Mangled Read online

  I came so hard I lost touch with reality for a minute there.

  Cal wasn’t far behind, biting my shoulder sharply as he moaned against my skin.

  Finally, I unlocked my legs from around his trim waist, and he let me drop to my feet, pulling me in for a lingering kiss. “Better?”

  And…it was, somehow. I wobbled on my feet and grinned like an idiot.

  After another quick run through the shower, I pulled on sweats and a t-shirt. Cal leaned against the sink, doing something with his magic that set off hot flares that felt like fire without the visible flame. I frowned at him as he ran a hand over his bottom lip, eyes unfocused as he concentrated inward.

  The wound looked a little less angry than it had, but it wasn’t healing the way Kwan’s wounds would. And I knew the arm I’d chewed on before had taken a long time to get to the barely there scab that it was now. “What are you doing?”

  He blinked at me, re-focusing, and let the magic fade. “Getting rid of the…taint.”

  I took a breath. My bite was an infectious, poisonous thing to humans. I knew that. But still, that hurt somehow.

  “Do you have to do that every time I bite you?” I waved a hand at him, encompassing his weird magic.

  He ran a hand through his hair, glancing away and then back at me. “Yeah. I have to burn the poison out of my blood before it can cause madness.”

  “Neat.” I said, stepping toward the door.

  He must have seen the tension in me. “You are not a monster. I’m fine.”

  When that didn’t work, he reached out and caught my arm, halting my escape and giving me a squeeze. His dark blue eyes were oddly flat when he said, “My magic is a danger to everyone I touch,” he said, gaze boring into me. “That is just who I am. I can’t change it.”

  I nodded. Point taken. He burned down houses in jealous rage, I contaminated people by chewing on them. We all had our little quirks.

  When I opened the door, he stayed behind to finish his cleansing.

  I don’t care what he said, knowing that the guy you just fucked was now tainted and had to magically cleanse himself before carrying on with his day made a girl feel less than warm and fuzzy.

  *****

  When I emerged from our warded bathroom haven, I was assaulted by the scent of ruined—and by that, I mean cooked—meat. I went to stand in the doorway to the kitchen, taking in the domestic scene there. Tommy had found a stupid apron somewhere. I think it was a Christmas gift from one of the elderly ladies at the library where I’d worked until a couple months ago. It was pink polka-dotted and trimmed in lace. He was sliding burgers onto a plate as I watched.

  Tommy’s twin sisters were sitting at the table chattering about some movie they’d watched about witches and how absolutely wrong it had gotten witch lore. Their mom and dad were standing nearby having a conversation that probably involved me and their son. And monster-human warfare. But I didn’t know that from just looking at them.

  Tommy turned to take the burgers to the table and caught sight of me. We shared a look, part warm-fuzzies and part sadness. Was this what a family felt like? I had no idea. And Tommy had been without this for five years. He was probably as overwhelmed as I was.

  He set the plate down and the witches started getting out burger buns and toppings. I drifted over to the kitchen to find a bowl of raw hamburger set out by my coffee mug. My ghoul was so thoughtful. I rolled my eyes.

  Feeling smug, I got out a spoon, took my bowl to the table and sat down between Tommy’s mother and one of the twins, the soft-looking one with the sensitive brown eyes. Everyone stopped talking as I scooped up a spoonful of raw meat and ate it. Tommy’s sister made a strangled sound. His father met my eyes across the table and one corner of his mouth twitched. I wasn’t sure if it was revulsion or suppressed laughter. Maybe ol’ Pops was okay after all.

  I glanced around. “What? Aren’t you all hungry?”

  Everyone started moving again automatically. Tommy laughed at them as he took up a seat by his dad. “At least you’re using a spoon. Downright fucking civilized tonight, aren’t you?”

  I glared at him. “Shut up.”

  Cal drifted in, his bottom lip a little puffy, but otherwise looking normal. He helped himself to three burgers and a pile of chips. Luckily, I kept some real food around for my ghoul and the occasional living visitor. Though the way Cal was eating, I was going to have to re-stock the cupboards. Geesh.

