally. Maybe it was a mistake to trust her, but Meaghan needed all the help she could get right now. Even if it came from a backstabbing witch and a leprechaun with a shady past.

“Okay,” Meaghan said. “Good. I’d rather have you helping us than helping them.” Or helping yourself, Meaghan thought, but reminded herself that Emily had never been
truly
evil. She’d done an evil thing, handing Jamie over to the Order, but she’d had her reasons, however misguided they were. Emily could be petty, controlling, and occasionally malevolent, but she was motivated by fear more than cruelty.

They’d never be friends, she and Emily, but for now they were on the same side.

Meaghan looked around the small group. “Fill me in. What do we know?”

Nobody spoke.

Solve the small problems
first
.

Meaghan turned to Brian, who was now on his feet, Natalie at his side. He wore a glowing smile and had an arm wrapped protectively around her.

“What happened to Eliot and Ruth?” Meaghan asked him. “I told you to stay with them.”

“I called a buddy in Williamsport to keep an eye on them. He’s former military and the son of a witch. He pulled some strings at the hospital and got Eliot rushed into surgery with a minimum of questions. They’re in good hands.” Brian brushed a red curl off Natalie’s forehead. “I couldn’t leave my best girl behind. She might forget all about me.”

Natalie wore an adoring smile. “Never.”

Meaghan rolled her eyes. “What happened to Jhoro?”

Sid, his voice tight, refused to meet Meaghan’s eye as he answered. “The mob we saw on the square, they chased us until we ran into
them
.” He gestured at Nate and Emily.

“We were hunting,” Nate said. He rubbed his nose and stared down at his feet. “For Jhoro. We thought he’d done all this and if we stopped him, then everything would be okay.”

“You thought that,” Emily said, patting his arm. She sighed. “I was still looking for revenge.”

“Yeah, well, me and the guys wanted that, too,” Nate said. He looked back at Meaghan. “We wanted to kick his ass for stealing our wives. The spell . . . you know. You saw it this afternoon at the Brew.”

Meaghan nodded. “You said the guys?”

Nate grinned. “Oh, yeah. There’s a bunch of us.”

“We’re not all guys,” said a woman now standing behind Nate. “My husband thinks he’s gay now. We’ll be having a big talk when this is all over.”

Several men laughed quietly.

Meaghan looked around. More figures had arrived out of the darkness. A few she recognized from around town. Others she’d never seen before. Several, she knew, were not clued in. Or at least hadn’t been until very recently. Meaghan recognized the woman who had spoken as someone she’d seen in the Brew, but she didn’t know her name.

To the woman, Meaghan said, “My brother got all gay, too, but he got over it.”

Annie snorted back a giggle. “I’ll say.”

The new arrivals were armed with baseball bats, golf clubs, and garden rakes.

“Any guns?” Meaghan asked.

“No,” Brian said. “Fortunately, I hooked up with them before they ran into Jhoro. Got rid of the guns as fast as I could. I remember how I felt when the spell had me. I use a gun professionally, and I could barely control myself. No way am I letting untrained, magic-addled civilians have them.”

“Good. So, how’s the angry husband club doing now?’

“And wives,” said a male voice behind, followed my more soft laughter.

“All we want to do now,” Nate said, “is get our wives—
spouses
, sorry—back before they do something crazy.”

“Like burn a witch?” Natalie asked, her voice an octave higher than normal.

“Yes,” Emily said. “And they won’t stop with Marnie. There are hexed witches in that mob, and they’ll be next. I’ve worked with the Order, remember? They won’t be satisfied until every witch in Eldrich is dead.”

CHAPTER FORTY

N
o
one spoke
for a long moment.

Smaller problems
, Meaghan thought. But even the smaller problems suddenly felt huge. With a sick feeling in her gut, Meaghan asked, “What’s the mob planning for Jhoro?”

Emily answered. “They didn’t take him so much as he led them away from us. The mob is made up of those who got hit with the attraction part of the spell. Right now they all love him, but that could change.”

With a quick glance at Natalie, Meaghan said, “This spell is unstable, isn’t it?”

Emily frowned. “I think it’s more than that. It seems like several spells interacting. My husband and I—” She stared at her feet, obviously flustered.

Meaghan smiled. She couldn’t help herself. “Yes, I ran into you in city hall yesterday, remember?”

Nate leaned toward Emily and nudged her with his elbow, a knowing smile on his face. “You and the mister, huh? I notice he’s not here. You wear him out?”

