Lucky Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 5)

by Danielle Garrett

  Adam nodded and went down the hall toward my bedroom. A few minutes later, a giant black dog padded into the living room, his huge feet silent on the wood floors. He stopped at my side and brushed his muzzle against my hand. I glanced down at him and smiled. It was a silent peace treaty; at least for the moment, we were on the same side.

  “Shall we?” Evangeline asked, wand at the ready.

  We were both witches, but in many ways, our skills were on opposite ends of the spectrum. She was more adept at wand work and I preferred elemental magic and potion work. All witches and wizards have their own proclivity. I drew my power from the earth. It was the reason I was so good at gardening and making potions. Evangeline’s power came from the stars. She worked with a wand and had been working on starfire spellwork. Of the two of us, I was more powerful, but that was mainly due to study.

  Before moving to Beechwood Harbor and opening The Emerald, a day spa, Evangeline lived in the Los Angeles Haven and starred on a supernatural soap opera. Her magic was edited into her popular TV show during post-production, so she’d never needed to learn more than the basics. I often wondered how much she’d received as a child. She made up for any educational gaps by being a fast learner and a having a healthy grip on her natural instincts. I had no doubt she would come into her own. It was only a matter of time.

  “Boots?” I called out.

  Lacey frowned. “We have to take the cat?”

  “Yes. We do.”

  She sighed. “All right, fine.”

  Boots pushed his face against the kitchen door, licking the remnants of his dinner from his whiskers, and then squeezed through the opening he created.

  Lacey sighed, clearly not impressed with his feat.

  “He’s good in a fight,” I said, reaching down to stroke the top of his silky head.

  “Sure. Whatever.” Lacey strode to the door. The boots she wore must have been charmed because they didn’t make a sound. “Let’s go.”

  Nick scurried past her, as though worried she might chew into his neck if he lingered for even a moment. Glad to see our little chat helped, I mused, watching him duck through the doorway. It was altogether strange to see him crunch up his now-massive shoulders and sneak past her. His biceps were now the size of her waist—a fact that I spotted Lacey clearly observing on his way out of the house.

  “Stars,” I muttered, grinding my teeth.

  The woods were quiet. It was the time of night, right after twilight, when all the birds were settled in their nests and the crickets and frogs were only starting to wake up to begin their nightly songs. Boots kept close to my ankles as I followed behind Adam and Lacey. Nick kept close to Evangeline, who wandered through the woods with the same expression she wore when shopping at a pricey department store. “At least it’s a clear night,” she said when she noticed me watching her.

  I smiled. “I guess so.”

  “How are you feeling, Nick?” she asked.

  Nick shrugged. “Normal. At least, what I’m assuming is my new normal.” He glanced down at his hands, as though waiting for them to sprout claws again. He’d been forced to wear thick sweat pants instead of his usual jeans and his coat was unzipped as it was now too tight across the chest and arms. Luckily, his favorite black stocking hat still fit. He wore it pulled down low on his brow.

  “It’s probably going to feel like you’re a fish out of water for a while,” I said. “But I promise, eventually you’ll adapt.”

  He frowned but didn’t argue the point.

  “What are we going to do if we find another wolf out here?” he asked instead.

  It was a good question. There were several possibilities. If they were friendly, we could ask questions. If it was one of their own they’d lost, we would pass on our condolences and then go our separate ways. But, if they were hostile, the entire mission could go sideways quickly. I also found myself wondering about Lacey’s eagerness to join the search. Was she really motivated by the promise of a custom potion? Or were there ulterior motives at play? I couldn’t recall her ever having asked for a potion before, which had me leaning toward the latter possibility.

  I didn’t want to dwell on it for too long.

  Lacey was an heirloom vamp. At least, that was what some people called her kind. She wasn’t turned or made into a vampire. She’d been born one. Powerful vampire houses, like House Vaughn, were filled with ancient vampires who passed the so-called gift down to their offspring. Additionally, those vampires could go off and create their own children by turning humans, though, it was rare in this day and age.

