Mother May I (Knight Games Book 4) (17 page)

I swallowed, afraid to ask. “What kind of witch is she?”

“The water variety, I believe. New witch. Called after the untimely destruction of the last by the hands of a demon. Barely casting her first spells, I’ve heard. Nothing to worry about.”

I turned that news over in my head. A new witch might be easier to convince than Kendra. “What town did you say she was in?”

“She’s the Mount Coffin witch, in Longview, Washington.”

“Mount Coffin?”

“Skillute burial ground. Old dead there. She’ll be powerful when she comes into her own.”

“Thank you. Maybe I’ll stop by and welcome her into the sisterhood.” I linked my fingers behind my head and lay back in the soft moss.

The sprite laughed. “I’m sure she’d like that. Oh!” I startled when she shrieked and retreated into her tree. Searching the forest, I found the source of her fear. A few yards away, Rick leaned against a tree, watching me.

“It’s all right,” I called to the sprite’s bark. “He’s my caretaker.”

She didn’t respond verbally, but above me, a tiny feather of light drifted down, and then another. I caught one in my palm. A seed with a dandelion-soft umbrella of fuzz that caught the slightest breeze. Another and another drifted over me in the moonlight. I smiled at Rick. “Looks like she’s making it snow for us.”

“I was worried about you,” he said.

“About me? I can take care of myself.”

He approached and lowered beside me, resting his back against the mighty tree trunk. “Why should you have to?”

I smiled at the thought that Rick felt responsible for me. We’d come a long way these past weeks. “It was rude of me to leave everyone waiting in the car, but I needed…”

“To be among your element. Fresh air, growing things.” He ran his hand over the moss between us.

“Exactly.”

“You were always this way. Isabella had a name for every plant in the woods and its purpose. She would just as well swim in the pond than take a proper bath, and the stars were her favorite canopy.”

“I’m not Isabella, Rick,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t have those memories.”

“And I don’t have the memories you have of me. I know you are not Isabella, but it seems we remain the same people we were to each other.”

I turned on my side and trailed my fingers over the back of his hand. “How do you mean?”

“You were brave and strong then, and you are brave and strong now.” He wrapped his arms around his knees and stared up at the stars. “And I find myself haunted by you, the same as I was haunted by her.”

“Haunted? Like a spirit that needs vanquishing?”

“No. Like being alone in a room the morning after Christmas, when you can almost hear the laughter and joy that occurred the night before. Like knowing the sun is about to rise.” He licked his bottom lip. “The care of you is at the core of me. It feels like it always has been and always will be the thing that makes my heart beat and my chest rise with each breath.”

With my head propped up on my elbow, I went for broke. “Do you love me, Rick?”

Somewhere a cricket started to sing and night sounds magnified in the silence. A frog croaked, an animal scurried through the brush, a breeze rustled the leaves above us.

“It seems inevitable that I will love you.”

“But you don’t yet.”

“There hasn’t been enough time to know for sure.”

I lowered my head to my arm and rolled onto my back to look up at the stars. Loving me was inevitable. That was something. There was hope. If I survived all this, things might go back to normal. Presuming the Goblin Trinate didn’t shoot me, and I wasn’t obliterated by another witch. And assuming I could shed the extra element inside me, and the goddess Hecate didn’t strike me down in some other fashion. And that I was able to stay in my home, considering I’d been fired from my job. If all that came together, and Rick learned to love me again, things might be all right.

My eyes burned with my need to cry at my pitiful existence.

“I don’t love you yet, Grateful, but I hunger for you,” Rick whispered, turning from the stars to look at me. “All I can think about is touching you, the taste of your blood, the feel of your hair in my fingers.”

I froze, mentally squashing my pity party. Did he just say he wanted me? “Then why don’t you touch me?” I whispered, afraid if I said it too loudly I’d jinx the mood.

“I’m afraid.”

“Afraid you’ll shift?”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

I tugged at his arm gently. “I think I can help. I can teach you how to control it.”

He held back. I could feel him fighting our connection, struggling against his need for me.

“You don’t wish to wait?” He swallowed. “For love? For marriage?”

