Blood Rush (The Lost Witch Trilogy #2) (28 page)

Zane smiled, his silver eyes lighting up as he looked back at Sarah. Sarah smiled back, her heart feeling warmer at the thought of Agnes standing by her side.

“What about you Mom? What about Cat and Zandra? You have two daughters who still need you and would be heartbroken if anything happened to you. You need to go Mom. You shouldn’t be here,” Zane said moving to kneel in front of his mother.

Gretchen bit her lip as a tear slipped down her cheek. “Zane, I love your sisters more than my life, but this is bigger than us all. We’re all here for a reason. None of this is a coincidence. I might not be the strongest most talented witch, but I know I’m needed. Sarah needs me, you need me and Race needs me. Now no more talk of walking away.”

Zane leaned over and kissed his mother’s cheek. “I love you Mom,” he whispered before standing up. He turned and glanced around the small group, his eyes resting on Lash and Charlie.

“What about you two? Lash, Charles wouldn’t hesitate to hand you over to your father. Are you willing to risk your life?” he asked quietly.

Lash was standing in the corner of the room, apart from everyone, his dark hair falling over his eyes and his arms crossed over his chest. He lifted his face when Zane started talking but he was looking at Sarah. Sarah stared back silently, willing him to go. She couldn’t stand the thought of him being hurt because of her.

“Sarah has stuck up for me practically my whole life. What kind of friend would I be if I turned my back on her when she needs someone to stick up for her?” he said, sounding determined and stoic.

Zane nodded and turned to look at Charlie who had her knees pulled up to her chest as she huddled on the couch next to Agnes.

“Charlie, you’re the newest one to our little group here. I’m sure you understand now after meeting your father that there’s no hope of a relationship with him. His only interest in you is if you’re worth using. We can make arrangements to send you away Charlie. You don’t need to stay and get caught up in this. My sister Cat would take you in. What do you think?” Zane asked kindly.

Sarah winced at Charlie’s expression. She looked as if her last dream had been crushed. Charlie took a deep breath before answering. “You’re right, I understand that my father doesn’t care about me. What else is new? But I don’t care what he says, I do have power. I am a witch and I might not be as powerful as Sarah, but I can do something. I can stick up for my friends,” she said looking around the small group of people and trying to smile. She looked at Lash for an extra moment before turning back to Zane. “I’m staying Zane. I want to help.”

Agnes reached over and hugged Charlie, making her squeak in surprise. Gretchen and Sarah smiled at each other and Sarah felt her heart lighten a few more notches.

“Then that leaves you Race.” Zane said and turned around to stand in front of Sarah’s father.

Sarah’s mouth opened in surprise and she looked at Zane questioningly. Zane glanced at her quickly and shook his head. She closed her mouth and looked back at her father. Race Livingston wasn’t the same man he had been yesterday. Yesterday Race had been strong, in control and had purpose and drive. Today, Race looked ashen, weak and hopeless. Sarah felt her heart constrict sickly at the thought of her father leaving her. She had just come to know him and love him. She didn’t want him to abandon her now.

Race raised his head and looked at Zane despondently. “It’s very heroic of everyone to want to stay and help my daughter, but you have to know that you will die if you stay. Charles came close to killing me today. And that was with just one look. If he can do that to me, then you have to understand that he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy you all just like he would a bug under his shoe. You’re all idiots if you stay. Gretchen, you need to go. You need to take your mother and your son and everyone else and you need to go right now, this very hour. I’ll stay with Sarah. I’ll spend this last month with her. It’s my duty as her father. But at the end of the month, I think the wisest thing to do would be for Sarah to end things herself. If Charles attains her power, this world will never be the same. I can’t let that happen,” he said, his voice sounding shaky and rusted.

Sarah gasped and clutched her throat. “You would kill me yourself? Dad!
Are you serious?
” she whispered staring at her father. His eyes weren’t just helpless she could see. He had completely given up.

The whole room was deathly silent as they waited for Race to answer his daughter. Race looked away from her beseeching eyes and refused to answer. Sarah shook her head silently and looked down at her hands now clenched in her lap. Opening your heart to loving someone, meant that they had the right to hurt you. And knowing that her father wanted her to give up, and give up her very life, hurt worse than anything she had ever felt before.

