That Old Witch Magic (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 2)

by J. D. Winters

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “I thought we’d try the Castle,” he said. “Are you game?”

  The Castle was very posh. Well, for those used to San Francisco it probably seemed a bit ordinary, but for Moonhaven, it was the nicest restaurant in town and I’d never been there.

  “Sure,” I said, trying not to sound too impressed. “I’m ready, Teddy.”

  The ride to the restaurant was short, but Bentley made the most of it, taking the long way and going too fast. I was laughing at him, enjoying the speed, when suddenly he had to brake hard, his right arm flying out to protect me from the jolt. At a blind spot in the curve, a large ugly green truck was jack-knifed, filling most of the road, and the driver was hanging out the window, yelling at us. We missed him, but just barely. It was enough to make my heart race, and to make Bentley swear like I’d never heard him do before.

  “You okay?” he asked me.

  I nodded. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the truck driver. Built like a tank, his stocky body was encased in a wife-beater t-shirt, showing off a lot of black hair all over his body, and his face was contorted by his yelling. There was something scary about him, something strangely evil. Once I tore my gaze away, I stared down at the floor of the car and didn’t want to look up. I would have been happy never to see that awful face again.

  As we made our way past along the shoulder of the road, he yelled at Bentley by name, shaking a fist at him as though he’d somehow had something to do with his current predicament.

  Bentley ignored him, but once we were past, I asked, “Who is that awful man?”

  He glanced at me. “Don’t you know him? That’s Brick, the Gremlin Wrangler. You don’t want to mess with him. Take it from me.”

  But I was gob smacked for the moment. The Gremlin Wrangler—twice in one day? Weird. And I was sure I’d never heard of such a thing before. Strange days indeed.

  But our dinner destination was looming ahead and I was looking forward to it. The Castle was built on a theme that was obvious from its name. You walked in on a bridge over a moat filled with aquatic turtles and colorful fish. Once inside, we were escorted to our table by a young woman in a flashy medieval costume. A young man in leggings and a Robin Hood hat strolled past playing a mandolin and singing a lovely ancient-sounding song while jugglers and magicians did their tricks nearby.

  “A step back in time,” Bentley noted as we were seated.

  I nodded. “I love castles,” I said. “I could live in one. As long as there was a very large retinue of servants at my beck and call.”

  “Ah, not me,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m a more private person. I’d hate having all that going on around me.” He narrowed his eyes, thinking. “I think I’d prefer living in a lighthouse, all alone out on a rocky jetty, waves crashing below me, visitors discouraged.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll take the castle,” I said.

  He smiled at me. “I’m curious. How does a person with amnesia respond to this kind of thing, this harkening back to a previous century?”

  I gave him a sideways look. “A person like me with amnesia remembers the stories of this period better than she remembers her own much shorter and closer history. What can I tell you? I’m the same me. I just can’t bring up memories of my own personal experience for the last twenty years. Everything else is still there.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Not very. Believe me.” I picked up a menu. “What’s interesting is whether they’re going to feed us large chunks of bleeding meat, or something more refined for the modern age.”

  It turned out to be a bit of both. I ordered a Coquille St. Jacques, scallops and mushrooms in a wine sauce with a gratin topping, and he ordered a huge ribeye steak.

  “Extra thick, extra rare,” he said happily, sounding as though he was warning the waiter.

  “Extra bloody no doubt,” the waiter muttered as he jotted it down.

  I turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, wondering if I should take offense at his tone, at least on Bentley’s part, but was quickly captivated by his baby-faced handsomeness and slicked back, thick reddish gold hair. He was quite a presence, then I realized I recognized him.

  “Wait a minute. Aren’t you Rennie’s little brother, Gordon?” I said. She’d pointed him out to me one day when we were having lunch on a park bench and he was playing a pick-up game of basketball with some others nearby.

