“Well, sure.” I swallowed the last bite of the cookie, wishing it was one of Ronnie’s fresh ones. “If you give someone a potion without adding a bit of your essence, they’ll just fall for whoever they first look at. I mean, you wouldn’t want to go to the trouble of giving someone a love potion just to have them accidently glance past you and see your hundred-year-old great aunt and fall head over heels for her, right? So you add your essence to the potion, and you guarantee that they fall for you, whether or not you’re there to see them drink the potion.”
“Do you do blood magic?” Jane asked.
The question took me by surprise, and I couldn’t keep the shock off my face. Jane was watching me, a thin sheen of sweat forming on her forehead. The tip of her pink tongue darted out to moisten her lips, and her nostrils flared slightly.
“No,” I said, my voice firm. “I do not. If that is what you came looking for, then I’m sorry, you’ve wasted the trip.” I placed my feet on the floor and stood. “I think it’s time you got back home. It’s very late.”
Jane opened her mouth, but closed it before she said anything. She stood, her eyes on my face as she gripped the strap of her bag close to her chest again. The collar of her jacket opened, exposing the cross at her throat again. I forced myself to breathe normally. I held out a hand, directing her toward the door. Her eyes flicked to my hand and back up. The muscle in her jaw worked as she ground her teeth. She was fighting some internal struggle, and I worried she would lose the battle and do whatever stupid thing she was thinking of.
“You said it was a hundred?” she asked, her voice catching in the middle.
“That’s right,” I said with a nod, letting my hand drop.
Jane lowered her eyes and opened her bag, digging inside it. I leaned over the tray to pick up the finger stick. Pinching it, I broke the seal.
If I hadn’t taken my eyes off the doe-eyed girl, I would have seen that what she pulled out of her bag wasn’t a wad of money. If I had been paying attention, I could have hexed her or zapped her with a bolt of power before she hit me with the pepper spray, blinding me before she tossed a homemade explosive toward my kitchen. If I hadn’t been such a damn fool, I could have stopped her before she bolted from the apartment, screaming about heathens burning in hell for all eternity. But I didn’t, and she did, and the explosion rocked my kitchen, making the floor shake and sending me falling on my ass as my eyes streamed and burned.
Chapter 4
“Mattie! Mattie!” Voices were yelling for me, a chorus of male and female tones.
I was busy with my head in my kitchen sink, letting the water stream over my eyes, trying desperately to get the pepper spray out.
My would-be rescuers came running in, sounding like a herd of elephants. I held up a hand to tell them I was okay. I felt a hand on my back. It was small and light, and I figured it was Ronnie. When I came out from under the water, a cloth was pressed into my hand. I used it to dab at my face. My skin was raw with pain, and my nose was still running. I couldn’t imagine how ridiculous I must look with my hair dripping, my pajamas hanging off of me, my bare feet peeking out, and my face a swollen, red mess.
“What happened?” a gruff male voice asked.
I managed to open my eyes long enough to see Ronnie, Kyle, and Frankie standing in my scorched kitchen, staring wide-eyed at me.
“Bomb,” I said as if it wasn’t totally obvious. I heard the bite in my tone and regretted it instantly, but I was pissed at myself and that stupid girl.
“Mattie,” Ronnie admonished.
I held the cloth to my face a moment longer until I was sure I could keep my eyes open. They still burned, but it was bearable. “I’m an idiot, that’s what happened.” I used the towel to wipe my nose. “Some girl came by pretending to be a customer, and she sprayed me with pepper spray and set off a freaking bomb!”
“Wow, you are an idiot.” Frankie crossed her arms under her ample chest and let her hip jut out as she rested her weight on one side. “You’ll never get your deposit back now.” She clicked her tongue at me.
It took everything I had not to snap at her about the hole she’d punched in my wall last summer when my rent check had bounced. That was the first time she’d told me I could kiss my deposit good-bye. I didn’t need another reminder.
“Frankie,” Kyle whispered, touching her shoulder with two fingers.
Amazingly, Frankie had the courtesy to look abashed.
“Are you okay?” Ronnie asked, pulling the attention away from the werewolf.
