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“I guess that would be for the best, wouldn’t it?” I finally said. “I could settle down with some warlock who doesn’t really love me. Make do.”
Make do without you. The man who should love me.
“You don’t know that he wouldn’t love you,” Jack said, and that knife twisted just a little more inside my heart. From the periphery, I could see that he at least looked somewhat pained as he said the words.
“Maybe,” I continued, “if I went somewhere else, you could at least have a real life.”
“Claire, you know that’s not what I’m saying.”
“Isn’t it? If I disappeared from Mystic Springs, you could finally move on. No more worrying about the obligation that is me. The one who was thrust upon you. Maybe you could find your real mate. One who wouldn’t be so problematic. One who you didn’t feel you had to chase after all the time because of your stupid sense of justice.”
Fire raged through my body, and I did my best to calm it.
“Let me tell you something, Jack Beaumont. I release you from worrying about me anymore. Understand? I have no intention of being an albatross around your neck any longer. Forget me, Officer Friendly. I won’t get in your way any longer.”
He was now white-knuckling the wheel. I was surprised he wasn’t bending the thing with the steel grip he currently had on it. I could feel the raw energy pulsing through him. That dark magic that an alpha warlock sometimes pulled on when he was angry. When something he cared about was threatened.
I couldn’t stop the laugh that burbled out of me.
“What are you laughing at?”
In the past, all my potions and spells would have been no match for the forceful voice he was using. And I knew that he always sensed when that physical part of the bond bled through. When my pussy would grow slick just from his nearness. His nostrils would flare. His pupils would grow large just as they had that day in the cabin.
I’d always held onto those little things. Little signs that maybe, just maybe, someday, he would finally give in to the bond between us and take me and make me his.
Now? I knew it was nothing. It was just the natural reaction of an unmated warlock to what he perceived as being an unmated witch.
Joke was on him. I’d always be his witch, whether or not he wanted me. It would be my pain to bear. And someday, I might see him with a witch that he actually wanted. And maybe then the pain would be enough to do me in.
“I’m amused that I ever actually thought you gave a fuck about me, Jack. Now? Now I realize it was all just some messed up sense of right and wrong.”
“Claire, you damn well know I care about you,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the Witch Gazette.
“You care about everyone, Jack. You’re not a bad warlock. You’re just not my warlock.”
And with that, I opened the door quickly and ran from the car, bolting into the Gazette and leaving Jack behind.
* * *
With all thehubbub surrounding Darla’s disappearance and my fight with Jack, I’d nearly forgotten that I had to pick Maggie up from school. The thought that I’d nearly been late to pick up my little sister while there were warlocks out and about abducting young witches made my stomach churn.
Maggie was only fifteen and didn’t yet have her own vehicle. For now, I considered that a blessing. As long as I didn’t stupidly forget to pick her up as I’d almost done today, I could at least keep an eye on her.
Hopefully.
As I sat in the parking lot of Mystic Springs High School, I watched as young girls, the same age as Darla - the same age as Maggie - filed out of the small building. Mystic Springs High only had a student body of 600 and only about 10 percent of those were witchkind. Despite the small number of witches in the school, I knew there were still enough witches that the school would present a prime hunting ground for anyone wanting to abduct an unmated witch. A young, unmated witch like Darla.
Young, unmated witches like I had been.
The thought caused a trickle of unease to slither up my spine. I began noting every car, every person on the lot. The school had a decent amount of security around it and there had been no incidents on the school grounds as far as I knew. Still, I couldn’t shake the unease I felt as I watched the kids coming out of the school. Soon, I’d make a point of discussing putting up more magical protections around the school with Cavanaugh. He liked to control the town, but I also knew he had a sense of honor that came with that control. I knew I could count on him to make sure that there was sufficient magical security there.
My sigh of relief filled the car as I watched Maggie step outside the front doors of the school. She turned, seeing my car waiting for her. Even as she approached the car, I expected some big, burly warlock to materialize from behind a shrub and abscond with my sister.
Our parents had been a true mate bond. They’d been together for well over 200 years before they’d had me. I had several older siblings who had scattered to the wind. I knew each of them fairly well and we kept in touch, but we weren’t close.
Maggie, however, had been born only a decade after me. I’d watched her grow from an infant to the awkward teenager she was now. It made me feel a little more protective of her. When I’d been a preteen and Maggie had still been a baby, I’d often behaved more like a mother to her than a big sister. I’d coddled her and loved her from the moment Mom and Dad had brought her home.
That bond between us had often meant that we could usually feel when the other one wasn’t on their game.
