A Witch's Fury (17 page)

His hand rested comfortably against my hip.
“I don’t actually care what she wants,” he declared, beginning to
move without my direction.

Raising an eyebrow at him I asked, “You think
you are good enough to lead?”

“Yep, you move easier.”

“Move easier?”

He twirled me out and back, pulling me
closer. “You aren’t stiff.”

I sighed, allowing him to lead and finding
myself surprised at how much he actually knew. “I guess Lorraine
needs some one on one lessons.”

“Good luck with that.” He looked down at me,
his eyes resting on my lips. I was suddenly having flashbacks to
pinning him against the dirty strip club wall.

I shrugged. “I just need to find the proper
motivation.” Looking up at him, my own eyes dipped to his lips. A
moment passed after the song ended. “It doesn’t appear that you
need any lessons,” I breathed, well aware of his warm hands still
on me.

“No, it doesn’t,” he replied, just as softly.
I broke the spell by moving away hurriedly to stop the music. I
told myself I was not running away. His low chuckle disagreed.

…

Three days and a never-ending earful from
Grams about the mess I had made in Madison later, I was sprawled on
Tommy’s floor, trying a first person shooter game. I was marginally
better at it than the racing games, but not much.

“You kill people for a living, how are you
this bad?” Tommy asked me, his fingers nimbly controlling his half
of the screen.

“No idea,” I groaned, setting the controller
down.

Grams knocked lightly. “You have a minute?”
Her eyes flashed to Tommy.

“I’m not a kid!” he yelled at my retreating
back.

I followed Grams to her office. Not the time
to fight that particular fight with him.

“Teenagers,“ Grams huffed, sitting behind her
desk. Her computer monitor had been upgraded, I noticed.

“You aren’t going to like this,” she
deadpanned.

“I gathered. Good news is I’m healed.”

She nodded once. “Angelina’s Master is
requesting to meet the succubus that killed his son.”

“Fucking hell, that doesn’t bode well.”

She shrugged in agreement. “Do you want to
take backup?”

“Where is it?”

“The Centennial House.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “No, I can’t
take any. They’d view it as a sign of weakness and I’d need a damn
army at their House.”

“If you don’t come back, I’m grounding
Tommy.”

“Fair enough.”

“I heard that!” Tommy yelled from behind the
door that we had neglected to close.

…

The Centennial House was immaculate. Armed
guards escorted me to a formal meeting room with a heavy wood
table. I certainly wasn’t the last to arrive, but they made me
wait, a stupid power play.

Good thing I now had Pinterest.

A half hour later, both double doors were
thrown wide by a short vampire. He moved quickly to the side and a
tall, olive skinned man glided in behind him.

“Olivia.”

I nodded, not actually knowing his name.

“Zachariah,” he introduced himself.

I nodded again, watching his progress. He sat
across from me while the short man took up a post behind his right
shoulder.

“You have quite the business here,” he
began.

I didn’t say a word. It’s always best to
assume Master Vampires are trying to either fuck you or kill you.
It’s been a fair assessment in my life.

“No small talk?” he tried, smiling. The
gesture didn’t fit on his handsome face, nor did it reach his black
eyes.

“Just say it,” I offered softly.

The pretense drained from him, leaving an
impressively scary vampire. If I hadn’t had my Fae memories dredged
up recently, I might have felt a glimmer of fear. As it was I was
just tired.

“You have taken from me and you will
pay.”

I smiled. “I know.” Probably not my best idea
pissing off another Master Vampire, but I did.

He slammed his hands against the table,
standing. “I trust you can see yourself out.”

He didn’t wait for my answer.

I groaned, leaned back, steepled my fingers
and wondered, chances on leaving alive? I was a betting woman.

I wasn’t expecting Angelina to walk through
the doors, still open from Zachariah’s hasty retreat.

“May I talk to you in private?” Angelina
asked, closing the door behind her. Her jet black hair was shaped
into an elegant knot.

“Fine,” I grunted, anger infusing my
previously tired body.

I hated the bitch. I was perfectly able to
admit it was because she had what I wanted. But was it really her
fault? I mean certainly, the timing of it was terrible, and I had
killed her nest mate Gregory when he tried to beat Blake into
marrying her, but wasn’t the truth of the matter that she was just
better than me?

