Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem)

by AJ Myers

  “We got him, Sheriff Martin!” Blake said loudly, breaking into the conversation. He grinned at me when I whirled around to stare at him in horror. “We’ll drive him home. It’s no problem.”

  Oh, hell yes it was a problem!

  “Will you excuse us for a second?” I ground out between clenched teeth. Without waiting for the others to answer, I grabbed Blake’s arm and dragged him across the road and back behind his truck. When he just gave me that little evil grin of his again, I hissed, “Dude! Are you insane? We can’t take him with us!”

  “Really?” Blake asked, that smirk of his getting wider. “Why not, Em?”

  “Because!” I half-shrieked, throwing my hands up in frustration.

  I knew that wasn’t going to be good enough, but what was I supposed to say? That I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of getting in the car with a dead guy? Yeah, that would make me sound really normal. I started thinking fast for something I could tell him that wouldn’t land me in the loony bin with a nice I-love-me jacket, but my brain simply didn’t want to be cooperative.

  Come on, Em! Think! I told myself, gnawing on my lower lip like that would jump start my brain. Why shouldn’t we take him with us?

  Because he made me feel like I was riding lightning every time he looked at me. Because everything about him called to me, from his voice to his eyes to his damn cologne. Because I was afraid that if I didn’t get as far away from him as I could get, I was going to spend the rest of my life wanting something I could never have.

  Oh, yeah. And because he was dead! It just kept coming back to that, didn’t it?

  “Because! For all we know he’s a serial rapist or a murderer or something!” I finally finished, hoping I didn’t sound as hysterical as I suddenly felt.

  “Nooo, I don’t think that’s it,” Blake said, rubbing his chin like he was putting some serious thought into it. “You know what I think, Em? I think you don’t want to take him home because he makes you feel something.”

  “Oh, please!” I snorted. “Get real, Blake! I just met the guy!”

  He was right, but I wasn’t about to admit it. Nathan did make me feel something. I felt…connected…to him somehow. But, that wasn’t possible.

  …Was it? I didn’t believe in love at first sight or any of that crap. And yet, I wanted him. Like, really wanted him. But I was smart. There was no future in falling for a dead guy.

  “We’re taking him with us, Em,” Blake said gently, giving me a concerned look when I didn’t quite hide the tears of desperation that sprang to my eyes. “It’s like twelve minutes to get to anywhere in Moonlight. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  I could fall in love with a corpse! I shrieked silently, blinking hard against a literal flood of tears.

  Just when I thought I was going to have to tell Blake the truth, I found this one little tiny ray of hope. Blake’s need to be a Good Samaritan might make it necessary for us to take Nathan with us, but that didn’t mean I had to ride with him. If Blake wanted to drive a dead guy around, he was welcome to him. With any luck, I would never have to see him again once Blake dropped him off. It would be like he never existed, and I would forget all about him.

  Odd how much that thought bothered me.

  “Suit yourself,” I told Blake, nearly dizzy with relief. “Kim and I will catch up with you later. We’d better get a move on!”

  I turned away, practically skipping; I was going to dodge a bullet, after all—and all because I had my own car! I suddenly loved my father with all my heart. Never mind that he hadn’t been any more attentive than my mother. Never mind that I had never had a real, true to goodness conversation with the man about anything more important than whether or not my homework was done. My Daddy loved me. He had given me a way to escape, and, by God, I was going to use it to get far, far away from my ghostly Prince Charming.

  “Oh, and Em?” Blake called out, stopping me in my tracks just as I reached the tailgate of his truck. I turned to find him giving me a smug little smile and knew before he said a word that I hadn’t dodged that bullet, after all. “He’s riding with you. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Yeah, actually, I do,” I told him, glaring at him over my shoulder.

  “Tough shit.”

  “I’m not taking him, Blake,” I snapped.

  “Yes, you are, Em,” he said, continuing to grin at me even though I was plotting his very painful murder. “Either you take him, or I’m telling Kim what really happened to her iPod last month.”

