“Will you stop it?” he snapped after a half-minute of futile struggle.

  My willpower was flagging by this point. Hanging from Maverick’s arms made my shoulders burn, and thrashing around, trying to kick his sorry butt, only made it worse.

  At his words, though, I found enough energy to aim a solid kick to his family jewels.

  The air went out of Maverick’s lungs in a surprised whoosh, and he collapsed onto the front lawn. The fall was somewhat cushioned by the layer of curling brown leaves that dominated the yard. Maverick clutched himself, an odd look on his face. The expression seemed torn between surprise and nausea.

  “Oh, goddess,” he gasped, which was odd because he’d never once appealed to the goddess, or, at least, I didn’t think he had. “That does… hurt as much… as they say it does.”

  “You have a lot of nerve coming here!” I roared at him.

  Maverick raised his face and squinted at me through pained eyes. The frown on his lips looked wrong on his face, but at the same time strangely... familiar.

  “Let me… explain.”

  “No! No more explanations from you! I can’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth!”

  “Astrid…”

  “I was stupid to trust you, but I’ve learned my lesson and I’ll never trust you again! Not after what you did to Wanda! Not after what you did to me! You’re the worst sort of… of tosser!”

  I’m not sure where the word came from, other than the fact that it was one of Lorcan’s favorites. Regardless, I just went with it.

  Maverick snorted a laugh and one of his eyebrows arched, even as he continued to cradle his offended member. Hmm, clearly I had good aim. Maybe I should have tried out for the soccer team.

  “Tosser? Now I know you’ve been spending too much time with Lorcan.”

  It was my turn to stare at him quizzically. I racked my brains, trying to remember if I’d mentioned Lorcan to Maverick at any point. I was fairly sure I hadn’t. Of course, it was technically possible that Maverick had never stopped stalking Wanda—maybe he was doing it by proxy these days, since he wasn’t allowed in the Hollow.

  And that brought up another interesting point…

  “Wait a second...” I started, taking a step back. “How are you even here in the first place? You aren’t allowed in Haven Hollow.”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you before you kneed me in the balls,” Maverick said through clenched teeth, struggling to his feet. He still looked nauseous, and I backpedaled to the edge of the porch in case he decided to barf. “I never thought those words would come out of my mouth.”

  “Answer my question!”

  He stood upright and then took a deep breath, as if testing to see if his nether region was feeling normal again. I hoped it wasn’t. “I’m not who you think I am,” he started, and there was definitely a testy note in his voice now.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m not Maverick… I’m Wanda.”

  I frowned at him. “Really nice try, brother asshole, but that’s not going to work.”

  He shook his head and glared at me. “I’m telling you the truth, and I don’t care to get into a long argument about it because my testicles are still incredibly tender.”

  “Good, I hope they shrivel up and fall off!”

  “Astrid, I’m telling you the truth.” He paused and took a breath. “How else do you think I’m able to be standing here, talking to you, when you’re right, I’m not allowed to step foot into Haven Hollow.”

  Hmm. He had a point there. Regardless, my head was beginning to hurt, and the hearty sobbing I’d done was only half the problem.

  “I don’t understand.”

  He pursed his lips, cocking one hip out in a very feminine and very familiar gesture. One hand flew to cup his hip, while the other gestured at his long, lean body with an impatient air. “That miserable excuse of a brother of yours is currently in control of my body, and I’ve been forced into his.”

  Even though I wanted to hope he was telling me the truth, because then it would explain Wanda’s coldness towards me earlier, I was pretty much done blindly trusting my brother. And, as far as I was concerned, this was still my brother. “How is that possible?”

  He took a deep breath. “He muddled the signals. The magic can’t detect who’s who, and it’ll probably reject us both by the end of Samhain, if we don’t sort things out before the stroke of midnight.”

  I frowned. “You’re in Maverick’s body, and he’s in yours?”

  “Really, Astrid, you have to follow along faster. I don’t have time to go through all of this again. Yes, I’m in the troll scrotum’s body!”

  Hmm, ‘troll scrotum’ was a word shared only between Wanda and me. Then it occurred to me that this could have been just another trick.

