The Salem Shifters: Complete Series Books 1-3

by Meredith Clarke

  We dressed quickly and we left the bathroom at the same time. Some blonde gave me a nasty look as she went in behind us. Oops.

  Ultan walked with me but stopped midway to the door. He looked worried.

  “I think it's time that ya and yer little friend went home.”

  Unfortunately, I’d now had just a bit too much to drink and was in the mood to party. Besides Ultan didn't own me and he wasn't going to tell me what to do. It didn’t matter what just happened in the bathroom. Or that I wanted it to happen again.

  “Forget it. Your buddy Dave ditched Joy. Oh my God, Joy. Where is she? Shit I’m a terrible friend.” I began to walk away, but Ultan caught my arm for the second time tonight.

  “Ya need to stay with me, we’ll find her together.”

  “Why?”

  “I saved yer arse back there. Ya don’t know what he's capable of. Ya may have at one time, but not anymore.” He looked at me, rolled his eyes and began to walk away, but this time I caught up with him.

  “What's that supposed to mean?”

  He sat down at one of the small tables and a waitress came up to him, smiling like a giddy schoolgirl. Apparently she was also on the Ultan train and he did look good tonight in his leather jacket, it gave him this bad boy appeal. He ordered “the black stuff,” and looked past me towards the door. But I wasn't going to let him get away that easy, I wanted answers.

  I waved my hands in front of his stone like face. “Hello? I said what is that supposed to mean? I need to find Joy! Let’s go.”

  He acknowledged me and allowed his cool gray eyes to linger on my chest. Finally he said, “What's what supposed to mean Paige?”

  “What's it supposed to mean that I used to know him? I have no idea who that guy is. All that I know is that he came in here tonight with some slut that was hanging all over Dave. He was supposed to be Joy's date, not hers. And you were supposed to be mine!” It slipped out before I had the chance to stop it. Right there in the middle of the sleazy bar was my jealously. I was envious of the redhead, the waitress, and any other girl Ultan laid eyes on.

  Lucky for me, he didn’t catch the last part. “Natalia is here? Where did ya see her last?” He got up from his seat and began frantically looking around the bar. Maybe she's a crazy ex-girlfriend or something, I didn't know, but for the first time Ultan looked truly afraid.

  “Do you know them?”

  “Ya don't?” He looked at me inquisitively almost like I was a puzzle that he was trying to figure out. “Yer Gran really hasn't told you anything has she?”

  I shrugged. “I guess not.”

  “She truly thinks she’s protecting ya. But she’s not. If they’re here she’s only putting ya in danger by not telling ya the truth.” He reached out and touched the pentagram around my neck. I felt a warm sensation under his touch but I brushed it off.

  “Okay Ultan, since you seem to know so much, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  “That guy that ya saw, he doesn’t look familiar to ya? Nothing about him strikes a chord?”

  I thought back to the first day I saw him in town. How much I had thought that he looked like Nick, but after speaking with him I knew that he was nothing like him. Nick was sweet and calm, he would never be in a scuzzy place like this. Or with girls who stole other girl’s boyfriends. He hated drama, but his eyes, his eyes still looked like Nick’s.

  But how would I explain that the Ultan? None of this seemed possible, it just made me feel even crazier. The whole point of this summer was to get back to normal, but suddenly things just seemed so strange here. I resigned myself to telling some of the truth, only because I believed it would gain me more answers.

  “Well, I guess he kind of looks like this guy I used to date.”

  Ultan raised his eyebrows on her. “Used to date, huh? I've heard it differently. Ya thought ya were going to marry Nick.”

  “How do you know that?” I seethed.

  “Yer Gran told me. Ya forget how close she and I are.” The waitress arrived with his beer and he paid her in cash, telling her to keep the change. It was a nice tip. He took a long swig and allowed the cold liquid to flow down his throat while I waited impatiently. He was playing a game, I could tell and I realized the only way to get any good information out of him was to play along.

