“Not interested in seeing everyone again?” Jack asked from inside. “I promise my friends look scarier than they really are.”
Cassie stepped inside the doorway and froze.
The red-eyed monster she had seen twice now was standing against the far wall. He licked his lips as he paced the length of the barn.
“And of course, you recognize your friends,” Jack waved his hands at Whitney, who wasn’t moving on a table.
Nate was locked in a cage and pacing back and forth in it just like an animal, not saying anything. Nate stopped to give Jack an especially ugly glare from the cage. He wasn’t touching the bars, but anger boiled in his eyes like he wanted to go all crazy-like and break out.
“I’d like to first explain that it wasn’t my intention to hurt your friend there. She’s the one that tried to jump me. All I was doing was defending myself,” Jack said as Nate spoke at the same time.
“Cassie, get out of here. He’s lying to you.”
Jack waved his hand, and the red-eyed monster stalked near the cage. Nate kept perfectly still and glared at it.
“Ryder, you know the deal,” Jack called to the monster as it slowly stuck an arm between the bars.
Nate jumped aside quickly and slammed the monster’s arm against the metal bars. Ryder gave a loud shriek before swinging his sizzling arm around to attack Nate.
“Stop,” Jared said as he stepped from the shadows. Ryder froze in his place.
“As I was saying,” Jack continued, like his friends weren’t in a staring battle behind him. “Your friend there’s suffering from silver poisoning. What she needs you to do is to finish the spell you were creating when we left the house. Your protection spell will keep the silver from harming her.”
“Silver poisoning? Like werewolves in the movies?” Cassie asked. She really needed a textbook on skinwalkers. Nothing made sense to her, and every time she turned around they were throwing more rules into it.
“Partially transformed skinwalkers are susceptible to silver just like the movies. That’s the reason they bind to a witch. That makes it so they can fully transform even without the moon and don’t have to go through the phases of partial transformation,” Jack explained.
“Then she just has to transform?” Cassie questioned.
“But they can’t without a mate, and, unfortunately, your friend there doesn’t have a mate. Hence the reason you need to finish your spell.”
“I already have a mate. As far as I’ve been told, I can’t change that. What good is my mating spell to her?” Cassie asked.
Was Jack asking her to choose Whitney as her mate? She was her best friend, and Cassie was willing to do just about anything for her, but that didn’t sound like it was what Jack was saying.
“It isn’t a mating spell. Yours is truly a protection spell, and if I’m correct, it’s to protect against silver poisoning. No witch has ever been able to make that spell; that’s why they assigned it to you.”
“It’s just a normal protection spell, I promise. I used it on myself. It kept me from getting cut,” Cassie explained.
Jack shrugged. “Humor me.”
Cassie looked at her friend. She didn’t seem like she was in pain, but the lack of consciousness was a bit concerning.
“Cassie, don’t do it,” Nate said to her, breaking her stare at her friend. “He just wants to use your spell to bind you to them. Even after you make it, he won’t let you use it on her. He’s going to make you barter to get her safe. Let us die. Don’t agree to what he wants.”
Jack smiled, and now she saw that her cousin was more similar to Ryder than she first thought.
“Is that true?” Cassie asked.
Jack shrugged. “Maybe, but you won’t find out unless you try. I can tell you one-hundred-percent that she will die if you don’t try.”
Cassie glanced at Nate. He was still staying away from the bars that burned Ryder, but his eyes were pleading with her. She returned her gaze to her friend. Whitney was the only light in the messed-up witch world Cassie was part of. She couldn’t just let her die.
“Fine. Bring me the stuff I was working on, and I’ll finish it,” Cassie said.
“Come this way.” Jack motioned for her to follow.
Cassie cast one last glance back at Nate. She tried her best to get to him understand she was sorry with her eyes. She didn’t know what would happen next, but she had to try. Whitney was her best friend, and if her spell could save her, then there was no choice.
“I don’t have to work out there?” Cassie asked, kind of wanting to stay with her friends and keep track of them.
“Of course not. That’s where we keep the animals,” Jack replied. He opened the kitchen door. Everything was right where she left it.
Cassie walked to the table where she had been working. Jack nodded to her and turned to leave.
“Wait. I need the Castilleja mollis,” Cassie told him.
Jack laughed. “I guess Jared wins that bet.” He went to the cupboard and tossed the leaves she had picked earlier onto the table.
“What bet?”
“Ryder bet Jared you used that as an excuse to leave. Jared said you really needed it. Twins can never seem to agree,” Jack added before walking away.
Cassie looked down at the table. She didn’t have many options. Jack was leaving her alone. It was time to decide what to do and Cassie didn’t like her options. There was a chance she could get away. She could run back to town to get help, but she wasn’t as fast as Whitney. By the time she got there, they were sure to have done something to Nate, Whitney, or both. What else could she do? She had to make the potion.
Cassie put the lid on the jar. Several wads of leaves were in the bottom of the jar due to lack of time, but Cassie didn’t want to waste more of the precious time that her friends were locked up and suffering through. The potion was mainly done except for the last ingredient—that was the one part she couldn’t do. They would need her blood to bond her to anyone, and giving it away easily made her feel like she was giving up. She hoped the spell would work without her blood, at least for Whitney’s sake. And if needed, she could add a little blood before giving it to her, maybe.
