Better Haunts and Garden Gnomes_A Cozy Paranormal Mystery Read online

  Embarrassment set in as she realized she had treed herself for a couple of prankster teenagers.

  “I’m near the park,” he said.

  “No, it’s fine. I’m fine. I’m…” Lily grimaced. Adrenaline had helped her up the tree. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to get out of it. “I’m stuck.”

  Nolan laughed. “What do you see? I’ll come find you.”

  “No, it’s fine.” She adjusted on the branch. “I’ll figure it out. Sorry to bother—”

  She lost her balance, and the phone fell.

  “—you,” she finished, even though the phone bounced on the ground beneath her. “Crap.”

  Lily looked around the park. The playground and jogging path were empty. The teenagers had pulled off her shoes, so she didn’t have anything to protect her feet as she tried to wrap her legs around the trunk and ungracefully slide her way down. The bark scraped her hands and arms and poked through her socks to scratch her arches.

  “Ow, ow, dammit, ow,” she swore as she tried to shimmy her way down.

  A loud thump and crash of leaves sounded overhead, and she lost her grip.

  Lily landed on top of her cellphone and a shoe. The wind was knocked from her lungs as she lay on her back. The sound had been made by a squirrel jumping branches. It paused to look down at her and chittered as if laughing.

  When she could move, she rolled onto her side, off the shoe. She coughed, reaching behind her to slide the phone from beneath her butt. Her hands throbbed, her back ached, but at least no one had witnessed what happened and she had her pride intact.

  “Are you all right, Lily? That looked like a nasty fall.” Nolan’s feet appeared close to her head.

  Nope. She was wrong. Her pride was nowhere to be seen.

  “Why didn’t you wait for me?” He knelt beside her and then looked up into the tree branches.

  “I don’t know why everyone in town is so scared of me. Apparently, the only one I’m a danger to is myself.” Lily tried to push up, but it hurt too badly.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said. “I don’t think you should move.”

  “I’m fine. Just winded.” She let him help her to her feet, mainly because he didn’t give her much of a choice.

  “You keep saying that, but you don’t look fine,” Nolan said.

  “Um, thanks?” she mumbled sarcastically.

  Lily assumed being upright would somehow make her feel better. Why she thought that, she had no clue. More body parts began to throb in pain. Her left knee and ankle refused to bear weight. Her backside felt bruised, and her tailbone broken. She turned her arms to see angry red scrapes along her flesh.

  Nolan tried to lift her into his arms so he could carry her. She swatted the back of her wrist at him. “What are you doing?”

  “You need a doctor.”

  “I can wal—”

  “Oh my god, woman, seriously? You are the most hardheaded person I’ve ever met.” Nolan crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay. Walk. Let’s see it.”

  Lily wanted to prove she could, that she didn’t need his or anyone’s help. She had always prided herself on being independent and strong. A girl had to grow up like that when she didn’t have someone around to offer guidance.

  She tried to take a step and tears filled her eyes. She managed two limps before she had to stop. Her voice was quiet as she whispered, “I can’t.”

  “I didn’t catch that.”

  “Nolan, will you please assist me to the car?” She tried turning her head to look at him, but her neck hurt too.

  “Yes.” The word held no mocking as he slipped an arm around her back and lifted her against his chest. He carried her toward where he’d parked his pickup at an awkward angle. The driver’s side was parallel to the curb and the back tire had driven up onto the grass. “Where is your car?”

  “Downtown. I wanted to walk and explore.” She grunted as he stepped off a curb. “Oh, my phone. I need my phone. And my shoes. I only have the one pair of sneakers.”

  He lowered her feet slowly to the ground and then helped her onto the bench seat. She leaned to the side, unable to get comfortable. It was only a few seconds, but Nolan appeared by the driver side door holding her shoes and phone. She glanced back toward the tree, surprised by the speed with which he had run there and back.

  “I’ll try to take it easy on any potholes, but I’m getting you to the hospital.” Nolan put the truck into gear and slowly drove off the grass onto the road. Lily watched his face. The vehicle bounced, and he flinched for her. “Sorry.”

