Chapter 11
Someone knocked on Kizzy’s door.
She tap-tap-tapped her way across the floor to answer it.
Hopefully, it was Noah. The PI wasn’t back yet.
She opened the door, realizing there was no way to know unless they spoke.
Why did her father think this was a good idea?
Oh yeah…because she was a witch and could break the spell—or someone’s neck—in an emergency.
“Kizzy…” Noah’s voice was full of kindness and concern, and all he had said was her name.
“Hi, Noah. Come in.”
As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he engulfed her in a warm hug. She returned it, gratefully. Here was this wonderful man, just offering his friendship…and he was there for her. She did wish she could see his handsome face, but she remembered it quite well.
“Close the door, please. I need to lock the dead bolt.”
“I’ll get it.”
She heard the door shut and the lock snick in place.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Kizzy sighed. “Please don’t treat me like I’m made of glass. I’m okay. It’s good for me to get used to finding my way around without someone waiting on me hand and foot. Speaking of which, why don’t we go to the kitchen? Can I offer you something to drink? Maybe iced tea or a beer or something?”
“Sure. Iced tea would be fine.”
She tapped her way to the kitchen, with Noah’s soft footsteps following.
“Have a seat,” she said when they got there. She heard a chair slide across the floor, and she was pretty sure it was the one on the left of the small round table.
She wanted to impress him with how well she could function with her other senses alone. She retrieved two glasses from the cupboard and placed them on the counter next to the fridge. Then, holding each glass in turn, she poured two glasses of sun tea that she had made that morning.
She found her way around the center island without her cane and placed a glass in front of him. The other one she set at her spot across from him.
As soon as she sat down, she took a sip and spat it out. “Gaaaah! That wasn’t iced tea. That was iced coffee, without cream or sugar. Definitely not the way I take my coffee.”
Noah started to laugh, then stopped suddenly. “I didn’t know if it was some kind of dark tea or if you changed your mind… I would have warned you.”
Kizzy laughed at herself. What else could she do? “So, do you like iced coffee? And if so, how do you take it?”
“I see there’s some sugar on the table, and I can get my own cream, if you’ll allow me in your refrigerator.”
“Sure. I try to keep it fairly tidy so I can find things, but someone must have reversed the order of the pitchers.” She sighed. “So much for that.”
Noah’s chair scraped across the floor again.
A couple moments later, she had her iced coffee with cream and sugar, and he even added a kiss on the top of her head.
That made her smile inside, but she didn’t dare encourage him.
Not yet. When this nonsense was over, she’d tell her father where to go and hope Noah was still interested in her as a woman, not just a friend.
When he was reseated, he asked the inevitable question. “So, how do you think this happened?”
“I assume you mean the blindness, not the coffee mix-up.”
“Definitely. I’m pretty sure the second problem was caused by the first.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” There. An answer that’s short and true.
“I did a little reading on the internet…”
Kizzy groaned.
“I know, I know. Not the best source for good information, but I didn’t want to ask any doctors just in case they—” Suddenly, a loud crash stopped their conversation.
“Stay here, Kizzy!” Noah’s chair scraped back so hard, it tipped over.
“What the…” If something was very wrong, she’d rather not be blind.
Breaking the spell meant they’d have to go through the whole ritual again, but screw it.
She held her hands over her eyes and whispered, “Goddess, break the spell and restore my sight.” She took her hands away from her eyes and blinked when her vision returned, accompanied by stabbing bright light.
After a few blinks, her eyes adjusted. Ah…
It felt so good to see again. Her vision seemed okay despite the spell.
She had missed colors most of all…and knowing where furniture was placed, of course.
“Where’s your fire extinguisher?” Noah called out.
“I don’t think we have one. What’s going on?” She rushed to the living room. Flames leapt from the curtains and sofa, which was covered in shattered glass. It looked as if someone had lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the window.
“Stay back.” Noah grabbed an afghan from the back of a chair and beat the flames. Clearly, that wasn’t going to do enough. Whatever had been thrown through the window contained a great deal of gasoline, if Kizzy’s nose wasn’t mistaken.
She had to get to the book. Maybe whoever wanted it started the fire, but she couldn’t let it burn.
She ran toward the study, but Noah grabbed her. “Kizzy, no! The other way!”
