Twisted Magic (22 page)

I pulled at his hair accepting his passionate
kiss;
he moved closer his hips holding me in place
against the
wall. He
guided me and rubbed against
me
teasingly
.

“You still want this?” He
said
his voice tranquil and eager for the next step.

What more could I want at that moment. My body was dying for relief, so teased and turned on there was
nothing I wanted more.
However,
I couldn’t get Slade out of my mind.

I looked away as Hutch smoothed my hair. He lifted my chin. “Tell me what’s wrong, Doll.”

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” I wasn’t the kind of girl who cheated on their boyfriend. Even if he wasn’t doing right by me, that meant I was just like my mother and didn’t want to be anything like her.

I closed my eyes and let out a troubled sigh. Hutch pressed his lips against the top of my head. He squeezed my arm assuring me things were okay and left the room returning quickly with my clothes.

“Thanks, and I am sorry.” I secured my top on. “I wasn’t trying to lead you on. I think I am confused. It’s just not the right time to be making this kind of decision.”

Hutch nodded a small smile on his lips. “Slade’s a lucky guy. You’re an amazing girl.”

It
didn’t matter that I turned Hutch down. I was still
drunk,
and I couldn’t go home.

Hutch offered me his bed. I gladly climbed in knowing things were not going to go
anywhere,
and that it was nothing more than a harmless
sleep over
now. It just felt good to be near someone
who
seemed to enjoy being around me as much as I
enjoyed their company.

I turned on my side lifting his arm and slipped beneath
it. I
was exhausted. And I quickly fell asleep to the sound of his breathing and his heart pounding against my back, holding tight to his arm.

Morning came
too
soon. I raised my head looking around the room for something to jar my memory. I knew I wasn’t
home. I
knew I was with Hutch, but it hadn’t hit me just how awful I was about to feel.

I threw off the covers, staring at the empty spot beside me. I raked a hand through my tangled hair and gasped
as I caught sight of myself in the mirror across from his bed
. I covered the marks on my neck in shock of what took place last night.

“Morning,” Hutch said, coming in the room wearing nothing but basketball shorts and a smile. He handed over a box of doughnuts, all glazed with white icing and sprinkles. He leaned against the doorway, his shorts hanging off him in that sexy way that always drove me wild in magazines. He toyed with his hair, the untidy look making him even more attractive.

“Brought you some fattening food to settle the hangover,” Hutch said.

I opened the box and snagged a doughnut. “Thank you.” I sighed. Was I really about to yell at him for the marks on my neck?

The problem was now there was proof of our
encounter,
and I wasn’t sure how I would hide it or if I even wanted to.

I took a bite out of the doughnut. “What time is it?”

Hutch
smirked,
“almost
ten.”

I looked around his room, bare walls,
and a
couple
of suitcases in
the corner. A laptop
sat
on a rather simple desk, there wasn’t a single photo or personal effect on his wall.

“Your room is so bare. Don’t you have any pictures or sports memorabilia to hang up?”

Hutch took a seat. “I like to travel light. All my
worldly
possessions are back home in my real house.” He smoothed a lock of hair behind my ear as I stuffed another bite of
a doughnut
in my mouth.

“So you have a home?” I dropped the rest of the doughnut in the box a little queasy. “What’s it like?”

Hutch’s eyes brightened at the mention of it.
“Lovely, doll.”

“Why do you do that?” I said
,
fighting against the butterflies.

He stroked another strand of hair
behind
my ear
again,
his
fingertip's
grazing my cheekbone. “Do what? Call you doll?”

I nodded feeling a bit bashful
suddenly.

“It’s a term of endearment.” He leaned in
,
catching me off
guard as he planted a kiss on my forehead
.

“If you would like to take a shower before you go
you’re
more
than
welcome,” he smiled and quickly left the room. My heart pounded in my
chest. My
stomach dropped, what was I doing?

I was lying in another
guy’s
bed, enjoying myself and his
affection. He
was so sweet and polite, downright charming.

I looked in the
mirror, and
rough.

I drifted off into a daydream of what it would have been like if we had slept together, scolding myself for even thinking about it.

As I hurried to shower and make it home with a good excuse
about
why I was missing all night I was overwhelmed. I suddenly realized that the choice I made was a bad one even if it felt really
pleasurable,
even if I hadn’t gone all the way
.
I
made a
mistake; all because I was so confused about Slade and what to do.

I lathered my hair with the only shampoo in the shower and started to cry. I felt horrible in every way imaginable for liking Hutch.
Even so,
I knew that I did, I could feel the connection. I could feel the desire to be around him, the sadness that soon I would have to leave and figure out a way to hide what we did to the world. Nobody else would understand or see what I saw. They wouldn’t feel how I felt.