  If this is a trick, how is Maverick standing here, talking to you right now? I asked myself, but pushed the thought away when I didn’t come up with an immediate answer. “Tell me something only Wanda and I would know.”

  He looked over at me. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “It’s the only way I’m going to believe you.”

  He looked at me and appeared put out—in a way I’d never seen Maverick appear before. It was decidedly more… Wanda. “Fine. Astrid has been feeling sad lately because some boy upset her and I’ve been going out of my mind trying to figure out if I should hex him into the Paleolithic era or if I should hex him into returning her crush.”

  I felt my heart drop. I hadn’t mentioned Ethan to anyone. “How did you… know that?”

  “Because for all intents and purposes, Astrid, I’m your mother now.”

  The words sounded beyond strange coming from Maverick’s mouth, but I believed them all the same. In response, I ran over to her, er him, and threw my arms around her, er, him.

  “Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Wanda said as she divorced herself from me but then tapped me on the back the way she did whenever someone tried to hug her. Wanda and displays of affection didn’t exactly go together. “If Maverick and I don’t swap bodies before the end of Samhain, he’s got dibs on my body for an entire year!”

  “Oh my Goddess.” I took a deep breath. “Then his plan was never to force the vampire change on you or to trap you in a nightmare. It was… to switch bodies with you so he could… do whatever he plans on doing.”

  She nodded. “Now, first things first, where did that conniving, no-good, miserable piece of goblin shit go?”

  There was only one answer, and I was sure it wasn’t the one she wanted to hear.

  “I don’t know.”

  ***

  “Wanda’s” behavior was starting to make more sense in hindsight. If I’d stopped feeling sorry for myself long enough to really watch ‘her’, I probably would have started to notice the change in ‘her’ demeanor.

  Getting rid of me would have been the fastest way to pull off Maverick’s little scheme, and I’d almost fallen for it. Well, I had fallen for it, until I’d come across the real Wanda, and kneed her in the balls.

  “I’m so so sorry I kicked you in your penis, Wanda,” I said, frowning because the words just sounded so… weird.

  She looked over at me and frowned. “Don’t ever mention my ‘penis’ again.” Then she shook her head and mumbled to herself. “This is going to land me in therapy, I just know it.”

  It was Hellcat who further convinced me that it was Wanda hiding behind my brother’s face. As her familiar, he was able to immediately detect her magic. And once he figured out it was Wanda within Maverick’s body, Hellcat had promptly burst into hysterical laughter, and hadn’t quit, much to Wanda’s chagrin. Every time we thought he’d subsided, he’d start up again.

  “Oh, this is too fortuitous,” the awful cat said. “This stroke of pure jest is the work of Fate at her best.”

  “Put a paw in it,” Wanda/ Maverick said, sending the cat a scathing glare.

  “Going back to my previous thought about Maverick wanting to kick me out,” I started. “That’s exactly what he was trying to do.”

  “Kick you out of the house?” she asked.

  I nodded. “He had to know that eventually I’d see through his disguise and I’d figure out he wasn’t the real you.”

  “Okay.”

  “So, I think his whole plan was to get rid of me so he could lay low and escape notice all day until the clock struck midnight and Samhain was over, which would mean it would be too late to reverse the magic. And then he’d have your body for a whole year and who knows what he planned to do with it?”

  She faced me and her expression hardened even further. Fury smoldered in the gray of her new eyes. “The second Maverick’s returned to his body, I’m going to kick him in the nuts! Now that I know the terrible pain, I’ll do it three times before I’m through with him!”

  “How… how are we supposed to reverse the magic if we do find him?”

  “There are a few spells we can try. I’m not so much worried about that part as I am the part about us finding him.”

  I glanced down at the ground. “This was my fault, Wanda. I’m responsible for what happened to you.”

  “Yes, you were gullible,” she started. “But, gullibility isn’t the same as evil intent. And Maverick is the one with the evil intent.”

  “Bahhaha!” Hellcat started up again, looking at Wanda. “You have facial hair!”

