Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies (2 page)

Any evidence of casual interest melted away from Jax’s six-foot frame as he straightened. “Where?”

The bottle disappeared back into Antoine’s deep pocket.

“Here and there. It took some doing, but I used my contacts to locate the beans. I found one in Brazil. Another came from Kenya. The last I received a week ago by parcel post from Finland.” He shook his shaggy head. “To think after all these years, I finally have them. And just in time too.”

“What do you mean, ‘just in time’?” Veronica asked.

Jax stepped closer to the desk, concern deepening the lines on his forehead.

Antoine shrugged. “I’m old. The doctors say the ticker just isn’t what it used to be when Chloe was still alive. She always made me eat healthy, all the green things and such. It seems the bacon has caught up with me. The doctors say it’s just a matter of time–maybe even months.”

Clenching her teeth, she focused on the spinning wheel in a back corner to keep the tears at bay. Rumpelstiltskin had used it for years to spin straw into gold. It had been her first major find with Antoine and Jax. They’d combed through historical documents, tracked down every lead and searched for years before finding it in the hollow of a dead tree in the Black Forest. After that, she had sworn she’d make her dreams of starting her own treasure hunting company a reality.

Antoine had believed in her, even when her family had warned her to give up her foolish dreams and join the other New York heiresses at charity balls and luncheons. More than just a professional mentor, Antoine had established himself as her friend and champion. She couldn’t imagine not having him in her life.

“Well, there has to be something you can do.” She chewed the inside of her cheek, hoping the pain would keep her from crying.

“Of course. Give up adventuring. Close my wonderful store. Live a life of calm on a beach somewhere. Oh, and eat more fruits and veggies, which in my case would mean any fruits and veggies.” He laughed at his joke. “Don’t be so glum. I’ve had a grand time treasure hunting. Especially with you two. You were my best proteges. I am so proud of how far you’ve come and I can’t imagine going on one last escapade with anyone but you two.”

Jax clapped a hand on the older man’s shoulder. “You should be enjoying your retirement, not running around searching for treasure.”

For the first time in a long time, Veronica was in complete agreement with her ex-fiance. If she could, she’d wrap Antoine in bubble wrap to keep him safe.

“That is the doctors’ recommendation, but I’m not following it. I’m sixty-eight years old and probably won’t see seventy. My wife is dead. I have no family, except for you two. I’ve searched my whole life for these magic beans. I’ll not give up the adventure awaiting me.”

Somewhere in the back of the vast antiques store, a grandfather clock bonged three times.

“Do an old man a great favor.” Antoine turned the full force of his blue eyes on them. “Come climb the beanstalk with me.”

Chapter 2

The full moon hung heavy in the midnight sky, illuminating a battered F-150 that’s best days were at least a decade ago. A sparkling new cherry-red BMW Z4 convertible pulled in beside it. Jax shook his head at the sight. Seeing his and Veronica’s cars side by side perfectly illustrated how different they were and always would be. He had to remember that next time he felt like jumping on the crazy train and kissing her. The girl was way out of his league.

But, damn, she still had it going on. Veronica packed a hell of a punch in her slight five-foot-three-inch frame. She’d cut her silky ebony hair. It used to hit the rise of her pert ass, now it teased the top curve of her breasts, drawing his attention and reminding him of how she used to moan when he’d slid his tongue down the shallow valley between them.

Something new had been added to her black walnut colored eyes, a hardness that hadn’t been there a year ago. Guilt tightened his chest. No doubt, he and her control-freak father were responsible for that. David Kwon had promised to use his funds and influence as the country’s biggest shopping center tycoon to further Jax’s career if he’d leave Veronica alone, but that hadn’t influenced the decision to make that heart-wrenching call. It had been love.

The sports car’s door opened and leather-encased long legs emerged, steering his thoughts from love to lust in less than a heartbeat.

Veronica got out of the driver’s-side door and he almost passed out from the lack of blood flowing to his brain. The woman wore a skin-tight black leather jumpsuit and had pulled back her hair into a tight ponytail. A black tool belt lay snug across her hips. The only spot of color in the ensemble was the slash of scarlet across her lips. She looked like the Korean-American Batgirl, and he wanted to do many bad things just so she’d give chase.

Without acknowledging his slack-jawed stare, she sauntered around to the passenger side, opened the door and helped Antoine out of the low-slung car. The older man was also wearing all black. Not leather that fit like second skin over his potbelly, thank God.

Jax glanced down at his gray, untucked t-shirt and jeans. He must have missed the memo.

“Come, come. We need to bury the beans thirty yards inside the tree line.” Antoine led the way from the isolated spot on Lake Erie’s shore toward the woods surrounding it.

Marveling at how Veronica was able to tromp through the underbrush in boots that added several inches to her height, Jax brought up the rear–giving him a great view of hers. They needed the full moon for the magic to work when they buried the beans, but he wasn’t above enjoying the side benefits of having a little extra light.

Leaves rustled.

Predators lurked in these woods. A huge, hulking wolf had been terrorizing the local villagers for years, bringing new meaning to the terms big and bad. Then there was a family of bears, the youngest of which had never been the same since a home invasion a few years back. He had tangled with the troublesome cub once. It had left him with a three-inch scar on his thigh and a bone-deep appreciation for the animals back home in North Carolina that had the decency not to talk or act like humans.

Unfortunately, animals weren’t the only ones who might see their little trio as prey. Witches with bone houses and angry, non-union dwarves had staked out a claim in these woods. Not to mention treasure hunters, magical, animal and human alike, who’d slice them to pieces for the magic beans without a second’s thought.

