by May Sage
It certainly made his bodyguard job a little easier.
"Maybe," Rain replied vaguely. "Depends on a few things. Tell me, how are things with Michelle in charge?"
The kid was fucking uncomfortable all of a sudden. Not good, then.
"I...I—" she didn't finish the sentence, her eyes darting to Luke.
"Don't mind him. He couldn't care less about witches’ affairs. Anyway, you don't need to answer that. Forget I asked."
The kid nodded gratefully and made her way downstairs.
Rain watched her leave, frowning.
"Well, that's not exactly reassuring," Luke said, just so the silence didn't stretch.
Rain shrugged. "It's about what I expected. Come, let's go. I'm sure your cat is dying to explore the territory."
Luke didn't ask how she knew; she was friends with Ace, one of the most dominant shifters he knew. No doubt, the alpha female also needed to check her surroundings when she arrived somewhere new.
When they got downstairs, the cranky old lady who'd checked them in asked them if they wanted to sit and wait for gumbo.
"Who is Gumbo?" Luke asked, justifiably one might think.
No one had mentioned any gumbo before.
The cranky owner of the place looked at him with horror, open-mouthed. Rain winced and grimaced.
"Who is Gumbo, he says," Ma Curtis whispered to herself. "Who is Gumbo...my ancestors are rolling in their graves. They call to me, I can feel it. I must show him the way..."
The octogenarian proved to be surprisingly strong. She gripped him by the ear and dragged him to a bright sitting room behind her counter.
"You will stay until gumbo."
Luke was half convinced he was about to get roped into a sect, but there had been something dark in her tone, and he dared not disobey.
Sophie and Amelia carried in bowls filled with a thick, reddish-brown sauce over rice. One whiff and both Luke and his animal stilled, entirely captivated. When they ate a bite of shrimp and chicken, rice, and spices, they could hear angels sing. If Ma Curtis had come in with a contract and a pen, he would have signed away his soul without hesitation in that moment.
They had gumbo, and then Rain took him outside so that he might survey the grounds around them. He and his cheetah were focused on noticing the ways to get into their hotel—through the roof, the balconies, the pub next door—but he had to admit that the lively, vibrant city distracted him. Something demanded his attention every other minute.
Luke halted in front of a cafe, and although he'd just eaten, his stomach growled, demanding that they stop there.
"What is that smell?" he asked, sniffing the air.
"Beignets," Rain replied with a shrug. "We can order coffee and get some if you'd like. "
He liked that very much.
It was when he ate his first beignet that he came to the conclusion that Rain was insane.
"In a week," he told her, "I'll be ready to sign a lease for an apartment in this town."
Rain snorted.
"I'd demand a wager, but that would be unfair. I just know better. You've seen the Nola of daylight. You have no idea what it's like in our world."
She was right, he didn't, but he soon found out.
The White Witch
“What is this?” the shifter almost growled, suspiciously sniffing his coffee.
“Coffee.” Then she lifted a brow, catching on. “Probably chicory coffee.”
Luke huffed and muttered about people messing with coffee, while tentatively sipping the beverage. He must have deemed it acceptable, because his frown disappeared and he kept on drinking contentedly.
Rain didn't pay him much attention, her mind otherwise engaged.
Iris hadn’t ever shown her face in the presence of another person before. What the fuck was she doing here now?
She'd disappeared when they were walking the crowded streets filled with tourists, guides, and musicians, but when Rain and Luke were alone, she came back. Just a few minutes ago, she had been walking right behind the shifter and staring at his round ass with a satisfied grin.
Not that Rain could blame her: it was a nice ass.
Rain wondered if Iris was more powerful here because they were on her turf, so to speak. In her city, close to the cemetery where her remains were buried. That might explain how she could hang out with them. It didn't explain why she would want to; ghosts generally didn't bother people they didn't know.
