by M. L. Briers
“They could be better,” Claudia said with a look of warning to Marilyn that she wasn’t just going to jump in and back her play if someone could come up with something better, or if the chances she didn’t come back from her plan would be too great.
“But not bad,” Marilyn tried again.
“But they could be better, and you know it.” Claudia wasn’t backing down just because Marilyn wanted her to. This was far too important to screw up.
Marilyn’s heart sank. “So could walking across the street and not being mowed down by a bad driver, but that’s where we are,” she replied and noted the small smile that tugged at Claudia’s lips.
Louann jumped in with both feet. “I hardly think equating the way Claudia drives with deliberately putting yourself in harm’s way by going full-on stupid without thinking it through,” she said, squaring up to her daughter. “You wouldn’t deliberately jump in front of that car, would you?”
“Amber?” Marilyn said and turned to her daughter to see where she stood on all this.
Amber said nothing. In truth, she was still mulling it over. Sandy wanted the odds of the plan working, but magic didn’t work that way, and it never turned exactly how you planned it. “Do I think it’s a good idea for you to risk your life for Neal?” she said and huffed out a hard breath. “No.”
“You see,” Louann said, motioning to Amber with an emphatic nod of her head.
“But,” Amber said, scowling at her grandmother. She did so hate it when people spoke for her. “Do I understand why you want to try it? Yes.”
Louann practically deflated at her granddaughter’s words. “You’re all insane, and I won’t be a part of it.” With that, she turned on her heels and stormed out the room.
Marilyn took a long, deep breath and slowly let it out. She could chase after her mother, but when the woman was in that kind of a mood, there was no reasoning with her. Besides, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to reason with her.
“I’ve got this,” Lottie said, waving an absent hand in the air as she started after Louann. “That’s not to say I’m on your side, or I can talk your mother around to the idea,” she called behind her. “But, I can calm her down – if I have to sit on a cushion on her head for a minute or two,” she muttered.
“If I could think of another way,” Marilyn said, and looked around her at the glum faces. It appeared that nobody trusted her plan enough to consider its merits. That was disappointing.
Claudia stepped forward and slung an arm around Marilyn’s shoulders. “Look, Neal isn’t going anywhere – let’s take a breath and consider all of our options.”
“Can I get a glass of wine with that?” Marilyn asked, looking up with pleading eyes.
“A really big one,” Claudia said, leading her out of the room and towards the kitchen.
“There has to be another way,” Amber muttered to herself.
Sandy nodded. “Or a way of stacking the deck in our favour.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
Claudia walked through the hallway carrying a bottle of beer and a large wedge of Marilyn’s apple pie on a plate, and she headed right for Cain. The curious, if not downright suspicious look he gave her when she held out the offerings to him made her want to chuckle. “Scooby-snacks,” she said, not wanting him to think that she’d gone soft.
Cain cocked an eyebrow and pulled his head back as he stared down at her, but he didn’t say anything. She could see the cogs turning in his mind, though. “If you want to cut your nose off to spite your face, that’s okay by me,” she said and started to turn away.
Cain reached out and wrapped a large hand around the sweater over her arm to guide her gently back towards him. “I am hungry,” he said, relenting from the cold shoulder that he’d tried to offer her. The woman was – frustrating – and she blew hot and cold like the wind. But, he knew it was in his best interest to try to keep things on an even keel – she was family – sort of.
“Is that what passes for a thank you in shifter land?” she asked with a teasing smile.
Claudia didn’t do subtle, and she usually didn’t do the whole olive branch thing either. But this was different, he was different, and she was grateful for his help, even if it prickled her to show it.
“Yes,” Cain lied, and reached for the plate. But he couldn’t stop the amusement from tugging at his lips.
“Well, just so long as we’re on the same page,” Claudia said, handing off the plate, and accidentally brushing his hand with hers as she did it. There was a jolt of something deep within her and a rush of tingles that chased up her arms, but she pulled her hand away and placed the bottle on the hallway table beside him before she acknowledged it fully within herself.