  I walked over to him, picked him up, and booted him out the front door. Then I turned back to face her. “I’m sorry I was gullible, and that I trusted him. I was… I was stupid.”

  Wanda walked over and cupped my cheeks, tilting my face upward so I’d have to meet her eyes. Her hands were too big, and her eyes were the wrong color, but that look was pure Wanda.

  “I forgive you, Astrid.”

  Tears started to spill down my cheeks. “How come you aren’t angry with me?”

  “Well, I am,” she started, in her deep voice. “On the one hand, you were incredibly naïve to trust Maverick. But, on the other... well, I made some truly boneheaded decisions when I was your age, as Mother would gleefully point out. And the magic it took to do this... well, it’s actually pretty impressive.”

  “I thought the magic was mostly Maverick’s doing. He told me how to brew the potion.”

  “Potions are just liquids without magic. You bespelled it, right?” I nodded as she continued. “He didn’t do the spell casting, and you didn’t even have a familiar to aid you. I don’t know any teenage witches who could manage to successfully transfer the consciousness of one person into another’s body this thoroughly. It’s difficult for seasoned witches, and most witches wouldn’t even attempt it. I think you may have a gift for mental magic.”

  “So how did it go so terribly wrong?” I asked.

  She nodded, as if she’d had plenty of time to figure that out. “There’s a certain level of memory still sitting in Maverick’s body,” she answered. “And I’ve been able to ascertain that when you performed the spell together on the Regression Oil, Maverick added a spell of his own—one of body usurping.”

  I nodded as I remembered the specifics. “When we said the spell over the potion, we said it together.”

  “Right, and Maverick added his own spell in thought, which is why you never heard it.”

  “He tricked me,” I said, shaking my head. It’s not like it was so much of a surprise but now understanding just how Maverick had tricked me—the truth stung. A lot.

  Wanda’s lips twisted into a gentle and almost maternal smile, which looked odd on my brother’s face. “Regardless, the magic couldn’t have completed without your power, Astrid,” she said and her expression was one of pride, strangely enough. “Red-haired witches are always precocious talents,” she continued. “Maybe it’s for the best you got away from the coven, so Tabitha and Mother stopped trying to squash your gifts.”

  I sniffed and swiped at my eyes, trying to stem the fresh tears I could feel building. “Why are you complimenting me about this? This was a disaster of epic proportions. I mean, what if you get stuck in my brother’s body? You won’t be able to stay in the Hollow, Wanda. No more Wanda’s Witchery. No more town council. No more Lorcan and no more...” I trailed off as something occurred to me. “No more… vampire... You wouldn’t be a Blood Witch any longer. I mean, you’d be a warlock, and you’d look like my brother and you’d uh, you’d be a man, which I guess would make you gay since you aren’t into women—”

  “Astrid.”

  “Right. Sorry.”

  “Regardless of no longer being a Blood Witch, I can’t stay in Maverick’s body.”

  She made a face. “His body feels all wrong and I don’t think I’d ever get used to this bit of flesh hanging between my legs,” she continued as she glanced down at her crotch. “It keeps getting stuck to my thigh and then it gets hot and it’s just annoying. Not to mention when these balls get sweaty—”

  “Okay, okay, Wanda, I get it!” I said, shaking my head as I attempted to go to my happy place. “Please stop!”

  She laughed. “Anyway, I’m not letting Maverick win. Tainted or not, that’s my body he’s stolen and I won’t let him get away with it.” She took a breath. “Not to mention what he’s probably doing with it.” Then she shuddered, and I followed suit.

  “Ugh, why did you have to say that?” Wanting to change the subject pronto, I turned to another thought. “Why would he even want your body, anyway?”

  “Indeed,” Hellcat said, alighting on the back of the couch after having found his way back inside. He paced forward with the measured steps of a teacher about to impart a lesson to very slow schoolchildren.

  “Oh, what do you want now?” Wanda asked.

  But, Hellcat’s attention was on me. “Your brother may be many things, but he is not a fool. A plan like this opens a world of opportunity to a man like Charmin Depraysie.”

  “A world of opportunity? Like what?” I asked.

