“Wow, Joey,” I said when they got closer. I realized I had been staring open-mouthed at her.
“Right?” Ronnie said. “You should’ve seen the teen boys when they saw her. Thought I was gonna have to mop the floor.”
“You didn’t give them candy, did you?” I demanded.
“Oh, Mattie.” Ronnie sighed as she brushed past me into my apartment.
“They weren’t wearing costumes!”
“That’s what I said,” Joey chimed in.
I heard a choking noise and turned in time to see Laney wiping her mouth and shooting glances at Joey as she walked into the room.
“It’s a holiday, ease up,” Ronnie said, pulling my attention away from the suddenly angry human at my table.
“No.” I walked into the kitchen to give my spell pot a stir.
“Oh gods,” Ronnie groaned.
She plugged her nose with two fingers as she grabbed two more mugs out of the cabinet. Wolf’s bane might repel werewolves, but it did a pretty good job of keeping pretty much anyone else away as well.
“You know, last year you pulled that ‘no costume, no candy’ campaign, and they egged your door,” Ronnie said as she filled the mugs for her and Joey.
Whelan smiled at Ronnie as he added the appropriate libations to each mug. I shook the spoon before setting it on the rest, once again catching Laney glaring at the two new women in the room.
“Laney,” I said, drawing her attention. “Everything okay?” I arched my eyebrows and tilted my head, trying to convey to her that she needed to relax.
A flush colored her cheeks, and she nodded, trying to rearrange her face before anyone else noticed anything.
I walked back to the front door to turn on the rest of the lights in the hallway. I stopped short when I heard the elevator again. A cold lump formed in the bottom of my stomach. Ronnie’s warnings had gotten to me, damn it all. I held my breath as the doors slid open and revealed the same five boys from earlier. I laughed as the hoard of zombies shambled down the hall toward me.
They’d ripped their T-shirts and smeared dirt all over themselves. Their faces had smudges of mud on them, as if they had just escaped their graves. There were even tufts of grass in their mussed hair. They made the appropriate moaning noises with slack jaws and rolling eyes.
“Braaaaaaiiiiins!” one of them called, his hands in front of him with his fingers crooked into claws.
I laughed hard enough to cause a stitch to form in my side. I heard the others coming from the kitchen to join me to see what I was laughing at.
Each boy held a bag in front of them, and the ring leader from earlier said, “Caaaannnndy!” The four other boys took up the new call and echoed him, demanding the candy in the bowl behind me.
“Well done,” I said and clapped my approval.
They stayed in character until I picked up the cauldron and crossed the threshold to divide the chocolates among them. Then they jumped in place, smiles breaking over their dirty faces. They whooped and hollered in excitement.
“Didn’t think you were really gonna give us all of it,” Serial Killer Joe said as the last few pieces fell into his bag.
“It’s okay. I don’t need this much candy lying around.” Truth be told, I had a small stash hidden in my nightstand, just waiting for me.
They all thanked me profusely, digging their hands into their bags as they hurried back down the hall to the elevator. I waved good-bye and ushered my friends back inside. I waved my hand above my head and said, “Lux lucis.” The lights in the hall came up to full brightness.
Setting the empty cauldron on the table, I hooked the door with my foot to nudge it closed, but a pale hand stopped the door just before it shut. I spun around, another cold fist forming in my stomach, as the door swung back open.
“Heya, Mattie,” Fletcher said with a bright smile.
I touched my chest, feeling my heart thudding in relief, and laughed lightly. “Fletcher, hi.” I held the door open for him.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said quickly. “Just, you know, jumpy, I guess.” I shook my head and waved him in so I could close the door.
“Are you having a party?” Fletcher asked as he turned around to face me.
“Not on purpose,” I said as a new song came on. It was loud and fast, perfect for dancing. “But I suppose I am.”
“Then I got here just in time.” Fletcher flashed that smile again and caught my hand.
He pulled me off my feet, twirling me around the room before I came to halt against his chest. He bowed me backward, his face close to mine, and winked. The group at the table cheered.
