Boxed Set: The Ink Series Volume 1-4

by Holly Hood

  “I want to help you. Show you that being capable of unexpected things isn’t all-bad. I want to teach you how to embrace it, because I can tell you’re special.” Hutch stood. He slipped a stone from his pocket and put it in my palm.

  I rubbed my fingers across it not sure why I was even holding it and what he was trying to show me.

  “What is it?” I asked confused.

  “A stone…nature.” He took it back and steadied it in his palm. “My brothers and I use everything around us to harness energy. If you open yourself up to nature you will be surprised at what you are capable of.”

  I didn’t understand. “I thought you said what I was, was dark and part of something evil?”

  “I did, but I never said you were dark or evil. They gave you power, Hope. You need to learn how to have control over what you’re capable of, or else it will control you.” Hutch sat down beside me. He rubbed the stone between his palms, and then he brought the stone to my cheek. I pulled back, surprised by the coolness of the stone. He rubbed it in his hands again and touched my hand.

  “Ow!” I exclaimed at the unexpected heat attacking my skin. He chuckled, laying the stone in his palm. He closed his eyes and slowly the stone hovered above us.

  “What would you do if you could? Let’s start with the stone.” He flicked his fingers bringing the stone to rest again in his palm.

  “I-I don’t know,” I stammered. I was never good with magic. Slade promised to teach me everything I needed to know. And that just never happened. I had the ability to do amazing things, but no way to know what to do with it.

  “Change its color, imagine the color, feel the color.” He pushed the stone in my palm acting as if it was simple. I brushed my hair off my shoulder determined to do something right for once, my fingers encircled the stone. I opened my hands smiling at the pretty shade of lavender staring back at me.

  “What a great choice,” Hutch said with a smile. He took the stone back. “Now I want you to tell me something, but with your mind not your words, Hope.”

  This was familiar to me. Like the moment in my bedroom when I was thinking about Slade all alone, and he heard me. I wondered if it was similar to that. And I wondered if Slade was capable of it why he didn’t do it all the time to communicate with me.

  I nodded, thinking something I never would have the guts to say aloud to Hutch. Knowing he was going to prove me wrong when he told me what I was thinking, but I didn’t care, I thought it anyways.

  Hutch studied me closely, concentrating hard, his expression stern. I waited, my insides fluttering with the exhilaration of what was to come. I concentrated on the words, the unspoken message I was trying to communicate to him. I saw the words dancing around in my mind like tiny butterflies, and then the corner of his mouth curved upwards a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

  He moved in, not tearing his eyes away from mine. “Are you sure you’re dying for me to kiss you?” he teased. I nodded, happy it worked.

  His hands tangled in my hair. He inched towards my lips, and I was so ready it was making me crazy. I touched his neck, lifting my head prepared for the kiss; it was the only thing on my mind. I could smell him. A fresh scent coupled with aftershave, and at last, his lips met mine.

  His tongue teasing me forward right into his arms, I wrapped my arms around his neck falling back on the couch. He followed. My insides blazed with desire. My body was running on pure adrenaline and liquor. I wanted him, and I didn’t care if I was drunk or foolish. I just wanted him.

  I didn’t want to think about my problems. At that moment, there were no problems, no dad to worry about, and no so-called boyfriend who ran around with other girls behind my back. It didn’t matter, all that mattered was the taste of Hutch’s lip and how his hands felt against my skin. And I liked it.

  Hutch backed off, his hands trailing down my spine. His fingertips teased my flesh. My body throbbed with desire for this guy. “I think you’re beautiful, and I swear this isn’t me trying to sweet talk you. The things you do to me, Hope.” He pushed my hair from my neck. I closed my eyes at the delicious feel of his lips on my skin.

  “You don’t have to say those things.” I kissed him. “I want you as much as you want me right now.” I panted, tugging at his hair, our lips colliding, our breathing, passionate and labored. My lips throbbed from the intensity of his kiss, and I wanted more.

