Authors: Nicole Bailey
Staring at him distracted me. My heart was breaking.
Just because we were bound, didn’t mean he couldn’t be
with someone else physically.
How long has this been
going on
?
Was he pretending to be afraid of her before?
I
thought to myself. Gia was standing in front of the bed now
and threw me back down with another spell. She looked
evil as she spouted off another chant.
My brain finally started to focus, and before she could
finish, I shouted with everything I had,
Hatred and malice and anger I feel.
My insane side has been fueled by you
Vengeance is just
And you are worthy of my punishment
Feel the force of my lost pain
Feel the force of my lost anguish
Let terror haunt you
Strip all defences from you
As long as there is darkness in my heart.
Gia crumpled in front of me and collapsed on the floor.
It was like when I attacked Marco all over again.
Something dark came over me and the world disappeared. I
stood over her and closed my fist. She began to choke and
claw at her throat. She tried to fight back, but I was too
strong. After a few seconds, she passed out. I knew she
wasn’t dead because I could still hear her breathing.
I turned to Nick. “Nick, can you hear me?” I didn’t
move any closer to him. He was still silent. “Nico
Bartolini,” I shouted. He looked over at me finally, but still
gave no response. I decided to try a spell,
By the light of the moon
and the path of north
Let illness be purged
and good health flow forth
Let not this simple spell coerce
Or make your situation worse
Hear now my humble plea
As I will it, so mote it be.
As soon as I finished, Nick blinked. I ran to him and sat
down on the bed. “Nick, can you hear me?”
“What?” he finally said. I let out the breath I was
holding.
“How do you feel?” I asked him.
“Fine. Why, what’s going on?” he looked completely
clueless and I breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t cheating
on me. Well, at least not knowingly. I instantly knew that
Gia had used the force spell on him. I hoped that this was
the first time it had happened and I wasn’t too late.
“What is the last thing you remember?” I asked.
“Um…” he concentrated. “Why am I half-naked?” he
looked down. The bottom half of his body was under the
covers, but he still had his boxers on. A whole new wave of
anger came over me and I raged over to Gia on the floor.
I kicked her in the side with my boot. “Get up you
whore! Let’s finish this,” I shouted.
Nick had no idea what was going on and started to get
up. He grabbed his pants off the floor and put them on. Gia
began to stir. Nick came and stood next to me. “What is s
he
doing here? And why is she in her underwear? Oh crap,
Sof, what’s going on? What did I do?” He looked
completely horrified.
“I don’t think you did anything, yet. At least I hope not.
I walked in on you guys,” I answered.
He grabbed me by the arms and swung me to face him.
“Oh Sofia. I’m so sorry. I don’t remember anything. I was
in the living room, watching a movie, waiting for you to
come home from work. I think there was a knock at the
door, I answered it, and then… I can’t remember.” He
crushed me against him and kissed the top of my head.
I heard a laugh behind me. I turned just as Gia blasted
me with a spell. She had recovered and stood slowly. I lay
on my back on the ground. Nick was blown backward with
me and hit his head on the nightstand. I was frozen. I tried,
but couldn’t move a muscle. Gia stood over me, choking
me the way I had done to her. “I
will
have his child. And
there is nothing you can do to stop me,” she laughed at me.
I tried to gasp out a spell. Tried to calm myself and
meditate, but before I could, I saw stars and everything
went black.
I didn’t know how much later it was when I finally
woke up. I sat up slowly, my head spun, and I realized it
was throbbing in agony. I looked for Nick and he was still
on his back, a small pool of blood underneath his dark hair
on the floor. I crawled over to him and lifted his head in my
hand. “Nick! Nick, can you hear me?” I practically
screamed.
I heard a soft moan that meant that he was still alive. I
concentrated as hard as I ever had. I felt myself fill with
pure light and whispered the healing spell I used on Ky
when he hit his head on the rock in the woods. I opened my
eyes and Nick was blinking slowly. “Oh my gosh, are you
okay, Nico?”
“Mmm… I think so.” He continued to lie there.
“Don’t move. You hit your head pretty hard and lost a
lot of blood,” I told him.
“Are you okay, Bella Mia? She hit you hard. I could see
you choking, but I couldn’t move.”
“I’m fine. I passed out and my head hurts like a mother,
but I’m okay,” I assured him.
“Is she gone?” he asked.
“Yeah. I don’t know where she went, but there’s no way
we’ve seen the last of her.”
“What happened? What does she want from me? Is she
just trying to hurt you?” he wondered.
“She wants…” I didn’t want to say it out loud. I wanted
to hunt the witch down and watch her die slowly, after I
tortured her. I was a little surprised at the darkness I still
felt inside myself.
“What is it, Sofia? Tell me.”
“She wants to have your child,” I whispered.
