Miz Spelled Read online

  For a moment Miz thought she’d set Shep on fire. Murky-looking haze seeped from him, turned to purple then changed to nothing more than a silver shine of mist hanging in the air. Then he shuddered, shook his head and his eyes unglazed.

  “Miz?” He was fuddled but Shep.

  She’d done it. She could see the difference in him already.

  “Hold that thought,” she told him.

  While she’d been congratulating herself, she’d almost forgotten the last part. But she didn’t. Because she was awesome.

  “Okay, here you go, Hank. Right back at ya,” she muttered.

  And with this spell, I claim reverse.

  Let all the ill and pain from curse

  Return tenfold to do its worst

  On sender he—so mote it be!

  Okay it was a little lame. But hey, she’d never written a curse before. She thought it needed to rhyme but wasn’t sure she’d gotten it just right. It would have to do.

  “Where are we now?”

  “We just flew over a funny-shaped red building next to the interstate and in the middle of nowhere,” Thomas told her.

  “Tamarack.” She recognized his description of the arts and craft shop the state had built to showcase West Virginia talent. Even a thousand feet up, you couldn’t miss it.

  “We did it,” she chortled. Too soon.

  Shep was a six-foot-six hunk of Viking genetic code one moment. The next, his eyes changed from cobalt blue to lumps of coal black, his facial bones rearranged themselves, fur sprouted and his claws were back.

  “Thomas, we’ve got trouble,” Miz shouted.

  He glanced back and did a double take.

  “Open the side door,” he yelled.

  She wasn’t about to argue. During their conversation, Shep disappeared and in his place stood his beast. Miz edged away from the nine-foot, thousand-pound, golden furred grizzly and opened the side door not sure if she was supposed to jump.

  Shep, or rather Mr. Bear, dropped to all fours, his head swinging back and forth and his beady eyes staring at her as if she was food and he was hungry. The top of the trees looked safer. Maybe she wouldn’t break all her bones in the fall.

  “Come up here, Miz,” Thomas shouted at her. “Shep, leave her alone. She’s mine.”

  Good luck to reasoning with that animal. Miz backed toward Thomas and away from the open door. She could feel the ’copter’s descent. She looked at the bear. The bear looked at her. He grunted, swiped his paw across his face, snarled and charged.

  “Hold on to the side,” Thomas ordered. She grabbed her Harley and prayed the metal strut where it was tied was secure. Thomas tilted the helicopter, distracting the bear from her. The grizzly lost its footing and slid, the long talon like nails ripping holes in the flooring but unable to get purchase. Thomas laid the chopper almost on its side, spilling Shep out the door and into the trees below.

  Thank God she’d strapped the Harley tight. She clung to it while Thomas leveled the helicopter and hovered above the trees. She peered out in time to see Shep, or what was once Shep, hit the top limbs, bounce in the branches and hang on for a moment before scrambling lower.

  Well, all righty then. One grizzly bear saved. One man…?

  It was a little overwhelming. She sat on the floor next to her Harley and closed her eyes. It wasn’t but ten minutes until Thomas yelled back. “We’re at Shep’s Point Harmony place. We’re almost home.”

  She didn’t open her lids again until they were safely on the ground. The weight of magic surrounding her made her bones ache. She remained on the floor, letting her psyche readjust. So much energy pulsed in the air she ground her teeth to keep from moaning. My God, I don’t remember Samhain magic being this strong other years.

  “You okay?” Thomas was worried. She could tell by his tone.

  She waved her hand at him weakly. “Fine. I’m fine. Give me a moment.”

  He grunted an affirmative, dropped a kiss on her head and said, “I’m going to look around.”

  She wouldn’t mind a peek at Shep’s fancy place either. Miz had never been introduced to local boy-makes-good, Shep Buchanan. Having come close to his bear claws, she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet the man himself. He’d called her Miz, signifying to her that Shep knew who she was. That probably wasn’t good.

  In the past, she’d always steered clear of him when he was in town and kept her business to herself. Plus, she didn’t have the kind of money it took to socialize with his circle of friends. But, hey, she’d kind of saved his life. What would it hurt if she snooped a little now? Sort of like being Goldilocks and taking over Papa Bear’s house while he’s running in the woods.

