Phoenixflare: #6 in The Rogue Witch: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Strange, KT

  Eli sighed.

  “We’re going to stop first before getting to Seattle,” he said, “I want to see if we can get in touch with Wolfe, and these guys will be able to do it for us without us turning on your cellphone.”

  “I think that’s in the back somewhere,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “Wait? Guys?”

  Eli pressed his lips together and he shook his head. I frowned at him.

  “Really? Secrets? Now?” I groaned as he didn’t answer me. “For fuck’s sake, Eli.”

  Over the next five minutes, no amount of prying would get him to open up and tell me who exactly we were meeting and how they had a hookup to get in touch with Wolfe. I finally quit trying and turned on the radio, staring out the window.

  Eli would tell me when he was ready. I just needed to trust him. That small, glowing spot inside of my chest told me that I could. When I reached out a hand to twine around his, his expression melted from surly to somewhat relieved.

  “These guys are… bad news,” he said. “Wolfe keeps interesting company.”

  “Sounds like it. Well he can’t be all sunshine and rainbows. I mean the guy drinks blood to stay alive, so he’s gotta have some seedy lawn bowling friends, right?”

  Eli laughed, shaking his head with a smile.

  “You’re weird,” he said.

  “You’re a what, an octogenarian werewolf? I think you have the market on weird cornered, my good man,” I said, kicking my shoes off and putting my legs up on the dashboard with a sigh.

  “Hey,” he said, “stop that.”

  “I’m pretty sure we’re not giving this van back,” I said. “Although we should try to track the owner down, that would be the right thing to do.”

  “If we get in a crash, you’ll break your legs,” he said.

  “Oh so you’re not being Good Guy Eli, you’re just worried about me.” That thought thrilled me and I tried not to wiggle in my seat. This new-found thing between us made me feel like all of our problems were just going to evaporate as soon as we looked hard at them. Eli would just growl his way out of danger. Probably.

  I put my feet down.

  “There, see?”

  “I always worry about you, sweetheart,” he said, and from the lines across his forehead as he furrowed his brow, I could tell he’d turned more serious.

  “You have a weird way of showing your concern. Half the time I’m convinced you hate me.” The miles were slipping away outside our window, and I sighed. “I don’t want to go back to talking about how things used to be.” I squeezed his hand again. “Where are we going?”

  “Small town outside of Seattle. Wolfe’s uh, ‘associates’ stay there. It’s where he was keeping Max when things went to shit.”

  I sat up in my seat.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. It’s an hour away. When we get there I want you to remember that you need to listen to me. What we faced with Dragonpack was damn dangerous, but these guys won’t even think about pretending to be our friends before trying to rip your throat out.” Eli’s eyes were on the road, but I could tell he wanted to look at me.

  I took his warning seriously.

  “I’m okay with that,” I said softly. “Don’t worry. I won’t blink without your permission.”

  Eli snorted.

  “Well,” he said, his tone going sultry. “How about we make a deal. You step out of line, and tonight you’ll regret it.”

  I felt my face flush.

  “Alright, alright,” I said, squirming in my seat. He’d only given me a few swats, but I could only imagine what a determined Eli and an interrupted night would mean for my butt. No thanks.

  His lips quirked at the corner.

  “Good,” he said.

  I huffed out a breath and stared at the passing fields. He really was way more into this whole dom thing than I’d ever imagined.

  When he’d said ‘town outside of Seattle,’ what he really meant was ‘abject shithole not fit for normal humans to reside in.’

  I stared out the window and then looked at him with wide eyes.

  “That’s where she was staying?”

  The three story low-rise had flaked and peeling stucco on the sides, bars on the windows, and a boarded-up front door.

  “The back entrance is open,” he said, rounding the corner to an open-air parking lot. Even the cement there was riddled with potholes, grass growing through the cracks.

  “How the hell could Wolfe keep her here?”

  “It was the only place she was safe,” Eli said.

  “Like fuck she’d be safe here,” I muttered as I got out of the van. Eli disengaged the wires and cut the engine. “We’re going to come back and this thing will be stripped down for parts. There might be a wheel left if we’re lucky.”

