by Deanna Chase
“Oh.” A soft smile claimed Moxie’s lips as her shoulders relaxed. “Mia was the kindest girl in town. She always had a smile on her face, an extra dollar to lend, and was fiercely loyal. If you were her friend, you were her friend for life.” She glanced over at her chest of drawers and pointed to a pretty glass perfume bottle. “She made that for me after a particularly tough winter.”
I glanced at the purple-and-blue iridescent bottle. “She was a glassblower?” I asked, surprised.
“What? Oh no. She made what’s in the bottle. It’s a potion to cure the flu. I’m one of those people who gets deathly ill every year. She made it as a preventative. I take one draught each year in early October, and I’m good through spring.” She grabbed the bottle and studied it as she tilted it to the side. “Well, I used to anyway. Last season I took the last of it.”
“A healer then,” I said, finally catching on. That meant she had at least some magic. That could be useful when trying to track her down.
“Yeah. An aspiring one anyway.” She clutched the bottle, then very carefully put it down. “Or was.”
And would be again, I vowed silently. Because right then and there, I decided I wasn’t leaving Mayhem until Julius and I brought Mia home.
“She sounds like a special person,” I said, placing a light hand on Moxie’s arm.
The woman nodded, but this time when the tears formed in her eyes, she gave me a genuine smile too. “The best friend a girl could ever have actually. She’s the reason Hale and I got together. She liked playing matchmaker.”
“I bet she’s thrilled you two are going strong.” I waved at her zombified body and gave her a knowing smile. “Anyone who’d go through this much trouble for date night must be motivated.”
Moxie snickered. “Yeah. Mia would approve.”
The sweet scent of rising dough combined with Cajun spices assaulted me as I strode into Bettie’s Beignets. The worn old cypress-wood floors were discolored but had been recently refinished. The gleaming white walls appeared freshly painted as did the brightly colored tables and chairs. Someone had been updating. The old cottage sat on the edge of the bayou with a screened-in porch that overlooked the water. I loved everything about it, including the grizzly owner behind the bar.
“It’s about time you showed. Your man’s been waitin’ for ya outside,” he said to me, jerking his thumb toward the patio. “Any longer and we were gonna start chargin’ ’im rent.”
I waved an impatient hand. “Don’t give me that. If I know Julius, he’s already ordered three appetizers and a couple of drinks.”
“We coulda put him at the bar fer that.”
“Don’t worry, Otis. We’ve got you covered on the tip.” I smiled sweetly at him as I strode toward the porch.
“I’ll have Boots bring you your sweet tea,” he called after me, the perpetual scowl wiped from his grizzly mug.
“Sounds like you’ve got his number,” Julius said and brushed a kiss over my cheek.
“He just wants someone to grump at who’s not afraid to dish it back.”
“No, he wants to flirt with a pretty woman.”
I laughed. “That’s flirting?”
“It is for a sixty-something-year-old man who hasn’t had a woman in his life for a decade or more.”
A pixie-like waitress appeared and dropped off my iced tea. “Can I get you something to eat?”
Julius ordered the savory crawfish beignets, and I went with the etouffee. Sweet potato fries, bread, and crab dip were already on the table. By the time we were done with dinner, Julius was going to need to roll me back to the inn. But not too early. I didn’t want to walk in on zombie night. The image of Moxie and Hale stumbling toward each other with their mouths open made me giggle.
“What?” Julius asked, picking up his draft beer.
“It has to do with zombie date night. You don’t want to know.” I grinned and grabbed a fry.
“You’re right. I don’t. But I have some information for you.”
I set the fry down on the plate and gave him my full attention. “Tell me.”
“Mia Trebelle was a seer. She knew about her impending abduction.”
4
“You’re not serious?” I asked Julius, though judging by the pinched lines around his narrowed eyes, he was speaking the truth. “Is that what you learned from the council?”
He nodded. “They had one thin file on her. It appears she informed them of her vision just a week before she went missing. I checked in with Bea as well. She didn’t know her at all.”
Beatrice Kelton was the former New Orleans coven leader. If she didn’t know anything about Mia, no one in the city did. I took a sip of my tea and reached for a piece of bread to settle the ache already forming in my gut. “The council knew and they did nothing?”
“No, not nothing. But her information was spotty at best. Just that she saw herself stuffed in the trunk of a blue, four-door car and then dragged out to a one-room bayou camp where she’d be forced into domestic slavery.”
Jeez. That was horrific. Camps were what people called the cabins and shacks out on the bayou. They could be anything from a rotting one-room structure to a fancy bayou vacation house. “Let me guess, Sterling had a blue four-door.”
“A 1982 Cadillac Seville. He’d been tinkering and talking about restoring it.”
“I guess it’s easy to see why they pointed the finger at him. According to Moxie, he was the last person she was seen with as well. Was there any other connection between Mia and Sterling?”
“Not in the file. Because Mia was a swamp witch, not much is known about her when it comes to council business. It appears she went to them as a last resort.”
“A lot of good that did her,” I muttered. People who lived out in the swamps and bayous largely kept to themselves. That went for witches and Voodoo practitioners as well. It wasn’t a surprise that Mia hadn’t tried to hook up with the council or the New Orleans coven.
