The Professor Woos The Witch (Nocturne Falls Book 4) (27 page)

Corette nodded. “If there was, it might be grounds for banning her from becoming anyone’s mentor.”

“Exactly.”

Corette checked her watch. “We’ve got five minutes. Let’s go.”

Thirty seconds later, Corette had the ACW website pulled up and had logged onto her account. She clicked through to the membership roster, an area accessible only to those with certain positions in their covens.

“What’s her name?”

“Lila Aquinos.” Pandora leaned over her mother’s shoulder to see better.

Corette typed the name in, hit enter and the processing wheel started to spin. Two seconds later, it retrieved a file marked Aquinos, Lila.

Corette moved the cursor to the file, but didn’t click. She shook her head. “This is a violation of the oath of office I took.”

“Mom, it’s perfectly within your rights to check the file of a witch who’s come to town if you think she could be a danger to a member of your coven.”

“That’s not the violation I’m talking about.” She gave Pandora a stern glance. “I have the authority to see the file. You do not.”

Pandora straightened. “You’re right. And I don’t want to get you into any trouble. I’ll go wait in the store.”

“Thank you. I’ll be out shortly.”

Pandora walked back into the showroom. She studied the dresses in the window. Pretty beaded confections that would turn some lucky woman into a princess. With a sigh, she went to the front table and snuck a petit four to help pass the time. The dainty little square of lemony cake and tart icing melted on her tongue. “Oh, wow. Delaney, you have done it again. Of course, that’s going to mean an extra ten minutes on the treadmill tomorrow morning.”

Corette came out of the office. “What was that dear?”

Pandora swallowed the last bite. “Nothing, just talking to myself.”

“Did Charisma suggest that?”

“No, I was just—Mom, what did you find out?”

Corette’s mouth narrowed to a thin line. “No report of any kind.”

“Not a single complaint?”

“No. Sorry.”

Pandora pushed a strand of hair behind one ear. “I guess it’s a good thing. Maybe she’s not out to create trouble after all.”

“Or she just hasn’t been caught doing anything yet. A clean report doesn’t mean she couldn’t be up to something.”

“Good point. I’ll keep that in mind.” Pandora smiled. “Thanks. I should get going and let you get to work too.”

Corette smiled. “Happy to help. Have a good day, honey.”

“You too, Mom.” Pandora left and headed to her showing. Her mother’s reminder only confused Pandora more. Was Lila up to something? Or could she really be just a woman who recognized that she’d screwed up and wanted to mend her relationship with her daughter?

If Pandora didn’t give her a chance, who would? Maybe it was time to give Lila a few feet of rope. If she hung herself, that wasn’t Pandora’s problem.

As soon as her showing was over, she texted Cole to let him know she was free like she’d promised him she would the night before.

Come over if you can,
he texted back.

On my way.

When she arrived, he was in the driveway pitching stuff into the dumpster. Amazing how sweat and dirt could make a man look so yummy. She waved. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He didn’t smile. “We need to talk.”

“That sounds ominous.”

He looked around. “Inside.”

She followed him into the house, trying not to panic and waiting as patiently as she could until the door was shut. The second it closed, she asked, “What’s going on? Is this about Lila? You didn’t change your mind about staying, did you?”

He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a firm, fast kiss. “I’m staying, that hasn’t changed. But I had a talk with Kaley this morning and—wait, I need to back up. Lila came by last night right after you left.”

“You think she was waiting for me to leave?”

“Yes. She said all she wanted was to take a walk around the neighborhood with Kaley. I agreed, but I made Kaley take her phone.”

“So you could track her with the GPS app, right? Smart.”

He nodded. “That’s all they did, too. Just walk. They were gone thirty minutes and then they were back. Lila said good night and left. It seemed like a good start to letting Lila have some time with her.”

He wiped his hand over his face, smudging dirt on one cheek. “I talked to Kaley this morning. I tried to play it cool, but she knew I wanted to know what they’d talked about on the walk. She said Lila had asked her if she’d found any
feathers
around lately. Gave Kaley some song and dance about how they’re great for making protection amulets for witches who can see auras and she’d make one for Kaley if she found one.”

Pandora’s jaw fell open, and for a moment, she couldn’t form words. “That’s BS as far as I know. There’s no feather protection amulet for aura-readers. Lila wants to know if there are feathers around because she wants to know if you’ve shifted. She wants to know that
you know
who you really are.”

Cole shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I did my best not to react to any of it, but I think I failed. I asked Kaley about the phone call that she’d had with her mother, the one that led Lila to come here. Kaley didn’t want to say much about it. So I asked her straight out if she’d told Lila about me being a familiar.”

Pandora swallowed. “I think I already know the answer to this.”

Cole took a breath. “Kaley told her. She said she thought her mother counted as family.”

Pandora’s phone chimed with an incoming text. She reached for her purse, then stopped.

“Get it,” Cole said. “It could be Kaley reaching out to you.”

Pandora grabbed her phone and checked the message. “It’s not Kaley, it’s my mom.”

She tapped the screen to bring up the text.

Dug deeper into Lila’s file. Call me.

Pandora glanced at Cole. “I need to talk to my mother. It’s about Lila.”