Hutch understood me. He also wanted to help me learn how to be a witch—a good one
,
not an evil one like Audrey.

I moved through the hallway afraid to run into his brothers, but at the end of the
hallway. I
realized it was just Hutch and I. He looked up from the television and smiled.

“Feel
better,”
he asked as I sat down beside him on the
love seat.

“A little.”
I looked away. “You said you wanted to help me. Do you still want to help me?”

He searched my eyes confused by my uncertainty. “Of course I want to help you. I thought we settled that last night.”

“What do you mean settled?”

Hutch cracked a smile. “Have you forgotten that fast?” he lifted my hand kissing my knuckles.

The almost sex
that occurred last night,
I hadn’t forgotten, but I didn’t know what that had to do with anything else. “
We almost made a really big mistake
. And you gave me this reminder.” I pointed to my neck where the reddish mark rested for the world to see.

“I can be
a
handful sometimes when I like what I’m doing, and I
like you
,” he
smirked;
I slapped him
teasingly
on the shoulder. “I thought last night we both were under the same understanding that you wanted my help. That you wanted to steer clear of the dark side.”

“Hutch, please don’t tell me that.” I looked out the window. It made things so much different.

He sighed. “Don’t think of it as anything more
than
I think you’re a great girl. We
barely
know each other right?” He shrugged it off, making me feel more at ease.

I twirled a strand of wet hair around my finger
thinking about our conversation
.
About what I wanted, I didn’t want to have anything to do with the dark side.
“I want no part of
anything
evil.
But,
I also care about them.” I didn’t finish my sentence.

“Your boyfriend and the other one’s he hangs around with?”

I nodded. “Slade and his family are good people. Audrey is
evil,
and I am afraid of what she might do to them.”

“You can only look after yourself. And asking them to break away from what they are will never happen, Doll. Slade and his family are indebted to these witches right?” Hutch stroked a hand against his chin.

“Yes.” Was all I
said.

“That’s a bond made by that coven. Your bond is to Slade,” Hutch eyed me carefully as he explained this. “Slade holds the
link
to you even though the
supernatural
is from
somewhere
dark.”

My head was foggy and nothing Hutch was
explaining
made sense. “So what are you trying to tell me?” Did it mean I was
screwed,
or maybe I wasn’t but Slade and the rest of them were?

“I’m saying I can help
you. I
can connect you to me if you want to break away from that coven.” This was all
hokey
. The very things I never believed existed until recently.

“How do you do that?
A spell?”

Hutch nodded. “There’s a store up the boardwalk, we can get what we need to start the process. And then we will see what we can do about your friends.
However,
I am not promising anything. If they refuse there’s nothing we can do.”

I
nodded. I
understood, but that didn’t mean I was completely satisfied with the answer. Or what it even meant to connect myself to another witch when Audrey had warned me to steer clear of this sort of thing, of disobeying the coven.

I looked at Hutch. “Let’s go.”

As I stood in the
sordid
looking shop at the end of Hutch’s
neighborhood,
I wondered what I got myself into.
I crossed my arms not moving from my spot at the front door. The dusty windows barely let the sunlight shine through and made it more dreary then it already was.

“Are you sure about this place?” I asked Hutch as he looked past the wooden counter at the array of
herbs,
and concoctions bottled and on display. The jars were neatly lined on one long shelf after another covering the entire back wall.

“I swear it. Anything you want to do there is something here to help you.” He waited patiently, while I counted in my head to thirty and if someone didn’t appear soon I was out of there. I had a previous
incident
with places of the
sorts,
and I wasn’t about to have another one.

The beaded curtains rattled and shook and out came a
red-haired woman,
her long skirt swaying in the breeze as she came to the counter.

“Hutch so nice to see you again,” she said
,
a small smile on her face, the creases in her forehead proved she was
old. I
just wasn’t sure how old exactly. She looked past Hutch to me, pushing a strand of fiery red hair from her shoulder, her silver bracelets chiming against her tan arm.

Hutch turned toward me. “This is Hope.” He motioned me forward. I reluctantly stood beside Hutch at the counter.

“Jane,” she didn’t offer a smile as she had with Hutch.

Hutch ignored the awkwardness between the two of us and brought the matter at hand to the surface.

“I need some things for a binding spell and for a connection spell.”

Her eyes grew large. “What is it your trying to
unite
, Hutch?” Her gaze dropped to my tattoo. I covered it with my hand feeling judge
d
and
unwelcome.

“I’m not getting into the details. But yes, it seems foolish I’m sure.”

“More than
foolish,
I can
sense
the darkness just looking at her. You don’t want to mess with that connection.” She turned her back on us.

My mouth was dry. I looked at Hutch. “What is she saying?”

Hutch sighed. “She’s afraid of what you are and what
is
connected to you.”