Charmed Souls 5q333n

Published by Abbi Glines Copyright @2019 by Abbi Glines [email protected]

Cover Artist Hang Le Editor My Brother’s Editor Interior Design The Illustrated Author Design Services

All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States by Abbi Glines. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE ONE: THE EVIL TWO: THE ROOMMATE THREE: THE FAMILY FOUR: THE OTHER SISTER FIVE: THE BREAKFAST SIX: THE COUSIN SEVEN: THE WEDDING EIGHT: THE PROSECCO NINE: THE STRANGER TEN: THE SERIOUS SHIT ELEVEN: THE CIGARETTE TWELVE: THE BUDDY THIRTEEN: THE BAR

FOURTEEN: THE PHONE CALL FIFTEEN: THE WINE SIXTEEN: THE KISS SEVENTEEN: THE DISOWNING EIGHTEEN: THE CHAT NINETEEN: THE HERO TWENTY: THE INTERVIEW TWENTY-ONE: THE NIRVANA TWENTY-TWO: THE ABOMINATION TWENTY-THREE: THE CLOSURE CURSED SOULS ABOUT ABBI ABBI'S LINKS

To Natasha Tomic, who spent her holidays helping me polish this story. Even though we live on opposite sides of the globe, she is the truest of friends.

Acknowledgments

Although an author’s name is on the front of a book, it takes so much more than the author for a book to be written. To even write the first word, an author needs a system around them. I am thankful for mine. My family understands the hours I am locked away from them, the text messages I must ignore for hours, and the many nights of takeout while I write a book. Britt keeps me sane, he listens to my ideas and helps me flesh them out, he cleans up my messy kitchen even when he’s been working all day himself. If I listed all the man does this would become a Britt acknowledgment page.

Beta readers who took the time to read my story and give me - Danielle Lagasse and Natasha Tomic – y’all saved my ass on this book. Thank you both from the bottom of my heart.

My editors who cleaned me up (and that can be a feat at times) Thank y’all so much!

Becky Barney at Fairest Reviews Proofreading Services

and Ellie at My Brother’s Editor

My formatter who I am so thankful for- Melissa Stevens

The Next Step PR who handles ALL MY SHIT. Seriously. ALL OF IT. Kiki

Chatfield along with the help of Colleen Oppenheim and Kristina Snyder keep me straight. I can honestly say without them this book would not be releasing anytime soon. Or ever. Thank y’all so much for all you do for me!

My beautiful book cover! I am in love with this book cover and working with Hang Le is always a pleasure. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for the next book in this trilogy.

Abbi’s Army for being a place that I can go for , encouragement, and laughs. Thank you all for being not only readers but friends. I love y’all.

I must mention these as well because without them either I wouldn’t have finished this book or my family would have left me: Amazon Prime for saving my ass on Christmas shopping this year, Waitr app for keeping my family fed, Disney + for keeping my three-year-old entertained, and Instacart for delivering my groceries.

Last but not least- Ava Glines for learning to load a dishwasher- FINALLY!

Preface

The stalker shifted his eyes back to me. “There’s that shit I like to see. You’re nothing like the damn Kamlocks. Pansy ass bunch of witches,” he said, then walked around the car watching us both. I didn’t want him getting near Rathe. “Don’t come any closer,” I warned him. He paused and tilted his head as if he was curious. If he thought I wasn’t going to fight back because I was obviously hiding my magic from Rathe, he was wrong. At this point, Rathe had seen and heard too much anyway. I didn’t know how much lying I could do to get out of this one. He didn’t come closer. He stayed where he was and I knew it wasn’t because he was scared of me. His gaze was determined. Rathe’s hand slid around my waist, and he placed his palm flat on my stomach. It was a sign of possession rather than protection. He needed to get back in the car and the only way I could get him in there was by casting a spell. I didn’t want to do that. He’d know just what I was if I did. “This is a quandary, is it not?” he asked, as he took in Rathe’s hand on me, then lifted his eyes to meet my steady gaze. I wasn’t taking my eyes off him for a second. “Maybe ime is a better description,” he said then and shrugged. “It’s a you-better-give-me-back-my-friend-right-fucking-now situation. That’s what it is.” I glared at him. Rathe was staying silent, which I found odd, but I was thankful. Maybe he sensed this man was dangerous and to him only. Whatever reason, it gave me one less thing to deal with. Rathe’s fingers curled slightly, as if he was trying to grab me, then they straightened back out. Was he trying to tell me something? If he was planning some attack, he would die. I had no choice. I had to keep him safe. The fact that he would know and he would leave me after this was the lesser of the two evils. I would not let Rathe die trying to protect me from the crazed warlock.

I placed my hands on top of the one Rathe had on my stomach. This was all I could do. “Tutum intus,” I said with force. That should have sent Rathe to the car and sealed the doors. It didn’t. The warlock was chuckling and Rathe’s fingers curled into me again as my hands fell away from his. How was the warlock doing this? He was blocking every spell I cast. “What do you want with me?” I asked him angrily. I had never felt so powerless. Fear for Rathe was mounting. He wasn’t safe, and now, I wasn’t sure I could do anything to protect him. I had been so worried about him being in danger from me, never once thinking someone like this would be an ever bigger concern. And this was a danger I’d walked him straight into.

One the evil

The overpowering scent of rosemary at table seven couldn’t be coming from the food they’d ordered. I would have noticed Jacque’s heavy-handed seasoning when I delivered their plates. The garlic and lemon in their choice of entrée was expected but not the Rosemary that was wafting from them. It wasn’t that I didn’t like rosemary. I enjoyed it just fine, but the odd strength of the herb’s scent was intriguing me. Did the couple take a bath in the herb when I wasn’t looking? That idea made me grin. I had been working at Grandezzas for three years. It wasn’t just a job. This place was like family. I never dreaded coming to work. Instead, I looked forward to the escape from my house and those who lived there. Customers like these kept me entertained. Underneath the strands of lights that covered the ceiling, there was a peaceful feel to this place. The ambiance was one of the two reasons for its popularity. The most important reason was the food. Everything on the menu was delicious. “Can you take my last table? I need to go unlock my apartment for the new roommate.” Heath Brown and his twin sister, Margo, had been my best friends, or the closest thing I had to best friends, since we were seven years old. I glanced at Heath’s table of two older men and figured they’d be easy enough. “Sure,” I replied. “I didn’t know y’all had found a roommate to replace the psycho.” The psycho was how I described his ex-girlfriend. Because she deserved the title. She was legit insane. The things she’d done to Margo while living with them were ridiculous. Coming from someone who had grown up with the three insane females I’d been forced to endure, that was saying a lot. He smirked but had stopped correcting me when I labeled her as such. He knew she was crazy. “I met him through a mutual friend. I don’t have time to explain now. You can drill me for details later. I gotta go.”

Heath all but ran toward the kitchen to ditch his black signature Grandezzas apron. I turned to go check on my new additions when the female rosemary lover from table seven waved a hand at me. Her nails were long and black with glitter on the tips. I’d noticed them earlier, but now that she was wiggling them in the air at me, I ired how they sparkled as the lights danced off the glitter. I presented them both with my bright smile. As I approached the table, the scent got stronger. “We need to leave.” Her words were rushed and dramatic. I was even more curious now. Did she suddenly need to go tend her herb garden… or roll around in it, perhaps? “Did y’all enjoy your meal?” I asked, purposely stalling. It was obvious they had. Very little was left on their plates. It was rare for anyone to complain about their meal at Grandezzas. “It’s fine, Tabatha. Let’s order cappuccinos and look at the dessert menu. You said you wanted to try their crème brulèe,” the male rosemary lover said. Tabatha was having none of that though. She shook her head as her eyes grew wide and her bright green-colored s made them appear other worldly. I was guessing from their shocking effect that her natural color was a light green. “We must go. I feel it,” she said, putting her hands on the edge of the table to push back and stand quickly. “Hurry, pay her and let’s get out of here.” Working until close had just become entertaining. I was hoping he’d argue with her some more because I wanted to see what she’d do next. “Tab, honey, you are covered in thyme. We are fine. You said so,” he said this as he cut his eyes in my direction with a silent apologetic look. “ROSEMARY!” she spat out her correction and glared at him, before lifting her arm to point one of her shiny fingernails at the exit door. “It’s rosemary, and I am leaving. Pay her and come on.” There was a good chance Tabatha was tripping on something illegal. “Okay,” he replied with a sigh of defeat or frustration. “I wasn’t sure which herb you’d sprayed me with. Calm down.”

“You all should leave. The air is heavy with it,” she said loudly. “Tonight, the evil is thick.” After she announced that to everyone, she stalked out with her shoulders back and confidence clearly on display. Ah, not drugs after all. She was one of those. I should have figured it out sooner. “I’m sorry,” he told me as I handed him the bill. “No worries,” I replied with a smile. “This is Savannah.” That was all the reassurance I could give him. “She’s a witch or Wiccan,” he explained, as if those two things were one and the same. “She owns the Magic Apothecary in town,” he added, as if this made it any better. He had to know how absurd his explanation sounded. It did, however, explain the rosemary. I kept my smile in place as he pulled out cash and handed it to me. “Keep the change.” “Thank you,” should have been my only response. The next words to come out of my mouth would be ignored, but I would say them anyway. “Knowledge of herbs doesn’t make her a witch. Be careful, both of you. It takes more than rosemary.” I spun and walked away then. I knew from past experiences that warning those who danced too close to the darkness they craved but were no part of it, did no good. They were always offended by the truth. They wanted to be magical, and when someone told them they couldn’t just choose to be charmed, the Wiccans got defensive. I needed to check on the new table Heath had handed off to me, but first, I was going to the back to wait for the rosemary guy to leave. He’d most likely try to defend his girlfriend or think I was some religious zealot who was trying to save her soul. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him anymore. I’d said all I was going to say. “The crazy is all over this town. Gotta love October in Savannah,” I heard a customer say to his date. Her laughter followed. It was easy to find this amusing. I wanted to laugh it off too. Pretend it was all fun and games. Let them be “witches” and have their meetings in the woods, wear their dark clothing, and sell “spells” from their storefronts.

Once, I had ignored it and not wanted to warn them. I hadn’t known of the harm it could cause. I hadn’t known of the dark, cursed souls who found their own amusement in women like that one. I knew now that if they got too close, found out too much, realized there were souls among them with more power than their herbs could create, then in a blink of an eye, their life would be lost. I inhaled deeply, pushing back the memory of the pale, lifeless face of a teenage boy who had gotten too close. Found out too much. His obsession with my sister had led to stalking, to seeing more than he should, and my mother had made sure he never saw another thing. Childhood memories for me weren’t happy and inviting; they were dark and twisted. I couldn’t dwell on them for too long and still lead a normal life. I went to help the two men at Heath’s former table. They were out of town businessmen who had been entertained by Tabatha’s theatrics. I’d heard their conversation as I approached them. Both wanted one more shot of Scotch neat and their bill. I handled their request, I laughed at their jokes, and I was left with a nice crisp one-hundred-dollar tip. Tucking it away, I knew my conscience wouldn’t allow me to not split it with Heath. Tonight’s weirdness was a part of the downtown Savannah feel, and the other patrons had been right. In October, the oddity surrounding this town was worse. Tabatha may not have been a witch, but I had no doubt she knew her herbs and could use them to their full power. I was sure anyone who studied the benefits of herbs could do the same. I was a firm believer in essential oils. The peppermint could fix all kinds of ailments. It was basically the same idea as the herbs. “You covering for Heath?” Ben, one of the other servers, asked as he took off his apron. “Yep,” I replied. “The schedule said he had floors tonight. You doing those for him?” I nodded, even though Heath had failed to mention that it was his turn to clean the floors when he had been begging me to cover his table. Maybe I wouldn’t be sharing that tip after all. “I’d offer, but I’ve got a debate in two days that’s a large portion of my semester

average, and I’m not ready for it.” Most of the servers at Grandezzas were college students. There were several colleges around the area. I just wasn’t one of those college students. “I got this. Good luck,” I told him. “Thanks!” he replied, as he turned to leave after a brief pause like he wasn’t sure he should leave me. I went to get the keys that were kept under the host stand and locked the front door. The night was slowing down outside. The streets were less busy. I stayed there until I watched the lights from Ben’s car fade away. Jacque would still be in the back with the kitchen crew cleaning up. The owners, Mattia and Greta, would have left shortly after eight like they always did. For the most part, nights here were predictable. My job tonight was to wipe down the tables and restock condiments. I’d get that done then move on to the floors. I’d be the last to leave tonight. Jacque would fuss about that and he’d give Heath an earful about it later. It would take a lot of insisting to get Jacque to leave me here alone. His exhaustion from today and desire to get home to his dogs, Raven and Roxy, would be what finally caused him to leave me here. He would tell Mattia and Greta about this, though, because he’d feel guilty for going home. Mattia would then lecture Heath about being more responsible when handing off his future shifts. Mattia and Greta were like caring, older parents to all of us. The idea of a female closing alone at night would horrify them both. This wasn’t the first time I’d covered for someone else and been left on my own. Normally, we waited until Jacque left so he wouldn’t know I was going to be left alone. No server wanted to let down Mattia or Greta, but they were college students. They had a lot on their plate. I didn’t. I only had this job and I didn’t mind closing. Besides, there wasn’t a man or woman waiting in the shadows who could do anything to harm me. I was safer alone than with any man who stayed behind to walk me out to my car. I was the evil they all should fear.

Two The Roommate

“It’s about time you got here!” Margo was already slurring. She reached out to grab my arm and pull me inside the apartment with the gusto of a drunken college girl. “What took you so long?” she asked, then waved to the apartment full of people without waiting on my response. “These are friends. I don’t know all these friends, but some are Heath’s. Some are Rathe’s and some are mine and now they’re yours!” She added the last part as if she had handed me a grand prize. I didn’t like crowds of people. Sober Margo would I didn’t want these “friends,” and I didn’t want to be here. But I was dealing with drunk Margo tonight. I had been with Margo when she’d drank her first beer at a homecoming party when we were sixteen. This was what she became - bubbly, excited, and even more friendly than usual. I glanced around the packed apartment and saw what looked like a high school party but with slightly older people and a lot more beer. There were girls and guys flirting. A serious amount of public displays of affection. And, the typical game of beer pong was taking place on a long white folding table set up in the middle of the living room. This was not what I wanted to do on my night off from work, but my other option was going home, and I never wanted to do that until I had to. I should have gone to the dollar movie alone, which had been my plan until Margo texted three times and then called all within five minutes insistent that I come to their party. This was the first college party I had attended, and from the looks of it, this would be my last. I always felt out of place and awkward at these things. Margo took my purse and nodded toward her bedroom. “I’ll put this in there. Go get a drink!” She was way too enthusiastic about me drinking. I hated to burst her bubble, but I wasn’t drinking beer. I had never been desperate enough to drink beer. One taste was all I had ever needed to know I wasn’t touching that stuff again.

I watched Margo walk away with my purse, wishing I’d made up an excuse to leave. But I was here now and I’d try and make her happy by staying as long as I could mentally take it. Shifting my gaze back to the full apartment, I did a quick scan of the crowd again. More guys had facial hair now and the girls were more naked, but their actions were exactly the same as high school parties had been. The dollar movie theatre was playing Rocky Horror Picture Show this week. Why hadn’t I gone there? This was going to be annoying. I was going to be forced to talk to people, that I didn’t know, in a social setting. I wasn’t good at that. I was already annoyed and no one had even bothered me yet. I started to turn away from the scene to go find a drink that didn’t contain alcohol when my path was abruptly blocked by a guy. My senses first acknowledged that he smelled amazing. I was staring at his chest, which meant he was taller than me by several inches. Lifting my gaze, I took in his wide shoulders. Might as well get this over with, I sighed with the thought, then moved my gaze on up to meet his eyes- steel blue and intense. They were striking and made one just want to stand there and stare at them. No words needed to be said. Forcing myself to look away from his eyes, my gaze dropped to his mouth, and I realized then, he was smirking at me as if we had a secret. Since I’d never met him, I knew we had no secret between us; yet, his smirk stayed intact. I waited for him to say something. I always let the guy speak first. Get it over with. Then they’d move on. This one was either giving me time to be impressed with his appearance, or he was struggling not to laugh at my obvious reaction to him. “Excuse me,” I finally said, after an awkward moment of silence. “Can I get you a drink,” he asked, but it was more of a statement. His tone had sounded as if I had been standing here waiting on him to bring me a drink. His smirk wasn’t amusement at me but because he was arrogant. He knew he was … stunning. His eyes were unique, his skin a nice tan color, and his hair was dark, much like my own; however, it was just long enough to tuck behind his ears; yet, it was tousled in that just got out of bed look. I knew how that must drive girls’ crazy, making them wish it was their bed he had visited. Unfortunately for him, I was immune to beauty. I knew all too well how empty it could be. “No thank you,” I replied, trying not to let my annoyance at his confidence show.

It wasn’t that I was against self-assured guys. People should be comfortable in their own skin. It was just the guys who thought their appearance was enough. Outward beauty was never enough and nothing I desired. “I’ve not seen you around campus,” he said, unaffected by my obvious disinterest in his looks. “Delvaux is a large campus,” I replied. It was also founded by my father’s greatgreat-grandfather, and one I didn’t get to attend, but he didn’t need to know all that. He smirked again. He had to know he looked good doing it. It must be his go-to when reeling in the women. “It’s big, but you would stand out. If we had crossed paths, I’d have noticed.” Smooth, but he was wasting it on me. I was sure there were twenty females in here who would simper and melt. He needed to take this talent elsewhere. “Cat, you’re here and you’ve met Rathe.” Heath’s voice was a relief. The only guy I wanted to talk to in this place had come to my rescue. I glanced to my left to see Heath had come up beside me. The tight smile on his normally easy-going face intrigued me. He didn’t appear to like Mr. Romeo, and Heath liked everyone. “Cat,” the guy Heath had called Rathe repeated my name. The way his voice made the simple three letters sound sexy was impressive. He was talented in the art of luring females in. I’d give him that. He just needed to steer clear of me. I wasn’t a female he wanted to lure. He had no idea what he was attempting to do. Not that I’d fall for his charm, but he was still playing with fire. I could warn him that he was wasting his time, but that always made men want to try even harder. My repel charm would hit him soon enough. It always took a few minutes longer for the more determined ones to yield to it. “Not exactly,” I told Heath, wishing Rathe would walk away now. The tension in Heath was odd. Did he not invite this guy? Were they enemies? I couldn’t imagine Heath had an enemy. He was too nice for anyone to hate him. Even his crazy ex-girlfriends eventually liked him again. Heath nodded his head at the guy who he’d called Rathe. “This is our new roommate Rathe. Rathe, Cat is our closest friend.”

Wait, what? This was their new roommate? I was positive Heath didn’t like Rathe, but he was living with the guy? Had he not interviewed Rathe first? What had already happened to cause this negative energy between the two of them? Heath was too nice. He made the worst mistakes with females, and now, he’d moved a guy in who he didn’t seem to care for very much. I really hoped I didn’t have to clean this up for him like I had to do with the last girlfriend. I hated messing with fate. It was always a last resort. “Margo is around here somewhere,” Heath told me then. “I can help you find her,” he added, as he wrapped his hand around my upper arm. It was very possessive and unlike Heath. Was he planning on dragging me away to go find Margo? This entire situation was only getting more bizarre. “She took my purse when I got here. I’m sure she’ll be back in a moment,” I told him. His hand didn’t release my arm. I glanced down at it, wondering what he was going to do next. Heath wasn’t the aggressive sort. This was very out of character for him. The only explanation for this could have been Rathe’s presence. “Rathe! Come play with us,” a female called out from the living room. “We’re about to play beer pong. I told the others how you owned everyone at beer pong the other night at the Episolm party,” she added. “Better get to it, champ,” Heath urged, as if he couldn’t think of a better idea. The way he spoke to Rathe was like he did to everyone else. He seemed friendly, but his body language was another story. I turned my attention back to Rathe. Heath’s odd behavior had eased, but not completely since he was still holding onto me like a lost child he was going to lead to her parents. We were going to discuss that later. When we were alone. Rathe was studying me as if he was trying to figure me out. He hadn’t acknowledged the other girl at all. This alone made me curious. He should have lost interest in me by now. The repel charm was subtle, but it was strong. I’d had to cast it to make sure men always left me alone. My natural charm had to be combated with a supernatural one. It was the only way to save them from themselves. I studied him closely, trying to see if anything was changing in the way he was looking at me. I could feel he was uncomfortable with my scrutiny. I could read

that easily enough in his unusual eyes. Maybe the charm was finally doing its magic. With a shift of his feet, he stepped back. “I’ll see you around, Cat,” he said, then walked over toward the awaiting crowd. Even the way he walked commanded attention. He had a swagger that had every female in the room panting after him. Except me. I turned my head away immediately. I glanced back up at Heath and frowned as Rathe was taken in by the others. “Why are you holding my arm in a vise grip?” I asked, not so politely. He immediately dropped his hand. “Sorry,” he muttered, as his cheeks slightly flushed pink. “I didn’t realize I was,” he said, as if that was an excuse. “You acted weird around Rathe. That doesn’t bode well if he’s your roommate now.” This was my concern. If Heath thought he needed to guard me against Rathe, which was what it had looked like, then why would he let Rathe live in the same apartment as Margo? Had he found out things after Rathe moved in that he didn’t like? There was a protective spell around this apartment. One that alerted me if my friends were ever in danger; however, if Rathe was a problem, why was Heath letting him stay? His brows drew together in a frown. “I wasn’t trying to protect you from Rathe. He’s a nice guy. He’s just a player. I’ve watched him around girls, and he goes through one right after another. When he saw you,” Heath paused, then shrugged and looked over my right shoulder to break eye with me. “I knew he’d zone in on you was all. I wanted him to understand you weren’t another girl for him to use and throw away. Even though, I knew you wouldn’t be interested in him.” There had been times in high school where Heath had seemed oddly protective when guys got near me, but once I showed no interest, he eased up. He was equally protective of Margo, and it made me feel special that he had concern over me like he did his sister. I didn’t have a sibling bond with my sisters. Sure, we lived under the same roof, but they weren’t exactly the warm cozy kind of siblings. “Did you introduce her to Rathe?” Margo asked, with the slur in her voice getting worse. Had she drunk more since she’d gone off to put my purse away? “Yes,” Heath’s response was clipped, as if he didn’t want to talk about Rathe. If they were going to be roommates, then he needed to decide if he liked him or

not. The apartment lease was in Heath’s name. He could kick Rathe out. There was no reason for him to feel uncomfortable in his own place. “And he left her standing here? I was expecting him to chat her up,” Margo replied with a drunken giggle. Margo believed all men should want me. She wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t know the truth. My charm only worked on those who were attracted to me sexually. Margo wasn’t affected by the repel charm since she wasn’t attracted to other females. She saw the real me. I was born into a family whose greatest power was their outward beauty. It was disgusting. I had fought against it most of my life. I refused to cause the same destruction I had been forced to witness. My mother and my sisters were a poison I didn’t want to be. “He went to play beer pong with Chasity Arnold,” Heath said the girl’s name as if that explained it all. I had no idea who she was, but Margo did, and her nose scrunched up in distaste. “Eww,” she muttered. “Chasity is so made up and fake. Her hair, boobs, lashes, and makeup all come off, and she’s a troll.” “Be nice,” Heath warned her quickly, “and stop drinking beer. Go have some water. You’re slurring.” She glared at her brother. “It’s true. Jeffrey Moore said he’s seen her before she puts all that stuff on. Even her boobs are taped to make cleavage, and her bra is stuffed with silicone blobs.” “Cat, please shut her up,” Heath pleaded. Margo spun around to stalk away, then ed I was there and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Cat. He ruins all the fun.” I went with her, not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t have a choice. Heath was right; she needed to lower her voice and drink some water. He had his hands full with this place covered with people. They hadn’t thrown parties here before Rathe. I wondered if that was bothering Heath. Having all these people in his home around his things. I would hate it. Heath and I always got along because we agreed on most things. Everything but

the girls he dated. For the most part, we were similar. I knew without asking he would rather be watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show right now too. Margo was the one who always needed people around. Margo stopped after we had taken several steps away from Heath and let go of my hand to throw her arms around a tall red-headed guy with freckles and brown eyes. His amusement at Margo’s overzealous attack made me like him at first sight. “Chip! I didn’t see you come in!” she exclaimed. I was willing to bet she hadn’t seen half the people come in because she had been too busy drinking. “I’ve not been here long,” he replied, with an awkward smile while patting her on the back, unsure what to do with her overenthusiastic hugging. “Great party.” She leaned back and dropped her hold on him. “Thank you! It was past time we had one. Heath’s ball and chain kept us from having any fun around here,” she said that part with a frown. He nodded as if he understood, but I doubted he had any idea what she was talking about. Margo was blaming the ex-girlfriend on not having parties in the past. I disagreed. Heath wasn’t big on things like this. Chip moved his gaze to me and smiled. “I’m Chip Manasco.” He offered his hand out for me to shake. He wasn’t going to wait on Margo to introduce me, and he was right not to. I wasn’t sure if she ed I was behind her. “Cat,” I replied, not giving him my last name on purpose. My last name being the same name as the University he attended would be the start of questioning that led to the fact I was related to the founder. I’d made that mistake in the past. It drew unwanted attention. I worked hard to go unnoticed. “Nice to meet you, Cat.” He was very proper and didn’t appear to fit here either. Much like myself. “Cat is my bestie!” Margo told him and then threw her arm around my neck and hugged me tightly to her. I returned her hug and patted her back. Smiling at Chip, I rolled my eyes. Chip held his smile, and he reminded me of a professor instead of a student. His

round glasses added to the look. He just needed khakis and a button-down. I wondered why he had come to something like this. “She’s had a few drinks,” I told him. He chuckled and gave a nod. “Do you attend Delvaux?” he asked me then. Margo let go of me and shook her head with too much enthusiasm. “No. Don’t even get into that with her. Off limits,” she said, her eyes wide. “Oh,” was his response as he glanced at her then back to me. I could see he wasn’t sure if he should apologize or not. Margo had made it seem like he’d asked me what color panties I had on. “I know,” Margo said, raising her voice even more. “She’s stunning, isn’t she? But don’t flirt with her. She won’t like it. She’s not into dating guys!” Her loud voice had been meant to rise over the noise, but the timing was off. Everyone had just quieted. Turning my gaze back to the suddenly much quieter crowd that had now heard Margo’s loud announcement, I saw them all looking in our direction. Rathe was in the middle of it all with his hand suspended, holding a small red ball between his fingers. He’d been about to toss it into another cup of beer. His eyes met mine, and even from here, I could tell he was amused. I hated attention, and Margo had just placed me in the center of it. Fantastic, this night had actually gotten worse, and I hadn’t thought that was possible. With a sigh, I looked back to the guy standing in front of me. Chip’s eyes had widened at Margo’s announcement. Either it was because of Margo’s theatrical behavior or he hadn’t expected me not to be into guys. Although, that wasn’t true, everyone here would assume that it was after hearing Margo’s words. She hadn’t meant to say what the entire room had heard. She knew my sexual preference, or at least I thought she did. She was drunk and making little sense. If it weren’t dangerous, I think I’d enjoy dating. I chose to stay away from men to protect them. I was a Kamlock female, after all, and even though I was different from my sisters and mother, my soul was cursed like theirs. Heath was headed our way with a scowl on his face, and I began to make my escape plan to get out of here. Margo’s announcement would not only get me female attention but male attention as well. I was now a curiosity to those who

weren’t attracted to me and saw my real appearance. I could leave now and go watch that movie. “Margo, go get a bottle of water and drink it then get another one and drink it, dammit,” Heath barked at his sister then glanced at me to make sure I was okay before turning toward Chip. “Sorry, Margo’s drunk. Ignore her,” he apologized, but Chip didn’t appear to know how to respond. I didn’t either. This was just awkward. I gave Chip an apologetic smile. I bet he wanted to get out of here now, too. Heath turned back to me. “Come on,” he muttered and took my arm again. I thought about tugging it free when I realized he was walking us toward the door. My exit. Hooray! I just needed my purse. “My purse is in Margo’s room,” I told him, before we got too far away. “Don’t move,” he replied, then sprinted for her door and was back in less than a minute. I had kept my attention on him, instead of looking around to see who was watching me. Heath was back so soon I had no time to feel curious gazes leveled on me. He put my purse on my shoulder then placed a hand on my back on our way to the door. If he could shove me out of it to get me out quicker, I was beginning to think he would. That thought made me smile. When the door closed behind us, he took my arm to turn me around to face him. His expression was filled with concern. “Are you okay?” he asked, clearly upset. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” I assured him. He appeared more worked up about this than necessary. Margo was the only thing he needed to worry about. “Margo shouldn’t have said that.” He sounded angry again. “She’s drunk. It’s fine. No biggie.” I shrugged. I didn’t care if a bunch of strangers thought I wasn’t into guys. I had no problem with it. “That’s something for you to share. Not Margo.” He was saying this as if I needed to be reassured of it. I thought about his words a second and took in the concern in his eyes, and it slowly sunk in. Why he was so worked up… “Heath, do you think I’m into girls?” I asked, trying not to laugh. He was upset because he thought Margo had just tossed me out of the closet. His anger made

sense now. He didn’t respond right away. He was frowning at me and studying me closely. I let him think it through, saying nothing. Not laughing at him was hard and the smile that was pulling at my lips was difficult to hold back. It had been five years since I’d had my first and only boyfriend. I had been fifteen and thought it was special. Cody had said he loved me. I’d believed him. All that young love stuff was exciting. My oldest sister, Geneva, however, made sure I didn’t experience too much happiness, and it had ended almost as soon as it had begun. Cody was lucky that Geneva only wanted to hurt me. It could have all been so much worse for him. “You’ve only dated one guy and that was five years ago,” he said this as if it explained everything. “True, but I’ve not dated girls either during that time,” I reminded him. He did that eyebrow scrunch that I knew so well. “Heath, if I liked girls, I would hope that, by now, I would have managed to find a girlfriend. I’ve dated no one in five years. That doesn’t mean I don’t like guys.” He was still frowning when I patted his arm. “I like men. I’m just not meant for relationships.” My words seemed to open a new set of emotions in Heath as they exploded on his face. “Because of that asshole Cody?” he asked immediately. Of course, he’d his name. I thought Cody was forgotten by everyone in my life. “No, not really. Sure, he showed me what could happen.” I didn’t add “and what would happen,” although I was thinking it. “I’m different.” Was all I said instead. Heath’s frown faded, and he inhaled sharply then let out a short laugh. “Yeah, Cat, you’re definitely different.” The door to his apartment swung open then, interrupting anything else he was going to say.

Rathe’s tall body filled the doorway. He was now shirtless, and the sight was something to behold. I turned my eyes from him quickly, not wanting him to think I was checking him out. There was no reason for him to have taken his shirt off other than to get attention, and he already had it in spades. I wouldn’t give him more. “Margo’s locked herself in the bathroom and is banging on the door and can’t get out. Is there a key?” he asked. “Shit,” Heath muttered then looked at me. “Text me when you get home safely,” he said. I nodded. “Of course,” I assured him. He looked like he wanted to say more, but Margo’s yelling could be heard out here now. He groaned and turned to go inside to save his sister. I didn’t glance back toward the apartment. Rathe was still there, and although he was nice to look at, I didn’t need to allow myself that kind of pleasure. It opened doors to things I had to keep closed. I didn’t have to look back at him to know he was watching me leave, which made not looking back even more difficult.

Three The Family

“It’s my wedding day, bitch! Rise and shine.” The dreaded sound of my oldest sister, Geneva, interrupted my dreams; yet, I kept my eyes closed. One more second of peace before I had to wake and face a day full of celebration that truly should be heralded as if it were a funeral, rather than a wedding. Any man tricked into marrying one of my sisters was asking for a hell he had no idea existed. “There are things to do and we need your help, as much as that pains me,” she said the second part with disgust in her tone. It pained me much more, I was sure of it. Refusing to help made life here even more miserable. I kept telling myself that having Geneva gone would be better, but I knew she wasn’t really going to leave. She would just be ruining a man’s life, much like my mother had my father’s life, and I’d have to witness it. After the honeymoon was over, she would be here often. The pillow I had covered my head with was snatched away. I groaned, throwing my arm over my eyes to cover them from the light coming through the windows. She had opened the curtains to add to the annoyance. “What do you possibly need me for this early?” I grumbled. “You know what I need you for, so get up and stop being a lazy bitch,” she snarled back at me. My eyes had just been assaulted by the sunlight. The weather should make her happy. Why did she need me? The only thing she could need me for was to fix the weather. “I see sun.” I stated the obvious then squinted as I moved my arm from my face. “If you’d get your ass out of bed, you’d see it’s not going to last long. I need dry grass and sunshine. I want an outside wedding. It’s sunny now, but this is going away soon. Get up!”

