Strangetown Girl (Welcome To Witch County Book 1) Read online

  “Just hurry up and give me my phone call,” Luna muttered. Her best bet was to play nice until she was able to get to a phone.

  “Take her and book her in, rookie. I’ve got to stay here until the scene is done,” Wesley said, almost shoving her towards Officer Bo.

  “Yes sir.” Officer Bo gave her an apologetic look before taking her gently by the shoulder and leading her towards the door, down to the street, and into the squad car.

  Luna didn’t say a word as the car pulled away from the curb. What was there to say? Even if she wasn’t as childish and petty as Wesley, she had to admit that she was the only possible suspect that they had at this point. Except she hadn’t done it, and she had no intention of going down for it.

  The problem was she had no idea how her father had found her or who in Calidity would have killed him. But she needed to know, and she needed to know now.

  5

  “GO AHEAD AND HAVE YOUR phone call, Miss Luna. I can’t promise you’ll be able to have one once everyone comes back from the scene,” Officer Bo said. He’d taken the headshots and the fingerprints, filled out the paperwork, and finally taken off the handcuffs. Now he was motioning for her to go into the small, claustrophobic closet that contained the phone for her one call.

  “Thanks,” Luna said so softly that he might not have heard her as she brushed past.

  Once the door closed behind her, she picked up the handset and dialed the number from memory. Graham picked up on the first ring and the line clicked after he’d accepted the charges.

  “Luna? What in the hell are you doing in jail?”

  Luna sighed. “I need you to come to Calidity and help me clear my name.”

  “What do they think you did?”

  “My father’s dead body appeared in my entryway a few hours ago. Any idea how he got here without someone knowing?”

  Luna almost heard Graham tense up. These were the things that he was supposed to be watching, which meant that someone somewhere had dropped a really big ball. “Let me do some digging.”

  “Can you get here and get me out before you start your slow, bureaucratic digging? I’m not really enjoying my stay at chez jailhouse.”

  “Right, right, of course. I’ll be there in a few hours. You’ll have to sit tight until then. I’m going to need to pull a few official strings to get them to let you go.”

  Luna sighed again. “I’ll be here. Waiting.”

  “Sorry,” Graham said, his voice sincere. Luna tried to dial back the attitude a bit. It wasn’t his fault that she was in jail, unless he was somehow the guy who had killed her father. She doubted it. He didn’t seem to have the stomach for that kind of dirty work.

  “I’m… just not having a good day. I don’t mean to take it out on you,” Luna replied. The last thing she wanted to do was treat what might be the only cop in her corner like crap when she needed him most.

  “It’s alright. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Try and keep it together, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Luna and Graham said their goodbyes just as the phone rudely announced that her time was almost up. She ended the call before the line ended it for them.

  “I’m done,” Luna called.

  Officer Bo opened the door and motioned for her to step out. “I’ve got to put you into one of the holding cells.”

  Luna nodded. “I know.”

  She had no intention of acting up. Not yet at least.

  ~*~

  “WELL, WELL, WELL.” THE VOICE came around the corner of the cell’s wall before the person did. “Isn’t this an interesting turn of events.”

  Luna didn’t move, didn’t even lift her head from where it rested against the wall. “Not really.” She was sure Wesley was there to irritate her in the name of getting some sort of confession. Or maybe he was just there to irritate her in general. It sounded like something that he’d do.

  “Nothing to say? No long diatribe explaining why no one in this town has even heard of your father until he showed up dead in your house?”

  “He’s not from around here,” Luna said, making a face.

  “You’ve never talked about him before. To anyone, as far as I can gather.”

  “I’m not going to start now that he’s dead.” Luna sighed.

  “You know, being so uptight isn’t going to help prove your innocence.”

  Luna finally sat up and looked at Wesley through the bars. “Nothing in this cell is going to help prove my innocence. You’re just flailing around with what little information that you have, hoping you hit on something useful.”

  “Maybe I could help you if I knew more. As of right now, all I have is the assumption that your relationship with your father was bad enough for you to never mention him.”

  With a roll of her eyes, she rested her head back against the wall.

  Wesley grunted, a harsh, angry sound. “Maybe if you were a little nicer to me, I’d be a bit nicer to you.”

  Luna sighed. “Pass. Keep it in your pants and move the hell on.”

  She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. Luna got a sick sort of satisfaction from his frustration. Probably not the best time to indulge in it, but what else did she have to do.

  His hands collided with the bars with a muted clang. “You know what? If I had it my way…”

  “How’s your wife doing?” Luna interrupted, lifting her head to stare straight at him.

  Wesley stopped.

  “I’ve always wanted to become better friends with her. She seems like such a kind and sweet person. How in the world did she end up with someone like you?”

  The anger drained from Wesley’s face, giving way to something like apprehension.

  “I never was able to find the time to approach her, though. Running the house takes up a lot of time, you know. But maybe I’ll make some time once this is all over. That way, she can be there and see what happens when you barge into my kitchen first thing in the morning, looking me over like I’m some sort of prey to your predator, hm? Perhaps she’d like to know who you are when she’s not around.”

