Page 19 of Wicching Hour (The Sea Wicche Chronicles #3)

NINETEEN

I’ve Always Wanted One!

M om collected her things and left, heading for Gran’s. She said she’d call us to discuss the shared vision once she’d explained the situation to Gran. I think she wanted to be with her so Gran wouldn’t feel cut off from what was happening. I was also pretty sure she needed to talk with Gran about Bracken.

The first thing I did when Mom left was grab the receipt from my worktable and call Melissa’s number.

“Ms. Corey?”

“Hi. Sorry to bother you. Am I on speakerphone?” I asked.

“No, ma’am.” I could hear road noise and so assumed she wasn’t the driver.

“We have a problem.”

“Okay,” Melissa said, clearly wary.

“One of your crew, Milo, poisoned some of my baked goods when he was alone in the gallery.”

“What?” Her voice was an angry growl.

“It’s a lot to explain, much of which I’m not sure I’m allowed to yet. You already know we have a sorcerer problem. Milo and his grandmother are trying to help my cousin. Catherine Swan gave Milo poison to sprinkle on my food. I had a vision, saw a child eat one of my cookies and die. I checked the cookie. It had been poisoned and when I touched it, I saw Milo and his grandmother. I know this probably all sounds ridiculous, but I can assure you?—”

“Ma’am, that’s not necessary. We all know what you can do and that you’re crazy powerful and accurate with your visions. I have no doubts. Firing Milo is easy. What else do you need?”

The tension in my neck and shoulders eased. Declan walked by and rubbed my back. With his werewolf hearing, he always caught both sides of a phone call. “Is there a way of knowing which boxes he packed? If he’s willing to kill innocents, I’m sure he’s willing to destroy my art. I can’t have a box of broken glass arrive at the Winslows.”

“Shi—excuse me. You’re right, ma’am, and it’s the reputation of my company as well.” A very loud growl had me pulling the phone from my ear. “We’re almost back to the warehouse. Did you sense anything amiss with the rest of my crew?”

I thought about it a moment. Closing my eyes, I sorted through all the others I’d met and fed cookies to. “I keep my mental walls up unless they have to come down,” I told her. “No one stood out as problematic—even Milo seemed fine. He was clearly nervous, but I assumed it was because Coreys don’t have the best reputation in the wicche world.”

“Okay. Each member of the crew has a mark that they put on a box they’ve packed. Elise and I are going to open every single box and do a quality check.”

Even I heard the groan of the driver, who I assumed was Elise.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry I have to ask it, but we can’t ship destroyed art to people who paid a great deal for it.”

“Absolutely. And I don’t want my company’s name associated with shoddy work. I’ll call you back when we’re done.”

“Thank you again. Also, can you hold off on firing Milo? I need to hear back from my mom and gran with what we’re doing about this.”

“Understood,” she said. “If it was us, we’d rip his scrawny head off. I get that you guys do it differently.”

“Yeah. We try to keep our head ripping to a minimum,” I said.

“Which is why you have this problem,” she replied. “If you don’t mind my saying, ma’am.”

Declan laughed at that.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong, and please call me Arwyn. Okay. We’ve got a hazmat cleanup going on here. I’ll talk to you later.”

Declan and Bracken had finished clearing out the display case and the tea jar while I was on the phone.

I used a scouring spell on all of it, but worried it wasn’t enough. The tea jar and pastry pans went into the dishwasher, and I donned rubber gloves to wipe down everything with harsh cleansers. When I was done, I still looked at the case with distrust.

“The poison is gone,” Bracken assured me. “It was on the food, not the shelves or glass.”

Nodding, I added the rubber gloves and sponge to the trash bag. “I just keep seeing that little boy, so excited for his cookie and then foaming at the mouth and convulsing in pain. My food killed him.”

“No.” Declan wrapped an arm around me. “Not your food. Swan’s poison. And you saw what was going to happen, so that little boy is alive and well.”

