by Weil, J. L.
“My mother and brother live in the Bay.”
“And is your brother also part of the guard?”
He chuckled low in his chest. “No. He chose a different path.”
I laid a hand on the fireplace mantel, the corner of my lips tipping. “Hmm, sounds familiar.”
“I assume you are talking about you and Colin.”
“In this case, you assume right. We couldn’t be more opposite. Colin believes I should be thinking about getting married, settling down, and all the other things good girls do.”
“But you’re not a good girl?” he drawled.
I snorted, giving him a dry stare. “What do you think?”
He turned his body toward me, leaning a shoulder against the doorframe so the moonlight spilled onto the side of his face. “I think you’re complex. You’ve had a lot to deal with at a young age, and you’ve been carrying the pain with you ever since.”
“You don’t give up.” I found the quality both annoying and respectable. “Maybe you should have been a shrink or something.”
He closed the distance between us with little effort. “I’m a physical guy.” Something flared in his eyes, brightening them. “What are all these markings on your body?” His finger traced the one on my arm, sending tendrils of tingles over my skin.
I wished he would stop touching me. “You can see the runes?” I asked, suspicion and surprise clouding my voice. They were symbols used for protection, defense, healing, and any spell a witch with a grudge might need in a moment’s notice.
“Is that what they are, more voodoo?” Doubt crossed his features.
“Do you have something against magic?” If he was just human, he shouldn’t have been able to see the runes on my skin. Zavier was something more, but what?
Vampire?
If that were true, then why didn’t I sense it? Vampires could see the runes I etched into my body. Something in their eyes allowed them to detect a witch’s magic. Unfair? Definitely. But then again, my blood was poisonous to the leeches. He didn’t have the eyes of a vampire either. All vampires in the Bay had the same cobalt iridescent color.
He shrugged. “I don’t trust it.”
A feeling of unease wormed its way into my belly. “I guess that makes us even, considering that is exactly how I feel about you.”
A smug grin remained on his lips. “What does this one mean?”
I frowned. If he could see my runes, then using magic on him wasn’t going to be as easy as it had been on Liam. Zavier had resistance to charms, which might explain why I hadn’t been able to read his essence. “That I am going to kick your ass if you keep touching me.” I refused to move, refused to let him intimidate me.
He leaned forward, bringing our faces closer. “Your lips are saying one thing, but your body is saying something else entirely.”
I could feel the heat from his chest, and it was making me think crazy thoughts. “Great. Now I can add pervert and stalker to your growing list of undesirable personality traits.”
The expression on his face said he wanted to call me out on my bullshit. “Whatever floats your boat, minx.”
My eyes fixed on his lips, my mind wandering to the kiss. “Do you know anything about personal space?”
“The way I see it, Liam gave you too much space.” His eyes turned luminous, or maybe it was the moonlight.
“You would see it that way,” I grumbled, forcing my gaze off his mouth. I glanced out the window as a cool breeze blew over my skin, and my thoughts turned to the other night when the vampire attacked me. There could be a vampire out there right now, doing God knows what. Attacking another witch like me, killing another little girl’s mother. The increased number of assaults on females sent my inner alarm bells ringing, and what was I doing? I was tucked inside the compound, wondering if Zavier’s lips did taste as incredible as I remembered.
He must have noticed the far-off look that suddenly sprang into my eyes. “You want to know why your brother assigned me to you. Why he trusts me.”
“Duh.” The question had been on my mind all day.
One side of his mouth curved up as he pulled back. “You’re not the only one with abilities.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. This conversation was getting interesting. “And what is it you think you can do?”
“Oh, I’m multi-talented, but one of my specialties is human emotions. And you have more anger surrounding you than I’ve ever sensed. It makes the air circling you spicy and hot, like cinnamon candies.”
At least he had that right. “How are you able to sense emotions exactly? I thought only vampires had that ability? Are you telling me you’re a vamp?”
“Do you always jump to so many conclusions?”
I poked him in the chest with my middle finger. “And you’re avoiding the question, buddy.” He didn’t budge, and I angled my head to the side. “For some reason, I can’t figure out what you are, but I don’t give up so easily. Sooner or later, I will find out.”
“Why do I have to be put into a box or labeled? I read feelings. Sometimes, they speak loudly. Others are a whisper. It is the intense emotions like yours that push through whether I want them to or not.”
“You can block it?”
“Most of the time, but not with you. Why do you think that is?” he asked, running a hand through his hair.
“How am I supposed to know? You’re the one with the gift. I just turn assholes into snakes and rats.”
“There’s a lot more to you than that. You have power, real power, Skylar, yet you keep it hidden away.”
“Or risk being burned at the stake.”
“This isn’t the Salem Witch Trials. You can come out of the closet.”
He was mocking me. “What rock have you been living under? The world might know about vampires and witches, but they are far from accepting us. And vice versa. Do you think the vampires like being regulated or told what to do, by humans nonetheless?”
“Do you like hiding who you are?” he challenged.
