She hadn’t thought once about the social side. And she certainly hadn’t considered the fact she may meet a shifter and be instantly attracted to him the way she had been to Anson.
“Attracted to him…?” she said the words out loud as the thought formed in her mind. “Holy hell… Am I?”
She squeezed her pillow tight and screamed into it, trying not to laugh. She felt excitement, she felt deliriously happy… but she also felt unbelievably conflicted.
Anson was nothing but trouble… it was clear for her to see. She had spent her whole life being warned off men like him and promising herself she would never find herself in this position. And yet here she was… and she knew she was screwed.
5.
When she woke in the morning, Krystal jumped out of bed feeling fresh as a daisy. She quickly showered and got dressed in a long black dress with ankle boots, fluffed up her hair into bouncing curls as she dried it and slicked on some dark lipstick. She laughed at herself in the mirror, realizing she had made herself look pretty gothic.
“Must be the season,” she smiled as she spritzed on some perfume and then made her way down to the floor below to the kitchen where she made herself a big, steaming cup of coffee.
Her commute to work took her exactly half a minute from when she locked the door to the apartment. It was certainly a vast improvement on life in the city, she regularly had to be up well before 7am to shower and spend hours picking out a boring office outfit to make sure she looked as conservative as possible. She had always got the subway, it had been hot and stinky, too many people packed in together in dry, old air. If they broke down, it was a terrible way to start the day, and on the way home when she was dog tired and just wanting some peace and quiet, there was nothing worse than having to cram into another train and be hurtled across the underground. But here in Bridge Hollow, she jumped out of bed feeling fantastic at 8am, she took her time getting ready, dressed however the hell she wanted and even left in her nose ring, she skipped out the door at 9:15am and was still down and in the store within less than a minute and had time to set the ambience before she opened the door at 9:30. She was absolutely loving it, and she certainly hoped she would be able to continue living such a charmed life once her aunt returned.
She opened the store doors after the fairy lights and candles had been lit, she had set up the incense and was already dusting down the displays and unpacking the morning mail. She was aware that there was a new delivery arriving at around 10am, and she still had to set up the tables and chairs out the front along with the little cauldrons and other mystical wares for people to browse and hopefully be lured in by. She had never been so happy to come to work before, and she already felt like she was a part of the shop so much she was even tempted to offer to work for free if it meant she could keep hanging out there when Beau returned from her travels.
She sat down behind the counter and began to flick through a new magazine that had arrived, it was from a wholesaler in China who had started to make mass produced magical items. She crunched up her nose and shook her head. They all looked cute enough, but she was sure her aunt wouldn’t want anything like that. A lot of the things she sold in her store were homemade by people close by or from small online boutiques. She also scoured vintage fairs, second hand shops and yard sales to find things that were completely unique and had a magic all their own.
She had just about finished her coffee when the store telephone began to trill, and she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.
“Morning Krystal!” Aunt Beau sang out before she had even had a chance to say hello.
“Hey!” Krystal said with delight. “How are you? It’s good to hear your voice!”
“All is well,” Beau said. Her voice still sounded so clear even though she was so far away, Krystal still found that completely mind-blowing. “I was just calling with the instructions for the safe,” she said.
“Ahh, yes, so I can pay the lovely Anson…” Krystal tried to scowl but found herself smirking.
“Indeed,” Beau’s voice sounded rapt with delight and Krystal could sense she was smiling, even from all that way away.
“I was kidding,” Krystal said. “He was rude.”
“Who? Anson?” Her aunt sounded surprised. “Never!”
“Seriously,” she said as she balanced the receiver between her shoulder and ear. “He came in and made me feel two inches high.”
Her aunt laughed a little and then cleared her throat.
“He’s a good man,” she said seriously. “A very good man.”
“Could have fooled me,” Krystal said, but she was aware that even she was still smiling.
“Well, maybe he’ll be in a better mood once you’ve paid him,” Beau said, and Krystal could hear the teasing tone in her voice. “After all, we are a day late, and I don’t like to leave a good landlord waiting.”
“So… tell me,” she said. “How do I get in this safe?”
“The keys to the basement are in the safety deposit box in the bottom drawer of the desk you’re sitting at.”
Krystal looked at the row of drawers underneath the countertop.
“Okay, I see it,” she said.
“Go down into the basement and the safe is along the far wall, I haven’t chance to sort out down there. In fact, I only ditched what I needed to and locked it, so it may be in a bit of a mess.”
“That’s okay, I’ll see what I can move around.”
“The code to the safe is 7676, nice and easy. There’s an envelope in there and it’ll say Anson on the front.”
“Okay, thanks Aunt Beau,” Krystal smiled as she reached down and slid open the bottom drawer. She saw the safety deposit box looking back up at her and she wrapped her free hand around it and pulled it up and on the top of the desk.
“No problem,” his number is in top drawer too, I have a contact book in there.”
