Witchin' Impossible, page 12
I focused my power at Adele.
“Ties that bind this tree to thee.
Reveal yourself so all can see.
The ties that bind, so mote it be.”
A long, glowing tether slithering around the tree’s roots flowed out across the room and speared straight through Robert Townsend’s chest, out his back, and into the flames consuming Adele. She gathered another large ball of nuclear flames in her arms. A vision of all of us ending up like Nichols made me shudder.
“Whatever you have planned, Dad, you better do it quick!”
Dad wiggled his fingers:
“Tree of Blood, Witch of Lies.
Slice away your mortal ties.
Earth. Water. Fire. Air.
Sever bonds to this earthly lair.”
The flames around Adele spiked. Robert Townsend tried to run, but Ford the bear leaped the distance, smashing him down with his massive paws. Next, he tore off Townsend’s head, and the raton was no more. Unfortunately, that still left Adele, and her power seemed to be going atomic-bomb dangerous.
“Ford! Run!” The bear took one look at the witch as her flames went supernova and barreled his way toward me. I turned to my dad. “Uh, I think you maybe made it worse!”
“It should have worked.”
Ford, a massive man again, only naked now, took me in his arms and kissed me. A last act of love before dying. Hubba.
A sonic BOOM shook the entire building, and I looked up in time to get hit in the shoulder with a piece of charred meat. “Ew!”
The silence following the boom was deafening. My dad picked up Lily and carried her over the battlefield of body parts. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been proud to be his daughter. My eyes misted.
“I’m proud to have you for a mate.” Ford's gaze softened as he brushed a stray swatch of bloody skull and hair from my arm.
“So gross,” I said.
“It really is.” His blue eyes alighted around the room. “I’ve seen it before with guys like Townsend.”
“What?”
“Small mammal syndrome.”
I grinned. “You did not just go there.”
He laughed, and it made me feel good to my toes.
“Proud to be my mate, huh?” I covered his freed willy with my torso.
“Don’t make me take it back.” He lifted me into his arms. “You have a decision to make.”
“Don’t forget about me!” Tizzy scaled his leg and settled into my lap. “Nothing like bear-to-door service.”
“Not so fast.”
The voice froze us all in place. Standing in the middle of the mess, in an immaculate white dress suit and white gloves, her silver hair neatly slicked back in a rolled bun, was none other than my grandma, the Grand Inquisitor herself.
“Hello, Mother,” my dad said.
“You missed all the fireworks,” I said, kind of pissed that she hadn’t shown up sooner.
She rolled her eyes so far back they turned white. “You’re a riot.” She curled her gloved fist on her hip. “Is this Adele Adams?” She pointed at barbecued body parts.
I shrugged. “Some of it.” The pile of goo near the door was my biggest regret. “Too bad about Chief Nichols. I would have bet my savings he was one of the bad guys. Color me surprised.”
“He was a dick,” Ford said. “But you’re right. He wasn’t evil. Just incompetent.”
“Agreed,” my dad said. “Are you satisfied now, Grand Inquisitor?”
“You’ve done well, Kent. I will allow that the death of your wife was an accident of her own making.” She pulled off one glove and glanced around at the meat explosion. “Adele has always been a jealous witch. Even as a child, I knew she’d be trouble.” She puffed up a breath of air that rustled her bangs. “Family. Can’t live with them. Can’t kill them.” She winked at me. “Sometimes a little help is needed in that department.”
“She is a member of our family?”
“A very distant cousin.” She examined her long, neatly manicured nails on the hand not wearing the glove before turning her all-knowing gaze on me. “You owe me a favor, Hazel Marie Kinsey.”
I didn’t like that she had invoked my entire name. “Killing Adele wasn’t favor enough?”
She shrugged. “Fine. We’ll call that favor number one. But, as you may recall, we agreed on two favors.”
“Right, right. So mote it be.”
“Why do you keep adding that to your spells?” my father asked. “Not judging. Just asking.”
