by M. L. Briers
“Oh.” Karen liked the idea of that. Who said no to cake?
“No time, got to go,” Lulu said, and saw the look of disappointment on Karen’s face.
Piper didn’t think it was just the cake that Karen was reluctant to walk away from. The way she was looking at the vampire was slightly unnerving considering she was oblivious to what his true nature was.
“Do you see what I see?” Piper asked as she leaned in toward Lulu so that Karen couldn’t overhear her, and gave her a little nudge in the ribs.
“Santa?” Lulu tossed back.
“Don’t be annoying,” Piper hissed and jabbed her elbow a little harder into her friend’s ribs.
Lulu rolled her eyes at the flash of pain her friend had delivered, and it was only lessened by the fact that Piper was wearing padding over her arms in the form of her jacket. She was tempted to zap her in retaliation.
“Fine. Take away my only reason for living,” Lulu tossed back with a big dollop of sarcasm in her tone.
“Seriously, take another look,” Piper hissed and gave a small nod of her head towards the vampire.
“He’s a — vampire?”
“Look harder,” Piper hissed again. She really didn’t want to have to spell it out for her friend, as there were at least four people in the room with exceptional hearing.
“Nope, can’t say I do. Want to give me a hint?”
“Not really,” Piper sighed.
“Then I can’t help you,” Lulu said. Which was a shame because they were usually on the same wavelength about most things.
Lulu didn’t have much of an idea what her friend was talking about. He was a vampire — pure and simple — what more was she supposed to see? Fangs?
“Think big picture,” Piper offered back.
“I think she means a mate,” Carson leaned in and whispered against Lulu’s ear. His hot breath sent a shiver through her body, and that distraction felt good, but a moment later, his words registered on her brain, and Lulu’s mouth ran away from her before her brain was in gear.
“Mate!” She shrieked. Four men grimaced at the shrew-like sound of her voice.
“Yep, that would be it,” Piper muttered, grimacing at her friend’s lack of decorum.
“That’s not…” Lulu turned to look at Piper, her mouth had fallen open slightly in shock, but when she snapped her gaze back toward the vampire; she snapped her jaws closed and swallowed hard.
Slade gave her a long hard look as she narrowed her eyes on him. He slowly pulled his lips back into a wide, teasing smile that told her everything that she needed to know, and confirmed her fears.
“Holy mother of everything that deserves never to happen to a normal person,” Lulu bit out.
“Mate?” Den growled, but he caught himself and snapped off the growl as Karen’s eyes darted toward him.
“Say what?” Karen asked. “Mate?”
“That’s nothing for you to worry about,” Lulu assured her with an absent wave of her hand, but she wasn’t thinking about escaping anymore, they had much bigger problems. She walked straight over to Karen, put her hands on her upper arms, and started to steer her toward the doorway of the kitchen. “Yet.”
“Yet?” Karen said, not sure she liked the sound of that, and she looked around her as if she didn’t know where she was. Something was amiss, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “What’s going on, are we leaving?” She asked, confused by … everything.
“Not exactly — yet,” Lulu bit back.
She turned to look at Piper over her shoulder and beckoned her to follow with a nod of her head. Then she manhandled Karen towards the inner doorway.
“You — stay,” Piper said as she pointed her index finger at the vampire and motioned for him to sit back down with a small sneer and some muttered curse words.
“Oh, I can assure you, I’m not going anywhere,” Slade said as his eyes flicked toward the kitchen doorway and the sight of his mate disappearing with the witch into the hallway. “But then, neither is she.”
“She’s human,” Piper hissed back on a low whisper so that Karen didn’t overhear her.
“Awkward — but not undoable — with your help,” Slade offered back.
“You’re…” Piper bit down on half a dozen curse words that pinged into her mind. “Just you stayed there.” She warned him before taking off after her friends.
Her mind reeling from the recent turn of events, and she’d thought that they’d needed to be worried about the damn shifters.
How wrong could one witch be?
“A human mate?” The alpha rolled that thought around his mind for a long moment.
“Awkward doesn’t quite cut it,” Carson chuckled.
“What can I say? Finally a challenge after all these years that’s worthy of me,” Slade offered back with a smirk.
“Sometimes, you’ve just got to feel sorry for humans,” Nick grumbled.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“I thought we weren’t leaving,” Karen said as she was steered down the hallway. When Lulu looked back over her shoulder to make sure that it was only Piper following them, she almost steered Karen right into a wall. “Hey, watch it.”
“It’s just a nose, luckily there’s plastic surgery for those kinds of mishaps,” she offered back, somewhat distracted by the thought of Karen as a mate to a vampire, and not to mention Piper tapping away on her mobile phone.
Lulu didn’t know where they were going, but she needed a moment or two to think. Everything had happened so damn suddenly that her brain felt as if it was on spin cycle, and that wasn’t good for any of them.
They’d turned up to rescue Karen from wolves, but there was a much meaner predator out there to worry about, and she was his mate. Damn, that was wrong on so many levels that Lulu cursed fate.
“Well I like my nose, I don’t want a fake one,” Karen tossed back over her shoulder and then screeched in surprise as Lulu spun her sideways into a darkened room. “Can you not?”
