Don't Hex with Texas (14 page)

He got back on the radio. “Didn’t see anything. It could have been just a dog, or else my eyes playing tricks on me. I’ll make one more circuit around town, then that’ll be the end of my shift. See you back at the barn.”

As soon as the car was gone, I turned to Owen. “We had him. Why didn’t we go after him? People walk around with veils and illusions all the time, so I don’t get why you couldn’t keep us hidden if we chased him.”

“Complete invisibility against someone who’s really looking takes a lot of power. Most so-called invisibility isn’t complete. It’s more of a spell to make people not notice something they weren’t paying attention to in the first place. It’s much harder to really be invisible to someone who’s intently looking for you. I know I couldn’t have kept the two of us invisible and silent while chasing our suspect. If we’d gone after him, we’d have been the ones who were caught.”

“And that would have ruined everything,” I admitted. “You couldn’t have done that time-freezing thing again, I guess?”

Instead of answering me, he knelt and put his hands on the ground. Then I felt the magic through the soles of my feet. “Not a good thing to do with someone around who’s linked to the world outside the spell,” he then said. “What if dispatch tried reaching the police officer here while he was frozen? Now, let’s see how far our guy got.”

I had to pull up the hem of my robe to run after him down the alley where the wizard had disappeared. It would have been nice to get rid of the robes before we had to go running and searching, but I guessed if we found the guy, we wouldn’t want to be recognized. The air was as still as it had been the other night, but the only frozen living beings we saw in the alley were cats and rats. I had no idea we had that many rats in this town. It gave me the creeps.

We searched the entire downtown area, weaving between buildings and looking under anything that might have offered shelter from Sam. The gargoyle returned just as we made it back to the bank. “Sorry, boss, I lost him,” he said. “He went low, which is where I’m not as good. Scrambled between buildings and then got up under something. That’s where I lost him. I checked the area over, but if he got inside somewhere and went building to building and then ditched the robes, well, I’m good, but I’m not that good. You’d have needed a rat to track this guy, and I’m not yet on friendly terms with any of the locals.”

Owen looked at me. “Are there any good hiding places here, places where someone might know to hide out?”

“The upstairs rooms in most of these buildings on the square are vacant. You can get into some of them using the fire escapes. Kids sometimes hang out there. But there’s also a pretty good chance he got out of range before you had a chance to freeze him.”

Sam hopped up onto the trunk of the car so he could look Owen in the eye. “You did it again? I thought things seemed quiet. How long has it been?”

I compared my watch to the courthouse clock tower, factoring in the five minutes from the other night. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Drop it now,” Sam said. “People’ll notice, and it can’t be good for you or for the space-time continuum.”

“We can catch him!” Owen insisted. “What if he’s hiding in one of those buildings?”

“He was headin’ away from the square when I lost him. He was probably out of range. And if he’s gone to ground, he’ll stay for a while. I can go look in the buildings, but you’ve got to stop playing with the big stuff like that.”

With a sigh, Owen knelt again, and soon it was a lot easier to breathe. Sam took off to peek through windows, and we got into the car. I directed Owen down back roads that led away from town before going the long way back around to my parents’ house.

“He’ll be back tomorrow night, if Sam doesn’t catch him tonight,” he said after a while, sounding almost like he was trying to boost his own spirits.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Up to this point, he’s thought he was invincible because he could do magic. The wards really threw him. Now he has to suspect there’s another wizard around who’s stronger than he is. He’ll spend the day reading his spell book, maybe checking in with his correspondence course teacher. If we’re lucky, he might even try casing the bank in daylight to see what the problem is.”

“He won’t be able to get in, even in daylight, will he?”

“No. Which might even mean we could figure out our culprit that way and not have to stay up all night tomorrow. Is there anything you need to do tomorrow?”

“I should probably put in some time at work so I don’t get too far behind. You could come with me and see the joys of the family business. That would keep you away from Mom. I can take off pretty early, though.”

“I think I’ll help Sam stake out the bank. I’d really like to get this wrapped up.”

Sherri showed up on time for work the next morning, which was one of the signs of the impending apocalypse, and she came bearing a gift, which was definitely an omen of the end times. She brought a cake in a foil pan back to the office. “Is Owen here?” she asked. That explained the earliness and the cake, I thought.

“No, he had some things to do today. Why?”

“I wanted to apologize again for what a jerk Dean was to him yesterday. I made him this cake, since you didn’t get to have dessert at my house.” Her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, and I actually felt sorry for her.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I said, taking the cake from her and putting it on my desk. “Dean was the one who was a jerk.”

“I don’t know what to do about Dean,” she blurted with a sob. “I think he’s got himself mixed up in something bad.”