Sarah felt a strange hum in the room and looked up to see Zane shooting off sparks as he continued to stand in front of her father. Her eyes widened as she realized Zane was so furious he was vibrating with it.

“You’re saying that Sarah should kill herself and that if she won’t,
you will
. Did we hear you right?” Zane asked in a soft voice that sounded deadly.

Race must have felt the energy or heard the fury in Zane’s voice because he finally looked up and sat up straighter as he faced the powerful witch in front of him.

“That’s right,” he finally said, looking and sounding as if he had made up his mind.

“Well, it’s good to know where we stand. It looks like it’s time for you to leave Race. Go find a dark corner to live the rest of your life in. When I was investigating you when we moved to Pennsylvania you had a whole room covered in pictures of your daughter. You were content to just sit back and watch her from a distance. You didn’t do one thing to be a part of her life. Now, you’re content to end that life because you’re too scared or too weak to fight for her.
Leave then.
Get out of here. Charles doesn’t care about you anyway. Go back to your dark corners and your life in the shadows,” Zane said, biting out his words, so furious, that his hands were clenched at his sides.

Race stared at him without expression for a moment before standing up so fast his chair went flying behind him, crashing into the wall. He growled, his face turning red with anger.

“I stayed out of Sarah’s life to protect her from something like this happening. Don’t judge me. And don’t think just because you’re her boyfriend that gives you the right to call the shots around here,” Race said, his nostrils flared and his fingers turning bright with energy.

Sarah shook her head and stood up, moving between her father and Zane. She reached back with one hand to clasp Zane’s hand and pushed soothing energy into his body trying to ease his anger. Race had no choice but to switch his gaze from Zane to hers. He had trouble meeting her eyes, but she stared at him until he did. He looked guilty and defeated.

“No one has the right to call an end to my life. I don’t care if you’re my father or not. If that’s the way you feel, then Zane’s right. You need to go. I need to be surrounded by people who care about me and who will help me find a solution to this mess. You’re not calling the shots here anymore. I want you to leave.”

Race’s anger immediately disappeared as he stared helplessly at his daughter. He reached out to take her hand in his, but she moved out of his way. He looked down at his feet for a moment and then looked up, staring into her eyes.

“Would you choose your life over everyone’s here Sarah? Would you choose your life over countless other witches who will suffer when Charles takes on your power? I know it sounds horrible, but it’s the selfless thing to do Sarah. It’s the right thing to do, as horrific as it sounds. If I could take your place and give up my life for yours, I would. But it’s you he wants. And he will stop at nothing to get you, no matter who he has to kill to do it. Don’t you understand that?”

Sarah’s mouth opened to speak, but she was pushed gently out of the way by Lash. Lash turned and shook his head at her. Zane gently grasped her arms and pulled her back away from Lash and her father.

Lash turned back to face Race. “
Stop it
. Don’t you say one more word to guilt Sarah into killing herself. Don’t you dare say one more word to rationalize your plan to murder her yourself. We’ve already agreed that we want to fight to save her. Sarah is good and strong and beautiful. She’s worth fighting for. And if you can’t see that, then you’re worse than Charles Langford. He’s willing to fight for her. But you won’t even try. Zane is right. Get out,” he said, pointing to the front door.

Race’s lips were clamped in a tight line as he stared expressionlessly at the dark young man in front of him. He looked over Lash’s shoulder at Gretchen, but she looked away in disappointment. He turned and looked at Agnes and Charlie too, but they both looked away from him.

“I’m only trying to do the right thing here. For everyone,” he said almost pleadingly.

Sarah felt sick to her stomach and turned away from her father to hide her face in Zane’s shoulder.

“You’re choosing the easy way out Race,” Zane said quietly.

Lash walked over to the front door and opened it silently, staring at Race. Race’s eyes glittered at Lash and Zane but he walked quietly toward the front door and turned back to stare at his daughter one last time before walking out the door.

