“Yes. I was murdered in the eighties,” he said matter of factly, studying Bevan with interest. “You seem familiar. Perhaps we knew one another.”
“I don’t think so.” Bevan took a bite, but his gaze kept darting up at Alfred and Larry, bouncing between them like he was watching a tennis match. He swallowed hard, but then I tiptoed on up the stairs, followed by Owen.
As soon as we hit the upstairs landing, we fell all over each other in laughter.
And the doorbell rang. Crap. “Don’t get that,” I called to Alfred. Just in case it wasn’t a witch. “Glamour?” I asked Owen.
He shrugged. We certainly didn’t have time to shower now. We both ran our hands over our faces, hiding the dirt. Seconds later, Owen’s black hair was shiny and clean, and his face looked like it had been scrubbed pink.
“Perfect,” I whispered. “Let’s go.”
When I opened the door, all of the rest of the coven stood on my porch. “Oh,” I whispered. “Hi.”
I shook each of their hands as they walked in. “Please,” I called before they started in. “Go into the living room. We’ve got refreshments and I’ve had my house ghoul bring plenty of seats in.”
“Hello, Melody, Cade.” I shook Melody’s hand as she walked past.
“Leena, Mai.” Nodding at them, I smiled encouragingly.
“Thank you for coming, Joely.” She beamed at me, her rosy cheeks always cheerful looking.
“Alissa, you look nice.” I smiled at one of the younger members of the coven, then turned to the last two. “Brandon, Ben, thanks for coming.”
The nearly elderly twins came through last, and I shut the door behind them. Ben hung back. “You have a house ghoul?” he whispered.
“Oh, yes, Alfred. I inherited him from Billy Combs when he died.”
Ben’s eyes widened. “Impressive.”
“Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming. Please, have lemonade, or...” I gestured toward Alfred. “Alfie here will be coming around with plain iced water if you prefer.”
Alfred nodded once. I noticed he’d come up with a rather lumpy-looking brown suit from somewhere. How sweet. He wanted to look nice for our company.
“I brought you all here today because a great tragedy has occurred in our community.” I met their eyes one by one. “Someone has been running a shifter fighting ring right in our backyard.”
Ben and Brandon’s faces registered pure shock, as did Leena and Melody. Bevan’s eyes darkened and his mouth thinned into a line.
Interesting. He’d creeped me out all along. Maybe he was involved.
Mai raised her hand. “That’s horrible, but what does it have to do with us?”
“The police are working with the shifter community to find the people responsible for this travesty,” I said. “But there is a shed on the property that has been magically locked. I can’t get it open on my own. I need your help.”
“Absolutely not,” Ben said. “This is shifter business. Shifters do not like interference.”
I raised my eyebrow at him. Why such a strong opposing opinion? “This is far beyond a shifter problem,” I said. I didn’t want to tell them, yet we suspected the murderer in our town was related to the shifter ring.
Ben harrumphed as Brandon shook his head. “The shifters become hostile when we interfere. We’ve tried it before.”
“Not this time,” I said. “This time, they need our help.” Plus, I guessed by finding the kids, I’d made some kind of alliance with the shifters. Again, though, that was not information I was ready to share with the coven. Not until I weeded out the killer.
Chapter Twenty-Two
We piled into three cars, with me driving one, Bevan driving his monstrous SUV, and Alissa driving her minivan. She looked like a soccer mom, so it made sense.
Drew had been on standby to meet us out there, so I texted him when we left my house.
The sun had begun its late afternoon descent by the time we pulled in, but we still had a couple of hours of light left before it was totally dark.
I smiled when I saw Drew leaning against his patrol car. His ankles were crossed, and he looked hot. Sexy, not temperature. My heart did its little rapid beats as we locked gazes.
Once everyone was out of the cars, I introduced the sheriff. “Everyone, this is Drew.”
He stepped around his cruiser and joined me by my car as everyone gathered around. Olivia was going to plotz when I told her about all this. She’d be so mad she wasn’t here.
“And this is Sam,” Olivia’s voice chirped. She and Sam came walking out of the barn. That little turd. She’d convinced them to let her come. I couldn’t help but grin at my best friend. Sneaky little she-devil. At some point, she’d taken Sam’s place as confidante numero uno in my life. And I was okay with that.
“What is the meaning of this?” Bevan hissed.
“It’s okay, everyone. Sam has known about witchcraft since we were kids. We grew up together. And Olivia also knows. They’re not going to blow our cover.” I rolled my eyes. I was pretty sure the whole town knew I was a witch. It was partly why I loved Shipton Harbor so much.
The coven studied them with guarded, suspicious eyes, then as one unit, turned their attention to Drew. I caught a few reactions that were covered up. They suspected he was a hunter.
I’d felt it when we first met, too. Something about him wasn’t quite human and I’d recognized it. Of course, I hadn’t known about hunters at the time and didn’t know what he was from the magical energy surrounding him. But the coven members would know about hunters.
“And Drew…” I waited a brief few seconds. “Drew comes from a long line of hunters.” They'd figure it out anyway. Might as well be honest.
Drew grimaced as the witches gasped and backed away. “No,” he said swiftly. “It’s okay. I rejected that part of my life. I can’t say I wouldn’t take down an evil supernatural creature, but I’m not hunting innocent witches or shifters or anyone. Most of us just want to live our lives.”
Everyone stopped moving backward, at least. Nobody was overly excited to have Drew, Olivia, or Sam here, but at least they’d stopped looking terrified.
“Anyway,” I said. “This is the shed we need to be opened. I was thinking if everyone touched it and said the same spell, maybe we could get it open.”
Bevan sighed. “It might work.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Do you mind helping?”
He dipped his head toward me. “Not a’tall.”
Creepy little effer.
We walked to the shed, and the coven lined up alongside it, each of them placing two hands on it. “Okay, everyone, just use a simple unlocking incantation,” I said.
“Intrabit should do the trick,” Owen called down the side of the shed. Everyone nodded, most of us being familiar with the simple spell. It wasn’t the spell itself that would do the trick, it was our combined power.
But no matter how hard or how much power I sent into the shed, it wouldn’t open. “It feels like someone is working against us,” I muttered lower enough only Owen heard me.