Spellspeaker's Prophecy

by Anna Abner

  Roz locked the gate in place behind them, and then entered the code for the front door.

  “These sleeping beauties will go in the garage,” Connor said, easily lifting two limp vampires at once.

  “I’ll help.” Sara jogged after him.

  But Roz was still too distracted to be any assistance to her friends. Except for burning the cease-and-desist letter and the healing spell she’d cast on Lukas, her spells were temporary. She didn’t understand how the healing spell in particular had even worked, let alone why it hadn’t worn off yet. He should be back to limping on a broken leg and bleeding from his ribs, but he wasn’t. How had he sparked such power from her when nothing else ever had?

  Connor appeared for the other two infecteds, and Roz took it as a cue to open the house and raid the well-stocked pantry. Expensive trail mix in hand, she climbed into her favorite armchair and opened her laptop. She must find a way to track the horde. If only she could stick a tracker on one of the captured vampires and see where he ran.

  Actually…

  She glanced through the front windows and found a large, dark shape looming outside the gate in the early evening light. Setting her laptop aside, Roz stood to go to him.

  Connor stepped behind her, and she hadn’t even heard him approach.

  “He’s dangerous,” Connor warned.

  “He’s hurt,” she corrected. “I should have told him.”

  “No.” He sighed. “I should have. You were only protecting me.”

  “I’ll always protect you,” she said. “It’s the promise I made when we started this whole thing. We watch out for each other.”

  “And trust no one,” he finished for her. “I know, but we have to trust some people. I trust Ali.”

  “I trust Lukas,” she said immediately.

  Connor stared at her profile. “Are you sure?”

  Rather than answer, she opened the door.

  Dusk had fallen, and the violet air was cool as she crossed the front yard to key open the security gate. Folding her arms, she studied Lukas, examining every detail, waiting for him to speak first.

  He’d returned to the mine for his clothes and shoes, though they looked the worse for wear. His dirty blonde hair was mussed, and there was a smudge on his forehead. He hadn’t bothered to tie his shoes.

  She unlocked the gate, rolled it open, and studied him silently.

  Finally, he blinked furious blue eyes and said, “You should have told me.”

  “Yes.” No use arguing. Though she knew it was always best to be upfront, secrecy had become second nature since coming to the desert.

  “You let me sleep under the same roof, share meals, and spend time with a vampire,” he growled. “It wasn’t right.”

  “I know.”

  He drew back and slammed his fist into the block wall. “Stop agreeing with me!” The wall cracked under the force of his anger, and his knuckles split.

  She couldn’t believe he was hurting himself after all she’d done to heal him. “Stop being an idiot and punching everything you see,” she shouted back.

  He huffed a short laugh. “There’s my girl.”

  “Let me see your hand,” she demanded, holding hers out.

  He obliged, setting his large, heavy hand in her smaller palm.

  “I’m not shouting at you because you’re right,” she said as she assessed the damage. It didn’t appear serious.

  “That must have hurt.” When she frowned, he added, “Admitting it.”

  “Yes,” she teased. “Excruciating.” She dropped his hand. “You’ll live.”

  “Don’t you think,” Lukas said, “I could be trusted with the truth? Or did you think if I knew your boyfriend was a vampire, I’d kill him on sight?”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” Roz reminded him, but she suspected he was saying it on purpose just to annoy her. “And yes. Kind of. You made it very clear you were out to kill every vampire you found.”

  “You don’t think I know the difference between a decent guy and a serial killer?”

  She cocked her head to the side and gave him a look. “I do now.” She gestured to the house behind her. “Are you coming inside or do we have to shout at each other in the driveway all night?”

  “Shouting at you is the most fun—” But he didn’t finish his thought because something over her shoulder caught his attention. “What is that?”

  “What?” She whirled, not detecting anything suspicious.

  “I smell burning flesh.” Lukas swatted her behind him, hurried through the gate, and headed straight for the garage.

  In the distance, a man screamed.

