And your aura is beautiful,I thought.
Oh, my goodness! We can talk through our minds?
When we both have the stones on us.
Wickham, your mind is very unorganized. I love this. Not hiding anything from each other,she thought.
If you grow tired of it, you can set the stone aside, but then you can no longer access thoughts or powers.
That’s probably good, too.
Hey, Lydia?
Yeah?
I love you.
Her expression lit up like the light of the sun. “And I love you.”
The breeze blew the snowflakes around us, and I held her close, savoring her nearness in the chilled winter air. Lydia was my sunlight.
We still had a killer to find, and I had no clue what was to come. But I never should’ve tried to do things on my own. Lydia was right. I would be stronger with her by my side.
Chapter 14
Thatnight,LydiaandI returned to Cupid’s Confections—the safest place for her to be. Lizzy and the others agreed she should stay there, and they allowed me to remain as well. Lydia’s room only had a small twin bed, so I made myself a spot on the floor. Sometime during the night, she must have climbed down to join me, because I woke up with her in my arms. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
After lunch, I met with the Midnight Kitchen Society.
Even though it was Monday and during daylight hours, I convinced Bradley to call an emergency meeting. Mr. Rothschild confirmed that whatever had been wrong with my Jeep was magic based, and in a day it had gone back to normal. Iwalked up the front walk, my feet crunching in the unshoveled snow.
Some brave kids, who may have dared each other onto the property of the supposedly haunted home, had left angel indentations in the fresh powder in the yard.
Bradley met me in the entryway as I brushed off my shoes in the doorway and stepped into the toasty atmosphere to hang my coat. We entered the kitchen. They were there baking as usual. Emergency meeting or no, the group would fulfill its purpose.
“Hey everyone, Wickham has returned,” Bradley said in his normal cheery manner.
The vampires in the kitchen turned toward me with skeptical looks. Everyone was there except for Sephira.
Mason folded his flour-covered arms against his chest. “I thought I said not to come back until this murder case was over. Have you solved it?”
“No,” I said, looking around the room. “But I need your help. Everyone’s help.”
“Why should we assist you when you’re the one who has put us all in danger? Honestly, we should distance ourselves as far away from you as possible,” Mason protested.
“I get it. That’s what I tried to do with Lydia,” I said, my chest warming at the thought of my wife and her strong-willed determination. I should have known I could never fight her. And I no longer wanted to. “I believed that if I distanced myself from her, it would keep her safe from me. But I realized that the only way to really protect someone is to find those of like minds and come together when they’re in trouble. That’s why we’ve come together in this group, isn’t it? Not to push each other away, but to support each other when things turn rough.”
“What assistance do you require?” Bradley leaned against the counter next to his cookie cutters in the shape of mittens and horse-drawn sleighs.
“Lydia and I have a plan to lure out those who have been after her so we can catch them,” I said. “But we need you there to help keep her safe. We’ll meet in Fairwood Forest behind the church tomorrow night.”
Alice had added a small icing sculpture of a gothically dressed snowman next to her coffin cake this time, and she snapped off a quick picture before stowing her phone back in her pocket. “Who else will be there?” she asked, ever the perceptive one. “If we’re found out—”
“Wecan use a fae glamour. I’m fae, half of us are fae. We can protect our identities. But there’s a skill set that only vampires can do.” I paused. “I should warn you, though. Prince Valemont and the Bennets will be in on the plan. Which is why we’ll use the glamours to protect you.”
“Prince Valemont?” Mason asked. “What’s he doing in town? And why does he care?”
“I may have a connection with the prince.” I shrugged like it was nothing.
