Witch of Warwick (Dark Coven Book 1)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  Her tongue traced the edge of her bottom lip. “Not at all.”

  Her eyes softened as her fingers played at the back of neck where hair met skin. She licked her lips twice like she was working up the courage to do something and whatever that was, I was going to let her do it. She leaned in and kissed me slowly. Exploring in a way she couldn’t have with the forceful nature of my previous kiss. Her fingers trailed over my skin and this time I waited for her tongue to touch mine.

  Until I couldn’t wait anymore. I flipped her onto her back,. She squealed but it was a good one then my hand slipping under her top brushing over her stomach.

  “Tell me to stop if you need me to stop,” I said breathlessly because I wanted her to know she had all the control here.

  Miranda nodded quickly then leaned up to claim my lips again. She was as needy as I was.

  I didn’t intend to have sex with her—not yet. But we could explore. Though as my hand moved up, cupping her bare breast, I thought maybe I’d made too quick of a decision on the not having sex part.

  Shit. The realization that I couldn’t go any further dawned on me. That would be influencing her.

  As if I hadn’t done that already.

  Chapter Nine

  Miranda

  I hadn’t told Luken to stop and I probably wouldn’t have. Except he pushed off and fell onto his back beside me with a groan. Doubt flooded my brain. I didn’t have much experience with that kind of thing… sexy times or close to sexy times, so reading the cues was nearly impossible.

  “Everything all right?” I asked, willing my voice not to waiver.

  “Everything’s fucking perfect.” Sure didn’t sound like it.

  I looked over at Luken but he was staring at the ceiling. My guess was everything wasn’t fucking perfect.

  “Then why’d you stop? I wouldn’t have told you to.” That might’ve been more honest than I needed to be right then and there wasn’t an iota of hesitation in telling him anything.

  “Erectile dysfunction.”

  “What?” I snapped. No way that was the reason. When he’d been on top of me, I felt his hardness against my leg.

  My limited knowledge of the male species told me that the hardness alone was enough to show he wanted what I wanted. Being with him would’ve been nothing like being with David. Luken wasn’t trying to trick me into anything and I would’ve bet Luken would take his time and it would be amazing.

  “It’s getting late,” he said back without answering me. “I should let you get some sleep.”

  Every curse word I’d ever heard ran through my brain one right after another like an inappropriate train of frustration. Sexual frustration—sure. But general frustration as well. I was ready to disclose every secret I had and he wouldn’t even tell me why he’d stopped.

  Before he left my room, Luken kissed me softly a last time. A kiss that wasn’t going to lead anywhere to my dissatisfaction. Instead, I was left alone in my bed missing Luken’s closeness. Something I hadn’t truly experienced ever. It took a long time for me to fall asleep.

  I woke up alone in my bed to the memory of Luken kissing me and touching me last night. I shook my head. Silently admonishing the fact that here I was again wanting someone that could hurt or embarrass me. The only difference was that my gut told me that Luken wouldn’t do that.

  I dressed quickly in shorts and a T-shirt then headed down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Imagine my surprise when I found Luken already there cooking breakfast. Again.

  “Good morning,” I said as I hovered by the entry.

  “Morning.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You hungry?”

  “Yes, but I was just going to grab a slice of cold pizza.” Breakfast of champions as far as I was concerned.

  “This is better.” He nodded toward the table where a stack of pancakes and a pile of eggs sat. Then he switched off the stovetop and turned with a plate of bacon. Before setting the plate on the table, he clasped a hand on the back of my head and pulled me in for a kiss.

  His morning lips were softer than his in-my-bed lips.

  “You’re right. This is better.” I took my seat at the table and began piling a plate with food. Apparently, I felt that I had to make up for the days I hadn’t eaten anything at all. A week had passed since my grandmother died and in some ways it felt like yesterday while in others a lifetime.

  “What’s on your schedule for today?” Luken asked though I had a mouth too full of food to answer at first.

  An awkward silence passed as we both waited for me to finish chewing.

  “Um…” I gasped for air. That had been way too much food. “I think I should get started going through her things. It’ll be good for me. See what I want to keep or donate and toss the rest. Like a fresh start. Then I can start on the house.”

  “My offer stands,” he said then shoved half a pancake into his mouth. Though he didn’t have nearly the trouble chewing and swallowing it that I had.

  I tapped the toes on my right foot against the floor. When he said offer my heart sped up to record speeds. “Which offer is that?”

  “To help you.”

  “Right. Well if you just want to hang out while I work you can do that too. She wasn’t your grandma. You don’t have to rifle through her underwear if you don’t want to.”

  Luken stopped moving as I bit the inside of my cheek. Then he looked up at me very seriously.

  “I definitely don’t want to rifle through your grandma’s underwear. However, I will help you move things and whatever else you need.”

  I smiled before answering. “What if I need you to go through her underwear?”

  Now he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in one hand which gave me the opportunity to really look at him. I didn’t think he’d done anything other than brush his dark hair. He was wearing the grey t-shirt from the night before and a pair of jeans I thought would mold to his body once he stood. But when his dark eyes opened up and settled on mine, all I could think about was getting lost in them.

