Love Potion (An Ariel Kimber Novel Book 2)

by Mary Martel

  Damn.

  This wasn’t like him at all.

  Now worried, I pushed down harder on the gas pedal, damn near flooring it. Speeding tickets weren’t an issue for me, if I were to get pulled over I could easily get rid of a police officer. If there was more than one, it would be a bit of a struggle. I could only do so much with magic and focusing on more than one target at a time without something to aid me could sometimes backfire horribly.

  I made it to town, blew past the school and turned onto Julian and Damien’s street. I parked in front of their house and let my car idle at the curb.

  From the street, their house looked like a tiny, one-story shack. The houses on this street were so smooshed together that you couldn’t see anything but the front of them. Which was why you missed how long it was.

  I couldn’t live in a house with small rooms. I liked my space. I liked having a large bedroom and I liked having my own bathroom. Living with three other people and having bedrooms for three, now four, more people, our house needed to be big and have room for us to be alone and in our own personal space when we wanted it and together in different spaces when we wanted that. My house was big and that’s how I liked it. This house, though… You couldn’t fit all of us in the living room. Maybe if we spread out between the living room and the kitchen we would all be able to fit. There were too many of us to be cramped together like that. I didn’t know why Julian even still stayed here when I knew for damn sure he preferred to be at the main house.

  Annoyed, I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. If it wasn’t full on dark right now and the neighbors weren’t uptight fucks, I would be laying on the horn. I did not enjoy being made to wait even when I was in the best of moods.

  What the fuck was taking them so long?

  Jesus.

  I scowled at the front door, hoping to see one of them walking through it. When nobody came through the door, I sat back in the driver’s seat and let out a heavy sigh.

  Everything would come together, everything would work out. It had to. I kept telling myself that once Marcus moved, Ariel would have an easier time of it. She had so much obvious guilt eating away at her and I knew a lot of it had to do with Marcus. I don’t think she liked lying to him about what had become of her mother, she was usually a very honest and open person, lying didn’t look good on her. That month the two of them had together all alone in Marcus’s house probably hadn’t made the situation any better. It had almost destroyed me, knowing she was right next door and I couldn’t get to her because she hadn’t wanted anything to do with me. I had never been more afraid of something in my life than I had been in that month, thinking she hated me or was afraid of me. And thinking of her being all alone with Marcus in that big house, the both of them bleeding from an unseen wound…

  I shook my head. What I had felt had seemed like nothing in comparison to what the twins had gone through. They had both been absolutely miserable and felt they were to blame for what had happened. They’d let her leave school by herself and something awful had happened to her. Then she’d disappeared on them, on all of us and the twins hadn’t dealt well with that because they had some serious abandonment issues. They hadn’t been to blame and every single one of us had taken the time to tell them so. They hadn’t cared. Addison had retreated into himself and, at one point, he’d stopped speaking to anyone who wasn’t his brother. Abel had watched his brother helplessly and the longer it went on, the angrier he’d become.

  I hoped like hell that all of it was behind us now.

  The passenger door opened, revealing Julian. Right after, the door behind me opened and Damien got in.

  As soon as their doors were shut, I was speeding down the road again.

  Remembering Ariel’s concern from earlier, I told them they should put their seatbelts on.

  “What?” Julian asked in disbelief. “Since when do you care if someone wears a seat belt? You’re not even wearing one yourself right now.”

  I looked down and, sure enough, I had forgotten to put my seat belt on when I’d gotten into the car.

  Shit. And she hadn’t commented.

  I reached across my chest, grabbed ahold of my seat belt and dragged it down. When I had it lined up with the slot it was supposed to go into, I pushed down on it until I heard it click, locking into place.

  “What’s that all about?” Julian asked in a curious voice.

  “Ariel,” I stated and explained no more. Maybe she wouldn’t give a shit whether or not they wore their seat belts. It made me a dick but I kind of liked that thought.

