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“He’ll think that anyway. He’s not the most trusting werewolf on the reservation right now, but we can work on that.”
“No, we can’t. Leave the man alone.”
She raised her eyebrows at me, the amusement on her lips growing. “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.”
“Belle,” I warned.
She laughed and slapped me lightly on the shoulder. “I’m just joking. I mean, when have I ever interfered with your social life?”
“There was that time in Nerang—”
“You would have been old and gray before that man got up the nerve to ask you out.”
“And then there was Jake, in Coolangatta—”
“The surfer.” She sighed. “He was absolutely delicious, I agree, but he unfortunately had a stable of at least six others, and he never had any intention of getting serious.”
“Too bad if unserious was all I actually wanted.”
“The day you do casual is the day your father comes groveling on his hands and knees to beg forgiveness for his treatment of you.” She moved past me. “In many respects, you and Karen have similar issues.”
I hadn’t really thought about that, but it was—rather sadly—true. Like her, I was ultimately seeking the love I’d never really had as a child. But for me, it didn’t come in the form of a father figure, but rather someone who would accept me as I was, with all my faults, and love me regardless.
It was, apparently, a very large ask.
I walked into the reading room, collected the backpack, and began gathering a selection of potions and salt mixtures, one of the remaining bottles of holy water, and Belle’s silver kni
fe. While I risked Aiden confiscating it as he had mine, it was better that than being without some form of physical weapon. Sometimes, evil simply didn’t give you the time to develop a spell or use a potion.
With everything gathered, I grabbed a pair of silk gloves from of one of the drawers and pulled them on. While the foul vibes of wrongness rolling off the watch still made my skin crawl, the sensation was muted enough that I could hold it without my stomach rolling too alarmingly.
By the time I returned to the café, Aiden was waiting for me—and he had one of Belle’s potions in hand.
“She wants me to drink this.” He was studying the concoction with a whole lot of trepidation. “And she won’t say what’s in it.”
“Sometimes it’s best not to ask.” I accepted mine with a nod of thanks and tried to ignore the awful smell coming from it. “It’s also best to drink it quickly, without drawing in the scent.”
Which was what I did. He watched me with narrowed eyes, as if waiting for me to keel over. I smiled. “If Belle’s intention was to either poison or spell you, Aiden, she wouldn’t need a noxious-smelling drink to do so. It really is just a potion to boost your strength, as she said.”
He hesitated a moment longer, then downed it in several quick gulps. A shudder ran through him. “God, that stuff is as foul as it smells.”
“She does it deliberately, I’m sure.” I glanced at her. “I’ll be back by sunset.”
She nodded. “Be careful. Both of you.”
We left the café. Once on the pavement, I paused and cracked open my psi senses just enough to get some hint of location. It tugged me left again.
“Are we walking or driving?” Aiden fell in step beside me. “Because my truck is nearby.”
I hesitated. “Walking, I think. I am getting a signal from the watch, but I risk overwhelming my senses if I open the gate too much.”
“So the hellish feel of the thing remains very much present?”
“Yes.”
“Which means I should be able to scent him as we get closer.”
“Possibly. It would depend on where he’s being kept and what sort of spells surround the area.”
