Noah was running late down at the sheriff’s department this evening. He didn’t even take one day off work after the incident. Clearly, someone was trying to poison the entire lot of us. My devil’s food cake was immediately tested, but it didn’t show any elevated traces of caffeine with the exception of those that show up naturally in cocoa. The coffee was tested, too, and it didn’t show any elevated traces either. My guess is that whoever did this was putting it directly into the cups. And both Noah and Everett agreed with me.
“Lemon.” Everett wraps an arm around me as we enter the conservatory. It’s so thick with bodies I can’t tell who is who. “Just a fair warning. Noah isn’t alone.”
The crowd parts, and then I see the malfeasance for myself. Not only is Cormack clinging to him like algae to a rock, but next to them stand two wicked witches that I was hoping to never see again.
“The nerve.” The words growl out of me as I lead Everett and me over to what will soon be called ground zero. I’m going to explode, and there is no holding back.
Everett leans in. “Word to the wise, I’d avoid assault charges tonight if I were you. And judging by those smirks on their faces, they might want exactly that.”
“What’s a little assault when I’ve got you two watching my back? Give me a light sentence when I appear before you in court, would you?”
“I might just give you hard labor.”
“Why do I have the feeling this will be taking place in your bedroom?”
“Because you know me well.”
“That I do,” I say as we come upon the trio of wickedness. “Why, Serena Digby, fancy meeting you here. Did your fake injury heal well?”
Serena Digby is a pretty brunette with sharp eyebrows and a silly permanent smirk on her face. She’s donned a short black dress, and all that’s missing is her pointy little hat. As much as I don’t believe she’s the real flying on a broomstick deal, I don’t contest she’s wicked through and through.
“Now, Lottie.” She rolls her eyes. “You’re not still angry about that whole getting locked in my bathroom thing, are you? I simply went out that night to get you one of those cookies you were demanding. The way you were knocking over furniture and rifling through my drawers, why, you were practically rabid. I thought for sure you were about to have some sort of diabetic episode.”
Cressida bites over her elongated finger and shakes her head my way. “You know what they say, Serena, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
“Or kidnapping charges,” I say. “And they are coming.” I shoot Noah a look as he speeds over and dots a kiss to my lips.
“They will,” he says, but I can see the doubt brewing in his eyes. “We just need some evidence and it’s as good as done.”
“I’m not waiting for evidence.” I step over to Serena and her shoulders pull back, right along with that obnoxious smile gracing her lips. “I’ll take you down myself, Serena Digby.”
“Did everyone hear that?” Serena calls out and half the room turns to stare. “I was just openly threatened. If anything happens to me, I do believe it will be this woman right here who stands responsible.” She doesn’t hesitate to point a svelte finger my way.
A couple of gasps and titters circle the room.
“You are evil, you know that?” I all but spit the words out at her.
“Am I?” She lifts a blood red painted fingernail and the lights blink on and off.
A series of oohs and ahs fills the room.
Mom steps up dressed in a black flowing gown and enough artisanal jewelry covering her chest to offend the dead, let alone conjure them.
“May I have your attention, please?” she bellows as she holds up a glowing pink cocktail that looks as if it has smoke billowing out of it.
Is that dry ice?
Cool trick if she doesn’t end up with third-degree burns by trying to take a sip out of it.
The room quiets down to less than a whisper, and Mom nods to the crowd.
“It is time to begin. The spirits of the netherworld have much to say. And you will never believe what will happen next! Every one of your worst nightmares is about to come true.”
Chapter 12
The chandelier up above begins to rock back and forth as Thirteen runs through the crystals as if it were a race track, inspiring the entire room to look up with animated awe.
Mom chortles with delight at the sight. “It seems our otherworldly guests have arrived for the séance! Let us all take a seat around the table and hold hands.” She wraps an arm around Wiley’s waist. “I’d like to introduce you all to our medium for the evening, Sir Wiley Fox.”
“Medium?” I look to Noah and a shiver runs up my spine. “She’s really dipping into the occult. I don’t think she realizes how dangerous this is. There’s a reason they say not to do it.”
He tips his head my way and doesn’t say a word.
“I’m the exception to the rule.” I shrug up at him. “I think.”
We all take our seats and hold hands. Lucky for me, I’ve got Noah and Everett on either side of me.
Everett leans in. “Lemon. You don’t think Greer and her dead friends will take things too far, do you? We don’t want a massacre on our hands.”
I shake my head at him. “I’m sure a few cupcakes here and there won’t hurt a thing—except for my mother’s ego when no one wants to come back.”
The lights dim and I shoot a mean look to Cormack who has seated herself strategically by Noah’s side. Of course, Cressida, Everett’s personal stalker, has taken up residence next to him. And Serena, the fake witch, sits to Cressida’s right.
The tourists who paid a mint to join the haunted festivities look anxious and excited to get things going. Almost as anxious as I am to see them all run out the door.
The lights go out completely, and another round of oohs and ahs take over. The backlighting in the woods outside the windows of the conservatory looks every bit as ethereal as I suspected with their lavender lights. I’ll admit, it adds just the right amount of spooktacular drama to the room.
