by Cece Rose
They finally tear themselves apart, and I watch her leave his cabin, still grinning with flushed cheeks. She waves him off as she walks away, and I hear the sound of his door closing shut. Knowing she’s now alone, I throw a glamour over myself, masking my appearance as one of the mongrels from his pack as I step out into the path. It’s illegal magic, but it’s not as if the law applies to me.
“Hey,” I call, waving my hand casually at Kayla. She turns, blinking at me in surprise as she faces me.
“Hi,” she greets hesitantly, looking around as if she’s wondering if I’m talking to someone else. I force an easy-gong smile onto my face.
“You’re Kayla, right? Darren’s mate?” I ask, keeping my tone as casual as possible. The flush deepens in her cheeks.
“I am Kayla, but I wouldn’t exactly say that. We’re just dating, it’s not a big deal,” she answers.
“Really?” I push surprise into my voice. “Shifters don’t really just date.”
“What do you mean?” Her expression furrows in confusion. It’s kind of cute, in a weird way. “I mean, everyone knows shifters get around,” she adds, as if trying to reassure herself. I smother a grin. I knew I was right. She’s as fleeting with commitment as I am.
“You’re not wrong about that. But that’s all they do. Shifters will sleep with anyone and everyone until they meet the one, and then boom, commitment for life. Romantic, huh?” I reply, watching the horror etching across her face.
“But what about casual dating? I mean, everyone knows shifters eventually mate for life, but surely they date around first. Go through a few relationships and test the waters?” she questions, the horror and confusion on her face already turning to worry. It’s a look I decide I dislike on her, but I continue, knowing this is bound to happen sooner or later anyway. I’m just pushing things along before anyone gets really hurt.
“A week or two maybe. Anything over that and you’re verging into forever territory.” I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket, but I ignore it. It can wait.
“Shit,” she breaths, slapping a hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she says, cringing. “It’s just a little alien to me, I guess. Witches aren’t anything like that.”
“Oh, I bet.”
She casts a nervous glance between the cabins and the road, and I can practically see the gears turning in her head as she realises what she must do.
“I need to go now,” she says quietly. I’m not sure if she’s talking to me anymore or herself.
“Nice to meet you, Kayla,” I call, as she begins turning, seeming to have forgotten I even exist in her hurry to get away.
“Nice to meet you, too,” she replies over her shoulder, forcing as a fake, slightly embarrassed smile as she speed walks away.
I lean against a tree, watching her figure fade into the distance as she heads for the road. I’ll give it a few weeks, and then I’ll make my move. I will have my fun, get my ring, then, when I’m done, I’ll let her go, and Darren will be none the wiser.
A small pang of guilt shocks me as I think of what his reaction would be if he found out, but I quickly shake it off. It’s not as if it would work out between them. Not yet anyway. That witch isn’t ready for a forever type of commitment, even if Darren suddenly thinks he is.
Shifters are fucking wired wrong. Forever is a long time, and who could ever truly be happy with just one person forever? No matter how enticing they are, the lack of variation would surely drive them insane? Fae marry too, although few marriages remain exclusive in our world.
My phone buzzes again, tugging me from my thoughts, and I roll my eyes as I pull it from my pocket. I grimace at the caller, hating that I must take this damn call. Unfortunately, I can’t ignore this number no matter how much I’d like to. I put the phone to my ear as I swipe to answer the call.
“Rhydian, finally. I’ve been trying to get hold of you.”
“What do you want?” I snap, not giving a shit for the chitchat. They only call if they need to, and that’s how I like it. Although, I’d like it better if they never called at all.
“It’s your sister,” the voice on the end of the line begins, a tremor in their voice.
“What the hell did Cia do now?” I demand, wondering why they’d be wasting my time with this.
“She’s missing.”
“I’m on my way.” I cut off the call and shove my phone back into my pocket. I spare only a fleeting glance in the direction Kayla left in, before phasing myself away.
The witch will have to wait.
