Werewolves & Wisteria by A. L. Tyler Page A

perfect and healthy. “No, wait…”
    I thought they might have been tiny onions from my hurried glance, but my heart nearly stopped when I read the box.
    Garlic.
    Everything was dying but the garlic. Charlie had called Martha a special kind of vampire, because necromancers fed on the life force of living things.
    “Annie?”
    “It was just the one box,” I said quickly. I couldn’t tell her that I had invited a necromancer into my life, especially after this. Martha must have stopped by to see Kendra’s place, leaving a very unfortunate side effect in her wake. “You’re right. It must be the weird weather lately. I’ll check back in a week.”
    I went home late that night to find Charlie brooding in a corner while Martha and Vince sat talking at the kitchen counter.
    “It’s not that easy to lift a warlock’s curse,” Charlie said, giving me a dark glance before he went back to glaring at her. “I’ve worked with them. You’re talking about it like it’s something you see every day.”
    “I do see it every day.” She leaned over the counter, her low-cut shirt was even more revealing. She cocked an eyebrow. “You just need to get more creative with your problem solving.”
    “Then what do you propose?” Charlie asked.
    “Instead of breaking the curse, we could let it happen, and then we clean up what happens afterward.”
    “Oh…” I raised a hand, and Vince finally turned away from Martha’s exposed assets to look at me. “We’re pretty sure Charlie dies if we let this run its course. I don’t think there’s any way to clean that up. And side note, were you at the greenhouse this week?”
    Martha stood up straight, her expression suddenly innocent. She had done her hair in two buns on top of her head, like mouse ears. “I might have been by.”
    “Why?” Charlie asked her sharply.
    His constant accusations were beginning to get to me, but Martha took it in stride.
    “Because I hadn’t been before, and Kendra always wanted me to see it,” she said. She made a face. “Did the plants suffer? I’m so sorry if they did. I can’t control it sometimes.”
    “It’s fine,” I said, casting a weary glance at Charlie. I wasn’t in the mood to referee any more disputes that night. “Just try to avoid it from now on. I don’t think any of the damage is permanent.”
    Some of it was, but I was too polite to point it out. The plants that were left would recover.
    Charlie seemed to gather that the debate was done, and he leapt down from the couch and went into the bedroom instead.
    “He’s so moody,” Martha said, leaning back over the counter. I went and sat next to Vince. “But I see what Kendra saw in him. When he’s not a cat, I mean. I would hit that.”
    “I would very much like to not think about it,” I said. “Have you heard back from your friends yet?”
    Vince cleared his throat and crumpled up the paper mess from the sandwich Martha had brought home for him. He tossed it in the trash and opened the refrigerator, grabbing another sandwich and setting it down in front of me as he returned.
    “No, I haven’t.” Martha looked genuinely apologetic. “We really need to hear from them soon. I know we’re working on a deadline here, and we’ve only got a little more than a week to the new moon. It’ll be downhill for everyone then.”
    Vince didn’t say anything. I wasn’t quite able to contain myself.
    “I really don’t want him spending another moon in the basement,” I said, feeling the anxiety rise in my chest.
    Martha shrugged. “Have you considered just dropping him in the wild, then? You’ve already got a protection in place, so it’s not like Stark or Walter can go after him now.”
    I hadn’t considered it. I looked at Vince, and he raised an eyebrow.
    “Anything would be better than being indoors,” he said.
    I turned back to Martha and her smart, friendly smile. Charlie’s bell rang an urgent alarm as he trotted back into the room and leapt up onto the