Zeke allowed the wrath to consume him and he welcomed the idea of meeting this warlock who had treated her so poorly. He smiled at Arlo. “I’ll deal with him.”
Arlo grinned in return, displaying large brown teeth. “Figured you would.”
Making his way down the street toward the gates, Zeke moved quickly, not wasting any time to confront this warlock. Anger fueled his steps, and the longer he walked, the more he ground his teeth together.
Did the warlock honestly believe he had a right to Bryanna?
He neared the gates and spotted Layton, sitting atop the hood of his expensive silver BMW sports car, which no doubt had been purchased with Bryanna’s money.
When the warlock noticed Zeke, he jumped off the hood and approached. Zeke studied Layton and understood why Bryanna had fallen under Layton’s spell. The warlock had been blessed with good looks, but in his blue eyes lay selfishness and greed, something he couldn’t hide from a demon.
Zeke stopped a few feet away, not daring to move too close for fear he’d lose his temper. “Go back to Shreveport.”
Layton came to a halt. “Where is Bryanna?” He looked at Arlo, frowning. “Why didn’t you go and get her?”
Zeke had to give Layton some credit; in front of a demon and an ogre, he didn’t look afraid. “Your request to see her has officially been denied.”
Darkness spread over Layton’s expression before he took two large steps toward him, closing the distance. “By whose authority, demon?”
He snorted at Layton’s dark look. Compared to what he’d seen from the Devil when he was banished from hell, Layton’s expression appeared gentle. “It would be wise to leave now.”
Layton drew in a deep breath, stretched up to appear taller and thrust out his chest. “Is she being held captive?”
That question struck Zeke hard in the chest and he growled, “She’s freer than she has ever been.” He leaned in and allowed the fire inside of him to shine through his eyes. “From here on out, your name will be nothing more than a bad memory for her.”
The warlock’s eyes narrowed as the air shimmered around them. Every hair on Zeke’s arms stood up, indicating Layton had conjured his energy-based magic. Not that Zeke was worried. Magic had no effect on demons, and if he dared unleash it, it would tickle Zeke at best.
“She’s my witch,” Layton spat. “You have no right to refuse me.” His eyebrows drew together and he snarled, “Produce her now or I’ll report you to a higher power.”
“Who?” Arlo laughed, low and deep, and he stomped a big foot against the ground. “The supernatural police?”
Layton glanced sideways as the energy in the air vibrated. “The Shreveport coven is powerful and they’ll come after you.”
Zeke would welcome the challenge. If anyone dared to be a threat to Charmstone or anyone in it, those who lived in and loved this town would show up to fight. Layton didn’t know who lived here; Zeke did. No coven could stand against the powerful supernaturals who called Charmstone home.
Now though, Zeke understood why Layton wouldn’t cross through the gates. His coven could not offer him protection. Anything that happened outside of Charmstone he could report; anything inside the town, he couldn’t.
Coward.
A pitiful excuse of a warlock whom Zeke wanted to rip to shreds. “Is her money worth that much to you?”
Layton’s eyes went huge before they lowered into slits. “That’s none of your business.”
“She is my business.” Rage burned so wicked hot in his blood that thoughts of ending this threat filled his mind. He hungered to rid Bryanna of this warlock who had mistreated her. “She no longer belongs to you. She is mine.”
Layton stared at him hard, then threw his head back and laughed. He finally looked back at him and he might as well have spit on Zeke, since that look of disgust filled his face. “Bryanna would never belong to you. Besides, she’s only been gone less than a day. Please, a demon, as if she would sink that low.”
“Uh oh,” Arlo muttered, taking a step back, and his giant foot thumped against the gravel road.
Layton’s laughter died off as Zeke took the final step to reach him, now standing nose-to-nose with the prick. “I’ll look the past the insult, warlock. But I will do whatever I must to ensure you don’t destroy what I’ve built up.” He leaned in, allowing all the evil inside of him to register in his eyes. “Her money is no longer yours. Your control over her has been broken.”
