Wicked Magic (7 Wicked Tales Featuring Witches, Demons, Vampires, Fae, and More)

by Deanna Chase

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  While I cleaned out my trailer fridge, I thought of the last visitors from Festiva who had left this morning. I hadn’t been here in a while, and although I was about as far from Susie homemaker as you got, the milk and few other provisions I did have were long past their prime.

  I’d come over here this morning to pay the rent for the next three months—working for Cormac paid generously. I also needed some space. It was hard getting use to this much togetherness, especially with how rejected I felt. I needed somewhere private to lick my wounds. I wasn’t used to having people around constantly. If it wasn’t Cormac, it was Dodd or Buzz. Then there was Ben. I don’t know where he had gone for the last week but he was there all the time, now.

  I couldn’t even leave without the Cormac interrogation of where I was headed, another thing that drove me crazy, lately. I wanted to walk out the door for once without everyone having to know where I was going, and what I was doing. When I told him I was headed here, he couldn’t understand why. It was perhaps the stupidest question he had asked. Eventually this portal issue would be resolved, was I suppose to live in a tent in the desert, then? I knew he figured I’d have the money, but maybe I didn’t want to blow it on a place I didn’t need. Maybe I liked my trailer, even if no one else did.

  It had been a little stressful getting here, since I still had my fear-of-floating-away anxiety going on, but it hadn’t happened once while I was awake. Since being on the roof the other night, I was starting to feel confident that maybe I wouldn’t drift off into space. I guess there was one positive thing that came out of it.

  Walking around my little space, I was so glad I’d come. I lounged on my couch and flipped on my crappy little TV. It was a second hand couch, I stared at a twenty-inch screen, and I was happy. The setting sun filtered in a warm glow through my window, and I completely relaxed for the first time in weeks.

  I heard my phone ring in my purse, and I wanted to ignore it. Only Cormac and his men called me. I wanted, no needed, a Cormac free zone, but I knew if I didn’t answer, I’d most likely have someone pounding on the door, soon. I gave up and dug my phone out.

  “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m at my place, Cormac. I told you I would be here.”

  “When are you coming back?”

  “I’m staying here for tonight,” I said and then waited.

  “Okay. When you coming back?”

  I would have fallen over if I hadn’t been sitting. No fight?

  “I’ll be back at nine.”

  No argument, he just hung up. That was easy. Perhaps I was toeing the line too much. Nah, that couldn’t be it.

  I looked out the window, knowing that there wasn’t much time before full nightfall, and quickly grabbed my worn out sneakers. I hadn’t been out running in weeks. I’d gone on the treadmill in the gym of the casino, but I longed to be outside. I wanted to feel my body moving, instead of feeling like a gerbil on a wheel.

  I stretched my legs, then ran at a sprint because the world lay open and I could. I pushed all anxiety away, refusing even to think of it. I quickly became winded, and then fell into a slower steady pace. I didn’t make my way back to my place until a light sheen of sweat covered me and there was only the tiniest glimmer of light left in the sky.

  My panting, and my complete physical relaxation from the strenuous exertion, added to my being oblivious to the two men until one of them had my arm wrenched behind my back.

  The other thug, the one I could see, circled in front of me.

  “You sure this is her?” He was huge, with a thick barrel chest, and greasy hair.

  “She looks identical to the picture,” the guy who held me said.

  “Okay, let’s get her to the car before anyone sees us.”

  I fell limp, lulling the guy holding me into a false sense of security. I didn’t look like a threat, and I didn’t want to let them know I might be one. Might, I wasn’t sure, myself, how much of one I really was. I saw their car not twenty feet away, and I wanted to shoot myself for not having noticed it before. Didn’t matter, as long as these two weren’t Keepers, I could take them. I’d prefer the odds of one at a time, hell, I’d prefer a lot of things to be different, but that wasn’t working out too hot for me.

