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He chuckled. “No, I think I fell and hit my head about a month ago though. I haven’t been right since.”

I bit down on my lip, knowing full well what he was getting at. I’d come to them about a month ago, and no, nothing had been right since. Well, except for the five of us. That would never be wrong. It was just the world that was going to shit around us. We could deal with that though. We were witches after all. As Granny would say, “All you need is a little magic and determination, and you, too, can get the grease off these frying pans.”

If that wasn’t a euphemism for life’s shit, I didn’t know what was.

Chapter Six

Travis and I waited in the Jeep for Liam and Gabe. Liam had been MIA after my encounter with him, so I wasn’t even positive he’d be going to school. Eventually, though, both came out the front door and Travis and I both sighed in relief. Liam got in the front with Travis as Gabe slid in beside me in the back. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before turning toward the front. “So, here’s something.” He dribbled his fingers along the seat back. “I’ve been watching the apartment. I’ve got a tracker on the place just to see if Dupre or Jay or anyone else magical went there once we left it.”

Travis rolled his hand over to get Gabe to hurry up with the rest of his story.

Gabe grinned. “It’s not Dupre or Jay, but someone’s been poking around there all morning. Someone witchy.”

“Someone witchy?” I asked, trying not to smile.

“Yeah, a normal person wouldn’t even blip on my radar. I don’t care about seeing the mailman, you know what I mean? I have it set up to alert me if anyone with magical powers goes there.”

Made perfect sense. “So, we should probably go check it out, right? Do people usually come see you if they notice something’s up or…?”

Liam turned toward the car door and propped his elbow up on the armrest. He stared out the window as we talked. Travis looked from him, then back to me. “They have in the past. Rare, though. If something is up, we usually know about it before anyone else.”

I sucked in a breath. Oh shit. What if Ren was poking around the apartment looking for Randy and me? What if he’d found the book? I hadn’t even thought of that happening. “Maybe I should call Randy.”

Gabe put his hand on the phone when I took it out of my pocket. “He’s at the gym. He won’t want to be bothered. Trust me.”

He would about this. But was I supposed to say? Randy and I were actually waiting on information from a semi-bad witch and he wouldn’t mind this interruption?

Travis raised his eyebrows at me and I shrugged, pretending like I didn’t care. It wasn’t as if I was positive it was Ren, anyway.

“Let’s just take a drive by there on the way to drop Norah off. It might be nothing,” Gabe said.

Everyone agreed, even a half-hearted one from Liam, so Travis drove the Jeep outside the gate and took the highway to Salem. Part of me hoped it was Ren waiting there with the book, and part of me hoped it wasn’t. If it was, I’d have a hell of a lot of explaining to do about how we visited a questionable witch regarding Liam’s familiar. Travis seemed cool with it earlier, but that’s because he didn’t actually know what we’d done. He might change his mind when he found out.

“So,” Travis started, catching mine and Gabe’s stares in the rearview mirror. “Walter sent me a text yesterday. He asked if we’d gotten a tug lately. I think he’s checking up on us to make sure our magic is working.”

“I haven’t felt a thing recently,” I said. “Not since that night with Dupre and the…” I peeked at Liam and trailed off. Leaning forward, I touched Liam’s shoulder. His head whipped around, and he stared at my fingertips on his collarbone. “How about you?” I asked, trying not to be deterred by his reaction. “Felt anything recently?” I knew we were all trying not to talk about the familiar, but maybe that was making it worse. Maybe Liam felt as if it was something he had to hide in shame. I mean, we all knew he’d acquired it, so why not talk about it? “Just curious as to how the familiar is affecting you.” I echoed the same sentiment from earlier. Maybe if the others were around, he’d open up.

Liam’s gaze narrowed in on my hands until I removed them from him, the tips buzzing. Yikes. Sorry?

“I haven’t felt that much different,” Liam said, his voice casual, unperturbed.

Liar. A blind person could tell his whole attitude had shifted.

I looked at Gabe and he only shrugged. “I haven’t felt anything either. We felt it a lot that last time, but that was because what was going down was the big time. If we don’t feel anything right now, hopefully that means everything is okay for the time being. I don’t think we’re missing out on anything if that’s what Walter’s getting at.”

“That’s pretty much what I told him,” Travis said, his lips pulling down. He’d been the only one not to feel the pull as much as the rest of us had. “I just hope they stay where they are for right now.”

We all hoped for the same thing. With me here, and Liam in possession of a familiar, I couldn’t imagine what their reaction would be.

Travis took us down the familiar streets and we passed the small hotel I’d stayed in when I’d first come to Salem. I smiled at it, remembering how I’d showed up with such a pissed off attitude as if it was the guys’ fault that I was getting cramps all the time. So much had happened since then. Most for the best, but some could be better.

Travis parked the Jeep down the road a little way, so we could get a view of the apartment without showing ourselves first. Liam sat forward in the front seat, peering through the front windshield. It was evident someone was there. There was an unassuming sedan parked out front with what looked like a person in it, just staring at the house. I looked inside myself to test the magic waters, so to speak. I didn’t see anything bad or negative going around, but there was a clash up against another witch that wasn’t one of my guys, or anyone else I’d ever met.

Gabe opened the back door. “Let’s go see what this person wants.”

“Agreed,” Travis said. “Norah, you and Liam stay in the car. Gabe and I will go see what they want.”

I glared at the back of his head as he got out of the Jeep without bothering to look around to see how I’d taken his “order”. I knew why he’d done it. Liam was a loose cannon right now, and if someone else were to see the familiar on him, things might get misconstrued. As for me, no one but them knew about me, so I shouldn’t go rushing forward when we weren’t sure what kind of situation we were putting ourselves into. That didn’t mean I cared for his instructions. Asshat.