I followed him outside and around the corner, where the foot traffic was nonexistent.
“I’m in your debt,” Wulf said. “I’m giving the stone back to you as partial payment.”
I took the stone and my purse from him and felt the power radiate up my arm. “I’m happy to get the stone back, but you don’t owe me anything.”
“I owe you my life. Unfortunately, your selfless act seems to have changed the stone. Whether it’s changed it completely and permanently remains to be seen. For now, it appears to have lost much of its intriguing evil properties of lustful wanting and gained the undesirable ability to make some people believe in true love.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“It’s boring and useless. And its influence has turned my minion into a worthless, slobbering romantic. He’s convinced he’s in love with your counter girl.”
“And you?” I asked. “Have you been affected by the stone?”
“It would be difficult to tell,” Wulf said. “I’ve always been a romantic. I’ve seen Casablanca twice, and I sat through the entire ordeal of Titanic.”
“Didn’t you enjoy Titanic?”
“I was relieved when the ship went down.”
Wulf had a sense of humor, sort of. Who would have thought.
“Are you going to disappear in a flash of light and a cloud of smoke?” I asked him.
“I hadn’t planned on it,” Wulf said. “My car is here. I was going to drive away. Are you disappointed?”
“A little.”
He swept his arm out, there was a flash of light and a lot of smoke, and when the smoke cleared Wulf was gone. So was his car.
That’s one heck of a parlor trick, I thought.
Glo and Clara were waiting for me when I went back into the bakery.
“What was that about?” Clara asked.
I told them a
bout the stone and how it had changed and was no longer of any use to Wulf.
“So instead of the Lust Stone, it’s the True Love Stone,” Glo said. “That’s so cool. We should take it out tonight for a test-drive. I might be able to find the one.”
“I thought the bellringer was the one,” Clara said.
“Me, too. He had real potential, but it turned out he was married. And he wasn’t even a bellringer. He was a janitor.”
“How does the stone work?” Clara wanted to know. “Is it like a Ouija board, telling you yes, or no, or forget about it? Does it sniff out your soul mate? Does it make you fall in love?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It didn’t come with instructions.”
“We should definitely take it out,” Glo said.
“I agree,” Clara said. “It’s been sitting around for centuries, probably. It needs a night out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Diesel texted me saying he’d be home for dinner but not much before. I thought this was a nice change from having him pick me up at work and drag me off on a hunt for some enchanted relic. When I got to Marblehead, I stopped to get groceries and a bottle of wine. I let myself into my house, said hello to Cat and Carl, and took a moment to enjoy the quiet. I set the SALIGIA Stone on the kitchen counter and put the food away. By the time Diesel walked in, I had the table set and a steak ready to go on the grill.
“Where were you?” I asked him.