8. On Enemy Ground
8
ON ENEMY GROUND
Seth could tell from Devynn’s expression that she wasn’t quite as enchanted by his plan to teleport into the empty studio on Jasper Wilcox’s property as he’d hoped she would be. Although she didn’t quite frown, her face went almost too blank, as if she was trying her best not to immediately throw cold water on the idea.
“Well, that’s an interesting plan — ”she began.
“I know it will work,” he said. Normally, he wouldn’t have interrupted her like that, but he’d noticed a man and woman crossing Leroux Street and coming toward them, and that meant he didn’t have much time to offer a counter-argument before they got within earshot. “I somehow doubt Jasper has any reason to go into the studio, and besides, it’s the middle of a work day. He won’t even be home.”
Devynn crossed her arms. The flicker of her gaze toward the approaching strangers told Seth that she’d also noted their progress, and she lowered her voice as she replied, “It’s almost lunch. He might be there.”
Scoffing at the comment would have been rude, especially since Seth had to admit that he knew nothing about Jasper’s schedule or daily habits. However, he had a feeling the Wilcox primus probably wasn’t the sort of person to return home for lunch every day when he had the option of going out to eat or possibly having something delivered to the office.
If he was even at the office at all. Was his position with Northern Lumber mainly as a figurehead, with other members of the family carrying out most of the day-to-day business, or was he the sort of person who wanted to be involved in every single detail so he’d know what was happening with all facets of the operation?
Again, Seth didn’t have an answer to that question…and he guessed Devynn didn’t, either. She possessed a good deal of information about her relatives, even those from previous generations, and yet this was the sort of minutiae that only the most dedicated clan historian would have kept track of.
The man and woman who’d been approaching passed them right then, so he held his tongue until they were far enough away that there was little chance of them overhearing anything he and Devynn might have to say.
“He could be at home,” Seth agreed, since he didn’t see the point in getting into an argument over such a fine point. “But my guess is that he probably isn’t. If it’ll make you feel better, though, we can have lunch and try later in the afternoon when there’s a much lower chance of him being at the house.”
She wavered, clearly thinking over the offer. “All right. Something light, though — breakfast wasn’t all that long ago.”
No, it wasn’t. But they wandered around downtown for a good fifteen minutes, looking for someplace that looked promising as a lunch venue, and they eventually selected a small café with only seven or eight tables, where Devynn was finally able to get the salad he knew she’d been craving for weeks, full of greens and perky cherry tomatoes and chunks of chicken and ham. It looked so good that Seth ordered one for himself.
Some tea to wash it down, and another of those innocuous conversations tailored for a public place like this, especially one so small and intimate. Crowded, too, with all the tables filled with people he guessed were locals, since they addressed the waiter by his first name, and he seemed to know a good deal about their families and their businesses.
He’d just come by and laid down the check when he turned to greet the two newcomers who’d just entered the café. Idly, Seth glanced over…and froze.
The two men were Jasper and Adam Wilcox.
Although he didn’t dare look Devynn in the face — probably because he knew either or both of them would wear some kind of betraying expression — he could also see the way she stiffened.
Then, very deliberately, she reached into her purse and extracted the gold compact she’d purchased at the five-and-dime the afternoon before and began to powder her nose as though she didn’t have a care in the world.
Jasper’s gaze slid toward her…paused for what felt like a thousand years…and then moved away, going back to the waiter as he returned the man’s greeting, and he and Adam went over to a table in a corner opposite from the spot where Seth and Devynn were sitting.
Willing his hand not to shake, he picked up the check and then removed a five-dollar bill from his wallet. As the waiter passed by, Seth handed both items over, thanked the man, and then stood.
Devynn took the cue and rose as well, not hurriedly, but the way anyone might when they were finished with their meal and ready to get on with the rest of their afternoon. She waited for him to come over and loop her arm in his, and together they walked out of the café.
Although she certainly appeared calm enough, her arm against his felt stiff as a rock, and she walked a little more quickly than she otherwise might have as they headed down Leroux Street toward the hotel. The whole way, Seth kept having to fight the urge to look over his shoulder and see whether Jasper Wilcox was following them, his long legs eating up the space between him and his prey.
But when they finally got to the entrance to the Weatherford and paused so he could push the door open, Seth saw that no one was behind them at all. No, Jasper was still back at the café, enjoying a late lunch.
Thank the Goddess.