  He looked up around a bite of burger and winked at me. I scooped up some more raw meat and put it in my mouth, watching to see if anyone gagged. Cal grinned.

  Tommy sat back and kicked the leg of his brother’s chair hard enough to jolt the smile off his face. Cal kept eating, hoovering the food down like he was starved.

  “Hungry, Cal?” Tommy said, toying with the knife he’d used for the mayo.

  Cal grunted around his food but ignored his brother.

  His mother shook her head, and big bad daddy witch frowned. “Cal.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Tommy, silently commanding the idiot to explain.

  “Magic comes naturally to witches,” he said, still playing with the knife. “But it still has a cost. It takes massive amounts of physical energy to cast a complex spell. Or to maintain one.”

  I looked at Cal. He shrugged.

  I ignored Tommy’s leering at me. Was it the magic that Cal had used for the spell to dampen my wendigo madness that was causing the energy drain, or had it cost him that much to get rid of the nasty little disease I’d given him? “Is maintaining the spell on me costing you too much energy?” I asked diplomatically.

  Cal put down his burger…the only one left on his plate, since he’d inhaled two of them already. “No,” he said calmly, his face closing off. “It is a constant pull, but it’s not too bad.”

  Tommy snorted. “Oh, you just worked up that appetite some other way.”

  I jabbed my ghoul in the ribs with my elbow so hard he had to scramble to stay in his chair. “Shut up, moron.”

  Tommy’s sisters were looking back and forth between me and Cal like rubberneckers at a bad crash scene. Yep, big brother was plowing the monster. I put my spoon down and ate the rest of my meat with my fingers, making sure to lick my claws, just for effect. Then I went to put my bowl in the sink.

  “So,” I said calmly. “The hunters have witches helping them and they are mounting some sort of nation-wide war on monsters, which seems to be rapidly approaching my house. Where a bunch of monsters are hiding.” I wiped my hands on the dishtowel. “Anyone have any idea what the hell I’m supposed to do with that?”

  Tommy’s parents shared a look. “We are taking our children out of here,” his mother said firmly.

  Daddy witch frowned, I nodded and Tommy shook his head no. Cal said “agreed,” and the girls started in with a barrage of arguments about how they never got to do anything.

  I held up a hand. “Shut it.”

  I was surprised when they listened. “I am pretty sure I’m going to get my ass murdered trying to save some freaky creatures in my woods in the next few days. So, while it’s been nice to meet you all, I agree with mommy dearest. All witches with heartbeats need to get off my property as soon as possible.”

  “I’m staying,” Cal and Tommy said at the same time.

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course you are staying, Tommy. No heartbeat. You are mine.”

  His mother started to protest, but dear old dad put a hand over hers on the table, silencing her. They had left him behind once before. They didn’t get to claim him now. Besides, he needed to be close to me to soak up my energy and stay fresh anyway.

  Cal, on the other hand…. “Look, I know you are all-powerful and everything, but you do realize that if you stay here they’ll think you’re on the wrong side of this mess, right?”

  He nodded. “I’m staying.”

  I shrugged. His funeral. “Alright. Eat up, little witchies, and then get the fuck out.”

  Cal sighed. “Stay at the hotel t
onight—it’s warded. But you need to leave first thing tomorrow morning. Go back to California. Warn the covens to keep out of this.”

  His father nodded agreement. “Finish up girls, we’re going home.” He looked at me. “You’ve already killed one of my boys, wendigo. Don’t get the other one killed, or you will have worse things to worry about than a few pissed-off hunters.”

  I smiled at him, showing fang. “Sure thing, witch. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

  Cowards. He and his wife were powerful magic users. They knew others—a whole coven of them, however many that was. They could help. They could defend the forest creatures. But they wouldn’t. Who would help a monster?

  As they were leaving, one the girls pulled me aside. “We don’t think you are a monster,” she said. Viola, the one with the Heidi braids.

