Page 11 of Resting Witch Face
Murder of crows chased me all hours till dawn, trying their best to claw my eyes out. I kept running through the dull gray landscape, barefoot and dressed in a flimsy white dress, until I woke up with a jolt, sitting up in bed drenched in cold sweat. We were taught from a young age that dreams were messages from behind the veil. Whatever the message was, I knew it meant nothing good for me. One thought stayed long after I pulled myself out of the night terror. Someone or something was attempting to prevent me from seeing the truth. The crows were adamant about taking my sight.
It only made me more determined to discover what secrets were hidden from me.
6
“Ican’t believe we found nothing.” Sissily chugged her latte like a woman dying of thirst.
It was her fifth one.
Dark smudges sat like war paint under her eyes, and her usually smooth ponytail was sitting askew on the side of her head. The wrinkled t-shirt and leggings just added to the whole disheveled thing she had going on. Just her eyes burned in anger, the blue irises sparkling feverishly under her thick lashes.
I looked just as crazed as her, only I gulped double espresso shots instead of lattes.
Mirrors and hairbrushes were distant memories for both of us.
“Maybe there was nothing to find?” Not even I believed that.
The last few weeks we’d combed through everything we could find in the coven and inside my house. If there was something going on, I was sure we would find it in one of those two places, but all our searching confirmed that I was just paranoid. My paranoia rubbed off on Sissily, too, because she was obsessed with finding the foul play. On top of all that, I had to pull medal-worthy maneuvers to avoid River Blackman like the plague, which was not easy at all.
“We are missing something that’s staring us in the face. I can feel it.” My best friend tilted her cup up before frowning at it when she realized it was empty. She proceeded to shove it at my face and wiggle it, silently asking for another one.
My next breath was blown at her though pursed lips while I replaced her empty coffee cup with a full one I plucked from the cupholder. We’d barely slept since the whole search started, so at the local coffee shop now they plonked three cup holders full of lattes and double espressos in front of us as soon as we walked through their door. I would’ve given up a while back if our punishments hadn’t increased in frequency, Danika going as far as to make me scrub hallways for things I’d done when I was eight. The more she hid me away, the louder the alarms in my head blared.
“Oops.” Sissily slurred some words that sounded like curses when an electric current zapped between her fingertips and the coffee cup. Being sleep deprived made the control she had on her magic iffy, and that was the second time she tried to fry an inanimate object.
I was next in line to end up crisp, I could feel it.
The paper cup didn’t burn, but steam was curling from the previously cold coffee. After moving it to the side, I placed a Danish in her hand and brought it to her mouth. “Eat before you announce to everyone here what we are.”
The owner of the café was a lady from the local pack of shifters, but just because she wasn’t human didn’t mean she’d be happy if magic started hurling through her shop. Supernaturals had each other’s back most of the time, unless it hit their pockets. No comradery could change the fact that the humans had larger numbers and had no problem spending their money in our businesses. Hell, they were the biggest supporters of witches, although they liked us the least of all. We were the scary creatures not to be trusted unless they needed a love potion, a tarot reading, or a ghost hunkered in their house.
Cheery chimes bounced across the café when the front door opened, letting in a gust of hot air along with whoever entered. The line at the counter stretching the length of one wall twisted all the way to the bathrooms, so I couldn’t see the door, but I felt it wasn’t a human that joined the bustle of people filling up the vast space. My eyes, although gritty and stinging from the bright light coming through the wall of windows, didn’t blink for long moments. When no one pushed through the throng of people, I dismissed my worry and turned to watch Sassily stuff the Danish in her mouth until she resembled a chipmunk.
“Wis iz gooz,” she told me through a mouthful of food. I handed her a napkin while snickering at her antics.
It was fun to watch the always-put-together Sissily when she let loose and forgot to worry about what others thought. We had one day a month just for that, and the tradition had started about ten years ago. Acting like some caveman in the café didn’t fall on that day, but both of us were tired enough not to care at that point. Offering my Danish to her, my hand froze in the air between us as a shadow fell over our table, hiding us from the streaming sunlight. The short hairs on my arm prickled from the proximity of the person looming over us, and my lungs tightened painfully in my chest.
“Ladies.” The alpha of the local pack of wolves grinned at our owlish gawking, his deep tenor vibrating my internal organs long after he was done talking.
“Alex, hi.” My friend twinkled her fingers, flakes of pastry spraying from her lips.
“There is no better view than watching a woman enjoy food.” The alpha chuckled, swirling a free chair backward and straddling it as he joined us. “I wasn’t going to bother you until I saw you. I didn’t believe Amber when she told me you might be in some trouble.” His whole face lit up when he said the name of his wife, the owner of the café we frequented, but the glint disappeared when he leveled us with his two-colored gaze. One blue and one green eye gave him an intent look without adding the weight of the alpha magic to it.
“No trouble, just work.” My friend swallowed hastily and twitched a shoulder, while I still struggled to unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth.
Alex Greywood was not one to mess with if it could be helped. Apart from Danika, of course, everyone with an ounce of brain stayed out of his way. Including the vamps who terrorized the rest of us. According to all the shifters, not just those in his pack, the alpha was a just and kind leader, but his caring and loyalties ended if you didn’t trade shapes. He was known for ripping people limb from limb first and asking questions later when you stepped on his toes. My penchant for sticking my nose where it didn’t belong earned Sissily and me a very fragile friendship with the pack Alpha.
His youngest kid wandered off pack lands a year ago, somehow ending up at my front door in wolf form. What Alex didn’t know and I’d never admit to anyone was the fact I thought it was a lost dog, which I then proceeded to put on a leash and walk around the block searching for his owner. Sissily found me five minutes before the alpha, luckily recognizing the child as a shifter. We were both panicking when Alex and Amber joined us, too overjoyed to see their child safe and alive to notice the dark blue sparkly leash I bought for him dangling off his neck. It turned out the kid was the only boy they had among three other female children, meaning we accidently found and protected the future alpha of their pack.
Alex promised to rip the head off of anyone if a hair was missing from our heads that day.
Danika was over the moon with that turn of events.
I was still shaking in my designer shoes just thinking about it.
“Try again, kid.” The alpha tapped a forefinger on his nose, reminding us he could smell a lie from a mile away.
For a guy that was over a hundred years old, Alpha Greywood could give a young man a run for his money. Frozen somewhere in his mid-thirties, he was a mountain of a man, with strong, harsh features that screamed of violence hidden behind the faded t-shirt clinging to his large frame for dear life and ripped-at-the-knees jeans tucked into shitkickers. Unlike most of his kind, though, he was clean-shaven, with just a shadow dusting his too-square jaw and a mop of unruly curls dancing on top of his head. Ebony skin made his mismatched eyes constantly glow like lanterns from his face.
