by Celeste Raye
“I don't know, Justin, but not that.”
“Did I not do it right? I can try again.”
“No, it was perfect, really.”
Justin just kind of smiled because he had no idea how much he had affected her. It was his first time, and he probably thought that it was normal to be that good. Dahlia knew better. She did not think in any world that she would ever be able to feel like that again. It was special because it was Justin. She was not under any false assumptions about that. He made it that way. He made it feel perfect.
“Are you sure that you don't want to do it again?”
It was about the fourth time that he had asked and she had to giggle. He was like a kid that had just tried sugar for the first time, and if she wouldn't have been so exhausted from being with him earlier in the day, maybe she would have given him another shot. But as it was, her whole body was sore, and she needed time to recuperate.
“I will definitely take you up on that offer a little bit later. My body is not used to such treatment.”
“Was I too rough on you?”
“No, it's not that way at all. You're just a lot to take in.”
He didn't seem to want to hear that. Dahlia didn't know how else to say it though. He was very large and strong, full of stamina. Every part of Justin seemed to be far more than she could handle.
He pouted for a few minutes because she would not give in to his demands. Dahlia wanted to, she really did, but at the same time, she didn't think that she would be able to handle it. He was a bit more than she had expected. Honestly, Justin had just come out of the blue altogether.
One minute she was on a mission that had been given to her when she was a child, and the next, she had met a man that made her feel more like a woman than anyone she ever met before. How was she supposed to rectify that in her mind?
Instead of talking about it, he pulled her up against him, and she was able to lie in his arms for a while. The sound of his heart calmed her down, and she was able to think of something else. As much as Dahlia wanted to believe that she understood what was happening between them, there were other factors at play that she had no idea about. It was the worst time, in the worst way, and he was the worst species.
“If I can't have you, that's okay. It feels almost as good, just to have you in my arms.”
She scoffed, and then it turned into a sound that he found hilarious. Dahlia didn’t find it funny at all. She was losing her edge and Dahlia was sure that it was all because of him. He had done something to her while he was inside of her. She was sure of it.
“What?”
“I wouldn't say that it feels as good.”
“Well, the offer still stands.”
Dahlia wanted to take him up on the offer more than she was willing to admit. He had just felt so good, and she almost gave into his words. She wanted him, but when she started to move towards him, her body screamed its opinion. She was too sore, too used, to do that all over again.
“It may not feel the same, but it will have to do for now. You’re dangerous.”
He just smiled and kissed her on the top of the head. “That sounds like a plan to me.”
Dahlia woke up after a brief sleep. Justin seemed to be comatose, but it might have been because he had his first release ever. She watched him sleep for a while and wondered what in the hell she had gotten herself into. As much as she liked to believe that it wasn't a big deal, she knew that it wasn't the truth. It sure felt like a big deal.
“I’m pretty sure that in any world, it is not polite to stare.”
“How did you know I was staring?”
“I've known for a while. You’re not as quiet as you like to think you are.”
“Probably not. I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened between us, that's all. Aren't you a little curious?”
“I am no expert, but I certainly know what happened between us. Do you need a reminder?”
That made her blush, and she hid her face for a moment. He was talking about it so matter-of-factly, but she just couldn't. She was barely able to pull herself together from the night before. It had affected her in more ways than one.
“No, I mean. Never mind.”
“No, please tell me.”
“Well, this is a disaster, Justin. You’re a shifter, and I’m a witch. We are not supposed to be together. I don't think you know how forbidden it is. Even if it weren’t outright challenged, we would get a lot of looks.”
“You told me yourself that you don't even know why it's forbidden. So why should it matter what other people think?”
“That's true, but it doesn't mean that it is looked down on any less. I don't think that they need a reason to make these rules. They just do or did, and now we have to live with it.”
“Are you saying that you regret what we did?”
“No, I don't regret it at all. It just makes things a lot more complicated. My life was already complicated. You can understand that, can't you?”
He said that he could, but at the same time, he didn't want to understand. Justin wanted things to be easy. He wanted her; she wanted him; why did it have to be any more complicated than that?
Finally, they just went back to sleep. Or she did, anyway. Justin had to stay up for a little while. He wasn't sure how he felt about everything, but there was no way that he could go to sleep with everything that was on his mind. Justin found himself in a new world, with a new girl, and he wanted desperately to keep it all together. He couldn’t even stand the idea of losing Dahlia.
Chapter Twelve
Justin woke up with a start, and for one reason or another, his heart was beating in his chest faster than it should have been. There was something in the air, some sense that he didn't quite recognize. It took him a minute, straining his ears, to hear all of the noises. Something was amiss.
Then Dahlia woke up next to him with a jump.
“Somebody is here, Justin.”
