Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read: Witches & Walk-In's Tour and Giveaway

Witches & Walk-In's

The Castle Point Witch Series Book 1

by Tammy Tyree

Genre: Paranormal, Supernatural Ghost Thriller

Being a witch in a world where witchcraft is still illegal is a bit of a challenge...

As a therapist and a natural-born witch, Alexandra Heale has seen her fair share of strange cases. But when she's called upon to assess a coma patient, she discovers something far beyond her expectations. The patient has been possessed by the spirit of a woman fleeing from a lascivious demon.

As the only witch in Castle Point's secretive paranormal community with the power to locate the demon and release the spirit, Alexandra faces a daunting task. She knows she needs help, but that means risking exposure in a world where witchcraft is forbidden and punishable by death.

Reluctantly, she turns to Deputy Sheriff Blake Sheraton, a man she finds herself inexplicably drawn to. Together, they must navigate the treacherous waters of Castle Point's underground community and release the captive spirit before it's too late.

But as their quest becomes more perilous, Alexandra finds herself torn between her duty and her growing feelings for Blake. And with the threat of burning at the stake looming over them both, the stakes couldn't be higher.

Can Alexandra free the spirit and keep her secret safe, or will she pay the ultimate price for her magic?

If you love the classic Witches of Practical Magic, the paranormal investigations of the Palmetto Point Witch Series by Wendy Wang, or the slow-burn romance and humor of The Witches of Hollow Cove by Kim Richardson, then you'll love this book!

"Witches and Walk-Ins" is the pulse-pounding first book in the Castle Point Paranormal Witch series, written by award-winning author, Tammy Tyree!

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Chapter One

Betty

The cool air tickled my arms. Tiny hairs rose with the gooseflesh. Small mounds of pimpled thermometers popped up over my arms, chest, and neck.

I heard a beeping sound, faint at first, then slowly it became louder and closer. The scent of cleanser assaulted me, harsh and chemical.

My eyes stayed firmly shut as if glued at the seam, or tiny weights held the lids down. My breath came in rhythmic, even bursts.

What was that in my mouth? My tongue wiggled and slammed against the hard plastic. I couldn’t taste anything other than stale, rotting breath, but I could tell something was firmly lodged in my mouth.

What the hell was it?

Why was it there?

I forced my eyes open a fraction. Moonlight filtered through the splintered cracks of my heavy lids and shattered against my eyes. Too bright! I closed them again, only long enough for my tongue to push up against the plastic in my mouth.

I could feel it now, not just in my mouth, but going down my throat. A swell of panic ran from my toes to my nose. I wanted to gag.

Spurred by the beeping beside me, louder now, my eyes flew open. I tried to sit up. I couldn’t move. I laid back against the softness of what must be a bed and peered around the room.

A hospital room.

I felt a heaviness as if underwater, the weight of my arms, legs, and chest making it difficult to see or breathe. The scent of cleanser pierced the back of my nose as I tried to breathe.

What was that thing in my mouth and down my throat? I forced my eyes to open wider, but they burned and felt gritty like someone had sprinkled fine sand under the lids. I blinked several times to clear the grit. My eyes took a while to adjust.

I looked down and saw a tube coming out of my mouth. My heart rate sped up. The beeping beside me kept pace as it beat faster and faster.

Why did I wake up in a hospital?

Was I in an accident?

The beeping sped up again, fast enough to send a wail of high-pitched signals through my room and into the adjoining hallway.

The large door burst open, startling me, which made the beeping speed up yet again. A nurse with short dark hair, dark-circled eyes, wearing pink scrubs with multicolored cartoon puppies on her shirt rushed in.

“Betty! Oh my god, she’s awake!” she practically screamed, to whom I couldn’t imagine. I assumed she was talking about me, however, as she leaped to the beeping machine and pressed a button to stop the noise.

Much better.

But… Betty?

Was that my name?

