Devious Magic (#3 Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series) Read online

  Devious Magic

  Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series, Book 3

  Camilla Chafer

  Also in the series:

  Illicit Magic (Book 1)

  Unruly Magic (Book 2)

  One

  Something strange was going on, I could tell. With three housemates, all deeply rooted to the supernatural community in some way or another, things were rarely ever quiet in my home. But today my boyfriend, Evan, sat working silently at his laptop and my friend and fellow witch, Kitty, had shut herself in the kitchen for the past hour. As for Étoile, another fellow witch... Étoile disappeared a few days ago as she often did. I suspected the quiet was something to do with my birthday and that they were planning something. I tried to suppress a little smile at my suspicions and let them get on with whatever surprise they were secretly cooking up between them.

  Looking up from the college brochure I was reading, I glanced around the room but saw nothing out of the ordinary that would give me a clue. Evan was across the room at his usual spot behind the big table that functioned as his desk. He looked up, flashed me a smile full of pearly white teeth that contrasted beautifully against his olive skin, blew me a kiss, and returned his gaze to the laptop screen.

  He ran a business that dealt almost entirely with the supernatural world. The best paying work, he told me, involved catching and delivering supe criminals, like a bounty hunter, only a thousand times more dangerous. His firm was entrusted with delivering important packages and other things that required secrecy and diplomacy as well as the protection from something, or someone. His work was unattractive to any sane person, and, while on the surface that all sounded pretty exciting, Evan was currently hands-off the more physical duties. For the present, he was spared the ones that would take him away from home for days or weeks at a time.

  Though my eyes were back on the brochure, I got to the point where I was zoning out, my thoughts full of Evan. I wasn’t so full of myself that I thought he stayed purely because he would miss me otherwise, though naturally, I hoped he would. As a latecomer to witchcraft, my innate skills were something that troubled me my whole life. Evan’s daily lessons in controlling my magic were vital to me, not only for my personal development but for my protection too. We’d already confronted lethally dangerous witches on numerous occasions and I didn’t want to be unprepared ever again. I didn’t ask, but I sensed Evan was getting bored without all the action he was accustomed to.

  Eavesdropping, I strained to hear my other two housemates. Étoile, a witch like me and my alternate teacher, had announced earlier that she was going to be away for a few days, though she hadn’t bothered to say where she was going. Instead, she just dematerialised from existence. “Shimmering,” as it was called, was something she was currently teaching me to control. Growing up, I found it frightening and unmanageable. Now I was getting to grips with it, it was pretty exciting. The more I practised, the stronger, and more precise, that part of my magic felt. Magic was firmly part of me now but instead of it controlling me, like it once had, now I commanded it instinctively. While I could only travel short distances at the moment, and found the concentration necessary for shimmering quite tiring, I had ambitions to shimmer much further one day; maybe even to foreign countries. The idea of home, however, was something I kept stuffed firmly at the back of my mind. I missed England, but not enough to return. One day, maybe, but not yet.

  I assumed Étoile would come back as unexpectedly as she left but, since I still couldn’t hear her at all, I knew she hadn’t returned. Not hearing the familiarly faint sounds of her chatting on the phone or moving from room to room in the old, creaky house let me know she was still gone, even though she mentioned celebrating my birthday. She hadn’t called in the couple of days she’d been away, which surprised me and I wondered what was going on that she was being so secretive about. I suspected it might have had something to do with her younger sister, Astra, who was very ill and slowly recovering, but I couldn’t be sure. I spoke to their other sister, Seren, who was now my boss, as well as my friend, only this morning so I knew Étoile hadn’t gone to visit her.

  Through the closed kitchen door, my other housemate, Kitty, was listening to music and now making enough noise for everyone as she sang along to it. She banished me from the kitchen straight after breakfast so my ears veritably perked up, looking for clues. As long as she wasn’t making potions, I was fine. Like me, Kitty was also a witch and had the unique power to affect the weather which seemed like an odd but very specific skill to me She took great pleasure in creating whatever conditions she chose or preferred. She’d even managed to make it snow over Christmas, much to everyone’s delight.