Chapter 12
After my momentary surprise wore off, I laughed. My fingers were curled into Fletcher’s arms, my whole body as tight as a violin string. Slowly, Fletcher stood us upright, keeping his hands on the small of my back. I felt the heat of them through my dress – he must’ve fed before coming over.
“Yes, let’s have a party!” Joey said from the kitchen. She bounced in place, and her iridescent wings fluttered so fast that they became invisible. She clapped and spun on the spot and rushed into my kitchen.
“Don’t mess up the potion,” I called to her as I heard glasses and bottles clink together.
“So what’s up?” Fletcher asked over my shoulder, his face so close to my ear that I felt his breath on my neck. The faint tang of iron was still on his breath from his feeding.
“What do you mean?”
Fletcher stood back and gave me a look. I just stared back at him, waiting for him to explain his question.
“You were so nervous when I came down the hall that it almost smelled like rotting flowers,” he said.
“Gee, thanks.” I made a face at him.
“You know what I mean. Or,” he paused, making a face as he looked toward the kitchen, “it’s whatever is coming out of your kitchen.”
“Probably both,” I sighed. At his look I said, “Just all this crap with the Weres.” I waved and turned away from him to go help Joey with the drinks. “It’s on my mind, you know.”
“If you need help…”
I knew we were both remembering the last time he’d offered to help me. I had snapped at him that I didn’t need a man to protect me. “Thank you.”
Fletcher nodded. In another moment, the light in his eyes was back, and everything felt normal again, as though the world had shifted and set things right.
“We should go to the roof,” Ronnie said. “There’s a mini garden up there, and lights, and it’s all pretty.”
“Yeah, sure.” I shrugged, not unhappy that my apartment wouldn’t be trashed by our impromptu party.
Everyone chipped in on hauling things up to the roof, and with the string lights lit up, it was pretty nice. The moon was nearly full and wholly bright, hanging just to the east of the city. Only a tiny sliver was missing from it. In the distance, I heard the echo of a wolf’s howl. Ronnie’s eyes found mine, and we shared a long look. Whose howl was that? One of Jameson’s pack or one of Tollis’s?
“Mattie?” Whelan’s voice pulled me away from Ronnie’s worried eyes. “What are you gonna do with that potion anyway?”
“What?” For some reason, I couldn’t follow his words. Thoughts of bloodthirsty wolves were running through my mind, and all I could hear were their desperate howls.
“The wolf’s bane you’re brewing?” Whelan bent closer to my face, watching me closely.
Soon my mind sped up, and I realized what he was asking. “Oh, right, um…” I shook my head, trying to knock the unfamiliar wolves from my mind. “You wear it like cologne. I pour some into an atomizer, and you spritz it on, like, all over.”
“But it stinks,” Laney protested. Her face was scrunched up as though she had sucked on a lemon.
“Yes, it does,” I agreed with a nod. “And just imagine how much worse it smells to a wolf, whose olfactory senses are so much more heightened than ours. They won’t want to come within five hundred fee
t of you if you’re wearing it.”
“And if they do?” There was a pinched look to Whelan’s eyes, making him look much older than his twenty-one years.
“It’ll burn,” I said.
“How’s that?”
“The closer they come, the more it’ll burn their sinuses. If they manage to get within arm’s-length of you, they’ll destroy their sinuses, and believe me, that is one thing a Were won’t give up.”
“That’s for sure,” Fletcher chimed in as he came up behind me. “I can still smell the bane up here. The fumes are clinging to all of you just from being in the apartment. I can’t imagine what it would be like for a Were.”
“Wait, what?” Ronnie asked, spinning around to face us. Her phone was clutched in one hand, hanging down by her leg.
“What?” Fletcher and I asked together.
“We all smell like wolf’s bane?” Ronnie asked as she hurried over to Fletcher’s side. She grabbed his sleeve, bunching the black cotton in her grip.
