by Amy Boyles
I slowly nodded my head. I didn’t want to promise him that, though. I wanted to go out and search for Thorne myself. I had a bad feeling that whatever had happened to Kimberly had happened to Thorne. There was one person each of them had seen soon before they disappeared—Samson Magnum.
I promised that I would stay at the house and watched him drive off, down the road. I had made a promise, and as much as I hated it for him, and I really did, I had no intention of keeping it.
Betty
No one wanted my grits, which I suppose wasn’t a surprise since Rose thought it would be fun to toss them into the oatmeal. I let her do it because I liked Rose and let’s face it, her battiness was exactly what I needed at the moment. It helped get my mind off the heart and how it was missing.
I was cleaning up when Glinda came in, followed by Broom and Pig, which were not the best names for things, if I said so myself.
“Charming has gone off with Leopold,” Glinda announced.
“Oh?” Rose said. “She knows he’s married, doesn’t she?”
“Rose,” Glinda snapped, “they’re not going off on a romantic escapade. They went in search of Thorne.”
“That makes more sense,” Rose admitted.
“Leopold said that Blake Calhoun is on his way here.”
I dropped the cloth I was holding. It fell like a stone to the floor. I touched my right nostril, and a magical tendril uncurled from my left. It grabbed the towel like fingers and lifted it back to me.
“Blake?” I whispered. “That scoundrel is on his way?”
Glinda nodded as worry lines pressed into her forehead. “That’s what Leopold has heard. I don’t know when he’ll arrive.”
I frowned. “If you ladies will excuse me, I have a few things I need to take care of outside.”
“Do you need company?” Rose asked.
I patted her hand and smiled. “Not today.” Pepper and Axel were coming out of their bedroom as I headed toward the door. “There’s breakfast in the kitchen. Help yourselves, kids.”
Without another word I headed outside. That morning the air smelled crisp and sweet, the scent of cherry blossoms and dewy grass filling the air. I swallowed a hunk of worry in the back of my throat and went on.
I spied the carnival, and my gut told me that was where I needed to go If Blake was here, he’d head their first. But he wouldn’t feel the power of the heart like Pepper and I did. He would have to rely on vampire tactics of fear and coercion. Lucky for us it was broad daylight. He wouldn’t do anything rash for fear of being seen.
The carnival was quiet when I slipped through the gates. My gaze raked over every piece of equipment as I wondered where the vampire was hiding, because sure as sin, I knew he was here, somewhere.
“Well, well, well.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose to standing. Darn those buggers. They would have to go react in a way that showed fear. Vampires thrived on fear—at least the really nasty ones did. They could smell it on an animal. I was once told that it smelled thick and sweet, and was simply intoxicating.
That’s if you believed in malarkey, and I for one didn’t.
I slowly turned in the direction of the masculine voice. Blake leaned against a pole, a blade of grass sticking out between his teeth.
“Blake Calhoun,” I sneered. “But that’s not the name you had when I first met you.”
“Nah, it sure wasn’t, was it, Betty.” He grinned and I swear to heaven his lips curled all the way to his ears. At least from what I could see under that man bush of a beard he had—that pointed thing which made him look like a devil.
“Hank, that’s what you called yourself,” I said. “You wanted to think of yourself as a hunk, but you were no more than a hunk of rubbish.”
Blake scowled before smiling seductively. A chill snaked all the way up the back of my neck. All these years later and this man still had the same effect on me.
“Aw, don’t be so sore, Betty,” he said. “Don’t be angry about the way things turned out.”
“You were a user,” I said. “I should have recognized you the moment I saw you in Magnolia Cove, but what happened between us occurred so many years ago, I didn’t believe it was you.”
He smiled. “Plus, you thought I was dead.”
“There was that, too.”
Blake tossed the blade of grass to the ground, and in a flash he crossed over to me and inhaled deeply, drinking in my scent.
I leaned away, not wanting him to get too close. Vampires could not be trusted.
