A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(19)

“Do you think it’s safe?” Dante finally seemed to calm down and sat on the bed next to Claire.

She shrugged. “I think if Claudia wanted me dead, I’d be dead a long time ago.”





“Where were you?”

Sam took a drink of her fruit smoothie she’d bought from the big chain coffee place and handed Claire the latte, complete with triple espresso. Judging from the circles under her friend’s eyes, she might even need another one. “I was at Derek’s,” she said honestly, even though she knew that wasn’t what Claire meant.

“Where was Derek?”

“Also at Derek’s,” said Sam, not bothering to hide the smart assery.

Claire tilted her head and her eyes scanned Sam, and Sam had to fight the urge to nervously shift her weight. Finally Claire said, “Please tell me you and Derek weren’t having sex while his partner was recovering from a poltergeist murder attempt.”

“You know,” Sam pointed a finger at Claire, “sometimes reaffirming you’re alive is a healthy, adult reaction to a life-or-death situation.”

Claire raised a brow, but Sam wasn’t about to feel guilty for the sex. For one, it was way too good, and for second, Claire was better suited to protect Angela than anyone at this point. After having their asses thoroughly handed to them, Sam and Derek needed a chance to lick their wounds. And each other.

At least that was what she was going to keep telling herself.

“I know why I’m here.” Sam looked up at Claudia’s building. “Why are you here?”

“I think Jackson is haunting me and he might be the one who tried to kill Angela last night.”

Sam scoffed. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Tell that to the bruises on Angela’s neck.”

Touché. “There are a lot of magical explanations, but there are no such things as ghosts. Trust me.”

Claire raised a brow. “You have looked into ghosts before?”

“I tried to raise a ghost before. After my dad died, I would’ve given anything to get him back. Heather and I looked through every text we could find and tried to do séances or anything to connect to the dead. Nothing. And when we asked Claudia.... Let’s just say that didn’t go well.”

“Okay....” said Claire carefully before she took a long drink of her coffee. “So there are no such things as ghosts. But I’m still seeing Jackson. And something did try to kill Angela last night, and that thing was impervious to bullets.”

Sam stiffened, the sudden memory of seeing Derek shoot Abigail and seeing the bullet hole just disappear, for better or worse. Probably worse....

“What?” asked Claire.

“Nothing. It could just be a coincidence.”

“You know what Derek thinks about coincidences.”

“Yes. I also know that killing people is hard. And as badass as you want to be, you’re a pretty good person. You seeing Jackson might just be some form of guilt.”

“I don’t feel guilty for killing him. He had it coming.”

“I know that. And you know that. Maybe your subconscious is more conflicted? I’m just saying... Oscar’s razor. The most simple explanation is normally the right one.”

Claire blinked in annoyance. “One, it’s Occam’s razor. Two, you’re a witch. Don’t give me the Occam’s razor bullshit. Occam’s razor needs to go in the trash from now on.”

“Fine,” agreed Sam. “Let’s take it to Claudia then. She knows a hell of a lot more than I do.”

Claire nodded in agreement and let Sam lead the way into the building and to the elevator. Sam had called her grandmother to let her know they were coming, so they were expected. But this time she wasn’t alone in her office. Bastian stood next to her desk.

Sam was rather fond of the man, even if she knew next to nothing about him. Claudia had introduced him as one of her trusted sentries, but since then, Sam hadn’t met one person who had met Bastian before. Even Abigail, who knew pretty much everyone, didn’t know who Bastian was. On top of that, he’d recently outed himself as something other than a witch, and she hadn’t had time to ask him what the hell he was. It wasn’t human considering he was better at mind control than she was, but he was something. And he’d been able to fight off the darkness, a feat she couldn’t do without Claudia going full exorcist on her.

Even though she knew so little about him, he’d saved her ass on more than one occasion, and he was on the increasingly short list of people she trusted. She knew that Claudia was his number-one priority, but he was open about it at least. Hell, at this point, she probably trusted Bastian more than Claudia.

“Samantha.” Claudia nodded to Claire in greeting. “I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to tell you to stay away from your mother.”

Claire stopped in surprise. “Abigail? What’s wrong with Abigail?”

“Everything is wrong with her,” said Sam. “Too late, Grandma. I visited her last night. It was one hell of a party.”

Claudia’s eyes widened and Bastian started to reach for a weapon, but Sam held up her hands in a nonthreatening way and took a step back. “Whoa, I’m me. I’m fine. I got away.”

Bastian didn’t pull out his knife, but he still eyed her as if she were about to grow a second head. “How did you manage to get away?”