After Elaine the night receptionist told Win I’d gone to my car to change my shoes fifteen minutes prior to him coming to find me, he grew worried and came outside to check on me.
Dana had just finished up on a call with a suspect who’d been injured and, well, you know, their budding bromance—one for the ages, I’m sure—spurred Dana to walk with Win to locate me.
They both saw me zap Harris, which I maintain was not my intention at all. I never meant to hurt him. To further ease my fear I’d caused him bodily harm, we’d found out he had clogged arteries and a heart attack was inevitable.
Anyway, that zap from my fingertips had truly just happened—and much to my sheer delight, it continued to happen.
I was able to zap things again. It didn’t always work in the way I’d like. I appeared to only wreak havoc with it. Just ask the two planters I’d blown up the other day. My powers were behaving the same way my kooky spells had behaved weeks after I’d spewed all those incantations in the height of Win’s disappearance.
Still, it was nothing if not consistent. I could summon a zap at will now. But my hope was, with a little practice, I’d be able to manage it the way I once had.
I didn’t know if it meant all my powers would return, but it had lasted longer than any other small spurt of power I’d had since being stripped of my witchy abilities.
But back to win’s point about Dana and his acceptance. I was still a bit hesitant to believe he accepted anything. “He saw Belfry talk and that didn’t seem to stop him,” was my dry response. “I’m not sure anything can help him accept who I am if a talking bat didn’t convince him, Win.”
Whiskey nuzzled my hand as Belfry kneaded his back. He clucked his tongue at me. “I think International Man of Mystery is right. I think we should hear him out, Boss.”
Therein was a good portion of the crux of my hurt. Belfry. “Even if he ignores your existence again? Because ignoring you is like ignoring me.”
I’d discovered that was part of my trouble with Dana’s denial, not simply the idea he thought we were evil. It was as though he was denying not only me, but my lifelong best friend—and that hurt my feelings.
I was a witch. I’d once been a good witch. I’d had a coven and friends who were witches, too. I might still be a witch if my fingertips were any indication. It was love all of me or none of me at all.
Bel flew to my shoulder and nuzzled my ear. “Let’s just see what he says, okay, Boss? The more Win explained his theory on how Dana might feel, the less I was angry. We don’t know what he was taught as a kid. Maybe it’s a religious thing? Maybe he thinks we’re evil. Maybe he’s afraid. Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve encountered fear like that.”
As Bel said the words, Dana pulled up and parked, waving at us, and I took a deep breath, prepared to share my feelings without sarcasm.
He got out of the car and sauntered toward us, his strides long and not nearly as hesitant as they’d been lately, a small, tentative smile on his face.
Dana held out his hand to Win. “Win! Long time no bourbon!”
Win rose and chuckled. “’Twas a good night, wasn’t it, mate? Anyway, how are you? How’s the investigation finishing up?”
Dana stuck his hands in the pockets of his trousers and rocked back on the heels of his casual shoes. “Well, after Harris’s confession, it was all pretty cut and dried. Once he recuperates from his heart troubles, I think Harris Endicott’s going to be in jail for a very long time for the murder of Wade and the attempted murder of Lida. Have you seen Lida and Kirkland?”
Win nodded, brushing off his jeans. “We have, and she’s recuperating quite nicely with Kirkland looking after her. I say good on her. To have kept those secrets for so long…” He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “They can do some bloody damage.”
According to Lida’s statement, she’d planned to tell me what was going on in the Endicott household in the hopes I’d bring it to the police the night she was shot. She’d been desperately afraid of Harris for as long as she’d worked for him, and she worried he’d be angry—with good reason.
They’d had a brief one-night stand before she knew about Harris’s hidden sexuality, and when she told him she was pregnant, he’d threatened to make her life a living hell if she revealed the father of her baby.
Harris had used his power and his money to convince Lida, who’d been quite young and had no one in the world to turn to, that he’d take Kirkland away from her and she’d never see him again. Translation and also according to Rosemary? He didn’t want the scandal attached to having an affair with his maid.
So Lida had made a deal with the devil and agreed to keep her mouth shut, as long as she could stay in Kirkland’s life—even as his maid. Rosemary, coward that she was even then, had gone along with the plan.
But over the years, she’d had her doubts about Harris’s various affairs, and one night she’d heard him talking to Wade on the phone, threatening to kill him if he told anyone, but she didn’t know what he meant. And then she’d found the business card in Harris Endicott’s suit jacket when she’d taken it to the cleaners.
Now that Harris was out of the picture, and Loretta had forced Rosemary into rehab, Kirkland was spending time getting to know his biological mother and they were helping each other heal.
