Autumn Calling (14 page)

“Okay, here we go. Ready?” Summer asked.

Autumn nodded.

It was over in a second. Vixen growled and
was exceptionally displeased with them both messing with her leg,
but the two women had the cat bandaged up and in Autumn’s arms in
minutes. Summer gave Vixen a shot of pain medication and told
Autumn she would call Dr. Stuart to have him write up a new
prescription that could be picked up later.

“Thank you so much. Vixen and I are so
grateful we met you.”

“It’s not a problem. That’s what I do,”
Summer said, stroking the sedated, comfortable feline. They said
their goodbyes. Summer went back to her bag on the grass and
started cleaning up as Autumn headed for the front door with the
cat. A man in a suit Summer surmised was a butler and a woman met
her on the porch. When the woman spied Summer, she seemed to
recognize her, though Summer had never seen the woman before.
Immediately her hands raised and electrical tentacles appeared from
her fingers. Summer was dumbfounded by what she saw, and when the
magical force the woman threw hit her she was thrown back some
fifteen feet.

Autumn screamed, “What are you doing?” as
she handed off the cat to the man and ran towards the place Summer
landed. Summer was dazed and confused by what had just happened.
Magic.
How many darn magical families were there in
Paradise?
she wondered as she sat up. She could see Autumn
running toward her, but the woman, who was now on the grass, was
posing to send more blasts Summer’s way as she yelled to Autumn,
“Get out of the way, child. She’s the Midnight witch come to do
battle with us.”

“No,” Autumn called back, “she’s not.”

It was then that it dawned on Summer who
these people were. This was not just an ordinary household with an
injured cat, these were the dreaded Macabres she’d been warned
about and had been learning magic so ferociously to defeat.

Here she was, without any backup on their
home-front, with a house full of witches. A man made his way out of
the house, and another woman, and when they saw her they all raised
their hands, ready to do battle. Summer stood and sprinted away as
fast as she could towards the back of the yard and around the house
out of their sight. But she soon found they were all in pursuit of
her. When she turned to see them, she realized outrunning the magic
would not work.

Another wave of force made its way towards
Summer from the group of witches. It distorted her view of the
house and the people sending pulses of fireballs her direction.
Autumn ran as fast as she could towards Summer when Summer put up
her hands in defense of the oncoming magic. Autumn stopped dead in
her tracks not six feet from Summer as she watched Summer send a
defensive block of conical wind tunnels over Autumn’s head and
towards the house.

Summer imagined that was probably when
Autumn realized she was who her family had said.

When the two magical forces met just feet
away from where Autumn stood, the ground rumbled and cracked. It
seemed as if lightning struck inches from where they stood, and
maybe it had, for the ground gave way and the two girls were sent
downward into a pit of rubble and soil. A second after they landed,
the ground groaned once more, and Summer impulsively grabbed
Autumn’s arm, yanking her away from falling rocks. They both
tumbled into an open crevice quickly blocked by the heavy earthen
debris.

Summer laid in the darkness, banged up and
coughing from the dust she’d inhaled. A moment later there was a
movement on top of her. She hadn’t realized that Autumn was lying
across her legs. Summer sat up and reached into her jeans pocket
for her keys. There was a tiny LED light attached to her key ring
for those late night returns from the clinic. She pressed the
button and illuminated their surroundings.

They lay in a cavernous cavity completely
cut off from the world above. “Autumn. Are you okay?” Summer asked
noting a cut just below her hair line that bled down her face.

Summer reached out. Autumn swatted her hand
and scooted away from Summer.

“Don’t touch me, Midnight,” Autumn said,
almost growling and raising a hand in defense, but nothing
happened, to Autumn’s surprise. Summer could see the disappointment
on Autumn’s face as she tried to send something at her again and
again.

Summer couldn’t make a ball of fire for
light nor get any magic to work either.

“You really ought to let me look at your
head,” Summer said.

“Why, so you can kill me?”

“If I wanted to kill you why did I pull you
away from those rocks sure to bash-in your head?”

That seemed to puzzle Autumn.

