It Never Rhines but It Pours (24 page)

I gave Sarah a questioning look. “Nursing homes,” she explained. “Nana and Cousin Richard here went looking at nursing homes yesterday.”

“It was really shocking,” Nana said, waving a hand about her face, “I don’t know if my health can take the shock.”

“Did they steal something from you?” I had to ask. Mom and Sarah shot me looks of horror that quickly turned to resignation as Nana started her story over again for my benefit. From the way Sarah was mouthing along I could guess that they had heard this story more than once.

“I managed to sneak away from the tour guide and talk to some of the people
in their native environment
,” Nana began.

I choked, but motioned that I was alright and to continue. Mom closed her eyes and shook her head in despair.

“I knew I could only get the
true
story from the people living in the home. The workers are, of course, paid to say anything to get more people to move in.” Nana nodded sagely at her own wisdom. “One woman told me that they make everyone
sign out
on a piece of paper when they leave the building!”

I had a blank look on my face, waiting for the rest of the story.

“Well?” Nana asked impatiently.

“Well, what?”

“What do you think of that?”

“What do I think … of signing out?”

“Yes!”

“Umm,” I looked helplessly at my mom. She gave me a “you got yourself into this and you can get yourself out of it” look that didn’t help. “Maybe they want to make sure that everyone makes it back home at night and isn’t missing?”

“No,” Nana was scornful. “That’s what they would like you to think! Really they do it so they know when it is safe to enter the resident’s rooms and
steal
things!”

“Steal things?”

“Yes! Another one of the ladies told me that her pants are all too small!”

Sarah started coughing and Mom was trying to keep a straight face. I wasn’t following yet. “Pants?”

“Yes, her pants. She knows that she bought the right size, but what do you think happens when she
signs out
and leaves the building?”

“I couldn’t possibly guess Nana,” I said truthfully.

“They
sneak
into her room and replace her pants with smaller ones!” Nana was indignant over the evil practices of assisted living facilities. I blinked.

“Wow,” was all I could say.

“It’s shocking. Truly shocking. I don’t know what I was thinking, even imagining myself living in a place like that!”

“Yeah, um, really shocking,” I tried to keep my eyes to the size of small salad plates. Sarah had her face buried in one of the sofa cushions, her shoulder shaking uncontrollably.

“Well,” Nana stood up, “It’s time for my morning nap.”

We all watched her leave the room in silence.

“Pants,” I remarked.

“Shhh! Piper!” Mom scolded. “She’ll hear you!” She looked around as if just missing something. “Where are the girls?”

“With Carolyn,” I made a face.

“Oh,” Mom tried to look nonchalant. She always said that she thought Carolyn was a wonderful woman and grandmother and that I was far too hard on her. But secretly, I think she was just as jealous of the time the girls spent with Carolyn as Carolyn was of the time they spent with her. They both wanted to be the favorite grandmother, while realizing that kids don’t usually
have
a favorite.

Pravus stood up, “If you don’t mind, I have some errands I need to run …” he trailed off when he saw my vehement head shake. “On second thought, maybe I’ll hang out here a bit?”

“Don’t mind us, Mom,” I smiled, “Sarah and Cousin Richard and I have some catching up to do.”

“All right!” she beamed at the three of us. “It’s so nice to see you young people getting along!”

Young people? Pravus had to be at least forty if he was a day. I didn’t really appreciate being lumped into his age group. She went to the back part of the house and we were alone on the porch.

“So,” I said.

“Yes?” Pravus gave me one raised eyebrow.

“We need your help on a little project.”

“Why should I help you?” he sneered.

Sarah’s face turned red and she clenched her fists, “Because we saved your life, dim-wit!”

“You haven’t saved me yet!” he scoffed, “In fact, your incompetence is likely to get me killed anyways! And having to pretend to be related to that doddering old senile woman you call ‘Nana’ is punishment enough for anyone!”