  Miz hoisted herself up, ready to see how the upper one percent lived. She was at the door preparing to jump to the ground when she heard the high-pitched yipping begin. She recognized it. Awww. Darn it, I almost got free.

  She returned to the Harley, sat down next to it and closed her eyes. She felt the presence by the door and knew it was Thomas even before he growled, “You’ve got company.”

  She nodded, opened her eyes and looked up at him. He looked sophisticated, breathtakingly handsome, and in charge. Like James Bond.

  “How much time left?” she asked morosely. “Really.” Not that it mattered.

  “A little less than two hours,” he said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Thomas pulled Miz to her feet, aware that she was not a happy camper.

  “Guess it’s time for you to meet the family, Sunny. You have my permission to consider her prey.”

  He’d been inside the house changing into clothes he’d left there when the low-slung wiener dog came barreling at him, ready to tear him apart. He’d growled at it. The miniature dachshund was brave, but not that brave. He’d scampered away.

  Thomas walked beside Miz to the edge of the helio-pad when the dog’s owner came out of the backdoor, adjusting the pink book bag she’d hooked to her back. The dog growled from its spot in the pouch, its black face framed by floppy ears.

  From that point on, it was hard following the rapid exchange between the two Hess women.

  “Thomas, meet Rhee,” Miz snapped.

  Rhee acknowledged him with a lift of her eyebrow and focused on what had lured her to West Virginia. “I’m ready for Shep. Where is he?”

  “You brought the dog?” Miz glowered at Rhee’s twenty-pound pet.

  “His name is Godie. And I couldn’t leave him behind.”

  “You know I don’t like animals.”

  “Don’t touch him. Just introduce me to tall, blonde, and rich. I’ll take care of Shep and you go back to the house.” Rhee straightened all of her five foot two rounded inches and glared at Miz.

  “Don’t push, Rhee,” Miz drawled. “Why didn’t you wait at our house?”

  “Like I’d fall for that one.” Rhee rolled her eyes.

  Thomas felt as if he was watching a tennis match. The two cousins lobbed insults and threats at each other at rapid speed.

  “I repeat. Where’s Shep?” Rhee demanded belligerently.

  Well, actually the last time he’d been sighted, Shep was furry and running in the woods. But since Miz didn’t mention that, neither did Thomas. In fact, he kept his mouth shut and let Miz speak.

  “He’s avoiding people, staying close to his cabin. We dropped him off and came here to pick up some things Thomas left.” It wasn’t a lie. Not a word of it.

  Rhee looked at her cousin suspiciously. “Did you stop at Hess House?”

  “No.”

  “How much time—”

  “Four hours,” Thomas lied, pretty sure Miz couldn’t.

  Miz jumped on his lie and coated it with truth. “We need to go to the cabin. We can’t leave Shep wandering around and alone too long.”

  Rhee studied her cousin closely and then nodded. Guess she wasn’t a truth-sayer like Miz. Good. One in a family was enough for Thomas to worry about.

  “We’d better get going then.” Rhee pulled the hel
met from under her arm and put it on.

  Miz made a strangled sound and stared in disgust at the marbleized swirls of pink pretending to be head gear.

  “Have you seen my new bike?” Rhee asked Miz.

  “I can’t wait.”

  “I bought my own Harley,” Rhee pinched together rosebud lips in a smug simper. She circled past Thomas and Miz and her bouncing walk carried her toward the front of the house.

  “Tell me she’s adopted,” Thomas muttered as soon as Rhee was out of earshot.

  “Nope. First cousin. She’s a real sweetheart. I’ve got another cousin, too.”

  “What’s the deal with the house?” He couldn’t quite wrap his brain around a sentient dwelling but he’d seen a lot of strange things lately.

  “Simply put, I’ve been gone long enough for the house to get anxious. It’ll accept any Hess. I’m not special. I’m just the one that’s been stuck there. If for some reason I wasn’t available within the next—what time is it?”

  “You have one hour and twenty minutes to get back,” Thomas supplied the information.

  “If I don’t return in one hour and twenty minutes, but Rhee steps on Hess land within the next one hour and twenty minutes…” Miz paused as if savoring the thought. “I’d be free and she’d be caught.”

