by K. M. Waller
“What’s this month’s theme?”
She glanced at her hand and picked at the edge of a fingernail. “She’s celebrating the town’s creation, which she believes was set up by a group who fled religious persecution from Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1700s.”
“The less popular Hartford witch trials?”
Her face pinched. “Most people wouldn’t know that. The mayor’s daughter had to research it to set up the display in the library.”
“I minored in history at university.” He had to be careful not to reveal too much about the real Lex. Thanks to Gramps’ obsession with witches during Lex’s younger years, he’d forgotten more than the average person knew about the magical creatures.
An annoyingly loud clock behind him cuckooed. Amira stood and motioned to the door. “It’s getting late, and I have some things to attend to at home. Thank you for your interest, Mr. Dimas.”
They’d gotten off to a bumpy start, but he surmised he could feign interest for a few days if that was what it took to set up a base of operations. Knowing when to bow out and regroup, he followed her to the exit.
She offered her hand and when their skin connected the agency’s amulet hanging low around his neck heated in response. Very hot. A vision flashed through his head, the images smashing into each other. Three older women and three younger women. One of those women being Amira.
Bingo. He’d walked right into the witches’ den.
Amira tugged her hand away from his and opened the door. “Have a nice evening.”
“Yeah, you’ve given me a lot to think about,” he mumbled, stepping out into the rain.
A click of the lock let him know he’d been dismissed. From the sidewalk, Lex let his gaze roam up and down Amira as she wiggled goodbye fingers at him before she stalked off toward the back of the store.
His three second assessment was that she appeared normal.
Nothing spectacular stood out in any way. If you didn’t count the sparkling blue eyes that held a huge amount of distrust, or the slight cleavage peeking through at the top of an ivory button up sweater. The petite blonde really looked like a tea room owner and not a witch. A very pretty tea room owner. And about fifty to sixty years shy of what he’d been led to believe of the three “ancient” witches. Either the assignment seer had the facts screwed, or Lex had the wrong woman.
The LSP amulet wouldn’t lead him astray, though. If Sparsh guaranteed it connected with the assignment, then Amira had to be part of the assignment. He focused hard on the vision. There’d been three older women then the faces had transformed into the younger ones.
That’s it. The witch used a glamour spell to disguise her age. The perfect way for a one-hundred-year-old woman to hide in plain sight. No wonder no one from the LSP had any useable data for the Burberry witches. So, the good girl act had likely been just an act. And he’d almost been drawn in by her chocolate cake and sweet mannerisms. The chocolate cake was probably filled with some type of potion. Good thing he had the amulet to ward off any magic.
A shot of adrenaline coursed through his blood. Amazement set in and not much had amazed him since he’d been fifteen and seen his first werewolf transform. These women had to be very powerful. Witches weren’t known for holding a transformation glamour that could de-age them that much.
The earlier reluctance to accept the mission dissipated. If they harmed the townsfolk of Burberry, unmasking and taking down the three witches of Burberry would be a worthy challenge. Witches who tossed around their magic like chocolate sprinkles on top of that magnificent cake had to be guilty of something bigger than love spells in order to gain the attention of the Council. He’d have to come up with a plan to get closer. Keeping an eye on Amira wouldn’t be a hardship, but catching her in the act of witchcraft was the assignment. And where there was one witch, the other two would be nearby.
When the lights at the front of the store went out, he saw his reflection in the glass. The smile on his face surprised him. He should quit cursing Gramps. An assignment this intriguing was exactly what he needed. Like a vacation from the real world.
Lex dialed Jordie. “Find out where Amira Walker lives. Then find a close house for me to rent within walking distance. Have a suitcase with essentials shipped to Burberry. I want to be set up by the day after tomorrow.”
Chapter Three
Amira hid in the shadows by the door and rubbed her hand. A shock much like static electricity had zinged up her arm during their handshake. Now her moon pendant felt warm against her skin. Magic.
