by Amie Gibbons
“Decent. Nothing spectacular. Are there other witches here we could press into service?”
Dad and I looked at each other.
“I don’t think so,” Dad said.
O’Shay’s face creased up. “Why not?”
“Well, there is the issue of humans being in on this. Not a lot of them I’d trust enough to know something that could get my friends killed.”
“And we aren’t the only witches who have a problem with the Council,” Dad said, keeping his tone as even and diplomatic as when he was making a presentation to a potential new client. “No one is going to want to put themselves on the Council’s radar, not even to curry favor.”
“Well, one or two might,” I said. “But not the type of people any of us would want help from. If those types of witches get involved, they’ll turn you in the second they find out you made a deal with me to save a human. Same reason you couldn’t bring anyone else from the Council to help.”
“Thanks for putting me in that position, by the way,” O’Shay said.
“Hey, you’re the one who didn’t read the contract. Can’t really blame me for that.”
“It was underhanded.”
“I’m not arguing.”
Dad snorted.
# # #
We got back to my apartment and Corey said, “Now what?”
“We’re going to try a locator spell to find Sean,” Dad said. “O’Shay’s going to drive. I’ll anchor.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll anchor.”
“Ev-ie.”
“Dad-dy.”
I stared my dad down but could see the humans looking between us out of the corner of my eye.
Chet was right, I was the female spitting image of my dad and mom always said I was his little clone in personality, too.
I crossed my arms, staring into my dad’s eyes, golden brown just like mine.
“No,” Dad finally said.
“What are we missing?” Ashley asked.
“To anchor someone, you have to form a bond. It’s a very intimate act. I’ve only done this with family and close friends. It’s letting them see a part of you. O’Shay owes me, Dad. I can order him to never speak of what he sees in my head.”
“You can order him to do the same with what’s in mine,” my dad countered.
“Yeah, except that’s going to take a hell of a lot more of the favors he owes me.”
Dad flinched and I knew I had him.
“Why?” Chet asked.
“Because her father has more in his past to hide,” Corey said, making Dad and me look at him. “I was born in Venezuela, we got out when I was seven, but the things I remember.” He licked his lips. “I know the things men do to protect their families under an oppressive government.”
I turned to O’Shay. He was too busy staring at my dad to notice.
“Don’t ask, O’Shay,” I said. “You don’t want to know. Let’s do this.”
I put Gremlin in the bedroom so he wouldn’t knock over the candles and break the circle, got my spelling knife and placed the candles as Dad disabled the smoke detectors. Couldn’t have those things going off in the middle of a ritual and shattering our concentration.
“You have done this before?” O’Shay asked as I drew the circle with my spelling knife. It was a beauty with its bone handle and emerald inlays and I caught O’Shay staring at it.
“I’m usually Faye’s anchor. And you know how powerful she is with this stuff.”
Faye was the go-to necromancer in the country. She had her position as a Council emissary because of it. It’s why she was invited to Stonehenge as part of the American contingent to the summit there.
“Yes, but you like her,” O’Shay said. “How do I know you won’t let me fly into the ether?”
“We could do another contract, but that will leave us both even more tied. I don’t think either of us wants that. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
“After that bit with the contract, I don’t.”
I looked him in the eyes. “O’Shay, my friend is missing for who knows what reason. You know the lengths I’ll go to to protect a friend. I swear on his life, I will not let you fly off. I need you. Trust that.”
He nodded, sitting cross legged on the carpet.
I sat in front of him. “What’s your bloodline?”
“Druid and Hoodoo.”
“I can say I don’t know anything about Hoodoo. You’re probably better off using Druid magic to track.”
“But you work with Dr. Renaud and she uses Navajo to track?”
“Yeah, and I know how to anchor her for that through a lot of practice where we built it up. Unless Hoodoo is like Navajo, I don’t want to risk it.”
He shook his head and held out his hand, palms up. “It’s not. Druid’s better for tracking anyway.”
“It is for me too.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “The Jews are definitely good for battle magic. That has got to be where that fire and rebellion comes from.”
“If your people were slaves for millennia, you’d take your freedom pretty damn serious too.”
Ashley gasped and I grinned.
Yeah, I said it.
“I’m black and Irish!” O’Shay said, sputtering through laughter.
“Yeah, but in the course of history, who were slaves longer?”
He frowned. “History’s not my strong point. I’m a doctor.”
“Uh-huh, well, on behalf of both our peoples, that’s where the fire comes from. I can see you sputtering over there, Ashley,” I said. I couldn’t really, only hear the incomprehensible babbling.
“You can see behind you!” Ashley asked.
“Only when I turn my head, or when there’s a mirror.”
Dad laughed with me and I shook my head.
“I could hear you,” I said.
“Are you stalling, Ms. Jones?” O’Shay said.
I shook my hands out. “I think so. This… well, you know.”
He met my eyes and my heart rate picked up. “I never wanted to see a Council rep’s soul.”
