Witch's Awakening (5 page)

Brenna felt safe in leaving her family. She had another job to do.

In a small canvas bag, she carried salt and black candles to cleanse the place where Garth had been killed. It was up to her to vanquish any trace of dark magic.

As a child, the clearing had been her personal cathedral. The tall pines provided a canopy. During the day, streaks of sunlight would spotlight several large rocks, turning them into a natural altar. Even after she was old enough to understand that Eva Grace's mother had died here, Brenna had found peace under these trees. After all, she had never known Aunt Celia, but Garth's cruel death in the spot could mean she would never feel at ease here again.

“You'll not take this from me.” Brenna spoke these words aloud as she broke through the trees. She wanted the Woman in White to appear and answer her. She wanted to challenge the spirit's right to inflict misery on her family yet again.

The only response was the sudden sharp screech of an owl.

A barn owl was out and about, having left the nest in the old barn early on this sad night. These birds were usually seen when it was full dark, their wings spread, carrying them with silent speed. Brenna learned as a child that barn owls didn't hoot. Their call was shrill, almost a scream. Or if threatened, they issued a hiss that could turn your blood cold.

It was fitting that an owl had come out early tonight, as myth and legend associated them with death.

The screeches continued. Brenna turned around, trying to spy the animal's distinctive and pale heart-shaped face in the gathering shadows. She zeroed in on a ghost-like shape in an ancient hickory tree. Peeking out from around one branch, the bird fussed at her with increasing fervor.

“You feel it, don't you?” Brenna said to the bird. “This beautiful place is dirty.”

The owl's low, warning hiss sounded in agreement.

Brenna smelled death and sadness, with a nasty undertone of evil. She might not be able to conjure the Woman in White at will, but she could reclaim this little sanctuary and clear it of the spirits that disturbed the land's natural inhabitants.

The bird fell silent as she set up her candles at five points. With a flick of her wrist they flamed to life. Then she shed her clothes and shoes, tucking them near the altar before moving to the center of the ring of fire.

Skyclad, she lifted her hands, palms up and chanted, “Dirt from the earth, wind through the trees, water to cleanse, salt to set free. Banish the evil, honor my plea. As I will, so mote it be.”

With quick, sure motions she had learned from Sarah, Brenna poured salt and water in a wide circle. She closed her eyes and repeated the cleansing spell aloud. The ache in her heart eased. She felt the calm and beauty of her family's land push against the darkness.

The owl called out another warning. Brenna opened her eyes and locked gazes with a white tiger.

Huge. Predatory. Standing like a sphinx just beyond her charmed circle. His tongue flicked around his mouth, displaying gleaming, sharp teeth.

Brenna expelled a deep breath. “God, shifter, you scared me.”

He watched her a moment, then turned with slow, deliberate grace.

“No need to look away,” Brenna said, straightening her spine. “We're all just as the goddess made us. No shame here.”

The tiger turned back. He sat like the majestic cat that he was, his blue eyes moving over Brenna's naked body in a brutal inspection. He stretched, sleek muscles rippling in the twilight and candle glow.

Brenna chuckled. “Preening a bit for me, now, aren't you?”

He growled, low and deep, then showed her his back again.

“So you want me to get dressed, do you?”

His long, white tail thumped the ground.

Feeling rather satisfied with herself, Brenna closed the circle and doused the candles. The tiger kept a discreet distance while she pulled on her underwear, jeans and T-shirt. She sat on the stone “altar” to pull on socks and shoes, and was tying her shoestrings when the tiger looked at her again.

Brenna held out her hand. “I didn't expect you to be so big.”

He crept into the circle, nose sniffing at the ground, blinking his eyes against the smoke from the candles. He was a massive cat, his head nearly level with Brenna's chest. With some of the shifters she had met in Atlanta, she would have felt fear now. Despite their human nature, they were still wild.

With Jake she felt only curiosity. Or perhaps a bit more, she admitted as he advanced closer. She would like to know how his long, lean body felt beneath his ivory pelt. She wondered about his animal body, as well as his human body.

