by T J Nichols
It was only because of the Coven covering up his screwups that no one knew he was a witch.
“How did you learn the truth?”
“The MRI incident got the Coven’s attention. That was the first of many mishaps. I accidentally blacked out a small city before I learned control. I’m in trouble this time because I got lucky in Vegas.” He smiled, he couldn’t help it. “I won the jackpot by giving the slot machine a friendly nudge.”
That had been the most useful thing his magic had ever done. But he understood why it was something the Coven wouldn’t encourage. Too many people had asked why the machine had gone off, and somehow those questions had reached the Coven.
“I bet the Coven loved that.”
“Not so much. I was told not to do it again, and this is my penance to prove I care about the paranormal community and that I don’t want to start another round of witch hunts.” He stared at his bare feet. “They offered me a job if I succeeded. Maybe it wasn’t a setup.”
Only Landstrom was keen to see him fail. Had the other two known his mate was here?
“A job? Doing what?”
Jude shrugged. “As an investigator…doing this.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know. I was planning on traveling to get away from all of this. I was waiting for my passport when they called me in. I worked hard to win that jackpot. It took me months to figure out how to manipulate the machines. I need to use my magic for more than charging my car and phone. I didn’t expect my win to land me in trouble that would get me sent here and mess up your life. You have a place, a home, and you know what you are and always have.”
“But no one else does,” Mack whispered.
Mack’s loneliness hit Jude hard. There were no other paranormals in town. No one he could share anything with. Seeing Mack in his bear form had been amazing and terrifying and he’d never forget it, but Jude didn’t belong here. He didn’t belong anywhere.
Jude pushed it all aside. He shouldn’t have let himself grow fond of Mack. But what they had…he bit his lip…losing that would hurt more than losing his magic. He understood why witches wanted a familiar, not for the power, but for the connection. A connection Mack had never wanted.
“When the Coven gets here, they will break the bond. I’m sure they’ll be happy to do it as it gives them another reason to take my magic.” They’d probably do it even if Mack didn’t ask.
“What do you mean?”
“You can petition for your freedom, but there is a cost. I lose my magic.”
“That’s not right.”
“That’s the rules.”
“It wasn’t in what I read. You should’ve told me.”
“Why? The odds are I’ll lose it anyway. I’m not leaving here with my magic.” He’d go back to the city magicless and mateless. “I’m trying to be okay with that.” He’d rather get eaten by an aufhocker.
Chapter Thirteen
Mack made himself a pile of sandwiches and ate without tasting. Jude was making a horrible mistake in trying to be noble. There was no glory in being a dickhead. And Mack didn’t want to be saved.
“We still have to survive tonight before the Coven gets here.” And stop the remaining aufhocker from killing any more people. Which meant they couldn’t hide in the house.
Jude strolled into the kitchen from the living room. “I know. I was thinking we could go back to North and trap it before it goes hunting.”
Mack nodded. At least Jude hadn’t completely given up. “If you hadn’t called the Coven, I could’ve asked a few more bears to come down.” He couldn’t ask them to fight, but they could be backup and help contain the creature.
“We can’t involve others or ask them to put their lives in danger. I shouldn’t have involved you.”
“You think you could’ve avoided what the Fates planned?”
“If I hadn’t gone to the bar.”
“Then we’d have met some other way. The kiss was always going to happen. I liked you the moment I saw you.” But Jude was going back to the city then going traveling. The distance was already forming, and this time it wasn’t his fault.
“Lust.” Jude shoved his hands into his pockets. He was trying to appear unbothered, but the misery was there, threatening to drown him and take Mack with him.
He couldn’t let Jude have his magic stripped. It wasn’t his fault he’d screwed up. The Coven should’ve trained him better or given him more help or something.
Mack studied Jude. “Do you really want to leave Mercy and go back to Seattle?”
Jude hesitated and wouldn’t meet Mack’s gaze.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“I thought I belonged in the city around all that electricity—it feels so good on my skin. I missed it out here. Hated it at first. But now I love the silence. Yesterday there was nothing. I had the same experience at North, too. I’ve never been able to play with my magic like that.” He shrugged. “Not that it matters.”
“It does matter. It matters to me.” Do you want me? was the question he couldn’t ask, or was this nothing to Jude?
“When the bond is broken, you’ll be free again.”
Which is exactly what he’d wanted at first. How could he have been so blind to what was in front of him? “And so will you.”
“I’ll be human.”
“But you’ll know the truth. You don’t have to leave.” Mack had said too much. He shoved a sandwich into his mouth to stop more words from tumbling out.
Jude looked at him. His eyebrows drew together. “I’ve messed up your life enough, don’t you think?”
Mack swallowed, the bread like wool clogging up his throat. “You’d mess it up more by leaving.” Mack put the empty plate in the sink. “I’m going into town to get supplies for tonight.”
“Like what?”
“Dunno yet.” But he couldn’t stay here another minute. He wanted his life messed up because it was better that way. Jude couldn’t see that because he was too busy trying to be a martyr and save everyone but himself. As Jude’s familiar, it was his job to stop his witch from doing something stupid. “But if we can stop the aufhocker tonight, you get to keep your magic.”
