“So, you just moved to town a couple of months ago?” I asked, as Chloe nodded. “Where are you from originally?”

  Something passed over Chloe’s face then before her expression smoothed back into the friendly relaxed smile she’d come in with. “Back east. New York state. I grew up near Stirling Forest National Park.”

  It wasn’t a lie, I was really good at spotting those, but she was keeping something back—maybe she hadn’t had a great childhood, or she was feuding with her parents. I’d already run a background check on her, so whatever had caused that slight hitch, it wasn’t federally indictable, so I could resist the urge to pry into it.

  “And what made you want to get into child care?”

  Chloe lit up at the question, her smile turning into a grin. “I just love kids, you know? They’re really special, and I think guiding them, teaching them, and keeping them safe is one of the most important jobs out there.”

  Something in my chest relaxed at her words, at the obvious sincerity behind them. I had a good feeling about this woman, and I usually went with my gut. The conversation became more and more relaxed, and I chatted about the boys, their ages, their likes and dislikes. Charlie was going through a phase in which he was inseparable from his stuffed animal dog—it literally had to go wherever he did, including the bathtub. Sean was a bit wary of strangers, since he was three years older than Charlie and still remembered what their life was like before they came to live with me.

  Finally, the last of the coffee was done and I wrapped things up feeling pretty confident about hiring her. “Okay, Chloe. I’d like to offer you the job on a trial basis, to see how you and the boys get along. Does that work for you?”

  She grinned, eagerly taking the hand I held out and shaking it firmly. “That sounds wonderful, Mrs... er, Candace.”

  If things worked out, I’d clear up the whole fake name thing. It might have been overkill, but I literally could not be too careful with Janara still out there.

  I forced myself to smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Chloe chirped, and then she was heading out the door with a bounce in her step.

  I let out a breath, praying to whoever was listening that my life could be a little more normal for once. I was getting used to Haven Hollow’s brand of special, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring sometimes.

  I waved to Roy behind the bar as I headed out, and he raised an enormous hand in return. Honestly, one of the easiest things for me to believe out of the whole pile of crazy going on in town, was that Roy was a Sasquatch. He was almost seven feet tall, and built like a refrigerator. There was just no amount of Cross-fit that got someone those kinds of muscles, and that was before I saw him rip an entire tree out of the ground about a month or so ago.

  He was a good guy, though. Sensible. I trusted him to watch my back in a fight, even if he was technically a civilian. And he and Fifi were sweet together.

  Even with the amount of coffee I’d sucked back, it still wasn’t enough to fight off the effects of several restless nights. It was barely edging into fall and I was already tossing and turning most of the time. I wasn’t looking forward to the coming months—if last year was anything to go by. Forget the evil faeries, my own sleep patterns were going to do me in.

  Most of my remaining brain power was firmly directed at obeying the traffic laws and keeping my car on the road, which had narrowed down to a thin black ribbon in the golden circles of my headlights. It was getting darker earlier. In a couple weeks, it would be dark each day I got off from work.

  A flash of light in the corner of my eye caused me to tense up automatically, but it wasn’t any spell or magic nonsense, and my shoulders relaxed after a quick glance. A huge swarm of fireflies danced through the trees at the edge of the woods like a snapshot from a kid’s movie. I would have called it ‘magical’ a year ago, but now I knew better.

  The insects ranged from soft buttery yellow, to pale blush, to nearly white, slowly flickering beneath the shadows of the trees like a starfield fallen to earth. They were pretty, but I was surprised to see so many of them, especially so late in the season. Any day the weather was going to tip over into rain-soaked days and nights, which would soon give way to snow, and the little bugs weren’t going to survive that.

  Part of me thought about pulling over and taking a picture of them. Charlie would have loved to see them. So would Sean, but he’d pretend to be less interested—at least, at first. After a second, I decided not to. I just wanted to get home and see the boys. Marty had been watching them all afternoon, working from my place, and while he said he didn’t mind, I felt bad for relying on him as much as I had recently.