“Look, we’re obviously going to be here for
a while. Let me look at your head and make sure you don’t have any
other injuries we should be concerned about.”

It was apparent to Summer that Autumn was
not happy about it, but she didn’t swat her away as she had before
when she came closer to look at the cut on her head.

Summer had a flannel shirt on over another
shirt. She tore a strip off the bottom to make a long bandage then
ripped the shirt pocket off. She folded the pocked fabric over to
double it and placed it over Autumn’s injury and secured it with
the long strip of flannel like a head band.

* * *

Summer stood and looked around. The cave was
not huge in width, but it was very high, and she could feel a
breeze. She reached down and picked up a few rocks, trying to
discern what they were in the light of the tiny LED. What she found
made her smile. She kept one rock in her hand and hunted for
another similar one.

“What are you doing?” Autumn asked seemingly
annoyed.

“Pyrite,” Summer said holding it up to show
Autumn.

“So? What about it?”

“It’s the next best thing to flint and
steel.”

“I’m not following.”

“We can build a fire?”

“In a cave. That doesn’t seem smart.”

“I can feel a breeze, so there’s an air
outlet for the smoke. Might make it easier for your family to find
us.”

That sparked an eyebrow twitch from Autumn.
“What are you going to burn? Another rock? I don’t think they have
coal in these parts.”

“No, but roots might work, moss, whatever we
can find.”

“Wouldn’t water be a better thing to
find?”

“Yes. One thing at a time: fire for light,
then possibly water and food.”

“Great. If you want to live down here, fine,
but I’m thinking I might want to live up top with the rest of the
world,” Autumn complained.

“I’d like that too, but unless you have a
grappling hook and rope under your shirt, I don’t think we have a
whole lot of options. After all, it’s better than sitting around
doing nothing.”

“I like nothing. It’s relaxing.”

Summer rolled her eyes as Autumn lay back on
the rubble.

“That’s fine. You should relax with that
head injury. I’ll look around a bit.

“You go, girl,” Autumn said. “Besides, my
parents saw us drop down into the ground. I’m sure they’re doing
everything they can to find us.”

“You, maybe.”

“Oh, they’ll want to find you too.”

“Only to kill me.”

“Maybe, but after all, you are the spawn of
Satan.”

“What? Who told you that? Besides we’re
twins. If I’m the spawn of Satan then you are to.”

“Not necessarily. Mother said you were
always evil, and that’s why they got rid of you.”

“I think you bumped your head harder than I
thought,” Summer said while rolling her eyes and continuing to look
around the perimeter of the cave for items she could burn or an
opening they could use to get out. “Besides, our mother couldn’t
have told you anything. She died just after we were born.”

“Uh, I don’t think so. She’s right up
there.” Autumn pointed to the ceiling.

“Yeah, in heaven.”

“No, with Dad.”

“That’s not our mother.”

“She’s my mother.”

“Fine. She may be YOUR mother, but she’s not
our biological mother, Violet Evans,” Summer explained. “And if
you’re referring to the woman that I briefly saw throwing magic
fireballs at me, I’d have to guess that was Marcus’s sister due to
their similar looks. Our mother was blond and petite. That woman
was never blond, and is svelte and tall like Marcus.”

This statement seemed to throw Autumn into a
perturbed silence, and after a moment and few face contortions she
said, “That’s just absurd and gross to be honest. You’re suggesting
the woman I think is my mother, our mother, is my aunt? My father
doesn’t have a sister. He had a twin brother, but he’s dead now at
the hand of Henry Midnight.”

“According to my research and the family
trees I’ve looked at from both sides, Marcus has a sister named
Juliette who’s a few years younger than him.”

Again with the disgusted face, Autumn fell
silent. “That just can’t be right. I mean her name is Juliette, but
she couldn’t be Dad’s sister. That’s just…”

“Gross, right?”

“Yeah!”

“I agree. But maybe they thought it would
help you cope with all this craziness if you had a mother and a
father growing up.”

“Ew, I mean,” Autumn’s whole body shook as
if she was shaking off the thought of them posing as husband and
wife all these years.

“It just can’t be. There must be a
mistake.”

