Chapter 8 #2
“I stupidly admitted to being who they were looking for. I couldn’t imagine what they wanted.
I was so fucking far outside the magic community.
There was no way I’d pissed anyone off. I’d completely stopped trying to learn magic in the past few years.
I figured, what could be the harm?” He hesitated.
The plan had been to place the cake into the fridge and save it for later, but just thinking about what happened had him pulling off the cover and picking up a fork. Fuck it. He deserved cake.
“They didn’t say another damn thing,” Fox continued around a mouthful of chocolate heaven.
“One of them bashed me on the head, knocking me out. I woke up briefly, and I think I was on a private plane. But I was bound, gagged, and blindfolded. I passed out again. When I next woke up, I was in that room.”
“Fuck,” Winter whispered.
“Exactly.” Fox placed another bite of cake on the fork and held it out to Winter.
The vampire gave a little shake of his head, and Fox delivered what had to be his best “don’t argue with me” look, because Winter obediently opened his mouth.
Fox smiled when he fed the vampire the cake and was rewarded with a happy hum.
Oh yeah, Fox now had one new goal in life. Feed Winter things until he made that amazing noise. It was stupid and it was silly, but it made him feel better, more in control, if only for a second. And right then, with everything happening, he’d treasure that fucking second of peace and control.
“I don’t know how long I was there, but I had one visitor besides you. Tall guy with white hair cut short and really pale eyes.”
“Damon,” Winter said in a low, hard voice.
Fox shrugged. “He stood over me and smiled. And it wasn’t one of those nice, ‘Let’s be friends’ kind of smiles.
More like an ‘I want to rip your spine out through your ass and chew on your soul’ kind of smile.
He laughed and said I was going to help him destroy them all. The prophecy had promised it.”
Still standing next to Winter with the plate and fork in hand, Fox shivered.
His stomach no longer wanted the cake. Hell, the only thing he wanted was to climb up into Winter’s lap and be held by the man.
With Winter’s threats, Fox could understand it.
He could sympathize. The vampire was trying to protect his family.
If Fox had been given the chance, he would have done anything to save his mom. But cancer didn’t work like that.
But with Damon, killing Fox wasn’t about saving anyone. His death would have been just to amuse Damon. And there was zero doubt in his mind that Damon would make it a horrible, painful death.
It had been the only thing he could think about while he was held captive: Damon was going to kill him, and every second that ticked by was one second closer to that death.
“He didn’t say anything else?”
Fox shook his head slowly. Damon hadn’t been in the room with him for more than a minute at most, but it had been the longest sixty seconds of his life. The creature just felt evil to him. Everything about him felt evil, and it was like it soaked into Fox’s skin when he was in the same room as him.
“Winter, I…I’ve never hurt anyone before.
My magic is a joke. I can do very little with it, and I would never use what I do have to hurt anyone.
I’m-I’m just this nobody living in Colorado.
I like hiking and camping and taking pictures of wildlife.
Until a few days ago, I had a perfectly normal, boring life.
I’ve got an apartment. I want to get a dog someday.
Why would he think I would help him destroy anyone?
” The words came out in a panicked blur until his voice broke at the end.
His hands were shaking so badly, he was afraid he’d drop the damn cake.
To his surprise, Winter grabbed his hips and forced him to move back over to the bed. He sat down right across from the vampire with the plate and fork still in his hands. They were so close, their knees brushed against each other.
“He can’t make you hurt anyone you don’t want to,” Winter said firmly, staring deep into Fox’s eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone!”
“I believe you.”
Fox could suddenly breathe again. There had been something about Damon’s voice, his excitement, that had convinced Fox he really would hurt someone simply because Damon had decreed it. But if Winter believed in him, then maybe it would be okay. He was still in control.
“Who are these people Damon wants destroyed?” Fox whispered, still trying to get his spiraling emotions under control.
“My family.”
“Winter, we just met. I don’t know your family. I have no reason to ever hurt them. I wouldn’t—”
“I know,” Winter interrupted calmly. “Give me another bite of that cake.”
Fox didn’t think. He cut off another bite of cake and fed it to the vampire.
Tension oozed from his shoulders at that wonderful hum vibrating up Winter’s throat.
