by Riley Storm
“Not yet,” she said, trying to mimic his voice, to keep her anger at bay.
“Not yet?” he asked, sounding surprised as he leaned back against the wall opposite her. “What do you want first then?”
“First, I want an apology,” she said, pulling the robe tighter across her body.
Liam’s eyebrows shot upward. “An apology. From whom?” he asked incredulously.
“You,” she said, not backing down.
“What in the hell would I be apologizing to you for?” he wanted to know, looking at her blankly.
“Uh, how about for bursting into my room while I’m half naked?” she snapped, letting her own disbelief at his ignorance show in her response.
Liam waved her off. “I barely saw anything. Besides, it’s not anything I’ve never seen before. There’s naked people around all the time with shifters.”
“That’s not the point,” she persisted. “The point is, it was rude, and uncalled for, and a violation of my bodily privacy. I don’t care if you’ve seen a million boobs before, you’ve never seen mine before, and I didn’t give you permission to. I hadn’t left the room. I was still in there. You need to learn to trust me,” she said angrily, not willing to back down to this brute.
“Trust needs to be earned,” Liam snarled so savagely she took a step back, his reaction far more intense than anything she’d been prepared for. “And so far, you haven’t done a damn thing to earn it.”
Jennifer started to speak up, but Liam chopped violently at the air between them, cutting her off.
“Maybe after you’ve actually done something to help us, I’ll believe you’re on our side. Not before.”
Taking a step back, Jennifer found herself actively calling up her magic again, letting it flow through her body. Liam had never made her feel at ease before now, but he’d also never made her feel so uncomfortable and scared before either.
He was bigger, stronger, and faster than she was. The only defense she had against him, was her magic, but even that was limited. A spell could overpower him, but the thing was, she needed time to call up her magic. Time to focus it and cast it.
Liam wouldn’t give her that time. She didn’t need much, but his speed and reflexes were the perfect counter to it. In close quarters like this, she wouldn’t stand a chance if he chose to strike her. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d said just now, which part of it had set him off so badly. Something about trusting her?
It didn’t matter. It was clear he had a temper, and so she made a conscious decision not to provoke him too much. She would find the line and stay near it. There was no sense risking her own wellbeing just by seeing how far she could push him.
Looking at him, she eyed his body language. Puffed up chest and biceps, veins showing over the half-flexed muscles. She actually found it somewhat attractive. He looked hot when he was pissed off like this.
It had to be the power, she realized, the sheer, raw, power he exuded when he got so riled up. That was what attracted her, when combined with his already pleasant physical features. It certainly wasn’t his attitude toward her that she liked.
No, it was his posture. The blood flowing through his body, the slightly heavier breathing. Shit. It reminded her of sex, she realized, hating herself for putting Liam and sex in the same category. Why, oh why, did her brain have to do that to her?
Liam frowned at her. “What?”
“What-what?” she asked, confused.
“You’re looking at me weird.”
“No, I’m not,” she denied.
“Yes, you are,” he countered.
“I’m not looking at you weird.”
“Not anymore. But you were,” the big shifter said adamantly. “Why?”
“For the last time, no I wasn’t,” she said fiercely. There was no way she was going to tell him she’d been thinking of him naked. Nope. It wasn’t going to happen. Not this jerk.
“Whatever,” Liam said, throwing his hands in the air in surrender. “Let’s go get some food.”
“Yeah, food would be good,” she said, welcoming the distraction eagerly. “I could eat.”
“Food, then we get down to work,” he rumbled, pushing off the wall with his shoulders.
Jennifer swallowed. “Right. Work.”
“You can show me your combat magic, and then we’ll start devising a plan to take down the Magi,” Liam said, heading down the hall, waving for her to follow.
Right. Combat magic.
There was just one little problem with that…
8
Liam led them into the kitchen, experienced at navigating the warzone that was the rebel cafeteria. Jennifer trailed behind, less comfortable and at home.
At first, he let her suffer, crowded in by giants on all sides, many of whom were talking loudly about a dozen different subjects at once. They all tried to crowd into the space to form some semblance of a funnel as they got closer to the front, where the harried and overworked cooks of the day would be slaving away over stove, oven, microwave and counterspace, trying desperately to provide enough food for nearly a hundred shifters.
It was a never-ending battle. The shifters ate in shifts so they didn’t all crowd the kitchen at once, but that didn’t do much for the twenty-five or so now present. Feeding them was a nightmare, and one of many things Liam would be grateful to have resolved if and when they finally retook Moonshadow Manor from the loyalists.
The closer they got to the front, the less personal space everyone had. He could see it was bad, and eventually he took pity on her, drawing the oblivious shifters’ attentions to the tiny woman they were crowding.
It worked for a bit, but everyone in the kitchen was irritated. They were hangry, and Liam was no exception. He hadn’t eaten dinner the day before, and his body was howling at him to fill it with food right away.
Before long, they began to crowd in again, bit by bit.
“You need to stand your ground,” he told Jennifer, but she didn’t listen. She gave way before them, reluctant to cause an issue.
