Banshees and Babysitters

by Amanda A. Allen

  Stefanie’s grunted and then said, “Of course he was. You can scent a little troll like him from a mile off if you know what to look for.”

  “A troll?” Scarlett considered. Mystic Cove didn’t have any trolls. Scarlett had only met a few in her travels and didn’t know any of them very well. That one guy near Notre Dam. The one who lived in the village in the south of Austria near that ancient grove. “Can they do spells?”

  “Not like witches and warlocks. But could they combine spelled teas? Sure. All they’d need is the slightest of magicks to activate what they were intending. Even you could do that.”

  Scarlett took the list and told Stefanie thanks. She raised her brow and Scarlett paused and then said, “Perhaps you could find me a tea you think I’d like.”

  Twenty minutes later, Scarlett left the tea shop with tea, a teapot, and some spices. None of which she’d wanted. Hopefully, Tessa’s help would be far less costly.

  Chapter 8

  Tessa glanced the list over and then said, “Stefanie shouldn’t have sold him that much of mugwort or dragon’s breath. That was…” Tessa stopped and shook her head.

  “Would this wear off?”

  Tessa nodded but said, “It’ll take longer for Agnes. If she’s had a lot. It’ll take a lot longer. But Lex should be all right before long as long as he doesn't get re-exposed.”

  * * * * *

  “I need you to call Quinton,” Scarlett told Harper as they sat underneath the stars outside of the family home. The clearing where the family was camping was lit by a ring of tiki torches and had a massive bonfire in the center. It was bright enough to see each other pretty well and but not so bright that it would take more than a few steps into the grove to see the stars with utter clarity.

  “Why would I be able to do that? I don’t have his number.” Harper cleared her throat and then coughed.

  “You left your scarf in his room. So yes you do have the number. But, just so we’re clear, you can’t date someone who doesn’t even have a home. He needs to get a real place.”

  “She did?” Ella's voice was a squeal. “Does Harper have a boyfriend?”

  “She certainly has someone who wants to be her boyfriend,” Scarlett said waggling brows. Harper gasped and then punched Scarlett on the arm.

  “Is it because she’s pretty?” Luna asked. “She’s the prettiest ever, isn’t she?”

  Scarlett gasped dramatically and Luna jumped into Scarlett’s lap and added in a rush, “Except for you, Mommy.”

  Harper then gasped and Luna squirmed glancing between them.

  “It’s okay, peanut,” Harper told Luna. “I think your Mommy is the prettiest too.”

  “Mommy,” Luna said in a quiet voice, “I think you’re pretty. Are you going to have a boyfriend?”

  Scarlett’s breath caught and she said, “You mean a boyfriend that I love like I used to love Daddy?”

  Luna nodded and Scarlett choked a little before she said, “I hope someday.”

  “What if they don’t like me?”

  “Everyone likes you,” Harper told Luna.

  “But Jen doesn’t,” Luna said in a voice so low and quiet that it was hard to catch. The low whine of Max was enough to punctuate the level of Luna’s worry.

  “Luna Oaken,” Scarlett said. “You listen to me right now. We’re a package, and whoever loves me will love you or I won’t fall in love with them.”

  “But Daddy did.”

  “Your Daddy is sometimes a very big dumbhead,” Scarlett said seriously taking her daughter’s chin in her hands, so that she was sure Luna was listening. “He made the biggest mistake of his life with you and Ella, and he’s realizing it, and that’s why he’s here.”

  “But Jen still doesn’t like us.”

  Scarlett wanted to shriek to the heavens. She wanted to shake her fist in fate’s face and ask her some pointed questions. Instead, she said in her softest, firmest voice, “Jen is afraid. And people who are afraid do stupid things like let little girls think they are disliked. She’s afraid that Daddy will want us back, and she loves him. She has a baby with him. For her…we threaten her family.”

  “That’s not fair,” Ella interjected. “She broke ours.”

  “Daddy broke ours,” Scarlett countered. “Daddy made the choices for Daddy. Not Jen. But that doesn’t mean Daddy doesn’t love you so much it hurts. It just means that Daddy and Mommy aren’t…in love like we were before.”

