Mann’s was a little oasis of normalcy, and because of that, they were busy. I parked far out in the lot and put Laney into her sling. She barely roused when I picked her up and was fast asleep again as we passed through the automatic doors into the store.
I was going to go right to the baking aisle and grab the chocolate chips, but there was a big sign right inside the doors advertising that Georgia peaches were on sale. I could not pass that up, so Laney and I were going to make a detour in the produce section.
For some reason, you could always count on the produce section to be reasonably empty no matter how busy the store was at the time. People did not eat enough fruits and vegetables.
It didn’t matter that I was probably going to slice those peaches and dip them in some of the melted chocolate chips. It was an amazing alternative to chocolate-covered strawberries, and at least I’d be eating a peach.
“I’ll eat one without chocolate too,” I said to Laney and kissed her head.
“Excuse me?” a man’s voice came from behind me to my right.
I turned around and, man, I was caught off guard by him at first. Thorn was one of the most gorgeous men I’d ever met, but the guy behind me at the grocery store was a close second. He was like everything beautiful about Azriel without all the dark and sinister vampire stuff.
The man smiled at me, and it lit up his ocean blue eyes. He swept his hand through a lock of dark hair that had fallen across his forehead.
“I was just talking to my baby about the peaches,” I said and felt my face turn red with scorching embarrassment.
“Oh,” he said with a self-conscious chuckle, and I could swear I saw his cheeks turn a little red too. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were saying something too me.”
“It’s okay,” I said and turned back to the peaches.
I started picking a few up and putting them into a plastic produce bag. I ended up with about twice as many as I’d intended on purchasing as I waited for him to walk away.
For whatever reason, I couldn’t look up again, so I kept cramming peaches into that thin plastic bag like they were the last ones on Earth. Finally, the man walked away, and I exhaled the breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding.
Well, that was crazy, I thought to myself and ran my hand over Laney’s soft, blonde curls.
I wrote the whole thing off as a surge of post-baby hormones, and shuffled off to the baking aisle. It was blissfully clear of the handsome stranger in his perfectly pressed navy slacks and tailored white button-down shirt. The one that fit his chest and abs like a glove, but he’d rolled up the sleeves to expose his chiseled biceps.
“Snap out of it, Kinsley,” I whispered to myself as I hurried over to the chocolate chip shelf.
The only other person in the aisle was a little old lady I recognized but didn’t know. She chuckled and smiled a huge, toothy grin at me. “I saw him too,” she said. “If he could get this old motor started, then no one would fault you for taking a second glance.”
That made me laugh too, and I instantly felt better. “Do you know who he is? I don’t recognize him at all.”
“Must be new in town,” the woman said. “Or perhaps he’s here for some of the construction.”
“He did look like he might have been an insurance type,” I said dismissively.
“Well, then I need to get my policy updated,” the woman laughed and pushed her cart out of the aisle.
I got the fancy chocolate chips, which were nine dollars a bag, and headed up to the checkout. The man did not materialize again between there and my car, and by the time I pulled into the driveway at home, I’d half convinced myself I’d imagined the entire thing. The only evidence of the exchange was the three pounds of peaches in the grocery bag with my chocolate chips.
Laney wasn’t ready to wake up yet, so I put her in the bassinet in the living room. Meri jumped in with her and snuggled against her side.
“I’ll be in the kitchen,” I said. “I might need you later, though.”
“For?” Meri asked.
“I need to go through Samara’s grimoire and see if I can find the recipe for those bags,” I said. “Seems like something you should be involved with.”
“I’ll see if there’s room in my calendar,” he snarked.
Meri closed his eyes and snuggled closer to Laney. The conversation was over, so I headed into the kitchen to make the chocolate chip cookies.
It didn’t occur to me until I saw her sitting at my kitchen table that making the cookies would summon Samara again. “You shouldn’t be here,” I said softly.
“Then why did you bring me?” she asked without getting up from the table.
“I just wanted the cookies,” I said.
“Yeah, right,” Samara’s ghost snarked at me.
“Did you do something to my Auntie?” I asked.
“If you’re going to take the time to summon the dead, you should ask better questions,” Samara said.
Freaking ghosts.
The ones still bound to the earth were usually confused, and they took way too much pleasure in doing the same to the living. Why couldn’t they just answer a question?
“Did you have something to do with the magic… issues?” I asked.
Samara laughed at me. “You’re supposed to be the most powerful witch in the world. Well, you were, anyway, and yet you think I had something to do with it? You really need to get it together, Kinsley.”