“I thought…you mean you don’t have to?” I wasn’t about to tell them about my Witchcraft for Idiots book. “But the Grand Inquisitor said it to me when we made the deal.”
She shrugged. “You believed in the words. Belief gives the magic power.”
“Awesome.” I felt like a total dummy.
“Don’t be ashamed, Hazel. You are very strong, and you will do great things for this town.”
Ford’s arms tightened on me.
“I haven’t decided…”
“Now you’re being a dummy,” she said. “You will be the new chief of police. I’m ordering it so.” She pierced me with her or-I’ll-smite-you stare. “No arguing.”
“I don’t know…” I looked up at Ford. “Would it make you mad if I were your boss?”
“You mean you want to stay in Paradise Falls?”
“I really do.”
“Then it would not make me mad.” He kissed me, squishing Tizzy between us. She squeaked her protest. “I don’t want to leave, and I don’t want to live without you. It’s a win.”
“Hello, injured BFF over here,” Lily crooned. “I really need to get to Dr. Geller.”
“She’s a medical examiner,” I protested. Uck. I didn’t want that bear-flirting bitch fixing my friend. “She works with dead people.”
“She’s the only doctor in town,” Lily countered. She held her arm to her chest. “I can heal a lot, but that jerk broke the bone clean in half.”
The Grand Inquisitor clapped her hands. “I will take the werecougar to a top-notch healer. She will fix her right up.” She clapped her hands again, and Lily disappeared from my father’s arms. Grandmother’s eyes softened for a moment, and she uncharacteristically put a comforting hand on my cheek. “Don’t worry, Hazel. She’s in good hands now. Goodbye, Granddaughter.”
“Good—” And my grandmother was gone before I could say bye.
CHAPTER 17
After he set me down, I stared into Ford’s blue eyes mostly to avoid looking around at all the people parts. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“You were pretty damn spectacular.”
His compliment made me squishy in all my squishy places. I wiggled against him, and his timber hardened against me. He growled. I grinned.
“Get some, Haze!” Tizzy said.
I blushed. Sometimes it was easy to forget about the tiny squirrel in the room.
The soft noise of a throat clearing got my attention. My dad stood alone, his hands by his side, his palms open.
Goddess on toast. I’d rubbed a naked guy in front of my father.
“Haze,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
I’d blamed him for so long, it was hard to get a grip on how to feel now that I knew he didn’t kill my mother. At least, not on purpose. “How come you never told me you were innocent? That Mom was the one practicing bad magic?”
“I wanted to protect you. Besides, it was hard to convince the Grand Inquisitor, my own mother, I hadn’t killed Priscilla on purpose. I believed that without proof, I’d never convince you, either.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t a perfect father, even before I tried to sever the pair bond with your mom. But I do love you.”
Ford let me go, and I went to my dad and hugged him. “We’ll get through this.”
He hugged me back. “Danny died because he got too close to the truth. Lily deserves to know. Her brother died an honorable death. His and Lily’s parents were victims of Adele, Robert, and your mom. I suspected but couldn’t prove the crime. It’s why they killed him.”
“Why break all his bones?”
“Pain,” Dad said. “The more pain that fed the spell, the more powerful the magic. Druidic magic is more potent with sacrifice.”
“And Boyd?”
“I think because he and Danny were friends, they believed he knew more than he actually did. They killed Dennis Mitchell because he decided to blackmail them for more money after they’d bribed him to hide evidence in the investigation.”
“Lily and the Deckers will sleep easier, knowing their loved ones can rest in peace now,” said Ford.
I kissed Ford. Not a quick bump of lips, but a deep, meaningful, sucking-his-tongue-down-my-throat kiss.
He growled and yanked me hard against his body.
“I’m out of here,” my dad said, then blinked away.
“We’re covered in shifter-witch gunk,” I said when Ford’s hands slid under my shirt.
“The mating urge is strong.” His fingers danced over my nipples, sending sharp spikes of pleasure to my hoo-ha.
“Bear and witch.
Mating itch.
Too much power.
