Chapter Nine #2
He stared at her for long moments, studious and pensive. ‘I think I was wrong.’
‘About what?’
‘Wrong to believe that the majority of the coven is so against you because you operate outside their magickal rules and were mentored by Millicent. It’s not so much that, is it? It’s that you’re a power. None are a real match for you, and they know it.’
True, but they were very good at making it sound as if Emberlyn had ‘cheated’. She lifted a brow. ‘Haven’t you heard? I’m only so powerful because I made pacts with various evil deities.’
‘If that were true, you would have caused death and destruction over the years. You’ve defended and avenged yourself, but you’ve never killed anyone. The coven villainizes you to justify their behavior. They’ll believe whatever they need to believe to make that bullshit narrative fit.’
‘So you’re not all brawn,’ she mused. ‘Interesting.’
He responded to that with a droll look and then nabbed his cup, hard muscle bunching beneath the smooth tanned flesh of his arm. Would he notice if she took a quick bite? Probably. So sad.
‘Ironic that they claim to abhor you, yet they’d defend someone like Rosemary,’ he said. ‘She should have been executed.’
‘I have to agree.’ The woman had used chaos magick to stir two Alpha males into fighting – and she’d done it on a full moon, knowing that a bloodbath could occur.
And it had. The Alphas had morphed into their In-between forms and butchered one another.
Their heartbroken mates had then taken their killing-rage out on each other.
And eleven-year-old Ripper, the son of one Alpha pair, had witnessed it all.
An experience that had overwhelmed him with so much dark emotion that he’d turned Rabid.
In his absence, his clan had demanded that Reena hand over Rosemary to be punished, but the High Priestess had insisted on dealing with the matter herself.
‘Having your magick bound wouldn’t be an easy ride – in fact, it’d be torture for a witch,’ said Emberlyn.
‘I suspect it’s why Rosemary died. Some witches have withered away after being disconnected from their magick.
But her actions called for a much worse punishment.
She shouldn’t have had the luxury of dying peacefully in her sleep.
’ She paused at the weird look on his face. ‘What?’
Ripper sipped from his cup. ‘Not evil, ruthless,’ he said more to himself than to her.
‘Hmm?’
‘Millicent once told me that you weren’t evil, just ruthless.’ He tilted his head. ‘Yesterday, you spoke to Reena of a time when her niece tried punching her way into your mind. I never heard about it.’
‘There’s a lot that isn’t talked about.’
‘What happened exactly?’
‘Sera turned up at my apartment one day, wanting to apologize for the part she – along with Tyra, Ames and their friends – had played in trying to make me miserable when I was a kid. But it wasn’t hard to sense that she wanted something from me.
I eventually cut off her fake apology and told her to be upfront with me about why she was really there or to leave.
She admitted that she wanted me to teach her a certain type of magick. I said no.’
‘What kind of magick?’
‘The kind that would enable her to invoke dark beings from other realms.’ Even those within the coven who sneered at Emberlyn still sought her out, looking for the kind of aid or advice that Reena would never grant.
He blinked. ‘You could do that?’
‘It’s not as fun as it sounds.’
His brow knitted. ‘It doesn’t actually sound fun at all.’
To each their own. ‘Millicent made it so. It was her way of teaching. She made everything seem light and adventurous. Like we were walking around a zoo while I learned about animals. She was a good mentor. And one thing she taught me was that only a witch who was very grounded should be given . . . darker lessons, shall we say? Sera isn’t grounded.
And, unhappy that I wouldn’t oblige her, she tried taking the knowledge from my mind. ’
‘Did Reena punish her for what she did to you?’
‘No. I did that. I turned Sera’s braid into a snake.’ The memory plucked at one corner of Emberlyn’s lips. ‘It didn’t last longer than an hour, but it scared the piss out of her.’
A glint of what she could have sworn was humor briefly appeared in his eyes.
‘I’ll bet,’ he muttered, before taking another sip of his coffee.
‘Have you mentioned the curse jar to Reena yet?’
‘No. I’m keeping the knowledge of it in my back pocket for now. I want to see if I can catch someone in the act of planting another. They won’t dare if they’re aware that I know about the jar you dug up.’
‘I haven’t mentioned it to anyone, and I won’t.’
‘I know,’ he said with total certainty.