  “Have you picked any courses yet?” Evan interjected, suddenly interrupting my thoughts and I turned to him, dropping the brochure onto my lap.

  I shook my head. “There’s a lot I want to do. Do I take business classes for career development? Or English literature for the fun of it?” I always regretted having to leave school at eighteen, but being a foster child after my parents’ deaths, I found it necessary to make a living for myself once I became of age. Now, my life was finally settled after a tumultuous year and I was determined to better myself.

  “Why not take both?”

  “What if I can’t keep up? What if everyone else is really smart?” So many other things in my life loomed in front of me. Alongside the lessons with Evan every day, were those from Étoile, not to mention my part-time job, which took up another three or four hours. At least, I could work flexibly and remotely. As it was, I hardly had any time for study... for now.

  Evan held back a laugh. “You’ll keep up, and you know you’re smart. If you want, you can always transfer credits and go full time to get your degree even faster.” He ducked his head back down before I could reply. He suggested more than once that I move to his home in Texas where I could commute to a university more reasonably. All I had to do was say yes, but I couldn’t, even though I found it weighing more heavily on my mind.

  For the first time in my life, I had a home, my own home, and I was in the honeymoon period of loving every inch of it, not to mention all the new friends I’d made in Wilding. Starting over again scared me a little, despite having Evan. I was being selfish, I knew, because why should my wanting to stay in my home outweigh Evan’s need for his? It was time for a compromise that benefited both of us.

  “Annalise is walking towards the house.” Evan’s voice jolted me from my thoughts and I followed the direction of his eyes as my friend, and neighbour, walked along the driveway towards my property. After shuffling my notepad and the brochure into a little pile that I laid on the coffee table, I went to answer the door.

  “I’ve come to invite you to lunch,” she said, leaning forward to kiss my cheek. Her blonde curls, streaked with pink, bounced loose. Like always, she smelled of lemon with the faint tinge of earth. She lived across the street from me, in the only other house on this long stretch of road. We’d been friends ever since I arrived, sad, frightened and alone several months earlier. So far, our amity had survived the revelation that she and her brother, Gage, were both werewolves and I was a witch, not to mention, my kissing Gage. As far as friendships went, we were solid. “My treat,” she added.

  “Sounds lovely. Is Beau coming with us?” I looked behind her for her muscle-bound wall of a boyfriend. An ex-marine and, yes, a werewolf, Beau was her high school sweetheart and lately, they had rekindled their feelings for one another.

  “Nah. He’s at work.”

  I looked over my shoulder. “Evan, you want to come?”

  “I would love to,
but I have a spreadsheet to finish.”

  “How dull,” I quipped.

  There was the barest roll of his eyes as he nodded. “Go. Have fun.”

  “Should we get Kitty?” Annalise asked, just as karaoke Kitty reached a high note and drummed on the counters in accompaniment. We both winced. Kitty found a job in Wilding, our town, as a freelance beauty therapist. She was far better at tweezing and painting nails than she was at singing. We all agreed on that; she practised on us often enough and my nails were currently a fabulous shade of turquoise blue.

  Crossing the living room, I was almost to the kitchen when Kitty stuck her head around, her apron-clad body shielded by the door. Her head was blocking my view into the kitchen. There was a streak of flour in her hair. “Hey, Annalise.” She waved. “Thank you, but no.”

  “You didn’t even know what I was going to ask.”

  “To go to lunch, I heard, but I’m... busy.”

  I craned my head, trying to sneak a look round the door, but Kitty pushed it further closed until her head was smushed between the door and jamb. She puckered her forehead at me.

  “Fine.” I backed up, defeated. “Smells nice, whatever you’re doing in there.”

  “I’ll clean up, promise. You don’t have to tell me.” Kitty stuck her tongue out, then shut the door with a soft bump. She resumed her singing again.

