Page 11 of Stolen Magic
“If you are going to insult me, at least do it in English so I can repay the favor, wolf.” That earned me one of the chuckles I heard in the store. My palm itched to slap the smile off his face.
“We have a problem, Miss McCullough.” The Alpha ignored me, as I expected he would. His wide shoulders turned slightly, just enough so he could peer at me from his greater height. I was five foot six, not very short, but compared to him I looked like a child. The top of my head barely reached his shoulder.
I hated it.
“You mean you have a problem and decided to drag others along for the ride.” My hand drifted toward my thigh where one of my daggers waited. I placed glamour so no one would know I was armed, yet my heart stuttered in my chest when Dimitri’s eyes dropped to it as if he could see the blade as plain as day.
“You should not have touched the book.”
It took me aback the way he said it. I fully expected the shifter to threaten, rage, or snarl at me. Huffing, puffing, and other such things I associated with the wolf. But he didn’t do any of those things. If anything, he sounded tired and weary.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Mr. Bell.” Taking a lesson from his book, I figured maybe formalities would help send him on his way. “All I know is I was attacked by vampires in my own home and you were there. Then you have the decency to show up at my store.”
“You recognize my wolf.” It wasn’t a question, but I found myself answering anyway.
“It’s kinda hard to miss. It’s huge.”
Dimitri narrowed his piercing gaze on me as if he was trying to read my mind. Arching my eyebrow, I dared him to contradict me, but we both knew no shifter was the size of his beast. Well, none that I’d ever seen anyway. The night when we were attacked, I might’ve doubted what I saw, but it cleared out when I woke up. Dimitri Bell was in my building when the bloodsuckers attacked. At least he didn’t deny it.
“Who hired you to steal the book?” The shifter could give me a whiplash the way he was jumping from one topic to another.
“What book?” Blinking innocently at him, I wanted to laugh when a low growl rumbled from his chest.
“Let me be clear, Miss McCullough.” His whole body turned my way, and I had to suffer the full weight of his gaze. Like a physical sensation, it pressed on my chest and shoulders like an anvil, and I had to struggle to breathe normally. “I know what you are.”
All the blood drained from my face, numbing my lips, but he kept talking.
“In good faith, I will tell you that I, too, have witch blood in my veins. My grandmother was a witch, just like you.” White noise thudded in my ears, making his deep voice come from far away, but I heard that loud and clear. “It is the reason I was raised in my mother’s homeland. The sigils you saw when you stole the book were placed there by me. After you used your power in that room, I can find your magic anywhere. Now you know my secret, the same way I know yours. So, let me ask again. Where is the book?”
I understood what he was doing, but my mind was stuck on one thing. “You are a witch?” I asked him dumbly, blinking a million miles an hour like that would change the absurdity of the situation.
“I am a wolf.” Ducking his head to stare me in the eye, he glared.
As if it had a mind of its own, my finger stabbed the air at his nose. “But you have witch magic, too.”
“I do.” A muscle danced the Macarena at the edge of his square jaw.
At that, I did the dumbest thing I could think of.
I laughed.
Chapter Nine
“Ifail to see what is funny in this situation.” Dimitri seemed insulted but I couldn’t stop laughing to save my life. What was worse: I went as far as bending over and gasping for air. “Stop that this instant,” the shifter barked at me in annoyance.
He could take his Alpha commands and stick them up his perfectly rounded and firm behind for all I cared, but he made the mistake of touching me. Strong fingers wrapped around my shoulder, and the pad of his thumb ended up pressed on the skin of my collarbone. A current passed between us, rattling my very essence. We jumped away from each other like we’d been burned, warily eyeing one another from a few feet away.
I was no longer laughing.
Tiny zaps were still coursing under my skin and raising goosebumps in their wake, although the bastard was far enough away. My mind was spinning to find the meaning of it, but I decided it didn’t matter. I had bigger things to worry about when it came to Dimitri Bell.
“What’s funny about all this is the fact you think I’m an idiot.” While I kept my distance, I didn’t need to speak out loud. His shifter hearing would hear me even if I whispered. “That you honestly believed if you told me some fairytale story about your grandmother being a witch, I’d do what exactly? Admit all my sins and share all my secrets?” The tone of my voice should’ve insulted him more than any colorful words I could’ve used.
“I spoke the truth.” With a shake of his head, he pinched the bridge of his straight nose between a thumb and a forefinger. I wanted to do a wiggle dance for the fact that I gave him a headache. “We are wasting time here. I will have the book back, Miss McCullough, I assure you of that. What I want to know, however, is who hired you to take it from me.”
“Assuming that I am the one who stole it.” I didn’t miss my chance to point that out in case he thought I was admitting to any of his accusations. “For your information, I’m a candlemaker, which you can feel free to ask my business partner. I’m sure she’ll be happy to set your mind at ease.”
“Ah, yes. Charmaine Mariatti. A sorceress well known for hard to find potions and talismans on the black market. I’m sure she will be more than happy to tell me the truth,” Dimitri drawled, sarcasm thick in the tone of his voice. I prayed to everything that he didn’t notice the blow he’d dealt me with that information. Char was selling illegal potions on the black market? Say what now?
