by Abbi Glines
Probably not. Would he still want me if he knew the evil inside me? Would he be terrified? Or would he stay?
“I won’t give you up, either,” was all I could say, even though this was a vow I knew I had no right to make.
He leaned in to kiss my lips. “You own me and that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
I didn’t want to own him. I just never wanted to let him go.
“Just hold me,” I told him, not wanting to think anymore. His words were only reminding me why this should have never happened. I couldn’t imagine living this life and never experiencing what we just did. It was impossible to regret it.
Loving Rathe was selfish... but I wouldn’t change it.
Twenty-Two
The Abomination
The sound of a door closing woke me up. Blinking, it took me a moment to remember where I was. The early morning light came through the blinds and everything from the night before came back in a flurry of excitment, fear, and disbelief.
I sat up and spun around to see Rathe sprawled out beside me on the bed. His beautiful back exposed and his hair a perfect mess. He was here. Everything last night had been real.
The door that had woken me closed again. Duely was never up this early. I wanted to curl up against Rathe and stay in bed with him forever, but the closing of the door was not normal. I had to make sure we were safe. That I kept Rathe safe.
I eased out of bed looking around for my clothes and not seeing anything but my panties. I didn’t want to wake Rathe by going through my suitcases. More noises from the kitchen began to worry me. This was not normal. I didn’t have time to look for my clothes.
“Mihi exhiberet convivium” I whispered.
Glancing down and seeing clothes from last night covering my body again, I headed for the door. Opening it so that it didn’t make a sound, I stepped into the hallway and walked the few steps to the living room and kitchen area. Duely was sitting at the bar with a cup of coffee. He held it up when he saw me. “Cheers,” he said. “About time you got you some.”
“Shhh, keep your voice down,” I whispered. “And how do you know about that?” When I had finally fallen asleep in Rathe’s arms last night, the bar was still going strong.
Duely smirked. “I brought you some food last night. I think Rathe shouting curse words and you screaming his name was my first clue. Sounded like a hot and sexy time.”
Duely took a drink of his coffee, looking amused.
“Oh,” I said, knowing Duely was the last person in front of whom I should feel embarassed given all his sexcapades. I still felt awkward knowing he’d heard us.
“You will need to work on not losing control of your power when you have sex next time though. It’s hard to remember at first, but you will have to or you’re going to make something burst into flames. If it’s the bed then that’ll hurt like a bitch.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked him completely confused. I hadn’t used any magic last night.
He spun his finger in the air. “The power pulsing in here was intense last night. Almost knocked me on my ass and I was outside the door.”
“But I wasn’t using magic,” I said again.
“That’s not what I am saying, Snow White. The energy you were putting off without realizing it is normal, but only when two casters are fucking can that be safe. He’s not a caster so you can’t let that side of you go free. It’s not safe.”
Why had no one mentioned this to me before? Had last night been good only because I was swirling magic around and had no idea? My stomach knotted up at the idea.
“Was... did that make... was I making it... was it good because of what I was doing?” I was bright red now. I hated having to ask this.
“If it was, would that bother you? It’s who you are so it’s a part of you and that’s the same as someone having a big dick and knowing how to use it. Or a wet tight pussy that squeezes you just right.”
I shook my head, not following this at all. “I don’t want magic to be the reason why sex between us was good. That sounds like cheating. Lying.”
Duely rolled his eyes. “Our lives are a lie. We are charmed.”
“Cursed. We are cursed,” I corrected him, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Sex with you will always be different for anyone you have sex with. Good different. Because you’re different. You have powers and the charm makes sex with you even more intense for regular humans. But that isn’t from the energy you were unleashing last night. The only person who could feel that is another caster. It’s why two casters like to let it go during sex. They are affected by it. Juiced in a way.”
That made me feel a bit better, but I was still bothered that my evil gift made sex better for Rathe.
“Stop scowling. You can’t stop being a witch. You were born one,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s a bonus in sex.”
This time I rolled my eyes. Duely was a sex addict. I was done talking about my sex life with him.
“Heath isn’t gonna be okay with this. I imagine he’ll be so damn broken he’s likely to jump off a building.”
I didn’t want to talk about Heath. That may be a small issue but it wasn’t going to be the big deal Duely thought it would be.
“Why are you awake?” I asked him.
“Just got in,” he replied. “Since you were fucking like maniacs up here, I decided to go home with a hot little blonde co-ed and her gay best friend. They were fast learners once she got over being bothered by watching her friend suck my dick. I told her to straddle my face and getting her pussy licked helped her get over it real damn quick then.”
I shook my head and held up a hand. “I don’t need the visuals, Duely.”
He chuckled. “What? You don’t want to imagine me fucking a hot big-tittied blond while a muscular soccer stud with a big dick takes my ass?”
“Stop!” I hissed.
Duely laughed and drank his coffee. “Go crawl back in bed with your sexy man, Snow White. I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m about to go to bed myself.”
I turned to go back to the bedroom but decided to ask Duely’s opinion on my biggest fear. He would be honest with me. He’d tell me if I was being ridiculous or if there was a chance I’d end up going evil.
