Witching The Day Away: Paranormal Comedy Romance, page 2
The sound of rustling leaves caught Viv’s attention and drew it away from what she was doing. She eyed the area in stealth mode from beneath her long lashes. If that cat was on the prowl, she was going to give it the fright of its life and enjoy the spectacle of ‘toilet brush tail’ as its fur stood on end. That big old puffball needed to know who was boss.
Another rustle and she moved to the right, making out like she was reaching for the tasty bird treats that she’d made, but positioning her body to be able to jump at that cat should the moment arise. With her magic at hand, she waited for another sound, whirling on her heels when it happened, and using her magic to part the bushes.
“Gotcha!” Viv let out a screech that made the big, bad wolf twist its head on its neck and pull its lips back in a soundless snarl. “Not a cat!” she snapped, forcing the words out from the lump that stuck in her throat as her mind took flight and her life flashed before her eyes.
There wasn’t much of a life to revisit because she hadn’t done much yet. That thought would have been depressing, if not for the fact that her mind was busy trying to sort through what she knew about attacking wolves.
Viv was a nature girl, and nature girls were loathed to hurt any beast – even a flesh and blood wolf standing in front of her showing its fangs and eyeing her like she was a tasty snack. “Run away while you can,” she warned it, and yet, she lied. Unless that animal attacked, she wasn’t really willing to do much of anything in the hurt-the-furry-beast-department.
The wolf didn’t move a muscle, choosing instead just to stand there and eye her for a long moment. It was the right witch – the one from the parking lot with the nun.
He hadn’t scented her then and he wouldn’t now, because scenting any female could lead to big problems, and the last thing Drew needed was another reason to get his backside chewed by the alpha.
They were in a new town. They’d been lucky enough to find land after the diabolical turn of events at home, and Drew certainly wasn’t going to mess that up for the whole pack by sniffing a wicked witch.
He had tracked her down though. There was just something about her that he couldn’t stop thinking about, had been thinking about since seeing her earlier in the day. His beast was antsy about it, and when he’d shifted for a run, well, the wolf had decided that this side of town was where it wanted to be.
Now he was staring at a wide-eyed witch whose first reaction to his presence was to threaten him. Great choice, wolf, he berated the beast. Because this little encounter wasn’t going to get back to the town elders, was it?
Drew knew that he should just turn tail and leave before she did something stupid, like carry through on that threat, and then things just might get out of hand. But first, he should explain himself, but explaining himself involved shifting into his human form, and he didn’t want her to feel any more threatened than she already was.
But didn’t the benefit of an explanation far outweigh the possible downside? He thought so.
“What are you stupid?” Viv asked, quickly eyeing the area to see if any of her friends and neighbours were about. “You know this isn’t pack land, and you can’t be here,” she hissed.
While she didn’t want to hurt the furry wildling, that didn’t mean that the others wouldn’t zap him, or worse.
A heartbeat later, she gasped in surprise and disbelief as Drew shifted into his human form. Mr Sexy shifter guy from the parking lot stood in the bushes, tall, dark, and very, very naked.
Viv heard the squeak that got stuck in her throat, but she couldn’t manage to force a single word from her lips as her eyes defied rational thought and roamed down his muscled body, before roaming right back up again. There was certainly nothing small on that man anywhere that she could see – well, maybe his toes and his little fingers, but who was looking at that? Everything – seemed very proportionate to his height and muscle mass.
Viv had to wonder who turned on the heatwave in autumn. Boy, was she hot, hot and bothered, and gawking! Oh, dear Lordy-Lord, she was gawking!
She snapped her gaze up to his face, and there was a smirk, a real honest to goodness smirk like the one he’d delivered earlier in the day when she’d been gawking as well! Pooh-sticks!
“I wanted to…” Drew started but bit off the rest of those words when she jumped in place at the sound of his voice and yanked her magic back. The bushes snapped back into place, hitting him in the body and face, and feeling like she’d taken a whip to his skin. “Ouch!” His dry tone made her grimace.
