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Wilder had seen me use magic before, but up until now Cash had believed the only supernatural thing about me was my werewolf blood. He’d had no clue I was also a hereditary witch on my grandmother’s side. That power had skipped my mother, Mercy, and bypassed Secret as well, but I’d gotten it with the force of a Bruce Lee punch to the sternum.
When I turned thirteen, I came into my witch power and my werewolf birthright at the same time. I hadn’t been able to control the magic when I shifted, and after leveling several of Callum’s buildings, I left. I retreated into the bayou with my great-grandmother, in order that I might learn to harness my powers without harming anyone.
As it turned out, I did learn to control myself, but I also learned more efficient ways to hurt others.
Or, like now, how to protect them.
I was powerful in ways I didn’t like to let people see, because being a wolf made me target enough. Having the public know I was a were-witch would not help make us seem less scary to humankind. Have you met Genie? She can turn into a wolf and also explode things with the power of her mind.
Yup, no one would be scared of that or anything.
The expressions on Cash’s and Tansy’s faces told me I’d been right to keep the witch part of myself on the DL. Wilder, who knew what I was, only looked impressed. And a bit unnerved, but I figured that had more to do with what we’d just seen than my use of a little magic.
“What the hell, Genie?” Cash demanded. He’d pushed Tansy behind him, and she was peering around his back at me like I’d grown horns.
“You didn’t think some warning would have been useful?” I snarled back. “I might have reconsidered going in there if I knew a fucking demon was crawling around.”
Tansy went ash gray, her fingers balling in Cash’s shirt. “D-did you s-say…” Her voice drifted off into nothing, as though she couldn’t manage to say the dreaded d-word.
“Demon,” I said for her.
I had no doubt whatsoever that’s what had been staring down at me from the ceiling of Laura and Heidi’s room. I’d never actually seen a demon in person, and there were a bunch of things in the world scarier than vampires and werewolves, but even I knew that monster wasn’t a fae.
Fae had a particular smell to them, something like magic and fear all wrapped up in one.
The creature in the bedroom hadn’t smelled like anything.
It would have slipped away unnoticed if I hadn’t looked up.
Whatever the demon was, it was something I was wholly unprepared to deal with.
So naturally, I was the only one who could help.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tansy said.
I looked at Cash hopefully, but he was shaking his head. “Are you sure it’s not a ghost? How can you know it’s a demon if you can’t see it?”
“Can’t…” I tried to process what he was saying. They’d been standing outside the doorway, and they had a clear view right into the room. Yet they were both acting like I was the one overreacting. “You guys seriously didn’t see anything?” I was shifting my attention between Cash and Tansy, wondering who was crazier, because frankly I didn’t know how they had missed the giant spider person crawling towards Wilder and me.
Sure, I’d missed it too when I walked in, but the thing got kind of obvious when it started moving.
“Nothing,” Cash said.
I glanced at Wilder, pleading with my expression for him to confirm I wasn’t imagining things.
“Big pale guy. Spider face,” he said without me needing to ask.
“You locked the door because you thought it was a ghost?” I asked incredulously.
Tansy flushed. “It was throwing stuff at the sisters.”
I let my b
reath out in an exhausted whoosh.
Down the hall, the only other girl in the house had come to stand in her door, watching us with something between curiosity and fear.
“Tansy?” She pushed her black hair over her shoulder and stared at the door behind me, clearly wondering why Wilder and I were both still on the floor.