  “Nobody fucks with what’s parked in this lot.” Eli shoved his hands in his pockets. “When we get inside, you don’t look them in the face. I owe them a favor after they met me to loan me that money a few days ago.”

  “You got that money from Wolfe’s what, mafia-demon dudebros?”

  Eli sighed and gave me a flat look. I went quiet.

  “I don’t want them to think that me bringing you here is me repaying them,” he said. I swallowed. Well, shit.

  “I can stay in the van,” I said, giving the building a mistrustful look.

  “You’ll be fine, just don’t look them in the eyes, okay?” He reached out and grabbed my hand, tugging me along. There was a door at the back of the apartment building, metal, with a buzzer on it. He hit the last button, and after a moment the door clicked.

  “Didn’t think such a shithole would have an intercom.”

  Eli narrowed his eyes at me and I shut my mouth, meekly following him up three flights of stairs. The landing ended at a single door, and he stood there, waiting. The floor creaked from inside the apartment, and there was the sound of several locks being undone.

  Smoke, pot smoke, curled out of the doorway, and taa lanky man, shirtless in a slouchy pair of jeans stood there.

  “Oh look, it’s the dog,” he said, before his eyes jumped to me. I immediately looked down, and he shifted his weight. He was barefoot, the carpet underneath him threadbare. “You brought me at treat.”

  His gaze was like fire on my skin and I breathed softly and quietly, like I wouldn’t call attention to myself. There was something… off about him. It teased at the edge of my senses, irritating my powers. He wasn’t human, that’s for sure. He wasn’t anything that I recognized either, though.

  Max had been here, with this guy?

  “She’s not for you, Levi,” Eli said.

  “Oooooh, big bad wolf’s all growly now, when he was begging before. That’s a switch. Hey, Lands, guess who dragged us in a tasty morsel?” he yelled over his shoulder. From deep within the apartment, I heard an answering grunt. “Well,” Levi said, sweeping his hand behind him. “Our casa is your casa or whatever the fuck.”

  Eli put a hand on my shoulder and we walked inside. Levi locked the door behind us, and I held my breath. The atmosphere in the place overwhelmed me. It smelled like heavy pot use, incense, and deep beneath it, the frightening metallic tang of blood.

  “Is she hungry? We have some snacks left over from when Wolfe let us babysit,” he said.

  “She’s not hungry,” Eli said as we followed Levi down the hallway. The windows were swathed in red curtains that glowed from the hard sunlight outside. The carpet was compacted from decades of use, and I was glad for the dim lighting. The walls looked water-stained, old wallpaper bubbling from past floods.

  This is where Max had been? While I’d been holed up in a million dollar penthouse, she’d been rotting away here, with this guy and his—

  I stopped in my tracks and stared.

  Lands, or whatever his name was, was huge. He topped Eli by inches, built like a football player and muscled where his associate, Levi, was lanky and slender. Lands wasn’t human either, the power off of him radiating in a way that f
elt like it was burning me.

  “Do you need to go to the bathroom, Darcy?” Eli asked, in that way I knew wasn’t really a request.

  “Uh huh,” I said, nodding and staring back at the ground.

  “Keep going down the hall, little witch,” Levi said, as he sprawled on the couch. “Don’t come back if you hear screams. We’ll get you when we’re done.”

  “Fuck off, Levi,” Eli snarled. Inside I warred with myself, wanting to show these assholes exactly who they were messing with, but Eli had told me to watch myself.

  “Thanks,” I demurred and shuffled out into the hall. The bathroom was there, and I could see a bedroom beyond it through the half-open door. I waited awkwardly in the hallway, not sure if I should actually go into the bathroom or not.

  If Eli called for help, I didn’t want a door between us.

  The door to the bedroom wavered, and a breeze from an open window caressed my skin. I frowned and edged up to it, peeking in.

