A Charmed Life (Halloween LaVeau Book 5) Read online

  “What’s he doing here?” I asked.

  Nicolas looked at me and said, “He’s the last person I wanted to see here.”

  I scanned the area and realized that Liam wasn’t with us. Where had he gone? Was he upset with me? He must’ve gotten lost in the crowd. For a second I focused my attention around the dance floor, but Liam was nowhere in sight.

  When I glanced back at Arthur, I found Liam. He was standing next to Arthur. I touched Nicolas’ arm and motioned with a tilt of my head. Nicolas followed my direction.

  “This probably won’t end well,” I said.

  Liam had a tendency to get right to the point. Since he didn’t like Arthur anyway, I figured it might end in a fight.

  “You’re right about that,” Nicolas said.

  “Come on. Let’s find Liam before this turns into something bad.” I motioned.

  Nicolas and I made our way to the dance floor, weaving through the bodies pressed up against each other. When we got to the table at the back of the room, only Liam was there. Had he already done something with Arthur? That wasn’t impossible, but magic wasn’t allowed in the Bubbling Cauldron. Sure, I’d bent the rules a few times, but that was only due to an emergency.

  When Liam spotted us, Nicolas asked, “Where is he?”

  “He disappeared on me.” Liam ran his hand through his hair.

  I shrugged. “I can’t find him. He was here one minute, and then gone the next.”

  I felt no magic in the air. How had he gotten away so quickly? If he’d used magic, I wanted to find him right away.

  “Who was the woman with him? Did you find out?” I asked.

  “I didn’t find out anything,” Liam said, sounding discouraged.

  Arthur had a way of moving quickly and getting away.

  “I’ll text you if I find him,” Liam said as he walked away.

  “What is he doing?” I asked.

  “I guess he’s going to try to find him,” Nicolas said.

  I blew the hair out of my eyes. “He really doesn’t like the guy, does he?”

  “I don’t blame him. I don’t like the guy either. Come on, let’s go outside and see if we find him.” Nicolas took my hand and helped me navigate across the dance floor again.

  Maybe Liam had spotted Arthur and hadn’t told me. I wished he would have filled me in on what he was doing though. Nicolas and Liam could be stubborn.

  Nicolas and I made it outside onto the sidewalk once again. Not only did I look for Arthur, but I scanned the area to see if the woman had returned. No such luck.

  I paused. “Okay, now that we’re outside, I can do a spell.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Nicolas asked.

  “I’ll cast a spell that will with any luck lead me to Arthur. We’ll just see what sneakiness he’s up to,” I said.

  Nicolas smiled. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Just take my hands and repeat after me,” I said.

  Nicolas recited the words with me.

  “Element of Earth, we call to you. Lead us to the person we’re looking for.” We turned to face the west, and recited the words: “Element of Air, we call to you to stop any evil against us.” Turning toward the south, we recited the words: “Element of Fire, we call to you for protection from the evil.” To complete the spell, we turned toward the east. “Element of Water, we call to you to bring the person we’re looking for.”

  I repeated the words again just to make sure the spell worked. As I released Nicolas’ hands, I motioned for him to follow. The spell drew me to the parking lot that was a short distance from the club’s entrance. It was where the spell was drawing me. When we got there, I saw no sign of Arthur or Liam. However, my eyes were drawn to something on the pavement. It was right by my feet. Had the spell worked? The black leather wallet on the pavement had to mean something, although I’d wanted to find Arthur, not his wallet.

  “Look what I found,” I said as I picked it up from the ground.

  Before even opening it I knew who it belonged to. But what would I find inside?

  I opened the wallet and immediately looked past the condom wrapper to the driver’s license. It was Arthur’s wallet, but there was a name on the license that I hadn’t expected. A different last name was on his identification. I’d seen his driver’s license when he’d checked in that night and the last name had been White. Now his last name was listed as Rankin.

  “What did you find?” Nicolas leaned closer. “Besides the condom.”

  I showed him the driver’s license. “He has the same last name as your brother.”

  Nicolas took the wallet from my hand and studied it.

  “Do you think this is a coincidence?” I asked. “What could it possibly be?”

  “I don’t know, but I think it must mean something. First, we need to tell Liam about this.” Nicolas handed me the wallet.

  I scanned the parking lot to see if Liam was there. When I didn’t spot him, I pulled out my phone and sent him a text.

  I need to talk to you.

  This was too complicated to explain in a text. I needed to see him in person.

  Liam replied, I’ll come by the manor soon. I have a ride. You all can go without me.

  I frowned. “That’s odd. Liam said he has a ride and will stop by the manor.”

  “I guess we should go back then,” Nicolas said.

  I blew the hair out of my eyes. “I guess. It doesn’t look like we will find Arthur right now.”

  I had expected the spell to take me right to Arthur. Now it had just caused the mystery to deepen. We went back across the street and hopped into Nicolas’ car. The entire way back to the manor I was lost in thought, wondering about the connection. Nicolas must have been thinking the same thing.

  We pulled up to the manor and hurried out of the car. I hadn’t even gotten to the front steps yet when that bat swooped down and flew right by our heads.

