by Amy Boyles
After several minutes and lots of moans and groans, I sat back in my chair, feeling fat and full.
“Bet you didn’t know I could eat like that,” I joked.
“I’m glad you did.”
Silence hung heavy between us, the tension building until I broke it. “So. What’s next on this whirlwind date?”
“How about a sunset walk?”
I licked my lips, delicately lapping up the last bit of chocolate. “Sounds great.”
Thorne rose before me, and in a blink he stood beside my chair, extending a hand.
“Whoa. You should really warn me before you use your vampire powers.”
He chuckled. “I’ll try to remember that. It’s just this is old hat to me.”
“It’s a new one to me.”
“Point taken.”
He offered his arm, and I snaked my hand through. He steered me toward a packed dirt path that ran between the waterfall and the horizon.
“I can’t tell you enough how much I enjoyed spending this time with you,” Thorne murmured.
“Me too,” I found myself admitting. “I mean, I knew I’d have a good time, but you don’t mind sharing part of yourself. I like that.”
I also liked how my heart fluttered when I was around him and how my head seemed to swim, how my thoughts got a bit jumbled.
I wasn’t myself, really, but that was okay. Sometimes we all needed to take a little vacation from who we were and just enjoy being with someone else.
Thorne stopped walking. He turned to me and glanced down. My knees quaked as I stared up into his silvery eyes.
“You know, for as long as I’ve lived—and that’s a long time—I’ve never met anyone with violet eyes.”
“You never met Elizabeth Taylor?” I joked. “Hard to believe.”
“I came close,” he said seriously, “but it didn’t happen.”
Oh. Well, touché.
“Charming, you remember when I said I didn’t think you were ready to kiss?”
“Yep. And I also recall you saying that you had issues as well.”
He scowled. “I did. But I’ve realized that I’m ready. I think we both are.”
Just do it, then! Kiss me!
Gosh, I couldn’t remember the last time I wanted a guy to plant one on me. Could Thorne just do it?
That was when my lips started tingling. At first I ignored it, but the tingling seemed to worsen. I tipped my face toward him, figuring the tingling was just some weird thing, but then his eyes widened.
And not in a good way.
“Your lips,” he said.
“What is it?” I said coyly. “Do they look ready to kiss?”
Here I was thinking the vampire stood enraptured by my full lips. Surely that was it.
“No, you look like you’re having an allergic reaction.”
“What?” My fingers flew to my mouth. My lips, my regular-sized lips were swollen. I don’t mean a little bit. As my fingers poked and prodded, it felt like I had two lemon wedges for lips.
My mind raced to what I’d eaten—the chocolate, but I wasn’t allergic to chocolate.
Then I remembered the potion I’d drank. Licorice. Sometimes potions with licorice interacted with chocolate. Like, really bad—obviously I looked like an inflatable.
My hand covered my mouth. “Oh no.”
Thorne grasped my shoulders. “Can you breathe? Do I need to get you to the hospital?”
I waved away his concern. “No. You need to get me to my mother. She’ll know how to fix this.”
Thorne plucked me from the ground and carried me to his car.
“I’m not an invalid,” I argued.
“Just trying to get there as fast as I can.”
Within a minute the waterfall and sunset had disappeared, as well as my hope that Thorne and I would have our first kiss tonight.
Chapter 10
Mama fixed my lips within minutes, and afterward she gave me a good hard look to say I should have remembered that licorice potions and chocolate often resulted in an interaction.
I shot her a look that said she should have reminded me of such a thing.
After all, I wasn’t as accomplished a witch as herself, now was I? I wasn’t the one who traveled to Nepal and taught witches who lived there. I lived in Witch’s Forge, Tennessee, for goodness’ sake. My job was to match folks I knew would fall in love.
Not to lead the next generation of witches in spell casting.
But anyway, my lips deflated enough for me to wish Thorne a good night from my porch. I received a chaste kiss on my cheek from him.
I guess my gigantic lips had turned him off. Who could blame him?
Anyway, Thorne left and I felt like a total loser. I entered the house, my chin dropped to my chest.
“Don’t look so glum, Charming,” Rose said. “At least you had a date with the vampire. That’s more than I’ve had, and I’ve done everything I can to get his attention, short of throwing myself at his feet.”
I laughed softly and hugged my great-aunt. “Thanks, Rose. Maybe we’ll have another date.”
Mama floated by, her hair lifting up off her back. “I’m sure you will. Remind me next time not to give you any potions.”
I scowled. “Remind me not to take any.”
We had a good laugh, and I went up to bed. With only one more day of the dating show, I was ready to get Frankie Firewalker gone and get back to my regularly scheduled life.
It was the night of Frankie’s date with Watts Pugh. It was going great. They’d had dinner, gone bowling and it was hot tub time—Frankie’s favorite.
I prayed that her date with Watts went amazing, because I didn’t want Frankie to pick Thorne as her soul mate. Not just for the obvious reason that I was crazy about him, but because I didn’t want things to be uncomfortable. This was a dating game and show, but Watts and Tex seemed genuinely enamored with her, whereas Thorne wasn’t.
Thank goodness.