Self-hatred is a beast willing to believe any
lie.

I sighed, “Cut to the chase.”

“Since I am Blake’s mate,” she said, placing
heavy emphasis on mate, “I feel it is time to call in his favor.”
Her eyes danced with dark glee and I was certain we had that
psychotic look in common.

“Favor?” I asked, racking my brain.

Angelina’s gaze never left my own. “From the
incident at Flame, with Lorraine and Wanda.”

“To think, I had almost forgotten about
that,” I muttered. “Good thing you vamps have such exceptional
memories.” As vampires had proven previously, they were expert
political tricksters and she was right, she could call in my favor.
Bitch.

“You are to retrieve Blake’s niece from a
rogue band of vampires calling themselves the Liberators,” Angelina
said. “They are the ones who are attacking us and your manor.”

“Done. Where are they?” I asked. I probably
agreed to that too easily, but I wanted Patricia Bellarosa.

“It’s more complicated than that, Olie. This
niece, Brooke, willingly aligned herself with them. I want a
guarantee they will not come after her or us,” she dictated.

“You want me to eliminate the entire
House?”

She shrugged, blanking her face out
impressively. “Whatever you think will be best to adhere to my
guarantee.”

Bitch was clever. I wanted Patricia and I
could go after her rightly, but her entire House? Probably not. If
I did this, we would forever have this secret between us. I could
see it coming back to haunt me. But dead men tell no tales.

“Now if you will excuse me,” I forced out, “I
have things to do.”

“Wait,” she called to my back.

I paused but didn’t turn, trying to hide my
wince at the sound of, “Aren’t you going to offer your
congratulations?”

Closing my eyes for a painful moment, I bowed
my head, not looking back as I left. Politics be damned, I wasn’t
playing that bitch’s game.

Mal found me on the stairs and raced up next
to me. “You don’t want to see Blake?” she asked.

“Nope,” I answered, pushing out into the
afternoon sun.

“Olivia, he needs you,” she said,
frustrated.

I laughed. “Nope,” I said, and made my way to
my car.

“Olivia!” She spun me around, casting a
glance around at the other cars. “They are falling apart,” she
whispered. “I don’t know all the details, but whatever is eating at
them is spreading to the whole House.”

Cold seeped into my heart, numbing my
emotions and shutting down my give-a-shit center. “Then transfer
Houses, Mal, it’s not your job to clean up after them.” I turned
back toward the SUV.

I knew transferring Houses was a terrible
idea. Tate, while currently not able to handle his shit, was a fair
and just leader and since vampires were powerless to disobey their
Masters, a transfer would leave Mal vulnerable. I was an
asshole.

I turned to Mal. “I’m sorry Mal, but I can’t
help them. They’ve chosen their side.”

“They chose wrong,” she whispered, lines
being drawn between us, our friendship being overridden by vampire
politics.

I shook my head. “It’s been a pleasure,
Mal.”

I turned and left with that, neither of us
speaking the obvious. I wasn’t welcome anymore and I didn’t
care.

Chapter 15

Annoyed with myself and the whole fucking situation, I went to blow
off steam at Sonny’s Gym.

I liked it there. No one bothered me, no one
asked if I needed help, and Sonny let me work out after hours, when
he conducted his more dangerous business.

It was one of those nights. He was waiting on
a client when he found me doing pull ups on the raw pipe until my
palms bled.

He blew out cigar smoke with a long exhale as
I threw my knees over the bar, moving into crunches. Still he
watched me.

Finally, I flipped to the ground, gulping
down water and air.

“You do realize working out this hard won't
be creating muscle as fast as you’re destroying it?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I trained this way the first
fifteen years of my life.”

“Where was that at?” he questioned.

“Hell,” I answered, pulling myself back up
for more.

Sonny shook his head, pointing his cigar at
me. “You are self-punishing. You did something and think beating
the shit out of your body will make you feel better.”

I dropped back down, smiling at Sonny. “It's
not what I did. It's just who I am that isn't good enough,” I
clarified for him.

