Once Upon a Charmed Time Read online

  “Element of earth, I call to you.”

  A buzzing energy hummed through my body. The air around me thickened with an electric charge. Now I knew we were ready to cast the spell. Next, we would recite the words. Speaking clearing and loud, I said the words and waved my arms in the air. All the things that had happened after calling to the elements were now intensified. There was a lot of power in the room. I’d grown at lot more accustom to this type of thing happening. This used to only happen to the experienced witches. Now I was one of them, something I never thought would happen.

  I closed my eyes as we started to recite the words for the spell. It didn’t take long before I felt the high energy around us change. Electricity hummed along my arms, coming from Nicolas and Liam. That was a sign that the spell was working. I opened my eyes at the same time as Liam and Nicolas.

  “Do you think it worked?” I whispered.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Liam said.

  We released hands, breaking the circle.

  “I’ve never felt energy that strong before,” Dalton said with wide eyes.

  He’d never done magic with us before. I felt a bit of pride at my new improved magic skills.

  We eased back up the steps. There had been no noise from above for a while now. Nicolas and Liam were in front with Dalton behind me. I glanced back a few times to make sure he wasn’t trying anything shady. He seemed okay, but I still needed to be suspicious. Nicolas reached the door and tried the knob. It was still locked and didn’t open. I’d expected as much.

  “The spell didn’t work,” Dalton said from over my shoulder.

  “It’s okay, we didn’t expect it to work that way,” I said. “Nicolas and Liam will get it down.”

  “What? Like breaking the door down?” Dalton asked.

  I nodded. “Exactly what I mean.”

  Nicolas gave the door one shove and it fell down.

  I released a deep breath.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Liam grabbed my hand.

  What would we find once we got out of the basement?

  Once at the top of the steps, Liam released my hand. The house was quiet. Dalton emerged from the basement.

  “The light hurts my eyes.” He held his hand up to his eyes.

  Nicolas motioned toward the front door, then held his finger up to his lips. He was right, we needed to be quiet in case the person was waiting around the corner for us.

  We inched into the main living area. No one was there. That left the rest of the house. I really wanted to talk with the person who had locked us down there. If that meant a fight then so be it.

  “We’ll search the house,” Liam said.

  “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on him,” I said with a tilt of my head.

  “You don’t think I’m a bad guy, do you?” Dalton asked.

  “We just have to be cautious, that’s all,” I said.

  Liam and Nicolas left me with Dalton while they checked the house. I wasn’t sure what was making me the most anxious, staying with him or not knowing what danger Liam and Nicolas might be in. I heard nothing in the rest of the house. Not even Liam or Nicolas walking around. That made me nervous. Maybe I needed to go find them.

  Dalton and I stared at each other. He shifted from foot to foot.

  “I hate being in here. Maybe I should wait outside.”

  I supposed he did want to get out as soon as possible.

  “I think it’s safer if we all stay together. No one will hurt you now,” I said.

  Just as I moved over to the staircase Nicolas and Liam came down.

  “We searched the whole house and no one is here,” Nicolas said.

  It was a big house and I couldn’t help but wonder if there were some hidden rooms that they had missed. Nevertheless, we needed to get Dalton out of there. He was becoming increasingly nervous.

  “There’s just one more thing I want to do before we leave,” I said.

  “What’s that?” Nicolas asked.

  “I want to leave a note for the person who lured us here. I want them to know this isn’t the last they’ll hear of this. There will be consequences for their actions.”

  The men watched as I marched across the room and grabbed a pad of paper and pen from the kitchen counter. I feverishly scribbled the note. When I finished I placed it on the counter.

  “Are you going to tell us what you wrote?” Liam asked.

  “Safe to say that I let them know I was mad.”

  We hurried out of the house toward the car. It was getting late now. I was just glad that we had made it out of there.

  “Can we give you a ride home, Dalton?” Nicolas asked.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind,” Dalton said.

  “No problem.”

  We got back into the tiny rental car. I sat in the backseat with Dalton. I wanted a chance to talk with him while we took him home.

  “Tell me the address and I can put it in the GPS,” Liam said.

  After Dalton gave him the address we pulled away from the curb. I didn’t look over at the house as we left. I wanted to get away from the creepy feeling it gave me. Liam navigated the streets toward Dalton’s house.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  Dalton leaned his head back on the seat. “Still a little overwhelmed by everything.”

  He’d been looking out the window for much of the ride. He’d been quiet.

  “Can you tell me anything you remember about what happened to you?” I asked.

  I figured he didn’t want to think about it, but it was important that I knew.

  “Like I said, I never saw the person’s face and they never spoke to me. I had no idea why they had me down there.”

  “Was there anything different in the days leading up to this event?” I asked.

  I hoped he wasn’t too traumatized to remember. Liam and Nicolas were listening from the front seat.

  Dalton stared out the window. “No, nothing that I can think of.”

  Why was he not looking at me when he answered? I got the feeling that he wasn’t telling me the truth.

  “This is it,” Liam said as we pulled up in front of the small white house.

