The Keepers: Christmas in Salem: Do You Fear What I Fear?The Fright Before ChristmasUnholy NightStalking in a Winter Wonderland (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Heather Graham

  June’s heart squeezed, and her eyes teared up. “That’s amazing.”

  “It’s just part of the magic you inspired today, cousin.” Sam draped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “You’re trembling! I know this is overwhelming, but—”

  “It’s not the show of selflessness, although that is incredible.” June glanced over at Baz. He was working hard alongside his men. He looked intensely focused, and she felt a dash of regret that his focus was no longer directed at her. “I’m a little shaken up,” June confessed. “Baz just...never mind.”

  Sam smiled. “There are worse things than being in love with Baz.”

  “Who says I’m in love?”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “We’ve been estranged for eight years.”

  “And now you’re not.”

  June swallowed a scream of frustration. Was she the only logical person on this planet? She shifted and looked at her cousin, the eldest and quite possibly wisest of her Salem cousins, in the eyes. “Don’t you think it’s weird that you, Katie Sue and Roe all got engaged within twenty-four hours?”

  “No.”

  “Seriously?” June frowned. “And what if I... That would make four of us. In twenty-four hours. You don’t think that’s suspicious?”

  “I think it’s magical.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  Now Sam frowned. “Oh, come on. You don’t think... Thanks for the insult, June.”

  “What—”

  “You don’t think Daniel’s actually in love with me? You think I don’t know my own heart? That we’re bewitched?”

  June flushed, unsettled that she’d hurt Sam’s feelings. “I didn’t say that.”

  “But that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  She was surrounded by merriment and goodwill. The music, the food, the gifts. The crush of people from every faith all working together to raise a church in one day.

  A Christmas miracle.

  Just then Roe and Katie Sue rushed up.

  “Get this,” Katie Sue said, wide-eyed and jazzed. “We were going around making sure all the workers had hot coffee and we got to talking to Emma Firestone.”

  “She’s Wiccan,” Roe said, “and she was telling us this ancient story. Something about how Norsemen believed the sun was a wheel of fire that would roll away from the earth and back.”

  June nodded. “I know the story.” Just one of the many tales she’d learned in her studies. “They encouraged the return of the sun with bonfires, as well as logs that they burned in their homes. That’s where we got the concept of Yule logs.” She frowned in concentration. “I think I know where you’re going with this. But I’m pretty sure the mayor would frown on giant bonfires in the park.”

  “Not that part,” Katie Sue said. “The other part.”

  “The part where they decorated bows of evergreens with star-shaped ornaments in an effort to attract the sun back to the earth,” Roe said. She waved an arm at all the surrounding snow-laden trees. “We could do that!”

  At the very least it would be one more happy task pulling the townspeople together. June shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”

  The two women whooped, then took off, hopped up on their counter-the-darkness mission.

  “I’ll help you,” Sam said, running off before June could make amends for what she’d said earlier.

  “Rats.” She hadn’t meant to diss Sam and Daniel’s love. She knew their feelings were genuine. Deep down she had the same faith in the love between Roe and Vaughn, and Katie Sue and Jett. “So what’s my problem with Baz?”

  She turned just in time to see a statuesque woman walk up to Baz and start coming on to him. She blinked. It couldn’t be, but it was.

  Lolita Dorring.

  June’s blood burned, her heart pounded. She fisted her hands at her sides, itching to take a swing at that witch. Especially when Lolita leaned into Baz, then smirked over his shoulder at June. What the Devil?

  A shiver iced down June’s spine. The Devil’s magic. That wasn’t Lolita. Well, it was, but it wasn’t. Marin had stolen her body. June sensed the warlock. Smelled the evil. Oh, yeah. That kind of wicked had a stench. What was he planning? What did he want?

  To incite negativity. Violence. Intolerance.

  Did he think that if he made June jealous she would attack Lolita? Cause a scene? Start a fight that would spread and envelop the town?

  That was exactly what he wanted. For the woman who’d inspired the Winter Festival of Hope to go batshit crazy and sully the festivities. He wanted to feed off her hostility.

  Nice try, warlock.

  She was bigger than that. Smarter than that. Drawing on her studies and confidence, she shrugged and smiled, as if she didn’t care two Christmas figs about Basel Collins. He’s all yours. Interesting, though, that Baz’s body language screamed “back off.” Did he know that was Marin flirting with him and not Lolita? June didn’t think so. And she couldn’t tell him so with telepathy. That only worked when she was a cat. Baz had warned her about shifting under stress, and she’d already shifted too often in too short a time as it was. Dare she risk it? What if she was too weak to shift back into her human form? Ever?

  Lolita—Marin—latched on to Baz’s arm, directing him toward the trees. The warlock wouldn’t zap Baz with one of his deadly lightning bolts right here in front of everyone. But in private...

  Don’t go into the trees! June screamed at him with her mind. Not Lolita. Marin!