  “Go ahead, I bought her another one last week,” I told him, starting to smile again as I walked away. If he thought he was going to get me to take the dead guy by threatening me, he was delusional.

  “And her Bratz collection in the fourth grade.”

  “You wouldn’t!” I gasped, spinning back around with my eyes widening in dread. “That was an accident, Blake!”

  “Oh, but I would,” he said smugly, knowing he had me. “What was it you said happened? An accident with a hair dryer? You know she’s still blaming Max, right?”

  He had me and he knew it. Those dolls had been Kim’s prized possessions. One night during a sleepover, I decided I would surprise Kim by doing their hair. It hadn’t turned out quite the way I planned. If Kim found out I had actually been the one to melt her favorite dolls, she would be whining about it for the rest of our lives.

  I never should’ve told Blake what had really happened. I should have just buried the whole collection of disfigured dolls in the backyard and forgotten all about them. But I had felt so bad about it that I’d had to confess to someone. At the time I never thought he would use my confession to blackmail me!

  I was really going to have to learn to keep my damn mouth shut.

  “So, what’s it going to be, Em?” Blake asked with a sickly sweet smile and the first glimmer of victory in his eyes. “Twelve minutes to drive this guy home? Or twenty years of listening to Kim whine about the fact that you killed her babies?”

  I walked back around the truck to look up at him through dangerously narrowed eyes. He didn’t even blink, just kept smiling at me like an idiot. Knowing he wasn’t going to back down and he would make good on his threat if I didn’t agree to his terms, I finally conceded defeat—by swinging my foot forward and kicking him as hard as I could in the shin. Personally, I thought I should have gone for a target a little higher up, but, seeing as Kim wanted to have kids someday…

  I didn’t realize how much force I had put behind that kick until a jolt of pain shot up my foot and kept on going until it reached my hip. Eyes watering and my toes throbbing like crazy, I turned and limped away with all the dignity I could dredge up. My exit was ruined by Blake’s groaned laughter, but I chose to overlook that fact.

  “Hurry up, Em! Let’s go!” Kim said, dashing past me as I made it around Blake’s truck.

  “No!” I wailed. “Wait! Where are you going?”

  “With Blake, dingbat,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Your car is a two-seater, Em. Where am I going to sit?”

  She grinned at me and winked when I scowled, but never so much as slowed down as she flew past me. Before I could say what I really wanted to say, she was already in the truck and they were pulling away. Perfect, I thought as I stood there watching them disappear around the next curve without even waiting for me. Some best friends you two are!

  They had just left me there. With the walking dead. For a long time I simply stared at the bend in the road where I’d lost sight of them, feeling a knot of dread form in my gut. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to turn and look at Nathan, even though I could feel him staring at me again. Some deep, primal instinct was telling me he was just as dangerous to me as Jack was. If I gave him half a chance, he would get past all those walls I kept up to protect myself.

  And that terrified me.

  “I guess it’s just you and me, gorgeous.”

  I forced myself to turn toward the sound of that warm, silky voice, eyes narrowing. Nathan was leaning ag
ainst the front of my car like the world’s sexiest hood ornament, and for a second I stood there, studying him. And the longer I looked the madder I got.

  It just wasn’t fair! I wasn’t the kind of girl that fell for every pretty face. I had never fallen for any face, pretty or otherwise. How could it be that the first guy to ever make me feel all those things I’d always wanted to feel was an animated corpse?

  That wasn’t a pothole in the road to true love and happily ever after, it was the Grand Canyon!

  Demons, Vampires, and Witches! Yeah, Right!

  “Off the car, dead boy!” I snapped since we were alone and there was no chance of me being overheard.

  “Nice, Ember,” he said, laughing, but he didn’t get off my car. “How did you know?”

