A Lying Witch: The Complete Series, page 6
For a fraction of a second, his hardened expression softened. But not by much. Enough to tell my brain he wasn’t about to reach for the fire poker and skewer me. But not enough to promise that he’d drop this.
He seemed to take several seconds to figure out how he should reply. That, or he was enjoying every single moment of my fear. It was probably the latter, considering how much of a right royal prick this fellow was.
Still, while I could insult him in my head, that was the furthest thing from what I could do in real life. I was suddenly struck by the fact that until last night, I’d never experienced true fear. Now it goaded at my heart, plucked at my spine, and threatened to make me black out.
I held on, though.
Just enough for him to slowly, oh so slowly unwrap his arms. He got down on one knee, right in front of me. No, I didn’t think he was about to propose. The exact tension crumpling his brow and digging hard into his jaw could not be associated with anything other than blazing indignation. “Your grandmother would have wanted me to protect you. She… tried to save me,” he said, an odd, hesitant pause between his words.
Despite the fact he was still right there in front of me, and despite the fact my mind was still battling the full effects of fear, I had just enough reason left over to appreciate that hesitant pause meant something. Maybe the Scottish fairy had a heart in there, after all. A heart he quickly hid away as he reached forward and locked a hand on the armrest beside me.
He was right there – I mean right there. It wasn’t just that he was close enough to touch (or kiss, if you believed my suddenly tingling lips). Nope. It was that for the first time I was treated to an up-close look of his face. The lines, the scars, the flecks in his otherwise perfect eyes.
It distracted me as I opened my mouth.
He got there first. “I’ve explained everything now,” he controlled his tone, leaned back, smoothed an unaffected look over his face, and cleared his throat. “So now it’s time to get to work.”
It took me a long time to lock on to what he’d said – my mind was far too distracted by the scars along his jaw, down his neck, flecked across his thick eyebrows.
Then something clicked. “Ah, work?”
He nodded, returning to his default position of crossing his arms over his chest. “Work.”
“Ah, I just moved here, I don’t have a job,” I stumbled over my words as I gestured ineffectively.
“Yes, you do. You got one this morning.” Without another word and without any attempt to explain that opaque statement, he turned hard on his boot, retreated from the room, and promptly returned.
He was back way before my mind could tell me to run.
He held a crumpled up piece of thin cardboard in his hand. Standing over me and looming like a pissed off storm cloud, he held his hand out, the card still crumpled in it.
I looked from his outstretched hand to his face. It was obvious he wanted me to reach forward and accept the card. I just stared at him.
So he, demonstrating just how rude he could be, leaned forward, plucked up my hand, and pushed something into it.
I jerked my hand back from his large grip, and he made no attempt to stop me.
Then I saw what the crumpled up paper was. A card – Detective Dave Coulson’s card, to be exact.
I blanched.
Max just looked on with a steady expression. “Detective Coulson needs your help to solve a heinous crime. And you’re going to give him your help.”
I shook my head, violently. “No. No, there’s no way.”
He simply nodded slowly. “Oh, there’s every way. Now get your coat.”
“Wait, what? You want to do this now?”
“No, love, we’re going to go tomorrow morning – you need some time to adjust so you don’t scream at passing police officers. I just thought you should get your coat because you look cold.”
I blinked, confused. “I….”
“Also, you should probably start reading through your grandma’s journals. It’ll help you get on your feet. And considering you can barely stand,” he shot me a judgmental look, “I think that’s in order.”
I rested back into the couch. No, it was kind of more like I was a once-soufflé that was suddenly sagging.
All my fight left me in a great big sigh.
Max watched me, and I was struck by the fact that I had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. Which was strange, as I was usually pretty good at reading people. Then again, Max wasn’t a person, was he? Oh no, he was a fairy.
You know when you think you’ve processed something, when you think you’re over some great shock? Yeah, well that was me up until now. Because suddenly it hit me again, right between the eyes.
Magic existed, and I was in a whole world of trouble.
