Page 2 of Air Of Mystery (Witches On The Hill #4)

Charlie and I managed all of four dates before there’d been another incident—a magickal incident—involving another one of my sisters. It was at the end of June, and things had been progressing beautifully.

He was handsome, smart, brave, subtly funny, good company…

I was crazy about that man. In fact, things had progressed so well with us that tonight Charlie and I planned to take our relationship to the next level—to the bedroom.

First, we had planned for a nice romantic dinner, and then we would go back to his place afterward.

Glancing over at the gorgeous man in the car beside me, I felt a shimmer of expectation.

I had dressed and groomed appropriately for the evening.

Figuring the contrast would make Charlie sweat a little, I’d done a smoky eye and a soft mauve lip.

My pale blonde hair was cut in a choppy chin length style that I’d moussed, making it look tousled and sexy.

The dress I’d chosen for tonight was a flowing, black cottage-core midi, and with that I’d worn a pair of pretty leather sandals. The only thing I had on underneath the dress was perfume and a handful of black lace.

And I fully expected that black lace to be ripped right off me in a few hours.

My stomach tightened in longing, but I sat back and reminded myself to be patient. We had all night...but the man looked fabulous. Seeing his button-down shirt and dark slacks draped over that muscular frame was making me all hot and bothered.

We were enroute, driving to a quiet romantic restaurant in downtown Alton for the first part of our evening, when I slid my hand over his and leaned a bit closer so our shoulders were brushing. Then my damn phone rang.

Although my phone was set to silent, I still felt the vibration in my purse. At first, I ignored it, letting it go to voice mail, but then my intuition kicked in.

Check the message. I thought. Something is horribly wrong.

As my heart thudded against my ribs, I scrambled to see who had called.

Indeed, the voice message was from Kenna, and it was urgent.

Her boyfriend Tyler had been sent over to a notorious old house over on Henry Street to repair the A/C unit, and he wasn’t responding to any of her calls or texts.

Worried for his safety, she was on her way to go and check on him.

Unfortunately, I knew exactly which house she meant.

The old Victorian on Henry Street was a location that my team had been investigating on and off for the past couple of years.

Recently we had all agreed to stop any further investigations on the site, due to some nasty side effects from our long-term exposure to whatever paranormal creature or entity had taken over the house and property.

Walking away from the haunting, knowing that I’d never solve the mystery of what was going on there, had been a bitter pill to swallow.

However, I’d seen firsthand the harm it had caused to the last residents of the property and witnessed the health and psychological problems it had caused for my team.

I wasn’t spared its effects either. I’d lost weight, wasn’t sleeping well, and when I did.

..I’d been plagued by violent nightmares.

The day we’d officially called off any further investigations, I’d ended up hanging out with Kenna and helping her at her bakery. I’d confided to her then about the troubles…and now she was heading straight into danger.

“Shit,” I said, tapping on the screen of my phone.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked as he stopped at an intersection.

“I have to go to my sister, Kenna. She needs my help.”

He glanced over. “Is she in danger?”

“Yes, she is,” I said.

“Call the police,” he said immediately.

“It’s not that sort of trouble,” I explained. “It’s a paranormal one. A serious one.”

He didn’t argue. Instead, he simply asked, “Where do we need to go?”

I knew my way to the address by heart, and so I gave him directions while he drove his jeep as quickly as possible across town to the house.

When we arrived, we found Kenna and a barely conscious Tyler on the floor of the basement. The room smelled strongly of sulfur; and soot and ash were falling down in big dirty flakes from the basement ceiling.

I skidded to a halt on the filthy basement floor. “By the goddess, what happened to you two?”

“An entity attacked Tyler,” Kenna said.

My gaze swept over the room. “You used witch-fire against it.”

She nodded. “Yes.”

Charlie had been right beside me, and now he was silently taking in the scene…

the smoldering circle on the floor around Kenna and Tyler, the flameless ash that fell from the ceiling.

I watched as his eyes went unerringly to a spot on the basement wall.

There, the outline of a human form was highlighted against the stone wall.

It had been surrounded—outlined by burn marks—where Kenna’s magick had blasted it.

“Tyler’s going to need medical attention,” Kenna said.

With a nod, Charlie walked directly over and helped my sister to her feet. He passed Kenna off to me and then helped Tyler sit upright.

