24. Twenty-Four
TWENTY-FOUR
L andon was spooned behind me when I woke, his breathing soft in my ear.
There was no snoring this morning, which told me he was awake and trying to keep me comfortable until the last possible moment before the alarm went off.
When I shifted in his arms, his eyes popped open, and he offered me a flirty smile.
“There’s my favorite wife,” he teased, giving me a kiss.
I arched an eyebrow. “What other wives are you basing this competition on?”
He ignored the question and snuggled close. “I’ve been thinking,” he volunteered. “Maybe I should get my workouts another way.”
Under different circumstances I would’ve laughed. I didn’t have the energy today.
“Bay?” He angled his head to look into my eyes. All traces of mirth fled immediately. “What did you dream about this time? It was just a dream, right? You didn’t take off in the middle of the night and fight the naiad without telling me.”
I could’ve scoffed at the suggestion. Unfortunately for both of us, I’d done just that a few times. He was still bitter about it, and I couldn’t blame him. “I did not sneak out. I promised not to do that again.”
Landon remained dubious. “You had a dream.” He brushed my hair from my face. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
I did just that.
“You didn’t fall back asleep?” I prodded, legitimately worried.
He chuckled.
“I was just thinking.” His fingers were gentle as they moved over my back. He was no longer flirting. He was offering comfort, and he was just as adept at that as offering romance.
I studied his face. Sometimes I could read his emotions. Today he was an enigma. “Please tell me what you’re thinking,” I pleaded. “I can’t decide how I feel about it until I know how you feel.”
He smiled. “That’s a little codependent.”
“Maybe, but it’s not just because you’re my husband. I value your input as an FBI agent.”
He bobbed his head. “I guess I’m thinking that killing her is wrong.”
“I don’t think I can kill her. But that’s not what I meant.”
Surprise had Landon’s eyebrows winging up.
“She said one of the men had magic. If he killed the naiad—and knew what he was doing—that makes him a potential enemy.”
Landon rubbed his cheek as he kept a firm grip on me. “Any ideas on who it is?”
“No, but I thought we could have Mom and the aunts look at the list of workers. They’re more familiar with certain names. They might be able to point us in the right direction.”
“Good idea. What about the naiad? I get that you don’t want to kill her—and I’m on your side—but…”
“She said there’s a door in the lake.”
Realization dawned on his face. “You’re going to get Scout to open the door and shove her through.”
“It is Scout’s specialty.”
“Way to use your contacts, baby,” he teased before kissing my forehead. It didn’t take long for him to turn serious. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried about this. We’ve faced worse problems, but this one has a lot of moving pieces if you include Millie.”
“Millie is her own problem.”
“Any ideas on how to deal with her?”
“Not off the top of my head.”
“Well, you’ll figure it out.” He squeezed me once, then rolled away. “We should get in the shower. We don’t want to be late for breakfast.”
I narrowed my eyes at his impressive backside, suspicious. “I thought you were on a diet.”
“Don’t say ‘diet.’ I don’t like that word.”
“I thought you were moderating your food intake.”
“I am. But it’s better to do it incrementally.”
“Really?” It took everything I had to keep from laughing. “How does that work?”
“Well, for starters, instead of going from ten slices of bacon a day to three, I should’ve been more mindful and stepped it down.” He used his hands to indicate stairs.
“Meaning?”
“Step one would’ve been to seven, then to five, and then to three. I shocked my system, and a shocked system can’t lose weight. It’s too out of whack. I need to do the right thing for my body.”
Love for him welled up, and I went warm all over. Before I realized it, I was blinking back tears.
“Hey.” He hurried over to the bed and caught my chin. “Why are you crying? If this is about the bacon, I can make the first step five slices.”
I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and laughed. “This is not about the bacon … although I do wish you’d start doing things in moderation, because I want you around for a very long time.”
“I promise I’ll do better.”
“Because you want your eight-pack back, not because you want more time with me.”
His eyes darkened. “I don’t like when you say things like that.”
“Sorry. I’m in a mood.”
“I can tell. What I don’t understand is why that mood involves crying.”
“It just hit me how much I love you. Sometimes that happens out of the blue. I try to hide it so you don’t think I’m schmaltzy.”
