The Magic Of Betrayal

by Britt Andrews

  "Do not touch me. You're a selfish bastard. You took that side job with hopes of being promoted. Larson fed you compliments, called you son, and you fucked all of us over with stars in your eyes. But what, Sloane? You didn't feel dirty enough about being a liar until he ordered you to 'work your way into a relationship with her, just like the others'? And what did you do next, Sloane? You fucked with both of us less than an hour later, you had your hands all over her body! You make me sick!" Fischer roared, his breathing labored and I felt like I was going to puke.

  "What the fuck did you just say?" Cam growled, stalking over to me, electricity crackling between his fingers.

  "You touched her because you were ordered to?" Kai began prowling behind him toward me.

  "It wasn't like that! Fuck!" I shouted, running my hands through my hair, not caring that I'd just covered my head in my own blood.

  "I have a secret to tell you, Sloane," Fischer whispered, his eyes burning me from the inside out. "Those feelings, the ones you felt for me, the ones you struggled with in your memories? The ones you couldn't make sense of?” He sneered at me. “It's love, you motherfucker."

  "Love?" I choked, shaking my head.

  "That's right. You love me, Sloane. You're in love with me. But want to know something else? You're also in love with her. So how does it feel, now knowing that you just betrayed two people who you love and two others who you almost love just as much? Must be a record, two loves lost on the same day you realize you’re in love with them."

  My back hit the wall and I sank to the floor, my legs spread out in front of me. Love? I'm in love? With Fischer and Red? My throat tightened and my heart was pounding in my ears, blood running down my face. I raised a hand and wiped at my cheek, looking at my fingers for several moments before realizing that there wasn't any blood on them. But there were tears.

  My body was shaking.

  Towering above Sloane, one of my oldest friends, my brother, my ride or die... I watched as he fucking broke. Shattered.

  And I felt the kind of rage a man gets when he'd been fucked over so royally his hands itch with the urge to feel bones snap and blood spray. Oh my gods, I was fucking pissed. How dare he go behind my back like this?

  We all watched as he stared at his hand like it was some kind of alien appendage, his thumb smeared the tears into his skin and his eyes were wide, like he just couldn't fucking believe he was human enough to cry.

  I couldn't speak to him right now, I could barely stand the sight of his fucking face. My woman was gone and it was his fault.

  "Cam, I'm so sorry, I didn't know this would happen. How was I supposed to know our gods damned boss was a fucking demon?" Sloane said, but the last bit was like he was talking to himself.

  My jaw hurt from how hard I was clenching it, but I could not open my mouth toward him right now. So I turned to the side and addressed Fischer and Kai.

  "We're going to go back to the cottage. We will tell Gran everything. We'll take her wrath or whatever the fuck else she deems appropriate for our lies. Then we will do everything in our power to get our witch back because I will kill any motherfucker who stands in my way," I vowed. And I meant every word.

  "I can't be without her." Kai's voice was pained and panicked. He had a mate bond, he would be in physical pain in addition to the heartache.

  "I'm sorry, K. I'm so fucking sorry," Sloane rasped.

  Kai ignored him.

  "What about him?" Fischer inclined his head to where Sloane was slumped.

  I let out a deep sigh, my hands forming fists at my sides.

  "Do it, Cam. Beat the shit out of me, I deserve it."

  Nope. You don’t get off that easy.

  "He can stay at the apartment, or he can fuck off back to wherever he wants. We will hopefully be staying at the cottage with Gran to work on this day and night. We'll get our clothes and belongings moved into her house as soon as possible," I voiced the plan as Kai and Fischer nodded in agreement.

  "Brothers, don't. Please, let me help you. I can fix this. I'm sorry, I just wanted to get time off for all of us, for you, Cam."

  Thunder boomed in the conference room, lightning bursting from my hand and obliterating the solid wood table into a million splinters.

  "How fucking dare you use my childhood trauma to make yourself feel better about what you've done! Do you even hear yourself? I'm done with this," I turned and moved to the hole in the wall where the doors had once stood. "Let's go guys, we need to get our woman back."