“Right now, I’m not sure, so I’ll get back to you on that one,” Lulu bit out. “Lights!” she snapped, putting a little magic behind it and illuminating the room like it was fairyland when the overhead light clicked on at the same time as four wall lights, four lamps, and tiny little halogen runners along every bookshelf.
“Overkill,” Karen berated her, blinking a few times to get used to the brightness. It could have been a sunny day.
“I’m … distracted,” Lulu hissed back, using her magic to turn off each individual lamp one at a time.
“Careful, you don’t want to let them into your little – you know – witchy secret,” Karen whispered, grimacing inwardly as a pang of guilt for giving the game away already went through her.
“That’s the least of our worries,” Lulu bit back.
“They already know,” Piper said, sweeping into the room and pocketing her phone.
“How could they know?” Karen asked as guilt glared once more. “And why aren’t they freaking out?” She was curious about that. Nick had laughed at the thought of witches, but still, he’d seemed awfully curious about them at the same time.
“Sit!” Piper said, pointing to the straight back chair by the large fireplace, and causing her friend to worry. That worry was written across her brow.
“Why, what are you about to tell me that I don’t think I want to hear?” Karen asked, but Piper already had her hands on her shoulders and was walking her backward towards the chair.
“Okay,” Piper started as she nudged her friend hard enough for her to fall back onto the seat of the chair with a small thump to her pride. “Remember when we told you our little secret?”
“Do I?” Karen snorting a chuckle as she looked from Piper to Lulu, but she didn’t like the expression on Lulu’s face any more than she’d like the one on Piper’s, so she cut off that chuckle and turned her attention back to Piper once more. “Okay-okay, it was me.” She held up her hands in surrender, looking decidedly sheepish and apolo
getic all in one.
“You?” Piper was lost.
“I didn’t mean to do it, but that mean muscled one was laughing and I really wanted to just knee him in the b… anyway, I told him, about you being witches, I’m sorry-sorry,” she offered to Lulu as well, “but, he didn’t believe me – at least, I didn’t think he did.”
“That’s not the problem,” Piper said, looking both strained and dismayed all at the same time.
“It’s not?” Karen was lost.
“Nope.”
“Well, phew,” Karen said, relieved that they weren’t mad at her. “Then what is?”
“Remember when you didn’t initially believe us?”
“Yes.”
“And remember we had to prove it to you?”
“I remember you freaked me out…”
“Okay, good, let’s not go with the freaking out about anything at all this time.”
“See, that’s freaking me out,” Karen said was a small shake of her head. She didn’t like where this conversation was going, by telling her not to freak out they were sending her mind spinning to the worst case scenario.
“I think the idea is not to be freaked out,” Lulu chimed in.
“Then stop freaking me out,” Karen said with a hiss of frustration in her voice.
“We need you to have an open mind,” Piper said.
“I embrace everything,” Karen said with an affirmative nod.
“Vampires,” Piper said, and Lulu elbowed her in the ribs. Piper folded in on herself from the pain of the blow.
“Say what?” Karen blinked several times as she turned her head slightly to one side and offered her friend a curious look.
“Watch the ribs!” Piper bit out, scrubbing at her side with her hand to ease the sting there.
“Well, there’s subtle, and there’s let’s drop a chimney on someone’s head and see what happens,” Lulu tossed back.
“Hello, Lulu…?” Karen said, waving her hand and trying to distract her friends from their bickering because once they got going, then it could last for a while and she wanted to get back to the vampire thing.
“Well, how would you like me to tell her?” Piper snapped back.
“Not with a bulldozer,” Lulu berated her.
“Still sitting here waiting,” Karen said.
“Well, then why don’t you do it?” Piper hissed.
“Well, would one of you do it?” Karen’s snapped out as she pushed up to her feet, talk about freaking out – vampires!
Piper’s hand shot out, and she pushed Karen back down into her seat again.
“All I’m saying is to be gentle,” Lulu said.
“Like there’s time,” Piper snapped back. “Unless you didn’t notice, King sucks-a-lot is right down the hall.” She lifted her hand and motioned towards the door.
“Vampires?” Karen shrieked and snapped them to attention.
They turned to look at her. Piper lifted her hand, poked out her index finger, and tapped her fingernail against her incisors. Karen yanked her head back on her neck to stare up at Piper as if she’d gone insane right there in front of her eyes.
“Oh, subtle,” Lulu hissed at Piper.
“Vampires?” Karen said again, blinking twice as her brain tried to digest the information.
“Actually — one vampire,” Piper offered back as she folded her arms under her breasts and turned a smug smile on Lulu. “See — she’s handling it fine.”
“Wait for it,” Lulu snapped back.
Just as Lulu predicted, Karen let out a small shriek as she pushed up to her feet and started for the door.
“Told you,” Lulu said in a singsong voice.
“You jinx that,” Piper snapped back.
“Vampires my backside,” Karen muttered to herself, but just before she got to the door, Piper used her magic to slam it shut in front of her.
