by M. L. Briers
LEY COVE
THE GHOST’S TOUCH
BY
M. L. BRIERS
Copyright © 2016, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2016, Shardel
Table of Contents
LEY COVE
THE GHOST’S TOUCH
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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CHAPTER ONE
~
If it wasn’t bad enough that my sister, Sydney, was staying here in town with Scott, the resident vampire-then my mother’s presence just had to be the icing on the damn cake… Oooo, cake-want it, want it, want it… something gooey with chocolate and cream, maybe some ice cream on the side, and what I wouldn’t give for a nice rare-bloody- steak…
Oh no, not again, damn it to hell fire. Come and claim my bloody mother… Whoa, cravings and mood swings at the same time-couldn’t be anything but a Lycan baby brewing in my rounding stomach.
I couldn’t say that I was one of those women that loved everything about being pregnant-I wasn’t, I didn’t, and if I ever decided to give this pup a sibling at some point in the very, very distant future, maybe-never- I wanted a brand new convertible for my pains… not to mention my damn cravings, and I’m sure that my little bundle of joy is starting to sharpen its claws on my… nope, I’m not even going to think about it.
So, where was I? Oh, yes… my mother. Sydney was one thing because she was all loved up with Scott on their honeymoon period, but mum…? Geez, the woman was as nutty as a fruit cake, and mean with it.
I found myself standing in front of the refrigerator, just staring inside, trying to remember through my baby brain what the heck it was that I wanted, when Hawk’s deep, smooth tone’s at my ear startled me out of my daze…
“Something happening in the refrigerator? Is the milk going to war with the juice again?” I turned fast and caught him on the nose with my hand. He groaned with the pain… Oops.
“That’s what you get for scaring the bejesus out of me.” I wasn’t feeling particularly generous with my sympathy. I found that sympathy wasn’t something I had an infinite supply of at the best of times, and right now it was stretched between the burning of my taut skin at my rapidly expanding waistline, and my other ailments that were too numerous to mention.
“That’s spousal abuse and I could arrest you for that.” Hawk fixed me with a look that said he wanted me to make amends and kiss it better. I, on the other hand, felt the bursting desire to pee for the fourth time since I’d got up this morning.
“Give it your best shot. I will take you down like a wounded gazelle.” I started for the downstairs bathroom, thanking my sainted aunts, who weren’t very saintly, for having the insight to buy this house with a downstairs toilet. It’s not like I could sprint up the damn stairs anymore.
“So what’s with the fridge watching? Is junior hungry again, or has the cheese gone to war with the coleslaw?” He called and I ignored him again. I preferred to pee in solitude.
Hawk was leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his muscled chest looking all manly, all sexy, and all amused with himself by the time I came out.
“Don’t you have work to get to?” I asked.
When I gorged, I liked to do it alone. It was partly out of a sense of shame for the way that I devoured food, hovering it up, and party because other people’s hands were likely to get forked if they dared to cross into my territory, and all food had somehow become my territory.
“I wanted to make sure you were alright.” Hawk looked a cross between amused and defensive.
“Scared I got my expanding ass stuck inside the toilet seat?” I growled and his ears pricked up along with his whole body that snapped to attention.
“Damn, you’re getting good at that.” He gave me one of those grins, and I growled at him again. This time it was a warning to stay back.
“Try it and I might just rip off your penis and eat it with relish.” I eyed him and he eyed me back.
My nose twitched. I hated that it had started to do that. It was like an itch that couldn’t be scratched.
“You’d cook it first thought right?” Hawk had started to back away from me. He knew that being up close and personal might not be the best thing for him right then… when I…
“A-Phooey!” I sneezed good and hard and almost bit down on my own tongue. My magic rushed out of me, uncontrollable, and sent Hawk shooting backwards right onto his backside on the ground. He groaned.
I groaned. This had just started happening and it wasn’t fun… Oh wait, another…
“A-Phooey!” The pictures shot from their moorings on the walls and landed with a clatter on the floor all around us.
“Whoops.” I gave a little shrug of an apology to my mate. He was on his feet in a heartbeat.
“You done, or should I make haste erecting a bomb shelter?” Hawk chuckled at my misfortune.
“Just for that I’m glad you ended up on your backside…”
“Hello in the house.” My mother’s voice echoed off the walls-in my house and in my mind. I grimaced.
“Bomb shelter sounds good, as long as we can keep her out.” I whispered and Hawk grinned at me.
“She’s just trying to help…” Hawk whispered back.
“Raising my blood pressure.” I ground out. The sound of the front door opening made me glare at Hawk. “You left the front door open?” I hissed.
“No…” he got that far before my mother breezed into the room.
