A Very Mercy Christmas
A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery
M.Z. Andrews
A Very Mercy Christmas
A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery Series
Holiday Special: Book #5
by
M.Z. Andrews
Copyright © M.Z. Andrews 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1973852599
ISBN-10: 1973852594
All characters herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the brief quotations in a book review.
To my husband, cheerleader, and infinite muse – the other M.Z.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Also by M.Z. Andrews
About the Author
1
“Where in the world are you taking me?” I asked. My heart trilled excitedly in my chest as I allowed Hugh to lead me blindfolded with outstretched arms.
“You tryin’ to ruin the surprise, darlin’?”
Through my blindness, I smiled at him. “I’m not trying to ruin anything. I’m just worried about tripping over something or running into a pole and looking like an idiot!”
His deep hearty laugh filled the brisk air around me. “Now, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you walk into a pole?”
I stopped walking and wrapped my arms around myself. “You’d think for a wizard who can control the weather you might have turned the heat up on this date a little bit. It’s getting chilly out here!”
He tugged my elbow, pulling me ahead a few more awkward steps. “Just a few more feet of patience, Miss Mercy Mae,” he promised. “And then it’ll all make sense.” The smooth sound of his southern drawl made me smile again. Something about his voice made me feel happy and safe. I couldn’t wait to find out exactly what this mysterious date he was taking me on was all about.
“I’ve never been much of the patient type,” I admitted to him.
“You don’t say?” he joked. Even though we’d only been dating all of four months, Hugh knew me well. “Alright, darlin’, we’re here. Are you ready?”
I felt a squeal welling up inside my throat, but letting it out would be an annoyingly Jax thing to do, and I wanted to play it cool. I nodded. “Yes! Can I take the blindfold off now?”
“Let me help you,” he said softly. I felt the roughness of his canvas jacket brush past my arm. Then his hands were in my hair untying the handkerchief he’d tied around my face when he’d loaded me up into his truck back in the men’s parking lot of the Paranormal Institute for Wizards. Standing behind me, he draped himself over my shoulders and wrapped one arm around my neck. As he leaned his head on my shoulder, I felt the slight stubble of his cheek touch my face and breathed in the heady scent of his woodsy cologne. “Ok, here we go…”
He removed the blindfold with one swift motion and all of a sudden my dark world lit up into a million twinkling white lights. I looked around in wonderment. We were somewhere in the country. There was a stable to our right. Straight ahead of us, white Christmas lights had been strung up on the ring of teenage oak trees encircling a fenced in arena. Lights covered a wooden arbor leading out to the open field. On the other end of the arbor was a small carriage with two horses wearing reindeer antlers and patiently waiting.
“What in the world? Hugh! Are those reindeer antlers?” I asked him with a laugh.
He shrugged lightly, then held a hand aside his mouth and whispered to me, “They’re just for ambiance. Now don’t make fun. The fellas were slightly embarrassed that I made them wear ‘em, but I promised them you’d love it.”
I turned to him and threw my arms around his shoulders. “I absolutely love it!”
Under the white glow of the arbor, I thought I saw a tinge of color flooding Hugh’s ruggedly handsome face. “Aww shucks. They’re the ones that wore the fake antlers, not me. I suppose you oughtta tell them you love it, not me.”
I smiled broadly and took two tentative steps forward. “Can I?”
He nodded, took me by the hand and led me through the short tunnel of lights to the carriage and the horses. “This is Jermaine and that one over there is Tito.”
I reached a hand out slowly to touch Jermaine’s soft chocolate brown mane. “Hi Jermaine, I love the antlers, you look so handsome,” I whispered to him as I ran a hand along his strong neck, patting him gently. “You look handsome too, Tito.”
Hugh’s smile widened. “I can tell they like you already.”
“They do?” I asked without taking my eyes off of the pair of reindeer horses. “How can you tell?”
Hugh put a hand on my shoulder and turned me around gently. “Because I like you.”
My heart did a little pirouette inside of my chest when Hugh’s arms encircled me in a bear hug. The warmth of his breath brushed up against my ear as he nuzzled my neck.
“I like you, too,” I whispered back, squeezing him tightly as goosebumps skidded across my arms and legs.
Suddenly, I felt the wet touch of something on my nose. Shocked, I opened my eyes and peered up into the onyx sky. Tiny snowflakes were just beginning to fly around me. My eyes opened wider as I let go of Hugh. “Hugh! It’s snowing!” I exclaimed.
Despite the fact that Aspen Falls, Pennsylvania should have seen snow already, especially in our high elevation, we hadn’t. Hugh and I preferred the moderate temperatures of fall, and he had made it a point to use his powers to keep Aspen Falls in above 70-degree weather since we’d begun college in September. But only a week ago, I recalled lamenting to him that it was almost Christmas and we hadn’t seen a single snowflake. It hadn’t felt like Christmas.
