Chapter 7 Bad Vibes Only
BAD VIBES ONLY
The Lincoln sisters’ main clinic was located on Maple Street and was sandwiched between a fae-owned florist and a bakery that catered to supernatural dietary requirements.
According to Didi, it would normally have been bustling with patients at this hour—werewolves with moon-cycle migraines, vampires needing blood pressure regulation, the occasional pixie who’d gotten into a tussle with a garden gnome.
Instead, the clinic sat dark and silent behind its cheerful blue awning.
“The place looks like it’s been closed for years,” Gavin said nervously as we approached.
I frowned. He wasn’t wrong. The clinic looked abandoned.
We parked across the street, got out of the car, and studied the large front windows.
It was completely empty. I could make out supplies still sitting on shelves.
A coffee cup sat on a counter and appointment books lay open, as if a receptionist had simply walked out mid-sentence and never come back.
My wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin.
“Maybe the staff went on vacation too?” Gavin offered weakly. Smoke curled from his nostrils in anxious puffs.
“All of them? At the same time? Without arranging coverage or referring patients to another clinic?” Didi shook her head.
“The Lincoln sisters were professionals. They wouldn’t abandon their patients like this.
And neither would their staff. You don’t just shut down a forty-year-old practice because the owners take a few weeks off. ”
Bo pressed against my leg, his tail tucked low. “That place smells funny.”
He was right. Even from outside, something felt off. The air around the building had a strange quality to it. My wolf couldn’t quite pin down what was wrong, but every instinct we had was screaming that something was amiss.
“Let’s ask around,” I suggested. “Somebody must have noticed a whole clinic shutting down overnight.”
We split up. Didi headed for the florist next door to the clinic while Gavin approached a dwarf who was examining the bakery’s window display with intense concentration. Bo and I made for a fae shopkeeper who was arranging crystals in the window of a store farther along the street.
The woman looked up as we approached, her pointed ears twitching slightly. “Can I help you?”
“Hi. I was wondering if you knew anything about the clinic across the street?” I gestured toward the darkened building. “The Lincoln sisters’ place. It seems to be closed and I had an appointment.”
The shopkeeper’s expression flickered. Something like confusion crossed her face. It was gone in the next instant, smoothed over like it had never existed.
The hairs rose on my nape.
“The clinic?” She tilted her head. “Oh, yes. I believe they’ve closed temporarily while the sisters are on vacation.
Somewhere warm, I think.” Her eyes slid away from mine.
“Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it? Very mild for this time of year.
Are you interested in crystals? We have a new shipment of amethyst that’s supposed to be excellent for—”
“What about the staff?” I pressed. “The other healers? The receptionist? Do you know where they’ve gone?”
The shopkeeper blinked. Her gaze drifted past me, unfocused. “The staff—I’m sorry, what were we talking about? The amethyst really is quite special. It comes from a mine in—”
My wolf growled a warning in my head.
“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I’ll think about those crystals.”
I carefully retreated to where Bo was waiting.
“That lady was acting weird,” he huffed worriedly. “Her eyes glazed over when you were talking to her.”
“I noticed.”
Didi and Gavin joined us a moment later, both wearing matching expressions of frustration.
“The florist couldn’t remember anything about the clinic closing,” Didi reported grimly.
“She said it’s been shut for weeks but couldn’t tell me why or what happened to the staff.
Started talking about her begonias mid-sentence.
And when I pushed, she got confused and asked if I wanted to buy a bouquet. ”
“The dwarf was the same,” Gavin added, smoke billowing from his nostrils.
“He recalled the sisters leaving on vacation but had no idea what happened to everyone else who worked there. When I asked directly, he just lost the thread.” He scratched his cheek.
“Started telling me about sourdough starters.”
My stomach sank. “The fae shopkeeper was acting like that too.”
Bo hung his head. “It’s almost as if they’re under some kind of spell.”
We stared at him.
Bo straightened and cocked his ears. “What?”
