Crescent Calling

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “He is.”

  Chapter 10

  That night, as Buddy kept me company, I fell asleep to the sound of wind howling through the trees outside. Plagued with dreams of wolves, I tossed and turned until I slipped into a deep slumber.

  When dawn finally broke, I was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and my head was stuffed with cotton wool. I’d slept but not really. A heavy burden was over my heart, and my body had become twisted in the quilt, my feet trapped.

  Ugh, I was all hot and sticky. I kicked, trying to shift the uncomfortable weight and turned over, but it didn’t budge. Lifting my head, my eyes cracked open, sleep still clogging my head. That was when I saw a lump at the end of the bed. A very large, man-shaped lump.

  Now completely awake, I screamed, scrambling up the bed. It was Boone. A very naked Boone.

  He started, his head shooting up, and when he saw me, he rolled and fell off the end of the bed, hitting the floor with a thud. Scrambling to his feet, his face turned a deep shade of crimson.

  “Oh, shit,” he cursed, covering his junk with his hands. “Oh, cac.”

  “Cac?” I yelled. “I’ll give you bloody Irish cac!”

  Grabbing the lamp on the bedside table, I pushed up onto my knees and swung it with all my might. The plug popped out of the wall, and the shade barely missed Boone’s face, but the cord came around and whipped him directly on his bare ass.

  He howled in pain and retreated across the room.

  “Pervert!” I shrieked.

  “Let me explain,” he said, holding up his hands and leaving nothing to the imagination.

  “Explain? What’s there to explain?” I shouted, trying not to look at his you-know-what. “You were asleep on the end of my bed…naked!” I swung the lamp at him again, barely missing his head. “You’re still standing there. I can see your meat and two veg!”

  “Oh, cac,” he said again. “I didn’t mean for you to find out this way…”

  “Find out what? That you’re a pervert, who sneaks into women’s homes butt naked?”

  “Yesterday… That was me!” he exclaimed, covering himself with a cushion.

  The lamp almost fell from my grasp.

  He shied away. “The wolf in the forest…”

  I wasn’t following. The wolf was his pet, and he was taking it for a walk? Was he training it to maul innocent women to death? I knew Derrydun was weird but homicidal? That was a new one I didn’t see coming.

  “That wolf is yours?” I asked, screwing up my face. “It almost ripped me apart!”

  “Nay,” he said, shaking his head. “The fox…” He seemed to be having trouble getting his story straight, which wasn’t helping my mood.

  “Get out,” I demanded. “Get out of my house before I call the police.”

  “Nay! I was the fox! I was the fox…”

  I screwed up my face. “You were the fox?”

  “Think about it,” he pleaded. “Yesterday you saw me limpin’. You asked me if I was all right.”

  I stared at him, my thoughts going back to yesterday morning at Mary’s Teahouse. He said he’d banged his knee. He banged his knee.

  “You were the fox?” I said, raising my eyebrows. “You?”

  “Skye, you’ve gotta believe me.”

  “I don’t gotta do anything,” I declared. “What are you doing in my house? How did you get in?”

  “Buddy…” he began.

  “Father O’Donegal’s tabby cat?” I made a face. “A house cat can unlock doors now?”

  “Nay… I…”

  “Spit it out, Boone.”

  “I…” He stared at the floor, his shoulders sinking. “There’s too much to explain. I can’t tell you here… They’ve already come lookin’.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I exclaimed. “My patience is wearing real thin, you know.”

  His gaze met mine, and there was desperation in his eyes that almost frightened me. “Go to the hawthorn in the forest. Go there, and I will tell you everythin’. I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  “You want me to go into the forest, alone, with you?” I scoffed. “Yeah, right. I’m not dumb. I’m not going back out there!”

  “Please,” he pleaded, looking forlorn.

  It was such a genuine expression I almost caved, but how did you believe a naked man who magically appeared in your room telling wild stories about being a fox who saved your life? Anyway, I ended up saving the fox from being torn apart, so there!

  I screwed my eyes shut and let out an annoyed cry. “Get out!”

