Wicked by Any Other Name

by Linda Wisdom

  Nick straightened up. “Letiticia sent me a message. She said the roads are blocked due to heavy snowfall and she and Krebs can’t get back. They’re going to stay at the resort.”

  “The roads are never blocked for long, although they may not get plowed until morning,” Stasi said.

  He shook his head. “Letiticia senses something unnatural at work there also. As if they’re being kept away from here.” He got up and walked over to the window, pulling aside the café curtains. All they could see was a veil of white. “It looks like a record snowfall.”

  “And early in the season, too.” Stasi looked worried. “We haven’t had so much snow this early for at least fifteen years. Poor Blair will freeze out there.”

  Jazz picked up Stasi’s mug and warmed it up in the microwave.

  “We need to check the lake.”

  “Not until after you eat,” Nick said. “In fact, it would be better if I went than you. Even Irma would be better.”

  “If you think I’m going out in that blizzard, guess again, Nicky,” the ghost argued. “My arthritis has never liked cold weather.”

  “You’re dead!” Jazz groaned. “You haven’t suffered from arthritis since 1956!”

  “I still feel it,” she stiffly informed the witch.

  “Perhaps you don’t feel the cold the way we do, but it can still affect you,” Jazz reminded the vampire.

  “It’s not far, so I’ll be fine.” He sipped his coffee. Even if his diet was iron-rich, he was able to enjoy most liquids with beer, wine, and coffee being his drinks of choice.

  “Then I’m going with you.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Jazz opened her mouth to argue her point when she caught Stasi’s pained expression. She mouthed I’m sorry and returned to her coffee.

  “I’m going to visit The Library tomorrow,” Stasi said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  “I’ll go with you,” Trev told Stasi.

  “I can do this on my own. You have a client to consider.”

  Trev listened to her words—she wasn’t leaving him with any options. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to accompany her.

  Stasi closed her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to forget the past two weeks. The town she loved, her retreat, had been severely damaged. She feared it would never return to the way it used to be.

  ***

  “Whew! I thought we’d never get back!” Blair laughed, stumbling into the kitchen with Jake behind her. Both carried bags that exuded the welcome scents of rich spices and beef. Jake pushed the door against the snowy onslaught. “Jake has a great sense of direction. I was ready to use a ball of light to guide us, but he had no problem.”

  “I’m sure he didn’t.” Trev exchanged a knowing look with the carpenter.

  Blair dropped the bags on the table. “Grady’s gone over to the dark side,” she informed them.

  Jake shifted uncomfortably. “He saw us approaching and told us to go to the back door. He’s afraid he’ll lose business if he serves you.”

  “I wasn’t going to take the food, but Jake disagreed. I never thought Grady was a coward,” Blair muttered. “I think the only reason he even gave us the food was because Jake was with me.”

  “You can’t blame him. He doesn’t want his business to end up like ours.” Stasi picked at her sandwich.

  Suddenly no one had much of an appetite, but they ate because they knew they needed to.

  “I’m going to take a turn around the town. See if I can hear anything.” Jake pulled on his heavy jacket.

  “With this snow I can’t imagine anyone will be out,” Blair said.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “I’ll check the lake now.” Nick helped clean up and balled the bags into a trash bag.

  “I’ll go with you.” Trev grabbed his jacket.

  “Be careful,” Stasi urged, more worried than ever.

  Trev walked over and leaned down, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead where the skin was raw and scabbing from the cut. “I’m always careful,” he whispered.

  Stasi had no idea she had a dreamy look on her face as she watched the wizard and vampire leave.

  “What?” She noticed the expressions on Blair, Jazz, and Jake’s faces.

  “It’s your face, honey,” Irma said. “Go look at it.”

  “She’s right. Take a look.”