He stepped close, his whiskers tickling her skin as he smelled her outstretched hand. He pushed his face against her fingers.

Sighing in delight, she brushed her hand over the soft, supple fur between his ears.

He inched closer and dipped his head against her arm. She stroked down his nose and enjoyed the feel of the velvety fur, wondering how he would react if she laid her cheek against it. A satisfied rumble vibrated through his body. She laughed and scratched him under the chin. His eyes closed in bliss.

Brenna sighed. “You're making me miss my cat. She was with me for eighteen years. She died just before I moved to Atlanta. I haven't been able to let another cat claim my heart. I'd use you for my familiar, but I don't think I could afford to feed you.”

His eyes lifted, narrowed. Brenna could almost hear his disdainful thoughts.

“Don't worry. I promise not to cast an enslaving spell on you.” She laughed again as he backed away. “Worried, are you?”

He disappeared into the undergrowth in response. Like a dissolving shadow, she thought.

The man in his khaki uniform replaced the big cat. Jake walked toward her. “No spells, please.”

“Ah, but you know magic. Or else you couldn't change so quickly and keep your clothes in one piece.”

“We shifters learn to adapt.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Clothes are required in the real world.”

“And more's the pity,” Brenna retorted, grinning. She could imagine his long, lean body in the moonlight, but thinking about him like that was not a good idea. She had some rules about men. The first was that distance must be maintained. Just the fact that Jake had been Garth's best friend meant he was already a little too close for comfort. The thought of him naked was a definite turn-on, but that was a road she'd best not travel.

His gaze slid over her in a way that indicated his thoughts were heading in the same erotic direction as hers. His eyes were grayer than the tiger's, Brenna noted.

“You're beautiful,” he said.

Brenna wasn't certain who was more surprised by his words—her or him.

“The spell was beautiful,” he amended quickly. “I needed to run, and I was drawn back here to see if I could find anything that could help us understand why your spirit took Garth.”

“Did you find anything?”

He shook his head. “I saw you and what you were doing, and stopped looking. You were right to cleanse this place.”

She looked around the clearing. “I have to admit, that did feel good. I was worried …” She stopped and bit her lip.

“Brenna?”

She shrugged her shoulders. Admitting to a worry didn't make her weak. “I haven't practiced magic like this much over the past few years. I thought I might have lost my touch.”

His voice deepened. “From where I was sitting, you looked pretty powerful.”

Brenna couldn't help teasing him again. “As a witch or as a woman?”

“Both.” His gaze caught hers and held.

The owl sounded. Brenna looked up in surprise, having forgotten the bird with Jake's unexpected appearance. Another call rang out, less fretful this time.

Brenna laughed at the bird. “So your woods feel better now?” The owl's answer was low, almost a coo.

“You have a nice way with animals,” Jake said.

Remembering the feel of his fur beneath her fingers, Brenna was uncomfortable with the attraction she felt. She turned away. “I need to gather my things and finish this.”

While she swept the area with a fallen tree limb, he picked up her candles, salt and water bottles, storing them in the canvas bag.

They started through the woods toward the house and Jake's stomach rumbled.

“Hungry?”

“When I shift and come back quickly like that I have to eat.”

“There's all kinds of food at our house.” She couldn't quite control her shudder.

“You don't like your family's food?”

“It's funeral food. There's a limit to the chicken casserole and macaroni salad you can eat in one day.”

“Let's go to Mary's Diner and grab some burgers. My treat.” He held up his cell phone. “You can call Sarah and let her know where you are.”

She hesitated. Every instinct told her to resist this shifter with his silvered gaze and his wild side, but if she was truthful, she didn't want to go home just yet. At home she had to give into the heartache of the day and the worry about what was coming.

“Okay,” she agreed.

“We'll walk back up to my car at the head of the other path,” Jake said. Darkness had fallen in earnest and he pulled out his flashlight. They followed the beam through the woods.

Jake took her hand as the path narrowed. Brenna held on for a few steps then pulled away and ahead of him.

