📎A/N. Hello my lovelies. As some of you may be aware, I have been a little ill lately. I am on the mend and hopefully back on track. I'd like to thank those of you who reached out and sent me some lovely well wishes. It really meant a lot.

Now, if you are looking for a good mystery with a very funny flatulent cat, you can't go past @LinaHanson 's In My Attic. Myrtle's aunt is dead - murdered - and she has inherited the 'Witch's Retreat', a B&B full of outrageous characters and hiding a mystery under its eaves (which may or may not be the fact she comes from witchy stock) Make sure you check out In My Attic as soon has you have finished this chapter... oh yeah... and voted... then you can go ;-)

If you remember when we last left Keira, she had met the CrossRoads coven and was left wondering how the door has been kept closed all this time. Much to her dismay, the coven no longer has the knowledge or the power it once had.

Take care and have a great weekend!!

❤ ℳ

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Keira cleared her mind and allowed her energy to reach out. The corners of her mouth flickered upwards when it took a little longer than the previous attempt to hit the edge. Maize had finally manged to cast the protection spell wide enough to make a difference.

They may have more ability than I gave them credit for.

"Try focusing your thoughts a little narrower and visualize the area it needs to cover," she said in a low voice as not to interrupt her student's concentration.

A sheen of perspiration erupted over Maize's forehead as she closed her eyes and scrunched her nose. This time, Keira could feel the additional surge of energy.

"Do you think you're ready to try it out again?" Keira asked.

Maize nodded then opened her eyes, the strain still evident on her face which was quickly turning a light shade of pink.

"Okay Ryker, you're up," Keira called out in a loud voice.

She couldn't help the grin when he heard his grumble from the other room. A moment later he stood just outside the door. With reluctance, he took a tentative step forward and scanned the immediate area with a grim expression. After taking the second step and meeting no resistance, his face relaxed, and he made a motion to enter the room. Without warning, he was physically repelled backwards as a curse escaped his lips.

Maize shot up from her chair, her eyes wide in shock. "Did you see that?" Her expression just as quickly turned to concern, and she rushed to Ryker. "I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

Ryker waived her off. "I'm fine, stop fussing." He glanced to Keira. "Were you helping out this time?"

Keira shook her head.

"It doesn't pack the same punch as the doc's," he said to Maize, "but it certainly does the trick.

Relief flooded through Keira. "The real test is to work out if it only stops who you've warded it against."

Ryker slapped Grant on the back and a devilish grin spread across his face. "Your turn to be a crash test dummy."

Maize's husband gulped, and his eyes darted to the doorway. "Are you sure?"

"There's only one way to find out," Keira said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Ryker pushed Grant towards the door, and Maize brought up a hand to cover her mouth as she watched her husband put one foot in front of the other. The closer he moved to the spot that had stopped Ryker, he faltered. Squaring his shoulders, he moved forward at a snail's pace.

Ryker blew out an exasperated breath and physically shoved his friend towards the room Maize had practiced on. He almost lost his balance and rushed forward to right himself. By the time he was steady, Grant was well beyond the barrier that had repelled Ryker.

"Mom you did it!" Velvet cried out as she jumped up. Until now, the Sermbezis's remaining child had stayed quiet, absorbing the information Keira taught both her and her mother.

Instead of the expected triumph, Maize's eyes glazed over. "It's my fault," she whispered brokenly. "If I'd kept to the old ways, Annie would still be alive."

Keira reached out and rested a hand on Maize's arm. "You can't think like that. From what you've told me, it's been a few generations since the coven has used its full potential. There's no way you could have done any different than you did."

Velvet rushed to her mother when the tears began to fall. It was hard for Keira not to be affected by the other woman's anguish. Her own loss was still a little too raw.

Holding back her own grief, she focused on what they still needed to achieve. "What you need to concentrate on it making sure you keep Grant, Velvet, and the others safe now."

Maize let out a shaky breath and nodded. "That's my only focus right now."

Keira glanced across at Ryker who had surreptitiously tapped his watch and indicated towards the door. "I think that's enough for today. I want you both to keep practicing. Each time, try and push out the barrier further. Between the two of you, your home will be a fortress."

"Are you sure we'll be able to do it?" asked Velvet.

Keira gave her an encouraging smile. Like her mother, there was untapped strength that just needed to be brought out and exercised. "To be honest," Keira admitted, "when I first discovered how low in reserves you all were, I had my doubts. But now, I think you'll be just fine."

