CHAPTER 2 #2
I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe for us to give Carly one last chance, to offer her up her life in exchange for reversing the spell.
At the very least, I figured we would talk about it among ourselves, so I wasn’t ready when Amy reached out and jerked Carly’s head to the right.
The sound of the witch’s neck snapping ricocheted through the alley like a gunshot.
Kevin let go, and I stood ramrod straight, frozen in shock as Carly’s lifeless body slid to the ground.
No one else around me so much as batted an eye.
Kevin lifted his phone and made a call as if a young woman weren’t lying lifeless at his feet.
The blond enforcer beside me grumbled about his ruined shirt.
Amy’s face was stone cold as she turned away from the body. In that moment, the resemblance to her mother was uncanny. “Leave her here for the witches to find.”
Michael’s complete lack of remorse after killing that vampire began to make sense. Or at least it didn’t seem as psychotic as it once had. I’d taken part in two murders in a week. How much violence and death had he seen over the course of his lifetime?
I turned toward the mouth of the alley, feeling a tug on my psyche. A second later, a dark SUV parked at the curb. Michael was inside it. He hadn’t called anyone else. Instead, he’d left his office and raced here. I’d felt him drawing closer almost from the moment I hung up on him.
The passenger side door opened, and out stepped a short, compact man with striking features dressed in a charcoal-gray suit.
I looked him over on reflex, inspecting every inch of him.
His broad shoulders were set in a hard line.
Brown eyes swept over the scene before them, sharp and assessing.
As I watched, he lifted a hand and tightened his tie.
Then he dropped his focus and fixed his cuffs.
Finally, he smoothed back hair that was already flawless.
Only then did he look at me, just a quick flick of his eyes, but an eternity seemed to pass as our gazes met.
“Amy,” he said, striding toward his sister. His movements were smooth and sure, as commanding as his expression. Not so much as a ripple marred his calm surface, while deep beneath the depths, a tempest raged that only I could feel.
“Michael,” Amy said. She looked like she wanted to hug him, as any sister might her big brother in these circumstances, yet they held themselves stiffly apart.
“How badly are you hurt?” he asked her.
“I don’t know.” She cast a look over her shoulder at the body. “That bitch did something to the baby.”
He lifted an arm and held it out behind her, not quite touching. With his free hand, he indicated the waiting SUV. “Come.”
Kevin stepped up beside me as they made their way toward the vehicle. “There was nothing you could have done,” he said, voice low enough that only I would hear it. “The witch signed her death warrant the moment she attacked a Kolbeck.”
I nodded, my mind a jumble of thoughts. There must have been something I could have done.
Something someone could have done that wouldn’t have ended in another death.
For all the wolves and the witches claimed to not want a war, they sure were marching headlong toward one. First Bonnie, and now this.
What the hell had Carly been thinking, attacking a member of the Kolbeck clan in broad daylight in the middle of wolf territory? It seemed less fanatical and more suicidal. Or had that been the point? Did her splinter sect of witches want a war, and Carly had only been the spark meant to ignite it?
I glanced at Michael’s retreating back. He might be twenty feet away, but it felt as if an ocean separated us, and I’d been cut loose on a life raft without a paddle.
What was it Mom said before I left the first time?
Don’t let the big city make you jaded? So much for that.
I hated the fact that it had taken less than a week for the paranoia of this place to infect me.
That I looked for hidden meanings within hidden meanings and plots within plots.
I longed to return to the silence and wilderness of New Hampshire, but at the thought of actually following through, a sharp spike of panic lanced through my mind.
What the hell was happening to me?
Michael’s low voice echoed through the alley, snapping me out of my troubled thoughts. “Layla?”
“I’m coming,” I said, forcing my feet forward.
Michael glanced past me, toward Kevin. “Rendezvous back at base when you’ve finished here.”
Kevin nodded and started snapping orders at the other guards.
My movements were stiff as I made my way to the SUV. Through the open door, I caught sight of Ronald at the helm. Michael made some subtle movement toward me as I passed him, and I flinched away. I felt like I was made of glass, and one touch might shatter me.
I climbed into the back seat and pressed myself against the far door.
Amy sat in the front, her arms wrapped protectively around her belly.
Her scent filled the car. It was still tinged with pain, but the panic had abated, and she and the baby’s heartbeats had evened out like they were already healing.
Looked like Bonnie hadn’t been lying after all. Lucky for us.
Michael closed Amy’s door and got into the back with me.
He held himself stiffly, clearly uncomfortable.
I felt the same. Even though I was as irritated with him as he was with me, the desire to reach out and reassure myself that he was okay was overwhelming.
I wanted to sink my hands into his hair, bury my nose in his neck.
With the windows rolled up like this, I felt like I could choke on his scent.
We’d only been apart a couple of hours, but it felt like days.
For the hundredth time, I cursed the bond. It clouded my thoughts and confused my instincts, made me act out of character in ways that put all of us at risk.