  “Please, Skye. You’ll be safe. The wolf is gone and won’t be coming back anytime soon. I made sure.”

  “I said get out!” This time, I hurled the lamp at him. He ducked just in time, and it crashed against the wall, the globe shattering.

  “Cac!” he exclaimed, fleeing from the bedroom. A second later, the cushion flew back into the room, and the sound of his feet slapping on the stairs echoed through the cottage.

  Downstairs, the door slammed closed. Padding over to the window, I pressed my forehead against the glass and peered at the garden below. I expected to see a flesh-colored streak sprinting across the yard, but I shied away when I saw Buddy leap over the fence and disappear into the bushes.

  Rubbing my eyes, I decided he was just on an early morning adventure collecting mice. He hadn’t been here when I found Boone. He’d never stuck around in the morning, anyway. Boone wasn’t Buddy…was he?

  Snorting at the absurd thought, I turned away from the window. The longer I stood there, the more my mood simmered. Thinking of all the strange coincidences that had happened since arriving in Derrydun, my willpower began to break down. The strange man who’d been at Aileen’s wake at Molly McCreedy’s. The trifecta of weird that had stopped me from selling Irish Moon. Sean McKinnon calling me a witch. The escape artist known as Buddy. The wolf almost chomping my face off, and the fox that had fought it off. The wolf that was supposed to be extinct.

  I swallowed hard and curled my freezing toes into the fluffy rug underfoot. What if Boone was right? I didn’t want to utter the word ‘supernatural’ but what if…

  I shook my head and stomped down the hall into the bathroom. It was stupid. This whole thing was stupid.

  Boone was a pervert. A complete and utter closet weirdo.

  Wasn’t he?

  Chapter 11

  It wasn’t every morning someone woke up to find a naked Irishman asleep on the end of their bed. Well, not unless there had been lots of drinking the night before. Considering I’d been sober since Aileen’s funeral, finding Boone that morning had been super creepy.

  I didn’t want to meet him at the hawthorn, not after whipping his bare ass with the lamp cord, but he had an awful lot of explaining to do. I also didn’t want to go back into the forest to the clearing where the wolf almost had me for lunch, either. It was bad news.

  But curiosity won against fear, and I found myself slinking down the path toward the giant hawthorn tree.

  I left Mairead in charge of Irish Moon, telling her I had some errands to run, and she was happy enough to handle things on her own for a while. Ever since the real estate agent crashed his car into the creek, she’d been happy as a clam. She ought to be. Her summer job was secure, and the clueless Australian paid her more than minimum wage because the money felt funny here.

  My boots crunched underfoot as I made my way through the forest, the path curling through the thickening trees. Listening, I tried to make out the individual sounds around me, trying to figure out if I was being followed or not. It didn’t help that I didn’t know what I should be listening for in the first place. Everything sounded like a predator out here. Branches snapped and leaves rustled all around me, but it could just be the deer Mary from the teahouse had told me about. She said they roamed around Derrydun.

  Hell. Should I be worried about being poked up the backside by a pair of antlers? Glancing around, I couldn’t see any rabid deer in th
e vicinity, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hanging around.

  It wasn’t long before I came up to the clearing. I could see the break in the woods ahead, and my heart began to thump wildly. Deciding to sneak, I stepped off the path and ducked behind a tree, then darted to the next, getting closer each time. Ferns brushed against my shins as I lingered, and I was pretty sure my covert operation wasn’t as covert as I intended. I knew nothing about the wilderness, and it showed in the racket I was making hiding in the underbrush.

  Concealing myself behind the closest trunk, I leaned around and searched for Boone. I sucked in a sharp breath as I saw him pacing back and forth in front of the hawthorn, fully clothed this time. Thank God.

  Yesterday, I wanted to check him out, and maybe let him kiss me, but that was before he flashed me in my bedroom. Ugh, I was never going to be able to keep a guy interested long enough to fall in love. Typical!

  He stopped and glanced around, sensing—or hearing—my approach.

  “Skye?” he called out.

  Sighing, I knew I’d been made, so I stepped out from behind the tree and into the clearing.

