by M. L. Briers
“Can I see it?” Nathaniel asked with a mocking tone that did nothing for her. She wasn’t easily fazed; it was why she and Kirsty got on so well.
“No,” she replied.
“Is it on your person or in your bag?” he asked, trying to get a rise from her.
“If you go in my bag I will turn your hand into a useless stump, and we can time how long it takes you to heal,” she offered in a dry tone and flipped another page.
“An experiment, I do like a woman of science,” he teased, but she ignored him and flipped another page.
“I like a man who knows when to shut up and make himself useful,” she replied, palming a book to her right and sliding it across the tabletop to him.
Nathaniel frowned. He was bored and had thought he could have a little fun teasing the witch to see what she was made of. Apparently, she didn’t tease easily.
He sighed and scooped the book to him, turning it and opening it to the first page. “What am I looking for, eye of newt and tongue of dog?”
“That would be a dinner recipe for a vampire, try the words shifter, wolf, or Lycanthrope,” she said, and she could still feel his gaze on her as she flipped another page.
When he flipped the next page, she snuck a look at him. With a small smile, she went back to doing what she’d been doing, only now there was a part of her that was concentrating on two things at once – just in case.
~
Kirsty could have been looking back at a mirror image of herself, aged fifty years or so in the future. The older witch had the same frame she did, the same cropped short hair, although the elder’s hair was lying flat to her head, and the same colour eyes, and apparently, the same attitude.
“What do you want?” she asked Joe, looking him up and down and deciding that she didn’t like him on her doorstep.
“It’s about the legend,” Kirsty said, sensing that Joe might not have been her favourite person, and that witch-to-witch they might work something out.
“I told him on the phone what I know,” Madeline said and started to push the door closed.
“I’m the one searching for it, tell me, it might ring some bells when I’m looking,” Kirsty said.
“You sent me to her,” Joe added.
Madeline cocked her head to one side and snorted. “So, you’re of my bloodline?” she said, and that was news to Kirsty.
“I…?”
“I searched for a witch from the family tree, and the spirits gave me you,” Madeline said. “Don’t sweat it; it doesn’t mean we’re going to be friends.”
“Not with that attitude,” Kirsty said and heard a grunt from her companion. But, she was a firm believer in speaking her mind, and just because they were allegedly related, that wasn’t going to stop her.
Madeline snorted a chuckle. “You have the family spark and the ‘don’t give a hoot’ attitude; I’ll give you that,” she said. “You can come him – he can sit and guard the door like a good puppy,” she added.
Joe opened his mouth to speak, but Kirsty nudged him over and headed inside. “Stay!” she tossed back over her shoulder and heard a low, deep growl follow her into the house.
The sound of the witches chuckling did nothing for his ego, and when the door was slammed shut in his face by magic, that did little for his pride. “Witches,” he grumbled, turning and taking in the view.
~
Kirsty set down the mugs on the small kitchen table and slide onto the chair opposite the elder. Madeline had told her to make the tea, and she had, but she was looking for answers and teabags didn’t provide those.
“I wanted you to make the tea, so you knew I hadn’t spelled it with anything,” Madeline said, spooning in sugar from the little bowl.
In truth, Kirsty hadn’t thought of that; she’d just taken the elder at face value. “About the spell…”
“Now hold your horses, I’m not even sure there is a spell, but I’m pretty certain there is a legend in those books. My sister came across it years ago and mentioned it,” Madeline said.
“Why did you call on a bloodline witch to help them?” It had been bugging Kirsty since the moment Madeline had said it.
“Because our family has a history of being mated to their pack,” Madeline stopped talking and sighed. “Not you too,” she grumbled, taking in the look on Kirsty’s face. “I’m truly sorry for your fate. It was a risk I have never been willing to take, hence why I live here,” she said.
“What’s one distant relative throwing another under the bus,” Kirsty tossed back with a shrug.
“You’re more like my sister; she accepted her fate. I ran a mile and wouldn’t go anywhere near that pack again,” Madeline informed her.
“So, you never knew if you were a mate?”
“Gosh no,” Madeline said, sipping her tea.
“That sounds kind of – sad,” Kirsty said.
Madeline snorted a chuckle. “I was a headstrong witch and nobody, not even a mate, could have handled my wicked ways back then…”
“And now?”
“Too old and set in my ways to care,” Madeline admitted. Then she gazed out through the window. “Although I do wonder.” Then she snapped her attention right back to Kirsty. “The legend was in a grey book, and there was a black squiggle on the front corner…”
“That I didn’t know,” Kirsty said, yanking her phone out and sending a text to Erin.
“Men never listen,” Madeline said. “The legend says the spell – if you find it – can only be performed by someone in our bloodline.”
“Hence throwing me under the mating bus,” Kirsty said.
“Better you than I,” Madeline said. “At my age, I don’t have the stamina or the willpower to go through the wooing, let alone the mating. If it didn’t kill me, then I’d probably kill him.”