  “Fine Ultan, I’ll bite. Why does he look like Nick?”

  Ultan set down his drink with a thud and looked directly at me, almost like he was sizing me up to see if I could handle what he was about to say. His mouth went into a thin line before he finally spoke. “Because lass, that is Nick.”

  Luck be a Bear

  Salem Shifter Three

  Meredith Clarke

  1

  “You’re a damn liar. Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”

  “Paige?” I heard Joy behind me. “Paige can we go home?” She sounded far away like she was speaking in whispers. When I turned around I saw how red her cheeks were. Jesus, crying in the bathroom at a bar. This was not the classy Joy I knew.

  “Yeah, wanna stay with me tonight?” I took her by the hand and led her to the door. I was angry at Ultan, but I wanted to kill Dave. You mess with my friends, you mess with me.

  Upon arriving at the door Ultan stood in my way. “Move!” I yelled at him. Joy looked at me confused and unsure of what to do with herself.

  Ultan held out his hands as if he were waving a white flag. “Paige I didn't mean to upset ya, but ya need to know the truth. Things aren't the way ya think they are.”

  “I don't know what to think anymore, but what I do know is that I'm trying to leave right now and you're in my way, so move.” The words struck a chord and he slid to the side not looking like his casual self anymore. I guess perhaps he did care about what I thought of him and his sick joke wasn't something I was going to go along with. This time he had pushed too far.

  When we got out to the car I realized that I’d been drinking too much to drive. Joy, on the other hand, had been smart and hadn't wallowed in her own self-pity at the bottom of the glass.

  I was shaking when I sat down in the car. Between Dave and Ultan, the entire male gender had taken a serious nosedive tonight. But seeing the guy who looked like Nick? Being so smug and arrogant? It brought back all of the feelings of the night that he disappeared. Waking up the next morning to police officers knocking on my door asking me questions. Making me feel like I didn't know Nick at all. It wasn't fair, I promised myself that no one would make me feel like that ever again. But here I was having trouble strapping myself in with the seatbelt because of how hard my hands were shaking due to my emotions.

  Joy put the car in drive and we sped off. She gave me a few seconds to relax before diving into the lengthy questions I knew she had been waiting to ask.

  “What the hell happened back there? What was Dave doing with that girl? And then I come out of the bathroom and you’re screaming at Ultan.”

  I shook my head. “Nothing. He’s just messing with my mind. I can’t take him sometimes.”

  “Why? What happened? He didn't hurt you, did he?”

  “No! Nothing like that. He just thought that playing some sick joke would be funny. Remember me telling you about my ex-boyfriend, Nick?”

  Joy nodded, continuing to keep her eyes on the road. It was dark and had started to rain. I could tell she wanted to listen but she also had to focus on driving.

  “He said that guy that I saw when we were shopping, the one I said looked familiar, was Nick.”

  “No way!” She said, only taking her eyes off the road for a moment. But that's all that fate needed to intervene. Our tires couldn’t catch on the slippery pavement and we spun out of control. I watched the dark night spin around me and screamed until my lungs burned. I put my hands out in front of me and focused on my life. I do not want to die, I repeated in my head. I do not want to die! I felt warmth spread from the pentagram sitting on my chest flow out through my arms and into my hands. I opened my eyes for only a mo
ment to see blue light extending from my fingertips into the air. The light stopped as our car came to a halt only mere inches from a tree. We were so close that I could see the moisture running down the bark from the rain. I took deep cleansing breaths trying to calm myself as I thought about all the other times I had been so lucky.

  Things like this had happened to me many times in my life. My mom always said that someone like a guardian angel was watching over me. I rubbed my pentagram necklace, hoping that whoever it was would know I was saying thank you, as I had done probably a thousand times before. There was the time that the knife slipped in the kitchen and I should’ve lost a finger, but instead it just fell to the floor. Or when I was ten and playing on a slide that was too small for me and it came loose, I simply fell to the ground. No scrapes or bruises. My parents always just called me lucky, but maybe it was something else.

