Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

We waited with baited breath as Dad listened intently to the person on the other end. After a second, his body totally relaxed, and he inhaled deeply, before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Good grief, Stacey. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" he asked, looking at the two of us with a shake of his head. "Your mom wants to know if you bought any baking soda the other day."

"I did," I replied, going to the freezer and pulling out the box, looking inside, I gave it a little shake. "It's about half empty."

Dad relayed the message to Mom, while Vance and I sauntered back to the balcony together.

"I hate sitting here, doing nothing," he complained, sitting down on the lounge chair.

"I know," I said, as I sat next to him, reaching over to pat his hand. "But Dad must figure it's pretty important for you to be here. He stayed here to protect you himself."

"Is that what he's doing?" Vance rolled his eyes and flopped his head back against the seat. "Marvelous."

"Don't be so hard on him. If he didn't really care about you, he wouldn't be here. Welcome to the close family life you've always longed for."

He answered with some sort of grunt before he laced his fingers with mine. We didn't talk much as we sat together, allowing the soothing sounds of the ocean to wash back and forth over our senses. I found myself slowly being lulled to sleep as I lay in the comfortably padded lounge chair. I didn't realize I'd actually fallen asleep, though, until I felt Vance shaking me gently.

"Portia," his sultry voice called, and I lifted my eyelids to look at him. "Hey, baby." He smiled. "You've been sleeping for about an hour now. Some of the coven members have come back. I thought you might want to hear what they have to say."

"Oh . . . , okay," I replied, taking the hand he extended to me and letting him pull me up.

We walked back inside, anxious to hear what the others had learned on their expeditions.

Sharon and Fred were inside talking to my dad.

"We were actually able to talk to the security guard at the facility today," Sharon was saying, as we came through the sliding door. "We noticed there was a sign advertising one of the warehouse units available for lease. We went to the gate pretending to be interested in putting a business in there. The guard gave us a card to the listing agent.

"We also asked him about security on the place," she continued. "He told us they keep a guard posted at the gate all day, and there are three security cameras for the remaining walls around the property. He then informed us there's a group that rents one of the larger units at the facility, and they conduct their business mostly at night. They post their own security guards there in the evenings. He said the name of the business was Cummings Enterprises. Fred pulled a card from his wallet and handed it to my dad for review. He gave us a card for them also, in case we're interested in contacting them and asking them for a reference for the facility."

"So now we have an address and a phone number," Dad smiled, as he read the card, before giving Fred and Sharon a nod. "Great work, you two. I'm really proud of you."

Vance asked my dad if he could please have a look at the card, holding his hand out expectantly.

"He's really here then," he said somberly, running his thumb absently over the small paper rectangle for a moment, before snapping back to reality. "This is a home address," he pointed out, as he leaned toward me. "We passed the turn to Las Conchas when we were downtown. I believe it's a resort housing area."