Chapter 17

“What do you believe?” Fiona asked.

Because he did not really have an answer, Bailey nuzzled her neck, his hands in her thick, soft hair. “You smell like a field of wildflowers.”

“Eva Grace mixes soaps and fragrances for each of us.” She sighed as he trailed his fingers down her side. “Each of us has our own personal scent.”

“Your Eva Grace is a genius—a healer as well as a perfumer.” Bailey cupped Fiona’s cheek with one hand, turning her toward him. Her dark hair fell around her face like a halo. Her smile was slow and sexy. She looked like a wood nymph, at least what he thought a wood nymph would look like. Remembering all she had told him about her hometown, he wondered if there really were wood nymphs.

Instead of asking her about creatures who might be roaming outside right now, he said, “Are you all right? Do you need anything?”

“I’m perfect,” she said and smiled at him. “Now, let’s go back a step. What do you believe?”

He got up, retrieved a bottle of water from the small refrigerator, and opened it before he handed it to her.

Fiona pushed herself up, modestly holding the sheet to her chest as she took the water. She drank, her appreciative gaze on Bailey’s body.

He chuckled. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to forget that until moments ago you were a tender virgin.”

“First, you have to answer me.”

Sighing, he got back into bed, took the bottle of water she offered and polished it off. Then he pulled Fiona gently to his side and settled back against the pillows. “I have to admit that’s the first time I’ve ever made love to a woman who quite literally glowed. I felt like a god.”

“A minor or major deity?”

“Major,” he assured her with a grin.

She laid her head against his chest. “And?”

Knowing he could not dodge her any longer, Bailey said, “I believe you have some very interesting abilities.”

She tipped her head back to look at him. “That sounded reluctant.”

“How is someone supposed to sound when they learn the woman they’ve made love to is a witch and he knows there are werewolves and coyote shape shifters roaming the countryside?”

“I’m talking about Anna.” Fiona pushed herself up on one elbow, her gaze intent on his. “What do you believe about her?”

He frowned. “I guess I’m confused. One part of me thinks that if her spirit had the ability to reach out, she should have talked to me a long time ago.”

“I told you it’s not easy. Some ghosts linger for years and years, never able to express themselves to the people they care most about. I may see them, other people may see the evidence that they exist, but the path between the two realms is not always clear.”

“You said a demon made me see her today.”

Fiona explained again about her family’s curse, the Woman in White, and the demon that came to torture the town and her family each generation.

“Couldn’t the demon also be making you see her?” Bailey asked.

She was thoughtful, then shook her head. “Anna came to me at my grandmother’s house. So far, neither the Woman in White nor the demon has penetrated what we all consider home.”

Although everything he had seen today made it easier to accept that the curse and the demon were real, Bailey was still puzzled. “Why would the demon try to use Anna to distract me today?”

Fiona bit her lower lip. “Willow said you were destined to be here. Perhaps she’s right.”

“I’ll admit being here is strange for me,” Bailey murmured. “My parents were insistent I come here to meet you.”

“Are either of them clairvoyant?”

“Other than having good instincts about what makes a great TV show, I’d say no,” Bailey replied. “If either of them were clairvoyant, they wouldn’t have allowed Anna to leave the house the night she was murdered. I seriously doubt my mother would have sent me anywhere near rattlesnakes or caves.”

“Magical gifts rarely work in such a simple way.” Fiona’s fingertips traced the lightning bolt tattoo on his left bicep. “The coven uses a crystal ball sometimes to look into the future, but the direction it gives isn’t specific.”

“Is that why fortune tellers can safely get away with saying things, like ‘a change is coming’ or ‘a tall, dark stranger will enter your life?’ ”

Her touch stilled. “You’re still caught up in the bad experiences you’ve had.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I doubt anything can erase how I felt every time someone who promised to reach Anna let us down.”

Bailey pulled Fiona back down next to him. “I already told you that I’ve felt Anna’s presence before, and while I was in town today I sensed she was near. Like so many times before, I imagined she was just behind me.”

“Are you disappointed or relieved that it wasn’t her?”

That question was territory Bailey didn’t want to explore. “This town of yours is the strangest place I’ve ever been. Crows, coyotes, rattlesnakes.”

Fiona shivered in his arms. “Nature is being used by dark magic. The crows were a warning, and the snake was supposed to protect those papers hidden in the armoire.” She told him they belonged in a family book of spells, history, and potions.

“Who do you think hid the papers?”

“Some misguided member of the family. Between the Woman’s tribute visits, my family has difficulty facing the truth about the curse.”

“Maybe I understand that,” Bailey said. “It’s not easy for a family to overcome tragedy. Sometimes they collapse.”

“Yours didn’t.”

“I did my best to make everything more difficult for my parents.” He told her about some of his youthful misadventures. “It’s to their credit that I came through it all.”

“And you joined the family business.”

“Dad’s idea,” Bailey told her. “I was twenty-one, not in school and not doing much of anything other than hanging out at the beach. He told me I had to earn my keep. He was just beginning to add reality TV.”

“What did you do at first?”

“Anything I was told to do. Then I got an idea for a show. Dad let me run with it, and it flopped big time, but I was hooked on creating new programming.”

Fiona stretched out beside him, completely relaxed. “Tell me about your family.”

“I told you about my grandmother,” he said. “Grandpop built sets for televisions shows.”

“Fascinating.”

“My grandparents’ connections got Dad and Mom through several doors when they worked on the pilot for their first show.”

“You sound more normal than what I’ve read about other families in the entertainment business.”

“What does a witch who grew up in an enchanted town know about normal?”