  Her sister Rose, the softer of the two, ran a hand through her own light brown waves and looked at me with pleading brown eyes. “Your creatures…I hope they will be okay.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Maybe the younger generation of witches hadn’t had their brains boiled by magic yet. “Thank you,” I finally managed. I had the insane urge to hug them. I refrained. “It was…actually nice to meet you. Please be smarter than your brothers.”

  They laughed and headed for the door where their parents were waiting impatiently. “We will,” braids said. But the sweet one just looked pensive. It was hard to be the sensitive one. I hoped for her sake she would outgrow it. The world was too harsh for that kind of empathy.

  When the rest of the family was gone, Tommy turned to me and Cal. “I need to check on Suzie,” he said, anxiety bubbling just beneath the surface. “I’m afraid what will happen to her if they sense I’ve been near her. I’m going to make her go visit her aunt—I know she lives out of state somewhere.” Cal nodded. “Make sure she avoids the places where there are natural disasters…we know they aren’t so natural.”

  Tommy turned to go. “Wait,” I said. “My dad. Tommy can you make sure Flo has him stashed somewhere safe?”

  “Sure, Tess,” he said, turning at the last minute to come back and wrap me in a tight hug, smelling of leather and soil. “You better be here when I get back. And all in one piece,” he warned.

  Cal drew his brother in for a hug, shocking us all. Then he shooed Tommy away. “We probably have a few days until they reach us and find the source of all the power in the area.”

  I stared at the door after Tommy left.

  “We should probably have some sort of plan for what to do when the hunters get here,” I said absently. What the hell was I supposed to do? I didn’t know how to fight a war. Which is what I had a feeling was rolling up to my doorstep.

  “First,” Cal said in a smooth voice that sent tingles down my spine. “We take a few minutes to take advantage of an empty house.”

  I turned to him with a wicked grin. “I think we can manage that…for a few minutes.”

  And we did.

  Chapter 15

  Cal was different this time. More intense, his touch more…tender. As if he were trying to make up for the pain and fear I knew was coming. Afterward, I must have dozed off.

  I woke up feeling like something was wrong. The creatures out in the forest were scared. Oh, right. Hunters. War. Oncoming death. I went to sit up.

  And realized I couldn’t move.

  I managed to open my eyes and turn my head. Cal stood beside the bed, one hand encased in green, glowing energy, held out toward me in a staying gesture.

  The other hand held Cloud’s old tomahawk. The one she’d thrown at my head the day Kwan was killed. The one with the glowing, magic-imbued monster-killing blade.

  The terror was slow in coming. I’m stupid. I thought the person I had just opened up to, Tommy’s brother, the sweet guy who was hiding his pain—I thought he had been real.

  I tried to lift my arms, to sit up. I frantically tried to reach out and touch the wendigo madness inside me, to draw on it for power. But I was bound.

  And goddamn it, I realized too late that I had let him do it. From the moment he offered to help me with his magic, he had been suppressing my monster, sinking his magical hooks into me deeper and deeper. No wonder he felt so depleted at dinner. It wasn’t from healing the sickness or banging one stupid woman against a bathroom wall. It was the slow, steady drain of casting his spell on me and maintaining it long enough to completely saturate my will. I could feel it there, infusing my very cells.

  “Asshole,” I panted. Even moving my mouth took effort.

  Why had he taken so much time to kill me? He could have done it the first day he met me. Fuck, what had I told him. What had I shown him? My relationship with the hunters. My monsters. I didn’t think I’d ever mentioned Brutus to him, but there were enough other freaky things he could have come around to investigate. Probably sent by the hunters.

  I was a fucking idiot.

  Cal’s dark blue eyes peered down at me as he put a knee on the bed, bracing himself to lift that axe and take my head. His lips compressed to a thin line and…a fucking tear tracked down his cheek. “I’m sorry, Tess,” he breathed. “I had hoped you would stay asleep and happy.” His power pressed down on me harder, making it difficult to breathe. “I….” His expression hardened. “I meant what I told you about killing. It never gets easier. But you do what you need to do to protect the ones you love.”

  “Tommy…” I managed. If the fucker killed me, he would be killing his own brother in the process. Tommy needed me to live.