Ryker pulled Grant to one side. "Eugene will be here shortly with the change of guard. Make sure Maize has a rest before she starts working with him."

Grant nodded. "Let's just hope Shona has enough strength to work with the others. When you took her across to Mark's, she was looking a little exhausted."

Keira cringed. Their condition was her fault. She had pushed them hard over the past three days. However, they were on borrowed time, and she needed to impart as much missing knowledge into them before it was too late.

***

"Did you mean what you said back in there?" Ryker asked. "That they'll be fine?"

Kiera held on tight to the door handle and her seat as Ryker peeled out of the driveway a short time later. "It's all going to depend on whether the rest have that same spark. As far as I can tell, it's been three generations since the coven was at full capacity with their powers."

"So why the change?"

"I've seen it before. We used to be able to live in isolation; now—not so much. With constant contact with Naturals, we had to be more vigilant than ever. The other factor is that Supernaturals have integrated into society. Our power is like a muscle, if not used it becomes ineffective and weak."

In the three days since discovering the identity of the hidden, Keira had spent the better part of each day working with Maize, Velvet, and Shona to help them learn the skills they had never been taught. During the evening's they had, in turn, worked with the others to teach them what they had learnt.

Maize absorbed the lessons and was by far the fastest to increase her range as well as strength. Keira suspected that this was due to more to her motivation to protect her remaining daughter and husband than anything else.

Keira, unable to keep her eyes open, let her head lean onto the headrest and allowed her lids to flutter closed.

The car decelerated, and she felt the back of Ryker's hand brush across her face. "You okay?"

"Just a little tired," she admitted without opening her eyes.

"Doc, I know you think you're doing the right thing, but you can't carry on like this. Look what it's already doing to you; I have a good mind to have a serious conversation with your sister," he said with a low growl.

After discovering the weakened state of the door, Keira had no alternative but to drop her shield and connect her powers to the coven; something she had vowed never to do. Each morning just before dawn, Ryker had taken her and Dayna to Mystery Creek. There, she poured as much power as she could into the only barrier that separated this world from a more sinister one. Dayna, recognising how much of herself she had spent, physically tore her away the first morning, threatening to release her shields if Keira didn't keep enough of her own reserve to not burn her out. They were still unsure how it had protected them over the years without the steady injection of power. Rather than mull over why, Keira need to put stop gaps in place until the coven could take over.

"I'll be fine," she said glancing across to him.

His set jaw and disapproving expression spoke volumes. He didn't believe a word.

It was enough that one of them was now trapped, there was no way she would let her sister sacrifice herself like that. Keira relented and kept enough in reserve to get through the day. However, it had taken a toll on her energy levels.

"When was the last time you slept?" Ryker asked.

"I sleep just fine."

Ryker accelerated, and she fell back into the seat. "Liar. Deacon says you've been pacing all night. Tonight, I'll leave one of the deputies in charge. I'm staying home, even if I have to tie you to the bed and knock you out, you are getting some shut eye."

She narrowed her eyes at him and glared. "You wouldn't dare."

He threw her a wink, and his face broke into a grin. "It's going to be a slumber party in your room tonight. And if you normally sleep in your birthday suit, don't go changing just cause I'm there; might be my chance to work out where those ruins of yours are."

"You will do no such thing."

Ryker chuckled. "You should know me by now Doc, I never make a threat I don't follow through on."

There was no way Keira was entering a verbal jousting competition with the man. She was too tired to argue and didn't have the energy to keep up their usual banter. The only way to head him off was to get him focused on the only subject he was ever serious about.

Keira's stomach dropped to her knees as they turned a corner a little too fast. "Did you get any more from that missing girl that turned up?" she asked once it had settled back into place.

The sheriff's office, already pushed to capacity, were again overloaded when one of the missing girls reappeared, wandering aimlessly along a local highway. To top it off, there was a rash of other reports of missing tourists who turned up only hours after they supposedly disappeared.

His mouth clamped into a thin line. "No. Dissociative amnesia. She can't even remember being abducted. Hospital's checked her out, and there is no physical reason for the memory loss."

"Where is she now?"

"Home. She checked herself out against doctors wishes."

That's odd. If she'd lost her memory, she'd want to have answers.

"What about the other girl that was taken with her?" Keira asked.

"No sign."