  “But do you love Daddy?” Luna asked.

  Scarlett wanted to lie. So badly. And she wasn’t even sure what the truth was. Yes. No. She loved and hated him. She’d do a lot for him, and there was nothing that she wanted more than to punch him in the kidneys over and over. But even as much as she hated him—she loved him too. She loved their memories. She loved the family that they'd had. She loved him because he was their daughters’ father, and they were the best thing that had ever happened to her life. There was no amount of pain and heartbreak that she wouldn’t experience a thousand times over to be their mommy.

  “I love your Daddy. But not in the same way as Jen does. Not anymore.”

  Scarlett could sense the tears on her their faces and with that realization the knowledge that another dream of theirs was dying.

  “What if Daddy wanted to be with us again?” Ella asked for both of them.

  Harper choked and Luna froze. It hurt Scarlett to answer because she knew it would hurt her girls, but she did anyway. “The way we used to be?”

  Ella whispered, “Yes.”

  “That’s not going to happen again, baby.”

  Ella didn’t say another word, but she crouched next to Scarlett and buried her face in her neck and cried. Silent but with shaking sobs.

  “We need s’mores,” Harper said, and Scarlett could sense the helplessness in her sister. “Or something.”

  “We need to help Grant,” Scarlett said. “Call Quinton, please.”

  “Why are we helping Grant, again?” Harper asked and the wail of frustration in her voice had them all turning to her.

  “He’s Daddy,” Luna answered. “You gots to help your Daddy even if he’s a dumbhead.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” Scarlett replied. “Luna’s right.”

  “What are you thinking?” Harper asked, finally focusing on the problem.

  “Quinton eats breakfast and lunch at the bakery. How often does he eat dinner with you?”

  Harper paused and then confessed, “Often.”

  “And what if Jen isn’t as evil as she seems and whatever is happing at the B&B is happening to her.”

  Harper cursed and then winced when Scarlett slapped her arm for cursing in front of the girls.

  Harper pulled out her phone, gave everyone a nasty look, and then called Quinton.

  Ella and Luna glanced at each other and Luna giggled. As one they sang, “Harper and Quinton sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I…”

  “Shut up,” Harper hissed and then said brightly. “Hey.”

  “N-G.”

  Scarlett wrapped a hand around both of their mouths, but she was laughing with them as Harper rose and walked a few feet away.

  “Mommy wants to hear,” Scarlett said, “So let's be nice until Harper hangs up.”

  “Can we tease her then, Mommy?”

  “Of course,” Scarlett said and rose to follow Harper to where she was leaning against her favorite thorn tree. It shouldn’t have grown in New England, but they were druids, so the native african tree was in the grove planted by an Oaken druid almost as sour as Harper. That tree stabbed everyone but Harper. Even Ella, and all the trees loved Ella.

  “Will you put it on speaker?” Scarlett asked Harper who gave Scarlett a look like she was insane.

  “I promise the girls will be good.”

  “You can’t keep that promise, Scarlett.”

  “They said they would.”

  “Luna also said she’d stop bringing home animals,” Harper countered.

  “I need to ask Quinton a question,” Sc
arlett said with a sigh. She kicked the ground around the thorn tree to make sure she wouldn’t be stabbed and then sat down and yanked Harper down as well.

  Harper handed the phone over and said, “Don’t make me kill you.”

  “Hey Quinton,” Scarlett said and then put the phone on speaker, “I was wondering…do you eat at the B&B? I see you at the bakery so often..”

  He paused and then said, “Very rarely.”

  “Do you know if Jen or Grant ate when they got there?”

  Quinton said, “I didn’t see them. I was at work, but I do know that Agnes always offers guests tea, coffee, and snacks when they arrive.”

  Scarlett looked at Harper and said, “When I tried to figure out what Muscato was doing, I found out he bought an absurd about of tea and herbs. And from witches who used spelled ingredients.”

  “But he was a normal,” Harper said.

  “Except, Stefanie at the tea shop said that he’s not. That he’s a troll who can do things like put together already spelled ingredients and activate some shady stuff. I’m pretty sure whatever it is, it’s in the tea.”

