Chapter 36
It’s Bad, Isn’t It
Georgie was sitting on the bottom step, hunched forward, staring at the floor.
The smell of bacon cooking wafted through the house. A rattle of pans told me Mary was cooking a late breakfast. Soft murmurs came from the sitting room. Karson had dropped us off and headed straight back out. I doubt he would have returned yet.
“Hey.” I sat down beside her, hooking my hands around my shins. “Can’t sleep either?”
She shook her head but kept hers down, her long dark hair curtaining the sides of her face. A dark bruise ringed her eye and bled down across her cheek. The split across her lip had dried and was coated with fine red-and-yellow scabbing.
“Did you take any pain relief?”
She raised her head and looked at me, one eye only visible through a thin slit. She must have seen something in my face because she said, “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
I attempted a reassuring smile. “No, it’s not terrible. It will come right in a few days,” I lied.
“I still can’t believe it,” she rasped. “How can you talk about your future together, how could someone look you in the eye and tell you they love you …” Her voice cracked and she sucked in a breath. “And then they shove their cock into anything that moves.”
I was devastated when Tom cheated on me.
I didn’t just lose him, I lost our friendship circle, I lost the life I was living with him, I lost the future we had planned together.
And I lost the only person I thought I could rely on.
In that one moment, my whole world was shattered.
And worse, it broke my confidence, because all I could think was—What is so wrong with me?
It was only later that I understood there was nothing wrong with me and everything wrong with him.
I knew the soul-destroying pain she was going through; it was the kind of unique pain only cheating was capable of causing. I touched her arm in a show of compassion. “I’m so sorry, Georgie.”
Tears slipped down her face. “He said we were going to get engaged once he was signed to the NBA. He was the first guy I ever truly loved. I gave him my heart.” Her words choked on a sob. “And he crushed it, then he just threw me out the door like I was nothing to him but a piece of trash.”
My hand slipped softly up and down her back. “He’s an asshole and he doesn’t deserve you.”
“She wasn’t even fucking pretty.” She threw up her hands and they slapped back down on her legs. “He could have at least chosen someone beautiful.”
I went to say they never were, but I closed my mouth quickly.
Georgie was the girl Ethan had cheated with when he was trying to make Sarah leave him.
The reason we were in this mess in the first place.
Not that I blamed her. Ethan could read minds and knew exactly what to say to charm the pants off someone. Literally.
“This is my fucking karma,” she sobbed.
Maybe my face wasn’t as neutral as I thought. I grimaced.
“This is what I get in return, isn’t it?” Her eyes implored mine as if she thought I knew because I was a witch. “Some karmic law … what you put out in the world you get back.”
Truth was, I didn’t know. I did believe what you put out in the world came back one way or the other, but tragedy was a part of living, no one got through life without suffering.
It seemed bitterly cruel to see terrible things happening to really good people when they deserved nothing but happiness, and the worst of the world seemingly walking around untouched.
“No, you didn’t deserve him cheating on you, Georgie.
If he wasn’t happy with your relationship, he could have told you.
He’s a coward. Men like him are weak. What happened with you and Ethan wasn’t your fault.
Besides,” I lightened my tone in an attempt to make her feel better, “I’m pretty sure Sarah hanging you is well and truly enough punishment for that one mistake. ”
She laughed as she cried harder, scrubbing at the tears tumbling down her face with the back of her sleeve. “I guess on the scale of trauma, finding out one of your best friends is a psychotic vampire, who kidnapped me and tried to hang me, would rate pretty highly on the karma scale.”
I chuckled. “Ten out of ten, I’d say.”
She groaned. “And finding out I slept with Ethan, even if I can’t remember it, is quite possibly even higher.”
My chest knotted at the thought of them sleeping together. I didn’t know why it made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe because they were both close friends and it was awkward between them now.
I huffed a laugh. “There you go. I think we can safely write a declaration that what Jeff did to you had nothing to do with karma.”
Georgie sat up straight and wiped her sweaty palms down her jeans. “He’s just a weak, pathetic, fucked-up asshole.”
I nodded as my arm slipped around her back once again and she rested her head on my shoulder.
“I’m so glad we found each other,” she murmured. “Thank you for being my friend.”
“We’re lucky to have each other,” I told her.