“Quick, call Dr. Holloway!” The pink puppy nurse barked to another nurse with long, curly red hair and a generous dose of junk in the trunk who had joined the party.

She was wearing sensible dark green scrubs that I thought complimented her curly copper hair, curvy body, and green eyes nicely. That nurse left the room quickly, her long copper hair trailing behind her.

I eyed the pink puppy nurse as she started fussing over me. “It’s ok Betty, calm down, nice and slow breaths. You have a tube down your throat that’s helping you breathe. Just breathe with it.”

No shit, Sherlock. Did I have a choice?

I tried to focus on breathing in and out with the rhythm of the machine. I felt tiny beads of sweat spring from my temples. My heart charged ahead, clearly not on board with my brain and the rhythmic breathing tube.

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my heart to slow down. Tears, mixed with sweat, streamed down my cheeks, some running into my mouth. The sharp, salty taste assaulted my tongue.

So many body parts had forgotten how to operate, and others were running wild. I felt a darkness fall over me, almost willing my brain to return to its vacation - wherever it had been - and my body to slip back to where I’d be safe.

So much of this didn’t feel right.

That included this body.

Or being in one.

Everything was confusing. Least of all the name I heard the nurse call me. Betty, was it? I tried to focus, to remember how I got here, and who I was. ‘Betty’ sounded foreign. It didn’t fit.

Was that weird?

I should know my name, shouldn’t I?

Copper-haired booty nurse rushed back into the room. “Doc Holloway’s on his way. Can you extubate her?” she asked the pink puppy nurse.

“Yes, of course,” she snapped, rolling her eyes and huffing a breath so large I half-expected a jet stream of fire to follow it.

Pink puppy nurse was a bit of a bitch, apparently.

I noticed the copper-haired booty nurse step back, slightly behind the pink puppy bitch nurse, narrowed her eyes, then twirl one index finger at the back of the pink puppy bitch nurse’s head.

Did she just cast a curse on the bitch?

I decided I liked copper-headed booty nurse a lot.

“Betty, I’m going to remove the breathing tube for you now, but I’ll need you to breathe out hard while I do. Do you think you can do that?” Pink puppy bitch nurse barked - funny - as she pulled on sterile gloves and removed the two strips of white tape securing the breathing tube against my face. I grimaced as the nurse yanked at the tape.

Ouch!

Settle down there, pink puppy bitch.

She grasped the breathing tube.

Was that a freaking smile on her lips?

My heart skipped a beat. I changed my mind. Just leave the tube in, and I’ll learn to live with it. But the pink puppy bitch nurse apparently couldn’t read minds and therefore wasn’t giving me a choice, so I summoned some nerve from somewhere inside this foreign landscape and nodded slightly.

“Ok, now, take a deep breath… ready… blow out!” As I blew, the nurse dragged the long tube from its position down my throat.

An intense burning sensation welled up from deep inside my chest. Bile chased the feeling up my throat. A damp taste of age-old dirt and grit stopped short of exploding past my teeth.

“That’s it! Great job, Betty!” Pink puppy bitch nurse’s praise sounded hollow, and her smile faded - torture time over. Copper-haired booty nurse clapped and even bounced a little, an action that made her my numero uno.

I coughed and retched, gasping for fresh air.

“Penny! Don’t just stand there! Give her a sip of water. Her throat's gonna hurt.”

Somebody must have pissed in the bitch nurse’s bran flakes.

I’m guessing it was a copper-haired booty nurse, Penny.

Copper Penny. How annoyingly adorable and appropriate.

Penny placed the breathing tube on a nearby tray and turned off the breathing apparatus, then offered me water through a straw. I could feel a cool flush down my throat and land in the pit of my stomach. The small sips were invigorating.

I managed a smile for the Copper Penny.

It was the least I could do.

Pink puppy bitch nurse cooed at me and rubbed her hands up and down my legs.

My smile faded.

