Page 8 of Bonding Beasts (Bonding: The Ultimate Guide #3)

Salt House is not what I expected.

According to my searches on the Other version of the internet, Salt House is made up of Witches and Warlocks who specialize in hexing.

A hex is a tiny curse in the form of a symbol spell directed at a particular person to cause harm.

It activates and you carry it around with you like cooties until someone removes it.

I’d always heard witches believed in the Karma Goddess, but I guess not.

These little buggers can cause anything from complete hair loss to infectious curses that spread like the common cold to anyone the victim interacts with. There was a section of complaints to anyone who would listen about people affected by the curses. You can’t even see them being cast at you.

I’ve been picturing a house from the old-world class of witches with a straw-roofed hut or even a dilapidated house with broken windows and an eerie wind that blows only in the yard.

Instead, there’s a white picket fence with an archway entrance leading to a picturesque two-story home.

The lawn is well maintained, with a cobblestone pathway leading to the front door.

At least twenty lawn gnome statues, in various positions of innocent fun, and lanterns line the walk.

I can see the tops of trees over the roof, and they look healthy and happy .

I’m insane because I’m a little disappointed.

Ben joins me on the left, and Mitri takes a position on my right.Both are pressing against me almost as much as when we were in the car, and it’s too much right now.I’ve gotten used to one person being physical, not two.Claustrophobia, here I come.

“Why are we here?” Mitri asks his first question, and I roll my eyes.

“We’re looking for Laverne Rodriques and Darlene Reyes.I wasn’t sure which of the Houses to start with, so we decided to begin in uptown and make our way down,” I reply and eye a set of gnomes kissing.

Mitri gives me a raised brow, and I realize I just broke the silent treatment.Damn and I was doing so well.

“What is your preferred method of interrogation?” Question two quickly follows the first.

“ Not interrogating,” I protest, turning to smack his arm without thinking.

His other eyebrow goes up, and he eyes where I struck him.I swallow hard and try to stand my ground, but my knees are wobbling.Ben shifts to brace my back in support.

“No matter which phrasing you choose, it is an interrogation,” he meets my eyes, and there’s some kind of emotion there that I can’t readily identify.

“It’s a polite inquiry ,” I argue.

“With a slight chance of bloodshed,” Ben adds with a nod.

“ No! What is wrong with you guys?They lost two people from their House. Who are still missing, by the way.The worst we should have is a lack of tissues for all the tears.”

I can feel them both judging me as they stare.

“If you two can’t behave, go back to the car,” I snap and walk underneath the arch.The flowers entwined with the wooden slats are beautiful and in full bloom… in chilly October.That’s a little weird.

I dismiss the thought.I’m not a flower person, so I have no idea what blooms when.

It isn’t until I’m halfway down the cute cobblestone path that I realize Mitri and Ben aren’t directly behind me. Did they seriously go back to the car? I was kidding! I might need some help asking intelligent questions. Shit!

I turn back and see them both standing in the archway together.Ben looks pissed, and Mitri’s face is blank again.

Damn, I guess I have to apologize. I don’t want to, just on general principle. I hate apologizing.

As I go back with a huff, I notice Ben is mouthing something to me.Not in a quiet way, either.His lips are over enunciating as if I was hard of hearing, and I frown at him.

“What?” I hold out my hands, frustrated with them both.

They look at each other and then back at me.Ben urgently gestures me back to him, talking the whole time without sound.Mitri is knocking on thin air in the worst mime imitation I’ve ever seen.

Rolling my eyes, I quicken my pace, which is a mistake because I trip over a loose cobblestone and land on my knee, my hands stopping me from face-planting entirely.

“Damn it!” I hold my hands up to see my scraped palms.My knee hasn’t fared any better, and my new pants have torn.I knew they weren’t enough protection.

I look at them both to give them a piece of my mind, but their expressions stop me with my mouth open.

Ben’s lips are curled up in a snarl, pulling away towards his jaw to display his gums, his body hunched down as if ready to pounce. Mitri has both guns drawn and aimed in my direction, expression empty as he focuses.

Oh, shit.Can a hex turn your party members against you?

“I’m sorry, ok? Relax!” I squint my eyes and brace for the shots, but they never come.

Ben doesn’t jump at me to rip me apart. They aren’t frozen because I can see Ben breathing harshly. They’re just… waiting? For what?

