by M. L. Briers
“Jessica Rabbit!” Morgana said…
“Cartoon characters won’t help…” Daniella raised just one eyebrow back at her.
“I call her that because she’s got red hair and big boobs … never mind … she can help us.” Morgana said.
“Will she?” Nathaniel asked.
“If there’s something in it for her, she will…” Morgana said.
“Let’s go get her…” Nathaniel wasn’t about to sit around and hope that they’d come up with a breakthrough.
Obviously Morgana was attached to Claudia and she was hurting – Nathaniel wanted to make that pain go away, and he felt responsible. If he hadn’t dragged Morgana into the whole mess in the first place none of it would be happening, at least, not to her friend.
“You’ll be here…?” Morgana levelled that concern towards the professor, even if Daniella had become a little less snotty and up her own backside since they’d gotten there, she still trusted the professor more than she trusted the young witch to keep her word.
“We will…” Harold assured her.
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“You trust him, don’t you?” Nathaniel asked as they drove at break neck speed through the deserted city streets towards Jessica’s house on the lower east side.
“The professor?” Morgana turned to see him nod. “I guess. I don’t know why, so don’t ask. He just seems …”
“Too stuffy to be lying?”
“Something like that.” Morgana said, frowning hard. “It’s in his eyes – I guess that sounds stupid, but I’ve learned to follow my instincts over the years and there’s a connection there…”
“Like he’s your destiny?” Nathaniel didn’t like the sound of that…
“I hope that’s not a sexual reference…” Morgana bit back.
“Not,” Nathaniel didn’t know what it was, but he wasn’t certain that he liked the thought of it either.
If the man was some kind of a witch guru then he didn’t want to lose Morgana to the cult of Professor Harold…
“That’s a first,” Morgana muttered.
“Yes, well, contrary to popular belief, sometimes a leopard can change its spots…”
“And become what? A jaguar? Still the same deadly beast under the skin, no?” She asked and Nathaniel stayed silent.
He knew that he couldn’t catch a break with Morgana. He knew that she viewed him as the antichrist in so many ways that he probably couldn’t count that high.
He also knew that he didn’t want to be the monster that she probably thought he was, deep down under the layers that he presented her with. He didn’t know how to behave around her … she unsettled him deep within his very soul – if he still had a soul…
He’d found her lost and alone on a rooftop one night when she’d needed someone the most. He’d caught her Fae scent in the air and had decided that a tasty witch might have been on the menu … but then he’d looked at her – really, looked at her sitting there – lost. Not in her physical location but in herself, and something had shifted within him.
It hadn’t been the last time that he’d wanted to taste her blood upon his tongue, but each and every time he’d resisted that fire within his veins to take what he needed from her.
She’d made a pact with the devil – not that he was – not anymore – and he’d done her bidding in an attempt to lock her into his life.
He’d killed for her.
He’d rescued her sister, for which Morgana had got no thanks from the sour and ungrateful witch – only a disappearing act, and she hadn’t heard anything from her since – killed the man that was abusing her and asked only one thing from Morgana in return – that she work for him for the foreseeable future.
Morgana had seen it as a debt that could never be repaid any other way. He could think of some … some that she would never go for, had been resistant to accept, but he was biding his time – he certainly had plenty of it.
“Damn it to hell…” Nathaniel bit out…
“O-k-a-y…”
“Your sister. I never put two and two together at the scent of the werewolves…” Nathaniel said and snatched a look at the witch as her mouth fell open…
“You think Marley had something to do with this?” Morgana said, horrified at the thought…
“Maybe not Marley …”
“Tom Deaton…” Morgana got there with a thud of her heart against her ribs… “Werewolf – bastard…”
“And an alpha…” Nathaniel ground out. “I should have hunted him down and ended the bloodline…”
He tasted the regret on his tongue of not doing just that. Of not killing Paul’s brother, when he had the chance – but he had been intent on rescuing Morgana’s reluctant sister from the clutches of that werewolf, and getting on with enjoying the witch in his life…
Now that decision might have come back to haunt him.
There was a reason that the mob bosses wiped out a bloodline – no future retaliation from the kin. He’d killed Paul and hadn’t given a thought to his brother. Now as surely as night followed day – Tom would be an alpha…
“Marley…” Morgana had to wonder.
Her sister had been missing in action since the day that Nathaniel had rescued her from the brothers…
“She was Paul’s woman…” Nathaniel didn’t want to think of Morgana’s own sister having anything to do with what was happening, but if she’d gone to the dark side…
“I’ll kill her myself if she’s…” Morgana bit that thought off. “Let’s just get Jessica and then I know what to look for if it is Marley.”
Morgana knew that she could reach out a lot easier for the connection to her sister’s magic than she could to a complete stranger. Even if that magic had turned dark.
They’d spent their childhoods and early teens working spells together and she knew the nuances to look for. Light or dark – there would still be the signature of the witch behind the magic.
