Gone With the Witch (13 page)

"I think you were born mad," Aiden said.

Storm thought about that. "If not, then 'I got mad in the first few hours of my
life,
an
d
my anger's been compounding like interest since."

"It's about your mother leaving you, isn't it?"

"Dig deeper," Storm said. "It's about me being the unexpected twin, the unwanted twin, the straw that broke the camel's back, the
reason
our mother ran in the first place."

"You don't know that," Aiden said, and Storm appreciated his attempt at comfort, but she didn't like the turn this trip had taken.

"I don't think that Harmony or Destiny have the right
psychic abilities to harness telekinetic energy. Focused
fury in the present equals focused movement in the pres
ent, and my psychic gift is sensing the present. Harmony and Destiny's strengths lie in the past and future."

Aiden got up for a bottle of water. "The fact that you were careful about the traffic doesn't make it any less annoying that you took over the driving from the passenger seat" He got back into the driver's seat with his drink.

"So stop pissing me off, already." She unhooked her
seat belt and stood to look down at him. "Get out."

"Of my own house?"

"Of the driver's seat."
She was building a new head of steam, but she didn't want to shove him off the seat if she
didn't have to. "I'm taking over and turning us back toward
my
goal."

"I could have you arrested for hijacking."

Storm scoffed. "Wouldn't that make the big, bad biker boy look brave?"

"Give me one good reason why we should continue this
trip," he said with the kind of challenge in his look that meant nothing—nothing—she could say would sway him, the pain in the

A full-bodied shudder overtook her as she tried to resist
a new surge of anger. She paced the confines of the living
area. "I hear babies crying, okay?
All the time.
And no one believes me. You, this trip; this is my last shot to prove myself. Harmony pulled off her psychic mandate. Why is it so
difficult to understand that I'm desperate to succeed with my own? How would you feel ... if ... somebody was trying to stop you from doing the work you love?"

Aiden gave her a look that she couldn't read, but she
hoped she'd given him something to think about. He rubbed
the back of his neck. "If 'I go with you, I'll only be doing it to prove that you're wrong."

"I appreciate your honesty, and 'I can live with that, because I'm right. There is a baby out there, and it's yours."

"You should probably stop trying to piss me off now," Aiden said.

"I'm just telling you what I believe. When I'm on
course, the sound is loud and vibrant, demanding. The
smell of baby powder is strong. When 'I veer off course, the
baby's cry softens to a despondent whimper, and the scent fades, but if 'I turn back to where the sound raged, it rages
once again. That's the honest to Goddess truth. Finding
that child is my spiritual mandate. Because of the psychic
gifts I've been given, I have a responsibility to the universe
to see this through, especially since the crying baby is attached to you."

"Why does the baby being attached to me have any
bearing on this crazy stunt of yours? Not,
for the record,
that 'I believe there
is
a baby."

Storm shrugged, embarrassed. "I don't know why that
should matter. Because
I'm
attached to you, I
guess ..
.
maybe
... in a way."

"I sure in hell wish you were attached ... like this
morning, 'I mean. Hey, can you use telekinesis during sex?"

Storm raised a brow. "You really want me aiming in that
direction ... when I'm furious?"

Aiden paled.

"Are you gonna let me drive now, or what?" Storm
aimed her gaze at his crotch.

He took his hands off the wheel. “After we clean up the

broken
dishes, you drive, no question, while 'I make a list of things we need to buy. Remember, I'm only going with you to prove you wrong"

"Yeah, yeah."
Storm tried not to grin in triumph as they
swept the broken pieces into a wastebasket.

"I'll be right back," Aiden said
an
d
went to empty it at the rest stop.

"We'll have to buy replacement dishes," he said, returning.

"Melamine," Storm muttered as she buckled her seat
belt.

"I heard that." He took the passenger seat with Warlock
on his lap and buckled up. Grabbing pen and paper from a
dashboard drawer, he started his list. "Campground for
coach cleanup:' he said, dodging Warlock's paws as he
wrote
. "Cat supplies.
What else?"

"A mall.
I need underwear, clothes, magick supplies,
and you need new dishes."

"Underwear?"
Aiden perked up considerably. "Like
from
Victoria
's Secret?"

Storm did a double take, and she liked the twinkle in his
eyes. "I'll trade you Victoria's Secret for melamine dishes."

"I pronounce myself a happy man, not that 'I wasn't
plenty happy once already today."

"Twice," she said.

Aiden grinned. "We shop together, right?"

She gave him a look.
"Everywhere.
Not just in
Victo
ria
's Secret."

"Busted," he said.

