The long breath she took wouldn’t ease the pain in her heart, but it was worth a shot.
Valerie took Krystal’s coffee mug from the counter. “Let me charm this so you can at least think straight.”
She shot out her hand to stop her friend. “No,” she said. “I don’t want to be charmed.”
“Why not?” Valerie asked. “You’d do the same for any other customer that would come in with a broken heart.”
“Because… I don’t want my reality to be watered down. I don’t like this pain, but masking it won’t help me now.”
Her two friends looked at her as if she were a masochist. Maybe she was. All Krystal knew was that if Devin was in her shoes, he wouldn’t want his coffee charmed. He’d want to feel this pain to its fullest extent. He’d want to experience every agonizing lurch of his guts when he thought of what caused his heart to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces.
Krystal had charmed herself too many times and she knew plenty about sorrow. Seeing how much Devin had been through and survived without the aid of magic, she knew she could survive this.
The familiar bird song ringtone cut through the silence of the coffee shop. She reached down hastily to her purse and saw it was Sierra calling. Her heartbeat rose into her throat. Sierra didn’t come home the night before from the costume party she went to with the other girls from the salon. At first, Krystal just wanted to assume that she got drunk and spent the night over there. It was unlike Sierra to not send a single text to let her know.
“It’s my sister,” she told the others and hit the green button before it could go to voicemail.
“Where are you?” she nearly screeched into the receiver.
“I’m at the police station.”
The light quiver in her elder sister’s voice stifled every bit of anger she might have had. “What’s going on? Did you get arrested?”
“No,” she said a little calmer this time. “No, I didn’t get arrested. I was attacked last night. I’m fine and I’ve been to the hospital, but I need you to come get me. I left my car at Monica’s house.”
Krystal’s hand flew to grip at the collar of her sweater. “Who attacked you? What happened?”
“Krystal,” Sierra barked in that voice she used whenever her little sister was getting frenetic. “I will explain everything when you get here. Please, just come and get me.” She agreed and ended the call.
Questions came flying at her from the other two witches, but Krystal silenced them. “I don’t know anything yet. I will tell you when we get back.” She grabbed her purse. Then it occurred to her, she had walked to work. She turned back around. “Can I borrow your – “ Alexa was already throwing her keys and Krystal caught them.
She had a pretty good idea of what must have happened, but Krystal didn’t want to assume anything. It was Halloween, after all, and there were always creeps, even in Goldcrest Cove. Krystal just hoped to Gaia that whoever attacked her sister was ready to pay for it. This might have been the excuse they needed to get involved.
The police station was fairly empty that morning. The officers were already on their patrol circuits. Only Aaron, Devin, and the chief remained to look after Sierra and fill out the last of the reports detailing her attack. In the open office space that Devin and several of the other officers shared, desks were situated in two long rows. File cabinets lined the back wall where they kept every traffic stop, ticket duplicate, and other reports.
Devin watched Sierra from across the hall as he poured himself another cup of coffee from the station’s only coffeemaker. It was so old that it rarely worked, and even when it did, there were always grounds left in the bottom of his cup. It was either drink the subpar coffee or go to Perfect Books and Brews, which he wasn’t ready to do just yet. Even the thought of seeing Krystal within mere moments didn’t thrill him in the same way anymore.
He loved her. He knew that now. Witch or no witch, he loved her, and it confused the shit out of him. He had loved her all along. He didn’t realize it until last night when she confessed she was willing to throw away her family’s approval and everything they expected of her. That was before they had sex.
Last night, they had made a connection. He couldn’t explain it or put it into proper words that anyone would understand. If it were possible, Devin was more drawn to her now than ever. When they made love on the sofa in her living room, he had felt something come alive deep within him. Call it a soul, spirit, essence, whatever. When it came alive, burning like a smoldering coal within him, it was like he could breathe for the first time. He felt the world more vividly now. Every color brighter, every sense heightened. Every nerve lay bare and raw, ready to be torn to pieces by this love that gripped him so tightly. And it did tear him apart. Learning Krystal’s truth injured him far more deeply than he would ever let anyone know. She couldn’t help being what she was, and he couldn’t help but love her anyway.
He loved her long before that, though. Devin loved her when she admitted the rose wasn’t the ideal present for her. He loved her when she was willing to face her fears just to be with him. He loved her when they were cooking dinner together in her kitchen. He loved everything about her from the way her nose wrinkled when she laughed to the way she spoke her mind to how she looked at him with those captivating, bewitching brown eyes.
Maybe she never cast a spell on him, but she certainly charmed him even before they officially met. Devin had been waiting all his life for a woman like Krystal. It seemed to be just his luck that he should fall for a girl he couldn’t have.
He poured the second cup and made his way back to his desk where he told Sierra to wait for her sister. Her stare was unfocused and far away, as if her mind were somewhere else. No doubt, she was thinking of the attack. If only she would tell him more. He wasn’t buying that she didn’t see the guy at all.
