6. Six

Six

Rainbow

Ignoring the prickling feeling over my skin, I entered my home for the first time as the legal owner. My neighbors might not like me for whatever mixed up reason, but I'd win them over. I mean, he was too beautiful to be an ugly person, right? Someone clearly liked him if he had someone, a potential partner, with him. With time I could win him over.

First, I had more important things to do. Getting Jinx set up was a priority. I felt so bad about how he'd been living over the last week. The power was on in the house, so I set him down in the kitchen before I went to my car for his vivarium. When I passed the fridge, I made sure it was on, clean, and empty.

The vivarium took minutes. I fed Jinx some freshly cut bell pepper and another cricket, then went to unpack the rest of my groceries. He seemed to be relieved to be in the house, cementing my idea that the place was a perfect new start for us both, grumpy neighbors aside.

Next to my car, one of the men from next door, for sure a shifter, was waiting for me.

Looking at a shifter you couldn't always tell. This guy had all the grace of a wild animal. There was something dangerous about him. I wondered vaguely what he could turn into, since not all shifters were wolves. They were the dominant species since they were naturally pack animals. Shifters did better in a group, or so I'd heard. In my thirty plus years of life, I hadn't actually met that many of them. They fascinated me though. I would love to turn into an animal, unless it meant me losing my magic, of course.

"Hey," he greeted with a friendly smile, white teeth flashing in a grin. His eyes sparkled in an attractive way, though he did nothing for me. I was still stuck on the guy who apparently hated me. Yep, I was that guy.

"Hi!" I squeaked. What? He was kinda scary and I already knew his friend hated me. I couldn't be sure this guy didn't have bad intentions.

"So," he drawled, "you're the new neighbor."

I paused on the driveway a few steps from my car. That he was leaning against, because that wasn't aggressive at all, was it? He was giving me all sorts of bad vibes. They did not want me here. Tough luck, though, since I'd paid for the house outright. I liked it and no one was making me leave, especially some shifters. I'd stock up on some protection spells while I was redecorating.

"That's right. Do you live nearby?"

I don't know what I hoped for. Maybe that he didn't live with the hottie next door to me. Yeah, it was that. Even though they both sort of scared me, I didn't want them to be a couple, which was mean, they were beautiful together.

"Me?" He pointed to himself. "I'm down the street there." He directed my attention to a house at the end of the street. "I'm Tor, by the way."

Gah, I hated this bit. Introducing myself to women was always easier. They generally made sweet comments about my name, which I liked, FYI, yet men were a different thing altogether. Did I lie and pick a new name? It wasn't like I was on the run. Though did I want to start my new life with a lie?

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I drew it out to send whoever to voicemail when I saw it was my mom. In the week since I'd left the coven, I'd had a trickle of news, but no full conversation with my mom.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's my mom, my dad is sick so…"

"You'd better answer, then. Do you want a hand taking this into the house?"

Honestly, the last person I wanted in my house was Tor. I didn't know what his game was, but I didn't want any of my stuff ruined, or for him to be looking at Jinx.

"No, I'll be okay, thank you."

I answered the call as I approached my car to pick up the bags which really needed to be put in the fridge. I tried to ignore Tor, who was still lounging against my car.

"Rainbow! I'm so glad I could catch you." My mom's shrill voice was grating, yet welcome after having gone so long without much news of my family.

Tor's lips twitched at my name. He absolutely had to be a shifter with that hearing.

"Hey Mom. How's Dad?"

"Good! We're both relieved you've found somewhere. Send me your address so I can get you a housewarming gift."

"Will you and Dad be visiting soon?"

"That's what I wanted to speak to you about. Westhaven is great, they took us in without expecting anything in return. They want your father to stay close to the town until they are sure the treatments worked."

"What happened?"

"He had a relapse." Dad had always been plagued with magic issues. His control would slip when he had one of these episodes and spark all over. During that time, his cat familiar, Jones, would go wandering, often for days.

"We thought it was a heart attack at first."

"Is Jones back?"

"No, it's the strangest thing. He's close, we just can't get to him. That's part of the reason…"

"That you have to stay in Westhaven. I get it. Are they still not accepting outsiders?"

