Sassy Ever After: A Witchingly Sassy Seduction (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

He felt the seat belt release and disintegrate as the hand connected with it. The hand got the lock to the door in the open position and then tugged. The door opened, letting in fresh air into the emotion-filled space of the cab. One quick tug and he was hauled out by those same hands. Tugged over the edge of the tilted truck and onto the ground, he was never so relieved to see him as he was now.

Reaching a hand up, for the man to help him stand and free Celia, he noticed he wasn’t alone.

Instead the other hand reached out, but instead of a free hand, a Taser greeted him. Before he allowed the bolts of angry energy to overtake him, he managed to get out, “You’ll never get her. You’re no match for her. Stay away from her or I’ll kill you myself.”

Then the darkness dragged him into its abyss.

Chapter 11

Wake up!

The sharp intake of air rushed into Celia’s lungs snatching her back to consciousness. Everything was on its side. She tried to shake her head to clear her vision, only to trigger one of the most badass headaches she’d ever encountered. Grabbing her head, she felt stickiness along her temples. Pulling her hands down to examine it, the sight of blood threatened to make her hurl.

Deep breaths.

Owain popped into her mind. “Owain?” she called out, looking over to the driver’s side of the truck to see it empty and destroyed.

Where was he? Maybe he went for help. She began to tug and pull on the seat belt. It wouldn’t move or unlatch. The crap that the air bag had been packed with was all over her and the cab. Maybe she could clean it out of the seat belt latch to get free. Another slight move and searing pain shot along her neck and collarbone where the belt had cut into her flesh. Another look around and she could sense a car approaching.

Think and remember.

She willed herself to remember what led them to be on this road, when the image of a familiar car slamming into them pushed everything else aside.

It had been that bitch Mandy and some dude! Celia’s memory showed the advancing car with acute clarity. It had been the disbelief of the situation that caused her to stumble in saying something to Owain in the first place. She thought they’d stop in time. She’d been horribly wrong. Scenes replayed in her mind of seeing the lover of her entire being, absorb the impact of that car. Over and over, the scene played out until she willed it to stop.

“Got to get out of here and find him.”

Footsteps padded against the asphalt of the old country road and she struggled to get free. Unexplainable tension and panic welled up in her with each step of the advancing bodies. She needed to get out of here—now.

Her body began to pulsate, becoming one with her heart beat. She was on fire with the heat of the electricity her body produced. What was she doing and would she be able to survive it? She pushed past, focusing on finding Owain. Somewhere deep in her gut, she knew that bitch, Mandy had taken him. That she knew a few choice ways Mandy would pay for her treachery, gave Celia a focal point to concentrate the energy that visibly funneled around her. She allowed the energy to compound and fold in on itself until the entire truck vibrated and shook. More and more, she expanded her influence to use the plentiful energy of the air to feed and fuel her personal power funnel.

Like a glass collapsing under the pressure of vibrations, the truck did the same. It exploded, flying away from her. Celia felt nothing of the impact of the explosion. It was as if she was untouchable. Debris repelled away from her in all directions, scattering the road, ditch and even implanting into some of the trees that lined the road nearby. She felt a brief sadness for that part, since she did love trees and all living things. And then, she was free, sitting on the warm asphalt on the deserted road. That is, all except for three SUVs that sat at a safe distance, idling and watching.

Celia closed her eyes, concentrating on the insides of those vehicles. There would be no more surprises today. When she’d locked on the inhabitants, instead of fear, she experienced elation. She was in that kind of mood. She would fuck some things up today!

Standing and facing the cars, she refused to lift her voice. Instead she spoke at a normal range, ignoring the hoarseness as she said, “Get out and come here.”

As if obeying her, all doors of the vehicles opened. She watched in boredom as every single one of them stepped out wearing some form of cliché’-ish black with boots. They really needed to do better. Celia stood there, refusing to even dust herself off as Deidra Amos and the twelve other members of her coven strode toward her.

When they were within twenty feet of her, all but Deidra stopped approaching. Celia wanted to laugh at their expressions, trying to look fierce and intimidating. With her new abilities unlocked, she instantly knew their power levels, weaknesses and how to disable them with a thought. It was as if every lesson, piece of knowledge or database repository of her family and ancestral knowledge was hers to command.

The closer Deidra got, Celia could see she knew it too. Celia was the head witch out here—no questions asked.

“I see you finally got a clue, you knucklehead,” Deidra said, as she approached.

That wasn’t what Celia was expecting as the first words of greeting.

“What? I’m having a pissy day, so don’t fuck with me the wrong way Deidra. Let’s get whatever beef you got with me over with. I have a mate to find and a little bitch, who thinks she’s a big bad witch, to kill.”

Deidra wasn’t inclined to make any hurried moves or conversation. She continued to chew and pop her gum, looking at Celia in a way she’d never done before. When Celia was about to blast them all to Kingdom come for wasting her time and keeping her from her mate, Deidra said, “Look, we’re here to help you. Not hurt you.” As if sensing her disbelief, Deidra added, “Your mom would have come too, but she couldn’t bear it if you’d gotten hurt.”

“I don’t believe you. Start explaining and make it fast. I’ve got something else to take care of.”

“Yeah, we know. That crazy wannabe bitch, Mandy. We got you covered on that one too. How do you think we knew where to find you? Yo, that one—she crazy like I haven’t seen in a while.”

“Deidra, you’re working on catching an ass whupping. Get to the point.”

“Ah, I see better. Someone finally gets their powers and still don’t learn their lesson about shooting off at the mouth. Baby girl, you might be more powerful, but I still got more experience. You need me. So, shut the hell up and listen, before you go off and get that gorgeous-assed mate of yours killed.” Deidra grinned at Celia’s expression of surprise. “Yeah, we know about him too. And before I forget, you Ma wants both of you home for Christmas.”