  Humans weren’t aware of any of the goings-on of the supernatural world. Anytime they got close, the SPA would swoop in with memory charms or find a way to spin the story. It wasn’t Bigfoot in the forest; it was a really tall bear. There was no such thing as ghosts. Instead, there was energy and radio waves. Of course, there were always humans more receptive to the supernatural world, but for the most part, they were blissfully unaware of the monsters lurking in their neighborhoods. I couldn’t imagine the bedlam that would erupt if soccer moms found out just who was sitting beside them at the quarterly PTA meeting or the horror of the neighborhood watch learning of a shifter who wandered through town as an old, stray cat.

  It was generally accepted that the humans were better off not knowing. The vampires, whether they liked it or not, had agreed to the Haven Council laws when they were created centuries ago. Of course, with any ruling power, there were dissenters. The Vampire Council had been born in the shadows. A nasty fringe group with their own notions of how things should be run in the world—number one being that vampires should come out of hiding and reveal themselves as the glorified beings they considered themselves to be. Thankfully, most vampires thought the Vampire Council was comprised of extremists who were likely to make the whole world go medieval if given the chance. The different houses warred with one another over money and turf, but most of them stood in agreement that the Vampire Council was to be kept in check.

  Several months back, I’d had a first-hand run in with a member of the secretive council and knew where Lacey stood on the issue, but still, I couldn’t figure out why she’d be running through the woods with us when she could be out sipping a cocktail with her living-dead gal pals. Normally, Lacey avoided us like the plague.

  She’d softened some since the terrible night that left Nick with a cursed gash across his chest. At the time, I’d figured it was because she had always harbored a little crush on him. I’d also wondered what would become of those feelings now that he was a wolf. That would be a star-crossed pair that would make Romeo and Juliet look like they were betrothed from birth.

  Werewolves and vampires did not fall in love.

  Up ahead, Lacey stopped, frozen in place. She held up one hand. We hadn’t discussed hand signals ahead of time, but its meaning was clear. Evangeline, Nick, and I clustered together, watching her. Waiting. Adam ignored her, forging ahead, his large nose glued to the ground. Pine needles and sticks from the huge evergreens that towered above us covered the forest floor. He snorted and snuffled and then went stiff.

  “Wolves,” Lacey whispered.

  He ducked his large head and I extinguished the magic ball of light I’d conjured.

  “There’s something else,” she added, cocking one ear to the left.

  “Like?” I whispered.

  If we were about to be charged by a bear or a Bigfoot, I preferred a little heads-up.

  Lacey gave a near-imperceptible shake of her head. Her platinum hair and pale face were the only things visible in the filtered light of the moon. “Vampire,” she finally said, her voice a sharp whisper.

  Nick’s eyes flashed to mine, wide and panicked.

  I placed a hand on his shoulder.

  Lacey started forward, this time following Adam’s lead, something he was sure to remind her about once he could talk again. He’d clearly picked up some kind of trail and wasn’t slowing down to wait on any of us. We trooped along in silence except
for the occasional gasp or oomph after tripping over something.

  When Adam finally stopped moving, it was at a police line that taped off the perimeter of a small cabin. None of the lights were on inside but when I illuminated the porch with an orb of light, it became clear that someone had been there recently. The porch was swept clean, not a stick or leaf on the wooden boards. A wreath was also on the front door. It was either a convincing fake, or real fir boughs.

  “This must be where they found the body,” I said.

  Adam glanced up at the police tape and proceeded to nonchalantly walk right underneath it.

  “Adam!” I hissed. “You’ll muck up the crime scene!”

  He glanced back but kept going, his nose skimming the ground.

  I sighed.

  “I wonder who lives all the way out here,” Evangeline wondered aloud.

  “I don’t know, but I happen to know a highly qualified private investigator who could find out.”

