Finding Midnight (19 page)

She hated giving up yet again, but aside
from breaking into the house or camping out on the porch until the
resident emerged or came home, she wasn’t sure what else she could
do. Getting animal services or the police involved would only add
paperwork and more waiting to what she was already doing. She
couldn’t tell authorities the cat spoke to her hellhound. All she
could tell them was she had seen the terrified cat twice in the
window.

She felt defeated. Adding this failure to
the unresolved situation with Jackson and Hunter had Summer feeling
crappy about life. She sighed with disappointment, shoved her hands
in her pockets, and headed back to the garden bench. She pulled her
legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees. Sully planted a
seat near her on the ground and rested his head on the bench. She
felt his eyes upon her and every once in a while he would nudge her
with his cold, damp nose, just to remind her he was there.

*****

The sun started to set, turning the sky from
a clear light blue to a darker azure painted with long finger-like
wisps of orange, yellow, and red clouds. With the sun’s departure
went its warmth, however, the long hours of summer heat were stored
by the hardscapes and buildings to radiate warmth for hours to
come. An hour or two passed, and that heat too dissipated and
surrendered to the coolness of the air and the shadows of the
night. Still Summer sat on the bench trying to comfort herself with
arms holding tightly to her legs. Her butt hurt from the hardness
of the bench. Her hands hurt from the beating they endured on the
neighbor’s door and her heart ached thinking about the ever
retreating Jackson and the sadness she felt towards Hunter giving
up on human kindness.

She was about to call it a day when a voice
came from behind and a fragile hand met Summer’s shoulder.

“You’re troubled,” Ms. Midnight said.

“Yes.”

“Boy trouble?”

She wanted to smile, but she just couldn’t.
“That and then some,” Summer answered, releasing her legs and
adjusting her position on the bench as Ms. Midnight made her way
around it and sat.

“Aw, yes. I do recall once sitting on this
very bench trying to understand the mysteries of the male species,”
Ms. Midnight said with a sigh.

“Did you ever figure them out?”

Ms. Midnight laughed. “No, dear. That’s one
of the mysteries of life all women share and commiserate over. When
all is said and done though, I think the mystery and confusion we
feel about how men think is part of what intrigues us and draws us
to them. Trust me. They feel the same confusion about women as we
do about them—maybe even more so.”

Summer pondered this concept and she thought
Ms. Midnight might have a valid point.

“Oh. I was going to show you,” Summer said,
pulling her phone from her back pocket and bringing up the photo
app. “My friend Tori and I have been collecting information on
found cats in the neighborhood. I took pictures of two I looked at,
and Tori forwarded me one she saw. I wanted to see if any of them
were your Morti.”

Since the last picture she took was of the
cat in the window, it was the first to show up in the queue of
pictures. She quickly swiped at the screen to the next picture,
when Ms. Midnight suddenly said, “Wait. Go back to that first
picture?”

“Well, sure, but it’s not the cat I looked
at,” Summer said, swiping at the screen again.

“That’s him,” Ms. Midnight said with
excitement. “You found him. Oh glory be! The BROOM won’t have my
head after all. But wait, he looks…scared. Where is he? Do you have
him?”

“No. I…well, he’s actually next door.”

“Next door? What do you mean?”

Summer pointed towards the cottage and the
house beyond. “I mean, right over there.”

“But no one lives over there. There hasn’t
been anyone there for years.”

“I know. Dr. Stuart knows the owner and
called her when I saw the cat the first time a couple of weeks
ago.”

“You saw him a couple of weeks ago? Why
haven’t you gotten him yet?”

“I can’t seem to catch up with the tenant
that lives in the house now. I’ve left messages and notes, but no
one returns them or has contacted me,” Summer explained.

“Well, if no one will contact you let’s take
matters into our own hands,” Ms. Midnight said, punching her tiny
fist into her other hand.

“Ms. Midnight,” Summer said, astonished, “we
can’t just go in to someone’s house.”

“Oh, you’d be amazed what an old bat can get
away with,” Ms. Midnight said, practically leaping off the bench
and shuffling towards the creepy old house next door.

