It Never Rhines but It Pours (5 page)

Cecily shifted in her seat, that giant sword must make sitting uncomfortable, “I’m over a hundred years old,” she said.

James looked puzzled, “True?” he said with a question. “How can that be?”

I ignored him and turned to Pravus. “Tell James what you told us,” I said without command.

Pravus gave me an ugly look and said “I am innocent of the crimes these people think I have committed.”

I tried not to stare at James in anticipation. What would he say?

“True,” he said. “He’s telling the truth. What crimes do you think he did?”

I drew a deep breath. Cecily had a look of shock on her face. Pravus was innocent. I shuddered to think how close we had come to killing him. I couldn’t think clearly. If Pravus hadn’t murdered those kids then someone else had. The Synod didn’t care too much about justice. If we didn’t execute Pravus for the crimes then we had better come up with another person quick, or we would all be killed.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. This would have been so much simpler if Pravus had been guilty. Irrationally, I felt angry at him for being innocent. It just really gummed up the works. Now we still had to fix the memories of everyone who had taken part in the investigation but also find the real killer. My day was just getting better and better.

I stood up, “Thank you, James, you’ve been very helpful.”

“Wait,” he pleaded, “can’t you tell me what you needed my help for?”

“I’m sorry, it’s classified,” was the best I could come up with.

“Piper!” Sarah hissed. Oh sure, use my name in front of him, that’s smart. “Shouldn’t we
tell
him?”

“Tell me what?” James wanted to know.

I tried to smile, “You have a very unique gift, James. Thank you for your help. We will be in touch.”

I grabbed Sarah’s arm and hustled her out the door. Pravus followed with Cecily close behind.

“Please,” James said, sounding very young, “I—” he didn’t know how to say what he wanted. Just as well. I wasn’t going to tell him anything until we got this ritual murder cleared up. One thing at a time. There was plenty of time to fill him in on the USB and all the supernatural beings that went with it, if and when I decided that we should.

“Thank you so much, James,” I patted him on the back and then got into the car as quickly as I could. Four car doors slammed shut and, as I drove out of the subdivision, I looked back and saw James standing in the middle of the street, a lost look on his face.

“Why didn’t you tell him about the USB?” Sarah demanded.

“Yes, why?” Pravus asked. “He appears to have a magical ability and he is human. You must force him to join with you.”

I glared at him through the rearview mirror. “Force him? That may be the way you witches do things, but we humans believe in free will.”

“Why didn’t you tell him, Piper?” Sarah was angry.

“He’s a child, Sarah!”

“So?”

“It’s a lot to take in. You want to be the one to tell a little kid that vampires and demons and witchcraft is real?”

She crossed her arms stubbornly, “You should have told him. We need him.”

I pulled off the side of the road into a gas station and parked the car. “We do need him, Sarah. You are right. But we don’t need him right this second. Give him some time. Trust me, we will have to tell him sooner or later. I just wasn’t ready to rush into it.”

“That’s your problem, Piper,” Sarah snapped. “You’re too cautious. When have you ever rushed into anything?”

“That’s not fair,” I said, “and there’s nothing wrong with being cautious. I don’t see why I should have to defend myself to you.”

Pravus raised his hand, “May I say something?”

“No!” we both said.

“Cecily,” I asked, “why is he still here? Can we boot him out now?”

She fingered the hilt of the Sword of Justice. “I suppose so,” she said reluctantly. “He seems to be innocent and even I do not wish to kill an innocent person.” She sighed. “I’m sure he has done other reprehensible things. Perhaps we could execute him for those?” she sounded hopeful.

“No!” I yelled. “You cannot go around cutting off people’s heads for fun!”

“Thank you,” Pravus said.

“Shut up!” I snapped. “And get out of the car. You’re free to go and don’t come back.”

He glared at me, “You’re kicking me out here?”

“Yes. You have a problem with that? ‘Cause I could let Miss Psycho Decapitator here chop off your head if you want to stick around?”

Pravus didn’t move.

“Well?” I snarled. “What’s it going to be, because my lenience is about to run out. You are not my favorite person on a good day, and today is not a good day.”

“My car is at my house,” he said flatly.

“And?”

“You expect me to walk?”

“I don’t care if you hop a broomstick and fly there, just get out of my car,” my temper was quickly boiling over.

“No.”

“No?” I shrieked. Sarah’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. Cecily had a smirk on her face that enraged me even further. “Do you want to rethink that answer?”

“No,” he said again.

I was opening the car door to go back and kick his butt when my cell phone rang. What is it with cell phones? Growing up I had thought nothing of leaving the house without a phone, for the simple reason that we didn’t have them. Oh, we had a cell phone. It was just the size of a phone book, plugged into the car battery, and cost over four dollars a minute to use. Now if I forgot my phone I felt naked. How would people reach me? What if my car broke down? What if I needed help?

I also had to check it the instant it rang. Sure, it could go to voicemail, but I had to know who was calling, even if I didn’t want to talk to them. Especially if I didn’t want to talk to them. So, even though I was furious and getting ready to administer a beat-down, or at least try, I stopped and checked my phone. Habit.

The display read ‘Home” so I answered. “Hello.”

“Hi, Mommy!” A little voice said.

“Hey, sweetie!” I cooed. “Are you having fun with Daddy?”

This was supposed to be a girls’ weekend out. Sarah and I had said that we wanted to reconnect and work on our relationship. Mom, Dad, and my husband, Mark, all thought that we were relaxing and talking and shopping. We were due back the next night and I missed my family more than I wanted to admit. Toddlers can drive you nuts sometimes, but I love my two little girls and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Megan had just turned five and already had quite the little attitude. “Daddy lets us do whatever we want!” she told me excitedly.