  Fischer was right on my ass, clearly done as well. When I glanced at him, his eyes were still black. He still wasn’t in control of his magic and I could fucking relate. Electricity was licking up and down my spine.

  "You said you'd always be there for me, Sloane.” Kai’s strained tone had us pausing for a moment to see what Kai had to say to Sloane. “You said that we'd take care of each other when others hurt us, when my own body hurt me when I shifted for the first time. Do you remember that night? How you held me and took care of me? Do you remember how much pain I was in? You soothed me, made me feel safe." Kai's voice cracked as he stared down at his broken, bloody brother. "This hurts worse than that, Sloane. And this time, instead of being the one to make me feel better, you're the one who gutted me."

  Sloane dropped his face into his hands and I watched his shoulders shake for half a second and then I flew down the hallway and to my bike. Sloane Sullivan didn't deserve another moment of my time, not tonight. Probably not ever. And if Saige was harmed in any way, shape, or form, I just may kill him myself.

  Straddling my Harley, I didn't hesitate for another fucking second before firing it up and tearing down the road, the rolling thunder above drowning out the roar of my own bike. I knew Fischer and Kai would be right behind me. We had work to do, and I could only put my faith in the stars that our woman would be okay and that Gran wouldn't murder our asses when we told her what had happened. Ugh, I am not looking forward to telling her.

  My heart was racing and I had to push down the urge to tear the fucking sky open with a hurricane or a tornado. Something to get this fear and anger out of my system. Sloane... where did I go wrong? I'd always given him praise, just like the others. What did it say about me as the team lead that one of my fucking own would go behind my back like that? Larson ordered him, and Larson is above you. The voice in my head was already working hard to try and absolve me of the blame that I was surely going to be torturing myself with for the foreseeable future. Where and how did this get so fucked?

  Fischer came up behind me and pushed his bike to the max, sending up a huge dust cloud in his wake as he gave his bike everything. Adrenaline junkie, always. My heart ached for him, too. Sloane and Fischer had this connection, a different one than anyone else on the team. When we were nearly out of high school, I realized what they'd been doing with each other, but I didn't say anything. It didn't bother me, and truthfully, I was glad they had each other. Fischer was drowning in emotional overload and he was miserable. Sloane was getting his ass kicked on the daily and needed some semblance of control in his life, and they figured out something that worked for both of them.

  Their arrangement benefitted both of them, and it never interfered with our job or our friendships with each other. They fucked other people, too. It was never anything official. No commitment. I know Kai had done some things with them before too, and there was never any jealousy that I picked up on.

  And now here we were, everything had gone to hell in a handbasket in the blink of an eye.

  Khol had sent us here looking for Saige's mother. Had he suspected he'd fathered a child with the woman? Why had Saige's mother kept everyone in the dark? I'd bet it was also Laurie who'd warded the town to keep him out of Emerald Lakes. But why? I couldn’t fucking believe we’d gone ten years not knowing he was a demon, doing all of his dirty work, who the hell knows what kind of missions we’ve been on thinking we were fighting for the right side. Fuck! I rubbed my temples in a piss poor attempt at soothing my br
ain.

  We needed to find her soon, her knowledge of demons and Larson would be crucial to us getting Saige back. Saige, fuck. The look on her face, the pain and the hurt. When she cried, it felt like my heart was being stabbed, and when she screamed and thrashed in that bastard's hold, begging... that was when my heart broke and I hated myself so fiercely in that moment for having even an ounce of responsibility for putting her in that situation.

  My little witch. Who I'd promised to protect. Gods, I'd fucked this one up epically.

  I followed Fischer as he made the smooth turn into the driveway of the cottage, my stomach full of dread and regret.

  Golden light spilled onto the grass from the large kitchen window and I figured that meant someone was home, and since it wasn't my baby, it could only be Bette. She was probably making dinner for everyone. She gave us our privacy but she often ate with us most nights.

  We all parked and dismounted our bikes, Kai and Fischer standing on either side of me as they stared at the cottage.