  “Did you leave your door open?” I asked.

  “No, I closed it when I left for the last time.”

  “It looks like someone paid you a visit.”

  Dalton didn’t make a move to get out of the car.

  “Look, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to go in there,” I said.

  “What can I do?” he asked.

  “You should come with us until we figure out who did this to you. First, we’ll go to Detective Manning,” I said.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Liam said, looking at me in the rear-view mirror.

  Was he saying that because he didn’t like Detective Manning?

  “I agree,” Nicolas said.

  “Why do you say that? Dalton was kidnapped.”

  “Yes, but this has to do with the Underworld, and I’m not sure they would understand or be able to investigate everything.”

  So in other words it was my sole responsibility to get to the bottom of this. I supposed I’d known that all along. Again I was questioning my leadership skills. This seemed beyond my area of expertise.

  “Remember, Hallie, you have us,” Nicolas said.

  Yes, what would I do without them?

  Chapter 13

  Liam had just pulled away from the curb when I said, “Stop the car.”

  My request came all of a sudden, so it was no surprise when Liam slammed on the brakes.

  “What’s wrong?” Nicolas asked in a panic.

  “I changed my mind. I want to go in Dalton’s house.”

  “What are you talking about? You said we shouldn’t go in Dalton’s house.”

  “I think that we should check it out without just driving off.”

  I knew their silence meant that they agreed with me, yet they were hesitant. Liam backed up the car an
d then shoved it into park. I opened the door.

  “Whoa, wait. Where do you think you’re going?” Nicolas asked.

  I glared at him. “I’m going in the house.”

  “I really don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll go check it out and let you know what I find,” Nicolas said.

  “Wait a minute. I’ll go check it out and I’ll let you know what I find,” I said.

  Nicolas and Liam knew when they had pushed me too far. It was like trying to get permission from my father to allow me to cross the street by myself. I truly appreciated the concern—it was nice to know that I had people who cared for me—but they couldn’t hold my hand for everything. It wasn’t that they thought I couldn’t handle myself. It was that they wanted to protect me out of love. I totally got it. I was the same way to some extent.

  Luckily, they didn’t argue with me anymore. I got out of the car and headed toward the house. I felt as if I was headed into the unknown. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go by myself after all. Something told me that Nicolas and Liam would still try to stop me anyway. I mean, after all, there could be crazy kidnappers in there. I looked over my shoulder and saw the guys sitting in the car watching me. Before I reached the front porch a shuffling noise caught my attention. I noticed the shrubbery around the side of the house moving. Was there some kind of animal back there?

  I inched my way around the side of the house, prepared to be attacked by a wild animal. Well, as prepared as I could be under the circumstances. I was positive this was probably some kind of wild animal. Yes, my imagination always ran wild. So far, nothing jumped out at me, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary back there. I ended up going all the way around the house and spotting nothing. I knew the guys would be wondering what I was doing and probably freaking out just a little bit.

  But just as I was going around the side of the house, I noticed someone. He dashed out from behind a tall tree and ran across someone else’s yard. That was when Nicolas and Liam spotted the man too. They jumped out of the car and took off after the guy. We took off down the down the sidewalk in a sprint. The man ran through yards.

  I just knew he had come from Dalton’s house and I wanted to find out why. On the other hand, apparently Dalton wasn’t quite as curious. As far as I knew he had stayed behind in the car. He was probably the smartest of all of us.

  I was pretty sure we were chasing this guy for nothing. I had really wanted to catch him, but I couldn’t even see where he’d gone. Plus, now I was out of breath and my legs hurt. We had chased this guy for nothing.

  I stopped and said, “I can’t run any longer. My legs hurt.”

  “You should have gone jogging with me,” Liam said.

  I waved my hand. “I don’t want to hear it. What do you think he was up to? Do you think he was one of the guys who took Dalton?”

  “Maybe, but wouldn’t they think he’s still in the basement?”

  “Not if magic is involved. Maybe they sensed that he was gone. Or the sensed when the spell was broken,” I said. “That’s why he was probably back there again, waiting for Dalton.”

  “Dalton must be in serious trouble if he has people waiting for him like that.”

  “Yeah, something tells me we’re mixed up right in the middle of it. Wait, maybe we shouldn’t have left Dalton back there in the car if someone was looking to kidnap him.”

  “He’s ripe for the taking back there in that car, like a sitting duck,” Nicolas said.

  “We have to get back to him quick,” Liam said.

  We took off running back through the neighbors’ yards, weaving around cars and bicycles. Not to mention getting quite a few strange looks. The longer I ran the more nervous I became. I was getting a bad feeling. It didn’t help that my legs were hurting too. I had to power through and get back there for Dalton. I didn’t want to leave him there with these crazy people running around trying to kidnap him. No telling what they would do to him next time. Though I couldn’t see the car yet, I knew we were getting closer. I thought I heard voices and one of them sounded like Dalton. That wasn’t exactly a reassuring feeling. The car came into view and I spotted Dalton outside of the car. He wasn’t alone.