  She knew Baz couldn’t hear her, but why was he following Lolita’s cue when he clearly wasn’t interested in her? He didn’t want Lolita. Or any other woman. “He wants me! He loves me!” June shouted out loud. “And I love him! Marry me, Basel Collins! Right here. Right now.”

  Baz turned toward June, Lolita still clinging to his arm. The other woman looked a little dazed. Baz looked...shell-shocked.

  But he was smiling.

  June’s heart hammered—with fear, with love. She needed to get in between Baz and Marin. If the warlock zapped anyone, let it be her.

  She thought about shifting again, but she’d made herself the center of attention. She couldn’t shapeshift in plain view of humans. She would have to do this as a human. As a Keeper. As Baz’s soul mate. Something wonderful blossomed inside her as she moved toward the man she loved. Something powerful.

  Faith.

  Faith that their love was stronger than Marin’s black magic. That good would conquer evil.

  People parted like the Red Sea, and the music faded away. She heard whispers about true love and a Christmas wedding. “How romantic,” someone said.

  It was romantic. Even though June was ready to take a death zap from Marin in order to save Baz’s life, she’d never felt more alive. “I love you, Basel Collins.” She meant it with every fiber of her being.

  His dark eyes danced. “I love you, Juniper Twist.”

  The air crackled. No, the sky crackled.

  Everyone looked skyward. Except for Baz and June. They only had eyes for each other.

  Lolita twitched, then went limp.

  The warlock suddenly materialized beside her. Thank the universe, all the humans were focused on the sky.

  “Marin,” June whispered.

  “I know,” Baz said.

  June’s Keeper cousins and their lovers appeared as if out of nowhere, surrounding the powerful warlock. Only he didn’t look so powerful now.

  “Vengeance will be mine,” he croaked.

  “Not today, Marin.” Esmeralda swept in, pinned a huge sprig of mistletoe on him and smiled when he groaned in misery. She glanced at June, who was stunned to see the woman she’d dropped at home. “You thought I’d actually miss out on this show? Well done, Keeper.”

  June flushed with pride, her heart dancing with joy. Surrounded by friends and family and the spirit of goodwill, she’d never felt more at home.

  Baz passed Lolita over to Father Chopra, who wa
s standing close, eyes wide with wonder. Fully focused on June, Baz took her hands in his. “You were saying?”

  She could scarcely breathe. Something wonderful was happening—inside of her and up in the sky. “Will you marry me, Baz? I know I’m not perfect, but I’m yours. Heart and soul. If you want me.”

  His lips twitched. “Oh, I want you, Bug.”

  More crackling and flashing, and this time June couldn’t help but look up at the heavens. She gasped along with everyone else when the black sky ripped open, revealing fissures of light.

  Sunlight.

  “We’ve got Marin under control,” Daniel said.

  “We’ll be back,” Sam said with a wink.

  “Don’t start the nuptials without us,” Esmeralda added.

  Every being—human and Other—of every faith let loose with a wave of “oohs” and “ahhs,” along with a round of deafening applause, as life-giving sunshine broke through the last of the insidious dark. But instead of racing home to celebrate the return of the sun, everyone rushed back to work.

  “Let’s take advantage of the daylight!” someone yelled.

  “We’ll raise the church by midnight for sure,” someone else said.

  Construction resumed. The music kicked up, a cheery rendition of “Winter Wonderland.”

  June glanced at her watch. One o’clock in the afternoon. She knew in her heart that sundown would come at a normal time. And that tomorrow morning and every morning after, Salem would enjoy hours of daylight just like the rest of the world. Basking in the sun and in Baz’s love, she moved into his arms. “We did it.”

  He smoothed her hair out of her face, held her close. “You scared the hell out of me, taking on Marin like that. I was trying to get him away from you,” he said. “Away from everyone.”

  “So you did know it was Marin.”

  He looked at her disbelievingly. “You thought I’d go off with Lolita?”

  “No. Well, not to kiss her or anything. I had—have—faith in your feelings for me.” She smiled up into her handsome lover’s mesmerizing eyes. “We took on a powerful warlock without utilizing any supernatural skills. I wonder if that’s what countered his curse?”

  “You said it yourself, June Bug. Faith, belief and hope. That’s powerful stuff.”

  “Enhanced with a double shot of love,” she said. “It’s pure magic.”

  Baz kissed her then, madly and deeply, in front of everyone. “I’m holding you to that marriage proposal, Bug.”

  She smiled up into his shining eyes. “As soon as your grandmother and my cousins get back.”

  “Happy Christmas, June.”

  “Merry Christmas, Baz.”

  Epilogue

  Winters came with a vengeance to Salem, Massachusetts. Some more than most.

  This last more than any.

  Although centuries had passed since the infamous Salem witch trials, modern man had proved equally susceptible to mania and violence when spooked by the unknown. The terrible and perpetual darkness that had descended on the city had ravaged people of every faith, from Christian to Wiccan to Buddhist, pitting man against woman, human against Other.

  Instead of the Devil, evil had come in the form of a renegade warlock. A wicked outcast intent on revenge, he’d worked heinous black magic, summoning evil thoughts and deeds, calling down never-ending darkness, inciting panic and hatred, testing beliefs, challenging love...

