~

 

“Okay ladies, let’s get ‘em,” Ashley said with an emphatic nod as they strolled into the living room and stood side-by-side.

Nancy lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, cutting off the overhead lights and sending the room into semi-darkness. The fairy lights on the downed Christmas tree still shone brightly, twinkling and flashing, and the log fire still flickered in the fireplace, but it was the perfect conditions that they needed to find a fairy’s aura.

The three witches stood perfectly still and eyed the room, scanning for auras, and listening for movement. Nothing. Either the faeries weren’t in the room, or they were in hiding.

Eliza pulled on her magic, lifted her hand, and fanned it from left to right in front of her. Heavy footsteps came up behind them as their mates arrived and Ashley was prepared for round two with her mate.

“What she doing?” Jeff asked as he leaned in and whispered in Nancy’s ear.

“Der, magic,” she offered back as she placed her palm against his face and pushed him backward.

“I get the feeling your mate doesn’t like you,” Drake chuckled.

“No talking,” Ashley hissed over her shoulder.

She didn’t turn to look at her mate, but she could still feel his presence, and she could certainly hear the way that he was grumbling deep within his throat.

“There!” Eliza pointed toward the Christmas tree.

With a small high pitched squeal at being spotted; the fairy took to flight, darting behind one of the heavy drapes that covered the window.

“I’ve got this,” Drake announced as he sidestepped the witches and rushed toward the curtain, yanking it back, and exposing the fairy that hovered there.

“Careful, dangerous when cornered,” Eliza rushed out, but it was already too late — with another high-pitched squeal the fairy zapped him.

The alpha groaned as Drake dropped to the floor like he’d had his strings cut.

“Oh no, you do not mess with my mate,” Eliza hissed, raising her hands in front of her, and shooting her magic right back at the fairy.

The fae hit the window and slid downward like a character in a cartoon, and it would have been amusing, but that was when all hell broke loose.

Faeries shot out from their hiding places in defense of one of their own, and the witches and fairies were pinging magic back and forth between them, and they weren’t too fussy about hitting anyone who got in the way. As Drake found out when he scrambled to his feet.

“Window — open,” Nancy demanded as she flicked her hand on her wrist and sent a fairy flying for the glass. It hit face first, slid down the glass to the frame, tried to hold on as best it could, but she zapped it again, and with a squeal, it fell down into the snow.

“Damn it!” Jeff yelped from the pain of three faeries that were circling him, zapping as they went, and he waved his arms around in the air trying to slap away them as best he could.

It was only the sound of his mate’s shriek of pain that sent his protection mode into overdrive. He roared as he lifted both arms and frantically punched the air.

He felt the connection as he managed to catch one faerie on the end of his fist, and the little fae ended up face first and legs in the air inside the coal bucket by the fireplace.

Jeff started across the room for his mate. He immediately snatched her up and tossed her around his body behind the safety of his back.

“Damn it!” He growled again as a new set of faeries joined with the old set that had been attacking him and zapped him.

“I got this,” Nancy said as she bolstered the magic to her protective shields and wrapped them around her mate’s body. Then she set about zapping the faeries and tossing them away.

One fairy landed on top of Drake’s head as the man got to his feet, and it zapped him a good one as it fisted his hair and held on for the ride as Drake tried to shake it off.

“How many damn faeries did you bring in with that tree?” Ashley practically growled at the alpha as he gave up trying to bat the faeries away, snatched up a cushion, and wielded it through the air like a shield.

The little squeals of faeries being swatted across the room felt satisfying, and he was sure that even through the hearty growls, his beast was sniggering with delight.

“Obviously, too damn many,” Kiel growled back.

His beast was well aware of the sound of a rumbling growl that had emanated from his mate. Right then; the wolf was preoccupied with taking care of their mate and sorting out the faeries to do much about it, but the alpha was sure that the beast would remember when all the fun and games were over and the fairy threat was eliminated.

Then she’d better watch out.

“Real Christmas trees bring faeries — why doesn’t anybody get that?” Ashley grumbled as she thrust a magical wall in front of them and made a push toward the open window.

Some faeries chose to escape out of the window on their own, while others were tossed out into the snow on their backsides. She didn’t much care how they left, just as long as they did.

“I’ve never had a real damn tree in my house before…” The alpha growled back.

