Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches) (11 page)

“I’m honestly baffled by this; I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m going to send copies of these to a friend in Germany. He may be able to shed some light onto its purpose. But, I think our first priority should be finding this girl.”

“I agree, she needs our help. She’s obviously running from more than just Sabine, judging by that haunted look in her eyes. She’s in London; I recognize the street she’s on in this picture,” William said as he pointed out a building behind the young girl. “I think I’m going to take Jill with me and go look for her after we get back to Boston. She might respond to Jill more than she would to me. I don’t want to freak her out any more than she already is.”

“I think that’s probably a good idea. Maybe Kat and I will come with you guys. We can go on to Germany for a few days once we find her, so I can talk to Greggor in person after I send him the plans.”

“What are we going to do with Sabine while we’re gone, though?” William asked.

“We can leave her with my men, they’ll keep her under control. We’ll just seal her into a cell and let her sit until we get back.”

“She’ll be ready to talk by then,” William said with a laugh. They gathered up all the papers and the laptop and left the building, hopping into Nik’s car.

Jilly stood on the pedestal in front of Caroline and Katya in the fourth reception dress she had tried on. “I think this one might be it. What do you think?” she asked.

Caroline stood up and walked behind her, taking in all angles of the dress. It was white chiffon, gathered at one shoulder and it clung to her body until a little past her hips. It made her look like a goddess.

“Jill, you look amazing. This one is for sure the dress you should wear at the reception. You’ll be able to dance the night away,” Caroline said as she helped Jilly down.

“Okay, I’m going to go get changed back into my clothes. Then we can look for the bridesmaids dresses.” When she came back out, the girls were already perusing the racks to find what they liked. Jilly had decided to let them choose whatever style dress they wanted as long as it was the same color. Being stuck between emerald green or a deep plum, she left it up to them to decide which color flattered them the most. It was fun to watch them try on dress after dress. They finally narrowed it down to two choices each and decided to bring Emily with them next time to make the final decision. They said their goodbyes to their consultant, and Jilly paid for her gowns. They all piled into a cab and headed back to the hotel.

“This has been a long but fun day,” Caroline said as she leaned her head on Jilly’s shoulder.

“I know what you mean; I’m exhausted, but I had the best time,” Jilly said.

“Will is going to go crazy when he sees you in those dresses,” Katya said.

“Thanks Kat, I feel really good about both choices. I’m starving; I hope the boys ordered dinner.” A few minutes later, their cab pulled up in front of the hotel and Jilly paid the driver before getting out.

The girls found William and Nikolai sitting at the dining room table with maps and plans in front of them along with a laptop.

“How did it go at Sabine’s?” Jilly asked as she walked over to William and kissed his cheek.

“Not as informative as I would have liked actually, but we still got something out of the trip. We found a bunch of plans for some sort of machine. Nik’s going to send them to a friend of his to see if he can figure it out,” William said, and then paused for a minute, trying to figure out how to bring up the wall of pictures he found. “There’s something else. I found some photos of both Caroline and Katya in Sabine’s room. There were pictures of Caroline and Jack, Caroline and her friends, and Caroline getting on a plane. There was also a bunch of pictures of this girl on the wall.” He held out a stack of photos of the mystery girl and all the women grabbed one.

“She’s just a child,” Jilly said in outrage.

“What does Sabine want with her?” Caroline asked.

“I would think she wants her for the same reason she wanted us, Caroline,” Katya replied.

“Do we know where she is, yet?” Jilly asked.

“I think she’s in London. At least she was. I recognize a few of the places in the pictures,” William said.

“We have to go and find her before one of Sabine’s men gets her. She needs our help,” Jilly said passionately. William smiled at her and pointed to the screen on his laptop. Jilly leaned in and saw that he was arranging travel and hotel accommodations for them. She sat on his lap, tilted his lips up to hers, and kissed him. “This is exactly why I love you. You saw someone in need and you knew you had to help. When do we leave?”

“We all go back to Boston tomorrow morning and you and I, along with Nik and Kat, will go on from there.” He arched a brow at Caroline. “Do you want to come, too?”

“I do, but I think someone needs to be home holding down the fort. Jill and I have both been gone for almost a week; so I think I should check in on things,” she replied.

“That’s probably a good idea. You can keep us updated on what’s going on with Patrick. Take Em with you and redo all the wards once a week,” Jilly said. “Okay, now that all of that is settled, I’m starving. I need to eat or else I won’t be very pleasant to be around.”