Cassie sat down in exhaustion and stared at the vial. This was it. Her life was going to change in an instant, no matter what happened.
“Finished?” Jared asked as he came in the room.
“I hope,” Cassie replied.
“I’m sorry it’s turning out like this,” Jared offered an apology
“Sorry?” Cassie was a mixture of confusion and a bit of upset as she replied. Sorry didn’t cover the situation she was in, but it was also strange to be getting it from him.
“If I was in charge, it wouldn’t be handled this way,” Jared explained. “If you had just taken your test in a year or two, I might have been able to take over by then.” Jared seemed genuinely disappointed.
“Take over?”
“Right now my father hasn’t decided if Ryder or I will be next in line to be alpha. If I knew this was going to happen to you, I would have made my case to be in charge of what is happening. Now, I don’t get a say.” Jared was more than disappointed; he was upset.
Cassie was surprised.
“But you don’t even know me,” Cassie added. Why was a stranger that concerned for her?
“I don’t?” Jared replied, raising an eyebrow. “Your favorite color is green.”
Cassie shrugged. “Everyone knows that, or you could have guessed.” Cassie currently had a green tank top on under her shirt. She almost always wore something green.
“You like chocolate,” he added.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Cassie was still unconvinced.
“But only with peanut butter and not mint,” he continued.
He was getting more specific, but that still didn’t mean anything. Any witch could get those details about someone, and he was friends with her cousin who practiced magic.
“When you look out a window, you long to be
outside instead of trapped indoors. You wonder if it’s possible to just run away and live in the woods. You yearn to be around nature,” Jared continued.
This time, he was specific and scarily right. No one knew that about Cassie. She had never told another soul that she wanted to live outside in the trees. People already thought she was nuts as it was; she didn’t need to add more fuel to the fire. Cassie stared at Jared. He gave a meek smile back.
“I know a lot about you, Cassandra Booth. Maybe even more about you than you know, but I didn’t act quickly enough. Even you can still surprise someone I guess.” Jared shrugged. “Ready to go get this over with?”
Cassie nodded, still confused as to why Jared knew things about her. Cassie moved to follow him, but he paused suddenly at the door. He turned just as quickly, and she was standing in his arms as they wrapped around her to keep her from falling and spilling her potion.
“The bond only works if you want it to,” Jared said quietly. “Remember that.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Cassie looked up into his chocolate brown eyes and got a glimpse of his past. He was the good child. He did everything his parents wanted of him. Ryder was not. He used every chance he got to do as he pleased, and tried to get Jared blamed for all of it. His parents saw which child was the better one, but Ryder was strong and ruthless. Their father liked those qualities, and told Jared that until he could be that way he couldn’t take over the clan. Jared was right. Anytime he wanted, he could call the clan his own. He could have stopped everything that was going on if he were in charge.
Jared broke his gaze from her. He was telling the truth, no matter how strange that was coming from a guy who had helped take her and her friends hostage.
Jared spun and opened the door in one motion, then led the way back to the barn. Cassie squinted into the darkness as they entered. Nate was no longer locked away in a cage. He was now standing in the open, chained to the ground with a collar around him that seemed to be burning into his neck; it sizzled on contact with his skin. He didn’t flinch or show any pain.
Cassie wanted to go over and rip the chains right off him. They were treating him like an animal. Cassie saw the skin around his neck bubbling with blisters. Nate didn’t look away.
“Here’s your potion,” Cassie said, dropping the bottle to the ground but not hard enough to break it. “Now let my friends go.”
Jack smiled from his seat near Whitney.
“While that would be a great deal, I can’t just take some unknown potion from you and expect you didn’t do something to poison us,” Jack replied.
Cassie’s eyes widened at the suggestion. She had never thought to do that, because he said it would cure Whitney. Did he expect her to just let her friend die?
“I wouldn’t do that,” Cassie replied, staring hard at her cousin. Ryder wasn’t the only one that was ruthless.
“Well, cousin, I’m not one to just take your word. Show us that the potion works on your soon-to-be-former mate, and then I’ll let you use it on your friend,” Jack replied, hopping up and sitting on the table where Whitney was lying.
Cassie looked to Nate. If she wanted to really prove it was working, she would have to add her blood to it. Without her blood, there was a good chance it wouldn’t work and then she couldn’t use it on Whitney. If she added her blood, then she would complete the binding to Nate. Cassie glanced back at her passed-out friend. She owed it to Whitney.
She put her reservations away and turned to Nate. He watched her cautiously, like he knew something was going on. Cassie walked over to him and stood close.
“Did you poison it like he says?” Nate asked quietly.
“No,” Cassie replied. “I wouldn’t have even tried that. He said it could save Whitney.”
Nate nodded. “I figured that much, but what—”
“I didn’t have time to distil it like I’d like, so it works best if I make it into a paste by chewing it.” Cassie took a wad of the leaves and put them into her mouth. They tasted absolutely terrible, but she didn’t have any other options. She needed to get the potion in Nate with her blood to prove it worked.