“I seem to recall my sweetheart requesting snow for Christmas, and what my sweetheart wants, my sweetheart gets!” he said as he pulled my back against his chest, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed my cheek.
My eyes lit up as I looked around. I put both of my mittened hands out to catch the flakes as they fell. “It’s so beautiful!” I exclaimed excitedly. “Where are we? How did you find this place?”
Hugh looked around, smiling proudly. “We’re just north of Aspen Falls a few miles. I’ve been out here riding a few times and have gotten to know the stable owner fairly well. He gave me permission to bring you out here tonight.”
Suddenly I felt a bit choked up as hot tears burned at the back of my eyes and a lump formed in the back of my throat. “I’ve never had anyone do anything like this for me before. Hugh, I don’t know what to say!”
“How about you say you’d like to go for a ride?” he suggested softly.
I nodded, unable to form a word.
Hugh held a hand out for me and walked me to the carriage. With a tiny boost, he lifted me into the small carriage, covered with lights. Inside there was a red flannel blanket on the seat.
“Oh, I brought this because I know how cold you get.”
I smiled as I sat next to him and let him cover our laps with the blanket. He made sure to tuck it in under my thigh and around my waist. “Thanks,” I said, leaning my head on his shoulder.
“Oh wait! There’s more,” he said and reached behind me to pull out his backpack. He unzipped it, reached inside, and pulled out a silver thermos.
“What’s this?”
“It’s part of the surprise!” He pulled the lid off of the thermos and handed it to me. “Hold this.”
I cupped my mittened hands around the small mug and held it out to him. Carefully, he poured a steaming grey colored liquid into the mug. It warmed my hands almost immediately. “Cocoa?” I asked with a little giggle.
Hugh held up a finger, then reached into his backpack and produced a small baggie of miniature marshmallows. He unzipped it and grabbed a small handful and dropped them into the mug.
“You’ve thought of everything!” I said, unable to take the smile off of my face.
“Almost,” he nodded. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his phone. From his backpack, he pulled out a little wireless speaker about the size of a pop can. It only took him a second to find the music app on his phone, and to my surprise, he had an entire Christmas playlist ready for us. Pushing a button, one of my favorite winter songs, filled the air around me.
“I really can’t stay…” sang a woman’s light, airy voice. “But baby it’s cold outside…” echoed a man’s voice.
“Christmas music, Hugh? I don’t even know what to say! This is…magical!”
As Hugh brought the horses to life with a shake of the reigns and a tiny clicking sound, he turned to me. “I thought we should enjoy our last night together before Christmas break. We’ll be apart until January. I fly home to Texas tomorrow, you know. I’m going to miss you,” he murmured as soft flakes of snow fluttered around us gently.
I looked up into his hazel eyes and gave him a shy smile. I’d never had anyone in my life make me feel like this before, and suddenly I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling inside. When he leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose, I was sure that he could read the adoration I felt on my face. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed. “I’m going to miss you too, Hugh.”
2
“Eeeeee!” my roommate, Jax, squealed as she leapt onto the bed next to me and rolled onto her back. “It’s almost Christmas, Mercy!! I can’t wait!” She extended her red and white witch leggings into my lap and shook them excitedly, jiggling the bed.
I tore my eyes away from my phone just long enough to look down disdainfully at her stocking feet. “You’re getting a little carried away, Jax. You need to bring it down a notch.”
Abruptly she withdrew her legs and sat up, crossing her tiny little bird legs in front of her. “Carried away?! Are you kidding me?! This is going to be the best Christmas ever!”
I rolled my eyes and shifted my body on the bed to lean back against the wall. “How do you figure?”
Her eyes widened, and she jumped off the bed. “Seriously? I have to explain it?! I have more family this year, duh! I’ve got two new cousins and a new aunt. And you guys invited me to spend Christmas with you! My mom hates Christmas. My whole family does, actually. It’s like they all got bit by the Scrooge bug, every single one of them! They’re like vampires during the day; they practically go into hiding.”
I shrugged as I scrolled through my phone, absentmindedly listening to her rambling. “Vampires aren’t real, Jax.”
“Yes, they are. I met this girl at boarding school, and her brother was a vampire.”
“She lied to you, Jax. Vampires don’t exist.”
“If they don’t exist then what about Twilight?” she asked, with her hand on her hip.
“It’s a movie. What about it?” I asked, without taking my eyes off of my phone.
“I don’t know. It seemed like it could be real!”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Jax. Iron Man seemed real too.”
“Maybe it is real. Maybe there really is a guy named Tony Stark making those body suits. You don’t know.”
“I do know. It’s not real, and neither are vampires.”
“But witches are real. So why can’t vampires be real?”
I rolled my eyes as I flipped through the photo gallery on my phone. “Because they’re not, Jax.”
She scowled at me. “What is so darn important on your phone?!” she demanded, stomping her witchy little foot down on the soft grey carpet of our dorm room.