He had a point, but damn if I was going to admit that to him. Nothing stayed hidden forever. Of course, I didn’t like pretending I was only human. Those closest to me knew the truth, and a select few other witches in Frisco Bay. My family kept their bloodline a secret not out of shame, but caution. There weren’t as many as there used to be. Vampires might not be able to drink our blood, but that didn’t stop them from killing us.
Being attacked wasn’t the only reason I was assigned a warden. The vampire’s numbers had also been dwindling. Failed attempts at conceiving within their kind had pushed them to seek the company of witches—often without consent. They were becoming desperate, which put a big red target on my back. “No more than I like lying, but sometimes both are necessary to protect those you love,” I answered.
“Do me a favor? Don’t do anything stupid tonight. I’d rather not go chasing after you. It’s been a helluva day.”
That we could agree on. I nodded, acutely aware of him. He filled my space with a powerful male presence.
Satisfied I would stay put for the night, he crossed the room and disappeared behind the conjoining door.
Zavier Cross had something to hide.
And I was the witch to figure it out.
Exhausted, I finally gave in and curled up on the chair in the corner, letting the dreams take me, and with them came the dark, the blood thirst, and the horror.
I tossed in my sleep, but the dreams of she who was darkness plagued on. Her desire to get back what was stolen from her—from all vampires—consumed her. She would corrupt, she would kill, and she would destroy us all to get it back.
Chapter 5
It was no surprise I awoke tired with a massive headache thumping at my temples. The stiff neck was an annoyance I could do without, my punishment for falling asleep sitting up in the chair. I pressed my fingers to my heavy eyes, noticing the knitted throw tucked over me that hadn’t been there when I sat to rest for a few moments. My shadow was no
where in sight, but that didn’t mean he was far. The room beside me was conjoined to mine by a door, and was the quarters assigned to my warden. My guess was the man slept as light as a feather, waking and ready for a fight at the slightest sound.
There was another coven meeting in three days, and I had yet to figure out how I was going to get there. Zavier didn’t strike me as someone who fell for the usual tricks that worked with Liam. It had helped tremendously I’d known Liam was a hundred percent human, but Zavier…
My intuition told me he wasn’t human, witch, or vamp, and the not knowing made me nervous. I relied on my gifts far too often. It wasn’t like them to fail me.
I didn’t understand how my path had gotten so skewed in twenty-four hours, but I needed to find a way to get back on the right track—to get back to hunting the vampire responsible for my mother’s death. Whatever Lilith had concocting down in the caves, I was going to put a stop to it.
I rose quickly, formulating a plan as I went about my morning routine. Just another day, Sky…or so let him think.
Grabbing a quick breakfast before there was nothing left, I was always conscious Zavier wasn’t far away. For what I had planned, I needed privacy and space. The coven meeting was only three days away, and I had to discover what kind of magic worked on the elusive warden.
So began the series of tests.
The outcome was to see what Zavier could or couldn’t detect. How else was I going to get to the meeting if I couldn’t figure out a way to ditch my shadow?
The only other alternative was to bring him with, but I hadn’t even trusted Liam with my whereabouts on those occasional late evenings. Why would I trust Zavier? I couldn’t. He had already proved himself to be mysterious, and I couldn’t take the chance he would expose the coven…or worse, tell my brother.
“Why are we traipsing around in the weeds?” Zavier asked as we tromped through what could have been mistaken for a jungle.
Just outside the compound gate, near the base of the cliffs, was where the thick and overgrown brush and thistle began. Eventually, if one went deep enough, it gave way to woods so dense it would be easy for someone to get lost and never be found.
The key was to never lose sight of the sea. If I couldn’t hear the slushing of waves, I was too far from home.
“They aren’t weeds,” I told him, crouching to inspect a bushel of rosemary. “I need to replenish my stock of herbs. The things I can get myself, I’d rather not pay for.”
“Makes sense. I’m wondering why we’re doing it?”
I rolled my eyes. “Were you hit on the head when you were small?”
His mouth set into a grim line. “Uh, not that I know of.”
“Beyond popular belief, I actually like getting my hands dirty occasionally.”
He leveled a mischievous glance on me. “You don’t say?”
I scowled. “Don’t be a perv.”
His grin spread, turning downright wicked. “That’s like asking me not to breathe.”
There was a quality about Zavier I found amusing, even when I didn’t want to be charmed by him. Like now. I cut the springs of rosemary and added them to my bag.
“Since you’ve dragged my ass out into the wilderness, what are we looking for?” he asked.
I side-eyed him, surprised he wanted to help. Liam only ever complained and whined about being in the woods. He wasn’t the outdoorsy type. I held up a sprig of rosemary. “This is rosemary. It look like short pine trees with fat trunks and long, thin branches that grow straight up. If you’re unsure, smell the leaves. Rosemary has a woodsy aroma of lemon and pine.”
“Where did you learn all of this?” he asked after I’d risen. We continued to walk down an off-beaten path.
I shrugged, lifting the straps of my canvas bag onto my shoulder. “Some of it I learned from spell books.”
He made a chortling sound in the back of his throat.
“Hey, you asked. I’m giving you an honest answer,” I replied.
“That you did,” he said, reminding me he was an emotional lie detector.
