~

Now I’ve been kissed, and there are good kisses, bad kisses, and kisses that you want to keep going and explore some more, but I’d never had a kiss that curled my toes before.

Go figure — a toe-curling kiss that was interrupted, not by my sister rescuing me, but by the sound of a meaty engine roaring up the dirt track drive in front of our house.

Now that’s bad timing.

Malachi and I pulled away from each other as one. It was sort of like being caught red-handed with your fingers in the cookie jar.

For one long moment, it felt strange between us, strained, awkward, and I pondered that response as we stared at each other.

“Well, that happened,” I said, for want of something else to say.

“You like me,” Malachi teased with a big beaming, smug smile that cut through the awkwardness between us and made me chuckle.

“Don’t count your chickens…” I tossed back.

“No, that would be wrong with Ross’ wolf around,” he grinned back, his dark eyes flashing with humour.

“Let’s go kill some werewolves,” I said, with an overly big dollop of pretend glee.

“Gee, that sounds like the most fun someone can have with their clothes on,” Malachi matched my mood.

But as I turned on my heels, chuckling, my mood shifted from good to awkward once more, as Jack walked up the drive toward us. I felt Malachi’s cheek against mine as he leaned in and whispered in my ear.

“Okay, tell me I can kill him now.”

“Behave,” I chuckled, but I was still shivering inside from the brush of his cheek against mine and his breath against my ear.

“I was in the area,” Jack said.

“Sightseeing?” Malachi offered in a bored tone.

“Dead sheep,” Jack tossed back.

“I was close,” Malachi said, and I chuckled again.

“We didn’t do it,” I offered back, trying to get my feet back on solid ground, and Jack smiled.

“I gathered that, but I thought I’d tell you in case it was relevant to your special situation,” he said. That was nice of him, but in truth, we already knew they were there.

“Coffee?” I asked, and heard Malachi groan.

“Thanks,” Jack nodded. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted him to accept or not, but not offering would have been rude.

I turned back toward the front door, and Malachi was standing right there in front of me. I berated him with just a look, and he held his hands up to his chest, grunted, and moved aside.

I led them into the house and almost ran straight into Nena who was coming out of the kitchen.

“Jack, have you met Nena?” I asked.

“Yes,” they both said together. That surprised the heck out of me; it also piqued my interest.

“Nena was out sightseeing on her motorbike yesterday when we ran into each other up at the Point,” Jack said.

That raised a few more questions, like, why was Jack looking at her like she was something edible? Oh yeah, she had breasts.

“The Point?” I asked because I’d thought that threat to Jack was in the past. I could still remember my vision clearly, and it still made me shiver to my very soul.

“Dead sheep,” Jack said, and I wanted to groan. Our poor sheep were taking quite a hit lately, and not just from the tourists.

“You really like dead sheep, don’t you?” Malachi tossed out.

“You can come and help me with the coffee,” I said, grabbing Malachi by the upper arm and yanking him to toward the kitchen with me. “Jack and Nena can keep each other company in the living room.”

“Something I said?” Malachi chuckled.

“Usually,” I berated him.

More and more dead sheep bothered me so. It was like everything was pointing in one direction, and that direction was bad.

 

~

 

“About those sheep,” Jack said, tilting his head to the side and offering me a poignant look while keeping his face hidden from Nena.

“Oh, she probably knows more than you do,” I said with a wave of my hand and dismissing his worries about giving the game away in front of a stranger.

“Please tell me that she’s a witch and not a…” His gaze flicked toward Malachi.

“Well, that’s just insulting,” Nena said. “And we’d been getting on so well.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to…” Jack turned in his seat toward her, and she snapped on a bright, teasing smile. “Oh yes, definitely a witch.”

“I hope you mean that in the nicest way,” she said, and I got the distinct impression that she was flirting. Yea! They were both outlanders, although I still didn’t know where she was from.

“Oh, sure, witches are just so much fun to be around,” Jack said, teasing, or maybe not.

“Says the faerie,” Malachi offered, and Jack muttered something under his breath, but I didn’t catch it.

