Walking up to the door, I yanked my phone out from my purse, looked up the code and entered it. To my undying relief, the door beeped twice and then I pulled it open. Bolting through the door, I was stopped dead in my tracks by an odd sight. Angelo was standing in the middle of the lobby, maybe fifty feet away, with what looked like a couple dozen gnomes cowering behind him. Approaching from the other side of them was Ramona, her back to us.

  “Step away from the little bastards and I might let you live,” she snarled at my brother and it took me a second to put together the fact that this was the same Ramona I’d been working with for years. I’d just never heard this level of… confidence in her tone. Nor anger.

  “They’ve done nothing to you, Ramona,” Angelo spat back. “If you have a problem with me or my sister, then you can take it up with us directly. Leave them out of it.”

  I was equally floored to find my brother standing up for the gnomes—in general, he wasn’t the type to do anything heroic or altruistic. In fact, this was the first time I’d ever witnessed him acting out of selflessness.

  I waited, remaining in the shadows of the entryway, just beyond the door, in order to listen. Taliyah was behind me, trying to push past my extended arm, but I shook my head at her and continued to hold her back. She was no match for Ramona anyway, and I wanted to see what I could learn before we fully stepped into the room and revealed ourselves. This situation could really get out of hand quickly if we weren’t careful, and having the element of surprise was something I didn’t want to give up just yet.

  “What they’ve done or haven’t done doesn’t matter. This isn’t your fight,” Ramona snarled back at Angelo. “So, leave. Fifi already fired you anyway, so you have no business here. Go, run and hide to Mommy and Daddy’s mansion.”

  “I’m not leaving,” he said, his eyes starting to burn red as his skin deepened a few shades. He was seconds away from taking on his incubus form and that wouldn’t be pretty. But, if Ramona took on her wraith form, that wouldn’t be pretty either.

  “Fine, then you can die, just like your sister is going to,” Ramona said, her voice deepening into something that sounded like a monster from a horror film. As I watched her, she started to glow a sickly green.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Angelo demanded, as his inky black and rubber-like wings shot out of his back, flapping a few times. The gnomes gasped and ran a few feet further behind him, clearly afraid of him, just as they should have been. An incubus in his demonic form was a scary sight to behold.

  Ramona laughed, and the sound made me shiver because the tone was so deep and maniacal. It no longer sounded like the voice of a woman. “Are you really so blind?”

  “I guess so,” Angelo answered, while his eyes went from red to pitch black and his skin fully morphed into the leathery red of the incubus. I could feel my own succubus stirring within me, wanting to go to his aid. It was a built in response, but I was fairly sure I didn’t possess the strength to fully transform.

  “For what she did to Ophelia!” Ramona nearly spat.

  “Wanda killed Ophelia,” Angelo corrected her.

  Ramona nodded. “They were in on it together,” Ramona insisted. “And Wanda is next on my list.”

  “Why do you give two shits that Ophelia’s dead?” Angelo continued, shaking his head. “Her death was a blessing to anyone who knew her.”

  With Ramona’s back to us, I couldn’t see her response, but I watched as her entire being shook and I imagined she was shaking with outrage. She began to lift off the ground, the ethereal green of her body doubling in brightness. And then the smell started to waft off her—the smell of death, the same scent I’d witnessed in the graveyard the night of Darragh and Cranough’s murders, the same odor that had lingered outside the Broomstick Diner the night Angelo had confronted her. And now I had to wonder if he’d known the truth of what was really going on all along. He must have because he’d known about Darragh’s death.

  Because he was stalking you, I thought. And good thing too, otherwise he never would have known the truth about Ramona.

  For a split second, I wondered if Angelo had been working with Ramona, but then I pushed that thought aside because it didn’t fit with the situation unfolding in front of me now. Angelo had seemed legitimately surprised that Ramona wanted me dead.

  “When my great-uncle married Ophelia, she became my family,” Ramona explained.

