Writing Witchy (Witch Hunters) (17 page)

Keith nodded. He knew the magnitude of her wish was so that she could prove him wrong. He couldn’t possibly carry that many flowers up his sleeve. “Flowers are my specialty,” he murmured before he made the flowers appear.
The glass vases filled with flowers lined her coffee table. Each bloom was perfect. In the center of each bouquet was a pale pink rose.

“Make it seven,” Imani said
, somewhat breathlessly. He complied. Two additional bouquets joined the others on her coffee table. “Oh, my.” Her knees appeared to buckle. He rose quickly and helped her to a seat on the couch.

He held her hands in his.
“This is why I didn’t want to call the police. We’re not supposed to draw attention to our existence. Whenever possible, we handle our own.”

“I can’t believe this.” She gasped. “Your books! They’re based on truth.”

He smiled and nodded. “A bit.” Some of the tension left his body. She wasn’t withdrawing from him. He could see no fear in her eyes. He kissed her knuckles.

“If Harlow is a witch and you just let her go, won’t she-
-”

He shook his head.
“I had her eat the chocolate that she intended for you. It turned her into a rat.”

“Ug
h.”

Keith smiled. He couldn’t resist kissing her.

“Will she be stuck that way forever? Can you change her back?”

“If I’d kept her, I could eventually find a cure.”

Imani bit her lip. “That’s a horrible life. Maybe we should look for her?”

“She’ll be fine. If she finds her mate, he can turn her back with a kiss. She knows who he is and where he lives. She’ll find him. Don’t waste too much sympathy on her. After all, she was going to turn you into a rat. She barely escaped Asha.”

Imani frowned. “When you put it that way, why’d you let her out?”

“Did you want to have to clean up her remains?” He laughed when she shuddered.

“Her mate? So she’s involved with someone. Why has she been trying to get you?”

“I’m a stronger witch than her mate.
Harlow is a snob when it comes to magic. She met her mate and thought he was too weak for her.”

“And now she needs him. How humbling for her.”

He nodded. A sense of relief began to sweep over him. He was glad that Imani finally knew the truth. He wouldn’t have to live his life lying to the person who was most important to him.

“Keith…when were you planning on telling me about all this?”

***

Imani withdrew her hands from Keith’s and stood. Before he even answered, she could see the truth on his face. His expression went blank with surprise and then his eyes dropped from hers. He’d never intended to tell her. Still, she pressed, “Before the wedding? Or would you have let me marry you without ever letting me know?”

“I didn’t know how you would react.”

“This seems to be a large facet of your life that you were trying to hide. How did you think you could keep it a secret?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You must have had some sort of plan.”

He shrugged broad shoulders. “I guess…I thought I could hide it. Not use my magic.”

“Lie when you had to,” she added and though he looked pained, he nodded.

“Imani, please don’t be angry.”

She recalled an incidence in his novel of a wizard erasing the memory of a nosey neighbor who had overseen him performing magic. “Would you have altered my memories?”

“No! Never.”

“But you would use magic on me. I didn’t faint. I’ve never fainted. Not even when they came to me and told me that my parents had died in a car accident.
”

“Please try to understand. I didn’t want you to see. I didn’t want you to fear me.”

She wasn’t afraid of him, but she was angry. “You know, I used to read romances when I was younger. And I used to think when the heroine was angry with the hero for some small offense that she was so stupid. She had this wonderful man. Why couldn’t she simply forgive his one minor flaw? His one mistake?”

“Imani
.”

“I’m not talking about your being a
witch. I could have accepted that. No, what I don’t accept is that you don’t trust me. Which is ironic, since you’re the liar. You’ve been lying to me since that first kiss. The moment we became intimate, you should have told me. And you sure as hell should have told me before you asked me to marry you!”

“I’m sorry.
I do trust you. I couldn’t chance losing you.”

She needed time alone to think. Was she blowing this out of proportion? Trust was important in a marriage. His presence was disrupting her ability to put this in perspective. Looking into his bright blue eyes, she wanted to forgive him. She gasped. “
Do your eyes glow?”

“Sometimes. Most witches’ eyes glow when they do magic or if they’re overly emotional. I can suppress it most of the time.”

“So I wasn’t imagining that,” she whispered. “What else have you been hiding from me? How many other tiny omissions?”

“Nothing.
There’s nothing else.”

She wished she could believe him but he’d shaken her faith in him. “I need some time. I’ll leave it to you to cancel
the party tomorrow.”

“Cancel…?”

“I’m not in the mood for a party. I figure you can wriggle your nose and erase everyone’s memory that there was going to be a party at all.” At his stricken expression, she knew she’d gone too far, but she was hurting.

“Okay, I’ll handle that.
I just….” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I love you. I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”

Imani pressed her lips together to keep herself from declaring her love for him. To keep herself from saying that of course she would forgive him.
“I’d like to be alone now.”

Though he looked as if he wanted to say more, he only nodded. And then he was gone. Imani gasped, but she realized that she should have expected it. It wasn’t as though he’d arrived by car.

She loved Keith so much, but if he could lie about such an important part of his life, what else would he eventually lie about? Affairs? Money? She ran her hands over her face and exhaled. What the hell was she going to do?

Chapter Fifteen

It was Halloween. Imani had
unpacked her groceries after Keith left the day before. Bags of candy lay unopened on her kitchen counter. She hadn’t prepared the candy apples or Rice Krispies treats she’d intended to make. Instead, she lay on the sofa stuffing her face with popcorn in the dark while she watched a horror movie marathon. The lights were off and the shades were drawn.

