by E. M. Moore
Out of breath, and my body frazzled, I leaned against the wall and stayed still. Liam’s gaze flicked toward me, and I held onto it. “This isn’t you,” I told him. A piece of the magical ties splintered my view of him. “Liam, you’re the best person I know. Yes, you’re smart, but that’s not all you are. You know I find you attractive. You can’t fake an attraction like that, and you certainly can’t fake sex like that either.” You and me, I mouthed, a little smile forming on my lips. It was impossible not to take happiness in all the moments we shared. He was sweet and caring. This person in front of me was not him. We needed that familiar off him. “Guys,” I called out, looking at Randy, Travis, and Gabe.
They looked at me and nodded. I didn’t know what the spell was, but I could certainly lend them any magic they needed.
“Now,” I said.
I closed my eyes and felt what magic I had in me flow through my veins and skirt over the top of my skin. I built it up and built it up into my fingers before reaching out toward the group, releasing what I had toward them, hopefully giving the familiar spell a fighting chance. I needed my Liam back.
“I don’t think so,” Dupre said, realizing what we were doing.
He sent a blast of magic at Liam’s chest and Liam flew backward into the opposite wall, hitting it with a sickening crunch. The magic flared and then went out in my fingertips. I looked around. The guys ran toward Liam, and here I was, still encased in this magical web.
Liam pushed himself to his feet, completely ignoring the guys. His eyes reddened as he gathered his magic in his hands again. I cried out, feeling the tug on all of us.
“Look what you’re doing to her!” Randy shouted.
Liam looked to me, his expression almost complacent. He stared at me for a long time, but ultimately, the familiar won. He shot a fire ball at Dupre, which he fended off, sending it into a wall where another black, singed mark now decorated the place.
I hissed in a breath. I could feel myself growing cold, and knew I was getting pale, and worse, losing all my magic. My face was probably sunken in by now, but to top all of that off, I didn’t care. The life that was inside me was being taken away. I had no idea my magic was that attached to everything inside me. It wasn’t just a piece of me, it was me.
I sucked in a breath as Liam gathered his magic again. Travis grabbed Liam’s wrist, and I slumped to the floor. For the moment, Liam was taking from Travis, and not just me. This was what was happening all along. Every time we all used magic together, the magic inside me got used up first. Like I was a lightning rod fueling them.
My head pounded, and my heart raced.
Travis grabbed Randy’s hand and then Randy grabbed Gabe’s. They closed their eyes, and I did the same. They started the spell again. Frayed at the edges, I tried to give them even the faintest spark in me.
Finally, Liam cried out. I opened my eyes just in time to see him fall to the floor. The snake leapt from his arm, coiling into itself and hissing.
Dupre laughed, calling to the serpent. “Thanks for doing my dirty work. Come here…”
I watched, looking at the scene, trying to crawl away from the serpent with as little noise as possible. I checked the guys’ wrists quickly, noticing they still wore their all-seeing-eye beads which was supposed to help them from evil magic. I was still convinced that was why the familiar hadn’t attached itself to me that night and attached itself to Liam instead. Liam and Dupre were the only ones who didn’t have bracelets on.
“Don’t let him attach to Dupre!”
The serpent swiveled his head around to me. He elongated, getting bigger and bigger. He moved along the pentagram, coming to a stop just in front of me. He towered over me, and I reached my bracelet hand out. The snake let out a loud hiss.
Thank fuck. That actually worked.
Dupre stepped forward. “Come here, serpent. You belong to me now.”
The serpent lazily turned its head toward Dupre who shuffled back a few steps. The snake’s bright red tongue shot out, and he hissed.
Another matching hiss came from the balcony, and the snake turned, his scaly neck arching and then moving to the floor again where it slithered away.
“What?” Dupre yelled, staring up at the balcony. “Why?”
I looked into the shadows, but I couldn’t see anything. This guy was fucking crazy.
“I’m getting her!” he shouted. “Right now, I have her!”
A loud hiss erupted, so loud I cowered and still the sound reverberated through my head. It was like it attacked my brain cells, overpowering them, until that was all I heard.
Dupre grimaced and staggered back. I peeked over to the guys. All four of them were linked. A tiny knot formed in my stomach until it grew and grew. I started to fill with light again, feeling the purple spread through my limbs. I reached out and touched the white net and it sputtered, falling away.
I backed up, putting space between Dupre and I. He roared. He brought his hands together in front of him and threw a spinning ball of magic at me.
I blocked it, sending it into the wall holding up the balcony. A huge crack formed, and stones fell to the ground.
Rage overtook him. He shook, his body fueling his magic with madness. The guys ran toward me and we stood in a line facing him. He tried again, forming his magic in his palms. The negative around us was sucked into that one spot. We linked hands, forming a barrier. Nothing was getting through to us again. We had too much to fight for.
He released the ball. It spiraled through the air. I closed my eyes, feeling the impact of it until it bounced right back, barely getting through any of our defenses.
I peeked just in time to see the ball barreling right back for Dupre. His eyes widened, but it was too late to do anything about it. It hit him square in the chest. His mouth dropped, and he went flying into the wall. His head hit it with a sickening crack, and then he fell forward, landing in a heap face down on the stone floor.