  “Oh, shit,” I whispered, having never really understood why Ramona and Ophelia were close.

  “Ophelia had agreed to leave Hallowed Realty to me if anything ever happened to her,” Ramona continued, a hiss in her tone. “Instead, Wanda and Fifi dispatched her before she had a chance to write a proper will, which would have solidified my entitlement—and I was truly the person who should have benefitted from Ophelia’s death, not your bimbo sister!”

  Ramona took a deep breath and rose higher into the air, her glow increasing along with the horrific odor of rotting flesh. “I just want what’s mine!”

  “And you’d resort to murder to accomplish that?” Angelo asked, not appearing concerned in the least that she was taking her wraith form. Truly, there didn’t seem to be much that intimidated him. In fact, I’d never seen him afraid before.

  “I will relish Fifi’s death!” Ramona yelled back as my heart started to pound.

  “She’s not going to touch a hair on your head,” Taliyah whispered and started to move forward, but I held her back.

  “You can’t go after her, not when she’s in her astral form and you’re… basically human.”

  Taliyah paused. “What if I shoot her?”

  “It won’t do any good—the bullets would just go through her. She’s basically a ghost—but an extremely dangerous and powerful one.” Now taking on her wraith form, Ramona would be able to move through solid creatures and objects easily, stealing their life essence—just like Ophelia did when she neared a plant and it withered and died.

  “No one lays a finger on my sister!” Angelo yelled, exploding into a burst of flames as he materialized directly in front of her, lunging at her. The gnomes behind him fled in every direction, shrieking.

  A deep laugh echoed from Ramona as she easily outmaneuvered him, her ethereal form simply swaying out of the way, as if caught by the wind. “We both know you hate your sister as much as I do.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” His skin darkened into a deep wine red and horns protruded from his skull. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen my brother take his demon form but it was something to behold. “I don’t hate my sister and I will protect her to the last.”

  Despite the horrible situation unfolding in front of me, I was struck by Angelo’s words. And the fact that he actually cared about me. It was a feeling that not only shocked me, but warmed me at the same time.

  In only a few seconds, Ramona’s eerie green glow deadened and in its place was a fog of shadow and darkness—the true form of the wraith. As she flitted around, I was able to make out the white glow of her eyes. Other than that, her features were impossible to decipher, swallowed as they were by the shadow of her form. She screamed, filling the room with a terrifying, ear-splitting sound that brought both me and Angelo to our knees. Taliyah didn’t seem to be affected by it in the same way.

  Angelo yelled out in pain as Ramona flitted past him and as soon as she did, I watched numerous gashes appear along his cheeks, chin and forehead, as if she’d reached out and grated him with her clawed fingernails. Blood started to weep from his wounds.

  “Angelo!” I yelled.

  At the sound of my scream, Ramona jerked around in my direction, evidenced by her glowing white eyes which were now focused on me. She immediately floated towards me, but before she could reach me, Angelo materialized directly in front of me, appearing as a blaze of burning flames. Even though he was close to me, the fire from his form couldn’t harm me, because it was the same fire that fueled my own succubus form.

  However, it could hurt Taliyah and feeling the heat exiting him, she immediately crawled backwards, putting space between the two of them which was just as well.

  “The only way we’re going to be able to take her down is if she returns to her humanoid form,” I whispered to him. He nodded so I faced Ramona, aware now of what we had to do. It was risky but I was also out of options.

  “This issue is between the two of us, Ramona,” I yelled as I took a step nearer her. “Leave Angelo out of it.”

  “He attacked me,” Ramona responded, her voice sounding like a groan on the wind.

  “And he’s willing to return to his humanoid form, if you’re willing to return to yours,” I called back. “If so, I won’t take on my succubus form, because if I do, you must realize you’ll be outnumbered.”

