Charmed to Death

by Rose Pressey

I just had to know. I couldn’t wait any longer. Liam coughed. Was that on purpose? Was I not supposed to ask?

  Thomas smiled. “Well, yes, but nowhere near as talented as you.”

  I almost choked on my water. If he only knew. Liam and Nicolas got a kick out of what he said too. Hadn’t anyone told him about my track record? Surely he knew and was just being nice. Obviously he was trying to charm me.

  “Shall we go?” Nicolas asked.

  “Yes, it’s getting late.” I looked at Thomas. “Thank you again for dinner.”

  “It’s the least I could do,” he said.

  We headed out for the car, walking down the sidewalk in the warm night air with the twinkling stars above. It was a beautiful evening. Thomas had said he wasn’t planning on staying long, so maybe that meant he was leaving tonight.

  We’d almost reached the car when Nicolas asked, “Where are you staying tonight?”

  “Well, I guess I figured I’d hit that Holiday Inn out by the highway.” Thomas motioned with a tilt of his head.

  Nicolas looked at me with his big blue eyes. I knew what he was getting at. I supposed I needed a guest at LaVeau Manor anyway, but I wouldn’t be able to charge him since he was family. Why was I being so standoffish toward Thomas? I didn’t even know him.

  “Oh, you’re more than welcome to stay with us.” I forced a smile. “We have plenty of room, as you could see.”

  I hoped it wasn’t too obvious that my offer wasn’t completely sincere.

  “I wouldn’t want to put you out.” Thomas’ stare was like a lost puppy dog’s.

  “No, it’s no bother,” Nicolas said. “Right, Hallie?”

  “No bother at all,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Well, if you’re sure,” Thomas said with a smile.

  “Oh, I’m positive,” I said.

  “All right, I promise I won’t be any trouble, and like I said, I have to head out to New Orleans soon.”

  Just how soon did he mean? To some people that could mean be six months, to me it meant tomorrow.

  “Well, when you’re in New Orleans be sure to stay with Liam,” Nicolas said.

  “That’s great… it really is nice to be around family again,” Thomas said.

  Just where had he been before he came here? Now that he was staying at the manor I would definitely ask more questions.

  We all got into the car, except for Thomas. He was on his way in when he stopped. “Oh, hey, I know those people. I’ll be right back. Hold on just a second.”

  I looked to see who he was talking about. Finally I saw a couple of guys standing way across the way. Thomas ran over to them and they started having a conversation.

  “He knows someone in town? I thought he knew nothing about this place,” I said.

  Nicolas shrugged. “I guess he does.”

  “Maybe he could stay with them tonight,” I said.

  Nicolas looked at me and said, “You really don’t like him, do you?”

  “No, it’s not that… It’s just me being overly suspicious. I really need to stop that.” I touched Nicolas’ hand.

  “It has ramped up lately,” Liam said.

  “I’ll ignore that comment,” I said.

  I watched as they talked for a bit. They glanced over toward the car several times. I wished I knew what they were talking about.

  “Do you recognize those guys?” I asked.

  “Never seen them before,” Nicolas said.

  “Me neither,” Liam answered.

  “I wonder if they’re witches. I should know them if they are. If they’re from Enchantment Pointe, that is.” I tapped my fingers against the leather seat.

  After a few seconds, the men stopped talking. The strangers walked away in the opposite direction. Thomas ran back over to the car.

  He hopped in. “Sorry about that.”

  I only allowed about two seconds to pass before I was ready to ask him about his friends.

  “Who are your friends?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

  Thomas stared straight ahead, as if he hadn’t heard a word I said. After a few more seconds he looked over at me. “Oh, sorry, did you say something?”

  I studied his face for a moment. He had heard me, so why was he playing? “The guys you were talking to… I asked who they were. Are they from Enchantment Pointe?”

  Was I asking too many questions?

  Again he stared at me blankly. “Who? Those guys? No, they’re not from around here.”

