“I know but,” I started before he interrupted me.

  “Yeah, sure, let’s grab dinner. You wanna tell Roy and I’ll let Pops know?”

  I felt a stab of disappointment but then figured he just didn’t understand that I was asking him out… on a date… and not as a friend. I figured this was one instance where I’d have to be a bit… clearer. Marty could be a little bit… dense sometimes. I took a deep breath and couldn’t hold his gaze—this was just… too embarrassing. “Oh, well… I sort of meant… I mean, I kind of was thinking maybe the two of us could just go?”

  “Alone?”

  “Well, only if you want to,” I added, feeling my heart pounding against my chest as my breathing hitched, and this time I wished Dorothy would drop her house on me.

  “Oh, sure,” he said hesitantly as he considered it. “We could do that.”

  “Do you want to just text me?” I asked, wishing I hadn’t put my foot in my mouth by asking him out because he clearly appeared… taken aback. Maybe I’d misread his interest? Maybe he did just want to be my friend?

  “Sure, I’ll do that,” he said and then bee-lined for my office door. He turned around once he reached it, gave me a big smile and waved, then disappeared into the hallway as I sunk into my desk chair and wondered if this day could get any worse.

  Chapter Ten

  My meeting with Darragh came all too quickly. My nerves were still in a bunch as I arrived at the graveyard and watched the sun disappear over the numerous tombstones. As was customary with supernatural creatures, I was meeting Darragh at night—when he was active.

  I’d arrived a little early and now willed myself to remain the picture of professionalism as I faced the entrance to Hollow Cemetery. I could see Poppy’s house in the distance and as soon as I did, a feeling of guilt welled up within me.

  Whatever happened between you and Roy is a thing of the past and it will never happen again, so you don’t have to feel bad about Poppy, I reminded myself. You didn’t mean anything by it and feeding from him was simply a means to an end. And that was all it was. Besides, you need to focus on this sale!

  And I was right. I needed to project confidence if I was going to interest Darragh in purchasing this plot. Not to mention, I needed this sale desperately. I had to show my employees, especially my brother, that Hallowed Homes would succeed. Not only succeed, but that it would thrive under my new sales model.

  As much as I was anxious about not being able to pull this sale off successfully, I was equally as nervous about the possibility of running into Poppy, either during or after the tour of the tomb since her house was so close.

  And if that did happen, how would I ever keep my guilt to myself, especially coming face-to-face with her? I was a terrible liar, and that meant I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from telling her what had happened with Roy.

  And what then? I asked myself. What if she thinks you broke girl code and hates you forever? What if she thinks you’re a horrible friend?

  It was a thought I couldn’t even stomach because I cared about Poppy and I cared about her friendship. And at the realization that I could have threatened that friendship, that I could have possibly broken it by kissing her ex-boyfriend… the shame was almost enough to do me in right there.

  Then, there was the matter of Marty. Could it have been true what Roy had said—that Marty was crazy about Poppy? I mean, on the surface, of course it could be true, because really, why wouldn’t he be crazy about her? They were already good friends, and she was as adorable as adorable could be, so why wouldn’t he have the hots for her?

  But, if he did have the hots for her, did she know about it? And did she feel the same? The thought made me sick to my stomach. I’d just… I’d had a crush on Marty for quite a while now, and the possibility that nothing would ever happen between us was almost too much to face. And yet, when he’d come to my office to give me that strange gift, he’d seemed… interested, hadn’t he? Or had he? Hmm, I wasn’t really sure. Marty was a hard one to read.

  What’s the point of wishing there was something between the two of you, anyway? I asked myself. You’re a demon and he’s a human.

  Of course, I was aware that I could kill Marty with my succubus powers if I ever fed from him, but that was only if I was careless. I’d dated human men before and I’d managed not to do any of them harm… so there was always the possibility that I could figure things out with Marty.

  My mind drifted back to the kiss I’d shared with Roy. It had been rattling around in my brain since it happened and no matter how many times I tried to force it back into the closet with all my other shameful memories, it wouldn’t go willingly. I was sure it was just the succubus acting up, wanting more of him.