Wiley clears his throat just as a supernatural beast who stands about four feet tall with a dark glossy coat and that spiked metal collar of his lighting up a cobalt blue appears smack in the center of the table. Rex snarls and barks at the crowd, and a round of laughter breaks out around us.
Wiley laughs the loudest. “It seems someone has let a dog inside the facility.”
My mouth falls open.
They can hear him!
Everett gives my hand a squeeze.
Oh my goodness. I bet they can hear him because of me. I knew I acted as a conduit. I just never thought I could enable the masses to listen in all at once.
Wiley moans and groans while Rex trots along touching his nose to every person here as if he were trying to sniff out the killer.
“Spirits of the night”—Wiley pulls out every word and sounds absolutely ridiculous in the process—“come into our midst as we open our minds to what you have to say.”
Rex riots out another bark as he snarls and snaps right in front of Serena.
“Evil is among us,” Rex riots it out for the entire room to hear and a bevy of whispers break out.
“Wiley”—my mother moans—“I had no idea you could throw your voice around like that.”
Wiley tips his head to the side. “I am a man of many talents.” He squints into the dimly lit room in the exact direction where Rex is continuing his snorting and grunting.
Rex lets out another riotous bark. “A life for a life. A miserable death for a miserable death. I will devour the wickedness among us with my own teeth. I will tear flesh from flesh, bone from bone. I will feast on the intestines of the one who dared bring forth such misery!”
Impressive.
I nod his way to let him know I approve.
Mom giggles. “That was great, honey,” she whispers it as loud as humanly possible as if the dark somehow impaired Wiley’s hearing. “But let’s keep it a little
lighter, shall we?”
Greer swoops to the center of the table, along with Winslow, Lea, and adorable Thirteen. The four of them glow as if they swallowed moonbeams, and their hair and fur sparkle like a constellation of stars.
Greer holds up her hands and wiggles her fingers. “Bippty boppity boo!” She adds a little extra punch to that last word and elicits a riotous laugh from the entire room. “Hey! That’s not funny.” She stomps her glowing high heel.
Winslow clears his throat. “Death waits for all who dare disturb the other side.” He elongates that last word and gives a ghostly howl to go along with it. “Go back to where you came from. Or soon the gates of hell will unleash!”
A girl huffs from across the table, “Finally getting to the good part.”
Greer and Winslow look my way, stunned that their ability to bestow fright has only made the crowd antsy for more.
I give a little shrug their way. I have no clue what it’s going to take to stop the madness.
Lea lets out a wild scream at the top of her lungs, and the room lights up with laughter and cheers.
Lea gasps, “What are all you yellow-bellied mortals laughing at?” She slashes her machete through the air as the riotous cackles and catcalls only seem to pick up. “You think this is funny, do you?”
Thirteen lets out an ear-piercing yowl, and just like that, it’s as if every beast in hades has truly unleashed among us.
A wild wind comes from nowhere, and the table begins to spin like a top. Greer and Winslow are slinging my sweet treats every which way, while Lea and Thirteen run amuck, doing their best to claw and scratch the eyes out of every person in this room. Rex is growling and barking, and a woman’s incessant screams from my left have all but pierced a hole through my eardrum. Come to think of it, everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs, with the exception of Noah, Everett, and me.
A strange, cold prickling lands on the top of my arm, then over my cheek, and it feels as if something is trickling down the side of my face.
I let go of Noah’s hand to touch my fingers to it, and I’m met with moisture.
I try my hardest to squint down at the dark smear over my fingertips.
“Oh my God, is that blood?”
Without thinking I run to the entry of the room and turn on the lights, and a breath hitches in my throat at the sight before me.
Every person in the room, including Noah and Everett, has blood dripping down their faces. Their arms are covered with scratches, and there’s frosting smeared over the tables and windows.
No sooner do people have the chance to assess one another than a whole other round of screams goes off.
At least three different people are dialing 911, and a woman and a man at the table seem to have fainted. Please, God, let them have fainted. If things have taken a turn for the fatal, there’s no way my mother’s B&B will survive this—not to mention the poor dead souls.
Cormack lets out a shrill scream. “Somebody help!”
I head that way, along with the rest of the crowd, to find Serena Digby on the ground, writhing, choking, and sputtering while twitching her limbs. Rex sits on her chest, barking right into her face, snapping and snarling as if he’d like to bite her lips right off.
“Can’t breathe.” She claws at her chest. “Help me,” she gasps as her fingers stretch to Cormack for assistance.
“Rex!” I howl at the grumpy ghost, and he quickly hops right off of her and whimpers.
“It’s stopped.” Serena looks around as the crowd gets back to worrying about their own injuries. “You.” Her eyes widen my way. “You said hex.” She shakes her head. “You did this.” She glances around at the horror the room has become. “You’re wicked, aren’t you?”
Everett and Noah head my way, each with his own war wounds from the supernatural battle. Noah’s left cheek has a nasty gash. And Everett has three neat lines that run next to his mouth, and it looks as if he has whiskers on one side.
Noah pulls me in for a quick embrace. “Lottie, you have a cut on your face. What the heck just happened?”
