by Mary Martel
“She what?” Mr. Cole sputtered. “That’s impossible.”
Slowly, I entered the room. I rubbed my damp, sweaty palms down my bare legs. I wished I’d worn something other than short-shorts so I could wipe my perspiration off on something other than my own skin.
I was nervous and my hands shook because of it.
Why would Quinton do this to me? He was supposed to be on my side! And, what the hell? Mr. Cole knew about magic? He knew that the guys were witches? How was that possible?
Neither were sitting on the fancy looking furniture like I had expected. Instead, they both stood on opposite sides of the room, their arms were crossed over their chests and they glared at each other. Poor Mr. Cole. Quinton was so much better at glaring than he was.
Mr. Cole had his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. He wore black slacks and his feet were bare. Casual was a very rare look for him. I’d only ever seen him in his pajamas once, and I’d never seen him in jeans before. I think he only owned tennis shoes because he liked to run.
Quinton, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have a problem with jeans. Tight, hip-hugging, ass-cupping, dark blue jeans. He wore black combat boots and a plain black t-shirt. The flames slithering up his forearms were on display today.
I liked the cowboy boots way more.
A muscle in his cheek twitched as he clenched his jaw. I didn’t know why he was so mad, it wasn’t like he was the one parentless and soon to be homeless. Those dark, bottomless eyes locked on me and I realized he wasn’t simply mad, he was furious. Furious on my behalf.
God.
What did I ever do to deserve someone like him in my life? Yeah, he freaked me out and he certainly scared the beejezus out of me at times, but I knew he’d never, not ever, do anything to truly hurt me. But he would hurt someone else on my behalf. I shouldn’t like him for it but I couldn’t help myself.
Quinton was growing on me.
Like fungus.
I smiled at him really big and said, “Hey, Uncle Quinton. So good to see you again.”
His nostrils flared angrily as he directed his hostile glare at me.
“That’s not even funny,” he growled at me. “Don’t joke about something like that. I’m not a fucking pervert.”
Well, he wasn’t exactly normal either. He wanted me to have an intimate relationship with him, his friends and his nephew. But, no, oh no, he was no pervert.
Please.
I held my hands up in front of me in surrender.
“Sorry, sorry,” I said with a small, innocent smirk on my face.
He opened his mouth, likely to bark something awful at me but Mr. Cole’s voice stopped him.
“Excuse me,” Mr. Cole said sharply. “Would either of you care to explain to me what in the hell’s going on. You can’t just tell me she’s got magic and then act like nothing big just happened.”
I shuffled across the carpet, moving closer to Quinton. I couldn’t help but be drawn to him.
“She has magic,” Quinton said softly as I slid up beside him. I wanted to reach out and touch him.
Why did I want to touch him so badly? I didn’t know the answer to that but I desperately wanted to run my fingertips across the pretty colors covering his arms.
“Tell him, babe,” Quinton said quietly. “Tell him you have magic.”
I shook my head.
Absolutely not.
No way in hell.
No way was I telling Mr. Cole I had magic. He’d think I was crazy. He probably thought Quinton was crazy. Heck, I knew he was. I didn’t think we should go around blabbing about being witches when they were, at one point in time, burned at the stake simply for existing. It didn’t seem like a smart idea to me. And I didn’t appreciate him telling my secret to Mr. Cole. There were very few people who meant something to me and he was one of them. I did not want him to ship me off to the loony bin because I thought I was a witch. No, thank you.
Quinton frowned at me. “It’s okay, baby. He knows about us. He grew up with Tyson’s dad. They were best friends and they were in the same coven together. He’s one of us.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. The same coven? He was just like us? Did that mean… was he trying to say… Did Mr. Cole have magic? Was he a witch? How could I have lived with him all this time and not known that he had magic?
“I need a drink,” Mr. Cole mumbled.
Quinton rubbed at the back of his neck with his hand and said, “I could go for a drink right about now, too.”
Nobody needed a stupid drink, it was early afternoon for goodness sake. They didn’t need a drink, but I sure needed an explanation.
“You have magic?” I whispered in shock. I’d been living with him for months and I had never noticed anything, I felt stupid.
“I’m not practicing anymore and haven’t been for years.” He said shortly as he walked out of the living room.
I looked at Quinton to see him scowling at the doorway Mr. Cole had just walked out of.
What just happened? Mr. Cole seemed fine one second then upset the next. Maybe he didn’t want his secret out there either. I could relate.
Like a whisper on the wind, there one second and gone the next, fingers gently traced down the strap of my tank top.
“Come on,” Quinton murmured.
He pushed harder on my shoulder, herding me towards the door. As we walked down the hallway, following the noise, Quinton’s hand slid down until it rested against the small of my back. The heat from his palm warmed my entire back and I fought the urge to shiver while he guided me towards the kitchen where I assumed Mr. Cole was.
Quinton’s lips brushed my ear as he whispered, “He’s not gonna want to talk about magic with you so don’t push him. It’ll just piss him off. I’ll push so he doesn’t get mad at you.”
I did not like the sound of that.
