The Reluctant Goddess (The Montgomery Chronicles Book 2) (5 page)

Dan hadn’t disappeared. He was standing there watching us. So was Mike, my second choice for shape shifter.

Mutt was panting and drooling all over me. I bent down and kissed him between the eyes, ruffled the fur behind his ears, and praised him for being brave and courageous and a sweetheart. I was going to be covered in dog hair for my meeting with my grandmother. At the moment, however, it didn’t matter.

When I stood, Mutt moved to sit at my feet. He stared up at the two men in front of him, mouth open, tongue lolling. When Mike bent toward him, he growled. Mike didn’t try to pet him again, merely straightened, he and Mutt glaring at each other.
 

“He’s my guardian,” I said, beginning to reevaluate the scene at the lake.
 

Dan hadn’t saved me. Mutt had.

“Sorry,” I said, a half assed apology for believing he was something more than human.
 

Hey, the temptation was there. If I could believe in vampires, I could believe in shape shifters. According to information I’d been given, there were all sorts of Brethren who had not yet become known to the general public.
 

As far as I was concerned, keeping it to vampires and witches would make my life a lot simpler.

Dan bent down and rubbed his hand over Mutt’s head. The dog was smart and didn’t growl. Evidently, he knew whose kibble he’d eaten.
 

“Can I leave now?”

“Mike’s going to follow you,” Dan said.
 

I nodded, giving in. I understood the dangers and I wasn’t stupid enough to reject any help. I just wished Mike wasn’t so, well, visible.

I glanced at the big, bad bodyguard. “Do you have a concealed carry permit?” I asked, which was a semi tactful way of asking, do you have a gun and are you prepared to use it?
 

He nodded once.

“Are you going to follow right behind me?”
 

Dan answered. “You won’t see him, but he’ll be there.”

I eyed him, suddenly certain that Dan would also send someone else to follow me, just in case I slipped past the surly bonds of Mike.
 

I couldn’t help but wonder why Dan cared. He was a nice guy, and sexy as hell, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood for any kind of relationship. Was he just a good Samaritan? Or was there something behind his protectiveness?

One more damn question.
 

Mutt, and I had to come up with a better name soon, insisted on sitting shotgun. I insisted on a seatbelt. It was non-negotiable and we had a war of wills for a few minutes, his soulful brown eyes staring into my narrowed blue ones.

“I don't care, if you want to sit in the front seat you have to have a seatbelt on. No seatbelt? You sit in the back."

He whined like a dog being tortured for ten seconds. I ignored him, fastened the seatbelt and tested it to make sure it wasn't loose, got into the driver seat, and moved his tail away from the console.

I did the finger wavy thing in the rearview mirror to Mike who didn't respond. Why hadn't Dan followed me? He was all geared up to be a hero, then he pulled away at odd moments. Maybe he didn't want to meet my grandmother. Another mystery there, one I didn't have the patience to solve right at the moment.

I tried to remember if Nonnie ever had a pet and couldn't recall one. She hadn’t even had a cat. Do witches have something against dogs?

I glanced at Mutt.
 

"Archibald," I said. "I could call you Archie." Mutt whined again."You don't like that? How about Micah? That's a good old fashioned name." I shot him another look. "But you're not really a good old fashioned guy, are you?"

An enthusiastic tail batted my hand.
 

"Then how about something plain and manly like Howard?”

Mutt turned his head and stared at me.
 

“Dick?”

He was back to whining.

“Sampson. Rex. Willy. Mugsy. George.”
 

He just stared at me again.
 

“Tyler. Butch. Shadow.”
 

No response. I was running out of names. Finally, I thought of the guy who’d fed me shots and a beer in college.
 

"How about Charlie? Charlie's a good name."

No whine. His tail thumped against the console.

I made a turn outside the gate, crossing the two way access road with care.

I hadn’t seen anyone but Mike so far. No car hiding in the bushes. There weren't any billboards along the highway, cover for someone in black leather on a motorcycle. If there was a sniper sitting somewhere, he'd have to be in one of the mesquite trees, easily seen.
 

No, my greatest danger came from witches who could suddenly appear in the backseat. Or preternaturally fast vampires who flattened themselves against my windshield at night. Nothing so normal as a sniper for me.

"Charlie it is," I said, determined not to think about vampires or witches for a little while. "We need to see about your family, Charlie. I'm sure you had one, but I'll be honest with you, I’m not really happy with them. I didn't see any flyers advertising for you. And I checked the lost pet websites, too. Somebody should have cared enough about you to worry you were gone.”

His tail waved like a flag.
 

“We’re two of a kind, aren't we? Well, that's okay. I care about you. And you saved me.”
 

Is that why people got dogs? To give them companionship or cover for talking to themselves? But I could swear that Charlie understood, especially when he reached over and placed his paw on my hand resting on the console.

I blinked back my tears. How pathetic was I, getting weepy about a compassionate dog?

Traffic was heavy but not surprising. I think we’ve had construction on 410 for most of my life. Once they got the airport area fixed, they worked on the loop with I-10. At least I could avoid the 281 and Wurzbach Parkway construction.

Mike was still behind me, the maroon truck easily visible even after he dropped back a few cars.

The closer I got to Nonnie's house, the tenser I became. My stomach was still in knots and I was shaky. I didn't know how much of that was due to the potion or to the recent events in my life.
 

The questions were mounting up. Pretty soon they'd topple over and bury me.