  Nick grunted when I playfully elbowed him.

  “Oh come on, Nick. Give yourself some credit. The curse doesn’t affect your sleuthing skills.”

  “It’s not that.” He shook his head. “I just don’t think we should go poking around. If there is evidence here, a judge could throw it out if they suspect someone was tampering with it.”

  Lacey jerked her chin at Adam. “He’s the only one who’s crossed and for all they know, it’s just a dog or coyote wandering through. All they’ll see are paw prints in the dirt.”

  I bottled up a counter argument and watched as he sniffed the perimeter of the house. Then, just as quickly as he entered the crime scene, he left it, heading toward a thick grouping of trees.

  “I think this is where we should part ways,” Lacey said, her eyes following after Adam. “The scent is getting fainter. If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss our chance. The fleabag and I will travel faster without you three. We’ll follow the scent. You fan out from here and see if you can find anything the police overlooked.”

  I crossed my arms and looked to Adam. He stopped, and nodded his giant doggy head.

  “That’s the second time you two have agreed with each other today. It’s kind of freaking me out.”

  Without reply, Lacey broke into a silent run. Adam joined her and the pair quickly melted into the night.

  I scoffed. “You know that if it was me, he’d be telling me to head back, to stay close to the manor. Why is it different when it’s Lacey?”

  Evangeline eyed me. “Besides the fact that you’re his girlfriend? I’m thinking it’s because Lacey was wearing a belt of knives. And knows how to use them.”

  Nick snorted.

  “Fine,” I huffed. “What are we looking for? If they’re off chasing the wolf pack and a possible vamp, where does that leave us?”

  Nick fidgeted with the yellow police tape. “I still don’t think we should go poking around in there.”

  I nodded. “Agreed. We can get information from Chief Lincoln. We need clues that the police will overlook.”

  “Like what?” Evangeline asked, taking Nick’s arm.

  I tapped a finger against my lips, thinking. It stilled as an idea popped into my head. Spinning around to face them, I raised my finger. “Nick, what’s the first thing Adam told you to do to prep for your change?”

  He shrugged. “Pack a bag.”

  “Exactly!” I smiled. “If the victim was a wolf, he would have brought a backpack out here. Water, snacks, change of clothes, and mouthwash.”

  “Mouthwash?” Evangeline repeated.

  “Apparently the wolf eats a bunch of foul things while out running amok.”

  “Oh, raw meat and stuff.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Apparently those are just the appetizers.”

  Evangeline grimaced.

  I turned away and started scanning the trees. “Adam hides his stuff in a hollowed-out tree. Maybe we can find where the victim hid his.”

  “Is there a way to trace something like that?” Nick asked. “With magic, I mean?”

  I frowned. “Not easily without something to start with. If we had something that belonged to him, we could maybe put together a spell. As is, we’re just going to have to stick to the old-fashioned way.”

  We all fanned out, Boots included, and started combing the area. Nick carried a flashlight and stuck close to Evangeline, who used her wand to light the way. There was a chance the police would have already found the pack if it was nearby, but without knowing how far they’d managed to search, it was the best place to start.

  The sounds of the woods changed as we stumbled around. After an hour, we circled back and met up at the cabin again. Unfortunately, we were all still empty-handed. The temperature had dropped and there was still no sign of Adam and Lacey.

  “Should we go back and wait?” Evangeline asked through a shiver.

  Nick removed his coat and gave it to her. She thanked him

  “Come on, Holly. Let’s go back,” she said, snuggling into the coat.

  I looked up through a gap in the tall pine trees and stared at the waning moon.

  “Adam and Lacey might already be there waiting for us.”

  I nodded and followed as they started back toward the manor.

  We walked in silence but soon overheard a muttering voice.

  A chill went down my spine but I forced myself to creep forward toward the sound. Whoever it was sounded agitated, but alone. Suddenly, Boots raced out ahead of us and tore through the brush. “Boots!”