“Can’t I just dry the ground later?” I asked. “No, you can’t just dry the fucking ground. The rain is coming in and staying. Besides, what would Miles’ family think if the only dry ground for miles was in our backyard? Think, you idiot!” Tossing back my covers, I sat up still squinting at the sunshine. She was right of course. Our backyard being the only dry ground would make no sense. “If you’ll leave me alone the rest of the day then I’ll do it,” I told her. She let out a short, hard laugh. “I’ll leave you alone, but momma won’t. Today is about me.” I wanted to fall back onto my bed and wish this all away, but I’d tried to get rid of my mother and sisters since I was five, and it hadn’t worked yet. I could push anyone else away, except the people I truly wanted to get away from- my family. The Kamlocks might be talented dark magic witches, but they were white trash gold diggers, and my mother was a Kamlock. Although, I refused to accept that name. My father had been a Delvaux and I would remain one. He was my only link to being good. To not becoming what my mother wanted me to become. “Did you get her up?” My middle sister came into the room and paused when she saw me sitting up. “Good morning, now go make sunshine,” she said with a giggle, as if she was making a joke. Leanne wasn’t the bitch my older sister was, but she wasn’t an angel either. Leanne was more of a meddler. If there was a pot to stir, she was stirring it. The worse the situation grew, the happier she seemed. “This isn’t my wedding, thank the earth, but I’ll go make sure you have dry grass then I’m leaving. I’m not staying here all day in this insanity,” I grumbled. “Aunt Marigold will be here soon,” Leanne told me, as if I cared that more Kamlock women would be arriving. All the Kamlocks would be arriving today. We didn’t do family time. My mother’s sister had only one good quality, her son. Duely was the only family member not cruel, selfish, and hateful. “Another reason to flee,” I muttered. My mother’s sister wasn’t as evil as my mother, but she was annoying. I didn’t want to hear her go on and on about my future and the story of the Kamlock sisters. I knew the story. I knew the past. The last set of Kamlock sisters to thrive lived two hundred years ago. The past three generations didn’t have a good track record, including my mother and her

sisters. The third sister hadn’t even made it to adulthood before being killed in a fire created by my mother. “Fine, leave. But fix this weather,” Geneva said, then tossed her long platinum hair over her left shoulder before walking out of my bedroom door as if she were a queen and I her servant. Rolling my eyes, I stood up, and Leanne was still there watching me. She squinted her green eyes at me. The color of them so bright and stunning, yet, not once did I wish that I’d gotten those eyes from my mother like my sisters had. I preferred the blue eyes that came from somewhere in my father’s line. His were brown, but with Kamlocks having green eyes only, mine must have come from the Delvauxs. I knew little about the Delvaux family. Only what I had been able to read in books and what my father had told me when I was little. The Delvaux family hated my mother. She was the trashy beauty who stole their son from them then took all he had. I didn’t blame them for that. They had no idea the extent of hate they should have toward her. She had done much more than take all my father’s inheritance at his death. I was sure she’d caused his death. My sisters had a different father- Zephyr. He was a powerful warlock who had visited briefly over the years and had never required they take his last name, although he didn’t use a surname. Both my sisters used the Kamlock name like it was something to be proud of. I was different. Not all of my blood was tainted with darkness. I had my father in me and I was thankful for that difference. I was also thankful he’d wanted his last name on my birth certificate. “You’re twenty now, Catalina. Refusing your birthright is just delaying it. Why keep it up?” Leanne placed a cigarette between her lips, knowing I didn’t allow smoking in my room. She snapped her fingers to light it up, and when nothing happened, she glared at me accusingly; yet, she didn’t attempt to light it again. “I’m not delaying it. I’m denying it.” I didn’t wait for her to say more or try and get me worked up. She was good at that, using her calm tone and sweet smile to say the exact things to piss you off. Her red hair reminded me how much of our mother was in her. She looked more like momma than Geneva or I did; she was just better at concealing her inner bitch. I walked out of my room and left her there to stew in her own pot of strife she

thrived on and headed for the doors leading onto the back terrace. I wasn’t going downstairs and walking out into the backyard until I was sure I needed to. Geneva could very well be overreacting about the weather. Opening the double doors located at the top of the stairs leading to the third floor, I walked out onto the terrace. Inhaling, I closed my eyes and tasted the rain that would come. Exhaling, my mood went even more sour. I hated when Geneva was right. It was going to rain later today. There was no doubt about that. Turning my head, I looked to the right and saw the house Heath and Margo had grown up in since they were seven. They’d moved next door after a tragedy that neither Margo nor Heath had shared with me. I knew there had once been three of them – triplets – and that they lost their sister Mary when they had been just six years old. Yet, not once had they shared that with me or told me how she was killed. But I knew. Their parents still lived there. They were much older parents. Although Margo and Heath never said anything about their parents age, kids had mistaken them for their grandparents at school functions when we were younger. I liked that about them though. They did feel like grandparents. Their mother always baked us cookies and spent time teaching us to mix the batter ourselves. During the holidays, I was always invited to in their festivities. They had a traditional Christmas tree covered in popcorn that we would string and handmade ornaments that Heath and Margo had made over the years. They were the only normal I got to experience. I would have thought their life was perfect if I hadn’t always known they lived as if Mary hadn’t existed. Not even a photo of her in their house. That was a dark place they all held inside. Their house wasn’t right next door, but they were our closest neighbors. With it being about two football fields away, they couldn’t see in our windows or make out our faces, but if I took a chance and leapt from this balcony to avoid facing my mother downstairs then I was sure they’d notice that. Margo and Heath’s parents would call the police and things would get a little too exciting around here. Sighing, I went back inside and closed the large ornate doors behind me. They were extravagant like the rest of the house. My father had given my mother exactly what she wanted. Which had been everything. This house had been in his family for two hundred years. He’d added on, made updates and done everything my mother asked of him. Then she’d let him die or caused him to die. His

private jet had gone down when he was in it without her, which was rare. For so long that had haunted me, but the older I got, I began to realize that the life he would have had with her if he’d lived would have been awful. She’d have never let him be free. His own desires would have been taken from him and replaced with hers. His world would have been pleasing her, and he would have never realized it. I had no proof she’d made his jet crash but I knew my mother. That was enough to make the possibility haunt me. Many nights I had laid in bed, wondering what it would have been like to have him here. To have his family visit us or to go visit them. It was all a fantasy, though, because my mother would have never allowed that. I knew from the hate his family had for my mother and their refusal to acknowledge me that she’d already alienated him from his family when he had died. As soon as my foot hit the bottom floor, I knew my mother was awake. I could smell her cigarette. That was her breakfast of choice. Geneva was going on about her future husband’s mother and how she was ready to be rid of her. I winced because I knew, without a doubt, she would indeed do exactly what my mother had done to my father. To avoid them, I turned right and walked toward the back of the house on the west side. My mother would know I was awake and what I was doing. There was little in this house she missed. I was relieved when she didn’t call my name or summon me to the kitchen. Opening the backdoor, just beyond the library that had been my dad’s but I wasn’t allowed to use, I stepped outside onto the warm green grass and let my bare feet soak in the soil beneath me as if we were one. I felt most at peace when I was touching the earth. I closed my eyes and walked into the garden that stood under the sun’s warmth, not needing to see to get there. I’d made my sanctuary here so many times in my life. I had a power here that neither my sisters nor my mother possessed. They didn’t bother me here. Because here, my power became stronger than any of theirs. Without me, they’d never know the strength of it, which made them crave the ed power of three even more. It wasn’t me they wanted, but what I could do. Standing in the stone circle I’d created as a child, before I even realized what it was meant for or what it would do, I held my arms up to the sky, tilted my head back until my face heated from the sun, and chanted the words that only I knew. The words that came to me alone.

The heat inside the core of the earth rose until my feet felt as if they were standing on coals yet the pain was beautiful not painful. I embraced the heat and the earth, and it was the only time in my life I felt as if I weren’t alone. Then I did what my sister had demanded I do. I controlled the rain, I controlled the sun, and I controlled the sky. Just like the prophecy had said upon my birth. Yet unlike any Kamlock witch or warlock before me. The warmth filled me until I lifted from the ground for only a few moments then lowered again until I was back on the grass that awaited me. Like always, I was drained but not completely. I wanted to go back to bed, but I wouldn’t. At least not here. I’d done what they needed from me, and there would be no rain. “Did you do it?” my mother’s voice asked, breaking my beautiful silence. I opened my eyes and turned around to see her standing several feet away outside my private garden, watching me with a diet soda in one hand and a long skinny cigarette in the other. She knew it was done. She just hated that I had this power and she never would. Her long red hair was pulled up on top of her head in a messy bun, and the silver nightgown that barely covered her bottom was all she was wearing. “Yes,” I said but didn’t leave the circle. “Geneva said you’re leaving for the day.” She sounded amused as if that was a joke. “Yes,” I replied. “You’re wasting time. For your sisters and yourself. This stubbornness is getting to be annoying as hell. When are you going to stop being a little shit and accept what you were born for?” She took a long drag from her cigarette and scowled at me. “I make my own decisions,” I said simply. Just because she’d had the three daughters like one in three Kamlock sisters do every generation didn’t mean she controlled me. “We’ll see about that,” she drawled then turned away from me and strolled back toward the house.

I wasn’t scared of many things but becoming my mother was at the top of that short list.

Four The Other Sister

Margo was hungover, but she still answered my call. My friends were few or just two. I could either call Margo or Heath. The older we had gotten, I’d drawn closer to Margo simply because she was a female. Heath had been around during my childhood, and like Margo, he didn’t know my family was a household of witches. He did know they were all complete bitches. He would be there to help me escape from them when needed. Today, it was needed. With Geneva acting like she was celebrating a festive occasion and that the world revolved around her, I had to find some sanity. When she’d brought home her fiancé the first time, I had wanted to yell at the wealthy Miles Dartmore to run away as fast as he could. The way the guy had looked at my sister, with such complete adoration, I knew it was pointless. He was sunk, and his fortune would soon be my sister’s. Trying not to feel guilty for allowing this to happen, even though there wasn’t anything I could do about it, I shoved those thoughts aside and made my way up the stairs to Margo’s apartment to pick her up. We were going to get breakfast at The Bacon House. It was her suggestion. I didn’t know how she could eat such a heavy breakfast while hungover, but it sounded good to me. I lifted my hand to knock on the door, but footsteps from the stairwell behind me caused me to pause. I hadn’t known anyone had followed me inside the building. “You left before things got fun last night,” Rathe said, as I turned around to find the source of the noise. He was standing there with a paper cup that I recognized from the coffee house across the street. His hair still looked messy from sleep but he managed to pull it off. The ripped jeans and snug black tee shirt he was wearing looked better than good on him. It was as if that style was created just for him. Not staring at Rathe was going to be difficult. I snapped my gaze from his attire to his face. I had to get a grip on my appreciation of his general sexy as hell looks. Of course, he was smirking. Again.

I doubted anyone loved Rathe more than Rathe loved himself. The expression on his face was one I’d seen before. Men who knew they were beautiful almost always flashed that smirk. They enjoyed a female’s reaction to it. If I could keep reminding myself of this, it would help me keep my eyes off him. “I’m not comfortable in crowds,” I replied honestly. He took a drink of his coffee and continued to study me. I knew his standing here talking to me wasn’t because he was attracted to me. The repel charm was already in effect with him. He’d walked away from me easily enough last night. He wouldn’t get too close. Being born into a family of witches, whose greatest power was their siren ability, required some magical power to dull men’s senses when they saw me. It had worked well, and it would save Rathe from my attraction to him. Rathe continued to hold his crooked amused grin and watch me. I waited for him to make his excuses and walk inside. “You’re not into girls.” He said this as if he was letting me know, in case, I wasn’t quite sure. It was odd and annoying. Normally, my repel charm worked better on men than this. He shouldn’t still be standing here, even if it was to discuss last night. I didn’t want to have any conversation with him. “Thank you for letting me know. I was waiting on clarification,” I replied, in the most sarcastic tone I could muster. He chuckled and cocked his head slightly to the left. “Why does Margo think you are?” Turning around and knocking on the door to get Margo was what I needed to do, it was the smart thing to do, but I was being less than brilliant today and I didn’t move. “She was drunk. She didn’t mean it that way,” I explained, even though I was wondering why I was telling him anything. This was not his business. Why was he still talking to me anyway? He motioned toward me with the hand holding his coffee and said “Please elaborate.” This would be where I told him to mind his own damn business. That was

typically how I would respond if a man, other than Heath, had talked to me this long or shown any interest in me for more than a minute or two. “I don’t date. Anyone.” WHY? Why was I replying to him? His eyebrows rose, and those odd colored eyes of his widened. “How is that possible?” Okay so now I was a bit irked. Was his DNA messed up? He should be bored with me by now. Not asking me questions and showing any interest. There had been plenty of time for the dulling charm to take effect on him. He’d asked it, though, and it only showcased more of his superficial outlook on life. Not everyone had to be in a relationship, or in his case, get naked with someone new every other day. I was fine being alone. “It’s called self-worth,” I explained, as if he were a small child who had no idea what that meant. Because let’s be honest, he didn’t. He had taken off his shirt last night to draw even more attention to himself. Heath had said Rathe went through women like a revolving door. “I’ll look that up and see if I can make sense of it,” he replied. He was mocking me. Asshole. I managed to turn away from him, this time, and knock on the door. I wasn’t here to chat him up. This roommate had been a bad choice. Heath wasn’t the best at picking them. I now understood Heath’s dislike of the guy. He had made another rash decision, and he needed to fix it. Get rid of Rathe. It should be easy enough. The door opened, and instead of Margo, it was Heath. He didn’t look hungover at all, but he did look as if he’d just woken up. “Mornin’,” he said and smiled at me. That was sincere. “Good morning, sleepy head,” I replied, as he stepped back for me to come inside. “Seems she only has fangs with me,” Rathe drawled. I didn’t respond to that or watch him enter the apartment after me. Instead, I rolled my eyes at Heath. He forced a smile but shot Rathe an unamused frown.

I glanced toward Margo’s room. “Is she ready?” I asked Heath, hoping Rathe was headed to his room. Heath covered his mouth as he yawned then he shrugged. “I just woke up. You talk to her already?” I nodded. “Yes. We’re going to get breakfast. I had to escape my house.” He didn’t need an explanation. “The wedding is tonight, ouch,” he frowned. “Is she acting like bridezilla?” “She was born a bridezilla. She’s waited all these years to have a reason to unleash it.” Heath laughed again. He knew my struggle with my sisters and mother. Not the exact extent of my struggles, but enough to know they were all selfish and cruel. “I’ll get dressed and take you to eat. I’m starving,” he offered. “Okay, I’ll see if Margo is still planning on going too.” Heath got an awkward look on his face before glancing at Rathe, who I had been ignoring, although I’d known he was there lounging on the sofa he’d went to after entering the apartment. I might not have looked his way, but I felt his gaze on me, and it was unsettling. “Uh, you, uh, want to go?” Heath asked him, and I was sure I winced. Heath always being the nice guy. I ired that about him until this very moment. He didn’t like Rathe. Why was he trying to be nice? “Thanks, but I’ll sit here and read in the silence,” he replied. Without a moment to control my mouth, I blurted out, “You read?” His response had caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected that. He didn’t look like the guys I had known who read but then I hadn’t known many guys. “Yes, Cat, I enjoy the written word.” His response didn’t sound insulted. Although he wasn’t smirking this time, and there was no sign of humor on his face. I opened my mouth to apologize but snapped it shut again. Rathe and I were not

going to be friends. He didn’t need me as a friend. He needed to keep his distance from me. Besides, I was sure his ego was larger than the Grand Canyon. He’d be just fine. “I’ll go check on Margo,” I told Heath, who was frowning again. He either wasn’t telling me something about Rathe or he was trying to like the guy. I couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t knock on Margo’s bedroom door. I just opened it and went inside, needing to get out of the same room as Rathe. His steady gaze was hard to ignore when directed at me. Margo was splayed out on her bed, naked and lying face down. The light snoring noise and the fact her phone was still in her hand made it clear she wasn’t going to breakfast with me. She’d wanted to help me out, but it appeared she had failed at moving her body from the mattress. I walked over and got the blanket that was on the floor in a crumpled heap. With a gentle shake to straighten it out, I tossed it over her body. As I turned to leave, I saw a familiar face in the corner watching me. Forever six years old. She was smiling at me. “Hello, Mary,” I whispered softly. The little girl, whose face resembled Margo so much, lifted her small hand and waved at me. I’d seen Mary the first time when I had been seven years old, only a week after meeting Margo and Heath on the school bus. She never left their side for long back then. Over time, she’d told me who she was and what had happened to her. Her siblings never mentioned her, which meant I could never say anything to them about her always being near them. When I was younger, I’d made the mistake of telling people I didn’t know about their dead loved ones who were with them. It never went well. It had always brought tears. One lady in town had called me a witch and ran off crying after I told her that her mother was with her. She’d been correct, of course. I was a witch. But my sight was also something no Kamlock had ever been given. My mother chose to make fun of it as if I were making it up. I couldn’t prove it to her because I’d never seen any relative of ours. It was only with normal people. I often feared it was because we were absent of souls. I didn’t want that to be true, but it was the only thing that made sense. The only hope I had was the fact I’d

never seen my father, and I knew he had a soul. He wasn’t born evil. He was good. I didn’t need to stay with Margo, her sister was keeping watch over her. I headed back out into the living area. At least Heath was awake and willing to go with me to do something. Heath wasn’t in the living room anymore when I emerged from Margo’s bedroom. But lucky me, Rathe was still sitting on the sofa. His gaze met mine as he drank from his cup. Either I was going to have to avoid my friends’ apartment or learn to deal with this uneasiness I felt around him. He was here now, and unless Heath found a reason to, he wouldn’t send Rathe packing anytime soon. This was currently the only safe place I had to escape to when I wanted to get away from my family. My cousin Duely’s was also an option but one never knew what activities Duely was involved in, at any given moment. So, running off to his place wasn’t always a good idea. “Heath went to get ready,” Rathe said then shifted his eyes to the door I had just closed behind me. “Guess it’ll just be the two of you at breakfast.” Rathe made it sound like I preferred to be with Heath alone. I wasn’t sure why he said that so I let it go. “She’s ed back out,” I said simply. “She drank a lot last night.” He pointed out the obvious. I didn’t say anything in response. Instead, I walked through the living area toward the tiny corner kitchen. For the most part, their apartment had an open floor plan. The guys’ bedrooms were to the left, and Margo’s was to the right of the living room, closer to the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what I was going to the kitchen to get, but I didn’t like the way Rathe made me feel. I needed to do something other than continue this small talk we were doing. Before I reached the kitchen, I heard a bedroom door open from the hallway. Heath was ready. Most of the time when I saw Mary, she would be by his side. She seemed more protective of Heath. I often wondered about that. Did she feel he was the weaker of the two? I wanted to ask her, but I’d never been given a chance. It was rare I saw her without her siblings. Today, she was with Margo while we were going out. That was odd, too. Why did she think Margo needed her today?

Five The Breakfast

Our regular booth at The Bacon House was taken. If Margo had come with us this morning it would have been more dramatic. She liked to sit in that spot only. Perfect lighting for photos. Margo’s obsession with Instagram and posting pictures of everything she does in her life could get annoying. I had no doubt she would have insisted we wait until her booth opened if she was here. Luckily, Heath and I had no opinion on where we sat. We just wanted to eat. The moment you walked through the barnlike double doors at the entrance, the smell of bacon assaulted you. My empty stomach was rumbling with excitement. We had barely taken our seats when the round tin bowl full of small cheese biscuits was placed on our table. I already knew how delicious they were. Every bite would melt in my mouth. “Thank you,” Heath told the server enthusiastically. He was so focused on the biscuits he missed the attractive brunette who was blushing slightly while she checked him out. This happened often. Heath was very unaware of his appeal to females. It was the main reason he typically dated controlling women. They came after him and made him notice them. The sweeter, shy girls, who would say yes to a date with him, never got any attention from him because he had no clue they were even interested. Heath wasn’t very self-confident, and I never understood why. “What can I bring you both to drink?” the girl asked, barely glancing my way before studying her notepad. “Coffee and a glass of water please,” I replied. “Milk please,” Heath told her. She nodded before giving him one last glance. “I’ll be right back.” I watched her go and waited until she was at a safe distance before turning my

attention to Heath. “She’s pretty,” I told him. He frowned. “I thought you said you weren’t into girls.” Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the menu that was in front of me. “She’s attractive, has a job, and she’s checking you out.” Finally, some small spark of understanding hit him. “Oh, you mean for me?” he asked then shook his head. “I’m not dating again for a while. I need a break from relationships. We both know how badly I suck at them.” “You suck at picking out girls to date. That’s all,” I corrected him. He leaned back in his chair and looked at me with one eyebrow slightly raised. “At least I date.” Our server returned, and I glanced at her name tag quickly. Brandy sounded like a nice name. She set our drinks down in front of us while smiling extra brightly in Heath’s direction. “Are y’all ready to order?” she asked me this time, but then looked back at Heath again. “Cat? You ready?” Heath asked me. I had barely looked at the menu, but I knew what I wanted. “Yes, thank you,” I replied, and Brandy turned to me. “I’ll have the bacon pancakes with maple syrup please.” Brandy quickly wrote that down then turned to Heath. “And what can I get for you?” she asked him. “The Bacon House breakfast, please. Eggs scrambled and with buttermilk biscuits.” “Great choice,” she told him. I was sure he could have ordered a plain biscuit with unsalted grits, and she’d have praised his order. He seemed nervous. Her interest was more obvious to him now that I had said something. Grinning into my coffee cup, I watched them both maneuver this attempt at flirting awkwardly.

“I’ll get you some more cheese biscuits. Fresh ones just came out of the oven,” she blurted out then spun around to walk quickly back to the kitchen. Two of her other tables had been trying to get her attention, but she’d missed that. Poor Brandy was going to get poor tips from them if she didn’t stop flirting with Heath. We had plenty of biscuits left. “So, tell me why you agreed to Rathe as your new roommate when it’s obvious you aren’t really sure about him,” I said, deciding, while I had Heath alone, I’d figure this out. Heath took a biscuit and popped it into his mouth instead of answering. I waited. He could take all the time he wanted, but I was going to get an answer. His gaze shifted to the right of our table, and he paused. His interest somewhere else. I turned my attention to see what he was looking at, and I saw an elderly gentleman eating his breakfast. The man was staring outside the window in front of him with no real expression on his face. “That’s my America History Professor,” Heath said in a whisper. “His wife ed away recently unexpectedly. He’s not been back to class since.” I shifted my attention to the woman beside the older man. She was smiling at him, her hand on his arm. Heath didn’t see her, no one did. Not even the man. I wished I could go tell him she was there. “He looks so lonely,” Heath said. He was lonely. He missed her. If he wouldn’t think I was a crazy person I’d tell him how she was right beside him with her wedding ring still glistening on her left hand. His wedding band was also still on his hand. “He still has his wedding band on his hand. He loved her very much,” I said, wanting to say more but knowing I couldn’t. The woman’s eyes met mine, and she nodded her head in acknowledgment. They always knew I could see them. I gave her a smile then looked back at Heath. “I like to believe those who leave us are never really gone. We just lose the ability to see them.” Heath frowned and said nothing as he drank some of his milk. When he sat the

cup down, he said, “That’s a nice thought, but I don’t think that’s the way it works.” I wasn’t going to push the truth on him. There was no reason to. After all, he’d never told me of his sister; yet, I saw her often. Mary would forever be by their side. Brandy arrived with a fresh tin of hot biscuits. She took the one that was still almost full from us and put the fresh batch in its place. “Food should be out shortly. Can I get you more milk?” she asked Heath. “Yes, please, and some more coffee for you, Cat?” He was using me to evade the flirting. I nodded, and Brandy gave me a tight smile. My charm to mask my appearance didn’t work on those who weren’t attracted to me. Brandy was not into females, so therefore, she saw me as I was. My looks made most females feel threatened. When I was younger that hadn’t been a problem. Other girls didn’t befriend me but not because of my appearance. They avoided me because their mothers warned them away from me. My family was odd. My mother had slept with all the successful married men in town. I was the outcast. When Heath and Margo came along and accepted me so easily, it had been the most wonderful time in my life. Heath didn’t have his mouth full at the moment. “Rathe?” I repeated, bringing him back to my early question. Heath shrugged. “You’re reading too much into it. Rathe isn’t from around here. He’s just different.” “Where’s he from?” I asked. “He’s lived a lot of places. His dad moved often when he was growing up.” “Why did you choose him so quickly? You could have interviewed several people and found someone less…” I wasn’t sure how to describe Rathe. “He paid me a year in advance for the rent,” Heath blurted out. I could see the struggle in his gaze then.

Oh. That was unheard of among college students. “That’s strange. If he could afford that then why didn’t he get a place of his own?” A question that Heath should have asked. He’d seen the money and lost his common sense. It seemed he was regretting it now. “Here we go,” Brandy announced, as she appeared beside us again with a tray full of food. Mostly Heath’s since he ordered the largest breakfast on the menu. She took her time delivering the food and making sure we had everything we needed. When Heath didn’t send her to get him something more, she seemed disappointed. Maybe this one wasn’t a good idea. She was starting to appear more needy by the minute. When she left us to our meal and went to help another table, he relaxed then smiled at me. “He’s fine. Stop worrying about it. I don’t regret letting him move in so quickly.” Heath was trying to shut me down. I decided for now I would let him but I was going to keep an eye on Rathe.

Six The Cousin

Twinkling lights covered almost every inch of our backyard, and it was a massive backyard. The only spot spared from my Aunt Marigold’s favorite decorative enchantment was my small garden. Simply because her powers couldn’t manifest there. Only I could enter it, only I could cast within it. This evening only the casters present would be able to see my garden, although they wouldn’t go near it. I’d protected it from others a long time ago. The guests would be amazed by the fantasyland this place now appeared to be. Purple ion flowers covered every chair, archway, fence line and even the tree trunks. It was past the season for the ion flower to bloom. Had my aunt thought of that while covering the place with my mother’s favorite flower? Obviously not. The black Hollyhocks were also something she didn’t think about. At least they were used for decoration and she didn’t have them growing from the soil. This wasn’t a British garden. We were in Savannah, Georgia, and it was October. I itted the purple intertwined with the black was striking, but if anyone with a green thumb came tonight, they’d know exactly how rare the flowers were, and mother would have to explain that. A large white tent sat in the middle of it all and like everything else was covered in twinkling lights. Bunches of ion flowers hung from the ceiling of the tent, giving the covering its fairytale like appearance. “Leaving me here all day with these witches was a bitch move.” My cousin Duely’s voice came from behind me, and I turned around to see him standing just outside the tent with his hands in the front pockets of his suit pants. “I’m sorry. Was it awful?” I asked him. “You know it was a fucking circus.” I laughed and walked over to hug him. Before Heath and Margo moved next

door, Duely had been my only playmate as a child. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been born female that made him the only Kamlock without a blackheart. He was three years older than me, and until three years ago, he’d lived two hours away from Savannah, but our mothers visited each other often. Now, Duely owned a bar in Savannah, but I didn’t see him as much as I had when we were younger. I missed him. “Your weather is perfect,” he added, as he took his right hand out of his pocket and waved it at the clear evening sky. “It was my summons this morning,” I assured him. He gave a small laugh. “I have no doubt. They’ve been at it all day. The color scheme and flower choices changed three times. Geneva and your mother can’t agree. This,” he said pointing at the current choice, “was my mother’s doing.” Aunt Marigold had lived in North England for several years. I knew when I saw the Hollyhocks that my aunt had done, not only the lights, but the flowers as well. “It’s beautiful,” I replied. He shrugged. “Eh, it’s a dressed-up nightmare. We both know that. Where’s your friends?” Duely had always been attracted to Margo and Heath, but because I had begged him not to show interest in either of them, he had left them alone. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share them; it was that I didn’t want Margo to date a warlock. He was still from the same evil bloodline as I was. Margo was innocent, and this world only darkened those who got too close. As for Heath, he wasn’t into guys, but Duely had been known to convince men they wanted to experiment. I didn’t want Duely using any magic with Heath. Luckily, Duely loved me enough to refrain from manipulating my friends to indulge in his desires. “They’ll be here tonight. I couldn’t think of an excuse to keep them from coming. Not inviting them would have hurt their feelings.” Duely understood my need to keep them safe from our world. He too had mortal friends who had no idea our world existed. Explaining to someone you were born evil and it was possible that you didn’t even possess a soul wasn’t a way to make or keep friends. Besides Margo and Heath had lived through their own darkness. They didn’t need mine to add to it.

“Understood. The only way I got out of inviting my newest friend was my mother being here. He didn’t want to be around her since she disapproves of my dating men.” I frowned. When had Aunt Marigold cared who Duely dated? “When did she start disapproving?” I asked him. He smirked then and shrugged his shoulders once “Oh, she doesn’t give a shit who I date, but that kept him from wanting to come.” Understanding then, I laughed. It was for the best, even if it had been a lie. No one needed to be brought into this world if it could be helped. It would only endanger them to know we existed. “Does this poor bastard marrying your sister have any idea what he’s asking for?” Duely then asked me. I sighed and shook my head. “No. He’s completely obsessed with her. It’s sickening.” Duely frowned. “I wonder if one of the Kamlock females would be able to fool a man who wasn’t spoiled and wealthy. Someone who had to work hard for what he had and didn’t assume they would always be given the best…” That was a very interesting question. The Kamlock women had no legacy of money. They married it. With each generation that died, so did the money they’d possessed from the men they’d taken it from. Simply put, they ran through their money and had no ability to handle wealth properly. I knew of no Kamlock woman to show interest in a man who didn’t have riches. “I can’t think of one in our history who ever tried,” I replied, after thinking it through. “Didn’t you date a regular guy once?” I paused and looked away from Duely. I didn’t want to talk about that. It was a very brief teenage relationship. “If we go by that then the answer is all men are idiots. Because, he too, ended up in bed with Geneva.” Duely snarled as if he was disgusted. “True.”

“If you two are done catching up,” my Aunt Marigold called out loudly from the back veranda, “The staff is arriving. Please go make yourselves presentable before the guests arrive.” I was still wearing the jeans I’d had on all day. Duely, however, was in a designer suit. He turned to his mother and held out his hands as if exasperated. “What’s wrong with this?” She waved a hand in his direction and the black shirt he had on under his coat turned white while his hair was suddenly slicked back instead of his curls being free. “That’s better,” she replied then glared at me. “Now you go do something with yourself before Persephone sees you.” When Marigold went back through the open double doors with a swish in her lavender formal gown, I turned to look at Duely. “I like my fucking curls,” he complained. “I do, too,” I assured him, then gave him a quick wink before his hair returned to its former style. “Blame it on me,” I told him. “Thanks, and I will. Only because you’re the only one they don’t fuck with.” “That’s not true,” I said, thinking of how they torture me and make my life hell daily. He rolled his eyes. “Please tell me you don’t still believe that. You’re twenty years old, Catalina. If they weren’t scared of your power, they’d have forced you into the power of three by now. They haven’t because they’re scared of what you can do.” I shook my head to disagree. How could that be right? Sure, my mother was never one to consider another’s choices; yet, she wasn’t forcing me to do what she wanted most. But why would she be scared of my power? I controlled the weather, and I saw those who have ed on. That wasn’t a lethal combination. Furthermore, my father was not a warlock. That should make me less powerful than my mother or sisters. “You’re still as naïve now as you were when we were kids,” Duely said with a smile then walked toward the woods. I let him go find a place to hide and asked

him nothing else. This wasn’t the first time he’d called me naïve. I just never put much stock in Duely’s opinion of things. He saw the world in a different way than most. I was the one who had lived with my mother and endured her disdain for me. Persephone was not, in any way, scared of me.

Seven The Wedding

I stayed in my room until Margo texted that they were on their way. I checked my hair in the mirror to make sure Mother would have no reason to complain. I had left the natural curl and pulled it up in a side bun. I touched the sparkly headband I’d added to the look and smiled. I was sure Geneva would bitch about that. She was wearing a tiara instead of a veil, and this was a slight detail I added just to annoy her. The only order I had obeyed was to wear the black dress she chose. I had no issue with wearing black. However, I made a few alterations to the dress she’d left for me before putting it on. Nothing that I thought she’d notice. With one last adjustment, I added red lipstick to complete my look. The arrival of guests was in full swing as I descended the staircase. The banisters were also covered in purple ion flowers, and if I’d needed to hold onto it to balance in my heels, I would have been in trouble. Nothing had been cast to keep guests away from the stairs, and although there were several protective spells upstairs to keep others away, I didn’t think letting guests climb these stairs in heels was wise. Keeping my smile in place, I whispered the incantation to dissuade anyone who may get close to the stairwell from going any further. My mother’s head turned from the guests she was welcoming, and her eyes locked on mine. She’d heard my almost silent whisper. With a slight nod of her head, she agreed with my action, but for different reasons than I placed it, I was sure. She didn’t care about others’ safety. She just wanted to protect her privacy. Regardless, it was done, and I moved toward the entrance to take my place beside Leanne. “You’re late,” she whispered, after the newest guest moved past us. I didn’t respond. I rarely did to her little comments meant to anger me. I gave her

a smile and turned my attention toward the older couple now entering the house. My mother charmed them with her stunning smile; the tone of her voice was even alluring to normal people. After they had been welcomed, both Leanne and myself flashed our smiles then Duely appeared to lead them to the backyard. He wasn’t thrilled to be given this job along with three of the groom’s cousins, but appropriate fear of his mother and mine had him doing it anyway. “I smell weed,” Leanne said, low enough that the guests entering didn’t hear her. “Of course you do. Duely’s here,” I replied then smiled my greeting at the very classy couple who had arrived. They had to be related to Miles. “Can he not?” she asked annoyed. As if the scent of her cigarettes was better. I said nothing. “Leanne, you are as breathtaking as your mother,” Circe Kamlock announced in her deep southern voice. Circe was the only daughter of my grandmother’s sister. She had been married three times yet still held the Kamlock name with pride. Leanne soaked in the attention and all but glowed from the compliment. Looking like our evil mother had always been a trait Leanne bragged about. I was just happy it hadn’t been me who got those looks. Circe stopped in front of me. She said nothing, but the expectation in her eyes was clear. Was she waiting for me to do something? “It’s nice to see you Circe,” I finally said. A slight lifting at the corners of her mouth might have been an attempt at a smile. “Catalina,” she said my name with an odd tone. “It’s always … an experience to see you.” Had Circe gone mad and no one told me? Most Kamlock women not born to the family of three did go crazy as they aged. Possibly it was already happening to Circe. “So much like your… father,” she continued. “Duely, please show Circe and her guest to their seats,” my mother ordered, before Circe could say more. I wanted to hear what about me looked like my father. No one in this family ever mentioned him. Circe then shot me a wicked grin, before taking the arm of the young man by her

side. Duely greeted them, and I watched as they walked away. I was going to find her later, after the ceremony, when my mother was otherwise occupied and see if she would elaborate on my father. “Catalina, your guests have arrived. Please escort them to their seats and then return.” My mother’s words drew my attention back to the door as Heath, Margo, and Rathe walked up the steps toward the entrance. “Who is he?” Leanne asked, her voice full of interest. “Better question is why is he here?” I replied annoyed. Leanne turned her head to look at me. “Do you know him?” I could save him from my sister, or I could let her draw him in just to use him. “He isn’t wealthy,” I told her, although I wasn’t sure of that. He had paid Heath upfront for his rent. I studied my friends’ faces for an answer to Rathe’s being here. It wasn’t like Heath enjoyed being around him. “I don’t have to keep him, but I’d like to play,” she drawled. He shouldn’t have come, but he had, and now he was going to be sucked in by my sister. There wasn’t time to figure out a way to stop it when they walked in the door, and Leanne was stepping forward to completely ignore Heath and Margo to get to Rathe. “Leanne,” my mother called her back instantly. Her voice said all she needed to say. She had been warned. Leanne, reluctantly, stepped back, but she kept her eyes locked on Rathe and the full magnitude of her appeal had been released. I could feel its power. “You made it,” I said to both Heath and Margo, before barely glancing at Rathe. I didn’t want to see his reaction to Leanne’s siren call. “It looks amazing, I mean this house is gorgeous all the time, but the flowers and lights are out of this world,” Margo gushed. “Yes, my aunt is very talented when it comes to decorations,” I said, taking Margo’s hand and leading her away from the entrance. Heath and Rathe both followed, without a backward glance in my sister’s direction. Rathe seemed

unaffected by Leanne. That was odd. Margo was busy gawking at everything. “She must also be British,” Rathe said with a hint of amusement in his voice. Pausing, I made eye with him this time. “Who?” I asked, already knowing what he meant but needing to make sure I didn’t misunderstand him. “Your aunt,” he replied, holding my gaze. “She lived in England for a time, but she’s definitely not British,” I explained, hoping he wasn’t going to add to that comment. “I didn’t know one could find so many Hollyhocks in the southern part of the US.” “And I didn’t know you were a Botanist,” I shot back, wishing he’d shut up and stop being smart. Did he need to be both attractive and a walking encyclopedia? His chuckle gave me a shiver, and it wasn’t the bad kind. I wish he had a terrible personality flaw that I could find. Something awful that would make me hate him. He’d be safer that way. Although, knowing he would soon fall under Leanne’s spell should make me hate him. It would make it easier to fight off my attraction to him but I wouldn’t hate him for it. He was human. It was to be expected. “The flowers are beautiful. Your aunt did a great job,” Heath said, as if he needed to assure me. He was probably confused by our conversation. I smiled at his natural kindness. I often wondered if the spell I’d cast when we had been eleven to protect Heath from my sisters’ charm actually worked or if he was simply not drawn in by them because he knew how awful they had been to me over the years. Duely ed us one aisle over as he walked back out to greet another guest. His eyes scanned my friends and Rathe then he winked. Rolling my eyes at him, I continued until we found the row of seats I was instructed my friends were to sit. It was closer to the back on the far left. Margo went in first then Heath and finally Rathe. “I’ll meet y’all after this fiasco is over,” I said in a whisper, leaning forward and looking around Rathe at Margo then Heath. I didn’t glance at Rathe when I

turned to leave, but I heard him. His whisper was so low if I didn’t have impeccable hearing I might have missed it. “Seems a bit unfair to outshine the bride.” I paused. Goosebumps covered my arms and I inhaled deeply while trying to decide if I should respond. He’d complimented me. It had been a very long time since a man complimented me or noticed me for longer than a few moments. I didn’t seek or welcome the attention, but I wouldn’t lie to myself: I enjoyed the way his words made me feel. I’d missed feeling noticed. “You’ve not seen Geneva. I assure you I won’t outshine her,” I said, as quietly as I could, but I didn’t look him in the eyes. I bolted as elegantly as one could flee.

eight The Prosecco Miles Dartmore had been so moved by my sister’s beauty, he had teared up. His mother had also teared up, but hers hadn’t been happy tears. Her only son had just married a woman who his mother already knew was a mistake. Mother’s instinct, I imagine, or just common sense. Men were charmed easily by Kamlock women. Women weren’t as easily fooled. Geneva hadn’t wanted others to stand with them for the ceremony and distract from her, so luckily, Leanne and I were seated beside our mother. On the other side of our mother sat Geneva and Leanne’s father, Zephyr. That was his only name, as if he were Eminem or Beyoncé. He was a powerful, evil warlock, but he wasn’t a superstar. I had never attended a regular wedding, but I assumed this one wasn’t that normal. My sister had researched weddings and refused any pagan rituals in their ceremony. She was determined to keep what she was from Miles. I didn’t know much about Catholics, but I knew none of their regular traditions were being represented here. That hadn’t gone over well with the Dartmore family, I assumed. Once the debacle was finished and everyone was directed to the cocktail and appetizer tent while the bride changed into her party attire, I was free to leave my family and go back to my friends. A swarm of workers from the event planning company that had been hired to transform the ceremony area into the after party came in once the guests moved to the smaller tent located on the west side of the house. My gaze found the Dartmore family, and I saw the mother forcing a smile as she spoke to guests I didn’t know. I truly felt sorry for her. I knew what was to come for not only Miles but also his relationship with his mother. A Kamlock woman could be deadlier than a disease. Just ask anyone who had ever loved one, if you could find them still living. With a sigh of heaviness, I turned slowly away from the parents whose son had just been lost to a darkness he had no idea existed.

