by Unknown
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Jo opened bleary eyes to find Gareth Beckett staring at her, his voice muffled by the glass of her rental car. The hunted feeling faded, along with the rotten stench.
Thank the Lady, just a dream.
“Get out of there.” He tugged on the door but she’d had the sense to lock it before nodding off.
“Go ’way.” She settled her head back down on her windbreaker and prayed Gareth would get the hint. Her head was pounding. She was tired of dealing with the Beckett family madness and she had no desire to have another run-in with Annabelle Evans. Ever.
So of course he didn’t. “C’mon, Johra. Zach would kill me if he knew you’d spent the night out here.”
Zach had thrown her out of the house. She was pretty sure he didn’t give a crap. “I’m good.”
Gareth poked something against the car door and muttered something under his breath. She couldn’t quite catch what he was saying.
The door unlatched. Before she could slam her hand down on the lock button the door was open and she was tumbling down.
“Whoa!” She was lifted up before she hit the ground. “Careful. You’re a little clumsy, aren’t you?”
She gritted her teeth and tried to get across to him how much she did not appreciate his invasion of her privacy. “I hate you.”
“Zach will hate me more if I let you stay out here, and frankly? His opinion means a hell of a lot more to me than yours does.” He pulled her to her feet and closed her car door behind her. “C’mon. You’re coming back into the house.” He held up his hand to stall her answer. “No arguments. Zach damn near put Daniel through a wall over you. Trust me, I’m not going to piss him off by leaving you to sleep in your car.”
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but she was having trouble processing what Gareth was saying. “Zach hurt his brother?” She was guessing the brother with the attitude was Daniel. She couldn’t see the other one giving Zach much grief.
“Nope. I said almost. Big difference.” He tugged on her arm and practically dragged her to the front door. “In you go.”
“But what about Annabelle and Zach?” She hadn’t known it was even possible for a witch to do what Annabelle had done, and Zach had made it clear he didn’t want her around.
“Leave them to me.”
The sheer determination in his voice surprised her, but she let it go. She was too damn tired and hurt to argue. Her head hurt so badly she thought she might vomit. “Fine.”
His lips twitched but otherwise he made no comment.
“What’s she doing back in here?” The brother who’d been draped all over the brunette scowled at her. “Zach doesn’t need her here right now.”
“She was sleeping in her car.”
The scowl turned into a wince. “Shit.”
Jo was too tired to really give a fuck. “I’m sorry. Which brother are you?”
“Christopher Beckett. This is my house.” He nodded, his expression distracted. “I’m going to give you a room for the night. Whatever shit you and Zach have to work out needs to be taken care of tomorrow, because if he says you go again, you go. Got it?”
She nodded and damn near fell on her ass.
“Whoa.” She felt Gareth’s grip tighten. “Chris, I think something’s wrong.”
“It’s nothing. I just have a concussion.”
The brothers froze. “You’re injured?”
The next thing she knew she was tucked up into bed with a cup of hot tea and a hovering family of lunatics, minus one.
“Zach is going to kill us.” Gareth actually looked worried. He ran his hand through his thick wavy hair and paced the length of the room.
“He’s locked himself in my workroom. I think we could set a bomb off and he wouldn’t notice.”
“Are you feeling okay?” The brunette who’d glared at her earlier was frowning in concern.
“What did you say your name was?” Jo sipped the tea. It was really good.
“Lana Evans.”
Jo nearly choked. “Evans?”
“That was my reaction too.” Chris walked up behind Lana and slipped his arm around her waist. “Lana is my fiancée.”
Jo heard the hesitation just before he said the word “fiancée”. Considering the way the two of them were together she knew it had nothing to do with the traditional wariness wizards and witches tended to treat each other with. The two simply didn’t mix well together. The anal way wizards tended to do their magic drove the more instinct-driven witches nuts, and vice versa. “Why do I get the feeling you guys are hiding something from me?”
They tried mightily to hide it, but they couldn’t fool her. She was a teacher. She knew the signs of guilty little boys very well.