(Author Note – Thank you for reading! Kayla’s story continues in Black Spells and Twisted Souls, book one in The Grey Witch Series. Set two years after the events of this prequel short, it follows Kayla as her luck seems to go to hell after she summons a demon to get her terrible boss fired. Buy Link: Black Spells and Twisted Souls )
About the Author
Cece Rose is the proud owner of one dog, four turtles, and one annoying boyfriend.
She hails from Devon in the South-West of England, but dreams of sunny skies and sand between her toes. Although, whenever abroad, she will moan about the heat and the sand that gets everywhere.
She has largely convinced all who know her that she’s a vampire, mainly due to her nocturnal habits and tendency to bite. In reality, it’s because her creativity only ever strikes when the sky is dark and the stars are shining. (Plus, it’s actually quiet enough to concentrate on writing.)
You can follow Cece on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. She’d also love it if you’d join her Facebook reader group, The Demon Den. It’s the best place to keep up with all her new releases, giveaways, and teasers.
Also by Cece Rose
The Grey Witch Series
Black Spells and Twisted Souls (Book One)
White Charms and Dark Secrets (Book Two)
Grey Magic and Forbidden Love (Book Three)
Black Curses and White Hexes (Book Four)
Grey Gods and Ancient Magic (Book Five)
The Killing Dance (Halloween Novella featuring Caim and Annabelle!)
The Marked Series (With G. Bailey)
Marked by Power
Marked by Pain
Marked by Destruction
The Desdemona Chronicles
A Demon’s Blade
A Demon’s Debt
An Angel’s Defiance (Release Date TBA)
Souls of Creatures
Vengeance (Set in the same world as The Grey Witch Series - Christina’s story.)
The Last Siren’s Song Trilogy
Blood Sea
Blood Song
Blood Moon (TBA)
Standalone Titles:
Snowflake (Steamy RH Winter Romance Novella.)
Please continue reading for a preview chapter of Black Spells and Twisted Souls…
Black Spells and Twisted Souls
Chapter One - Every Witch For Herself
Tapping my pen absently against the edge of my desk, I stare blankly at the computer screen in front of me. The sounds of the busy, London-based office barely reach my ears as I zone out. A hand waves in front of my face, trying to demand my attention back in reality.
“Are you even listening to me? Hey! Earth to Kayla!” Lizzy chirps in her usual sing-song voice.
“Huh?” I turn and look up at her, blinking as I pull myself back into focus.
“I said, did you get that email about the meeting in the glass room? I’m on my way there now.” She gives a pointed look at the desktop, which is on the locked screen from my lack of use. Oops.
“When did he send it?” I ask, trying not to yawn as I stretch a little in my seat.
“I got mine about twenty minutes ago,” she answers absently, picking at the vibrant blue polish on her nails.
I unlock my computer and check my emails. Sure enough: Team meeting in the glass room @ 2:30 p.m. Received at 2:12 p.m. An organised affair as usual, then. Eighteen minutes was actually a pretty good notice time for my manager, the creep. Though, as I look aro
und at the desks surrounding me, I’m not sure it will be enough.
“He’ll be lucky if we’re all able to get there. Some of the guys are on break or stuck on calls. He never plans ahead for these things,” I mutter, leaning back in my seat. I’m not in any rush to be trapped in a room with my manager, awkwardly waiting for everyone else to show up. Even with Lizzy in there with us too, it’s bound to be awkward.
Ever since the Christmas party a few weeks ago, I’ve been avoiding the man at all costs. Not that I’d much liked his presence before then, but since I’d spurned his advances directly, he’s been hellish. Before the party, I couldn’t have imagined him being any worse than he was. How naive and optimistic of me, considering how the past few weeks have been.