  Harper’s brows rose and then she said, “But what about Lex? Why’d he go mean?”

  “When I got to the B&B, Lex was drinking tea with Agnes.”

  “Oh man,” Quinton said. “I don’t like tea. I haven’t had any here.”

  “We need to get that tea from Agnes…” Harper said. “If Muscato did something to it…”

  “I’ll get it,” Quinton said. “It’ll be easiest for me.”

  “Leave us on the phone,” Harper said.

  “And then, if you can, bring it to the bakery, and we’ll get a couple of witches to help us check it out.”

  They could hear him making his way down the stairs. There was the sound of a door opening. They couldn’t hear the closing, but Scarlett guessed he’d either been very, very careful, or he’d left it cracked open. They could hear rustling and then he said, “Oh hello.”

  Harper gasped low, but they next heard a murmur that was too low to understand.

  “No, no,” Quinton said with a bit of alarm in his voice. “I was just thinking of having a cup. Tight throat.”

  Again there was a murmur, but they could hear the meanness of it this time.

  “I think I might be coming down with something. Isn’t tea supposed to help? With lemon?” There was a bark of sound in unison with his gasp.

  Harper jumped to her feet.

  “No,” she said. “No, no, no.”

  There was enough panic in her voice that Scarlett yelled for her girls to go get their Nana and then chased after Harper.

  Scarlett was only a few steps behind when she heard a second gunshot.

  “No,” Scarlett said. “No, no, no.”

  She pulled out her phone as she ran and called emergency services making sure they sent both an ambulance and the police. She’d have called Lex directly any other day, but that day…she was hoping the newly hired partner was on call.

  She drove—as fast as she could go—and they got there as the ambulance was loading Quinton into the back. His long slender frame was on a gurney and there was blood on his side. Too much blood, but Scarlett’s knowing told her that he was alive. Given that this was Mystic Cove. The fact that he was still alive was a very promising. Magic should take care of the rest. Harper leaped out of the SUV before Scarlett had come to a stop and raced to Quinton. She grabbed his hand. Scarlett didn’t follow. She got out and met Lex’s gaze.

  “Was this you?” Lex asked. His voice was gruff but way less vicious than it had been the last time she’d talked to him.

  Scarlett slowly stepped forward, examining him carefully. Trying to check his eyes, but he avoided her gaze. With that sidestep, she felt dawning hope.

  “Are you back?”

  He coughed, shrugged, and then said, “Some. I’m not entirely sure if I want to wring your neck because you interfered or because of whatever happened to me.”

  Scarlett took a long slow breath and then threw herself into his arms. “I was so worried.”

  It took moment but Lex slowly closed his arms around her—and for the first time—she felt those muscular, wrestler’s arms enfold her. He held her long enough for her to remember how good that felt and then stepped back.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and the sound of the genuine regret warmed her. “I never wanted to treat you that way.”

  She’d been so afraid that he’d said the things he really felt. It wasn’t so much his apology that gave her hope, but Agnes. Scarlett knew that Agnes was lovely and kind. Scarlett could hope then that what Lex had said to her wasn’t his true thoughts.

  “What’s happening here, Scarlett? I know you must have figured some of it out.”

  “It was Mr. Muscato. I don’t know what his intention was, but he was doing something to the tea that Agnes served. She must drink pots of it a day. It’s what messed you up, if I’m right. I bet Jen drank it. That’s why she’s been so foul. Though, maybe she’s just a beast. It’s also why Quinton wasn’t effected. He doesn’t eat anything here. Plus, he hates tea.”

  “Just one cup messed me up bad, Scarlett. It is possible that Grant had a drink and shot Muscato. Especially if Muscato was as rude to Grant like everyone else.”

  Scarlett shook her head and then said, “I don’t think so. Grant hates tea. Passionately. I doubt he had a coffee either. He’s a soda drinker. Agnes isn’t a woman to serve soda.”

  “What about the wife? Could she have shot Muscato?”

