Chapter Sixteen
Melinda
I ended up splitting ways with Isadora and Lucien after dropping them off at their house. The bond was turning me feral any time that Lucien kissed me and I didn’t have the stamina to keep up with the bond.
Dad wasn’t home when I arrived because, just like almost everyone in town, he went to the city to visit Hugo Strickland in the hospital.
Left to my own devices, I decided to clean the house since I would be free of distractions.
At the same time, I decided to practice some magic.
Using Isadora’s method to track down Hugo, I stood in front of the mop bucket with the mop reclining inside.
I raised my hand, but the mop did nothing.
Again, I tried and again I failed until I was left to mop the floor the normal, non-witchy way.
After cleaning the kitchen, I moved to the living room and again tried to use magic to fold the blankets strewn about.
Again, I failed. Cursing up a storm, I shook my fist at the blankets in anger.
An amused chuckle behind me had me screaming and turning to find Lance standing there with the spare key in hand.
“I come in peace. I tried knocking, but I guess you were too distracted. What were you trying to do?”
“Use magic,” I answered with a frustrated huff. Eyeing the key, I asked. “How did you find the spare?”
“It was in the same spot it has always been. Nice to know there’s some things in this town that don’t change,” he responded. The response felt dry, almost like he was hinting at something that angered him. If I had to narrow it down, the list would consist of only Lucien or maybe it was the killer?
“The killer will be caught. I already have dibs on revenge though so don’t even think about it.”
Rolling his eyes, he entered the living room.
“You’re approaching magic wrong. From the witches I’ve encountered, they all say that magic is not learned.
Magic is everything all at once. You can’t learn what your body already knows.
You have to work with it, guiding it, but never controlling it. Intention and submission.”
I looked at the blanket I was trying to fold, imagining hands holding the blanket and I guided those hands to fold the blanket.
The blanket didn’t fold as well as I wanted, but it was done well enough that I felt a little victory.
I clapped enthusiastically before doing it to the other blankets.
Lance only stood silently in the living room as I continued practicing with my magic to clean the room.
Almost an hour passed and I knelt in the dining room as my energy felt depleted. Lance’s arm wrapped around my waist as he helped me into a chair, watching me carefully as I rested my head on the slightly damp table.
“Why do I feel so tired?”
“You used more magic than you’re used to.
It’s normal. As you continue to practice, your body will get used to the flow of constant magic,” he explained.
I hummed in response, yawning almost immediately after.
His fingers brushed across my temple as he moved my hair from my face to look at me properly.
“Why couldn’t I have come just two months earlier?
I was prepared to take you from here and start a life with you outside of this small-town. Someone beat me to you.”
I didn’t have a response. What could I say?
There wasn’t much except for an apology that would only make it worse for him.
If Lucien never came then Lance would have been the person I would have ended up marrying.
Bryon was too much of a friend that I couldn’t see myself settling with him.
Lance had been a fling that was passionate and comfortable, enough that I could see a future.
My father had liked him well enough, but it had been a long time since we had seen one another.
The Lance in front of me was different from the one that left.
He was changed in more than just growing a beard and wearing different clothes.
It was like his very essence had changed.
The innocence that he had once held was now gone.
He had gone through something that had taken that from him.
A part of me wanted to ask while another was scared of what that answer would be.
“Should I be worried about the way you are looking at me?” Lance questioned after a few minutes of silence passed. His words snapped me from my thoughts and I blinked my dry eyes. I must’ve looked weird as I stared at him without blinking while lost in my own mind.
“Sorry, I was lost. Um, how long were you planning on staying here? Dad is out at the hospital with the other townies to check in on your dad.”
“I actually came to see you. I told you that I would visit and it helps that your bloodsucker mate isn’t here to ruin my time with you,” he responded.
I didn’t like the tone he used when calling Lucien a bloodsucker, even if he was a hunter.
Maybe it was the bond or just basic human decency, but such a derogatory term didn’t sit well with me.
