Influential_Magic

chapter 22





David pulled back, his posture rigid. “Excuse me?”

My whole body went cold as I got to my feet. I knew Allcot’s deal had been too easy. Was he giving me tasks to keep me out of the way? I rounded on David, ready to tell him exactly what I thought of his father, but froze at the trace of color rising in his face. There was only one reason blood rushed to a vampire’s face. Blood lust.

“David?” I asked tentatively.

His hardened eyes focused on me, and that was when I noticed the red tinge around his irises.

“Willow!” Phoebe said sharply. “Back up. Now.”

I’d thought blood lust referred to young, hungry vampires. Not angry ones. Yes, David was newly turned, but he’d been so controlled, so sure of himself, I’d forgotten all about the struggle most vamps went through in the first months after they turned.

On shaky legs I stumbled back, grateful when Talisen’s hands clutched my arms. Link brushed up against my leg. Thank the Goddess he hadn’t shifted. I couldn’t handle another wolf-vamp fight.

Talisen was murmuring, but through my anger and fear, I couldn’t make out the words. Link? Is that what he said? I tried to focus. Yes, he was keeping Link calm with a mystical fae chant. Too bad it wouldn’t work on a vampire.

“Eadric forced the Influence on you?” David retreated and clutched the back of the sofa. The wood frame creaked under his grip.

Nicola closed her big brown eyes, tears escaping from under her lids, and nodded.

“F*ck.” The muscles in David’s arms tensed, and the sofa frame splintered with a deafening crack. “Why?”

“Damn you, Laveaux.” Phoebe glared at David.

Nicola wrapped her hands around herself and shook her head.

I steeled my resolve and forced myself forward to stand next to her. “She’s been through a lot today. Maybe we should let her rest while we figure out what to do from here.”

David’s red gaze raked over me. Another chill caused gooseflesh to ripple over my limbs. I straightened my spine. Enough was enough. This witch couldn’t be held responsible for actions she was forced to do. David wouldn’t really hurt any of us, would he?

He glanced back at Nicola, his jaw clenched. “Don’t move.” And just like that a streak of black zoomed up the stairs, making the breath catch in my throat. He was gone.

A loud, wood-splintering crash came from my bedroom. I winced, praying it wasn’t my bed, or worse, part of my tree. If he messed with my oak, he was vamp dust. I turned to Nicola and kneeled in front of her. “Are you all right? Can we get you anything?”

She licked her swollen red lips and croaked, “Water?”

“Phoebs?” I glanced up to find her glaring at us. “What’s wrong?”

She stood with her hands on her hips, feet apart. Her narrowed eyes focused on Nicola. “Were you Influenced to try to kill me as well, or was that your idea?”

“Phoebs,” I warned. Accusations weren’t going to get us anywhere.

“It’s okay,” Nicola said, her voice stronger, but still wary. “I’d be pissed as hell, too.” She shifted to get a better look at my roommate. “My instructions were to do or say anything to get the information I needed without getting caught or betraying my master. You were overpowering me. That spell was the last tool I had.”

Phoebe’s eyes went wide with disbelief. Her entire five-foot-two frame vibrated with barely contained rage. “You expect me to buy that horseshit? That little spell packed more punch than my granddaddy’s one-hundred-eighty-proof moonshine. You tried to steal my magic and, by extension, my lifeline. That spell is no one’s last resort. It takes far too much energy.”

“Whoa.” I took a step back. Who was this chick?

Nicola closed her eyes again as if struggling to form thoughts. Shaking her head, she held up a thin hand. She wore a silver ring with a ruby the size of an almond on her middle finger. With her other hand she caressed the stone. A second later it popped open, and barely a whisper of magic escaped.

Phoebe pounced, tackling me to the floor. “Ouch,” I cried as pain shot through my elbow. We landed in a tangle of limbs, her body covering me as if a bomb had gone off.

After a moment, Phoebe jumped to her feet. “What the f*ck are you doing?” She stalked to the other witch and clasped a hand around her wrist. Nicola cried out as Phoebe tore the ring from her delicate finger.

