by Lauren Dane
But.
“I’m not playing along with this foolishness. We gonna act like we’re the Rockefellers or something? Huh? Momma, this is crazy. We don’t have to be at odds with them all the time. We’re all family and friends. We’ve all been family and friends for generations. There’re plenty of mixed households here in Diablo Lake. That’s a strength, not a weakness. We’re not the enemy and neither are they.”
His parents had lived here in isolation for so long they had no real idea of what it was like out there to be different. How much discipline it took to keep control even when things got sketchy.
That was thinking so outdated it was dangerous to continue to allow it without challenge.
“I said, enough!” His father’s thundered command rang through the air, still strong enough to snatch the next reply from Mac’s lips. “I don’t like it that Ronnie thinks he can make up stories like this. It’s dangerous. Mac, I’ll let you decide his sentence but I’ll ask you to remember he’s family and not an alpha.”
“We just got finished saying that we’re all family, Dad.” Mac would back off for the time being. Mac wanted to choose the time and place. Wanted to have a little more backup in place. More wolves openly his. And he wanted his father to declare him Prime before he had to do it on his own.
Everett called out that he’d arrived back with Ronnie in tow.
“I’ll handle it,” Darrell said as he attempted to push past Mac, who stopped him cold.
“You’ve done enough. I’ve got this. So I don’t have to do this to you, how about you knock it off too?” he said quietly. “I don’t want to be at war with you any more than I want a war with Dooleys.”
Darrell would have said more, but their mother pulled him back, allowing Mac to leave and handle the discipline of the wayward wolf.
Chapter Five
Generations before, when Diablo Lake had become their home, the witches began calling themselves as a group a Consort. Miz Rose, one of the Consort’s elders, always joked that it was because one of their forebears hated the term coven.
Aimee didn’t much care why they’d chosen it originally, she just knew she loved the term. Loved the intimacy of it. And that’s exactly what it was to share magic with a group of witches. Intimate and special.
As she walked around town, she’d catch wisps of magic she knew belonged to this or that person. Sometimes those two signatures would meld into something else entirely when they practiced together.
It was special and something she never felt less than grateful to have as a gift. It made her part of something larger than herself and gave her a sense of forward motion. Like she was doing the things she was meant to do.
She’d stopped by Katie Faith’s to pick her up on the way over to Collings Garden—what Miz Rose called the space on her property where the Consort routinely met.
Collings Garden was the heart of their community. It was where Aimee had learned to first practice her empathic magic while using filters to keep herself protected. She’d worked in the garden, teasing and coaxing the earth’s energy into shaping itself however Aimee intended. To nurture the other plants, to use some of them in her tinctures and salves used to heal and help.
She learned that while the size of her magic was limitless, the use of it, the ability to hold it was what she needed to master. What she still worked on every day.
And she’d learned it there at Miz Rose’s knee.
They parked in the half-circle drive and headed over the crunch of the gravel path until they reached the pavers that led the way through the massive yard the house sat in the center of.
There was a glass building, not really a greenhouse—Miz Rose called it the solarium—in the north corner of a thriving riot of a garden. Each time the witches met there they added their magic to the earth, nurturing it.
Over the years it had only gotten more and more lush to the point the air was positively teeming with magic.
And in turn, every time Aimee left that space, she felt alive. Centered and full of energy. A nice symbiotic relationship witches had kept alive in Diablo Lake from the very beginning.
They nurtured the magic the land at their feet blessed them with. The magic they used daily in and around town. Back and forth. Give and take. Balance.
Inside the solarium, most of the others already gathered. Katie Faith’s dad had baked up a huge batch of his world famous blueberry-pecan muffins so pretty much everyone had one, along with tea or coffee.
Folks gave Katie Faith a wide berth until she’d had a cup of coffee or two. Her dad put an extra muffin on her plate and kissed the top of her head so she lost a little of her surly morning attitude.
Leaving her friend to that, Aimee rolled her eyes and found her parents. “Hey, you two.” She hugged them both before grabbing a chair next to them.
“How’s it going?”
“Got a call last night from Mac Pembry telling me he’d handled the problem with that fight at the grocery store,” her dad said.
“Good. For God’s sake, all these grown adults acting like toddlers. It’s ridiculous. Did you get a similar call from Jace?”
Katie Faith grunted as she joined them. “Yes, he did. I was there when he did it. He does not like to have to admit when he’s wrong. Damn. I really felt bad for the dumb kid who got into that fight. Kid, listen to me. Jeez. He’s in his twenties. Jace sent Damon out to deal with him. And the wolf’s dad probably also kicked his ass. Thank goodness JJ and Patty were out at their lake place so they don’t have to see this.”
Jace had taken over the Dooley pack only very recently from his grandfather so he’d had to instill his own brand of discipline and order too.
It was nice to have that in with the wolves, but it also made it more complicated when it came to them acting like jerks. She knew and really liked wolves in both packs. And her best friend was the pack witch now, essentially, for Dooley. But it wouldn’t be fair to pretend Dooley wolves weren’t also part of the bigger problem in town, just as the Pembrys were.