  I frowned. “Then why are they here?”

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t ask. I guess just to see the city.”

  “Don’t you think it’s odd you would run into people you know when none of you live here?” I quirked an eyebrow.

  “It’s a coincidence, huh?” Thomas winked.

  Chapter 5

  After we arrived home from dinner I showed Thomas around the house, and then got him settled into a room. Nicolas had gone to bed early because he was tired from the long trip he’d taken with Liam. I was sitting in the kitchen on the stool by the counter. Pluto was next to me as I addressed invitations for the wedding. Oh, and I was enjoying a couple of chocolate-chip cookies that I had whipped up yesterday. Now that I wasn’t so bad in the kitchen I didn’t mind baking so much.

  “What are you doing up?” the male voice said from behind me.

  I jumped and envelopes flew through the air, slowly cascading to the ground. I clutched my chest. “Oh, you scared me.”

  Nicolas was behind me. He wore only pajama bottoms. My eyes traveled over his toned chest and sculpted abs.

  “Sorry about that.” Nicolas stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me. “I missed you in bed.”

  “I just couldn’t sleep so I thought I would get this taken care of.”

  “You need rest, you know? You can’t work all the time.”

  “I think there’ll be plenty of time for rest on our honeymoon.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think we have a lot of plans and fun things to do,” he said with a wink.

  I had hoped to lie on the beach for a whole week. Preferably with a piña colada in my hand. The ones with the little umbrellas on the side.

  Nicolas took me by the hand and pulled me up from the stool. “Come on, you should come to bed. You can do this later. You need rest.”

  I smiled. “Okay, you’re right.”

  A noise caught our attention and we stopped. It sounded like it came from outside. I wasn’t sure what had made the sound, but I dashed over to the door. Nicolas was right behind me.

  “Maybe it was a cat,” I whispered.

  Pluto was in the kitchen with us, but maybe one had come for a visit. I peered out the window. Nothing was there and it was pitch dark. The clouds covered the sky, which wasn’t helping put off a glow. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed as if someone was out there. I sensed it. Again noise came from somewhere outside.

  “Did you hear that?” I whispered.

  “It almost sounds like someone laughing, like a cackle,” Nicolas said. “I should go check it out. It could be some kind of animal.”

  “I don’t want you to go out there alone,” I said as he opened the door.

  “I’ll be fine,” Nicolas said.

  I pulled out my phone. “We’ll use this as a flashlight.”

  Nicolas and I walked outside and down the steps. A bit of a breeze drifted through the air. The branches swayed and the clouds moved faster now.

  “I think a storm is coming.”

  “Stay close to me,” Nicolas said as we moved a bit further from the house. “We should check all around.”

  I nodded and then held onto his arm as we started around the house.

  We only made it a few steps when we saw her. She was dressed all in black, wearing a long dress with a hood on it. She looked like the witch who had been at LaVeau Manor before, but I had gotten rid of her a long time ago. I’d wondered if she would be back some day. This wasn’t her though. It was someone who loo
ked just like her.

  “Hey,” Nicolas yelled out.

  She didn’t turn around and look at us. She just kept up the pace. Of course we started running after her. The woman turned and went around the front of the manor, but when we reached the front, she was nowhere in sight. We scanned the area, but didn’t see her.

  “Where did she go?” I asked.

  “She disappeared,” Nicolas said.

  I knew what that meant. She was either a ghost or a witch.

  “I suppose we should check around the rest of the house just to be sure,” Nicolas said.

  “Yeah, we can look,” I said.

  I knew we weren’t going to find her. Not until she decided to pop up again. What did she want? Why was she at LaVeau Manor and who was she? Maybe I would get lucky and she would never show up again. She could’ve just been passing through. Oh, who was I kidding? I knew that I’d see her again. The feeling of a presence returned, as if someone was watching us.

  Nicolas and I headed across the front of the house and to the other side. I scanned the area as we walked along, looking for any sign of her or any little movement. The trees still swayed. A bird flew from one of the branches, but there was no other movement.

