Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 4-6

by Mara Webb

  “Concerns? He had concerns?” I shrieked. I had managed to use my magic to transport myself once, how had I done it? My brain felt blank, as if fear had wiped my memory. It was like sitting down to an exam at school and being unable to remember a single thing you had learned all semester, only this situation had real life or death consequences.

  I wasn’t sure where I was heading. My breath was loud and labored, covering the sound of anything else in the forest. Was I being chased? If the wolf had gone into the hotel, wouldn’t I have heard screams by now?

  “Can’t you use your magic to get out of here?” Greta asked.

  “I think so,” I wheezed. “But I’m trying to draw him away from the others. Is he coming?” I came to a halt, a move I questioned as soon as my feet stopped moving, but I needed to see what was happening. Even through the leaves I was able to see the brightness of the moon; it seemed closer to Earth somehow. I swallowed nervously and looked left and right, listening out for movement.

  “I don’t know, but I can sense that the boat is here,” Greta answered. Boat? Did she mean that Ryder had arrived? She disappeared in an instant and I was alone, or at least I hoped I was alone.

  “Miller,” I whispered. “Are you here?” I waited for a voice, or any sort of response. If Ryder was here, then Miller could be in danger. Ryder was convinced that Miller was a threat to me, and this might prove him right. Is that why Ryder had done it? Greta had said the magic had been an accident, but what if he’d summoned a full moon on purpose?

  “Sadie!” someone yelled. They were far in the distance, but I was sure it was Kate’s voice.

  “I’m here!” I shouted back. My voice didn’t carry as much weight, I couldn’t even be sure it had travelled far enough for anyone to hear me, but a long howl rang out. Someone had been listening. Kate and Brielle would be heading to the golf resort, would Ryder go there looking for me?

  Miller and Ryder had been bickering and picking at each other for long enough, something like this could tip them over the edge and I couldn’t live with myself if either of them got hurt. It would be my fault. Miller only became a werewolf because of me, I owed it to him to do something. I started to run back down the slope through the trees toward the fence around the pool.

  I could hear Kate and Ryder arguing loudly, so I knew I was getting close.

  “No, you shouldn’t be messing with the weather. You know, I have thought you were pretty cute up until now,” Kate scolded. “But the fact that you aren’t willing to take responsibility for this mess is not-hot.”

  “I don’t have time to fight with you,” Ryder replied. “I need to find Sadie.”

  The way he said my name was tender, as if he was speaking directly to me. Did he know I was near? I was still running, the lights of the buildings approached but I had a lot of ground to cover before I would be by the pool. How could I hear them speaking so clearly? Did I have super-hearing now? Great, the last thing I needed was to turn into Batman.

  I collided with something firm and fell backwards into the dirt. There was a moment when I considered staying on the ground, letting the pain settle before I tried to stand, but I could hear heavy breathing. I looked up and saw the glint of light across a pair of eyes that were staring down at me. Miller.

  I shuffled back a few inches, not taking my eyes off him for a second, but he matched my movements by stepping closer. The darkness was obscuring much of his body, but I knew that he wasn’t human in this moment. I had run into the side of him and there was no way he hadn’t known I was coming. He wanted me to smash into him, I just knew it.

  What I didn’t know, though, was what he planned to do next.

  “Miller,” I said, softly. “Miller, you’re in there and you know me. Remember me, please.”

  The beast snarled, growling deep from its chest and the soundwaves rattled my bones. Should I scream? Should I fight him? Twigs broke beneath paws as he stepped closer still. I retreated further. What if I used my magic to transport myself out of here? Ryder would protect the people down by the pool, right? The thought of Ryder shooting the wolf down crossed my mind and I winced.

  I could feel hot breath on my cheek. I closed my eyes, too afraid to see what was happening. Then the breath was gone. I heard something approaching and the wolf was running away. A pain in my leg was suddenly burning and I reached down to feel my calf; I was bleeding. I couldn’t see anything in the darkness, but I knew I needed to move.