Why was he still out there, grinning at the shop? The heavy drops of rain soaked his dress shirt. Oh, yeah, definitely the great-aunts at work. Had to be. No way in all of mother earth would a man that rich, powerful, and single walk into her insignificant store of his own free will. She started to worry when he didn’t move for a full minute. Poor guy. She hoped whatever her aunts had done to him hadn’t turned his brain to complete mush. She had to fix this and fast.
But what if she were wrong? What if the entire incident was a coincidence? Could a zing like that be her imagination? It wouldn’t hurt to be prepared, just in case. Grasping her cell phone in her hand, she hesitated. If she were right, she’d need magic to combat magic, and asking her sisters to do what they’d always tried to avoid wasn’t right. Or fair. Lex Dimas had stumbled into her tea room because of her for sale ad, and now she’d have to take care of this mess on her own.
She locked up the back door and dashed through the rain to her car.
On her drive home, she tried to convince herself that maybe Lex would just leave town. Especially after the way she’d ousted him from the store. If he was legit, he’d understand that the property would have contingencies he couldn’t get around. Halfway through the tour, he’d been unable to fake interest while she spoke. Not that she could blame him. Lately her mind wandered off when someone tried to discuss the Tea Haven with her.
But in the end, he’d held her hand for a lot longer than necessary, and he’d had a glossy sheen to his eyes that made her think something was off. Plus, that zing.
As much as she detested the idea, Amira would turn to the books. The family spell books were locked tight in the basement of her home for safekeeping.
She pulled into the drive and for a change, viewed it as just an empty house. Funny how she couldn’t stop calling it a “family home” when she lived there alone. The house where she and her sisters used to run through the kitchen stealing fresh-baked cookies or other sweet creations from the counter had been a place full of laughter and adventure.
Until her parents had passed, one right after the other the year she’d turned fifteen. Magic and curses had left the sisters orphans.
She stepped onto the front porch, and before she could get her key in the door, happy yipping, a few meows, and an angry squawk from her parrot greeted her from the other side. Upon entering the house, she had a total Ace Ventura moment when all her adopted pets welcomed her with a chorus of animal hellos, leg rubs, and a drop of bird poop on her shoulder.
A note on the side table let her know her pet care neighbor, Judy, had done the walking and feeding for the evening. All that was left for Amira to do was to share some love, change out of her now-soiled sweater, microwave a sad dinner for one, and head to the basement.
The basement. The one place the three girls had never spent any time as children or adults. Her mother and her great-aunts had met there and discussed spells, how to keep their abilities a secret from regular folks, and how to keep the bloodlines going. It was a serious place, not one of laughter or happiness. Quite frankly, it gave Amira the creeps. Not even her menagerie of pets would go down there.
Clicking her tongue, she focused on the present situation. There was no time to dwell. She had to find a counterspell to squash whatever hex or incantation had been cast on the out-of-place real estate mogul. It looked as if the charmed necklaces were no longer enough protection from the aunts. With her twenty-ninth birthday less than a mo
nth away, the aunts must feel pressured to make her a love match. If she could elude their attempts for thirteen months, her future children wouldn’t have an ounce of magic in them.
The room loomed large and empty like an abyss ready to swallow her whole. Except for the safe in the back of the room, only a few boxes containing childhood memorabilia sat in one corner. Amira had removed every trace of witchcraft after the aunts and her sisters had moved out. The safe housed the books of spells, along with her mother’s talisman. She smiled as she punched the six numbers of her father’s birthday into the combination panel. Dad would’ve been sixty-four this year.
The door creaked open to a stack of four well-worn journals and a sparrow carved out of translucent green crystal that hung by a leather cord on a black necklace stand. She ran her thumb over the little green bird, the ache of losing her parents ever present.
Amira grabbed the grimoires and wondered if there hadn’t been more than four books before her aunts left the house. She slipped her mom’s necklace over her head and hustled back up the stairs. If she was going to look through otherworldly spells, it wouldn’t be in the creepy basement.