“You were warned — pigheaded, male, testosterone-fuelled, muscle-bound…” She muttered.

“Can we stop pointing out my good points and deal with the faeries?” Kiel grumbled back.

“Duck!” Nancy shrieked as a vase hurtled through the air toward her mate’s head. Jeff turned just in time to see it up close and personal before it slammed into his forehead.

Jeff hit the floor a moment later.

Nancy felt the rush of anger within her, she summoned a wave of magic and blasted it towards the faeries that had done the dirty deed. They tried to scatter, beat the wave, but it caught them up, tossed them head over heels towards the open window, and spluttered them against the glass.

More fairy backside hit the snow.

Nancy bit down on her annoyance, but when her gaze snapped down to Jeff as he pushed up to a sitting position, shook his head like a wet dog, and groaned — well, she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I guess it’s lucky it was your head, or it could have done some real damage,” Nancy grinned.

“Gee, thanks.” He grumbled a growl.

Arthur stalked into the room and scanned the area. He groaned at the sight of the battle being waged. Then he turned on his heels and strolled straight back out of the room again.

One thing was certain when there were witches and fairies, and a whole heap of magic flying around — he’d be sure to get zapped. He wasn’t waiting around to be proven right.

True enough, just as he was making his escape, he felt the hard sting of magic against his backside that made him jump in his stride, but he kept on walking.

Eliza bent at the waist and reached into the branches of the downed Christmas tree, catching fairy wings between her finger and thumb, she played pull and tug with a fairy that had a death grip around a branch.

“Let go, I don’t want to pull your wings off,” Eliza hissed as she scowled at the little demon.

“It’s our tree — you cut it down.” The fairy scowled back at her, eyebrows pinched together, and she flatly refused to let go of the branch.

“Well, I’m sure the alpha didn’t know that it was your tree,” Eliza berated her.

“Not the point, all trees are our trees,” the fairy berated her right back.

“Let go,” Eliza zapped her. The fairy released the branch and Eliza stood upright and inspected the fairy right in front of her nose.

“Our tree,” the fairy grumbled back.

“Call off the attack, and not only will we give you something bright and shiny, but I promise to plant twenty new trees in a circle at a place of your choosing.” Eliza wasn’t opposed to a bargain.

“You’re a witch – you’re lying.” The fairy folded her arms and snorted her contempt for Eliza.

“I’m a witch, and I should be zapping. Take what you can get, and you don’t even have to say thank you,” Eliza offered back.

“Thirty trees.”

“How exactly do you believe you have the upper hand here?”

“We know where you live.”

“And the power of three witches says we can find where you live in a heartbeat — think about it — just don’t take too long or the deals off.” Eliza didn’t mind a bargain, but she didn’t like to be taken advantage of.

“Something shiny — and twenty trees – sounds reasonable,” the fairy said before she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled so loudly that everybody stopped doing what they were doing and turned to look at Eliza.

“It wasn’t me,” Eliza said as all three shifter males grimaced at the sound.

“Faeries retreat!” The one between Eliza’s finger and thumb screeched.

The flutter of wings turned into a loud hum as the faeries retreated toward the window en masse.

“No more trouble from you,” Eliza warned the fairy before she released the fae from her grip.

“If you don’t deliver your end of the bargain…” The fairy left it there as she zipped toward the open window, and then she was gone.

Eliza stalked towards the window, reached out and yanked it closed. There was little snow-angel type fairy markings in the snow from where they’d hit, and Eliza couldn’t help but smile.

“Twenty trees – and – something shiny?” Nancy folded her arms, tipped her head to one side, and regarded her friend with raised eyebrows.

“It got the job done, didn’t it?” Eliza offered back with a scowl as she folded her arms in defiance.

“Nice work.” Nancy grinned.

Eliza placed her hands on her hips, blew her fringe out from her eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed it back out again.

“I need a drink,” she announced.

“That sounds like a damn good idea,” Drake said and chuckled when his mate looked surprised by his announcement.

“Finally, you’ve come around to my way of thinking.” Eliza chuckled and offered him a big, beaming grin.

“Now I just need you to come around to my way of thinking,” Drake grinned. It wasn’t just your average grin — it was a damn sexy, drop-dead gorgeous, suggestive grin of epic proportions that made her blush.

“It might just take more than one drink for that,” Eliza giggled.

“I’ll grab a bottle.”