“She’s that bad, huh?” A deep voice was so close to me that I jumped and let out a startled squeal. I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard or felt Rathe beside me. “Holy crap! You scared me,” I said, glaring at him and wishing I didn’t like looking at him, or smelling him, or listening to his voice. He barely grinned. The left corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you.” “Well, you did,” I snapped and moved away slightly to put some distance between us. I glanced around for Heath and Margo, but they weren’t with him. “Where are Heath and Margo?” He shrugged then looked over my shoulder toward Miles’ parents. “The way you were looking at the groom’s mother was as if they’d just attended their son’s funeral.” I didn’t want to talk to Rathe about my family. I wanted to find my friends and give their roommate back to them. He looked too dang handsome in the black suit he was wearing and I wished he was easier to ignore. “Kamlock women shouldn’t marry,” I blurted out, then wished I’d just ignored his comment. “I’m not a er of marriage but some couples manage to make it work.” I glanced back at him. He had no idea how quickly this marriage would be destroyed. “Good people, those who know how to love, who understand commitment and sacrifice. They make it work. My sister is not one of those,” I said, the last part full of sorrow for Miles. Rathe said nothing. I had expected him to ask more questions after my last comment, but he hadn’t. He did study me in a way that made me both warm and uncomfortable at the same time. This evening his eyes seemed more blue than steel. The voices around us were fading, and I heard the evening breeze in the trees, a bird nearby finding her nest, and Rathe’s breath. Being held in his gaze was like a drug. “All Kamlock women aren’t the same, it would seem.” His words were low, almost a whisper. I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but I didn’t know if the answer was one I wanted to hear.

“I don’t know what’s in this cocktail, but it’s ah-mazing!” Margo’s voice was loud and exactly what I needed as she appeared beside Rathe. Her interruption snapped me out of whatever I was allowing myself to feel about Rathe. What was wrong with me? I knew better than to entertain any attraction to a man. I turned my attention to Margo, thankful to be free of those hypnotic eyes. He was proving to be too observant. I would have to be careful around him. He saw too much. Before I could get annoyed with myself for Rathe not fitting the mold I had placed him in, Margo stuck her glass in my face. “Taste this magical liquid!” Taking drinks from Margo wasn’t something I normally did, but right now, a drink might be needed. I took a sip from her glass, and the too sweet taste of my aunt’s favorite drink made me pucker. “That’s not a cocktail. It’s Pomegranate Prosecco,” I told her, handing the glass back. “Fancy,” she said, doing a silly eyebrow wiggle before drinking some more. “Where’s Heath?” I asked, when he didn’t seem to be following her. She finished her glass then licked her lips. “Be careful with that. It’s not beer. Slow down or you’ll be bent over in the bushes sick,” I warned her. She rolled her eyes at me then pointed with her empty flute toward the west tent. “Your cousin is talking to him, the hot one who I can’t decide if he likes guys or girls.” Heath would need rescuing from Duely. “He likes both. Duely is not picky when it comes to gender. He is just a lover,” I said, with a trace of amusement in my voice. Margo was sheltered. I knew it would startle her. The shocked expression on her face gave me a laugh. “Let’s go free Heath,” I said, heading toward the west tent. “Okay wait… so he likes both… so that means he thinks Heath is better looking than me?” Margo asked as she fell into step beside me. “Because he seemed more interested in talking to Heath than he did me.” Of course, that would be her first concern, which amused me even more. I just shook my head and laughed. It took us a few minutes to reach the tent. I didn’t know if Rathe had followed us or not. He’d been silent, and I had been trying my best not to look back to see if he was still with us; however, just walking off and

saying nothing to him seemed rude. I glanced back, and he wasn’t there. I saw him talking to Leanne. She’d made her move to talk to him as soon as she saw an opportunity. The smile he was giving her told me he didn’t mind being left behind. The sinking feeling that came with that knowledge was unexpected. My chest felt heavy, and something resembling disappointment settled in my gut. I shouldn’t be affected by the sight of them together. Rathe meant nothing to me, and until this evening, I had only been attracted to his outward beauty. Unfortunately, he’d let me see that he wasn’t just a pretty face. My guard had come down just enough to let myself hope Rathe was different, without even realizing I was doing it. It had only been a moment that made me change my opinion slightly. Nothing more than a mere moment. It shouldn’t have gotten to me like this. The sadness that came when he leaned in to whisper something in Leanne’s ear was bothersome. “You need to warn him about her,” Margo whispered, as if they could hear us that far away. She was right, of course, he needed to be warned. I just didn’t know if I should do it. I managed to shrug a shoulder like it was of no concern. “He seems like he can handle her,” I lied. Because no man could handle a Kamlock female. Not one with a soul at least. “Mmmm, I’m gonna have to disagree. Your sister is nasty,” Margo was still whispering. “Both her sisters are nasty,” Duely whispered, as he stuck his head between ours. “OH!” Margo cried and spun around with her eyes wide. I hadn’t heard Duely and Heath approaching us from behind. My thoughts had been too engrossed in my sister and Rathe’s private conversation. I turned my back to the view of Leanne and Rathe to focus on Heath and Duely. “She knows that well enough,” I assured Duely. He tapped his half full flute against Margo’s empty one and said “Cheers to that.” Then he shifted his gaze to me. “Why aren’t you drinking yet? We have two more hours of this charade to suffer through.”

He was right. I should be drinking. “I was coming to save Heath from you first then I was headed to get a drink. What do they have other than that terrible Pomegranate Prosecco?” Duely held his glass up. “Some expensive Brut. When they have the larger tent transformed, there will be a full bar available, which you would know if you’d suffered through today with me.” Duely held up a hand to signal a server carrying a tray of drinks. “Please begin to numb yourself,” Duely encouraged when the server arrived. I took a glass, and Margo did too. I started to remind her to go slowly, but I decided to let it go for now. She was enjoying herself, and I wasn’t in the mood to take on my role as mother hen. “How many is that?” Heath asked Margo. “Two,” she replied, frowning at him. “So Duely how have you been?” Margo asked, turning the attention away from her. I took a moment to peek back and see if my sister still held Rathe under her spell. I wish I hadn’t. They were still talking. Rathe was saying something that made her laugh. Her red hair elegantly curled and piled on top of her head like a goddess and the moonlight making her pale skin seem angelic made my stomach turn. Refusing to watch anymore and determined not to care, I swung my gaze back to Duely who was unfortunately watching me. “Isn’t that right, Cat?” he asked with a mischievous grin that said he knew what I had been looking at and he was going to drill me about it later. Instead of itting I had no idea what he had been saying I replied “I’m sorry I need to go check on something. I’ll be right back,” and I walked away before any questions could be asked.

Nine The Stranger

I didn’t stop walking until I reached the front of the house, which was blissfully void of guests. Without Duely watching me closely, I could sit and digest the issue of my caring that Rathe was having a quaint chat with Leanne. Because he made me care should be reason enough for me to just let him sink into her dark pit. If only I were evil, life would be so much easier. That thought made my sour mood intensify. “You’re a Kamlock,” I said aloud. The disgust in my tone was evident, as I itted something I normally tried to forget. Evil was there hidden deep inside me. It was in my blood. The darkness had always lurked there; yet, I had never wanted to give into it. I abhorred it, feared it. I could feel it at times, but I was always quick to fight it off. The memory of my father and his goodness was all I had ever needed to keep the evil buried. “Damn cursed lot to be from too.” An abnormally deep raspy voice came from the darkness. My attention snapped to the shadows behind the gazebo. I didn’t recognize the voice, but it did sound as if someone had smoked one too many unfiltered cigarettes in his lifetime. A strange man hiding in the night didn’t scare me, but his words said he wasn’t just a man. He knew the name Kamlock and I would guess from that one statement he knew what we were. That was enough for me to have my guard up. “I apologize, I thought I was alone,” I said, as I took steps around the ornate wooden structure standing between us. “A Kamlock female who apologizes. Curious.” There was a light teasing in the thick roughness of his voice. I halted a moment then and thought through the situation. A man hiding in the shadows, very likely knows who we are, and isn’t moving into the moonlight which would be the polite thing to do “Luceat lux illa minantur in obumbratio.” My cast was whispered, and when no light glowed in the shadows on his face, I relaxed.

“Nice choice. Smart and subtle.” His voice expressed approval. “Who are you?” I asked, stepping closer. If he was a threat, the light would have illuminated the darkness. However, he knew the spell I cast, which meant he was, in fact, charmed or cursed himself. He was also still in the shadows. Why wasn’t he stepping out into the light? None of this felt right to me. A small orange flame lit the tip of a cigarette and I watched as the small light moved. He didn’t come forward, though, he only moved left until he stood under the moonlight. But that was enough for me to see him. I didn’t want him coming closer. I just wanted to see who it was I was talking to. His decision to move only into the light and not toward me could be a considerate choice on his part. I wasn’t sure just yet. The man was older. With a caster, age was a difficult thing to measure. If he were a normal human, he looked to be in his mid-fifties. If he was a caster, however, especially if he was a warlock, he could be nearing eighty years old. Magic was better than Botox or face lifts. He had allowed his hair to silver some, but most of it was still a dark brown or black. I couldn’t be sure in the limited lighting. His eyes were bright blue, and his tall lean body was not dressed for a formal wedding. Instead he wore ripped skinny jeans, black combat boots and a leather biker jacket. The cigarette hanging out of his mouth added to the older rock star appearance. I wondered if that was what he was going for, a Kurt Cobain look possibly. “Is this better, Catalina?” he asked, without taking the cigarette from his mouth. He knew my name. He knew who I was. I knew nothing about him. I kept my distance and studied him carefully before saying more. “You’re not here for the wedding,” I stated the obvious. He laughed then, after taking his cigarette from his mouth with his left hand. A loud rich cackle that sounded truly amused. “Another Kamlock witch getting married? Fuck no, I’m not here to see that shit,” he replied then shifted his weight to his right leg. “Who are you?” I asked again. I was beginning to think I should be more concerned about this man’s identity. I was almost certain this was a warlock and an old one at that. They could be very powerful. This one especially appeared to

dislike my family as much as I did. His reason for being here could not be for a friendly visit. He glanced at the house behind me briefly, before turning his attention back to me. “I was here to… assess someone, but it appears this is as far as I can go… interestingly enough.” It looked like he grinned, but I couldn’t be sure. The moonlight was being hindered by a cloud. Lifting my face, I locked my gaze on the bothersome cloud and moved it with a small whisper sure he could hear my words anyway. The cloud evaporated, and the illumination from the night sky was once again surrounding the stranger. He smirked at me, but the gleam in his eyes was almost… proud. It was an odd response to what I’d just done. I took a quick pause to feel the barrier he claimed was in place, keeping him from coming further into the yard. I hadn’t known of any barrier cast around the house tonight. Yes, there was one in place most of the time for simple privacy, but tonight, with the guests coming, it had been lifted. It also was basic and wouldn’t hold off another caster. I felt nothing out of the ordinary from where I stood, so I moved forward, toward him, until I could feel the power simmering in the air around me. I froze then. Fear slowly creeping up my body from my toes to the top of my head. I rarely experienced fear. However, this spell, it was hot… sizzling in intensity and it was stronger than anything my mother or aunt could cast alone. “Who are you?” I demanded this time. This was no ordinary spell. I’d never felt something like it. Something this dark had to be here for a purpose. If this man was the being it was keeping away from the house, then he was far from harmless. Who or what could he be after? Could my sisters have been able to cast something like this with my aunt and mother? I didn’t just doubt that, I knew it was impossible. The depth of energy at its core was more than any single witch in my family possessed. That much I could tell. One Kamlock alone couldn’t do this… and I wasn’t sure even four could. “I’m the only motherfucker who can’t come to this party, sweetheart.” He sounded more amused than annoyed. His deep chuckle was gone as quickly as it had come. I expected him to say more, to explain what he meant, or ask

questions. I expected several things, but what I hadn’t expected was for him to just vanish. Like a puff of smoke. Like the cloud I’d removed. The cigarette lying on the ground where he had been standing was the only sign of his having been there at all. I stepped back staring at the vacated spot he had been in seconds before. Was that even possible? To disappear so easily? I’d never seen it, but I’d heard tales and that was what I always thought they were… tales. Stories made up to scare children. Charmed children had their own set of fairytales that were more like cautionary tales. “Cat,” Heath’s voice called out into the darkness, reminding me I wasn’t alone here. There was a backyard full of people. Some I knew, most I didn’t. So many innocent people. Whatever this was keeping the stranger out no longer seemed enough. A caster that could vanish… that was the epitome of evil. He could have no soul, at least according to what I knew of those who had that power. Turning, I ran toward Heath’s voice. I didn’t want Heath or Margo near here or the stranger. I didn’t know who he was or what his intentions were. What I did know was that the ability to move through space with magic was rare. And it always belonged to those who were to be feared the most. Heath’s presence made me feel safe. Normal. He was what I clung to and wished for daily. Margo and Heath were my connection to a world I knew wasn’t mine; yet, I craved to belong to. “Hey! There you are. We’ve… or rather, I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Margo is dancing with Duely and is already past tipsy,” Heath rambled on until I reached him. I started to speak when I realized Mary was there beside him. Her gaze was fixed on the darkness behind me. I wasn’t sure what she could see or feel, but I knew she was with him for a reason. She was protecting him. Her eyes seemed hollow as she kept her gaze on the place I had fled from. I shivered slightly at her expression. It was as if she felt it. The danger. I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure the darkness was empty. It was the way I’d left it. Taking Heath’s arm, I forcefully nudged him back toward the party. “Sorry, I needed a moment of peace. I’m good now,” I said, not sure that sounded believable. I didn’t make eye with Heath, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions. I could lie, but I hated to lie more than I already had to. When I saw

Margo bent over at the waist laughing and Duely looking genuinely pleased with himself, I let out a relieved sigh. They were ed for and safely in the confines of the party. Keeping them from leaving the safety ring around the property was my goal. They didn’t need to go anywhere without me. Without knowing who the man was and why he was being kept out, they were in danger. I had to assume everyone was in danger. If I could get Duely alone then I could question him to see if he knew anything, but right now, he was entertaining Margo, and I preferred she be with him than to decide to leave. “She’s going to be sick,” Heath said, as we stopped just outside the tent. I turned to him and saw Mary was gone now. The danger must also be gone. That gave me a slight sense of ease. “Yep, but we did warn her,” I reminded him. I didn’t want to ask about Rathe and wished I could forget when he’d been with Leanne earlier, but I also needed to be sure he was safe. He was my friends’ guest. I had to protect them all. It was the right thing to do. Or that was what I was telling myself to feel better. “Where’s Rathe?” I asked. Heath frowned and glanced around. “Last I saw him he was with Leanne. They were going inside, I believe.” He wasn’t in danger from the stranger; however, there was another danger he was dipping his toes into. My sister. She was an evil most men couldn’t resist. It hadn’t taken her long at all to get his attention. I was sure she’d give me all the details I didn’t want to hear about their alone time together. He would be under her spell, literally, and she’d crush him because I doubted he was wealthy enough for her to do more than play with for a moment. “I’m sure they’re lost in the priceless editions of literature in my father’s library,” I suggested with sarcasm evident in my tone. “Uh, I’m gonna doubt that,” Heath said and started to laugh, but something in my expression stopped him. I needed to do a better job of showing I didn’t care about Rathe and Leanne. “I told him your sisters were… bad news. Sorry,” he added with an unsure tone in his voice. It was possible he was taking my concern the wrong way while I was, in fact, jealous about Rathe being with Leanne. I couldn’t be jealous. I knew better to entertain the idea of jealousy. I had known he would be drawn in by Leanne. I’d prepared myself for it. The sting it caused

was a reminder that I had no rights where Rathe was concerned. He wasn’t an option for me. He never could be. No one could be an option, though the sting didn’t ease because of it. “You can warn them, but they all have to find out for themselves,” I said, forcing a smile and patting Heath’s arm as if there was nothing to be worried about. He didn’t look convinced.

Ten The Serious Shit

After the bride and groom left in the bride’s wedding gift from her new husband, a brand new Tesla, the guests began to thin out. The groom’s side were quick to leave, and I didn’t blame them. I’d have wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible too. This place didn’t feel welcoming to others, and it shouldn’t. It was not a happy home. My sister had what she wanted, and this would be the last time Miles Dartmore’s family would feel welcomed here if they ever did. My mother did her best to put on a show until the wedding was over. I had watched Mr. Dartmore gaze at her in fascination. He should be thankful he had a wife by his side who wasn’t a Kamlock. Soon, he and his wife would find they were no longer welcomed at their only son’s home. Their son would rarely come around after tonight, and they would never see their daughter-in-law. She’d make sure they didn’t see their son for the most part. Miles would ache to make her happy and never feel as if he could do enough. I’d seen my mother do it to my father. I’d seen my aunt do it to my many uncles over the years. “This was a great party,” Margo slurred as she leaned against my side. I was watching the guests leave from the front entrance and making sure everyone was getting in their vehicles safely. There was no need to disagree with Margo. She was too drunk to much of the party. I was sure her experience had been a pleasant one. “Is everything okay?” Leanne’s voice made me stiffen. I hadn’t seen her in over an hour. She and Rathe had returned to the party and danced, then Rathe had gone to stand with Heath while Leanne danced with other men. I would like to think I hadn’t cared that when I looked at Rathe he was watching Leanne, but I must have cared because I had stayed annoyed. I glanced back over my shoulder at my sister’s appearance in the foyer. She looked pleased. I was sure she was more than pleased with herself. He had no clue how devious she was, even when I had tried to warn him. He probably

thought my comments had come from jealousy. He’d find out the hard way if he tried to pursue her after tonight. I went back to watching the guests leave. “Why wouldn’t it be?” I replied to Leanne coldly, not really wanting a response from her. Margo leaned on me more heavily. I didn’t need her ing out. She had to leave. Staying here over night was out of the question. This place was not safe. She’d never stayed here and she never would. “I don’t know any reason it shouldn’t be,” Leanne said slowly, as if she were thinking it through, “but the way you just glared at me like I was shit on the bottom of your new heels made me think something might be wrong.” I kept my focus on the people outside getting in their cars and leaving. I didn’t know how safe they were out there. “I’m waiting until things clear out some before taking her to the car and getting her home,” I said, nodding my head toward Margo. She didn’t say anything, and if I couldn’t still smell her Hermes perfume, I’d think she had walked away. “She is a bit of an embarrassment,” Leanne finally said, and the disgust in her tone infuriated me. Leanne was the embarrassment. My entire family was one huge embarrassment. “She’s drunk, which is better than being a whore,” I replied before I could stop myself. Taking Leanne’s bait was something I didn’t usually do. I knew better. Tonight, I was making several bad decisions. Not only was I doing a terrible job at not liking Rathe, but I was also lashing back at Leanne’s nastiness. Both were stupid things to allow myself to do. She cackled with delight and I hated that I’d given her pleasure. There would be no question what I was referring to, and she would just make it worse. It would be a waste of her time though. Rathe had never been an option for me anyway. “Jealous little sister?” She asked, with pure pleasure evident in her voice. That was what she wanted. She’d gotten it because I’d handed it to her, with my inability to ignore my attraction to Rathe. “There y’all are,” Heath said, appearing at the bottom of the steps in front of the entrance. I slipped an arm around Margo and moved outside onto the porch.

Heath was the only man I knew who had never once been weakened by either of my sisters’ appearance or charm. They’d tried more than once when we were younger hoping to hurt me. They both thought my friendship with him was something more. Every attempt they had tried failed. Granted I’d cast a spell to protect him, but even before that, he’d never shown interest in them. Heath was the best guy I knew. “She’s about to out,” I told him, as she grew heavier in my arms. He shook his head in frustration then turned his attention to his left. “Rathe, I need a hand.” I sighed, figuring this was expected. Rathe came with them and he’d leave with them. Unless Leanne decided to keep him all night. She just might now that she knew it pissed me off. I kept my eyes on Heath and made sure not to look at Rathe. I hated that it was impossible not to see him even when you weren’t looking. His presence was frustratingly addicting, and he smelled so good. “I’ll go with y’all to the car,” I said, knowing I couldn’t let them go out there alone. Although the man from earlier did appear to be gone and everyone had left safely thus far, Margo and Heath were too important to me. I didn’t know who the man had been or what he wanted. If he did show back up, these two weren’t going to be in danger. I brought them into this place and I’d get them out safely. I always kept this world and them separate. Except tonight when I had no choice. My not inviting them would have crushed Margo who wanted to see the place and Heath’s feelings might have been hurt. I was never sure with him. Sometimes he was just a guy with typical guy reactions and other times he seemed to be very sensitive. I went on ahead of them and stayed alert. I didn’t have complete confidence that I could do anything to the warlock if he suddenly appeared in front of me, but I was better than nothing if the caster showed back up. They would have no protection at all without me. I noticed Duely was walking out toward the parking lot a few feet away. Relief that I had some backup close had me calling out to him. He heard me and turned, saw the situation, assessed it then he began to walk in our direction. That made me feel somewhat safer. Two casters were better than one. Duely had no idea what had happened tonight, but he probably thought we

needed assistance with Margo. Whatever the reason, I was thankful he was headed our way. “Looks like the prosecco hit her hard,” Duely observed when he reached us with a grin of amusement. “Yes, she’s done. Are you leaving?” I asked him, hoping he wasn’t. I had no one in this family to talk to about the warlock but Duely. I just hoped he knew something I didn’t and could clear things up. There was a chance he had been a fling of Geneva’s at one point. She’d done the older man thing for a while last year. However, someone with his power would have been something she craved more than money. That kind of power was stronger than any monetary wealth. So, I was doubting it. So many different scenarios had gone through my mind since he’d vanished. “Not yet. I was headed out to check on something,” was his vague response. I studied him a moment and the unspoken explanation in his expression was clear. He couldn’t say anymore with the others here. I didn’t press him. “I’m walking out to their vehicle with them. I can go with you after I see them off,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. He gave a small nod. “If the two of you need to go handle family things, I’m sure we can get to Heath’s Jeep without issue.” I glanced back at Rathe for the first time since he’d ed us. His suggestion had sounded sincere, but the tone in his voice hadn’t. “The Jeep is just ahead,” I stated the obvious and kept heading in its direction. The twinkling lights were behind us now and the large Live Oak trees blocked most of the moonlight as we went further from the house. Other guests were walking to their cars, getting in and every few minutes, headlights would give off enough light, so I could quickly scan the darkness. Just as headlights from a silver Mercedes faded away, we reached the Jeep. Margo was completely out now and both guys were having to her dead weight. “Keys are in my left pocket,” Heath told me, and I went over to get them out and unlock the door. “I got her,” Rathe said, taking her from Heath and then picking her up as if she weighed nothing and laying her in the backseat. I would not be impressed with that feat. Rathe could not impress me. Forcing myself to stay focused on the

issue at hand, I kept my eyes on our surroundings while Heath climbed in and buckled her up before she slumped back over again. “Thanks for inviting me. I had a nice time,” Rathe said, snapping my attention from the darkness back to him. I hadn’t invited him. He’d come with my friends. Instead of being rude and reminding him of that fact, I simply nodded. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” Heath said to me. “You’re covering my shift. ,” I reminded him. He’d asked me for the extra shift. He needed money for something, but I wasn’t sure what. He didn’t offer that information. I had wondered briefly if it had been to replace whatever money he’d spent from Rathe’s advanced rent so he could pay him back and move him out. Heath wouldn’t it that if it was. Heath grinned “Oh yeah,” he said sheepishly then he gave Duely a nod, “Good to see you again.” Then with one last glance at me, he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Make her drink water if you can tonight. She’s going to feel that prosecco hard,” Duely told him. “Will do,” Heath replied. Rathe studied me for one long uncomfortable moment. I said nothing but held his gaze. All the anger I had tried to deny tonight about his being so entranced by my sister simmered there in my gaze, and I knew it. When I said nothing more, he went to the enger side and climbed inside without attempting anymore small talk. With one last wave from Heath, the headlights lit up the night and they drove away. “Poor guy has been in love with you for so damn long it’s like a habit, and the new one, Rathe, well, he knows you’re attracted to him and that the Leanne thing pissed you off. I think he regrets it,” Duely said matter-of-factly. Frowning, confused by Duely’s rambling sentence, I stared at him instead of the departing Jeep. “What?”

Duely lifted a singular eyebrow. “Heath is in love with you. He was the last time I saw him, and the first time I met him, and you have to fucking know that. Rathe knows you think he’s hot because, let’s be honest he’s gorgeous, and he regrets upsetting you with entertaining the slut we know as evil sister number two.” There was so much messed up with all he said, and I didn’t have time to consider that insanity. Duely often read too much into situations and people. I was used to it. I chose to ignore all of his words. “There was a man out here tonight,” I said instead. “When I came out here to get away, he was in the shadows on the other side of the gazebo. He couldn’t come any further. There was a protection that affected only him. He wasn’t just a man. He had to be a caster. A dark one. A really dark one.” Duely didn’t say anything right away. He looked around and frowned as if he were confused. Nothing seemed to ring a bell. “What were you coming out here to check on?” I asked wondering now if his mother had sent him to see if things were safe. The spell in place was too strong and dark for my sisters to have cast it alone. My mother and aunt had to know something. Which would make them want the place scanned for danger. “I was going to get a fucking doobie from my car and take the edge off,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t feel a protection spell of any kind around this place,” he added. I wasn’t surprised. For something so powerful it was very well hidden. Subtle seemed too weak of a word to describe it but somehow it was. “I didn’t either at first,” I explained. “But the man couldn’t cross it. He was amused by it and… and then he just vanished, teleported. Right in front of my eyes.” Duely’s eyebrows drew together in a deep frown. “He vanished?” If anyone else was telling Duely this, I doubted he’d believe them. The power to vanish was that of fairytales told to children. I nodded my head once and kept my eyes locked on his. Did he really not know anything about this man?

“That’s serious shit,” Cat. “Are you sure you didn’t smoke my doobie?” Rolling my eyes, I let out a sigh of frustration. “I know what I saw and I know what I feel. There is a dark and very powerful protection around the house.” Duely looked around us slowly then shrugged. “You can ask your mother,” he suggested, it knowing I was battling that idea. “But she might not talk. If you’re not high… and my bet is you’re not, then there is some secret we don’t know and they don’t want us to.” “I’ll figure it out. He might have been someone who crossed my mother once and was coming back to get his revenge. Or possibly an ex of Geneva’s.” Both were ideas I’d toyed with but doubted them. Obviously, the man had left when he went up in a puff of smoke. The guests were almost gone now and all without an issue. “Did you ever think he was here to see you?” he paused and shifted his feet a little as if thinking through what else he was about to say. “You’re more than you realize. I’ve tried to tell you that already. I, uh, I don’t think you are who you think you are,” he stopped abruptly then just gave a shake of his head. “You don’t want to hear what I think. Just do me a favor and don’t underestimate your power. You may not agree, but my mother,” he said then pointed at me “and your mother… they are scared of you. There is something we don’t know. But I read people well, and those two are careful not to push you too hard. When you were younger they weren’t as careful around you but the closer you get to twenty-one, things are changing. There is a power shift and you’re so used to the way things have been all your life, you don’t see it.” This wasn’t the first time Duely had said something like this to me, but it was the first time he had mentioned things shifting the older I got. I still thought he was being dramatic and reading things into situations that weren’t there. I was done arguing that my mother, who had made my life hell from the moment my father died, was scared of me. She hated me. That was clear. She hated that I wouldn’t give her the power of three. She hated that I was stubborn and like my father. She possibly hated that I was half normal. But Persephone Kamlock was by no means scared of me. I let out a hard laugh. “It’s past time you let that theory go,” I told him. He lowered his eyebrows in a frown. The frustrated kind, not the angry kind. He

wanted me to buy into this idea of me being powerful. I had a mortal as a father. That was impossible to consider. “Explain then why you feel a dark cast and I feel nothing? How do you know it’s dark? What is it you feel?” He was challenging me now. I didn’t have answers, of course. I was still trying to wrap my head around the disappearing act the caster had done. “You would have felt it too if you’d seen the man,” I said in way of explanation. “But I didn’t see him. No one did… but you,” he shot back. I opened my mouth to remind him that I’d been walking around by myself to get peace. There was no way the man knew he’d see me out there alone. He hadn’t been waiting on me. That was ridiculous. This was getting us nowhere. Duely was done with the evening and wanted to get stoned. He wasn’t going to do much to help me. I just shook my head and turned to walk back to the house. “Maybe I’m crazy!” I called out to him, as I walked, trying to break the tension that had unintentionally built. “Or maybe you’re darker than you want to accept,” was his response. No, I wasn’t. If I was dark, if my soul was as cursed as my sisters and mother then I’d be like them. I would be a shallow, gold digging bitch with no real affection for anyone. I felt deeply, I cared, I loved, I had emotions they didn’t understand. I could fight off the darkness of my mother’s blood in my veins. That made me less dark than any of them. Less powerful. They had no reason to fear me.