  And yet goodness had triumphed.

  Light had returned.

  On Christmas Day.

  Some rejoiced in the birth of a king, while others praised the rebirth of the sun.

  Everyone celebrated a return to normalcy.

  The mayor called the governor; the governor called the president.

  The president called the experts at NASA.

  Unaware of Otherworldly interference and unable to cite a scientific phenomenon, they declared the return of light a Christmas miracle.

  Meanwhile, the citizens of Salem raised a church in a day and celebrated the impromptu weddings of four cousins known to the local Others as Keepers.

  The spirit of giving, the power of faith and the wonder of love prevailed long after Christmas Day as Salem forged a bright future, learning yet again from past mistakes.

  Maybe the Devil was in the forest, but he was not within their hearts.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SIREN'S SECRET by Debbie Herbert.

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  Chapter 1

  Under autumn’s moon-blood red

  Beneath a foam-tipped wave

  The unseen mermaid spies the dead

  Sink to a watery grave.

  With a flick of her mermaid’s tail, Shelly surfaced from the deep coastal waters holding the dead body of victim number two.

  Black garbage bags, held together with yards of duct tape, wrapped around the dead human like a macabre gift package. A cement block dangled from the rope attached to the body. Shelly removed a knife from the leather pouch belted at her waist and sliced through the rope, releasing the block. She plunged her long, sharp nails into one end of the garbage bag, ripped open a layer of plastic and stared into a pair of empty eye sockets.

  The killer’s signature calling card. News of the previous dead body with missing eyes, dumped weeks earlier in the bayou, still dominated the news media as an unsolved case.

  From the tip of her fin to the top of her scalp, an electric surge of fear blazed through her body like a burn. This could have been me. Whether she was on land in human form, or at sea as a mermaid, both worlds were filled with danger.

  Miles from shore, she kept afloat by swishing the tail fin beneath her torso. Her gaze froze on the maimed body as her heart pounded in time with each rise and fall of the waves. Seawater pooled in the victim’s empty eye sockets like wells of tears. The placid mood of the ocean shifted, as if it resented the violent encounter it was asked to hide. Shelly’s arms ached as she struggled to hold the slippery plastic-encased body in the turbulent water. Against the waves, the plastic wriggled and slithered like a monstrous black eel.

  The abrupt rumble of a boat engine sliced through the humid night air. Shelly jerked and the victim’s body skated from her grasp and bobbed beside her in the water. She thought the killer had left, but panic and surprise at the unexpected encounter during her swim had made her careless.

  Earlier, she’d been close to her human home, finishing her evening’s swim, when a sudden splash sent screaming vibrations rippling through the sea. She’d heard the boat above her on the ocean’s surface and watched as the long, cylindrical object sank like a torpedo not twenty yards away. She should have left at once. But she had suspected the foreign object was human, and hoped the human might still be alive.

  So Shelly had watched and waited at first. Through the dark ripples, the full moon illuminated a man peering over the side of an old johnboat. She couldn’t move as he’d stood there, waiting. Probably making sure the weighted-down corpse wouldn’t pop back up, and then the boat had sped away.

  Now he was back.

  The boat gathered speed and headed directly at her.

  No! I can’t be seen. Stupid, stupid, getting caught. Got to get the hell away. He would be on her in seconds. Shelly reached for the body and her hands slid off the slick plastic. She
took a deep breath and forced her panicked mind to be clear. Her fingers, then palms, grabbed a handful of plastic and she pulled it close enough to circle her arms around the victim’s center. But the now-waterlogged body was so heavy it slipped through her arms down into the sea.

  Yards away, the killer stared at Shelly with the eyes of an intense predator. With the light of a full moon, she made out the curly dark hair peeking out from under a baseball cap, a hookish beak of a nose, glittering dark eyes with gold flecks and a short, wiry body tensed in fury.

  Her eyes burned as she strained to adjust her vision from water to air, the sudden beam of a flashlight blinding her for a moment. Judging from the way his mouth gaped open, Shelly knew he’d seen her inhuman pupils do their wild thing, shine with the bioluminescent glow of deep-sea marine life as the irises swirled like a miniature aurora borealis. Her muscles seized and locked, refusing her mind’s screaming command to flee.

  Damn. Wait until he sees my tail.

  The boat stopped next to her and the man’s face contorted with rage. He pointed at Shelly. “What the hell?” he screamed in a tight, shrill voice. He reached into his pants pocket and drew out something. Silver flashed as moonbeams reflected off a thin metallic surface.

  A long-bladed stiletto knife.

  The sight broke Shelly’s paralyzing stupor. She somersaulted, momentarily flipping her tail fin in the air before diving down to the ocean floor. Despite a mysterious, searing pain in her tail, Shelly swam to the bed of sand, knowing he couldn’t come after her this deep down.

  The foreign odor of dead human wafted through the usual smell of marine life. As her eyes adjusted to the absence of light in the deep sea, Shelly located the body and swam over to it.