  “Looks like it’s just the two of us,” I said, grabbing my jacket from the hook. Annalise linked her arm through mine, with a squeeze, and flashed me a perfect smile that belied razor sharp canines. “I’ll drive.”

  Darla’s was the first place I set foot into when I arrived in Wilding and now I felt like a regular. I waved to the eponymous Darla, proprietor and good-natured town gossip, as Annalise and I slid into the last remaining booth of the lunch hour. Well known for home-cooked food and prices that didn’t make you wince, Darla’s was always popular. Right now, I had a craving for her pancakes, which didn’t sound like lunch until you saw the stack she served piled high with strawberries and sauce. My stomach gave a little whine in anticipation at the thought.

  “So, what are your plans for the weekend?” asked Annalise as she slid off her winter coat. I know I said she was a werewolf but I certainly don’t mean she was shedding her fur at the table! Her hair did look fuller and glossier, but it was cold in Wilding and we were bundled up in our winter wear. She looked like she wanted me to ask her what she was doing, more than she wanted to hear my answer, so I kept it brief, “Dinner out with Evan tonight, and no, he won’t tell me where, then nothing for the weekend. I have a good book to read. You?”

  We had to wait for a moment while Darla ambled over and slid two mugs onto the table, pouring coffee into each. “Staying for lunch?” she asked.

  “We sure are,” smiled Annalise, picking up a plastic-sleeved menu.

  “I’ll send you a waitress.” Darla popped her gum and moved onto the next table.

  Annalise leaned in, her hands wrapped around the mug. “Beau is taking me to an inn by the sea. We’re going to drive up tomorrow night and stay there all weekend.” I gave the appropriate squeal of glee in response. “This is the first time we’ve been away together, Stella. He’s stayed at my house before, but it’s not really the same when Gage is around. And we can’t stay at his place too often because of his roommates. He’s thinking of getting an apartment of his own.” She dropped her voice an octave. “We might move in together.”

  I knew the appropriate response wasn’t but we won’t be neighbours anymore! So, instead I said, “I’m really happy for you and I hope you have a great trial run this weekend.”

  “Oh, you think that’s what it is? Maybe he won’t be so keen after putting up with me for two solid days.”

  “Are you kidding me? Beau is head over heels.”

  “Yeah.” She giggled. “I hope there’s a lot of shagging this weekend, as you Brits say.”

  “Cheers to that, as we Brits say.” I clinked my mug against hers in salute to the fun side of relationships.

  “I never thought I’d say it, but I think Beau might be the one. I’ve been there, done that with the whole marriage thing, and getting divorced from that asshole was the best thing I ever did, so... I never thought I’d feel like this again.” Annalise had a faraway smile on her face, like she was in some other place, not sitting opposite me in the bustling diner. “I feel so alive.”

  “What does Gage think? Will he mind you moving out?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I guess he’ll like having the house back to himself and it’s not like I won’t be in and out every day anyway. Plus, he and Beau get on really well. Maybe Gage will finally get a girlfriend if I move out,” she mused.

  “Oh?”

  “I think he’s dating someone, but you know Gage, kiss, don’t tell.”

  That hit me unexpectedly hard. Gage and I were getting pretty close once. We dated, kissed and even spent the night in the same bed (alcohol-related and purely platonic... mostly!) On one occasion, we even came very close to having sex, but if we had, it would have been, for me, as much from anger as it was lust. Gage was a handsome man, tall and strong with a jaw covered in near permanent stubble, and thick dark hair. Although I’d always found him attractive, in my heart, I loved Evan. As much as I liked, admired, and yes, even lusted after, Gage... it just wasn’t going to happen.

  If I were completely honest with myself, some lingering feelings remained but I didn’t want to be an indecisive woman who strung along two guys. I made my decision, picked my guy and I was sticking to him. The idea of Gage with someone else, however, still stung. What was wrong with me? I shook my head, trying to rattle the thought right out of me and tried to concentrate on what Annalise was saying; something about the inn with its huge fireplaces and the coastal walks they were planning to take.

