Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(50)

“You mean abandoning you when you needed me the most?”

“No… that sucked, but don’t be too hard on yourself. You were thinking about your mom, and you had fallen for what Tamara was saying. I get it.”

“Maybe you do, but what I did wasn’t right, and I’m not going to do it again.”

“I know you won’t. How is she, by the way?”

“She’ll recover… with any luck, she’ll get discharged in a couple of days.”

“Let’s go for lunch when she does, okay?”

Nicole nodded and hugged me. “I love you,” she said.

For the first time in days, it felt like, despite all that had happened, there was a way we would all be able to come back from this, maybe even come back stronger than we were before. I hugged her back, and then let her go. When she was gone, I locked up and went around the portals of the house, starting with the front door, willing a magickal barrier into existence around each and every one of them.

After I completed the wards, I headed upstairs and searched for the master bedroom, which was easy enough to find but seemed to take far longer than it should have. Jared was already inside, sitting shirtless on the bed and working at his boots, his ropy back muscles working as he tugged on the laces and pulled a boot off.

Somehow, he made the act of taking one’s shoes off look hot.

I shut the door behind myself, causing him to notice me. “Everything done?” he asked.

“Yeah, the house is protected and Nicole’s gone.”

“Good. I ordered some food for us; it should be here in about twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes?”

“That’s right…” he said, rising from the bed and rolling his strong shoulders.

I started walking toward him, but the closer I got, the quicker my legs pulled me in his direction until I found myself dashing across the remainder of the room, and then throwing myself against his chest. Jared caught me, and we kissed deeply. He laid me on the bed and, arching over me, continued the kiss. But we didn’t take it any further than that. Resting in each other’s arms once more, we decided that food and relaxation were our top priorities tonight.

Jared had grabbed my backpack from his place, so I changed, showered, and set my laptop up to watch a movie in bed. It had been a long day, an even longer week, and sleep was glad to take me away to a full night of rest.

But I was robbed of that privilege once again.

Something cold wrapped itself around my ankle and pulled hard. My heart jumped into my throat. I screamed, grabbed hold of the bedsheets to try and stop from moving, but it was no use. I was dragged off the bed by my leg and hit the ground with my chin. I saw stars for an instant, and when I turned around to kick, whoever had grabbed me was quick enough, and strong enough, to make even my most intense efforts to break free, entirely useless.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE


Everything happened so fast. It was like a being trapped, lost, and helpless inside a nightmare carnival of horrors.

“Get the hell off me!” I yelled, bucking and kicking uselessly against my aggressor. When I saw I was doing nothing to stop him from dragging me out of the room, I turned my head up to look for Jared. I screamed for him, but my voice was cut short by what was unfolding in front of my eyes.

Someone was on top of Jared; a woman was straddling him. She had her face buried in his neck, and her back was heaving up and down, up and down, as she sucked the blood right out of his jugular. I called out to him in vain as I was dragged, unceremoniously, through the house and into the ballroom.

The lights were on, and my eyes hadn’t fully adjusted to the brightness yet, but I didn’t need to see to know exactly who it was standing before me now. Tamara. She looked pale, tired, and old, but she had somehow succeeded in not only waking herself up, but also in punching a hole through my magickal wards large enough for her to let herself and her friends in.

I fought to stand, but a boot came crashing down on my back, sending me chest-first into the floor. “You bitch,” I said, through gritted teeth, “If you hurt Jared, I’ll kill you!”

“Oh, we’ve hurt him,” came a voice from behind. Jared then fell beside me with a thud. His face was pale, his eyes were shut, but his chest was moving—if only weakly.

“What have you done to him?” I yelled.

A woman came into view, one I had only met once before but thought I had known my whole life. She was clad in black, wearing thigh-high leather boots, black leggings, and a cropped leather jacket over a tank top. She knelt before me, her blond hair tied back into a tight bun, and she grinned at me, displaying her sharp canines. “Don’t worry,” Marie said, “I only bit him a little.”

I struggled to get free, to conjure my magick, but nothing was working; it was just like before, right down to the bloody nose. I could see the droplets dripping on the hardwood floor underneath me. “I thought we settled this,” I said.

“We settled nothing, child,” Tamara said, though her voice gave away her tiredness, her lack of energy. “We entered into a duel, I said some words, and your friend called it off. That does not a victor make.”

“If you’re such a victor, why is your friend pinning me to the ground with his boot? Why can’t I use my magick? Are you afraid I’ll kill you this time?”