  “What? Do I have some kind of rash now?” she laughed, heading down the hall for her bathroom. She always felt soothed when she walked into the room that she had fixed up as a sanctuary with dark rose and cream towels and a tub that invited relaxation. It wasn’t until she stood at the pedestal sink and looked into the mirror that she understood her friends’ surprise.

  While the cut on her cheek was still reddened and scabbing, the one on her forehead was almost completely healed and showed no sign of scarring. She was positive within an hour there would be no sign she had even been injured.

  “How?”

  “When he kissed you.” Blair leaned against the doorjamb. “You didn’t need a healing poultice. All you needed was a kiss from Wizard Charming.”

  “When he comes back, you should have him kiss your cheek,” Jazz suggested. “He acted as if he has no healing powers, but this is proof he does.”

  Blair shook her head. “I bet it has something to do with Cupid’s decree that they’re right for each other.”

  “Love is a crazy thing,” Jazz intoned.

  “Shut up, both of you!” Stasi threw up her hands then was stunned by the sparks that jumped from her fingertips. Both Blair and Jazz hopped backwards. Stasi pushed past them and walked into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

  Blair and Jazz looked as if a sweet puppy had leaped up and gnawed their fingers off.

  “I think it might be a good idea to leave her alone,” Blair muttered, retreating to the family room. “She’s had a hard day.”

  “I agree.” Jazz followed her.

  Irma sat in an easy chair with Sirius lying at her feet and Fluff and Puff now curled up in a corner of the couch.

  “You girls don’t seem to have good luck with men or with what’s going on with your lives,” Irma commented.

  “Says the woman whose husband cheated on her with the town skank and she took it so hard she killed herself in her husband’s beloved car just to get back at him.” Jazz dropped onto the couch near the slippers, who promptly slid down and complained until she pulled off her Uggs so they could cover her feet.

  “A great car you wouldn’t be driving today if I hadn’t.”

  “She’s right, you know.” Blair took a spot on the other end of the couch and curled her legs up under her.

  “No reason to remind her,” Jazz muttered.

  ***

  The bitter cold assaulted the two men as they stood in snow that was rapidly covering their boots.

  The barrier Stasi and Blair had first encountered had lost the crisscrossing lines and now sported a silvery-black sheen that reflected the water, where waves had frozen into place, making the scene before them look like a surrealist painting.

  “Why is this happening now?” Nick asked again, not expecting an answer. “There’ve been Mercury retrogrades and lunar eclipses at the same time before, but there hasn’t been a problem like this.”

  “It really does feel personal. Someone’s targeting Stasi and Blair,” Trev said, walking toward the trees. He placed his hand against a few different tree trunks then walked further down. Nick noticed his direction and followed.

  “Other than your client, you mean. Tell me something, wizard, why did you take on the case? Couldn’t you sense this Carrie didn’t have all her marbles and was on the warpath?”

  “Have you taken on cases involving humans and vampires?” Trev asked him.

  Nick nodded. “On
ly if I feel the human needs protection or would be in danger if they tried it on their own.”

  Trev noticed his expression. “But it hasn’t always gone well,” he guessed.

  “A mortal woman wanted to see her son who’d been turned. I set up a meeting with him in a Were coffee shop that doubles as neutral territory,” Nick said quietly.

  “But she didn’t just want to see him, did she?”

  “No, she felt she was saving him by staking him. Luckily, his sire, who was present, didn’t demand retribution.” Nick idly kicked a stone away. “So once again, why did you deal with a mortal who obviously is missing more than a few gears and has issues with Stasi?”

  “At first glance, the case appeared credible and during her first visit Carrie put on a good face as the wronged one. She laid out a good story that I believed. It wasn’t until I started a deeper investigation into the case that I learned there was more vengeance in her mind than lawful retribution. It was all my fault. I’d just come off a case that required a lot of work and emotional energy. I was exhausted and all I saw was a woman whose marriage was ruined by a spell.” Trev shook his head.

  “You really fucked up there.” Nick suddenly laughed. “Of course, if you hadn’t taken the case, you wouldn’t have met Stasi.”