Eleven The Cigarette

The house was quieter without Geneva commanding attention on a daily basis. I worked double shifts to keep busy. Luckily, Heath hadn’t asked for any more of my shifts, but he had taken on a few of the other servers’. He was almost working as much as I was now. Which only made me more curious as to what it was that had him saving his money. The dollar movie was showing the 1931 Dracula this week, and I went to see it twice to keep from having to go home. Heath had gone to see it with me Wednesday night since the restaurant was slow and closed early. He seemed to understand my need to stay away from my house. He didn’t ask or get nosey like Margo. I appreciated it. I’d thought Geneva moving out would make things easier at home. I’d been wrong. Leanne wasn’t as awful as Geneva, but she was enjoying dropping Rathe’s name every time I was in earshot. I almost preferred Geneva’s nasty to Leanne’s fake innocent crap. It was hard to forget I’d almost let myself like Rathe when Leanne kept talking about him. Oddly, though, the few times I’d seen him in ing at the apartment, he hadn’t said anything about her, asked about her, or said much to me at all. The wedding had been almost three weeks ago now, and I didn’t think Rathe had sought Leanne out at all. Not that I knew much about what either of them did on a daily basis. I’d just seen Rathe a handful of times, leaving the apartment with different females when I had been arriving. They weren’t Leanne. That’s all I cared about or at least that is what I told myself. I tried not to dwell too much on any of the females around Rathe. There were other things on my mind that were much more important. Like the vanishing stranger. This morning I had woken up, stared at the ceiling for an hour, then decided to just ask my mother about the protection spell cast around the house. It was still there. I had stopped every day since the wedding at the spot it began and tested the power there. It remained. Which led me to believe the wedding hadn’t been why it had been put in place. It could have been there for a long time. I just hadn’t noticed it and that was even weirder. Having any kind of discussion with

my mother was something I always avoided. Even something as important as this was. The caster had been real. The spell around this house was very real. I was tired of worrying over it and whether the man would return. My mother was the only one who could answer this for me. If I had work today to distract me, I would just get ready and leave. However, Greta had told me my hours were too high already, and it was only Friday. I had to find something else to do and having talked to Margo yesterday, I knew she had classes today and then a date, with the nice Chip Manasco I’d met at the party. Standing at the tall gothic style window in my bedroom that overlooked the front yard, I sighed and rubbed my temples. Everything out there seemed normal. The house my father had left to my mother was perfect. If he had lived, if I hadn’t been born to a family of crazy witches, I would have loved growing up here. This house was built in 1823 and the Delvaux’s had spared no expense. My father had added to it and made improvements to please my mother, but the beauty of the original structure remained. What could have been a storybook childhood was one of horror instead. This house had once been a home for my Delvaux ancestors. Now it was nothing of the sort. I studied the gazebo in the front yard, recalling the way the man had looked more like a retired rock star than a powerful warlock. He had been relaxed and amused by the barrier keeping him out. Nothing had been very intimidating about him until he’d vanished. Giving me one more reason to not relax at this house. This had never been a place where I could enjoy being home the way other people seemed to do. A door closed down the hall, reminding me of those who lived here and made it the miserable place it was. The day my mother had walked through its beautiful doors, this house that was once so full of my father’s family’s history suddenly changed. I glanced over my shoulder to see if the closing door meant Leanne was coming to find me and torment me more with talk about Rathe. I heard nothing, and my door was still firmly shut. I started to look back out the window when the slight movement near the bed caught my attention. I already knew who it was before I saw her. I wasn’t startled by the blonde little girl who was watching me. Annabelle Delvaux had been born in this house and in 1910, after only five short years, she’d also died

in this house. Annabelle was one of the first spirits I could seeing. In my earliest memories, Annabelle had been a friend I played with openly until my mother yelled at me to stop talking to myself like a crazy person. “Hello, Annabelle,” I said, smiling at her familiar face. She lifted her small pale hand in a wave. “Have you enjoyed the peace that has come with Geneva’s moving out?” I asked her, knowing Annabelle didn’t care much for the other females in my family. She wasn’t above doing small things to annoy my sisters. Hiding their favorite lipstick or jewelry, making their bathwater cold, or pulling their blankets off them at night. She was mischievous, and it had always entertained me. “Yes, it’s more pleasant,” she said in her soft voice that was never more than a whisper. I nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry to tell you that I’m probably about to make it less pleasant. I need to talk to my mother about something that could make her yell. You may want to go play in the attic for a while.” She tilted her head to the side considering it. I knew she enjoyed the attic where the few things that had once belonged to her were stored in a cedar box she’d shown me when I was eight years old. I had cast a spell to protect her things for fear my mother would have the attic emptied of the history nestled away in that seemingly untouched part of the house. “Do you need me to make a distraction? I can burn her with her cigarette or bump her arm so she spills her drink all over herself.” I laughed. Annabelle often did those things to my mother when my mother was being mean, although I had told her to stop. I shook my head. “Thank you, but it’s okay. Go enjoy yourself. I’ll handle her.” She smiled brightly up at me then turned to walk through the wall beside my door. Annabelle didn’t her death. I’d asked her when I was younger, and she said she woke up one day in the attic, and when she came to find her mother she wasn’t here. The furniture was different and there were people she didn’t know living in the house. She’d been so scared and had cried for her mother and father and brothers, but no one ever came. Then there were others

who she found. Later in life, I had searched the family history on this house, and I knew that Annabelle had died of influenza. I never told her though. She always seemed sad when she talked about her family. I didn’t want to remind her, and I also figured she didn’t need to know. After her death, there were entries in her younger sister’s journal, located in my dad’s library, that mentioned seeing Annabelle’s ghost. Annabelle just didn’t being with her family. All she ed began years later when they had all ed away. The others that had been here with her had left when my mother moved inside the house. Annabelle had once told me she missed the others. I had asked who they were, and she mentioned a young boy named Oliver and a pretty lady named Margret. Annabelle had explained, “The darkness made them leave, but my doll is here. I couldn’t leave it. Even when the cold dark floated through the house pushing the others away. I had to stay.” Her small porcelain baby doll, a blanket that had been hand stitched, and a photo of her family were all upstairs in her cedar chest. They were her anchor to this place. I knew the others didn’t have that kind of anchor. The home had been Oliver Delvaux’s only residence his nine years on earth. He’d been here before Annabelle. She was his great niece. He’d died from falling off his horse and breaking his neck in 1866. Margret Delvaux was Oliver’s sister-in-law and she had died in 1880 in childbirth at the age of twenty. I had studied spirits and ways to help Annabelle, and I’d finally accepted that leaving her here where she wanted to be was best. She was happy here with her familiar home and her things. I hoped one day this house would be a Delvaux home again. It was one thing I planned on making happen before I died. I glanced at the ceiling and hoped she’d gone to the attic to avoid my confrontation with my mother downstairs. “Stay upstairs, Annabelle,” I whispered hoping she had listened. Straightening my shoulders, I walked to the bedroom door and opened it with determination. Questioning my mother shouldn’t be this difficult. I did all I could to avoid her, so actually going to talk to her was unsettling. The smell of her cigarette hit my nose by the time I was halfway down the stairs. I didn’t pause at the landing but kept going until I found her lounging in the

great room with the television on Real Housewives of Atlanta. She lifted her gaze from the large flat screen to me. She raised her eyebrows, but not one wrinkle formed on her forehead. The hand that held her cigarette was paused on its way to her lips. Most women who smoked as much as she did at her age would show some wrinkles around her mouth at least. The smoothness of her skin made her appear to be in her mid-twenties. “I can’t think of one reason you’d purposely seek me out,” she drawled with her thick southern accent. “I’m fascinated.” With a smirk, she placed the cigarette to her overly plump lips, which were enhanced by a spell not collagen. I could come back with something equally as snarky but I preferred to get to the point and not drag this out. We didn’t get along and prolonging our interaction was a bad idea. I had questions, and I was sure only she had the answer to them. Until I found out who that man had been or what he had been, I wasn’t going to relax. Not that I was ever completely relaxed. “There is a protection spell around this house. One that keeps out only one person or caster. It’s… not typical. And it’s strong.” I stopped and waited for her to show some sign of acknowledgement. She wouldn’t just tell me, but I was hoping for a flicker in her expression, for some sign she knew what I was talking about. I saw nothing. Not even an attempt to conceal something. She looked more confused than anything. Which was frustrating. I’d hoped, no, I’d expected her to know, possibly lie, but not this. “What the fuck are you talking about?” she asked, sitting up slowly from her reclined position. She seemed more alert and agitated. Definitely not what I had expected. Crap. She was the one who was supposed to know who the man was and what that spell was around the house. “The night of the wedding, there was a man out front, and he couldn’t get past a barrier he claimed was there to keep him out. I didn’t believe him but then I felt it.” I stopped again, not sure how much she needed to know. If she didn’t cast the spell, then someone did, and the hell she’d raise figuring it out could lead to a mess. I hadn’t anticipated this. “There was a man outside during the wedding that was unable to cross a caster line, and you’re just now telling me about this?” Her voice was getting louder

with each word out of her mouth. She would be yelling soon. Not abnormal for our conversations. “I assumed you were the one to cast it. It’s powerful and it’s dark. I don’t know of anyone else in this house who could cast something like that. I wasn’t hiding it from you. I just thought you knew.” I was getting defensive even though I knew that was not the right way to handle the woman. She saw it as a weakness and would only get nastier the more defensive I got. I couldn’t explain myself and get anywhere with her. “And you woke up this morning, three weeks later, with the burning urge to ask about it?” She snapped at me annoyed. She stood up then walked across the large room toward the front windows. I knew she was trying to sense it, the draw of the spell. I waited, now more concerned than before. I started to tell her about the man when her body went rigid. She didn’t move and neither did I as I watched her. What was only moments felt like an eternity when she finally turned around to face me. The look in her eyes was one so foreign it took me a moment to read it correctly. My mother had never shown any fear. Seeing it now was unique and slightly terrifying. “That’s not a caster spell,” she said softer than normal. “What is it then?” I asked growing frustrated. She lifted her shoulders then dropped them. “I have no fucking clue,” was her unexpected response. How did she not know what it was and what could place a barrier like that other than a caster? “Seriously? What else could it be? It’s keeping a man out for a reason. One specific man. There is magic in it. I felt it, you can feel it,” I was making solid points, but she just shook her head. “That’s not magic,” she said. That made no sense. Of course, it was magic. “How can it not be magic?” She turned back to look outside and then crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. My mother had never looked fragile or weak until this moment. Oddly

enough, I didn’t care for it much. She was shallow, beautiful, wicked, and powerful. I was comfortable with that knowledge. But I realized, in that moment, that seeing her appear weak bothered me. I didn’t want her to be vulnerable and that shocked me more than anything else we were discussing. She had never shown me love or motherly affection, yet I had wanted her to. Most of my childhood I’d ached for it, even when I knew she was evil. She was my mom. It had to be that inner little girl who was bothered by my mother appearing weak and vulnerable. I stood there watching her and processing these new feelings while trying to decide on whether to tell her what the stranger said, how he had looked, how he had vanished into thin air, or keeping it all to myself. When she didn’t say anything after several minutes, I made my decision. I said nothing more. She was not strong enough to handle this. I hadn’t ever felt the need to protect my mother and now that I was choosing to do it made me worry about my own darkness. Was it growing inside me and I didn’t notice it? My mother was not one to inspire comion. How could I care about her after all she had done? Either the cursed blood we shared was getting thicker in my veins or it was the goodness of my father allowing me to care for her still. I hoped it was the latter. “It’s time you accept who you are. If the three of you were ed then you’d have the power to read this. Understand it,” she spun around and pointed her finger at me. That vulnerable moment gone. The vicious monster I knew she could be was, once again, flashing in her eyes. “If there is danger out there, we won’t know because you’re selfish and stupid! We are meant to be unstoppable. All powerful! I had THREE OF YOU!” I opened my mouth to defend myself when Annabelle appeared. She snatched the cigarette from my mother’s fingers and pressed it against her bare thigh. This was Annabelle’s favorite place to burn my mother. It seemed to hurt the worse. Annabelle had made note of that over the years and went for the leg closest to the inner thigh as possible. “MOTHER FUCKER!” my mom screamed from the pain. Annabelle giggled then dropped the cigarette on the floor in front of her and was gone. Meanwhile, my mom was holding her thigh and cursing.

“You need to be more careful with those things,” I told her just as I did every time Annabelle burned her. She shot me a glare then held her hand out for the cigarette to fly back up and into her palm. It was still lit when she took it between her fingers. I could see in her glare that she thought it was me that burned her. She was trying to figure out how I did it and got away with it. I never moved my lips to cast when it happened. Even though I had tried to tell her about Annabelle when I was younger she refused to believe me. Not because she didn’t believe in spirits. That would be silly, considering what we were. But because when she moved in she had used a spell to send the others away. It just hadn’t been strong enough for Annabelle and her anchor here. “Oh, a mother and daughter gathering and I wasn’t included,” Leanne said sweetly as she entered the room dressed like she was going out to a club at ten in the morning. “Have you seen my favorite diamond studs?” she then asked me with a pouty frown. “I could have sworn I left them on the dresser last night, but they’re missing this morning.” I had my guesses on who had moved the earrings. I kept from smiling as I shrugged my shoulders. “I haven’t seen them.” “Keep up with your shit,” my mother told her in a less aggressive tone than she had been using with me. “I see it’s a warm and cozy family chat,” Leanne’s syrupy smile was back. “It’s over,” mother snapped as she sat back down on the sofa. Our conversation was over and now felt as if it hadn’t happened. She reached for her can of Diet Coke and waved her hand holding the cigarette in my direction. “Go, you’re interrupting my show.” “Awww so soon?” Leanne asked. “Both of you go,” mother ordered. I didn’t need another invitation to get out of there. I wished I hadn’t come to her in the first place. But at least I knew now that she was clueless as to who cast the barrier around the house. She also seemed to no longer care about it or the stranger, which made me wonder if she’d felt the barrier or just pretended to.

Twelve The Buddy

Not being able to attend Delvaux University like every Delvaux before me was hard. Even if I were to get student loans or save enough money, I wouldn’t be accepted. The Delvaux family hated my mother, and unfortunately, that hate spread to me as well. Walking around campus was something I had done with my father, and now when I needed to get away from my family, I walked the same paths he had taken me on. Being here reminded me of the good inside of me that the Kamlock blood couldn’t ruin or take away from me. After the odd dealings with my mother today, I needed to feel close to my dad. My father had loved the campus grounds, and in the fall months, he said it was magical. As a child, I’d loved to think of things being magical. It sounded beautiful and exciting. Although mother didn’t teach us our abilities until after my father was killed, I had always known I was different. Seeing spirits and realizing at a young age that no one else saw them was one of my earlier clues that I wasn’t like everyone else. My sisters, although, older hadn’t manifested any early signs or if they had I didn’t know about it. I was younger than they were and we hadn’t ever been close. Magical was no longer a word I cherished. However, the grounds of Delvaux University were serene and that was something I sought out. My life was, for the most part, void of serenity. I found an empty bench under the shade of mosscovered trees outside the campus library. Sitting and staring out at the water across the lawn allowed me the peace to think. Students rushed by with backpacks on their shoulders and cell phones in their hands. They were all behind me and far enough away that their voices didn’t disturb me. There were no distractions here. No mother or sisters. Just me and my-“Considering enrolling?” Rathe’s voice broke the quiet. It seemed as if I couldn’t escape those who bothered me. I looked to my left and met his curious gaze. He was standing a couple feet away with a black backpack over his left shoulder that looked weighted down with

books. He was making his casual attire of jeans and a tee shirt look like a magazine ad. He was also ruining my peace. “No,” I replied, glaring at him. I didn’t want company, and I sure didn’t want his. My unwarranted anger toward him wasn’t fair but I couldn’t help but feel it. “Is it not a family requirement?” he asked. Pausing, I continued to glare at him, but I was also trying to decide what he meant by that. Either he was just making small talk or he knew something I didn’t want him to know. I hedged my response, not wanting to give him any real details about my life. “Neither of my sisters attended college,” I replied vaguely. There was a chance he knew nothing of my connection to the University. “I would have thought with all the time you’ve spent with Leanne you’d know that,” I added and immediately wished I hadn’t. It made me sound catty. He smirked then and I knew he was thinking I was jealous. That was infuriating and I deserved it for saying anything at all. I needed to show indifference. It’s what I felt now… or what I wanted to feel. “Leanne didn’t talk much about anything important, but I wasn’t referring to your sisters’ lack of higher education. I’m referring to the fact you share the same last name as the founder of this University.” I had never given him my last name. Either Leanne or Margo had let it slip. I shrugged that off. It wasn’t like my last name was a secret. I was proud to be a Delvaux. I just didn’t like explaining why I wasn’t a student here when I had wanted nothing more most of my life. “I see you’ve done some snooping,” I replied, not answering his question. Because the fact my father’s family disowned me was not his business. Rathe took the book bag off his shoulder and dropped it on the grass beside the bench, before ing me without an invitation to do so. He was interrupting my solitude in the worst way. “I was curious. You intrigue me. So, I asked a few questions,” he replied, and I could feel his gaze on me, although I was focused on the water fountain in the pond in front of us, and refusing to look at him.

“Do you not have somewhere to be? A class maybe?” I asked. His deep, low chuckle made me feel funny inside, and I was suddenly very uneasy. “At the moment, I can’t think of anywhere I need to be,” he paused then added “what about me bothers you so much, Catalina?” Hearing him say my full name made the strange tingle he was causing intensify. Dang it. Not this guy. I knew being attracted to a man who wasn’t a caster was pointless. There was no future in it. Yet my body was overpowering my good sense. Everything but my brain was attracted to Rathe. Simply because my brain knew he was too weak for a Kamlock female. He’d fallen under Leanne’s spell too easily. I may not be like my mother and sisters but their cursed blood was also mine. “Cat,” I corrected him. Because hearing him say Cat sounded less delicious. “Your name is Catalina, and it fits you. Cat does not.” He was so matter of fact that I turned my head to look at him without thinking. His eyes were more steel gray than blue today. It didn’t make them any less mesmerizing though. He held his own sort of magic with his sheer sex appeal. “I judged you when we first met. I do that with men. First impressions are important to me. I’m always spot on. It’s a gut thing. Although you made me question my gut. You enjoyed reading, that’s rare in guys these days. You said some things at the wedding that made me think just this once I was off. I thought possibly there was more to you than… I expected. But then you proved I’d been right in the beginning. You’re everything I don’t like about men.” That was harsh but it would put him off. Unlike the repel charm was doing because It seemed to have no effect on him. His brows drew together in a frown, but unlike Heath his appeared sinister instead of sincere. “Oh, now I’m even more curious. Please elaborate,” he coaxed. I doubted he was curious. More like insulted would be a better description. I didn’t want to elaborate, but I couldn’t seem to shut up. His face, the way he smelled and the nearness of his body made him impossible to ignore. My brain was screaming at me to shut up and walk away. While the rest of me wanted to

sit here and do whatever he asked of me. It was a precarious situation. “You see only outward beauty,” I replied honestly. Men were visual creatures. It wasn’t fair to judge them because of it, but I did. I judged them because, although they were attracted to beauty, they never seemed to dig deeper. At least the ones I’d met didn’t. Heath would have been the perfect man had he not been this way, too. He always chose beautiful women, and they ended up being crazy or mean. Sometimes both. I had yet to meet a man who sought a woman’s inner beauty first. “The bitterness in your voice when you say that it’s as if you have been overlooked due to the way you look. Almost as if you’re angry because you believe you lack beauty… yet, you’re so damn beautiful it’s scary. You’re a perfect mix of confusing as hell.” Hearing him call me beautiful had the same effect as the last time he had said it. My stomach felt all the silly butterflies, and I wished more than anything that wasn’t the case. The repel charm was definitely not working on Rathe. I could still repel him, but I’d need to cast a more complex spell. The idea didn’t appeal to me at all. Which made me annoyed with myself. Rathe could possibly have the power to hurt me far more than Cody had five years ago. I was older now, but memories of Cody still stung. Cody… the only guy I had slept with… the guy I’d thought loved me and I’d given him my virginity. I had been young and idealistic about love. He had shown me at a young age that sex and love were not one in the same. ing the image of Cody and Geneva naked in her bed the day after he took my virginity always snapped me back to reality. The tingles Rathe caused immediately vanished. “Outer beauty is a curse,” I said, holding his gaze. He wasn’t frowning anymore but he did appear to be listening intently, so I continued. “I know how I look but that doesn’t make me a person worth knowing. A person can be beautiful on the outside and evil on the inside. If you look deeper, watch how they interact, how they treat others, what they deem as important then you see their appearance clearly.” I stopped. That was enough explanation. There was no need for me to start ranting. It would change nothing. Human nature was never going to change. “I agree,” he said then he leaned closer. “But let me point out that you didn’t give me that chance. You formed your opinion of me too quickly, by my

appearance alone. You did the very thing you hate the most in men. You judged me on my looks.” “No,” I snapped. “I didn’t.” But I had just said all that to him. I sighed heavily and looked up at the sky instead of at him. Frustrated that he had so easily walked me right into that corner. “Okay, maybe I did,” I finally itted then looked back at him. He smiled, but it wasn’t a bright one or an amused smile. It was more of a disappointed quirk on his lips. Then he shook his head in defeat. “You barely know me, Catalina.” That was true. It was as it should be. I didn’t need to know him. I knew, from the little I had gotten to know of him, that I was attracted to more than just his appearance. That was dangerous for both of us. “What I do know is that you got one look at Leanne and were immediately entranced. Drawn in by her empty smile. She’s stunning, just like our mother, but inside, she’s not a good person. There is nothing redeemable about either of my sisters. Both are perfect on the outside but there’s nothing beyond that. No depth. No kindness. Not even a small trace.” I used that explanation as my defense mechanism to keep him back. “Yes, your sister is beautiful. Your entire family is stunning including you. But I wasn’t entranced. I was attracted sure but very briefly. It took me about ten minutes of talking to her to find she was vain, selfish, arrogant, cruel, and liked to hide it all behind a very conniving sweet smile. I’m a man, and yes, I like pretty things, but I have known enough girls like your sister to quickly recognize the signs.” I didn’t respond immediately. I had expected him to get annoyed with me. I wasn’t sure what to say. Not once in my life had I heard a man say those things about either of my sisters. He was right, and men never looked past their beauty to see the evil lurking inside. They didn’t care, or they were too stupid to see it. Whatever the case, it was always their downfall. Most didn’t often meet death over this mistake, but those who allowed my sisters and mother to pull them in tempted fate. I’d stopped warning them years ago. It was pointless. They never listened. “Yes, she’s all of those things.” I finally agreed then I looked back out at the

water. He wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, he was very likable, he was intelligent, I would guess he was well read, fun to spend time with, easy to talk to, and because of that he needed to leave me alone. Forget me, my family, and move on. I wasn’t one he needed to waste time getting to know. Asking about me was pointless. I wasn’t dangerous like Leanne, but I was dangerous in other ways. My world was not one he wanted to be near. “Is your dislike of me simply due to the time I spent with your sister? Or is there more?” He wasn’t going to just stand up and walk away. The fact he was so determined intrigued me more. I was a very silly girl. I knew better. “I’m not sure I know you well enough to form a real opinion of you,” I said with a sigh then glanced back at him. “Why do you care what I think?” Without pause, he replied “From the moment I saw you I couldn’t look away. The second I heard your voice, I was drawn in and then I looked into your eyes… they were intelligent, annoyed, haunted, and I wanted to get to know you.” “You’re wasting time with me. I’m not that interesting.” I decided to stop him from saying anything else that might cause me to swoon like an idiot right here on the damn grass. He chuckled and lifted the corner of his mouth that brought out a small dimple. “You couldn’t be boring if you tried.” Stop! He needed to stop! I was losing my ground here. I had to focus and why liking someone normal was off limits. Why I was off limits. I was bad for him or anyone. I would need to cast a more complex spell to protect him from me after all. He needed to be as bored with me as the others were. “I don’t date. I don’t do relationships. I can’t. I’m… bad at them.” I blurted all that out without thinking it through. My cheeks flamed red, and I couldn’t look at him. Instead, I studied my hands clasped tightly in my lap. I had sounded like a crazy person, and I wished more than anything I could vanish like the warlock I didn’t know. Anything to not have to look at Rathe again. “I don’t recall asking you out on a date much less any kind of commitment.” His tone was amused. I couldn’t meet his gaze now. This just went from embarrassing to humiliating. “But I’d like to be friends,” he continued. “I think

we could be really damn good friends. I don’t have any of those here. Not real friends. And I’d like one.” Friends. He wanted to be my friend. My face could not be any more bright red than I knew it was. It was on fire. I had to be the color of a candy apple. How had I gotten this all so wrong? Was I vain? Was this why the spell didn’t work on him? Yes. That was exactly it. He wasn’t interested in me as more than a friend so he wasn’t repelled from me. I’d thought he was hitting on me with all his talk of my beauty and his interest. This was clearly where I suffered socially. I didn’t understand men, and I’d just made that blatantly obvious. I covered my face with both my hands then laughed because what else could I do? Duely was right when he said I was naïve. This was proof of it right here. I was good at friendship and if I could ever look at Rathe again, without wanting to crawl under a rock and hide from this complete misunderstanding, then we could be friends. “You’re right. I’m a good friend,” I agreed, still covering my face. I wasn’t brave enough to make eye . “I’m also not the best at reading men or understanding males at all. I guess that’s been made clear,” I added, hoping that made this less awkward for him. I had no idea what he was thinking because I wasn’t about to look at his expression. He could be horrified for all I know. He could be amused. He could be wanting to get away from me and not sure how to leave. “It’s part of what makes you so interesting,” he said, and there was definite amusement in his tone. I felt him move and the crackling of the dead leaves under his feet told me he was standing up. He was about to leave. “I might be the best friend you’ve ever had. Heath and Margo need to watch out.” I knew he was teasing me and trying to lighten the mood. “I’ve got a coffee date in fifteen minutes, and I need to head that way, but I can’t go until you look at me.” I was going to regret this decision. No, I was already regretting it because I had never been friends with a male who I found so attractive. I needed to see him in a different light to be fair to us both. However, it seemed unfair to cast a spell to fix such a human problem. If I wanted to live a normal life, then I had to deal with normal things. Such as a beautiful boy who wanted to be my friend and went on coffee dates with girls he did want to date. I dropped my hands from my face and smiled up at him apologetically. He held out his hand, and I couldn’t keep the slight disappointment, at his request to be

my friend, from creeping in a little. Which was ridiculous. This way I could get to know him and not keep pushing him away. There was no other option for us, and his not wanting to date me was a good thing. I slipped my hand into his and we shook. “See you around, buddy,” he said, then winked before turning to walk away with a swagger that would never lose its appeal. Staying here now was going to be pointless. I needed to walk and get away from this spot. That alone should have made me want to hate him. He’d just ruined my tranquil meditation spot. Unfortunately, it didn’t make me hold any ill will against him. Standing up with my thoughts on Rathe, and replaying our conversation, I almost missed him… the warlock. He was several yards away, leaning against a tree. Dressed in the same black combat boots, ripped jeans and motorcycle jacket he’d worn the night of the wedding. He was watching me. His lips in a half grin, as if he had heard our conversation. Had he been listening? How long had he been there? Why was he here? This time, there wasn’t a wedding party full of people. There was only me. He was here watching me. Which meant he had been at the wedding to see me. Right? I didn’t run from things. I wasn’t running from him. He had the answers I needed. If this mystery was going to be solved, then I had to speak to him. I started to take a step in his direction, but he was gone again.

Thirteen The Bar

It wasn’t even five o’clock but for Duely it was always five o’clock somewhere. Beer was an anytime beverage for him. Walking into the bar he owned, and finding him leaned back in a chair with his feet propped up on a table, as he drank a longneck, was not surprising. It was typical and, honestly, a relief. I preferred to text or call him before just showing up unannounced. The last time I had just shown up had been traumatizing. I’d walked back to his office looking for him to find his bartender at the time, Dave, on his knees in front of Duely giving him a blowjob. Duely hadn’t minded but had appeared more amused than anything. However, Dave, who was engaged to a female, had been horrified. Duely had been slightly annoyed that Dave had then quit over the incident. The strange warlock appearance and disappearance had rattled me so much I’d forgotten to call him first. I had nowhere else to go, and no one else to tell about the sighting or stalking, whatever it had been. I needed an opinion, and I needed to not be alone. The longer I thought about it, the more I realized that I might possibly be in danger, and I didn’t know why. Duely was all I had when it came to the world of the charmed. I trusted no one else. He jerked his attention from the television he’d been watching toward me when the door closed. His eyes widened in surprise. It was not normal for me to just show up. Especially since I’d just seen him at the wedding. We often went months without seeing each other. “Cat? You okay?” He dropped his feet to the floor and shifted his entire body to face me. “The man, or warlock, whatever he is, I saw him. He was at the college. Watching me.” I blurted it all out. Not asking if he was alone first or thinking about my words. I was starting to panic, and it was clouding my good sense. Duely frowned. “The stranger at the wedding?” he asked for clarification. I nodded.

“Fuck,” he muttered then nodded to the seat beside him. “Sit down. I’ll fix you a drink.” I started to say I didn’t need a drink but decided maybe I did. I had a potentially dangerous warlock stalking me. “I talked to my mother,” I told him, then I walked over to take a seat at the bar. “I’m sure she was a wealth of knowledge,” he drawled heavy on the sarcasm. “She knew nothing. She didn’t cast…” I trailed off, paused and glanced around to make sure we were alone. He hadn’t looked concerned when I’d said “warlock,” so we probably were. “No one is here. Just us,” he assured me. I leaned forward on the bar with both elbows resting on the smooth surface before continuing. “She said it wasn’t a caster’s magic and that she didn’t know what it was. Which makes no sense. What else could it be?” Duely placed ice cubes in a glass frowning so hard his perfect complexion wrinkled around his forehead. “What else did she say?” he asked. “That I was interrupting The Real Housewives of Atlanta and to leave the room,” I replied. He rolled his eyes. “Typical,” he muttered. “If it’s not magic then what else could it be?” “I don’t know,” he said then slid the martini glass across the surface toward me. I didn’t ask what it was he’d mixed up for me. I didn’t care. I took a drink and remained silent because I knew he wasn’t done speaking. When things were serious and he needed to focus, it took him several minutes to finish a thought. “Do you think she felt anything, Cat? Did she say she did? I didn’t feel it but that could only mean it’s something I’ve not been taught. Like before I was taught to cast spells. I didn’t understand Latin. I had to learn it.” I sat there and thought about that for a moment. He took a drink of the amber

liquid in the new glass he had in front of him. My mother didn’t say she felt anything. She only said it wasn’t magic. That wasn’t itting she did or did not feel anything. “I the first time I heard my mother cast a spell and the Latin was so odd. It was confusing. You may have been taught whatever power is out there, and I haven’t. But it depends on if your mother really felt something.” “I wondered the same thing but she seemed scared of whatever it was,” I paused and then frowned at Duely. “I didn’t know you had to be taught to cast. My sisters did, too. I always understood the language. Why is that?” He paused mid drink and stared at me a moment, before pointing his finger at me while still holding the glass. “That. That right there. That shit isn’t normal. Casters aren’t born knowing Latin, Cat. We are taught it by our mothers. You’re more fucking powerful than you realize, and your mother knows. You scare her. I think you scare them all.” He grinned then. “Damn wish I knew what you were. Why you’re so badass. Better yet I’d like to see you unleash that shit on my dear aunt and cousins.” Duely was never going to let that go, and I had blown the idea off but maybe there was something about me that was different. Was it possible I’d been ignoring him because I didn’t want to believe that? “The subject at hand is the warlock stalking me. What do I do? I can’t hide from him. I don’t know if he’s after me to hurt me or if he thinks I know something I don’t.” I threw up my hands in frustration. “I am trying not to freak out. If I’m this badass you think I am then I wouldn’t be scared of a warlock. I can’t vanish or teleport. He can. He’s the powerful badass. Not me.” “Have you ever tried?” he asked me. “Tried what?” I replied then took a drink of my cocktail. “Teleporting.” Was he serious? I didn’t know magic like that. No one in our family did. No one I knew did. I’d heard of it just like he had in scary witch stories but that was it. “Why would I try something I didn’t think was actually possible until I saw it with my own eyes?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “That’s my point. You didn’t know it was possible. Now you do. Why don’t you try it?” I needed his help not this insanity. “Duely, focus. I could be in danger. I don’t know who he is or what he wants or how to find him again.” Duely was the only one I could even ask for advice. Telling my mother wasn’t going to help anything. She’d just start ranting about the power of three. Saying how I was making us all vulnerable. Although I now doubted my mother and sisters were in any danger. He wasn’t stalking them. He was stalking me. I wasn’t making anyone vulnerable but myself, and my mother would use this as a reason to push the power of three stuff again. As terrifying as this man was with his vanishing act and mysterious identity, I had rather take him on than team up with my evil sisters. Satan himself would need to come knocking on my door and threatening to take my soul first and possibly even then I’d need some time to think about which scenario was worse. “For now, just stay here. Until we know who he is and what’s going on. You have no help with your sisters and mother. At least with me you’d have backup.” Duely was well-known for not sleeping alone. His apartment over the bar was a revolving door of people coming to do kinky things I didn’t want to think about. “As nice as that sounds, I’m not sure I’m up for witnessing your bedroom activities.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m aware of that, Snow White. I’ll keep my debauchery away from the apartment while you’re here. That includes smoking my occasional… daily doobie down here.” I thought about his offer, about how I would be cramping his style, and realized I had no other options. I was scared, and I didn’t even know if I should be. Right now, all I had was Duely’s offer and that would give me time to figure out what was happening. “Okay, thank you,” I said. “I can’t stay hidden here, but I might sleep better at night being here. I have work tomorrow, which will be a good distraction.” “You’re always welcome here. Not sure if I’m much protection. This mother fucker may kill us both,” was his ever so comforting response. “You want another drink?”

I started to say no then changed my mind. “Vodka cranberry.” He gave a nod of approval. “You working tonight?” “No.” “Good. That gives me a little time to think about how I have no clue what the hell to do about this shit.” I laughed. I had no reason to laugh, but Duely always managed to make me laugh. “Other than being stalked by a scary ass warlock, how are things going with Margo and Heath’s new roommate? Heath getting jealous over the new guy showing interest?” “No. Heath is my friend. He isn’t attracted to me. I’ve told you that already and Rathe… we’re friends,” I replied, even though it sounded odd saying it. I’d almost forgotten my embarrassing interaction with Rathe today. Almost. My cheeks heated as I ed how stupid I had sounded. “Ah, there’s a story there,” he said already amused. “What happened? Fuck knows I need a distraction. Entertain me with whatever is making you turn cherry red.” I took a long drink of the red liquid, hoping its relaxing power kicked in soon. Inhaling deeply, only to cringe a little at the scent of cigarettes that permeated the bar, I lifted my gaze to Duely and gave him a brief rundown of my earlier interaction with Rathe.

Fourteen The Phone Call

Sleep came eventually that night. The noise from the bar below wasn’t what kept me awake, although I was used to the silence that surrounded the house I’d lived in most of my life. Sleep was impossible when my brain refused to shut off. I tried thinking of a million different things, but my thoughts always found a way back to the warlock or whatever he was. The last glance at the time on my phone had read 2:38. The bar would have had last call at three and maybe it had quietened down then. I couldn’t , but it had been shortly after that I’d fallen asleep. When my alarm went off at eight fifteen, I groaned and wished I wasn’t booked for the lunch shift today at the restaurant. I reached for my phone and turned off the alarm. The fact I hadn’t come home last night didn’t seem to concern my mother or sister. Neither had texted me, but I hadn’t expected them to. I wondered if I ever did go missing, how long it would take before someone noticed. My guess was Margo would figure it out first, but it may take her a few days. We didn’t always talk daily. She was busy with school, and I had… life. Duely’s bedroom door was closed, and I knew he wouldn’t emerge from his room until at least noon. I went to the bathroom and showered then quickly dressed in yesterday’s clothing before going to the kitchen and opening the fridge to find nothing but a half carton of milk, one slightly old looking tomato and a jar of sliced jalapenos. If I was going to stay here, I’d need to buy some food. Maybe even cook a meal or two. What did Duely survive on anyway? The bar food he served downstairs? If so, that was a terrible diet. But then so was his daily consumption of beer. There was no changing him. With a sigh, I headed for the door. I’d grab something on the way to my house to get a bag of necessities and my work uniform. Locking up behind me, I headed for the back entrance of the building. The old heavy door needed a paint job, but I knew it wasn’t going to get one in this decade or the next. Duely didn’t care about things like that and if he did he’d never manually paint it. Magic would be involved. I made sure I had my keys

and wallet in my purse, before letting it close with a hard thud behind me. The brightness of the sun was odd with the cool bite in the air this morning. I wasn’t wearing a jacket. I shivered a little and picked up my pace to get inside my car, so I could crank up the heat. Fall was finally arriving in Savannah. The moment I opened the car door, my phone started to ring. Climbing in, I closed the door behind me, before reaching into my purse to retrieve my phone. It was Margo. She was never up this early. “Good morning,” I said in way of greeting then started the ignition in need of heat. Chill bumps covered my arms. “Where are you?” she asked sharply. “Uh, in my car,” I replied slowly and slightly confused by her tone of voice. “But where in your car? I looked on my Find My Friends app, and it says you’re in a bad part of town! It has you at a bar.” Smiling, I turned the car onto the main road. “I stand corrected. It seems if I go missing my best friend will track my phone and find me right away,” I said to her. “That’s not funny, Cat. Where are you? Are you okay?” “I stayed the night at Duely’s. I’m now in my car and headed to my house to get ready for work. I may stop somewhere and grab breakfast. Do you need any more details or is that enough?” I replied with thick sarcasm in my voice. “Where does Duely live? And why would you stay there?” She wasn’t satisfied just yet. Why was Margo awake this early tracking me? That was the real question here. Not my whereabouts or why I am at Duely’s. I couldn’t tell her the truth about that anyway. “He lives in an apartment over his bar, and I came to visit him yesterday, and we drank a little, so I stayed over.” I had been lying to Margo about this part of my life for as long as I’d known her. I didn’t like doing it, but there was no other choice. If I wanted to keep them safe then Margo and Heath couldn’t know the truth.