“I think it’ll be good for you then. Because I can tell you, not all of us are sullied.”
I gulped and put my hands up too, touching my middle fingers to his.
“A fire anchoring a water,” he whispered. “God help me.”
“Amen.”
I closed my eyes as his magic washed through my hands, cooling me from the inside out.
I’d done this so many times with Faye over the past few years, I didn’t even notice her soul brushing against mine anymore. We knew each other so well, it wasn’t a shock, it was as easy as a hug.
O’Shay’s spirit crashed through me like a wave taking everything in its path and I pushed it away on instinct. Water was dangerous, it crushed our magic and made us weak.
I took a deep breath as the water fled, fear riding its top like salt, and pulled the fire back, the apology as clear as I could make it.
The water eased forth, nicer, like it was asking, power obvious in the light touch. It took more power to hold yourself back than it ever did to throw in your all.
I shivered, squeezing my shoulders and letting them relax. A technique Faye taught me. You tensed up and released to give yourself a physical method of relaxing that’d take your brain with it. I followed it with my arms and legs.
The water came to my shores again, gently lapping instead of pounding.
My stomach clenched without my permission and I grunted.
The water crawled up the burning fires in my mind, steam hissing out. The power burned through me like cold flames and I could hear my breath coming in jagged gasps in the real world as things low in me tightened.
I grabbed onto the water, light foam flooding through me. O’Shay’s soul, opening itself up for me to see and judge.
Wanting me to see.
My walls fell and the water swirled around me, making steam as it touched me.
Darkness of a child who swore he’d nev
er be helpless again touched my brain, a poor kid raised in the rough neighborhoods of South Boston by a mother who was too busy doing her next John for a bump to raise her son. A kid who jumped at the chance to serve when he found he had powers so he could get out of that life. Someone who knew with every piece of him the government that took him away from his mother was a good one because it said it was protecting people.
He actually believed with every inch of his glowing soul that the Council was good.
Ha.
The water pulled back, most washing into the sea, leaving me holding the end of it.
The power I held to anchor the rest twined around me, playful and cool, making my skin tingle with steam as it swarmed over me.
I shouldn’t…
I couldn’t help it.
I pushed the water off, leaving myself open. It took the invite, shoving itself back against me.
In me.
I bit my tongue, pressing my lips together in the real world before pushing back. It came again, plunging through my stomach, making it flutter and drop like it did on a roller-coaster.
I bit down harder.
If it kept this up…
My eyes snapped open just in time to see the flames on the candles kissing the ceiling before falling dead.
Now that was some serious power.
O’Shay’s eyes popped open and I yanked my hands away, standing on shaking legs and walking to the bathroom as fast as I could without running.
I locked the door behind me and caught myself on the counter.
Chet yelled something about what the hell did O’Shay do and I took a few deep breaths, staring at myself in the mirror.
The door clicked open and I whirled on it as O’Shay stepped inside, closing it behind him.
“What did you tell Chet?” I asked, voice rough.
“That I was powerful, and it was harder for you to hold than you thought it’d be,” he said, keeping his voice low.
“Well, that was part of it.”
“I didn’t mean to…”
“I know.” I couldn’t look at him. “Hey, that was both of us.”
“When you pushed me back, I… I shouldn’t have shoved like that.”
“You wanted to see if you could.”
“No, I wanted to show you my power. I wanted to scare you.”
I laughed. “You didn’t scare me.”
“No.” He stepped closer and my knees shook. “I scared the hell out of myself though. You are everything I fight, your sure belief that the Council is wrong, and bad for witches, something to be destroyed if you could. You believe that as surely as I believe it is good and just, and what is necessary to protect witches.”
He took another step and I put out a hand, pushing against his chest. “We’re literal opposites in magic, O’Shay. That doesn’t work. And we are opposites politically. You saw what happened, water and fire destroy each other.”
“No.” His voice dipped down lower but he stayed put. “They make something new. Steam. That combination. I’ve never felt anything like that from anyone I combined a spell with. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel that. I saw it. I saw you.”
“You wanted me to take you,” he whispered. “As much as I wanted it.”
“I like power, O’Shay, as much as you. Your power called to me, that’s it.” I finally met his eyes. “You are the representation of everything I hate and will fight to my dying breath. The most we’d ever have would be some angry sex.”
He smiled and it made my heart hiccup. Oy gevalt, what had I done when I agreed to do something so intimate with him?
“I’m taken,” I said. “I’m taken by someone I respect. Right now, I want you, I do, but you’re a coward. I could never have feelings for you.”
I walked to the door.
O’Shay grabbed my arm and pulled me back, pinning me against the wall behind the door and pressing close, the erection obvious against me.
I growled, lighting his shirt on fire. He smacked it down and pushed water against me like he had in the mental world, thrusting into my magic, making me gasp.
He pulled back and licked his lips. “I’m not a coward. I’m pragmatic, just like you.”
