Page 26 of Hooked on a Witch
Chapter Six
“Until we arrive you are not to go anywhere. No popping to an alternate dimension. No visiting old friends. No bars or restaurants. Don’t even go outside,” Shannon’s father ordered over the cell phone.
Ha! I’m already outside. She shifted on the bench in the private cemetery near the house where she’d placed a towel to cover the dampness left from last night’s thunderstorm. The nearness of her mother’s grave, and her brothers where they’d been laid to rest under the old oak, gave her strength to get through this conflict. She loved her father. He wasn’t a bad person, just overprotective, more so when his ex-CIA faculties kicked in.
“Are you listening to me, Shannon?”
“Wearrive? You and who else is on his way down here?”
“All of us who are available.”
Great. A mini-army of super Sentry druids were boarding her father’s plane in New York to fly here.
“Dad, I can’t find an answer to all of this sitting in the house on lockdown. I need to go out and do research. I won’t find the right people inside. You know this. Mom told me to come here to find answers.”
“Shannon. Desist.”
She complied instantly. His tone reduced her to a little girl. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to speak out of turn. I swear I’m not doing this to sass you. It’s just… Why can’t you understand if I don’t get this figured out, we’re all going to die?”
“I’ve been more than lenient with you, but that time is gone. I understand the importance of answers, but now we’re going to do this my way. We’ve sent our best out there to research the problem. They’re questioning experts in Greek history. I’ve got others consulting specialists on magical items. I’ve got an archaeologist at Yale who’s also a druid who I want you to Skype with tonight. We’ll find the answer to stop this. We always do. It’s not the first time one of you Pleiades ladies has been under a mortal threat. You’re not alone in this, and we have resources. You cannot disappear like you did last night without so much as a text. Do you care so little for me that you want me to suffer your death too? I’ve lost your brothers and your mother. I can’t lose you too.”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she expelled a long sigh. “Tell me honestly you’re coming down here to help me figure this out and this isn’t about you being controlling. Hiding me in the house isn’t going to keep a god at bay when he comes to get the Trident back. We don’t have it.”
“Yet.We don’t have it yet. We’ll find it. There’re protections on the land and the house.”
“They’re not going to stop a god.” Didn’t her father understand this?
“Until we arrive, Eli is in charge. You’ll stay put and listen to him.”
“Dad… Dad?” She glared at the phone that read:Call Ended.
She shook the phone and cursed.
Indoors didn’t work. Countless hours on the internet last week revealed nothing. Reading through her mother’s library of handwritten research notebooks had proven useless. No druid had any knowledge of Poseidon’s Trident. Help wouldn’t be inside the house or on a superjet scheduled to arrive in a few hours. The archeologist might be helpful to translate ancient Greek artifacts, but a human wasn’t going to find Poseidon’s stolen Trident. She needed to consult with someone who knew about powerful magical items.
Like Merck.
Her mother’s whispered words moments before she’d died two months ago echoed in her head for the millionth time: “Go home. To South Carolina. Help will find you like he always does.”Her thoughts had immediately flown to Merck, but none of them had known he’d moved back. Maybe her mother had known. She’d had an eerie knack for foretelling things. What other “he” was here who could help her or would find her?
How she missed her big-hearted, stubborn mom who’d died right before the Poseidon ultimatum rained down on her with gloom, doom, and assured death.Find my Trident or I’ll kill you and every Pleiades descendants.
What do I do, Mom?
Wind rustled the trees, fragmenting the early-morning sun into small shadows, but no answers arrived.
She expected something. Maybe her mother’s ghost would walk from her grave. A sign. Anything.
The ancient oak trees with Spanish moss swayed in the wind. The gentle breeze soothed her. Images whipped though her mind. Visions, sounds, and smells. And Merck. Was this her sign? Probably not. He always dominated her thoughts when she was in South Carolina.
She dwelled on the intricate tattoos now covering Merck’s hands and up his arms, wondering what prompted him to get so much ink. Maybe it’d been some sort of rebellious phase, or maybe they had meaning. It made him mysterious in a risky way. Gracious, she was a sucker for ink. More than the tats, she liked his arms. Muscular arms that offered refuge from both threats and the terror of what may happen in the near future.
She’d never gotten over her crush on him. The man was the embodiment of every wild fantasy she’d ever had. He was the reason anything with other guys never lasted long, although she’d never admit it to him.
Perhaps, he was her destined guy, the guy chosen by the gods to be her soul mate. The one she was fated to have children with and spend however long she had before she died.
Nope. She’d been over this ground countless times before. If he had been, he wouldn’t have been able to stay away from her for a decade. Based on chitchats with the other Pleiades women and their men, once they met their soul mate, they couldn’t deny their connection, even if they wanted to. There was a magical draw between the two that made him as nuts about her as she was of him. As well, they were supposed to have amazing chemistry. Okay, check, she and Merck had the zing factor. That didn’t make them destined to be together. If so, he shouldn’t have been able to resist her last attempt to get him to kiss her outside his car.
The wicked-witch part of her teased he could be stubborn to the point of mulish. If he’d decided he wasn’t pursuing the attraction between them, then he might be tough enough to ignore it.