“YOU drank so much you had to stay the night at a bar?” She sounded shocked. I didn’t blame her. “I didn’t sleep in the bar. I slept in Duely’s apartment OVER the bar,” I corrected her. “Same thing,” she said. “Is she okay?” I heard a familiar male voice ask in the background. “Do I need to go get her?” he then added. That wasn’t Heath’s voice either. I felt a slight thrill that I needed to get control of because Rathe was only asking because we were now friends. Not because he wanted to see me. “She’s driving home now,” Margo answered him. “I’m guessing Jacque hasn’t gotten in touch with you yet. He called Heath, which is why I started looking for you.” “Why would Jacque need to get in touch with me? I know I’m scheduled for first shift.” I asked confused by her question. She sighed. “Well,” there was a pause, “just come here first. Not home. You don’t need your uniform. You won’t be going into work today. They’re closed.” “What? Why?” I asked, not liking the way her voice sounded. She was not wanting to tell me something. A very important something too if the restaurant was closed. “Where is Heath?” I then asked, knowing he’d tell me what was going on. “He’s not here… and I don’t want you to get upset. Just come here and I’ll tell you.” “Tell me now. I’m already upset not knowing what’s going on. It doesn’t help my driving,” I added the last part, knowing she’d spit it out quicker. “Okay, well, pull over,” she said. “I am pulled over,” I lied. “Tell me.” She paused for a moment, and I thought I heard her whisper something to Rathe, but she muffled the receiver with her hand. I was about to demand she tell me

again when her hand moved, and she sighed into the phone. “Mattia had a heart attack last night… and he, he didn’t make it. Greta’s with her kids and the restaurant is obviously closed today and well, Jacque wasn’t sure when or if it would be opened up again. Heath told me to call you, then he rushed out the door. He was meeting Jacque at Grandezzas to close things up properly for an extended time. The food and all, you know.” She stopped talking. I then pulled off the road. I felt numb. The world outside rushed by with life while I sat there in the silence of my car. I said nothing because I couldn’t. I was trying to let the words I’d heard sink in, even though I was struggling to understand them. Or accept them. I’d just seen Mattia a few days ago. He’d been jolly and laughing. Greta had been telling me that her oldest daughter was expecting again. This time a girl. He’d then made a joke about his offspring breeding like rabbits, and Greta had slapped his arm, smiling at his comment. She loved her children, but she adored her grandchildren. They both did. I heard Margo saying something more, but I didn’t hear her. It was as if she was talking through a muffled phone again. I couldn’t focus on her words to understand them. A tear fell from my cheek onto my hand. I glanced down at the wetness and more fell, splashing as they hit my hands that were clenched in my lap. “Catalina?” Rathe’s voice was deep and smooth as it met my ear. I blinked but continued to stare at my tears as they fell. I heard him though. I wasn’t sure I could ever not hear him. When he spoke, all my senses snapped to attention. Damn him for that. His voice was nice. Soothing. That was odd, wasn’t it? That I was soothed by his voice. “Catalina!” he said my name again, and this time, he sounded worried. “Yes,” I replied, my voice was raspy. “Are you pulled over?” His voice was firm and there was an edge to it. “Yes,” I replied. Was he angry about something? “Good. Stay there. I’ll have Margo drive me to your location. Don’t drive. Promise me that.” I didn’t ask him why. I understood. “Okay,” I agreed.

“We are headed to her car right now. She said you’re only ten minutes away,” he told me. “Okay,” I said again. “What’s your favorite color?” he asked. It was such a strange question. Why did he care about that? I had just been told my friend was dead, and I was grieving. “Blue,” I replied, instead of asking him why he wanted to know. I was too upset to ask questions. “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?” he then asked me. “Mint chocolate chip,” I replied immediately, again, not asking him why he wanted to know. “I would have guessed you were a peanut butter cup fan,” he said, then asked, “What was your first pet?” I had never had a pet. My mother hated animals. “I’ve never had one,” I told him. “Why?” “My mother wouldn’t let me.” “What pet did you want if you could have had one?” “A dog. Any dog. I really like dogs.” I had never said that to anyone. But then no one had ever asked me. I surprised myself with the answer. “What would you name the dog?” he then asked me. I had to think about that harder. I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. To name a dog, I think I’d have to meet it. Spend time with it. Figure out what name fit.” “You’d be a good dog owner,” he said. Why were we talking about this? What was the purpose of all these questions? Did he suddenly have a burning desire to know all about me? I doubted it.

“Favorite movie?” he asked. I started to tell him that was an impossible answer because I had too many favorites when my phone beeped that I had another call. Pulling it back to see the screen, Heath’s name was there, staring back at me. He was calling to tell me about Mattia. For a moment, I’d been distracted… And then I understood. What the questions were all about. Rathe had been distracting me. It had worked. The tears were dried on my face, and I wasn’t clenching my hands tightly anymore. Seeing Heath’s name, however, reminded me of the news, and I closed my eyes tightly. “Catalina,” Rathe’s voice called out to me, and I inhaled deeply. “Heath is calling me,” I told him with difficulty. My throat was thick from the sudden return of emotion. “Ignore him. I’ll text him. Now, Favorite movie?” His voice was soothing. It made me want to answer his questions just to hear him talk some more. I found that odd. Craving the sound of a voice was new for me. “Too many to name,” I replied, after a moment. “Fair enough. What was your favorite movie as a kid then?” he asked. “Anne of Green Gables.” “You read the books, too,” he said with confidence. It wasn’t a question. He was making a statement. “They were my favorites.” “Did you read Little Women, too?” he asked. “Of course,” I replied, as if that was a silly question. Because it was. “Favorite chip?” he then asked. “Chip?” I asked, the word seeming out of place when we had just been talking about books and movies.

“Food. Snack item made from potato or corn sometimes rice.” There was a softness to his tone, and I liked it. I wanted to hear more of it and see his mouth when he spoke. That was an off-limit thought. “Takis,” I said quickly, needing to stop my train of thought. “So you like spicy then?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.” I was expecting him to ask me something else, and I was anxious to hear him talk more, when a knock on my window startled me. I didn’t want to be interrupted. This was a moment I wanted to hold onto. There was sadness clawing at me, but his voice was keeping that from taking over. When I looked up to see who it was, Rathe was there. All six foot three inches of gorgeous man. I stared at him, confused, then I went to unlock my door. The second the lock released, he jerked my door open. “Let me drive,” he said, holding out his hand toward me. I looked at his hand, and our handshake yesterday flashed in my mind and how embarrassed I’d been then. Now, here he was coming to drive me because I had lost a friend. Mattia was my boss, but he had also been a friend. He had cared for me and the rest of his employees. He asked us about our lives and family. He had been more than just our boss. Tears stung my eyes, and I knew I was going to cry again. The distraction of Rathe’s voice and his questions no longer kept me from thinking of the horrible news. Rathe pulled me up out of the driver’s seat and wrapped his arms around me in a hug. He smelled of sandalwood and something else dark and masculine that made me want to cling to him for several reasons. As delicious as the smell on his skin was, it didn’t take away the pain of knowing my friend was gone. “Get it out. Go ahead and cry,” he said. “You’re not alone now.” I would always be alone. He didn’t understand that nor had he ever felt alone, I was sure. Not my kind of alone. He hadn’t meant it that way, of course. He meant I was no longer alone in my car crying by myself. The truth of my loneliness added to the grief. He was so very wrong. I was alone. In everything. I cried. This time it wasn’t silent tears. I sobbed as I thought of poor Greta. I couldn’t imagine Greta without Mattia. They’d been together for forty-five years this last August. They were always together. You didn’t see one without the

other. Would she feel as if she had lost part of herself? How horrible that would be to love and be loved so deeply for most of your life then lose that person. That other half gone suddenly and you were left to keep going. Life didn’t stop, and you had to find a way to fight through the darkness and live. My heart ached for her, for her children and grandchildren who loved him so deeply. He’d been their center. Yet, as painful as it would be, they were lucky they had experienced it. They’d known his love. Having him and losing him was better than never having him. My tears slowed as I thought of my father. His death had broken my heart. I’d been lost for a while, but his memory lived on and gave me strength. Once, I hadn’t been alone. For a few short years, I’d had a father who loved me. The crying had been for the loss of Mattia and the pain his family would experience, but I was crying for me, too. The little girl who had been loved once. The girl who had lost the only person on earth she knew loved her unconditionally. The loss at a time I didn’t know loneliness. The woman I had become was an expert at being alone. Heath and Margo loved me. I knew that, but the truth about me that they didn’t know would always cloud that for me. If they really knew me, would they love me? “Are you ready to ride? I’ll take you wherever you want to go.” Rathe’s voice was deeper than normal. I stood there, not wanting to move from his embrace, but knowing I couldn’t stand here forever. Facing life and the ugliness that it held was there ahead of me. Clinging to Rathe wouldn’t make that go away. I let him go and stepped back. The warmth from his body began to fade, but I could smell him still on my shirt. I wish I could bottle that scent. “Thanks,” I said, wiping at my face with the back of my hand. I was thankful there was no eye makeup to be smeared all over my cheeks. Even in the midst of heartbreak, I was still aware that I was standing in front of a beautiful man. I couldn’t help wishing my eyes weren’t red and swollen as he studied me. He wanted friendship and that was all I had to give. This should be a perfect situation. It would have been had I not craved him in a way that made my body act crazily around him. He wasn’t meant for me. No man was meant for me. I needed to that. His hand reached down and clasped mine. Just that warm connection made me feel at peace. If only the world had been different. If only I hadn’t been born charmed. I could have wanted him then. I could have crushed on him and wished

he liked me back. Without a word, he walked me around to the enger side of the car and opened it for me to get inside. He wasn’t perfect either. I knew that. He had flaws even if they weren’t physical. Everyone had flaws. His flaws were forgivable. Mine weren’t. Mine were a curse. The kindness he was showing me made the flaws he did have seem unimportant. I could easily forget the playboy that Rathe was if I allowed myself to get wrapped up in his current chivalry. There had to be a reason he had come to get me. People did kind things but I’d found they chose the kind things they did when the action benefited them as well. No one wanted to it it, but every human had a vein of selfishness they didn’t want to acknowledge. “Why did you come?” I asked. “We’re friends. I told you I would be an excellent friend,” he replied. I didn’t expect the truth. He was human after all. He may not even realize he had a selfish reason for coming to my rescue. I wasn’t going to hold that against him. I just needed to it and not let my needy soul live in the fantasyland others seemed to do. I gave a weak smile because I had no honest response to his answer. Telling him that human nature didn’t work that way would make me sound ungrateful, and I was very grateful. For whatever reason he came today, he had made it easier to bear. “Thank you,” I finally said, before getting inside my car. He deserved a thank you at least. He wasn’t going to be my best friend. I had two of those. He was going to be my biggest heartache. I didn’t need a fortune teller to tell me that. I was already slightly cracked because of him. He was too damn charming. He should have been born a Kamlock. Even without magical blood and the ability to cast spells, he could charm a room full of females. He’d managed to charm me, and I was the one who had been born charmed. That thought made me grin.

Fifteen The Wine

Sitting on the sofa wrapped in Margo’s red fuzzy blanket, I pretended to watch an episode of The Office that I had seen several times. The Office was my go to show when I needed a laugh. Tonight, it wasn’t working. I found humor in nothing. Heath was sitting beside me, and he didn’t appear to be watching the television either. Glancing at him, I noticed he was busy texting someone, but I didn’t look over to see who. Heath had been single longer than his norm. When he had said he was taking a break from women, I hadn’t believed that would last as long as it had. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was texting a new romantic interest. Hopefully this time he found one that wasn’t crazy. It was highly doubtful, though. Heath attracted the worst females. Margo was flirting with Duely in the kitchen. He’d come over to cook dinner even though I wasn’t sure how good Duely’s cooking was. His fridge had been pathetic this morning, but anything was better than Margo’s cooking. Duely also knew I’d want to go back to his place tonight. He’d come over with the excuse of cooking for us when it was just a way to check on me. There had been no sign of the stalking warlock though. I’d told him as much in a quiet whisper after he arrived. Although I’d spent the majority of the day inside this apartment, the idea that he might show up here worried me. I’d cast a protection around the building earlier, but I didn’t know if I was strong enough for whatever he was. I wouldn’t bring danger to my friends. Duely and I both being here was probably safer for them than my not being here at all. As much as I wanted to see Greta and hug her while silently placing a rune of peace and ease around her, I knew she was surrounded by her family. She needed them more than she needed an incantation. Magic wasn’t always the answer. It manipulated things, and, often, that was to benefit fate, but I believed the love of family was stronger. I didn’t have that, but I had seen its power in others. The staff at Grandezzas had met earlier at the restaurant to help clean up and put

things away. It had been the only time I left the apartment. Heath had picked me up and taken me there. So many tears and sad hearts. It only spoke of the impact Mattia had on everyone. He’d cared for his employees, and this place had felt like a home for me. For others that weren’t as misplaced as me in life, it had been a place they enjoyed working because of the way we were treated. Even after death, Mattia was taking care of everyone. The doors were closing for an indefinite amount of time, but everyone was given a check that covered two weeks’ worth of salary and tips. We were sent home with food as the kitchen was cleared out. Greta had family here, and she could use the food, but Jacque said she insisted the employees take the food. She was struggling with us all being without a job, but we all completely understood her need to close the doors. I couldn’t see her here without Mattia. The idea of it seemed so wrong and depressing. The amount of food we’d been sent home with was why we were cooking tonight and not just ordering take out. There was too much food to fit in the fridge at Heath and Margo’s apartment. Duely had brought a cooler, and Heath had filled it with food when I had said Duely had an empty fridge. Normally, being surrounded by Heath, Margo, and Duely would be enjoyable. They were the only three people on the planet I loved. They were the closest thing I would ever have to a family. I wanted to believe my grief was what had me so down. I’m sure part of it was just that. The sadness of this day was overwhelming. I was well aware of my faults and acknowledged them. I had fought my nature from the time I understood the ugly inside me. I knew that my current mood had much to do with Rathe’s absence. I wasn’t happy about it, and I wished I could make this longing I seemed to be experiencing for the man stop. I could make a man want me with magic; I could make him do anything I wanted. But I couldn’t make myself feel a certain way. I had no control over my emotions with magic. No manipulating myself. Which sucked about right now. I wanted him here. That was dangerous for him and for me. I did not need to be attached to him; yet, here I was… attached. “Tell this woman that Italian food requires garlic,” Duely called from the opening to the kitchen. “Ignore her. She likes garlic; she’s just worried about her breath stinking,” Heath replied.

I heard Duely’s laughter and then some giggling from Margo. We could see them when they were at the bar, but there was a wall between where we sat on the sofa and the stove area in the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what the giggling was about, but Duely had promised not to do anything with Margo or to give her the wrong idea. We’d had that talk years ago. I refreshed his memory regularly. He seemed to need it when he was around anyone he found attractive. “She’s enjoying his attention,” Heath said with a smirk. “When he’s flirting, she forgets that his bisexuality confuses her.” The power the Kamlock’s possessed was something I would not use on a man; however, Duely had been doing it with others so long, it came natural to him. His smile held a certain amount of bewitchment. It was part of the Kamlock curse that I countered with the spell I had placed around me to do the opposite with men. “Most people do. Duely is charming. Lethally so,” I explained the best I could. “Your family all seems to have that charm thing going for them,” he replied, as if he had read my mind. If he only knew just how charming they all were. It was worse than anything he could imagine. Not knowing was what would keep them safe. “I’m afraid so,” I agreed, in a forlorn voice I hadn’t meant to show. I was tired from last night and today. Keeping my emotions in check and hidden was proving to be difficult when I was worn down. I needed to try harder. He reached over and placed his hand over mine. “You doing okay?” he asked, lowering his voice. He’d noticed my tone. I had expected him to. Heath was observant when he cared. “Yeah. I’m glad Greta has her kids with her,” I paused, then added, “We need to go on a job search.” I wanted to change the subject. My emotions were raw enough. The truth was Heath and I both needed an income and quickly. The check we had gotten from Grandezzas was helpful and gave us a small cushion. Heath had rent to pay and I wanted to have a rent to pay. I was close to saving up enough to get a place of my own with the security that I could afford it for the first six months, without needing my weekly paycheck. I still held the dream that I could go to community college and get my nursing degree.

He frowned. “I’ve been thinking about it, too. Not sure where to go look. You thinking of another server job?” I hadn’t thought that far, but I needed to. Working at another restaurant for someone else seemed too sad. Maybe discussing a job right now wasn’t the best idea. There didn’t seem to be a topic that could distract me. I shrugged in response and looked down at his hand over mine. How normal that felt, how comfortable, how easy. There was no racing heart or silly butterflies. It was just Heath. He wasn’t work to be around. No having to keep myself in check. Sighing because my thoughts kept going to Rathe, I wished I didn’t think about him so much. He hadn’t said where he was going tonight. He’d been dressed in jeans, a black button up shirt, and his hair was brushed and tucked neatly behind his ears. He’d smelled more heavenly than earlier today. I’d been able to smell him from across the room. The only explanation for his appearance had to be a girl. He had a date and didn’t want to bring it up after the day we’d had around here. The slight pain in my chest at the thought of him being with another female tonight frustrated me, and I pushed it aside. I should focus on my friends and think about anything else. It was difficult, though, when the memory of him asking me easy but pointless questions to distract me kept replaying in my mind. Duely had nothing on Rathe when it came to charm. Rathe’s was natural, with no magical enhancements. Although I’d never mention that to Duely. I realized then that Heath was looking at me, clearly waiting on more of a response than my casual shrug. Deciding I needed to say something when I realized Heath was looking at me “I think I may look at some other places. I want to eventually take classes at the community college. I won’t ever get a four-year degree from a University they way y’all will, but I don’t require it to become a nurse.” There was no bitterness in my words. I was thankful my friends were given the chance to attend Delvaux. They both wanted careers that would require a four-year degree from a university. I’d been offered no scholarships because I hadn’t applied for any. I had been a very mediocre student on purpose. A family with my mother’s wealth didn’t qualify for financial help either. My dad hadn’t left anything to me, but then, he

wasn’t expecting to die so soon. Everything had been left to my mother, which was the Kamlock way. They made sure it was all theirs. No sharing with the offspring. Which is fine. The Delvaux money my mother had was blood money. Evil money. I didn’t want what my mother stole from my father. “You’re talented, you’re smart, you’re beautiful,” Heath paused then after saying I was beautiful. I wasn’t sure he’d ever said that to me. Was he as surprised as I was? I glanced up at him, and he was staring at me with a nervous expression. “You have a world of opportunities. A degree from Delvaux isn’t required to have opportunities. You could do anything you wanted.” He said all that too quickly and his voice held too much inflection. I saw something there in his gaze then. Ten, I wondered if Duely was right? Had I missed it, and somewhere along the way, Heath had developed feelings for me? Was the time he spent around me too much and some of that damn cursed charm leaked through? Had I not been on guard with him, and let something slip? Could Heath feel something for me more than friendship because of who I was? If he was feeling something for me, it had to be the magic in my blood drawing him, not just me. We had been friends for most of our life. A natural attraction to me wouldn’t suddenly be developing. If Duely was right then this was the damn Kamlock curse getting to him. “Who wants a drink of this expensive ass wine that Heath brought back?” Duely asked, walking into the living room with two wine glasses full of a lovely red color liquid. It was a welcomed distraction, and I wanted to hug Duely for it. He had no idea how awkward things were about to get in here if we were left alone. Heath looked like he was planning on saying more mushy things or singing my praises. No, not Heath. I could not let Heath be affected by my jinxed blood. “Me!” I blurted, jerking my hand out from under Heath’s, thankful for a reason to break that . I held out a hand toward Duely a little too anxiously. This was all too much to work through in one day: losing Mattia, realizing I have a thing for Rathe, needing a new job, and finding that my best friend may be suffering from the effects of the enchantment inside me I thought I’d protected him from. Wine sounded like a fine idea right now. “That’s my girl! Drink up. I may make an alcoholic out of you yet. Two days in a row,” Duely said, walking over to place the wine in my outstretched hand. I wish I could enjoy this wine instead of needing to chug it down. Greta had left

instructions with Jacque that the wine cellar and bar were to be cleared out. She said to send it home with responsible employees. Jacque had sent ten bottles of more expensive red wine with Heath, and he’d given me a box of white wines and the only bottle of Titos they had left in the bar. There would be no savoring the rich liquid. Duely was just a drinker. He wouldn’t savor it the way it should be either. Hopefully for Greta’s sake, someone enjoyed it properly. Heath took the other glass and thanked him. Without waiting on him or anyone else to take a drink, I took one long gulp. It was delicious but I didn’t care about that right now. I just needed to relax. The ball of tension building in me was very close to exploding. “Damn, girl, enjoy it. Don’t chug it,” Duely said, giving me a look that said we’d chat later. He knew my expressions too well. I had to cover up this sudden stress over Heath before Margo walked in and asked me what was wrong. Duely rarely savored wine. He didn’t care that I was drinking it fast. “It’s been a day,” I told him sourly. He needed to let this go. He didn’t look convinced. “I’m almost done. Y’all ready to eat or do you want to try the appetizers Margo made? I watched her do it, so they’re edible. Some crusty bread shit she put a lot of cheese and mushrooms on.” Margo walked in carrying a plate and flashed us all a bright smile. Her cheeks were flushed, and I knew it had nothing to do with the wine. Duely had been up to something in there. I shot him a quick warning glare. He needed to keep his hands off my friends. All of them. I loved him, but he was too sexually promiscuous. He knew my rule. “I made crostinis, and you forgot to mention the bacon. I added bacon to them. They’re delicious. I swear. Mom makes these and I used her recipe,” Margo explained as she held out the plate of appetizers with pride in her expression. “If it’s mom’s recipe she’s right, they’re killer,” Heath said. “But Margo can’t cook for shit so I’ll be the one to test it first.” Margo stuck her tongue out at Heath and handed him the plate to take a crostini. I didn’t wait for him to eat it and give a review. I went ahead and took one, too. I needed some food in my stomach since I had gulped the wine. Food had been something I hadn’t been in the mood for and drinking on an empty stomach

would have me drunk in two more gulps. “Brave,” Duely said to me, but he was doing it to tease Margo. He needed to lay off that. I was not in the frame of mind to deal with the drama that would cause. “Not mom’s… but close,” Heath said, giving his sister a brotherly smirk. His sibling affection was clear when he spoke to her, even if they had their share of fights. I had always thought I was like a second sister to him. Did he smile at me like that? Maybe once he had, but he didn’t anymore, and I wondered if I had missed the moment when it changed. When had the difference started with him? My feelings hadn’t changed. Heath was my dear friend just like Margo. Was this all my exhaustion messing with my thoughts or was I just now seeing what I hadn’t noticed before? I gave Margo a pleased smile when I realized she was looking at me. Margo wasn’t as observant as her brother. I didn’t need to give her cause to start asking questions. “These are excellent,” I assured her. I wasn’t sure if they were excellent or if I was just hungry from the stress. It didn’t matter because I was going to eat another one. “Thank you,” she said and curtsied then set the plate down on the oversized round ottoman that they used as a place to prop feet and to set food in the living room. She didn’t seem to notice the mood change in here. She was probably slightly tipsy from the wine she’d been drinking in the kitchen while cooking with Duely. “Where did the sex god go?” Duely asked looking around the room. That got my attention and I scowled in his direction. I wasn’t going to answer him. I didn’t want to think about or talk about Rathe. I wish he hadn’t brought him up. I wanted to just drink and eat. “He had a date,” Heath confirmed my suspicion and then he took another crostini. My chest felt that sharp pang I wanted to make go away forever. I hated feeling this way. This was so wrong. I wasn’t supposed to care. I couldn’t care. Rathe was so sure we’d be great friends; yet, I wasn’t sure I could let myself be near him. “Ah, I see,” Duely said the words in a way that held inflection only I understood.

He was calling me out on my mood. He thought this was all about Rathe being on a date. He had no idea the mountain of crap that had caused this need to drink. I felt like shoving a sock in his mouth. I could shut his mouth easily enough, and he knew it. I’d done it before with the brilliant addition of a zipper to replace his lips. Sure, it was childish, but then I was thirteen at the time. I didn’t look at Duely. I took another drink of my wine instead. It was definitely smooth, and there was a fruity aftertaste that I should be enjoying and not gulping down like water. “Easy, Snow White,” Duely warned, and I continued to ignore him. His nickname for me, to remind me of my naivety, was annoying. I turned my attention to The Office to see it was on the next episode. I tried to focus on the antics that normally made me laugh. Even with the wine, I still wasn’t finding it funny. “Ignore him,” Margo said, walking back into the room carrying a new bottle of wine. “Looks like we need to break open another one.” She walked toward me. “You never drink. Enjoy it. We all need it tonight.” I let her fill my glass back up, and I felt the relaxing warmth that was starting to flow through my body. Taking another drink, I sat back and sighed from the slight numbness it was creating. She was right; I needed this. I was thankful for the yummy liquid. I watched as Heath retrieved the cover that had fallen from my lap to the floor when I’d sat up so abruptly earlier. He covered my legs back up and that was nice. He was always nice. I smiled at him without worry that he felt other things. I was sure that I had been overthinking that. It was easier to relax now and not make things up in my head to stress about that weren’t even there. “Thank you,” I told him. “This wine is good.” He chuckled. “Yeah, Cat, it is,” he agreed. “I wonder how much it cost. The bottle that is, like, the whole bottle of wine,” I clarified. “Oh shit,” I heard Duely mutter, and I wondered what was wrong with him. I didn’t glance at him though. He was getting on my nerves, and I was trying to enjoy my buzz. “The restaurant got it at a discount, but this bottle normally sells for one hundred

dollars give or take a few,” Heath told me. His shoulders were brushing mine as he leaned back and propped up his feet on the part of the ottoman the food wasn’t on. “We have two more bottles of the more expensive stuff in there. I put it up for a special occasion.” I wondered what would qualify as a special occasion to Heath. “Graduation!” I said when I thought of it. Duely found my response funny for some reason, and I heard Margo laugh loudly with him. Heath just grinned down at me like he agreed that graduation was an excellent idea. I took another drink and turned my attention to the television. Dwight and Michael were plotting in the staff kitchen and for the first time this evening, I laughed out loud. I knew what was about to happen next to Michael. The others were talking around me, and I felt the warmth from Heath’s body beside mine. We were sitting closer than normal. My entire side felt his and I wondered if he realized we were this close. I started to asked when Duely walked back in the room with a plate of food he placed in front of me. “Eat up, now.” He sounded rather demanding. I didn’t like to be bossed around, but I wasn’t going to argue. I was hungry, and I took the plate while adjusting my position by sitting up straight. I couldn’t eat while leaning back. I focused on my plate and tried very hard to get the food on my fork. It was more difficult than it should be. The noodles were very slippery tonight. It seemed they didn’t want to stick when I tried to spin them around properly. “Help her, Heath!” Margo said loudly then laughed. I glanced at her, and she was laughing at me. My noodle situation was what she found so funny. I probably did look ridiculous, and I laughed with her then I turned to Heath. I smiled at him feeling all cozy and nice under the covers with the familiar scent of Italian food filling the space around us. He was watching me with such a sincere smile that I wanted to hug him, but I was holding my food and that was impossible. He reached for my plate “Here, let me,” he said. I willingly gave my plate away because I couldn’t make it cooperate. He, however, had no problem spinning the fettuccine around the fork. He was a pro at slippery fettuccine, and I had never realized it. “Open up, Cat,” he said, and I did as directed, thankful for the help. The warm

creamy taste hit my tongue, and I closed my lips around the fork. Duely had done a fantastic job with the sauce. He should keep more food in his fridge if he could cook like this. It was also possible he’d used magic to create this and that made me grin. He probably couldn’t cook at all. “Is Catalina unable to feed herself?” The voice. It was back. He was back. Happiness at his return was the only emotion I felt, and I didn’t mind at all. I opened my eyes to see Rathe across the room. I wanted to sigh or maybe I did sigh at the sight of him standing there in all his beauty. His perfect face was scowling. He looked beautiful when he was angry, too. I swallowed my bite of food then beamed at him. Maybe he was hungry, too. That always made men angry. When they were hungry, they got ornery. It was something one couldn’t miss when they served people food for a living. “Hello Rathe!” I said a little too loudly. Why was I yelling? Or was I? He studied me closely, and I wiped at my face with my hand, thinking that the sauce might have gotten on me. I didn’t feel anything there, but then I was feeling a little light headed, so my judgment couldn’t be trusted. “Why is Catalina drunk?” Rathe asked, glancing over to Heath then to Duely. He seemed unhappy about this. “I’m not drunk,” I quickly assured him. I held up my wine. “This is only my second glass. I may be tipsy, though. Yes, I’m sure I am tipsy. If there is food on my face that is why.” “It’s your third glass, and yeah, you’re a little more than tipsy, Snow White,” Duely said, and I studied him as I thought about his words carefully. I didn’t getting a second refill. When had that happened? “She needed it. We all needed it. The break from everything,” Heath said. I agreed with that completely. I nodded my head. This was a much better feeling than what I’d been feeling before the wine. “The wine is delicious. It’s the good stuff. Why is your date over already?” I hadn’t meant to ask him that. It had just come out of my mouth before I could think it through. He wasn’t frowning as severely anymore. Possibly he was getting in a better

mood. I hoped so. I wanted us all to be happy. “It was a commitment. I fulfilled it,” he replied then walked toward the kitchen. “Do we need to go?” Duely asked Heath. Heath shook his head. “No, he’s good. Must have gone badly,” he said the last bit in a quieter tone. Duely leaned back in the chair and kicked his feet up on the ottoman across from us. “Then let’s find something to watch that’s not stupid as shit,” Duely suggested. Heath tossed the remote to him, and I drank some more of my wine. Then took another bite of my food as Heath held it out for me on the fork. I had missed him spinning it on the fork this time. “Eat if you’re gonna keep drinking,” he told me. I chewed my food up and swallowed before replying “Yes sir.” He gave a low laugh and held out another bite for me. I was chewing that up when I felt the sofa on the other side of me sink in as a warm body moved to settle beside me. I could smell the intoxicating sandalwood scent and closed my eyes to breathe it in deeply. “What are you doing?” Heath asked, and I opened my eyes then swallowed. “Rathe smells good,” I explained, then took a drink and sat back on the sofa my other shoulder now brushing against Rathe. That entire side of my body tingled with excitement from his nearness. I couldn’t make my body not like him. My body was of its own accord. Damn traitor. I was supposed to be his friend. My body needed to react to Rathe the way it did to Heath. Turning my head toward his shoulder, I inhaled near his neck deeply. “It’s not fair you look like you do and smell that good,” I told him. Margo giggled, and I thought I heard Duely say “Mother of God.” I wasn’t sure because the deep rumble of a laugh coming from Rathe was too distracting. He had a wonderful laugh, too. All these mesmerizing things about him and I had to be his friend. I needed him to be like Heath if he wanted to be friends.

Suddenly, I was sleepy. My eyes were heavy, and I was cozy near Rathe. Closing my eyes, I inhaled one more time then the darkness wrapped me up.

Sixteen The Kiss

If there was a Heaven, belief was that I’d never make it through the gates. I was born with the dark soul that would keep me out. However, the warmth and scent surrounding me was my idea of Heaven. I couldn’t think of a more intoxicating place to be than where I was, and I felt the sleep slowly fade. My thoughts began to clear as I blinked once, twice, then opened my eyes widely when the black fabric covered chest under my cheek rose and fell slowly. I didn’t move. I should have moved away but the smell was so good I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave it. I let things sink in as I scanned the darkness of the room to figure out where I was at exactly. The living room… I was still in Margo and Heath’s apartment. I was on the sofa and I was warm and cuddled up against… I inhaled the scent again and closed my eyes tightly. Rathe. That smell was Rathe. I took in my position without moving a muscle. I didn’t want him to wake up. Especially while I was draped over his body like this. My right leg was thrown over his legs, and I was lying on one side of his body with my arm thrown over his wide shoulders. I could only blame this on the smell. In my sleep, I had been drawn to his scent and apparently climbed on top of him or at least tried to. The warmth from his breath was near the back of my neck. It was so close that his exhale caused goosebumps on my arms. I shivered wishing this didn’t feel so amazing. His hand moved… sliding around my back. He was holding me. I wasn’t sure where his arm had been before, but he was holding me in place now. In his sleep, he was pulling me closer, too. That made me feel marginally better. It probably shouldn’t. He was a man and I was pressing against him. I tried to stay still and calm as not to wake him. I needed to why we were cuddled up asleep. I’d been drinking wine, it had started to relax me and make me think less. Rathe had returned from his date, and I grimaced then,

ing he’d been on a date and I’d been upset about that. He’d sat beside me. I had wanted to smell him more because I was possibly drunk. I hadn’t been sleepy, though… yet, I ed little else. Had I fallen asleep so easily? I wasn’t drunk enough to out. Three glasses was not enough to knock me out so quickly. “If you want to stretch out you can,” Rathe’s voice was a raspy, deep whisper I wasn’t expecting to hear. I gasped in response to his voice. He was awake, and here I was sprawled all over him. What should I do now? Thank him and go to Margo’s room? Or was Duely in there? I lifted my head and scanned the room for the others. As expected we were alone and I doubted Duely left me here. We still had the stranger following me. Duely knew I was unsure about that and I wanted the extra magic if I was being stalked. Needing to say something to Rathe, I was thankful for the darkness. I sat up and looked down at him. His hand fell from me as I put the distance between us. “I’m sorry,” I said, still not sure how I ed out so easily. I wasn’t a big drinker, but it took more than that to get to me normally. He stretched his long muscular body, and I had to fight hard not to ire the movement. I kept my gaze on his face, yet his expression seemed to be amused, knowing I was struggling not to look at his body. “Why are you sorry, Catalina?” he asked, his sleep affected tone making me shiver again. Dang it. I had to get control of myself, or I was going to embarrass myself yet again. I tried to sound unaffected when I replied, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep on top of you. I guess I was more exhausted than I realized. You should have pushed me off and gone to your bed where it’s more comfortable.” He grinned that half smile that made his dimple appear. “You were peaceful and I didn’t want to take my delicious scent from you.” I covered my face and groaned. I had said that out loud. Great. I had hoped that was the only thing I shared with him. “I do smell pretty damn good.” He was definitely amused. I dropped my hands from my face and asked “Is Duely here?” I didn’t want to

know if I’d said anything else humiliating. I needed to leave. He shot his gaze toward Margo’s room. My stomach dropped. He knew he wasn’t supposed to go there. “Oh no,” I whispered, hating myself for drinking. “He’s alone in there. She’s in Heath’s bed and Heath’s on the floor in his room,” he explained. I was relieved, but I had also made the sleeping arrangements complicated. “He should have woken me up,” I said, now feeling guilty for more than just making Rathe uncomfortable. “I wasn’t letting anyone wake you or move you,” Rathe’s response sounded firm. As if no one could argue with him. I liked that. I shouldn’t and I wished I didn’t. “Why? Because having me sprawl all over you was oh so comfortable,” I replied, wanting to sound as if his response hadn’t made me feel giddy. “It was nice, Catalina. I won’t lie. You were so peaceful. I liked you asleep on me and that wasn’t something I was willing to give up.” Oh. My heart was racing now, and breathing suddenly seemed difficult. The way his voice had dropped when he explained it only made his explanation more exciting. I just stared at him, not sure what to say. I wasn’t positive my voice wouldn’t give away the effect his words had on me. Silence seemed to be safer. The privacy and the darkness made desires inside me stir that I had been doing my best to fight off. He moved, sliding his hand back around my waist, pulling me close to him again. My body heated and the flush he was causing now had nothing to do with embarrassment. I was reacting to the attraction. “It’s not even three yet. We have plenty of hours left to sleep. Stay with me.” Ignoring that suggestion wouldn’t be possible. I lay my head down on his shoulder with hesitance. “I’m not sure this is what friends do,” I told him or me or both of us.