“His name is Lucien.”
“Don’t expect me to call him that.”
“You hunters seem to be the same in that regard,” I muttered before pushing away from the table and him. He scoffed at my response before grabbing my hand. “What gives?”
“You hunters? Since when did you start using verbiage like that? From what my father told me, you only just came to know about this world the day following Agatha’s death. Little too soon to group yourself in with the shadow blooded monsters.”
I pulled on my hand, suddenly not liking his hostility. “Let go of my hand, Lance.”
“Shouldn’t you call me ‘hunter’? How much has that bloodsucker morphed your mind? Where is the Mel I fell in love with? The one who—.”
I didn’t let him finish as my other hand snapped across his face. In his shock, I managed to take my hand back. I took a couple steps back from him to prepare myself in case he came at me. He held his stinging cheek, almost shocked by what happened.
“Never touch me without my permission. When I say let me go, you will do it.”
“A witch telling a hunter what to do. It’s almost laughable,” he chuckled darkly before rushing at me.
I jumped a little as he barreled towards me and took two quick steps back before he practically threw me against the wall.
The pictures fell around me; the one of my mother fell next to me and shattered with her smiling face staring up at me behind broken glass.
“Want to attack me again, witch? I hold nothing back when I kill monsters. If you want to be with them, Mel, then I will treat you as I do them.”
My insides burned with fiery tendrils reaching towards something in my chest. It wanted to latch onto something within me. My vision tilted as I stared at the shattered glass and my mom’s smiling face. I wasn’t sure if Lance was the killer, but at this moment, I didn’t care.
Every bottled emotion I had about everything I had endured thus far began to bubble to the surface.
“You really are playing with fire,” I replied angrily at him, but not raising my head.
“This was meant to be a meeting to get you away from those leeches, but I guess you’re too gone for me to bring you back.
Then let's play, witch,” he sneered. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, making me cry out in pain as he grabbed close to the roots.
I was hauled to my feet, the bottoms of my bare feet dragged through the shattered glass, adding to the accumulating pain.
“Why are you being this way?” I whimpered in his grasp.
“You want to be one of them so badly, Mel? I’ll show you what you have to look forward to,” he replied before delivering a punch to my gut and releasing me.
With the air knocked from my lungs, the glass embedded in my legs from landing atop the shattered picture frames. The tendrils of power inside burned even more, almost pleading as they reached for whatever darkness I couldn’t see.
Intention and submission.
Intention.
Submission.
Closing my eyes, I released any control I had over myself and allowed them to touch what it so desperately wanted to.
I heard the sound of the glass vibrating on the ground as the earth shook under us.
The door bursting open sounded in the background of the racquet.
The ember grew and grew inside of me as it fed.
Release.
I prepared myself to obey, but as arms wrapped around me, I was snapped back to myself. The ember retreated before going quiet. Lucien’s breath on the back of my neck let me know he was behind me and I tilted my head to look up at him.
“What did you do to her?” Lucien demanded of Lance.
I could finally see and what I did was chaos.
Everything made of glass inside the room was shattered around me while the only light was the sun coming in through the empty windows.
Lance looked freaked when my eyes finally panned in his direction—almost like nothing had gone according to his plan.
“You made her release dark magic, hunter. What. Did. You. Do?”
“I didn’t—This wasn’t—.” Lance couldn’t answer, completely at a loss for words.
“Dark magic comes out when a witch’s life is threatened. So, I will ask you one more time politely before I rip your pathetic heart out of your chest. What the fuck did you do to my mate?”
I placed a calming hand on Lucien’s face, but it did nothing for his growing anger.
The spell that dulled his eyes was no longer there, exposing the golden irises that far surpassed Ambrose’s.
I could tell at that moment why those with such vibrant eyes were considered powerful.
Lucien was the epitome of power before me with fangs bared and fire raging in his hand as he prepared to use it against Lance.
Isa had told me that vampire’s possessed magic, but I hadn’t seen Lucien use his until now.