“I’d like to think it was just a blip, but the energy in town gets worse by the day. Have you been to the library lately?” Like the grocery store, there were times Aimee went in to pick up books and the tension inside was too much to bear for longer than just a few minutes.
Aimee’s mom nodded. “Yes. Which makes it worse because the library is ours.”
Witches, her mother meant. It was true the witches, much like the shifters, tended toward specific kinds of work in town. Witches ended up in jobs where they could use their particular gifts. Empaths like Aimee were social workers, doctors and nurses, teachers and counselors. Because of the rivalry between shifters, the police chief was nearly always a witch, though only about a third of the police and firefighters were.
To have a kerfuffle in the library, like the ones they’d been hearing about at the high school, meant the ability of witches to keep a balance was fraying.
More bad news.
Miz Rose came in then, so business could officially get started. They piddled around with some basics first while everyone continued to eat. Dealt with budgetary issues. Some community-service projects, but it wasn’t very long before they got down to the meat of what was really wrong.
“Aimee, tell them what you told me about Jeremy’s plants,” Miz Rose said.
“I went over to check on Jeremy’s sister, Myra. She’s getting much better by the way and thanked everyone for the casseroles and soups you’ve been taking by. Before I left, Jeremy took me outside to show me he’s got some sick plants. A few with frostbite,” Aimee told them.
The people around the table nodded once she cleared that up. Myra Ruiz was a third-grade teacher who’d been hit particularly hard by pneumonia and had to spend a few weeks in bed recovering.
“The spots were small, but unmistakable.”
In a climate like theirs, growing tomatoes outside anywhere else during the winter would be impossible. In Diablo Lake it was a common occurrence. So sick plants meant the magic that kept the heart of town beating, the protections and blessings the ground gave back to her inhabitants, was weakening. The time for hoping things would get better on their own, or due to action by the wolf packs was past.
And that meant they needed to address it once and for all.
“I still think you should speak on behalf of the witches here in town Monday night at the city council meeting. Address the mayor and the rest of the council members,” Katie Faith told Miz Rose.
Miz Rose chuckled with a wave of her hand. “This problem calls for a new voice. Mine’s an old one. My power will always be part of Diablo Lake, but it’s time to hand over the reins to the next generation. You and yours.”
“I think Katie Faith should do it,” someone said.
Katie Faith shook her head. “I’m married to a Dooley. I’m the Patron now. I will always be a witch, but you know the Pembrys won’t hear a word I say because of that. Let Aimee speak.”
“What?” Aimee wrinkled her nose, curiosity warring with reluctance. “Why me?”
“Because your magic is inviting. Soothing when you want it to be.” Her mother looked her over carefully. “Nadine and Scarlett have blood between them. Avery too. Katie Faith is seen as part of the Dooley wolves so she’s going to be suspect.”
“She is very suspect, I agree. Plus, Scarlett seems to have some sort of strange obsession with her, which makes me nervous,” Aimee added.
Nadine said, “Me too. Honestly that woman gets worse by the day. I tried to talk to Dwayne about it but he dodged me. Said she was all upset and would cool down soon enough. Told me to be nice. You know how I feel about that.”
Katie Faith spun on her mother. “What? You went to them after promising me you wouldn’t?”
“I promised you I wouldn’t go after Scarlett. Dwayne was walking on a public sidewalk and I spoke to him. I didn’t promise not to.” Nadine’s chin stuck out just like Katie Faith’s did when she was stubborn.
“And,” Miz Rose continued, her voice raised just enough to make Katie Faith and her mother stop arguing, “Aimee, your dad is the police chief. He’ll be speaking anyway in an official capacity. You can talk about things he can’t. Your mother, well, she threatens too many people.” Miz Rose winked at TeeFaye.
“Fine.” Aimee held up a hand, not wanting this argument to get any worse. “I’ll be the spokesperson.” She usually hated being the spokesperson, but she was good at it, she could admit. Had been on the debate team back in high school and even considered a run for mayor a time or two. Especially when the town had elected a doofus like Dwayne and needed a change.
Miz Rose’s expression said she’d never harbored a doubt. “Good. Now everyone eat up and we can talk a bit more about how we’re going to do this.”
Chapter Six
Her mom gave her a tight hug before they got out of the car. They’d just parked across the square from city hall. The curbs up and down the street had plenty of parked cars.
“Looks like a crowd tonight.”
Aimee reapplied her lipstick and gave herself one last look before she sighed and looked to her mom. “No need to emphasize that.”
“Why not? You’re going to do great. You’re good at public speaking. People like you.” Her mom paused. “I’m proud of you, sugar bear.”
“Yeah?” Aimee squeezed her mom’s hand.
“Even if you did cut off all that pretty hair and then dyed it blue like I don’t know what.”
Aimee laughed. “No one gives a compliment like you, Trula Faye.” Trula Faye was better known as TeeFaye and she had a great sense of humor and was fierce as hell when she wanted to be. Which was pretty often.
She’d been lucky to have grown up with such a great example of what it meant to be the best person you can be. Aimee had been raised to understand her gender and her magic were gifts rather than the curses others might try to make them out to be.
