“Do something to make them stop, Raven,” my mother muttered in exasperation when Bernard and Leo droned on about their respective subjects. She was holding out her empty wine glass for Heidi to fill while I finally lit the last candle. “All this gibberish is giving me a migraine.”
“I don’t know,” Heidi said, topping off my mother’s wineglass. She set the bottle of wine down on the floor beside the couch so as not to disrupt the area that I’d created on the coffee table for casting. “I think I’m going to miss Bernard. His enthusiasm for all things is admirable. I mean, he was stuck in the back of a linen closet and was still happy to see all of us.”
“It’s obvious that the solitude for numerous decades has robbed him of his sanity,” my mother responded wryly. She took a healthy gulp of wine before taking charge of the magical session about to commence. “Bernard, are you ready to be reunited with Mabel?”
I’m not done telling Bernard about my plan to get the Spawn of Satan and Satan’s mini-dragon to monitor two of the—
“How does my hair look?” Bernard asked, interrupting Leo. The happy phantom tilted his chin so that we could get a better look at the white wisps that made up his hair. “Do you think that I should…”
Hey, I said I wasn’t finished telling you about—
“Give me that,” my mother muttered in exasperation, sliding the large pestle and mortar over to her side of the table. She set her wine down long enough to rearrange a few components. “Where is the strand of hair from Agnus?”
“Right here,” Heidi called out from her side of the couch. She handed me the brush that contained the most vital ingredient to this spell. “How does this work? Doesn’t Ivan have to escort Bernard through the veil?”
“Mr. Ivan is waiting outside,” Ted stated from his place by the mantel.
He’d been standing there for a good hour, listening in on Leo and Bernard’s exchange of topics. As for Heidi, she had to suppress a shiver of unease at the fact that a grim reaper was this close to the house.
She sank deeper into the couch.
“I’ll sit this one out, thank you.” Heidi was pretty gung-ho when it came to the supernatural, but the grim reaper definitely made her nervous. “Well, Bernard. It was nice to meet you.”
“It was nice to meet you, as well,” Bernard replied, taking the time to address all of us. “Heidi, my dear, you make sure that oaf of a detective takes good care of you. Regina, I feel it is my duty to remind you to bone up on this spell. It is impossible for me to jump from one mirror to another, using them as portals and…”
Heidi had shot a glare Leo’s way, who was busy cleaning his paw as if he hadn’t heard Bernard use Jack’s nickname. She sighed in resignation, though. There was no changing Leo’s mind about the state detective who was head over heels in love with her.
“Ted, always a pleasure to converse with an intellectual such as yourself.”
Now you’re just going a bit overboard, Bernard. A crayon is a crayon.
“Leo, old friend, I have the utmost confidence that you’ll stop this so-called squirrelpocalypse. I’m still not quite sure I understood how squirrels could bring about the end of the world, but you’ve earned my trust to do what needs to be done. Also, I’ll do my best to keep Rosemary company until it’s your time to be escorted through the veil.” Bernard bobbed directly front and center of the mirror, making eye contact with me. He smiled, which had me grinning in return. “Thank you, my dear Raven. From the bottom of my heart. You have been a pure joy to listen to this past year and a half, and your determination to help me has been admirable. You take care of the good ol’ sheriff. You’ve got a good one there. I can’t wait to tell Rosemary all about your successes, although I’m sure she’s watching over your from afar. She must be so proud of the woman you’ve become.”
I’m not crying, Leo sniffled. You are.
“Bernard, it was my pleasure to help you,” I replied in kind. “I’m just sorry that you were stuck in the linen closet for so long. This is why it’s so important to go through our belongings once a year. Sometimes, we forget about the meaningful things that we’ve stuffed away out of sight.”
It wasn’t long after we exchanged goodbyes that my mother began a soft mantra of stanzas that began the process of releasing Bernard’s soul from the hand mirror. I eventually joined in, and we worked in unison as we added the various ingredients into the mortar to be crushed and mixed together.
One final ingredient remained.
I held my breath as I dropped the strand of hair into the mortar.
A puff of energized plasma materialized and hovered over the hand mirror with tranquil grace.
I’d turned off all the lights around the house, allowing only the illumination of the numerous candles to guide us. Their small flames flickered as the energy began to build around us until an ethereal white ball separated itself from the mirror. It bounced up and down vigorously until it rose through the vortex and disappeared through the ceiling.
All went quiet.
We exchanged glances before giving our attention to the mirror.
Bernard was no longer anywhere in sight.
The spell had been successful, and he’d been freed from the confines of an enchanted and warded vessel.
I’m announcing my retirement from any and all future mysteries, Raven. I’m dedicating myself to the squirrelpocalypse, and there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind!
“Why would you need wooden stakes, Leo?” my mother asked, the question having been on the tip of her tongue the entire evening. She wasn’t one to let things go, and she didn’t like it when things happened beyond her control. “Harry is an anomaly. He’s a gentle giant that eats in moderation, and I can respect that.”
Heidi chuckled when my mother lifted her now empty glass of wine. It had been her second one this evening, and moderation had definitely gone out the window. The two had polished off the bottle, though.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, Regina. Must have been a short-term memory blip. Right, Raven?
