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  “That’s what I want to know.”

  She laid the page down on the table so we could both look at it.

  Maddy, I love you. I love you so much and it kills me that we’re not together. You know you don’t belong with him. You were meant to be mine, and I won’t stop until we’re together. Let him go or I’ll make him leave. I’m the one you were meant to be with. I’m the one who can make your dreams come true.

  “Do you know who sent this?” She looked up at me. “There’s no name, and no return address.”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea, but Sandy, I don’t think this is a prank. Whoever wrote the note is unbalanced and dangerous. I can feel it.”

  As the waitress brought our food I slid the letter back into the envelope. We waited until she had set out our chowder and bread and calamari and drinks.

  After she left, Sandy took a sip of her tea. “Does anybody have a crush on you? What about Ralph? He’s usually behind these stupid stunts.”

  “No,” I said. “It’s not Ralph. For one thing, he’s head over heels about Ivy Vine. And two… Ralph may be a big dumb goofus, but I don’t think he’d pull this sort of stunt.”

  As we set to our lunches, it felt like a cloud had settled over our heads. Only this one didn’t have snow. This cloud was dark and full of thunder and lightning. A storm was brewing, only I didn’t know when or where it would hit.

  Chapter Two

  By the time we had picked out flowers, I was ready to go home. We had settled on lily of the valley, ferns, and baby’s breath for the décor. I would carry a bouquet of red roses, fern, and white chrysanthemums. Sandy’s bouquet would be white roses, fern, and red chrysanthemums.

  When we got back to my house, Sandy carried my packages in for me, then poured two glasses of wine while I eased myself down into the rocking chair. Kelson brought us a tray of gingerbread men, sugar cookies, and chocolate-mint petit fours.

  Aegis had been baking up a storm, filling the house with the scents of cinnamon and apples, pumpkin and peppermint. Having a fiancé who was one of the best bakers in town was a plus. Every night, when he wasn’t at rehearsal, he’d be baking goodies for our bed and breakfast.

  As Sandy and I settled down with spirits and cookies, I leaned back, thinking what an odd path my life had followed.

  My name is Maudlin Gallowglass—Maddy for short. The line in that old folk song, “Mad Tom of Bedlam,” was written about me: Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes, for to save her shoes from gravel. Regardless of the speculation on who the author was, I know for a fact. My ex-boyfriend—once the love of my life—Tom wrote it about us and our journeys.

  But Tom was caught by vampires in 1720 and they turned him. That’s when my rampage through the UK and Europe began. I was one of the most terrifying vampire hunters to ever exist.

  Mad Maudlin, indeed.

  I hated the creatures so much that I banded together with Sandy and Fata Morgana and we tore through town and country, in a frenzy of destruction. We were known as the Witches Wild, and on we went, my desire for revenge fueling our passion.

  Then, on the last night we went hunting, we found a nest of them. I rained down fire and brimstone on the village, killing almost all of them who were there. I was possessed by the fire, a trail of blood in my wake. At that moment, I truly was Mad Maudlin—by fury and revenge. But at the pinnacle of my rage, Fata and Sandy drew me back from the edge.

  That night, my anger died out with the last embers of the village. I knew it was time to put away my stake, or I would slip into a dark abyss from which there would be no return.

  I opted to put away the stake.

  Fata Morgana fled out to sea. She still lives out on the waves. She’s turning into a goddess, a force of the Ocean Mother. I don’t envy her.

  As for me? I’ve learned that not all vampires are evil. Over the past couple hundred years I’ve learned how to be happy. And I’ve found love.

  Sandy and I are still best friends. I own a bed and breakfast on Bedlam Island. And I’m in love with Aegis, my beloved vampire. He’s a singer and a baker, and he has his own tragic backstory. Together, we’ve helped heal each other. Something deeper than love drew us together. It’s as though we have been around together before, in a different life. Our bond is core-deep. So, we’re getting married. And while my life isn’t perfect, I’m happy.

  And life is what it is. Knock wood it stays that way.

