Forbidden Alchemy (Elemental Book 7)

by Rain Oxford

  Henry said nothing, so she continued.

  “I didn’t mean to treat you like that, and maybe that’s why we fight all the time. I thought you were perfect for me. You make a really great boyfriend sometimes, but I think maybe you were using me as well— first for sex, and then to keep the other girls off you. Since we’ve moved here, I realized that we don’t have any reason to be together anymore. The passion that we have isn’t worth feeling like a bad replacement for your late wife.”

  Henry’s eyes narrowed in warning, as if Addison would badmouth Zoe.

  “I want to be with someone who puts me first in his life, and that will never be you. I thought things would get better after Amy started helping you with your emotions, and at first, it was… but then it got worse. Most of the fighting stopped, but you seemed to care even less for me. I don’t want to be a therapist, either. We should break up. We should have years ago.”

  Henry nodded. “Very well.”

  She shook her head. “This is what I’m talking about. I want to know what you feel about that.”

  “You didn’t ask me how I feel. You decided we would be in a relationship and when I warned you I couldn’t reciprocate your feelings, you decided you could change me. I tried to give you what you wanted. You demand I tell you and show you how I feel, but when I say anything you don’t like, I'm a cold-hearted bastard. You decided to be a therapist so that we could stay together, and then you decided to move here. Now you have decided to break up with me. Had you ever asked me what I wanted, I would have told you that I like you because I do. That is why I warned you that I am not the person for you.”

  She was stunned into silence for nearly a minute. “I didn’t realize you thought I was so pushy. I guess I’ll just get the rest of my things then and be out of your life… forever.” She continued to stand there, looking vulnerable and hopeful. If they had been arguing, this was the point where Henry would get up and hug her.

  He stayed seated. Henry did like her and hated her being upset, but they both knew they weren’t right for each other. The difference between them was that Addison didn’t like change. Despite knowing she could be happier with someone else, she wasn’t ready to give up what she had.

  Henry made that decision for her by ignoring her. Finally, she walked away.

  “Are you okay?” Amy asked him.

  After a moment, he nodded.

  “Are you relieved, disappointed, numb, or a mixture?” she pressed. Amelia was the only person who could actually make him explain what he felt, and I was pretty sure he didn’t know what it was he felt most of the time. He’d spent too long in a state of numbness after losing his wife and son.

  “It feels… like I knew it was ending, and I could have stopped it, but I didn’t want to stop it… but now I think I should have anyway, like I lost something I’ve been working on for years, even though it wasn’t something I really wanted. But maybe I did want it. I don’t like the feeling, but I don’t want to go after her.”

  “Good,” she encouraged. “That’s a reasonable response.”

  “It is?” Darwin asked.

  “You tried to make the relationship work because you were lonely and you did like some aspects of her,” Amy said, ignoring her fiancé. “She was ticking some of your boxes, and that was better than none. However, some part of you longs for all of those boxes to be fulfilled, and so you couldn’t give your heart to Addison. It was the same for her.”

  “But something is better than nothing,” he said.

  “Is it?”

  He glanced from Darwin to her for a moment as he considered it. Then, finally, he shook his head. “No. With Zoe, everything was easy. Even when we occasionally argued, I loved her and would never even think about leaving. I want that again. I can never get her back, though.”

  “No, but maybe there is someone else who is perfect for you.”

  He shook his head. “There is no other Zoe.”

  “I’m not talking about replacing Zoe. However, you’ve changed over the years. Your boxes have changed. Maybe the person who’s perfect for you isn’t the same as Zoe, but makes you feel the same. Or maybe it won’t be so easy, but it’ll be better. Most relationships require effort.”

  “All of them do,” Darwin insisted.

  “But the right one will be worth it,” Amy said. “You will love her too much to want to leave, and she’ll make you happy.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, only to pause. The stress brought on by Addison’s presence vanished from his posture as he turned to the door. Rita was standing at the door, her eyes scanning the room until they landed on him. She smiled.

  Henry didn’t smile, but his expression relaxed. She approached and stopped a foot from him, not acknowledging us. “Hi,” she said, hesitantly. I hadn’t expected to see bashfulness from the same woman who sewed me up.

  “Hello,” he answered.

  She glanced at us fleetingly. “Hi,” she repeated, this time for us.

  Amelia squeezed Darwin’s arm. “I’m going to comfort Addison.”

  “Where are the boys?” Rita asked Henry.

  “Our cubs are playing with the twins in the North. I believe they are playing hooky from their morning clubs.”

  Rita smiled at the thought of her son having friends before she pulled a gold chain out of her pocket. On the chain was an ankh. “I don’t know if this is too weird or not. Cats on my world are gifted gold when they do something heroic. You saved Ahz and me. I can’t repay you, but I want to give you this.”

  Henry held out his hand and she set it in his palm. When she closed her hand over his, he purred. “It’ll break when I shift,” Henry said, cutting off his purr sharply with embarrassment.

  Her nervousness evaporated when he accepted her gift and desire filled her eyes at his purr. “That’s so…” she started. I didn’t know if she was more awed by his shifting ability or his jaguar. “I mean… maybe I can get a larger chain.”

