Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
JACE
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Property belongs to N?vel(D)r/ama.Org.
I nce at the winding road and the guardhouse at the base of the hill. Mansions dot the hillside all the
way up into this gatedmunity. Modern homes with walls of ss and infinity pools, chalet-style
designs and a couple homes that look like Italian vis plucked from Tuscany and dropped onto these
exclusive streets.
But it isn’t the fancy houses, or the gates surrounding themunity that give me pause.
It’s the magical wards in ce that lift up from the ground in a transparent sheet. My wolf eyes see it–
our eyes have nine times more rods than cones, so our grayscale vision far surpasses humans. It isn’t
just the magic, but the actual energy I can see, shimmering in a veil that would prove impossible to
pass through, which means any thoughts I had of a covert arrival are pretty much shot to shit.
Fine.
Fuck it.
I drive up to the guardhouse and roll down the window.
The witch slowly slides open hers. “I’m sure this is going to be good.”
She’s mid-twenties, with dark brown skin and wless hair. She could be a model or actress or some
powerful, centuries old which stuck here for some infraction. Who knows?
“I’m here to see Morgan Devereaux. I’m a friend of Mia Riorsen.”
“A friend, you say?” she scoffs. “I doubt that.”
Her dark eyes hold contempt. Maybe they all know what we did to Mia. Part of me is d she found
friends, people to defend her.
The other half of me is in pissed.
One witch was deadly enough.
Taking on this whole coven–which Jacob ryed was who lived in this swanky little subdivision–that
was suicidal.
“Mia is injured. And she needs help,” that much was true. “If you and your sisters are her friends, then
you need to let me through.”
She purses her lips. A butterflynds near the booth and she talks to it–whispering in some ancient
tongue. Then the little bug flits off, like some message-carrying moth in Lord of the Rings.
“Please,” I say again. “She needs your help.”
I watch her deliberate for several seconds.
“It’s not my call,” she finally says.
But then her cell phone beeps and she looks at the screen. Her lips curve into a dangerous smile.
“Hmm. Looks like you’re in luck. Go on up.”
Something about the way she says ‘luck’ makes me think I’m anything but.
“Number 13.”
I slide back into the car and wait for the gate to rise. Then, like the parting of a waterfall, the veil of
magic lifts up. I elerate up the mountainside. This really is prime real estate and the homes are
spaced wide apart, something you never really see in California where space is at such a premium.
My wolf Thane prowls beneath my skin. He hates this ce and is very unsettled at the thought of us
heading into the heart of a coven. Can’t say I’m crazy about this n either.
But desperate times and all that…
When I reach Mia’s witch-friend’s home, the door is open.
A tall, striking woman stands at the entryway, her arms crossed. She wears skinny jeans and a white
blouse. She looks stylish and wealthy and wless. Her hair is a big tumble of strawberry blonde curls
and her eyes are pale. She wears only lipstick, a bright reddish color and it draws all my attention to
her mouth.
She smirks.
Like the witch in the guardhouse, I suspect I “amuse” her.
“Morgan, I presume.”
“You do realize the risk you’re takinging here.”
“I do.” It’s why I had toe alone. There was always the chance–and a high one at that–that this
witch would kill any enemies on sight.
“Wonderful. Then let me make this simple for you, wolf. You have two options. One, you turn right
around, get back in your car and drive yourself back across the country. Or two, I make you get back in
your car and drive back across the country. And I warn you, it’s very likely you’ll drive off a cliff along
the way.”
I open my mouth ready to argue with her, when there’s a shatter from somewhere in the house followed
by a child’s scream.
Morgan spins and runs inside.
I follow.
At a nce my mind registers the details of the room. Oversized white linen furniture. House nts and
ent walls. For as modern as the outside of this house appears, the inside is warm, cozy, with
artwork and colorful nkets and lots of decorative ss.
I run into the kitchen to see one such ss piece shattered all over the floor.
A young girl stands in the middle of the colorful shards. “I told you it would work,” she says proudly.
“It would’ve been easier to just go outside.” This from the young boy who is now behind me.
Morgan’s gaze swings to the boy and that’s when she notices me. “Impossible!” she screams. All at
once, I’m blown backward, my body lifting off the ground and mming into the wall. Another inch and
my head will hit the ceiling. My arms and legs are stretched.
I growl and try to shift, but my wolf is cut off.
In the next instant my shoulders pop.
The little boyes to stand beneath me. “Auntie Morgan, you’ve broken his arms.”
I grunt and curse and try not to scream–as I’m drawn and quartered. The muscles in my body are being
torn apart. One hip tears. My bones are breaking. I clench my teeth.
The pain is unbearable.
The boy’s clear green eyes blink up at me. “You just shattered his hips. Much more and you’ll snap his
spine. There’s noing back from that.”
Her red hair flies wildly behind her. Her eyes are all white, her lips moving in a chant that is swallowed
by the wind she creates.
“No one who would do harm can dare enter this house!” she screams.
The boy nods. “Well that should answer your question then. He isn’t a threat.” His voice sounds more
like a child’s now, “Please stop.”
All at once I’m dropped to the ground.
Immediately Thane takes over. My already broken limbs and torn muscles amodating his huge
size.
My wolf snarls and growls as he breaks free. I move in front of the boy to ce myself between him
and this witch. The boy reaches out and pets my shoulder.
All at once, it hits me.
This is my nephew.
My niece is cowering in the kitchen. And this witch is only trying to protect them.
She isn’t my enemy. Not really.
I shift back. My nephew hands me a throw nket from the couch and I wrap it around my waist before
either female can see something they shouldn’t.
I squat down beside him. “Do you know who I am?”
We have the same eyes. He looks like Cam did as a child.
“You’re not my father.”
“No.”
“Uncle?”
“That’s right.”
Morgan twirls her hand and the shards of ss in the kitchen spin up fast as a centrifuge and reform
into a vase.
“See,” the little girl says. “I knew she’d fix it.”
Morgan arches a brow at her. “The water and flowers are still on the floor. You made the mess, you
clean it up.” She nces at me. There’s something in her eyes as she studies me, but it’s blinked away
before I can figure out what it is.
My clothes float over and into my hands. “You can clean up too,” she tells me.
I take my shirt and jeans and walk into the first room I see. I close the door behind me to dress.
Normally when we shift so abruptly our clothes are shredded. But Morgan must’ve used the same
magic she did on the vase because my clothes aren’t missing a thread.
I’m in a library.
Tomes line the walls. Books so old the covers are made of animal skins rather than cardboard or paper.
On another shelf, are a slew of romance novels. The spines show shirtless guys and even some
knights and Regency heroes.
Huh. This witch had a romantic streak.
I wouldn’t have thought that.
Thane makes a rumbling sound in my chest.
He’s…intrigued by this woman.
If I’d met her under other conditions, I might like her more too.
I didn’t often y outside of my species–and I didn’t do long-term rtionships. But something told me
this witch would be fierce in bed.
Yes, my wolf insists.
No, Thane. She’s no good for us.
He might not hold a grudge, but she’d literally shattered all four of my limbs. If my nephew hadn’t
intervened, I might be dead. One didn’t forget that kind of pain right away.
My wolf growls. Mate.
Oh hell no.
Mate, he insists.
Are you fuckin’ kidding me!?