  Cal took a ragged breath, looking suddenly exhausted. “I tried to find a way to keep him going. But he is already dead and…there’s nothing witch magic can do to save him.”

  I raged inside my head. Tommy’s family was sacrificing him again? And all the creatures outside this cabin. The ones who were being hunted to extinction because some fucking humans with a complex decided they shouldn’t be allowed to live—they would die without me. But then, who was to say they wouldn’t die even with me here. So far, I’d been of zero usefulness. I cursed myself for my refusal to take responsibility.

  If I survived this shit-fest of a lover’s spat I was finally going to stand up and be the monster everyone accused me of being. It seemed I’d be judged and executed for it anyway, even if I was behaving.

  A buzzard bounced off the side of the cabin, then another. Their heavy bodies sent off little percussive pings of magic. I could feel the creatures in the forest responding…either to my emotions or Cal’s magic. And if I stalled long enough, Tommy would feel my fear and come to my rescue.

  To fight his own fucking brother.

  I was so tired.

  Cal lifted the axe. I closed my eyes.

  An awful, garbled howl shook the air. My creature rescue team. Cal hesitated, and I could see him fighting the inner battle between what was right and what was necessary to survive. “If I let you live, they’ll kill her,” he whispered. “My little girl.”

  My heart stuttered in my chest. Well, fuck.

  I had no idea who “they” were. But he would do anything he had to do to protect his child. Kill his lover, put his ghoul brother to rest. Turn the whole world upside down and watch it fucking burn. I knew. Because if it were me I’d do the same thing.

  I hadn’t been given the choice when my son was taken from me, but if I had, I would have done anything, no matter how it stained my soul.

  Pain ripped through my chest and I gasped, back arching up off the bed somehow, even through Cal’s magic. He looked at me, startled. The howling was getting closer. Heavy feet pounded across the living room floor and toward my bedroom. And a drum beat was starting in my chest, heavy and hollow.

  “Tommy!” I gasped, becoming frantic. “Let me go to him!”

  Cal’s handsome face was frozen, emotion flickering behind his eyes too fast for me to follow. I’ll never know if he would have followed through with it, or if he would have let me go in the end.

  The dogman hit him with a meaty
thunk and they rolled across the floor in a cussing, growling blur of flesh and fur.

  I leapt to my feet, feeling dizzy. The hollow drum-beat in my chest was getting…further away? I took a halting step toward the door. Tommy.

  I didn’t care about anything else. I almost left the witch and the dog to kill each other. But the dogman howled again and I turned, crossed to them and kicked at fur and human parts until I got them untangled.

  “Lift the magic, asshole,” I demanded of the bruised, bloody Cal. I couldn’t fix Tommy like this.

  He sat up, wiping blood off his cheek. The dogman growled and howled again, making my skin crawl. “Fucking stop that noise!” I snapped.

  He growled at me.

  “Get the magic off me so I can get to my wendigo powers. Someone just killed Tommy!” Not that he cared. He had been about to kill us both anyway.

  Cal hesitated, but in the end, he lifted a hand and I felt something inside me break, my powers rushing back through me with a cold shiver, strengthening me, connecting me to the earth and the night in a way I couldn’t explain.

  Hunger surged to the forefront, but I somehow managed to cling to some part of my sanity. For now.

  I headed out the door, toward that pull in my chest that would take me to my ghoul.

  The dogman dashed in front of me, snapping and snarling and herding me in another direction. Cal followed behind, limping. “Best to go with him,” he said. “You can re-animate Tommy. But I don’t even want to know what’s got his fuzzy panties in a twist.”

  I whirled on him, snarling. “As if I have any fucking reason to listen to or care what the hell you think I should do, you back-stabbing, lying piece of shit!”

  He held up his hands. “Noted. But something is going on out there. So, let’s either kill each other or get going, hmm?”

  I spun and followed the dogman. “I’ll be right behind you,” Cal said, favoring his leg. Like I fucking cared. Once I found out what the dog wanted and got Tommy back on his feet, I was going to devour the witch slowly, bit by bit, making sure he felt every ounce of fear and pain I could deal out.