Chapter Twenty-six #2
She didn’t. ‘I honestly can’t believe you were part of this, Dad.
’ She looked at him like she didn’t know him.
‘Imagine it was me. Imagine a bunch of people circled, condemned and attacked me like that. What would you do? No one even asked her about her whereabouts or considered the points she made. You’d all decided she was guilty, and you weren’t interested in anything she had to say to defend herself. ’
Emberlyn eyed her cousin curiously. Mari was speaking up for her? This is new.
‘We will question her once we get her to our office,’ clipped Patrick.
Emberlyn looked him up and down. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’ He was plain ridiculous for thinking otherwise.
‘What’s happening here?’ a female voice sharply called out. Reena. She shouldered her way through the crowd, looking from face to face.
‘Oh, nothing unusual,’ Emberlyn replied. ‘People are accusing me of stuff I didn’t do. You know how it goes.’
Reena glared at the other witches. ‘I told you I don’t believe that Emberlyn is responsible for what happened.’
‘And I disagree,’ snarked Bennet, coming up behind her.
The High Priestess whirled on him. ‘Because you’ve fallen for a goddamn trick.
You’d prefer to believe that an outsider is our culprit.
The person who did this was counting on that.
If there’s one thing Emberlyn never does, it’s cover up her actions.
I don’t see why that would change now, or why she’d do anything to implicate herself if she was intent on keeping her participation secret. Who summoned her here?’
‘I did,’ Mari piped up. ‘They were discussing riling up a huge number of people and storming the manor to “deal” with Emberlyn. I thought if she could just talk to them, if they could just hear her out, it wouldn’t get that far.
But they didn’t even ask if she had an alibi or anything.
They circled her, attacked her and then got angry because she defended herself.
If that had happened to any of us . . .’ She shook her head. ‘It was just wrong.’
Pausing, Mari looked at Emberlyn, appearing genuinely distressed. ‘I’m sorry I called you here. I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known they’d react that way.’
Hmm, maybe. Maybe not. Right now, Emberlyn wasn’t feeling inclined to take her word for it. She didn’t trust a single person in the coven.
‘You want us to ask her if she has an alibi, let’s do that.’ Patrick inched up his chin as he again glared at Emberlyn. ‘Where were you this morning?’
‘At home,’ she replied.
‘Can anyone verify that?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Ripper.’
‘What time did he arrive at your house?’
‘Yesterday evening. He didn’t leave until about ten minutes before I showed up here.’ She didn’t miss how people exchanged looks, evidently knowing exactly what that meant. ‘When did the Rabid turn up?’
Patrick dropped his gaze. ‘Approximately half an hour ago,’ he mumbled.
Reena addressed the crowd, saying, ‘So Emberlyn clearly couldn’t possibly have done this. You fell hook, line and sinker for a trick, just as I told you.’
‘She should still be detained,’ insisted Ruben, whiny. ‘She attacked us.’
God, they were such babies. ‘I defended myself, and you knew I would. You just thought you could overpower me as a group. And you thought wrong. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.’
But they weren’t. None of their expressions held a hint of regret. Only anger, scorn and defeat.
Her annoyance building once more, Emberlyn shook her head in disgust. ‘So many of you look down your nose at me, but it didn’t stop you from seeking me out when you wanted something.
’ She pointed her finger from person to person as she expanded, ‘A seduction spell. A voodoo doll. A pain-inducing potion. A lesson in blood magick. An anti-aging serum. Help with insomnia. A karma spell. A fat-burning potion. Pain-relief sessions. Aid with summoning a deity.’
Each person tensed, embarrassed by what she’d revealed about them while also surprised – and, in some cases, a little unnerved – at hearing why others had sought her out.
‘I could go on and on,’ said Emberlyn. ‘And on and on and on. It’s as if you all have the strange idea that you can pick and choose when you’ll be nice.
Oh, how mistaken you are.’ It was time she got that message fully across.
Because what happened here was fucked up, and she was done being their whipping boy.
Emberlyn sharply slashed out her arm. ‘After today, none of you need bother to come to me for anything ever again,’ she clipped. ‘No more serums, spells, sessions or potions. No. More. Anything.’ A rumble of power echoed in the latter word.
The crowd went completely silent, realizing she’d literally bound herself to her word. They couldn’t later come crawling to her with apologies and excuses and offer to pay her double for what they wanted. They’d never again get any type of aid from her.
Reena cleared her throat. ‘Emberlyn, I apologize for what happened here today. It was completely unacceptable. My coven is better than this. Those involved will be punished.’
