“Something Hazel and I have been working on in our spare time.”
Moira took it and lifted it to her nose to smell. Her eyes lit up. “You naughty little minxes. Is this weed?”
“What the fuck?” I whispered. We sat in the town square watching people walk by. On the surface, nothing in Joy Springs had changed. But there was a taut tension in the atmosphere now. Little laughter rang in the town square and things weren’t as busy as they normally were.
“You can’t light up here,” Moira said. “Texas is weird about drugs and basically anything fun.” She tucked the handmade cigarette into her pocket. “But when we get to Evie’s, game on.”
Despite where I’d grown up, I’d never smoked weed or done any form of drugs, mostly because they didn’t work on a paranormal’s metabolism. But if that thing was anything like the booze coursing through my system giving everything a light haze, we were all in for it once the stuff went to market.
“I brought half a dozen,” Mom said.
Moira cackled. “Your mom is so cool.”
“You both need a handler,” I muttered, but I couldn’t stop the laugh bubbling from me.
“How long are we going to sit here?” Moira asked.
“Long enough to see if we’re being set up,” Mom said.
She’d glamoured us within an inch of our lives. Mom had gone for a sophisticated silver-haired look. She’d shrunk her height down several inches and turned her long flowing hair into a sleek, silver bob. Her eyes were now a pale blue peeking out behind dark rimmed glasses.
Moira was blonde and willowy with pale amber eyes, and I was a red-haired, curvy vixen. We needed to do this more often. Playing magical dress up wasfun.
Sirena’s gelato stand was several feet away, far enough away where she wouldn’t catch our scent and give us away. Mom could put up a shield, but that might make people suspicious, wondering what we were trying to hide.
Caelan’s scent was nowhere to be found, and there was no sign of any shifters. Fortuitous for us. Their noses were too sensitive to miss our presence. Getting kicked out of Caelan’s territory meant any shifters we ran into would become immediately hostile. Anger rose in me, and it took a moment for me to calm down.
Moira reached over and touched my knee. She’d always been sensitive to my moods. Vampire senses or some other inherent magic she refused to talk about. “He’s not here,” she assured me. “I don’t think he’s been to town for a while.”
Interesting. Caelan was normally very involved in the goings on around town.
Mom sat up straight. “Sirena’s line is gone. We can approach if we hurry.”
Moira and I followed Mom over to the gelato truck. Sirena’s eyebrows rose when she spotted us, and when we got closeenough, she burst out laughing. “Nice glamour,” she said quietly, leaning out the window of her truck.
Sirena was gorgeous and she knew it. The siren had night black hair and vivid sea foam green eyes glimmering with a keen intellect. With a body that could stop traffic, she possessed her own dangerous brand of magic. Topped with her stunning beauty, she could be a dangerous foe.
None of us wanted to tangle with her. I think it helped that the gelato she made and sold from her food truck was as close to magical as something inert could be.
“Moira always wanted to be blonde, but it’s not going quite the way she thought it would,” I said.
Moira patted her hair. “Not one single person has approached me and asked me to have fun.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Can you meet now, witch? Every second we spend exposed leads us closer to discovery. We cannot stay long.”
Mom’s words would have sounded sharp and cool if she hadn’t been wearing a grin and swaying back and forth on her feet.
Sirena’s eyes narrowed. “Cliona! Are you…tipsy?”
Mom’s eyes widened comically. “No!”
The siren slid a narrow-eyed look our way. Moira and I stayed silent.
“What’s in that thermos?”
“Coffee,” Moira blurted.
Sirena’s lips twitched. She produced a coffee mug from thin air and held it out the window. “Mind sharing?”
