Luck of the Witch (Crypt Witch Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

by K. E. O'Connor

  “Both,” Frank said. “Oh look, Tempest. A friend of yours.”

  My chest tightened as I saw Axel strolling toward us. He knew all about my unwelcome passenger but had only seen me once when I was not in control of Frank.

  Axel grinned at me. “That’s a new look for you.” He pointed to the oversized fedora Frank had slapped on my head.

  “Hello, handsome,” Frank said to Axel.

  “No, no, no! Don’t you dare mess with Axel.” I slammed against Frank’s energy.

  “Handsome! Someone’s in a good mood.” Axel tilted his head as he looked at the hat I wore. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was Mannie’s hat.”

  “Would you be jealous if I told you he gave it to me? He’s so sweet like that.” Frank practically purred as he spoke.

  “Stop encouraging Axel,” I said to Frank.

  “Erm, well, not really. It’s a bit big.” Axel ran a hand through his hair. “Is everything okay with you?”

  “Everything is just perfect, sugar.”

  “Frank, stop!”

  Axel took a step back. “Are you running a fever, Tempest? You look a bit hot.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, you don’t know the half of it.”

  I groaned. “Please, just let him go.”

  “This one’s for you,” Frank muttered to me as he grabbed hold of Axel and kissed him.

  My mouth collided with Axel’s so hard I tasted blood as my teeth hit his bottom lip. Frank clamped my hands around Axel’s head and held on tight as he forced open Axel’s mouth and went to town on him.

  This was a nightmare. Axel obviously thought so too as he tried to pry himself out of my grip.

  I knew there was no point in trying to struggle, but I still tried.

  Frank finally shoved Axel away and wiped a hand over my mouth. “I’ve had better.” He plopped the fedora on Axel’s head before stalking away.

  “What was that all about?” I gasped. My cheeks felt roasting hot after that kiss and not for the right reason.

  “He’s a half-demon. You owe the guy a break. He’s been flirting with you for months. I’ve had to endure every sleazy move he made in an attempt to draw you in.”

  “How is kissing Axel going to make him less sleazy toward me? He’s going to redouble his efforts after that.” I tasted peppermint and realized I’d transferred Axel’s gum into my mouth during our make-out session. Could this get any worse?

  “The guy deserved a break. But you could be right. I should go back and punch him instead, just so he’s clear where we stand.”

  “No, but spit out his gum and keep going,” I said. “Let’s forget all about the kiss.”

  “I doubt Axel will.” Frank turned and looked back along the lane.

  Axel stood there, his arms by his side and his mouth open.

  Frank gave him a cheery wave. “You’ve just made his day.”

  “You mean, you have. You were the one who wanted to kiss him. Maybe you have a crush on Axel?”

  “That was all for you. You could do worse than a half-demon. And it’s been a while since your sheets have seen any action.”

  “That’s because I shut you down, so you have no clue what goes on under my sheets.” At least, that was what I always tried to do. But maybe I’d not been as successful as I thought if Frank knew when my last romantic relationship was.

  “You should try a full demon. We’re not so bad,” Frank said.

  “You burned down twelve villages.”

  “They were in my way,” Frank said.

  “Of what?”

  “My view.”

  Typical demon. Always putting his own needs first.

  We arrived at Bite Me, and I hunted anxiously through my red tinted vision for signs of Tilly. There was a method to my madness in enticing Frank here. Tilly was a fiery witch and had helped me in the past when I’d struggled with Frank.

  My heart gave a thud of relief as I saw her behind the counter, handing change to a customer.

  Tilly’s smile faded as she saw me walk through the door. Her gaze shifted to the occupied tables. She knew trouble when she saw it. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “I’ll take a dozen of your desserts, flame witch.” I tried to shake my head, but Frank held me in position, so my body froze to the spot.

  Tilly looked down at Wiggles. “You know the rules.” She pointed at the door.

  Wiggles looked up at me and shook his head.

  “It is best the hellhound remains outside. His loyalty might be tested,” Frank said. “I would not like him harmed.”

