~

 

“So, how did you find your way here?” Elizabeth asked as she walked along behind Robert who was leading the way back towards the inn. Rick was at her side – there was just something about the man that didn’t sit right with him.

“I’m guessing he drove,” Rick said, his tone dripping with sarcasm and annoyance that they still had to suffer the displeasure of the man’s company. He wanted to be alone with his mate.

“Well, I certainly didn’t walk,” Robert chuckled back.

Rick knew it was childish, but he couldn’t help silently mimicking the man. That was until he received a well-placed, pointy elbow in the ribs from his mate.

“Stop it!” Elizabeth leaned in towards him and whispered. “That’s not funny.”

Rick couldn’t help himself. He also couldn’t help taking in Elizabeth’s scent when she leaned in closer to him.

“This isn’t funny,” Rick whispered back as he motioned between the three of them.

“Act your age and not your shoe size,” Elizabeth hissed up at him.

“So, this is my fault?” Rick offered back.

“It isn’t anyone’s fault,” Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders and expanded her hands. “But acting like a stroppy nineteen-year-old…”

“How big do you think my feet are?” Rick chuckled.

“Huh?” Elizabeth frowned with confusion.

“You said act my age and not my shoe size — I don’t have size nineteen feet. I know I’m big — everywhere,” Rick gave her a cocky grin as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“And that’s how I came to be here,” Robert announced. The trouble was that nobody had been listening to him.

“Huh?” Elizabeth noted that Robert was looking back over his shoulder at her and smiled sweetly at him. “That’s…”

“Unfortunate we don’t have space then,” Rick said as he rushed to her rescue.

“Unfortunate — yes,” Robert mumbled to himself. He could see that the man only had eyes for Elizabeth.

“Perhaps next time,” Elizabeth said, and Rick shot her a curious look. She gave a helpless shrug of her shoulders.

“Although, if it’s as busy as this then perhaps I’ll give it a miss,” Robert said.

“Probably a good idea.” Rick almost growled.

The enforcer did a double take when he noted that Elizabeth snapped her head around to glare at him. It was his turn to shrug.

“Be nice,” she hissed out in another whisper.

Rick tied an imaginary noose around his neck, tipped his head to the left, and poked his tongue out of the side of his mouth. His mate couldn’t hide her grin behind the berating glare that she offered him, and so she looked away before she chuckled.

 

~

~

~

 

“So, you’ve done it again.”

The sound of Chloe’s voice made Sarah jump in place. She was out with her little watering can tending to the plants in the pots around the inn before bed, and she hadn’t expected or heard the vampire’s approach.

“Jeez, Chloe. Could you not do that?” Sarah grumbled. She had an urge to zap her aunt but refrained.

“If your plan is to fill the inn and pack land with witches then you’re going about it the right way,” Chloe said as she inspected her fingernails and took little satisfaction in the fact that she’d scared the heck out of Sarah.

“One little elder is not a tragedy,” Sarah berated her.

“Two new witches,” Chloe corrected her. “And that’s just this loop.”

“There’s a loop?”

“Oh, there’s a loop, and then there’s loopy — namely your two elder witches, Dorothy and Angela. How many more elders must I put up with invading my home?”

“Were you always this grouchy or is it a side-effect of being a vampire?” Sarah smiled to herself.

“I’m not grouchy — I’m hungry — fancy offering up your…”

“Not even if your life depended on it.” Sarah hissed.

She still didn’t trust the new vampire as far as she could throw her. Aunt or not, the woman still craved blood, and witches blood tasted divine.

“Or maybe your life depends on it,” Chloe offered back.

“And this is why don’t get invited to tea,” Sarah berated her as if she was speaking to a young child.

“Really, I thought that was just your jealousy shining through,” Chloe offered back.

“Of you?” Sarah snorted a small chuckle of disbelief.

“I am far superior to what I was before,” Chloe lifted her chin in defiance.

“And yet you have no magic. What’s a witch without magic?”

“That’s not the point,” Chloe snapped back. She still missed her magic, but she wasn’t about to admit it.

“It is so the point.”

“No, the point is you’re not in the loop,” Chloe sneered.

“Go ahead then. If this loop is so wonderful, and I’m missing so much, prove it.”

“Two new witches – you practically have a coven going on.”

“One new witch.”

“Two.”

“No, it’s definitely one…”

“Rick found his mate,” Chloe announced in triumph.

Sarah stopped what she was doing and thought about that for a moment. The enforcer had a mate.

“It’s not an elder, is it?” Sarah grimaced.

“Wouldn’t that be a scream?” Chloe chuckled at the thought of it.

“Who is it?” Sarah frowned. She tried to think of everyone that turned up for the weekend. One woman came to mind. “Elizabeth!”

“Bingo! But no prize for you because you were so slow…”

“Well, I suppose there’s a symmetry to that. What with Quinn being Valerie‘s mate.” Sarah considered it for a long moment more. She’d never really thought about Rick having a mate.

The man was nice enough. But then she was the alpha’s mate, and Nathan could be growly as well.

Rick seemed a little rough around the edges, and a lot growly. But given that he was an enforcer it seemed about right.

She wasn’t sure if she should be happy for Elizabeth, or if she should be ready to commiserate with her. She decided to wait to see how Elizabeth reacted first.

“So, my question stands — how many witches are you planning to fill this place with?” Chloe asked.

“How many bachelors still left in the pack?” Sarah offered back. Although, she hoped that Dorothy and Angela would stop soon.

“I suppose I should be grateful — the more witches — the more snacks for me.” Chloe inspected fingernails once more, but she was more than aware that Sarah was offering her the stink eye.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” Sarah warned.

“Shouldn’t that be you begging me not to make you supper?”

“Yes, because her cooking is that bad,” Monty announced as he swooped in to stand at his mate’s side. Chloe muttered a curse under a breath and Monty warned her with just a look.

“We both know that’s not what she meant…”

“Families — you can’t live with them, and they won’t stay buried,” he offered back with a grin from ear to ear.

“Aren’t you supposed to be house training her?” It was Monty’s turn to receive the stink eye from Sarah.

“I’m not your mate,” Chloe announced. “I don’t need to be house trained.”

“Really?” Sarah asked.

“Really!” Chloe snapped back.

“Yum — tasty witch blood — nice and warm and flowing over your tongue. Can’t you just taste it?” Sarah teased her aunt and noted the way that her fangs started to elongate.

“I…” Chloe almost licked her lips.