Craved (18 page)

“You must be the infamous Gwen,” she
said with a smile. I looked away, unsure of how I was supposed to
respond.

“Yes, I’m Gwen. Not sure I’m infamous
though.”

“You’re the witch who captured the
wolf’s heart. So much so, that he almost gave it all up for you?”
Her tone wasn’t snide or rude. I arched my eyebrows in shock. It
was the first time I had heard anything of the sort and wasn’t sure
how I felt about it, because in the end, he hadn’t chosen me over
his alpha father and politics.

“Oh…well…almost doesn’t count,” I said
with complete honesty. Micah almost giving everything up didn’t
matter to me; the thought didn’t mean much when it wasn’t followed
by an action.

“I like you,” Jamie said with a grin.
I smiled back and felt my anxiety slowly disappear.

“Thanks,” I said with
surprise.

“Come on in, Micah’s just getting out
of the shower.” She opened the screen door wide enough for me to
step inside and I followed her to the kitchen where I sat on one of
the barstools. It was weird being in the house again. Micah had
remodeled inside also, new floors and an entirely new kitchen. I
noticed Jamie watching me with a question lingering in her
eyes.

“You must think what Micah and I have
is strange, considering what you two had had been real.” Jamie
commented. I had no interest in having this conversation with
her.

“It’s none of my business,” I said,
hoping she would drop it. In all honesty, it did hurt a little more
after finding out that Micah had given me up to be with a woman he
didn’t even love. The wounds Micah had inflicted had healed,
although the scars remained. I didn’t want to open them up
again.

“That’s true, but it’s what we weres
do. Some of us are lucky enough to find love within the pack, but
for those of us who don’t…” She shrugged as if what they were doing
was a common thing and maybe it was. I didn’t know much about were
politics. I nodded my head, unwilling to comment on how I really
felt.

“Are you dating someone?”

“Yes, just recently started dating
someone.”

“A warlock?” Her face was hopeful,
like she wanted me to be happy with my own kind.

“Vampire,” I said with a smirk. She
laughed and leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing her arms
in front of her.

“You like the ones you shouldn’t be
with, huh?”

“What does that mean?” I was quickly
becoming annoyed with Jamie’s chatty personality. Who the hell did
she think she was to question my personal life or me?

“I just mean, first a werewolf that is
destined to marry his own kind and now a vampire that craves
witches’ blood.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks as my anger
rose to a boiling point. Micah had given me attitude for telling
Aiden about brew. The hypocrite was he had told his girlfriend
about the case also. Would it be immature to make the kitchen
faucet explode? I noticed my magic amped up with my anger, side
effects of the tea I drank, maybe?

“First of all, that’s none
of your business and second, not
all
vampires are drinking witches’
blood,” I spat out, giving her a glare to match my feelings. Her
pupils dilated a little and began to change to a yellowish color,
her wolf must have felt threatened. Micah came into the kitchen to
witness his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend staring
daggers at each other.

“What’s going on?”

Jamie dipped her head and took a
couple deep breaths to calm herself. I hopped off the barstool and
headed for the door. Once outside, I took a couple of deep breaths
myself. The conversation with Jamie had started off okay, but I
didn’t need her nose poking into my dating life. Aiden had never
drunk from me nor showed an abnormal fascination in doing so. Maybe
I was a little touchy when comparing Aiden to the monsters I’d seen
in the warehouse the previous night.

Micah stepped out of the house and
walked over to where I was leaning against the hood of my car. I
hesitated to make eye contact but my pride forced me to look at
him. He didn’t look angry, which was good. I couldn’t spend all day
with him being in a bad mood.

“Sorry if I caused any trouble.” I
said, not sure why I was apologizing. I didn’t regret anything that
I said but it felt like the right thing to say in this
situation.

“Not your fault. Jamie is a little too
inquisitive and stepped out of line.”

“You told her about the
case?”

“She heard about it while I was on the
phone with Wyatt.”

Like vampires, weres had exceptional
hearing and could easily hear a phone conversation from another
room. I nodded my head but didn’t say anything. Instead, I hopped
into the driver’s seat of my car. Micah walked around to the
driver’s side and leaned on the door.

“Scooch over, I’ll drive.”

Deciding not to argue, I climbed over
the middle console and plopped ungracefully into the passenger’s
seat. Micah was chucked and climbed into the driver’s seat. I
scrunched up my face in annoyance.

Micah started the car and backed out
toward the road while I messed with the radio so that the silence
wouldn’t cause any uncomfortable moments. We had been driving for
about ten minutes before Micah turned the volume down and looked
over at me.

“What?”

“That night Wyatt and I came to your
apartment, when you passed out. How often does that happen?” He
glanced between the road and me. I held up fingers as I counted how
many times I remembered being in the realm of the death. Everything
was happening so quickly, that I had a hard time remembering for
sure.

“That night was the first night, but
it’s happened two other times since then. I think Bridget will be
restless until we capture her murderer,” I said uneasily. Of
course, I wanted the culprit caught but I didn’t know how many more
visits I could handle from Bridget, especially when I wasn’t
getting any helpful clues. We were as close to finding out who was
responsible as we were the first day. Something in the back of my
mind told me that if we found the warehouse, it, in itself, would
tell us what we needed to know.

“So you think Bridget is responsible
for your passing out? Like she’s haunting you?” Micah asked, his
voice less than convinced of that theory. I shrugged my shoulders
because, in all honesty, I didn’t know what the hell was happening
with me.