I glance to the groaning crowd. “I think Greer and the gang have made their stance on working nights known. If you’ll both excuse me, I’m going to track down a couple of ghouls and have a very strong word with them.”
Everett shakes his head. “Not without me. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not with this crowd milling around.”
An argument picks up from behind, and the three of us look over to see both Cormack and Cressida railing at my mother.
Everett blows out a breath. “I’ll take care of this one.” He takes off, and Noah pulls me in.
“Lottie, I’m going to talk to my father and make it clear that this is never to happen again. We both know he’s ultimately responsible.”
I make a face. “He’s always left a bloody trail in his wake. I don’t know what makes you think he’ll stop now.”
We part ways, and I exit the conservatory on the hunt for a handful of ornery spirits and immediately note a supernatural lavender glow coming from the dining room. I head on over as quickly as I can, only to find four salty spooks who happen to be laughing their ghostly behinds off.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” I say and the words come out curt and just this side of a threat from me.
The whoop of a siren goes off, and out the window I can see the flashing lights of a sheriff’s deputy patrol car lighting up the night like a seizure.
I suck in a quick breath. “The authorities are involved!” I shout to the four of them, incensed that they let it get this far. “And blood? Really? You are absolutely out of your mind if you think that’s okay. Turning over a couple of books is one thing, but slashing flesh is an entirely other. There will be no more physical tormenting of humans. Is that clear?”
Greer folds her arms across her chest. “You’ve always been a killjoy, haven’t you, Lottie?”
Winslow bows my way. “My apologies, my dear.”
Lea steps up with her hair in disarray, that hatchet she’s holding covered in blood. “I’m not letting up. It was fun, Lottie. Those people came for a fright and I delivered.” She spikes her blade into the air for affect.
Thirteen twitches his furry little head. “How I miss using humans as scratching posts. It does have a rather addictive quality.”
“No hatchets, no claws,” I’m quick to reprimand. “Do it again and I’ll see about having the entire lot of you removed. And don’t bother threatening me back. Believe me when I say I’m not afraid of no ghost.”
A bark comes from behind and I turn to find Rex seated at attention, and standing right behind him with her jaw on the floor is a rather bedraggled looking Serena Digby.
“I knew it.” Her chest palpitates so hard it looks as if she ran a lap around the planet to get here. “This was all your doing. You’re able to communicate with the dead, aren’t you?”
A choking sound emits from my throat. Half of me wants to tell her that not only can I communicate with the dead, but I can make them do my bidding unless she confesses to that necrotic cookie caper and to the fact she kidnapped me. But the other half of me doesn’t want to out myself to the likes of this witch.
She takes a breath and laughs. “Knew it. You’re one of us. Don’t think that I’m above bringing up your gross abuse of power to the Moonlight Council. Leave those men alone and I won’t say a word. Or you won’t like what comes next.”
“Is that how your hexes work? By threats? I’m no witch, and neither are you. If I were you, I’d leave Honey Hollow tonight or you won’t like what’s waiting for you.”
Her cheek flickers as the look of sheer delight takes over her features. “I’m staying right here at this nightmare of a hovel your mother runs. I’m not going anywhere.”
“If you think this is bad, wait until you’re introduced to your new room at the Vermont Women’s Correctional Facility. It’s a five-by-eight beauty, and I’m sure your roommate will be loads of fun.”
&n
bsp; The whites of her eyes flash wide. “You don’t have a case against me, and you never will.”
She stalks off, and I do the same.
Everett and Noah and I finally head out to the parking lot, and no sooner does Everett unlock his car and open the passenger’s side door for me than we both take a half-step back.
Sitting on the seat is one of those nefarious little black bags.
Noah pulls a pair of gloves out of his pocket as to not disturb the fingerprints before picking it up and carefully excavating a heart-shaped cookie burnt to a crisp. It’s iced in black with hot pink writing over the front that reads I see your death.
Noah’s chest depresses with his next breath. “Don’t worry, Lottie. The end of this nightmare is near. I promise you that.”
And I certainly hope the end is indeed near—for Serena Digby.
I know she’s behind all of these cookie-based shenanigans.
Now to prove it.
Chapter 13
That bloody nightmare at my mother’s B&B made the news.
Local and national.
Good grief.
Everett went to work today, but only because Noah said he would set up shop in my bakery and work remotely from there. And oddly, Seven is here, too. The bald, beefy wall of muscles sits across from Noah watching him, staring him down as if it was an intimidation tactic.
Rex came with us this morning, too. He rode in the back seat like the real deal and we had a nice long conversation about Tim.
Correction, Noah and Rex had a nice long conversation about Tim. They shared their favorite memories, shared some laughs, and they both vowed to avenge his death.
Lily has the register at the moment while I’m busy whipping up another batch of eight-inch devil’s food cakes and four dozen fresh devil’s food cupcakes. And exactly one dozen of those are going directly to Rex.
“You do realize chocolate would have the potential to kill you if you were still living.” I pick up a cupcake from the cooling rack and toss it into the air his way.
Rex hops up on his hind legs and, honest to God, he’s as tall as I am.
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