Some Like it Hexed, page 1
Some Like it Hexed
Accidentally Magical at Midlife? Book Two
Melinda Chase
Copyright © 2021 by Melinda Chase
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover by Cozy Cover Designs
To the book lovers everywhere!
-Mel
Contents
Some Like it Hexed
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
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Chapter 1
About the Author
Some Like it Hexed
Ever since that fateful knock weeks ago, I expected life to suddenly be brimming with adventure and magic…
Yet here I am, changing my cat’s litter and flossing like nothing ever happened.
I mean, my best friend is a fae princess, and there’s a magical bracelet fused to my body, for goodness sakes! Shouldn’t something be different?!?
But aside from playing mediator in my pet’s arguments (which they have far too often), life is pretty, well, boring again. And the only action I’m seeing is in my dreams with my favorite brooding Coven leader.
I know, I know.
I should be careful what I wish for, but as they say, you can’t fight human nature.
But maybe I should’ve? Because I seem to have forgotten that adventure—and danger—go hand in hand.
And when that second fateful knock finally does come, it brings more adventure than I could’ve ever bargained for…
* * *
Some Like it Hexed is the second book in the brand new series: Accidentally Magical at Midlife? from author Melinda Chase.
Melinda loves writing tales that prove life—romance—and ‘happily-ever-afters’—do exist beyond your twenties! Her books feature snarky, hilarious heroines and their wild adventures of mid-life self-discovery filled with mystery and romance. It’s sure to please fans of traditional paranormal romance and cozy paranormal mysteries!
1
Callie
* * *
The wind swept warmly around me as I stared down at the fluttering white dress that scantily clung to my curves.
My wrists were free from the constraints of the bracelet. Beneath me, soft grass caressed the underside of my feet. The world around me was vibrant and wild, colors that I had never seen within the confines of my human brain. Well…unless I counted that one night in college, but that was technically chemically induced.
“Come on,” a solid sensual voice whispered to me.
My eyes rose, finding two bare feet hovering just above the ground. As I slowly devoured the tight leather pants leading up to the muscular, glistening, shirtless torso in front of me, I fanned myself. There he was, in all his sexy, emo, witchy man glory. Shade's mouth was upturned in a huge, toothpaste commercial-worthy smile, and I sighed dramatically, having my first ever swooning moment.
He hovered there on his expertly crafted, intricately carved broomstick. Sure, it was a stereotype. And I was pretty sure that had it been the real world and not my dream, Thorne would have been pretty pissed at the idea of himself on a broomstick. But it was my dream, and I wasn’t about to change it and risk waking myself up.
“Hop on, we’ll go for a…ride.”
I swooned even harder at the sound of his voice and reached out to take his hand. It was warm and smooth, and I bit my bottom lip as my far perkier than real-life breasts pushed against the satin of my dress. As I stepped forward, and my eyes met his, he opened his mouth to grace me yet again with that low, seductive rumble… But that was not at all what I got. Instead of his voice, the sound of a deep, gurgling snore came from his throat.
Instantly, I pulled my hands into tight fists and clenched my eyes shut. “No, no, no. Do not wake up. Do. Not. Wake. Up.”
I opened one eye and then the other, staring at Shade's hot, chiseled body with my basset hound’s head replacing his beautiful face. He snorted as a long string of spit dripped from the corner of his sloppy jowls. My arms fell to my sides, defeated, and I let out a long, unhappy breath. “Dammit.”
For the first time since Shade had left, I had a dream about something other than creepy monsters coming after me or my bracelet taking over my whole body. For the first time in weeks, I wasn’t waking up in a tired sweat, unsure of where I was. And what did I get?
My dog, Bean, nudged me, his head still firmly planted on my hot-witch-dream man body, snorting. I reached up, still dreaming, and patted his head. “You really are cramping my style. When I wake up from this dream, you better not be drooling on my face.”
My eyes glanced over Shade's strong muscles one last time, and I rolled my eyes, closing them once again. I could feel a trickle of cold air move up my spine as I woke in my bed, staring directly into a snoring basset hound’s face. “This is my life… forty years old, finding out there’s magic, and sleeping next to a basset hound as I dream of some guy on the other side of the world. Wonderful.”
I groaned as I rolled away from the dog and tilted the alarm clock upward, finding it was only two in the morning at that point. I was still relatively groggy, which wasn’t shocking considering I hadn’t really slept well since everything had happened. Pulling the covers back over my shoulder, I nestled back in, hoping that my dream would return, but really just wishing to get some sleep. Just as I began to drift off, the sound of muffled voices echoed from outside of my room. My hands gripped tightly to the blanket, and I opened my eyes, shifting them back and forth.
