Marcy beamed. “Don’t let us stop you. Carry on with what you were both going to do—you know, each other.”
“I agree.”
I spun around at the sound of a woman’s voice I didn’t recognize.
There, standing off near a large tree, was an older woman dressed in a long, flowing, baby blue summer dress with matching slip-on shoes. Her curly hair was pushed back from her face with a blue checkered headband, drawing attention to her dark brown eyes.
Several other people stepped out of seemingly nowhere to join her.
I gasped. All of them had seen Jeffrey in the buff. They all appeared to be in their early sixties or above.
Additional people arrived, and I had to wonder if a mass email had gone out alerting everyone in the town that the local head of the wolf-shifters was in his birthday suit.
If there was such a mailing list, I really needed to sign up for it.
Jeffrey groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Maria, this isn’t me getting into more trouble. I swear.”
The woman lifted a dark brow. “Jeffrey, you know as well as I do that trouble just seems to follow you.”
The people with her nodded. Several whispered amongst themselves about Jeffrey being a magnet for chaos. One man in particular snorted and nodded his head, stepping up more in the gathered crowd.
“You don’t know the half of it,” said the man, who looked to be in his early sixties. “You should have been around him daily when he was a toddler. The boy could make a preacher cuss, he got into so much trouble.”
“Dad, you could take my side here,” said Jeffrey. It was then I noted the similarities between the two.
The man had hair the same color as Jeffrey’s but with more white through the sides. It was cut a bit shorter but just as full as his son’s. His blue gaze was locked firmly on Jeffrey.
“Maria summoned the council. She said something dark and evil was out here. We show up and find you. Care to explain?” asked Jeffrey’s father. He then noticed Poppy, and a huge smile spread over his face. “Poppy Proctor, or should I say Poppy Kasper?”
Poppy squealed and hurried toward the man, embracing him. “Mr. Farkas! I was meaning to get over and see you and Mrs. Farkas. It’s just been a little crazy since I got back to town.”
The man gave her a good hug and then stared down at her, seeming happy to see her. “So I hear. My son tells me Brett claimed you and that little ones are on the way.”
Poppy blushed. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s about time that boy did right by you,” said Mr. Farkas, his accent thicker than Jeffrey’s even. “Wish he’d talk some sense into my boy. I’ve about given up on him settling down and mating. At this point, his mate would need to fall out of the sky and onto his head for him to take notice.”
Maria eyed me. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Jim. He might surprise you.”
“Doubtful,” said Jim as he crossed his arms over his chest, giving his son a disapproving look. “What are you doing out here barely dressed?”
“I shifted forms,” said Jeffrey, glancing around at the forest floor. “I did it in mid-run, which means I stripped in mid-run too.”
I spotted his T-shirt in a pile of leaves and hurried over to grab it. I held it up for him.
His gaze met mine as he approached. He took the shirt, his hand wrapping around mine in the process. “Thanks, Legs.”
“Guess that explains why one boot is over there,” said his father, pointing just past me, “and the other is there.”
“Uh, yeah,” said Jeffrey, clearly uncomfortable with the attention.
Poppy stayed close to Mr. Farkas. “I need to stop by your place to see your wife and Jennifer.”
Jeffrey tensed at the mention of the name Jennifer.
So did Mr. Farkas. “Faye would love to see you.”
Poppy smiled wider. “Has Jennifer settled down and found someone yet? Are you and Faye grandparents? Jeffrey hasn’t given me the skinny on anyone in your family since I’ve been back.”
“Well, Poppy, I’m not sure,” said Jim. “Jennifer sort of left town a few years back and hasn’t stayed in touch—with anyone.”
Poppy shot Jeffrey a stern look. “And you never once thought to mention your sister wasn’t in Grimm Cove and hasn’t been contacting your family? Is she okay? Where is she? Do you know?”
Jeffrey shook his head. “No, but it’s not for lack of trying to find out. Last I saw her, she was hightailing it out of town with a Van Helsing boy.”
