Witch Hunt, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series) (11 page)

I stayed there on the couch with my eyes closed.
My head was pounding and my neck felt like it was still on fire. Something was taking shape in the darkness of my mind. It was a man, but his face was unclear. He was walking closer to me. I must have been dreaming, because there was no one else in the room with me. I hadn’t slept much in the last few days and they’d been some of the longest days of my life. I hadn’t eaten enough to replace the energy that I’d used in healing myself either, so I didn’t fight the drowsiness that I felt coming on.

The man in my dream stopped only inches away from me.
He was so close to me, but still disconcertingly out of focus. I couldn’t identify any of his actual features, just his massive size, towering over me.

“I’ve marked you, Maurin Kincaide,” the shadow man said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am
lachadiel, but you already knew that. You are connected to me through my mark,” he replied.

“Well
lachadiel, I’m in the middle of a nap. So we’ll have to do this another time,” I said sharply.

I was tired of having bad dreams and tried to think of happier things.

“It’s pointless to resist me, Maurin.
You bare my mark. You’re mine to call,” he stated, obviously pleased with that idea.

“Okay, enough!
This is my dream and I’m done with you. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts,” I said.

Suddenly he was a crushing force in my mind.
I recoiled from him. Was this for real? He wasn’t just a part of a dream? I tried to break the mental link. I was no one’s to command. Scota didn’t even control me. She was my past and I am her future; she was a part of me now, but I was in control of my life. Even the metaphysical bond between Oberon and me didn’t control me, though at times I bet that he wished it did. I’d be damned if some servant of the Inquisitors thought he was going to control me. Or maybe I was damned already and that’s why this shit kept happening to me.

Thinking about Oberon and
Scota seemed to push lachadiel further away. I could still feel him pacing like a caged tiger somewhere in the recesses of my subconscious, but he wasn’t pushing like before. I focused on Oberon and on our bond. I thought of how he smelled, the way his arms felt wrapped around me, and the way his lips felt against mine. I drew on our connection, using our shared strength to push lachadiel completely out of my mind.

The door to Mahalia’s study flew open.
Oberon rushed to my side, the alarm showed in his eyes.

“I could feel you using my energy.
You were drawing on the bond; you’ve never done that before. What’s wrong?” Oberon asked.

I was so relieved to be free of
lachadiel, if only for the moment, that I threw myself into Oberon’s arms. My lips found his and, for the first time, I initiated the contact. Oberon stiffened at first, shocked by my embrace, but he quickly relaxed and began kissing me back fervently. Before I knew it, we were both on Mahalia’s couch, with Oberon almost on top of me. I pulled his shirt over his head, tracing his tattoos with my fingers. My hands were entwined in his hair, and I pulled him closer as he tried to pull back.

“Maurin, wait,” he said, alarmingly out of breath.
“Tell me what happened.”

“You want to talk now?” I asked, a li
ttle out of breath myself. “I thought that you wanted this.”

“I do want this.
More than anything, and it’s taking everything I have to stop right now, but I need to know what happened that forced you to use our shared energy like that,” he said.

He pulled away and slumped onto the couch.
I crawled up into his lap, straddled him and nuzzled his neck. I needed to touch him and feel his skin on my skin. I didn’t want to think about lachadiel or have him in my head, and Oberon was a damned good distraction.

“Someone’s going to walk in on us,” he said.

“You never struck me as a prude,” I teased.

“You’re killing me, you know that?” he groaned.
“I never talked to Mahalia. I barely made it down the hall before you started pulling energy. I sent Graive after Mahalia for me. Either one of them could walk through that door any second.”

“What are you worried about?
Mahalia seeing you with me, or Graive?” I asked.

“I thought we covered this.
Don’t try to make this about something else when I know damned good and well you’re just trying to avoid telling me what happened!” he snapped.

I slid off of his lap and onto the cus
hion beside him without saying a word.

“Don’t even start, Maurin.
Don’t get all bitchy and distant just because I called you out on why you suddenly can’t keep your hands off me,” Oberon said.

“I’m going to be a bitch right now b
ecause I practically threw myself at you and this is the response that I get,” I said coldly.

“That’s bullshit and you know it.
If you’re actually ready to do this, to take things to the next level, then I don’t want to be interrupted and I sure as hell don’t want it to be on Mahalia’s couch,” he said, leaning in for a kiss.

“You’re such a girl,” I said, giving in to the kiss.

“Are you going to tell me what happened now?” he asked, pulling his shirt back on.

