by AJ Renee
“I followed you home to make sure you didn’t get in any trouble.”
“You disappeared before I left. How did you follow me home?”
“No, I didn’t. We can’t vanish into thin air, Brandy. I merely hid my presence from you, a simple charm when you don’t wish to be seen.”
She found it both disturbing and super cool. How many times could she have used it when she had been in trouble with her dad? Or when her brothers wouldn’t let her go out with them?
“I went to the café today to see how out of control your powers are. Clearly, you don’t have a rein on them—”
“Hey!”
He merely raised a brow and continued, ignoring her indignation. “The amount of tubars, lemures, weres, and other supernaturals hanging around your block was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“Monkeys are hanging around the café?”
Ryan shook his head and ran a hand over his head. “No… Lemures are spirits. You are thinking lemurs, and they aren’t monkeys anyway. They’re primates.”
“They’re not?”
His rich chuckle made her breath catch.
“Why are you laughing at me?”
“Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just—” Ryan stopped and sighed. “I expected this conversation to go differently.”
“You’re the one bringing up primates and ghosts,” she said and drank from her water, hoping it would cool her suddenly hot skin.
When he only stared at her as if she were a Rubik’s cube he needed to solve, she asked, “What did you mean by weres?”
“Exactly what you think it is. Werewolves are the most common around here. They can maintain their human form regardless of the moon’s state. Alphas and betas can shed their skin for their fur easier than others, but not all of them are safe, so stay clear of them.”
Brandy’s brows knit together as she pondered his words. “How do you know they’re weres if they are in human form?”
“Each supernatural being has a fingerprint per se. You recognized the tubar in the café easily enough. I’m sure now you recognize their stench of rotting flesh. They can shift their features, but they can’t change how they smell. It’s not on a human’s olfactory level. Weres have their own thing. They smell like the earth, or you could say dirt. They’re also carnivorous, so they like to eat their steak extra bloody.”
“Wait, so all those people who love their meat rare are—”
“No, not all. Weres hide a little better than the others since animals are great at blending in with their environment.”
Ryan became lost in thought as he stared out the window. Brandy’s brain tried to process all the new information. Ghosts, werewolves, and demons… Somehow, she was feeling calm for someone who learned the supernatural really did exist.
With his back toward her, she studied him. His dark hair needed to be cut. The jeans he wore were worn in but formed nicely to his butt, one she wanted to grab and dig her nails into.
“Why?” The word escaped her dry mouth. She needed to bring her attention back to what was going on.
He faced her. “Why what?”
“Why are you helping me? Why do you care?” Brandy asked and paced the small space between her kitchen and living room.
Ryan walked to the couch and sat. He scrubbed his face before looking at her. “Am I right in saying things got weird for you a couple weeks ago?”
She mentally counted the days and nodded. “Yeah, since my birthday.”
He looked her up and down. The first swipe of his eyes was calculating, but the second was like a caress. “Twenty-first?” The number came out thick before his eyes moved to his linked hands.
Brandy stopped a few feet from him. “Yeah, how did you know that?”
“It’s a popular age for receiving powers when they’ve been bound.”
She thought of her mother’s letter and needed to sit down.
She moved to the farthest end from Ryan and pulled her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. It was her turn to get lost in thought as they sat in a comfortable silence, only feet from each other.
“Look,” Ryan said after a while. “You wanted to know why?”
She nodded and put her chin on her arms wrapped around her knees.
“A couple weeks ago, this neighborhood was different. I’d see something occasionally, but since you got your powers… It’s like you’re drawing them in.”
Her head popped up. “I’m not doing anything! I never asked for any of this!” Her heart raced, and the curtains started opening and closing again.
“Brandy! You need to control it. You may not have asked for it—neither did I—but you have it.”
“I don’t know how!” she snapped, and tears stung her eyes. Squeezing them shut, she listened as the cabinets joined in the chaos happening around her. “I tried! I really tried, but I don’t know how to control this. I’m a freak!”
The couch shifted a little, and she sensed Ryan as he walked around. “Wow… you’re unbelievable,” he whispered. She lifted her head and looked at him at the sound of awe in his voice.
“Unbelievably awful at being a witch? Yes, I agree…” she told him and laid her head back down. Emotions swirled around her, and thousands of bolts of electricity wrapped themselves around her skin. The current was the strongest she’d felt since it started happening. Then again, this was the most upset she had been.
Ryan sat on the couch, closer this time by the shift in weight, and she squeezed her eyes tightly.
Pop!
“Holy shit,” Ryan said.
Curious at what else she was doing, she lifted her head. He sat about a foot from her with one hand in the air between them as he stared at his other palm.
“What?”
He glanced from his hand to her a few times. “I can’t touch you.”
“What?” she asked and placed a hand on his shoulder. A spark of static electricity zapped her fingers when she pressed on his jacket. “I’m touching you just fine. What are you talking about now?”
“I’ve never seen this happen before. It’s like there was this force field around you. That pop you heard?”
