Lorcan looked at me. “That escalated quickly.”

  “Now this is worth the ticket to the show,” Hellcat said as he lifted one paw, giving the back of it a dainty lick.

  “I am so not in zee happy camp!” Olga yelled.

  Taliyah raised her hands like she was trying to calm a spooked horse. “Okay, I’m sure there’s an explanation.”

  “An explanation?” Olga nearly erupted at the police chief. “Ya! I know ze explanation, faerie queen!” Olga jabbed a finger at Betanya. “She ist jealous of mein bubby-bubby!”

  Betanya’s nostrils flared. “I beg your pardon?”

  “If someone says that word one more time, I’m going to cut out my own eardrums,” Maverick said, shaking his head.

  Olga’s chin tipped up, her smeared makeup decorating her cheeks like war paint. “You should be zee punished for stealing zomezing zat did not belong to you!”

  Power crackled on the air then, magic building along with the tension. Fights happened in covens. You put a bunch of powerful, stubborn women in one place, and eventually someone’s going to scrap. Usually, it was the younger witches being petty, firing hexes at each other over things that ranged from embarrassing to dangerous. Adult witches tended to stick to formal dueling, as a way to cut back on the potential property damage.

  Both Betanya and Olga were, supposedly, mature witches, and while Betanya was no longer a Blood Witch, she still packed one spell of a punch. And Olga was no one to scoff at either. Translated, that meant the house didn’t have good odds if they started duking it out. And what was more, I didn’t have the blasted time for this.

  I put myself between them, the hair on my arms standing straight on end with the charge and crackle in the air. “Okay, that’s enough. Stop, before this gets even more out of hand.”

  Yew poked his head around the corner, whiskers twitching. “What is going on in here?”

  The fur along his spine bristling, Hellcat hissed. “Ugh, the rodent! Why is he still here? Or are you the one responsible for shifting the box, eh? Thinking of making a little nest for yourself?”

  Willie-Ray, Betanya’s familiar, rolled up the non-existent sleeves on his flannel shirt, his tail twitching in an alarming way as he faced the rat. “Summabitch.”

  Yew chittered angrily at Hellcat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I just heard yelling. What box?”

  “Zis box!” Olga clutched her letters to her ample chest like she was shielding a baby. “She stole zem!” Then she turned her angry expression to Betanya again, and I wondered how in the world I’d ended up peacemaker in this most ridiculous situation. Furthermore, it did seem as if everyone was on edge—I’d never seen Olga acting like this and I’d never seen Betanya so fired up in return.

  Betanya’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, and something in the air crackled like lightning about to strike. “Point your finger at me again, Olga, and I’ll hex it off.”

  Franz chittered, furious and high pitched. He jumped around making gestures with his creepy paw hands, and I had no idea if his gestures were supposed to be rude or some kind of magical warding.

  My head pounded, feeling like someone was playing the maracas in the back of my skull. I pinched my nose, trying to relieve some of the tension. “Yew, you hang around in the upper hall, right?”

  He lived inside the walls, really. “Yeah.”

  “Did you see anyone come in or out of the bedrooms tonight?”

  The rat familiar didn’t look happy, his long yellow teeth on display as he crossed his arms against his chest. “I didn’t see anyone, no.”

  “She could have taken zem earlier ven I vasn’t vatching,” Olga insisted. I had to admit I was surprised because as far as I knew, Olga and Betanya came the closest to being friends as witches were capable of being. At least, it seemed like they spent the majority of their time together and they were closest in age, as well. So to see Olga pointing a literal finger at Betanya was something I hadn’t expected.

  “Well, seeing as how no one here is going to feed me,” Hellcat started as he frowned at everyone in the room, “I’m leaving.” Then he stalked out of the room and vanished with another flick of his tail.

  Yew hissed at him as he passed before pinning me with a beady glare.

  “What’s your problem?” I demanded, having had about enough of everyone’s problems this evening.

  “I came here with hopes of attaching to a witch again. Not to live in the walls and wait until a shapeshifting mannequin with no magic comes of age. And I didn’t come here to get drawn into whatever your coven’s drama is, either.”

