Men Love Witches Read online

  Lacey swore.

  “What is your gut telling you?” I asked her back as she spun and stalked across the kitchen, her heels clicking on the tile. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, Lacey. I’d trust your instincts on this one.”

  She stopped walking, hesitating just for a moment before turning back around. “Aretha is the one fighting me the hardest, which is ironic, considering her territory is the smallest of everyone here. She holds power in one state, whereas Nathaniel and Trish control the entire West Coast and Christian holds influence over the powers that be in Mexico and the Southwest United States. He’s more traditional than anyone here. I thought if anyone were to balk, it would have been him.”

  “What is Aretha’s main objection?”

  “She doesn’t trust the Haven Council. She thinks they would rather be rid of us all, and that if given Lilith’s stone, they would use it to either enslave or exterminate all vampires.”

  “Yikes.”

  As someone who’d been on the wrong end of a few bad deals with the Haven Council and the SPA, it was hard for me to argue that they were solely interested in justice. Most of them probably were. It was only because of the Haven Council that faux blood had even been invented, and without it, the chilling scenario of vampire extermination might have come to pass.

  “Why give them the stone? Why is that part of the deal?” I asked Lacey. “Couldn’t you broker a deal without letting them know about the stone? Or make it so that the Court keeps possession of it?”

  Lacey’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t want a war. No one does. But if the Court took up the stone and used it against our own … it would be a bloodbath. No one would be safe.”

  I frowned. “How is it different than letting the Haven Council go up against the rebels?”

  “The Haven Council have always been up against the rebels, the lines were drawn nearly a century ago. We vampires are welcome to be a part of the havens and hold places in the Court. It was meant to work in cooperation with the SPA. The leaders were meant to govern their own territories, but lately, control has been slipping, with more and more vampires being turned and living in the fringes.”

  “Like what’s happening in Seattle,” I said, thinking of Meryl’s work with the SPA.

  Lacey gave a sage nod. “Trisha and Nathanial should have put a stop to that months ago.”

  “Why haven’t they?”

  “Because it’s not comfortable,” Lacey said, her tone matter-of-fact. “None of us want to spend our days presiding over trials and passing down sentences, not when we could instead plan parties and jet-set around the world to take glamorous vacations.”

  “So, why invite them here? If you think they’re lazy and spoiled?”

  Lacey turned to look out the window again. For a moment, she didn’t reply, and I worried I’d overstepped with the question.

  “I just mean, they seem—”

  “I need allies,” Lacey interrupted, still staring out into the darkness cloaking the backyard. “I can’t do this alone. It would put too big of a target on my back. If I have well-positioned allies, even reluctant ones, I have more strength.”

  Nodding, I glanced over my shoulder at the door between the kitchen and the rooms beyond. One of them knew what had happened to the stone. The darker worry was thinking that one of them might have their own uses for its power.

  “Which is why we have to get it back. No matter what it costs.” Lacey’s lips went into a thin line as she turned toward me. “Holly, set the wards. No one is leaving this house until I know what’s happened to the stone.”

  Chapter Eleven

  It was an odd experience, brewing a pot of coffee at half past two in the morning, but I was determined not to fall asleep on the job. My wards were strong, but I felt better if I could stay up and keep watch just in case. All of the gathered vampires swore up and down that they had no idea what happened to the stone. After hours of going round in circles, trying to cajole someone into confessing, Lacey stormed out and everyone retired to their suites.

  Adam had an early morning meeting with one of his tech clients, so I sent him off to bed around midnight, and took my night shift to the back deck with Boots at my side, until I’d started to nod off and went inside to get the coffee going. The only silver lining to my unexpected night shift duty was that it gave me a chance to catch up with Posy, now that the manor was quiet once more. She joined me in the kitchen, as she had so many other sleepless nights before, and settled into her usual spot at the kitchen table.

  “I still can’t believe you’re really back,” I told the ghost as I carried my full-to-the-brim coffee mug to the table.