  Henry stood, invading her space. When she tried to step back, he grabbed her arm. “I will find an elastic band that can connect the two ends and stretch when I need it to.”

  Then he walked away, leaving her confused. After a moment of awkward silence, she left as well.

  “When do you think Henry will realize that he likes her?” Darwin asked.

  “Without help? Probably after they’re married and have six kids,” I said.

  “Yah know, Ahz is your brother, so if Henry gets with Rita and adopts him…”

  “That’s not how it works,” I said.

  He shrugged. “You did tell me you’d rather anyone on Earth be your dad over John.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Too bad she’s going back to New Mexico and they’ll never realize what everyone here can see from a kilometer away.”

  He was right. Henry wasn’t the only reason I didn’t want her to leave, though. Rita had proved herself to be powerful, resilient, and brave. I got up, put my plate in the kitchen, and went to talk to Remington.

  * * *

  An hour later, I found Rita in the infirmary, helping Benny get his bearings. When Dr. Martin handed him a potion to settle his stomach, I pulled Rita aside. “Remington and I think you and your son should stay here. You wouldn’t be an outcast here. Neither of you would be. Ahz could use some friends.”

  “What would I do here?”

  “Dr. Martin makes for a great doctor when it comes to potions and tests. However, he’s not great with injuries, and he’s one of the last people in the world I would trust with my organs. You, on the other hand, have surgical experience. Plus, we have many shifters and throwbacks who could really use the help of an experienced veterinarian.”

  She frowned. “Would I be working under Dr. Martin?”

  “No, not at all. Dr. Martin is creepy as all hell, but he’s pretty submissive. He’s easy-going and prefers to follow orders rather than make them. You two would work together, but you’ll take the lead with injuries and shifters, and he�
�ll take the lead when it comes to potions, poisons, illnesses, and such.”

  “That sounds nice… and Ahz has really taken to Scott. He never had a friend before. I don’t think he would understand if I took him away.”

  “Is that a ‘yes’? You will be employed by Remington, so it won’t be the same as owning your own practice. However, Remington isn’t going to tell you how to do your job; she expects you to do your best.”

  She nodded. “I would miss helping animals, but my clients could be so damned frustrating. I can’t tell you how many of my clients were hurting their pets with their ignorance, by forcing veganism, over or under vaccinating, or generally not having a clue how to take care of their animal.”

  “That’s a good reason to keep being a veterinarian.”

  She scoffed. “The ones who need my advice the most are the ones who listen the least. Here, I can help kids directly. I’m sure there’s a learning curve; I know next to nothing about shifters.”

  “The first thing to know is that shifters need to shift when they’re injured. You can set their bones or whatnot, but you have to be ready to remove bandages and casts the instant that their body is ready to shift. You can’t insert anything that can interfere with their bones or muscles during the shift. Also, shifting requires a ton of energy, so they will need food and water afterwards.”

  “Sounds like a challenge.” Someone else might have thought that was a bad thing, but she clearly loved a challenge. “I’ll do it.”

  * * *

  I was trying to get my paperwork done before bed, which started to feel like an impossible feat. Hours into the piles of forms and slips, I felt like there was more to do than when I started.

  There was a tentative knock on my door. My intuition didn’t warn me of a threat, so I was surprised when Jamie opened the door and entered. My young half-brother looked uncharacteristically meek. He didn’t sit on my couch but instead took a seat across from me.

  As usual, I waited for him to speak. Strangely, he didn’t try to meet my eyes and there was no challenge on his face. “John didn’t know about us,” he finally said. “Mom told us what he did to Reagan and what he wanted to use us for. I thought that if I was strong, nobody would try to hurt us. Mom was afraid of him. Jason is too trusting. Someone like John would break him. I tried to show him and everyone else that I was just like John because people wouldn’t attack him. I wanted people to be afraid of us, too.”

  “I know,” I said. He wasn’t particularly eloquent, but I understood what he meant. I had believed when we first met that he was filled with hate and anger. I was wrong. He was afraid of not being able to protect himself and his brother. Trying to prove that he was strong drove him into the hands of enemies.

  “You don’t know!” he snapped. Then he bit his lip. “You don’t know,” he repeated quietly, resigned. “You don’t have to look out for Jason. Everybody hurts him. I hurt him, physically and mentally.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. He’s afraid of me, and it makes me angry. Not like others. He’s not supposed to be afraid of me. I remember handing him my duck because he was crying and he flinched away from me. I was so angry that he would flinch from me that I hit him. When Mom is afraid of me, I’m glad, but not him. And I know he should be afraid of me because I hit him.”

  “When was the last time you hit him?”

  He hesitated, thinking. “Before the shadow man took me.”

  “Is Jason still afraid of you?”

  He nodded. “I won’t let people be friends with him. But he’s afraid of what I’ll do to them, not him, and that’s okay.”

  “What about Scott?”

  He shrugged. “If I’m there to watch, I guess it’s okay. Scott is like Jason; he’s weak.”

  I wondered if he realized there was a difference between “weak” and “kind,” but decided it was better not to ask. Jamie was talking and not yelling, which was a pretty substantial improvement.