“Have you seen Leon around?” she asked. “I wanted to thank him for his help yesterday. I feel bad that I had everyone searching for me. I spoke to Pixie and Challis, and they haven’t seen him either.”
“Maybe he went home to spend time with his girlfriend. They’ve all been working extra hard lately and Karson probably gave him some time off.”
“You’re probably right.” She let out a deep, exhausted sigh.
The moment was broken when a cool breeze washed over the room as the front door opened and Karson strode in. His face and neck were more red than white, a long slash of red running the full width of his body across his chest. He looked like he had been in a war.
My heart froze and then took off into a canter. I sprang to my feet and ran across the room. “What happened, are you hurt?”
He stopped but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “It’s not my blood.”
“What happened?” Michael asked as he, Monique, and Kenneth emerged from the sitting room.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Michael frowned as he scanned Karson’s attire. “Please, tell me that the blood isn’t a witch’s?”
“Of course it is, I could smell the stench from a mile away,” Monique quipped, pleasure lacing her tone.
“Some of it is.” Karson brushed casually at something I couldn’t see on his shirt. “Some of it is not.”
Michael threw out a hand and said coolly, “If you continue to antagonize the witch population, we could very well be in for a war.”
Karson shrugged as he moved into the sitting room. “One they will not win.”
Michael followed him and uncharacteristically raised his voice. “This madness needs to stop.”
Karson pivoted abruptly, causing Michael to come to a sudden halt.
“And I need to find out who Sarah has working for her, and until I do …” He matched Michael’s tone and then some.
“I will not stop. Nor will I apologize for what I have to do to find out who is responsible.” He turned back and entered the sitting room.
We followed behind. No one spoke as he poured a whiskey and slammed it down before pouring another.
Michael’s lips thinned. “You cannot just go around torturing witches to get answers.”
My stomach twisted. I flicked my gaze to Georgie hovering at the room’s edge; her face paled.
“Michael is right,” Kenneth said, his voice deep but calm. “We don’t know if it is a witch that was responsible or a vampire.”
Karson glowered. “We do know a witch blocked Sarah from being tracked. We know a witch had a hand in the bone dagger they stabbed me with.”
“We don’t know that for certain,” Michael retorted.
Kenneth’s eyes widened. “You were stabbed with a bone dagger? Why didn’t you tell us?” he implored.
“I had more pressing issues.” Karson swallowed another mouthful. “It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but as you can see, I survived.”
Kenneth folded his massive arms. “A bone dagger … I thought they had all been destroyed?” His jaw clenched. “What if there are more? If they are placed in the hands of warrior witches, many vampires could die.”
The words cracked through my chest—witches like Dahlia, witches like me. I wanted to shout that not all warrior witches were bad, but given I only knew two, including myself, it seemed a rash comment. I gnawed at my bottom lip between my teeth.
“I’m confident it’s a one-off, which is now safely hidden. But I will do whatever I need to do,” Karson’s voice dropped an octave, “to find out who is responsible.”
I drew in a deep breath, trying to ease the pressure in my lungs. “What if they didn’t have a choice?” All eyes turned to me. “If someone threatened them or their families, they may not have had a choice.”
Karson blew out an annoyed breath. “There’s always a choice, Amelia.”
“Dying or helping,” Georgie said, her voice weak. “Most of us would do anything to protect the people we love.”
Her eyes shifted to me, and I saw affection and gratitude in hers. Another lump swelled in my throat. At this rate, the lump might as well be a mole dwelling in the cave of my throat.
“Georgie is right,” Michael said. “And if that is the case, we may draw more answers if we offer to help rather than destroy them.”
Karson opened his mouth then closed it again, as if he thought better of the protest he was about to verbalise.
He slumped down to the couch, leaning back against the leather, weariness falling over his features.
I wanted to go to him, to sit next to him, slip my arm around him, rub the muscles in his tight neck, but I couldn’t, not in front of Kenneth.
“The girl from the bar was a college student.” Josh breezed into room. He halted as he took in Georgie’s face.
“Hey,” he said softly. “That looks nasty. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Georgie dropped her gaze to her hands wringing in front of her. “What more do you know?”
Josh cleared his throat and dragged his eyes away. “She was supposed to meet friends at a restaurant for dinner and she didn’t show. The last anyone saw her, she was at the library studying.”