  “If you need that Miranda, I’ll do it.” He took a drink of juice. “But if you could not need it that’d be great.”

  I snorted. There was no way I’d make him do that.

  As we finished breakfast, we kept the conversation light. More small talk about things we liked and didn’t like. One of us dropped a little info about our childhood once or twice. No major information was exchanged. It was more of a comfortable conversation. Then we quickly took care of the dishes. He washed. I dried.

  “I guess it’s time to head up to her room,” I said more to myself than to Luken. He nodded though because he was right there. Of course he heard me.

  We headed up the stairs. The closer to Grandma’s room we got, the less I wanted to go there. Having Luken behind me helped urge me along. At least I wouldn’t be doing this alone. Until the feeling of him behind me disappeared. I glanced over my shoulder to see that he’d stopped at the first door at the top of the stairs. One of the locked doors.

  I really needed to figure this whole key situation out. I mean… it was weird that I couldn’t get into parts of the house. The house I assumed was now mine.

  As I turned to him, he was reaching a hand out, about to grab the knob.

  “Those are locked,” I said. “Like I told you before. I need to find the—”

  He turned the knob and the fucking door opened.

  What in the hell?

  This man… Luken MacCormack shows up and magically opens a room that’s been locked my entire life? He hadn’t picked the lock because I would’ve seen that. But why… or better yet how did he get the door open?

  “What kind of magic is this?” I joked, hoping he’d tell me his trick.

  There were other doors that were also locked, and I wanted inside them all. How many times had I tried to open these doors and see what Grandma was hiding inside? Never once had they given an inch. The handle had never budged.

  Now that it had, I was almost afraid to lo
ok inside.

  “After you,” he urged, ignoring the fact that I’d asked a question.

  At first, I thought it strange he’d even consider entering a locked room in a house that belonged to someone else. He’d seemed absolutely comfortable here from the first day which shouldn’t make sense yet somehow it did. Luken’s presence was messing with my head.

  I took a step over the threshold.

  Inside… it wasn’t just another room as I’d expected.

  My entire childhood, the locked rooms were probably just places Grandma did her hoarding or hid away embarrassing clothes from the past. Normal Grandma stuff. As my eyes adjusted to the change in light, I didn’t believe what I was seeing.

  I’d been prepared to see a rundown room like the rest of the house. In need of repair, or even so far beyond repair it was unlivable.

  I’d been completely wrong.

  That door was like a portal… no. “Portal” wasn’t the right word. That door admitted entry into, what looked like an entirely different house. Like a house attached to our regular house, but this one was in much better shape.

  “Now it all makes sense,” Luken murmured through his smile.

  It did? Wait… why wasn’t he as confused as me? Or even more so.

  “What?” I had no idea what he was talking about or what made sense to him. But all of it, including his comment, thoroughly confused me.

  He shook his head as if he hadn’t meant for me to hear him. If I hadn’t been extremely interested in checking out where this room led, I would’ve pushed for an answer out of him. But for now, he’d have to take a backseat. Though confusion settled into my chest.

  Slowly, I walked through the room. The furniture was all new and barely used. So much better than anything we had at home. Wait. This was still home, right? My brain may have been starting to melt. This place didn’t need a paint job. This place was immaculate and bright and not the kind of house children would avoid.

  If this was part of our house, why hadn’t we lived here my whole life? Or better yet, why did she let part of the house fall in ruins while part remained beautiful?

  I’d never been here before, that I was completely sure of, yet something was so familiar that it felt like home. Possibly more so than my actual home.

  What was happening to me?

  “What is this place?” I asked Luken, as if he should be the one to know. This was apparently part of my house, but he’d gotten us inside so he might know what was going on more than I did. He didn’t seem surprised that this room or house existed.

  “Why don’t we look around?” he said instead of answering and this avoiding my questions was starting the get on my nerves.

  “But what is this place?” I asked out loud, not totally expecting an answer.

  The walls were freshly painted in bright, welcoming pale yellow. This bedroom wasn’t dilapidated like my house. Actually, it was the exact opposite of my house. Silver fixtures hung from the ceilings of each room we walked in to and from the walls lining the hallways. This type of decoration must’ve cost a fortune. More than Grandma or I ever had. Everything was of high quality, from the silken drapery to the fixtures. It was the kind of place she would’ve normally called ostentatious.

  Yet here it was attached to our house.

  How could Grandma have afforded all this when we’d always lived only two tiny steps above squalor?

  The question that kept coming to mind was how had she kept this hidden from me? If we’d had this kind of wealth, why wouldn’t she have at least fixed up our place? I’d been in the backyard… I’d been on every side of our house and never had I seen even a hint of this part.

  I’d never seen anything like it, but this… I wanted to live here.

  “How did you know?” I finally asked Luken pointblank once we were back in the room we’d first entered. The bedroom, I guessed I’d call it. There were others but this one was clearly the most important.

  He scratched the back of his head, ruffling his dark hair, but he didn’t care enough to straighten it. My breath quickened at the innocent move. He opened his mouth to speak and somehow, I just knew he was going to try to play it off.