I took her arm and helped her over to the sofa in the back of the office. “What is it?” I asked, sitting next to her and holding her hand.

“I think he’s involved with something illegal to make money. You know how he is, this is always going to be the thing that makes him rich, and it just puts us deeper in the hole, but at least all of those have been honest. Sort of. Now, though, he’s buying me way too much stuff, and I know I shouldn’t complain, but we don’t have that kind of money. He’s out at all hours, coming and going without telling me, and I think he’s meeting with shady people. I don’t know what I’ll do if he goes to jail.” Then she broke down in sobs.

Dean drove me crazy at times, but if she was worried enough to question gifts, I couldn’t help but worry about him, even if he had brought his troubles on himself. I just didn’t have time to deal with it at the moment, not until we took care of this wizard. Why couldn’t my family wait to have a major crisis? Then again, if he was dealing with the wizard, Sherri might be a useful source of information. “Keep an eye on him, and let me know if you notice anything else suspicious, okay?” I said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “It might help if we knew who he was dealing with and where he got all that stuff. But we will take care of it, I promise.”

She collapsed, sobbing, on my shoulder, and I patted her back until she pulled herself together. “Thanks, Katie,” she said with a sniffle and an attempt at a smile. “Well, I’d better go fix my face, then get to the register.”

I got through the rest of the morning without any additional scenes. By noon, I was able to wrap things up in the office. I took the morning’s receipts in a deposit bag and headed to the bank. It really was an errand I’d have to do anyway, but it was the perfect excuse to check in on Owen and Sam.

The bank was busy at noon on a Monday, so I had to park a block away and walk. Owen was across the street from the bank, leaning against a wall with a cup of coffee in his hand. I wasn’t sure whether I should speak to him, or if he was invisible to everyone but me. He spoke first. “An errand at the bank?” he asked.

“Yeah, would you believe, I have to make a deposit?”

“Need some company?”

“Sure, if you’re that desperate for something to do.”

“I want to get a look at the inside of the bank, just in case.”

“I take it you haven’t seen any customers being forcefully repelled.”

“Not a one.”

As we approached the bank, I saw Dean heading toward the front steps. I wanted to talk to him some more about what I’d noticed and about Sherri’s concerns, but he was the last person I wanted to see right now. Next to me, Owen stiffened. He obviously wasn’t too thrilled to see Dean, either. Both of us slowed our pace, holding back so that Dean turned to go into the bank before he noticed us. I sighed in relief that at least one awkward encounter had been avoided when he reached the bank entrance without seeing us. Then he bounced off something invisible and landed on his back on the sidewalk.

I
t was impossible. I never in a million years would have believed it if I hadn’t seen him bounce off the wards with my own eyes. My brother was the local wizard. The lying, thieving, con-artist local wizard. I rushed over, Owen right behind me. “Dean? It was you?” I couldn’t help but blurt as my brother stared up at me in shock.

“What was me?” he tried as a look of panic crossed his face. He rolled to his side, as if to prepare to get up and run. Owen bent, grabbed his arm, and helped him to his feet, then didn’t let go. His knuckles turned white, he was grasping so hard. Dean made as though to pull away, and I thought I felt the tingle of building magic. Dean frantically mumbled words, his eyes growing wider and wider as Owen stayed put and was entirely unaffected by whatever he’d tried to do.

After about a minute of this, Owen’s grip on Dean’s arm tightened and he said very softly, “Don’t even try it. You are so outclassed here that you can’t even comprehend the class I’m in.” Then, quite suddenly, Owen released Dean and stepped backward. Dean’s muscles tensed, ready to run the moment he was let go, but he was frozen in place, unable to take a step. Owen stood there watching him, his arms folded across his chest, not even breaking a sweat.

Then Dean yelled at the top of his lungs, “Hey, this is your burglar! He’s the guy who did it!” People kept walking up and down the sidewalk, not giving him more than a passing glance.

“You’re not the only one who can hide what you’re up to,” Owen said mildly. Then he added, “Katie, I’ll stay out here and keep your brother company while you wrap up your errand. We have a lot to talk about.”

“What are you doing with my sister, you freak? Katie, you come back here, don’t do what he says!” Dean shouted. He then began mumbling words and wiggling his fingers at me. I felt the magic but, of course, it did nothing to me.

“Give it a rest, Dean,” I said with a sigh. “I need to go make these deposits.” I didn’t want to leave them alone, but I was holding the morning’s receipts for the store, including the checks that had come in over the weekend, so skipping this errand wasn’t an option. I headed to the bank, shivering as I crossed through the wards at the threshold, and gave one last glance over my shoulder before I entered. I wasn’t sure if the lines were longer than usual or if they only felt that way because I was so eager to get back outside and see what was going on.

