“As much as I want to be vulnerable with you, Gerard, this isn’t the time and place. We have some arse to kick.”
Dagger ready, I turned to face the door. They were outside, I could feel them. Probably listening to our domestic, planning their next move.
“Devon, I’ll make you get in,” Gerard hissed as he came to stand next to me.
Flicking the door locked with a minor spell, I went over to the far side of the room. There were several areas we could tuck ourselves away.
The agent who was supposed to be supporting me was there beside me, jabbering on about getting into a dead person box.
“Listen.” Grabbing his arm, I reached up and squeezed the back of his neck. “Would you go in there without me?”
Frowning, he shook his head slowly. “But, I’m not the one they want.”
Staring into his eyes, I smiled. “No, but we’re partners. From one agent to another, we never leave each other behind. We fight side by side.”
“Why is it you always say the nicest things when we’re about to get killed?” The twinkle in his eye made me smile.
Letting him go, I poked him in his muscular side. “Because I’m only sentimental when I think I’m about to lose you.”
His jovial expression dropped, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. Oh boy, if only the witches and warlocks would leave us alone. We’d be doing much more than hiding in the dead person boxes. My face screwed up at the thought, quickly changing my mind. There was gross, I thought to myself, and then there was just plain wrong.
“They’re breaking the door lock. My barrier spell won’t hold for long,” Gerard hissed, his fingers lightly brushing my hand.
We rushed to an examining table and crouched behind it. The cool metal was cold on my back as I leant on it, taking three deep breaths to try and steady my heartbeat.
Palming his gun, Gerard stayed low beside me, ready to defend us when they came through the door.
“We’re going to get you!” the crawler screamed from outside. “I can’t wait to feel your insides.”
Ew. Why did crawlers have to be so evil? If only we could wipe them out for… good. My brain raced as I tried to concentrate. That wasn’t a bad idea.
Crash! The door burst open, coming off its hinges by the sounds of it. The combined magic of both witches and warlocks was strong enough to get through my spell.
Thrusting up from his position, he fired the gun over the table before ducking. Someone swore as they were hit, the sound of their body slamming on the ground making me cringe. Staring at the dagger in my hand, I concentrated on mother earth. Placing the tip on the lino floor, I pulled magic straight from the earth and into the dagger, without it having to go through me. I hadn’t tried it since we’d defeated Vernon Jupiter, but it worked.
The sound of advance was loud in my ears as I turned and sprung into a crouch. Gerard’s gun was blasting into the crowd, taking a few people down. Pushing up, I instantly clocked several of them filtering into the room. They were trying to take cover, their hands raised. Protection spells were being whispered at the same time as warlocks were falling.
“Devon, don’t,” Gerard snapped when I flung my arm, sending a stream of bright yellow warlock magic into a witch, disarming her spell.
“Shoot her!” I demanded.
Shooty Mac-hot-guy did as he was told for once. When he didn’t question me, we got things done. We could work as a combo until there were none left.
Trying not to drop the dagger when the handle burnt my skin, I extended it again, throwing the ball of flames that erupted from the tip. It crashed into a small male witch, sending him flying backwards.
“Devon,” Gerard warned just before his gun started to click with the sound of empty.
Oh, crap. There was no way in hell I could fend them all off on my own. Gerard’s magic was good, but bullets were the only real thing that stopped them.
“Why haven’t you invented a never ending supply of bullets?”
My question was said through gritted teeth as I tugged on more magic to throw. A blue stream of magic wrapped around a warlock who was getting scarily close and brought him to the ground. The crawler was no longer in the room. Not surprising considering how easy it would be to kill his host. Although… if he was sensible and waited, he could come in, be killed and jump straight into me.
“The crawler,” I said as I tried to calm my shaking body. “He’s going to take advantage, I know it.”
Just as I finished my sentence, the old rotting man came into the room behind two warlocks and a witch. They were protecting him.