  “You’d better not have lured me out here so you can chop me up into little pieces,” I declared.

  His gaze shot to mine, and he swallowed hard. “Skye, I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to find out like this…”

  “Start talking,” I demanded, not wanting to entertain any groveling.

  “I was in my cat shape, and I fell asleep by accident,” he declared. “After the wolf bit me leg, it took time to heal, and it always drains me energy. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  “Wait. The wolf?” I scowled. “What’s a cat shape?”

  “I made a promise to Aileen that I would protect you,” he said, rushing through his explanation. “She asked me to help you, so I have been helpin’ best I can, but I couldn’t tell you. She said you had to find out for yourself, but I guess it’s a moot point now.”

  “What are you talking about?” I exclaimed. “Slow the hell down, and just say it already!”

  Boone took a deep breath and declared, “You are the last of the Crescent Witches, Skye.”

  I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, right.”

  “You are. The Crescent Witches are the most powerful coven there ever was,” he said defiantly. “Aileen bound your powers when you were a babe to protect you. Robert told me he unbound them when he visited you in Australia.”

  “He what?” I exclaimed.

  “He unbound your powers.”

  I thought about it for a long moment, then remembered the lawyer’s solid gold pen and his all-around weirdness.

  “He zapped me with his pen!” I was outraged, and then I dissolved into fits of laughter as I realized how stupid this all was. A little Irish lawyer had gone all the way to Australia to zap me with his magical golden pen to unlock my hereditary witch juju. Next Boone would be telling me Robert O’Keeffe was a leprechaun!

  “He zapped me with his magical pen, and now you’re telling me I’m a witch,” I exclaimed. “But not a plain one, a real badass.”

  “Yeah.” He looked totally serious, and I snorted.

  “And you can turn into a tabby cat?”

  “Not just a tabby cat,” he grumbled. “I can be lots of things.”

  “I hope so because that’s really lame! Hello, my name is Boone the badass, and I can turn into a house cat.” I snorted again and burst out into peals of laughter. “Lame!”

  “Hey!”

  “You’re mental.” I threw my hands into the air. “Completely off the charts. I’ve heard some pretty creative excuses in my time but shapeshifting and witches? You could’ve said you’d slept walked, and I might’ve believed you and not pressed charges, but this?” I snorted and turned away, determined to put as much distance between Boone and me as possible. This was not the scenario I’d pictured when I’d decided I wanted to see his bare ass. Not at all.

  “Wait!” he called out. “What if I can prove it to you?”

  I hesitated.

  “I can show you… I can…”

  I glanced over my shoulder. He was standing in the middle of the clearing, his hands curled into tight fists.

  “The fox is me familiar,” he murmured. “It’s the first shape I remember bein’.”

  “Then show me,” I challenged. I faced him, knowing he would choke and reveal his lie. “Show me, and prove it.”

  He shucked off his jacket, and I recoiled.

  “I don’t want to see your bits again!” I shrieked.

  “Wait…” he murmured. “Watch…”

  Boone kicked off his boots and stood completely still. Then something strange began to happen. His body began to shrink, his face and arms sprouted russet-colored fur, and his nose began to grow. The sound of snapping bones echoed across the clearing, and I flinched as his arms twisted and his elbow began to bend at an unnatural angle.

  “Boone…” I said uneasily, but it didn’t make any difference.

  My mouth fell open as he disappeared among his clothes, and a bushy tail shook free of his jeans. Then another almighty shake as he shucked off his T-shirt.

  “Holy Mother of…”

  A red and white fox stood where Boone was a moment ago, his back paws buried in the leaf litter. Swishing his tail back and forth, he let out a yip as if to say I told you so.

  Kneeling in the leaf litter, I stared into his honey-colored eyes in shock. I reached out with a shaking hand, and he head butted my palm gently. His fur was wiry to the touch, but his black-tipped ears were soft as silk.

  “Holy…” I whispered. “I’m going mad. This isn’t real. This…”

  Boone nuzzled against my hand and yipped.