  “But the gun…” Scarlett said. She glanced up at the imposing, beautiful Victorian and realized that Agnes would be forever haunted by what had happened here. “No matter why Muscato decided to do this…I’m not sure you could do anything more cruel to Agnes than to make her mean to her guests and friends. To drive her to kill. She’ll suffer for this. Suffer that someone was murdered in her home. Suffer that…why? Why would someone hurt Agnes?”

  “Maybe it was to punish her for some reason? Maybe somehow Agnes made an enemy of him.”

  “That doesn't make sense,” Scarlett said rubbing the space between her brows. “She wouldn't have given a room to an enemy. Or even someone who had a grudge. She’d kind, but not that kind. If he had a reason to hate her, she wouldn’t have given him a place to stay.”

  Lex considered and then said, “This isn’t just a town for supernatural, you know. It’s the modern age. People are close friends with people they meet through Facebook or dating apps or online book clubs. It is possible that Agnes somehow infuriated someone that she hadn’t met in person.”

  “You mean in addition to being a real troll, he was an internet troll?”

  Lex shrugged and Scarlett realized that they wouldn’t find out the answer anytime soon.

  “It was Agnes who shot Quinton?”

  Lex nodded.

  Scarlett wasn’t happy that Quinton had been shot but that gun had been used when the girls’ Daddy was in jail. “Lex…Agnes would have been able to get the gun that Grant brought.”

  Lex nodded and said, “Nynan already took Agnes in. Knowing she’s been drugged and unwittingly drugging others will give us the time to get her sorted back to herself and then process Muscato as an accidental death. I don’t think Grant did it either. Not anymore.”

  “I still feel like we’ve lost. I know we found the killer, but I hate it.”

  Lex nodded sharply.

  Scarlett added, “He used our town against us. Our trust and our friendships. He hurt our people.”

  “He paid for it. He must have pushed Agnes too hard. It must have made her snap. I’ll go talk to her. We’ll let Grant out as soon as we’re sure he wasn’t drugged too.”

  Scarlett nodded. She needed to make sure Quinton was ok, but all she wanted was to go home to her daughters. Their Daddy was out of danger, they should know. But Harper needed Scarlett more right then, so Scarlett called her mom on the way to the clinic and explained what happened.

  “I’
ll send Henna to the station,” Scarlett’s mother, Maye said. “She’ll be a comfort to Agnes and help her to reset to herself. Druid healing is good for things like this.”

  Scarlett’s desire to hide her feelings battled her concern for Lex and she said, “Would you please have Henna help Lex too?”

  “Of course,” Maye said, but Scarlett heard the musing in her mom’s voice just as her mom heard the hesitation in Scarlett’s.

  “Did Gram tell you about her prediction that I would face plant into love?”

  Maye waited too long and Scarlett knew the answer.

  Scarlett laid her head down on her steering wheel as she waited at the light and then said, “I’m not there yet.”

  “Ok,” her mom said. There was so much unsaid in that simple word.

  “Ok,” Scarlett replied with an equally weighted solitary word.

  “Don’t be afraid, Scarlett.”

  The light changed, but it was only Scarlett there, so she felt no need to move the car. Instead, she admitted, “It’s hard not to fear the fire when you’ve already been burned.”

  Chapter 9

  Harper was sitting alone in the waiting room. She was gray with worry and Scarlett knew her sister well enough that she could tell the acid was high in Harper’s stomach, her brain was stuttering, and she didn’t know what to do with herself.

  Scarlett crossed the room, sat down next to her sister, and took hold of Harper’s hand without saying a word. Harper’s short, black nails dug into Scarlett, but she didn’t care.

  After quite a time, Harper said, “Was it Agnes?”

  “Yes,” Scarlett said carefully. “Lex is going to make it accidental or something. She won’t get in trouble. He thinks that maybe Muscato somehow hated her and targeted her. I doubt we’ll find out until she can think again. She’s been drinking that stuff for weeks and she drinks a lot of tea.”

  Harper sniffed and it took quite some time before she replied, “I don’t like very many people, but Agnes wouldn’t have shot Quinton or Muscato.”

  Scarlett felt a flash of relief when Harper’s anger didn’t extend to Agnes.

  “Remember when she rescued those kittens and bottled fed them until they were ready to be adopted?”