  It had been a long time since anyone had satisfied my hunger, a long time since I’d let anyone satisfy it and no one had ever come so close with nothing more than a kiss. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have Roy as my lover. I suspected I’d hardly need to feed from him at all, at least not on a constant basis.

  Furthermore, if Roy were my lover, I’d probably feel almost human most of the time—a thought I could barely wrap my brain around because it just seemed so impossible. For the last five years, I hadn’t felt like myself. Sure, I’d put up appearances, pretended to be happy, when the truth was that I knew my body was suffering—that I was suffering. But, really, how could I not suffer when I required sex in order to function properly? And now, at the thought that feeling vibrant and healthy was just a lover away, I felt a strange sense of hope swell within me.

  But, just as quickly as the thoughts bounced into my head, I forced them out again. It did no good to think about things that couldn’t be. Lusting after Roy was stupid, because he clearly wasn’t over Poppy, he wasn’t interested in me and I wasn’t interested in him! Furthermore, I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize my friendship with Poppy or with him.

  If you haven’t already jeopardized both friendships by forcing yourself on him.

  I took a deep breath and refocused my thoughts as I stepped out of the 4Runner and did my best to focus on this meeting, and not on the expression of shock that had been in Roy’s eyes after I’d kissed him. Demons below, I’d made a fool of myself!

  As I walked through the wrought iron gates that stood at the mouth of the graveyard, under the sign which proclaimed it to be: Hollow Cemetery, I immediately noted it was oddly quiet tonight. There were no animals stirring and the hum of insects was strangely absent. Even the wind, itself, which had ruffled the hemline of my blouse when I’d stepped out of the SUV, was now nowhere to be found. Instead, the air was stagnant. And even with the moon proudly glowing from the night sky, it still seemed unnaturally dark.

  There was also an odd scent in the air and the scent stopped me dead in my tracks. I turned around, inhaling deeply as I took in all the tombstones that lay scattered around me. The smell hung heavy and hinted at something vaguely rotten. When I turned around and faced forward again, the scent seemed to dissipate. I took a few steps along the rocky path that wove between the graves, and the scent hit me full-force again. And yet, I couldn’t determine where it was coming from.

  The darkness and the rotting air made the cemetery even creepier than it otherwise appeared and I hoped Darragh wouldn’t keep me waiting long. As far as I could tell, I was the only one here. There hadn’t been any vehicles in the parking lot and as I turned around to face my surroundings now, all that greeted me were the outlines of the tombstones. I wasn’t one to spook easily, but I had goosebumps. I glanced up at the moon to find it hidden behind the clouds, giving the whole place an even more sinister and gloomy feel.

  I wanted to laugh at myself because how could someone who chose to do business with monsters be so skittish? It was ridiculous. Not only that, but I was a demoness—I should have felt at home with the dark and the things that lived in it. Angelo wouldn’t have been afraid, that much was certain. Still, a shiver ran down my spine as I made my way through the graveyard toward the tomb in question, still feeling more than a bit out of sorts.

  It’s just nerves, I told myself.

  I heard a sound off to my right and with my heart in my throat, immediately turned in that direction, but there was nothing there.

  “Darragh? Are you here?”

  When there was no response, I faced forward again, keeping my eyes glued to the shape of the tomb that was maybe twenty feet from me. Everything was still so eerily quiet—the whole scene was unsettling. At least that awful odor was now completely gone.

  I walked toward the tomb, and noticed with a sense of forlorn dismay that the door was already open. I had to wonder if Darragh and Cranough had arrived early and viewed the tomb without me. For all I knew, maybe they were still inside it. I stuck my head in, but didn’t see anyone. In fact, it didn’t look like the space had been disturbed since I was last here, other than the door being open.

  So, where was the grim and his elf proxy?

  Maybe they’re just running late...