He calmed and ate some more cake himself.
His brain was a confused mess. One second he was worried about hurting Winter and his family and the next, he couldn’t decide what was more intimate—feeding Winter cake or eating from the same fork as him?
“I forgot how much I love chocolate,” Winter admitted.
Fox chuckled and put another bite of cake on the fork for Winter. The vampire was fucking crafty, but it didn’t matter, because it worked. Fox was calm and distracted.
“Did anyone mention to you where they heard this prophecy?” Winter asked, but Fox was shaking his head before he finished his question. What he’d told Winter was everything he’d heard and knew since encountering the other vampires outside of work.
“No one mentioned a witch named Zelda?”
“Oh, God no,” Fox said on a gasp. Fox’s blood ran cold at just the mention of the witch’s name. Zelda was involved in this? Fuck his initial plan to get to the bottom of this mess with Winter. He needed to run far and fast. He’d find a cave and just hide there for the rest of his life.
Winter straightened in his chair, eyebrows jumping. “You know Zelda?”
“Fuck, no! I mean, not personally. I’ve heard of her. Everyone’s heard of her. She’s known as Zelda the troublemaker. Zelda the meddler.”
“That sounds like her,” Winter muttered under his breath as he relaxed in the desk chair again. “But she’s a real witch?”
“Definitely. Very powerful. Why? Do you know her?”
The vampire shook his head a little absently as if his mind had drifted off somewhere else. “No, but she’s friends with one of my brothers and my father. They’re trying to get in contact with her now to get to the bottom of this prophecy nonsense.”
“If the prophecy came from Zelda, it would explain why this Damon is so confident that he can destroy your family. Zelda is really powerful. She’s been around for centuries and knows everything.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Winter grumbled.
Fox got the impression Winter didn’t exactly believe him, and that was okay.
Zelda broke the mold when it came to witches.
No other witch was as old, as far as he knew, and the rumors were that her powers were limitless.
He didn’t know what was truth and what was pure fantasy when it came to Zelda, but it didn’t matter.
When his mother had spoken of her, one message always came out—stay the fuck away from her.
That was exactly what Fox wanted to do, but it was looking less and less likely now.
“You said something earlier that confuses me…” Winter started.
Fox forced a laugh to keep from crawling under the bed to hide. “Was it my offer to wash your back in the shower? The offer still stands.”
The vampire narrowed his bright-blue eyes at Fox.
“You called your magic a joke,” Winter continued, and Fox’s mood officially went from bad to worse. Logically, he knew Winter wasn’t trying to pull open every ugly memory and drag out every fear, but he was doing a damn good job of hitting the main ones.
With his appetite gone, he got up and placed the last half of the cake on the dresser before returning to his place on the bed. “My magic is a joke.”
“But you’re a witch,” Winter pressed. He made that statement as if it were supposed to answer all the questions to life.
“It’s not like we’re born with a wand, a pointy hat, and a book of spells. Shifters are lucky. They’ve got a pack to teach them how to be werewolves. Vampires have clans. You have other vampires to teach you how to vamp.”
Winter glared at him, but Fox ignored it.
The whole idea of being a witch without magic left him wanting to scream at the stars.
How could he be tossed aside so easily? How could he be so fucking worthless?
He wasn’t stupid. He’d work hard, study hard, and do whatever it took to be the best witch he could possibly be.
It wasn’t like he was asking to learn to rearrange the heavens.
Basic spells, little protection wards. Just enough so he didn’t feel like a waste of skin.
But no one wanted to teach him.
Sitting on the bed with his back pressed to the pillow, he drew up his knees and wrapped his arms around them.
“Witches…we don’t figure out that we have any power until we’re about sixteen or eighteen.
And then you’ve got to find a witch to apprentice under and pray he or she doesn’t fucking kill you for the hell of it. ”
“How do you know what you know about witches?”
“My mom.” Fox’s voice dropped to near a whisper. “She was a witch. She told me lots of stories when I was growing up.”
“She couldn’t teach you?”
Fox shook his head. “She died when I was eighteen. Cancer. We didn’t figure out that I was going to take after her until I was seventeen. By then, she was so weak. I learned only a few things. Little things. Like the locks.”
