Christmas and Curses

by Amanda A. Allen

  “Then he can go to her house,” Lex almost snarled.

  Scarlett started to answer, to give him what he wanted to find the peace between them again, but she couldn’t do it. She knew Lex needed her to, and she knew why he did, but she couldn’t do it all the same. She cupped his cheek and she said, “I’m with you Lex. Not Gus. But he is part of my family, and I won’t change that. I can’t. Not and stay who I am. Please, by the stars Lex, please don't make me choose.”

  Lex scowled at her and then said, “It’s more than that. Whatever happened to him isn’t over. You won’t be safe with him here, and why can’t I ask you to choose? Why can’t I ask to be your number one.”

  “So go find out what it was,” Scarlett said, “You are the sheriff. A crime’s been committed. Stop the criminal, and we’ll keep the victim safe.”

  Lex slammed his fist into the wall when she threw his job back into his face. She shouldn’t have. She knew he’d preferred being a private investigator, but Mystic Cove didn’t have much call for PIs. He’d wanted something with her, he’d wanted a safe little town for Amelie, and he’d given up a job he loved. She suddenly felt like the biggest jerk on the planet.

  “Lex,” her voice was pure plea as she said, “Being first doesn’t mean being only.”

  Lex didn’t answer.

  Scarlett left the bedroom and walked out to her family, trying to shake off the bad mood. She didn’t want to broadcast it to her family, but they were druids, and they’d all been channeling magic heavily. There was no way they didn’t have a pretty good idea of what she was feeling. All the little things that druidic magic helped you to notice—they’d be noticing. The way her eyes were shiny, the way her chest was heaving just a little too hard, the way her shoulders were tense. They’d notice, they’d guess, and they just might discuss.

  Scarlett stared them all down and not one gaze bothered to hide they’d been noticing it all. Scarlett swallowed and her throat was too thick. She cleared it and crossed into the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of wassail just to do something with her hands.

  Luna rose from next to Gus and came running to Scarlett, wrapping those tiny arms around Scarlett’s waist. Because, of course, Luna’s 5-year-old eyes caught everything Scarlett was feeling. It was, perhaps, poor timing given that Lex walked from the bedroom a moment later and saw Luna. He knew Luna’s abilities, and his jaw tightened just enough to tell everyone he was still angry. Not that they needed to use their magic to see it. A person with zero abilities would have noticed it—he was practically projecting it.

  He crossed to Gus though and asked questions about what had happened. The problem was…Gus didn’t know what had happened. He’d found himself starving and weak in the middle of the road and run for Scarlett.

  “Scarlett?” Lex’s question was a shot of fury.

  “I…” Gus looked Lex directly in the eye and said, “I knew she’d help me. And…keep me from hurting anyone.”

  “Did you hurt anyone?” Lex asked intently.

  Mom cut in—shooting Lex a dirty look, “Do you think there could be a hex bag at his place? Or somewhere he was.”

  Mom trying to cover for Gus didn’t prevent him from answering. “No, I’m sure of it.”

  “How?”

  “I was too hungry,” Gus admitted.

  They all took that in, the idea that Gus could only be sure that whatever had been done to him hadn’t caused him to become a monster—because he’d gotten to Scarlett’s too hungry. There were more clues, he’d been gray, not blood covered. He’d been shaking—and not from the adrenaline of the hunt.

  “Where’s his lady friend? Is she messed up too?” One of Scarlett’s cousins asked.

  “She left a few days ago,” Gus said, finally sitting up and running his hands through his hair. Scarlett noted that even though he was back to size, he still looked bad. She pulled the steaks out of the bag and started rubbing them with butter and then herbs.

  A cousin, Scarlett didn’t bother looking to see who said, “There must be something that triggered his…problem. Any druid would have had a hard time affecting a vampire so much.”

  “Mmmm,” someone else said.

  Scarlett slapped a grill pan on her stove and started heating it up. It wouldn’t be the same as grilled on the patio, but she didn’t think Gus would notice.

  “How would they get into his house?”

  “It’s Mystic Cove,” Scarlett thought as someone else said it.

  Mom asked Gus, “Do you lock your doors?”

  “No,” he admitted.

