Next, Mina saw Jared do something crazy, pointing at Grey Tail and beckoning in challenge. Grey Tail leaned outside the van, fingers digging into the van door, leaving inch-wide holes in the frame. A howl split the night as he arched his back, preparing to lunge onto Jared’s bike.
Suddenly the van slammed on its brakes, and Jared quickly veered left and then backward, giving the wolf a chance to lunge into his back. Mina watched in terror as two hundred pounds of muscle hit Jared from behind and knocked him from his bike. The men rolled several times across the pavement. The last thing she saw was Jared’s pained expression as the wolf’s claws ripped into him. And then the van sped away.
Chapter 23
Mina screamed into the gag, and tears flowed freely from her eyes. Jared had risked his life for her, and now there would be no one to save her.
Dread. Hopelessness. Loss. All of it consumed her. Numbness took hold, and she didn’t fight or struggle when a different wolf reached down to haul her over his shoulder. She barely registered that they were back at Babushka’s Bakery.
Mina wasn’t sure if she was surprised or not to see none other than B.J., Claire’s great-grandson, climbing out from behind the wheel. Claire marched forward, holding open a side door marked “Deliveries Only” for them to pass through. It was cold and dark, and it smelled of flour and diesel fumes. They removed Mina’s gag but not her bindings.
“I’ll start with the blonde one,” Claire croaked out. She went over to Nan, hauled her up by her hair, and peered carefully into her unconscious face. Reaching out with a sun-marked, wrinkled hand, Claire rested it over Nan’s mouth. Faint glowing lines began to pour out of Nan and into Claire through her hand.
Nan opened her eyes in fear as the process began, and she began to age in front of Mina. Her blue eyes turned gray, her ivory skin turned clear. Mina screamed as Nan went from sixteen to eighty-six in seconds. All the while, Claire seemed to reverse in age. Her hair grew out and became blonde. Her face filled out and she grew younger, but stopped when she reached about fifty.
Suddenly, Claire let Nan fall to the floor. “That’s all I can take without killing her,” Claire said, her voice stronger and louder than before. She turned to Mina with a predatory smile. “I know you don’t want me to destroy her, so I suggest you give me the Grimoire now, before I finish with you.”
Mina shrank back in fear.
“What did you expect? It’s easier to take a few years off unsuspecting teenagers than to leave a dried-out corpse. To make this permanent, I need your life energy and the Grimoire. Give it to me now, or I will take what little years she has left. At least one of you will survive this.”
Perhaps Claire thought she was scaring Mina into compliance, but she was really giving her the extra courage she needed. Claire moved toward Nan’s feeble body and reached out a hand threateningly.
“No, wait!” Mina struggled to stand. “I’ll give you the Grimoire, but I need to be somewhere more private.”
“Don’t take me for a fool, girl!” Claire grunted.
“I don’t. It’s just that…” Mina tried to play the part of a shy, reserved girl, which wasn’t that hard for her. Blood rushed to her cheeks in embarrassment. “I strapped it in with my corset. I need to undress to get it.”
Claire snorted and laughed at Mina’s awkwardness. She pointed to a shelf piled high with cans of lard. “Behind there, but that is all the privacy I’ll allow. Just so you know, there is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.” She motioned, and Lonetree cut off Mina’s bindings.
Mina bobbed her head and slowly walked behind the shelf, as if resigned to her doomed state. Once out of sight, she reached into her bodice and pulled out the Grimoire easily. Opening it up, she was surprised to see the pages blank still, except for the first story she’d solved. She was hoping for a little bit of information.
“C’mon, I need your help!” she whispered to the book. “You’re supposed to help me, and now would be an ideal time.” The book was lifeless; there was no glow or hum. “Please! I beg you.” Nothing.
Mina curled up on the floor and held the notebook to her chest. Images flooded in her mind, variations of children’s books she’d read in the library. Their images flashed through Mina’s mind like a documentary on wolves, little girls, and then hunters.
She was waiting for a hunter to come save her, but that wasn’t how it always worked. Sometimes Red saved her grandma from the wolves. The story had changed. They were in Grandma’s house. Babushka was Russian for “grandma,” right? Mina hoped so. So Claire would have to be the grandma. No, that wasn’t right. Claire was obviously the villain here.