* * * *
Going back to his parents’ cabin had been the best decision Chatan had ever made. For the first time since his mother’s death, he felt at home.
Jacinda lay in his arms, her back snuggled against his front. He had one hand on her stomach. His other fingers were intertwined with hers. He could have stayed there forever, but he needed to get them moving.
First, he needed to know what happened with the Saint Morton asswipes. Then he needed to take Jacinda to breakfast. Later, they needed to go to the nursery. And all he wanted to do was stay in bed with Jacinda and enjoy her presence.
His phone buzzed and he reached back to grab it, looking at the text.
Loretta – Are you coming for breakfast?
Chatan – We’ll be there. Are Taryn and Loval coming?
After the night before, there was a good chance they were.
Loretta – They want to know what happened. Of course they’ll be here.
Chatan kissed Jacinda’s shoulder. “Hungry, Jace?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” She yawned, stretching. Her silky skin pressed tighter. “I like waking up with you.” She turned over, wrapping her leg over his hip. “Tell me she doesn’t expect us yet. I have a craving for you.”
“We have time, if we’re fast.” He rolled on top of her, taking her mouth in a kiss as he slid inside her warm depths.
* * * *
Chatan still held onto a few secrets, but after spending a night in his mother’s home, she finally felt as if she understood him on another level. He needed acceptance. He needed to believe he was more than he thought.
With the right person beside him, magic resonated from deep within. She took his hand as she drove back to his aunt’s. “Who told you that you couldn’t cast?”
“What?” he asked.
“Who told you that you couldn’t do something?”
He snorted. “Everyone. Started with my mother. She would try to teach me to heal her way. I had minimal results. Nothing my aunt showed me worked. Taryn gave up on teaching me potions.” He sighed. “My brothers get frustrated when trying to show me what to do.”
“Well, shit, what about your dad?”
He groaned. “He tries to make me do shit I don’t even understand. Says I can do it, but I can’t even get a spell to fizzle. It’s too much pressure.”
She nodded. “So because you couldn’t do it their way, they decided you couldn’t do it at all?”
“Something like that.”
“I have a better approach. I can show you what I know, and we can tweak it until you find a groove, or you decide that magic isn’t for you.”
“You won’t get fed up with me?” He stared out the window, not bothering to look.
“Never. My mom had an amazing amount of patience teaching me. I can’t use magic the way she can. There are things she can do I can’t even begin to emulate. She guided me through teaching myself. So that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll take the pieces I do know, and we’ll experiment until we find what works. That is after work.”
“Why?”
“Well, who taught you to do what you do with plants?”
“No one.”
“Exactly. You felt a natural draw to it and it happened. Well, most magic is like that. Either you can or can’t, but if you can do a little, there’s a good chance you can do more. We just have to find the right way to balance it out so you can find your way.”
“You cast nothing like your mother?”
She shook her head. “She’s a seer. She can see the future. She’s also good with plants. And exceptional at potions. I’m limited in both, but those aren’t my gifts. I feel no draw to them. So, I practiced what felt right and tried new things. It works. For me.”
He took her hand. “Tonight, I’ll order out and we can eat at home. You and I can try. But I may be a bad student.”
“You won’t be. I’ll make this as painless as possible, and I’ll reward you well.”
Grinning, he squeezed her hand. “I hope you do teach me to better use my magic.”
“You said you couldn’t heal well, and you fixed my foot. I think there’s a good chance you had the wrong people helping you before. We’re going to fix that now.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he admitted.
Chapter 31
Chatan walked inside with Jacinda under his arm. He couldn’t explain the nervous energy that had cropped up. He sent Loretta a text he was taking Jacinda to his mother’s but nothing more.
How much of the night before did she know?
“Stop stressing,” Jacinda whispered.
“Wish I could,” he muttered.
“There you two are.” Loretta smiled. “George was right. I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Chatan asked.
“He was right about you. Something broke the dam wide-open. I feel it now.”
“Feel what?” he asked slowly.
Jacinda squeezed his hand and whispered against his ear. “Your magic. When you healed me, it flowed past whatever was blocking it.”
His brow pinched as he shook his head. “What?” He didn’t feel any different. Sure, the healing worked better, but the only thing that changed is that he felt whole.
“It’s true,” Loval said, coming into the kitchen. “It’s like your energy to the millionth power.”
Taryn nudged Loval. “Leave him alone.”
“Don’t you dare tell him not to try,” Loval whispered loudly.
She shook her head. “Not another word.”
Only one possible cause. Chatan turned to Jacinda. “What did you do?” She had to have done something.
She shook her head, her eyes bright. “Nothing. You did it.” She pushed him toward the table. “You’re hungry, right?”
“Yeah.” He sat down and filled his plate while Jacinda did the same. Questions tumbled around his head. He glanced at Jacinda. Maybe Jacinda was right. Maybe everyone’s doubts blocked his ability. She had faith in him, and his magic broke free.
He squeezed her hand and she met his gaze with a radiant smile.