If it was Marley behind the disappearances with Deaton then she’d kill them both without hesitation...
“What the hell is…?” Morgana bit out at the sight of Jessica running through the garden of her house and down towards the back street.
She felt the g-force take her forward in her seat as Nathaniel stomped on the brakes at the sight of the muscle bound goon that was following hard on her heels…
“That’s Lochlin …” Nathaniel bit out, but he was already out of the car and racing after them by the time that Morgana had managed to pop off her seatbelt…
“Damn bear shifters…” She bit out. She wanted to kill someone, and nobody was going to miss Lochlin MacCree in a hurry…
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
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Nathaniel could scent the blood of the Fae witch in the air. He tackled Lochlin from behind, bringing the man down with his superior strength, and buried the shifter’s face in the mud with glee as he did it.
“Jessica!” Morgana yelled into the darkness of the night as the witch ran out of sight ahead of her.
With one eye on Nathaniel and the miffed off bear shifter whose head the vampire was holding down into the earth with one hand, while he sat on top of his back; she took off after her…
“Don’t get too far ahead of me!” Nathaniel yelled.
The vampire was torn between protecting Morgana from any unseen danger and keeping the bear shifter right where he needed him to be. With a roll of his eyes in annoyance that Morgana wasn’t paying a blind bit of attention to what he’d told her – he fisted Lochlin’s hair, wrenched his head up, and planted his fist squarely in the man’s face…
Then he dropped his face back in the mud and took off after Morgana. He caught up with her at the same time that she caught up with Jessica. The witch had fallen over a downed tree stump and was cursing like a sailor on shore leave as Morgana pulled up, puffing and panting in the air like she’d been truly winded.
“I told you not to get too far…” Nathaniel bit out at
the witch that never seemed to listen to a damn word that he said.
“Stupid … kept … running…” Morgana said, with a glare for Jessica as the witch brought her head up and glared back at Morgana…
“Did you … not see … what was … chasing me?” Jessica panted back…
“No … der!” Morgana tossed back.
She bent forwards with another curse and braced her hands on her knees as she tried to still her heart back to something of a normal beat, and catch the breath that she so desperately needed inside of her lungs.
She hated running. She hated anything that could possibly be classed as a sport if she had to participate in it.
She wanted to heave the sandwich that she’d eaten at some point in the day up all over Jessica, just because the witch had made her run further than she’d needed to…
“I need to get back to the bear before he wakes…” Nathaniel hooked a thumb back over his shoulder…
“That shifter’s nuts…” Jessica hissed out…
“Lover’s spat?” Nathaniel asked and she snorted her contempt for that scenario…
“Only his mother could love him…” she tossed back.
“Why was he chasing you…?” Morgana asked.
“Because of you…” Jessica tossed back.
“Come again?” Morgana tipped her head to one side and regarded her with a curious look…
“Now that sounds like something I’d like to hear you…” Nathaniel bit down on the next words the moment when Morgana aimed a pointy elbow in his stomach and it connected…
“Said we were training newbie werewolves together…” Jessica bit out with disgust. “Like I’d have anything to do with a mutt.” She could have spat at the thought of it and it wouldn’t have been out of place.
“Glad you feel that way, we’ve got a little favour to ask…” Nathaniel said with a grin, and Morgana groaned.
“One way to talk the witch around, I suppose…” Morgana berated him.
“I don’t want anything to do with your scheme’s…” Jessica said with a small shake of her head.
“Fine, we’ll leave you too it then,” Nathaniel said, wrapping an arm around Morgana’s waist and starting to lead her away from the downed witch. “Lochlin should be awake in a few minutes. Enjoy…” he called back over his shoulder…
“Wait!” Jessica bit out. “Morgana!” She protested.
“You are horrible, do you know that?” Morgana offered up to the vampire and he gave her a devilish grin in return.
“Yes, and yes.” He shrugged before turning back to the sight of Jessica limping towards them, the bounce of her boobs attracting his attention downwards from her face… “I see why she’s Rabbit…” He whispered against Morgana’s ear and got another elbow for his trouble.
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“Tell me who told you that Morgana was spelling werewolves…”
Nathaniel demanded from the bear shifter as he held the man pinned against the tree trunk with just one hand wrapped around his throat.
Lochlin bit down on the urge to let his bear burst free of his human body – if he shifted then the vampire would certainly of had a reason to kill him – right then; it just felt like the vampire wanted to torment him into telling him what he knew.
“Word of mouth. It’s all over the streets in shifter circles…” Lochlin bit back on a growl of annoyance.
It had taken the vampire a few rounds of knocking the man’s head against the nearest tree to get him to talk. Now the shifter was done fighting and ready for answers…
“And you have no idea where it came from?” Nathaniel looked deep into the man’s eyes, reading his answers, reading his very soul…
“I swear…” Lochin growled back.
