I nodded and realized that I hadn't talked to Wallie about my relationship with the sexy sheriff. "About that.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes. “Are you okay with it?"
He chuckled and squeezed me tighter. "Of course. I like Drew. Plus, I think he’s good for you. You don't have to hide who you are."
Wallie kissed the top of my head and let go of me. "We'll figure out the issue with Dad."
Just then, a woman came around the corner at the end of the road from the direction we’d just come. She had workout clothes on, which made me think that she was on an early evening walk. As she passed us, she smiled and nodded. We all muttered polite hellos, but my greeting died in my throat as I caught sight of what looked like a bite on her neck.
Wallie and I looked at each other but didn't comment on it. It could’ve been anything. Every injury or strange happening didn’t automatically mean something spooky was going on. We kept walking.
When we got to Wade's the sun had begun to set, but there were no lights on in his house. He lived in a house about the size of ours. I’d completely forgotten to get his spare key out of the kitchen drawer, so we walked around the house and knocked, peeking in the windows until we began to worry the neighbors might call the police.
I should’ve put up a ward to make us invisible, but I didn’t think of it until it was too late. “Well.” I stepped back and peered up, trying to see into his upstairs windows but it was no good. “We’ll come back tomorrow and break in if we don’t hear from him soon.”
“Agreed,” Wallie said. “But that’s unlikely. We do have a key.”
Oh, whatever.
Zoey sniffed at the door subtly. “I don’t think there’s anyone there.”
On our way back to the house, we noticed a group of people outside the creepy neighbor’s house. The one across the street from mine.
At first, I thought they were having a party or something, but the music wasn't loud. I barely heard it as we walked up our driveway. The weird thing was that they seemed to be sunbathing in the moonlight. In lawn chairs. Talking and laughing with sunglasses on.
They were so weird!
We went inside and watched them through the windows. Zoey sat on the couch and said, "They’re not human. I don't know what they are, but human, they are not."
"They’re vampires."
I nearly jumped out of my skin when Clay appeared beside me and announced the origin of our neighbors.
Wallie must’ve heard his dad’s voice. He hurried out of the kitchen and stopped short in the living room doorway. “Dad,” he whispered.
Clay walked over to him, but his feet didn’t quite touch the floor. “Oh, Wallace. I’ve missed you so much.”
Watching them embrace set my emotions over the edge they’d been teetering on.
I gave them a couple of minutes to whisper to each other.
“That’s Clay?” Zoey asked, plopping down on the sofa beside me, both of us gazing at the father and son reunion.
“Yup.” I eyed my boys. Clay was solid when he touched Wallie or vice-versa. When they weren’t in physical contact with each other, Clay took on a translucence.
I gave them a few minutes to murmur together before interrupting. “Welp, ah, vampires? I thought they were a myth.”
Clay slung his arm around Wallie’s neck and gripped him hard. “No idea. I only knew witches were real, but I’ve been watching them since they moved in right after you left for Maine.”
“If you can’t leave the house, how do you know they’re vampires?” Zoey asked with her head cocked to the side.
Clay walk-floated over. As soon as he let go of Wallie, he was see-through again. “They only come out at night,” he said simply.
Laughing, I shook my head at him. “That doesn’t automatically make them vampires.”
But them being vampires—in theory, another form of undead—meant my necromancer senses going a little haywire made sense.
And there was that lady out for a walk with the bite mark on her neck.
What were the chances that my new neighbors, from a life that was mostly magic free, were vampires?
I peeked out the window at them again. My jaw dropped as I watched a woman apply what looked like, from this far away, tanning oil on the back of another of the vampires. Errr, people. Not vampires. I couldn’t say for sure that’s what they were.
Not yet. I added it to my mental list of things to figure out tomorrow.
Chapter Six
“Oof.” Leaning back, I stretched my back and then kept going. I’d forgotten how hard moving was. Just the packing was a pain, literally. Forget moving big stuff. I’d begun putting yellow sticky notes on all the furniture I didn’t want to keep. If Wallie wanted it, I’d given him strict instructions to remove the yellow paper and replace it with a blue one.
I was in the middle of taping up another box when the doorbell rang. I almost expected it to be echoed through the house. Of course, it didn't because this wasn't Winston. That was when I realized how much I missed my old Victorian in Shipton Harbor.
Not bothering with checking the peephole in the door, I opened it. My magic had already let me know who it was. Another new ability that had manifested since I became High Witch of the Shipton Coven. It was more of a feeling. A knowing.
I opened the door and smiled. Hailey Whitfield was adorable with her shoulder-length blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was several inches shorter than me with sexy curves. Wade had told me she was about my age, but she looked like she was aging well. Either that or she’d started using eye cream a lot younger than I had. "Hello, Hailey. I'm Ava." I offered her my hand and she took it.
I chuckled at the confused look on her face. "Hailey. Oh, you said that, okay well, thanks so much for meeting me and letting me take the tour." She glanced around me, making me look out of habit to make sure there were no ghouls or ghosts in sight. If we’d been in Shipton the chances would’ve been extremely high that something undead would get spotted.
Of course, Clay sat next to Wallie on the sofa. The two of them were talking softly, but at least Wallie had his cell to his ear so it wouldn't look like he was talking to himself. Zoey was out of sight. I’d put her to packing up the attic. It was full of family memories and things I wouldn’t want to part with.
Once I was sure everything in the house looked normal for a human, I stepped aside and invited her in. "Wade tells me you’re friends with Kendra next door."
Hailey's smile widened. "Yes. We grew up together and stayed in touch when she moved here. I wish she were here, but she's on vacation." She looked around with interest as she talked.
Suddenly everything I’d been meaning to do to the house was glaringly obvious. The wallpaper in the hall had begun to peel in the top corner near the door. And there were dead moths in the light fixture at the top of the stairs. I couldn’t see them from here, but I’d spotted them last night and meant to get them out before Hailey came.
Too late now.
I wondered if Hailey knew Kendra was a witch. It would make sense that she would, if they’d been friends for so long, but I wasn't going to mention it just in case she didn't know. Nice and normal. That's what I was today. Just a regular old human.