“It is,” he assured me, his breath far too close to my ear. I inhaled sharply and my skin hummed with pleasure. “Tonight, I had a date. One I couldn’t enjoy because all I could think about was someone else.” He lowered his head and his lips were so close to my ear they brushed it as he spoke. “Do you know who that was, Catalina?” he asked in a low husky voice. I couldn’t speak. I did manage to shake my head a little. “You. I couldn’t think of anything but you.” My breath caught in my throat, and I wanted to run from this and cling to him at the same time. Every reason I should leave faded as he pressed his lips to my ear then moved to kiss my temple. “I just wanted to get back here, knowing you were here. Then I get here and you curl into me so sweet and soft. It’s exactly where I wanted to be.” His lips moved without breaking down to my ear then he shifted me, and he was kissing my neck, turning me until my chest was pressed to his and his lips were on my cheek. He was pausing, teasing, possibly battling with himself. I wasn’t sure but my body was so consumed with a greedy need to get more I didn’t care. I just didn’t want him to stop any of it. With one easy shift, his hands were on my waist, and our lips were touching. Every nerve on my body caught fire when the tip of his tongue touched the sensitive flesh of my lips. I couldn’t inhale, my lungs were burning with the need of oxygen. My lips parted for him though without needing my help. They knew what they wanted and the taste was possibly better than the smell of his skin. I gasped, finally getting the air my body needed. My hands squeezed his shoulders for as I straddled him then I sank my fingers into his hair. “Fuck,” he uttered the one word before his hand grabbed a handful of my hair and he began kissing me with a hunger that matched mine. My need to get lost in him was so wild that I pressed my body down onto him and felt the rigidness of his erection between my legs. That instantly lit a flame where the already sensitive nerves had been pulsing. I moaned and kissed him with more excitement. The pleasure was teasing me with a promise of more. I wiggled slightly, causing us both to inhale sharply and still. His hand tightened in my hair, and he pulled my head back with one tug. His eyes held me with such a dark intensity that I should have been scared, but I

wasn’t. I was crazed for him. The flash in his eyes as he saw my complete surrender had me close to begging. Consequences be damned. My body and mind were now in one accord. No more battling what I craved and what I knew was right. I was giving in to this attraction to Rathe. That acceptance was very short lived as was the heat spiraling between us. Rathe wasn’t giving in or acting on anything. Instead Rathe shook his head no with a firmness that I understood. There was no question to what he was refusing. It was clear. I’d never felt as lost as I did in that moment. I continued to stay very still waiting for an explanation or him to resume making me lose my mind. I wanted to misunderstand his shake of the head. The seconds that past were only a few, but it seemed an eternity. Self-doubt was creeping in and the fire that had gone from a smolder to full blown flame in seconds was doused. “We can’t do this.” Although his voice sounded thick with regret, the words were still the same. I moved. I no longer wanted to crawl all over him. The exact opposite. I wanted to get away from him. The fact I was straddling his lap so brazenly had become embarrassing. His hand let my hair go as I shifted and I was able to quickly move from his embrace. The room was cold without the heat from our bodies. I wrapped my arms around me in a protective manner and glanced around for my shoes. I didn’t know what else to do or say. This was a first for me. I had only ever been intimate with one other boy and that was so long ago. I wanted to leave, but should I leave without Duely? My safety no longer seemed that big of a deal. If I had to choose between the stalking warlock and staying here with Rathe after… after what we had almost done then I was leaning toward the warlock. “Catalina,” he said my name with a firmness that commanded attention, but I didn’t look at him. I just needed a moment to get myself together. To feel less vulnerable and emotionally exposed. I felt raw. “I’m sorry. I started… things,” he said the words as if he truly meant them. I believed him. We were supposed to be friends. He’d been clear on that but I was a female, and I’d been there willingly, climbing all over him with very little encouragement. I couldn’t blame it on him. I saw my Vans tucked under the ottoman and bent down to grab them. Again, I

wasn’t sure if I should go. Leaving here in the middle of the night alone was currently a bad idea, but it seemed to be all I could do. Besides, I didn’t know if the disappearing stranger was dangerous. He was just an unknown and that’s what concerned me. I wasn’t weak. Anything else outside needed to fear me. I had never walked around in fear before and the oddity of it was an annoyance. Kamlock’s didn’t fear. I wasn’t proud of that name, but it was something to right now. I was far from helpless. “You can’t leave,” Rathe said. “It’s late. Take my room. I’ll stay out here.” My head snapped up at that offer to look at him. His regret was clear and that was even more of a reason for me to get the heck out of here. I had seen regret before on a guy. That memory burned in my gut, and it should have been enough to keep me from being stupid tonight. I was glutton for punishment. This was proof. I was leaving. “I’ll be fine. Tell Duely I’m going to my house tonight,” I said then slipped my Vans on quickly. “Catalina, please don’t leave. Talk to me,” he said the last three words as if that was the last thing he wanted to do. He didn’t want to be the reason I left in the middle of the night and was then possibly abducted or raped. There was no reason for him to be concerned about that but he didn’t know just how safe I was from any lurking criminal out there. “I think we talked enough, Rathe. Don’t you? I’m going to leave and end this awkwardness. Trust me, I’ll be fine,” I stopped before I started ranting. My desire to call him names that he probably didn’t deserve reminded me how naïve and inexperienced I truly was. Damn hormones and his pretty face. “If I hadn’t stopped us, we would have messed everything up,” he said, as he stood up. I sure hoped he didn’t think he could keep me from walking out that door. I’d hurt his masculinity a bit if he attempted it. “You’re right. We would have. Thanks for having the will power to stop us.” I sounded angry or bitter and tomorrow I’d wish I had acted more mature about it. We stood there in the darkness with nothing but the moonlight coming through the windows lighting the room. Neither one of us said anything. I studied his

face for something to make this easier but all I saw was the regret. That hurt the most. How was I the only Kamlock woman in history to be the one to get hurt by men? We were born to cause the pain. We were the heartbreaking gold diggers. Kamlock women didn’t get turned down. Except for me, it seemed. Not being evil meant being vulnerable. I took in the look of Rathe’s disheveled hair and the expression on his face. Even Rathe’s rejection couldn’t make me want to be like the other women in my family. I’d choose to be rejected over and over by men than to end up like my mother. Without a word, I turned around and went to pick my purse up from the table beside the front door. When I opened the door, he didn’t say anything. No more begging me to stay. No more argument. He wanted me to leave. He just couldn’t it it. A door opened somewhere inside, and I sighed, knowing we had woken one of the others up. I wasn’t going to argue with any of them. I didn’t want to explain why I was leaving. They had all seen me laying on Rathe asleep before they went to bed. “Where you going?” Duely called out to me. I was glad it was him. “Home,” I told him quietly without looking back. His hearing was excellent. Then I walked out the door and closed it behind me. “Are you going after her?” I heard Rathe ask. “She’ll be safe. At least from anything out there that can hurt her,” Duely replied with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. He hadn’t been worried about my safety with the warlock after all. He had that stupid idea in his head I was special or something more. I could see souls of those ed on, I could control the weather sure, but the only other thing that made me stronger than the rest of the Kamlocks was I could experience emotions such as sympathy and love. I had a heart. That was not a super power. If anything, it made me weaker than the others. Tonight was an example of just how weak it made me. “The only thing you need to be concerned about is Heath’s reaction when he finds out you made her run away in the middle of the night,” Duely added. I rolled my eyes and kept walking away from the mistake I’d made tonight.

Seventeen The Disowning

The darkness had always calmed me. Even as a child, nighttime was my favorite. The quiet, the beauty of the stars, the comfort of being alone. Going home didn’t mean to me what it did to others. I preferred the night and earth to being inside that house. Standing in front of the house, I stared up at it, wishing my life had gone differently. A million times I’d wished my father had lived. I wished I had been old enough to protect him. To keep him safe. The way my mother could have if she’d tried. Slipping off my shoes I left them on the front steps of the house then sank my feet into the cold damp grass. The connection sent a bolt of energy through my body. I soaked in the recharge. Walking around the house, I inhaled the sweet scents of nature. Closing my eyes, I didn’t need to see to find the path to my circle. It drew me toward it. The soil beneath my feet was my guide. My steps went without pause until I stood in the spot that was mine alone. Here I didn’t feel lost. I didn’t have the connection Heath and Margo had with each other and their parents. I didn’t have family surrounding me. I would never have a romantic connection with someone. Tonight I’d forgotten that for a moment, but Rathe had reminded me. Reality had hit as it often did and the pang of loneliness had stung from somewhere deep inside me. I felt stronger here. I wasn’t alone here. I had a connection to something others didn’t. It was as if ancestors who weren’t cold, hateful bitches were with me. I was positive I didn’t have Kamlock ancestors who weren’t shallow dark creatures, but here, I had someone. Something. I just didn’t know what it was or why I had this when the others didn’t. My sisters had mocked me when we were kids and I’d mentioned it to them.

The idea that what surrounded me out here was my father’s side of the family wasn’t possible because I had only seen one of them- Annabelle. She was my ancestor, but it wasn’t the same as when she was near. This was… powerful. It held something. It had energy that ordinary humans didn’t. Whatever I had out here, it had kept me sane in this life I had been born into. With my eyes closed, I tilted my head back and the unity I had warmed my skin. My feet lifted from the ground, and I rested suspended under the stars. I called to no power, I asked for nothing, I pulled no energy, I only accepted the harmony. The breeze stilled, and I knew the animals that had been nearby would flee, leaving the area around me completely void of life other than mine. Not even Annabelle came out here or near this area. Time was of no importance and neither was anything else. It was in this serenity that my pain, heartbreak, sadness didn’t exist. There was no ache in my chest. This was my void. My time of worship when I gave what I was to the earth and allowed it to control me. When the night began to close, I opened my eyes, and slowly, I was lowered back to the ground beneath me. With a deep breath, I released the pain of yesterday, the rejection of hours ago, and the sadness that came with the life I led. I had lost a dear friend and that was my excuse for my weakness around Rathe. It wouldn’t happen again. I moved to leave my circle when my gaze lifted to meet my mother’s bright green eyes glowing in the pre-dawn as she watched me. She was several feet away, her long red hair flowing free down her back. With the breeze catching the silky strands and the moonlight on her pale skin, she appeared every bit of the magical being she was. Nothing about her was ordinary. I said nothing to her as I walked closer, waiting on her to say something. Explain her presence. This was not her time of day. She liked her sleep. She was out here for a reason. She sensed my ing with the earth but that wasn’t unusual. I’d done this since I was a child. If she wanted to taunt me or criticize me for not doing what she wanted then she’d have waited until another time. Her rest wouldn’t have been interrupted for me. She was nervous, and I wondered why. The glow in her eyes was a show of sorcery. She was on guard and ready to cast at any moment. I didn’t feel any

danger around us. I saw no reason for her to be so edgy and alert. “You need to leave here,” she called out to me. “What?” I asked, unsure I heard her correctly. “The force around this house was placed here for you. Zephyr came yesterday to see if the girls were in any danger. I told him about the man you saw at the wedding and the barrier that he couldn’t cross. He brought two more warlocks with him. No one can break it nor do we know what it is.” She inhaled deeply, and her eyes flickered as if there was sunlight in the darkness causing it. “You refused the circle of three. You rejected the power of the charmed that was to be your destiny. Now, you need to go. Leave this house and don’t return.” I wondered if this was Zephyr’s idea to get me to break and agree to the power of three. Threaten to send me away by claiming the stranger was after me. It sounded conniving enough that my mother had come up with it, but I would bet, she had help with the details. “So, you’re kicking me out of the family?” I asked in shock. Did they think I would fall for this? When had I ever given them a reason to think I was so gullible? She said nothing. “How is this all about me? Did the spell speak to Zephyr? Tell him it was here to protect me?” I asked, wondering how far she was going to take this. I knew my mother would do anything for the power of three but this wasn’t something I ever expected. The snarl I recognized on Persephone’s otherwise perfect face meant I’d pissed her off. She wanted to scare me into bending to her will. I wasn’t going to give her any ground here. I didn’t back away from her. Instead, I took two steps in her direction, making it clear I was not a child she could control. She didn’t move, but her eyes flashed a warning. As if I was suddenly an enemy instead of her daughter. “There is sorcery and there is something that es the darkness. It’s an eclipse, Catalina. A voodoo that black magic isn’t strong enough to contain. Your soul calls out to it. I feared it would one day. My hope was that you’d stop being a

selfish brat and accept the gift of three. That your sisters ed forces would cleanse you of the other. Time has run out.” She pointed a single finger at me. “You waited too long. You wouldn’t allow the Kamlock gift to save you. Now he knows. He isn’t searching for you any longer. He found you.” I took another step toward her, and this time, she backed up. “What are you talking about? What voodoo? Who has found me?” She took several more steps back away from me. I saw the terror in her eyes and I wondered, once again, what could terrify my mother. “Is it the stranger from the wedding? Is that what this is about? He is after me and you know who he is? Or is this a trick to get me to give into the power of three?” I was starting to think this was more than a manipulation. Did she truly believe someone was after me and might harm her? She shook her head. “No. That’s over. He’s here. There will be no power of three this generation. My choices years ago cursed it, and now, it’s back to haunt us all.” She was talking too fast for me to make sense of all the stuff she was spewing. She was becoming hysterical. “You want me to take my things and leave here? Not come back? You no longer desire the power of three that your daughters would possess? I find that hard to believe,” then I added, “Where do you expect me to go?” it wasn’t that I hadn’t planned on leaving soon, but not at this moment, without a job. I had money saved but not enough to make me feel secure. I also didn’t plan on leaving with my mother demanding I go, immediately. Her eyes flared wide, and she pointed at the distance. “Just go. Far away from here. Don’t return. Zephyr has Leanne with him until you are cleared out and gone.” I stood there, staring at my mother, seeing no emotion other than fear in her expression. There was no sadness, no pain, no concern for me, no love. Nothing. I’d always thought maybe deep down she had some form of motherly affection for me. She’d never told me she loved me, but then she’d never said that to my sisters either. I just thought she had to care for us somewhere under it all. It seemed she did for Leanne and probably for Geneva… but not me. I was being tossed out. I had tried way too hard in this life to get any connection from this

family. Nothing but pain came from being here. Hanging onto a hope that I might belong somewhere was a childish dream that I had let go of mentally but not physically. This place held memories of my father. Leaving that behind would hurt, but leaving the emptiness would be easy. She was demanding I leave, and she was right. It was time. We no longer needed each other. “Mea est enim omnis,” I called out. I didn’t want to see my bedroom again. I didn’t want to see Annabelle and have to explain things to her. She had lost so many already. There was no need for me to revisit a place that had long since been a home. My things didn’t need me to collect and move. They’d come to me like I had commanded. I began walking toward my mother, just to watch her back away from me. It was bizarre to see her cower away from me. As a child, she’d treated me in ways that made me feel weak, unwanted, hated. I was savoring the fear in her eyes, and I knew the darkness inside me was roaring through my veins. It wanted me to cause pain; yet, until this moment, I’d never had the urge. Or the temptation. “It’s done. I’m gone. Thank you mother for nothing in this life.” I expected a sharp pang of guilt when I said those words aloud but I felt nothing. As it should be. I had been her dissapointment and she’d been sure that I knew it. “You should have never been born,” her voice trembled slightly as she said the words. I agreed with her. I didn’t wish my life on anyone. “Agreed,” I replied. “Don’t go to Duely. Leave him alone,” she added to hurt me. The only blood relative that cared for me, she wanted me to also leave alone. Even now, she was trying to control me. She may be disowning me but I was still a Kamlock. That she couldn’t change. “That’s up to Duely,” I told her. She raised a hand to me as if to protect herself, but she said nothing. I rolled my eyes. This was the most ridiculous thing that I’d ever experienced with this woman, and I’d been through a lot. I thought the time she locked me in a car in the heat of the summer at the age of ten as a test after the casting lessons she’d given us was bad. My sisters hadn’t been testedlike that. Just me. I’d ed the test with ease. It had seemed cruel but this topped that by far.

“You’ve been trying to get rid of me since I was child,” I said wondering if the tests she’d given me my entire life had been her trying to kill me. She didn’t argue with me. She didn’t deny it. I was stunned. Duely was right. I was naive. Terribly naive. This was the end of that though. Today would change me more than anything else she’d ever done. “Goodbye, Mother,” I said not wanting to spend one more moment near her. I had no idea what I was going to do or where I was going to go. All I had was the items that belonged to me. Whatever was in that house that was deemed as mine would be sitting on the front porch waiting on me. I’d been clear when I had spoken the words to conjure them. She didn’t move. She stayed there, watching me as if I might transform into a demon at any moment and she might need to use magic to protect herself. I didn’t know this woman at all and I knew she didn’t know me either. How a woman could give a child life and live with them for twenty years yet feel nothing for them was its own evil. The sun was still two hours away from rising as I walked in the moonlight around the house. The darkness continued to give me peace at a time I should have none. I was unsure where I would go or what I would do, but none of it worried me. The three suitcases sitting on the front porch held what the house deemed as mine. It was more than I expected since there was little I had bought for myself. Anything provided by my father’s money was still my mothers since his money had been left to her alone. The money I’d been saving, so that I could leave here, would be with my things. If I could get a job quickly then I could use that money to find an affordable place to live. I had no desire to go back on that porch or near it’s entrance. I held my hand, and with a flick, the suitcases lifted and moved without my help to the car. The trunk popped open and all three bags fit inside when there should only be room for one. I waited until it closed, then without a backward glance, I climbed inside and drove away.

Eighteen The Chat

This was how I knew my mother was wrong about me. If I was the evil monster she seemed to think I was then I wouldn’t be feeling the sorrow that was creeping in at the loss of the only home I’d known. With each mile I put between me and that house emotion clogged my throat. I fought it off. I didn’t want to feel anything. The loneliness was more overwhleming now than it had ever been before. After last night’s rejection from Rathe and this morning’s eviction from my mother, I couldn’t feel more unwanted than I did now. I’d driven back into Savannah with no real destination in mind. I had nowhere to go and I wasn’t sure where to start. What to do first. I could call Margo, but going there meant facing Rathe. I expected a call from Heath soon. He’d wake up and find out I was gone. Possibly find out that I left in the middle of the night. He would be worried and call me right away. Margo would sleep later than Heath. She’d track my location then call me. I could expect Duely to text at some point today, too. He wasn’t worried about me last night. He had more faith in my safety than I did. Pulling into the almost empty parking lot of a shopping center, I parked the car. The few cars here had been parked for awhile. They had frost on them and were empty. The city wasn’t awake at this hour. It would slowly start to come alive within the next hour. I had no reason for being parked here. The stores weren’t open yet, but driving around wasting gas wasn’t helping anything. I needed a plan. Continuing to dwell on the events of the past twenty four hours wasn’t helping me focus on the issue at hand. I had no time to feel sorry for myself. I had to figure out where I was going to work, sleep, bathe. I glanced down at my wrinkled clothing. I couldn’t do much looking like this. I would need to clean up before I began going into businesses applying for jobs. No one was going to hire someone who looked as if she’d slept in her clothing, possibly on a bench, in a park all night. I did a quick check in the mirror to see my hair wasn’t any better than my clothing. There was a leaf stuck in the tangled strands. I plucked it out. I had no where to take a shower or even a place to

change clothes. My friends’ apartment was a major- no way in hell - for me. Rathe was the last person I wanted to see today. What was so wrong with me? I had worked hard to be good. I didn’t abuse my powers. I tried my best to live a regular life. One that wasn’t one big easy ride due to magic. I didn’t want to be charmed yet I was. I was different than my family and different from my friends. I fit in nowhere. I was back to feeling sorry for myself. I didn’t do self pity. It was weak and a waste of time. I had to figure out how to clean up. That was my first plan of action. I lifted my eyes to look in the mirror again and frowned. “You are making this more difficult than it has to be,” I said to the hot mess looking back at me. There was an easy answer to fixing my appearance. I had practiced living normal for so long it was never my first choice to cast spells for simple things- like making myself look presentable. When magic was used in getting dressed there was a enhancment that came with it. I didn’t like to use magic this way because it was unfair to those around me. They were affected by something that wasn’t entirely real. Persephone was convinced I was beyond evil, which was absurd. I didn’t even like to use a simple enchantment to fix my appearance. I was half my father. Half of me was good. She was the villian. I wasn’t going to let her words bother me any longer. Regardless of the nonesense she had spewed, I knew who I was. I liked who I was. Pretending to be normal had gained me nothing in life, but it had possibly been the balance that kept me from becoming my mother. If my using magic wasn’t to hurt anyone then I saw no point in making it an issue. The next few weeks I’d need it more than I ever had if I was going to get my life balanced again. Once I had a job, place to live, and possibly a hope in being enrolled in nursing school then I’d stop using it for the little things. Live like I had been living before. Coming to that decision, I glanced around to make sure there had been no new additions to the parking lot and I confirmed it was still me and the empty vehicles. Although there was a bit more traffic on the road, the parking lot was still dead. No one here.

It had been a long time since I used this particular incantation. The last time had been Junior year prom. I’d wanted to impress Cody. That had been a disaster. Not only had Cody been enamored with me, so had most of the other males at the dance and a few females. After making an enemy out of every straight female there but Margo, I had decided to never do that again. Yet here I was about to do it again. I wouldn’t go all out this time. It would be simpler. The bare minimum if that was possible. I’d do the best I could. “quam alii perfect me” The words rolled from my tongue easily. The bite of energy that touched me was similar to an electric charge. A shimmer covered me so briefly the human eye wouldn’t catch it. I felt dread in the pit of my stomach, praying I wasn’t going too far. I didn’t want to deal with the kind of male attention this had caused last time. My eyes were squeezed shut and I was afraid to open them. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to look. The sunvisor was still down with the mirror in front of me. My reflection was what I had expected. The Kamlock beauty stared back at me. The gleam of perfection that came from magic alone. Natural beauty was required, but the use of magic enhanced it. This was going to be a nuisance today. I wouldn’t be able to fade into the background looking like this. It had been the easiest answer to the least of my issues this morning and I had to get over my dislike of drawing attention to myself for today at least. A singular tap on the driver’s side window was not expected and my hand flew to my mouth to smother my squeal. Swinging my head to see who was out there I went from being startled to mildly panicked. It was a brief moment of panic though. He had shown up at the wrong time. I wasn’t in the mood for taking anymore shit from people, family, or strange stalking warlocks. I wasn’t weak, and if he tested me I’d prove it to him. I took a deep breath and reached for the door knob to open it with more force than necessary, causing mister wanna be rock star to move back with a swiftness I hadn’t expected. I’d hoped to hit him with my door. I stared him down, while stepping out of the car. He wasn’t going to see fear in my eyes. He held a small grin as he stood there watching me with one hand in his jean pocket. Even though he never gave a sinister look, you knew there was danger. I would get answers before he disappeared into thin air this time around. I really wasn’t sure at this point just how powerful he was. He may be here to kill me. Oddly that was the least of my concerns this morning.

“Good morning, Catalina. You appear to be jolly.” The way he spoke to me sounded as if we were friends. Like this was a planned visit. “Who are you and why are you following me?” I wasn’t doing small talk with him. He wasn’t stalking me for small talk. He needed to get to the point. He pulled a cigarette from the front pocket of his jacket and offered it to me. “Would you like one? You seem in need of something to take the edge off.” Cigarettes were a common addiction with casters. Especially warlocks. “I hate cigarettes. What do you want?” I repeated. He didn’t snap his fingers the way my mother did to light her cigarettes. It simply lit as he placed it to his lips. Although I’d not seen one lit that way, it still reminded me of a parlor trick meant to impress. I wasn’t impressed. His vanishing was impressive but not that. “I was curious as to why you were sitting alone in an empty parking lot this early in the morning,” he replied. This was not happening again. He was going to give me real answers. Not talk around me in a circle that only he understood. “Until you give me answers, I’m not giving you any.” If he was curious about my actions then he needed to talk. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to say anything. “You’ve got some tough shit about you. I like it. You don’t use the Kamlock charm to get your way. Kudos to you,” he said, then took the cigarette from his mouth. I waited because I was looking for answers, not compliments, if that was what you could even call it. “She kicked you out.” He wasn’t asking. It was a statement. I waited to see if he’d say more. He stood there relaxed as if he had all day for me to respond. I, however, didn’t have all day. “If you mean my psychotic mother then yes,” I replied. He laughed, as if that pleased him. I was glad someone was happy to see me homeless. My scowl deepened, and I crossed my arms over my chest to wait him out. I was tired of being followed. His showing up here in an empty parking lot was the last drop.

“Good for you,” he said then took a deep drag off his cigarette. “Funny you should see it that way,” I drawled. “Since I’m without a home or job. You can see why I wouldn’t be as pleased as you seem to be.” He lifted his chin and let the smoke out in perfect rings. With a sigh, he lifted his left shoulder in a shrug while his left hand remained tucked in his front jean pocket. He looked like he didn’t have a worry in the world. “You don’t need the Kamlocks. You’re not like them.” I opened my mouth to say I didn’t need to be kicked out while I was jobless but his last sentence stopped me. “How long have you been following me?” I asked. I didn’t like it. The idea of being watched gave me the creeps. “You’ve got things figured out,” he said, waving his hand and cigarette at me. “You’re ready to go find a job. May I suggest you shoot for something that pays better than a food server.” He was ignoring my question, and I didn’t need his opinions on my next job. “How long have you been watching me and why?” I said, in what I thought was a very intimidating voice. He sighed as if that question was silly. Instead of answering he took another pull from his smoke stick. He either wasn’t going to answer me or he was taking his own sweet time just to be annoying. I opened my mouth to attempt at being more demanding when he pointed off to my left. “This is about to get interesting.” I followed the direction he was pointing to see a black Dodge Charger coming our way in the otherwise almost vacant parking lot. “Do you know them?” I asked, not sure if I should be worried for whoever was driving that car or concerned because I was about to be outnumbered. I didn’t take my eyes off the car trying to prepare mentally for whatever scenario that was about to go down here. “I believe you do,” was his reply. The rising sunlight hit the front window as the car pulled to a quick stop to our left. It was a face I didn’t want to see for many reasons but right now I didn’t want to see him because this wasn’t safe. I was dealing with a psycho warlock who had some strange obsession with me, and Rathe was no match for him.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath then did the first thing that came to my mind. “et oblinito ianuam” I said holding my hand out as if to physically hold the door closed then dropped it quickly and turned to glare at the warlock in front of me. “Listen, get to the point. Why are you here? I don’t have time for this or patience for games.” He laughed with the cigarette still between his lips. “You locked him inside the car. Fucking hilarious.” “Sure, this is a riot. Just one more thing I have to deal with today. Talk or go away. Just don’t vanish. I can’t explain that away when Ra- he sees it,” I replied, bitterly catching myself before I could say Rathe’s name. He may have hurt me, but I didn’t want him in danger. He was no part of this. The fact he was here had to be Margo’s fault. She and I were going to have a talk about this tracking stuff she was doing. Better yet, I would block her from seeing my location. “Talk, now. He’s going to call my friends and my cousin. They’ll all show up here, and I just don’t need this today. What is it you want?” Figuring this creeper out wasn’t happening this time. Rathe had ended that. One more thing to hold against Rathe. “You know how to survive without the Kamlocks. It was time you broke free from that insane bunch of bitches. Use your fucking witchery voodoo and stop trying to be so motherfucking human. It exhausts me,” he said then tossed his cigarette down. It never hit the ground. It just evaporated into thin air much like he had done before. This time he winked at me “I’m not a fan of polluting the earth.” Then he turned and walked away. I watched him wanting to call out and ask him to tell me who he was and to stop stalking me. But I didn’t want Rathe to hear me. Damn Rathe. I glanced back at his car and lifted my fingers from my side subtly. “Resigno,” I whispered, without moving my lips. Then I checked back to my departing pain in the ass. He was crossing the four lane still visible and normal in appearance. I got very little from that conversation. I knew he would show back up but I was almost positive he meant me no harm. He was currently just a weird creeper who I wished would leave me alone. Sighing, I looked back at the Charger to see Rathe had realized his door was no longer stuck and he could get out. Rathe’s eyes weren’t on me, but he was out of

the car and headed toward me with a determined stride, but his gaze was locked on my departing visitor. I was about to have to lie several times, and I wasn’t sure what lies I was going to use. This was such a nuisance I wanted to just toss out an enchantment to make him forget what he saw or that his doors were locked. Even not liking him very much I couldn’t do it to him. Messing with memory was not good for the human brain. “Are you okay?” he asked, wrapping a hand around my arm the moment he was close enough. I glanced down at his hand and knew it was a protective gesture. As if the warlock came back he could do anything to help me if needed. My world was not for him and that reminder was well timed. Much of the pent-up anger and hurt I was holding against him began to fall away. He’d saved himself last night and didn’t even know it. I should be thankful he hadn’t wanted me. I wouldn’t be the one to have to let him go. There would be no tears and heartbreak as I pushed him away. “I’m fine. Why are you here?” I asked him, realizing that question was becoming popular this morning. I’d asked it a few times already. Hopefully, no one else was going to show up unexpected, and this would be the last time I needed to ask it. “I took Margo’s phone and used it to locate you,” he said, as if that was perfectly okay. “Was Margo awake to unlock her phone?” I asked to be sure he hadn’t stolen Margo’s phone and somehow had her code to sign into it. Because, if so, then he had some issues we needed to discuss. He nodded as if that were the obvious answer. “Why aren’t you at home?” he asked me then still looking at the retreating warlock, even though he was barely visible in the distance. “I’m job hunting today,” I gave him the only truth that he would likely get about my day. He finally looked at me, and I was relieved. I wasn’t sure when my stalker would decide to vanish or if he cared enough not to draw that type of attention. There wasn’t a lot of traffic yet, but there was enough to notice if he just disappeared into thin air.

“It’s six thirty in the morning,” he paused then and took a small step back to take in my appearance. He scanned me slowly starting at my black boots that reached my knees, grey corduroy mini skirt, and form fitting black lowcut sweater. I hadn’t personally seen the entire look on me. It was an outfit I’d seen in an Instagram ad last week and liked. I wasn’t the best at coming up with styles or looks on my own. Using magic to get dressed, required me to have an image in my head. “And you look... incredible.” He finished, staring at me with some confusion I assumed was from my sudden change in appearance, and then concern. That last one I didn’t understand or expect. He was a man, and I had been prepared for him to have that glow of adoration that came from this blasted spell. Was he that unaffected by me that even a charm couldn’t make me attractive to him? No. I was not about to start getting all touchy. This was good. Great, even. Rathe was in no danger of me and that was one less worry to have. Like Heath had always been a safe place for me it was starting to look like Rathe might turn into that too. Except I was attracted to him the way I’d never been with Heath. “Uh, thank you,” I said, realizing I hadn’t responded to his compliment. I’d been so caught up in my own inner battle. “Do you have an interview somewhere?” he asked then. He wasn’t asking me about the man who had been here talking to me and randomly walked off. He also wasn’t saying anything about why he hadn’t jumped out right away. I thought he would be mentioning his car door or at least asking questions about the stranger. Instead he commented on my appearance. I had to fight the sudden rush of giddiness that swept over me. “No, I just wanted to get an early start,” I said. Finally, he glanced back to the road where the warlock was now out of sight. “Did you know that man?” he asked, looking at me again. I shook my head. “Not really. I mean no. I have no idea who he is, but he wanted money. I told him I didn’t have any but told him where the closest homeless shelter was.” That lie came too easily. It rolled out without much thought. It wasn’t as hard to lie to Rathe as I feared it would be. “It’s not safe for you to be out here alone this early. Stores aren’t opened yet.

