Devious Magic Read online

  I set the pace, his hips rising and falling to meet mine, then pulling me down so he could kiss me again, our tongues mating as our bodies conjoined. The feel of him filling me, over and over, was bliss incarnate. I loved the soft groans that escaped him, the feel of his torso pressed against mine, one hand cupping the back of my head while the other pressed against the small of my back.

  Just as I felt my climax rising, warmth spiralling from my core, he grasped me with both hands and, in one swift move, I was on my back looking up, beyond his handsome face to the starry canopy he’d conjured above. Dragging my eyes away from the spectacle, I fixed on him. His eyes had taken on the purple-black hue they always did when we made love. I called them his horny eyes and, while he didn’t disagree, I wondered if it meant something more to him. If there were anything I needed an owner’s manual on, it was daemons.

  My fingers dug into the sculpted muscles of his back as my orgasm ripped through me. My lashes could barely obscure the stars I saw shooting across the sky, one after the other, like fireworks. Under that sky, his hands folded under my hips to arch me up to him, Evan pushed one final time, and then melted over me, his lips nuzzling at my neck. “Happy birthday,” he whispered.

  “I wish it was my birthday every day.” I was attempting to hold back a giggle. My face was flushed and I was riding a freight train full of endorphins. “I like the thing you did with the shooting stars.”

  Evan craned his head to glance over his shoulder. The last star shot across the canopy and exploded into a little burst of fireworks that seemed to drizzle earthwards, the glittery droplets disintegrating as they reached the floor. “That wasn’t me,” he said, turning back to me with a smile. “That was you.”

  “Oh,” I whispered. “Cool.”

  In another room, music clicked on. I frowned up at Evan, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Were we too loud?”

  “No.” He looked in the direction of the music. “Though maybe we can discuss living alone? I have a yen to have you in front of the fire in the living room.”

  I raised my eyebrows, a smile curling on my lips. “I’ll add both to the agenda.”

  ***

  Gage, along with Annalise and Beau, came by in the morning to report. Pack members Jay and Kristin kept watch on Jones and the other Brotherhood minion throughout the night. Gage put his phone on speaker so when they called in with their news, we could all listen.

  They didn’t have much to report. It seemed the Brotherhood men currently holed up at the motel were quiet and hadn’t left their room all night. However, they had been seen making several calls before the drapes were drawn. Even wolf ears couldn’t hear far enough across the parking lot and through walls to know who they were calling and why.

  I yawned, slapping a hand over my mouth as Jay and Kristin signed off. Despite the very pleasurable end to my birthday, I’d had an uneasy night. Knowing that the Brotherhood were so close by, and almost certainly knew where I lived was an uncomfortable thought. I half expected them to arrive in the dark, torches blazing, and attack my house. In reality, hopefully, nothing they could do would work – magic protected my house and a daemon slept in it. But it didn’t stop me from worrying.

  Evan pressed a cup of hot coffee into my hand and sat next to me, asking Gage questions about what vehicle the men were driving and did they discover anything about the second man. Sipping my coffee, I saw the plane ticket Jones handed me, the same one that I placed on the mantelpiece last night and ignored until now. In the back of my mind, I saw the date and time counting down, like a flip board, or a bomb about to go off.

  I had some time to think about it this morning, when I woke up much earlier than Evan. I doubted that Jones expected me to be on that plane; but it seemed an awful long way to come on what currently amounted to a fool’s errand. It wasn’t just that I had no intention of going to Hawkscroft, but that I had no intention of ever willingly meeting another Brotherhood member, much less their leader. Not even the idea of being on home shores placated, or attracted, me. There were a lot of things I missed about England – the chocolate, the familiarity, sometimes even the more mundane parts of my previous life. But the Brotherhood, along with the weather, I could definitely do without.

