Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (15 page)

I set Merlin down immediately, and he began to nose around Duncan’s little house. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“Are you okay?” Duncan reached out and tugged me close. “Have you’ve been crying?”

I pulled back to smile at him. “Give me a glass of wine and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Deal.” he said, and kissed me.

As I related the events of my day to Duncan, Merlin deigned to join us on the sectional. He was sprawled across Duncan’s lap, and purring loudly in contentment. Duncan was fascinated at my encounters with Ro, and the possible crow/ familiar connection to my grandfather, Morgan. He agreed with me that Gwen would likely have more information about what had happened all those years ago to my half-brother. We also discussed the possibilities of trying an online search, or hiring a private investigator to find him.

I probably should’ve waited for Duncan to swallow his beer
before
I explained what I’d burst in on, during my tragic “rescue attempt” at the manor. I came to this brilliant conclusion about a second too late, as his reaction to that was to choke, cough, and laugh— all at the same time.

“Oh my god!” Duncan thumped his own chest with a fist, and tried to set his beer on the table. Disturbed by Duncan’s reaction, Merlin jumped off his lap and the beer was knocked over spilling on the floor.

“Sorry!” I said, and scrambled to grab a dish rag from the kitchen.

Duncan didn’t seem to mind. He was still laughing while we cleaned up the spill from the hardwood floor. “It never occurred to you, the barrier outside the room was for privacy?” Duncan wheezed.

I scrubbed harder at the sticky floor with a soapy washrag. “No,” I admitted. “I heard the moans and screams, and thought somebody was being tortured.”

That only made Duncan laugh harder.

“I guess she’s a screamer.” I shrugged trying not to let it embarrass me.

“Well. Go Bran!” Duncan hooted at that. “Got a show, did you?”

“All I could really see was Lexie’s bare back. And I’ll thank whatever god is listening— that I did
not
see any more,” I said, and meant it.

Duncan was still laughing as Merlin came to sit next to me, in a sort of survivor solidarity, I suppose. Merlin narrowed his feline eyes at Duncan’s mirth, and gave a kitty mutter.

Duncan smiled down at the both of us. “Look at you, sitting there on my floor. You’re so damn cute with your trusty familiar at your side.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s Aunt Gwen’s familiar.”

“Have you asked him?” Duncan reached down and tugged me to my feet.

“Are you serious?” I raised an eyebrow.

Duncan took the soapy rag and tossed it towards his kitchen sink. “Sure, the familiar chooses their Witch. Not the other way around.”

“I didn’t know that.” I thought about it while Merlin regarded me with unblinking golden eyes.

Duncan put his arm around my waist. “Hey, Autumn?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s see if I can make you holler louder than Lexie.” Duncan swung me up, and tossed me over his shoulder

I burst out laughing. “I wasn’t issuing a challenge,” I said, upside down.

“That’s okay. I’m just a competitive type of guy.” He gave my butt a playful swat as he carted me towards his bedroom.

***    

The theme song from the 1960’s classic television show
Bewitched
sounded in my ear, jolting me awake. I frowned for a moment before finally realizing that it was a ringtone playing. As it started to play again, I realized someone had changed the ringtone on my cell phone.

Damn Ivy and her warped sense of humor.
I fumbled in the dark, before finding the phone. “’Lo?” I mumbled.

“Autumn?” I heard Gwen’s voice. “Where are you right now?”

The urgency in her voice got through to me and I sat up. “What’s happened?”

“What is it?” Duncan said, and I felt more than I saw him start to reach for his clothes.

“Where are you?” Gwen repeated, her voice shrill.

“I’m at Duncan’s place.”

“You’re there with him, right now?”

“Yes. Why?”

“The manor’s been ransacked.”

“Ransacked?” I said feeling my heart slam up to my throat. “Is everyone okay?”

“The family is all accounted for.”

The Blood Moon Grimoire.
Someone, I realized, had been looking for it and decided to toss the manor. Odds were the cops were already there, and listening. So I chose my next words carefully. “Is the item I found a few weeks ago still intact?”

“Yes,” Gwen answered, then was speaking to someone there with her, so I jumped up and starting patting around for my clothes.