He sat up straight with a jolt. “She wants
what
? Why
would she want my baby? Please tell me what’s going on
here.”
“The prophecy. From Nonna’s book. Remember? It said
that a child would be born from a witch mother and
werewolf father. It would be extremely special and strong
and have powers beyond our own,” I paused while I let it
sink in. “I think she wants to take over. I mean, not like
world domination or anything. But I think she wants to take
over
our
world. Like rule over the covens and packs or
something.”
“What the hell?” he was rubbing the back of his head.
“That witch is psycho! Like I would ever let that happen.”
“Uh, it almost did, Nick. You were completely under
her spell. She had complete control over you. It could
happen again. Nick, you guys were kissing,” I frowned.
“No! It will not happen again. I don’t care if I have to
come to work with you, or you have to put up wards around
the apartment, or do a protection spell over me again, or
whatever, but there’s no way I’m leaving your side. There’s
no way I will let that happen. I’m so sorry. You know I
would never…” He pulled me into his chest and squeezed
me so tightly that I lost my breath.
“Can’t… breathe…” I stuttered.
He released me just enough that I could get air, but still
wouldn’t let go. He whispered, “Oh bella Sofia. Non posso
vivere senza di te.”
“I could never live without you either, Nick. You are
my whole life. When I first came in, I thought you w
anted
to be with her.”
He took my face in his hands, looked deep into my
eyes, and whispered, “Never. How could you think that
after what just happened at Nat’s ceremony? You know
you’re the only one—forever. And, we’re bound. Would
she really have been able to pull it off?”
“Yeah,” I shivered. “Just because we can’t divorce,
doesn’t mean it’s impossible to cheat.”
He continued to stare at me. “You know I would never
do that to you, right? Our connection—I could never have
that with anyone else.”
“I know,” I reassured him. I knew he was right, but I
was still a girl, and Gia was drop dead gorgeous. So of
course I still worried. He kissed me deeply and gently
pushed me to the floor. “Your hair,” I mumbled against his
lips.
He paused kissing me and put his hand to the crusted
mess of blood on the back of his head. “Fine, but you’re
coming with me,” he smiled as he picked me up and carried
me off to the shower with him.
We eventually got out of the shower when the water ran
cold. While I was squeezing the excess water from my hair,
I said, “I need to tell Mamma what happened. We need to
get the entire coven on this. I know Gia is only one witch,
but if she gets what she wants, we’re screwed. I mean, how
do we know for sure this hasn’t happened before? What if
she…” I trailed off. It made me sick to think that she might
have been in my room before, in my bed, sleeping with my
husband.
Nick came up behind me and wrapped his arms around
my waist. “I really don’t think it’s happened before. I’m
usually working during the day, and when I’m not in the
woods at night, I’m with you.” I tried to feel reassured.
“Yeah, but can we really be sure?”
He leaned in and kissed my neck. It made me feel tingly
inside. “I’m positive I would know if something
happened,” he whispered against my skin. “Even if I was
under a spell during it, I would’ve known afterwards that
something had just happened.” He dropped my towel to the
floor and we ended up on the bed.
I called Mamma later that night to tell her what
happened. “No,” she exclaimed. “Oh, Sofia, are you okay?
Is Nico? What did she do to you?”
“We’re fine now, Mamma. I got home in time. She
attacked me, but I knocked her unconscious.” She sucked
in a breath. “She came back around while I was removing
the spell from Nick and she threw us both backward. Nick
hit his head pretty hard and lost some blood, she choked me
unconscious. But I healed Nick and we’re fine now,” I
finished.
“Why would she do this? She was such a nice girl.”
“The prophecy about the baby,” I answered.
Mamma paused. I could almost hear it click in her mind
as she realized what I was saying. “She thinks she will be
the one to have the child? No. The prophecy is about you
and Nico. You are the ones who broke the curse.” I cringed
at the thought of having a baby. I was barely eighteen. I had
no plans to have a baby anytime soon, regardless of what
some prophecy said.
“Are you sure? She is a witch, Mamma. She could have
the child.”
“No. It will be you,” she answered with finality.
“Well, that’s obviously not what she thinks. I think she
wants to take over our world. I don’t know where she ran
off to. How do we find her?” I worried.
“We could perform a finding spell,” she said. “It’s
worth a try.”
“But if she doesn’t want to be found, she will be
blocked,” I argued.
“Let us at least try, Sofia. I will prepare. When do you
want to come over?” she asked.
“I’m exhausted right now. Fighting her and healing
Nick took too much out of me. Can we wait until morning?
I won’t be any good if I try now,” I said.
“Of course. Come to the store when you wake up. Sleep
as long as you need to. We can have Nathalie help us when
you get there.” I agreed and hung up.
I put my phone back down on the nightstand and Nick
wrapped his warm arms around me. “Well?” he asked.