My brother was the local criminal wizard? There had to be some kind of mix-up or coincidental misunderstanding. Maybe he’d tripped or slipped on the steps instead of bouncing off the wards. But no, he’d been using magic—or trying to—on Owen and me. There couldn’t be any doubt, unless there was another local wizard who’d done all the illegal stuff, but then that wouldn’t explain all of Dean’s new acquisitions.

It seemed to take forever to make my deposit, and while normally I’d have been glad that the teller double-checked the amounts, this time I couldn’t help but drum my fingers on the counter in impatience. I practically grabbed the deposit receipt out of her hand and shoved it into my bag while I jogged across the lobby to the exit.

Owen and Dean were still right where I’d left them, in the middle of a staredown. “All done!” I announced. “Now, where do we go from here?”

“Is there a place we can talk without being overheard or interrupted?” Owen asked.

“In this town? Let’s see, Mom will be at home. Sherri will be off work soon, so Dean’s house is out. I know, we can talk in the barn.”

“Good idea, Katie,” Owen said, still sounding calm and collected, but I noticed a small muscle in his jaw twitching.

“Katie, you’re siding with this guy?” Dean asked, the faintest hint of a desperate whine in his voice. “Do you know what he is?”

“I know exactly what he is. I’m just not sure you know yet what you’re really dealing with, and I guess I don’t know what you are anymore.”

Owen waved a hand ever so slightly, making an “after you” gesture, and Dean’s legs began moving, walking him toward Owen’s rental car. Every so often, Dean gave a little jerk, like he was trying to break free, but Owen only intensified his control. He made Dean sit in the passenger seat.

Owen then took a small cell phone—or something that looked pretty much like a cell phone but that I imagined had a few extra magical features—out of his shirt pocket and pushed a couple of buttons. “Sam, meet us at the barn behind Katie’s house,” he said into the phone. “And be careful. You know about her mother.” The way Owen had to hold the phone away from his ear told me that Sam definitely remembered my mother. She’d hit him in the face with her purse when she was in New York at Thanksgiving, thinking he was an overgrown bat.

I went to get my truck, and Owen followed me out to the house. I pulled up into the horse pasture behind the barn so the truck wouldn’t be visible from inside the house, then once Owen had parked, I led the way into the barn. The dogs came running up to greet us, but then came to an abrupt halt a few yards away, almost like they’d sensed that this was something they didn’t want to get involved with.

Owen shoved Dean down to sit on a wooden crate inside the barn, looming over him. “What were you trying to pull? Did you really think you could get away with it?” he yelled. I couldn’t help but wince and take a step backward. Owen almost never raised his voice.

“Get away with what?” Dean asked, trying—and failing—to look innocent. I recognized the tactic from childhood. He wanted to make sure he knew what our parents thought he’d done so he wouldn’t accidentally admit to something they didn’t know about yet.

I was about to list his crimes when Daisy, our old mare, stuck her head into the barn to see what the commotion was. Dean patted his leg in what I knew was a signal for her to come to him. He’d always been her favorite, and I guessed he thought he’d found an escape route. But Daisy went straight to Owen, nuzzling his neck in a way that made me just a little jealous. Dean took advantage of the distraction and jumped off the crate, running for the door on the side of the barn closest to the house. Owen barely jerked his head and that door slammed shut. Before Dean could run for the other exit, Owen gave a hand signal and Daisy went to stand blocking the barn entrance. She pawed at the ground with a foreleg and her ears flattened against her head when Dean moved as though to run in her direction. Dean’s eyes bugged out, and I could see it dawning on him exactly what he might be dealing with in Owen.

He went back to the crate and took a seat, as though that had been what he had planned to do all along. “So, what is it you think I’ve been doing?” he asked.

I took a deep breath, then shouted, “What have you been doing? For starters, you’ve been freaking Mom out. What was up with all that dancing on the square wearing Teddy’s old Jedi robes?” I’d finally recognized the robes and realized where they must have gone. “And then panhandling? Really? That was so tacky. Oh yeah, and the window at the motel. What was up with that?”

“But those are all minor,” Owen put in. “Pickpocketing and burglary, however, took things a step too far. Magic used to commit crime is automatically classified as dark magic, regardless of which forces you channel to carry it out. Influencing people to your benefit, as you were doing while panhandling, is more of a gray area, but crime is definitely over the line.”

All the color drained from Dean’s face. “How—how did you know?” he asked, his voice shaking.

“I watched you dancing around the courthouse,” I said. “And to think you were going to let them lock Mom up in the loony bin for reporting what she saw, when you knew all along that what she saw was for real. That was really low.”

