“But you’re assuming that killing someone else is more positive for you than being killed. Think of historical figures. Those who live on in infamy killed others. Those who changed the world, they were killed. Power, influence, goodness, it’s often the complete inverse of the rational process. Happiness is taking as much as you like and living life without consequences, right? Wrong. Studies show repeatedly that selfishness leads to misery while giving to others, serving, connecting, putting yourself in situations of discomfort for the sake of another, that’s where happiness is found. We are not rational creatures. We are immortal souls encased in rough matter.”
I pulled Penny away from him. His words were too compelling for her to withstand, particularly if she felt a lot of guilt. She’d be confessing to him all sorts of things.
“Thank you, preacher. That’s very illuminating.”
He beamed at me. “You aren’t a believer, but you’re here for your sweetheart. Love is a beautiful thing. We’re having a Valentine’s social in a few weeks. You’re welcome to join us.”
I smiled politely. “We’re usually quite busy, but thank you for the invitation. Penny, come along.”
We walked away from the church, the wind bracing, sweeping away the cobwebs in my head.
“It sounds nice.”
“Having a soul or living irrationally hoping for an uncertain eternal reward?”
She laughed and pulled me around. “The Valentine’s Social. Mrs. Harmon has those legendary cooking skills.”
I glanced back to see if the preacher was watching. He wasn’t. I stepped into her and kissed her, hard, aching, yearning for her taste and tongue.
When I pulled away, she was breathless, big eyes and soft lips. “What was that for?”
I turned and dragged her to my SUV. “Fun. Also, talking about guilt makes me want to do something shocking, like kiss you in front of a church. I still don’t feel guilty, though. I’ll have to try something else.” In my backseat. On a Sunday morning in a fairly busy part of town? Getting arrested for indecent exposure wasn’t on my list of things to do with Penny that day. It did sound fun. Another time. After she was safely married to me. There would be no ruining, not this time.
I glanced at her.
“What?”
“I love that you torture me with church.”
“You’re the one who wanted to go to church today.”
“That’s because I love it when you torture me. Didn’t I say that?” I kissed her hand and opened the door for her before I walked around, glancing at the people who couldn’t help but watch us. Penny certainly made an impression. She didn’t try to blend with humanity. But she was so sweet.
“Did you like the preacher?” I asked once I was safely in the front seat instead of the back.
Penny shrugged and fastened her seatbelt. “He’s very passionate about his beliefs.”
I cleared my throat. “Do you think that he performs at funerals?”
“He didn’t do Lulu’s, did he?”
“No, but he has a very beaming yet sober face. It’s a difficult combo to pull off but might work for funerals and weddings. Which would be convenient since he must do a lot of those.”
“How many funerals can a town of this size have?”
“Weddings. I mean I don’t know. But weddings happen often.”
Penny rubbed her arms like she was cold. Her voice was sad. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been married.”
Why was she sad? Did she really want an estranged marriage? She would have to get over it because when I married her, she would see me at least once a day. Plus extra on Tuesdays. “Really? I would never have guessed. You have that aura about you.”
“The married aura? No, that’s just my hair. Drake, why don’t you want to get married?”
I opened my mouth and closed it. She really thought that I objected to marriage in general and not to a loveless marriage. She was so adorably oblivious. “I don’t think it’s the getting married that’s the problem. It’s what happens afterwards.”
Penny’s cheeks went fiery and she tried not to look at me. “Oh. That makes sense.”
I laughed and brushed her incredibly enticing skin. “You’re blushing. Oh no, I’m fairly confident in that arena. It’s staying married, being married. Witches and mages are like water and oil, fire and ice, flood and famine.” Except for Penny. If she was an aberration, she would be lovable, our energy compatible, fitting together instead of pushing apart. Oh, we would fit together all right.
“My mother and step-father are kind of happy in a weird, sick and twisted kind of way.”
I smiled slowly. “Are you trying to convert me to the concept of marriage?”
