The Witch's Love Spell Book 2

by Larissa Ladd

  Van’s demand, as well as his earlier words to Jayden, also more than a request, nagged at the back of her mind, and while she acted spirited on the dance floor, she began to remember similar moments with Chad. The intern, who had blindly followed orders. The bartender, who had suddenly changed her mind and served them before the wedding party arrived.

  And then, just before they’d started slow dancing, he’d done it to her. Earlier, his eyes had changed in a way that, at the time, she couldn’t explain and had told herself was just a trick of the light. But as he leaned in and kissed her, deeply and sensuously, she knew. She knew why things were so odd with him lately. She had let her feelings for Chad cloud her judgment. She knew she needed to distance herself because it wasn’t a far cry for him to figure out that she was a witch, if he hadn’t already. She knew for a fact now that her spell hadn’t worked on him.

  After all, she couldn’t spell a warlock.

  And if Chad was a warlock, obviously Van was as well. This situation was getting more serious by the minute. How could she have been so stupid not to know? She had to get to Jayden and warn her before the girl made a move just as dumb. But the song ended, and attention was called to the front of the room, where the toast was about to take place.

  Jayden grabbed her arm as she slid into place beside her, and Skyler hissed at the tight grip. “This is it. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but the anticipation is killing me.”

  For a moment, Skyler had no idea what she was talking about, too wrapped up in her latest revelation for anything else to matter. Then, she turned in the direction Jayden was looking and got a good look at David, who was pale as a ghost, his lips a bit of a putrid blue color with a little green tinge starting to come in around the edges. The whole reason they were here—Ava Duran had pulled it off.

  Skyler couldn’t even concentrate on the other speeches as she waited for David to give his own. She sincerely wanted this to be over so she could pretend to feel ill and go home. She had to sort this out and find a way out of the nightmare she’d managed to crawl into. So, she watched intently, and David sounded as bad as he looked.

  “I, um, excuse me.” He burped, a wretched sound, and there was some muttering in the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, friends and fam . . .” He trailed off again, covering his mouth with a fist and making a sour expression. He half chuckled. “Forgive me, everyone. Let’s try this again. It means so much to have our friends and family here to support us on this occasion.” He got no further. With the word ‘occasion’ also came everything the man had eaten in the last three days, or so it looked. He managed to bend over and make it into the punch bowl, but not before squeals and cries went up around the room.

  Skyler also heard a few gagging noises and realized her mother hadn’t quite thought this through. Jayden groaned. “I think that’s our cue to leave.” She grabbed Van, and Skyler felt Chad’s hand link into hers, guiding her out of the throngs of people as well. When they were all outside, Jayden giggled. “I don’t think your mother thought about the chain reaction something like this could cause.”

  Skyler wrinkled her nose. “As long as we’re out here and the smell is in there, I don’t particularly care. And if my mother’s affected, so be it. This was her doing.”

  Chad raised an eyebrow at her. “Your mother poisoned his food?”

  Gulping at the error of speaking in front of them, she simply nodded. “Yes, to get back at him for being a miserable person who treated Jayden so poorly.”

  Chad chuckled. “I think I like your mother.”

  This was her opportunity. “I’m not sure I do. I’m afraid some of what she put on his food might have somehow made it into mine in a smaller increment.”

  “I told you not to eat it!” Jayden told her. “I knew she couldn’t contain it as well as she thought she could.”

  Skyler grabbed at her stomach. She was nauseated; it just wasn’t from the food. “I think I should go home.” She gave Chad a silent plea and what she hoped was an apologetic expression.

  “I’ll take you. Van, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Van nodded. Skyler wanted to grab Jayden and tell her not to go with Van, but Chad was already pulling her away with him. “Of course, I assume I’ll get a rain check on our little escapade we discussed tonight.”

