by Dawn Ibanez
“What is she?”
“Like Jasper said, Xian is an immortal witch hunter.” When she pulled her hand again, he released her. “Her duty is to protect humanity from those that would do harm. She feels that powerful, untrained witches pose a threat.”
“Convenient for you.” She stood and went to the windows overlooking the city. “I didn’t want to be trained, so you sic her on me. Is that how it went down?”
Ryan would have made the same accusation. But that knowledge didn’t make it sting any less. “Actually, I intended to send roses tomorrow and try to win you over with my charm.”
Jasper snorted.
“Do you have to be here?” Kalina asked.
Jasper’s lip curled in his usual cat ate the canary way as he approached her. “I have more experience with my magic than you could think, little girl,” he said. “And you should know how to talk to your betters.”
Ryan caught glimpse of a pink glow in her eyes. Her magic was responding to her anger, and that wasn’t good. Especially not after what she just went through. “Luckily for Kalina, I am your better,” he said turning his attention to his nails. When Jasper looked at him, Ryan continued to examine his fingers. “And I will not sit here while you insult and anger my apprentice. Now, apologize.” He lifted his gaze to Jasper’s. “Or shall we finally settle what we started way back when?”
Jasper’s glare did nothing to faze him. Ryan knew how powerful Jasper was. But it was also known that Ryan’s magic was only second to Faust himself. Jasper turned to Kalina and bowed at the waist. “My apologies, Miss Benton.”
Kalina nodded before she moved across the room. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. And the thought of Kalina being uncomfortable in his home was unacceptable. Ryan kept his gaze on Jasper’s. “Leave,” he said in ancient Arabic. When Jasper looked at him, he went on. “Don’t come back unless I or Kalina expressly ask that you come here. This is my home, and I will not have me and mine violated any more by you.”
Jasper hissed out a breath and opened a portal. As he left the apartment, Ryan stood and turned to Kalina.
Her eyes were focused on Jasper’s portal as it closed. “I don’t know if I’m going to get used to that any time soon.”
The corners of his smile lifted. “You will,” he reassured.
She nodded and brushed her hair away from her face. “Carly’s okay?” she asked again.
Ryan knew what he could do to get her to start training. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. A glance at Kalina told him she moved closer to him. She looked scared and curious again. His personal puzzle of contradictions. He dialed the last number that called him and lifted it to his ear.
“Hart Residence,” Carly’s voice answered.
Hart. That name was familiar, but it would take time for him to figure it out. “I have someone that needs to talk to you.”
CHAPTER 4
Kalina grabbed the phone away from him. There was only one person she needed to hear from. “Carly, are you alright?”
“I’m okay. How are you? Gold said something about you being poisoned.”
She looked at the kitchen island where the other man had been. There was a black ball sitting on it. The same one he waved when he mentioned her being poisoned. Kalina swallowed and focused her attention on the phone call. “I’m alright. I think.”
“Okay. That’s good.”
All she could remember was her best friend being surrounded by a purple glow as she fought with magic. “What was that back at the shop?” Kalina asked. “You know magic and didn’t tell me?” Carly inhaled and paused. An action that Kalina knew she always did before she tried to make up a lie. “I want the truth. Why do you know any kind of magic? You’re not a witch.”
“You’re right, I’m not.” In the background, Kalina could hear the shuffling of cards. It was something Carly always did to calm herself. “I’m something far worse.”
“Are you going to tell me what that could be?”
“No. Not right now.” The rip and shuffle of the cards came through the phone line again. “I want to find out more about this bitch that destroyed the shop, and I have to figure out a way to help you rebuild.”
Carly threw herself at that woman without a thought. Kalina couldn’t let that happen again. She needed to keep her away. “What makes you so sure I want your help?” she asked. When Ryan frowned at her, she turned her back to him. She didn’t need his input for what she had to do. “You lied to me. And this isn’t like that time you lied about eating my chicken salad. This was something major. Even after I told you everything, you still hid this from me.”
“There’s a reason why,” Carly started. “My kind, we don’t make friends. Like ever. Do you think I wanted to risk my first friend because you found out what I am and then ran because you were scared?”
“So, you pretended to be human, lied to me, and now lost me anyway.”
“You don’t really mean that,” Carly said. Kalina could hear the fear in her voice but she needed to do this. Even though she lied, Carly was still her best friend. She wouldn’t let that friend do something stupid like get herself killed.
“You don’t mean that,” Ryan echoed. She turned to him. He was sitting with one arm stretched out across the sofa and a cat in his lap. “And I’m pretty sure your friend has a reason for her secrets. Don’t be so harsh to judge her.”
“I’m going to try and figure out what the hell is going on. I’ll call you if I feel like it,” Kalina said into the phone. Before Carly could reply, she disconnected the call.
“You may regret that decision in time.”
Kalina sat next to him and hugged herself. “She shouldn’t have lied to me.”
His hazel eyes seemed to bore into her. “Blatant honesty isn’t something people in our world deal in. That is a fact you need to get used to.”