The shifters innately saw this as weakness, and so they continued to slowly push toward the front, even as more of them filed into the kitchen. It wasn’t long after that, that Liam began to hear mutters from the crowd as word got around as to who she was. The mage, they were saying. The one that had just come up and arrogantly proclaimed herself as their savior.
He listened with half an ear, not overly worried about anything happening. Most of the time, shifters were just talk in situations like this anyway. He doubted any of them would make a move, not when Jennifer was a mage, and he was standing near her.
The one thing Liam didn’t factor in, was how hunger could alter someone’s decision-making process. If he’d accounted for that, then things may not have gotten out of hand. But they did, and faster than he could react.
It started with some of the closest shifters growling at Jennifer.
“Witch,” one of them snarled.
“Should burn her,” another agreed.
He ignored it, because it felt good to hear others voicing his own thoughts about her. Magic users weren’t well liked among shifter circles, and for good reason.
For nearly fifteen hundred years, until the early twentieth century, a war had raged between mages and shifters. Liam’s ancestors had been bitterly persecuted by the mages, eventually forced out of Europe and overseas to North America, where they had managed to established footholds and grow in strength until they were ready to take on the mages.
It had all culminated in the battle of Novarupta on the Iberian Peninsula. The mages had tried to bring down the volcano on the shifters, but they failed, and in the ensuing battle, the shifters wiped out the most powerful mages on earth, establishing themselves as the undisputed rulers of the paranormal world.
They may have been victorious, but a war lasting a millennium and a half wasn’t easily forgotten, nor was the hatred. Mages were not to be trusted, and Liam was far from the only one thinking that. So,
he let them taunt her, thinking maybe it would be good for her.
“If you try anything, I’ll come for you in your sleep,” one of them growled.
Jennifer made a scared noise and shuffled closer to Liam. The shifters sensed that weakness and closed in.
Shit. That was too far. Liam had to step in for that. He didn’t want to, but Logan had given him a job, and much as he might not like it, he was not about to let himself be accused of not doing his duty.
“That’s enough,” he growled at the asshole who had taken it past the line.
Asshole number two stepped forward to defend his friend. “If you don’t like it, maybe you should take your witch bitch and piss off. Save us all a bunch of trouble.”
Liam rolled his eyes, but the idiot kept speaking before he could get a word in.
“We don’t need her,” he said arrogantly. “We can take back the Manor on our own. We’re wolf shifters, that’s our home. Not hers. We don’t need her kind.”
“Really?” Liam asked in a loud voice. It would be best to do this as publicly as possible. “Is that so?”
“Yup. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
“Right.” Liam addressed the rest of the crowd with his eyes as he spoke. “And how do you plan on taking out the Magi, hmm? How do you plan on getting past his defenses? Go on,” he challenged, barking at them with his words. “Tell us all your master plan. The plan you’ve had, that we could have acted on already. Please, enlighten us!” he half shouted, spreading one hand wide to take in the audience.
Neither Asshole One nor Asshole Two said anything, because as everyone knew, they didn’t actually have a plan. “Like I thought,” he snapped. “You’re talking out of your asses. That’s why she’s here.”
“What?” Jennifer asked in a tiny voice from next to him as he forcefully brought her into the conversation.
“Jennifer,” he said, emphasizing her name instead of simply calling her a mage, “is going to open the way into the Manor.” He looked at her. “Go on. Light these two idiots up. Show everyone why you’re here. Just don’t kill them,” he added with a chuckle.
Jennifer shook her head. “Uh, no. I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said, faking a smile.
“Actually, I think it is,” Liam said out of the corner of his mouth. These assholes are getting cockier and more arrogant. You need to put them in their place. Hit ‘em with your magic.”
“Uh. Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t really want to do it in here. In the kitchen, with so many others around and—”
“Hit them!” Liam roared, knowing he was losing the audience and any potential support. He might not trust Jennifer, but he needed the rest of the rebels to not give her shit, so she could focus on the job at task. Blasting these two idiots would be the perfect way to keep everyone focused on the task at hand.
Jennifer reacted and pushed both hands out at the two idiots. A gust of wind rose up and swirled around each of them, disturbing their clothing and making them hard to see as they blinked and looked around, clearly confused.
Then it dissipated, leaving the two rebels angry, but otherwise unharmed. Liam shot Jennifer a look of frustration, and then cold-clocked the nearest one before they could do anything else.
“You’d better get out of here!” he snapped as a brawl ensued, shifters from both sides throwing punches. “I’ll be right behind.”
“What about food?” she asked, backing away as Liam grappled with the second asshole troublemaker.
“Maybe you can use that fancy spell of yours to stir the pot some more until it’s ready,” he growled. “I’ll meet you outside in a few minutes, now go!”
Jennifer backed up, but the path to the door was blocked, and they had no way out. Liam kneed his opponent in the stomach, and then drove an elbow into his back, sending him to the floor. He didn’t want to do too much damage; they were all on the same side after all. This fight was almost as much about food as it was differing opinions on Jennifer. In an hour nobody would care. It certainly wasn’t the first fight.
“Follow me,” he said, waiting until Jennifer was behind him. Then he lowered his shoulder and simply bulldozed them a path out of the kitchen. Any shifter unfortunate enough to be caught in his path was knocked aside, and they ran out the doors into the yard, where they could pause and catch their breath.
