by Amy Boyles
“I would ask that you control yourself, Madam,” he said to Francine. “I am a gentleman and pride myself in being able to conduct myself as such.”
“Oh, then don’t let me tell Blissful what happens when no one’s around.” Francine winked at me. “It will remain our little secret, Captain.”
The soldier’s face turned three shades of purple. His words sputtered from his mouth. “Madam, I will kindly ask you to keep your gossip to yourself.”
Francine floated over to the captain. As she neared, he leaned back, trying to stay out of her reach, but it was impossible. When Francine set her sights on something or someone, nothing stopped her from getting what she wanted.
As Blount leaned back, Francine stretched out her hand. I thought the captain would faint from fear, but he stood stock-still as she raked her nails down his face.
“Now, Captain, there’s no reason for us to deny our feelings for one another.”
“Madam, would you please stop touching me!”
As much as Francine’s little show amused me, I cleared my throat. “I am here on business, not to watch a performance I didn’t pay for.”
Francine’s gaze cut to me. “Touchy, touchy.” She floated away from the captain, and he exhaled in relief. “Tell me, Blissful,” she said in her gravelly voice, “what can we, the inhabitants of the Oaks, do for you?”
“You big hussy,” Granny Mildred declared as she rose from behind her crumbling headstone. “You don’t speak for the rest of us here. This young whippersnapper”—she pointed to me—“has been more of a thorn in my side than anything else. If she wants help, she’s going to have to beg for it.”
I picked up a stone and shucked it at Granny’s tombstone. That’d teach the old biddy to talk badly about me. To say Granny and I didn’t get along was somewhat of an understatement. For a while Granny had entertained ideas of haunting the living and wanting equal rights—in fact, all the residents of the Oaks had been under this same delusion for a while, even going so far as to attend another spirit’s speech on the topic. Though Granny claimed to be over that idea, I didn’t believe her. Plus I didn’t appreciate her being disrespectful to me.
So that’s why I threw the rock.
“Hey,” she yelled.
“Don’t worry, I can promise you that my rock didn’t make your headstone any worse.”
Granny squinted at me. “I don’t believe you.”
“Then see for yourself.”
Granny hemmed and hawed as she inspected the headstone, which was little more than a stack of rubble. “Looks fine.”
I exhaled. Maybe now I could get down to business—that was, if the spirits were finished making mountains out of molehills.
Granny spat. If you took Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies and turned her into a spirit, that’s what Granny Mildred was like. She was full of spit and vinegar. If I had to say which one she had more of, it would be vinegar.
“What’s going on out here? What’s all this commotion? Some of us are trying to get some sleep.”
Farmer Kency floated over in a pair of overalls. He was exactly as I described, an old farmer who looked like he’d spent all his days toiling the fields. “What are you doing, Captain? Trying to lead a charge on the living?” he said sarcastically.
Also, there was no love lost between the captain and the farmer—it had something to do with an old land dispute.
Captain Blount bristled. “I take offense at your insinuation, sir. I am not, I repeat, I am not trying to lead a charge on the living. This young woman, made of flesh and blood, has approached us, asking for assistance. Being a gentleman—”
Kency coughed into a handkerchief. “Being a scoundrel, you mean?”
Captain Blount lunged forward. “How about you leave your tombstone and come over here and say that to my face?”
The farmer shook his head. “I have more important things to spend my death doing.”
Seeing as how none of this arguing was about to stop anytime soon, I flared out my arms. “Can y’all please stop bickering for five minutes? There’s something I need to talk to y’all about.”
Captain Blount stood at attention. “If that woman”—he pointed to Francine—“can stop abusing me and everyone else stops arguing, perhaps I would have an ear available to hear what you need.”
The others mumbled. Granny said I wasn’t worth listening to, Francine acted insulted that Blount would spurn her in public and Kency called the captain a liar. I let them get out all their rumblings.
Finally, what felt like an hour later, they settled down.
I crossed my arms. “So. Are y’all ready to hear what I need?”
Captain Blount, the unofficial leader of the gang, nodded. “Miss Blissful, we would love to hear what you require of us.”
Pepper
“Come on,” Axel said, “let’s go for a walk.”
It had only been five minutes since Betty dropped off the ATV to Ruth. The five minutes before that she had spent making circles in the middle of the road. Luckily no neighbors had complained, but my heart rate had ticked up as I watched her going round and round.
When she finally stopped the vehicle, Betty took one step onto the asphalt and fell forward. Quick as lightning, Axel zipped a line of magic to her that righted my grandmother.
I had rushed over and grabbed Betty by the shoulders to steady her. “What’s wrong?”
She gave me a goofy smile. “I lost my equilibrium.”
I rolled my eyes. “Good grief. You cannot be trusted among humans.”
“Pepper,” she said, “cut an old lady some slack.”
Alice grabbed the keys from Betty’s hand and glanced at Ruth. “I’ll take Homer home and get this to your house.”
Ruth fisted her hands to her hips and pointed to a Caprice Classic sitting on the curb. “And you expect me to drive your old boat?”