  “Sadie,” Ryder called out. “Can you walk?”

  “I…” The words wouldn’t come. I could feel tears rolling down my cheeks as I rolled onto my hands and knees. I couldn’t put weight on my leg. I looked up to see Ryder brandishing his crossbow and turning slowly as he examined the surrounding trees for movement. Did he just travel everywhere with that stupid thing now?

  He seemed satisfied that we were alone and lifted me off the ground. I had been picked up and carried an abnormal number of times since I moved to Hallow Haven, but I wasn’t complaining.

  Ideally, I wouldn’t keep getting injured, but that felt like fighting the tide at this point. I pressed my forehead into Ryder’s chest and wept. Was I crying because of Miller? Was it the pain? As we reached the pool, and I could see better under the artificial lights, I remembered Susan’s body was still lying on the stone at the side of the water.

  The fencing around the property had been pushed open forcefully, likely when Miller charged through it, and Ryder stretched to step over it so that he could take me to Brielle. He lowered me onto a sun lounger, and I cried out as he knocked my leg.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry.” Ryder was brushed my hair off my forehead, and I could hear the agony in his voice, but I didn’t feel able to respond. The lights seemed too bright all of a sudden.

  “What happened?” Brielle was beside me now. “What caused this?” She had to be talking about my leg, right?

  “I don’t know, I didn’t see it,” Ryder responded. Why couldn’t I answer? Where was my voice?

  “I need to clean this up,” Brielle announced. “Sadie, this is going to sting but I need to look at this wound properly, okay?” I heard unzipping; she was getting something from her bag. I felt a cool liquid as she tipped something onto the injury and it didn’t burn at first, but when it did, I screamed.

  “Did he do this?” Ryder asked.

  “It looks like a scratch; this isn’t from a branch. This is a claw wound, more like a puncture actually,” Brielle replied. “Kate, get over here!”

  I felt as if I wasn’t hearing every word now. Kate sounded worried; I could hear her say something about needing more Aconite. What was that?

  “If she turns, it’s all on you,” Kate yelled. Who was she shouting at? What did she mean by ‘turn’? I reached out, my hand searching for something. Someone grabbed my fingers and held tight. I knew it was Ryder, I could just feel it. The pain in my leg came in waves, growing worse with each swell of agony until I couldn’t take it anymore.

  When Brielle began to apply pressure, I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness, I was fighting it, but I had nothing left to give.

  “Sadie, it’s working, let your body do what it needs to,” Brielle instructed. I took that as permission to fall into the sleep that was pulling me. My grip on Ryder’s hand loosened and I stopped being able to hear anything at all.

  I didn’t dream. I felt as though I had a vague memory of my body being lifted up again, but it hadn’t woken me up.

  After what felt like minutes, a bright light grew more intense, and I struggled to open my eyes. The sun was shining onto my face through the balcony window of the honeymoon suite. Had the entire night passed already?

  I tried to stretch, as I do every morning, and re-discovered the agony in my leg. Every memory suddenly came crashing back into the forefront of my mind and I sat up in a panic.

  How had I gotten up to the bedroom? Where was Miller? Where was everybody? I pulled back the sheets and saw that I was wearing a
large shirt that wasn’t mine, and my left leg was wrapped in bandages from my ankle to the knee.

  There was one towel folded into a swan on the ground by the vanity, it looked as if it had been thrown there at speed and was bent out of shape. The remains of the rose petal love heart also seemed to have been scattered onto the floor. It wasn’t until the shower was turned off, that I realized it had been on the entire time.

  The bathroom door rattled and then opened. I saw the figure of a man with a towel wrapped around his waist step out, his chest exposed and covered in small droplets of water. I looked down at my own body again and realized that this shirt looked familiar because it was his shirt.

  “You’re awake,” he said.