Cain stood firm. He’d felt it too, and it only confirmed what he already knew in his head and his heart to be true. That frustratingly annoying witch was his mate.
How the hell had that happened?
Cain had been happy when Josh had found his mate, witch or not because she was his one true love and Cain had never had that. He’d done what all males did and had fooled around in his youth only to get Josh’s mother pregnant, but he’d done the right thing and stood up to his responsibilities, but Jess wasn’t his mate, and they both knew it.
They’d had ten good years as a family before Jess’s mate had shown up, and he’d bowed out of that relationship, but he had never bowed out of Josh’s life. He’d thought he’d lost his chance at finding his own mate, and now here he was faced with the woman that he should have waited for, the love of his life – the woman who would fill the gap in his heart and soul – and she was running off as fast as her feet could carry her back to the kitchen.
Cain let her go. He knew one thing for sure; they both needed to come to terms with what had just happened, but one thing was certain – he wouldn’t let his one true mate get far – and he wouldn’t let anyone stand between them, not even his own mate.
~
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Amber announced when Claudia rushed into the kitchen and practically threw herself at the open bottle of wine on the counter.
“Amber!” Marilyn groaned and turned a frosty look on her daughter.
Amber grimaced. Considering why they were all there, it probably hadn’t been the best thing to say. “Too soon?” she asked with a mischievous grin that she knew always got her out of her mother’s bad books and back into the good one.
“Ya think?” Marilyn scolded her. “What happened?” she asked, turning her attention back to Claudia. “Is it Neal?”
“Nope,” Claudia said, and didn’t bother with the glass that sat beside the bottle; she just tipped the bottle back and went in for the kill.
The three witches lined up on the stools at the kitchen counter offered each other curious looks, before they turned their attention back to Claudia, but the witch still hadn’t come up for air and was drinking like her life depended on it. “Are you going to lick that out when you’re done?” Marilyn asked, confused.
Claudia finally came up for air, and she dragged it into her needy lungs. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and burped.
“Charming,” Marilyn said, as all three witches giggled.
“Does this face look like I care?” Claudia asked, staring back at Marilyn with a frosty stare.
“That face looks like …” she sighed. “You’ve seen a ghost,” she said and flicked an apologetic look at her daughter.
Amber chuckled. “So, what happened? Did Cain not play nice?”
Claudia rolled that thought around in her head for a long moment. Then she snorted a chuckle. “Ha!” she said and took the bottle to her lips once more to finish off the contents.
Marilyn looked to Amber, who shrugged in return, but then the younger witch had the damnedest thought. “Oh, ohhh!” Her eyes widened as the thought hit her full-on, and she couldn’t seem to sit still on her seat as the excitement torn through her. “Oh my Goddess!” she exclaimed, pointing a
t Claudia.
“That’s not how I’d put it,” Claudia said, feeling the wine finally hit her nerves and it settled them a little, just a little, they still could have played a solid version of Jingle Bells if they wanted to.
“Put what?” Marilyn asked, still confused, and hating the fact that she might just be the last to know what was happening. She shot a look at Sandy, but the witch was frowning, so she took comfort in the knowledge that she wasn’t the last to know – yet.
“A mate!” Amber exclaimed, and Marilyn choked on her own tongue as she shot a look at Claudia. The woman looked positively possessed as she stood there with her neck craned forward and a sick, disgusted twist to her features.
“What the absolute fracking hell?” Marilyn exclaimed.
Claudia lifted her hand and pointed her witching finger right at Marilyn. “I’d go more with that reply,” she bit out. Then she narrowed her eyes as she considered it. “Only with a lot more curse words and total damnation.”
“You’re not serious?” Marilyn asked. She’d been blindsided by the news, but then so had Claudia.
“I touched him, and I felt it,” Claudia bit out as if the wine had soured on her tongue.
