The Better to Bite

by Cynthia Eden

  My dad walked toward the bedroom door. I thought he’d leave without responding, but then he stopped. His shoulders drooped a bit, and my dad looked…tired. “Back in the city,” he said slowly, “I didn’t think there was anything worse than the killers I faced on the streets.” He turned his head and met my stare. “But there are worse things, baby. Much, much worse.”

  And with that, he left me.

  It took me a very long time to get back to sleep.

  ***

  The bell of the spell shop jingled when I walked inside. My dad had brought me to the station, but I’d slipped away while he was on a call. Staying cooped up in there—even without all the missing persons’ posters—wasn’t my idea of a good Saturday afternoon.

  Of course, going in a spell shop wasn’t, either. But if dad wasn’t going to give me the answers I needed, I had to find someone else who would.

  “Anna!” Cassidy poked her head through the thin beaded curtain in the back. “I heard about what happened!” She hurried toward me. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded. My body ached all over, and I had a most lovely assortment of bruises, but I was alive. So I figured that qualified as okay. “Hey, you tried to warn me, right?” I should have listened to her.

  She flinched. “I didn’t know that—”

  “No, it’s okay, I know you didn’t.” My target had. “Is Granny Helen around?”

  “Yes, child…” came Granny Helen’s smooth voice. “I’m right here.”

  She stood in the middle of that beaded curtain. I lifted my chin. “I want to know what’s happening in this town.”

  Granny Helen’s black eyes assessed me. “Tell me, lamb…”

  And I stiffened because Rafe had called me the same thing.

  “…do you dream since coming to Haven?”

  Now Cassidy was as still and quiet as a statue.

  “I dream about wolves,” I said. But, hey, big surprise. When you got attacked, it only made sense that the beast would follow a girl into her dreams.

  But Granny Helen nodded. “Want to know your past or your future?” She slipped to the side and parted the beaded curtain for me.

  Oh, crap. I looked at Cassidy. “Do it,” she mouthed.

  Right. I’d come in for this, hadn’t I?

  I headed for the curtain.

  I don’t know what I expected to find in the back, but the comfy couch and brewing tea with its sweet scent just seemed wrong.

  “Twenty dollars.” Granny Helen told me with a benign smile.

  I frowned. “What? No free first time?”

  “Nothing is free in Haven,” she said and her smile faded. “There’s always a price. Always.”

  Now that sounded like a warning.

  I pulled out a twenty, and it disappeared into her gnarled hand. Really, it disappeared. Nice sleight of hand trick. I could do that, too. Actually, I even had some pretty good pick-pocketing skills, only dad didn’t exactly let me practice those a lot.

  “Sit.”

  I sat on the nearest couch. Cassidy eased down beside me.

  “Past or future?” Granny Helen asked again.

  “Um, the past doesn’t really matter so much, does it?”

  She stared back at me with unblinking eyes, and I cleared my throat. “We can’t change the past. I want to know what’s coming.”

  “Ah…” Her breath sighed out. “You think you can change what’s headed your way? Divert the trouble like a train on a wrong track?”

  “Maybe.” I swiped my tongue over my lips. “How’d you know I was going to be in that accident last night? Have you already seen my future?”

  “No, child.” She pulled a chair close to me. A cherry table rested between us. “I just feel the darkness. You have to feel it, too. Closing in so tight, almost like it’s choking you.”

  Okay. Someone might need to lay off that sweet-smelling tea. Only it didn’t smell quite so sweet anymore. “I don’t feel anything like that.”

  She grabbed my hand. For a little old lady, she sure was strong. Very strong. She flipped my hand over and stared at my palm. I stared at it, too, but I didn’t see anything special. Just the lines that cut across my hand. My lifeline—yeah, I knew that one—actually ended in a big branch just below my thumb. The rest of the lines just looked kinda strange. If I crinkled my hand, they formed an M. Didn’t most people’s?

  “Your past is very interesting,” she said, glancing up at me. “Perhaps you’ll let me tell you about it one day.”