“Can’t you do your trapping spell?” Gerard asked as he threw his hand into the air, sending one of the witches back with his magic.
We were both weakening. I was pulling way too much warlock magic through me since I’d expended all the power the dagger had absorbed. My witch magic wouldn’t be strong enough to do the spell.
“Gerard, this might well be the end. If the crawler gets inside me, I want you to kill me. I mean it.”
His grunt of nothing made me smile. He wouldn’t ever kill me, but he might lock me up until my body rotted away. And, then, when he saw how gross I had become, he might put an end to my misery.
“They’re out of bullets,” one of the warlocks cried. “Let’s get them.”
Rushing forward, they came at the table. Peddling backwards, I dragged Gerard with me. Our spines slammed against the tiled wall as a couple of them climbed over the table, the crawler not far behind.
Covering my head in my hands, I dug myself into Gerard’s side. I gave up. That’s what I did. There were too many of them, all gunning for me. I couldn’t fight them. Gerard couldn’t protect me. I would be forced against my will to inhabit an evil spirit. They would tie me down again, but in a different way.
“Shit!” someone yelled. “The cavalry has arrived.”
Gerard’s arms were tight around me. The sound of fighting erupted outside the room. I was expecting the hands of my enemies to grab me at any moment, but they didn’t.
“It’s the team,” Gerard said, pushing me behind him as he thrust forward.
I watched as he punched a warlock in the face. A witch managed to dodge out of the way when he went to grab her. She passed him, coming nearer to me. Placing my boots firmly on the ground, I dared her to come closer with my eyes.
My arms were held up, ready for a fight. She threw her head back and laughed, her expression full of hatred.
“You really think I’d waste time playing fisty cuffs, when I can do this?” Holding her fingers in a claw shape, she grinned to herself when I grabbed my skull as my head exploded in pain. Dropping to the floor, I tried to fight her spell, but it didn’t work.
Glancing up through the hair that had fallen over my face, I heaved a sigh of relief when Gerard slammed his elbow into her head. As she fell to the floor unconscious, the pain eased completely.
Scrambling to my feet as others advanced, I almost shouted in glee when Kalic and Antonia came into the room, a warlock flying into the metallic drawers at the same time.
Wow, the cavalry really had arrived. Although…
“Devon, move!” Gerard shouted as the crawler’s body slunk to the ground, the eyes rolling into the back of the head.
Oh, shit, it had jumped out of the body. Which meant the evil spirit was in the air somewhere, heading straight for me.
Sliding across the floor, I jumped over bodies to try and escape. Justina entered the room, her arm extended high.
“The crawler is out of its body, jumping into…”
Screaming a spell, Justina interrupted my sentence. A bright light illuminated the room, showing the spirit hovering in the air, watching me. As soon as he realised that we could see him, he charged down.
Ducking, I tried to cover myself with a dead witch, but it wasn’t going to work. I was going to be-
“Incendia,” Kurt shouted.
Fire? What the hell was he doing with fire?
I let him manhandle me over to the corner of the room. He stood in front of me as we all watched the crawler. The spirit was on fire, its distorted face stretching, and yet, it wouldn’t die.
“Thunder Hunter’s sword is the only thing that will send it back.”
“Good job I’m here, then,” came a deep voice.
The man was a descendent of the Norse gods. Thor to be exact. And, yet, he’d saved me from the crawler that had jumped into me before.
Trygger, the real name of Thunder Hunter, walked to the centre of the room and thrust his sword into the spirit. Its scream echoed around us, wind and lightning blasting the room.
“Bye bye,” Trygger muttered as the crawler disappeared into thin air.
Silence invaded my ears as every sound left the room. The leftover witches and warlocks had been arrested and taken away.
Justina and Kurt approached Trygger and thanked him. Gerard rushed over to me, checking me over for injuries.
Theresa was standing with Julian, the shapeshifter leader. They chatted amongst themselves. I caught words from my old coven leader about how she’d found out about a plan to take revenge on me for causing so much grief by writing the spell.