Graive walked in before I could answer, buying me some time to think of what I was going to tell Oberon.
I didn’t want Mahalia or the rest of the Council knowing that lachadiel and the Inquisitors were hot-wired into me. At least not until I was sure that they wouldn’t try to use me as bait again. They’d tried that before against Morrigan and all hell had broken loose. Literally.

Graive took one look at me with Oberon and stormed out.

“Mahalia’s waiting for you in the backyard!” she yelled from halfway down the hall.

I smiled a little.
Let her think that something more happened between us. I wasn’t going to tell her anything different. Maybe she’d take the hint. She’d had her shot already.

Oberon was already off the couch, wai
ting for me. He helped me into my coat and whispered into my ear, “You’re going to tell me what happened after we talk to Mahalia.”

Despite his crushing my ego on the couch, his warm breath on my neck made me ache for him.
He may have been close to the real reason behind my attempt at seduction, but he knew that I truly wanted him. He just didn’t want there to be an excuse for us finally taking things further physically.

I was thinking so hard about what had almost happened with Oberon on the couch that I didn’t realize that he had stopped walking.
I bumped into him, pushing him forward and giving me a better view of what had stopped him dead in his tracks.

Mahalia stood in the middle of the yard, her heavy cloak pooled around her feet.
A symbol was burned into the ground beside her. The mark in the blackened grass was the same as the brand on my neck. lachadiel had been here. He wasn’t just inside my head; he had physically been here. Did he need to be close to me to make the connection? The footprints scorched into the ground that led toward the house seemed to say so. I instinctively reached for the mark on my neck.

“Tell me what happened, Maurin.
Right now,” Oberon demanded.

He had turned around to face me; the look in his eyes said that he wasn’t going to let this go.
Neither would Mahalia, not after her wards had been broken. So I told them everything there was to tell, which wasn’t much. I didn’t know what he looked like or where he was; I knew nothing that we could actually use. Oberon’s face was a mix of emotions: anger, disappointment, and fear were all present. This wasn’t the end of the explaining for me.

Mahalia was quiet, which freaked me out a bit.

“Take her to Idiosyncrasy,” she finally said.

“The oddities shop?” What could we possibly need from there.

“Take half of my
allicorn with you. That should be more than enough for the amulet,” Mahalia replied.

“Why not just pay cash?
Half your store of allicorn is worth a lot more than one amulet,” Oberon said.

“Not if it is
elven made. They’ll want more than cash for it. Allicorn is the only thing I have that is valuable enough to trade. You’ll want to keep an eye on her until morning, Oberon. It’s best if she stays awake until after she has the amulet,” Mahalia warned.

“So we get the amulet and then what?” I asked.

“And then we find the Inquisitors and put an end to this once and for all,” she said. Then she turned and started to walk the perimeter of the backyard, setting the wards back in place as she went.

If she had a plan, then she wasn’t sha
ring it with us. We had been dismissed. Oberon and I left her to the wards and headed back inside.

10

It was going to be a long night. Well, technically, it was going to be a long morning.
It was already after two a.m. when I followed Oberon to the kitchen, thankful that he needed coffee as much as I did.

He leaned back against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, as we waited for the coffee to finish brewing.

“So, were you planning on telling me about
lachadiel?” Oberon asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Really? When?” He was skeptical.

“I don’t know, Oberon.
When the time was right, I guess,” I said.

“So never, then,” he said sharply.

“How about after I was sure that the Council had come up with a plan to get rid of the Inquisitors without using me and the link between lachadiel?” I fired back.

“You could have told me; I’m not on the Council,” he replied.

“You wouldn’t have kept it from Mahalia. You’d have made me tell her, or you would have told her yourself,” I said quietly.

“You’re sure of that?
I can’t help you if you won’t let me. You’re going to have to trust me,” he said.

“So, if I told you and asked you not to tell Mahalia or anyone else then you wouldn’t have?
You’d have lied to her and the rest of the coven about something that could finally be what leads us to the Inquisitors?” I asked, putting him in an impossible situation.

“Yes,” he said.

“You’re sure of that?” I asked, throwing his words back at him.

“I won’t let them give you up to
lachadiel, but it isn’t going to come to that. We’re getting the amulet tomorrow. Mahalia obviously thinks that it will shield you from him,” he said.

“Come on, Oberon, we both know where this is headed.
If Mahalia doesn’t come up with another way to find the Inquisitors, and we’re kidding ourselves if we believe that she will before tonight, then she won’t have a choice. The amulet’s just to stop lachadiel from using me - not the other way around.”