Her eyes felt dry. She’d had a restless night. The only time she’d fallen asleep she’d had a dream of being in Keith’s garden. The two of them were sitting side by side. But there was a distance between them. Both of them were so sad and miserable. When she’d awakened, she
’d never felt so empty and desolate. She’d cried for what seemed like an hour. Sleep had proven elusive for the rest of the night.

There was a knock at the door. Imani frowned. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Had Keith missed one of their guests?
As she rolled off the sofa, she wondered what he’d told everyone. She hit a light switch before peeping out the door. For one horrible second, she thought it might be Harlow.

It wasn’t. It was Mystique. “Hi,” she said, somewhat shyly. “Can I come in?” Imani gestured her inside. But Mystique shook her head. “You have to invite me. It’s a witch thing,” she explained with a definite sparkle in her eye.

“Oh.” She’d almost forgotten that Keith had revealed that Mystique was also a witch. “Please, come in.” She smoothed a hand over her hair. She probably looked like crap. Around five, she’d given up on sleep and started her couch potato duties. That was twelve showerless, toothbrushless, combless hours ago. “Um, Keith did tell you that the party was cancelled?”

“Yes. That’s not why I’m here.
I was hoping to help.”

Imani scooped her blanket off the couch. “Have a seat.” She began folding the blanket. “What do you mean about helping?”

“I thought I’d be your sounding board. Maybe answer any questions you had about witches.”

She placed the blanket over the arm of the couch before sitting beside Mystique. She should be really appreciative of her making the trip out here since she was limited in who she could speak to about this. Thea had called and come over, and Imani had quickly realized that she couldn’t tell her the real reason for the rift between her and Keith. So, yeah, she should appreciate Mystique’s offer. However, she was a bit miffed as well. “Did you know that he hadn’t told me?”

    Mystique nodded. “Sean and I advised him to tell you, but he felt because you were human, you’d be frightened of him. Or that you wouldn’t approve. If it’s any consolation, he’s really sorry.”

She shrugged. “Believe me, I want to say forget this and go back to being the happy person I was yesterday morning. I don’t care about his being a witch.”

“I can’t speak for Keith, but I do know he’d just watched the resistance Sean faced when he met me.”

“I thought the two of you fell in love on set.”

She laughed. “Sean wishes it were that simple. There was the not-so-small matter of him harassing me into accepting a role in one of his films. He was telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to work with me. And, of course there were the dreams.” She rolled her eyes.

Imani tensed. “What about dreams?”

“Oh, the whole dream-sharing mates do in the beginning. They’re usually pretty steamy. At least, it was that way for me and Sean.” Mystique must have read the confusion in her gaze because she stopped talking and sighed. “Men. He didn’t tell you that you were his mate.”

“He mentioned mates
, but it was when we were discussing Harlow.”

“Witches have destined mates. Sean is mine.
Because we’re bonded, we can talk to each other telepathically. It helps when we’re in different time zones.” She smiled. “Also saves on phone bills. Because you’re human, it may take longer for your bond to gain that type of strength. But from what Keith says, he can already sense some of your feelings.”

And she could sense his, she realized as she recalled her feelings of desolation after the dream. God, had she really visit
ed him in his dreams last night?

“The bond establishes a special type of closeness and trust,” Mystique continued. “So no matter how many times I see Sean photographed with beautiful co-stars, I know that I’m the only woman he wants.
And the same goes for him. It’s a bond that we share with no one else.”

Now Imani really wondered why Keith hadn’t explained the bond. It would have be
en helpful to know all of this. She needed to talk to him. “Mystique, you’ve been really helpful.” She stood. “Thank you so much for coming over. I’m going to see Keith.” A glance down at her pajama bottoms reminded her that she needed to hit the shower before going over to Keith’s house. She bit her lip and grimaced. “Well, after I take a shower.”

Mystique grinned. “No need. I got you.” Her dark brown eyes took on a strange violet hue. She waved her hand in a vertical wavy line. “There. I hope you approve.”

Imani glanced down. She was dressed in designer jeans and a long-sleeved purple blouse. A hand to her head proved that Mystique had not overlooked her hair. Her curls were loose and soft about her shoulders. Hell, she even smelled good. “Jasmine?” she asked.

Mystique smiled. “Yes. Now would you like to drive or would you like to travel the witchy way?”

***

Keith sat on his back porch steps looking out over his garden.
A soft rain was falling. The solar lights he’d installed glowed dimly. Bear sat at his side, his weight and warmth a comfort. This is where he’d been sitting last night when Imani visited him.

He felt the shift in the air, a difficult sensation to describe. He simply knew that someone was behind him
. Sean had left earlier. He turned to see Mystique and Imani. His sister-in-law smiled, waved at him, and then disappeared, leaving him and Imani alone.

“Mind if I join you?”
Imani asked as she took a seat on the other side of Bear. Bear gave her an efficient sniffing and she responded by giving him a good scratch behind his ears.

“Of course not,” he replied, still dumbfounded by her presence.

“Why didn’t you tell me that I was your mate?”

He frowned. “I didn’t?”

“No, you didn’t,” she said, her exasperation clear.

“I guess I thought it was implied.”

“By what?” She frowned. “We didn’t come anywhere near discussing us being mates or bonded. Mystique explained it all to me. If you’d told me, then I….”

“Then you what?”

She shrugged, her gaze slipping from his. She made a soft sound and shook her head. “How could you plan to keep it from me? Look at your damn garden. It’s supernatural. Every bloom is perfect.”