  “Flowers are checked off the list.” Sandy sipped the cabernet.

  “That’s one more thing settled. How’s your dress coming, by the way? We don’t have much time.” I glanced at the calendar. New Year’s was coming up quickly.

  “It’s almost finished. I tried it on again yesterday and it’s gorgeous.”

  “Mermaid style, right?”

  Sandy grinned. “Right. I just can’t pull off the ball gown look like you can.”

  My own dress, which was hanging in the closet in a dustproof bag, was a crimson princess ball gown, satin beneath a lace-over-tulle skirt. It had a second overskirt—again, lace on tulle. The gown was strapless, with a fitted sweetheart-neck bodice that was embossed with tone-on-tone roses. Sandy’s dress would be true red, given the warmer undertones to her skin.

  “The guys have their tuxes. I’m just hoping I can manage through the Winter Solstice ritual.” Because I was the High Priestess of the Moonrise Coven, I was expected to lead the town’s ritual. We had scaled back on the extravagance, given my injuries, and Sandy would shoulder the majority of the work to take some of the strain off of me, but it was still going to draw a lot of energy.

  The Moonrise Coven had been intricately linked to Bedlam since 1950, when it was founded. Back then, the High Priestess had been the city mayor as well.

  We were responsible for running the rituals for the solstices and equinoxes. The other four Sabbats were left to private ritual. The coven was also responsible for keeping a leash on the vampires who lived on the island, and we had the authority to mete out punishment to them.

  Essie Vanderbilt, the Queen of the Pacific Northwest Vampire Nation, had controlled the previous High Priestess like a puppet, but now that I was on the job, Essie and I had developed an uneasy truce.

  As if reading my mind, Sandy said, “Have you head from Essie lately?”

  I shrugged. “She RSVP’d for the wedding.” I paused. Sandy was staring at her goblet, a pensive look on her face. “What’s going on? There has to be more than just Max’s parents.”

  Sandy shrugged. “Yeah, there is. Jenna’s running around with a group of students I don’t approve of. I’m afraid she’s going to get in trouble.”

  Jenna was Sandy’s adopted daughter. She was barely into her teens and her mother had dropped her on Sandy’s doorstep before running off and getting herself killed on one of her many world-hopping adventures. Jenna was smart and talented, but heading into that invincible state kids always went through, where they thought they knew everything and that nothing could hurt them.

  “That doesn’t sound like Jenna,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t think so either, but there you go.” She glanced at the clock. “I’d better get going. I’m meeting Max for dinner at Zweb’s Steakhouse. If we go to my restaurant, all I’ll end up doing is working through dinner.”

  As I saw her out, I noticed that it was beginning to snow again. The world was blanketed in white, and the snow had a magical feel to it. Breathing in a lungful of the chill air, I shut the door and went to help Kelson sort out what we were serving for dinner.

  Chapter Three

  Kelson was looking through the refrigerator. We normally planned menus a week in advance, but somehow, life had gotten away from us this past week and we were running on a day-to-day basis. “What do you think of pot roast for dinner?” Kelson asked. “We haven’t made that for a couple weeks. I think everybody would enjoy it.”

  Guests at the Bewitching Bedlam had their choice of eating out, or eating dinner in. They had to let us know by
ten a.m. whether they’d be in for dinner. We provided breakfast as a matter of course. We currently had seven guests, and all the guestrooms were filled. For a change, everybody had opted to eat dinner in at the B&B, so we’d have a full table. Aegis had made three apple pies the night before, so we had plenty of dessert.

  “Pot roast sounds like a wonderful idea. Do we have time to make it?”

  “If I put it in the pressure cooker, we do. It will only take an hour that way. I’ll roast the vegetables in the oven, and add them after the meat is done. When Aegis wakes up he can make a batch of dinner rolls, and if I throw together a salad, that should work.” She paused, then added, “Oh, there’s a letter for you on the kitchen table. It came this morning and I forgot to tell you about it. I put all the bills on the desk in the office.”

