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“I’m really wishing I had on pants right now,” Cassie murmured.
Aylia tilted her head to look at Marcus who was standing behind her. “Where’s the bag we brought her?”
His reply was to disappear from the room.
“I assume that means we left it behind,” Aylia said. “I put together some things for you. Clothes, makeup, general girl stuff. Marcus was pretty sure your visit was ah, impromptu. I included leggings since I didn’t know what size you were and a pair of boots with extra socks in case they are too big.“
Marcus popped back into the room and handed Cassie a bag with pink flowers
on it. “Better late than never.”
“Thank you,” Cassie said to both of them. “I really do appreciate this.”
“You have time to change,” Aylia said, pulling out a velvet sack from her purse. “I have a few things to set up.”
“Great,” Cassie agreed. “I’ll go do that.” She rushed towards the bathroom.
“I thought we were checking blood work?” Troy asked Marcus.
Aylia fixed Troy in a stare. “We are,” she said. “My way.”
***
Troy stood above the sitting circle that Cassie, Aylia and Marcus had formed and watched as Aylia cut her hand and let the blood pour into a pot surrounded by stones that she’d filled with all kinds of things. White smoke began to pour from the flame, and she murmured a chant.
Marcus took her hand and licked the wound, and Troy expected some sort of connection between him and the witch, but saw none. Aylia inhaled and let it out, her lashes lifting, her attention settling on Cassie who had changed into black leggings, long boots and a pink silk blouse that hugged her backside as beautifully as did the leggings. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her nipples puckered beneath the thin fabric. He’d noticed, but then, he always noticed everything about Cassie.
“I need your hand,” Aylia said to Cassie.
“Wait,” Troy said, squatting down and grabbing Cassie’s hand, not keen on magic as it was. He definitely didn’t like the idea of Cassie’s blood being used in a spell. “I thought we were going to run proper tests.”
Cassie covered her hand with his, drawing his gaze. “Let’s give her a chance to figure out the answers we haven’t so far found on our own,” she urged, staring up at him. “We both need them.”
The touch made him burn for more, riveting him with its impact. The look in her eyes tore through his heart, confirming the pain he’d caused her. He didn’t want to lose her again over the past, and he was close. So very close.
He sat down next to Cassie, crossing his legs and making sure his knee touched hers. He didn’t want to stop touching her, not ever. Marcus trusted Aylia and he trusted Marcusucs. So if he had to deal with witchcraft, then he’d deal with witchcraft.
He fixed Aylia with a direct look. “If you think whatever your doing can help solve this mystery that has become my life, then sign me up.”
“I already know the answer to what has happened to you,” she said softly, taking Cassie’s hand in hers. “I just need to prove it.” She picked up Cassie’s finger and said, “A small stick.” Cassie nodded and Aylia stuck her finger then held it over the pot. Blood trickled into the fire, and Troy felt the rise of hunger at the sight and smell. Hunger, he realized, that he had not felt when Aylia had cut herself. The smoke puffed and turned from white to blue and Aylia released Cassie’s hand, showing no emotion on her face.
Troy drew Cassie’s hand into his, suckling her finger into his mouth, his eyes locking with hers as he sealed the wound, the tiny taste of her blood searing him inside and out. The air crackled between them, a mix of tension and attraction, of unspoken words, that were long past due.
Alyia grabbed his hand and stuck his finger without warning. “Sorry but this needs to be done timely.”
Troy flinched, and not because the unexpected prick hurt. Because he wasn’t sure he was going to like whatever it was setting out to establish as fact. In fact, he was pretty darn positive he wasn’t. Truth was at the root of his pain.
The trust issue, the Sarah betrayal, those were not the truths he was fighting either. Those were simply easier monsters to face than the one inside him. The one that might hurt Cassie, which meant he could not have her.
Aylia held his hand over the fire, inside the smoke that had turned white again. The flames rushed up over his hand where it had not with Aylia and Cassie’s blood, though he felt no heat, before turning to a bright red. She released his hand and the wound sealed instantly, and he found himself locked in Marcus’s intense, dark stare, with no signs of his Warden-in-Charge’s normal humor to be found.
“What do you know that I don’t?” Troy asked Marcus.
“The reason we didn’t do a standard blood test on you both is that it tells us nothing about what caused the changes in you,” Marcus said. “And the cause is what is important.”
“It’s magic,” Cassie assumed. “A spell that was cast on Troy.”
“Yes,” Aylia confirmed. “And you’re positive for residual magic, which would come from sharing blood with Troy, which Marcus tells me has occurred.” Her gaze shifted to Troy. “You were the direct target of the magic, thus it’s powerfully alive within you.”
