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THE HOWARD KITCHEN—WHERE the smell of freshly brewed doom—erm—coffee—wafted in the air indicating a long night ahead and their relative peace, ended. Mack had been called and was there too.
Even though the others had many questions, they allowed Melinda to explain what happened, fully, without interruption first. She relived it for them in explicit detail—other than the part about the demon looking and sounding an awful lot like their favorite Guardian, Mathew. That, she'd handle after.
"I thought my gift was changing," she told them. "That I was having prophecies by touch, not just in my dreams. But I think it was a trick. I think they—the demons, I guess—purposely planted it somehow to get me into that alley and get William away from me."
"They waited for you to be out in public and used the vision as a distraction," Charlie restated grimly. "Wow. And how? And just—wow."
And from the feral scowl on William's face he was figuring out some way to make sure he and Melinda were permanently attached at the hip. She could think of a few other ways to accomplish that... but as it always seemed with them, tonight was not that night.
"The demons would be using dark magic," imagined Lizzy. "Magic we know little about."
"And they used a familiar face to get close to you," Emily said with a disturbing shudder in her spine.
"Is it normal for demons to work with hired help, like humans?" asked Annie.
"We'd need to ask our resident Guardian if he knows, once he returns," said Charlie. Which they were hoping was sooner than later.
"We sure could use Mathew right about—" Lizzy no more than got his name out of her mouth when the Guardian appeared in front of them.
"You called. What's up?" He shrugged with a simper that claimed, we work in mysterious ways and all that... the others, Rae, Riley, and Lucas were not with him. "And no, we don't just listen in and spy on people twenty-four-seven, because, ewe, gross. But I've kept an ear open, just in case I was needed."
Lizzy gave him a quick welcome back hug and they hurriedly explained what had happened—everyone but Melinda, who had a severe frown on her face aimed right at Mathew. But she did not explain and even though he got a chill from the coldness she was unusually aiming his direction, he kept on topic.
"This is quite worrisome, they're getting far bolder than we expected, fast. But to answer your first question, no, it's not normal for them to work alongside humans. They try to trick them into doing bad things all the time, but to our knowledge, they don't work with them. In this case, they probably sought out this Dominic because of his connection with Melinda, or the Isle."
"That, and he's a no good, sick excuse of a human," Emily added on her friend's behalf.
"And that," Melinda happily obliged. There was more than one rumble of agreement.
"Demons think humans are beneath them," Mathew said. "They might have decided to use them for their own benefit, but I can guarantee you, whatever they're offering the humans in return for their help, it's only benefiting the demons in the long run. The humans offering their services are too short sighted to see it."
"Too greedy more like," Courtney scoffed.
"But you're right," Michael agreed. "I don't see demons sharing power with anyone."
"The Feyk didn't even want to work with them and went into hiding," Melinda reminded.
"Cowards, but smart enough cowards to know the truth," Mack chimed in with an eyeroll.
Charlie sipped down some coffee and rubbed his chin looking inquisitive.
"Have there been any other reports of such attacks?" he aimed at Mathew.
"Demons attacking witches? Stealing blood?" Mathew clarified. "No. But that doesn't mean we shouldn’t warn others just in case. If demons are stealing witches' blood, they have a reason and it won't be a good one. And if they specifically wanted Howard Witch blood—well, your guess is as good as mine as to what nightmare they're conjuring."
Lizzy caught her mate's gaze. "We need to have the Grand Coven meet again and warn them."
Charlie nodded. "We'll do it. Tonight. I'd hate to wait and regret it."
Lizzy agreed and hopped right to making the magical call for a meeting, but Melinda stopped them.
"Wait, please. There's one more thing." Her gaze was still pinned on Mathew and she was shaking her head like she was arguing with herself.
"Melinda?" the Guardian questioned, no longer able to hold back the doubt that her coldness was really aimed at him.
"You were there," she charged him. "In the alley, with Dominic. You were there, Mathew. You were the demon helping him." She had no gentle way to break this news, but even saying it, and listening to Mathew talking earlier, she didn't see how it was possible.
Did Guardians defect? Was that even a thing?
He was acting like she'd not seen him there... something wasn't adding up.
But Melinda wasn't going to sit around and wait for some brutally nasty trick or trap to be sprung. They'd learned that lesson the hard way too many times already.
"What are you talking about?" Lizzy questioned Melinda. None of them were acting like they were sure they'd fully heard or understood what she was saying. This was the goofy and lovable Mathew Bishop they were talking about! He emanated goodness from his core, that couldn't be faked, could it?
