Diggin up crones, p.23
Diggin' Up Crones, page 23
I didn’t wait to see if Gunner followed. Everybody was in the dining room, including Bay and Tillie. It struck me as odd that they hadn’t gone with us to get Marnie and Twila. They were on either side of Jed, still questioning him.
“What’s it like out there?” Bay asked in a deceptively neutral voice.
“Strixes are all over the back walkway,” I replied. “A crow just flew into the glass. It’s dead and the glass held but … .” I broke off and held my hands out.
“There’s no way of knowing if the glass will continue to hold,” Bay said.
“If she throws hundreds of birds at the glass, how could it hold?”
“Then we have to make sure the birds don’t get to the glass.” Tillie was grim. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Oh, good,” Landon deadpanned. “This never ends poorly for us.”
Tillie ignored him. “We can build a dome around the inn to stop the birds from getting inside. You’ve done it. I’ve done it. Never anything this big but … .”
“We might be able to build it together,” I surmised.
She nodded. “It’s our best shot.”
I exhaled heavily. “Let’s see what we can do.”
Tillie started for the kitchen door and I moved to follow. I stopped after a few steps, something occurring to me. “Hit the chimneys,” I said to Evan. “Close the flues. We don’t want birds coming through any openings we might not have considered as we erect the dome.”
Evan nodded.
“We’ll head upstairs,” Terry said, gesturing between himself, Graham, and Landon. “We’ll make sure no windows are open and see if there are any vulnerable spots.”
“I’ll handle the lobby,” Gunner said.
“I’ll help,” Raisin volunteered. She looked a little shaky. She hadn’t seen anything outside yet. She was feeding off our energy.
Gunner smiled at the effort she was putting in to be brave. “I need a partner.”
I held his gaze for a beat, something unsaid passing between us. “We’ve got this,” I said with more bravado than I felt. “We’ve got everything under control.”
Gunner returned my smile, but looked nervous. “We definitely have this,” he agreed. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
Tillie, of course, ruined the moment. “Oh, right,” she said. “We’re about to be descended on by hundreds of birds and a murderous shrike. There won’t be any carnage at all.”
I burned her with a single glare. “We’ll be fine.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay.”
I wanted to throttle the sarcasm right out of her. “We’ll be fine,” I repeated for Raisin’s benefit.
In the family living quarters, I pinned Tillie with the darkest look in my repertoire. “Did you have to say that in front of Raisin and get her worked up?” I demanded.
Tillie was blasé. “She wasn’t worked up. She’s excited for what’s to come. Give me a break.”
My glare wasn’t going anywhere. “She’s a kid.”
“She’s a kid who wants to learn about what we do. I think she’s finally going to have her shot.”
“Yes, because this is what I want her to see.” I looked to Bay for help.
“Aunt Tillie isn’t wrong,” Bay said. “Raisin is about to get a lesson in how bad things can get. It’s probably for the best.”
I didn’t like this. Any of it. “I didn’t realize you were such a downer,” I complained.
She merely shrugged. “Landon says I tend to go pessimistic when I’m afraid.”
“And are you afraid now?”
“There are birds who want to peck our eyes out. I’m a little afraid.”
Why did she have to put that image into my head? “Unbelievable,” I groused, shaking off the shivers running through me. “You’re un-freaking believable.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Let’s do this dome.” I was determined. We couldn’t live under it indefinitely, but if any place was stocked with enough food and supplies to give us time to figure things out, it was The Overlook. “We’re going to erect a dome similar to the one over your pot field, right?” I demanded of Tillie.
She nodded. “That’s the plan. It will be invisible to the naked eye unless you specifically know to look for it … or are paranormal. I thought maybe we would add a little something to the exterior to encourage the birds not to hang around.”
“Like what?”
“A little electrical energy current.” Tillie smiled. “As soon as a few of them fry, the rest will think twice about throwing themselves at the dome. That will give us time to regroup and go from there.”
I wasn’t keen on the idea of frying birds. Bay must have read the discomfort on my face because she held out her hands.
“What else can we do?” she asked.
Because I didn’t have an answer, I found myself nodding. “Fine. Let’s do it.”
The three of us got to work in the living room. We had a lot of power, but I was still leery.
“How long did it take you to build the dome over the pot field?” I asked as I watched Tillie put out candles. I had no idea how they played into this, but she was the expert.
“About a year.”
I frowned.
“That dome had to be climate controlled and I didn’t want to kill myself expending magic,” Tillie explained. “I’m starting to slow down some.”
“Just a little,” Bay said dryly, shaking her head. “We don’t have a year.”
“We don’t need a year. All we need is a dome big enough to cover the inn.”
“You want it to fry the birds too,” I reminded her.
“Oh, that’s easy.”
Despite Tillie’s insistence that we would have an easy time of this, I wasn’t sure. I started feeling better about things when Winnie, Marnie, and Twila joined us.
“You need as much magic as we can muster,” Winnie explained when Bay shot her a questioning look. “We have magic. It’s not as strong as yours, but we can add it.”
