Waiting for Magic (34 page)

Tris stopped dead in his tracks. “I gotta go,” he muttered. “Meet you there.”

“We shouldn’t split up,” his father said in that voice of command.

“Bike goes faster and it goes now.” Tristram was wild to protect Maggie.

“You don’t know where they are,” Kemble said. “I do.”

“I’ll feel her.” Tris opened the side door of the offices that faced the garages.

“You’ll wander around in that maze of roads and lose time,” his father barked. His tone changed. “We need you, son. And Maggie needs us. All of us.”

Outside the door, two SUVs splashed into the carriageway. That was probably the only event that could change Tristram’s mind.

“Okay. I still take the Ducati. And you better drive fast.”

“Drove for Team McClaren once,” his father murmured. “Let’s go protect our own.”

*****

Kee ran across the lawn, Maggie right behind her. She was so focused on Devin’s pain and suffering she almost missed the press of evil around them as they approached the house.

“Whoa, girl,” Maggie shouted from behind her. “Wait up.”

Kee turned, teeth bared, ready to shout at her.

Maggie held up a hand. Kee found herself able to breathe again. “We gotta have our wits about us here. Can’t just go blasting in. Remember? Quick and quiet.”

Kee nodded. “I know. I know. Someone’s really hurting him. It makes it hard to think.”

Maggie put a hand on Kee’s arm. “Tris said he went crazy when that Firestarter was hurting me at my pa’s shack. So I know. But try to focus on what’s around the house.”

Kee’s gaze darted this way and that. The house still looked like a giant, squatting beast, its windows like glowing eyes. The junipers with their pointy, twisted branches were angry hair. But, though the house emanated evil, it wasn’t the worst. Kee felt now what Maggie was talking about. Something was out there in the shadows of the garden, in the gnarled trees at the back. It wasn’t a good something. She caught movement, but every time she looked for its source, she saw only the rain and the wind. Wet snuffling sounds became clear even over the spatter of the rain. Kee shivered. “What’s that?”

“No idea,” Maggie said softly. She stared past a Victorian folly that served as a pool house out to the right rear of the castle. “But there’s more than one.”

Kee followed her gaze and heard other snorting. Lots of it. “Pendragon said he had an unorthodox security system. Maybe he meant he kept monsters.” Kee’s attention sidled back to the house. Devin’s pain wasn’t gone but her perception of it had softened somehow. She glanced to Maggie. Maggie had Calmed her. “Doesn’t matter,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“Just keep alert,” Maggie said. They started for the house again, with more control this time. “Those things will let us in. Good to know they’re there when we try to get back out.”

Yeah. Getting out was the problem. The front door was dotted with big metal studs. It seemed so incongruous to ring the doorbell. But what else could they do?

“Hope you’re up to this, Maggie,” Kee said. Maggie, at “five-foot-nothin’,” as she liked to say, hardly looked a match for a sorcerer.

“Me too.”

Oh, that was comforting.

Mr. Green opened the door. His smile made Kee feel sick, coupled as it was with the background music of Devin’s pain in her head. “Mr. Pendragon is expecting you,” he said to Kee, motioning them inside. “And who shall I say is with you?”

“Maggie O’Brian Tremaine,” Maggie said, her bright yellow slicker out of place in the dark and sumptuous surroundings.

“Take me to Devin,” Kee commanded, gripping the gun in her pocket. One way or another, she was leaving with Devin in the next few minutes.

“My orders precisely, Miss Tremaine.” Green didn’t ask to take their coats but gave a leering grin before he turned on his heel and crossed the huge, somber foyer with clicking heels. He pulled on a bell rope. Was he summoning reinforcements? Kee stalked after him, heart pounding. Maggie brought up the rear.

They were going into a part of the house Kee had never seen, back behind the dining room and the library they’d been in before. Devin was close now. She wasn’t sure whether the groans she heard were physical sounds or just in her head.
I’m coming,
she thought, as forcefully as she could, and hoped he could feel that she was near. Her fear for him started to envelop her again and she pushed it down. No time for that. And no tears, no second thoughts. She’d do what she had to do tonight, no matter what she saw or heard.

“What’s that feeling of power?” Maggie whispered at her elbow. “Kinda pervasive.”

“I don’t know,” Kee returned. She felt the same heaviness in the air, the nausea and lightheadedness, though it wasn’t so overwhelming as it had been last time she was in this house. But she’d changed since then.

Kee’s stoic resolve was tested less than a minute later when Green opened a door and smiled that horrible, knowing leer before he stepped inside. “Miss Keelan Tremaine and Maggie O’Brian Tremaine to see you, sir.”

He was blocking her view, but she knew Devin was in there. Kee pushed past him.

And almost choked. Pendragon was just pulling on a dressing gown. He was obviously naked under it. Kee took in the fact that Devin was chained to the bed, naked and face down, with pillows under him to raise his hips. She swallowed hard as she saw the bloody lashes over his body from shoulders to knees. The nausea that hit her wasn’t because of the feeling of power in the air. His head was turned away, his blond hair spikey and wet with sweat. Her eyes filled. “Devin.” She started for him, but Maggie put a hand on her arm.

Right. Focus.
She turned to Pendragon. “What have you done to him?” The pillows said it was worse than just whipping. Pendragon’s erection still tented his dressing gown, though it was going down even as she watched. “You’re vile.”

“Such a pedestrian word, ‘vile.’ I’m so much more complicated than just
vile.
” He turned his gaze to Maggie. “Another Tremaine. What a nice surprise. Three. Who would have thought?”

