“Hey, guys.” I drop my purse on the ground in the foyer and turn on the light. My familiars are sitting on the stairs, waiting for us, and Scarlet runs and jumps, playing the part of the glamour she’s wearing.
“She hasn’t grown at all.” Eliza looks down at the golden retriever puppy.
“I know.” I take off my shoes and bend down to pet Scarlet, earning a growl from Pandora. “Oh, hush,” I tell her. “I just want her to calm down.” Scarlet presses herself against me, licking my hand. “Kristy said the same thing,” I tell Eliza and move into the house. “I’ll have to figure out how to adjust the glamour so she looks like she’s growing.”
“You could just take the collar off,” Lucas suggests. He dozed off most of the drive to Thorne Hill. Eliza drove us, muttering something about feeling like she was Driving Miss Daisy since both Lucas and I sat in the back. The extra forty minutes of sleep seemed to do him some good.
“Of course you’d let her get a dog,” Eliza sighs.
“I don’t let Callie do anything,” Lucas replies. “She makes her own decisions.”
I look up at him and feel turned on all over again. “Fuck, I love you.”
“Must be nice,” Eliza quips.
“You’re my daughter,” Lucas tells her. “Callie is my wife. And please, take the damn thing for the weekend.”
My puppy-dog eyes narrow into a scowl. “She’s growing on you.”
“She shouldn’t. The thing is a demon,” he says as if he has to remind me that Scarlet is fucking terrifying when you take her collar off.
I point to the stairs. “Lucas, go up to bed.” I look at my familiars. “Can you check out the curse? See if you can figure out anything, because I’m kind of at a loss.”
“Don’t you need to explain what’s going on to them?” Eliza asks incredulously.
“I already did.” I take off my shoes and tap my forehead. “In the car. I told Binx, and he told the others.”
Lucas moves with vampire speed up the stairs only to stop right at the top and wince with pain. I squeeze my eyes closed and force myself to take in a slow breath. I’m so close to a panic attack. The foyer light starts to flicker, and electricity hums through the air.
“What’s the deal with having more than one familiar?” Eliza asks quickly. Too quickly. I’m sure she’s a little curious, but I think she’s more so trying to distract me right now, and I’m so thankful for that.
“It’s pretty much unheard of. Witches and warlocks only get one familiar, and that’s if they get one at all. The spirits have to come to you and decide that you’re the one they want to work with.”
“Work with?”
“Serve. Obey.” I make a face. “I think of my familiars as friends, not my minions to do my bidding.”
“Then how did you end up with three?”
“I don’t really know, but I’m guessing it has something to do with me not being a full witch.” I head into the kitchen to let Scarlet out back and to get something for us all to eat. “Binx came to me when I was ten and still in that research lab. He alerted Tabatha, who came and broke me out.”
I open the fridge, so happy I went grocery shopping already, and get out a package of chicken breasts. Cooking is the absolute last thing I want to do, but I know I need something healthy and high in protein so I can heal and produce enough blood for Lucas to drink in the morning.
“Freya’s witch was killed by demons. I was following the body trail as I hunted the demon and found her huddled up next to her witch’s body.” The memory hits me hard in the heart. “She was an owl then.”
“They change forms?”
“Their animal form isn’t what they really are, since they’re spirits. What animal they choose to represent themselves as is based on who their master is.”
“Of course you’d get a black cat from the start. So basic.”
I laugh. “I know, right? But really…” I pull a skillet from a cabinet and get hit with another memory. “Abby gave me a stuffed animal for my birthday when I was in the lab. It was a black cat. It was the only thing I had that brought me any sort of comfort.”
Eliza’s face softens. “That’s fucked up.”
“I know.”
“What about the other one?”
“Pandora.” I grab the kitchen shears and cut the chicken up into small pieces so it’ll cook faster. “Her witch was killed by her boyfriend. He found out she was a witch and killed her.”
“What kind of animal was she?”
“A fox. She’s not trusting of anyone, really, especially men. She likes Kristy and Tabatha, tolerates Evander, and is finally warming up to Lucas.”
“If her master was murdered by her boyfriend, I don’t blame her for not trusting anyone.” Eliza leans against the counter, watching me cook. “So their witches died. But why did they end up with you?”
“That’s the part I’m not sure of. With Freya, she followed me home after I killed the demon. She hung around the house but wouldn’t come in for a few days, and then one morning, she shifted into the tabby cat she is now and we’ve been bonded ever since. Pandora was the same. She followed me home but shifted into a cat right away.”