  He gave me a bright-eyed stare. “Not so little anymore,” he noted with a raised eyebrow, and I had to agree. Despite the baby face, the boy had to be at least six foot four. “And old enough to serve you both alcoholic beverages.”

  He closed his tablet with a flourish, bowed and headed for the kitchen. I looked at Bentley and shrugged.

  But he was looking at me with a warm, melting look that I wasn’t sure I liked much. Before I knew what was happening, he had my hand in his.

  “Now it’s time for me to dazzle you with my witty repertoire and savoir faire,” he said.

  I had to grin at him. “Go ahead and dazzle,” I said. “I love that sort of stuff. Especially in French.”

  His sigh was heart-felt. “Here’s the problem,” he said sadly. “I mean, my plan was to lay it on thick. And yet I find myself curiously tongue-tied. I don’t seem to have anything to work with here.”

  “No dazzle?”

  “No dazzle.”

  “No savoir faire?”

  He shook his head, looking woebegone. “I’m afraid not.”

  I smiled and patted his hand. “No problem. I’m not in the mood for dazzle anyway. Maybe you could just explain something to me.”

  “I’m at your service.”

  I leaned closer. “That strange man in the truck that was stalled. You called him Brick, the Gremlin Wrangler.”

  “Yes.” Bentley gave a shiver. “Creepy little spud, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is. So tell me about him. What does he do exactly?”

  Bentley thought for a moment. “Well, it’s my understanding that gremlins are something that you get infested with, like ant colonies or bees or raccoons in the attic. When that happens the only thing you can do is call in the wrangler. He rounds them up and clears them out.”

  I nodded. “What does he do with them? Kill them?”

  Bentley blinked as though that was something he didn’t like to think about. “Oh, I don’t think so. I think he takes them out to the gremlin lands and sets them free. Or something.”

  I frowned. “Gremlin lands?”

  “Or a gremlin ranch.”

  “What?” I said with total skepticism, but he had moved on.

  “You know, there are things that you don’t understand. Heck, there are things I don’t understand. And…well, to tell you the truth, I have to know one thing before we go on. Are you….human?” He looked like he was steeling himself for the wrong answer.

  I smiled at him. “What do you think? What do your preternatural instincts tell you?”

  “That’s just the thing. I can’t tell with you. I’ve only known you for a few weeks and I was pretty sure at first that you were…shall we say, aware. But lately, it seems like you shy away from anything in the supernatural realm. So I’m a little uncomfortable around you, I have to admit. I’m never quite sure what I can talk to you about and what should be verboten.”

  I was impressed. He was really being honest. I was touched that he cared enough to bare his soul this way. But what was I going to tell him? That I was supposed to be a witch but I didn’t want to be? That was the truth. And, did he realize I knew he was a vampire? I mean, come on. Anyone could see that. At least I thought they could. But for all I knew, maybe only our kind—the supernatural kind—could tell the difference so easily. And then there was the fact that many supers could mask their true identities if they wanted to. Hmm. Maybe I ought to look into that myself.

  Okay, so what to tell Bentley? The truth, I supposed.

  “Here’s the deal, Bentley. My grandmother is
a sorceress.”

  He nodded. “That I knew.”

  “And everyone wants me to start training to be her assistant.”

  “Sounds fair.”

  “And they want me to prepare for the fight.”

  He nodded. “Um hum.”

  “And I’m dragging my feet.”

  “Oh oh.”

  “Because I guess I’m a silly spoiled brat.” I sighed. “And I don’t relish fighting a war with demons.”

  He threw up his hands, looking adorable. “Who does? Some things are just inevitable.”

  I shook my head. “If I were a normal human would you say that?”

  “Of course not. But then, I wouldn’t be here, would I? And if I were, you would be looking at me as though you weren’t sure if I was a real person or some kind of Halloween character who had forgotten to take off the mask as October rolled by and November took over.”

  “There you go. You at least are playing to type. Me? I’m a misfit. Can we just leave it at that for now?”