  Now, playing on my mind too was both Evan and Étoile’s separate suggestions that Wilding wasn’t safe. Leaving wasn’t something I wanted to think about. Realistically, I knew I could, and easily. I could work remotely from wherever I was, and I’d only been in Wilding for a matter of months, not long enough to put down deep roots, but enough to know that I had found true friends. The idea of starting over again wasn’t all that appealing, even if I knew I wouldn’t be completely alone.

  Étoile’s behaviour was puzzling me too. She’d already made several phone calls this morning, but each time, she’d been extra careful not to be overheard.

  Just prior to the wolf’s pack arrival, Kitty mentioned that Étoile had also been trying to force a vision, to see if she could glean any information from a glimpse into the future. It wasn’t an easy job to do, especially when she was so far from her sisters and their mutual power boost. A little part of the old me slipped through, thinking it was crazy to even think in terms of that. Sometimes the witch life was a real mindblower.

  “Maybe we should pre-empt them?” I said after I swallowed the last bite of bagel that Kitty had toasted and offered around. I spread it with a thick layer of cream cheese that was sticking my mouth together. “Go to them, force them to tell us what they know.”

  “They might not know anything,” pointed out Étoile. “And pushing them might have the opposite effect.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “There might be more of them here. It’s unlikely they’d send two unprotected humans to confront a witch, especially if they suspect you have help.”

  “I guess.”

  “The best thing to do is make sure you always have someone with you,” added Étoile, reiterating yesterday’s agreement. “We’ll make it difficult for them to approach you again.”

  I hated to point out the obvious. Having someone watch my back was reassuring, but it certainly wasn’t tenable. We all had jobs, none that involved babysitting me. “For how long? This can’t go on indefinitely.”

  “Maybe you should rethink what we discussed? It might be time to leave Wilding for a while.” Evan’s voice was low and concerned, and not at all full of snide satisfaction. I knew from the previous night that he wanted to go home, but I knew he wouldn’t force me. We agreed to discuss our future living arrangements, though now really wasn’t the time. There was too much weighing on my mind. Sighing lightly so as not to offend him, I sipped my coffee again and avoided his eyes. Much as I didn’t want to admit it, he probably did have a point. Texas might be safer, but I’d be on the move again and I wanted to fight for my corner. I had to stop running some day or I could be running my whole life.

  “Then at least, make sure you’re not alone,” Evan added. He and Gage exchanged looks. They might not exactly have formed a friendship, but there was an uneasy truce when it came to me. Although it seemed to run more along the lines of “be nice when Stella is around,” all bets were off when I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t an idiot. I could tell they had their issues, and unfortunately, they all centred on me.

  When I first arrived in Wilding alone, not knowing what happened to Evan, Gage and I flirted with the beginnings of a relationship. However, all that had gone out of my mind the moment I knew Evan was staying. I had yet to confess to kissing Gage when Evan once stormed off in anger, not long after returning to my life. It had been a weak moment for me, one I did my best to forget, but I knew things could be infinitely worse if I confessed. I wasn’t used to keeping secrets and this was one that gave me some trouble, until I refused to think about it anymore.

  A truce was a start.

  “I’m going to head out and relieve Jay and Kris.” Annalise got to her feet and took her plate and mug, carrying them towards the kitchen. “Mich
elle’s probably already waiting for me.”

  “Just leave them by the sink, I’ll do them in a while,” I called after her.

  She stopped, looked back at me and frowned. I made a big thing out of being house-proud – it was hard not to, now that I had so much space of my own. “You sure?”

  “No problem, go fight evil.” I grinned.

  As alpha male, Gage was taking the organisation of the stakeout very seriously, which gave me some reassurance. Annalise was scheduled to take on the next watch alongside a pretty, redheaded wolf called Michelle Dunphy who was a couple of years older than I and a relatively new member of their pack. I knew Annalise’s eagerness to leave early this morning was less about getting to their rendezvous on time and more about getting some extra alone time with Beau, who was due at work. He called the early evening Brotherhood-watch shift. I hoped to hell this was not going to spoil their weekend plans.