“I also spent a lot of time roaming these woods with Tulip and her mom. She taught me the common plants, where to find them, and how to use them. The spell books showed me how to amplify their properties.”
“The secret ingredients that makes your shop a hot spot.” His eyes scanned over the surface of the forest floor, looking for bushels of rosemary. It was kind of cute, and I almost felt guilty for what I was about to do.
Almost.
But not enough to waste an opportunity.
This would be a good time to test how susceptible he was to magic. Keep him talking and busy looking for plants, and before he knew it, he’d be under my spell. I couldn’t have planned it better. I touched the rune at my neck, but right before I activated the charm, Zavier grabbed my wrist.
He blinked under those ridiculously long eyelashes. “Don’t even think about it, minx. None of your witchcraft.”
“How did you—?” I shook my head. “What other kinds of abilities do you have? It seems you’re holding out on me.” No human could move that fast.
“The bigger question is, why were you going to use one of those runes?” he challenged. “Maybe I’m not the only one with secrets to hide.”
“Argh,” I grumbled. At least he admitted he was hiding something from me. “You’re so frustrating. How can you expect me to answer your questions, when you skate right over mine?”
He still had my wrists in his grasp. He gave a quick jerk, pulling me closer to him. “Because it is my job to keep you safe, even if that means pissing you off or upsetting you. I’d rather have you mad at me than hurt…or worse.”
Great for him, but that wasn’t going to help me. I sent a stream of electricity to my fingertips and zapped him, expecting him to release me. But that didn’t happen.
I tried not to be impressed.
His fingers tightened for a moment and then relaxed. He had felt the shock. “Damn it, Skylar.” Those bright silver eyes were moving quickly into no-longer-amused land.
“Can you blame a girl for trying?” I asked, pasting on my sweet and innocent smile. It worked ninety-nine percent of the time. Something told me Zavier was the one percent who would see right through my act.
I jerked back, not expecting him to release his hold on me. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled backward. Things only went downhill from there.
Literally.
I shrieked as I lost my footing, the ground falling out from underneath me. The Bay was known for its sinkholes. As I slid down the side of the muddy slope, Zavier yelled my name. I thought he was going to jump down after me, which would have been utterly stupid. I needed him to save me, not get us both killed.
It was a bumpy ride, packed with rocks scraping down my back and mud slipping into places it had no business in. The impact sent me hurtling toward the ground, and the taste of dirt made me wince.
It sucked.
My head was throbbing where I’d slammed it once or twice into the ground on my way down, not a pleasant trip. Spots danced behind my eyes. I flinched, lying still as I took a quick inventory of the aches in my body. Nothing broken, but I would for sure have some cuts and bruises.
Shoving my hands into the mud, I pushed to my feet, awareness returning hastily. Holy shit. The ground was sucking me down. Quicksand! The more I struggled, the tighter the pressure cradled around me.
Stay calm. No need to panic. Yet.
I stilled my movements. Zavier had been right behind me before I decided to use the side of the hill as a slip-n-slide. Any second he was going to lend me a hand. It wasn’t like he was going to leave me to sink to my death.
My eyes darted left and right, searching for the warden who had been stuck by my side for the last few days. Where the hell was he? Just fucking great. The one time I needed his help and he was nowhere in sight. Now he suddenly decided to give me some space. What an ass.
“Zavier!” I yelled. “A little help?”
>
There had to be an explanation for his absence, but a solid reason was eluding me. It could also be because I was in a bit of a bind. My brain waves were jumbled, but the longer I stood there doing nothing, the more trouble I was in.
The mud was up to my calves. I knew from experience that struggling in quicksand only made things ten times worse.
Keep it together.
Easier said than done.
Almost near a full-blown freak out, I stretched my arms, grabbing onto a nearby shrub. The green foliage couldn’t hold my weight, breaking off in my hand as I tugged. “Shit.”
I struggled to stay motionless, giving myself time to figure out how I was going to get out of this mess. No spells came to mind.
And then I caught a blur of colors. It dashed past me, but as I twisted around, nothing was there. “Zavier?” I called, but I wasn’t shocked when no one responded.
Oh my God. I’m going to die. My brother’s constant warnings about the dangers of the woods rang through my head. What would he do without me? I was the only family he had left.
The strong hand came out of nowhere, clasping onto mine. I opened my eyes, and sighed. Zavier’s face came into focus. “What the hell to you so long, you jerk?” I squealed.
Muscles in his arms bunched. “You might want to save the insults until after I manage to get you out of there.”
“Hurry.”
Within seconds, I was wrangled from the mud trap, and pressed against him. The speed and strength in which he had managed to set me free was impressive. No human could have accomplished such a feat, but it was becoming painfully clear Zavier wasn’t human.
The warmth of his body was soon replaced by a feeling of loss as he set me on my feet and moved away. His hands came to frame my face on either side of my cheeks. “You okay?” His eyes roamed over me from head to toe.
“I could have died!” I sounded ungrateful, but it had been a rough day.
“But you didn’t,” he replied blithely.
My eyes narrowed. “Was that your plan? To scare the shit out of me? What kind of person are you?”
Zavier grinned. “Today, I’m your knight in shining armor.”
