“You and so many others.”
Shaking his head, he went back to his call. “What’s up, Momma?”
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“It wasn’t me,” he responded automatically. Just like he’d been doing for the last twenty-five years. “It was Kyle. He’s evil, you know? He’s a cat.”
“What are you going on about?”
“I’m pawning the blame off on my idiot brother. That’s what I do.” Tully grinned at the cat who was glaring at him while the cute little witch sat in his lap.
“You just leave your brother alone, Tully Smith,” she laughed. “And nothing is wrong. But I did want to talk to you before I talk to your daddy.”
“Talk to me about what?”
“The call I got a little while ago. From your father.”
All the humor flooded out of him and he asked, “What did he want?”
“Now, pup, before you go gettin’ all upset, let me say he was ever so nice.” Tully knew it for fact. Knew his momma was the nicest woman on the planet. It was the Southern belle in her. The charming sweetness of her made more than one predatory female wonder how Millie MacClancy managed to live in a house with Tully, Kyle, and Jack without killing any of them. But that was her way and, on most, her innate kindness brought out the kindness in others. Even Jack Treharne. But Jack had proved himself to Tully a hundred times over. Buck had not. And Tully didn’t want that old bastard hanging around his momma until he did.
“I’m sure he was, Momma, but I still want to know why he was calling you at all.”
“He wants dinner.” Tully didn’t know he was snarling until he realized the witches at the table were all staring at him. Mac and Emma looked ready to bolt. Jamie just smirked. “Now calm down,” his mother went on. “He wants dinner with all of us. You, me, Jack, Kyle, Katie, Buck’s boys and Wanda.”
“Momma, I’ve got a lot going on right now. The Mayor’s Spring Dance is taking up a lot of my time and—”
“Tully, I know you don’t want to do this. I know and understand that. Really I do. But…I just…I just want…”
Hearing her struggle for words, Tully felt his heart break a little. “You don’t want it to seem like you tried to get between us.”
She let out a grateful breath. “Yes. Exactly. I understand if you don’t want to get too close to Buck. And in the end that’s going to be your decision. But one dinner to make sure that’s what you want…?”
Anyone else he’d turn them down flat. Anyone else, he’d laugh at them and tell them to go chase their tail. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was his momma. The woman who’d done everything to protect him. She loved him unconditionally and for that she deserved whatever she wanted. Especially when she rarely asked for anything except that high-powered vacuum for last Christmas and a half a pound of chocolates for Valentine’s Day because, to quote her, “I can’t eat a whole pound of chocolates! I have to watch my girlish figure.”
Yeah. For Millie MacClancy Treharne, she deserved whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. “Of course, Momma. It’s just a little thing,” he said, using one of her favorite phrases. “I’ll definitely go have dinner with Buck. And so will Kyle and Katie. They can’t wait.”
His siblings glared at him from across the table and he smiled and winked.
He heard his mother let out a soft, relieved sigh. “Thank you, pup.”
“Anything for you, Momma. You know that.”
“And I appreciate that. But now I gotta get your daddy to agree.”
“You’re on your own with that, darlin’.”
“When it comes to Jack Treharne, I usually am.”
They said their good-byes and Tully disconnected the call. He carefully returned his phone to his back pocket, moved his beer and the bowl of chips out of his way, and then slammed his head onto the table.
The pain helped but not as much as he wanted it to.
Jamie put her arm around Tully’s shoulders as she wondered how the wood table had survived being attacked by such a remarkably hard head. “Buck up, little—” Tully turned his head so he could glare at her. “Okay. Wrong word to use. How about ‘chin up’?”
“Or I can kill him while he sleeps and avoid this dinner all together.”
“You should have told Momma no,” Katie chastised.
“Can you tell Momma no?” Kyle asked.
She crossed her eyes and grudgingly admitted, “No.”
“You should have the dinner at the hotel restaurant.” Jamie suggested.
“Why?” Kyle asked.
“If you guys meet Buck at the hotel he’s already staying at, you can leave whenever you want. If it’s going well, you can stay and enjoy Mac’s tolerable food.”
“Tolerable?” Mac snapped.
“If it’s going really well, you can enjoy my superb desserts.”
“I hate you more and more every day,” Mac muttered.
“But if it goes badly, you’re not stranding Buck anywhere. He and his sons are already there. You don’t have to worry about who’s carpooling with who or who needs directions back to the highway, yada yada. You wanna go, you go.”
Tully sat up, his pained expression gone. “You know…that’s a really good idea.”
She sipped her drink before admitting, “What can I say? I’ve had years of practice getting out of bad family dinners.”
Tully walked Jamie and Mac home, swinging by Mac’s place first and then heading into the woods toward the coast. Less than a mile from her house, Jamie stopped. When Tully faced her, she smiled and for some crazy reason, he thought she was about to kiss him. And he really wanted her to. He wanted her to kiss him so bad, he could actually taste her on his lips.
But instead she said, “Thanks for walking me.”
“I can take you all the way home.”