Why would talking about it upset him? Magic was what made us special. Why would he stop practicing? I didn’t have a very good feeling about this and a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t think I wanted to know if Mr. Cole had lived through some kind of tragedy. I could handle no more heartbreak. Not when it came to the people I cared about.
We walked into the kitchen in time to see Mr. Cole pour himself a glass full of amber liquor.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I watched him throw back the entire contents in three long gulps. I had never seen him drink before and I wasn’t so sure I could handle seeing him drink now.
Watching him chug down his drink reminded me too much of my mother. She’d drink a whole bottle of vodka and then she’d get mean.
My hand, as if it had a mind of its own, raised to my forehead. I ran my fingertips lightly over the small scar there. The last time I had been around my mother when she’d been drunk she had thrown her glass at my head and her aim had been spot on. That had been the last time she’d hurt me while intoxicated, but not the last time she’d hurt me. It happened almost every time she got drunk and I had the misfortune to be alone with her. The last time she had been completely sober. Just crazy.
Seeing Marcus Cole work towards getting drunk in the early afternoon did not sit well with me.
“I’ll take one of those, Marcus,” Quinton said from beside me.
My body tensed, and I had to fight the urge to flee from the room.
Quinton must have felt me stiffen because he crowded me. He was just suddenly in my space, all around me. He had a habit of doing that.
“What’s wrong?” He breathed into my ear.
I wasn’t going to go there with him. I hated being asked that godforsaken question. My life was chaos, always. I didn’t need to spell it out for him, he was smarter than that. And, he’d been there for most of the recent chaos.
Mr. Cole filled another glass half way full of amber liquor and slid it across the counter towards us.
Quinton wrapped his arms around my shoulders and walked me over towards the counter whe
re the half full glass sat. One arm left my shoulders, so he could pick up his glass.
“Babe…”
I shook my head. Now was not the time for him to be relentless and push me. This one time I would be unbendable, and I would not break.
“My sister was a witch,” Mr. Cole surprised me by saying. He stared into his newly refilled glass with a lost look on his face.
I leaned back into the solidness of Quinton’s body and tried to relax. I didn’t know either of them as well as I would have liked to, but I was smart enough to know neither of them would hurt me. They weren’t my mother, they weren’t going to get drunk and abuse me.
“My dad tried to hide her from the world. Not just from our community but from the whole world. Her name was Lana Ray.” Mr. Cole paused to take a drink from his glass. “Shaun, Tyson’s father and Quinton’s brother, he was my best friend. We’d grown up together since we were children. All of us grew up together, me, Shaun, Felix and Rick. But none of them ever knew I had a sister. Not even the Elders knew she existed.”
He let out a shuddering breath before draining the rest of his drink.
My mind was full of thoughts of a little girl being locked away in a room the size of a closet her entire life simply for being born with magic. I couldn’t imagine being locked away and hidden from the world. I stayed away from people because I preferred my own company and never really wanted to invite other people into my life so they could see what a mess it was.
A thought occurred to me. Mr. Cole had children. Did that mean they were witches too? And one of them was even a girl.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Are your kids…”
I snapped my mouth shut. I really shouldn’t just go around blurting out every thought that ran through my mind. It made me seem nosy and pushy.
“Adopted,” he murmured into his drink and without looking in my direction. “I can’t have children. They don’t know anything. I gave up magic to live a normal life with my wife and my children. I couldn’t have that around them and keep it a secret at the same time. After what my sister went through and what my father put the whole family through to keep her a secret from the world. I hated what I was, and I hated anything to do with magic and covens. It’s hard to hide magic from your wife and children, hard to hide what you are. I didn’t want that for my family. So, I stopped practicing altogether, that way I didn’t have anything to hide. And, I got a beautiful, non-magical family as a result.”
So, he gave up using his magic to have a normal family. Call me selfish, but I didn’t think I would be willing to give up my magic for anything, not even for a shot at a normal family. Then again, I had yet to meet a person who meant anything to me and resembled the word normal.
Quinton sat his now empty drink back onto the counter. He wrapped his free arm around my stomach and pressed his face into my neck.
My face heated. What the hell was he doing? And in front of Mr. Cole no less. We weren’t at a place where I was comfortable with him touching me in such a way in front of other people. Heck, I wouldn’t be comfortable with him touching me like this in private.
I couldn’t think of a way to escape his arms now that wouldn’t further embarrass me.
“They found out about her anyway. Even after all the trouble our father went through to keep her a secret. The Elders came to our home and took her away, claiming they wanted to keep her safe. My father wanted her to have a choice in life. He didn’t want her to be forced into the roll we’ve placed our women in. He wanted her to have a choice.”
Quinton’s arms around me tightened almost painfully but I didn’t care. I was too busy running Mr. Cole’s words through my head. He made it sound like women didn’t get a choice in the way they lived their lives. Quinton made it out to sound different. Like it was your choice and your choice alone. But he also made it sound like you wouldn’t want anything other than what your coven had to offer and if, by some chance, you did want something else they’d step aside so long as you were happy and safe.
I was so confused.
“What happened to your sister?” I asked quietly.