Lash shut the door softly and leaned up against the hard wood, lowering his head to stare at his feet sadly.

Sarah reached her hands around Zane’s back, grasping his shirt in her hands as she sobbed quietly into his chest. Zane rubbed her back soothingly as he sent warm pulses of energy throughout her body to calm her.

Agnes and Charlie both put their arms around Gretchen as she cried softly into her hands. Race hadn’t just walked out on Sarah. He had walked out on everyone. Even the woman who loved him.

Zane stared miserably at his mother as he continued to hold Sarah. “Mom, you could go with him. No one would judge you for going. We all know you love him.”

Gretchen wiped her face with the tissue Agnes handed her and shook her head as she tried to smile at her son. “No Zane. My most important job in this world is being a mother. And you and Sarah both need one now. I don’t understand why Race is doing what he’s doing, but I can love him without agreeing with him or condoning what he’s doing.”

Agnes patted her daughter on the back and nodded her head briskly. “You are one strong woman Gretchen. I raised you right,” she said and kissed her on the cheek.

Charlie stared in awe at everyone around her and shook her head. “This is what it means to be a family. What just happened here, right? I mean, my father turned his back on me and Sarah’s father turned his back on her, but you guys are willing to stand up for her no matter what. That’s what I want. I want a family like that.
I’m in
. Whatever this is, I want it,” she said, her face breaking out into a pretty smile.

Lash laughed and smiled at her across the room. “You and me both. We’ve made our own little tribe here. We’re all messed up, strange and non-related, but we’re a family now and we take care of each other. So now what? How do we protect our family?”

Sneak Peak at Book 1 in The Taming The Wolf Trilogy, Werewolf Dreams

Chapter 1 – Summer Vacation

Ava hopped out of her father’s army green jeep and stared around the depressing little valley. She pulled her long, wavy dark blond hair back and twisted it into a knot. She winced at what she saw. Nothing but trees, abandoned vacation cottages and a small lake. If there was ever a setting for a horror movie, this was it. This was how she was going to spend her last summer before college? Ugh. She sighed and then smiled quickly as her father glanced at her suspiciously.

“Ava? Something wrong?” he asked.

Harry Paskell didn’t look like the typical single father. He looked like he was only about ten years older than her when in fact he was forty-three. He wore a white button up shirt open at the neck with tan cargo shorts. His high tech running shoes were his only nod to his wealth. Everything else screamed poor college student. His dark, golden brown hair waved back from his forehead, showing a handsome, austere face that her friends assured her was gorgeous.

Ava tried to smooth out her features but her dad was on to her. He’d always been able to sense even her slightest changes in mood. It was kind of annoying. Being a teenage girl with a dad who could practically read her mind was awkward to say the least.

“Well, you said that we’d be spending the summer together and helping your friend Tobias investigate a crime. This isn’t what I pictured in my head. When you said Canada, I was thinking ski resort. You know, with um . . . people. There’s no one here,” she said, pointing at the eerily quiet valley.

Harry grimaced and glanced behind him. “It is a little deserted feeling. It’s called Wolf Song Lake. It’s named for all the wolves that populate this area. I spent a lot of time here as a boy,” he said wistfully as he shaded his eyes.

Ava glanced at the lake curiously now. Her father never talked about his childhood or past. Interesting. She glanced around curiously. “Wolf Song Lake. What a pretty name for such a creepy place. I’d love to see a real wolf in the wild. Remember those dreams I used to have all the time when I was a kid about that beautiful light brown wolf running wild?”

Harry frowned and looked at her piercingly for a moment before smiling. “How could I forget? You had that dream constantly. Your bedroom walls were covered with drawings of wolves.”

Ava smiled, remembering her childhood obsession. “Soon taken over by my obsession with soccer. Followed by karate, followed by soft-ball, followed by gymnastics. Yeah, I’d like to move on to socializing for my new hobby if you don’t mind.”

Harry’s eyes warmed and he smiled at her “Don’t worry. I know you’ll see at least one person today out here. Tobias told me he’d send someone out to meet us and show us around, so I can guarantee you’ll be meeting someone soon.”