“Well, yeah,” he said slowly. “I mean, she’s been steeping it in the kitchen for a while, right? The whole floor smells like it.”
“Tadpoles on toast,” I swore, stomping my foot.
“What?” Laney asked.
“Nothing. My landlady is probably going to skin me alive if she comes home tonight.” I could just imagine Frankie riding up the elevator, her sinuses stinging more and more the closer she got to my floor—and she had to pass mine to get to hers. I’d had my front door open all night for the trick-or-treaters, so surely the smell was in the hallway and probably the elevator by now. “What time is it?”
I reached for Ronnie’s hand to check the time on her phone, but she snatched it back. Not before I saw her long text conversation with someone though. I lifted a brow as she turned her face away.
“Almost eleven,” Ronnie said, acting as though she was just looking away to check the time.
“Okay,” I drew out the word. “I started the potion at four o’clock. I think that’s been long enough.” I grabbed my skirts and hurried for the door that led to the stairwell. “I’ll be right back!”
I heard footsteps behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder as I wrenched the door open. Ronnie was right behind me. Her face was flushed, and her lips were pressed together in a tight line. I knew she wouldn’t answer my questions in front of everyone, so I just kept my mouth shut and led us through the stairwell. When I pulled open the door to my floor, the smell hit me like a punch in the face. It was a wonder it hadn’t kept any of the trick-or-treaters away. Maybe they had thought it was all part of the ambiance I’d created with the lights and fog. Since we’d been outside, away from the smell, coming back to it was like walking into the Bog of Eternal Stench.
“It smells like a pack of bridge dwellers, Matt,” Ronnie moaned. She’d tugged her sleeve over her hand and held it to her face, protecting her mouth and nose.
“I know.” I opened my door, ran to the kitchen, and snatched my wand.
I jabbed the tip at the flames and extinguished them. Having planned on letting the potion simmer unattended, I’d used my wand to create magical flames, rather than using the gas burner. The last thing I needed was for the flames to go out, fill my apartment with gas, and blow up the whole place. As I placed a lid over the pot to contain any more offending steam, Ronnie ran around the apartment, opening the windows and letting in the cold October air. When I caught up to her, she was in my bedroom, going through all of my perfumes and lotions.
“Can I help you?” I asked behind her.
“I need to get this smell off me.”
“Why?”
“Because I stink.”
“But what’s the big deal?”
Ronnie turned around, a bottle of perfume clutched in each hand. Her brown eyes were a little too wide and her face a little too pale. I’d never seen her look so worried in all the years we’d known each other.
“Is Spencer coming over?” I asked.
Ronnie didn’t answer right away. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard and finally nodded.
“Girl, you got it bad, don’t you?”
“Just help me,” she said. After a moment, she added, “Please.”
“Put those down.”
Ronnie stared at me, her eyes bulging for a moment.
“Seriously, Weres don’t like perfume.” I tugged the bottles out of her hands and placed them back on my dresser. “You know that.” A flush colored her cheeks, in her panic she’s been forgetting things.
I took Ronnie’s hand and pulled her back into the kitchen. I felt her start to fight against me, afraid of getting closer to the offending potion, so I let her go when I reached the living room. I continued to the kitchen alone. I picked up my wand and rushed back to her side. Ronnie seemed unsure of what to do with her hands as she waited for me to do whatever I was planning. I told her to hold out her hands, then I lifted my wand and drew a complicated pattern in the air. Soon the invisible lines became visible, glowing a soft blue.
Then I said the incantation. “Proluo prolu prolutum.”
A gust of wind blew through the apartment and swirled around Ronnie, tugging at her skirt and lifting her thick strands of hair until she was floating a few feet off the floor. She hovered while I repeated the incantation two more times. The glowing blue light and gusting vortex made it impossible to see her.
The energy around her snapped like something alive, and I felt the hairs on my arms stand on end. Artie jumped from the chair and scurried into the bedroom. Then the world paused, and I couldn’t breathe. After a terrifying frozen moment, the power around Ronnie blew apart. She landed on her feet, and I could breathe again. When Ronnie caught her balance, she looked at me with wide, expectant eyes. The wind rushed out of the apartment through the open windows, and a chill ran up my back.
