by Sarra Cannon
“They also aren’t used to seeing me with anyone else,” he said. “I’ve been in town for a long time, but I’ve mostly kept to myself except for a few friends I’ve met along the way.”
“So, do you know what everyone is?” I asked, leaning forward and keeping my voice down. “Like, are there any other witches in here right now?”
I would have liked to meet a fellow witch.
Nik casually glanced around. “A few,” he said. “The largest family of witches in Willow Harbor is the Tillman family, but none of them are here tonight. Anna, the one who made that potion for me, will be at the festival tomorrow, though. I really want you to meet her. You’ll love her.”
“Festival?” I asked.
“The Fall Festival,” he said. “It happens every Halloween on the town square, and it’s a lot of fun. I was hoping I could convince you to stay long enough to go with me.”
Was there an actual blush on his cheeks?
A woman who looked to be in her late fifties or so came up to the table and handed us a couple of laminated menus.
“Heya, Nik,” she said, smiling. Her thick blond hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and her golden eyes gleamed when she looked at him. “Good to see you actually sitting down to enjoy dinner instead of grabbing takeout. Who’s this you’ve got with you?”
“Marla, this is my friend, Eva,” he said. “She’s visiting for a few days.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Eva. We don’t get a lot of visitors just passing through, but it’s a good time for it with the festival tomorrow and all,” she said. “The whole town comes out for the event.”
“That’s what Nik’s been telling me,” I said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“What can I get you guys started with tonight?” she asked. “Girl, I could hear your stomach rumbling from a mile away.”
I clutched my stomach, wondering if that was just a figure of speech or if she really could hear it over the noise of this place.
“What do you recommend?” I asked.
“The nachos come out fast, if you want a good appetizer,” she said. “I can get them going for you while you decide on your dinner.”
She was gone before I even had a chance to say yes.
Nik laughed. “Are you really that hungry?” he asked.
“Could she really hear my stomach?”
“Probably,” he said. “Marla’s a lion shifter. She can sense hunger from a mile away.”
“Well, in that case, hopefully she’ll bring those nachos out fast, because I don’t know if I’ve ever been this hungry in my life,” I said, laughing. I still couldn’t believe I had landed in a town where a lion shifter was about to bring me some dinner.
When Marla came back, we both ordered enough to feed a small village. We topped it off with a couple beers and dug into the huge plate of nachos.
As we ate, we talked about everything from what it was like seeing that cave for the first time to some of the more colorful residents of Willow Harbor. Before I knew it, most of the food was gone and Marla was asking us about dessert.
While Nik ordered a couple of the diner’s specialties, as well as the to-go order for Drifter, I sat back against the booth and realized this was basically the definition of a date. That might not mean much to some people, but I had never been on a real date before.
My cheeks warmed at the thought.
I had never been free to even think about being out on a date with a guy that I liked, but there was no doubt that I was attracted to Nik. To be honest, I liked pretty much everything about him, and there was no one I would have rather had a first date with than him, even if I didn’t realize it was a date until it was nearly over.
“You’re going to love the cheesecake here,” he said. “It’s kind of their specialty.”
“I can’t wait,” I said. Unlike earlier, there were now nervous butterflies in my stomach, though. Did he want this to be a date? Would he want to kiss me later?
It seemed ridiculous to be twenty-one years old and to never have been kissed, but there had never been anyone in my life that I’d wanted to kiss.
There were definitely men and lesser demons in Dominic’s crew of thugs who had made advances toward me, but Dom had made it clear early on that I belonged to him and that no one was to touch me, thank God. At least I had been protected in that way, but the idea of actually falling for a guy and wanting him to kiss me had never really been something I had dreamed of until tonight.
Now, I couldn’t seem to think of anything else, which only made me feel vulnerable and nervous.
“Everything okay?” Nik asked. “You got quiet all of a sudden.”
My cheeks grew even hotter, and I was sure that with my super pale skin, he could tell I was blushing.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just tired now that I’ve eaten. It’s been a long few days.”
“I bet,” he said. “As soon as we get dessert, I’ll walk you over to the Willow Harbor Inn. It’s the only real hotel in town, even though it’s more like a bed and breakfast than your typical hotel.”
“That would be great,” I said. A bed and breakfast sounded pricey, but if it was the only option, I would just have to make do and try to save my pennies elsewhere.
Marla was quick with the cheesecake for us to share and a small bag of food for Nik to take to Drifter.
“Tell Drifter his food is on the house,” she said. “And tell him he should step outside that rickety old bar of his sometime and come see us, will ya?”
“I’ll tell him, but you know it won’t do any good,” Nik said with a laugh.
“I know it,” she said. “I’m guessing he won’t be at the festival tomorrow night either?”
Nik shrugged. “I might be able to convince him to close down for a night and come have some fun with us,” he said. “I’ll tell him to look for you if he decides to make an appearance.”
