by Unknown
Ever?
Ever.
Why not?
I don’t need it.
Must be nice. I do.
You are ready to sleep now?
Yes, I am. It’s been a long day.
Will you meet me for breakfast here at the inn?
I will. That would be nice. I like Bethilda’s waffles.
I hear she makes an incredible French toast.
You’ve talked to Broo.
Goodnight, sweet witch.
Goodnight, Morgan.
A pinch of my thumb and forefinger and the lights downstairs winked out. A snap of them and my bedroom light upstairs flickered on.
A demon. The word pushed itself around my mind as I climbed the steps.
Morgan. The name whispered itself through my body when I sat on the edge of my bed.
I had a feeling he was right. I had a feeling he really was my mate and I would need to get on board with it. The sooner, the better for all involved.
Do you sleep naked?
Nope. Goodnight, Morgan.
His dark chuckle in my head made me smile.
I think the acceptance had begun.
Chapter Eleven
“I didn’t do it.”
I finished buckling the strap on my shoe. “You didn’t do what?”
“Oh, you don’t know yet?”
Glancing over at Barry the Cat, I lifted a somewhat skeptical brow. “What didn’t you do?”
“That’s good. Just make sure you remember that I didn’t do it. It’s not my fault.”
“I’m not going to ask you again. What didn’t you do?”
“They got her out. I mean, I might have... I didn’t... Piddlefarts, it’s not my fault,” Barry the Cat whined. “They threatened me.”
“I’m going to do more than threaten you if you don’t just spit it out. I haven’t had espresso, yet.”
“Wilhemina is free.”
“How?”
“Her sisters.”
A boulder settled in the pit of my stomach. “She’s got sisters?”
“Uh-huh. Wickeds are always born in threes.”
“Lovely. No one thought to tell me this before?” Stalking toward the window, my block heels clomping on the wooden floor, I edged the curtain back. Sure enough, everything was black and white. “I have to do something.”
“What? If you go out there, you’ll be black and white, too. You won’t have any powers.”
“I can’t just sit around inside my house.”
Another cat voice joined in the conversation. “You most certainly can. Let the demon fix it. This is his fault anyway.”
“Larry, you know it’s not his fault, but you’re right.” I shook myself and cleared my mind. Not that I’ve ever done that before when communicating mentally with Morgan, but then he’d always initiated the conversations, so...
Morgan?
Are you alright?
Yes. Do you see what’s going on outside?
I do.
Are there people in town?
Yes, but most took shelter as soon as they saw black and white coming down from the mountains.
Barry the Cat says Wilhelmina got out.
There’s no way she could have.
Her sisters?
Not without help.
I glared at Barry. “What did you do?”
“They threatened me.”
“Barry...”
“I gave them the spell the unlock her cage.”
“How could you?”
“They said they wouldn’t do anything. They wanted to take her home so they could look after her.”
“And you believed them?”
“I told you they threatened me.”
“I’ll deal with you later. Better yet... I’ll let Morgan deal with you later.”
Fear lit up Barry the Cat’s normally green eyes to an almost sickly yellow and he tore out of the room like his ass was on fire.
“Leave it to him to ruin our family name,” Larry the Cat muttered, sauntering out of the room behind his brother.
Larry said I can’t leave the house.
He’s right. You can’t. Not without protection.
I thought we’d come to an agreement, Wilhelmina and me.
I warned you. You cannot lie to a Wicked.
I didn’t lie.
You told her you had no interest in me.
And I didn’t... Oh.
You do now and that broke whatever agreement you made with her.
Well, isn’t that just craptastic. How do I fix it?
I’ll be there soon. Don’t leave the house and don’t open the door. You cannot expose yourself.
It got into my house before. What’s keeping it from getting into the house now?
Me. And the protection spell I put on the house when I arrived.
You did that?
I did.
Oh.
You are mine, sweet witch.
Oh. I seemed to have lost the ability to form any other words. I was surprised at his concern, the extent to which he would take care to keep me safe.
I’ll be there and we’ll deal with Wilhelmina together.
You would do that for me?
Yes. You do not seem to like the way I dealt with her, so I’ll give you one last opportunity to try and reason with her.
You’re trying to win me over.
More than you know.
I heard nothing else from him. I walked downstairs and snapped my fingers to turn the espresso machine on. I’d work the grinder myself. I needed the physical act of pulverizing something. Outside my house, it seemed to be getting darker, blacker and inside the house, my mood wasn’t much better. Were it not for the spell Morgan put over the house, I’d swear my cottage was about to be swallowed up by whatever nastiness Wilhelmina and her sisters were up to. She really did not like me.
Before heading into the kitchen, I detoured into the living room. I found Larry the Cat sitting on his perch in front of the window. He glanced over at me, fear in his eyes, though more muted than Barry’s had been earlier. “We’re safe,” I told him.
“How can we be? We’re trapped here.”
“Not for long. Morgan is on his way.”
“Oh yay for that. He’s the reason for everything that’s happening.”
“No. I am. The Wicked is angry with me. Not him.”
