The Silverwing's Sorceress: THe Shadow Slayers, Book 2.5 (9 page)

“Do you trust me enough to allow me to try?”

“You know I do. It’s not that. Would I have to drink your blood?” The thought made her feel faint. “I don’t think I could do it.”

“The Aniliáre applied their blood directly to the brand. I think that would be best.”

Her stomach twisted like a wet towel on spin cycle, and her hands felt clammy. “Blood on my brand. Hmm…”

“You can do this. You are the strongest woman I know.”

“Then you must not know many women.”

“Joke all you like, but you have more in common with the Aniliáre than you believe.”

She blinked. “What do you mean by that?”

“Just under the surface of your pretty smile and self-deprecating humor, a great power waits to be unleashed.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh. Really? Did you take Psychology 101 on Mercury Island? I’ll do it, okay?” When his heavy expression lifted in relief, she quickly added, “But not tonight. Give me one night to process it…and then we’ll give it a try.”

He searched her face and she felt like he could see past her skin, deeper, into her heart. “As you say. For now, you rest.”

He pulled her back to the bed and tucked her under the covers.

“Are you staying?” she asked.

He nestled in behind her and touched his lips to her hair. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

“That long? Good.” Whatever tomorrow brought, tonight she was safe, and exactly where she wanted to be.

Chapter Six

Abbey blinked the sleep off and looked around, squinting at the sun slanting through the trees and willing her eyes to focus. It wasn’t exactly weird waking up beside Jaxon—she’d done it a hundred times before—but with what had happened in the past few days, it wasn’t normal, either. So much had changed, and she was pretty sure now that he was serious about wanting more from their friendship.

It wasn’t simply pity or lack of sex—he thought they might have a future together. How was that possible when they were two different species? Maybe with his bloodline, he liked the fact that he couldn’t get a witch pregnant or transmit diseases. Maybe he was relieved not having to worry about fathering children with fur…

But Abbey hadn’t gotten around to thinking about children yet or if she might want them some day. Sure, she was open to adoption, but how could Jaxon be a father or a husband when he would outlive them all? No matter how she sliced it, a relationship with him just didn’t add up.

“Good morning,” he said, and she jumped.

She couldn’t remember a morning when he hadn’t woken with a playful smile, but he wasn’t smiling this morning. “Did you sleep all right?” she asked.

He propped himself on an elbow and regarded her. “I did.”

“Then what’s the matter?”

“You’re so exquisite when the sunlight hits your hair, you put the sunrise to shame…as though its only function is to illuminate your beauty.”

She laughed, the compliment only serving to make her miserable. “Even if that were true, I don’t get to stay in this moment like Kara or Lace. Every day, I’m another day older. What you see today isn’t what you’ll see fifty years from now.”

“You’ll always be beautiful to me, Abbey. I’m trying to give you space to deal with what’s ahead of us today, but you’re so beautiful it hurts to look at you and not be able to touch your skin.”

Her heart ached. He just didn’t get it. It was bad enough knowing she wouldn’t get to be with her best guy friend forever, but then she had to screw it up further, taking the love she felt for Jaxon and warping it until it resembled something dangerously close to
in love
. She couldn’t fix this. She couldn’t win. No matter what she did, Jaxon wasn’t meant for a witch.

“You’re right, we have a big day ahead of us. If I can figure out that book, I can take down the ward and get us the heck out of here.”

“Are you forgetting something?”

“I’m always forgetting something, but which something are you referring to?”

“The brand. You said you wanted to rest before we got started.”

She stretched and yawned dramatically. “I’m still pretty sleepy, and anyhow, I never accept blood on an empty stomach. Why don’t we eat and work on finding the spell for the ward, then we’ll talk brands.”

Breakfast had come and gone, and her stomach was rumbling for lunch by the time Abbey finally admitted that
The
Book of Death
didn’t have anything she could use to turn off the mountain’s ward. She tucked her bare feet under her and set the book down on the coffee table. “I don’t understand. It has to be in here. I feel it.”

Jaxon pulled his attention away from transcribing Kara’s mother’s journal. “Let’s hope that’s not the case. I doubt the northwestern hemisphere of witches wants their high priestess turning to sorcery and living her life on the run.”

“Oooh, a life on the run. Sounds mysterious. I could be a sorceress-secret-agent, and you could be my Q.”

He tucked his pencil in the notebook and set the journal down on the arm of the sofa. “Your Q?”

“Yeah, you know, James Bond’s research-and-development guy. You could provide me with intel and special gadgets.”

“I’d rather be your Braveheart and keep you safe.”

“His wife dies a brutal death! So does he, now that I think of it. I hate that movie.”

“You truly hate it? The invention of the television would have been merited by the making of that movie alone.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s a man’s movie…”

“Well, that’s sexist.” She stopped and thought. “But maybe it is a man’s movie. I bet my dad would have loved it. He loved all the guy classics—
Rambo
,
Die Hard
,
Die Hard 2
,
The Sound of Music
.”

“
The Sound of Music
?”

“Hmm…” She bit her lip. “Come to think of it, he might have been watching that last one for me.”

Jaxon laughed. “Out of respect for the dead, let’s assume so.”

Abbey’s throat got scratchy and her eyes misty. “He was the greatest father. You would have liked him.”

Jaxon got up from the couch and came to sit beside her on the floor. “I’m sure I would have. You’re fortunate to have so many good memories of your parents.”

“I do have good memories, like the old cabin and the movies, but I wouldn’t say
so many
. They died when I was in elementary school.”

“It was a car accident, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” She took his huge hand in her smaller one and grasped his fingers. “Could you imagine if I’d died the same way? It would be like our family was cursed or something.”

