Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2

by Belinda White

  “Damn straight.” Then her little head tilted at that odd angle that only birds seemed able to manage, her tiny beady eyes seeking out mine. “Pretty girl wants a treat.”

  “Does she now?”

  The feathered head bobbed up and down, and she stepped from foot to foot in a little dance. How does one say no to that?

  I pulled open the drawer and got out a small cracker. Then I held it out in front of her. “What’s the magic word?”

  “Abracadabra.”

  I shook my head. “The other magic word.”

  “Please and thank you.”

  My eyebrow rose of its own accord. The thank you was new. A pleasant little surprise to end the evening on.

  I changed into my nightgown and climbed into bed. Within seconds, the dream started.

  I TRULY LOVE MY MEDITATION space. My own personal sanctuary. Everyone’s sanctuary is special and unique to them and them alone. Mine was no different.

  Usually, when my mind relaxed at the end of the day enough to drop off to sleep, that’s where I would find myself. In my sanctuary. It happened regularly enough that I even installed a beautiful day bed to rest on. Sometimes it was just a matter of opening my eyes in my dream, seeing where I was, and then closing them again to blissful rest.

  Apparently, that would not be the case tonight. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in my sanctuary at all. I was in the Goddess’ tree home.

  There had been a time when I would have given just about anything for a personal meeting with my Goddess. Now, I found that whenever she graced me with her presence, it generally meant unpleasant news.

  “Oh, for pity’s sake, relax, Opal.” She smiled at me, and my body warmed instantly. She could do that to a person.

  “This isn’t a bad news visit? You don’t have some dire warning for me or my family?”

  She laughed, and all was right with the world again. At least for a very brief space of time. “No dire warning, just a chat with one of my very favorite high priestesses.”

  I looked at her. “But not your very favorite, huh?”

  “Even if you were that, too, Opal, you know I couldn’t admit it. A Goddess can’t have favorites among her people. It wouldn’t be right. You do know that, right?”

  I nodded. I was pretty sure I knew exactly where my family and I stood with the Goddess, and I was happy with that.

  “So, what are we chatting about tonight?”

  She glanced down at her hands, which were folded neatly in her lap. Now that I noticed, I realized that I was sitting across from her in one of her far too comfortable to be real chairs.

  “I was rather wondering how Pearl was doing?”

  Ah, so that was it. I had been wondering when we’d be having this conversation. “I find it interesting that you didn’t ask how the baby was doing, or even how baby Pearl was doing. But then, there’s a reason for that, isn’t there?”

  Her eyes met mine. “You know there is.” The Goddess hesitated. “I’m not allowed to say much, and I really have to watch myself right now. But you know that Pearl is... special. I was there in that delivery room too. I saw your look when Pearl smiled at you.”

  I nodded. “Kind of hard to miss the smile of your mother, isn’t it?”

  The Goddess actually looked over her shoulder. Were we being watched or something? Were things really that bad, that even the Goddess had fears? But then I kind of knew the answer to that. We’d dealt with one issue just recently. Looked like there was still trouble on the Goddess front.

  As my niece, Amie would say, Crapsnackles, that wasn’t good at all.

  “I suppose it would be,” she said ever so softly. “Should that be the case, of course. The universe does sometimes reuse souls. The really good ones, anyway.” Then she shivered. “And sometimes, the really bad ones too. It’s a balancing act that we aren’t supposed to interfere in.”

  She’d warned us of that kind of thing before. It’s why she depended on her followers to do the right thing. As it turned out, her hands were tied as to just how much help she could give us on the earthly plane without opening doors for the other, not so nice, deities to help their followers in the same manner.

  That could be bad. Better to ignore this part of the conversation and get things back on track.

  “Baby Pearl is doing very well. Thank you for asking. She recently started sleeping almost all night long. We’ve got her down to a single midnight bottle. That’s a lifesaver, that is.”

  She grinned at me. “Yes, hearing a baby cry every two hours isn’t very conducive to a restful night’s sleep.” The grin faded. “I’m actually quite grateful that you invited Kimberly and her children in to live with you. She needs family right now.”

  “Raising a baby is hard. I truly think the only way Sapphire and I made it through was because we double-teamed it. Without her by my side, it would have been a lot rougher. Even if having her there added another baby to the mix.”

  The Goddess nodded. “There is a reason they say it takes a village to raise a child. It’s far too much to ask one person to do it alone.”

  I agreed one hundred percent with that. “Well, she isn’t alone. Not anymore. And not ever again, if I have my say in it.” And it wasn’t just because of Baby Pearl, either. I’d grown to love her mother too.

  “Yes, but I wanted you to know that I’m grateful all the same. All of you need to stay close now.”

  My eyes widened. “Should the girls move back home?”

  She laughed, but there really wasn’t much mirth in it this time. “Things aren’t quite that dire yet, but you do need to stay in touch. A weekly call-in at the very least. And keep an eye on those bracelets.”

  “Weekly call-ins make sense for Sapphire and Amie, but I’ll be seeing Ruby on a more regular basis than that, won’t I?”

