“Melasina!” Delphine, the leader of our coven came over and air-kissed me on both cheeks. “It’s so nice to see you.” She stood back, surveying me. “You look… different.” Her brow furrowed. “What have you done with yourself?”
I shrugged, feeling my neck get warm. “I’m here? I haven’t been to the ball the last two years.”
She stared at me a moment longer. “Perhaps. There is something about you,” her eyes moved over me slowly, “that feels different.”
Oh, shit. Could she see Zelda? Feel her? Oh, Goddess.
Then her brow cleared, and Delphine smiled. “Well, it’s good to see you. Don’t be such a stranger,” she said. She patted my hand and moved away.
Was there a warning in her words?
I walked through the entryway, moving to the ballroom. There were people I knew—I wondered if my dad would be here. How sad it was that I didn’t know. How sad that we didn’t talk. I straightened my shoulders, shrugged off the whispers, hitched up my bag that had Zelda’s skull in it, and headed into the fray.
The first person I saw, before I even had the chance to get a drink, was Jasper Thibodeaux.
Damn it.
His eyes met mine, and a smile turned up the corners of his wide, delicious mouth. He actually looked happy to see me. Sadly, I thought he might be the only person who was. Jasper came toward me, still smiling.
My insides clenched, and I felt every nerve ending in my body wake up as he touched my arm.
“Hi, Melasina. I was hoping I’d see you tonight.”
Chapter Four
Jasper
Melasina looked startled when I touched her arm. Her cheeks turned pink. Well, at least I thought they did. It could have been the lighting.
“Oh, um… hi. Hello. Nice to see you again.” She looked down for a moment, seeming flustered.
I hoped it was because of me, but that was probably hoping for too much. It also could have been because she cast a spell on me this morning, essentially kicking me out of her house, too. The fact that it had worked so well meant one of two things: either she was very, very strong, or I was completely taken with her, and stupid. I could have written a report that ripped her for the spell, but I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I pretended I hadn’t noticed.
Back to her strength or my foolishness: It could be both. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted it to be. Regardless, the question remained as to why she’d booted me out? “I was hoping to talk with you some more,” I said with a smile designed to put her at ease.
Melasina looked up as she clutched the bag on her shoulder closer to her. “Why?”
“Well, when I came to see you, I didn’t get a chance to talk about everything I wanted to.” Apparently, my charm wasn’t working here. Even with me pretending I hadn’t noticed her spell. I should be mad, but I was intrigued.
Her eyes narrowed. “What, tossing around more accusations? If you want to talk more, let’s do it at the library, on the record.” She pushed past me, obviously done with the conversation.
I caught up with her, trailing right behind her as she took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. “No,” I say quietly in her ear. “It’s about your mother.”
Melasina stops, whirling around to face me. “What about my mother? Haven’t we covered it all? Isn’t it enough that she’s gone?”
“Well, I’ve had some disturbing reports,” I began.
Melasina cut me off. “You people! You’re all the same! My family is trashed, and there’s no coming back from that. My dad and I are suitably cowed, and we don’t want any trouble. Can we just leave it at that?” Her voice ended on a note that told me this was still something that brought her grief.
I felt like a jerk, which didn’t normally happen. Protecting the coven, making sure that we were safe, weren’t discovered—that was my job. My responsibility. But I felt bad for forcing this conversation on Melasina Cormier. Was I going soft?
No. She’d kicked me out of her house. There was a reason for that. And I was going to figure out what it was.
“What is that?” Melasina wondered. “Whoa. Holy hell, what is she doing here?” She was looking over my shoulder.
I turned, and I’m pretty sure my mouth fell open.
Melasina moved next to me, her shoulder brushing up against me. Normally, I’d be thrilled, and my cock was, but the scene unfolding outside the open doors in the garden held my attention.
A beautiful, dark-haired woman had appeared in the middle of the garden where Delphine, the coven leader, planned to be later to deliver the blessing. The witches in the garden had noticed her and the murmuring of the crowd grew.
“Wasn’t she banished?” Melasina asked me out of the side of her mouth. “Did she really do it? Or was she just off the popular girls’ list?”
Her skepticism, given what had happened to her mom, was understandable. I looked around to see where any of the leaders were, and none were nearby. Shit. “She really did it. She used some very dark magic.”
Thea, our most recently banished witch, stood in the center of the garden. Her dark hair moved around her, possibly as a result of the magic she was getting ready to cast. She threw up her hands and began to speak.
“How the hell did she get in here?” I asked, not really expecting an answer. “The wards should have kept her out.” Magnolia House was well warded, which meant someone like Thea—no longer coven, and banished—should have never been able to get in here.
Thea looked around, a tiny smile tilting up one side of her lips.
“‘Neath silver moon or dark of night
In shadow deep or brightest light
From this hex none shall be spared
For wrath knows not peace nor care
Betrayers! Gather close and hear
I damn you to your darkest fear
I bind you to dread’s cold embrace
Until your truth you boldly face"
Her arms up, she stopped, and then the force of the spell hit the garden.