  Chapter Twelve

  Roz and Lukas met Connor at the garage’s side door.

  “You smell it, too?” he asked, unnecessarily.

  Roz didn’t smell anything yet, but the sounds of torture filled her ears and sent chills down her spine.

  Lukas forced his way into the musty space first, and Roz leaned past his tensed arm to fully comprehend the scene.

  Sara stood over the four infecteds. Two were chained and cowering like abused farm animals. Another writhed on the cold concrete floor, shrieking through clenched jaws. The fourth was a smoking, burning husk.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lukas demanded, his voice like bricks dropping on asphalt.

  A spell dying on her lips, Sara blinked innocently. As she ceased casting, the thrashing vampire went limp. “I’m testing my magic on their infections.”

  Lukas made a disgusted noise. “You’re torturing them.”

  “Not on purpose,” Sara said, glancing at the dead vampire at her feet. “But accidents happen.” She smiled at Lukas. “Glad to see you’re back.”

  Ignoring her weak excuses, Connor stepped up parallel to Lukas, his expression horrified. “The kind of accidents where vampires burn to death?”

  Roz saw the defensive expression on Sara’s face and sensed the witch was moments from turning on them. But they’d never understand the Coven or Roz’s magic if Sara stopped answering their questions. Unlike herself at all, Roz became mediator.

  “Let’s take a breath,” Roz said into the tension and smoke. “Sara’s trying to help. She wants to cure the infection, the same as us.”

  But Connor wasn’t easily appeased. “Yeah, but we don’t torture the infected.”

  “Alright,” Roz said. “Let’s go inside and make dinner. We can talk after we’ve all had a nice meal.”

  She waited outside the door for the others to follow. Sara blithely strolled out and into the house, but Connor held back, making awkward eye contact with Lukas.

  “I should have told you,” Connor said to the shifter. “I’m sorry. Roz was only protecting me.”

  “I get it,” Lukas said. “You two look out for each other, but,” he said, his voice hardening, “that’s the last time you keep something from me. I agreed to work with you, not be your little bitch. Got it? If I think you’re stringing me along, I’ll take your head the same way I did that vampire at the mine.”

  Connor was not cowed. “I said I was sorry, but don’t think you can get the drop on me like you did the others. I’m not so easy to kill.”

  Lukas grunted. Connor glared.

  “Can we find something to eat now?” Roz asked, annoyed with all the male posturing.

  Connor left first, showing Lukas his back, and Roz assumed it was more alpha nonsense. She pinched the crook of Lukas’ arm and tugged him out of the garage.

  “Why did you come back?” His arm was impossibly large beneath her fingers, tense and warm, his bicep bulging.

  “I’m a glutton for punishment.” His expression registered a flash of emotion. “Don’t lie to me again.”

  Roz hesitated to say she hadn’t lied, merely kept a secret, because she understood his meaning. “I promise.”

  He breathed deeply through his nose, and she suspected he was smelling her again. Strangely, it sent shivers down her arms.

  “You could have tracked vampires on
your own,” she said. “You could have slaughtered us and been on your way.”

  He glared at her. “Is that really what you think of me? Some mindless killer? You think I could hurt you?”

  She stared back, unafraid of the heat in his stare. “I think your temper is unpredictable.”

  Something softened behind his eyes and his brows drew together as his gaze raked her face. “I could never hurt you.” His free hand rose to brush against her cheek. “I’d kill myself first. You saw my bear. Even during a shift, you’re safe with me.”

  Closing her eyes, she nuzzled his open palm. “You were soft,” she remembered, “and rough at the same time.”

  “Like you,” he teased gently.

  But she didn’t rise to the bait, instead she recalled her fingers running through his thick, brown fur. His animal scent lingered on his skin.

  “You keep looking at me like that,” he whispered, “and I’m going to bend you over right here, right now.”

  A large part of her yearned for him to do it.

  “Feel what you do to me,” he said tugging her hand off his arm and dragging it down his abdomen to the bulge between his legs. When he released her hand, Roz molded her fingers around the outline of his swelling cock. She pressed against him, and Lukas’s jaw clenched as his nostrils flared.