  Suddenly, he was looking worried. “Okay. For now.” He shook his head. “But you’ve got to make up your mind, Haley. You either play for one team or the other. If you stand around in the middle of the road, you are bound to be run over by something.”

  Gordon approached before I could comment.

  “Ah, here is our waiter with the wine,” Bentley said. “Would you like to do the honors, or should I?”

  I let him test the beautiful deep burgundy shiraz and declare it perfect. Gordon poured it out for us. It felt downright elegant.

  I leaned close to Bentley and told him I’d been by his place earlier.

  “Really? I didn’t see you,” he said.

  “No. I heard you out back with that inspector person, so I left you alone.”

  “The Inspector.” His hands clenched into fists and his temple seemed to throb. “That man is like a dictator. He thinks it’s his job to create a blue print for everything that happens in this town. Our own local tyrant.”

  His voice was bitter and he knuckles were white with anger, startling me.

  “Is he really that bad?” I asked.

  “He is. The man has no respect for what we’ve done to turn this town around. He’s ready to throw out the Plan and start over with something more to his liking.”

  “He…he can’t really make us do anything we don’t want to do, can he?” I asked hesitantly. “He can’t make you move away, for instance.”

  He gave me an appraising look and gave a heart-felt sigh. “You heard some of that, did you?”

  I bit my lip. Should I tell him? He wasn’t going to like it. But I hadn’t really been eavesdropping and I hadn’t heard much.

  “Yes, I did,” I said at last. “And Bentley…” I put my hand on his arm. “I just want you to know, if you need anything, I mean like a character witness or anything like that, I will be there for you. Seriously. I know you’re a good guy and I can’t stand to think of you being bullied by…..”

  He put his hand over mine and smiled at me. “You’re a sweetheart, you know that? But don’t worry about me. I always land on my feet. I can handle an inspector from the Council any day.”

  That was reassuring, but he’d barely got the words out when he looked up toward the entrance and a flash of shock swept over his face. I turned to see what had caught his eye and there was the man from the coffee bar, the one Shane called Alessandro, being shown to a table. I looked back at Bentley. He was white as a sheet.

  “Bentley! Do you know him?”

  “Uh…, listen.” He pulled out his wallet and handed me his credit card. “I just remembered something I have to do. You go ahead and have a nice dinner. I’ll call you later.”

  He rose, managing to look stealthy and hurried at the same time, and practically vanished into thin air. I looked around, not sure how I could have lost sight of him like that. But he was definitely gone.

  Just then, something flew through the room. At first I thought it was a bird, but it flew erratically. I blinked and it was gone. A booming laugh filled the place. It was that man again, Alessandro. Something had really amused him.

  Then I realized what it was. That hadn’t been a bird flying off. It had been a bat. A real bat.

  Chapter 5

  I looked back at Alessandro. He was still large, still handsome in an arrogant way—but also scary somehow. He looked up suddenly and found me staring. His eyes focused on me like a predatory bird of prey, burning like flames. I couldn’t look away. He seemed to be moving toward me, coming closer and closer. My heart began to pound and my breath was coming very fast, almost panting. I could feel him zeroing in on me. If he was a hunter, he was a new type to me. I’d never been so scared of a stranger before. And at the same time, I couldn’t tear myself away.

  “Hey.”

  The voice shocked me back to reality. I jerked my head around and looked at the seat beside mine. Shane was sitting where Bentley had been only minutes before. I nearly crumbled to the floor in relief.

  “Oh Shane,” I said, closing my eyes and catching my breath. “Oh thank God.”

  “What’s wrong?” he said, reaching out to take my hand. “You okay?”

  I looked back at Alessandro. He was giving Gordon his order, referring to the menu and completely oblivious to my existence. What the heck! What was going on? Had I imagined all that?