As he said it, his strong dislike of anyone named Van Helsing made more sense. He no doubt blamed the Van Helsings for the disappearance of his sister. “Jeffrey, I’m sorry.”
He took a deep breath. “Not your fault, Legs. It’s mine. I should have been more open to her dating a Van Helsing. It’s just, well…slayers spent centuries hunting my kind. There is a lot of animosity there.”
“I noticed,” I returned.
“Doesn’t help that the head of the slayers is a total asshole,” added Jeffrey before glancing toward Maria. “Erm, a total pain in the butt.”
Maria stepped forward, and something in her expression said she wasn’t keen on the way the conversation was going. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your friends, Poppy. These are your friends, correct?”
Poppy went to the woman. “Thank you for looking after the house for me.”
The woman nodded. “It was my pleasure. Sorry I couldn’t do more to get the bad energy out before you arrived. But it was a task for a Proctor witch.”
“I understand,” added Poppy.
Marcy shot forward and had her arms wrapped around Maria before anyone could think to stop her. She squeezed the woman, rocking her in place. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. I’m Marcy. I’ve heard so many good things about you. Most dead people around here are very fond of you. The animals love you too. A few flowers had some cross words for you, something about your familiar Slim. He’s apparently been using their flowerbeds as a kitty litter stopping point, if you catch my drift.”
Maria returned the hug and chuckled. “The wind whispered to me that you’d be coming back to us, Marcy. Happy to have you home now. Have you found Grimm Cove to your liking?”
“Oh yes!” exclaimed Marcy. “Very much so. It’s kind of noisy here though with all the dead people, but that’s okay. I’ll never be lonely.”
I just stood there, shaking my head. My crazy bestie had finally found her people. She fit right in. It was as if she’d happened upon the mothership of aura readers.
“Y’all okay?” asked Travis as he rushed onto the scene with other men in tow. From what I’d heard Travis was supposed to be resting, on the mend after being injured during the succu-witch attack, not running about in the woods.
I recognized a number of the people with him from two nights back. They’d arrived to help fight off the thralled vampires of the succu-witch.
“We’re fine,” said Poppy. “Why are you here and not at home healing?”
“I had the same question,” I said.
“What happened?” asked Travis of Jeffrey, ignoring Poppy and me.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” said Jim, sounding annoyed.
Maria lifted a hand and Jim took a step back, giving Jeffrey some breathing room.
Seeing Jeffrey become the source of contention with everyone bothered me greatly. He’d done nothing wrong. Yet most of them looked at him as if he was the adult embodiment of Dennis the Menace. I half expected someone to shout at him to get off their lawn.
It was ridiculous.
“Some creepy dude named Dragos made a big section of the woods turn pitch black and then unleashed his ghoul minions on me,” I said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Jeffrey came to help me. Anyone who has issue with that can take it up with me personally. I, for one, am thankful he did.”
Jeffrey glanced at me, his brows lifting.
Travis’s jaw dropped. “Ghouls? We have ghouls now? I�
��m tendering my resignation.”
Jeffrey grunted. “If only it were that simple. I’d hand in mine too.”
“Ghouls?” echoed Jim. He looked to his son. “You’re sure?”
Nodding, Jeffrey took a deep breath. “I’m positive. A whole mess of them. It’s the rancid scent you’re probably picking up on out here. Back that way is at least thirty dead ones. Brett and his detective are there, getting a cleanup effort going.”
Maria’s gaze swept to Jim and some of the others who had arrived with her. From their expressions, the news wasn’t good.
Jeffrey edged closer to me as he pulled his shirt over his head. He was left standing there barefoot but dressed.
I darted over and retrieved his boots for him.
Travis helped with the second one, moving slow and favoring the side he’d been injured on. He handed the other boot to me.
I met his gaze and let mine go hard. “You should be healing. Not here.”
“A wolf’s gotta do what a wolf’s gotta do,” he said, falling back in line with the others.
I went to Jeffrey right away, holding his boots as he focused on his father. “There’s more.”