“You should have listened to me and never gone with him, never acknowledged this mating thing. You should have let me keep you safe.”
“Perhaps I should have, but I didn’t. There’s no going back now. Whatever we do, we face head on. Besides, I’ve been told more than once, I can’t escape fate.”
“What in the name of the Goddess is happening out there?”
“Shari! What are you doing here? It’s not safe.”
The small black cat wound her way between my legs and around my ankles. I bent to pet her, and she arched her back beneath my hand, her purr vibrating against my palm.
“Inside it is and that’s how I got here.”
“Why do you keep coming around when you never visited before?”
“I don’t know. I like it here.”
“I thought you liked living with your warlock?”
Shari hopped up beside Larry, earning a look of mild disdain. He didn’t share well. “I do like living with him, but he’s off doing warlock-y stuff and I didn’t have anything else to do.”
“Take a nap. Take a bath. Be like a cat.”
“I’m so much more than just a cat.”
“A pest. That’s what you are that’s more than a cat.”
A growl and hiss later, and Larry was picking himself up off the floor and jumping effortlessly back to his perch beside his sister.
I left them to deal with each other in the way only siblings can and wandered into the kitchen, absently wondering where Barry the Cat had hidden. I had a strange feeling that my life was about to become two more cats richer.
Morgan stood against the island, ankles and a
rms crossed. I was as pale as he was dark, and as light as he was foreboding. He was magnificent, and in that moment, I realized that yes, I had lied to Wilhelmina. Unintentionally, but that wouldn’t matter now, not to her.
“Hi.”
“Hello, dear witch. I like when you look at me that way.”
“What way?”
“Like you can’t quite believe I’m real. Like you’re in awe.”
“You have a high opinion of yourself.”
“I won’t deny it.”
I smiled and ducked my head for a moment before meeting his gaze again. “How do we fix this?” I nodded to the break in the curtains on the kitchen door. Blackness had all but swallowed up the morning sky. There was only a sliver of blue left, a hint of sunshine in the distance.
She was blocking out all the colors, all the brilliant hues of Autumn.
“I am here. She will come.”
“How will she get in? You said we can’t open the door.”
“I called her. She will appear.”
“And her sisters?”
“I don’t know where they are.” For the first time since I met him, his cocky, self-assured demeanor slipped.
“You don’t know where they are?”
“No.”
“But...” I started to smile, but bit it back. Nothing about any of this was funny, and yet... “You lost control of little pixie-like girls?”
“I do not find this amusing, witch.”
There was no sweet or dear or lovely or darling attached the word witch and that told me he was definitely not amused by my choice of words.
“You do not know them as I do. They earn their Wicked titles from the moment they draw their first breath.”
“But you’re a demon.”
“No one controls a Wicked.”
“Obviously.”
“Can you stop making fun, now? This is serious.”
“Yes, it is. Your Wicked Wilhelmina has a crush on you and she doesn’t like that you are... Well, that you are...”
“Yes?”
Now it was his turn to make fun, to poke at my uncomfortableness. I struggled to say it. Even now, even after my own silent acceptance, I struggled to put it into words. But I would. I would not let the words defeat me. “She doesn’t like that you have a mate.”
“That’s not what you were going to say, dear witch.”
Why was it when he used those endearments my belly fluttered and my tongue wanted to lick him to see if he tasted as sweet?
I looked away, down to the floor, to the tips of my shoes beneath the lace hem of my black and purple striped dress. Aside from my orange one, this was my favorite. I’d put it on because I was meeting Morgan for breakfast and I wanted to look pretty. I—
You always look pretty.
I blushed at his words in my head, but didn’t look up. Silent moments later, “They’re here,” he said softly.
“They?”
“Yes. They.”
And so they were. “What is it with cats and creatures and witches always sitting on my counters?” Irritation laced every syllable. “The counters are for food preparation, not for butts to perch on. Get. Down.”
I couldn’t tell which Wicked Wilhelmina was, but one clearly looked embarrassed more than the put out the way the other two did. She started to move, but stopped short, standing between the others.
“You cannot tell us what to do.”
“This is my house and you’re inside it. I control what happens here. Not you. Now, I said get down.”
“Kandy...”
I glared at Morgan. “This is your fault. Mine, too. But yours more so. Then there’s Barry the Cat... Still...”
“She wants him back.”
“He was never hers to have.”
“Give up your claim to him and we’ll go.”
“Right. Like I haven’t heard that before. Nope.” Pulling out a stool, I plopped down on it, crossing my legs. “Now, off the counter and let’s have a civilized conversation.”
“No.”
“The witch said to get off the counter.”
The Wicked on the right hissed down at Shari the Cat. Shari hissed back and flexed her claws, scraping them across the wooden floor. I cringed at the deep gouges, but chalked it up to a day in the life...
“Better do what the cat says, Wylda. This one isn’t like the other one.”
“No. I’m not like Barry, my dimwitted brother. I’ll rip you to shreds without even thinking twice.”
