Page 14 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

How often did he mix his blood with his magic? And how often did things get out of control for him when they did? This worried me. Oddly, I wasn’t worried for myself and others, but for Quinton himself. He wasn’t so scary to me anymore. I saw him more as angry, reckless and dangerous. He needed to be more careful so nothing happened to him. Things had a way of backfiring horribly around me and I didn’t want Quinton to go down like Dash had, even if he had been the one who started it.

“I will teach you,” Quinton vowed.

A shiver ran down my spine. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to learn.

Quinton felt my shiver and, like the mind reader he wasn’t but I fancied him to be, he knew exactly what I had been thinking. “You will learn. That doesn’t mean you will ever have to use it, but I want to know that you are capable of doing so if you ever need to. It will make me feel a whole lot better. I want you to learn everything. Even if it is considered too dark or wrong by other covens and the Elders’ standards. You’re going to learn everything. Fuck what any of the other covens would think. We don’t have to tell anybody shit.”

Another shiver raced down my spine. I did not like the sound of this. He made it sound like he wanted to teach me something dark and sinister that the rest of the magical world would frown on. I went back on my earlier thoughts; Quinton was back to being scary.

“We’ll talk more magic later,” Dash said, then he yawned so loud his jaw made a weird popping sound. “I’m exhausted. These last few days have been draining. Quinton told me that the two of you haven’t really been sleeping. The only reason I’ve been sleeping is because I’ve been taking those damn pain pills that have been knocking me out. Otherwise, I doubt I would be sleeping either. Right now, what we all need is to veg out in front of the television and hopefully fall asleep. And, apparently, we need to do it together.”

Quinton grunted in agreement. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find an argument myself. Quinton and I were exhausted. It was arguable who was worse off, him or me. If this is what he needed to sleep, then that’s what I would give him, give them both. It’s not like sleeping in-between the two of them was a hardship or anything. And they wouldn’t try to pull anything funny or weird on me. At least, not on Dash’s part. Quint was a bit of a wild card.

Without saying anything, I snuggled down into the comfortable bed and the heavy blankets. I focused on the action taking place on the screen and it was a doozy. I decided right then and there that motorcycle clubs were scary business and not for the likes of me.

It didn’t take long for my eyelids to droop. It took even less time for me to drift off to sleep. They both moved into me and I slept cocooned in their arms.

If I dreamed, I didn’t remember it. Small blessings.

Chapter Five

The cottage looked the same as it had the first time I’d been to visit it. That’s to say, it looked straight out of a fairy tale.

You had to drive down a long dirt road that ended in front of the cottage to get to it. It was surrounded by nothing but trees and a thick, dense forest.

The cottage was square and two stories. The front was washed-out stone. The front door was painted in an unwelcoming black and there were two windows on either side of the door. Weathered flowerbeds sat beneath each window with hanging vines overflowing out of each of them. The shutters around the windows were painted the same unwelcoming black as the front door.

The difference between now and the first time I came here? The chimney gracing the roof had no smoke billowing out of it. There was no charming, homey feel to it now.

The difference between now and the last time I had been here? The stone walkway that lead up to the front black door had been cleaned up, likely hosed off. The blood that had oozed out of Dash’s middle and then later my face, had been washed away. All traces of the horror Chucky had inflicted upon us were no longer there to see.

I fought the urge to touch the side of my face and laughed. Not all traces had been washed away. Not even close. One, or several, of the guys had likely come here and scrubbed the sidewalk clean of the blood that had been spilled. That thought made me sad for whoever had drawn the short straw and gotten stuck with that dirty job.

“I can’t believe Uncle Quint let us leave the house,” Tyson said from the passenger seat beside me in my black Range Rover.

Mr. Cole had kindly left the Rover behind for me. It had been put in my name and apparently it truly was mine now. I would rather have Mr. Cole in my life than the Rover, but you couldn’t always have everything you wanted in life. That was fact, or at least it was for me.

