Axel nodded and added, “My dad, the moron, thinks if he turns me, he'll have more cachet with Young. Especially if he turns me rogue and I kill Darcy. Stunts like cutting up those witches, stuffing them into a Hummer, then crashing it into my club …” He was so furious, it rode over any witch bloodlust he normally felt when his emotions got out of control. He thought of Darcy in the moonlight, her power surging and pulsing until she'd been the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen—until he'd seen her lying naked beneath him.
He would not kill her.
He would protect her.
The need to see her safe was a living, breathing desire inside of him.
Key said mildly, “Your dad probably blows at chess. His strategies are too convoluted, and dependent on too many factors. Instead of just finding a way to kill you, he concocts a comic-book plot of turning you to the dark side so you can rule with him for all of eternity.”
Axel let it all race through him. “Rule what? What exactly does my dad have set up there at that house?” Turning, he said, “Sutton, see if you can find the blueprints on the remodel my dad did on his house. Find out what he has set up at that house that drew Eric Reed from San Diego.”
“Reed might know that Morgan is here in town,” Phoenix pointed out.
“Shit.” He couldn't let Morgan get taken by that monster. “I'll call Joe, have him bring Morgan back to the house.”
Phoenix leaned back, stretching out his legs. “How's Darcy doing with the spell to heal Hannah?”
“She's trying to get the spells out of the tapestry. Without a familiar, it's a struggle.”
Mildly, Phoenix answered, “The rogues believe the witches, the earth witches included, are so desperate to get their power back that they will do whatever it takes. Like complete the curse, bind witch hunters to them, and use them like familiars.”
Axel turned, leaning back on the pool table. His hawk tattoo grew tight. “Got a point?”
“There's no witch magic in his tat,” Key interjected. “We'd feel it.”
Phoenix shrugged. “How do you know a witch can't hide her power?”
Shit, Axel thought. “Darcy said her mother used a charm like that.”
“And got knocked up by Quinn Young,” Phoenix said, his gaze heavy on Axel. “Quinn Young wants her dead. What does he know about his own daughter?”
“That she's a witch,” Key said. “He hates all witches. Blames them for the demon witches tricking him, when the real blame lies with him. He should have checked with his silver knife to make sure those three mortal women weren't actually demon witches.”
Phoenix said, “Darcy's mother tricked Young, too, from what Axel told us.” He turned to Axel. “I can smell the witch on you. You had sex with her. Did you even feel the bloodlust?”
“Hell yes.” Or he had felt it until that moment on the porch when her powers had unfurled in the moonlight and touched him.
“So you had sex with her to control the bloodlust?” Phoenix pushed.
Axel glared at him.
Phoenix shrugged, “It's what we do. Have sex to control the bloodlust.”
He hadn't used Darcy like that. And it had been more than sex, full of power, magic, connecting, and filling something inside of them they both needed. They didn't need to know that her power was living and pulsing inside of her, and that he'd touched it, tasted it, and felt it sear his soul.
Or that it had taken every ounce of his will to walk away from her this morning, instead of staying and claiming her the way he felt compelled to do.
Sutton spun around on his chair, breaking the building silence. “Since Darcy's father is a witch hunter, that might be the reason why you can control your blood-lust around her.”
Axel had thought of that himself. Could that also be why they had a connection? Why she'd drawn him into her magic so that he could hear her side of the conversation with her mother? Even though she hadn't spoken physically, only magically? He didn't know, but he was left feeling uneasy and suspicious. And other times, usually when he was touching Darcy, he felt … whole.
Ram said in his measured voice, “I have one question, and don't turn your laser glare on me. It's a fair question given that we know Darcy's mom used a charm to cloak her powers. Do you think it's possible she cloaked her powers to seduce you?”
“No.” He'd felt her power. Plus, he knew how vulnerable she was when it came to sex, and he'd seen her pain this morning when she thought he was afraid of her. “I won't be drawn into the rogue bullshit of blaming all the witches, or believing that killing them will break the curse. We were born to protect earth witches, not slaughter them.”
