Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem) (35 page)

Nathan shoved me against the wall behind me and then proceeded to use his own body to shield me.  I flinched when my nail file embedded itself in the wall next to my head with a
twang
and then stood there, staring as it vibrated back and forth like it was trying to pull itself out of the wall and give impaling us another try.

“On the count of three, we’re going to make a run for it,” Nathan said, practically shouting the words in my ear to be heard over the howling wind turning the room into a demolition zone.  “Ready?  One…two…three!”

Before the last word was even past his lips, he grabbed my hand and started dragging me across the room at breakneck speed toward the door and the stairs leading to the third floor.  I had to duck to keep from being decapitated by pieces of glass from the now destroyed French doors and I felt something sharp cut into the bottom of my foot, but I never so much as slowed down.

We were almost there when the iron light fixture overhead tore free with an ominous snap and began to fall.  I didn’t think, I just acted.  I wrapped my arms around Nathan’s waist and pushed with everything I had.  It was a tackle that would have made the Oakhurst Academy Phoenix football team proud.  The light fixture missed us by a couple of inches as we crashed to the floor, the etched glass globes shattering and sending glass flying in all directions.

In a blinding fast move, Nathan rolled me over, covering my body with his and keeping the worst of the glass from slicing me to ribbons.  I felt a particularly large shard embed itself in my bare calf with a searing jolt of pain. I clenched my teeth in an effort to hold back the whimper trying to force its way out, but Nathan heard it, anyway.  He looked down at me in concern for a second, then readjusted himself so that he was covering every bare inch of me from head to toe just in case any more projectiles launched themselves in our direction.

We laid there for a long moment once the room became quiet again.  I wiggled around until I could look down at my aching leg and whimpered again when I saw the damage.  My entire calf was stained crimson, and more blood was pumping steadily from the wound.  I felt cold all over when I realized the damage could have been much worse.

“Oh, great,” I gulped, averting my gaze quickly as my stomach began to roll as I imagined that thick piece of glass stuck in my forehead or something.

“Are you finished with your tantrum now?” Nathan growled, looking beyond irritated with me. 

“That wasn’t me, you jerk!” And I was telling him the truth.  There had been no weird pressure in my chest, no buzzy feeling.  I had been mad, yeah, but I hadn’t caused the destruction littering the room around us.

“If it wasn’t you, then who was it?” Nathan asked, looking like he didn’t believe me.

The soft thud of something hitting wood drew my eyes to the right, and I watched as my favorite tube of lipstick rolled off the edge of the dresser.  My eyes lifted slowly to the mirror above and I stared at the words spelled out there in creamy rose with more than a twinge of fear.  The message was short and sweet, but I got it loud and clear.

Demon
.

“I think you just got your answer,” I gulped.  Nathan followed my gaze to the mirror and his eyebrows met in a deep frown before he turned to look back down at me.

“Did anything else happen tonight I should know about, Em?” he asked pointedly.

“Nothing much,” I told him with a shrug.  “I found out my mother really does hate me, so I moved out.  After that, I survived some weird demonic bombing that didn’t really happen in a coffee shop, got felt up by about twenty soldiers at the local bar, and took a shower with a ghost.  You know?  The usual.”

“Someone touched you?” he growled, his eyes flashing dangerously.  “Which bar?”

I rolled my eyes.  Oh, sure.  Let’s completely dismiss the parts about me being homeless, Jack trying to scare me to death, and my shower with a member of the dearly departed and zero in on the fact that a bunch of drunk soldiers wanted to be touchy feely.  Typical male.

“What difference does that make?” I asked.

“I’m suddenly in the mood for a drink.”

“You’re pretty possessive of something that doesn’t belong to you,” I huffed, though part of me was jumping up and down that he seemed to be jealous. 

“You have no idea,” he said softly, giving me a deep look that made my toes want to curl. 

His lips were so close that I could feel the cool wash of his breath.  His scent surrounded me, cocooning me in a blanket of longing and confusion and heartache that made it hard to breathe.  I wanted to pull him closer and let my imagination do the rest.  At the same time, I wanted to scream at him to get away from me.

The sound of footsteps coming up the steps broke the spell he was casting over me, and I remembered how intimate our position looked.  Blushing so hot I could almost feel steam coming off my cheeks, I shoved at Nathan’s shoulders.

