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CHAPTER TWO

Aunt Astra was waiting at home for me when Reese dropped me off. I was exhausted, grimy, achy, and filled with wonder. As I gave him a grateful smile and opened the door, Reese winked at me.

“You did good, kid,” he said.

I gave him a feeble laugh. “I’m not exactly a kid,” I said.

“You have no idea how old I am,” he said. “Go rest. You’ve had an eventful night. I can tell, just by your aura.”

As I shut the door, giving him a little wave, and headed up the steps, it occurred to me that I actually wasn’t sure what Reese was. Was he a shifter, witchblood, human, or something else? Nightshade called him a “problem solver,” but nobody seemed to know—or want to talk—about his origins. I unlocked the door and slipped inside. Reese pulled out of the driveway the moment I closed the door.

“You’re home!” Astra jumped up from the sofa. Crystal, my best friend, was waiting with her and she joined her, both looking me over as I wearily hauled my ass into the living room.

“Yeah, and I’m exhausted, and I’m hungry.” I dropped my backpack on the floor and began shrugging out of my jacket. Crystal took it from me and hung it up, while Astra gave me a thorough once-over.

“Just checking to make sure you’re okay,” she said. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head. “No, just…overwhelmed.” I paused, then asked, “Am I supposed to tell you what happened?”

Astra gazed into my eyes. “No, child. Everyone has their own experience, and we all keep them close to the chest, at least until after we’ve been initiated. Nightshade will know if you passed the test.”

“I think I did,” I said. “If not, I don’t know what else I could have done.” I was wet from the rain and the damp of the forest, and cold, and I wanted a hot shower and then to eat my fill of comfort food. “I need a shower.”

“Go wash up and change, and I’ll put a frozen pizza in the oven. What else do you want?” Astra asked.

“I don’t know…cocoa? And whatever else sounds good and comforting. I feel like a bottomless pit,” I said.

I headed back to my bedroom, stripping as I went. I dropped my clothes in the hamper, then turned on the shower to heat up. The floors had radiant heating and my feet welcomed the gently warmed tile. I spread a towel on the vanity bench and sat down, looking at myself in the mirror. In the scope of one evening, I could tell that I had changed. The Crow Man had changed me, and though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly how, there was a look in my eyes that said I’d never be the same. Finally, I slipped into the shower and closed my eyes as I tried to shake the feeling of the Crow Man’s fingers on my cheek.

* * *

So, time for introductions. I’m Maisy Tripwater. Witchblood by nature, I’m forty-three years old, and I recently started over in life. A couple years ago, my husband died. And then, a few months ago when my house burned down and I lost my job on the same day, it seemed like the perfect time to move back to my hometown of Midnight Point and step out on my own.

So I and my twenty-pound Maine Coon, Miss Prance-a-lot (Miss P. for short), moved back with my aunt. Astra had raised me from the time I was seven, when my parents died, so I’ve come full circle.

While I’m a matchmaker by trade and I recently opened Married At First Bite, a matchmaking service for Otherkin, my business isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. I was the best at my business when I worked in Seattle, but the company let me go because I was too good at my job. But Midnight Point is as small as Seattle is large, and there aren’t that many people looking for a matchmaker here.

So I’ve branched out to giving readings—both tarot and psychic—and I take on spiritual house cleansings. But I’m not sure how things will go, and I’m wondering if I made the right decision.

And tonight, I just went through a quest to see if I’ll be allowed to enter the Dark Moon Society. And now I’ll face whatever the fallout happens to be.

* * *

Astra and Crystal were waiting for me in the dining room as I wandered in, clad in my sleep shirt, robe, and fuzzy slippers. The pizza was fresh and hot out of the oven and it smelled so good I began to salivate as I walked toward the table. My stomach rumbled and I settled into a chair. Crystal pushed a mug of hot cocoa over to me, and I took a long sip, closing my eyes as the warmth raced down my throat.

“I’m so tired, but I’m also…well…wired, if you know what I mean.” I placed a couple pieces of pizza on my plate and sprinkled parmesan over the top. Sausage, pepperoni, and pineapple—my favorite. “Thank you so much.”

Crystal cleared her throat as she bit into her pizza. “So, was it hard?”

I nodded. “Harder than I expected. Actually, I had no clue what to expect. But trust me, it ended up being far stranger than I expected.” I glanced up, catching Astra’s gaze.

She shook her head. “Remember, don’t tell her what happened to you. It will set up expectations in Crystal’s mind, and since she hasn’t undergone her quest, that could get in her way.”

I let out a slow breath. “I guess you’re right,” I said.