“I think he does it on purpose to drag out the meetings, waiting for us so he can avoid Clive.” Lizzy looks pointedly over at him as he leans down over the desk of one of the other team managers. Mindy is staring straight at her screen, her resting bitch face game strong as she listens to whatever Clive is telling her. Knowing him, whatever he’s telling her is completely incorrect, and Mindy is stuck humouring Mr Know-It-All until he goes away and she can finish her work in peace. If only he was as strict on the male managers as he is the females. I roll my eyes in annoyance.
“Jay doesn’t even need to try to avoid him. Clive just lets Jay, Lee, and Kyle get on with it. They’re all idiots; it’s utter bullshit,” I mutter.
“Come on, we better get in there anyway. Jay might check our call log, see we weren’t on call, and get pissy at us for being late,” Lizzy says, always the voice of reason. I really don’t want to get stuck alone with him while he tells me off like a child for not being busy working. Considering he spends the day surfing the web and going for near-constant smoke breaks, it’s not like he has room to talk. Hypocritical asshole. Shuddering at the thought of his slimy hands going for my ass, I dart my gaze towards the glass conference room and notice two of the guys from our team heading in.
“Fine, it should be safe now.” I nod in the direction of Paul and Darren walking through the glass door.
“Safety in numbers,” Lizzy jokes.
“Safety with witnesses,” I reply, grinning despite our misery. I drag myself out of my swivel chair and walk silently with Lizzy to the glass room. She pushes the door open, allowing me to go first. I head in, quickly darting for the chair furthest away from our manager. I give Lizzy a smug smile when she drops down into the seat next to mine.
“Is this it?” our manager, Jay, says loudly in an irritated voice. He looks around the mostly empty board table, while the skinny newbie takes a seat next to Lizzy. I think his name is Rhydian… or maybe Gideon. I squint at him, trying to think.
As Jay starts talking, I zone out and settle on skinny guy’s name being Gideon. Rhydian sounds far too sexy, not suited to the skinny human. At least, I think he’s human. I concentrate on him, calling on my second sight. Colours swirl around the room, auras shimmering over the bodies of my co-workers. Everything is blurred, and yet, somehow clearer. Gideon’s soul is plain; a murky brown. No magic spilling from him at all. Definitely human.
I look over at the rest of my co-workers in the room. As my eyes fall on Darren, a tiny pang of sadness hits me in my chest, as it always does. I smother the feeling quickly, focusing instead on his light, or rather, his dark. Darren’s soul is strikingly dark, but it has shimmers that roll over him with the magical current that blows across those of us blessed with being more. His magic is subtle; not particularly powerful, but shifters’ gifts don’t usually lie in magic, more in their physical strength. Paul, a human, sits next to Darren with his dull-coloured hue surrounding him, but Paul knows what sits around the table with him. Paul was raised by a cousin of Darren’s, and he’d been allowed in on the secret of supernatural existence that few humans are permitted to know.
He is trustworthy, for a human at least. He’d grown up grateful to shifters for saving his life and raising him as one of their own.
Lizzy’s aura is golden, and her hair always seems to be blown by an invisible wind, tossed about by the current that all magical beings know, but only some can see. Her soul is dazzling, almost blinding, when looking at it with my second sight. I will never understand why she chooses to work in an office when she’s clearly powerful, much more so than myself. She could work using her gifts instead of being stuck in an office with a split population.
Working for a company that also hires humans sucks sometimes. No magical amenities in the office. No using your gifts on site. The red tape they wrap around us is suffocating, but we have to accommodate the unknowing humans.
Darren, Paul, and Lizzy are the few people in this office I’d actually go for a drink with, and every Thirsty-Thursday night we do exactly that. I blame the cheap three-for-one drink offer at Rosie’s. How they make a profit on that is beyond me. Our Thursday nights always end with me, Lizzy, and Paul splitting a taxi fare home and dying at work the next day. However, they also always end with Darren pulling some sexy female shifter and taking her… well, wherever it is that shifters go to get it on. Maybe a bed, maybe the woods… who knows? I feel the smirk spreading across my face as I try to hold back the snigger that wants out.