  “Good idea.” Tilly opened the door. She petted his head. “Everything will be okay.” Wiggles backed out of the door, his eyes full of concern.

  I was grateful they both wanted Wiggles out of the way. He would try to protect me. When he did, Frank would hurt him as punishment. I couldn’t have that happen. He might be a hellhound, but he was still my fur baby.

  “Are you having a party?” Tilly moved cautiously around the counter. She was a tall slim blonde with pale blue eyes that were fixed to me with an unnerving intensity.

  “Yes, a party for one.”

  “You need to be careful with all that sugar.” Tilly gestured to the dessert counter.

  “I can handle a little sugar. I can even handle your sugar.” Frank closed the gap between them.

  Tilly raised her eyebrows. “I’d be too sweet for you.”

  “Frank, stop flirting and eat your damn desserts,” I said.

  He laughed in response. “What do you say, flame witch? Shall we dance?”

  Tilly squared her shoulders, and red sparks of magic flickered across her fingers. “Everybody leave.”

  The half-dozen diners knew not to question Tilly. They grabbed their purses and food and ran for it.

  When the last customer fled, Tilly flexed her fingers. “I’ve done enough dances with demons to know how this will end for you.”

  I found myself bowing in front of Tilly as Frank laughed. “Then this should be entertaining for us both.”

  Tilly raised her fingers, and a fireball appeared in her palm. “Give Tempest control of her body and slither back to whatever prison she keeps you in.”

  “I am impressed you saw through my disguise,” Frank said.

  “I don’t serve demons. You need to leave.”

  Frank grunted, and his hot energy spiked inside me. “I haven’t had my dessert.”

  “Let go of Tempest.” Tilly raised the fireball to eye level, a flicker of indecision in her eyes.

  I wished I could let her know she could do whatever she needed in order to loosen Frank’s grip. I could handle being singed with Tilly’s fireball if it meant Frank disappeared and I got control of my limbs.

  Tilly seemed to understand because she raised the fireball and slammed it directly at my head.

  At the last second, Frank lunged out of the way. I hit the floor and stayed there, feeling the heat of Tilly’s fireball skim past.

  “I don’t want you injured,” Frank said to me. “This lovely body of yours needs to be able to walk around, so I can visit Aurora whenever I desire.”

  “I’d break my own legs to stop you reaching her,” I hissed at him.

  Tilly leaned over me. “I’ll try not to mess you up too badly.”

  “As if you could,” Frank said.

  “She will. Tilly is a bad ass,” I said.

  Frank launched my body upward, and he leaped over the dessert counter in a fluid motion.

  “You stay away from those cakes,” Tilly shouted.

  Frank plunged my hands into a strawberry pavlova and stuffed the sweet gooey mess into my mouth.

  Tilly launched another fireball.

  Frank grabbed a brownie before ducking behind the counter. “Our flame witch has a terrible aim.”

  “She only has a terrible aim because she’s trying not to kill me.”

  “Then she’s a fool.” Frank dragged a tray of chocolate tiffin to the ground and gorged
himself on them.

  “You’re paying for those desserts,” Tilly said.

  “You’ll have to catch me first,” Frank said.

  “My pleasure.”

  An unnerving silence filled the room, occasionally punctuated by Frank’s noisy open-mouthed chewing.

  “Quit it, will you? That’s enough cake.” I focused on stopping Frank grabbing another tray of desserts. Any more cake and I’d be sick for days.

  “You are not in control, and neither is that—” Frank shot to his feet, cakes tumbling around us as he bashed into the trays.

  Tilly held two large white moonstone crystals. Her eyes gleamed with anger. “Are you sure you want to stay?” She edged the crystals closer.

  Frank snarled. “You will harm my carrier if those stones touch.”

  I wanted to tell her to do it. Those crystals drained a witch’s energy. If I was unconscious, so was Frank. He couldn’t influence me when I was asleep or unconscious. The easiest way to knock out a witch was to drain her using moonstone crystals charged in the moonlight in our stone circle.