But Mathew didn't argue, only withdrew into himself for a moment. After her words processed, he shook his head.
"That's impossible, Melinda. You must have been mistaken. Perhaps this demon looked a bit like me in the dark?"
"He didn't just look like you, Mathew. I recognized the voice before I saw the face. Your voice. And your face. You. Were. There." Her words ordered he explain at once.
Lizzy stood between Mathew and her new family, uncertain where to put her loyalty.
"I can't." Mathew shrugged in confusion. "I was with Lucas and Riley—they can vouch for my location during your attack, Melinda. I wasn't on The Demon Isle."
"Perhaps it was another trick?" offered up Mack.
"Trying to pull you all apart?" Annie offered up next.
"It would be a textbook move," Lizzy argued, " to try to peg us against each other."
Melinda heaved out a sigh. "I only know what I saw." She eyed Mathew. "And that my heart does not believe for a minute it was you."
"But you've been tricked enough times before..." Mathew understood. "I can only swear to you all I was not there. I had nothing to do with this attack. There has never been a single Guardian who ever turned evil, or vice versa. We are how we're born."
"I'm sorry, Mathew. I know it could not have been you—"
"But it looked like me and talked like me," Mathew finished her thought.
And was enough to put a seed of doubt into everyone's mind, except surprisingly, William's, but not so much from his own knowledge, but Annie's.
"It was not you," he stated emphatically. "You might not be human, but Annie can tell you're not lying."
They all gawked at her as if she had all the answers.
She shrugged. "I can't tell you anything more other than I know Mathew is not lying. My gift can't be tricked by magic."
But that was a heck of a lot and had Melinda rushing to hug Mathew and apologize for even thinking it was possible. He wasn't concerned about that though, understanding their weariness over the possibility of being tricked in this way yet again.
"I'd sure like to know who the heck is out there impersonating me."
"We'll add it to the ever-growing pile of problems to sort out," Lizzy said with a pat on his back. She left to call her Grand Coven meeting.
Mack rose to depart as well.
"Don't suppose I even need to ask at this point, do I?"
"What?" remarked Michael. "If this Isle is safe? Do you need to evacuate? Or start the supernatural trouble calling tree, ala Grace?" He rolled his eyes, because what was new.
"Yeah, that about sums it up."
"Sorry, Mack." Charlie shrugged. "This isn't the same drill, different day scenario. We're in whole new territory. We might be called The Demon Isle, but we've never actually had demons step foot here."
"That we know of," William added bitterly.
Emily shuddered. "That's a scary thought. That they might have been hanging around all along without us ever knowing."
"It's impossible not to know when they're here," Melinda argued. "It's like gloom and doom of the worst kind. You can feel it in your blood. In your bones."
She shuddered at the memory of it, the dread still too fresh in her mind.
They'd come perilously close to losing someone tonight, which was yet another stark reminder that no matter how peaceful these last weeks had been, it just wasn't in their cards to live that way for long. Witchy trouble would find them.
"I'll leave you to it," Mack said. "Story of my life... let me know what you figure out."
"What do we do now?" asked Michael, after she'd left.
Mathew started. "I will return and report this attack plus the fact that they are impersonating me, just in case they try to do the same to others." Another terrifying thought. "I won't be gone long. Actually, we're all returning to the Isle soon." It looked like he had more to say but decided to hold off for now, and no one felt like questioning at the moment. He'd explain when ready and they'd had enough of the crazy news for one night.
Mathew popped out of the room in a golden halo leaving the others restless and on edge.
Charlie left to help Lizzy with the coven meeting, while they all insisted Michael and Emily go home—to their new home—to assist the movers and get settled in. There wasn't much else to be done tonight. But they didn't leave until they'd both thoroughly hugged Melinda, as if needing additional proof she was really okay.
"Call if anything changes," Michael insisted as they departed.
Courtney and Annie decided to keep up with perimeter checks of the Howards property, check in on the Deane property, and the areas surrounding them for any signs of trouble.
Which left Melinda and William alone in the kitchen surrounded in obvious discomfort over the awkward silence suddenly enveloping them.
But after a minute, Melinda huffed and climbed to her feet.
"I know you're all wound up about Dominic and this demon Mathew lookalike."
William merely growled in disgruntled reply.
"Just—promise me, William, you won't do anything rash purely to be all heroic, or whatever. What happened with Dominic, it's in the past. And it wasn't just his fault, what happened between us. It was partly mine too."
