“Ray wouldn’t offer if he didn’t want us to use it,” I assured her.
“I’m still not too sure about swimming in my underwear,” she argued. “What if someone sees us?”
I laughed at her modesty. “The only people this far back in the community are vampires and their children. The human donors live near the front,” I assured her.
“What if the kids see me in my underwear?” she asked.
“You’re more covered than most women are in swimsuits,” I insisted as I stripped down to my boxers and dove into the pool. Julia had opted to wear a sports bra and some panties that looked like little shorts. She was far from naked. I’d kept my boxers on in case one of the kids happened to see us. Like most werewolves, I wasn’t modest.
Julia slipped her sundress over her head before using the steps at the shallow end to climb in.
“Not even gonna dive in with me?” I asked as I treaded water at the other end of the pool and watched her.
“I don’t swim very well,” she admitted as she cautiously stepped into the pool and walked out until the water was up to her breasts.
I dove under and swam toward her, emerging directly in front of her. My arm wrapped around her waist to pull her against me.
“What are you doing?” she screeched.
“I was about to kiss my mate,” I announced with a grin.
She laughed and pushed lightly at my chest, making no real effort to get me to release her. “We are not going to fool around in Ray and Lauren’s pool.”
“Whatever do you mean by fooling around, Sass?” I asked with a playful grin as I turned to walk further into the pool while still holding Julia against my chest.
“I mean no sex,” she clarified with a laugh. “What are you doing?” she asked when only our heads were above water. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I suddenly worried I was frightening her.
“Fooling around,” I responded. “I won’t let you drown, Sass. You can trust me.”
“I can swim,” she insisted. “Not well, but I’m sure I won’t drown.”
“Then why are you climbing me like a tree?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Are you complaining?” she asked.
“No, ma’am,” I replied with a grin. “You can climb all over my body any time you like. It does seem like a bad idea if you really don’t intend to fool around in Ray’s pool.”
I was teasing her. Of course, I didn’t have any intention of having sex where kids might see us. Even werewolves weren’t that bold.
“You aren’t going to let me go under, are you?” she asked.
“No,” I assured her. “I just like having you this close. Don’t they teach swimming in witch school?”
“They do, actually,” she replied, wiggling further up my body. If she kept going, we’d end up in a very obscene position.
“How’d you end up a poor swimmer if your witch school teaches swimming?” I asked.
“Promise not to laugh?” she asked.
“Nope,” I replied. “I can’t make that kind of promise.”
“Fine,” she relented. “I’ll tell you, anyway. They teach swimming at a very young age.”
“That’s smart,” I agreed. Werewolves learned to swim shortly after they learned to walk.
“Well, I was afraid of mermaids,” she admitted.
My lips twitched. “You’re fucking with me, right?”
“No,” she admitted with a sigh as I walked us back to the shallow end of the pool. “In my defense, mermaids can be scary.”
Mermaids were definitely not as sweet as most humans believed. They had a reputation for drowning people who came near their territory. They’d even been known to sink ships. “Did you have many swim lessons in the Bermuda Triangle?” I asked since that’s where all the mermaid colonies were located.
“It was a pool,” she admitted, releasing her death grip on me when we reached the shallow end.
I let her slide down until her feet touched the bottom. “We should be safe from mermaids here if you’d like to practice your swimming.”
“I’m a mermaid!” Ray and Lauren’s youngest daughter shouted as she launched herself into the pool. Her two older sisters were right behind her.
I’d heard them sneaking out of the house, which was part of the reason I’d decided to move to a place where Julia wouldn’t continue climbing my body. “Your shriek must have woken them up.”
Julia giggled as the little girls splashed around us. “Ray and Lauren are going to be mad at us for waking the kids up.”
“They aren’t the only ones,” I told her as several other children burst into the yard.
While I hadn’t planned to spend the afternoon overseeing a children’s pool party with Julia, it certainly lightened her mood.
Chapter 52
Julia
“Your phone’s ringing, Sass,” Gryph murmured from close to my ear.
I was too tired to open my eyes. When I batted a hand at him, I hit my phone. He’d apparently decided the best way to get me to answer it was to hold it within striking distance. It wasn’t going to work. “Go away,” I grumbled. “Whoever it is can call back tomorrow.”
“Fine, I’ll get it,” Gryph told me. “Hello,” Gryph said in a rough, sleepy voice.
My fuzzy brain finally started working as I realized Gryph had answered my phone. Of course, he’d answered my phone. Not only were the police looking for a crazy warlock who was threatening me, Ralph’s mom might also be calling about Oliver.
“Can this wait until morning?” he asked.
“I can take it,” I mumbled.
He shook his head and continued talking to the caller. “What kind of damage?”
I sat up in bed. The word damage had grabbed my full attention.
“All right,” he said with a sigh. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
He ended the call without waiting for a reply.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Someone tried to break into your house,” he began. “They don’t think the person was able to get in, but they broke some windows. The police want us to go over there to confirm no one got inside.”