“You still smell like roses.” He grabbed my wrist and turned it over. Suddenly puncture wounds appeared on my skin, uncovered by the vampire’s touch.
“You use magic to hide them.”
“I do,” I said.
He inspected the scar that he had left on me all those years ago. “What’s it been—forty years?” His fingers grazed over the small puncture wounds that were puckered and scarred.
I yanked my arm away and waved my hand over the wound, hiding it. “It hasn’t been long enough.”
Blake tossed his head back and laughed. “You know, that’s what I always liked about you, Betty, the fact that you’re feisty. You’re about as feisty as they come. That may be why I never sought you out, never let you know that you hadn’t killed me after all.”
I raised my fist. “I could end it now.”
He grabbed my fist and brought it to his chest. “Do it. Try to kill me.” Anger flared in his cold, dead eyes. “But if you try and fail, I will reopen the wound on your wrist and this time I won’t stop drinking until you’re dry as a bone.”
My eyes narrowed and I grunted, not knowing what to say.
Blake laughed again. He wagged a finger at me. “See? I knew you couldn’t do it. How could you hurt your old lover? The man you confessed to love?”
I bristled. “I didn’t know what love was, then.”
He clicked his tongue. “I’m sure you did, just as I did as well.” Blake took a step back and opened his arms wide. “I could have made you a queen, Betty. You could have had anything you wanted—the world at your feet. The world would have seen the power you had. A witch being turned into a vampire—it would have shocked everyone. Your magic would have made you the most powerful woman on the planet. But you wouldn’t do it.”
I scoffed. “You betrayed me. Don’t think you can throw all of this on an old woman, one who was younger and more naive back then.”
Blake smirked. He rubbed a hand down his beard, and it almost sounded like the hairs sizzled and crackled as his skin moved over them. “I would never throw all of this on you. I am too much of a gentleman to do that.” He paused and smiled while I glared at him. “Oh, don’t be so sour. No one knows about us—about our past. I could have told Pepper when I met her in Magnolia Cove, but I didn’t.”
Against my will, my lower lip trembled. “You stay away from her.”
He chuckled. His dark eyes were pinned on me, and I felt a chill run all the way to my buttocks. Even after forty years this man had all the same charm and charisma he had displayed way back then. That was part of what it meant to be a vampire—they had so much appeal it was impossible. The stuff wafted off them like a fog. It was annoying even now.
“Now why,” he teased, “would I want to stay away from your granddaughter.”
“She just got married,” I spat.
He shrugged. “That’s never stopped me before.”
We stood in the vacant carnival. Plastic pennant flags snapped in the wind, and the tents rippled as the breeze moved through them. We were alone, absolutely alone. Blake could end my life right here and now. Oh, he’d promised only to do that if I made the first move, but the vampire couldn’t be fully trusted. I knew that from experience. I also knew that I did not have the tools with me to kill him or even wound him badly. If I tried, my life would be forfeited.
“Pepper is not to be touched,” I said harshly. “You fooled me once. You’ve had your share of Craple women.
You’re not allowed another.”
He moved like liquid silver to stand in front of me. “Tell me, how did I fool you, exactly? You knew what I was.”
With him this close I could feel my throat close. The words that I needed to say were hard to force out. “I knew what you were, yes, but you weren’t in love with me.”
“Oh no?”
“You were in love with my power and how it could benefit you. That’s all you ever cared about—how you could get ahead and use all the people around you to do it.”
He tsked. “Are you so sure about that?”
Blake ran a finger down my cheek, and gosh darnit, I shivered. I know I looked like an old, foolish woman, taken in by the beauty of a young vampire. He wasn’t really young, of course. He was older than me, but that didn’t change the affect he had on a person. It was true that I’d loved him when I was younger. I’d loved him with every part of my body, even my soul. But he had lured me in, suckering me and taking advantage of my naivete.