Layton took a step back, perhaps at what he saw in Zeke’s eyes, but then the warlock’s magic rushed from his palms. A brutal wave of energy blasted Zeke in the chest, sending him flying through the air. He landed hard on his back and groaned as pain shot up his spine.
Raising his head, he discovered Layton backing away from him. Yes, you should be afraid. “That, warlock, was a mistake.”
Chapter Seven
Bryanna finished putting her hair up into a ponytail after her long bath. Before she’d gone to the employment office, she had discovered a clothing store on the way and had bought some comfortable clothing. She’d dropped it off at home before her trip to Nevin’s, which had been hell on earth. She hoped for her sake that the next employment office Zeke took her to tomorrow would result in her actually finding a job. A witch needed to be productive.
After she slipped into her black yoga pants and purple cotton t-shirt, she exited her small bathroom with the antique clawfoot bathtub and entered her country-style living room. Leaning against the doorframe, she sighed, gazing over the microfiber brown couches, dark oak tables and the rich green plants in the space.
Heaven.
With a smile, and craving a tea, she strode forward, but then she gasped, dropping to her knees. The sensation of magic swept across her, stealing her breath.
Not just magic; familiar magic.
She shut her eyes, fighting through the deep pain in her chest at the reminder of who that magic belonged to. Zeke had made her forget her misery and now it returned in full force. But why was she feeling this now? And with such intensity?
After a moment to catch her breath, she glanced down at her arms, noticing the hairs standing up. Layton’s here. She pushed off the ground and hurried out the front door.
The second she stepped outside, the warm breeze caressed her skin as loud grunts and curses filled the air around her. Grabbing her shoes from inside, she had them on her feet in a split second.
Leaving her front door wide open, she ran toward the fight, hoping and praying her assumptions of who was fighting were wrong. But the moment she rounded onto Main Street, the force of energy Layton used with his magic stole her breath.
She rushed forward and with each step she took, the thicker the air became with Layton’s magic. And the second the gates of town appeared, she saw why.
Zeke had just leveled Layton with a hard punch, sending her ex-boyfriend flying off his feet before Layton sent a wave of energy back, flipping Zeke over.
“Oh no.” She ran faster, and as she passed Arlo, he grabbed her arm with what appeared to be two fingers, not allowing her to jump into the fight. “Stop this,” she screamed.
Neither demon nor warlock listened to her, and yet again, they both got in a good blow. “Stop right now or I’ll use my magic!”
Layton stood, rubbing at the side of his bleeding cheek. “What will you do, make a table and hit us with it?”
Zeke pushed himself off the ground and growled, a low, scary sound. When he turned to Bryanna, the crimson flickers in his eyes made her heart skip a beat and she took a step back. His eyebrows drew together before he shook his head, the color fading back into his dark soft eyes.
Perhaps she had forgotten Zeke was a demon, since an uneasy feeling crept in her soul, reminding her how terrifying his kind was. He took a step closer, but her breath hitched and he stopped, staring at her with sad eyes.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she turned back to Layton. “Why are you here?”
“To bring you home.” He
approached her, and when he settled in front of her, he stared down with the tender crystal-blue eyes that had once charmed her. “What were you thinking, running away and leaving me? You’ve betrayed me, Bryanna.”
Oh, by the elements, he wouldn’t fool her again. She wouldn’t allow him to continue to lie to her. Lifting her chin, she glared at him. “I didn’t betray you. You betrayed me.”
His eyebrows rose and he slid his hands over her arms, as if warming and comforting her. “How did I betray you?”
She shut her eyes, hating how she didn’t recoil from his touch, how it felt so safe and familiar. No, don’t let him do this. Stepping out of his hold, she snapped, “You used me for my money.”
“Bryanna,” he said gently. “Why would I use you for your money, sweetheart? I’m nothing without you.”
No, he’s a liar. “You wanted to hide me away so you wouldn’t be embarrassed by me anymore.”
