CHAPTER TWO

 

 

~

 

Bree wasn’t going to step one foot on pack land until she got an apology from the alpha. How dare that man banish her from seeing her best friend! The nerve of him — anyone would think he was the law around these parts — like he could just ban someone from doing something that they wanted to do.

Well, it didn’t matter to her, because she didn’t want to be on pack land. Although, she was missing not having constant access to Maxi. The fact that they’d met for coffee the day before, in town, didn’t mean a thing — she was used to having Maxi to herself all day, every day, but she was sure she’d get used to it — eventually.

Bree consoled herself with the fact that she had her work, and being a mail-order witch for potions and charms was a full-time job these days. Almost. But it did pay the bills.

The meddlesome witch peered into the shop window at the cutesy display of little fairy figurines that were posed in comical situations and immediately thought of Maxi and how she would to get a kick out of them. Bree sighed and pulled back from the window — just in time to see the reflection of something on the other side of the street that twitched her witchy senses.

Trying to be the best little snoop that she could without being busted, Bree angled her head around and checked out the blonde on the other side of the road that she would have recognized anywhere. Not because she knew her, but because the woman oozed magical ability like it was a cloak around her body.

“Whatcha doin’?” Jai offered the loud whisper against her ear as he stood behind her and made her jump in place. That was two for two on the scaring a witch department for the day, and he was happy.

Not so happy when, unlike Martha, Bree zapped him a good one that left him biting down on his inner cheek and drawing blood. Yum!

To add insult to injury, Bree decided to put a little magic behind her pointy elbow right in his ribs, and the vampire folded in on himself and would have head-butted her in the shoulder — if she hadn’t taken a sideways step away from him.

Bree turned her full attention on the vampire and grumbled in annoyance. She didn’t appreciate it when people tried to scare her — especially when those people were blood sucking leeches.

“You got what you deserved — do not sneak up on a witch,” Bree bit out in annoyance.

“Funny — I heard that somewhere before,” the vampire bit out as he rolled his eyes, before straightening up — only to find a blonde standing right behind Bree’s left shoulder, and eyeing him as if he were Satan himself.

“Well, what we have here? Two witches for the price of…”

“Can it leech,” Emily hissed out as Bree turned to look at the new witch. “We can’t turn him to ashes right here — but I have your back,” she informed Bree, as she offered the vampire a death glare.

“Well,” Bree crowed with a wickedly gleeful smile for the vampire. “Seems like you’re outnumbered — doesn’t it?”

“It seems like there are days when you can’t do right, no matter how you try — perhaps I should go back to doing wrong?” Jai bit out with a big dollop resignation for the fact that vampires had a bad reputation.

“I suppose we could fry him and claim it was internal combustion?” Bree shrugged her shoulder as she tossed a look of amusement back at the new witch in town.

“Don’t you mean spontaneous combustion?” The vampire offered back with a small smirk that annoyed Bree.

“Look at that smug smile,” Emily said. “Probably thinks we can’t hurt him.”

“Don’t you just love to prove vampires wrong?” Bree tossed back.

She was enjoying it. The fact that the vampire liked to stir things up as much as possible, especially where she was concerned, perhaps it was time for her to get her own back?

“I don’t think the pack will like it if you fry me,” Jai informed Bree.

“Plausible deniability,” she said with a quick flick of her eyes toward the new witch.

“Getting someone to do your dirty work for you? I thought you would like to do it yourself,” he offered back with a teasing smile.

Unfortunately, Bree’s magic was a little too strong for him to be able to see inside of her mind — and what a wicked, devious mind it probably was. He couldn’t really be sure if she was playing him or not. But, it was always good to err on the side of caution.

Bree offered him a small shrug. “However things get done, they still get done,” she offered back. Of course, she had no intention of letting the new witch kill the vampire – she sort of liked him, but he didn’t need to know that.

“What a wicked, wicked witch you are,” Jai grinned.

“Do you two know each other?” Emily asked.

She already had a suspicious nature, but the two of them seemed familiar with each other. She hoped that by coming to the witch’s rescue, she hadn’t inadvertently put herself in danger.

“In a roundabout sort of way,” Bree tossed back.

“Now, don’t be coy,” the vampire offered with a small smirk. “You know we’re besties.”

“I’m just going to leave this situation where I found it,” Emily said as she took a step back, turned on her heels, and slammed straight into the hard muscled chest of someone who offered a small growl back in return.

Every fine hair on Emily’s body stood to attention. What was big – muscled — and growled? A Neanderthal.

Emily would recognize a shifter on sight. She didn’t need to walk into one and have him growl at her for her to know trouble when she walked into it.

Joel’s hands came up, and he wrapped them around her upper arms. His beast rose up within him, his nose twitched with the need to scent her, and just before he did the deed — he felt the red-hot poker of pain shot through his balls and into his stomach, and his mouth opened as he squeaked in pain.

“Score — point to the witch.” Jai bit down on the chuckle and a wince, as he felt the man’s pain. There was nothing worse than taking one in the dangly bits – well, maybe a stake to the heart, but he hadn’t experienced that yet, so he couldn’t be sure.

The vampire had received his fair share of a knee to the groin, and it wasn’t fun. That – not fun – expression gripped Joel’s face as it twisted in agony, and as the big, bad wolf crumpled to his knees, so Emily took a step back from him, and offered him a death glare. Like the thought of dying right then and there hadn’t seemed preferable to the shifter at that moment in time.

“It was self-defense,” Emily bit out, feeling a little bad for the guy, nobody liked to see a poor dumb animal in pain, and everyone knew shifters weren’t exactly blessed in the brains department.

“You walked into him,” Bree reminded her and received a hard glare back for her troubles.

Bree did sort of owe Joel one – after all, she still hadn’t had a chance to release him from the rainbow spell that she’d glamoured him with, and he did look pitiful, all bright red in the face, with his veins popping out on his forehead, and his eyes bulging.

“Whose side are you on, sister?” Emily bit out in annoyance. There should always have been solidarity between witches – it was kind of an unwritten rule. “He was about to sniff.”

“Could have been a sneeze,” Jai said with a smirk.

Bree shrugged. “Hayfever…” 

“Hayfever?” Emily looked at Bree as if she were insane.

“Dander,” Jai said.

“P-ain,” Joel growled out.

“Wolf up,” Jai said waving an absent hand in the man’s direction. “We’re sticking up for your pride here, and trust me when I say that nobody wants to rub it better.”

“Well,” Emily said, and lifted her chin as she offered Bree a snort of contempt. “I can understand them, but you, witch…”

“You’re a witch?” Jai teased with a lot of play-acting that wasn’t very good as he offered Bree a look of mild surprise.

“Apparently, not a very good one, as I consort with the undead,” Bree offered back.

“You’re a flake,” Emily tossed out, and turned on her heels to hightail it out of there – she’d had enough of their shenanigans for one day. It was time to get in her car and leave town.

Witches were one thing, but shifters and a vampire …? No, thank you.

“Not so fast,” Jai said. “The least you can do is let the wolf sniff you.”

The vampire didn’t know if Joel had already taken her scent or not, but he wasn’t going to risk that the shifter may have found his mate and then by the time he was able to do anything about it, the witch had already hightailed it out of town while he was occupied holding onto his pride.

That would be bad. If the wolf couldn’t find his mate then he ran the real possibility of going rogue and eating innocent folk, and that would be worse than bad – it would mean that Jai would have to hunt him and kill him – it might have sounded like fun, going on the hunt, but maybe not for someone who you’d watched grow from a screaming pup into a howling man.