by Weil, J. L.
“Thanks to you.”
“That jerk spoiled my plans.” He sounded like a sullen two year old.
“What plans?” I asked suspiciously, not sure my heart could handle any more surprises. I think I had just about reached my status quo. Looking up into his face, tiny stars reflected in the pools of his blue eyes.
He blinked at me, his expression unreadable. “It can wait another night. I think you have had quite the evening as it is. I’m not even sure it’s appropriate after what just happened.”
Well now my interest was peaked. “You can’t do that to me, tease me like that. Now you have to tell me,” I pleaded against his black shirt. “And right now I could use a distraction.” I glanced up under my lashes.
Like a dam had been broken, he dropped the mask hiding his emotions and grinned like a little boy. “It’s nothing really. I just noticed the lack of Christmas at your house. The store looks like Santa’s workshop, but here it’s… dull and sad.”
I sighed, looking over my shoulder at my house. There it sat in the dimness looking alone, while the other houses down the street beamed with glittering bulbs. “I know. I just haven’t had the energy or the time to drag all that stuff out, and my aunt’s been too busy.” Especially now with Chad in her life.
He gave me a lopsided grin, trailing a finger down my nose. “You forget you’re a witch. This will be a piece of cake,” he assured me.
I narrowed my eyes. Judging by his devilish grin, this wasn’t going to be normal, but after the night we just had, I needed this, a reminder of things that were normal, like decorating for Christmas. I chewed on my lip, meeting his beaming eyes, I asked, “Is this going to involve magic? Cuz’ I’ve just recently sworn off magic.” Like ten minutes ago.
He rolled eyes and grabbed my hand. “Not today you don’t. Come on. Let’s get started. You haven’t lived until you have done an enchanted Christmas.”
Oh goodie snowflakes.
“It sounds pretty,” I admitted, starting to warm up to the idea. I would totally be lying if I didn’t say how intrigued I was. “Okay. Where do we start?”
With a flick of his wrist and a wicked grin, a dozen strands of lights started to trim the house in a pattern of beautiful colors. No ladder necessary. I had to admit, his way was much easier and less dangerous. “Just so we are clear, I don’t want a Lampoon Christmas house. We don’t want to piss off the neighbors.” Thank goodness it was dark and my house was pretty secluded, or we might have had some strange behavior to answer for.
Glancing at Gavin, I caught his unruly gaze. “It’s a good thing you said so now.”
I rolled my eyes. “I bet Christmas at your house is like the Griswald’s.”
“You have no idea,” he said, but there was just love and admiration in his tone. He adored his family, and who could blame him. They were great.
With each tendril of magic we cast, the horror from earlier faded from my mind, never completely but enough so that I was able to enjoy something as simple and traditional as decorating for Christmas. Well not really traditional considering Gavin’s methods. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jumpy being outside where the attack had taken place, but I didn’t want to run and hide, to live in fear. I needed to make myself feel safe again. Somehow. Doing this with Gavin helped.
In each window we plunked a pine wreath with a large red bow. They appeared literally out of thin air. The house looked glorious, like something from a postcard. All the trees in the yard twinkled with blinking lights.
Standing in the middle of the yard we admired our handiwork. His arm was draped around my shoulder, and I huddled into his arms, needing the heat from his body to chase the cool night. “It’s perfect,” I raved, and far more extravagant than I ever could have come up with on my own.
He propped his chin on my head. “It’s only missing one thing.”
“What else could you possibly add to this?”
The grin on his face said he was up to no good. “There is always room for more. Make it snow Bri. It’s not Christmas without it.”
“It hardly snows here,” I argued.
He fixed me with his playful blue eyes. “It can if you will it, weather girl.”
Hmm. He had a point. Snow would be glorious, a real white Christmas. I could already envision the treetops sprayed with ornate white flakes, and the grass covered in a blanket of snow. Powdery white carpeting the roofs and unique designs frosted to the windows. We get snow, just not buckets of it., but I could picture it so clear in my head, like it was real.