“You know I’m right,” Astra said. Her phone rang at that moment and she glanced at it. “Nightshade.” She answered. “Hi…yes, she’s right here… All right, I will. Four-thirty tomorrow? I’ll see if she can make it.” She muted her phone and asked, “Do you have time tomorrow afternoon to meet with Nightshade?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I have appointments in the morning, but I can make time tomorrow afternoon. What’s she saying?”

“She can make it,” Astra said. “Do you want me to… Right. All right. Four-thirty tomorrow.” She set down her phone and said, “Well, you’re in the Order. Nightshade wants to chat with you tomorrow at four-thirty. She’ll show up at your shop so you don’t have to drive over to her house. She said book half an hour at the most for her.”

I sat back, a weight sliding off my shoulders. I hadn’t realized just how taxed I was with the worry that I wouldn’t pass the test. But Nightshade had accepted me. I was in.

“I did it. I’m a part of the Dark Moon Society.” I closed my eyes. I ached, I was exhausted, and I wanted to sleep. “I’ve lost every ounce of energy I had left. I think I need to get to bed.” I could feel the edges of an exhaustion migraine coming on. I seldom got them, but if I was overtired and totally wiped out, the blinding headaches would descend. I went through a period of migraines every few days in the first few months after Dan died.

Crystal reached across the table and took the slice of pizza out of my hand. “Okay, get to bed. Astra, if you’ll make sure she gets covered up, I’ll clean the kitchen for you.”

“Thank you, dear,” Astra said. She took my hand and led me into my bedroom. I was too tired to even speak. Astra pulled down my covers like when I was a child, and I sat on the edge of the bed, shrugging out of my robe and kicking off my slippers. As I dropped onto my pillow, sliding my feet into bed, she pulled the covers up and kissed me on the forehead.

“Good job tonight,” she whispered. “Now, sleep.”

I nodded, too tired to even kiss her back. “Night, Auntie,” I said, feeling like a little girl again.

As she headed out, turning off the light and closing the door, I thought I might be too tired to nod off, but in no time, the world around me blurred, and I dropped into a dreamless sleep, my mind and heart at rest.

* * *

By morning, I felt like myself again, though meeting the Crow Man had left me reeling. I didn’t know what to do about it—or if there was anything to do. Maybe Nightshade could help me figure it all out.

I dressed carefully. In January, I had gone on a shopping spree for clothes, and I was taking better care of myself. For the first time in a couple years, I cared what I looked like when I went out. I had always done my makeup—I enjoyed that—but now, I wanted to pull myself together more, to present myself to my clients in a more professional light.

Today, I decided on a cobalt blue circle skirt, with an ice blue cowl-neck sweater, and a black patent leather belt. I hated pantyhose, so I didn’t bother, but slid into a pair of ballerina flats, then brushed my hair back into an almost-poufy ponytail and slid on a gold bow hair tie. It was larger than life, but it looked good. Finally, I finished my makeup and headed downstairs.

Astra was making breakfast. She looked up as I entered the room. “How are you feeling?”

I leaned up on my toes to kiss her on the cheek. “Good, actually. I’m surprised, given how out of it and tired I was last night, but I slept like the dead. What’s for breakfast?”

My aunt loved to cook. While I could cook, it wasn’t something I went out of my way for, and so I was perfectly happy letting her take over the stove. I was happy to do the dishes and clean the kitchen, though half the time, Astra did those before I could get to them.

“I thought that on such a rainy morning, I’d make hashbrowns to go with our eggs and sausages. Sound good?”

I nodded, turning on the espresso machine. “Latte?”

“Please. Vanilla, two shots.” She flipped the hashbrowns—tiny chunks of red potatoes, covered in olive oil, paprika, lemon pepper, and dill—and set out two plates on the counter. “How many sausage links?”

“How many you got for me?” I laughed. I loved sausages and anything to do with lunch meats like pastrami and salami and the cheeses that so often accompanied them.

“Six. That enough?”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s fine.” As I pulled the shots for our lattes, adding vanilla flavoring to hers, and vanilla and cherry to mine, I ran through the morning’s schedule in my mind.

At ten, I had a client coming in for a tarot reading, and another at noon. Then, Nightshade was due to show up at four-thirty, and at six, I had my exorcism class. Tomorrow evening, I was consulting with a vampire, who wanted my matchmaking services. A traditional vampire, the blood-sucking, blah-blah-blah kind. I’d never met one before, but I was considering wearing silver beneath my sweater, and I had already determined that he was the Midnight Point contact for the Pacific Northwest Vampire Collective.

Rogue vampires were rare, but they could prove deadly and I wasn’t ready to either live for a gazillion years, or to be drained and tossed out in the dumpster like yesterday’s garbage.

The Northwest Vampire Collective kept an eye on any rogues they heard of, and they also kept rolls of vampires who officially lived in the area. While the organization’s home base was in Moonshadow Bay, run by a vampire named Val Slater, every city in the area had a contact. And in Midnight Point, that contact was named Zandre.