  Two distinctive clicks sounded in the quiet car and I had to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing at them. All it took was her name to get them to cooperate.

  “What’s the plan?” Damien asked from his place in the backseat.

  I stiffened in my seat and tried to squeeze the life out of the steering wheel. I didn’t exactly have a plan. I’d gotten angry and I always acted out when I was angry, I lashed out and I never took the time to think about it before hand. With Dash, the two of them had been my best friends for as long as I could remember. No one knew me better than the three of them and the fact that Damien would ask me about my plan pissed me way the fuck off. He knew I didn’t have a plan, he was just trying to be an asshole.

  “Damien will go to the door,” Julian rushed out, likely trying to stop me from pulling off to the side of the room and ripping that fuck face out of the backseat and beating on him. “She likes him and thinks he’s pretty. If we send him to the door, she’ll open it for him because she wants to fuck him.”

  “She wants to fuck you, too,” Damien countered.

  He was right. Earlier today, before I had to get physical with her and haul her ass out of Dash’s house, I would have said she wanted to fuck me as well. I think my putting my arm around her throat and squeezing might have put a damper on her libido where I was concerned. At least I hoped so.

  “After Dash called, I went through what I had at the house and found a potion for her.”

  Julian. Bless his fucking heart. He came off as the sweet and calm one out of the four of us. He might be the calm one but calling him sweet was downright laughable. I had yet to come across someone more vindictive than Julian. And revenge? Don’t even get me started on that one. Julian got some sick thrill out of getting revenge on someone who’d wronged him. I’d stood by his side and watched as he’d stolen fortunes, slipped someone a potion to make them infertile. One client had simply insulted him, and he put shit in her tea that made all of her hair fall out, she’d even lost her eyebrows and eyelashes. Her entire body had ended up bare, completely hairless. And the kicker? It had been permanent. She’d come back to us, asking for help. Julian had laughed in her face and told her to look on the bright side, she’d save a bunch of money on never having to purchase shampoo or razors again. He did shit like that all the time.

  I was almost afraid to ask him what he’d come up with.

  “If Damien can hold her arms down, I’ll need you to get her mouth open, Quinton.”

  I nodded, I could do that. Easy.

  “Did she really hit Ariel?” Damien asked in a gruff voice.

  From his voice, I could tell he did not enjoy the thought of someone hurting our girl.

  “Yeah,” I ground out. “The bitch slapped her across the face. Right in front of us, too. I think she would have kept hitting her if I hadn’t dragged her out of there.”

  “She cornered me when I was coming out of the bathroom at Dash’s house,” Damien shared. “She got up close and in my space, rubbed her tits up against me and tried to slip her hand down the front of my jeans. She went straight for my dick. Seriously, my boy wasn’t even hard and still she went right for it.”

  After a few seconds of stilted silence, in a sarcastic voice, I asked, “That’s it? You’re okay with fucking some lady up because she grabbed your dick when it was soft? Un-fucking-believable. I would expect something like that from Julian, but you? No fucking way.”<

br />
  Julian started laughing.

  “You don’t understand,” Damien exclaimed in a taut voice. “I think it’s my fault she attacked Ariel.”

  Julian stopped laughing and, sounding genuinely confused, asked, “What are you talking about?”

  If he hadn’t asked, I would have.

  Without the use of my turn signal, I slowed down and turned right, onto Jackie’s street. The houses on this street were the polar opposites to the one’s on Damien and Julian’s street. These houses were large and had tall fences around them.

  I slowed down and switched off my headlights as I pulled up to the curb in front of her house. She’d downsized after her husband croaked and moved into a much smaller house. My house was bigger than the one she lived in now.

  “When she tried to feel me up, I stopped her and told her I wasn’t interested because I had a girlfriend.”

  “Yeah, Damien,” I bit out. “We all know about your fucking girlfriend. What’s this have to do with Ariel?”

  A click came from the back, telling me Damien had unbuckled his seat belt. He appeared closer in the rear-view mirror as he moved, leaning in between the front seats. He placed his elbows on the arm rest and propped his chin on his closed fists.