I had to know. He talked about her like she was gone, like she’d been lost to him for a long time now and it hurt him simply to talk about her. I wanted to know why.
“She…” he paused to take another gulp of his drink. “It didn’t work out for her. She couldn’t take the pressure. She… She ended it herself.”
Quinton squeezed me again and I remembered what he’d said about taking the lead with asking the questions. I didn’t mind because Mr. Cole’s revelation about his sister had rendered me speechless.
“Did she meet anyone else yet?” Mr. Cole asked changing the subject abruptly. I didn’t like being talked about like I wasn’t even here.
“Nope,” Quinton answered.
“You should keep it that way.”
“Not gonna do that and you know it,” Quinton shot back. “Not gonna hide her from anyone. Nothing good ever comes from that, and you damn well know it. Hell, you basically just said that same exact thing but with different words.”
“You’ll take care of her?”
“Yeah. We all will,” Quinton bit out angrily. “You should stay and do the same.”
I sighed. Did I want Mr. Cole to stay and take care of me? Hell yes, I did. I finally had a parent who gave a crap about me. I couldn’t do it, though. I couldn’t handle moving and leaving when I finally had friends and a place I felt relatively safe in. But I wouldn’t try to guilt Mr. Cole into staying for my sake. I wouldn’t be the person who held him down and kept him from getting what would make him happy. It would break my heart to watch him walk away from me, but I’d do it with a smile on my face so he’d never know how much it killed me on the inside. After everything he’d done for me I could easily do that for him. Well, it wouldn’t be easy but no one but me would ever have to know about that.
“We have obligations to-” Quinton started to guilt Mr. Cole some more, but I quickly cut him off and talked over him.
“No,” I said forcefully. “Nobody has obligations to me because I have magic and I’m a girl.” I pulled out of Quinton’s arms, stepped away from him and turned so I could face them both down. “I don’t care how it’s supposed to be and I don’t care about how it’s done with the other girls. Those girls are not me. Nobody owes me anything.”
I paused to let in a shaky breath. I did not ever want to be considered anyone’s obligation. How horrible. It sounded like something my mother would have called me, right along with being a burden.
I squared my shoulders and looked from one man to the next. They were so different in looks but had more in common than I had ever imagined. And they both cared a great deal about me.
I looked Marcus Cole in the eye and, voice soft, said, “I’m staying here but I understand why you need to leave. I hope you can understand why I need to stay. So much has happened in my life in such a short period of time that I really need to find a place to settle, a place to call home and a place that feels safe for me to be in. The past few weeks that has been here with you. But now you have to go and I have to stay. Your family needs you right now and you need to be with your family for you, too. You don’t need to be dragging me along with you right now. You are all hurting so much right now and you don’t need to be dealing with me, my problems and trying to hide the fact that I’m a witch at the same time. That sounds exhausting, even to me.”
Mr. Cole put his glass down on the counter top none to gently. He ran the back of one shaking hand across his mouth.
“Ariel,” he said in a rough voice. “I-”
“I already talked to the guys,” Quinton said. His voice had changed to something gentler than normal and a whole lot sweeter. “They’ve got no problem with her moving in with us. She’ll have her own bedroom and even her own bathroom. Ty, Addison and Abel are already living there. She’d be safe there with us and we want her there.”
My breath left me in a rush.
&nbs
p; No. No. No.
I did not want to live in that house. She was buried there. In the basement. If I moved in I would never escape her.
“If it’s what Ariel wants then I will have to be okay with it.” With that Mr. Cole walked out of the kitchen. I tried to catch his eyes with mine, but he refused to look at me.
My heart sank.
In trying to do the right thing I’d hurt him. Hurting him had been the last thing I had wanted to do.
It seemed the only thing I was capable of anymore was hurting the people around me.
My bottom lip trembled as I dug my fingernails into my palms. I needed the pain to make the tears go away.
Damn.
I did not want to cry again.
A tear slid out of my eye anyway.
Chapter Nine
“I think we should-”
“Go away, Quinton,” I said softly.
“Baby,” he murmured.
He touched my shoulder and I jerked away from him like his touch had stung me. I had no desire to be comforted by his words or his touch at the moment.
“I want to be alone right now,” I told him before turning and walking quickly out of the kitchen.
I hoped he knew this wasn’t me running away from him again. I knew it was absurd, needing space when I’d just been alone for weeks, but I didn’t want to be around other people when I was hurting. I wasn’t any good when it came to sharing my feelings and I really didn’t want someone to hold my hand while coddling me and telling me everything would be okay. I didn’t think Quinton would be very good at coddling, but he’d likely make me more of those promises he and Tyson were so fond of. And, going on how touchy feely he could get, I knew he would for sure hold my hand.
I walked away and this time I did it without feeling guilty doing it. I would make a point to go over and see him later or I could get his phone number off of Tyson and I could text him to let him know I was okay. I had a feeling Quint wouldn’t expect an apology or an explanation from me, but he would want to know about my wellbeing.
I made it up the stairs and to my bedroom in record time. I didn’t want to stay in the house with Mr. Cole, I had to get out of there. But first, I needed a shower.