  Trev’s grin grew wider. “Yeah.”

  “And if you ever hurt her, I will take you apart and scatter you to the Four Winds.” Nick’s tone was so affable he could have been talking about the weather, but there was no denying he’d just made a vow he would keep.

  Trev knew the truth when he heard it. “If I hurt her, I will let you do that and more.” He looked back at the frozen lake and noticed an area in the very center that seemed to bubble up like a lava pool. “Why would someone target the lake? What does it have to do with what’s going on in town?”

  “The lake means a lot to the witches. They come here every month on the first night of the full moon and hold a small ceremony. Jazz says it centers them. Moonstone means sanctuary and they want to keep it that way.”

  “Except this month is giving them a lunar eclipse the first night of the full moon and Mercury retrograde is adding to the insanity.” Trev sighed, turning to walk back toward the building and the stairs that led to what he was quickly considering a piece of his heart.

  “We’re in here!” Jazz shouted from the family room when the kitchen door opened and closed.

  “What did you find?” Blair asked, barely lifting her head from the back of her chair.

  “It’s not getting better. Where’s Stasi?” Trev knew she wasn’t in the room even before he entered.

  “In her room.”

  He nodded and walked away. He tapped lightly on her bedroom door and walked in.

  Stasi was still in her robe and curled up on her bed with a paperback romance novel in her hands. One lamp was on in the corner, lending a soft light to the room.

  Trev stayed in his spot studying her. Her mint green fleece robe wasn’t the least bit sexy, but he reacted as if she wore nothing at all. He mentally cursed his hard-on since he didn’t think this was an appropriate moment to strip her out of the robe and make love to her until they were both breathless. Instead, he stood there enjoying how the color accented her delicate rosy skin and the blond highlights in her hair. She wore it tucked behind her ears, a hint of curl in the ends. For once he didn’t feel as if the red hearts above her head were mocking him. He was seeing them as a sign of what was to be.

  The idea of being with this witch who had a soul for love and romance no longer seemed foreign to him. In fact, he longed to move forward with Stasi, to find out everything he could about her.

  He straightened up when she looked up and stared at him, expressionless. There was no sign of the wound on her forehead. Then he recalled he had kissed her on the forehead, on the damaged site, before he left. He’d used no magick in the kiss, yet somehow it had healed her. For a wizard who had no talent for healing so much as a paper cut, this was something he hadn’t expected. He wondered if that was another sign that they were meant to be together.

  The longer he looked at her, the stronger the emotion washed over him—he wanted nothing more than to have the chance to heal all of her.

  Chapter 15

  “Stop looking at me,” she spoke so softly he almost didn’t hear the words.

  “I can’t help it.”

  She grimaced as she ducked her head. She slipped off her bed and walked over to the bathroom door.

  “Tell the others I’ll be right out. It’s time we took some action.” She closed the door in his face.

  Trev remained in the same spot, grinning when he heard Horace’s plaintive plea.

  “Could someone please take this cover off me?”

  “No.”

  “I promise not to watch you get dressed. You spoil all my fun!”

  His grin widened. “I know the feeling, gargoyle,” he whispered, returning to the family room, where he heard the others talking fast and furious. Nick stood in a corner, his head bent as he spoke into his cell phone.

  “Krebs and Letiticia are still up at the resort. They can’t get anywhere near the town,” Nick announced, closing up his cell phone. “Letiticia said they could only drive so far on the road and the car just stops. They even tried walking and all of a sudden they couldn’t take another step. She said whatever is doing it is targeting mortals and the supernatural alike. People up at the resort are agitated because they can’t get down the road. She said she sensed that same disturbance that she and Krebs had.”

  “Even more spells,” Jazz groaned.

  “Stasi has a plan,” Trev declared.