  He was quiet for a few minutes, as if he was waiting for me to realize why he was there. When I didn’t push him, he continued. “I wanted to help Veronica, but I realized that it would be no different than helping the shadow man. These powerful people who keep offering to teach me magic don’t really want to help me; they want to use me. I’m tired of being used. I want you to teach me.”

  “Teach you what, exactly?”

  “Everything. Magic. Jason and I have the visions and mind control together. I want you to teach me magic so that I can protect him and… I want you to teach me not to be angry. I want him to trust me. You were able to protect all of us without hurting us. You were calm and still beat her.”

  “Then you need to learn the difference between power and control. Power is given. Control is taken.”

  “Will you teach me?”

  “Yes.”

  * * *

  We were crazy busy cleaning up Veronica’s mess over the next week. On top of that, we had to get the students ready for winter break, which meant ten times the paperwork.

  We checked on Nadia, who had been in a crazed killing fit until Veronica was defeated. Maseré’s guards had to sedate her just to get her to sleep. Once Veronica’s control over her broke, so did the other spells she’d weaved. Nadia remembered that she wasn’t Stephen’s wife, as did Stephen and Clara. She also recalled being captured by hunters and that she had never killed anyone.

  To everyone’s surprise, Stephen invited her to return to his coven. I got the idea he wanted to get to know her better. However, Nadia was rattled by Veronica’s curse and disappeared as soon as she was released.

  Alpha Ace was frustrated that she hadn’t been able to help vanquish Veronica, but she understood that it had been a last-minute decision and was happy that Veronica suffered. We didn’t tell her exactly how the bitch suffered, though.

  Remington and I also went to the council to gather Veronica’s things and lock them away. The council members were confused, especially Becky. “I’m so sorry that I was cold to you… and that I suspected you of any wrong-doing,” she said. Bryan and her baby had returned, which went a long way in soothing her.

  “It wasn’t your fault. You were all under the influence of a malevolent bitch.”

  The rest of the council members were more accusatory than apologetic. They remembered everything, but they couldn’t explain why they did what they did. Fortunately, Henry hadn’t killed anyone. Ahz had, though, and I felt sorry for him rather than his victim.

  What was really sad was how happy Eric was to see us. He just loved everyone. “I guess he’s an orphan now,” Becky said. “I don’t know who his father is.”

  “Devon is a private investigator; he can find a child’s father. Right?” Remy asked me.

  “Yes. I’ll find him. That doesn’t mean he’ll want a child, though, or be able to take him. He probably doesn’t know he has a son.”

  “If it doesn’t work out, Eric can go to my father’s orphanage, but we should give him a chance.”

  I nodded. “I agree.” Looking for a person whose name I didn’t even know, who could be any paranormal or human, and who could live anywhere in the world…

  It sounded like fun.

  I just wished I knew for certain that Veronica was gone for good.

  * * *

  Saturday, December 17

  The first morning of winter break was somber. There were only a dozen people left on the school grounds, as most everyone else had left the previous night or at dawn. Remy and I were looking forward to spending time alone.

  Henry, Rita, and their kids left to pack up Rita’s home and move it all into storage or the school, and decide who would run her clinic. Darwin and Amelia had gone to Darwin’s home to take care of pack and wedding details. A few teachers used school funds to take the students who didn’t have homes on vacation.

  It should have been peaceful and possibly romantic with snow falling lightly against the windows and the fireplace crackling inside. Instead, it was just cold, and
the dull gray sky foreshadowed a gloomy day ahead of us. We left the warmth of the Center to the abandoned East, because Dr. Martin was still working in his lab/infirmary.

  “We need to get him a private lab,” I said. She nodded and opened the door. Dr. Martin was making some potions by the counter.

  “Come in, come in,” Dr. Martin said, turning to us. “Have a seat and lie back,” he told Remy. She reluctantly reclined on the exam bed. A decorative trinket box levitated off the shelf into his hand, and he pulled out a pink crystal on a white string.

  No needles or sample cups, fortunately. “How does this work?” I asked.

  “Simple. Hold out your hand.” I did, and he held the crystal over my palm by its chain. After a few seconds, it started swinging back and forth. “For a male, it will always swing in this direction. For a female…” he held it over Remington’s head for a moment and it changed into a clockwise, circular swing. “It swings in a circle. Thus, if Remington is pregnant, it will swing. Of course, all humans start out female anyway, so it is too early to determine if the fetus is female or male.

  With this, he held it over her stomach. I held my breath.

  The crystal was utterly still. He held it over her for nearly a minute, but it didn’t start moving. “Ms. Hunt, you are not pregnant.”

  I was relieved; if Remy did have kids, it should be by choice, not the manipulation of an enemy. The same went for me. I was no more ready to be a parent than Remy was. I didn’t like the idea of my future child being born with a target on his back. If Remy thought I was overprotective now…

  However, I didn’t expect to feel a hint of disappointment.

  * * *

  Remy and I were not surprised to receive an invitation from Darwin’s pack to attend their first “non-denominational” winter party. They decided to make it on the twenty-fifth of December and call it “Unity Day.” All members were invited, along with the family of members.