Several hours and one crick in the neck later, she flopped back on her couch and was immediately covered by her two mixed-breed rescue pooches, Jekyllpup and Hydepup, each appropriately named for their temperaments. She’d read through a ton of spells, most handwritten by her mother and great-aunts. The notes on candle magic were vague. The color-changing flame could’ve meant anything from indigestion to impending doom. The spells hadn’t been pertinent to removing a love hex. They included everything from curing anxiety to causing fifty years of soul-wrenching anguish. Amira grimaced. Who in their right mind would do such a thing to another human being?
She petted fuzzy heads and cooed at her pups. It was hopeless. How could she ever think she’d be able to conjure up powers she’d long denied? The deflection spell they’d practiced in the past only kept spells from attaching to the sisters but didn’t unspell others.
The clock chimed midnight. She needed sleep before beginning the Tea Haven’s pre-opening chores at seven a.m., and began to stack the spell books one on top of the other to return them to the safe. As she bent over to gather them in her arms, her bird swooped down and nipped her hand. Amira jumped, her arms flailing, and knocked the books to the floor.
“Clara!” A drop of blood escaped the wound, but Amira’s pride was hurt worse than anything else. None of her rescue pets were biters. She couldn’t imagine what had prompted such a fierce reaction from the parrot.
After a quick cleanup and a small bandage, Amira returned to pick up the spell books now lying haphazardly across the floor. Scraps of paper and notes had scattered in every direction. Her lazy feline friend, now curious as to all the commotion, moved to sit on the piece of paper that had floated closest to the hallway. Amira reached to pull the small scrap of paper from the cat’s butt when Sugar Plum hissed and batted her hand.
“What is it with everyone tonight?” She shooed Sugar Plum and picked up the paper. Turning it over, she read the title, A spell of indifference: How to make an admirer change his affections.
Whoa, momma. She’d hit pay dirt. She glanced at Sugar Plum, who hiked her leg up over her head and licked away at her calico fur. Likewise, Clara sat on her perch and preened her feathers. H-pup and J-pup snored on the couch. If she were a bigger believer in all things connected in a witchy yet holistic way, she’d think two of her pets had just teamed up to point her to a spell.
She shook her head and sank onto the couch cushions between her dogs. According to the spell, she needed a single hair from the body of the admirer. Okay, that crossed the line into creepy and gross. The other herbs she’d be able to get from a little homeopath grocer a few stores down from hers. Put it all in a bowl, add melted wax from her candle, and chant a few rhyming words. I can so do this. But only if necessary, as the spell came with a warning. Could remove all emotions for several weeks if improperly performed. Typical. Magic always came with consequences. If forced to use it, she’d just have to make sure she performed it properly.
Amira went to bed feeling a little more optimistic. She could keep this situation under control and no one would be the wiser. If Lex Dimas was still around in the morning, she’d whip this up and send her great-aunts’ secret weapon on his way.
∞∞∞
Two days later, Amira clipped leashes on Jekyllpup and Hydepup and stepped out her front door to deliver them to Judy for the morning walk. She inhaled the fresh sea air wafting in from the Atlantic and the tension in her muscles relaxed. Two days of worrying for nothing.
High-pitched giggles from the side of her wraparound porch brought her up short. A man and woman’s voices mingled and drifted toward her as she locked the door.
She crept around the corner and almost swallowed her tongue. The richest, sexiest man alive stood on her porch, while his silver BMW blocked in her neat and tidy Volvo.
Mother of goddesses.
Judy noticed her first. “Amira, you didn’t tell me you were selling the Tea Haven.” The woman twice her age smiled and batted her thin lashes at Lex. He winked at Judy, inducing another tumble of giggles.
Amira rolled her eyes before leveling her gaze on the Greek hotness. “It’s not public knowledge. Please don’t tell my sisters. Mr. Dimas, what are you doing here?”