“So, last night,” Loretta started, “how did you get away from those brutes?”
“Invisibility spell,” Jacinda answered. “Thought Chatan might give me away when I snuck out and stepped on glass.”
Loretta shook her head. “Explains the bloody track of footprints to the tree and the mess there.”
“Sorry.” She ducked her gaze. “Didn’t think it was that bad.”
“It was bad,” Chatan admitted.
“Don’t worry about the mess. It’s already cleaned up. And I should give you some money back.”
Jacinda shook her head. “No, I won’t take it.”
“Are you going back to the room?” Taryn asked, her eyes narrowed.
Turning to Chatan, she looked into his eyes. “Are we staying in your home?”
He smiled. “We are.”
She faced Taryn. “No.”
“You were welcome in this home,” Loretta stated.
She nodded. “Thank you, but it would have felt strange to me. I’m used to being on my own, no one to check in with. I can get used to checking in with Chatan, but not everyone else.”
“You really should have a phone,” Taryn said.
“Never needed one before,” Jacinda admitted.
“Well, maybe we should fix that. Then if one of us worries, we can call,” Chatan murmured.
Jacinda held up her hands. “Everyone stop. You can’t expect me to want a phone. I’ve never needed one.”
“I’ll work on her,” Chatan announced. “Now, I’m starved. And we have a long day planned.”
“Have dinner at our place,” Taryn said. “Please.”
Loretta nodded. “I’ll be busy tonight. We have a lead, and I need to find out more.”
“Call if you need me,” he said.
“If, but I think it will be fine,” Loretta assured.
Chatan took Jacinda’s hand. “Want to eat with Taryn a
nd Loval?”
“Sure, sounds good to me.”
Loretta pulled the subject back, “How’s your foot. You aren’t limping.”
“Well, Chatan took care of me. My foot is fine now.”
Pride filled Chatan as Jacinda smiled his way.
* * * *
Loretta drove to the elders’ log cabin and pulled out the laptop they kept stored there. She needed to continue the trail she’d found. So many shifty things hidden in the Monvoisin bloodline, and several of their own members had disappeared after going to Saint Morton.
Josephine seemed to be behind it. And yet Sigmund and Francis Monvoisin hadn’t reported anything unusual. Why should they? Their daughter was a monster, literally. And Loretta had done some digging into strigoi. Seemed Jacinda had nailed that one on the head.
Josephine wasn’t alive, and her soul was only partially intact. The rest was filled with a dark entity, pushing her drive for violence and power higher than anything it normally would have been.
“We need to call the Council,” she told George, Nadie, Joe and Mac. “We can’t handle her on our own. If what I just found is true, she may have the power of a transcendent mage now.”
“Why?” Mac asked slowly.
She sighed. “Because her cousin, Maxine, was a transcendent mage. And she flew in last night. Her husband too. Though the warlock doesn’t likely have magic we need to be concerned with.”
Nadie paced away. “That foolish girl. She’s playing with powers she cannot hope to control. She’s going to tear the fabric of reality if she gets too cocky.”
“Who’s to say she hasn’t? Of the pricks they arrested last night, Mason Shirington wasn’t among them. What if she turned him into something like she is?” Mac asked.
George pushed out a breath. “Then she’s killed him too. Even if he is alive, once the Council takes him in, they’ll have no choice but destroy him or let him fade away.”
Nadie shook her head. “He won’t want to live without her. And they will certainly destroy her.”
“Do you see another outcome?” Loretta demanded.
“Of course not. She’s a loss.” Nadie pushed her hair back. “I’m only sad she lost the humanity she had.”
“By her choice,” Loretta argued.
“I’m not arguing. Doesn’t make her story any less tragic. Her parents blamed her for not being good enough. She clung to someone who could get her where she wanted, manipulated them into making her more powerful, without realizing she wouldn’t be her anymore. There was a girl there once, one who had a shred of decency that could have grown, but no one nurtured it. She fell to darkness instead.”
Loretta dipped her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t think we could have done more to stop her. And now a stupid, foolish man has lost his chance to redeem himself because he decided to follow a psychopath.”
* * * *
“I want you to stay here,” Chatan said as he parked the truck.
“Not going anywhere.” She sat back and opened the paperback she picked up at the store.
Smiling, he headed into the police station. Joe looked up with a grin. “Thought you were coming by earlier.”
“Woke up late,” he answered sheepishly.
“You can go back there, but they don’t remember shit. And they aren’t faking it.”
“What?” Chatan asked.
He shook his head. “Never seen anything like it. They’re acting as if their minds were wiped. They don’t have a damned clue why they’re here, or what they did to deserve to be in cells. And no lawyer has come to talk to them. No one has come to bail them out. It’s eerie as fuck.”
“Interesting. I still need to see for myself.”
“You could bring her back, see if she jogs their memories.”
“Oh, hell no. She doesn’t need to be harassed.”
“Chatan, they honestly don’t remember what they were doing here. They don’t remember Josephine. They’re lucky they know their damned names.”