  The larger of the two men walked ahead, clearly not concerned about me, which left me with just the one in near proximity. I’d never done it blind before, but I shot the energy through my arms, hoping for good contact.

  It wasn’t perfect, but he let out a yelp and released me long enough to finish the job. My knee connected between his legs and I blasted him full force. Before I’d finished, a hand grabbed my shoulder, and ripped me away from my current victim. With no time to dodge the huge fist aimed right at my face, I concentrated on throwing my hands on his arm when he connected. It hurt like a son of a gun when he did, and I was afraid I’d lose consciousness, but I held on. I’d managed to throw enough juice at him that he was clutching his arm in agony. I wasn’t sure how long I’d have, so I took off at a run with no cell phone or purse.

  I couldn’t find a single pay phone. Ever since cell phones, they’ve become increasingly harder and harder to find. An hour later, I was still jogging at a steady pace and had just made it to the Vegas Strip. I knew I must have looked a wreck because of the number of stares I received.

  I’d given up on stopping to call, and just jogged the whole way over. My legs burned worse than the last marathon I’d run, and I never thought I’d feel so grateful to be back at Lacard.

  No one questioned me as I walked in. They all recognized me. I wasn’t sure if Cormac handed my picture out or what, but lately I could do whatever I wanted without so much as a raised eyebrow.

  My feet were sore by the time I stepped out of the elevator into the hallway that led to the penthouse. The hall was empty, which was slightly unusual, but not unheard of when Cormac was home. You couldn’t get off of his floor without entering a code, anyway, so it wasn’t necessary.

  The moment I opened the door, I knew something was odd. I just didn’t know what. Then I noticed the smell of perfume that lingered in the air, and it clawed at my brain. I knew that scent.

  I turned the corner to find Lacey’s back to me, her hand rested on Cormac’s thigh. His eyes shifted upward to mine instantly and locked.

  I wasn’t sure what he saw there, but I knew what I felt like. It stabbed right to the heart of me. While I attacked, he’d been trying to screw the only friend I’d ever had.

  The other night suddenly made sense to me. He’d moved on. I said nothing because I knew I didn’t have any valid cause to be upset. I stepped out of the room before Lacey even noticed my presence, and closed my door as silently as possible. Then I lay on my bed in the dark.

  When a knock sounded on my door less than five minutes later, I wasn’t sure who it was, Lacey or Cormac. It didn’t make a difference. I didn’t want to see either of them. Lacey was still the only friend I had and I didn’t want to not be happy for her, but it was hard and I needed a little time to adjust. And Cormac, well, I just didn’t want to see him.

  “I’m just getting in the shower.”

  “Let me in.” It was Cormac’s baritone voice.

  “I’ll come out when I’m done.”

  My eyes shot to the door as it swung open.

  “What the hell happened to you? You’re a mess.”

  I had a vague idea of what I probably looked like. I knew my nose had bled when the thug punched me in the face, I was also aware my torn shirt and who knew how much dirt clung to me.

  “How did you get in? Where is Lacey?”

  “I sent Lacey home. Told her I forgot about a meeting.”

  “You never forget anything.”

  “Yeah, well, she bought it.”

  “How did you get in?”

  “Hanger. Now what happened to you? You’re a wreck.”

  “Two guys jumped me on my way back from a jog.” I gave h
im a complete rundown of the short events.

  “Did they say anything else?”

  “Nothing much. Just compared me to a photo they had and agreed I was the correct target.”

  “Let me look at your nose.”

  “My nose is fine.”

  “It looks broken.”

  “Ow! Get off!” I said as he leaned over me and started touching my face.

  “We’ve got to get that set unless you want to look like a former boxer for the rest of your days. I’ll call the doctor.”

  “I’ll do it myself.”

  “You’ll never be able to do it yourself.”

  He reached in again to touch my face and I knocked his hand away.

  “Why are you angry?”

  “I’m not,” I screamed.