  “Can you drive me home?” she asked. “And then maybe bring my brother downtown so he can pick up the car?”

  “Hospital.”

  “But—”

  “Hos-pi-tal,” he enunciated.

  “You’re…” She wrinkled her nose. “Difficult.”

  “So are you.” His smile was strained.

  She realized he was concerned. It was strange to think someone who was not one of her siblings was worried about her. He sped up, taking a corner. She watched his hands, bracing herself every time the wheel began to turn.

  “I was wrong about the kids. They aren’t the ones vandalizing the house,” Lily said. “The kid seemed genuinely scared when I asked him about going on Goode land.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “On the phone, I told you I knew who was threatening us. I was wrong.”

  “I could have told you that. Luke and Patrick are troublemakers, but they’re not stupid.”

  “The wolf kid…?”

  “Luke.”

  “Is he family?”

  “Because all wolfshifters are related?” He gave a small laugh.

  “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes and tried to turn away from him. The new angle hurt too badly, and again, she was forced to face him.

  “No. Not all shifters are related. Luke is from a different line. He’s a decent kid, but his family is a little rowdy, even for us animals.”

  Lily liked the sound of his voice. He distracted her from the pain. She stared at his hands on the wheel until her vision blurred. “Keep talking.”

  “Lily? Lily, look at me. Open your eyes. Say something. Lily!”

  “Keep talk…”

  Chapter Eight

  Nolan cursed as he sped toward the hospital. When she’d called him, he’d just finished running the length of the woods surrounding her Victorian. There were a few suspicious tracks, but nothing he could prove was a threat. For all he knew, they could have been made by hikers on a nature walk.

  He’d actually thought it was a city council member calling—yet again—to get an update on his progress. Nolan didn’t want to tell them he had changed his mind about chasing Lily away. If he did, they’d task someone else with the job—if they hadn’t already. The paint and fire were clearly meant to scare the siblings.

  The truck hit a small pothole. He held Lily steady as she slumped over. Her head dropped to the seat.

  “Lily, answer me,” he demanded. She didn’t move. He drove faster. His shifter hearing focused on her chest and he listened to her raspy breathing. “Just hold on. We’re almost there.”

  Nolan saw the hospital in the distance and turned to drive into the parking lot. Only, the truck didn’t turn. He gripped the wheel, circling it to go left. Instead, it went straight. He slammed on the brakes, but they didn’t work. The wheel jerked against his fingers and he let go. The truck drove itself away from the hospital.

  “Lily, are you doing this?”

  She didn’t answer.

  Nolan sat her up on the seat and brushed the hair out of her face. The truck slowed as it came to a stop sign. “Hold on. We’re getting out of here.”

  Nolan slid her next to him and opened the door. When the truck stopped on its own, he hopped out. He turned to pull her into his arms, intent on running her to the hospital. However, the truck door struck his arm and sent him stumbling before it slammed shut. The truck took off down the road
without him, increasing speed.

  “Lily,” Nolan yelled. A shift rippled over his body. Bones popped as fur covered flesh. He leapt after the truck. His werewolf form didn’t turn him into a four-legged animal, but it gave him a strength his human form did not possess. He could run faster and longer, leap higher, heal faster. But he wasn’t Superman. He could be injured or killed. And he couldn’t outrun a speeding truck.

  Nolan sprinted, trying to catch his runaway pickup. The vehicle took a corner a little too fast, and the tires skid on loose gravel. The delay it caused was enough to allow him to jump on the bumper and hold the tailgate. His claws dug into the black plastic bed liner. The truck turned again, throwing his feet out from under him. He held on, using all the strength he had to pull himself up and over the back.

  Breathing hard, he went to the window to look in at Lily. She lay unconscious on the seat, sliding and bouncing with the vehicle’s movement. The back window had a slider that opened, but it was latched on the inside. Nolan knocked on the glass. He’d break it if he wasn’t worried about the shards landing on her.

  “Lily, I need you to wake up.” His voice was gruff in his shifted form.