  So, I turned my head away and focused on the road until the woods were just a shadowy shape in my rear-view mirror.

  ***

  The case file I was packing into my bag caught at the corners, threatening to spill an entire tree’s worth of paper onto the floor, and I scrambled to catch it. My heart slammed against the inside of my ribs, and I had to close my eyes and count to ten before I gave into the flare of temper shooting up my spine and blasted the whole thing into crime confetti.

  When I finally had myself under control again, and I’d swatted away the thin layer of frost that had started creeping across my desk, I very carefully tugged the file free, adjusted it, and slid it into place.

  The night before, when I’d tucked the boys in and fallen into bed myself, I’d expected to be asleep before my head even touched the pillow. Instead, I’d spent most of the night staring at my ceiling, or at my curtains, getting more and more frustrated until I’d been ready to punch my pillow.

  All told, I might have gotten an hour or two of sleep, before I’d just given up and dragged myself out of bed and into a shockingly cold shower, hoping it would clear some of the cobwebs out of my skull.

  Coffee had been a godsend, keeping me awake and moving through another busy day, but my nerves were jumping, my stomach felt like a storm-tossed sea with the way it was rolling, and I had to fight the urge to text the boys every fifteen minutes.

  Chloe had shown up bright and early to be introduced to Sean and Charlie. Charlie had immediately dragged her off to show her his room, while Sean had trailed behind, suspicious. But that wasn’t anything unusual—Sean was pretty much suspicious of everyone. He’d only recently gotten comfortable with Darla and Maverick. As to Chloe—well, she’d seemed to have things pretty well in hand, promising to keep me updated through text. And Marty, bless him, had promised to drop by, just to check on things.

  I liked Chloe. I thought she was a nice person. But that didn’t mean I trusted her. In fact, there were very few people I trusted, in general. Actually, there were just two: Marty and Maverick.

  Things seemed to be going well enough with Chloe, though. She texted me every hour or so with an update of what the boys were up to, with the occasional picture. And about halfway through the day, Marty sent me a thumbs up emoji after he’d stopped by to check on the boys. Everything was great.

  But the exhaustion and the caffeine overdose seemed to be locked in a useless cage match, while my anxiety was building a bunker out of all the different ways everything could go wrong.

  Being a Chief of Police and a mom was not an easy balance.

  The effort to keep it together had left my temper frayed down to a single thread, and I needed to get out of the precinct before I turned the whole place into a permanent winter wonderland.

  I’d slung the strap of my bag over my chest and was just about to head for the door when one of my deputies rapped his knuckles on the door frame with a sympathetic frown on his face. “Hey, Chief.”

  “Hey, Murry. What is it?”

  I focused on his face carefully, trying not to remember the time I’d had to fish the poor guy out of an incubus bachelor party sans his pants. Some visuals are easier to kill than others. This was not one of them.

  Deputy Murry held up a memo between two fingers. “There’s a report of a car accident, single vehicle. It sounds like they drove off the road into a ditch, no reported injuries.”

  I nodded, waiting for him to get to the point. Anyone in the building could go out to the scene of a no injury accident. If he was bringing it to me, there was a reason. “Okay, and?”

  “Sorry to bother you, Chief.” Murry scratched the back of his head, pushing his uniform hat onto his forehead. “But the license plate came back as one of those you’d flagged, so I figured you’d want to handle it.”

  My heart gave a double thump, and I reached for the memo. The only people I had flagged in the system were either family or members of Haven Hollow’s Council. If anything supernatural cropped up around a Council member, then I was the best person for the job. No way was I risking another Incubus roofie situation.

  A quick glance at the hastily scrawled number had adrenaline singing through my veins, my pulse driving the grogginess from my head.

  “Thanks, Murry,” I said, already striding for the door. “I’ll handle it.”

  I hit the doors and just barely kept myself from running for my cruiser.