“So why did you tell her, if you’re so sure that she’s just going to figure out a way to use you?” he asked.

“It wasn’t fair to keep it from you. I mean, if I had to draw energy from you every time lachadiel came for me - you’d have figured it out anyway,” I told him.

“I knew there was more to your little seduction,” he said with a smirk.
“Do you think that you need the physical contact to fight him off?”

“Um, I don’t think so, no.
Why?” I asked, a little embarrassed.

“Just making sure.
I wouldn’t want someone trying to fill in for me if I wasn’t around,” he teased.

“You’re hilarious,” I said dryly.
“No, the energy boost I got from you was enough.”

“Why did you need to pull energy anyway?
You’re strong enough now and you shield your mind better than anybody,” he asked.

“My shields aren’t that great - Seamus got through them,” I said.

“Seamus got through because you opened yourself up to him first and because you hadn’t come into your full power yet. Now that you’ve finally accepted who and what you are, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Oberon said. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

“I already told you that he said that he had marked me; he claimed that I was his to call.
I guess that means he can get inside my head whenever he wants,” I replied.

“Maybe not whenever he wants.
Maybe you’re most vulnerable to him when you’re asleep,” he said, trying to put things together.

“But I wasn’t asleep.
I was in that in-between state. Not asleep but not awake,” I told him, unintentionally poking holes in his theory.

“Close enough.
That’s why Mahalia wants you to stay awake. What made you reach for the link between us?” he asked.

“I don’t know.
It felt like he was draining me. When he pulled on my energy at first and I resisted, it seemed to make him stronger. Then I thought of how I was connected to Scota and to you. He went from being a crushing force inside my head to almost nothing. I pulled energy from the link to push him completely from my mind,” I explained.

“So he used your energy to get stronger, but he didn’t know you had a way to pull more energy to fight him off,” Oberon said.

“Yeah, he underestimated me. It happens a lot. He knows now, though, so I don’t see how any of this helps,” I said.

I grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and fixed us both a cup of coffee.
I handed Oberon his before taking a sip of mine.

“It doesn’t, I guess,” he said, sounding defeated.

“What I can’t figure out is how the Inquisitors are even using magic. Do you think they have a witch working for them? You know, like Stockholm syndrome. Maybe they tortured someone for so long that he or she went nuts or something?” I asked.

“They believe the Key was given to Sol
omon by God. If God gave it to Solomon, then it isn’t evil. Therefore, it is unlike our allegedly heretic magic. Basically, it’s a loophole in their beliefs. It gives them a way to turn magic against those of us who were born to use it,” he explained.

“Hypocrites,” I said, setting my empty coffee mug down.

Oberon nodded in agreement as he poured me another cup.

We sat at the kitchen table talking and drinking coffee until well after the sun came up.
We talked about everything and anything, except lachadiel and the Inquisitors. It was definitely a first for me. I had never stayed up all night talking before. Oberon officially knew more about me than anyone else. I couldn’t help wondering if that was actually a good thing.

Oberon looked at the clock and stifled a yawn.

“It’s a little after eight. By the time we get ready and drive over there, they should be open,” he said.

“Okay, cool.
I’m going to hop in the shower real quick,” I told him.

I slammed down the last of my umpteenth cup of coffee and tiptoed up the steps to the shower.
It looked like the remnants of a frat party in here, minus all the trash and toilet paper decorations. There were witches curled up asleep everywhere. I stepped over half a dozen just getting to the stairs.

I found the spare room with my things and Amalie fast asleep.
I grabbed a few things out of my duffel bag and headed for the bathroom at the end of the hall. I set my stuff down on the counter and turned the water on. Steam quickly filled the bathroom. I had already undressed and was about to jump in the shower when I realized that I’d forgotten a towel. I went over to the little closet to get a towel and stopped when I heard voices in the hall.

“I heard you two talking last night, Oberon,” Graive said.
“She’s going to end up killing you!”

“Drop it, Graive.
You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Oberon said in a hushed voice so that the others wouldn’t hear their argument.

“Yeah?
Well she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. I’m telling you right now she’ll end up draining you dry. She’s no better than a vampire right now, except instead of your blood she’ll be draining your power. But mark my words, she’ll kill you nonetheless. Don’t expect me to just sit back and watch her do it,” Graive threatened.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.
She’ll have the amulet and then it won’t be a problem,” he told her.

She wasn’t going to let it go.
I heard them walk away from the bathroom door. Oberon was probably worried that I’d get out of the shower and hear them. ‘Too late,’ I thought. I turned the lock on the door. I didn’t want anyone to walk in – especially Oberon.