Aaron, who happened to be on patrol last night, came upon Sierra and the man, and they had already been in the middle of a tussle. It was a lucky break that he happened to be there, or Sierra might have been hurt more. As it was, the nasty bruises on her neck told the story of a violent struggle that could have killed her. It was just one of the other injuries she had in common with the two corpses they had found already.
Devin wondered if he should tell Sierra that he knew about her and her family. Maybe it would get her to open up a little more. He was content to try a gesture of kindness first.
“Here,” he said, offering out the hot cup to her. “You look like you need this.”
Sierra came out of the fog for a moment to simply look at the cup. “I don’t drink coffee.”
Devin cracked a smile. “Your sister owns a coffee shop and you don’t drink coffee?” he asked as he sat down in his swivel office chair across from her. He set the cup down in front of her while he took a sip of his own. Bitter, nasty stuff. It was hard not to make a face when it touched his tongue.
The older witch pointed at him. “That’s why.”
He swallowed and chuckled. “Well, it gets me through the day.”
“Black coffee, right?” she said. “No sugar, no cream, nothing.”
He nodded. “Yep. Krystal tell you that?”
“Yeah. The last I heard, you two weren’t talking. Care to explain that?”
It was unlikely that she knew anything about what happened last night. Aaron picked her up around ten o’clock, which was shortly after he left Krystal’s house. She must have been talking about how Krystal had told him to give her time to think. She didn’t know, though, that Devin knew all about that. About her special magic and the big decision she had to make as witch trying to have a relationship with an unimpressive mortal like him.
“You tell me,” he said, taking another sip. After a few gulps, it all started to taste the same and it wasn’t so bad.
Sierra smiled sweetly. “Whatever you think is going on, it has nothing to do with you.”
“That’s what she said, but it’s like that old saying girls give when they’re ready to
break up. They say, ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ And I’m wondering if that’s pretty much where this is headed.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head, rather lucid now that she was sitting in front of the cop.
“Krystal’s too crazy about you to ever do that.”
He wondered how far he could push this conversation without fully showing his hand. “What if I told you that I got this feeling she was hesitant about being with me? I am a cop. It wouldn’t the first time someone’s dumped me because of my line of work.”
Sierra made a dubious face. “Really? You think that she would dump you just because of your job? Sorry, but my sister isn’t that shallow.”
“So, you don’t think she would dump me because I was different than her? Even if your parents disapprove of me?”
A glint of something unreadable shone in Sierra’s eye, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. “I know she wouldn’t. You don’t know her as well as I do. She’s always been a bit of a rebel, ever since she was little. She was better behaved than I was, that’s for sure, but she hated to follow anyone else’s rules but her own. When she started the coffee shop, our mom had a fit.”
His brows shot up. “Really?” Krystal had told him that none of her family knew about her mission when initially starting up the coffee shop. That meant her mother hadn’t been as truly supportive as she had led him to believe. Why would her family not want her to follow her dream or own her own business like that? Did it have to do with this witch council thing she mentioned?
“Really. Our parents thought having her own business wasn’t a safe or smart idea. No one in our family ever started their own business. They always worked under someone else or worked their way up the ladder for another company. They never started from scratch. Krystal did it first, and then I followed her. We are the first women in our family to ever have something of our own.” Sierra leaned forward. “Krystal wanted that coffee shop bad enough to defy our parents. She certainly wants you bad enough that she’d do it again.”
It confirmed what Krystal had said the night before. Somehow, he had wondered if she was just saying those things to make him more at ease about this whole witch thing. Now he knew. It wasn’t just something she said. She meant it with all her heart. If her sister could testify to that, then perhaps he needed to give this more thought.
Devin had to ask himself whether he would be okay with having a witch for a girlfriend, for a wife, for a lover. Was he okay with being part of this new and fantastic world that he knew absolutely nothing about? That tiny, impulsive voice in his head, the voice of the man who let his emotions run wild without logic or reason, screamed that he should take the chance. Take Krystal for himself before she changed her mind.
That was the struggle that led him to this place where his heart and his mind competed for the final say. Would he take her hand and accept this, or would he turn away? He knew which path was easier, but since when had he done anything the easy way?
He heard the police station doors swing open and he stood from his chair as he saw the flash of blue dash down the hall.
“Krystal!” he shouted as she was running in the wrong direction, toward the chief’s office.
She skidded to a stop and then trotted back to the open glass door. Sierra ran to embrace her, and Devin thought he saw Krystal’s eyes wetted with impending tears. Those same tears he saw film over her eyes last night.
He wasn’t sure whether to stick around and try to eavesdrop for any extra clue Sierra might drop to her sister, or leave the office to give them some private time. While still in the middle of deciding, Krystal looked up and met his stare.
She gave him a weak smile and mouthed a thank you, even though he didn’t do anything but question Sierra.
Above all, he needed to know if the killer was Father Frank. One thing that didn’t match up with the other murders, was that Father Frank didn’t talk with Sierra like he had with the other two victims. The priest had his alibi for the first murder, but not for the second. He claimed he was home when Harry Middleton was murdered, but no one else could confirm that. If Sierra could have IDed the man, who didn’t even wear a mask to cover his face, then maybe they could at least get a sketch of the perp.
