Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (66 page)

“Actually, you’re not my professor. Didn’t you hear what I just said? I don’t have a play. No Teagan, no play. It’s way too late to recast.”

“Well, how horrible for you. I sincerely apologize.” I folded my arms over my chest. “I guess you’ve got a bit of a consolation prize, though, considering you’ve got access to her.”

Harper’s lips curved into a smile. “That’s true, Professor Alexander. I know where she sleeps, and I have a key. Things really have worked out pretty nicely for me.”

I wanted to strangle him. My hands twitched, ready to grab him by the throat. “If you touch her—”

“Oh, so possessive are we?” said Harper. “I don’t get it,
Carter
. We all know why she’s here. I don’t see why everyone can’t have a taste. She’s here to be
used
.”

That did it. I took him by the collar and shoved him against the wall.

He giggled. “Oh, did I make you mad? Say, do you
like
her? Really like her?”

“You’re going to keep your hands off Miss Moss or I’m going to mangle you,” I growled.

He was still laughing. “If you like her so much, then why is she locked up here? Why are you going ahead with the ritual?” He shoved me.

I stumbled, and I fought to regain my balance. I had really never been in any kind of fight in my life. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to prove here.

“I’m going to fuck her. I’m going to make her scream.”

I punched him.

It
hurt
.

I backed away, cradling my fist.

At least Harper had stopped laughing. He was rubbing his jaw. “Ow.”

I took a step towards him.

He backed off, hands up. “Wait.”

Okay. Well, that was promising. I took another step towards him. “Where is she?”

He retreated a bit more. “Hold up, professor. You can’t go near her anyway. She’s warded against you.”

“She on this hall?” I looked up and down it. There were a few bedrooms down at the end.

“Why do you care?” he said.

“She is, then,” I said.

“Look, I didn’t tell you anything.”

That was a fairly good confirmation. I pointed at him. “You keep your hands off of her, all right. Keep your... everything off of her.”

“Whatever,” he said.

I took another step towards him.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “Jesus.” He touched his face again, where I’d hit him. “I’m going to the dean about this, you know. You’re going to get fired.”

That was really the least of my problems right now. “Go for it. I’m really not a very good teacher anyway. I don’t know if making students cry means they’re really learning anything.” If she was on this hall, I might be close enough to be hurting her. I needed to leave now. “Have a nice day, Mr. Cannon.”

I sprinted up the hallway, away from him, heading for the exit. I had things I needed to do.

* * *

I set the herbs out on my kitchen counter. I’d been all over town hunting down the ingredients I needed to undo the wards that Adelaide had placed on me to keep Teagan from being close to me.

I hoped the spell was going to work. I hadn’t had as much time in the library as I would have liked, and I’d only been able to find and copy down this spell. If there were better ones, more effective ones, I would have no way of knowing.

There was a knock at my door.

Damn it. Maybe if I just ignored it...

“Carter, it’s me. I’m coming in.”

I groaned. I’d recognize Adelaide’s voice anywhere. Did I have time to hide all these ingredients?

The door opened.

Nope.

I’d just have to keep her out of the kitchen. I rushed out, hurrying to meet her at the door. “Adelaide.” I wedged myself between her and the door, blocking her view of the kitchen. “What a nice surprise. Join me in the living room.”

She stalked past me. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Carter.”

I followed her into the living room. Good. She hadn’t seen anything.

She coughed. “I need a glass of water. I’ll just pop into the kitchen—”

“No!” I blocked her movement. “I’ll get it for you. You sit down and make yourself comfortable.”

“All right.” She settled on the couch.

I hurried into the kitchen. Adelaide was angry with me about something. Well, that was typical. I got a cup out of my cupboard and filled it with water.

I raced back to the living room.

She hadn’t moved.

I handed her the water. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” She took a sip. “Did you really punch the Cannon boy?”

I sighed. “Does that matter?”

“Why would you do such a thing?”

“He was threatening to rape Teagan,” I said. “I saw red.”

She set down her water glass. “You realize that during the ritual, you’re going to do precisely—”

“That’s me,” I said. “I don’t want him near her.”

She rubbed her face. “You’re territorial about her. Wonderful.”

I didn’t have time to have this conversation with Adelaide. I had to get rid of her. “I don’t mean to make assumptions about my importance here, but you do you need me more than you need Mr. Cannon, don’t you? Shouldn’t you be trying to keep me happy?”

She sighed heavily. “Fine. We’ll keep Harper away from Teagan.”

“Good,” I said. Apparently, I’d picked up a few tricks from the diva actresses I’d worked with over the years. “Are we done, then?”

“Trying to get rid of me so quickly?”

Damn it. She wasn’t suspicious, was she? “Of course not. It’s just that things are a bit awkward between us, wouldn’t you agree?”

“A bit.” She laughed darkly. “Carter, I don’t know what happened between us.”

Oh, no. Not this. “Nothing happened. We have a past, that’s all. And it’s making things a little difficult for us in the present.”

“But our past, Carter, confuses me.”

Seriously? Did we have to talk about this? “Don’t you think it would be better if we just—”

“Shoved it under the rug and pretended it wasn’t there? No, I don’t. I think we need to clear the air.”

I sighed.

“I ended our relationship because I realized you were selfish and cocky and only concerned with acquiring power.”