They both remained silent as they rode up the elevator and walked down the hallway to their third-floor room, as though they feared that speaking would break the protective spell that had somehow shielded them from the Wilcox primus. Once they were inside, though, Devynn let out a little gasp.
“Oh, God, that was awful! ”
“It was,” Seth agreed. “Or at least, it could have been. But it sure seems to me that the amulet and your gift did their job.”
“I suppose they did,” she said, still looking pale…or maybe that was simply the fresh powder she’d applied back at the café. “I guess I never thought I’d have to put that magic to the test in such close proximity, though.”
Neither had he. True, he hadn’t known exactly for sure what was going to happen while they were in Flagstaff, but both he and Devynn had shared a tacit understanding that they weren’t going to spend any more time near the Wilcoxes than they absolutely had to.
But, frightening as that brush-by had been, at least now Seth knew they wouldn’t have to worry about what Jasper Wilcox might be doing for the next half-hour or so.
“We’re never going to get a better chance than this,” he said, and Devynn gave a reluctant nod, not even bothering to ask what he’d meant by the comment.
“You’re right. I guess we’ll just have to hope the housekeeper isn’t out there dusting Rebecca’s cello or something.”
Seth thought the odds of that happening were fairly low, so he only smiled.
“I’m willing to take that chance. Let’s get going.”
At once, Devynn stepped over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. As much as he would have liked to bend down and kiss her, he knew this wasn’t the time to get distracted. He called to mind the blueprints again, thinking of the studio, which was mostly one large space with a door to the bathroom at the back and a fireplace on the west wall, a comfort he supposed Jasper had added so his wife wouldn’t be cold when she was out there practicing on a bitter winter afternoon.
It was hard to imagine the primus being so solicitous when he must have known that any marriage to him was a guaranteed death sentence, but Seth would be the first to admit that he didn’t fully understand the Wilcoxes’ thought processes.
Well, except maybe those of the woman who had her arms wrapped around his waist.
Time to go.
Within a split second, they stood in the center of Rebecca’s music studio. In real life, it was much more impressive than the blueprint could have shown, the fireplace cold and dark but with a handsome oak mantel and handmade blush-colored tile surrounding the firebox, and substantial beams crossing the white plaster ceiling overhead.
For some reason, Seth had expected the place to be dark, the curtains closed tight to conceal whatever lay inside, but they were pushed away from the windows, letting in the cool afternoon sunlight and allowing him to see bare oaks to one side and a pretty stand of young pines to another, as well as the corner of a huge dark structure that he guessed must be the main house.
And it was painfully obvious that the studio was empty, the only living beings here Devynn and himself.
Her expression as she looked around wasn’t precisely disappointed, as though she’d known all along that they wouldn’t find Ruby here. One wall held a bank of low, lawyer-style bookcases with glass doors, while one corner had an upright wooden chair and a large instrument case leaning against the wall. Not too far away was a matching chair, as though intended for a listener to sit there and enjoy the music Rebecca Wilcox had made.
Did Jasper used to come here and listen to his wife practice?
Although it was clear no one else was in the studio, Devynn walked over to the bathroom door and opened it, then peered inside.
“Empty,” she said briefly.
Not that even Jasper was probably the sort of person to keep the McAllister prima -in-waiting trapped in the bathroom.
The blueprints hadn’t shown any kind of basement or cellar, but Seth looked around anyway, hoping against hope to see an outline of a trap door against the wide-plank oak floor, but the smooth surface was unmarred and shining, obviously mopped fairly recently.
No paintings on the walls, no photographs sitting on top of the bookshelves. Either Jasper had removed any personal items or they had never been here at all. Maybe Rebecca Wilcox had been the sort of musician who didn’t want any distractions around while she was practicing.
“Not a single clue,” Devynn said, sounding annoyed. “I don’t know where Jasper’s hiding Ruby, but it’s obviously not here. So I think we should go.”
Seth didn’t know whether her urgency was completely merited — after all, they’d only been here five minutes, and he had to guess that Jasper would be occupied for at least another half hour or so — but he also understood that lingering anywhere on the primus’s property probably wasn’t a good idea.
On the other hand….
As he’d told Devynn only a few minutes before, they’d probably never get another chance like this.
And he’d seen the blueprints for the remodel of the master bedroom and bath, although they hadn’t shown the rest of the house.
He went over to her and put his arms around her waist. “One quick detour,” he said, and her eyes began to widen in shock even as he blinked them into the main house.
