Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (22 page)

With all my might, I concentrated on
her admitting that she did it. I saw her shake her head a couple of
times, as if she was trying to rid her mind of a thought. I
wondered if it was me she was resisting, my influence.

“
I didn’t—”

“
Yes, you did,” I
interrupted. I dropped my voice to a low, soothing tone. “You can
tell me. I know you want to. You want to tell somebody why she
deserved to die, why you did it.”

The whole scene had taken on a surreal
movie quality. I felt like some sort of super-powered hero that was
wearing her arch enemy down, squeezing out a confession. All I
needed was a truth lasso.

“
But I didn’t—”

“
Yes, you did,” I repeated
quietly. I could see the battle that waged within her; it showed up
as the panic in her eyes. She was conflicted. She wanted to tell
me, but she knew she shouldn’t. I was making headway. “You kissed
her and then you wrapped your hands around her throat and you
choked the life out of her. I
saw
you.”

As I watched, her eyes hardened to
glittering sapphires points. “Then you should know I’m not afraid
to take a life. Do you think it was the smartest thing to come here
and provoke me?”

Before I could stop myself, I recoiled
from the ice in her tone, from the truth of her words. Had I been
rash in my boldness?

Feeling my heart pick up the
pace, I backtracked a little to do some damage control. “Probably
not. I just wanted to hear you say it. It’s the only satisfaction
I’ll ever get. The police would never believe me and I have no
proof. That’s why I came here. I need
to
hear you say it.”

“
And why is that? That the
police wouldn’t believe you, I mean? Why should I let you live the
rest of the afternoon on the assumption that you’re telling the
truth?”

Though I knew that she couldn’t hurt me
right now, my mouth went dry at the prospect that maybe I was
missing something. Maybe I’d made a mistake and underestimated
her.

“
Because it was a psychic
vision,” I said, throwing the word
psychic
in there for good measure.
That had a tendency to make people write you off
immediately.

Her eyes sparkled with the light of
triumph and her bark of laughter was harsh in the stillness of the
room. In a gesture that declared her both victorious and superior,
she raised her chin a notch, crossed her arms over her chest, and
came to lean her hip against the desk right in front of
me.

“
Yes, I think you’re right.
They’d never believe you.”

“
I know. But I still had to
know. For myself.” I hoped I wasn’t laying it on too
thick.

I could tell she was relaxing a little
bit, that she wasn’t feeling quite as threatened.

“
Just so you know, if this
conversation makes its way to another person, you’ll be burying
your family before Halloween. Is that clear?” Her lips curled up
into a smile that would’ve made the devil himself pause. “And don’t
forget,” she whispered. “I can do it and get away with
it.”

Her words chilled me to the
bone.

“
I’m not crazy enough to do
that.”

She looked me up and down, measuring
me. “That’s debatable.”

No longer the least bit concerned, she
dropped her arms and walked casually around to the other side of
the desk.

“
The thing I don’t
understand is why. Why would you kill Lisa?”

I could tell she wanted to tell me,
that she probably would have, but just then there was a knock at
her door.

She looked at me and smiled as she
said, “Yes?”

Her assistant poked his head in the
door. “The Dean’s here, Dr. Phillips.”

“
Thank you. Tell him I’ll be
right out.”

When the door closed, she turned her
attention back to me. “I trust you won’t forget what I’ve
said.”

I knew she wasn’t talking about her
admission; she was talking about her threats.

“
Not a chance,” I said,
smiling in return.

She rose, as did I. We faced each
other, like enemies ready to duel, and then I turned and walked out
the door without another word or glance in her
direction.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

As I made my way from the building, I
replayed the events that had just transpired and all the things I
could’ve done (and probably should’ve done) differently. My biggest
regret was in not taking a tape recorder or wearing a wire. Though
I’m not exactly sure what obtaining a legal wire entails, I felt
sure that Grayson could’ve arranged it. If he’d believed me, that
is. But he hadn’t and I couldn’t help but wonder if he would when I
told him what just happened.

I waited until I got home to call. I
was feeling a little...something and with tensions running high, I
wasn’t sure how loud my talk with Grayson was likely to get. I had
a feeling, though, that if things went as they had this morning, it
wasn’t going to be pretty.

“
Grayson.” He answered on
the first ring.

“
It’s Mercy. Can you
talk?”

“
Uh, hang on.” I don’t know
where he was, maybe at his desk with someone close by. I heard his
hushed voice along with another one, but otherwise the environment
seemed to be fairly quiet. “Alright,” he said a few seconds later.
“What’s up?”

His tone was neutral, which was
encouraging. At least he hadn’t written me off completely
yet.

“
She did it,” I said without
preamble.

“
Who?”

“
Dr. Phillips. Who
else?”

“
How do you
know?”

This is where it might get sticky, but
I’d come too far to quit now. “She told me.”

“
She told you,” he repeated
skeptically.

“
Yes.”

“
She admitted to
murder?”

“
Yes.”

“
And why would she do
that?”

“
Because I told her I knew
she did it.”

There was a heavy silence on the line
and, in my head, I could see Grayson gritting his teeth and
seething.

“
You went and talked to
her?”

“
I thought I was just
explaining that in great detail.”

“
I thought you were joking,”
he said, his voice deadly calm.

