Blood Magic: Witch’s Bite Series Book Three Page 10

  I press my hand to my stomach. I can understand that. Sometimes, when I was younger, I thought about all the magic I could steal. I wondered if it could make me invincible.

  “So if you drained a hundred neckers, would you become crazy powerful?” I ask.

  “No.” Reilly shakes his head. “There are limits to the speed at which the magic can develop. I can always feel the point at which I’m tipping over from feeding the magic to simply glutting myself. Some can’t, and their lack of control always causes problems eventually.”

  “This is great and all, but how is this supposed to help me not overuse my magic?” I ask, shifting from foot to foot. I’ve never had much patience for history lessons or lectures. No one ever just gets to the point.

  “The less magic you have, the more sparingly you have to use it. If you dump every ounce your strength into one punch, then you will have nothing left to dodge their counterattack.” Reilly moves without warning. My eyes are barely able to follow he is moving so quickly.

  I whirl around, but he’s already standing right behind me.

  “When I put on a burst of speed, in that brief moment, I am engaging my strength, or magic if you want to call it that. Standing here now, though, I’m not still pulling on it.”

  “So it’s about little flashes of magic and not one constant stream of it?” I ask.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not that complicated. I can do that,” I say, squaring off with him.

  Reilly grins. “It is simple. It is not easy.”

  “None of this is easy,” I say, raising a brow at him. “I just got done trying to make a lightning bolt fit in the palm of my hand.”

  “That was amusing to watch,” Reilly grins, dimples taunting me.

  I yank on the magic inside of me and lunge to the left, hoping to get around behind him this time. He matches my movement though, and he is faster. I skid to a stop, then trip over the mat as it bunches up from the force of my momentum. I fly a couple of feet before hitting the ground just outside of the matted area with a grunt. Pain shoots through my elbow and I roll onto my back.

  Reilly is laughing unreservedly. There are actual tears of mirth leaking out of his eyes. I push up to a seated position and try to not look like I’m horribly embarrassed. My cheeks are hot though. It irritates me that there’s nothing a person can do to stop blushing. It’s the ultimate betrayal by your body.

  Reilly finally manages to take a breath without laughing and wipes his eyes. “That was a very dramatic start.”

  “Whatever,” I mutter, glaring at the floor.

  “You had the right idea,” Reilly says, still grinning. “Stopping gracefully is a learned skill.”

  “Obviously,” I say, standing up and just managing to not wince.

  “Think of it more like one big step, rather than running,” Reilly suggests. “Try it again.”

  I shake my arms out, irritated by the bruise on my elbow. Using the magic was easy enough, apparently, the struggle will be keeping my body under control. I don’t remember having this issue during the raid. I had just moved on instinct without worrying about showing off.

  I take a deep breath and dart across the room, ignoring Reilly, ignoring everything but the feeling of movement. I pull back on the magic right before sliding to a stop this time, and my feet glide smoothly across the mat without bunching it. Without pausing, I repeat the movement and stop right in front of Reilly.

  I’m a little closer than I intended, but he doesn’t flinch.

  “Much better,” he says.

  I can feel his breath on my face. I take a step back to put some space between us.

  “I can see how that would quickly be tiring,” I say. I’m not exhausted from those two bursts, but I’m not sure how many I could do. The training I did with Hu and using the vampire magic just then, it’s all taking its toll.

  “You seem to be understanding the basics,” Reilly says, circling around me. I turn with him, not wanting him behind me again. “Let’s play tag.”

  “What?”

  He darts away, his shoulder brushing against mine and knocking me off balance as she flies past.

  “You’re it!” He shouts from across the room.

  “What are we, five?” I shout back. I run at him though, I’ll be damned if I’m going to make this easy on him.

  Reilly moves like he was born for this. He doesn’t just run in straight lines. He seems to be able to change directions no matter how fast he’s moving like a damn gazelle. I have to pause every few seconds to conserve my energy, but he doesn’t seem to tire. Every time I get close, I realize it’s a feint and he twists away and ends up behind me.

