“That’s when you’re with humans,” Flapjack retorted. “They can’t talk back to me. These two can.”
“No.” Scarlet crossed her arms. “That’s for always.”
Undeterred, Flapjack jumped up onto the table, stepping over the books and magazines, his fluffy tail swishing. “So, you’re really marrying this dog?” he asked me, flashing his teeth as he cast a look at Adam.
“Flapjack!” Scarlet hissed. “Don’t make me get the omelet pan.”
“It’s fine,” I told her, waving a hand through the ghostified feline. A cold sensation radiated through my arm at the contact with his spirit. “I’ve learned to ignore his little pop-ups.”
“Is he still doing that?” Scarlet asked, her copper brows lifted.
“Oh, yeah,” I replied. “He likes to try and scare me when I’m out working in the greenhouse.”
Scarlet planted her face in her hands.
“The lemon trick works though,” I continued, flashing a grin at the cat. “Doesn’t it?”
Flapjack’s silvery eyes narrowed.
The pint-sized predator was more of a nuisance than anything. In a way, he reminded me of a schoolyard bully. If you reacted to his taunts and jeers, he was more likely to hang around.
“I think I’ll take that coffee,” Adam said, still scowling at the cat. “Any chance you have snacks, too?”
“This isn’t a buffet, Fido,” Flapjack told him.
“Okay, that’s it!” Scarlet said, planting her balled fists on her hips. “I’m cutting off your tuna for the rest of the week. Keep it up, and you’re getting the pan.”
“How about this: I go now, and you double my tuna for the week?” the cat countered.
Scarlet furrowed her brows at the cat.
“Fine, fine, fine,” Flapjack muttered, jumping down from the table. “Tyrant.”
“Funny, I was just about to say the same thing,” Scarlet told him as he swished across the room, back to his cubby beside the window.
She shook her head, then dragged her eyes back to us and pressed her hands together. “Okay. Two coffees?”
“Thank you, Scarlet,” I said.
She bebopped to the back room of the small flower shop, where she crafted her bouquets and arrangements, along with her full-time employee, Lizzie.
While we waited, I flipped open one of the portfolios and started perusing the various photographs of Scarlet’s work. Adam and I had been working on the wedding plans for a few months now, after finally setting a date this past February. In six weeks’ time, we would be exchanging our vows, right in the backyard of the Beechwood Manor. We’d toured various venues around the area, but one day, while sitting out on the back deck, we realized that we were already sitting right on top of the perfect place to say “I do.”
After all, we’d met at the manor, and it was the place where Adam had proposed, in front of all of our nearest and dearest. Since purchasing the manor and converting it into an inn for supernaturals, we’d poured thousands of dollars into renovating the grounds and creating a park-like environment for our guests. The end result was breathtaking and it was almost a little surreal that we got to enjoy such beauty every day for the rest of our lives.
One perk of hosting the wedding at our own place was that we saved ourselves trips all over town, for preparations. Most everything could be handled right from our cozy little town of Beechwood Harbor. Scarlet was on the flowers. The local bakery would make our wedding cake—along with the half dozen other sweets and pastries Adam insisted upon ordering. We’d hired a group of local musicians to provide the music for the ceremony and reception. The Lilac House, a bed-and-breakfast in town, already had connections with several caterers, so that was easy enough to get a recommendation.
Considering our shorter window of prep time, we’d managed to lock most of the big things down already, with weeks to spare.
Although, there was one thing I was still missing …
“So, Holly, any luck on the dress hunt?” Scarlet asked as she swept back into the retail area of the shop, two mugs clasped in her hands.
Sighing, I thanked her as I took my cup of coffee. “Not yet.”
Adam took his mug, looking a little dejected until Scarlet produced a sleeve of shortbread cookies from the front pocket on her apron.
“Have you tried looking in the Seattle Haven? Doesn’t Harmony’s sister know someone who does wedding planning? Surely she’d know someone who could help you find a dress.”
