by J. L. Weil
I couldn’t catch my breath. It was amazing.
Need spread through me like wildfire. It was only a matter of seconds before we devoured each other, and I was going to enjoy each second.
We were both breathing hard as we surfaced for air. A huge part of me wanted to dive in for round two, and I was pretty sure round two would end up with fewer clothes and further than we had gone before. It sounded divine. But a small fraction of me was still absorbed by the rune.
It won.
“I want one,” I proclaimed, breathless. The idea was just suddenly there, and I knew to the bottom of my curled toes that I truly wanted one.
“No.” He stepped out of our embrace, and I mourned the loss of his warmth.
I wrapped my arms around myself. “What do you mean, no?”
And just as quick, his eyes flashed with stubbornness. “Do I need to spell it out for you? N. O.”
Smartass. He most definitely was going to pay for that. “Why is it okay for you to have one and not me? If you say it’s because I’m a girl, I swear I’ll kick you.”
He tried not to grin and failed miserably. “It’s more than just decorative body art, Bri. It’s magic. A different kind of magic. One bound beyond the rules of witchcraft.”
“So it’s like illegal magic.”
His fingers combed through his hair. “Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.”
I remained undeterred. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me.” The look on his face said he was going to fight me tooth and nail on this. Fine. Time to play dirty. “I had another visit from Casper the friendly ghost.”
That got his attention. He frowned.
“I am going to do this with or without you,” I declared, trying to sound like a hardass…and failing.
He remained an immoveable force. “You can’t go without me; you don’t even know where to go.”
True, I might not know where to go, but he wasn’t the only witch in town. “I’ll just get Sophie or Jared to take me.”
His frowned deepened. I think the Jared thing pushed him over the edge. “Fine.”
I grinned a mile wide. “Your car or mine?”
He sighed heavily. “I know I am going to regret this.”
“Live a little.” This coming from the girl who a few months ago would never have skipped school, never failed a test, much less contemplate getting a rune tattooed.
She also hadn’t had magic or a mega-gorgeous boyfriend. Almost boyfriend. Things were looking promising.
He waggled his studded brow. “I’ll drive.”
“So how soon can we get there?” I asked, slipping into the passenger seat of his Charger.
He grinned wolfishly. My heart tripped. I was feeling wild and reckless.
It was fabulous.
Chapter 17
I MISSED THIS SO MUCH I ached, like my heart had caught a fever. This easiness, silliness, and plain fun between us was cleansing, a breath of fresh air after inhaling nothing but smog.
“So where are we going?” I asked, snuggling in the plush leather.
He had both eyes on the road, a slip of hair flopped over one brow. “I know someone.” His lips tipped at the corners.
Like I doubted him. “And this someone can do a rune like yours?”
“Yep.” He looked like a dangerous little boy.
I narrowed my eyes against the setting sun. “How do you know this someone?”
“Jared.” He gave me a lopsided grin.
“Figures.” It was just like Jared to know everyone in a town he had barely lived in. There was just something about Gavin’s older brother that attracted attention. The good and bad kind. And it was more than his ridiculous hotness. “Does this someone have a name?” It was getting kind of old referring to the artist as this someone.
He angled his gaze toward me, waiting to see my reaction. “Blaze.”
He wasn’t disappointed. I rolled my eyes. “Blaze? What kind of name is that? It sounds like a male stripper.”
He cocked a brow at me. “You’ve changed.”
I gave him a sassy grin. “No thanks to you.”
“I really shouldn’t take all the credit. When did you become so feisty? You’re like a kitty cat with its claws out.”
“I’m turning over a new leaf.”
He grinned. “I like it.”
I smacked him on the shoulder. “Why am I not surprised? Tell me more about the rune. Does it hurt?”
His eyes sobered. I really didn’t understand why he was set against me getting one. What the heck was the big deal? “It’s a rapid needle and spellbound ink. Hell, yeah, it’s going to hurt.”
Hmm. He was going to make this difficult. I could see it in the hard-set line of his chiseled jaw. It was impossible to look at him and not have my heart somersaulting. “Why are you so against this?”
“A rune doesn’t come without consequences. There are rules and responsibilities, just like anything with magic. If the rules are broken, it can change you, not only as a person, but as a witch. It can warp your magic.”
Nothing in this world came without a price.
“I just don’t want anything to harm you. Runes can be very powerful, but they can also destroy you.” His eyes were brimming with concern and worry.
Even after everything that had happened, he was still concerned about my welfare. It made my heart swell. I stared out the window, mulling over his words. I wasn’t going to lie, it made me think twice, but not enough to change my mind. What would my aunt say if she found out or accidently saw the rune? She would no doubt lose her shit. The key here was to make sure she didn’t find out.
More secrets.
More lies.
The guilt gnawed at me.
She would ground me for eternity and probably ban Gavin from my life. But that brought on a new set of questions. “Can someone without magic see runes?” I recalled how it had been almost animated.
His hand effortlessly guided the wheel as we made a turn onto the highway. “No. Those without the gift see nothing but a tattoo. What did you see?”
