This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

but kind of weird. Wouldn’t they be calling Jessica’s mother? Or Andrew’s mother?

<< Of course he is. They’re all friends. Now hurry and get the car and pick me up. We need to go help out. >>

“I’m not a nurse,” Audry protested, but Silvia had already hung up the phone. Looking to Hogan, Audry said, “We gotta go. Can you drive me to the police station? I’ll give you the directions to which one. We need to get my car.”

Hogan stared, shook his head for a second, and sighed. “Ok.”

They apologized to the realtor, cancelling the rest of the day, then went down to the curb to get into Hogan’s vehicle. As they were buckling their seatbelts, Hogan asked, “Jessica is a really good friend of yours, right?”

“She used to be my roommate with Silvia,” Audry said, putting her seatbelt on.

He blinked, surprised. “Oh. I didn’t know that. I just thought she was another friend of Deacon’s who had decided to keep watch over you.”

Audry’s eyes widened on him.

With a resigned sigh, he explained what he meant. “It just seem like—now that I’ve met him—that Mr. H. Richard Deacon is kind of keeping you. He’s provided you bodyguards, given you an apartment, and even surrounded you with his friends. The fact that he’s letting you marry me is kind of… I don’t know, weird. Like he was grooming you earlier and now has given up.”

“Grooming me?” The very sound of those words offended Audry’s sense of the universe. She was a free and independent woman. No one was grooming her.

“That’s what sexual predators do,” Hogan said, meeting her gaze levelly. “Prepare their target so that when they are ready they can be abused and they won’t be able to fight back because they will be so confused. And those one percenters are infamous for that.” 

Shivers ran down her arms. She had heard stories about sexual predators—but Rick Deacon as one? She had a difficult time believing that.

“And you are attracted to dangerous people and things,” Hogan added.

She looked to him, annoyed.

Drawing a breath, Hogan enumerated on his fingers, “All your ex boyfriends, your roommate Silvia who is a self-proclaimed witch, even your field work for animal rights—you are most attracted to the predators. Most of your wildlife pictures are of cheetahs, lions, elephants—and don’t tell me elephants aren’t dangerous. I know they are. —And wolves. I mean, don’t tell me you aren’t in love with that wolf on your computer? I’ve seen you just stare at him and sigh.”

“I do not!” Her cheeks felt hot.

“You do,” he said laughing. He then started the car. As he pulled into traffic, he said, “Audry, I love you and I want you safe. So please consider the kind of people that surround Mr. Deacon. He associates with cops, CIA agents, people into the occult—”

“Medical school students—his best friend,” Audry retorted.

Hogan shrugged. “He’s a pastor’s son, right? I heard someone say it.”

She shook her head. “Grandson. I think his father is either a gynecologist or an accountant. ”

“Ok, fine,” Hogan said, watching the traffic ahead.

Audry took his GPS then and inserted in the address for the NYPD police headquarters.

“But what about the others?” he asked. “Do you really know what they do?”

Closing one eye, Audry thought of the other friends she had met. Bobo was wanting to do security—nothing creepy about that unless you wanted to think in terms of thugs and mafia. Then here was Troy and Randon, whom she had only met briefly, but twice now. Troy was still in school, and she wasn’t sure what he was studying. But Randon was a veterinarian.

“For example, that hacker friend of theirs,” Hogan said.

Audry drew in a breath. Jessica had mentioned him, but she had never met their friend Semour Dawson. “Computer genius,” she said. “Nothing wrong with that. And Rick has a friend who is a veterinarian—and there is nothing bad about that at all.”

Sighing, Hogan just shook his head. “Ok. Fine. But think about what happened to Rick’s one friend in Germany. He was killed. And I don’t want that to happen to you.”

No. She didn’t want that either. Her mind rested on Jordan, wondering what really happened in Germany.

As they were driving along, Audry noticed a recognizable car in the police station parking lot. Danna’s car. She wondered if it had been impounded, or if they were watching the police station now. If Silvia’s spell truly was working, then in those witches’ search for her they would most likely stake out the last place they had seen their prey. And it had been a while too.

Once they parked, Hogan let Audry out, walking with her into the station where almost immediately they were greeted by Matthew. Matthew shook Hogan’s hand then turned to Audry. “This is only temporary. We’ll want the car back, as you can’t have the car near the apartment.”

“Then how am I supposed to pick up Silvia?” Audry asked with a dry stare.

“Why can’t she have her own car?” Hogan asked, suspicious.

Turning to him, Matthew nodded politely. “Because this car is being tracked by possible murder suspects—and we don’t want them to follow Audry home.”

Hogan pulled back. Looking to Audry, he then peered at Matthew. “But you are going to let her drive it to a friend’s house and let those murderers track her there?”

Snorting, Matthew said, “They can handle it.” He then looked to Audry. “Silvia will meet you at your old workplace, she said.”

That meant Silvia was going out alone. Audry wondered if that affected the so-called shadow spell. Audry had long felt it was real in some way—and the risk frightened her.

“You don’t have to go to this,” Hogan said, turning to Audry.

“He’s right,” Matthew chimed in, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “You can run away from this right now and I can take Silvia. We can explain to Jessica why you can’t come.”