Nathaniel let him go and took a couple of steps back from him. The shifter stumbled forwards and then dropped back against the tree trunk for support as he took all the oxygen that he needed…
Jessica took a few big steps towards Lochlin and kicked the man as hard as she could right in the crown jewels. Nathaniel winced – knowing that pain and sympathising with it – if not with the shifter that had taken the blow to his manhood.
Lochlin crumpled forwards onto his knees. His eyes were wide with surprise and they looked like they might just pop out of the sockets.
His face was etched with so much pain that it looked as if he’d been run through with a sword, and his hands gripped his most prized possessions as all of the air wheezed out of his lungs once more…
“It’s the least you deserve,” Jessica hissed down at the man, feeling no response for him at all. “Next time you come for me; I will flay your skin from your body while you’re still alive…”
“My … there’s a pretty picture.” Nathaniel offered to Morgana and the witch grinned back.
“She’s old school…” Morgana offered and the vampire took in a long breath and let it out slowly.
“Car, both of you. Now…” he said.
“I’m not going with you…” Jessica turned her nose up at the thought of travelling anywhere with a vampire.
“Fine… as I said before. Stay here with him … but, oh! Didn’t you just kick him in the nuts?” Nathaniel offered back with a devilish grin, and the woman’s nose twitched in annoyance.
“Fine, but I go under protest.” She snorted her contempt for him. Then she half turned and looked back over her shoulder at the shifter. “And my door had better be fixed by the damn time I get back or else.”
Lochlin gasped for a breath, but there was none to be had. The pain in his balls and in his stomach had snatched it away and it didn’t feel like he was going to get it back anytime soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
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“I have to ask what the feck you got me into here, Nathaniel…” Morgana ground out between clenched teeth.
While Jessica had joined Daniella and the professor – whom the newest witch to their group thought was kind of dreamy and didn’t seem to mind who knew it as she batted her eyelashes at the man – Morgana had taken the chance to keep her distance from Daniella for the time being.
It was true that the woman had become a little less viperish towards her, and yet, she still had that superior attitude that made Morgana want to drop her on her backside.
Then there was the revelation from Nathaniel about her sister, and she wanted to reach out with her magic in private to see if she could locate her, but Nathaniel had taken it upon himself to follow her under the guise of protection – yet again…
“I have to say that if this really is Marley’s doing then me involving you or not would have ended the same way.” He protested and she snorted contempt for him.
“Weasel words…” Morgana gave him a dark glare before she looked anywhere but at him.
“Have you tried reaching out to her yet?” He asked and she flicked him a sideways glance.
“No…”
“What are you waiting for?”
“You to go away.” Morgana folded her arms across her chest and pouted – just a little – just enough to make him smile.
“Not happening – do your witchy thing…” He informed her.
“Fine…” Morgana bit out.
Shaking out her arms and rubbing her hands together before she closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath in, cleansing her mind of everything that she could apart from her sister, she drew the essence of the woman inside her mind…
That was kind of hard to do with the vampire standing there staring at her – and she didn’t need to have her eyes open to feel him eyeballing her … his presence was a distraction that she didn’t need.
“Can you not, you’re messing with my vibe…”
“Vibe?”
“Just sod off and come when I call – like a faithful sheepdog.”
Nathaniel smiled again, although, that time it wasn’t for her benefit because she was looking at the backs of her eyelids.
“Gone yet?” She ask
ed, and he deliberately cleared his throat from the other side of the room. “Not even close to being far enough…” she muttered, but took what she could get…
She reached out with her mind towards her sister, concentrating only on the memory of her, on the very essence that they shared together, on the times that they had linked as one to complete a spell…
Morgana allowed her mind to drift, to flow like a river taking its natural course, and yet, it led her nowhere and to nothing – not even the essence of the dark magic that was guarding the wrongdoers.
Morgana tried and tried again, coming up with a blank screen every time that she tried to feel her sister.
“Zilch, zero, nothing, nada…” Morgana sighed as she opened her eyes and there he was, the damn vampire, right in front of her. She drew her head back on her neck and halted the urge to hiss at him like a snake…
“So, not her then?” Nathaniel looked for clarity, but she had none to give him.
“I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.” Morgana offered back, then she frowned. “I might bet yours…” she gave a small shrug.
“Ouch…” Nathaniel bit out. “Why do you hate me so, Morgana?” He teased and she snorted.
“Hate is a very strong word…”
“Dislike…”
“I wouldn’t say dislike either…”
“Mistrust…”
“Bingo!” She lied, and he cocked his head and lifted his eyebrows towards his hairline.
“Double ouch.”
“Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to hear the answer…”
“The lie, you mean?”
“You think you’ve got me all figured out…” she grinned.
“I think I don’t need to have you all figured out. I’d say that’s what the next thirty or forty years is for…”
“I’m not putting up with you for that long…” she scoffed.
“Only time will tell, little witch,” he grinned. “Are we … having a moment?”
“You wish.”
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