Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser Series) Read Free Page B

pleased with himself. He was obviously trying to compel me through the wards. Powerful bastard.
    I clenched a fist with the hand I’d lifted toward the latch, then dropped my arm to the side. I smiled back at him. Two could play the smiling-without-mirth game. Not that I’d ever been compelled before — that was more than a little frightening — but still, I covered well.
    He frowned and dropped his gaze to my chest with a raised eyebrow. But it wasn’t my breasts that impressed him, though I’ve been told more than once that I was a perfect handful. It was the necklace.
    Maybe Sienna was somehow right …
    He pulled something from his pocket, a long string of blackened and crumpled objects. I stared at this item without comprehension for a long moment before my brain figured out what I was seeing.
    One of my trinkets, burned and crushed.
    I flicked my eyes questioningly to the vampire. He was waiting for my reaction. Well, I was mad.
    “Why? Why would you ruin it? What did you do? Run it over and then set fire to it?” I could see a piece of sea glass hanging wired in the middle … it was one of my new favorite trinkets. And he’d destroyed it.
    “Not me, witch. You,” the vampire said, and he slipped the trinket back into his pocket. No … not a pocket. He must be wearing a spelled satchel or something. If I looked closely, I could almost make out a shape. The wards worked both ways, keeping magic out and in, so I couldn’t be sure.
    “Why would I do that to one of my own pieces? I make them.”
    “Why do you make them, witch? What purpose?”
    I frowned at his question. “No purpose, just because the pieces work together … like they’re meant to be.”
    The vampire shook his head as if disgusted by me. The condemnation hurt, even though I had no idea where it was coming from or what he meant by it. Or why his opinion should mean anything to me at all.
    “Next time, I come in,” he said, his voice empty of warning and more terrifying for it.
    “Let’s see if you can, vampire. I’m game.” I wasn’t, not even remotely, but I was good with the bravado. I placed my hand on the knife at my hip but didn’t draw.
    The vampire showed me his teeth. It wasn’t a smile. It was the lip curl of a predator. “No. I sent a request. I’ll await official confirmation. I won’t have the Conclave question my right to your blood truth.”
    I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Request? Conclave? Blood truth … well, that one was half obvious. He was a vampire, after all.
    Then he left. Just like that. He dropped, or climbed, or perhaps disappeared quicker than I could track him.
    I didn’t wet my pants, but I was glad I hadn’t drunk anything all afternoon. Usually I was an eight-glasses-a-day sort of girl.
    ∞
    I was being stalked by an obviously insane vampire. It didn’t get much more terrifying than that.

CHAPTER TWO

    Despite my numb, shocky state, I made it into the shower. Though not before I seriously thought about leaving a message on my Gran’s voicemail. The chances of her cell phone picking up in Tofino were slim, but I was loathe to interrupt her yearly vacation. I never had, not even the day Sienna found out her dad was dead and I’d moved her into the guest room at my Gran’s house. We’d gathered as many things as we could grab quickly and toss in a backpack. Sienna’s mother — drunk out of her mind — screamed obscenities about us and our “kind” the entire time. She also threatened to dump Sienna in the foster system.
    Actually, Gran had been upset I hadn’t called that day. When she’d returned from her annual trip she’d dealt with Sienna’s mother somehow, and made sure there was legal paperwork in place that made us officially sisters.
    It was pretty stupid to think I could take on a vampire by myself, but I was twenty-three. Did I really need my grandmother to be constantly overseeing everything and every choice I made? In the end, I decided