It’s never good when a banshee senses a death on the horizon. When that death coincides with the arrival of a frightening new supernatural creature in Nightmare, Arizona, everyone at Nightmare Sanctuary Haunted House is on high alert.

Olivia Kendrick and her friends just wanted to go shopping at the local antique store. Instead, they wind up embroiled in a murder investigation that hints at some sinister dealings in the old mining town. It seems like everyone had a reason to want the owner of the antique store dead.

While Olivia tracks down clues with the help of her growing conjuring skills, she also makes an important discovery about Damien Shackleford’s supernatural abilities. Will Olivia’s boss be able to use his powers to find his missing father, Baxter? 

Before he can do that, though, Damien will have to keep Olivia safe when she becomes the target for a vengeful suspect…

AXING AT THE ANTIQUE STORE, the seventh novel in the Nightmare, Arizona series by bestselling paranormal cozy mystery author Beth Dolgner.

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I was exactly halfway to work when I felt the first raindrop against my cheek. I looked up at the dark clouds just as a gust of wind ruffled my hair. “Please wait,” I said to the sky.

In answer, three more fat raindrops hit my face in quick succession. 

I should have known better. When I had walked out of my apartment, I had spotted the dark clouds rolling in from the east, and I half turned to go back inside so I could retrieve my car keys. But I had been sitting at my laptop most of the afternoon, and I wanted to move my body a bit.

Plus, it hardly ever rained in the desert. I would be fine, I had told myself. 

By the time I arrived at Nightmare Sanctuary Haunted House, it was nearly dark, even though the sun had just slipped behind the mountains on the horizon. The storm had rolled in quickly, and flashes of lightning illuminated the sky over the weathered stone building while the rain pelted me.

If I hadn’t been soaking wet, I would have stopped to appreciate the spooky ambience of the former hospital building in the middle of a storm.

I paused at the front doors, the portico sheltering me from the rain. A particularly loud clap of thunder sounded as I shook myself like a wet dog, trying to fling off as much water as possible. I even leaned over and gave my shoulder-length auburn hair a squeeze.

With a resigned sigh, I pulled open one of the doors and slipped into the Sanctuary’s entryway. The room had a tall ceiling, and the sweeping staircase on the left side led up to the second floor, where many of my friends lived. 

Justine Abbott was just coming down the stairs, and she stopped short. “Oh, Olivia, you poor thing.”

I grimaced. “Do I look that bad?”

“You look scarier than anything we have inside the haunt.” Even though she was joking, there was also a sympathetic tone to Justine’s voice. She waved a clipboard she had in one hand. “I had you down to work the front door tonight, but I’m going to put you in the lagoon vignette, instead. You can’t work in those clothes.”

I unzipped my light jacket and pressed a hand against the black Nightmare Sanctuary T-shirt I was wearing underneath. It wasn’t as wet as the rest of my outfit, but Justine was right. I needed a complete change of wardrobe.

A shiver worked its way up my spine. I needed to get warm, too. It had been a chilly day, and the cold and wet were going to settle into my bones if I didn’t do something about it. 

Justine was clearly thinking the same thing, because she was on the move again, issuing orders. “First, you’re going to go to the costume room and dry off, then change into your pirate costume. After that, I want you to head to the kitchen and microwave one of the containers of soup.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said with a smile.

“Come on. I’ll walk with you. You can throw those clothes in the dryer, so they’ll be ready to go by the time we close tonight. Didn’t anyone tell you we get a lot of rain in January?”

I fell into step next to Justine as we headed down the hallway that led to the costume room, dining room, and other staff-only areas of the Sanctuary. “No one remembered to give me a ‘how to survive in the desert’ handbook when I arrived in Nightmare.”

Soon, I was in the pirate costume I wore on the nights I was assigned to the lagoon vignette. My long red skirt and matching coat felt blissfully warm and dry, and the black blouse underneath, complete with lacy cuffs, added another welcome layer. There was a hairdryer near the makeup station, so by the time I was finished getting into costume, I was completely dry.

I was still cold, though, so I followed Justine’s advice and made a beeline for the kitchen, which was off the dining room. By then, it was nearly time for that night’s family meeting, and the benches at the long rows of tables were already filling up.

Two minutes later, I was sitting down at one of the benches, too, with a steaming Styrofoam cup of ramen in my hand.

“Not the typical pirate fare,” Theo commented casually in greeting. He flashed me a wide smile.

“Not for a pirate vampire like you, maybe,” I replied. “I got soaked on the walk here tonight.”

Theo nodded knowingly. “The thunder woke me up early. I was going to go out for dinner after work tonight, so I hope the storm blows over.”

Going out for dinner, in Theo’s case, meant mesmerizing a tourist so he could drink their blood. Since his fangs had been filed down by a vampire hunter, he had to use a small knife, but Theo was careful, so his unwitting donors were never in that much danger.

Justine seemed to have been waiting for me to return from the kitchen, because she stepped up to the podium at the far end of the room right then. “It’s raining pretty good right now,” she began, throwing me a wry look, “which means it will probably be a slow night for us. So, make the most of the guests we do have, and scare them so much that they feel justified for coming out in this weather.”