  I pushed off the bed and stepped around him into the bathroom. My reflection caught me a bit off guard; blood had dripped down my face and made a trail down the front of my ripped shirt. Cormac’s reflection over my left shoulder grimaced.

  “We have to get that set. Your bones are already meshing together.”

  “I’m handling it.” I gently ran my fingers along the crooked bridge of my nose, trying to determine the best way to proceed.

  “You have no right to be mad.”

  “I’m not sure if you noticed, but I don’t have a lot of friends. Do you have to fuck the only one I have?”

  “I haven’t fucked her. She’s a nice girl. Did you want me to wait around forever?”

  I didn’t want to admit it, but yes, that is exactly what I had wanted him to do. Just because I rejected him, didn’t mean he was supposed to move to the next girl. What kind of crap was that?

  “Why her?”

  “Why not? Did you have someone else in mind?”

  Unfortunately, I did, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Not willing to go there, I ignored the question and tried to figure out what to do about my nose. He was right, if I didn’t get it straightened out soon, I would indeed look like an ex-boxer. I gripped the bottom portion of my nose and saw Cormac shake his head.

  “You’re going to do it wrong.”

  “Shut up. I’ve got this under control.”

  I closed my eyes, took a large breath and tried to ram it into place. The pain was horrific and it took a minute to catch my breath and get control. Once I did, I looked at my handy work. It looked worse than when I had started.

  “I told you. Now turn around and let me see how much worse you made it.”

  I complied out of a sheer panic of vanity. I’d always been pretty, and I suddenly realized I didn’t want to be any other way.

  “We might not have time to call the doctor. You’re really starting to set up.”

  “That quickly?”

  “It happens like that sometimes.”

  “You’re right, I can’t do it. Fix it.”

  “It’s going to hurt like hell.”

  “Just do it.”

  “You sure?”

  “I don’t want a crooked nose. Do it!”

  I thought he was going to argue with me, but he just snapped my bones back. The pain shot through my head and I ran over to the toilet and threw up what little I had eaten.

  A wet towel hung near my face after I finished.

  “I thought you were going to give me a warning first.”

  “Just makes it worse.”

  “Not possible. It didn’t feel that bad when it happened.”

  “You had adrenaline pumping through you. I’m putting the guys back on you.”

  “No, you are not.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “You gave me your word.”

  “When you weren’t being attacked.”

  “So you are breaking it?”

  He stood silently for a moment. I knew I had hit a nerve. “How about no guards as long as you are on the casino grounds? You take someone if you go anywhere else.”

  I was about to open my mouth in protest.

  “Work with me.”

  “Fine. Now back up. You’re crowding me.” Every cell in my body was at full alert with him so close.

  He didn’t move an inch. “Sooner or later, you are going to have to work on this intimacy problem you have. You wonder why I’m interested in Lacey, why I didn’t touch you on the rooftop? Because of this.”

  I looked into his eyes. “Don’t you get it? I’m broken, and not the kind that can be fixed. This is who I am and who I’m always going to be. And I’m sick of hearing you tell me what’s wrong, so either deal with it or I’m leaving.” His eyes were so intense on me it chilled my skin and I forgot any pain my nose had caused. Unsettled, I folded and moved first, leaving him standing alone in the bathroom as I walked out the door.

  “So does that mean you are admitting there is a problem?” I heard him yell as I walked to the other room.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Maybe we should hold hands like we did with the radiation problem?” I asked as I banged the back of my head against the hard wall that was acting as my seat back.

  “No, this part doesn’t work like that,” Dodd explained.

  “Maybe I should jump in it before it slams shut?” I offered.

  “Not a chance. It could crush you,” said Cormac.

  It was almost two in the morning and they still couldn’t get the portal up and running for longer than a minute. The two people who were traveling back had been waiting in the other room for four hours now.

  “Boss?”

  “What’s up, Buzz?”

