A Nightmare to Remember (Wicked Good Witches Book 5)

Wicked Good Witches

Book 5
, A Nightmare to Remember

Starla Silver

TABLE of CONTENTS

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

CHAPTER ONE

Charlie Howard’s eyes flickered open. For a moment, his vision was hazy but also blinded by brightness. He peered back and forth blinking repeatedly, trying to clear the haze and make sense of his surroundings.

He expected to be staring up at his bedroom ceiling, but instead he gazed up at a bright blue sky etched with pine tree branches and drifting puffy clouds. He sat up quickly, holding his breath, eyes darting from side to side, when the realization hit him that he’d awakened outside, in the woods.

“Not again,” he grumbled, picking himself up off the ground. “Where the hell am I this time? And perfect! No clothes. Again.” He scoured the ground and saw what looked like his boxer shorts, torn nearly to shreds.

Having nothing to cover himself with other than his hands, his arms swung down to hide his privates from public exhibition. His movements stalled. His breath hitched. Dried streaks of red flaked off his arms.

He stared, dumbfounded and horrified. Blood. Lots of it. Covering his arms and hands with bits clinging under his fingernails.

“What the hell is happening to me?” His gaze landed on the black ring; recently gifted by the now deceased Guardian, Nina. “She promised I couldn’t hurt anyone. That the ring would not allow it.”

Was the ring not working properly?

Charlie needed to get home fast. He took a step and stopped, wincing. His calf had a nasty looking gash that was still healing. If Charlie hadn’t had his werewolf ability to heal, from the looks of the wound’s depth, he’d most likely have bled to death.

He closed his eyes and opened them again, hoping this was all a terrible dream. He stared at the protection ring silently pleading for it to explain why it was allowing this to happen. Wishing desperately he could talk to Nina.

She had sacrificed herself to help Charlie. And in the weeks after the ring had protected him from harm, or from harming others, by keeping his werewolf side from surfacing, and therefore endangering anyone near him with its uncontrolled wildness.

So why was this happening? He was obviously injured, and he didn’t believe for a minute that the blood underneath his fingernails had come from his own body. Which meant he had to have injured someone. And to make matters worse, this wasn’t the first time he’d awakened in the middle of the woods, naked, in the previous weeks.

He sucked air in deeply, letting it out slowly, reminding himself that whatever had happened, and regardless of the blood on his hands, he could not have hurt anyone. The ring would not allow it.

So, what? He had self-inflicted these wounds? This blood really was his own? Perhaps it belonged to an animal.

Human or animal was not acceptable to Charlie Howard.

He took in his surroundings. With a relieved breath, he recognized where he was, and it wasn’t far from home. He was in the woods near the back of the Howard Mansion. His home. And on a trail many locals and tourists often used for jogging and hiking. He could at least be glad no early morning risers had sauntered by, or they’d have gotten an unexpected show, and either a good laugh or a good fright.

“At least I know the sheriff,” he jested grimly, picturing some female tourist happening upon him in his current state and thinking he was an attacker.

Although one dazzling smile with his perfect teeth and a captivating stare with his dreamy blue eyes, or a once over from toes to head would send almost any woman into an instant hot flash, or turn her legs to jelly. Plenty of distraction time for him to get away.

Hearing nothing but morning birds chirping, the distant crashing of waves, and a foghorn blowing, he made a mad dash for the gate at the back of his yard. Once he had slipped inside he darted to the back door of the mansion and bounded into the kitchen, breathing out a huge sigh of relief.

It did not last.

He froze for a moment, listening to see if anyone was awake yet. He heard no movement. Of course, William would have heard him. And hearing movement in the house this early would definitely make- Charlie grabbed a hand towel just as the vampire dashed into the kitchen. “William… Um. Morning.”

The vampire didn’t speak for a moment, an eyebrow raised in bemusement over Charlie’s sudden appearance in the kitchen, stark naked and covered in dirt, scratches and blood.

“Do I want to ask?” William spoke in a wry tone. “Let me rephrase… do I need to ask?”

“I just woke up in the woods. Again,” Charlie explained.

“I see.”

“No idea how I got there. Last thing I remember was going to sleep.
In my bed
.”

“You’ve never been one for sleepwalking,” muttered the vampire. He frowned, disturbed by this turn of events.

“Or sleep undressing,” added Charlie dryly. “I don’t know what the hell is happening to me, William.”

“This is the third occurrence,” the vampire noted. “I think it would be unwise to allow a fourth.”

“I don’t understand why the ring is allowing this behavior.”

“My understanding of the ring is limited, but I trust that it will not allow you to harm, or come to harm, Charlie.”

“Well, I’m sure as hell sick of waking up bare ass naked in the middle of the God damned woods!”

“The better question right now is why didn’t I hear you leave last night? Oh. I went out for a late night patrol. You must have left the house while I was away.”

“I think you’d better put a stop to those late night patrols for a little while, William. When this happened before I just thought it was a freak thing. I was overtired. But now…”

“Three times is not coincidence, Charlie. Something is amiss.”

