Midlife Strife: A Paranormal Women's fiction Novel (Bells and Spells - Book 1)

by M. L. Briers

  The moment the front door opened and she heard voices, she was out of her chair like a young whippet from the gates at a racetrack, and through the living room into the hallway where Amber, Sandy, and Lottie were just closing the door behind them.

  Claudia wasn’t in a hurry to confront anyone. She’d been trying to calm Louann down, but in the end, they’d agreed to disagree and waited in silence for the family to turn up. Claudia figured she’d have enough to do to keep Marilyn from overreacting when she got home to take on the might of Louann as well so early in the game.

  For one thing, she didn’t know who was on what side and she always liked to know who it was that she up against before playing her hand.

  “Well, we need to cook up a spell to get rid of this shifter once and for all, one way or the other,” Louann announced, bringing everyone’s attention to her except for Claudia, who dropped her face into her hand and groaned.

  “Wow, good news travels fast,” Amber said and turned a curious eye on Lottie who grimaced.

  “I have no excuse,” Lottie said looking shamefaced, and yet, a smile did touch her lips, and her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

  Amber raised her eyebrows and slowly nodded. “Shame on you,” she said, but she didn’t put any real conviction behind her words.

  “Thoroughly ashamed,” Lottie lied.

  “Who told who and when is not the point,” Louann said, and wagged a finger of accusation at her granddaughter. “I warned you the other night that messing with these supernaturals…”

  “Yep, my bad,” Amber said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “I should have wrapped myself in bubble wrap and hidden under the duvet for the next forty years….”

  Louann scowled. “That’s not…”

  “I mean, it has nothing to do with fate and destiny or anything – just me,” Amber shot back. “Bad Amber.”

  Louann blinked twice as her granddaughter’s words sunk in. She opened her mouth to speak, but Amber was already pulling open the front door and heading out. “Amber!” she called just as the front door slammed closed.

  “Way to go, Louann,” Lottie said, but the sarcastic tone left Louann in no doubt that she’d been rebuked.

  “I only want the best for her,” Louann said in her defence.

  Lottie offered her an old fashioned look. “That’s what fate said. A few words of encouragement wouldn’t have gone amiss.”

  Louann scowled. “Get out there and go make me some grandpups,” she tossed back, and a slow to boil mischievous smile grew on Lottie’s face.

  “That’s the spirit,” she said and then nudged Sandy with her elbow. “You’re family now, go put the coffee pot on, I have some words to share with Louann, and they aren’t very ladylike.”

  “Come on,” Claudia said, motioning for Sandy to follow her. “I’ll show you where Marilyn hides the good cookies and chocolate for future reference, and because my delicate sensibilities don’t need to be around trash talk.” She shot Lottie a smile over her shoulder.

  “You stopped being a lady years ago,” Lottie called after her.

  “You bet your favourite grandmother I did,” Claudia said with a wicked chuckle that made Sandy do a double-take.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  ~

  “Amber!” Josh called when he spotted his mate attempting to make a fast getaway from the family home.

  He thought he’d have longer to sit and mull things over when she’d entered her mother’s house with these others, but there she was, stalking across the grass, summer dress flowing behind her as she picked up speed, and looking as sexy as hell as she headed for the woods. He rushed to catch up to her, even if she rolled her eyes, turned away and carried on walking like if she didn’t acknowledge his presence, then he wasn’t there.

  Amber might have been able to keep walking away for now, but there was that little thing called the mating pull that fate had designed as a backup plan to bring reluctant mates together. It was like a brain worm burying deep into their psyche, and it would only be a matter of time before she couldn’t hide from the truth any longer. They were soulmates, and fate wouldn’t be denied.

  Josh had to wonder if she knew that, if she knew that there wasn’t an out option where the attraction between the mates was concerned, nothing but death would stop the mating pull working to bring them together. He figured that she was a witch and they were pretty clued up on all things supernatural, and if not her then one of her elders would know.

  Amber only acknowledged him with a sideways glance when he drew alongside her and matched her pace. It would have been childish to ignore him, and she didn’t strike him as immature. Fiery, gutsy, a little quick to rush to judgement, but then she had caught him red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, in her home.

  She had a right to be miffed, just like he had a right to woo her. Although, how you wooed a witch was something he still needed to figure out.

  “You don’t look like you’re ready to talk to me yet,” he offered something generic to try to get her to talk, but she just grunted back at him, and he didn’t realise until now how annoying that was when he was trying to make conversation.

  As he tried to think of something to say that would cause her to use real words, she beat him to it.

  “How perceptive.”

  “Should I book a time and place?” he asked, and got a sideways glare – he matched it with a big, roguish smile, and she quickly looked away. “We could have a date night…”

  “Look,” Amber said, catching him by surprise as she rounded on him, and forcing him to hit the brakes and turn back to her. “I know that fate seems to think that you and I would make a good match, but…”

  “You’re not so sure?” he teased.

  Amber pulled her head back and eyed him like he was from Mars. “Are you nuts?”

  “I have my moments,” he said with a cocky smile that she answered with one raised eyebrow. “No sense of humour?”

  “Right now? It’s an empty bank that needs refilling,” she admitted.