  Again and again, I just miss him. I’m starting to feel the strain now. If I don’t finish this soon I’ll have just chased him around the room for fifteen minutes with nothing to show for it. I charge at him again, and he slips to the left.

  Gritting my teeth, I lift my foot to go forward, like I have been, then launch myself blindly backward with the foot still on the ground. My back hits Reilly, and I have a moment of triumph until his arm wraps around my throat. I tuck my chin just in time to keep him from locking the choke in and twist around to jerk my head out of his grip.

  We’re facing each other now and he ducks down and pushes forward, his shoulder in my stomach, and wraps his hands around the backs of my knees. He pulls his hands sharply toward him and since I’m already tipping to the left my right foot is jerked off the floor and I’m airborne once again.

  I hit the ground hard and Reilly pushes in between my legs while I’m struggling to catch my breath. I have just enough experience wrestling to know that I am terrible at it. I fall back on the only thing that has ever marginally worked. I flail wildly.

  My elbow catches his jaw and I get a foot in the crease of his hip. He seems to be trying to crush me under his weight, and if I couldn’t pull on the vampire strength, he would. I grit my teeth and push with my feet and my hands, anywhere I can get leverage, until I’m almost lifting him off of me.

  Reilly shifts and spins around to my side. His arms move fast and no matter what I do, it seems to help him. He works his way around to my back and this time I can’t tuck my chin quite well enough. He slowly, but surely, forces my head backward and his arm wraps completely around my neck. The hard edge of his forearm chokes me against his bicep, which is unfairly just as solid. I struggle for a moment longer, but vampire magic or no, I need to breathe. I slap at his arm and he drops me immediately.

  I flop onto my stomach, panting. He stays glued to my back for a moment, his hand resting on my waist. My shirt has ridden up from all the wrestling. Two of his fingers brush against my skin in a momentary caress that makes me shudder before he rolls away and lays flat on the floor.

  I roll over onto my back as well. I dislike not being able to see where he is and what he’s doing. Even less so after he’s almost choked me out.

  “Where did you learn to fight?” He asks.

  “The school of hard knocks,” I say, wiping sweat away from my eye with the back of my hand and sitting up. “And the MMA gym Zachary’s dad enrolled both of us in after he took me in.”

  “They didn’t teach you very well.”

  I glare at Reilly and he grins back, both dimples showing.

  “It’s been over five years, and I wasn’t really interested at the time,” I say as get up to my feet in a huff. I walk over to the bench my water bottle is sitting on and take a few long swallows. “Hell, I’m not interested now. I’m just trying not to die.”

  “If you master your magic you won’t have to spend as much time up close and personal like this,” Reilly says.

  “I know that,” I say, rolling my eyes.

  “Not that rolling around on the floor with you is a bad time,” Reilly says from right behind me.

  I jump and stumble forward.

  “I am seriously going to put a bell on you,” I say, trying to wipe away the water I splashed all over my neck. “Person
al. Space. It’s not that hard.”

  “I don’t think you want personal space,” Reilly says as he closes the distance between us again.

  This close, it’s impossible to look anywhere but directly at him. His cheeks are warm from the exercise. It makes him seem almost human. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed how rich of a brown his eyes are. His hair is a mess, and the muscles in his shoulders are practically begging to be traced with my—

  No. I take a step back and stop those thoughts in their tracks.

  “Well, I do,” I say, but my face is heating up again. “Want personal space.”

  “Did you forget I can hear a lie?” Reilly whispers, taking another step forward.

  “You know what, here’s a truth. I am not doing this with you,” I say, looking him in the eye.

  “You think that is true,” he muses, smirking at me. “But last night, you were jealous.”

  I roll my eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself, it wasn’t about you.”

  “You should quit lying to yourself, at the very least,” Reilly says before turning and walking away. I watch him go. I can’t deny it’s a good view.