“You’re a coward. I’ve seen it. You hiding behind a couch in Faye’s living room when I shot at the entropy. Your first thought was to hide. You’re a coward. I could never have anything with you.”
He growled, slipping an arm behind my waist and kissing me, pouring power past my lips, begging for me to shove it back, to start the tug of war that’d felt so good again.
I pushed him away with my hands instead, cutting the power off.
“I don’t know how things work in Boston,” I said, drawing my gun and pointing it at him. “But you know we call that sexual assault here, right?”
“You wouldn’t shoot me. Not after that.” But fear creased his voice.
“You’re scared of guns, aren’t you, O’Shay?”
“I’ve never felt anything like that, and I’m betting you haven’t either. How can you just toss it aside?”
I kept my gun on him as I eased to the side, grabbing the door handle. “Because I want more than the physical. And I have felt that before. Once.”
He smiled, opening his mouth.
“And I destroyed him,” I said.
His mouth snapped shut and doubt came through his eyes.
“He was a spirit and he pulled my powers just like you did,” I said. “Goddess, it felt good. And in bed? Before I knew what he was? He was amazing, forceful. I respond to power, it turns me on. I’ll still kill you if I need to. Just like I killed him.”
“Last time you threatened to kill me, it scared me. Now? You’re just turning me on. That gun, knowing you would kill me, it’s exciting me. It’s kind of disturbing.”
“I’d look into therapy if I were you. Take a minute, get yourself together.” I opened the door and closed it behind me, resisting the urge to light my bathroom on fire.
Chet stood across from the door, leaning against the hallway’s wall between pictures of my family.
I blushed, looking down.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I figured.”
“Did you hear that?”
“No, that fucker put something on the door so I couldn’t hear. Kept me out too.”
“And you were worried? About me or that I’d do something?”
“Mostly the first, little bit of the second.”
“I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t feel anything. I am telling you he tried something and that’s why my gun’s out.” I put the gun away.
“Do I need to kill him?”
I had to smile at that. When Chet said it, he meant it like normal people. Like did O’Shay do something Chet would want to kill him over, not that he’d actually do it.
“No, but I may.”
He frowned because he knew I meant it.
“What did he do?”
“In the anchoring, our powers, our souls feel each other. He pushed and I pushed back. After that, he was playing. It’s almost like our powers were having sex.”
He nodded. “The sound you made. It was only for a second, but it was the same sound you make when I pin you to the bed.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
He nodded. “I can’t give you what someone like him can. I don’t have that power. If you want that, tell me now.”
“No!” I said, looking out at the living room.
“Your dad took them out to grab food. I think he knew how intimate it was getting and didn’t want to see.”
I sighed. “Yeah, that would’ve been awkward.”
“Evie-”
“I want you. I pick you. Yes, that felt good, but I said no, and I stopped him. Because I have you. And I don’t want anyone else.”
“Okay,” he said after a moment. “I’m feeling a little insecure so you’re going to have to forgive this.”
Chet grabbed me, pinning me against the wall almost like O’Shay had, gi
ant body pressing me down as he kissed me hard. He picked me up and my legs went around his waist.
“Um,” I said, pulling my mouth away from his. “When?”
“At least twenty minutes, and I’m not feeling patient. We’ll be done by then.”
He walked us into the bedroom and kicked the door closed, dropping me on the bed and climbing on top before I could even think about undressing myself.
“We’re back,” came from the living room.
I opened my eyes, pushing up off Chet’s chest and looking around. My shirt hung open on me, at least two buttons broken, and my pants were on the floor.
Gremlin slept splayed out on the loveseat under the window and I blushed. “I just had sex in front of my baby, that’s got to be animal cruelty or something.”
“Especially since he’s fixed so he never gets any himself. I need a nap,” Chet said, sitting up and stretching.
I giggled, kissing his chin. “Yeah, you were getting a good workout there.”
“Evie.” His voice turned serious. “I don’t like feeling that way. Inadequate. Don’t put me in that position again.”
I nodded. “I won’t. But, is it too soon to make a joke about this?”
“No.” His beautiful full lips finally broke into a smile. “Go ahead.”
“That was so good, I’m tempted to flirt with guys in front of you just so you feel the need to claim me like that on a regular basis.”
“That doesn’t sound like a joke. It sounds like a suggestion. What if I claim you like that on a regular basis so you never want to flirt with anyone else?”
“Deal.”
We shook on it and he laughed, kissing my forehead before I jumped out of bed, grabbing clothes and pulling them on.
“I hope that prick heard us,” Chet said. “Really pound it home.”
“Pun intended?”
“You know it.”
“You know I’m not interested in him. His power did it for me, yes, but he’s a coward, I really don’t like him, and I told him as much.”
“Okay.” Chet leaned back against the wall, smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
“You’re really proud of yourself, aren’t you?” I asked, pulling on a fresh top.
“Yep. I can’t do that powers sex thing with you, but I can make you whimper. Still haven’t made you scream.”
