Witch Weigh (A Paranormal Romantic Comedy) (2 page)

Luck? No. There the fair Fiona was wrong. He wasn’t the one who was going to need it.

***

Tessa could hardly believe her ears. She’d been subjected to a litany of charges against both her character and behavior, a list so long she felt herself aging as she listened.

“Stop.” She slapped her palms on the table and stood. She looked at each woman seated around the table before fixing her eyes on her Aunt Trudy. “Enough already. I get it. I’m not perfect. None of us are. Can you just slap my wrists so we can move on?”

Aunt Trudy shook her head. “Sit down and please don’t act like a victim, child, because you know you’ve been warned several times that your behavior is unbecoming as a member of the Upper Hallows Witch Council. It seems to me that you’ve lost all touch with the two most important C’s in our Witch’s Motto.” She looked down her nose, over her crystal accented reading glasses, her eyes challenging her niece. “Prove me wrong. Tell me what the two C’s on our crest stand for.”

Of course Tessa knew what they stood for but she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of the proper answer as if she were a naughty school girl. She was the youngest witch present but anyone with half of a functioning eye could tell she was no girl.

“Cider and cross stitch?” she quipped.

An eruption of protests ensued. Her aunt rang a small pewter bell and waited for silence to return. She frowned at Tessa. “Courtesy and compassion are our guides through every day and you should know that. However, you’re showing none of the first now and I’d very much like to know when you’ve demonstrated any compassion recently?”

Tessa thought. And thought. Compassion really was a relative word when it came right down to it, she realized.

“Our point exactly,” Amelia Fairweather piped up. She stroked a curled up Jinx who lay contentedly in her lap.

Tessa eyed Jinx. One slammed door, one bruised tail, and he’d changed camps. The little traitor.

Her aunt shook her head ruefully. “Your choices have been gravely disappointing my dear. We haven’t gone through a week this year where one of us hasn’t heard tell of your shenanigans, each worse than the last. You seem to think that you can cast spells at whim.” She held up a slip of paper. “Do you want me to read through the list? The grocery clerk who somehow got her finger stuck up her nose and couldn’t get it out? Your riding instructor who fell off her high horse?”

Tessa drew a deep breath. They were covering no new ground here. But each moment she sat and listened to their complaints was a moment they weren’t considering her application. She had to get control of the situation.

“So you’re saying the real problem is that I’m acting like a witch?”

Her aunt leaned forward and shook her head. “No, my dear, the real problem is that you’re acting like a bitch.”

Liam slipped in through the double oak doors and stood silently with his back against the wall. He didn’t doubt that every witch in the room, save one, sensed he was there without having to look. They almost always knew when his sort was present even when he wasn’t in flesh and blood form. Today he was though. It seemed the best way to greet his new – what should he call Contessa Von Hellengaard?

Client? Not exactly. Project? Not a word he usually used.

He wouldn’t be using the bitch word, that much he knew. He’d arrived just in time to witness Tessa’s reaction. Angry sparks radiated from her aura, bright enough to cast moonlight into shadow.

Just why was she so angry? Indignant denial or a guilty conscience? He’d find out as soon as he got her alone.

“How dare you?” Tessa demanded of the woman he understood was her Aunt Trudy. “You have no right--”

“Child, do not speak to me in that angry tone of voice. I had very much hoped to hear a contrite apology or even an explanation for your choices but all I hear is entitlement.”

“Yes, that’s right. I am entitled,” Tessa said. “I am entitled to be treated as an adult and a full-fledged witch, and not as some pathetic underling that you disapprove of.”

And so the war of words was waged. Liam listened to Tessa’s denial of wrong doings, her anger at being held accountable and her scorn for the council as a whole. It didn’t escape his notice that she spoke out of turn and appeared to think nothing of raising her voice to women who were, some of them, hundreds of years older than she.

Patience and humility weren’t her strong suits. He made a mental note.

To his surprise, Liam realized he was looking forward to the challenge before him. Tessa was unlike any woman he’d ever worked with. Worked on. He wondered how she’d react when she found out he was going to be her new best friend.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out.

