I glanced over at him. “Do you recall how when we first arrived, everyone seemed to be sick, including me?”

  “Of course.”

  “I believe the sickness was emanating from Gemma, herself, like she was hexed or something.”

  “Is that a byproduct of your enchantments, by chance?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Why do you suppose it was a hex?”

  “Because everyone was affected except for you—because you’re a vampire and therefore can’t get sick. And… I could feel this strange buzzing energy coming from Gemma. Energy I didn’t recognize which meant it wasn’t my own magic.”

  “How do you feel now?” he asked and raised his hand, pressing it to my forehead.

  “Fine.”

  “I must admit, I’m quite befuddled.”

  I nodded. “Me too.”

  ***

  When we arrived in front of my duplex, Lorcan conducted me inside and sat me down on the couch. Bouncy music came from behind Astrid’s closed bedroom door.

  “I will let Astrid know we’ve returned,” Lorcan said as he disappeared down the hall. A few seconds later, he returned. He was still wearing that same expression of concern he had on in the car.

  “Would you still like to try Betanya’s spell tonight as planned?” Lorcan asked as he took a seat beside me and took my hand, eyeing me with compassion. “You don’t seem up to it.”

  “I’m not. I need to lie down because I’m feeling… overwhelmed.”

  “I’ll leave you to rest then,” Lorcan continued. “If you need me, call me and I will be right here.”

  He headed for the front door and was about to leave… and that would mean I’d be alone… again. I suddenly couldn’t stand the thought. Those feelings of pain and need I’d been feeling every time Lorcan left suddenly returned with a fierceness I hadn’t witnessed before. I sat up immediately and reached out for him. “Don’t leave, Lorcan, please. I can’t… I can’t bear it. Please stay.”

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise but approached me again. As soon as he was within reach, I gripped his hand and pulled him down beside me. He didn’t shrug me off, thank the stars. Instead, he eased down on the couch next to me and pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me as I settled in against him.

  “Wanda?” he started. “Are you okay?”

  He didn’t know what had been happening to me lately—how agonizing it was every time he left. I hadn’t told him because… because I was ashamed of the fact. I felt weak and I was afraid this sudden neediness on my part might push him away.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, shaking my head.

  “What’s… wrong? Why don’t you want me to leave?”

  I looked up at him. “Because every time you do, something happens to my body. It’s like a part of me is being ripped away. The pain and the loneliness are almost more than I can handle.”

  Lorcan wore his surprise and then swallowed hard. “Was that mentioned in Betanya’s journals?”

  I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t. And it only started happening a week or so ago.”

  He pulled me even closer to him and the anxiety pounding within me started to fade. He wrapped his arms more tightly around me and I spooned into the crook of his body, feeling his hard chest beneath his clothing.

  “If you prefer me not to leave, then I shall simply remain here,” he whispered as he drew a stray tendril of hair from my face, placing it behind my ear. I didn’t say anything, but closed my eyes against his chest.

  He was right here. He wouldn’t leave me. I wouldn’t have to feel the ache of his absence.

  He relaxed against the cushions as I swung my feet onto the couch and melted into him. I felt safe with Lorcan beside me. And all the cares that seemed to be piling onto me over the weeks and months, suddenly ceased to exist. They all melted away as if they never were.

  Just before I fell asleep, I felt Lorcan release me long enough to pull a blanket over the two of us, not that he needed it. Warmth filled the space underneath it and I let myself drift away to sweet oblivion.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I woke to morning sunshine slicing across my eyelids. Squinting at a thin crack of light peeking between my heavy, velvet living room curtains, lingering tension from last night’s extravaganza gave me a headache. But at least I wasn’t nauseous anymore.

  I checked my watch as I sat up. It was nine o’clock in the morning. For a second, I had a minor freak-out that I hadn’t gotten up in time to take Astrid to school. Then I remembered: today was Sunday and, glancing down the hallway, I could see that her bedroom door was still closed. I breathed a sigh of relief, not that I was in any danger of getting caught in flagrante delicto with Lorcan.

