Witches (Runes series Book 6) (6 page)

“The window blanket.” Torin got up and placed the cat on the window seat. The cat moved around as though searching for the most comfortable spot, then laid down. Dang, my favorite throw blanket was going to be covered with cat hair. No more window seat for me.

“Cats are smart. They can sense when someone doesn’t like them,” Torin added and threw me a censuring look.

But do they project their thoughts into people’s minds? “
She
doesn’t like me.”

“She doesn’t know you yet.” He pulled me up, wrapped an arm around my waist and lifted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. “Once she does, you two will be inseparable.”

“Since when are you okay with me being a witch?”

“Since you and your witch friends defeated the Earl.” He grinned. “Now stop talking and kiss me. I haven’t seen you since this morning.”

He liked to order me around, but I didn’t mind this time. I studied him. He was still the cocky and outrageous guy I fell in love with, but something was off with him tonight. His voice had changed when he’d mentioned his father. Four days had passed since we’d defeated the Earl of Worthington, but the Immortal was very much alive despite the fact that Torin had vowed to kill him. A fact that still bothered him. A trip to Florida over the weekend to unwind had appeared to help. I’d made sure of that. But now that we were back home in Kayville, everything must remind him of what his father had done to his mother, and the fact that he hadn’t killed him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Torin said.

I tilted my head. “Like what?”

“Like you’re using your witchy powers to see stuff I’m hiding from you.”

On a normal day I would have told him I could see through his bullshit and that hiding things from me only caused friction between us. “What stuff?”

“The hot California girls. The nude beach Andris found.”

He was really trying to act normal and I loved him for it, but he didn’t fool me. “He would. One day he’ll catch something runes can’t cure.”

Torin frowned. “Sometimes I think that’s his intention. He does the craziest things.”

Nah, Andris loved life too much to have a death wish. On the other hand, Torin had known Andris for centuries and might know a lot more about him than what I’d seen in the past eight months.

I tilted back Torin’s head and studied his eyes. Shadows drifted like a dark rain cloud across his sapphire blue irises. “What’s going on?”

A spasm of something—anger or pain, I couldn’t tell which—crossed his face. “You have five seconds to kiss me, or else,” he threatened.

Or else what? He needed me as much as I needed him. I kissed him, pouring all my love into the kiss and hoping to erase whatever had caused his pain.

The next second, my back was on the bed and he was crushing into me. Not that I was complaining. The invasion of my senses sent a shudder through me and I pulled him closer, my fingers sinking into his hair, my other hand slipping under his shirt to caress his back.

He rained kisses down my neck, his mouth relentless, one hand holding my head in place as though making sure I didn’t move. Shudders rocked him and he pulled back, but I wasn’t ready to let him go yet.
 
He, on the other hand, had his own idea. He trapped my arms above my head, easily circling my wrists with just one of his hands.

“Torin,” I protested.

“Engage your runes,” he ordered.

I didn’t like being ordered around this time, but once again, I let him get away with it. He was in a strange mood. His runes were already blazing and as he lowered his head, I caught a glimpse of the grim determination in his eyes. He needed me to forget something. I just wished I knew what it was. I didn’t push because he would eventually tell me everything. His mouth did its own exploration as he reduced me to a trembling mass of needs and cravings. I squirmed, getting frustrated fast.

“Let go of my hands,” I begged.

“No.”

“Yes.”

He kissed me again, as though to shut me up. Then he stopped and rolled with me, so I was on top. I stroked his arms, loving the way his muscles jerked. He watched me from under half-closed eyelids. I loved that look on him. It was sexy, yet challenging. Like he was daring me to be bold. My hands skimmed over his broad shoulders, my lips following. When I nipped him, he jerked. I soothed the skin with my tongue.

He smelled nice. Woodsy. Exotic. Intoxicating. I burrowed my nose in his neck and breathed him in. Was it possible to want someone as badly as I wanted him now? I showed him and he groaned.

I glanced at him. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Don’t. Don’t ever stop loving me, Freckles,” he growled. That was all I needed to hear.

I ran my tongue along his lower lip, then the upper one before slipping my tongue inside his mouth to play with his. His chest heaved with the strain of holding back. I trailed kisses down his neck as tremors shot through him.

I moved lower, my hands caressing his wide chest, his six-pack. He had the cutest belly button. My lips followed. Before I could move farther, he pulled me up and captured my lips again in a kiss that went on forever. Then he lifted my face and studied me.

“We need to stop now,” he said.

“No,” I protested. I could tell he didn’t want to and I was tired of waiting for him to make up his mind. Tired of being a virgin.

“Shh,” he added when I opened my mouth to complain. “If I claimed you and made you mine, Freckles, I wouldn’t want to stop. I’d want to do it again and again, all night and into the next day. That’s what honeymoons are for. I’ve waited for you for nearly nine centuries, I can wait a few more months.”

Okay, put that way, I could live with it. Sort of. Why couldn’t he be like most guys? You know, selfish with a raging libido? “What if we agree to stop after—”

He pressed a hand to my lips. “I will not negotiate with you when it comes to this, Freckles. There’ll be no stopping and no going back once you are mine. And tonight…” He sighed. “In the mood I’m in, things could get out of control fast.” He pulled me closer as though to absorb me into him and pressed a kiss on my forehead. I swallowed my disappointment and hugged him tight, the glow from our runes blending.

