13. Justin
Justin
J ustin tensed at her words. This woman was a lot. He had expected a powerful witch: aloof, fickle, and mysterious. He hadn’t expected this brash familiarity. He hadn’t expected this directness. And he certainly hadn’t expected this question.
“I, uh… We’re not…”
“I know you haven’t completed the bond, I’m not blind.” Linda rolled her eyes and gave her son a look clearly indicating she thought Justin wasn’t very smart.
“Mother,” Sebastian warned. Worry lined his eyes.
“And…a third one, too? None of them fully solidified, but it won’t be long, I’m sure,” Linda said, ignoring her son. “So, what do you bring to the table?”
“Ms. Walker?—”
“For fuck’s sake, call me Linda.”
“Linda.” Justin searched for some inner calm, something to ground him amidst all the anxious alarms blaring in his body.
He found it in Sebastian’s brown eyes. The witch looked on with nothing but care and encouragement, and the warmth there was contagious. Seeing it, Justin’s body settled enough to allow him to find his confidence.
“We haven’t even known each other a week,” Justin continued, a sudden strength in his voice. “I have some…doubts about completing the bond. But if and when we do, it will be a decision we make, us and our other mate, and we won’t be consulting you.”
In that moment, Sebastian leaned too far back in his rolling office chair. He let out a yelp as he grabbed the top of the desk to keep from toppling over.
Linda glared at her son, but Justin couldn’t stop himself from laughing. There was something about his normally composed mate becoming clumsy and uncertain around his mother that was absolutely adorable.
“Sorry,” Sebastian said, after he’d recovered his dignity slightly. “You caught me off guard.”
Justin smiled. It was nice to be the one who was causing a little bit of chaos for a change. Besides, he was warming to the idea of having a mate. Slowly. He still worried about all the things he’d messed up in the past, but maybe this was a chance to do better.
Linda turned back, and despite her attempts to intimidate him, the corners of her mouth curled up in the hint of a smile.
“I’m not here as your son’s potential mate,” Justin said, not giving Linda a chance to respond. “I’m here to represent my coven—who you reached out to for help. So tell me what’s going on. What happened, and what do you need from us?”
Linda’s eyebrows shot up at his words. “The little vampire has fangs. That’s good. Come on. ”
She shot up and went to the door. “Let’s have tea,” she said, as she disappeared into the hallway.
Justin stood, as did Sebastian. “Your mom is a lot,” Justin said, coming in close and whispering in his ear. They were so close now, and Justin was overcome with a desire to kiss the witch’s pale, exposed neck, but he stopped himself.
“She is. She, um, likes you.”
Justin couldn’t keep the disbelief off his face. “What?”
Sebastian nodded. “You offered a solution to her problem, and you stood up to her. Some of her witches haven’t managed to do either of those things after a lifetime in the Circle.”
“Okay…”
“I don’t think she’ll suddenly be happy about my mating a vampire and a gargoyle, but it’s a step.”
“It’s none of her business,” Justin said, unable to keep the tinge of anger out of his voice. It was instinctual. The thought of someone standing in the way of his mating enraged him, even if he hadn’t yet decided to go through with it.
Sebastian reached out and grabbed Justin’s hand. The witch’s palm was soothing and warm against Justin’s cool skin, and there was a surprising desperation in the move.
“Did you mean what you said? That we would make the decision to mate together?”
Justin pressed his lips together into a line as he considered his response.
“I don’t… Maybe I shouldn’t reject it out of hand. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but maybe I could do it right this time, with my actual mates. I’m willing to consider it.”
Without warning, Sebastian wrapped Justin in a tight hug.
He was so close now, and there was something so right about it, Sebastian’s warmth against Justin’s vampiric coolness.
He only came up to the witch’s chest, and being enveloped in the tall man’s solidity was a comfort.
He rested his face on Sebastian’s sternum, and the witch kissed him gently on the top of the head.
“Thank you,” Sebastian said. There was a raw honesty there, absent his usual mischievous playfulness, and it tugged at Justin’s heart.
“Remember, I haven’t decided yet,” Justin said, but he didn’t even consider removing himself from Sebastian’s embrace.
“You two coming?” Linda called from the hall. “Don’t fuck in my office!”
Sebastian let out a long-suffering sigh and led Justin back into the hall. A few doors down on the right was a room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on all sides. A metal track ran along the top of the walls, allowing for a rolling ladder, like some kind of Victorian university library.
