He sipped his drink. “I didn’t read your mind, just your drink order.”

  “How is that any different?” I asked.

  “It’s helping,” he said.

  I frowned at him. This was exactly why I didn’t like dark magic users. Too many of them found ways to exist in the gray areas. Where the things they did weren’t technically illegal, but they were damn close. The fact that he was willing to read my mind proved exactly what kind of a guy he was. It was probably a trick he used to get girls in his bed.

  Lots of them based on how attractive he was. His strong jaw was dusted with dark stubble and his grin was that of a scolded schoolboy. He locked his blue eyes on me, not looking away. “Maybe I’m not the bad guy, Caitlin. Maybe I’m exactly what you need tonight.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” I said, slamming my drink down on the counter. “You stay out of my head.”

  He wasn’t worth avoiding Madame LeMan. I had to get away from him.

  Just as I took a step to move, everything stopped.

  Chapter Seven

  Marcos

  I was so fixated on this woman that I didn’t notice that the crowds had thinned. The two of us were nearly alone in the room and I couldn’t but help hear her thoughts clear as day.

  She projected easily, filling me with the thoughts racing through her head. I smiled. She thought I was attractive.

  My smile faded. She also thought I was bad news. She was right. Quickly, I read her thoughts for her favorite drink and ordered two. Part of me wanted to show off just a little, even though I knew it was unlikely she’d be going home with me.

  I handed her the gin and soda. She took it without hesitation and swigged it like it was her medicine. Guess that run in with Madame LeMan was harder on her than I realized. I could dig around in her head, find out why she was so desperate to get away from her that she’d turn to me. But that was low, even for me.

  “How did you know?” She asked, holding up her glass.

  I leaned against the bar and swirled the ice around in my cup. I knew what she was asking, but she was hard to get a read on. Maybe she didn’t know what my magic was capable of. It scared a lot of people, so I rarely let it out voluntarily. “The kind of drink you like?”

  I nodded. “You know, it’s generally frowned upon to use magic to read minds.”

  She was good. Even with her unusual magical signature, she knew her stuff. There was more to her than I initially suspected. Sexy and smart. Double threat. I sipped my drink. “I didn’t read your mind, just your drink order.”

  “How is that any different?” She asked.

  “It’s helping.” Which technically it was. I looked out at the nearly empty room. Everyone was heading to the back doors. It must be time for the blessing. I probably should go out there and join the others, but this woman captivated me. I wanted to be where she was. Which wasn’t like me at all. She was different. Feisty and fiery. I liked it.

  I couldn’t resist. Her pull was too tempting. I dipped into her mind and I could feel her unease. She didn’t like dark magic. It made her nervous. And she blamed it for so much, but I couldn’t get a clear feel for it.

  I stared into her dark eyes, searching for a trace of why she was so different. Was she a hybrid? Something I hadn’t felt before?

  Her lips turned down in a frown and all I could think of was how soft they looked. I wanted to kiss her.

  When we locked gazes, I could feel the hatred seething inside her. She didn’t even know me, but she assigned me the villain label. I might be a scoundrel, but I knew I wasn’t anything compared to the actual villains.

  “Maybe I’m not the bad guy, Caitlin. Maybe I’m exactly what you need tonight.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” she said, slamming her drink down on the counter. “I never even told you my name. You stay out of my head.”

  She marched away from me, taking a few steps.

  I winced, knowing I’d gone too far. It was rare that I pushed a woman away and it was honestly surprising. “Wait. I’m sorry.”

  Suddenly, everything stopped. It was as if I was frozen in place. My ears filled with a rushing sound, blocking out anything else that was happening around us.

  Caitlin was still in front of me, like a statue. Then, all at once, a sound came rushing into me like an ocean wave. I pressed my hands to my ears, feeling the pressure building like an explosion.

  A second later, it was over.

  Caitlin collapsed to the ground.

  I ran to her. “Caitlin, are you okay?”

  She rubbed her forehead and turned to look at me. “I think so. I’m not sure what just happened.”

  I offered my hand and helped her to standing. Then she let go of my hand and glared at me. “I don’t want your help.”

  I lifted my hands in mock surrender. “I’m not reading your mind now, I swear.”

  All around us, people flooded in. The room filled with sounds of confusion. Something happened. With a gathering of this many witches, I had to suspect magic.

  Reaching for my own, I quickly tried to sense what was going on.

  But there was nothing.

  My magic wasn’t there.

  I tried again as panic set in, my chest tightening. It was gone. No, not gone. I could feel it, deep within, but it was trapped. As if it was bound and locked away from me. But that was impossible. Unless someone had done a very powerful spell to bind all the magic here.

  I looked up at Caitlin to see the glow of dark magic surrounding her. The magic vibrated around her, an intense, familiar feeling. All magic had its own tone. And the magic circling her felt identical to mine.

  “This is impossible,” I said, hoping I was wrong.

  “What’s happening?” She asked, holding her hand in front of her. “This shouldn’t be happening. I bound my magic.”

  “Somehow, we were switched,” I said. “You must have mine. And I have yours.”

