Ava shook her head. This wasn’t about her. “I think you are just the person I need to be speaking to today. My name is Ava. What’s yours?”
“S-Stewart.”
And he stuttered. She steeled herself. When this was over, she would send him a basket of lotions. “Thanks for letting me in, Stewart.” She grinned again. “My Healer advised me not to use my powers for a few days. Over-exertion after my broken heart.” Hopefully, he didn’t know who she was. “I’m hoping you can help me with a big problem. Bigger than my inability to open a door. See, my no good ex ran off with all my money. And he did it on one of your big trains. Can you help me find him?”
Three hours later, with Stewart using all his powers to pull images on the screen he used in the back of the office to watch porn, as far as Ava could tell, she saw the teenagers she needed to find. A gentle touch on his arm, and he exhausted himself spelling that image to her home screen. Of course, he thought she wanted to see the man who’d gotten off the train behind them. Or that her lawyer did.
Ava barely made it out of the office before the manager—who was a fifty-year-old woman with graying hair and a stern look—arrived. No way would Ava have gotten away with that charade with her. Ava sighed. That hadn’t felt good, but she’d at least gotten what she needed from the experience. A picture she could work with.
Humans were all over the internet and airwaves. One way or another, she’d find those girls. It hadn’t been as easy as having Lawson help her, but she’d gotten the job done. And Stewart would soon be the recipient of every male-oriented product that Ava sold. He’d have enough sandalwood soap to last him the rest of his life.
She did love that smell. Lawson had a touch of it. Mitchell had never liked the smell. Her mind stuttered. That errant thought was the first time she’d given Mitchell any mind in… days. Well, she’d brought up the not dating thing to Lawson, but she hadn’t really been thinking of Mitchell during that time. It had only taken a year and a night in bed with an Enforcer.
Ava grinned. It was a stupid thing to be giddy about, but there she was, smiling just the same. In fact, it wasn’t only that she hadn’t thought about Mitchell, but the fact she was doing all these things she’d never have considered thinking about if she’d married Mitchell and been Mrs. Sharpe. She wouldn’t wish her heartbreak on anyone, ever. But she was learning quickly that there was happiness to be found in new experiences, even if she hadn’t known that before.
* * *
One thing Ava had always been good at was using the internet. A lot of witches did these days. It was great for entertainment. Witches did love to watch cat videos…
But Ava had been doing it for a long time. She couldn’t conjure information; she had to search for it. This time she was doing image searches of two human teenagers. It didn’t take long to find them. Facebook seemed to take up a lot of their time, and she was able to locate their town very fast. She followed that quickly with an address lookup using the last name of the one who owned the necklace.
Whitney Proscoe lived an hour away by train.
Ava sat back in her seat. She’d go, then she’d come back. No one had to be any the wiser. When all was said and done, she’d have accomplished a good deed by warning the girls, and then she’d leave the rest of it to Lawson to work out. He might never want to see her again, but she had no doubt he wouldn’t leave this situation unfinished. Enforcers were famous for rooting out evil.
She got to her feet and walked to the window of her apartment. She was going into human-land and not just the hospital at the nearest train stop. What would happen if she just stayed? She was basically human.
The stars shone bright in the sky and a tear slipped from her eye. Wishing herself powers had never worked. She really had to stop doing it.
Chapter 7
She’d never been on a human train alone. The last time had been with her parents, taking her back from the hospital, and the time before, she’d had Mitchell with her. They’d driven back in the new car she’d purchased.
With her book in front of her and a cup of coffee, she figured she looked a lot like the humans who rode these things and wouldn’t automatically be labeled witch at first glance. It was harder for humans to tell a witch than it was for a witch to tell a human. Still, she wasn’t powerful, and she didn’t have anyone who was with her, which meant she’d be at risk if discovered.
There were nightmare stories of prisons and stoning. Ava rubbed the back of her neck and forced herself to calm. She was doing this. It would be fine.
Lawson popped into view next to her, and she nearly dropped her coffee she was so surprised by his presence. “Lawson.”
He nodded to her. “Ava Blakely, what are you doing on this train?”
She sat up straighter. He smelled good, like soap, and the heat coming off of him reminded her of a hot shower. Maybe he had just bathed. She had to force herself not to picture him naked. That wouldn’t do her any good.
“What are you doing on this train? Following me?”
Surprisingly, he grinned at that. “You came and started speaking so I’d hear it. Twice now. I follow up, and you have a fit. I’m seeing a pattern.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not a pattern. Twice is not a pattern.”
“A trend.” He leaned back. “Seriously, what are you doing here? Are you hurt? Following up with the head? Something go wrong?”
His dark brown eyes seemed to scan her, like they could find anything that might be off. She sighed. “I’m fine. No, I’m going to find those human girls.”
Lawson narrowed his eyes. “Ava, I told you not to do that. How do you even know where they are?”
“I’m smart, capable, sleuthy, and motivated. Also, I don’t particularly take no for an answer well. So you can keep ordering me if you want to. I’ll just keep doing as I want on this issue.”