I looked up at her. “Just looking at some pictures Hugh and I took on our date.”
Jax’s eyes widened, and she leapt onto the bed again next to me. “Lemme see!” she insisted, pulling my phone towards her.
I pulled my arm back with annoyance. “It’s personal!”
She wilted, crossing her arms across her chest in a pout. “Oh, come on. I show you pictures of Tristan and me!”
“That’s because you have no personal filter.”
“What’s a personal filter?”
“Jax, you’re an over-sharer. Let’s just put it that way.”
She leaned backwards and put a hand to her heart, pretending to be offended. “You think I share too much?!”
I shrugged and looked down at my phone. “Some people might think you do.”
“But do you?”
I blanched. I was balancing on the precarious line between honesty and brutality. I sighed and looked up into my tiny, pixie of a roommate’s bright blue eyes underneath her black wide-brimmed witch hat. “No Jax, you don’t share too much, ignore me. I’m just a little bummed. Hugh’s going back to Texas first thing in the morning. I’m just going to miss him, and it’s got me feeling weird.”
Jax’s bottom lip plunged out. “Aww, why didn’t you just say so, Cuz? I’m here for you. We’ll have so much fun that break will fly by and Hugh will be back before you even know it!”
I gave her a tight smile. Even though my overly sweet, naïve, and adoring roommate had gotten on my nerves since day one, something about her had quickly grown on me. No matter how snarky I wanted to get with her, I just had a hard time actually going there anymore. Ultimately, Jax meant well, and deep down inside, I knew it. “Thanks, Jax.”
There was a knock at the door. Jax squealed and rocketed off of the bed. She threw open the door, and when she squealed again, I knew who it was without even looking up. “Merry Christmas! Come in, come in!” she said excitedly.
“Hi Holly,” I said flatly without looking up.
“Hey Mercy,” said our curvy, blonde friend from down the hall. She entered our room wearing a low cut fuzzy sweater, black leggings, and a pair of calf-length black suede boots.
Jax looked her up and down. “You’re dressed for winter!”
Holly nodded and pointed at our window. “Hello? It snowed out there!”
I laughed. “We got a dusting Holly. That’s nothing. You’re from California; you’ve never actually seen a snow storm, have you?”
Holly shrugged. “That looked like a snow storm to me.”
Jax giggled. “Mercy’s right, Holl. That was nothing. We can get some big storms up here in the mountains.”
“Well, in 18 hours I’ll be celebrating Christmas Eve poolside, and then it can do whatever it wants in Pennsylvania!”
“Hugh only made it snow for our date, Holly. I’m sure it’s already melted and back to 77 degrees by now out there. What time does your flight leave?”
“My flight leaves at one o’clock out of Pittsburgh. Alba, Sweets, and I are leaving for the airport around ten thirty,” she said, jumping up to sit on my desk.
“What’s Alba doing?” I asked.
“Packing. She’s almost done. She said she’d come down in a few minutes. I’m not in the mood to pack. I’m too excited. I’ll do it in the morning,” Holly said, leaning over to pull a box of Oreos off of Jax’s desk. “Whose are these?”
Jax, who was spinning around our room with her arms outstretched, dancing to music only she could hear in her mind, chirped, “Mine. Help yourself.”
Holly looked at the blue package and rubbed her stomach. “Ugh, I really want one, but I have to put a bikini on tomorrow. I better not. The freshman fifteen struggle is real.”
There was another knock at the door. “Come in!” Jax called out as she pirouetted in the middle of the room.
Holly’s roommate and polar opposite, Alba, entered with Sweets, the fifth member of the Witch Squad, right behind her. Alba shot Jax a funny look. “What’s with the dancing elf?”
I covered my mouth, so I didn’t laugh out loud. “She’s excited about Christmas.”
Sweets clapped her hands together. “I’m excited too! I can’t wait to see my mom and dad!”
“What time does your flight to Georgia leave?” Jax asked her, only slightly out of breath.
“Not until one thirty, but we’re leaving at ten, just to be on the safe side,” Sweets said somberly.
Holly’s eyes shot towards Sweets in surprise. “I thought we said ten thirty or eleven!”
Alba put her hands on her hips and growled. “I told you, we’re leaving at ten now. I moved the time up because you’re late for everything, Cosmo. I don’t want to chance anything. I’m getting on that plane tomorrow,” said Alba gruffly.
Holly groaned. “Ugh, you’re killing me here. I wanted to sleep in!”
“Is Tony picking you up from the airport?” Jax asked Alba.
Alba tried to hold back a smile, but the brightness in her eyes didn’t lie. After reuniting with her husband at Thanksgiving, Alba had actually been – dare I say – happy. “Yeah. My flight doesn’t get me into Newark until four thirty, though,” she said before plopping down on my desk chair.
A Very Mercy Christmas: A Witch Squad Holiday Special (A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 1
