by E. M. Moore
Oh, Jesus. I closed my eyes and restrained from giving them a big roll. The size of this guy’s head was unreal.
“She hasn’t seen him in a couple months. I couldn’t find any traces of magic there. I even asked after Jay, who I pretended used to be in our friends’ group, and again, nothing. She’d never heard of him talk about a Jay before. So, I actually don’t have much to report on that front,” he said, eyeing me as if he’d been saying that all along, and I’d pestered him for nothing. If he didn’t have anything to report that was still something to report! Gah! “I asked to see a picture of him to confirm it was the same ‘friend’ I was looking for and yes, sure enough, it’s our Dupre. How he hooked up with Jay and ended up in Salem, that I still have no clue about.”
Liam leaned up against the counter next to me, his chin lowered to his chest in thought. It was endearing the way he always analyzed everything. With the way his mind worked, he was able to draw conclusions we weren’t. I was glad we had him on our side. “At least we know Dupre is a real person who owns things, has family, even if it is an ex.” He gave me a quick smile. Right after all that happened with Dupre disappearing on us, we went to New Orleans to release his ex from the voodoo doll spell. It was a good thing, too. He had her thinking she was going to die with all the aches and pains he gave her. Douchebag. Thankfully, he hadn’t done any long-lasting damage. Nothing we weren’t able to fix, anyway. He wouldn’t be bothering her again. Liam rubbed at a black dot on the counter. “Since he has ties, he can be tracked. We still don’t know much about Jay, so I say we continue to keep our focus on Dupre. He’ll lead us to Jay.”
We all looked at one another and nodded though Travis avoided my gaze. I didn’t think he so much balked at me being their fifth anymore as it was he just abhorred the idea. I knew what my granny would say to that. “Buck up, Little Camper. Magic does whatever it wants to. We certainly can’t control it, so get used to it.” God, I missed her. I’d love to see her and Travis go toe-to-toe. Now that would be something. I would’ve loved to have seen Travis’s reaction when Granny showed up in his dream to tell him where I was. For my part, I hoped she annoyed the crap out of him.
“Now that we’ve got that part out of the way,” Gabe said, his sea blue eyes sparkling. “Congratulations on the store, Norah.” He came around the side of the counter to envelop me in a hug. He pressed a chaste kiss to my earlobe that still tortured my body in a delicious way before stepping back. “I have to head to the school. I hope you haven’t forgotten my game tonight.”
I held onto his hand as he backed away toward the front entrance. Both our hands dropped, and I was already shaking my head. I’d been waiting to watch him play, probably for my high school self who’d gotten crushes on the jock type before and never been looked at twice. Now I was dating a soccer—excuse me, football—star. As Gabe would say, I’m bloody excited. “Wouldn’t miss it!” I called out after him. His long, lean legs carried him out the door and I turned to find Randy smirking at me. He always seemed to know when I was turned on. It was a gift he had.
Travis tapped the counter in front of him. “Well, I’m out too. I’m assuming I’ll be seeing all of you at the game tonight.” He stared at Randy the longest, who just shrugged in response. It was tough for Randy to go on campus. He’d quit school. It just wasn’t his thing. Liam told me he thought every time Randy went on campus, he felt like a failure. I didn’t know. I hadn’t seen it myself, but it made sense. No one wanted to be confronted with their failures. It didn’t matter to me if Randy left school or not, he was obviously doing something right.
Travis walked out and then it was just the three of us. Their eyes bore into me, and a fierce flush crept up my neck.
“So, what do you really think about the store?” Liam asked.
“Are you kidding?” I raised my eyebrows at him in exasperation. “It’s perfect. I couldn’t be happier.”
Randy’s muscles bulged as he bent over the counter to the side of the brand new register. He looked at me from head to torso. “I could get used to this view. Maybe I ought to start my own tattoo parlor and put it next door?”