“She was my best friend,” Kalina argued. “I told her everything about me.”
“Really?”
She didn’t like his skeptical tone. “Yes.”
“So, she knows why you’re terrified of using your magic?”
“Most of it, yes.”
“Most, not all.”
His challenge wasn’t something she was ready to deal with. “Carly knows enough. She doesn’t need to know everything behind it.”
“Maybe she feels the same.”
“Don’t try to make me into the bad guy. She lied to me.”
He laughed. “I am not trying to make you into the bad guy,” he reassured. “But you have to do the same. Look at the situation with different eyes, neither of you are wrong, but neither is totally right either.” He looked at his cat and scratched under its chin. “And from what I’ve seen of your character, you aren’t angry with her. You simply want to protect her from trying to do something idiotic like chasing after Xian.”
She hated that he could figure that about her. Kalina went back to the window. Her problems with Carly could wait. She needed to know more about the people around her. Especially since it looked like she was going to take him up on his offer. “This witch hunter, Xian, will stop her hunt if I start training?”
Ryan looked at her. “She might. I’ll have to talk to her about it.” He stood and walked over to her. “Xian may want to oversee some of your training herself.”
“No.”
“She’ll be able to teach you a lot. She was once an advisor for an emperor. I think she studied the black arts just so he knew what he was up against if a witch or demon attacked.”
“Demon?”
Ryan looked at her. She hated feeling like she was under a microscope. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the only way he way capable of looking at her. “No one truly taught you anything?”
The only thing worse than that under a microscope feeling, was feeling stupid for other people’s faults. Kalina lifted her chin in challenge. “No. My aunts were never around, and my mother was too busy chasing after her next high.”
“Hated magic. After my mother died, he found out I was putting my magic in the candles and threw me out.”
Something seemed to deflate him. Kalina knelt and smiled when the cat jumped into her arms. She wouldn’t take his pity. “I turned out alright. It’s been 12 years, and I have the Harts. I thought they were perfectly human, but they accepted me without question.”
Ryan joined her on the floor. “Her name is Pizazz.” He reached out and caressed one of the cat’s ears. “I found her when she was a stray kitten on a trip to Vegas. She’s been with me ever since.”
Kalina wanted to think of herself another way, but she was trying to be realistic. “Am I another stray?”
He looked at her and sighed. “Where do you get such harsh views?” he asked. He stood and went back to where he left his cell phone. As soon as he turned his gaze to it, it started to ring. “Gold.”
Kalina sat fully on the floor and continued to stroke Pizazz. The cat rolled in her arms, basking in the attention she was getting.
Ryan moved the phone away from his face. “I have to take this in the other room. I’ll be right back,” he said softly.
Kalina nodded and watched as he left the living room for another room in the apartment. She looked down at the cat in her arms and stroked her ear the same way she saw Ryan. “You noticed that he didn’t answer my question, right?”
*****
Ryan closed his bedroom door and put a sound barrier up with his magic. The man on the other end of the line was not someone he wanted to introduce Kalina to. Not right now. “I have her. She’s fine.”
“Why was her candle shop destroyed? I tasked you with retrieving, training, and bringing her to me. None of that included the destruction of her shop.”
Faust was the last person he needed to deal with right now. There was no telling what the demon broker would do if the woman he wanted under his wing was hurt somehow. “It appears that Cao Xian has set her sights on her. I don’t know exactly what happened at the candle shop, but Kalina is safe. There really is no need for you to worry.”
“Who sent her here?”
“I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure I can talk her out of her hunt. She may even agree to help me with training Kalina. She’s more powerful than I originally thought.”
A growl echoed over the line. Ryan knew Faust had to take a moment to compose himself. The idea of losing a trinket was not one that sat well with him.
“Give me some time. I’ll fix this. It’s what I do, remember?”
“If anything happens to Kalina Benton, rest assured, Goblin, I will have your green-hued hide in front of my fireplace.”
That threat had lost its effect centuries ago. But Ryan never let Faust know. The demon would have just thought of something even worse. And that wasn’t something he wanted Faust to do. “I will take care of it,” he said. As expected, there was no goodbye or dismissal. Faust simply disconnected the call.
Ryan sighed and sat on the side of his bed. Kalina was in danger on every front. Her own magic could kill her, Xian was after her, and Faust wanted her. He looked through his contact list. Things would have to be handled one at a time. He found Xian’s information and sent out a call to her.
As he lifted the phone to his ear, he tried not to think about the woman in his living room.
“What do you want Ryan?” Xian’s voice asked.
He laughed. “Why do you think I want something?”
“Because the last time we spoke, disco was in style. Today I show up in your city and now you want to talk.”
She wasn’t wrong. There was never a reason he needed to talk to her. “My apologies,” he said. “But I need to talk to you about your hunt.”
“I’ll leave the child dealer alone. But the witch isn’t trained. I have to end her before she hurts someone.”
“Child dealer?” Ryan then shook his head. He would process that later, when he could talk with Kalina. “The witch is with me. I’m going to start training her.”