Emily spluttered a bit and then said with a giggle, “Well, yes. I think I did. He’s home asleep.”

Meaghan was struck by how different Emily looked, with her face softened into a genuine smile. Seeing it made Meaghan realize how tight and rigid Emily normally appeared, how
scared
she always looked. Meaghan had always read fear in Emily, but now realized that what she’d perceived as insecurity mixed with arrogance was more accurately terror and gut-wrenching anxiety.

What an awful way to live,
Meaghan thought.
No wonder she’s so bitchy all the time.
She felt the last shreds of resentment melt away. This was an Emily she might actually be able to like rather than merely tolerate.

“Okay,” Meaghan said. “We’ve got multiple spells.” She carefully avoided looking at Natalie. “We’ve been thinking the same thing. Would that explain the varying reactions?”

“Maybe,” Emily said. “But Marnie’s spell appears to be the one that’s gone wild. If we can get that reversed, things should calm down a bit. Then we can unravel the rest of it.”

Meaghan thought a moment and decided to err on the side of trust again. Emily seemed to be dealing fair with her so she’d return the favor. “Do you know about Jamie? And what the Order is trying to summon?”

Emily frowned. “Jamie? What’s he got to do with this? I’d heard he was in the hospital in Williamsport.”

Meaghan shook her head. “Jamie’s in city hall. He’s why the wizards are here in the first place. They followed him here from Williamsport, but he wouldn’t let them get inside.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “He did all that damage?”

“Yeah. He’s been trying to keep the wizards out because they want to use him to open a mystical door to let in something very, very bad. We don’t know what exactly, but we do know it’s a huge threat to all of us. End-of-the-world kind of threat.”

Emily’s smile was gone, replaced by fear. “What . . .” She wiped at her cheek. “What are they doing to him? Are they hurting him again?”

Meaghan realized with a start that Emily was crying. “We don’t know. For a long time, he was fighting them. But I think they took him.”

“No,” said a voice from the shadows, “they didn’t, the assholes. They got into city hall, they woke up these fucking things on my chest again, but they didn’t get me.”

Jamie walked into the dim light of the street lamp. He wore grubby blue hospital scrubs, his feet bare. The sigils stood out clearly on the faded blue cloth and when he came to stand in front of Meaghan, she saw they were scorch marks as if the scars had burnt the cloth. A manic grin stretched across his sweaty, flushed face. His blue eyes were preternaturally bright, the circles underneath even deeper and darker than they’d been the last time Meaghan had seen him.

“Wow,” Jamie said. “I can see right through your hiding spells. It’s like magical X-ray vision.”

“Let me see your eyes,” Meaghan said, pulling him close. She grabbed his chin and tilted his head in the dim light. “Your pupils are enormous. You look like a sad-eyed puppy in one of those tacky black velvet paintings.”

“It’s dark out,” he said. “Everybody’s got big pupils.”

“Not that big,” Meaghan said. She threw her arms around him and hugged him fiercely. “You’re high as a kite, you little shit. I’m so glad to see you. I thought they got you.”

“They tried. They got in the building. Had me cornered in Emily’s office.”

“My office?” Emily squeaked.

Jamie stepped back, glanced at Emily, and then glared at Meaghan. “What’s
she
doing here?”

“She’s helping us,” Meaghan said. “She went after Jhoro, and when she caught up with him, he did his woo-woo shaman thing on her, and she’s very sorry, and now she’s on our side.”

“He did his what?” Jamie scowled.

“We don’t know what he’s doing, but it turns out he’s got some big psychic mojo of his own.”

Jamie snorted. “Of course he does. Anything I do, he’s gotta do better. He was like that when we were kids. He hasn’t changed a bit.” He flipped invisible blonde hair out of his face and gave Meaghan a huge cheesy smile. “Ooh, look at me. I’m Jhoro. I’m too sexy for this world. Everybody wants me.”

“Nice,” Meaghan said. “The world is ending and we gotta deal with this? Stow the sibling—
cousin
—rivalry. How did you get out of city hall?”

“Oh, that.” Jamie scratched his arms absentmindedly. He could barely stand still. “That was kinda cool. I sort of
floated
out the window and down to the lawn. I couldn’t bring down the building like I thought, but I can fly . . . well, not fly really, more like fall slowly. It’s sort of like flying, but only in one direction.”