I’m totally not going out there to face their wrath. I’m crazy but not that crazy. Today. For right this second.

I feel a tap on the bottom of my shoe and turn to see what caused it.A gnome statue stands there, face smiling sweetly.It’s about a foot tall with a miniature trowel in its hand.It was not standing on the cobblestones when I passed this way earlier.Was it?

I look out over the lawn and notice that the gnomes seem closer.

I’m officially freaked out.I am no longer disappointed, Karma Goddess. Your service for thinking of me! Not!

I slowly stand, and the cobblestones shift underneath me, some rising and some falling in alternating patterns that knock me onto both knees as I misbalance.Screw this.

I start crawling towards the two people I probably should have listened to instead of harassed. Hindsight is a bitch.

Some stones rise high enough that I knock my knees several times during the trip. I follow horror movie rules and don’t look back as I crawl/crabwalk my way to the arch.

Then I hit my head.On nothing.

I look up, and Ben is crouched down, frantically trying to tell me something, hand pressed flat against thin air .

Whelp, I’m screwed.

I can’t hear what he’s saying, and his hand keeps banging on thin air with no sound.I tap my head against the same thin air and groan in frustration.I’m about to get killed by lawn gnomes.How humiliating.

Something sharp stabs into my ankle, and I twist around to kick off a gnome with a red hat.The rest of them have lined up on either side of the path, keeping me corralled.The stones haven’t stopped shifting around, either.This is bullshit, and I quit.

I look up, trying to see Ben so I can apologize for the embarrassing display he’s about to witness and see that Mal and Kimi have joined them.Great, even more witnesses. Fantastic day we’re having, isn’t it?

Kimi is laughing hysterically while the other three either discuss strategy or debate on where they’re eating breakfast when they leave me behind.

I sit on my butt and face the gnome army, shifting uncomfortably as the stones tilt me up and down on the worst mini roller coaster ever.I’m starting to get a little seasick from the nonstop motion.

I stretch my hand out and touch the grass, only to yank it back with a hiss. It isn’t grass. It’s a lawn of needles. Who does the landscaping here, demons?

The stones shift violently, and my seesaw teeters, threatening to drop. I grip my head to keep my sanity intact, but it’s becoming a struggle. I’m being threatened again. I have to do something!

I find myself laughing hysterically and snap out of it.

“I’m over this.Unless you want to be covered in vomit, take me to your leader,” my voice comes out shaky, and I can’t tell if it’s from the nausea or the jolting around.

The gnomes don’t move as I sit facing them, but the front door slowly opens with an ominous creak to show me the pitch-black gloom inside the doorway .

“Oh, come on !” I snap at it.“How cliché are we going to get here?”

My ankle begins to throb, and I’m just done.

I pull my dagger and steady myself as best I can. Then I send my spark out to try and control the gnomes or the grass.

Everything it touches has no life inside, even the grass. Freaking green needles of bullshit. Not that I would know how to control grass anyway.

Sparky stretches past the doorway and covers the inside of the house, lighting up on six different life forms.

Now we’re talking.

One of them is just inside the doorway, and I reach out my hand and grab the lifeline.Focusing on the body, I contract all the muscles, forcing an entire body cramp.A sharp yelp sounds out, and a male falls through the doorway.

The gnomes take exception to this.Suddenly, I can witness them animate and charge at me.

Oh, joy. I won’t have nightmares about this for the rest of my life.

I sit up to try and gain some height as they close in. I can’t keep myself from getting stabbed multiple times as I fend them off.

The blade slices through them easily but they continue to attack in two pieces instead of one. They seem to go for any extremity they can between my flailing legs and arms, not going for my torso at all. Seeing this going nowhere slowly I change tactics.

“Get your ass over here,” I yell, yanking his lifeline toward me.It forces the male to stand and walk like a broken marionette in my direction.I’m tilting more wildly as the stones get into the fight.

The other life spots inside are rushing towards us, probably drawn by his squealing or my yelling.The closer the male gets to me, the more the gnomes back away, so I park him on his ass two feet away from me.

“You stupid bitch, what have you done?” He screams at me and starts trying to make some hand gestures.

Uh, no.I read that hand gestures can lead to multiple power outlets, like hexing.I freeze his hands in a cramp.

“Fuck!” He howls and jerks, writhing around on the sidewalk.

“Yeah, buddy!Feel my pain!” I stab another gnome through the face.