by M. L. Briers
“You sniffed me?” Amber didn’t know whether to be offended or disgusted. People didn’t go around sniffing each other – that was dog territory, which at a specific time of the month could be bloody embarrassing when you had a snout wedged into your feminine place like there was fresh steak on offer.
Josh held onto that smile. “I scented your essence…”
“I’m leaving now,” Amber said, and took her foot off the brake, but it hovered over the gas pedal like she was in two minds about leaving, or she just couldn’t put her brain in gear to know how to achieve it.
It didn’t help that Josh was walking right by her side as the car rolled slowly forward under its own momentum. “We need to talk about this, Amber,” he said.
Amber snapped a look at him. “How do you know my …? I don’t even know your … what the…?”
“It’s Josh,” he said, guessing that she’d missed that part and acting like nothing was strange between them. His grin widened.
Amber slowly nodded, like she was talking it in, and instead of her brain acting like the fastest computer on the planet, it was stuck in dial-up territory. Then her mind played catch-up, and her foot hit the accelerator, sending her back in her seat like she was driving the DeLorean in Back to the Future, and the car raced away from him.
That gave her a wake-up call to her senses. She didn’t think that death in a fiery car wreck was preferable to life with a sex-god, and she snapped out of the daze and back into the real world, as she checked her side mirror and saw him fading in stature behind her as she got further away.
“Oh, boy, my mother really is going to kill me – three times over – with relish and a side order of all you can eat crow,” she muttered grimacing at the thought of telling her.
A mate to a wolfman – hmm – wasn’t life full of whacky surprises?
Amber hit the radio on, and her jaw went slack as the song screamed out at her from every speaker. Who let the dogs out wouldn’t have been her first choice of music, but it did make her snap her jaws together, and when the chuckles started, they didn’t seem to want to stop.
~
“I know it’s spooky,” Lottie said, holding her hands up and wiggling her fingers in Sandy’s face to try to lighten the moment. “But magic is as natural as the sun coming up and setting for us.”
Sandy was frowning at the candle. It had flamed to life with only a thought from her and a little magic. It had taken a half an hour to bring it about, but when she concentrated just right and added a dollop of belief – magic happened. “Spooky awesome!” Sandy said, looking at Lottie, who seemed pleased, and she let the grin take her lips. She didn’t think she’d smiled that hard in years. “I’m a frickin’ witch!”
“Yes, you are,” Lottie said with a hearty chuckle. “Congratulations, and now your training begins.”
“Training?” Sandy said, and the smile slowly disappeared.
“I would be doing you and I a disservice if we didn’t show you the basics at the very least, and some cool spells once you’ve mastered those,” Lottie informed her.
Sandy considered it for a moment. She liked Lottie, the woman reminded her of a school teacher that she’d had once – kind, and with a fun streak. On the plus side, she’d been assured that Carlos wouldn’t be darkening her door again, so she was staying in town anyway. Where was the harm? “Okay,” she agreed with a nod.
“And you can come and stay with me at my house for a while – if you like,” Lottie said. It would be nice to take a fledgeling witch under her wing and show her the ropes, and the house was large and silent since she’d lost her husband. “I have a pool.”
“Sold!” Sandy said enthusiastically before remembering herself. “If that’s what you think is best.”
“Done deal,” Lottie said.
“But what about – him?” Sandy asked, leaning in towards Lottie and offering a quick look around to make sure they were still alone in the store.
“Him who?” Lottie asked, and Sandy raised her eyebrows and pulled a face. “The vampire him?” Sandy nodded. “Oh, the legend is true – they can’t come in unless they’re invited, and I’m not inviting him in.”
“Me either,” Sandy said and shivered at the thought of meeting a real-life vampire from one of those books she’d read.
“Well, then, we’re on the same page,” Lottie said, not bothering to correct her on the fact that she could invite Neal into the house, but as she didn’t own it, he still couldn’t enter.
“Yes, we are,” Sandy agreed with an emphatic nod.
“And we’ll have some fun along the way,” Lottie promised her.
Sandy smiled. She liked that idea. Lord only knew, she needed some fun after Carlos, and – well, everything. She’d never really had anyone looking out for her before, showing her the way, but now she had Lottie who was going to teach her to be a real-life witch.
Sandy jumped when the door opened, and the bell rang out, she somehow expected the vampire to be back, but it was only Amber. The woman was breathing like she’d run a marathon and looked pale compared to her red hair.
When Amber slammed the door closed behind her and rushed to put the locks on while looking out the window – something was up.
Maybe Amber had run into the vampire again?
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
~
“Amber?” Lottie asked, concerned at her niece-not-a-niece, acting like a scared rabbit and bolting them in. “What’s happened?”
Amber turned with her back to the glass and sagged. “Nix on the questions,” she muttered, looking to Sandy and back to Lottie again.
“Oh,” Lottie said motioning to Sandy. “She knows she’s a witch, knows about us, and met Neal…”
“Vampires are real,” Sandy said with a light chuckle and bouncing on the spot like Tigger.
“Geez, what’d I miss?” Amber asked, confused.