She suddenly scowled at me. “I already sent you a contract. You refused.”
“I did. Maybe you should try again. Offer me a contract with a little more flexibility, a little more intimacy and I might be swayed.”
“Or not.”
I smiled, and glanced down at her ridiculously long legs. Such delicious skin needed to be tasted and nibbled, protected and adored. “You could keep trying, wear me down with your tenacity. I can’t imagine anyone managing to resist the barrage that is Penny Lane unleashed. You could seduce me with your sun bathing suit into doing practically anything, maybe even so much as signing a contract.”
She blushed again. “That wasn’t a good idea.”
I wanted to see everywhere she blushed. “No? Perhaps not, but it had that spark.”
“The spark of inanity.”
I lifted her hand and pressed a hard kiss to the back of it. “I am feeling mildly unbalanced in your direction. Perhaps your inanity will consume my reason entirely one of these days. Shall we? Missy’s waiting.”
Chapter 5
Witch
I clung to him on our ride to the hospital, and then spent an hour or two sitting at the elaborate tea table not staring at Drake, but it was so difficult when he was so deliriously handsome in his suit, and when he glanced at me like I was one of the perfect éclairs on his plate that he wanted to gobble up.
Missy kept looking between the two of us, a slight frown on her face. “He missed you on Tuesday.” Her one gray eye stared at me before she bit into a stack of three macaroons.
I glanced at him, leaning against the wall and chatting with the guy behind bars, the Necromancer’s pet, that’s what Drake called him instead of Carl. “I had a lot of things to do.”
“Oh.”
I winced because the way she glanced away, like she’d accidentally forgotten that to me, she couldn’t be worth as much because she was just a human without magic. I covered her hand with mine, ignoring the crumbs. I knew what it was like not to have magic and to always feel less because of it. What would Drake think of me if he knew? It didn’t matter. I couldn’t save my mother. “There’s a mage I really want to end. I shut out everything other than the anger, the need for his pain.”
She pursed her lips. “What did he do?”
“He hurt someone. She trusted him. She let him…” I gripped my teacup with shaking fingers. She did everything I was doing with Drake, but who would get vengeance for me? Not that I was doing a good job. All I had was a roll of the wrong mage’s skin. It was starting to feel like vengeance wasn’t my talent.
“She loved him.” It wasn’t a question.
I nodded and gazed over at Drake where he didn’t seem to be listening, but he probably heard every word. “Mages are terrible. It’s going to rip me apart when he’s done with me.”
He smiled showing teeth made for ripping out hearts and throats.
She cleared her throat. “He’s not going to be done with you.”
I turned to stare at Missy. “You said that before, but it doesn’t make sense.”
She shrugged and fiddled with a lady finger. “Darkside mages, they get fixed on a female. They call it love, obsession, possession, and it brings out all their jealous tendencies. Narcollo didn’t love me, I mean, I was just his pet, but he
still guarded me like I was his treasure. He would never have been done with me unless he personally destroyed me. No one else was allowed to have a morsel of me.”
I winced and couldn’t help but glance at the eye that was sewn shut. Morsels. “Daysider mages aren’t like that. My father…” I trailed off as a gripping agony speared through my spine triggering nausea. I bent over my knees gasping and Drake was right there, his hand on my back, his voice low, muttering in Darksider.
“Penny?” He cupped my face and gazed at me while I tried to focus on him, his voice instead of the agonizing terror that had me trembling and weak. “I think the tea party is over. We need to reset your spell. Come on.” He scooped me up in his arms like I was a doll. “You are extremely heavy.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, pressing my face against his neck. He smelled so wonderful, I almost nipped him, but we were in front of all his whatever the humans were to him. Clients, maybe. He carried me out of the room, down the hall, across the parking lot and didn’t stop until he’d stowed me in the back seat.
“I’m fine. I want to sit by you,” I said before another wave of agony had me folding in half, arms wrapped around my knees.