  Nolan stood, looking over the cab. The truck took them out of town toward Lily’s home, which also happened to be in the direction of the old mines. If someone was causing this to happen, it would be a sick poetic justice to magically crash a Goode-Crawford descendent into the place where so many had died.

  A fear worked over him, and he had to wonder if this wasn’t just meant to scare Lily, but to kill her.

  He knocked harder, leaning back down to yell, “Lily!”

  Small puffs of white left her lips.

  Nolan went to the driver’s side and reached for the handle. They passed the driveway to Lily’s house. It was as he feared. They were on their way to the old mines. He held on, ready to heave himself around to the front seat. He opened the door, careful to make sure Lily didn’t start to slide out.

  The door slammed shut a little too forcefully.

  “Dammit!” He jammed a claw into the seam of the slider window to break the latch. It took a couple of sweeps and he chipped his claw, but he finally managed to get the window open.

  Nolan reached down to touch Lily. She was cool but breathing. “I don’t know who you are, but you need to get your spectral ass out of my truck!”

  The wheel turned. Nolan swept his arm back and forth over the driver’s seat. Air as cold as a winter’s day met his hand.

  “I’m warning you. You’re haunting the wrong pickup.”

  The faint sound of a cackle answered him.

  “Who summoned you? What do you want? If you hurt her, I swear I’ll exorcise—”

  “Yee-haw!” came the disembodied answer.

  The truck turned a hard right, kicking up dirt. Nolan had to hold on to the window frame to keep from flying out of the back. His feet slid down the truck bed and his hip hit the hard liner. He jerked back and forth several times and braced himself for impact.

  To his surprise, the truck came to a stop.

  Nolan pulled himself up. They had circled around to Lily’s house. Deep ruts tore up her yard from where the truck had off-roaded its way to the porch. He didn’t stop to consider why as he jumped out and flung open the passenger door. There wasn’t much room between him and the railing and he stood in the overgrown flower bed. He pulled Lily from the pickup and held her against him.

  “Dante! Polly! We need help,” he shouted.

  The passenger door slammed shut. His truck began to move as Nolan cradled Lily against him. The vehicle took off toward the mines, skidding and sliding its back tires against the ground like it was driven by a teenage boy trying to impress his friends.

  Nolan turned and tripped. He almost dropped her but managed to pull her tight against his chest. Lily bounced in his arms and moaned lightly. He glanced down, seeing an overturned gnome with a chipped face.

  “What did you do to my—Oh, wow, you’re really hairy.” Dante appeared at the front door.

  Polly was right behind Lily’s brother. “Oh no. I was hoping the bad luck wouldn’t affect her too, but it looks like with her missing powers, she’s as susceptible to the curse as everyone else in town. And it’s progressed fast. My potion is only half boiled. I can’t counteract this fully yet.”

  “What happened?” Dante’s question was less accusatory than before and more worried.

  “She fell from a tree. I tried to take her to the hospital but…” He looked to the dust cloud where his truck disappeared. “I lost control of my vehicle.”

  “You wrecked—” Dante started to say.

  “Quiet, Florus,” Polly scolded. “Hold the door for Nolan.”

  “My name is—never mind. I’m calling an ambulance.” Dante pulled a phone out of his pocket.

  Polly flipped her hand toward Dante. The phone flew from his fingers onto the ground by his feet. “She’ll be fine once we get her in the house. Her bad luck would increase at the hospital. Here, she’ll be surrounded by a blanket of magical love.”

  “She needs a doctor,” Nolan said. “Dante?”

  “Yeah.” Dante grabbed his phone off the ground before he opened the door to let Nolan past. He heard Lily’s brother dialing for help.

  Nolan laid Lily on the couch. Before he could speak, an object flew past his head. He turned to see who had thrown something at him, only to find Polly lowering her fingers and Dante holding an empty hand up to his ear.

  “She needs a doctor, you crazy old bat, not a fairytale magic house,” Dante said.

