Gypsy Magic - J.R. Rain Page 0,70

monster. And then I remembered the tug on my ankle. The ghostly tug. Danny hadn’t tried to kill me. He’d been trying to save me.

“Barbra, things don’t have to go this way,” Henner said and his tone was one of… familiarity?

“You were after something in the ceiling… whatever was in that white bag,” I said. “And you were the one who was responsible for all the holes in the backyard and throughout the house? You were searching for something.”

She nodded.

“What was in the bag, Barbra,” I continued, calling on the potion that still infused the air.

“Gold,” she answered.

“Gold that belonged to Danny?” Henner continued. Marty looked at him with drawn brows, as though he was just now realizing Henner knew more than he’d been letting on all this time.

“Guess you could say I found the Leprechaun’s treasure,” Barbra answered with a snicker.

“The Leprechaun’s treasure?” I repeated, shaking my head because I was lost.

“Do you want to tell them, Tayir? Or should I?” Barbra demanded of Henner.

I looked at Henner, who just shook his head. Then I faced Barbra again and called on the Fiery Command Oil, hoping I had enough mojo left—just for a little while longer. “You tell us, Barbra,” I said.

“Danny was a Leprechaun,” she answered. “A conniving and cheap son of a bitch.”

Leprechaun? Gold? To think, I didn’t imagine this night could get any stranger. Maybe I was having a very elaborate nightmare. Or maybe I was in a coma. Sad that it was actually a comforting thought at the moment.

Barbra pursed her lips and examined each of us in turn.

“Tayir will report me to Ophelia without batting an eye, the obnoxious little toad,” she spat and I felt her power building. The claim I had on her through the Fiery Command Oil was waning.

“Tayir?” I repeated, wondering who the hell she was talking about. Henner? Henner was going to report her to Ophelia? I was starting to realize Henner was more involved in this whole situation than I’d previously realized, and from the expression on Marty’s face, he was coming to the same conclusion.

“I don’t have to tell the council anything, Barbra, if you come with us peaceably,” Henner answered.

“Go with you?” she cackled and shook her head. “No. I’ll claim you burst in and startled me. Of course, in the wake of my brother-in-law’s death, I was distraught and not entirely in possession of my faculties. I think I can get away with justifiable homicide, don’t you?”

“You forget I’ve captured everything in audio,” Marty spat back at her, holding out his phone as proof.

“You were subduing Danny, weren’t you?” I demanded as I glared at her. “You wouldn’t allow him to come through to Bailey or me.”

She just nodded with an especially evil-looking smile as she faced me.

None of us had an opportunity to say or do anything more, though, because the door snapped inward with another sharp crack and missed Barbra by inches. She skittered back with a yelp and swung around toward the intruder.

Bailey immediately walked inside.

“Danny-boy,” Barbra sing-songed in response. It was at that moment that I realized Bailey had been successful in channeling Danny. Apparently, Barbra realized it too. And that was the exact moment when I lost my hold on Barbra. Seeing or feeling Danny again provoked a rage inside her that was spilling into the air. It was a rage that was too much for me to contain with a potion.

“So the little spirit-tamer managed to summon you, after all,” Barbra said.

Bailey-Danny grimaced. “You never had to do any of this.”

Barbra let out another cackle, though the shrill noise sounded more like a scream in close quarters. “Didn’t have to do this? If you’d given me the damn gold in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to come after you!”

Danny-Bailey nodded. “Turn yourself into the council quietly and I’m sure Layla will gladly take care of the girls.”

“No one but me will take care of my girls!” Then her expression grew even angrier. “As if you even care about them! You nearly killed Hannah!”

Uncertainty and guilt tangled in Bailey’s expression. “I never meant to hurt the girls, Barbra. I was aiming for you. Come quietly and this can be resolved…”

Barbra’s arms began to spasm, jerking like they’d just been hit with a thousand volts each. A guttural howl wrenched itself from her throat, building into a resonant ululation that made my knees weak.

“Go!” Henner yelled as he turned to face us, dropping the equipment none-too-gently on the ruined