Need a shower.
Goddess hear me.
So mote it be.”
In a quick fade out then back in, we were standing in a five-foot marble shower with ten pulsating jet sprayers and an overhead rainmaker. “Oh, man, I’m getting good!”
I turned on the water and stripped my clothes while Ford tossed them over the clear door.
“Are you sure, Haze?” he asked when he had me naked with my breasts mashed up against his bare furry chest. “Mating is for life.”
“Do you wish I wouldn’t have kissed you the night of the party? I mean, I was a nobody in high school. I wasn’t even on your radar.”
“There have been times I regretted it because it’s hard to be alone.” He brushed back a wet strand of hair from my face. “But…you were wearing black leggings, a blue tank top, and a pair of pink ankle boots. Oh, and you wore your hair in a ponytail to the side. You were pretty adorable.”
“The night of the party?”
“No,” Ford said, shaking his head. “The day I asked you to pass me the catsup.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Oh.”
He growled as he lifted me off the floor of the shower, my feet dangling as he pressed his forehead to mine. “You were on my radar, Hazel Kinsey. Then and now.”
“Yes,” I told Ford. “Let’s make this work.”
“It’s for life.” He smiled. “No parole.”
“I’ll wear an ankle monitor if it will make you happy.”
“One more thing about mating, and I’ll be quick because frankly, I’m about to explode, there is a…bite involved.”
“How hard?”
He rubbed his red oak against me. “Pretty hard.”
I smacked him. “The bite. How hard is the bite?”
“Do you want to find out?” The promise in his blue eyes made me nod. Vigorously.
“Yes.” I wrapped my legs around his waist, inhaling sharply as his rigid log rolled against my throbbing pebble. “Do you love me, Ford?”
“I do.”
“Good. I love you too.”
“I think I saw that on one of my textbooks.”
“Will you two get on with it already?” Tizzy asked, standing just outside the see-through shower door. “This is getting more When Harry Met Sally and less When Hairy Wet—”
“How in the world did you get in here?” Ford asked.
“Ask the witch,” Tizzy said, pointing at me. “It was her translocation spell.”
“Get out, Tiz!” I opened the door and threw a wet washcloth at her. When she raced, laughing, from the room, I turned to Ford. “That didn’t kill the mood, did it?”
His love-lumber bumped against my girly-bits. “It’ll take more than a sassy squirrel to put me off.”
I rubbed against him, and he groaned, his spicy masculine aroma filling the shower stall. When the tip of him pressed against my opening, I rolled my hips, asking for more. I wanted him inside me like I wanted air to breathe.
“I don’t think I can be gentle,” he moaned.
“Then don’t,” I said. “I’m a tough girl.”
His thumbs dug into my hips as he entered me inch by torturous inch. A helpless sound tumbled from my lips.
“I’m hurting you.”
“No,” I lied. His invasion inside me was painful—after all, he was a mountain of a man—but it would have hurt more for him to stop. “I want this, Ford. I want you.”
“I do love you,” he said. His teeth elongated. “More than I thought possible.”
He bit down on my shoulder, and I screamed as a pleasure like nothing I’ve ever known ripped through my body as he pierced my flesh. He dropped to his knees, carrying me with him, and when my back was on the tile floor, he entered me completely and began to thrust in earnest.
Ecstasy wracked me with wave after wave of rapture as my orgasm spilled over me. Ford let go of my shoulder and roared as his own climax erupted, holding me until he’d spent every bit of himself inside me.
We lay there for Goddess knew how long before the water turned cold. Ford reached up and turned off the shower. “Mrs. Haze Baylor,” he said teasingly, as he held me close.
“Is that a proposal?” My heart pounded like a fist against the inside of my chest.
“I’m yours for eternity, Haze. Until death do us part. Do you want to get married?”
“I do,” I said.
“Then I do, too.”
A loud knock on the bathroom door startled us. Next, a booming voice said, “You have your own shower in your own home, son.”
“Dad?” Ford asked.
