Jodi Redford: The Seven Year Witch

To Kelli, for always being there for me exactly when I needed it most. You’re an awesome CP and an even better friend. Love ya, chickie.

And to Sasha, the best editor in the whole world, and breaker of a certain werewolf’s heart. Someday your epic love affair will come to pass. Someday…

Nothing sucked more than having your soul on a seven-year layaway plan. No, scratch that. Having the layaway plan on the brink of expiration? That really blew the big one.

Her exhale loaded with extra weariness, Clarissa Miles turned her Miata down the rutted path that was trying to pass itself off as an actual road. There were a million and one more productive things she could be doing than destroying her shocks on the dusty back roads of Georgia, looking for a nonexistent address. But no matter how many times she reminded herself of that little factoid, she kept repeating this pointless mission.

The reason? Her damn fixation with tracking down Seventy-seven West Seventh Street. Locating it had become something worse than an all-consuming obsession in the three months since receiving the letter from Seven that called in the marker on her life.

Almost as if it were an irresistible force drawing her focus, she glanced toward the passenger seat, where a single sheet of paper fluttered against the edge of her purse. Your seven years is almost up. Collection is expected in full . She’d looked at the damn summons countless times, and it still rankled that her soul only warranted two lousy, freaking sentences. Not even a paragraph, for goddess’s sake. Apparently that would have required too much effort and ink.

Thunder rumbled, and she slid her sunglasses down to stare at the azure, cloudless sky just as a fat raindrop plopped onto the polarized lens. “Great.” Pressing the brake, she pulled toward a thicket of snake grass overtaking the shoulder of the road. She reached for the button for the retractable hardtop, and the screen on the GPS suddenly lit up.

“Turn left at the next street, and you will have reached your destination.” Despite the GPS’s perky announcement, Clarissa gaped at the unit like it was possessed—a perfectly logical conclusion, considering the circumstances.

Shaking her head, she returned both hands to the steering wheel and gripped it tight. “I’m probably going to regret this, but…here goes nothing.” Stepping on the gas, she cruised past the bend and veered left at the almost-hidden side street. Her pulse accelerated in tandem with the Miata’s speed at her first glimpse of the imposing Greek Revival mansion tucked behind a massive gothic iron gate.

She’d traveled every square mile of these back roads. No way in hell that building was there before today. There could only be one reasonable explanation for a house instantly materializing overnight.

Seven was back.

Despite knowing this day would come—hell, the letter had given her plenty of warning—cold dread still prickled the nape of her neck. She wasn’t ready to face what waited for her in that mansion. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Self-preservation kicking into high gear, she punched the car into reverse, aiming for the narrow tractor path she’d spied earlier. She glanced in the rearview mirror—on the lookout for the turnaround—and nearly jumped out of her skin when she spotted a silver-haired man dressed in a butler’s uniform blocking the road. Yelping, she slammed on the brakes. The tires squealed in protest, sending up a choking cloud of dust.

Heart threatening to catapult right out of her chest, Clarissa stared at the figure emerging from the billowing dust. Strangely enough, not a speck of dirt clung to his black jacket or pinstriped trousers. He stopped beside her door and clicked the heels of his immaculately polished wingtips together before sweeping her a curt bow. “Ms. Miles?”

It took a moment to find her tongue. “Err…yes?”

“I’m Harrison, Master Seven’s majordomo.” He reached into an interior pocket of his jacket and extracted a manila envelope. “This is for you,” he announced, passing the missive to her.

She frowned down at the correspondence. Terrific. Another letter. Apparently Seven wanted to become some twisted version of a pen pal. Shit. If only that were the case. “How did you know I’d be out here?”

A whistling breeze the only response, she lifted her gaze to discover she was alone on the road. Whipping her head around, she looked for any sign of Harrison. From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of black moving on the mansion’s expansive porch. The shadowy figure disappeared behind the distinctively red front door before she could verify whether or not it was the butler.

Bemused, she returned her attention to the letter clutched in her grip. Swallowing a lump of apprehension, she tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper stashed inside. Tatum’s. Tomorrow at seven p.m. Don’t be late .

A heavy anchor of dread plunged inside her chest. Of all the places for Seven to choose, it would have to be Tatum’s. She hadn’t stepped foot within the establishment in the past seven years, for a multitude of reasons. Top one being that there was too much chance of running into her mother. Crumpling the offensive paper in her fist, she tossed it on the floor and backed the Miata up.

Twenty minutes later, she pulled into the Beaumont coven house’s driveway. A hodgepodge of vehicles blocked the entrance to the garage. Typical. For one tempting moment, she debated punching the gears in reverse and hightailing it into the city. It’d be easy enough to squirrel away in the dusty back room of Charmed Moon, the coven’s metaphysical store, and pretend to be busy logging inventory. But unfortunately Constance was running the shop today. With Con’s strong intuitive skills, she’d instantly know something was up and would dig for details.

Left with no alternative, Clarissa parked behind Jade’s beat-up yellow mustang. Even from where she sat, she could make out a fresh ding near the car’s tailpipe, testimony of yet another fender-bender racked up by the teenager. At this rate, they’d have to take out a damn loan just to afford to pay Jade’s insurance bill every month. Abandoning the Miata, Clarissa took the porch’s steps two at a time. She yanked open the door and collided with the solid wall of muscle that was Logan Scott.

Electrical pulses of energy zinged across her skin, and she shuffled a safe distance away from Logan. Damn it, the last thing she needed to deal with was her body’s annoying reaction to her werewolf familiar. She crossed her arms over her camouflage tank top, portraying an air of chilly indifference that she most definitely didn’t feel as she took in the snug, navy blue T-shirt that molded to Logan’s broad chest. “I didn’t see your truck outside.”

“Probably because I left it back at the dealership, shug. Though it means I’ll have to find someone to drive my truck back to my place later, I couldn’t resist taking my new ride for a spin.”

“New ride?”

Logan’s mouth curled into that boyish grin that always managed to make her tummy do a funny flip. “Finally decided to put my mourning aside and buy a new hog.”

She’d wondered how long it’d take him to replace his prized Harley after one of Antoinette Delacroix’s zombies rode the bike to an early grave back in June. If nothing else, Logan was unbelievably loyal when it came to his hog. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for the countless women who’d warmed his sheets. Her werewolf familiar brought a whole new meaning to the word horndog, and as such, he moved on from a woman pretty much the second she rolled out of his bed.