She said a few words out of respect for its life before she flushed the blackened pieces down the toilet. What a horrible eulogy. What a horrible burial. It had been a fire critter. Water seemed the worst way for it to go, but she had no other choice.
Guilt clung heavy to Divina as she trudged out of the bathroom. She spotted the book Sonia had given her. The book of spells she was meant to have mastered by the time Sonia got home. The book she had pretty much ignored all afternoon. It was hopeless. It was probably best that she didn’t learn any spells. She wasn’t the witch of the prophecy, not in the way everyone had hoped. No, she was the witch who would end all kinds. She couldn’t bring that burden down on Sonia. The woman had been so sweet to her.
Divina grabbed what few belongings she had in the house, taking the book Sonia had given her, just in case. She needed to get away—from Sonia, from this town. She’d put enough people in jeopardy.
First she had to get her truck, which was at the diner. Ted and Sonia were at the diner. She’d convince him of the hologram thing and that he just misunderstood what he saw. That was all. Talking to Sonia would be harder. Convincing her that Divina wasn’t the right witch, that she was the one who would out all supernatural kind, would be harder. She’d have to stand tall, be firm, say no, she wasn’t the right witch. Someone else was.
Then everything would be okay. They could continue their lives safely without Divina and the prophecy mucking it all up for them. And Divina could…well, she didn’t know what she could do. There was no time to worry about herself, though.
When Divina exited the house with her clothes in her bag and the book against her chest, Aric scurried from the side. Smiling, he tilted his head in curiosity at her. She shook hers to indicate she didn’t want to talk. He nodded, and she took an odd comfort in knowing the two could communicate without words.
With a small bag slung over her shoulder, Divina exited the yard. It was time to take on the world on her own with Aric watching her, or with her. Honestly, she didn’t really want to think about how he fit into all this.
Aric sidled up to her. She regarded him with a smile before heading toward the diner only a few blocks away. Side by side, the two walked in silence. Their hands bumped a few times before he took hers. Divina chuckled when he did. Her blush came up from her chest and through to her cheeks. Feeling like she was in high school again, she shook her head to lose the giddiness. She didn’t have time to enjoy the moment. Even thinking about a possible anything with Aric was out of the question. She had to deal with Ted and then get the hell out of there.
Once at the diner, begrudgingly, Aric waited for her outside. Divina needed to talk to Ted in a way that wouldn’t intimidate him. Aric was walking intimidation.
Again, when she parted from him, the twinge of longing pulled at her. Gritting her teeth, Divina pushed on into the diner. Smiling at the hostess, she said, “Hi, is—”
“Divina!” Sonia’s surprised inflection filled Divina’s ears as she swooped in on her left. “I didn’t think you’d be here.”
Offering the hostess a smile to let her know everything was fine, Sonia not-so-subtly ushered Divina out of earshot.
“I need to talk to Ted,” Divina said with hushed urgency.
Sonia’s eyes darted around before returning to Divina. “He’s in back. He’s pretty spooked. He said some guys were at the house. Did the wolf bring his pack?” she asked, filled with concern.
Divina scanned the diner for the kitchen door. Locating it behind the counter, she tried to push past Sonia to make her way there.
Sonia pulled her back. “What’s going on?”
Divina turned toward her sharply. Staring down at the hand on her arm, she then looked at Sonia’s face. The woman had been so kind to her. She didn’t deserve the treatment Divina was about to give her. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with. I just need to talk to Ted.” She pulled her arm out of Sonia’s grasp. With wide eyes and an agape mouth, Sonia dropped her hand. Divina felt more guilt, but she couldn’t bring any of this to Sonia.
“Ted!” Divina called once she got into the kitchen. Her heart skipped a beat, and the dull ache returned. Aric had better be right outside. She didn’t need to deal with another separation attack. “Ted!” she hollered again as she scanned the line for him.
Several men peered up from what they were doing. Confusion littered their faces at the stranger in their kitchen. A few glanced at one another, unsure how to respond.