  “It really is kind of scary out here at night, isn’t it?” I said.

  “A bit spooky, yes,” Nicolas agreed.

  No one realized the full extent of just how spooky it really was here. Plus, Thomas hadn’t helped matters and now there was a mystery witch. I assumed she was a witch, but was she really?

  We reached the back of the house again. A rustling noise sounded from somewhere to my right. I clutched Nicolas’ arm a little tighter. A bird flew from a nearby tree top.

  “She’s just not here, I guess,” I said. “We should go back inside.”

  I thought that was for the best considering I couldn’t shake the strange feeling of being watched. I knew she was out there somewhere, hiding and watching us. Dressed all in black, she could blend in with the night and we would never see her. As long as she stayed there and left me alone, I didn’t care. Well, and as long as she didn’t cause any trouble. Why else would she be here if not to cause trouble? At first I’d thought maybe it was someone looking for a room, and she’d gone to the back of the house by mistake. The odds of that were unlikely. She would see the front door, so why not just knock or ring the bell?

  Nicolas and I headed back into the house. He locked the kitchen door behind us. “Who do you think that was?” I asked.

  He ran his hand through his thick hair. “Did you cast a spell?” He glanced over at the plate of cookies.

  Okay, I’d admit I had been using magic to make the baked goods better, but that was yesterday and my magic was better now. That was all behind me now.

  “Are you implying that I may have reanimated someone?” I placed my hands on my hips.

  He looked down at his feet. “No, I didn’t mean to…”

  “Sure, I’ve done that in the past, but I really don’t think that is the case now. If I had reanimated her I don’t think she would have disappeared, right?”

  “Remember what happened last time when the reanimated kept disappearing?”

  Ugh. I had been trying to forget about the unfortunate turn of events. I sat on the stool and slumped my shoulders. “That’s right.”

  Nicolas came over to me and took my hand in his. “It’s okay. She’ll probably not return.”

  “I hope not,” I said.

  “And if she does, then we have plenty of guest rooms.”

  I pushed him away. “Not funny.”

  He laughed. “Come on, we should just go to bed.”

  “I just get a strange vibe from her.”

  “You get a strange vibe from a lot of people.”

  Nicolas took me by the hand and we walked from the kitchen through the other rooms to the staircase. Pluto followed along behind us. He liked to sleep at the foot of the bed. He’d really come around since I first moved in. Though he was never much for affection. Well, that was until Thomas had shown up.

  “Maybe I should look into getting night-vision cameras for outside,” I said as we headed up the stairs.

  Our bedroom was on the second floor. Going up and down three flights of stairs all the time would be a pain, so I’d selected the second floor when I first moved in. It was bad enough having to take care of the other rooms on the third floor. There was no way I wanted to stay up there at night.

  “Not a bad idea,” he said as we walked down the hallway toward the bedroom.

  Our room was the last one on the right. I’d given Thomas the room at the other end of the hallway. I glanced back at his room. The door was closed, of course. I had expected that though. It was late and he had gone to bed hours ago.

  Chapter 6

  The next day I was at my mother’s shop. We were preparing items for the upcoming summer festival. Her space was light and airy, with white walls and white décor. There were plenty of windows to allow in the sunshine. In the middle of the room she had tables covered with white cloths. On top they displayed beautiful bottles and jars of lotions and other bath and beauty products. And yes, all of them contained magic spells. Some had simple spells for energy and others were to make someone look youthful, of course. All of them were essentially for a positive outlook on life. Who didn’t need more of that, right? Every day when you stepped outside there was always someone trying to bring you down, so what better way to combat that than with beautiful skin care?

  My mother had been on the phone the entire time since I’d arrived. She’d been filling orders. Things had been busier than ever for her lately. Thank goodness she had Annabelle to help.

  She hung up the phone and blew the hair out of her blue eyes. “Wow, this festival really has kept me busy.”

