Witches Wild

  It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the gesture, but the juxtaposition of a top-of-the-chain predator offering to take me on a romantic picnic conjured up all sorts of ironies in my mind. I still wasn’t used to dating a vampire, even a year into our relationship. But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. It kept me on my toes and alert.

  “I think I love this idea. But where are we going?”

  “Just bundle up. I know you can generate body heat for yourself. We’re going on a secret little evening getaway.”

  I blinked. “Should I bring Bubba? Luna?”

  Aegis let out a quick, “No! They wouldn’t like this, trust me. No, this is just for us. You and me and a basket full of chicken and chips and pastries.”

  My stomach rumbled again and I decided to STFU and just let the man woo me. “In that case, let me go change. You said bundle up?”

  He nodded. “I guarantee, you’ll want the warmth.”

  Wondering just where we were going, I headed upstairs and changed out of my trousers and tank top and into a pair of jeans and a thick cable-knit sweater with a cowl neck. I slid on a heavy jacket and a pair of ankle boots and pocketed a pair of gloves, then dashed back down to where Aegis was loading the basket in his Corvette. Without another question, I grabbed my purse, hopped in the passenger side and we were off, to whatever surprise he had prepared for us.

  MUCH TO MY surprise, we headed directly for East Cove Marina. As we eased into the parking lot, I glanced at Aegis.

  “We aren’t, by any chance, visiting Gillymack?”

  “Oh good gods no. I wouldn’t subject you to that on our anniversary. Now, come on and don’t question me. Just follow.”

  He led me over to Pier 17, where a small motorboat was waiting. As I gingerly took his hand and he helped me into the boat, I pulled my jacket tighter. The winds were whipping through the marina, playing the masts on the boats like a melancholy symphony. It was called “wind chiming” and it produced an eerie concert that reminded me of long-forgotten ghosts high on the slopes of Everest. I had half a mind to ask Aegis if we shouldn’t wait till later, but that would spoil his gesture. And to be honest, the wind didn’t scare me. At least, not much.

  The boat looked familiar, and then I saw the name, “The Dust Witch,” and recognized it as the one Garret James owned. A snakeshifter who was a Dirt Witch, Garret and I had taken this boat out to Patos Island a few months ago in search of an herb from a siren’s garden.

  “You borrowed Garret’s boat?” I sat down on one of the side benches, smiling.

  “Yeah. Actually, I was asking Garret where I should rent one, and he suggested borrowing his. How could I turn down such a generous offer?” Aegis blew a kiss at me as he started up the motor. Vampires could cross flowing water, or ride on it or swim in it, but they couldn’t change form till they hit land again. Aegis loved being out on a boat, as long as it wasn’t near sunrise.

  As for me, I loved the feeling of motion, be it boat, car, or plane. Or broom, I thought with a snicker. I stretched out, leaning my legs into the boat as I rested against a custom headrest that Garret had installed.

  “So, one year, huh?” But the wind overshadowed my voice, so I gingerly picked my way over to where Aegis was steering the boat and sat shotgun. I repeated myself.

  Aegis broke into a wide smile. “One year. And you thought I’d forget? Ha! Admit it. You’re the one who forgot.”

  “I didn’t forget,” I said, trying to dodge the truth. “I just never got to celebrate much with Craig and so things like anniversaries went by the wayside. On the other hand, Sandy was always good for celebrating birthdays and other holidays with.”

  “Craig was an asshole. I still think I should pay him a visit someday.” Aegis cast a speculative look my way. “Why did you?”

  “Why did I what?”

  “Marry him? You can have just about any man you want, Maudlin Gallowglass. Why would you pick someone like Craig?”

  I blinked. I hadn’t expected to dip into the ex-files. “Why did I marry someone like his majesty Craig Vincent Astor? I don’t know. A fit of madness?”

  “Seriously, why? What could he have possibly had that attracted you?”

  I realized Aegis wasn’t going to let this go. I could always tell when the pit bull side of him was in full force. I let out a long breath. I had deliberately avoided talking about my decade-long marriage to Craig the asshole.

