Some Like it Wicked (7 page)

Layton took a step back, perhaps at what he saw in Zeke’s
eyes, but then the warlock’s magic rushed from his palms. A brutal wave of
energy blasted Zeke in the chest, sending him flying through the air. He landed
hard on his back and groaned as pain shot up his spine.

Raising his head, he discovered Layton backing away from
him.
Yes, you should be afraid
. “That, warlock, was a mistake.”

Chapter Seven

Bryanna finished putting her hair up into a ponytail after
her long bath. Before she’d gone to the employment office, she had discovered a
clothing store on the way and had bought some comfortable clothing. She’d
dropped it off at home before her trip to Nevin’s, which had been hell on
earth. She hoped for her sake that the next employment office Zeke took her to
tomorrow would result in her actually finding a job. A witch needed to be
productive.

After she slipped into her black yoga pants and purple
cotton t-shirt, she exited her small bathroom with the antique clawfoot bathtub
and entered her country-style living room. Leaning against the doorframe, she
sighed, gazing over the microfiber brown couches, dark oak tables and the rich
green plants in the space.

Heaven.

With a smile, and craving a tea, she strode forward, but
then she gasped, dropping to her knees. The sensation of magic swept across
her, stealing her breath.

Not just magic; familiar magic.

She shut her eyes, fighting through the deep pain in her
chest at the reminder of who that magic belonged to. Zeke had made her forget
her misery and now it returned in full force. But why was she feeling this now?
And with such intensity?

After a moment to catch her breath, she glanced down at her
arms, noticing the hairs standing up.
Layton’s here.
She pushed off the
ground and hurried out the front door.

The second she stepped outside, the warm breeze caressed her
skin as loud grunts and curses filled the air around her. Grabbing her shoes
from inside, she had them on her feet in a split second.

Leaving her front door wide open, she ran toward the fight,
hoping and praying her assumptions of
who
was fighting were wrong. But
the moment she rounded onto Main Street, the force of energy Layton used with
his magic stole her breath.

She rushed forward and with each step she took, the thicker
the air became with Layton’s magic. And the second the gates of town appeared,
she saw why.

Zeke had just leveled Layton with a hard punch, sending her
ex-boyfriend flying off his feet before Layton sent a wave of energy back,
flipping Zeke over.

“Oh no.” She ran faster, and as she passed Arlo, he grabbed
her arm with what appeared to be two fingers, not allowing her to jump into the
fight. “Stop this,” she screamed.

Neither demon nor warlock listened to her, and yet again,
they both got in a good blow. “Stop right now or I’ll use my magic!”

Layton stood, rubbing at the side of his bleeding cheek.
“What will you do, make a table and hit us with it?”

Zeke pushed himself off the ground and growled, a low, scary
sound. When he turned to Bryanna, the crimson flickers in his eyes made her
heart skip a beat and she took a step back. His eyebrows drew together before
he shook his head, the color fading back into his dark soft eyes.

Perhaps she had forgotten Zeke was a demon, since an uneasy
feeling crept in her soul, reminding her how terrifying his kind was. He took a
step closer, but her breath hitched and he stopped, staring at her with sad
eyes.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she turned back to Layton.
“Why are you here?”

“To bring you home.” He approached her, and when he settled
in front of her, he stared down with the tender crystal-blue eyes that had once
charmed her. “What were you thinking, running away and leaving me? You’ve
betrayed me, Bryanna.”

Oh, by the elements, he wouldn’t fool her again. She
wouldn’t allow him to continue to lie to her. Lifting her chin, she glared at
him. “I didn’t betray you.
You
betrayed me.”

His eyebrows rose and he slid his hands over her arms, as if
warming and comforting her. “How did I betray you?”

She shut her eyes, hating how she didn’t recoil from his
touch, how it felt so safe and familiar.
No, don’t let him do this.
Stepping out of his hold, she snapped, “You used me for my money.”

“Bryanna,” he said gently. “Why would I use you for your
money, sweetheart? I’m nothing without you.”

No, he’s a liar.
“You wanted to hide me away so you
wouldn’t be embarrassed by me anymore.”