Viv groaned inwardly, but she also couldn’t snap off the smile that graced her lips. It had served him right, and while she couldn’t really bring herself to hurt a poor, dumb animal, she had no problem with hurting a big dumb shifter.
“Standing naked in my bushes like a pervert, what did you expect?” Viv bit out.
She didn’t know what this guy was playing at, but she wasn’t interested either. There were rules about shifters and witches, and staying off each other’s land, and he was breaking them.
Viv was about to turn on her heels and leave when two big hands appeared out of the bushes and wrenched them apart. His head and naked shoulders were visible, but at least she didn’t have to look at the rest of him. Not that the rest of him didn’t deserve another look, or gawk, but that wasn’t the point – the point was her cheeks were hotter than heck already, and she was way too young to be fanning herself when it wasn’t even summer outside.
Drew eyed the wicked little witch. “I think you did that on purpose…”
“You … think?” She snorted a chuckle. “You’re male, enough said.”
“Oh good, a sexist…” he said, rolling his eyes and groaning inwardly.
Viv motioned down her body, and it hadn’t been an invitation for his eyes to follow, but they did. Strangely enough, she sort of got a kick out of it, and then she mentally slapped herself around the back of the head, told herself to behave, and hooked a finger to bring his eyes back to hers. “Eyes are here, jerk,” she bit out.
“Hey, you invited me to look,” he said, smirking.
Viv ignored that hard fact. “And sexist?” She gave a derisive snort. “Did you not notice my gender?”
“Sure did,” Drew said, his gaze took her in again, right down to the pointy toes of her boots, then right back to her eyes that had narrowed on him while his mind had been on other things. All of those things were wickedly good, but he’d bet she wouldn’t see it that way.
“When you’ve finished checking out the real estate that your wolf-butt can’t afford…”
“Do you charge by the hour?” he asked, grinning, but that grin died on his lips when he felt the hard sting of her magic. His muscles gave up on him, and letting go of the bushes to spring back in his face wasn’t his biggest problem – nope, that was his legs giving way and his pride hitting the ground, or more accurately, the brambles. “Yeeeooowww!”
Viv pressed her lips together, but it didn’t matter one little bit, that smile would have out no matter what. She knew where he was standing, so she knew where he’d landed, and all those prickly brambles on that naked backside and other, nether region things must have stung like a witch.
The sound of grunting, muttering curses, and little yips of pain did nothing for her ability to rein in the amusement. Smiling turned to grinning, then grinning turned to spluttering laughter, and it was out of her control from there.
She jumped to attention when two large hands snapped open the lower part of the bushes. She guessed his legs weren’t working for him yet.
Drew’s top lip twitched with annoyance as he eyed the witch with contempt. Viv slowly raised her eyebrows and offered him a smirk. “Didn’t realise that a witch was void of a sense of humor,” he grumbled, and there was a low growl rolling along with his words that reached her ears and warned her to behave.
Viv didn’t like to be warned. “Didn’t realise a wolfman was so easy to take down,” she said, skewering his pride and jabbing at his buttons.
“It’s not…” He pressed his lips together as he moved in place and regretted getting jabbed somewhere no man should be vulnerable to a sharp object.
Viv leaned in a little, not because she was trying to sneak a peek, but because she wanted to make her point – although, the brambles had done that for her. “Ouchie?” she asked with a teasing grin, and he could see the glee and mischief dancing in her green eyes. It was strangely attractive.
“You know there is,” Drew said, growling just a little.
“Well, go tell someone who cares,” Viv said, spinning on her heels and starting away from him.
“Sexist and mean with it,” he grumbled and made her stop in her tracks.
Viv shot a glare back over her shoulder at him. “I can’t be sexist, I’m a woman, and I’m only mean to buttheads and perverts. I know you’re definitely one, the jury is still out on the other.”