  Finally, I shrugged. “I was going through a bleak period. Sandy was married to Bart and we all thought it was a wonderful marriage. Except, I guess, Bart, considering he was gay and in the closet. I was bored, to be honest. I had hung around Seattle, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The Otherkin were all out of the closet, so I could have done just about anything and not worried about being found out. I guess the sudden decrease in the need for secrecy was a radical change. Once I didn’t have to pretend, I didn’t know what to do.”

  Aegis gave me a puzzled look. “I don’t think I understand. What did you do before then?”

  “You’ll never guess,” I said, laughing.

  “Secretary?”

  “Nope, can’t stand fetching and carrying for other people.” I wasn’t a go-fer type person.

  “I can’t imagine you as a doctor or nurse.”

  I decided to give him a break. “Nope. I owned a wine shop. That’s how Craig and I met. He came in weekly to check out my wine selection. I would point him to the highest-priced wines and he wouldn’t blink, even if they weren’t that good. Craig was pretentious. He was a snob, and he had a thing for busty brunettes. Since I owned the shop and wasn’t just the manager, he deigned to talk to me. I was lonely and it had been awhile since I’d been in a relationship. I had started to feel invisible to men, though I’m pretty sure I had other customers flirting with me. I guess…really…I started to feel invisible to myself.”

  I paused. That was the real reason. I felt boring and bored, and that wasn’t a good state for me. I had Bubba, but I wasn’t inclined to ask him to help me meet someone. I hung my head.

  “When Craig started paying attention to me, it felt good. I felt like I might still have a spark of who I used to be. So I went out with him. And even though I fell in love, I knew all along there was something wrong. I decided to look the other way, I guess, because I didn’t want to go back to my old life.”

  “Did he know you were a witch?”

  A swell rocked the boat and I caught my breath as we rose up, then dipped as the wave rolled under us. The night sky was so dark you couldn’t see a star in the sky, and the winds had risen substantially since we had come out on the water.

  “Yeah, he knew. He didn’t like it, but we were already engaged, and the invitations had gone out and the notice was in the paper. He changed, though. He started by telling me to sell my shop and when I refused, he threatened to leave me. So I sold it, because we had been together about two years and I didn’t want to make waves.”

  Aegis said nothing, just waited for me to continue.

  “I can’t believe I actually did that, but you know how it goes. You get used to something and you start thinking it’s normal. Then he started cheating on me. He hid it though, as much as he could because he knew I could hex his ass. Instead, he opted for trying to convince me I was crazy and imagining things.”

  “Common move by scumbags.”

  “Common, and unfortunately, effective. I took another job, this time in a hotel as a general manager, but Craig got me fired by calling to check up on me four to five times a day, every day. He was the one cheating, but he didn’t trust me. Finally, Sandy made me do a Divining spell and the truth came out. Not only had he gone through a string of girlfriends during the ten years we were together, but he had spread lies about me. In general, he turned into a giant prick.”

  “Not turned into. Just showed you his true colors.” Aegis cut the motor. “I think this is a good place for our picnic. We’re out in the open water now.” He swive
led his chair around to face me. “So, what did you do?”

  “Left his ass. Sued him for what I could get. I got the condo, which I sold to buy the Bewitching Bedlam. But it took me awhile to snap out of it. I had been so uncertain about what I wanted when I met him that I lost myself along the way.” I paused, then leaned forward to take his hands. “I want to thank you. You didn’t rescue me, but you helped me rediscover myself and my needs. You and Sandy both. Gods know she tried for years.”

  Aegis pulled me onto his lap and the boat rocked in the current as we kissed. I was about to undo his shirt buttons but he shook his head, holding up one finger. “First, we eat dinner, and I give you my present.”

  “I thought this was the present. A midnight picnic.” I slid off his lap, wistfully eyeing him. He was aroused—either that or he was packing one hell of a banana in his pants. But I’d play it his way. I was curious to see what he had planned next.

  Aegis pulled the picnic basket to his side and opened it, handing me a cloth to spread out on the bottom of the boat. Then he brought out a container of fried chicken, a container of macaroni salad, a bag of biscuits, and a cherry pie. I laughed as I arranged the food.