  I stared down at my hands in amazement. Had I just saved us?

  Joy began to panic. “Oh my God! Oh my God, are you okay? I am so sorry.”

  She quickly checked herself, and then me, for any injuries, but we couldn't find any on either of us. When we got out to check the car it seemed fine too.

  Joy began to pace outside of the car. We decided not to call 911 because everything seemed okay. She was in shock. I stopped her and put my hands on both of her shoulders to try to focus her.

  “Joy! Hey Joy, what made you drive off the road? What did you see?” I had seen her turn her head just a split second before our almost crash.

  Joy stopped as the realization dawned on her face as to why we swerved. “There... There was a man near the road. Oh my God, there was a man near the road, Paige! We have to find him!”

  She began looking back towards the darkened street, but neither of us saw anything. I stood shivering from the rain hitting my bare skin where my top was cut out.

  “Did I hit him? Paige did I hit the guy?” Joy was frantic.

  “No, I mean I don't remember that.” I didn't mention that I'd been a little more concerned about our own lives and the light coming from my hands that I hadn't even noticed the person on the road.

  Just then a man stumbled from behind the trees, looking very dazed and confused. It only took us a second to realize that it was Dave, Joy's would-be date for the evening.

  Joy ran to him, throwing her arms around him the moment she could. “Dave? What are you doing out here? We just saw you at the bar. With that girl.”

  Dave looked so lost. “What girl? I was supposed to meet you. Were you there?”

  Joy held his face between her hands as she searched his eyes for recognition. It seemed as though the past few hours hadn't happened for Dave as they had for us. Something weird was going on here.

  “Dave, the girl in the bar. The redhead. Do you remember her?”

  Dave just kept shaking his head. He looked muddy and disheveled.

  “Joy,” I called, “Let’s just take him home.”

  I sat in the back, so that way Dave could sit in the front seat with Joy. He was so dirty, almost looking as though he had crawled in the mud to get onto the road. I didn't want to confuse him further, but I needed answers.

  “Dave? Do you remember the girl you were with?”

  He shook his head. Then he rubbed his forehead almost like he had a headache.

  I tried another approach. “What about before? Do you remember where you were before you got to the bar?”

  This time he nodded, some recognition showing on his face. “I was at the shop. We were really busy and this couple came up. Weird kids all dressed in black. Attractive couple, they were talking to me about something.”

  Now we were getting somewhere. “Do you remember what they were talking about Dave? Or their names?”

  Both Dave and Joy responded at the same time. “Natalia.”

  Dave looked wide-eyed over to Joy as he asked, “You know her?”

  Joy locked eyes with me in the rearview mirror and replied, “I used to.”

  Shit, it was the same girl from town that day. It was the girl from Joy's past she wanted to forget, I knew it was her.

  “Okay, so the woman is Natalia, what about the guy? Dave do you remember the guy’s name?”

  Dave rubbed his face with his hands as if trying to get his brain to function properly again. “Yeah I do. Nick. He said his name is Nick.”

  2

  Joy's car screeched to a halt on the wet road. “His name is what?”

  “Nick,” Dave nodded. He was sure about the fact.

  Joy turned to look at me. The shock was written all over her face. She was thinking exactly what I was, something wasn’t right. First, this girl that Joy hasn't seen in years, shows up in town and tries to steal her new boyfriend, and then her comrade is a guy who looks remarkably like my ex? Not to mention he disappeared nine months ago and hasn't been heard from since. Things were beginning to add up in my head but nothing quite made sense. I had to wonder if the only person with any answers was Ultan. “Joy we need to go back to the bar.”

  She nodded and pulled the car around in an empty parking lot. We were back at the hole in the wall within minutes. The rain had stopped and Joy was starting to feel more confident in her driving again.

