Aunt Anastacia heaved a sigh. “I don’t like this. I prefer the whole team.”
“We don’t have the whole team,” Emily groaned. “But we have two of the strongest members of the team. We have maybe an hour or two before the nexus becomes virtually impenetrable. We can take advantage of this.”
Aunt Anastacia didn’t reply.
Emily could see that she was getting through to the woman. So she pressed on. “Look, by tonight, when the Alfreds wake up, we can both be in the safe house with the whole town awake.” She clasped her hands together and squeezed as she spoke. “Or we can be in the safe house, wondering how we’re going to wake the whole town with the Alfred seniors hot on our tails.”
“I don’t know,” Anastacia muttered.
Emily growled.
“I suppose it’s worth a try,” Anastacia submitted. “But the first sign of trouble, we’re pulling out.”
Emily shook her head. “No. The first sign of imminent fatal danger. You don’t expect us to bail if we meet a few supernaturals or mercs.”
“Good point,” said her aunt. “But we’ll need someone to collect the vigilantes. We need them up to date with what’s happening in the town; otherwise, they’ll just hunt us and leave the true culprits.”
“Dad and Michael can get through to Michael’s dad,” continued Emily. “If the girls are with them, they can tell a convincing story.”
“And everything tonight?” asked Aunt Anastacia with disbelief laced into her tone.
“That’s a great way to end the day, isn’t it?” Emily sounded sure of herself. “Everything has to happen tonight.”
Aunt Anastacia nodded. She looked a little more confident in Emily’s plan. Good. “I think it might work.”
“We don’t need to tell the guys now.” Emily lowered her voice. “As soon as they have the girls and are retreating, give them the order to head over to the vigilantes’ headquarters. That’s where Michael’s dad will be. When we destroy the nexus and rescue Joanna’s parents, they can bring the vigilantes up to speed.”
“Then what?” asked Aunt Anastacia. “Obviously, the vigilantes can’t go up against the Alfreds just yet.”
“They’ll come into the safe house,” Emily went on. “By then, Joanna’s parents would be there. We’ll know what connections exist between them and the Alfreds. Also the vigilantes’ top commanders and the chief vigilante will be there as well. We can plan our strategy for ridding this town of the Alfreds and finally putting an end to this Na-Ma threat.” Emily smiled to herself. “All without breaking too much of a sweat, hopefully.”
“Let’s hope it goes that smoothly then.” Aunt Anastacia pursed her lips. She turned to the side of the road and muttered a few phrases. The air by the shoulder of the road crumpled around itself and then broke apart, revealing a Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 AMG.
Emily was dumbfounded, looking at the black beauty. “You’re kidding me, right?” she squealed.
Aunt Anastacia grinned. “I call it the Beast.”
32
They drove in silence for a while. Not because they had nothing to say to each other, but because Emily was so taken by the posh interior of the Mercedes-Benz. Who could blame her?
It didn’t connect. Her picture of Aunt Anastacia didn’t match up with what she was seeing. The interior was made of lush red leather upholstery. The seats were ventilated and cooled. There was an array of gadgetry on the dashboard. Even a digital voice that alerted Aunt Anastacia to potential road obstructions and where to make correct turns and all.
What Emily saw didn’t fit with the mental picture she had painted of her aunt over the years. Like, she didn’t really believe that Aunt Anastacia could own a car like this. It was the latest model. All the bells and whistles. When did her aunt become a car buff?
The VW Beetle; now that fit with Emily’s mental picture of her aunt—a wizened woman who wanted little to do with technology and would rather spend time in her library filled with old, musty books. Definitely not the Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 AMG.
More like OMG.
“This should teach you not to judge a book by its cover,” said Aunt Anastacia after a while, apparently reading Emily’s thoughts again. They had hit the main road that passed through most of New Haven. Twenty minutes and they’d come upon another road that led to Main Street.
“Indeed,” Emily agreed. “But, how though? Are you even into cars?”
“Not really.” Aunt Anastacia shrugged. She looked weird holding the space-age steering wheel while wearing a red robe that was reminiscent of the Renaissance era.
“So, of course, I have expenses just like every other person,” Aunt Anastacia said. “That basically means I have to earn a living. So I offer my—erm—supernatural services to the rich.”
“What kind of services?” Emily raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, you know.” Anastacia waved a hand. “Talking to the dead, encounters, that sort of thing. The one who brought me this car was a rich business tycoon from Houston. He’d heard of my services from another client and contracted me.”
“What could he have wanted so badly that he was willing to part with a hundred-thousand-dollar car?”
Aunt Anastacia threw Emily a morbid look. “Salvation from cancer.”
The car turned into Dodge Square Avenue. They were getting closer to the castle. Ten minutes, and they’d be on Main Street. Aunt Anastacia planned to park the car just at the mouth of Main Street, where she would activate the vehicle’s supernatural protection system. Then they would walk the rest of the distance to the mansion. From then on, Aunt Anastacia would release the elementals, while Emily would release all hell.
“So you can heal all forms of diseases?” Emily returned to the subject.
“Well, that’s the thing.” Anastacia paused. “Healing is impossible.”
“So how did you heal that man?”
“First off, the man wasn’t too far along. He was Stage One. I couldn’t have helped him if he were, say, Stage Three or Four. Because what I basically did was stimulate his body’s immune system to fight off the cancer. More like super-charged it to