  Chapter Three

  Fifi was sitting by the side of the road when I pulled up behind the spot where her silver Mercedes had gone down into the ditch.

  She had a small bruise on her forehead and a sheepish smile on her face as she lifted her hand to wave her fingers at me.

  Someone had brought her a bottle of water, a blanket, and a lawn chair to sit on while she waited for the police to arrive, with some men and a couple women hovering over her. They only reluctantly backed off when they caught sight of the badge clipped to my belt.

  I knew Fifi used a potion to keep her Succubus pheromones under wraps, but when she was stressed or upset, they still tended to leak through. And really, even without them, she was still drop dead gorgeous, with her centerfold figure and her well-tailored navy suit and skirt with a paler blue blouse. Her long platinum hair was caught up into a bun at the back of her head, and while there were a few faint lines at the corner of her mouth and eyes, Fifi was never going to be anything but stunningly beautiful.

  I also owed her, big time, for going against the council and the Faerie courts in order to warn me about the prophecy. It had gone pretty pear shaped, sure, but she’d meant well. And because she hadn’t known my boys were adopted, she was terrified they might come into their own magic, and I would have been completely in the dark. It was a debt I could probably never repay, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try.

  “Fifi.” I strode towards her, trying to see if there were any other injuries other than the bruise. Succubae were pretty tough, especially when they were well fed, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be hurt. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Hi, Taliyah.” There was more embarrassment than anything else in her voice. “I’m okay, I just feel kind of dumb.”

  She didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere, and the Mercedes was in good shape, other than the fact that it was down in a ditch. It hadn’t even hit a tree or anything. It was turned off, but the headlights were still on, illuminating the scene in harsh strokes of shadow. No sign she’d hit a deer or anything.

  “What happened?”

  As I got closer, I realized that the shadows on her face weren’t just from the headlights. Dark circles sat in the gentle hollows beneath Fifi’s eyes, almost as dark as the bruise on her pale forehead.

  She winced. “I think I fell asleep.”

  That had me drawing up short. It was dark out, sure, but not so late that I’d expect anyone to fall asleep at the wheel. Also, Fifi was a demon. As long as she had a steady diet of lust, she was kind of a tank. And I was more than sure Roy was taking care of her needs in that department, so what was going on that she’d pass out on her drive home from work?

  Some of what I was thinking must have showed on my face, because she grimaced. One hand fluttered up to prod the area slowly turning purple on her forehead. “I haven’t been sleeping for, well, days now, I guess. It must have just caught up to me. I woke up when my head smacked against the steering wheel, and when I jerked…” she gestured to the ditch.

  “Thank God you aren’t hurt...” Or, at least, I didn’t think she was hurt.

  Red bloomed in her pale cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I’m just glad I didn’t hit anyone else. I wouldn’t have driven if I’d known I was this bad. I’m sorry you got dragged out for this, Taliyah.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, because what else was there to say? No one had gotten hit, there was no damage to anything but maybe the Mercedes and Fifi herself. “Do you want me to call someone to come and get you? Roy?”

  Or I’d just take her home myself and arrange for a deputy to drop her car off later. As if it had been summoned by my question, a huge black pick-up truck pulled up behind my cruiser, and the whole frame lurched as Roy unfolded himself from the driver’s seat.

  His jaw was set, teeth clenched so hard that I could see the muscles jumping under his skin as he stalked forward like a mountain on the warpath. Anyone who didn’t know him would have pegged it as fury, and a few of the humans still lingering at the edges took some hasty steps back.

  Fifi though, wasn’t concerned. She smiled gently, still looking embarrassed by all the fuss. “I’m okay, Roy. It’s just a bruise. I’m fine though... really.”

  A shudder moved through Roy from his shoulders to his feet as he let out a harsh breath. Fifi stood up to meet him when he reached her, and he folded her into his arms like she was made out of spun sugar and he was terrified he’d crush her.