Justin had felt the same way, and since Dahlia made a comment that she heard felt it, he started to trust his instinct a little bit more. The biggest problem of all was that he knew they weren't there for anything good. It was either because they were there for him or they were there for Dahlia.
“I know. What do you want to do?”
She didn't answer right away because Dahlia wasn't sure. As much as she liked to believe that she could fight off whatever was coming their way, that wasn't necessarily true. There was a lot that she couldn't take on and the Stein witches were one of those things.
They were known in the magical world as crazy women. She knew what kind of power they held and the last thing that Dahlia wanted to get involved in was messing with them. They wanted Justin back. How could they not?
“Do you think that it's somebody here for you?”
Justin shrugged. “I don't want to believe so, but I do. Ever since I left, I had a feeling that they were coming after me. I can’t shake the feeling.”
“And what is your feeling now?”
Justin did not trust his instinct. Even though Dahlia seemed to think that he was far more powerful than he let on, he still wasn't so sure. Justin still had to get used to the idea of being some magical being that was all-powerful.
The more he thought about it, the more he got upset. His need to protect Dahlia seemed to supersede everything else. He wasn't even worried about himself anymore.
“What are you doing?”
He was out of the bed and moving towards the bedroom door. He could not sit idly by and let this happen. He had to do something.
“I'm going to go see who it is.”
“You can't go out there by yourself. You have no idea what you're up against.”
“If it's for me, then I know exactly what I'm up against. Those witches are the ones that raised me.”
“Yeah, they raised you to be their attack dog.”
He frowned at that answer and Dahlia apologized almost immediately.
“I didn't mean that. I don't kno
w why I said it.”
“I guess that is some of the things that you heard growing up.”
Dahlia had to agree to that sentiment. She had heard it more than once if they were being honest. Even though she didn't believe it, it was scary to hear it coming out of her mouth. Maybe it was just something that she had heard over and over again.
“Well, it doesn't matter if you focus on the word dog or not. The truth is that they have been using you since you were a baby. They used you to do their dirty work, and I don't care what you call it, it's wrong. Even more than that, it's evil. They are young and beautiful, even though they are hundreds of years old. That does not come for free. There has been a lot of sacrifices for them to live as long as they have and believe me when I tell you that they were not the ones that paid the price.”
“Do you really think that's what they were doing at the orphanage?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I think. I don't want it to be true, but I am afraid that it is.”
Justin didn't want to believe it, but at this point, he was a lot more open-minded than when he started out.
The creak at the top of the stairs shut them both up, and Justin was out of the room before Dahlia could say anything else to stop him. He had a plan, even if it was an ill-conceived one.
“Whoever is out there, leave now or you will be sorry.”
Dahlia overheard it, and she wished that he would do or say something else. This was not the way for this to happen. There was no way that it was going to end well. She covered herself with a robe, having never gotten dressed after they had come in.
She heard a scream, and then a thud. Dahlia was afraid of what she was going to see when she got into the hallway, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as she had played it out in her head. It wasn’t witches that had come into the house, but some teenagers, three of them, that seemed to think that the place was empty.
Justin had scared the crap out of them, and he didn’t have to shift to do so. He was just a really big guy, and they were smart to be worried. Everyone that looked at Justin must have seen that he was a scary individual.
“Sorry, look, man. We’re really sorry. We thought this place was empty. We’ve come here to party before.”
“Well, not anymore. Get out of here.”
They turned and ran, and Dahlia watched the man she had come to care for handle the situation. He didn’t want to go after them; having them leave was enough, and she started to relax. She had heard a lot about shifters and one of the main themes that she remembered was that they were unnecessarily violent.
“Wow, that was interesting. What did you think you were going to do when you went out there in boxers?”
He shrugged and started back towards the bedroom. “I don’t know. I guess I would have shifted into a bear and torn them up like I have done to many people in the past. Why try to fix something if it isn’t broken, you know?”
Dahlia was stunned at his answer, so she tried her best to agree with him, though it was rather hard. He seemed convinced that everything was okay, but it wasn’t. She was stupid to have stayed as long as she did.
“I think that maybe this is a sign.”
“A sign? Why does it have to be a sign? I think it was just a few kids that wanted somewhere to drink beer. Am I wrong?”
“No, but it feels like everything is trying to pull us apart.”
“So?”
Dahlia smiled at him, and when he pulled the covers back, she told herself that she was acting silly. There was no reason that she should get all indignant and leave tonight. If nothing else, Justin had proven that he would do what he could to protect her. Dahlia couldn’t think of anyone else that could make her feel so safe.
Then he was pulling her against his hard body and showing her just what she would miss if she had left. Dahlia let him show her all night long and only when the sun was high in the sky the next day, did she come out of her slumber.
Chapter Thirteen
Justin was up before Dahlia but he laid in the bed next to her anyway. There was nowhere else he would rather be, even though Dahlia had made it clear that what they were doing was more complicated than she wanted in her life. He was convinced that all she needed was a little time to get used to the idea.