  I looked back at Shane. “I…uh…” I took a deep breath. Something had happened but it was gone now. And I was very glad it was. I didn’t need to get Shane mixed up in any case. I shook my head and cleared my brain, then gave Shane a sassy smile. “So, what are you doing here?” I demanded.

  He looked around the room and I got the impression he’d quickly memorized everyone’s placement.

  “I came to give Gordon a message from Rennie,” he said. “She wants to make sure he comes home by eleven tonight. She needs help with something for the festival.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Actually, I think she just doesn’t want him hanging out with his girl friend at all hours,” he said. “But I promised I’d tell him. Then I saw you here, looking lonely.” He glanced around and shrugged. “So what are you doing here alone? I thought you had a date with our good friend Bentley.”

  “I did,” I told him with a sigh. “But Bentley took one look at your large hunter pal when he showed up and turned pale. He had places to go, things to do, and he left.” I decided to skip the bat thing. No one else seemed to have noticed it besides me and the scary man across the room. If they had, there would have been screams aplenty, but so far, I hadn’t noticed a one.

  “Interesting.” Shane looked thoughtful, and I felt defensive.

  “Don’t go getting ideas about Bentley,” I said. “He has to be careful.”

  He looked at me. “I don’t need ideas about the man,” he said. “I know he’s a vampire, and I know you ought to give him a wide berth. No matter how nice he may seem at the moment, once cornered, he’ll come out with those little pointy teeth bared.”

  I glared at him, but only lightly. “Then I suggest we don’t corner him.”

  “Hey,” he said sardonically. “I’m a hunter, remember? It’s my job to corner things like him. I’m wired in that direction.” His eyes darkened in a way that gave me pause. “There’s no stopping me once the blood begins to flow.”

  I stared at him, not sure what exactly he was trying to convey, wondering if it had something to do with our relationship. Was he warning me? He didn’t need to do that. I was already wary of him and everyone else in this town.

  Gordon arrived with my scallops and Bentley’s bloody steak. Shane took one look and started to laugh, but I refused to join in.

  “Why don’t you have it?” I said. “I don’t think Bentley’s coming back.”

  He studied it for a moment, then smiled. “It looks good to me,” he said. “If you’re sure you don’t want it.”

  I shuddered. “Not on a bet,” I said. “Funny. I’m starting to see more and more similarities
between vampires and hunters.”

  He gave me a wolfish grin, but he ate it, and he enjoyed it, and all in all, we had a good time. I teased him about eating vampire food and he teased me about my dainty little scallops, but we got along fine—for awhile.

  “I wonder what spooked Bentley?” he said at one point. “You have any idea?”

  I shook my head. “It happened right after we were discussing the inspector and how he seemed bent on changing everything in Moonhaven. You know who I mean? The bald man?” I frowned, thinking over what I’d heard out behind Bentley’s place.

  Shane nodded and took a sip of wine, watching me steadily. That made me nervous.

  “What about him?”

  “I don’t know. For some reason I heard him sort of bullying Bentley earlier.” It occurred to me I really shouldn’t be telling him this. I kind of took us all as a crowd of friends, but we really weren’t, were we?

  “But then, he was bullying Rennie, too,” I added hurriedly. “And he threatened me as well.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Threatened you? In what way?”

  I half laughed. “He had this list he was waving around and he wanted to get my name on it. I preferred to decline the honor. So I took a short cut and lost him in the crowd. I only hope I don’t have to worry about ditching him all weekend.”

  Shane was thinking. “Bentley was really upset about that, huh? He’s not alone.”

  I nodded. “But actually, his sudden need to leave seemed to happen when your big guy over there…” I jerked my thumb in Alessandro’s direction without taking a look myself. “When he came in. But I don’t know. It could have been almost anything.”

  Shane was nodding to Alessandro. I glanced over. The large hunter had raised his wine glass and was saluting us both. I tried to smile, but it was hard.

  “You’re not going to invite him over, are you?” I said softly.