Chapter One
Hotel Motel, Green Vallis, Wisconsin
Maura MacGregor held very still under the steady gazes of the three naked gorgons. They dominated the room and made it impossible to look anywhere else. One of the scaly women was extremely beautiful, and the others, eh… not so much. Forked tongues poked through sharpened teeth. They had snakes for hair and a stare that could turn a human into stone.
If only she were human and not a warlock.
And if only the gorgons were real and not painted on her motel wall because being turned to stone at the moment would be better than being subjected to the rantings of an angry motel guest.
She plastered a smile on her face and turned to the family. They had prepaid for a week in what had been her most expensive suite. The mother gripped her hands tight over the eyes of her children. Considering they were teenage boys, the scene would have been comical if not for the fact she’d promised them the best stay in town during each of the woman’s six confirmation calls.
Maura said the only thing she could think of, “Damn vandals.”
Damn it, Bruce.
Though, vandals couldn’t account for the snakes carved to wind around the headboard and dresser. Luckily, those details didn’t draw focus quite like the painting.
Janet Butler backed out of the motel room slowly, stepping onto the outside sidewalk. They were a late check in, and there wasn’t anywhere else in town for them to go. The woman herded her teenagers toward the parking lot as she checked up and down the walkway like she feared for their lives.
“Walter,” the woman commanded in a shrill voice. “Walter, come on, let’s get out of here.”
Walter sighed, and the corner of his lip twitched ever so slightly as he glanced at the full-frontal nudes on wall. Maura got the impression that the man didn’t get much say in his marriage.
“Walter!”
Walter’s shoulders slumped a little, and his head hung forward as he moved out the door.
“Tell her we are expecting a full refund,” the wife yelled.
Walter nodded but didn’t speak.
“And we’re going to leave a bad review online,” the woman continued. “Walter? Did you tell her?”
Walter peeked at Maura and then through the door at the naked ladies. “I think she heard you, Janet.”
“I have other rooms,” Maura offered. “I’d be happy to give ya a deep discount for the inconvenience.”
The inconvenience of having to step six feet to the left to another door, she added silently.
Somedays she didn’t know why she bothered.
“What did she say? I can’t understand a thing that comes out of her mouth.” Janet had understood her just fine on each of the demanding phone calls, but suddenly Maura’s Scottish accent was an issue?
“She said they have other rooms.” Walter didn’t try to sell his wife on the idea.
“You expect us to stay in a high crime…?” The flustered woman’s words trailed off as she pushed her boys toward the parking lot. “Get in the car, boys. Hurry.”
Maura slowly pulled the motel room door closed and gestured her hand at the painting, calling forth her magick to remove it from her wall. Yellow sparks hit the paint and made a strange crackling noise before dissipating. The painting remained.
“Omigod, Waa-lter!”
At the panicked sound, Maura turned in time to see her uncle, Raibeart, streaking across the motel parking lot. The teenagers laughed. One lifted his phone, and Maura gave a tiny wave of her fingers to make him drop it before he could hit record.
“I’m nae Walter. The name’s MacGregor, love, Raibeart MacGregor,” Raibeart yelled. He gave the shocked woman a jaunty wave as he turned the corner to run along the exterior hall enclosure toward more rooms. Her uncle’s late-night runs were getting a little too frequent. And definitely too public.
Damn it, Raibeart.
Walter dutifully got into the car as his wife worked herself into further hysterics. Several doors were open, and other guests watched the show. Frowning, Maura waited for the Butlers to pull out of the motel parking lot before making her way down the long sidewalk toward the front lobby. She smiled at the guests as if there had not just been a frenzied woman screeching at her.
She wasn’t too worried about the review. After some time, she could have her cousin Euann take it down for her. He had a way with computers. Though to be fair to Mrs. Butler, there had been a naked painting on the wall, and she was not given what she’d been promised.
Damn it, Bruce!
Maura peered at the motel sign that read “Hotel Motel” in bright letters to confirm the vacancy light was still showing. It was the stupidest name for a business, but it came with the place when they bought it. Bruce had been fighting her on changing it.
Even though highway traffic broke the serenity as the occasional car zoomed past, the air smelled of the nearby woods. The evening was cool and fresh, perfect for relaxing outside. For all of these small pleasures, she was grateful.
Magick needed to take from nature to work. It didn’t manifest out of thin air. Everything in life was a balance, and it was an innate understanding that Maura respected.
She preferred the small-town atmosphere to big cities. Green Vallis, Wisconsin, was as close to nature as the MacGregor family could get without moving into a cave. Lush forest surrounded the town, covering rolling hills and thick underbrush. Woodland creatures were numerous.
Even now, by the motel, surrounded by concrete walls and parking lot pavement, she felt the power of nature feeding her magick. And it wasn’t just nature. Ley lines converged beneath the surface coursing with an ancient mystical power as if centuries of magickal byproduct had been gathering into an invisible river flowing under the town.
The other quick way to fuel magick was sex, but she wasn’t having any lately. That was the one drawback of a small town and nosy family. Anyone she even thought about dating became the subject of teasing. Well, and sometimes people she would never think about dating.
When they’d lived near Central Park in Manhattan, her dating life had been much better, making up for nature being scarce.
Maura took a deep breath before going inside the front lobby. A bell jingled on the door to announce her entry.
“Be right with ya,” Bruce called from the vicinity of her office.
Though small, the lobby had been recently painted. She checked the walls to make sure no naked supernatural beings had appeared in her absence. The walls were fine, but someone had taken all the brochures for local businesses and turned them upside down on the rack. She glanced around before flicking her hand, magickally flipping them so they faced right side up.
Maura stepped behind the long counter of the check-in desk to issue the Butlers a full deposit refund and stop the automatic email inviting them to rate their stay.
She then went to the office to find her brother had taken up residence in her chair. Bruce read an old thrift store paperback. He was the kind of man who would cherish the torn cover and musty, yellowed paper more than a brand-new book that didn’t smell of age and dust. It had something to do with discarded, forgotten, once-loved objects.
“Be right with ya?” Maura asked, eyeing his reclined pose. He’d propped his boots up on her desk. The proof of his disruption had scattered all over the office floor in a mess of papers.