  After listening to several acidic exchanges between the cousins, Thomas unloaded Miz’s bike from the ’copter and they left Point Harmony. He rode double and sat behind but he didn’t have to see her face to know that Miz was glaring at the two-toned pearl and pink Harley all the way to Shep’s cabin. It was a Sportster XL 1200. Sweet.

  “How’d you afford that?” Miz asked her cousin as soon as they parked.

  “You have no idea how many investment bankers rely on my advice. Tips for tips are great.” Rhee was short, dark-haired and plump. She looked nothing like her cousin and she didn’t have the West Virginia drawl, but Thomas could see that she had the Hess sneer down pat.

  “You’re a business consultant?” he asked. He was polite. Though it didn’t seem important to Miz, Rhee was a relative of his mate and he wanted to make a good impression.

  “She’s a fortune teller,” Miz snarled. “A gypsy sideshow, an embarrassment to the name Hess.”

  “And you think you’ve done so well?”

  “I don’t pimp my wares to every Tom, Dick and Harry—”

  “Not true considering Mr. Yummy there’s named Tom.”

  “His name is Thomas,” Miz snapped. “Mind your own business and watch your mouth.”

  And they were off.

  God knows how long they would have kept at it had the miniature pooch with a big bark not interrupted. Godie started to yap. Rhee stopped her own mouth long enough to get him out of the pouch she carried on her back. He jumped from her arms and took off, running hell bent for leather toward the trees and the Hess House beyond.

  “Now look what you’ve done,” Rhee hissed and started after her pet.

  Thomas was all set to help when Miz grabbed his arm. Oh yeah. The house, the corridor, the time. He shrugged. Okay.

  Godie’s yips became snarls and there was no doubt he was after big game. Thomas figured the mutt had spotted a rabbit.

  Rhee screeched. It was loud, intense, and one word. “Help.”

  He and Miz followed the sound to where the trees dipped down the ridge and then split into a frame on each side of the open corridor. Thomas mentally measured the path to see if the house would really fit inside the frame of trees. Not that he believed the story.

  Godie sat in the middle of the short grass, barking up a storm and staring into the trees. Rhee stood next to him staring at something too. Thomas followed their gaze.

  Hank Wyatt was there. He looked pretty bad. His hair was mostly gone, maybe his teeth too. The way his cheeks were sunken in, it was possible. His eyes were pools of madness and he swayed on his feet. Everything happened in seconds.

  “Hello, Hank,” Miz drawled. “That was some hex you sent our way.” As she spoke she edged away from Thomas and toward the other man.

  “Witch,” Wyatt hissed. He held a gun and pointed it in her direction, his hand trembling as he tried to take aim.

  Rhee’s dachshund stopped barking and launched himself. No pit bull had ever attacked more bravely. Wyatt swept his arm up and knocked Godie away, flinging him at a tree. The little dog’s body thumped. He yipped once and then lay quiet.

  Rhee screamed and ran down the hill, ignoring the gun in Wyatt’s hand. Miz started to follow, but Thomas tackled her, rolling with her and covering her body with his. Wyatt fired and the bullet kicked up dirt next to them.

  A roar filled the air. It wasn’t a sound that either Rhee or her pet would make. Thomas and Miz looked up as the bear lumbered from the trees, ripping the weapon from Hank’s hand and taking Wyatt’s arm at the same time. The grizzly stood shaking what was left of Hank until Rhee ran at him.

  “Get out of my way. My dog needs me.” She screamed at the giant bear and the beast dropped to all fours and ran into the woods. Rhee knelt over her dog, cradling him in her arms.

  Wyatt moaned, still alive. It looked like Miz’s reversal spell had taken its toll. Hard to feel sorry for him when it was what he’d intended for Shep.

  She stood over Wyatt, rubbing her hands up and down on her leather pants, her expression grim. Thomas stepped to her side, jaguar and man protecting her.

  “Fix me, Miz,” the bastard begged.

  She held up her hands and looked at them, then at him. “Can’t do it, Hank. Remember?”

  “You were mine.” Wyatt repeated his claim in a hoarse whisper.