My whole body shook as I stayed in my ball against the wall. Kalic and Antonia bent down to talk to me, but I couldn’t really hear what they were saying. It was my fault. Everything was my fault. If I’d had known that I was channelling my ancestors when I was a child, I would’ve never become an agent. I was evil. Using the ley lines to connect to the dead to create evil spells was classed as going against pure magic.
“How am I still alive?” I muttered to Gerard when he held my face in his palms.
“I have no bloody idea,” he muttered as he picked me up and cradled me against him. “But, you’re fine. I promise you, you’re fine.”
Chapter Eleven
The knock on the door brought me from a happy dream, a dream where I was getting down and dirty with Mr Gerard Freshwater.
“Devon?”
Oh, and there was his voice. So deep, so raw. And, so loud in my ear. Who said he could come in?
“What?” I muttered from under the covers.
If the sound of rattling cutlery had anything to say about what he was doing, he’d better have a big ‘ole English breakfast with him.
Thrusting the covers off me, I glared at him when I noticed the bowl of oats. “Porridge? Really?”
Tugging the cover back over me, I huddled into myself. I wasn’t getting up for porridge. It was boring.
“You’ve got your therapy appointment in two hours. I thought we could do a workout beforehand.”
My mind instantly went to the dream I’d been having. That was my kind of workout.
It had been three days since the whole agency, plus the leaders of the underworld, had come to my rescue. Thunder Hunter had quickly disappeared into his hiding hole, like usual. He was an acquaintance, that I very rarely saw, but I was pleased to see him the night he sent the dark crawler back to hell.
“Get up, Mrs Lazybones.”
“Mrs?” I said, moving very slowly to sit up. “I’m Miss, thank you very much. No one’s put a ring on it yet.”
The quirk of his eyebrow made me smile as he handed me the bowl of gunge. Ugh. He had nursed me since our ordeal at the hospital, blaming himself for letting me lead him astray. Justina and Kurt had berated us, upset that we’d gone against their wishes, yet again. In fact, we were both on a warning.
“You get me into all sorts of trouble,” I said, gingerly taking a bite of the food. “Nope, this won’t do.”
Shoving the bowl on the bedside table, I jumped out of bed and stretched my arms high. “You, Gerard, are treating me to a fry up at the café.”
His gaze was stuck on my face, his eyes wide, worried. What was wrong with him? He’d seen me in my nightclothes before. Glancing down at myself, I stared. Er. Okay, my boob had decided to slip out of my nightdress and sit on top of it, winking over the edge.
Spinning, I slapped a hand over my mouth at the same time as tucking myself away. Mortifying was not the word. In fact, there wasn’t a word to describe how abysmally embarrassed I was.
Gerard cleared his throat. “So, do you realise how close you came to being possessed again the other night?”
Laughter escaped before I could pull it back. Turning, I shook my head at him. “Firstly, we pretend that never happened. Secondly, you don’t try to cover it up with something that I’m in therapy for.”
Flushed cheeks turned even redder as he tried not to smile. The lift of his lip made me raise my eyebrows.
“I mean it.” He turned serious, the hilarity instantly gone. Ah, I thought I’d diverted Serious Mac-therapist. Alas, it seemed not. “You’re joking around a lot, almost brushing it off. And, yet, I can’t get it out of my head.”
Sitting on the end of the bed, I patted the space next to me. Kingsley squeaked, reminding me of his presence. Blowing him a kiss, I hoped it would placate him for the moment. I had to have this discussion with Gerard, there was no avoiding it.
“You think that I don’t trust you to take care of me.”
His chest heaved before he came over, sitting a few inches away from me. Keeping his distance. Holding his arm up, he pointed at the bare skin above his elbow.
“Have you noticed that there are no new tattoos, even though I killed some bad guys the other night?”
Frowning, I stroked his skin, jumping when an electric shock stung us both. “I hadn’t noticed. Why didn’t you get the numbers? You killed at least six people.”