I’d done my research and was reassured that Zandre was on the rolls, that not only was he the city rep for the NWVC, but he also ran one of the few nightclubs in the area, and that he primarily used bottled blood, rather than bloodwhores. In other words, he was one of the vampires who worked within society than against it.

And now he wanted my help.

Even though vampires made me nervous, I had only managed to secure one other client since I’d opened my doors last month, at least as a matchmaker. Even then, Brenda Kline had met her match in a roundabout way, though it tied into her being my client so she gladly gave me credit for matching her, and I gratefully took her recommendation.

I finished making our lattes and carried the tall mugs over to the kitchen nook, which was actually a booth, just like in a diner. Astra brought over our food and settled down opposite me. I pushed her cup across the table to her. I eyed my plate.

“I’m hungry,” I said, sniffing. The aromas rising from the plate made my stomach rumble.

“So am I,” Astra said. She paused, then added, “I hope you didn’t mind me telling you to keep silent about your experience last night. You can talk about it later, but until you’ve discussed it with the high priestess, it’s something you need to keep to yourself. And Crystal, since she hasn’t gone through her quest yet, needs to go in without any preconceived ideas.”

“I can understand that,” I said. “But I can’t wait to tell you what happened.” I speared a sausage link with my fork and bit it in half. The flavor exploded in my mouth and I let out a happy sigh. “I love food.”

Astra laughed. “So do I. All the women in our family do. Although my parents were sticklers about proper etiquette. They cared more about the décor than the food. Their idea of Sunday dinner was two thin slices of roast, one scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy, a spoonful of roasted vegetables, and a roll. Then a sliver of cake for dessert. All served at the dining room table with full crystal, placemats, and true silverware. There’s nothing wrong with that—dinners were a beautiful affair. But eating can be fun and enjoyable, not just a formal gathering.”

Astra seldom mentioned her parents. I’d never met my grandparents, although when I was young, every year they sent me a ten-dollar bill with a generic card on my birthday. But there was no other contact. No calls, no checking in to see how I was doing, especially after my parents died.

“Do you think they care that I was born?” I asked, feeling very much like a child asking a taboo question.

“I think… I think they cared, but they were so angry at your mother for marrying Johann. And then, when your parents were killed, they blamed everything on your father. Well, and on her. If she hadn’t married him, she would have come home and behaved and still be alive …that sort of thing. I remember when I told them about the crash.” She rested her fork on her dish, sobering.

“What did they say?” I asked. I’d been seven when they died and my aunts took me in.

“Do you really want to know?” Astra asked. “Think about your answer.”

I sighed. It was going to be bad, that much was apparent. “Yeah, I do want to know.”

Astra licked her lips. “Well, Sara and I flipped a coin for who was going to tell them. We knew it would be bad. I lost, so I called them that afternoon. I asked them both to come on the phone and they did. I told them that Marika and Johann had been killed in a plane crash while they were on their way to the UK for a second honeymoon.”

She paused, sighing. “Your grandfather just stayed silent. Your grandmother, however, said, I guess that’s what she gets for taking up with a vagabond. Well, she made her bed. Now she’s died in it. I was crying and my father told me to pipe down.”

I dropped my fork. “He said what ? What the hell? His daughter had just died?—”

“I know, I know,” Astra said. “I never said my parents were good people. My mother, at that point, asked whether they’d be expected to take you in. I told her that Marika appointed me your official guardian in her will. And a good thing that was, too, otherwise you might have grown up with my parents. And that wouldn’t be good for anybody, all the way ’round.”

I finished my breakfast, then tapped my lips with my napkin. “I’m so glad my parents thought ahead. I don’t think I could have managed growing up with Grandma and Grandpa. They were so angry at my parents, they would have transferred that to me, as well.”

“I think they would have. Anyway, you see why I never go home. Sara never did, either. I still talk to my sister Cassandra at times, but she’s not the most pleasant person. I miss Sara, though. When you’re twins, even fraternal ones, there’s a special link that grows between you. At least, there was in our case.” She pushed back her plate. “I’ll do the dishes. You run on to work. I fed Miss P. when I fed Dahlia, so she’s fine.”

“No wonder she’s snoozing,” I said, glancing over at one of the cat trees we had. Miss P. was conked out on the top perch. “Okay, I’m almost sorry I asked, but I guess it’s better to know what kind of people you’re dealing with. I’d better get moving. I’ll see you later, probably in the afternoon, before I meet with Nightshade. I’ll grab a burger or something before class.”

“Goodbye, dear. Drive safe and don’t let your grandparents get you down. They’re inconsequential at this point,” she said, waving as I headed for the living room.