“Well,” Liam said frowning. “I don’t know how good a tattoo place would do in this part of town. You’re better off having it out of the tourist section. Or maybe just on the outskirts because then you could pull from Salem residents and tourists. You’d probably have to get used to doing a crap ton of witch-related tattoos, though. I’m not sure you’d like that very much. You’re very opinionated on the type of tattoos people get. In fact, you’re kind of a tattoo snob.”
Randy and I blinked at one another. Liam didn’t get offhand jokes often. I shook my head at Randy, telling him wordlessly to let it drop. It wasn’t as if Liam would up and buy a place for him too. I didn’t think so, anyway.
“It’s okay,” Randy said, trying to suppress his smile. “It’s not as if I could displace Madame Serena. She’s been in the same spot forever.”
I pictured the shop next door in my head. ‘Psychic, medium, and spiritualist’, she called herself. That was a lot of things. I’d already heard Travis joke that she was a quack though there seemed to be a lot of people in and out of her shop. The whole quack thing must’ve been working for her.
Liam smirked. “Yeah, what a shame to see that one go.”
“Well,” I said, placing my hands over top of both of theirs. “We have just enough time to get something to eat before Gabe’s game. I’m sure there are more restaurants around you haven’t introduced me to yet. Who’s in?”
They both said ‘me’ at the same time. With both men flanking me, we walked out of the shop and right onto the cobblestone street of the tourist area in Downtown Salem. Liam slipped a key from his pocket and gave it to me. “Care to lock up?”
I bit my lip and stared down at it. It was just an inanimate object, but it meant so much more than that to me. I plucked it out of his hands and smoothed my fingertips over the top. This place was mine. The nerves in my stomach grew wings and fluttered. At this moment, it really felt like things were coming together for me. Which meant it was probably only a matter of time before something happened. I put the key in the lock and turned. For right now though, I could enjoy everything for what it was—almost perfect.
2
I didn’t know much about soccer—yeah, we were sticking to that for now instead of football—but from what I did know, Gabe was good. I could say without a doubt he looked sexy as fuck doing it. His calf muscles were prominently displayed as he ran around the field in his maroon uniform. His usually floppy hair was slicked back with sweat. I was having a moment watching him that much was sure.
Randy had picked on me over dinner about how I was going to react seeing Gabe play. He told me I would be a hormonal mess of horny mixed with my usual possessiveness. So far, he was right. I wished he hadn’t told me girls would be there cheering on the players who couldn't care less about the sport and were only there to watch their crushes in hopes of getting their attention. He liked to get my hackles up though.
Salem State was winning so far thanks to an awesome assist by Gabe to another guy on the team who had fair skill. He’d been able to put the ball right in the top corner of the goal, just out of reach of the goalie. The mostly female crowd had gone nuts. Randy, Liam, Travis and I stood and clapped, doing our best to cheer Gabe on. He’d noticed, giving us all a sly smile as he jogged back toward the other side of the field.
Sandwiched between Randy and Liam with Travis right below us, I felt pretty comfortable. Every once in a while, I huddled into Liam’s sweatshirt when the wind picked up, but for the most part, the weather was getting nicer with each passing week. One of these days, I hoped to get acclimated to this monstrous weather. I’d rather not spend the rest of my life freezing. The guys all had t-shirts and shorts on. I was the only one sporting jeans and a borrowed sweatshirt.
In between halves, Travis turned to face Randy. “Have you gone up to Maine recently?”
“Las
t week. Place is empty. Dupre’s name isn’t on record as being the owner and when I tracked that, it turned out Dupre rented from a guy. Paid with cash with the address used back at New Orleans. The number he used also traced back to his residence in New Orleans. No cell phone, no forwarding address, and unfortunately, no local address.”
“We’ll find something,” Liam said after a while. Randy’s declaration had pretty much taken all the fun out of the game. We all started thinking about when the next thing could happen. I was constantly on my toes and looking around for Dupre no matter where I was around town. He had to have been close. “From what I can tell in my research, there’s talk about drinking demon blood to increase powers, but of course, it’s ridiculed from our side. I can’t find specific evidence that says anyone has done it for sure, but since it’s talked about, we can only assume it has been done and is currently being done.”