  The kitchen was off-limits to guests, and we—meaning Kelson, Aegis, and I—ate most of our meals at the kitchen table, which sat near the sliding glass doors leading out to the three-acre backyard. It gave us some privacy, and it was a way to delineate the family area from where the guests were allowed. The living room and parlor were also private. The French doors leading into both had very polite signs asking guests to please refrain from using the rooms. And of course, the butler’s pantry, Kelson’s room—which was downstairs—and the laundry room were private. There had been a grand ballroom in the massive mansion, and now it served as a combination library, games room, and sitting room for guests.

  “Good afternoon,” a voice came from behind me.

  I jumped, startled. Turning around, I said with a laugh, “Franny, I’ve asked you before to stop doing that.”

  There, half in, half out of the wall, was Franny, our house ghost. She had been trapped here when I first bought the mansion, but a couple months ago I had managed to free her from the curse that held her here. But Franny decided to stay, using the house as a home base.

  “I know, but it’s so funny to watch you jump.” She paused, then let out a laugh. “I went downtown today to look at all the sights. It’s so beautiful out there. Bedlam has become such an incredibly pretty town over the years since I died.”

  When she was alive, Bedlam had barely been a blip on the island. But it had been founded by magical folk, even though Franny’s family had been human. But they had been involved in spiritualism, or at least her father had.

  “Yeah, really funny.” But I couldn’t help but smile. Franny had been annoying at first, but I had grown to like her, and I was grateful she had decided to stick around. “So what’s happening in the spirit world? Anything interesting?”

  “I was kind of hoping you’d ask that. I actually have a situation that I’d like to talk to you about.”

  I picked up the envelope from the table, frowning as I scanned the handwriting. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I sat down at the table, easing myself into the chair so that my hip wouldn’t complain. At least my curvy ass kept the bruising from hurting more than it would have if I had been thin. I started to open the envelope as I looked up at Franny.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I found a ghost. A spirit.”

  “What do you mean, you found a ghost?” At that moment, Bubba came running up, followed by Luna. Bubba jumped up in my lap, landing hard on my thighs. He bounced up on the table, and Luna followed him. As I started to sputter, they made tracks off the table again, racing out of the kitchen. “Those two have got more energy than I think I ever had.”

  Bubba was a cjinn, basically a djinn in cat form. I had found him when he was a kitten, hundreds of years ago, when I had saved him from a burning barn. I wasn’t sure what had happened to his mother or father, but on the way home he told me his name was Bubba, and he had been with me ever since. Cjinns were tricky. They had a wicked sense of humor, and if you rubbed their belly, they would often grant some secret wish you were harboring, although they might twist it for a little fun. Whenever Bubba rolled over on his belly, I warned my friends not to give him a tummy rub.

  Luna had come to us when Bubba brought her home. I had found her owner, who was going to have her put down because she didn’t want to deal with her anymore, so we had opened our home to her. Luna and Bubba loved each other. Given Bubba was fully cat, I was also grateful that I had Luna spayed. The last thing we needed were a dozen baby cjinns running around.

  “What I mean is that I found a ghost out in the yard last night. He’s confused. I want your permission to let him hang around for a while. I thought I might try to help him figure out who he was and what happened to him.”

  She sat down on the other side of the table. The problem was, she usually sat halfway through the chair so I could see it projecting inside of her. It was disconcerting, at best. Franny still wore the dress she had been wearing the day she died, a blue muslin gown with an ivory corset and an ivory shawl. She wore her hair up in a chignon, covered by a lace snood.

  “What do you mean, what happened to him?” I set down the letter, not wanting to be rude.

  “I mean, I want to help him find out what who he was and how he died. He has no clue of either answer. He’s very lost, and he seems very nice.”

  I looked around, wondering if he was in the room with us now. Kelson was at the stove, Franny and I were at the table, and the only other one in the room at this point was Lanyear, a barred owl who had become my familiar. He had been a gift from Arianrhod, the goddess our coven worshiped.