  Always striking a pose, was out Damien. Even when no one was looking.

  “I described my girlfriend to her. I told her my girlfriend was beautiful. That she had light blonde hair and lovely, mysterious green eyes that reminded me of my brother, Dash’s eyes. I told her about how sweet this girl was and how she was everything to me and to the rest of you. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have shared that last bit but it had just come out. I feel responsible, and I feel like it’s my fault Jackie attacked Ariel. I want to make it right, which is why I’m here.”

  Damien straightened and sat back. He scooted across the seat and opened the door behind Julian. He slipped out of the car and closed the door without making a sound.

  My head swiveled to the side and I caught Julian’s shocked expression. I imagined I wore a similar one.

  “What do you think happened to the girlfriend he wanted to keep around?” Julian asked me.

  I grinned at him. “Don’t care. She’s gone and that’s all that matters to me. Now we’re all on board.”

  A slow, smug smile spread across Julian’s face.

  He didn’t need to say it, I knew what he was thinking because I was thinking the same thing myself. There’d be no more fighting amongst us. If we could bring Ariel around then we’d both get everything we wanted.

  I opened the door and got out of my car, closing the door behind me as silently as Damien had. Julian did the same.

  We moved closer to the wooden fence, hiding in its shadows.

  Damien stood on the wide porch, bathed in the light. He rang the doorbell and we all waited. Jackie’s car was in the driveway, so we knew she was home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She had a nice and big attached garage, she should have parked her car in there. Especially if she was one of those idiots who didn’t lock their car doors, thinking they were safe because they were parked in their own driveway. Please. I had watched one too many horror movies to swallow that load.

  The door opened, and Jackie appeared. Damien immediately reached out and took her by the hand. She didn’t even flinch or try to pull away from him.

  After doing some fast talking, Damien was pulled into the house behind her. The door closed behind them and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I’d been nervous about this first part not going smoothly. Forced entry and breaking and entering weren’t my style. I could usually charm my way into anywhere. Anywhere except for maybe here.

  Julian flicked a hand towards the house and I inclined my head. It was time.

  We sprinted across the lawn and hurried up the front steps. Julian tried the door and turned to grin at me when the door pushed inwards, opening easily for him. He moved into the house and I followed along behind him. I closed the door behind me and I was smart enough to lock it.

  Two steps later and we both came up short.

  What in the…

  Damien was on the couch, on top of Jackie. Her hands were at his ass, squeezing and holding on for dear life. Damien had her arms stretched out above her, pressed into the arm rest and held on tightly between his hands.

  Jesus.

  How long had he been in here for? All of three minutes? This had to be some kind of record.

  Julian made a weird noise and I moved forward. If he laughed now she might start to struggle before we were ready, and we couldn’t have that.

  Damien moved on the couch. He straddled Jackie’s waist, with a knee in the couch on both sides of her body. He sat up as far as he could while still holding down her arms above her head.

  Jackie turned her head to the side and inhaled sharply, trying to catch her breath. That must have been some kiss.

  Thankfully, her eyes were closed, and she missed Julian and I creeping up.

  I knelt down on the carpet, beside the couch. Julian moved around to stand before the arm rest.

  With a nod from Damien, I wrapped my hand around her jaw and squeezed. Her face smooshed unattractively as she made a fish face.

  Her eyes flew open in surprise and pain as she gurgled at me, unable to scream with my hand on her face like that. She tried to shake her head but couldn’t after I placed my free hand on her forehead, holding her still.

  A cork popped, and Julian leaned down, getting in her face. Over and over again her nostrils flared as she drew in angry breath after angry breath. Her eyes were wide, showing too much white.

  Julian didn’t fuck around and quickly put the clear, glass vial to her lips. He tipped it up and poured the liquid into her mouth. He covered her mouth with his hand and I let go over her forehead in order to plug her nose. Damien jerked on top of her as she furiously bucked her body beneath him.

