I stretched out, enjoying the feeling of sleeping in my own skin, and grabbed the cell phone from the bedside table where I’d left it. I dialed Jeremy’s number, waking him up and demanding he fight LA traffic to get here early. I left Ted a message at the spa next, and asked him to clear Gina’s morning appointments. Then, seeing it was still only five-thirty, I pulled myself into a meditation pose.
I came out of it when I heard the front door shut and Gina squeal Jeremy’s name. I put on my clothes from the day before and, after a quick pitstop to brush my teeth with Gina’s extra whitening toothpaste and my finger, went down stairs. In the kitchen, Dad read the paper and Mom cooked a huge breakfast. I stuck my head into the living room.
“Gina, Jeremy, kitchen, now,” I barked.
“Why don’t you borrow some clean clothes from your sister?” Mom started but I silenced her.
“Family meeting takes precedence.”
“Family what?” Gina came into the room, her face as fresh as if she slept all night on a perfumed bed. Not a single track mark from a single tear or even the hint of dark circles under her eyes.
“Meeting, now. Sit. All of you.” They pulled around the table, chairs squeaking on the linoleum floor. “First, I’m a spirit witch.”
“You’re telling them?” Gina asked me with big eyes. Before I could respond, Mom jumped in.
“How long have you known?”
“Since the war but I’m sorry, Ma, that’s not what this meeting is about. I just wanted to get it out of the way.” Jeremy grinned at me, making himself my first victim. “You should have told Gina how all the wedding planning was bugging you.”
“What?” Gina squeaked.
“No. In fact, no more interruptions.” I turned to Mom. “From anybody.” I swiveled my head back to Gina. “And you should have told everyone how overwhelmed you’re feeling.”
Both Mom and Jeremy started to react but I silenced them with a gesture. “And Mom, you should have told Gina that you don’t really care what the colors are as long as she’s happy.” I expected acquiescence, but Mom looked guilty. “What?”
“As long as it’s not black. Or red.”
“I would never do red!” Gina gasped.
“Stop!” I shouted over both of them. “Here’s how this is going to go. We’re going write down what matters most to everyone and no one’s going to stress about anything that isn’t on the list, clear?”
Heads nodded. “Good.” I reached over to the counter for the paper that typically became a grocery list. “Then let’s get started.”
We worked until ten, coming up with a list of less than twenty items that really mattered. Jeremy and Mom agreed that Dad should walk Gina down the aisle. Gina wanted our family priest to perform the ceremony. When all was said and done, the ceremony would be simple and religious, down to the traditional vows. The reception would be at the house, and we would serve something that tasted good with Coca-Cola (for Mom’s sake). The rest of the details would be corralled and offered up to us by the best wedding planner Jeremy could find. Whoever that person was, if they made my baby sister cry, I’d break their arm.
I left feeling ready to tackle the next problem on my list. Osceola boasted only one hotel out by the highway. It was a two-story concrete affair where the doors opened to the parking lot and no one paid attention to who rented a room. The guy working the counter graduated high school just two years before me. He decided not to go military, the war scared him too much, but he didn’t have any other choices. We played that game people do when they used to know each other, talking about who we used to be. Softened up he was happy to direct me to Susan’s room. I knocked on her door and she opened it, naked.
“Shocked?” she asked me, her grin telling me how much she hoped I was.
“Does it matter if I answer you? Since you already know how I feel?” She frowned at the way I ruined her fun. “Has Ted called you?”
“No.”
“Great, well, I don’t know if he will. But right now, I think he might be willing to look into your problem, so why don’t you give me the address for the pack’s hotel? We’ll come up and see if there’s something you missed.”
She turned inside the room leaving the door open. I followed her and shut it. She might not care about how she looked but the town did.
“And you don’t want me offending your precious neighbors?” she cooed as she wrote.
“That’s really obnoxious,” I sighed. “It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with Ted. I don’t want you to screw things up for him. It’s a small town. Eventually someone’s going to put it together that you’re his mother.”
“And you think he’ll be ashamed that I walk around naked?” She handed the paper to me, her breast bouncing a little with the movement.
“Oh he’s got plenty of other things to be ashamed of.”
Her temper flared, and she crossed her arms over her bared chest. “I could kill you, right now. You’d never walk out of this room.”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “But I don’t think so. I think you need your problem solved more than you want to prove you’re queen bitch.”
Her mouth popped open.
“Because that’s what this is about. You being in charge. You being scary. I get it. I’m scared. Whatever.” I shook my head and went for the door. “It must have been miserable for you. You must have been a victim every day to need to go this far the other way.”
“Don’t you pity me,” she spat the words at me.
“Too late.” My knees trembled as I walked away, but in the car my fear left and the pity stayed.
Feeling accomplished, I grabbed a slab of pizza from ‘Zza Joint and headed toward the pool. My laps were a reward, and protection against things to come. It was time to walk willingly into the lion’s den, well the wolf’s den. As the water rushed by me, I cataloged all the things I needed to do. Showered, dressed, and on the road in an hour, I ended up at a little gun shop on the edge of Compton. The Black man behind the counter gave me a smile.
