“Cougarville Chemist, how can I help you?” Jo asked automatically, speaking into the old fashioned, heavy black phone.

Fiona was out on a house call and had asked if Jo could answer the phone while she was gone. It was the day of the full moon and the wise woman apparently had much to do to help the Shifters of Cougarville prepare.

She had dropped a few delicate hints to Jo about how tonight would be especially important but Jo had pretended not to get them. She didn’t want to talk about her possible Shifter status—not when she felt she couldn’t trust Reese any more.

Speaking of Reese, his absence was conspicuous by lunchtime. Jo thought with longing of the day before, when he’d come over while Fiona was gone. The feel of his mouth on her . . . the look in his eyes as he’d told her to take what she needed . . .

No! Stop thinking like that! It’s just your hormones talking—that and the headache.

The pounding in her temples was back full force and worse than ever. Jo knew that if she just held Reese’s hand for a minute or two the pain would recede but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to acknowledge that she needed the big Shifter for anything.

She still felt betrayed and hurt and frightened. She’d ridden to work with him as usual but they had barely spoken a word and Jo had made certain she sat on the far end of the truck cab to be sure there was no contact between them.

If her cautiousness around him had hurt Reese, he hadn’t shown it. In fact, he hadn’t shown much of anything at all. His face had been carefully blank and they had ridden in stony silence, with barely a word spoken between them.

It hurt Jo’s heart that the situation between them had deteriorated so quickly but she didn’t know what she could do to fix it—or even if she wanted to fix it. She still felt strongly that Reese had lied to her about what he was and what he stood for. She told herself he was just like every other male—and that was the worst thing she could say about him. Or anyone, for that matter.

She didn’t know if she could ever trust him again.

“Hello?” said a woman’s voice on the other end of the phone, pulling Jo out of her miserable thoughts.

“Hello? This is the Cougarville Chemist,” Jo repeated, trying to sound cheerful and failing. “How can I help you?”

“Oh, Jocasta, is that you?” the woman asked.

Jo felt a jolt go through her.

“Who—?” she began.

“It’s me—Bianca!” A soft, tinkling laugh on the other end of the phone sent a little shiver down Jo’s spine. “I heard you were working there but I didn’t expect to get you on the first try.”

“Hello, Bianca,” Jo said carefully.

She couldn’t believe the Elder witch who had been responsible for getting her kicked out of Avalon in the first place was speaking to her so cheerfully and casually. It was as though they were old friends and Bianca had never stood before the Council of Elders and accused her of dark magic at all. What was going on?

“Um . . . how can I help you?” she asked Bianca.

“Well, you can come back home, Jocasta!” Bianca exclaimed. “As soon as possible, in fact.”

“Come back home?” Jo repeated blankly. “You mean . . . home to Avalon?”

“Of course! Where else would you call home?” Bianca demanded.

“Well, I . . .” Jo thought again with longing of how, for a brief time, Reese’s lovely old Victorian house had begun to seem like a home to her. But she pushed her regret aside. “I can’t go back to Avalon,” she pointed out. “I was accused of dark magic and cast out.”

“A terrible oversight on our part, I’m afraid,” Bianca said breezily. “I’m calling to let you know that the Council has voted unanimously to bring you back to Avalon. In fact, I’m sending a car for you within the hour.”

“Within the hour?” Jo could scarcely believe it. “I don’t think . . . I mean, I don’t have my things with me here. And I can’t just leave the shop unattended.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to if you want to come back home.” There was a steely note in Bianca’s voice now. “We need to convene a council to reinstate you tonight while the stars are in alignment. So just put the CLOSED sign on the door and lock up. As for your things, we can send for them later.”

“Well—” Jo began.

“Look, Jocasta, do you want to come home or not?” Bianca demanded.

“Of course I do!” Jo exclaimed. “I haven’t thought of anything else from the minute you kicked me out.”

“Well now, ‘kicked out’ is a rather harsh term, don’t you think?” Bianca purred. “I prefer to think of it this way—we sent you on a sabbatical and now you’re being recalled. But you must come right now—as soon as the car pulls up. The meeting of the Elders is already being convened.”

On sabbatical—right, Jo thought sarcastically. A sabbatical where I had to sleep in the woods and had no place to go and nothing to eat. But she didn’t say any of it out loud. She was too busy thinking of home—of Avalon.

“All right,” she heard herself saying. “I’ll be ready.”

“Good. Mindy is driving—you remember her, don’t you?”

Jo did vaguely recall a younger witch by that name—she was one of Bianca’s recruits and was slavishly dedicated to the older witch. Jo didn’t particularly like her but then, she didn’t particularly dislike her either. Maybe Mindy could fill her in on what had been going on since she’d left.

“Um, yes, I remember her,” she said. “I’ll be ready to go when she comes.”

