Page 57 of Surviving in Everton

“I can’t fucking find him. There’s no sight of him anywhere recently. Not even the damn grocery store. It’s like he just disappeared! I know he exists. I have pictures and videos of him. I can track him down to his hometown four hours away, but there’s nothingrecent. Not since… February.”

Chapter 24

Rowen

Quinn and I stop our bickering when we hear Nate ask West what’s wrong. Not that we were really paying attention to what’s going on around us, but those words always jump out at me no matter what’s going on. We walk over towards the table and catch the end of what West is telling the guys, who are all surrounding him.

“But there’s nothingrecent.Not since… February.”

“February? No one’s seen him since then?” How could that be possible?

“No cameras have seen him. And even then, it’s pretty sporadic before that. It looks like he used to go out a lot. I’ve got footage of him all over this town and the next, but it starts trickling down beginning around November. Then nothing once February hits. Give me a minute, I wanna look for something,” West mumbles as he goes back to his typing.

I’ve never seen anyone type so fast. How is he even reading all of that?

“I didn’t know a man on a computer could be so sexy,” Quinn whispers to me.

“Is it that he’s got the sexy nerd thing going on? Or the avenging angel thing?” I whisper back.

She licks her lips then bites the bottom one as she continues to watch him do his thing on the computer. Well, I guess Quinn has officially noticed West.

“Looks like he was sick... He saw a doctor a few towns over back in November. He went a couple times, but stopped going. His chart says…”

“Wait! You can see his medical records?!” Quinn exclaims.

“Oh, I mean… yeah? If it’s digital, I can find it. Doesn’t matter what it is, once it hits a server, it’s as good as mine.” He shrugs.

“Wow. That’s… impressive.”

If the twinkle in Quinn’s eyes is anything to go on, I think West might get that chance he’s been patiently waiting for.

“Hmmm… The doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. He was experiencing bouts of fatigue, weakness, his magic levels were unusually low and they couldn’t figure out why.”

“Sounds like his magic was being drained,” Declan interjects.

“Drained? How? I didn’t know that was even possible!” Jesus, who would do something like that? “Wait, you mean BB was draining her husband’s magic?! That’s crazy! Why would she do that? She has her own!”

West just keeps tapping away at his computer, glaring at the screen with his tongue barely sticking out. He’s like a dog with a bone. He’s going to dig as deep as it takes to figure out what the fuck is going on here.

“Well she’s clearly a psycho. So who knows what the fuck else she’s done. You need to be careful tomorrow, Hudson,” Kayden warns him. “Declan, is there a spell to bind her magic? That way she can’t freak out when she realizes she can’t lie and attack him with magic?”

“Fuck! Why didn’t we think about that? Just because she can’t lie doesn’t mean she won’t know what’s going on!” Nate starts freaking out again.

Man, he’s been extra moody lately. Like all over the place. I wonder if he’d feel better if he stayed the night. I’ll have to talk to the guys about it.

“Okay, so we need three spells; the truth spell, a magic binding spell, and some kind of spell to keep her from knowing what’s going on. Any ideas?” I look around, waiting for someone to speak up.

“You’re making this harder than it needs to be, Mommy.”

Whoa, where did she come from?! “How long have you been standing there, little miss?”

She just sighs and shakes her head in response. “All you have to do is think about what you want the spell to do, right? So just tell your magic what to do.”

“Well, spells and potions are a little more complicated than that, Bug, but yes it is important to concentrate on what you want your magic to do while you’re making them. You have to follow specific steps to make one, like a recipe. You could tell your magic to just make a cupcake, or you could use your magic to mix all of the ingredients. Which one is better?”

“The one that you mix.”

“That’s right. So wecouldtry to just use our magic to get her to do something, but it might not work out well. Or we could make a potion and mix up all of the ingredients of the spell and know that it’ll work. As long as we do it right. If you forget the flour in the cupcakes, they won’t turn out so good, will they?”

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