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ONE
"Woo woo! Woo woo!" sang Callie and Tacey in the back seat of the car, too drunk to remember the rest of the words of the Rolling Stones song they'd insisted on listening to all the way home.
Octavia just shook her head. From the quiet of a mining camp to summoning demons and then driving her drunk family home...her life was crazier than she'd ever believed it could be when she'd live at home with her parents. And she wouldn't trade it for the world - not even listening to Callie and Tacey's off key singing. Damn, she'd missed the girls while she was up north.
Though where they'd come up with the idea of trying to summon demons in a cemetery of all places, Octavia had no idea. Evidently she'd been gone too long if they were planning crazy stuff like this.
Not that any of them actually believed they'd be able to summon a demon. Even Callie with her library of old spell books didn't believe in magic, as she told everyone who'd listen, several times a day.
Good thing, too. If they'd summoned a demon, and it had heard this song, the poor bugger probably would have fled right back to hell, covering its ears as it went.
She had to laugh. Fortunately for Callie and Tacey, they both had other talents that didn't require them to make a living from their musical abilities. Not that Octavia was much better, but she wasn't the one singing her lungs out the window on the freeway.
"Can you close the windows? It's cold," Octavia said.
She had to repeat the request a few times before either of the girls heard her, before they began fumbling with the winding mechanism.
Next car, she was going to get power windows in the back seat.
When she could afford another car...
Octavia sighed. Well, that wouldn't be this week. Besides, this one still drove okay. It had gotten them to the graveyard, and it would get them home.
In the rear view mirror, she glimpsed a winged shadow flying behind them for a moment, before it vanished. Big bird to be out at night. She wasn't sure how big an owl's wingspan was, but that one looked big enough to take on a wedge tailed eagle.
Or maybe it had been a swan or something, gliding down to the river to sleep.
Tacey had found a different song to sing, and Octavia actually knew the words to this one, so she joined them for a bit. Why the hell not? It was girls' night, after all, and they hadn't been out for a long time, thanks to this bloody pandemic.
Pity there weren't antivirus programs for people viruses the way there were for computers. If there were, she'd have hit this virus so hard, people would have already forgotten it had ever existed by now.
But tonight, with the girls, she could forget. No constant testing like at the mine site, or at the airport. She was home now, and her time was her own. Or, in this case, Tacey's and Callie's, and she didn't begrudge them a minute of it.
She bumped down the driveway, taking the curves slowly, as it had been a few weeks since she'd driven them in the dark. Then the girls were stumbling out of the car, and they probably would have ended up sleeping on the veranda if she hadn't been there to unlock the door for them.
"You're the best sister ever. Dunno what I'd do without you," Tacey slurred, planting a big, smacking kiss on each of Octavia's cheeks before she stumbled off to bed.
Octavia just shook her head. Tacey would do just fine without her – she always did. A single mum, a café owner, and the unchallenged leader of their little household, there was nothing Tacey couldn't do. If Octavia hadn't been home, Tacey would have been the designated driver, and she'd probably have done an even better job. That was just...Tacey. And Octavia was lucky to have her.
If it wasn't for Tacey, Octavia might still be living at home, hedged around by all her parents' rules, instead of free to live her life as a responsible adult. Well, semi-responsible. She was only responsible for herself, after all, and no one noticed if she stayed up all night and had chocolate for breakfast. Except Rory, Tacey's daughter, who was having a sleepover with her grandparents tonight, or Tacey would never have touched the vodka.
Callie's door slammed and Octavia heard the creak of Tacey climbing into bed. She'd done her bit and gotten them safely home.
Now...maybe she could sneak out and get some work done.
TWO
If dying on one of his brother's stupid schemes wasn't bad enough, waking up in a god damned graveyard was worse. No, waking up with his brother and his two stupid cousins, who'd agreed to the scheme in the first place. Not for the first time, Harlow wished he'd stayed in Scotland.
But here he at least had a farm of his own. Or he would have, if his brother's stupidity hadn't cost him that, too.
Help.
He arrowed toward the call, just as he'd run toward Grant when the idiot got himself shot, only to realise it wasn't Grant's voice this time, but a woman's.
Wasn't a woman the reason they'd gotten into this mess?
And the others appeared ready to fight over her like animals.
