“That was the most amazing movie,” he agreed. “And yes. Evangelina did great harm, but not to my love and devotion to you.”
Bedelia intertwined her fingers together, waiting. For a vampire, especially the newly named Master of the City of Asheville, love and devotion meant very different things from what they meant to a woman like her.
Linc said, “One of the girls is in danger. Liz is camping with Eli, on a job to track down a missing dog. The dog was a ruse perpetrated by Romona Mayhew’s widower and two females.”
Bedelia frowned. “I remember the Mayhew name from somewhere.”
“Some time ago, Liz and Cia were hired to find a kidnapped human woman. The wife of one of my people, Romona Mayhew, who was one of the long-chained Mithrans who didn’t come out of the devoveo and also a witch, had broken free of her bonds and taken the human female. I didn’t know that Romona hadn’t been given the mercy strike of true-death, and her husband didn’t come to me to rectify the situation because he was still unable to release her. Romona used the life-force of the dead to do blood-curse magic. Your girls took on the blood-curse getting their client’s mother free.”
Bedelia breathed in with shock, putting it all together.
The devoveo was the ten years of madness that resulted from being turned into a vampire. It was one reason she had never agreed to be turned by Linc. Loss of personal freedom was also the reason she had never agreed to become Linc’s blood-servant. There were lots of reasons she had ended the relationship. She shook her head, pushing away the memories and the regrets. “I remember that story.” Taking on the blood-curse had been a less-than-brilliant move on her daughters’ part, but to this day, they felt that saving a human had been worth it. “Go on.”
“The rest is complicated and still comin’ clear. A woman named Shania Mayhew was an unaligned witch who was groomed by Romona’s widower to believe an evil had been perpetrated by Liz and Cia. Mayhew and she married, an alliance I did not approve. Working together, they discovered a human woman with a perceived grudge against Liz. Her name is Connie Carroll. Together, the three of them conceived a plan to enact vengeance on the twins.”
“I remember the Carroll incident. There was an accident involving alcohol and Connie’s daughter. She blamed Liz. What did this group do?”
“Shania glamoured herself or Connie to look like Golda Ainsworth Holcomb, of the Ainsworth witch clan, and met Liz in the local hospital.”
“Golda died a few days ago. I got the notice this morning.”
His face softened with humor. “Your girls are young yet. They don’t look at the obits like us old folk.”
Bedelia felt a dimple form and then fall away.
“That glamoured female sent Liz on a search for a dog, one supposedly lost after a car accident, off the mountains from Morton Tunnel and Morton Overlook, in the gorge.”
“Dangerous country.”
“Yes. Liz and Eli took the job together. They have a witch fob that’s supposed to be trackin’ the lost dog. Pardon me, Bee.” He took a call from Alex Younger, a young man aligned with the Dark Queen, Jane Yellowrock. Linc said, “I understand. Thank you,” and ended the call. He continued his story to her. “Instead of a lost dog, they found a demon bound into a ley line and it got free. Eli called for backup and extrication via helicopter, and Cia is insisting she be allowed to assist. However, the terrain’s rugged and right now there’s no moon to facilitate finding a safe landing site, and no moon up means Cia, even if she was already on site, can’t assist fighting the demon. Liz and Eli are currently safe beneath ahedge of thorns, but they can’t last the night and Liz can’t fight the demon alone.”
As Linc detailed the problem, Bedelia’s heart flew from concern to panic. She put a hand to her chest and gripped the labradorite focal stone. The amulet warmed, reacting to her fear. She took a calming breath. Another. But she reached out through the focal to her daughters.Yes. Liz is in danger.Linc glanced at her, his eyes intense and kind. “What else?” she asked when she was calm. Because with vampires and witches working together there was always more.
“Brute, the white werewolf aligned with Jane Yellowrock, indicated there’s a rabid werewolf pack in the vicinity. Alex Younger has discovered that Connie Carroll was bitten by a werewolf in the last attacks. She was in custody during her first full moon and didn’t go furry, but he thinks she’s furry now.”
Bedelia tightened her grip on her focal. The werewolf-taint would destroy the mind of any bitten female. She shoved away all the things that needed to be said about Evangelina and about the two of them and their past. Saving Liz was the only thing that mattered right now. “Delayed transformation?”
“Or bitten again. Perhaps on purpose. There are such people.”
“What are the plans?”
“Eli Younger put a Wi-Fi in a tree. We have their GPS. Half an hour before the moon begins to rise, the helo will take off, carrying Cia, Jane, the white werewolf, and me if we have completed our part, or two of my best Mithran warriors if we’re still engaged, to a landing zone yet to be discovered. The twins, working together, can deal with the demon. Jane, Brute, Eli, and the Mithrans can take out the werewolves, including Connie Carroll. You and I, if you choose to accept this mission”—his smile grew at the allusion to an old TV show—“will track down the witch, Shania Mayhew, and take her into custody.” Linc watched her carefully. “And then turn her over to the witch council for null room sentencing.”
Bedelia frowned at him. “I don’t need the help of the witch council to protect my family.”
“No. You’re a warrior. And I adore you.”
Bedelia’s eyes flew to his. She opened her mouth to say the things that were cracking open in her heart. Instead she said, “Do we know where this Shania Mayhew is staying?”
“Yes. She rented a house above the French Broad River, just beyond Paint Rock. It rises above the river by a hundred feet or so, right where the river curves—”
“Green shutters? Freshly painted? Across from a small horse pasture?”
Linc looked surprised for a moment. “Yes. How did you—”
Interrupting him again, Bedelia shoved back from the table. “That’s the old gathering place of the Coraville coven back in the eighteen seventies. There’s a stone circle buried below the ground. It’s aligned with the cardinal points, with the motion of the French Broad River, and with a small ley line deep beneath the river. I helped to seal the circle when the Coraville witches died out.” And left behind them a prophecy that promised the circle would be sought by evildoers and had to be sealed. But Lincoln Shaddock did not need to know that at all. No nonwitch needed to know that. “I’ll need a moment.” Bedelia walked away with purpose, moving down the hallway to her room, cell at her ear, calling for her human daughters to come sit with their grandmother.
When the family calls were in place, Bedelia opened her closet and stepped inside. She wrapped her hand around a prybar on the top shelf, shoved clothing aside, and bent at the waist. She raised the prybar overhead and slammed it against the wallboard in the corner. Again. Again. Overand over. It took too long, but the supplies she needed were things she wasn’t supposed to have, things she had hidden in the false wall of her closet.