  “What do you mean?” She asked.

  “I can’t access my magic,” I said, extending my fingertips in front of me. “There’s something there, deep inside, but it won’t ignite.”

  “Fix it,” she said. “Whatever you did, change it back.”

  “I didn’t do this,” I said. “This is beyond my skills.”

  “I don’t want it,” she said, her voice tight. “I can’t. I can’t have this much power. You need to take it back.”

  “Trust me, I would if I could, but I don’t know how,” I said.

  She looked around as if trying to find someone. Which I had to admit, was a good idea. There had to be someone here with more power than us. Someone who could fix this.

  But nobody was paying attention to us. All around was chaos.

  The truth sank in. “I think we were cursed. All of us.”

  “How do we fix it?” She asked.

  “I don’t know. But we’re going to figure it out,” I said.

  Chapter Eight

  Caitlin

  “I know where we can go,” I said, already dreading the thought of paying a visit to the priestess who had bound my magic the first time. She wasn’t someone I ever wanted to see again, but I couldn’t keep this magic.

  “You’re talking someone who can fix this, right?” he said.

  “Yes, asshole.” I shook my head. As if I wanted to keep his precious magic. There was a reason I had mine bound in the first place. I knew I was dangerous with this running through my veins and the sooner I sent it back to him, the better.

  We walked through the chaos, past screaming and confused people. Nerves twisted in my gut as a pang of guilt shot through me. I should be helping. I should find a way to make this better. Driven by the selfish need to get rid of the magic and the fear that I was going to hurt someone with it, I blew out a breath. I had to fix this. Helping now would only prolong the time I had this magic.

  I tried not to think of the damage I’d done before my magic was bound. There had been so much pain. So much blood.

  We finally made it to the door, right behind a man in white with wings stretched out behind him. He stumbled, landing hard on the steps leading away from the mansion.

  I stopped, the urge to help calling me back. My companion grabbed my upper arm and pulled me away. “Don’t stop. We have to fix this.”

  “He needs help,” I said.

  “And you’re going to help him? With all that magic flowing through you that you can’t control?” He asked.

  I glanced at the fallen angel. He was up again but struggling. The asshole next to me was right. I wanted to help, but if I stopped, I could cause more harm than good.

  “You know, I can walk by myself,” I said, glancing at the fingers wrapped around my arm.

  He quickly let go of me.

  “Do you have a name?” I didn’t really want to get to know him, but we were stuck together, for now.

  “Marcos,” he said.

  Of course, he had a sexy name to go with the rest of him. Why couldn’t I have exchanged magic with someone else? Anyone else?

  “So, what’s your plan?” he asked.

  “We’ll go see the woman who bound my magic in the first place,” I said.

  He stopped walking. “Oh no, we’re not.”

  I stopped and turned back to him. “Yes, we are. She’s the only one I know who can help us.”

  “I don’t want you fucking up my magic,” he said. “I just want it back.”

  “And like I told you, I’m not trying to keep it. I want to get rid of it.”

  “That’s not the right way to go about this,” he said. “If this was a curse, we have to break the curse. That’s all. No out of body magic swapping needed.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Okay, then how do we break the curse?”

  “I don’t know that,” he said. “I just said that’s what we need to do.”

  “But if we don’t know how to break it, why not just do this? It’ll be faster,” I said.

  “And riskier. I want my magic undamaged.”

  My temper flared. He was worried I was going to damage his magic. As if I would go against my word and trick him into something. My face heated and my chest tightened. I squeezed my hands into fists. How the hell did I get stuck with the world’s most selfish man? “How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t want your magic.”

  Sparks sizzled on my hands and behind me, I heard a series of pops. Startled, I released my hands and turned to see a bunch of broken lightbulbs from the outdoor lights hanging in the garden.

  “You’re going to have to calm down. You don’t know how to use this magic,” he said. “It’s too much for a little witch to handle. Especially a witch who didn’t even want her own magic.”

  Jaw clenched, I glared at him. He was holding my magic inside him but he didn’t know what it was capable of. “You know nothing about me.”

  “You’re right, I don’t, which is why I don’t trust your source.”

  “You want to break the curse? Go ahead, be my guest. Take back your magic. Keep mine for all I care, just get it over with.”

  “We go to Tilly King,” he said.

  I cocked an eyebrow. “You want to visit my grandmother?”

  His eyes widened.

  “Missed that detail when you were creeping around in my mind, did you?” I asked.

  “How the hell does the granddaughter of one of the most powerful magic families end up with bound magic?” he asked.

  I frowned. He ignored my jab about being in my head and went straight for the jugular. “Not so easy to figure women out when you have to talk to them and not just dig around their heads.”

  “That’s not an answer,” he said.

  “And I don’t owe you one,” I said.

  “You do if we’re not going to see a woman like your grandmother for help,” he said.

  I didn’t want to tell him. How could I? The memory flooded back, making my throat tighten as tears stung the back of my eyes. I was only sixteen when it happened. Practicing with my friends. Nobody told me my magic was different. I didn’t know that what I felt wasn’t the same thing they felt. And I didn’t know that my magic took more work to control. I could still hear the screams of my friends.