“It gets better?” asked Jim. “I’m almost afraid to find out how. Did you manage to get into a row with another group of supernaturals too? Seems to be your thing, son.”
I didn’t like seeing the way the people with Maria looked at Jeffrey as if he was a disappointment. I thrust his boots at him and stewed as he put them on, my irritation with the others, not him.
I found myself stepping up next to him and squaring my shoulders. “Would you rather he let me be attacked by smelly ghouls? I’m not sure what sort of character each of you has, but if it’s the kind that runs from trouble rather than—”
Jeffrey grabbed for my hand once more. “Legs, stop. It’s fine. I’m used to it. A lot is expected of me. I haven’t exactly lived up to those expectations.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped, making Travis and the wolf-shifters he’d arrived with laugh.
Maria said nothing, but there was an odd satisfied look on her face as I set my sights on the people with her.
“I don’t know what his duties entail, but if they include helping to stop a succu-witch, her evil vampires, and ghouls who are attacking a woman in the woods, then I’d say he’s actually exceeding expectations,” I said, my posture rigid as I fell back into prosecutor mode. “Tell me, who among you would have responded differently. I’d like an account of which of you would fail at being a good person.”
Maria gave a slight nod before glancing at the others. “She makes a valid point.”
Jim expelled an annoyed breath. “He should have summoned the pack for backup with the ghouls. He didn’t. If he had, I’d have felt the call. Taking on a bunch of ghouls by himself was foolish. That’s the kind of thing that gets an alpha killed and leaves his pack in disarray.”
“He wasn’t alone, Mr. Farkas,” I said, cutting Jeffrey off before he could respond. “I was there, and I’m hardly chopped liver. And so were a bunch of slayers.”
That caught Maria’s attention. “Slayers were part of it all as well?”
“Yes. And they didn’t come alone,” said Jeffrey, sounding tired. “A man named Abraham was with them.”
The group of people who had arrived with Maria all turned, forming a circle and talking amongst themselves.
I leaned in toward Jeffrey more. “What are they saying? Does your super-hearing pick up on it all?”
“Maria is a witch,” he said in a hushed tone. “She can spell the area around her and the rest of the council so none of us can listen in.”
“Council?” I asked.
“Group of Elders from each faction of species within Grimm Cove. Looks like most of them are here. A few are missing,” he said, a smug look on his face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
He inclined his head. “Because you didn’t question the bit about her being a witch and casting a silence spell. You asked about the council. I think that means you’re getting used to Grimm Cove and its oddities.”
He was right. I kind of was getting used to it all.
Not sure what that meant or said about me. I guess I’d found my people too.
“You okay?” asked Travis of me.
I nodded.
He looked to Jeffrey. “Jim is right, Jeffrey. You should have summoned us all. Instead, I get a call from Brett, telling me something was going down out here and that you needed help. I called the rest of the pack.”
Jeffrey inhaled deeply and nodded. “I know. But I had one worry on my mind, and it wasn’t getting backup.”
I tensed, understanding that worry he was talking about was me.
Travis stood silently watching the council members as they continued to talk in their special circle of silence.
After several long moments, Maria turned to face us. “You’re sure the man who was with the slayers was named Abraham?”
Jeffrey nodded, giving my hand a small squeeze. “I’m sure.”
Jim rubbed his jawline. “If he’s back, that means we have trouble.”
“Pretty sure this town had trouble before he got here.” I bit my lip and cringed. “That was supposed to be an internal thought.”
Jeffrey snorted. “That may be so, but you’re not wrong, Legs.”
Maria nodded. “Very true. But the arrival of Abraham brings a whole new set of issues. He’s the head of the slayers but he rarely, if ever, makes an appearance.”
“I thought Elis was in charge,” said Jeffrey.
“Even he has someone to answer to,” said Maria. “Abraham—or Bram, as we know him—is that man.”
I took a deep breath.
“Why am I only just hearing about this?” asked Jeffrey, sounding miffed.
“You didn’t need to know about it before,” returned Jim.