  “I’m aware that you’re a rather dull-witted child, but do try to employ a little deductive reasoning.” When I remained quiet, he continued, seemingly more irritated. “Can you not see the benefit to possessing the form of a witch?”

  My eyes flew open wide. “Oh. Oh goddess! If he’s got Wanda’s body he could...”

  “Do any number of things,” Hellcat concluded. “Doors that remain closed to a warlock will swing open readily for a witch, even one with tainted blood. If Charmin can conceal the fact that he’s taken residence in a stolen body, he could even run a coven with enough time and application. Something your bone-idle cousin hasn’t the ambition to accomplish.”

  “Don’t call me lazy,” Wanda snapped, reaching up to flick Hellcat on the top of the head. He hissed and tried to dig his claws into her palm.

  “‘Unindustrious’, then, how is that?” he sneered. “Or ‘unenterprising’. Perhaps ‘indolent’ is preferable? ‘Otiose’? ‘Slothful’? ‘Apathetic’?”

  “I’m going to hex you if you keep it up,” she responded, her Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Remember this body isn’t tainted, so I don’t have to hold back.”

  Hellcat flicked his tail disdainfully. “Has it occurred to you that a support network of mature witches could have prevented this? The child is pining for community, and another seasoned witch could have spotted the effects of the hex for what they were. Honestly, if I’d been able to sample any of the drinks, I could have provided advance warning.”

  I sighed, and scuffed my feet on the hardwood, not wanting to admit what I was about to. “Hellcat is right about one thing.” Wanda looked at me. “Maybe if I had other witches around, Maverick wouldn’t have had as much… appeal. I just… I missed home, and I missed… everything… I’ve grown up with. I thought seeing Maverick might bring some of those feelings back.”

  “I understand,” Wanda said sadly. “I also know the feeling.”

  “As touching as this saccharine exchange is, you have larger problems, my odious owner,” Hellcat interrupted.

  “Larger problems?” Wanda repeated.

  “I’ve come to inform you that, according to your online banking system, your account has dropped to a meager eight dollars, and the rest has been withdrawn in cash. And your website is inundated with complaints that your store has not opened for its highly anticipated Halloween sale. I’d say there’s only one conclusion we can draw.”

  “Maverick’s running,” Wanda said grimly. “And he has a huge head start.”

  “I would say so,” Hellcat answered.

  I nodded. “He could be anywhere, by now.”

  “How do we find him?” Wanda asked out loud, but she was more talking to herself, I had a feeling.

  “I have an idea,” I said slowly. “But you’re not going to like it.”

  “I’ll listen to anything at this point.”

  So, I told her.

  She did not, in fact, like it one bit.

  Chapter Ten

  “You never told me your cousin was such a sheik,” Darla crooned, sliding a hand along ‘Maverick’s’ jawline as she giggled and Wanda’s stubble rasped against her palm. A ‘sheik’ was an attractive man in Darla-speak. Wanda scowled and pried Darla’s hand loose.

  “Darla, if you touch me one more time, I will hex you six feet into the ground.”

  Wanda was wedged uncomfortably, with Hellcat on her lap, between Libby and Darla in the back of Marty’s hearse. Sitting beside Darla was Olga. Lorcan had removed his coffin, otherwise they wouldn’t have all fit.

  Because Maverick had made off with Wanda’s Escalade (which had been gifted to her from Lorcan) and Lorcan’s Porsche was too small to fit all of us, we’d had no choice but to take the hearse. Marty had stayed behind with Poppy and Finn. Because we couldn’t all fit into the hearse, only those who were absolutely required to be on the trip had been included.

  We were hoping, at least theoretically, that Wanda, Hellcat and Lorcan would be able to sense where Wanda’s body (with Maverick inside it) was heading, if only to give us a starting point. And, so far so good, because we knew Maverick was bound for Riverport, having taken some of Wanda’s most expensive store items. No doubt, Maverick was looking to sell those items and then get the hell out of dodge. And all of that seemed a bit much if he was just planning on waiting out the day of Samhain, until the clock struck twelve at midnight.