“Uh-huh.” She yawned, the events of the last forty-eight hours dragging her down. “Is it something that’s going to cause me bodily harm?”
“Not that we’re aware of.”
“Then tell me after I sleep, okay?” She placed the mug carefully on the side table and closed her eyes.
“Do you think it’s coincidence? Because I don’t.”
“Daniel. Shut up.”
She opened her eyes. “Okay. Spill. I can tell you’re dying to.”
The brothers clamped their lips shut.
Lana, on the other hand, spilled. “It’s the Beckett family spell.”
“Lana!”
“Hush, Chris.” She turned back to Jo. “When a Beckett male is ready to find their mate, they cast this spell.”
Mate?
“What does that have to do with me?”
Lana shrugged. “The candles touched and there you were.”
Jo snorted a laugh. “You think I’m his mate?” What was this, a cheesy werewolf romance novel?
All of the Beckett males nodded.
“Oh yeah.”
“Not a doubt.”
“If you’re not I’ll eat my dirty shorts.”
Ew. “And that’s what has you all hovering over me?”
“That and you have a fucking concussion. What were you thinking, getting on a plane like that?” Gareth was glaring at her again.
That was all right. She was starting to get used to it. “None of your damn business?”
“You’re a Beckett now. Of course it’s my business.”
These people were fucking insane. “I’m not Zach’s ‘mate’. I’m his teacher.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” Lana patted her hand. “If it makes you feel any better I fought it at first too. But there’s no denying that not only are you the one he’s been sighing about, but you’re the one that showed up.” She grinned up at her fiancé. “Besides, the Beckett boys have a way of growing on you.”
“Like fungus? Ow!” Jo rubbed the spot on her forehead Lana flicked.
“Oh please. The way you latched onto him when you got here? He’s so yours.” Lana stood from the bed. “Now get some rest. I’ll find out why Zach tried to kick you out, and if the reason doesn’t make sense to me I’ll kick his ass for you.”
Jo tried not to smile. “You do that.”
“Johra! Does Zach know you’re hurt?” Gareth’s voice cut across the room, full of accusation.
Jo settled back against the pillows and let her eyes fall shut. “If you’re going to yell at me at least call me Jo. You’ll sound less like my mom that way.”
Someone snorted, amused. Gareth was anything but. “Thought not. After I kick his ass I’m going to kick yours.”
“I’m still not sure bringing her here was a good idea.”
Oh joy. Annabelle finally speaks. She looked toward the corner of the room where Annabelle stood. Jo just knew she was waiting for a chance to throw her out again.
“I am.” Lana matched her grandmother glare for glare. Gareth and Chris moved to flank her.
Jo rolled over onto her side, hoping everyone would get the hint and just go. She did not want to witness a showdown between anyone and Annabelle.
“Let’s let the wo
man get some rest.” She heard Lana shooing everyone out of the room. “And Jo? Take it easy on him. Zach’s…”
Her eyes popped open briefly. “Different. I know.”
She let sleep pull her under, confident that Lana and the brothers would keep Annabelle and Zach from throwing her to the curb again.
“What?” Zach’s fingers clenched. Agony forced a hiss between his teeth before he unclenched his gloved hand. It had been feeling so much better after the spell he’d almost forgotten about it. Now pain radiated once more from the center of his palm, almost stealing his breath.
“You heard me. She was trying to sleep in her damn car, Zach.” Gareth was trying his looming trick, the one that usually worked like a charm. “She’s injured too.”
Zach bit back the urge to rush to her side. “She’ll be fine.” He couldn’t allow himself to get too close to her, not now. Not ever.
Damn, this was going to suck big time.
“Zach. She’s the one, isn’t she?”
He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. Why had he let Gareth into the room? His brother had taken one look at him staring at the candles and begun to lay into him. He’d been in here for twenty minutes now. He wanted to know everything about Zach’s interactions with Jo, his stay at court and why Zach was locked in Chris’s workroom rather than tending to his injured mate.