Matching her retreat, he closed in on her again, but she looked at Zeke, who stood motionless with a stony expression. When Layton’s hand touched hers, she gasped, glancing toward their held hands. He hadn’t touched her this way in so long and she had craved such a simple embrace from him.
She lifted her head and gazed at him; so many memories were held with this warlock. They weren’t bad memories. Compared to what she had with her distant parents, Layton had done nice things for her, and when he was at home, he made her feel important to him.
Placing a finger under her chin, he tilted her head up. “You know I love you and have never wanted to change you. I’ve always accepted you. I only wanted to protect you from the others. I hated seeing them be so cruel to you.”
Was that a lie?
He had always accepted her, since he stayed with her. And he was right—the other witches were horrible to her. Had she gotten this all wrong? Did she look into him, thinking the worst of him, when all he wanted to do was protect her? “Is that true?”
“Of course it’s true.” He smiled, cupping her cheeks, then he kissed her lips with a light peck. “I only want what’s best for you. I’ve only ever wanted that. And my actions only prove how much I love you. I lost my mind when you left and had the coven cast a spell to locate you.”
Her thoughts swirled in confusion. She didn’t lie to Zeke—she did love Layton. Hearing that she had misread it all made her heart clench. If she had never heard those witches talking, she wouldn’t have thought anything. Why hadn’t she confronted him? Why had she thought so poorly of him?
What had she done?
Moving away from Layton’s hold on her face, she looked over at Zeke. The pain in his expression was palpable, yet he gave her a small smile. “If you need to go, then go.”
“Yes, Bryanna, we need to go,” Layton murmured.
She glanced at Zeke again, who stood statue still. Her mind spun and she didn’t have a solid place to land. If Zeke cared for her, wouldn’t he ask her to stay? She and Layton had a history; Zeke and she didn’t even have a day. But why couldn’t she tell Layton she wanted to leave?
Layton pulled on her hand and she found herself moving, but her head was foggy. At the car she bought for him six months ago, he opened the door and somehow she ended up on the seat, staring at her hands in her lap, trying to think straight. Shouldn’t she be happy Layton came and found her? That had to mean he loved her, but why wasn’t she smiling?
The door next to her opened and Layton slid into the seat, slamming it shut behind him. “Time to go home.” He started the ignition, and a moment later, they were off. “Honestly, Bryanna, of all places to go, you come to a town where a demon resides.”
Turning in her seat, she looked at Zeke through the back windshield and he still hadn’t moved, his fists clenching at his sides. She had witnessed the pain in his features, and even now, his rage showed in the tense set of his hands.
Why had he let her leave?
He faded into the dark night as distance grew between them and tears filled her eyes when Layton stated, “I don’t want to know what happened between you and the demon. You are lucky I love you enough to forgive you.”
She glanced sideways, regarding him. Why would he forgive cheating so easily?She wouldn’t have; her past actions showed that. She’d left him once for something not nearly as common. Witches broke up with warlocks all the time for cheating, so why would Layton forgive that without a single demand to understand why?
The answer was glaringly obvious.
As was the reason Zeke didn’t ask her to stay.
“Stop the car!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, grabbing the door handle. “Right now.”
Her door flew open and Layton slammed on the brakes. When the car stopped, she jumped out. “Bryanna,” he roared after her.
Not wanting to hear any more of his lies, making her so blind to his real intentions, she ran forward. Layton called out her name again, but when she ignored him, energy vibrated through the air and raised every hair on her body. Her heart hammered as time slowed around her. Now she knew the daunting truth, that Layton would never allow her to leave him.
He didn’t find her out of love. He asked the coven to locate her because he needed her money. Money was power, and without it, Layton was only a typical warlock. As the realization haunted her, a loud whoosh in the air came above her before she lost her footing, tumbling face-first to the ground.
She cried out as her palms scraped against the rocky gravel road. Turning onto her side, she noticed the rope binding her feet and quickly reached to remove it. But Layton’s magic had tight knots she couldn’t undo.