Matching her retreat, he closed in on her again, but she
looked at Zeke, who stood motionless with a stony expression. When Layton’s
hand touched hers, she gasped, glancing toward their held hands. He hadn’t
touched her this way in so long and she had craved such a simple embrace from
him.

She lifted her head and gazed at him; so many memories were
held with this warlock. They weren’t bad memories. Compared to what she had
with her distant parents, Layton had done nice things for her, and when he was
at home, he made her feel important to him.

Placing a finger under her chin, he tilted her head up. “You
know I love you and have never wanted to change you. I’ve always accepted you.
I only wanted to protect you from the others. I hated seeing them be so cruel
to you.”

Was that a lie?

He had always accepted her, since he stayed with her. And he
was right—the other witches were horrible to her. Had she gotten this all
wrong? Did she look into him, thinking the worst of him, when all he wanted to
do was protect her? “Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true.” He smiled, cupping her cheeks, then
he kissed her lips with a light peck. “I only want what’s best for you. I’ve
only
ever
wanted that. And my actions only prove how much I love you. I
lost my mind when you left and had the coven cast a spell to locate you.”

Her thoughts swirled in confusion. She didn’t lie to
Zeke—she did love Layton. Hearing that she had misread it all made her heart
clench. If she had never heard those witches talking, she wouldn’t have thought
anything. Why hadn’t she confronted him? Why had she thought so poorly of him?

What had she done?

Moving away from Layton’s hold on her face, she looked over
at Zeke. The pain in his expression was palpable, yet he gave her a small smile.
“If you need to go, then go.”

“Yes, Bryanna, we need to go,” Layton murmured.

She glanced at Zeke again, who stood statue still. Her mind
spun and she didn’t have a solid place to land. If Zeke cared for her, wouldn’t
he ask her to stay? She and Layton had a history; Zeke and she didn’t even have
a day. But why couldn’t she tell Layton she wanted to leave?

Layton pulled on her hand and she found herself moving, but
her head was foggy. At the car she bought for him six months ago, he opened the
door and somehow she ended up on the seat, staring at her hands in her lap,
trying to think straight. Shouldn’t she be happy Layton came and found her?
That had to mean he loved her, but why wasn’t she smiling?

The door next to her opened and Layton slid into the seat,
slamming it shut behind him. “Time to go home.” He started the ignition, and a
moment later, they were off. “Honestly, Bryanna, of all places to go, you come
to a town where a demon resides.”

Turning in her seat, she looked at Zeke through the back windshield
and he still hadn’t moved, his fists clenching at his sides. She had witnessed
the pain in his features, and even now, his rage showed in the tense set of his
hands.

Why had he let her leave?

He faded into the dark night as distance grew between them
and tears filled her eyes when Layton stated, “I don’t want to know what
happened between you and the demon. You are lucky I love you enough to forgive
you.”

She glanced sideways, regarding him. Why would he forgive
cheating so easily?She wouldn’t have; her past actions showed that.
She’d left him once for something not nearly as common. Witches broke up with
warlocks all the time for cheating, so why would Layton forgive that without a
single demand to understand why?

The answer was glaringly obvious.

As was the reason Zeke didn’t ask her to stay.

“Stop the car!” she shouted at the top of her lungs,
grabbing the door handle. “Right now.”

Her door flew open and Layton slammed on the brakes. When
the car stopped, she jumped out. “Bryanna,” he roared after her.

Not wanting to hear any more of his lies, making her so
blind to his real intentions, she ran forward. Layton called out her name
again, but when she ignored him, energy vibrated through the air and raised
every hair on her body. Her heart hammered as time slowed around her. Now she
knew the daunting truth, that Layton would never allow her to leave him.

He didn’t find her out of love. He asked the coven to locate
her because he
needed
her money. Money was power, and without it, Layton
was only a typical warlock. As the realization haunted her, a loud whoosh in
the air came above her before she lost her footing, tumbling face-first to the
ground.

She cried out as her palms scraped against the rocky gravel
road. Turning onto her side, she noticed the rope binding her feet and quickly
reached to remove it. But Layton’s magic had tight knots she couldn’t undo.

As she fought with one of the knots, Layton’s hard footsteps
indicated he approached. “You’ve left me no choice, Bryanna.”