  Lanyear gazed down from his perch in the corner of the room, near the ceiling. Aegis had built it for him, where neither cat could get to it.

  “Is he here now? You didn’t bring him in without permission, did you?” While I applauded Franny’s philanthropic nature, I wasn’t comfortable letting her bring home any stray ghost. That was a good way of inviting a demon or poltergeist into the house.

  “Of course not,” she said. She primly folded her hands in her lap. “Of course I would ask your permission first. He’s waiting out back.”

  I let out a sigh. The last thing I wanted was another ghost hanging out in the house. We were already overrun with guests and friends.

  “Oh, Franny, I don’t know. It just seems like we’d be asking for trouble.” I paused, then finally said, “Look, he’s not going to get cold, and it’s not like he’s hungry. For now, if you could ask him to stay outside, he’s welcome to hang around as long as he doesn’t cause any trouble.” I leaned back in the chair, wishing I could cross my legs, but when I tried crossing my right leg over my left, my hip pulled something horrible. And when I tried the other way, it still hurt.

  She clapped her hands. “Thank you! I’m going to go talk to him. Maybe I can jog his memory somehow. He had to have died on the island, don’t you think? For him to be here?”

  I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’m not an expert on ghosts. I’m an expert on magic, and that’s quite different. Now, I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have things to do.”

  “Of course. I’m sorry to take up your time,” Franny said, and I suspected I had hurt her feelings.

  “Franny, I think it’s wonderful what you’re doing. But I really need to think. Don’t take it personally.”

  “Of course not,” she said, rolling her eyes as she walked through the wall and vanished.

  “If I had a nickel for every time I offended her, I’d be rich. I like Franny,” I said loudly in case she was still hanging around, listening, “but she takes offense so easily. Now, let me look at this letter, and I’ll help you make dinner.”

  Kelson waved we away. “Don’t worry about dinner. One of the interns is due here in a half an hour and she can help me.”

  “How are the interns working out?”

  “Wonderfully. Neverfall has some talented students, and given how hungry some of them are for pocket change, they do their work. I’m going to put in a load of laundry in, so I’ll be back in a moment.” Kelton headed out of the kitchen.

  Finally alone, I slit open the envelope and shook out the single page that wa
s nestled inside. As I opened it, my heart sank. I recognized the handwriting, all right.

  My dear Maddy, I hope you’re thinking of me because I’m thinking of you. I can’t wait to see you again, to hold you in my arms and show you how much you mean to me. You’re mine, Maddy. You belong to me. I won’t let anyone stand in our way. We’re meant to be together, and I’ll be with you soon. And then, we’ll never be apart again.

  As I stared at the cursive on the paper, my heart froze. Whoever had written these letters was trouble, and I could feel that trouble heading right in my direction. I shoved the letter back in the envelope and stuck it in my pocket. I was afraid to tell Aegis, but the thought that someone out there might be targeting him, wanting to get rid of him so they could get to me, made me realize that I had to tell him. There were no two ways about it. He had to know.

  When Aegis came out of the basement, where he made his lair, I was waiting for him. He pulled me into his arms, giving me a long kiss.

  Tall and muscled, Aegis had jet-black hair that fell down to his mid-back. His eyes were a deep brown, and when he was aroused or hungry, crimson rings formed around the irises. His pale skin was almost alabaster. At one time, he had been a servant of Apollo, until Apollo cast him out, turning him into one of the Fallen. But vampire or not, Aegis had a gentle side to him—a side that loved kittens, murder mysteries, and baking. He treated me like a goddess.

  “I dreamt about you last night,” Aegis said, nuzzling my neck.

  I was hungry for him, since the past few weeks had been a dry spell, given my injuries. “Kiss me again.”

  He pressed his cool lips against my own warm ones. Aegis never made me feel less than—less than a woman, less than an intelligent thinking person, less than a successful business owner. He supported me and shored me up. I trusted him in a way that I didn’t trust anyone, except for Sandy and Bubba.