  When she didn’t meet my eyes, I finally faced the truth of things. It was as I had feared this past couple of months. Ruby had no intention of coming back to work at the shop. But she was probably too afraid of hurting me to tell me that. Not telling me hurt more.

  “I see.”

  “Please don’t blame her. I know that you don’t realize this, but your mother went through the same thing when you and Sapphire moved into the farmhouse. There was a time when she felt you had abandoned her. That’s why I said you need to stay close. If they don’t call you or come visit, remember back to your days of youth. Call and visit them instead. Roads work both ways, Opal. Don’t let pride keep you apart.”

  “Mom really felt that way?” My heart felt heavy. It’s hard to learn things like that when it was far too late to rectify them.

  She reached over and patted my hand. “She also understood that the two of you had to make your own way in the world. Your own mark. She got that. But now it’s your turn to understand.”

  I swallowed. If one really swallows in dreams. It felt like I did, anyway.

  But the pain in my heart didn’t go away. It felt a little like it was trying to burn through my skin. Then I realized the heat wasn’t coming from the inside of me. It was coming from the pendant.

  Someone was in the shop.

  The Goddess reached out and touched my forehead, and I woke up already reaching for my phone.

  Chapter 5

  Time was of the essence. I wanted to face my shop’s burglar one on one. Well, one on two, as my first call had been to Orville. No sense giving the perp time to get away.

  I didn’t even bother getting dressed. My coat went on directly over my nightgown, and I was in the car and headed into town.

  The sheriff’s vehicle was already at the back of the shop and the back door was standing wide open. I rushed in, looking around quickly. Nothing and no one but Orville.

  “Don’t tell me they got away.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it looks that way. I’ve done a light search and don’t see anyone in here, but I’ve got a couple of men on the way to do a more thorough job of it.”

  Even as he spoke th
e words, the men came through the door. Orville put one of them to searching the upstairs and the other at the back door in case the perp was still in here and got past the rest of us.

  We took the downstairs.

  He glanced over at me. “It’s plenty warm in here if you want to take off your coat first.”

  I just looked at him. That would not happen anytime soon.

  After a few seconds, blood started creeping into his cheeks. “You aren’t naked under that coat, are you?”

  Luckily, he had the presence of mind to lower his voice before asking. We really didn’t want the deputies to hear that.

  I tilted my head, my eyes never leaving his. “Would it be so bad if I was?” After all, I am a witch. He knows that I’m in no way ashamed of the body my Goddess gave me.

  He glanced behind him at the officer standing by the back door. “Not if we were alone, no.” He paused. “Maybe you’d better just keep that coat right where it is.”

  “That was my plan,” I said, nodding. I wasn’t about to tell him that I wasn’t naked under the heavy winter coat. The reality was far worse, in my eyes.

  Let’s just say that my nightgown was a tad bit old fashioned. Not the kind one wears to entice the man one cares about. It would be a chilly day in you know where before I willingly let Orville see me in it.

  I didn’t want Orville to start looking at me like I was an old lady, and my current getup could start that process. I wanted him to keep on looking at me like I was... well, not old anyway.

  We’d been moving during our short conversation. Through the curtain and out into the main shop. Our main goal at this point was to be sure the burglar wasn’t still inside. After ten minutes of active searching, that possibility was quickly ruled out.

  Whoever it was, they hadn’t stuck around.

  “Did that ward of yours make some kind of noise to warn them off?”

  “No. I wanted to catch the dirty little devil red-handed.”

  He nodded and looked around us. “Didn’t work all that well, did it?”

  “It did not.”

  We ducked back through the curtain into the back room. The other deputies were standing by the back door.

  “Do we have any idea what they were after?” One of them asked.

  I glanced over at my wall of shelves, but there were no gaping holes to indicate missing jars or vials. It was Orville who saw it first.

  “The drawer is gone.”

  My eyes snapped over to my desk. Crap. He was right. The whole stinking drawer was missing.

  He hunched down in front of the desk and gave it a look over. “They didn’t seem to damage the rest of the desk more than a few scratches. Should be repairable if you can get a woodworker to make a drawer replacement for you.”

  I was thinking it simply wasn’t worth it. It’s not like the desk was some priceless antique or anything. I’d just liked the look of it. Of course, that was when it had all its drawers.

  “I’m thinking maybe we were wrong, sheriff. I’m thinking this has to be more than some college prank.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’m thinking the same thing.”

  “What was in the drawer? Why didn’t they just take that and leave the drawer?”

  I jumped at the voice directly over my shoulder. Orville’s men were good. They were so quiet, at the moment, I’d forgotten they were even there.

  “Because the drawer was empty,” Orville told him. “There was a break in here two nights ago too. Then they just damaged the drawer, but must not have been able to get it out of the desk. This time they did.”

  “Probably Googled how to do that.”

  Orville nodded. “Probably.” Then he looked over at me. “That’s a computer term. Means they went online for information.”

  He rarely got the Ravenswind stare, but he did now. Not that it phased him. My man was pretty much unflappable.

  After a minute with his men, while I stood staring at the offending hole in my new desk, he sent them back to their regular rounds and came to stand beside me.

