by May Sage
Why didn't the stupid animal give him a fucking clue? he asked himself. Then he realized, it had. It had been jealous, possessive, worried about her practically constantly, let him know whenever she was anywhere near him, even when her scent shouldn't have been able to reach their presence from a distance.
The cheetah had done everything it could, but dumb human Luke had remained entirely blind to it. Perhaps because of what had happened to him? He'd lost his family once. The prospect of having someone, anyone, he cared about as much as them again, had been terrifying.
But now there was no denying it, the animal wouldn't let him remain blind anymore.
She was theirs.
Fuck. Like they needed this shit now. What could he do? Everything in him wanted to mark her, take her, and then sweep her out of this damn state, putting her in a glass tower where she'd be safe. The prospect of letting her deal with possession and witchy rituals and evil—or slightly less evil—sisters sent him into a panic.
He had no choice, though. Rain's well-being was paramount to him; her physical well-being as well as her mental one. She needed to help her family. She needed whoever had possessed her sister to fuck the hell out of Sara's mind. And whether she admitted it or not, she also needed to smooth things out with Michelle, although that was potentially the hardest of the three.
And therefore, Luke fucking needed those things to happen, too.
He realized with horror that he couldn't, wouldn't, mark her. If he did that now, he'd want to lick her, pinch at her sensitive flesh, and fuck her for days, solely focusing on affirming their bond. They had shit to do, and they didn't have time to cement a metaphysical bond forged by destiny. Life sucked sometimes.
The problem was that if he kept on touching her like this, his animal would eventually snap, drunk on her scent.
"Move. Leave her alone. She needs us to back off, right now."
To say that the animal wasn't receptive to his compulsion, at first, was an understatement. His mate was scratching his fur, laughing and talking to him in a soft baby-talk voice. The cat did not want to let go. With coaxing, begging, orders, and threats, he finally managed to get the cheetah to retreat, slowly.
Rain was smiling and waving his way. The cheetah almost pounced on her again, but Luke managed to convince it to go check out the delightful scents around the bayou.
The animal wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but it gave in, potentially because he realized that they couldn't claim their mate. Shifters' beasts were simple and couldn't catch all the subtleties of a human mind, but they often had one gift: being able to scent, smell, and feel truth. There was a certain taste to manipulation, lies, and deceits.
Luke had told his cheetah that Rain would be happier if they didn't claim her now and the animal knew it to be true. It didn't have to fucking like it, but it was conscious of it, so it backed away from her.
What a mind fuck. Luke ran at full speed, only stopping to pee on trees, or to listen to the swamp where they'd left their mate. He used up as much energy as he could so that his beast would be compliant later.
Forty-eight hours, that was all. They only had to hang on for forty-eight hours. Then, the damn solstice ritual would be out of the way, and they would be on a plane back to Cali. He could tell her then. Or better yet, show her.
Luke knew Rain was interested now; he hadn’t suspected it before, although even if he had, he certainly wouldn’t have been inclined to do anything about it. Fucking someone close to the pride was always a bad idea, in case a mate was introduced later. Their kind was often extremely possessive and hated to be near anyone their partners had touched. After that eye-fucking back at the car, he'd known she wouldn't have been opposed to a romp in the sack. It had almost killed him, but he would have ignored it, though.
Turned out, he didn't need to; not forever. Just for a few days. Then, she'd be all his.
Something hit him. Did witches even have mates? Fuck. Maybe she wouldn't even really know what it meant. Like, she'd certainly heard the terms, and she'd seen the mated couples in the pride, too, but without the mating urges and the natural pull that brought shifters together instinctively, she might not really get it.
When shifters realized they were each other's soul, that was basically it. They paired up. They fucked, and marked each other, and got to know each other later. But witches were regular humans with magic. She didn't have an animal simplifying the equation for her.
Shit. He was going to have to date, and seduce, and maybe even buy flowers, wasn't he?
Luke winced. It wasn't that he was against building a relationship per se, it was just that she was his mate. That was supposed to come after.
So, he had to wait a couple of days, until they were out of this mess, and then, wait some more, until he'd convinced her of what he knew: they belonged to each other.
It was going to suck balls.
When the cat was finally spent, Luke coaxed him into letting him take control of their body and shifted back.
He returned to their spot near the river and watched his mate with his own eyes for the first time.
She was fucking beautiful. Fucking perfection. And all his.
“About time! We need to get going. My appointment with Michelle is in an hour.”
The Deal
Luke had offered to come with her, multiple times, and each time, she'd shot him down.
"I need to do this. Michelle and I do a lot of posturing in front of people, I don't think either of us can help it. If you're there, I'm not sure we'll be able to speak as openly."
"Alright. I'll wait outside and patrol the territory to see if someone's sniffing around you."
Rain smiled as she watched him retreat. She was a lot more comfortable around him now. In a short time, he'd somehow managed to make it from quasi-stranger to friend.
A ridiculously hot friend.
She had to admit that she could also get used to having someone watch her back. The trip would have been a lot more stressful without him.
She turned on her heels to face the door of the white greenhouse. She found it ajar. Getting to it and pushing it open, Rain scanned the room in one glance. There was only one occupant.
