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As soon as Maggie slid into the car, she turned to me. “What did he do today?”
I laughed. Maggie had often joked about cursing Jack with some sort of spell that ensured his cock would only get hard for me. She might be my baby sister, but she was still as bawdy as any other teen her age.
I’d never told Maggie everything that had happened the day that I’d presented for Jack. She didn’t know about the painful heat that had followed. Nor did she know how they’d taken me to that unmarked wing of the hospital for witches who were in the throes of a violent heat. I’d relegated most of those memories to the back recesses of my mind and, besides, Maggie didn’t need to know all the ugly details.
My policy - as was the policy of our parents - was to keep Maggie aware of the things that could go wrong so she could remain safe, but to allow me to keep some of that painful experience to myself.
And I certainly never wanted her to know what I had done to those warlocks in order to escape. I never wanted Maggie to look at me as something to be feared.
Motioning for her to buckle her seatbelt, I negotiated our way out of the parking lot and onto the highway that led back to Mystic Springs proper.
“Wasn’t Jack this time, I’m afraid,” I said. That wasn’t exactly true. I was still smarting from my conversation with Jack, but in the scheme of things, my argument with Jack paled in comparison to what was happening with Darla Randall.
“Alright then, why do you look constipated?”
Biting back a smile, I told her nearly everything. She didn’t need all the gritty details, but she deserved to know as much of the truth as possible. I had no intention of keeping Maggie ignorant. Because when there weren’t warlocks out there trying to force breed us, there were still zealots and witchhunters. Keeping someone ignorant of the surrounding danger only made them more vulnerable to it.
“I know Darla,” Maggie said after I’d told her everything fit to tell. “We don’t have any classes together, but I see her around. We’ve always been nice to each other. Because, you know.”
Because they were both witches.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Maggie asked.
“I hope so. You haven’t noticed anyone acting weird at school, have you? Anyone other than Matthew, that is.”
Maggie squirmed at the mention of Matthew Trenwith. He was a young warlock with a penchant for bullying Maggie. I’d once mentioned the boy in passing to Jack and had to stop him from going to the boy’s house and putting the fear of the Gods into him.
Just more proof that his constant vigilance over me was nothing more than his propensity for wanting to take care of people who he felt needed his protection. That should have been a warning sign. A sign that I was reading too much into his constant awareness of my movements, but I’d wanted so badly to believe I was special to him.
“Claire?”
I turned to glance at Maggie. She furrowed her brow in thought. No doubt sensing my melancholy.
“Sorry,” I said, turning my smile on, perhaps a little too brightly. “Just thinking. So, anyone acting weird?”
“If you mean is anyone acting like they’re going to steal me away and force me to have some old warlock’s babies, then no. And it’s not like anyone pays attention to me, anyway. I’m plain and uninteresting.”
At that, my hands clenched the steering wheel, a perfect imitation of how Jack had done so earlier. “That is absolutely not true.”
I snuck a glance at her face again. She was looking out at the scenery passing us by. Whoever this Trenwith kid was, he’d done a number on my sweet little sister if she actually believed that.
For a moment, I considered calling up Jack and taking him up on the offer to go over to the kid’s house and scare the hell out of him. It would be far less than what I would do to the kid.
And he would likely come out of it more unscathed with Jack than he would with me.
Maybe.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Maggie turn to me and smile. A sad little smile that was much too world-weary for someone her age. Being a witch had its perks, but it was also a pretty hefty burden to bear.
“I’ll be fine, Claire,” Maggie said, and she sounded so much like our mom that I had to do a double-take. “And hopefully, Darla will be, too.”
* * *
I’d hadno intention of going to the book club meeting that night. I hadn’t been to a meeting in months. I still found it laughable that they pretended they were actually gathering to discuss books.
In truth, it was closer to a coven meeting, if coven meetings consisted of witches bickering, sharing gossip, and discussing all the warlocks in town. I’d much rather be at home, nursing my wounds after my argument with Jack and going over all the notes I’d assembled regarding Darla’s disappearance. But there was the possibility that the gossip at the book club might come in handy. Witches could be notoriously nosy. Particularly Rainbow Carmichael, who, as far as I knew, had never missed a meeting.
The meetings cycled through the houses of the various regulars. This time, the meeting was taking place at Blanche Mooney’s house, a two-story suburban house right at the edge of the downtown area. It was only September, but Blanche had already decorated her lawn for the Halloween season. A giant spider perched on a shrub near the front porch and I shivered at the sight of it.