“You’re doing it,” he murmured in my ear.
Opening my eyes, I tilted back my head as teeny, wet snowflakes dusted my eyelashes and tickled my nose. Laughing I threw my arms around Gavin’s neck, and he lifted me off my feet, twirling us in circles with the snow falling around us. I felt like we were encased in one of those picture-perfect snow globes that someone had shaken up.
Setting me back on my feet, his hands embraced either side of my cheeks. The snow glistened on his ridiculous long lashes making the sapphire of his eyes glow like a thousand blue moons. “You look good with snow in your hair.”
The way he was staring at me and the sinfulness of his voice had my breath catching in my throat. I could have said the say same thing about him. There was such a dark and white contrast with the flakes beading in his hair.
When I was finally able to speak, my voice was thick and gruff. “Thank you for doing this. I didn’t realize how much I needed this.” Needed him, I added silently before he lips softly brushed over mine. It was light and innocent, but I felt the zing all the way to my boots.
There was an exhilarated rush from doing magic and kissing his lips. The combination was slow-burning and left me spinning. His lips brushed the corner of mine before he dipped his head and kissed me again.
Intoxicating.
“I love the taste of strawberries,” he whispered softly against my parted lips.
My heart beat erratically and I willed it to slow down. It hardly cooperated. He was so fixated on my lips that he hadn’t notice the round ball of snow I produced out of nowhere. Nor did he seem to notice the gleam in my shining amethyst eyes. Even as he sent crazy, exciting, pesky fireflies in my belly, I still couldn’t help myself. “Snowball fight!” I screamed right before plummeting him with a freshly packed ball of snow.
The shocked expression on his face was priceless and had me giggling. It was Polaroid perfect. “You are so going to pay for that,” he warned in a voice that promised nothing less than retaliation.
I only laughed harder. Running was useless really, but instinct told me that I needed distance before I got a face full of snow. Taking off, my hair spun out around me, but the snowball I was anticipating never came. Instead, I was swept off my feet by a pair of strong arms and hauled effortlessly over his shoulder.
I only laughed harder. “Is this my punishment?” I asked, barely getting the words out between giggles and squirming.
“Oh no, I definitely have something in mind for you.” The smile in his voice was anything but virtuous.
I shivered. But it wasn’t fear his words enticed, it was anything but. I could all too well envision what kind of punishment he had in mind, and I wasn’t exactly going to fight him off.
Wiggling closer to him, I gripped the back of shirt. I love the feel of his strength under my fingertips. He carried me all the way into the house before depositing back to my feet. Shaking off the powdery, wet flakes in the entryway, we kicked off our shoes.
Decorating a tree with a witch was indeed magical, mystical, and memorable. Everything happened in a snap of finger. Ornaments, lights, tinsel all hung in the background until needed and just plucked from thin air.
By the time we finished, it was late. After all our hard work, which really hadn’t been physically hard, I was starving. My stomach was in the mood for cookies and hot chocolate, the perfect end to a perfect day.
“We need cookies,” I declared. “And I’m
doing this the old fashioned way,” I informed a smirking Gavin. “No magic.”
He bit the hoop at his lip to keep from grinning. “You’re the boss.”
“In the kitchen, you got it buster.” I bumped the cabinet closed with my hip.
The scent of artificial pine and sugar cookies filled the house. This whole enchanted Christmas thing had woken up the holiday spirit inside me. It was possible that I could listen to Jingle Bells another gazillion times before I thought about chucking it out of the storefront window.
He made me laugh. A ton. It felt like I hadn’t really laughed in years. This day went on my mental list of the best times in my life, right under our first kiss.
While we were waiting for the cookies to finish baking, I made us some hot chocolate with the little colored marshmallows. They were fun, just like this evening had turned out. Good overruling the bad and ugly.
My aunt walked through the garage door. “I see the two you have been busy little elf’s. I can’t thank you both enough. The house looks wonderful. Can you believe that it is snowing?”