  I took off after him, cursing his impulsive move.

  The trees thinned and I stopped short when I spotted Boots’s target. “Wait a second! We know that guy!”

  There, standing in the clearing where I’d found Nick the night before, stood the leprechaun.

  Chapter 10

  The leprechaun glanced up, took in the tubby cat and angry witch barreling at him, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

  I skidded to a halt, staring in disbelief at the place he’d just been standing. “He was just—”

  Nick and Evangeline caught up to me. “What was it?” they both asked in unison.

  “The leprechaun who’s been stealing gnomes and leading the town scavenger hunt.”

  “Rearranging gnomes,” Nick corrected.

  “Why?” Evangeline asked.

  We shrugged.

  “I wonder what he was doing all the way out here,” I asked no one in particular. Boots was still wandering around, sniffing at the dissipating smoke and twitching his thick tail. “Come on, Boots. Let’s get back home.”

  He disregarded me. Typical.

  “Fine, but it’s your tuna dinner that you’ll be missing,” I added.

  Still nothing.

  “Cats,” I muttered.

  “You want to wait for him?” Evangeline asked.

  I shook my head. “He’ll come when he’s hungry.”

  We started back to the manor and Evangeline launched into what must have been a dropped conversation from when they were searching together. “All the werewolves I knew in L.A. were kind and generous,” Evangeline told him. “In the haven, they have special were-friendly hotels where they all go on the night of the full moon. They’d get spa treatments and then go into their specially sealed rooms for the actual change. That way everyone was safe and the stress over the change vanished.”

  “So, they’d go into cages?”

  Evangeline frowned. “I never really thought of it that way, but I guess so. I heard they pumped special pheromones and calming scents into the rooms. And combined with the spa treatments and gourmet food, the weres came out looking refreshed and relaxed instead of dirty and haggard like they do if they change in the wild.”

  “Do they have something like that in Seattle?” he asked, glancing past Evangeline to me.

  “I’m sure they do.” I stooped to duck under a low-hanging branch. “I’ve never really looked into it, to be honest.”

  I felt stupid for not having considered it before. Then again
, Evangeline hadn’t brought it up either. In the end it was for the best that Nick had been close by when he finally experienced his first change. If he’d been in the haven, and gone through his half-change, there wasn’t a doubt that someone would have called the SPA to collect him.

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter now,” he said. “We don’t even know if I’m a real werewolf.”

  “We’ll fig—”

  Nick shot me a withering glance and the words died on my lips.

  We walked in silence for a few more minutes, each focusing on the ground in front of us. There wasn’t a clear path through the woods so we were navigating a labyrinth of tree roots, sticks and stumps, and slippery patches of moss. A pinecone obstacle course. At least there wasn’t someone chasing us with a shotgun this time.

  “Hey, what about that leprechaun though?” I said, hoping to reignite the conversation as we neared the edge of the woods. “You want to go out looking for him again tomorrow night, Nick?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Even if we figured it out, it’s not like I could do a follow-up meeting with the Lucky Lady gang. Not when I could sprout fangs and claws and an absurd amount of body hair at any moment.”

  Evangeline cast a helpless look at me.

  I moved to Nick’s other side and threaded my arm through his. A gentle squeeze was all I could offer him until I had time for some further investigation.

  Nick offered me a sad smile and my heart ached.

  We broke through the tree line behind the manor and trooped across the frost-covered yard. I glanced back just as Boots darted from the trees. “Some timing, Bootsie,” I said with a chuckle. “Guess that promise of tuna was too much to resist, huh?” I reached down and scooped up the large tabby, nearly throwing out my lower back in the process. As we got closer to the porch lights, I realized he had something clenched between his teeth. “What did you bring?”

  Three green sticky notes dropped into my hand and I frowned. “Thanks. I think?”

  “At least it wasn’t a dead rat,” Evangeline said, glancing over her shoulder. “That’s all Flurry ever thinks to bring me.”