  Hoping such was the case, I stepped away from the door and then walked toward the back of the tomb to get a better look across the rest of the cemetery. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness when the moon finally decided to slip out from behind the clouds and cast milky rays of light around the place, throwing strange shadows as it did so. Regardless, I could finally see more than an inch or two in front of me.

  As I walked around the back of the crypt, I called out again to let Darragh know I was there, in case he hadn’t heard me before, but there was still no answer. And the burgeoning sense of concern I’d felt earlier started to grow until it became an all-out worry. A few more steps and I stopped in my tracks, unable to go any further.

  My heart rode up into my throat and my breathing stopped as I stood there, transfixed—both shocked and in denial at what I was seeing—unable to process the scene before me.

  It was a body.

  And not just any body.

  “Oh, no,” I finally gasped, feeling the air returning to my lungs as I took a deep breath and felt like I was going to pass out. Part of me wanted to run, but the other part wanted to find out just who this body was.

  It was sprawled face down in the dirt, arms extended out to its sides. The hair was mussed, but long and dark orange. On autopilot, I bent down and touched it, hoping whoever this was might still be warm—that there might still be life left in there somewhere. But, the corpse was as cold as the unforgiving earth beneath it. I took another deep breath, my heart pounding in my chest and rolled the body over and I immediately recognized Cranough the elf, Darragh’s proxy. His unseeing eyes were wide orbs of white in his face and there was an expression of shock on his mouth.

  Beside him was what appeared to be some sort of puddling dark stain, like an oil slick. I stood up and tried to step around the puddle as I inspected it, all the while dawning realization spread through me.

  When a grim perished, it didn’t leave behind a body. It left behind an oily residue of its former self—the same oily residue I was looking at now. That meant both Darragh and his employee were… dead.

  I gasped as the next thought to hit me was who in the world could have done this and, furthermore, were they still here? I decided not to find out. Instead, I made a hasty retreat back through the cemetery and to the 4Runner. Throwing open the door, I seated myself behind the wheel and immediately locked myself inside. Then I fought to catch my breath and talked myself out of bursting into a fit of tears. Tears weren’t going to help me right now.

  Instead, I pulled out my cell phone from inside my purse and dialed Taliyah Morgan, the new chief of police in Haven Hollow.

  I felt the seconds tick by as the phone rang and rang and rang. When someone finally answered, I was so out of it, I wasn’t even sure what they’d said or whether I’d even dialed the right number.

  “I need to… I need to speak to Chief Morgan,” I somehow managed.

  “Who is calling?” the man responded.

  “This is Seraphina Stenham,” I replied.

  “Fifi from the Half-Moon?”

  “Right,” I answered, barely even cognizant of the conversation.

  “I haven’t seen you working there in… at least two weeks? You got yourself another gig somewhere else?”

  “Um… yeah,” I managed, wishing the guy would just hand the phone over to Taliyah because I could barely think, let alone speak.

  “So, what can I help you with?” he continued, not bothering to identify himself. Obviously, he thought I’d recognize his voice. I didn’t.

  “I… I need to speak to Taliyah,” I said again, switching to her first name in hopes he’d think it was a personal call, but when he hesitated, I decided to make it obvious. “It’s personal and it’s important.”

  “Hold on a second.”

  I heard a clicking noise and was afraid he’d hung up on me, but then I heard a trilling sound as the line was transferred.

  “This is Sheriff Morgan,” Taliyah said as she picked up.

  I didn’t know what to say, and remained quiet for a few seconds.

  “Hello?”

  “I…” I started, my voice suddenly refusing to comply. “I… need to report a double homicide.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “What is she doing?” I whispered, nervously.

  “Pacing,” Roy replied.

  He, Poppy, and Marty had joined me at the police precinct where we were currently watching Taliyah walk back and forth, behind the glass walls of her office, speaking on the phone to someone.