“The idea of putting food back in there makes me really nervous,” I admitted.

Bracken tied up the garbage bag.

“Wait! That needs to be disposed somewhere where the raccoons won’t find it.” I couldn’t have my little friends eating tainted food.

“I can take it with me,” Declan said. “My dumpster locks.”

Bracken swirled his hand over the bag. “It should be safe now. I strengthened the bag itself and then gave it a highly astringent scent that animals will avoid.”

Declan nodded. “It smells like the cleanser you were using. No animal is going to chew his way through a bag smelling like that.”

“Thank you very much,” I said, and Bracken nodded with a shy smile.

“Do we know how long it’ll be before your mom calls?” Declan asked.

I shrugged. “Probably not for a while. They need to go over every possible angle before they tell us what they’ve decided. They’re not big on open discussions.”

“But you’re a member of the Council,” Declan argued, offended on my behalf.

Grinning, I patted his shoulder. “I have not yet earned their trust or respect. I’m getting there, but those two have been working together since Mom was a teenager and joined the Council. I’m the powerful punk kid who ignores her responsibilities. Once they’ve decided on a path, they’ll entertain my input.”

I washed my hands again, just to be safe, and slipped on a new pair of gloves.

“Well, if we have time, let’s get lunch and go car shopping,” Declan suggested. “I’m hungry and that RV isn’t going anywhere any time soon.”

As we all loved Mexican food, Declan drove us to Mariana’s. We’d missed the lunch rush, so we got a table easily. As we ate, we discussed car options. It was decided pretty quickly that it needed to be an SUV if we wanted Declan to fit in it.

“That works better for me anyway,” Bracken said. “I’m so used to being up high when I drive. I don’t know how well I’d adjust to being low to the ground. Not being able to see over the other cars.”

Declan drove past a dealership, and I saw a rig I didn’t think they made anymore. “Was that a Bronco? I love those.” I turned to Bracken. “Can we try one of those?”

His smiles seemed to come easier these days. “By all means. That one’s on my list.”

Declan circled around the block and came back around to park in front. I almost crawled over him to get out. It was exactly like I remembered, but new and shiny. There was a guy down the block when I was growing up who drove one and I always loved it. I wanted one, but because of the visions, I can’t drive.

I pushed Declan ahead of me. “There’s no point getting my hopes up if you can’t fit in it.”

The price on the window was way higher than I was expecting, but Bracken didn’t blink an eye at it. Declan climbed in, easing the seat as far back as it would go so his knees weren’t jammed under the steering wheel. He put his hand over his head.

“I’ve got maybe a quarter inch, but my head’s not touching,” he said.

I pulled on his arm. “Try the back seat too.”

He looked over his shoulder into the back. “I think that’s going to be your seat.” He got out, opened the back door, and stopped. “If I’m wounded and you need to lay me out, put me in the cargo area.”

“Good afternoon.” A tall Latino man with short dark hair and a trim beard came around a big SUV, saw Declan, and stopped in his tracks. He lowered his head and waited.

“Miguel,” Declan said, walking over and putting a hand on the man’s shoulder, his thumb touching the man’s neck.

Ah. He must have been a werewolf too. Declan had once told me that when wolves were upset, having the Alpha touch them helped to ease whatever was going on.

The Big Sur pack was all male, which seemed odd to me. I knew female wolves existed, though in much smaller numbers. I had asked Declan at one point, and he told me that he believed the reason the Big Sur pack had no women was because Logan and his inner circle were predatory creeps. He’d asked Kenji and Daniel, his third, about it and had been told that the few women the pack had had felt unsafe and moved to join other packs. Kenji, though, had told him they’d recently received a few petitions from female wolves who wanted to join, which made Declan feel good. He was changing things.

“You haven’t been to practice in a while,” Declan said to Miguel. Everything was code when we were out where humans could hear us.