Grumbling. Hissing. Name calling, some of which I’d never heard uttered before followed the Wickeds as they climbed to the floor. They didn’t stand much taller than Shari would be if she stood on her hind legs, but as it was, she walked around the sisters and snared them with her tail. They couldn’t move their arms and they could barely wiggle their toes. I’m not sure how she did it, but I was suitably impressed. I might need to have a talk with her warlock.
“Now, about the nastiness you’re causing outside. Who have you made into a neon sign?”
“You might have us trapped, but you can’t make us talk.”
“Do I look like I’m playing?” Shari said, claws out, teeth bared. “Rip. Shreds. You.”
“This one is mean.”
“Yeah. I don’t like her.”
“If you think I’m mean, wait until you meet Larry. He’s the witch’s familiar and has a vested interest here. I’ll only scratch you up. He’ll eat you. Answer her.”
“The eating witch,” the one named Wylda said.
The eating witch? “Broo? Broo is the neon one?”
“Shit.”
I snorted at Morgan’s curse. Succinct and to the point. I met his gaze. “Amir is not going to be happy about that.”
“No.”
“Maybe you should have let Amir take care of them.”
“Who is this Amir?”
“Warlock prince from... I don’t know. A long time ago.”
“In a dark world far, far away.”
“He had been cursed a frog, but now he’s not and Broo is his mate and... Good luck to you all. Shari, you can let them go. We’ll let Amir take care of them.”
“What do you think he’ll do?” Morgan asked. “I don’t know him as well as you do.”
I tilted my head as though I were contemplating his question. “I’m not sure. He does come from that long line of evil warlocks... They wanted to rule the world, you know. Nasty business, some of the magic they possess. Can assume another’s body, even. Control them from the inside.”
“Oh, that is bad. These three can control weather and atmosphere and even some earth happenings. I believe one can cast spells, like what happened to you the other day, but they can’t assume anyone’s body. I can’t imagine that would be pleasant.”
“And Broo’s own father tried to kill her. Talk about a not so happy family reunion.”
“That’s not right. Where is he now?”
“Oh, he and his cohorts... Baba Yaga took care of them. I’m sure their souls will reach Hell soon. They were pretty old.”
“Enough. I don’t want to die.”
“No?”
Wilhelmina shook her head. “No. I don’t. I just wanted Morgan the Magnificent back. I just...”
Hold up... “Morgan the Magnificent?” My eyes flit from the Wicked to the demon. Morgan groaned and shook his head.
“That’s what she called me. I didn’t tell her to do so.”
“Of course not.”
“Go on, Wilhelmina. You want him back and...”
“He would leave me for you and I will have to go back to my former master and I don’t want to.”
“Former master? You said she wasn’t your pet,” I said to Morgan.
“She’s not. And yes, she had a former master. He was cruel, and she didn’t deserve it. He treated her as a slave and she is not. I caught him making a public spectacle of her, abusing her for sport and I chose to intervene.”
“Which he didn’t have to do. Boss is
a good demon. Okay, well not a good demon, but a good... The point is he didn’t have to intervene on her behalf and save her. She became his, however that works.”
“Ah, Barry the Coward, how nice of you to join us.”
“I am not a coward, Shari. And Mother told you it’s not nice to call me names.”
“Maybe if you didn’t live up to the names you were called...”
“Play nice, Shari.”
“Yes, Witch.”
What had my life become? Demons, Wickeds, more cats... I couldn’t say it wasn’t interesting, but really, I just didn’t recognize my life anymore. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. Maybe a little shaking up was good, every now and then. Though, I’d kind of like a few days of calm.
“How did you know about me and Morgan? About the mate thing...”
“I told her.”
“You told me you didn’t know until you met me.”
“I... Yeah, I fibbed.”
“You fibbed?”
“A little one. That’s why Barry has been here. I thought you’d figured that out by now, dear witch.”
How was it I was the last one to know? “I’ve been a little preoccupied.” Crawling down off the stool, I sat on the floor in front of the Wicked sisters. “If I can promise that you won’t be sent back to your old master, will you please stop leeching the color from Blue Balls Falls? And return Broo to her normal coloring?”
Wilhelmina crossed her tiny arms. “You can’t promise that. If Morgan takes you as mate, I will have to go back.”
“Why?”
“Because he will be yours. We need a master. It is the order of things.”
“Do each of you have one?” The other two nodded. “Well, then, you can belong to us together.”
“Kandy...”
“Morgan will deal with each of your masters and you will live wherever we live.” I was spouting from the top of my head about things I didn’t know anything about, but I was tired of not being in control. Ever since Morgan showed up at my door with sour Witchin’ Stix, thanks to Baba Yaga, everything had been turned upside down and I wanted it all right side up again.
“Kandy...”
“Of course, I haven’t yet accepted this whole mate thing.” I lied through my teeth and I had a feeling everyone in the room knew it. “But I can promise you will not be returned to anyone.”
“You can’t promise that Kandy...” Over my shoulder, Morgan seethed. “Demons do not take things from other demons.”