“I used my magic to open the door as nobody has given me a key yet…” She announced, flouncing in as only mother could like she owned the place.
“Unlikely that’s going to change.” I shot a look at Hawk and he chuckled.
“What in hell’s bells name happened in here?” She looked around the room.
“I sneezed.” I offered and she frowned.
“Funny.” She snorted her contempt.
“No, really. For some reason when I sneeze my magic goes haywire.” I shrugged. “Perhaps you shouldn’t stay. I just knocked Hawk on his backside…” Or maybe she should. I could use it as an excuse to zap her a few times, speaking of that, where was Sydney? I could really get behind being rat shitty to her today.
“I’m sure Hawk will survive,” mother eyed him, it was a cross between maneater hungry and stay back. I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and counted to two, it was supposed to be ten, but who could get that far when it was my mother?
“Are you here for a reason?” I demanded, bringing my cool gaze back down to her and seeing those e
yes narrow on me like a… Hawk, Ha! Hawk, well that made me chuckle.
“Yes, it’s called being a mother-” she levelled that gaze at me.
“Why start now?” I demanded, heading back into the kitchen for food. Pup-pup had cravings and I liked to feed him so that he didn’t get all antsy, oh wait, maybe that was me.
“I see she’s having one of those days,” my mother’s words and tone stopped me in my tracks and I turned to look at Hawk over my shoulder. It must have been a great look, and I kind of wish I had a mirror to hand so that I could capture it and use it again, because his smile dropped to his boots and he made to leave.
“I’ve got work,” he announced, the pussy. I turned my whole body towards him and lifted my hand, pointing my index finger at him and watched him swallow hard… must have been a really, really great look…
“Pad along then,” mother announced, “I’ve got this.”
Damn, that got my attention and my brain grated a few gears.
“You’ve got what?” I demanded as Hawk shot for the door like he was chasing a delicious rabbit that was getting away. Damn!
“Babysitting you,” mother announced and my eyes snapped from Hawk’s backside, back to mother.
“Babysitting?” I huffed and turned back to my long walk towards the fridge, grumbling and muttering little witchy curses enroute, nothing much, just a case of the poops that would incapacitate her for a week or ten-the trouble was I didn’t put any magic behind it.
“Hawk doesn’t like to leave you alone,” mother announced in that voice that grated against my nerves every bit as much as fingernails down a chalkboard. “He says that you have a habit of getting into trouble.”
I snorted my contempt for that. It wasn’t my fault that the town had gone to hell in a hand basket twice since I’d met him, but all seemed quiet at the moment, which was… boring.
Not that I was bored with Hawk-I wasn’t. No woman could be bored looking at an Adonis with bulging muscles and a nice tight butt… hmmmm, wait, what was I saying? Oh, poop, hormone brain sucks the big weeny.
The sound of the telephone ringing out made me scowl in contemplation of my need for food and my dislike for interference when something got between me and a chicken leg… oooo, chicken… I stomped towards the landline and snatched up the handset.
“What?” I growled, and Hawk was right, I was getting good at that.
“Joss,” Doug growled out in his irate voice and my body actually felt as if it was sinking down to my ankles. I groaned inwardly. “You need to sort this out.”
I snorted my contempt for him, for my mother, for Hawk sending my mother my way, and for the universe that had cursed and blessed me in equal measure in life.
“Not my problem.”
“She’s your sister!” Doug growled back and my heart followed my body to my ankles. What had Sydney done now?
“And yet, I don’t care,” I offered back. I did, but I wasn’t telling anyone that so that they could use it against me like Doug was now.
“Fine, then all bets are off, and if I get snappy with the fangs, that’s not my problem.” He growled and the phone went dead in my hand.
I pulled it back and stared at it-that wasn’t Doug, well it was, but usually there was a lot more whining and growling involved.
I had to grunt in annoyance. Once again, my family was intruding on my life. This time on my snacking time, and that annoyed me so.
I dropped the handset down and turned towards the front door, took a step, and remembered my bag and keys. I turned to snatch them up, and took another step, before I remembered the chicken leg that was practically begging me to eat it. I stomped into the kitchen, feeling like a beached whale, yanked open the refrigerator and was blasted by a hundred and one tasty smells…
My stomach groaned in delight and I followed. I could spend a day just here, eating… but there was life to contend with. Snatching up a chicken leg and starting for the door once more, sure that I’d forgotten something else… something important-like leaving the oven on…
“Where are you going, Joss?” my mother’s voice sounded almost accusing… my mother was here, that’s what I’d forgotten-nothing important at all.
“Out!” I announced.
“I’m coming too,” she sounded bright and breezy, too bright and breezy, that tone always ruined my day.
“Oh good, I’ll drop you on your head somewhere along the way,” I muttered.