“One thing I don’t understand,” Travis said, dropping his voice. “If something like that is going on, you would think that it would be giving off some major fucking evil presence around here. It should set off our intuitions.”
Randy’s hand dropped to his stomach. We’d all been waiting for a call. Not because we particularly wanted to feel like we were PMS’ing, but because we wanted to make sure we weren’t broken.
“Dupre had to have done something to us,” Travis said. “No way we’re getting the call one day and then not the next.”
Relieved, I shut my eyes and released a breath. There was a time when he’d tried blaming me for that. Not that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility because we weren’t sure what my presence was doing to the coven, but I was also happy to have him not hate me for one more thing.
The guys continued to talk, but my attention returned to Gabe running back out onto the field. He looked up in the stands and caught my eye, giving me a quick wave. I waved back at him at the same time Randy closed the distance between us, scooting closer to me on the bench. The whole right side of my body heated. Dwarfed in comparison to him, I appreciated the extra warmth. It made me want to curl up into his side, especially since Randy had been on edge since we’d gotten here. I put my hand on his knee and squeezed. His leg muscle jumped underneath my touch and I smiled to myself. Looking up, a girl a few rows in front of us caught my eye. Her stare dropped to my hold on Randy, then up to my face where she gave me the dirtiest look, and then back out to the field. I glared at the back of her head, wondering what her problem was.
When the half began, Travis turned back around to watch the game. He was more knowledgeable than we were about soccer, with me the least of all. Travis played the sport when he was younger, and Liam and Randy knew what they knew from watching Gabe’s games.
A deep, rich voice sounded in my ear. “You know what would make this whole thing more enjoyable? If your hand was about eight inches higher on my leg.”
I turned and smiled. Eight inches higher and I’d be cupping him. “Into public places then?” I asked, giving it right back to him.
“I’m into anywhere with you.”
Travis stood, his attention on the field. He clapped. “Come on, Gabe.”
I peeled my attention away from Randy and glanced back at the field. By this time, Liam was also on his feet and I noticed Gabe had stolen the ball and was now running it back down toward their opponent’s goal. A guy from the other team gained on him though as he cut across the field to get a better shot at the back of the net. “Faster,” I whispered to myself. “Come on, Gabe. You can do it.” I squeezed my fists together and repeated the same thing. “Faster, faster.”
Gabe sped off into hyperdrive. It was as if he had a rocketpack on his shoulders that just lit. His shoulders hunched, and he picked up the pace, barreling down the other end of the field. I gasped. Whoa. He dribbled the ball once, twice, then shot at the goal. “Yes!” I screamed, as soon as I saw it sail just over the goalie’s outstretched hands. I rose to my feet and started clapping and jumping.
Gabe turned, his expression serious as he found me there. He gave me a quick shake of his head at the same time Liam grabbed my hand. “Maybe not a good idea to give him an extra boost in front of all these people, Sweetie.”
Extra boost? Oh, shit. Had I done that? “You mean I made him go that fast?”
Liam nodded. “He certainly didn’t do it by himself. Try not to use your magic too much. Remember what happens.”
I was perfectly fine with what happened afterward. It was the guys who’d determined we shouldn’t do magic together unless absolutely necessary in case we could be tracked that way. I understood the reasoning. I hoped they weren’t doing it for the other reason though. I loved burning the magic off with an extra special sweat session. “Sorry.”
His lips turned up into a smile and he moved a piece of my hair around my ears. “You don’t have to apologize.”
Travis turned, his forehead wrinkling as he stared at Liam and I while we discussed it. He was the only one I had yet to do magic with and I imagined curiosity had to be setting in with him. I was surprised he lasted this long. His stubbornness was epic..