Landon looked exasperated. “Bay, sometimes things hit me out of the blue, too. Don’t hide it from me. I want to hear how awesome I am.”
That made me laugh, which was obviously his intention. “I’ll keep that in mind.” I swiped the tears off my cheeks. “I want to work with Steve.”
Confusion knit his eyebrows. “You are working with Steve.”
“I mean I want to work with him because I think it’s important, and not for the same reasons I wanted to work with him when he first broached the subject.”
Landon waited for me to explain.
“Before, I wanted to help. I thought it would be great to have access to the FBI database. It was nice to feel important. I felt special.” My expression was rueful. “My ego was stroked.”
“Bay, if you expect me to be irritated about that you’re bound for disappointment,” Landon countered. “I like my ego stroked too.”
“Yes, but you’re a man. That’s typical for your gender. Women aren’t supposed to like that.”
“Says who?”
“Everyone on the internet.”
“Screw the people on the internet.”
It wasn’t something I should care about, and in the grand scheme of things I didn’t. The reasons I’d made my decision were important, though. “I liked feeling special,” I reiterated. “That’s what got me into this. Now, after what happened last night, I realize I have a different purpose.”
“What’s that?” Landon’s forehead creased as he tried to puzzle it out.
“Someone has to teach them that, just like with humans, there are good and bad paranormals. We’re not all monsters.”
Landon pursed his lips. “Bay, I don’t think he sees you as a monster. If anything, he’s a little smitten with you.”
“I don’t mean it like that. In his world, witches are mostly human, so he looks at them differently.
You saw him last night. He got a rude awakening with Millie.
He saw the light and dark side of magic.
With the naiad, he didn’t understand what she was.
In his mind, the humans were automatically innocent. We need to work on him with that.”
Landon took several seconds to consider it. “I get it,” he said finally. “You want him to see the paranormal world the same way he does the human world. I’m not sure he can do that, Bay. It’s hard when you’re an outsider looking in.”
“You did it,” I pointed out.
“Because I fell in love with you and realized you were the most human person I’d ever met. You might find that insulting, but no one loves deeper than you. Nobody cares more. Nobody fights harder. I don’t want Steve to learn the same way I learned … with kisses and naughty rolls in the hay.”
I burst out laughing. “I think I’ll refrain.” I was serious as I met his gaze. “We need to figure out a way to make this work. Steve needs to see, because then he can hopefully teach others.”
Landon nodded. “That’s what I want.”
“Good.” I kissed his cheek. “There’s just one other thing and then we can go to the inn and you can have your seven slices of bacon.”
He looked relieved that I wasn’t going to give him a fight about his new “step” plan. “What’s that?”
“I’m not killing that naiad.” I was firm. “I can’t do it, and I’m not going to pretend I can.”
Landon smiled. “I’d never force you to kill.”
“Steve needs a crash course in thinking outside the box, because we need to get that naiad to where she wants to go today. She can’t hang around here, getting more bloodthirsty.”
“You believe we should be more concerned about the warlock.”
“He’s dangerous,” I replied. “I think those men became dangerous together. This is no longer a naiad-versus-human thing. The warlock changes the picture.”
“How?”
“Warlocks can influence the way people react, and I have a sneaking suspicion this warlock was already creating a mob mentality before the naiad was killed. That’s how things went off the rails so quickly.
“He’s high up on the construction team food chain.
He has a vested interest in this going well.
Maybe a bonus if the project is completed early. ”
Realization dawned on Landon’s face. “They wanted to foster a feeling of camaraderie, but they went too far.”
I nodded. “The men started feeding off one another because of their fear. Then they took it too far.”
“The warlock is to blame.”
I hesitated. “Not entirely. If those men weren’t predisposed to go a dark route they wouldn’t have done it. The warlock is to blame, but the men aren’t completely innocent.”
Landon nodded in understanding. “We need a list of names for your mother and aunts to work through because they might recognize our warlock.”
“It’s all we’ve got,” I said. “I also need to talk to Scout about the plane door, but I will do that away from Steve and Spencer. I don’t want them around Scout.”
“We can work that out.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the bathroom. “Now come on. We need a big breakfast.”
“This in no way has anything to do with you getting to your bacon?”