As Justine went on to make a few announcements and to dole out that night’s assignments, I heard the telltale tick-tick-tick of claws against the floor behind me. I turned just in time to see Felipe rise up on his hind legs, his gray leathery snout pointed hopefully toward my face. His muddy front paws were just inches from my coat, and I gently pushed him back down onto all fours. 

“Sorry, Felipe,” I whispered while I stroked his head. “You’re in even worse shape than I was.”

I heard an annoyed tsk and looked up to see Mori, Felipe’s owner, frowning at the chupacabra. “Every time it rains,” she muttered.

Undeterred, Felipe trotted toward her. Mori gathered her golden silk gown and leaned away from him. Her fangs flashed as she pointed a finger at Felipe. “Stay.”

Felipe snorted, turned around, and walked away. I snickered at his defiance, and Mori rolled her intense burnt-orange eyes. 

Justine wrapped up soon after, and everyone rose to get ready for the evening. Since I was already dressed, there wasn’t much I needed to do, so I chatted with Mori for a bit, then slowly made my way to the lagoon vignette. 

Seraphina had beaten me there, and she was swimming somersaults in the glass-fronted water tank that sat next to the prop pirate ship. I walked up to the glass and gave her a wave as her silver siren’s tail flashed in the overhead lights. She blew me a kiss right as the lights blinked three times, then went out entirely. The Sanctuary was open for business.

Unfortunately, Justine’s prediction that the crowds would be low was accurate. Never had I been so bored at the Sanctuary. Guests came through sporadically, with empty stretches in between that lasted as long as seven minutes. I only knew that because I began timing the gaps between guests on my watch.

The sluggish night was a big contrast to the steady stream of people we’d had coming through during the holidays. From just before Christmas until right after New Year’s, we had been slammed every night. The time had flown past, thanks to tourists visiting Nightmare during their holiday break and people in town to see family.

So far, January’s business had been steady. It was still tourist season because southern Arizona weather was mild at that time of year. But, as it turned out, a rainy Wednesday night was not good for business.

Theo and I often played a game with each other, taking bets as to how many people we could make scream, or which one of us could make someone sprint wildly out of the vignette first. Seraphina sometimes joined in, which made it even more fun. Even our game, though, couldn’t keep me from yawning and glancing at my watch every few minutes. 

When I got my break partway through the night, I retreated to the dining room. There was no need to grab my usual snack, since I was still full from the soup, but I did gratefully sit down on a bench. I folded my arms on the table and rested my chin on them.

“You can’t be worn out by the flood of guests,” Mori said as she gracefully sat down across from me. She brought a cup to her lips, and I instinctively averted my eyes. I still wasn’t used to watching the vampires drink blood. 

“I had no idea this job could be so boring,” I intoned. 

“It happens from time to time. Cheer up. Maybe the weather will clear, and tourists will venture out of their hotel rooms.”

Mori’s optimism was all for nothing, though. Once I had finished my break, the night continued to drag. When we finally closed at midnight, I changed back into my own clothes and prepared to make my way home.

Except, when I opened one of the front doors, I could see raindrops illuminated by the light inside the portico. 

I closed the door, turned to my left, and headed down the hallway to Damien Shackleford’s office. I should have stopped by to say hello to him, anyway, I realized as I approached the door. He and I had been spending so much time together lately that I felt like I had just seen him, but in fact, it had been a full day since we had spoken.

The door was shut, so I knocked lightly, and I instantly heard Damien’s muffled voice say, “Come in.”

When I walked in, I saw Damien sitting at his expansive oak desk. He had an elbow propped on it, and his face was resting in his hand. He seemed to be staring intently at a stack of papers.

“Everything okay?” I asked tentatively.

Damien looked up, then sighed and sat back in his chair. He gestured toward the papers. “Just doing research into the supernatural black market.”

I nodded knowingly. We had reason to believe Damien’s father, Baxter, had been abducted because he was a phoenix, and anything phoenix-related—feathers, ashes, and tears included—could fetch a big price on the supernatural community’s underground trading scene.

It was the closest to a lead anyone had gotten since Baxter’s disappearance nearly a year before, but we still weren’t making a lot of headway.

“Do you want to practice?” Damien asked. 

“Actually, I was going to ask for a ride home. It’s still raining out.”

“Of course.”

The question about us practicing hung in the air between us. We had been trying to learn more about Damien’s supernatural abilities, but we hadn’t made any progress in the past month. We were trying to explore his power without the need for him to get upset first—heightened emotions always sparked his abilities—but it was slow-going. In fact, the most we had accomplished lately was Damien sliding a coffee cup across his dining room table.

Damien stood and reached for the gray suit jacket hanging from a coat tree behind his desk. 

“You’ll need more than that,” I warned him.

“I have an umbrella we can share,” he assured me. “Let’s go.”

I turned to walk out just as Fiona rushed in. She was still wearing her costume, a long white gown that made her look every bit the banshee that she was. The diaphanous material seemed to float in her wake as her wide eyes darted between Damien and me.

“Someone is going to die!”

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