Lover Beware

didn’t leave Hannah’s face. “You do that, Sarah.” He knotted his fists on his hips. “Did any of you consider Sarah might have been killed? Or how I might feel if I found her dead body? Or if I had to go up to your house and tell you she was dead? Because I thought a lot about that last night.”
    “I thought about it,” Damon said. “At least about Sarah being killed on my account.” He reached out to settle his fingers possessively around the nape of her neck. “It scared the hell out of me.”
    Kate and Abbey exchanged looks with Hannah. “I didn’t think of that,” Kate admitted. “Not once.”
    “Thanks a lot, Jonas,” Sarah said. “Now they’re all going to be making me crazy, wanting me to change my profession. I’m a security expert.”
    “It may beat being a Barbie doll, but I think you went overboard, Sarah,” Jonas replied. “A librarian sounds nice to me.”
    Hannah clenched her teeth but remained silent. The wind rushed through the street, sweeping the sheriff’s hat toward a storm drain. It landed in a dark puddle of water and disappeared from sight.
    Harrington swore under his breath and stalked back to his car, his shoulders stiff with outrage.
    “Hannah,” Kate scolded gently, “that wasn’t nice.”
    “I didn’t do it,” Hannah protested. “ I would have had the oak tree come down and drive him underground feet first.”
    Abbey and Kate looked at Sarah. She merely raised her eyebrow. “I believe Irene and Drew are waiting.”
    Damon burst out laughing. “I can see I’m going to have to watch you all the time.” Why did it seem perfectly normal that the Drake sisters could command the wind? Even Harrington treated it as a normal phenomenon.
    They stopped in front of Irene’s house. Damon could see all the women squaring their shoulders as if going into battle. “Sarah, what do you think you can do for Drew? Surely you can’t cure what’s wrong with him.”
    Sadness crept into her eyes. “No, I wish I had that gift. Libby is the only one with a real gift for healing. I’ve seen her work miracles. But it drains her and we don’t like her doing it. There’s always a cost, Damon, when you use a gift.”
    “So you aren’t conjuring up spells with toads and dragon livers?” He was half-serious. He could easily picture them on broomsticks, flying across the night sky.
    “Well…” Abbey drew the word out, looking mischievously from one sister to the other. “We can and do if the situation calls for it. Drakes have been leaving each other recipes and spells for hundreds of years. We prefer to use the power within us, but conjuring is within the rules.”
    “You never let me,” Hannah groused.
    “No, and we’re not going to either,” Sarah said firmly. “Actually, Damon, to answer your question, we hope to assess the situation and maybe buy Drew a little more time. If the quality of his life is really bad, we prefer not to interfere. What would be the point of his lingering in pain? In that case, we’ll ease his suffering as best we can and leave everything to nature.”
    “Does Irene think you can cure him?” Damon asked, suddenly worried. He realized what a terrible responsibility the Drakes had. The townspeople were used to their eccentricities and believed they were miracle workers.
    “She wants to believe it. If Libby and my other sisters were here, all of us together might really be of some help, but the most we can do is slow things down to buy him time. We’ll find out from Drew what he wants. You’ll have to distract Irene for us. Have her go into the kitchen and make us lemonade and her famous cookies. She’ll be anxious, Damon, so you’ll really have to work at it. We’ll need time with Drew.”
    His gaze narrowed as he studied Sarah’s serious face. “What about you and your sisters? Are you going to be ill like you were last time?”
    “Only if we work on him,” Sarah said. “Then I don’t know how you’ll get us all home. You’ll have to ask Irene to drive us back.”
    “We should have thought to bring the car,” Kate agreed. “Do you think that’s a bad omen? Maybe there’s nothing we can do.”
    “Don’t go thinking that way, Kate,” Abbey reprimanded. “We all love to walk and it’s fun to be together. We can do this. If we’re lucky we can buy Drew enough time to allow Libby to come home.”
    “Is Libby coming back?” Damon asked.
    “I don’t know, Damon,” Hannah said, her eyebrow