“That’s okay.”
He stepped in closer. “You afraid to take me to your house, Jamie? Afraid I won’t leave until morning?”
“The way this town works?” she laughed. “I know you won’t leave.
“Wow. You are cocky.”
“Not cocky. I just know how it works in Shifterville, USA. One night leads into another and into another until one day I look up and all your shit will be in my house and you’ll be wondering where your breakfast is.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I have seen this dance played out again and again for the last ten months I’ve been here, with couples who I wouldn’t in a million years imagine together. Sorry, handsome, but that won’t be me. I’ve done my time, paid my dues…” She patted his shoulder. “But thanks for thinking of me.”
She stepped away from him and was several feet away when she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. “And don’t follow me to make sure I get home. That’s just creepy.”
He hated that she knew him so well.
Before walking the last stretch that led to her house, Jamie waited. She wanted to make sure Tully hadn’t followed her. She knew he’d do it just to protect her and while she appreciated it, she simply didn’t want to deal with the fallout from something like that. And the gods knew there’d be all sorts of fall out.
Confident the wolf had headed on home, Jamie took a breath and raised her hands. She held them palms up, her fingers spread out. She began to chant as she slowly moved the last bit to her home. By the time she was fifty or sixty feet away, they all turned toward her. The power she’d raised between her palms flashed hot and bright and she unleashed it. It flew from her and ripped around the perimeter of her house. When it was done, all was quiet but she knew they’d be back. Knew she’d get no rest tonight, as she’d gotten very little rest in the last few weeks.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, she walked into her house. Rico greeted her at the door, the gyrfalcon back to her old self.
“Hi, honey. I’m home.”
The bird squawked at her and Jamie turned in time to see that the spell she’d used—one of her most powerful—had only worked long eno
ugh to get her from the road to her house. What she’d sent away had not only returned, but there were more of them now.
One ran at her, charging up the porch stairs. Jamie stepped inside and slammed the door, sealing it shut with a word. But they were banging at the walls now. At the doors and windows. They wanted in, and they wouldn’t stop until they got in.
Swallowing down a bolt of panic, Jamie backed into her house and looked around. She was still safe inside although with all that racket, she’d never get any sleep. But if she couldn’t sleep, she could research. She went to the bookshelf where she kept her Grimoire and spell books. She pulled off her jacket while her gaze moved through the titles. One book stuck out from the rest but she ignored it. She knew what it would tell her to do to stop the onslaught happening outside her house. It would work too. It would stop all this once and for all.
But she’d made a promise to her cousin. Hell, she’d made a promise to herself. She wouldn’t break that promise now.
Still desperate, though, she grabbed other books, a handful of them and went into her living room. She turned her TV on loud and went to work, doing all she could to block out what was happening right outside her house.
Chapter Nine
For the next two days, Tully spent a bit of time between his Momma’s house and the hotel. He couldn’t believe he was spending more time arranging this stupid dinner rather than the Mayor’s Spring Dance that was coming up.
If nothing else, he got to spend a lot more time with Jamie. Unfortunately, it made him realize he’d been right. She was hiding something. And whatever she was hiding was exhausting her. That great sense of humor and natural sex appeal that drove him to distraction on most days was practically gone. Their discussions about the dinner were straightforward and businesslike, but nothing about Jamie was straightforward and businesslike. That’s why they always got along—because he was the same way.
Even when he’d teasingly mentioned her being his date for the dance—whether he was joking or not, he still didn’t know—Jamie didn’t react in any of the ways he’d expected. Instead of completely blowing him off or, even better, teasing him right back, which was what she’d normally do, she—in a very businesslike way—politely said “No, thank you.”
No, thank you? Who was this boring woman? Not the tart-tongue viper he’d found himself fantasizing about on more than one occasion, that was for sure. And he wanted his viper back. Now! He had enough going on with his father that the last thing he needed was Jamie acting like she’d been invaded by pod people.
He stopped in the middle of the dirt road that would lead him back to his house. Normally he’d go home, shift, and call his Pack to him for a hunt. But no. He needed to go see Jamie. He looked up at the sky. The sun was still up, so he’d wait until it was dark. No use in pissing her off unnecessarily since that was absolutely no fun.
Jamie used her own blood to reinforce the protections around her home. After that, she moved the furniture in her living room against the wall and set up a sacred space on the hardwood floor. Another reason she’d picked this house—the ginormous living room floor. Perfect for this sort of thing.
The circle made with sea salt took up most of the floor and a giant pentacle drawn inside that made up what she liked to call her “safe zone.” She left a small window in the bathroom open so that Rico could get in and out if she wanted to or, if things went horribly wrong, really needed to. After building a fire in the fireplace, Jamie ate a protein-and-carb-rich meal, took a shower, and slipped her favorite NY Islanders hockey jersey on over her naked body. By the time she sat in the middle of the pentacle, the sun was going down.
Wiping her mind clean and focusing on the energy and power within her body, Jamie called on the forces that could protect her. She felt those forces coming toward her, moving from the land, sea, air, and fire in and of this place. She would not call to those powers that could not be contained.