  “I like the sound of that. Say it again for me,” he coaxed, slipping his hands beneath my shirt. I raised my hands freeing myself from my tank top.

  “You want me to tell you I want you?” I asked, letting him undress me. I pulled his shirt over his head, and he didn’t fight me. He let me free him from his shirt. I touched his muscular stomach, reveling in the smooth tan skin free of tattoos beneath my fingertips.

  Hutch pulled me close, winding a hand through the length of my hair. He tugged my head back planting a mind-numbing kiss on my lips. My body trembled. I felt like I was about to explode. He did things to me I never felt before. He liked control, and I was willing to give it to him just to be free, for the moment.

  He dropped back on the couch, helping me into his lap, his hands skimming the length of my body. I smiled as his fingers slipped between the denim of my shorts and my skin. He watched me with a satisfied grin on his face.

  “You’re such a beautiful girl.”

  I kissed him again, feeling nothing but excitement, this stunning creature enamored by me. By me, a simple brown-haired girl with so many problems on her shoulders and he didn’t care.

  I pulled his hands to my stomach, coaxing him to touch me. Dying to know how it felt to have his hands on the parts of me that were dying for his attention. He took hold of the string of my pink bikini pulling it free from my neck.

  I flushed scarlet, exposed and uncertain if I was all he was hoping I was. His hands touched my breast, making them insignificant in his big grasp. Our eyes locked, and he tugged me to his chest.

  “Please tell me this is what you want to do, because I might go mad if I’ve got it all wrong,” he whispered against my jaw. His breath tickled my neck sending shivers down my spine.

  We kissed, breaking apart for a few useless seconds; his thumb brushed my lower lip. I grabbed his hand placing it on my bare chest.

  “Do you feel that?” I asked, referring to the pounding chaos taking place on the inside. Something that told me I wasn’t wrong, that I was feeling something other than disappointment or betrayal. I needed to feel it.

  Hutch nodded.

  “I want this. I want this so much,” I moaned against his mouth.

  “Promise?” he asked, pulling me against him, his hands in my hair. Everything was so intense. Even so, without warning my heart was saying STOP!

  A set of headlights illuminated the room shocking me into panic. I covered my chest frightened we were about to be caught in such an intense moment. Hutch lifted me from the couch into his arms heading for his bedroom. He kicked his door open not bothering to turn on a light. I stumbled toward his bed, but he yanked me back pushing me against the door. It shut, leaving us alone in his room. Free to do what we wanted.

  I pulled at his hair accepting his passionate kiss; he moved closer his hips holding me in place against the wall. He guided me and rubbed against me teasingly.

  “You still want this?” He said his voice tranquil and eager for the next step.

  What more could I want at that moment. My body was dying for relief, so teased and turned on there was nothing I wanted more. However, I couldn’t get Slade out of my mind.

  I looked away. Hutch smoothed my hair. He lifted my chin. “Tell me what’s wrong, Doll.”

  “We shouldn’t be doing this.” I wasn’t the kind of girl who cheated on her boyfriend. Even if he wasn’t doing right by me, that meant I was just like my mother and didn’t want to be anything like her.

  I closed my eyes and let out a troubled sigh. Hutch pressed his lips against the top of my head. He squeezed my arm assuring me things were
okay and left the room returning with my clothes.

  “Thanks, and I am sorry.” I secured my top on. “I wasn’t trying to lead you on. I think I am confused. It’s just not the right time to be making this kind of decision.”

  Hutch nodded a small smile on his lips. “Slade’s a lucky guy. You’re an amazing girl.”

  A choice

  It didn’t matter that I turned Hutch down. I was still drunk, and I couldn’t go home.

  Hutch offered me his bed. I climbed in knowing things were not going to go anywhere, and that it was nothing more than a harmless sleep over now. It just felt good to be near someone who enjoyed being around me.

  I turned on my side lifting his arm and slipped beneath it. I was exhausted. And I quickly fell asleep to the sound of his breathing and his heart pounding against my back, holding tight to his arm.