I waited, wondering if maybe, just maybe, I was still halfway in my dream. Just as I was about to relax again, chalking it up to another moment of paranoia, which I’d had a lot lately, the voices rang out again, snappy and angry. Bean snorted next to me but didn’t wake up. I slowly pulled back the covers and sat up, dangling my legs over the bed. My hands gripped the edge of the mattress tightly, and I could feel a tingle from the bracelet shimmering up my arm.
My eyes flickered around the room, looking for any type of weapon that I could possibly use. Sure, the bracelet had somehow chased away an evil overlord collecting kings, but it wasn’t my magic. And I had zero understanding of how to control it. I nudged my dog with my elbow. “Aren't you going to get up? Don't you hear that?"
One of Bean's eyes opened, and he sniffed the air. "Ball?"
"No." I rolled my eyes and pointed toward the door. "Don't you hear those voices?"
Before his brain could even connect the two thoughts, he was mumbling and falling back to sleep. "Bean off-duty."
The sound came again from outside the room, and I chewed nervously on my bottom lip as I scanned the room again, looking for anything I could grab. I had a stand-up lamp, but that would be really awkward to swing in the house.
Body spray? No, not foolproof. Strangle them with a scarf? Callie, you are not a ninja.
Finally, my eyes landed on the dresser where I had tossed my cooled-down flat iron. I quietly crept over to it and grabbed it, snapping it open and closed like a lobster's claw. It would have to do.
As carefully and quietly as I could, I crept toward the door and slowly turned the knob, letting it gently open up. I peeked down the hallway, but all I could see were dancing shadows in the dimly lit living room. I took a deep breath and opened the door the rest of the way, quickly making my way toward the voices. As if I were going to triumphantly defeat whoever was in my living room with a flat iron, the cord catching on the carpet as I dragged it behind me, I burst into the room.
"Don't talk to me like that, fleabag," Willa growled, staring down at Mr. Hobbles, who was sitting on the couch, licking his cat paw.
"Fleabag, how dare you!"
Suddenly, both my talking cat and my best friend turned to look at me, standing there in my pajamas, my hair wild, spit caked to my cheek, holding my flat iron. The fear rushed out of me, and I shook my head. "What are you guys doing? It's two o'clock in the morning."
Willa put her hands on her hips and pointed at the cat. "Your cat is a rude, disrespectful, giant ball of fur."
Mr. Hobbles gasped dramatically. "I'll have you know, within the cat community, I am considered a top breed."
Willa rolled her eyes. "Please. I was there when she picked you out of the lineup at the pound. It took her two weeks to get the smell of trash out of your fur."
"Rags to riches," Mr. Hobbles replied, his head in the air, his British accent thicker than ever.
"Do I need to send the two of you to couples counseling? What could you possibly be arguing about at this hour?"
Willa pointed at him. "He won't get out of the spot that I need to sleep in."
Mr. Hobbles curled into a ball. "This is my spot. It has been ever since I came here. You've outworn your welcome. Don't you have a home? Perhaps some poor defenseless creature of your own to torture?"
Willa narrowed her eyes and stepped forward, but I put up my hands and shook my head. "Enough, you two. Hobbles, you're being rude to our guest. If you don't want to end up looking like one of those hairless cats, I suggest you go find another place to sleep."
A low grumble came from the cat's chest, and he narrowed his eyes at Willa before hopping down and running off. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, plopping down onto the sofa. Willa sat next to me. We both looked at the flat iron in my hand and giggled.
Willa rubbed her hand on my back, sending a comforting warmth through my chest. "Bad dreams again?"
I tossed the flat iron onto the coffee table in front of me and rubbed my face. "No. Well… it didn't start out that way." I paused, imagining Shade with Bean's head. I shook the image from my mind. "It's been two weeks. It's been two weeks since everything happened in Rome. We came back here, and it's like I'm supposed to go on with my life. We haven't heard anything from the witches. I was literally kidnapped multiple times, taken to Rome, abducted by some crazy magical creature, and now I have your bracelet melded into my body. Oh yeah, and the fact that magic is real… It's just a lot. And it's a lot not to be answered."
Willa gave me a half-smile and nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "I know it seems like forever, but these things take time. After what you saw, and the fact that whoever it is probably knows that we've kind of joined forces in this whole thing, they're probably quiet right now. If the witches knew anything, I'm sure they'd be here to let us know."
I fell back against the couch and rolled my eyes. "I know. But how long? I keep looking over my shoulder, waiting for the next thing to happen. I keep thinking, any second now, the witches are going to land on our front doorstep with news from the witch world."
Just as I finished my sentence, there was a loud and echoing knock on the front door. I immediately sat up at the same time as Willa, our backs straight, staring over, both wondering if we had imagined the knocking. We sat very still for several moments. "You heard that, right?"