“How’re your lips?”
My mouth coiled into a smile. I glanced up at Thorne, who looked particularly dashing in a dark shirt.
“I’m better.”
“I had a great time last night.”
I hugged my arms to my chest to keep the butterflies flitting in my stomach from exploding out, and grinned. Probably more like beamed, really. “Me too. Great time. Thanks for all of it.”
He ran a finger over his lips. “There is one thing we didn’t get to.”
My face heated. “I seem to remember something about that.”
“We might need a second date so we can get to it.”
I had to stop myself from jumping into his arms. “Oh. Well, we might.”
Thorne nodded toward Frankie and her date. “Course we’ve got this to finish first.”
Thorne’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced down and scowled. “I’ve been waiting for this call. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Thorne disappeared with that vampire speed of his before I had a second to say goodbye.
“Talk about making an exit,” I murmured.
My attention turned to Watts Pugh. Watts smiled at Frankie. They stood in their swimsuits beside the hot tub. Frankie’s lips curled into a huge smile.
I wanted to jump up and down. This was it! She’d choose Watts Pugh, I just knew it.
“Frankie,” Watts crooned, “I gotta tell ya I’ve had a great time tonight.”
Frankie smiled bashfully. “Me, too. I never thought I’d recover after I nearly got tossed out of the hot air balloon, but this has been great. You are a real gentleman.”
“Oh shucks, Ms. Firewalker. I’m only like that because you’re the one who made me that way.”
Watts was really hamming it up. I loved it. The more ham the better. Get all of Frankie’s attention.
Watts smoothed his shock of dark hair. He was maybe forty, close to Frankie’s age, and seemed genuinely interested.
He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Watts poi
nted to the hot tub. “Ladies first.”
Frankie smiled at him over her shoulder. “Of course,” she said graciously. Frankie dipped her toe in. A funny expression crossed her face, but she kept going, up to the knee.
As soon as Watts released her hand, Frankie screamed. Her entire body shook, pitching as if someone had grabbed her with an invisible hand and shook her back and forth.
“Oh my gosh,” Watts screamed. “Unplug the machine!”
One of the techs rushed over and jerked the plug from the wall. Frankie kept jerking though, until finally she dropped, headfirst over the side of the tub. She toppled over, falling completely out and landing on the floor.
The mayor rushed over. “Oh no! Turn the cameras off! Turn them off!”
The red lights atop the cameras went dead. Watts hovered over Frankie’s body. “Oh no! Frankie!”
Thorne appeared. He pushed through the crowd until he stood beside her.
“Don’t touch her,” Watts warned. “She might electrocute you.”
“I’ll be okay,” Thorne assured him. He pressed his fingers to Frankie’s throat.
The entire area was quiet except for India’s low whimpering as she stood beside the mayor.
Mayor Dixon was the first to break the silence. “Well? What is it, Thorne? Is Frankie alive?”
Thorne shook his head. “No pulse. I’ll start CPR.”
As Thorne started pumping on Frankie’s chest, I knew it was no use. Someone had wanted to take her life. Every suspicious moment that had involved Frankie was now adding up. Frankie had been right.
One person had warned her and even attempted to kill her before. This time they succeeded.
Chapter 11
“This wasn’t an accident, Thorne,” I said later that night, after Frankie’s body had been carried away. “Someone wanted her dead.”
He nodded. “I want you to do me a favor.”
A cool breeze filtered through the trees. The camera crew was packing up. Frankie’s last moments had unfortunately been televised to all of Witch’s Forge. It turned out that Mayor Dixon would need her PR company after all, but not for the reasons she had originally hoped.
The mayor had thrown up her hands. “This is a disaster! India, come with me. We’ll be up all night trying to figure out a way to fix this.”
India followed the mayor like a puppy from the scene. I had stayed behind, mostly because I felt responsible since I’d been the one who set Frankie up with the men.
Of course, that had been at her request. But now I stood with Thorne, ready to figure out who had done this to Frankie—who had killed her.
I tipped my chin to Thorne. “What favor is it you want me to do?”
I was ready for anything—ready to take on the world. I could help Thorne however he needed. I could tackle the kraken if I had to. Seriously. I could tackle it like nothing else.
I batted my lashes, ready for a real assignment. After all, we’d almost kissed. Surely all his insecurities about me and my sleuthing abilities were gone.
Thorne smiled down at me. “I want you to stay out of this.”
My hopes crashed to the floor like a wave. “Are you kidding?”
“Not kidding. Leave it alone.”
“But I feel—”
His eyes narrowed, sharpening. The dark expression in made me want to shrink to the size of a mouse.
“What? You feel compelled to help because you were her matchmaker? Is that what you’re going to say?”
How could Thorne make something so logical sound so stupid? I mean, really. He had a way about him.
“No,” I scoffed. “Of course that isn’t what I was going to say.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, of course I’m not sure.”
Crap. I’d said that out loud. His eye slits narrowed even more.
“Okay, yes. That’s what I was going to say. I was going to say that yes, I feel responsible for making sure that whoever did this is caught. You got me.” I fisted a hand to my hip. “Is there something wrong with that?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “There is.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me that it isn’t my job.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to say.” He tapped his chest. “It’s my job. I’m the police officer. I investigate crimes. Not you. It isn’t your job.”
