The Carver's Magic (11 page)

"Tell her to stop hiding like a child and get over here."

I instantly regret walking away. I am being a child, and to be honest I’m amazed he even wants to talk to me, considering he still doesn’t know my name. Shane gives him a glance over before he calls out my name.

I don't look yet. I grab another bottle opener before I slowly make my way to stand in front of him with my arms crossed. "What can I get you, guy?" I call all the male patrons “guy” because it lets them know they are all the same to me.

"Two beers and shots." He said, in what looks like a scowl.

"Yea no problem." I answer back without looking at him. I give him the drinks and he throws me a few bills and adds, “I hear you’ve been stalking me.”

Not sure if I heard him right. “I – What?”

Dar’s expression is giving nothing away. “Someone has been pinging all my online accounts and calling a few people I know. Why don’t you cut the piss and tell me what you want.”

Stunned. “Wow. Just like that huh?”

Dar’s eyebrows rise a little. “Stalking is illegal and a few of my friends were able to track it back to your home.”

Squeezing the rag in my hands I say, “Huh. So you know where I live? Who’s stalking who?”

He leans forward. “You’re stalking me! I did the reverse to find out who it was, and your name was on the fucking lease. Don’t try and play games Beth.”

I slap my thigh with the rag. “I’m amazed! You do know my name.”

His mouth twisted, “Are you serious?”

“Are you?” I ask, letting my hand drop to the bar, getting in his face.

Shaking his head and leans back, “Is that what this is all about? Your stupid high school crush?”

I smack the bar in front of his face, and stand back up. “Fuck you. You mangy, pansy-ass, flea bag.”

His eyes were lightening a little. “I’m giving you right now to ask whatever it is you want to know, and then I am going to get a restraining order.”

Restraining order? Douchbag. “Okay, sure. Here’s my question. Can you… take your pathetic ass out of my bar and never step back in here again? In fact, why don’t I extend that question to include the whole bloody state of Colorado?”

Amazingly, his tone darkened even more, and there was something that flashed across his eyes. “Don’t threaten me Beth. You won’t like the outcome.”

Awe, the little puppy was trying to threaten me. Well that was not going to fly. “Puleese. You think I’m scared of a pup like you. Not in a million years. And if you really think I would put time into stalking you, you’re dumber than I thought you were. In fact, I’m going to have to cut you off because you seem drunk-bucket stupid.”

I took the drinks and trashed them, barely escaping Dar’s hand as he reaches out for them. I pick up the bills and toss them back at his face as I walk to the other side of the bar.

There is one thing that can make me go from zero to one hundred and that is when someone thinks they are better than me. The fire in my veins started to vibrate. I watch Dar walk back to the table and a new guy was already there, waiting for him. The new guy hands a bottle to Dar.

My insides are past vibrating. Seconds tick by and I can’t let loose what Dar said. I have not had an accident in so long but tonight, right now, might just break me down. Years go by and the first thing he says to me is that I’m stalking him? Unbelievable.

My own insides were squeezing together. I didn’t look into his anything. But, I couldn’t say someone didn’t. Cory was pretty confident when she said she researched him.

I need him to leave. Now.

I take a deep breath and try to keep in the feelings of throwing every bottle in the damn bar at him. I want to hate him and make him feel the hollow blackness that has been in my heart since I left him that day in the hospital.

I need to calm down. I want to strangle him and watch the light leave his eyes. I am on the verge of imagining it. Not sure if my magic could actually do it without me touching him, or more importantly if my magic could do it in front of all these people without anyone noticing. I need a distraction.

For heaven’s sake I’m a Carver and we can do anything. All I have to do is figure out how to cut the emotional response.

I let a few ideas pop in my mind but none sound good, so I start thinking about altering my memories. I hear a growl but I don't look up to see what happened. I don't care. I am busy strategizing how to erase Dar from my memory.

Still fiddling with the idea, I head to the stock room to get more beers. I leave my rag at my station and exit the bar. I walk through a series of men looking at me and trying to show me with their eyes that they are interested. I feel one hand brush my butt and I turn around and stare at crystal blue eyes, large shoulders, impeccable chest and a whole lot of everything I need to take my mind off everything. The blue eyes were smiling at me.

