Chapter 22 – Rorik
Aurora sits in the back seat of the SUV, her arms crossed, staring out the window as we head down to her apartment in the East Village.
Even pissed off at me, she’s stunning. Her curly red hair glows in the sunlight. Her freckled skin is so pale compared to mine. She’s wearing a white oversized t-shirt that hangs off her shoulder, revealing a bright pink sports bra underneath and a pair of black leggings.
“Stop staring at me,” she growls.
Those are the first words she’s said to me since flipping me off and slamming the bathroom door. I suppose I deserve it, even if my actions were reasonable.
Selfish, sure, but I have a bad feeling about her returning to her apartment. I’m not sure if it’s because I fear she will leave me, or if it’s because of what truth she’ll learn.
I’d planned to go there first to make sure it wasn’t some sort of trap left by her mother, but the reveal happened, and it’s kept me busy.
My heart flutters with nerves because there’s a chance that I’ve ruined everything. It beats faster every day. The more I spend time with my mate, the more it thuds against my chest.
I think about last night. How we crossed realms between our dreams and reality.
I didn’t carry us home as I told her. She used her magic to transport us out of Central Park. She doesn’t remember doing it. Right before she passed out, she mumbled the word ‘home’ and a surge of energy coursed through our connected bodies and suddenly we were in the living room.
My little lamb is a beacon of power, that much is sure.
After thirty minutes of driving through traffic, we pull up to a five-story building that has an Italian restaurant on the first floor. I get out and zip around to Aurora’s side to open the door before she can.
She steps out, rolling her eyes at me.
But she smiles, so I say it’s a win.
She walks up to a glass door off to the side of the restaurant. After unlocking it with one of the many keys on the keychain, she steps inside, letting the door nearly close on me. I’m too fast and slip past before it shuts completely.
The hallway is long and narrow and leads to stairs. We walk up three flights until reaching her unit.
I hold out my hand for the keys.
“I can do it,” she says with a scoff.
“I know you can, but we don’t know what’s in there. Let me go first.”
“Can’t you tell if there’s someone in there with your vampire…” she waves her hand in front of me. “Senses or whatever?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Of course, but there could be a ward in place that even my heightened smell and hearing wouldn't be able to penetrate.”
I would likely sense the magic, but with Ciara, anything is possible.
Aurora huffs but hands over the key.
“Wait here,” I say and enter.
The apartment is musty. Dust covers everything, and there’s a slight smell of spoiled food that’s probably coming from the fridge.
I do a quick check for danger, but Aurora has ignored my order to stay put and strolls on in.
“I don’t sense magic,” she grumbles and walks to a stack of envelopes on the kitchen table.
She sifts through them, scrunching up her nose before tossing them back down.
“Bills,” she says, stepping further into the studio.
It’s tiny, barely enough room for a full-sized bed, a loveseat, and a desk. The walls are bare, and there’s a small dresser inside a walk-in closet that leads to a minuscule bathroom.
“This is depressing,” I say, slowly walking through the place. I skim my finger through a layer of dust on the mounted television.
Aurora doesn’t respond to my comment and focuses on a stack of papers on top of the desk tucked away between the bed and the loveseat.
I bend down to get a better look at the items on the bookcase below the TV.
Framed photos line the top shelf. I pick up one of Aurora at a renaissance fair, dressed in a sexy green corset that pushes up her breasts and showcases her tattoos.
Another photo shows her squeezing a woman and kissing her cheek.
I refrain from crushing the wood and glass and burning the image.
Is this woman my little lamb’s partner? She’s beautiful, and my jealousy rears its ugly little head.
Aurora gasps, and I rush to her side.
“What is it?”
She holds a hastily written note that reads: Put this on.
My eyes fall to her index finger, which now has a gold crescent moon ring on it.
“My last name is Raynor. I owned a shop in New Orleans. Witchcraft. Spells, supplies, and such. I’ve had flashes of this shop before, but the memories were always so hazy.