“She should have been trained when she was an infant.”
Ryan jumped to his feet and started to pace the room. “I know that,but there’s something in her past that made that impossible. I have her now, and I’ll train her. She won’t be a danger to anyone else.”
“I don’t believe you.”
That was fair. Xian didn’t believe or trust anyone. She was a believer of actions. Ryan rubbed his eyes, knowing he would hate himself for this decision.
But he would hate himself even more for not making it.
“You can have me too,” he said. When Xian went silent, he pressed on. “If I don’t train her to your standards. Give me two months. If she isn’t up to par by then, you can kill us both.”
Because if two months passed and Kalina still refused her magic, Faust would probably try to do even worse. Xian was final way out. For both him and Kalina.
“You have a deal.”
Ryan nodded as he disconnected the call. He looked at his room door. Having Xian as an exit strategy would be best for everyone. If he manipulated everything correctly, Kalina would be protected from whatever schemes Faust had in plan for her.
Now he just had to keep his other minions away from her.
A soft knock echoed in his room. Ryan waved his hand, breaking the magical barrier he put there. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
There was a moment of silence before Kalina answered. “I haven’t had anything to eat since I got back from the vendor event.” She mumbled something Ryan couldn’t make out. “And there’s nothing in your fridge except for beer. Is there a way to order in or something?”
Ryan smiled as he went to the door. “Or something.” He opened the door and looked into her large brown eyes. There was another reason having Xian around was going to be a good idea. He reached out and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. He frowned when he saw more locks of pink hair under the dark brown. They hadn’t been there when he spoke with her at her shop. “Let’s go out and grab a bite.”
“Is it safe to do that? That Xian woman is still out there.”
“Yes, but she isn’t hunting you anymore. In fact, she may come here to help train you.” The sour expression on her face made him want to laugh. “Before you object, she and I made a deal. Two months, if you aren’t able to safely control your magic, she can have you.”
Kalina stepped back. “You what?” Ryan noticed another strip of her hair lightening from dark brown to vibrant magenta. “After you made me agree to learning magic, something I really do not want to do by the way, now you’re telling me this woman will still try to kill me? What kind of backwards assed thing is that?”
The distrust in her voice grated on his nerves. “I can have you trained. You have nothing to worry about.”
“So why tell me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Did you want to find out two months from now, when something went sideways, and you learned about a secret that I kept from you? How is that working for you and Carly right now?”
“Do not bring her into this.”
Ryan stepped into the hallway and frowned when she pressed herself against the wall. He raised his hand to her hair again and paused when she narrowed her eyes. “For the record, the only women I have ever harmed have all been out of self-defense. Do not start flinching from me.” After Satella, he hadn’t laid his hands on another female in anger. Ryan pasted a smile on his face. He didn’t want to think about the woman that ruined him when Kalina stood in front of him.
“There’s a difference between mistrust and fear,” she said. “I’m not scared of you.”
“Yes, you are.” He leaned forward until they were nose to nose. When she didn’t move, he smiled. “You’re just really good at trying to hide it. Why do you hide so much, Kalina?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do.” He lifted a piece of her hair and twisted it around his finger. “Every time I get close to
you, every time I reach for your hair, you have this look. Did someone used to hit you?”
The fire that she kept carefully hidden told him he wasn’t too far off the mark. “I wouldn’t put up with abuse.”
He believed that as well. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t been touched by it. Ryan decided to leave that alone for now. He needed to feed her, and then get started with their training. “Let’s go eat. We can begin your training.”
Two months was nothing but a drop of time. Especially for those that lived centuries.
CHAPTER 5
Kalina did her best to ignore the man across the table from her. Ryan saw too much. And just like he hadn’t answered her question about thinking of her as a stray, she didn’t want to tell him about the abuse her parents put her through.
“Is everything alright here? Would either of you like a refill on your drinks?” the waiter asked.
“No, everything is fine,” Ryan said. When he looked at Kalina, his eyes did the vertical slit trick again. “Are you alright?”
She smiled at him. If he wanted to give everyone the illusion of a happy couple, she would play along. At least for now. She looked at the waiter. “I’ll take a refill. And I’ll have the cookie cheesecake for dessert, if you don’t mind.”
The waiter smiled brightly. “Not at all. I’ll put in the order.”
Ryan drank from his glass as the waiter walked away. “You’re seducing that poor child,” he said.
If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought he was jealous. “I am doing no such thing.” As she lifted her own glass, she felt the familiar tingle of magic around her. She placed the glass on the table and frowned. “I don’t like this feeling,” she said.
“Describe it.” Ryan continued with his meal.
She rubbed her hands against her pants. “You know the pins and needles feeling when your leg or arm goes to sleep?” He nodded. “It’s like that, but only in my fingers. The rest of my hands and arms feel numb.”
Ryan continued to watch her. He looked as if completely fascinated by her. “Concentrate. Move it to the palm of your hand. You may need to rub them together since you’re just learning this.”