Once our hearts slowed to a regular beat, I lifted my head and studied him. “What happened?”

For a brief second, I was sure he’d blow me off. He tended to keep secrets in the name of protecting me, but after the fiasco with his father, I hoped he had learned his lesson.

“I saw my father tonight,” he said.

His statement robbed me of words. One, Torin always referred to him as the Earl. Second, I hated that conniving bastard. Hated what he’d done to Torin’s mother and what he was doing to Torin now. No wonder he was a mess tonight.

“Where?” I asked.

“
StubHub
. He watched me coach, then came over after we were done
.” Torin took my hand and pressed a kiss on my knuckles. Only then did I realize that I’d formed a fist. He uncurled my fingers and pressed a kiss in my palm as though to take away my anger.

I tried to relax and pretend we were discussing something mundane, but I couldn’t. The Earl was pure poison. My anger grew. “What did he want?”

“Forgiveness.”

“Screw him,” I said before I could stop myself. Torin chuckled. It wasn’t funny. “I know he’s your father and all, but after what he did and the number of people who died because of him…”

“Andris reacted the same way,” Torin said, speaking slowly, eyebrows flattening. “I’d never seen him move so fast. My father didn’t fight back. I think Andris broke several ribs before snapping his neck. I did nothing,” he added softly. “We were late coming home tonight because we had to wait for him to heal and regain consciousness.”

Way to go, Andris
.
He could be a total douche, but he was loyal. “Maybe you did nothing because Andris was doing exactly what you wanted to do, but chose not to.”

He interlaced our fingers and pressed our joined hands to his chest. “Very likely. I stopped Andris before he yanked his heart out.” He glared at the ceiling. “I don’t know why I did that. I should have just let him finish the Earl.”

We were back to the Earl, thank goodness.

“He’s not talking to me now.”

“What are you going to do?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s trying to make amends.”

In other words, he was willing to listen to his father. That man had some nerve. Selfish bastard. We had just barely finished fighting him and his renegade Immortal followers, and he was already back. He didn’t even have the decency to give Torin time to heal. Give
us
all time to recover. We were all affected by what he’d started. I still had nightmares of what he’d done to the Seeresses. He and the Norns. All I had to do was close my eyes to see the smirks on the Norns’ faces.

“Can I meet him?” I asked.

“No. I don’t want him anywhere near you. I don’t trust him.”

Thank goodness he wasn’t totally on a forgive-Daddy bend. I might not find the idea of snapping necks appealing, but I had a mean knee. A quick thrust and the Earl’s nuts would get lodged in his esophagus for eternity. Or maybe I didn’t need to meet the bastard to make him disappear. I could just change his destiny and find him a quicker exit to Hel where he belonged. I hated that the Norns were in charge of destinies. If I changed his, I’d be acting just like them.

“Can I come with you tomorrow?” I asked.

“No.”

“Hey, you were okay with it earlier. I’ve never seen you coach.”

He glanced at me and groaned. “You only want to come to confront the Earl, and I’m not letting him anywhere near you.”

We’ll see about that.
My mind raced as I imagined what I’d say to his father if we ever met again. Torin stroked my temple. I could feel him relaxing. He’d definitely been worked up about this. Probably worried about how I’d react. He could be so sweet sometimes.

Sleep was beckoning me when he spoke next. “How was your day?”

I lifted my head. “I will summarize it into three sentences, so we can go to sleep.”

He chuckled. “Okay.”

“I snuck into the boy’s locker room to steal a sweatshirt to confirm a vision.”

Torin stiffened, but I ignored it.

“I went to his house and stopped him from killing his stepfather and ruining his life.”

Torin’s face had gone pale. He was taking this well, but the fact that he didn’t say anything proved how much control he was exerting. Usually, he would be yelling.

“And I learned from the goddess that I shouldn’t rune people to make them forget me, when I can do this instead.” I focused on the source within, but the spark was barely there. I closed my eyes and let the need to connect with my powers fill me.

“Do what?” Torin asked. I opened my eyes and he blinked. “Your eyes are glowing.”

He sounded wary. Grinning, I felt the connection grow and channeled the energy into changing his perception, my skin tingling with the surge of magic. Torin’s eyes went from wary to shock. He moved so fast that one minute our limbs were intertwined and the next he was tripping on the chair in an attempt to put some distance between us.

“Hel’s Mist. That’s messed up.”

I cocked my eyebrow and smirked, hoping I had nailed that habit of his I found so adorable.

“I don’t do that,” he protested. “And definitely not that,” he added when I tossed my hair. He started to laugh. I sat up and watched him. I’d been sure he would be repulsed. “I told you before, Freckles. There can’t be two of me.”

I let go of the image. “You’re not angry?”

“Because you can mess with people’s heads and make them see you as someone else? No, I expected that to come with the witch territory. Do I want you to do it to me? No. When I’m with you, I want to see you, not someone else. When we are… Wait! You went to the boy’s locker room? What were you thinking?” His voice rose.

“Shh,” I hissed.

He came back to bed and scooped me up.

“Hey! Where are we going?”

“Somewhere where I can tell you exactly how I feel without waking up your mother,” he said through gritted teeth, but I heard him. He went through the mirror portal to his bedroom, dropped me on his bed unceremoniously, and ran his fingers through his hair. His hair fell back into place, the locks in front almost reaching his eyebrows. He needed a trim.