“Fine, just my pride.” I tossed the towel on the counter. “Artie!” I whipped my head back and forth, realizing I didn’t know where he had been when the bomb went off.
Ronnie and Kyle helped me call for him. Everyone crouched on the ground looking for him—everyone except for Frankie, anyway.
“Artie, baby, come out!” I was starting to panic, a stitch forming in my chest.
“Mrrrow.” The meow, short and annoyed, preceded Artemis’s arrival around the kitchen wall. He sat at the edge of the cabinets, keeping his distance from the she-wolf.
“Oh, thank the gods,” I breathed, dropping to the floor and gathering the black ball of fur to my chest. I buried my face in his neck and gripped him tight enough to make him meow in protest. He was totally unscathed. He must have hidden in the bedroom before the explosion. I blinked back new tears and let him go, waving him back to the safety of the bedroom.
I went to the stove, thanking the gods I’d turned off the burners before I’d brought the conniving little toad tea and a potion she’d never intended to buy. The entire pot of healing potion was ruined. Now instead of the clear sky-blue it should have been, it was green sludge that bubbled and stank of rotten eggs. The anti-love potion was a blob of black goo—totally unsalvageable. Two vials of anti-jinx potions were broken, but the other four were intact, which was something, I guessed. I sighed and shook my head.
“A human did this?” Kyle turned on his heel to take in the damage. Most of it was confined to the kitchen, but one of my dining table chairs was shattered.
“Some stupid teenager.” The words left a sour taste in my mouth. Bested by a kid. How embarrassing.
“What did she look like?” Kyle asked as he turned around to face me.
“Just a girl.” I shrugged. “Short, brown hair, brown eyes, looked like she was dressed for a damn funeral.”
“All black and gray?” Kyle asked.
I turned to look at him. His dark eyes were heavy with suspicion.
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Except for the gold cross she was wearing.”
“Gold cross?” Ronnie asked, her freckled brow contracting. “What was a Christian doing coming to see a witch?”
“To blow up her kitchen and mace her,” I said, throwing my hands in the air.
“It doesn’t really matter that she was a Christian,” Kyle said. “We’ve got Christians in the pack.”
“Really?” Ronnie turned her surprised face toward Kyle, who nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of hedge witches and kitchen witches being Christian,” I said. I crossed my arms over my stomach and leaned back against the counter, feeling a headache coming on. I hoped all of my charms weren’t contaminated with whatever that bomb had been made of.
“But I have a guess about what she really was,” Kyle said, bringing all our attention to him again.
“Which is?” I prompted.
“Bet she was a member of P.E.A.C.E.”
My stomach went as cold as my toes, and Ronnie made a noise of surprise while Frankie growled. P.E.A.C.E. stood for “People for the Eradication and Cleansing of Evils,” and by evils, they usually meant anyone not human. Many factions of society believed any supernatural creature was a spawn of demons. They didn’t seem to realize demons were their own special, crazy race.
“Could be,” I said with a small shrug. “But she could have just been some crazy chick.”
“Sure,” Kyle agreed, “but there have been a
lot more attacks lately. They’ve been a lot more brazen too.” He gestured around my apartment, and I nodded. “And the gray-and-black outfit? That’s, like, their uniform.”
“Oh,” I said lamely.
“Why now, all of a sudden?” Ronnie asked.
“A lot of human teens are going missing, running away sounds like, but P.E.A.C.E. is blaming supernaturals for the sudden rise.” Kyle rubbed his chin. The sound of the stubble against his hand was rough. “They’ve been on the news, holding rallies, all kinds of propaganda.”
“She did ask me if I did blood magic.”
“What?” Ronnie spun around, her voice so loud that I flinched away from it.
“Take it down a notch, please,” I said, holding out one hand while rubbing my forehead with the other. My skin was still sensitive, but the creeping ache in my head was worse. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments, feeling the sting bring tears to my eyes, but it actually helped. I let the tears fall and dabbed at my cheeks.