“Promise not to make more out of this than I intend,” Cassie asked him.
“What?” Nate asked in reply as Cassie reached up and gently pulled Nate’s head down close enough that she could kiss him.
Cassie rubbed her front teeth over her lip that was still healing from the night before. Her blood was added to the horrible tasting potion through the crack. Nate was watching her lips as she chewed and pulled his head closer. For a split second, she saw him recognize what she was doing, but he made no motion to stop her. Cassie pressed her lips to Nate’s and transferred the mashed up potion, now containing her blood that made it completely active, to his mouth.
Cassie pulled back and sucked on her lip to keep the blood from showing. Nate stood back up but kept his hands on her waist.
“You can spit out the leaves,” Cassie explained. “It’s just the juices you need.”
Nate continued to chew and smiled as he did so. It didn’t take more than a minute, and his wounds were completely gone. He swallowed the leaves and smiled at her. Cassie stepped back, breaking Nate’s grip, but he was still watching her.
“See, works, now let me use it on Whitney,” Cassie begged.
Jack grinned, and he hopped down from the table.
“I didn’t think it would really work. You found a way.” Jack was rubbing his hands in joy.
“Whitney now,” Cassie said, bringing the conversation back to his part of the deal.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jack replied, circling Nate and looking at the wounds that were now gone.
Cassie moved to go to her friend.
“No. You don’t get to heal her. She’s a skinwalker. One less won’t hurt us. We need to bind you to the clan right now,” Jack replied. “Ryder, get rid of the other girl. Jared, go call your father to tell him we need to do this now.”
Ryder stalked over to Whitney.
Cassie moved to run over to her friend, but Jack flashed before her, and pulled her into the cage Nate was in before.
“Second thought. The girl isn’t going anywhere. Ryder, go help your brother bring the clan here. This is exciting.” Jack clapped his hands like he just won the greatest prize.
“But you said I could cure her,” Cassie added as she grabbed the bars. They were solid silver-coated steel. Cassie wasn’t going anywhere.
Jack shrugged. “I changed my mind.” He waved at Jared and Ryder to go. They both left the barn in a hurry.
“You said,” Cassie pleaded for the second time.
“I lied,” Jack replied, smiling at her from the other side of the cage. He bent down and picked up the leftover potion. “It’s going to take a lot more of this to protect the whole clan, but that’s fine. Once you’re bound to us, you can’t refuse. This is great. I’ll be the head of the clan in no time. I’ll be the first witch alpha.”
Jack moved to the doorway of the barn and looked out at the house.
“I’ll be right back.” He grinned as he left them. Cassie was locked away, Whitney was unconscious, and Nate was chained up.
The barn door slammed shut from the wind outside. It was getting dark out, and they would all be changing soon. She didn’t have any options left.
‘Change me,’ Nate’s voice said to Cassie.
“What?” Cassie asked.
‘Change me,’ Nate said again. This time, Cassie was looking at his mouth. It hadn’t moved, yet it was him. She had no idea how she heard him, but it sounded just like him.
‘You are my mate now. This is part of the deal. We can speak to each other in our minds, and best we do since otherwise they’ll hear us talking,’ Nate quickly explained. ‘Now change me.’
Cassie squinted her eyes at him. Nope. His mouth still wasn’t moving. Yet she had no clue what he was talking about. Across the room, Nate huffed.
‘As my mate, you can control my change on the no
n-full moons. I can become my full animal with your direction. Change me into my animal,’ Nate added.
‘Your animal?’ Cassie replied, hoping her question got across. She didn’t even know what his animal was. He never told her.
Nate shook his head. ‘My animal. My blue-eyed animal.’
Cassie then remembered that Whitney had green eyes when she transformed. The tiger Cassie had been spending time with had blue eyes. She was certain of that. She looked up at Nate, and he nodded along with her thoughts.
‘Did you hear that?’ she asked.
‘Kind of. And yes. That was me,’ he added. ‘Now if you could be so kind to get this over with, I can then get all three of us out of here.’
‘You can?’ Cassie asked.
‘Damn, woman, quit talking and change me.’
While Cassie wanted to complain and get more explanation about everything, he was right. At this moment, it was just Jack left at the house.
Cassie looked at Nate and thought about the large tiger he was at times. She pictured his nice soft fur and large silent paws. It made so much more sense now how he was the alpha, being one of the largest predators in nature. She would be kicking herself for not noticing earlier, but now she didn’t have time for that. She had to get out; they all had to before the monsters returned. She needed her tiger for that.
Nate shifted in an instant to the large orange and black tiger she had already met. The chains binding him broke like paper. He jumped over to Cassie.
‘Move back,’ he told her.
Cassie moved to the back of the cell, and with one swipe, his large claws cut through the bars as if they were butter. She climbed out the hole before running over to her friend, not hesitating before she added a drop of blood to her friend’s mouth and forcing her to drink the potion. Whitney came to quickly.
The Witchling Apprentice Page 19