For all her bravado, Rain wished she'd let Luke accompany her once the door closed behind her of its own accord.
Her sister's sanctuary had changed since the last time she'd been in there. A lot. It used to be a small, fifty-square-feet cute little haven. While the new building was on the same spot, Michelle had entirely destroyed the old place and turned it into a grand, elegant affair. It had flourished, just like Michelle.
Rain was at a disadvantage here today. In a way, that might have been one of the reasons why she'd thought of this place, to assure Michelle that she came in peace. Even at seventeen, her sister had been adept at spells; she'd protected it well. Now, Rain felt that the garden was nothing short of a fort.
She could feel that her powers would be of no use to her. She hadn't been robbed of them, but they were muted. No one outside these doors could have broken in, or listened in, without the authorization of the mistress of the garden.
Michelle stood, her back to Rain, watering one of her plants. She was wearing a white skirt suit, indubitably power-dressing.
Looking down at her denim skirt and black tank, Rain felt awfully underdressed. It was as if their clothing was showing their respective personalities today.
"I love what you've done with the place," she said awkwardly, looking around.
In one glance, she saw at least three dozen different sorts of poisonous plants, as well as plants used for the most dangerous kinds of spells.
Looked like Michelle had stopped playing nice a long time ago.
"Do you?" her sister asked indifferently, before stepping away from the plant she'd just taken care of.
Rain tried not to gasp. One might have mistaken the flower for a dragon lily, but it wasn't dark purple; the petals were black, midnight black, while the leaves were pure white and the p
istil, blood red. Pretty damn recognizable.
Holy shit.
"Are you making immortality drops?" she gasped.
It had been almost two decades since Rain had started using magic and she'd always been fascinated with studying spells and potions. None had seemed more complicated than the immortality potion; it wasn't even magic as much as alchemy. The "mortem arum," the plant behind Michelle, didn't even exist in nature. It had to be created from scratch by blending different plants together and mixing the whole lot with seriously strong magic. That was the easy part. One had to carefully nurture the plant into health until it flowered seven times, before crushing its flowers and starting the most complicated potion in the history of potion-making. One look at the twenty-page-long instructions and Rain had shrugged it off. Sure, drinking a few drops of serum and being entirely indestructible for a month did sound pretty damn cool, but was it really worth years of labor? Besides, there had been a warning along the lines of "getting one thing wrong could result in painful death. Good luck, idiot."
Michelle shrugged. "A girl has to have a hobby."
She had to chuckle. "I'll stick to knitting."
"You would," Michelle replied, unsurprisingly.
She wasn't one to miss an opportunity to belittle her.
"So," her elder sister prompted, putting down her watering can.
"So," Rain echoed.
How did they even start talking after all this time? All they could do was trade insults.
"You texted."
"And you called me home."
Michelle pursed her lips. She didn't like that Rain knew it had come from her; Charles might have been told to keep that to himself.
"I guess I did." Michelle sighed deep, meaningfully, as though she was carrying the weight of the word on her shoulders.
Which, admittedly, she kinda was. Twenty-nine, and she was regent of all seventy-three clans in their damn state. Rain wasn't even sure she could keep a damn pet alive.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush. I called you because you care about Sara, and she's in danger, so I figured you'd help. Someone--something--is controlling the majority, if not the entirety, on the covens. That something has Sara and won't relinquish her. If Sara had anchored the spell, like it wanted her to, it would have won. I want you to anchor it this one time because I think you're too stubborn to let anyone tell you what to do."
Rain wasn't sure that was supposed to be a compliment.
She nodded. "Okay, but what do we do about Sara, and everyone else."
"I am certain that the master puppet is in the outerworld. It wants to pass through when the veil is thinnest, during our ceremony."
Rain had been thinking something along the same line. Everything did point to the ritual.
Michelle still shocked her when she said, "My solution is, we let it pass."
Right. Okay. So, her sister was insane.
"What the hell?"
"We can't do much against a sprit when its essence isn't even in this world. If we let it pass through to our world, we can kick its ass, and properly banish it from Nola."
That sounded all well and good. Only one problem. "That thing has managed to influence hundreds, if not thousands, of sups, Michelle. Not just witches, but vampires, too. It might be too strong once it's here."
"Not necessarily. Schuyler designed the spell in a specific way, so the dead don't come back to this world. The moment the sun comes up, the souls who've wandered the earth from the outerworld are sucked back where they came from."
Rain frowned. "I don't see how that spirit wanted to pass, then."
"Thanks to Sara. If the anchor stops anchoring the spell before the end of the ritual..."
"The spirits stay," Rain guessed.
They remained silent for a while.
"I won't lie. There's a very strong possibility that all of the possessed witches will try to kill you."
Michelle expected her to walk out, she could almost read her expression, a mixture of disappointment and resignation.
Rain nodded. "Right. What's the plan so they don't do that?"