“Move, Nathan,” I hissed, shoving harder when he didn’t budge.

“I rather like you right where you are,” he purred suggestively, a seductive smile turning up his lips.

“Well I don’t,” I snapped—because I am a colossal liar—still shoving at his shoulders.  “Get off!”

“You heard her.  Get off of her.”

My head twisted around fast enough to give me whiplash as Tyler’s voice echoed through the room and sucked in a sharp breath in surprise.  It wasn’t the fact that he was the first on the scene after our supernatural encounter that surprised me.  Considering it had probably sounded like grenades were going off in the attic, someone coming to check on me was actually to be expected.  No, it was the fact that he looked absolutely furious as he leveled an icy glare at the back of Nathan’s head.  

 “I said get off of her,” Tyler snarled when Nathan still hadn’t moved after a couple of seconds. 

“Tyler it’s okay.  I’ve got this,” I said quickly, pushing harder at Nathan’s shoulders to make him move, a total waste of energy if there ever was one.  “It’s not what it looks like.  The light fell.  Nathan pushed me out of the way before it could hit me.”

Okay, that was mostly true.  Oh, all right!  Fine!  The only part of the story I had just told that was true was the part about the fallen light fixture.  Still, Tyler looked ready to do battle, and I didn’t see him making it through another fight with Nathan with all of his limbs attached to the correct parts of his body.  I didn’t want that on my conscience. 

“What is
he
doing here?” Tyler growled, never taking his eyes from the back of Nathan’s head.

“Um,” I hedged, not sure how I was supposed to explain.  “We’re kind of friends now so it’s okay.  Really, Tyler.  It’s fine.  He’s not hurting me, I swear.  He’s just annoying me.”

Is that all I am, Ember?  Your friend?
Nathan grumbled to me silently, not looking like he cared too much for that description. 

 
Friend, warden, vampire kidnapper, pain in my ass…you pick
.

But I want to be much more than just friends,
he said with a possessive look in his eyes. 
And if you’d be honest, you’d admit that you want the same thing.

Never taking his eyes from mine, he slid off me one slow inch at a time, making sure as much of his amazing body brushed against mine as possible to prove his point.  Miniature explosions went off everywhere he touched, powerful enough to give their full-sized counterparts a run for their money.  He rose slowly to his feet and held out a hand to help me up, his smug smile getting even bigger when he saw how flustered I was. 

“We should get that taken care of,” he said, glancing down at my leg when I tried to stand on it and groaned.

Kneeling down, he took my calf in one of his large hands and quickly pulled out the shard of glass with the other.  I watched him warily, worried about the effect that being in such close proximity to so much blood might have on him, but he simply examined the wound.

“You’re going to need stitches, baby,” he said softly as he let his hand run down my calf in a caress that practically set my skin on fire.  If I hadn’t seen the very real concern in his eyes when he looked up at me, I would have kicked him.  “I’ve got a car downstairs.  I’ll drive you to the emergency room.”

Emergency room?  Uh-huh,
sure
.  The nearest airport to board a flight to Antarctica?  Yeah, now
that
I believed.   

“I’d rather bleed to death,” I snapped, jerking my leg from his grip.

Tyler turned a snort of laughter into a coughing fit, but he wasn’t fooling anyone.  Nathan gave him a look that should have resulted in a very slow, agonizing demise, then reached out and grabbed my hand to pull me close to his side.  The way his hand splayed across my hip basically screamed possession.   

I’m surprised he didn’t pee on me to mark his territory or club me over the head to drag me off to his cave.  I didn’t belong to him and I was about to prove it.  Therefore, I did what any girl would do.  I made the situation ten times worse.

“Tyler, would you mind driving me to the hospital?" I asked, sweetly.  I chanced a glance at Nathan and felt a little thrill of victory when I saw the deadly look blooming on his face.  Tyler must've seen it, too, because he grinned at Nathan and said, “Sure, no problem.” 

At Tyler's words, an inhuman growl started to rumble in Nathan’s chest.  Tyler ignored him and gestured at the stairs.  “Shall we?” 

Seeing the way Nathan's eyes lit up in fury, I suddenly didn't feel so intelligent in deliberately provoking the vampire.  Really, it couldn’t end well.  For any of us.  "Uh, okay..." I said, wishing I could take it back. 

