Page 71 of Bewicched

“No need.” I swished my wrist, drying the floors and then the steps as I climbed them. Could I dry myself? Yes, but I hated the gritty feel of sand and salt on my skin when I did a quick dry. “Be right back.” I stopped at the top of the steps and looked down. “Declan’s okay, right?”

“Perfectly well. He went to his truck to get a change of clothes,” Clive responded.

I nodded. “Good.” I took a step and stopped. “He didn’t have my phone in his pocket when he jumped in, did he?”

Clive pulled a phone out of each pocket. “I have them right here.”

I held up a hand and he threw it, smacking it directly into my palm. “Thanks.” I checked and saw a message from Mom. Sighing, I called her back. I needed to tell her what had happened and what I thought it meant.

30

Nightmare Negotiations

“Where did you go?” Mom asked, her voice a strained whisper.

“Home. It was too much. I couldn’t stay.”

“You should have told me.” There were footsteps, and then the background noise changed. “Do you know who the sorcerer is?”

I tapped speakerphone and peeled off my wet clothes. “No. Dave said Corey eyes. I didn’t even get that. I’m wondering if I have a blind spot when it comes to Coreys.” I considered what Clive had suggested. “Or maybe it’s just sorcerers I can’t see.”

“I hope not. That would be decidedly less helpful for the Council.” The background noise changed again, becoming quite still. Mom was still walking, though. I could hear it in her voice. “I’m going to your grandmother’s house. I need to tell her about Sylvia.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Me too.” The hitch in her voice made my throat tighten.

“Before you hang up, I need to tell you about tonight. First, I’m fine.” I gave her the shortened version, as she wouldn’t particularly care about Cecil, Charlie, and Herbert. We ended the call when she reached Gran’s. I was fine. She had to go break the news to Gran that one of her daughters had died tonight, and another years ago. And that both had been killed by sorcerers within the family.

After I finally got cleaned up and dressed in my soft black loungewear, I went back downstairs, only to find Declan watching a ballgame on the projector system and Sam and Clive nowhere to be seen.

He’d taken off his boots and sat with his feet up on the coffee table, a beer in his hand. When he turned and smiled, bubbles filled my insides. “Sam and Clive had to go. They said goodbye, left another contact card in case the other one went in the ocean, and again invited you to visit or call.”

“Damn.” I settled into my chair. “I was hoping to thank them before they left.”

“You can text her. I think he was driving. It’s close to three in the morning and she was looking tired. They had to go, though. You know, vampire, dawn.”

“Right.” The back door and all the windows were still open, which was helping to air out the gallery. “Good game?” I nodded to the basketball game being projected on the wall.

He shrugged. “I’m not paying much attention. I turned it on to try to drown out your conversation with your mom.”

At my no doubt confused look, he took a sip. “You forget. Werewolves, vampires, demons, we all have excellent hearing. You can’t use a speakerphone around us, even upstairs, behind a door. I hate to break it to you, but we can usually hear both sides of a conversation without a speakerphone too. Honestly, I’m pretty sure Clive would have heard both sides even if you’d been talking normally in a car parked across the street with the windows rolled up.

“Nice enough guy, I guess, but he had me on edge. I kept waiting for him to fang out and kill someone.” He fake-shuddered and took another sip. “Bloodsuckers creep me out.”

I thought back over my phone call with my mom. Had either of us said anything we shouldn’t have in front of an audience? I didn’t think so. Although when I had turned down Mom’s invitation to stay at her house tonight, she told me to make sure the wolf stayed for protection.

“Do you want anything to eat?” It was the middle of the night, but he was a werewolf, so I wasn’t sure of his food requirements.

He gestured to the fridge. “I hope you don’t mind. I already pulled out some leftovers from dinner. Shifting takes a lot of energy and hollows me out.”

“Mi kitchen es su kitchen. And thank you so much for going in the ocean and collecting all the burned boards.”

“No problem. We can’t have planks dropping on Cecil or bouncing off Charlie and Herbert.” He winked and it wasn’t smarmy or creepy. I’m not sure how he winked in a way that created more bubbles instead of making me cringe, but he had.

“Do you want to take a shower?” I shivered and Declan grabbed the throw blanket I had folded on the back of the couch and tossed it to me.

“I’m out of clothes to change into, but thanks.” He pointed up the stairs. “It’s okay. You can go to bed. I’ll keep watch down here while the doors and windows are open.”

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