“Anastasia,” I said with a nod. “Yeah, she’s been helping with the wedding plans, but unfortunately, with our time constraints, her preferred designer isn’t available. We went to a couple of dress shops last weekend, but nothing stood out.”
“That’s too bad.” Scarlet’s lips twisted to one side. “And shopping online for that kind of thing can be tricky.”
“I’ll find something. There’s still time.”
Scarlet didn’t correct me, but there was a shimmer of doubt in her eyes even as she tried her best to offer an encouraging nod.
If I was honest with myself, I wasn’t even sure what kind of dress I wanted to wear, and looking through bridal magazines only left me more confused. Train or no train? To veil or not to veil? Long sleeves? Off the shoulder? Beaded? Or maybe lace?
The amount of options was mind-boggling.
“Well,” Scarlet said, leaning forward to study the photograph I’d landed on, “I promise picking the flowers will be far less painful than dress shopping!”
“Thank the stars for that!” I replied with a giggle.
Chapter Two
Lacey and her husband arrived at the manor the following evening, not too long after the sun set. They had some kind of specialty SUV with a deep tint on all of the windows that I wasn’t even sure could be considered street legal. In speaking with Lacey over the past weeks, I knew they’d planned to take a special portal from their home in the New York Haven to the Seattle Haven, and then drive the three hours to the coast.
This visit was the first for her husband, Matthias Hartford. She’d shared pictures with us when she’d been at the manor nearly a year ago. Adam had invited her out to join the surprise party he’d put together to celebrate my unofficial win on the potion competition Bubble, Bubble. It was at that same party where he’d dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him in front of all of our friends.
A lot had happened since her last visit, but Lacey looked the same as she always did—granted, that was sort of the way it worked with vampires. The leggy blonde swept out of the passenger side of the SUV before her husband could finish rounding the front bumper. She could certainly act the part of a spoiled diva, but when it came down to it, she preferred to take matters into her own hands. She wore a pair of black cigarette pants with a pair of dangerous-looking pumps and a breezy emerald-green top. A large sun hat perched atop her head, crowning her platinum locks. Even with the hat and the tinted windows, she also wore a pair of huge sunglasses that obscured nearly half of her face. Her skin was pale—even for a vamp—and her lips were painted their signature blood-red.
Smiling, she closed the car door and started up the front walkway. “Holly!”
“Lacey! It’s so good to see you,” I exclaimed, meeting her at the bottom of the front steps with a warm embrace.
When we parted, the vampire slid her sunglasses to the tip of her nose and glanced over the frames at Adam. “And how’s my favorite canine?”
Adam flashed a half-cocked grin. “Still alive and kicking, which is more than I can say for you, princess.”
Lacey laughed and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, come here! Just keep your fleas to yourself.”
Shaking my head, I smiled and shifted my attention to the tall man coming up the walk with a suitcase in each hand. Knowing Lacey, those were the first of many, and he’d probably need a hand hauling it all inside. “Here, let us help with those,” I said, stepping forward to extend my hand.
“You’re sure? She’s not
one for packing light,” the man replied, aiming a smile at his wife.
“Oh, we know,” Adam said, taking the other suitcase. “We had to help her move out of here! If not for those enchanted trunks, we would have had to rent a long-hauler to get the job done.”
Matthias chuckled, the sound deep and smooth. “I don’t doubt it.”
Lacey narrowed her eyes at the pair of them in turn. “Holly, let’s go inside and let the men worry about the bags, since they’re so eager to commiserate together.”
Laughing, I handed the bag I’d taken off to Adam and he feigned throwing out his back. Lacey rolled her eyes and marched up the front steps, as she had thousands of times before, and went inside the manor.
She didn’t make it far before she stopped dead in her tracks—no pun intended—to remove her sunglasses entirely. “Whoa! What happened to this place?” she asked, taking a slow spin in the center of the living room. “I know it’s been a little while since my last visit, but the whole place looks different than I remember it.”