But still, the explanation seemed insufficient. Things were changing around here. It wasn't just that what she knew of the laws of the outerworld didn't seem to apply. It wasn't even the fear she'd seen in Amelia's eyes when she'd asked about the covens.
It was power. She felt power under the surface, simmering slowly, growing stronger every instant.
There was only one good news: it wasn't her problem.
“We’ve gone around the block now, bodyguard. Happy, or do you need to survey more?”
She half hoped he’d say yes, give her a reason to delay the unavoidable.
She was going to have to go see Michelle, and soon. Now was already too late. Protocol dictated that foreign witches present themselves to the head of the coven right away.
Not that she was exactly foreign, but she’d left them; the same rules applied.
“I’m all good,” Luke said. “Honestly, my cheetah will be a little on edge regardless of how thoroughly we scan the area. Too many people. Not enough space.”
“And nowhere to run,” she guessed.
Luke nodded.
“We can go to the bayou later. First, I need to greet sister dearest.”
It was going to be a nightmare. Rain threw him a lifeline: "You don't need to come if you want to avoid the catfight."
Luke broke into one of his irresistible smiles. "Now, why would I want out? You should know, no straight guy doesn't enjoy a female power play. Besides, I wouldn't be much of a bodyguard if I let you walk in the viper's nest by yourself."
Bodyguard.
She scoffed. Like she needed one of those.
"Your job is to bring me back home. At best, you're a chauffeur. Who doesn't drive on our side of the road. And who basically just accompanies me to the airport."
Luke point blank refused to get behind the wheel on the left, like a normal person.
“An accompanieur,” she improvised.
"Wholly underrated profession. But as such, it is my duty to accompany you, lassy. Don't worry. I've met a bitch or two in my time. I can deal with your sister."
He couldn’t deal with her sister. Not without strangling her. Someone ought to handcuff him just to make sure his hands didn’t act of their own volition.
The head of the Louisiana covens wore white from head to toes and sat elegantly next to a small round side table, sipping tea. She did somewhat resemble Rain, although her skin was lighter and her eyes were green, not brown. They might be half-sisters.
Her thick hair was plaited down her head in one thick tress, and she wore a white headband over it. Horns might have been a more suitable ornament.
The woman’s gaze started at the tip of her sister’s toes and slowly took in every part of her, before she stated, “I see you’re still fond of pastries.”
What the hell?
“And I see you still haven’t cut off your own tongue, regretfully.”
At least Rain didn’t let it get to her.
“Hm. You’ll recall that grandmother Iris was quite fond of sweets, too. At our age, it was all well and good, but in her thirties…”
“Your mouth is still moving. Words are coming out of it. That can’t be good.”
Luke snorted, calling the b…witch's attention to him. Her eyes scrutinized him just as intensely as she'd watched her sister. Then one of her brows hiked up an inch.
“Delightful. How much are you paying him?”
He wished he’d taken Rain’s offer and stayed out of the mess. Now, he was more than likely going to end up murdering a woman. His cheetah wa
s that close to jumping out of his skin and leaping at Michelle’s throat.
As if she'd guessed he needed it, Rain stepped closer to him and took his hand.
"Hey, not all of us are hoarding our family's fortune. I'm dirt poor. Thankfully, he only wants pussy."
Luke choked on his saliva and chuckled.
"Anyway, I received your threat. I'll be here for the ceremony. Next year, Sara turns twenty-one and will be done with college here. Do this again, and I'll drag her out of this state. Understood?"
Michelle’s eyes flashed with something dangerous.
“It’s not like I actually have a choice, you know. You left. You abandoned us, and Sara is the only one who can—”
“Bullshit. You can use anyone. You just want as much power as you can get your hands on. But this is the last time it’s gonna work. If you want to use a White, you’ll have to pop out your own spawn and suck on it.”
The sisters glared at each other, but at length, Michelle shrugged and broke the stare-off.
“Well, you’re here, that’s what matters. I’ll have Bruno take your belongings up—”
“Thanks, but I’d rather eat my own arm than stay under your roof.”