  “They’re getting pretty impatient over there and Tracker just showed. He wants to know why his people haven’t crossed, yet.”

  “Tell them it’s off for tonight. I’ll come over and talk to Tracker in a couple of minutes.”

  I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. This had just gone from bad to disastrous. I heard the click of the door shutting and opened my eyes just in time to see Dodd’s hand slam against the table. Cormac stood deathly still, just staring at where the portal should have hovered open, displaying a beautiful lavender sky.

  I stood and stamped the pins and needles out of my foot. “There has to be someone with answers. I can’t believe you guys don’t have an owner’s manual or something.”

  “I wish,” Cormac replied.

  “Well, who trained you? You must have had some sort of mentor?”

  “That would be Hammond. The guy I can’t find. Let me go get this over with.” I watched Cormac’s heavy steps as he left the room.

  “What’s he going to say?” I asked Dodd.

  “I don’t know, but he’ll buy us some time. I’ll be right back. I’m going to see if I can help things along a little.”

  “Yeah, go. I’ll be here doing nothing.”

  Alone in the room, I ran my hand down one of the ebony monoliths, wishing I could unlock a problem that people so much more knowledgeable than me were stymied by, and I was frustrated. Knowing the room was soundproofed, I let out a scream that contained all my pent up anger at the situation, my repressed anger at always being the underdog, and most of all, I released my disgust of myself at being helpless.

  The lights in the room flickered off, and were quickly replaced by the portal bursting open. I’d never seen it so large in any of the times I’d been there. It shot toward the ceiling and pressed from wall to wall, leaving dents where the walls strained to contain it.

  On the other side, I saw two men, one I didn’t recognize, but the other was the guy in the suit who had gone into the doctor’s office with Tracker. Both of their faces gaped open in shock.

  “Who are you?” the man in the suit hollered down the length of the portal.

  “Who are you?” I hollered back. Who’d this guy think he was?

  He stepped into the portal and started making his way to me.

  I didn’t want to panic, but I had a real bad feeling about this guy. I considered making a break for the door, but I didn’t want to run. Something about the idea of runni
ng from this guy made me mad, so I stood my ground.

  As long as he wasn’t immune to my skills, I could take him. He was about five feet ten inches and of average build. His appearance gave me the impression that he wasn’t the type to get physical, or at least, he didn’t look like he was used to getting dirty, might be a more accurate way to describe him.

  His shoes hitting the interior floor announced his official exit from the portal.

  “Who are you?”

  His voice was deep, even now that he wasn’t yelling. I saw the silver at his temples and slight wrinkling at the corner of his eyes. Even without this display of age, I could sense his experience by his carriage and the confidence he held within himself.

  “Not going to answer?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure why you think I owe you any answers?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I might not know what hole you dragged yourself out of, but I know who you are, regardless.”

  “Excuse me? Would you care to elaborate?”

  “You stand there like your tough and confident, but I know the truth that lies beneath the act. Now, it’s time you crawl back to the gutter and get out of my business.”

  “You’re right, I do come from the gutter, and guess what? That’s how I fight too.” Before I gave him even a second to react, I kicked him in the stomach. I threw everything I had into it and he fell backward into the portal. The rage over his words, and my fear that he was correct, fueled my energy as it shot out of me. He’d been so confident in his physical superiority his relaxed posture had made him an easy mark and he flew back a couple feet into the portal.

  A second after he hit the portal, I heard the door swing open. As I turned to see Cormac and Dodd walking in, I felt a swoosh of air as the portal instantly collapsed with a force so strong it created an aftershock that shook the very walls.

  “Oh, god!” I said frantically, looking from Dodd to Cormac. “I gotta get this thing back open!”

  “What the…”

  “Cormac, I just shoved a man in there before it collapsed!”

  “What the hell happened in here?” Dodd finally articulated. The two of them circled the room, the smell of dust in the air.

  “Whatever you did dented the walls.”