“I’ll order dinner,” William said as he walked into the other room to order room service.

Jilly opened her eyes. She was in an unfamiliar place again. “Well, this is getting old,” she said aloud to herself.

There were no other people on the street around her. Rain was starting to fall and she pulled the collar of the coat she was wearing up around her neck before running to the nearest building. She stumbled into an enormous bookstore and the old clerk gave her a dirty look when he saw the water pooling around her feet from the rain.

“Sorry,” she said as she wiped them on the mat as best as she could. She ignored the string of obscenities the man muttered under his breath as she walked past and began to browse through the aisles. She wandered around for a few minutes looking at the huge collection of books.

When she finally made her way to the back of the huge store, she saw a young girl sitting on the floor reading a book. The girl’s head whipped around when she heard the sound of Jilly approaching.

Jilly held up her hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said. Jilly’s eyes widened when she fully saw the girl’s face. This was the young girl from the pictures. The poor girl looked terrified as Jilly tried to approach her, so she stopped moving and sat down on the floor with her.

“I’m not here to hurt you; my name is Jilly. What’s yours?” Jilly asked her. The girl was silent for a while trying to decide if she believed Jilly or not.

Finally, she spoke in a small voice, “My name is Hannah.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Hannah,” Jilly said with a smile. “Why are you so scared, honey?”

Hannah looked as though she wanted to bolt. Jilly wanted to hold her, but she knew it would only scare her more. “It’s okay. I’m here to help.”

“They’re always after me. They always find me,” Hannah whispered. “Is this real? I feel like I’m dreaming.”

“It is a dream, but I want to help. You need to tell me how to find you.” Hannah’s eyes grew wide with fright as shadows began to descend from the ceiling.

“You can’t help. No one can. I have to go. They’ve found me again.” Hannah got up on shaky legs and ran out of the store.

Something about the shadows stuck in Jilly’s mind. She had seen something like them before, but she just couldn’t place where. She started to run after the girl, but she was shoved back roughly and hit her head on the floor.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in bed in her hotel room with William sleeping next to her. She sat up and pulled her sweaty shirt away from her chest. She stayed on the side of the bed for a moment, until she felt that she could walk to the bathroom. Jilly peeled off her damp clothes, turned the shower on, and waited for the water to heat up.

William leaned against the frame of the door, concern painted on his face. “Jill, can I come in?” he asked.

She turned around to face him. “I’ll be out in ten minutes. I’ll meet you in the dining room. Can you order some coffee or something?” He nodded reluctantly and walked out. She stood in the spray, letting the hot water chase the image of Hannah’s terrified face out of her head. Once she felt warm and clean, she turned off the water. Wrapping herself in a fluffy towel, she padded out into her room to get dressed.

William was waiting for Jilly in the dining room, drinking a cup of coffee and feeling uneasy. He knew that she had experienced something unsettling, but he wasn’t sure what had happened. He hoped it didn’t have Patrick’s name on it. Jilly emerged from their room a few minutes later, looking much calmer; but she still appeared as though something was bothering her. William pulled out her chair. He tugged her close to him and held her tight before letting her sit down.

Jilly smiled at him. “I had a dream about the girl from the picture. I met her. Her name is Hannah. She’s so scared; she barely let me talk to her.”

“Where were you in the dream?” William asked as he slid a cup of coffee over to Jilly.

“It was London for sure. I saw a glimpse of Big Ben above the buildings. We were in a huge bookstore, off the main road somewhere. I’m not really familiar with London, I’ve only seen pictures,” Jilly said with a shrug.

“I think I know where that is. It shouldn’t be too hard to find. Who sent you there?”

“I honestly don’t know. I went to sleep thinking about the haunted look in poor Hannah’s eyes and the next thing I knew, I was on a rainy street in London,” Jilly said as she got up and paced around the room. “I could almost taste her fear, Will. It was all I could feel. I cannot get the look on her face out of my head; I have never in my life known terror like that. We need to go and we need to go, now.”

“Let me call Nik. Maybe they can go with Caroline to Boston and make sure she gets home safe.” He walked out of the room to make the call. Jilly sat back down and looked at her watch. It was 3:30 in the morning. Although she was tired, she knew sleep would not come, so she ordered up some food and went to check on Caroline. She quietly opened the door and found her sister sound asleep. Closing the door again, she went to find William. She found him on his cell phone in their room, talking into his Bluetooth while he packed.