“Hey, lady!” An older gentleman came from behind the line. “You can’t be in here. It’s against health codes.”
“I got it.” Ted came out from a cooler. He marched up to Divina and roughly took hold of her above the elbow. Pulling her through the kitchen, he dragged her out the back door.
Divina nearly tripped a few times from the gruff nature of his movements. Once the door slammed behind them, Ted let her go. He folded his arms over his chest and glared down at her. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you about what you think you saw,” she said, stepping back from him. Divina rubbed her arm where he had held her.
The door swung open behind them and Sonia marched out, her glare bouncing between the two. “What is going on?” she demanded.
Out of the corner of her eye, Divina caught movement. Aric was peering from the corner. He looked pissed. She waved at him, trying to signal for him to stay back.
“You have a psycho bitch staying with you,” Ted said.
“What happened?” Sonia pressed.
Divina swallowed. “Ted here came busting into your house and interrupted me playing with my phone.” She looked directly at him. “I was startled and put it in a different mode, and a holograph came up, and he freaked the hell out.”
Ted gaped at her.
Sonia narrowed her eyes.
Divina continued. “Then he poured water all over your coffee table and started taking pictures.”
“Pictures of what?” Sonia looked between the two skeptically.
“There was a fire monster,” Ted explained. “It wasn’t a damn holograph.”
“You think fire monsters are a thing?” Divina challenged nervously. She hoped she sounded convincing. “Seriously? Are you stupid? You took pictures of a holograph, and I was trying to keep you from looking like an idiot. It’s not my fault people walked by and saw you chasing me.”
“I wouldn’t have chased you if you didn’t steal my phone!” Ted countered. “And why are you lying? That was freaky as hell!”
Sonia regarded Divina with concern. She knew. She knew Divina was lying. She knew why Divina was lying.
Divina took a deep breath and kept her attention on Ted. “You’re out of your damn mind if you think there are fire creatures.”
“I know what I saw,” Ted sneered.
“You saw a holograph.”
“There was freaking smoke!”
“Enough!” Sonia shouted over both of them. “I don’t care what you saw or what you didn’t see.” She glared at Ted. “What—”
“I don’t need this shit,” Divina announced, surprising not only them but herself. “I’m out of here. Sonia, it was nice knowing you, but this is bullshit. Thank you for your hospitality, but it’s time I went on my way.”
She had wanted to tell Sonia that she had the wrong witch, that she was supposed to mentor someone else, but the conversation hadn’t gone as planned. Ted gave her an out, and though it was ugly, it was an out that would hopefully get her away from them.
Sonia’s eyes widened, and she turned to Divina. “No,” she implored. Ted was all but forgotten at that point. “You can’t. It’s not time.”
Divina shook her head. “No. I think it’s the right time.”
“You haven’t mastered—”
“I’m not supposed to.” She met Sonia’s gaze and begged her to understand that Divina wasn’t the right witch.
“She’s made her decision.” The booming baritone came from around the side of the bui
lding. Aric sauntered toward them with authority.
Ted stepped back. “Where’s the rest of the goon squad?” He scoffed as he stood between Aric and Sonia.
Rolling his eyes, Aric planted himself beside Divina, snaking his arm over her shoulders possessively. The longing she had felt immediately abated. She was in deep.
“I have to go,” Divina said as strongly as she could, but she knew it wasn’t convincing in the least.
Shoving Ted aside, Sonia flipped her gaze between Aric and Divina. “It’s too soon.”
“My hand was forced,” Divina whispered as she glanced in Ted’s direction, hoping Sonia would understand.
“It can be fixed.”
Divina shook her head. “I don’t know how.”
Aric snorted. “I do.”
Both Divina and Sonia’s eyes widened as they landed on Aric.
Ted stepped up. “What are you going to do?” he challenged.