  “Mind your manners. You’re not too old to send to your room without supper, little boy,” Polly answered, though her tone had no malice in it. “Now knock on wood. Stop borrowing trouble. Don’t bring bad luck down on this house.”

  “Who needs a doctor?”

  Nolan looked down at the weak question. Lily’s eyes had opened, and she blinked slowly. He stroked the hair back from her face. “You do. You were in an accident. You fell. Where does it hurt?”

  “It tingles,” she mumbled.

  “I’ve got something that might help.” Polly ran from the room.

  Dante picked up his broken phone. “Lily, I need your phone.”

  “It’s in my truck, broken,” Nolan answered for her. He started to look for his when Lily grabbed his wrist.

  “Dirty,” she said.

  “Dirty?” He glanced over her.

  “Cowboy. Driving.” Her grip tightened. “I saw him. I didn’t see him, but I saw him. He kept laughing, a loud cackling sound.”

  “I think the truck was possessed,” Nolan explained.

  “Did you fall down too?” Dante asked. “You’re both talking nonsense.”

  “Stan,” Polly stated. She returned holding out a clear vial with pink liquid swirling with yellow. “Your presence here woke up Stan. That’s unfortunate. That spirit is a handful. More bad luck.”

  “Of course ghosts are a thing,” Dante mumbled. “Why wouldn’t truck stealing ghosts be a real thing?”

  Lily closed her eyes with a small moan.

  “Wake up, dear, I need you to drink this for me.” Polly knelt beside Nolan and held out the vial. She pinched it between her thumb and forefinger and shook it. “It’s half done, and will half work, but it should spread out the bad luck so that it’s in smaller doses.” Polly pulled a cork off the top.

  “I don’t—” Lily tried to protest.

  Polly poured the vial into her open mouth.

  Lily sputtered and flailed her hands, too late to stop it. Little pink droplets dotted her cheek and chin only to be absorbed.

  “There you go,” Polly soothed. “I’m sorry we had to do it that way, but you were about to bip when I needed you to bop.”

  “Stop making up words,” Lily groaned. Her color began to return to normal, and she took a deep breath. Her eyes appeared to focus better than before, and she tried to push up from the couch.

  Nolan stood, to move out of he
r way.

  “What did you give me? I feel strange—” The words barely made it past her lips when a loud creak sounded. Lily’s eyes widened as the couch she sat on suddenly broke. The legs splinted to the side, and she dropped with the antique couch to the floor, protected by the cushioned seat.

  “There you go, right as a turnip.” Polly patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. You won’t be unlucky forever, but just in case, maybe we should put your mattress on the floor and let you get some rest. Boys, help me carry her. That potion is going to make her sleep for a good long while.”

  Chapter Nine

  Lily stared up at the ceiling where the chandelier light fixture used to be. Thankfully, no one had been under it when it came crashing down. Herman’s pool had been moved to Polly’s room and tiny shards of crystals littered the table and floor.

  “What the hell was that?” Nolan appeared from the living room.

  Lily pointed at the ceiling, not feeling the need to answer the obvious.

  It was early in the morning, and he appeared buttoning his jeans as if he’d been sleeping and had just tugged them on. His feet were bare, and he stopped short of the glass. Scars puckered his chest and stomach. It looked like he’d been attacked by a... well, probably by a werewolf. It was unnerving, and she made a conscious effort not to look at him.

  “What are you doing here? I would have thought you went home.” Lily glanced toward the stairs, wondering why her brother and Polly weren’t rushing down to investigate.

  “Couldn’t leave. Ghost stole my truck.” He eyed the mess on the floor. “Careful of the glass. You’re not wearing shoes.”

  Lily glanced at her feet and curled her naked toes. “Neither are you.”

  He walked around to the living room and appeared in the kitchen doorway, across the dining room from her.

  Nolan held up a broom. “I’ll clean this up. You should get some sleep.”

  A loud crash stopped her from answering. She inhaled sharply, jumping a little. A piece of broken crystal cut into her foot, and she retracted it from the floor as she hopped away from the mess. “Ow, ow, ow…”