“Yeah?”
He pointed at his hand still in the air. “That happened right about here. I…” His cheeks flushed, and his eyes darted downward. Ryan cleared his throat and continued. “I was going to put my arm around your shoulders to comfort you. Only, I couldn’t.”
Her brows pulled together as she processed his words. He studied her, and it made her feel like more of a freak. “I can’t even do the weird, out-of-control witchy things right.”
Brandy was scared and defeated. He was the only person who knew anything about what she was going through, and she surprised even him.
The noises in the room became louder, and Ryan put his hand on her knee and yelped. “Stop!”
She wanted to scream, howl at him. She had been given no instructions, and the more agitated and scared she became, the worse it got. She was like the silly gift of a can of worms. Someone had removed her lid, and she couldn’t figure out how to put it all back in.
He grabbed her hand and hissed, his jaw tight with pain. “Breathe… take a deep breath and breathe.” He turned his body toward her. “Look at me and focus on the cabinets.” He bit the words out through clenched teeth.
She hated that he was in pain because of her inability to control her powers. At first her mind and body could only focus on the feel of his hand against hers. It was warm and surprisingly smooth.
Ryan came off as a man who worked with his hands, but his skin said otherwise. Whenever she went to get pedicures, Greg enjoyed getting a manicure and pedicure too. She couldn’t imagine Ryan enjoying them.
“Ow!” he yelped. “Whatever those thoughts were, can you wait until I’m not in shocking distance?”
“Sorry!” She squealed and sucked in a deep breath. Brandy closed her eyes and rubbed her thumb along his skin. She inhaled again and imagined th
e cabinets as they had been before her powers.
“Good,” he whispered, and she could smell his peppermint gum. “Curtains…”
She nodded and focused on slowing her breath once again. In a few minutes, she managed to right her apartment to its motionless state. It left her holding hands with Ryan in the quiet room. She watched her thumb graze back and forth across his skin, a warm tingly heat moving between their hands.
She was exhausted. The energy it took to make everything go crazy and then turn around and stop it had drained her. Her eyelids were heavy, and if not for her state, she would never have curled into Ryan’s warm body.
She sighed and let it all go.
Chapter 7
Ryan heard her sigh as her head pressed against his shoulder. Her slow, even breaths told him she’d given in to the exhaustion that came with a power surge. Unsure of what to do, he forced himself to remain still.
He should lay her down and leave, but he couldn’t force himself to walk out. Instead, he stared at their intertwined hands—hers looking so small in his larger one. His thumb ran along her knuckles, and he could feel the invisible thread connecting one palm to the other.
Looking around her apartment, he noted how much bigger it was than his. Feminine touches made the space feel like a home rather than a place to rest. Her presence alone brought out emotions he never thought he would feel.
For the longest time, he had told himself—no, lied to himself—that keeping relationships with women strictly to physical was the way to go, but everything had changed the moment he laid eyes on her. After their official meeting in the alley, he’d told himself to avoid her and her neighborhood, but he was an idiot.
“Mmmm…” she muttered and curled into him more.
Ryan scooted down and wrapped his arm around her, careful not to wake her. Brandy’s cheek rested against his chest, and he sighed. She was where she belonged, something he didn’t want to admit to anyone, especially not to himself.
Their magnetic pull was too strong. She had invaded his thoughts and dreams at every turn since the moment he saw her. It only became worse with each passing day.
Laying his head back on the top of the couch, he held her to him. His mind argued what he was doing was a big mistake, while his heart warmed with the feel of her pressed against him. Shutting down all emotions, he gave in to the feeling and closed his eyes.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d fallen asleep for. What he did know was that he was hungry, he was hard with the need to pee, and there was a hand awfully close to his hard-on. It only took him a quick peek around the room to know he was still at Brandy’s. She’d slipped down, her head resting partially on his stomach and her hand a couple inches from his now-throbbing dick.
Down, boy, he thought to himself.
After grabbing a nearby pillow, he maneuvered the switch easily enough. Once he was satisfied she was comfortable and still asleep, he looked for the bathroom and relieved himself. Ryan walked around taking in the apartment. He found a picture pinned to the fridge of a group of smiling men, sharing familial traits, huddled around the beautiful woman on the couch, and he saw a small stack of mail on the corner of her kitchen counter. The place was clean and neat, very much like its owner.
Staring at her bed, he wondered what she slept in. Did anyone share the bed with her? Did she touch herself? Ryan groaned at the last thought and shook his head. The sounds of vibration drew his attention to the living room. It was perfect timing—before he stayed in her bedroom longer than he should. Adjusting himself, he went in search of the device. He grabbed his phone and found a message from Peter.
Peter: You’re late.
Ryan: Won’t be coming in.
Peter: Everything okay?
Ryan thought about it and realized how complicated the answer was for him. He admired her sleeping form and rubbed his solar plexus. He was doing a piss-poor job of staying away from her.
Peter: You’re with her, aren’t you?