Her sister lifted a brow. "Simple. During the cleansing, I intend to add a few drops of something quite special I've concocted to the eau de vie. They'll pass out as soon as I order them to. The problem, of course, is that they won't be able to hold the wards that keep the spirits in the cemetery. Honestly, I doubt they intend to, in any case. The shields outside of Nola should keep them stuck in the city, but the regulars and tourists will have a pretty freaky experience."
Rain just shrugged. "Another Thursday in Nola. I bet the tourism will bloom after that."
The ghost of a smile did cross Michelle's face. She grew serious. "You're up for it?"
"Are you up for fighting a crazy-strong, mysterious force with a thousand people under its thumb?"
Michelle mirrored her shrug. "Another Thursday in Nola."
There was so much left to say. Stuff such as "I'm sorry," and "I would have made a terrible head of the coven, while you're rocking it," plus "I was a shitty kid, but I'm nice now."
Instead, Rain remained awkwardly silent, until something essential crossed her mind.
"I need Luke there. As my bodyguard. If I'm going to do this while unconscious, anchoring a humongous spell, I need to know he's watching me. You'll be busy with the whole banishing and everything."
Her sister nodded. "Not a problem. We have plenty of shifter bodyguards for that type of event, to ensure no tourists wander in. No one will raise an eyebrow."
Good.
"Alright, then. I guess I'll see you at the clearing for the cleansing?"
"I guess so."
Michelle turned her back on her, returning to her gardening, and Rain left.
It was only when she'd made it a few blocks down the road and joined Luke that she turned back to the greenhouse, smiling.
"What?" Luke asked. "Did it go okay?"
It really had. "It just hit me. We didn't really insult each other. Not even once."
One evening
Having gotten her meeting with one of the sisters out of the way, Luke and Rain went home to Ma Curtis to get ready for dinner with the second one.
Rain was feeling rather positive. Until they got there.
Sara ate very properly, cutting each piece of her steak first and then slowly eating it, making sure to eat one vegetable in between each mouthful of meat.
Which would be all well and good if Sara wasn't a vegetarian, as well as a foodie who ate super-fast and talked with her mouth full.
It was going to drive her mad. Rain didn't know how she didn't just get up and punch her sister until she woke up.
"So, how are your exams going?" she asked. "Do you still want to transfer to New York for your master's?"
Sara put her knife and fork down, chewed, and cleaned her mouth with her napkin before replying.
"I don't think so, no. I like it here. And it wouldn't do to stay away from the coven. I don't know how you can live without the ancestral magic."
Hiding her frustration and anger was fucking hard. Just when Rain didn't think she could do it, she felt a hand press on her knee. She blushed, her head sharply turning to her left.
Luke was eating with one hand, keeping the other one on her leg like it was the most natural thing in the world.
She gaped. It took a moment to realize that most of her anger had run out the door. Which was, no doubt, exactly why he'd done it in the first place.
Strange. As the evening passed, Pseud- Sara kept on doing and saying things which were so un-Sara-like, that Rain should have wanted to scream by the end of it. But Luke's hand, that he kept on her leg, then placed on her back, or on her shoulder, always supporting her, helped. It was like his calm, laid-back demeanor tempered her fiery nature.
"So, you said you were hanging out with some of the witches. Who did you get close to?" she asked. "I saw the Curtis sisters. They're about your age, right?"
Sara tsked, disapprovingly.
"Yes. I wish they acted like it. They don't seem to take anything seriously."
Needless to say, Amelia was studying to become a lawyer, and Sophie got a scholarship to pay for all of her college expenses by running track.
What the spirit inside her sister meant was that they weren't taking magic seriously and, therefore, they were of little use to her.
Rain wished she could just get drunk, but she had to stay alert, so she stopped after downing her first glass of Merlot.
"Have you thought about my suggestion?" Sara asked, leaning in and smiling in a way that would have seemed sweet if it wasn't creepy. "That we should anchor the ritual together."
Yeah, right. How about not.
"I brought it up with Michelle," Rain lied, hoping her non-possessed sister would play along if asked. "She thinks it'd be better if I did it by myself, for such a big ceremony; if we mess it up, it'll affect the magic of the clans for the entire year. She said she'd show you how to properly anchor smaller spells, so that you're ready for next year, as you're so..." what was the word? "Enthusiastic about it."
Sara was pissed, but she let it drop, which meant that there was a backup plan. Probably having Rain killed, as Michelle had guessed. She just hoped they really were on top of the situation, and one step ahead of their enemy.
She truly had to trust her sister. Trust that she could defeat the enemy, trust that she was really on her side, trust that she wouldn't just stab her while she was unconscious.
She had Luke in her corner, and it certainly made things a lot less frightening, but Rain wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without believing that Michelle would protect her.
It was strange. She should have doubted it, but somehow, she didn't. Something told her, at the bottom of her heart, that despite everything she'd done, Michelle was still, deep down, the girl who'd sneak into her bedroom in the middle of the night to tell her how to improve her spells. The girl who would see her succeed, regardless of what it may cost her.
Finally, the dreadful evening came to an end. Rain didn't have the heart to ask Sara if she wanted to head over to the jazz bar where they used to hang out, and Sara didn't seem to think it strange. They parted ways with an awkward wave, rather than a bear hug.