  Wesley stepped back from the bars and let his hands fall to his sides.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be out there proving that I killed my father?” Luna asked.

  Wesley didn’t say a word. Instead, he turned and left the hallway, boots thumping loudly.

  Luna chuckled to herself and sat back down on the narrow bench. She liked to call that little bit of magic her Jedi mind trick. She didn’t use it often, since the effects of coming down off of it were unpredictable and it didn’t always work the way she wanted it to, but Wesley was a big boy. He could deal with whatever happened.

  Hours later, as Luna was trying to sleep and failing miserably, a voice had her blearily opening her eyes.

  “Miss Luna, looks like you posted bail.”

  Luna yawned and stood up. “In the middle of the night?”

  “Your visitor has federal creds important enough to keep us from being able to say no.” Which meant it was probably Graham, and he was probably throwing around his weight. Good on him.

  Luna waited as the officer, one she didn’t recognize, unlocked the entrance to the cell. She stepped through it and waited as he closed it behind her and took hold of her arm. He wasn’t holding her tight enough to be rude, but he was letting her know that trying something was a bad idea. He didn’t know her from a hole in the wall, so she wasn’t offended.

  “The paperwork is still being finished up, but your friend insisted he be able to talk to you. Until we can officially release you, we’re going to have to lock the two of you in one of the rooms.”

  Luna nodded her understanding. “Alright.”

  The room was small and plain—white walls, card table, two folding chairs—but seeing Graham with two cups of coffee and a calm smile made a weight lift from her shoulders. Luna sat across from him with a smile, and he pushed one of the Styrofoam cups towards her as the officer closed the door. The lock loudly clicked home. />
  “How are you holding up?” Graham asked.

  “I’m here. I’m sane. But I am really wondering what in the world is going on,” Luna said, frowning.

  “Right. So, I had one of my guys do some digging while I started my drive. Last I’d heard, your father was in jail.”

  “I didn’t know he’d gotten himself arrested.” She’d made it a habit not to stay up to date on her family. It just made things harder on her in the long run.

  “There was a riot a few days ago, and your father was injured enough to be moved to a hospital. From what I understand, even though he was under constant guard, they managed to lose him three days ago. Until you called me this afternoon, they had no idea where he was.”

  “And while all of this was going on, no one thought to inform the wayward kid in the witness protection program that he was MIA?” She was irritated by how this story was turning out.

  “I can’t explain how the ball was dropped on this one, Luna. All I can do is tell you that I’m sorry and be here for you.”

  Luna frowned and huffed a sigh. “Awesome. I’m the main person of interest for the murder of my father, someone who I can’t even say I had a good relationship with, because literally no one here has ever heard me talk about the man. Even my best friend has no idea about my family. That’s not even slightly enough for me to be a suspect, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be. Who else is there?”

  “But you didn’t do it. Did you?” Graham asked.

  Luna shot him a look.

  “Right. So there has to be a way to prove your innocence. We just have to find it and present it.”

  “Says the guy who didn’t even know that someone who could possibly want me dead was missing for three days,” Luna muttered.

  “Are you going to keep harping on that?”

  “As long as I can,” Luna responded as the door to the room opened.

  “There is no way in hell I’m going to allow this to happen,” Wesley said, walking into the room as if he owned the place. Because, as sheriff, he sort of did.

  Luna groaned.

  Graham stood. “Sheriff Wesley Jay? My name is Graham Lloyd. I’m going to need you to release Luna. I’ve made sure that everything is in order from a legal standpoint, so if you do choose to fight me on this, I’d have no choice but to suspect that you have some sort of personal vendetta against her and report your actions to people above your head.”

  Graham knew about Wesley and the inappropriate and aggressive way he’d been around Luna. He wasn’t going to specifically say it, but he was going to make it known that he was aware and not going to allow it. Luna made herself swallow a smile, but that didn’t stop Wesley from leaning around Graham and shooting a deadly look her way.

  “Don’t leave this town. Either of you. If I find out that any part of this is not on the up and up, I’ll be on my way to bring her back.”

  “Of course. I’d expect nothing less from an officer with a record like yours.”

  Luna would have asked what Graham meant by that, had he been talking to her. But Wesley let it go and chose to fire angry looks after them as they left together.

  “You can’t go back to the house, you know that, right?” Graham asked as he and Luna climbed into his car.

  “I know,” she responded sadly. Her house was a murder scene. “Just take me to Asher’s. I can stay there and I’m pretty sure she has some of my clothes.” She pointed what direction he should go.

  “You don’t want to stay in the hotel? I can get another room.”

  Luna shook her head, feeling a pounding headache start at the base of her skull. “No, at least not yet. If that changes, if something happening here puts Asher in danger or something like that, I’ll let you know.”

  “Alright.”

  She gave him the rest of the directions before putting her head back and closing her eyes. All she wanted to do was curl up on the couch with her best friend and maybe get drunk.