My temper snapped. I climbed out of bed and began throwing on clothes. We needed to hunt the warlock down and kill him. He’s endangering our mate, and he has to die. We can track him and then tear him apart.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked when I realized those weren’t my thoughts.
Gryph looked startled by my question. His green eyes swirled with yellow. “What do you mean?”
“I was just thinking about how I need to hunt down Desmond for threatening my mate. I wanted to kill him,” I admitted.
Gryph looked perplexed. “That’s what my wolf was thinking. I guess you were picking up on his anger.”
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, something like this happened.
Chapter 53
Gryph
Despite what the detectives were saying, I had a hard time believing Desmond was responsible for the damage to Julia’s house. There were no threatening messages left for her and no insults. It also seemed the damage was meant to be minimal.
The same cheerful crime scene techs were collecting evidence while the asshole detectives questioned Julia as if she was trying to hide some important detail.
“Listen, Miss Dupree,” Detective Hardy began. “We’re all tired. This has been a long night. Why don’t you just let us search your home to see if the intruders got in?”
I repeated what Julia had already said, hoping that if they heard it enough times, it would sink in. “They didn’t get in.”
“We’ll need to check just to be on the safe side,” Detective Hardy added with a sneer.
“As I’ve already said, the spell around the house is still in place,” Julia argued. “Had someone broken in, the spell would be altered or damaged.” She finally threw her hands up in frustration. “Fine. Just search my house so I can get back to slee
p.”
“Should we come in with you?” one of the techs asked.
Detective Mason shook his head. “We’ll let you know if we need you.”
With a frustrated sigh, Julia led them through her home. Just as she’d said, it didn’t appear anyone had broken in. Searching her home added nearly an hour to the time the detectives were there. My wolf was on edge each time one of the detectives touched any of her belongings. He didn’t like or trust them. Then again, he was so on edge, he didn’t like anyone. He had the same reaction to the crime scene techs, all of whom had been very nice. None of them posed any threat to my wolf, but he wasn’t in the mood to trust anyone with Julia’s safety.
By the time we locked up the house, and the police pulled away, it was just me, Julia and a falcon.
“That’s strange,” I mused when I saw the bird perched in a tree near Julia’s home.
“She’s likely the familiar of one of my neighbors,” she remarked. “We have a few falcon familiars in this area.”
Nodding, I led Julia to the car and drove back to my place, thankful she didn’t need to be at Bliss the next morning. After our late night, I needed some sleep.
Chapter 54
Julia
I was worried I’d fall asleep on the drive home, but as it turned out, I was full of nervous energy. “I don’t think Desmond broke my windows,” I told Gryph.
“Neither do I,” he agreed. “That makes it even more frustrating. It seems you have two people creating problems for you.”
We parked in the garage, and before Gryph could close the door, a falcon flew in. I was certain it was the same one I’d seen before, so I began to mouth the words to a binding spell, remembering Desmond was a shapeshifter. Before I got to the last word, the falcon transformed and Beatrice stood before us naked.
“What are you doing here, Beatrice?” I asked.
She tried to cover herself as she responded. “Sorry if I scared you. I couldn’t go to the police, and I was hoping you could help me. I wasn’t sure where else to go. If that’s not a sad testament to my lack of social life, I don’t know what is. You were always nice to me in school, Julia. I’ve also heard that your werewolf is a good protector.”
Quickly stripping off my jacket, I tossed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said with a slight smile as she wrapped the jacket around her.
“What exactly do you need help with?” Gryph asked.
“Desmond came to my place to kill me,” she began with a shudder. “I escaped because he didn’t know I could change into any type of animal, let alone a bird.”
“Why couldn’t you go to the police?” Gryph asked suspiciously.
“I’m not sure I understand your reasoning either,” I agreed.
“When he showed up at my house, Desmond was using a different form and claiming to be with the police,” she explained. “He knew what I’d said at the council meeting. I suppose it’s possible he was at the council meeting, but that seems unlikely. If he’d been there, he would have come after me right away. He must have heard after the council went to the police with what I’d said.”
“What did he look like?” Gryph asked, and I knew he expected her to describe either Detective Hardy or Detective Mason. That’s what I was expecting, as well.
“Brown hair and eyes,” she began. “He was about six feet tall. There was nothing remarkable about him.”
“That doesn’t sound like anyone we’ve worked with,” Gryph remarked.
“Since he’s a shapeshifter, I have to assume he could be using another form. Maybe he didn’t want to be seen at your place, Beatrice,” I suggested.
“That’s always possible,” she agreed. “Since he grew up there, he knows the neighbors don’t pay much attention to anything that happens, but he wouldn’t want to risk having someone see him carry me out of there. He had a ready-made sedation spell.”
“Those are hard to come by,” I said thoughtfully. “They’re illegal, but I suppose he wouldn’t have a problem buying one.”
“They are a popular black-market item,” Gryph agreed.
