AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isn’t that convenient? Your absence nearly got us both killed.
It’s not as though you use me, anyway,it snaps back, angrily.You’d much rather cling to this pathetic notion that you can come calling whenever you need me. That is not how this works.
Wrong. That’s exactly how this works.
You are nothing but a host, witch. I can find another. Should you continue to deny me, I will find another. Perhaps that other witch friend of yours? She is very powerful. We could do great things together.
Delaney.No. She will never allow you inside.
You foolish, foolish girl. There is no choice. There is never a choice. Just as shadows move within the realm with nothing to keep them at bay, so do I. Should I choose a new host, I will gladly leave you to die.
Eyes wide, I stare at the wall across from me, and for the first time since I took the power in, I’m genuinely concerned. Can it do that? Just randomly choose to leave me and jump into someone else?
By being here, am I putting all those I aim to save at risk?
There’s a knock at the door, so I make sure I’m fully covered before calling out, “Come in.”
“You had better have a damn good reason, girl.” Winnifred McCallen rushes in, wearing a pale pink dress that matches the color in her aging cheeks.
Guilt washes over me, and I wish I could sink down and disappear into the drain. I knew I’d be scaring her by leaving, but I hadn’t realized she’d be so pissed. “I’m so sorry, Winnie. I had to go. Just for a little while.”
“You had to go. Shehadto go, she says!” She shakes her head angrily at me. “You left. No letter, no explanation. Just disappeared into thin air and left me sitting in an empty house with no knowledge as to whether you were alive or dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
Unshed tears glisten in her eyes as she stares back at me. “Then I find you here, beaten half to death.”
“I wasn’t beaten half to death.”
“No? Have you not looked in a mirror?”
“No, I guess I didn’t.”
“Well, maybe you should.” She shakes her head again and turns away from me for a moment. “You need to be countin’ your lucky stars you have a vampire around willing to let you have blood. Otherwise, you’d be good as bloody dead.”
“I’m really sorry,” I repeat.
She whirls on me. “You should be, Bronywyn Walsh. You absolutely should be sorry for leaving everyone you care about that way.”
“You don’t understand—”
“Understand what? That you saved Elijah and, by doing so, damned yourself? Please. I may not be supernatural, but I have ears, girl, and they hear everything.”
The door opens, and Rainey strolls in, wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and her shoulder holster. “Hey, Winnie.”
The greeting is so casual, even a little sweet, that it gives me a hint as to who filled the older human woman in on what’s been going on. “Didn’t realize my bath time was public.”
“Chill the fuck out before you blow a shadow. I’m only here to bring you this.” She sets a tiny medicine cup containing some pills on the edge of the tub alongside a bottle of water.”
“What is this?”
“Something for the pain.” Instead of leaving, she props herself up on the back of the toilet and watches expectantly. “Elijah took the amulet to your house to give Magnolia a chance at cracking a location spell.”
“I don’t need meds.”
“Figured you’d say that, so here’s the deal. You either take the ibuprofen, or I’m going to cram it down your ungrateful throat.”
I glare at her, my magic still gone, but my temper on point. “Why the fuck does it matter if I take it or not?”