  Speaking of the vampire, he sat in the same position on the couch where he’d been when I fell asleep. Realizing the sun was up, my heart did a little flitter of worry until I realized the curtains were heavy enough to keep the majority of the sunlight off him. He’d be fine, but he wouldn’t be able to leave my house until the sun went down.

  Glancing over at him, I noticed his arm was still around my shoulder. At first I thought he was awake, owing to the fact that his eyes were open and he was staring straight ahead without blinking. But, no, he was undead to the world until the sun went down.

  Even though the curtains shaded the living room enough so the sunlight didn’t bother him, the sun would eventually move across the duplex and angle the sunbeam in his direction. And then I’d have a situation on my hands. Wanting to avoid said situation, I slipped off the couch and pulled the curtains closed the rest of the way.

  Looking back at Lorcan, I smiled at him for a moment and then draped the blanket over his head to give him some added protection. How sweet he was to guard me all night long so I could sleep in peace. Now it was my turn to return the favor.

  I sighed and turned away as the list of things I needed to accomplish today started to rain down on me. First, I had to switch into parent mode and make Astrid breakfast… I headed for the kitchen and was about to start my domestic activities when someone knocked on the front door.

  Instantly irritated, I wondered who could be up this early on a Sunday? And then figured the answer was fairly clear—Libby and Darla. No doubt, they wanted their ‘Wanda time’, as they termed it.

  I removed the security chain, trying to come up with an excuse as to why I couldn’t see them this morning. But, the instant I threw back the bolt on the front door and opened it, Bridezilla Gemma exploded into my house. She shocked me to such an extent that I was a half-second away from hexing her, merely in self-defense.

  But, luckily for her, I didn’t. Instead, she bulldozed into the living room, flung her wedding dress on an armchair as if it were a garbage bag full of rotting and stinking trash and rounded on me.

  “I want my money back!” she fumed.

  I glanced over at Lorcan. Her outburst hadn’t disturbed him—he just looked like a sheet ghost sitting on my couch. When I turned back to Gemma, I realized she hadn’t even noticed he was there. No, she was too concerned with me, at the moment. Glancing down the hall to Astrid’s room, I quickly and magically disabled her door from opening because I didn’t want her to witness what was probably going to amount to World War III.

  “How did you get my address?” I demanded, finding it highly alarming that she had.

  “I asked around in town and the owner of the creamery was only too happy to give it to me!” she yelled in response, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Damn Stanley. We’d have to have a little talk about this. But, apparently now wasn’t the time.

  “You cursed my dress!” Gemma railed. “You ruined my wedding and now Winston is on his way to Cancun with that slut Ronda… and it’s all your fault!”

  “I didn’t curse your dress,” I returned, starting to don my own inner bitch. Who did this brazen piece of work think she was, barging into my house and accusing me of ruining her wedding!

  “Oh, I’m more than sure all of this was your doing!”

  “If anyone ruined your wedding, you did it all on your own, simply by being the biggest raving bitch anyone has ever met!” I thundered at her as her eyes went wide because she apparently hadn’t expected me to fight back. Ha, little did she know… “Now get the hell out of my house before I call the police!”

  I started for the door to see her on her way, but she darted in front of me to block my path. “If anyone is calling the cops, it will be me! You defrauded me out of twenty thousand dollars on a cursed wedding dress when you were supposed to enchant it to make the wedding a success! Instead, my fiancé ran away with my maid of honor and my entire life was ruined!”

  I stiffened and narrowed my eyes. “I enchanted your dress exactly the way you said you wanted it enchanted, Gemma. Nothing more and nothing less.”

  “Then why did Winston run away with Ronda?”

