CHAPTER EIGHT
~
Serendipity came out of nowhere and jumped onto the bar in front of Faith, making her jump. She cursed as she juggled the clean glasses from the dishwasher, saving them from the floor and a certain fate of shattering into hundreds of pieces. “Give a girl some warning!” Faith snapped.
“I would if there was a girl around; all I see is an ageing…” Faith used her magic to shoot a serving tray across the top of the counter, almost taking the cat’s paws out from under her.
Serendipity jumped at the sound of the tray coming in her direction, and from the corner of her eye, she saw its fast approach. She didn’t have time to miss it entirely, landing gracefully on all four paws on the farthest edge; she sailed across the counter, only jumping off at the last moment before the tray disappeared off the end and clattered to the floor.
Serendipity felt the urge to sit, lick her paw, and clean around her eyes in a show of victory, but she knew Faith, and that would only result in more retaliation. “Witch!” she hissed.
“Down to three lives, Dippy,” Faith said. “How close do you want to cut it?”
Serendipity took a slow, graceful walk down the counter towards Faith like a supermodel on a catwalk. “Remember, you only have one life.”
“And I’m gonna take you with me when I go,” Faith warned.
“Three to one, I like those odds,” Serendipity said, lifting her chin. “Package safely delivered.”
“Huh?” Faith asked, but the sound of an excited Jennifer coming through the front door answered that question. “Good work, any problems?”
“Apart from being cuddled like a soft toy all night,” Serendipity grumbled. “No.”
“Ha! Serves you right,” Faith said, leaning in. “Maybe lose some of that weight, and you won’t resemble a big old teddy…” Faith jumped back when claws swiped in front of her face. “Watch it; I have more trays.”
“I have more claws,” the cat answered, curling her top lip and sneering.
“A stalemate,” Faith said, narrowing her eyes. “I like it.”
“I want ice cream,” Serendipity said, more a demand than a request.
“Ice cream!” Jennifer said, running toward them. “Sounds good!”
Faith shot a look at Evie, who slowly shook her head. “And you shall have some…”
“Yea!” Jennifer said, jigging on the spot.
“When the machine is ready to go, it needs to warm up,” Faith replied. “Not the ice cream, but the motor. No motor, no ice cream.”
“I can have a scoop!” Jennifer replied, nodding along with her words and liking what she was saying.
“Breakfast first,” Faith said. She didn’t want to be the bad guy, but she didn’t want Evie to kill her either. “Dani is in the kitchen; take Serendipity and give her a big bowl of milk.”
“Okay,” Jennifer said with a half-hearted shrug. “Then ice cream.” She added, walking off.
Serendipity walked the counter, following on. “Fine, but I had better get my ice cream.” With a graceful jump to the floor, she followed hard on Jennifer’s heels.
Faith turned to Evie. “Save!” she said, blowing her fringe from her forehead.
“Keeps you on your toes,” Evie said, eyeing the tables and upturned chairs. “Ugh!”
“Swap,” Faith said. “You do the dishwasher, and I’ll do the chairs.”
Evie perked up. “Thank you. I’m not awake yet; I need coffee number four.”
“There are help groups you can join for your dependency issues,” Faith said, chuckling.
“I kept waking up last night,” Evie sighed. “I needed to check on Jennifer.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Faith said. “But Dippy is a great alarm – if Jennifer got out of bed, Dippy would sound the alarm with bells on.”
“I know,” Evie said, sighing again as Faith stashed the glasses she was holding under the bar before walking around the counter to join her friend.
“Go get coffee; I’ll make a start,” Faith said with a look of sympathy. She knew that however much she wanted to protect Jennifer, it was nothing compared to what Evie felt.
~
Heath had backed his truck as far up the slope in front of the guesthouse as he could manage. It had materials for the rebuild to offload, and he didn’t think Drew and Zeke would thank him for parking in the lot out front of the bar. “Come and get it,” he called, knowing they would hear him no matter where the shifters were inside the guesthouse. He dropped the tailgate and started to pull paint cans toward him.
“Breakfast?” Zeke asked, tongue in cheek as he strolled down the slope towards his brother.
“Bar, due south, get it yourself,” Heath said.
