Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(70)

Bubba regarded me for a moment, then said, “Purp.”

“All right. I am taking your word on this.” I flipped on the light switch leading to the basement and cautiously descended, making certain that both Bubba and the hex-breaker reached the bottom step without incident. This was the one part of the house that I still wasn’t comfortable with, and I never felt entirely secure down here. Neither Aegis nor I could figure out why—he felt secure as far as having his lair here, but there was an odd feel to the basement and I always had the sensation that I was being watched.

It suddenly struck me that Franny might have been affected by the hex, though it seemed like a long shot. “Franny? Franny!”

“Yes?” She appeared at the bottom of the steps. We had already had the talk about not showing up right behind me when I was descending a steep staircase.

“I want you to stick around, if you would. Just in case. I want to make certain that, on the off chance you were affected by the hex, that we clear your aura as well.”

She actually smiled at me. “Thank you, Maudlin. I appreciate you thinking about me, given I’m just a ghost.” It was both so self-deprecatory but so genuine that I had no clue how to answer.

“Yes, well…” I trailed off as I reached the bottom and she pulled back. We had also already had the I don’t want to walk through you talk, and she had stopped darting through people.

Max and Sandy followed, brushing a few stray cobwebs out of the way. No matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to keep the basement fully clean. If we finished it and cleared out all the rest of the clutter from years gone by, I supposed it would be another matter. And if we put in a decent ceiling that covered some of the beams…

Shaking my head, I returned my focus to the matter at hand. I set Bubba’s carrier down on one of the tables. “Listen, you stay put, all right? I’ll let you out in a few minutes.”

Bubba ignored me, licking one of his paws. He looked rather disgusted.

“That’s what you get for giving Mr. Peabody back his scent glands. I hope you remember your promise in the future.” I pointed toward another table that was out in the open, away from anything flammable. “Go ahead and put the wok there.”

Sandy did. “What do you want to use as a fire starter?”

“I’m fire starter enough. Max, can you open up one of the folding tables and arrange it near the wok? We have to have something big enough to hold Aegis when he returns to his natural form.”

While Max did as I asked, I headed into Aegis’s lair and gently picked up the sleeping bat. He was pretty much dead to the world. I carried him gently into the main room and arranged him on the table. Then, motioning for Sandy and Max to stand next to him, I shook the hex-breaker out of the sack and placed it in the wok. It fit just fine. The roots were so intricately woven and so pretty that, for just a moment, I felt sad that I had to burn it. But only for a moment. The second I glanced over at Aegis and remembered just how much havoc Honey and Ralph had caused, I was ready to burn the hell out of it.

I was going to have to do something about that damned satyr, but it would take a while to figure out just how to put a stop to the stupid feud. I had been willing to let it rest after the Rachel incident, but he just couldn’t let go of the rivalry and jealousy that the Bewitching Bedlam was doing a good clip of business.

“Are we ready? Garret said I don’t need to do anything except light the thing on fire and let the smoke seep into the timbers of the house and over those directly affected. Thornton was also a victim—and here I thought Essie had killed him—but he’s so much dust now.”

“Ready,” Sandy said. Max nodded and Bubba, well, Bubba just stared at me. I opened the carrier and he primly stepped out and sat by the door.

I held out my hand and conjured a small orb of fire, the size of a golf ball. The flames tickled my fingers and I grinned as I aimed it toward the hex breaker and let it fly. The glowing white ball hit the roots and instantly ignited them into a quick blaze. The roots caught immediately, flaring up to turn the wok into a blazing cauldron for a few seconds before dying back into a steady burn. I covered the burning hex quickly, leaving just enough space open to draw air into the pan, then after a moment, pulled away the lid.

A billowing cloud of smoke roiled out.

Sandy held out her hands and caused a stir in the air, sending the smoke over me, over Max and herself, over Bubba, and Franny, and Aegis. She closed her eyes, concentrating as she pushed the billowing clouds up toward the ceiling and into the walls. The wood absorbed the smoke like a sponge absorbing water and I could almost hear the house let out a sigh of relief.

I closed my eyes. The smoke was tingling in my aura and it felt like it was eating up a scritchy energy that I hadn’t even realized was there. A few moments later, I opened my eyes to see the last of the hex-breaker fall into ashes. I glanced over to the table and there, lying peacefully asleep, was Aegis in vampire form.

“Aegis!” I knew he couldn’t hear me or respond, but I raced forward and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

Bubba let out a “Purp” and bounced onto the table, too, licking Aegis’s face before rolling around on his back and showing his belly.

“I guess that takes care of that.” I turned back to Sandy and Max. “That felt…good. I never expected Dirt Magic to ever feel like that.”