Where could you possibly go apply at this time?” I decided to handle this with turning the focus on him. “Why did you track my location?” His brows drew together in an irritated way. “Because you left in the middle of the night alone. I was worried. I couldn’t sleep.” I rolled my eyes. I doubted he had laid awake all night. He’d let me walk out of there easy enough. “I was fine, and you were relieved I left. After that... mistake, neither of us wanted to prolong the evening or be in the same apartment.” That had been a bit harsh but it was best to just get it out now and not act like it didn’t happen. He shook his head, and his hand dropped from its grasp on my arm. “Is that what you think?” I didn’t respond right away. I didn’t know what to think about him. He had come looking for me, instead of Heath, which was odd. “How did you get Heath to let you come instead of him?” “This wasn’t Heath’s buisness,” he said sourly. There was more to that story and I wouldn’t get it out of Rathe, but Heath or Margo would tell me. “Well, I’m fine. Safe and sound. I’m not wounded from last night as you can see. Thanks for uh... your concern. I guess.” He could leave now, so I could focus on my game plan for this day. I thought I’d made it as politely clear as possible that he should leave. His job was done. His actions hadn’t caused any damage. “Have breakfast with me. There’s a place less than a mile from here I like to go for omelettes. The coffee is good, too.” Unfortunately that was not an option. I had to stay grounded and not let my stupidity take over again. My heart was too weak right now. I didn’t trust it or my emotions. “Thanks, but I don’t think that’s the best idea. We need to try this friendship thing again in a week or so. I have a lot to work out in my life right now.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. Like magic it fell into a perfect tousled style. I tore my gaze from his hair and stared over his

right shoulder at the buildings behind us. They were much less distracting and not at all mouthwatering. “I’m sorry about last night, Catalina. I was weak and I messed things up. I handled it all wrong. Please forgive me. Don’t let that ruin what we just started building.” I assumed he meant we had been building a friendship. The way he’d been there yesterday morning when I was falling apart over the news of Mattia’s death was definitly some firm blocks he’d laid. One night of a short, over heated make out session wasn’t something to hold against him. I had already accepted it was my fault. “It didn’t ruin anything. I’m just asking for a little time. I don’t blame you for last night. I was the one who started it. You did the right thing. I should be thanking you for stopping it but I’m a little too embarassed by my actions. So,” I smiled then. “Just some time is all I need. Our beginning friendship is safe.” He looked like he was going to say more. His eyes said he wanted to argue or reassure me but he did neither. After a moment, he simply nodded. “Okay,” he said. His response shouldn’t bother me, but it caused yet another pang in my chest. Time would help with this. I was sure of it. I smiled brightly even if I didn’t feel it. He smiled then, too and his dimple appeared. I might get over his hair, those eyes, his body soon enough, but it was going to much harder to get over that dimple.

Nineteen The Hero

My phone rang after I pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the main road. I picked it up and saw Duely’s name on the screen. I pressed accept and put it to my ear. “Hey,” I said in greeting. “Did Rathe find you?” he asked sleepily. He hadn’t been awake long from the sound of his raspy tone. “Yep. He showed up while I was in the middle of a chat with my stalker,” I replied dryly. “Shut the fuck up! What did you do?” He was awake now. “I sealed his doors closed so he couldn’t get out of his car until the warlock was out of sight. Before you ask he walked away he didn’t vanish. I didn’t have to explain that to Rathe. He never mentioned his doors being locked or being unable to get out of the car. Which I expected him to. Odd.” Duely let out a loud breath. “Damn, your morning has been busy. Kicked out of your crazy mother’s house because you’re dangerous, faced the warlock again, and Rathe coming in for the rescue,” he replied then yawned loudly. “Too damn early for all this.” “How did you know Persephone had kicked me out and that she thinks I’m evil?” I immediately asked him. If he’d just woken up then he shouldn’t have this news yet. “My mother texted me after calling while I was alseep and I didn’t answer. She said Persephone had forced you out of the house because you were dangerous. That there were things I didn’t know and I needed to keep my distance. Not to let you come inside my apartment. Not to talk to you or take your calls. So, when

are you going to bring your shit to my apartment? The spare bedroom is yours as long as you need it.” Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked them away. I couldn’t say I wasn’t loved or cared for by my family. Duely was my family and this was his way of letting me know they could all go to hell. He wasn’t disowning me or shutting me out. Duely loved me. More tears threatened. I was going to mess up my makeup and have to do another charm. “You love me,” I said, with the emotion clogging my throat. “Of course I fucking love you. It’s us against them. It always has been. Besides, if you’re so damn evil and dangerous, I don’t want you as an enemy. If you morph into a demon or some weird shit like that then I want that kind of badassery on my side.” I was laughing now, and the tears had rolled down my cheeks. Duely could always be counted on to look at the bright side of all situations and make them comical. “I love you, too,” I told him. “Yeah, I know. Which means you’re not going to turn into a sinister demon from the pits of hell on your next birthday.” He sounded let down about that, which made my smile grow. “Just because I have to let that idea go doesn’t mean you won’t still be some all powerful mythical being or some shit. Because whatever dark secret your birth giver has about you she’s terrified of you.” The reminder of my mother soured my short lived good mood. “She just hates me. It’s not terror,” I clarified. “Wrong. For that woman to give up the Charmed daughters. The fucking power of three shit she hungered for so badly... she is terrifed of you. She hated that you wouldn’t give her what she wanted. But, Cat, she has never hated you. She’s been intimidated by you for as long as I can . You didn’t see it, but it was clear to everyone else. Except your superficial sisters.” I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I was done talking about Persephone. “I’m job hunting today then I’ll come to the bar and get the key for the apartment later. I have all my things with me.”

There was a pause. “What kind of job?” he asked. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure that out. I haven’t had a very quiet morning to think it over. One interruption after another.” “I was thinking yesterday but didn’t say anything because you were grieving and I felt like it wasn’t the right time. But I know someone who is looking for a personal assistant. She’s one of my special friends. Lala designs purses. She opened a boutique here a few years ago, and most of her sales were online, but some celebrity, I think it was one of those teenage popstars, but anyway, they were seen with one of her purses at some awards show. Lala’s shit blew up after that. She went from small buisness to a full blown corporation with investors. She’s looking for someone to replace her last assistant. The girl got married two weeks ago and resigned.” I wasn’t sure who would name their child Lala, but the job sounded like it might pay more than a server and that was what I was looking for. I could make enough money to pay for nursing school. “I’m intersted in talking to her if she’s open to interviewing me.” “She will be. That’s not a question. I’ll call her and then get back to you with the details. Don’t accept another job until you’ve talked to her.” “Okay and thank you,” I replied. “No problem. Just, if you do turn into a wicked demonic creature, don’t kill her. She’s my friend,” he said, then ended the call with a chuckle. I smiled and shook my head. Knowing he, too, thought Persephone was crazy, helped. I flicked a glance at myself in the rearview mirror and saw nothing out of the ordinary other than the fact my makeup still looked perfect. A perk of casting a spell rather than just putting the makeup on myself. I’d forgotten about that. My day was getting better already. Duely wasn’t disowning me or scared of me, he was offering me somewhere to stay for awhile, and had a job lead. I needed to cook Duely dinner tonight. I’d clean his apartment, too, but it was spotless. He had no issue with using magic to do things like clean his apartment. I would have to find a way to pay him back for his help. He’d been my hero today. I decided to head back to Margo and Heath’s apartment and explain my running

off last night. I had time to kill waiting on Duely to get back to me on the interview with Lala. I’d do some research on her after I left Margo and Heath’s. I wanted to know more about her before I spoke to her. Rathe hadn’t turned to go toward the apartment when he had pulled out of the parking lot so there was a solid chance he was going somewhere else that would keep him away long enough for me to visit my friends. Time. Just some time away from him was all it would take. He was the first guy to draw me in since I was fifteen. He’d been my first grown up attraction. I was sure this reaction was typical. If I could avoid him for a week or two then go back to being friends as if nothing happened, it would work. I was sure of it. Maybe. When I pulled into the parking lot of their apartment, I saw no sign of the black Charger. He wasn’t here, but both Margo and Heath’s vehicles were parked in their normal spots. I pulled beside Margo’s and got out. I stared down at the door of the car. The lock clicked into place immediatly. I wasn’t sure what all I could do without saying an incantation and directing my energy with my hands. Locking the door was one of those things apparently. Not using magic daily, I didn’t know what I could do when it came to simple things. Like today, could I have sealed Rathe’s doors shut without speaking or raising my hand in that direction? I had no idea. Did I want to know? I’d spent my life trying to be like my father. Trying to not be a witch. I had lumped being charmed and evil together. They weren’t one and the same. Duely wasn’t evil and he used magic daily. “Cat!” Heath’s voice broke into my thoughts and I lifted my gaze from the door to see Heath was heading this way. “I’ve been calling and texting you for over an hour. I was coming to find you. I’ve been worried since I found out from Duely that you’d left and Rathe had come out looking for you.” He paused then and his eyes took me in much quicker than Rathe had. ”I was going to ask if you were okay, but you seem to be, uh, good. Really good.” His eyes lifted to meet mine, and there was the glow there I had thought I might see in Rathe’s but hadn’t. The charm hadn’t impressed Rathe, but it was getting to Heath easy enough. “I’m sorry. I have no missed calls or texts from you. I wonder what’s wrong?” I had gotten other text and calls just fine. “Oh, and I’ve got a job interview today,” I told Heath, not going into detail. “I was coming to apologize for crashing last night and then taking off like I did. I shouldn’t have worried you.”

He was looking at my sweater and then blinked several times when he realized what he was doing. “I called and texted, I swear. Reception must have been bad... and no, no need to apologize,” he stammered. “I shouldn’t have let Rathe talk me into leaving you sleeping on him. He was being so damn stubborn that I just gave up. That’s my fault,” he inhaled a little sharply like he was struggling to get a breath. This stupid enchantment must have been too much. I wasn’t sure how to tame it down. “I shouldn’t have drank so much without eating enough. My fault,” I told him then wanted to get away from this conversation. “Is Margo awake?” I asked already knowing she was. Rathe had gotten my location from her much earlier. “Yeah, she’s in the shower. She’s got to work. Do you have time to go get something to eat?” he asked, looking way too hopeful. I was hungry, but I wasn’t going anywhere with him. Not when he was being affected by the spell. I opened my mouth to turn him down when Mary appeared at his side. She was staring up at me with her serious eyes... they almost looked disapproving. As if I’d let her down. I wanted to explain myself to her. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to do any harm to her siblings. I knew from conversations with Annabelle that Mary would sense the magic, as a dark sinister presence. She didn’t like it. I couldn’t very well explain to Mary what I’d done in front of Heath. My eyes went back to Heath’s, and I smiled. “Thank you, but I don’t have that much time. Are you going out to search for a job today?” I asked him instead. He nodded. “Yeah, there’s a position at the Delvaux library. It pays suprisingly well and it would be easy to get from work to class on the same day. Very convenient.” “That sounds great,” I told him. “I’m just afraid there will be a lot of students applying. Probably a slim chance I’ll get it,” he said with a shrug. “You’ll get it,” I said the words too easily. I hadn’t even taken a moment to consider the power behind them. I knew what I was doing, and I did it anyway. What was wrong with me? I used to never manipulate fate. I let things happen as they were meant to be.

He grinned. “You seem so sure of it. Maybe that good vibe will help me in the interview,” he said. Oh, it would help him alright. He would be taking more than a good vibe in there. He’d be wrapped in sorcery he didn’t ask for, but he would get the job. He’d be happy. That was good but my controlling it was bad. I felt the unsettling stare from Mary and I didn’t meet her gaze again. If the enchantment that she’d sensed from my appearance had bothered her then what I’d just done would have her clinging to Heath for the next week. “I need to go. Tell Margo I’ll call her later,” I said. “I will. Let me know how your interview goes,” he replied. “Wait, where is the interview? You didn’t tell me.” “A friend of Duely’s is a designer. She needs a personal assistant. That’s all I know right now. I’ll let you know more once I do.” Heath frowned. “Duely has friends like that?” I laughed. Duely was a wild creature in the eyes of my friends. They had no idea the kind of friends Duely had. His charm had been used to its full advantage. “Surprising I know. But he’s a charmer, even if he’s got a colorful personality.” Heath didn’t look convinced but he wasn’t charmed by Duely. “Okay,” he said and he started to say more when I saw the black Charger pull into the parking spot to my right. Time to go. “I’ll text you later,” I said then headed to my car without looking back in Rathe or Heath’s direction. When I reached the door to the car, I unlocked it with a glance on instinct. Grabbing the handle to the driver’s door, I opened it then, unable to stop myself, I looked toward the Charger. Rathe was standing outside the driver’s side door. His back to Heath as he watched me. I paused and held his gaze for a moment but that was all I could allow. Giving him a small nod and smile. That was friendly enough. Climbing into the driver’s seat, I was proud of how I handled that.

When I pulled out onto the road, Rathe was there in my rearview mirror watching me leave. The tightening in my chest came instantly and that weakness proved how human I was. This crush or whatever I had on Rathe might be hard to overcome, but it was also reassuring me that my mother didn’t know me. I was half my father. Rathe was reminding me of that with every emotional crack he caused in me.

Twenty The Interview

Lala Longstreet didn’t want to meet with me at her Savannah offices. She told Duely to send me to her home, which was a four story townhouse in the historic district of Savannah. Duely had called shortly after I’d left Heath and Rathe in the parking lot of their apartment. She had said to come as soon as I could, because she was heading to the airport at two for a showcase in Manhattan tonight. I did as directed and went right to the address he’d given me. Pulling up to the front, I looked around and wondered how much these places sold for. They were part of Savannah’s history and in a prime location. I hoped this meant she had the income to pay a salary that could afford my going to nursing school. Even if she wasn’t going to offer me an amount that was more than what I made as a server, Duely had gotten me this interview. I was thankful for that. I wouldn’t have known to even apply for something like this. I’d planned on doing a little research on her before the interview, but there hadn’t been time. Now I was going in there, knowing only what Duely had told me. Which was very little. I reached her front door and scanned for the doorbell. However, the door swung open before I could find the bell and ring it. A petite woman with wild curly dark blonde hair that brushed her shoulders, stood in front of me. Her lips were painted a bright red, her eyes were large round and brown. She could not be more than five feet tall and one hundred pounds fully dressed but something about her made her presence feel much larger. “Fucking stunning! Duely told me so of course but I wasn’t prepared for this kind of stunning. The bastard lies when it works for him,” she said with a roll of her eyes and pursed her lips. I didn’t get a chance to respond to that, thankfully. She stepped back and with a overly dramatic wave of her hand, she continued. “Come inside and I’ll pour you

a drink. Before noon I’m a cosmopolitan girl. I move to the harder stuff after lunch. Will a cosmo work for you?” she asked walking through the large open foyer toward the first arched doorway to her left. I followed quickly because for someone with short legs, she walked fast. “I’m more of a water before noon person,” I replied with honesty. She stopped abruptly and stared at me in horror. Those already large eyes seemed even wider. “Water? Who the fuck has Duely sent me? Just go!” She pointed toward the front door. I stood there frozen. I hadn’t been prepared for such a violent reaction to my request for water. I was too shocked to move. Lala began to cackle with laughter. I continued to stand there and watch her. Was this woman okay? Had Duely gotten me an interview with a lunatic? “You’re going to be fun. That shocked expression was priceless! I owe Duely one for this.” She was still laughing as she went into the kitchen. I didn’t know if I was supposed to be leaving or following her. “Come on, Cat. I’ve still got to force a cosmo down you before noon. Water my ass. That’s just sad, girl.” I went into the kitchen and she gave me a big white straight teeth smile. “When you grew up in a trailer that had no heating and air with holes in the floorboard that you had to keep stuffed with towels and hope the critters couldn’t push through them and get inside, you drink before noon. And you don’t fucking drink alone,” she explained, while shaking a pretty blue shaker that had the letter L in crystals on the front. “My momma was an alcholic, so this is the worst thing I could be doing, but it’s all about moderation, sweetheart. Moderfuckinration,” She said pouring the light red drink into two martini glasses. It appeared she wasn’t kidding about me drinking too. I wasn’t confident this woman wasn’t certifiable, so I didn’t think declining the cosmo again was a good idea. She picked up one of the glasses then nodded her head at the other one. “Go ahead and get it,” she said then started back around the bar, waving her empty hand at the rest of the kitchen. “Great place, isn’t it? I love old fancy shit.”

I nodded in agreement then took my glass. “It’s a beautiful home.” “Come, let’s go sit down and talk. I don’t have a lot of time. Barney booked this damn showcase without asking me, and it’s last minute. I’d tell Barney to go fuck himself, but he’s annoying when he gets in a mood. I would rather do this showcase and get it over and done with. Before he gets here to make sure I get to the airport in time, I am warning you that although you’re a headturner, he won’t be interested. He’s a gorgeous bastard and my last assistant embarassed herself trying to get his attention until I realized she had a thing for him. I should have told her in the beginnging it was a waste of time. Barney loves to have his dick sucked but not by the likes of you. He does enjoy it when Duely sucks his dick,” she said, as I followed her into another room. “Sit,” she instructed, pointing at the sofa. I walked over and sat with my cosmo then took a sip. Lala’s excentric name no longer seemed odd. It fit perfectly. She winked when she saw me drink. “Good for the soul or just the brain. Terrible for the liver, I hear, but Betty White is kicking it just fine and is a vodka drinker. That’s the only proof I need of its magic. Now, I travel a lot. I don’t like it, but that’s the way it goes. This place is my main residence. The Lala Longstreet offices are outside the city but not too far of a drive. You’ll be given a corporate card for gas and for all other expenses. Company car is an Audi this time, I believe. Or did Barney say it was a Cadillac? I can’t . It’s a 2020, and I’m sure it’ll suffice. Numbers for anything I throw at you are here.” She reached for the bright pink leather journal on the table beside her then tossed it at me. I caught it without spilling my drink on the expensive looking white velvet sofa. I was perched on the edge of the sofa for fear of hurting it. “Dry cleaners, personal shoppers, family,” she said that last one with a disgusted snarl on her lips. “They’re all bastards, so avoid them if you can. Your phone will have their names already programmed with warnings to not answer. You accidently talk to one of my relatives and you’ll be more careful next time. Trust me.” She took a gulp then went on talking. “Business associates, etc., it’s all in there. Also programmed into your corporate cell phone. Barney will have that, the extra set of keys to the house, office, alarm codes and instructions, and the keys to the car. Okay, that’s about it. Any questions?” I had too many to count. “I-“

“Oh the salary, I forgot the most important thing.” She shook her head and took another drink. “It’s sixty five, and you can use the car for personal use.” The car I was still trying to wrap my head around but now she tossed out sixty five like that made sense. Sixty five what? Sixty five an hour was impossible but sixty five a day I couldn’t make it on, even with the car perk. “Uh, I’m not sure if I understand the sixty five-“ “It’s just starting,” she cut me off. “Every six months, there is a chance for a raise. There are also bonuses when I need you to travel with me. Raises aren’t huge, and it’s accoriding to performance and shit. Barney can explain it better.” That cleared nothing up. If she would let me get out a complete sentence, I might get some clarification, but I wasn’t sure I would understand this job if I had an entire day to discuss it with her. She was all over the place and didn’t stop talking for more than a minute. “What I’m asking is... are you saying it’s sixty-five dollars a day? Is that what I’m understanding?” She paused with her drink in her hand then burst out laughing. A loud deep belly laugh. I was starting to get annoyed with this entire situation. She was nice and definitely entertaining but I couldn’t accept a job I didn’t even understand. I had no clue what it was she wanted me to do or how many hours a day or week. If asking for her to clarify the salary was going to make her laugh at me like this then the other stuff would have her doubled over unable to catch a breath. I waited and tried very hard not to let my annoyance show in my expression. This was Duely’s friend, regardless of her behavior, and he’d gotten me this interview. I owed him to be appreciative and not rude. Finally, Lala wiped the tears from her face and beamed at me. “You’re going to be perfect,” she stated. I hated to tell her I wasn’t going to be anything. If I couldn’t keep up with her during a simple interview, I’d be lost trying to work for her. “Sixty-five thousand a year, honey,” she said, still grinning. Sixty-five thousand dollars. I stared at her waiting for her to burst out laughing again at her own joke. When she just drank and waited on me to say something, I

began suspecting she may be serious. She was going to pay me sixty-five thousand dollars a year? How was this woman successful? She was mad. “I’d think your silence meant it’s not enough but I’m guessing since you thought I was going to pay you sixty five dollars a day that you’re shocked speechless. I’m glad we can agree on salary. Now, Barney will be here in ten minutes, and I’m not dressed to go. I need to get travel attire on and then pack a bag or something. Barney needs to meet you, and give you all the things. If you hate the car, we can negotiate that too. I buy local, and I’m sure I can get the car dealer I use, Debo, to exchange it for something you prefer. Drink up, Cat. Explore the place until Barney gets here. I need to go get ready,” she said, jumping up out of her highback chair. “Welcome aboard,” she added then left the room. I sat there with my cosmo, suddenly alone. I heard her feet hit the stairs, and if she hadn’t said sixty-five thousand dollars, I would be sneaking out right now. However, sixty-five thousand would give me independence. It would pay for nursing school. I wanted to be ecstatic but I had so many questions that I hoped Barney was going to answer for me. If I had some idea of what it was this job consisted of and an idea of weekly hours then I would know if this unreal offer was going to change my life or not. It wasn’t ten minutes before the front door opened and footsteps made their way down the hallway. A tall man with dark hair expertly styled, a smooth face with such sharp features it was without a flaw, and full lips stopped at the doorway to the room I was in. This had to be Barney. He was too beautiful to be a man, but yet, he was. His creamy mocha skin was to be envied. The clear blue of his eyes were almost like seeing the sky on a clear day through glass. “Hello, Cat. I’m here to interpret everything that Lala must have just tossed at you. Her artistic brain is sometimes hard to follow for everyone but me.” I smiled then and sighed in relief. “That’s very good to hear. I have several questions. Starting with, what does this job consist of exactly?” Barney smiled. “Lucky for you, it doesn’t involve understanding anything Lala chatters on about,” he said then took the pink leather journal she had tossed at me. “We will start with this,” he began.

Twenty–One The Nirvana

I took the job as Lala Longstreet’s personal assistant. My job didn’t begin until her return from New York, and Barney had confirmed that would be on Wednesday, two full days from now. Until then, he had given me all the information I needed to prepare myself for a day working with Lala. The brand new dark silver Audi that was parked in the back of Duely’s bar had only ten miles on it when I had picked it up at the address Barney gave me. I’d been so nervous about driving a car like this I’d gone as far as putting a protective spell on it. Sitting in the living room of Duely’s apartment, I had Lala’s daily agenda laid out in front of me with my own notes about how to best manage the day. The details about her family were disturbing. The sister that Lala had a restraining order on was the most concerning. There was a packet that contained all the different photos that had been taken of Koko Longstreet. She changed her appearance regularly, and I needed to know the different ways she’d looked in the past to recognize her if she showed up at the house, offices, or walked up to me anywhere. Barney had warned that I needed to be careful with her as she could be unpredictable. I’d handle her just fine, and once we did meet, she wouldn’t come around again. There was so much to here. Koko was just a small portion of all the information I had been handed. I had been at it for two hours and the bar below me had gotten rowdier as the time drew closer to midnight. I should put it all away and sleep, but I wasn’t tired. I should be ready to out after this day, but I was wired up. My brain would not shut off or slow down. I had just about decided I would go find an apartment tomorrow. I had plenty money saved for first and last month’s rent and a deposit to get utilities turned on. If I was being honest, I could buy some furniture and most of my essentials, too. The money I had saved was to go toward nursing school, but with this new job, I would be able to enroll for next semester. Then there was my car I could sell for a couple thousand. I had to do something with it, and I didn’t need two

cars. The idea of not having it if something didn’t work out with this job worried me but then I could say the same about getting an apartment and using my savings to do so. Ugh! This was all so stressful. I couldn’t make up my mind the best thing to do. I wanted to get my own place, but I also needed to be smart. Not jump the gun and make a mistake. Duely wasn’t rushing me out of here. I just needed to get settled somewhere soon. A knock on the apartment door snapped me out of my internal debate, and although I wasn’t expecting someone, I was glad for the interruption. It was likely one of Duely’s friends seeing if he was up here. That or Duely had sent me something to eat from the bar. I put down my new iPad, also given to me by Barney, on the chair beside me then stood up and stepped over my circle of notes and papers to check the peep hole. I was hungry, and although the bar food wasn’t that great, I hoped that Duely had sent some up. Standing on my tip toes, I moved the small metal flap covering the peeop hole over and checked to see who was out there. It wasn’t food. It was Rathe. I dropped back down to the heels of my feet and sighed in defeat. I couldn’t seem to get any distance from this man. I didn’t have to open the door. I shouldn’t open the door. I knew I was going to open the door. Why would he be here? Why would Duely have let him in the back? Why hadn’t he just called or texted? Why couldn’t he just listen to my plea for time away from him? Stubborn man. “Open the door, Catalina,” he called from the other side of the door. I stuck my tongue out at the closed door. I had work to do and decisions to make. I didn’t have time for him. All of that was reason to walk away from this door and not open it. If I was stronger, I would do just that. But he wanted to be my friend and he had been a good one so far. I couldn’t deny that. Just because I kept having all these pangs and emotions where he was concerned, it wasn’t his fault. His showing up all the time and reminding me of his existence was a struggle I would have to get over. It didn’t seem like he was going to listen to my request for space.

“Catalina, please,” he said this with more of a urgency to his voice than his earlier demanding one. Fine. You win Rathe. I give up. I reached for the door knob and unlocked it then turned it, taking a deep breath before opening it up to him. “Hey,” I said not moving to let him inside. I could at least see if he’d say what he wanted then leave. He looked like he’d had a rough day. His hair was extra tousled and messy. His shirt was the same one he’d had on at six this morning, and his eyes appeared exhausted. “Can I come in?” he asked. There was a heaviness in his tone, and I wondered if he was here to tell me bad news. I didn’t want to hear more bad news. If I couldn’t get a break from Rathe then I at least needed a break from bad news. Stepping back, I let him inside, knowing this was only going to make things harder on me. It seemed the more I was around him the more attached I got. Maybe if I emersed myself with Rathe’s presence, I could become immune to it. That was supposed to work, wasn’t it? If I was around him enough, he may start to get on my nerves. I could start looking for things about him that annoyed me. He was looking at my messy floor. “I was working. What’s up?” I tried to sound casual. Get this over with. He glanced back over his shoulder at me. I was keeping a bit of distance from him. “You got a job?” I gave a short nod. “Yep. I’m a personal assistant to a lady who designs purses.” His small smile was a pleased one. “I bet that pays well.” I gave another nod. I wasn’t telling him how much. I hadn’t told anyone but Duely that. I felt like he deserved all the details since he got me the interview. “Good for you, Catalina,” he said with a touch of pride in his voice. “Duely got me the interview,” I itted. I didn’t want to take the credit for getting a job like this one. I would have never known this kind of job existed for

someone like me. “He did her a favor. Not you,” he replied, still looking as if he was proud of me. I gave a small shrug, feeling a bit embarassed by this subtle praise. “My boss is the most eccentric person I have ever met. I can barely keep up with anything she says. Luckily, she has a manager named Barney, and he translates her... chaos,” I said and realized I suddenly wanted to tell Rathe all about it. This could be a good thing. Friends talked about things. I liked talking to Margo and Heath, too. “I hope I get to meet her,” he said, sounding sincere. “If you do meet her, sit down and buckle up for the ride, because she will talk nonstop jumping from one thing to the next so fast your head will spin.” He gave a low chuckle that made my skin tingle. “You started today then? Right after the interview?” he asked, glancing back at all the papers and files on the floor. “Not exactly. She left for a show in New York today right after she hired me. This is all the info Barney gave me to go over before I start in two days.” He raised his eyebrows. “Damn. That’s a lot to .” I nodded slowly in agreement. We stood there quiet a moment. Why was he here? He had come in asking questions, but he’d not explained why he’d come to see me. If he was delaying because it was something I wasn’t going to want to hear then I wanted to get it over with. “Why are you here, Rathe?” I asked. The corners of his mouth lifted barely. It wasn’t a smile really but a weak attempt at one. “To see you,” he replied. “I was going to make up some bullshit lie, so I had an excuse to come here, but that’s not fair. I owe you the truth. And the truth is that I wanted to see you.” Not what I was expecting at all. Not even in the vicinity of what I was expecting

him to say. “I’m supposed to pick up this girl I met in my Ecology class. She’s nice. She made me laugh. We seemed to click. I asked her out for tonight during class on Friday. When I got in my car to go get her, I found myself driving here.” He paused and shook his head as if he was dissapointed. “I heard Heath tell Margo that you had moved out of your mom’s place, and you were staying here until you found your own place.” He turned around to face me completely. His hands were tucked in the front pockets of his jeans, and his shoulders slumped slightly. “I didn’t want to go pick up someone else. I wanted to see you. And that’s a problem, Catalina.” Yes, it was a problem. One I didn’t expect. Sure, I was fighting my own crush on him but he couldn’t feel the same. I didn’t want to ever hurt Rathe, and I was a Kamlock. We were toxic for men. Even if I was different, even if I didn’t have my sisters around to ruin things like they had with Cody, even if I was older now and smarter, he was not safe around me. “Last night, that was the hardest fucking thing I’ve ever done. Stopping us... making myself stop touching you, kissing you, feeling you. I can’t get it out of my head. The feel of your body, the way you taste, I can’t stop thinking about it. You want me to keep my distance, and I did my best. I tried so motherfucking hard to stay away, and I lasted less than a day. The longer I stayed away from you the more I wanted you. I asked another woman out, thinking it would help get you out of my head... and I can’t even go pick her up.” Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. I backed away from him. Distance. I needed him to move across the room and give me a minute to catch my breath and calm my racing heart. Words should not have this effect. He shouldn’t be able to make me feel like he’d just kissed me senseless with just words. “You want distance. You want to get over whatever you’re feeling for me. You need time to start thinking of me as a friend.” He lifted the corner of his mouth and flashed his dimple. “I’m not sure I can stay away from you, Catalina.” I closed my eyes tightly. I was already a ball of emotions about to come unhinged at any moment. I did not need to see him dejected. Or his freaking dimple. The things he was saying to me were all things I desperately craved to hear. From the first moment I saw him, I knew he was trouble. I just didn’t know

he was going to be this kind of trouble. I had to snap out of this silly infatuation. Rathe didn’t know how badly he’d regret this. How he’d wish he’d never met me. I was poison. I fought it, and I did my best to be normal, but if I allowed myself to lose control of anything. Especially, my heart. If I let myself freely fall for this man, I could lose control. I had no idea what could happen and that scared me. “Were you attracted to me the first time you saw me?” I asked, opening my eyes to see his expression. To know if he was lying. I had to understand why Rathe had been drawn to me when I had successfully kept guys away from me for years. “Catalina, not to sound shallow because what I’m feeling has little to do with your physical appearance, but there is no man or woman on earth that can just look at you and not be struck by you. You’re beautiful.” That description should not have made me want to throw myself in his arms, but it did. I had resented my beauty all of my life. Until this very moment. Until Rathe said I was beautiful. “Most men don’t see me the way you do,” I whispered, not knowing why he saw past my repelling charm. “They’re probably dazzled but intimidated. You don’t seem to welcome attention and that can scare men off,” he explained, as if that made complete sense. He was wrong. I knew it was the spell that kept them away. Without that spell, men would treat me like they did my sisters. “You weren’t dazzled when we first met. You walked away easy enough and went to play your drinking game.” I tried hard not to sound jealous or insecure. He laughed, soft and low, then he took a step in my direction. His eyes never leaving mine. “I was so dazzled that when Margo announced you weren’t into men, I was relieved. I thought it would keep me from chasing you like I assumed every man you met did. I didn’t want to be like the others. I didn’t come to Savannah expecting to feel like this. To lose my mind over a girl. This wasn’t in the plans.” I laughed then. “ I didn’t plan on you either. I’ve always been careful with men

and kept my distance.” “You let Heath get close,” he said, without a smile. “Heath is so in love with you, he would drop anything and anyone for you. Even his sister. He worships you. He doesn’t a time he didn’t love you. He picks horrid females to date because he knows he won’t hurt them. He won’t break their heart. He won’t date a female who may fall in love with him because he loves you. And I fucking hate it. I’m so damn jealous every time you touch him or smile at him.” He ran a hand through his hair as if frustrated. “When I came home and he was sitting so close to you and feeding you, I cracked. I couldn’t take it. I had to get you away from him, and you came to me so easily.” He closed the rest of the space between us, stopping only inches from me. I didn’t move. I should have moved away and stopped this entire conversation, but I didn’t. I didn’t know how. “Heath isn’t in love with me,” was all I could say. Breathing was a bit of a struggle at the moment. Rathe lifted a hand and ran the back of his fingers along my jaw, so very slowly, while he studied my lips. I stopped breathing completely. His eyes were that strange steel blue color again when he met my gaze. “Catalina, he had no choice but to fall in love with you. Your outward beauty attracts men, but when someone gets close to you, they get to see what’s inside. They get to hear your smart mouth,” he said with a smirk. “When people see how selfless and kind you are, how deeply you care for those you love. It’s impossible not to fall in love with you. There’s something incredibly unique and rare about you.” There was something unique about me alright, but not the qualities he’d just used to describe me. He didn’t know I was a liar, he didn’t know I had a cursed soul, he didn’t know there was a darkness coursing through my veins that I had to fight back every single day. He didn’t know loving me would be his worst mistake. “You can’t love me,” I said the words needing them to be true. As much as my heart wanted to hear him say he loved me, he couldn’t. Shouldn’t. Rathe cupped my face with both of his hands and tilted it back so that I was staring directly up at him. I had to tell myself to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. “I may not love you...yet, but I could. So easily.”

Oh. Hell. I closed my eyes unable to keep looking into that deep steel gaze of his and remain standing. “Breathe, Catalina,” he whispered, as his lips softly brushed my cheek then my closed eyelid. I obeyed and inhaled deeply. “I came here for other reasons, but you changed it all.” Here, as in this apartment, or here, as in Savannah? His mouth continued to trail kisses over my face and his scent was making me drunk. All the yearning I’d fought so hard to control broke free of any hold I had remotely had on it. There was no power strong enough to keep me from what he was offering. The greedy hunger to hold on to him as tightly as I could, terrified me; yet, I knew that terror wasn’t enough to stop me. His lips brushed mine, and I opened my lips demanding more. The aggressivness of my kiss flipped a switch. Rathe’s sweet embrace of my face ended and his hands went to my waist gripping me tightly. With a hard tug, he pulled me up against him, causing me to gasp with the slamming of our bodies. I reached up and buried my hands in his hair that I always longed to touch. Tangling my fingers in his perfect locks, I savored the freedom to do as I wanted. Lifting me up until my feet left the ground, Rathe broke the kiss. “Wrap your legs around me,” he demanded. Then he pulled me up until my legs clung to his waist, locking my ankles at his back. His mouth was back on mine. I felt heady with excitement as he kissed me senseless. Rathe’s warm hard hands slid beneath the soft cotton of my worn tee shirt. I shivered with anticipation as he moved over my heated skin until both of his large palms covered my bare breasts. I moaned into his mouth, and he moved his head back, breaking the kiss, his eyes locking with mine. Both of us were breathing heavily as we just stared at one another for a moment. A deep sound rumbled in his chest before he pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it aside. “Where’s your bed here?” he asked me. He was already walking toward the two doors behind me. I held onto his shoulders as he carried me, still wrapped around him. “The one to the left,” I said breathless with excitement.