  “Yeah, when I get another twenty.” Someone was gonna have to start a part-time job soon. “Um, can we get to my future?”

  She let my hand go. Then she bent near the table and pulled out a stack of old, thick cards.

  “Doing a special reading for you…” She shuffled the cards in her hands, and I couldn’t look away from that shuffle. Those weren’t like any playing cards I’d seen before. “Cut it.”

  I cut.

  “Again.”

  I did.

  “Again.”

  With a raised brow, I made the final cut.

  Her fingers closed over the deck. “Pull three cards.”

  I pulled them. Didn’t look at them. What, was she going to say…your magic card is the eight of spades. The eight!

  She put the deck down and slowly turned over the cards.

  Crap. No eight of spades there.

  The Devil. The Moon. Death.

  The Devil card showed a weird half-man, half-wolf. A man and a woman—with horns and fiery tails—stood beside him. Oh, jeez. My luck sucked. “Tell me that’s not my future.”

  Her fingers smoothed over the card. “Violence is coming your way.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve already had enough of that, thank you very much.”

  “The Devil card doesn’t have to be evil,” Cassidy murmured. I fired her a fast glance. “It looks evil to me.”

  “That’s because you trust your eyes too much.” I looked back and found Granny Helen’s gaze on me. “Your eyes will fool you.” Still looking at me, her hand moved to hover over The Moon card. “You have hidden enemies. Danger and darkness that will spring at you when you’re weak.”

  More darkness talk. I’d hoped to hear some good news.

  But the last card on the table was Death. No good news there. “I think I can figure out what that one means on my own.”

  She pushed the three cards into a pile. “Death doesn’t mean you die.”

  Um, yeah, it did. “Then what does it mean?”

  A twist of her lips that wasn’t a smile. “The end. Finally, the end can come.”

  She was such a happy Christmas card. I glanced down and realized that my hands were shaking. I was trying to act like it didn’t matter, but—death?

  I jumped to my feet. “This is ridiculous! I don’t even believe in this crap!” I hurried away.

  “Anna!” Cassidy sounded hurt and I hated that, but I had to get out of there.

  “Your mother believed…” Granny Helen spoke quietly.

  I froze. Then, slowly, I craned my head so I could look back over my shoulder. “I told you I didn’t need to know anything from my past.”

  Her dark eyes held no expression. “You know what she was, don’t you?”

  Oh, no, I was not going to hear this. “She was confused.” Sick. That’s what the doctors had said. Mom had an addiction problem. One that destroyed her life. “I’m not like her.” I won’t be.

  “Certainly you are.” Granny Helen rose and bones cracked and snapped. “That’s where the trouble comes from. You’re just like her.”

  The words seemed to burn me. When I’d been younger, dad had always told me…You’re just like your mother. But later, the trouble had started, and he’d stopped saying that. Because I’m not like her. “This was a mistake.” What had I been thinking? I’d been at the sheriff’s office and I’d felt…pulled to this place.

  And even now, I wasn’t leaving. I should have been running out, but I was just standing right there, li
ke I was glued to the spot.

  Or under a spell.

  Granny Helen walked slowly around the room. She bent and reached inside a heavy oak box. When she rose, she had a small, silver chain in her hand. There was a half-moon dangling from the chain.

  “You need this,” she told me.

  I shook my head. “Look, I don’t have any more money—”

  “No money needed. This is a gift.”

  She was giving me gifts? First she told me about death, and now I got a present? I darted a glance at Cassidy, but she just looked lost.

  Granny Helen’s twisted fingers shoved the chain at me. “It will keep you safe. But you have to wear it, all the time. Never take it off, no matter what happens.”

  I touched the silver. It felt cool against my fingertips. I lifted it slowly and clasped it behind my neck. Granny Helen’s gaze seemed to soften a bit when the half-moon fell into place at the base of my neck.

  “Better…” she whispered.

  Actually, I did feel better.

  “Your mother would have wanted you to have it.” She nodded, as if satisfied.