Jaxon frowned. “It wasn’t the brakes in their car, was it? You never told me the details of the crash.”

Her eyes widened. “It
was
the brakes in their car. At least I think so. I heard my uncle telling someone about it at the wake. Of course, I was too young to really understand what they were talking about. Even Claudius was only a teen back then.”

“Where was your uncle when they died?”

“Still living with his parents. I went to live with my grandma Dora after my parents passed. It’s not like anyone asked my opinion, but I wouldn’t have chosen to live with Claudius’s family anyway. My grandparents on my dad’s side were grumpy old meanies.”

“Are they still alive? You’ve never spoken about them.”

“No, they died almost ten years ago now.”

“Not in a car crash?”

“Grandma Sellers—or
Grandmother
, as she preferred to be called—got cancer. It was over in the course of a few months. And even though I wouldn’t have guessed my grandpa cared for anyone but himself, losing her did him in. He had a stroke two weeks later.”

Jaxon shook his head. “So much death. I’m sorry for all the losses you’ve suffered in your life.”

She squeezed his hand. “How did we get on such a depressing subject?”

He smiled and tapped a finger to her nose. “Okay, tell me a happy story.”

“I can do better than that.” She rose and pulled him to his feet. “Come outside, and I’ll show you.”

She dragged him out the front door to the rock she’d seen on their very first night at the new cabin. “This is the rock I tagged.”

“Yes, with your first successful spell.”

“Ha! Do you ever forget anything?” She picked up a pinecone by her feet and began twisting the seeds.

He shifted like he was embarrassed. “Not when it comes from your mouth.”

The look in his eyes was so intimate, so sincere, she glanced down and her cheeks flushed. How could someone she’d known for so long—a man who’d had the splendid audacity to go down on her!—make her blush like a teen? “I have to remember to watch what I say then.”

His brows rose. “What would be the fun in that?”

She was trying hard not to notice how the sun cast light and shadows on the dips and planes of his heavily muscled arms. And it was a damn good thing he had jeans on and not his boxers, because the sight of his bare, tree-trunk thighs would have made her forget why she came out here in the first place.

“Here’s the cool thing about this rock, and why it’s a good memory… My mom was proud of me, too. She put a spell on it so this smaller rock here would roll away and we could leave each other notes. We even had a cassette player—before I lost it—and we would record ‘secret messages’. Mine usually said
I love you
, but hers were more creative. She’d hide dessert or little gifts and leave me clues to find it.”

“What a wonderful mother.”

“She was the best. But getting to live with her mom was a pretty great second choice.” When she tossed the dismembered pinecone toward the ground, Jaxon caught it quicker than she could track with her eyes.

“Does it still work?” he asked, picking at the remaining seeds.

“Huh?”

“The hidey hole. Does it still work?”

She swallowed. “I guess it would…but obviously, there’s nothing there anymore.”

“Show me.” He smiled his playful, I-can-get-you-out-of-this-funk smile. It usually worked.

“I can’t do that,” she teased. “It’s a secret. No one’s allowed to hear the spell.”

“I’ll plug my ears. Promise.”

She narrowed her eyes to slits. “Plugging your ears isn’t going to keep you from hearing what I’m saying. You have ears like an owl.”

He chuckled and pulled her in for a hug, wrapping his arms around her tight. “True. But I still want to see the secret rock. Go.” He released her with a light shove toward the boulder and a quick slap on the rump.

She rubbed a hand over her backside to soothe it. “Hey, watch it.”

His eyes lingered on her lower half. “I am watching. Now hurry up before I do more than appreciate your ass from afar.”

“Oh, geez.” She put her hand on the rock, then glanced over her shoulder. “Plug ’em, buddy.”

He winked and stuck his index fingers in his ears. “You may proceed.”

“I’m never going to live this down,” she mumbled. Jaxon had a way of being able to convince her of anything…well, almost anything, but there was a churning in the pit of her gut as she touched her special stone again and thought of her mother. “The sweetest girl in the whole wide world, with love from her mommy, says open the cubby.”

A current ran up her hands, strong enough to cause her to jump back as the stone rolled to the side. A lizard skittered away from its spot between the rocks, and Abbey was glad nothing bigger had made a home in the crevices between the boulders.

“Thank the Maker I didn’t have to say that as a child.” When Abbey turned to him, Jaxon still had his fingers in his ears.

“Yeah, ha-ha,” she replied. “She crafted that spell when I was five. It had to be easy to remember.”

He laughed and stepped forward, looking into the carved-out space beneath Abbey’s special rock. “A cassette player fit there?”

The hole was larger than a loaf of bread, but not by much. “It was one of those little ones with the tiny tapes.”

“And what’s that?”

She glanced back to the pile of stone. “What?”

“The small opening in the dirt.”

She dug a finger under the nearest rock and hit a pocket of air. “Eeep!” She turned and smacked into Jaxon’s chest. “I think it’s a critter hole. Snakes, maybe.”

He peered over her head. “Do you mind if I take a look?”

“There isn’t much to see. Feels about the size of my wrist.” Snakes… Not her favorite part of living in California.

When Jaxon picked up a stone about three times the size of Abbey’s head, she gasped. “What are you doing? Leave the secret cubby alone!”

“I’ll put them back. I just want to see what’s under here.”

“Nothing’s under there. It’s only—” Her words were cut off when he tossed the second stone aside and uncovered a hole big enough for a coyote to crawl through. “Oh my gosh. I don’t think you should be doing that.”

“Just one more.”

But the third boulder was too big for even Jaxon to lift so, muscles flexing, he put his shoulder to it and started to push. “Stand behind me.”