Free The Witch Is Back by H. P. Mallory Page A

familiar. I shook the feelings right out of my head and focused instead on the fact that he was British. What was it with me and gorgeous Englishmen lately?
    Oh my God, what if he’s a vampire too?
The thoughttore through my head and I felt myself unwittingly retreating because it suddenly made perfect sense. Maybe this was a friend of Sinjin’s—or worse, maybe an enemy? ’Course, then the fact that this guy actually had an aura—and more so, that said aura was bright, electric blue (like nothing I’d ever seen before)—caused me to reconsider. Maybe it was just Sinjin who didn’t have an aura? Maybe other younger, lesser vampires did? I remained on guard.
    “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice,” the man continued, moving forward to fill the space that separated us. He thrust out his hand with a large smile. “You are?”
    I gulped but didn’t back away. I didn’t want to give him the advantage by appearing nervous or by letting on to the fact I knew he was something extraordinary. “Jolie … Jolie Wilkins.” I glanced down at his hand and, figuring this would be the true test of whether or not he wanted to dine on me, clasped it.
    He was warm. Thank God.
    But before I could revel in any feelings of relief, a surge of energy traveled directly up my arm from his hand. I pulled away from him in an instant, rubbing my hand against my pant leg as I stared at him in wide-eyed shock.
    “Must have been static energy from my shoe brushing against the carpet,” he offered with an apologetic smile.
    “You felt it too?” I asked, feeling the relief returning. He just nodded and I shook my head, laughing slightly. “That was some serious static cling!”
    “Well, it is very nice to meet you, Jolie,” he said, and I could tell that he wasn’t just going through the standard protocol you follow when you first meet someone. No, he said it like he meant it, like he was incredibly pleased to make my acquaintance, like this was the bestmoment of his whole day. It was definitely true what they said about the English—they were damn polite!
    “It’s nice to meet you too,” I said and motioned him toward the back room, the hair on the back of my neck still on end even though we were no longer touching. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something … different about him. And of course I had to wonder what he wanted from me. Best to just keep my guard up, give him his reading, and send him on his merry way.
    When he made no motion to follow me, I glanced up at him questioningly. He seemed to have completely forgotten why he was here and just kept staring at me in that off-putting way. It was almost as if he recognized me, or thought he did. It made me uncomfortable.
    “You’re here for a reading?”
    “Yes, yes,” he said, and nervously ran his hand through his hair. “Apologies, I’ve had quite a long day.” Then he laughed.
    I just smiled back at him before turning to walk into my reading room, which was at the rear of my store. I was eager to get through this appointment so I could go home and figure out what I was going to do next about my little problem known as “the guy I’m dating is a vampire.” A part of me was nervous about being home alone considering I
had
invited Sinjin over; but if what I knew about vampire lore was true, I could just as easily uninvite him if he threatened me. Yes, Christa had told me that I could stay with her, but I could already see that ending badly when she came home with her flavor of the night and had really loud sex in the room next to mine.
    Yeah, no.
    “How have you been?” Rand asked, and when I glanced up at him, he seemed nervous. “Er, how has your day been?”
    I studied him for a second or two, finding it odd thatsuch a handsome man seemed … nervous around me.
Nervous
wasn’t even the word for it, actually. It just seemed as if he knew something I didn’t. Of course, it didn’t make sense, but that seemed to be the theme