Barely Bewitched (2 page)

Chapter 2

My doorbell rang while I was in the middle of whipping the chocolate cream for mini-cream puffs. Miss Cookie has a special weakness for them, and I thought showing up with a big box, along with the key-lime cupcakes, would seal the deal.

The doorbell rang again, and I set the stainless steel bowl down. “I’m tempted to ignore that,” I told Mercutio.

He circled the bowl with an expression that said he thought whipped cream looked every bit as interesting as regular cream.

“No more of that for you. You didn’t eat your real food,” I said, shoving the bowl into the fridge as whoever it was started knocking.

I walked down the hall and pulled the door open to find Bryn Lyons. He’s got bright blue eyes, black hair, and a bank account that makes him way out of my league. If this were the Garden of Eden, he’d be the apple. You can guess who I’d be.

“I’m not allowed to see you,” I blurted. And that wasn’t just true because of what the Conclave had to say. My family had him on a special do-not-associate-with list.

“So you’ve said. Ready to tell me why?” he asked, stepping inside.

“Um. No.”

He gave me a disapproving shake of his head before changing topics. “I smell chocolate.”

“Good nose.”
Good everything else, too,
I thought, looking him over in his dark designer suit.

“Anything that needs taste-testing?” he asked.

I was supposed to resist fraternizing with him, which was why I hadn’t returned his calls or accepted his invitations to dinner over the past few days. But the thing is, I make food so people can eat it.

“Come on,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Hello, Mercutio,” Bryn said.

Bryn is the only one besides me who talks to Mercutio like he speaks human. It’s just one more thing I wish we didn’t have in common; Bryn’s hard enough to resist as it is. Mercutio meowed a greeting, then sauntered off.

In the kitchen, I cut a puff in half and filled it with the whipped buttercream, then handed it to Bryn with a napkin. He ate it, closing his eyes to savor it halfway through.

“You’re very talented,” he said.

I smiled. Couldn’t help myself.

“Actually, your baking skills are part of the reason I’m here. Jenson suggested that we solicit your services. Would you be interested in catering desserts for a party?”

“I, well, you know I can’t come to—and the letter.” I tried to untangle my tongue and my thoughts.

“How would a thousand dollars be? You can work out the specifics with Jenson.”

A thousand dollars! I take it back. If this were the Garden, Bryn would be the snake, because he sure knew what to tempt me with. I grabbed the Conclave envelope off the counter and shoved it at him. He slid the letter out and skimmed it, then frowned and tossed it on the countertop like it was junk mail.

“I thought you were going to get me out of trouble with the wizard world,” I said, waiting for an explanation.

“Things don’t always go as planned.”

Ain’t that the truth!

My kitchen is open to the living room, and he turned and walked over to the couch. I shoved the bowl back in the fridge before I joined him.

“So,” I said, as I sat on the love seat. “What happened?”

“I didn’t expect them to send anyone this soon,” he said, then glanced over at me. “They’re worried about you, Tamara.”

“Me? I’m just fine,” I said, pretending that I didn’t know what he meant by that.

He smiled. “Not that kind of worried.”

I sighed. “I tried to tell the guy who came that I wasn’t going to do any more magic. Plus, hardly anything I did worked right. Honestly, what the heck do they have to be worried about?”

“Actually, I think it’s the power of the spell I cast using our commingled magic. The one that I used to wound and drive out most of the werewolves that were attacking Duvall.”

“The one on the night that we . . .” I trailed off, blushing. I’d gotten kind of drunk on magic and let him seduce me. Or maybe I’d seduced him. It was all as fuzzy as a peach, which was the way I preferred it. Good girls don’t seduce dark wizards who might be dangerous to their families.

“Yes, the night that we . . .” he said, raising his eyebrows. He was teasing me. I folded my hands on my lap, determined not to get flustered.

“Well, shouldn’t they be worried about you a lot more than me?”

“Oh, they’re worried about me, but it’s more difficult for them to manipulate me. I’m part of the establishment. Now, about this Initial Challenge, what did Perth tell you about it?”