"You like that?" I ask, seductively.

"Oh you know I did," he says back with a devilish smirk.

"How so?" I ask, with a glimmer of amusement.

"Come here and I’ll let you feel for yourself." He grabs me by my waist and I let him pull me in and… wow. He’s good and ready. "Wanna play?" He whispers.

I smile and hold up the keys to the stock room, "Let's play." My heart is pumping against my chest and I can feel my magic start to swirl around me. I grab the door to the dry storage and opened it slowly, letting the big guy walk in.

He still has his hand on my waist and he pulls me to him. I let his lips touch mine. My fire rose up from my stomach and I could taste it in my mouth, waiting to be exhaled. My lips tingled and I could have sworn they felt as smooth as snakeskin.

Let it burn,
I thought, loving the smooth feeling of my skin. Except the man I was kissing had stopped. I open my eyes and see the guy's eyes blood shot. He teeters back on his heels, face ash-white. He looks down at his hands, as do I. They start shaking and then he clenching his mouth falling into a seizure.

Oh crap
… I think with a sparkle of relief? I can’t stop watching and the longer I do, the more I feel lighter. As if kissing him caused me and my fire to erupt because it was so. . . wrong? I laugh out loud because I know I’m going crazy. Kissing strange men is frowned upon but not bad, not that I’ve ever done anything like this before, but I really needed the distraction. I watch him convulse for another second then I am blown forward as the door knocks into my back.

Dar kicks my legs out of the way and shuts the door.

My eyes narrow to him. He looks at me then peers at the other man next to me. He folds his arms over his massive chest and just shakes his head.

My emotions are all over the place - anger, anxiety, and guilt. I had no idea what was wrong with the guy who is now curled up in the fetal position. I just needed to get rid of the added pressure of my fire to think clearly.

I push up off the ground, feeling the fire inside me shifting as I move. It felt odd, like it was changing its structure. I just need to calm down, but with the look Dar is giving me I didn’t feel safe.

"Sorry no pets allowed back here," I say with sardonic pleasure to an even more pissed off Dar. His eyes are full blaze amber. My fire changes from solidifying under my skin, to its original free-flowing state. My hands curl up into fists…at the ready. Except my fire is no longer building like it was a second ago, instead it continues to flow, I feel it slip out of my pores. My jaw drops, it’s never left me like this before. It’s never disregarded me like this. I can’t even tap it down and it’s seems to want to head straight for Dar.

My skin is crawling with what looks like millions of small red scales leaving me. The fire is slithering on the ground towards him and the idiot either has blown a brain fuse or has no self-preservation. He looks awed instead of worried. I shake my thoughts and try and pull it back before my fire reaches him. Yes, I was mad at him, more so a few minutes ago than now, but I couldn’t let my fire touch him in its raw state. It would kill him, which is exactly what I would expect from my fire because, in all honesty, I was sure it had an intelligence of its own, and it’s vengeful.

Dar’s eyes dim to his regular hazel eyes. He watches my fire begin to spiral up his legs. I can feel his skin even though I have not moved. Everything feels like it is not real, even more crazy is that the fire is not burning him. He’s just standing there, impassive.

My fire is not burning him?

It’s practically massaging him. What the hell? I feel betrayed. I remind myself that Dar does not care about me, let alone acknowledge me until a few minutes ago when he threatened to get a restraining order against me! My fire should have begun building in heat. Angry heat. But it wasn’t. Fire or no fire I would show him what a Carver is made out of!

Dar’s eye watched me. When I took my first step to challenge him it felt like his presence doubled. I could practically taste the fury he was giving off. It is taking up the entire stock room. His eyes bore down on me. I take aim at his massive chest and lunge to push him through the door and out of my life forever.

I scream as magic abruptly swirls in the room. I see him look behind me with interest. The side of his lip curls up as he looks at me like I am the most pathetic person in his life.

I shake internally, wishing everything still and silent. I need to think! I need to get rid of Dar forever.