***

“You want me to work with a FAIRY?” Tessa knew she was shouting and she didn’t care. She was long past the point of caring. “Have you lost your mind? Fairy as in a fluttery winged, short skirt, blond bimbo fairy?”

Amelia Fairweather dropped her head into her hands. Evelyne Allswell, seated next to her, patted Amelia’s shoulder. Angry eyes flashing, Evelyne addressed Tessa.

“Not only are you going to work with our sisterhood of fairies, you spoiled ingrate, you’re going to have one of your own.”

Her self-satisfied smile enraged Tessa even further. Words were failing her. No other choice existed but to use her magic. She flexed her fingers. She’d need a hell of a spell to get out of this one. She raised her hands.

“Don’t even think about it,” Evelyne shrieked.

Tessa tapped her finger on her palm but she was too late. She reeled backwards, more stunned by the idea that a member of the council would use magic against her than from the actual impact. She opened her mouth to protest but she was unable to make a sound. She tried harder. Still nothing. She clenched her fists.

“Ah, that’s better.” Clarrisa Goodbody sat back in her chair. “It’s a shame we can’t make this a permanent condition.” She cast a hopeful glance toward the head of the table but Trudy shook her head.

“It’s only temporary.” She removed her reading glasses, placed them on the table and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “This has all been quite exhausting. You’ve been quite exhausting Tessa. I’m sorry to have to silence you but it appears to be the only way to make myself heard.”

Tessa struggled to speak but couldn’t. Mute was definitely a four letter word. She tapped her finger onto her palm but there was no familiar sensation, no sizzle, no power. Oh, God, no magic. Her knees felt weak. For the first time her anger made room in her mind for a bit of fear.

“Yes, we’ve taken your magic powers too,” her aunt said. “Well, not taken them so much as given them to someone else. Temporarily, don’t panic.”

Panic? That did little to describe the hysteria that coursed through Tessa’s body. She could live without her voice. But her magic? No. No. No.

Her eyes darted around the council table, desperately searching for an ally but no one spared her a single sympathetic expression. Even Jinx seemed more interested in licking his paw than looking at her.

Aunt Trudy stood and motioned for the other witches to do so. “We won’t prolong this. We are going to leave you now.” Her voice was tender. “I believe in you, Tessa. Despite the fact you’ve gone way off course in using your powers, I still believe you have goodness within you. I just don’t think you know where it is or how to use it.”

Tessa made a choking sound, her voice failing to express what she so badly wanted to say. Her aunt was a hypocrite of the worst order if she could stand there and speak of kindness after stripping Tessa of her voice, her dignity, and her magic.

“We’ve found the perfect fairy to teach you how to do good. How to be good.” She smiled. “We’ll see you again once you’ve completed your transformation.”

And then they were gone. All of them, leaving a startled Jinx and an enraged Tessa behind. She was all alone.

Or so she thought.

“Good morning, Contessa.”

Startled, she whirled around, eyes wide.

A man leaned against the back wall, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his faded Levis. His fitted white t-shirt did little to hide a chest of chiseled muscles. Under any other circumstances, in any other place, Tessa would have taken the time, made the time, to drink in this gorgeous creature. But not now, not today.

She’d been muted, she’d been robbed of her magic and she was now stuck waiting for her fairy flippin’ godmother.

This dishy construction worker would have to get lost. She lifted her arm to motion him out of the room but stopped abruptly.

How did he know her name?

Chapter Three

“Who the hell are you?”

Tessa gasped when she realized she’d just spoken. Out loud. Her voice was back. Thank you, thank you, thank you, she silently chanted, grateful that the spell had lasted such a short time. Maybe this whole nonsense about a fairy godmother was just Aunt Trudy and the council’s way of trying to shock her into obedience. She could hardly wait to try her magic, but first she needed to get the handsome stranger out of the room.

“Do you speak English?” she demanded. “Are you deaf?”

He still didn’t answer. Why was he looking at her like that? It wasn’t as if she was unused to men staring at her but his gaze wasn’t the appreciative sort she was used to. He wasn’t checking her out so much as he seemed to be assessing her. No matter. She could make him disappear.