The second they materialized, an angry flush touched her cheeks, and she said in a harsh whisper, “This isn’t smart, Seth!”
Maybe it wasn’t. But with Jasper at lunch and his son most likely at school for at least another hour, maybe longer, when would he and Devynn ever get another chance like this?
“We have to check,” he said in an urgent undertone. “Five minutes. Then we’ll go.”
She shook her head and looked as though she wanted to comment on his mental fitness. To his relief, though, she seemed to decide doing so would be a waste of time.
“I don’t think she’s here, either.”
They stood in the master suite, which appeared to be nearly the size of his entire bungalow, with a massive oak bed placed up against one wall and a wide fireplace opposite. Tall windows bordered by stained glass overlooked the backyard, and an autumnal bouquet — mums and marigolds and sprays of red and orange and gold leaves — sat on one of the side tables.
The place was as empty as the studio, although once again, Devynn went to check the bathroom, even as Seth headed over to look inside the closet. It, too was enormous, one side filled with men’s suits and shirts and blazers, the other empty, although the air still held a curiously sweet scent, a memory of the clothing Rebecca had once stored there somehow managing to linger, its own kind of ghost.
A shiver made its way down his spine, and Seth shut the door.
“Nothing,” he said. “Let’s see if we can hear anyone, and then we can go downstairs.”
Devynn appeared even less happy at that suggestion. He had to admit that the house seemed huge, and there was a very good chance they wouldn’t be able to pick up on any signs someone else was there, not if they were somewhere at the opposite end of the enormous structure.
But although Jasper had been utterly brazen about the way he’d taken Ruby right out of her hometown, Seth had to believe the man would still be holding her someplace where she wouldn’t be easily seen.
And that meant they needed to check out the basement.
They both paused at the door that opened onto the upstairs hall and listened intently. Somewhere on the second floor, a clock was ticking away, and possibly a roof timber creaked as a November wind sighed across the house, but otherwise, all was still.
So far, so good.
Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, they hurried down the massive staircase that led to the ground floor. It would have been nice if he could have just teleported into the basement, but it hadn’t been included in the blueprints, probably because no recent work had been done down there.
A quick glance around once they reached the foyer told them the downstairs seemed to be just as empty as the second floor. Seth assumed that Jasper must have at least a housekeeper and possibly a maid as well, considering how big the house was, but neither of them appeared to be in evidence at the moment.
Problem was, he guessed the basement must be accessed through the kitchen, since it had been like that in almost every home he’d ever visited, and he didn’t see why this one should be any different, despite its size.
And of course the kitchen was the one place where they ran the biggest risk of running into the household staff.
But they wouldn’t be Wilcoxes, and that meant he and Devynn could probably explain away their intrusion by saying they’d come here to solicit donations for a local church or something equally innocuous, and had gone inside because the door was unlocked. Fairly brazen behavior, he supposed, and yet he knew it wouldn’t be the first time something of a similar nature had happened.
Where in this huge, sprawling house would the kitchen even be located? He’d thought his prima’s house on Paradise Lane was large, but Jasper’s residence would have swallowed up two of Charles and Abigail’s home.
“Try the back,” Devynn suggested in an undertone, as if she was still worried someone might overhear them despite the apparent emptiness of the house. “That’s usually where they put the kitchen in places this size.”
Being a Wilcox, she probably had much more experience with near-mansions than he did. They headed down a hallway that passed a dining room on one side and a library on the other, and then a study and what appeared to be another music room, until Devynn put her hand on the doorknob in front of them and slowly swung the door outward.
Yes, that was definitely the kitchen, oversized just like the rest of the house, with what looked like miles of butcher-block countertops and a marble-topped work table standing in the center of the room. However, even though the space appeared to have been designed to accommodate a veritable army of chefs, it seemed to be empty at the moment.
“Perfect,” Devynn said in that same near-whisper, then pointed toward a door on the wall opposite, flanked by racks filled with canisters and other storage containers. “I’ll bet that goes down into the basement.”
Well, their luck had held so far, so he could only hope the goddess Brigid or whoever else was watching over them would continue to guide their way.
They hurried over to the door, which was unlocked.
Seth couldn’t help frowning. Surely if Jasper was keeping Ruby down here, he would have made sure the door to the basement was secured?
One would think so. Then again, if it normally wasn’t locked, doing so might have called more attention to the door than he would have liked. The Wilcox primus seemed like a man used to getting his own way, and Seth knew if he’d given the order for no one to go down there, then that order would have been obeyed without question.