  “I don’t either,” Scarlett said. “At least during the day. I wonder…”

  “Whoever did this bet on that,” Mr. Jueavas said. “It’s you lifelong locals who don’t lock your doors. I do. I bet Lex does.”

  “Of course I do,” Lex snapped. His gaze was fixed on Scarlett, and she knew he was furious to realize she didn’t bother to lock her door. “You all are idiots.”

  “Mmmm,” Mom said, gently. She laid a hand on Lex and said, “You got a too big dose of the hex bag, I think, Lex. Why don’t you take that into account?”

  Scarlett felt a flash of hope. If the hex bag was why the girls had been fighting, maybe why Amelie had been so confrontational with Scarlett, why Lex had reacted so badly to Gus…maybe they weren’t anything but a train wreck waiting to happen.

  By the time they’d finally stopped questioning Lex and Gus, Gus looked battered and the family had decided for themselves that Aunt Briët, Henna, and the cousins would go to Gus’s home and search for another hex bag. They were willing to leave everything but druidic magic to Lex. He objected and was ignored.

  “I am the sheriff,” he told them.

  “Of course you are,” Gram said snidely. “It’s why we’re letting you go.”

  Lex frowned intensely at that. Scarlett handed him a plate with a grilled steak, and he softened just a bit. She handed Gus the next plate with three steaks piled high and a bottle of hot sauce.

  Aunt Briët and the cousins waited for Lex to eat. When he finished, he said, “I will go alone. If I catch something in my examination, I’ll let you know.”

  Scarlett’s lips twitched at his out-and-out lie.

  Aunt Briët raised her brows and glanced at Gram who said,“You can work with us or you can work around us, but they’re going.”

  “I will go alone,” he snapped. “I am the sheriff. This is a crime. You can’t just…”

  Scarlett’s sister, Harper, nudged Lex and said, “Give it up.”

  After Lex, Aunt Briët, the cousins, Henna and Mr. Throdmore left, Gram put her hand on her fist and stared at Gus. Scarlett took the moment to shoo the girls into their bedroom, handing them a present that had been wrapped up in unicorn and Christmas tree wrapping paper. They squealed. It was a new movie and should keep them distracted for at least an hour.

  “How did you get druid hexed, Gus?” Gram asked, she was leaning forward with her elbow on her knee tapping her finger against her chin and then asked, “And why?”

  “It’s us,” Scarlett answered bringing everyone who was left something to drink. She’d filled the tray with random selections of coffee, cocoa, and wassail, but everyone seemed to get what they wanted. She handed her mother the last mug of wassail and said, “Too bad you can’t have whiskey in that. Because we’re the reason that Gus was cursed.”

  “What? Why? We don’t have any enemies,” Mom said. Her hand was even more heavily on her belly and her eyes were fixed on Rebel who was her newest child having only recently been adopted.

  “Those are druid hex bags,” Harper said. “A druid made them. No druids would target Gus unless we were involved.”

  “What’s going on?” Maye demanded.

  “Someone decided to mess with the wrong druid family,” Gram said darkly while Scarlett sighed and admitted, “I have no idea.”

  Chapter 4

  “Lay down,” Scarlett said when her mom tried to get up for the fifth time. Scarlett had started
unloading the boxes of food that Mom and the rest had brought. The others would be back sooner or later and would want to eat.

  “But…”

  “No,” Scarlett snapped. “Geez. Accept you’re knocked up and take advantage of laying around.”

  She plugged in a crock pot full of seafood chowder. They were supposedly vegetarian, like most druids, but unlike most—they had a weakness for seafood, marshmallows, bacon, and the occasional meatloaf omelet. It took several minutes to get the food warming or refrigerated. Christmas was in a week, but they tended to have a good half-dozen parties and events in the time coming up to it. Mom swore it was because Gram didn’t want to not have all the holiday food, so there was the first Sunday of the month dinner, a party with favored druids, at least one random family dinner, Christmas Eve, Christmas dinner, and probably a few more things. Scarlett hadn’t realized how much she missed the holiday madness until she was back into the mix of it.

  While she worked, she worried. Nothing about what was happening made sense. Given that Mystic Cove was tiny and almost entirely made of supernatural races like druids, Scarlett had never really worried too much about locking her apartment.