Feeling my fire burst around me but not inside of me like usual, I struggle to get air into my lungs. I open my watery eyes. It takes a few blinks to understand what I am looking at. Small glass shards standing still in my face, I look around and everything is still. There is shattered glass everywhere, hanging in the air. It's as if a bomb exploded and it was halted mid-explosion.

There is frozen red liquid in the air, too. I look at Dar and he says, “I think it’s clear who needs to leave.”

I ignore him and close my eyes. This night has been my least favorite in my entire life. I am never going to fix this mess if I don’t push him out of my mind.

First things first, it’s time to check on the big guy on the floor. He looks frozen or passed out. I reach down and touch his skin, he does not have a pulse. I hope that means he is frozen. I let my magic enter him but I can't feel my magic move.

Oh crap. Did I deplete my magic?

I try and think about what I did because I have never been depleted of magic, and it’s been a long time since I got tired after using it. I need to see if anyone else is frozen.

I side step Dar but he stops me with a quick hand. "I’m serious Beth. I’ve told the Magic Council about what you’ve done and they asked me to tell you to leave. If I were you I would try some place less populated." His tone sounds almost pleased to be passing along their message. I let his words pass over me. I forget them as soon as I hear them. I try to push past him but I can't. I can't use my magic to get past him and I can’t feel my fire. It’s like the fire is no longer a part of me. "You have been a pain in my ass for too long," he says, as an after thought.

I look around trying to get a thought, some kind of anchor to hold onto, to figure this out. Then his words filter in and I stop.

Damn him.

I took in a deep breath and move back. He is just standing there, looking high and mighty.

How is he not frozen?

If there is anyone that should be frozen, it’s him. Well, technically he should be a pile of ash. I concentrate on trying to find my magic to take down the storage room guard dog. I feel his hand before I see it. The massive ogre hand wraps around mine, "Your fire is in me, if you want it back you have to promise to put everything back and leave." His tone is still arrogant and has a level of authority I have not felt before.

I watch his light-amber eyes glow at me, but it felt as though I was obligated to hear and answer. I could feel my fire on the outside of my skin, waiting to return to me, “Answer.”

My body buzzed. I bite down hard on the inside of my lip. I can see my fire-scale things thrumming between my wrist and his hand. It is horrible. I want my fire back. It is mine! How can he keep it from me? I look up with a renewed hatred. “Give me my fire back and I will make sure everything rights itself.”

“And you’ll leave this… place.” I’m not sure why it sounds as if he wants to interject a different word for “place,” but I don’t care.

“I’m gone,” I hiss.

It feels as though my fire-scales are seeping from him back inside me. The fire is responding to the contact of his hand on my wrist. His body heat is branding my skin. His hand tightens around my wrist harder and I barely hold back the scream. It hurts. It feels like something foreign, or maybe shards of glass are ripping in my veins.

My voice breaks as I say, “Let go of me”.

Everything has to be set right!
I don’t know if that was my voice, or his. I don't know if I screamed that or if it was in my head. My knees buckle. The only thing keeping me up is his tenacious grip.

The shards of glass or whatever they are entering into my veins are trying to make me stand up. It is as if a force was making me do as he wanted. I can hear his words repeating over and over in the back of my mind. I am turning into a slave of pain. The shards are slowly melting into my body and I scream again.

My wrist drops to my side at the same time I fall to the ground.

"Shit!" I can hear Dar say. But it sounds very far away.

My eyes stay closed. I don't want to see him. I can't face him, not after that. Not when he literally overtook my power. The realization hit me like a wrecking ball.

He has authority over me. How?

Faint words echoed in my mind. They were my mother’s words about Carver’s mates. We claimed our mates by giving our hearts, to the other, and vice a versa. It blended us and made us one.

I feel Dar put his fingers to my neck checking for a pulse. I can’t stand his hands being on me so I flinch and smack his hand away fiercely. I refuse to open my eyes. I need space, my own space. I envision being cocooned and I instantly felt my stomach drop, letting me know my magic has responded. There was a buzzing in my ear as if everything was silent. Eerily silent.