  Morning came too soon. I raised my head looking around the room for something to jar my memory. I knew I wasn’t home. I knew I was with Hutch, but it didn’t hit me just how awful I was about to feel.

  I threw off the covers, staring at the empty spot beside me. I raked a hand through my tangled hair and gasped at the sight of myself in the mirror across from his bed.

  “Morning,” Hutch said, coming in the room wearing nothing but basketball shorts and a smile. He handed over a box of doughnuts, all glazed with white icing and sprinkles. He leaned against the doorway, his shorts hanging off him in that sexy way that always drove me wild in magazines. He toyed with his hair, the untidy look making him even more attractive.

  “Brought you some fattening food to settle the hangover,” Hutch said.

  I opened the box and snagged a doughnut. “Thank you.” I sighed. Was I really about to yell at him for the marks on my neck?

  The problem was now there was proof of our encounter, and I wasn’t sure how I would hide it or if I even wanted to.

  I took a bite out of the doughnut. “What time is it?”

  Hutch smirked, “almost ten.”

  I looked around his room, bare walls, and a couple of suitcases in the corner. A laptop sat on a rather simple desk, there wasn’t a single photo or personal effect on his wall.

  “Your room is so bare. Don’t you have any pictures or sports memorabilia to hang up?”

  Hutch took a seat. “I like to travel light. All my worldly possessions are back home in my real house.” He smoothed a lock of hair behind my ear. I stuffed another bite of a doughnut in my mouth.

  “So you have a home?” I dropped the rest of the doughnut in the box a little queasy. “What’s it like?”

  Hutch’s eyes brightened at the mention of it. “Lovely, doll.”

  “Why do you do that?” I said, fighting against the butterflies.

  He stroked another strand of hair behind my ear again; his fingertip's grazing my cheekbone. “Do what? Call you doll?”

  I nodded feeling a bit bashful.

  “It’s a term of endearment.” He leaned in, catching me off guard. He planted a kiss on my forehead.

  “If you would like to take a shower before you go you’re more than welcome,” he smiled and left the room. My heart pounded in my chest. My stomach dropped, what was I doing?

  I was lying in another guy’s bed, enjoying myself and his affection. He was so sweet and polite, downright charming.

  I looked in the mirror, and rough.

  I drifted off into a daydream of what it would have been like if we slept together, scolding myself for even thinking about it.

  I hurried to shower and make it home with a good excuse about why I was missing all night. I suddenly realized the choice I made was a bad one even if it felt pleasurable, even if I didn’t sleep with him. I made a mistake; all because I was so confused about Slade and what to do.

  I lathered my hair with the only shampoo in the shower and started to cry. I felt horrible in every way imaginable for liking Hutch. Even so, I knew that I did, I could feel the connection. I could feel the desire to be around him, the sadness that soon I would have to leave and figure out a way to hide what we did to the world. Nobody else would understand or see what I saw. They wouldn’t feel how I felt.

  Hutch understood me. He also wanted to help me learn how to be a witch—a good one, not an evil one like Audrey.

  I moved through the hallway afraid to run into his brothers, but at the end of the hallway. I realized it was just Hutch and I. He looked up from the television and smiled.

  “Feel better,” he asked. I sat down beside him on the love seat.

  “A little.” I looked away. “You said you wanted to help me. Do you still want to help me?”

  He searched my eyes confused by my uncertainty. “Of course I want to help you. I thought we settled it last night.”

  “What do you mean settled?”

  Hutch cracked a smile. “Have you forgotten that fast?” he lifted my hand kissing my knuckles.

  The almost sex that occurred last night, I didn’t forget, but I didn’t know what that mattered. “We almost made a really big mistake. And you gave me this reminder.” I pointed to my neck where the reddish mark rested for the world to see.

  “I can be a handful sometimes when I like what I’m doing, and I like you,” he smirked; I slapped him on the shoulder. “I thought last night we both were under the same understanding that you wanted my help. That you wanted to steer clear of the dark side.”