  “I picked quite a night for it,” she said with a small smile. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Sighing heavily, I placed the cup on the table and melted into the chair beside hers. My eyes felt dry and scratchy as my heavy lids slipped down to cover them. Blinking, I righted myself and sipped some coffee. “I’m honestly at a loss. This is bigger than anything we’ve ever dealt with before, which is pretty scary, considering all the messes we’ve managed to get ourselves into over the past few years. I swear, it’s like I got put on some kind of supernatural cleanup crew against my will.”

  Posy offered a sympathetic smile. “I suppose it’s one of those cases where the fastest worker is rewarded with a bigger shovel.”

  “Merlin help me,” I sighed. “I’m going to need some Irish whiskey for this coffee, I think.”

  Posy chuckled softly.

  Glancing at her, I wrapped both hands around the mug. It wasn’t cold in the kitchen, but the warmth from the mug was comforting and grounding all the same. “I wouldn’t blame you if you left and extended your vacation a few more weeks.”

  She shrugged. “It was time to come back. We saw everything we wanted to see.”

  “Did you have a good time?” I asked. There was something in her tone that worried me. She and Earl had been gone for so long, I’d just assumed they were having such a good time that they didn’t realize how much time had passed. Ghosts aren’t always the best at keeping track of time, especially old ghosts like Posy and Earl. They’d been untethered from the bounds of time for so long, it was hard for them to remember the way things revolved around the clock in life.

  “Oh, we had a fine time,” she replied, injecting a smile into her answer this time. “It was a little tiring though. Staying in new places felt strange after all these decades spent here. When we finally found a cozy spot, we stayed for a while before moving on. We met all sorts of interesting characters along the way, as I’m sure you can imagine. I never realized quite how many spirits there are, wandering around, just like us.”

  “What were they like?” I asked, propping my chin up with one cupped hand as I leaned my elbow against the table. My eyes felt heavy again. The coffee wasn’t doing the trick. I should have taken a page from Harmony’s book and swiped some of those energy potion testers from the shop.

  “Colorful!” Posy replied with a small laugh. “We met up with a group of World War II soldiers. Earl liked them the most. He listened to all of their stories at least twice through before we left. We stayed in New Orleans for a week or two, they had the most wonderful live music! We even went to Las Vegas just to see what all the fuss was about!”

  I laughed. “Wow! I can’t quite picture that!”

  Posy smiled and ducked her chin. “We did stand out from the crowd, that’s for certain.”

  “Did you like it?”

  “It wasn’t my favorite place,” Posy said, then her lips twisted to one side. “Earl was rather scandalized by the amount of flesh on display. Let’s just say that we found ourselves in a few rooms we ought to have stayed away from.” She laughed. “I thought I was going to have to peel poor Earl off the ceiling a time or two.”

  I giggled, trying to imagine the pair of ghosts’ faces at the scene. “Hey, at least you made some new memories!”

  Posy’s smile softened as she no
dded in agreement. “That we did.”

  “So, what’s next?” I asked before taking a sip of coffee. “Are you back for good? Or just long enough to plan your next outing? You’ve turned into quite the wanderer.”

  “I—I’m not sure yet,” she replied, her gaze drifting. “It does feel good to be home again. Have you had many guests yet?”

  I nodded and swallowed another gulp of hot coffee. “Mmm. Yes. We’ve actually been booked solid through the past month and a half.”

  “Oh, I’m so pleased for you and Adam! That must be a relief, to have things up and running. The place looks amazing. You two have taken such good care of it. I especially like all of the new flowers.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled into my coffee mug. “It’s gone pretty well, minus a few hiccups here and there.”

  The ghost raised one eyebrow. “Oh?”

  I cocked my head to one side. “You want to hear about the fire-breathing toaster or the sleepwalking harpy first?”

  Posy’s eyes went wide.

  Laughing, I bobbed my head. “I’ll start with the one about the harpy.”