Sarah’s mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish. I held up a hand to stop her anger. “No one asked you to move in here, Pravus,” I pointed out. “If normal life is so troubling to you, perhaps you should move back to your own home in Orlando.”

“And be killed on the spot as soon as the Synod figures out that the two of you are bumbling idiots? At least this way, if I have to die, I will hopefully get to see the two of you executed first.”

I glared at him and imagined picking up the rocking chair and bashing him over the head with it. No. Wait. We still needed him. Bashing was not an option. Yet.

“We need you to cast a spell on a billboard,” I said firmly, ignoring all the reasons for screaming at him in fury.

“A what?” He was thrown off by the subject change.

“You know,” Sarah said sarcastically, “one of those big signs you see on the side of the road.”

“I know what a billboard is,” Pravus huffed.

“Then why did you ask?” Sarah kept a look of angelic curiosity on her face.

I could almost hear Pravus’ teeth gritting together. “Why do you want a spell cast on a billboard?”

“For advertisement,” I said.

“What?”

I tried to explain, “We want you to cast a spell on an Orlando billboard so that when normal humans look at it, it says whatever it usually says, but when humans with abilities look at it, it tells them that they are special and to call me.”

Pravus blinked. “Why would you want them to call you?”

I was exasperated; it seemed obvious to me. “We need more humans to join the USB. That way, even if something happens to Sarah and me, humans will still be protected.”

Pravus was thinking, I just wasn’t sure what about. Finally he spoke, “Why would I want to help you do that?”

“Because, you little twerp,” I stood up and glared down at him, “I’m saving your rear end here. You owe me.”

“I don’t owe you anything!”

“Fine then. One phone call from me and Cecily will be over here waving her sword around!”

Pravus crossed his arms over his chest and looked petulant. “That’s blackmail.”

I sat back down. “Get used to it, bub. Help us or I stop protecting you.” It was pretty empty as threats go, but maybe he didn’t know that.

“What billboard?” he pouted.

Sarah and I exchanged looks. We hadn’t really gotten that far in our planning. “Umm, I-Drive?” I suggested. International Drive is the main tourist thoroughfare through Orlando. The Convention Center, Ripely’s, Wonderworks,
etc.
were located on I-Drive.

“Which one,” Pravus asked.

“How about all of them?” Sarah asked.

I shrugged. I had no clue how magic worked. Was it harder to change one billboard or a whole street full?

Pravus rubbed his nose thoughtfully. “Maybe,” he finally said. “It might work. Give me a few minutes to set up and we can see what happens.”

“Here?” I choked. “I thought we had to drive to Orlando!”

“No,” he shook his head. “Location is not important. Magic isn’t a linear thing. It works based off of my will and intentions. Here is just as good as standing right in front of the billboard. Of course,” he added with pride, “I am a senior witch. For a novice such a spell would be almost impossible.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “You’re a genius and we need your mind.”

“You do,” Pravus fixed her with a cold look, missing the
Father of the Bride
reference.

I sighed. “Okay, get together whatever you need and let’s try this.” I glanced at the clock. It was nearing eleven. “How long is this going to take?”

“You can’t rush magic,” Pravus said with a sniff. “It will take as long as it takes.““Great,” I muttered under my breath as he headed back for the guest bedroom. He was back sooner than I would have thought with an armful of paraphernalia.

“Where can I set up?” he asked.

I eyed the candles and whatnot with suspicion. “What exactly does ‘set up’ require?”

“I’ll need a large flat surface to draw a pentagram on—”

I held up a hand, “Whoa, hold on a sec. Sarah, do you mind?” She followed me into the living room.

“What?”

“This is
witchcraft!
” I hissed.

“Yeah?”

“Sarah! It’s black magic! Demonic! What in the world are we thinking?”

Sarah shook her head in exasperation. “We’re thinking that we’d like to keep Mom and Dad, and Mark and the girls, and everyone else in the world from being killed by witches or eaten by werewolves!”

