Page 24 of The Curse

Thoughts of being sent to a witch school dampened my spirits. Leaving Corbin was one hundred percent out of the question. “Nope, no witch school for me. I’ll just stick with using magic when I get pissed off…or horny.” I shrugged and winked at him. “I think that’s the only time I need it anyway.”

“Ridiculous,” Corbin argued. “I’ll train you myself, love. Your powers are great and they will not be wasted. As soon as we speak to Alastair and I get an update on the status of the coven, we’ll begin your training immediately.”

Ah, Corbin would be training me. That was a different story entirely.That, I could live with! Maybe he’d have to punish me if I was a bad student. That could be fun.

Excited, I started out the door to fetch Alastair—he was going to shit when he saw Corbin was still alive. I made it two steps before I returned to the bedroom. “Uh…you aren’t going to be naked when I bring him up here by any chance, are you? There’s a pretty big chance that I’m possessive of what belongs to me.” A feline smile stretched across Corbin’s face at my possessive comment. “No nakedness around anybody but me,” I ordered. “Alastair is my only friend in Marblehead, and it would be awkward if I had to punch him in the face.”

“How about to avoid any awkwardness I just meet the two of you in my library?” He grinned and with a wave of his hand, he was dressed in different clothing. In jeans and a T-shirt. Identical to mine, except his shirt was black. With a shrug, he said, “I believe my clothing is somewhat outdated. I thought perhaps I would be more acceptable in something more modern.” His hand rubbed the denim of the jeans. “What is this fabric? It feels most…rugged.”

I whistled through my teeth. “Damn, but you fit a pair of jeans nicely, Corbin Hargreaves! Very nicely, indeed. I’ll explain the fabric later. Right now, I’ve got to grab Alastair before he tries to enter the house and hurts himself.”

“Oh, Morgan’s spell is no longer intact. Alastair should be fine to come inside.”

“Did I do that, or did you?”

“We did—when we touched through the mirror. Our connection dissolved all her spells regarding me and my home.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Take that, Morgan, you bitch.”

****

It took nearly an hour of Alastair babbling hysterically, crying tears of joy, ranting about Morgan the bitch, and, finally, manning-up before we could have a conversation. As the three of us sat in Corbin’s library, Alastair’s left leg was still jiggling uncontrollably with excitement. Since I wasn’t raised in a coven, or even believing in witches, for that matter, I hadn’t fully understood the significance of Corbin’s return…until Alastair. The boy was beside himself with pure joy.

“What of the coven remains intact, Alastair?” Corbin asked quietly.

The pain of having to listen to what Morgan had done to his beloved family was etched all over his handsome face. I wanted to kill Morgan. Slowly and with extreme prejudice.

“My mother is still here. Genevieve and Brax remained behind. Ruby and Crimson live close-by and still do what they can to support us, but Morgan refused to allow them to live within the Marblehead borders--something about Violet’s ability of time traveling.” He snorted in disgust. “Yeah, I guess she wouldn’t want anybody to be able to go back in time and see how she fucked us all over.”

“Morgan will get what’s coming to her, Alastair. Leave her to me.” He glanced over and me and said, “Both of you need to leave Morgan to me. Nicholas, I don’t want you leaving the Marblehead territory. Do you understand me?”

I snorted at his bossy attitude but then quickly nodded in agreement when his frown deepened. My lover had enough to worry about without me piling on. Anyway, where would I go? Why would I leave? He was all I needed, and he was in Marblehead. End of story.

“Anyone else?” Corbin asked Alastair.

“Yes,” he answered. “We’ve still got Keller Spellman and the Carlisle family. Well, except for Esmerelda. She disappeared shortly after you died, er, I mean…uh, before you got fucked over by Morgan.”

Corbin frowned. “Esmerelda left but her family remained?”

“Yes, sir,” Alastair answered.

“Still puppy-loving over August, Alastair?” Corbin asked with a narrowing of his eyes. You realize you belong to another, don’t you?”

Completely fascinated, I moved to the edge of my seat and enjoyed watching Alastair squirm beneath Corbin’s fatherly frown. If he belonged to another, he sure the hell had never mentioned it to me. Then again, he hadn’t mentioned anybody by the name of August, either.

“I…I know that you think Riker is the man for me, Corbin, but I don’t agree. He’s an ass—a total ass. He’s the poster child of assholery.”

Alastair argued with a perfected pout that had probably helped him get his way through the majority of his life. One glance in Corbin’s direction and I knew it wasn’t going to work this time, not on the high witch of Marblehead.

“I see,” Corbin answered slowly. “When is the last time you spoke with this ‘poster child of assholery’?”

I could tell I would need to explain what poster child meant after Corbin was finished with Alastair.

Alastair blushed. “It’s…it’s been awhile, sir.”

Under his breath, I heard him mutter “not long enough”.

“So, Roman and Riker Keegan are no longer with us. I can understand why. The twins were very powerful.” His eyes locked with Alastair. “Although I’m certain Riker has weakened somewhat since he’s been separated from you.” Alastair opened his mouth, probably to argue, but Corbin silenced him with a glare. “Brodie Salvatore is gone. Royce and Chelsea Teague were forced away. Kingston and Teagan Godwin were, of course, forced to leave by Morgan. Do we know of their whereabouts or will we need to conduct tracking spells to locate them?”

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