“Touched him where?” Marilyn demanded, looking a little perplexed.
“The hand,” Claudia said, offering her a look of disbelief.
“Why would you do that?” Marilyn snapped.
“Gee, I dunno. Maybe I thought our lives needed another bloody challenge,” Claudia hissed back.
“Well, they don’t,” Marilyn said with a snort of disbelief.
Claudia groaned. “It was an accident; I never meant to touch the big – furry – pain in the…”
“Does that mean that Claudia is now your mother-in-law?” Sandy piped up, a look of confused curiosity on her face. Everyone turned to stare at her. “Asking for a friend,” she muttered, and jumped when Marilyn tossed her head back on her neck and roared with the first proper laughter she’d felt in a while, but it felt strange.
“That’s not funny,” Claudia grumbled.
“I know,” Marilyn said, but she couldn’t seem to stop. It was laugh or cry and maybe a little shrieking at the insanity of it all. But laughing felt like a release valve for the stress that had been sitting heavy on her shoulders and squashing her chest like a large gorilla was perched there.
“Well, it kind of is,” Amber said and eyed Claudia with a smirk. “Mummy dearest.”
Claudia groaned, Marilyn almost fell off her stool, and Sandy couldn’t help but snicker behind her hand.
“Can you not?” Claudia said with a piercing glare for Amber. Then she turned her attention to Sandy. “Can you not?” she added, and then she looked at Marilyn who was crying very real tears of laughter that were now rolling down her cheeks. “As for you …” Claudia waved a hand in front of her. “Oh, go ahead; you’ve been gloomy all day.”
“You have to see the funny side – mom,” Marilyn said and burst out laughing again as she slapped the counter in front of her and rocked back on the stool.
Claudia eyed her for a long moment, and it wasn’t really the situation that started little snorts of the chuckles within her, but Marilyn’s laughter that was always catching. “You’re insane; did I ever tell you that?” Claudia chuckled.
All Marilyn could do was nod as she chuckled harder and gasped in breaths. Wiping the tears from her eyes and cheeks with the back of her hand, she slapped the counter once more and enjoyed the laughter; for fear that she might not feel it again for a very long time.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
~
Marilyn made a deal that she hoped her mother would stand by. If things went too far, Louann was allowed to snap Neal’s neck and kill him – only temporarily – and if her mother crossed the line Marilyn had swore never to speak to her for the rest of their lives, and she meant it.
Just before Marilyn entered the room with Claudia, she took the ceremonial Atheme and sliced a small cut into the palm of her hand. Then she offered the knife to Claudia, who did the same.
There was a low rumble of a growl, and Claudia shot a look of disbelief over her shoulder at Cain, and the man looked back. Those dark eyes were tempting, but she had other things on her mind and couldn’t be distracted – not when Marilyn’s life was on the line.
“Can it, grouch,” Marilyn snapped at the big shifter, and she heard Claudia snicker. Cain didn’t say a word, but the growling did stop.
“Don’t mind him,” Hank said, strolling into the hallway and sitting down on the straight back chair. “We tried to housetrain him, but his two brain cells wouldn’t cooperate.”
Claudia’s lips trembled as she tried not to laugh, puffing the breath down her nose rather than chuckle.
“If I am objectionable then you can see why I turned out the way I did,” Cain grumbled.
Marilyn took a long moment to consider it, and then she tilted her head to the side and raised her eyebrows at Claudia. “We really are the bloody Addams Family,” she said, and Claudia couldn’t hold the laughter a moment longer, she wheezed out a few short bursts.
“I didn’t know Muttley was in The Addams Family,” Hank said, offering the witches a cocky grin before he motioned to their hands. “Go ahead, don’t let us stop you.”
Claudia turned to Marilyn and nodded. “We’ve got this,” she said like a promise.
