“Then how…”

  “I overheard her talking to someone on the phone while she was on one of her breaks. I figured it was probably whatever witch is supposed to help her with this spell she’s considering.”

  Anger started brewing in my stomach. I just didn’t understand Roy sometimes. How could he sit back and listen to the things going on around him and not do something about them? “You knew Fifi was in danger from Angelo and you knew all about her family’s plan to take her home and… and force her into some sort of horrible sexual slavery?”

  “I didn’t know it had gotten as out of control as you’re saying,” he explained. “I didn’t know Angelo tried to kidnap her. Last I heard, he was just making threats and basically being an asshole like he normally is.”

  “Well, he’s doing a lot more than that.” I heard my voice rising as I rounded on him. “How can you be so nonchalant about this? How can you just blow it off like it’s nothing? Especially when I thought you and Fifi were friends.”

  “We are friends.”

  “So?”

  “So if you knew Fifi better than you do, you’d understand that if she isn’t finding drama, it’s finding her.”

  “This isn’t just drama, Roy.”

  “I understand that now, but the reason we’re arguing is because you didn’t think I took the threat seriously enough before. And I’m telling you, I didn’t realize what the threat level was before. I figured it was just another case of Fifi getting involved in the same antics she always is.”

  “But you knew she was going to try to remove her succubus side?”

  He shook his head. “I overheard her saying something about that, but I didn’t have all the pieces, so I didn’t understand what she was talking about. And I never in a million years imagined she’d actually attempt something so… dangerous.”

  “Well, she is.”

  “Right, and now I know that.”

  “So, what are you going to do about it?”

  He was quiet as he looked at me and then sucked in a big breath of air. “Poppy, I’m on your side. I’m not the enemy.”

  I was quiet for a few seconds and then realized I was being unfair. I wasn’t sure why I was so quick to jump down Roy’s throat for everything, without first giving him the benefit of the doubt. “I’m sorry,” I started.

  “If Angelo is trying to actively kidnap Fifi, I suggest we remove her to my family’s colony in the mountains,” Roy answered, interrupting me. “My family would be able to protect her from her lunatic relatives.”

  “Why do you think they’d be able to protect her?” It was a stupid question even as it came out of my mouth. What person (or demon) in his right mind would go up against a family of sasquatches? In short: no one. “Nevermind, I already know the answer.”

  “It would be the safest place for her.”

  I wasn’t sure why, but that feeling of hollow jealousy started to snake through me again. I had to forcibly push it down. “How enthusiastic will your people be to take in a stranger—and a… succubus at that? Won’t they be susceptible to her charms, just like everyone else is? What if they don’t want her there?”

  “They’ll agree if I ask them. I have a reputation among my people for taking in strays. They’re used to me showing up with all kinds of supernatural creatures in need of help.”

  I furrowed my brow as I considered the scenario. It seemed like a good one, but then I remembered Fifi talking about living in some remote wilderness somewhere and how she wouldn’t. “I don’t know if she’ll take you up on that offer.”

  “Of course she will. It’s obviously the only answer...”

  Unless it wasn’t the only answer. And I was currently trying to figure out if that was the case. I’d searched through my potions book of recipes that had been passed down through the centuries of my family’s lineage. I hadn’t found anything that would do what we needed it to.

  I just need time, I promised myself. If I had time, I could come up with something. And, truly, Fifi would be safest in some remote area while I tried to figure out how to help her.

  “I already mentioned this idea to Fifi,” Roy said as I looked over at him, feeling the anger returning.

  “What idea?”

  “For her to come live with my family for a bit.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “No,” he answered with a shrug. “She said she didn’t want to live in a cave. I guess she wants to live as normally as possible and I can understand that. But, it seems things are changing for the worse...”

  I wasn’t listening. “You had this conversation with her a week ago and you didn’t tell me?”

  He threw up both hands and rolled his eyes. “Oh, God, here we go again! What on Earth did you think I was going to do—NOT offer her a way out?”

  “You might at least have told me. I’m your girlfriend, in case you forgot.”

  “I haven’t forgotten.”

  “Okay, so just how am I supposed to trust you if you keep stuff like this from me?”

  “I didn’t keep anything from you.” He tensed and his jaw muscle flexed. “You’re putting words in my mouth again.”

  I couldn’t fully understand why I felt the way I did. I mean, in general, I wasn’t a jealous person. I was easygoing and didn’t let things get under my skin. So why did I feel like he’d gone behind my back with this conversation with Fifi? Why did I feel like he’d intentionally kept it from me? Furthermore, did I really want him to start telling me about every conversation he had, no matter how ordinary? That would be ridiculous. It would be controlling to say the least, and even borderline psycho.

  “It just makes me wonder what else you’re keeping from me?” I muttered, unable to keep the words inside.

  “Nothing, okay? I’m not keeping anything from you, and if I thought for ten seconds you would react like this, I would have told you back when I offered as much to Fifi. I just… I didn’t think it mattered—I didn’t think you’d react like this.”