This was Connelly land and she knew it well. She didn't need the shifter to help her. That was a good thing to remember—she didn't need this shifter at all, on any level. She'd share a meal and pick his brain a little more about what happened today. Then she would figure out what to do next about the Woman in White. She and her family would find a way to avenge Garth's death without the help of any outsiders.

Chapter Six

As usual on Friday night, New Mourne was bustling. Teenagers gathered in groups outside the video arcade. Some of the galleries and shops that lined Main Street closed early, but most stayed open late on Friday. Tourists rocked in chairs on the porch of the Red Oak Tavern and Inn. Lilting notes of Irish folk tunes came from the town square. The Brody family, who entertained on Friday night when weather permitted, sounded in fine form to Brenna.

The familiar noises meant home to her. She was relieved to allow the happy sounds push aside memories of Eva Grace's sobs and the hushed grief of the relatives.

Jake opened the door to Mary's Diner for Brenna. Rich scents of frying burgers and freshly baked bread greeted them. The diner was almost empty. A couple of teenagers talked over an ice cream sundae.

Brenna waved at a baby banging on his high chair tray with a spoon. The eighteen-month-old boy's parents were former classmates of hers, so she stopped to say hello and admire their happy child.

In the back she saw a neighbor who became wolf at the full moon. He and his wife smiled as Brenna and Jake passed them and took a seat in a booth.

The waitress didn't blink when Jake ordered four burgers without buns. Brenna asked for a cheeseburger, everything on it. Moments later, she also dug into the warm brown bread that the waitress served with their sweet tea.

The bread was the specialty of the house, made by an independent kitchen witch who ran her own bakery up the street. Brenna could taste the magic in the firm crust. She had missed this bread since her last trip home.

“I don't usually like bread very much,” Jake said as he slathered a piece with honey butter. “But I love this stuff.”

Brenna smiled. Even the shifter hadn't figured out the ingenuity of the two business owners. This special and irresistible bread was the charm that kept customers coming back in a steady stream. And it was too delicious to make her worry about her hips widening. Although Jake hadn't complained about what he had seen of her in the clearing.

Brenna gave herself a stern mental shake.

The teenagers walked by, arms wrapped around each other as they headed for the door. The young man was so caught up in the girl that he tripped over a chair and had to keep himself from falling.

“Teenage love,” Brenna said, laughing.

“More like teenage hormones,” Jake corrected. “He'll probably have a new love next week.”

“Is that the way you treated girls as a teenager?”

He shrugged. “I did my best to stay away from girls altogether.”

“Oh, come now.”

“Young male tigers are rather unpredictable. It was safer for everyone if I kept to myself.”

“Being a teenage witch had its out-of-control moments, as well.” Brenna agreed. “When my tenth-grade boyfriend broke up with me, I cast a spell on the girl who stole him. She grew a mustache.”

Jake chuckled. “That was mean.”

“Eva Grace made me reverse the spell after the poor girl spent a week at home.”

“I can see Eva Grace being the good witch.”

“And me being the wicked one? You're right. Were you a bad little boy who played tricks as well? Maybe shifting when your parents told you not to?”

His expression sobered. “No tricks from me. I always took being a shifter very seriously.”

“So you were good as gold and your parents adored you?”

“My mother adored me.”

“And does she still?”

“She's dead. Both my parents are dead.”

The bitterness in his tone struck Brenna as raw. She felt a stab of regret. “I'm sorry. Really sorry.”

His silvery eyes gleamed as he drained his tea glass. “It doesn't matter. Some people should never have a family and kids.”

Brenna had to agree with him. “My parents certainly shouldn't have bothered. They left me with Sarah right after I was born and did the same with Fiona.”

“And you resent them for it.”

“Resent?” Brenna shrugged. “That's a simple word for a bunch of complicated feelings.” She looked away, not certain why she was sharing so much with this shifter. Maybe the fact that he already knew so much about her family made her feel comfortable with him. That was a mistake.