  My jaw dropped. “What?”

  Granny Helen frowned at me. “You know don’t you, child? Your mother grew up here in Haven.”

  Um, no. No one had ever bothered to mention that fact to me. As far as I knew, my mom had spent her whole life in Chicago.

  “And she believed in the magic,” Granny Helen continued, her voice as easy as a breeze on a spring day, “she understood the power that can wait in the light…and the dark.”

  I swallowed and dropped my gaze. Maybe I was supposed to act surprised by that bit. But…

  “Knew that, did you? Because you got a touch of her…special power…too.”

  Dad didn’t call it special. Different.

  I turned away and this time, I made myself march out of that back room. The beaded curtains slid over me as I walked under them.

  “Be careful who you trust!” Granny Helen warned me. “The moon knows the truth. Enemies are hidden, but in the light of the moon, you’ll see everything.”

  Right then, I didn’t want to see anything.

  I hurried out of the shop, totally ignoring Cassidy’s voice as she called out after me. My fingers wrapped around the half-moon and I plodded forward, one foot in front of the other, one foot—

  I slammed into someone. I looked up—and realized I’d hit Jenny…and Troy? They were holding hands. As if my day hadn’t been weird enough.

  “Anna!” Jenny sprang forward and hugged me. “I’ve been so worried about you!” Her voice dropped. “Last night, you were just covered in blood.”

  “Right. I remember that.” My gaze darted between them.

  “You okay?” Her eyes were worried.

  “Fine.” I forced my lips to lift. Was that a smile? Maybe.

  Troy’s stare drifted behind me. “You went to crazy Granny Helen? Why’d you want to see that old witch?”

  I flinched, and my hand dropped away from the necklace. “I have to go.”

  Rude, yes, but I was past polite conversation. Right then, I needed to just shut the world out.

  So I pretty much ran away as fast as I could.

  My mom had grown up in Haven. Granny Helen knew how obsessed mom had been with magic. Always reading those spell books. Always bringing out charms.

  Dad and I weren’t escaping from the mess in Chicago. He’d just brought me right back to where the nightmare had started.

  Haven.

  Chapter Seven

  It turned out I’d pretty much become the number one outcast at Haven High.

  When I returned to school on Monday, the hard looks got to me first. Angry glares from the football players. Withering glances from the cheerleaders.

  “What?” I demanded, when one perky girl with red hair gave me a stare cold enough to chill. “What is your problem?”

  “Your dad busted up the party!” She screeched at me.

  Um…okay.

  “Ignore her.” Cassidy came to my side and actually made shooing gestures to the fuming cheerleader. “I think her ponytail is too tight.”

  The cheerleader gasped and spun away with a swirl of her skirt. And, really, why was she even wearing her cheerleading uniform? Game day was Friday. It was Monday.

  I’d survived a car crash and hadn’t even managed to score a single day off school. That was my sucky luck streak again.

  “I wasn’t sure if you’d be here today,” Cassidy said as she studied me with narrowed eyes.

  “I’m here.” I rolled one shoulder as I spun my combination lock. I didn’t even look down. Why bother? My fingers knew what to do. “What’s she so pissed about?”

  Jenny chose that moment to pop up on my right side. “Everyone is so mad,” she said cheerfully.

  I stopped spinning the lock and frowned at her. “Mad? Because I was in a wreck, nearly killed, and—”

  “Because the deputies found the beer at the party.”

  I kept frowning.

  “You were in the ambulance by then,” she chirped on. “But your dad had the place searched, and he found all the beer. Now it’s this whole big thing and the mayor is even gonna have a town hall meeting about underage drinking.”

  Ah, yes, now I could see why I was Miss Popular today. “Great.”

  “And since everyone thinks you and Brent were drinking when you had the wreck—”

  I spun fully toward Jenny then. “What?” My voice was as screech-like as the cheerleader’s had been.

  She blinked her big, blue doll eyes. “Well, you were talking all crazy about a big wolf jumping you.”