  "I grabbed the necklace on my way out… This is going to be brutal, man," Kai said softly.

  "Yep. But we're doing this. No more secrets," I replied, gearing myself up to go in there and break an old woman's heart.

  "Let's do this," Fischer's detached voice had me looking over at him, and when his eyes met mine, I swallowed the lump in my throat at the darkened unhinged look in them. We can't have a repeat performance from the last time he went off the rails.

  "Are you good, brother?" I questioned, studying his expression. The corner of his mouth kicked up in a disturbing kind of way, a way that was inappropriate for the situation we were in, and without Sloane here to do whatever it was he did to bring Fischer back from the darkness, I wasn't sure what the fuck we were going to do.

  "I'm great."

  He pushed away from us, opening the screen door and disappearing into the house. I knew that I should probably be more concerned that he wouldn't have a way to work through the darkness quickly with Sloane out of the picture. However, the distant thunder and lightning strikes across the landscape around us were a harrowing reminder that I, too, had issues that were going to have to be my focus. Plus figuring out a solution of how we were going to get Saige back.

  We were a fucking mess. Kai had a mate bond that was about to rip him apart, so Fischer was going to have to fight his own demons.

  "Cam..." Kai warned, worry in his voice.

  "I know. He'll be okay. He just needs some time to come back to normal, just... keep an eye on him, okay?" I clapped Kai on the back and we headed into the house. Something smelled delicious and my stomach growled in appreciation, but it made me feel like a fuck to be thinking about eating at a time like this. Would they feed Saige? Was she a prisoner?

  Bette was in the kitchen, as I'd suspected. Fuck, the way we moved into the room made me feel like some kind of harbinger of destruction, which I supposed was fitting, but I didn't want to destroy this woman. She'd stopped her movements and watched us closely.

  "I made eggplant parmesan tonight," she explained, pointing to the casserole dish that was on the stove.

  "Bette," I began, but she waved me off, spinning to remove plates from the cupboard. She wouldn’t look at me when usually she had trouble keeping her eyes off me. She knows. She knows something terrible has happened.

  "If you boys could just set the table? Is Saige still outside? I caught up on all of the gardening earlier today so she doesn't need to mess with anything out there right now. Can you get her, Kai?" She stepped around the island with the plates and beelined for the table.

  "Bette," I said more firmly this time and she froze in place, "we need to talk, okay? Can you sit down, please?"

  "Where is she?" she breathed, setting the plates on the table and dropping into a chair.

  "Taken. She was taken tonight," I confirmed and we all watched as her face paled.

  Creaking above us had our heads tilting up and I strained my ears, listening to see if it was just the old house settling. Then the unmistakable sounds of someone walking around upstairs had our training kicking in. Kai immediately moved toward the stairs, no doubt using his senses to see what he could figure out.

  "Who is upstairs, Bette?" I asked softly.

  "A guest. The three of you better sit down and get to talking before I have a WF."

  "What's a WF?" Fischer asked, confused, but also intrigued as he dropped into a seat at the table.

  "Witch fit. And trust me, you don't want to see that," she cautioned, but I felt a little more at ease knowing that she knew whoever it was upstairs and some of the tension in my chest abated.

  I called out to Kai, telling him to join us at the table. Once we were all sitting, Bette didn't waste a second.

  "Someone better start talking or I'm going to start busting some asses," she threatened and I had no doubt she meant business.

  Kai caught my eye, his pain evident. Fischer was suddenly incredibly interested in his fingernails, so I took the lead and began telling her everything. It was brutal. Watching as she processed how deeply we'd hurt her granddaughter. How badly we'd fucked up. How I failed at keeping her safe. Another one I let down.

  We were just getting to the part where Khol had revealed he was Saige's father when whoever was upstairs began coming down the steps, the creaks and groans from the old wooden steps so loud that they'd give away a spider moving on them. The three of us looked to see who this guest was and I nearly toppled my chair with how fast I pushed out of my seat.