Talisen helped me to my feet and, with an amused smile, flicked away a piece of garbage stuck to my shoulder. A half-eaten dog bone flopped to the ground. Gross.

“Thanks.” I turned. His fingers got caught in my mass of hair, and the whole tangled mess shifted, revealing my neck. He scowled, his eyes clouding with anger. Damn it all. My vamp marks were showing. Couldn’t they heal already?

He cut his gaze away and held his hand out for the ring Phoebe was inspecting. “It contains a spell, right?”

Nicola gave him a tentative nod.

Another crash rumbled upstairs. We all glanced at the ceiling. Jesus. Good thing David came from money, because anything he broke, he was replacing. With an upgrade.

“Where’d you get this?” Phoebe demanded, ignoring Talisen’s request. She clutched the ring in her hand as if she could keep any residual magic contained.

“The spell is spent. It can’t hurt anyone now.” Nicola slumped in the chair, squirming for a more comfortable position.

David had freed her hands, but her feet were still strapped to the legs of the chair. My conscience screamed for me to cut the tape away. But something held me back. Phoebe’s unease, maybe? She didn’t scare easy, and this witch had gotten under her skin.

“I can test it,” Talisen offered.

Phoebe shook her head and forced the ring into a tiny, invisible pocket in her skirt. “I’ll do my own testing.”

Footsteps beat against the stairs. David took them two at a time, landing with a heavy thunk in the living room. Before I could stop him, he freed Nicola from her remaining restraints. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” Nicola cried, backing up and stumbling on a broken lamp littering the floor.

“Cryrique.” David moved to the door. “Eadric is waiting for us.”

She gasped.

“What!” I jumped in front of Nicola. Had he lost his ever-loving mind? “You can’t take her to him. He abused her.”

David’s cold hard stare was back. “We have no idea if she’s telling the truth.”

Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t trust her.”

I kicked papers and broken glass out of my way as I marched over to David. “We need to work through a few things.”

His jaw muscle pulsed again. “We don’t have time for this.”

“We’ll take all the time we need.” I brought a finger up and stabbed him in the chest. “You’re not putting her in danger again. If Eadric has anything at all to do with this, he’ll kill her for telling us the truth.”

David’s brow creased with impatience. “No. He won’t.”

“I know he’s your father, David. But, he’s dangerous. No matter what you say. Don’t you think your opinion of him is a little biased? Just because he won’t hurt you doesn’t mean he won’t make an example out of someone else.”

“He won’t,” David said again. “She’s Pandora’s sister.”

“Allcot’s sex kitten?” Phoebe sneered in disbelief. “This one is related to her?”

I shot Phoebe an irritated glance, then turned my attention to Nicola. She didn’t resemble Pandora at all. Was it the vampire change that made Pandora so beautiful? No. She must have been curvy and voluptuous while living to have turned out the way she did. A vampire’s physical build is accentuated after they turn. They aren’t magically transformed. Nicola was small without a curve in sight and had thin, straight blond hair. Her only noticeable feature was her big brown eyes that were almost too large for her face. “I thought Pandora was older, closer to Eadric’s age.”

David nodded. “She is older, but not as old as Father. Nicola is her half sister, born twenty-two years ago to her aging father and his much younger mistress.”

“And Pandora would be upset if the interloper was hurt?” Phoebe looked Nicola up and down, her expression conveying nothing but contempt.

Nicola turned on Phoebe, a spark of life transforming her from a broken witch to one who’d snapped. “Look, bitch. I’m the only family my sister has besides Allcot.” Her voice got stronger with each word. “I’m not a goddamned interloper. She came looking for me ten years ago. Got it? I didn’t ask for any of this. And I’m not staying one more second.”

She got all the way to the door before I blocked her. “You’re not leaving until we get to the bottom of this.”

“The hell I’m not.” Her back was straight, her head held high. She’d gone from scared whimpering victim to she-bitch in a nanosecond. I guess Phoebe hit a nerve. “Get out of the way.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t think you’re going anywhere on your own just yet.” I snapped my fingers. Link jumped to attention and trotted to my side. Talisen and Phoebe backed me up, flanking me on either side. I nodded to David. “Let me talk to her.”