“Recap; her ex Carlos turned up, she knocked him out with your cauldron by magic, Neal took him away to give him an attitude adjustment, and Sandy is coming to stay with me to learn the Craft,” Lottie rushed out.
Amber’s gaze had narrowed with each new revelation until Lottie had finished. “Commiserations, congratulations, and that should be fun,” she said, hoping she had everything in the right order.
Lottie waved it away. “What happened to you? You look like you’ve seen a lurker,” she turned to Sandy. “That’s what we call the spirits of the dead who didn’t move on because they were either they were too stupid to walk towards the light, or they had unfinished business in the real world,” Lottie explained to Sandy before turning back to Amber.
“Ghosts are real?” Sandy asked.
“As real as Lycans,” Amber bit out and groaned inwardly.
“What’s a Lycan?” Sandy asked Lottie.
“It’s a somewhat nicer version of a werewolf…”
“Werewolves are real?” Now Sandy looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Oh, so vampires are okay, but werewolves are bad?” Amber asked, and frowned, wondering why she was defending shifters at all.
Lottie turned her sole attention on Amber. “Hmm,” she said, in the way that a woman did when she suspected something was afoot, and Amber snapped a look at her. “You don’t know why you said that, do you?”
“No, not really,” Amber admitted. She looked at Sandy. “Yes, werewolves are real and so are Lycans, Leprechauns, fairies, and other stuff…” She waved an absent hand in the air and ended it there.
“What about Santa?” Sandy asked Lottie and the elder offered her a smirk.
“Now there’s one I can neither confirm nor deny – if you believe then you believe – a lot like magic,” Lottie said with a chuckle.
“Are elves a thing?” Sandy asked.
“Yes, I’ll make you a list of the supernatural, but right now…” Lottie turned back to Amber. “Spill it, witchlet,” she said and folded her arms to show Amber that she wanted the whole story and wouldn’t take a short ver
sion.
Amber grimaced. “My mother is going to kill me,” she said and winced.
“Oh no,” Lottie said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“What?” Sandy asked; eager to find out more.
Lottie sighed. “It seems like someone found a mate.”
“What’s that?” Sandy asked.
“A forever love,” Lottie said.
“Cool!” Sandy grinned, but neither Lottie nor Amber were smiling, so she snapped it off. “It’s a bad thing?”
“Depends if you like your men to come with an inbuilt wolf or not,” Lottie said and heard Amber groan. “But once you have one you have them for life, and there is only one thing to do to get rid of them…”
“Ooo, what?” Sandy asked.
“Kill them,” Lottie said shrugging.
Sandy’s mouth slacked open, and she couldn’t tell if Lottie was joking or not, so she looked to Amber for the answers, but Amber just had a permanent grimace on her face – so, she guessed Lottie wasn’t joking.
“Oh,” Sandy said and frowned. “And how do we do that?” She guessed if she was one of them, a witch, then she was all in. “You did help me with my boyfriend trouble,” she said to Lottie when the elder chuckled.
“I’m not killing the wolfman,” Amber said and sighed. “Yet.”
“That-a-girl,” Lottie said, punching the air. “Grab him and growl.”
“Lottie!” Amber grumbled.
“Well, if you can’t beat ‘em – and I’ve never heard anybody beating fate at its own game – then join ‘em,” she said like it was just that simple.
“She has to get bitten and become a wolf too?” Sandy asked.
“Not even close,” Amber grumbled. Then she scowled and looked to Lottie. “I don’t, right?”
“No,” Lottie said. “Shifter mates aren’t like vampire mates – unless you want to?” she teased.
“Lottie!” Amber said in disbelief.
“Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just asking,” Lottie said and chuckled. “But you should have seen your face.”
“My mother is going to kill me – you know it – I know – even Sandy knows it…”
“I do?” Sandy said, unsure. Amber glared at her. “Yep, sure – I do.”
“Well, then look on the bright side – if you’re dead you won’t have to worry about having a shifter mate,” Lottie said and snapped on a wide teasing grin.
~
“Ok, plan B,” Marilyn said as she dusted off her hands and looked around the living room one last time to make sure everything was where it should be – or where she thought it should be.
“There was a plan A?” Scott asked, and the side-eye he got from his mother made him hold up his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m on board with plan B whatever that may be.”
The glint of amusement in her son’s eyes made her forgive him questioning her, and his horrible pun. “We’ve got another job to do,” she informed him and noted the way his interest piqued. “We need to get rid of the shifter before he becomes a problem.”
It was easier said than done, but she thought if they all put their minds and magic to it, then they could come up with a plan. Scott didn’t look too sure, which was unusual; he was usually the first to get behind anything magical and mischief full.
“Yeah, about that…” he said and left it there.
Marilyn raised her eyebrows expectantly and angled her chin down so she could stare at him long and hard from beneath her lashes. “I’m your mother – spit it out.”
Scott didn’t like that idea. “Why do I have to be the bearer of news that could potentially get me…?”
“Scott!” she snapped.