Luke expected Michelle to be offended, or surprised, but she sipped her tea quite calmly.
“Oh, good. I would have had to get all your bedding burned after you left. I'll see you at the ceremony, traitor.” There was fire in her eyes and her words.
Rain shrugged it off, but something in her eye made it obvious that she hadn't been indifferent to the insult.
“Where’s Sara?” she asked.
“Out with her friends. She would have been here to greet you, if you’d bothered to warn us of your arrival, of course.”
“Good. Wouldn’t want to have to wait for her here.”
On that note, she turned on her heels, heading out.
Luke breathed a little easier when they were out of Michelle’s place. They had somehow managed to get in and out of the large, airy villa in less than ten minutes.
“What did she mean?” Luke asked, picking one of the many questions that had crossed his mind while he’d listened to their tete-a-tete. “When she called you a traitor? It seemed to be very personal. Was it because you left Nola?”
Rain sighed. “No, not just that. Michelle has a long list of grievances against me. And at least half of them aren’t exactly undeserved. We’ll never get along, so I don’t even try, but take my word for it: Michelle isn’t the only bad guy here.”
That certainly did get his attention.
“Oh?”
Rain sighed. “If you’re gonna hang out here, I guess you’ll hear about it anyway, so better it comes from me. Just promise me none of this gets back to the pride?”
Luke signed a cross on his shoulders and heart. “What happens in Nola stays in Nola.”
She nodded. "Right. Let's go get a drink, then. I'm not sharing my deepest, darkest secrets while sober. Let me text Sara, so she meets us at the bar."
City of Magic
The sun was setting down on the horizon, and as day turned to night, Nola seemed to change, shifting from a vibrant, cheerful city to something else. It was as if a shadow had engulfed them, changing the atmosphere and making everything darker. Luke's cheetah was on high alert.
For two generations now, everyone, regulars included, had known of the paranormal world, but sups still stayed on their own turf, from what Luke had seen in his travels. The Wyvern got along with the regulars of Lakesides, but that was the exception, not the rule.
Nola was very different in that regard. Vampires, wolves, witches. They didn’t even try to blend in, flaunting their nature to the tourists, who loved it.
"Are all those witchcraft stores real?" he asked Rain, his personal guard, who shook her head.
"Not all of them, but a bunch. Here," she said, pointing to an alley, "there's Amanda's place. She makes twenty-four-hour love spells. They work, too, although I'd call it lust spells, really."
"Is that even legal?" Luke asked, eyes wide.
Shifters didn't need to obey to normal human laws; they had a treaty with the governments--as long as the local prides and the overarching shifter authorities kept the peace, regulars were happy to stay out of their ways. It wouldn't do to try to imprison someone who could turn into a feral beast and deck any policeman for something like drunk driving. Murders of regulars were the only thing they investigated.
To Luke's knowledge, though, witches still fell under regular laws. Love/lust potions sounded a little too much like a rape drug.
"It's not directly covered by any law, and no one has ever complained," Rain said carefully.
In other words, no, it wasn't legal, but Amanda got away with it, somehow.
“All the magic...the tourists eat it up. They always did, even back in the day when only a select few knew it was real, but now? They love it." She paused. "And fear it.”
“They certainly don't fear it enough,” Luke grumbled, seeing a couple of scantily dressed cheerleader-type girls ask a vampire couple if they could take a selfie with them in the street.
The bloodsuckers were good sports, posing for them, but Luke watched them with a frown, wondering when it would go sour. Because it would eventually; maybe not for those girls, but somewhere in a city so filled with their kind, someone would mess up, and soon. Bloodsuckers did have to eat, and it was well known that they disliked the synthetic replacement to the real stuff.
"Chill. There's a truce here. And besides, even if there weren't, vampires aren't stupid, they wouldn't do anything untoward in public."
Luke wrinkled his nose. He’d never liked vampires.