“Wow,” I said. “Tell me how you really feel. Don’t try and sugar-coat it for me or anything.”

She glared at me. “Oh, did I hurt your feelings?”

I massaged the bridge of my nose. “Look, Adelaide, none of this matters anymore.”

“But now, you seem so devoted to that girl. Why do you think that is? It’s completely unlike you.”

I cleared my throat. I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“I suppose it’s just a side effect of the things we’ve done to prepare you for the ritual. I’ve done some looking into it,” she said. “Read some accounts of previous rituals. Crises of consciousness are somewhat typical. Having feelings for the girl is also typical.”

What was she trying to say? Was she saying what I felt for Teagan wasn’t real? That couldn’t be true. I’d never felt anything so real before. “So, you feel inadequate because I didn’t fall for you, Adelaide? You’ve got to explain it away with magic, and say the feelings I developed for Miss Moss are only side effects?”

“They are side effects, Carter. They don’t come from you. There’s nothing inside you that actually cares about people. You’re shallow and cocky. You would never put the well-being of someone else above your own.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “You can’t judge me on the way you and I interacted. It’s true that our relationship was pretty much entirely physical, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of having a deeper connection.”

“Which you think you have with Teagan?”

I swallowed. I didn’t want Teagan hurt. I was going to save her. But I couldn’t tell that to Adelaide, because she’d stop me.

She picked up her water glass and took another sip. “Whatever you think you have with her, it’s nothing, Carter. It’s only the magic. It’s messing with your head.”

“But it’s not going to go away,” I said. “Not if what happened to Armstrong is any indication. He never stopped feeling guilty. Whatever this side effect is, it’s permanent. That seems pretty real to me.”

She looked away.

“Maybe it’s not magic, Adelaide. Why would the ritual do that to me? Why would the very thing that prepared me make it less likely that I’d go through with it?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Maybe the reason that so many men get attacks of conscience is because what you’re asking us to do is horrific. And maybe no decent human being can do it without realizing how bad it is.”

She chuckled. “Oh, Carter, you’re not a decent human being.”

I leaned forward. “Maybe my guilt makes you feel bad because you have to acknowledge that you’re part of what I’m guilty about. I may be the one who takes her, but you organized it, and you’ll benefit from the power I steal from her, just like everyone else. Your hands are dirty, and you want to point fingers at me? You want to say that I’m not a decent human being? Well, maybe you’re right. But neither are you, Adelaide Surber.”

She drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes flashed. Then she got up from the couch. “If you screw this up, I will kill you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t you believe me? Didn’t you just get finished saying that my hands were dirty, Carter?” She smiled tightly. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you with my own two hands.”

Her eyes bored into mine. She was serious. I found myself shrinking from her.

She smirked, looking satisfied. And then she swept out of the house.

Leaving me to get back to my herbs, so that I could break the wards on Teagan. I
was
going to “screw this up.” And if it meant that Adelaide killed me? Well, as long as Teagan was safe.

* * *

Teagan

Harper never came back. But food started to show up. I didn’t know what had happened, but I was grateful. I got three square meals a day, and the food was pretty good. But I was bored.

I did have cable television, and I tried to watch it, but it was hard to concentrate when I knew I was being kept in this room for a ritual that would steal my power and my ability to think.

I was currently lying face down on my bed, wondering what it would be like when Carter did it to me.

Would he even feel bad about it?

Did it matter if he did?

I had thought that Carter and I were connected, that there was something special between us, but he’d been planning to use me all along. He hadn’t saved me. He hadn’t helped me. When I needed him most, he ran away.

I was disappointed, and I was hurt.

The door opened.

I sat up on my bed. Perhaps Harper had come back.

But a sharp pain caught me as I turned to look at the door. I clutched my chest and grunted.

“Shh.” It was Carter. He shut the door after himself. He was carrying a canvas bag. He reached into it.

The pain intensified as he got closer. I squeezed my eyes shut, curling up in a ball. I was going to start screaming.

I heard Carter start to chant. I smelled smoke.

The pain seemed a little less. I opened my eyes.

He was kneeling over me, muttering words in another language. He had a bundle of herbs in one hand. He’d lit it, and he was waving it over me. The smoke swirled around my body.

The pain eased even further.

He stopped his chant.

The smoke smelled sweet and cloying. I drew it into my lungs. The pain vanished completely. “What...?”

“They put wards on you,” he said. “To keep you away from me. I removed them.” He touched my face. “Are you okay?”

I backed away from his fingers. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He looked down at his hand. Then he shoved it in his pocket. “You don’t trust me.”

“Well, it’s wonderful that you’ve found a way for you to be close to me so that you can keep fucking me before the ritual—when you’ll fuck me so hard, you’ll drive me literally crazy. But I don’t want to be near you.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” he said. “I’m rescuing you.”

I raised my eyebrows.

He went to the door of my room. “Look, we can argue about what kind of asshole I am later. Just come with me. Now.”

I got off the bed. “Maybe you’re taking me somewhere worse. Maybe if I go with you, you’ll lock me up in some damp dungeon down here. You’re obviously working with them.”

“I
was
working with them,” he said. “But I’m not anymore. I’m going to get you away from them. I’m going to take you someplace safe. Please, come with me.”

I looked into his blue eyes. I wanted to trust him. In my dream, it had always seemed like we were connected. But maybe my dream had deceived me, just like Carter had.