Summer had to run to catch up to her.
Obviously when this woman was determined nothing would stand in her
way. When she caught up with her, Ms. Midnight mumbled something to
the gist of,
nobody catnaps a Midnight and gets away with it
and
I’m the only one who gets to make that crabby old cat
miserable
—
damn it!”

“How do you suppose we are going to get into
the house?” Summer asked the determined Ms. Midnight.

“Leave that to me, my dear. I still have a
trick or two up my sleeves.” Ms. Midnight climbed the first two
porch steps with no problem but the last had a loose board that
teetered her backwards, out of balance a smidgen, but Summer caught
her by the elbow and forearm, steadying her as if she had done it a
thousand times before.

In front of the worn and weathered door, Ms.
Midnight looked at Summer and said, “Let’s give them one last
chance to come clean before we jump into breaking and entering,
shall we?” Summer nodded as Ms. Midnight made a fist and knocked on
the door, raining flakes of peeled paint to the threshold.

Same as before, nothing. No sounds from
within at all.

“Well, at least we tried, right?” Ms.
Midnight said, rolling up her left then right sleeves to her boney
elbow. She held both arms out as if she were going to direct an
invisible orchestra. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a
moment in concentration and said, “Thy door that doth my entry
block, grant thine access, thy bolt unlock.”

A metallic thump was heard and the door
slowly opened.

“So the stories about you are true. You are
a witch,” Summer said in astonishment and admiration.

“I am,” Ms. Midnight said, stepping over the
threshold. Summer followed her. The room was dark and dusty and
what light that came in from the window was filtered through
tattered curtains. As far as Summer could tell, the room they
entered was a living or family room with a small fireplace set into
a wall.

Yellowed aging newspapers piled about two
inches high by the fireplace, but other than that nothing was in
this room but discarded nails on the walls outlined by lighter
versions of the wall paper in shapes of picture frames.

Ms. Midnight was on a mission and bulldozed
her way into the next room followed closely by Sully, while a more
cautious Summer followed. When Ms. Midnight turned a corner, Summer
lost sight of her for a moment. A noise behind Summer turned her
head as she entered the room, running smack into the back of Ms.
Midnight.

In front of her a cloud of green smoke
swirled. It oozed out to the sides making a solid form—most
noticeable, a pair of golden eyes. The orbs stared at the two women
in the dimness. The eyes first appeared at normal a level for a
person, but they were moving upward and growing larger with the
increasing green smoke.

It took up more and more room, filling what
looked like a kitchen and small dining area. Ms. Midnight took a
step back trying to avoid the green eerie smoke moving towards
them. With lightning fast speed, the eyes suddenly became part of a
large, scaly horned head. Hundreds of sharp yellow teeth showed on
the jawline of the head and a red light emanated from what Summer
could only assume was the throat of the beast. The red light grew
to orange, then yellow and then…FIRE! Flames came at the women from
a serpentine flame thrower.

In that instant, time slowed to a crawl.
Summer watched the flames morph into snake-like tongues, licking
and tasting the air and inching closer and closer. Ms. Midnight
spoke in the same speed as the fire came. It was deep and distorted
by the slowness. Her arms moved sluggishly in front of her and
appeared to Summer as if she were reaching out to the oncoming
fire. Summer heard herself scream a warning in the same deep, slow,
distorted manner.

A low, thunderous noise came from behind
Summer. Still in mid-scream she turned to see Sully running towards
her in slow motion. Her scream turned to panic.
What is he
doing?
Her scream was interrupted by her own words “NO!”

The flames reached Ms. Midnight. Her hands
came together in a loud clap as if an atomic bomb erupted. The
sound deafened everyone in the room and it dawned on Summer that
this came from Ms. Midnight. Energy radiated from her clasped hands
sending out a shockwave in all directions, including Summer’s.

Sully’s front paws landed on Summer’s chest,
knocking her out of the path of danger. The dragon was thrown
backward through the wall and out of sight, debris raining
everywhere, making it hard to see and breathe.