“Do you want to die? We barely survived last night.”
Mack crossed the small kitchen and backed Jude up against the wall. “Do you want to quit? Or do you want to fight? Why have you given up? You’re rolling over for the Coven and letting them have their way.”
Jude blinked up at him but didn’t answer.
“Do you want to lose your magic?” Was that what this was about?
“No. But the Coven is right. I put others in danger.” Jude placed his fingers on the scars on Mack’s throat. “Just being my familiar is putting you at risk. We’re bound—”
“I know the risks. We’re going out to North this afternoon before it gets dark. I suggest you research ways to bind an aufhocker. If you need anything, let me know.” Mack hesitated, caught between needing to kiss Jude but being too annoyed to even want to touch him. He didn’t want to go out there for round two with an aufhocker while being irritated with his witch. He pressed a hard, angry kiss on Jude’s lips then stalked out of the house, swiping up his truck keys as he went.
The slamming of the front door echoed through the house. Jude kept his back to the wall and blew out a breath. He felt Mack’s anger vibrating like a swarm of wasps. It wasn’t until the truck pulled out of the driveway that the emotions that weren’t his faded.
What was left was the discovery that Mack was fighting for him.
No one had ever fought for him.
No one had so completely accepted him for who he was.
He pressed his hand to his crushed lips. No one had ever been quite so furious with him either. He needed to fight for himself and his right to hold on to the magic he’d been born with.
Slowly, he peeled himself off the wall. They didn’t have to kill the aufhocker, they just had to hold it until the Coven arrived. T
hey needed to trap it somehow, and he didn’t think the aufhocker was dumb enough to fall in an animal trap— and if it did it would change size to get free. It would have to be a magical trap.
To find that he’d have to do to the dark Coven sites as there were no spells on the Coven database. He’d need time to practice because trialing a spell on a deadly creature wasn’t the smart thing to do. And he’d need to make sure it was simple and that the things he needed could be bought in town.
He checked his phone. He had about four hours before they needed to leave.
He needed four days.
Mack drove out to Morris’s farm. He parked and let the engine tick and cool for a few minutes before he got out. Morris wasn’t the type to ask too many questions, but he’d still want to know what was going on. Mack didn’t know how to tell the farmer that there was an aufhocker making trouble. Most rational people would laugh and then whisper behind Mack’s back.
He couldn’t sit for much longer without looking like an idiot, or suspicious. If there was anyone else he could ask, he would. He’d even thought about breaking into the vet’s, but that would only set off alarms, and the cops wouldn’t be interested in anything he had to say about hellhounds.
With a growl, he got out of his truck—which now smelled of Jude and his deodorant and hair product—and marched up to Morris’s door. He wasn’t expecting the farmer to be in, but he was hoping his wife was.
Morris answered, and his eyebrows shot up as though Mack was the last person he was expecting to see on his doorstep. “I got no more dead cows.”
“I know. Someone got killed last night.”
“Was only a matter of time.” Morris pulled out a cigarette and lit up. “So what do you need from me? Where’s the investigator?”
“He’s investigating.” Jude had better be doing something other than wallowing in self-pity. Mack pressed his lips together. He needed to be smart about this. “He was wondering if you had a tranquilizer gun so we could remove the problem.”
“And does that problem have a name?”
Mack considered Morris for a moment. “No, but it was put away once before, and something woke it up.”
Morris took a drag on his cigarette and let the smoke coil out of the corner of his mouth. “It’s that damn fracking. It would wake Satan up.”
Fracking. Mack hadn’t thought of that. But if the ground shifted and the five objects used to bind the aufhockers were no longer in the right position, that could explain how the spell had been broken. “You might be right about waking Satan. A tranq gun would help us put him back to bed.”
Morris nodded. “Pity the vet took off. All I’ve got left is two doses.”
“I guess that will have to do.” It was still better than nothing.
Morris went into the house while Mack waited. He could feel the sun inching across the sky as the seconds ticked by. They had to survive the night.
They had to capture the aufhocker so the Coven could splutter and concede defeat.
If they did all of this and they still called Jude a failure, Mack didn’t know what he’d do. He didn’t care if Jude was no longer a witch, but he didn’t think he deserved to be human either.
Morris came back with a gun and two cartridges. “I’ll say a prayer.”
“Thank you.” But he put more faith in the gun and its ability to put cows to sleep.
On the way back into town his phone buzzed with a message from Jude.
Kerosene, salt (lots), box of nails, roll of string, pepper, cloves.
That didn’t sound much like a shopping list for a spell. But then he wasn’t used to helping a witch. He replied. How much salt? Big box of table salt or a bag of salt? How much pepper? Are you sure you aren’t cooking dinner?
Jude’s reply came straight back. Bag of salt, only need a packet of pepper and cloves. You bring dinner home. I’m busy. FYI, you have no salt or pepper left in the pantry.