Gabe’s teammates swarmed him as they celebrated their two to zero score. The girl a few rows ahead of us stood and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Go Gabe!”
My gaze immediately zeroed in on her. She saw him wave at me. Sure, I was also cozied up next to these other two guys, but that was none of her business.
Randy put a hand on my shoulder. “Sit down, Norah. She’s not worth your time. She’s just a bleacher bunny.”
“Bleacher bunny?”
“You know, the type of girls who go to games just to score with the players.”
“That’s a thing?” I asked, shock wafting over me. He hadn’t told me it had a name.
Travis chuckled. “Ask Gabe.”
Images of my hand flying out and slapping Travis in the back of the head flit through my vision.
“Dude,” Randy said, shoving his shoulder. “Shut up.”
Travis twisted in his seat. “What? Like you guys weren’t allowed to have lives before she came? Give me a break.”
Liam glanced at me. “I don’t think it’s that. It’s just that it’s not…nice to talk about things like—”
I shook my head. “Forget it,” I told him. “Listen, I’m going to get something to drink.” I stood, my hands shaking. “Anyone want anything?”
I couldn’t decipher the look on Travis’s face when I walked away, but Randy and Liam just shook their heads. I wasn’t really that thirsty, I just wanted to get away from Travis. In all honesty, I hated I was that protective of them all. It wasn’t a particularly attractive trait, but I couldn’t help it. A knot formed in my stomach whenever I thought about them being with another girl so we’d completely avoided any types of conversations involving that. I’d had a boyfriend or two in my past as well, and no one seemed to want to talk about that either. But that was okay, right? Because no one wanted to hear about their girl doing another guy, but it was kosher for guys to do other girls? That’s what this was turning into, wasn’t it?
Ugh. It was just Travis, I told myself. He was doing it to get under my skin because he fucking loved shit like that. It came so naturally to him. He didn’t even have to think twice about blasting me. It was like, “Oh, Norah said something? Let me see what the most caustic thing I can say back to her is.” I would hate to live in his mind. It was so fucked up.
Finally, I ended up stepping down onto the packed dirt and making my way over to the refreshment stand. They didn’t have much. No hot food whatsoever, but they had a soda dispenser and candy. It reminded me more of high school football games than a college one. I picked up an array of candy bars and asked for a bottle of water before turning back toward the bleachers. Bleacher bunnies…
Instead of going back to the guys right away, I stopped by a free spot on the fence and tore open a bag of M&M’s as I watched Gabe once again run up and down the field, making sure not to tell him to go faster this tim
e. That was a mistake on my part. I hadn’t realized I would actually kick him into high gear and it wasn’t a smart thing to do with all these people around. The last thing we needed was to draw attention to ourselves.
Holding my M&M’s in one hand, I fingered the all-seeing-eye bracelet I’d made myself the other day. It was to ward off evil, the spell courtesy of the Voodoo Priestess herself, Granny Darbonne. I was banking on it to work keeping Dupre and Jay at bay. We were safe at Liam’s parents’ house, but going out in Salem still made me nervous. The last thing we needed was for me to get kidnapped again and taken to some bumfuck state like Maine. Granny hadn’t been visiting me as often as she was so who knew if she was on the lookout if something like that did happen. Knowing Granny, she probably was. A pain in my ass when she was alive, and the same pain in my ass in the afterlife. And much like when she was alive, she also helped me even when she was being a pain in the ass.
“Life,” I muttered. Taking another handful of M&M’s, I shoved them in my mouth and turned. I stopped short, gasping and then almost choking.
No…
The person in front of me looked the same, except for there was no blood leaking from his mouth this time. There was no scar at all as he started for me. “Hey, you dropped this.” He bent over and picked up my bottle of water before holding it out for me.
I stepped back, eyeing him. My brain told me to get as far away from him as possible as one of Dupre’s autopilot goons, but my body was telling me there wasn’t a threat. I glanced from the water bottle to him and ever so slightly, the smile slipped from his face and turned to confusion instead.