“Very good,” Bianca said shortly. “I expect to see you soon, Jocasta.”

The older witch had never been much for prolonged goodbyes. With a sharp click, she hung up the phone in Jo’s ear.

“So you’re going? Just like that?”

The deep, familiar voice made Jo jerk so hard she nearly dropped the phone.

“Oh!” She put a hand to her racing heart.

Reese was standing there, just inside the doorway. He raised one eyebrow at her sardonically when their eyes met.

“I didn’t even hear you come in. How did you open the door without the bells jingling?” Jo demanded.

“I’m sneaky like that. Haven’t you heard the expression, ‘sly as a fox?’” He laughed like he was making a joke but the bitterness in his voice couldn’t be disguised. “So . . . you’re going?” he said again, crossing his arms over his chest.

“How long were you standing there, anyway?” Jo asked, ignoring his question.

“Long enough to hear you making an extremely questionable decision, darlin’” Reese said dryly. “Isn’t Bianca the one who got you kicked out of Avalon in the first place?”

“Yes, but she’s had a change of heart.” Jo lifted her chin. “She and the whole Council of Elders want me to come back. I’m going to be reinstated.”

Reese raised an eyebrow at her. “And you think that’s a good idea? Going back on the night of the full moon?”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Jo snapped. “And the moon has nothing to do with it.”

“You’re fooling yourself, darlin’” he said quietly. “You’re going to have your first Shift tonight—you can’t hold it off again and you know it.”

“I know no such thing.” Jo hung up the phone and reached under the counter to get out her battered pack. She was using it as a purse and had a few odds and ends in it. Of course, she had no clothes but hopefully her old clothing from her life before at Avalon hadn’t been thrown out. The only thing she was really worried about leaving was her athame, which was back in her room at Reese’s house. Well, she would have to send for it later as Bianca had suggested.

“Jo, this isn’t safe,” Reese argued. “Why would they want you back all of a sudden? How do we know Bianca doesn’t have something to do with the man who attacked you in the woods the other night?”

“That’s impossible. The witches of Avalon have no contact with males,” Jo said coldly.

“Look, at least let me drive you up there if you’re so hell-bent on going,” Reese said, coming up to the other side of the counter. “To make sure you’re safe. And to be near you when the moon rises tonight.”

“If you think you’re going to . . . that I’m going to break my vow just because the moon is full tonight . . .” Jo shook her head. “It’s not going to happen, Reese. And no, you can’t drive me because, as I said, there are no males allowed within the borders of Avalon.”

“But—”

“Look, I need to go write a note for Fiona and make sure things are straightened up in the back room,” Jo interrupted him. “I’m sorry but I just don’t have time to talk about this right now. My ride will be here any minute.”

“Are you that eager to get away from me, Jo?” he asked and there was a note of sorrow in his voice that tore at her heart. “You don’t trust me? Can’t stand to be near me after what I did—is that it?”

Jo’s heart felt like it was tearing in two. It was true she didn’t trust him anymore—not like she had, anyway. But did she want to leave him here and never see him again?

No, whispered a voice in her head. No, of course not! I care for Reese. More than that—I don’t just care for him, I lo—

Jo cut the voice off sternly. There was no point in thinking such things. She was going back to Avalon now, leaving the new life she’d made in Cougarville to return to her old one. And since no males were allowed in Avalon, there was no place for the big Shifter.

“I’m sorry, Reese,” she said at last, her voice breaking on his name. “But I belong in Avalon.”

“No, darlin’ . . .” Reaching over the counter, he cupped her cheek tenderly in one large hand. “You belong with me. Please, Jo—don’t leave.”

The throbbing in her temples eased at once, erased as though it had never been, and her whole body flooded with longing for him. Jo felt every part of her yearning to be close to the male touching her so tenderly—every drop of her blood was on fire for the big Shifter whether she wanted to admit it or not.

“Reese . . .” For a moment she almost gave in. But then the bloody images she’d seen on the Internet rose before her eyes. I can’t stay here—I need to get back home—back to Avalon, she told herself. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

Pulling away from his gentle touch, she ran to the back room and sat down at the small desk to write Fiona a goodbye and thank you note. But when she grabbed a piece of paper and sat there with the pen poised over it, she didn’t know what to say.

Dear Fiona, she began and then just sat there.

All she could think of was Reese—of how he’d pleasured her and loved her right here, in this very room the day before. Of how good his big body felt against hers and how badly she wanted to be with him.

Before she knew it, tears were dropping onto the paper, smearing the ink and ruining the letter before she even started it.

Damn it! Jo crumpled the paper and reached for another sheet. Then she put her head down on the desk and sobbed. She had to get hold of herself and go back to her life in Avalon but just for a moment, she couldn’t help losing control. The tears took her and for a long, awful time she couldn’t stop crying.

