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‘Besides the fact that she was part of the gang that kidnapped you?’ I pointed out dryly.
He shrugged. ‘Yeah, but she seemed nice. I don’t know how because she never said a word, but something about her just seemed … nice.’
I smiled at Bobby, but made a mental note that he wasn’t the best judge of character. ‘What did she look like?’ I asked.
Jason gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘We don’t know. She always wore a hood, and you could never see her face. It was like looking into a shadow.’
‘How do you know it was a woman?’
‘Well, she was painting runes so she has to be a witch,’ Jason asserted.
‘Her nails were pretty,’ Wren interjected. ‘A nice turquoise colour.’ She shuddered a little. ‘I don’t like turquoise now.’
A car screeched up the drive and slammed to a stop. It had barely stopped moving before the doors were flung open and Joyce and Sonia jumped out. Joyce flung herself to the floor next to me and pulled Wren into her arms. ‘Oh, my baby, I’m never looking away from you ever again.’
Wren snuggled tightly into her mum’s arms. ‘Except when I poo,’ she muttered. ‘I need the door shut then.’
Her mum gave a strangled laugh. ‘Okay, my love. Are you all right? Did they hurt you?’
Wren shook her head. ‘No, I’m okay, Mummy. We’re all fine.’
It was a miracle that they were, but I kept that to myself.
‘Can I just check you all over before you go?’ asked Amber.
Wren buried herself deeper into her mum’s arms and didn’t answer.
‘Wren, I know that you probably don’t want to see any witches right now, but I promise you that Amber is one of the good guys,’ I said. ‘She cracked the concealment rune the other witch had painted so that we couldn’t find you. Without her, we wouldn’t have you back yet. You can trust her. Will you let her check you?’
Wren nodded reluctantly. ‘Okay. As long as I can stay with Mummy.’
‘For the rest of your life,’ Joyce promised tightly.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how Joyce was feeling, but I suspected that Wren would find herself wrapped up in cotton wool for quite some time. Losing her father at such a young age must have been incredibly difficult, but being kidnapped as well? That was going to play hell with Joyce’s emotions. I would suggest counselling to her when things were a little less raw.
Another car rocked up. A woman piled out and ran straight for Jason. Being the oldest of the kids he’d tried to be brave and hold it together, but he was still only eleven. Relief washed over his features as he saw his parent. ‘Mum!’
He ran to her and almost jumped into her arms. His mum began sobbing loudly. I recognised her; she was a fire elemental, the maître d’ from Alessandro’s, the restaurant from which Jason had been kidnapped.
Eventually, when they’d had a few minutes together and the mum had stopped crying, I approached them. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you mind if Amber DeLea just checks Jason over for any residual issues?’
‘Why would there be issues?’ his mother asked, concerned. ‘What happened?’
‘A witch took us to a room and painted runes on us.’ Jason lifted his shirt, revealing a mass of black swirling runes.
Amber let out a strangled noise. ‘Get them off!’ she exclaimed. She hustled forward with a bag of baby wipes, ripped off the tab on the top and pulled out a fistful.
We all leapt into action. I grabbed some and passed them to Joyce. She pulled up Wren’s T-shirt and found her stomach similarly covered in runes. She started hastily wiping them away, and luckily they came away easily. Meanwhile, Greg had handed a bunch of wipes to Sonia and she was wiping the runes off Bobby.
Bobby lost some of his cocksure confidence and looked a little nervous while his body was being scrubbed. ‘We’ll be okay, right?’ he asked Amber.
Amber forced a smile. ‘You’ll all be completely fine,’ she promised. ‘But I’m going to brew a tincture to make sure you recover exactly as you should. For now, you need to make sure that you use as little magic as possible. That means no casting or controlling fires and no walking into trees.’
Bobby sighed. ‘There’s nothing I don’t have to do because I haven’t called my wolf yet.’
‘If you’d already called your wolf, you probably wouldn’t be standing here.’
‘Amber!’ I chastened, glaring at her. What a thing to say to an eight year old!