Kirsty couldn’t help but chuckle. She liked the elder already, and she could see her family tree was full of smartasses. “Do you know anything else about the spell or the legend?”
“Times three,” Madeline said. “Blood times three – that’s all I know.”
“Blood times three, that sounds…”
“Messy,” Madeline said and chuckled into her mug.
Kirsty hated to do it, but she needed to leave. “I have to go now, but can I come back and see you?”
Madeline looked relieved. “That would be nice. Right or wrong, I did sentence myself to a life alone, and with my sister gone…” She snapped to attention. “I’d like that; maybe we could swap spells.”
“Sounds good,” Kirsty said, and it did.
The thing that played on her mind as she left the elder and walked back outside was her words; I did sentence myself to a life alone.
“Anything?” Joe asked, sounding hopeful.
“Oh yeah,” Kirsty said, and she didn’t just mean on the spell front. Then she punched him in the arm, and he pulled back looking surprised. “Next time, listen when an elder speaks,” she scolded him. “A squiggle!” she said and started for the car.
Joe didn’t know what that meant, but he was sure he was going to hear more about it on the drive home.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
Erin flipped the book over that Nathaniel was flicking through and then snatched it away. “Not that one,” she said, starting to go cover to cover through the books looking for a damn squiggle.
“Am I missing something?” he asked, watching her devour the stack.
“A brain – a heart – a soul?” she offered back without thinking.
“Let’s not forget a wolf,” he said, but it wasn’t what he said but how he said it that brought her attention to him.
Erin felt a flash of guilt because he looked downcast. She hadn’t meant to stamp on his feelings; in truth, she saw him as a sexy, smartass vampire, and not someone who would be bothered by her jibe. “That was mean, and I apologise.”
“Well…”
“No time to rake over the coals, I need to find a squiggle!” she informed him,
pushing to her feet and starting for the door.
“Is that like an elf or more like a vole?” he asked, following on behind her. She seemed to know what she was looking for, and he wasn’t about to be left in the dark.
Erin chuckled as she took the stairs two at a time well aware that he was hard on her heels. Obviously, he could have gotten to Kirsty’s bedroom a lot faster than she could, but he kept with her. “It’s a squiggly mark on the cover of the book that we need,” she informed him, dashing down the long hallway and into the bedroom.
“Let’s hope we find it,” he replied.
They both started to go through Kirsty’s pile of books. “Eureka!” he said, holding out the book for her, and Erin raised her eyebrows, took a deep breath, and snatched it right up.
The book hit the desk, and she started flicking through the pages, nothing, nothing, nothing… “Eureka times two!” she said, hopping on the spot with glee as she found the page.
“What’s it say?” Nathaniel asked as Erin devoured what had been written so long ago.
Then she brought her eyes to his and swallowed down hard. “Wolf blood, vampire blood, and witch blood,” she said. “And some other stuff.”
“Seems like we have all three,” he said.
“And,” she looked a little reluctant to tell him. “The spell needs to be performed by a Denleigh witch.” She offered him a look of sympathy.
“Denleigh,” Nathaniel said. That name rang a bell, but he didn’t know why. “I’m sure we can find one of those lying around somewhere,” he said, looking downcast again.
“Sure, why not?” Erin said, feeling sorry for the guy, and catching herself doing it. She frowned.
It was a strange day when she found herself rooting for a vampire.
~
Joe knew they were close to home, and he hadn’t tried to start a conversation with her yet, because of her weird mood, but if not now then when? “Now can we have a conversation…?”
“You let me go through all of those books until I was cross-eyed and yet all I needed to look for was a squiggle on the front cover, men don’t listen,” Kirsty said and tossed up her hands.
“I’m listening now,” Joe said, and he didn’t recall Madeline mentioning a squiggle, and he had been listening. But sometimes you just had to let things go to get where you needed to be – this was one of those times.
“I find that hard to believe,” she sniped back. She wasn’t mad at him, not really, but they had wasted time and energy. When her phone pinged, she read the text. “They found it!”
Joe felt the rush of relief. Finally, something was going right in his life, now he hoped the rest would fall into place behind it, but what were the odds?
When he shot a look at her he was held transfixed, she was glowing with happiness, the smile on her face was like a rainbow after the hard rain, and he had to wonder when she’d become so invested in his brother’s future.
Maybe it was the lure of the spell, or perhaps she did actually care, but whatever it was he was grateful for it. “Hello!” she snapped and waved absently at the road in front of them.
Joe snapped to attention and turned to see that he’d drifted across the road. Damn, that wasn’t good, and he told himself to get a grip as he swerved back and cursed under his breath.
Being bewitched by his mate had its downside, and it could have got her killed. His beast offered him a warning growl, and he accepted it with shame. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“I’d like to get back in one piece as I’m the witch that needs to perform the spell; I would think you’d want to keep me alive a little longer,” Kirsty said.
“You’re also my mate, and the last thing I would willingly do was endanger you,” he informed her. “You could try to kill me…”
“All bets are off on that one,” she replied.
“And I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop you,” he said, ignoring her threat.