“Nothing,” Divina interjected. “We’re leaving.” She slipped her hand in Aric’s and tried to step away. She tugged at him, but if he didn’t want to go, there was no way she could make him. With his eyes locked on Ted, they were engaged in an intense staring contest. Divina tugged at Aric’s hand again. If there was any doubt in her mind as to how he would have “taken care of” the situation, it was cleared up at that moment. The murderous look in his eyes spoke volumes. He intended to kill the human. Divina couldn’t have that blood on her hands.
“Aric.” She pulled again. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 21
With clouds covering the stars, it seemed darker than most nights. The bleakness of the evening echoed Rori’s emotions. Hunching his shoulders, he stuffed his hands into his pockets as though cold. When he reached the threshold of the convent, he hesitated. So much had changed yet stayed the same.
Eventually, Rori exited the grounds in a fog. A husk of the man who had arrived only an hour before, he lacked direction. Divina had been the focus of his life for several years. A young woman at a carnival reading palms and flipping tarot cards, she’d been a sight to behold when he’d met her. He remembered how the moon shone off her hair, the innocence in her eyes. She didn’t know anything about witches or vampires, let alone wolves then. He’d let her read his palm. And when she’d held his hand, her touch scorched him.
Rori liked to tell himself that he would have still flirted with her if the Ember Witches hadn’t sent him. He would have still won her the small purple teddy bear that first night. He still would have wanted her. She was magical, in every sense of the word. Since the first night, amid the cry of carnival workers, he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind. The witches had brought them together and then severed them not once but twice.
He shouldn’t be surprised. He should have expected this. He’d been foolish to think his love for her would trump the prophecy. Perhaps he was just as foolish to think he could ever sit on the throne. He’d waffled back and forth between pursuit of power and pursuit of Divina so often that he was surely unfit to lead an entire race. He could never make decisions on behalf of all preternatural beings when he lacked the ability to make a decision about his own love life.
“The Ember Witches.” Jonas’s observation broke through Rori’s thoughts.
Jonas stood at the end of the block, leaning against a lamppost with his arms crossed over his chest. He cocked his head. The smug expression wasn’t lost on Rori.
Looking over his shoulder at the Ursuline Convent, Rori closed his eyes with regret. “So it seems.” He didn’t know what else to say. Bringing his attention back to Jonas, he slouched with the weight of his failure.
“So that’s where your witch is. Smart not to bring her to the court,” Jonas said, pushing off the lamppost.
His witch. Rori’s witch. He didn’t have a clue where his witch was. At this point, he couldn’t even say he had Divina anymore. The wolf had her. He curled his lip in a sneer, narrowing his eyes, the thought inspiring anger in him.
With a lifted eyebrow, Jonas regarded him. “What’s up your ass?”
“Oh, you mean besides my new and ever-present shadow?” Rori barked.
His annoyance had been directed at Jonas, but it wasn’t fair. The man was only doing his job. However, there was nothing stating that Rori had to enjoy being on the receiving end of Jonas’s job.
Taking a deep breath, Rori neutralized his features. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he refocused. “I need a drink.”
“Not me.” Jonas snorted. “Nice attempt at distraction, though. I wanted to see where you’d go, so I went along with it. You’re a slick one.” He waved a finger in Rori’s direction with a knowing wink. “But for future reference, she wasn’t my type.”
Rori gave Jonas the side-eye before he huffed and headed for the closest bar, the goal being to enjoy an intoxicated tourist or seven. Dulling the pain of knowing he had lost his witch seemed an appropriate use of his night, and he wanted to syphon alcohol the only way his kind could. While it was not impossible for a vampire to get drunk, it took a lot of effort. Getting alcohol from blood diluted its purity; therefore, a lot of blood was needed to get drunk. Buzzed was a lot easier to obtain, blackout status next to impossible. The goal was to get somewhere between buzzed and drunk, and finding humans on the verge of or already passed out was the fastest way to get there.
Jonas, thankfully, didn’t prevent Rori’s mission. If Rori had been in a better frame of mind, he might have wondered about Jonas’s intentions, but any suspicions about him would have to wait for another day.