C
HAPTER
F
IVE

Grandma, what big eyes you have

I pulled into Nonnie's neighborhood, careful to keep to the twenty five mile an hour speed limit. They had a neighborhood watch program here consisting of nosy neighbors, plus they paid an off duty cop to patrol the streets.

I saw the flick of curtains next door as I pulled the car to a stop in front of Nonnie's house. Did the neighbors know she was a witch? Were the neighbors witches? Had I just driven into a residential coven?

I braked, turned off the car, releasing my seatbelt and Charlie’s. I pulled out my phone and called my grandmother again. This time I left a message.

“I’m at your house. I'm not going to come to the front door. I'll go back around to the garden again. If you want to zap me back there, there's not much I can do to stop you. But I need to talk to you, Nonnie, because I suspect you're the only person with the answers I need." Before I ended the message, I added, "I have my dog with me. I just wanted you to know."

I hung up, sat back against the seat, and stared out the windshield. From my glance in the rearview mirror, Mike had pulled in directly behind me. I hope he didn't insist on following me to my grandmother's garden. Her garden was a private place, and I didn't doubt she would do something to banish him. The guy was just doing his job. I didn't want him hurt.

When had I made that transition in my thoughts, from thinking of my grandmother as this warm and loving creature to someone powerful enough to hurt a bear like Mike?

My stomach clenched as I got out of the car, walked around the front and opened the passenger door for Charlie. He followed me to Mike’s truck. After that first night when I'd rescued him in the woods, I hadn't used a leash. But I didn't have to worry about Charlie leaving my side. He was as protective as Dan.

Mike rolled down the passenger side window.

"This is my grandmother's house," I said, sticking my head inside the window. “I’d invite you in but I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
 

He regarded me with stony brown eyes.
 

“That’s okay. I’ll wait here.”

"If I need you, I'll call," I said. “You’re number two on my speed dial.”
 

He nodded once.
 

My grandmother’s house was sixty years old, one of the newest in the neighborhood. The rest were homes built in the Victorian era. In the last five years the area had been rediscovered. The neighbors were a mix of young couples getting a steal on huge older homes they were fixing up and elderly owners who’d done the same thing fifty years ago.
 

Nonnie had the house painted recently. Either that, or she’d arranged a spell to make me think the siding was a deep emerald and the white of the shutters blinding white.
 

The house sat on a knoll of earth, the approach a short walk from the curb up a short flight of steps carved into the grass. Here there was never a sign of a drought. Plus the Bermuda always grew thick beneath the shade of the two trees, one on each side of the walk.
 

Another spell? Or simply a green thumb?
 

The neighbor next door had died about six months ago. Mrs. Flores had been renowned for her garden and her front landscaping she kept pruned to an inch of its life. The house hadn’t remained on the market for long, selling to a young couple with two little children. I'd met them once when they were all out walking. The little boy had been on his tricycle, the infant girl held in a sling against her mother’s chest.

Now a curtain jerked closed in their kitchen. I couldn't help but wonder if they knew my grandmother was a witch. For that matter, were they witches?

A witch could marry and have children. Vampires, on the other hand, were supposed to immediately become infertile when they were turned. It's kind of hard to give birth to a live child when you were dead.

Somehow, I’d broken the rules.
 

I walked slowly around to the side of the house. I thought I’d never be back here. The last time I'd come to Nonnie’s house it had been dark. Now I noticed things I hadn’t been able to see before. The iron hinges looked oiled. None of the fence boards were loose.
 

Did she do all the work around the house herself? Or hire a handyman to do these things for her? Or, was she powerful enough to command the rocks to align themselves and the grass to only grow to a certain height? I wouldn’t be surprised if she got rid of weeds with a spell.
 

I opened the gate, waited until Charlie entered, then closed it behind us. The last time I was here the rocks along the paths had been glowing. Now they looked like plain old Colorado River Rock, but I was going to avoid them just in case.

The fact that the gate hadn't been locked was a clue. When I saw my grandmother sitting on the bench in the back I knew she’d gotten my message.
 

I made my way slowly down the path, Charlie so close beside me that I could feel his tail hitting my leg as we walked.
 

My grandmother stared at me wide eyed.
 

I’d forgotten. Although she’d heard me on the phone during the daytime, I guess seeing me was something else. My stomach tightened, my pulse racing as I approached her.
 

She was as white as the shutters of her house. Stopping in front of her, I wondered which one of us was more frightened.

Before she could question me about my newfound ability I asked, "Is there poison in the potion you gave me?"
 

She frowned at me. "If I was going to kill you, child, I would've done so when you were a little girl. I wouldn't have waited until you became a vampire."

I didn’t move. "Every time I take a dose of it, I get sick. Really sick."

"There might be something in it that doesn't agree with your condition," she said. "I don't mean possible pregnancy, Marcie. I mean what you are."

I came and sat beside her on the bench.

"Which is why I'm here," I said. "What am I? Do you know?“

Her smile was barely a curve of her lips. “I thought I knew until a few days ago.” She shook her head before adding, “I’ve never known of a vampire who could tolerate the sun.”
 

“Or anyone who had a vampire father,” I said.
 

“That, too,” she said, nodding.
 

"So you aren’t trying to poison me," I said. Good to know.
 

"If you suspect me of doing something so terrible, Marcie, why are you here?"

"For answers, Nonnie.” I took a deep breath.
 

I wanted to believe her, the same way I wanted her to reach over and grab me, hug me tight, tell me that everything was going to be fine, that the last few weeks have been nothing but a terrible nightmare and I had awakened, sweaty and nauseous, but still human and still loved.