He opened the cracked door with a gentle kick, and we were inside the darkness of the room. The full moon beamed like a spotlight on the bed as if it had been ready for this and was setting the mood. Rathe put me down on the bed, then immediately took his shirt off by unbuttoning only the top three buttons and pulling it over his head, not bothering with the rest of them. The sight of his bare chest filled me with euphoria. I watched as his hands moved to his jeans, and although he wasn’t going slow, it felt like my own personal erotic strip tease. My desire for him was building, second by second, as he stepped out of his jeans. I had only a moment to take in the size of him. That was more than I expected. Rathe reached out taking my hand and pulling me up from the bed before I could decide if it would fit or kill me. As his hands moved to my shorts and began slowly lowering them down my hips, I felt my entire body flush. I’d never stood naked in front of a man. That one time with Cody had been in the dark and clumsy, and we hadn’t even gotten all our clothing off. My shorts dropped to the floor once he got them past my hips, and I stepped out of them, then moved them aside with my foot. I still had on black lace and silk panties. Rathe didn’t take his hands from my waist, but he took a step back and stared down at me. I wished I was more experienced at this. At least the darkness hid my blushing. Or I hoped it did. “Sweet Jesus,” he said in a hoarse whisper. I knew my body was attractive. My family genetics made sure of it, but hearing Rathe’s obvious appreciation made the awkwardness I was feeling vanish. He touched the thin straps of my panties and I inhaled sharply when he began moving those down my hips, too. When they slid down to the floor, I was completely bare. I didn’t have to step out of them because he was lifting me again and placing me tenderly on my back in the center of the fullsized bed. Rathe’s body leaning over me and illuminated only by moonlight made him look otherwordly. Too beautiful to be real. “Catalina,” he whispered my name, making me tremble “Yes,” I whispered back. He inhaled deeply as if he’d forgotten to breathe. My eyes moved down his body, eager to see all of him. I wanted this. Every fiber of my body wanted him.

“You keep looking at it like that and this is going to be over real damn soon. My self-control is real fucking weak at this point,” he said, and my gaze snapped back up to meet his dark eyes. His dark expression was exciting. “You are going to fucking destroy me, and I will relish every moment.” Lowering himself over me, he held my gaze until he was only inches from my face. His elbows pressed into the bed beside my head, enveloping me in his embrace. His eyes flared and he lowered his head to the curve of my neck. “I swear I can’t get enough of you.” His breath hot against my skin. “You’ve bewitched me.” He had no idea how true his words were. He began to kiss my neck, taking small bites and licks along my skin, causing my thoughts to go to mush. His body was heavy on top of mine but I relished its weight. I felt possessed by him. His hands closed over my knees and eased them up and out slightly, while he moved his thick, long erection between my open thighs. Rathe stilled his body and lifted his head to look down into my eyes. As I stared up into his, I saw the frenzy, excitement, turmoil, madness, and anticipation that neither of us could express in words. He slid inside me slowly, the feeling of our bodies ing unlike anything I’d ever imagined. The urge to get as close to him as humanly possible came over me and I lifted my hips, clinging to his arms and not wanting there to be any part of us that wasn’t touching. “Fuck,” he groaned and his eyes closed tightly as he hissed out a breath. “I expected you to feel like paradise but, holy hell, this is motherfucking nirvana.” He started to slide out and I dug my nails into his arms, not ready for this to end. His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared as he began to slide back in. The slow rocking of our bodies caused pressure to build inside me, starting from the pulsing buzz that had been there the first time he ever touched me. I begged, I panted his name, I made noises I’d never made before, and I couldn’t get close enough. I wanted there to be no beginning and end to us. Our lovemaking grew faster and harder. The slapping of our bodies only added to my delirium. It was as if Rathe was trying to bind us permanently.

“Goddamn,” he said and I felt his body tremble against me. His hand slid up my thigh, pressing my knee back so that he could get even deeper inside me. “You make me so fucking crazy,” he said with a growl. “Nothing should feel this damn good.” It was his words, the way he was looking at me, our bodies being so close and touching everywhere, it was all of it that sent waves of pleasure slamming through me. A bolt of ecstasy shot through my body and exploded into a million pieces. I screamed Rathe’s name and clung to him, afraid I’d lose him in this unknown bliss. I wanted him with me. He shouted and I heard my name come from him as if it had been torn from his chest. He was there with me. When the rapture began to ease enough that I could open my eyes again, Rathe wrapped me in his arms and rolled to his side, taking me with him. His eyes were still closed. He was panting and there was a fierceness in his brow and line of his mouth. I reached up and ran a finger over his lips, not sure what he was feeling. My body was still humming from everything that had just happened between us and I wanted him to feel the same. I needed him to feel the same. His fingers wrapped around my wrist then and his eyes opened. I stared at him and the same fierceness was there in his gaze. “I won’t give you up,” he said in a thick voice. “Good,” I replied. All the reasons we shouldn’t be together no longer seemed important. There was no way I could give him up, either. “Is it good, Catalina?” he asked then. Probably not. Would he still want me if he knew the evil inside me? Would he be terrified? Or would he stay? “I won’t give you up, either,” was all I could say, even though this was a vow I knew I had no right to make. He leaned in to kiss my lips. “You own me and that wasn’t supposed to happen.” I didn’t want to own him. I just never wanted to let him go.

“Just hold me,” I told him, not wanting to think anymore. His words were only reminding me why this should have never happened. I couldn’t imagine living this life and never experiencing what we just did. It was impossible to regret it. Loving Rathe was selfish... but I wouldn’t change it.

Twenty-Two The Abomination

The sound of a door closing woke me up. Blinking, it took me a moment to where I was. The early morning light came through the blinds and everything from the night before came back in a flurry of excitment, fear, and disbelief. I sat up and spun around to see Rathe sprawled out beside me on the bed. His beautiful back exposed and his hair a perfect mess. He was here. Everything last night had been real. The door that had woken me closed again. Duely was never up this early. I wanted to curl up against Rathe and stay in bed with him forever, but the closing of the door was not normal. I had to make sure we were safe. That I kept Rathe safe. I eased out of bed looking around for my clothes and not seeing anything but my panties. I didn’t want to wake Rathe by going through my suitcases. More noises from the kitchen began to worry me. This was not normal. I didn’t have time to look for my clothes. “Mihi exhiberet convivium” I whispered. Glancing down and seeing clothes from last night covering my body again, I headed for the door. Opening it so that it didn’t make a sound, I stepped into the hallway and walked the few steps to the living room and kitchen area. Duely was sitting at the bar with a cup of coffee. He held it up when he saw me. “Cheers,” he said. “About time you got you some.” “Shhh, keep your voice down,” I whispered. “And how do you know about that?” When I had finally fallen asleep in Rathe’s arms last night, the bar was still going strong. Duely smirked. “I brought you some food last night. I think Rathe shouting curse

words and you screaming his name was my first clue. Sounded like a hot and sexy time.” Duely took a drink of his coffee, looking amused. “Oh,” I said, knowing Duely was the last person in front of whom I should feel embarassed given all his sexcapades. I still felt awkward knowing he’d heard us. “You will need to work on not losing control of your power when you have sex next time though. It’s hard to at first, but you will have to or you’re going to make something burst into flames. If it’s the bed then that’ll hurt like a bitch.” “What are you talking about?” I asked him completely confused. I hadn’t used any magic last night. He spun his finger in the air. “The power pulsing in here was intense last night. Almost knocked me on my ass and I was outside the door.” “But I wasn’t using magic,” I said again. “That’s not what I am saying, Snow White. The energy you were putting off without realizing it is normal, but only when two casters are fucking can that be safe. He’s not a caster so you can’t let that side of you go free. It’s not safe.” Why had no one mentioned this to me before? Had last night been good only because I was swirling magic around and had no idea? My stomach knotted up at the idea. “Was... did that make... was I making it... was it good because of what I was doing?” I was bright red now. I hated having to ask this. “If it was, would that bother you? It’s who you are so it’s a part of you and that’s the same as someone having a big dick and knowing how to use it. Or a wet tight pussy that squeezes you just right.” I shook my head, not following this at all. “I don’t want magic to be the reason why sex between us was good. That sounds like cheating. Lying.” Duely rolled his eyes. “Our lives are a lie. We are charmed.”

“Cursed. We are cursed,” I corrected him, crossing my arms over my chest. “Sex with you will always be different for anyone you have sex with. Good different. Because you’re different. You have powers and the charm makes sex with you even more intense for regular humans. But that isn’t from the energy you were unleashing last night. The only person who could feel that is another caster. It’s why two casters like to let it go during sex. They are affected by it. Juiced in a way.” That made me feel a bit better, but I was still bothered that my evil gift made sex better for Rathe. “Stop scowling. You can’t stop being a witch. You were born one,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s a bonus in sex.” This time I rolled my eyes. Duely was a sex addict. I was done talking about my sex life with him. “Heath isn’t gonna be okay with this. I imagine he’ll be so damn broken he’s likely to jump off a building.” I didn’t want to talk about Heath. That may be a small issue but it wasn’t going to be the big deal Duely thought it would be. “Why are you awake?” I asked him. “Just got in,” he replied. “Since you were fucking like maniacs up here, I decided to go home with a hot little blonde co-ed and her gay best friend. They were fast learners once she got over being bothered by watching her friend suck my dick. I told her to straddle my face and getting her pussy licked helped her get over it real damn quick then.” I shook my head and held up a hand. “I don’t need the visuals, Duely.” He chuckled. “What? You don’t want to imagine me fucking a hot big-tittied blond while a muscular soccer stud with a big dick takes my ass?” “Stop!” I hissed. Duely laughed and drank his coffee. “Go crawl back in bed with your sexy man,

Snow White. I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m about to go to bed myself.” I turned to go back to the bedroom but decided to ask Duely’s opinion on my biggest fear. He would be honest with me. He’d tell me if I was being ridiculous or if there was a chance I’d end up going evil. “Do you think... that my being in a relationship with a man will make me... different? More like my mother and sisters?” He sat his cup down and stood up. “Do you care for him, Cat, or was that just a fuck?” “I care for him,” I replied, still reeling from itting that to myself earlier. Duely smiled. “That’s why you will never turn into one of them. They don’t care. They fuck. They take. They feel nothing.” I wanted to believe that. “I hope you’re right. There is no going back now. I can’t... even if it means he’s safer away from me. It scares me that I feel that way.” “Stop overthinking it. Enjoy it. You deserve to be happy. Let yourself be.” The door behind me opened and I glanced back to see Rathe standing there in his boxer briefs, messy hair tucked behind his ears, and looking too wonderful for words. “Mornin’,” he said when our eyes met. “Good morning. I’m sorry if we woke you,” I said, feeling shy in the light of day and with Duely as our audience. “Only thing you need to apologize for is letting me wake up without you there beside me. That was pretty damn cruel.” Oh, my heart was not going to survive him. “I’m sorry for that, too,” I replied shyly. He nodded his head back toward the bed. “Come back.” “Okay.”

He grinned then and the naughty gleam in his eyes had me wishing Duely would leave. I didn’t care that it was his apartment. “I’m gonna head down to the bar and see what needs to be cleaned up,” Duely said as if he’d read my mind. I knew he wanted to go to bed and get some sleep, but I wasn’t going to tell him to do that. I was getting more selfish by the minute. Rathe held up a hand in a wave. “Mornin’ and thanks,” he said in Duely’s direction. “Your morning is gonna be better than mine, I’d say,” Duely returned, then headed for the door. I didn’t look back at him. Not that I was embarassed. I just couldn’t stop looking at Rathe. I wanted to run to him and leap into his arms. The door closed and Rathe held out his hand toward me. “Please get naked and back in bed with me,” he begged. I walked to him and put my hand in his. He tugged me to him and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “How do you feel?” he asked then slipped his hand between my legs. His fingers slid down the front of my shorts and into my panties. “Sore?” I hadn’t realized I was tender until he touched me. I rubbed against him like a cat wanting to be stroked regardless of the soreness. “Catalina, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m gonna need to get inside you. I woke up craving you.” The ringing of my phone interrupted anything I could say or do. No one should be calling me this early. No one ever called me this early. “Ignore it,” Rathe said, taking a bite of my ear and making me not care that my phone was ringing so early. He circled my waist with his hands and walked backwards toward the bed, taking me with him. My phone stopped ringing. Whoever it was could wait a little. Another phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment and Rathe stilled. I looked up at him. “Is that yours now?” He nodded.

“Heath or Margo. Something could be wrong.” I pulled away from him and he let me go. I went to get my phone from the dresser and check to see who it was that had called. Heath. “Hey, man. Something wrong?” Rathe asked and I turned to see him standing in the middle of the room with his phone to his ear. I went to him, my concern mounting now. “Yeah. She’s,” his gaze locked on me and he paused. He was asking if this was okay. I could see the unspoken question in his eyes. I simply nodded. “She’s with me. We’re at Duely’s,” he finished. His free hand reached out and he threaded his fingers through mine. There was silence on the other end of the line and I hoped Duely and Rathe were both wrong about how Heath felt about me. Finally, I could hear Heath’s voice as he started to speak again. I couldn’t make out his words clearly. I heard Margo and I heard my name but not much else. “When was the last time you talked to her?” Rathe asked, his hand tightening around mine. “Catalina, can you see if you can find Margo on your phone app?” Rathe asked. He let go of my hand and I hurried over to get my phone and check it. I opened the app but all I could see was a notification that Margo was no longer sharing her location with me. She wouldn’t do that. Something wasn’t right. “How long has she been gone?” I asked, spinning around to look at Rathe. “Last time Heath saw her was yesterday when she went to work. He didn’t come back to the apartment last night. He, ah, stayed out and just got there. She wasn’t there and there was no sign she’d been back since she left for work yesterday. He can’t get her on the phone. It goes straight to voicemail.” Panic ceased me. So many scenarios began flooding my thoughts. “Did he call her work?” I asked. “It’s not yet seven in the morning, Catalina,” he reminded me.

“Oh. That’s right. What about an employee, boss, manager? Does he have any of their numbers?” Rathe shook his head. I had to find her. I could find her easily. This wasn’t like her. Something wasn’t right. I grabbed the tennis shoes I had on yesterday and headed for the door. “Catalina, wait,” Rathe called out. He couldn’t come with me. I had to be alone. I didn’t have time to figure out how to use magic without him realizing what I was doing. I could find her faster if I was alone. There were two ways I could do this and I needed something of hers, but I had nothing with me. I’d have to go to the apartment. I had to get something. She was okay. She had to be okay. Where had Heath been? Why would he not call in to check? Did he not check in with her when he stayed out at night? I grabbed my new car keys and images of terrible things kept flashing in my head so I began to run. I had to hurry. I was imagining the worst. I unlocked the car door as I ran for it. When I got to the driver’s door, I jerked it open but I didn’t manage to get inside before Rathe’s body was behind me and I was being pulled back. “enger’s side. You’re too worked up to drive,” he said in my ear very calmly. “I have to hurry, Rathe!” I cried. “I am going to fucking fly. I swear. But you’re too upset to drive. I’m not letting something happen to you.” I was wasting time arguing. I let out a frustrated groan and ran around to the enger side. “Fine. Get in. Drive,” I called out opening the door and flinging myself inside. Rathe was quick like he had promised. He was zooming out of there and down the street that was still thankfully empty. “This isn’t like her,” I said. “Heath said that, too. But you both need to take deep breaths. Calm down and think about where she could be. Do you want to go to where she works and see if there is someone there or maybe her car. She may have gone out with friends and gotten drunk. ed out.”

Those scenarios were very likely and if I had been in a full blown freak out, I would have kissed him for giving me something so reasonable to hope for. I was imagining her being abducted, raped, dead on the side of a road somewhere. I liked his theories better. Going to the mall where the store she worked at was located meant I could track her from there. I needed to do that alone though. Dang it. I needed Rathe not to be so protective of me. He didn’t need to protect me. He didn’t know that and it was sweet that he wanted me safe. I couldn’t be mad at him for wanting to keep me safe. He thought driving me was helpful. I should be mad at Heath for not calling his sister last night and telling her where he was. He’d have realized then she wasn’t answering. “Uh, yeah, why don’t you drop me at the mall and I’ll go inside. The coffee shop will be open. I can see if anyone has seen her. See if her car is there. You can go to the apartment and get Heath. He’s upset, too. He doesn’t need to drive.” That was the best excuse I could think of to get him to leave me there on my own. He frowned at me. “Heath’s a big boy. He can drive himself. I’m not leaving you there alone.” Crap. Okay, a new plan. I had to do this the harder way. I wouldn’t be able to stand outside her store at the mall and cast the locating spell that would lead me to her. Not if he was going to be right there watching me. The restroom. The one close to her store. She’d have used it yesterday. I can go in there and do the spell. We were pulling up to the mall. Rathe had broken all the road rules to get us there this fast. “Where would she have parked?” he asked. I pointed to the right side of the food court entrance. “That way,” I instructed. When we turned the corner and one of the three cars sitting in the large, otherwise empty parking lot was Margo’s, I sighed in relief. However, that was short lived because then I started fearing she’d been taken from the parking lot. “Call Heath and tell him that her car is here. I’m going to run inside and use the restroom,” I said reaching for the door handle before he even came to a complete stop beside her car. I needed to look inside and make sure she wasn’t in there.

The second the car stopped, I swung open the door and jumped out. There was no sign of Margo inside her car, but her purse was there. Why would her purse be in there? I reached to open the car door, but it was locked. Staring down at it, I attempted to unlock it like I had mine yesterday, but nothing happened. I was too worked up for my mind to focus properly. “Reserare ianuam,” I whispered and squeezed the handle expecting it open. Again nothing. It wasn’t unlocking. “It’ll take a little more than that simple cast to get it to open,” the deep familar voice said, startling me. My head snapped up to see my stalker standing there on the other side of the car, leaning on it as if he’d been there the entire time even though I knew he hadn’t. No. Nononononono. Why was he here? Why was he near Margo’s car? “Why? Where is she?” I asked both questions ing then that I wasn’t alone and Rathe wasn’t in the car this time, so I couldn’t lock him inside again. He was behind me. His scent and warmth were close by. Very close. I had to think, but I was panicking and that made it harder to think. If he’d taken Margo, then he’d have no problem trying to hurt Rathe, too. “She is sleeping, safely. Relax, Catalina,” the man replied, shifting his gaze over my left shoulder. He gave Rathe an odd almost threatening smile. I moved to stand completely in front of Rathe and my panic was being replaced with anger real damn quick. He might had taken my friend, but he was not about to do anything to Rathe. “I want Margo. Now,” I said with my own threat clear in my tone. The stalker shifted his eyes back to me. “There’s that shit I like to see. You’re nothing like the damn Kamlocks. Pansy ass bunch of witches,” he said, then walked around the car watching us both. I didn’t want him getting near Rathe. “Don’t come any closer,” I warned him. He paused and tilted his head as if he was curious. If he thought I wasn’t going to fight back because I was obviously hiding my magic from Rathe, he was wrong. At this point, Rathe had seen and heard too much anyway. I didn’t know how much lying I could do to get out of this one. He didn’t come closer. He stayed where he was and I knew it wasn’t because he was scared of me. His gaze was determined.

Rathe’s hand slid around my waist, and he placed his palm flat on my stomach. It was a sign of possession rather than protection. He needed to get back in the car and the only way I could get him in there was by casting a spell. I didn’t want to do that. He’d know just what I was if I did. “This is a quandary, is it not?” he asked, as he took in Rathe’s hand on me, then lifted his eyes to meet my steady gaze. I wasn’t taking my eyes off him for a second. “Maybe ime is a better description,” he said then and shrugged. “It’s a you-better-give-me-back-my-friend-right-fucking-now situation. That’s what it is.” I glared at him. Rathe was staying silent, which I found odd, but I was thankful. Maybe he sensed this man was dangerous and to him only. Whatever reason, it gave me one less thing to deal with. Rathe’s fingers curled slightly, as if he was trying to grab me, then they straightened back out. Was he trying to tell me something? If he was planning some attack, he would die. I had no choice. I had to keep him safe. The fact that he would know and he would leave me after this was the lesser of the two evils. I would not let Rathe die trying to protect me from the crazed warlock. I placed my hands on top of the one Rathe had on my stomach. This was all I could do. “Tutum intus,” I said with force. That should have sent Rathe to the car and sealed the doors. It didn’t. The warlock was chuckling and Rathe’s fingers curled into me again as my hands fell away from his. How was the warlock doing this? He was blocking every spell I cast. “What do you want with me?” I asked him angrily. I had never felt so powerless. Fear for Rathe was mounting. He wasn’t safe, and now, I wasn’t sure I could do anything to protect him. I had been so worried about him being in danger from me, never once thinking someone like this would be an ever bigger concern. And this was a danger I’d walked him straight into. “That is not the question. You’re asking the wrong one. You think things are a certain way but ah, my Catalina, they are not. Too much time with those Kamlocks. I left you too long,” he drawled as if he felt true regret over this.

Rathe’s hand fisted in my shirt and then he released it. His hand left me and he moved away from me. I had to stop him. He was going to do something and get killed. I turned to see what he was doing so I could block him. The coldness in his eyes was frightening and shocking at the same time. Thankfully, this wasn’t directed at me but toward the warlock who he needed to get the hell away from. He didn’t need to try and protect me because I couldn’t save him then. “Rathe, listen to me. Just get in the car. Please, please, just get in the car. I can handle this. I swear.” I heard the warlock sigh loudly. “Yes, Rathe, why don’t you just get in the car.” The way his eyes narrowed in response was not good. He was going to get killed. I had to stop this. Get rid of the warlock. I’d never been without the ability to use magic. “You know I have the patience of a ... saint...” the warlock said with a chuckle. I didn’t know who he was talking to or what he was being patient about. However, I was not being patient. “Well, I don’t! I’m over this. What do you want?” I asked him taking a step in his direction, hoping to deflect from Rathe. His lips curled up on each end in a sinister confident move. “Why did you take Margo? Whatever it is you want just tell me. And let her go,” I had meant to sound commanding, but I sounded pleading instead. “She was a warning,” he replied. I threw my hands up in frustration. “A warning for what? You won’t tell me why you’re stalking me. I have no idea what you’re trying to get from me.” He wasn’t looking at me though. His gaze was locked on Rathe standing behind me. There was an unspoken message I was missing. I could see it in the warlock’s eyes. But if I didn’t understand what he was after, then neither would Rathe. His eyes darted back to me and softened if that was even possible. “Catalina, it wasn’t a warning for you.” “THEN WHO!” I yelled at him completely frustrated with this conversation. I

wanted Margo back and I wanted Rathe far away from this man. His gaze shifted back over my shoulder to Rathe. Then Rathe spoke but I didn’t know what he said because it was a language I didn’t understand. It was short and it sounded angry. I spun around. I had to see whether Rathe was really speaking a foreign language or if this was the warlock doing it to him. But Rathe was no longer there. I looked at the car to see if he had decided to get inside it after all, but it was empty. I scanned the parking lot, my heart starting to race from the terror clawing at me. I swung back to glare at the warlock who seemed determined to turn my life into a nightmare. “What did you do with him?” I screamed. My blood pounding in my ears, nausea suddenly turning my stomach. This was my fault. If I hadn’t allowed myself to have him, this wouldn’t have happened. My greedy, selfish, black soul had caused this. “I can do a lot,” he paused then shrugged, “well, I can do most anything. But, Catalina, I have no power over Angra Mainyu’s only son.” The man did a gesture with his hand. “That’s thin lines and all. Too close to the same source of energy. Rathe is his own cursed abomination. The child created from two beings that were never meant to produce offspring.” He stepped closer to me but I didn’t move away. I couldn’t. My head was spinning so fast I felt dizzy. The nausea was getting worse. “Whereas you,” he began as I stared at him in disbelief, “you aren’t an abomination. Sure, I could have chosen better than Persephone, but she’s got that bewitching beauty that’s so hard to ignore. As you know,” he said waving a hand at me. “Regardless, she wanted three daughters. I wanted a child. I gave her the third daughter she was so eager to have and she gave me the child I wanted so much.” This was a lie. All of it. He was lying to me. He had followed me, figured out my worst fears and he was now hurtling them at me one right after another. But why me? Why did he want to destroy me? What had I done to deserve this? I’d tried to be good. Now I’d lost my best friend and Rathe. I had to keep it together

and fight for them. “Who are you?” I asked him, not expecting a response. He pulled out a cigarette and held it to his lips, then smirked. “Your father.” I shook my head. I knew who my father was and this was not my father. “No. You’re not my father. My father is dead.” The warlock took a pull from his cigarette and then leveled his eyes on me. “Lucas Delvaux could have never produced a child as talented and lethal as you, dear. He was a wealthy, spoiled mortal that was as weak to Persephone’s charm as all the others.” “He is the reason I’m not like them. I can choose the good in me because of MY FATHER’S BLOOD inside me. My entire life I have had the ability to be who I wanted to be and not fall into their way. I was able to refuse the power of three and I was able to do things they cannot. I can love.” He wagged his fingers that held the cigarette at me. “Mortal blood would have been too weak to withstand the Kamlock’s way. It wouldn’t have made you strong enough to be different. You don’t love and you’re not kind. You choose to love and you choose to be kind. You choose to fucking care when it suits you but, Catalina, you don’t like people in general. You decide who you will care about and then you do. That isn’t weak mortal blood.” I shook my head, straightening my shoulders. He would not take this from me, too. He wasn’t taking my father from me. “It takes goodness. My father was good.” He laughed. A deep dark cackle that I hated immediately. He then took another smoke and looked at me. “Why do you think you see the souls of those unable to let go of this life? The ones hanging on to someone or something. Do you know a caster who can do that?” I said nothing. Many casters had different abilities. “Why does the earth, the soil, the air, why does it obey you? What caster do you know that can do anything like that?”

I didn’t know. I had never understood it. I just accepted it. He sat down on the edge of the trunk of Margo’s car. One black combat boot on the pavement and the other on the bumper. He looked comfortable. Relaxed. I hated him. He was taking everything from me and he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. “Your father is Diabolus, Catalina. Denying me is pointless. You’ll need me and I will be here when you do. The Kamlock beauty and sorcery mixed with my omnipotent evil,” he flashed a wicked grin. “It was a brilliant and devious idea.” “Satan?” I asked, not having a hard time believing that at all. He was making my life Hell. He made a disgusted face. “Catalina, please. Don’t refer to me as such.” “I speak Latin. I know what Diabolus is in English.” He raised a single eyebrow. “Technically translated in English it is Devil. But that’s so general. There are so many of those.” I didn’t care. Shaking my head, I decided I was not listening to this insanity anymore. “I want my friends back,” I said, done with this. He took a smoke then nodded. “Margo is sleeping in her bed. Heath forgot she was missing and her car was left here because she went out and drank too much. Someone gave her a ride home.” “I don’t believe you.” He held out his hand and my phone was there as he stretched it out to me. “Text her. Call Heath. Whatever,” he suggested. “Where is Rathe?” I demanded. He shrugged. “I can’t help you there. I’m the Lord of sin, darkness, evil, death, but I can’t control Angra Mainyu’s offspring. Not on my power wheel.” I dialed Heath’s number, careful not to take my eyes off the monster in front of me.

“Good morning,” he said cheerily. “Heath,” I said ing his frantic voice from earlier. “Yeah,” he chuckled. “You called me, Cat. Did you forget who you were calling?” His voice was teasing. Very Heath-like. “Where is Margo?” I asked. “Her drunk ass is still sleeping it off. She had one too many last night,” he said sounding less cheerful. I looked at Diabolus and then asked Heath, “Where is Rathe?” “Not a clue. He came in a few minutes ago and took some things. Didn’t say much and then just left.” The Devil in front of me shrugged and kept smoking while I stood there. “You okay, Cat?” Heath asked. “Yeah, uh, I’ll talk to you later,” I said, ending the call. He wiggled his eyebrows as I continued to stare at him. He was waiting on me to say something. Things started clicking into place. Things I didn’t want to connect. Things that I wanted to be a lie. “Who placed the spell around my mother’s house that kept you out?” I asked even though something was unraveling inside me. I knew already. I just needed to hear him say it. “Rathe,” he said his name and I felt my knees go weak at the confirmation. “Why were you there?” I asked. “To see why the offspring of Angra Mainyu and a fallen archangel was getting near my daughter. Rathe doesn’t dwell among the mortals often. But the bastard expected me to show up and kept me out. That told me all I needed to know. He was there because of you and he knew who your father was.”

I hated this. I didn’t want to hear more but I had to know. “Who is Angra Mainyu?” “Didn’t that Delvaux man leave a library behind? Did you not read good literature?” “Persephone wouldn’t allow me to.” He looked annoyed. “How much do you know about Christianity?” I shrugged. “I grew up in Georgia. Most of it.” “Have you heard of Spenta Mainyu... or the Holy Spirit?” “Once, I think. Isn’t that just God or something?’ He rolled his eyes. “No. It’s one of the others,” he said waving his hand absentmindedly toward the sky. “Angra is his twin brother. He is his opposite. Angra is the Destructive Spirit.” “How does some spirit I’ve never heard of have a child with an archangel? Aren’t they on two different sides of things?” Diabolus pointed at me as if I had said something brilliant. “Exactly. That was what got his mother tossed. She’s still a do-gooder though,” he added the last bit as if that was ridiculous. I needed to be alone or to wake up and this to have all been a terrible nightmare. “I have to go. But I’m never far,” he said with a tip of his head in my direction. Then he was gone. I was alone. I wasn’t waking up. The world was still here as it had been yesterday. The new company car was parked beside me.

And everything I thought I knew had just been snatched away and handed back as one horror after another. Things I hadn’t been sure were real existed. I squeezed my eyes closed and wished more than anything for this to have been a nightmare. I wanted to wake up with Rathe there in bed beside me. Normal Rathe. Human Rathe. Not immortal Rathe. The fact that my father was the Devil should have been the worst of it. But it wasn’t.

Twenty-Three

Lala Longstreet was crazy and a distraction I was thankful to have. After two weeks of working with her, I had started to understand her thought process some and calls to Barney for translation were getting fewer and fewer. I was moving out of Duely’s tomorrow and although he didn’t want me to go, I needed to be alone. No one, not even Duely, knew who I was. I couldn’t tell anyone. Ever. Diabolus hadn’t been around again but Rathe was also gone. He’d vanished. Taken all his things when no one was at home and left a note that they could keep the rent. He had decided Delvaux wasn’t for him. He was going abroad. Heath had been happy about Rathe’s departure and he hadn’t tried to hide it. He had been trying to get me to move in with them free of rent, but I couldn’t take Rathe’s room. His memory was too fresh. My emotions too raw. As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn’t. He had lied to me. What I thought we had was never real. But he hadn’t been the only liar. I had lied to him too. I didn’t know why he had sought me out other than to see if Diabolus did have a child. I’d lain in bed thinking of reasons he had come here. I had tried to convince myself I should be scared of him. He’d been immune to my sorcery, and not even the Lord of evil had been able to do anything to him. Why was that? Did it have something to do with the holy blood in him? I had so many questions and I didn’t know if I’d ever have any answers. Diabolus wasn’t coming around to answer anything. Not now that Rathe was gone. I stood outside my mother’s home looking up at it and my chest mourned the loss of a man I believed had been my father. I had believed in my goodness. I had thought I had it in me. None of it was there. My blood hadn’t been what had made me choose good over evil. How was it that the evil inside me was what had made me better? The woman inside that house had given me life but lived in terror of me and I

understood why now. I was the abomination. I should have never been born. She was right. I didn’t hate her for all she’d said to me anymore. She’d known all along who I was. What I was. A small figure filled the attic window, drawing my gaze toward her. She was the only reason I was here. Annabelle stared back at me. I held up my hand to wave and she did the same. There was nothing left for her here on this earth. She’d died a child and stayed because of her mother’s grief. She’d not known to go on. She’d let the pain hold her here. I understood that now. Diabolus didn’t have to explain that to me. There were things that I just knew now. Since he’d told me who I was and who he was, I had started to have answers to things I hadn’t before. I just wish I had all the answers. “Hoc est domum tuam. Hoc est tempus de hoc mundo ad mortem ire et liberum esse. Innocentes anima tua, accipe et vade. Soram, Annabelle. Ita summa petunt.” That was another thing I just knew. It wasn’t always spells I cast. I was learning the difference daily. My sisters had always been taught spells, yet I could speak my own. I now knew that those that came naturally to me were never spells at all. It was the power of Diabolus. I was speaking it into being and it was. Just like the words I’d said to Annabelle just now. The small girl in the attic was gone. She’d not be back. She was free of a home where sadness had held her. There was no more clinging to this life for her now. The Latin I spoke was simply me drawing on my father’s power and speaking it be. The front door opened and my mother stepped out, her eyes locked on me. “Get away from this place!” she yelled out to me. “Gladly,” I replied. “But, mother, the spell you’ve placed around this house to keep me away,” I said to her, sensing its presence there, then vanishing from her yard and reappearing inches from her on the front porch. She screamed and began tossing hexes that couldn’t touch me. “I have no desire to come here or see you. I had some unfinished business. I won’t be back. You were right to send me away. I shouldn’t have been born and I

belong nowhere.” Those were words I needed to say to her. Closure for us. Closure for me. “You’re just like him. I knew you were. I saw it when you were little,” her voice was nervous and accustory as if I had asked for this. She’d wanted the third daughter so badly she made a deal with the Devil. I was the result. I didn’t need to stay and be reminded of the mistake she wished she’d never made. I could lie to myself but the truth was that it hurt. To have a mother who didn’t just not like you, but hated you. A mother who wished you were never born. She’d done this. I didn’t want to feel anything toward her or the rest of the Kamlocks. She’d allowed me to believe a lie all my life. Now, Lucas Delvaux was just one more loss in this nightmare that was my life. Turning away from the terror in Peresephone’s eyes, I didn’t let her see the pain in mine. It was my secret. No one had to know the anguish I faced every day when I opened my eyes. I would survive. I wouldn’t be happy, but I’d live. I took the last steps I would ever take down the porch steps of my former home and didn’t look back. This time I was really leaving. She didn’t have to see me again. I didn’t need that reminder. My life with her would become a closed chapter. Never to be reopened. When my foot hit the brickpaved sidewalk, I was ready to go. Vanish from sight the way my father always did. Before I could focus on the location to which I wanted to teleport, my eyes locked on a pair of familar steel blue pools. I inhaled sharply, my heart slamming against my chest, but I didn’t blink, afraid that he’d be the one to disappear. The moss hung from the trees sheltering him from view and, for a moment, the pain I was feeling was gone. Who we were didn’t matter. For a moment, I didn’t feel alone. Like everything in my life, that moment of peace was then blasted to Hell.

Book Two in the Soul Series CURSED SOULS coming 2020

About Abbi

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Boys South of the Mason Dixon, and The Field Party Series. She is also author to the Sweet Trilogy and the Black Souls Trilogy. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she was born in Alabama. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is entertaining her three year old, she is reading (if the three year old will leave her alone long enough), shopping online (major Amazon Prime addiction), running because she eats too many tacos, and listening to the drama in her teenagers lives while making mental notes on the good stuff to use later. Don’t judge.

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways. She uses social media to procrastinate.

Facebook Twitter Instagram Snapchat