“Sure that you were in love with my power? Yes, I’m sure. I’m absolutely sure of that. It was all you saw, and it’s all you see now. All you want is the heart fire. Why? Why do you want it so badly?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed, and I thought I saw a spark of emotion in those bottomless pits. I thought I saw real emotion—something the vampire probably hadn’t felt since we were together forty years ago. Nobody gets tangled up with Betty Craple and forgets about it, that’s for sure.
“Did you really think you could hide one of the most powerful objects ever created from me? Something like the heart, a thing that can give an entire town magic, is obviously capable of doing so much.” He chuckled but the warmth of the sound did not reach his eyes. “You may not have wanted me to know about it, but I found out.”
I glared at him. “See? Even when we were together, I had the smarts not to say too much. My inner voice told me not to say a word to you about it, and I didn’t. But why do you want it?”
He reached out and tugged one of my tendrils of hair. “Why wouldn’t I want it? What have I always wanted?”
“Power,” I mused. “You have always wanted power.”
“And that’s what the heart will give me—more power than I can imagine.”
“You cannot take it in you,” I said. “It would be death, even for a vampire.”
He shrugged. “I’ve lived a long time. Lots of people have tried to destroy me, but I’ve always lived. This body can take a lot of things. Why can’t it accept what the heart has to give it?”
“Suit yourself,” I snapped. “Just call me before you fiddle with it. I’d like to be here to see how many pieces the heart turns you into.”
His eyes narrowed and I knew I had him then. My words had angered the vampire. Good, that’s what I had wanted, to rattle him, make him question his whole search.
“We’ll see,” Blake said. “We will see.”
Before I could say another word, he lifted my hand and turned it over, so that those old puncture wounds could face him. Then he kissed my flesh, and a shudder rippled through my body. It felt like Blake and zapped me with a hot wire.
I stood, shaking, as the vampire smiled.
“See?” he crowed. “I still have the touch. Until we meet again, Betty.”
Before I could say another word, Blake Calhoun disappeared into the maze of flapping tents and I was left all alone to recover from speaking to the man that I thought I had killed with a stake to the heart forty years ago.
Charming
Where was Thorne? I knew he wouldn’t leave people wondering about his whereabouts. Something had gone wrong—but what?
I intended to find out. Leopold had asked me to stay at the house—as if. Obviously he was only trying to keep me safe, but I didn’t want to stay safe. Something sinister was happening—first Kimberly had disappeared and now Thorne.
Just to make sure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions, I made a quick phone call to Leopold.
“Hello?” he answered gruffly.
“It’s Charming. Did you find Thorne?”
He sighed heavily. I knew the answer before he spoke. “No, I didn’t find him.”
So my next steps were then laid out for me. I knew what I had to do, and that meant I had to head over to the carnival and see what was going on.
Pepper and Axel were in the kitchen with Rose and Mama, along with Broom and Pig. As quietly as possible, I grabbed my jacket from a peg on the wall and sneaked toward the front door. As I reached for the handle, the door opened and Betty entered.
She blanched when our eyes met, and quickly averted her gaze. “Charming,” she murmured.
“Betty,” I said, darting past. I glanced over my shoulder before shutting the door to get one more look at her. Betty’s shoulders sagged, and all around her was a halo of secrets. Where had she just been?
As much as I wanted to question her, I let it go. After all, I was supposed to be in the house, waiting like a good little girl while a whole bunch of men searched for Thorne.
Well, not me. I wasn’t a little girl who was interested in being told what to do.
I glanced around to make sure no one I knew saw me, and then I rushed toward the carnival, slipping under the barrier and getting inside. The place was quiet, eerily so. The path that wove around seemed cold and dark even though it was sunny. I shivered against a wind that swept through the path and pushed on.
Then it hit me—I had no idea where I was going. Should I go and talk to Samson? Yes, maybe that was the best thing. But if my instincts were right about him, Samson was a tremendously dangerous man.
I didn’t care. I was a tremendously dangerous witch. This guy didn’t know who he was dealing with, and if he had anything to do with Kimberly’s and Thorne’s disappearances, he would pay for it—that much was fact.
