Grave Magic

by Thorn, Lacey

  “I don’t want to break her, Cait. Promise.” He held out his empty beer bottle. “Do you mind taking that inside for me? I’m going to take a walk. Clear my head?”

  She stared at him for a moment, and he thought she might say something else. Instead, she rose on tiptoe to kiss his cheek then took the bottle from him and turned to head inside. He waited until he heard the lock click into place then stepped off the porch and headed toward the woods. Alice was in there somewhere. He was tired of waiting. He’d find her and get some answers.

  His night vision was damn good, so he easily made his way down the path. When he caught sight of the flickering lights ahead, he headed toward them. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was candlelight. Why the hell would she burn candles in the woods? That was dangerous. What if one of them blew over and caught the whole damn place on fire? The damn woman had no sense. He picked up his pace, not realizing there was a clearing until he stood in it.

  Alice was in the middle, hovering about a foot off the ground in the same position Caitlyn had described. Four candles were placed around her, marking a perimeter of a circle if he wasn’t mistaken. What was she doing? She’d told him she was a witch, and now, he could see it. Maybe, she was conjuring or making a pact or doing whatever it was witches did when they sat in a circle in the woods in the middle of the night.

  “What the fuck!”

  His voice broke her spell, and he watched as she fell to the ground. “Christ! Are you okay?” He took a step then swore as he hit a solid wall, though there was nothing but air between them.

  “Stop!” she yelled, holding up her hand. He watched her lips move, unsure what she was doing until the candles were doused and the darkness of night enfolded them. Then the light appeared again, and he had to blink as he took in the sparks that seemed to hover in the air around them. It was as if a set of twinkling lights had been hung in the sky above them.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded, dusting a hand over her bottom.

  “I wanted to see you,” Hudson said as he moved toward her again. “And you haven’t exactly been taking my calls.”

  “I needed some time. You hurt me.”

  “Christ. I didn’t know what to think. One minute, you’re giving me the best blowjob of my life, and the next, you’re lighting candles from across the room and flying them over to us.”

  “I’m not ashamed of who I am, Hudson.”

  “You said you were a witch. Did you expect me just to nod and say okay?”

  “I’m not sure what I expected. I’ve never done this before. I can tell you what I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect you to leave me on my knees in the kitchen with the taste of your seed still on my tongue.”

  “Fuck!” Hudson growled. He winced at the visual she painted, feeling like the worst scum on the earth. God, had he really done that? He’d been in shock from what had happened. He hadn’t thought. Simply reacted.

  “As much as I enjoyed everything that happened that day, I don’t think I want to experience the ending again,” Alice answered as if he were offering to take her right there on the ground.

  “Damn it,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face before tugging at his hair. “What are you doing out here, anyway? Summoning something?”

  “Yes, my hopes, dreams, and fears. And look, here you are,” Alice replied tartly as if she expected him to know her powers. Hell, he felt crazy even saying the words inside his head. Alice was a witch.

  “I have to know,” Hudson continued. “Did you…do something to me?”

  She froze, and he wanted to snatch back the words.

  “Other than respond to your every touch and command?”

  “You know what I mean.” There was no going back now that he’d spoken his question.

  “You want to know if I put a spell on you? Made you want me because I’m obviously not good enough on my own?”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what you want me to say, who you want me to be. I don’t always know when I’m not supposed to say something or what some phrase you use means. I didn’t learn those things. I learned magic. What mine is and how to control it. And I learned how to treat people with decency and kindness. I understand I made a mistake that day we met. It was wrong of me to touch you, to taste you. I did this. I won’t lie and say I regret it. That would be wrong.”

  “Alice,” he began, but she waved him away.

  She wrapped her arms around herself. She looked so lost and alone, and tears sparkled in her eyes. He wanted to reach for her, to pull her close and hold her. “Maybe, this will help you. I release you, Hudson. Whatever spell it is you think I put on you, I release you from it. Be happy.”

  “God, I ache for you. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what to think anymore,” he admitted.

  “It was a great day, Hudson, but it was just a day.” She took a wide berth around him, the twinkling lights moving with her. “It’s okay. I’ll be the one to make the exit this time. Do me a favor, though. Be careful here, and try not to trample the graves. It’s my family’s graveyard. I like to come here and be around people I believe would have loved me.”

  “Alice.” Christ, she slayed him. He felt as if all he could do was repeat her name as if that one word had the power to repair everything.

  She smiled softly at him then turned and walked away. And he swore she carried his heart with every step.

  Chapter Eight

  Alice bypassed the front porch and headed toward the back door where her jasmine bloomed. She closed her eyes and leaned in, inhaling the scent she’d always loved. She’d expected to hear Hudson following her but assumed he’d head to his house, not follow her to hers. She’d said everything she needed to at the clearing.

  “We’ve said enough,” she stated as she turned around, and the fist came out of nowhere, catching her squarely on the right side of her face. Pain exploded through her cheek. She floundered backward, but the clench of his hands in her shirt kept her on her feet. Hudson had hit her?

  “I haven’t even started telling you what I think of your meddling.” The voice was hard with anger but higher pitched than Hudson’s. It took her a minute, but finally, she recognized it.