And Zach’s wolf wasn’t helping. It agreed completely with Gareth. How had Zach missed the way his wolf responded to Jo? It had taken the spell to open his eyes, but there was nothing he could do about it. He knew Jo had no intention of allowing him close to her. The few times he’d caught her looking at him there’d been nothing but derision in those deep brown eyes.
“Zach.”
“What?” He was getting fed up with being badgered by his big brother.
“I don’t care what bug crawled up your ass and died. Your mate hurts.” Gareth grabbed him by the hand and yanked him out of his chair. “Go see to her.”
“She’s not my mate.”
Gareth’s eyebrows rose. “You think you can lie to me?”
Zach damn near growled. “Fuck off.”
“Maybe if you told me what your damage was I would! Why aren’t you upstairs taking care of her?”
“Because!” Because she wasn’t there of her own free will. Fuck, maybe he should be stilled.
The anger in Gareth’s face drained away to be replaced by that steely determination Zach had long since learned to be wary of. “I want answers, little brother. Either you give them to me, or I’ll find out on my own.”
Zach’s jaw clenched, but he knew it was no use. Gareth had him by the short hairs. Gareth wouldn’t stop until he had all of the pieces of the puzzle. It was just the way the man was built. “I couldn’t get Jo out of my head when I cast the spell.”
“And?” Gareth’s eyes went wide, his face paling. “You think you cast a love spell on her.”
Zach nodded. “That about sums it up.”
Gareth turned to the door, and Zach’s heart plummeted. This was it, the biggest fuck-up of them all, and now even Gareth was washing his hands of him.
Gareth locked the door. He turned back to Zach and settled in the chair across from his. “Tell me everything that was running through your head while you were casting. And I mean everything. If it is a love spell we might be able to fix it. If it’s not, you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that Jo is your mate. Got it?”
Zach sat there, stunned. “Gareth?”
Gareth’s hands cupped the back of Zach’s head, the gesture protective. “We’ll figure this out, I promise.”
“We need to tell Annabelle.”
Gareth immediately shook his head. “I don’t know what it is about your Jo, but Annabelle hates her. I really don’t give a flying fuck one way or the other, so I’m more likely to be objective.”
“You’re a wizard. You might not catch everything I put into the spell.”
“Huh. Good point.” Gareth let go of Zach and leaned back. “Do you trust Lana?”
“Hell yes.” For the first time since Jo had shown up on Chris’s front step Zach felt a flicker of hope. “But just you two.” He didn’t need Daniel’s brand of “help” just then, and Chris would just fret and drive him nuts.
“Done. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
Gareth returned with Lana so quickly Zach wondered if she’d been listening outside the door. “Hey, Zach, what’s up?”
Zach waited until Gareth once again locked the workroom door. “I think I cast a love spell on Jo.”
Lana blinked, but otherwise took it in stride. “That would be bad.”
“Yeah. I think so.”
She leaned against the workroom table, careful not to touch the remains of the spell. “Walk me through it.”
He tilted his head.
“What were you thinking, and more importantly, feeling while casting the spell?”
He blew out his breath. “I had a hard time getting Jo out of my head at first. She’s…” He shook his head, not certain he could adequately explain what he felt for the woman.
“Everything?”
His gaze darted to Gareth. He was surprised to see the longing, the envy in his older brother’s eyes. “Yeah.” He clenched his fists, wincing in pain before shaking out the right one. “When I finally managed it I started concentrating on what I could have, knowing Jo wasn’t it.”
“So what did you wish for?”
“Someone strong enough for my wolf. Someone who could help me help others.” He ignored the look Gareth and Lana shared and concentrated on the spell itself. “Someone who would understand that I’m not the best witch in the world, but who will accept me anyway.” Which, come to think of it, left Jo out of the running. Maybe, just maybe, he hadn’t screwed up after all. “Someone who believes in me. I didn’t care if she was human, witch, wizard or even warlock so long as she stood beside me. I hate clingy women, so she’d have to have her own interests and not feel threatened by mine. Curvy, brown hair, brown eyes.” He mentally ticked off his list. “I think that about covers it.”