“What do you think?” Ronnie asked, her voice a little strained.
“If that didn’t work, then you’re gonna need to take a tomato juice bath.”
“Fantastic.”
“C’mon,” I said as I turned for the door. “We’ll ask Fletcher if we still smell.”
Back in the hallway, I waved my wand, repeating the same spell I’d used on Ronnie. A strong gust of wind blew down the hall, disappearing through the window.
“Hopefully that’ll keep Frankie off my back,” I muttered as I set my wand on the bookcase just inside the door.
On the roof, the small party was still going on. I realized there were more people there than when we left. Joey was surrounded by a multicolored cloud of tiny pixies, and Whelan and Laney were standing with Bu and a couple of friends who looked as though they shared the same closet. They were a cluster of storm clouds, all dressed in shades of black and gray, though they looked nothing like the drab P.E.A.C.E. members. The two girls I didn’t know had tiny flashes of color in their jewelry and streaks through their hair, like bolts of lightning.
When Bu caught my eye, he lifted his hand in greeting and a smile broke out on his face. His hair was still in that modern Samurai top knot, but he was wearing a black kilt with silver buckles and a shredded black T-shirt. Through the rips, I made out a few splashes of ink decorating his torso. I waved back and nearly walked right into Ronnie, who had stopped in her tracks.
Glancing over her shoulder, I saw the pale, blond, blue-eyed Were leaning against the parapet wall. He was in his customary military chic garb: combat boots, olive drab cargo pants, and dark gray T-shirt. This close to the full moon, I knew he couldn’t feel the chill of the night air, so he hadn’t bothered with a jacket. What was disconcerting was the smile that spread across his face at the sight of Ronnie. It wasn’t a bad smile—actually, it probably took a good ten years off his face—but Spence just wasn’t the smiling type.
Even at a distance, I saw the unnatural glow to his eyes. His usually smooth face was covered in thick golden stubble. The full moon was less than twenty-four hours away, and his wolf was already showing. A pang of worry went through
me, but I wasn’t Ronnie’s keeper. She had clearly invited him, so if she wanted to see him, it wasn’t my place to stop her. I turned to look at Ronnie and saw that she, too, was smiling. The look on her face, mirrored on Spencer’s, washed away the worry inside me. She looked like a love-struck teenager. I nudged her gently, reminding her to keep walking.
“Wait,” she said, leaning back into me. “What if I still smell?”
“You’re upwind of him,” I whispered back. “If you did, you’d see it in his face already. Just keep him away from the rest of us in case we haven’t aired out enough. I’m sure you can think of a way to distract him. Go.” I urged her forward with a stronger push.
She took one halting step forward before lifting her chin and walking over to him. I watched, wanting to see if Spence reacted to her smell or not. When he took her hand and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it, I knew she was in the clear.
“Think that’s safe?” Fletcher asked from just behind me.
I hadn’t heard him approach, but with the increasing conversations and music around us, I wasn’t surprised. I was taken a little aback by how close he was though. I felt his gentle heat along my body, and I wondered how much he had fed before he came over. I wondered where his hands were. If I took half a step back, could I lean my body back against his?
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to knock those thoughts out of my mind before I turned around. I tried to step backward as casually as possible, not wanting to look awkward about how close he was, but I saw the fleeting look in his eyes that told me I hadn’t been successful. Fletcher held out one of the two cups he was holding. I took it gratefully, if only to have something to do with my hands.
“So you’re not worried about your friend hooking up with a Were?” he asked, bringing me back to his original question.
“Ronnie’s a big girl.” I lifted my cup and took a sip of the sweet mead. “I’m not her keeper.”
“Sure.” Fletcher nodded, looking over the rim of his cup and past my shoulder to stare at the witch and the Were. “But that wasn’t my question.”
Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2) Page 14