I couldn’t hide the grin I aimed at Gavin, but I tried to cover up any weirdness by handing her a mug of steaming cocoa. Plopping on of the kitchen chairs, she took a sip and sighed.
“Just the way I like it. You are a goddess in the kitchen. What am I going to do when you leave next year for college?” Her eyes got misty.
My stomached dropped when I thought of her alone in this house. “Maybe you won’t have to miss me,” I said.
A beam of hope lit her mahogany eyes. “You decided to go to a school locally?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I admitted unable to disappoint her. It was true, I was considering it. I was also considering other options, like no college.
“Where ever you go, I want you to be happy… and safe,” she added as an afterthought.
It wasn’t that she mentioned safety that I found sort of found odd, it was the way she said it. For the first time, I wondered if my aunt knew more than she let on. Was it possible that she knew about my heritage? That she had known all along and not told me?
The night ended with a sour taste lingering in my mouth, regardless that I had managed to shovel six cookies down my belly.
Chapter 28
“WHAT YOU NEED IS SOME defensive training.” That was Gavin solution after I finally told him about the dark spots on my aura. Then you throw in the attack from the other night, and I was a helpless sitting duck.
That wasn’t all I needed, which was neither here nor there. After being tossed like a Raggedy Ann doll by one of Morgana’s spells, and then strangled by another witch’s weaving spell, it made me realize that I needed to learn how to protect myself. It wasn’t enough to just learn magic or control it. I needed to put it to good use, especially when I felt like something horrible was looming in the horizon.
Instinct.
That was what Morgana had told me to trust, and every instinctual bone in my body was telling me that something wicked this way comes. I needed to be ready, prepared. Gavin couldn’t have agreed more and insisted he help me with my badass fighting skills.
Who was I kidding?
Hopefully, I didn’t hurt anyone in the process.
We were sitting on my couch, thigh against thigh and I was doing everything in my power to not stare at his lips.
Fail.
Oops. Fail again.
At this rate I was going to be the most preoccupied student. And this student was crushing hardcore on her teacher. The last week of school flew by, but there was this dark cloud over my head preventing me from really enjoying the time I spent with Gavin. I finally caved and told him about the dream I’d had with Morgana and the whole black marks on my aura.
He took the news far better than I had. Of course he put the blame on the one person he couldn’t stand. Lukas. Unfortunately I knew that Lukas hadn’t made me drop Rianne from the gym ceiling. Nope. That had been all me.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? What if I hurt someone?” I asked, thinking about Rianne.
He gave me a goofy grin. “Trust me. You can’t hurt this.”
I rolled my eyes. “Someone please pinch that oversized ego. We aren’t going to end up leveling my house or something are we?” I was remembering when I had blown out all the windows, not exactly something I was anxious to repeat.
He glared at me in exasperation. “What have you been doing in your practices?”
“You don’t want to know,” I mumbled.
“You are probably right.” The implication behind his words was obvious and probably stemmed from jealousy. He thought more than just practicing had been going on, like maybe Lukas and I were making our own kind of magic.
I narrowed my violet eyes. “It wasn’t like that,” I demanded, not really wanting to get into right now. Especially with the beginnings of a migraine working at my temples and we hadn’t even started yet. “There is this weird vibe with our magic. Not like the connection I feel with yours. Ours is more… intimate, personal. With Lukas…” I watched as his eyes flamed at the mention of his name, still a touchy topic. “With Lukas it’s like our magic are companions – brother and sister somehow. Does that make sense?” I didn’t even know what nonsense I was spewing.
Slowly the fire defused, and he cupped my cheek in his hand. “Yeah I get it. I’m sorry. It just pisses me off that you share anything with him. I don’t like it. And I don’t trust him.”
I nodded understanding. It was exactly how I would feel if roles were reversed, except I am not sure I would have the grace not to gouge her eyes out. “I know,” I conceded.