“
Well, I wasn’t. I knew she
did it. Just because you didn’t believe me doesn’t
mean—”

“
Of course I believed you.
That’s why I’ve already started looking into her. The
right
way. The
legal
way.”

“
But I didn’t
think—”

“
It seems like you make a
habit of that,” he spat. It was just then that it registered with
me how truly furious he was. If he weren’t around other people,
he’d probably be chewing me up one side and down the
other.

“
That’s not fair. You acted
like it was ridiculous that I would know her by her
laugh.”

“
But that doesn’t mean that
I didn’t believe you. I told you I’d look into it.”

“
I thought you were being
sarcastic.”

“
I wasn’t.”

“
Well, have you found
anything yet?”

“
I, uh, I can’t talk right
now. Where are you?”

“
Home.”

“
I’ll be there in twenty
minutes.” And he hung up. Without saying goodbye. Although I’d kind
of gotten used to it and at times it might even be
slightly
endearing, today
it made me feel crazy and homicidal.

With a growl, I closed my phone and
pitched it onto the bed. I changed into some tiny pink Victoria’s
Secret shorts that made my butt look great and a tiny matching
t-shirt. I pulled my hair back in a twist to one side, chiding
myself for taking such care with my appearance. I shouldn’t care
what Grayson thought. Things weren’t going well and I’d probably be
doing myself a favor if I could just forget about him, romantically
anyway.

But I couldn’t. I cared too much to
give up and I doubted I could forget him even if I tried. Nothing
seemed to dampen my feelings for him.

I was in the kitchen fixing some sweet
tea when I saw him pull up. I went to the door and motioned for him
to come on in. When I saw that he noticed me, I went back in to
finish the tea.

When I heard the door open, I looked
up. I couldn’t stop the visceral reaction I had to him. He looked
positively mouthwatering in a pale taupe shirt and black pants.
He’d ditched his tie and rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his
elbows, revealing tanned, muscular forearms. He had on sunglasses,
too, which he took off when he closed the door behind
him.

“
So,” he said, cutting right
to the chase. “Tell me what happened.”

“
I went to her office to
talk to her about switching majors. She agreed to talk to me for
just a few minutes before her next appointment. When she asked why
I wanted to switch, I told her that I was interested in finding a
way to prove I knew who Lisa’s killer was.”

“
What did she
do?”

“
Nothing really. It was
later that I could really see a reaction.”

“
Go on.”

“
She wanted to know how I
knew who the killer was. I told her I saw her. She asked me to tell
her what I’d seen, said she might be able to help. I told her I
knew she did it.”

I had Grayson’s complete attention. He
was rapt. “And?”

“
And she denied it at first,
but then she admitted to it,” I said with a shrug, stirring the tea
in the pitcher.

“
Just like that.”

“
Yep.”

“
She just confessed to
murder.” He was doubtful and had every reason to be. It did sound
kind of farfetched.

“
Yep.”

“
That’s,” he paused, running
his fingers through his hair and then smoothing the ruffled pieces
down. “That’s insane.”

He said that a lot.

“
But it’s true.”

Grayson rubbed his jaw and looked
around the kitchen, as if debating what to do. When he looked back
at me, suspicion was written all over his face. “What did you
do?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
You expect me to believe
this?” he asked angrily. “You expect me to believe that she just up
and admitted she killed Lisa, and that you did nothing to…encourage
it?”

“
Y-yes,” I said,
uncomfortable with lying to him.

“
Mercy,” he said warningly,
stepping toward me.

“
What?” I squashed the urge
to back away; that would just make me look guilty.

“
Tell me,” he said flatly,
his eyes boring into mine.

I licked my lips nervously, wishing
he’d just drop it and believe what I told him without asking
questions. Then, willing to give my little talent one more shot
with him, I wished even harder, focusing all my desperate attention
on how much I wanted him to do exactly that.

There was not so much as a flicker,
though. He just kept edging his way toward me. He looked like a
predator stalking prey that he was trying not to spook.

“
Mercy. Tell me.”

“
I don’t know what you mean.
Th- there’s nothing to tell,” I stammered.

“
Tell me,” he demanded, his
face grave and serious.

And just like that, I caved.
Like a chink in my armor, he was somehow able to find and exploit
my weakness. The strangest part about it, though, was that my
weakness seemed to be
him.

“
I convinced her to
confess,” I blurted. And he stopped.

“
Convinced her? How do you
mean?” At least he’d stopped stalking me.

“
Just that. I convinced
her.”

“
How?”

I fidgeted uncomfortably, knowing that
the explanation was going to make me sound like a
wackadoo.

“
How?” he shouted, causing
me to jump nervously.

“
Alright, alright. You don’t
have to be so loud,” I said, stalling.

“
Mercy,” he hissed through
gritted teeth. His patience had apparently come to an
end.

“
Sometimes when I
concentrate really hard on something, I can sort
of…
influence
people, make them do what I want.” I looked down at the tea,
watching the swirling liquid rather than meeting his
eyes.

When he said nothing, I looked up at
him. His expression wasn’t blank, it was just inscrutable. I had no
idea what he might be thinking. But his next question gave me the
general direction his thoughts had taken and, of course, it wasn’t
good.

“
Have you ever done this to
me?” His voice was so quiet, so steely, it reminded me of a Black
Mamba. They say their strike is so fast, so sharp and so deadly,
that you feel like you’ve been kissed rather than
bitten.