She fought him off. “I have to get something important.”
“Nothing is worth your— Ow!”
She hit the back of his calves with the cane. When he let go, she ran to the study and, thank goodness, got there before the fire did. She yanked a book, which acted as a lever to open the hidden cabinet behind.
Grasping the precious spell book to her bosom, she rushed back the way she came but stopped before entering the living room. “Come on, Noah. Let’s get out of here through the kitchen. I have my phone, and we can call the fire department from outside.”
“Yeah. I thought I could get it under control, but it’s too late for that.”
He looked at her strangely when she glanced up at him, but he didn’t say anything until they were safely out of the house.
It was more important to get the fire department there immediately than to hold up the pretense of blindness. She tucked the book under one arm and dialed 911 to report the fire.
As soon as she hung up, she noticed Noah staring at the book. Then he looked up and stared at her eyes. “You can see…”
“I—I must have recovered.”
He looked at her skeptically, then pointed to the book. “Where did you get that? I have one just like it.”
She gasped. “You have the other one?”
“There are two of them?”
“Three, actually. And we can’t let them fall into anyone else’s hands.”
Two men came around the back corner of the house, both pointing guns at them.
Oh no! The entity found us.
“Give the book to me,” the older one said.
Kizzy clasped it to her chest hard and backed up. “No.”
Noah stepped in front of her. “Leave. Now.”
The younger blond man looked at his partner and smirked. “Oh, he asked us to leave. I guess we should just go then.”
The older man raked the salt-and-pepper hair out of his ice-blue eyes and chuckled. “We’re not going anywhere without that book. Hand it over.”
Kizzy glanced between Noah and the two advancing men. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. “Noah, step aside.”
“Yeah. Get out of the way, boy,” the older man said.
“I’m not leaving.” Sirens interrupted the tense conversation. “The cops and fire department will be here any second.”
“Then there’s no time to waste.” The younger one raised his pistol and aimed it right at Noah’s head.
“No!” Kizzy swept the air and pushed Noah aside without touching him.
Then she punched the air in front of her, and the two stunned criminals flew backward, landing on their butts.
Their weapons flew out of their hands and landed a few feet away.
They staggered to their feet, and as soon as they regained their equilibrium, the older man scrambled for his gun.
Kizzy tossed the book to Noah, then held out her hands, and the guns jumped into them. Now she was armed, and her assailants were on the defensive.
“Let’s get out of here,” the younger of the two men cried.
“Not until we have that book!”
As the first fire truck pulled up out front, so did the cops.
Kizzy drew a circle in the air, enclosing Noah and the book in a translucent bubble.
“Shit. We can’t afford to get arrested. Run!” The two perpetrators rushed through the hedges toward the next street.
Kizzy drew the circle the opposite way, and the bubble dissipated.
Noah put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
What could she say? She was definitely not okay. She had just used her powers in front of three people. All humans. She had broken one of the strictest rules of the paranormal world.
In his best Ricky Ricardo accent, Noah said, “Lucy, you got some ’splainin’ to do, but it can wait. Let’s meet the firefighters and tell them what we know.”
Her startled gaze snapped to his face.
“About where the fire started and how. I have the feeling there’s a lot more to know than what you’ve told me, but I’ll let you take the lead on that.”
“Please don’t say anything about me and what I can do.”
“Don’t worry, babe. I have secrets too. At some point, we’ll share them. I trust you.”
She smiled. “I trust you too.”
* * *
Kizzy was on the phone with her father. Or she would be if he hadn’t placed her on hold.
The fire department was just finishing up, and they’d managed to save most of the home.
The police had taken statements from both Noah and Kizzy.
Nick Wolfensen had been delayed at home, and when he finally arrived, he said he felt terrible about leaving her alone for so long.
That’s when Noah spoke up. “She wasn’t alone. I was here.”
Kizzy slipped her arm around his waist. “I don’t know what I would have done without Noah. He really did save me—and more of the house than I could or would have by myself.”
Kizzy’s father came on the line. “What happened?”
“The house caught fire. Somebody threw something like a Molotov cocktail through the window.”
“My God! Are you all right?”
“Yes. Umm…my vision even came back.”
Dr. Samuels said, “Put Nick Wolfensen on the phone.”