by Sarah Makela
Chapter Two
Mia
Nolan hadn’t answered his phone when I’d tried him. Tapping my foot to the upbeat Christmas music playing in the airport bookstore nearby, I waited, rather impatiently, for Ethan to come out of the airport’s arrivals area.
My rather inconsiderate older brother, Nolan, had dumped this errand on me at the last minute, heedless of my own schedule. I’d done a lot of job hunting today, and I still had my date with Greg to get ready for.
Should I ask why Greg had rescheduled the date? What had come up at the office? Maybe I didn’t want to know.
I’d begrudgingly let Nolan off the hook for two reasons. One, Ethan was my childhood crush, whom I hadn’t seen for a long time due to his deployment. The last time had been shortly before he’d gone away. I’d come home to find him at my parents’ house, having lunch with them and Nolan. The image of him sitting there, his gaze raking over me, while his olive green t-shirt stretched thin over his muscular chest and arms, was almost too much to bear.
I chewed my lower lip, remembering the cold shower I’d taken immediately upon going to my room. Maybe picking him up at the airport wasn’t such a good idea.
However, that led to the second reason. If I didn’t pick him up, he’d have to take a taxi, and I wouldn’t be responsible for his holidays starting off crappily. He had more to deal with than my raging hormones. Unfortunately, aside from that one look, he remained oblivious to my existence.
The explanation of how my entire childhood had been.
I balled my hands into fists. Magic rose from within me, stinging my palms. If I didn’t cool my jets, I could be exposed for having abilities to those around me. What would be even worse than having humans recognize my powers, would be if another magically inclined person did. I preferred to keep my abilities as much a secret as possible.
The bookstore now switched to a more sensual Christmas song: Santa Baby, with its sultry lyrics. I checked the time on my cell phone. Grrr.... He should’ve been out by now. How much longer did I have to wait?
The idea of making my escape before it was too late taunted me. While I was a morally responsible, good girl, who would feel bad about him taking a taxi, I wouldn’t be that torn up over it.
When I looked back at the security exit, Ethan was slowly making his way toward me. Confusion knit his brows together. My heart skipped a beat, and I wrestled for control with my familiar attraction for him. He’d changed, even in the nearly twelve months since he’d been overseas, or maybe it was just my imagination. Broad muscular shoulders filled out his Army uniform, and he was taller than I remembered.
“What are you doing here?” He gripped the strap of his backpack a little tighter. His gaze drifted around us, as if expecting someone else to come running up any time now.
Disappointment ached in my chest, and I lowered my gaze. Who knew what other looks he’d give to make me that much more self-conscious about my unwanted presence.
Maybe I’d expected more. Thanks for being here, Mia. You look great. Something more than what I got. Perhaps I needed to get past my naïveté when it came to him. He couldn’t care less about me. Maybe he had some girlfriend who was busy, so he’d asked Nolan to pick him up, who had delegated the job to me. But I’d never heard of Ethan being in a relationship, and my parents were always talking about him. “I’m your ride. Nolan couldn’t make it.” I turned away from him, rolling my eyes, as I added, “His boss wouldn’t let him off from work, so he asked me.”
Behind me, Ethan sighed. “I don’t know why I expected more from him.”
I bit my lower lip, fully able to commiserate with him on that, yet all the while waiting for some kind of thank you...but still it didn’t happen.
Whatever. Next time I should screen my calls from Nolan better. If only I hadn’t been waiting for a phone call from Greg and had picked up without looking, I wouldn’t be in this mess right now. I’d be home.
The silent walk to the parking garage unnerved me. It made me wish I were the type of witch who used potions on unsuspecting people named Ethan. At this point, that love potion might be interesting, if only for the sadistic pleasure of seeing him actually interact with me, instead of keeping such a distance from me that most people might think we weren’t together but just walking in the same direction. But I wouldn’t do that. At least I did have someone else interested in me. Was I thrilled about my relationship as much Greg was? No. But I didn’t have it in my heart to break his before Christmas.
I focused so much on my thoughts that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Mistake number one. However, something really was not right. Perhaps I was overreacting. That had to be it. Why would anyone come after me at the airport? Lunacy. I hadn’t done anything to anyone. However, I opened my third eye, letting my senses drift over my surroundings to pinpoint the disturbance.
The steady tap of Ethan’s boots beside me was the only sound I heard, but—there! The energy in the open garage spiked. That was it. I twisted toward the source to see who was there, but the next thing I knew, I was sailing through the air. My body smacked against the side of a car. Pain exploded in the back of my head, and I crumpled to the ground beside the vehicle, lying on the concrete. Breathing had just become a lot harder.
Groaning, I focused on pulling air into my lungs. A sharp ache clenched the muscles of my back, and a small part of me wondered if something was broken, though if that were true, I wouldn’t be able to feel my legs. Right? At least that’s what I told myself.
Ethan rushed to my side, dropping his backpack next to me as he scanned the parking garage. “Mia, are you okay?” His gaze rested on me, concern wrinkling the corners of his eyes.
The jury was still out on that, but I wouldn’t shrivel under his attention. “Just sore. Be careful. He is still here.”
“Who is? Do you know what’s going on? Tell me.” The commanding tone of his voice nearly made me spill my guts—which wasn’t much—but no, I wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t know about the supernatural side of my life. That would only complicate things for both him and me.
If he knew I was a real witch, I’d never be able to face him or my family again. My brother only thought I was one of those Wiccans, who were into the lifestyle so they could run around in hooded cloaks through the forest.
Disregarding his questions, I climbed to my feet and chanted under my breath, priming my magic to stop the next attack. If I could….I hadn’t seen my attacker. I probably knew as much about what was going on as Ethan did.