“What did you do to my aunt?” I demanded.
“Only what was asked of me,” Samara said. “The cookies are ready to go in.”
She vanished after that. When I looked down, I’d mixed the dough and dropped it into neat little rows on the baking sheet. The oven dinged to let me know it was preheated, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“You okay?” Meri asked as he sauntered into the kitchen.
“No thanks to you,” I said. “I guess until we get this magic thing fixed, any old ghost can just come sauntering into this house.”
“Maybe don’t summon them,” Meri said.
“I wasn’t summoning her. I wanted cookies,” I protested.
“You feeling all right?” Meri asked. “I find it hard to believe that it didn’t occur to you that baking her cookie recipe might summon her spirit. Especially after it did just that back at her house.”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m foggy and disoriented. I must be because I didn’t think these cookies were a summoning spell. I guess I just assumed that she appeared at her house because I was baking in her kitchen.”
“You going to put them in the oven?” he asked.
I was standing there holding the tray. “Yeah, I mean, she was already here and now she’s gone. Might as well get the cookies out of the deal.”
Cookies in the oven and timer set, I grabbed Samara’s grimoire and sat down at the kitchen table. Meri jumped up and joined me. He lay down on the table a couple of inches from the book, and I cracked it open.
The smell of dragon’s blood wafted off of the pages and filled the room around us. Whatever protection spell she’d cast on the book wasn’t enough to keep me out.
I flipped through the entire book, and while I found a bunch of spells, incantations, and cookie recipes… I didn’t find anything that correlated with the bags. “Who has a grimoire that has no spell bag recipes?” I asked.
“You don’t even have a grimoire,” Meri said.
“That’s true,” I said.
“And if you did, would you need to put spell bag recipes in there?” Meri asked.
“I mean, not really. Things mean things, so you toss them in a bag together. It’s pretty elementary, which is why I probably haven’t made a spell bag for personal use since I was a kid,” I said. “This was a bust.”
“Did you really think you were going to find something earth-shattering in there?” Meri asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hoped so.”
“You really thought some witch you barely knew was
powerful enough to blight magic?” Meri asked with a snort. “You need coffee.”
“I’m doing the best that I can,” I said and got up to make some coffee because he was right.
“What’s this?” Meri asked.
“What’s what?” I returned.
“Well, come look,” he groused.
I walked back over to the table and bent over to get a closer look at what Meri was talking about. He had his paw next to something on the last page of the grimoire.
It was a page of definitions Samara had written out for some reason. But, at the bottom in the middle were a few lines of writing that were not part of her personal glossary.
Four of the lines were scratched out with black ink so thoroughly that there was no way I could read them. The last line was as clear as day.
Mercy Cullen.
It was a name, but that wasn’t the most interesting part. Next to Mercy’s name was a doodle, but it wasn’t just any little pictograph. Samara had drawn a skull.
Chapter Seven
My phone rang as I took the cookies out of the oven. It was my mom, so I flung one of my oven mitts off, narrowly missing Meri’s head, and answered.
“Mom? How’s everything going,” I said when I put the phone up to my ear.
“They want to put Lilith in a nursing home,” she said. “Can you even imagine?”
“No, I can’t,” I said. “She can come here and stay with me. Please don’t do that.”
“We’re not going to, sweetie. And, you’re not taking her in either. You’ve got a new baby, but I’m sure she’d love you so much for offering,” Mom said.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Well, I’ve been dealing with this social worker all morning. She insists that I give the nursing home a shot and was completely unrelenting. Your father ran her out of the room,” Mom said. “We’re going to take her home, Kinsley. She needs to be somewhere familiar.”
“How is that going to work?” I asked.
“I’m going to stay with her,” Mom said. “Until we figure out how to bring her back from whatever this is, I’ll stay with her. Your father can help, and so can the other Aunties. Amelda is at the house now moving some stuff into one of the many spare rooms, so we’ll have her too.”
“You going to be okay living with Amelda?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine,” Mom said, but she took a deep, shuddering breath. “Your father will be there most of the time, so he’ll keep her entertained.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get this figured out before it was time for her to come home,” I said.
“Kinsley, sweetie, nobody expected you to,” Mom said.
“I expected me to,” I said. “But that doesn’t matter now. I’ll meet you at her house and help you get her settled.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Mom said.
“I know that, but I want to. Plus, I think she’d like to see Laney,” I said. “Lilith was so happy when she was born, and maybe it will help. What time are you guys leaving the hospital?”
