Brewing Trouble Read online

  Sarah sniffled. “But… but I don’t know half of what you do about herbs. And all the other stuff!”

  “So find another teacher.” Doc laughed, though it sounded almost more like a wheeze. “There’s several excellent herbalists out there teaching, though whether they’re witches or not I couldn’t say. You should learn from them anyway, get another perspective on everything.” Doc started coughing and when she settled again, she waved her hand at the down and dirty ward anchor discs that Sarah had hung on her bed. “Now I’ve said what I needed to and you’ve done what you came here for and I’m well enough protected,” she held up her wrist with the knotted string wrapped around it. “Over-protected if you ask me. But I think I need some rest.”

  “Okay, Doc.” Sarah nodded and bent over to kiss her friend’s cheek, hoping Doc wouldn’t see the tears threatening to break loose. “I’ll see you again soon, though.”

  “Be sure you do, kiddo.”

  10

  Sarah was still turning over what Doc said as she walked up the creek trail. She started walking this path to defy the fear that the wight attacks back in January had inflicted on her, and now it was one of her favorite walks, partly because it was so close to her house. It was just a strip of pavement that ran along Los Gatos Creek and bordered by a semi-tamed roadside bramble. A jogging and bike path, mostly, but the Villagers used it as a shortcut to her house often enough that there was a ‘game trail’ up by her hedge now. She no longer startled when a coyote or a green skinned woman stepped out of the bushes in her garden, and she left the low gap in the hedge unfilled, just like her Gran had.

  Find another teacher, Doc said. Like it was so easy. It wasn’t exactly like magic and herbalism were taught at the local community college. Sarah had to laugh to herself at the idea of calling the registrar’s office and asking for the schedule of the herbs for health and witchcraft 101 classes. Still, the idea sort of intrigued her. She could learn more about healing and medicine one way or another. And she knew that there were online classes and retreats and other things. She thought there was an alternative medicine school or something nearby. It was worth looking into.

  Anything that could help her handle things like the other day when she was by herself. Or even when Doc did get back on her feet, Sarah would feel better if she didn’t need her mentor watching everything she did, and Doc deserved a break.

  Sarah sighed and slowed her steps. She looked around at where she’d ended up, near where the trail spilled onto Alma Bridge Road. Looked like she’d gotten a decently long walk while she’d been lost in thought. She gazed idly through the fence at the reservoir and breathed in the smell of water while her thoughts swirled around different possibilities and how each would impact her life and the shop and her relationships with everyone. Gabe was grumbling about his GED and classes he could take, and now Doc had pointed out that she not only could start a new path herself, maybe she should.

  It was odd to consider. She was almost thirty years old now, with a degree. Granted it was a business degree that her mother had dictated she get even though she didn’t really want it. Still, the idea of going back to school for something she chose herself had never even occurred to her. Now, she was considering the feasibility of it.

  Wasn’t she?

  Sarah pulled out her phone and texted Sebastian. Hey. Doc suggested I study herbalism with someone else, too, and now I’m thinking about finding a school or classes or something. And I walked my butt off thinking about it. I’m way down by the reservoir.

  She stepped around the end of the fence to cross the street and sit down in the grass in the shade of a clump of small trees— or maybe they were really tall bushes? Sarah still didn’t have a very good handle on what all the local plant life was, though she was working on it. Her phone pinged.

  Reservoir’s not that far on foot, not even just two of them. ;) And I think it’s a great idea! Would you just study herbal medicine or something else to supplement it? Are there witch schools? That would be awesome in a very YA fiction sort of way, and I would demand daily updates. Although, depending on what you take, you could go to school with Gabe! Built in study buddy!

  She had to laugh. Leave it to Sebastian to work that in. He really was on a mission to get Gabe back in school.

  I’ll think about it. Just wanted to make sure I’m not starting to get too crazy. Online correspondence courses are totally different than enrolling back in college.

  It was only a moment before he responded this time, now that he was paying attention.

  True. But you didn’t go to school for yourself last time. This time it would be for the right reasons.

  Sebastian had a point. An excellent point, in fact. It was definitely something to consider.

  Thanks, sweetheart. I’ll keep thinking about it. See you for dinner? She stood and dusted off her jeans.

  Definitely. I might be a little late. Plumbing situation in B building. Gabe and I are at a home supplies store in San Jose now. The joys of being a handyman. He included an eye-rolling emoji at the end of his message and Sarah responded with a heart before turning her screen off and turning to cross the street back. She was still looking down, giving her leg one final brush, when she was pushed.

  She stumbled and started falling before she really registered the shove. Her phone skidded across the ground when she flung her hands out to brace for the landing, and she yelped at the loss. Her palms only just touched the grass when her attacker kicked her in the ribs, sending her off balance again, and tumbling into the water of the reservoir. On her way over, she threw out a hand and cast a defensive shielding spell, hoping to at least slow her attacker down. It wouldn’t do much, since she didn’t know the exact nature of who was after her, nor why, but she only needed to get her feet under her again.