“Over my dead body,” Nathan hissed, turning on my would-be rescuer.

“That can be arranged,” Tyler said, his expression cold.

After the beating he’d taken last time he tried to play Knight in Shining Armor, you would have at least thought Tyler would be a little hesitant about going another round, but he wasn’t.  In fact, he looked kind of smug.  There was even a smile playing on his lips when he finally tore his gaze away from Nathan to look at me.

  “Ember, why don’t you get dressed and we’ll…go…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes drifted to my neck and I literally saw the blood drain out of his face.  Blushing, I reached up and pulled my hair forward to cover the vampire brand on my neck.  I turned away from the furious look on his face and reached for the hoodie I’d thrown over the foot of the bed and started pulling it on.

“Well, it certainly looks like
someone
enjoyed their trip,” Tyler hissed, turning back to Nathan. 

“It was necessary,” Nathan said, not even flinching.  “I’ve seen what the demon that’s after her can do.  I won’t apologize for trying to protect her.”

“And did you
ask
her before you claimed her?” Tyler seethed.  The regret in Nathan’s eyes was all the answer he needed.  “Did you bother telling her what it meant?”

“I think you’ve said enough, hero,” Nathan said coldly.

“He owns you now, Ember,” Tyler said, completely ignoring the expression on Nathan’s face that said silence was golden.  “He can control you with that little brand, did he tell you that?  What he wants you to do, you’ll do.  What he wants you to believe, you’ll believe.  What he wants you to see, you’ll see.”

I looked up at Nathan, waiting for him to explain that Tyler was wrong, but he wouldn’t look at me.  He didn’t have to.  The guilt I saw written all over his beautiful face was more damning than anything he might have said.  I was a puppet and he was holding the strings.  He could make me do anything he wanted, and I wouldn’t even be able to fight him.

“Do you want to tell her the rest?” Tyler asked when I started to back away from Nathan.

There was more?  The fact that he had taken my free will from me wasn’t bad enough?

“Shut.  Up,” Nathan growled. 

“No, tell me,” I said, never taking my eyes off Nathan’s face.  “I want to know it all.”  When neither of them spoke, I screamed the order at him.  “Tell me, Nathan!”

“He can also make you feel what he wants you to feel,” Tyler answered instead, his voice soft and almost malicious.  “Hate, despair, passion…even love.  If he wants your heart, you’ll give it to him tied up with a pretty bow.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the softball-sized lump in my throat made it impossible for me to make a sound.  I reached up with shaking fingers to touch the mark on my neck, letting them slide over it as I stared up at Nathan’s heartbroken expression.  I had been so close to giving in to him.  I had wanted to.  I had wanted to love him and be loved
by
him.  Had that been him all along?  Had he
made
me fall in love with him?

“Is it true?” I finally choked out.  The ginormous lump in my throat felt like it had moved to lodge in my chest, making it hard to breathe.  “Can you make me feel whatever you want me to, Nathan?”

“I would never do that to you,” he whispered, his expression pleading.

“But you could?” I asked as my fingers slid slowly toward the cross that had come to mean the difference between sanity and insanity to me.  I wrapped my fingers around it and clung to it with a grip born of sheer desperation, hoping it would keep me from shattering into a million pieces—the way my heart did as Nathan drove the last nail in the coffin I would bury it in.

“Yes.”

A wave of agony hit me dead in the chest hard enough to make me sway on my feet as that affirmation seemed to echo around us, growing louder and louder instead of fading away.  With that one word, he destroyed me.  Not only could I not trust him…or Grams…or my parents.  No, he had to make sure I couldn’t trust
anyone.

Not even myself.

“Get out,” I told him hoarsely.   

“Em, baby, please…” he whispered, but I didn’t want to hear it.

“Get out!” I screamed. 

My fist tightened around the cross at my throat, the cross
he
had given me—the cross engraved with the mirror image of the mark I could never get rid of.  Suddenly, the feel of it made my skin crawl.  With a vicious yank, I ripped it off my neck and threw it at him.  He caught it in midair and looked down at it for a long moment before raising haunted eyes back to mine.  Turning my back on him, I braced myself against the dresser and tried to hold it together until I could get him out of the room.