“Sexism isn’t about gender it’s a state of mind, and lady…” Drew grunted as he got prickled again. “Your mind is a state.”
“My mind?” Viv asked, turning back and stomping the few feet back towards him. “I’m not on land I have no business being on. I’m not naked and doing weird things behind a bush at a woman’s house, and I’m not going around accusing harmless females of being…”
“Harmless?” He snorted a chuckle and followed it up with a grunt of disbelief. “Not exactly sweetness and light, are ya, baby?”
“B-a-b-y?” she twisted her face in disgust. “Go away you little pervert before I set the faeries on you.”
“Sweetheart,” Drew bit out, fighting the urge to yelp again as he forced his backside to move, and those prickles got in some good jabs. He was done being a pin cushion and dragged his body upward, even with his legs still quivering a little from her magic.
Viv gave a fast shake of her head. “Not your sweetheart either.”
“Can’t say I disagree with that,” Drew bit out, finally on his feet, as his hands slapped the bushes open once more. “It’s the pervert thing I have a problem with.”
“Do tell.”
“Just did. I’m no pervert.”
“And I’m not sexist or mean. Although for you – I guess I could change,” she snapped back, folding her arms and glaring at him.
“Faeries at the bottom of the garden? Really? Is that supposed to scare me?” Drew sneered.
“No,” Viv snapped back. “Warn you.”
“I’m warned,” he tossed back with a sneer.
“Now go away, before I call the vampire and tell him you’re hunting witches,” Viv said and saw that register on his face.
Of course, she wouldn’t call anybody. Disobeying the rules in Knowing wasn’t the smartest thing a person could do, but then, look who was disobeying them. She wouldn’t think he was the brightest of the bunch, but if he was … Lord help Knowing.
“I wouldn’t hunt you if you were the last witch on Earth,” he growled, but his wolf was doing all the growling, not him. The only trouble was, it was rumbling in his chest.
“And I wouldn’t pee on you if you were on fire,” Viv snapped back. “Unless I had nothing but alcohol in my body, then I might consider it.”
Drew went to open his mouth to come back on that one, but she promptly turned and stalked away from him, leaving him standing there wishing he could think of something as a parting shot.
“Now get off my land, and don’t come back,” Viv called over her shoulder, and even though she wanted to get one last look at the sucker, she made herself not turn around and give him the satisfaction.
She did, however, flip him her middle finger, and felt a strange sense of satisfaction from doing it.
“Females,” Drew growled out in annoyance.
“Ah, the female of the species, you can’t live with them,” the vampire said, and Drew’s beast rose up within him at the sound of that melodic tone and the scent of the bloodsucker in the air, and he spun on his heels – only for a big fist to hit him square on the jaw and punch his lights out. “And you most certainly can’t kill them.”
Sebastian eyed the wicked little witch through the bushes as she stalked up onto the back porch, entered the house, and slammed the back door after her. “Perfect, no witnesses,” he said, reaching down for the limp body of the shifter and tossing the dead weight over his shoulder like the man weighed nothing at all.
CHAPTER THREE
~
“I say we kill him,” Delta, the elder witch said, eyeing the good-looking hunk that lay unconscious on the floor of the big barn as the other two procrastinated.
“We still don’t know why he broke the rules.” Sebastian had no problem keeping order in the town, and if that meant killing a wolf shifter or two then so be it. There were times when it was prudent to act on his own, and times like these when he needed to get the go-ahead from the town council – the other town council – the supernatural one.
“Maybe he’s just thick-headed,” Delta said with a grunt of annoyance at having to leave her baking and drag her backside all the way to the barn. “This is what you get when you bring in new blood.”
“Unfortunately, we had no choice,” Mayor Plank said with a huff. He forced his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, and it only highlighted his barrel chest.
“Where is God’s little helper?” Delta asked of Father Wolf.