It wasn’t like I could lie to my mother.
She’d know in an instant that I was fibbing, and then I wouldn’t hear the end of it.
“Leo was referring to the visiting vampire,” Ted stated matter-of-factly for me.
Leo gasped and commenced with wiggling his backend. Ted was clearly his target, but Heidi leaned down and scooped up Leo with a grunt before he could launch himself across the coffee table and make another mess that would require cleanup.
“I’m sorry,” my mother slowly exclaimed, arching an eyebrow as she stared at the bottom of her wineglass. “I must have had too much to drink. I thought you said—”
Listen here, you knucklehead lump of grey wax. You—
“Leo, all Ted hears is you screeching at the top of your lungs,” Heidi chastised, scratching behind Leo’s ears in order to get him to calm down. It was working little by little, but the same couldn’t be said for my mother. “I’m going to let you handle this, Mrs. M. It’s summer, and I really don’t want to have to go around wearing a turtleneck when the temperature is in the eighties and nineties.”
“I think I’ll retire for the evening, Miss Raven.”
Leo’s crooked whiskers twitched in agitation that Ted had dropped a bomb, only to leave us with the fallout.
I didn’t mind, though.
I had planned all along to tell my mother the truth. We might not know the identity of the vampire, but we could be prepared should he or she decide they were thirsty.
I already have this potential catastrophe covered, which is why I’ve catalogued this problem in the potential column. We’ll consume garlic. There. Problem solved.
“Mom, apparently a vampire visits town every once in a while,” I repeated, coming clean with what Harry told me and apparently what Agnus had relayed to Ted—who, by the way, snuck out the front door while my mother went in search of more wine. “I don’t think it’s anything to—”
“You two stop right there while I pour myself another glass of wine,” my mother muttered, popping the cork on the bottle that she had in her hand.
She came back into the living room and filled Heidi’s glass to the brim before doing the same to her own. I shook my head, figuring one us needed to be sober in case we had a late-night visitor.
Don’t worry. I already added garlic to my catnip, although I’m sure the new diet is something that we should run by Dr. Jameson at some point. I also put salt along the windowsill.
“Salt?” I began to collect all the small bowls that had held the components for tonight’s spell when I paused mid-reach. “Leo, salt is to keep demons out.”
One can never be too careful.
“This wine isn’t doing its job,” my mother complained, pressing her fingers against her temple. “How did the two of you survive a year without me? Never mind. Don’t answer that. What do we know about this visiting vampire?”
“Not tonight, Mom.”
I was taking a page out of Leo’s book.
It’s about time. I’ll have to timestamp it, though. Others like to borrow pages too, you know.
“Leo is right,” I said with determination. “We went months without a mystery, and it would be nice to enjoy the summer without wearing turtlenecks, like Heidi said.”
“Here, here,” Heidi cheered, raising her wineglass in salute.
“We’re not going to go digging around in hopes of uncovering a vampire,” I said with determination. “We’re going to enjoy our summer.”
That sounded almost like a jinx. I’ve got a squirrelpocalypse to stop, Raven. You can’t be jinxing us.
“I’m not jinxing,” I denied, sitting back on my favorite burgundy, oversized pillow that I kept on the floor. “I’m stating facts.”
I don’t know…it sounded an awful lot like you jinxing us.
“Wine isn’t going to be enough, is it?” my mother wondered aloud to no one in particular. “Fine. I’m calling Beetle. He can pick me up, and I’ll collect my car in the morning. Oh, and if he asks you about my new woodcarving hobby, just go along with it.”
How easy was that? You stay on your side of town, and we’ll stay on ours. See, Raven? Your mother has the bloodsucking leech taken care of, which frees us up to gather the recruits we need for the squirrelpocalypse.
“You two are on your own,” I stated, not wanting to get involved with either problem. Technically, the visiting vampire hadn’t even been a problem. Right? “I’m going to spend the summer with Liam, enjoying the warm weather and—”
Uh, Raven?
“You’re not changing my mind,” I replied, getting back to work cleaning up the living room. “You are on your own with Skippy.”
Raven, I never thought these words would come out of my mouth…but we might have a bigger problem than the squirrelpocalypse.
My mother abruptly leaned forward from her seat on the overstuffed chair, handing me her glass of wine. She’d gone slightly pale, which was the only reason that I took her proffered gift.
She then gestured frantically toward Heidi.
My best friend had her glass of wine in one hand while practically strangling Leo with both arms, leaving him looking a little worse for wear as he continued to struggle for freedom by straining his body away from hers. My stomach sank at what could cause the most outgoing, daring, and courageous woman in the world to freeze in abject horror.
Do something!
“Tell me that vampires can’t walk in the sun,” Heidi whispered in sheer terror, her blue eyes focused directly on me. I took a gulp of my mother’s wine. “I mean, it’s got to be a coincidence, right?”
“I guess it depends on the vampire and if he was able to get a witch to help him cast a spell regarding sunlight,” I warily answered, not liking the direction of this conversation one bit.