“No.” Certain finality resonated in his tone.

I straightened my spine and my wings fluttered with irritation. “What did you say?”

“No. We don’t have time for this.”

Talisen let out a very faint whistle. “Not a good answer, dude. Not cool at all.”

I jammed an elbow into his gut. “Not now, Tal,” I snapped and shot David a look of disgust. “We have no idea what’s going on, other than a vampire somewhere wants to abduct me, and Maude wants to study me for my abilities. We don’t know where Allcot stands—” David opened his mouth to interrupt. I held my hand up and kept going. “And I’m not about to blindly trust anyone. Especially not your father.”

I glanced around at the trashed living room. “Can we all go upstairs to the kitchen and sit?”

Everyone stared at David. With the commotion he’d wrought earlier in his vampire craze, who knew what we’d find up there?

He gave a tiny shake of his head, like he couldn’t believe he was caving to my request. “The kitchen is safe.”

“Good.” I swept an arm out. “After you.”

If Nicola hadn’t been surrounded, I’m certain she would’ve bolted for the door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out a witch, a vampire, and two faeries outnumbered her. That didn’t mean she was happy about it. The way she dragged her feet, one would’ve thought she was a teenager who’d just been told to clean her room.

At the top of the stairs, my bedroom door hung askew on one hinge. I paused for just a second and nearly stopped breathing. An antique chair lay crushed under my massive chest of drawers. My bed was leaning over, barely hanging on to its position in my oak, and everything, and I do mean everything, from my temporary closet was strewn across the floor. Shoes of every style and color. Blouses, skirts, dress pants. And my little black dress I’d only worn once lay ripped with a large oil-slick stain. F*cking bitch.

That part had to be Nicola. David wouldn’t take the time to ransack my closet. She’d ruined all my dress-up clothes. For what purpose? I rarely wore any of them. My daily uniform consisted of jeans and T-shirts. And what in the blazes was that stain? Blood? No. There next to it was a blue metal can. Candle oil. Was she going to burn my shit? Oh, hell no!

“Sorry,” David said into my ear.

I jumped, my heart thumping in my throat. “Don’t do that.”

“Sorry,” he muttered again. “I’ll make more noise next time.”

“And next time you have a tantrum, take it out on someone else’s stuff. Like your own,” I snapped.

His eyebrows rose and he peered down at me. “You think I did that?”

“Not all of it. I doubt you’d ransack my closet, but the door, my bed, my chest of drawers…”

“The door, Willow. Only the door.” He nodded at the wrecked room. “The rest was already trashed.”

“We heard—”

“The crashing was me trying to consolidate the broken-down furniture so you could actually get back in here.” He gave a tiny shrug. “I wasn’t exactly gentle about it.”

I rubbed my temples and marched into the kitchen. Slamming my hand down on the pinewood table, I leaned in close to Nicola. “Did you trash Phoebe’s room, too?”

She bit her lip and barely shook her head no.

“Why mine? Why my little black dress? And my shoes? Why would a vampire, one who dresses in clothes that cost more than my rent, want you to destroy the only decent clothes I have?”

Silence.

I pounded my fist on the table, aware my clothes were my most insignificant worry at this point. But damn her. A girl’s shoes were her identity. It was too freaking personal.

“Nicola?” Phoebe prompted, her tone sickeningly sweet. “Do you want to answer Willow now, or wait until I force you?”

“I was ordered to,” Nicola said quietly.

“By?” I ground my teeth, growing more impatient by the minute.

“The one in charge.” Her words came out slow and strangled.

I glanced at David. He was studying her again as if trying to piece together a puzzle.

“The one in charge,” I repeated. “You mean Allcot ordered you to burn my clothes?”

Her hands clenched, and her pale face flushed in what I could’ve sworn was frustration. Something was seriously off. If Allcot ordered her to trash the house and she’d told us about it, why wouldn’t she just come clean about my clothes? “Allcot’s not in charge, is he?”

“No,” she forced out before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out.