To his great dissatisfaction, Rain led him to a bar that smelled of them everywhere.
He swept the room and found only one vampire, but still, the stench lingered, assaulting his nostrils.
Following the direction of his stare, Rain’s attention went to the guy skulking close to the bar.
Vamps had a thing for skulking. Or brooding.
“Charles,” she said with a sigh.
The vamp had been pretty far, and the chatter, as well as the music, should have been loud enough to cover her voice, but he lifted his head like someone had shouted his name. He lit up and winked toward Rain, mouthing, "drinks on me".
"No thanks, I like my vodka without poison," she replied without raising her voice.
Charles' smile bared his canines openly. Luke didn't like that one bit; they might be playing, but no one should even pretend to threaten Rain Phillips. Not while he was near her.
The possessiveness had always been there, but somehow it had gotten worse over the last few hours. He couldn't tell if it was because they were together without the others for the first time, because he'd never really spoken to her before, or because they were standing much closer than they usually were, but she felt like she was his responsibility, his to protect as part of his pride. Just, his.
His grumpy cheetah concurred.
Rain's phone vibrated, and she checked its screen. Her face lit up when she told him that Sara was on her way.
"What is she like?" Luke asked as they made their way to the bar.
Just to hear her speak, or mainly to distract himself from the vamp who was still watching them with interest. Luke could feel his gaze.
Rain lit up when she spoke about her little sister. "Ditzy, adorable, artistic, clumsy--take your pick. Michelle has always been the serious one, and I was the wild one. By the time Sara came along, our mother had given up attempting to tame her kids. She just dotted on Sara, without expecting too much from her, so she's very carefree."
It was obvious that she loved the girl. Rain surprising him by returning the question. "And you? I know you lost your direct family, but do you have anyone left?"
Luke closed off. He could practically feel his face becoming harder, darker.
"No." His tone had changed too. "Ajax is nothing if not thorough. He promised that all Halls would di
e for what my brother did, and he delivered."
Rain shook her head in disbelief. "And your brother just stole his girlfriend, right?"
Luke hesitated. He hadn't gotten into any detail with the pride; no one had asked, and he certainly hadn't wanted to volunteer that sort of information.
"It's a lot more complicated than that," he started, feeling a little awkward.
But Rain had offered to tell him more about her, and he wanted her to loosen her tongue.
"You're supposed to share your deepest, darkest secrets, remember? How about, you tell me yours, then I'll tell you mine."
The Brat and the Fool
Rain sighed. "Okay, that's fair. So, here's the deal: I was a huge brat. The worst. Michelle can't stand me, and she has every right to feel that way. And I can't stand being with her because it reminds me of who I was."
Luke couldn't imagine Rain doing anything that warranted her sister's animosity.
"Like what, what did you do, steal her pocket money and tell tales on her?" he shrugged. "That's pretty normal, you know."
"Stole her boyfriend, her fiancé, her father's attention, and aimed to take her rightful place at the head of the coven. I also cursed her the day of her exams, once; made her skin blue. She had a choice between going to high school like that, trying to find a counter-curse in under an hour, or not passing her final tests. She ended up going, but the world is still making fun of her over that one."
Oh.
Luke shut it. That wasn't a list of cute, fun things kids did. It seemed mean-spirited.
"I can see you judging me, Hall."
"Well, some things deserve to be judged," he replied with a shrug. "But that's not you anymore. Sounds like a cry for attention to me. Why did you do it?"
"Because Michelle," Rain said slowly, "was too nice."
He had most definitely not expected that one. She hadn't been kidding; she wasn't the good guy here.
"Our mother raised us to be in competition with each other. Not in a healthy way. She'd always tell me, "look at what your sister did, it's perfect, you suck." And when I tried to do better, Michelle would help me. She'd sneak into my room and teach me the spells I couldn't get right. Mom's meddling never worked on her. When she said, "Rain's going to catch up, you know," Michelle just smiled and said she wanted me to."