“I don’t know what came over him,” Julian remarked from the backseat. “Days ago, he insisted we all had to stay at the big house with him. All of us, no exceptions. We do what he wants, and he was still angry and hostile towards everyone. Now, today he just decides we can all go home. I don’t know what his deal is but I for one am thankful for it. I prefer to sleep in my own bed in my own home, a place where Quint is not. I love the guy but sometimes he drives me insane.”

“Tell me about it,” Tyson muttered. “Try being related to the guy.”

After sleeping for a day and a half straight, Quinton had woken up and decided that we could all go home if we wanted to. I didn’t know what came over him, but I didn’t want to question if for fear he’d change his mind and try to force us all to stay. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that after all that rest, Dash had gotten out of bed and moved around on his own. He’d showered on his own and made his way downstairs to eat on his own. All without looking like he was in pain. It was almost like he hadn’t been injured in the first place. He was currently on his way to a doctor’s appointment, and then Quinton would be bringing him home, to the cottage. I didn’t think he’d been back since he was taken away in the ambulance, and I wondered what it would feel like for him to return. Would he feel like he’d been violated in his own home? I mean, it didn’t technically happen in his home, but it did happenatit. Would he feel violated? I sincerely hoped not. I thought I might feel that way at Mr. Cole’s house, but it never happened. I wasn’t concerned about feeling that way here for some reason. The only thing I felt was concern over how Dash was feeling. I guess that was one way to know you cared about someone, when their feelings mattered more than your own. Even if you didn’t have any feelings of your own.

“You know what’s funny about this?” I asked as I parked the Rover next to a black Camaro that I had assumed belonged to Dash. “Quinton told us we were all free to go our own separate ways, then he goes and tells you two that you have to come with me because I’m not supposed to be left on my own right now. What’s that about? I didn’t need one babysitter, let alone the two he assigned to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like being around the two of you, but I don’t like knowing you’re here because Quinton told you to be and you’re here to babysit me. Why do I need a babysitter? I don’t get it. Chucky was arrested. He is no longer a threat to me or anyone else. What’s he going to do to anyone from behind bars? Not a whole lot, I’ll tell you that. And that’s another thing. Should he even be behind bars? I don’t think he should be. I think he should be in some type of facility where he can get help for being a crazy psycho. He needs help. He’s not going to get the right help that he needs if he’s in jail. I don’t think any of this is right.”

“Holy shit, girl.” Tyson whispered in an outraged voice. “Don’t say that in front of Uncle Quinton. Please, by all the Gods, don’t say that where anyone else can hear you. That guy put both Dash and you in the hospital, he deserves whatever he gets and if that’s him being behind bars then I’m good with that. It’s probably safer for him to be where he is now than walking free. Safer for the rest of us as well.”

“No joke,” Julian said. “He does not want to be out in the free world right now. Would be bad for his health. And then it would be one of us who ended up behind bars.”

I shook my head. I didn’t like where this conversation was headed. Quinton knew where I stood with Chucky, and I didn’t think he would do anything to cause further harm. Dash was on the road to recovery and my injury hadn’t been life threatening. But Chucky? His life was basically over. Due to his actions he had flushed it right down the shitter. There would be no magical solution to erase any of this mess he’d found himself in. All because he’d had the misfortune to meet me and single me out. If he’d simply left me alone, he would have been left alone himself.

“I don’t want to talk about Chucky,” I told them honestly. Chucky was the last thing I wanted to talk about. I certainly didn’t want to think about him either. I cringed every time I heard his damn name, even inside my head. I wished I could stop thinking about him, but it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. He was always in the back of my mind, lingering.

I put the SUV in park and shut it down. I had my seat belt off and my hand on the door handle when Tyson spoke.

“I resent being called a babysitter. I also had to fight off Damien for the job. I don’t know what the fuck his problem is, but he was hell bent on being glued to your side today. I wouldn’t be surprised if you both wake up in the morning and come downstairs to find him sleeping on the couch. Or on the floor because someone else, like myself, already beat him to the couch.”

“I actually didn’t volunteer for the job,” Julian admitted. “I’m here by default. No one else can do what I can do, so you’re stuck with me. But, I want it on the record that I would have volunteered for the job had I been given the opportunity to do so.”

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