Devin turned his head, slowly, painfully. The shame in his eyes was hard to witness. “Go home, Kee.” His voice was a hoarse croak. His gaze turned to Maggie. His brows drew together even further. He closed his eyes as though he couldn’t bear to look at them. “You too, Maggie.”

“We’re not going anywhere without you,” Kee said, her voice softer.

She loved him. She admitted it down somewhere deep in her soul at that moment and she wasn’t ashamed. So she didn’t love him like a brother anymore, or a friend. But it wasn’t just lust. She loved him with a capital L. Destiny. The One. It would be the great sorrow in her life because he loved someone else. But at least she’d been given the privilege of knowing what love was, in spite of being a small and selfish person. His presence in her life was a gift and she would never be sorry for that.

“We’ll just be taking Devin home now, Pendragon,” Maggie said through clenched jaws, when Kee didn’t take charge. “Unchain him.”

“Sure you wouldn’t like to join us? I have a feeling Keelan here has an unusual … shall we say ‘bond’ with her brother? Maybe she’d like to participate.”

Kee’s anger flared. “Torture him? I don’t think so.”

“Torture?” Pendragon said, feigning surprise. “Your brother came like Old Faithful tonight, didn’t you, Devin?” He touched Devin’s lacerated buttock in a gesture that was frightening because it was tender. “He enjoyed himself immensely.”

Devin looked like he was going to be sick. He turned his head to face Pendragon and the wall rather than meet Kee’s eyes. That pushed Kee over some edge. This old creep didn’t have the right to cause Devin one
second
of pain or shame. She wasn’t waiting for Maggie to calm Pendragon. Kee didn’t want him calm. She wanted him afraid like Devin must have been afraid.

She pulled out her gun. “Unlock him,” she growled.

“Oh, dear me,” Pendragon said reproachfully.

“What happened to ‘gun as backup plan’?” Maggie asked, exasperated.

“You’re now the backup plan,” Kee muttered.

“Do you really think you’d use it?” Pendragon’s smirk was condescending.

“Damn right,” Kee said. She brought up the gun with two hands and put a bullet in the wall to the right of Pendragon’s ear. The kick was formidable, so the shot was a little high, but nothing she couldn’t handle.
Thanks, Father, for those hours at the shooting range.

Pendragon never moved a muscle but his eyes widened. “In that case, the key is on the night table.” He pointed. “How do you expect to get out through the garden?”

“We’ll manage,” Maggie said grimly. “Whatever those things are.”

“You have power too.” Pendragon raised his brows, surprised and pleased. “Only people who have power can sense them.”

A bell sounded. Both Kee and Maggie jumped. It was over the door. That was how Green had notified Pendragon of their arrival.

“Dear me, my next guests are early. I might have known they’d want to surprise me.” Why was he so calm? Kee had a gun on him. What did he have up his sleeve?

“It’s Morgan and the Clan,” Devin said hoarsely.

Oh, God. What to do now? Maggie looked up in dismay, then scurried over to the key and descended on Devin.

Kee tried to think. “Where will Green put them?”

“In the library, I expect.” Pendragon’s voice was mild. He was enjoying their anxiety. It made Kee want to shoot him then and there.

“We’ll just go out the front door then. As planned,” Kee decided. “Avoid them entirely.”

Maggie had one of Devin’s wrists unlocked and was working on his ankle. “We take Pendragon with us. That might help with the things outside.” The shackle clanked open. “Get over by the fireplace,” Maggie hissed to the wizard. Pendragon grabbed his cane and limped back. She hurried around the far side of the bed to Devin’s other chains. “Watch out for Green, in case he comes in to announce the new arrivals,” she warned Kee.

Kee didn’t want to have to cover both of them. They were just crazy enough to rush her.

“Devin,” Maggie said in a low voice, “you strong enough to get out of here?”

“I’ll do.” He wouldn’t look at Maggie either.

It broke Kee’s heart to see him struggle painfully off the bed on his hands and knees. Maggie helped him with her shoulder against his ribs and her arm around his waist. Blood smeared her slicker. As he stood, blood trickled down Devin’s inner thighs.
Dear God.

Pendragon’s look got sly. “Secretly wish you had the courage to participate, sister dear? Why I bet you’re wet between your legs right now, just thinking about me giving that taut young body a good whipping and a good reaming.”

“Shut up,” Kee yelled. “Shut up.” Her vision wavered. For a split second, she thought Pendragon had turned into a devil for real, grown horns and a scaly red tail just like her picture of Devin in the shower. The tail even had the same excruciating detail, the same arrow-shaped end. She shook her head, chest heaving. Was she going mad? No. It was just Pendragon leaning on his stick by the crackling fire.

“Kee,” Maggie said. Kee recognized the Calm in her voice. “Don’t let him get to you. We’re just going to go home now.”

Kee caught her breath, grabbed for the Calm. “Yeah. Okay.” The last thing she needed was to go around the bend and start seeing things.

Maggie looked around for something to cover Devin. “Can you stand here, honey?” She left him propped, a little wobbly, against the high bed, and strode over to pull open the heavy Victorian armoire. Maggie pulled out the first robe she saw and gently guided Devin’s arms into the sleeves. It was white, emphasizing the sick pallor under Devin’s usual glowing tan. He hissed as it rubbed across his back. Maggie laid a palm on his chest.

“Don’t, Maggie,” Devin muttered. “I need whatever wits I’ve got left tonight.”

Maggie nodded and just grabbed the ties of the robe and pulled it together, wincing as she realized the pain she was causing him.

There was a tap at the door. “Mr. Pendragon?”

Kee motioned with her gun. “Answer it, but don’t let him inside.”

Pendragon opened the door. Green’s eyes got big. “Yes, a small setback, I’m afraid.”