~
~
~
“Hey, sis,” Sydney sauntered up towards me; wearing something that she must have sprayed out of a can and onto her body. Lucky cow.
Her hair was stripped with an electric blue in places, and her lips were painted the colour of blood. Fitting for the vampire queen.
“Oh, no, Sydney,” my mother announced before I could even get a word to my lips, “you don’t have to flaunt your loose morals for everyone to see-I’m sure they already know, dear.”
Sydney’s face twisted into that of a woman sucking on the bitterest of lemons, and my mother was just that, bitter and bitchy to boot. Right then, I had to love her for it.
“Don’t you have thumb screws to polish?” Sydney bit back.
“Don’t you have a coffin to crawl back into?” I asked, even knowing that her becoming a vampire mate to her vampire mate was probably out of the question until she started to lose her looks-then all bets were off.
“Wow, if your stomach gets any bigger we could rent it out as a trampoline,” Sydney gave me a look of victory as I hissed in a breath and decided that she’d just topped my hit-list. Yes, I still had one, and it was growing by the day.
“About bloody time!” Doug growled out as he stomped out of his shop and eyed me specifically.
“What’s she done?” I turned my accusing gaze onto Sydney and the woman snapped her head back on her neck and scowled back at me.
“What are you looking at me for?” She looked innocent enough, but this was Sydney and lies to her were like a water tight ass on a duck, it was just a natural state of being.
“I thought when you decided to step into my role and be the town’s supernatural peacemaker, you would have grown up a little.” I offered and my mother snorted.
“You didn’t think that one through,” mother offered.
“It’s not her,” Doug growled, and I rolled my eyes and my head on my neck towards him.
“You said it was my sister, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered dragging my baby bump down here,” I growled again-loving every rumble that went through my chest.
Doug’s head twisted on his neck and his top lip curled as he rumbled a growl back at me. That was when my mother zapped him and he yelped and jumped like a little girl-
“She growled first!” he pointed an accusing finger in my direction.
“Who’s she? The cat’s mother?” My mother demanded in that tone of voice that had Doug shifting his weight on his legs and looking nervous.
“Look,” Doug lifted his hand and found his backbone again. After all, he was the alpha of his clan… then he pointed a finger at mother and I groaned inwardly-they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, well, make that bears too-Doug was never going to learn not to point a finger at a witch.
Mother zapped him again… he yelped, and then growled, I chuckled, and Sydney snorted in amusement. Red faced and glaring at her like only a bear shifter could, my mother raised her eyebrows expectantly in a challenge-the kind that only mother could deliver…
“Just get your sister out of my sight before I do…” his eyes flicked towards my mother.
“Yesssss?” she asked like it was a loaded gun.
“Something not nice,” Doug replied.
“Come on Syd, before the bear blows a gasket,” I rolled my eyes again and started to turn away.
“Not that one,” Doug growled and I froze in place-surely he was having a brain fart-surely he couldn’t mean… “That one.”
CHAPTER TWO
~
I turned back to find Doug poking that thick finger into his shop, and as my eyes pinged to where he pointed-there she was-giving me the sarcastic little wave of her hand, and the kind of smile that grated on my very last nerve and made me want to scream my head off like a Banshee… or maybe not, we’d had one Banshee already and that didn’t go so well… poor King, alpha to the lion pack, and now chasing, but probably never catching, gazelle’s in the after life.
I groaned.
I silently screamed.
I puked a little in my throat…
“Oh… crap, it’s Satan’s minion in the flesh!” Sydney offered my thoughts exactly.
“I’m moving!” my brain snapped into gear and I took off on fast feet in the general direction of… I didn’t know where.
“I see Joss still has a dramatic flair for overreaction,” my sister announced, and not the good sister-not that Sydney was good-she just wasn’t evil personified. I carried on walking and slapped my hands over my ears.
“Someone say something?” I bit out.
I wouldn’t listen.
I certainly didn’t want to witness her, here, in the flesh.
My life was dire enough, what with Sydney living in town with Scott, and mother visiting-never to return home, or it felt that way…
I felt the sharp sting of a zap to my backside and ground to a halt-I seethed-I turned slowly back towards her, because my sense of balance wasn’t what it was before pregnancy, and I glared her the evil eye-which she’d probably invented…
“I’m pregnant!” I growled out, and got a smirk back in return.
“I thought you were just fat again,” she shrugged those evil doer shoulders of hers and I wanted to rip someone’s head off, maybe hers-but she was family, so probably Doug’s…
“Don’t zap a pregnant woman, dear-its poor form for any witch,” my mother offered as if she was discussing cream cakes.
“Behave, Lucy,” Sydney offered, getting into my corner for once.