“Really,” I said dryly. “I’m thrilled to hear that.”

“He let us watch movies, and eat pizza and ice-cream and stay up all night long.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Granny came over to play and took us to the movies!”

“Wow! Sounds like you guys are having a blast!” I’d been gone less than twenty-four hours. It sounded like Mark was going a little overboard.

“You’re really having this conversation now?” Pravus hissed.

“Shut. Up.” I mouthed the words at him and made a slashing motion across my throat with my hand.

“Are you being a good girl for Daddy?” I asked.

“Yes!” she chirped. “Cassidy isn’t being a good girl. But I am.”

Cassidy was the youngest, almost three, and still really hard to understand. She was also much more emotional than her older sister, and tended to get her feelings hurt easily. “Why isn’t she being good?” I asked.

“She’s not a big girl like me,” Megan explained.

“I know. You are a very big girl. Are you being a big help to Daddy?”

“Yes, I told him what we like to eat for breakfast, and what we like to wear, and when Cassidy needs a spanking.”

I smiled, “Wow, sounds like you are being a big help. I miss you a bunch, sweetie! Mommy will be home tomorrow night to tuck you in.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Megan chirped, “We don’t miss you yet. We’re still having fun with Daddy.”

I laughed, “That’s good. Can I talk to Cassie?”

There was a scuffling on the other end and then Cassidy came on. “Hey, honey! I miss you!” I said.

“Miss you too, Mommy! ‘Eg mean to me.” Straight to the tattling, those were my girls.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” I soothed. “Are you having a good time with Daddy?”

There was fierce whispering coming from the backseat of the car. I was trying to ignore it, but I could see Sarah staring over the back of her seat with wide eyes. The whispering erupted into a fight. Cecily was apparently trying to forcefully eject Pravus from the car. He had wedged himself in between the seat and the door and in the cramped space she didn’t have enough leverage to utilize her superior strength, which was bound to be a little less superior, due to the sun.

I refocused on the phone call. “—fun time,” Cassidy ended.

“That’s great, honey,” I said, making hushing motions at Cecily. “Can I talk to Daddy for a minute.” I covered the mouth piece and hissed at Cecily, “Will you be quiet!”

“He won’t get out of the car!” she exclaimed like a kindergartener.

“Get out!” I said to Pravus.

“No!” he yelled. “The least you can do is give me a ride home!”

I growled in frustration and then had to switch to a normal voice when Mark came on the line. “Hey, babe!” he greeted me.

“Hi! Sounds like ya’ll are having a little too much fun there without me.”

“You know how it is, when the cat’s away the mice will party!” he said.

“Don’t overdo it, they’re going to think that Mommy is a stick in the mud who never lets them have any fun.”

“Aren’t you?” he quipped.

“Ha. Bet you miss me.”

“More than you can imagine. I have no idea how you do this every day. I’m exhausted.”

I laughed. That was more like it. I wanted to know that I was missed and appreciated. “I’ll be home tomorrow. Hold on till then.”

“Counting the hours, hon. You just relax and have a good time with Sarah. Say hi for me!” There was a crash from his end of the line. “Megan!” he yelled away from the phone. “Sorry, babe, I’ve got to go! Love you!” and he hung up.

Relax with Sarah. If he only knew.

Pravus and Cecily had finally separated and were sulking as far away from each other as they could get in the small backseat.

I rolled my eyes with a sigh. “Where do you live?” I capitulated.

Pravus smirked at Cecily and gave me the address. Fifteen minutes later we were rid of him. He showed not a trace of gratitude for our saving his life. In fact, he seemed to blame us for wasting part of his day.

“We broke you out of jail!” I cried, surprised.

“I didn’t ask you to!” he retorted. “And you better finish cleaning up this mess. I do not want to be rearrested here.”

I made a face at his back as he stalked up to his house. “Can you believe that?” I asked.

Cecily had a hungry look as she watched him close the door behind him. “You can never trust a witch,” she repeated.

As much as I hated to admit it, Pravus was right. We did still have a bunch of work to do. The detectives who worked on the case would have to have their memories adjusted. Otherwise they might start to wonder where their prime suspect, whom they had locked behind bars, had gotten off to. That would lead to all sorts of questions. The sorts of questions that it was our job as Guardians to prevent.

“Where’s that printout from the police station?” I asked.

“Here you go,” Cecily handed it up to Sarah.

She took it and perused it quickly. She typed a few addresses into the GPS and then spoke, “Okay. I think we can hit the two homicide cops at home and then we’ll have to figure out where the other two cops are on patrol.” She tapped the paper, “Both these guys live pretty close.”

I pulled back onto the street. I was getting really tired of being in the car. I wished that I really
was
on a girl retreat with Sarah. Lying by a pool, sipping a frozen beverage, working on my tan. I needed a break. I would have to pretend to be all relaxed and refreshed when I got home, when really this trip was shooting my stress level through the roof. I used to think that being a stay-at-home mom was tough, now I longed for the days when all I had to worry about was who hit whom, or who had the toy first. Not to mention the guilt. I had to keep on lying to Mark. It was for the best. But if it was for the best why did I feel like such a scumbag?

“Earth to Piper; come in please,” Sarah broke into my reverie.

“What?”

“You missed the turn.” The GPS was showing me where to turn around and get back on route.

“Sorry.”

“What were you thinking of?” Cecily wanted to know.

I sighed. “I just love this job so much. The hours, the people, the wonderful crime scene photos we get to look at. It’s a dream come true.”

Sarah snickered.