  Someone knew that. Though to be fair, a lot of people could have guessed. She bet at least half the town didn’t bother locking their doors. But—if anyone knew it for certain—a druid would know. Scarlett wouldn’t have hesitated to send any member of Mystic Cove’s druidic circle up to her place if they needed something. Even if she didn’t go with them. She bet if Lex knew that his eye would twitch.

  It had to be a druid, only we didn’t make hex bags. Not because we couldn’t but because we didn’t. Which meant that no druid would make one without knowing where it was going. Warlocks did stuff like that all the time. Witches did. Banshees probably. Scarlett didn’t know. But druids didn’t. So, how could a druid do this to her family? That hex bag…by the stars…the hex bag must have been why the girls had been fighting, maybe why she and Lex had been on edge, maybe…goodness, she hoped maybe why Amelie had been so angry with Scarlett lately. Scarlett wanted to pin all the strife her family had been experiencing on that hex bag, but the honest side of her knew that there was plenty of fodder for tension before someone threw magic into the mix.

  Now that she thought about it, even the animals had been edgy with each other. The cats had been separated several times in the last few days. Scarlett slammed her palm down on the counter, catching Harper’s attention and then she asked, “You and Quinton been fighting more lately?”

  “Mmmm,” Harper said and then admitted, “Quinton doesn’t fight. He just is quietly patient with me while I rage around like an insane tornado. It is so irritating.”

  Quinton crossed his ankles but leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

  “You love me,” Quinton said.

  “You’re an old man in a young person’s body. I only like your body,” Harper told him.

  “Then why were you reading poetry with me?” He ran his finger down her nose and then kissed her on it.

  Scarlett was shocked by the feel of intense jealousy. She knew she shouldn’t feel it. She knew that Harper deserved the happiness she found with Quinton—and that the happiness was hard fought. Hard fought on a daily basis.

  Scarlett shook off the envy. She loved Lex. Hard as it was. And much of their trouble was the trauma of past relationships. Harper didn’t have that with a man. But she had it in spades. Nearly every person who’d ever come into Harper’s life before her adoption had treated her like she was disposable.

  The door opened and everyone came back inside. Scarlett’s gaze shot to Lex and he didn’t look any happier than he had before. But, of course, he’d left his daughter in a house with a vampire that had been cursed and was trusting that Scarlett could protect her. She felt stabbed by guilt but also knew she wouldn’t have done anything different.

  “Nothing,” Aunt Briët said before anyone could even ask what had happened. She crossed to Gus and whispered to him for a moment. Scarlett’s cousins touched her shoulder or said hello and then moved farther into the apartment all pausing with Gus.

  Scarlett turned and searched Lex’s face. He was looking back at her this time and his jaw muscle was ticking and the bad-boy vibe he’d radiated since she first met him seemed to be even more vibrant. She met his gaze and he glanced around at the food and the girls and then his gaze returned, unhappily, to Gus.

  “There isn’t anything in his house,” Lex said. “He should be safe to go home.”

  Scarlett didn’t argue, but there was no way Gus was leaving until she was sure he was ok. Lex probably couldn’t tell, but Scarlett knew at a glance that Gus was barely keeping it together. Hitting that scary hungry point—something he never let himself reach had broken him a bit inside.

  “Thank you for checking out his place,” Scarlett said and poured Lex a cup of coffee.

  “I can read your face and tone, Scarlett. I know you. He should be safe to go home.” He cracked his neck and stepped closer to her. It wasn’t that he was trying to intimidate her, but he was trying to snatch whatever privacy they could.

  “That’s not a risk I can take,” she whispered simply praying that he’d understand. “We need to know how this…rogue…druid got to him.”

  “And why,” Harper interjected loud enough to get everyone to turn her way.

  Scarlett closed her eyes and then slowly turned to be the last who faced her sister. She was still in her place on the loveseat, fingers tangled with Quinton, not even bothering to hide that she was eavesdropping with her magic.

  Lex shot her a nasty look and Scarlett’s sister, Harper, just winked at him.

  “Get over yourself, Lex,” Harper told him calmly. “You knew that Gus was in love with Scarlett.”