  She made gagging, choking sounds before she swallowed. Once I knew the liquid had gone down her throat I removed my fingers from her nose.

  Tears trailed out of her too wide for her face eyes, running down into her hair.

  “You can remove your hands now, Quint,” Julian instructed me.

  Immediately, I pulled my hands away. I rubbed my palms on my jeans in an effort to rub the feel of her skin away.

  Ariel didn’t know it but she gave off a sweet heat of her own. Now that I had experienced it for myself, I didn’t want to have to endure the touch of another female.

  “What, are you mute?” Julian mocked in a high voice and I felt my eyes grow wide. What was this now? “No, bitch, but you are now. This is your payment for putting your hands on her. And if you ever, ever tell anyone about this, about us being here, your insides will start to rot and there won’t be a damn thing anyone will be able to do for you.”

  Julian straightened, and I stood. Damien crawled off of her now limp body and the three of us loomed over her.

  She opened her mouth wide, probably so she could let out an impressive scream, but no sound came out at all.

  Silently, she choked as her hands wrapped around her throat.

  Julian laughed while we turned away and left her like that. Damien remained silent and I was thoughtful. Thinking on Julian’s comment about being mute and watching her clutch at her throat while no sound came out, I realized something. Dash must have filled him in on something he hadn’t shared with me and I wondered what else could have possibly been said to my sweet Ariel.

  The car ride to their house was eerily quiet, each of us lost in our own thoughts. When I pulled up to the curb, they got out of my car without a word spoken or a backwards glance.

  We had accomplished what we’d set out to do and we didn’t need to discuss it.

  And Ariel never needed to know.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Time was running out and this needed to be done. I would rather it be me who did it and not Mr. Cole. But I was smart about it and had made a phone call before coming in here because no way I could tackle this on my own. And, if I were to be honest, being alone with my mother’s things made my stomach hurt and my skin crawl.

  I looked around the absurdly large walk-in closet and couldn’t keep the grimace off my face. My mother must have had a busy summer swiping Mr. Cole’s credit card. She certainly hadn’t had this much stuff when we’d first moved in. She could have given out fifty lap dances a day and she still wouldn’t have been able to afford half of this fancy crap.

  I found it interesting that nothing in here belonged to Marcus. Had she kicked him out of his own closet when we moved in here? Where were his things? Who put up with nonsense like that? I didn’t think any amount of sex with my mother had been worth getting kicked out of your own space and then paying for her to refill it with brand new things for her. Then again, I’d yet to have sex so what did I know. I could be wrong.

  Mr. Cole had not said a single word to me about what he planned on doing with my mother’s things. It’s like he either didn’t think about it at all or he was expecting her to come back any day now. I hoped he didn’t think about it at all because no way would she be magically appearing on the front stoop three days from now.

  Besides, I didn’t want him to have to deal with her stuff, not with everything else he had going on. I had nothing going on and she was my mother, my responsibility. I could take care of it.

  I picked up a red, high heeled shoe with a delicate looking ankle strap. We wore the same size shoes. That didn’t mean I wanted to keep them for myself. I didn’t want anything of hers and planned on donating it all to a second-hand store. I threw the shoe on to the floor, close to where I had gotten it from.

  After shaking open a large black garbage bag I had found in the pantry, I tied a corner of the bag around the doorknob to the closet door. It would be easier to work with rather than dragging it around behind me or picking it up off the floor and having to shake it open every time I wanted to stuff something in there.

  I latched onto the first piece of clothing I saw and ripped it off the metal hanger. The hanger clanked loudly against the bar and the other metal hangers around it. I didn’t even know you could still buy metal clothes hangers, I thought it was plastic or nothing. I didn’t even think you could get the wooden ones anywhere. Why was I standing here holding in my hands a dress that had belonged to my mother and thinking about whether or not you can buy metal or wooden clothes hangers anymore?

  -->