“Semper Fi?” he tried. He looked older to me, my father’s age, with white hair in his beard and white around the edges of his short hair.
“This we’ll defend,” I replied.
“Army.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the counter, ready to chat.
“Good for you. Most people don’t know that.”
“Most people don’t hide those bands in here.” He gestured toward my right arm.
“They’re feeling obvious lately. Makes me itch.”
“So how’re you looking to scratch?”
“Silver bullets?”
He gave a low whistle. “Those are pricey.”
“Not a problem.”
“Can I ask what for?”
“Werewolves.”
“Maybe you want something else? A pretty little flower?” He gestured to a plant sitting by the cash register. I didn’t recognize the blue blossoms and it must have showed on my face, because he added, “Wolfsbane.”
The wolves weren’t really the problem though, so technically I shouldn’t need it. Then again, if the wolves weren’t really the problem, why was I buying silver bullets? “Does it work?”
“Depends on what you want it to do. Enough of it will kill someone normal, heart attack. Werewolves though, they ain’t telling. Might make them sick, might kill them. Might make them shift, could stop them from shifting. If you get a chance to use it, you can come back and tell me how it works.”
“Why not? Throw it in the bag.”
I left with my bank account considerably lighter, my right arm nearly twitching under the weight of the bullets, and a vial of essential oil of wolfsbane rattling around in the bag. Just what every girl takes with her on a weekend away.
The drive home took me by a tempting roadside farm stand. After a call to Ted to arrange dinner at his place, I bought green beans, peaches, and fresh corn. A quick stop by my place to grab a bag for the weekend completed my errands. By the time Te
d walked in the door, the table looked like a picture from an outdated magazine.
“What did I do to deserve this?” he asked me with a smile.
“Everything.” I kissed him, enjoying not just the touch of his lips but the scene. Dinner almost on the table, him coming home from work, me being there. It was domestic and old-fashioned, not too far from what was probably happening at my parents’ house.
“Can I help?”
That was a modern twist. “Sure, there’s lemon pepper chicken in the oven. You can carve it while I set the rest of the table.”
He told me about work and I talked about the wedding. We were both trying not to talk about the Pack but there were some logistics we had to cover.
“I got the address for our road trip. You want to take 5 up or Highway 1?”
“Which one takes longer?”
“Highway 1, we’d be in the car all day.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Are you sure about this?”
He pushed back from his plate. “I’ll go, even though I don’t think it’ll do any good, but I’m not going to be happy about it.”
“I don’t want you to be miserable for the next three days.”
“Oh I won’t be. I’ll be fine on the drive home.”
I groaned in frustration. “For that, you get to the do the dishes.”
He laughed, and started clearing the plates. While he worked, I let him know I was packed and loaded with silver bullets. “By the way, do you have any idea what wolfsbane really does to werewolves?”
“OPS claimed it was too unpredictable to use so I have no clue.” He wiped down the counters and started the dishwasher.
“Me neither. I got some anyway.”
“Never hurts,” he agreed.
I grabbed a dish towel and started drying. We had a habit of working together this way, him washing, me drying. It made the scene even more pleasant.
“Are you sure you want to come with me?”
It didn’t take magic to guess he’d been worrying about it for a while. “I’m sure, I don’t want you going alone.”
“William could come along,” he suggested.
“Yeah, because that would go over well: a stiff, trigger-happy vampire with a bunch of suspicious, on-edge werewolves. It’s like a horror movie waiting to happen. No, wait, I think they actually did make that one a horror movie.”
He frowned at me.
“Look, I’m going. Can’t be helped. I’m going to drive half the time, make you stop for coffee like twelve times, and force you to play something other than musical soundtracks.”
“You realize it’s going to be the most unromantic, unfun weekend away ever.”
“Well, then, I guess I’d better have my fun now, huh?” My eyes swept the kitchen. He was scrubbing the inside of the sink, making the whole place sparkle. Outside the sun lingered in the sky, not ready to set just yet. Inside, my mind already focused on the bedroom.
“What’d you have in mind?”
“What do you think?” I pressed my body against his back, my hands snaking around his waist, and let my mind go to the wonderful memories of the things our bodies did together. He thought about it for a second, and then, for the first time since I’d met him, he left the dish towel balled up next to the sink. Cleaning forgotten, he pushed his hands into my hair, holding the back of my head to kiss me like a man drinking water after a long hot day.
He brought his hands down my back, both of them stroking my flesh for a moment before pressing me into him. His mouth never left mine, his tongue exploring, thrilling me with each kiss. He parted us just enough to lightly touch me through my jeans. I held still for a second, enjoying all of the sensations at once, but then decided I wanted to be more than a passive receiver of pleasure.
I moved my fingers to his waistband, then dipped inside to tease the warm flesh there. He moaned, and brought his lips to my throat, his mouth leaving a trail of fire along the skin. He gripped my waist and lifted me as if I weighed nothing at all. I stifled a giggle as he moved me on to the kitchen counter, going for the button of my jeans.