Frowning, Chatan shoved through the door and stormed into the cell hall.
Butch stormed to the door. “Stop playing games and let us the fuck out!”
“What are you in for?” Chatan asked.
Butch pulled at his hair. “Honest to fucking God, I don’t have a damned clue. I haven’t driven out to this piece of shit dump in years. I want out.”
The other four men closed in on the doors. “Let us out. We haven’t done anything.”
“There’s video evidence of you smashing a window, Butch. The same tape shows all of you breaking and entering into a motel room. And you don’t remember that?”
“Not a damned thing.”
Chatan spun on his heel and left. “What the fuck? Did Taryn’s tonic go wrong?”
“She didn’t give them anything,” Joe said. “And they’re going apeshit because they don’t know what the fuck they supposedly did.”
“Damn it. I need to go.”
He hurried back to the truck and climbed in. “You know magic, right?”
Jacinda nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“About things you don’t know how to do?”
“Yup.”
“Can some kind of caster wipe someone’s mind from a distance?”
“A powerful enough psionic, if they’ve performed a ritual to form a mental bond. They would have to withdraw the bond and everything to do with that person would recede with the magic that held them under thrall.”
“Fucking hell, that’s what she did.”
Her head cocked.
“None of them know what they did last night.”
“Do they remember Wendy?” she asked with a snort.
He dialed Joe, instead of going inside. Chatan hit speaker.
Joe answered, “You’re in the parking lot, dude. Why didn’t you come in with her?”
“Just in case that bitch decides to restore someone’s memory. Do they remember Wendy?”
“Nope. Nothing to do with why they were here, who they were searching for, what crimes she supposedly committed.”
Jacinda rubbed at her face. “I didn’t even get to order food, let alone steal anything.”
Joe chuckled. “Don’t worry, we know you didn’t.”
“Thanks, Joe.” Chatan hung up and started the engine, throwing the truck in reverse. “Mason wasn’t in there.”
She nodded. “Okay, what does that have to do with anything?”
“This isn’t over.”
“Well, no shit. Look, I’m staying with you, right? And if you need to work at the motel, I’ll stick with you those nights. Relax.”
Chatan looked over, his expression softening. “Really?”
“Yeah. I found what I was looking for. I just have to figure out what it means.”
“And then what?” Dread set in.
“Then we have a long talk. You need to understand everything.”
A smile spread across his face.
Chapter 32
The day went by in a blur. Jacinda knew time was running out and the more she thought about her options, the more she thought maybe things could work. Maybe she needed him to stop Thanatos.
At dinner she realized she may have found a home. Not at Taryn and Loval’s but there, with Chatan. And if he could handle the truth about what was coming for her, he could help her stop it.
That was Hawk and Dove’s story, right? That it took love to stop such evil. And if he couldn’t, well, she knew what love was.
She set her fork down and turned to Chatan. He stole her breath with his smile.
“What?” he asked.
The words were on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to tell him what she felt but wanted to be alone with him first. Mom was right. This was worth everything.
“You two should go,” Taryn cooed.
“Hmm?” Loval asked.
She elbowed him in the ribs and shot him a look.
Jacinda couldn’t stop the giggle. “You two are cute.”
“Not as cute as
you two. Now go. You’ve been here long enough. I know that look,” Taryn explained.
She gulped.
Chatan stood and hugged Taryn, then knocked knuckles with Loval before taking Jacinda’s hand. “Come on.”
“Thank you for dinner.” Then Jacinda squealed when Chatan tossed her over his shoulder.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Taryn called as Chatan went through the door.
He hurried to the truck, depositing her in the seat, then rushed around.
She clicked the belt and turned toward him. “In a hurry to get me home?”
“We’ve been running all day. I want some alone time without having to worry about anything else.”
“You going to worry about me?”
He laughed. “No. I’m going to enjoy every second with you.”
* * * *
By the time he pulled into his driveway, Jacinda had grown quiet, holding on to her necklace with a frown. She hadn’t said a word, hadn’t let his hand go, but had lost the smile she wore when they left his cousin’s.
Chatan parked and caught Jacinda’s chin, pulling her gaze his way. “What’s going on?”
She pulled in a breath. “Um…want to meet my mom? Sort of?”
He nodded, a slow grin spreading. “Of course. How?”
“Just need a sink filled with water.”
He paused. “What?”
“Trust me. You’ll see her. She’ll see you.”
He smiled. “You want her to meet me?”
“Yes.” Jacinda slipped from the truck and hurried to the door. “Come on.” She went inside.
He caught up and spun her back to him. “You’re nervous. Is that good or bad?”
“I love you. I do. I wouldn’t introduce you if I didn’t want her to know you.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Jace.”
She gulped, nodding. “Waiting for me to get with the program?”
He laughed. “Figured it was too soon to say. You haven’t been here before. And this is so much more than anything I’ve felt in the past. You’re it, Jace.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine this with anyone else. Let me show you the spell.” She pulled him into the kitchen and plugged sink, filling the it with water.
Finding Hawk Page 20