“Something funny, Kayla?” Jay asks, smacking his hand onto the desk to get my attention. I jump in my seat.
“No, nothing. Sorry.” I look up at him, biting my tongue on all the things I wish I could say. ‘Yes, sir. Your attempt at pretending to be a real manager is hilarious.’ Or even a basic, but classic, ‘Your face is funny.’ I’m not sure how well that would go over, but it’s probably not worth finding out. Honestly, if anything, his face is kind of scary rather than funny-looking. Not his actual features themselves, but how he looks at people. His eyes are like creepy little beads that watch your every move.
“Have you even been listening to a word I’ve said?” he asks, and I bite my lip. Fuck, I have no idea what this freaking meeting is about.
“Of course I have,” I answer with fake confidence, knocking my foot into Lizzy’s leg under the table. Save me. I push the thought into her mind, and instantly I feel a tingle flow over me. My mouth opens, speaking with my voice, but it’s not me controlling the words. “You were just explaining about the new CRM system that is being rolled out next week. And how we need to be trained to use it sometime before then, so you’ll be pulling us out in smaller groups for the two-hour sessions,” my voice explains flawlessly. I feel the tingle fade and shoot a grateful smile at Lizzy. Darren gives me a knowing look, not fooled for a second, but luckily the only one I need to fool is Jay, and Jay is human. His face turns disgruntled, clearly unhappy that his chance to get me in trouble has been ruined somehow. My smile grows wider.
“Well, that’s everything then,” Jay says, his voice grumbly.
“Did we really need a meeting for this?” the new guy asks quietly, and everyone turns, wide-eyed, to look at him in alarm. Poor little human. So new, and now he’s already doomed to suffer for eternity, or at least for his tenure here.
Jay looks at him like a cat that’s just caught a mouse, and I know he wants to play with his kill.
“What do you mean, Gideon?” he asks. I high-five myself in my head. I knew his name was Gideon!
“Um, I just meant that, um, wouldn’t an email have… We just have so much backlog at the moment… I don’t…” He finally allows his nervous explanation to trail off. Jay stalks around the table to stand behind him. It’s intimidating as shit to have your obviously pissed-off boss standing right behind you, and Jay knows it.
“Are you the team manager now, Gideon? Would you like to go sit in my seat over there? Do you want to make the decisions on which directives need to be given in person, and which over the group email? Do you want to make the decision about which new employee isn’t working out? Because I make those fucking decisions,” he shouts, slamming his hand down. All of us cringe in our seats. Other than Darren, that is. He looks pretty relaxed as he leans b
ack, tapping away on his phone, just ignoring the situation completely. Jay wouldn’t dare tell him off for it, though. He’s way too scared of the bulky shifter. The dominance Darren lets off is enough to scare most people, even dumb humans.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about what you meant, newbie. Get the fuck out of here,” Jay says, cutting Gideon off. The new hire looks about ready to sink to the floor in a messy puddle of melted human. Shit, he can’t seriously be telling him to leave-leave, right? Surely he only means out of the glass room... “What are you doing just sitting there? Go pack up your shit and leave,” he adds angrily, and my eyes widen when I realise he’s deadly serious. What a prick. He really can’t stand anyone correcting his bullshit.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” I ask, the words flying out of my mouth before I can crush the fuckers with sense. He turns his glare on me.
“Everyone except Miss Harlow, get the hell out of the glass room,” he growls, and they all hastily get to their feet. The new guy is the first to the door, in a rush to escape the embarrassment of being sacked in his first week at a company I doubt he even wanted to work for in the first place. “Newbie, go sit by my desk. We’ll discuss this in a minute, once I’m done with Kayla,” he adds. Gideon’s gaze flies to me from the doorway, and he gives me a small nod of appreciation. I gave Jay’s anger a new target—me. He may not get fired today, but I might. I sigh, watching everyone else file out of the room. Lizzy shoots me a worried look over her shoulder as she exits, the last to leave.