“What? Deidra, I swear to God if you’re fucking with my head, I’m going—”

“Hey now, stop getting all pissy about it. Yep, we got to catch you up real fast. I don’t want you doing something unnecessary, because you couldn’t wait another five minutes to catch the update. So, turn that off and I’ll start.”

Celia stared at the other woman dumbfounded. What was she referring to? When Deidra pointed to her chest, Celia looked down to see a concentration of energy hovering a few inches away from the center of her chest, like a spinning top ready to be released.

“Oh—I don’t know how that got there. How do I make it go away?”

“Exactly. You don’t know what you know. Honey, you’re like an atomic bomb, who also happens to be a curious toddler, bumbling around. You’re bound to explode at the most unfortunate time. I will say your mating was way more powerful than any of us expected. That wolf is kissed of the Moon and has powers I don’t think he even knows about when it comes to witches. Which brings me to why we’re all here at this point in time.” Deidra held out a hand toward Celia and said, “Come, get out of the middle of the road, so we can open it back up. We’ve been detouring traffic to take another route for the last few hours and need to replenish that energy before we meet up with Mandy the cuckoo witch.”

Celia walked toward her, surprised her body only had faint aches where there’d been major, cutting pain just a few moments before. She followed Deidra back to their set of SUVs. Deidra directed her to get into the front seat of hers. As they drove off, she watched as some of the other witches finished cleaning up the mess she’d left of the truck. When they were done, it looked like nothing had ever happened.

“What happened to all that carnage of the truck?” she asked Deidra.

“Let’s just say they sent it off to truck heaven.”

Deidra’s smile was warm and non-threatening, something Celia wasn’t expecting. They were in the SUV by themselves, with the others all crammed into the other two.

“So, get to talking. I need to know what’s really going on. And, I have to find my mate.”

“Your mate—don’t worry—we know where he is. And he’s fine by the way. So, I’m going to get you up to speed. Sit back, relax, listen and don’t interrupt me until I say you can.”

Celia gave the woman side eye so fierce, her eyeballs hurt.

“Uh-uh, I see that little mama and that ain’t going to do nothing to faze me. Chill out.”

Celia slumped back into the seat and huffed in exasperation. This drama of stretching this out was killing her. “Spill already!”

“I will.” Deidra clicked her teeth at Celia. “That’s just one more thing on the long list of stuff you need to learn. Witches—well those with half their chops—can hear thoughts when we want to. As a witch, you’ll have to learn how to shut down your inner voice from others. Right now, you might as well be a radio station with the strongest signal around. Your volume is insanely loud. There’s no way we’re going to be able to get close to Mandy with you thinking so damn loud.”

Deidra looked over at Celia. She refused to look at the woman. She wanted to wrap her head around all of this. At this moment, she felt like the person who was conned and everyone else was in on the con. Yep, she was P-I-S-S-E-D. And her mother, ooh, she was so mad with her!

Deidra continued, “When you were born, your mother’s mother, babysat you while she worked. It was soon that she learned how powerful you were. When you turned five, you had more power than some of the adult witches, but you didn’t understand how to control it. Your mother and grandmother decided it was best for you and, well the world, for them to suppress your power and knowledge of it.”

“Your grandmother was supposed to lift the spell when you turned sixteen, but as you know, she died when you were fourteen. Your mother and aunts tried everything they could to release the spell, but it was useless. Then your mother remembered that you would naturally grow out of your grandmother’s spell or find your mate. Either one would release your power and knowledge of it back to you. So, everyone waited. When you turned twenty-eight, twelve years after your power was supposed to be returned and showed no signs of lifting, your family resorted to drastic measures and brought me in to help.”

“I always had a fondness for you and could still see that power simmering just under the surface. You always reminded me of a little sister I’d take care of and watch over.”

“So why were you trying to kill me?”

“Heifer please. I was never trying to kill you. But, you know you were totally wrong for that privacy thing. I thought you’d try to blackmail me with it, but you zagged when I thought you’d zig. Lesson learned about you.”

“I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

“I knew you were from the get go. But, we had to find a way for you to overcome that spell. It tore your mom up to see you so scared and on the road by yourself. It had to be done. You would have never left her house otherwise.” Deidra stopped talking for a moment to allow Celia to absorb what she’d said. “Are you all right?”

“Yes and, in hindsight, it makes sense. I guess I would have preferred it if you’d simply told me.”

“Lord above. You are the stubbornness woman I know. You would have never believed any of us. And, it may have set you back even farther. No, it was decided by the family that this was the best course of action. And you see, it worked. You were led straight to your mate—who, might I add is a fine specimen—”

“Hey—don’t get cut!” Celia said, laughing in spite of the absolute upheaval of her entire world.

Deidra held up a hand saying, “You just better be glad your mom was able to cast a spell strong enough to undo what you’d done with that whole Herpes thing. Or I would have never met my Donald.”

“Wait—my mom did what?”

“She erased folks’ memories to undo that little stunt you pulled.”

“She can do that?”

“Yeah, and a lot more. Your mom is pretty badass as a witch herself. But her power pales in comparison to yours. Where we’re like the best in our region, you’re like on an Olympic Gold Medal level of play. Now do you see why we had to give you a little nudge to get your power back?”

Celia didn’t want to admit it, but they’d been right. But she’d think about that later. Their SUVs had stopped.

“Where are we?” Celia asked, looking at the rows and rows of storage units.

“Why, we’re off to free your mate and catch us a crazy bitch.”

And with that Deidra hopped out the car and started walking, with the others down the rows.