  Not just great. Fantastic. “We weren’t drinking,” I gritted from between clenched teeth.

  “I believe you.” Cassidy’s quiet voice.

  The half-moon was a reassuring weight against my skin. Yeah, I’d worn it. So what?

  “Uh, yeah, sure, I believe you, too,” Jenny rushed to say as she nodded quickly. “Totally believe you.”

  Total lie. This day was going to suck.

  The bell rang.

  “And they’ll get over it,” Jenny promised with an airy wave of her hand to indicate glowering cheerleaders and—well, glowering everyone. “In a week, they’ll forget all about this.”

  Bull.

  “Especially since Brent’s back.” She tossed this over her shoulder as she hurried away. “Everything will be cool soon, you’ll see.”

  She bounced down the hallway, stopping only long enough to wiggle her fingers in a little wave at Troy.

  He actually wiggled his fingers back at her.

  I turned to Cassidy. She was eyeing me with an assessing stare. “Brent’s already back?” I asked, stunned. Forget the beer, how had the guy gotten the all-clear for school this fast? His leg had been so beaten up that I'd been sure he'd spend days in the hospital.

  But she didn’t have to answer because Brent was walking down the hallway then. Walking without so much as a limp.

  “Things aren’t always what they seem, are they?” Cassidy murmured as she pushed away from the bank of lockers. “We’ll talk at lunch.”

  I dragged my mouth off the floor and rushed to class.

  Brent, I noticed, didn’t look my way. Not even once. Great. Now he was acting like Rafe, and if there was one thing I didn’t need…it was two Rafe Channing’s in my life.

  ***

  “So…you’re a witch?”

  I jumped at Cassidy’s voice and sent my drink spilling right across the table. I grabbed napkins and tried to mop up the mess. Score. “Would you keep it down, Cass?” I hissed as I automatically shortened her name. “I’m already a favorite enough as it is today. Let’s not start telling folks I’m—”

  “You’re what?” Cassidy dropped on the bench beside me. I was eating alone. Jenny had abandoned me to sit with Troy. No, actually, she’d invited me to sit with them both. But Brent was over there, and he was still doing his whole no-eye-contact weirdo thing, so I’d opted to sit alone
in the shade.

  I wasn’t so alone anymore.

  “You know I heard what my gran said, about your mom believing in the power.” She paused. “You’ve got to tell me…was she a witch?”

  The girl didn’t have any kind of volume control on her voice. I darted my gaze around. Oh, yes, a few folks were staring at us with wide eyes. I leaned toward her. “Witches aren’t real.” Maybe she believed they were because of Granny Helen and the scam she was—

  Cassidy started laughing. Like, the extremely hard laughter that makes tears trickle from a person’s eyes.

  I ate my chips and waited for her to calm down.

  After a long while, she did. “You’re serious? No, you’re not. I mean, come on…you know what Haven is!”

  The chip stuck in my throat.

  Cassidy must have read my poor, lost expression. “You don’t know.”

  I had the feeling a history lesson was coming on. Yep, sure enough—

  “You at least know about the Salem witchcraft trials, right?”

  I put the chips down. No sense choking in front of everyone. “I’ve heard of them.” We’d even covered them in history class a few years ago.

  Back in 1692, witch hysteria had swept across Salem, Massachusetts. During the hysteria, nineteen people were hanged as witches, and one poor guy—he’d never confessed to being a witch—had been crushed to death with stones.

  What a terrible way to go.

  No one had been safe back then. Friends turned on friends. Arrests and tortures were common.

  Witchcraft. The mark of the devil.

  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

  Some words stayed with you long after the history lesson was over.

  I cleared my throat. “What does Salem have to do with this town?”

  She leaned toward me. “A group of witches fled Salem before they could be locked up. They fled and came here.”

  I just stared at her.

  “Don’t you get it?” She demanded. “This place was their haven!”

  Okay. I got the name bit, but we needed to clarify something. “Those people who died back in Salem weren’t real witches.”