Rehab is for Witches Anthology
Various Authors
Published By- SideStreet Cookie Publishing
Publication Date- October 31st, 2014
Welcome to Little Raven: an unsullied, beautiful woodland hamlet in the heart of the Midwest. The sort of place where furry creatures romp about and spend their days bursting into song.
Actually, that’s a giant pack of lies.
Little Raven is a town…for witches.
And some of those witches might have bent the rules. A teensy bit. When six magical miscreants dabble with black magic, they end up together at Incantations, the town’s rehab center for witches gone awry. It’s a slap on the wrist for naughty witches. Pretty much a daycare center so they don’t wander off and start turning people into newts on a whim. Each witch must work through her addiction to black magic, and follow the tenets designed to lead them back to the path of the straight and narrow, as boring as that sounds. Even if following the tenets sucks worse than a group round of kum-bay-ya. Which sucks. Horribly.
We will admit we are powerless over magic—that our lives have become unmanageable.
We will make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the Goddess as we understand Her.
We will make a searching and fearless moral and magical inventory of ourselves.
We will admit to the Goddess, to ourselves, and to another being the exact nature of our magical wrongs.
We will make a list of all persons or beings we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all.
We will make direct amends to such beings whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
We are entirely ready to bow before the Goddess and have Her remove all our defect of character, even at the risk of being entirely stripped of our magic.
But this is just the start. There’s something rotten in Little Raven, something that seeks to take all the magic it can, and devour the inhabitants in the process. It will take the strength and power of all the witches to defeat the darkness seeping into their town, beat it back, and be rid of it forever…and maybe just make it through rehab while they’re saving the world.
The Authors & Titles-
Tara S. Wood - A Trunk Full of Peril
Tyffani Clark Kemp - A Diary Full of Names
Cynthia Valero - A Cauldron Full of Goodbyes
Miranda Stork - A Closet Full of Demons
J. A. Howell - A Basement Full of Secrets
Elle J Rossi - A Suitcase Full of Revenge
And here is an excerpt from A Trunk Full of Peril
A gleaming metal badge passed in front of her field of vision and the blood drained from her face. "Hadrian Shepherd. I'm an officer with the Little Raven Magical Relations Task Force."
The power of speech retreated far into her hindbrain, leaving her blinking into the rays of sunshine that backlit him like some sort of dark angel. Because, sweet mother of Merlin, he was gorgeous. Her jaw moved, but only a squeak emerged.
"Are you Circe Anders?" He enunciated every word in a slow drawl that ended on a put-upon sigh.
Understanding the unspoken irritation snapped her back to reality with a kick. "Little Raven Magical Relations Task Force? That's a mouthful, isn't it?" She shrugged and shot him a flirty smile. Old habits died hard. Or not at all. Her gaze flicked over him with interest.
"Quite a mouthful."
This time, he made no effort to hide his eye-roll. "You must be Anders. They warned me about you."
"Finally. My reputation must be doing something right if it's brought you to my door, Cupcake."
The stony expression on his face cracked long enough for him to raise an eyebrow. "Not hardly. I'm your parole officer."
Well, shit.
Officer Cupcake didn’t wait for an invitation before insinuating himself through doorway. She had to back up to keep from being bulldozed by the swish of his overcoat as he passed her by to head straight into her apartment.
Circe frowned and snapped her fingers at him as she shut the door. “Hey, don’t you need a warrant or something? I know my rights,” she said with an arrogant lift of her chin.
He didn’t turn to look at her as he scanned the interior of her living room. “You’re on parole for a Class E felony, Anders. Your rights have been severely curtailed.”
“But—but, this is America!” she spluttered. “Land of the apple pie, home of the…guy with the hat! And eagles!” Circe put her hands on her hips, as if that would make her indignation somehow more righteous.
He chuckled as he shot her a grin over his shoulder. “Also the land where actions have consequences.”
She ignored the comeback. “What are you doing here, then?”
“I’m here to escort you to your court-mandated therapy session.”
Circe let out an inelegant snort. “Oh, hell, no.”
Officer Cupcake (she really should be better with names) spread his arms wide. “And yet, here I am.” She didn’t appreciate the sarcastic bite to his tone. It was much too close for comfort. “Let’s go. We’re burning daylight.”
She backed up until her rear hit the edge of the sofa. “Not necessary. I found it okay the first time.”
He nodded. “Yes, but after your first visit, there was some concern that you wouldn’t make it back.” The smile that curled on his lips was borderline scary. “I’m here to see that you do.”
“What?” she protested. “It was fine. I did my thing. No big deal.”
He pulled out a small notepad and began to flip through it. “If by ‘your thing’, you mean disrupting the counselling session to attempt an impromptu Metallica sing-along, threatening two orderlies with some sort of magically-induced venereal disease, Kraken Dick, I believe you called it, starting a cat-fight with a fellow patient, overturning a table full of—” he flipped through another few pages, “ah, yes, cucumber sandwiches, assorted crudités, and a Bundt cake before protesting with a fair amount of vehemence that you, and I quote, ‘will not now or ever be as fucking crazy as these bitches right here’. Sound familiar?”
Circe’s face pinched tight. “Chicken salad.”
“What?”
“The sandwiches. They were chicken salad. And they were terrible.”
His brow furrowed. “So you tossed the table like a jackass?”
“There were mitigating circumstances,” she whined.
“You’re a menace, Anders,” he sighed. “Get dressed. You’ve got therapy.”
Circe narrowed her eyes and glared for all she was worth. “I hope you know that I can make things very difficult for you. I can make you regret this. And if you attempt to manhandle me, you’ll discover for yourself the unbearable agony that is Kraken Dick.”
Officer Cupcake stepped forward into her personal space, forcing her to an awkward half-sit on the back of the sofa. One ass cheek protested as it pushed hard against the thin cushion, and she leaned back as he came closer, his ridiculously good-looking face irritating her more every second.
“I’m already regretting this, Anders. And let me assure you that I’m more than man enough to handle you.”
About the Author-
Tara Wood divides her time between creating domestic bliss and creating hot paranormal romance with the occasional side of kink. When not playing June Cleaver for her hubby and daughter, she can be found at the local Starbucks slamming back Frappuccinos and plotting out her next idea. Or she’s watching the BBC. Tara resides with her wonderful and tolerant family in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. She is currently at work on several projects, one of them being the next book in her In Blood series.