  With that, he turned and vanished with a flick of his pink tail.

  Olga flounced out of the room, her letters clutched to her chest and Franz trailing after her. Taliyah followed, with Maverick at her heels.

  “Well, that went well,” he snarked at me as he passed, and I choked back the urge to hex him.

  “I,” Betanya said in a cold, overly enunciated voice as she faced me, “am not a thief. As if I give a tossed toadstool for a bunch of pathetic love notes and old, yellowed underwear!”

  “Oh, Goddess,” I groaned at that last part. Then I took a deep breath as I faced her. “I know that.” My head throbbed, sending another spike of pain up the back of my skull. “I think Olga knows it too, but she’s just being difficult. We’ll figure it all out.”

  “I hope so.” She shut her door in my face, leaving me out in the empty hall with Lorcan and Yule. The dog whimpered once.

  “Well, my work here is done,” I said to Lorcan with a frown as I turned to face him. His grin was the only thing that made me feel even slightly better.

  A cool hand settled on the back of my neck, the chill chasing away some of the tension and pain, and I sighed as I leaned into it.

  “Well, that was something. I don’t know quite what it was, but it was something,” he chuckled.

  I cracked my eye open to glare at him. “More neck massage, less chatter.”

  I felt the vibration of his soft laughter through his hand, and more of the tension there eased.

  All the while though, I couldn’t get my mind off what I’d just witnessed. It was like the entire coven had come unhinged. What the spell was going on? There was no way Betanya would take something from Olga, especially not sappy love letters, of all things. Which meant someone had found them, took them, and hid them in Betanya’s room for the very purpose of causing a fight between the two. But who would do that?

  Hellcat, while guilty of annoying everyone, had too high an opinion of himself to dirty his paws with theft. Yew? Possibly, I supposed. I didn’t know him very well, but he seemed genuinely confused by Hellcat’s accusation. Besides, while Yew was twice the size of a normal rat, common among the smaller species of familiars, that had been a pretty big box for him to have moved around on his own without anyone noticing.

  Ugh, this was all too stupid for words.

  And it had to go down at the exact time when I was trying to coax a new member into our coven.

  “This is all so completely, totally and fully stupid,” I said, shaking my head.

  Lorcan stepped closer, and I felt the feathery brush of his lips against the fine hair on my temple.

  “Want me to take your mind off it, Sweetling? Maybe go somewhere a little more private, where other people’s troubles won’t bother us for a few hours?”

  I leaned into his touch, my heart fluttering even as some of the tension seeped out of my shoulders. His offer sounded extremely good, but I couldn’t let Lorcan think I was going soft, so I made a little considering hum in my throat.

  “I suppose. I don’t really have anything else going on.”

  His laughter rumbled through his chest and into mine, finally drawing a smile out of me.

  “Come on, little bubby-bubby and let your hubby-hubby help ease your tension,” Lorcan ground out as I shook my head and couldn’t keep the laugh from coming out.

  “Let’s get the spell out of here and go home,” I said breathlessly.

  “Wiser words have never been spoken.”

  Chapter Six

  I shoved Lorcan back against the couch cushions and swung my leg over his hips.

  He fell back with a laugh, his hands sliding up the backs of my thighs to help brace me.

  “Well, Sweetling,” he said, a little glint in his eyes. “Just what did you have in mind for the evening?”

  “Shut up,” I answered, my voice poisonously sweet. Then I crushed our mouths together, and ran the tip of my tongue over the sharpened edges of his teeth.

  Lorcan groaned into my mouth, his hands clamping down on my thighs as he arched up underneath me, grinding us together.

  This, this was what I wanted. Needed. I didn’t want to think about all the problems waiting for me to deal with. I didn’t want to think about missing love letters or worry about the infighting of members of my coven, or scaring off new members.

  I just wanted to feel Lorcan’s skin under my hands, the press of his tongue in my mouth, the strength of his body. I wanted to drown myself in the moment, and just stop thinking altogether.