I shook my head. My voice was thick as pinesap and desperate. “I can’t, Rick. I need you. I need you too much.”

Chapter 21

Bom Chicka Wah Wah

I
f there had been any doubt or hesitancy on his part about being with me, I couldn’t sense it through our connection anymore. Perhaps it shattered or maybe grew too thin and simply dissolved. Rick leaned over and kissed me, a soft, lingering kiss that made my heart dance. I wrapped both arms around his neck and rolled, scooping my knee under his hip and coaxing his body on top of me. He propped himself on his elbows, cradling my head in his hands.

His kiss grew more fervent. I dug my fingers beneath the hem of his shirt and worked my way to his chest. He groaned into my mouth and broke from the kiss just long enough for me to pull the shirt over his head. My shirt came off next and was a brutal reminder of my filthy state. The cotton was stiff with seawater. My hair was a wild, tangled nest, and I was sure I stunk like seaweed and ocean.

Rick, on the other hand, smelled as he always did—like the night. Rain, cedar, honeysuckle. He had a layered and complex scent that oozed from his skin. I couldn’t get enough. I went to work on the fly of his jeans, struggling with the button until he helped me. My hands shook with need. He might as well have been made of heroin; my addiction was complete.

When I touched him, my hand worked between our pressed bodies. His kiss deepened and struck blood. His jaw had elongated, and his fangs had dropped, the beast rising to the surface. He pulled back and licked his lips.

“Shhh,” I said. “It’s okay. I can handle him.” I ran fingers through his hair and stroked the back of his head. “Relax.” Closing my eyes, I focused on our connection. Where I’d been anxious to bring about Rick’s first shift, this time I pressed the beast back. Not entirely. I wanted Rick to learn to control it on his own. My interference was the equivalent of a velvet chain, a gentle reminder for the animal to remain at bay while I dealt with the man.

He sighed over me, and I opened my eyes.

“Better?” I asked.

The corner of his mouth lifted, and he answered by kissing me again. Before his memory loss, Rick would have had me naked and panting by now. I needed to remember this Rick needed time. To him, it was our first time. I rolled him onto his back and stood up to remove the rest of my clothing while he removed his. He watched me with reverence, the moonlight playing across his skin at an angle that made him half light and half dark.

Once I was naked, I stood over him, then lowered myself to my knees. I crawled up his body until I met his lips again and circled my hips over the tip of his erection. I wanted him so badly my body ached, but I wouldn’t force him.

“Are you sure?” I asked as a hint of fear came through between us. “Are you having second thoughts?”

In response, he dug his fingers into my hair and raised his hips, penetrating me. Sex with Rick was never normal or even average, but the time we’d waited to connect had rendered my senses raw. For a moment, my head spun with pleasure at the feel of him. The air thickened with power, and the forest seemed to glory in it. As I started to rise and fall above him, the branches around us grew at an unusual rate. A vine sprouted near our heads and transformed into a rose bush that bloomed in the moonlight. One singing cricket turned into five hundred. Birds or bats fluttered overhead, and the leaves around us rustled with animal visitors, attracted by the power.

I barely noticed. My entire focus was on the man under me, who tensed and relaxed as his beast fought for control.
You stay where you are
, I told the beast through our connection,
and I’ll give you a reason to behave
.

I increased my pace, propped myself on his chest and unhinged my hips. His hands coasted over my breasts, up my back, and down to cradle my thighs. The blissful edge came into view, and I pitched myself over without hesitation. He followed, shattering under me.

The skin of his neck shimmered with sweat in the moonlight, and I couldn’t resist. I struck, biting until I drew blood. Sweet ambrosia washed over my tongue. He stiffened at the bite, then relaxed, breathing deeply as I swallowed. When I’d had my fill, I lifted my torso to see him better, still straddling him hip to hip. “Was that okay?”

He looked at me from under hooded eyes and grinned like he held a sweet, dark secret. Sitting up, he pressed his chest into mine and wrapped my hair around one of his hands. “Oh yes,” he growled and struck my bared vein.

Memory or no memory, Rick was a fast learner and wickedly creative. We were together again, one body. I was confident, in time, the rest would come.