That he had none left hopefully meant that Jude had been working on something. Mack parked at the store. Most of what was on the list he could get here. The nails would probably be in his father’s shed, but he wouldn’t take the chance when the hardware store was up the block.
He bought the supplies and new salt and pepper for the pantry, then tossed them in the bed of the truck before walking up the block for the nails and salt. It took him a few minutes to find the bags of cattle salt, and he hoped fifty pounds would be enough. He got the biggest box of nails, too. Just to be on the safe side.
The clerk looked at his purchases and lifted an eyebrow.
“I’m picking up some things for a friend,” Mack muttered. Next time Jude could do his own damn shopping.
With his arms full and halfway back to the truck, he saw Ned walking toward him. Ned was the last person he wanted to see today. Mack crossed the road and walked faster to his truck. So did Ned. He was waiting by the truck when Mack got there and dropped the salt in the back.
Ned looked at the bag then back at Mack. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, just picking up a few things.”
Ned crossed his arms. “It’s not like you to close the garage.”
“I was pretty sick.”
“Yeah? I thought I saw you heading out of town.”
“Had to go to emergency in the next town.” The lies piled up around him, but he couldn’t tell Ned what was going on. They were friends, but even friends who were sometimes lovers were allowed to keep secrets from each other.
“You seem fine today.”
Ned had no idea how far from fine he was. “Got some pills, so I’m feeling a bit better.”
“I saw that guy from the bar driving your truck. You don’t even let me drive your truck.”
“I was pretty out of it.” That wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t been up to driving after fighting the aufhocker. Walking back to the truck had been hard enough. He’d never been so exhausted in his life, and there was a good chance he’d have to do it all again tonight if Jude’s magic didn’t work.
“He shows up and suddenly he’s staying at your place. Are you in some kind of trouble?” Ned leaned closer. “He didn’t bring drugs, did he? Are you taking drugs?”
“No. Jesus, Ned. Like I said, I was ill.”
Ned shook his head. “You haven’t been acting yourself, Mack. This guy has changed you, and you’ve only known him five minutes.” And in those five minutes they’d become closer than Mack had ever been with anyone. “It’s not right, Mack, and I’m worried about you.”
Mack forced a smile. “There’s nothing to be worried about, but I appreciate your concern.”
“Do you? Really?”
Did Ned still hope that they’d get back together? He didn’t need this right now. Even if he had been able to share the details of his life with Ned, he couldn’t see them working out. They’d been young, and they’d only really had sex in common. Mack had moved on. He’d thought Ned had—he’d certainly gotten out and about more than Mack had.
Mack’s phone buzzed. He checked the message.
What about cages for the cubs? If there are cubs.
Shit. He hadn’t thought about that. The one he’d killed had been male. That meant they’d be facing a pissed off and protective mommy if there were cubs.
Mack glanced at Ned. He didn’t have time for this today. “You’re my best friend.” Ned knew him better than most people in town, but he didn’t know Mack the way Jude did. “But I think it’s time that’s all you are. We both need to move on.”
Ned pushed away from the truck. “He’s not good for you. He’s not even your type.”
“Maybe not. Maybe the type I thought I wanted wasn’t what I needed.”
But Ned was already walking away. Mack doubted they’d even remain friends.
Chapter Fourteen
Jude faced the mine entrance. The sun hitting his shoulders was reassuring. Everything they knew about aufhockers said they only hunted at night. Which gave him about an hour of daylight to get a head s
tart.
“So do you actually know what you’re doing?” Mack dropped the giant bag of salt at Jude’s feet.
“I hope so. I was able to bind the bird.” But a bird was not an angry aufhocker after their blood and defending her cubs. If they were lucky, she’d still be pregnant.
“It was eating bread,” Mack said as though not sure that this magic would work.
Jude wasn’t sure either. “I had to get it to land somehow.”
He’d needed to run through what he was going to do once. Just because he’d read it online and understood the theory didn’t mean he could do it. Testing new magic on an aufhocker seemed like a dumb way to get him, and Mack, killed. So he’d sat in the yard and tried it out on an unsuspecting bird who’d traded a few minutes of freedom for some breadcrumbs.
“Are you sure it wasn’t waiting for more bread?” But Mack was smiling this time, teasing him.
It would’ve been funnier if Jude was completely sure that he could do this. He was giving himself an eighty percent chance of success. Mack and the tranquilizer gun filled out the other twenty percent.
All they had to do was keep the aufhocker bound for the night. Then the Coven would roll into town, or three members anyway. It had only taken three witches to sentence him and send him to Mercy. Would it be the same three who came to sort out the aufhocker?
If it was, at least he knew who he was dealing with.
He’d used more magic since coming to Mercy than he usually did in a year. He was stronger and had a better understanding of what he could do. And he had Mack. Well, he had him for a one more night.
Mack put a hand on the back of Jude’s neck. “Don’t fret about tomorrow. We could die tonight.”
“That’s not helpful.”
But Mack was no longer smiling. “I meant it. We might only have tonight. Who knows what the Coven will do tomorrow.”