Marilyn nodded. For the magic to be effective, they had to believe, in themselves, in each other, and in the spell. Marilyn held out her palm, and Claudia slapped her own over it. “My blood to your blood joined as one; nothing can part us until it be done.”
“You feel that?” Claudia asked at the rush of magic coursing through her veins felt like electricity.
“I feel that,” Marilyn said, smiling.
“I feel something…” Cain said and stopped when Hank slapped him around the back of the head. He turned a slow glare on his father.
“You feel that?” Hank asked.
“Let’s do this,” Marilyn said and started for the room.
“The Addams Family…” Claudia sang the theme tune, and Marilyn almost tripped over her own feet.
“Behave,” Marilyn hissed back over her shoulder. But the moment she stepped into that room, she knew she had the vampire’s attention as she squeezed her palm tightly and her blood ran down over her fingers.
“Something smells good,” Marsh said, twisting to eye Marilyn as she walked around the edge of the circle towards him. Sandy, Amber, Lottie, and Louann were already waiting for them, and Claudia took her place.
“Witch blood, Marshall,” Marilyn said, and she got down on her hands and knees and crawled towards the circle with the wickedest smile he’d ever seen. “Tastes as good as it smells,” she said, and lifted her hand towards him, opening her palm. “You want to try some?”
Marshall felt the ache in his jaws as his fangs elongated of their own free will. His tongue felt parched, and he had the rush of fever within his veins that ached to be fed. “I don’t trust you…”
“I just want to talk to Neal…”
“Not a chance…”
“Then no blood,” Marilyn said, pushing back on her heels at the edge of the salt circle, one hand behind her back on the Atheme and the other still held out in front of her with her blood dripping onto the hardwood floor. “I want proof that he’s still alive in there.”
“I don’t trust you,” he snarled and snapped his fangs at her.
“I’m a witch, Marshall, fangs don’t bother me, vampires don’t scare me, and if I don’t get to talk to Neal, then I might as well consider him a lost cause and end you.”
If Claudia didn’t know better then she’d say that Marilyn was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but she did know better, and she made a mental note to remember how well Marilyn could lie when she wanted to.
Marilyn fisted her palm once more and allowed her blood to flow over her fingers. “Tastes good, and you’re so damn thirsty you co
uld just drink like your life depended on it,” she said and offered him a curious look. “Couldn’t you?”
With a hard grunt of annoyance, he twisted on the ground, and Marilyn knew in a heartbeat that she was looking at Neal – at least, she thought she did. There was just something different in his eyes, the way he looked at her that made her pulse race even harder. “Neal?”
“Don’t do it, don’t let him feed…”
“Answer me this – why did you come back to town?” she rushed out.
“For you…”
Marilyn swept away the salt barrier and skidded across the floor towards him on her knees. With one hand, she reached over his body and grabbed his hand, with the other she used the Atheme to slice into his skin. Then she pressed the cut on her hand over the cut on his. “My blood to your blood joined as one; nothing can part us until it be done.”
Marilyn held onto his hand and didn’t let go. One by one, the witches started to chant, one by the one, they joined their magic to Amber’s as she led the spell work.
Claudia felt the cut on her hand as it itched like crazy, and yet, she knew she needed to focus on the spell. Marilyn could feel it too as she leant over Neal, gripping his hand for dear life, and saw the moment that Marshall tried to push forward again.
“Fight him, Neal, push him out,” she said, determined to keep the man she knew front and centre as she pulled with her magic on the ghost inside. “Don’t let go…”
“Marilyn, no…” Neal tried to fight his bonds, tried to release his hand from hers as the spirit was drawn out of his body, kicking and screaming, and he watched in horror as it entered Marilyn. “No!”
Marilyn felt the spirit starting to find a home within her, pushing against her soul, looking for a foothold, and tried with everything she had within her to banish it to the darkness in her mind. It was that moment she turned to Claudia, drawing on her magic, and the magic of the coven, and pushed with all of her might. Everything within her soul that made her who she was fought for supremacy.