“Amber told Lottie, and Lottie told Louann, who ran into Claudia, who texted me,” he said, noting how invested she’d become in each step of the chain. When he paused to wince and consider his mother’s reaction, she stomped her foot with frustration, and he let rip. “Amber’s a mate!”
Scott would have put his head between his legs and kissed his backside goodbye – the only problem was he’d become transfixed by his mother’s face that went completely white. Then he was sure he could see the colour rushing back, blood red, and filling back up again like a thermometer registering the heat as she quietly seethed.
Scott knew that was the quiet before the storm, and he also knew that they would need to batten down the hatches because storm Marilyn was about to sweep through and woe betide anyone who got in the way.
His mother was about to get her war footing on, and he knew better than to get in her way.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
~
“Where’s the fire?” Neal asked, catching up to the witch with ease as she pounded the pavement towards Bell’s and Spells. She looked frazzled, but in a good way, like she was hell-bent of doing some damage to someone, and he wouldn’t miss that for the world.
“Don’t you talk to me,” Marilyn bit out, offering him a sideways glare. “Everything was fine until you stepped into town.”
“More accusations? Nice, and there was me being Mr Helpful today – shame on me,” he said, and his words caused her to a stop whirl towards him. When she lifted her witching finger to wag it under his nose, he guessed she was in no mood to be playful.
“You – you bring trouble, you’ve always brought trouble whenever you come back,” she rallied, and he could see she was upset, but he didn’t think this was solely about Sandy because he didn’t see how he was to blame for that one.
He could be wrong – it wasn’t unheard of and had happened a few times over the centuries – and she did look slightly erratic and irrational, but wasn’t that par for the course with witches?
Neal put on a smile that made her blink twice. “I thought we’d got it straight that I’m not the only one who came back to town lately.”
“Pah!” Marilyn said and stalked away from him.
“If that’s your best takedown…”
“Oh, no,” Marilyn said, whirling back to almost collide with him. She offered him the evil eye like that was his fault, and Neal held up his palms towards her and took a step back. “You don’t get to play mind games with me – you forget, I know you too well…”
“Maybe, maybe not – It’s been a decade, maybe I learnt some new moves since….”
“Why are you still talking to me?” Marilyn demanded. “Why are you still here?”
“I’d ask where you’d like me to be, but I fear you might have a list, and I’m not sure I’d like the top option or…”
“Stop talking!” Marilyn said, and she held up her palm so close to his face that she almost blotted him out.
Wouldn’t that be nice, she thought, getting rid of all of her problems in one day?
Neal wrapped his hand around her wrist and drew her hand down away from his face. He was still wearing that smile that oozed charm – and patience, but she didn’t care – Mr Smooth wasn’t getting to her today. She had bigger fish to fry in the shape of a shifter mate.
“Stop being rude…”
“I’m not rude; I’m pro-active…”
“Well, we’ll agree to disagree, now what’s this about?” he asked.
Marilyn drew her head back and screwed up her face. “That’s none of your business…”
“It is when I’m having accusations thrown at me…”
“Not about this,” Marilyn said and yanked her wrist out of his grasp. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone to kill.” She turned once more and took just one step.
“They’ve left,” he said. “Closed the store and went – who knows where.” His voice was one big tease, and she had the urge to turn and fire her magic at him, but it was Sunday afternoon, and people were out for a stroll.
That last thing she wanted was someone spotting her using her magic on Main Street, or any street. In a small town, people talked, and they already called the family witches, giving them proof wouldn’t be smart.
“Where’d they go?” Marilyn
demanded, turning to skewer him with just a look.
“I already said…”
“But what you say and what you know are usually two different things,” Marilyn shot back.
Neal slapped his hand over his heart and sighed. “I’m shocked you would think…”
“Can it. Which direction did they go in?”
“Home,” Neal said and pointed down the street.
Marilyn’s jaw was working overtime as she pulled her body upright, like someone had shoved a stick up her backside, lifted her chin in defiance of him and with a certain amount of pride in the face of her lost dignity, she started back to her car.
“Can I come?” Neal whispered in her ear and made her pull away from him.
“No,” Marilyn shot back.
“But last night…?”
“Let’s not talk about last night,” Marilyn said and lifted her chin higher.
“I’ve heard that somewhere before,” Neal said, and got a death glare back in return. “Oooo, did I push a button?”
Marilyn couldn’t hold back a moment longer. She pulled on her magic and wove an invisible vine around his ankle, one more step and that vine snapped tight, causing him to pitch headfirst towards the ground.
For one long moment, as she cast a look back at him, she felt that tapping of guilt on her shoulder, but then as he looked up at her with a certain amount of amusement and accusation, she felt the rush of laughter that had quickly boiled over within her and burst from her lips.
Marilyn laughed so hard that she had to stop walking. She turned to find him still laying there on his stomach, his head propped on his hand, and strumming his fingers against the concrete, and that laughter rose and rose until she had tears in her eyes and had doubled over at the waist.
Boy, did she need that!
~
Louann had been waiting for them to return with bated breath. While it was true to say that the shifter had to be gotten rid of, she wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it.