Index finger to palm she tapped twice. Nothing happened. Maybe she just needed to warm up. She tried again.

The handsome stranger laughed. “My dear Contessa, it’s not going to be that easy to get rid of me.”

Tessa had no time for this nonsense. Whoever this eye candy was didn’t matter to her. Her magic powers did matter. Her plans to get the European appointment mattered even more.

“I don’t know where my Aunt Trudy has popped off to,” she told him. “Just go wait in the main hall and someone will be along eventually with the key to whatever you need.”

“I’ve got what I need already.” He pointed to a chair. “Shall we sit?”

Unbelievable. Tessa shook her head. Men. Just because he was a dangerous mix of charm, good looks and sex appeal didn’t give him the right to think she’d obey his every command.

“You sit, I’m leaving.” Tessa tucked her satchel under her arm and tried to move but her feet failed her. Her heel was stuck. She yanked her leg again but her foot wouldn’t budge. It was as if her boots were glued to the carpet.

No doubt this was Evelyne Allswell’s idea of a joke. The cow.

Tessa reached down to untie her laces but they wouldn’t give no matter how hard she pulled.

“Would you like my help?”

Tessa straightened. Her pride and desperation to be free battled over his offer. The last thing she wanted to do was accept his help.

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow. And waited.

“Yes, please,” she managed through clenched teeth. She did her best to ignore the slow smile that stretched across his face. He really was too terribly handsome. It was best not to look.

He knelt down in front of her and laid one hand on each boot.

“Try to move now.”

She did. It worked. She was free. She almost smiled but stopped herself. Something wasn’t right. Her shoes felt different. Her four inch heels were gone. It felt like she had a flat tire.

“What did you do to me?” she demanded.

“See for yourself.” He stood and stepped back just enough so that she could bend down to look at her feet.

“Oh, my God,” Tessa shrieked. She staggered backward. Her feet were unstuck but now shock threatened to immobilize her. She stared into his meadow green eyes. “Who are you?”

“Liam Kennedy.”

“Who sent you here to torture me?” she demanded, but he remained silent.

Tessa plopped into a chair and tugged at the sparkling pink ballet flats that had replaced her black boots. To her horror, she wasn’t able to remove them.

“Get these off of me and then start talking. I want to know who sent you, who you are and what you plan to do to me.” For good measure she decided to throw in a threat. “Because if you don’t, I’ll make you--”

“Contessa, might I suggest we not start out our relationship with idle threats?”

The boyish grin on his face irked her. Even more annoying, Jinx chose that moment to saunter over and wind himself through Liam’s legs. A plaintive meow earned him a spot in Liam’s arms. Tessa narrowed her eyes at her silky black feline nemesis. Jinx she would deal with later.

“You’re a fool if you think my threats are idle. You have no idea what I will do to you if you don’t --” her mind continued with a litany of her less than honorable intentions but her voice deserted her. She was mute again. Her eyes widened.

Liam nodded in answer to her unspoken question.

Tessa was grateful to be sitting down. The knowledge that sexy Liam Kennedy had the power to silence her was more than she could take standing up. For the first time in her life, she wondered if maybe, just maybe, she might be in over her head.

“Time for some ground rules, I think.” Liam pulled up a chair and sat across from her. “No more four letter words unless it’s good, kind, love or something along those lines. I don’t want to have to keep muting you like you’re an annoying commercial, agreed?”

Tessa reluctantly nodded. She’d agree to almost anything at this point to get her voice back and the pink monstrosities off of her feet. She could curse up a blue streak as soon as this nightmare was over.

“Excellent. Hold still.” Liam reached forward and placed a finger on her lips. He lightly traced a straight line downwards, stopping at the base of her neck.

And in that moment Tessa realized the truth. His gentle touch told of his powers. This man was no mere mortal. She pulled away, sitting as far back in the chair as she could manage.

“Don’t be afraid, Tessa. I’m here to help you.”

“I’m not afraid.” She could hear herself again. “If you really want to help me, then get these things off my feet.”