“Anyway, I just came to bring you your tea, not to cry on your shoulder.” Swinging her legs, Aria lowered herself down off the counter. “If you leave the tins out to cool, I’ll set them out on the shelf in the morning.”
“Aria...” Aria held a hand up, her emerald-green eyes sparking at her sister as Lorelai spoke.
“Please, Lori. Not now.” Her sister knew her well enough not to take offense at her curt tone. “I’m going to head to Harry’s for a few drinks, I think, then head home. Alone, most likely, but at least I’ll have had some beer to soothe the pain.”
Before Lorelai could protest any further, Aria waved her goodbyes and pushed out of the glass door of Belladonna. Yes, she’d head to Harry’s Bar and Grill, have a burger and some beer. And if she headed home alone afterward, she figured she’d rather keep her own company than be stuck with someone as spineless as the idiot from the coffee shop.
* * *
Lorelai watched Aria leave with a pang in her heart. She knew that Aria thought she didn’t understand, but she knew what her sister was feeling better than she’d like to admit.
Lorelai had wanted to be a teacher—specifically, a kindergarten or elementary school teacher. But the way in which parents held their children tight when either she or Aria was around had told her early on that, unless she wanted to move somewhere else and hide her magic, she’d better settle for another career choice.
And while she tended to scare men off less than her outgoing sister, it didn’t mean that any of them stayed around. When push came to shove, no one wanted to marry a witch, no one wanted to have children with one.
Her desire for true love couldn’t be solved with a spell. But, she reflected as she locked the front door of Belladonna and turned the sign around, her independent sister’s desire for some temporary companionship could be.
“A lust spell.” Cocking her head to one side, Lorelai thought for a moment, letting her intentions come to her. After the picture was clear in her head, she began to gather her supplies—a fat red candle, jasmine oil, dried strawberries and vervain.
She wouldn’t try to draw love to her sister, because that would be attempting the impossible. Nor could she create lust where there was none. But men—lots of them—had a healthy amount of that emotion when it came to Aria. It was simply a matter of removing barriers—both Aria’s and the man’s.
This spell would make the attraction burn hot and bright between Aria and the next man that she saw and was attracted to.
Mixing the herbs and the oil together in a small wooden bowl, Lorelai furrowed her brow and, after a brief surge of energy crackled through the air, lit the red candle with her magic. She paused for a moment as she thought of how angry Aria would be if she found out, but she shook it off.
Her sister deserved to get what she wanted, just once. And maybe it would give her enough confidence that next time, she wouldn’t need a spell.
Nodding, Lorelai cast her circle and began to chant the words that came flowing to the front of her mind.
“Do what ye will, and it harm none.”
Chapter One
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Declan Steele shook his head, forcing himself out of the near trance he’d been in as he stared across the parking lot of Harry’s Bar and Grill. It had been years since he’d been back to Salem’s Hollow, and he wasn’t entirely sure why he was back now.
He didn’t speak as his lover handed him the ebony cane that he now had to use to walk. But he did study Adam’s face, the golden skin, the expressive eyes, wondering how he’d been lucky enough to wind up with someone so patient.
“I can’t explain it.” Declan frowned as he felt something prickle his cold skin—the merest whisper of something that didn’t belong on the breeze. His first taste of blood had come from a human with the ability to see things she shouldn’t have. Since then he’d often had premonitions that couldn’t be explained.
One of those had been dogging his heels for the last week, telling him to come back to the town he’d never thought he’d visit again.
“I suppose the question should be, are you okay with this?” Declan narrowed his eyes, watching his lover carefully. He had been with the werewolf for nearly two years, knew him as well as he knew anyone.
Adam knew—had always known—that a piece of Declan’s heart still belonged to someone else. To a woman.
To a witch.
Adam smiled, and Declan saw the strength that had attracted him in the first place. He’d always been drawn to those with cores of steel, those like Adam.
Like Aria.
“I’m not threatened by the little witch.” Adam raked fingers through his coal dark hair, smiling the sexy grin that made heat tighten in Declan’s gut. “You know me better than that.”
This was true, Declan realized, as he weighed the options for the final time. The supernatural creatures in the world had much more open ideas about sex and love than humans did. In the years since he’d turned, he’d been with men, with women, with other vampires, with werewolves. Adam felt the same, as had the woman who had once held his heart in her hands. But Declan had spent enough time among humans in the last few years, doing research for his report for the Council, that some of their uniquely human thoughts and feelings still clung to his skin like a mist.
“I don’t think I’ve been drawn back here just because of Aria,” Declan began, and as he spoke, he felt a tug in the direction of the bar. She was in there, he would have bet his long life on it. “Regardless, you have to know I still have feelings for her.”
Lots of feelings, ranging from throttling her pretty neck to thrusting between her creamy thighs.
Adam grinned at Declan, and Declan saw the whiteness of the wolf’s teeth flash in the artificial light of the parking lot.
“I’m looking forward to exploring those feelings. All of them.” Reaching out, Adam squeezed the fingers that Declan had clenched on his cane. There was more than just heat between them—there was caring, love.
Just as there had been with Aria, once.
Urgency worked its way into Declan’s gut as he searched the outside of the building, his eyesight keen as a hawk’s.
There was something else at play here, something besides Aria. Something that had drawn him here, and that the universe hadn’t seen fit to give him any clarity on yet.
But in the meantime, he might as well confront the little witch who had thrown him out of her life. The very air of the town seemed to pulse with her scent, and until he at least saw her, spoke with her, he wouldn’t be able to focus on much else.
Decision made, he jerked his chin in the direction of the bar. Adam’s eyes followed the movement.
“Let’s go.”
* * *
A pint glass of beer later, Aria was feeling a bit mellower. Who needed men, anyway? She had a credit card. She could buy a vibrator.
It would just be easier that way.
Lifting her glass to her lips, she drained the dregs of her drink and slid from her bar stool. She liked Harry’s, with its rickety tables, no nonsense menu and ancient jukebox that sat on the edge of a tiny dance floor underlain with horsehair. Harry never gave her any of the nonsense that so many people in the town did, but neither did he hit her up for magic.
“Thanks.” Nodding at the man in question, she slid a twenty-dollar bill across the bar. Her burger and beer wouldn’t come to more than ten, but she liked to leave a good tip when it was due.
She