Justin had not even considered the idea that she might be leaving in the morning. Once the thought occurred to him, he just watched her sleep. He hoped that she would sleep the whole day away, and then she would have no need to leave at all. He wanted to prolong her stay as much as possible.
“You really have to stop doing that.”
“I don't think that I want to. I like watching you sleep.”
She hid her face for a moment like she was shy, and Justin liked the idea of that. He knew better, though. Dahlia was far more open than he was.
“I was thinking that we should go get some breakfast. Does that sound good?”
“I don't know if that would be a good idea or not. I don't think I should stay here, Justin, and to be honest, I don't think you should stay here either. I know that you have witches that are coming for you and this is an old magical house. There are many ley lines underneath the foundation that make us more powerful.”
“Well, doesn't that make you more powerful as well?”
“Trust me when I say that age matters when it comes to witches. The older they are, the stronger they are. The Stein witches are very old. I doubt there are many witches alive that are more powerful.”
“Are you afraid of them?”
“No, I wouldn't go that far. I would just say that there is definitely a reason to be concerned. I am strong enough in my own right, but I’m not stupid enough to take on the Stein witches. You shouldn’t be either.”
Justin was a little disappointed in her answer because he wanted to help all of the kids that he had left behind at the orphanage. He had been there almost twenty years, and became close to many of them. While it was true that some had disappeared and he had thought that they had found a home, maybe that wasn't the truth at all. Justin hated to believe that something so horrible was going on right underneath his nose and he had never known it. That was possibly, what made him feel the guiltiest. How had he not known?
“I want to stop them. I don't want to keep running from them, but at the same time, I don't want them to keep sucking all of the kids dry in the area. There has to be a way to get rid of them.”
Dahlia smiled at him, but it was in a sad way, like she pitied him or something. Justin did not like the expression on her face at all.
“That is just not possible, Justin.”
“So, everyone is fine just letting them cause chaos and hurt kids like that?”
Justin was surprised by that. Dahlia had spent all of her time telling how strong the paranormal beings were, but at the end of the day, they did not seem to use that strength when they should. He wanted to stop the witches and more than that, he wanted Dahlia to help and think that it was possible to do so.
“I think that you are sweet to want to help all those kids. I can't even imagine how it would feel for you to realize what you had to realize. But at the same time, I would feel horrible if something happened to you, Justin. You don't know what you're up against and they're not the kind of witches that you could just take out. It would take way more than one witch and shifter. I have heard that they have a half a dozen coven members. Most covens are bigger, but considering their age, they're probably stronger than any other.”
Justin wanted solutions. He did not want to hear about why he couldn't do it. He just wanted a way to figure it out. He couldn't just let it go, and considering how he felt about Dahlia, he wanted her to want to help just as badly.
“You really won't help me?
She kissed him, trying to take his mind off of things, but it did not help. Justin's mind was on the kids that were still in the orphanage. He was so focused on it that he couldn't see that Dahlia was scared. It was hard not to be because she knew what they were up against. If he had b
een a smart man, maybe he would have asked more questions instead of looking for help without a clue what he was getting into.
Justin just saw things that needed to be taken care of and if he wasn't going to do it, then who? It was obvious that the rest of the supernatural community was just fine letting them hurt and kill children. It made him sick to his stomach. How could that be justified?
“I think you are asking a lot more than you realize, Justin.”
“That very well could be, but I’m still going to ask it. Maybe you can use your potion to help.”
“You just want to know about the potion. I am not going to give you that. All you need to know is that it won’t help.”
“Then what can we do?”
Justin was worried that she didn’t have an answer. He’d been asking himself the same thing, how could he figure it out, but he was coming up short. Justin was usually pretty good at figuring out his next move, but now it was a bit harder to handle.
“Maybe the best thing that you can do is leave. Why don't we leave together? They're never going to stop looking for us and the only way that we're going to have any sort of life is if we get out of here. Next time someone shows up in the house, it could very well be the witches and not just some kids that you can scare away.”
“I wish I could leave with you. But I don't think I would be able to live with myself. I couldn't go on with my own life knowing that there were so many people stuck in the orphanage. I hope you can understand.”
Dahlia could, understand and she had to question what she was willing to do for him. Was she willing to take that big of a risk? Dahlia didn’t know Justin all that well, but that wasn’t thought about all that much.
“Why don't we talk about it some more after we get something to eat? It has been a long day already, and it's just getting started.”
Justin went along with her suggestion, and she was thankful for it. Dahlia was freaking out inside, but she tried to hold it together. It wasn’t just the fact that he had done something to her. There was something else that Dahlia couldn’t put into words. She felt like she was supposed to be there. There was something going on between them, but at the same time, there was a lot that was still up in the air.
