Wolves at the Door
Paranormal House Flippers Book Two
Lidiya Foxglove
Copyright © 2020 by Lidiya Foxglove
Cover art © 2020 by Covers by Juan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
35. “Fae Sworn” Preview
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About the Author
Chapter One
Helena
I staggered off the plane from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, dragging my luggage behind me, dying for a nap. I had a layover in Atlanta and I’m pretty sure layovers in Atlanta were bad enough for normal people. But for a witch, it was torture. Technology messed with our heads and our powers. It also made me really, really tired, as if I had jet lag, but I was only one time zone off.
Adding to my stress was the terror that we might lose this house.
Man, did I have a lot to lose. Including a ghost that I was starting to like way more than I should.
As soon as I turned my phone on after walking off the plane, I had missed calls from Graham. It better be good news, I thought, veering toward a coffee place in the terminal.
“Damnit, Helena, I’ve got bad news,” Graham said. “And I’m really pissed off about it, because we had a handshake deal for me to buy this house and now Blanche is jerking me around.”
Blanche Greenwood, the heir of the house we were about to buy, was an old lady who lived in Paris so I had hoped she would just let us take the house off her hands without any issues. “Don’t say that! I want good news only. I just slogged off this airplane.” Despite my exhaustion, I was happy to hear his voice again. Even across a phone line, and even while delivering bad news, his voice was low and sexy and it melted in my ears.
“Well, the Airbnb is very nice,” he said.
I didn’t even care. He was the one who insisted on renting an Airbnb. I usually slept in the houses I was working on. No time for commutes. No money to spare to pay for separate lodgings.
“Double shot espresso, please, and a chocolate croissant,” I told the cashier. “So…what is the bad news?”
“There are now two other offers on the house,” Graham said.
“Two!?”
“Blanche said they’re at one eighty.”
“Who is making these offers?”
“I don’t know. This house is going to take a massive amount of cash. It’s huge and the decor is…insane. It makes Lockwood House look turnkey.”
I swallowed. I wasn’t even going to ask what he meant by ‘insane’. “Well, tell her two hundred and you want to see paperwork,” I said. “Let’s just end it.”
I fully expected Graham to argue with me. He was financially sensible. I was…trying to learn to be financially sensible, and compared to my wealthy family I was a tightwad, but I was starting off from a very bad place. My parents threw around money like it was their god-given right.
Amazingly, he said, “I actually said exactly that.”
“Really? But that wasn’t enough?”
“I’m meeting with the settlement firm to do the paperwork in a few hours,” he said. “But I was hoping you were on board. We’ll need both of our cash resources.” He sounded like he couldn’t believe he was doing this.
“That’s not bad news at all! Why did you lead off in such a horrible way? That’s great news!”
“Great news? We’re spending every last penny we have to buy a derelict mansion in the hopes of finding a magical object that might be so dangerous it destroys our lives, and…we’re also buying a house together when we haven’t been on a single date. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
I was in such a good mood now that I was feeling generous. “Will you feel better if we have dinner? Like, a real dinner that isn’t in a diner?”
“Not really. This is wildly irresponsible. But I will take you up on it because I can’t pass up gumbo and a girl as maddeningly attractive as you.”
“Oh, stop.” I collected my espresso and took a sip. “Owww!”
“You okay?”
“I burnt my tongue. Really badly. Shit. I just really need the caffeine.”
“You would be wise to fall in love with me,” he said. “You need a cooler head in your life.”
“Yeah, but not a swelled one,” I shot back. “Where is the settlement? I’ll get a cab and meet you there.”
When I showed up at the office, I was way early. I was also met with a nasty surprise. The battle for Greenwood Manor definitely wasn’t over, because none other than Kiersten and Caleb were waiting outside. I didn’t usually have to battle the California wizards to buy a house. They only showed up when the houses were big with potential treasures inside, and the potential profits were big too. I had already feared they might be the other buyers who tried to swoop in, especially after I caught Caleb sneaking around the last flip trying to steal my newfound treasure.
“You two! What the hell? We’re about to settle!” I said.
“Noo, no, babe,” Kiersten said. “I’m sorry, but we were totally still in the fight. When I last talked to Blanche we were at one-eighty and Caleb and I said we were going to come and check the place out in person, but she’s an old lady and I think she just got confused or something. I just got off the phone with her. We’re offering two-twenty.”
If I had my truck and all my tools I think I would have snatched a shovel out of the back and come at her. She was giving me that blinding smile of hers, knowing she was punching me in the gut.
Something was very fishy here.