  Ultan sat outside with his head in his hands, looking uncharacteristically anxious. When he saw us arrive he strode over to our car and waited for us to get out. He ran his hand through his hair, his eyes constantly searching around him, almost as if he was concerned that he was being followed. Joy stepped out first and pulled her seat forward so I could get out. Dave continued to sit in the car, lost in his own mind. I don't even think he remembered being here earlier tonight.

  Ultan took my hand in his and pulled me slightly away from the car. “Are ya all right? I'm sorry about what I said, I just think ya need to know the truth.”

  I yanked my hands from his. “Okay Ultan, then what is the truth?”

  He put his hands in his pockets unsure of what to do with them. “This is going to sound mad.”

  “I think I can deal with a little crazy, it's the questions I'm having trouble with.”

  Joy walked back to the car to check on Dave. In his current condition I agreed that he needed to be watched.

  Ultan shifted uncomfortably, whatever he was about to tell me he wasn't happy about.

  “Lass, yer Gran should have told ya this long ago. There's a special kind of people where we come from. People who can do things, who have special abilities, or powers. Not like we’re superheroes or anything, but it can help us in unusual situations. Some of us are born with it and some of us are transformed. Natalia and Nick were not born with our gifts. And so they were changed. They become attracted to the darker things in life. They like to hurt people Paige, people like ya.”

  I stood there dumbfounded by this change in events. Is this why I had that strange connection with the book? Should I have listened to my grandmother, or Beatrice? Was I in danger? The conversation I had with Gran at the restaurant sounded off in my head.

  “The girl that we found, the one who died. Did they think she was me?” I would never forgive myself if someone had died in my place. Someone so young, that I didn't even know. I looked around me to see if Natalia or Nick were close by, but from the looks of the drunken crowds near us, they had left the scene when they ditched Dave.

  Ultan looked down sadly. “Yes lass, they thought she was.”

  My head swam. A girl had died because of me. And I was next. Jesus. I looked at Joy for support but she was still staring at Dave.

  I looked pointedly at Ultan. “What about the book?”

  He lifted his head to meet my eyes. “I knew ya found it.”

  “Yeah, so what about it?”

  “Did it respond to ya?” He raised an eyebrow.

  I squinted at Ultan. “I’m the one asking questions here. Now what about the book?”

  “I can’t tell ya that, but ya can ask yer Gran.”

  “Then we’re going home, come on Joy.”

/>   I walked back to the car and no one tried to stop me, but I heard Ultan call out to me, “Mind yourself lass.”

  Joy and I didn’t even talk on the way home, she could tell I was upset.

  I slammed Joy's car door without saying a word and stomped up to the front of the house. The night backfired, as I had known it would, just not in this way. My head was a jumbled up mess and I took the stairs two at a time to avoid any looks from Gran. I didn't want to talk about my night and I knew she would ask for the full play-by-play of the evening. Instead I wanted real answers and now. I had learned not to run from my problems but face them head on. I went to the desolate bedroom and ran up the attic to find the book. But when I looked in the small trunk, it wasn’t there.

  I ran back downstairs to see Gran and Beatrice sitting in the den. “Looking for something dear?” There was the old leather book, lying in front of her on the coffee table. Beatrice rocked in an old chair in the corner. After tonight there wasn’t much I was sure of, except two things. The first thing I knew was that the book was magic, and it was real. The second was that a girl died because of me. She died for me.

  “Someone going to explain to me what the hell has been going on here?”

  Beatrice smiled and I saw someone walk into the room from the corner of my eye. Ultan stood to the right of me, looking concerned. “Nice to see you son,” Beatrice said. “It’s been a while since you have visited my store. Care to hear your fortune? Or do you already know whom you protect?”

  “I know where my allegiances lie.”

  “Good. Then I am of no further use here.” She slowly collected herself and made her way to the door. “Remember though, she is ice and you are fire. Be careful young ones.”

  I heard the door shut softly behind her before I began shouting again.