I laid my head on the back of the seat and turned my body toward him. “It was stellar. Like nothing I ever could have imagine. The ink was a prism of colors. I swear it moved in waves, shifting in and out.”
He nodded. “It’s a symbol to ward off dark magic. Four crescent moons intertwined. The four elements of magic: earth, water, air, and fire. Those are the colors you saw swirling within the shapes, along with a fifth color—spirit. Spirit is more of an incandescent color. Once it is on you, you can never have it removed. Whatever spell is cast in the ink will follow you forever.”
There was a foreboding ring to his words.
It was for protection, I rationed. It had nothing to do with the fact that Gavin had one, or that I wanted to share something with him. And definitely had nothing to do with making him think I was a cool chick.
No way. None of the above.
Who was I kidding? It was all those reasons and more. Everything told me that this magical body art would bring us closer. I needed to do this. For me. For Gavin. For us. I really couldn’t explain it in any other way.
He drove us into a seedy part of Wilmington, the side of town I normally avoided. I focused on the road to keep my mind from thinking of other things. Thick trees lined both sides of the road in a blur of shadows, hiding the pale moonlight from our view. We were the only headlights on the two-lane road. He turned onto a barely visible road. There were no markings; nothing to signal that there was even a road. I wasn’t even sure how he hadn’t passed it by.
The car bumped along the dirt and gravel road.
“Well, this isn’t creepy,” I muttered.
“This was your idea,” he reminded, not that my stomach needed the reminder.
This had been my idea, but it wasn’t exactly what I had pictured. Were there no rune shops along the boardwalk? That seemed a much safer option. I guess maybe they didn’t have the proper equipment that was needed. �
��It’s safe, right? I’m not going to be butchered up and stored in a freezer, am I?”
He snickered. “You need to lay off the slasher movies. I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”
And those were words I trusted from no one but him.
An old ranch-style house sat off to the right. Shingles were missing from places in the roof. He killed the lights and the engine, immersing us in darkness. A neon sign lit a small section of the house in bold, blue lights. It read Divinity Tattoo.
He reached for my hand as I stepped out of the car. My stomach went topsy-turvy, and my pulse picked up speed. I was really doing this. I was going to puke. My nerves had settled in and were hammering against my ribs.
“Is there an age requirement?” Suddenly, I just realized I wasn’t of legal age to get a tattoo. I didn’t know if worked the same way with magical art.
“I got you covered.” He flipped his wrist, and a plastic card appeared.
“You made me a fake ID?” I asked in disbelief.
“Every teenager needs one, especially when breaking the law.” His blue eyes sparkled in mischief.
I peered down at the plastic card. It looked flawless. “This looks so real.”
He flexed his fingers. “Magic.”
Taking my hand again, he guided us toward the creepy house. Everything was dark, with slivers of moonlight cutting across the yard. I couldn’t see two feet in front of me as I cast an unsure glance to the tree line bordering the property and tripped. Damn pothole. Gavin’s hand was there, steadying me before I ended up face first in the ground spitting dirt.
My eyes must have been wide as saucers. “We can leave if you want. You don’t have to do this.”
I just shook my head.
I can do this, I told myself. You can do this. You want to do this. It helped a little.
The door jingled as we pushed it open, and I was awestruck. The place was the complete opposite of the exterior. Two steps inside, and I was transported to a parallel universe. The walls were painted with mermaids and harpies that seemed to dance and sing. Everything in the spacious studio was touched by magic in some form.
My mouth must have fallen open, because he whispered in my ear, “It’s glamoured.”
I tried to ignore the little blip in my heart at his closeness. It was challenging. Glamour—made sense, I just had never experienced it firsthand. It was pretty kickass. I so needed to learn that trick.
A man in his thirties sat on a stool behind the counter with a half-dozen piercings on his face. Both arms were sleeved in ink that sparkled like Gavin’s. It was mind-boggling to see so much of his body covered by mystic art.
Billy the badass—that’s what I decided to call him—eyed Gavin in the macho way guys do when they size each other up. Then he turned his gray eyes on me. “What can I do for you, sweet thang?” He had a deep, gruff voice, like the kind you get from screaming too much, and a tinge of the Deep South.
In all honesty, he was pretty scary.
Gavin stepped in front of me, centering the attention back to him. “She’s here to see Blaze.”
Billy the badass looked from me, to Gavin, and back to me. “You got ID, babe?”
The muscle in Gavin’s jaw ticked. I don’t think he took well to the casual endearments Billy threw around.
I tried to play it cool and reached into the back pocket of my jeans.
I totally failed.
Gulping, I slapped my new ID on the counter. He slid it off the glass onto his huge palm. Rings decorated each finger.
“So…” He scanned the plastic card for my name. “Britney, you looking to get inked?”
I glared sideways at Gavin. Britney. He smirked, reading the flicker of spice in my eyes. He had changed my name on the ID. I just nodded my head, afraid to speak.
Billy must have taken my silence for nerves, which was partially true. “Looks like we got ourselves a virgin.”
I choked on a horrorstruck laugh. Gavin’s fist clenched at his side. This was going well.
“Don’t worry, Blaze will take good care of you. Blaze!” he bellowed. “You got a customer.”