Willa nodded. "I did. And it's almost too much of a coincidence for even me."
Slowly, we looked at each other, blinking. We jumped again as a knock sounded on the door even louder than the first time. I put my hand down on the arm of the couch and lifted myself up. Willa grabbed my hand. "What are you doing?"
I pointed at the door. "I'm going to go answer that… Obviously, it's not just a salesman. We don't need them waking up the whole neighborhood."
Deep down, I was hoping it would be Shade, though the reasoning for that I wasn't exactly sure yet. I wasn't positive that it didn't have to do with that dream I had just had. At the same time, I was desperate for answers and for things to move forward. I was tired of living in limbo, replaying the events in Rome over and over again in my head.
Willa slowly let go of my hand. "Be careful."
I lifted a brow at her. "If somebody's gonna come after us, they're not going to just knock on the front door."
Willa pursed her lips. "Really? Did you already forget what happened to you last time? You were literally kidnapped after somebody knocked on the front door."
I paused but then shook my head. "That was your front door."
I wasn't going to lie. There was a certain level of anxiety rumbling around my stomach. Whoever was on the other side of the door wasn't going to leave. As I approached the door and reached out for the handle, I glanced back at Willa. She was standing about three feet behind me, her shoulders stiff, gripping the flat iron in both hands.
"You could've at least plugged this in on turbo mode or something…." Willa said, touching the cold ceramic plates.
"Really? I'm sorry. I'm sure that the bad guys I thought were breaking into my house would definitely have allowed me three minutes to heat up my flat iron before attacking. Hell, maybe we could have had a little makeover session before they tried to kill me with their magic."
Willa rolled her eyes, and the knock sounded again. I turned back and took a deep breath, pushing the fear out of me, not wanting to show Willa—who was more nervous than I had seen her in a while—that my knees would be smacking together if I wasn't consciously trying to keep everything from shaking. I opened the door just a crack, paused for a moment, and then swung it wide. Standing on the other side were the two fae bodyguards who had, just a few weeks before, kidnapped me, taking me on a wild car ride, and then left me with the witches. This time though, they had ditched the I Love San Fran T-shirts and were dressed in white flowing tunics, matching pants, and sandals. Their eyes were a beautiful crystal blue, and they looked exactly how I imagined the fae would look.
I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at them. "Did you guys not get the memo? You do know we've done this already, right?" I looked back at Willa. "Is this like one of those glitches in the matrix?"
Her eyes shifted from me back to the guys, but her facial expression changed. Slowly, I turned back to see what she was looking at, finding a tall, beautiful fae woman stepping between the guards. She had long, glistening, amber hair that rolled over her shoulders and down her back. Her eyes were that same beautiful crystal blue, her skin very fair, and her lips pink. She moved slowly and gracefully, and when she smiled at me, it was as if a warm blanket were wrapped around me. The fae woman's eyes then shifted behind me, but her smile stayed. "Hello, Willa. It's been a long time."
I turned on my heels to face Willa and watched as her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped, the flat iron falling from her hand. Her stare stayed glued to the fae woman.
"Aunt Liza, what are you doing here?"
2
Callie
* * *
I stood to the side, holding the door as Willa's gorgeous fae aunt practically glided into the room.
She was wearing a beautiful, basically see-through dress with intricate, heavy beading. However, it looked like it weighed almost nothing. The first guard to pass me had been the driver when I was kidnapped, and he didn't even attempt to make eye contact. The second one, however…oh boy.
His eyes immediately narrowed, and I winced, seeing the remnants of what looked like two black eyes and a crease across his perfect fae nose. His glare could have cut me to the very pit of my soul if I weren’t careful.
I giggled nervously. "Sorry about that."
The first guard turned back and chuckled, grabbing the second by his arm and pulling him into the house. I rolled my eyes and puffed my cheeks, realizing that just when I thought life couldn't get any more awkward, in walk the two fae guards, I practically beat up in the middle of traffic. When I began to shut the door, a hand came from the doorway and stopped me. My heart raced as my eyes lifted to see Shade, standing there just as I had remembered him… Well, this time with a shirt on and definitely not with my dog's head on his shoulders.
He flashed me a smirk as his dark eyes met mine. My heart did some sort of pretzel flip twist in my chest, and I swallowed hard. Behind him, his main guard, Thorne, strutted in. He gave me a mischievous grin and hurried inside. I stood there slightly shocked and definitely taken off guard. As everyone gathered in the living room, I shut and locked the door, making sure the drapes were fully closed. It was quite the sight to see. Four fae, including Willa, stood in my house with two witches.