  The water was cold, compared to the summer sunshine, but not horribly so at least. Her splashing churned up silt from the edges and little bits of debris clung to her and tangled in her hair when she spluttered up to her knees, cursing at the rocks and pebbles digging into her skin. Her hip throbbed where she had landed on a sharp stone just under the surface and her eyes stung from the muddy water she tried to blink out of them.

  Sarah flung an arm up in front of her face to ward off any more blows as she got her balance, but none came. Looking around, there was nobody there. She crouched, searching for the direction of the next attack, but all she saw was the trail of smashed down grass that led to the road. The sound of a car driving away told her where her assailant went.

  The question was why? Whoever it was didn’t demand her money or her phone— Sarah found that on the gravelly edge of the road, scratched from the fall but otherwise fine. They also didn’t try to do anything other than send her into the water, which wasn’t even deep enough here to be dangerous unless she was already knocked unconscious, which she very much wasn’t. It was, at best, painful from the bruises and cuts that now needed cleaning, and more than a bit of a nuisance.

  Sarah glared down the road in the direction that the retreating car had gone, and tried unsuccessfully to clean her hand off on her jeans. With a grimace, she gave up and swiped her phone’s screen back to life. She hit a number and waited, having slightly more success brushing water and bits of mud out of her face.

  “Hey, Sarah. What’s up? Seb’s running errands right now if you’re looking for him.” Kai’s voice came through the speakers clearly and Sarah blew out a breath of relief.

  “I know, I was texting him a few minutes ago. Do you have time to drive down to Lexington Reservoir and pick me up where the creek trail dumps out?” she asked.

  “Um, sure. You okay?” Kai asked. Muffled sounds in the background told her that he was already grabbing his keys and heading to his car. God, it was good to have friends she could actually rely on in her life.

  “I think so. Bring some towels, though, please? And maybe a bathrobe? I’m soaking wet,” she said. “I was sitting here thinking about some stuff and somebody thought it’
d be funny to sneak up behind me and shove me in. I hadn’t planned on going for a swim and I’m completely soggy.”

  There was a pause, and Sarah could see Kai in her mind, standing still as a predator, his eyes narrowing slightly while he ran through what she’d just said.

  “Okay. You sit tight and keep a careful eye out. I’m sending Marcus ahead on foot. It’ll take me longer to drive there and I don’t want you alone. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said, then hung up.

  Sebastian slammed into Sarah’s house, followed a bit more slowly by Gabe.

  “Sarah! Are you okay? What happened?” Sebastian rushed to where she sat at her kitchen table with a cup of tea. He rushed over and crouched by her chair and ran his hands over her back and down her arms and legs, making sure that she wasn’t broken. Kai stood with Marcus in the kitchen by the stove, putting the kettle back and tidying up a bit.

  “I’m fine, Seb, you can calm down,” Sarah said. “Just a few bumps and bruises. Scraped my knee a bit inside my jeans. My palms got a bit torn up and I have two very impressive bruises on my hip and my ribs, but otherwise no harm done. Shouldn’t you two be doing plumbing right now?”

  “No harm done? Someone attacked you. You’re injured! You could have been killed!” Sebastian glared at her before starting to pace back and forth. She recognised his reaction for the concern and fear it was, and while she appreciated it, she was too wrung out to let him prod her into an argument over it.

  Gabe settled onto the sofa and tipped his head. “I have to agree. If nothing else, you were attacked, even if whoever it was meant it as a mean sort of joke. The repairs can wait a bit, you’re more important.”

  “I’m heading back down there now that someone else is here with you. Maybe I can pick up some sort of clue about who it was, at least,” Kai said. He nodded at Marcus, then opened the back door and with a shimmer of magic and a flick of his tail, he loped out through Sarah’s backyard.

  “Man, I might never get used to that.” Gabe shook his head and stared after the coyote that was slipping through the hedge and onto the very trail Sarah had been on.

  Sarah grinned. “I know exactly how you feel. It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

  “I know what you mean, and I’ve been around spirits my whole life,” Marcus agreed with a grin. “I’m going to go make a quick patrol around the village and your neighborhood. I’ll text you later in case you’re asleep.” Marcus slipped out the back door, as well.

  “Handy to have a friendly vampire around, isn’t it?” Gabe blinked at after the lidérc for a moment before he turned back to Sebastian. “Aren’t you guys supposed to, like, rip through your clothes or something when you change like that?” Gabe turned to Sebastian who rolled his eyes, but just shrugged and closed the door again.

  “Eh, you can’t take those werewolf novels as literal fact, you know. It’s magic. Why wouldn’t our clothes come with?” Sebastian shrugged again. “You never hear about naked spirits showing up in the old myths unless they were trying to get laid.”

  Gabe laughed. “That’s true. Though, that seems to be all they did back then, so how would we know the difference?”

  Sarah stood up and went to trade her tea for a glass of cold water. “Anyway, Kai wanted me to call the police when he got there, but I didn’t think it would do any good, really. I mean, I didn’t see whoever it was. Couldn’t even tell you if it was a man or a woman.”

  Sebastian blinked at her, but Gabe nodded his understanding.

  “Yeah. Sometimes it’s just not worth adding hassle to injury. Cops aren’t always the best solution,” Gabe said. “Kinda awful to say it, but it’s true.”

