Page 36 of Newly Undead in Dark River

“What in the Furby-loving-fuck?” I whispered. Brody laughed, and Judge just tugged me closer to his body by my wrist. It was then I realized he’d never let it go. My Drifter was strung tighter than a rope bunny on BDSM night.

“She can glamor her appearance using her cloak.” There was no awe in his tone, which I was pretty sure there would be if I’d said it.

“Like the cloak of invisibility in Harry Potter?”

The tinkling laugh again. “I like her. Let’s go make sure she isn’t murdered in her own home, shall we?” said a discombobulated voice coming from thin air.

As we all moved off from the town limits, I was left wondering if that was a threat or promise.

Chapter Fourteen

As we zipped back through town, I was wondering if the Witch Miranda would be able to keep up, or if she would just walk through another one of those slits. I needed to give them a different name. The more I thought about it, it was a little bit like getting rebirthed out a vagina. Mentally I changed the name to portal instead.

But when I opened the door to my apartment, she suddenly reappeared. She wasn’t out of breath or glistening with sweat like she’d just run three miles at the speed of light. Hmm.

“Walker?”

I turned as Angeline and Alice came up the stairs from the cafe. Miranda turned and watched them too, her eyebrow quirked.

“Not so secret, I guess, Sheriff?” she said, slightly disapprovingly. I bristled, but Walker maintained his bland, harmless expression.

“I trust Alice and Angeline above all in this town. Angeline owns this building and is Raine’s friend, and Alice is the town doctor. They both need access.” He made it sound completely reasonable, which it was. No part of me thought either Angeline or Alice had the capacity to take my life and then torture me like this.

I swear Miranda rolled her eyes. At Walker! Still she pulled a small knife from a bag slung around her hips, and a small vial of something. Eye of newt and heart of toad maybe. “So be it. I’ll start with Raine. Give me your hand.”

I hesitated, Judge’s warning still ringing in my head. She let out an annoyed chuff and tapped her foot. “I can promise you, there is nothing in that pretty little skull that I haven’t seen before. I still have four more vamps to do, and this is time-consuming.”

I let out a long breath and squared my shoulders. I thrust out my hand, and she took it.

It wasn’t a subtle feeling, having someone poke around in your head. I could almost feel her sifting through my memories, my thoughts, my desires. I felt her fingers clench on my wrist, and I can only assume she got to the part where Judge made love to me like my life was the only thing that mattered.

I watched as her jaw tensed, but then she relaxed. She pierced my finger in one long cut, dripping the blood onto the threshold. She chanted something in a tongue I didn’t understand and sincerely hoped she wasn’t about to turn me into a frog or curse me with an allergy to chocolate.

“Okay. The ward is set. You’ll have to feed it your blood every couple of days to ensure it maintains its strength, but it shouldn’t let anyone other than you in if you haven’t given them prior permission. Now, you might want to pop that bleeding finger in your mouth before you give Judge an embolism.”

I looked over at Judge, who’s eyes were indeed serious. I went to do as Miranda said, but again Judge’s hand stopped me by grabbing hold of my wrist. I stared at him as he lifted my bleeding finger and put it in his own mouth, sucking hard against the flesh.

The pull of his mouth went straight to my core, which made Brody groan and Walker look somewhere between angry and horny. Horngry. It was a thing.

I knew the feeling. I was horngry too. I pulled my finger from Judge’s mouth with an audible pop.

“Whatever this is, leave me the hell out of it,” I hissed, and went over to stand beside Alice and Angeline. At least they didn’t send weird emotional signals. Also, they’d never seen me naked, and I didn’t lust after their bodies.

I wanted to fold my arms and pout, but that would just make me look immature. Next, to Miranda, this powerful witch/sex goddess, I was having some serious inadequacy issues, and Judge wasn’t helping. Brody walked over casually, kissed my cheek, and pulled me against his chest. That was it. He didn’t say anything or try to one-up anyone. He could sense with his little supernatural nose that I needed comfort, and he gave it without expecting anything in return. It was never a power play with Brody. I sighed and leaned against him, ignoring the speculative expression on Miranda’s face.

Shrugging, she looked at Walker. “You’re up, Sheriff.”

She repeated the ritual again, the words of the chant slightly different. She explained that she was only giving him permission to enter. Instead of dripping the blood on the threshold, she smeared a drop of Walker’s blood on the back of the door. “Take good note where his mark is. To revoke his permission, you only need to wash it away and replace it with yours.”

When she was done, she looked challengingly at Judge. “Are you going to suck on his boo-boo too?”

Judge narrowed his eyes, and as quick as a ninja, his hand whipped out, grabbing Walker’s finger and sucking it into his mouth.

Walker’s eyes opened comically wide, and he seemed frozen as Judge sucked the blood from his finger, his saliva closing the wound. The knitting flesh seemed to wake Walker from his shock, because he shook his head, pulled his finger out of Judge’s grasp and scowled.

Angeline leaned closer to Alice. “I love you, Baby, and I’m pretty sure I am 1000% gay but watching the Drifter suck on the Sheriff’s finger like that…” She fanned herself. Alice laughed, and I just shook my head.

Girl, same.

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