Diablo Lake: Moonstruck Read Free Page A

Rose, if anyone in this town had social engagements it’d be you.”
    Miz Rose chuckled low and sort of naughty. She was family. Had been the first person, after her father, who held Katie Faith when she’d been born. She’d been a wonderful role model, a woman Katie Faith admired deeply. The feeling had been returned by Miz Rose. When Katie Faith had walked back into the church after being told Darrell had run off with Sharon Woolery, Miz Rose had clucked her tongue.
    Shaking her head she’d said, pouring on her disdain for extra effect, “ Well , Katie Faith , you saved yourself some heartache , girl. He’s about as useless as a back pocket on a shirt. Your children would have been as dumb as stumps. Let Sharon have him. ”
    It still made her laugh every time she thought of it.
    Katie Faith bent to kiss Miz Rose’s cheek, the soft scent of White Shoulders wafting from her, filling her with a childhood’s worth of memories.
    “You will call me if you need me in here tomorrow afternoon.” An order given by someone accustomed to obedience with just a smidge of magic to underline her words.
    “Thank you. I will.” She waved to Miz Rose’s grandson who waited for her at his passenger side door.
    “Hey there, Katie Faith. Good to have you back in town. I guess I’ll be seeing you next week at the meeting?”
    Oh yeah, all that stuff. She nodded. If she was back she had responsibilities far beyond running the Counter. Her family made up one of the Consort—what they called the group of witches who’d banded together and then been part of Diablo Lake governance from the very start.
    “Hey, Brandon. I’ll be there.” She walked alongside Miz Rose, not helping but being there in case she needed it. Pride was important. Dignity was important. Katie Faith had been raised right, so she saw Miz Rose safely into the car and stood back to watch them drive away.
    She turned back to check the doors once last time before heading across the street to her next meeting. At the last all town gathering where they held a census, four thousand people called the city limits home. Of course city limits meant a pretty large area sprawling through the already isolated Smokies. Not a lot of people really, but enough to keep a few restaurants, a dive bar and a brew pub open on Diablo Lake Avenue, the main thoroughfare bisecting the town and the only way back to the series of roads leading to US Highway 441.
    The Counter, which was purely a daytime joint with limited food and drink options shared the left side of the street along with the Red Door Inn, the aforementioned pub. At the farthest end of the street lay Pete’s, a creepy, windowless building where the old guys in town hung out to drink all day while bitching about the government and avoiding their spouses. It wasn’t dangerous in there or anything, but your shoes stuck to the floor and she’d rather pee outside than even go into a bathroom stall there.
    Luckily, Katie Faith was headed to Salt and Pepper to catch up with Damon Dooley, who sidelined as a realtor in addition to running the general store with his twin Major.
    Diablo Lake was isolated. On purpose and by design. They were far, far off the already remote US Highway 441. It kept humans away during most of the year and gave the citizens of Diablo Lake the anonymity—and safety—they desired.
    But such isolation meant in order to pay bills, the denizens of Diablo Lake had to be creative and perform a variety of jobs. During the summer and fall, many locals hired out as guides through the surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Park to save up money to get them through the generally hard winters that closed roads and isolated them even further.
    But they were witches, who had a solid and very important connection to the earth. Being so far out in the wilderness was good for them. And shifters. Werewolves like the Dooleys and Pembrys and big cats like the Cuthbert and Ruiz families all loved the freedom to shift