Page 3 of Foxin' Around

Sweat slicked her skin with the effort as she pushed branches out of the way with every step, making her clothing stick to her even as the cool air made her shiver unpleasantly. She hopedthere was firewood already stockpiled at the cabin. She was going to need to start a fire and warm up to keep from catching a chill. She likewise hoped to the gods that there weren’t any spiders in the bushes. Spiders, and all manner of bugs, made her skin crawl. It was the one thing she didn’t like about visiting the cabin. Despite all the fun she had as a kid, she always hated bugs. They always found ways to get on her and she wouldn’t find out until she felt the tickle of it crawling across her skin. The idea of spiders dropping from the bushes onto her to hitch a ride was just enough to momentarily override every bit of her common sense.

With a vocal screech, she threw herself forward, breaking through the brush in a frenzy. It was a wild tangle of confusion that sent her mind whirling with panic, without even a thread of sanity except the allure of that strange perfume returning. She clung to that one familiar thing, racing toward it until she finally stumbled free from the tangle of the woods. Drawing to a stop in front of the cabin, she doubled over as she gasped for breath and scrutinized the cabin.

Her brow furrowed slightly as she stared at it. It looked remarkably… well kempt. The porch was clear of leaves and debris and there were all manner of flowering plants around the perimeter of the cabin, several of which were climbing the walls like a trellis. Had Auntie Lucy suddenly developed a green thumb? Last Krystal recalled, the woman had lamented over her inability to keep even a potted petunia alive. Not that it kept her from trying. It seemed that she had succeeded after all.

Krystal whistled quietly to herself as she started toward the cabin. Hell, even the bushes and trees seemed to cluster around the cabin thicker and far different than she remembered. Wasn’t there a view of the lake that should have been visible from there? It seemed the garden wasn’t the only landscaping that was done. Even the old porch swing looked as if it had been repaired andsecurely anchored rather than the half-fallen safety hazard she recalled from her last visit. Her cousins had been brutal on that poor swing as children.

“Auntie, you really outdid yourself. Not only did you get uncle to repair that damn thing but you’re even growing roses,” she murmured. She squinted at a cluster of plants boasting large pink and white blooms. “And peonies?

She admittedly only recognized the latter because, just prior to the Ravening, she had gone to a gallery with a few friends to look at watercolor paintings. There were several paintings which depicted the flower.

Not only was there a garden around the cabin, but it looked well-tended and pruned, and just as orderly as the porch. Even the doorway was swept clear of any spiderwebs and the windows washed. A faint glow illuminated the window as if there was a cozy fire already waiting for her inside. Excitement stirred in Krystal’s chest and a smile rose expectantly to her lips. She was right after all. There was someone there—a member of her family who was perhaps hoping and waiting for her to find her way there.

Heart pounding, she walked up the porch steps, the floral perfume that haunted her filling her nose thicker with every step. The wood didn’t creak, not even as she walked across the old planks of the porch. In the back of her mind, she was a little surprised that she wasn’t more worried about that. The porch was ancient last she had heard, unless this was a newer improvement along with the gardens. But that didn’t seem quite right either, and she just couldn’t put a finger on exactly why. Was it something her cousin had said about the cabin? Didn’t Nicky say that the cabin was practically falling down last time they talked about it, just a few months ago?

Yes. That was right.

She had, in a moment of nostalgia, suggested the entire family get together at the old cabin. She had needed a break from her hectic schedule and hadn’t seen everyone in practically forever. Nicky’s regretful sigh rose from the depths of her memory as she pictured the way he must have rubbed his neck, as he did whenever he was weighed down by his burdens.

“I would like to Krys, but Dad let the old place go to hell. There is so much work that would need to be done just to make it safe enough to be habitable. I think the roof is about ready to come down and the porch buckled last winter—that’s what Tim said when he checked on the property.”

Krystal’s brow beetled as she stopped in front of the door. This wasn’t right. The place was falling down and decrepit. It had never looked this good, not even when she was a kid.

“Then how—” she murmured, but fell silent as the door suddenly opened.

Hellish glowing red eyes stared back at her. “Ah, there you are. I have been expecting you.”

Chapter

Three

Syrix smiled triumphantly at the female standing in front of him. He had no idea what sort of female his spell would draw, but seeing her in the flesh, he was more than pleased. He had not expected it to be so easy, but that was hardly something to complain about.

“Come in, sweetheart,” he murmured, reaching for her.

To his surprise, she quickly sidestepped out of the way, a look of fear flickering in her gaze. She studied him from a distance and Syrix stood in a relaxed manner, making no move for her. He did not like the scent of fear on her, though he understood it. Females were correct to be wary around males. It was a good thing that he had the presence of mind to glamour his features to appear more human. He suspected that seeing his sharper facial features and inhuman eyes, much less his ears and tail, would likely terrify her. As she was afraid enough as it was, he remained in place, keeping his expression relaxed and friendly until she at least perceived him as no threat and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Are you seriously inviting me in?” she demanded with a surprising sharpness in her tone.

“Such a strange question,” he mused as he lowered his hand and peered back at her. He had anticipated many different responses, but not that one. “You have arrived and are standing on my porch and yet you express surprise at my invitation. Do you not wish to enter?”

“Yourporch?” she sputtered as a pink blush darkened her cheeks. “I do not know who you think you are?—”

“Syrix,” he interrupted, extending his hand out in greeting, his palm upward.

Her gaze flew down to his hand and she stared at it with bewilderment. She did not accept or return his greeting. Instead, her lips tightened in unmistakable annoyance.

“Right,” she replied tightly. “Let me rephrase. I don’t care who you are. This is not your porch. This is my family’s cabin—it belongs to my uncle, to be more precise—which makes you an intruder, not the host. Now, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t have been able to find it from the road with how overgrown everything is.”

“Ah,” he drawled and leisurely looked around his new home. “I did not realize that it was occupied. When I arrived, its condition was rather… sad.” He settled on that adjective, not wishing to insult his mate before he even had an opportunity to get to know her.

It seemed that his efforts were in vain, however, because her expression was growing increasingly more displeased with him by the moment. He could not understand why. Clearly, no one had lived here for a long time. He had barely noticed it when he passed through this part of the woods, its shambled state practically invisible among the trees. It had only been a glimmer of sunlight through the trees hitting a window just right that caught his attention, but it was an unexpected sense of rightness and destiny that had drawn him to it. He had felt at that moment that fate had arranged for him to find it. Clearly things were inmotion even then for the day he would find his mate. She should be pleased that the gods had arranged things beforehand so that he not only repaired it, but improved upon it before her return.

An uncomfortable look passed over her face. “It had fallen into disrepair since our family had not had many opportunities to come up here in quite some time,” she admitted, “and a winter storm a few years back had done considerable damage that hadn’t yet been repaired.” Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. “That doesn’t explain why you are here.”

He shrugged. “Destiny,” he supplied. That seemed to be the best answer as far as he was concerned.

His mate scoffed but adjusted the angle of her position so that she could see into the house around him. Syrix smiled obligingly and stepped back out of the way so that she could get a better look.

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