I swallowed. Blood trickled from his head. Inching forward, it didn’t take much to guess. Dupre was gone.
We’d won.
The air in the room shifted. It was no longer filled with negativity. The breath whooshed out of my lungs and I fell to my knees. I looked up, eager to find that one face to make sure he was okay. Liam was right there. His deep brown eyes staring back at me. His glasses were cracked, the lens splintered. He knelt next to me. I reached out to take his glasses off, letting them fall to the ground beside us. “Is it you?”
He bit his lip and looked away. “I’m so sorry, Norah. You know I would never—”
I launched myself forward, tackling him. Warmth spread through me as his arms came around my waist. I hugged him to me, and the others came right with us, their hands touching me, searching for any injuries on either of us.
I looked up, blinking at them. “We’re all okay.”
Travis nodded. “Dupre’s gone.”
I bit back the sarcastic retort. That much was clear based on all the blood and the fact that he hadn’t moved within the last minute to try to take us all out again.
Liam sat up, putting me in his lap. He stared at the guys. “I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Randy said. “It was the familiar.”
Liam nodded, but he didn’t look as if he fully believed him. None of us would’ve been able to take that serpent familiar on. It wasn’t just a demon’s plaything. It had a mind of its own. It could’ve went to Dupre once we expelled it from Liam, but it didn’t. Instead… I looked toward the balcony. The others followed my gaze. “There was someone else here.”
Travis shook his head. “They’re not here anymore. I can’t feel anything but us.”
“Jay?”
“I don’t bloody care right now,” Gabe said, pulling himself to his feet, and then helping me up. “Let’s just get back to the house.”
I waited as Liam got up after me, and then I took his hand. I wasn’t going to be letting that go anytime soon.
Chapter 22
We all
squeezed together as close as we could in the living room. I sat on Liam’s lap while Randy was right next to us. Gabe sat next to him with Travis pulling a chair up next to Liam and me. It was a couple days after the big fight and Gabe had begged us all to watch the football/soccer games that were on TV.
The superiors had come and gone. They, along with the guys, cleaned up Dupre and the poor people at Ren’s place. Randy gave him a heads up before they got there, telling him to go stay someplace else for the time being. The Order wouldn’t approve of the kind of ‘work’ Ren did and was bound to try to do something about it if Ren was there. Plus, it worked in our favor because Ren wasn’t there to tell them anything about me. Not that the Order wasn’t skeptical.
Amazingly enough, Anna had made a full recovery. Since Dupre was dead, we couldn’t really ask him what he’d done to her even though we were positive he was involved somehow. She may have been his first attempt, so something hadn’t gone quite right with it. In any case, Murphy called Travis the day after Dupre died to tell him how much better she was doing. She was now home in their cute little house instead of in some psych ward.
Liam and I had been attached at the hip since we got him back. The other guys were getting antsy, I could tell, but I was just so scared of losing him again. Travis had told us on the way home that night that he used Liam’s own powers to stop Dupre and get the familiar off him. We knew Liam was still connected to us because of the way he drained my magic, so he figured it would work the other way as well. With the five of us working together, plus the power from the Order pentagram, we were able to expel the familiar and take care of Dupre—finally.
I was relieved to see him go. He wouldn’t be around to hurt anyone in Salem anymore. No more frazzled sorority houses, or cracked out witches, or sad people strangled to death by a Liderc. Jay was out there. He knew we’d killed off Dupre and he still hadn’t gotten me yet either. That was still one thing I couldn’t fathom. I could understand Dupre wanting revenge on me for giving him a fake voodoo doll, but Jay? As far as I knew, I didn’t know the guy at all.
In the aftermath, we’d told Liam what Gabe’s grandfather had said about me making the coven implode. He only laughed. “You think I didn’t know that already? Gabe and Norah are the worst liars in this place.”
Like the rest of us, though, it didn’t really change anything. We were together, and we were staying that way. Implosion or not, we would come to that problem if it happened. If not, we would continue to do what we were brought together to do—help save Salem from lunatics like Dupre and Jay.
The only piece of new information that startled Liam was the mention of the Reid’s. He was taking his time processing their involvement. Since we’d just gotten him back, I wasn’t going to push it.
Liam kissed my cheek, and I stared up at him and smiled. “What was that for?”
He leaned over. “For not giving up on me.”
“Never,” I said, pulling him down for a real kiss. I sat back, brushing my finger across the orange all-seeing-eye bracelet I’d finally been able to give him. No more familiars for him. Ever.
Someone cleared their throat. “Don’t tell me you guys are going upstairs again.”
It was Gabe. He gave me a smirk when I looked over at him.
“You’re too busy watching your soccer game, anyway.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
“I’d give up football for you,” Gabe said, emphasizing the word. He was bound and determined to make me say football one way or the other.
“Me too,” Travis said. “Easily.”
“I don’t even like it all that much,” Randy said, his eyes intent on mine.
Shit, I’d just opened a can of worms. It was a good thing we’d beaten Dupre and weren’t currently working on a case right now. As far as I was concerned, we had all the time in the world.