  That was a very good question, actually. I frowned at him, tilting my head to the side to study him better. Something wasn’t right, and my hormone-numbed brain was finally catching on to that fact. I could see him, yeah, but so could everyone else. He looked as alive as I did. There were no blurry edges, no blast of frigid air when he was near, no creepy, hair-raising feeling, none of the usual signs that I was in the presence of one of the dearly departed.

  But he wasn’t denying he was dead, either. So, if he wasn’t a ghost, what was he? And, really, why did it matter? Whatever he was, he wasn’t my problem. I didn’t need any more complications in my life, and I had a feeling Nathan Ashley would be one hell of a complication if I let him.

  “I just know,” I told him, brushing past him to get to my car. Figures he would wait until I was walking by him to decide to obey my order to get off of it. “Call it intuition or whatever you want to call it, but I always know.”

  I jerked my door open and turned to look at him again. He was still watching me, his gaze warm and so intent that I could almost feel it. It was intoxicating, that look. Everything about him was intoxicating.

  “What do you want?” I whispered when I couldn’t stand the way he was making me feel anymore. Really, enough was enough.

  “Want?” he repeated, his eyebrows shooting up like he was surprised I had caught on so fast or something. “Who said I wanted anything?”

  “Oh, please.” I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw, tears burning the back of my eyes for absolutely no reason. “You all want something, so what’s your request or whatever? Let’s just get this over with so you can move on or do whatever dead people do and I can go back to my life.”

  “I only want to talk to you.”

  The soft sound of his voice coming from about an inch away from my ear nearly made my heart stop. I hadn’t seen or heard him move, so I jumped about half a mile, slamming my hip into the side of the door.

  “Shit! Ow!” I gasped, rubbing my hip while trying to put a little distance between us. “Hel-Lo?! Personal space!”

  Rather than back off, he slid past me and planted himself in the driver’s seat of my car. “Come on, let’s go for a ride.”

  “That would be a no.” I had to give him one thing, he had nerve. “Out of my car. My momma raised me right. I don’t get into cars with strangers, not even my own, and especially not with a ghost driving it—no matter how solid said ghost might be. Besides, I can’t say I’m all that impressed with your driving skills.”

  “I’m not a ghost, Ember,” he said, chuckling again.

  “Then what are you?” I demanded, hands on my hips. “You’re dead, dumbass. What else can you be?”

  “I’m not actually dead, either,” he said, the smile fading from his lips. Somehow, once it was gone, I wished I could put it back. “It’s complicated. I’ll tell you everything if you’ll come with me.”

  I felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the chilly October wind shoot down my spine as his voice became more of a purr. Seriously, I was crushing on a walking, talking corpse. I am so messed up.

  “Please?”

  “Fine,” I said, unable to deny that kind of plea from that kind of voice. Besides, I was curious. So sue me. I mean, it’s not every day a girl meets a not-quite-dead dead guy. “But I’m driving.”

  He shrugged and got out of the car. He brushed against me as he did, and my whole body went hot as a jolt of electricity lit me up from head to toe. In that moment, I didn’t give two hoots in hell if he was dead or not. I wanted him. Can we say ‘sick’? Thanks to my parents being shrinks, I even knew what my sickness was called. Necrophilia, that’s what.

  I wonder if straight-jackets come in pink...

  Shaking my head, I slid into the driver’s side and repositioned the seat Blake had pushed back during his unsuccessful cat-and-mouse game with Jack so my much shorter legs could reach the pedals. Nathan got in on the passenger’s side, and I had to really pay attention to my breathing as his scent filled the tiny car.

  “Where to?” I asked, buckling my seat belt and starting the engine.

  “Where were you going when you were trying to run from me?”

  There was something sad in his voice that caused that stupid lump to rise in my throat again. I couldn’t deny it, so I didn’t bother to try. I had tried to run from him, because knowing he was dead was somehow too terrible for me to deal with. I didn’t understand it and I wasn’t about to even attempt to explain it.

  “Home,” I said softly, not meeting his gaze even though I could feel it burning into the side of my face. “I was going home.”

  “Are your parents there?”

