CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
~
Faith watched the beach from the rocks above the cove. Night cloaked her, but not well enough for Nana not to occasionally cast a stray glance in her direction.
“Miss it already?” Lex asked from his seat on the upward jut of raged rocks carved out by the wind and sea salt. He looked relaxed to the untrained eye, but Faith knew he was ready to take off after her at a heartbeat’s notice if she bolted.
It was a question she wasn’t prepared to answer yet. “Looks like Nana and Moira have become firm friends,” she said, watching them work on the accompaniments of the spell performed after the witching hour.
“I thought only green witches appeared in kids” movies,” Lex replied. He caught the deflection and wasn’t about to drop it. He needed to know what she was feeling so he could anticipate a problem ahead.
“What?” Faith said, his words jarring her back to him. She held out her hands and inspected them. “I’m turning green now?”
Lex’s chuckle snapped her back to reality. “Oh, screw you,” she grumbled, folding her arms and turning her attention back to the witches on the beach.
“Now you’re talking my language,” he said teasingly, calling to her inner femininity. It was hard to ignore and just something else she would have to deal with.
Faith didn’t think she’d thrown herself much of a pity party yet for losing everything that was real in her life, but she knew now wasn’t the time. She was adaptable to life and what came after it; she just had to make the best of things.
Her newfound powers were interesting, and she had enjoyed sparring with Lex earlier. His experience had won in the end, but she’d held her own, and there were some moves she’d seen in the movies that she’d always wanted to try, and she now had the strength to do them.
Move over Jet Lee, Jean Claude Van Dam and all the other foot for fists jockeys, she could do martial arts with the best of them – or maybe not because one kick from her would probably break them in two, but she had skills, and she wasn’t afraid to use them.
What she didn’t have was magic, and she never would again. It felt like losing her place in the world, and one mantra kept echoing in the back of her mind – with perfect love and perfect trust – strangely, she still felt connected to those she had loved in life, but the trust part had blown away in the wind. Her friends and family could never completely trust her again. That hurt like an ache in her soul.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t still have some fun, especially where Lex was concerned. “You know,” she said, turning toward him and making a slow path to where he was sitting, crawling up the rocks like a seductive kitten, or so she imagined. “I have been wondering, with this whole vampire enhancement thing, what it would feel like to orgasm.”
Lex was paying attention now. He sat up straighter and watched her with interest; a part of him rose to attention, and yet… “And I’m just the man to show you the ways of…”
“Why would I need you when I can do it myself?” Faith asked.
The instant look of getting his puppy kicked amused her, but the look of expectation that followed stung the most. Lex knew she was playing him and would need to up her game. She turned and sat beside him, looking down at the beach.
“You want to be down there, don’t you?” Lex asked.
“I will be down there. No doubt, I’ll be the one screaming in pain and thrashing about; you won’t be able to miss me.”
“Deflection,” Lex said, reaching for her hand as it rested on her knee and covering it with his own. He was surprised when she didn’t pull it away.
Faith turned a curious gaze on him. “Can we just get through this round of I’m screwed before we get into the vampire psychoanalysis and pity party time for the kiddies?”
Lex offered her an easy smile. “We can do that.”
“And if you’re a good boy, you might just get a treat,” Faith said with a wicked little smile.
“Oh, how you love to tease,” Lex said, chuckling.
“Speaking of treats, I might need to fill up on my red juice before I go down there – wouldn’t want to freak out with bloodlust and eat grandma.”
“Just let me know before you get the urge to do that so I can stop you,” Lex said, pushing to his feet, holding her hand, and pulling her up with him.
“But as you always say, where would be the fun in that?”
~
“I don’t like this,” Evie said, feeling the rush of panic every time she thought of Jennifer inside the circle with Faith or what a child that age might have to endure to rid herself of what was squatting inside her.
Amy sidled up to her at the deck’s railing and looked down at the beach and the preparations taking place there. “Nobody likes this, girl, but the alternative is to leave whatever parasite is inside in place, and that’s not good either.”
“I know,” Evie said. “I’m just being irrational…”
“You’re just being a mother,” Amy said. “Worrying and protecting comes with the territory.”
“Well, that territory sucks the big one,” Evie bit out.
“Speaking of sucking the big one, how’s Parker taking this?” Amy said with a devilish grin.
“I saw what you did there, and he’s fine; he knows Jennifer comes first, no matter what,” Evie said.
“Wow, I hope you didn’t say it like that.”
“Like what?” Evie said, surprised and curious.
Amy grimaced. “Like he’s down there on the list of what’s important to you, kinda makes the big man feel itsy bitsy small,” she said, squishing her finger and thumb together.
“Huh?” Evie said half of her brain was still caught up in what was to come, and the other was forced to decipher Amy’s clues.
Amy leaned in towards her and whispered. “Any problems in the bedroom lately?”
Evie jolted back and eyed Amy like she was insane. “No!”