  “I bet this is all homemade, isn’t it?”

  “Nope,” he admitted. “I actually had Kelson order everything. I left her a note this morning and she had everything ready and packed by the time I woke up.” He reached back into the basket for plates and forks, and then pulled out a long, slender box. “This, however, I picked out myself.” He handed it to me.

  I slowly took the smooth velvet box, and flipped the lid up. There, under the lights of the boat, in the dim night, a pendant sparkled like stars. It had to be a diamond. I knew cubic zirconium, and this was not CZ. I slowly lifted the pendant out of the box and held it up. It was on a chain that looked like silver but that I already knew was white gold. Aegis couldn’t touch silver, but he liked the look.

  The pendant itself was in the shape of a key, the diamond at the bottom. I glanced over at him, clutching the necklace. It tingled in my hands. “This...is beautiful.”

  “Let me see it,” he said, and I handed it to him. He reached over and fastened it around my neck. “I give you the key to my heart,” he whispered. As my reserve melted, he leaned closer and kissed me, laying me back on the boat, under the windswept night.

  WE CUDDLED FOR a good half an hour before my hunger drove us to our midnight supper. The thought of having sex in the boat was appealing, but although Aegis couldn’t get cold, I could, and even though I could raise the air around me enough to keep warm, being so vulnerable in a tempestuous ocean didn’t seem worth it. So we settled for snuggling until my stomach rumbled loud and clear.

  “Let’s get some food into you,” he said, laughing. He pulled me up and we scooted over to the blanket with the food on it. As I opened the container of chicken, Aegis scooped potato salad onto plates.

  “Does it bother you that food doesn’t fill you up?” I had refrained from asking a number of questions over the past year that seemed too personal, but seeing how I just told him about Craig and how I had stayed throughout emotional abuse and infidelity, I felt that it was his turn.

  “Not really. I like being able to eat what I want without worrying if it’s healthy for me. But having to drink blood still worries my conscience. The truth is, blood from a blood bank or from animals never tastes as good as blood from a person. It’s the warmth in my mouth, the flavor on my tongue. I think sometimes it’s the act itself of sinking my fangs into somebody’s neck that makes it feel so good.” He paused at my look. “I’m being honest, Maddy. You don’t want me to lie to you, do you?”

  I shook my head, though part of me wanted to say, “Yeah, about stuff like that? I don’t want to know.” But the truth was, I wanted honesty, even when it made me uncomfortable. Craig had lied to me over and over again and I grew to hate him for it, especially since I could always tell. I touched my throat, sliding my hands along the skin, wondering what it would feel like to let Aegis drink from me. Would it hurt? I knew it could be good—so incredibly good. In a way, I realized I was jealous of all the people he singled out to drink from. They got to experience a side of him that I had held at bay. And yet…

  He must have read the struggle in my face. “I will never ask that of you. I will never demand to drink from you, nor will I drink from you without your consent. I love you too much for that. It’s a violation of will, and I don’t take joy in it, though it does feel good. But Maddy, you’re special. You’re my girlfriend, my lover, my mate. How could I ever hurt you?”

  I wanted to say, “Drink from me. Now. Here.” But I couldn’t. I was a witch and my blood held power. I had been taught never, ever to allow anyone else to use it. And all of my years hunting vampires had never once resulted in me getting bit. It had been a badge of honor to all three of us—me, Fata, and Sandy.

  Aegis seemed to sense where my thoughts were drifting. He shook his head, holding his finger to my lips. “Hush,” he whispered, “Don’t say a word.” He brought a chicken leg to my mouth. “Eat.”

  Silently, I took the drumstick and bit into the crunchy breading. It was like heaven in my mouth. I relaxed and with my other hand, fingered the pendant that lay around my neck.

  “Thank you. I love it,” I said. “This is so perfect.”

  “It’s the way I look at you. You stole the key to my heart, love.” He kissed my forehead, then picked up a chicken thigh and bit into it. “I don’t want your blood, I just want your love.” After a pause, he swallowed and added, “Not that I’m rejecting drinking from you, but…”

  “I know what you’re saying.” I handed him a roll. “Here.”