A tiny woman with silver hair that traveled past her butt rounded the corner. She had it tied at the nape of her neck, and it swayed with her movements. Her features were enchanting, like a little pixie. As far as I could see, she didn’t have an inch of ink on her.
This was Blaze. She wasn’t at all what I had expected. She was a she.
Her smile was charming, reaching the depths of her aquamarine eyes. She was definitely a witch, yet she looked anything but human. An unearthly glow gleamed on her skin, like her outline had been blended by an artist.
“You must be Jared’s brother, Gavin. I can see the resemblance.” She held out her dainty hand, unadorned with any jewelry.
He shook her hand, giving her a wryly grin. “The one and only, and I’m the better-looking one.” His ego had no bounds.
I rolled my eyes. Blaze caught the movement, and the corners of her shell-pink mouth turned up. “You must be his girlfriend.”
Awkward.
He didn’t deny or confirm, and she’d totally caught me off guard. Since the whole fiasco with Lukas, neither of us brought it up. “Brit wants to get inked,” he informed her, letting Blaze make up her own mind about us.
My chest swelled, and my heart skipped. It gave me hope, though I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes when I heard him call me by my fake name.
“Well, Brit, aren’t you one lucky girl?” I wasn’t entirely sure it was necessary to stroke his already-inflated ego any more, but Gavin definitely didn’t have any qualms with it. “Let’s step into my office.” She gave me a quick wink and then led the way down a narrow hallway.
As we turned around the corner, I elbowed him the ribs. “What was that?”
He grunted and scowled down at me. “Security. I don’t want anyone tracing you,” he whispered near the nape of my neck.
I ignored the shiver his whisper produced. Then there was the uncertainty I felt about him protecting my identity. It seemed a little excessive. I made a mental note to ask him on the way home. We followed Blaze into a quaint room the same color of her eyes. The blue-green walls were trimmed in dark mahogany. A counter housed a slew of instruments that looked more torturous than artsy.
She took a seat and indicated I take the one beside her. “What do you have in mind?”
Gavin stood behind me. His presence was like a shield. “Protection. You know, the whole evil spirits and whatnot. The usual nasties.”
Her smile was lovely and illuminated her entire face. “Hmm.” She reached out and clasped my hand in hers. A charge of electricity jolted through our hands on contact. My eyes widened, and I studied her face, wondering how this was helping. Didn’t I just pick out a pretty design and voila, abracadabra…I got a kickass rune?
Sounded accurate enough to me.
Blaze looked at me funny. “Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that. You pack quite a punch in such a little package.” Who was she calling little? We were about the same height and build. She smiled, aqua eyes dazzling. “I’ve got just the thing for you. Let the party begin.”
I wouldn’t exactly call this a party...to each his or her own, I guess. There was both a bubble of excitement and a sliver of fear in my chest. The fear was mostly for the pain. Glancing at Gavin, his eyes filled with worry.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said for like the umpteenth time.
I had to fight from rolling my eyes again. “I know. I want this. I can’t explain it. This just feels right.”
He nodded, a loose piece of dark hair falling on his forehead. “I understand. More than you know.”
The buzzing of the liner machine vibrated behind me, a sudden reminder of what I was about to do. Straddling the chair, I lifted my shirt as I waited for her to get started. The first prick of the needle was like eh, no big deal. A few minutes later I was trying not to jump out of the chair.
I bit my
lip to keep from squealing like a girl. It reminded me like a hot scratch on repeat. Eventually the area went numb, until she hit a new nerve, then it started again. Gavin’s warm hand clutched in mine helped me focus on anything but the unrelenting pain and kept me from jerking away.
Clamping my eyes shut, I concentrated on the pulsing vigor from our connected fingers. If I thought the outline was bad, the shading didn’t compare. Dots of black swirled behind my eyelids. I was about to call it quits when at last the buzzing stopped. I thought my ears were deceiving me. They were still ringing.
“All done,” Blaze’s voice sounded from behind me.
I let a huge sigh of relief. She smoothed on an ointment before leading me to a full-length mirror, turning me so I had to look over my shoulder. I looked at the red patch on my lower back. There, just above my jean line, sat the dark lines and incandescent rainbow ink of my first act of rebellion. It was majestic, mystical, and alluring—a cross between a sun and a star. A trail of dust encircled the image. In awe, I watched as it swirled in movement.
“I love it!” I grinned, facing Blaze. It had been worth the risk, worth the pain. At the center of my back I could feel the thumping of magic where the rune sat. “It is remarkable,” I gushed.
Blaze smiled in the mirror. “It really is. One of the best I’ve ever done. A reinforcement of what already courses through your blood. This will heighten, guard, and guide you.” Then her eyes went stony and opaque. “But the price for the darker side of magic will be increased tenfold. Choose wise in your spells. The vector of elements suits you.”
Her words struck a chord inside me, a weight of responsibility I hadn’t felt before walking inside the deceiving rundown house. “Thank you,” I managed in a soft and shaky voice.
Gavin, after a playboy-worthy smile to Blaze, ushered me back down the slender hallway into the main entrance. He was such a flirt, I thought to myself, but really, I didn’t mind. It was adorable and harmless.