  Josh considered that for a long moment. “Skinny dipping?”

  “Huh?” Amber wasn’t just blindsided by his suggestion; it had knocked her off her feet and on her backside. The thought of seeing him naked slammed into her mind and elbowed all rational thought out of there.

  Big, tall, broad-shouldered, muscle-chested him – in the buff – hell yeah! And – noooo. While it might have been a feast for her eyes; drooling down her chin wasn’t going to be a good look for her.

  Josh folded his muscled arms, and that simple action caused his biceps to pop even more – like they needed the help – but it certainly got Amber’s attention. Naked him – she needed to shake that image off before she did start to drool. “We get naked and…”

  “I know what skinny dipping is, and no thank you.” Amber snapped to attention and tried to focus on anything that didn’t involve him naked – but, she knew that every time she looked at him now, she was going to be picturing him, clothes off, muscles showing, and with that damn cocky grin that made her melt just a little.

  “So, no sense of humour and a prude,” Josh said, as if he was making a mental note.

  “I’m not a prude,” Amber tossed back, and he went to open his mouth, but she got there first. “And don’t bother to say prove it because I’m not five and I don’t respond to being challenged like I’m a toddler.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he lied. Of course, he’d been about to do that. A shifter woman would have jumped at a challenge like that, but then shifters were used to being naked, so it probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal. “Drink? Early dinner?”

  “No,” she snapped and then sighed. It wasn’t like it was Josh’s fault that they were in this mess – it was fate – solely, and without a doubt, fate’s fault. “Look, it’s been a weird few days,” she said, softening her stance and giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was a reasonable guy. “I just need to walk.”

/>   “We can do that…”

  “Alone,” Amber said.

  Josh grimaced. “That’s where things get tricky,” he admitted.

  “How so?” Amber asked, and she almost sighed but held onto it.

  “I don’t know how much you know about mates…?” He left that hanging in the air for her to fill in any gaps she might have.

  “It wasn’t my favourite subject in witch school.”

  “There’s a witch school?” Josh asked, looking confused.

  “No,” Amber tossed back. “No around here,” she added with an absent wave of her hand.

  “So, Hogwarts is real?” he teased with the kind of smile that was contagious.

  “If only,” Amber muttered. She could have used the break away from her mother and Grandma Louann when she was a kid, and Hogwarts might have put her brother on the straight and narrow, but unfortunately, there was no school for witches that she knew about.

  “Well, once you find your mate, it’s all to do with a protection thing…”

  “Protection thing?” she asked, sounding a little irritated. She hadn’t been lying, she wanted that walk to try to clear her head, and preferably before her mother got home because she knew how that was going to go.

  “My beast…”

  “That’s a comforting image, perhaps you shouldn’t lead with that,” Amber said, and she wanted to smile when the look on his face turned decidedly panicked, but she held onto it.

  “My wolf would never…”

  “Perish the thought,” she offered, leaning in towards him slightly and offering him a mocking smile. Then she realised that move had brought her closer, too close for comfort to him, and she pulled back.

  Josh couldn’t get a handle on her mood. He could typically read most people, but she was different. Maybe it was because she was his mate, but she looked like she was mocking him, but then Amber looked like she was worried his wolf was about to burst free and attack her a moment ago. But then females were harder to get a handle on compared to men.

  “I see what you did there,” Josh said.

  “Really?” Amber asked because he did look a little lost.

  “No,” he admitted, reaching up and scratching his head, but that cocky smile was back in place, and Amber felt a little flutter inside of her.

  Fluttering was bad – picturing him naked was bad – responding to him in a girlie way was also bad. “I need to go,” she said and headed for the woods once more.

  “Again?”

  “Still,” she tossed back but noticed he was right by her side again, keeping pace with her. “And I’m not going to shake you, am I?” She already knew the answer to that.

  “Not in this lifetime,” he beamed her one hell of a cocky grin.

  “Like a dog with fleas,” Amber muttered and noted the one raised eyebrow that he gave in return. “Oh, now who doesn’t have a sense of humour?” she tossed back.

  “I’m just surprised you’d equate yourself to a dog,” Josh said, mocking her as she thought about that for a moment. Amber couldn’t help herself; she had to chuckle. “And she smiles…” he said like he was honoured to witness it. “It’s good to know you’re not the wicked witch of the west,” he teased her again.

  “I’d reserve judgement on that for a later date,” Amber teased him right back, but when he sucked in a deep breath and pushed out his chest – like he’d won first prize in a wolfing contest, she wondered what had happened to cause him to act like that.

  It couldn’t have been anything she’d said.

  “I’ll be around,” he informed her, and she groaned inwardly.

  So, it had been something she’d said. She’d implied Josh was going to stick around and she wasn’t going to run him out of town.

  With the whole naked images of him thing running wild in her brain, she needed to get a handle on what she said out loud. She needed to put her brain in gear before letting her mouth run away with her, and it was doable – she hoped – because it was something that she usually did.

  Amber was a witch, and the whole town talked behind their hands about her family, but nobody above the age of ten ever said anything to their faces. Still, she’d learned from an early age what she could and couldn’t say, how to act around the unblessed, and it had become second nature to keep her guard up.