The End
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by E. M. Moore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact E. M. Moore at [email protected].
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition May 2018
Created with Vellum
1
Liam’s hand hovered over my chest. He smirked. I watched the spark in his deep brown eyes and exhaled. Liam was back. He was ours again. It didn’t matter that it had been a week since he returned to us, it still felt like it was the day of.
“You’re always looking at me like that now,” Liam said, his voice soft, barely above a whisper.
I reached up, skimming my fingers through his hair. His eyes closed for a moment at the contact, but then they were open again, waiting for an answer. “I’m just happy.”
It was the truest words I could say at that moment. A body moved behind us. It moved the bed enough that I knew it was Randy. They had all gotten sick of me spending time with Liam, so they forced their way into my bedroom last night. It had been fun. It was like a sleepover with girls…I guessed. It was what I imagined a sleepover would’ve been like. We told stories about when we were younger, we joked around, we touched. Okay. Maybe girls didn’t do the last thing, but it was all innocent, anyway. We were all together again and I shouldn’t have left the others out just because I was so ecstatic to have Liam back to himself again. Gabe, with his puppy dog face, explained that to me last night. They were all happy to have him back. Honestly, it wasn’t that I didn’t want the others around. That was far from the truth. It was just that I was afraid to let Liam out of my sight. The thought of it made me panic. If I let him out of my sight, what would happen? Would he get another familiar on himself, or something worse?
Sure, Dupre was dead, but Jay wasn’t. We knew Dupre wasn’t the one pulling all the strings, anyway. He had someone he was doing it for, which was made so much more obvious by the way he shouted up into the void above us right before the familiar attacked him. He was afraid, and if Dupre was afraid, we all should be.
I shivered at the thought, and Liam tilted his head. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said immediately. I didn’t want to bring up anything to do with Dupre or Jay with Liam. We had him back, and that was all that mattered right now. I didn’t care if Jay was lurking out in the backyard, as long as he was behind the magical wards around the house, he could stay there. We were all here, and safe.
Liam’s lips curled up again. His hand hovered over my chest. I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing, but I liked where his mind was headed. He closed his eyes, flattened his palm, and if it wasn’t for the little pings of the buttons flying off my shirt, I wouldn’t have even known what happened. I looked down, staring at my cleavage. I stared up at him, his eyes now wide open, and blinked. His smile grew, taking up the whole bottom half of his face. “Gotcha.”
“Liam,” I said, playfully chastising. “What did you do?”
He shrugged and snuggled closer. “Our magic is getting stronger. I had the idea, wondered if I could do it, and then bam.” He stared down, his eyes twinkling.
“Bam…open shirt?”
“Easy access,” he said, his eyebrows rising.
I had to hand it to him. This could come in handy when we couldn’t wait just to get one another’s clothes off. I peered over my shoulder. Randy was behind me, his massive body taking up that whole side of the bed. Travis was at our feet. The only one I didn’t see was Gabe. I frowned and sat up a little more, searching the room.
“He’s on the floor,” Liam said, motioning with his head toward his back. “Randy kicked him off in the middle of the night.”
I stretched out over Liam to look over the side of the bed. Sure enough, Gabe was down there, his blond hair a mess. One hand was under his head and the
other disappeared underneath the bed somewhere. He had no blanket, no pillow. Poor thing. I’d have to make it up to him.
Also, we needed a bigger bed if they were going to insist on sleeping in here with me. Not that I cared. I liked having all of them around.
I moved back into my spot. Liam’s eyes were closed again. For a moment, I wondered if he’d fallen asleep until I felt a tug on my bottoms. I looked down. The two strings that held my pajamas up were untying themselves and loosening. “Liam!” I whispered, still staring down in awe. How was he doing that?
Liam chuckled. “Sorry. I can’t help it.”
I grabbed his hand that hovered over my hips and brought it to my cheek. “The guys are already upset about how much time we’ve spent together. Did you not listen to them last night?”
“They’ll get over it.”
“I know that, but if they wake up to us going at it…?”
He shrugged. “Potential problem. I’d have to run the calculations in my head about the probability of them waking up. Randy? One-hundred percent chance he won’t. He sleeps like the dead. I’m not sure about Travis and Gabe.”
I looked out the window behind Liam. The blinds were pulled down, but rays of sunlight escaped through on the sides. “We probably shouldn’t be sleeping. I wonder what time it is.”
I pulled myself up to look at the clock on the nightstand, but another huge draft down my shirt pulled my gaze back down. Liam’s face was full red, and my shirt was hanging wide open. “You know,” I said, moving forward until he was flat on his back. “I don’t know how to sew.”
I placed my leg on the other side of his hip and immediately wished I hadn’t. He was hard and waiting for me. I bit my lip to keep myself from telling him how much I liked this. As much as I would’ve loved to have Liam, I really didn’t want to make the others feel as if I wanted him more because I didn’t. I wanted them all, equally. Liam just needed some extra special time with me lately and I would’ve done the same with any of them. It was difficult to navigate the fresh waters of having not one boyfriend, but four. I was surprised there wasn’t more jealousy, to be honest.