  Not wanting to make waves right now, Skyler forced a smile. “Of course! After dancing like that, I can’t wait to see what kind of moves you’ll pull in bed.” The idea frightened her, though. During sex was perhaps her most vulnerable time, and they’d had a lot of it so far. There was no telling how much he really knew about her already. In fact, she’d be willing to bet he had known what she was the moment they had met. It would explain the initial hostility. What it wouldn’t explain was lying or keeping the truth about himself from her. It also didn’t explain the sudden change in how he treated her, unless he’d decided that he and Van were going to take over the coven or maybe destroy them. It wouldn’t be the first time warlocks had come after witches and attempted to gain control.

  She was glad she’d gone with ‘ill’ because it made for a quiet ride, without questions or the need to carry on a conversation. It was peaceful, and it gave her time to think, as well as to prepare for saying goodnight without freaking out.

  Chad walked her to the door, and Skyler turned to him and smiled. “Thank you for coming, Chad. It was important to Jayden, and you and Van made it a perfectly wonderful night.”

  He smiled back at her. “I rather think the projectile vomit that exploded from the groom’s mouth made it an event worth attending for all of us.” He reached out and tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear. “But then again, if you’re feeling ill, I guess that might not have been the best part for you. Why don’t you go in and get some rest? I’ll wait for your call when you feel better, hopefully tomorrow, and if it doesn’t come, then I’ll see you at work on Monday. Just know that, by then, I will be going into withdrawals and may very well need a large dose of Skyler.”

  She laughed, wishing it were true, wishing all of this would just go away and she could go back to ignorance. Better yet, she should never have trusted Chad, should have known it was too good to be true. “Well, I think I’ll be okay tomorrow, but I’m also exhausted, so I’ll sleep in and see how I feel by tomorrow afternoon.” She leaned into the kiss, enjoying it wholeheartedly, knowing it would be the last time.

  When Chad said a final goodnight and walked back to his car, she let herself into the house and watched from the window as he drove away. As soon as he was around the corner, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Jayden. Her friend sounded extremely irritated when she answered. “What’s going on, Skyler?”

  “Are you with Van right now?”

  “What do you think? Is there a reason you called? Because if you’re looking for details, you haven’t given me time to do anything worth describing. Now if you’ll excuse me . . .”

  “Don’t hang up!” Skyler interrupted. “Listen, Jayden, I know this sucks, but you have to get out of there right now. It’s important.” She silently pleaded with her friend to understand.

  But of course, she should have known better. “Weren’t you the one who wanted me to have a good time? Why are you doing this, Skyler? Can’t I just have this one night?”

  “He’s a warlock, Jayden. They both are, and they’re dangerous. You have to leave.” Skyler hadn’t wanted to say it over the phone, and she certainly hadn’t wanted to risk Jayden having a breakdown in front of Van. They needed to be cautious so that they didn’t end up in any more danger. There was a distinct possibility Jayden and Skyler had already lost their secret, but if they seemed ignorant to that, they might avoid a war.

  “You are hilarious, Skyler. Listen, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Go to bed. Obviously, your stomachache has also caused you to have a bit of a mental lapse. I love you, Skyler. Get some rest.” Jayden hung up, her tone amused. Skyler cursed and tossed her phone on the kitchen counter as she stormed through the house, trying to think of a wa
y to stop Jayden from doing anything as stupid as she had done already. She wanted to protect her friend, wanted almost as much to protect herself.

  A spell then, she decided, headed for the room with all her magic, her altar, all her talismans and other objects. Flipping through her great-grandmother’s spell book, she looked for something that would cover her and a friend that wasn’t here with her. She could work protection spells, but this had to be of a much greater magnitude than anything in her own playbook. She just needed something with distance that didn’t require physical presence to cast it and with the strength to block out magical beings.

  That was the hardest part.

  Skyler was growing frustrated by the time she’d flipped through half of the scrawled spellwork. She was ready to give up for the night, but something caught her eye—a drawing of a dragon-headed snake, wound into the shape of a diamond. The symbol of warlocks.

