Page 11 of Bewitching the Dragon
“I think you’re thinking of scarecrows. Gargoyles protect from evil intentions.”
“I guess that’s why Aunt Pacey is always buying new ones. Although I feel like we’re plenty protected at this point. I swear, she bought five new gargoyles just this past week. I didn’t even notice most of them until this morning.”
Rahu glanced at the ones on the front porch, his lips pursed. “I can protect you as well as any dumb gargoyle.”
She chuckled. “After what I saw last night, I’d take my chances with you over a gargoyle anytime.”
“Thanks.”
She stood watching him while he appeared to be studying the stone statues. What the hell was she waiting for? She wasn’t honestly hoping the guy would kiss her, was she?
Her priorities had gotten seriously screwed up over the course of the last twelve hours, it seemed. She’d worked way too hard to get to this point—earning a degree that normally took people four years to obtain had taken her seven—to allow her plan to deviate now.
“Well, I’ll see you later,” Rahu said, and he bounced down the steps and ambled down the sidewalk, hands once again thrust into his front pockets. From this view, the action pulled the shorts taut against his firm backside, and it was possible she started drooling before he rounded the corner at the end of the block and disappeared from her sight.
Swiping the back of her hand across her mouth, she headed inside and straight for the utility closet in the kitchen, where she kept the cleaning supplies.
Her hormones were clearly in overdrive, but that was no reason to lose track of her goals.
Hopefully, Rahu’s “see you later,” had been nothing but a figure of speech.
Hopefully, she’d never see him again.
Chapter Five
Rahu had to protect her.
And nothing more. Sparking, magical connection aside.
Why?his dragon asked.Why do we have to “only” protect her? Why can’t we act on that connection?
She isn’t even a dragon.
You’re only part dragon.
Fuck off,he snarled at the beast.
He hated that reminder, and he especially hated it when, of everyone, his damn dragon threw it in his face.
Despite the ongoing arguments with his dragon, Rahu was determined to keep an eye on Becca. It was, after all, his fault she was now a target for a band of warlocks posing as a rock band that had an almost cult-like human following.
Rahu had looked them up online, hoping to get some inkling of where they might hide out when they weren’t traveling around the world putting on shows and selling out concert venues time and again. But all he’d learned was that the band had been around since the nineties, and their style and music was perpetually stuck in that decade.
The timing made sense. Becca had been born in the nineties, and it had probably taken at least a few minutes for Argyle and Pacey to cast that concealment spell, so it was feasible the warlocks had sensed her at her birth but lost track of her once the spell went into effect.
The spell Rahu had broken.
Which meant she was now wandering around New Orleans, blithely unaware of the danger she was in.
“I still don’t get why they concealed the fact that she’s a witch even from her,” he said while he drilled holes into the ledger board they were going to use to frame Ketu’s deck.
“Argyle had his reasons.” Ketu said as he measured and marked posts.
“Yeah, which he never really explained. Not well enough, anyway.” Done drilling holes for anchors, Rahu headed over to grab another armful of boards for Ketu.
“He wanted her to feel normal. That’s not a good enough reason?”
Rahu scowled and used the hem of his shirt to wipe his brow. “Normal in her world involves being aware of the fact that she’s a frigging witch and learning how to harness her magic so she can protect herself from danger.”