  Posy kept me company until dawn broke. The vampires had gone silent after Lacey dismissed the meeting in the early hours of the morning, and now they would be locked away during daylight hours. Lacey was confident that one of them had swiped the powerful stone, so long as no one else was allowed entrance to the property. To retrieve the stone from the culprit, we should be safe to wait it out until night fell once more, by which time I had no doubt Lacey would have come up with a plan to smoke out the thief.

  Bleary-eyed and zapped of strength, I took a two-hour nap on the couch before my alarm jolted me from a shallow sleep and signaled it was time to get to the Seattle Haven. Harmony had the day off to study as her potion license test was fast approaching, which meant the day-to-day tasks fell squarely on my shoulders.

  One thing was for sure, I was going to need a very large coffee if I had any hope of making it through the morning. The last thing someone wanted was a sleep deprived witch behind the cauldron, brewing up important salves and concoctions. I dressed, splashed some water on my face, and gave my tired eyes a little dab with a mascara wand, then hustled down the hillside into town. Siren’s Song was bustling with its usual morning crew and I had to wait in line for a few minutes before I could place my order. I noticed Scarlet in line ahead of me and caught her eye when she stopped at the other end of the counter to wait for her drink. She waved when she spotted me, and I held up a hand in reply.

  One of the more chipper baristas took my order but was mercifully short on small talk. She swiped my card and slid my receipt down the counter to where her partner for the shift was working to fill orders.

  “Morning, Holly,” Scarlet said as I shuffled down the counter to join her. “You feeling okay?”

  One side of my mouth crooked up. “It’s okay. You can say it. I know I look like death warmed over.” I glanced around, looking for her fluffy ghost-cat. “I’m sure Flapjack would say it if he were here.”

  Scarlet giggled. “Well, thankfully, he’s down by the cannery this morning, admiring the catch of the day.”

  I rolled my eyes and Scarlet laughed again. “I seriously don’t know how you put up with him,” I told her.

  She hitched one shoulder. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

  “No, but even if you did, you’d keep him around,” I said with a smile.

  “Probably,” Scarlet agreed, still grinning.

  The barista called out an order and Scarlet reached for the two cups a second after the young woman set them out on the bar. “Thank you,” she said, before turning back to me. “So, what’s up? You up stressing about the wedding stuff?”

  I almost laughed. In comparison to Lacey’s bombshell revelation, the nights of worrying about boutonnieres and hors d’oeuvres seemed like a distant memory. “Let’s just say our houseguests are causing something of a headache at the moment.”

  I smiled at the barista and offered an awkward half wave. See? Nothing apocalyptic going on over here. Everything is just fine.

  The barista returned the smile and went about her work, but a flicker of panic flashed across Scarlet’s eyes. She knew exactly what kind of houseguests we were entertaining, and the deadly potential if things were to go off book. “Anything I can do to help?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet as we shuffled a few steps away from the counter.

  The ghost whisperer could summon an army of ghosts, but they wouldn’t be able to do much when clashing with a pack of half-crazed vampires. I was about to turn her offer down, then reconsidered. “Maybe. It’s a little bit of a lost-and-found situation at the moment, but if we need more eyes to help join the search, I just might call you up.”

  Scarlet’s brows creased but she knew better than to press for details in the busy coffee house. “Okay,” she said slowly.

  My order was called and I scooped up the coffee cup and small pastry bag from the counter. It was a triple latte and bear claw kind of morning if there ever was one. We turned away from the bar and a new thought hit me. Smiling, I glanced at Scarlet. “Did you hear that Posy and Earl made it back to town?”

  Scarlet nodded, but there was something about her smile that seemed almost forced. “They came by the shop yesterday, on their way back to the manor.”

  “Oh! So, you saw them before I did.”

  “Have you—er—been able to talk to them much?” Scarlet asked, as we crossed through the coffee shop. “It sounds like you might have been a little preoccupied.”

