The man cried out for help and his shadow immediately stopped fighting with Puck. It rushed to his side and grabbed Daphne and Sabrina in its arms. The girls fought against its grip but it was too strong, and while they struggled, the stranger managed to get to his feet.
"All right, I've had just about all I'm going to take from you kids," the man growled as he reached into his pocket once again. Before he could pull out another weapon, Puck swooped down and snatched the girls away from the shadow by the backs of their coats.
"Well, we've got to run," Puck said as they soared into the night sky. Undeterred, the shadow sailed after them, grabbed at Sabrina with its horrible hands, yanked the medical file from under her arm, and flew away. Sabrina cried out and begged Puck to go back for it, but he refused.
As they flew toward home, Sabrina looked down at the cold, dark forest. It might have been a tear in her eye, or the reflection of the moon, but for a second she could have sworn she'd seen someone racing through the woods below at an incredible speed--someone with a shock of white hair. And then he was gone.
Chapter 4
Puck and Daphne were already at the dining room table when Sabrina came down for breakfast. They had forks and knives in their hands and were pounding them on the table. "We want to eat! We want to eat!" they chanted. Elvis was barking along with the children's demands.
Sabrina took a seat just as Granny Relda entered the room carrying several plates of food. She set them on the table and glanced at Sabrina.
"Liebling!
You look like you were up all night," she said. "Slept like a baby," Sabrina lied. She knew she looked tired. When she had gone into the bathroom to brush her teeth before coming down, she saw that her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles underneath them. Her stubborn black-marker mustache and goatee weren't helping her appearance, either.
Granny raised a suspicious eyebrow but said nothing, zipping back into the kitchen for more food. Soon, nearly every inch of table was covered with plates overflowing with flapjacks, toast, scrambled eggs, waffles, sausages, oatmeal, French toast, fruit, and yogurt. Best of all, it was normal food. Granny's odd culinary tastes often included black spaghetti, tofu waffles, daffodil gravy, porcupine stew, and cream of skunk cabbage soup.
"What's all this for?" Sabrina said as she enjoyed the feast's delicious smell.
"We're celebrating your return from the hospital, of course," Granny said as she served the girl a heaping spoonful of scrambled eggs, some sausages, a couple of pancakes, and a few slices of apple. She took Sabrina's fork and knife and cut up the meal so Sabrina could easily eat it with one hand. Then she poured maple syrup over all of it. Sabrina took a bite and was surprised to find that it was actually real maple syrup and not some exotic concoction the woman had discovered in Kathmandu or Timbuktu or one of the other zillion places she had visited.
Daphne impaled a pancake on her fork and flipped it into the air. Elvis caught it and wolfed it down without chewing. Daphne took a pancake for herself and shoved the whole thing into her mouth. Sabrina wondered whether Elvis or her little sister had better table manners. Puck had no manners at all. He scooped up some eggs with his dirty hands and crammed them into his mouth. Granny smacked his hand with a serving spoon when he tried to do the same thing with the oatmeal.
"Well, so much for seconds," Sabrina grumbled.
"I was thinking that maybe after breakfast we could dig through the journals and look for clues about Red Riding Hood and the Jabberwocky," Daphne said with a mouthful of food. She winked at her sister.
Sabrina cringed. She hadn't told Granny that she'd discovered that the girl in the red cloak was Little Red Riding Hood. Daphne had just spilled the beans that the children had been doing research. Luckily, the old woman didn't seem to notice Daphne's slip.
"I have a very important announcement to make," Puck said, wiping his greasy mitts on the front of his green hoodie.
Granny raised her eyes in surprise. "Well, don't keep us waiting."
Sabrina scowled. The old woman was intentionally avoiding talking about finding Henry and Veronica.
"As all of you know, I have been saving your lives a lot lately. It seems every time I turn around you three are a breath away from the grave. Well, it's got to stop! I'm retiring."
"Retiring?" the old woman said.
"Yes, I'm out of the hero business. I'm not one of the good guys. I am a villain--"
"Of the worst kind," the Grimm women said. "We know, we know!"
"I thought all the do-gooding wouldn't be so bad if I could make some money, but I extended credit to people who could not pay," Puck said, scowling at Sabrina. "So from now on I'm going back to being one of the bad guys full-time, which, unfortunately, means that since I'm not saving your lives anymore, you're all as good as dead. But a villain has to draw the line somewhere! Bad guys do not save people from the jaws of doom! Bad guys push people into them."