Choice?

At one time, she didn’t have any choices. She never chose to
have unruly magic, she never chose to have shitty parents and she certainly
never chose to find love with someone only after her money.

What Layton didn’t know, and even to her own surprise, with
one decision to leave him, fate stepped in and gave her the taste of freedom.
She
chose
to leave her car when it had broken down, she
chose
to
stay in the car with a demon and she
chose
to rent a home in Charmstone.

The road to making her own choices led to her left, not to
the right toward Shreveport.

Layton squatted in front of her and didn’t hide the coldness
or the greed from his gaze. But she’d seen eyes far scarier than the ones
gazing at her now and she glared back. “You have one chance to remove the rope
and leave.”

“Or what?” He snorted. “Who’s going to stop me?”

“Zeke!” she screamed.

The red car lights faded and Zeke exhaled, fighting against
the hollowness in his chest. He and Bryanna had such a short time together and
she had forever changed him. Perhaps his original intention had been to save a
soul worth saving. Now, at the loss of her, a pain so profound filled him that
he could barely breathe.

She made the choice to leave him.

He’d seen the question in her eyes, begging him to tell her
to stay, but he wouldn’t. For too long, everyone told her how to act and what
to do. He decided not to be one of them, no matter that his heart disagreed. He
had hoped she’d see past Layton’s deceit.

She didn’t.

Now she was gone.

He inhaled, swearing he could still smell her flowery scent
drifting in the wind around him. While his sense of smell, if he concentrated,
did carry into a far distance, he suspected his recollection of her had been
forever burned into his memory. She was in a car with Layton, now far away from
him.

Turning away from the long, dark road, he looked at Arlo.
His friend sighed, sounding more like a grunt. Zeke strode forward to thank him
for keeping Bryanna safe during the fight with Layton, when suddenly, he heard
his name and froze.

Terrific. He wasn’t only catching whiffs of Bryanna’s scent.
Now he was hearing her call his damn name. He raised his foot to take another
step forward, but before it could hit the ground, he heard his name again.

Arlo tilted his head. “Is that—”

He didn’t need Arlo to finish. The way the ogre’s ears
perked up in the same direction that he heard Bryanna’s voice indicated Zeke
hadn’t imagined anything.

Pushing off the ground, Zeke did something he hadn’t done
since his banishment from hell. The Devil’s punishment wasn’t to strip Zeke of
his powers. No, he trapped Zeke in this realm as powerful as he’d been before,
forcing him to deal with his innate desires of soul stealing..

Allowing his demonic nature to consume him, he sucked in a
deep breath and found that dark place of pure heat. A rush of fire laced his
veins as his human body became a thin line of smoke drifting through the air.

In this form, he couldn’t see Bryanna, but he sensed her and
she stood out like a pulsing hot heartbeat. The hunger inside of him to prey on
such a pure soul created a fierce thirst within him. He swooped down from the
sky and instantly retook his human form. His boots pressed against the gravel
road and he stretched out his muscles, suffering the ache that had always come
when shifting forms.

A piercing scream snapped his head up and there was the
innocent witch being dragged by her arms, her feet bound with rope. He might
hunger to devour that innocence to feed his power, but Zeke didn’t need power,
he only needed her. “Release her,” he spat. “Now.”

Spinning around, Layton dropped Bryanna and she banged her
head against the road. “Don’t interfere, demon,” he sneered. “You have no right
to her.”

Zeke drew in a harsh breath as Bryanna cringed in pain,
rubbing the side of her head in tears, then he lifted his head and arched an
eyebrow. “I would argue that point with you.” He approached, not hesitant, but
ready to suck Layton’s soul out of his body. “Remove the magic from her.
Immediately.”

“Back off.” Layton’s magic caused the wind to kick up a
notch as energy flowed around Zeke.

He chuckled. “Your wind might move it, warlock.” His voice
had deepened with the evil unleashed inside of him and power rushed through his
veins. “But you cannot harm me.”

Layton’s eyes narrowed into slits as a self-righteous grin
spread over his face. Blue flickers of light surrounded his hands before the
wind swirling around Zeke sucked away and a long, tan-colored rope came rushing
toward him.