  9

  I stared at Ryder’s glistening body for a few moments longer than was appropriate, and then for a couple more seconds after that too. I was wearing a shirt I’d seen him wearing in the place that sold tea off the high street. I felt overwhelmed with questions, confusion, pain and impure thoughts.

  “What?” I yelled. I hadn’t formed a full question but decided to start speaking anyway. “What?” I repeated.

  “Okay, first of all, I slept on the floor,” he replied. He had his hands up defensively as if I might shoot at him, but the towel around his waist slipped loose and he quickly grabbed at it. I didn’t know where to look, but he managed to keep himself covered.

  “I should think so!” I shouted. I seemed to have absolutely no control over the volume of my voice, which was making me sound angrier that I was. “Wait, you just slept on the carpet?”

  “The cushions come off that chair,” he said, pointing to the comfy seat by the window. “I found a spare blanket in the closet and I borrowed a pillow from the bed. I figured you wouldn’t need all of them.”

  The bed was enormous and did seem to have enough pillows that Miller and I could have had four each. Miller.

  “Where is he?” I blurted. “Miller, where’s Miller?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryder said. He grabbed his clothes and stepped back into the bathroom to get dressed. He left the door open so that we could continue talking and I resisted the urge to lean forward enough that I could peer round the door. I could swear I didn’t used to think things like this.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? How can you lose him? Aren’t you a werewolf hunter?” I shrieked. “Greta said you were coming over here to be helpful, and don’t even get me started on your little weather stunt. What on earth were you thinking? How can you have gotten something so wrong that you ‘accidentally’ summon a full moon?”

  “I don’t appreciate the air quotes, Sadie,” Ryder said. “If you let me explain…”

  “Explain!? Oh, you’ll be doing more than explain,” I huffed.

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, but you need to fix this.”

  “I found you in the woods, I think he must have just been there and got spooked as I approached,” Ryder began, rubbing at his wet hair with a towel. I had a flashback to Miller getting caught in the rain and shaking off the water like a dog. What if he was hurt somewhere? I had such a horrible feeling in my chest when I considered it. “I took you to Brielle, she was here because—”

  “Because a woman died in the pool,” I interrupted. “Yeah, this place had been throwing curveballs at me since the moment I stepped off the boat.”

  “Do you understand what can happen if you are injured by a werewolf?” Ryder asked.

  “Obviously I do,” I scoffed. “It feels like my leg is on fire and also covered in a thousand papercuts.”

  “So, it’s working…” he whispered.

  “What was that? What are you mumbling about?” I said, still talking a little too loudly.

  “Brielle and Kate prepared a solution that can counteract the poison from a werewolf scratch. Poison might not be the right word… Venom maybe? Slime? I don’t know,” he sighed.

  “Can you hurry up and get to the happy ending part of your horror story?” I said, my eyes wide. It was too much to take in.

  “Yeah, sorry. Okay, if you’d been bitten then it would have taken hold too fast and there would probably be nothing we could do. It’s something to do with the saliva or something. A scratch is manageable. Briella applied the solution, you screamed a lot, but the burning is a sign that it’s working,” he smiled. His eyes suggested that what he was telling me was good news.

  “Hang on,” I said, knitting my brows together and holding a finger in the air to stop him. “Let’s back track for a second. What would have taken hold too fast?”

  “The werewolf blood, or slime, or… well what word would you prefer I use?” he said.

  “Are you trying to tell me that I could turn into a werewolf? Ryder! Are you serious?” If I could have jumped out of bed, I would have. “You are gonna be top of my list of people I’m gonna bite!” I snapped. “I don’t mean that, obviously, but you’re in the doghouse with me now. Or maybe I should be the one in the doghouse, now that I am apparently half-freaking-dog!”

  “You’re fine!” he assured me. “The solution Brielle made will stop that happening. Your leg is going to feel uncomfortable for a few days, but you are okay. You are still the calm, gentle, human soul we all know and love.” He was smirking.

  “Listen, I don’t appreciate the sarcasm right now,” I sighed.