“No.” Audry straightened up, realizing that Jessica had asked her to come—and Jessica, despite Hogan’s suspicions, was a true friend. “I’m coming.”

Stepping back, Hogan heaved a sigh of resignation. He could tell her mind was made up. His eyes lifted to Matthew who grinned with confidence at her decision. They met gazes for a moment before Hogan stepped away. He kissed Audry on the cheek. “Call me if you ever need to get out of there for any reason.”

She nodded, kissing him back.

Once Hogan had left, Matthew guided Audry to her car and handed back the keys. “The car is filled with gas. Once you pick up Silvia, don’t stop for anything until you get to the house.”

“Can they really handle a bunch of murderers?” Audry asked, thinking about Daniel and his sword. That could easily be defeated by a simple hand gun.

Nodding, Matthew grinned. “They can handle an entire coven of witches—especially that one.”

It clicked in her head. Of course. They were not just up against Danna or her two friends. They were against an entire coven of Middleton Village—women who have killed over emotional slights by priests… if that werewolf story Silvia had told were true. Or the story about Michael Tom’s mother being killed because she had tried to leave the coven. Audry had never met him, but she knew his story well. She had heard a number of different points of view on it from Jessica to Silvia, to the internet. But why did Matthew think his friends could take on an entire witch coven? They sounded frightening.

“They grew up with it,” Matthew said, reading her thoughts. “And they’ve had special training. Trust me.”

But could she really trust him? A psychic cop? Audry had never told Hogan about all that weird stuff connected to Rick’s special New York school. If she did, he’d probably freak out and kidnap her—insisting they elope. And though eloping was kind of romantic, she really wanted the wedding.

Matthew chuckled, clearly reading those thoughts too as Audry sighed.

She shot him a look. “Stop it.”

“I can’t help it.” He shrugged. “But I’ll try not to listen in if you don’t want me to.”

When she got her car, Audry noticed it had nice smell in it. Someone had it professionally cleaned. Apparently they were extremely thorough in looking for tracking devices on the vehicle. Buckling up, she started the car and rolled out of the police headquarters parking lot.

Audry’s old employment was this café off Central Park. Silvia liked it for its gelatos. The last time Audry had worked there was just before Africa, but she had saved up so much money from renting with Silvia—as their previous apartment’s actual rent was minimized by the Deacons owning the place—that she really didn’t need that job anymore. Besides, her tee shirts and photos were selling wonderfully online. Audry had thought about going back to the job—but to be honest, waitressing wasn’t exactly an enjoyable full-time goal for her. She was glad that moment in her life had come and gone.

Silvia was on the curb in plain sight. Audry pulled up and she climbed in.

“Don’t you think you were kind of obvious standing there?’ Audry said once she pulled back into traffic.

Shaking her head, looking back to the street, Silvia replied, “Nope. Because of the shadow spell, no predator can see me. They can’t hardly see you—excluding your Hogan, of course.”

“He is not a predator.”

“Says you,” Silvia muttered.

Groaning, Audry knew Silvia had that attitude. It was annoying that she had not lost it yet.

The drive was long. With no stops and both ladies anxious, they could not arrive soon enough. Once in the neighborhood, Audry pulled along the curb where there were already a good number of cars. When they got out and went to the house, a brawny sort of guy who was a little familiar looking to Audry, opened the door. His eyes rested on Silvia.

“No way,” he said, looking likely to slam the door in Silvia’s face. But he just hung his shoulders and moaned out, “Swift, your sister’s here.”

“Oh good! Is Audry with her?” Daniel ran up to the door from inside and grinned at Audry. He grabbed both of their hands and said, pulling them in, “Great! You came! I need your help.”

“With what?” Silvia asked. That was also Audry’s question.

“We need one person here to greet family when they come in,” Daniel said, looking to Audry. “And one of you to make this place a safe place for when mother and child return.”

Both Audry and Silvia exchanged lookes. “A glorified greeter?” “You want a spell on this place?”

Daniel moaned, hanging his shoulders. “No…” He looked to Audry first. “Red’s—uh, Andy’s family is coming and so is Jessica’s mother. They don’t exactly get on well. And we need somebody very, um, normal to run this place to keep them calm.”

Normal. Audry blinked at him. He wanted somebody who was normal? Her eyes scanned the room, taking in the others who were already occupying the couches. Besides the brawny blonde man who had opened the door, Audry saw a rather normal looking man with toast blonde hair and glasses. Well, he was normal except for the sword at his hip and the red crystal he wore around his neck.

Audry looked back to the brawny blonde, realizing he also had a crystal. What had Jessica said about those crystals? Every one of her friends who had been abused by that Wolf’s Wood cult had one. All eight of them. Would she meet all eight now? And with a glance to Silvia, Audry realized that maybe she would be the only ‘normal’ person there. At least, she would be the only one not affected by occultists in her past.

Hogan was right. What had she stepped into? Who really were these people? Had she been groomed?

“I know this sounds funky, but you are level-headed and we will need you to keep things here from getting out of hand,” Daniel said.

“And not me?” Silvia asked dryly.

“Oh no. They’re scared to death of you,” Daniel replied. But he was smirking.

And that brought things back to the absurd reality