Uh-uh, no thanks, lady.

Your bite is worse than your bark and the cute pink puppy shirt you think makes you look Shih Tzu adorable is ‌just fabric covering up a Pit Bull of a lie.

I wanted to giggle.

I think I’m funny!

Except, I think I like Pit Bulls, so comparing one to a pink puppy bitch nurse was an insult.

I definitely like Shih Tzu.

But how I even knew this was beyond comprehension.

My head pounded.

Copper Penny removed a white, plastic clamp thingee from my middle finger. I assumed it was there to track my heart rate. There was a coolness around the area where the clamp had been. How long had it been there? It left a red mark.

I didn’t recognize the fingers attached to hands that also looked incredibly unfamiliar. I glanced at my other hand, somehow thinking perhaps it would be different, but it wasn’t. I had never seen these hands before, nor the arms attached. My skin was sallow, but also loose, wrinkled, and saggy. I rested my eyes, then opened them and glanced at my hands again.

No change, and definitely not mine.

I felt certain about it.

Which meant that things just got weirder.

I noticed a heavy weight on my chest, but, peering down, the only thing I saw was a rather large hump in my hospital gown….ohhhhh.

I had big boobies.

Nice.

Just then, a tall, slender man entered the room. His gray hair, slightly mussed and off to one side, glasses barely resting on the tip of his nose, and the white coat he was wearing was miss-buttoned and floating behind him as he rushed in. There was a hunch in his shoulders and a slight limp in his step that revealed the wear and tear of his age.

This must be the Doc Holloway, that pink puppy bitch nurse told Copper Penny to call. He spoke quickly and quietly to both nurses before turning his attention to me. He smiled a robust, wide smile.

I was instantly annoyed.

“Welcome back, Betty! You’ve been with us for quite some time! Can you try to speak? Maybe even a whisper? Do you know where you are? You were in an accident nine months ago. Do you remember?”

The doc’s rapid-fire quiz made me feel like retreating under the covers if I could only move my heavy, saggy arms to pull the covers over my face.

The assault on my senses continued when he clicked on his penlight, pulled at my eyelids, and checked for pupil dilation. I blinked in rapid succession, eyes tearing up and overflowing onto my cheeks once again.

This man I didn’t like, I decided.

I glared at him, or at least I glared in his direction, as bright white dots floated across my vision.

Doc Holloway stood back, waiting for me to speak, but I took a few minutes to focus on his face and then on the nurses and around the room, moving my head slightly.

I felt like a circus animal in a cage.

Wait, had I ever been to a circus to see caged animals?

I assumed I must have, since I suddenly felt like one.

'Everyone look at the freak who just woke up from a coma! Praise be! Oh, and by the way; her name is Betty!'

Except it wasn’t, was it?

I took another look at the three expectant faces awaiting me to perform my next miracle. Then I focused in on Doc Holloway and wet my lips, preparing to speak.

My saliva tasted like blood and bile. I felt a wrenching swelling from deep inside me but I swallowed it down and took a ragged breath.

Doc Holloway leaned in slightly as I parted my lips to speak. My voice, merely a raspy whisper after what I now understood was months of hibernation, announced what I was suddenly very sure of.

“I’m not Betty.”

Demons, witches and ghosts - oh my!

Tammy (she/her) writes about what she knows - ghosts, hauntings, entities, witches, demonology and the paranormal!

A Clinical Hypnotherapist, Tammy infuses; tales from her actual case files of demonic possession and entity attachment with her knowledge of ancient demonic lore and witchcraft into artfully woven fiction and memoir.

Her upcoming 'Castle Point Witch Series' is due to release in early 2023 and promises to be full of paranormal goodness.

Her memoir 'Dead Men Still Snore' is a page-turning, award-winning true story of love, loss and channelling her husband's messages from the other side.

Visit https://tammytyree.com/ for more info about Tammy, her work and to receive updates for future books

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads