The Witch's Fantasy, page 9
“No, it has nothing to do with a cat, but a rather important vampire making a comment about the size of the sausage being the perfect size… to be properly satisfied after a meal.”
She still wouldn’t explain why that meant she looked at me earlier, but I could imagine what kind of thing Dahlia had told her. I wanted to press her more, find out what else my oldest friend had told her, but a throat clearing interrupted us from the kitchen’s archway.
Adelyn and I turned to find Damian leaning against the wooden post, the exact position I’d been in just a few minutes before.
“Can I help ya?” My voice came out rougher than I meant it to.
Which only made his smirk widen.
“I couldn’t help but overhear laughing and had to come see what kind of party was going on,” the vampire said, his sharpened teeth glinting in the kitchen light. “Seems like I’m a most welcome interruption.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, the growl in my voice deepening.
“Well, it seems that Miss Adelyn here has been left alone with you. I’d be happy to offer some reprieve from your dark presence.”
He stalked farther into the kitchen, already closer to Adelyn than I liked. I opened my mouth to tell him off when Adelyn moved in front of me, her arms crossed over her chest. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern,” she said, her icy anger indicating anything but gratitude. “But I don’t need a chaperone or protection from my own bodyguard.”
“Miss, you’ve only known him a few days. You don’t know what kind of atrocities he’s done. How can you—?”
Adelyn held up her hand, effectively shutting him up. A faint flush rose to his cheeks, and I had to stop myself from laughing at the man’s expense. No one but Dahlia had silenced him so easily.
Though, I’m sure if that look was leveled at me, I would have shut up without being asked twice.
“Again, thank you for your concern.” Adelyn’s voice was icier than a glacier. “But I can handle myself against assholes. Have done my entire life. Now, I would think that someone as strong and important as you would have about a million other things to do today than bother Khan.”
Damian’s charming mask cracked to reveal an infuriated, embarrassed, and dangerous vampire, who was barely in control of his fangs and blood lust.
I put myself right behind Adelyn, posing with my arms over my chest like her and glaring at him with the same icy glint in my eyes.
His gaze flickered between me and Adelyn, unsure of who he’d like to lunge at first. A muscle twitched in his jaw as his eyes fixed on Adelyn’s neck.
“The lady’s right,” I growled. “I know for a fact that Dahlia’s off in a meetin’ where she could use your invaluable input.”
Damian snarled quietly at me before glancing at Adelyn one last time, a hunter’s gleam in his black eyes, and skulking out of the kitchen.
16
ADELYN
My heart did weird cartwheels in my chest for the rest of my day at work. Unfortunately, they didn’t even stop on the quiet drive home, no matter how much I ignored Khan’s glances.
I couldn’t tell if those glances were ones of concern, or something else, but it didn’t mean anything to my heart—that stupid organ that should stick to its job of pumping blood.
“Home sweet home,” Khan said, his voice light, which did not fit his whole look. He looked at me one more time.
“Why do you keep doing that?”
“Doing what?” His voice dropped to his normal octave.
“You keep looking at me like I’m going to pass out or disappear or something,” I said, turning in my seat to face him, the seatbelt choking me a little. “What’s your deal?”
Khan looked down at the console of his car.
“Well?” I asked expectantly.
“There was something goin’ on with ya this mornin’, and since it is my job to make sure that you’re alright, I kept an extra close eye on you today.”
“That’s all it was?”
A nod was my only response.
Why was I disappointed by that?
I didn’t give it a second thought as I yanked the passenger door open and hopped out.
“Oh, I was gonna—” Khan said, but I cut him off with a hand.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll see you in the morning, Khan, bright and early. You enjoy your evening.”
I slammed the door before he could say anything in response.
The car continued to run idle behind me as I marched up the cracked driveway, the weight of Khan’s eyes upon my back.
My hands shook as I tried to unlock the front door. I shoved the door, but it didn’t budge. Twisting the key back, the lock clicked.
I tried the door again, and it easily gave way.
Odd. Lilly was always careful about the lock. She was careful about the safe space we shared and the few earthly possessions we had.
There was no reason that Lilly would forget to lock the door behind her when she left for the day.
I looked over my shoulder and found Khan stepping out of his ridiculously large SUV. He closed the distance between us in only a few seconds.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice all serious, dark, and his hand resting on the gun at his waist.
“The door was unlocked when I tried to open it,” I whispered out the side of my mouth.
“Any way you or your roommate forgot to lock it this morning?”
I shook my head.
“Absolutely not.”
In a moment, Khan pulled out his gun and gently shoved me out of the doorway.
“Stay there,” he whispered before disappearing into the house, gun lifted and ready to be used.
I had checked the time on my phone every twenty seconds for a solid ten minutes when Lilly pulled up with Maya in tow.
The pair of them slowed when they saw me on the porch step with my chin in my hand.
“Hey,” Lilly said warily. “What’s going on? Did you forget your keys or something?”
I shook my head. “The door wasn’t locked. I freaked out, so Khan went to go check the house. He’s been in there for a while, though.”
“Stay out here with Aunt Addy,” Lilly said to her daughter, giving her hand to me.
I’d never heard her voice take on that tone before.
She sounded just like Khan.
I watched her as she stalked into the house, holding out my arm to stop Maya from following her mother.
“Listen to your mom, Maya,” I whispered. “Sit down here with me and tell me about your day at school, alright?”
She sat on the step next to me and leaned her head against my shoulder. Before Maya had the chance to tell me, though, shouts came from the house.
We shot up from the steps and raced inside. I pressed Maya to my leg behind me as we made our way inside.
Khan and Lilly stood across the hall from each other, pointing their guns at the other. They weren’t shouting anymore, and they were already lowering their weapons when they noticed me and Maya standing in the entryway.
Lilly dropped her gun instantly, putting the safety on as she did—I didn’t even know we had a gun in the house—and looked at her daughter with intense concern in her gaze.
Khan, on the other hand, lowered his gun, but kept his hands positioned on the weapon as if someone was going to come in and attack us at any moment.
“What the hell, you two?” I asked, placing a hand on Maya’s head. “I mean, when did you even get a gun, Lil?”
Lilly looked down at the floor as she tucked the gun in the back of her jeans. But she didn’t answer me.
I turned my gaze to Khan, who, thankfully, met my eyes.
“I think someone was here,” he said, his eyebrows furrowed. “There’s a scent—faint, but it’s there—that doesn’t belong to any of you.”
He finally tucked his own gun back into its holster.
“It’s been a while since it’s been here,” he said, crossing his arms.
“Why would someone break in?” Lilly said, eventually breaking the silence.
Khan shrugged. “Well, it’s one of two things. One, it’s a side effect of livin’ in a neighborhood like yours. There’s bound to be the occasional break-in. Or two, someone became interested in you since you started working for Dahlia, which I said could happen.”
“Did you really just tell me ‘I told you so’?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.
Khan looked away and said nothing more.
Looking between the two of us and glancing down at her daughter, Lilly studied all of us. Studied the situation.
“Okay, so you and your boss promised to keep us safe if Addy came to work for her,” Lilly said as she stepped between us. “What are you going to do to uphold that promise?”
Khan turned to look at her, as if seeing her for the first time. “There’s options,” he said after a moment of thinking. “You can quit your job, though I doubt you’d take my advice on that. You can move into the compound, but then you’d really be involved. Or I can call one of my guys to install a security system for you.”
“How fast can your guy install the system?” I asked, ignoring his other remarks.
He shrugged again. “I can get a guy out here within the hour, and it might take him a couple hours, three tops, to wire the house, since it’s not a big house.”
Lilly and I looked at one another, communicating wordlessly before turning to Khan.
“Call him,” I said.
17
KHAN
The drive from Adelyn’s house to the compound the next day was a silent one. She and I had stayed up until three in the morning waiting for Thomas to finish installing the security system, long after Lilly and Maya had gone to bed.
The first stop on the commute was one of those fancy coffee chains that was popular with those fancy white women who wore oversized sweaters way before the weather was appropriate.
Addy gave me a questioning look from her side of the car as she messed with the small flower hanging from her necklace.
“They make their espresso shots extra strong,” I said with a shrug.
“Then I’ll take a caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso and a mocha drizzle.”
I wrinkled my nose at her order.
“Don’t you dare make fun of my drink order,” she chastised, crossing her arms over the seat belt. “I will tell everyone that you’re nothing but a basic white bitch getting your caffeine fix here.”
Scoffing, I glanced at the menu and couldn’t help but think that her order sounded really good.
“No one would believe you,” I said as my eyes roved over the options.
“Oh really? Why don’t you look me in the eye and tell that to my face?”
I turned to do just that when her phone clicked in my face. She glanced at the picture before doubling over with laughter, true laughter that came from deep in the belly.
My cheeks burned, even though it was good to see a smile on her face. It disguised the bags under her eyes that were my fault, just not in the way I wanted.
“What exactly is so fuckin’ funny about that picture?” I asked, reaching for her phone. “There’s no way ya can tell where we are.”
She pulled her phone out of my reach just in time, shaking her head since she was laughing too hard to protest.
“Show me,” I demanded as I grabbed her wrist rather than her phone. Good thing the wait was long and I’d already put my car in park.
“No,” she said, finally getting it out between her wheezing laughs.
I growled. “Give it to me.”
She glanced at the picture and laughed harder.
“Okay, now ya have to show me.”
When she continued to resist, my hand flew to her waist and tickled her mercilessly. She doubled over in her seat, tears in her eyes as she struggled to catch a breath.
“Okay,” she said, her voice nothing more than breathy whispers. “Okay, okay, mercy, I surrender.”