  “Get back in your cage, demon,” Tilly said.

  “You will not do it. You value this witch too much.” Frank’s heat radiated off me in sulfurous waves.

  Tilly shook her head. “I also value my cakes.” She slammed the crystals together, and I blacked out.

  ***

  “Tempest, are you okay?” Tilly caught hold of my shoulder and rolled me out of the face full of lemon cheesecake I’d landed in.

  I groaned and licked my lips, feeling like I’d gone several rounds with a heavyweight prize fighter. “He’s gone. I’ve got Frank under control.”

  Her gaze was full of concern. “He was strong this time.”

  “The worst for a while.” I blinked up at the ceiling. “I’ve been in Willow Tree Falls too long. It’s my own fault. Frank gets like this when I’m around Aurora.”

  “Then you need to leave,” Tilly said. “I don’t want you to go, but it’s not safe for you or anyone here.”

  I laid flat out on the ground, my stomach churning from all the food Frank had stuffed into me and the smell of burnt sugar filling my nose. “I know, but until Aurora is in the clear, I can’t abandon her. The family is relying on me to clear her name.”

  “It’s a good job my crystals were charged, or I might have no store left and definitely no desserts from the way Frank was stuffing them into you.”

  I wiped cheesecake off my face. “Sorry. I had to come here. I knew you’d sort out Frank.”

  “Of course, any time. Let’s get you up and clean some of this off you.” Tilly looked around at her ruined dessert counter. “It’s going to take me all week to get this place back together.”

  I raised a weak-feeling hand. “I’ll help. You won’t even know you battled a demon in here by the end of the day.”

  Tilly caught hold of my hand and pulled me into a sitting position.

  The movement made my head spin. “Just give me a second.” I slumped down again and passed out next to a destroyed pile of chocolate profiteroles.

  Chapter 18

  I awoke to the taste of sugar in my mouth and a pounding head.

  My gaze shifted around an unfamiliar bedroom as the memory of the fight filtered through my thoughts.

  I groaned and gingerly rubbed my forehead.

  Wiggles’ face appeared over the edge of the bed. “You look terrible.”

  “I feel worse.”

  “You passed out.”

  “I guess I did. Where are we?”

  “In Tilly’s place. She brought you up here to sleep off the after-effects of Frank.”

  I pulled on a strand of my hair and discovered sticky, sour smelling cream in it.

  Wiggles didn’t seem to mind as he tried to lick it clean.

  “Enough of that. I’m going to need a long, hot soak to stop smelling like a gone off dairy farm.”

  “I helped Tilly clean up last night,” Wiggles said. “I’m not hungry for once.”

  I eased myself carefully up on the bed, and my stomach rolled over. “I’m guessing that means you ate a truckload of ruined desserts.”

  “I might have eaten a few. Tilly didn’t mind. She said I was a great help.”

  “Your waistline will mind.” I tried standing, and the room only tilted a little. “How long was I out?”

  “All night.”

  I groaned again. I inched out of the room and made a stop in the washroom. My face was bloated from too much sugar, my eyes were puffy, and my hair stuck up at odd angles from being mashed together with cream and icing.

  I washed off the worst before walking down the stairs into the restaurant. My eyes widened. Apart from an empty cabinet of desserts, you wouldn’t have known a demon and a fire witch had fought with each other last night.

  The smell of strong coffee and sweet muffins drew me toward the kitchen.

  As I pushed the door open, I saw Tilly. She wore a white apron wrapped around her middle and was busy mixing something in a large bowl.

  She looked up at me and smiled. “Who’s in charge this morning?”

  “It’s me. I promise.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Tilly looked down at Wiggles and shook her head. “No dogs in the kitchen. I’ll lose my license if your fur is found in my soufflés.”

  “Some might consider my fur a delicacy.”

  “Not in this restaurant,” Tilly said.

  “You’d better wait outside,” I said to Wiggles.

  He gave a dejected sigh and slumped away.

  “He has nothing to complain about,” Tilly said. “He ate so much last night I thought he would burst.”