“Is there anywhere else we can get some food?” she asked as they cleared out from the door as shifters exited the house, most walking, some as a result of being bodily tossed around.
“Oh, I think food is the least of our worries,” he growled, snatching her hand and dragging her across the field to one of the farm’s communal ATVs. “Get on.”
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, hopping into the other seat. It was a cramped fit between the two of them, but they made it work.
“Not here,” he said, firing up the engine and heading out into the fields. “Not here.”
9
She rode along in silence.
There were a million questions in her mind, and things she wanted to say, but Jennifer wisely kept her mouth closed. Now was not the time to try and explain anything, she could tell. Liam had shockingly come to her defense, but her inability to do as he’d wanted had imploded the entire situation around her.
She wished he hadn’t done anything. Jennifer was more than capable of taking care of herself, in her own sort of way. The only reason she hadn’t, was that things hadn’t felt like they were bad enough for her to act. Intimidating the shifters physically simply wasn’t an option for her, so she hadn’t bothered to try. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have limits either, there was a point the others would have crossed when she would have acted.
Now Liam was pissed at her, and she’d revealed a big flaw in the plan. A really big flaw. One she’d hoped to break to them a little later, and a lot gentler.
“Hey!” she yelped in startled surprise as Liam abruptly sent the four-wheeler out into an empty dirt field. The little cart-like vehicle bounced painfully, forcing her to hold on.
There was no response from Liam save a further tilting of his head as he stared straight ahead, ignoring her. When he finally brought them to a halt, he hopped off without waiting and pointed at a blank spot of dirt.
“There. Go on.”
Jennifer waited for more of an explanation, but one didn’t seem to be coming. So, she walked over to where he was pointing and then turned to face him. “Is this good?”
“What are you doing?” he wanted to know, voice taut with frustration.
“I don’t know! What do you want me to do?”
“Use your magic. Blow it up. Do your thing!” Liam said, jabbing at another empty spot of dirt. “Set it on fire. Explode it. Anything!”
Jennifer tried to explain it wasn’t what he was expecting, but Liam just kept shaking his head and pointing at the dirt. So finally, exasperated, she stabbed a hand forward. A flurry of tiny red sparks shot out and impacted upon the dirt, leaving little black scorch marks, and nothing more.
Liam stared at the dirt. Then at her. Then back at the dirt. Then back at her.
“We’re all going to die,” he pronounced. “Yup. We’re all as good as dead. The Magi is going to shred us. It’s a suicide mission, is what it is. We’ll just have to kill him with kindness. Maybe that will work. Maybe he’ll throw us a parade to welcome us home, and we can use your sparklers to light off the fireworks!” he finished with a roar.
“Liam. You’re being ridiculous.”
“I knew you weren’t telling the truth,” he snarled, every muscle in his body flexing as he quivered in rage.
It was quite the sight, and if he wasn’t looking like he was about ready to rip her arms off and beat her with them, Jennifer might have even found it attractive. Instead, she was desperately searching for a way try and diffuse the situation before things got any worse.
“Shouldn’t have trusted you,” Liam muttered, talking as much to himself as anyone else. “L
ogan should have listened. But no, he was all caught up in the hype that maybe now we could retake the Manor, because we had a witch on our side.”
Jennifer bristled at the term. “I am not a witch,” she snapped, her own anger rising to match his. “I am a full-fledged mage. I have passed the Academy’s most rigorous tests, and I ranked at the top of my class. I am a top tier mage.”
“Who can do nothing but shoot sparks from her fingertips,” Liam chortled. “I can really tell this system of yours is accurate.”
“I never claimed to be a combat mage, Liam,” she said furiously. “Not once. I said I was here to help. None of you ever asked where my skills lay, what my specialty is. None of you gave me a second thought, because you don’t see me as a person. You see me as a damn tool to help win your war.” She looked away. “I expected that, but damn, I was hoping I’d be slightly more appreciated.”
“What did you expect when you walked in here acting like our savior? You should have come like anyone else, up the driveway. You could have said ‘Hi, my name’s Jennifer, I can shoot sparkles and glitter. Do you want my help at all?’ That would have been more productive,” he growled. “What sort of witch are you then?”
“I told you,” she hissed. “I am not a witch!”
Magic flowed up her arms at will, power circling her limbs and then her torso. It billowed out her clothing, circling around and around, lifting her hair out wide. It would be in her eyes and running through her veins by this point, as the winds lifted to a shrieking howl.
Liam took a step back. Jennifer took a step toward him.
“I. Am. A. Mage!” she shrieked and cast her spell.
Liam looked around wildly, taking another step back. Jennifer mimicked him, a smile spreading across her face as Liam kept turning. “Alright, where did you go?”
“What, you can’t see me?” she asked, dropping a portion of the spell.
Liam whirled, fixating on her voice, but she pulled the curtain of magic closed. Walking around the side, she made a full circle around the shifter. Not once did he figure out where she was. The spell was very, very complete after all. She’d worked on it for years, perfecting every little nuance associated with it.