  “Jacob?” Shock held her still. Why was Jacob hitting her?

  “What did you say to Caitlyn? I know you’re behind this.”

  “What?” She shook her head, trying to focus, trying to think. He slammed her against the house. Her head bounced, and stars exploded behind her eyelids.

  “You think I don’t know you never liked me? That I couldn’t see the looks you gave me? What did you say to her?”

  She couldn’t answer, so the question was moot. His hands had moved from her shirt to her neck, his thumbs pressing against her windpipe while his fingers pinched into her throat. She clawed at his skin, panic consuming her. She couldn’t breathe. Tears blurred her vision. By the time it occurred to her to use her magic, she didn’t have the strength. She tried to focus her thoughts on his fingers, on them releasing her, on him flying away from her.

  She heard a roar, then her wish came true. Jacob was wrenched from her, his fingers scraping her neck as he flew away. She didn’t know where he landed. Didn’t care. She tried to suck in oxygen, coughing as it burned her throat. She vaguely made out Hudson’s voice.

  “…put your hands on her…going to fucking kill you, you worthless piece of shit…”

  She went to her knees, one hand landing on the ground to keep her from falling flat, the other trying to figure out why her throat felt as if she’d swallowed shards of glass.

  “Hudson.” Her voice was a croak, a mere whisper to even her ears, but she heard his name screamed loud and clear.

  “Stop! You’re going to kill him!”

  Caitlyn. It was Caitlyn’s voice.

  “Bastard deserves to die.”

  “Hud, stop!” Caitlyn yelled.

  “Hudson
,” Alice called for him again, managing a little more volume than before.

  “Watch him,” Hudson ordered, and Alice thought he must be speaking to his sister.

  “He’s not going anywhere,” Caitlyn snapped back. “I’m calling an ambulance.”

  Then Hudson was there, leaning over Alice, turning her and lifting her into his arms.

  “Are you okay? Can you speak?” Soft fingers trailed over her cheek, sending a painful reminder that it wasn’t just her throat that had been injured.

  “Hurts,” she murmured and watched his gaze drop to her neck.

  “I’m going to kill him,” he muttered, and the numerous times she’d heard him say that particular phrase concerned her.

  “No.” She tried to shake her head, but it hurt. Hell, she was a mess from the chest up.

  “Let’s get you inside, so I can get a better look at you,” Hudson said as he mounted her porch steps and opened the back door. “Why is your door unlocked? And why didn’t you use your magic woo-woo stuff against him? How the hell did he get to you?”

  “I—”

  “Shut up.” He set her gingerly on the table and let his gaze wander over her. “You probably shouldn’t be talking right now. Your cheek is swollen. Your neck is bleeding and swelling. There’s a knot on the back of your head that I’m pretty sure is bleeding, too. And your skin is already bruising.” He lowered his forehead and rested it against hers. “I should have followed sooner. Damn it! I should have never let you walk away. You mean something to me, Alice. I don’t why or how it happened so fast, but you’re important. To me. I don’t want to lose you.”

  “I—”

  “Shh.” He cut her off again. “Don’t talk. I hear the sirens. Help will be here soon. I’ll follow you to the hospital and be there every step of the way. I don’t care what you did to me, and I’m not talking about you being a witch. I’m talking about the way I feel when I’m with you. God, it makes no sense. If one of my buddies said he’d met a girl and fallen for her in one day, I’d laugh my ass off and call him a fool. But if that girl was anything like you, I’d be completely wrong.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her against his chest. “God. If I’d waited a moment longer, I might have lost you. Really lost you. In a way I wouldn’t have been able to get you back.”

  “Shh.” This time she interrupted him. There was more she wanted to say, but a knock at her open back door had them both glancing over to see Caitlyn standing there with a man.

  “The paramedics are here, along with the cops,” Caitlyn said, stepping inside. “Why don’t you let them look at Alice while we fill in the police on what happened.”

  Hudson’s arms tightened around her, then he eased up and moved away from her. “Take good care of her,” he ordered then dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be right outside.”

  She heard him tell the man with Caitlyn about her head and cheek and throat. Then Hudson was gone, and a stranger was asking her questions, shining a light in her eyes and using his hands to assess her. She understood he was doing his job. He was most likely a paramedic, but it wasn’t his touch she wanted. It was Hudson’s. Had he meant what she thought? Did Hudson want her in his life? Magic and all?

  Before she knew it, she was being secured on a stretcher. Then they rolled her into the back of an ambulance. She didn’t see Hudson—or Caitlyn either, for that matter. She was loaded and gone and…alone.

  “Miss Savoy. Miss Savoy, can you hear me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, but her eyes were closing. Her body let her know how much it hurt, and all she really wanted was to rest.

  * * * *

  “Are we done here?” Hudson asked, glancing at his watch. It had been an hour since the ambulance had driven away with Alice. He’d wanted to follow but hadn’t been allowed to until the guys in blue were satisfied with his story. Finally, a detective had shown up, one who happened to be an old friend of Hud’s. Still, it had taken fifteen minutes before Dane had sorted things out.