“Do you think... that my being in a relationship with a man will make me... different? More like my mother and sisters?”
He sat his cup down and stood up. “Do you care for him, Cat, or was that just a fuck?”
“I care for him,” I replied, still reeling from admitting that to myself earlier.
Duely smiled. “That’s why you will never turn into one of them. They don’t care. They fuck. They take. They feel nothing.”
I wanted to believe that.
“I hope you’re right. There is no going back now. I can’t... even if it means he’s safer away from me. It scares me that I feel that way.”
“Stop overthinking it. Enjoy it. You deserve to be happy. Let yourself be.”
The door behind me opened and I glanced back to see Rathe standing there in his boxer briefs, messy hair tucked behind his ears, and looking too wonderful for words. “Mornin’,” he said when our eyes met.
“Good morning. I’m sorry if we woke you,” I said, feeling shy in the light of day and with Duely as our audience.
“Only thing you need to apologize for is letting me wake up without you there beside me. That was pretty damn cruel.”
Oh, my heart was not going to survive him. “I’m sorry for that, too,” I replied shyly.
He nodded his head back toward the bed. “Come back.”
“Okay.”
He grinned then and the naughty gleam in his eyes had me wishing Duely would leave. I didn’t care that it was his apartment.
“I’m gonna head down to the bar and see what needs to be cleaned up,” Duely said as if
he’d read my mind. I knew he wanted to go to bed and get some sleep, but I wasn’t going to tell him to do that. I was getting more selfish by the minute.
Rathe held up a hand in a wave. “Mornin’ and thanks,” he said in Duely’s direction.
“Your morning is gonna be better than mine, I’d say,” Duely returned, then headed for the door.
I didn’t look back at him. Not that I was embarassed. I just couldn’t stop looking at Rathe. I wanted to run to him and leap into his arms. The door closed and Rathe held out his hand toward me. “Please get naked and back in bed with me,” he begged.
I walked to him and put my hand in his. He tugged me to him and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “How do you feel?” he asked then slipped his hand between my legs. His fingers slid down the front of my shorts and into my panties. “Sore?”
I hadn’t realized I was tender until he touched me. I rubbed against him like a cat wanting to be stroked regardless of the soreness. “Catalina, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m gonna need to get inside you. I woke up craving you.”
The ringing of my phone interrupted anything I could say or do. No one should be calling me this early. No one ever called me this early.
“Ignore it,” Rathe said, taking a bite of my ear and making me not care that my phone was ringing so early. He circled my waist with his hands and walked backwards toward the bed, taking me with him. My phone stopped ringing. Whoever it was could wait a little.
Another phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment and Rathe stilled. I looked up at him. “Is that yours now?”
He nodded.
“Heath or Margo. Something could be wrong.” I pulled away from him and he let me go. I went to get my phone from the dresser and check to see who it was that had called.
Heath.
“Hey, man. Something wrong?” Rathe asked and I turned to see him standing in the middle of the room with his phone to his ear.
I went to him, my concern mounting now.
“Yeah. She’s,” his gaze locked on me and he paused. He was asking if this was okay. I could see the unspoken question in his eyes. I simply nodded.
“She’s with me. We’re at Duely’s,” he finished. His free hand reached out and he threaded his fingers through mine. There was silence on the other end of the line and I hoped Duely and Rathe were both wrong about how Heath felt about me.
Finally, I could hear Heath’s voice as he started to speak again. I couldn’t make out his words clearly. I heard Margo and I heard my name but not much else.
“When was the last time you talked to her?” Rathe asked, his hand tightening around mine.
“Catalina, can you see if you can find Margo on your phone app?” Rathe asked. He let go of my hand and I hurried over to get my phone and check it. I opened the app but all I could see was a notification that Margo was no longer sharing her location with me. She wouldn’t do that. Something wasn’t right.
“How long has she been gone?” I asked, spinning around to look at Rathe.
“Last time Heath saw her was yesterday when she went to work. He didn’t come back to the apartment last night. He, ah, stayed out and just got there. She wasn’t there and there was no sign she’d been back since she left for work yesterday. He can’t get her on the phone. It goes straight to voicemail.”
Panic ceased me. So many scenarios began flooding my thoughts. “Did he call her work?” I asked.
“It’s not yet seven in the morning, Catalina,” he reminded me.
“Oh. That’s right. What about an employee, boss, manager? Does he have any of their numbers?”
Rathe shook his head.
I had to find her. I could find her easily. This wasn’t like her. Something wasn’t right. I grabbed the tennis shoes I had on yesterday and headed for the door.
“Catalina, wait,” Rathe called out. He couldn’t come with me. I had to be alone. I didn’t have time to figure out how to use magic without him realizing what I was doing. I could find her faster if I was alone. There were two ways I could do this and I needed something of hers, but I had nothing with me. I’d have to go to the apartment. I had to get something.
She was okay. She had to be okay. Where had Heath been? Why would he not call in to check? Did he not check in with her when he stayed out at night? I grabbed my new car keys and images of terrible things kept flashing in my head so I began to run. I had to hurry. I was imagining the worst.