She didn’t know how many times they had to go round on this. He could pop right off the train if he wanted to, the way he got on it. Although, she was glad to see him, more than she wanted to admit.
“Ava Blakely.” He rubbed his eyes. “I work for twenty-four to thirty-six hours straight then I get a mandatory twenty-four hours off. Not that it usually helps. All I can think about is what is happening with whatever case I am on. Now, however, my so-called free time to decompress is being spent obsessing about you.”
Okay, enough was enough. “I never asked you to do that. I know I got hurt. But I am more than capable of…”
“Stop,” he said, then leaned over, took her coffee and book, which he quickly set aside, and kissed her. Ava quit breathing. She closed her eyes. Surprise warred with delight that he’d pressed their mouths together. His lips were soft, but the slight touch of his chin on hers told her his skin was not. He had dark whiskers, and they tickled. He pressed closer, and she let him, wrapping her arms around his neck to hold on.
And then she quit thinking altogether. There was only Lawson, the way he led her through this embrace, and the feel of the train under her. He tasted like mint, and the heat coming off him only added to the moment.
His touch on her arm was gentle, and he stroked a hand on her skin. She shuddered against him. Lawson pulled back to look at her, his eyes flaring. She wouldn’t want to be on the other end of his gaze when his intensity was anything but as adoring as it was right then. The same look rounded on a person he was hunting? She swallowed. Maybe it was better not to think about that.
“Ava, if you are intent on doing this and will not be put off, then I will go with you. End of story.”
She blinked. “I’m intent on doing it, and I will not be put off, as you said. And thank you, I’ll take the company.”
Ava might be stubborn, but she wasn’t stupid. He leaned back against the seat before he quickly adjusted his pants. She looked away, a blush heating her cheeks. He tapped her chin, and she turned back to look at him.
“I want to be totally clear. I don’t want another chance for misunderstanding. I am interested
in you. I don’t really have the right to be. I’m an Enforcer. We don’t have a life that lends itself to dating. That doesn’t seem to mean I can leave you alone. I mean, I will if you tell me to. I was even going to after the other night. Then you came and said those things. I’d like to get to know you better, Ava. That being said, this life is too much, even for people living it.”
Ava understood what he was saying. “Kim brought that up. How hard it is for her and Stefan.”
Lawson raised both his dark eyebrows. “Did she? She’s not usually chatty with people she doesn’t know.”
“Maybe I’m not a stranger because I poured fluid down her throat while I practically straddled her body.”
He grinned at her, the crease between his eyes lessening. “Okay. Fair enough. Is spending some time with me—and only me—something you might be interested in doing? Even knowing I live this very unusual life. My schedule, the one I gave you, can change, and I can be gone for weeks if we’re in an emergency situation. I can’t talk about my work. You know about the hexer because of what happened. You know what? Forget it. I’m listening to myself. I wouldn’t want to date me.”
Ava put her hand in his, linking their fingers. “Any of us can sound very un-wantable when you put it like that. I’m a powerless witch from a family that doesn’t have these kinds of problems. If anyone were to fall in love with me and want to bind our souls together, they might be saddled with this problem in their children.”
Lawson shook his head. “Ava…”
“Let me finish, please. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately, and I think I might go and live with the humans. Pretend to be one.”
He shook his head. “You’re not human.”
“I might as well be. Anyway, you might not want to be involved with me. I might be leaving. Oh, and how did you find me here?”
He shrugged. “I find people. You’re not trying to hide. Ava, how do you know where these human girls live?”
She elbowed him. “I told you. I’m sleuthy.”
He shook his head. “I don’t like that answer.”
“Well, it’s the only one you’re getting.”
Lawson exhaled. “Don’t move to where the humans are. Stay.”
Ava leaned her head down on his shoulder. He didn’t flinch, and she decided she’d stay there for the remainder of the trip. “I would like to get to know you, Lawson. Even if it’s hard. I think most things are hard. At least for me. I wouldn’t know what to do with easy.”
The train pulled up to the station, and they got off together. Lawson looked left, right, behind them before he stared up at the sky. When he deemed it safe, he nodded. “We’re in and out. Get it? You go, tell these people about what happened, and we move on.”
“Lawson.” She knew this might not be the best time to say this, but she was going to anyway. “Thank you for putting my shop on that message board.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “What message board?”
“Kim told me you did.”
He put his hands on his hips. “What the hell with Kim sharing? And I didn’t even tell her that. You’re welcome. It was the least I could do. It’s a great shop. And we took advantage of you, pulled you out of a family event, and basically gave you no choice but to help us. I wanted to do something.”
“Well.” She walked toward him. “I actually could thank you for that, too. That was… something. Lately, I’ve been having experiences I didn’t ever think to have. Knowing I could do that? That I really could? Save Kim like that? Yeah, that made me feel more worthwhile than I have, ever.”
He took her hand, and she let him, liking the feeling of their fingers laced together. He held her firm in his grip as though nothing in the world would ever separate them.
Lawson led them down from the station, and it wasn’t until he stopped moving that she realized she’d never told him where they were going. Ava dug the address out of her pocket and handed it to him. He took a look, nodded, and then squeezed her hand tighter. “Kim is not the first person you saved. You saved me that day.”