  Ramona laughed, and it looked like a cloud of dark smoke coughing. “Outnumbered?” She ridiculed me. “I know you lack the sustenance required to take on the form of the succubus.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” I lied. “I’ve been feeding from Roy and I possess the necessary strength, but I want to deal with this situation woman to woman.” I could only hope she believed me, because if she didn’t, she’d realize she could definitely take on Angelo and me, because we weren’t as powerful as she was.

  She paused for a moment, not responding, just floating there like a dark cloud. A dark and very stinky cloud.

  “Woman to woman, I’m more powerful than you are,” she said.

  I nodded. “Then the fight will be in your favor.”

  I could only assume she didn’t detect Taliyah, who was still on all fours behind Angelo and waiting in the shadows, her weapon drawn. Ramona swooped upward and emitted another blood-curdling scream, and that was when I realized she had no plans to return to her corporeal form. And why would she? She was much stronger in her wraith form.

  I reached inside my pocket and produced the black Sharpie I’d shoved in it before I’d jumped into Taliya’s police vehicle. The Sharpie had been magicked by Wanda, enchanted with sigils and wards that would allow me to draw a circle on the ground that would act as a cage to any supernatural creature. It was the supernatural answer to Mace essentially, and Wanda sold the bewitched pens at her store.

  Noticing Angelo was further away from Ramona than I currently was, I threw the Sharpie to him.

  “Draw a circle on the ground!” I yelled in our native tongue so Ramona wouldn’t understand me.

  The magical sigils used to create the cage would render Ramona motionless and solid long enough for us to force her back into her corporeal form. Angelo, disappeared in a flurry of red-orange flames, grabbed the Sharpie from midair, then dropped down to his knees and immediately started drawing a large circle—big enough that Ramona could fit into it. Meanwhile, I faced Ramona squarely, intent on keeping her attention.

  “You killed Cranough, Darragh and Saffron!” I yelled at her.

  Ramona laughed. “And it took you way too long to figure out.”

  She jerked toward me and her eyes burned bright white in the midst of the darkness of her shadowy form. I turned and ran, forcing her to give chase. She was fast, and I knew I’d tire quickly, especially since I wasn’t in my full succubus form and hadn’t fed recently enough. But, I needed to buy as much time for Angelo as I could.

  I glanced back at him and noticed he was finished drawing the circle so I reversed direction and started running towards him. Ramona was right behind me, apparently oblivious to the outline of the cage on the floor. I ran across the sigils, fully aware they were harmless to me, since I was the owner of the Sharpie, but the moment Ramona drifted across them, the sigils activated, sending shocks of blue light straight upward. The blue lights acted like ethereal prison bars and immediately locked her in.

  As soon as she was imprisoned in the magical holding cell, the wards forced her back into her humanoid shape. She let out one final piercing scream as the fog of her shadow started to circle rapidly within the cage, little by little taking on the shape of a woman—a naked and old one.

  Once Ramona completed the transition to her human form, Taliyah moved forward, yanking out a taser gun and tasing Ramona with it. Immediately, Ramona dropped to all fours as her body spasmed a few times, as if still trying to fight the inevitable, but soon she was out.

  After that, I just stood there for a second, panting for breath, while I tried to talk myself out of passing out. I was exhausted—mentally and physically and the need to feed was almost overwhelming.

  With a great swoosh of his wings, Angelo landed beside me and his wings retracted into his back while his skin began to blanch into its customary olive. The horns in his forehead sunk back into his skull and fairly soon, he was facing me with a smile, standing completely naked.

  “That sigil cage was good thinking, sister,” he said with a broad smile.

  Even naked as he was, I didn’t waste any time in throwing my arms around him. I just was so happy to see him basically unharmed (minus the gashes Ramona had left in his face). I was about to say as much when Taliyah walked over to the glowing blue cage which held the now unconscious Ramona. She took one look at Ramona and then turned to face us as I released Angelo and he gave Taliyah a big grin.

  “Can’t you supernaturals remember to bring a change of clothing with you?” Taliyah asked, frowning at Angelo who did nothing but stand there with his legs wide and his hands on his hips. He was and always had been proud of his naked body. She cocked one eyebrow and then stared pointedly at his manhood, as if to say she wasn’t impressed.