  The tension lifted, and I took a deep breath of the chill air. Aegis had thought to bring an extra blanket and I wrapped myself in it. It was fleece, toasty and soft. We ate in comfortable silence, the only sounds the rushing of the wind and the lapping of waves. The rain hadn’t broken yet—for which I was incredibly grateful—but the air felt laden with moisture. We finished the meal, including most of the cherry pie, and Aegis cuddled up to me again, wrapping his arm around me.

  “So, what are your plans for the Bewitching Bedlam this coming year?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess finish the landscaping and the outside camping area I wanted to put in on the back three acres. Why?”

  “Just wondering if we should draw up a timeline for what we want to do and when we want to do it.” He leaned back, pulling me to snuggle against his side. We watched the rumbling sky. Even though it was the dark of the night, the clouds were boiling overhead and I suddenly felt very much alone out in the middle of the water, as though we were the only two people alive.

  A few minutes later, Aegis sprang to a sitting position, tumbling me to the side. Dazed, I sat up, about to ask him what the hell, but he motioned for me to be silent. He was scanning out to the water, as though he were looking for something. Vampires had incredible hearing and I realized he must have heard something that alarmed him.

  I crouched, one knee on the bottom of the boat, one hand on the side. The rocking of the waves felt more intense, and then, as Aegis started to stand, looking alarmed, a brilliant flash split the sky, zigzagging from cloud to cloud, and almost immediately, a deep rumble rolled through the air, shaking the boat with its power.

  “Crap, lightning!” I tugged at Aegis. “Down! Get down! It’s right overhead!” All I could think about was that he would end up a giant lightning rod. Fire could fry a vampire—and lightning was fire on steroids.

  “Stop, Maddy! It’s not just lightning—” He was drowned out by a loud roar and before I could turn to see what it was, the boat began to spin and dip, sweeping up on a massive wave that rolled beneath us. I gasped, stumbling forward to land flat against the bottom of the boat. Aegis immediately had hold of me, dragging me up. “Where’s your life vest?”

  I shook my head. I had taken it off the minute we were under way. br />
  “Find it now!” Aegis began searching for it, but I caught sight of the brilliant orange vest as the lights of the boat rocked back and forth with the wave that had caught us up. I crawled forward, trying to grab it, but it slid out of my grasp. The next moment, Aegis leaped over my head, landing five feet in front of me, next to the vest. He grabbed it and tossed it to me.

  I slid the vest over my head, then snapped the buckle and pulled the cord to inflate it. Thank gods it worked, because we heard a crashing at the bow of the boat and then, the fiberglass and wood and metal began to screech as the wave picked up the boat and twisted it like a housekeeper wringing out a sponge.

  The boat couldn’t hold, and as it began to break apart, Aegis took hold of my arm and pulled me overboard with him. I wanted to yell, “My purse!” but then stopped. The last thing I needed to worry about was my purse. Right now, I just needed to stay alive.

  “Can you swim?” Aegis yelled over the cacophony raging around us.

  “Yes!” I nodded vigorously. We were in a rough current. A whirlpool seemed to be sucking the boat down. I struggled to keep from being caught in it, but then Aegis took hold of my waist and began driving his way through the water with powerful kicks. He steered with one arm, while he held me with his other, and slowly, we pulled away from the giant vortex that was forming in the water behind us. It swallowed the boat, and all I could do was whisper prayers to Arianrhod that she see us safely through the storm. I really didn’t want to die like this. I really didn’t want to die, in fact, but especially not sucked into the depths.

  We were starting to make some headway when another flash split the sky and opened it wide. Rain began to beat down on the churning waves, and I struggled to keep my face above the water. The life vest was helping, but it wasn’t necessarily a promise of salvation.

  We were nowhere near the shore. In fact, I couldn’t even see the shore. Aegis wouldn’t necessarily tire, but could he find our way back to land before a wave swamped us and drove us under? Or before the sun rose? We had a good seven hours to go before sunrise, but right now, I had no idea how far out we were.