on a translucence.
I gave them a few minutes to murmur together before interrupting. “Welp, ah, vampires? I thought they were a myth.”
Clay slung his arm around Wallie’s neck and gripped him hard. “No idea. I only knew witches were real, but I’ve been watching them since they moved in right after you left for Maine.”
“If you can’t leave the house, how do you know they’re vampires?” Zoey asked with her head cocked to the side.
Clay walk-floated over. As soon as he let go of Wallie, he was see-through again. “They only come out at night,” he said simply.
Laughing, I shook my head at him. “That doesn’t automatically make them vampires.”
But them being vampires—in theory, another form of undead—meant my necromancer senses going a little haywire made sense.
And there was that lady out for a walk with the bite mark on her neck.
What were the chances that my new neighbors, from a life that was mostly magic free, were vampires?
I peeked out the window at them again. My jaw dropped as I watched a woman apply what looked like, from this far away, tanning oil on the back of another of the vampires. Errr, people. Not vampires. I couldn’t say for sure that’s what they were.
Not yet. I added it to my mental list of things to figure out tomorrow.
Chapter Six
“Oof.” Leaning back, I stretched my back and then kept going. I’d forgotten how hard moving was. Just the packing was a pain, literally. Forget moving big stuff. I’d begun putting yellow sticky notes on all the furniture I didn’t want to keep. If Wallie wanted it, I’d given him strict instructions to remove the yellow paper and replace it with a blue one.
I was in the middle of taping up another box when the doorbell rang. I almost expected it to be echoed through the house. Of course, it didn't because this wasn't Winston. That was when I realized how much I missed my old Victorian in Shipton Harbor.
Not bothering with checking the peephole in the door, I opened it. My magic had already let me know who it was. Another new ability that had manifested since I became High Witch of the Shipton Coven. It was more of a feeling. A knowing.
I opened the door and smiled. Hailey Whitfield was adorable with her shoulder-length blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was several inches shorter than me with sexy curves. Wade had told me she was about my age, but she looked like she was aging well. Either that or she’d started using eye cream a lot younger than I had. "Hello, Hailey. I'm Ava." I offered her my hand and she took it.
I chuckled at the confused look on her face. "Hailey. Oh, you said that, okay well, thanks so much for meeting me and letting me take the tour." She glanced around me, making me look out of habit to make sure there were no ghouls or ghosts in sight. If we’d been in Shipton the chances would’ve been extremely high that something undead would get spotted.
Of course, Clay sat next to Wallie on the sofa. The two of them were talking softly, but at least Wallie had his cell to his ear so it wouldn't look like he was talking to himself. Zoey was out of sight. I’d put her to packing up the attic. It was full of family memories and things I wouldn’t want to part with.
Once I was sure everything in the house looked normal for a human, I stepped aside and invited her in. "Wade tells me you’re friends with Kendra next door."
Hailey's smile widened. "Yes. We grew up together and stayed in touch when she moved here. I wish she were here, but she's on vacation." She looked around with interest as she talked.
Suddenly everything I’d been meaning to do to the house was glaringly obvious. The wallpaper in the hall had begun to peel in the top corner near the door. And there were dead moths in the light fixture at the top of the stairs. I couldn’t see them from here, but I’d spotted them last night and meant to get them out before Hailey came.
Too late now.
I wondered if Hailey knew Kendra was a witch. It would make sense that she would, if they’d been friends for so long, but I wasn't going to mention it just in case she didn't know. Nice and normal. That's what I was today. Just a regular old human.
That was a weird