Free Third Time's a Charm (Halloween LaVeau) by Rose Pressey Page A

that he had told the guy to meet him here, but he never said who the man was or what they were talking about,” I said.
    “I’ll ask him,” Nicolas said, then leaned over and placed his lips on mine.
    My heart sped up as I pressed my body closer to his. I was totally lost in the moment when a strange noise sounded from outside. We pulled away from the kiss and looked around.
    “Do you think that was the coven?” he asked.
    I stood and then walked across the room, peeking in on the women in the kitchen. They were busy making sandwiches and didn’t even notice that I was looking at them. When I reached Nicolas again, the same sound came across the air.
    “There it is again,” I whispered.
    “It sounded like it came from outside on the porch,” he said.
    I nodded and then we headed for the front door.
    Nicolas and I stepped out onto the front porch and looked around. The air was still and I didn’t see anyone or anything. I prayed that another ghost wasn’t out there just waiting for a chance to ask me to reanimate them. I’d had enough of that with all the ghosts that had been hiding in the woods around LaVeau Manor. Luckily, I hadn’t seen any for some time.
    “It must have been a bird or something,” I said, looking out across the lawn.
    Just then I looked down and noticed a piece of paper on the bottom step. I walked down a couple steps, then reached down and grabbed the paper.
    “What did you find?” Nicolas asked, stepping up beside me.
    “I’m not sure.” I unfolded the paper and stared at the symbol on it. The design was familiar and all of a sudden it hit me where I’d seen it. I showed Nicolas the paper. “It’s the symbol I saw sewn on the coven members’ skirts.”
    He studied it for a moment, then handed it back to me. “They must have dropped it.”
    I released a heavy sigh and ran my hand through my hair. “I guess, but something makes me feel uneasy about this. I’ll ask the women if they lost it. Maybe they can tell me what it means.”
    The women had disappeared from the kitchen and they weren’t upstairs either. This was definitely disconcerting for me. I wanted them to move on to the other dimension, but I also wanted to ask them more questions; I was torn.
    Nevertheless, I’d have to wait to see if they returned soon. There was so much that I needed to accomplish, but obviously the most pressing matter was to find out if what Giovanni had said about the book was true. The reanimated coven members had been of little help, so what made me think the new coven members would be any better? But with little else to help me, I had to ask.
    Annabelle and I were headed to my mother’s shop. I wasn’t sure how my mother would react to the coven members whom I’d conjured up. One of these days my botched spells would be just too much for her to handle.
    We pulled up to her shop located in the historic section of town. Enchantment Pointe was a charming little place that was set next to the river. The dark water flowed steadily along the edges of Enchantment Pointe, increasing the energy in the already magically charged town. The historic section housed many little boutiques. A lot of them were run by other witches. There was a café, antiques shop and salon nearby.
    As we stepped into Bewitching Bath and Potions Shop, the bell above the door jangled announcing our arrival. I looked around for my mother. My mother had always been obsessed with beauty products and she had a natural talent for making them too. She made all the products right there in her shop.
    The space was done all in white with glass jars lining the walls on each side. A large distressed white table was in the middle of the room with more beauty items. A large bouquet of white flowers was displayed in the middle of the table. To my right were the fragrances, oils, powders and herbs and the soaps, shower gels, lotions, shampoos and conditioners were on the left. My mother hated for things to be out of order in the shop, so