“Sorry man.” Tyler’s voice was weak as he started to sway. “I don’t think I can stay upright.”

“I’ve got you,” Charlie said. Quickly, he bent over and scooped Tyler up, shifting him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

Unknowingly, Charlie’s footsteps had smeared the majority of the remnants of the protective circle that lingered on the floor. Good, I thought. Less for me to cover up.

Throwing a glamour at the burn mark on the stone wall, I willed my magick to hold until I could get back and take a closer look at it. For now, I didn’t want anyone else—especially a mundane—to see that outline. The air shimmered briefly, and the mark was concealed.

Quickly grabbing Tyler’s toolbox, I swiped my sandaled feet through what was left of the mark on the floor.

The ash smeared messily across the concrete, but it obscured Kenna’s protective circle.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, taking Kenna’s arm.

The residual of negative energy in the house was shockingly strong. Strong enough to make my stomach churn.

“Not gonna argue.” My sister nodded, and the four of us swiftly went back upstairs and out of the house.

By the time we made the front porch, Tyler was completely limp over Charlie’s shoulder. From there Charlie carried him straight across the street and into a neighbor’s welcoming front lawn, putting him down in the grassy shade of an ash tree.

There was a shocking contrast in the bright, positive energy of the neighbor’s yard and the distinctly negative energy of the old Victorian property.

I’d experienced it before, but it was still jolting.

Tipping my face up to the summer sunshine, I visualized the light burning away any evil that might be lingering on the four of us.

I saw Charlie shiver in reaction, while Kenna dropped to her knees to check on Tyler. But she couldn’t seem to rouse him.

“Tyler!” She patted his face. “Tyler, can you hear me?”

Charlie knelt down beside Kenna to check Tyler’s pulse. “He’s breathing. Pulse is a bit thready.”

“We need an ambulance,” I said as the homeowner rushed outside.

“My god,” she said, recognizing me. “Not again!”

“Sorry about this, Mrs. Thompson,” I said to her.

“Do you need me to call 911?” the woman asked.

“Yes, please.” I nodded. “I think our friend may have been exposed to carbon monoxide.”

Mrs. Thompson wasted no more time. She immediately called 911.

The carbon monoxide claim was a huge fib, but I knew it was also the quickest way to get an ambulance and medical attention for Tyler. I went over to Kenna. “I got here as fast as I could.”

“Thank you for coming,” she said.

Keeping my voice down so Mrs. Thompson wouldn’t overhear me, I eased closer to my sister. “Did you see what attacked him?”

“I did,” she said softly. “Shadowy, with a human form. It looked like it was feeding off him. Draining his energy.”

“Well, whatever it was,” Charlie said, dropping a supportive hand on Kenna’s shoulder, “it looks like you blew it to shit and gone.”

“That’s one less of those damned things to deal with, anyway,” I muttered.

Kenna did a double take. “I’m sorry, did you say one less ? As in there are more of them in that place?”

“Yeah.” I heaved a deep sigh. “I’m afraid so.”

Charlie turned to look at the creepy house across the street. Slowly his eyes traveled to Tyler, to Kenna, and finally to me. I knew he was assessing, thinking about what he had seen, what he hadn’t seen, and what he’d felt .

“Somebody has to do something about that house,” Kenna insisted.

“I know,” I said. “I’m going to ask Grandma Althea to contact the Guardian. Enough is enough.”

“Do it,” Kenna said. “Have Grandma contact the Guardian.”

Emergency services arrived and the paramedics put Tyler on oxygen immediately. He was loaded up in the ambulance and Kenna hopped in her car to follow. I saw her speaking on her phone—no doubt calling Tyler’s family.

Which left Charlie and I to speak to the police and the fire department. Luckily my buddy Jason was the officer on call.

“God damn it, Skye.” He rolled his eyes as he walked over to me. “Not again.”

I gave him a wave. “Hey, Jason.”

“You like to keep things exciting, eh?” Jason teased me.

“Who you gonna call?” I said, half joking—and by using that classic Ghostbusters line, I let him know it was a paranormal issue.

With a shake of his head, he took my statement and next took Charlie’s. Charlie kept his responses brief, taking his cues from me. He didn’t mention anything paranormal. Only that he’d arrived on scene and had assisted Tyler from the building.

Both Jason and the fire department knew that I was familiar with the home, and one of the firefighters asked me if there were smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the house.