  6

  ASHER HAD OPENED THE DOOR like she’d been expecting her. Luna introduced her to Graham but hadn’t been quite sure what to tell her when it came to how they knew each other. Graham had smoothly added that he was a friend of her father’s and was there to help. It wasn’t really a lie. Kind of.

  Asher hadn’t asked any questions about how she’d gotten out so quickly, or why it was the middle of the night when she had, or how Graham had known that she needed help. None of the things that most people probably would have. Instead, she saw Graham off, got Luna inside, and set her up in the living room with a bottle of wine.

  The sunlight on her face woke Luna up, just like in her bedroom, and for a moment, she thought the previous day had been a bad dream. Then she heard Asher shift in her sleep and realized that she wasn’t at home.

  “Right,” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “No time like the present to get those wards done.”

  Luna made sure to stay as quiet as she could as she got up, freshened up in the bathroom, and shuffled to the back door. The front door squeaked, so hopping the fence meant less of a chance of waking her best friend. She felt a pang of regret at not being able to get to her stash of herbs, but regret wouldn’t change anything. The woods behind Asher’s neighborhood would probably have everything she needed. Whatever she couldn’t find, she’d improvise without.

  Luna was a witch who was most powerful in the art of alchemy. What that meant for most people was that she was incredibly good at channeling magic through a few physical ingredients put together in the right way. Sometimes the ingredients disappeared from the physical realm when the magic was left behind. Sometimes the ingredients became magical, like with potions or smudge sticks. It really depended on what she was doing. While there were a few spells that she could handle without any sort of alchemy, her real magic gifting involved various herbs and tinctures. She had made her peace with that.

  The woods behind Asher’s neighborhood were thick and easy to get lost in if you wandered too far—if you were human. For Luna, the protective marks she’d put on Asher’s home tugged at her mind, which meant that she could follow them back.

  Wards of protection usually required several base ingredients, plus several more for any additional characteristics the maker wanted the ward to have. Luna, however, was alarmingly good at protection, and only needed two or three ingredients. Her will was enough to handle the rest.

  Her father had told her that her abilities with protection made her special, that few people could lock things up as airtight as she could, even with more at their disposal. She had been his protection for a while.

  But that had been a long time ago.

  Luna grunted, as if that would get the memory to stop bothering her and grabbed a handful of poison ivy. She wasn’t allergic to the plant, thankfully, and it would serve as a great conduit to make sure that someone entering Asher’s house with ill intent wouldn’t want to make that mistake again.

  She picked a few daisies intending to mask the ward from Asher and her mother, not because she thought they’d mind, but because without something sweet, they’d be able to sense the impending punishment. The ward was supposed to provide peace, not destroy it.

  Snapping the edge off an abandoned wasp nest—after making sure it was truly abandoned—she tucked it into a napkin that she’d stored in her pocket. That was probably enough to do what she needed, but just to be sure, she pulled a rose from the climbing bushes that Asher had planted along the fence of her backyard on her way back to the house.

  Luna had a thin stone bowl that she preferred to use for things like this. It was old and had cost her a nice chunk of change when she’d picked it up from the small shop just outside of Rome. The shop keep had said something about it being blessed by Athena, which Luna couldn’t verify, but it was the perfect size and weight for what she needed. It was seasoned with her magic and her love for what she did with her power, which made working the magic a lot easier.

  But it was in her house, and her house was a crim
e scene. Luna made an annoyed sound and picked up a small plate that Asher had left out for some stray animal she was feeding.

  Settling on the back porch, she tore the three plants into tiny pieces and placed them on the plate, then broke up the wasp nest and sprinkled it over the top as if she was making a salad and that was her crouton substitute. The magic part of her woke, and Luna gave a happy sigh as she allowed herself to pour into the small mixture before her.

  “Roses and daisies, you mask the smell of the punishment from those who enter this house with good in their hearts. I want this home to remain happy and peaceful, not tense and frightening,” she whispered.

  The flower petals on the plate before her flashed brightly before turning to ash and blowing away.

  “And you, nest and ivy, read the hearts of those who cross any threshold of this home, whether door or window. Read their true intentions, and should their hearts be dark, follow your nature. Make them sting, make them itch, make them rash up. Make them regret having set foot in this home with ill intent.”

  The leaves of ivy and the bits of wasp nest glowed a warm amber-gold, before fading to ash and disappearing just as the flowers had.

  The magic wrapped around Asher’s house like saran wrap. Though she could see it, the shimmer of the magic would be all but invisible unless someone was told what to look for.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, like she always did. Nature had no obligation to do as she asked, and she was always thankful when it did.

  “Luna?” The back door opened slowly to reveal a half-asleep wild woman with bed head for days.

  Luna swallowed a laugh. “I was trying not to wake you up.”

  Asher yawned. “You didn’t. I woke up on my own and thought you ran away or something until I heard you out here.”

  Luna shook her head. Shifter senses.

  “I’m not allowed to leave town. I’m a suspect in a murder, remember?” Luna said, frowning as she crossed her arms.