by M. L. Briers
“And for the witch no less – that witch – the one that has you twisted around her little finger…”
“I wish…”
“Ah-ha!”
“Eureka!”
“That’s it, isn’t it…?”
“If I had a clue what you were talking about I could deny it.”
“You’re inside her panties…”
“It’s been many, many years since I wore a woman’s panties, although, they were quite comfortable…” Nathaniel offered back, hoping to shift the conversation to a whole new direction, but Julian was like a dog with a bone, and not the one in the boot.
“You want her, don’t you?”
“To do what?”
“I can imagine…”
“Please don’t … that would be … wrong on so many levels.”
“Just tell me why she’s worth it.” Julian demanded.
“I …” Nathaniel frowned, shook his head, and then shrugged his shoulders. “She’s a friend.”
“Bull…”
“Where?” Nathaniel sat forwards and craned his neck to look out of the windscreen.
“Fine. Deny it to me – to yourself – to her, but I know.”
“Well could you explain it to me because I have no clue?”
Nathaniel was finally being honest about something and it was that. He didn’t know what his irrational attachment was to Morgana, but he didn’t want to see her get hurt, and if he truly was her downfall – then he’d do everything in his power to make sure that didn’t happen.
~
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~
Morgana turned the open sign to closed and snapped the locks on the front door of the shop. She started to turn away; when a sharp rap on the glass of the door made her jump in place, and she seethed inside, wanting the day to be over and her heart to beat naturally and without pounding once more.
She turned back to see Joseph grinning in at her like an idiot.
“Drink?” He asked, raising his eyebrows and giving her a dimpled, good natured smile that she feared was supposed to entice her panties to drop around her ankles.
“Not tonight, thanks – so very tired…” She feigned a slight yawn.
She saw disappointment within his eyes and she hated herself for it, but dating someone because they wanted you too wasn’t exactly the best laid plans in life. It was dishonest for a start and sure to end in disaster – much like stringing someone along.
She wondered if she needed to have that talk with him – the one that spelled out just how they were friends and nothing more … she hated that talk and tried to avoid it like the plague.
“See you tomorrow,” Joseph gave her a small wave and walked on, and she felt a sigh inside of her chest, but kept it at bay.
Turning on her heels; she stalked into the back room and tossed the curtain closed behind her … a heartbeat later and she felt the rush of the supernatural against her shields, but it was already too late … a hand at her throat told her that she wasn’t so much as avoiding conflict, as trying to save herself from becoming a victim of it…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
Morgana knew what her attacker was without having to look in his eyes and see the wolf just beneath the surface. His claws pierced the skin at the side of her neck, and she could smell her own blood in the air – now if she could just get a breath through the tight restriction on her throat to …
Do what?
Scream?
And who might come running to help me …? Joseph … a human … a dead man walking from the look in this alpha’s eyes…
First do no damn harm, and putting Joseph in harm’s way applied here … right?
Right!
She lifted her hands and clawed at that one large, right hand that gripped her around the throat … her brain was mush, worse than mush. She knew that she should use magic, and yet all she could think of was to get oxygen into her lungs … free his hand from her throat…
“I’ve been waiting to get you alone…” Reed growled.
His fangs were down and he was full on alpha wolf and she could see it – feel it – touch it with her senses, just as he was touching her.
Touching? Trying to squeeze the life right out of her neck…
I will not go down like this…
I will fight back…
I must fight …
She was getting woozy – worse than woozy – it was like the time that she’d blacked out from too much booze and had cracked her head open on some stupid art décor coffee table in some seedy flat … she had to fight the darkness that would come to claim her…
No … not the darkness … him.
She told herself…
I have to fight him…
Morgana pulled on her magic and pushed it out from her body with all of her might. The roar of the wolf inside the man was almost deafening to her fuzzy hearing, and when he was ripped away from her – tossed across the room by her magic – all she wanted to do was to cover her ears against that sound…
She gasped in and pushed the air back out for more – gasping and pushing back out – over and over as her hand covered the pain at her throat and her eyes focused on her attacker…
Reed was back on his feet in a heartbeat. His shoulders were set. His thick muscled arms were down at his sides, and his claws were still drawn down.
His black hate filled eyes took her in, as he lowered his chin almost to his chest, and when his quivering top lip rose high enough for her to see his fangs … he snarled his intention…
“Mistake…” she breathed out…
Morgana was more than ready to take the alpha on…
“Big one,” Michael came through the curtains like an apparition. His feet looked as if they weren’t touching the floor as he raced towards the alpha…
Morgana knew the vampire. He was a friend of Nathaniel’s – that only made things even more confusing for her.
So many questions rushed through her mind at once that she couldn’t settle on just one – couldn’t spit anything out of her lips as the two men met head on…
She gasped in another breath and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, just long enough to say a few curses that popped into her brain … and then all hell broke loose as the two of them fought like the super humans that they were – and not with the uttermost care for the damage they did to the walls or furniture around them.