Emberlyn met her gaze evenly. ‘Yes, they will.’ Chanting beneath her breath, she balled her hand up into a tight fist.
Each member of the crowd gasped. At one point or another, she’d used magick to help them with the most superficial shit. And now she’d undone it.
A head went bald. Hair turned gray. Jowls reappeared. Teeth yellowed. Breasts sagged. Acne returned. Lush lips thinned. Cellulite came back. A rash resurfaced. A face lost its uplift.
Bennet looked at Emberlyn, his eyes wide. ‘Does this mean . . .’ He trailed off, apparently not wanting to finish his sentence out loud.
‘That you’ll need to go back to just buying Viagra like everyone else with your problem?’ she asked. ‘Yes. Now, everyone get the absolute fuck out of my way. Or I start having some real fun.’
Folding his arms, Ripper skimmed a hard gaze over the five females sitting on his brother’s porch steps – their heads down, their shoulders hunched. Irritation spasmed in his muscles, making his body tense.
This. He’d left his woman’s side for this bullshit.
He had intended to spend the entire day with Emberlyn. Maybe even convince her to go out for dinner – yeah, he wanted to make it publicly clear very fast that she was well and truly taken. Instead, he was having to verbally tear apart five grown women who were intent on acting like kids.
They had since cleaned up the mess they’d made before he arrived, but that didn’t improve Ripper’s mood. Especially since one of them in particular seemed set on making herself a problem.
CeCe had had quite the eventful night, according to Kerr. And having heard what she’d done to Ripper’s truck in his absence – a slice of news that had really pissed Ripper off – he had a pretty good idea of what had inspired her to resort into full-on drama.
CeCe spared him a sheepish look. ‘We said we were sorry.’
Ripper flicked up a brow. ‘And that makes everything all right, does it?’
She sighed, all fucking forlorn.
He glanced from Kerr to Logan to Crew, sensing that they weren’t buying her act either. Her friends were genuinely embarrassed and shamefaced. If there had been a hole they could crawl into, they would have dived into it head first.
‘It was just a prank,’ she defended.
Logan frowned. ‘And, what, you’re fourteen years old? Because adult females rarely toilet paper someone’s house.’
Her friends cringed, their cheeks reddening.
CeCe weakly shrugged. ‘I thought you’d find it funny. We used to prank each other all the time.’
A muscle in Logan’s cheek ticked. ‘We didn’t do anything so juvenile. Besides, things were different back then.’
‘And I’m trying to get them back to the way they were,’ she stressed, a slight whine in her voice. ‘I thought it would make you feel, I don’t know, nostalgic; thought we could laugh about it and talk. Finally talk.’
‘Why in the fuck would I have wanted to laugh and chat with you about anything when you acted like such a bitch last night?’
She stiffened, her face falling. ‘That was harsh. And unnecessary.’
Kerr barked a disbelieving laugh. ‘Are you fucking kidding? You made a pass at me and then cursed my ass out for rejecting you. You tried to embarrass Paisley for having a little fun with Crew and another clan member. You challenged Clem to a fight while in your wolf form – presumably because she was leaving with Logan. Still in that form, you were caught pissing on one of Ripper’s tires.
Then you had the grand idea to top it all off with this. ’
A flare of agitation came and went in her eyes as she struggled to appear remorseful. ‘I’m sorry. I really am.’
‘No, you’re not,’ Ripper countered. ‘Why would you be? Right now, you have what you wanted: attention.’
Her head jerked. ‘What?’
‘No one fucks up so spectacularly unless they want the attention of whoever would discipline them.’ Ripper gestured at the other women.
‘Your friends here helped you toilet paper Logan’s house, but the rest was all you, CeCe.
What, you got pissed when I didn’t show at the clearing?
You had a pretty good idea of where I was spending the full moon, of who I was with, and you didn’t like it? ’
A pinch of bitterness glimmered in her eyes.
‘Is that what inspired you to piss on my truck?’ he pushed, his blood still boiling over it. ‘You were marking what you have the goddamn nerve to think is your territory?’
She looked down at her hands. ‘It hurt, okay? It hurt that you chose to be with her over our clan. Just like it hurt to see Logan leaving with Clem.’
‘And Paisley?’ Crew challenged, his face hard. ‘Why have a go at her? Because she was the next best thing to Emberlyn?’
CeCe didn’t respond.
‘I don’t need to ask why you came onto me,’ Kerr said to her. ‘It’s obvious you thought it’d make Rip jealous to hear you’d made a move on his best friend.’
Her gaze flew to Kerr. ‘What? No. I was . . . I was lonely and hurting.’