He pulled at a dangling cord near the doorway, and a bare bulb overhead turned on. Apparently, Jasper wasn’t too concerned about the decor in the sections of the house never seen by those outside the household staff.
When Seth and Devynn reached the bottom of the steps, the light cast by that single bulb up near the door was just strong enough to show them what you might see in most basements — boxes stacked up against walls, a few old trunks pushed here and there, what looked like possibly unused paintings covered in canvas and leaning against the two of the walls.
No sign of any life, nothing to show Ruby had ever been anywhere near this place.
But….
“What the heck is that?” he asked, inclining his head toward a long table near the far wall. It had a large black tablecloth or length of fabric draped over it, and a few feet away, pushed up against the wall itself, was a table that looked like an altar, with multiple black iron candlesticks bristling with pale candles. Above it was a painting whose tones were so murky that it was difficult for him to make them out, but he thought it might be an image of the San Francisco Peaks, impressionistic in style, so he saw more shapes and colors than a true representation of the actual mountains.
In the dim lighting, Devynn’s face looked paler than normal.
“I think it’s where….” Her words drifted off, and she seemed to pause to gather herself before she could go on. “I think it’s where Jasper plans to bind Ruby to him. From what I’ve heard, Damon Wilcox used something similar when he tried to make Angela his consort, although the ritual wasn’t held in his house because it was new and didn’t have a basement.”
Seth couldn’t quite hold back a shudder. He supposed intellectually he’d known that Jasper was going to use some sort of ritual during the black moon to make sure Ruby would be made his forever, but it was one thing to consider such a ceremony in the abstract and quite another to see the evidence of those plans right in front of his eyes.
And there, over in one corner, stood a coat tree that should have looked innocuous enough…except now it was draped with several black hooded cloaks, exactly like —
“Are those what you saw in your dreams?” he asked, pointing, and Devynn nodded.
“I think so. It makes sense — I heard that Damon’s followers wore about the same kind of cloak during his ceremony with Angela.” Another pause, one during which she looked almost disgusted with herself. “I should have recognized the damn things.”
At once, Seth went over to her so he could take her hand in his. “It’s not your fault,” he told her. “You couldn’t have known where we were going to end up. For all you knew, Jasper Wilcox was ancient history.”
For a second or two, Devynn stood there in silence. Then her mouth pursed. “I suppose you’re right. And it seems pretty clear to me that Ruby was never here, so we haven’t accomplished very much.”
“I think we have,” he said immediately. “We can look elsewhere to see where she might be, and now we know for sure that this is where the ceremony will be held. Even if we can’t find her before then, at least we know she’ll be here in the early morning of November twelfth.”
“And then what?” Devynn said. “Storm in here and interrupt the ceremony and spirit Ruby away? Even with the amulet helping us, we don’t have the kind of powers that would even allow us to do that sort of thing.”
As much as Seth hated to admit it, she was right. Most McAllisters didn’t have offensive magic — fireballs, lightning bolts, and the like — and even though his ability to blink himself out of a dangerous situation could come in very useful, it still wouldn’t be enough for him to prevail against a warlock like Jasper Wilcox.
“True,” Seth replied. “So it’s something we need to think about. In the meantime, though, I think we should get out of here.”
Relief immediately shone in Devynn’s face. “Yes, please. This place gives me the creeps.”
Yes, it did, with its heavy, almost ominous atmosphere, as if some sense of what would happen here nine days from now already hung over the basement, oppressive and brooding.
And, to be purely practical, the longer they stayed here, the greater their chance of being discovered, so he was just fine with getting back to the hotel so they could decide what to do next.
“Hold on,” he told her, and immediately, the dark basement and that ominous altar disappeared, replaced by the utterly mundane surroundings of their hotel room.
Although they were safe now, Devynn still clung to him for a moment longer, as though needing some reassurance after what they’d seen in Jasper’s cellar. Seth was just fine with continuing to hold her, detecting some faint fragrance in her freshly curled hair that hadn’t been there before. Was it merely a change in shampoo, or had she used something to ensure the sleek curls she’d created earlier that day would hold up against the wind and weather?
Not that he thought it really mattered. What mattered was that they’d gone into the lion’s den and lived to tell the tale — and that they’d been sitting only a few feet away from Jasper Wilcox when he entered the café, and he hadn’t seemed to notice anything unusual about them.
It was an advantage they’d need to use to succeed in rescuing Ruby.
Now they just had to figure out how.