The shop was in the French Quarter, and I lived in an incredible apartment above it.
About a year ago, my mom showed up at my shop.
I’d been hiding from her, but she found me there.
She claimed she wanted to reconnect. That she was ill all those years ago and had gone through therapy to better herself.
She was so abusive to me growing up I had no interest in reconnecting, but she insisted.
I’m pretty sure she used some sort of coercion spell on me to agree to meet.
“We went to a cafe near my shop. Mother said I needed to come with her. She didn’t say where, and I didn’t ask, only saying something big was happening soon and she needed my help. I refused.”
She hiccups and sets down the paper. I take her in my arms, allowing her to cry into my chest.
She melts into my embrace, and it gives me hope that she doesn’t hate me for keeping this place from her.
“She threatened me. Said she’d kill my best friend.
I didn’t believe her. Why would I? She’d never been violent before, at least not to anyone other than me that I knew about.
I had no reason to believe she would actually do it.
So, I said no and left my mother at the coffee shop.
I found Gia the next morning in the back room of my store.
We’d been friends for twenty years. She was the sweetest woman with two little kids and owned the jewelry store next door. ”
Gia must be the woman in the photo I found.
Aurora sniffles and wipes her eyes and nose on my shirt. I rub her back, up and down, attempting to soothe her as she’s bombarded with these memories.
“I went to the police, but they didn’t believe me.
Gia’s body was gone when they arrived. After they left, after they called me crazy, I packed up.
I booked a flight to New York City thinking it was huge here, and I’d be able to hide from my mother.
She found me about four months ago, wiped my memories—including all memories of her—and cast a compliance spell on me.
Apparently this is where she wanted me all along.
To be honest, something kept pulling me here, and I wonder if that was you. ”
I hold her for several minutes. It could be hours, and I’d still keep her close like this.
Whatever she needs from me.
But she pulls away after a while and glances up at me with her gorgeous green eyes now rimmed with red. I wipe away the wetness from her tears, then place two gentle kisses on each cheek.
“Are all of your memories back now?”
She nods and holds up her finger with the ring. “They came flooding back when I put this on. I’m still trying to sort through all of them. The memories are there, but they’re fuzzy.”
She shakes her head and lets out a long breath, attempting to compose herself.
“I cast a spell on this ring to counter any magic my mother used if she ever found me. The ring unlocked the block on my memories, but not the one suppressing my powers. It’s too strong…
it’s heavy and suffocating.” She presses her palm to her chest. “I just don’t understand how it’s possible for me to access some magic, like casting a shield and whatever I did in the park, but not anything more powerful. ”
Transporting us between the dream world and reality takes a great deal of power. To be honest, I’ve never heard of a witch being able to do that. There are some witches who can dream walk, but it’s rare and they always stay in that consciousness.
“Did you not know you could dream cast?” I ask.
“Is that what it’s called?”
I shrug. “There’s no name for it that I’m aware of.”
“No. I’ve never done something like that before.
I mean, my dreams were always so vivid growing up.
Sometimes I’d dream about something, and it would come true.
Or I could go into someone else’s dream and help them make decisions.
” She snorts. “I used to do it to my mom to convince her to take me to the water park a town over. Or go to the movies. Go get ice cream. It was the only time she ever felt like a mother.”
She frowns, her brows pinching together.
“When I turned sixteen, the dreams stopped.”
I take a piece of her fallen hair from her eyes and tuck it behind her ear. “I think your mother realized how powerful you were becoming, and that’s when she started suppressing your magic.”
Aurora snarls. “Fucking bitch.”
My burst of laughter startles her, but she’s quick to recover and breaks into a fit of giggles. She steps back, holding her stomach until her giggles die down.
“You’re really fucking strong. I hope you know that.”
She wipes the tears from the corners of her eyes. “Yeah, I know. It’s exhausting too.”
She sighs and glances around the room with a frown.
“Why don’t we pack up everything you want and need and go back home?” I offer.