I smiled. “It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that we had to hire a renovation witch following one of Posy’s … erm … episodes.”
Lacey turned to me, her eyes wide. “It was that bad?”
“Worse,” I said quietly. “She nearly brought the whole place down on our heads.”
“Wow.” Lacey blinked. “Is she still … um … around?”
“She’s still here, as in, this realm, but she hasn’t been at the manor in quite a few months. She and Earl have been off traveling. It’s something they never got a chance to do in life, and they decided it was time to go out and see the sights, I guess. We aren’t really sure where they are, or when they’re coming back.”
“Not like ghosts can send postcards,” Lacey said, still taking in the front room of the manor.
Adam and Matthias came inside and deposited four suitcases in the foyer.
“I can’t believe she actually left the manor,” Lacey said, turning back toward me. “I figured she’d be here forever. That she’d outlast us all. Which, coming from an immortal, is really saying something.” A small smile crossed the vampire’s lips. “Good for her, though. It must have taken a weight off her shoulders, selling the place to you two.”
Her smile sharpened as she looked over at Adam. “Granted, I’d never leave my personal property in your hands.”
Adam chuckled. “Right. Of course not.”
“Now, now, you two, don’t start,” I interjected. “You both promised to be on your best behavior this week.”
Lacey grinned. “Oh, come on, Holly. Don’t deprive me of all my fun. I only have a little bit of time before the other court members arrive and I’ll have to shift gears.”
“How so?” I asked.
“She’ll turn back into a real princess,” Adam teased.
Something flashed in Lacey’s eyes. “If only. That would make this whole thing a lot easier.” Her hand went to her front pocket and I noticed a slight bulge and what looked like the top of a silver money clip. It appeared that Matthias also noticed the gesture and moved a little closer to his wife. Lacey jolted when he placed a hand on her back, as though she hadn’t realized he was there. She quickly smiled up at him and dropped her hand to her side.
“We should probably get unpacked,” Matthias said to his wife. “That way we can rest a little before dinner.”
“Or breakfast, rather,” I said with a smile.
True to the legends, vampires were unable to go out into the sun without risking their health. Back when Lacey lived at the manor, she’d always risen in the late afternoon or early evening to prepare to go out with her vampire friends, only returning home just before the sun rose. Technically speaking, their first meal of the day fell around dinner time for most humans and supernaturals, but they’d acclimated and opted to call their breakfast ‘dinner’ so as to not appear strange while conversing with humans or others unaware of their true nature.
Gesturing toward the kitchen, I added, “We received your shipment on Saturday, so everything for your meals is stored in the fridge. And of course, if you need anything else, all you need to do is ask.”
“Thank you, Holly,” Matthias replied.
“Come on,” Adam said, heading toward the main staircase, “I’ll show you to your suite. The one next door has been reserved for your assistant—Jupiter, was it?”
“That’s right,” Lacey replied, following after him. “She’ll be here later tonight. She had a few things to wrap up back home.”
I let the three of them go on ahead. Adam was more than capable of giving the tour on his own—as long as he and Lacey didn’t start bickering with one another. I’d leave Matthias to referee. When their voices faded, I wandered into the sitting room, which we’d turned into a residents-only sanctuary, so those of us living in the manor could go and unwind without worry of having the inn’s guests popping in at random. I closed the door behind me and pulled my phone from my pocket. I’d taken the day off from work and wanted to check in with Harmony to make sure everything was running smoothly at the potions shop.
The young witch answered on the second ring. “Starfire Apothecary, this is Harmony. How may I help you?”
“It’s me,” I told her.
“Oh! Hey, Holly. What’s up?”
“Lacey and her husband just arrived and are settling in, so I thought I’d call to see how things were going.”
“Everything’s fine, you worry wart,” Harmony teased. “I got through all the restocking and was just about to send Eliza on her way home.”
“Okay, good. You coming back after closing?”
“Umm. Actually, I think I might go and stay with Anastasia,” Harmony replied.