  It had been over three hours since I’d called in the double murder, and Taliyah had summoned me to the station. As soon as I’d gotten off the phone with Taliyah, I’d needed to talk to someone and noticing Poppy’s house in the distance, I’d practically knocked her door down in my haste to speak with her.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised (owing to what Roy had said) to find that Marty was at her house too, about to sit down to dinner with Poppy and her son, Finn. Upon seeing me, I’m not sure which of us was more tongue-tied, Marty or me. But, I was fairly sure we both were the same shade of red.

  Regardless, I was too discombobulated after discovering Darragh and Cranough were dead to feel jealous that Marty was visiting Poppy or to worry about coming face to face with Poppy after my kiss with Roy. Instead, I was just frantic to talk to someone. And, as was her way, Poppy immediately invited me in and as soon as I told her what happened (in the midst of a bout of tears), she gathered me into her arms and crooned into my ear that everything would be okay.

  I wasn’t sure when Roy had come into the picture—if Poppy had called him or if he’d called her. Either way, it was maybe thirty minutes later that I was sitting in Poppy’s kitchen, nursing a cup of ‘Calming Tea’, when Roy came striding through her front door.

  And when he’d seen Marty, he hadn’t looked happy.

  Luckily, everyone kept their disgruntled feelings to themselves, all of us focused on the larger context—that being the death of Darragh and his representative. After Marty had called to ask RJ and Henner to watch Finn and they’d agreed, the rest of us had headed to the precinct.

  “She’s fading,” Poppy observed, from where she sat beside me, on one of the benches in the hall outside Taliyah’s office. Marty sat on her other side. Roy, meanwhile, was doing a good job imitating Taliyah’s pacing.

  “Fading?” I repeated.

  Poppy nodded. “Her hair used to be a rich sandy brown. Now, it’s going silver.”

  Taliyah was probably close to my age, but an inch or so taller. She was leggy, but her police uniform didn’t accentuate her hourglass figure very well. Just like Poppy had mentioned, at one point Taliyah had sandy brown hair artfully streaked with silver in places—and that silver had pretty much taken over now. Her eyes were sky blue, large with a fringe of long lashes and eyebrows that seemed naturally arching and narrow. Her doe eyes, pert nose and full lips were set in a delicate triangular face. She was definitely pretty and then some. But, she had the personality of a crocodile.

  “Lots of people in stressful jobs get gray hair early,” Marty replied with a shrug.

  I smiled at him as I thought to myself how hopelessly human he was sometimes, despite knowing the truth about Haven Hollow and its monster inhabitants. Stress had nothing to do with why Taliyah was getting that silvery sheen to her hair. No, the silver hair was owing to the fact that she was heir to the throne of the Faerie Court of Winter. A powerful memory charm prevented her from remembering who she was. But, that memory charm was losing its strength with each passing day and the truth was making itself known little by little.

  “The silver in her hair has nothing to do with Taliyah’s stressful job,” Poppy said with a little laugh as Marty gave her an expression that begged explanation. “She’s heir to the throne of Winter, remember?”

  “Ah, that’s right,” he answered with a quick nod. “But what does that have to do with gray hair?”

  “It’s not gray, it’s silver,” I corrected him, but he didn’t even look at me. Instead, it was like he was transfixed by Poppy, as though he couldn’t pull his attention away from her. And that realization weighed me down even more than I already was. Roy was right—Marty was head over heels for Poppy. I just didn’t understand why I hadn’t seen it before.

  Why hadn’t I seen it before?

  I wasn’t the only one who noticed either. When I looked up, I found Roy’s attention fully focused on the two of them, and his jaw was tight.

  “Hmm, you think I’ll find out I have some supernatural heritage?” Marty asked Poppy with a beaming smile.

  “No,” Roy replied flatly. If he were a woman, I might have called his tone “catty”. I glanced in his direction, one eyebrow raised, and he smiled at me sheepishly.

  “I don’t know,” I started, returning my attention to Taliyah. “She could be stressed out. Don’t forget, she’s new to all this and still trying to wrap her head around the strangeness of Haven Hollow. Until recently, she probably thought supernatural creatures were just things in her nightmares.”