  “It matters to me and I daresay, it would matter to any other woman you were dating. When you’re in a relationship, you’re supposed to be open with each other. You’re supposed to talk about things like this—things like asking another woman to come back to your ancestral home.”

  He looked at me pointedly. “Are you jealous? Is that what this is about?”

  “No,” I said, but then figured he could see through my lie. I was a bad liar. “Maybe a little, but that’s not the point.”

  “Poppy, you have nothing to be jealous about.”

  I whirled away to stare out the window. Why did our attempts at conversation always seem to end in an argument? We’d been bickering back and forth for weeks and I didn’t really see any end in sight.

  I undid my seatbelt and opened the door, stepping into the cold night air that seemed to embrace me extra hard in its frigidity. I didn’t waste any time in hurrying up my front stairs, and I could hear Roy right behind me.

  “You might not understand this, but I’m my family’s representative in this town,” Roy said as I unlocked the front door and pushed it open. The sounds of the television rang through the house, and I decided to wait in the foyer so Roy and I could finish this conversation.

  “I’m the only sasquatch on the Council, and if someone under my protection needs help, it’s my duty to offer it in whatever form I can. I was looking out for Fifi long before you came to town.”

  I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. “I get that. I don’t know why it bothers me so much except to say that you asked another woman to live with your family… which means she’d be meeting your family and… I still haven’t even done that.”

  “Poppy, there’s nothing romantic between Fifi and me.”

  “I’m not saying there is.”

  “And you and I aren’t… there in our relationship yet for you to meet my family. We haven’t even talked about it.”

  “Right.”

  He picked up my hand and rubbed my knuckles. “We’re both worked up about this. Let’s put it on the back burner for now and go say hi to everyone, okay?”

  My voice shook. “I think it would be best if we just called it a night for now. I… I need to process and if I keep talking to you right now, I’ll probably say something I’ll regret.”

  The smile evaporated off his face. “Okay. If that’s what you want…”

  “I think it’s the best idea for tonight. We both just need… a little space.”

  Chapter Five

  “I agree with Fifi that she’s better off in town,” I said as I talked to Roy over the phone the next morning. I’d stayed up all night, replaying the argument we’d had as well as the solutions to the Fifi situation that were currently available to us.

  “How can you think she’s better off in town?”

  “Because I need to have access to her so I can try out a variety of potions and see if any of them work.”

  “Potions to do what?”

  “Keep her protected against her family while I work on other potions that might curb her sexual appetite so this whole abstinence thing becomes easier for her. Meanwhile, I want to work on other potions that might tone down her sexuality so maybe she won’t have to go through with this spell.”

  “You can do all that while she’s living with my family.”

  “No, I can’t, because I won’t have time to go driving all over Timbuktu every time I need to test a potion on her. Do I need to remind you I’m a full-time mom?”

  “No, Poppy, you don’t.”

  “Besides, Fifi doesn’t want to leave Haven Hollow anyway, so it shouldn’t matter what we think is best for her. We should do what she wants. We aren’t her parents.”

  “I’m well aware of that.”

  I took a deep breath and hated the fact that we were back in argument territory. It seemed no matter what we talked about, it escalated into a bitching match. “Anyway, I was thinking we can keep an eye on her here and make sure her family stays away from her. She should stop working at the real estate agency—for now, at least. She can work at the Half-Moon full time and you can keep an eye on her during the day. Lorcan said he could give her jobs at the dental practice to cover the night shift because apparently, succubae don’t really sleep much.”

  “I don’t like the idea of Fifi spending time with Lorcan. He’s a notorious rake.”

  “Who is also head over heels in love with Wanda. You have nothing to worry about where Lorcan is concerned.” And then I caught myself. “Why would you worry about that, anyway?”

  “I’m not. Those were your words, not mine.”

  “Anyway,” I said on a sigh. I didn’t have the energy to get into this subject. I just wanted to get off the phone. “Lorcan said he’d be happy to let her stay in all of his available rental properties which are numerous. Keeping her moving will prevent her family from tracking her and the last place they’d probably think to look for her would be on a vampire’s property.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because she can’t feed off a vampire’s life energy since he has no life energy.”

  Roy was quiet for a few seconds but then said a curt, “Sounds good.”

  I waited for him to say something else, but instead, silence rang through the other line. That was the end of the conversation—for what it was worth.

  ***

  A Couple Days Later

  I set my handbag on the bar at the Half-Moon as Fifi came out of the kitchen. Her countenance brightened when she saw me. “Hey, Poppy! You’re too early for Happy Hour.”

  “Very funny, but I came to see you.”

  “You did?” she asked with a smile. I nodded and tried to smile, but I didn’t have it in me. The arguments with Roy were really taking their toll on me. I had trouble sleeping, and once I was asleep, I was plagued with nightmares.

  “How are you doing?” I asked her. “Is Angelo keeping his distance?”

  Fifi nodded. “I think he got the message since I started working here full-time and I haven’t been staying at my house. Lorcan has me sleeping all over the place.” She colored as soon as the words left her mouth. “Er, you know what I mean.”

