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Chapter Twenty-Five
Jack
Resurfacing from Claire’s heat-induced fog was like returning from a long, dreamlike vacation. I didn’t want to return to reality. I now knew what her skin felt like, tasted like. Knew how damned intoxicating it was to be inside her.
Once she was well enough to go back into work, I drove her to the Gazette offices, dropping her off like a dutiful husband. It all felt so normal and right. I wanted to believe this could be real. Finally, perhaps fate would allow me to realize the possibility that I could be Claire’s true mate after all.
Not once during her heat did I doubt she was my mate.
But there were still those questions that I needed answered. Specifically, I needed to know what had been in the drug they’d given to Claire that first time. And then I needed to know how it differed from the drug they had given her the other day.
When I’d called Sebastian, I’d found out that he wasn’t at the ice cream parlor office where he usually held court. Instead, he was at the place he kept on the outskirts of town. The place the human cops knew nothing about and only some of the witchkind around the area were aware of. The place that, as a cop, I turned a blind eye to its existence.
Sebastian’s Devil’s Den, as those who knew of it referred to it, was a glorified fighting club. Warlocks from all over came to the club to try their hands at besting Sebastian or his goons he kept on the payroll. The club was located in a boring-looking barn that was situated a good half-mile away from the highway that led out of Mystic Springs.
From the outside, the barn was deceptively boring. Once inside, it was tricked out with the latest amenities, technology, and, of course, a large fighting ring in the center of the cavernous barn.
When I stepped inside, I found Sebastian watching two of his warlocks fight one another. He clenched his jaw. I wasn’t sure what demons Sebastian was running from, but it seemed he was the happiest when he was in the ring fighting or brawling some place in town. While he was standing on the sidelines at the moment, the tension in his body said that he’d rather be fighting. From the looks of his bloody knuckles, he’d already spent some time in there this morning.
Sebastian was usually immaculately dressed. Right now, he was down to his dress slacks and a white button-down, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
He was so focused on the fight before him that he didn't realize I was approaching. When he finally saw that it was me, his eyes widened.
“Devil’s nutsack. You finally did it.”
I growled. As happy as the past few days with Claire had made me, I didn’t want to share any part of it with anyone else. Especially Sebastian Cavanaugh.
Sebastian held up his hands.
“Settle down. I don’t want you going all alpha warlock on me like you did the last time I made the mistake of bringing her up.”
“At least you realize it was a mistake now.”
“Lesson learned,” Sebastian said. “But I have to ask why the hell you are here with me and not with your mate.”
Blood rushed to my cock at hearing Claire being referred to as my mate. Suddenly, the only thing I wanted was to have her back in my arms again and bury myself deep inside her.
Pushing the need aside, I concentrated on my task. I reached into my jacket pocket and withdrew the broken syringe that Claire had confiscated from the cabin.
“Without going into too much detail, I got my hands on this.”
Sebastian whistled, then nodded toward the stairway to the side of the barn that led to the loft offices he kept at the club.
Sebastian’s office at the Devil’s Den, unlike the one that sat over the ice cream parlor, was rustic-looking. However, the space was also larger. Sebastian had outfitted the office with a massive desk. Behind the desk, Sebastian kept a large, glass-fronted shelf with numerous magical items inside. I didn’t doubt that the shelf was locked and bolted and, likely, Sebastian had ponied up the cash for a magical alarm system on the thing as well.
“This is what they were going to give to Darla Randall,” I said. Sebastian knew about Darla and Taryn’s rescue. While I’d not gone into detail about what had happened to Claire with him earlier, he knew that the two witches had returned to their families. I hadn’t explained what had kept me from relaying more information for so long, only giving him the excuse that I needed to be out of pocket for a few days. Something in my voice must have kept him from pressing me any further when I’d called him.
“They said she was promised to another warlock already,” I continued, “but that warlock was nowhere to be found.”
Sebastian huffed. “I have my thoughts about that.”
“I’m listening.”
Sebastian sank into the plush office seat behind his desk.
“There’s a huge warlock Traditionalist conference in Budapest going on this week,” he began. “No doubt, they’re wheeling and dealing this stuff right now. And likely making plans for the next witches they plan to abduct, zeroing in on communities like Mystic Springs with a concentrated number of young, fertile witches.”
I mulled over the thought that more witches would be abducted in the town soon. Would their operations become less archaic? If they got more sophisticated in their methods, Mystic Springs could have a real problem on its hands. I would need to tell Claire everything later. That I could go home and talk to her about this as if she was my mate nearly made me smile. Had it not been for the seriousness of my conversation with Sebastian, I most likely would have.
