Page 3 of Untraced Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #1)
Tyler
Damp concrete scuffed my boots as I shuffled out from under the Camaro I’d been working on, the permanent lack of warmth in this town sinking into every inch of the already drab workshop I owned.
“Tools down. Let’s call it a day!” I yelled, swiping an oily rag off the workbench and running it over my hands.
“I could get used to this whole knocking off early thing,” he chimed with a grin.
“Don’t get any ideas. I couldn’t work alongside that face every day,” I joked, giving him a shove as I walked past.
He jutted out his lip in mock-insult, his hand palming the chest of his stain free coveralls I’d thrown at him earlier.
It wasn’t the norm to have Wes around the workshop, as his hands were better suited to a tattoo gun, but he knew his way around a gear box, and today I needed an extra set of hands.
I flipped over a retired oil drum sitting on top of its base. “You got a hot date or something tonight?” I asked, knowing full-well I’d be lucky to get an honest answer out of the guy, banter being his preferred response to everything.
He flashed me his pearly whites. “Can’t keep them off me. You know that.”
I shook my head with a knowing smile. His pretty-boy image had never failed him where the ladies were concerned. With dark hair, green eyes, and a jaw that could rival the angles my grinder cut, Wes always had women hanging off him.
I cracked open a beer on the side of the drum and passed it to him, then did the same for myself.
“Who’s the lucky lady this time?” my apprentice asked, fishing for details no doubt. I’d only employed Max a couple of weeks ago and already he’d proven worthy of his employment.
Wes tilted his beer in the youngster’s direction, leaning lazily against the work bench that ran the length of the building.
“Real men never kiss and tell,” he retorted with a smirk.
I chuckled to myself from behind my beer. The cheek of the guy. Wes had game, I’d give him that, but Max was none the wiser. I’d known Wes my entire life, having grown up together in the same coven, all but a few years of friendship cemented from a very young age.
I looked at the new guy sitting quietly, his gaze still fixed on my best mate.
“Don’t worry about him,” I said to Max while nodding in Wes’s direction. “Many a man have tried to figure out why women love a cocky guy. Even the elderly woman who lived next to us took a special liking to him.” I paused, raising a brow suggestively. “Said his best asset was his eyes.”
Wes raised his arms in the air defensively. “Who was I to correct her? She’d flip if she saw the real one.”
Max threw his hand to his mouth, laughter and swallowing his drink at once not working out so well for him.
A heavy chuckle left my lungs at his innuendo.
“Speaking of…” I looked over to Wes, taking a swig of my beer. “I see Betty sold her house. Any clue who the new kids on the block are?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t heard a thing. I’m sure going to miss her pumpkin pie, though. Never did ask her what the spice was she put in it,” he mused.
Betty had been our neighbor for years now.
We didn’t see a lot of her, but she’d made a point of coming over with a fresh batch of pumpkin pie every so often, having always made an extra one for us.
She was a kind woman, had always lived on her own, but I knew her and the nosey neighbor from across the road could start up their own column in the local news with the amount of gossip I’d heard from over the fence.
It was sad to see her go, but she’d downsized to a more manageable section for her age.
Cutters Cove was not your average small town. Every supernatural being imaginable lived in or around here, but we flew under the radar for the most part. Witches, vampires, werewolves… You name it, we had it.
We lived where the veil between here and the Underworld was at its thinnest, and we guarded it with our life. There was an unspoken rule between most of us to remain undetected, to cause no harm to the humans who lived alongside us, oblivious to our kind.
There were a few vampires who conveniently forgot that, with human blood being their preferred main course, but the humans seemed none the wiser.
It was one place you never went out alone.
Not without the element of magic in the palm of your hand.
The thought reminded me of the stunning brunette I’d seen walk past the garage earlier that day.
Dare I say it, she’d sucked the air from my chest and rendered me immobile for longer that I’d like to admit.
I’d come so close to costing myself a month’s wages in repairs from the distraction under the hood alone.