She finally released the phone, and I grabbed it, my hand stilling at her waist. I couldn’t bring myself to take it off, though. So I left one hand on Adelyn’s waist as I lifted her phone to look at the picture.
“What the actual fuck?”
Adelyn went into another round of giggles at the picture and, even more I’m sure, my reaction.
She had used one of the stupid fucking filters that made me look like an actual basic bitch. It had layered bad, fake hair on top of my own and added an overly large scarf around my neck.
“Delete this right now,” I said, handing the phone back to her.
“Not a chance.” She wiped away a stray tear. “I haven’t laughed that hard in for-fucking-ever. I’ll be keeping that to look at it again later.”
I growled and searched for the trash button that would surely delete the picture. Before I could manage, though, she reached over and turned the phone off with one press of a button.
“If ya want a picture of me to keep you company later,” I said, turning to look her in the eye, my face far closer than I had intended, “I’d be happy to give ya one. Though I doubt it would make ya laugh.”
A blush rose to her cheeks, and she tore her eyes from mine.
“The line’s moving,” she mumbled.
I pulled away, reluctantly, shifting into drive to pull forward and finally order two of whatever it was Adelyn had wanted.
“Come in,” Dahlia’s voice called out, muffled from behind the heavy oak door.
I strode into the office. I used to dread being summoned to this room of the house—it usually ended in me bloody, bruised, and holding back tears.
Even now, my heart raced, and my legs told me to run. Get far away.
But I continued my steady march across the thick carpet until I stood right in front of Dahlia’s desk, my legs shoulder-width and my hands gripped tightly behind my back.
This office had once belonged to her father, but she had made herself at home since his untimely death. I had no idea how she didn’t rage and tear off every single book from the shelves.
“You summoned?”
It was more of a statement than a question, really.
She looked up from the many papers that littered her desk, her reading glasses slipping down her nose.
I had to push the image of Adelyn’s glasses, doing the same as she leaned over the oven to check her latest concoction and showing off her…
“Have I interrupted some deep thoughts of yours?” Dahlia asked, waving her hands in front of my face. She smirked knowingly. “I’m glad to have your attention once again.”
“I’m sorry, I was thinking of—”
Her lips widened into a grin. “I really don’t want to know what you were thinking, Khan. I can imagine what’s going on in that head of yours, anyway. You don’t have to keep standing there like some gargoyle, though. Take a seat, Khan.”
I blinked.
Dahlia was far from being her father’s daughter, but a part of me had been expecting a dressing down.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about our security, Khan,” Dahlia said, walking around the large desk and taking a seat next to me. “I’d like an update on the whole Matt situation, and I want you to tell me what happened at Adelyn’s house. Thomas told me that you called him there.”
She looked at me expectantly, her hands holding the knee crossed over her other leg.
“My men have been working around the clock, Dahlia,” I said, finally able to relax into the comfortable leather chair. “I’ve been checking in with them on the hour to get updates. They’re still combing through surveillance footage, but if Matt is hiding in the city, he’s well-adept. But I know we’ll find him.”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t really wanna tell Dahlia about my second failure. But she was my boss, and she had asked a direct question. “When I dropped Adelyn off yesterday, the front door of her house was unlocked, which she said was suspiciously abnormal. I entered the home with my weapon drawn. There was evidence that someone other than the residents had been there, but had left, taking nothing with them. Of all the options I offered, having Thomas come out and install a security system for them was the one that most appealed to them.”
Dahlia thought for a moment, one of her feet tapping against the plush carpet.
“Was the intruder related to the family business in any way?” she asked.
“I found no evidence to prove or disprove that,” I responded. “It’s not a great neighborhood to begin with, so it could be a side effect of that, but I found the timing suspicious.”
Nodding in agreement, Dahlia looked as if she was searching for something to say. “So, we continue to monitor and protect,” she said. “If things escalate, we’ll have to take greater precautions. If not, then the timing was a mere coincidence.”
I nodded curtly, but there was a tugging in my gut. It was possible it was all a coincidence.
But it had been Dahlia’s own father who had taught me, engrained in me, really, that there was no such thing.
Dahlia clapped her hands together, startling me from my thoughts.
“Why don’t you go see to Adelyn?” she suggested as she pushed herself from the chair. “I’m sure she could use a friendly face while preparing for the family luncheon today. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but Damian started asking me questions about her.”
I shot up from the chair. “I’ll be off then.”
I had already crossed the long room when Dahlia’s cold voice stopped me in my tracks, a hand stretched to turn the doorknob.
“I would also like hourly updates from here on out,” she said, rearranging the papers in front of her. “And if being around that girl proves to be too distracting, I will provide her with another guard. Damian, perhaps. I’m sure he would be glad for the opportunity.”
I swallowed nervously at her obvious threat. “Duly noted, Boss,” I said without looking over my shoulder. “I won’t allow myself to get distracted.”