  I couldn’t help my laugh.

  “And where would be the fun in that?” Angelo responded to her with an added wink, clearly flirting. And his flirting with Taliyah made sense because she was a beautiful woman

  Meanwhile, the gnomes peeked out from behind various doors leading from the large lobby. Slowly, they began to venture back out into the open.

  “It’s safe,” I called out, and they came further into the room. Then I turned to face Taliyah. “What are you going to do with her?” I asked, motioning to Ramona’s still body. “It’s not as though you can put her in a normal jail cell. Once the effects of the cage wear off, she could and probably will return to her wraith form and then you won’t be able to hold her.”

  Before she could answer, a car pulled up in front of the building and all three of us turned to see Fox and Roy stepping out of a large, black towncar that must have, no doubt, belonged to Fox. At the realization that Fox was now here… with Taliyah, I swallowed hard.

  But, then I remembered Fox wouldn’t recognize Taliyah because she’d been essentially in protection with her human family from the time she was a child. And of course she’d have no clue who Fox was because she’d never met him before.

  “Fifi, are you okay?” Roy asked as he walked through the door and immediately threw his arms around me, holding me tight. A second or so later, he released me from his bear hug and wrapping his hands around my arms, held me at arm’s length as he inspected me.

  “I’m fine,” I answered. It took another five minutes or so for me to explain everything that had just happened, which led us right back to the same question I’d just asked Taliyah—what were we going to do with Ramona?

  “I’ll take her,” Fox said. “I know a hunter with the facilities to hold a creature of her ilk.”

  “Are you sure?” Taliyah asked as she faced her future husband. Both of them just stood there, looking at each other with what appeared to be confused interest—as if they somehow recognized one another but weren’t sure how or why.

  “I’m positive,” Fox replied, taking her hand. “We have yet to meet.”

  “I’m the Chief of Police of Haven Hollow,” she answered as she then cleared her throat and appeared uncomfortable. “But, you can… call me Taliyah.”

  “I’m Fox Aspen,” he returned and then leaning down, kissed her hand. She just looked at him, surprise registering on her face, but she didn’t pull away—something I found interesting because I didn’t imagine she would have allowed anyone this type of liberty. Taliyah just had this independent, trust-no-one sort of attitude.

  Fox smiled broadly at her and then turned around as he approached the cage that held Ramona. Taking out an eraser from his pocket, he began erasing the lines of the Sharpie. Clearly, the eraser was enchanted in order to be able to erase the Sharpie lines, not to mention the wards themselves. Once Fox finished, he took hold of Ramona’s arm and crouching low, yanked her above his shoulder, and then stood up again.

  Taliyah looked at him with curiosity, a flush spreading across her cheeks, along with confusion. He nodded to her and a moment later, disappeared in a flash of red-gold light. She just stood there, looking at the fading color in a daze before finally turning back to face the rest of us.

  “So, how do we get justice for the grim and the elf?” she asked. “Since that… that man just absconded with the perpetrator.”

  I cocked my head the side as I considered it. “I think we just got justice for them. Fox will hand Ramona a life behind bars and she won’t be a threat to Haven Hollow ever again.”

  “I would say I’d close the case, but I guess it was never really opened from an official standpoint,” Taliyah answered, shrugging. “What should I do with the body of Cranough?”

  “I’ll have Bea get in contact with the Autumn Court,” I answered, although I imagined Fox would beat us to it. No doubt, he’d want the body of Cranough returned to its rightful court anyway and I had a feeling he’d probably want to see Taliyah again—there had just been something there in his eyes when he’d looked at her. Maybe it was fate? Or maybe it was just another example of the undying romantic within me imagining things that weren’t there.

  Taliyah nodded. “I guess we’re done here then.”

  “Looks that way,” I replied, finally sighing a breath of relief as I faced my brother and… smiled.