“I’m flattered. I’ll have to hire a chauffeur. I’ve been thinking about the mages who may at some point or other need to heal you. We should have a circle of mages. It would make the process faster, and it would make it less likely that Zach would rip apart your spell the next time…”
“No.”
He glanced over the seat at me, his lips pursed. “You like him ripping apart your spell?”
I shuddered. “Drake, I don’t want to ever see him again.”
He nodded. “I get that. I personally love the sentiment, but it’s not actually possible. You are bound to each other, are you not?”
I shrugged. “So?”
“So, I got to watch Ian and Zachary suffer. I got to experience it myself after you tied me up in the woods. You’ll both require moments of close proximity. I understand that you’re angry for his betrayal of your trust, but he’s Zach. He can’t help himself. And we are his only friends, unless you count Viney.”
I stiffened up. I couldn’t help it. “So I should forgive him? Give him grace or whatever?”
“No. Don’t forgive him, but don’t be irrationally angry when it inconveniences you. You own him, so you can force him to heal you if Pitch protects you too enthusiastically. You need Zachary in the circle because we like to learn from the past, as we heard in today’s sermon. Zach needs to have access to healing you, investment in your security, or he’ll rip it apart. You’ll let him because you still trust him.”
I glared at him. “No, I don’t.”
He laughed and reached back to squeeze my fingers. He seemed almost relaxed. “Should we invite Signore as well?”
“With Revere? Are you insane? I withdraw the question. Absolutely not. Never.” He’d be more furious than Revere if he found out that I was giving up and just living with Drake for the sake of mad love.
“All right. No Signore. Ian is an excellent healer. He’s also a good friend of mine and someone that you own. So that’s Revere, Jasper, Ian, and Zachary. Who shall we get for the witch? Would your mother—”
I reached forward and covered his mouth with my hand. “No. She’s busy. How about someone from your family?”
He scraped my palm with his teeth, sending a shivering awareness through me before I pulled my hand back and wiped his saliva on my skirt. I should have licked it. I was supposed to be obsessed.
“My Aunt would be an option. She’s a little bit irritating, but not bad for a witch.”
“The one who reads romance novels?”
He cleared his throat. “That’s the one. You’re living with me. I can’t quite wrap my head around that. You have no idea how convenient that will be. You can tell me if my hair is properly mussed. You can put on my cufflinks and adjust my ties. You’ll be like my personal valet.”
I smoothed the shoulders of his jacket. “I hope it pays well.”
“It pays in pleasure. I know how much you like stroking fine wool.”
I pulled my fingers back feeling a bit singed. I did love fine wool, almost as much as the mage beneath it. Then again, he knew that I loved him, was obsessed with him. I slid both hands over his shoulders and down inside his jacket to explore the muscles beneath the smooth cotton fabric.
He inhaled sharply and shifted under my fingers, almost like he was ticklish. I leaned forward and nibbled on his neck. He tasted so nice.
“Penny, you’re going to make me drive off the road.”
I pulled away from him and sat back, smoothing down my skirt. I wasn’t in the mood for a car crash.
“Sorry. I was just examining the fabric. It’s really, really great fabric. Speaking of payment, if you reset my spell, we’ll have to work out the payment beforehand.”
He growled. “You are ridiculous. I know it’s hard to remember, Penny, but I, the exquisite Drake Huntsman, belong to you. You can’t pay for something that you already own. Unless we’re talking about taxes. There should be some kind of mage tax. I’d collect it in lollipops or bedazzlement. Maybe mustaches.”
I giggled in spite of the nauseous terror building in my stomach. “Maybe mustache kisses?”
He cleared his throat and gave me a glance over his shoulder as smoldering as it was delicious. “You do know how to tempt a mage, Penny Lane.”
My cheeks went hot. “Only the crazy ones. Drake, was Missy right about mages not usually leaving their witches?”
“Darksider Mages often murder their witches, but not leave them. It’s not a terribly healthy formula, is it?”