“Oh, for Merlin’s sake. You’re not still freaked out because we’re hosting vampires, are you?”
“I think it’s a pretty valid concern,” she fired back. “Excuse me for not wanting to be turned into a human Capri Sun!”
I shook my head. “You do realize that in the Seattle Haven you’re around vampires all the time? At least, after dark.”
“Yeah, but that’s different than sleeping under the same roof, isn’t it? I mean, you like to walk in the woods, but would you go and sleep in a grizzly bear’s cave?”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I imagined Lacey’s reaction to being compared to a grizzly bear. “Okay, fine. Tell Anastasia hello for me.”
“Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be a lot of fun, anyway. I have to study every night this week.”
Smiling, I crossed the room and dropped onto the plushy couch facing a large flat-screen TV (Adam and Harmony’s idea). “I’m honestly not sure how much more you can cram into your head,” I told her. “You’re going to knock it out of the park, Harmony.”
“Yeah, well, I’d feel better if I got time to do two more practice tests,” she countered, her voice a little tense.
Over the past months, she’d been studying to take her potions master licensing test. Harmony was one of the brightest talents in the potion field, with a natural gift for the work. But her confidence was rattled after she failed her first attempt at the licensing test, and it had taken quite a bit of coaxing for me to even get her to sign up for the next round of tests. She’d passed the preliminary and now had one more hurdle to clear before she would be a potions master, like me.
“Just promise me you’ll find some time to do something fun, too. Okay?”
Harmony laughed softly. “Yes, mom.”
“Hey, you know I’m just looking out for my own interests,” I replied, laughing along with her. “As soon as you pass that test, I’ve got a big pile of work I can dump onto your desk.”
“Ooh, I get my own desk?” Harmony squealed.
I dropped my head back against the overstuffed couch cushion and laughed. “Tell you what, you pass the test, and we’ll go to that furniture store in the haven, where everything is hideously overpriced, and I’ll let you pick out whatever you want.”
“Let’s just stick with the desk for now,” I told her, grinning up at the ceiling.
“All right, fine.”
“See you tomorrow?” I asked.
“See you tomorrow,” she replied, then added, “ya know, as long as you don’t get turned into a Holly-kebob sometime between now and then.”
“Harmony!”
She giggled and we said our goodbyes.
Shaking my head, I tossed the phone to the cushion beside me. “Crazy girl,” I muttered.
Lacey had lived at the Beechwood Harbor for years, even before I’d arrived, and while she definitely had a scary side—complete with a kick-butt leather outfit and a belt of knives—she wasn’t going to hurt me, or anyone else staying at the inn. Vampires these days were by and large a civilized bunch. They resided in the supernatural communities known as havens, and in exchange for inclusion into the general supernatural population, they agreed to quench their thirst with the synthetic blood created by the witches and wizards who’d originally founded the havens more than one-hundred years ago.
Still, there were those who chose to live on the fringes of the larger populace, some because of a fear of rejection or prejudice, while a smaller percentage stayed on the outskirts because they refused to follow the haven’s laws. Most notably, the whole synthetic blood part of the deal. Those vamps were the ones you had to worry about. They were the ones lurking in the shadows, hiding themselves in human communities, using their glamour and mind magic to feed on the living. I’d had a few brushes with those kinds of vampires over the years and knew first-hand how dangerous they were.
Even as I sat there, my friend and member of the Supernatural Protection Agency, Meryl Miller, was working on a case involving an underground nest of vamps living in Seattle proper, luring humans into dangerous—and often deadly—situations. It was one of the things I wanted to discuss with Lacey before she and Matthias returned to their home on the East Coast. I wasn’t going to spring it on her during her first night in town, but sometime between now and then, I planned to pull her aside and get some advice. As the daughter of the Baron of the Eastern Court, Lacey could prove to be a key ally in the fight against the unregulated and unrepentant vamps threatening to tear apart Seattle.
Men Love Witches Page 2