* * * * *

In the wee morning, sore and sated from unmeasured hours of lovemaking, Rick and I dressed and returned to the car. It was still dark, and I hoped to reach a motel before sunrise and find a safer place to store Julius for the day.

“It’s about time,” Polina said. She was leaning against the outside of the car next to Logan, looking decidedly pissed with her arms crossed and her familiar squawking angrily from her shoulder.

“Sorry, I, uh…”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows exactly what you were, uh, doing, Grateful. Even I could feel the power coming off you two. It was like standing at the edge of a nuclear test zone out here. Julius had to take off in the opposite direction to keep from ripping someone’s throat out. Poe and Hildegard caught up to us and kept going. Said it was overwhelming.”

“Sorry,” I said again.

“Look, I’m relieved you’re all powered up,” Polina said, “but we need a plan. We’re not safe here. Everyone’s hungry and tired. It’s time to move and come up with plan B.”

I stared at Logan. “Anything? Has your mother appeared to you at all?”

“No. Nothing.” He rubbed his chin. “I’m trying; I really am. Connections are open. She just has nothing to say to me.”

Rick placed his hands on his hips. “Perhaps the magic will return to me in time, without the angel.”

“Maybe,” I said. He did seem to be healing, but I couldn’t separate our new relationship from the last. Our connection was stronger. He had more control. Although I had no way of testing the magic within him. I called for Julius and Poe and climbed behind the wheel. A few minutes later a reluctant vampire joined us in the hearse, as did my familiar and Hildegard.

“Feeling better, oh Mistress of the Morgue?” Poe said with a low chuckle.

“I need your help, Poe. My phone is dead, and we need to find Longview, Washington.” Dead was an understatement. My phone was likely corroded with seawater beyond repair.

Poe bristled. “It’s back toward the river. Out of Kendra’s ward, I’m sure, but not beyond her power.”

“Trust me.”

Poe took to the sky. I started the car and followed.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Polina asked.

Rick threaded his fingers into mine and squeezed his support.

“Of course not,” I said. “But this is the best chance we’ve got at the moment. I’ll explain on the way.”

* * * * *

We arrived in Longview just before dawn and checked into the Red Mound motel on the edge of town. We managed to get Julius and his coffin tucked away without much notice, aside from a drunk who was sleeping near the pool. He raised eyebrows at the sight of us carrying the casket up the stairs, but if it worried him, he didn’t say anything.

Once Julius was tucked in for the day, we left a
do not disturb
sign on the door and walked to a Trader’s Waffle House down the street. Over fluffy Belgian waffles covered in chunky blueberry-peach syrup, Polina finally challenged my plan.

“The tree sprite said the witch was new, not that she was dumb. She’s going to question your motives.”

“Not if we’re convincing. We show up at her door offering to help her train—to take her under our wing. It’s better that there are two of us. We can say we are interested in a sisterhood, a support group.”

Logan took a deep swig of his coffee. “If she’s new, she’s probably weak. You two should just take her. Throw a potato sack over her head and get the job done.”

“Logan!” I said. “We can’t kidnap her. Gah, you’re starting to sound like Julius.”

“Why can’t you kidnap her? Temporarily. Not to hurt her but to force her to do the spell.”

“Well, I’m sure she has to participate willingly,” I said.

Polina shook her head. “Not as far as I know. I’m pretty sure if you are touching her and she’s breathing, the two of us should be able to draw on her element. If she’s struggling, she could make it difficult, but we could drug her.”

“Oh.” I paused, considering the possibilities.

Rick, who was pretending to enjoy a cup of coffee despite the fact he didn’t need to ingest normal food, looked at me through the corner of his eye.

“What do you think?” I asked him.

In that quiet and dark way that I’d come to love about him, Rick met my eyes and said, “I do not believe you are the type of person to guarantee making an enemy when there is hope of making a friend.”

Logan turned toward Polina, raised his coffee mug, and lowered his chin. In a serious, Rick-mocking voice, he said, “I do not believe you are the type of witch to turn down an invitation for beers and hot-tubbing when there’s a perfectly good hot tub back at the motel.”

Polina dropped her fork and started laughing.

“Just checking if bullshit works on all your kind or just her.” He pointed his mug at me.