My decision made, I headed over to Samson’s trailer. I was there within minutes and found the carnival owner outside, winding a length of rope around his arm.
“Charming,” he said, nodding in my direction. “What brings you here so early.”
“Thorne,” I said, eyeing him with what I knew was suspicion. “No one has heard from him since last night. I was wondering if you’d seen him?”
Samson shook his head. “I haven’t. Excuse me.” He stepped by me and dropped the rope in a large black tub. “If you see him, let the chief know that we’re packing up the carnival.”
My eyes widened. “Packing up? So soon after what happened to Arnold?”
He nodded sadly. “I can’t stay here, knowing that my good man died on this very soil. We will take Arnold’s body and bury it as is our way.”
“Mr. Magnum,” I said, “Kimberly Peterson hasn’t returned my calls. I haven’t seen her since the magic show you did with her and I’m worried. Have you, by any chance, heard from her?”
Samson pulled a phone from his pocket. “Why, yes I have. She texted me just yesterday, explaining what a good time she had. Here, you can see for yourself.”
He flashed the screen of his phone, and sure enough, there sat a message from Kimberly. Had so much fun performing with you. Let me know when we can do it again.
“When did you get this?” I asked.
He tapped the screen, and the day and time appeared. “Yesterday.”
That was indeed the day stamped on the page, but there was something that unsettled me. My stomach twisted, and I had the feeling that even though everything looked right, it was actually off.
“That’s so strange,” I murmured. “I messaged her, and Kimberly didn’t contact me.”
He shook his head. “Perhaps she was worried about how you would react.”
“What are you talking about?”
Samson shrugged. “Let’s be honest, Ms. Calhoun—you saw that Kimberly was my soul mate, yet you did not tell me this fact, nor did you tell her.” He tsked. “It seems to me that what you did was in violation of some sort of matchmaking ethics code, wouldn’t you say so?”
I folde
d my arms and glared at him. “There are only two ways you could possibly know what I saw—either you placed the image in my head or you plucked it from me. I’m not afraid to say, Mr. Magnum, that screwing around with people’s heads requires the sort of magic that most good folks frown upon.”
“Let’s agree to disagree; how does that sound?”
“Bad,” I said flatly.
Samson gave me a tight smile. “I’m afraid that’s the best I can offer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to round up my people and tell them that we’re leaving.”
I jumped in his path, blocking him. “Does Thorne know that you’re planning to leave Witch’s Forge?”
“I tell you what, Ms. Calhoun,” he said in both a condescending, yet charming way, “why don’t you tell him when you see him?”
I scoffed.
“Good day, Ms. Calhoun.” He swept past me, and this time I didn’t block him. “Until we meet again.”
Anger rolled off me in greasy fumes. I needed Thorne here, to ask for his help. This Samson fellow had me at a loss. Wait a minute—Samson was leaving town. Could he do that? If there was an open murder investigation, maybe one of Thorne’s men could stop him and hold him until we figured out the truth—about Arnold, Kimberly and most of all, Thorne.
I was about to leave when the cat that Rose called Mr. Jingles raced out in front of me. It stopped, took one look at me and meowed loudly.
Carnival workers were beginning to wake up and exit their trailers. I looked like a sore thumb in my yellow blouse, jacket and jeans. Without a beard, it was obvious that I didn’t belong here.
“Mr. Jingles?” I asked dumbly as if the cat could respond.
The cat meowed even louder. It padded up to me and snaked around my legs, hooking its tail on my calf. I reached down to pet it, and the cat darted away a few paces.
I shrugged. “Well, why’d you walk up to me if you don’t want me to pet you?”
I started off back toward the house when the cat zipped straight onto my path, stopping in front of me. “Meoooow!”
I cocked my head. “Let’s try this again.” I reached down to pet him, but Mr. Jingles zipped away. The cat flicked its tail. “Meooow!”