“How’s Bran’s tie collection looking?” I asked, meaning the hidden panel in his closet that housed the Bishop family’s collection of antique journals and spell books.

“He said his ties were all accounted for.”

“Good.” I said and was thankful that the backup flash drive with digital pictures of the grimoire pages had been locked in a safe deposit box at the bank.

“I want you home. Now,” Gwen snapped.

“Shit.” I stubbed my toe on the corner of a dresser. “I’m on my way.” I hung up.

Duncan slapped the lights on, and I winced at the brightness, but got dressed as fast as I could. “Were they robbed?” he asked.

“She didn’t say so, I think someone tossed the place.” I found my other shoe sticking out from the end of the bed, grabbed it and wiggled my foot down into it.

“Looking for the Blood Moon Grimoire, no doubt,” Duncan said, and tucked a worn t-shirt into his jeans and pulled a brown ‘Quinn Construction’ sweatshirt over that.

I was suddenly glad I had taken the family tree book along with me this evening. I ran my hands through my hair trying to pull myself together. What the hell time was it anyway? I grabbed my phone to check and frowned at the time. It was a little after one o’clock in the morning.

I went out into the living area and found Merlin snoozing on the sectional. I borrowed a hoodie from Duncan, and fished my keys out of my big purse. Duncan scooped up Merlin, and I waited on the stoop while he locked his door and set the alarm.

In silence, we both jogged towards my truck. Merlin seemed to enjoy the truck ride home. He sat easily in Duncan’s arms and gazed out the window as I drove quickly back to the manor.

“With everything that’s been happening— grad school, me and you, the girls on the squad being under attack, and the family tree discoveries...” I said. “I haven’t been focused on finding the rest of that damn grimoire.”

“I’m sorry,” Duncan said quietly. “I’m the one who told you to let it go for a while.”

As I pulled into the driveway, we saw several police cars. “Looks like we all have been given a reminder to keep searching.”

The police asked where Duncan and I had been all evening as soon as we walked in the front door of the manor. Holly and Ivy let out a happy squeal when they saw Merlin.

“We thought something had happened to him!” Holly cried and took the cat from Duncan’s arms.

While Duncan and I spoke to the police officers, I saw Bran out of the corner of my eye, and I felt myself flush. No way was I making eye contact with him. I saw a few things knocked over, but weirdly, the Halloween tree and the decorations were untouched. That made me frown. An officer asked me to go check my room to see if I noticed anything missing. So I gave Duncan’s hand a squeeze, and I went up with Gwen and the officer. I stopped in the doorway and surveyed the wreck that was my room.

Every dresser drawer had been dumped on the floor. The closet doors were open and most of my clothes had been knocked off their hangers. My books and papers from class were left alone, maybe because they were obviously text books? My laptop was open and with the officer present, I checked my school files and saw that everything was still there.

“Is everyone else’s room as bad as this?” I asked Gwen.

“I don’t think they made it into Bran’s room or mine. The girls’ room is much worse than yours,” she said, looking tired.

“I want to see,” I turned down the hall. There were three other officers in the twins’ room, and the cop who had accompanied us shot out his arm and blocked me from going in the room.

“We are still processing the scene,” he explained.

“Okay, I won’t go in,” I said, staying outside.

What I saw when I did look in scared me. The girl’s bedroom was destroyed. The big mirror above their dresser was shattered. The curtains had been ripped down, and the beds were slashed. I could see the stuffing from their mattresses. From out in the hall, it looked like someone had thrown paint across the ivory walls. Then the smell hit me. It was nail polish, and the bottles had been smashed against the floor and walls. There was another scent though... It was coppery and sweet. I realized I was smelling blood.

“Shit,” I said. I turned my head and saw a capital letter ‘H’ smeared across the white paneled closet door. My head spun and I grabbed at the door frame.

The vision I’d had.
A red letter ‘H’ smeared across a white paneled door...
I tried not to breathe through my nose anymore, since the smell of blood was really nasty. My heart beat hard in my chest as I saw the physical reality of the vision I’d had the day I tripped over Cypress.

I shifted so I could see the whole set of closet doors. The word ‘WITCH” was scrawled in huge capital letters, in what had to be blood, over the white closet doors. I saw the officers taking photographs of the room, and I gulped hard. No wonder the girls were afraid for Merlin.

