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They were silent. Thank God!
“Is anyone hurt? Or have any trouble,” I asked and glanced around. There was a chorus of noes as my eyes fell on every one of them. When I reached Simone, she frowned, looking behind her. “Simone, what is it?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Tate asked, leaning over to her.
Now, with all of our gazes on her, she sighed. “I could have sworn I felt a vampire watching us while we were in the woods. Following and watching us. Didn’t you?”
“No,” I lied, causing her to frown more.
“Are you sure it was a vampire?” Tate asked her gently. “If Dru didn’t feel one, there is no mistake.”
Simone’s eyes narrowed on him. “Why? Because she’s so much stronger than me that I have to be the one wrong?”
“That’s not what I meant! I—”
“What else could you have possibly meant? Whatever. I know already. That’s why I didn’t bring it up,” she said.
I felt the guilt eat at me, watching her doubt the truth. It was a sign she was growing so much stronger, even with the magic that was protecting my stalker.
“Can we close now? I sort of have plans, too,” Simone asked.
I had more to say but couldn’t bring myself to say it. “Sure, if you all have nothing else to say, then I declare the end of the watch.”
“Finally,” Rue said, hopping to her feet and walking off.
“Rue, we are supposed to go in groups!” Fiona yelled as she stomped after her, and I looked up at the sky, watching it lighten for a moment.
“You coming, Dru?” Tate asked me, and I realized it was only he and I left. He wasn’t my partner for the night, but it seemed everyone had already gone ahead.
I nodded, hopping off the rock and brushing the dust from my hands.
“You’ve seemed stressed lately,” he said as we walked. “Is everything okay? Axel and the elders haven’t been giving you a hard time because of us, have they?”
“No, I haven’t been able to get much sleep. Work at the museum has piled up with all the vampires coming through the area now. I’m good.”
He didn’t look like he believed me. But then again, he’d seen me juggle the coven and university, then grad school followed by my fellowships. We were all close, and we knew when something was wrong with one another, but we did our best not to pry or get involved beyond our work as a circle. For the first time in years, the coven had allowed us proper space to live and do what we like—well, most of us.
“If you need help with Axel, let us know. Just because you are our leader doesn’t mean you have to bear everything on your own, Dru,” he reminded me.
“Thanks. I will, but I’m fine. Once I get a few more hours of rest in, and…” My words drifted as his gaze moved from me to the dark-red luxury convertible parked on the street right behind my Nightingbug, shaming it with how fancy, modern, and sleek it looked. However, Tate wasn’t looking at the cars. He was looking at the rich guy leaning against the hood of the car in his damn sweater vest, the guy Simone was happily running up to.
“What does she see in him?” Tate grumbled, his hands balling into a fist. “The magic in his family ran out before it got to him.”
“Magic isn’t everything, Tate,” I replied.
He snapped his gaze back over to me because he couldn’t bear to loo
k as she got into the car with the guy. “It should be to us. We are top of the coven, and he is barely worthy of being at the bottom.”
I grabbed his arm. “Hey, stop letting your jealously talk. It makes you sound like a jerk, and you are not a jerk.”
“Maybe I should be,” he muttered and then stepped back, shaking his head as they drove by. “Dru, I parked up ahead. I’m going to go on. See you later.”
He didn’t even give me time to reply before he took off walking toward his vintage Harley-Davidson Sportster. I waited and watched as everyone began to drive off, Faye honking at me as she drove past in her truck, Tala on her motorcycle, and I could still hear Fiona arguing with Rue.
As the sun came up, everyone tried to escape back into the “human” world, the ordinary world, where we weren’t Wiccan and tasked with the burden of saving the world. Where we were just regular people, trying to figure out relationships, work, and family. Each one of us had a love-hate relationship with magic. It was freeing, but at the same time, it felt so…heavy.