  There was a group of men surrounding Dalton. They were dressed all in black with their faces and heads covered too. They had him and were pulling him away from the car, trying to drag him down the street into another waiting car. My bad feeling had turned out to be correct.

  “They’ve got Dalton,” I yelled. “What can we do to stop them?”

  I didn’t think that we could stop all of them because it would be the three of us against all of them. It looked like six of them. This was extremely disturbing to watch. Was this what had happened to him before?

  “Wait, I want to do my magic and see if I can stop them,” Nicolas said.

  He stopped, but I wanted to keep running. I didn’t think any of the men had noticed us. Nicolas raised his arm, recited the words, and then magic zapped from his hand. It hit the men, knocking them right off their feet.

  “That was really good,” Liam said.

  Nicolas nodded. “Thanks.”

  I knew he was proud of his work.

  Another car pulled up to the men. The man yelled at the men, “What do you think you’re doing?”

  It was an unmarked police car. The men took off running, leaving Dalton in the street. We raced toward Dalton, but when we got over there he was talking to the officer in the car. Dalton told the officer that they were just playing around. The cop didn’t seem amused, but he got back into the car and drove away.

  “Why did you tell him it was just a joke?” I asked.

  “I just didn’t want to have any more trouble.”

  “That doesn’t even make any sense. Maybe they can find these guys and get them, because you know they’ll come back for you again. If they came twice they’ll try again. Third time’s a charm, right? You don’t want to give them that opportunity.”

  “Can we just get out of here?” He rushed back toward the car. “Don’t leave me here alone again.”

  “Don’t worry, we won’t leave you here,” I said.

  I looked around to see if the men had returned or maybe they were hiding somewhere. So far they were nowhere in sight. Thank goodness.

  We climbed back into the car and locked the doors.

  “I think we should circle around to see if we can find these guys.” I said. “I hate to let them get away with this.”

  Though Dalton seemed as if he was fine to let them get away. Liam started the car and we circled around the block. I looked at every house and street, but there was no sign of the men. I was just surprised that they had taken off like that and that they hadn’t stayed around to fight or try to get Dalton again. Dalton was hiding down in the seat so that no one would see him back there.

  “I think it’s safe to sit up now,” I said.

  “I’ll just stay down here, if you don’t mind. Can we just get away from here now?” he asked.

  Was he ever going to go back to his house? He couldn’t stay away from there forever.

  “Everything will be all right. We’ll figure out who these people are, okay? And we’ll make sure that they stop. But I also think we might need to tell the authorities about this because it’s kind of serious since they had you tied up down here for so long. I mean, what if they get someone else? You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

  “No, I suppose I don’t,” he said.

  “Maybe Hallie’s right,” Liam said as he glanced in the rearview mirror at Dalton. “Maybe you should tell the police about this.”

  Why the change of heart? Nicolas glared at Liam.

  “I’ll think about it,” Dalton said.

  I guessed that was all that we could ask for. Maybe I could tell the police. It would be in Dalton’s best interest and everyone else’s too. I continued my search out the window for the men, but as we got further away from the house, I assumed I wouldn’t see them again. I hoped that would be
the case and I really wouldn’t ever see them again. I just couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to tell someone. This was scary stuff and I got a shiver every time I thought about how close we had come to being stuck down in that basement. Dalton’s tension oozed across the seat and made me tense up as well. Soon I’d have a full-fledged panic attack.

  Chapter 14

  “So where are we going?” Dalton asked.

  “We have reservations at a hotel. We’ll get you a room too. That way we can relax tonight and start fresh in the morning.”

  Relax. Yeah, that was an easy word for me to say, but I wasn’t sure the action would be quite as easy. We reached the hotel and parked. Dalton followed us into the hotel like a lost puppy. I felt so bad that his life had been turned upside down. We stepped into the large lobby of the hotel. The check-in counter was over to the right.

  “I’ll take care of everything,” Liam said.

  Nicolas and I moved over to the fountain in the middle of the room. Dalton came with us.

  “I really appreciate all the help,” he said.

  “It’s no problem,” I said. “I’m just glad that we found you.”

  Liam returned with the keys for the rooms. “There were no other rooms available.”

  Nicolas and I were sharing a room. I stared at Liam.

  “Dalton can stay with me,” Liam said.

  “Are you sure?” Dalton asked.

  “Yeah, as long as you don’t mind the sofa.”

  “Hey, that’s better than sleeping in a basement.”

  We went our separate ways toward our rooms. The large bed with fresh linens looked inviting, but I always liked to unpack first.

  After hanging up the last item, I asked, “Now what do we do?”

  Nicolas fell back onto the bed. “I suppose it’s too early to call it a night.”

  “We haven’t had dinner,” I said.

  I wished we could make it a romantic one, but after what had happened the romance had taken a back burner.

  “I’m going to give Carter Cobb a call again. Maybe there was some kind of mix-up and he’ll have a good explanation.” I picked up my phone.

  I knew that wasn’t the case, but I was trying to remain positive. The phone rang and rang but no one answered.