“Maybe. Might be worth asking them when we,
or I should say you, get out of this hole,” Summer added. “To the
best of my knowledge, I don’t believe there is a Henry Midnight,
though.”

“What?” Autumn returned.

“Henry Midnight. You said a Henry Midnight
killed Marcus’s brother.”

“Yes.”

“There is no Henry Midnight. There’s a Henry
Evans
in the family tree. Maybe that’s who they mean.”

“Oh?” Autumn said, still seeming to be in a
haze regarding her aunt posing as her mother.

“Henry was Violet’s father, our
grandfather.”

“Maybe Dad called him a Midnight since he
was married to one.”

“Right. That’s probably it then.”

“Is Henry dead?” Autumn asked.

“Yes.”

“Serves him right for killing Uncle Rene and
the others. Do you know how many Macabres died that night? Four,
all because of this Henry guy.”

“That ‘Henry guy’ was family too, you know,
and there were just as many deaths on the Midnight side as well.
We’re all family now, aren’t we?”

Autumn was silent for a long while as Summer
made her way back with her little keychain light. She sat next to
Autumn, dropping a pile of things in front of her.

“Why do you suppose our magic doesn’t work
here?” Autumn asked. Summer figured she was trying to change the
subject.

“I have a thought, but I’m not sure if I
should say, since it will prove we know a secret you may not know
we know.”

“What? I have no idea what you just said,”
Autumn admitted.

“I guess, well, it probably doesn’t matter
much if I tell you at this point. I think it might have to do with
the dragon your family is holding on the grounds,” Summer said,
smashing the two rocks together to make sparks glowing
yellow-white.

“A dragon? We don’t have a dragon.”

“I seriously doubt you’d admit having a
dragon to me even if you did, but I’m telling you, that is the
reason.”

“If we did have a dragon, and I’m not saying
we do, but if we did, how would that have anything to do with our
magic? Maybe it’s just solar flares interfering with, something
that makes our magic go kaput.”

“How could solar flares interfere with
anything this far underground?” Summer asked.

“Uh, well, I’m not completely sure. But hey,
the moon affects all kinds of things in and above the ground. And
polar magnets, those can affect…things too.”

Summer stood with her hand on her hip
listening to the convoluted reasoning Autumn was spewing.

“Seriously?” she answered.

“Well. It could be.”

Summer wanted to laugh. It sounded just like
a conversation she and Tori had once a long time ago when studying
for a test on earth science at the orphanage. They’d both ended up
laughing so hard Summer had almost peed her pants. But she wasn’t
quite ready to admit she might like this enemy she was sharing
space with at the moment.

“So why do you believe it’s because of this
imaginary dragon we have that’s causing this?”

“From what I’ve learned, a mother dragon
will purify the area around where she is nesting, making it void of
impurities both manmade and supernatural.”

“Now we have a baby dragon, too?” Autumn
laughed half-heartedly.

“An egg at the very least.” This fact
quieted Autumn’s onslaught of questions. Summer wondered if maybe
she hadn’t known about the egg and that her family was holding it
hostage to get the dragon to do their bidding.

“It’s an interesting theory,” she said, as
if shrugging off the insinuations cast on her family.

Summer blew on a wad of cotton she’d ripped
from her flannel shirt. She cast some sparks into it from the
pyrite and it smoked profusely. One more puff and a small flame
popped up, devouring the cotton threads when Autumn shivered.
“Here, put this on. It’s not a coat, but it’s a little something to
cover your bare arms.”

Autumn put it on and said, “It’s the new
fashion, grunge-wear.” Summer smiled as she put dried twig-looking
things she’d found on the fire. More than likely they were just
rotten roots, but at least they were a little woody. The smoke rose
to the ceiling of the cave as Summer watched it with her little
light.

“That’s a heck of a bonfire you got going
there, Summer,” Autumn said sarcastically.

“I know it’s not much. I was just hoping
that, wherever the outlet is, maybe the smoke will be visible to
those looking for us. Problem is there’s not much to keep it going
down here. Like you said, there’s no coal and only these few roots
I found, which aren’t going to last long.”