  But Josh was something different, he was an unexpected item in the shopping area, and she might have to work doubly hard to keep from expressing herself in ways that could get her into trouble. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t have a little fun with it, did it?

  “I guess so, but you might not be alive if Grandma Lou gets to you,” she said and left those words hanging between them as a warning as she picked up her pace and chuckled to herself when he was wrong-footed and had to catch up to her.

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” Josh said, recovering from his earlier misstep.

  “Well, good for you,” Amber said, mocking him with false enthusiasm. “That kind of spirit might just save your life.”

  “Which one is grandma Lou?” he asked, and she offered him an amused but slightly sympathetic look.

  “Why spoil the surprise,” Amber teased. “You’ll never see her coming.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  ~

  “Ok, what in Hells Bells in going on around here?” Marilyn demanded.

  When she stalked into the living room with a huff and a plan, she noted everyone was there; everyone but Amber. That didn’t thrill her, not with a mate on the loose.

  “Well, dear, if you are going to go off on your travels you are going to miss some very juicy goings-on,” Louann informed her with a touch of irony to her tone and a big spoonful of sarcasm.

  “Do you want the long or short version?” Claudia asked.

  Marilyn placed her hands on her hips and eyed her friend with a no-nonsense look. “Just give it to me between the eyeballs,” she said and prayed that her world hadn’t fallen apart while she was trying to shake off the vampire in town. The same vampire whose car she had spotted in her rearview mirror on the way home, but she couldn’t think about that now – she needed to deal with one problem at a time.

  “Amber’s a mate, but on the plus side it was Sandy’s ex-boyfriend, Carlos who was up to no good,” Claudia said and watched her friend consider her words.

  “I know that,” Marilyn admitted.

  “Which?” Claudia asked.

  “Both, the vampire filled me in…”

  “Then why ask?” Louann muttered.

  “Because I didn’t know if the underworld had risen and we were about to all die in a fiery Hellmouth…”

  “Hellmouth?” Sandy asked, looking a little nervous.

  “Buffy the Vampire Slayer, circa nineteen-nineties,” Claudia said, making little stabbing motions in the air.

  “Catch-up on nostalgia channel on Amazon, I think, and it’s still good viewing even decades later,” Scott informed her, and she looked interested.

  “Hey, watch the decades thing,” Claudia warned him.

  “It’s been like twenty years,” Scott informed her and watched as she mentally calculated the timing.

  “Well, don’t I feel ancient?” Claudia muttered.

  “Join the club, welcome aboard, we have cookies,” Marilyn shot back.

  “So, no Hellmouth?” Sandy asked Lottie and the elder chuckled.

  “Not to my knowledge,” Lottie replied.

  “Well, there could be,” Marilyn said, tossing up her hands. “Because that’s the way my day is going,” she added.

  “I don’t get your point,” Louann said.

  Marilyn took a breath and calmed her inner turmoil as best she could. “Where is Amber, and why is everyone just sitting around when we need to get rid of the shif…” She eyeballed Sandy, who was sitting on the far end of the couch, and she bit her tongue.

  “Oh,” Lottie said on an afterthought. “Sandy knows she’s a witch, she’s going to live with me so I can help her w
ith her craft, and she knows about the vampire and the shifter.”

  “But no Hellmouth,” Claudia said, stabbing the air once more.

  Marilyn slowly nodded as she took it all in. “Boy, did I miss a lot,” she muttered.

  Louann piped up. “That’s what happens when…”

  “Yes, mother, thank you,” Marilyn grumbled. “So, how do we get rid of the shifter – wait,” Marilyn scowled as a thought occurred to her. “Your ex was responsible for Claudia’s brakes?”

  Sandy looked confused. “I …?” She shrugged.

  “Probably some loose wiring,” Scott said and brought his mother’s attention to him.

  “And who hit you?” Marilyn asked, cocking a curious eyebrow at him.

  “So, we have another bad guy?” Lottie asked. “That’s not good.”

  “What about this weekend has been good?” Marilyn said, deflating a little.

  “I enjoyed the dinner,” Lottie said.

  “I liked the eighties night,” Claudia added.

  “I got to meet all of you,” Sandy offered.

  “I got to come home,” Scott added.

  Marilyn felt like an idiot. She hadn’t meant it that way, but the weekend hadn’t exactly turned out how she’d expected. “Apart from that,” she said and waved it away as guilt tapped her on the shoulder once more.

  “Admit it, Marilyn,” Claudia said. “It’s been the most excitement you’ve had in a long time.”

  “That’s not the point,” Marilyn tossed back. She was unwilling to admit to anything with her mother looking at her with those ‘I told you so’ eyes. “The vampire is back, Sandy’s ex was stalking her, we could have died in a car wreck, Scott got knocked out, Amber’s house got broken into, and now she has a werewolf mate.”

  “Lycan,” Sandy said, and then frowned. Lottie might have called her family, but she wasn’t – not really – so maybe she shouldn’t be correcting those that knew better or thought they did.

  “Good point,” Lottie said. “We don’t want to hurt his feelings.”