The Lying, the Witch, and the Werewolf (Down & Dirty Supernatural Cleaning Services Book 4) by Kate Quinn (uplifting books for women .txt) 📗

I shake my head, dropping the braid back into the box. “Honestly, I don’t know whether to be horrified or impressed,” I tell her. “What am I supposed to do with this?” I motion at the hair.

“I dunno. Mount it on the wall. Burn it. Give it to a witch and put a hex on that bitch. It’s up to you.”

I laugh. “It does make me feel better,” I tell her. “About the wedding.”

She grins. “Good. I needed this too, honestly.”

I nod, pushing the box with Giselle’s braid aside. “I know you’re hurting and miss Tina, but you can’t take it out on Darron.”

She shrugs, not ready to let go of her anger all the way. “Wanna see what I found out about Together We Come?” she asks.

“Yes!” Shauna is great at research, like a terrier with something small in its mouth. She’ll either kill it or shred it, but either way, she gets to the juicy middle. “First you’ll want to invest in a good butt plug. I saw your vibrator and that’s top notch, so I know you have good taste in sex toys. You probably want to stretch your vag since it’s been a while. How big was Liam’s penis?”

I rub my face and sigh. “It’s going to be a long, hard night, isn’t it?”

Shauna bursts out with, “That’s what she said!” and nearly topples over laughing.

“You’re an idiot,” I tell her fondly.

“Awww, love you too, Paige,” she tells me sweetly. “Now about those butt plugs…”

6

It’s late by the time I get to bed and I’m exhausted. But at least my bag is packed and I’m ready to go. I climb into bed, hoping that tonight my dreams will be full of sex cult shenanigans. Instead the same old nightmares find me.

It’s Liam. The way I found him in his apartment. Near death and begging me to let him die.

“Please, Paige,” he says. “I’d rather be dead than become a vampire.”

And then, just like it happened in real life, I ignore him and plunge the needle full of vampire venom into his chest. Almost immediately, he goes still and then white as marble.

“Liam.” Dream me touches his cheek. It’s cold. “Liam!” I shake him, unable to tell if he’s dead...or undead.

Suddenly his eyes fly open and he lunges forward, fangs flashing as they sink into my neck.

“No,” I cry out, but it’s too late. He bites, his fangs tearing open my flesh. My blood sprays out, coating Liam’s face as he releases me. Smiling he leans in and licks the blood. His long tongue flicks out once, then again, and again. Weak, I try to push him away.

“No,” I say. “No.” But he keeps licking and now he’s whining too. Loud and insistent—

I blink my eyes open. Shit’s big wet tongue laps my face, trying to pull me out of my nightmare.

Wrapping my arms around his oversized noggin, I pull him in for a hug. “Good boy, Shit.”

He burrows in closer to me as I try to shake off the remains of the dream. This actually wasn’t even the worst version of it. In some of them Liam turns out to be VSK and laughs at me for not realizing it, as he bathes in my blood.

Shit suddenly leaps from the bed and goes to my bedroom door.

“No,” I tell him. “Sleep time.”

He whines and scratches at the door. Knowing he won’t give in when he’s in one of these moods.

“Don’t destroy anything,” I tell him, “And be…”

Shit bursts out of the door, barking at the top of his lungs.

“Quiet.”

I sigh and climb into bed, leaving the door open so Shit can join me when he’s done chasing shadows. Despite my best efforts I toss and turn, unable to fall back to sleep.

Eventually Shit returns, his feet loud as he bounds up the attic stairs. Using his panther stealth, he burrows under the covers, stretching out so that his back is pressed to my side. With a soft sigh, I throw an arm around him and force my eyes to close once more.

The rest of my night is dreamless, but the cobwebs of the earlier dream still cling when I wake again. As soon as I sit up, Shit jumps off the bed and goes to the door.

“Okay, I get it,” I grumble. “You gotta go.”

I follow behind Shit as he gallops down the hall and then take the stairs in mighty leaps. I only have the two legs instead of the four so by the time I reach the front door Shit is already sitting beside it with a look that clearly says, What took you so long, biped?

“All right, boy,” I throw open the door and Shit streaks out. Rubbing my eyes, I step onto the porch and take a deep, bracing breath of the cool morning air. It’s enough to melt away the last of my nightmare. The tension slides from my shoulders as I take in the beautiful day around me and—

YOUR MINE PAIGE

The words are written on my porch floorboards in bright red that I’m pretty sure isn’t paint.

Hand to my chest, I stumble back, my heart racing.

“Shit!” I scream, panicked, certain that VSK has him. “SHIT!”

He comes bounding out of the underbrush near the porch. Grabbing his collar, I drag him into the house and then slam and lock the door behind us and lean against it.

Head swimming and gasping for breath, I slide to the floor.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Darron is beside me, his hands grabbing both of mine. Shit’s nose nudges the back of my neck, and then Shauna is there too, her arms wrapped around me too tight and also somehow just right.

Surrounded on all sides by love and support, I manage to drag air into my lungs. In then out. In then out. The swimmy feeling in my head fades away.

“Paige, what happened?” Shauna asks, still holding me tight.

“VSK,”