  “It’s back,” I yelled as I ducked.

  I was pretty sure the thing was trying to attack me. Did bats attack? Maybe only the ones that were vampires. That was when it hit me. I’d had problems with vampires recently. Could one of them be disguising himself as a bat in order to get to me? I wouldn’t hang around outside long enough to find out.

  But how would the vampire have gotten inside the house if that was the case? I needed to make sure that there was no way to get in. How creepy and scary to think this might be happening.

  Nicolas rushed me inside before the thing had a chance to come back. “Are you okay?” he asked as he touched my arm.

  I nodded. “I’m okay. I had a thought…”

  He quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

  “What if that bat is a vampire?” I stared at him.

  “You mean like in the movies?” he teased.

  I shook my head. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m being serious.”

  A noise sounded from the parlor and my heart rate went up. Was the bat inside the house? I followed behind Nicolas as we went across the foyer and to the parlor. I stopped in my tracks and let out a screech. It wasn’t the bat, it was Arthur. How had he gotten here so quickly?

  “Did I scare you?” he asked with a slight smile on his face.

  “What are you trying to do?” Nicolas asked with irritation in his voice.

  I knew he felt the same way as Liam about Arthur and this stunt hadn’t helped.

  “You did scare me,” I said, still trying to calm down.

  Arthur held his hands up. “I didn’t mean to. I tried to make some noise.”

  “Not nearly enough,” I said. “We saw you at the Bubbling Cauldron.”

  “It’s a shame I missed you there,” Arthur said.

  “Yeah, such a shame,” Nicolas said sarcastically.

  “Apparently you lost something there,” I said, pulling out Arthur’s wallet and handing it toward him.

  He peered down and took the wallet from my hand. Now he knew that I knew his secret. But would he admit the truth? Or kee
p up with his lies? How many more surprises did he have in store for us?

  “You want to tell us anything?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

  Chapter 23

  Since he didn’t offer info, I decided to just come right out and ask about the name. I glared at him. “Why does your driver’s license have a different last name on it than the one you gave me?” I smirked, sure that I’d caught him in his little game. “Furthermore, why would you have the same last name as Liam?”

  Surely that couldn’t be a coincidence. I couldn’t wait to hear his explanation for this. I wasn’t going take my eyes off of him until he offered one.

  Arthur looked me right in the eyes and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I should’ve seen that answer coming. There was no way I’d let him get off that easily. “In your wallet… the driver’s license I saw has a different name on it. It’s not the name you gave me. I want to know what kind of tricks you’re up to.”

  With his narrowed eyes and clenched fists, Nicolas looked as if he was growing more inpatient by the second. What would Liam think when he found out? Speaking of Liam, where was he?

  “I’m not up to any tricks.” The sly smile remained on Arthur’s face.

  “I knew you would deny it,” I said.

  “You’d better just come clean now, man. Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” Nicolas said.

  How could Arthur deny it when I had seen it with my own eyes? Nicolas had seen it too.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you,” Arthur said as if he’d done nothing wrong.

  How long would he continue to keep up the innocent act? He had to know that I was going to tell Annabelle about this. I couldn’t let her date a fraud.

  Again, he said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Buddy, I think you need to stop saying that.” Irritation flickered in Nicolas’ eyes.

  “Okay, if you did nothing wrong then I want to see the proof. Show us the driver’s license.” I folded my arms in front of my waist.

  I felt pretty satisfied with this question. He would have to finally admit what he’d done. I wanted an explanation. I was pretty sure I couldn’t allow him to stay here any longer if he was really up to something. And using a fake last name wasn’t going to cut it. Normally, I wouldn’t care if he used the name Mr. Purple Pants, but with all the magic zinging around here, I couldn’t take my chances.

  He pulled the wallet from his pocket and opened it up. Then he flashed the driver’s license at me. Of course, I’d already seen it, so I knew what name was listed. Nevertheless, I peered down at the license again. A gasp escaped my lips. Rankin wasn’t there. Instead it read Arthur White, just as he’d told me at the beginning. I couldn’t believe this.

  I looked at Nicolas. “Are we going crazy?”

  “No, of course not,” Nicolas said. “He’s just playing tricks.”

  I knew what I’d seen.

  Arthur stared at me and gave a little smirk. “Are you happy now?”

  No, I wasn’t happy now. As far as I was concerned, Arthur was not telling the truth. I’d just handed the wallet back to him and I knew he couldn’t have changed the license that quickly. I’d been watching him the whole time. Nicolas was right, Arthur had to be playing tricks with us. I bet he hadn’t counted on losing the wallet. Lucky for me I’d found it and now I knew about his ruse.

  “Now if you’ll excuse me, please. I’m feeling a bit tired.” Arthur looked from me to Nicolas.

  We watched as he walked away. Of course this whole thing had left me pretty much speechless.

  When he’d walked out of the parlor, I looked at Nicolas. “What do you think about that?”

  Nicholas ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to think.”

  “You saw the license with the different last name, right?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I saw it.”