  “Brielle found you a crutch, though,” he added. “Kate said she thought you might like it.” I rolled my eyes at Kate’s little private joke. I remembered telling her about a girl at my high school who had been injured by a horse and had crutches for months as part of her recovery. Her name was Chloe Taylor, and she had let every single other person in the class try out the crutches except me. I was clearly still bitter about it.

  “So, I’m fine?” I asked.

  “You will be,” he smiled.

  “What about Miller? How do we find him?” I asked. I could see that the mention of Miller’s name caused a serious expression to work its way across Ryder’s face. He probably didn’t think I should still be so concerned about Miller after the injury to my leg.

  “I don’t exactly know,” he replied. He wasn’t smiling now, but just gathering up the items he’d used to make a temporary bed and putting them back in their original places. “The sun is up, so he should be in his human form by now. I just figured he would find his way back to the resort in his own time.”

  “What if he’s hurt?” I asked.

  “I very much doubt anything bad has happened to your boyfriend,” he said. The tone was colder. I should focus on getting dressed and getting downstairs, then figure out a plan to find Miller by myself if necessary. Maybe Kate was still here, and she could help me.

  “Where are my clothes? Did you undress me?” I asked.

  “Kate did,” he said. “She took your stuff to the reception desk and asked for it to be ‘express cleaned’, despite them telling her several times that ‘express cleaning’ isn’t a service they provide. Kate insisted that you wear my shirt.”

  I laughed at the idea, because I knew full well that Kate knew I’d packed pajamas. My bag was in the room and she would have passed it when she came in to undress me. I suspected she’d thought it would be a good prank to have me wake up in Ryder’s shirt, I guess in hindsight I could see the funny side.

  I reached up to clutch at the necklace with the shell pendant that Miller had given to me. It was still there, and I let out a relieved sigh. Ryder noticed this and motioned towards the door.

  “Do you need help getting dressed? I can get Kate to come up,” he said.

  “I think I’m fine!” I replied, laughing off the idea. I tried to slide off the side of the bed and put weight on my leg. The pain rose up like someone had just hit my shin with a baseball bat and I fell to the floor immediately. Ryder ran to me and looked me up and down, trying to decide on the best way to help.

  “Put your arms around my neck,” he said. I didn’t question it. He stooped low enough
that I could reach, I wrapped my arms around him, and he lifted me up by my waist. In the split-second before he lowered me to the bed, our faces were touching. My right cheek against his, my breath on his ear. I looked at my hands and saw the crackles of blue light before I let go and sat down on the mattress.

  “Maybe I need Kate’s help,” I conceded.

  “I’ll send her up,” he smiled. He had barely taken a step before he turned back. “You know that I never would have done any of this on purpose. If you don’t believe me then I totally understand, but I just need to say it, Sadie. I would never do anything to put you in harm’s way. Not just because I’m your guardian.”

  “I know,” I said. “I shouldn’t have implied that you did this intentionally.”

  “I had quite a lot of that stupid tea that I bought yesterday, so maybe that’s still running through my system. I’m not normally so forward, but I just…” He ran a hand through his slightly shaggy hair. “I know you’ve picked him, but I think you should change your mind. I think you will change your mind, and I’ll be waiting for you.”

  There was no time to process that statement before the door was closing behind him and I was alone in the bedroom in his shirt. The fabric smelled like him.

  Kate staggered into the room a few minutes later, she was laughing so much she couldn’t stand up straight and I suspected that I already knew what the joke was.

  “My only regret,” she wheezed, “was that I didn’t put cameras in here to see the look on your face when you realized he was here!” Despite myself, I cracked a smile which soon evolved to a chuckle, her enthusiasm for the prank was infectious.

  “I think my reaction to being told I had werewolf germs in an open wound would have been more entertaining for you to watch back,” I replied.

  “Oh yeah, how’s that going?” she asked, jumping onto the bed beside me and staring at my bandages.

  “Well it hurts, but Ryder said the burning is part of the process,” I shrugged.