  Caitlyn had busied herself making coffee, putting out sugar and creamer and supplying cups for the cops who still lingered. He completely expected her to offer to make sandwiches or cookies if they lingered much longer. Dane McAllistair kicked the loitering officers all out, declined coffee and sat at the table with Hudson.

  “Let me get this straight. You and Miss Savoy had a powwow in the woods at which point she headed back here alone. You followed and found…” He paused to glance at his notebook. “Jacob Singler attacking Miss Savoy.”

  “Yes.”

  Caitlyn shuddered, and Hudson automatically held out his hand to her. She took it like a lifeline, hers clenching around his. She trembled, and for the first time, he snapped out of his concern for Alice long enough to focus on his sister.

  “None of this is your fault,” he tried to assure her.

  “It is,” she whispered. “I should have realized this would happen.”

  “What makes you think this is your fault, Caitlyn?” Dane asked, his total attention on her.

  “I broke up with Jacob earlier tonight. I…thought he took it really well. I honestly thought he didn’t care. I figured he’d already moved on, and maybe, that was why we’d never…” She paused, shaking her head. “I didn’t think he’d do something like this. Attack Alice. It makes no sense. I don’t understand.”

  She dropped Hudson’s hand and wrapped her arms around herself. Dane stood and crossed to her.

  “Let me get this straight. You and Mr. Singler were dating, but you broke off things earlier tonight?”

  Caitlyn nodded.

  “Then he attacked Miss Savoy when she came back from meeting Hudson in the woods?”

  Caitlyn nodded again.

  “None of this was Caitlyn’s fault,” Hudson reiterated, in case Dane was trying to allude to that.

  “I brought him into our lives. How is this not my fault?” Caitlyn demanded.

  “Did Mr. Singler know you and Miss Savoy are friends?” Dane asked.

  “Yes, and I’m sure he was aware Alice didn’t like him,” Hudson offered. “Alice isn’t so good at hiding how she feels.” He still remembered the hurt in her eyes when he’d asked if she’d done something to him.

  “Sounds like Mr. Singler decided to take out his anger on the person he thought might be responsible for your change of heart, Caitlyn. For the record, this is all his fault. The only choices you’re responsible for are your own.” Dane squeezed Caitlyn’s arm then turned back to Hudson. “From the bruise on your jaw, I’m going to note you pulled Miss Savoy’s attacker off her in an attempt to save her life—which you did—and found yourself attacked. You fought back in self-defense.” He moved until he stood directly in front of Hudson. “That’s what my report will say. My guess is you’re lucky your sister was there to pull you off him or you’d be spending the night in a jail cell.”

  “He’s lucky he isn’t dead,” Hudson growled.

  “And you’re lucky Alice isn’t. Focus on her, and let me take care of this.”

  Hudson nodded to Dane. “Am I good to go now?”

  “Yes, I’ll wrap up things here and check back with you in a few days,” Dane promised.

  “Thanks,” Hudson said, bounding to his feet and grabbing his keys on his way out the door. “I’ll call you from the hospital, Cait!”

  He tried to watch his speed on the way there and considered himself lucky he didn’t get stopped. He added lying to his list of the night’s crimes when he told a nurse he was Alice’s fiancé, so he could gain access to her room. She was sleeping when he walked in, and he quietly took the chair next to the bed, pulling it close enough he could take her hand in his.

  She looked so fragile. Her long blonde hair spread around her pillow. The bruise on her cheek had darkened, and seeing it had him wanting to punch Jacob all over again. There were bandages around her throat, but he expected the damage was probably worse there. How could he have walked
away from her? So, she was able to do things ordinary people couldn’t. What did it matter? He’d adjust. The more time he spent around her, the less it would shock him. That’s what had happened. He’d witnessed something he wasn’t prepared for, and it had knocked him for a loop.

  Alice had tried to play off their relationship, saying it had been one day. She was right. It had been one day, a day that had changed his life. In truth, he’d been restless for years. Searching for something that had remained elusive. Then this amazing woman had stepped up to him and licked his chest simply because she’d wanted to know what he tasted like. She’d touched him and rocked him to his core. She kept him off balance, and he had a feeling she always would. He looked forward to it. Looked forward to getting to know Alice better.

  Twelve years ago, he’d left home, searching for adventure. Now, he was back, and it looked as if the best adventure of his life had moved in next door. Hudson Baines was home to stay.

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  Alice glanced up as Hudson walked through the door. She’d never get tired of seeing him fresh from a run, his skin glistening with sweat. He pulled his shirt over his head, wiped his chest, took two steps and found her with his gaze. His lips quirked up in a smile, and she was lost. She launched herself at him.

  Hudson caught her to his chest, his hands cupping her ass and lifting her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. She went for his neck first, licking daintily before gripping the cord of muscle with her teeth. She lifted her arms as he jerked her shirt over her head and made quick work of her bra. Then they were skin-to-skin, and goddess, how she loved that.

  “Bedroom.” The word was a harsh growl by her ear, and she shook her head, arching to give him better access.

  “Couch,” she offered. “Floor. Table.”

  His husky laugh sent shivers along her spine, making her nipples tingle as they tightened into harder buds.