  “I’m going to get the full report when you get back, right?”

  Annalise winked, a smile slipping onto her face. “Oh yes.”

  A perky, redheaded waitress took our orders, her shoulders hunched, eyes concentrating intently on her notepad as we decided on our order. Her name badge read Aimee. She was new and I thought I’d seen her outside Wilding High a few times.

  Wilding was a small town, almost a cliché in that it was the type where everyone grew up knowing everyone else. It put me at a disadvantage when I first arrived but the inhabitants were nothing if not hospitable and welcoming. Most passers-by would never realise that Wilding harboured a fairly big secret: it was home to a sizeable werewolf pack. I still didn’t know whether Wilding actively protected their lupine residents, or thought they were some archaic myth. Whatever the case, they resulted in some weird town ordinances such as no pets (no one wanted them accidentally eaten), and few businesses stayed open late whenever the moon was full.

  “You know what, hon’? I’ve got a library book that I need to return. Would you mind if I dropped it off while we’re waiting for our lunch? I meant to do it yesterday but clean forgot.” Our non-nutritious but pleasing combination of fruit pancakes and French toast would be at least ten more minutes. The library was just down the street, around a ten-minute walk, there and back if Annalise were quick. Our food would probably hit the table the moment she returned.

  “No, go right ahead.”

  Annalise flashed a smile at me, grabbed her purse and coat and left. I watched as she crossed the street, walking hurriedly away, hands in her pockets and head bowed against the cold.

  I people-watched while I waited. The thing about small town living was that it was easy to spot newcomers, since they were so obviously out of place, unlike my previous life in London. Here, I could spot out-of-towners as well as tourists who visited our pretty little town. Evan taught me something pretty vital, too. He showed me how to recognise the signature of a supernatural; to know when I was near a witch, daemon, wolf or something else.

  Looking around, I tried my hand at spotting supes. I counted two wolves walking together across the street. Jay, whom I�
�d met previously, (I’d even seen him naked once, but not by design and I tried not to think about it), and his companion, someone I hadn’t seen before. I smiled at my skills before glancing away, my eyes coming to rest on a woman sitting on a bench outside the bakery. Witch. That surprised me. I didn’t know there were any other witches in town. I must have stared a moment or two too long because she looked up, then around her as if she knew she were being observed, before getting up and walking away. It might be nothing, she might just be passing through, but even so, I made a mental note to mention it to Étoile later.

  The lunch crowd brought out a mixed bag of people. Suited men and women from the local businesses that hugged Main Street, teenagers from Wilding High with their wolf emblem jackets and scarves, people running errands and mothers holding the hands of little, chatty children.

  It all looked so normal but I knew better than most how deceiving appearances could be. Ever since I discovered, in the worst possible way, that people just weren’t what they seemed, I’d been more than hesitant to let my guard down for a moment. Sometimes danger seemed to lurk everywhere I looked. The expectation of finding it seemed to be embedded in my psyche now. However, my instincts had gotten a lot better, though that came with a price – being hunted. Witch hunters as well as witches, you name it; I have a target on my back.

  I checked my watch. Close to ten minutes had passed.

  “Careful now, the plates are warm,” said Aimee, sliding my order in front of me, then Annalise’s on her side of the table. She set down cutlery wrapped in a napkin and hurried away, notepad out, to wait on a young family who had just entered.

  I inhaled the warm, sweet aroma of pancakes, relieved that right now, the only thing being hunted was the strawberry scooting around my plate as it evaded the stabbing tines of my fork. I checked my watch again. Ten full minutes. Annalise should have been back by now and it seemed rude to eat without her, even though my stomach was giving off an ominous rumble. Sighing, I dropped my fork with a clatter and picked up the berry between my thumb and forefinger, biting into it just as I looked up and saw Gage round the corner. He caught my eye, grinned, gave a casual wave and mouthed “Happy birthday!”