  “Don’t suppose you’ve come up with an alternative theory as to what this is all about?”

  I blew out a long breath and shook my head. “Not a dadgum clue. You?”

  “I got nothing. I mean, we checked that drawer. There was nothing in it, and nothing special about it at all. So why go to the risk of breaking into a shop not once, but twice just to take that middle left-hand drawer? Makes absolutely no sense at all.”

  I was with him on that one.

  Not one lick of sense at all.

  SOMETHING THE SHERIFF said was bothering me, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Then again, maybe I’d think of it in the morning when my brain had finally gotten a few hours of non-Goddess-interrupted sleep. But that brought up a point.

  Staring at the broken door, I realized there was no good way to lock up and go home. And I really didn’t want to spend a second night here at the shop. Yes, I was quite sure that Orville would offer to keep me company. In fact, he would likely insist on it for security purposes. And I was doubtful that I could keep my coat on all night long.

  Darn granny nightgown, anyway.

  It took me a minute to realize that while I was staring at the broken door, Orville was staring at me.

  “You look beat.”

  I nodded. “Feel beat too.”

  He walked over and set the door back into place, but of course, it wouldn’t stay latched. Looking around, his eyes lit on the desk. “Why don’t we scoot that desk over here and brace the door closed with it?”

  Sounded like a plan to me. Within a few minutes, we were standing looking over our makeshift door barrier. It should hold pretty darn good. But then it hit me that all they really had to do was break the window, and they’d be in again.

  “I’m thinking that maybe this time they got what they came for. How about you?”

  I shrugged. “I really can’t see why they came for an empty drawer, but it seems to be what they wanted. You think we’d be safe to go out the front and leave fixing the door for tomorrow?”

  “I’m thinking so. And I can have my men do periodic drives around the shop tonight too, just in case.” He hesitated. “But if there is anything in here worth a lot of money, you might want to take it home with you.”

  My eyes went to the tiny bottle of dragon scale. Yeah, that was going in my purse for sure.

  Holding it up for him to see, I said. “This is pretty much irreplaceable. The rest is insured. Let’s go home.”

  He held the front door open for me, then looked down at me. “Are you really naked under that coat?”

  I grinned at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Then I got in my car and drove back to the farmhouse. I was really hoping that the amulet charm stayed cool for the rest of the night. Morning, too, for that matter, since technically that was what it almost was now.

  The little hanging pendulum clock in my front room was just starting to strike twelve when I walked in the front door. Time for baby Pearl’s midnight bottle. I warmed up a bottle from the fridge and then walked upstairs to collect Pearl. Sure enough, her eyes were wide open and watching the door.

  If I’d waited a few more minutes, the baby screeching would have woken the entire house. Timing is everything. I changed her diaper and then sat in the rocking chair we’d placed by her crib to make the midnight feedings a little easier.

  Pearl was halfway through the bottle when Kimberly came stumbling in from her bedroom. She looked at me in surprise.

  “Did she cry out? I’m so sorry if I slept through it.”

  “You didn’t. I just got back from the shop. We had another break-in. They got the drawer out this time but didn’t seem to take anything else. They broke down the back door, though.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “Is the shop okay to just leave open?” She yawned. “Should I go and stay there tonight?”

  “We got the back door secured enough for the night. I think,
anyway.” I smiled at her. “And I’ve got this. Go back to bed. Me and baby Pearl are just fine.”

  Kimberly yawned again. “Well, if you’re sure. Thanks.” Then she walked back into her bedroom and half closed the door. She always left it partly open. Not that it mattered. That was her room. I wouldn’t go into it without her permission any more than she’d go into my bedroom without mine.

  We respected each other’s privacy. That was important. Even in families.

  Maybe especially in families.

  I looked down at baby Pearl. The bottle was now almost empty, and she was nodding off. Time to burp. I threw the cloth diaper we kept on the arm of the rocking chair over my shoulder and lifted her into prime burping position. It didn’t take long.

  Once I had her all swaddled back up, I laid her back in her crib. She was out like a light. If she followed her new routine, we wouldn’t hear another peep out of her until time to get up for the day and get moving ourselves.

  Nancy insisted on handling that feeding. She was really enjoying having a baby sister. Even if they weren’t related by blood. As long as they were all living in the same house, she considered them to be sisters.

  I had a feeling that wouldn’t change even if Kimberly grew tired of the arrangement and moved out. But I was truly hoping that wouldn’t happen. I liked having a full house.

  As I laid down in my own bed, I made sure the amulet around my neck was turned so that the gem was resting on my chest.

  Hopefully, it would stay nice and cool.

  I needed some sleep.

  Chapter 6

  Everything ran smooth as clockwork the next morning. I got a few hours of uninterrupted sleep before the alarm went off. And just so you know, my alarm is Bridget. That bird hasn’t missed a morning yet, getting me up on schedule.

  She was very particular about getting a timely breakfast.

  I filled her little food bowl, scratched her chin for a minute while I finished waking up, and then headed in for a quick shower. With so many people in the house, the showers had to be quick, or the hot water ran out. Luckily, Bridget went off before the other’s alarms, so I always had the first run. No cold showers for me.