“You shouldn’t be getting up.” He grabbed my arm, but I shook him off, needing my full concentration on the spell.
Behind me, the barest of noises had me spinning around. I tossed a fireball from my palm that smashed into the chest of a huge grey wolf. He flew off course, leaping over my head and slamming into Ethan.
“No! Ethan!” I swung around to face them. This was so much worse than I’d imagined.
Werewolves were powerful, horrible creatures. So violent. So dangerous.... And weren’t they supposed to be the thing of fiction and movies?
Ethan shouted in pain. The wolf blocked my vision of him. I shot a second, rather miniscule fireball at the wolf, hitting it in the backside. The mangy mutt whirled on me with its upper lip curled back, showing sharp pointed teeth. My spells were doing nothing.
This was what I got for allowing my magic to get so far out of use. Then again, when did I really have a chance to go casting fireballs in my home? The last thing I needed was to burn the place down.
Geez...I was damned if I did, damned if I didn’t.
The places where I’d hit the werewolf with the fire spells only created small charred spots in its fur and left behind the faint scent of burnt hair. Then again, my concentration was shit at the moment. If I didn’t pull myself together soon, I’d curse both Ethan and me to our deaths. Not something I wanted on my head.
I whispered a protection incantation under my breath, desperately trying to work up its strength. The
more I tried, the more my tongue tripped over the words.
The werewolf sprang toward me and I dodged out of the way, channeling my inner bullfighter. I upped my energy, shutting out all distractions, and focused on growing the spell, even though I needed to know if Ethan was okay. Fire stung my palms and hot wind blew my hair into my face. Fire shielded my hands like boxing gloves and I screamed in agony.
The werewolf skidded to a stop a few yards from me, then hurled itself on top of me at the very last minute, trying to catch me off guard.
I threw my last ounce of strength into the fire and punched it with my burning fists. The werewolf slammed me to the ground, knocking my head against the cement. I only hoped Ethan would make it out of this alive, since I didn’t have high hopes for myself.
The furry beast reared back its head and snarled, baring its long, sharp and deadly fangs. It lunged for my throat, but before I could let out more than a whimper, a heavy combat boot swung past my face and into the beast’s muzzle. The wolf flew off me.
Surprise hit me in the chest and I wondered what had happened. The combat boot in question rested near my shoulder, and I drew my gaze up the powerful leg to Ethan’s concerned face.
Ethan.
Blood dripped down his torso, and my eyes widened. No, no, no.... This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be drawn into all of this. If I got him back to my home, I might be able to put the healing salve on his wound and maybe stop him from going down the path fate had pushed him towards. If he became a werewolf, his future would irrevocably be changed. He’d be lost to me. I couldn’t allow that, because while he didn’t share my feelings, he was almost family.
“We need to get out of here, Mia. Are you okay?” He grabbed me by the arms and hauled me to my feet. Our eyes met and he stared into my gaze with a no nonsense look. “I want answers.”
The growling werewolf held his ground. So while Ethan wanted answers, they’d have to wait.
Children laughed near the elevators. For whatever reason, the werewolf took off, running in the opposite direction. Within seconds, it was gone.
My knees shook, and I nearly lost my balance; only Ethan’s grip kept me standing. Fear eased from my chest, but now I knew that a werewolf was after me. At least, it appeared to be that way. It’d only lunged at Ethan because I’d thrown it off its trajectory. What could I have possibly done to deserve this?
How far would they go to get to me? Would I be able to keep my friends and family safe? Nausea roiled in my stomach, and I tore away from Ethan and ran between a couple cars to vomit in privacy.
The less I was around my family, the less chance I’d give the werewolves to spot my family and friends. If they didn’t know where they were, they couldn’t kill them. I didn’t know what to do with this mess.
“You don’t seem fine. Let’s get out of here. We shouldn’t go to your parents, in case it follows us.” I walked back to Ethan on wobbly legs, and he closed the distance between us and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Let’s get you to the car.”
By the time we reached the car, my strength had returned. I needed to get us back to my place, but he had a point...what if the werewolf followed us to wherever we went? Where could we go that would be safe?
“I’ll drive. Don’t worry. I know a place we can go. Now tell me, what that was and why did it attack you?” he asked, leaning in to the car and buckling my seatbelt, even though I was perfectly capable of doing it myself.
I frowned at him. Minutes ago, when I’d been there to greet him, he’d barely said two words to me, none of which had shown too much thought or care. Now I was being overloaded with questions, and he was doing attentive things like fastening my seatbelt for me.
“Don’t give me that look.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’ve known you a long time. I won’t sit back and pretend everything’s okay. If I’m going to help you out of whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into, then you need to talk to me.” He stood there, his face inches from mine, his hand still on the buckle of my seatbelt that was so close to my hip. His lips were near enough that I only had to move forward for our mouths to touch.
I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But this was the worst time to do anything like that...right? He was pissed, and I didn’t want to feel even worse than I already did about this situation.
“Please, Ethan. I’ll tell you on the way. Let’s just leave.” I shivered, not exactly from the cold either. Although as it was a December evening, it wasn’t sunny and bright outside, and we had been in the open parking garage for a while now.
Besides, the pain in my body was growing worse, and if I didn’t use some of the healing salve, I’d be feeling a whole helluva lot worse tomorrow. I would have to cancel my job interview. An interview that’d likely prove as fruitless as all the rest I’d been on recently. If I’d known getting a job after college would be this tough.... Ugh.
“Damn. You’re right.” He pulled back, his hand brushing my thigh. The second it did, he froze. His gaze met mine, and a spark of something I couldn’t place burned in his eyes. “Sorry.” Just like that, the moment was gone, and I wasn’t sure what I’d seen.