Natalie shoved Brian aside. She seemed angry. “How the hell did you do that? You’ve never been able to do that. I can’t even do that.”

Jamie smiled at her. “Nat!”

She shoved him away when he tried to hug her. “Don’t you Nat me, you tweaker. How much of that lorazepam stuff have you taken?”

He sighed. “Don’t be pissy. I’m fine.”

“How much?”

Jamie rolled his eyes and started walking in a tiny circle in front of her. “I tried cutting back, but when I heard the wizards coming I knew that was a mistake, so I jammed a nice full needle into my vein before they broke the door down.” He stopped circling and tried to stand still, but within moments, he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “I can handle it.”

Natalie snorted. “The hell you can. Eliot said too much of that shit would kill you. Give you a heart attack.” She punched him hard on the arm. “If you die, I’m gonna be so pissed at you. I’ll hold daily séances so I can tell you what an asshole you are.”

He grinned at her, rubbing his arm where she’d hit him. “I love you too. You can drag me to rehab when this shit is over, but now we’ve got wizards to fight.” He looked over at Meaghan, still grinning. “Where’s this Eliot guy anyway? I’d like to meet him.”

Brian stepped to Natalie’s side. “Injured. In the hospital in Williamsport.”

Jamie squinted in the dim light. “Brian? What are you doing here?” He stared at him a moment. “Wait. You were at my house. When I . . .” He shut his eyes, the manic energy draining from his face. “When I . . . did what I did. Oh, God. I’m . . . it’s . . .” He looked back at Natalie. “I lied. I’m not fine at all. If I live through this, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to her. And to you. To all of you.”

Natalie grabbed him into a fierce hug. “Shut up. Nobody’s dying tonight. Except those damn wizards.”

Jamie let himself be hugged for only a moment before pulling away. He looked at Meaghan. “What are you doing here? Is my father here?”

Meaghan shook her head. “We locked him and Russ away somewhere safe.”

Jamie giggled. “I’m guessing John didn’t agree to that.”

“No. He’s pretty angry with me right now.”

Jamie gave her a small smile. “He’ll get over it. He really likes you.” He took a deep breath. “So, what’s going on out here?”

Sid finally stepped up. “Did the leprechaun sell us out?”

“Sid!” Jamie gave him a beaming smile, then looked puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t see a leprechaun in city hall? He was supposed to find you and help you.”

“There was nobody there but me and the wizards.”

“I knew it,” Sid said, his voice grim. “I knew we couldn’t trust him.”

Meaghan glared at him. “You know nothing. You don’t even have circumstantial evidence. For all we know, the stairs collapsed under him and he’s lying dead at the bottom of the tunnel. Give it a rest.”

“But—”

Meaghan silenced him with a furious look. “Enough.” She turned back to Jamie. “Did you see Marnie? Was she with the wizards?”

Jamie shook his head. “No. Not that I noticed, but it was crazy in there. But I did see the bonfire the mob was building. Whether that was for me or Marnie, I don’t know.”

“What about the wizards who took you in June? Or that thing that was inside your uncle? Are they involved in this?”

Again Jamie shook his head. “I didn’t see them, but I heard somebody calling for . . .” He shivered and for a moment looked small and lost. “Cooper. The one in charge. The one you confronted at the gateway. And if he was there, then the other two—” He squeezed his eyes shut, but not before a tear slipped down his cheek. “That big one, the one who . . . cut me . . . he . . .”

Natalie drew in a sharp breath through her gritted teeth.

“He’s dead,” Meaghan told Jamie. “We watched him die.”

Jamie sagged with relief. “He’s dead? Really? He’s dead? Oh, thank God.”

Meaghan put a supportive arm around him and he clung to her. She could feel his body shaking. She gave him a moment to calm down, then asked. “That . . . thing in your uncle. The Power. Is it involved?”

Jamie nodded but seemed calmer. Of the two, Meaghan would have expected him to be more afraid of the Power. “It’s . . . I could feel something, but I don’t know if it was that or the other . . .
things
that are trying to get through. I think they’re related somehow.”

“The things the wizards are trying to let in?” Meaghan asked.

Jamie nodded.

“But Cooper can’t let them in without you, right?” Natalie looked back and forth between Meaghan and Jamie for confirmation.

“Wrong,” Annie gasped from the periphery as she slumped onto her knees in the grass, holding her head. “They’ve got a replacement.”