“But I need to practice for the race,” Alice whimpered.
Ruth swatted the air. “Fine. Go on then and take it. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”
Alice smiled gleefully before taking Homer by the hand and leading him off.
We said good night to Ruth, and Roan led Betty inside. That was when Axel suggested we go for a walk.
“At least it’s safe now,” I said.
Axel quirked a brow in suspicion. “What do you mean?”
I winked slyly. “Seeing as how Betty’s inside, she won’t be able to run us over.”
He laughed as he slid his hand down my arm and threaded his fingers through mine. “Let’s head downtown. Get some fresh air.”
A chill filled the air, and I zipped my jacket to my neck. As we walked down the neighborhood street, I noticed most of the cottages had snapped their front porch lights on. The small detail made Haunted Hollow seem even cuter by night than it was during the daytime.
I suddenly realized I was homesick. I missed Magnolia Cove in all its glory, and that flicker of awareness made me angry. Disgust burned hot in my stomach. I was angry at Blake for destroying the heart, and angry at myself for not taking more precautions to make sure that we were protected, that the heart was safe.
Axel sighed. “You’re thinking you’re to blame for this entire mess.”
I curled my brow. “Are you reading my thoughts?”
“No. I can simply tell by the way you’re being so quiet and staring at the ground.”
“It was a lucky guess,” I murmured.
Axel stopped. I did the same, and he took my shoulders, pivoting me to face him. “You are not to blame for this, Pepper. I want you to know that.”
I tipped my chin up to him. “If I’d done things differently…”
He scowled hard. The animal that lived inside him seemed to surge forward, threatening to come out. But it wasn’t a full moon tonight so the werewolf would remain tamed.
“You think I don’t blame myself? I let Blake basically walk in and take the heart. I didn’t stop him, Pepper. So if you want to point fingers, I�
��m just as much to blame. I’m angry with myself as well, but anger isn’t going to help anyone. Not right now. Right now we need to focus on finding this man, seeing if he does have part of the heart, and getting it back. That’s what’s most important.”
Axel always had a way of making me feel better, even if it meant I had to get slapped around a bit. I nodded at him, realizing that this wasn’t about me—none of it was. This was about Magnolia Cove and the heart, about reclaiming what was rightfully mine. Feeling guilty wouldn’t help anyone.
I toed a pebble away. “You’re right. Sorry. Sometimes when I don’t feel like we’re going anywhere…”
“You don’t know what to focus on, so you look to the negative,” he finished for me.
I cocked a brow at him. “Hey.”
He smiled smugly. “I know you well enough. I know how you think.” And I still love you all the same, he said in my head.
And I love you, I replied back.
“Good,” he said gruffly. “Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s go check out this town at night. See if we can scrounge up some spirits.”
I wasn’t keen on scrounging up ghosts, but I did need the fresh air.
The trees rustled as a wind filtered through their leaves. Up ahead I made out the main drag with shops lining one side. I could also see a park replete with a couple of statues, probably representing a town founder or two, along with a few benches sprinkled across the grass.
“What do you want to do when this whole thing is over?” Axel asked. “When we’ve found all four pieces and the heart is sewn back together?”
“Go back to Magnolia Cove and take my dragon for a ride.”
He nodded toward the house we were passing. “You can’t exactly ride Hugo out here, where normal folks can see, now can you?”
“No, I most certainly can’t.”
Axel tugged me to him and brushed his lips over my temple. I sighed at the feel of his skin against mine. His warm flesh took the edge off my nerves. I felt jagged, raw, wound up and ready to fight, but there was no one to fight. I had to search and wait—it was killing me.
All I wanted to do was nab the heart and get home, fix everything. Magnolia Cove being in a shambles made me feel like someone had scooped out my own heart and tossed it on the sidewalk. I felt exposed and hollow.
Axel and Betty being here helped, but the only thing that would really make things right was nowhere to be seen.
I leaned back and studied Axel. His blue eyes were dark, holding an expression I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“Why did you ask me that?” I said. “What do you want to do when we return home?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Start our life. Make babies, maybe.”
I laughed. Axel was so silly. We’d only just married. We weren’t ready to make babies.
Were we?
I lightly punched his arm. “You’re so funny. That’s a good one—make babies.”
But when I giggled at his comment, he didn’t chuckle in reply. I halted. The soles of my feet were gummed to the ground. “You’re not joking.”
He shrugged. “I’m not. But you’re not ready, so we can wait.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready, not for children. Heck, I’d only just gotten married, plus I had a gazillion animals to take care of at Familiar Place. What would it be like to take care of a child, too?
An ache bloomed in the back of my head. I was pretty sure it was stress induced.
I had to respond to Axel. I couldn’t leave him thinking I never wanted to have kids. “I guess I thought we’d wait a little while before we discussed children.”
“There’s no time like the present,” he quipped.
Yes, we’d lightly touched on having kids before, but never deeply. “Do you worry? About having children at all?”
He was half werewolf. Any of our offspring would be one-quarter wolf. There was the chance that we’d be raising a child that would have to be locked away when the full moon filled the night.