  “You were limping yesterday… You were… You saved me from the wolf!” I covered my face with my hands. “Oh, God. What if I hadn’t poked its eye out with that stick?”

  Boone flicked his tail back and forth.

  “And… All that time you were the cat? You were Buddy?” Remembering the first night he’d appeared, my cheeks turned red. Oh, God. I’d held up his tail and checked out his balls. His big, tabby cat balls.

  He yipped again, this time dancing from foot to foot.

  “You’re embarrassing the hell out me right now,” I grumbled. “You didn’t look when I was changing, did you?”

  He tilted his fox head to the side.

  I gasped. “I’m going to smack you one if you did!”

  Rising off his haunches, Boone circled back to his pile of clothing and glanced at me, indicating he was going to change back. I didn’t want to see him morph unnaturally again, so I turned around.

  He’d changed into a fox! I had so many questions I wanted to fire off at him, but most of all, I was surprised by the fact I wasn’t freaking out. I mean, I should probably be running back toward the village screaming like a banshee right about now, but I’d just cuddled a fox. A fox that was Boone—the hot, mysterious Irishman. Oh, God, I’d seen his thing.

  “You can turn around now.”

  “Are you decent?” I asked, covering my eyes with my hands.

  “I’m decent.”

  I shuffled around, still hiding behind my hands. “Swear it!”

  “I swear.”

  Peeking through my fingers, I saw Boone was Boone again, and he was fully dressed. Sighing, I dropped my hands away. I’d seen more than enough unexpected doodle for one day.

  “No one must know,” he said, watching me closely. He was waiting for me to run away screaming, but I hadn’t moved an inch. Yet.

  “That’s convenient,” I said dryly.

  “Skye, you mustn’t say a word.”

  “Why?”

  “Witches are being hunted,” he replied, his tone gravely serious. “It’s not all rainbows and sunshine out there. Darkness looms…”

  “Witches are being hunted? What for?” I held up my hands and stared at my palms. “I’m not special. I can’t do magic spells or whatever. I’m just a woman. A plai
n, ordinary woman.”

  “You cannae tell me strange things haven’t been happenin’ to you since you arrived,” he said, sitting beside me. “Think about it, Skye.”

  The day of the funeral, the hawthorn sapling on top of the hill had shuddered and leaned toward me like I was a magnet. The air had been still, and no gusts of wind had whipped it. The man at Molly McCreedy’s with the blue skin and pointy teeth. The wolf stalking me in this very spot. Then there was the night I found Sean McKinnon by the side of the road. I’d placed my hands on his shoulders, and he’d seemed to calm down at my touch. Was that why Boone was so mad at me? Had I used some kind of magic to soothe the man’s sorrow?

  “Sean McKinnon… That was…” I glanced at Boone in shock. “No… That’s just coincidence!”

  “It was your magic. I felt it clear as day.”

  “Then why were you so pissed at me?” I exclaimed.

  “You need to be careful,” he replied. “When you use your magic, you become a beacon.”

  “I revealed myself? To who?” My gaze shifted to the forest, the shadows lengthening and growing eyes.

  “Nobody. I’ve been watchin’. Though the wolf… I don’t think he knew about you. You poked him with a branch from the hawthorn and took his eye. He won’t come back anytime soon.”

  “The magical hawthorn?” I asked, remembering how everybody was fond of telling the story about them being fairy trees.

  “Aye, the hawthorn.”

  I scowled, my thoughts scattered. None of it made sense, and I felt like I was on the brink of a mental breakdown.

  “This whole time, you’ve been looking out for me?” I peered at him, not sure how to take it. I mean, learning about my absent mother was a lot to deal with when I’d first arrived, but now I’d poked the eye out of an unnatural wolf with a magical stick, seen Boone turn into a fox, and heard his wild story about me being some sort of Crescent Witch… I was going mad. I actually needed a straitjacket, stat.

  He nodded. “I made a promise to your mam.”

  “What else did she say?”

  “She said you didn’t know about your heritage and that fate would draw you here. Without anyone to guide you, she asked me to watch over you.”