  I would have laughed, but I couldn’t seem to swallow that ginormous lump in my throat.

  “My parents are never home,” I told him, trying to make it sound like I really didn’t care if they were or not. “They’re either at their office, out with friends, or locked in the pool house working on their hypocritical books on how to raise a child, something they have no experience actually doing. I have raised myself since I was old enough to nuke pizza in the microwave. I think we’ll be safe enough.” I put the car in gear and pulled onto the road, using that as an excuse to continue to avoid looking at him. “Well I’ll be safe enough, anyway. You have until I get home to tell me what’s going on here. Once I pull into my driveway, your time is up.”

  “Are you always this sweet?” he asked, the amusement back in his voice.

  I ignored that and concentrated on driving. It was harder than I thought, what with him sitting so close we were practically touching—something I wanted to do so bad that I had to wrap my hands extra tight around the steering wheel to stop myself. When he hadn’t spoken after several blocks, I decided to distract myself and give him a nudge in the right direction.

  “You know, we’re not that far from my house. You might want to start talking.”

  “You won’t kick me out.” He sounded very sure of himself. “You need me.”

  “Not,” I snorted, amazed at the arrogance I had heard in those three words. “Do I really look like the needy type to you?”

  “Tell me about Jack,” he countered, taking me by surprise.

  Why would he want to know about my disastrous dating life? I thought, frowning. Then again, maybe he was just trying to make sure he wasn’t poaching on some other guy’s territory. If he hadn’t been dead, that actually would have made my day.

  “I told you, I’m not really dead,” he said, chuckling.

  I said that out loud? I moaned inwardly, wondering how I could have done something so stupid. Blushing, I kept my eyes resolutely on the road and gave him the short version of the Ember and Jack story. Honestly, the short version was the only version there was to tell.

  “We’ve been friends since the third grade. Or, should I say, we were friends. That was before he lost his damn mind and decided I was his one true love. I went out with him twice, though why I bothered with the second date is a mystery even to me. He can’t keep his hands to himself and he doesn’t take rejection very well. The end.”

  I felt a tingle of unease as I said that. Somehow, I didn’t think it was the end at all. The look in Jack’s eyes when I had stood up to him had
been terrifying. Thank God I hadn’t actually fallen for the charm that had every other girl at Oakhurst panting at his heels. I would have hated to end up an after-school special about abusive teen relationships.

  “Have you ever met his family?” Nathan asked quietly.

  I chanced a quick glance at him, surprised by the question, but he was staring out the window.

  “Well, yeah, we all grew up together,” I said, turning back to the road and frowning again. “His older sister, Leslynn, graduated last year. His mom is in a book club with my mother, and his father is some kind of lawyer.”

  “And they seem normal to you?” he asked, still not looking at me. “They don’t act…strange?”

  “No, not any stranger than everyone else I know,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Should they?”

  “He’s taken over recently then.” His hands clenched into fists where they rested on his knees, and my eyebrows arched in surprise.

  “Taken over?” I repeated, frowning at him. “What are you talking about?”

  He didn’t answer, and I felt a keen edge of annoyance slice through me. My hands tightened on the wheel until my knuckles turned white as I fought the impulse to reach over and give him a sharp smack to the back of the head for being a pain in my ass. If he hadn’t been dead, or whatever he was, I might have.

  “You know, usually when one party asks a question, the other party responds with an answer. It’s called communication,” I growled, taking a lesson from my mother. “Besides, I distinctly remember you baiting me into this car with you by promising me some explanations.”

  “You really do have a temper, don’t you, love?” Nathan asked, laughing and giving me that wonderful, warm look again. If he kept it up, I wasn’t going to be any more than a big puddle of hormones by the time I got him out of my car.

  “You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you? Intentionally not giving me straight answers?” I found myself suddenly wishing I had left him on the side of the road. Apparently, his promises weren’t worth the air he wasted to make them. “You promised me answers and now I have five zillion more questions, a headache, and the very real urge to kick you.”