  My best friend Annabelle Preston walked through the door. She was due to start work at ten o’clock, and it was now ten minutes until ten. With her usual bubbly style she waved and smiled and headed toward us.

  Now that I had both of them together I could tell them all about the new guy who had shown up out of the blue at LaVeau Manor. I just couldn’t wait to share the details with somebody other than Nicolas and Liam. Since he was their cousin they weren’t suspicious of him at all.

  Annabelle picked up her apron and draped it over her neck. “So you left me a voicemail and you said that you needed to tell me something. What is it? It sounded like really good gossip. Way to leave me hanging.”

  My mother hurried over. “You have gossip? What are you waiting for? Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you got here?”

  “It’s not gossip, I guess. Maybe it is. I don’t know.” I waved my hands. “Regardless, I wanted to wait until Annabelle was here so that I could tell you both at the same time.”

  “Oh, my gosh, you’re pregnant.” My mother squealed.

  “No! I am not pregnant, for Pete’s sake. Family will come later, after we’ve been married a while.”

  My mother sighed. “Okay, so what is it then? Oh, my gosh, you called off the wedding? I knew it,” she said.

  I glared at her. “I did not call off the wedding and what is that supposed to mean, you knew it?”

  She smiled sheepishly. “Nothing, dear, I was just panicking a little, that’s all. It’s just that this engagement is kind of stretching on a little bit.”

  I placed my hands on my hips. “Well, a lot of things have come up to interfere with the planning of the wedding, like reanimated ghosts, vampire murders, and missing best friends.” I looked at Annabelle.

  My mother waved her hand. “Okay, never mind all that, just tell us what it is. You have to tell us quickly. It must be really good.”

  “I don’t know about really good, but it’s interesting,” I said with a smile.

  “If you don’t tell us soon I’m going to hyperventilate.” My mother fanned herself.

  I waved off her comment. “Okay, so yesterday I was at the National Vampire Association and I was just leaving. Well,
I was driving down the road and all of a sudden there was a guy in the backseat.”

  “Oh, my word. You reanimated someone again?” My mother clutched her chest. “Who is this time? Great-uncle Abe? I have a feeling it is him. I had a dream about him the other night.”

  I scowled. “No, I did not reanimate anyone. Turns out this guy was Nicolas’ cousin.”

  “What was he doing in the car?” Annabelle asked. “That’s just weird.”

  “Exactly what I thought. I didn’t know he was Nicolas’ cousin so I cast a spell on him. I left him lying on the side of the road. Then I went back to LaVeau Manor.”

  “Then what happened?” my mother asked with wide eyes.

  “Well, then bam… not ten minutes later he showed up at the door.”

  My mother gasped. “That is just not right.”

  “I still don’t know how he got there so fast when he didn’t have a car. He said he took an Uber, but that isn’t likely either.”

  “Unless one just happened to be driving down the road,” Annabelle said.

  “Anyway, I let him have it again.” I gestured with my hand. “And then before he could get up Nicolas and Liam showed up. They told me he was their cousin.”

  My mother grabbed a bottle from the shelf. “I don’t know, this sounds awfully fishy.”

  “Well, I think it’s fishy too.”

  “What happened next?” Annabelle asked.

  “We all went out to dinner last night and he kept asking a lot of strange questions about vampires.”

  “Is he a vampire?” Annabelle asked, shivering at the thought.

  “No… well, at least he said he wasn’t, but I don’t know what to believe.”

  Annabelle grabbed more bottles and I started adjusting jars on the shelf so that they would be nice and orderly.

  “I don’t know, but I’d get to the bottom of this if I were you,” my mother said.

  I nodded. “I intend to. I don’t want some crazy guy staying at the manor.”

  Annabelle dropped one of the jars. Luckily it didn’t shatter. “You mean he’s staying at the manor?”

  I shrugged. “Where else could he go? I mean, he is family, after all.”