  “Yes,” I said with a clipped nod. “I’m glad our strategy is working.”

  She nodded and glanced away before she screwed up her courage to look at me again. “Any luck on the potion front?”

  I sighed as I shook my head. That was the other thing that was keeping me up late—trying to find something I could brew that might help her. Everything I’d come up with so far—and it had only been a couple of days—had yielded nothing.

  “Unfortunately not.” I slid onto a barstool as she faced me expectantly.

  “What about that potion you tested on Henner and RJ yesterday?”

  I’d tried a concoction of a few different potions then I’d anointed Fifi with them, and I’d invited RJ and Henner over to the restaurant to test it out on them. “The concoction only made them more attracted to you, not less.”

  “Oh,” she said, and visibly deflated.

  “I don’t want you to worry though. I’m still experimenting and I’ve only tried a few potions so far. I’ll come up with something.”

  Given her expression, you’d have thought I told her it was impossible. “Thanks for trying, anyway.”

  “Hey!” I squeezed her arm. “Don’t give up yet. We’re just getting started here and every day brings us closer to a solution.”

  She nodded again, only half-heartedly. At that serendipitous moment, the kitchen doors swung open and Roy strode out. His eyes never met mine as he stepped behind the bar. I wish I could say it was a warm, welcoming, I can’t live without you kind of look, but that would have been a lie.

  His mouth said, “Hello.” His eyes said, What are you doing here?

  “Hello,” I offered.

  Fifi would have to be dead not to sense the chill in the air. She mumbled, “I gotta get back to work, Poppy,” and fled to the kitchen.

  That left Roy and me face to face across the bar. The ice was thick in the air.

  “So?” he demanded. “What’s up?”

  “I just came to see how Fifi was doing.”

  “She’s fine.” He didn’t exactly snap. He didn’t have to. “Lorcan and I have the situation under control. You don’t have to keep coming around to check on her.”

  “I don’t KEEP coming around, checking on her. Yesterday I had a potion to try on her and today I’m just looking in on her on my way to my store.”

  “How are the potions going?” he asked, clearly changing the subject.

  “Okay, I guess.”

  “Are you finding something promising?”

  “Not yet.”

  He nodded and inhaled deeply as I nervously prattled on. “I’m working on some potions to mask her pheromones and make her less appealing to the opposite sex. If it works, she can stay here without having to…”

  “You aren’t the only person who can make potions, either,” he interrupted. “There’s a witch in my family who specializes in brewing and she’s known to be very powerful.”

  “Oh.” He’d failed to ever mention this witch before.

  “I talked to her and she said she’d be happy to help out. Who knows, she might have better luck than you.”

  I stiffened. “Why haven’t you ever mentioned her before?”

  He shrugged. “Never had a need to.” Then he started wiping down the bartop with a wet towel. “Going to this witch would mean moving Fifi to my family stronghold.”

  “Fifi wants to avoid that.”

  “She can only avoid it so long.”

  “Why? Our plan seems to be working.”

  “Until it stops working.”

  I swallowed hard. I really didn’t want to get into another argument, but… “I don’t see why you’re pushing this so hard. You’re almost as bad as Angelo.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt shock ride through my body. I couldn’t believe I’d just…

  Roy froze, and then snarled through gritted teeth. “Take that back.”

  I held up both hands. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean it. It just came out.” Then I took a deep breath. “It’s just that moving her to your family is against Fifi’s wishes. Give me a little longer… please.”

  “Fine. We’ll try it your way, but if I see anything that could put her safety in jeopardy, I’m stepping in, no matter what you or Fifi say.”

  He turned around, crashed through the swinging doors, and disappeared without saying goodbye.

  No kiss. No hug. No nothing.

  I hauled myself out of the bar and told myself to keep it together. This situation was going from bad to worse.

  Getting into the Jeep, I just sat there, staring out the windshield. I should have gone back to the store, but I couldn’t get Fifi’s problem out of my mind. I needed to talk to someone about this—someone a lot more powerful than I was—and the sasquatch witch in Roy’s family wasn’t the person who sprang to mind.

  No, it was another witch who did.

  ***

  I cruised by Wanda’s store. It was closed and she wasn’t there, so I headed for the house she was currently living in while the duplex was being rebuilt. This house was also owned by Lorcan, who owned more houses in Haven Hollow than any other resident.

  On the drive over, I couldn’t get my brain to stop spinning over everything that happened in the last few days. I ran over the combinations of ingredients I’d used in the experimental potions so far. If they didn’t do the trick, what would?

  I kept getting this nagging feeling that I was missing something—there was something I wasn’t taking into account while I was trying to brew up the various potions I had. My goal was to first create something that would suppress Fifi’s pheromones, thus lessening the sexual reactions she elicited from people. The next step was creating a different potion that would address her need to feed—I wanted to brew something that would stand in for the energy she needed to siphon off other people. I figured if I could address both issues, that had to be better than destroying her succubus nature altogether.