Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
There had been a fire at the coven-house.
"When?" Elise asked. Everything had been fine before she and Nico were taken. Tense, sure, but the place had been all in one piece.
"Austin and his fucking band of bozos." Serena kicked at a piece of charred debris on the floor.
"It's done now." Briana moved toward the damaged wall, assessing it with a critical eye. "Let's just get this cleaned up as best we can."
It was close to two a.m. Elise was tired down to the depths of her bones, but she and her sisters started using magic to clean up the worst of the water damage, siphoning it up into buckets and out of the house until the walls and floors were bone dry and any idea of mold had evaporated.
The back entrance was more of a problem.
The fire had caused structural damage to the doorway, and it would take a lot more magic than it was worth to fix it. They settled for boarding up the door with some spare wood they found in the garage. Briana said something about calling a contractor in the morning.
They ended up in the kitchen, which almost looked okay now. Aya offered to make a pot of coffee.
"I'm not drinking any coffee right now." Elise slumped into one of the kitchen chairs. "I would like to sleep for about a week."
"Only a week?" Serena dropped into the seat beside her. "I'm sleeping for a month."
"You all are amateurs." Delainey folded her arms on the table and laid her head down. "I'm sleeping for a year."
"You all are weird," Aya muttered. They all laughed.
But then it turned more serious.
"Thank you for saving me and Nico." Elise traced a finger along the edge of the table. She couldn't force herself to look up and meet anyone's gaze. "Especially after they did this to our home."
"You don't ever have to thank us for saving you." said Aya. "That's our job. We're your coven."
Elise had to look down as emotion roiled inside of her. "I wasn't really sure of that for a while there."
"Get over it! Yeah, yeah, you're special, you're dating a werewolf." Delainey waved her hand dismissively. "You have to be all different and rebellious, just like you always are."
"Since when am I always rebellious?" Elise looked up, genuinely confused.
That was not the reputation she was carrying around, as far as she knew. Everyone thought she was the innocent little angel who never got into trouble or did anything against the rules.
Serena burst out laughing. "What are you talking about? You're always rebelling."
"You left your parents' coven," Aya pointed out.
"You sneak into the zoo." Briana pulled out a chair and sat down across from Elise. "Yes, we know about that. I think you heal the animals?"
Delainey grinned. "And you secretly started dating a werewolf and are now trying to fundamentally change how our society functions so you can keep having sex with him."
"I would say it's about a little more than just having sex with him." Elise crossed her arms. If it was just about sex, she could have found somebody else.
They all rolled their eyes.
"But speaking of that, one of you put a tracking spell on him when you kidnapped him, which was really uncool, guys." Elise straightened. "You don't get to kidnap him. And I would appreciate it if you could lift it."
She met each of the coven members' gazes and waited for one of them to fess up.
Finally, Serena slowly raised her hand. "That was me. It was just a precaution in case he got away, which I will remind you he did because of you—not cool. The coven is supposed to work together and back each other up."
"Not when they kidnapped my boyfriend!"
Serena waved at her dismissively. "How did that happen anyway?" she asked. "How did you get him past the spell? 'Cause I didn't feel it break, it's still going, it's just not triggered, and it's actually been giving me kind of a headache lately." She rubbed her temple.
Elise shrugged. "I held his hand to get him through the ward downstairs and then through the house's defenses. And then once I realized the tracking spell was there, I kept holding his hand."
"You are going to kill us with all of this gross cuteness that you keep doing." Delainey groaned and covered her face with her hands.
"Okay, but you're not holding his hand anymore." Serena leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
This seemed even bigger than admitting she was dating a werewolf. "I put a spark of my magic inside of him to fool the spell into thinking he was part of the coven."
Serena's mouth dropped open, and even Briana had to blink a few times as she took that in.
"He let you do that to him?" Delainey sat up straighter.
"Does he understand that you could—" Aya cut herself off, leaving the question hanging in the air.
"I told him I could use it against him, but I wouldn't because I love him."
Delainey groaned again and let her head fall back.
Serena flicked her hand in the air, and a pulse of magic burst in the room. "There, I let go of the tracking spell." Serena settled back in her chair. "Your boyfriend will be safe now."
"Thank you." Elise smiled, and warmth spread through her chest. She hoped that maybe, eventually, the coven might actually accept him more than grudgingly.
She yawned, and it was quickly echoed around the kitchen. The early hour and the cost of all the magic they'd used was finally getting to them.
Elise stood. "I'm going to bed."
But before she could leave the kitchen, Delainey stopped her. "Hey, it really is good to have you back."
Elise smiled and went to bed.