He nodded. “You want to go somewhere for lunch? I could stand to get out of this house for an hour.”

“Sure.”

“Good. I’m going to grab a quick shower and change while you talk to your mom.”

“Okay.” She started to call Corette back, then hesitated. “Why didn’t you call and tell me about this feather business this morning?”

He put his hand on the stair railing. “I knew you were going to talk to your mom and that you had that showing. I didn’t want you to be preoccupied with my problems while you were trying to work.”

“Our problems.” She smiled. “You’re my familiar, after all.” Just saying the words caused a little charge to zip through her. “Now get showered so we can work this out over lunch.”

He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted and jogged upstairs.

She shook her head as she tapped the button to call her mother, then put the phone to her ear.

“Pandora?”

“Yep. What did you find out?”

Corette sighed. “I looked into the last six years of Lila’s records, all the way back to when she was listed as Lila Van Zant. I called the ACW headquarters and spoke to…someone I know there. Someone in charge of the records that aren’t computerized because of security reasons.”

Top-secret stuff. “And?” Pandora held her breath.

“She’s been married and divorced two more times in those six years.” Corette’s voice held an angry edge. “Both of her ex-husbands were listed on the registry of human familiars.”

Pandora let the breath out, but it did nothing to quell the rockslide of emotions sluicing through her. “She’s after Cole, not Kaley.”

Cole threw on a clean T-shirt and jeans and headed downstairs. Pandora was pacing in the foyer.

“Everything okay?”

“No.” She turned to him, her emerald eyes lit with anger and purpose. “Lila’s been married and divorced twice in the last six years.”

“She should be pretty good at it by now with all that practice,” he joked.

Pandora’s expression didn’t waver. “Both times the guy was a human familiar.”

His smile faded. “You know that for sure?”

“Yes, we know it for sure. My mother is the coven secretary. She has access to information most people don’t.” A muscle in her jaw ticked. “Lila’s after you, not Kaley. Or maybe it’s both of you. Either way, she’s not here to make up for being a lousy mother. I’d say you’re on her radar again.”

“We need a plan.”

“Agreed. But I need to check something first.”

“Sure. What?”

“That book in the attic. You mind if I grab it?”

“Be my guest.”

Pandora closed her eyes, held her hands out, palms up, in front of her. The air above them wavered, and a second later, the book appeared in her hands.

“Wow. That was impressive.” And kind of hot.

“For me, too. But strong emotion can strengthen a witch’s magic, and I’m definitely feeling some right now.” She opened the book and ran her finger down the table of contents, found what she was looking for and flipped to that page.

Cole came around to stand next to her so he could see what she was looking at. He took the opportunity to enjoy how good she smelled before focusing on the book. The top of the page read “Cautions.”

“There,” she said. She pointed to a line about halfway down and read out loud. “The hair, skin, feathers or fur of a human familiar’s
animal form
can be used to create a bonding spell.”

She looked at him. “Now you know why she wants one of your feathers.”

“She’s going to force a bond with me. Or try to.” It bothered him more that Lila might come between him and Pandora, than that his ex was about to try to force herself on him. “I am sure as hell not going to let that happen.”

Pandora nodded. Then she closed the book. “Look, nothing’s going to happen until she gets that feather. We have time to figure this out. Let’s go have lunch, and tonight, I’ll talk with my mom and sisters, and we’ll come up with something.” She smiled. “I don’t want her getting in the way of our time together. Not right now.”

“Okay. We can do that.” He kissed her forehead, willing to take a breather if she was. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

Her smile widened. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself. Let’s go eat.”

Twenty minutes later, they were seated in a booth at Howler’s. Pandora introduced Cole to Bridget, then when they were alone at the table, she quietly explained that the owner of the establishment was also a werewolf.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.”

He looked at Bridget, who was now behind the bar, and shook his head. Hard to believe werewolves existed, let alone that they could look so…normal. “Get out.”

Pandora laughed. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

He turned back to Pandora and let his gaze wander her face. “She’s no Pandora Williams.”

Pandora blushed. “Bridget is considered one of the great beauties of this town.”

“Was that before you moved here?”

She giggled, and the sound pleased him. “Seriously, she is.”

“If you say so.” He looked at Bridget one more time. “Werewolves, huh? This town is…”

“Nuts?”

“Incredible.”

The server came to take their orders. Pandora ordered a salad. He ordered the lunch special, a prime rib sandwich with fries.

As soon as the server left, Pandora pulled out her phone. “I don’t want to be rude, but I need to send a quick text to my mom and sisters about meeting tonight.”

“Go ahead. I’ll just admire the view.”

She looked up at him through her lashes. “You’re awfully full of compliments all of a sudden.”

“Seeing my ex has brought into full focus just how lucky I am that you want to keep company with me. So I’m trying to up my boyfriend game.”

She stuck her tongue into the corner of her mouth. “Is that what you are now? My boyfriend?”

“Too soon?”

She smiled coyly, then went back to her phone. “No.”

By the time they were done eating, she’d exchanged a dozen texts with her family and the meeting was confirmed. They drove back to Cole’s house in his truck. He threw it into park, hopped out and went around to get her door.