“Nothing yet. He wants me to meet him tonight, but I’m not going.”

“You have to go.”

I pursed my lips. “This is America. Besides jury duty and jail, I don’t
have
to go anywhere.”

He smiled and leaned toward me, lowering his voice. “If I were the only one you had to deal with, maybe you could skip it. To me, you’re so . . . appealing, sometimes I suspect I’d let you get away with anything.”

My mouth dropped open in surprise. The man could convince a drowning woman to dive underwater.

“The trouble is it’s not up to me, Tamara, and John Barrett, the president of the World Association of Magic, hasn’t met you. All he knows is that you’re a rogue witch. If you defy the Conclave’s edict, he’ll become even more determined and dangerous to you. I want you to promise me that you’ll go to the meeting tonight and listen carefully.”

“Well—”

Unbelievably, there was another knock at the door. Normally, I can go a whole week without ever getting an unexpected visitor. Today, though, it was like my driveway was the new Main Street.

Bryn stood up. “Given that I’m not supposed to be here and that I don’t want to provoke them in a way that they could use against you, why don’t I step outside?” He strode to my new sliding door that led to the backyard.

Mercutio bounded past me and climbed onto the bureau. “No jumping on the company!” I hissed as I got to the front door, but then I paused. Recently there’d been a lot of people trying to kill me and stuff. “Unless the company threatens me or seems dangerous.”

Mercutio cocked his head.

I sighed. “Well, use your judgment, I guess.” I pulled the door open, and there was Zach, Marlboro Man meets Abercrom bie ad.

“Hey, darlin’.”

“Hey, yourself,” I said with a smile. Though we fight more than those folks on reality TV, I’m still crazy about him. Plus, I’d nearly lost him to a werewolf bite and was still just plain happy to see him alive. “Where you been?”

He tipped his cowboy hat back and leaned down to give me a kiss. “Oh, around. Came by to see if you need money and to take you to dinner at TJ and Nadine’s. They’re grilling tonight. I picked up a case of Armadillo Ale and some steaks—”

Though Bryn never made a sound, I knew the moment he walked up behind me. I knew it because Zach went as still as Mercutio does when he sees a lizard he’s gonna make short work of. Adrenaline kicked my heart into high gear.

“So you’ve got company,” Zach said, taking a step back.

Uninvited company that was supposed to be in the yard out of sight!

I grabbed Zach’s arm. I’m seriously attracted to Bryn, but Zach’s been the candy apple of my eye since I was too little to know why I wanted to follow him to forever and back. “He was just going,” I said.

“That right?” Zach said, still watching Bryn through narrowed eyes.

“We had some things to discuss,” Bryn said from over my shoulder. “We weren’t finished, actually.”

Bryn never makes things between me and Zach easy. I know it’s because he wants me for himself. The trouble is, I’m not so sure why. Might be because Bryn thinks I’m pretty. Or it might be because he’s able to siphon magical power out of me like some people steal sugar packets from restaurant tables.

I looked back at Bryn. “I’ll take your advice about the meeting, but it’s better if we don’t see each other anymore, all things considered.”

“The offer still stands for the catering assignment. You could deal directly with Jenson.”

“Thanks. I’ll think about it,” I said, still holding tight to Zach’s arm. I knew Zach could have pulled loose anytime, and I took it as a good sign that he didn’t.

“I’ll see you later, Tamara.”

Zach stepped farther into the house to let Bryn leave. When the door was safely closed and we were alone, Zach said, “You’re not working for him. Not today. Not next month. Not next year.”

“Hang on, now.”

Zach yanked his arm free. “You’re not working for the guy you cheated on me with! I can forgive you once. I know you were out of your head drunk that night, but I don’t expect to see you with him again—ever.”

It hadn’t exactly been cheating. Zach and I are divorced. Plus, I hadn’t been myself. Or at least not
all
myself. I’d been part promiscuous flapper, on account of a spell gone wrong.