  I put my head in my hands. I’ll be glad to get out for a little while tonight and get my mind off all of this crap. Maybe I can even find someone to invite me back to their hotel room, since I obviously can’t bring anyone back to mine.

  I groan and grab all my stuff. I need a shower. A cold one.

  13

  Elise answers the door in a tight blue dress that makes her eyes stand out even more. Her makeup is half done though, so her left eye looks twice the size of her right eye.

  “I didn’t realize this was going to be a dress kind of place,” I say, looking down at the jeans, red shirt, and tall black boots I had put on. I hadn’t even packed any dresses.

  Elise looks me up and down and purses her lips. “We’re about the same size. I’ve got something that’ll work.”

  She waves me inside and shut and locks the door behind us, then jogs over to her suitcase. She digs around for a moment before pulling out a black dress.

  “Here,” she says, tossing it at me. “Try that on.”

  She walks back into the bathroom and I strip down. The dress slides on easily, but it’s a good thing I didn’t have a big dinner. It has long sleeves which thankfully cover the welts on my arms, but the hem doesn’t even make it halfway down my thighs. There are three black mesh strips at the narrowest point of my waist, and another bigger one right where my cleavage should be. The dress is tight enough that it helps push everything into a good position.

  Elise pokes her head out of the bathroom. “God, I hate you.”

  “What?” I ask, confused.

  “I think that looks better on you than it does on me,” she says with a pout.

  I laugh. “I really doubt that, but it does fit alright.”

  I smooth my fingers through my hair and pull my boots back on, then plop down in the chair in front of the desk. I spin around lazily and my elbow bumps the files that are spread out on the desk. I catch it before it falls, but a picture that was tucked inside slips out and flutters down to the carpet.

  I reach for it and pause halfway there. The bearded man. The memory of Reilly snapping his neck flashes through my mind. I pick it up and stare at it, then glance at the bathroom doorway. Elise is still in there bemoaning the difficulty of keeping clothes from wrinkling in a suitcase.

  Before I can hesitate any more, I flip through the file. This guy, Demeter Yagislov apparently, had ties to one of the most powerful covens in the US. Hell, he had ties to the council itself. I close his file and open a couple of others. There is one for each of the three witches that attacked the clanhouse, and a couple I don’t even recognize. I didn’t know that JHAPI was still investigating the attack at the clanhouse.

  The woman’s words come back to me. She kept claiming I was born for a reason not even my mother had known, which was bullshit. The words unsettled me then though, and they still bother me. What do they know that I don’t?

  Elise comes out of the bathroom, but I don’t bother hiding that I’ve been snooping.

  “I didn’t know you were still investigating those crazy ass cult members,” I say as she stops in the center of the room.

  “I’m not,” she says, adjusting her dress. “Zachary is.”

  I look up, surprised. “What?”

  She shrugs. “It’s not official either, just his little pet project.”

  “Why would he do that?” I ask, confused, and a little worried. Does he suspect something?

  “That’s a good question, Olivia. I ask myself every day. Why do you think he might?” She asks, giving me a knowing look.

  “No,” I say dropping the file back on the desk. “That was never a thing.”

  She laughs. “You’re kidding, right?”

  I just stare at her.

  “Oh my god, so you really didn’t know he had a whole thing for you?” She cackles, her eyes watering from laughing so hard.

  “Cook said something like that too. Zachary did not have a thing for me. Why does everyone think that? He was like my brother,” I say, crossing my arms.

  “Dude,” Elise says. “He literally told me about how the girl he loved that ran away and could never be found when we first became partners. It was a whole thing about trust issues and why he doesn’t date.”

  I open my mouth to refute what she’s just said, but if he told her that I can’t exactly argue. I close my mouth and stand up and head toward the door instead. Maybe Zachary was just messing with her.

  “This is great. Tonight is going to be so entertaining,” Elise says as she follows me out the door.