He met her stare with his dark gaze but never lost his smile. “I’ve cleared some space on my calendar to give purchasing the Tea Haven my full attention. And, please, call me Lex.”
She resisted the urge to adjust her sweater or smooth out imaginary wrinkles on her skirt to hide her discomfort. He looked just as glamorous today as the first time they’d met. In fact, he looked like he’d just stepped out of the magazine where she’d first seen him. He wore a light blue button-down dress shirt with the sleeves rolled a quarter of the way up, dark blue slacks, and what she was sure were Italian leather shoes. Sunglasses hung from his shirt pocket.
Amazing.
Jekyllpup whined at her feet and thumped his tail. Amira held out the end of the leashes. “Judy, would you mind taking the boys on their walk?”
Judy cast one last longing glance over her shoulder before taking the leashes.
Unbelievable. The woman was married, for goodness’ sake.
Amira saw the appeal the same as Judy, but she wouldn’t be pulled into his snare. She’d resist the urge to grin or bat her eyes. All Lex’s charm could come from a spell. In reality, he could be a total jerk-wad. Holding on to that thought, she attempted reasoning with him one more time, giving him the opportunity to escape.
“It’s possible we had a misunderstanding of the terms regarding the sale of the Tea Haven, but that doesn’t explain why you are standing on my porch at the butt-crack of dawn.” Please say something reasonable so I don’t have to unspell you.
His smile widened. “I thought we could ride in to the shop together and you could show me how things run. The books, and such.”
It was as bad as she’d thought. “So you are serious about purchasing Haven?”
“I own many properties overseen by management teams. I just prefer to do the actual contract negotiations myself. I like to get firsthand knowledge of how operations work. That way I know exactly what I’m getting.”
Hmm, that actually made sense.
He leaned against the porch rail a few inches away from her. As Amira caught his scent, the slightest hint of expensive cologne and yummy male assaulted her senses. Her temperature rose about a thousand degrees.
Resist! her conscience screamed. Focus on the humiliation of having four prom dates show up at the door, all claiming to want to be her escort—all falling prey to her being spelled by the great-aunts. The boys had all walked away confused as soon as she and Ally had rushed into the bathroom and said the deflection spell. Hexing an innocent like Lex had taken the aunts’ desperation to see the family magic passed on to the girls’ offspring to a new low.
> “I, um…” How was she going to get out of this? She’d promised to meet her sisters for breakfast before their days started to confess about selling. Now that Judy knew, it wouldn’t be long before the news spread through Burberry.
Lex was the last person she needed on her arm when she entered the store.
Judy reappeared at the bottom of the steps, her accompanying giggle now a trademark feature of annoyance. “I guess the boys didn’t have to go this morning.” She shoved the leashes into Amira’s hands and found a way to squeeze between Amira and Lex.
Amira should have appreciated the separation but couldn’t help the twinge of jealousy that made the hair on her arms stand up.
Arm hair. She needed his for the spell. If she could shimmy up close enough to him and pretend to…to—what? Pick off a bug or piece of lint? Touching him could set off another zing. Had he felt the spark the other night too?
Jekyllpup tugged at the leash and Hydepup waddled his way over to sniff at the bottom of Lex’s designer trousers.
“Oh, he likes you. How adorable,” Judy cooed.
“Yeah, hi there, little guy.” Lex looked at the one-eyed, overweight pup like he was an alien. Hydepup must have sensed they were not kindred spirits and lifted his leg to pee on Lex.
Amira let loose a hoot of laughter that was somewhat out of the norm for her, then immediately regretted it. Where had that come from? “I’m so sorry. It’s not funny. He’s so temperamental.” She retracted the leashes, gently pulling both dogs closer.
“Let me take them inside, dear.” Judy sobered up, most likely realizing that if she’d taken them for a proper walk, no one would be on the receiving end of a pee bath.
Amazingly, Lex didn’t lose his cool, despite his expensive shoes and designer slacks being ruined. He shook his head and turned his megawatt smile back on. “I guess I need to change before we get started.”