Now it was Marla’s turn to blush, but she quickly ducked her head to avoid letting us notice.
“You do that,” she said. She quickly dropped our bill on the table and walked away, her head still down.
“Aww, I think she has a crush on him,” I said.
“She most certainly does,” Nik said. “That’s been going on for years. She used to come into the bar a lot and they would talk until late into the night sometimes. She hasn’t been coming as much since she started working the night shift here, but she’s got five kids to take care of, so I imagine work has to come first.”
“Wow,” I said, my heart going out to her. “Five kids and she’s a single mom?”
“Yeah.” Nik frowned. “Her husband was a fisherman who used to work on the docks with me when I first came to Willow Harbor. He was a real nice guy from what I knew of him, but he passed away about eight years ago during a big storm out at sea. It’s been tough for Marla, I know. Her youngest was only five at the time, but a lot of the people around town helped her out with free babysitting just to give her a break from time-to-time. She’s got some family around, too, and that helps. A couple of her older kids have already moved off and gone to college, but the youngest just started high school. She seems to be doing pretty good now that she’s helping to manage this place.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize she was a manager, too,” I said.
“Yeah, she normally doesn’t wait tables, but she makes an exception when I come in,” he said with a laugh. “I think she mostly just likes to ask me about Drifter.”
“Well, that’s very sweet,” I said. “Does Drifter know?”
“I think he’s mostly oblivious to it, to be honest. He seems to like Marla well enough, but he has a past with shifters that isn’t so pleasant, so I think that keeps him from wanting to entertain the idea of anything romantic.”
I wanted to know more about Drifter’s past, but it didn’t seem like a good conversation to have so close to Marla. I still wasn’t sure if she was being serious about hearing my stomach rumbling from a mile away. If she did have great hearing, I�
�m sure this wasn’t a topic she would want to hear about tonight.
Instead, I took a bite of cheesecake and could suddenly think of nothing else.
“Oh my God, this is amazing,” I said.
“I told you,” Nik said with a laugh. “It comes from Ida’s Bakery, made fresh daily in different seasonal flavors. I have to say I’m partial to her strawberry cheesecake in the summer, but the pumpkin is a close second.”
“Well, whoever this Ida woman is, she’s definitely capable of magic, because this is the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
Nik laughed again, and I eyed him.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Ida’s a witch, too,” he said. “See what I mean about falling in love with this town? And this is just the beginning.”
He held my gaze, and I felt the depth of his words throughout my entire body.
Was this just the beginning?
Or, like all things in my life, was this just another good thing that would soon come to an end?
Seventeen
Nik
Despite Eva’s protests, I paid our bill and ushered her out into the night.
She’d been right about everyone watching us all night. Even if it was something that wasn’t talked about openly, many of the people around here knew I was one of Selena’s guys. They might not know the specifics of our arrangement or where I’d come from, but the silver shackle on my wrist was enough for them to know I wasn’t a free man.
And when it came to Selena, the guys under her rule weren’t exactly allowed to date other women.
I wondered if anyone at the Dark Horse tonight would go running off to Selena’s goons to tell them I’d taken a beautiful stranger out to dinner. It wasn’t something that had occurred to me to worry about until I saw the look on Marla’s face when I said I was paying.
But the fact was that Eva didn’t have anything but a busted car and the clothes on her back. I’d noticed the gorgeous bracelet she’d been wearing when I first met her was now missing from her wrist, which meant she’d probably sold it somewhere in town just to pay for her car. I wouldn’t have felt right letting her pay her own way at dinner.
It was bad enough she was insisting on staying at a hotel, but that I understood. I was grateful for it, too. If Selena found out Eva was staying in my room at Drifter’s she might get angry enough to come looking for me, and I really didn’t want to see her again any time soon.
I still needed to find a way to get free of her, but that was going to take some time and some help I wasn’t quite sure I was ready to ask for. Hopefully, I had some time before she would make good on her threat to move me up to her castle.
“Thank you for dinner,” Eva said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “You didn’t have to pay, but I appreciate it.”
“It’s my pleasure,” I said. “Everyone needs to experience the food at the Dark Horse at least once in their lives, so I’m glad I got to introduce you to it.”
We walked back toward Main Street, and I took a moment to point out Ida’s Bakery.
“They open early,” I said. “If you’re up for it in the morning, you should come get some fresh croissants. Pair that with some of Loran’s coffee again, and you’re bound to stick around a little longer just for the food. Oh, but don’t eat too much. There’s going to be so much great food at the festival tomorrow night.”
“About that,” she said. “What do people wear to something like that? Halloween in a supernatural town might get pretty elaborate, and right now I have nothing appropriate to wear. I was thinking I could do some shopping tomorrow.”
“Some people do go all out,” I said, thinking of last year’s costume contest. It was pretty insane what some people came up with. “But I usually just come as me. Jeans, t-shirt, jacket in case it’s cold. Wear whatever you want, really, but you should definitely pick up a coat. Here, I should have offered mine to you before.”