  A mattress lay on the ground, curtains billowing around an open window. This room was somewhat cleaner than the living room, a heap of women’s clothing in one corner. Something bright caught my eye that I recognized, and I stepped inside, pausing a foot from the bed. A scarf lay in the laundry pile, a cream-colored swath of fabric shot through with silver thread. I recognized it because I’d gotten it for Max the first Christmas we’d been roommates.

  My gaze lifted to a low dresser. Condoms were scattered on top of it, and a half-empty bottle of lube. Suddenly the way she’d shied away from me, how she’d seemed more fragile than ever, added up to something in my mind that I could barely comprehend.

  Bile rose in the back of my throat. I grabbed her scarf from the laundry and shoved it in the pocket of my hoodie. What the fuck had happened to her when she’d been here?

  Eighteen

  Darcy

  Eli ended up talking to Levi and Lands for the better part of an hour, their voices so low that I couldn’t make out the conversation. I stayed in the hallway, sitting against the wall, trying to stay as calm as I could.

  I was going to slap Eli. Then Wolfe. How dare they leave Max in this shithole? It was a joke that they thought she was safe in a place like this. My anger built and I had to bite my lip hard to stop my fingers from sparking up.

  Deep breaths weren’t possible, because the air was so choked with smoke. Finally the buzzer went at the front door, and Levi emerged into the hallway. He glanced down at me and winked before opening the front door.

  Wolfe stood there, a look of relief on his face.

  As soon as I got him alone, I was going to wipe that look right off of him. I scrambled to my feet, anger emboldening me as I stalked down the hall.

  “C’mon in, you pay the rent,” Levi was saying to Wolfe, before turning to me. “Your ass sore from sitting on the ground for so long? Why don’t you come sit in my lap?”

  “Levi,” Wolfe said, sounding tired, before turning to gaze at me.

  “Yeah I’m alive, hi,” I said, waving my hand, not able to keep the irritation out of my voice. Wolfe’s gaze softened and I glared at him hard.

  “Let’s speak,” he said.

  “Yeah, talking would be great right about now,” my words dripped with sarcasm and I stormed into the living room ahead of him and Levi. Eli stood there, arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head. He’d known where Max had been. He’d known she was here.

  A snarl sounded off behind me, and I was shoved to the side. I stumbled to the ground, only to see Wolfe bound across the room. I cried out as he slammed Eli up into a wall, a silver blade flashing as he held a knife to his throat.

  “Who are you?” Wolfe’s voice boomed. Eli grunted, pinned and not able to move without Wolfe cutting him right open.

  “Wolfe!” I got to my feet. “What are you doing?!”

  “Demon,” Wolfe breathed, rage making his voice shake. “You dare touch her? You dare impersonate him?!”

  Eli’s eyes widened and he swallowed hard.

  “Whoever you think I am, I’m not,” he said, sounding strained. “Wolfe, it’s me.”

  “Wolfe, stop!” I lifted my hands, my power crackling. “What do you think you’re doing? Let him go!”

  Wolfe leaned in close, and Eli winced. Then Wolfe inhaled sharply.

  He yanked away, his arms dropping down, knife dangling from his fingers.

  “What witchery is this?” he muttered. Eli stared at him and then glanced at me over Wolfe’s shoulder.

  “Aw shit, what’s wrong? I thought you liked werewolves, Wolfe?”

  With a growl, Wolfe turned, pointing at me.

  “I thought him to be a demon.”

  “Uh, well, you’re crazy, because he’s not. The fuck, Wolfe.” I pushed past him and went to stand in front of Eli, not trusting Wolfe in case he decided to pull another Sybil on us. Eli’s hand wrapped around my shoulder, squeezing. He was fine, but I still felt protective. After what had nearly happened to him with Dragonpack? It felt like my jitters over that would never fade.

  Wolfe shook his head slowly. He stared at Eli like he’d seen a dead man walking.

  “You wanna fill in the blanks, because right now we’re pretty damn confused,” I said.

  “She’s sassy,” Levi commented. “Can we keep her, Landon?” He looked over at his friend. Eli rumbled a warning and Levi smirked.