“She thinks we should try to reach her with a finding
spell so I’m going to the store in the morning. And… she
said…”
“What is it?” he asked.
“She said for sure that I’m the only one who can have
the child.” I couldn’t look at him. He already knew how I
felt about it and I was so
not
going to have this
conversation right now.
“She’s sure it can’t be Gia?”
“Well, I’m not, but the prophecy did say that it’s the
ones who broke the curse and reunited our people. And
that’s definitely us,” I said. “I need to sleep. I’m super
wiped out.”
“Thank you for saving me again,” he whispered. “You
keep doing that.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said.
“You saved me from that—male witch that you used to
be friends with.” He still couldn’t bring himself to say Ky’s
name. “I feel like I should be the one protecting
you,
but
you don’t ever need me.”
“Oh, Nick, I always need you,” I whispered. I
remembered one more thing I wanted to do. “Hey, before
we go to sleep, I want to try a spell.”
“Are you sure? You look drained,” he frowned.
“Just a quick memory spell. I want to make sure Gia
hasn’t ever tried anything with you before,” I said.
“You’re still worried about that?”
“Uh, yeah. If the roles were reversed and you walked in
on me in bed with Ky, wouldn’t you want to know for sure
that nothing happened?” He growled at the sound of Ky’s
name. “See?”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “What do I
need to do?”
“Just keep your eyes closed and relax. I need you to
think back to the moment you heard the knock at the door,”
I instructed. He nodded. “Now focus; try to remember what
happened next while I say the spell.” He did as I asked. I
put one hand on his forehead, the other cradling the back of
his head.
I recited,
Mother Earth, I ask for your charity.
Give Nick focus and clarity.
Lead me to what I need to find.
Restore this and his peace of mind.
Nick inhaled in alarm as the memories came. “Now, tell
me what you see,” I instructed.
“I hear the knock at the door and wonder who could be
coming over. I know you are working with Nat, so it isn’t
her. And I don’t recognize the scent. I think it might be a
neighbor,” he started.
“Okay, what next?” I asked impatiently.
“I open the door and Gia is standing there. I say, ‘Hey,
what are you doing here? Sofia’s at work right now’. She
says, ‘Perfect, I rather like her and would prefer not to hurt
her’.” He shivered when he said it. “I wonder why she
would need to hurt you. Then…” he paused, like he was
struggling to remember.
“What happened next, Nick?”
“Then… Gia says something I don’t understand. It
sounds like a spell. I relax and she takes my hand and leads
me to the bedroom.” I didn’t want to hear any more, but I
needed to know. “She starts to undress me and sits me on
the bed. Then she undresses herself. She says, ‘This is the
first of many, incredible nights we will spend together my
sweet Nico’.” I wanted to throw up, or scream, or both. I
had my answer. Gia had never been here before, and I
needed to stop if I didn’t want to hear any more.
Before he could say anything else, I quickly said, “It is
done.”
His eyes snapped open and he pulled me to him tightly.
“Oh my Sofia,” he whispered softly. He kissed my hair.
“I’m so so sorry. I would never hurt you.”
“I know,” I mumbled into him. “But clearly Gia would.
At least we know that it hasn’t happened before.” He
continued to apologize and held me close as we went to
sleep.
I didn’t wake up until after 10 a.m. Whenever I
conjured too many spells at once, it completely wiped me
out. Nick was awake and watching me. “Are you okay,
Sof?” he asked.
“Not really. I attacked someone last night, had to watch
my husband practically bleed to death, heal him, only to
see the events that led up to it all. I can’t ever un-see that.
And I’m angry,” I admitted.
“I wish I could take it away. I wish I could rewind. But
nothing happened. You got here in time.”
“You were kissing. That’s not nothing. And what if I
hadn’t gotten here in time? What if you had…” I couldn’t
finish the thought.
He took my face in his hands. “Shh… try not to think
about it anymore. The important thing is that it
didn’t
happen. And I won’t let it happen. Do you think she’s given
up?” he asked.
“Not a chance. She wants that baby. She won’t give up
until she’s pregnant with your child.” I shivered at the
thought.
“Why not another were? Why not Rene? She was so
attached to him. Why me?”
“Because we were the ones to bring our people
together. That’s what the stupid prophecy says.”
“Mannaggia,” he swore. “When will this all be over?
When will we be able to enjoy our new life together
without all this—” he searched for the right word.
“Drama?” I said.
“Sὶ, exactly.”
“I don’t know, but it’s draining me,” I turned away and
sat up on the bed. Even though nothing too extreme had
happened between Nick and Gia, I still couldn’t get the
horrible images out of my head. I didn’t want to look at
him or talk about it anymore. He didn’t move. I got up, got
dressed, and turned to leave for the store.