Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(38)

She paused for a moment, then said, “Maddy, I hate to tell you this, but we just found Thornton. He’s dead. His car skidded off the road and hit a tree.”

And just like that, we had our answer.





I TOLD DELIA I’d be coming over to the station the next morning. There wasn’t anything anybody could do to help Thornton tonight.

“Listen, Sandy, if my house is infected, can Bubba stay with you? Even though he can’t be hit again by the spell, that doesn’t mean he can’t be hurt by collateral damage, like if the house burns down or gets hit by a fucking meteor.”

“Of course.” She regarded her hand. “The salve Dr. Farrows put on my burn really helped. He promised it would heal faster than what the paramedics used.”

Before we had left, Jordan had examined both our hands. Mine, he had cast a little healing spell over and I could tell the sprain was already relaxing a bit. He had changed Sandy’s bandages and pasted her burns with a thick, gooey salve that stunk, but that had immediately gone to work, bubbling up over the burns.

We arrived back at the house. The lights were off. Thornton wasn’t at home, obviously, because Thornton was dead. But Aegis should be around. Cautiously, we approached the kitchen. The door was locked, and there was no sign of any problems.

I set down Bubba’s carrier down right outside the door. “Give me twenty, Bubs, until I know whether it’s safe to leave you here by yourself, or if you have to go spend time at Sandy’s.”

“Mrow.” He didn’t sound happy.

“I know you’re hungry, but just be glad you’re back in your own form.”

“Purp,” was the immediate response. Which meant, Yeah, I’m happy.

As we entered the kitchen, I flipped on the lights. Nothing looked out of place, but there was no note. “I wonder where Aegis is,” I said. “Can you set up the powder on the kitchen table? I’m going to check the basement.”

“Sure.” Sandy took the petri dish from me and began to arrange it according to Jordan’s instructions.

I headed to the basement. The door was over to the side of the kitchen, and it was closed but not locked. I was starting to get worried. Aegis was always up right at sunset, though he sometimes took a shower, which meant he might be upstairs in my bathroom. I opened the door and flipped on the switch. We had finally gotten the railing fixed and the basement level mostly cleared out. At least it didn’t resemble the Munsters’ home anymore.

We had also been through a number of the old trunks and furniture that had come with the house, and donated a good share of what we found to thrift shops. We had even sold a few pieces to antique dealers. But there were several pieces we had yet to touch.

The basement had three rooms. The main one was quite large, with the furnace in the far corner. The second was a pantry, though I wasn’t about to use it for that. I was thinking of converting it into a suite for vampires looking for a room, but hadn’t decided yet whether that was the best course of action.

The third room was Aegis’s lair. We had painted the long, narrow chamber sky blue with a white ceiling. The room held his coffin, a reading nook, and a small refrigerator filled with bottled blood. He also had a craft table that held his jigsaw puzzles. He was a fiend for the large, sprawling ones, and down here, Bubba wouldn’t be likely to knock it over. Plus, if Aegis had spare time before going to sleep for the day, he could sit and work on the puzzle and not just twiddle his thumbs, waiting for the sunrise to drag him to sleep.

I tapped on the door. There was a soft squeak from the other side. What the hell? It didn’t sound like a dragging shoe or anything like that. I cautiously opened the door and ducked as a bat swept out and over my head. A very large, black bat. The bat circled me, then hovered in front of my face. He didn’t look very happy or friendly.

I started to shoo him away, but then stopped. Oh, hell.

“You aren’t…”

Again, a loud squeak.

“Aegis?”

The bat let out another series of squeaks, very high pitched and almost out of my hearing range.

“Oh, crap. Aegis, is that you?”

He flew around the room quickly, clearly agitated, and then once again hovered in front of my face.

I wanted to ask what had happened but I didn’t speak “bat” and Aegis was obviously in the midst of some sort of crisis. I cleared my throat.

“If you can’t turn back into your human form, fly over to the puzzle and back.”

Bingo. The bat flew over to the puzzle and then returned.

“Can you turn into any other form?” I knew that Aegis could turn into a rat if he chose, and sometimes, he could turn into a wolf, though he seldom did. “If you can, fly over to the puzzle. If not, over to the fridge.”

He flew over to the fridge and back. Cripes on a platter.

“Okay, you can obviously understand me, so listen. Sandy and I found out what’s going on. Fly upstairs and we’ll find a place for you to hang out. Then I’ll explain what we learned.” I turned and dashed up the steps, grimacing as I jammed my thumb on the railing.

Sandy was staring at the powder. “We still have fifteen minutes to go. Where’s Aegis?” she asked as I appeared at the basement door.

I stood aside, waiting for him to fly through.

“Right here.”