“Good idea,” Zeke said, nodding thoughtfully.
“After you help offload the materials,” Heath replied, looking past his brother to where Drew was standing at the top of the slope, his gaze down on the beach.
“What’s up?” Heath asked, turning to see what was so interesting. The beach used to be the beach, and the sea used to be the sea until the witches showed up and the ghosts got to town; now he couldn’t look at it the same way – he suspected most of the mates felt that way.
“I see Jennifer on the beach with the talking cat, but I don’t see…” He raised his hand and pointed. “Nope, it’s fine, there’s Faith.”
“Great, then get down here and help,” Heath said, turning to start loading up his brother for the first run.
They were doing well on the refurbishment but not as well as he’d hoped by now, and he wanted to press ahead wand finish the place. Maybe then Nana would send the ghosts on their way, and she could leave. Paying guests were better than no guests and a lot better than ghosts.
As Zeke dug his feet into the grassy slope and headed up with the first load, Drew came down. “Did True say when the ghosts were being – you know? Banished or sent on their way to the other world?”
“Other world,” Heath said with a sigh. “No, but I wish it was yesterday and then we might be able to get back to normal around here.”
“Normal?” Drew said with a snort of amusement. “That’s never going to happen, my friend; we have witches and…”
“As normal as we can get,” Heath said, cutting him off. “I know things have changed, but normal is normal, and I’d like to get some.”
Drew grabbed a batch of wood cut into four-by-four, strapped together with a cord at each end, and tossed them onto his muscled shoulder. Then he reached in for a couple of ten-litre paint cans. “I hear that, man. Normal would be nice,” he replied, turning fast.
Heath ducked as the planks came for his head. When he growled a warning, Drew shot a crocked grin over his shoulder as he walked. “That was deliberate,” Heath growled.
“That was normal, and it helps to keep you on your toes, my friend,” Drew said, chuckling to himself as he climbed the slope. He shot a look down to the beach and hit the internal brakes. “What the hell?” he growled.
Drew dropped the cans onto the grass and tossed the wood from his shoulder with a shrug. “Faith!” he yelled as loudly as he could.
Heath spun around at the sound of the wood hitting the ground; by the time Drew shouted a warning, he was already on high alert and following his friend’s gaze down to the beach.
Heath’s heart hit his ribcage, and adrenalin dumped into his system at the sight of what greeted him. A large wave was heading for shore, and Jennifer and Faith were in its path.
Heath and Drew didn’t hesitate; they started for the beach as fast as their legs could carry them, and human onlookers be damned. Zeke hit the ground running when he walked out the door and saw Drew and Heath heading for the beach. It took him a moment to realise why they were panicked, but the sight of the wave was enough to freeze his heart with fear.
Faith had turned at the call from Drew, and as he ran, he motioned wildly for her to turn around. “Aunt Faith?” Jennifer’s panicked voice made her heart skip a beat, and as Faith turned to look out to sea, she didn’t have far to look to see the large wave headed for her and Jennifer.
“Run!” Faith screamed, but she didn’t head for the bar; she headed towards Jennifer to meet her halfway.
“Cats don’t like water!” Serendipity hissed. “Cats don’t like water!” she repeated, but she made no move to leave her ward behind.
Faith felt the magic at her fingertips, but by the time she called on its use, she barely had enough power within her to build a shield against the water that protected Jennifer and her as the wave crashed to the shore and swept over them.
Jennifer ran towards her inside the bubble Faith had created. “Wrap your arms around me, and do not let go!” Faith demanded, pushing with all of her might against the power of the wave. But there was something else in that water – magic, dark magic that was fighting back, and Faith didn’t know how long she could hold the shield against the water.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the three shifters as they were overtaken by the wave and tumbled along the shore. “No!” Faith bit out, desperate to help them but unable to divert that much magic away from the protection she had around her and Jennifer. She had no clue where Serendipity was, and her heart hurt at the thought of that ratty old cat being in trouble.
Faith could do nothing as Drew, Heath, and Zeke were tossed around in the water. Her first loyalty was to Jennifer and protecting the young witch.
Then she felt it; the wave was done going forward, and now it was turning back to sea, and she didn’t know how long she could hold out with her magic intact.