  “Hutch, please don’t tell me that.” I looked out the window. It made things so much different.

  He sighed. “Don’t think of it as anything more than I think you’re a great girl. We barely know each other right?” He shrugged it off, making me feel more at ease.

  I twirled a strand of wet hair around my finger thinking about our conversation. About what I wanted, I didn’t want to have anything to do with the dark side. “I want no part of anything evil. But, I also care about them.” I didn’t finish my sentence.

  “Your boyfriend and the other one’s he hangs around with?”

  I nodded. “Slade and his family are good people. Audrey is evil, and I am afraid of what she might do to them.”

  “You can only look after yourself. And asking them to break away from what they are will never happen, Doll. Slade and his family are indebted to these witches right?” Hutch stroked a hand against his chin.

  “Yes.” Was all I said.

  “That’s a bond made by the coven. Your bond is to Slade,” Hutch explained. “Slade holds the link to you even though the supernatural is from somewhere dark.”

  My head was foggy and nothing Hutch was explaining made sense. “So what are you trying to tell me?” Did it mean I was screwed, or maybe I wasn’t but Slade and the rest of them were?

  “I’m saying I can help you. I can connect you to me if you want to break away from the coven.” This was all hokey. The very things I never believed existed until recently.

  “How? A spell?”

  Hutch nodded. “There’s a store up the boardwalk, we can get what we need to start the process. And then we will see what we can do about your friends. However, I am not promising anything. If they refuse there’s nothing we can do.”

  I nodded. I understood, but that didn’t mean I was satisfied with the answer. Or what it even meant to connect myself to another witch when Audrey warned me to steer clear of this sort of thing, of disobeying the coven.

  I looked at Hutch. “Let’s go.”

  Magic and Mayhem

  I stood in the sordid looking shop at the end of Hutch’s neighborhood. I wondered what I got myself into. I crossed my arms not moving from my spot at the front door. The dusty windows barely let sunlight shine through and made it drearier than it already was.

  “Are you sure about this place?” I asked Hutch as he looked past the wooden counter at the array of herbs, and concoctions bottled and on display. The jars were neatly lined on one long shelf after another covering the entire back wall.

  “I swear it. Anything you want to do there is something here to hel
p you.” He waited, while I counted to thirty and if someone didn’t appear soon I was out of there. I had been through a previous incident with places of the sorts, and I wasn’t about to have another one.

  The beaded curtains rattled and shook and out came a red-haired woman, her long skirt swaying in the breeze as she came to the counter.

  “Hutch so nice to see you again,” she said, a small smile on her face, the creases in her forehead proved she was old. I just wasn’t sure how old. She looked past Hutch to me, pushing a strand of fiery red hair from her shoulder, her silver bracelets chiming against her tan arm.

  Hutch turned toward me. “This is Hope.” He motioned me forward. I reluctantly moved beside Hutch at the counter.

  “Jane,” she didn’t offer a smile.

  Hutch ignored the awkwardness between the two of us and brought the matter at hand to the surface.

  “I need some things for a binding spell and for a connection spell.”

  Her eyes grew large. “What is it your trying to unite, Hutch?” Her gaze dropped to my tattoo. I covered it with my hand feeling judged and unwelcome.

  “I’m not getting into the details. But yes, it seems foolish I’m sure.”

  “More than foolish, I can sense the darkness just looking at her. You don’t want to mess with that connection.” She turned her back on us.

  My mouth was dry. I looked at Hutch. “What is she saying?”

  Hutch sighed. “She’s afraid of what you are and what is connected to you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just like the rest of Cherry. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He’s not like them.” I wasn’t about to battle this weird woman over Slade and whether or not he was some lost soul.

  She turned back around dropping a rope, and some sort of sage on the counter pushing it toward me. She acted like I was covered in germs, and I was growing rather sick of it.

  “What good is a rope?” I lifted it off the counter.