Dana nodded his head. “I’m really glad to hear that. She’s a nice lady and Kirkland’s a great guy. I hope he finds happiness again.”
Win slapped him on the back. “We’re going to head out and let the two of you talk, but if this doesn’t turn into WrestleMania, do stay for dinner, won’t you? I’m frying up a batch of honey-fried chicken with mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots with you in mind.”
Dana looked to me momentarily before he smiled and nodded. “I’d like that, Win.”
“Good enough,” Win replied with a smile, scooping Belfry off my shoulder and holding him up at eye level. “You, my fine winged friend, come with me. I could use some help peeling potatoes.”
Bel squirmed and grunted. “I hate peeling potatoes, Winterbutt, and you know it!”
Win set him on his shoulder and nodded. “I do, but that makes the work all the more satisfying, doesn’t it, mate? Now come, we have a feast to prepare.” Then he kissed me on the lips. “Stephania, I shall chill the wine. See you in a bit, my love.”
As Win and our menagerie of pets scurried up the stairs to make dinner, there was an awkward silence before Dana looked at me, his eyes apologetic, his body language easygoing.
Then, without any words at all, he held out his arms to me.
I only hesitated for a moment before I let him engulf me in his embrace.
“I’m sorry, Stevie. I’m really sorry. I never meant to make you feel like you were evil. Win explained to me how hurt you were—how you felt like I was denying your existence. Yeah. I was scared. I admit that. I mean, how often does a bat talk to you? Up to that point, it was all just fiction, you know? I thought you guys were nuts, but I wasn’t scared until that moment. Belfry, your…”
“Familiar.”
He bobbed his head. “Yes, familiar. He freaked me out a little.”
I shot him a sympathetic gaze. “And that’s when you let it all catch up to you, right? When all the things you’ve been told about the occult and witches suddenly became very real? And instead of asking me about who I am, you scoured the Internet for answers and came up with a bunch of stupid lies.”
He squeezed me harder, resting his cheek on top of my head. “Super real. Then, as I let it sit with me, as I tried to wrap my brain around what I’d seen…heard…I felt guilty because I’ve always thought you were one of the best people I know. You have a good heart, and I couldn’t make the evil witch stuff I saw on the Internet gel with how much I love you and our friendship.”
My throat tightened as tears stung my eyes. “And then you saw me in the woods with Harris…”
“Yeah,” he rasped out with a deep breath. “That was really something.”
<
br /> “I swear, I didn’t mean for it to happen, Dana. I haven’t had a blip of power in a very long time, and then suddenly, whammo. It was as unexpected for me as it was for you.”
He set me away from him in order to look me in the eye, his handsome face hopeful. “But it’s a good thing, right? I mean, you thought you’d lost your powers for good, didn’t you?”
I nodded my head in acknowledgment as the huge weight of our time apart began to fall away. “I did, but I think this means there’s hope.”
He smiled then, with the sun shining down on his glossy hair and his tanned face bright with relief. “Then if you hope it’s true, I do, too.”
I blinked for a second before I grabbed his hand, my voice hitching. “You do know I’d never, ever hurt you, Dana, don’t you? I’m not that kind of witch. I would never bring any pain to your doorstep. Not even if it meant I couldn’t ever use my powers again, because you’re one of my dearest friends. I want only good things for you because I love you.”
Dana squeezed my hand. “I do. I should have remembered how you helped me through that awful time after Sophia died and realized you weren’t out here all this time, worshipping the devil, but I was too caught up in TV’s version of witches and my fear.”
“So do you think you can live with this secret? Because Belfry’s not going to stop talking, and Win really is reincarnated, we really were a part of that mess at the funeral home, and I’m not going to stop witching—or hoping I can witch. It’s who I am, Dana. It will always be who I am.”
His tone was warm when he said, “Cross my heart.”
That was when I smiled, too, pulling him by the hand toward the front door. “Okay then. Argument over. I say we go see how Bel’s coming with that potato peeling. How about you?”
“Hey,” he said, stopping our entry to the house.
“Yeah?”
He gave me a crooked smile. “I missed you, Stevie. I’m glad we’re okay.”
Tears stung my eyes once more, but I blinked them away. “Me, too. Now, c’mon. There’s wine, a cute British guy with a fancy accent in my kitchen cooking dinner, and a talking bat. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss this.”
“Ah, my malutka, this make Arkady Bagrov’s heart smile. You and Officer Rigid have made nice. This is best day ever.”
I looked up at the ceiling of the entryway and smiled with a nod. “Mine, too, Arkady. Mine, too.”