“Let’s go downstairs, now,” Gwen said and put her arm around me.

With a nod in agreement, we went down to join Duncan, and the rest of the family, in the kitchen. The potting room had taken some abuse as well. I could see from the kitchen that dozens of drawers from the apothecary cabinet were dumped, and dried herbs were everywhere. Potted plants were overturned, and I winced as I saw the pretty African violets uprooted and their broken pots discarded on the floor.

I sat my purse down on the counter and joined my cousins. “Does anything seem to be missing?” I asked.

“A little cash, some of Mom’s jewelry,” Bran said. “But other than that, no.”

“No electronics were taken?” Duncan asked as he came to stand behind my chair.

“They weren’t after electronics,” Bran said. “We all know what they were looking for.”

“Well, they did a hell of a number on the girls’ room,” I muttered. “That was blood on their closet doors.”

“Bran told me about their room,” Duncan said. “The girls shouldn’t stay here tonight.”

While Gwen and Bran agreed with that, the girls immediately argued against it.

“Marie is already coming to get the girls,” Gwen said speaking of her coven sister and friend. “There’s no safer place.”

Holly had yet to let Merlin down. She sat on the kitchen barstool, still wearing her pretty party dress, with the cat in her lap. “I want Merlin to come with us,” She said.

“Fine,” Bran said. “I’ll go get his cat carrier out of the laundry room.”

I heard boot heels clicking across the hardwood floor, and I knew who had arrived. Marie stalked into the kitchen, and did she look
pissed
. She reached in her jacket pocket and slapped a couple of small glass bottles on the counter.

“This here is Indigo Water. You use it everywhere you can tonight. I’ll bring more back when we can get started working on the girl’s room.”

“Thank you.” Gwen smiled.

“Don’t you fret,” Marie told Gwen and grabbed her up in a hug. “I’ll look after them and be back in the morning with reinforcements.”

Gwen and Marie exchanged parting hugs. I had no doubt the coven would be here as soon as they were able. If I’d learned anything about them, it was that they rallied together in a crisis.

Bran came in with the carrier, and Merlin went in with a minimum of fuss. Gwen hugged her daughters goodbye. I gave Ivy’s arm a squeeze as she passed me.

“Girls, let’s go.” Marie nodded at us as the twins followed her out.

One of the police officers asked to speak to Gwen, and she excused herself from the kitchen going to him. We all waited, and I wondered what we were going to do next.

“As soon as the police give the all clear, I can have a crew in here to repaint the room and refinish the floors in their room, if necessary.” Duncan said as soon as Gwen came back in the room.

“Thank you. I’ll take you up on that.” Gwen sat on the barstool next to me. Bran got a few bottles of water out of the fridge and passed them to each of us.

I scooted my backpack style purse over to give Gwen some counter space. I could feel the family tree book in there as my hand lay across it. Not the best time, perhaps, for me to ask, but at the rate we were going, I’d never get any answers.

“Gwen, I know things are a little crazy right now,” I said. “But you told me you’d answer any questions I had about the family.”

“We might as well. They aren’t going to let us back up there to clean for a while.”

I pulled the book out of my bag. “I found this recently.” I flipped open the book to the illustrated pages of our family tree, and I felt Duncan’s hand on my back in support.

“I haven’t seen that in years,” Gwen said setting her water bottle aside.

“I was looking through this, and noticed that there was an extra line filled out in my father’s section of the family tree.” I pointed to the section.

“Oh?” Gwen leaned forward, and Bran stiffened.

“I was pretty shocked to see that there was a line filled out for a son, born to my father in 1985.”

Gwen swung her gaze to my face and she seemed pale... but said nothing.

I continued. “Since the name of the birth mother is listed as W. Sutherland, I did a little digging today, and found relatives of hers that still live in William’s Ford.”

“I see,” Gwen said.

“At first I thought—because of the way the family tree had been filled out, that the baby had died, or been stillborn. But after interviewing Mr. Sutherland, he explained that his sister, Winifred, had given birth to my father’s child. He also told me that she gave up her rights to the baby, and then moved away.”