Page 95 of Wicching Hour

“You can do that?” Frank asked, impressed.

I shrugged. “Defensive magic was the first thing I was taught so I could defend myself.”

“So you could defendthem,” Bracken murmured.

“After I released him and told him to run, he bounced off the chest of a very angry werewolf who picked him up off the deck with one hand.” I shook my head. “He was terrified when he ran, but fear often turns to anger and, in his mind, it was no longer about him trespassing on my property and being a creep. Now the issue was me being an evil witch who needed to be burned at the stake.”

“But how did he jump to wicche?” Faith asked.

I got up, went for the pan of churros, and brought them back to the table. I took a bite of one, needing the sugar, and said, “Calliope, of course. I had a vision of her talking on the phone to the stalker, getting him pumped up with evil witch talk. He has a gun and promised Cal to kill me tonight, so everyone needs to take special precautions and no one walks outside until I’ve checked that the coast is clear.”

“What about Tyler and Jake?” Faith asked.

“No one is going to confuse two tall, muscular men with me. If anything, they’ll find him before he sees me,” I told her. “Remember, wolves have perfect eyesight, even in the dark, and they can smell the metal and gunpowder from…” I looked at Declan.

He tipped his head back and forth. “Depends on the conditions. On a calm night in the forest, maybe a mile. Here, with the high winds and the muddled town scents…definitely farther away than he would need to be to take a shot with a handgun.”

Frank and Faith’s eyes went wide.

“Your guards are distracted with arsonists right now,” Bracken reminded us. “Ones who have already tried to set fire to the building. That gasoline smell would probably blunt the scent of a gun. Now would be the perfect time to attack you.”

Recognizing the truth of that, I went to my computer and pulled up the camera feeds on my screen.

Declan stood, muscled tensed. “Did you see that?”

I was standing right in front of the screen, and I hadn’t seen anything.

“Fourth camera,” he said. “There was a flash of movement just on the edge of the frame.”

“Otis?” I stared at the screens but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, other than Jake and Tyler looming over two trussed-up men on the ground who were struggling and appeared to be cussing out my guards. They were near the front of the parking lot, the opposite side of the gallery from where we were.

“There,” Declan said again, suddenly beside me. When I leaned forward to run it back, he put a hand on my arm to stop me. “We need to see where he is now, not a minute ago.” He pointed to the camera feed showing the arsonists. “They’re the distraction, taking the guards out of play, yelling over whatever noise the one sneaking over here is making.”

A chill ran down my spine.

There was a shadow and then a man stepped onto the deck with something shiny in his hand. Declan started to move, but I caught his arm as a huge wave swamped the deck, slamming the man into the outside wall of the hot shop.

I heard a gasp behind me and realized that everyone was now circled around the screen, watching.

When the water washed out, my father was standing on the deck, bare-chested. He palmed the stalker’s face and picked him up with one hand. Water flooded out of Dad’s hand and seemingly down the man’s throat. He held the convulsing man until he went limp and then threw the stalker over his shoulders onto the rocks. Another large wave crashed over the rocks and swept him out to sea.

Dad looked up at the camera and raised a hand in greeting, then pointed down and mouthedPantsbefore disappearing. Everyone stood stunned, but I started laughing and couldn’t stop. The others were watching me like I was crazy. I finally stopped wheezing long enough to repeat, “Pants.”

I made my way back to the table. “Well, that’s one less thing we have to worry about tonight.”

Frank pointed at the screen. “Is he dead?”

I nodded. “Most certainly. If he washes ashore, he’ll have water in his lungs, and it’ll be ruled a drowning. Chances are, though, Dad threw him back in the water so scavengers could feed.”

Declan and Bracken accepted this and returned to their seats.

“I’ll have Jake and Tyler find his car and ditch it somewhere far from here so his disappearance isn’t connected to you,” Declan said.

Elizabeth and her family were less used to crazy, deadly shit happening and therefore stood together, looking warily at the screens.

“Sorry. This is what it’s like to be in the thick of it. I’d feel worse if he hadn’t come here to kill me. Don’t forget, I’ve already read him. I know exactly what he planned to do with me, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t mourn my torturer. And just so you don’t think I’m a callous nutjob, I wasn’t laughing about his death. I was laughing at my dad. The first time he rode a wave onto my deck, he was naked. I told him I’d be much more comfortable if he at least put on some pants. Tonight, he made sure I noticed that he was wearing pants.” I couldn’t stop grinning.

“Well,” Elizabeth began, ushering her family back to the table, “if he was planning to hurt you, then it’s good that your father took care of him. That’s what parents do.”

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