But there was something even worse, way worse. Since a kid, I’d always lied my way out of trouble. But now, if I believed Max, that would kill me….
4
Max was true to his word. He didn’t drag me out of the house for the rest of that day. Nope, he let me relax (if you could call being under house arrest imposed by a fairy relaxing).
The next morning, though?
Oh, the next morning, he bundled me into the car. Literally. When I tried to clutch hold of the front door, he simply plucked me up and carried me to his car. Somehow, there hadn’t been a soul on the street, so no one could hear me scream.
Max drove in silence, ignoring my protestations as if my voice was nothing more than white noise.
“It’s not going to happen. Listen to me: it’s not going to happen. I’m not a real clairvoyant. I’m a fricking fake. And I’m okay with that. But there is no way I’m gonna go to the police station and help investigate a murder.” My voice cracked on the word murder. Oh boy, did it crack. It shook so badly it could have rattled my throat to pieces.
Max did that thing manly men do whenever they’re driving. He didn’t turn to look at me despite the fact I was right there beside him. He tilted his head at an angle and looked at me out of the corner of his eye, instead. I could have balled up a hand and punched him. And I would have if I weren’t so incapacitated by the idea of what would be waiting for me at the police station.
Last night, I’d managed to come to terms with what was happening to me. Almost. Grandma’s journals had helped a little. They corroborated what Max had already told me, confirming everything from the mendacious Mary McLane to the fact I now had to use my so-called abilities for good, or I’d pay the price.
Still, there was no way I was going to help investigate a murder.
“I can’t do this!” I whined once more.
“You can, and you will,” he said, that rich brogue of his bottoming out on the word will.
Now, I’ll admit I’ve known plenty of men in my time. But I have never, ever come across somebody who had such fine control of their baritone. When Max wanted to, he could make his voice sound like a clap of thunder.
I gritted my teeth, balled my hands into fists, and thought about kicking the dash.
Thought about it, that was, until he shot me another one of those truly disapproving looks. Maybe I should have chosen that exact moment to shut the hell up and mentally prepare myself for what would be waiting for me at the police station. Instead, I tilted my head to the side and bared my teeth. “Where exactly do you get off with this, anyway? Why are you taking so much pleasure—”
Despite the fact he was driving, and we were currently negotiating a fairly tricky congested intersection, he tilted his head and turned all the way towards me. It was the slowest, scariest, most damn intimidating move I’d ever seen.
“Ah, the traffic. Pay attention to the traffic,” I gulped through my words.
“You think I need half a mind to negotiate this traffic, let alone deal with you?”
The look in his eyes was way past sanctimonious now. It achieved some pure level of indignation mixed with spite. And it made my blood boil. I clenched my teeth until I thought I would lose all circulation to my lips.
Maybe I wasn’t okay with magic and my so-called abilities yet. But there was one thing I was getting a handle on pretty quickly – Max.
I didn’t honestly think he’d try to attack me like he had when we’d first met. If you believed him, it had been an honest mistake. He’d forgotten about Joan’s death – and the costs of protecting her in her final fight had sent him into a daze for weeks. When he’d seen me at the door, he’d thought I was another fairy muscling in on his turf.
And now I didn’t think he’d actually physically attack me, the proverbial verbal gloves were off. “I repeat, where exactly do you get off? And don’t give me that bullshit explanation about you being contracted to protect my grandmother and following through with her final wish to protect me. You wouldn’t be here unless you had to be.” It was my turn to act intimidating as I leaned over and sneered right in his face. “So,” I asked once more, “Where exactly do you get off?” I had my mother to thank for my ballsiness. For a little Chinese woman, she never backed down from a fight. Heck, she created most of them, but that was an irrelevant point at the moment. Point was, you never showed weakness.
Well, in the real world. When you were dealing with humans and not jacked up Scottish fairies with biceps that could tear off mountain caps.
Suddenly, we came to a screeching stop. Which was kind of inconvenient, considering I’d been leaning right over to sneer into his face. As he slammed on the brakes, I tumbled forward, and somehow, some freaking how – despite the laws of physics – I ended up with my head in his lap.