I frowned. Good point. That was what we were trying to do. It just sounded a lot more reasonable when it didn’t involve pentagrams and black candles. “Fine,” I rubbed my eyes. “I just
really
don’t like it.”

“Oh come on,” Sarah patted my shoulder. “It’s not like he’s calling up a demon or anything in the living room.”

“And if he was?” I asked dryly.

“He’s not,” she said firmly.

“Not in the living room,” I had made up my mind on that point. “We’ll do it in the garage.”

“Piper!” Sarah whined, “It’s like a hundred and ten out there!”

I held firm. “Not in the house. What if Mom was to walk through?”

“Fine. Whatever. It’s your funeral,” Sarah stomped off to get a drink from the fridge and I headed to the back porch to tell Pravus where to set up.

Chapter Twenty-five:

Casting the Spell

Pravus wasn’t too happy about the garage either. He said the crack down the middle of the concrete might have an adverse effect on his pentagram. Also, it was too hot. I told him to man up and quit whining. It was hot, and I wasn’t feeling too sympathetic, more like sweaty and grumpy.

I had backed Mom’s car out and rolled the riding lawnmower into the driveway, so there was a big open space on the floor. Like all garage pads, it did have a split down the middle of the concrete, and I hoped that Pravus was exaggerating about its effect. I ran the push broom half heartedly towards the door and scowled fiercely when Pravus merely shook his head and pointed to the blower.

“Fine. Make Piper be the grunt labor. She’s got nothing better to do,” I grumbled quietly under the roar of air. When I was finished the floor was a good deal cleaner, but I wasn’t going to feel happy about anything until all of this was over.

Pravus carefully paced out an area and then got to work with a giant piece of white chalk that glittered with a metallic sheen. “Magnetic chalk,” he explained when he saw me watching. “It works better than plain. Especially if you’re calling demons,” he saw the look of horror on my face and finished quickly, “which I’m not this time. This spell doesn’t need it.”

I hugged myself and rocked a little on my feet. I had a really, really bad feeling about all of this. I don’t know if I was more bothered by the thought that demons were real, or that Pravus had obviously dealt with them before. Once again I was reminded that innocent or not, Pravus was
not
one of the good guys. At least from the way I judged good and evil.

Pravus worked quickly with an air of confidence and sure, swift strokes of the chalk. He drew a large pentagram on the floor, making a face every time he came to the crack in the concrete. Sarah wandered out with her ice-tea and sat crossed legged on the floor to watch. The pentagram was complicated, more than just a five pointed star. It had intricate cross lines and wiggles and, from where I was standing, looked perfectly symmetrical. I was impressed. I didn’t think I could draw a straight line, much less create something so complicated and large.

Pravus put away the chalk and got out candles. Short, fat candles in a variety of colors. Some were black, some white, a few red, gold, blue, even pink. The candles went on intersections in the chalk lines. The whole thing was starting to give me the heebie jeebies. I glanced at Sarah. She yawned and twirled the silver bracelet on her arm.

“Anybody want a snack?” she asked.

Pravus smirked and kept working, placing the candles carefully in, what seemed to me, to be a random order.

“No thanks,” I said, not able to tear my eyes of the scene before me.

“I’m going to go grab a bite to eat,” Sarah announced. “Don’t start without me.”

“We won’t,” I said and Pravus grunted, which either meant he was agreeing or was annoyed.

The candles in place, he picked up a bag made of animal skin. At least, I hope it was animal skin. Pig skin hopefully. I tried not to think of what other skin might look so smooth and pale. A wave of nausea swept over me. Maybe I really was pregnant. I placed both hands over my stomach to try and keep the baby safe from any black magic that was flying around. What in the world was I doing? I had an unborn child to worry about! I shouldn’t be running around executing people and casting evil spells. I should be home, keeping my children safe.