Dana stopped dead in his tracks and clung to my hand. “Um, who’s Arkady?”
I cocked my head at him in confusion before I grinned. “Haven’t I told you about my ex-Russian spy ghost who talks to me from the afterlife? I could have sworn we told you about him that night.”
Dana blinked as though he couldn’t believe there was even more he had to come to grips with. “I don’t remember an Arkady. But I might have missed it between the story about Balth—Balth—”
“Balthazar, Win’s twin brother.”
“Right, him and the fight with Adam Westwhatever.”
“Westfield,” I corrected.
Dana jabbed the air with his finger. “Yeah, him too.”
Wiggling my finger at him with a wink, I summoned him toward the kitchen. “Well, then, if I were you, I’d take advantage of that wine Win is chilling, because man, do I have a story to tell you… Have I mentioned my life is pretty weird, Officer Nelson?”
His face said it all. It said, holy bananas, now what?
But it also said acceptance, friendship and most of all…love.
There was a lot of both going around lately—and that, as Arkady says, was okay-doke by me.
The End
(Thank you so much for joining me on yet another adventure for Stevie and Win and gang! I hope you’ll come back later this year for book twelve of the Witchless in Seattle Mysteries. Until then, happy reading!)
Note From Dakota
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About the Author
Dakota Cassidy is a USA Today bestselling author with over fifty books. She writes laugh-out-loud cozy mysteries, romantic comedy, grab-some-ice erotic romance, hot and sexy alpha males, paranormal shifters, contemporary kick-ass women, and more.
Dakota was invited by Bravo TV to be the Bravoholic for a week, wherein she snarked the hell out of all the Bravo shows. She received a starred review from Publishers Weekly for Talk Dirty to Me, won a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Kiss and Hell, along with many review site recommended reads and reviewer top pick awards.
Dakota lives in the gorgeous state of Oregon with her real-life hero and her dogs, and she loves hearing from readers!
Other Books by Dakota Cassidy
Visit Dakota’s website at http://www.dakotacassidy.com for more information.
A Lemon Layne Mystery, a Contemporary Cozy Mystery Series
1. Prawn of the Dead
2. Play That Funky Music White Koi
Witchless In Seattle Mysteries, a Paranormal Cozy Mystery series
1. Witch Slapped
2. Quit Your Witchin'
3. Dewitched
4. The Old Witcheroo
5. How the Witch Stole Christmas
6. Ain’t Love a Witch
7. Good Witch Hunting
8. Witch Way Did He Go?
9. Witches Get Stitches
10. Witch it Real Good
11. Witch Perfect
Nun of Your Business Mysteries, a Paranormal Cozy Mystery series
1. Then There Were Nun
2. Hit and Nun
3. House of the Rising Nun
4. The Smoking Nun
5. What a Nunderful World
Wolf Mates, a Paranormal Romantic Comedy series
1. An American Werewolf In Hoboken
2. What’s New, Pussycat?
3. Gotta Have Faith
4. Moves Like Jagger
5. Bad Case of Loving You
A Paris, Texas Romance, a Paranormal Romantic Comedy series
1. Witched At Birth
2. What Not to Were
3. Witch Is the New Black
4. White Witchmas
Non-Series
Whose Bride Is She Anyway?
Polanski Brothers: Home of Eternal Rest
Sexy Lips 66
Accidentally Paranormal, a Paranormal Romantic Comedy series
Interview With an Accidental—a free introductory guide to the girls of the Accidentals!
1. The Accidental Werewolf
2. Accidentally Dead
3. The Accidental Human
4. Accidentally Demonic
5. Accidentally Catty
6. Accidentally Dead, Again
7. The Accidental Genie
8. The Accidental Werewolf 2: Something About Harry
9. The Accidental Dragon
10. Accidentally Aphrodite
11. Accidentally Ever After
12. Bearly Accidental
13. How Nina Got Her Fang Back
14. The Accidental Familiar
15. Then Came Wanda
16. The Accidental Mermaid
17. Marty’s Horrible, Terrible Very Bad Day
The Plum Orchard, a Contemporary Romantic Comedy series
1. Talk This Way
2. Talk Dirty to Me
3. Something to Talk About
4. Talking After Midnight
The Ex-Trophy Wives, a Contemporary Romantic Comedy series
&n
bsp; 1. You Dropped a Blonde On Me
2. Burning Down the Spouse
3. Waltz This Way
Fangs of Anarchy, a Paranormal Urban Fantasy series
1. Forbidden Alpha
2. Outlaw Alpha
Witch Perfect (Witchless in Seattle Mysteries Book 11) Page 18