  They slipped outside, hand in hand, walking towards Beau’s truck. For a moment, I envied Annalise. She not only had a great brother, but also lived in her hometown surrounded by her childhood friends. I admired her joyous nature, her ability to make everyone feel welcome. Most of all, I envied her freedom. Few people would mess with Annalise and risk the wrath of the pack.

  Before I’d arrived to Wilding, the pack had free rein to run wild out in this neck of the woods. They even had a private meeting house, the Loup Garou, that was a mile or so away, at the other end of Shadow Wood Lane. They were forced to lie low when I arrived, until they discovered I was something other than human. Only then, did they reveal themselves to me. Now they were a regular fixture in the woods and I often saw them in both their human and wolf forms. Out of respect, I stayed away while they transitioned, since it was a very personal thing and they always ended up naked. Occasionally, I’d see one of them through the change, as some didn’t seem to care. It was a strange thing to watch bones slide and lock into new positions, claws grow or retract, muzzles become noses and so on.

  “Is there anything I can help the pack with?” I asked Gage. I hated feeling useless while the pack came to my aid again. A few months ago, they chased off the large gathering of witches who arrived uninvited to my house. While a few of the witches were intent on causing trouble, the rest were spectators. They were mainly interested in seeing if any battle lines were being drawn, all part of the Council’s leadership challenge. I proved myself to them and that I was a force to be reckoned with, the wolf pack right beside me. No one was quite sure what the repercussions would be, but, so far, things had been quiet on that front. The inevitable power surge, however, brought other unforeseen problems we didn’t want in Wilding.

  “Not a thing. Like I said, we’ve got the Brotherhood on twenty-four hour watch and that’s all under control. So long as we know where you are, and where they are, and that it’s not the same place, we’re good.”

  “I really appreciate it.”

  “I’ll say it again, not a problem. Happy to help.” Gage stood, tugging on a light jacket as some concession to the late winter air. “I have to get to work though. You’ve got my number. Call if you need anything.”

  “Sure.” I left Gage to walk himself out.

  After Kitty and I washed and dried the dishes, and Evan excused himself to work, Étoile insisted on carrying on with our magic lessons as normal. Despite Kitty’s big gap in her studies while she’d been in the hospital, her magic was coming through thick and fast. Her weather specialism afforded her a very strong connection to the earth. It seemed like she could create any climatic conditions she chose. On a small scale, she was terrific. On a larger scale, she wavered a little but I’d seen her create tropical sunshine, and then make snow fall in the same location.

  Kitty was instructed by Étoile to practise making and directing mist, coiling it like candyfloss around her hand. Meanwhile, she had me practise my telekinesis. Throughout my life I’d made things happen and sometimes, it had really scared me. Then, almost a year ago, under Evan’s tutelage, I deliberately used it to make an inanimate object move.

  Now, I found tapping into my magic much more easily. I simply had to focus on the object in question and will it. No longer did things slide across tables. I could make them float to me, land in my hand, or alight wherever I chose.

  Currently Étoile had me calling specific objects from different rooms, mundane things and things she planted, which involved a lot more concentration, something I found scarce while I was worrying about the Brotherhood’s next moves.

  After an hour of moving objects around the house, I felt exhausted and I was just resting my head on the kitchen table when I heard Evan’s footsteps approaching. I looked up, smiling, as he stuck his head around the door.

  “I’m going out,” he said succinctly. “I’ll be gone a couple of hours.”

  “Where to?” I stifled a yawn.

  “Errands,” he said, and was gone before I could ask what sort of errands. As far as I knew, Evan had people who ran around and did things for him. In regards to his business, he was currently outsourcing most of his daily work to various employees – whom I’d yet to meet – leaving him free to manage the overall business. Apart from occasionally mailing packages, I’d never seen him run any kind of errand. A little part of me was suspicious that he had discovered something about the Brotherhood that he was choosing not to share. All at once, I felt bad at that. I’d gotten used to sharing everything with Evan. The same little part of me that wondered if I were making a mistake by not being more acquiescent to his desire to go home, also wondered what parts of his life he kept from me.

