Page 17 of Resting Witch Face
“Let’s hope he knows CPR because one of us might end up with a heart attack after one more coffee.” Sissily snorted, but there was barely any humor in it. She was lost in thought. I zoomed out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell, wondering how Blondie knew to pick our favorite café to meet up. The intuition that couldn’t be an intuition since I was without magic tickled the back of my mind. He didn’t make a comment about my best friend’s disheveled look either, like seeing the always-put-together Sissily resembling a mad woman was an everyday thing. So, it came down to a couple of things warring for attention in my head.
I trusted that there was some sort of ploy in the works with the full moon ritual.
And I just didn’t know if I could trust River Blackman.
9
Getting to the café was a true miracle with my head full of buzzing thoughts. Sissily had to shout a few times at me to watch it, and I was pretty sure her foot made a hole in my car because she was slamming it on a nonexistent break. Not that I wanted to be a jerk or anything, I just had to get to our destination as fast as I could and hear what River thought was too dangerous to say around the coven building. Whatever it was, it didn’t bode well for me.
I was one hundred percent certain of that.
“We can’t do shit if we are pancakes under a damn truck,” Sissily grated through her teeth, clinging to the sidebar for dear life.
“Oh, ye of little faith.” She literally hissed at me like a feral cat when I muttered those words, and her hiss only grew louder when I zigzagged through traffic.
“Hazel, I will murder you in your sleep if you don’t slow down.”
“You’ll need to bypass Danika to do that, so yeah, not scared.” The heel of my palm smacked the horn at the old lady in the Buick clinging to her steering wheel as if she was trying to hump it. “Get off the road if you can’t drive, old bat.”
“Maybe you can work on your road rage.” Swallowing audibly, my best friend was developing a green tinge to her skin when I gave her a side-eyed glance.
We were nearly there, so I eased off the gas. I couldn’t help but snort when Sissily slumped in her seat, the relief pulsating from her. It wasn’t the first time she complained about me driving too fast. It was a regular occurrence, which was why we drove separate most of the time and met wherever we were going.
“It’s true magic how you haven’t caused an accident when you are behind the wheel.”
“You think it might work as a contribution on Saturday?” When she cocked her head to gape at me, I snickered. “What? You said it was magic.”
Her shaking hand snapped to point a finger across the street at the door of the Moon Howl. “River is here.”
“And you bitch about me driving fast?” Irked that Blondie beat me there, I took a sharp turn toward the open parking opposite the café.
Okay, I was more peeved that he looked like some golden god posing for a Hell brochure, with his hands in his pockets and aviators perched on his nose. The only thing missing was a sign above his head saying “Sinners welcome,”and for me to snap a shot. Lucifer would have a line all the way to the pearly gates full of women waiting to get in.
What was it about River that made me act like a thirteen-year-old having a tantrum?
My tires screeched when I squeezed the Mercedes between two SUV’s, and Sissily practically threw herself out of my car. While she clutched the door until her legs stopped shaking, I yanked my purse closer and dug for my phone. It was on silent when I thought I was going to the library, so after putting the ringer back on, I jumped out too. Giving her a break, I offered her my hand, and she took it gratefully, crushing my fingers in the process.
“You are so dramatic.” It took a couple of tugs to free my poor fingers, and I tucked her hand at my elbow.
Stressed or not, I had to smile when she muttered all sorts of unflattering things under her breath, her crooked ponytail bobbing on the side of her head. I didn’t look any better either, but my hair didn’t resemble a nest at least. Which I pointed out to her, by the way, before my heart did a punch-shrivel-punch the second my eyes locked on River. Blondie was watching us from across the street over his aviators as if he knew exactly which exit we’d use, causing my belly to dip dangerously. It was obvious that he knew my reaction to him judging by the curl of his mouth and the twinkle in his peepers.
“Dinks are on me,” he said as a way of greeting when we reached him, and I stared dumbly at his back when he pivoted to enter the café.
Sissily dragged my ass to catch up to him.
I, on the other hand, narrowed my eyes on River, watching every twitch and sway his body made as he moved deeper inside the large room. There was something in the roll of his shoulders, or maybe it was the way his feet glided instead of pressing on the ground when he walked, as if they did the earth a favor by walking on it, that rubbed me wrong. If it wasn’t the middle of the day and if I didn’t know he was a witch, I would’ve pegged him for a vampire simply by the way he walked. He possessed the magnetic allure of the vamps like it was his Goddess given right, as well as the predatory prowl no mere witch could perfect. Not to that degree, in any case.
It was setting alarms off in my monkey brain that were telling me to run and not look back.
Which was dumb on so many levels. Because I had no doubt I could knock River Blackman on his ass blindfolded. So, what was it that warned me about him?
“No need to be that prickly, Miss Byrne.” Blondie grinned at me over his shoulder. “I mean no harm. I swear it.”
The chair scraped loudly across the floor when I yanked it out to take a seat, and he chuckled, while Sissily would’ve made a teen die of envy with her eye roll. My whole life was tipping sideways, and they cared about stupidities like me playing a hedgehog or not. Hecate help me, I was ready to lose my shit and start screaming like a loon.
“You are not that special, Blackman, I’m like that with everyone.” Twisting to wrap my purse over the back of the chair, I didn’t miss the twitch of his mouth.
“She’s not lying,” Sissily chirped, all too happy to be on firm ground instead of in my car. “That’s how she shows her charm, by glaring at everyone.”