~
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~
“Give me the phone,” Morgana held out her hand towards Michael and the vampire gave her an unapologetic look.
“I don’t think you get that you don’t make the rules here…” Michael offered back.
Morgana pressed her lips together in annoyance, tipped her head to one side, and looked at him as if she could strip his flesh from his body with just the blink of an eye – and she didn’t blink once the whole time that she was glaring at him.
Then – she slowly raised her eyebrows towards her hairline and Michael knew that he was in trouble…
“Just give her the damn phone…” Nathaniel grumbled on the other end of the line.
Michael blinked first. With a sigh of annoyance; he slapped the mobile into her outstretched palm…
“Nathaniel, I’m going to kill you…” Morgana offered into the handset and heard the silence on the other end of the line.
“For what part … exactly?” He finally asked.
“Oh, let’s see – for the part where you had your minion guarding me…”
“Not a minion,” Michael bit down on his annoyance as he gave a small shake of his head.
“Minion…” she mouthed at the vampire.
“Minions don’t have fangs and claws and kill people,” Michael offered back. “Not a minion.”
She tossed up a shoulder at him.
“Be nice, Morgana. He did just save your life…” Nathaniel sighed.
Witches could be so ungrateful sometimes…
“And decided that I should
feed on his blood to stem my own…” Morgana ground out between clenched teeth.
“Tasty?” Nathaniel asked, as the rush of something green eyed and very annoyed rushed through him.
He knew that he should have been there to save her life.
He knew it and she knew it, and now everyone knew it … but, he was still miffed that he’d been on a fool’s errand at the time.
Well, now he was headed back to town and he was going to make it right, by killing the alpha, and proving to Morgana that he was her protector. It was his job while she was working for him, and he’d fallen asleep at the wheel – luckily not of the car, but of life.
He’d been distracted, and that wouldn’t happen again.
“Tasty? Hmm. Ask me that again when you’re standing in front of me and I can kill you with one thought…” Morgana bit out.
“You’ve had time to bitch, witch, give me the phone back,” Michael said and she couldn’t hold onto the anger within her for one more moment.
She unleashed it with the kind of powerful jolt that made every muscle within the vampire’s body lock up so tightly that he might as well have licked a power socket.
“Morgana, let him go…” Nathaniel sighed down the line.
Michael didn’t take kindly to being zapped by witches, and the last one ended up in two pieces. That was, of course, eighty years ago, give or take, but the man still had a mean temperament when he wanted one.
He would hate to have to kill Michael because the man had killed her.
“He called me a bitch…”
“No, he said you were being a bitch, that’s two different things – now let him go. There’s a good witch.” Nathaniel offered back with that sickly sweet tone to his voice that told her that he knew that she was really only mad at him and taking it out on everyone around her – which she was – but that was so not the point…
It had made her feel better, finally having someone to unleash her magic on. And that was a good point to make.
“Fine,” she bit out, snapping off her magic and watching the vampire’s whole body convulse as his muscles relaxed.
She tossed the phone in the air and gave him something to think about besides killing her. His hand shot out and he caught it by instinct alone, and gave a deep grunt of annoyance in her direction…
“One of these days…”
“You’re going to cross the line from which there is no return.” Morgana offered him a sweet smile, but there was anger still deep within her eyes and her tone.
“What do you want me to do with the body?” Michael eyed her from head to toe.
“I hope you’re talking about the wolf,” Nathaniel offered back in a tone that said the man had better be.
“It’s a tossup right now.” Michael replied.
“I’m nearly there…”
“Then I won’t kill him yet…” Michael offered back.
“I thought you already had…” Nathaniel ground out.
“She … asked me not to,” Michael scowled as he cleared his throat.
“And you listened to her?” Nathaniel bit out in disbelief.
“Just get here…” Michael bit back, snapping off the phone and stashing it back in his pocket. “Don’t look so smug. I still have time to kill you before he gets here.” Michael informed her.
“Give it your best shot.” Morgana bit back, folding her arms, and offering him the stink eye.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“We might have the same enemy…” Nathaniel announced as he stalked into the back room of Morgana’s shop and tossed down the bagged wolf’s paw onto the floor in front of the incapacitated alpha.
Michael had tied Reed to the steel girder that ran up the far wall of the shop and was what stopped the upstairs from becoming part of the downstairs. It was lucky that he had when the alpha snarled like he was ready to tear his arms off to get out from the bonds that held him – thick ropes enthused with a magic spell that kept the man superglued in place.
“I will kill you all…” Reed snarled, and he looked the part with his fangs down and his black eyes giving everyone death glares…
“Not if we end you first,” Julian offered from the far wall, and Morgana did a double take of the man. She hadn’t seen him come in when Nathaniel had.