Her mom tugged the ends of her hair and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “It’s cute hair. Suits you. I just wish you’d tell me what it is that prompted it.”
As if she’d tell her mother she’d been having sex with a married guy for three years. It was bad enough that she knew it; there was no way she’d dump that on her mom. Shame still soured her stomach from time to time. She had this empathic magic and it never told her he’d been lying or had ill intentions!
“I wanted a change.” After a week, she’d begun to get used to the way the cold felt at the back of her neck. And it gave her an excuse to wear scarves to work so that was a plus.
She was careful not to avert her eyes from her mom as she spoke. TeeFaye knew when people lied to her.
“You just know that I know you’re avoiding the subject. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you sidestepped my asking you to tell me what happened. And don’t insult my intelligence by saying you wanted a change. Well, sure you did. We all do when something big happens and we need to cut our hair or buy a ridiculously expensive purse you have to work overtime for the next month to afford. Are you okay?” This time she was all concerned mother.
Aimee swallowed back a knot of emotion. “Yeah. I am. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Not with you. I don’t... It’s embarrassing.”
Another thing about TeeFaye was that she was a big personality. A lot like Katie Faith, when Aimee thought about it. No question as to why she loved her best friend so much.
TeeFaye would have slashed some tires or set some clothes on fire in a driveway. She’d have been at Katie Faith’s side punching buttholes.
Aimee though, she just wanted to get the hell away from that horrible, ugly moment when Bob had told her the truth and made her part of his grotesque pantomime.
Her mother brushed her hair out of her face. “You have nothing to be embarrassed for. Not if I know you as well as I think I do. And if you do, well then you’ll be embarrassed, you’ll earn your forgiveness and we’ll all move on. Because nothing will change who you are to me.”
“I needed to hear that. Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “Right now I have to go in there tonight and be an adult. Take on the weight of responsibility as the voice of the witches in this town. When I tell you what happened, it’s going to wreck my calm, and I really need that tonight.”
Not because she was weak. But damn if she’d let any of them see her stumble even for a moment.
Her mom’s face tightened and then she sighed. “All right. All right. Come on then. I’m even more proud of you now.” Her mom got out of the car before she could say anything else.
And right out front was a whole gaggle of Pembrys and Dooleys, already getting loud, all that shifter magic biting at her skin, and instead of the usual pine-tree-bark-warm-in-the-sun scent, it was acrid.
With a growl of annoyance, Aimee stomped over, pausing at Katie Faith’s side. “What the heck is going on?”
“JJ and Dwayne started arguing about something. I don’t know what. Jace, along with Mac, broke them up. Patty and I got pushed to the side. Scarlett’s over there somewhere, thank God. They’re having some sort of heated argument done in fake pleasant tones.”
“Jeez Louise. Do they ever stop to remember the rest of us in this town might want to go about our day-to-day lives without all this stuff? It’s like a terrible soap opera.”
“They’re better than the Housewives though. At least you’ll be sure to get lunch before punches get thrown around Diablo Lake.”
Aimee and Katie Faith laughed for a moment until they turned back to the situation near the front doors.
Jace stood with his grandfather at his back as they had an exaggeratedly calm discussion with Mac and Dwayne.
&nbs
p; “We gonna have this meeting or what?” someone called out from the crowd. “I have to get dinner on the table and some laundry needs folding.”
“This is wolf business, you aren’t needed here,” Scarlett said as she bustled forward to get in the face of the woman who’d spoken, which pushed Aimee’s buttons in a big way.
“Excuse me?” Aimee demanded. “This should be wolf business, yes, but you’ve all made it town business. You can’t just hold the town hostage because y’all can’t run your own families. Last I checked, this wasn’t a pack meeting, it was a city council meeting. Remember there are many in this town who aren’t Pembrys or Dooleys and who like to, you know, have moments in their lives when it’s not all about y’all.”
“Oh, look at you, badass,” Katie Faith whispered to her.
“Whatever. I am so over all this nonsense. It’s getting so you can’t do anything in this town without some sort of shifter bullcrap ruining it. No offense to those who married into the pack.” She winked at Katie Faith.
Scarlett put her hand in Aimee’s face and said to Katie Faith, “You better tell your little doggie to heel.”
Magic surged up from the soles of her feet until the air crackled between her and Scarlett. Enough that the older woman stepped back just a smidge.
“I know you did not just put your hand in my face and risk me ripping it off your arm,” Aimee told her.
Several more witches bunched up at her back, lending support.
“You think you can threaten me? This is my town! You’re just a nobody.” Scarlett’s face sheened with sweat as guilt and nervousness seemed to come off her in waves.
Aimee lassoed up her power and flexed it just a bit. Wanting Scarlett to feel the wall of magic heat she could—and would—use to defend herself. “That’s not a threat, old woman. That’s a promise. I’m done with you trying to intimidate us all. I’m not defenseless. If you need a lesson, just let me know.”
“Jesus.” Dwayne hustled over. “Ladies, let’s take a breath here.”