“Sure,” Krystal said as she quickly reached for the top drawer and opened it wide, she pushed papers around until she saw the little black book and her heart skipped a little beat.
“If you need anything else, just send me a message or call,” Beau said. “I miss you darling! And thank you so much again for helping me out.”
“I’m really enjoying it, no need to thank me,” Krystal smiled. “I hope your travels are going well.”
“I’ll update you as soon as I can, but all good so far,” Beau said. “I should say goodbye for now darling… but please don’t be too hard on Anson… he’s one of the good ones.”
Krystal rolled her eyes but found herself agreeing.
If her mother and her aunt could only have agreed about that fact, then maybe Krystal never would have had to leave Bridge Hollow in the first place and live all those miserable lonely years in the city.
“Okay,” she said. “Bye Aunt Beau.”
“Goodbye darling,” after Beau spoke the line clicked and then went dead.
Krystal smiled as she placed the receiver back down in the cradle and flicked through the pages of the contact book. She didn’t have to look far, Anson’s number was right where she expected it, on the first page underneath the A’s. She entered it into her cell phone contacts and then pushed the book back into the drawer before she opened the safety deposit box and pulled out the set of old long keys for the basement. They looked ancient, like something out of a horror movie, and she furrowed her brow and looked toward the door in the back.
“God knows what is down here,” she said to herself ominously as she rose to her feet. “But I guess I better go and find out.”
When the door to the basement creaked open, she instantly felt a rush of cold air at her ankles, which rose quickly up her legs to her knees and seemed to grip her heart.
She breathed out and was sure she could see the fog of breath in front of her, as if the temperature was below zero, but it was too dark to truly tell. She shivered on the spot and looked back behind her before she reached around in the darkness to find a light switch.
>
The rest of the building had been so warm and welcoming that this place seemed to be so far removed from it, as if she were stepping into another dimension. Krystal stepped to the top step and finally found the cord for the light, when she pulled it and the little bulb came zipping to life in front of her, she grimaced at the length of stairs ahead.
“Oh no,” she said. “Talk about creepy.”
The stairs were old and made of stone, thick and cracked and seemed to disappear down into the depths of the earth. It was clearly a massive basement, and she shuddered as she took the steps one at a time, trying not to grip to the rotting banister rail too tightly for fear of it crumbling in her hands.
When she reached the bottom, more darkness spread out in front of her and the light from the top of the stairs barely reached a meter in front of her. She let her hands trail around the wall, hoping to find another switch of some sort, but she had to keep moving further into the darkness and just hoped she would find a cord soon enough.
“Should have brought a flashlight,” she said to herself, almost annoyed that she had been so stupid.
When she finally found another cord, she pulled it and the basement illuminated with a sizzle of the old bulb in the center of the room. She took a step back and gasped as she saw it, it was quite possibly the biggest basement she had ever seen and the cold down there was amplified by the stone floors and walls. It could have been used as a pantry, it was so dark and cold, and she rubbed her arms repeatedly to warm herself up.
She spotted the safe straight away among the boxes that had clearly been put there by her aunt, and she made her way to it and knelt in front of it. She entered the code and the door began to open and she was glad there wasn’t a whole lot inside that she would have to sort through as the envelope for Anson was right there plain as day to see.
She gripped it in her cold fingers and then she locked the safe back and made her way to the stairs. She pulled the cord and the lights went out and then she ran up the stairs without looking back. All she could think about were all those scenes in scary movies where there is something lurking behind the victim in the darkness of the shadows, and she dived back out of the door and slammed it behind her before she turned the key in the lock.
“Fucking creepy,” she gasped to herself as she pulled out the key and slipped it into her back pocket.
She looked at the envelope and then to the shop and then at the phone on the counter. She could put off calling him for the rest of the day, but it would be worse if he came looking for it. She had to do right by her aunt and give him a call and let him know the rent money was waiting.
She sat down and picked up her cell phone, and then she scrolled through her contacts to the newly entered number for Anson. With her heart pounding in her chest and her mouth going dry with nerves, she pressed dial.
6.
His morning had been as lovely as ever when he spent it with Heidi. She had gone off to school looking picture perfect, her pigtails swishing on either side of her head from Aunt Nora’s wonderful hairdressing skills.
It was one of the things he had never been able to do. Pigtails were just so damned hard. Every time he tried, he seemed to get the hair caught up all wrong in the ties and it usually ended with Heidi sobbing that she wished she had a mommy around.