The vampire wasn’t a favourite of hers. Not that she considered Nathaniel a favourite either – he was just less likely to rip her head off while drinking her dry of blood than some others – Julian included.
“Did you really just say my father is meaner than your father?” Nathaniel asked as he turned briefly to shoot Julian a look … Morgana couldn’t help but chuckle.
Now that Nathaniel was there she felt a hell of a lot better about things. Not that she’d tell him that…
“Do you really have to be so obnoxious?” Julian asked with a bored tone as he folded his arms and propped up a wall with his shoulder.
Not that Morgana was complaining if he wanted to hold up a wall or two. After the fight between the vampire and the alpha wolf the walls could probably use some reinforcing.
“Yes, but the question is; do you have to be so vampire-ly obvious?” Nathaniel shot back.
“That’s not even a word.”
“And that’s the only thing you take from our conversation?” Nathaniel offered back and Morgana chuckled again. Pressing her lips together when Nathaniel shot her a fleeting glance.
Nathaniel noted what looked like a red blush to the pale skin of her neck where the alpha’s hand had obviously gripped her tightly. He knew the look – he’d done it many times over the centuries, although, he tried not to do it to a female … he also noted the red welts where the alpha’s claws had pierced her skin, but they were now healing thanks to Michael’s blood …
He’d like to kill him for that … when deep down he knew that he should have been grateful a thousand times over instead. He’d done what was asked and made sure that she didn’t have a scratch on her … even if he’d gone about it the wrong way…
“Can we get back to him?” Michael nodded his head at the alpha. “I’m hungry and have dinner waiting for me in my bed.”
Morgana went to open her mouth and offer him a piece of her mind, but one flick of Nathaniel’s eyes towards her stopped her from saying anything. She bit down on the need to zap the vampire again – harder that time…
“Leech…” Morgana muttered – she couldn’t help herself.
She met Michael’s hard stare head on, and offered him a sickly sweet smile. He grunted in return.
“Let’s not fight among ourselves when we have him to fight with,” Julian offered and noted Morgana’s eyes on him – even if he wasn’t looking at the witch, he could feel her gaze anyway.
“I’m sure you’ve figured out that this is one of yours…” Nathaniel motioned towards the paw and Reed snarled once more. “Do you recognise him?”
Morgana almost choked on her tongue. Her eyes rolled back within her head and she regarded the ceiling for want of something to take her mind of that laughter within her – she hated that she’d found that funny.
“I’m not sure. I’ll check and get back to you,” Reed bit out through clenched teeth.
“Very nice comeback line…” Nathaniel said.
Then he crouched down and flicked out just one claw on his index finger, making a small slit in the bag, and he watched the alpha take that scent as if his life depended on knowing it.
He saw the recognition in the alpha’s eyes – saw the moment that the loss of one of his own hit him hard – and then he saw the steely resolve to kill whoever had done it on his face…
“My sympathies for your loss,” Nathaniel said, and he meant it. At least, Morgana thought he did.
Reed turned his rage into one hell of a death glare towards Morgana and the witch balked at the sight of it.
“Don’t look at me…” she scowled back at the alpha.
“Perhaps he’s cross eyed…” Michael offered.
“Wrong … you were lied to,” she tossed back.
“Who told you?” Nathaniel asked and Reed couldn’t have dragged his eyes away from the witch if he’d tried. He was burning her face into his memory so that he’d remember every inch of it for the hunt to kill her…
“Anonymous…” Reed growled out.
“It’s always good to trust that anonymous voice on the end of the line …” Michael offered back. “Because innocents have never died that way before…”
“She’s a witch!” Reed growled…
“That doesn’t make her a bad person,” Nathaniel offered back.
“Just makes her a dangerous, shrew like, killing machine that could easily snap your neck with a flick of her wrist…” Julian set amused eyes on Morgana as she looked at him with a full on death glare and a slightly open mouth…
“Whose side are you on?” She finally bit out.
“Mine.” Julian replied, but then he smiled.
“Is there a point?” Nathaniel asked…
“There’s always a point…” Julian replied.
“There’s always a pointy stick with your name on it,” Morgana tossed back at him.
“Funnily enough, I don’t know if I want to make it now…” Julian offered.
“Julian…” Nathaniel bit out, rolling his eyes.
“My point is – why would she hack off a paw when she could just so easily snap the beast’s neck or … other … stuff?”
“Good point,” Nathanial gave credit where it was due.
“Black magic…” Reed growled. His eyes turned accusing and right back on Morgana again.
“Ah, that’s the enemy I was talking about,” Nathaniel offered with a smirk, and Reed’s eyes snapped back towards him.
“Then look no further,” the alpha nodded in her direction.
“Bite your tongue,” Morgana snapped. Insulted by the accusation.
“Make him,” Julian urged and she scowled at the vampire.
“She’s a dark magic witch…” Reed growled.