  Gus winced and cleared his throat.

  But Harper ignored him and added, “And you knew that Scarlett considers Gus family. It’s a mess. Want to burn something? It always makes me feel better.”

  “There are fire ordinances for Mystic Cove,” Lex said tiredly. “I should give you a ticket.”

  Scarlett took one of his hands in both of hers and tried to infuse her love into her touch. She wasn’t sure she was successful given the way he was just a human stone standing in front of her.

  “Mmm,” Harper mused, “Try it. But…”

  “Harper,” Scarlett snapped, knowing her sister was going to keep pushing. Sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.

  Harper grinned nastily and said, “I mean…the good news is all the fighting y’all have been doing lately is maybe just the hex bag. Won’t that be fun to discover? Was it a curse? Or are you guys just cursed? Too opinionated and stubborn to survive.”

  “Lovely, Harper,” Scarlett said.

  She closed her eyes wishing that Harper hadn’t just voiced those inmost thoughts to the world. It was Harper though, so of course, she had. It seemed to trigger something in Lex though. He morphed from stone back to man and wrapped his arms around her, setting his chin on top of her head.

  “I hadn’t considered that,” Lex said just to her. He took her face between his hands and he said, “I don’t want to fight with you.”

  Scarlett could feel the gaze of her entire family on them. But Lex either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He kissed her fiercely and said, “I love you, Scarlett Oaken.”

  Her eyes misted up a little bit and then she looked over his shoulder to where Harper was grinning and Scarlett gasped.

  “Harper Oaken,” Scarlett choked out and then she couldn’t speak for the laughter. She dropped her face into Lex’s chest and let him hold her up while she trembled with the force of her laughter.

  No one said anything while Scarlett struggled to regain her control. Her aunt and cousins were talking with each other. Gus was holding Mom’s hand. Gram and Henna were rearranging the table to Gram’s satisfaction. And Harper was staring at Scarlett. It was Scarlett who grinned wickedly at her sister this time.

  “Did you wan
t to let the rest of the class in on the secret?” Lex asked.

  Scarlett placed her hand against his cheek and pushed up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. She pulled back in time to catch his expression as he absorbed what he said, and then his gaze turned to Harper, his lips pressed together to hold back laughter.

  “What?” Harper rolled her eyes, snuggling into Quinton.

  “Nothing,” Scarlett said, covering Lex’s mouth. This wasn’t a revelation they’d make for Harper just because the druidic knowing whispered to Scarlett.

  “Nothing?” Harper gaze narrowed.

  Scarlett didn’t let her sister intimate her. Scarlett was the big sister. Besides…she wasn’t going to ruin the surprise. “Nothing.”

  Harper rose threateningly, but Scarlett ignored her sister.

  “Wow, that felt good.”

  “Can we eat?” Ella demanded from the doorway to her bedroom. “I’m starving.”

  “I’m not eating that,” Luna said immediately. “I don’t eat any kind of animal. If I can speak to it, no way!”

  “Can you speak to scallops, shrimp, crab, and halibut? Because I don’t think you can,” Scarlett said.

  “I’m not eating it,” Luna said fiercely.

  “I don’t care if you do,” Scarlett admitted, “But you can’t talk to scallops, little faker. There’s soup without seafood for you, luv.”

  Luna’s eyes narrowed, but she grinned and said, “Gus can have mine. He’s super hungry. He’s trying to hide it, but his tummy is growling so hard.”

  “Gus,” Scarlett scolded, “Just say something.”

  She got him a bowl of soup while everyone else lined up. The seafood chowder was accompanied by appetizers, salads, several kinds of breads and cheeses, and everyone but Gram dug into the food.

  Scarlett crossed to Gram and asked, “Are you ok, Gram?”

  “Mmm,” she said. She rocked in the rocker, and her gaze was still fixated on Gus.

  “You’re making me uncomfortable for Gus, Gram,” Scarlett said, carefully. Gram was a sourpuss. She was wonderful, and she was a little bit nasty. It was Gram’s special flavor. She wouldn’t make you cookies and she’d never knit you a sweater or any of that stereotypical grandmother stuff, but you still never doubted she loved you.