He should be sure, but his certainty surprised her. ‘Do you?’
‘Call it a gut feeling. Not saying I trust you. Don’t know you well enough for that. But my instincts tell me I can trust your word on this.’
‘What else do they tell you?’
‘That you’re even more powerful than the coven thinks you are.’
Definitely not all brawn. Emberlyn only said, ‘Hmm.’ She pushed away from the island.
‘I’d better head home. I appreciate you giving me a heads-up about what my delightful family is up to now.
’ He’d made a point of ensuring that she couldn’t be taken off-guard with it, which he hadn’t had to do.
‘You know, Ripper . . . you’re okay. For a werewolf. ’
His mouth twitched. ‘You’re okay. For a witch.’
Her insides squeezed as he absently edged forward, again sipping from his cup.
He stood a little too close, smelled a little too good, and she felt unbearably conscious of him.
Of where he stood, how he held himself, the look in his eyes, the muscles in his body, the .
. . gah, this needed to stop. Because while she was tempted to make a move, try her luck, it didn’t seem wise.
If he wasn’t on board, things might then be awkward between them. Just because they were now allies and slowly becoming comfortable with each other didn’t automatically mean that he’d be receptive to any advances she made, did it? He was evidently still wary of her to some degree.
If he made his own advances, well, she couldn’t say she’d rebuff them.
But – and call her a coward, she didn’t care – she wasn’t going to try to instigate anything.
It was Ripper’s issues in the way, not hers.
At the very least, he needed to be given time to power past them . . . if he could or even cared to.
‘Later,’ Emberlyn said stiffly, her smile a little too wide.
She saw herself out and, without allowing herself to peek in the rearview mirror to see if he’d followed her to the door, she drove off.
During the journey home, she gave her lady bits a huge lecture on how they needed to pull their shit together.
By the time she’d parked outside the manor, dusk had officially fallen. Orange, purple and pink smudged the darkening sky. Silhouettes of the house and trees stretched out like fingers.
Emberlyn slid out of the car, purse and laundry bag in hand. Her evening plans were simple and basically involved tea, food, a book and maybe also a bath. Possibly also some clit-love during that bath. It might be the only way to make her hormones calm down.
She closed the car door, locked it with the fob—
A long, drawn-out growl grated the air. It was low. Rumbly. Spine-chilling.
And it had come from somewhere on her left.
Her pulse jumping, she froze. But only for a moment. Ever so slowly, she turned toward the sound.
A figure lumbered out from behind the willow tree. A figure that was overly tall, broad, long-limbed – and covered in fur. Not quite man, not quite animal. Its yellow eyes were pinned on her, glowing with malicious intent. It snarled, baring long canines.
A Rabid.
Her heart went ahead and skipped a beat.
It wasn’t the first time she’d found herself up close and personal with a Rabid, and it likely wouldn’t be the last. Her options were always the same – capture it or scare it off, because she wasn’t going to kill it.
The Rabid roared in challenge, flexing its thick claw-tipped fingers. Then it rushed her.
Dropping her purse and laundry bag, she lifted her hands and blasted out a force of glittering, electrically charged magick. The Rabid flew backwards, crashing into the tree, causing the branches to shudder and creak.
Emberlyn began chanting beneath her breath, intending to put the creature to sleep, but it recovered fast and came at her again.
Pausing the spell, she hit it with another blow of magick – or tried to. It lurched to the side, dodging the glittering ribbons, and then lunged at her.
Emberlyn backpedaled fast but didn’t manage to avoid the arm that reached for her. Hissing as its claws sliced into her shoulder like hot knives, she blasted it with magick again, sending it to its knees with a howl of pain. It reached for her once more, clawing her calf—
‘The fuck?’ a male voice exclaimed behind her as footsteps thundered her way. She recognized the voice instantly – Logan.
The Rabid jumped to its feet and quickly but awkwardly scurried away, disappearing into the shadows.
Its retreat wasn’t a surprise. On a full moon, it wouldn’t care about being outnumbered; would stay and fight. But on a normal day – injured and operating on animal logic – it wouldn’t hang around and risk being taken down.
Reaching her, Logan grimaced at her shoulder wound. ‘You all right?’
No, her injuries were burning like the fires of hell. ‘Fine and dandy.’
He blew out a breath. ‘Come on, let’s get you inside.’