“Johnson?” Verika sputtered. She could feel the heat draining from her face. She didn’t need a mirror to tell her she was going white as a ghost. That name sent a crack racing through her still mending heart.

He stared at her, confused. “Is something wrong with that name? It’s pretty common.”

She wetted her lips and thought about what she wanted to say. Her voice cracked when she spoke. “Do you by, um, any chance have an, er, brother? Or two?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Her heart began to race. Her tongue felt heavy as she asked this next question. “Are their names Nik and Gage, by any chance?”

Now, the color drained from his face. “How did you know?”

Holy hell. She pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting the coming headache. Nothing good could come from trying to answer him right now, not when her head was still spinning with the revelation of exactly who he was.“Oh, gee, I know because I kind of had a thing going with your brother, and you kind of remind me of him, especially the ‘I-want-to-jump-your-bones’ part.” Yeah, she could so see that conversation derailing quickly. So instead, she opted for, “It’s a long story. Which we don’t have time for right now,” she added pointedly.

Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask…

He gave her a suspicious look that said he wasn’t done asking questions, and that was okay. “So, about that escape spell…”

“Oh. Right.” She held up the vial of Lunimora and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the magical jolt. This spell was a bitch. She’d only cast it once, while in training at the DPI Academy, and it had knocked her out cold. Her magical prowess had come a long way since, and she prayed she could stay conscious long enough to actually get them to safety.

Please, please, don’t let me screw this up.

The incantation’s words came to her easily enough. Memorizing spells, no matter the language, had never been hard for her. Her photographic memory probably had something to do with that. It was one of the few good things her mother had passed down to her before vanishing.

She couldn’t think of those things now. She needed every drop of concentration she could muster. Wind smelling of spring and summer swirled about the room, surrounding them in a vortex. Though her eyes were closed, she could tell the room was growing brighter, and subsequently, the heat more intense.

The temperature rose as Elijah clung to her, pressing her against his chest as she struggled to maintain her grip on the rapidly vibrating bottle of Lunimora. Some said it was the soul of an angel. Which Verika thought was stupid, since she was pretty sure angels just “were” and that they didn’t need souls. Others said Lunimora was bottled moonlight, or fairy magic. No one knew for sure what it was, but since its discovery in the early 1900s, it had become one of the most useful potions available.

In the midst of the swirling winds, Verika heard people banging on the door. “Don’t let go,” she shouted, then threw the bottle on the ground.

It sounded like a bomb went off. The de-spelling room would be a wreck. She almost worried Emilia would suffer a blow, but honestly, she didn’t care. The bitch had tried to kill her.

An eye for an eye…

She had been taught better than that. Yet, she couldn’t deny the dark satisfaction the thought of Emilia’s too-perfect, and probably magically-altered, face getting cut up brought her.

It put a smile on her face.

Elijah shouted in surprise as they were sucked through the light-hole the potion had created and flung through time and space.

The world was a tunnel of color and light. Images and sounds rushed past them, making Verika dizzy as the magic required to cast the spell depleted her energy. Her eyelids became very heavy, staying closed even after they’d come to an abrupt halt and had rolled against what felt like pavement.

The darkness spun behind her closed eyes, and there was a high-pitched ringing in her ears that wouldn’t go away.

A deep, masculine voice that reminded her of happier times said her name from far away. She remembered calloused hands touching her face much like the ones doing so now, of a hot mouth blazing kisses down her neck, nuzzling her awake.

“Mmmmm… Nik…” she murmured, slowly coming to.

The hands froze, then removed themselves altogether. “What do you mean, ‘Nik’?”

Something in her brain registered that this voice was slightly deeper, with a huskier timbre, and her eyes flashed open as her recollection of the past few minutes came rushing back. She stared up at Elijah.

Sunlight poured down around him. He hovered over her, staring at her as if she’d lost her mind. She could practically see the gears turning in his head. Neither of them breathed. Then he blinked and let out a huge breath. “Holy shit, you slept with my brother, didn’t you?”