“So, it would be easy to buy one,” I concluded.
“Or steal one from the evidence room at a police station,” Beatrice added. “I recently read an article about how many spelled items simply disappear from evidence rooms. The Council of Witches has been pushing for an investigation.”
“There are times when I wonder if we’d be better off just going to the human police,” I muttered.
Beatrice let out a giggle before covering her mouth and shaking her head. “Sorry. I was just thinking about how funny it would be telling the human police a shapeshifter was impersonating one of their officers.”
“That would be an interesting conversation,” Gryph agreed.
“I think he’s using either Detective Hardy or Detective Mason’s form at least part of the time,” I mused.
Gryph considered what I’d said before responding. “It could be anyone working at the same station. Missing persons case files are shared.”
“That means everyone working there knows what I said about my brother,” Beatrice muttered.
“I still think it’s one of those two detectives,” I insisted. “They’ve both been complete jerks, and neither seems interested in finding out who’s threatening me.”
“I’ll see if I can get some information on both officers without rousing suspicions,” Gryph stated. “If we find out one of them is suddenly acting different, it could mean he’s our man. They may just both be dicks.”
“That’s always possible,” I agreed. “For now, we need to find a safe place for Beatrice.”
Beatrice shivered. “If Desmond finds me, he’ll definitely kill me. There is nowhere on Earth he won’t look for me.”
“I may have a solution. Let me make some calls and see what I can arrange,” I told her. “Until then, Gryph can show you where the shower is and you can borrow some of my clothes.”
“Thanks,” she said a little awkwardly. “I’m really sorry about breaking your windows.”
“You broke my windows?” I gasped.
“Once I realized you wouldn’t be staying at your house, I needed to find a way to get you to come to me. I was really afraid of involving the police, but I didn’t have any other way to contact you. I couldn’t hold that form much longer,” she explained.
“Good thinking,” Gryph praised.
As soon as Gryph left the room with Beatrice, I became the annoying person who wakes people up in the middle of the night. This wasn’t the norm for me. I’d never even drunk dialed someone, so I figured I’d saved up my late-night call credits.
Chapter 55
The Gentleman Warlock
I paced the confines of the apartment, trying to relieve some of the nervous energy radiating through my body. Everything had been carefully planned out. I would arrive, Beatrice would invite me in like the trusting twit she’d always been, and then I’d drop the spell. After that, all I’d need to do was transport her to a place where I could kill her. Since she was my sister, I’d even planned to kill her while she was still sedated. I wasn’t a monster.
Simple! That was the only word to describe my plan. Beatrice would pay for ruining my plans. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how she’d changed into a fucking bird. It should have been impossible, especially for such a weak witch. If I’d never done it, she certainly shouldn’t be able to.
After the waste of time at the blonde bitch’s house, I was even more on edge. I had no clue who’d thrown those rocks. I didn’t like being in the dark about things.
“Where the hell could she be?” I muttered to myself, thankful Katya was off somewhere pouting.
Beatrice had very little money, and I couldn’t imagine her suddenly making any friends. Beatrice had always been an awkward loner. My plan for locating my sister was risky. If I called in an anonymous report that Beatrice was missing, there would be police officers looking for her. It was a gamble because Beatrice
might tell them what I’d tried to do. Then again, I wasn’t sure that mattered. If the police found her, I could get to her. I’d used a different form when I’d gone to her house, so she had no way to connect me to this one.
I was currently lying in bed, exhausted from having changed forms twice in such a short time. I’d wanted to stay in the form I’d used to visit Beatrice, but that hadn’t been an option since I’d needed to head to Julia Dupree’s house after the vandalism had been reported.
It might have been best to refuse to go. I could have claimed I needed to remain incorporeal to regain my energy. That happened with shades. I’d been far too curious to stay away, however. The fact that someone else might be threatening her put me in a strange position. Protecting Julia Dupree from other threats was essential. No one else could be allowed to punish her.
My breathing got faster and shallower, and I realized I was on the verge of having a panic attack. Struggling to get my breathing under control, I reminded myself that everything would work out.
I would not fail. My sister would pay for her betrayal. I would find a way to get to her. First, I needed sleep. I needed to recover before I took the necessary steps to ensure my sister and Julia Dupree were punished as they deserved.
Chapter 56
Julia
As crazy as it might seem, the demon realm was likely the safest place for Beatrice until her brother was caught. It wasn’t that the demon realm was that hard for preternatural creatures to enter, so much as it was hard to maneuver. Unless you were a fallen angel or a demon of some sort, you could easily get lost, and there were many places you did not want to wander into. The idea of searching for a witch there also wouldn’t occur to most. I stared down at my phone, trying to decide who I should call before settling on Allie. She was the least likely to threaten to kill me over a late night call.
“Hello,” Allie answered groggily.
“Hey, Allie,” I began. “Sorry for waking you up, but I need your help.”
Seductively Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 3) Page 21