He kept his gaze locked on the darkness surrounding them. “So does anyone know you have all three beans?”

“No, I’ve been very careful in my search,” Antoine said. “I hired different hunters to search for each one, then utilized different mediators to buy each of them. None of them know about the others.”

“If the beanstalk grows, how will we guard the perimeter to keep others from climbing it after us?” Veronica, as always, got to the heart of the problem.

“That’s the beauty of it, the absolute beauty.” Antoine clapped his chubby hands with glee. “Once we plant the beans while chanting the sowing spell, no one can climb up the beanstalk except us. A magical force field not only blocks others from ascending the giant stem, it grants the cover of invisibility.”

“And until the beans are planted?” Veronica asked.

Antoine paused then turned around and faced them. The full moon’s light added a soft halo to the white hair sticking up wildly from his scalp. Deep worry lines slashed across his forehead, destroying his standard joyful expression. Slowly and steadily, he grasped the silver handle of his scimitar and slid it from the scabbard.

Antoine had discovered King Shahyar’s curved backsword decades ago in Persia after following clues scribbled in the margin of the original manuscript of
Arabian Nights
, as it’s known in English. It was on that trip his beloved Chloe had been struck and killed by a double-decker bus.

“Until we plant the beans and chant the sowing spell, we must be ever watchful. We are not alone in these woods,” Antoine said.

Jax took an automatic step closer to Veronica. The vanilla of her perfume mixed with the moss-scent of the woods, teasing his senses.

She didn’t acknowledge his closeness, but her shoulders relaxed.

His hands ached to massage the knot that formed across her upper back whenever her stress levels peaked. Every time she had returned to their small, studio apartment after dinner at her parents’ mansion, he’d pull the Murphy Bed down from the wall. She’d lie in the center and he’d rub the lavender oil across her delicate back, paying much care to the tension tightening her shoulders. Eventually, he would work his way down her spine with his fingers until they wrapped around her hips. Then they’d both end up getting covered in oil.

That memory was the last place he needed to be. Time to smarten up, before he fucked up more. Towering over her much smaller frame, he swore to himself to protect her as he’d done before. No matter the cost.

“Then let’s be on our way.” Veronica’s smooth voice carried over the warm summer breeze.

They trudged in silence until they came to a small clearing. Seven large boulders formed a circle in the tall grass. Antoine marched into the center. Veronica followed without hesitation.

A cold blast of air shot through Jax when he passed between two of the boulders. Once inside the boundary, the breeze disappeared. The air hummed around them and the sound of a child singing in a high-pitched voice was barely discernible. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the lyrics.

“Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posie. Ashes. Ashes. We all fall down.”

An ode to the plague brought up by his subconscious or a warning from beyond? Either way, it sent a shiver down his spine. Again, he stationed himself at Veronica’s six, searching the surrounding woods for danger, while Antoine dug a hole with his camp shovel.

A pile of loose dirt grew next to where Antoine kneeled and dug. Finally, the hole was about a foot deep and he stopped. Resting back on his heels, the old man drew a white handkerchief from his pocket and patted down his forehead and under the bridge of his glasses.

“Veronica and Jax, we need to form a triangle around the hole.” He took a deep swig from a silver flask embossed with a giant and a young boy. “Try to make the distance equal between us.”

Antoine replaced the cap on the flask and deposited the silver canister in his knapsack. He reached out to hold Veronica’s and Jax’s hands. “Now you two.”

Tentative and a bit nervous to touch her again, Jax curled his rough fingers around her smooth ones. She squeezed his hand. A jolt of electricity snapped between them. It could have been a mystical connection here in the stone circle, but it felt deeper, older and more personal. His gaze caught hers and his heartbeat calmed to a deliberate rhythm.

Antoine exhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Mystic beanstalk, grow for this three. To heights unseen, love is the key. Riches we’ll find, all that may be. Three you require, three we be.”

Wind whipped through the circle, picking up stray leaves and debris and blowing it sideways with such speed, Jax couldn’t see the world outside the boulders. The moon brightened until it neared the sun’s brilliance. The children’s singing grew more distinct, ringing out clearly around them.

Undeterred, Antoine raised his eyebrows, urging Veronica and him to join in his chant. The words tumbled forth.

“Mystic beanstalk, grow for this three. To heights unseen, love is the key. Riches we’ll find, all that may be. Three you require, three we be.”

The gusts increased in ferocity, the temperature dropping until Jax’s breath froze in his nostrils.

The tiny glass bottle containing the beans floated out of Antoine’s pocket. It danced through the air in time with the measured pace with which they chanted the spell.

“Mystic beanstalk, grow for this three. To heights unseen, love is the key. Riches we’ll find, all that may be. Three you require, three we be.”

Wind yowled around them.

A beam of light shot out of the hole Antoine had dug.

The glass bottle exploded and the three beans dropped like rocks into the ground.

“Ashes. Ashes.” The children sang in deafening screams. “We all fall down.”

The light disappeared. The air stilled and the voices vanished into silence.

Jax’s heartbeat echoed in his ears. Sweat ran down his neck like a flooded river, when moments before, it had been so cold he could see his breath.

The three of them collapsed. Veronica rested her head against his shoulder, her almond-shaped eyes closed. Jax wrapped an arm around her, and was amazed when she allowed him to bring her closer. The bittersweet moment taunted him. If he’d never made that awful call, would they still be together? Married? Would he be sleep deprived and rocking a newborn into the wee hours? An ache burned his gut. The old wound had never completely healed, he’d just gotten used to the daily throb.