“I’m sorry,” Winter murmured. He reached out and placed his hand over Fox’s foot for a second, squeezing.
It was such a small gesture, but Fox was surprised by how much it helped to push back old pains.
Melanie Turner had also warned her son to stay away from vampires, but he wanted to believe she would have liked Winter.
“What’s the plan?” Fox asked.
Winter pushed to his feet and put the chair he’d been using over at the desk. “For now, my main priority is to keep you out of Damon’s hands and to get to the root of this prophecy nonsense. We need to know the exact wording of the prophecy and who made it.”
“Have you considered that maybe the witch got the wrong person for the prophecy? Or maybe even Damon’s goon picked up the wrong witch?
I mean, think about it. Why me? I am the world’s worst witch.
” Right now, those were the only things that made sense to Fox.
He couldn’t possibly be the reason Winter and his family came to harm.
Winter’s lips dipped into a frown. “I don’t know why they think it’s you, but it doesn’t change anything.
I don’t know who gave the prophecy, so I can’t track down anyone to confirm who the prophecy witch is.
And more importantly, Damon thinks you’re the witch he needs, so that makes you a target.
If he’s right, you’re a threat to my family while you’re with him. And if he’s wrong…”
“Damon would kill me,” Fox mumbled, a chill sliding across his skin. It wasn’t a new idea. He’d been sure Damon meant to kill him all along.
Winter shoved his hands into his pockets, his brow furrowed. “You’re going to stay with me for now. At least until we can deal with Damon.”
Fox snorted, forcing a small smile he didn’t quite feel. “If my choices are you, Damon’s goons, and death, I really don’t have a problem sticking with you,” he teased, ticking each of his options off on his fingers.
The vampire glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. “We’ve got several hours until nightfall. I’m going to catch a few more hours of sleep.” He paused and stared at Fox for several seconds as if he were trying to decide what to do with the witch.
“I’ll behave,” Fox quickly said, holding both of his hands up.
“No need to tie me up if you’re just going to sleep.
We can save it for fun things when we get to your secret lair.
” Not that he meant it. He wasn’t interested in ever being bound again if he could help it.
The teasing just made it a little easier to breathe and made the scary and sexy vampire more manageable.
Winter rolled his eyes before he finished gathering up the food. He pushed the trolley out into the hall and locked the door again.
Pulling back the blankets, Winter settled on the other side of the bed, but he didn’t close his eyes. He just stared up at Fox until the witch finally smiled at him.
“Go to sleep, bloodsucker,” Fox mock ordered. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“As your jailor, I’m a little skeptical.”
Huffing a laugh, Fox scooted down until his head was on the pillow next to Winter’s. He lay on his side, facing the other man. “I prefer to see you as my vampire bodyguard.”
Slowly, Winter’s eyes closed, but there was the ghost of a smile on his lips that tugged ever so slightly at Fox’s heart. “Sounds like a cheesy Hallmark Halloween movie.”
Fox hummed. “And I bet you only watch the sappy Christmas ones.”
Winter didn’t respond. His breathing evened out, and his body slowly relaxed into sleep.
Fox watched him for a long time, loving the way his black hair flowed like a river of midnight across the snowy white pillow.
His long eyelashes were black fans against his pale cheeks, hiding the circles that remained under his eyes.
A worry line still dug between his brows, as if he couldn’t escape all his dark thoughts even in sleep.
Fox had to clench his hands tightly together to keep from reaching out and smoothing his thumb along that line.
Sleeping at last, Fox was stunned at how young Winter looked. He had to have been in his early twenties when he’d been turned, but Fox couldn’t see that while the vampire was awake. There was an energy about him, a weight in his words and in his eyes, that made him feel so much older.
Part of Fox was anxious to get back to his life in Colorado, but it was a small part that he very much refused to listen to.
He wanted to know more about Winter and this family he was so desperate to protect.
When Winter spoke of them, Fox got the impression that he saw them as real family, not just a bunch of vampires in a clan. Were they truly that close?
Fox wouldn’t describe himself as adventurous. Not really. He liked hiking, not rock-climbing. He did a little kayaking, not white-water rafting.
But Winter left him wanting to stick around just a little bit longer to see where this adventure led. At least until he was sure Winter’s clan was safe.