“I’m wounded, Bay. This is about the safety of our family and team.” He managed to keep a straight face.
“Good answer.” I smiled. “I’m not falling for it, but it was a good answer.”
“I figured you’d like it.”
“I do tend to fall for the schmaltz.”
“That’s one of the reasons I love you.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“If you want to play this game—the schmaltz game—we can do it on the way to the inn. We’ll multitask. Let’s not drag things out, Bay.”
I laughed. “Just as I thought. It is the bacon.”
“It’s shower time. Let’s get a move on.” With that, he hurried to the bathroom.
STEVE, CHIEF TERRY, SPENCER, AND AUNT Tillie were in the dining room at The Overlook. Steve looked much more together than he had the previous evening, which was good for what I had to do. First, however, I focused on Aunt Tillie.
“Where was Millie keeping you?” I asked.
Aunt Tillie made a face. “I told you; in a barn.”
“What barn?”
Aunt Tillie was unnaturally evasive. “A barn is a barn.”
She was so full of it. She’d mentioned the Finch farm. At least I thought she had. Things had happened so fast the previous evening. “Aunt Tillie?—”
“I’m handling Millie.” Aunt Tillie’s eyes flashed. “She’s my responsibility. I don’t need you stepping in.”
My smile was a flat grimace. “We have a lot going on today. You might have missed some of it because you were dealing with your doppelg?nger. You need to be part of it.”
“We should play our own zones,” Aunt Tillie countered. “I’ll handle Millie—I’m really looking forward to it—and you handle the rest.”
“What if I have a way to handle Millie and the naiad at the same time?” I challenged.
Confusion had Aunt Tillie leaning back in her chair. “What would that look like?”
I glanced at Steve, who was watching me, then back at Aunt Tillie. “There’s a plane door in the lake. The naiads were trying to open it when the attack came.”
“You’re going to have the door opened so you can shove the naiad through it,” Aunt Tillie realized.
I bobbed my head. “You created Millie. You might not have realized she would be able to mark the passage of time when you put her … um … wherever you put her. But she did, and she doesn’t want to go back in the box.”
“Is that what she told you?”
“Those were her exact words,” I said. “I don’t want to put her back in the box, and the naiad just wants peace on a plane with other members of her species.”
Aunt Tillie eyed me for a long time. “I had planned to kill Millie.”
She was a bold talker, but I didn’t believe it. “You were going to put her away again because you can’t bear the idea of killing her. Besides, she’s obviously sentient … whatever you did to create her.”
“We’re not talking about that.” Aunt Tillie was firm. “It’s none of your business.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I assured her. “It’s done. But we can give her a chance. She’s lost. So is the naiad. Maybe they can help each other once they’ve crossed.”
Aunt Tillie worked her jaw. “I guess I can be convinced to go that route. How do we get the naiad and Millie to the lake?”
“I thought we’d provide some bait.” I flashed a flat smile. “There’s one more thing we need to discuss.” Now I turned to face Steve. “I had a visitor last night.”
Steve looked confused. “I’m not sure what that means.”
“The naiad came to me in my dreams.”
“She can do that?” Steve was flabbergasted.
“Apparently, she tapped into my dream magic.”
Aunt Tillie bobbed her head. “Naiads can glamour, and dream magic is on the same wavelength.”
“Bay, I know you have sympathy for this creature,” Steve said, “but she killed three people.”
“Three people who tortured her and killed her sister.”
“Is that what this thing told you?”
“You keep referring to her as a thing,” I noted. “She has feelings … and a soul.”
Steve looked caught off guard by my fervency. “I didn’t think of it that way,” he said.
“You have to. That’s the only way this is going to work.” I was careful with the next part. Careful, but blunt. “Magic may create a line, but that doesn’t mean one side of the line is better than the other.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I apologize.”
“We both have adjustments to make. We have to start with the fact that the naiad isn’t the enemy.” This brought my last item this morning. “We have another problem. There’s a warlock working with the construction team. We need to find him, because he’s the reason all of this happened.”
Steve’s eyes bulged. “Now there’s a warlock on top of everything else?”
I sat in my chair and smiled as Landon handed me a glass of tomato juice. “Welcome to Hemlock Cove. Things are about to get crazy.”