Keira snapped her head around to face him. Something in his tone didn't sit well. "So what's the problem?"

"What makes you think there's a problem?" From the way his fingers tightened around the steering wheel, she wasn't far off the money.

"For one, you turned up thirty minutes ago to pick me up and agreed to walk into a wall without once complaining. That generally means that you've got something weighing heavily on your mind."

He chuckled. "I didn't realise I was that obvious."

"So what's the issue?"

Ryker shook his head. "I don't know, there's something that just doesn't feel right. She's got bruises all over her arms and face. From the chafing around her wrists and ankles, she was bound for quite some time. I just can't see how she got away."

"How long do the doctors think it will take for her memory to return?"

"That's the thing, she's lying."

This had her undivided attention. "Are you sure?"

"It's not anything obvious. My gut is telling me there's something not right."

"How often are your instincts wrong?" Keira asked.

"This decade or this century?"

Keira raised an eyebrow and fixed a stare at him.

He glanced over at her. "Fine, this century then." Ryker squinted, and his eyes travelled upwards as if thinking. "Oh yeah, that's right, I remember now. Never."

Keira rolled her eyes. "And you couldn't just have started there?"

"Where would be the fun in that?"

She ignored his comment and turned back to the matter at hand. "So if you have no proof, what are you going to do?"

He shrugged. "The only think I can. Keep an eye on her until she slips up, and I find what the hell she's hiding."

The remainder of the journey was made in silence. Ryker had retreated into his troubled thoughts and Keira managed to doze, despite his erratic driving. She was gently shaken awake once they arrived. He'd opened the passenger door and was bent to eye level. "I can carry you if you're too tired," he said with a broad grin.

Keira, immediately awoke and pushed him away. "I have legs."

She shot him a withering glared when he stepped back and muttered, "Don't I know it."

As they walked towards the house, Ryker stopped abruptly and sniffed the air. "Can you smell that?"

Keira lifted her face and inhaled. "No. What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but it's coming from inside."

The moment they walked in the door, Keira scrunched her nose. "I can now," she said. "What is that godawful smell?"

"I think that might be dinner."

Both Keira and Ryker swung their heads to the top of the stairs. Deacon was making his way down towards them.

"Dayna decided she would prepare a meal for us this evening."

Keira balked at his words. "Cook? Dayna doesn't cook."

"When that aroma began to make its way upstairs, I suspected as much," said Deacon as he reached the bottom step.

Keira groaned. "Have you checked on her? How does she even know how to turn an oven on?"

"Give her some credit," Ryker said as he headed towards the door that would lead the way to the wing that housed the kitchen. "You've said yourself, it's been years since you've seen her. She might have learnt in that time."

Keira pushed passed him as she raced towards the kitchen. "Not my sister; even mother gave up trying to teach her how."

When she entered the room, she skidded to a halt. It's worse than I thought.

Both Ryker and Deacon, hot on her heels were also struck dumb by the scene.

Dayna, dressed in black tasselled shorts, a bright pink t-shirt and blond hair in pigtails, was shimmying across the kitchen, her hips gyrating in time to whatever music was playing through the ear buds. They watched in stunned silence as she broke into an air guitar performance; her hair falling over her face as her head violently beat in time with the song she was re-enacting. She continued the stage show, unaware of her audience.

What was more disconcerting was the condition of the normally immaculate kitchen. As with everything about Deacon, it had been pristine. Even the small stainless steel garbage bin under the sink shone. The key word here being 'had'.

What have you done?

There wasn't an inch of granite bench that wasn't littered. Keira suspected the cupboards were now bare. The content of all the containers, boxes and jars had been emptied. Off-cuts of vegetables, meat, and she wasn't sure what the grey sticky substance that dripped from the bench onto the floor, coated every available space.

The floor itself was blanketed by a layer of flour and was mixed with her sister's footprints as she danced barefoot around the kitchen, putting on a private concert for them.

"Her cooking maybe questionable, but there's nothing wrong with her Metallica rendition," Ryker mumbled from beside Keira.

Dayna chose that moment to spin around to a very captive audience. Keira didn't know who was more surprised. Her sister at being caught unaware or Deacon at the condition of his kitchen.

Dayna pulled the buds from her ears. "Busted..." She broke out into a mischievous grin. "I also do requests."

"What the hell happened in here?" Keira asked as she stepped forward and surveyed the mess.

"I decided to treat everyone to a home cooked meal."