No such luck. For whatever reason, Sierra wasn’t telling him shit about the killer and he couldn’t figure out why. According to Aaron, she had looked straight at him. Unfortunately, his partner didn’t get a good glimpse either.
“Does she need to stay for anything else?” Krystal asked after she and Sierra had exchanged a few words that he couldn’t quite make out from where he stood.
“Not unless she has anything else she needs to tell me.” He gave a pointed look to Sierra, but the witch just shook her head.
“I told you everything I know.”
Devin wasn’t buying it, but torture was illegal in the states, so he couldn’t force the truth out of her. For Sierra’s sake, he hoped that she wasn’t covering for anyone. That would mean she was abetting a murderer. If anyone found out, Krystal would lose her sister to the system and Sierra would go to jail for a long time.
As soon as the Volkswagen car doors were closed, the sisters turned to one another.
“What happened?” they asked in unison.
Krystal gave her sister a perplexed look. “You just got attacked and you’re asking me what happened?”
Sierra waved her hands. “Devin was acting all weird, but we can get to that. The guy who attacked me is the same guy who’s been going around killing people.”
That’s what she had been afraid of. Krystal sighed and pressed her palm to her forehead, willing the world to stop spinning. She was losing Devin and now her sister was a target of some psycho serial killer.
“I was leaving the party last night and my phone was dead, so I couldn’t call you,” she began as Krystal cranked up the car. She didn’t want to have this conversation right in front of the police station. “I’ll admit I was a little drunk, so I just decided to walk home. This dude jumped out at me from some bushes on Sandy Lane near the grocery store. He was shouting about vanity or something. He tried to strangle me, but remember I took those kickboxing classes in college? Well, they paid off some, but I was so sloshed, I couldn’t get a good shot on the guy. Aaron was out patrolling, and he scared the guy away.”
Krystal continued down Twin Hills Lane toward the park. “Did you get a good look at the guy?”
Sierra sighed. “Enough to know I don’t recognize the dude. He was kind of short, dark curly hair and dark eyes. Well, everything was dark, so maybe his eyes were different. I don’t know.” Her sister held her head in her hands. “I just can’t believe I came that close to dying.”
“You said he was shouting about vanity? Do you think that has to do with your salon shop?” It lined up with Aaron’s theory about some self-righteous prick trying to pick off sinners in Goldcrest Cove. Though, she hardly considered her sister to be conceited or lavish. Yeah, she knew plenty about what it took to look pretty. But if she really cared about her image, she would have done something about the smeared mascara under her eyes by now.
“I don’t know, maybe.” She gestured toward the road. “When you get to Johnson Avenue, just keep going onto Seaside Drive.”
Krystal slid her sister a look. “I thought you said you wanted to go home?”
Sierra nodded. “I do, right after I go talk to Amber about this asshole.”
“Amber? Why?”
Was the unthinkable happening? Was her sister going to break the cardinal rule of the witches and try to use their powers on non-magic folk?
“She knows how to scry, just like mom does. Before mom gets involved again, I want to find out who this guy is.” She pointed angrily at her little sister. “And don’t you dare tell mom about any of this.”
Yep, her sister had crossed into the deep end. This was a good thing for all of them. Krystal and her friends would finally get their chance to intercede, and she wouldn’t break her
promise to Devin. She said that as long as the killer wasn’t directly affecting her or her family, she would stay out of it. He had to know that this was her loophole. They could all pitch in with their magic to help the police. Then, maybe Devin would see that witches were a good thing for this community and he wouldn’t be so hesitant about being with her.
Krystal went silent and when she turned onto Reichman Street to head toward Main Street and Johnson Avenue, she took a deep breath. “I want to go with you, but not right now.”
Sierra wagged her head. “Excuse me? No, you’re taking me to Ambers today.”
“It’s too early,” she said. “Rose House is going to still be packed with guests. Wait until the afternoon or evening after some have already checked out. Then, you can go, and I’ll go with you. Alexa and Valerie too.”
“Hell no!” she shouted. “I’m not getting any of you involved. This is my fight.”
“This is our fight!” Krystal screamed back, feeling the fiery heat of irritation pour from her. “This guy threatened my sister. Do you really think I’m just going to let that slide? If mom were here, she’d agree that this is our business. This is our town and this guy can’t just come in here and start killing innocent people.”
That seemed to quiet Sierra, and Krystal couldn’t help but feel a bit victorious. She finally shut her sister up. Then again, she might have just stunned her sister into silence. It was rare, if not unheard of for Krystal to have an outburst like that.
“What was Devin asking about?” she asked.
Sierra shrugged and gave a flippant gesture. “He was asking about you and if you would dump him just because he was a cop or because our family wouldn’t approve of him. I mean, I can see how dad might not think he’s good enough for you but – “
“I told Devin,” Krystal blurted out.
Sierra’s eyes would have popped out of her head if she opened them any wider. “You did what?” she screamed.
She would not be daunted though. “I told him I was a witch and so was my entire family.”
Bewitching Fire Page 23