“And you weren’t thinking of Jo at all during that part of the spell?”
He shook his head. He couldn’t remember whether or not she’d snuck into his thoughts. Hell, she was never far from them, so it was possible she had. “I don’t think so, but she was hard to put out of my head.”
“Does your description sound like Jo?”
Did it? Everything he’d described, except for her acceptance of him as a witch and a man, did sort of fit the other woman. “Crap. It kind of does.”
Gareth shifted. “You packed one hell of a punch into that spell.”
Zach felt his cheeks turning red. “Yeah, well. Sometimes it’s hard to control. It feels like I’m trying to ride a lightning bolt, trying to steer it toward where I want it to go.”
The other two exchanged another glance.
He reached into his pocket, fingered the amulet, his own personal worry stone. “Okay, that’s getting fucking old. Why the hell are you doing that?”
“Doing what?”
Gareth tried his best to look innocent, but Zach knew better. “You’re hiding something from me.”
Gareth opened his mouth to reply. “Ow! Don’t kick me.”
“Then don’t lie to me.”
Lana giggled. “You guys make me both glad and sad I was an only child.”
The brothers rolled their eyes.
“Fine. Have you ever read your own Registry entry?”
Zach frowned. What the fuck did that have to do with whether or not he’d cursed himself to a loveless, albeit short, existence? “No.”
“Maybe you should.”
“Fine.” He got up and went to Chris’s bookshelf. He pulled down The Registry of Witches, Wizards and Warlocks and laid it out on the side table.
It didn’t take him long to find his entry. Scanning it took considerably longer. “What the fuck is this?”
�
�I don’t know. I’ve never seen an entry like that before. It was like this the last time we looked you up, and I didn’t understand it then, either.”
He lifted his gaze from the book to stare at Gareth. “Really?”
Gareth nodded, looking more than worried. He looked almost frightened.
“Lana?”
She shrugged. “I have a feeling I know what it means, but that’s it. Just a feeling.”
He bit his lip. Lana’s instincts were pretty strong. “Tell me.”
She sighed. “You know how drawn you are to Hecate’s Wheel?”
“Yes,” he drawled. Something tickled the back of his brain. Something to do with the wheel, or the Goddess, he wasn’t certain. But he had the feeling he was going to hear an answer he’d been looking for his entire life.
“Have you ever heard of Hecate’s Own?”
His jaw dropped. “You’re fucking shitting me.” He started to laugh. Him? An Own? “When pigs fly.”
“You’d better start looking overhead for airborne pork then because I think I’m right.”
“Imagine what that would do to your car.” Gareth’s lips twitched. “And you thought birds were annoying.”
Zach ran his good hand across his face. “Not funny, jackass.” He threw his hands wide. “C’mon. Me? An Own?”
“You broke a hex designed to kill me that not even Grammy could handle.” Lana started ticking things off on her fingers. “You knew that Cole Godwin was going to cheat in that duel with Chris and prepared for it. You almost broke through a dueling ring’s shields to get to Chris, something no one has ever been able to do. Not even another Arbiter could have done that. And then you purified a soul-burning spell through me and grounded it, saving Chris’s life.” She shrugged. “The only people capable of that sort of magic are touched by the gods.” She poked him in the chest. “That would mean you, bub.”
He absently stroked the twisted amulet in his pocket, turning it in his fingers. “No fucking way.” And yet, something inside him settled down with a contented sigh, like it had been trying to tell him so all along, if only he’d been listening.
“Yes fucking way.” Lana patted his cheek. “You’re literally one of the strongest witches in the world. Get over it.”
“Then why can’t I do the simple stuff?” He started to pace the room, grateful Chris had designed it with his own pacing in mind. “I can’t even cast a simple illusion spell without screwing it up.”