“We’re still waiting on her official discharge. I think the social worker is trying to get the doctor to agree to a conservatorship so that Lilith has to go into a home. If she doesn’t stop her meddling before Amelda gets here, I’m afraid she’s going to find out… what happens when you mess around with us,” Mom said.
“A conservatorship? Like through the courts?” I asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not going to happen. I think she’s annoying the doctor with it as much as she’s annoying me. He knows we’re capable of taking care of Lilith, but he needs to hurry up and get the paperwork done so we can get out of here,” Mom said.
“Okay, well, call or text me when I should head over that way, and Mom…”
“Yeah, honey?” For the first time I heard the weariness in Mom’s voice.
“Don’t hurt the social worker,” I said.
“I’ll try,” she said with a chuckle.
It was several hours before I heard from my mother again. Thorn was home from work. I’d spent the afternoon cleaning and making fried chicken.
“You didn’t rest at all, did you?” he asked as I put a plate of chicken and pasta salad in front of him.
“I have too much energy,” I said. “Waiting for my Mom to call about Lilith is killing me.”
“How about a movie after dinner?” Thorn asked. “We can get a new release and you can pick.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
Thorn gave Laney a bottle while I got online and rented the animated movie I’d been wanting to watch. Since I had a kid, I no longer felt silly about watching stuff like that. Even if Laney had no idea what was going on, she could still be my excuse. Plus, my nerves were too shot for anything more than some cartoon princess adventure action.
“Not a horror movie?” Thorn asked with a cocked eyebrow. “I thought you’d be all over that new zombie flick. You’ve been waiting years for a sequel, right?”
“I’m not in the right headspace for it,” I admitted. “Plus, I don’t know if I should watch that stuff with Laney around.”
“She has no idea,” Thorn said.
“We don’t know that for sure. Sometimes, I think she’s picking up on things she shouldn’t be aware of,” I said.
“I think all moms think that,” Thorn said.
“I’ll watch it myself sometime,” I said. “I can watch it on my laptop with headphones on while she’s napping. Then you don’t have to be subjected to it either.”
“I would watch it for you,” Thorn said.
“I know,” I answered, but before I could say anything else about it, my phone rang. “I’ve got to take this.” I practically jumped off the sofa.
“We’re on our way to Lilith’s place,” Mom said when I answered.
“I’ll meet you there,” I said.
When we disconnected, I went back into the living room to get Laney ready to go. I found that Thorn already had her dressed and in the sling which he helped me put over my shoulders.
“I could watch her while you go,” Thorn said.
“It’s okay,” I answered. “I think it would be good for Lilith. She’d probably like a visit.”
“I know, but I feel like I have to offer,” Thorn said.
“Well, thank you.”
“I guess I’ll just stay here and watch the rest of the movie,” Thorn said. “The cat and I can make a night of it.”
“I’m going with her,” Meri said and ran to the front door.
“I’ll watch it myself, then,” Thorn said.
“You’re really going to watch the rest of the movie?” I asked as I slipped my shoes on.
“I’m invested,” he said.
I laughed. “I didn’t think princesses were your thing.”
“Princesses are my favorite thing,” Thorn said before kissing me.
“We won’t be too late,” I said. “I just need to be there for a bit.”
“I understand,” Thorn said. “Now hurry up and get out of here so I can eat the rest of the fried chicken.”
Laney fussed a little on the drive over to Lilith’s house. I was worried that it was some sort of bad omen, but it turned out she was just hungry.
As soon as we got inside, I turned on all of the lights on the first floor. I’d intended to make it bright and cheery for Lilith when she arrived, but that was nearly impossible. Even with all of the lights on, there were still shadows everywhere.
It was a nice night, so I ended up sitting on the front porch and giving Laney a bottle while we waited. Meri kept himself busy down in the grass stalking something. Sometimes he could be such a cat.
Laney had just finished her bottle when my Mom’s car turned into the driveway. I went down the front steps and out to the car.
Mom took Laney and burped her while Dad and I got Lilith into the house. She immediately decided she was hungry too, and I took it as a good sign.
“I’ll make her something,” I said as Lilith sat down in her parlor.
“Some tea too,” Lilith called after me as I made my way to her kitchen. “Now, give me that baby,” she said to my mother.
“Coming right up,” I said.
I went into the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove. While it heated, I checked the pantry for tea. Lilith had about a million different varieties. Some of them were labeled with nothing more than little doodles.
Haunted Hex (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 10) Page 6