  His business was operated only on a fairly secretive basis, and Evan told me that sometimes he thought it was best I didn’t know. He didn’t say in case it put me in danger, but that’s what I inferred. Maybe that should have made me more worried than it did, but it didn’t. He didn’t interfere with my job, so I didn’t interfere with his.

  Remembering I had a question that I wanted to ask him, I stepped through to the living room. The lingering heat told me Evan had already gone, shimmering out of the house. He could be anywhere by now.

  “I have to go pick up a package,” Kitty said. She sat on the arm of the chair as she pulled on her boots.

  “I have a couple of errands to run too.” Étoile looked from me to Kitty, wrinkling her nose in thought.

  “Anything I can do for you?” Kitty offered.

  “No, but thanks anyway.” She stared at me and I found myself pulling back.

  “It can’t wait though. I need to pick up a few things before I make my trip on Monday. We’ll all have to go together.”

  “What trip?” I asked. It was the first I’d heard of it.

  “Just a quick visit to the city. Nothing important,” she replied breezily.

  “I’ll be okay in the house by myself. I can call Evan if anything happens.”

  Étoile contemplated that for a moment. “I’d rather not risk it. You’re under our protection, missy. Let’s go.”

  We piled into Kitty’s car and she drove us into town. I followed them around like a naughty puppy while they went about their business before we separated, with Kitty shooting off to the post office. It was only when we passed the pharmacy that I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

  Evan and I hadn’t used any protection the previous night. Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! I didn’t know what to think about that. We’d never gotten so carried away to the point of not using anything before and it made my stomach lurch. I was twenty-five and, although that made me reasonably old enough to be a mother, it wasn’t anything I’d ever thought about. Could a witch and a daemon even procreate together? I guessed so because we’d always used protection before.

  “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” said Étoile, glancing over her handwritten list. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. It wasn’t something I could discuss with her, not until I’d spoken to Evan, anyway. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure how I felt about
having a conversation like this with him either. This ventured into serious with a capital “S” category and there were a whole lot of other things in that category that needed to be broached too.

  “Oh, shoot,” muttered Étoile, looking in her bag. “I forget to pick up my dry cleaning and they have my favourite coat and my black pantsuit. Crap. We’re going to have run back to pick it up.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned, looking all the way down the street then back to Darla’s, less than twenty yards away. Coffee sounded way better than traipsing after Étoile. I jabbed a finger at the diner. “I’m going to wait in there. I can see Kristin at the counter.”

  Étoile looked around for Kitty again, sweeping the street, probably weighing up the chances of anything awful happening to me. There weren’t a lot of people around now that lunch hour had passed but still enough for any kind of attack to be unlikely. “Fine, but go straight in and don’t...”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I am going to talk to people.”

  “Fine. Text Kitty and have her pick us up outside. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” She looked at me and I stared back. “Go in,” she urged, flapping her hands at me like a mother with a hesitant child.

  “Fine.” I stomped away and pushed the diner door open, blankly smiling at whomever was in front of me. Kristin waved and turned back to the woman she was talking to. They looked so deep in conversation that I didn’t like to interrupt. I wasn’t sure how long I could take being babysat. I hoped the Brotherhood would go home soon and leave me alone so I could get back to leading my normal life. Normal. Hah.

  I ordered a coffee to go and sat on the stool at the window, looking onto the street. Pulling out my phone, I tapped a message to Kitty, telling her where to meet me, then, as I slipped it back into my bag, I saw Kitty’s car barrelling down Main. I grabbed my coffee, popped a plastic lid on it, picked up my bag and jogged outside, reaching the sidewalk just as the car screeched to a stop in front of me. The window unwound and I leaned down to look in.