Darcy stared at the box full of sand and wanted to cry. The cat was gone now, leaving the silver box sitting on the hill overlooking the lake.
Using low magic, she'd opened the box on the first try. As the lid began to lift, a real sense of accomplishment had soared through her. She was strong, powerful. She could do this!
The lid raised completely and revealed its contents.
Sand. It was filled with sand.
Disappointment and frustration drowned out her earlier triumph. She'd opened a box of sand. Damn it, the spells had to be in there. Her mom had said so.
How was she supposed to do this? How did she translate those grains of sand into the spells she needed?
She needed a familiar to control her power. Every time she opened her fifth chakra, she lost control.
Since the scene with Axel this morning, she'd trekked up the stairs repeatedly and gazed out the front window, hoping that the familiar she'd begged the Ancestors for would show up.
But she knew deep in her gut that none would.
She was terrified that she knew why: her mom's theory that the witch and witch hunters’ souls had merged and split—leaving them with only half a soul. Darcy feared that when she had tried to call her familiar in the moonlight, Axel's hunter soul had responded. But she hadn't sealed the bond by magically impressing his image on something silver like Carla had told her witches were supposed to. Had sex sealed a connection between them?
Her magic had crested when Axel made love to her.
And then the cat in the tapestry had gone wild at that moment, getting Joe's attention so that he went and found Darcy. Once Darcy got inside, she hadn't connected with her mom until Axel had put that blanket around her. Basically, he'd touched her and then she was able to magically connect with her mom.
What if she had accidentally made Axel her familiar?
Nausea swirled in her stomach. She rubbed her forehead and headed upstairs to once more check and see if her familiar happened to be sleeping on the front porch. She clung to a desperate hope that her real familiar would show up and prove she hadn't done the unthinkable to Axel.
How was she going to face him? If she told him what she suspected, he'd either kill her on the spot or he'd throw her out. Then she wouldn't be able to help Hannah. She would have failed. And she was scared, she had no place to go.
She went up the stairs, through the pantry, and into the kitchen. Joe and Morgan had left awhile ago to see Carla. There was only Eve and Hannah in the house. As she started to pass the hallway to head to the living room, she heard Hannah's soft crying.
What now? That poor child was more and more miserable each day. Darcy turned down the hall, following the sounds until she found Hannah's room. The little girl was tangled in her sheets and nightgown, her hair plastered to her sweaty face.
Eve rushed up next to her. “I just ran to the bathroom. I gave her some medicine for the fever, but it's not working.”
Darcy could feel Eve's desperation, love, frustration, and rage. It mixed and stewed into something that felt like choking panic. It wound inside of Darcy. Gently, she put her hand on Eve's arm. “Let me try? I might be able to make her more comfortable.”
Eve nodded.
Darcy walked to the bed, leaving Eve to watch from the doorway. “Hannah?” She sat on the edge of the bed, put her hand on the child'
s hot little forehead, opened her first four chakras, and summoned the energy through them.
Hannah moaned and shifted on the bed, scissoring her legs beneath the sheets like she was trying to run.
Darcy sensed a distinct inky gloom coating the child. She couldn't see it, but it felt like the heavy darkness of a small closet, like all that dark energy was rushing and seeking, trying to meld together into some formless entity. Keeping her hand on Hannah, she focused on channeling comfort down her arm and through her hand.
Hannah tossed and muttered. Then suddenly, she grabbed on to Darcy's arm with both hands, as if trying to keep Darcy's hand on her forehead. Her energy rushed toward the sick little girl, much like water from a hose.
Immediately, Darcy felt the exchange; dark, thick gloom that felt like it was slithering up her arm. As if a bucket of worms were scuttling over her skin, looking for a place to burrow. She had to set her teeth together and force herself not to fight it. It was just the exchange Carla had told her about. She hadn't even had to search for the dark threads. Forcing in positive, healing energy forced out some of the dark sickness from the curse. She couldn't repress a shiver, but kept her hand on Hannah's warm forehead. Finally the dark worm feeling disintegrated and fell away.