I felt sick to my stomach.
I needed to think. I got in the shower, hoping the water would wash my worries away. Was Graive right? Would I end up hurting Oberon or worse? The amulet was supposed to keep lachadiel from finding me, but I wondered what would happen when Mahalia told me I had to take it off? Would I be able to steel my mind against lachadiel without draining Oberon? She’d have to use a coercion spell, because I wasn’t going to take the chance. The sooner I got to Idiosyncrasy and the amulet, the better.

I got out of the shower and got dressed.
I towel- dried my hair and quickly ran a brush through it. I brushed my teeth and was done. Oberon was waiting in the hall when I opened the door.

“Your turn,” I said, as if nothing was wrong.

“I’m done. I used the shower in Mahalia’s room,” he said with an easy smile.

“I see that now,” I said, suddenly di
stracted by the way that his black shirt clung to his muscles and how good he looked in his jeans. If I didn’t need that amulet so badly… My thoughts drifted to Oberon on the couch with his shirt off and the weight of his body pressed against me.

“So you’re ready to go then?” he asked, drawing my attention back to his blue eyes and mischievous smile.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I said with a sigh.

I led the way downstairs.
Oberon was right behind me, grabbing his keys off of a small wooden table in the foyer. He shut the front door quietly behind us.

We got in his black Chevy Avalanche and headed into town.
I was quiet on the ride to Idiosyncrasy. Too quiet, I guess, because Oberon quickly realized that something was bothering me.

“You okay?” he asked, shifting his gaze between the road and me.

“Yeah, just tired,” I said, and I was. I was physically tired from the lack of sleep and mentally tired from everything else; that wasn’t the reason that I was so quiet. I didn’t want to let it slip that I had overheard him and Graive. I had a feeling he’d tell me not to worry and try to convince me that taking off the amulet would be fine.

“Me too.
We’ll get the amulet and then we can crash when we get back to Mahalia’s,” he said, buying my excuse.

It was early enough that we easily found parking right in front of the store.
Not much was open before eleven here anyway. Oberon put the truck in park and I hopped out immediately, not wanting to waste any time getting the amulet. The sooner I put it on the better.

Saying Idiosyncrasy was an unusual ve
ndor was an understatement. They had everything that you’d expect an oddities store to have and more. It was like a circus sideshow and a medical museum all rolled into one. There were two-headed baby pigs in jars and some medical equipment that made me thankful that I wasn’t alive in the eighteenth century. There was even a couple of real shrunken heads on a shelf behind a complete skeleton. None of that interested me. I had eyes for only one thing and I didn’t see it displayed in any of the cases.

The girl behind the counter didn’t look all too thrilled to be working, much less awake, before noon.
She sat on a stool, fiddling with her lip ring, without as much as a good morning. I looked at Oberon. He just shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m looking for an amulet.
I don’t see any in the cases,” I said, trying to get a little help from goth girl.

“Look around, lady, do we look like a jewelry store to you?” she replied while texting.

“It looks like a place that needs to put a ‘Help Wanted’ sign up to me,” I said, closing the distance between me and the smartass behind the counter.

Oberon stepped in front of me.
“Mahalia sent us.”

The girl just rolled her eyes.
“You need to talk to Rhyan.”

“Is he here?” Oberon asked politely.

She
is in the back,” she said, still paying more attention to her phone than to us.

“Maybe you could get off your ass and go get her then,” I said.

“Can I help you?” A polite and obviously retail- oriented voice asked from a room behind the counter.

“Mahalia sent us.
We’re looking for an amulet,” I replied.

“Come on back,” said the voice that I assumed belonged to
Rhyan.

Oberon and I walked behind the counter and into a small back room.
It was half storage, half office. The shelves were a mix of more jars, weird collectibles, printer paper and paper towels. Rhyan’s desk sat in the middle of the room.

She peered over her tortoise-shell rimmed glasses and gave us a once over.
Everything about Rhyan, from her small features, pencil thin lips, tan sweater and brown tweed pants was the complete opposite from her merchandise and her goth salesperson. She looked like she should be working in a bank. Instead, she was sitting in her storeroom, surrounded by pickled body parts and taxidermy.

“Nice try, Miss Kincaide.
I didn’t think that you were with SPTF anymore. It doesn’t matter. I’ll tell you the same thing that I told the other officers. Everything I have here is legal. I do not buy or sell stolen property,” Rhyan said bitterly.

“I don’t recall having met you before.
How do you know my name?” I asked.