* * *

Reese listened to her soft, helpless sobbing and felt like a spiked fist was squeezing his heart. He wanted to go to her, to try and explain, to beg her to stay . . . but he could tell nothing he said was going to convince her. Actions speak louder than words and right now Jo couldn’t hear anything over the act of bloody vengeance he had committed.

Never mind that he had been taking vengeance for her. Reese understood now that by killing her rapist, he had shattered the image of himself that Jo had built in her mind. By showing himself capable of such gory violence, he had also shown her he was like every other male she’d ever known—at least in her eyes.

Yes, Reese understood, but that didn’t make her rejection of him hurt any less.

Forget about your hurt feelings, his Fox growled. This is no time for licking wounds—our female is going into danger. We have to stop her!

Reese frowned—his other half was absolutely right. Jo was going into a sketchy situation—every bone in his body said so. But she was determined to go and leave him here—what could he do?

His eyes fell on the beat up knapsack she’d had with her when she first showed up at his place. It was filled with all the detritus most women carry around in their purses, a pack of gum, a brush, a tube of lip gloss—along with a few most women probably didn’t—some packets of dried herbs for spells, the colored candles she used to call the circle when she cast, a vial of some essential oil she had told Reese was used for healing magic . . .

There was so much stuff in there, he was certain she’d never notice if he added one little thing . . . right?

Reese hoped not because there was no way he was letting her go into danger without any protection.

* * *

When Jo got back to the front of the pharmacy, Reese was gone. She looked for him, half hoping he would try to talk her into staying one more time but there was no sign of the big Shifter.

You can’t blame him for leaving, whispered a spiteful little voice in her head. Not after the way you acted—the way you pushed him away.

But she’d had to push Reese away—it was for his own good as well as hers. She was going back to Avalon—there was no place for him there.

As if in answer to her thoughts, someone honked a horn outside the pharmacy door.

Looking out, Jo saw a long black limousine waiting just outside the curb. Her eyes widened—could that be for her? The only cars allowed in Avalon were mostly Earth-friendly Priuses. But the driver looked familiar—a thin girl with dark hair and eyes and a mean, pinched look to her face. She saw Jo watching her from the front of the pharmacy and waved to her impatiently—an obvious hurry up gesture.

Jo grabbed her knapsack and slung it over one shoulder. Going around to the driver’s side door, she leaned down and Mindy rolled down the window.

“What is this?” Jo asked. “Why did Bianca hire a limousine to come get me?”

“Just get in,” Mindy snapped. “We don’t have all day. Bianca is waiting.”

“Okay, but . . .” Jo stared at the long, black car uncertainly. “Should I ride in the front with you?”

“Of course not, idiot.” Mindy rolled her eyes. “Get in the back, and hurry.”

She glared at Jo with open hostility that Jo almost balked at getting in. But then she remembered she had just burned her bridges here in Cougarville and she had nowhere else to go. Frowning, she opened the back door of the limo and slid inside.

The interior of the limo was all plush, dove gray leather with wide, comfortable back seats and a well-stocked bar on one side. Jo barely had time to notice the amenities, however, before a soft humming sound caught her attention. Looking up, she noticed that the smoked glass partition between the driver’s portion of the limo and the passenger area was rising slowly, cutting off her view of Mindy and the view of the outside world through the windshield. She couldn’t see anything out the side windows—they were too darkly tinted.

“Hey, Mindy—why are you doing that?” she called, frowning. “I wanted to ask you some questions.”

The glass partition paused about three quarters of the way up and Mindy looked at her in the rearview mirror.

“What do you want to know?” she asked flatly.

“Well, mostly I was hoping you could catch me up on what’s been going on in Avalon,” Jo said. “Have there been any changes?”

Mindy gave a short, humorless laugh.

“More than you know, but you’ll find out soon enough.”

“What? What does that mean?” Jo demanded.

“That’s all I’m allowed to say—Bianca’s orders. And these are her orders too.” The glass partition hummed again and rose to meet the roof of the limo, cutting Jo off by herself in the backseat area.

“What are Bianca’s orders?” she demanded, pounding on the partition. She was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this—a cold tremor in the pit of her stomach that told her something wasn’t right.

This isn’t good—I need to get out of here!

But when she tried the door handle, she found it was locked. And then a soft hissing sound filled the cab and a sickly-sweetish odor met her nose.

What’s going on? What is this?

Jo opened her mouth to scream and sucked in a lungful of the sweetish gas that was filling the limo.

Immediately, her head began to go swimmy and everything looked very distant and far away.

“Just sit back and enjoy the ride, bitch,” she heard Mindy say over the limo’s intercom system.

And then everything went black.