  Reading the chicken scratch that would have barely been legible even if it hadn’t been smeared and faded, she squinted and grew hopeful. Apparently, when her great-grandmother’s coven sisters had been attacked, the only reason they had survived was due to a barrier spell that had been cast over the entire coven. Unfortunately, it had taken 27 witches to cast it. However, if Skyler could harness the essence of it and bind it around herself and Jayden, all would be well. The only hiccup right now was that she needed Jayden to be here with her. There was no way around that.

  Closing her eyes in the immediate defeat and her impotence to do anything tonight, Skyler had to hope that everything would be alright with Jayden tonight and that she wouldn’t fall head over heels for the charming warlock because he’d swept her off her feet a few hours ago. Skyler had enough pain of her own right now, and she wasn’t the same emotional whirlwind that Jayden could be. There was no way Jayden could survive another heartache like David had caused her.

  And this could be so much worse. They had their backs against the wall with a raging fire coming right at them. A warlock could assert so much power and so much pain on a witch, and Skyler had put herself and Jayden in the line of fire. She had to fix this, or she’d be to blame if something happened to her best friend. Tonight, she would get everything ready so that, tomorrow, when Jayden arrived, she could make her see the truth and cast the protective spell. It was going to take a lot of energy, and she needed to rest if she was going to be up to it. So she worked quickly, arranging her altar, then showered and dressed for bed. She fell asleep tossing and turning, worrying that tomorrow would be too late.

  Chapter 8

  The muscle in Chad’s jaw twitched, and he headed for his wet bar, pouring himself a snifter of brandy. Instead of drinking it, he swirled it around in the glass, staring at nothing in particular as his mind worked at dangerous speeds.

  What had caused Skyler to practically run from him tonight? He wanted to believe she truly was ill, especially after the digestive pyrotechnics of the new groom at the soiree. However, that seemed like a farce. It was a poor excuse not to come over, when he was quite certain that any queasiness she experienced was likely already subsiding. Of course, women did have their moments.

  It wasn’t so much that he minded having a night alone, although he had been looking forward to a night of acrobatic wonders in the bedroom. It was more that she seemed different, as if she was hesitant to be around him. There was no reason for that. Unless . . .

  But no, she couldn’t know his secret. He’d carefully concealed it, and he’d compelled her to do things. She must have been clueless to his nature. Unless she had some sort of sensitivity to particular types of energy, she would never discover the magic in his blood, the same magic that ran in Van’s veins.

  Taking a sip and sitting in his armchair to brood, Chad thought harder and realized that such a gift could be the very reason she had made him uneasy from the start. Perhaps he’d been able to mask his own magic, but with the addition of Van’s in the same vicinity, she’d read something about them that wasn’t quite human, and it had scared her away.

  Whether she placed the energy as what it truly was or not was a mystery. After all, for her to pin them as warlocks, she would have to be a believer. There were so few left these days, outside their own circles. While he’d wanted to get Skyler out of his life, that hadn’t involved her finding out that he was a warlock. It was a dangerous secret to keep, an even more dangerous one to uncover. If anyone aside from Chad ever found out that Skyler knew what they were . . .

  But that wasn’t possible because she couldn’t possibly have figured out the truth. Skyler was smart, intuitive, and an excellent reporter, regardless of how he’d first felt about her writing skills. That meant she could dig to the bottom of an issue and solve a mystery. Did she see a mystery here to be investigated?

  With a growl, Chad downed the rest of his brandy and threw his glass against the wall, not missing how reminiscent his actions were of his brother’s lack of control. The difference was, Van’s lack of control came from anger and drunkenness, whereas Chad reacted out of frustration and sobriety. He hated being in the sort of bind he feared he was in now. Worse, he hated not knowing for sure.