“Your magic is fine,” Tillie said. “My magic is the most important. If we use yours for the groundwork, we can point mine at the electrical field.”
Winnie sat next to me as we formed a circle. She smiled and took my hand. “You know, when you and Gunner are ready for the wedding, you can have it here.”
I was not expecting her to go there. Not now at least. “Do you really think this is the time?” I demanded.
“It’s always the right time to talk about being happy.”
Tillie guided the magic. Twila, Marnie, and Winnie handled the base of the dome. Bay started building it higher. Tillie and I finished it off. The top was the most difficult. I had to try twice to close it. When I felt Tillie funneling fire and electrical magic into the finished product, I gave her a pointed look.
“Do you really want birds catching fire when they hit the dome?”
“I want those strixes catching fire,” Tillie replied as she stood.
We all moved to the window together to look at our handiwork. The shimmer was obvious. The dome looked intact.
“We need to test it,” Bay said, opening the door. The dome covered the patio. “Let’s make sure this is working.”
I walked with her, uncertain what she had in mind. She stood by the dome wall and waited. Several birds swooped in and crashed into the dome, a handful doing an electrified dance and a handful catching fire and falling to the ground.
“I guess it’s good that the ground is still wet,” I mused as I watched one of the birds sizzle and smoke. “We don’t have to worry about starting a forest fire.”
“Yeah.” Bay nodded. “We’ve got that going for us.” Her gaze had moved to the pathway that led to the guesthouse where she lived with Landon. “What do you think?”
“About what?” I looked around.
“There are about fifty of them now.” She pointed to the eyes illuminated beneath the trees.
I rolled my neck. “I guess they’re the shrike’s sentries.”
“Can they be reasoned with, or are they being controlled too?”
“I guess we could try to snare one.” I rubbed the sides of my face. “Taking one inside to question it might backfire on us if the shrike can see everything that it sees.”
“Good point.” Bay nodded. “We could take one to the other dome.”
“You want to separate from the rest of the group?” I tried to picture Gunner’s face when I told him the plan. “I can’t see your husband and my high-strung boyfriend going for that.”
Bay broke into a grin. “Since when do you think before acting? That’s not like you.”
“Since I dove headfirst into trouble and almost got Gunner killed,” I replied.
Bay’s shoulders jerked. “You’re not blaming yourself for that?”
“Who else is there to blame?”
“Um … plenty of people. How about the shrike? How about bad luck? You’re not to blame for everything.”
“If I want to be the winner, I kind of have to take the blame, don’t I?” I challenged.
“No, you certainly do not.”
“I never take the blame,” Tillie offered. “I always let everybody else take the blame. That’s how I like it.”
“I still think we should talk to the others. If some of us are separated in the pot dome, that could leave people inside the inn at a disadvantage. It’s something that warrants discussion.”
“Wow. Look at you.” Bay seemed impressed. “You’re growing.”
“Don’t rub it in,” I groused.
“I just find it fascinating.” We walked back through the door that led to the family living quarters. “First you tell Gunner you’re ready to get married. Now this. It’s amazing.”
I froze when I was just over the threshold. “Who told you that?” I demanded, disbelief washing through me. “Was it Gunner? Did he tell you I was ready to get married? That was supposed to be a secret, just between us.”
Bay’s eyes went wide. “I was just guessing. Do you mean to tell me I was right?”
Crap. I’d walked right into that one. “No. That’s why I was upset.”
“You’re such a liar.” Bay burst out laughing. “You guys are really going to do it. You’re going to get married.”
“Oh, I’m so excited.” Winnie clapped her hands. She, Twila, and Marnie had already cleaned up the mess we’d left in the middle of the living room. “What sort of dress are you going to wear?”
Was she kidding me? We were surrounded by murderous birds and I had no doubt that a shrike was close. We had a big battle on our hands. They couldn’t possibly want to talk about wedding details.
“We’re not going there now,” I said. “We need to get ourselves out of this mess.”
Winnie waved her hand. “We’ve seen far worse. Who is going to give you away? You should ask Rick. I know that you don’t feel as close to him as you should, but he’ll be sad if you don’t ask him. It would make for a great olive branch.”
I wanted to scream. “I’ll leave you to figure out those details.” I stalked toward the door that led to the patio. “I’m going to go grab a strix and take it to the pot dome. You guys wait here.”
“Wait!” Bay scrambled after me. “You just said you wanted to talk about it with Gunner and the others.”
“But then you guys decided to get weird. I’m willing to do anything to get away,” I replied.
Bay pinned me with an annoyed look. “Don’t backtrack. You’re making progress. We like to make fun of each other even in times of strife. That’s our way. You need to suck it up.”
“I don’t think I can have this conversation right now. I will explode if we don’t focus on the shrike. The wedding details have to wait.”
“Fine.” Bay was blasé. “How do you plan on getting a strix and dragging it into the dome?”
“Magic. You know, blind the other strixes, put myself in a personal dome that moves with me, grab the dumbest looking one and make a run for it.”