Keira rubbed her forehead. "But nothing's in the oven or on the stove." She shook her head. "What I can't work out is what the smell is."

Dayna sniffed the air. "Oh, that. I was trying to remember one of mother's brews."

"And the food?"

"Couldn't work out the dials so I improvised. Dinner is on its way. I hope you all like pizza."

Keira took a deep breath and surveyed the damage. "I'll wash, you dry."

***

By the time they returned the kitchen to its immaculate original condition, the pizza had arrived. From the staunch way in which Deacon had taken delivery, Keira guessed that this was the first time the ancient Vampire had food turn up on his doorstep.

"How did the training go?" Dayna asked before biting into a slice.

Keira eyed the opened pizza boxes haphazardly spread over the dinner table. "A lot better than yesterday. I expect by now both houses are warded enough to protected them overnight. There's still a lot more they need to learn, but we need to limit it to the key ones to get them through this. With the security standing vigil outside the houses and the spell, they are the safest they've been in decades."

Deacon poured chilled wine into Dayna's glass. "What about your strategy to entice the Order towards Keira," he asked Ryker who was retrieving two bags of blood from the second fridge.

Ryker began to squeeze the contents into large wine goblets. "The rumour mill is gaining momentum. I don't think there's a witch that isn't aware Keira's CrossRoads. Now we know the others can protect themselves, Ananya will let slip she saw her pull the office door off its hinges without touching it."

"Let's hope they take the bait," said Deacon.

Dayna, who had been pulling at her top, jumped up and brushed the remaining flour from her clothing. It settled in a little heap on the floor around her feet. "The Order will know what that means," she said as she stepped over the white powder and sat back down. "Only the strongest earth witches can move objects by calling on the source of power alone. While the coven has forgotten to hand down the knowledge, they certainly haven't."

Keira eyed the new mess and hoped Deacon hadn't noticed her sister's actions while he was filling her glass. However, as he seemed to notice everything, she didn't hold out much hope. "If Ryker is correct," she said, joining the conversation. "It's now only a matter of time before they make their move."

**

"Pop you're looking a bit casual there," said Ryker.

They were half way through their meal, and Keira had a feeling he had been biding his time waiting for a lull in the conversation.

Deacon stiffened. "Whatever are you talking about?"

"Since when did you own a pair of jeans—let alone a t-shirt?"

Dayna giggled and raked her eyes up and down the swarthy vampires form. The expression reminded Keira of a feline playing with a particularly juicy mouse. "Don't you think he looks delicious? It took me hours to convince him to put them on."

Keira had to admit, while Deacon cut a fine form in the suits he was traditionally attired in, this new look was appealing.

Deacon shifted uncomfortably in his chair and mumbled something under his breath she couldn't quite catch.

However, from Ryker's sudden chortle, he had no difficulty in hearing what had been said. "That, I would like to have seen."

Deacon's focus on his glass of chilled blood was a little too intense, and her curiosity took over. "What?" asked Keira as she bit into a slice of pepperoni pizza. It had been a while since she had indulged in fast food and she found herself enjoying the flavours.

"Your sister threatened to give him a magical wedgie if he didn't."

"That had nothing to do with my decision," snapped Deacon. "I simply decided to try them out. The Festival is only days away; the Committee has pressed me into judging the bake-off. I hardly think a suit would be appropriate for the occasion."

Dayna clapped her hands in glee. "I love festivals, what's this one in aid of?"

"Strawberry Moon."

The moment the words passed Deacon's lips, so too was the mouthful of pizza Keira had been chewing on. Her eyes snapped to her sisters, and she recognised the terror. It was the same expressions she was sure was reflected in hers.

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📎A/N. Well... I wonder what that's all about... why did Keira loose her dinner when she heard about Strawberry Moon?? What is a Strawberry Moon even??

.. and I wonder if Ryker's gut is correct... is the no longer missing girl lying??.. and why are tourist reported missing.. only to reappear shortly after?? OMG!!! So many questions and so little answers!!!

As usual, Dayna has a different way of looking at life... I would have like to see this magical wedgie.. infact, I would love to know how to do one.. I can think of a few people who desperately need one :-)   But poor Deacon... I'm not sure his sensibilities are coping very will with his proximity to the wayward witch.

However, I would have made her clean the mess in the kitchen rather than help her!!!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you did, don't forget to vote.

Take care,

❤ ℳ