These were the moments that killed him inside. He could never tell Heidi her mother had abandoned them. That she had up and left when Heidi had only been a few months old. Some people liked to convince him she must not have been in her right mind, but he knew the truth. He had always known the truth about her. She was a selfish woman who didn’t want to give up the party. He had done all he could to make their world a happy one, despite not being fully happy himself, but she just hadn’t wanted him… and she certainly hadn’t wanted Heidi. She had lived her life as normal while she had been pregnant, hanging around the bars of town every night, and even down at the dive bars on the highway. She was always drunk, she lied, and she cheated. When she had walked out with stolen money from Anson’s safe and he realized she was never coming home, he vowed he would be the only one to raise Heidi, that he would do everything to be the best father he could be. He hadn’t realized just how hard it would be to hold down a career and earning a living while raising a child alone, but he was lucky to have his aunt on board to help every once in a while. He wouldn’t have it any other way. They were content in their little world and he had grown used to being a single dad. It may have been tough sometimes, but he knew he was doing his absolute best, and Heidi was flourishing and becoming a wonderful human being.
He had just finished looking over some plans at one of his build sites out on a new neighborhood of tourist cabins at the base of the mountain when his cell phone started ringing. He passed the blueprints back to the contractor and pulled it out of his back pocket to see a random number calling him. He raised it to his ear and spoke.
“Hello?” he said as he stepped away from the group of builders who were all busy chatting and shouting instructions to one another.
“Hi… Anson?” the little voice came from the other end of the line and he covered his other ear so he could hear her better.
“Yeah?” he said as he stepped into the trees and into the quiet.
“Hi, sorry to bother you, it’s Krystal from Beau’s shop…”
The moment her voice hit him again he felt himself stiffen up and his skin burned with heat.
“Hi,” he said, and his heart began to pound.
He dug his boot into the trunk of the nearest tree and tried not to let himself turn into a mess of confusion again.
“I was just letting you know that my aunt got back in touch and we have your rent money. It’s here if you want to come get it? Or I can bring it to you?”
He looked out at the scene in front of him, at the group of men laughing and joking, getting ready to start a day’s work while he was only going to be standing around like a spare part. He easily could have left them to their own devices, but he wasn’t giving in that easily.
“I can collect it, but not until later,” he found himself saying sternly. “What time do you close?”
“Not until 5pm,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll see you before then,” he said and ended the call.
He put the phone into his back pocket and kicked the trunk of the tree again and scowled.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he said to himself and then shook his head and headed toward his truck.
This girl had seriously messed with his head.
Heidi skipped out of the school gates as it hit half past three and Anson was there waiting for her. She looked just as sparkling as she had that morning and she was excited to see her dad and tell him all about her day. He loved collecting her from school. It was adorable to see her with her little friends and the way they all interacted with each other. The five years since she had come along had gone so fast and she already seemed so mature and well on her way to being a full-blown grown up. She chattered along about her lunch, how she had spent recess playing in the school yard collecting leaves with her two best friends, and then she had spent the afternoon learning poetry and had even written a few verses herself.
“I’ll show you when we get home,” she said proudly. “I’ve written them in my book.”
“Awesome,” Anson beamed as he looked down at her. “I can’t wait to read them.”
“It’s about a cat,” she told him matter-of-factly. “A big fluffy cat with long whiskers.”
Anson smiled. Heidi loved cats. In fact, she loved all animals. Being from a shifter family, that was hardly surprising, but Heidi didn’t have any powers of her own when it came to that kind of thing, and for once Anson was actually glad of it, especially with all the strange happenings that were going on around town.
He pulled down Main Street and Heidi bopped along to the music in the back seat.
“Can we get ice cream?” she said.
He looked at her in the rearview
mirror and laughed. She was always wanting ice cream, and who could blame her?
“Well, I’ve got to go do a little bit of work first, sweetheart,” he said. “But after, sure, why not.”
“Yayyyy!” Heidi said as she bounced up and down and clapped her hands together. “I’m going to get strawberry and sprinkles.”
“Fantastic idea,” Anson said as he pulled the truck up against the curb and turned off the engine.
“Where are we going?” Heidi asked as she unclipped her belt.
“Just into this store,” he said as he looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Come on.”
When he had gotten Heidi out of the back seat and they were walking toward the paranormal store he felt his heart pick up pace. He was on full alert, the animal inside him was growling and growing fiercer, and he couldn’t subdue it. He held Heidi’s hand as he walked forward and with each step closer to the shop he caught scent of the incense but then also something lingering beneath it.
The scent that was driving him wild.
It was her.
Krystal.
He felt his whole body react, his skin prickled with heat and he felt wired and alert. He pushed it down as much as he could, guiding his daughter through the shop doorway ahead of him before he finally looked up and saw her standing there.
God fucking damn, she was beautiful.
Krystal turned and her long, wavy black hair flicked over one shoulder as she smiled, and her blue eyes glistened. Anson felt rooted to the spot, and Heidi let go of his hand and skipped into the store making “Oooh” and “Ahhh” noises at all the knickknacks and cool little trinkets that were for sale. She made a beeline for the glittering crystals and all the wonderful colors and Anson looked back to Krystal, who was watching with a warm smile on her face.
Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection Page 35