  “Not then, not now.” Miz turned from him and crossed to Rhee. Her voice was harsh as she sank to her knees next to her cousin. “Give me the animal.”

  Thomas crouched next to Wyatt and snapped the werewolf alpha’s neck, ending his rule in Bitter Creek Holler. In the distance and not so far away, a chorus of wolf howls signified they’d felt their alpha’s death. Not his problem.

  Thomas stood behind Miz sharing his strength as she laid-hands on her cousin’s pet. Godie wasn’t a very big dog but his injuries were severe. At first, Thomas thought the animal dead.

  Miz ran her fingers lightly up and down the little guy’s chest, and Thomas listened with cat hearing; a slight murmur became a steady heart beat that grew in volume. Though he was in bad shape, it didn’t take long for Miz to work her magic.

  The dog was not only alive, and safe but also wiggling all over in Rhee’s arms, when Shep Buchanan stepped from the trees, naked and looking lost. He spotted Thomas and then looked the other way and shook his head, as if he was seeing things.

  “Hunter. What in hell is that house doing in the corridor?” he growled.

  And there it was. Miz murmured, “I told you so.”

  Rhee looked at the house, back at naked Shep, and then at Miz. “He’ll need my personal supervision for a while. I’m staying.”

  “You should probably know that Shep sometimes turns into a giant grizzly bear,” Miz informed her.

  “Fascinating,” Rhee answered. Miz’s cousin seemed spellbound; her gaze was fixed on Shep and she didn’t even flinch at the bear information.

  She’s a Hess woman. They’re tough. She’ll—

  “Work it out.” Miz finished his sentence. “Rhee meet Shep. Shep meet Rhee.” Miz clutched Thomas’s hand and backed toward Shep’s cabin. Since it seemed as though she was in a hurry, Thomas picked her up and they left Rhee and Shep to get acquainted.

  Miz didn’t linger once they reached the driveway where they’d left her bike. She mounted her Harley and he jumped on behind. Stones peppered the pink Sportster when she peeled out. Thomas didn’t think it was accidental.

  Right about then, the sky opened up and rain poured down. No warning, no hint, just buckets of water drenching them and the earth.

  What the fuck?

  Mother Nature washing away Wyatt’s taint. Miz slid into his mind with her answer and kept on mo
ving. They made it in one piece back to Shep’s Point Harmony house, parked the bike and went inside. Miz looked kind of stunned.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Miz felt funny. She still had her magic, she’d healed Godie, but she didn’t pulse with need. Everything was different. Whether she wanted to be or not, Rhee was the new family vessel of magic. She’d be staying in Bitter Creek Holler which meant that Miz was free.

  Miz stood in the middle of Shep’s fancy living room and wondered what to do with free. Thomas would leave, then what would she do?

  He stepped close and pulled her coat off, dropping it to the floor. Then he grabbed her shirt and as it was going over her head, Miz protested.

  “Hey, I’m okay.”

  Thomas backed her across the room, his gaze locked with hers.

  “I don’t have any excess burn to handle.” She lied. She was always hot around Thomas. He made her crazy.

  His eyes were wild, his expression feral.

  “I just mean, you don’t need to help me out. I’m not—”

  Snapping his teeth, Thomas snarled, “It’s not always about you. I need this.”

  “Oh.” Profound response, Miz, way to go.

  “If you were dry as a bone and cold as stone, I’d need to fuck you right now. That bastard was aiming a gun at you and you ran right at him.” Thomas paused then continued, making each word louder until he ended with a roar that shook the windows. “You could have been killed.”

  He cupped her face with his hands and glared at her. “Do you understand, Miz? My mate could have been killed. That’s unacceptable.”

  She felt a tickle of humor uncurl in her belly as Thomas walked her backward, growling about her behavior. For once, cat and man seemed to be in agreement.

  While she was still digesting that thought, he pinned her against the wall, her arms above her head. With one hand he divested her of her pants and himself of his clothes. Then, none too gently, he grabbed her rump and hoisted her up and on. She was so wet his cock slid inside her in one thrust.

  “This one’s about me,” he said, slamming home to make his point. “And thankfully you’re not dry,” he grunted. “Or cold as stone.”