~

We got back to the house just as night was setting in. Gran had called with a list of groceries, and we’d zoomed around the local supermarket with Moira pushing the shopping trolley, and me being the helpful fetcher of goodies. I have to admit that I took great pleasure in lobbing food at her head, especially when she was distracted by sugary treats. It was payback for her Jack and Malachi comments, and hitting her with a packet of pasta was somewhat satisfying.

I dragged a box of shopping out of the back of my car and turned to find Moira doing the same at hers. After balancing the box on the bumper and slamming the boot, I started off for the house.

I was close to the front door when I heard the rumble of a deep, angry growl, and the shriek that left Moira’s lips chilled me to the bone. I turned back toward her just at the moment that the werewolf came out of nowhere and headed right for her.

I dropped the box that I was carrying, uncaring of the contents, as I pulled on my magic, raised my hands, and yelled at Moira to do the same.

Unfortunately, Moira seemed to be caught in a moment of hesitation and stood paralyzed to the spot. On a fast run, the werewolf pushed up from the ground with his powerful back legs, and I unleashed my magic at him, not that it did any good because a second beast roared out of the darkness, and met the first head-on in mid-air.

As my magic cracked off a branch from a nearby tree, Moira shrieked again, this time, she did seem to have her senses about her and dropped the box at her feet.

I cursed that my magic had missed its intended target. I thought it was strong enough to take the beast down, but obviously, the second wolf had ideas of its own, and as they disappeared from view into the darkness once more, I turned back to my sister.

“Moira, this way,” I snapped out, jarring her into action, and she set off for me on fast feet.

The sound of wolves fighting in the darkness was a terrifying backdrop to the moment, but what pained me more was that I couldn’t see what was happening.

I used my magic to illuminate the inside of the house, shedding light over the area from the windows, before I turned my attention to the cars. One snap of my fingers and a little magic and the headlights snapped on, flooding the area with bright, artificial light.

I caught sight of the beasts in all their glory as they snapped their powerful jaws at each other, and swiped razor-sharp claws through the air. But it was the ferocious sound of the fight that worried me the most. I had to guess that Ross was one of those wolves.

“Get inside, girls,” my father’s voice boomed out into the silence that held between Moira and I as we stood helplessly by while Ross was in a pitched battle that we could do little about.

I shot a look back at Dad as he stalked toward us from the house. I could tell that he was pulling on his magic, and readying himself to use it.

“I think one of them is Ross,” I said, knocking my father’s hands down so that he didn’t inadvertently hit Ross’ beast with his magic. He cursed at being constrained from unleashing his magic at them, but it was for the best.

“Get inside,” he said again.

“Not on your life,” Moira openly defied him, and so did I.

“It’s Ross,” I said — nothing more needed saying.

“If I can’t use my magic then Ross will just have to fend for himself,” Dad said, and he didn’t look too happy about it.

“It’s at times like these that you wish you had a friendly vampire on hand,” Malachi said, but he didn’t stop to be chastised, or belittled as he rushed toward the beasts.

Malachi reached them in the blink of an eye, and he wasted little time in splitting them apart. He received a swipe from a razor-sharp set of claws in the process, and I bit down on a curse. It wasn’t that I cared, or that he wouldn’t heal, it was just … I have no idea.

No good deed goes unpunished,” Malachi bit out. Pitching the wolf that had cut him through the air, where it landed on the ground with a satisfying thud – unless that wolf was Ross and then – ouch!

“Call the winds to turn and shift,” Gran said from behind me as she came from the house with Eileen hard on her heels like a puppy dog.

“What?” I demanded.

“Follow your sister’s speak,” she hissed at me, and I concentrated on the words that Eileen was muttering, but in all honesty, I’d thought my sister was just muttering about being dragged into the jaws of hell, but no, she was definitely spelling something.

Moira and I joined in, pulling on our magic and forcing it out into the night air; where it twisted and weaved around like a hair plait. We chanted together – three witches – three sisters – charmed – calling on the Goddess to grant our needs, and filling the air around us with a beautiful glow.

The northern lights had nothing on us as the color of our aura’s met and merged. We were as one. It was positively illuminating, forgive the pun.

That was when I heard the sounds of pain that were being dragged out from the wolves. Caught in our magic, they sounded like we were flaying them alive.

I hated that it was happening to Ross, but what else could we do when we didn’t know who was who? As the shift back to human started to take shape, I had to wonder if it might have been all the more painful to stop what we were doing now.

‘Stay with it, Moira,’ I willed my sister to keep going. It was as if I could feel her misery, her doubt.