  “That pooch has a bottomless pit for a stomach.”

  She filled a mug with coffee and handed it to me. “And he’s now a hellhound. When did that happen?”

  “That’s a story for another time.”

  “I’ll look forward to it. How are you doing?”

  “I feel like I drowned in a vat of sugar. I’m never eating cake again.”

  “I’ve never met a demon with such a sweet tooth,” Tilly said. “The two of you should make good companions, given your love of brownies.”

  “You’d think so. If he wasn’t such a nightmare when it came to Aurora, I might not mind having him around.”

  Tilly shook her head. “You mentioned last night that you needed to leave because he’s getting twitchy with Aurora.”

  I took several sips of my coffee before answering. “I’m not safe around Aurora. The whole family is also at risk. They pretend not to notice how difficult Frank can be, but they must realize how strong he is.”

  “Have you told them that? You get an A star for hiding how you feel most of the time.”

  “We don’t talk about our feelings much,” I said. “It’s how we roll. We get on with what we have to do and protect the world from demons. There’s no point crying every time we fight a bad guy.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t tell your family that it’s a struggle at times. Maybe Aurora will be more cautious around you if you do.”

  I drank more coffee and stared into space. I didn’t want that, not really. I wanted the normal relationship everyone had with their sisters. I wanted her bugging me and hassling me and asking me questions. I didn’t want her to be scared of me.

  Tilly patted my hand. “Families are complicated. How come Frank was in charge last night?”

  I grimaced. “That was sort of my fault. I was looking for evidence of Mannie’s involvement in Deacon’s murder.”

  “Do you think he has something to do with it?”

  “It’s a hunch. He’s not been totally honest. I went to ask him some questions, but he wasn’t home.”

  Tilly arched an eyebrow. “And? There’s more to that story.”

  “I found an open window and decided to take a look around.”

  “You broke into Mannie’s home and that triggered Frank?”

  “Not that.” I told her abou
t the amulets, gorging on Mannie’s food, and ruining his clothes. “Then Frank got talking about going to see Aurora. I had to distract him. I mentioned you and your desserts, and he thought it was a great idea to come over. Frank’s so full of himself. He always thinks he can come in here and take what he wants. He has a selective memory when it comes to the times you’ve beaten him down.”

  “And I’ll keep on beating him down as long as he keeps threatening you and your family.” Tilly jammed her hands on her hips.

  “Thanks. I’m eternally grateful for that.” Tilly had always had my back. “But it was a waste of time going to Mannie’s. I found nothing that connected him to Deacon’s death.”

  “You said he wasn’t telling you the truth. About what?”

  “He lied about the time his meeting ended,” I said. “It was something to do with his campaigning for the mayoral election. He said it ended two hours later than it did. It took place on the night of Deacon’s murder, and he used it as his alibi.”

  Tilly grinned. “You know why that is?”

  “Because he killed Deacon and is trying to cover his tracks?”

  “No, well, I don’t think so. Mannie’s got a mistress.”

  My mouth fell open. “What about his wife?” I was always amazed Mannie was married, but he had a mistress as well. His personality regularly slid to the wrong side of smug to be considered attractive.

  “He uses his campaign meetings as a cover story. He ends his meetings early, so he can have a couple of hours of naughty fun. Mrs. Winter knows nothing about it. If it comes out, Mannie will not be happy.”

  I puffed out a breath. “Which is why he lied to me. Who is he seeing?”

  Tilly grinned. “You are never going to guess.”

  “I’m sure I can’t. Mannie is an acquired taste.”

  “He is also a rich acquired taste. That business of his makes some serious cash.”

  “Put me out of my misery. Who is he seeing?”

  “Star Fairfax.”

  If my jaw could drop any lower, it would. “But she’s young and attractive and full of energy. What does she see in Mannie?”

  “His bulging bank balance,” Tilly said. “He is one wealthy dwarf. He gives his wife all the gifts she demands, spends a ton of money on Star, and still has plenty to go around when it comes to funding his campaign for mayor.”