“You heard what I told him.”

“I heard it. I also heard his answer to it. What you said didn’t make a damn bit of difference to him. So here’s what I think: from now on, when he shows up, you don’t let him in. If he calls, you hang up. He’ll get the message eventually, if you make him get it.”

I had wanted to make up with Zach, but when he started using his police voice and telling me what to do, it reminded me of why our relationship was always on-again, off-again. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, trying not to lose my temper.

“I don’t plan to get involved with him.” But Bryn had helped me, and I wasn’t going to slam my door in his face either. It wasn’t good manners.

“What meeting did you say you’d go to? Is he going to be there?”

“No.”

“What meeting?”

“Look, that’s not something I can talk about.”

Zach narrowed his eyes and his muscles tightened. “With me, you mean? ’Cause you were just talking about it with him.”

“Well, it’s complicated.”

“Used to be you didn’t have any secrets from me.”

Things were getting trickier by the minute. If I wanted to be with Zach, could I really avoid talking to him about the supernatural stuff that was happening? I wrung my hands until I caught myself and then dropped them to my sides. “If you want to know, I’ll tell you, but you won’t like it.”

He folded his arms across his chest.

“Edie’s not the only messed-up thing about my family. The truth is that when I said Momma and Aunt Mel were kind of eccentric and whimsical, what I meant to say was that they’re . . . they’re—”

“Spit it out,” he said.

“Witches. And it looks like I might be one, too.”

“For the love of Christ! Your imagination just gets wilder every time I turn around. And I guess Lyons is feeding into this now? That damned letch. In Great-granddaddy’s day, that guy would’ve been selling snake oil.”

“You saw the werewolves. You know there’s more to this world than—”

“Stop right there. I don’t know what I saw. Whether it was men in horror-movie makeup or what, but I know there’s no such thing as werewolves. Hell, I remember being half out of it and drinking some kind of bitter coffee at Lyons’s house. Who the hell knows what was in it? Maybe LSD. And I’ll tell you what’s more, this kind of talk, you saying you’re a . . .” He shook his head. “I’m taking you to church on Sunday. We’ll sit down with the reverend.”

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“What’s hard to interpret about ‘no’?” I put my fists on my hips. “I’m not going around talking to folks about this. It’ll lead to trouble.”

“You got that right.”

“You know, just go on and go. Tell Nadine and TJ that I’m sorry I couldn’t make it,” I said.

“Don’t do this, Tammy Jo.”

“Look, I’ve got some stuff to figure out. I think it’s best that I figure it out alone,” I said softly.

He glanced away, frowning. “This is not right.” He looked back at me. “Whatever you’ve got goin’ on in your head, it’s gonna pass, and I don’t want you sitting here dwelling on it by yourself. You’re coming with me. Let’s get you fed on some Texas beef, and get you with some people that love you who aren’t trying to mess your head up.”

“I’d rather stay here.”

Zach shook his head. “I don’t want you here alone. You can come with me, or I’ll drive you to Chulley’s tonight and tell him you’re getting worse.”

The blood plummeted to my feet, making me pale and panicked.

Chulley was the psychiatrist Zach had convinced me to see when I told him about Edie. After a session where Chulley and I really pissed each other off, I’d vowed never to go back. I found out later that Chulley had told Zach that he couldn’t rule out that I’d need to be in a mental hospital one day. Straightjackets and padded rooms. Locked doors and needles and worse. It had happened to other witches in my family. And now Zach was threatening to give Chulley another shot at me.

No way!
Not without the kind of fight that brings the neighbors out to their front lawns to watch the show.

“You’re saying you’d tell him I’ve gone crazy?” I whispered. “Tell him I need to be locked up?” Saying it made it more real. Fear twisted my guts, and tears filled my eyes.

Zach winced. “Don’t do that, darlin’. Don’t cry,” he said, pulling me into his arms and hugging me tight. “Whatever happens, you know I’m gonna take care of you.”