“Yes. Your mother wants me to congratulate you. So congratulations.”
“Uhm, thanks.” His cheeks were turning a very adorable shade of red.
“Welcome to the family, Hazel,” Bryant Baylor said.
“Thank you, sir,” I answered.
“Now get out,” he demanded.
Ford stared down at me. “Why’d you pop us into my dad’s shower?”
I shrugged. “How was I supposed to know it was your dad’s shower? Didn’t you notice?”
“I noticed your perky boobs. Everything else was a blur after that.”
“I can hear you,” Bryant added. “I’m getting bleach. If you’re not out by the time I get back, you will be getting cleaned along with the shower.”
We stood up, wrapping ourselves in Mr. Baylor’s towels. The one I had covered me from armpit to knees. On Ford, it looked more like a miniskirt.
Ford grimaced. “Can you get us out of here?”
“We’re better off walking.”
“You really are a terrible witch.”
“But I’m an awesome lover, right?”
Ford grinned. “The best.”
“I can still hear you,” Bryant shouted.
I stared up at my mate. Three days had passed since I’d arrived back in my hometown, and a lifetime of events had occurred almost simultaneously. I had my best friend back, I no longer hated my father. Apparently, I was the new police chief, and the man of my dreams had promised to always love me. This was the first time that Paradise Falls didn’t feel like a fail.
“I can see up your skirt, bear boy,” Tizzy said. “Dang! You could put an eye out with that thing.”
“Tizzy!”
She looked up at me, innocently batting her eyelashes. “You called?”
The End.
Start Reading Book 2: Rogue Coven today!
Rogue witches. Halloween pranks. Dead body. A hellmouth at the four-way between Main Street and Bliss.
Life in this paranormal town is anything but ordinary. As I settle into my new role as police chief and as the mate of the incredibly hunky werebear, Ford Baylor, I'm finding out just how chaotic things can get—especially around Halloween. It's the season of prank wars between the witches and the shifters, and I've got to put up with all the annoying shenanigans until one trick turns out to be deadly.
Now, I've got a murder to solve, protect Ford from rampant clown attacks, host a Halloween party for my squirrel familiar, and, oh yeah, shut down the hellmouth that's opened up in the middle of town. Just another day in Paradise Falls.
ROGUE COVEN - SNEAK PEEK
WITCHIN’ IMPOSSIBLE COZY MYSTERIES BOOK 2
Chapter One
“Puhleassssse, Hazel!” my squirrel familiar Tizzy said. Her tiny red-furred fingers were clasped together, and she was down on her little knees, blinking up at me with her large, lovely brown eyes. “It’ll be All Hallows Eve in ten days. You know, the Devil’s night, Hallowtide, Nos Calan Gaeaf.”
I gave her a WTF look.
She threw her paws up in the air, her voice going higher pitched. “You’re right, that Celtic reference was obscure even for me.” She jumped from the kitchen counter, did a quick bounce on a diner stool, and landed with a skid across the marble center island. She stirred my coffee with one finger and cast her determined gaze up at me. “The point I’m trying to make is that Halloween is right around the corner! It’s only a week away. I really need a decision from you.”
I flicked her paw away from my cup. “You’re not turning our home into a haunted house.”
Her chin dropped down to her chest, and her nose twitched. “You suck.”
“I know, Tizzy. And I’m a terrible witch,” I said, borrowing one of her favorite lines. Mostly because it was entirely true. I’d spent seventeen years avoiding my abilities while hiding in the human world as an FBI agent. Now that I was back in my hometown of Paradise Falls, and I could use my witchcraft freely, I found I still preferred my 9mm pistol to magic.
She stretched her arms wide with excitement as she went up on her tiny toes. “We could have smoke machines, cobwebs strung all over, bowls of eyeballs and guts, and spiders,” she chirped. “Lots of big, fat, hairy spiders!” I must have gasped because she wiggled her fingers at me and said, “Unless that’s a deal-breaker.” She waved her hands in front of her chest. “Then no spiders.”