As she fought with one of the knots, Layton’s hard footsteps indicated he approached. “You’ve left me no choice, Bryanna.”
Choice?
At one time, she didn’t have any choices. She never chose to have unruly magic, she never chose to have shitty parents and she certainly never chose to find love with someone only after her money.
What Layton didn’t know, and even to her own surprise, with one decision to leave him, fate stepped in and gave her the taste of freedom. She chose to leave her car when it had broken down, she chose to stay in the car with a demon and she chose to rent a home in Charmstone.
The road to making her own choices led to her left, not to the right toward Shreveport.
Layton squatted in front of her and didn’t hide the coldness or the greed from his gaze. But she’d seen eyes far scarier than the ones gazing at her now and she glared back. “You have one chance to remove the rope and leave.”
“Or what?” He snorted. “Who’s going to stop me?”
“Zeke!” she screamed.
The red car lights faded and Zeke exhaled, fighting against the hollowness in his chest. He and Bryanna had such a short time together and she had forever changed him. Perhaps his original intention had been to save a soul worth saving. Now, at the loss of her, a pain so profound filled him that he could barely breathe.
She made the choice to leave him.
He’d seen the question in her eyes, begging him to tell her to stay, but he wouldn’t. For too long, everyone told her how to act and what to do. He decided not to be one of them, no matter that his heart disagreed. He had hoped she’d see past Layton’s deceit.
She didn’t.
Now she was gone.
He inhaled, swearing he could still smell her flowery scent drifting in the wind around him. While his sense of smell, if he concentrated, did carry into a far distance, he suspected his recollection of her had been forever burned into his memory. She was in a car with Layton, now far away from him.
Turning away from the long, dark road, he looked at Arlo. His friend sighed, sounding more like a grunt. Zeke strode forward to thank him for keeping Bryanna safe during the fight with Layton, when suddenly, he heard his name and froze.
Terrific. He wasn’t only catching whiffs of Bryanna’s scent. Now he was hearing her call his damn name. He raised his foot to take another step forward, but before it could hit the ground, he he
ard his name again.
Arlo tilted his head. “Is that—”
He didn’t need Arlo to finish. The way the ogre’s ears perked up in the same direction that he heard Bryanna’s voice indicated Zeke hadn’t imagined anything.
Pushing off the ground, Zeke did something he hadn’t done since his banishment from hell. The Devil’s punishment wasn’t to strip Zeke of his powers. No, he trapped Zeke in this realm as powerful as he’d been before, forcing him to deal with his innate desires of soul stealing..
Allowing his demonic nature to consume him, he sucked in a deep breath and found that dark place of pure heat. A rush of fire laced his veins as his human body became a thin line of smoke drifting through the air.
In this form, he couldn’t see Bryanna, but he sensed her and she stood out like a pulsing hot heartbeat. The hunger inside of him to prey on such a pure soul created a fierce thirst within him. He swooped down from the sky and instantly retook his human form. His boots pressed against the gravel road and he stretched out his muscles, suffering the ache that had always come when shifting forms.
A piercing scream snapped his head up and there was the innocent witch being dragged by her arms, her feet bound with rope. He might hunger to devour that innocence to feed his power, but Zeke didn’t need power, he only needed her. “Release her,” he spat. “Now.”
Spinning around, Layton dropped Bryanna and she banged her head against the road. “Don’t interfere, demon,” he sneered. “You have no right to her.”
Zeke drew in a harsh breath as Bryanna cringed in pain, rubbing the side of her head in tears, then he lifted his head and arched an eyebrow. “I would argue that point with you.” He approached, not hesitant, but ready to suck Layton’s soul out of his body. “Remove the magic from her. Immediately.”
“Back off.” Layton’s magic caused the wind to kick up a notch as energy flowed around Zeke.
He chuckled. “Your wind might move it, warlock.” His voice had deepened with the evil unleashed inside of him and power rushed through his veins. “But you cannot harm me.”
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