“There you go.” Feeling bloated and slightly dizzy, Rori propped a homeless man against a makeshift lean-to. Patting the unconscious man’s head, he smiled. The stench of body odor and alcohol turned his full stomach, but he made it through the ordeal. Now on to the next one.
Turning on his heel, Rori nearly lost his balance and chuckled as he stumbled to prevent the fall. Amusement filled him. Maybe he didn’t need a next one. Finally, just as the sky began to lighten, he had reached his goal: numb. With a stuttering step, he headed toward the mouth of the alley.
Jonas curled his fingers around Rori’s arm above his elbow, effectively keeping him steady. Rori glared down at the offending hand, then up at Jonas. Snorting, he tried to shove Jonas’s hand away.
Jonas rolled his eyes. “You’ve had enough.”
“You’re not my type, you know,” Rori said. With a goofy grin, he extended his index finger and aimed it at Jonas’s nose.
He missed.
“Boop,” Rori said when his finger landed on Jonas’s cheek.
Jonas sighed heavily. “And here I thought death would have ended my days of wrangling drunken idiots.”
Tugging Rori toward the end of the alley, Jonas directed him without much trouble. Rori’s feet moved but were next to useless.
“This isn’t very regal behavior, you know,” Jonas said with a grunt as he held Rori with one arm and opened the door to the town car with the other.
Rori’s head lolled back. “Weren’t you paying attention? I lack the breeding and refinement required to be emperor.”
The pull of day sleep claimed him as soon as his body hit the inside of the car. The drunk blood made any sort of defense he had against it that much weaker. Rori didn’t care. He had lost Divina. He had lost the reason his heart beat. If he slept for the next century, it might be enough.
The thought was his last before the world went black.
Buzz buzz.
Rori groaned and rolled over.
Buzz buzz.
The more he came into awareness, the more his head throbbed. His mouth felt as if it were full of razor blades. A thick tongue filled his dry cotton mouth.
Buzz buzz.
“Jesus Christ,” Jonas exclaimed, “are you going to answer that or what?”
Rori’s phone. He had a phone. For the life of him, he didn’t know where he’d put it. Swiping his hand around the bed, he found it shoved under a pillow. Squinting when the bright
light hit his eyes, Rori noted he had five missed calls, two voice mails, and seventeen text messages.
Well, shit. Apparently someone needed him. Typing in his password, Rori figured he might as well find out who.
Rocketing forward, he sat up. Blinking in disbelief, his heart plummeted into his gut.
Divina.
Divina had been trying to reach him. As he scrolled through the texts, his heart picked up speed. She was desperate to reach him. None of the texts indicated why, but it didn’t matter.
Rori put the phone to his ear to hear the voice messages.
“Rori.” Her whispered voice tickled his ear and stroked his heart as it skipped a beat. “I screwed up bad. I don’t know what to do. You’re the only one who can help me. Shit.”
Beep.
The voice mail ended. Divina was in trouble, and she needed Rori. Where was she? She didn’t say. How could he help her if she didn’t say?
Rori stood and went toward the bathroom. He ran the shower in hopes of muffling the message. Vampires had better hearing than humans, and he didn’t want Jonas to hear anything. Bad enough he had probably already heard Divina’s proclamation of screwing up and needing him.
Sitting on the toilet with the shower running, Rori played the second message.
“I don’t have a lot of time. I’m not even sure I should do this. I don’t know what to do.”
Beep.
Divina’s words were fast and frantic. He could almost envision her looking over her shoulder for something. She rattled off an address and begged him to meet her there the next night.
The fear in her voice rattled him. In all his years of knowing Divina, she had never come to him showing any signs of distress that blatant. He couldn’t fathom what had pushed her to it, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Playing the messages again and again, he tried to hear what she didn’t say, listening for clues as to what had scared her, or who.
Esmine said Divina was where she needed to be. She said Divina had been claimed by the wolf.
The Wolf of the Prophecy Page 14
