Chapter Two
Ordinary’s policestation was a small one-story building tucked off the main coastal road: Highway 101. It had a screen of trees to one side, wetland at the back, and a parking lot on the otherside.
Myra’s perfectly clean cruiser and Delaney’s old Jeep were both parked by the station. I parked my truck facing the wetlands instead because I loved how the trees and brush had gone brown andorange.
Autumn. My favorite time of year. Fall came early on the Oregon coast, trees shedding down to their bare bones only to be wrapped in heavy fog and draped in gowns of grey and rain. The wet had settled in for the long winter months, storms rising and falling between wedges of pale yellow sun breaks. Showers, drizzle, rain, downpours, would all take their turn rolling through from now untilspring.
The air was filled with the smells of fires on the beach, rain in the pines, moss, green, dirt, and salt. And between all that floated the sweetness of coffee roasters, bakeries, and pumpkinspice.
Pumpkin spiceeverything.
I could see how some people couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving, for that warm, cozy comfort of family and food and familiar faces. I liked Thanksgiving just finetoo.
But my holiday, the one I checked off the days on my calendar for, the one that I intended to start decorating for tomorrow, wasHalloween.
I loved it as a kid. I loved seeing the monsters in town dress up as things they really weren’t, and loved it even better when they came out as their real selves. Loved it when they went all-out giving candy, running haunted houses, and hosting pumpkin carving contests. I loved it even more when the gods in town got into it. One year Frigg threw a costume ball so crazy and fun, I had never found the bra I’d beenwearing.
I loved the witches, hexes, ghosts and ghouls. I loved the Halloween movies and cartoons that played non-stop from October first to October thirty-first. I loved the old silent horror movies, and the newer, much more screamy, bloody ones. I was a sucker for pumpkin patch hay mazes and apple bobbing and just…everything.
Halloween was my jam, and I celebrated it every single day throughOctober.
I got out of the truck, ignored the drizzle, and made my way into the station. As soon as I stepped through the door, I knew I was introuble.
Every person in the room had their finger on theirnose.
“You all look ridiculous.” I took off my coat and tried not to let my panicshow.
Something was going on. It must be a bad thing since every person on the force was acting like a three-year-old.
“Hey, baby sister,” Delaney said in her not-boss voice. “We have a little job foryou.”
I waved my hand at all of them. “You can stop grinning and pointing at your noses. I get it. I’m pulling crap duty. Bring iton.”
“No argument?” Myra raised one of her sculpted brows. She was always so put together, and she totally owned the rock-a-billylook.
I snuck an extra glance at Delaney. She’d been shot with a vampire-killing bullet about a month ago. Even though she had tried to pass it off as no big thing, that had been the second bullet she’d been on the wrong end of thisyear.
Her recovery had taken time. Ryder Bailey, her boyfriend who was standing in the corner of the room looking all rugged and handsome as our reserve officer, had moved her in with him. As far as I could tell things were going good forthem.
Reallygood.
That made me happy in a way nothing had for a long time. I mean, I’d been waiting forever for them to finally catch a frickin’ clue and see how good they weretogether.
Ryder and Delaney had known each other nearly all their lives. In second grade, I’d caught Ryder making a wish on a dandelion fluff. He’d been really quiet when he’d done it, his voice just a whisper. But he didn’t know I’d been there, right around the corner, digging a hole I was going to fill with water so I could make mudmonsters.
His wish? He wanted Delaney to love him like he lovedher.
And I’d heardit.
Everybody knew if you heard a wish someone else made, that wish wouldn’t cometrue.
Which, yeah, maybe that wasn’t how it worked. Wishes were tricky magic, and I certainly wasn’t someone who knew all the ins and outs ofthat.
But when I’d been seven, I’d known three things: Ryder loved my sister. I’d heard him wish for her to fall in love with him, which meant it couldn’t come true. Therefore, I had to do everything I could to make sure his wish cametrue.
And I had. Of course Ryder had waffled between throwing longing looks her way and ignoring her completely all through high school. Delaney had done the same with him. And no matter what I tried, they never seemed to both be in the longing stage at the sametime.
Then Ryder had gone out of state for six years of college, and I figured all those years of me finagling to get them together werewasted.