  “Let me look at you, my beauty.” Lorcan gently pushed my dark hair out of my face, tucking it back behind my ear.

  “Look later,” I said, my breath coming in sharp bursts. I gave a little impatient roll of my hips, urging him to get on with it. No more talking, just doing.

  Lorcan growled low in his chest, and it drew a shiver up my spine. The hand still on my thigh clamped down, the other moved to my hip, and with a shockingly powerful move, he managed to flip us over, without either of us falling off the couch.

  I huffed out a little breath as my head came down on the pillows. Whatever. I didn’t care what position we were in, I just wanted him inside me and pronto.

  Lorcan’s smug little smile stuttered into a quick inhale when I reached out and yanked his shirt open. A button went flying off to plink against the mantle, but I didn’t care. Yes, his shirt probably cost more than my store but, no, I still didn’t care.

  Lorcan laughed, the light of the fire making his pale skin glow gold, and casting his face into stark shadow. But I could still make out the brilliant green of his eyes, and the white flash of his teeth when he leaned back to look at me.

  “A little impatient, are we?” He leaned forward then, nipping lightly at my earlobe.

  “I’m sorry, have we not met?” People could accuse me of a lot of things. Being overly patient wasn’t one of them. I bucked my hips up. “Now stop talking.”

  I was half expecting another teasing laugh, but instead Lorcan leaned down so quickly, I could barely follow the movement. He kissed me hard, crushing our mouths together as his hands gripped my hips, lifting me up, pressing forward.

  I almost groaned around the hot, perfect slide of his tongue against mine. All I could think was finally as I ran my hands down the hard planes of his chest, over his ribs, and his back.

  My skin tingled as he ran his tongue over the vulnerable curve of my throat. My head fell back, my eyes fluttering shut as heat pooled, needy and hot in my belly.

  “I can’t get enough of you.” Lorcan pressed a searing kiss over the leaping pulse in my throat. “No magic. No bond. Just you.”

  I gripped Lorcan’s hair and yanked his face back to mine. My skin felt swollen, hot, and tight. I needed this, so badly. Needed him. More than I’d ever admit out loud, even held at hex point.

  I reached for the waistband of his slacks, ready to shove them down and away like they’d offended me.

  Lorcan’s big hand hooked my leg, dragging my knee up his ribs. I nipped at his lower lip, urging him on. I could barely think around the slamming pulse echoing through my body.

  And then someone knocked on the door.

  We paused for a second, our heads tilting towards the front hall.

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” I managed.

  Lorcan looked at me and shook his head. “Let’s just ignore it. Pretend we aren’t home.”

  His hand slid up my thigh, his fingers leaving cool trails along my burning flesh.

  And the knock came again.

  Well, ‘knock’ was probably the wrong word.

  A knock is a little tap against a door, a polite request for entrance. What was happening at the door in this instance was more like pounding—like someone ramming something against the wood. Three raps that shook the door in its frame, impossible to ignore, though I seriously considered it.

  Lorcan muttered a blistering curse that, normally, I would have been impressed by. But it was hard to be impressed by anything at the moment, especially when it was quickly becoming clear that I wasn’t going to be getting what I wanted, at least not any time soon. So, I sat up and glared at the door while I fixed my skirt, and Lorcan shrugged his clothing more or less back into place, minus the one button on his shirt.

  “Someone had better be dead,” Lorcan grumbled as he wrenched the door open.

  Taliyah stood on the door step, her fist raised to knock again. Maverick stood just a step behind her.

  She hadn’t bothered with her glamor to come and see us, either because it was late, or because she was here on supernatural business. Either way, I wasn’t pleased to see either one of them.

  Her silver hair was twisted back into a knot at the nape of her neck, rather than spilling down to her hips. Taliyah’s ears came to ever so slight points, all the lines around her eyes and mouth smoothed away. Her skin glowed like fine porcelain, and she brought an aura of chilly power with her, bright and refreshing and smelling like distant snow.