  Jazz eyed Trev as he settled in a chair. “Tell me something, wizard, why are you helping us? Your client has developed a nasty dislike for Stasi and it’s pretty much spilled over onto the rest of us. She wouldn’t like it if she knew you were here.”

  His usually easygoing nature was gone and something cold and hard replaced it. “I don’t like bullies.”

  “Then we agree on two things.”

  “Two?”

  Jazz nodded. “Stasi and disliking bullies.”

  Trev stilled. He knew his feelings had been growing more jumbled where Stasi was concerned. He was already aware he could no longer blame it on Cupid. Not after the night they’d shared. A night he was hoping to repeat very soon.

  “Why don’t we figure out what’s happening here first, then we can decide what to do with Caustic Carrie,” Blair suggested.

  “We might be able to do something about the situation here once we do some research. The problem is we don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Stasi walked in wearing a pair of navy yoga pants that rested on her hips and a pink t-shirt that stopped short of her navel. Her feet were bare and her broom anklet sparkled when she walked.

  She chose to sit on the arm of Trev’s chair. He rested his hand just above the waistband of her pants, savoring the warmth of her bare skin.

  Jazz buried her face in her hands. “There must be another way.”

  “There’s no better place to look for answers,” Stasi pointed out. “Who’s with me?”

  “Correction, there’s no better place to be humiliated and receive more questions than answers,” the red-haired witch argued. “The last time I had to go there I was directed to the middle of the La Brea Tar Pits. That damn realm was literally in the middle of the pits! Even magick couldn’t easily peel that nasty gunk off my skin. The time before that he sent me to a swamp.”

  “There aren’t any swamps in LA,” Blair said.

  “He found one.” Her lip curled up in a snarl.

  “Maybe if you returned your books on time you wouldn’t be in so much trouble there,” Stasi pointed out. “Fine, then don’t go with us.”

  “Oh, I’m going. Maybe with you asking for the entrance, I’ll see something nicer.”


  “Are you talking about The Library?” Trev asked.

  Stasi nodded. “Jazz and The Librarian,” she pronounced “the” with a long e, “don’t get along.” She ignored Jazz’s mutterings about a smarmy pompous egotistical ass disguised as a lowly librarian.

  Trev grinned. He looked up, missing the warmth of Stasi’s skin when she rose to her feet.

  Jazz and Blair stood up while Nick remained seated. Since vampires weren’t welcome at The Library, he was content to stay behind.

  “I’m going too.” Trev stood up, remaining standing behind Stasi. “Wizards are allowed there,” he reminded her. “I can help you. With more of us there, we could find answers faster.”

  “I could go,” Irma volunteered.

  “The Librarian doesn’t like ghosts any more than he likes vampires,” Nick spoke up. “We’ll sit here and watch the snowfall.”

  “Maybe we can find something good on cable.”

  Stasi looked down at her clothing. “I’d better put on some warmer clothes. I’ll be right back.” True to her word, she returned in less than five minutes now dressed in jeans, a sky-blue wool sweater, and hiking boots. She turned to Nick. “We’ll set the wards to protect the building from intruders, but they’ll allow you and Irma to come and go if you need to.”

  He nodded. “Safe journey. If anyone does try anything I know what to do.” His eyes abruptly glowed a dark reddish black and his fangs extended.

  “This is why I love my bad boy.” Jazz wound a dark red wool scarf around her neck and reached for her coat.

  Stasi, Trev, Blair, and Jazz bundled up and walked out to the corner of the yard behind the building where they couldn’t be seen by anyone on the street. Just to be safe, the witches set up a ward that screened them from view. Stasi knew watching them perform magick would endear them even less to the residents.

  “Your idea. Your request,” Jazz said. “If I ask, we could end up in the middle of a volcano. Although right now, that might not be such a bad idea.” She stamped her feet against the cold ground.

  Stasi closed her eyes and centered herself. She opened them and held her palm up. “I humbly request entrance to the realm that will offer me guidance that I can find nowhere else. We wish to visit The Library.”