But as those she called neared and the darkness settled in, powerful energies rushed her home, sending those protective forces dashing off and leaving Jamie to once again fight for herself.
The front door was thrown open and without moving from her place on the floor, Jamie slammed it shut again. She felt hands touching her and she swung her arms out, a short but powerful spell on her lips. The energy around her dissipated but the banging started again. Powerful, tortuous banging against the walls, windows, and doors. She covered her ears, trying to block the sounds out, and the front door was thrown open again. She swung it closed by swiping her middle and forefinger through the air.
Then the banging began again.
It had only just begun, but she was already wondering how much more she could take.
Tully knew as soon as he arrived at Jamie’s territory. Like any good predator, her markings were clear and concise, even if they were magickal rather than something excreted from her glands. But as soon as he stepped onto her property, he knew something was wrong. When he could see her house, he stopped for a moment and stared. Then he trotted closer. There was a long single line of them, mostly male, a few female. He moved in closer to the one at the very end. He sniffed him. He could smell the energy. A little like live electricity. The man looked down at him.
“Piss off,” he snipped. “Shoo.”
Shoo?
On a whim, Tully tried to bite him. His jaws went straight through the man’s leg, the edges looking gauzy and luminous before closing up again. The man laughed. “Dumb dog.”
Snarling at the insult, Tully walked straight through the line toward Jamie’s house. As he did, the entities yelled at him and tried to swat him, and although he caused some discomfort from what he could tell, they couldn’t touch him. Even though they tried. As he made it to the front of the line, he saw a man shove Jamie’s front door open, ethereal muscles bulging as he cried out like he’d just done a dead lift of a thousand-pound weight. But as soon as the door swung open, it slammed closed again, sending the man flipping back until he hit a tree and vanished in a blast of sparks.
Yep. That was definitely an interesting sight. Kind of made the whole flying-hyenas thing a little less…shocking.
Another man headed up the stairs but Tully walked right through him—earning a snarled, “Flea-riddled bastard!”—and up to the porch. He pawed at the door a few times, nudged it with his nose, until he finally wrapped his mouth around the knob and turned while walking forward. The door wasn’t locked and opened easily for him. He wandered inside and when he saw a female trying to run in behind him, he kicked the door closed with his back legs.
Once inside, Tully walked into the living room. There was a large circle on the floor and inside that a large star. He sat outside the circle and studied Jamie closely. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the star, her head down, her face drawn and tired. How long, exactly, was she expected to fight those outside? All night? He wasn’t sure she’d last another five minutes, much less the rest of the night.
Lifting his paw, he carefully pressed at the energy surrounding Jamie. He couldn’t see the energy, but he knew it was there. Could feel it. His paw, however, easily slipped in while causing no disruption to what she’d created. Satisfied, he walked toward her. He was only a foot or two from her when she looked up, her eyes blinking wide. He tilted his head to the side and she let out a shaky laugh. “That damn earring.”
Tully moved in closer, nuzzled her cheek with his snout, and eased around her. By the time he settled in behind her, he’d shifted back to human.
Powerful legs bracketed her legs, and muscular arms rested against her raised knees. He’d entered her circle and shifted to human. She had no idea why.
He grabbed hold of the chalice she’d brought with her into the circle and held the cup to her lips. “Drink up, beautiful.”
She did. She’d been so busy defending her territory she’d forgotten to keep hydrated.
“Better?”
She nodded. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him.
<
br /> “Why not?”
“Because when they get in here, there won’t be anything you can do, and I don’t want you to see what happens next.”
“You so sure they’ll get in here?”
“What is it? Ten o’clock? Maybe eleven? I can’t last until sunrise at this rate.”
He sighed. Big and heavy. “There has to be something you can do, because I’m not leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not even eight yet, darlin’. So we need to find you some way out of this.”
If Jamie were a crier, she’d cry. With no shame she’d cry. Not even eight? Shit.
“What exactly is going on?” he asked against her ear. “And no more bullshit. Tell me straight.”
Not seeing the point in denying him the entire truth, Jamie thought for a moment, trying to find the best way to describe it to him. “Ever know a guy in high school who got shut down by some girl he liked? You know, he tried to ask her out and she turned him down flat.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“And maybe that guy, because he was so pissed off and wanted to get even, wrote on the boy’s bathroom wall, ‘Jenny gives great head’ and then put her number. And for a week, Jenny’s getting a bunch of calls on her parents’ phone asking for her to meet to have sex?”
Tully frowned. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s kind of the situation I’m in.”
“I’m not sure I understand. You turned someone down?”
“I didn’t turn him down. I merely argued a point with him.”
“With who?”
“Aengus. He’s the Celtic god of love and youth.”
“And you argued a point with a god?”
“Just a little one.”
“Which was?”
“That love is nothing more than a psychotic reaction to really good sex.”
“You argue just to argue, don’t you?”
Jamie shrugged. “Sometimes.”
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