Demons in the Bedroom - Lidiya Foxglove

Chapter One

Helena

I arrived at the auction early, trying to suppress a little quiver of excitement that I’d been feeling ever since I saw the gloomy towers of Lockwood House on the real estate listing.

Never get emotionally invested at an auction.

Oh, but sometimes it was too hard to resist. And I knew this was going to be one of those rare finds. A wizard’s domain that was going up for sale through a regular human Realtor. All the humans would be bidding based purely on how much it would cost to update an old kitchen, but I could add in the value of the magical—

“Curses!” I said aloud when I saw the white van with the ‘Wolves at the Door’ logo. “How did they find this place?”

I parked my truck a few spots down, flung open the door, and hopped out, hiding my soured mood behind sunglasses, sucking down the last few sips of my chai latte.

“Hel has arrived.” Jasper slid the van door shut and turned to look at me.

I rolled my eyes. My name was Helena, and everyone called me Helena, except these two oafs. Jasper was six feet of muscle, scruff, and competition, and his twin brother was twice as annoying as he was.

“Is that Hel? Hey, there’s no way you can handle this house, pipsqueak,” Jake chimed in behind him. “It’s 3500 square feet and it needs new everything. Not to be sexist, but—“

I held up my hand. “No one has ever said anything good after that preface.”

“It’s too much work,” he said. “Jasper and I can knock out the demo before you can say ‘Toil and trouble’.”

“I beg to differ. I have a different clientele,” I said. “They want the homes a little more preserved. Anyway—let’s put that aside. I’m just here to bid my best and let the best woman win.”

“I like the way you think, girl.” I heard another voice say behind me. A fake-nice female voice I knew all too well.

I should have known. If I found this house, the werewolves found it too, and so did Kiersten, one half of a husband and wife team based outside of California. She was shivering in a puffy pink coat. “Ooh, these New England winters. I don’t know how you handle it,” she said to me.

“This is Pennsylvania,” I said. “And it’s only September.”

She blinked at me. She had no idea Pennsylvania wasn’t part of New England and the winters could be a lot worse. “How are you doing, Helena? I haven’t even seen you in ages.”

“I’m fine.”

“You look the same as ever,” she said, surveying me.

That wasn’t a compliment. Kiersten’s naturally Nordic hair was styled in soft waves over her pink coat. She was wearing makeup. A peek of patterned tights rested between designer leather boots and the edge of the coat, and she was carrying a leather tote that was just as expensive.

I was just a good old-fashioned mind-my-own-business hedge witch who happened to like houses even more than people, and if you met my family, you would understand. I had four colors in my wardrobe: black, gray, white (for collars), and the criminally underrated navy blue. (It goes great with black, when you want a pop of color.) My blonde hair was braided and looped behind my head but already sending out flyaway strands around my ears. I hadn’t changed much since I was twelve, except that now I had control of my own destiny instead of being packed off to a ladies’ magical school.

And no one got in the way of me and my destiny.

I brushed off the comment about my appearance. “Where’s Caleb?” I asked her.

“Oh, Caleb is with the kids,” she said. “They love their daddy time. But I’m the one who shuttles them to school, so it’s nice to have a little ‘me’ weekend too. I just hope I pumped enough milk ahead of time. I make a wonderful mother’s milk tea brew to promote lactation but I still worry about it, you know.”

I could have done without all that information. “You had another one?” What? When? How? Also, Kiersten had the waistline of a supermodel.

“Yep. Number five. Another girl. I’m crazy, aren’t I? But Caleb loves having a big family.”

“Godspeed,” I said, not bringing up that I had six siblings myself, although she probably already knew.

She gave me a sunshine perfect grin with danger in her eyes. “Well, I’d better go check this place out before the auction starts. May the best woman win—like you said.”

The house was