  I shrugged. “The enchantments only strengthened whatever love already existed within Winston. Naturally, we both thought that love was towards you, but obviously it wasn’t. And that has nothing to do with me…”

  Gemma glared at me for a moment. Then, as suddenly as she burst in, she dissolved into a heaping sack of tears before my eyes. She walked further into the living room and then sank onto the couch next to Lorcan, burying her face in her hands, and howled her pain. I don’t know how it was possible, but I suddenly felt sorry for her.

  Haven Hollow and more specifically, Poppy Morton, were making me soft dammit.

  “He did have a thing for her!” Gemma wailed, still oblivious to Lorcan beside her. She gave him a sidelong glance but didn’t seem to register that there was a large and cylindrical shape covered with a blanket beside her. “They were high school sweethearts, but their relationship fizzled when Winston went to college and met me.”

  “I know… you already told me, remember?”

  She looked up at me and frowned. “What do you mean, I already told you?”

  It was my turn to frown. “When you came to pick up your dress after the final fitting… You told me about their relationship then.”

  She was quiet for a moment as her eyebrows knitted in the middle of her face and then her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? I never came to pick up my dress.”

  I studied her for a second or two as I tried to make sense of her words. “Um, you were in my shop a day or so ago, Gemma…”

  “No,” she insisted, getting angry again as she folded her arms across her chest. “Ronda’s mother came to pick up my dress because I was dealing with a catastrophe at the hotel.”

  It took me a second to fully understand what she was saying. Ronda’s mother had come to pick up the dress? But, that didn’t make any sense. And then I remembered how Gemma had been acting like a completely different person and she’d been so insistent about my attending her wedding…

  Oh my Goddess, I thought to myself. If what Gemma is saying is true, that means Ronda’s mother somehow magicked herself to look like Gemma!

  My mind was racing and it was at that moment that I realized Gemma was looking at me like I was certifiable. I laughed and then took a deep breath, wanting to pass the whole thing off as confusion. I was convinced the less Gemma really knew, the better. “Oh, that’s right, Ronda’s mother came to pick up your dress… I must have gotten confused because you all came to the store so many times. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry you should be!” she railed at me, her sadness now overcome with anger again.

  I glanced over at the dress. Brown and greenish stains marred the jeweled neckline and the tucked front. Had she puked on it? I wasn’t sure and didn’t really want to find out.

  “Yesterday was the worst day of my life and it should have been the happiest!”

  “Look, Gemma…”

  She rocketed to her feet and jabbed her forefinger at me again, her tears giving way to her angry vitriol all over again. “You did this! You cursed me!”

  “I didn’t curse you! As I told you before, the enchantments I placed on your dress did exactly what you wanted them to do—they ensured Winston’s fidelity and love for the woman of his heart. It wasn’t my fault that woman was Ronda!”

  “Putting the topic of enchantments aside,” she started, taking a deep breath. “How do you explain the fact that everyone got sick? I suppose you’re going to say you had nothing to do with that either or are you going to pretend you didn’t see everyone puking everywhere?”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with any of that!” I answered, even though that was a mystery I still wanted to solve.

  “I don’t want to hear it! I’ll be contacting a lawyer to sue you for everything you’re worth, which probably isn’t much.” She cast a withering sneer around my house, before bringing her gaze back to me. Bridezilla was back with a vengeance and now she had the whole woman-scorned shtick going for her, too.

  Great.

  Before I could come up with a suitably cutting retort, she turned around and marched to the front door, opening it and then slammed it hard enough to rattle the windows. The next minute, the sound of tires screeching met my ears, growing fainter as the seconds elapsed.