Bay blinked. “That would probably work,” she said. “You can’t go alone, though, and we have to stay here to plug any holes that might form in the dome.”
“You want me to take Gunner,” I realized. “He’ll be mad if I leave him out of the mission.”
“You’ll be mad at yourself after the fact, even though I know why you’re worried,” Bay replied. “You should take Gunner and Evan.”
“But then we’ll be separated from you guys.”
“Not by much,” she replied. “The strixes are the only way I see to get information.”
I agreed, but didn’t want to put others at risk.
“You’re not going alone,” Bay gritted out, correctly reading my intentions. “You’re going to do the adult thing and talk to them. That’s all there is to it.”
“You’re kind of bossy,” I complained.
“Yeah, get used to that. I learned from my mother and Aunt Tillie. It’s a miracle I’m even slightly normal.”
27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Iplanned to ease Evan and Gunner into my idea. Bay blurted out what I wanted to do the second we returned to the dining room.
“That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Graham growled.
I gave him a dirty look. “Thanks. It’s always nice to know who is on my team.”
He didn’t back down. “We’re stronger together, young lady.”
“We’re still in the dark,” I reminded him, gesturing toward Jed, who had fallen asleep again. There was no point waking him up. He couldn’t help. We were on our own from here on out. “We know Brenda is here, somewhere. We have to find her if we want to kill her.”
“Or we could just wait her out,” Chief Terry countered. “It’s not as if we’ll run out of food.”
“What do you think she’ll do if we make her wait too long?” I challenged. “She’s not going to sit back and do nothing. We still have a team out with the shifters. Whistler, Doc, Marissa, Rick, and Andrea are all out there. They make enticing targets.”
“But we know how to free them now,” Terry persisted. “It would be a waste of time for her to go that route.”
“That doesn’t mean she won’t try to hurt whoever she can on her way down. She’s here to avenge her mother. She’s been planning this for decades. She won’t quit now.”
Graham stirred. “You said you didn’t think the strixes could communicate with us,” he argued. “What makes you think capturing one will do us any good?”
“Well, for starters, they’re higher up the food chain than the other birds. They also know more than the humans she’s taken over. I guarantee that. As for communicating, I know they can communicate with one another. If I can find the right frequency, I think I have a shot of talking to one.”
“But you don’t speak the same language.”
“It’s all the same language if you can get inside a creature’s head.”
He sighed. “I still think this is a bad idea, Scout. I don’t think I like it.”
“I know I don’t like it,” Gunner said. “If Scout’s intuition is telling her to do this, though, we have to try.”
I was caught off guard. “Just like that?”
“What did I tell you?” His voice was gentle. “You have to follow your instincts. They’re our best bet.”
“But last time I followed my instincts you almost died.” I would’ve preferred not having this conversation in front of everybody else, but our options were limited.
“That’s not true.” He fervently shook his head. “That was a series of events that rattled us all. I’m okay. We didn’t get into this business to live in constant fear. You’re our strongest warrior. I trust you.”
“Now you have to trust yourself,” Evan added. “I’m with Gunner. If you think this is how we should do it, then we need to. That’s all there is to it.”
“The strixes can’t get into the dome without help,” Tillie volunteered. “I can give you a talisman to put on it to get it through. You have to be quick.”
“We’ll have our phones,” Evan said. “You guys need to stay inside the inn no matter what. We can take care of ourselves.”
That was up for debate, but I really did think it was our only option. “We’ll be fine.” I glanced at Raisin, who had secreted herself in a corner and seemed to be making herself smaller. “We’ll be okay,” I assured her. “Do what Graham and the others tell you to.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Promise me,” I demanded.
“I’ll do what they say,” she said finally, although she didn’t look happy about it. “I don’t think you should go. Something bad could happen when you’re gone.”
“We want to make sure that doesn’t happen,” I assured her. “It’s going to be okay. One way or another.” I leaned in and gave her a hug, whispering the next part. “You’ll be fine. So will we. Have a little faith.”
When I pulled back, Raisin managed a grin. “Good luck,” she said as Graham moved over and slipped his arm around her shoulders.
“Thanks,” I replied. “We have skill. We don’t need luck.”
THE PLAN WAS SIMPLE. WE WERE going to run out on the lawn, entice the strixes to follow, allow Evan to pick the one he wanted, and then escape into the dome. No muss, no fuss.
“This is what it would be like if children planned the final stand for the zombie apocalypse,” Gunner mused as we stepped onto the patio.
A giggle escaped. “I guess so. There’s no need to be fancy. We just need to grab a strix and get into the dome.”
Gunner exhaled heavily and flexed his muscles. “We might as well get to it. I’m looking forward to putting this behind us. We haven’t eaten chicken in bed all week. That feels like a travesty of epic proportions.”
“The travesty is that you two actually buy chicken from a gas station,” Evan said. “Are you ready?”
I nodded. “I’ll clear a path with my magic. Just run, Gunner. Don’t do anything fancy.”
“Everything I do is fancy, baby.” His grin was cheeky.
