Page 36 of Bewicched

“You’ll help the police but not your family. Interesting.”

“Mom, cut me some slack, will you? The detective came to me. It wasn’t like I volunteered. And the poor little boy was cut to ribbons. But since I told them where to find him—”

“They’re going to assume you or your friend had something to do with it.” She sighed. “Let me make a phone call. Don’t go to your Gran’s. Pull over and wait with the windows rolled down. When we’re ready for you, we’ll call.”

I rolled my eyes at Declan. Mom was so damn bossy. “Okay if we stop and get something to drink while we wait?” What was it about her that made me revert to teenaged petulance in response?

“If you don’t mind being responsible for a minimum-wage fast-food employee burning himself with hot oil or having the shake machine fall on him, by all means, bring your dark presence to people ill-equipped to recognize or deal with it. What a wonderful plan. Perhaps you should get some fries to go with that drink.”

“You made your point, Mom, and I was only joking.”

“Quite amusing, darling.”Click.

“Well,” Declan began, “at least I see where you get it.” He put on his blinker and pulled into a turnout beside the ocean.

“Hey, I’m nothing like my mom.” Stupid werewolf. What the hell did he know?

We sat in silence for a while and then he finally asked, “Why are we going to your grandmother’s home?”

“You heard. Something evil followed me out of the forest. We need them to cleanse us and the truck. I’m not inviting evil into my home.”

After a bit, he said, “Can you tell me about the other Quinn? I thought I was the last of the line.”

“I don’t really know much about her. Like I said, she owns a bookstore and bar in San Francisco and she’s married to a very angry vampire.” I stared out at the waves. “I had nightmares every night about her. Dark, violent things from her past. Weird stuff in her present. And then there were fae warriors and dragons and dwarfs stalking her in the future. It was all strangely disjointed. Some nightmares were her running from a pack of wolves. Some were her trapped in Faerie with axes flying at her. The fae queen and king seemed to be using her as a pawn in their eternal struggle.

“You have to understand,” I continued, “what I do? It’s a lot of piecing things together, finding patterns, drawing conclusions based on spotty information and incomplete patterns. I usually don’t know the full story.

“The killer we’re dealing with now, for instance. I don’t know who he is. I have impressions of his personality, what drives him, but I can’t tell you what he looks like or where he lives.”

“Frustrating,” he murmured.

“Bloody useless is what it is.” I pounded my first on my knee. “I can tell cops where to find a victim but not where to find the killer before he takes more victims.”

Declan turned to me, his expression somehow lighter. “Bloody?”

“I lived in England for almost two years while I sculpted the chess set and then waited for her to come claim it. Certain words and phrases have stuck with me.” I shrugged. “I like bloody.”

“Okay, but if you knew she was in San Francisco and you’re in Monterey… That’s what? A two, maybe three-hour drive up the coast. Why did you move to England and then wait for her there?”

I threw my hands up in frustration. “How the hell do I know? My visions pointed me there. That cursed fetish under my studio pushed me away. Could I have made the chess set here? Probably, but it would have been different. Something as basic as the stones I chose would have been different here than there. England is closer to the heart of Faerie and so I felt the connection between each piece and its corresponding fae person more strongly there.

“I could have sculpted a beautiful chess set here, but a magical one required I be there. I think. It’s not an exact science. Also, though, if I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been abducted—”

“You mentioned something about that before. What the hell? You were kidnapped?” Declan had taken off his seat belt and was turned in the truck cab, his back to the door.

“Oh, yeah, okay. This was such bullshit, but it’s like domino pieces. They all have to line up to work. I think my abduction had to happen in order for me to help Sam Quinn down the line.”

Declan stared at me, waiting.

“Right, well, I’d finished the chess set, had sent it to a local agent who consigned it to an art gallery in Canterbury. Before you ask why that one, I had a dream of Sam listening to choir music in the Canterbury Cathedral, so I knew she’d be there to see and buy the set.”

“But how did you know?” he grumbled.

“Dude, I’m psychic. I knew. Shut up and let me tell the story.”

He shook his head but remained silent. Good enough.

“Even though I’d completed the set, it didn’t feel like it was time to go home. It was an odd time. The thing that had driven me for so long was done. There was nothing pressing or pushing me. The nightmares were less intense and kind of my greatest hits, rather than new ones. I was able to work on whatever struck my fancy. My new art pieces sold quickly and for good money, so I was comfortable as I waited in Kent.

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