Wonderful. Now I was a sexually deviant witch. “Occupational consequence of owning a bed-and-breakfast, Helen.”
She fisted her hands at her sides. If we were in a cartoon, there would be steam pouring from her ears. “You cannot fool me.”
I smiled at her like one might smile at a senile relative. I felt bad making her seem like she was insane, because everything she said was true. But we didn’t need to add vampires, shifters, and elementals to this powder keg. One supernatural species was already a lot for them to deal with.
I could try to at least help.
“I do, however, have some knowledge of the history of White Castle, as well as an understanding of various religious practices.I will meet with the sheriff and we will come up with a plan. For now, it’s best that you go home and rest. If a ghost has taken up residence in your house, stay with someone else.”
“Ignore them, and they will go away? That’s your master plan?” Helen snapped.
There were mutterings in the crowd, a shift of tensions as people wanted to escape, take the easy road, anything to pretend the mysterious world of spirits wasn’t currently infecting their town.
Robert raised his microphone. “You heard the lady. Back home. If not your own, find somewhere else. Town meeting here tomorrow at noon. We’ll have a more defined plan then.”
This was the thing about mass hysteria. People wanted to take the path of least resistance. Robert was leading them and warding off the rising panic with his calming but firm presence.
The problem was that, come noon tomorrow, everyone would expect a solution. And Lord help us if one hadn’t presented itself, because it would take divine intervention to prevent the folks of White Castle from descending into madness. This was a tiny taste of what my grandmother was hoping to achieve, which led me to a simple yet obvious conclusion.What have you done now, Eloise?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
How many ways can you tap a vein?
Ishot Hudson a message, informing him we were done in town. Harry stayed behind to report on anything weird. Well, weirder. Robert followed us back to Summer Grove House, as this conversation needed to be had among sympathetic supernatural ears. The Helens of this world would have an apoplexy if they knew they lived next door to a family of bear shifters and bought her groceries from a married pair of vampires who’d been alive more years than they’d had hot dinners. The human populace operated best in the dark.
I opened the door with Sebastian, Liz, and Robert hot on my heels and skidded to a halt. What on earth? A shirtless Ezra pinned a trembling guy by his throat to the wall, his feet dangling off the ground while Ezra wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Green rolled over his eyes. Another cat shifter. Not good.
Rebecca, clad in a turquoise silk nightgown, leaned against the wall with an eyebrow raised. To someone who didn’t know her, she looked like she couldn’t care less, but I knew better. Behind that angelic blonde head was an apex predator, bornand raised to be regal and lethal. The fact she chose love over violence didn’t make her less capable.
“I warned you,” Ezra snarled. “Take another man to your bed, and I will make mincemeat of him.”
“We didn’t make it to the bed,” she responded as her eyes flicked to mine before returning to Ezra. Her jaw ticced for a moment before she relaxed it.
Oh, Rebecca, what mess have you engineered? Do I need my shotgun?
The wards in my head clanged, and Hudson’s familiar SUV rumbled down the drive. Good, the Terror of Tennessee could sort out this mess. Ideally, with no breakages. There was an intense stare off, and then my mate’s boots hammered up the steps behind me.
“What did he do?” Hudson asked, as his warmth covered my back. A shiver went up my spine as his hand landed on my hip.
“He dared to try to bed her,” Ezra snarled.
“Can you break this up?” I asked.
Hudson sighed and moved past me. Yes, there we go. The big bad was here…
Hudson turned and strode into the parlor.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as Ezra tightened his hold on the guy’s neck, who was turning a concerning shade of red.
Hudson glanced at me over his shoulder. “He warned her. She knew there would be consequences.”
My hands fisted at my sides as Liz and Sebastian joined him. “They are not mated.”
“I wouldn’t say that too loud right now,” he said as folded himself into an armchair in the corner so he could view the escalating situation with a faint smile. I supposed he would intervene if it turned lethal, right?
He folded his arms and tilted his head. No. He would not be intervening.
I switched my focus back to the hallway situation.
