Post by StoryGirl83 on Jun 27, 2011 0:54:25 GMT -5
Chapter Seven – And the Magician
Emily Colson banged her hand at her nightstand. Somewhere in that direction a noise was trying to wake her up. It persisted, so she finally opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand. “You woke me, Matt.”
On the other end of the phone Matt Colson chuckled. “Isn’t it a bit late to be in bed, Em?”
“Haha,” she replied annoyed. “Why are you calling?”
“You need to quit,” he announced.
Emily frowned. “Quit what?”
“Working at the manor,” Matt replied.
“I am not quitting my job!” Emily protested vehemently.
“I know it’s a great place to eat,” Matt allowed, “but if there’s insanity in that family . . .”
“There is not insanity in that family!” Emily exclaimed.
“It’s just Nate called and he said Wyatt Halliwell locked him in an office,” Matt protested.
“Not very well if he has phone access,” Emily retorted.
Matt paused.
“You said Nate’s in an office,” Emily commented. “Where?”
“Nate’s auditing someone at the Museum of Natural History,” Matt informed her. “There’s money going missing or something, so Nate’s boss assigned him to look into it.”
“Okay,” she hedged as she climbed out of bed and started getting dressed for the day. “But what reason did Wyatt give for locking Nate in? Or did Nate tell you?”
“Something about a disease,” Matt scowled.
“A disease,” she repeated frowning. “What kind of disease?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
She sighed. “I’m calling Nate.” She paused and repeated, “I’m not quitting my job. I don’t know what Wyatt’s up to, but I do know he’s not insane.”
“Em, that’s . . .”
“Matt, he’s not,” she repeated. “I love you, but back off.”
“I’m not backing off if this guy’s a danger to my baby sister,” Matt argued.
“He’s not,” Emily assured him, “but we can discuss this later.”
She could almost hear Matt’s scowl as he replied. “Fine, but be careful.”
Emily laughed. “I’m just calling Nate.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Matt replied.
“Bye, Matt,” she pressed.
“Bye, Em,” he returned.
She ended the call and immediately reopened it. “Nate.” She waited as the phone dialed.
“Em?”
She smiled at the sound of her brother’s voice. “Hey, Nate, why would Matt have the idea that Wyatt Halliwell is insane?”
Nate was silent on the other end.
“Nate?”
“He’s not insane,” Nate admitted, “but the way he was talking about some disease one of the employees caught that could quickly change.”
Emily frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He said two things that bothered me,” Nate admitted. “But it’s nothing you need to . . .”
“Need to what?” Emily interrupted. “Worry about? Of course I do. You’re my brother, Nate. Are you in danger?”
“He says I’m not,” Nate informed her, “so long as I don’t touch anyone infected.”
“Is he . . . infected?” Now that she knew her brother was safe she wanted to find out about Wyatt. This whole thing bothered her more than she wanted to admit. She knew Nate would clam up if he thought about it.
Nate sounded distracted as he said, “He says not, but he wouldn’t touch me. That didn’t bother me nearly as much as what he said after he told me that we were locked in.”
Emily frowned. “What do you mean ‘we’? I thought you were alone in the office?”
“I am,” he agreed. “I am not, however, the only one locked in. According to Wyatt Halliwell, the doors to the building are locked. And he forbid me from leaving this office, told me to keep it locked.”
Emily gulped. That wasn’t good. And why was Wyatt still in the building. Locked doors shouldn’t keep him in.
“You know he mentioned you.”
Emily redirected her attention back at her brother. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I wanted to meet him since you know him, so he knew I was your brother and when I wouldn’t let him borrow my phone he asked me to deliver a message.”
“You wouldn’t let him borrow your phone,” Emily glared into the air in front of her. Had her brother been there he would have backed off. “Why ever not?”
“He wouldn’t shake my hand when I met him,” Nate reminded her. “And then he tells me that there’s some disease running around that transfer’s through touch. I wasn’t risking it. I wasn’t going to touch that phone after he’d touched it.”
“Well, if he asks again then give it to him,” Emily demanded. “I’ll buy you a new one, if that’s what it takes. So what did he want you to tell me?”
“Oh that,” Nate sounded amused. “It was kind of bizarre. He said, the whole bright light moving thing wasn’t working. Any idea what he meant?”
“Yeah, he was mocking me,” she retorted. “Did he say anything else?”
“Not really.”
“Well, if you remember anything call me,” she ordered. “It’s important. If he’s delivering messages through you, then I’m willing to bet that he can’t call out.”
“Right,” Nate agreed, remembering something else. “He did say that Nathan broke his phone and I tried using the land line. There’s no dial tone.”
“Thanks, Nate,” she told him sweetly. She was worried, very worried. She doubted that there was a disease floating around. Or if there was, it was probably supernatural in origin. And if Wyatt was resorting to hoping her brother would pass on his message, then he was out of options for communicating outside. “I love you, Nate.”