“I don’t know what happened on the council’s end. There’s no follow-up at all.”
My blood started to boil. This wasn’t the first time the council waited until it was too late to actually do anything. “Isn’t there some kind of protection spell? Or finding spell they could’ve done?”
“I’d think so.” Julius drew his brows together. “But you know as well as I do that when it comes to magic, there’s never a cut-and-dried solution.”
I blew out a breath. He had a point. Magic was a living, breathing thing. Every witch had their own unique abilities, and no spell worked exactly the same on each person. Or so it seemed to me. After all the crap I’d seen over the past few years, it would be foolish to take anything for granted. “Do you think we could try a finding spell for Mia?”
Julius’s eyes lit with interest, but the spark went out just as fast. “We don’t have a connection to her. And even if we did, we’d be better off heading back to New Orleans where Jade could lead the spell at the coven circle. I just don’t think it’s something I can do on my own.”
“Right.” Jade had done at least one finding spell before, but that had been to find her biological father. She definitely had a connection to him. “Maybe if we check out that address Sterling gave us, we’ll find something that belonged to her.”
“Maybe,” Julius said, but there was doubt in his tone, and with good reason. It had been five years since she’d gone missing.
“We can always try.” The waitress arrived, placing our dinners in front of us. “After we eat,” I added, already digging my spoon into the etouffee.
Julius chuckled, watching me shovel in the crawfish-and-rice concoction. I never had been one of those dainty salad eaters. Nope. I liked food. And dessert. There was a buttered rum bread pudding on the menu that had my name all over it.
“After,” Julius agreed and picked up his fork.
“This is where we’re supposed to find the key?” I asked Julius as I stared at the nearly deserted parking lot. A red pickup sat near the weathered office.
“At Mayhem Gator Tours?”
“Maybe it’s inside?” Julius gave me a dubious look.
“I guess so.”
“Hey.” A young man stumbled out from behind the office building, holding a bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other. “Can’t you read? We closed up hours ago.”
The light from a lone lamppost illuminated him. I squinted, taking in the lanky teenager. He had dark, wavy hair that fell into his eyes, and there was just something about the way he leaned one arm against the wall while he glared at us that felt vaguely familiar.
“I’m talking to you,” he barked and then took a swig of the beer.
“Sorry.” Julius patted the seat of the motorcycle. “Just needed to make an adjustment. We’ll be on our way shortly.”
The teenager opened his mouth to say something, but another teenager, a girl this time, poked her head around the building and called, “Bo? What’s taking you so long? If you don’t get your butt back here, Jimmy’s going to smoke the last of the weed.”
“He better not. Dammit. That bag is supposed to last till I get my next paycheck.” Then, without another glance at us, Bo downed his beer and took off to presumably save the rest of his weed.
“Looks like we stumbled on the party,” I said to Julius.
“A party we aren’t welcome at. Come on.” He handed me my helmet. “We’ll come back in the morning, check things out when they’re open.”
“And take a tour?” I asked, embarrassed when the question came off sounding like an excited nine-year-old.
He chuckled. “Seriously? You want to pay someone to show you alligators?”
I shrugged. “Gators are cool, man. And the bayou is gorgeous. If we’re checking the place out, we might as well really check it out, right?”
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close. “I can think of plenty of other things I’d like to check out first.”
I leaned in and gave him a slow, lingering kiss, one full of promise. But when I pulled away, I smiled up at him. “That might be the only action you get if we go back to the inn and walk in on zombie night.”
“Zombie night.” Julius grimaced. “Nothing like eating brains to get one in the mood.”
I laughed as I put my helmet on. “Whatever gets them going, I guess.”
A small shudder ran through Julius. He shook his head while climbing on the bike. “Some lines should never be crossed.”
“You ready for this?” I asked, my hand on the doorknob. We were standing on the porch of the Mayhem Bed and Breakfast, listening at the door.
“I’m sure whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it in the privacy of their own room.” Julius’s tone was matter-of-fact, but the look on his face implied he expected the worst.
He had every reason to. A person who collected sex toys and made herself up as a zombie for her man clearly wasn’t conservative. “Just close your eyes. I’ll make sure you get to the room with your virtue intact.”
He eyed me for a second, then lifted one shoulder as if to say why not? Then he held his arm out to me and closed his eyes.
“Chicken,” I said under my breath.
“There is nothing weak about self-preservation.”
I chuckled and guided him into the quiet inn. The dimmed overhead lights were just enough to get us from the door to the stairs without much trouble. I scanned the adjacent living room area. “All clear.”
Julius opened his eyes and glanced around. “Thank— Oh hell.”
I turned, following his gaze toward the check-in desk. No one was there except an oversized cat that had appeared from nowhere and was on full alert. “What?”
Julius pointed at the desk, and then his body started shaking with silent laughter. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
I took a step toward the desk, eyeing the cat as he raised his hackles. “Relax, Mr. Laveaux. We’re not doing anything.”
“No, but they were.” Julius pointed at desk. “And judging by the condition of this distressed wood, someone might have the splinters to prove it.”