“Ms. Ozland seems to think I may be
part spirit walker but that’s just crazy. I mean, no witch has had
that power in over seventy years and the ones who do have it, are
either insane or on every villain’s hit list.” The perps didn’t
like getting ratted on by their victims. Only a handful of people
in Flora knew that with the help of Aura, I could see the memories
of the dead. Bridget was the first spirit I had actually interacted
with and that was dangerous, for me. I trusted Micah, though, and
didn’t think he’d announce that the dead woman they found by the
woods had been talking to one of Flora’s witches.

“It’s possible, Gwen. I’ve never met a
witch who could see memories of the dead. Is it so far of a stretch
to think you could actually interact with them? You could very well
be a spirit walker.”

I cringed at the thought, but had to
admit there was a possibility, even if I didn’t want there to be.
The first time I’d ever seen into the mind of the dead was right
after an elder had given Aura to me. Witches were gathered for the
celestial celebration that was held every five years and Holly
Humphrey, a member of the council, presented me with Aura. During
the celebration, gifts were always exchanged, but I hadn’t thought
much of the adorable black kitten I received; witches and cats went
together like peanut butter and jelly.

I’d been holding my new cat when
someone screamed from within the large hedge maze that occupied the
backyard of the Council building. We ran toward where the scream
had come from and found a woman standing over the body of a
warlock. He had a large hole burnt through his chest and his eyes
were glassy. I almost vomited at seeing my first dead body, but
even more so when Holly urged me to check for a pulse. Under normal
circumstances, I would have told the person to go to hell, but
Holly was a Council member and therefore demanded my respect. I
crouched down and, with a shaky hand, reached for the dead
warlock’s wrist, while holding Aura with my other arm. A buzz of
energy flowed all through me and then I was looking through the
warlock’s eyes. It had scared me so much that I instantly let go of
the man’s wrist and fell backwards.

“Something wrong, dear?”
Holly asked me. I looked up at her in fear, not sure how to explain
what happened. She gave me a knowing smile and later on told me
that
I was meant for great things.
At the time, I thought her words were only for
encouragement but thinking back to that night had me wondering if
she knew all along what I was capable of.

“The sooner we end this case, the
better,” I told Micah with disdain. He nodded his head.

“What did you see last night? You said
it was horrible.”

“Yeah, it was.” I paused, remembering
the horrific scene I’d witnessed as if I were there. “Bridget was
being drained on a cot, she died while I was there. A guy slung her
over his shoulder and threw her into the back of a white van like
she was trash.” I took a deep breath to calm my anger. “There were
eight men in the warehouse; six of them were filling orders. I saw
the same man I saw in Amy Harper’s mind, but his face was blocked.”
The more I thought about that man, the more I wondered if he was a
warlock, since vampires couldn’t cast spells. I felt betrayed that
one of my kind could be killing my sister witches.

“What do you mean, his face was
blocked?” Micah asked.

“Whenever I looked at him all I saw
was blackness covering his face, like a spell was protecting his
identity. Bridget said she never saw his face either. It’s starting
to look like the ringleader might be a warlock.” Micah looked over
at me in surprise and then was silently submerged in his
thoughts.

We had been driving for about thirty
minutes when Micah pulled my car to the side of the road. I looked
up from my cell phone and realized why he’d stopped. A
warehouse-type building sat in the near distance, surrounded by
overgrown weeds.

“That’s not it,” I told
Micah.

“How do you know?”

“Just a feeling, it doesn’t look
familiar.”

“We’re checking out every warehouse we
encounter.”

We both hopped out of the car and
pushed our way through the tall grass and toward the warehouse. As
soon as we got closer to the building, I knew with absolute
certainty that it wasn’t the one we were looking for. The walls
weren’t tall enough and neither was the overall size. The warehouse
I’d seen was a very large one; this one looked like it had been
used for maybe storing farming equipment.

Micah tried the door but it was chain
locked. “Unlock it,” he said.

I shot him an unbelievable look and
said, “Kinda ironic that a detective is telling me to break into a
locked building.” I laughed and focused my magic on the corroded
padlock until the chain fell to the dirt.

“Detectives first,” I said, holding my
arm out. He drew a gun I hadn’t realized he had on him and stepped
into the darkened warehouse with me right behind him. He looked to
the left and then to the right, his eyes roaming over every inch of
the building’s interior. I stepped around him and repeated what I
said earlier, “This isn’t it.”

“You’re sure?”

“I think I’d remember a big ass rusty
tractor sitting in the corner.” Micah rolled his eyes and holstered
his gun. After locking the doors, we headed for the car and were on
the road again. The towns that surrounded Flora were all farming
towns so there were a lot of back roads with expansive distances
between them. It felt like we’d been in the car for hours and I was
beginning to go stir crazy when Micah slowed down and pointed to
another building.

“What about that one?”

The building in question was indeed a
warehouse of sorts but not the right one. It didn’t have any
windows and the one I had seen had. I was starting to think the
whole idea was dumb. We’d already been driving for two hours and
had only spotted two warehouses that weren’t anything like what I’d
seen. I didn’t even know what town we were in anymore.

“Nope,” I said with
aggravation.

“Alright, how’s about we get some
lunch and we’ll pick this wild goose chase up after I have a full
stomach.”

I shrugged my shoulders with
indifference. I wasn’t really hungry but werewolves ate all the
time, so going two hours without eating was probably torture for
Micah. We stopped at a small diner that looked like it should’ve
been shut down. The paint was peeling off the wood siding and the
inside wasn’t much better. It had a long counter with barstools
lining the length of it while a few booths sat along the front
wall, similar to a diner. Micah and I slid into a booth and waited
for the waitress.

I only ordered a glass of iced tea
while Micah ordered almost everything on the menu. The waitress
looked shocked but was nice enough not to comment on Micah’s
appetite; besides, it’s not like Micah was fat. Werewolves have a
high metabolism rate that helps burn off their high calorie diets,
something I envied.