  “Whoa, calm down,” Marcos said.

  I shook my head and snapped back to reality. My hands were covered in sparks again as the magic responded to my emotions. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I was too emotional. I knew that. It was part of why I couldn’t be trusted with this. My grandmother had said magic like mine was a gift that had to be mastered. I disagreed. It was a curse, and it had to be tamed or eliminated.

  “She’s not who you want to see,” I said. “We go to her, she just might leave things the way they are. She’s not big on helping.”

  “You got rid of your magic on your own, didn’t you?” he asked.

  I nodded. “And it was the right choice for me. I don’t want it. But I can’t deny that my family was pissed.”

  “Fine, if you really think she won’t help us, take us to this priestess,” he said.

  “Alright,” I said. “She’s not far from here.”

  I started walking away from the mansion, away from the party my grandmother had talked me into attending. Part of me knew she wouldn’t make me keep the magic of a warlock I just met, but I couldn’t admit to her that I’d messed up her task so badly.

  Surely, there was something I’d done to cause me to end up with this curse. Curses weren’t handed out randomly. Whatever I’d done or whatever I’d attracted was bound to bring more shame to my family. I’d only recently been welcomed back and things were better. I couldn’t go back to being on the outside again. I was afraid that if I was kicked out again, I’d never be let back into the fold.

  My sister was a rule follower, which meant, if I was cast out, she’d have to follow them. She was my best friend and I couldn’t afford to lose her for good.

  The only chance we had was the priestess. Problem was, her price was going to be steep. As it was, it cost more than I wanted to admit last time I’d visited her. And this time, I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to pay her price.

  She traded in favors and magic. And as someone with dark magic, I was sent to do something unthinkable for her. But I was desperate. This time, I wasn’t so sure I would be willing to make the same call.

  Between the accident and the price I paid to eliminate the magic, I’d demonstrated the danger of the power I held. I was not to be trusted with this kind of power. I might judge Marcos for the things he’d done, but I wondered if between the two of us, I was the bad guy.

  Chapter Nine

  Marcos

  Caitlin was silent and determined as we walked down the sidewalk away from the party. I would never admit it, but it was starting to get to me that I couldn’t just take a peek inside her head.

  Until losing my magic tonight, I didn’t realize how much I relied on it. I knew it was important, I knew I used it to get things for work, but I didn’t realize how much it helped in other ways.

  The beautiful woman walking next to me was hiding something. I could sense it by every action, every breath, every darting glance of her gorgeous eyes. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what it was. I wondered if she was more dangerous then she let on. Though, I had a feeling that even if her skeletons were worse than mine, I wouldn’t care. She was intriguing and the more she argued with me, the more I wanted her.

  That probably made me an asshole, but I didn’t care. It was rare to find a woman who didn’t blow me off and walk away or instantly agree to my bed. And to be fair, the women who blew me off were very, very rare. This time, I was in the unusual situation of having one of those women forced to endure my company. Which just made me want to turn her to me more. “So, we’re stuck with each other for awhile. Should we get to know each other?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “I’m from Connecticut originally, moved here recently,” I said.

  “I don’t care,” she said. “We won’t be together long if we can convince the priestess to help us.”

  “Sure, sure,” I said. “Keep it business then. Tell me about the priestess, what should I expect?”

  She glanced at me, then returned her gaze ahead. “Keep quiet. She’ll see right through your sleazy one-night stand agenda.”

  “Now who’s reading minds?” I asked, laughing.

  She stopped walking and turned to face me. Her expression was serious. “I’m not reading your mind, but I’ve met enough men like you to know what you’re after. And I can promise you, it’s never going to happen.”

  “Hey, you’ve got the wrong idea,” I said. “I’d never try to play you. But you can’t get mad at me for finding you attractive.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “How much farther?” I asked.

  She gestured toward a three-story mansion. “We’re here. She has a way of being found when someone needs her.”

  “This is where your voodoo priestess lives?” My jaw dropped open.

  “Like I said, stay quiet and let me do the talking.” She let out a long breath then walked toward the wrought iron front gate. Pausing at the door, she pressed a button on a speaker pad.

  “Who’s there?” a woman’s voice called.

  “It’s Caitlin King,” she said. “I have a proposition for you.”

  “I was hoping I’d see you again one day,” the voice said.

  Something clicked and then Caitlin pressed on the gate and it swung open. She stepped through then turned back to me. “You coming?”

  It was an old plantation style mansion and just looking at it sent a wave of chills down my spine. Something about it wasn’t natural. It would belong better in a horror movie than the cover of Southern Hospitality. And as many times as I’d walked down this street, I swore I’d never seen it before. How was that possible?

  “Gate’s closing,” she said.

  I hurried in and the door slammed behind us. A ripple of magic rushed around me, as if moving me toward the ancient house. I glanced toward the street. It seemed far away, as if I was looking at it through a reflection in a pond. Nothing felt quite real.

 

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