“Yes,” I said when I’d pulled myself together. “She asked if I did blood magic. I thought she was asking because she wanted me to make her a black spell or something, so I told her it was time to go. That’s when she pretended to pull out money for the love spell, and blammo.” I finished with a huff. Looking around my kitchen, blackened and scorched, hurt something inside me. Just when I was finally getting ahead of my bills and able to put some money away for a rainy day, it was pouring right there in my kitchen.
“Well it looks like you could use some help cleaning up,” Kyle said, stepping forward and away from Frankie.
“Uh, hello?” Frankie put both hands on her round hips. “So what, our date is over just like that?”
“Sweets, I’m sorry,” Kyle said, turning back to face her. He stepped closer to her, reaching to touch her face, but Frankie moved her head before his fingers could reach her cheek. “Don’t be like that. My friend needs some help. Am I just supposed to walk away?”
Kyle’s words surprised me. I didn’t realize he considered us friends. That was either very good for me or very bad where Frankie was concerned.
“Oh, but you can just dismiss me like we weren’t doing anything? I get it.” Frankie’s eyes flashed to yellow as her temper spiked. Over the smell of burnt wood and rotten eggs, the scent of wet earth and blood filtered through the small space.
Ronnie and I shared a terrified look. Kyle whispered something too low for either of us to hear as he stepped close to Frankie, putting his face into the crook of her neck. Her yellow eyes fluttered as her resolve to hold on to her anger faltered. She turned her face toward his. We could feel the vibration of their connection. They were communicating in a way only two Weres could, and Ronnie and I were left on the sidelines, unsure where to look or what to do with ourselves.
After a long, awkward moment, Kyle stepped back. Frankie’s eyes were no longer yellow. He had managed to calm the beast. But when she looked at me, her face became hard with anger again.
“You better do something about this,” she said, pointing needlessly at the damaged kitchen.
“Planned to, thanks,” I said, the snarky tone coming out before I could stop it.
Frankie’s lip quivered as she fought to control her face. “You need to put up some wards against humans if your business is going to bring bullshit like this around.”
“Hey, wards and protections on the building are your job, not mine,” I snapped, unable to keep my temper under control. I didn’t know if I was just that upset or if I felt safer giving her a piece of my mind with Kyle there to intervene.
“Oh, you think so, do you, witch?” Frankie tried to step around Kyle, but he snaked one arm around her waist, holding her close to him and effectively holding her back.
“Yes!” I yelled. “It’s your building. Security is your job!”
“You have one week to fix this mess. If you don’t, you’re out on your ass, you get me?” Frankie snarled, her nails digging into Kyle’s arms as she fought against him. Being so much bigger than she was, he held her back easily.
“Whatever,” I said, pressing my fingers into my temples and rubbing slowly.
Kyle whispered something to her, and Frankie let him walk her backward, out of the kitchen and toward the front door.
“Do you have a death wish? What the hell, Mattie?” Ronnie asked, her brown eyes wide, just like Jane’s had been.
“She’s all bark,” I said after I was sure Kyle and Frankie were on the other side of the door and she probably couldn’t hear me.
“She will evict you,” Ronnie said.
“I know, but she’s not going to actually attack me. You and I are the only ones who bother to put any protection on the building.”
“Mattie…”
“I’m going to fix the kitchen,” I said, not wanting to hear a lecture just then. I grabbed a canister of salt and flipped the pour spout open.
We heard the front door open, and Kyle walked back into the apartment.
“I’ll get the locks,” Ronnie said and walked out of the kitchen. Kyle could lock the door, but only a witch could set a freezing spell as an extra precaution.
I was salting the two pots on the stove when they walked back in. The pot with the ruined healing potion fizzled and deflated under the dusting of salt, and the scent of rotten eggs redoubled, making me cough as my stomach flipped.
“Man, that sucks,” Kyle offered when he saw the pot.
“Yeah.” I waved away the sour smell. “Just glad I’d already bottled one of the other potions. Lost a couple of those though.” My shoulders fell as my resolve chipped away. I felt the possibility of tears pressing at my eyes. I needed to keep moving or I would lose it.
“What can I do to help?” Kyle asked.
“I have no idea,” I said.
He stood there awkwardly, his hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans. After a few moments, while I lugged the ruined potions over to the sink, he cleared his throat and said, “I gotta make a phone call.”