She was left with a throbbing headache and slight queasiness. It was an effort just to stay sitting upright and not slide off the bed into a puddle on the floor.
“You made them leave.”
Darcy tried to ignore the lethargy and shifted her gaze to Hannah's face. She took her hands from Darcy's wrist and picked up her Minnie doll, hugging it to her chest. Her eyes were huge in her pale face. “Feel better?”
“Little bit. Tired. Thirsty.”
Darcy turned to the nightstand and picked up a bottle of water. “Have some of this.” She got an arm under Hannah to help her sit up. Hannah let Darcy hold the bottle while she drank.
“Done?”
She nodded. “Can I sleep with you? The shadows are afraid of you.”
Her throat suddenly ached. “Oh, honey, it's too cold downstairs for you.” And Axel would never allow it. He didn't quite trust her. The divide between witches and hunters was deep and steeped in suspicion.
And maybe he was right to be suspicious.
“Can you stay here?” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Please?”
“Until Axel gets home, okay? Then I have to go downstairs.” She wasn't going to lie to Hannah then have her wake up and find Darcy gone.
“ ‘Kay.” She closed her eyes and snuggled down in the bed with her doll.
Darcy pulled the covers up over her and said, “Night Hannah.”
“Hmm.”
“Thank you,” Eve said softly from the doorway.
She looked at Eve standing in the light from the hall. “Hopefully she can sleep for a while now.”
Eve's face had aged ten years. She looked at her daughter. “We're running out of time.”
Darcy took a deep breath, fighting a flu-like feeling of fatigue and general ickiness from touching Hannah's curse. “I can do it, Eve. I will do it. I'll sleep on the floor in here for a couple hours, then once Axel's home, I'll go back downstairs and work on the spells in the box. I'll figure out how to get the curse off of Hannah.”
Eve walked to the rocking chair in the corner and scooped up the thick quilt and pillow she had stacked there. She brought them back and spread them out on the floor by Hannah's bed. “I'll wake you when Axel gets home.”
Darcy settled onto half the quilt spread out for padding. “Thanks.” The thick, pulsing pain in her head was nearly unbearable. Her hand trembled as she reached to pull the second half of the quilt over her.
She had to be strong enough to do this. Whatever happened, Darcy knew one thing: Her mom had fought to her very last breath to let Darcy live. Even when her monster of a father had found Fallon, no matter what he'd done to her, Fallon hadn't told him where Darcy was. She had to be that strong. She had to make her life count. She had to save Hannah, and maybe, somehow, she could live on and continue her mom's work undoing this curse that was destroying both the hunters and the witches.
And harming mortals like Morgan. She drifted off, thinking about Carla, and hoping that her session with Morgan went well.
Darcy woke up when an arm hit her face. Hannah had climbed off the bed and snuggled next to her on the floor. She must have been scared, but she was sound asleep now. Carefully, she moved the arm off her face then climbed to her knees.
God she was tired.
She leaned down to pick Hannah up and put her back in bed.
“I'll do it.”
She jerked back, her heart stopping for a second as the voice registered. She looked up.
Axel.
He had walked into the room as silently as a ghost. Her heart pounded with an adrenaline surge. At least it brought her fully awake. He smelled like he'd just gotten out of the shower, and his dark hair was wet and combed back from his hard face.
Getting to her feet, she said, “Hannah wasn't feeling well so I—”
“Mom told me.” He hunkered down, scooped up Hannah, and settled her on the bed. He carefully tucked her Minnie doll in her arms then pulled the covers up.
Darcy stood there watching him, watching the play of powerful muscles beneath his T-shirt gentled by his love for his little sister. A lump formed in her throat. She didn't know why. She was ridiculously emotional right now.
Axel turned to look at her. His green gaze seemed to penetrate right to her core.