Didi had gone pale. “I think he might be on to something.” She met our puzzled gazes, her expression deeply troubled. “I think these people have forgotten what’s happened at the clinic. Or rather, made to forget.”
I shifted uneasily. “Wait. There’s actually a spell like that?!”
“Yes. A Forgetting spell.” She glanced uneasily up and down the street. “I bet this whole block has been hit with it.” She stared at the darkened clinic. “A strong one. The kind that takes serious power to cast and maintain.”
Gavin’s horns popped out. Bo tried to hide between my legs.
“That doesn’t explain what happened to the Lincoln sisters,” I said carefully.
“No,” Didi concurred. “But it’s a starting point.”
I chewed my lip. We appeared to be dealing with a case of hocus-pocus and probably a whole load of bogus.
“Can you break the spell?”
Didi shook her head. “Not without knowing who cast it and what anchors they used.” Her jaw tightened. “This isn’t some amateur hour memory charm. It’s professional-grade magic.”
I turned back to the clinic. The building sat there, revealing nothing.
“I want to get closer.”
“Abby—” Didi started, conflicted.
But I was already moving, drawn forward by something I couldn’t quite explain. My wolf was alert now, ears pricked and attention fixed on the darkened windows. Her power hummed through my veins, ready to be deployed at the first sign of danger.
Bo followed in my steps, Didi and Gavin trailing reluctantly behind the Husky.
The feeling hit me three steps from the door.
Coldness. Not winter-cold, but something deeper. Something that crawled into my bones and wrapped icy fingers around my spine.
I stumbled to a halt, my breath catching.
My wolf growled and pressed herself into the back of my mind like she wanted to step out from under my skin.
Bo whimpered. His entire body had gone rigid, fur standing on end and tail clamped firmly between his legs.
Didi froze when she reached us.
“Do you feel that?” I asked in a strained voice.
“Yeah.” Didi’s voice came out hoarse. “I feel it.”
I had never heard the witch sound frightened before. I swallowed and focused on the building.
It was like standing at the edge of a gaping wound. The air around the clinic felt wrong. Corrupted, somehow. Like something terrible had happened here and the place itself was still bleeding from it.
Gavin had gone a concerning shade of green. His horns and tail were out and smoke was pouring from his nostrils in thick streams. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Didi grabbed our arms and pulled us back from the clinic’s entrance.
“We need to leave. Now!”
I didn’t argue.
We retreated to the car in silence, the wrongness of the clinic following us like a shadow.
It wasn’t until we were three blocks away that the feeling began to subside.
Even then, I could still sense it lurking at the edges of my awareness.
A dark spot on the map of Amberford that my wolf wanted to claw at.
Didi stared out the windshield, her expression distant and troubled.
“That wasn’t just a Forgetting spell,” she said finally, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror where I sat in the back, Bo curled up tightly by my side.
“Whatever that was, it was a remnant of ancient magic. A Forgetting spell hides things. It makes people not notice, not remember, not ask questions. But it doesn’t explain why the clinic felt like that.
Like something wounded, or worse, hexed. ”
My stomach churned at the word. I finally voiced the question that had been on my mind most of the morning.
“Could Melody Flowers have done this?”
“Melody?” Didi frowned and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “She’s powerful, but not that powerful. This would require someone with real juice. Someone who can tap into old magic.” Her frown deepened. “The kind that doesn’t get taught in standard witch training anymore.”
My wolf growled. She evidently hated the sound of that just as much as I did.
We checked out the other clinics owned by the Lincoln sisters and found them all similarly abandoned, the neighborhood business owners affected by the same Forgetting spell. To our relief, none of the buildings projected the ominous magic we’d detected on Maple Street.
We were almost back at Hawthorne & Associates when Didi appeared to come to a decision.
“I’m leaving early for the day,” she said curtly. “I need to do some research into old books.” The witch pinned us with a hard stare. “Meet me tomorrow morning at the office. Early. And bring coffee.”