  But that wasn’t even the worst part. There was something he could no longer deny, something that irritated him and made him incredibly vulnerable, something he hadn’t allowed himself to be in all these years. Skyler made him a completely different man, one who was weak, one who wanted to please someone else, one who felt deep emotions beyond anger. She’d shaken him, and he hated that someone had gotten to him the way she had. As much as he’d set out to shove her out of his life, he wanted her around. He was falling for her, and that made all of this awful because he couldn’t stay with her if she posed a threat of exposure.

  The world had been ignorant for a long time now, hundreds of years, to the existence of magic. Certainly there were pockets of warlocks and witches, and some of them even built covens to share their secrets and hone in on their powers as a group. But the percentage of believers had fallen so low that it just made more sense to keep the secret. If that secret was released, the world would be in upheaval.

  It would also make Chad’s lifestyle a lot less enjoyable. He liked being able to compel his way around, and while he didn’t share his brother’s former need for affluence, he rather liked not needing a great deal of money. He also enjoyed toying around with his magic without ridicule or others looking at him with fear. He was a social person and didn’t want to lose that aspect of his life simply because magic and mortality were misunderstood.

  Waving his hand to clean up the broken glass across the room and floating the shards to the trash can before releasing them, he dismissed his concerns as outrageous. He was overthinking everything, making assumptions that were utterly preposterous. Skyler was ill and had just been edgy because of it. She was also probably a little worried about her mother getting in trouble for her little prank. She’d said goodnight and kissed him as furiously and wantonly as ever.

  For all that Skyler was intelligent and curious, Chad couldn’t and wouldn’t believe she’d figured out something he’d spent decades learning to hide. It just wasn’t possible. Tomorrow, he’d call his brother and see how his escapade with Jayden had gone and if he’d heard or sensed anything out of the ordinary with the two of them, just to make sure. Van would probably laugh in his face and talk about a night of fantastic sex, something Chad craved right now that he couldn’t have it, and all would be right with the world.

  Chapter 9

  A knock at the door awoke a bleary-eyed Skyler, and as she looked at the clock by her bedside, she groaned. If was just after nine, and while she hated getting up late, she really wanted to sleep in today. Pulling herself out from under the comfort of the covers, she wrapped her robe tight around her body and plodded to the front door.

  To her relief—and irritation—it was Jayden, and she opened the door glaring at her friend, who wore the dress from the wedding reception and a bright, chipper smile. “Good morning!”


  Skyler scowled as she let Jayden in. “You never listen, do you?” Turning toward the kitchen and desperate for coffee, she expected Jayden to follow. “I hope you enjoyed yourself because you can’t see him again.”

  “What the hell are you going through, Skyler? For the first time in a long time, we’re both happy, and yet you want to screw it up, even if it means making up some ridiculous tale.” She plopped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. “It’s fine if you want to sabotage your own relationship, but don’t mess with mine.”

  Skyler whirled on her, spilling some of the water she’d been about to pour into the coffee maker. “You really think I want to make either one of us unhappy? If I had known from the start, Jayden, I would never have gotten close to Chad, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have let him set you up with Van. But after last night, I know it’s true, and I can’t ignore that. They are warlocks, Jayden, and we have to keep our distance.”

  Sighing and rubbing the back of her neck, Jayden shook her head. “Let’s say for one second that there’s a remote possibility you’re right. What difference does it make? We’re witches. They don’t know what we are, and we can ignore the fact that we know what they are. It’s not like we don’t understand magic.”

  “We’re susceptible to just about anything they can do, Jayden, and in case you didn’t know, our great-grandmothers were involved in a warlock attack on the coven. Don’t you see what could be happening here? It could be a scheme to take control, to run us into the ground.” Skyler pulled back, knowing she was starting to sound stark raving mad. She needed Jayden to take her seriously. “I’ve been noticing things about Chad. He compels people. I was blind to it at first, but he let his guard down a little last night, and I saw Van do the same thing. He tried to do it to you, and he did it to David.”