“Hold up—you people throw blame at Jeffrey about not doing his job correctly, but you only give him half the information he needs to do it?” I demanded.
“Legs, please stop. You’re going to end up challenging everyone here,” said Jeffrey.
I shot him a firm look.
He pursed his lips. “Carry on.”
I nodded. “I intend to.”
Travis grinned and elbowed the guy nearest him. “She’s fierce.”
“This is mild for her,” said Poppy.
Marcy nodded. “It’s true. She’s not had coffee yet this morning so really this could be far worse. Trust us.”
Jim glanced at me and then inclined his head. “You’re right. Jeffrey should have been given all the facts.”
Jeffrey curled his hand tighter around mine for a second. “Legs, I’d like to put you on retainer.”
I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “No need. I’ve got your back.”
“Yes,” he said, his heated gaze finding mine. “You do. And I’ve got yours.”
Jim cleared his throat. “Son, if Bram is here, it could mean trouble for the pack. He’s powerful and able to control wolves to a certain degree. Normally, he travels with shifters nearby. They’re his eyes and ears during the daylight hours. They’re loyal to him, not the pack.”
Jeffrey focused on me. “The black wolf you saw.”
“Makes sense, I guess. Well, as much sense as any of this can possibly make,” I said.
“Maria, Harker always has the faint smell of a wolf on him. I thought it was because he has dogs or something,” stated Jeffrey evenly. “It’s not that, is it?”
Maria glanced at the other council members before shaking her head. “No. It’s not because he has dogs, Jeffrey.”
Jeffrey growled. “That asshat is a wolf-shifter, isn’t he?”
Maria narrowed her gaze on him. “Language, young man.”
“Sorry, ma’am, but I’m not wrong. He is an asshat,” said Jeffrey, earning him a few laughs from the pack members and several of the council members.
Travis joined in. “I
second that motion. Kellan is one.”
I stiffened. “What did you say?”
Marcy smiled wide. “He said Kellan.”
Poppy’s brows met. “Dana, why is that name familiar?”
Marcy glanced at her. “Dana’s grandmother told us about him once. Said he broke Dana’s heart when she was in high school. Remember? He’s the guy Dana never wants to discuss. The one who soured her to the idea of happily ever after.”
“Broke her heart?” asked Jeffrey, his voice deepening. He let go of my hand quickly. “You had a thing with Kellan Harker?”
I ignored his outburst, looking to Maria instead. “Kellan is in Grimm Cove?”
She nodded.
I felt faint. “And he’s a wolf-shifter?”
Again, she nodded.
Another thought occurred to me. “And he’s one of the wolves Bram controls?”
“Yes,” she said evenly.
I stared at Poppy and Marcy. “He didn’t just happen to go to school with me, did he?”
Poppy sighed. “I don’t know. My gut says no.”
Marcy frowned. “Want me to get Brett and go for his kneecaps?”
Poppy leaned toward Marcy. “Pretty sure Dana can go for them all on her own with great effectiveness.”
Jeffrey growled. “Answer me, Legs. You had a thing with Kellan?”
Slowly, I turned my head to look at him. “Excuse me, but did you just demand I answer you?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it fast, shaking his head. “Nope.”
His father snorted. “Some alpha you’re shaping up to be.”
Maria eyed Jim. “Funny, didn’t I see you tucking tail when Faye was cross with you the other day?”
Jim tugged at his shirt collar. “No.”
“Odd, I could have sworn I did,” said Maria. “I’ll call Faye later and ask about it.”
Jim’s eyes widened. “Fine. Yes. I bend quickly when she’s upset with me.”
“Casting stones then?” asked Maria.
Jim shook his head. “Not anymore.”
Maria looked to be fighting a chuckle. She then coughed slightly. “Jeffrey, what all went on here? I’m told a lot of death occurred but that we lost none of our own. Is that right?”
“Yes,” said Jeffrey.
Hexing with a Chance of Tornadoes: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Romance Novel (Grimm Cove Book 2) Page 15