When Sully was sure Summer was out of
danger, he went to Ms. Midnight as she sat propped up by the wall.
A lick on the cheek opened her eyes and she started to assess the
area around her. Summer was quickly at her side making sure she was
not hurt. Aside from a conk on the head and being covered with a
thick layer of dust and debris, she seemed in good condition. She
helped the old woman to a standing position then a large black cat
sauntered in from a room to the left as if the commotion had
disturbed his nap.

*****

“Well, it’s about time you came to rescue
me,” he said in an indignant, disgusted manner. He daintily walked
through the debris to Ms. Midnight and sat beside her shaking one
paw after another of unwanted rubble. Sully lunged at him in
excitement and before Morti could move, Sully had given him a long
gooey lick from paw to the tip of one ear leaving his fur sticking
straight out.

“Gross. Control your beast. I’m not a
lollipop. I’m a—” Morti said in revulsion, but before he finished
Sully licked him once again from nose to ear and then grabbed him
by the tail and picked him up.

Morti’s arms and legs thrashed and flailed
frantically in every direction, claws fully extended and ready to
meet anything they could get close to, but they could not penetrate
a hellhound’s thick fur and skin. He hissed and spat at Sully as he
swung back and forth beneath his jowls, when finally Morti gave up
and just hung there, upside down, giving the evil eye to Summer and
Ms. Midnight, who were trying hard to hold back their laughter.

“There’s nothing funny going on here,” Morti
said, directing his comment to Ms. Midnight. He continued speaking
to Sully, “The tail is not a toy. It is not meant to be a leash or
a strap for carrying. Now put me down, this instant, you horrid
creature.” Morti’s words trailed off as Sully happily trotted out
the front door and back to the cottage with his newfound prize.

Summer’s eyes met Ms. Midnight’s and they
had a hearty laugh before they remembered there was a dragon to
deal with. The hole in the wall rained dust and debris for a long
while before settling. Intermittent ceiling chunks falling kicked
up the dust again. Carefully, Summer made her way through the
rubble helping and guiding Ms. Midnight as she did.

Chapter 16

They spied a crumpled form at the base of
one of the many trees that lined the front line of the forest. It
was not large. It was not green. It didn’t even have glowing golden
eyes, horns or scales. It was a human man—a very handsome man, with
dark hair, sky blue eyes and black blood oozing down his shirt.

“Hunter?” Summer said as she made her way to
him. “What…? I thought you—”

“Were a demon? I lied to you,” he said
wincing as he tried to straighten himself to meet her eyes.

“But why?” she asked.

“To disguise my true intentions,” he
admitted.

She peeled back the bloodied shirt and saw
the stitches had ruptured and there was very little healing.

“You told me you were a fast healer and that
this was completely healed.”

He tipped his head to one side and said,
“Another lie.”

“Was anything you told me true?” she asked
angrily as she sat in front of him to look at the new damage to his
old wound. She assessed his injuries and then suddenly asked, “Are
you going to hurt me?”

“No.”

“It didn’t look that way to me back there,”
she said sharply.

“I had to make it look good, didn’t I? After
all, I am a dragon,” he said then looked at Ms. Midnight and
continued, “Besides, I knew who I was up against.”

Ms. Midnight stood with crossed arms,
scowling at him and said, “It’s true. If he wanted to kill us, he
would have used something stronger than ‘the breath of a dragon.’
I’m not sure I could have prevented him from killing us if that was
truly what he wanted,” Ms. Midnight admitted.

“I’m confused. What was your intent
then?”

“I can guess, if you like?” Ms. Midnight
said when Hunter didn’t say anything right away.

“Be my guest,” he said wincing again. When
Summer gestured for him to give her his shirt so she could try and
control the bleeding, he shook his head and said under his breath,
“don’t bother.” She insisted and he finally gave in.

Ms. Midnight said, “Given that I have not
seen nor heard of any dragons in eons, I would guess you are the
last of your kind.”

He nodded. Summer held pressure on Hunter’s
wound as she looked from Ms. Midnight to Hunter.

“You came in search of the RAT in hopes he
would have some way of helping you,” Ms. Midnight continued. “It
doesn’t take a genius to assume the most powerful witch family
affiliated with the BROOM would be the guardians of such a vessel
as the RAT.”