  I stood stunned into silence. Sued? I was getting sued? How had this happened? And furthermore, I had a feeling Ronda’s mother had something to do with it. If what Gemma was saying was true (and I intended to use magic to find out), how was it possible that Ronda’s mother had taken the form of Gemma? And why would she have done such a thing? Just to insist I go to the wedding? But, why would she have wanted me to go so badly? To witness the absolute shambles that resulted? Furthermore, what was she? If she was able to take the image of Gemma, she obviously possessed magic, just like I’d originally believed. But, was she a witch? I still didn’t think so. A witch would have been able to pull off a shape-changing spell, yes, but I was still fairly sure the old woman wasn’t a witch. The only other creature who could have pulled off such a stunt would have been a shapeshifter…

  She’s a shapeshifter! I yelled to myself. Ronda’s mother must be a shapeshifter which explains why I felt her magic when I first met her.

  And it would also explain why I hadn’t felt any magic coming from Ronda—shapeshifters didn’t always pass their magical genes to their offspring.

  Thank the goddess Hellcat wasn’t here or I’d never hear the end of it—of what a failure I was and how I’d never be able to function on my own.

  The sound of Astrid’s bedroom door creaking open broke my attention. As I looked up, she stole a frightened peek into the living room. When she saw the coast was clear, she tiptoed into the hallway and cast a sidelong glance toward the front door.

  “Why wouldn’t my door open?” she asked as soon as she reached me.

  I shrugged. “I didn’t want you to witness what just happened.”

  “And what did just happen?”

  “Gemma McClain, the crowning example of all bridezillas, just happened. You’re lucky you missed her.”

  “Why was she here?”

  “To claim I ruined her wedding… and on that account, I’m going to perform a true account spell and I could use your help, Astrid.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, I’d love to help!”

  ***

  Ten minutes later, Astrid and I were standing in the graveyard behind the duplex. The sun beat down on us, reflecting yellow rays in the large bowl of water I’d placed on the ground in front of me for scrying purposes.

  Probably owing to Gemma’s less than quiet appearance, Libby and Darla had emerged from their side of the duplex to make sure I was okay, because they’d heard shouting. Now the four of us stood in the graveyard, Libby worrying her apron between her fingers.

  “What if your magic goes awry, Wanda?” she asked.

  “Then I’ll just end up making another zombie, like I did with you,” I answered, not bothering to face her. Instead, I continued looking straight at Astrid as we both held hands and formed a circle around one of the tombstones. This particular tombstone belonged to some guy named Thomas Mantle who had died in 1852. It wasn’t that Thomas’s grave was pertinent to this spell—I just needed a body to help bring my death magic to the fore and give me the answers I wanted. And right now, I was eager to find out if Ronda’s mother had truly taken the form of Gemma that day in my store.

  “The last thing I want is another stiff in the house!” Darla sang out.

  I turned to glare at both of them. They were the worst sort of peanut gallery. “Darla and Libby, I need total silence.”

  “You got it, doll!” Darla called back. Libby just continued fretting, as she was wont to do.

  “Okay, Astrid, don’t break the circle.”

  “I won’t,” she said with a quick nod.

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, turning my face to the sky. “Great Goddess of the earth and the heavens above, unveil the truth and lies dispose of. As I will it, so mote it be.”

  I could feel the energy flowing between Astrid and me and when I opened my eyes, I could see the flare of blue light that ran up and down our arms.

  “So mote it be,” Astrid and I said together. We repeated the command another three times before the blue energy traveled from our arms into a line down to the bowl of water below us, sitting atop the grave. As I glanced down, I watched the water begin to shift, as though someone were moving the bowl. Soon the water grew opaque, looking like milk had been dropped into it.

  A split second later, I could see the image of the inside of my store. And in the vision, I was standing behind the desk, wearing the same black cashmere sweater and red pencil skirt I’d been wearing a few days ago. The bell over the door jingled and a woman entered.

  “I just came to pick up my dress and to make sure you got your wedding invitation. Ronda was supposed to drop it off,” she said in Gemma’s voice.

  As I watched, the scene when Gemma came to pick up her dress replayed. Everything we’d said to each other was reproduced in the images in the water. The only difference? It was Ronda’s mother, not Gemma, who stood before me.