The wince on his face made me watch him closely. Was he starting to feel something?
“You’ve taught me that I don’t need to keep a tally. I need to forgive myself.” His gaze was stuck to the plush carpet under our feet.
Wringing my hands on my lap, I watched my small fingers as they turned white. “I did. And, you do.”
We were in our own little worlds as we spoke, staring so that we didn’t have to look at one another.
“Well, I’ve been working on that. And… I want you to work on it too.”
Huh? What was he talking about? There was no one in my life I needed to forgive.
“Firstly, your parents.”
Ah, okay, maybe there was. I couldn’t deny that even though I was trying, there was still a bit of my inner child who blamed them for my grandma issues.
“Secondly, yourself.”
“Myself? Why do I need to forgive myself?”
His head turned sideways to look at me. The expression on his face was blank, almost hard. “For not living up to your own expectations. I hear the way you speak about yourself to people. You judge yourself for the trouble you have with magic. Instead of being strong in who you are, you hold yourself back because of what you’re not. You want to be a complete witch, you probably wish you were the only full female warlock. You need to embrace who you are now.”
Getting to his feet when I tutted in dismissal, Gerard stood looking down at me.
“See? You won’t hear me. No, you’re not a full warlock. And, you’re not a full Essex witch. Fuck me, Devon, you’re as unique as they can get, but you want to fit in with the crowd. Why is that?”
Heat seared my veins as he rained judgement down on me. Lunging from my place, I came face to chest with him. Tipping my head so I could see his eyes, I stared him down.
“How dare you say all those things? I’m not weak. Well, I am, but still. Anyway, you can’t give me a lecture about all that shit when you’re fucked up too.”
He raised an infuriating eyebrow. My whole body shook with barely contained rage. If he wasn’t careful, he would get a fire ball up the arse.
“Sorry, uncalled for. Still… I… I…” The anger suddenly drained from me as the realisation sunk in. “I just want to be loved. And, when you stand out from the crowd, people don’t want to get too close.”
>
Gerard’s tongue ran around the inside of his teeth, his expression suddenly heating up. My heartbeat raised, spiking high as my mouth parted slightly and his gaze zoned in on the movement of my tongue as it wet my dry lips.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he whispered.
The tattoos on his arms moved as he clenched his muscles. Was he trying to stop himself from reaching out?
Biting my bottom lip, I took a step forward. “I can’t.”
That was the breaking point. Gerard surged forward, grabbed me by the waist and lifted me. My legs wrapped around his waist as our lips clashed. Tongues danced together, breath intertwined.
Putting my arms around his neck, I held him tightly as he walked us towards the bed.
“I can’t hold out anymore.” He panted as I bit his lip. “Ouch.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Me neither.”
Between nips and licks, we made it to the bed. My dream was about to become reality. I would savour every moment of him. Every single-
“You’re driving me crazy, woman.”
Oh, all he had to do was keep telling me things like that. I was his already. Something had grown between us. No, not that… And, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Yes, okay, that, too.
Falling against the bed, I sunk into the soft material, loving the feel of him against me. His whole body stretched over my small frame, and yet, I felt powerful, not weak.
Running my hands through his hair, I tugged it up, pulling his mouth away from mine so I could look into his eyes. The green irises sparkled as he grinned down at me, totally wanting me as much as I wanted him.
“I’ve dreamt about this,” I muttered, tracing my tongue down his jaw.
Shuddering, he nodded. “Me, too.”
“No, literally last night.” The giggles that filled the room made Kingsley squeak.
Thrusting up, I paused our shenanigans. “Gerard,” I whispered as he dug his head under my hair and ran his tongue around my ear. “Kingsley cannot see this.”
His chest moved with his chuckle as he removed my nightie, leaving me almost naked. Throwing it over Kingsley’s cage, he winked at me. “All better. Much better.”
Hunted Witch Agency Box Set Books 1-3 (Hunted Witch Agency Set) Page 40