I zeroed in on the body paint smudging the desk. My mouth dropped open, and then my cackle filled the room, startling Mr. Laveaux. He let out a kitty screech that was loud enough to wake the entire street before darting away under the stairs. “Oh my. Looks like zombie night was a hit.”
A perfectly formed grayish-white zombie buttprint was stamped on the desk along with what appeared to be the shape of Moxie’s body. There was a handprint on the wall next to the desk. And if that wasn’t enough evidence that the pair had gotten busy right there in the entry, the two white scraps of fabric Moxie had worn were discarded behind the desk along with a pair of jeans and a paint-marked black T-shirt.
“I’m telling you, someone is going to have a hard time sitting down tomorrow,” Julius said, still chuckling.
I grimaced. He was probably right. The desk wasn’t a modern-day piece made to look distressed. It was rough, and the zombie paint had worked its way into the grain. The evidence would last for a while.
“Come on.” Julius grabbed my hand. “Let’s go before they come back for round two.”
A pleased smile tugged at my lips. As ridiculous as zombie date night sounded, it was nice to know people who were obviously in love.
As we made our way up the stairs, the faint sounds of giggling came from the first floor.
Julius grabbed my hand and quickened his pace.
By the time we made it to our room, I was the one laughing.
“Hush, woman.” He unlocked our door, and before I could slide in, he scooped me up and carried me over the threshold as if we’d just said our vows.
The thought sent a bolt of tingling happiness straight to my heart. I had no trouble seeing myself walking down the aisle with Julius waiting for me at the altar. Gazing up at my boyfriend, I felt a goofy smile claim my lips. There was no doubt I’d entered lovesick-puppy territory.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Julius asked, his voice suddenly husky, all traces of playfulness gone.
I shook my head but said nothing, too afraid I’d blurt out words I wasn’t ready to say.
“You look… happy,” he said, caressing my cheek with his knuckles.
Something deep inside me shifted, and my gooey heart hardened just a little. “Is that so unusual?”
“No,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “Not at all.” He turned and gently lowered me to the bed. “That look though.” The bed shifted as he sat beside me. “It was pure. Unguarded.”
I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I’m on vacation.”
He eyed me and shook his head again.
“I’m not on vacation?” I asked just to needle him.
He ignored my question, placed one hand on my hip, and leaned down, brushing a kiss over my lips. “That look, Pyper, was like seeing inside you. I want more of that.”
My breath got caught in my throat. I wanted that too. More than anything. But to let him see what was inside me, to bare my soul, would mean revealing how much I wanted to be with him and how much I wanted the white dress, the fancy cake, and to see Jade in a ridiculous bridesmaid dress. It was way too early in our relationship to be talking about forever.
He pulled back and gently touched my lips with his fingers. “I know that’s hard for you.”
“It’s not—”
“Shh,” he said gently. “Not now, my lovely girl. I want to show you exactly how much I want you.” His hand slowly made its way up my hip and under my shirt to my bare skin. And just as he leaned down, once again bringing his lips to mine, a loud bang sounded from across the room.
We both bolted upright, only magic sparked at Julius’s fingertips as he peered into the moonlit darkness. I hastily reached over and flipped the switch on the bedside lamp, flooding the room with light.
No one was there.
In the absence of anyone obvious, Julius jumped up from the bed and stalked over to where a large ornamental vase had shattered over the
wood floor.
“That didn’t just fall by itself,” I said, stating the obvious.
“No. But it could’ve been a spell or a curse—”
“Or a ghost,” I said. But as I got up to follow Julius, Mr. Laveaux shot out from behind the wreckage with something dark and limp hanging out of his mouth.
“Oh holy mother of crimson!” I cried and jumped up on the bed, pointing at the cat escaping the room through the barely opened door. We obviously hadn’t gotten the dang thing closed all the way. “What the hell was that in his mouth?”
Julius calmly walked over to the door and shut it. “Looked like the cat went hunting.”
I gave a small shudder. “If there are any mice in this room…”
“If there was, I gather there isn’t now,” Julius said, chuckling.
I glared at him.
“Well, that’s one of the advantages of having a cat, right?” He knelt down and inspected the broken vase. “We’re going to need to clean this up.”
I let out an irritated sigh. Damn cat. Why couldn’t he have interrupted zombie night instead? “I’ll go search out a broom.”
By the time I returned with a dustpan and hand broom I’d found in the hall closet, Julius already had the larger pieces of the vase in the room’s garbage can.
“Any new critters?”
“Nope. All clear. Unless you count those gator claws and voodoo dolls you bought.” He pointed to the paper bag of items we’d gotten at the Swamp Witch earlier in the day. It was on the floor near where the vase used to sit, exactly where I’d left it earlier.
“Nope. I don’t,” I said, relieved as I went to work sweeping up the remaining glass shards. Ghosts were one thing, but dealing with rodents was entirely another. If a mouse showed up in the middle of the night, all bets were off. Moxie’s zombie night would definitely be over.
5
My alarm went off before the butt crack of dawn, and I contemplated ignoring it completely. Hell, it wasn’t even light out yet. “Whose stupid idea was this anyway?” I muttered as I rolled over and nudged Julius.