  She looked like she should be wearing a ballgown of moonbeams and hoarfrost, not a wrinkled blazer and slacks with her badge clipped to her belt.

  “What do you want?” I grouched as I stood up, smoothing my hair back from my face. “And it better be good.”

  The last time Maverick had come barging in in the middle of the night, it had been to ask me to perform a wedding as the High Witch of our Coven. Taliyah’s magic had reacted in an interesting way, binding them together with more than just words. It was something that Maverick might have to deal with at some point, but that seemed like a ‘him’ problem.

  “Mr. Rowe, I’m sorry to disturb you at home, but I need you to answer a few questions for me.”

  Mr. Rowe? So, this was a formal matter... Taliyah was here as the Chief of Police of Haven Hollow. What the spell was going on?

  Lorcan’s brows slowly crept up his forehead. “Taliyah, we saw each other just over an hour ago—no need for the formality.”

  “Okay, I need you to answer a few questions for me.”

  I frowned. “What exactly is going on?”

  Taliyah didn’t answer, just stepped into the front hall with Maverick close on her heels like a lanky, brooding shadow. The door closed behind them.

  “And in the time since we parted ways, can I ask you where you’ve been?” she continued, staring at Lorcan who just blinked at her, a hint of annoyance creeping into his expression.

  “I’ve been... busy.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at them both. “Not busy enough.”

  That had Maverick rolling his eyes, but Taliyah didn’t react other than a little twitch in her cheek.

  “I don’t want to ask again—what is going on?” I demanded.

  “A tourist was admitted to the hospital a short time ago,” Taliyah answered, as she spared a glance between us both.

  “Okay, and?” I asked.

  “A man was found collapsed in the street, suffering from blood loss, and a bite to his throat. The doctors say it looked like a dog bite, but I’m not convinced.” Taliyah shifted her weight, her hands braced on her belt. “I’m speaking to all the vampires in town, to see if they have any information on what might have happened to this person.”

  Of course, I’d always known Lorcan was a vampire. I mean, during our first meeting when I was nearly dead, he gave me his blood. But even with the blood, and the daylight restrictions, and all the other stuff, sometimes I still let it slip my mind. Because Lorcan was generally as intimidating as an overly affectionate Golden Retriever.

  But then, every once in a while, something would shift. Something would change. Just the smallest movement, or a different expression, and I’d be smacked in the face with a reminder that, oh, right, Lorcan was a predator.

  It happened right then, in the front hall of the home we shared.

  Lorcan’s face tightened, his brows pulling down into a heavy line over his eyes. His jaw clenched, shoulders moving forward in a way that had several centuries of genetic memory start reaching for a protective spell.

  Taliyah felt it too and tensed. So did Maverick, and he stepped in front of her, pulling his hands out of his pockets, ready to cast.

  “There must be some type of misunderstanding, Chief Morgan?” Lorcan’s upper lip peeled off his teeth. It should have been a sneer, but somehow it just looked like a wolf flashing its fangs.

  “No misunderstanding.”

  “Then are you accusing me of ripping some poor lad’s throat open?” he continued, and didn’t allow her to respond. “I’m over two hundred years old. That means I don’t lose control. I don’t go around attacking strangers like a feral animal.”

  “I’m not accusing you of anything. Merely asking the question.” Taliyah sighed, and a good deal of tension eased back out of the room. “William and Amos said the same. Though they were less... polite about it.” I wasn’t sure if she was being facetious or not, but I also really didn’t care.

  “If that is all?” Lorcan asked, his left eyebrow arching up.

  She shook her head, and Police Chief Morgan dropped away, leaving only Taliyah looking tired. “It’s not personal, Lorcan. I had to talk to all the vampires in town, to see if they knew anything. You don’t want a rogue vampire feeding on people in the streets anymore than I do.”

  Lorcan unbent enough to nod. “Of course—that is quite correct. Take care out there, Chief Morgan.”

  Taliyah nodded to him, and to me. Maverick followed behind her when she left.

  Lorcan stood by the door for a few seconds, his hands clenching into fists and relaxing again rhythmically.