  "What in the name of Neptune's nipples are you doing?" Gran barked as the three of us created a wall of muscle and magic between her and the woman who had caused this entire fucking situation.

  "You," I growled and the windows shook violently with the thunderous boom I unleashed from the heavens.

  Her auburn hair was down, hanging in soft curls to her collarbone, she and Saige shared the same face shape and arch of their eyebrows. Both were redheads, though Saige’s color was a bit lighter than her mother’s. I could see a hint of familiarity now that I was looking for it, but it was faint. She was petite, probably the same height as my little witch, but it was clear Saige didn't get her curvy body from her mother.

  "Mom? Who are these men and why are they looking at me like they want to murder me?" Laurie squeaked, but I wasn't fucking buying it. Neither was Kai from the way he growled low in his throat.

  "Boys, sit your asses down before I kick you out of this house. There will be no violence within these walls."

  We inched backward to our seats, never taking our eyes from Laurie.

  "Where's the birthday girl?" Laurie questioned innocently, and either she was the best actor I'd ever seen or she wasn't the evil creature that Larson had painted her out to be. Deciding that it was smarter to stick to the assumption that she was dangerous, I slammed a wall up around my mind that was built of suspicion and distrust. I'd trusted Larson, respected the fuck out of the man, and look where that had landed me.

  Gran shifted in her seat, taking a sip of her coffee.

  "Laurie, these are Saige's boyfriends," she pointed to each of us, "Cam, Kai, and Fischer."

  Laurie's eyes ping ponged, following Gran's finger.

  "Ah, she did mention that on the phone yesterday. Well, it's nice to meet you? But can someone explain to me why you're all looking at me like I'm Lucifer's daughter, and tell me where the hell my daughter is?"

  "We were just explaining to Bette... perhaps we could continue our conversation in private?" I looked at Bette and she scowled so severely, I swear I felt my face heat.

  "This situation is out of control. You four tried handling things privately and look what happened. No. We need back up, and if anyone knows how to get her back, it's this witch right here. As much as I loathe her demon obsession, we need her now. So get to fucking talking before I start punching dicks." Gran cracked her little knuckles and Kai's face blanched at the thought of those tiny granny fists using his nut sack as a punching bag.

&nbs
p; "Fine. Laurie, I will give you the quick cliff notes version, because we've already wasted enough time. We work for Radical Inc. Khol Larson is our boss and he sent us here on an assignment to find a woman he'd been looking for for close to thirty years. Turns out, that woman is you."

  Laurie's face paled and she scooted away from the table a few steps, but I held up my hand signaling for her to stop her retreat.

  "We're not looking to harm you or whatever you might be thinking. We used a cover when we arrived, saying we were businessmen sent here to procure a new building for our company. The apartment above The Pig was for rent, and that's where we ended up, and that's how we met Saige. We all felt drawn to her, we'd do anything for her. We hadn't worked out yet what we were going to do about our jobs, obviously, we are not businessmen. We're operatives, spies, assassins— whatever Larson needed us to do, we did.

  “He told us that you were dangerous, untrustworthy, and that he'd stop at nothing to get to you. He'd tried himself to infiltrate the town, but someone, who I am now assuming was you, had warded the town to keep him out."

  At that tidbit of information, Bette raised her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes at Laurie.

  "And why would you do such a thing, dear daughter?" Bette questioned, her knee bouncing.

  "Mom, listen..." Laurie sighed and Fischer leaned forward, resting his forearms on the dining table, eager to hear what she had to say and determine if she was full of shit or not.

  "I'd hoped it never would come to this. That he'd never find me, or Saige. Everything I’ve done was to keep her safe, to keep her hidden from him. When I left Emerald Lakes, when I was younger, I ended up meeting Khol at a club and I quickly fell in love with him. He was older, insanely rich, and he made me feel cherished. After some time, he became more controlling and possessive. I overheard him on the phone one evening with someone named Thijs, talking about Besmet and how they'd never be able to return until they succeeded in impregnating a witch with a demon child." Gran gasped and I felt my mood darken another ten shades of shitty.