Her mouth flopped open. “I did not—that is so not—” She winced as a sharp pain struck her brain and stars sparked before her eyes. She gritted her teeth and suppressed a groan of agony. Her head, everywhere in fact, hurt so badly she could hardly stand to talk, let alone move. Well, at least she wasn’t unconscious. And she knew it would be rough from the get-go, so at least she was prepared for it this time.

Always find the silver lining, no matter how much crap life throws at you. It had taken her a long time to think like that, given her tendency to be dark and bitter, but all of her self-help books had helped her turn her life around.

Elijah looked her over with a worried glance. “Are you all right?”

“Yes… no…” She struggled to shove the words out between her gritted teeth. Her hand groped along the ground before finding a brick wall. Her fingers fought to get a grip as she tried hauling herself up.

“Here. Allow me.” Elijah’s strong arm snaked under her shoulders, and her heart fluttered.

“Thanks,” she said as he helped her to her feet. That rush of desire still lingered deep in her belly in a pool of restless heat. She had to get away from him, before he undid her completely. She took one step—and immediately found herself kissing the wall as her knees nearly gave out. Damn, she didn’t remember being this weak the first time she’d done the spell. Then again, she didn’t remember much of anything because she had been unconscious.

Elijah walked right next to her as she clung to the wall and began to move again. “You should lean on me,” he said.

“I’m fine,” she snapped, waving him away only to stumble again. Her face flamed with embarrassment. Some powerful witch she was.

“No, you’re not,” he said. “And unless you want to scuff up that pretty face of yours by face-planting on the ground, I suggest you let me help you.”

“I said I don’t need—ah! Hey!” She gave out a surprised yelp as he scooped her up in his big, strong arms.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, her entire body aware of how solid his muscles were. She wondered what they would feel like beneath her fingertips, if his bare skin was really as delectable as it felt…

Okay, it was time for a reality check. Under no circumstances was she getting involved with another werewolf. Thanks to the whole mating Mark drama, you were almost always guaranteed to be left behind with a broken heart. Her fellow witches had tried talking her out of the relationship with Nik, but she hadn’t listened. She hadn’t wanted to face the truth. She’d thought that if their love was strong enough, then the mating fever wouldn’t matter.

But it did. It had wrecked every hope and dream she’d had with Nik, and the knowledge that she’d been so foolish had haunted her since.

She had to be smart about this, no matter how much her body may crave Mr. Sexy’s touch.

Or his mouth, or other appendages…

“You’re blushing.”

“What?” she gasped, blinking.

He slowly grinned. “I hope it wasn’t because of me. Because then, I might start blushing.”

Was he flirting with her? God, it had been so long since anyone had really noticed her like that, had made her heart flutter so… It wasn’t because men hadn’t tried. It was because she hadn’t let them get that close.

She cleared her throat. “Don’t be ridiculous. Now put me down so we can get out of here.”

Despite his protests, she wriggled and squirmed until he set her down with an exasperated sigh, grumbling something about “stubborn witches.”

Keeping one hand on the wall to steady herself, she steeled her spine and forced one foot in front of the other. Although her legs felt like clay, she kept moving until they reached the mouth of the alleyway.

Elijah kept a wary eye on her at all times, until the glittering and noisy monstrosity in front of him drew his eye. He stared. “You have got to be joking. Disneyland?”

“Disney World, actually. Disneyland’s in California. This is Florida.”

He observed the palm trees. “So it is.” He tentatively reached out to touch one leafy branch, as if unsure it was real. “Why here?”

Her chest tightened as she inhaled the slightly salty scent in the air, a scent she would never be able to get out of her soul. “I don’t know.”

But she did know. She had asked the spell to take her some place safe. It chose her homeland.

It was just as well, because she knew no matter where they went, they would never be completely safe now.

Verika sighed and walked toward the crowded parking lot.

Elijah lingered behind. “Where are you going?” he called.

“To get us a car,” she said over her shoulder with a foxy grin.

For someone who never broke the rules, she was feeling surprisingly alive.

And that, in turn, made her very daring.