Karen ground to a halt. Her head moved like she was following the flight of a bee as she eyed the door from top to bottom, side to side, not quite understanding what had happened. Then her backside kicked her brain into gear, and she spun back around toward the witches.
“You did that!” Karen snapped out in an accusing tone.
“Yep,” Piper said, there was little use in denying it because Lulu was already pointing an accusing finger at her.
“Let me out, I’m leaving,” Karen hissed back.
“Unfortunately…” Piper started, but Karen shook her head and waved her hand in front of her.
“No, unfortunately — no buts — no ifs or ands — and don’t even get me started on actually,” Karen ground out, holding her hands up and waving them in front of her.
“However,” Lulu said holding up her index finger, and when Karen didn’t immediately answer; she thought she’d made her point. “We have a slight problem.”
“You’re witches — make it go away,” Karen snapped back.
“Unfortunately…” Piper started again, but Karen snapped a look at her that warned her not to go there.
“I don’t want to hear the bad news,” Karen rushed out.
“The good news is the vampire is not looking for blood,” Piper offered back with a smirk.
“The good news is you are perfectly safe,” Lulu said, as she turned to look at Piper and they both nodded their heads.
“The good news is you didn’t freak out…” Piper said.
“Much,” Lulu chimed in.
“Much,” Piper agreed.
“Fine,” Karen tossed up her hands in dismay. “That’s fine, so then let’s go. Now.”
“We can’t, and we can’t tell you why we can’t because you don’t want to hear the bad news,” Lulu offered.
“Fine, tell me the bad news,” Karen said tossing up a hand again and huffing.
“Well…” Piper started, but Karen lifted her hand to stop her.
“Wait,” Karen stomped back across the room to the chair, turned, and dropped her backside into it.
If she was going to get bad news then she wanted to be sitting down for it. After all, what could be worse news than finding out that there was a damn vampire outside the door?
“Comfy?” Lulu asked with an air of amusement, but the death glare that Karen gave her made her clear her throat and offer her a small, apologetic look.
“Fine — now tell me,” Karen said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“It’s just a little problem,” Lulu said holding up a finger and thumb and motioning for the tiniest of amounts.
“Teensy problem,” Piper agreed.
“Can you just get to it before I freak out?” Karen said biting down on each and every word.
“Again?” Lulu shrugged.
“Getting freaky nervous here,” Karen grumbled.
“Vampires have mates,” Piper offered, she even motioned with her hand, raised her eyebrows, and tried to look as if it wasn’t a big deal. Then she turned her gaze on Lulu and urged her on.
“Yes they do,” Lulu said, and elbowed Piper a little more gently that time as she passes the bad news bucket right back to her friend.
“Thanks for your help,” Piper hissed back. “Unfortunately…”
“Not that word,” Karen grumbled.
“Thankfully, the vampire has found his mate,” Piper shrugged her shoulders right up to her ears, and then let them drop. She had a big smile on her face, but that smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Karen knew something was wrong. It was as obvious as the nose on her face, the same nose that Lulu had tried to splat against a wall.
“Nope,” Karen said, pushing back up to her feet, and waving it all away with her hand. She even shook her head.
“Nope?” Lulu asked, as she flicked a worried look at Piper and her friend shrugged back.
“That’s it — going home — I don’t care about vampires — magic — or anything — next you’ll be telling me there are werewolves,” Karen said as she stomped back over to the door, wrapped a hand around the handle,
and yanked.
Nothing — it didn’t move an inch.
Karen’s shoulders lifted as she took a long calming breath in, and then they dropped like a rock as she sighed it back out again.
“Actually,” Piper said, and got another jab from Lulu’s elbow as she turned fast and hissed at her friend. “Stop doing that…”
“Then nix on the infomercial,” Lulu hissed back.
“Werewolves?” Karen sighed as if she was just resigned to hearing everything that she didn’t want to know about.
“Well…” Piper grimaced as Karen turned on her heels, stomped back to the chair and collapsed down onto it.
“But the good news is…” Lulu said.
“Shove it,” Karen bit out.
~
~
“What are they saying?” Carson asked, leaning in over the vampire’s right shoulder as all three men stood in the hallway by the closed door.
Nick stood further back by the entrance to the kitchen. His arms were folded, and his shoulder was propping up the wall as he watched the idiots in action.
“Probably deciding which one of you soft touches to kill first,” he grumbled and got shushed by the beta for his troubles.
“What did she say?” The alpha scowled at the closed door like he could see them perfectly clearly through it.
“Something about dumb alpha’s, I think,” Slade lied, and got a warning growl in return. “Don’t shot the messenger, and don’t ask if you’re touchy about hearing the truth.”
Den opened his mouth to speak but bit it off in favor of another warning growl when the vampire’s snide words sunk in.
“He got you there,” Carson chuckled, but he bit off his amusement when Den offered him a murderous look.
“Those witches have got you all running around chasing your damn tails,” Nick grunted in disgust.
“I think not,” Slade tossed back over his shoulder.
“Then why are you all acting so damn weird?”
“I’m keeping an ear out for my mate – I have no idea what Scooby and Shaggy are doing,” Slade eyed the alpha when he rumbled another growl of annoyance in his direction.