  She catches up when I stop to press the button for the elevator.

  “I’m still not sure why we’re doing this,” I say, my tone grumpy. “Not that I’m going to turn down a chance to drink too much tequila.”

  “We’re in Las Vegas,” Elise says, doing jazz hands.

  I give her a blank stare. The elevator doors slide open and we step inside. We head down to the parking garage in silence. My mind is caught in a loop trying to remember if there was ever some kind of spark between Zachary and I. It never felt like flirting to me, it just felt like family.

  We climb in the car and Elise turns to look at me. “Are you going to brood about what I said all night?”

  “What? No. I’m not brooding,” I say, crossing my arms.

  “Right,” she says, turning the car on.

  I roll my eyes, but can’t help the guilty smile that spreads across my face. She laughs at me and pulls out of the parking spot.

  We’re only about ten minutes from the strip. The club has valet only parking, so we hand over the car keys to a young guy in a blue jacket and get in line.

  The bouncers aren’t picky. If you’re over twenty-one and not wearing a tank top and flip flops they wave you inside. After a small cover charge, of course.

  The club is loud, which isn’t surprising. Strobe lights flash around the DJ and stage, highlighting the mass of gyrating bodies. It smells like smoke and old alcohol. Elise grabs my hands and pulls me deeper into the crowd around the bar.

  “I think I see them,” she shouts over her shoulder.

  Hu and Corinne are standing near a table with four chairs. Not enough for everyone, but we’re lucky they managed to snag a table at all. Corinne is wearing a tight little black dress that looks great on her. She looks much younger out of the suit.

  “What do you want to drink?” Elise asks me.

  “Tequila,” I say without hesitation. “So much tequila.”

  She laughs. “You got it.”

  Elise pushes back toward the bar, leaving me alone with Hu and Corinne.

  “Is anyone else coming?”

  Hu shrugs, but Corinne nods.

  “Zachary should be here shortly, he’s riding with Austin. Is Reilly coming tonight?” She asks.

  “I have no idea, to be honest,” I shrug. I hope he doesn’t.
It’d be nice to have one night to loosen up and forget about all my adult problems.

  We pass a few minutes in silence. It’s not worth trying to make much conversation with the volume of music. Elise pushes her way back to the table with eight shots and a pile of limes balanced on a tray.

  “Time to get this night started,” she says with a grin as she sets it on the table.

  I lick my hand and sprinkle the salt on liberally, then glance around the table to see if everyone else is ready. We all lift our shots and clink them together. I knock back the shot and bite down on the lime in a fluid motion. It burns just right. I grab the second shot of tequila and throw it back without waiting for the others. It’s time to dance.

  I push into the crush of the crowd. The bass is pounding and I can feel each thump all the way down to my bones. There’s not enough room on the dance floor to move without touching someone, so I give in to the flow and stop worrying about it. The energy is high. Everyone has a smile on their face. No one is worried about who they’re dancing with. Hands are roaming, people are kissing and grinding against each other.

  A hand slides across my lower back and I glance over my shoulder and see a man with a generically handsome face and dark brown eyes. I move into his touch and he slips his hand around to my stomach, pulling me in close. The music speeds up and we move together. Everything floats away as the tequila courses through me and the thrill of dancing erases all the worries that have been bouncing around my brain for weeks.

  The guy spins me around and holds me chest to chest against him. His eyes stray to my lips and I smile in invitation. His hands slide up into my hair and he leans in, pressing his forehead to mine.The connection isn’t electric, but it’s enough to have warmth curling through my stomach. It’s enough for a Saturday night in Vegas.

  His lips press into mine. Our lips part and the hot slide of his tongue against mine is exactly what I needed. The kiss deepens until we’re not even attempting to dance anymore. We’re just making out underneath the flashing lights in the midst of a crowd.

  His fingers twist in my hair and I gasp into his mouth. He breaks the kiss and leans in closer to talk into my ear.