“Got something in mind?” I teased, but I lifted my hips and let him free me from my clothes just the same. He smiled at me and held my right foot in the air. His mouth captured the skin in tiny steps from my ankle moving up my body. At my knees I squirmed, but when his lips got to my inner thighs I gave in to the sensations. I reached out to catch him, expecting to run my fingers through his hair but he had already moved back, working his way up my left leg. Knowing what came next only made the anticipation worse, but I still worried about how the metal bands and new skin on my thigh tasted.
“Are they… I mean is it…” But before I could finish my sentence he stopped my worries with a swift movement into my center. His tongue thumped against my clit making every nerve in my body light up.
“Oh God, Edward, oh yes, there,” I begged but he didn’t need direction, he knew where to touch. He caught that tip gently with his teeth, massaging it. In no time at all my mind was reduced to jelly, but the sensations grew. The miracle of his touch kept going. I screamed. I moaned. I pleaded for him to keep going. As that amazing tongue moved, touching the first one spot, then another, sending electric jolts through my body, I tensed. My legs tightened around his head, the muscles almost in spasm, then suddenly my body peaked, exploded; the ecstasy brought the room around me into sharp focus, but even as I tried to capture it, the moment slipped away, spent.
His kisses moved up my belly, resting on the fabric of my shirt. Normally, it would have been folded neatly beside us but somehow I still wore it. I would have laughed about it if I had any breath. Instead I smiled at him, and the grin he wore told me my magic worked both ways; he’d felt it almost as much as I had.
“Come to bed with me,” he offered.
“I would if I could walk.” I hated to turn him down after how he’d just made me feel but I suspected my legs wouldn’t work for a few minutes.
“Guess I’ll have to carry you.” He spread his arms out and scooped me up.
“You’re aware I weigh around one-sixty?” I asked as I rested my head on his shoulder.
“Sounds about right,” he agreed.
I sighed and gave up the fight. In the bedroom, he let his clothes fall away as he undressed quickly by the bed, his usual habits forgotten. He slipped into bed beside me, holding me gently for a minute. I knew he was being a gentleman, and that made me want him all the more.
I moved my hand down between his legs to find him hard and ready. I tried to think of some witty quip to make but when I caught a glimpse of his face I knew he wasn’t listening, he was just feeling. Perfect. I kept my fingers busy letting them roam over him, touching here and there while I reached for a condom from the bedside table. I tore it open, the movement awkward, but Edward wasn’t watching. He’d closed his eyes, concentrating on the feeling. An echo of his pleasure came through my magic, pure bliss. I rolled the thin covering over him and it brought him back to the moment.
He kissed me, running his hand along the outside of my leg for a moment, then lifting it up to rest on top of his. Before I could ask, his mouth caught mine, and while I concentrated on the kiss he moved his body into mine. The contact, the connection, thrilled me despite my exhaustion. It took a minute to learn how to move in this new position, how to keep him where I needed him to be, but soon our dance flowed. He moaned and I watched his face, the desire in his eyes. Through our connection I felt his body rush to its peak.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.” And I knew I meant it more and more each day.
I woke to the gentle tumbling of the water in the fountain across from Ted’s bed. For a second I drifted, my thoughts free and easy, then I rolled over and smiled at Ted.
“How’d you sleep?”
“I didn’t, not really. But you did. Watching it was almost as good as sleeping myself.”
“Hmm, I doubt that.” Outside the sun st
arted to rise, golden beams peeking into the room through the black blinds. “Are we leaving early?”
“I figured we’d hit coffee and grab breakfast somewhere along the way. I’m not in the mood for Candi this morning.”
“That makes two of us,” I agreed. Over his shoulder I saw the discarded clothes from before our romp had been folded and put away. The kitchen was equally spotless. Worry about the trip or some deeper anxiety about his mom had caused a bit of temporary insanity, which was already fixed. I wasn’t going to pry into it now, but thankfully, we had hours on the road to talk. After a quick shower, we threw our bags in the car. I started driving and stopped a few minutes later at my favorite coffee shop. The place was nearly empty, just Marty and her hair, spiked into cheerful points.
“That’s new?” I asked her when she said good morning.
“You noticed! And you say you’re not a morning person.” She glanced at Ted then back at me. “Two of the usual?”
I nodded.
“Where you two headed so early?”
Ted smiled a little, “Road trip.”
I decided to give her a little more than that. “San Francisco. You ever been?”
“Nope. Going for Pride week or something?” She winked at Ted.
“Something,” he said, keeping it vague. I took the coffee and tipped her.
As we settled back in the car, the first stirrings of caffeinated goodness made me philosophical. “Who knew the coffee shop could be pleasant before eight?”
“Certainly not you.”
I would have punched him in the arm but I was merging on to the highway. A bit farther down the road I set the cruise control for a comfortable few miles above the limit and relaxed.
“Music or talking first?” I asked him.
Missing, Suspected Dead: Elisabeth Hicks, Witch Detective Page 17