  “I’m going to fuck you, häxa,” he hissed.

  Roz’s insides liquefied and her fingers spasmed against his member as it leaped in response.

  “Now?” she prompted.

  He captured her mouth with his in a rough, bruising kiss. Her shoulders hit the wall behind her, and she lifted her right knee to get closer. Too much space and fabric between them. She fisted his shirt and pulled flush to his hard chest, wanting to feel him everywhere at once.

  She panted against his whiskery chin, a moan building up beneath her ribs. His tongue swept between her lips, and she feared she may come before he’d even touched her below the neck.

  “Roz?” Connor called from the house, out of sight. “Do you want me to hunt a deer or a couple rabbits for dinner?”

  Lukas swore crudely, pulling away like peeling tape.

  “Whatever strikes your fancy,” she called back, and she heard Connor leave on his hunt.

  Lukas glanced at Roz. “You ever been hunting?”

  “Do vampires count?”

  Smiling crookedly, he said, “Come with us.”

  “I don’t want to slow you down,” she answered. More, though, she didn’t want to get between Connor and Lukas’ much needed bonding time. Hopefully, they’d run and hunt and work out their issues. They couldn’t do that with her distracting them.

  “Hold on,” Lukas shouted after Connor. “I could use a good run.” He glanced ruefully at Roz. “I’ve got some energy to burn.”

  Connor guffawed. “Come on then bear boy and try to keep up.”

  Lukas sprinted to catch him.

  Feeling shaky and frustrated, Roz strode into the house to prep dinner or wash dishes or do something before she popped.

  Sara met her in the kitchen. “So, Connor’s a vampire,” she greeted. “Great twist. I can see why you kept it on the DL.”

  “He’s my friend,” Roz said, “And not everyone’s pro vampire. Connor wasn’t,” she admitted, “before he became one.”

  “How did it happen, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  Roz hadn’t told this story before. The only people who knew—Ali, Connor, Dr. Burke, Volk, and herself—had been present for the event.

  Maybe Lukas was right about secrets.

  “He was chasing Oleksander,” Roz remembered the most terrifying day of her life, “but he couldn’t kill him. Instead, Olek stuck him with a knife contaminated with his own blood. Connor almost died.”

  Sara’s eyebrows rose in interest. “Infected by the Destroyer himself. Oh, this story gets better and better.”

  Roz was tempted to ask Sara to keep the details under her hat, but the idea of more secrets made her hold her tongue.

  “Now you know,” Roz said instead. “What were you doing to those vampires in the garage? It looked…intense.”

  The other witch shrugged. “I tried to burn the infection out of them.”

  “But their bodies burned instead,” she guessed. Though she certainly didn’t know how to do any better. And Sara’s ideas were interesting, to say the least.

  “Yeah.” She pawed through the pantry for snacks. “It’s a work in progress.”

  Roz hadn’t liked the expression of pleasure on Sara’s face as she’d tortured the infected. Something wasn’t quite right with her. Roz wasn’t just being paranoid.

  “Maybe I can help,” Roz offered.

  “That would be awesome.”

  Roz pulled some instant potatoes and canned veggies from the pantry. “How about we make a rustic, meat-and-potatoes kind of meal to go with whatever game Connor and Lukas bring down?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Sara said. “What can I do to help?”

  “Here, open these cans.”

  Sara found a hand crank in a drawer. “So, what’s the deal with Lukas?”

  “Huh?” Roz frowned at the box of instant potatoes.

  “Does he have a girlfriend? A pack? A family?” Sara asked. “I’ll bet you have all kinds of good gossip on him.”

  “Truthfully, I don’t know much about his personal life.” Lukas wasn’t exactly a fount of information. He was from Sweden and lost his family to vampires. Besides that, he remained a mystery. “He doesn’t talk much.”

  “Yeah,” Sara chuckled. “No kidding. He’s cute though, right?”