"They said you can visit, but you have to apply for entry… it could take a while."

All throughout my conversation with my mom, Tor was watching me. I opened the trunk of my jeep to get the groceries, and despite me telling him I didn't need the help, he picked up some bags and followed me into the house.

It did mean I got to see his full body shudder as he crossed the threshold, though.

"Hey, Mom, could I call you back? I'm trying to take groceries into the house."

Tor set the bags down on the floor and immediately started picking through them and loading things into the fridge!

"Okay. Send me some pics, I want to see what you bought. I'm sorry we've been out of touch, I just didn't want to call with everything being so up in the air. You had your own stuff to worry about."

"I get it. Call you later, okay?"

The call disconnected and I let out a sigh. Time to get rid of my unwanted guest.

"So, Rainbow, huh? I guess it makes sense for a witch."

"Yes, my name is unusual, I go by Bow. And yes, I'm a witch. I'm not here to cause any problems. All I'm going to do is set up my house and open a shop. Your pack will be welcome there once it's running."

There, that was diplomatic, wasn't it?

Maybe he got the hint, but Tor left soon after. Probably off to report to the other guy. I sensed Tor wasn't in charge around here.

It took a few days to let my guard down. My stalker hadn't appeared, so I believed I'd lost him. Staying close to my house while I settled in seemed like a good way of making sure I wasn't found. Relieved, I went about my life, forgetting the fear I'd felt and laughing about it. The worst they had done was clean up after me, which was kind of embarrassing really.

The house was strange. Not only was there the weird feeling on the front porch, things kept moving of their own accord. It could have been stress getting to me, making me forget where I'd placed things, but I wasn't convinced it wasn't something else.

Keeping busy inside the house was easy. There were endless amounts of furniture to build and walls to prepare for painting. Removing the old wallpaper was a task in itself. Once they were ready for the new paint, I realized how woefully underprepared I was.

A trip to the local hardware store was enlightening.

On my way there, I was stopped at a red light and there it was! I found a space for my new store! The seller was anxious to get rid of it, so they gave me a great price, something I could afford without a loan. Sure, I'd have to be careful with money while I renovated both the unit and my house, but I had some savings and a great feeling about the shop.

When I was in the hardware store, I noticed the first couple of shifters. Clearly, they had been sent to watch me. To test them, I left the store and went to get coffee. They followed me there. I sat outside in the cool November air with my steaming drink in front of me. They waited inside. Once finished, I went back to pick out the necessary paint and brushes. They followed me back. I was pretty sure I heard them grumbling about it.

Picking out paint was boring. It was tempting to just paint the same shade of magnolia all over and just add pops of color, but my home deserved something better. I found a beautiful pale blue for the bathrooms. My room was going to be two shades of green with a forest mural on one wall. Pale gray would be the color of the living room with a striking deep purple accent wall. The kitchen I wanted to be really cheerful, so it was a sunshine yellow with an orange wall next to the sink. I left the spare bedroom fairly plain and painted it cream with pops of red for the bedding. The dining room was navy, gold and cream.

The house was an ambitious project, so I knew I'd have to spend some cash to get the store done professionally. I didn't expect many visitors for the first little while in my home, so it didn't matter if the finish wasn't the best on the inside. I'd improve as I learned. For the outside, I'd have to pay someone to do it. The store, though, needed to be done to a higher standard than I could manage myself.

My email had a message from the store owner when I got back to my house. They sent a ton of pictures of the inside along with the necessary information about repairs and taxes. The schedule for the keys and switch over of services was ideal. It gave me another week of fixing up my house before I would need to turn my attention to setting up my business.

I just hoped that August's wife, Tabitha, was willing to share information on her suppliers for things like crystals. Hopefully she was up for sending me the details. I'd repay her in plants.

Movement caught my attention. The shifters had followed me home and went to report to who I assumed was their boss: my next door neighbor. I caught the man watching from his window as I sat in my car poring over the email the seller had sent. He was still glowering. Maybe that was just his face, but I was determined to find out if I could get a smile out of him. I wanted, no, needed his attention. Gah! A crush was so inconvenient! I should have been hitting the gym again or working on the house. Instead I was dreaming about the guy next door.