“No one was supposed to see that. And Mom really was nuts about some of that stuff, like what she thought she saw Gene Ward doing. Everyone knows his dad has an account at the pharmacy.”

I refused to get sidetracked from his crimes. “I also saw you at the theater. You were the one who sent the snake illusion after Nita and me, weren’t you?”

“I was only having a little fun. It wouldn’t have hurt you.”

“Ask Nita if it was fun. I didn’t even see the snake.”

“You didn’t?”

“That’s why you shouldn’t play with things you don’t understand,” Owen said, pacing as he talked. “For instance, did you know that there are people your magic doesn’t affect, who can see what you’re doing, no matter what spell you use to hide yourself? That might have been good for you to know before you made a public spectacle of yourself.”

Dean looked at me. “You?”

“Yeah, and Mom, too, only she doesn’t know it. And there’s a strong possibility that there are others in our family, too.” I turned to Owen. “Speaking of which, how is it that he’s magical when Mom and I are immune?”

“It’s not entirely unheard of. It all involves the same gene—the immunity is actually caused by a mutation of the magical gene, but then that itself becomes an inherited trait. It’s possible for both traits to exist in the same family. I’m not sure exactly how it works. Magical genetics isn’t my area of expertise.”

Although he’d answered the question I asked, my real question remained: How come my brother got to be magical? It was no fair. I thought I was the special one in the family with my magical immunity, and Dean had trumped me by having actual magical powers. But I kept my pouting to myself so I wouldn’t sound like a bratty baby sister.

“Who are you, anyway?” Dean asked. “I take it you’re not really here as Katie’s boyfriend. You’re here to track me down, right?”

“I’m here for a number of reasons,” Owen said neutrally, glancing at me. “One of which was to determine who was doing unauthorized magic in a place with no registered magic users. The timing of your magical activity in this location was highly suspicious, considering Katie’s position.”

Dean turned to look at me. “You’re mixed up in all this magic stuff?”

“At a very high level,” I said, trying not to sound like I was gloating about knowing more about magic than he did, even if he was the one with the powers. “It’s a long story, and I won’t get into all the details, but Owen and I both work for a company called Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Incorporated. Well, Owen does. I used to. You might think of it as the Microsoft of magic—they come up with and sell most of the spells used in the magical world. They needed me because of my magical immunity. There’s a rogue wizard out there trying to get darker spells into the market as our competition, and we’re—our company—trying to stop him. I had to come back here because he was targeting me in New York.”

“He’s the one running your magic school, and I came here to get to the bottom of it all,” Owen added. “But that doesn’t get you off the hook. You’ve been using magic to commit crimes, and I can’t let that slide, no matter who you are.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m…” Owen’s voice trailed off, as though he wasn’t sure of the answer to the question. “I’m a fully trained and qualified wizard,” he said at last. “The kind of stuff you’re doing, I learned how to do by the time I was five. Of course, I didn’t apply it in quite the same way you have. Now I run the theoretical magic division in the research and development department at MSI. I study old spells and try to find ways to apply them to modern life, in addition to creating new spells for specific situations. And I’m more or less leading our efforts to counter this rogue wizard, since he used to work with me and I know how he thinks.” I noticed that he left out the part where he was probably the most powerful wizard of his generation.

“What should we do with him?” I asked Owen. “We should probably turn him over to the police, but then that would require explaining how he committed the crimes.”

“Hey!” Dean protested. “How do you know I’m the one who robbed the stores? Maybe there’s another wizard around town.”

“You had all the stolen stuff in your house,” I reminded him.

“So, magic really doesn’t work on you?” he asked me, turning the subject away from his guilt. Then he raised his arms and chanted some mumbo jumbo. I felt the magic surround me, but as usual, it didn’t affect me a bit. I copped a casual pose, even yawned in mock boredom.

Owen let it go on awhile, then waved a hand. “Enough of that,” he said. I felt the magic die down. “You don’t want to accidentally set the barn on fire with us in it.”

“You mean I could do that?”

“You have so little control over your power that you’re more likely to do the exact opposite of what you want than to actually accomplish anything. Now, where were we? Ah yes, we were explaining to you how stupid you were.”

“And trying to decide what to do with him,” I added.

“What we’re going to do is teach him a lesson or two, and then get some information out of him.”

“You’re not going to torture me, are you?” Dean asked, starting to look truly frightened.

“I don’t have to torture you,” Owen said wearily. “You’ll tell me what I want to know without me laying a hand on you. That’s a point you don’t seem to be grasping.”

Outside the barn, the dogs sent up a chorus of barks. A second later, Sam swooped into the barn and perched on a rafter. Dean screamed—a high-pitched, girly scream—and fell off his crate. “That—that thing! What is it? Get it away!”