Not that she was aware, but I’d watched her, hidden in the shadows of my workshop as she continued down the street. She had to be new to town, I hadn’t seen her before. And I knew most people.
After locking up the garage, Max headed off in the opposite direction, with Wes and I jumping into the van I’d converted into a mechanic-on-the-road type thing. He slid in beside me, resting his boots up on the dash.
“Get those fucking things off there, would you?” I ordered, slamming the van through the gears out of the drive. It was hard enough keeping the work van tidy without him adding to the mess.
He parked his feet back on the floor and wound down his window, his hand riding a wave in the air. “Ty, you seriously need to get laid.”
I flicked him the bird .
He was fucking right. I hadn’t touched a woman in years, but I couldn’t care less. He knew he’d hit a nerve. And about my history with her, the human who I’d let into our world. But that was just how our friendship was.
In some ways, Wes and I knew each other better than we knew ourselves.
The last of the day’s light filtered over the town as we made our way down the narrow streets of Cutters Cove. Although we rarely saw it, the sun always set early here. But it also meant trouble came out to party earlier, too.
I pulled the van into our drive and cut the motor, walking up the path toward the house we shared.
There was nothing special about it from the outside, just your everyday split-level home.
I’d been saving for years to buy it, then converted the lower level into a basement-turned-man-cave as the years went by.
It had quickly become a popular gathering place among our close friends.
Discarding my boots at the door, I headed through the open-plan living area and down the hall to the bathroom, needing to freshen up. Stepping out of my coveralls, I threw my clothing into the laundry basket and turned on the hot water, sliding under the steady stream of heat.
I had a thing about showers.
If it wasn’t hot, I wouldn’t come out clean.
A dewy mist filled the room as the water carved a pathway over my back, its heat like jagged razors branding my skin. It sent a shiver down my spine, and the hairs on my arms stood on end .
Running my hands through my hair, my eyes closed as I thought of her . Ava, and her dark irises that used to look up at me when on her knees. She’d been my girlfriend for over two years, much to the disgruntlement of the supernatural community.
It wasn’t the thing to do, fall in love with a human, and I hadn’t been popular. I’d sworn her to secrecy when I’d told her everything . Of the beings that exist in our world.
My fist connected with the shower wall, sending pain through my knuckles in protest. I splayed my palms flat on the tiles as water sprayed over my face, shaking my head as if to clear my mind.
Like it could heal my haunted heart.
Fuck. She’s dead. Get a grip.
Shutting off the water, I reached for a towel, wrapping it around my waist.
“Come and get a look at this,” I heard Wesley say as I shut the bathroom door behind me.
Making my way into the living area, I spotted him looking outside where he nodded towards Betty’s old house next door.
Through the window, a woman with long dark hair danced to a muted beat, oblivious to her audience. Her curves swayed with seduction and ease as she danced around what I knew was Betty’s old living room.
When she turned to the side, I recognized her as the woman I’d seen outside the workshop earlier. Her jeans had hugged her in all the right places, those same jeans now sending the both of us into a trance of our own, seducing us in silence, every move of her hips commanding our attention .
I tore my gaze from her, turning back to Wes.
I arched a brow. “Human?” I asked.
Brows furrowed and eyes squinting, I knew Wes was trying to get a read off her. “Unsure.” He slowly cracked the knuckles on his fist. “I think we need to invite our mesmerizing little neighbor over tomorrow to find out.”
I didn’t object. With his sensor gift, Wes could feel magic near him through intuition or touch, and when new neighbors were concerned, it came in handy knowing who or what had moved into our neighborhood.
I turned on my heel, waving over my head. “Do your thing. I’ll invite the guys and give Skye a call. She’s just moved back to town.”
“Your sister? I haven’t seen her since we were kids.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, time flies.”
Wes walked past me, heading next door to extend the invitation no doubt. He had a natural way with women, and I’d never met one able to refuse his charm.
Good luck to her.