Peter: You’re fucked.
Ryan read his friend’s text and sighed. Glancing between the beautiful woman and the door, he told himself to get out of there. He didn’t need to be there. Hell, for all he knew, a man would be walking into the apartment at any point to claim her.
The thought alone made his blood boil. She was his… no one else’s. The idea of staking his claim scared him, but the idea of losing her devastated him beyond logic.
Chapter 8
Cologne and incense.
The two scents assaulted her. She recognized the smell, but they were different than what she associated with Greg. Her cheek was warm, and a heavy arm was wrapped around her shoulders.
Blinking carefully, she saw a pizza box on the coffee table. Memories of her apartment coming to life, thanks to her utter lack of control over her powers, rushed her. And then…
Ryan.
Her eyes popped open, and she recognized his worn-in jeans.
“Hello, sunshine…” he said, his voice husky.
Brandy sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
“Don’t apologize. You crashed after expending so much energy. When you use your powers, you need to remember they’re like a battery. You can drain a battery if you use it too much and don’t charge it.” He leaned forward, his elbows to his knees before looking at her. “Do you feel better?”
“Yeah, but I’m still tired.” Glancing at her watch, she gasped. “That can’t be right.”
“What?”
“My watch, it says it’s tomorrow.” Brandy looked at her windows and noted the darkness.
“Nope. You’ve been out for twenty-four hours.”
“What?” she shrieked and frantically searched for her phone. She found it next to him. “Oh my God, work!” She lunged forward to grab the phone so she could call them, but he caught her.
“Hey! Calm down, you don’t have the energy to have another power surge.” His stern words were filled with concern.
She looked around and noticed a few items in the air. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply. When he’d asked how she felt, her answer wasn’t a lie. She was spent. After two more breaths, the items dropped.
“I called your job and told them you came down with the flu,” he said, his grip loosening but his hot skin still on hers.
When they looked at each other, she nodded. “Thank you—wait, you’ve been here the whole time?”
A shadow crossed his face. “You crashed harder than any witch I’ve met. Leaving would have left you vulnerable and unable to protect yourself.”
Her eyes darted to the doorframe and back. He had put a protection spell on her door. Was he lying about it or about staying? Either way, he’d lied. She wasn’t sure why, but her instinct said he did want her safe.
“You ordered pizza?” she asked, pulling from him.
Ryan gave her a sheepish look. “I got hungry. I can order another one if you want.”
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she opened the box. “You ate it all?”
He shrugged. “I was hungry. I’ll order us another one.” Reaching out, Ryan handed her her phone. “Your family’s been trying to get a hold of you. When you didn’t show up at work, your employee called them. Go on and check everything while I place an order.”
Her nerves spiked as she unlocked the screen. Brandy inwardly cringed when she spotted the twenty-two missed calls from Junior, three from Ethan, and two from Max, with another hundred texts in their family’s group chat. “Shit…” she whispered to herself as she scrolled through all the notifications.
“They love you. You need to keep them away from here though. I’m assuming they don’t know about your family secret?” he asked, leaning back into the couch and crossing an ankle over his knee. He looked incredibly comfortable… like he belonged on her couch.
Shaking the thought away, she met his gaze. “No. They have no clue. At least, I don’t have any reason to think otherwise.”
; Brandy’s thumbs flew over her keypad as she sent texts to cool her family from their concerns and another to Erika letting her know the “fever” had broken. When she finished, she set her phone on the table and sat back, her shoulder touching his.
She did not understand her pull to this man. The longer she was around him, it had less to do with the fact that he was the only person she could talk to. She was attracted to him, but he comforted her with his presence alone. An inexplicable feeling within her demanded she stay by his side.
“Can I ask you something?” she whispered, hearing exhaustion in her voice.
“What?”
“How long have you had your powers?”
Ryan uncrossed his legs and sat forward. “Since I was born. I’m going to make us some tea. It will help you bounce back faster.”
She watched him move to her kitchen with ease. Scooting over, she used the arm of the couch as a pillow. Ryan’s distinct smell marked the fabric. She breathed him in, then sighed.
“Your powers are attached to your emotions,” he said, filling the electric kettle before setting it to heat water. “Once you can get a handle on them, then you won’t have to worry about turning the area around you into a gravity-free zone.”
“That’s easier said than done,” she mumbled. “Are you a warlock if I’m a witch?” She needed to turn the conversation away from herself.
“No. We’re all witches, regardless of our gender.” He opened different cabinets until he found her stash of mugs.
“Can someone who isn’t born with powers be a witch?”
“Can a person be a werewolf without changing forms?” he asked as she heard him tear open a bag of tea.
She thought about it for a moment. “Based on my TV werewolf knowledge, I’d guess no.”
Ryan chuckled. “Correct. Someone can pretend to be a witch, but they won’t have our powers. Sure, they can screw around with enchantments, but they won’t achieve anything except attracting the attention of something they don’t want.”
“Like a tubar?”