She nods and walks to the only closet in the studio apartment. She takes out two large suitcases and sets them on the bed. We work in silence until the suitcases are stuffed with all her clothes, a few picture frames, books, and other random items.
Getting her wardrobe back has brightened her sad eyes. She mentioned once that she couldn’t remember her style, but I think that memory was there all along. The outfits she bought with my card are similar to the ones she already owned.
Once Aurora is satisfied she’s got everything, we leave the apartment and lock up. I grab both suitcases to carry as we head down the stairs.
“How many months’ rent are you paid up on?” I ask once we reach the main entrance.
“I paid for a year upfront. The rent wasn’t that much because the unit was rundown, but I was fixing it up, so the landlord gave me a deal.”
The moment we step outside, the air energizes around us.
“Aurora, wait!”
But it’s too late. She’s immediately hit with a ball of magic. Her body flies back, and she hits the brick wall behind her before falling to the ground unconscious.
“No!” I growl, dropping the luggage and rushing to her side.
“Pathetic,” a familiar voice says.
Ciara.
I check Aurora’s neck for her pulse since there are too many noises and thoughts nearby for me to focus on listening for a heartbeat. When it thuds weakly against my fingers, I stand to face her mother.
She conjures another ball of magic. People in the area are running in fear, getting far away from the dangerous supernatural beings.
This is going to be all over the news.
I step to my right, making sure to put some distance between me and my little lamb. Ciara watches my every move.
“Give me my stuff,” she says with a smirk.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, smirking right back at her.
“My books and spells and other belongings from that warehouse.”
“If those items were so important, why didn’t you get them yourself? It’s been months.”
“That place has been guarded since the raid. I couldn’t take the chance.”
“Yet I easily got in.”
She shoots the magic ball at me, but I’m too fast and jump out of the way. The magic destroys the brick wall behind me. I hope no one was inside on the other side.
“You did go back, didn’t you?” I ask, chuckling. “You couldn’t get into the room. Why? What happened?”
“When the gargoyles discovered the warehouse, I implemented a spell to protect the room. To keep it hidden and locked until I was able to come back. It should have opened for me. It didn’t. So, the question, vampire, is how did you get in?”
I don’t have the answer to that. It could be as simple as the magic surrounding the room sensed Ciara’s malice and refused to open for her. But it knew I was there for good. To find a way to stop this woman.
“Never mind. It doesn’t matter how you got in. You stole my belongings, and I want them back. Hand over my daughter while you’re at it.”
“Why do you care? You sold her to monster hunters.”
“I was hoping they’d kill her.”
“Why didn’t you kill her yourself?”
She huffs. “You’re asking too many questions.”
She sends a lightning bolt of magic my way. It clips me in the arm just before I use my speed to dodge the hit. The wound bleeds but it’ll heal within minutes.
“Why, Ciara? Why didn’t you just kill her yourself?”
“Don’t you think I would have if I could?” she growls and uproots a power pole to toss at me.
“I don’t understand.”
She waves her hand around. “Prophecy or some bullshit.”
She manifests another magic ball but instead of throwing it at me, she slams it into the roadway like she’s spiking a football after a victorious touchdown. Magic shoots out, buckling the road in five different directions.
I check on Aurora, but she wasn’t harmed by the destruction.
Unfortunately, the foundation of a nearby building was impacted, and pieces begin to crumble off the facade.
Sirens sound off and day-bearing supes are down the street, heading this way to intervene.
Ciara spots them and curses.
“I’d love to chat, but I’m only here as a warning. Give me my stuff and I’ll disappear. You have one week.”
She’s lying.
“What are you planning? You know you won’t win!” I yell, but the crack of brick and wood behind me pulls my attention away from the witch.
She cackles like a true villain.
“I guess it’s time to decide, Rorik. Save the precious humans in that crumbling building or chase after me.”
There’s a gust of wind and a flash of bright light, then she’s gone.
And I rush into the building to save the humans.