“What do you think is a coincidence, Heidi?” my mother asked, wanting clarification before we all hit the panic button. The fact that Leo was pressing his back paws against Heidi’s stomach in an attempt to free himself from her grasp told me that he’d already figured out whatever it was that I couldn’t wrap my mind around. “You’re going to have be more specific.”
“Specific like blackout shades in a bedroom, red juice that I’m not allowed to drink in the fridge, and an aversion to Italian food? I feel sick, guys.”
Heidi groaned and leaned her forehead against Leo’s head. He finally caved in, allowing her to use him as an anchor.
It wasn’t like he had much of a choice.
“Heidi, spell it out for me,” I instructed, glaring at my mother when she yanked her wineglass out of my hand to gather more fortitude. “You can’t be saying what it is that I think you’re saying.”
“Jack Swanson might be the visiting vampire,” Heidi exclaimed loudly, as if she’d held the words in for too long. She stared at us in horror before whispering somewhat hysterically, “What are we going to do?”
I knew that oaf of a detective was too good to be true! This is my time to shine, Raven! This is it!
“Heidi, we aren’t going to do anything right now.” I waited for my mother to agree, but she was now pacing in front of the fireplace with the wineglass close to her chest. “I mean, a lot of people prefer blackout shades in their bedroom. The red juice and the no carb thing could just be a lifestyle choice, right? We need to be sure that Jack is a vampire before we hurl any accusations. Besides, he’s never given us any indication that he’s anything other than a great guy.”
You’re ruining my moment here, Raven.
“You’re right,” Heidi said with obvious hesitation, but she clearly wanted to believe that she might have jumped to the wrong conclusion. “We just got done sending a floating head into the afterlife. I could simply be overreacting to the day’s events, right?”
Wrong.
“Right.”
Wrong.
Leo finally managed to free himself from Heidi’s stronghold, using his right paw to try and smooth out some of his disheveled tufts of fur. He shook out his entire body before sitting back on his haunches on the arm of the couch with a plop.
It looks as if we’re going to have to multitask. I happen to know of this large oak tree that would be perfect to cut down and whittle into wooden stakes. Trust me, Raven. The visiting vampire and the squirrelpocalypse won’t know what hit ’em!
~ The End ~
Whimsical bats aren’t the only thing vanishing into thin air in the next whacky whodunit of the Paramour Bay Mysteries by USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne…
Click HERE
Summertime is drawing to an end and taking with it the humidity, hay fever, and annoying mosquitos that couldn’t seem to quench their thirst this past season. Unfortunately, the insects aren’t the only thing biting in the quaint, coastal town of Paramour Bay, Connecticut!
Raven Marigold is getting ready to host a blow-out end of summer sale to clear out her inventory at the teashop when word starts circulating that some of the furry critters escaped the local pet shop…including a rescued, hairy-legged vampire bat who is looking for his forever home. Raven and her familiar set out to discover if the missing bat is in anyway related to the mysterious visiting vampire they have yet to identify, but they soon learn that there is more to the mystery than meets the eye!
Grab your wooden stakes and garlic necklaces for this quirky tale of unmasking a vampiric threat that might be closer than you think!
Books by Kennedy Layne
The Widow Taker Trilogy
The Forgotten Widow
The Isolated Widow
The Reclusive Widow
Hex on Me Mysteries
If the Curse Fits
Cursing up the Wrong Tree
The Squeaky Ghost Gets the Curse
The Curse that Bites
Curse Me Under the Mistletoe
Gone Cursing
Paramour Bay Mysteries
Magical Blend
Bewitching Blend
Enchanting Blend
Haunting Blend
Charming Blend
Spellbinding Blend
Cryptic Blend
Broomstick Blend
Spirited Blend
Yuletide Blend
Baffling Blend
Phantom Blend
Batty Blend
Office Roulette Series
Means (Office Roulette, Book One)
Motive (Office Roulette, Book Two)
Opportunity (Office Roulette, Book Three)
Keys to Love Series
Unlocking Fear (Keys to Love, Book One)
Unlocking Secrets (Keys to Love, Book Two)
Unlocking Lies (Keys to Love, Book Three)
Unlocking Shadows (Keys to Love, Book Four)
Unlocking Darkness (Keys to Love, Book Five)
Surviving Ashes Series
Essential Beginnings (Surviving Ashes, Book One)
Hidden Ashes (Surviving Ashes, Book Two)
Buried Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Three)
Endless Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Four)
Rising Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Five)
CSA Case Files Series
Captured Innocence (CSA Case Files 1)
Sinful Resurrection (CSA Case Files 2)
Renewed Faith (CSA Case Files 3)
Campaign of Desire (CSA Case Files 4)
Internal Temptation (CSA Case Files 5)
Radiant Surrender (CSA Case Files 6)
Redeem My Heart (CSA Case Files 7)
A Mission of Love (CSA Case Files 8)
Red Starr Series
Starr’s Awakening(Red Starr, Book One)
Hearths of Fire (Red Starr, Book Two)
Targets Entangled (Red Starr, Book Three)
Igniting Passion (Red Starr, Book Four)
Untold Devotion (Red Starr, Book Five)
Phantom Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 12) Page 16