Axel threw my question back at me. “Do you worry?”
I rubbed the fissure of worry that had wormed its way between my brows. “I worry that I won’t be good at mothering a werewolf child.”
Axel kicked the sidewalk and bowed his back to stare at the constellated sky. “You’ve got to be kidding. You were the person who tamed me—me, the man who many would have called untamable.”
His gaze cut over, and Axel studied me, his eyes twinkling. “You got me under control when others would have called that feat impossible.”
I shrugged shyly. “It wasn’t like it was easy.”
Axel slid his calloused hands over my cheeks. He tipped my head up until we stared in each other’s eyes. “But you never, and I mean never, gave up. You knew it was possible, and you weren’t going to stop searching for a way to make it happen until you found the answer.”
I squinted up at him. “So you’re saying compared to you, children should be a piece of cake.”
He howled with laughter. His shoulders shook, and I felt a stab of pride seeing how he reacted to my joke.
“Yes,” he murmured, “I guess in some ways I am saying that.” Axel took my hand. “Let’s drop the subject. There’s plenty of time to discuss it. For now, let’s enjoy our walk.”
We reached the park and started down the slope from the sidewalk onto the grounds. If I had been human, I probably would have felt vulnerable in such a place at night. But being a witch meant I didn’t have those fears anymore.
I used to have them, before I discovered my heritage, but I hadn’t felt a human fear, the dread that another human would assault me, in a long, long time.
On the other hand, being afraid of another witch’s power and what they might do was a very real fear I still possessed. I even worried about Blake and his vampire power. I did not want to wind up walking down a dark alley to find him stepping from the shadows.
There was no telling what he was capable of, and I didn’t hesitate to think he would punch a couple of teeth holes in my neck if it would give him an advantage.
While I was pondering on things that went bump in the night, Axel was busy studying our surroundings.
“What’s that over there?” he said.
I peered in the direction he nodded toward. “Where?”
Axel pointed. “That small birdbath. It looks strange.”
I followed him, my heart rapping against my chest. He was right, the birdbath did look strange. The lamps and moon cast an eerie hue on the stone. It didn’t look quite right. The gray had a strange color to it. It appeared almost yellow.
We quickened our paces as we closed in. As the distance to the bath lessened, I realized that I hadn’t been wrong: the birdbath was yellow.
I sucked air. My chest tightened, and cold dread spread from my chest to the ends of my fingertips.
Axel halted abruptly. “What in the world?”
I stopped just as quickly and turned to him. “What is it?”
I felt like a big dope being two steps behind him. But Axel was gifted with werewolf sight—he could see yards farther and clearer than myself.
He pointed to the bath, which was now only a few steps away. “It’s gold, and not painted.”
And it was. The sides and bowl gleamed bright. Axel stepped forward cautiously and ran his palm over the lip. “Cold.”
The chilly lifelessness of the metal sent a jolt straight to my heart. The bath was a work of beauty, but it lacked heart and life. I felt hollow just touching it, as if the metal had sucked the joy straight from my bones.
Axel gestured around the park. “But that’s not all.”
That was when I noticed it. It wasn’t only the birdbath that was gold, but lots of other objects were as well, including a streetlamp, a bench, even a—statue?
I crossed around Axel and made my way to the figure of a golden woman. Axel’s footsteps followed closely behind. I shivered. It was good to have Axel with me because there was something uncanny
and lifelike about the statue.
A woman’s face peered out at me. She wore glasses, and her mouth was puckered into an O. She looked surprised, as if she’d been frozen in the midst of a revelation that she hadn’t been ready for—a revelation or a realization.
A realization that she was being locked into a tomb of gold.
I brushed the chilly metal. “Axel,” I whispered, “this is bad. This is very, very bad.”
From behind it sounded like a gun was being cocked. I would know; I’d heard the sound plenty of times in my twenty-odd years on the planet.
My heart stuttered. Was it the man who’d done this—who’d turned all these objects and this woman to gold? Because I had no doubt that’s what had happened, that he’d turned them into metal, creating some sort of strange shrine.
“Turn around slowly,” came a female voice from behind us.
Okay, so it wasn’t the man. That was somewhat of a relief. Axel and I did as she said, and faced a woman with long red hair.
She sneered at us as she flashed a badge. “The two of you are coming with me.”
“Under what charge?” Axel asked.
Her eyebrow curled in amusement. “Under suspicion of defacing public property.”
My jaw dropped. I nodded toward the gold statues. “You think we did this?”
Sarcasm dripped from her voice. “I don’t see anybody else out here.”
She had a point.
Axel and I kept our hands raised while the police officer called for backup. A few minutes later we were cuffed and tossed into the back of a cruiser, our next destination—the Haunted Hollow Police Department.
Blissful
“So you need us to search the town for a man who can turn objects into gold.” Captain Blount tugged the end of his curling mustache. “Do I understand our quest correctly, Madam?”
I shifted my weight. I’d been standing for an hour, trying to explain the situation to them. Every time I got about five minutes in, someone would interrupt and ask a question—usually Granny Mildred.