“You have fae blood?” Nena looked intrigued, but the fact that a small frown appeared on her forehead didn’t bode well for Jack. Perhaps she was of the same school of thought that gran was, that faeries and witches didn’t mix well. Boo!

“Apparently,” Jack muttered.

“You know, as you are on the faerie Isle, it’s probably not a good idea to disrespect your heritage,” Malachi warned him. Now it was Jack’s turn to frown.

“Really?” He looked at me for answers.

“Why are you asking me?” I shot back. Did I look like the bookworm of the family?

“You’re a…” He lifted a hand and motioned up and down my body.

“W-i-t-c-h?” I offered back slowly. You’d think the man would be able to say the word by now.

“Exactly,” he said, snapping his hand back as if I was about to bite him. Then his mobile phone went off, and he was saved by the bell. Literally. “I need to take this.” He said pushing up and walking into the hallway.

Silly man, didn’t he know that vampires had a couple of listening devices strapped to the side of their head?

“What’s he saying?” I hissed at Malachi.

“Isn’t it funny that when it suits your own nosy needs that you want me to eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation…”

“Stop talking, and listen,” I shot back.

“I’m a vampire, I can multitask,” Malachi said, but before I could berate him some more, Jack walked back into the room.

“Sheep?” I offered, feeling guilty for telling Malachi to eavesdrop on him in the first place.

“Yes,” Jack said, and I groaned inwardly. If I’d known it was a stupid dead sheep, then I wouldn’t have mentioned it. “I have to be going.”

“Where?” I asked. Perhaps we should be plotting the trail of dead sheep around the Isle.

“Back at the Point,” Jack said, and my heart tried to escape my ribs. That wasn’t good.

“I’ll come with you,” I said, pushing up on my feet, and Jack gave me something of an old-fashioned look that questioned my sanity.

“Why?” He asked, and I shrugged my shoulders.

“Sightseeing,” Malachi said, and I went to grasp hold of that explanation, but Jack got in there before me.

“It’s dark,” he offered, and I grimaced.

“But, there maybe northern lights tonight,” Nena said. “I’ll come as well.”

“Why don’t we all go?” Malachi said pushing up to his feet. I don’t know if he just didn’t want me being around Jack, didn’t like the thought of dead sheep, or if he still didn’t trust the new witch — but, it looked like we were having a boy-girl, boy-girl outing.

“It’s police business, I can’t take any of you in my car,” Jack said, Mr Rulebook himself.

“That’s okay, I prefer my motorbike, it goes really fast,” Nena said, teasing the policeman amongst us.

“That’s…” Jack started, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“She’s pulling your leg,” I offered back.

Nena didn’t seem like a person that lived by the rules of the road if she could get away with them. But now was not the time to wind Jack up.

“Shouldn’t we be going rather than talking about it?” Malachi asked.

“I can’t let you near the crime scene,” Jack said.

“That’s okay — I really don’t need to see dead sheep,” I tossed back.

“Well, I can’t stop you from following me,” he said, looking a little confused.

“We’ll see who gets first,” Nena chuckled. And I groaned inwardly.

“Where are you going?” Moira asked as she stalked into the living room just as we were leaving. “Gran said we’re still doing it tonight.”

So, the spell was on after all. But I still couldn’t leave Jack to go to the Point alone.

“To see some dead sheep,” Malachi said in a bored tone.

“Why?” Moira sneered at the thought.

“Because it’s at the Point,” I said. “And Jack’s going.”

“At the Point?” Moira scowled back at me.

“Someone wanna let me in on what’s going on?” Malachi asked.

“In the car,” I told him, not wanting to be overheard talking about my vision.

“Maybe you could just drop your magic, open your mind to me, and you don’t have to say a word,” Malachi grinned.

“You don’t have that many brownie points yet,” I said.

“Really? Because I thought I was doing very well, especially before Jack arrived,” Malachi grinned, and I knew what he meant — so much for him being a gentleman.

The sound of Moira’s knowing chuckle played on my nerves, like that wasn’t going to come up later.