He sighed looking over my shoulder. “Let’s just get started.”
I stared at his face and a cluster of fireflies swam in my belly. He could do that to me without even trying, or maybe I did that to myself. Who knew? “Kay,” I agreed.
We stood facing each other, and I couldn’t keep a straight face. This was supposed to be serious, but that was just it. He looked too serious. I giggled. The corners of his lips twitched, and my heart soared. I angled my head. “We could make-out first,” I suggested, thinking I could stall this lesson. I don’t know why but I had a bad feeling about this, the kind that planted itself in your stomach and took root.
The look he gave me was lethal and should have been outlawed. “After. It will give you something to look forward to.”
Apparently my teacher was all work and no play. “Hardass,” I mumbled under my breath.
He grinned, stepping back before either us forgot why he was really here. “Okay the goal here is to not get hit. I want you to stop it before it strikes you, and I don’t mean throw yourself in front of it.”
That earned him the stink eye. “Funny. What kind of spell?”
“That is the beauty of it. You won’t know until it’s been cast, but I think your best shot at diffusing the spell would be a shield. It’s fairly simple, but effective.”
I didn’t find anything remotely pretty in that. “Like what you did the other night?” Just thinking about it made fear lance through my heart.
He crossed his arms, leaning a hip on the edge of the couch. “Exactly. The spell I cast at you won’t hurt you seriously. It might sting.”
Oh great. “Just please tell me you aren’t going to throw a knife at my head and expect me to stop it.”
A single brow arched. “I’m not sadistic.”
A girl had to ask. “Good to know.”
He must have noticed the spike in my blood pressure. “Bri, everything is going to be okay. I promise.”
How does someone make a promise like that? He couldn’t possibly know that, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to believe him. I sighed. He tugged me between his legs, rubbing his warm hands up and down my arms, sprinkling them with tingles. I stopped thinking altogether.
“Are you sure we don’t have time for just one kiss?” I leaned my head on his chest, feeling it vibrate with a groan.
He tilted my chin up. “I
t’s not rocket science. You can do this. I’ll go easy on you.”
I snorted, always a lady. “Please. Bring it.”
He gave me a patient look. “Bri, I need you to take this seriously. This could be life or death, and I want you to live. It’s for your own good. You need something to really motivate you. We are treating this like a real threat, no joke. I don’t want to hurt you…” There was a pleading look in his eyes, asking me to understand.
I could see the struggle going on inside his eyes. “I can handle this,” I assured with a boost of self-confidence.
He smiled, a calm and arrogant smirk. Raising his hand, he stalked forward sliding effortlessly into predator mode. “Remember don’t hold back.”
I gulped, stepping away from the furniture. In the space of a blink, the first little bolt of blue energy hit me like a wasp sting, piercing and unexpected. “Ouch blast it,” I complained frowning. “That hurt.”
He sent me a humorless smile. “Don’t let it touch you next time.”
I stared at the guy in front of me like I didn’t recognize him. His sapphire eyes were cold as ice, hard and unyielding. He looked dark and grim. I got that it was for my own good, but he was starting to really scare me, and it wouldn’t be long before that fear turned to anger. That was kind of how I operated.
By the third or fourth prick of magic, I wasn’t laughing. I wasn’t nervous, and I sure as hell wasn’t cocky. If anything I was irritated and getting more irritated by the moment. To make matters worse, I got hit, a lot. I could throw up the shield, but he was always faster, beating me to it. By the time the shield encompassed me, some part of me was already feeling the sting of his spell.
I swore under my breath as another globe of blue light pierced me through my jeans. The stuff was no joke, and the more I got hit, the more it stung.
Oookay. I knew that he was helping, but he was starting to get under my skin. I could feel the tingles of rage skirting below the surface, ready to break free. In my heart I knew he didn’t like this, hated that he caused me even the tiniest of pain. It went against his protective nature. I got it. This was the real deal, and I had to be able to act fast and be quick on my feet if I wanted to survive.