  “Don’t lie to me,” I said before he had a chance to reply. “I know you knew this was here.”

  Luken sighed. “She spelled it shut. There was no key, but when she died, the spell ended. You could’ve opened the door yourself after she died but I suspect you didn’t try.”

  I narrowed my eyes on the crazy person before me. “What are you talking about? Spelled it shut?”

  Luken swallowed hard. “She spelled a lot of things, actually.”

  “Spelled?” I asked again. What he said was making no sense to me. Not because I didn’t understand the words. I did. But he was hinting around at a point and it was something that just wasn’t clicking with me. Like he was trying to tell me something without actually telling me. “Would you just explain what you’re talking about instead of trying to drive me crazy?”

  He took a deep breath and settled his gaze on mine. “Serena was a witch, Miranda.”

  My brain shorted out. “Say that again?”

  “Your grandma was a witch, Miranda.” He took a step toward me. “You are too.”

  Chapter Ten

  Miranda

  Luken couldn’t be serious. Witches? Spells? Those fell under the heading of supernatural things everyone joked about but didn’t really think existed. Then again, he’d just shown me a hidden house attached to the one I’d lived in most of my life yet had no idea existed.

  So who was really the crazy person?

  If he was the crazy one he was a hot crazy person, and maybe he’d try to induct me into his sex cult. Though… the idea of a sex cult with him wasn’t completely—no. Hormones couldn’t rule me on this one. Dude was crazy.

  “Just because someone lives in a…” A what? A creepy, spinster, old lady house? “A gothic mansion in need of repair…” Where the hell had my words gone? “That’s just a stereotype, Luken! Something kids at my school would say. Something they did say.”

  Luken leaned against the giant fireplace façade just smirking at me. “And you know why there are stereotypes, right?” His eyes sparkled with mischief and it was utterly distracting.

  I didn’t like this kind of humor. I also didn’t appreciate him messing with me this way. There was nothing fantastic or special about my life.

  “It’s usually because they were true at some point,” he said when I didn’t give him an answer.

  I shook my head and glanced around one last time. “We should go,” I mumbled. “It doesn’t feel right being in here. These were my grandmother’s secrets. She obviously didn’t want me to be a part of it.” My throat strained as I swallowed hard. Then I mumbled, “Or to know her at all, apparently.”

  Luken shook his head at me. “She was protecting you. But now they’re your secrets and I’m pretty sure you’ve been in here before.”

  “No, I haven’t,” I said quickly, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, a voice in my head told me that he was right.

  I had been in here before, though until this moment, the memories had escaped me. Now, I closed my eyes and let everything wash over me, sorting through my past like one would a file cabinet trying to find the exact document needed. Then just as he’d said, all of a sudden it was there. Memories of me as a little girl running through this ridiculous mansion as my grandmother called my name. The echo of her saying she’d find me no matter where I was hiding as I slid into a closet, rattled around my head.

  In the vision we were having fun. Something she and I had rarely done. We’d survived. We hadn’t lived life. We’d survived it. Why in the hell would she hide this side of her life from me and make us struggle so much when we didn’t have to? With her, there had to be a reason, but for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with one that made sense.

  I nodded and took a moment to wet my suddenly dry lips.

  “I have,” I said. �
�I’ve been here. She used to bring me here a lot. Though I don’t know if I understood then that it was attached to our regular house.” Another scene flashed before my mind’s eye showing me that there was even more to all of this than I’d thought. “Wait,” I called to him, though he hadn’t gone anywhere.

  I frowned. There was more to this place. It wasn’t just a secret house we were standing in. This secret house was also her vault. Her secret keeper. Her hidden garden of knowledge.

  She’d told me that I’d understand one day and I began to wonder if this was the day, though I highly doubted it as I was still confused as hell.

  I wandered back to the bedroom that I knew was my grandmother’s the moment I stepped inside because of the feeling in the air, like she was still there. It touched every surface and made the room her own. This was where she’d preferred to spend her nights. Which meant she’d left me in my tiny single bed to come to this more luxurious place without me.

  Why would she have done that? What purpose had that served?

  Anger and resentment churned in my stomach. I imagined acid waves crashing against the sides as I began to realize how different our lives could’ve been. If only she’d cared enough to allow it to happen.

  Once inside, I went straight into the back of her closet, where her clothes still hung as if a beacon or siren were calling me there. I flung them aside and continued until I reached the panel she’d shown me years ago but that I’d just remembered existed. It slid away under my light touch to reveal a safe. But there was no dial. No buttons. No way to open it other than a single lever yet somehow my gut told me it was locked. We wouldn’t be able to get inside.

  “How do you—?”

  “Touch it,” Luken urged me, like he’d known it was there, too. At this point, almost nothing would surprise me.

  He didn’t say where to touch or with which part of my hand. So I did the obvious. I grasped the handle tightly. An electric current tingled against my skin, entering through my hand and climbing my arm until it engulfed my entire body. It wasn’t painful, but I didn’t love the feeling. I would’ve released the lever, but it was as if the force compelled me not to. That turned out to be a good thing because the door suddenly popped open.