This was the second time the woman who inherited the house promised it to us and then abruptly changed her mind. It wasn’t a huge leap for me to guess that a spell was at work. Blanche Greenwood wanted to sell to us.
“You’re playing dirty,” I said.
“All’s fair in this business,” Kiersten said. Ooh, she was shameless. I had to admire that.
“I’m sorry,” Caleb said. “But have you seen the house yet?”
“I just got off the plane.”
“It’s going to be a hellish project.”
“But you want to buy it?”
“Because it has my lovely wife’s name written on it.” He squeezed her shoulders. She was wearing a sleeveless sundress with her cleavage front and center and a fit and flare, 1950s style skirt, in a shade of pale yellow that showed off her California tan. Not that I wanted a tan. She would look old and wrinkled someday. Not that I cared. Anyway, I wasn’t so much jealous of Kiersten’s appearance as just that she always seemed to have everything so together while
I was basically homeless and barely scraping by.
“It’s a gorgeous house,” Kiersten said. “I don’t think it’s even your type. Aren’t you more of a gloomy haunted northern house sort of girl? Come over for a tour and you’ll see.”
Come over for a tour? There could have been steam coming out of my ears. “It isn’t yours yet,” I said.
I heard another vehicle coming down the relatively secluded road to the title agency’s offices, which were shared by a dentist that had already closed for the day. I expected Graham’s rental car, and I was relieved to have back up.
Instead, another truck appeared and a petite redhead flung herself out of the door of the shiny red pick-up. My eyes widened.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Oh. Helena,” Billie said. “Now just what are you doing down here on my turf?”
“Maybe you should ask the Californians,” I said. “Apparently, it’s their house.”
The other competitor had arrived, and unfortunately it was the one witch who hated me, and the one witch who had reason to hate me.
Chapter Two
Helena
Billie Pruitt was a girl whose name marked her the same way ‘Helena von Habsburg Nicolescu’ marked me, only in the opposite sort of way. She was a nobody, I was a somebody. Just, by default. She attended the same high school as me, one of a handful of kids at my elite boarding school who had received a scholarship. Naively, I made friends with her. We both shared an interest in unladylike subjects. It didn’t last long.
The other girls quickly reminded me that I was a society witch and Billie was a bumpkin. Her family was dirt under our shoes. Within weeks everyone called her “Hill Billie” although she was not actually from the hills. For me to be nice to her would have been social suicide, at school and at home. After all, I had two older sisters in the very same school. There was no escape.
I knew we were in the same line of work, but she ranged no farther north than Georgia and we had never met on the field of battle.
Now our eyes met with all the conflicting emotions of high school, which were the worst emotions to confront when I had important work to do.
“Hi, I’m Kiersten.” Kiersten held out a hand. “I’m sure we haven’t met yet.”
“You’re buying the house?” Billie said. “Oh, no. I want that house. I just spoke to Mrs. Greenwood.”
Mrs. Greenwood could really use a real estate agent so she stops giving everyone different stories, I thought. But she was an eighty-five-year-old witch who was possibly being manipulated by an enchantment, so I guess I had to give her a break.
“Well, we’re at two hundred and twenty thousand dollars,” Kiersten said.
“Okay,” Billie said. “I’ll play.”
Billie had that much money? Well, damn.
I was starting to sweat. My ghost lover was in that house, along with perhaps the magic that could help him. I had been trying so hard not to get too attached to Byron but the prospect of losing him was making me realize how much I couldn’t stand the thought.
“I’ll call her right now,” Billie said.
“Well, I will call my team also,” I said.
“I’m going to call and offer her two-fifty right now,” Kiersten said sweetly. “Caleb, honey, you stay here. Girls, have either of you seen the house? Because, how about this? I suggest you drive over and take a look. We’ll wait.”
“If it’s in such bad shape, why are you paying so much for it!?” I cried. “We had a deal with Blanche Greenwood. One hundred grand. Done. Then you blow in and suddenly she’s changed her mind. Something is very wrong here.”
“Is that so?” Billie said. “I don’t know you, Kiersten, but it sounds like you’re a long way from home.”
I glanced at Billie. Are we allies in this? Maybe I had a chance to redeem myself.
“Yes,” I said. “And then, after she drove up the price, we made another deal with Blanche. She told my business partner yes and arranged a meeting to close, and then these two showed up here.”
“So you were just going to take advantage of an old lady?” Caleb chuckled. “Helena, I like you, and I know you’re just mad because you thought you had a bargain before anyone else found out.”