‘What the bloody heck do you think I’m doing?’ Her voice echoed inside my head and almost bowled me over onto my backside. I choked on my magic for a heartbeat…

‘Would you shut your yapping and just do it?’ Eileen’s voice kicked my backside into gear, and I was back in the zone.

“Enough!” Gran bit out, calling a halt to the spell as both Ross and Fraser lay human, naked, and gasping for breath on the grass.

“Ross,” Moira bit out, she was going to take a step, but Malachi was in front of her in a heartbeat, wagging his finger with a smirk.

“He might be a little bit touchy … snappy,” he said and got zapped for his troubles. “Never a good deed,” he grumbled.

I couldn’t say that it was Moira that had zapped him, and I wouldn’t say that it wasn’t, but either way – he deserved it for scaring the bejesus out of me with that whole hero routine of getting between the wolves – eejit.

“Say a lie, feel the fire, speak the truth, and it’ll spare ye,” Gran snapped my attention towards her as she started towards Fraser. She issued her warning and pushed her magic out at him. Fraser convulsed with pain as the matriarch’s magic went to work on him. “Speak it,” she demanded, “did you kill your da?”

“Go to he…” he roared in pain. You did not mess with Gran – it just wasn’t done as he found to his cost. Strangely enough, I felt the urge to cheer her on.

“Speak it, lad, did ye kill your da?” she demanded once more.

“He was weakening…” Fraser bit out in disgust. “If not me then another would have challenged for alpha.” He spat out.

“Why point the finger at Ross? Why not take the victory as your own, claim alpha for yourself?”

“Ross was wanted in the pack, some saw him as alpha material. Even my own father liked Ross to take his place,” Fraser spat out.

“You son of a…” Ross tried to push up to his feet, but he looked like he’d been weakened from the change and could only manage to drag himself to his hands and knees.

“Did you tell your pack it was Ross?” Gran demanded.

“Aye, so when I killed him in retribution then I’d claim alpha,” Fraser growled.

“The tourist?”

“Wrong place – but, it did have you questioning Ross, even had him questioning himself. If you thought him a beast, you would nay defend him…”

“Nothing and no one to stand in your way,” Gran bit out in disgust. “You’re an evildoer Fraser MacNabbie.”

Gran dropped her hands and with it her magic as she turned back towards the house. It was then that I saw the man’s body tense as he mustered his strength and pushed up fast.

I lifted my hands as a warning left my lips – Gran started to turn back, but Ross roared as he covered the distance in a heartbeat. One strike from his razor-sharp claws was all that it took to take his cousin down.

“Okay,” Malachi said, as we all stood there in silence staring at the dead man on the ground. “I’m not burying another werewolf.”

 

~

 

Dougie and Angela were back, which was great, and they were proudly flashing off the engagement ring, that must have cost the man a pretty penny, and basking in the congratulations everywhere they went. I have to admit; I did feel pleased for them.

I was also jealous in a way. Not that I wanted Dougie, no thank you, not that I was in a rush to be married, and the thought of being burdened with little horrors like my sisters and I were when we were kids was just – not on my to-do list anytime soon. No, I was jealous that they were happy in not knowing about werewolves and vampires and the monsters that watched from the darkness of the night.

I didn’t wish my magic away, but I sort of wished that I could go back to a few months before Earnest Croon’s death when life had been so simple, and live in blissful ignorance for just a wee while once more.

“The past can’t be revisited, Maggie,” Malachi said, catching me unaware as I stood looking out over the Loch to Raasay. I snapped my magic around me and locked the intruder to my thoughts outside.

“Tell that to the woman who wrote Outlander and her gazillions of readers,” I tossed back over my shoulder. “Actually, don’t. Everyone needs something to take them away from the darkness of their lives, in whatever shape or form that materializes.”

“For the purposes of escapism, I’m right here,” he said, opening his arms wide and with a big teasing grin on his lips that I could have zapped away in the click of my fingers, but chose not to.

“Yes, you are. Mr. Darkness in the flesh,” I shot back.

It was a tempting thought. Losing myself in the moment, several moments, and it sounded good to my tired mind. But once I crossed that bridge I couldn’t go back again, and crossing it with Malachi was never going to be the sane option.

“Maggie McFae,” Jack called, and I grumbled at hearing my full name once more.

“I’ll let you think on that proposition and give you a little time,” Malachi said, retreating as Jack came towards the pier. I watched as they passed each other, like two caged beasts getting a feel for each other’s weaknesses and where to attack. Men.