  Sebastian growled, a frustrated, animal sound in his chest. “But—”

  “Look, I have enough going on without calling the police out on a wild goose chase. It’s not like they could do anything, anyway.” Sarah resumed her seat and leaned back. “It just feels a bit like everything’s being piled on, you know? Doc getting knocked over in the street, then sick, then hospitalized. Mom calling to pester me about jobs. The clients in the back room that I feel barely qualified to treat, though thank goodness there haven’t been that many yet. Now this, you know?”

  Gabe nodded, then glanced at Sebastian. “Hey, why don’t I head back and deal with this plumbing thing so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. If I need anything I’ll call.” He stood up and came over to hug Sarah. “I’m glad you’re okay. Get some rest, though. You’re probably going to be sore as Doc was last week.”

  “Thanks.” She hugged him back and smiled. “I will.”

  She watched him head out then turned to Sebastian who was already moving towards her room.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I’m going to draw you a fancy bath with one of those fizzy bath things you like, then I’m going to check all your bruises and whatever, then we’re going to snuggle in bed and watch dumb movies and order takeout,” he tossed his answer back over his shoulder before disappearing through the door.

  “Have I mentioned today how much I love you?” Sarah called through the doorway and stood up to follow him.

  11

  It was Tuesday and the whole atmosphere of the shop was filled with absolute insanity in Sarah’s mind. She’d started getting phone calls while Sebastian served up dinner the night before. A couple of the kids in the Village had come down with something and Sarah had to spend the evening doing research instead of relaxing like they’d planned, before she finally gave up and called Doc’s phone since visiting hours were long over.

  Doc pointed Sarah in the right direction and it was a damn good thing, too. This bug going around wasn’t anything terrible, but it was still something that needed to be treated. Doc told her how to make up the medicine that the kids would need and how they should take it, and said it should start working for them pretty quickly. She also warned that the number of cases would increase before the kids started getting better. She hadn’t said anything about almost every kid in the Village coming down with it at the same time, nor that every one of their parents would be calling Sarah in a panic.

  So, Sarah had been effectively trapped in the back of the shop all morning, mixing batch after batch of the potion that would help the kids get over the worst of it while they recovered. Now it was just after one in the afternoon and she’d had to field about thirty phone calls of varying intensity and reassure everyone that she was making the potion as fast as she could and would have the first batch ready by around 3 for Sebastian to come and pick up for delivery.

  The fact that it just needed to simmer for a while inside the grid of magic that she’d set up around the portable cooktop on the workbench for an hour was more of a relief than Sarah had imagined it would be. It meant that she could sit down for a few minutes before hopping back up to make a few phone calls. She had run out of two ingredients, unfortunately, and needed to replace them before she could start the next batch.

  Before that, though, she needed to check in with the actual shop. Gabe could handle most things, and she thanked all the gods she could think of that he was in today. Still, it was technically her job to be in charge, and they’d been busy every time she stuck her head out front. Not swamped enough to call for reinforcements, but busy enough that none of them had taken a break since opening. Sarah decided that she would let Meg take a break, then Gabe, then use her own break to go pick up the ingredients she needed. By the time she got back the first batch would be cool and ready to bottle.

  As she approached the curtain that draped over the opening to the kitchen serving the cafe, she heard the normal hum of chatter die away and a man’s voice carried over top, raised in irritation.

  “If you can’t even get my order right, what’s the damn point of taking it?” he said.

  “Sir, I’m sorry you’re not—” Meg tried to answer, but just as Sarah emerged from the kitchen, the man who had been yelling reached out and shoved Meg’s shoulder hard enough to send her steppi
ng back. The whole room full of people watched as she tried to keep the tray of used dishes steady while stumbling backwards to regain her balance. Even the nasty customer seemed somewhat surprised by the result of his actions as Meg took one last attempted step back and got her foot snagged on the leg of a chair.

  That was all it took. Meg went tumbling back and caught her elbow on the edge of the cafe table on her way past. Cups and saucers and silverware went flying to land in a cacophony of splintering china that bounced and scattered all over the room. Meg grabbed at the table’s edge, trying and failing to save both it and herself. It landed heavily against the display case with Meg’s momentum behind it. The crack of shattering glass replaced the crash of the table once it smashed through the front of the display. Meg shrieked and let go of the table to wrap her arms protectively over her face to fend off the newly created daggers that fell around her like rain.

  There was a moment of dead silence in the shop as everyone stared at the disaster that was still skittering to a halt in shards of glass and ceramic and a smear of chocolate cream where a cake had once been.

  “Meg! Oh my god, are you okay?” Sarah stepped forward carefully to get to the woman who was still curled up in a ball where she’d landed on the floor. There were streaks of blood down her arms, and she was whimpering, so at least she was alive. Why the heck would anyone attack Meg?

  “Sarah?” Meg answered from inside her curled up ball. She didn’t move for a long moment, then when Sarah put her hand carefully on Meg’s elbow, she started to lower her arms and peek around them. Sarah was vaguely aware of the chatter returning to the room, everyone else checking in with each other, seeing if there were more injuries, but her focus was on Meg. Terrified eyes peered up at her.