It was as though a bomb had gone off. The witches closest to where she stood fell. The flowers and plants near Thea flattened. As the shock hit me, I fell backward.
A moment later, Melasina fell on top of me.
I blinked. The words of the spell rang in my ears, and my cock, which had been distracted at her touch, woke to the fact that a gorgeous woman was lying on top of me. Worse, said woman was moving. Wiggling. This was not the time to be thinking about her on my cock. In any fashion.
Melasina rolled off me and I scrambled to my feet, holding out a hand for her as I looked into the garden. Thea was gone, and there were witches lying on the ground. Some were bleeding from their noses, and I saw one man rubbing blood off his ear.
“Are you all right?” I leaned down to ask Melasina.
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
“I think we were all just cursed,” I said. I didn’t know for sure, but it felt like it. I needed to get a pen and paper, write down what I’d heard. “Stay here.” I squeezed her hand, and hurried to where Thea had been.
There was nothing left but a scorch mark on the garden stones.
“What was that?” I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see my boss, Lavinia.
“A grade A, no fucking around curse, if I had to take a guess,” I said.
“How did she get in here?”
“I wondered that myself.”
“It’s all hands on deck, Jasper. We’ll need to go over this entire place with a fine-toothed comb.”
I sighed. I thought I’d had other plans, but… I turned to see where I’d left Melasina standing at the door to the garden.
She was gone.
Why in the world would she leave? Especially now, with what had just happened? My sense of unease grew.
“Come on,” Lavinia said. “We might as well get started.” She patted my shoulder and walked back to the house.
“I’ll be there in a moment,” I said. I walked back to the
ballroom and looked around. Melasina wasn’t anywhere in the room. She’d left.
Why? As I continued to look around, I saw a glint on the floor. It was a necklace. I reached down, and as I picked it up, I realized it was Melasina’s. A small diamond pendant on a delicate gold chain. I’d noticed it when I was ogling her earlier.
Despite the mess of this moment, and the fact that Melasina was gone, I grinned. I had a perfect excuse to see her again. Even though I’d been unable to talk to her about her mother again, even though she’d cast me out of her house with magic—now I had a reason to seek her out. I wanted to know what the reports I’d been given meant. I wanted to know why she’d sent me away. I also wanted to see Melasina again. I was honest that being around her was part of it.
Just not yet. Whatever Thea had done had to take precedence. Even as I found I didn’t care why Thea was here, or what she’d done. I was much more interested in Melasina Cormier.
For lots of reasons.
After an hour, we were able to determine that one, Thea was long gone, two, she’d laid a curse on the house, but no one was sure exactly how to break it, and finally, that we had no idea how the curse was going to affect those who’d been in Magnolia House. Nothing seemed to be off, outside of being knocked on my ass, but I’d heard the curse. It had been powerful. And words like that, said that way, were extremely powerful. To me, they spoke of fear. And fear was one of the most powerful things in the world.
I could still hear Thea, her words echoing through the garden, feeling them in my bones. I’d written down what I remembered, and it would be compared with everyone else. Not to mention, someone would access their memories. We’d have the exact wording by tomorrow.
Lavinia, who’d been leading some of the librarians through the events in the garden once more, looked over at me. “You have it all written down and turned in?”
I nodded. “Yes. It’s done.”
She sighed and spoke in a voice meant only for me. “Well, I don’t think we’re all going to die, although I’m not going to say that with any surety. Why don’t you go home? I’ll see you tomorrow. This is going to mean late hours for a while. Damn that Thea.”
A shout from inside the house grabbed everyone’s attention. Delphine came out toward where we stood. As she stopped in front of us, I could see that her mouth was pinched, and she was angry.
But Delphine was a good leader, and she didn’t explode, or make a scene.
“What is going on?” Lavinia asked.
“The crypt has been broken into,” Delphine said quietly, the worry coming through her words.
“Was anything taken?” I asked.
“I’ll need records of the inventory of anything stored there,” Delphine said. “At the moment, there’s only one thing that I can say is missing for sure.”
“Which is?” Lavinia asked.
“The reliquary,” Delphine whispered.
“Oh, shit,” I exclaimed before I remembered where I was.
Delphine glanced at me and nodded. “Exactly. That’s why Thea was able to get in here. With the reliquary gone, the wards around the house were broken.”
“Then let us help set the wards again,” Lavinia said briskly. “They won’t be as strong without the Founder’s reliquary, but they’ll keep Thea out.”
“I think she’s done her damage,” I said.
That earned me side eye from both my boss and my coven leader. I shut up, and followed them into the house to help reset the wards. Once we’d finished, Lavinia sent me home.
But I wasn’t headed home. I felt the necklace in my pocket. I was going to return this to Melasina, and… and what?
Try and finish the conversation that I’d started. It wasn’t that late. I found it odd that she’d left. As I pulled up in front of her cottage, I could see the lights on in the front room.