“Off preaching to the converted,” Sebastian said. “But this is a pressing matter, and we need to make a decision before…” Drew woke up with a roar of anger and a startled looked around. He certainly wasn’t in Kansas anymore. “That happens,” the vampire said, finishing his sentence and his point.
“What the hell?” Drew growled, fighting the chains that bound his wrists behind his back, but to no avail.
Delta took a step towards the shifter. “You threatened the witches…”
“I didn’t threaten anyone,” Drew growled.
His thoughts were all over the place, and he didn’t remember threatening that sexy little witch, but if he did, he wasn’t sorry. She’d obviously told on him – something he’d been hoping to avoid, but witches were sneaky and devious, and he’d remember that for the next time they encountered one another.
Drew’s wolf was agitated, and not only for the situation that they found themselves in. It clawed and tried to push forward, but being bound as he was, Drew knew that was a bad idea.
“In all fairness,” Sebastian said, not because he needed to be fair – hell, it would be easier just to kill the man and be done with it, but he didn’t like to be too rash. “I didn’t hear any real threats being lobbied from his side…”
“My witch was just protecting herself,” Delta snapped back, rushing to Vivelle’s defence, even if she wasn’t in possession of all the facts.
“I’ve been on the other side of that protection,” Sebastian said, offering the elder a withering stare, and when she pouted and looked anywhere but at him, he knew he’d made his point.
“The fact remains,” Mayor Plank interjected. “We need to make an example of…”
“The hell you do!” Grant growled, stalking into the barn through the side entrance and eyeing his beta with a look that said the man was going to be licking his wounds for a while to come once he got through with him.
“There are rules,” Mayor Plank announced, telling the alpha what he already knew. “It was explained to you before…”
“Yeah, I got your rules,” Grant said, squaring up to the old alpha that still looked pretty damn good for his age. “And you can take ‘em and shove…”
“This is getting us nowhere,” Delta said, exasperated. “Boys will be boys…”
“Exactly,” Grant said, cutting her off. “I’m sure he was just following his natural instincts and…”
“I’m talking about you two numb-nuts,” Delta shot back. “You want to do your mutt-on-mutt thing, take it outside.”
“Mutt-on-mutt,” Sebastian said, his tone full of relish and his eyes glinting with amusement. “Sounds like something you might buy a ticket to watch, Delta.”
Delta rallied towards the vampire, narrowing a death glare on him. “You want to join him in the never-after?”
“Nobody – well, my beta – isn’t going to the … never-after,” Grant said, waving a hand at her description of death. Witches always had to fancy everything up.
“Never say never,” Sebastian said.
Delta snorted a derisive chuckle. “Never turn your back on a vampire,” she said, eyeing him with disdain.
“Back, front, side, I’m not fussy,” Sebastian said, teasing the elder but making his point in the process. She grunted in annoyance.
“Get me out of these damn chains,” Drew growled, rattling them as he fought to free himself.
Grant stalked towards his friend with the intention of doing just that. “Not so fast,” Sebastian said, putting his body between the shifters and blocking the alpha’s path.
“Don’t make this ugly,” Grant snarled.
“Alright,” Delta bit out in annoyance. “Let’s keep our claws and fangs sheathed and our dangly bits in our trousers, shall we?”
“Dangly bits?” Sebastian mouthed the words with a curious look at the witch.
“I like to keep things clean until they need to be dirty,” she said in a no-nonsense way that made the vampire offer her a wicked grin. “Why were you on witch land?” she said, ignoring Sebastian, and both alphas, and turning her attention back to the beta that had started all of this.
Drew’s wolf clawed with the need to be free, the need to get the hell out of there. “Unfinished business,” he said, feeling that strange pull on his body, mind and soul to be out of the chains that bound him.
“Well, that explains everything,” Sebastian said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.
“Witch land is off limits,” Mayor Plank reminded him.
“He knows,” Grant growled. The old alpha was getting on his nerves. He got that the man was feeling replaced by the new pack, the new alpha in town, but the man was messing in pack business, and that couldn’t go unchallenged.