The door opened and he shut his mouth,
turning to meet with his client.

I went back to assaulting my body.

I wasn't paying attention to the crowd up
front. Their energy was hostile and borderline beast, which was
what Sonny specialized in. He had the unique ability to help those
close to the edge come back. Unfortunately, that also meant he knew
instantly if said shifter was too far gone, and no one ever wanted
that news.

“Olivia, can you come here please?” Sonny
politely called out to me. Huh, that got my curiosity piqued. I
weaved between the bags, my body close to shutting down from
exhaustion, to see who was out there.

“Bear?” I questioned. His eyes were darkly
colored with the power of his shifter. I wasn’t sure if it was his
shifter or him that was trying to launch himself from his captor’s
hands at me.

“He needs a sparring partner, Olivia,” Sonny
stated, chewing on his cigar, all business. He stared worriedly at
the large shifter.

“Done,” I answered easily. I needed to see if
I was strong enough to go after a House of vampires.

“Put him in the ring. The magic will help
him,” Sonny instructed.

“How did he get this way?” I asked, sliding
into the ring with Bear.

“Someone drugged him,” grunted the man
helping to push him into the ring.

“With what?” I asked, not having seen this
before.

“Shit if we know,” the man said, rubbing his
face wearily as he released Bear.

Bear lumbered forward, taking a few uncertain
steps before his gaze locked onto me.

“Come on sweetheart,” I taunted.

Bear’s muscles rippled under his skin, talons
sprouting from his fingers. I huffed. I really wanted talons. It
would completely eliminate my need to keep daggers and knives
hidden on my person.

He came at me fast, throwing sloppy punches,
which was very unlike Bear. The man could handle himself expertly.
I wondered what else the drug was doing to his body.

“Sonny, call Jerry,” I said, easily dodging
the right hook to my chin and landing a solid kick to his
midsection.

I was rewarded with an “oof,” a shake of his
head, and a slight staggering. He held himself upright on the
ropes, his breathing labored.

“Bear, can you hear me?” I asked, moving out
of my fighting crouch to take a tentative step closer.

He growled, shaking his hairless head again
before lowering it and rushing me. Easily, I skirted to the side,
watching him tangle in the ropes.

“Jerry is fifteen minutes out,” Sonny
declared, hanging over the ropes, cigar hanging out of his mouth as
he watched us closely.

Bear untangled himself, heaving up with a
growl, his body wanting to shift but the magic in the ring keeping
him in check.

“Where were you guys tonight?” I asked,
moving under Bear’s rapid-fire punches.

“Halfling,” Bear’s friend offered.

“The new human and supernatural mixer
club?”

“We had a few complaints about witches
screwing with the humans and were checking it out,” his friend
admitted.

“Why where you checking it out, don’t they
have their own security?”

I turned to look down at Bear’s friend, who
shrugged under his leather jacket, a red blush growing from his
neck.

“I don’t believe it’s Caleb’s place to
divulge such information,” Sonny stated. “Look out,” he
nonchalantly warned me. The air in my lungs vacated, my face
bouncing against the mat, Bear’s weight crushing me.

“Ouch.” Reaching back, I made contact with
the skin on his shoulder, letting meekness sink into our connection
and into him. He wasn’t having any of it. Pressing his face into my
neck, he inhaled deeply and I felt his growing excitement.

So pushing wasn’t going to work; pulling was
my next trick. Steeling my nerves, I let my hand relax against his
shoulder as I began pulling in the raging emotions under his skin.
I pulled back with a yelp; what was happening under his skin was
far beyond my abilities to soothe.

“Um, you might want to consider clearing the
gym,” I muttered, head-butting Bear before I flipped myself up.

“Oh,” Sonny said, clearing his throat.

“I—I don’t know—“ said Caleb. “He’s pretty
out of control. He’d hate himself if he hurt you.”

“He won’t hurt me,” I assured him.

Bear’s beast charged and this time, I let him
take me to the ground, his heavy weight supported by his arms.

“Either go or stay, but either way, this is
happening,” I warned.

I needed to get over Blake, and a distraction
of mind-blowing sex was going to do the trick. At least that’s what
I was telling myself.