  It was sweet, if a little stupid. I’d once seen a huge shaggy ice monster kick Fifi through a wall, and she’d gotten right back up to deck the thing in the face. She wasn’t exactly the dainty princess she appeared to be—and that whole bit with the ice monster had been pretty downright kick-ass. But then, love was weird like that—not that I would know, because in the relationship department, I was batting 0/1. And, no, Maverick didn’t count because ours was a marriage for convenience.

  Fifi patted Roy on the shoulder gently, like he was the one who needed comfort. “I really am okay.”

  If Fifi had been human, I’d have insisted she go to the hospital to get checked out in case she had a concussion. But Fifi wasn’t human, and spending time with her boyfriend would do more for her than a whole building full of doctors could. So, all I said was, “Are you okay taking her home?”

  Roy gave me a short nod. He wasn’t a super talkative guy at the best of times, but when he was stressed, he got really quiet. He was probably worried his voice would come out as a growl, especially with all the humans still loitering around.

  “Thanks, Taliyah,” he managed.

  I nodded as I turned to the small crowd still watching and gossiping, and I put on my best Police Chief face. “Alright folks, thank you for your concern, but you can all head home now. We’ve got it handled.”

  The group dispersed, though a few of them kept tossing longing looks back at Fifi as they went. I was just glad none of them tried to proposition her, especially with Roy standing right there. I didn’t need another accident to clean up.

  When I turned back to face Fifi, I watched as Roy’s big hand came up to cup the back of her head. “Why didn’t you say something? If you’re not sleeping well, you need to feed more.”

  A blush stained Fifi’s cheeks like the sun rising, and her eyes flicked towards me in embarrassment.

  I got it. A bit of pink was flooding my own face, since what Roy was so euphemistically referring to was their sex life. There were just a few things I definitely didn’t need to know about my friends and that was one of them. I pulled out my phone and took a few hasty steps away so they could at least have a tiny bit of privacy.

  Besides, something wasn’t adding up for me. The idea of Fifi being so exhausted, even after a few days of crappy sleep, which I could completely sympathize with—well, it just didn’t make sense. Not for a healthy Succubus. There was a chance there was something else going on, but I didn’t know enough about magic to say one way or another. Luckily for me, I had an expert on speed dial.

  And, okay, yes, I could admit it. It had been a few days since I’d spoken to Maverick, and while I could just call him up for no reason, I wasn’t always comfortable doing that, so it was nice to have an excuse.

  We might have been married, but that was in deed only. Maverick had basically done it just so I could stay in Haven Hollow with my boys, and not lose my whole life by marrying Fox. It had been a favor for a friend, nothing more, and I hated putting too much on him or pushing too far. Witches didn’t even believe in marriage, and he was risking a huge hit to his reputation for marrying me, as it was. Not that Maverick really gave a crap about what anyone thought of him—it was another reason I admired him. He was his own man and made no apologies for it.

  Of course, all the logic in the world didn’t keep my heart from fluttering when he picked up before the second ring.

  “Taliyah.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Everything alright?”

  It was odd for me to call this late unless there was a problem, police related or otherwise. “Not exactly.”

  “Okay. You inviting me over for dinner and a movie?”

  I laughed. “No, not exactly.”

  “Just a movie then? I’m good with popcorn.”

  I laughed again. “Maverick, I need someone to check Fifi over for any curses or magical problems that might have made her especially exhausted. Are you busy?”

  “Where are you?”

  That was one of the best things about Maverick. He might joke and tease, and he might be pricklier than a cactus with most people, but if I needed him, he cut right to the chase.

  I rattled off directions and gave him the nearest intersection.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  And then my phone was beeping to signal that he’d hung up.

  As much as I wanted to see Maverick for personal reasons, he really was the best choice for the job. He knew more magic than anyone else in town, other than maybe Wanda and some of the older members of the local coven. But what he lacked in years, he more than made up for in raw strength, and that was just taking his own Warlock abilities into consideration, before he’d been attacked by a vampire and been partially blooded.