I unlocked the car door as I ran for it. When I got to the driver’s door, I jerked it open but I didn’t manage to get inside before Rathe’s body was behind me and I was being pulled back. “Passenger’s side. You’re too worked up to drive,” he said in my ear very calmly.
“I have to hurry, Rathe!” I cried.
“I am going to fucking fly. I swear. But you’re too upset to drive. I’m not letting something happen to you.”
I was wasting time arguing. I let out a frustrated groan and ran around to the passenger side. “Fine. Get in. Drive,” I called out opening the door and flinging myself inside. Rathe was quick like he had promised. He was zooming out of there and down the street that was still thankfully empty.
“This isn’t like her,” I said.
“Heath said that, too. But you both need to take deep breaths. Calm down and think about where she could be. Do you want to go to where she works and see if there is someone there or maybe her car. She may have gone out with friends and gotten drunk. Passed out.”
Those scenarios were very likely and if I had been in a full blown freak out, I would have kissed him for giving me something so reasonable to hope for. I was imagining her being abducted, raped, dead on the side of a road somewhere. I liked his theories better. Going to the mall where the store she worked at was located meant I could track her from there.
I needed to do that alone though. Dang it. I needed Rathe not to be so protective of me. He didn’t need to protect me. He didn’t know that and it was sweet that he wanted me safe. I couldn’t be mad at him for wanting to keep me safe. He thought driving me was helpful. I should be mad at Heath for not calling his sister last night and telling her where he was. He’d have realized then she wasn’t answering.
“Uh, yeah, why don’t you drop me at the mall and I’ll go inside. The coffee shop will be open. I can see if anyone has seen her. See if her car is there. You can go to the apartment and get Heath. He’s upset, too. He doesn’t need to drive.” That was the best excuse I could think of to get him to leave me there on my own.
He frowned at me. “Heath’s a big boy. He can drive himself. I’m not leaving you there alone.”
Crap. Okay, a new plan. I had to do this the harder way. I wouldn’t be able to stand outside her store at the mall and cast the locating spell that would lead me to her. Not if he was going to be right there watching me.
The restroom. The one close to her store. She’d have used it yesterday. I can go in there and do the spell.
We were pulling up to the mall. Rathe had broken all the road rules to get us there this fast. “Where would she have parked?” he asked. I pointed to the right side of the food court entrance.
“That way,” I instructed. When we turned the corner and one of the three cars sitting in the large, otherwise empty parking lot was Margo’s, I sighed in relief. However, that was short lived because then I started fearing she’d been taken from the parking lot.
“Call Heath and tell him that her car is here. I’m going to run inside and use the restroom,” I said reaching for the door handle before he even came to a complete stop beside her car. I needed to look inside and make sure she wasn’t in there.
The second the car stopped, I swung open the door and jumped out. There was no sign of Margo inside her car, but her purse was there. Why would her purse be in there? I reached to open the car door, but it was locked. Staring down at it, I attempted to unlock it like I
had mine yesterday, but nothing happened. I was too worked up for my mind to focus properly. “Reserare ianuam,” I whispered and squeezed the handle expecting it open. Again nothing. It wasn’t unlocking.
“It’ll take a little more than that simple cast to get it to open,” the deep familar voice said, startling me. My head snapped up to see my stalker standing there on the other side of the car, leaning on it as if he’d been there the entire time even though I knew he hadn’t.
No. Nononononono. Why was he here? Why was he near Margo’s car?
“Why? Where is she?” I asked both questions remembering then that I wasn’t alone and Rathe wasn’t in the car this time, so I couldn’t lock him inside again. He was behind me. His scent and warmth were close by. Very close. I had to think, but I was panicking and that made it harder to think. If he’d taken Margo, then he’d have no problem trying to hurt Rathe, too.
“She is sleeping, safely. Relax, Catalina,” the man replied, shifting his gaze over my left shoulder. He gave Rathe an odd almost threatening smile. I moved to stand completely in front of Rathe and my panic was being replaced with anger real damn quick. He might had taken my friend, but he was not about to do anything to Rathe.
“I want Margo. Now,” I said with my own threat clear in my tone.
The stalker shifted his eyes back to me. “There’s that shit I like to see. You’re nothing like the damn Kamlocks. Pansy ass bunch of witches,” he said, then walked around the car watching us both. I didn’t want him getting near Rathe.
“Don’t come any closer,” I warned him. He paused and tilted his head as if he was curious. If he thought I wasn’t going to fight back because I was obviously hiding my magic from Rathe, he was wrong. At this point, Rathe had seen and heard too much anyway. I didn’t know how much lying I could do to get out of this one.
He didn’t come closer. He stayed where he was and I knew it wasn’t because he was scared of me. His gaze was determined.
Rathe’s hand slid around my waist, and he placed his palm flat on my stomach. It was a sign of possession rather than protection. He needed to get back in the car and the only way I could get him in there was by casting a spell. I didn’t want to do that. He’d know just what I was if I did.