Time to run. Axel had touched more than her body during sex, and now she felt too vulnerable, too exposed. Her body reacted to his simple look, her nipples ached, her skin grew sensitive, and her muscles softened. It was as if she craved his touch. Needed his touch. She hated that, hated needing something from someone else. Firming up her muscles, she said, “I'll go downstairs.”
She turned and walked right into Axel.
“Don't do that!” She hissed in a whisper so she wouldn't wake Hannah. The way he moved with inhuman speed and silence unnerved her. Could he see the truth inside of her? See that she was hiding something from him? He'd suspected something this morning.
He said, “We need to talk.”
Oh, God. “I need to work. I've gotten the box of spells open, I just need to figure out how to read them or make them …”
Axel reached out and pulled her closer to him. “We'll go outside. That might help you with the spells. It'll make you feel better if nothing else.”
He knew that about her. It struck her deeply. Her adoptive dad had known that about her and had used it against her. She inhaled to find her center, but it was Axel's scent that filled her. A cedar aroma and the soap from his shower, mixed with a wild tang that made her want to rip off all of their clothes and feel only the light of the moon and each other's touch. She desperately wanted to go outside. “All right. You can let go of my arm.”
Axel released her, turned, and walked into the kitchen.
Darcy followed, pulling herself together.
Eve sat at the kitchen table with a glass of wine and her laptop.
“We're going outside,” Axel said.
Eve looked up. “Darcy, are you all right? What you did tonight, it had to have some affect on you.”
She shrugged, feeling Axel's gaze turn toward her.
“What did you do?”
Eve answered, “Hannah said she made the shadows go away. I thought I could see something dark moving from Hannah to Darcy. And Darcy got paler and paler.”
She didn't want to think about it. “I'm fine.”
“Then the moonlight will do her good.” He went to the cupboard and got out a couple of wineglasses. He filled them with dark red wine and handed one to Darcy.
She took the glass and followed Axel outside. Her jeans and copper-colored peasant blouse had to be wrinkled. Her hair was a sleep-rumpled mess, her eyes were swollen and most likely smeared with mascara. Her stomach was tight to complement her thick and ac
hy head. She felt like a mess, but once she stepped outside, it all slid away.
The night air was scented with the sea and damp earth, making it rich and sultry. The moon flirted with the cloud cover, brushing her skin with its silver glow, then disappearing. Her blood pulsed stronger and her chest grew warm with the heat of her witch energy. She felt stronger, more alive. More powerful. Without any discussion they headed toward the lake.
“Over there is a hidden garage.” Axel pointed to the far side of the house.
“It looks like part of the house.”
He nodded. “The hallway downstairs? At the end on the right wall is a mirror. It's actually a hand scanner. I've inputted your palm into the database so you can activate the door to the garage. I have vehicles in there, always ready to go. If I'm not here and the house is attacked, and if my mom isn't here for some reason, I want you to get Hannah and get out.”
Surprised, she sipped her wine and mulled that over. The sound of the water gently lapping at the shore drew her. She remembered what Fallon had said about places where the elements mesh, like water meeting land. They were ley lines, a power source for witches. She could feel herself reviving, feel her chakras opening wide, stirring and stretching to reach out into the elements to feed. Filling her. Her skin became more sensitive and her awareness sharpened, making her feel more connected to the world around her.
They stopped at the shore, at the place they'd made love. Turning to Axel, she said, “You're not afraid I'll run away anymore.”
“No.” He settled his gaze on her, his mouth moving into a confident smile. “You're not stupid or foolish. You know I can protect you better than you can protect yourself.”
True.
The smile vanished. “I didn't know you were claustrophobic that first night. I felt your fear, but I wasn't sure you weren't playing me.”
She moved a few feet away to a rock and sat down. The sounds of the night were soothing, the water lapping, crickets chirping, trees in the distance swaying in the soft breeze. “You're not very trusting of witches.” Idiot. Why had she brought up the trust issue?
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