An hour later, they walked into a gigantic mall. "
The
cat's
fed," Aiden said. "We're fed. The undercarriage, tires,
and paint are free of elephant poop."

"Broken dishes are in the Dumpster," Storm added.

"I gotta be honest with you, Storm. When I think about what I'm getting myself into, here, I feel like I'm in the Dumpster."

"Nonsense," Storm said. "You got a kick out of the car
nival this morning. You enjoyed yourself. Chill. It's a good day. I have new orange glitter flip-flops,
an orange Curses
!
T-shirt,
and a black broomstick skirt that fits. Don't you
love yard sales?"

"I love knowing that you're going commando beneath
it all."

"Shush. You're weird."

"Starved.
I'm sex starved."

"I could tell. How long had it been for you ... not
counting flying solo?"

Aiden swiped a hand down his face, and Storm almost thought he was wiping away a smile. "Let's not go there"

"Give me a time frame,
an
d
I'll drop the subject.
Months, years, decades?"

"More than a year."

"Dragon's blood.
Did you lose a bet?"

"You said you'd drop the subject."

"But you've gone for more than a year without sex!”

“
Say it louder," Aiden snapped. "I don't think they
heard you in
Guam."

Storm stopped in front of a dress shop. "Yummy.
A
shop for all worlds.
'I gotta get my goth back."

"I like you in colors."

"I like you handcuffed to the bed"

Aiden eyeballed her, and they both knew it was a draw.
She couldn't believe he'd followed her into a boutique with a bridezilla mannequin in the window.

Two minutes later, he followed her out again. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can get what I want in a regular store for half the
price. Besides, I took one look at the dressing room and remembered that 'I needed to buy underwear first."

"Wait!" Storm stopped walking and put a hand on his
arm. "I hear a baby crying, and
it's
here!" She looked
around the mall and focused far into the dist
an
ce. "Stop!"
she yelled,
then
she shot across the mall in a marathon
sprint.

Chapter Eighteen

AS Aiden took off after Storm, he figured she thought she was following the sound of a child, and he wondered if maybe this witch could be a few twigs short of a broom. She'd stood in front of a moving vehicle, cuffed him to the bed, and abducted him. Except ... wha'd'ya know, he came across a hysterical woman calling for help.

Aiden hesitated a minute beside the woman
an
d
lost
sight of Storm, but when he turned a corner, he saw her jump a thug and ride his back. The guy started to twitch as if he were dodging invisible bullets ... or experiencing a random series of stabbing pains.

Though Storm's bucking bronco ride added a burden of weight to his botched escape, and he shouted and cursed with each invisible ... jab ... the thug never let go of the
screaming toddler hanging like a sack of grain from be
neath his arm.

Aiden's heart sped as his instincts took over, and he snatched the little girl from the man's grasp then brought her to the woman running over. Accompanied by a mall guard, she grabbed the toddler and clasped her so tight, the little girl wriggled to get loose while she cried, "Mommy, Mommy.
My scared, Mommy."

The guard and the woman mistook him for the rescuer, and when they tried to thank him, Aiden pointed. "Your hero's over there," he said, button-busting proud. Then he went to save the kidnapper from Storm. Hell, she had the guy on the floor in the fetal position screaming
an
d
twitch
ing in pain every other minute while she stared down at him.

May
he
never make her that mad, Aiden thought, lifting her away from the scum by her middle, despite her instinct
to fight
him.
And while he held the wildcat to one side, Aiden shoved a foot against the kidnapper's belly to hold him for the police team running their way.

As it turned out, Storm had bagged a menace to society.

By the time thanks had been said, the kidnapper ID'd, and the police finished questioning them, Aiden was exhausted, and only the thought of accompanying Storm to
Victoria
's Secret kept him going.

The fact that she had foiled a kidnapping—and saved a
crying baby that
he
had not heard—wasn't lost on him. She
really had heard a baby crying.

"Has anything like this ever happened to you before?"
he asked as they window-shopped their way toward the op
posite end of the mall.

"What? Hearing
kids
cry in my head?
Too often to
count."
She caught her reflection in a window and finger-
combed her hair. "But saving a baby that nobody else
heard?
Never."
She grinned, looking exhilarated and good enough to take to bed. "I wonder who's shaking more right now, me or you," she said.

Aiden figured it was him. “At least we can go back to
Salem now."

Storm stopped walking. "What makes you think so?”

“
You found the crying baby."

"I found
a
crying baby. Not
your
crying baby. Yours is still in my head with her baby powder scent.
And apricots.
I often smell apricots when she c
ri
es, and 'I get a craving for Froot Loops."