It was her turn to laugh. “You have a point. Plus, my parents left Brenna and me here while they traveled and studied.”

“You must have missed them.”

She responded slowly. “I was just always happy to see them when they visited. Brenna resented them for leaving, but I was content with Sarah.”

“There appeared to be a little tension between the two of you tonight.”

“That’s been growing over the past few weeks as we’ve had to face that the Woman’s curse is rearing its head again. I want to be the one who finds the answers, but no one takes me seriously.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m younger and different. As far as we know, I’m the first Connelly witch to be a medium. Sarah, Brenna, and Eva Grace have always been protective of me. They’re a little frightened of my abilities, but they also don’t see me as an equal when it comes to magic.”

“Is that why you went to find the cave by yourself?”

She nodded. “Most of the coven is upset about you, too.”

“Was your grandmother trying to poison me tonight?”

“Well…”

He sat up. “I knew it.”

“No, it would have made you feel better…eventually.”

“Great.”

Fiona sat up and faced him, expression serious. “I may be able to convince Sarah to allow me to do a show with you about my work as a medium. She would be more receptive if we broke the curse with the Woman in White. But after today, she fears you.”

“I’m not a threat,” Bailey said.

“Yes, you are. What I’ve told you about New Mourne and my family is part of centuries-old secrets. You can’t share this with anyone. The coven can make sure of that.”

“Will they turn me into a toad?”

“Don’t joke.” Fiona glanced toward the windows, genuine concern in her green eyes. “Don’t mock our power.”

Realizing she was serious, he leaned against the headboard. “Just what kind of penalty will be required for what happened between us tonight? How does your coven kill mortals who sleep with Connellys?”

“If they did that, my cousin Lauren would have left a trail of bodies,” Fiona replied. “Nothing happens if you keep New Mourne’s secrets. You have to make a promise and keep it.”

Ever since this afternoon, Bailey had been coming to grips with the fact that a show about this town would not happen. Who would believe it wasn’t a giant hoax? If the residents were as secretive as Fiona suggested, he doubted he would get cooperation for taping, anyway. His idea about featuring Willow as a recurring character was a pipe dream. He doubted the coyote who had ambled down Main Street last night would grant interviews.

“If you even attempt to tell, your memories of your time here would be wiped out,” Fiona continued. “I’m sure Sarah and the elder aunts have cast that spell, even though I stopped them from giving you the tea that would take your memories away.”

“So I’m under a spell?”

“That will be set in motion if you talk about New Mourne. If you had drunk the tea Sarah made, you would be home and never think of us. You might see someone who looked like me, and you’d have a glimmer of memory.” Her expression saddened. “But tonight wouldn’t have happened. And if you tell, you will not remember me. Or us.”

That hit Bailey like a punch to his gut. Forgetting Fiona seemed impossible when she sat so close in the gentle light, when his body remembered the feel of her, when he thought of the magic that sizzled around them. He wasn’t ready to put labels on what he was feeling for her, but he knew she was more important to him than any woman he had ever met.

Still, he resisted. “Your family couldn’t do anything like that to me.”

“They can and will. They could even make you produce a show called ‘The Many and Varied Lives of the Ground Squirrel.’ And worst of all, you’d enjoy it.” Her laughter held little mirth.

“Then how does anyone ever become part of your circle? How did your father meet your mother?”

“He was her professor at college. He studied and believed in magic. It’s the reason they connected.”

“And what about your videographer, Ryan?”

“He’s my best friend, and Sarah has known him his whole life. She met his grandparents in the Sixties, when the farm was a commune. They settled in town after the commune dissolved.”

“Is he a supernatural of some sort?”

“Totally human,” Fiona replied. “There are many humans who know our secrets and keep them. They support our community’s foundation of peace and acceptance.”

“Dr. McGuire is an outsider, and he was with your family tonight. He’s very protective of you.” Bailey told her about his encounter with the Scotsman.

“Rodric’s a renowned expert on the paranormal and is working on ideas to help us end the curse. Besides, he’s Jake’s friend. Brenna loves Jake, so Dr. McGuire is trusted.”

“I suppose Jake is native, too.”

“No, but…” Fiona pushed a hand through her hair. “Jake’s a shape shifter. He came here after serving in Afghanistan.”

Bailey blinked. “Come again?”

“His other form is a white tiger.”

Bailey stared at her, his brain once again reeling.

“Supernaturals have an uncanny way of finding one another,” Fiona explained. “New Mourne is a haven for them. We have a pack of werewolves who moved here from Texas. Just as Jake came here, as have others like Willow and the other fae. They become part of what the Connellys protect.”

“And you can do this only because you surrender once a generation to this Woman in White?”

“That was the deal our ancestors struck in order to live in peace.”

A deal that could claim Fiona’s life. The idea seemed outlandish. Yet Bailey couldn’t look at her and not trust every word.

He turned away and got out of bed, hoping some distance would give him perspective. At the window, he glanced down at the street. Three crows sat in front of the inn on a bench just below his room. Their eyes glowed. Like the coyote last night, they appeared to be staring directly at him.

He stumbled backward. The crows underscored the stark reality of everything Fiona told him.

“What is it?” Fiona threw back the covers and came to his side just as the crows lifted off the bench and disappeared beyond reach of the streetlight.

Bailey turned to face her. “I promise,” he told her. “I won’t reveal your secrets.”

“So you realize you have something to fear?”

“No.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and savored the softness of her skin, the angular beauty of her face. “I promise because I don’t want to forget you.”

She stepped into his arms, her smile lighting a corner of his heart he hadn’t realized was in shadow until now.

“Let’s make the magic again,” she suggested as she drew him back to bed.