“Interesting.”
“It is, and I’m well aware how odd it is to have more than one familiar. But we’re a family, and I never wanted to question it too much.”
I cut up the rest of the chicken, wash my hands, and get a red onion from the pantry. I set it on the cutting board and suddenly get hit with all the panic and fear I’ve been trying to hold back.
“What’s wrong?” Eliza only looks slightly alarmed, but she steps closer.
“Lucas cuts my onions.”
“Is that a sex thing?”
“No,” I sob and go to the knife block, pulling out a butcher knife. “He literally cuts the onions. They make my eyes water, so he does it for me.” I set the knife down and grip the edge of the counter, needing to hold onto it for support.
Lucas is my support. My rock. My world.
He has to be okay.
“He’s strong,” Eliza says softly and picks up the knife to cut the onions for me. “And as much as I hate admitting it, you’re the most badass woman I’ve ever met. You’re going to find the curse-casting cunts and slit their throats.”
“I am.” I suck in air and tip my head up, looking her dead in the eye. “And I will.”
“I think I know why you like the electric blanket so much,” Lucas says groggily. I look up, blinking a few times to focus my vision, and direct the string of magic I’m using as light up higher into the room. I’ve been sitting on the floor for hours now, looking through every book I own and writing down anything that could be helpful in curse breaking.
“It’s very snuggly.” I close my Book of Shadows, feeling a familiar tug of emptiness on my heart I get almost every time I open this thing. Since I didn’t hail from a magical family, I had no book to be passed down to me. Tabatha gave me this one, and most of it is still blank. “How are you feeling?”
“Like it’s time for you to stop asking me that.” Lucas pushes up. He’s been asleep for a few hours now and looks better, though maybe it’s just the dim light. “You need to come to bed. The sun will be up soon and you haven’t slept yet.”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
“That might very well be the case if you’re not on your game.” His eyes meet mine, and I sigh. I’m tired, have a headache, and want nothing more than to collapse into bed and feel Lucas’s strong arms around me.
But I’m still scared of hurting him.
Even before Michael started unlocking my angel powers, I felt like I had to hold back. I was the most powerful witch at the Academy only three years in, and while I wouldn’t trade my powers for anything, there’s always a certain fear that I might lose control and hurt someone.
Like how I burned Lucas when I tried to heal his wounds.
Having magic accidentally sizzle around my fingers and blowing lights up when I get angry has made it hard to date. Nonmagical men were never even an option, and there were only a few warlocks in the coven I’d consider hooking up with.
Lucas changed everything.
He’s strong. The strongest man I’ve ever met. His vampire power doesn’t rival mine in the same sense, but he’s equally as dangerous. He could easily kill me if he wanted, just as I could burn him from the inside out without breaking a sweat.
Being with Lucas made me realize that I could be with someone who was more or less on an equal playing field. And then he had to go and make me fall in love with him.
He’s a vampire. I’m a witch. Our relationship is forbidden by both the Grand Coven and the Vampire Council, but if they could only understand how well we work together, love and sappy emotions aside.
I’m a loose magical cannon, but Lucas is my anchor. He keeps me grounded and can withstand the magical storm that seems to follow me around.
“I have to pee and then I’ll come to bed.” I move the books to the side and get up, legs stiff. Freya has been sitting with me, helping me go over the details. Binx and Pandora are in bed with Lucas, and I haven’t seen Scarlet in a while. I have a feeling Eliza has her, and if I sneak in the guest room, I’ll probably find them cuddled up together as Eliza watches Lifetime movies on her iPad or something.
“Okay.” Lucas slowly sits up and looks down at his stomach. He’s peeling the bandage back when I leave and has it off by the time I come back. I slathered on Kristy’s healing balm before settling down to look through my books.
“It’s working,” I say, jaw dropping. I kneel on the bed and lean over, bringing my head closer to the wound. The edges of the cut are scabbing over, and some of the bruising is going away. “That’s amazing!”
“Yes,” Lucas agrees but doesn’t sound excited. I look up and realize why. “That means the curse settled more than we thought.”
“I’m going to break it,” I assure him but feel the panic start to rise. This healing balm only works on the living, and having Lucas be alive again sounds good on paper but will be the death of him.
For real.
And there won’t be any coming back.