“Good, because we all know how delicate men can be…”
“Delicate – Parker?” Evie said, slapping her hand against Amy’s forehead. “You feeling alright?”
Amy batted her hand away. “Don’t you love it when life jumps in front of you, waving hello, and gives you something else to worry about for five minutes?”
Evie lowered her chin slowly and eyed her friend. “Life didn’t – you did.”
“And that’s what friends are for. We’ve got this,” Amy assured her.
Evie drew a deep breath and held it; trying to chase off her fears wasn’t easy. “And what about Faith?”
“Faith loves Jennifer, witch or vampire; that isn’t going to change,” Amy said, hoping that was true.
“I hope you’re right,” Evie said, returning her attention to the beach.
Amy winced. “Me too,” she mumbled to herself.
~
“Oh look, loves young dream,” Faith said, tossing the blood bag into the cooler in the back of Lex’s car and slamming the boot.
Lex winced as his baby took another pounding. “I think I might get a pickup truck for the times you’re with me,” he said, moving to her side to see what she was looking at.
Darcy and Zeke were hot and heavy behind the back of the bar. “If your car means more to you than…”
“Do not go there, Faith; I can’t be emotionally blackmailed.”
“Sure, you can,” Faith said, shrugging as if it was no big deal.
“I do like this side of you; it’s so pleasant to behold,” he said.
Faith turned a steely gaze she’d learned from her grandmother on him. “Then go behold someone somewhere else,” she replied, feeling a stab of guilt inside her.
“Or you could just…”
“Get a room!” Faith shouted, chuckling when Zeke and Darcy practically flew apart, scanning the area for the big bad vampire.
“Stop being mean,” Lex said. “Or I might need to spank you.”
Faith turned to him, placed her hands on her hips, and eyed him with contempt. “You spank me just once, and you’ll be drawing back a stump.”
“Good to know,” Lex said, wrapping his hand around her arm and drawing her with him across the hillside towards the rocks. He looked down at Zeke, the man was in protection mode and shook his head with disbelief. “All is well; do not panic, go about your mating ritual,” he called, smiling to himself as he remembered the scene in Animal House where Kevin Bacon was frantically trying to calm the crowd and was run over in the stampede.
“And here I thought you liked it when I was mean,” Faith said, chuckling to herself.
“I like it when you are mean with good reason,” Lex replied.
“I have a good reason; I’m bored,” Faith said.
A heartbeat later, Lex had spun her to him. He wrapped a steely arm around her and took her lips in a kiss that rattled every inch of her body into awareness of how much she wanted him.
Lex felt the sting of pain and pulled back; reaching up, he found blood against his lips and noted her fangs were almost entirely down. “Whoops, my bad,” she said, wincing as she reached up and tapped a fingernail against one fang. “Why’d they do that?”
“Lust,” Lex said, grinning. “You want me so badly you can taste it.”
“I can taste your blood, but for the rest, don’t flatter yourself,” Faith said, pulling away and walking ahead of him.
“Oh, you want me,” he said, following on her heels.
“About as much as I want Nana to pop up and stake me through the heart,” Faith tossed over her shoulder, trying to calm the urge to jump on him right there in the moonlight.
Lex caught up to walk beside her. “Just admit it,” he said, walking the rockier path against the edge.
Faith was fast, and he didn’t see it coming. She reached out and pushed him off the cliff. The sound of a surprised shriek as he flew through the air brought the witches” attention her way, and she felt a rush of guilt and amusement that hit her simultaneously.
Lex bounced on his way down, yelping in pain and cursing her existence until he came to rest across the top of a rock, his body battered and bruised. He was sure his arm was broken, but he wasn’t about to test that theory and move it to find out. His blood was already healing him, and he stared at the moon, waiting for the right moment to dare to move.
“I told you I would throw you off a cliff one day,” Faith called down, giggling and regretting her actions at the same time. “That day has come.”
“Loving this new you,” Lex called back as carefully as possible so the jabbing pain in his lungs didn’t worsen.
“Faith!” Nana said in a tone that made Faith feel ten again. “Play nice with others.”
“The Others, or others?” Faith called back. She was glad her grandmother couldn’t see the grimace on her face. Nana didn’t need to say anything else; she just folded her arms and stared. “Fine.” Faith leapt from the rock she’d been standing on to the plateau below, where Lex was spread out. “Is now really the time just to hang out?”
“Really – really – really, loving the new you,” Lex grumbled.
Faith leaned over him, reached down, grabbed a handful of his jacket and wrenched him to his feet. He yelped in pain, bit out more curse words than she even knew, and groaned at the pain washing through him. “See, playing nice and helping you up got me sworn at,” she said, patting him hard on his newly mended shoulder. “Buck up, we have work to do.”
“It’s a toss-up of just how badly I would feel if I killed you now,” Lex bit out between clenched teeth.
“As Nana said, you broke me, you fix me,” Faith replied with a wicked grin. “But I don’t feel broken – unlike you.”