Painting plans shelved for the moment, I hatched a scheme: charm the neighbors. Luckily, I'd thought to buy some baking supplies, and the oven was one of the new purchases for the house. It didn't take me long to whip up a few dozen cookies.

"Kill them with kindness," my mom always said. A sugary treat was for sure a way to soften their hearts to me.

Mom had called again to tell me Dad was worsening. This episode and the continued absence of Jones was scary. I wanted to go to them, but there was nothing for me to do. I offered to send some of my best healing tonics, except Westhaven already had fantastic healers.

Baking took my mind off my problems and my thoughts returned to the brooding man in the house next to mine. Was his problem with me due to me being a witch?

Armed with several cellophane wrapped batches of cookies, I decided to face this head on. I was going to visit the grumpy neighbor with my treats and charm the heck out of him!

After I cleaned up a bit and made myself look presentable, of course. What? He was hot!

I'd thought for sure he would do some sort of power play and wait for me to walk up the path to his house as he stood sentry in the doorway, but no, he instead left me to ring the doorbell twice! How rude! Especially since he knew who was at the door. I was pretty sure he'd been watching me from the window again.

His house was nice. The outside was painted an off-white color. The trims all looked freshly done. His yard was well maintained and windows were sparkling—all the better for snooping, I guess.

When he opened the door, I had to crane my neck to look up at him. The man had to be six-five! I was hardly short at five-ten, but I felt it next to him. He was muscular, too. While he had shifter strength, he looked like he could have benched me without it.

"What do you want?" he asked brusquely.

"Hey, I'm sure you already know, but I'm Rainbow, you can call me Bow—"

"Bow? Like the thing you tie your shoelaces with?" His face sharpened with a look of… disgust maybe?

"Well, my mom says like on a present, but whatever. Bow is fine with me." I waved a hand in dismissal. Already, I felt like this was going wrong.

"What do you want, Rainbow?" He put extra emphasis on my name. Oh, there was definitely a tone there.

"I just wanted to say hi—"

He closed the door in my face. Barely let me finish. Just looked me straight in the eyes and shut it!

Rude!

I rang the bell again, determined to get what I wanted to say out. He ignored me. I could see his shadow in the hallway. So I kept pressing it until he answered.

"What?" he snapped as he yanked the door open.

"These are for you." I brandished the cookies, waving them like a flag at a bull. "Chocolate and macadamia nuts."

"Allergic," he sneered. Wow, he was a treat, wasn't he? He started to close the door again. I shoved my hand against the frame so he couldn't get it shut without breaking some fingers.

"Oh, I thought that might be the case, so I have these oats and raisin ones. I was careful to keep them separate."

He sighed the biggest, most dramatic sigh. If anything, this was making him hotter. What was wrong with me?

"If I take them, will you go away?"

I pulled away from the door, unsure if he'd actually force it closed despite my hand being there. "Only if you'll stop your shifters from following me around."

He cocked his head and shrugged. Why was he so attractive and annoying at the same time?

"Didn't ask them to, so can't."

"Well, I find that hard to believe."

"Sucks to be you, doesn't it?"

Gah! He was infuriating! And hot, let's not forget that.

"Look…" I waited for him to fill in his name.

"Griffin," he finally said begrudgingly.

I rewarded him with a bright smile. "Right, so Griffin, yes, I'm a witch, but I have no interest in your pack or territory. In fact, I might be able to be useful to your pack in a few weeks."

His perpetual frown deepened. I was going to remember that look, later, in bed, alone.

"Why's that?"

"I'm opening a witch supply store and I'll have all sorts of potions available. I haven't really sorted out the details yet, but if you have any Weres in your pack I make a mean calming potion." I'd heard there were other things they could use, but I hadn't learned how to make them.

That got me a skeptical eyebrow raise. "That right?"

"Yeah, so please, get them to stop following me. I mean you no harm. I just want to decorate my house, grow my plants, and open my shop. Okay?"

"Whatever you say Rainbow." He rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Here." I handed over two packages of cookies, one of each flavor. He took them automatically. "I'll see you around, I guess."

Griffin didn't linger at the door. I'd barely turned around before he was slamming it closed again.

Charm offensive failed.