“You can go in the bedroom,” I said, motioning with my chin.
Kyle leaned back to look around the kitchen wall before nodding and walking away.
“Mattie?” Ronnie said, coming up next to me with the other pot.
“Yeah?” I fought to get the ruined healing potion out of my pot and into the sink, stabbing it with a metal spoon.
“I think you’re gonna have to replace your cabinets. I mean, look at them.”
“I saw.” I didn’t want to look again.
Many of the doors were hanging off the cabinets, holding on by one hinge, and they were all roasted and toasted. A few drawers had shot out to shatter on the floor, spilling their contents. I was glad my oven seemed to have survived the blast. The fridge had survived as well, though the take-out menus, pictures, and magnets that had decorated the front of it were destroyed. Curling bits of burned paper and melted globs of metal littered the floor. But they were all easily replaced.
Ronnie sloshed the murky potion into the sink once I got the glob of green goo out of my pot. I stabbed at it, jamming it into the disposal. The sound of the blades fighting with the goo covered the sound of Kyle’s footsteps.
He had to yell to be heard over the whirring of the motor. “What can I do?”
Ronnie had fetched my broom and dustpan out of the closet. She handed him the dustpan and pointed at the floor before she started sweeping. Kyle looked a little ridiculous, his six-foot-four frame hunched over the tiny dustpan gripped in his massive hand. His brow was pinched as he concentrated on holding the pan flush to the ground for Ronnie. I was scrubbing the counters while they swept up the debris when the knock at the door came. Ronnie and I froze, our wide eyes staring at the door. If I listened closely enough, I would have sworn I could hear the thudding of our hearts.
“It’s okay,” Kyle said, standing. “It’s Jameson. I called him.” He dumped the trash from the dustpan into the trash can as he walked over to answer the door.
I swallowed
my heart and stood up straight to rinse my hands in the sink. I was drying my hands when I heard Kyle curse from the living room.
“Freezing spell,” Ronnie said with a smile.
“Right.” I laughed lightly. “I got it.”
I walked into the living room, aware again that I was in baggy pajamas. I tugged at my oversized T-shirt and tucked my short hair behind my ears, trying to straighten myself. Kyle was sucking on his fingers when I walked up, and I couldn’t stop the snort that escaped me.
“Shouldn’t try to open a witch’s door without her permission.” I nudged him out of the way with my hip and touched the doorknob, feeling the spell lift with a zing. When I turned the knob, the door opened easily, and Kyle made a noise behind me.
“So what, any witch can break your locking spell?”
“No, not any witch.” I held the door open for Jameson and a Were I hadn’t met. “Only ones that I give consent to. Ronnie is my friend and welcome to come and go from my house, as I am from hers, so we can break each other’s freezing spells.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Kyle said as he shook his hand.
“Jameson,” I said, finally turning my attention to the tall, broad-shouldered Alpha Were.
Jameson was one of those guys who was ageless. He could have been thirty-five or fifty-five, and there really was no way to be sure which. His dark hair was shot through with a dusting of silver, and his skin held the golden glow of a man with a healthy appreciation of the sun. He smelled of the forest and damp earth, but he never had the hint of tangy iron like some other Weres I knew. When Jameson smiled, his blue eyes sparkled. I didn’t think any girl really cared how old or young he was, not when he laid those soulful eyes on her.
“Mattie,” Jameson said with a nod, his voice low and rough like one would expect of a werewolf leader. “This is Samuel.” He gestured toward the slightly smaller man behind him.
Samuel was pale and blond, and his hair appeared extra bright in the dimly lit hallway. He nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything. He stepped in behind Jameson, being very careful to keep right behind his shoulder and just to the side. He was a wolf ready to attack at a moment’s notice. He was dressed in military chic, right down to his olive drab jacket and the black combat boots tied over his gray cargo pants. When he stood behind Jameson, he kept his hands clasped in front of him and his feet hip-width apart. I glanced at Kyle just in time to catch him hiding a smirk. I wasn’t the only one who thought Samuel was taking his job a little too seriously.
Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2) Page 4