“You’ve never heard of any such thing?” asked Charlie. “Perhaps it’s some wacky side effect of the ring. Or me being a werewolf, wearing the ring. The rings are meant for Guardians after all. Not werewolves or witches.”

“I cannot be certain, but Nina
was
certain, Charlie. We must trust this. We must trust the ring, and that the Guardians know what they’re doing in giving it to you.”

“I wish there was a way to talk to a Guardian,” mused Charlie. “You don’t know any way...”

William shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t think one can seek audience with the Guardians. I believe they come to you.”

“It just gets better and better.” Charlie let out a brisk exhale.

“How do you feel this morning? Other than
freaked out
as you’d say.”

Charlie thought about it for a moment before answering William.

“It’s strange really, but before I fully woke up and got pissed about waking up in the woods bare ass naked, I actually had this sense of contentment. I was tired, but not
tired
.”

William shot him a questioning gaze. “How can one be tired but not tired?”

“Um, physically tired. Like I’d been running a marathon or doing something that required a lot of physical demand on my body. And a little hazy. Like there was a fog over my brain that was lifting. But not lack of sleep tired. I felt rested and happy… until I woke up in the woods.”

“I see. And as before, no recollection of the night’s events?”

“No. Nothing at all. Like I said, I woke up a little hazy. Almost like I’d been dreaming, but I have no memory of the dreams. You don’t think I’ve been put under some sort of spell do you?”

“I suppose anything is possible. However,” William added hastily, “I don’t believe the ring would allow you to be put under a spell. If you recall when the mermaids tried to mesmerize you, the ring stopped it from happening. It protected you. I think that falls under the category of possible harm to one’s self, or others.”

“But you can’t be sure, can you?”

William didn’t answer, his head cocking to the side.

Charlie let out an exasperated groan.

“Why don’t you get cleaned up,” suggested William, “before your siblings wake.”

“Yeah. Um, do you mind if
for now
we keep this just between you and me?”

“
What?
You don’t want your family to discover you’ve been romping through the Demon Isle woods naked as the day you were born?” The vampire’s mouth turned up in a bemused grin.

Charlie shook his head, not at all amused.

“Very well. My lips are sealed.”

“Thank you, William,” Charlie returned tightly. He headed upstairs to his bedroom.

Though humored by the moment, William did not find Charlie’s unconscious late nights romps funny in the least. He’d do his best to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible.

Charlie turned on his shower allowing the water to pour out steamy hot.

Before getting in, he stood and stared at himself in a full-length mirror.

Nearly every gash or scratch was healed now, but the caked dirt and blood remained. Was it his own blood embedded beneath his fingernails? Or someone else’s as he feared it was?

Charlie grabbed a pair of boxers and slipped them up over his muscular legs. He turned off the shower and raced down to William’s study. “I just had an idea,” he exclaimed.

“Which is?”

“Could you test the blood underneath my nails? We wouldn’t be able to I.D. whose blood it is, but we could at least find out if it’s mine or not.”

“Let me examine your hands,” said William, motioning for him to come forward.

“Sorry,” said Charlie, as William took hold of his hands to investigate them more closely.

“Why?”

“Making you get this close to blood.”

“This hardly counts as blood.”

“Well, a few weeks ago you did lock yourself away for three days, claiming you needed a
cleansing
period. To keep your cravings in check. I’d hate to tempt you.” There was a hint of humored reproach in Charlie’s tone.

William lifted his eyes. “This hardly counts as blood,” he repeated dryly. Although after his encounter with Lizzy Deane, and drinking her blood in a lust filled frenzy, even a speck of blood like this would have driven him mad. The cleansing period had been necessary. He simply neglected to tell them the true reason behind it.

Charlie shook his head. Something had happened to William. He sensed a change in the vampire. But he refused to share. It didn’t mean Charlie would stop pressing him about it. After all, it wasn’t fair that his embarrassing situations might soon become public knowledge, and the vampire got to keep his secrets.

After inspecting Charlie’s fingers, William dashed away and returned with a wooden file. “I do believe there may be just enough blood.” He gently scraped underneath each nail and put the blood into three different vials. “I’ll run a few tests. By tonight we’ll know if it belongs to you, along with any other information we can glean.”

“Okay,” Charlie breathed out. “Thanks.”

As he turned to leave, William said, “Don’t spend the morning worrying. I’m sure it will be your own blood. Besides, we have a very important family meeting you need to be alert and present for.”

“Right. The Soul Hunter. I’ll be ready.”

Although inwardly, Charlie didn’t hold the same confidence as William about the blood belonging to him, or that he could lay his worry aside. “I can do it for Dad,” he whispered.

Down in the study, William sighed. Charlie should have realized he’d know right away whether the blood belonged to Charlie or not. William knew the scent of each Howard sibling well. But considering the stress Charlie was under it was no surprise that he’d not surmised this.

The bigger issue however, unfortunately being, that the blood did not belong to Charlie Howard.