  Roz flashed back to Lukas pinning her against the garage door. Cute didn’t cover the man’s raging sex appeal. Hot, sexy, gorgeous. Those were closer to the mark.

  “If you say so,” Roz answered, keeping her face averted.

  “Anyway, I wrote you a letter of recommendation for your application,” she said. “Give me your email address, and I’ll send it to you.”

  After rattling off her email, Roz asked, “Tell me about the last spell you learned at the Coven.” She wanted to keep the witch distracted, hoping her boys returned before Sara grew bored and continued her experiments in the garage. She didn’t know if she could stop her without forcing her out completely, and though Roz had never backed down from a fight, she wanted to finish her Coven application and discover everything Sara knew about witchcraft before the other witch split.

  “It was a defensive spell,” Sara answered with obvious hesitation.

  “Does your mentor expect you to have to defend yourself?” Roz asked, prepping the potatoes, but not actually cooking them yet.

  “To be honest,” Sara said, sorting canned goods in the pantry, “the first year is mostly practice calling your power and using it for lame stuff. They don’t teach you actual spell casting until year two.”

  “What year are you?” Roz asked.

  “I just started my third year.”

  “You must know a lot of spells,” Roz pressed. “I’ve got protection and strength spells down, and I’m still perfecting sleep spells, but what else is there I could cast to help Connor in a fight?”

  “You could harm Connor’s opponents,” Sara said. “Crippling spells or confusion spells.”

  Roz didn’t say she preferred to assist than to injure because causing pain seemed to be Sara’s MO. “What do you know about hexes?” she asked instead.

  Sara’s eyes widened as she ceased messing around in the pantry. “I’ve heard of them. The Coven doesn’t teach harmful magic. At least not yet. Why?” She peered around the cupboard door. “Do you know how to cast one?”

  “No,” Roz assured. “Definitely not. I’m only curious.”

  “Oh.” Sara rounded the butcher-block island to stand opposite her. “Too bad. I’d love to learn something truly dark.”

  “What would you use it for?” Roz wondered.

  “I’d hex vampires and shapeshifters.” She said it as if the answer should be ob
vious.

  Before Roz could remind her, she was teaming up with one of each such creature, the vampire and shapeshifter banged through the back door carrying a limp buck between them.

  “Hope you girls are hungry.” Grinning, Connor dumped the carcass on the island and stood back, clearly proud of himself. Lukas was pink-cheeked and breathing rapidly, as if he’d thoroughly enjoyed his run. He caught her ogling and held her stare. The heat from earlier roared back to life. Roz grew wet at the promise in his gaze, and Lukas’ eyes narrowed as if he could sense her emotions.

  “Everything good?” Connor asked.

  Roz broke the stare and smiled at her friend. “Yep. All good.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Laptop in hand, Roz flopped into a chair and kicked her feet up on the patio table. Connor and Lukas were busy dressing their kill, and in the time it took them to cut ribs and chops, she needed a couple minutes to herself.

  At dusk, the desert heat subsided and the landscape faded into lavenders and greys. It was the most beautiful time of day, and she was enjoying the peaceful descent into night when a girl flickered to life beside her.

  “Jesus holy Christ,” Roz swore, hopping into an upright position. Her laptop clattered to the cement floor. “Caitlyn?”

  “Hiya, slugger.” The Oracle beamed. “I’m bored. Whatcha doin’?”

  Is she legitimately insane? “I was going to search police reports for missing and dead tourists,” she said, picking up her laptop and checking for damage. Crap. The corner was dented, but it powered on fine and the screen looked untouched.

  “Cool,” Caitlyn mused, glancing around the patio. “Nice place you’ve got here.”

  “It’s not mine,” Roz said. “It belongs to a friend of mine. Well, at least I think she’s still my friend. She hasn’t talked to me in days.”

  “Natasha.” Caitlyn nodded, her gaze far away. “She never stopped being your friend, you know.”

  “I wish you’d tell her that,” Roz grouched.