William growled. "Perhaps. But it was not so tonight. And I can't help my nature. I'd rather tear him limb from limb, sew him back together with a rusty needle and rip him apart again." But seeing her pleading features, he gave in. "I won't do anything rash or uncalled for." But that didn't mean if Dominic got in his way, he wouldn't freely remove him from it. Preferably in pieces...
There was a throat clearing and they twisted to see Charlie coming back in. He eyed William with a knowing look and the vampire obliged his silent request for a moment with his sister.
"I'll see you in a few minutes." He leaned in and gave Melinda a chaste kiss on her cheek which only served to get her dander up. She didn't trust the vampire to keep his cool if he came in contact with Dominic, although, part of her didn't want him to. She just didn't want William to get hurt because he had a blind spot when it came to her.
"I know we've asked a hundred times, but you're okay?" her brother questioned.
"Yeah. I'm okay. You know, in the moment of it all I was so—shocked. I could barely even process what was happening it all went down so fast. After the fact and later—I'm sure there will be some residual holy crap I almost died that hits me." And hopefully a hot vampire to take her mind off the issue.
Charlie replied with a clipped chuckle. His sister had so much strength in her and he was never so happy to see it so prominently.
"There's something else I need to tell you," he admitted meekly. "Need to clear some air."
"What air could there be left to clear? Haven't we said it all at this point?"
"It's about Dominic."
She huffed and smirked.
"You mean how you bribed him to take me out?"
Charlie's eyes rounded, and his reply came out a jumble of nonsense.
Melinda shook her head, amused.
"I'm might have been naïve but I'm not totally daft. There's no way someone like Dominic Landon suddenly shows interest, overnight, without some sort of provocation. And let's say, I wasn't sure you did, but suspected."
"I'm sorry. I should never have done that."
"Charlie, you can't beat yourself up over this one okay. I said yes when he asked me out. I said yes to every other regrettable thing we did together. Those were my choices, not yours."
"I just wish I'd never done it."
"Past is in the past, remember?" She patted his arm. "I know you were just looking out for me. Trying to get me out of the house and to get a life."
"But not to get hurt by some smug dumbass who took advantage of you."
"Who I let take advantage of me because I didn't think I was worthy of better." Her brother cringed at that. "I know different now, Charlie. I am different now. I would never make that mistake again. It's a sucky lesson learned the hard way, but maybe that's the only way I would have figured it out. It is what it is, now, and while I'll always have a dark spot of disgust for Jerkface, I've put it behind me. It's time you did too." And William... but that was going to be much harder, she imagined.
"Jerkface—one of many good names for him," Charlie chuckled darkly. "Come here." He opened his arms and Melinda happily obliged the giant bear—wolf—hug.
"We all good?" she asked him.
"Yeah. We're all good. And we're doing that talking and being honest thing, so..."
"We are. We're getting way better at that."
"I'm sorry your date was ruined tonight," he said.
"We'll try again. Hopefully I won't almost die again."
"That's not even funny," Charlie grumbled.
Lizzy reentered the kitchen looking grim and Charlie's skin prickled—she had disturbing news to share.
"William?" Lizzy called out. The vampire flew back in a flash later.
"Should I call Michael back?" asked Melinda.
"We'll fill everyone else in later. Actually, it might be better that Courtney and Annie are out."
"Why?" asked William.
Lizzy turned to Charlie. "Remember those two covens that never responded to our Grand Coven request?"
"Yeah. We assumed they might be too new or young to recall what it was, or something of the sort."
"Not that," Lizzy informed them. "The covens didn't convene because they were wiped out. Just like Courtney's. And in the weeks that followed her covens' demise."
Charlie sank onto a barstool at the kitchen island.
"So, what?" Melinda began. "They're trying to take out covens, one by one? Hoping no one would notice until it's too late?"
"Possibly." Lizzy shrugged. "Very possibly, if I had to wager."
"Real question is, who is behind it?" William's growl and gaze filtered downward toward the location of a certain unwilling Feyk prisoner.
"He might be more valuable than we ever realized," Charlie admitted.
"He was working for someone." Melinda climbed to her feet and pushed up the sleeves of her shirt like she meant business.
"Wait," Lizzy said before they could go to the basement to interrogate Stricker again. "Another coven went missing today. No one has heard from them or can make contact."
And didn't that dig deeper into the rotten pit already drilling in their guts.
Just how deep could the pit go before it bottomed out?
Good witches being wiped out one by one.
"Let's go get some answers." Melinda led the way.