“Well, I mean, if you’re going to be all technical about it,” I mumbled.
“I’m going to be all technical about it.”
“Then I suppose I’ll just have to leave it alone.”
“Finally you understand this concept. I’m the law. You’re the matchmaker.”
I bristled. “Do you really have to say it with so much attitude?”
Thorne crossed his arms. “Sometimes I think the only way you understand things is if I’m a little brash about them. You respond better to vinegar than you do honey.”
“That isn’t true. I like honey almost as much as I like vinegar.”
He scowled. “Just do me a favor and stay out of it, will you? It’s my domain. My job to make sure we find out if this was an accident or a homicide.”
“It was a homicide.”
His face burned red. “Do. You. Promise?” Boy, was Thorne really getting his panties in a wad or what?
I lifted my chin and glared at him. Just because we’d had a date and almost kissed didn’t mean this guy didn’t hit a nerve every once in a while.
I poked out my chest. “Yes. I. Promise.”
Not to stay out of it. Oh, who was I kidding? I’d try to leave it alone. I mean, Thorne was an excellent officer. It wasn’t like he needed my help. I could do it. I could mind my own business and stay absolutely as far from this crime as I possibly could.
I could do that, right?
Definitely.
“Shake on it,” he demanded.
“Don’t you think that’s going a little—”
“Shake,” he snapped.
“Okay.”
I took his extended hand and promised to absolutely let Thorne and his men, including the horrible Peek, investigate the mishap that had occurred to Frankie Firewalker, a woman who absolutely no one liked and who had a million enemies.
“Now go home,” he demanded.
I scoffed.
The hard edges in his face disappeared as his expression softened. “It’s been a long night. You don’t need to stay here. Can I give you a ride?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll be okay.”
“Text me when you make it.”
My gaze darted to his and Thorne smiled. “I know I can be mean, but it’s for a reason. I want you to be safe.”
Still, I felt like a little girl being told what to do. But I said I’d text him. Thorne walked me to my Mini Cooper. He made sure I was tucked inside before he gently closed the door.
He waved me off as I headed home.
When I reached the house, Mama practically dragged me inside. “We saw what happened. Rose and me. It was horrible.”
I cringed. “You watched the broadcast?”
Mama sniffed. “Of course we did. I wanted to see Frankie make a fool of herself, but of course all she ended up doing was getting killed.”
“Mama! That’s a horrible thing to say. I know you didn’t like her, but it isn’t nice to speak ill of the dead.”
Mama glanced heavenward. “May God forgive me for speaking badly of that woman, but she wasn’t good to begin with. All her antics finally caught up to her.”
I sighed. “Was it pretty bad?”
Rose answered. “It was awful. One minute Frankie and that Watts fellow are sharing their intense like for each other, and the next she’s flopping like a fish right out of the hot tub. Even Pig was scared. The poor creature ran from the room. I had to coax her back with—”
“Chocolate?”
“Oh no, we’re on to turkey bacon now.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s going to be horrible for the mayor. A media crap storm if you ask
me.”
“I’m sure Winnifred will find a way to make it all work out.” Mama untied her pink robe and readjusted it tightly against her body. “She’s smart and has gumption. She hired you, after all,” she said to me.
I nodded. “That’s true.”
The doorbell rang. I glanced at Rose and Mama. “Are either of y’all expecting guests?”
Mama shook her head. “None that I know of.”
Rose fluffed her hair. “Maybe it’s Thorne come over for a nighttime tryst with you, Charming.”
Heat flushed my cheeks. The idea of my great-aunt talking about trysts was enough to make me want to scurry under a table. “I don’t think so.”
Then I realized I’d forgotten to text him that I was home. “Maybe it is him. Let me go see.”
Usually when Thorne came to the house, the home itself adjusted the walls and such to widen for him. I mean, Thorne was very much a hulking specimen of vampire testosterone.
Did vampires have testosterone? Could they make that?
I grabbed my phone to show him I was just about to call when I turned the handle and opened the door.
But Thorne wasn’t standing outside. In fact no one stood there. Instead, what hovered in the doorway was a small skull.
My eyes widened. “You have got to be kidding me.”
That stupid skull necklace that Frankie had willed me hovered with that dumb chain swirling behind it.
The skull moved to come inside. I slammed the door and braced my back against it.
“Who was that?” Mama called.
“Nobody. Just a prank on us.”
The knocking came again.
“Doesn’t sound like a prank,” she said.
“It is! Just ignore it.”
Sweat dripped down my temples. I couldn’t take the skull, but if it was going to interrupt my life, I might have a problem. Like a serious problem.
The knocking grew louder.
“Charming,” Mama shouted, “would you please deal with that?”
“Okay.” I buttoned my courage, threw open the door and said, “Go away.”
The skull floated up and down as if to say, I’m not going anywhere.
I did the only thing I knew to do. I threw out my hand and called on the powers of wind. Leaves fluttered from the trees, surrounding the skull, which didn’t seem in the least perturbed.