“No, sir. My wife is a nurse. She was put on the late shift. I can’t leave the kids and go to late night practices.” He glanced up at Declan, his head still tilted away. He looked braced for violence.

“I understand. Would an early morning practice work better for you?” Declan patted the man’s shoulder.

Surprised, Miguel stood straight and nodded. “Yes, sir. I need to be here by ten. My kids can walk to school. It’s only three blocks away and my wife is home by then. She’ll be sleeping, but she’s there if there’s an emergency.” He chanced a smile. “That would help a lot. Get rid of all this…” He rotated his shoulders, trying to demonstrate where the tension was hitting him.

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Declan said. “Does five work? Five thirty?”

Miguel nodded eagerly. “Yes, sir. I know there are a few other guys who also can’t do late nights. I think they’d really appreciate being able to meet early mornings.”

“Good,” Declan said. “I’ll send out a message.” He turned to Bracken and me. “We’re here to look for an SUV for my girlfriend’s great-uncle—one I can fit in too.”

“Absolutely,” Miguel said, a broad smile on his face. “Ford started making the Bronco again in 2021 and it’s been really popular ever since. If it was for you,” he said to Declan, “I was going to suggest the Raptor edition. It’s a little bigger, but also more expensive. This one is the Everglades edition. It’s a four-by-four, of course…”

He went on about a whole lot of things that meant absolutely nothing to me. Bracken test drove the first one we saw and then both Bracken and Declan test drove the bigger one Miguel had referred to. Personally, I thought the rear-facing camera was very cool and I loved that the top could come off. The rest? No idea.

Miguel told us we could get a bench seat in the second row, understanding that would be much better when dealing with someone in wolf form.

In the end, Bracken bought the first one we saw, the tricked out emerald-green Bronco, and Declan ordered the bigger one for himself. Given he was now going to need to drive up to Big Sur, sometimes twice a day, he wanted something that worked better than his pickup.

Miguel’s body language was lighter with the promise of early morning runs and two big sales.

We had to wait a few as they took Bracken’s SUV in back to clean, even though it was already immaculate. I looked between the two men who’d both just dropped a lot of money on a new vehicle.

“Wait,” I said. “You didn’t both buy Broncos just because I love them, right?” I mean, seriously, what the hell did I know about cars?

They both looked at me and smiled, neither saying a word.

A man in blue coveralls brought the Bronco around and Miguel gave Bracken the keys and had him sit in it so he could walk him through inputting the driver settings and whatnot.

“You go ahead and drive with him,” Declan said. “I’ll follow you back. I want to swing by my place and see if they need me and then I’ll be over. I want to hear what the plan is for these new players gunning for you.” He leaned down to kiss me and then remembered I didn’t have my backpack and therefore no seawater to reset my magic, so instead, he picked up my gloved hand and kissed that.

“On second thought,” he added, “I’ll go get you a new backpack. You need to have ocean water with you at all times until we have your cousin taken care of.”

I nodded. “I have plenty of art supplies. I just need a backpack and a jar. And, honestly, if you can’t find a little one, like I was using, skip the jar. I have empty honey jars I can use. I just liked the little honey bear.”

We turned back when it seemed like the tutorial was winding down. The concentration in Bracken’s face as he committed to memory every bit of information Miguel gave him made me smile. I tugged Declan’s hand. It was wrapped around mine. “How long do you have to wait for yours?”

Declan shrugged one shoulder. “Miguel said it looked like a dealership in Salinas has the one I want: bench seat, azure gray exterior, all the rest. We’ll see. If they don’t, he has to order it, which can take a couple of weeks.”

“So,” I said, leaning against his arm, “does this mean you’re doing two-a-day trainings now?”

He let out a gust of breath. “Looks like.”

“I know you have to,” I whispered, “but I worry about you falling asleep and ending up in a ditch or over a cliff.” I squeezed his hand. “Please promise me to be careful and pull over and sleep in your truck if you’re tired. Okay?”

He lifted my hand to his lips again and said, “I promise.”