  “Your scent is all over him,” Wolfe waved a hand at Eli, as Levi snickered and mumbled something that sounded like ‘we know what that means.’ Wolfe looked toward the ceiling and sighed. “Cease your juvenile mutterings, Levi.”

  I ignored my warm cheeks, because it was none of anybody’s business if me and Eli were doing the do together.

  “Still not following.” I said. “That’s not exactly something you had Finn by the throat for before, or anyone else.”

  “I am merely confused how he could be here with you when he should be in custody,” Wolfe admitted. Eli’s fingers tightened on my shoulder.

  “What do you mean?” he grated out. “Finn gave himself up, presumably to save me, like an idiot—”

  Wolfe made a noise.

  “None of this makes sense—”

  “Well you’re not exactly explaining yourself, so no, it doesn’t make sense,” I snapped. Levi whistled and I shot him a look, my fingers tingling with energy. “Just give me a reason, asshole. I am so ready to fry your face off. What did you do to Max?”

  “Our little match girl?” Levi crooned. Landon pushed off of the wall he was leaning against.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” the big man said, and grabbed Levi by the shoulder.

  “Wait, I wanna—”

  “Out,” Landon growled, and hauled Levi from the room. The front door slammed, and the old building creaked as they walked down the stairs.

  “Have you spoken with Finn?” I asked. “Is he alright?”

  “Of course he’s alright,” Wolfe sputtered. “He’s perfectly fine, sitting at home, presuming that his twin had turned himself in.”

  “What?”

  “Whoa, what?” Eli and I spoke at the same time.

  “What do you mean he’s at home?” Eli demanded, his fingers gripping my shoulder. I didn’t shrug him off. If I was the only thing between him and losing it, he could grab me all he needed to.

  “You can understand my confusion,” Wolfe said carefully. “We had heard nothing. We did not know where Darcy was. All we knew was that a man wearing your visage turned himself into custody, pending Jake Tupper’s recovery. You can imagine the heartache that brought to the pack, to all of us, when it happened.”

  “Somebody who looks just like Eli and Finn is sitting in a jail cell right now, pretending to be Eli?” I felt faint, and I looked up at Eli. His expression was blank, his eyes the only thing alive in his face.

  “This must be some sort of trickery, but to what end I can’t imagine,” Wolfe muttered.

  “We need to go home,” I said, lifting Eli’s fingers off of me and h
olding his hand. “Now.”

  “I don’t disagree,” Wolfe commented. “Where’s your phone? We couldn’t reach you—”

  “We have a lot to tell you, but let’s get caught up with the pack first, okay?” I poked Eli in the side. He stood there, like he was frozen. “You alright?” My pulse was pounding in my throat, so he couldn’t be feeling all that much better. There were too many questions, way too many.

  “Dragonpack, what do you know of them?” Eli asked out of the blue, flipping subjects so fast I almost got whiplash. Wolfe raised an eyebrow.

  “Dragonpack?”

  “We ran into them.”

  “Did you now,” Wolfe said carefully, like he knew something and didn’t want to say.

  “Yeah, they tried to kill Eli and then their dragon tried to bury me alive, and then I might have killed her but we don’t know, so that’s a thing that happened,” I said, tangling my fingers with Eli’s. Wolfe blanched.

  “You told me the wolves in the north were safe,” Eli’s voice dropped low.

  “They were,” Wolfe bit out his response. “I’ve sent many, many packs through to them, to resettle in the mountains and beyond.

  “Mmm,” Eli said, “well it would seem they were less than friendly when we arrived.”

  “They did say that you’d sent them smaller packs that wouldn’t survive without them, so they assimilated—”

  “They said what?” Wolfe, if anything, looked even more pale, as he cut me off. Was that possible for a vampire? “No.” Eli made a pained noise.

  “What, no?” I blinked up at Eli then nervously looked at Wolfe.

  “Packs never… we don’t,” Eli said with a shake of his head. “We might die out, but we never join with another pack. A wolf might leave one pack to find a mate in another, but… that’s all.“

  Wolfe looked ill.

  “They told you other packs had joined with theirs?” he asked, his voice trembling.