“Why do y’all want this house?” Billie said, in a tone that was not exactly friendly.“You’re not from here.” Now she looked at me.
“Um…”
“There’s something in it,” Billie said. “Something none of you should be bothering with. The darkest magic is in the south.”
I wouldn’t argue with that. Every place had pockets of dark magic, but between the bayous, the swamps, troubled history, curses, and whatever the deal was with Florida, the mojo in the south was a little weirder than the rest of the country. But in this case, I was just continuing a journey that began in Pennsylvania, so it had nothing to do with the usual New Orleans vibe. I wasn’t sure Billie knew either. Or she was just trying to scare us off.
“Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Billie said. “That’s my offer and either of you two try to match it, you’re going to have a lot more trouble than repairing some wood rot. Y’hear me?” Her vivid green eyes were bearing down on Kiersten and Caleb, who started laughing a little nervously.
“Wow,” Caleb said. “You’re good, I gotta tell you, you actually had me scared for a second.”
“Good,” Billie said. “You should be.”
Yow.
But I’m not scared of her. Not at all. Nope. I was definitely a more skilled witch than her in school, so…nothing to be scared of. She was bluffing.
“Oh shit!” I breathed aloud as she suddenly whirled toward me.
“Helena,” she said, an unfriendly smile twisting her full mouth, “the same goes for you. This is my house. It isn’t for you. Go back north.”
Enchantment laced her words. I could feel her spell sapping my will. It might have worked, under normal circumstances.
It was working on Kiersten and Caleb. They looked hesitant, murmuring to each other.
“Go. Back. North,” Billie repeated.
Her skill was evident as Kiersten and Caleb clutched their hands together and Kiersten let out a groan of resistance.
“You don’t like it down here,” Billie said. “You know this is a dangerous place. You don’t want to be here. You want to go home.”
Maybe I should have intervened, but I didn’t want Kiersten and Caleb to get the house either.
“Well…it is a long time to leave the kids with your mom,” Caleb said.
“I know. Lacey is only two weeks old,” Kiersten said, shaking her head a little like she was waking from a dream. Oh, right. She was pregnant last time I saw her.
“You were going to leave behind a two week old baby to flip a house in Louisiana?” I must have sounded genuinely appalled.
Kiersten rubbed her cheeks. “We need to go home, babe. It’s not worth it. I must have been out of my mind to think this was a good idea.”
“Of course we can.” He put his arms around her. They kissed. He cupped her ass. Okay, this was getting to be a little much. You couldn’t even get rid of these two without unnecessary punishment.
I wondered how much the council was manipulating Kiersten and Caleb. Did they even know what they were doing? Maybe they had been enchanted to abandon their newborn. Man, I hoped not. That actually made me feel sorry for them.
Kiersten was fidgeting with the buttons of Caleb’s shirt. I’m not even sure she realized what she was doing. She looked genuinely upset. “I guess you got the best of us, um…”
“Billie.” Billie was tapping on her phone. I thought she was calling Blanche Greenwood. Kiersten and Caleb were walking away, leaving me there with a girl who hated my guts and was about to steal the house out from under my nose.
“Billie—I need that house. Please,” I said, a little desperately.
“Well, you’re rich, aren’t you, Helena? Call Mommy and Daddy.” She put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Blanche! This is B
illie. Remember? I want your house?”
This was the last thing I expected. I couldn’t blame Billie for wanting to get the best of me. I hated how I treated her in high school. I just didn’t want to be an outcast myself. It was pure survival. But that didn’t excuse things. “Billie, look—”
“I want to offer you three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for it. Yep. I’m serious. I love the house. Yeah, I’m really serious. So serious that I’m standing here waiting at the settlement office. Uh-huh. Oh, I know. She’s standing here too. But apparently she isn’t going to pay you as much. In fact, it sounds like she was trying to take advantage of you from the start. Good thing you didn’t sell that gorgeous manor for a hundred grand, huh?”
This was a nightmare. I didn’t know what to do.
Billie hung up, crossed her arms, and regarded me with triumph. “Not so smug now, are you?”
“I’m sorry!” I cried. “Billie, I was a teenager! I just wanted to be liked and I was already a weirdo so I was desperate. I know I was a bitch, but teenagers are bitches all the time and I’m not like that anymore. I cringe whenever I think of how we treated you. We could be friends now, I mean, we’re both in the same business, and—”
“We are not friends. We are not the same at all. I worked my ass enough to build up my business brick by brick, and you just jumped in with money from your parents, didn’t you? And now you come down here to my territory and try to buy my houses? And underselling an old lady? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
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