“Good to know,” she said, turning to look out of the passenger window. She couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips, but that didn’t mean she had to flaunt it. “Bet you’d hit me with those sad puppy dog eyes though,” she muttered, forgetting that wolf shifters had excellent hearing.
“Puppy dog eyes?” Joe asked and heard her groan.
“That was not meant for your wolf ears,” she scolded him like he’d been eavesdropping on a private conversation or something.
“Puppy dog eyes and wolf ears, anything else?” he asked, amused.
“I’ll let you know.”
“You’ll have long enough to pick fault with me,” he said, tossing that out there and seeing what came of it. When she stayed silent, he knew he’d hit a nerve. “Cat got your tongue?” he teased and snatched a look at her just when she was offering him a death glare.
“Better than a wolf biting off my whole head,” she replied.
“You’re scared of my wolf?” Joe’s beast gave a sorrowful moan.
“What? No!” she exclaimed. “Well, if I didn’t know you then I wouldn’t want to meet it on a dark night and not knowing it was who it was.”
“Just in case?”
“Of course,” she replied. “They don’t say hungry like the wolf for no reason.”
“But you know my wolf would never…”
“Hurt me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I know that now, but I wouldn’t have known it then, right?”
“When?”
“When we met down a dark alley…”
“We didn’t meet down a dark alley…”
“Well, technically you and I were in a dark alley when we met,” she said and shrugged.
“I’m confused,” Joe admitted.
“I’m not far behind you,” she muttered.
“If only that were true,” he said, thinking that they weren’t even to the kissing part of their wooing and he’d known her a while now.
Hell, they’d even shared a roof for the night – admittedly it was his brother’s roof, and neither had slept.
“Huh?”
“Oh look, Nate’s place,” he said, pointing ahead and seeing his brother’s house in the near distance.
“I think we’re talking at cross purposes,” she said and eyed him with suspicion. He caught that look and tossed back an innocent one of his own.
“I think we should move on to the topic of us…”
“I think we should concentrate on getting your brother’s wolf back, if possible, find out who is causing the trouble in your pack, and make life normal again.”
“Life as we knew it is…”
“Oh look,” she said, pointing ahead. “You’re trying to kill me again.”
Joe corrected the car on the road and cursed his lapse in concentration. She seemed to have that effect on him, and it could be problematic moving forward. “You are distracting,” he muttered.
“Say what?”
“You were saying?” he asked.
“I wasn’t,” Kirsty said, frowning. At least, she didn’t think she was, but he was confusing and distracting.
Just sitting beside him made her body hyper-aware that he was close, maybe a little too close for comfort, but what was she going to do – walk? That wasn’t an option she could get behind.
“Me either,” he said, dodging that bullet. “Unless you want to talk about us…”
“Nope, I’m good,” Kirsty shot back.
She thought there had been enough chit-chat between them, and Kirsty knew that she couldn’t keep the subject at bay forever, but distracting him with other things in the meantime would have to do.
Mates – dang, she was still trying to get her head around that, and his proximity wasn’t helping.
I did sentence myself to a life alone – Madeline’s words came back to haunt her once again, and she bit down on the sudden need to jump out of the moving car and run for the hills. At the same time, those words started to play on a loop within her mind, and Kirsty knew one thing was certain – by the end of
this she would either be mated or go insane.
She wasn’t sure which one she was rooting for.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“It’s right here, but there seems to be something missing,” Erin said, pushing the book across the table to Kirsty when she rushed into the room with Joe following on behind. “We can do most of the ingredients right off the bat,” she shot a look at Nathaniel. “No bats included,” she said and offered him a look of mock horror before she snapped on a beaming smile.
“But some witch blood,” he replied, and watched her smile turn into a scowl.
“Watch it,” Erin hissed.
Kirsty noted the slight tension in the room as she looked up from the book and rolled her eyes. “My blood,” she said, putting her finger on the page and feeling the magic woven into the ink reach back for her. “Whoa!”
Erin snapped a look down to the page, and she whistled with disbelief. The empty section of the text was writing itself. Amazing. “Sneaky is as sneaky does, and whatever witch wrote that was as sneaky as they come.”
“That’s kind of creepy,” Nathaniel said.
“It’s so cool,” Erin said, wondering at whoever had written that spell taking the precaution to cloak a part of it.
Nathaniel snorted a chuckle. “What? Out of your magical league?”
“It’s just a simple cloaking spell,” Kirsty said.
“But it took you to unlock it,” Erin informed her. “I touched that, and it didn’t open for me.”
“That’s because she’s of the bloodline of the witches that wrote it,” Joe informed them.
Erin looked lost. “How’d that happen?”
“Madeline called for a relative, and here I am,” Kirsty said with a shrug.
“So it’s your finger to unlock the spell, and your blood to make it work?” Erin asked.
“It appears your witch mate was doubly destined to be here,” Nathaniel said.
Joe swiped a hand across his throat with a small shake of his head. “Let’s not mention the whole … you know?”