I slipped my coat off and put it around Eva’s shoulders. She put her arms through the sleeves, but it was so big on her, she had to pull them way up just to set her hands free.
“Thank you,” she said. “So, where is this bed and breakfast?”
“It’s just around the corner,” I said, but I realized I wasn’t ready for the night to be over just yet. “I was thinking of maybe taking a quick walk on the beach, if you’re up for it.”
She smiled nervously, her hand fluttering to her face. “It might be nice to walk off that cheesecake,” she said.
I steered her toward a familiar beach path and soon we were walking along the sandy shores of the public beach near the boardwalk.
I wanted so badly to kiss her, but I was new at this. And even after the day we’d had together, I still sensed she was holding something back from me. We walked a long way before I finally got up the nerve to ask her what she was thinking about.
She stopped walking and turned to stare out at the vast expanse of the ocean. It was too dark to see very far, but the moon illuminated each crest of a wave in the distance.
“I want to tell you something,” she said. “But I’m not sure what you’ll think of me when I’m done.”
There was so much vulnerability in her tone, I wanted to reach for her and pull her into my arms.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can tell me that would change the way I’m feeling about you right now,” I said.
She turned to look at me then, her eyes wide and full of fear as she started to tell me her story.
Eighteen
Eva
“I was only three years old when I cast my first spell,” I said. I glanced over to see if the mention of magic would phase him, but it didn’t.
“I was sitting on the floor of our little trailer in the middle of nowhere Nevada when a light just burst out of me. Something on TV made me laugh, and the joy I felt manifested itself as a brilliant ball of light just hovering there in front of me. Whatever that light was, it made the TV blow a fuse. It made me giggle at first, but then my mother came rushing into the room, her eyes filled with pure terror I’ll never forget. I thought I’d done something wrong, and when I started to cry, the light went out.”
Nik didn’t say a word or act like he didn’t believe me, which is how I always imagined people would act if I told them about my abilities. Other than the demons who worked for Dominic, I had never known anyone who had any kind of magical abilities. I guess I assumed there were others out there, but until Nik had told me the truth about Willow Harbor earlier today, I had never guessed there were so many types of magic in this world.
I definitely never imagined there would be an entire town full of supernatural beings.
“I thought my mom was angry with me, and she told me never to ever let it happen again,” I said. “That night, she packed up all our belongings and moved us to a new town. I tried to keep the magic hidden, but I was just a child, and I didn’t understand how it worked. Sometimes, when I least expected it, I would make something happen. Like one time when the electricity went out during a storm, I made all the lights in our apartment building come back on. To me, it was simple. I knew I could do it, so why would we sit there in the dark? But it scared my mother to death. The next day, we were gone again.”
I sighed, thinking about those days and the look on my mother’s face every time I would cast magic or make something happen.
“Over time, as I got a little older and able to understand things better, I realized Mom wasn’t really angry. She was just worried. Terrified that someone would find out about me and want to use my powers,” I said. “When I was six, she finally sat down with me and explained that we came from a rare line of witches. A powerful line that many greedy people out there would kill to control. The gift of magic had skipped my mother, but her mother had been tortured for years for her abilities before she’d been able to escape. Mom told me I needed to be more careful and learn to control it, but since she didn’t have the magic herself, she didn’t know how to teach me.”
“That must have been terrifying,” Nik said.
“More than I can express,” I said. Feeling the weight of the next part of my story, I sat down in the sand, unsure if I could trust my legs to hold me up.
Nik sat down next to me, and I continued.
“I tried to control it,” I said. “Over time, I got used to keeping my emotions in check, and I started to understand what it felt like in my body right before the magic would take over. I learned a little bit how to stop it, but sometimes, it caught me by surprise. One day, when I was seven years old, my mom was working late at some department store. She had left me home alone, but her work wasn’t that far away, and I was bored out of my mind. I walked down to the store to find her, but she was on break when I got there, so her manager parked me in front of this giant display of televisions and told me to wait for her.”
I nearly choked on the words, my tears flowing now.
Nik touched my leg, and I looked away, not wanting him to see the tears streaming down my face.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I said. “I started flipping through the channels on the various screens, looking for any of my favorite cartoons. Only, I wasn’t using any type of remote-control. I was simply using my magic. When mom came out and found me there, she was furious. She immediately walked me home and started packing our things. That’s when the men in black suits came busting through our door.”
Nik gripped my hand, and I had to hold back sobs.
“Mom tried to fight them off, but they knocked her against the wall like she was nothing,” I said. “She kept getting up, screaming my name, but the third time they hit her, I could literally feel the life disappear from her body. The men murdered my mother and took me away because of what I could do. This is the first time I’ve been free since that night thirteen years ago.”
“I’m so sorry, Eva,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. There were tears in his eyes, too, as he held me. “I had no idea you’d been through something like that.”