“But you aren’t like that. That’s Darkside mages, right?”
“You belong to me. You will always belong to me unless something very strange happens. Knowing you, it’s inevitable, but I like to think there are very few things quite so strange in this world. I don’t see how I could possibly let you go. A week without you plaguing my dreams and tormenting my wardrobe, and I’m on the brink of madness and despair. When we get back, I’m likely going to find Zach and pull off his limbs for touching you. It’s handy that Lester’s so good at growing them back.”
He threw me another debonair smile that made my stomach twist in a different way. I reached over the seat and gripped his shirt. “You mean on the brink of sanity and hope. I understand that you’re not comfortable being there, so I promise not to disappear like that again.”
He covered my hand with his. “You can disappear, but next time, I will track you down and drag you to my cave.”
I managed to not do more than tangle my fingers in his hair for the rest of the drive and only threw up once. Even in the backseat. Blargh. I needed to reset my spell, but Zach? Shudder. If he didn’t want to do it, I wasn’t going to make him. That would only start us making each other do stuff, and we’d both end up at the bottom of a cliff.
When we pulled up to Drake’s parking space, Viney was standing there where Drake could hit her if he wasn’t careful. He slammed on the brakes and she came around to my door. I almost ducked down like she might not have seen me, but instead, I opened the door and slid out.
“Are you insane?”
I blinked at her before crashing onto the pavement, panting. “What?”
“Are you seriously moving in with Drake? Do you have any idea how stupid that is? I mean, using his body as much as you can, that’s fine, but actually depending on him as some kind of shelter provider? What are you thinking?” She yanked me up, bruising my wrist.
“Ow, Viney. Can you not pull on me like a little terrier? It’s fine. I’ll be like his valet.”
“Because that’s such a noble profession. You’ll be like a prostitute valet, only without the pay. What happened with Zach? He’s gone completely nuts, trying to pull an Ian and seduce half the school, and he’s not failing, and you, running into Drake’s arms like you’ve forgotten what kind of an egotistical, self-centered, sadistic ma
ge he is. You’re acting like an idiot.”
Drake cleared his throat. “I would like to point out that since egotistical and self-centered are synonyms, your objections lack weight. You’re being extremely dramatic. I love it. Reminds me of telenovelas. What character would she be, Penny? Scorned lover? Were the two of you lovers?”
I rolled my eyes. He didn’t need to elevate the level of ridiculousness. Then again, why not? “Viney, it’s not like that. I can’t take Zach anymore, and he won’t let me change rooms, so it was either Drake or home.”
“Home?” Drake’s voice was suddenly careful and cold.
“And you couldn’t talk to me about it? It’s not like I don’t have some sway over that imbecile. What did he do to you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?” Viney edged me back until I was against Drake’s car. She was so furious, her black spikes quivered and her black eyes burned into me. Why was she so mad at me?
Oh. Because I was her friend and I’d kind of bailed on her without saying anything. Macaroons and peanut brittle. I had to have a good reason or she’d feel like I didn’t care. I took a deep breath before I said everything as fast as I could. “He broke my protection spell and branded me when I was unconscious.”
Her eyes widened then narrowed. “You’re kidding me.”
I shrugged. “I guess Pitch and Zach broke up. She kind of gave me his whole binding thing, so Zach didn’t want to get stuck as my slave, so, anyway, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why did they break up?”
“Didn’t you see the tourney? He didn’t follow the rules.”
Viney scowled. “But it worked. Taking out Ian with the holograph was brilliant and creative.”
“It was insulting and egocentric. I mean, that’s what Pitch thinks. I guess. She’s kind of a diva. Have to follow her rules or she doesn’t handle it well.”
“Are you serious? A diva?” She snickered.
“Is that funny?”
“Kind of. I mean all that terror, but can’t handle a little bit of chaos? What a loser.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah. Such a loser. Someone who never loses. Anyway, I’m going to go.”
Blooming Black: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 4) Page 3