  I pushed open the door and held it for Scarlet to go first. “I talked to Posy this morning, after the … uh, guests called it a night.”

  “Oh, so … um … what did she say?”

  Frowning, I followed Scarlet out of the shop. “Why do I feel like I’m missing something here?”

  Scarlet’s cheeks flushed and she quickly shook her head. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “Scarlet—”

  She flicked out a hand. “It’s not my place to say. I’ve already said too much, it seems.”

  My mouth opened, ready to protest, but she glanced up at me with a pained expression and I stopped myself from pushing further. But it couldn’t stop a pit from forming in the bottom of my stomach. Part of me wanted to turn back and march up the hill to the manor, but I couldn’t abandon the shop or interrupt Harmony’s study time to have her fill in for me.

  Whatever Posy needed to tell me, it was going to have to wait.

  Even with the caffeine boost, I felt like I was dragging myself through the day. Things at my potions shop, Starfire Apothecary, were as busy as ever. The sooner Harmony got her license, the better. As my apprentice, there were certain boundaries placed on her work and most of it she was supposed to do supervised. We’d fudged certain rules and restrictions, but after all the work it had taken me to get my own license and the shop itself, we couldn’t push the envelope too far, which meant that anything beyond basic potions, she needed a supervisor to brew and there were certain ingredients that were completely off limits in a commercial setting. Back at the manor—or even in the shop after hours—we could play and experiment as we wanted.

  My strange conversation with Scarlet played through my head on a loop as I worked to restock some of the more specialty potions and then set about filling custom orders for customers. Between the lack of sleep and general distraction, I had to stop and double-check my work as I went, which only made it all take longer. I was in the process of relabeling some sleeping potion I’d mislabeled with a similarly colored perky potion—which seemed like an oversight I’d need to permanently fix when my brain wasn’t so fuzzy—when Eliza, one of my part-timers, came to tell me I had a visitor.

  After swapping the labels back, I tucked the potion vials into the cabinet, set the security ward on the doors, and took off my apron. Peeking out into the front of the shop, I saw Meryl perusing an assortment of beauty potions near the front window display. My heart kicke
d a little faster as I wondered whether or not I should tell her what Lacey had revealed in the wee hours of the morning. As my friend, not to mention as one sworn to protect the supernatural community at large, I would want her to know what was out there. But at the same time, Lacey would probably kill me if she found out I leaked to the SPA. So, it was a matter of which was scarier: a pack of wild vampires on the loose with a stone that could command a literal army of immortals, or Lacey.

  Yeah. Probably best to keep it under my hat for a little while longer.

  “Hey, Meryl!” I said, stepping into the shop. A few other customers turned to look my way. Some of the regulars offered smiles or small nods of recognition before returning to their shopping.

  Meryl held a violet-colored glass bottle in one hand. A serum that would grant temporary freckles. “What do you think?” she asked, smiling as she held up the bottle. “Would Nick freak out?”

  I laughed softly. “It might be fun to try. They only last about six weeks.”

  “Hmm.” Meryl considered the bottle for another moment before replacing it on the shelf.

  “What brings you by? Other than the promise of magic freckles,” I asked with a smile.

  “Oh, I was just in the neighborhood,” she said, shrugging one shoulder as she turned to face me. She was dressed as she often was, in athletic clothing. Today it was a pair of plum-colored leggings and a white tank top. A small, knitted satchel hung across her body, the small bag resting on one hip. Her blonde hair was up in a topknot with a few strands arranged around her heart-shaped face. “Have you had lunch yet?”

  “Not yet,” I replied. “Though, it’s not a bad idea. All I had for breakfast was a bear claw and a huge latte. My blood sugar is probably headed for a pretty serious crash any minute now.”

  Meryl laughed. “Well, let’s go get something. I have a dentist appointment at three and decided to take the afternoon off.”

  “Okay. Let me tell Eliza and grab my purse.”