“I can hardly remember it. Just sort of a sense of the thing. And I’m sure they wouldn’t have killed you.” A thought dawned on her. “Are you hanging around out of some sort of guilt? Because I can assure you that whatever happened with the turning me into a turtle, I haven’t been damaged by it mentally. I don’t think.”
Lawson raised his arm to signal a yellow car to stop. Ava’s eyes widened. That was a taxi. She’d seen them on television but never in person before. Her heart rate kicked up. This was exciting.
He opened the door. “Trust me. They were going to kill me. They made you the turtle, and then they all stopped in horror. If I’d been the turtle, they would have tormented and then killed me.”
Lawson slid into the taxi next to her and told the driver the address. Then he tilted his head slightly to the left. She didn’t know exactly what he’d done, but it was something magical. She raised her eyebrows at him. They weren’t supposed to use magic on or around humans.
“He’s going to hear a very different conversation than the one we’re having.”
Ava shook her head. “So the rules don’t apply for you?”
“Not really, no.” He leaned back in the seat. “Ava, I’m not spending time with you because you turned into a turtle instead of me. I’m spending time with you because you’re the kind of person who would do that. I wanted to get to know you forever, but you were always with dipshit.”
Ava could feel her cheeks heating all over again. “I never had any idea.”
“Yeah… well. Now you do. They would have killed me because my father was sleeping with his mother. Josh’s mother, my father. Big affair. Josh was going to take it out on me.”
“What?” She didn’t mean to sound so shocked, but the sound came out just the same. Witches soul bonded when they got married. Very few affairs took place, ever. They were a huge scandal when they did happen.
He nodded. “Yeah, my dad hurt my mother all the time, up until two years ago when he managed to get himself killed in a bar duel. Blown into smithereens. You’re going to hear about it if you spend time with me. Someone will eventually tell you. He bonded with my mother, then ran around like a single man.”
Ava looked away. The tears that threatened to spill would only embarrass him, and she didn’t want to make this worse. “I’m sorry. That had to be so hard to live with.”
“It wasn’t pleasant, no. Ava, look at me.”
She forced herself to meet his gaze. Whatever he saw there, he must have liked because he nodded at her. “I’m not built like that. Either despite my father or maybe because of it, I’m as loyal as they come.”
Ava nodded. “I don’t imagine you could do what you do if you weren’t.”
“I wish I could have met you before Mitchell did. I wonder what life would have been like for the two of us if I had.”
That was an interesting question, and not one either of them would ever be able to answer. For all that other witches could do, none of them could turn back time. “So, do you do this a lot? Ride in human taxis?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say a lot. I mean, I spend a lot of time in human places. But I don’t often ride in taxis.”
“How do you get around then? When you do this?”
He gave her a sideways grin. “Trade secret, baby. Not going to tell you that.”
They pulled up to the house, a white house with black shutters and a slightly overgrown front lawn. It was the first time she’d ever seen in person how a human family lived. In her town, landscape witches spellcast lots of amazing grass designs and plants. Flowers bloomed even in winter. She’d never seen an unkempt lawn before. It was a strange thing to focus on, but she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it.
If she left the witch world, she’d have to figure out upkeep for things she’d never thought about before. Even without powers, she could pay other witches to do certain tasks for her. And her apartment building to
ok care of the grass as part of the maintenance.
Lawson put his hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I suppose so.”
“Then let’s get out of the car. I can open the door for you magically, but I believe you to be perfectly capable of doing it.”
Of course he was right, she used the handle and disembarked the vehicle while Lawson paid the man and de-spelled him. When he finally came up to her, he ran a finger down the back of her neck. She shivered but not from cold, rather from the warmth pulsing through her body. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“If you could read my mind, you’d never want to spend any more time with me. I’m so random. Don’t ask what I’m musing about now.”
He shook his head. “I’d love to understand the workings of your mind. So out of curiosity, what is the plan if they’re not home?”
“We wait.” She walked toward the black door that matched the window frames. Some of the paint was chipping. Like the lawn, which wasn’t completely disheveled but not perfectly maintained either, the house needed someone to pay just a little attention to it.
“And if they’re on vacation? Or gone overnight? Are we just going to sit here and wait?”
He didn’t sound annoyed. More like he was challenging her. Did he want to see how far she was willing to go? The answer was as far as she needed to go. Ava finished things that she started. Or at least she thought she did. There were still paint cans that needed to be discarded in her apartment and several of her walls could use a retouch. Middle of the night manic painting didn’t lend itself to great work.
Ava rang the doorbell. At least in the human world, she didn’t have to worry about door handles. “If they’re on vacation, I’ll leave a note. After I wait a little bit. If you need to go, you’ll go. I’ll figure out how to get out of here.”
He shook his head. “Ava, you are so determined to prove that you can handle everything that you are overthinking all of this. I’m only here to make sure you’re safe. Not questioning whether or not you could figure out how to get home.”
Hexed and Vexed Page 8