Linda sat enveloped in an oversized pink velveteen armchair with a plain clay mug in her hand. The snap of burning twigs snuck out from the small brick fireplace next to her.
“A library?!” Justin couldn’t help but be excited. He adored libraries. “It’s so cozy! And I love a fireplace.”
“Well, sit down, then, vampire. Have some tea.” Linda gestured to the identical chair on the opposite side of the hearth.
Justin sank into the cushions. It was heavenly. He picked up a mug of tea from the small wooden side table and held it up to his mouth. The sweet odor of apples and honey drifted up from the tea. By now, the logs in the fireplace had caught fire, and the blaze was building .
All attempts to stay aloof flew out of Justin’s head in the face of the overwhelming coziness. “Well, this is perfect.”
“What do you mean?” Linda asked pointedly, taking another sip.
Justin blushed slightly. “Your office was a lot more tech heavy than I expected. This is more…”
“Witchy?” Linda nodded. “We have all the old tomes here, the histories of our Circle, the ancient spellbooks.”
She gestured to a heavy-looking podium of ornately carved cedar. Atop it sat a thick volume, covered in dark brown leather and engraved with silver-embossed symbols. It was secured to the stand with a heavy silver chain.
“That is the grimoire of our Circle. It’s the repository of all our knowledge and holds not only spells but also the true names of every spirit we’ve ever had dealings with and their characteristics.
It’s been passed down from Eldest to Eldest for almost two hundred years. Is that more suitably witchy for you?”
Justin nodded. The fireplace, the books, the tea…
He was much more at ease here than among the flashing screens of the office.
He glanced over at Sebastian, who was leaning casually against the book ladder, his arms crossed, observing.
He smiled at Justin, and Justin’s heart rate ratcheted up at the sight.
The man was handsome. Justin couldn’t deny it.
“Now,” Linda continued, “what do you want?”
Justin stared at her, confused. What did he want? She was the one who had reached out to them.
“I think it’s more about what you want,” he replied. “When Sebastian came to us, your daughter attacking you was theoretical. That’s not true anymore. If you want our muscle, we need to know what happened. ”
Linda’s eyes narrowed, and her gaze snapped to Sebastian. He didn’t flinch.
“Justin is right. You can’t expect the vampires to go in blind. And I need to know, too. What the hell happened?”
Linda didn’t move for a long moment, and the butterflies in Justin’s stomach kicked up. From the moment they met, it had been obvious she was a shrewd manipulator. She liked to keep people off balance.
A quality she’d passed on to Sebastian.
Justin kept his face still. He was there to help, but he wouldn’t go back to Freddie without a clearer vision of what they were agreeing to.
Finally, Linda’s face softened. She sipped her tea once more.
“Veronica took advantage of the fact we were underpowered. Our Circle has always had twelve witches. Two of them are very new. They’ve been here less than five years. Delia and Savannah were replacements for Veronica and Sebastian, and they’re young. They haven’t come into their own.”
Justin breathed in, a gentle odor of smoke filling the air from the now blazing fire.
“We don’t all live here, although many do,” Linda continued. “But there are usually at least five or six of us around, including Wolf, Sebastian’s brother. Wolf isn’t a witch.”
Justin sensed Sebastian shift slightly. He wondered what the story was between Sebastian and his brother. It seemed more intense than expected from the typical sibling rivalry Sebastian had described.
“But several of our members have traveled to see family this week,” Linda said, “and the only ones in the house for the attack were Delia, Savannah, myself, and the next senior member of the Circle, Neve. Wolf was working in the backyard, and by the time he realized something was wrong, the assault was well under way. There were three of them, other than Veronica. Newer witches, clumsy but powerful.”
“Vee is a powerhouse all on her own,” Sebastian interjected.
Linda shrugged. “She is. Delia and Savannah haven’t developed any offensive spells, and even if they had, battle will never be in their wheelhouses.
Thank fuck Neve was here. She has fire affinity.
She was standing there when Veronica broke through the front door.
Without her flames to beat them back, I wouldn’t have had time to come down. They would have cornered me up here.”
“What is your affinity?”
Linda twitched at the question, and for a moment, Justin worried he’d offended her by asking. But ultimately, he didn’t care. They needed all the information they could get.
It didn’t look like she was going to answer, but then Sebastian stepped forward. Linda glared at him, and he ignored her.