  “So what do I do now?” I asked. “How do you think he switched the driver’s license?”

  “I think we both know that a little magic was involved.”

  “Yes, it’s the only way.”

  “Hallie, I think you need to ask him to leave.” Nicolas pinched his brow together into a frown.

  I was torn about what to do. Technically, I couldn’t prove that he’d done anything wrong. And if I was mistaken, I would feel totally guilty about asking him to leave when he’d already paid for his nights here. But I had to think of my safety and the safety of my other guests, even Cora.

  I crossed my arms in front of my waist. “I’ll think about it.”

  My thoughts were confused and my mind was going a million miles a minute. Nicolas wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close.

  “I’ll do everything I can to protect you,” he said.

  I appreciated his help and I hoped that he knew that. Nicolas’ eyes widened as I moved closer to him. Without saying a word, I planted a kiss on his lips. I bet that surprised him.

  “We should go to bed,” he whispered.

  I nodded. “Yeah, it’s been a long day.”

  He wrapped his hands around mine and I led him up the stairs toward my bedroom. I couldn’t help but wonder about Arthur. Was he sneaking around somewhere or was he really in his bedroom?

  I hated to break the romantic vibe we had going, but I really needed to call my mother. We reached the bedroom and I closed the door behind us. Nicolas turned to face me, and I knew he recognized the look on my face.

  “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

  I grimaced and then said, “I need to call my mother.”

  “You’ll be thinking about it all night if you don’t. I’ll just be waiting over here in bed for you.” He flashed an irresistible smile.

  “Thank you,” I mouthed as I dialed my mom’s number.

  She picked up right away. “I was expecting a call from you.”

  “What did I do wrong?” I asked.

  Did she already know about what had happened?

  She sighed. “Nothing… it’s just that I had a strange feeling.”

  "There are a lot of strange feelings going on lately,” I said.

  “What do you mean? Is there something you’re not telling me?” My mother’s voice was full of panic.

  “You always say that,” I said.

  “That’s because you’re usually not telling me something.”

  This was one time when she was actually right about that. I did have something, but lucky for her, I was going to tell her. Only because I had to though.

  “Remember the woman who did the spell in the café?” I asked.

  “It would be kind of hard to forget her. Why do you ask? Did she come back? Have you seen her again?”

  “Well, yes to both of those.”

  “I don’t like the sound of this,” my mother said.

  “I saw her and then I went after her. I wanted to find why she cast the spell. Anyway, she got away, but I think she dropped a bottle. I know it’s one from your shop. Plus, her magic led me straight to your shop and then she vanished.”

  My mother paused and then said, “Where did she disappear to?”

  “That’s what I want to find out. I checked the store and it was still locked. No one had broken in,” I said.

  “Maybe she just disappeared around the corner. A lot of people buy items from my shop, Halloween, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find a bottle or two.”

  I sighed. “I was just wondering if maybe you remember selling the potion to her.”

  “Halloween, come on, she’s wearing a cloak. I have no idea what she looks like.”

  Nicolas touched my arm and summoned me to bed.

  “I guess you’re right, but I thought I’d give it a shot.”

  Taking pity on me, my mother asked, “What kind of bottle is it?”

  “I think it’s that lotion that’s been selling so well.”

  “Oh, Annabelle has been dealing with those. Maybe she would have remembered the woman."


  "Maybe so. I’ll have to give her a call,” I said.

  “There are a lot of wacky things going on lately. Are you sure that everything’s okay?”

  “Just peachy.” I glanced at Nicolas. “I have to go. I’ll call you soon.”

  I knew she didn’t want to hang up, but she’d ask a million more questions if I didn’t get off soon.

  “You’d better call me as soon as you find out anything,” she said.

  “Of course I will.”

  “I’ll be on the lookout for this weird woman too.”

  My mother was naturally suspicious of everyone. This would make her even more so than usual. It was one of her endearing quirks. I hung up before she had a chance to say anything else. My mother would have to keep an eye out for the cloaked woman. If the woman had bought potion from Bewitching Bath and Beauty once, she’d probably be back for more.

  “One more quick call.” I held up my index finger.

  Nicolas groaned and fell back onto the bed.

  I immediately dialed Annabelle.

  “Hey, I was just thinking of you,” she said.

  Talking and music sounded in the background.

  “Where are you?” I asked.

  “Oh, uh, I was just leaving somewhere.”

  That was odd. It seemed as if she was being vague on purpose. Nonetheless I didn’t press for more details.

  I released an audible sigh.

  “Oh no,” she said. “Did something happen?”

  “I saw the cloaked woman again,” I said.

  “Really? What happened? Did she do another spell?” Annabelle’s voice was full of nervous excitement.

  “She didn’t cast another spell, but it’s what she dropped that I find suspicious.”

  “Well, now you have me curious what is it?” Annabelle asked.

  “She dropped a potion bottle,” I said.

  “Was it a potion bottle that she’d been using?” Annabelle asked.

  “I don’t know, but here’s the weird part. I know the bottle came from Bewitching.

  “No way,” Annabelle said.