Good.
I knocked on the door, and I could hear her moving around. After a moment, the door was yanked open.
“Oh, it’s you,” Melasina said. Her tone indicated she wasn’t overjoyed to see me.
Which gave me a pang, but I brushed it aside.
“Yes, I wanted to return this to you,” I held out the small gold necklace.
One hand went to her neck, and Melasina’s expression relaxed. “I didn’t even realize it had fallen off. Thank you,” she reached for it.
“May I come in?” I asked.
Her hand stopped midair, and she looked at me for what seemed like a long moment. Then she sighed. “All right.” She took the necklace from me and turned from the door.
I followed her in.
Melasina went to a small chair next to the fireplace. “What do you want, Jasper?” She sounded tired.
“I keep trying to talk with you about your mother, and we keep being interrupted,” I smiled. I was inordinately pleased she’d let me come in, that I got to be around her again. “And you rushed me out of here this morning,” I added, wanting to see her reaction.
She flushed.
I was right. She’d used magic. Which should worry me, but I pushed that aside as well.
“I’ve told you everything about my mother. And what the hell happened tonight?”
“Why’d you leave?” I asked.
“There was nothing for me there. I’m not exactly welcome, and frankly,” Melasina ran a hand through her hair, “People tend to look at me and see things that aren’t there, particularly when something negative happens. I just left before anyone looked at me and started making assumptions.”
I nodded. It made sense, and honestly, it made me feel ashamed. I’d written her off before, just as everyone else had. Before I’d met her. Even with the whole toss me out of her house using magic thing.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“If you recall,” I leaned back, “I asked you if you’d gone to your mother’s funeral, and for anything you remembered during that time.”
She nodded.
“The reason I ask is that we’ve had a report of someone seeing Sariah,” I said, watching her carefully.
Melasina blinked, and her mouth fell open, just a little.
It was adorable, and I wanted to kiss her, make her mouth fall open even more as she said my name, first softly, and then louder, as she screamed… I shook my head. I had to get control over my thoughts.
“How can that be?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Which is why I wanted to speak with you. Not only because of the disturbed graves, but because of what I’d read in the report.”
Her face and neck flushed again. “You have a report on me?” She was angry.
“Yes, Melasina, we do. We keep records of everything. Although it wasn’t a report on you but your mother. A note had been added recently that reported seeing someone who resembled your mother. Had you not hurried me out of here, I would have told you about it this morning.”
Her eyes met mine and skittered away.
Busted.
“Why’d you push me out with magic? You know that’s not—”
“Yes, I know it’s not allowed!” Melasina burst out. “I’m well aware of everything that’s not allowed!”
“And yet you did it anyway,” I stood up, moving closer to her.
“Because I didn’t want to talk about my mother yet again!” Melasina stood up as well, her hands clenched at her sides, her eyes sparking with fire.
I took another step toward her, closing the distance between us.
“Just please go away, Jasper,” Melasina said. “If my mother is not dead, there’s nothing I know about it. I can’t help you,” she put her hands out to push past me.
I caught her arm. “Are you sure about that?” I asked. “After all, we both know you use magic when it’s not completely appropriate.”
She stared at me, her anger spilling off her like water coming over the levees. Then with her free hand, she reached up and grabbed my head, pulling me down close to her.
I was so sur
prised I didn’t say anything.
Her lips crashed into mine, and whatever else was on my mind was lost.
Chapter Five
Melasina
I hadn’t meant to kiss him, but even as angry as I was, he was so hot, so tempting, that I just acted without any thought.
As his lips met mine, I felt my body go up in flames. He felt amazing. It felt so, so good to be touched. To touch someone else.
Jasper groaned, and he let go of my arm to wrap both his arms around me, one hand tangling in my hair. He devoured my lips, nipping at them as he kissed me. The scrape of his teeth against my skin made me wet.
My arms snaked around his neck, pulling him closer to me. His lips moved down my neck, and my head fell back. I moaned. He felt so good.
Jasper slid his hands under my tee shirt, up my back. One hand came around and lifted up my tee shirt to expose my breasts. I felt my nipples pebble under the breeze from the ceiling fan, and Jasper bent his head to take one in his mouth.
I felt a rush of wetness between my legs as he suckled on the nipple, his other arm cradling me, supporting me.
Then he moved his mouth to the other nipple, and the feel of his teeth made me gasp. “Oh, Goddess.”
Jasper stilled. He stood, letting my tee shirt fall. “I—I didn’t mean—” he began.
“I did,” I said, feeling bolder than I’d felt in ages. “Don’t stop.”
“Melasina—”
I pulled him toward me, moving us to my room. There were two small rooms on the side of my house. The one in the front of the house was my office. I’d made the second room my bedroom.
At the doorway, he balked. “No, we can’t.”
I stopped. “We don’t have to,” I said, feeling bereft at his rejection. I straightened my tee shirt. “I’m sorry. I had the wrong idea.” I took a step to move around him.
Wicked Love Page 3
