Page 49 of Bitten By Desire

My mouth dropped.

“Both of you, freeze,” I said, then sat heavily on the piano bench and pressed fingers to my temples.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Hazel. She picked up on the first ring.

“Did you find a way to get Binx home?” she asked.

I blinked. “Not yet. Listen, is there a spell for stealth? Like a way to be invisible and undetectable? Could someone sneak into say MorningStar and spy without being noticed?”

Hazel hummed softly as she considered. “Not one spell that would be foolproof, no. They’d have machines spelled to detect things. And I’ve never heard of one that could cover sight, sound, feel—all the senses at once. It would be super tricky. You’d probably have to be a super spy and have several spells, charms, and potions, but we could figure something out?—”

“No. I don’t want to do it, just wanted to know if that existed,” I said with a grimace as I noted Julian and Lorraine looking at each other longingly from opposite ends of the couch. “Bye.”

I sighed and stood again. “Lorraine, you dosed Julian’s tea with a suggestable potion, didn’t you? And maybe some uninhibited elixir, too,” I asked, taking in the tenting of his pants.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Then you told him to fall in love with you?” I guessed.

“That he needed, wanted, and thought only about making love to me,” she said, trying to lean further toward him.

I bit my cheek to stop from smacking her. Or him, even though he couldn’t help it. Still, the way he was looking at her made me want to scream. That won’t help, Char, I told myself.

“I still love you, Charlotte,” Julian said while visibly fighting against my magic to get to her.

Ew. Ew. Ew. So wrong.

“You murdered your husband,” I said, focusing my anger and hurt on Lorraine. Or rather, the thing pretending to be Lorraine.

Lorraine gasped, and her eyes finally focused on me. “How dare you say such a thing. I loved Gerard. I would never hurt him.”

“Tell the truth.”

“I did!” Her eyes bugged and her perfectly made-up face contorted in a way that made me draw back despite her being unable to do anything to me.

Could she have blocked out the murder and everything associated with it? If she’d really used her “power” to sneak into MorningStar’s lab and steal the vials of elixir, then she could have used them on…on the butler, who she had kill the fairy who would have given her away. And if she was supposed to truly believe she was Lorraine, remembering that would be impossible to justify in her mind.

“You didn’t steal those potions recently. The major was tracking your husband. You figured that out and used your power to take what you could use from her ages ago. You probably dosed your husband with them, too, to make him easy to kill.”

“You’re insane,” she said, wriggling against my power. “I’m not a changeling. I’m a person. I remember my whole life!”

But now it was all making sense. “That’s why the fae were after you. You did the job, and you were supposed to be killed. But they didn’t get you. We stopped them, and now you’re losing your mind and using your power, which apparently has to do with stalking. You kidnapped Binx and you drugged Julian.”

Her face was practically the color of an eggplant at this point as she struggled to free herself. Foam worked out of the corners of her mouth. “You lie, bitch. You’re jealous because Julian wants me.”

“They must’ve told you to use sex to keep your husband from suspecting you. And now that he’s gone, you’re looking for a substitute to keep your directive. I ordered you not to harm us, but I guess sex and suggestion isn’t harm. You were made from the earth of the fae realm, which smells of lavender. We smelled it when the other changeling was destroyed.”

“You figured it out,” Julian said in awe, still staring at her and licking his lips. He was looking awfully pale again too.

“Do something, Julian. She wants to kill me. Save me,” she demanded.

I jerked back as his focus shifted to me and his face morphed into the kind that used to fuel my nightmares. He snarled. At me. And I stood there, gaping at him for a minute. It was one thing when Silas had been controlling him. He’d fought so hard inside—I’d felt it when I’d touched him that night. But this felt almost…mechanical, and it terrified me.

“Julian, don’t listen to her commands or suggestions,” I whispered, threading magic through the words.

Slowly, his face returned to the one I was used to, confusion in his pale blue eyes, then shock and pain as he registered the feelings I couldn’t hide from my own expression. I wiped harshly at a tear that had escaped and turned back to Lorraine who was also snarling and struggling.

“I don’t want to kill you,” I said. Though part of me certainly was fantasizing about seeing her turn to ash. Yet the poignant story about Binx’s sister gave me pause. His sister had forfeited her life because she’d realized he was a living being that had been used without being given a choice—no matter how he was created. “I guess you didn’t know what you were doing or were made for. But I also can’t let you run amuck, making men have sex with you because you’re enchanted to and no longer have a target.” I paused. “Would you have killed Binx and Julian after also?” Then I shook my head to clear it. I’d never know the answer and that was a good thing.

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