“You can find out how I get off,” he said, tone shaking through his body and shifting into me until I finally found the balance to jolt out of his lap.
I pressed myself against the far window, hoping like hell my cheeks didn’t turn neon red. Hope, however, was dashed as I felt a fresh new supply of blood blossom over my face and down my neck. Though I couldn’t see myself, I could appreciate I would be brighter than the sun.
And no, it hadn’t exactly escaped my attention that he’d used the words get off while my head had been buried in his lap. Realizing that, my cheeks became even redder. But, like I’d said, I was my mother’s daughter, and I was never one to back down from a fight. I pressed my lips together. “You think you’re so smart. You think you’re holding all the cards. Well, you’re nothing more than a prick—” I began.
He leaned past me and pointed out the window. He came close enough that his arm all but brushed against the underside of my less-than-considerable bust.
I jerked backward, even though some stupid, mutinous little part of my mind suddenly wondered what it would feel like to touch that rigid, taut bicep.
He didn’t point past me for long. Just tapped the window. “You get off here,” he said.
Hello, blush. Move over and meet total complete mortification.
Because yeah, I couldn’t deny the thrill that escaped down my stomach and charged hard through my pelvis as I felt his arm brush against my shoulder. It took me all of several more seconds to actually twist my head and look through the window. Because he wasn’t talking about getting off in that sense, was he? Nope.
“The police station is here,” he proffered in that deep brogue.
When I didn’t move quickly enough, he leaned past me again, opened my door, and shoved it with a hard move.
My door swung open, and my stomach bottomed out. In my head, I’d kind of been hoping that I’d be able to get out of this some way. I’d be able to state a compelling enough argument about my total lack of ability to psychically find a killer. But hey, in between arguing with this numbskull and convincing myself I couldn’t feel anything for him, we’d already arrived at the police station.
My gut did its best version of an Olympic pole-vaulter as it somersaulted and twisted in my torso.
My mouth became so dry, I swore I would retch, and as I shifted my attention and saw the satisfied glint in his eye, I simultaneously wanted to throw up on him and punch him.
I, of course, did neither. A sense of foreboding building in my stomach, I turned and shifted my full attention to the police station.
Snap – I felt the threads of my destiny unraveling. Or maybe they weren’t unraveling – maybe they were tying themselves around my throat so they could strangle me. Because I knew full well that if I stepped foot in that station and pretended I could solve this murder, my life would end. Violently. It wasn’t just that I had no stomach for brutality. It was that I was a frickin’ fake fortune teller. Yes, I’d been able to tell the future for an itty bitty fraction of a second when Max had attacked me, but I had no clue how to extend that ability, nor did I want to. It had been the most sickening, awful experience of my life.
Though all I wanted to do was run away, Max didn’t give me the opportunity. Before I knew what he was doing, he marched up onto the pavement beside me and hooked an arm through mine. No, he wasn’t proposing an impromptu dance on the pavement. He turned his head down to me, and I appreciated just how stiff his lips were, just how severe and hard his expression had become.
“No turning back, witch,” he said. And though every other word he’d uttered sounded pejorative, witch ticked off his tongue with a quaint, rhythmic quality. “And no lying,” he suddenly added as he shifted towards me and whispered in my ear.
His harsh whisper sent a shiver twisting and jerking down my spine, and only half of it was at the implicit threat. The other half was at his kind of distracting presence.
As soon as I caught my mind thinking that, I wrestled it into a headlock. Get a grip on yourself, girl, I thought sneeringly, this Scottish fairy is a total prick.
Feeling a little better at that rebellious thought, I let him pull me all the way into the police station.
He didn’t keep an arm hooked through mine for long. As soon as we made it through the doors, he took a respectful step back. That did not, however, mean he didn’t take the opportunity to shoot me another one of those truly fearsome looks.
I wondered if he’d always been this way, or if it was just me. Heck, maybe it was years of working for my acerbic grandmother that had caused his perpetual foul mood.
Then again, I had no idea how old he was. He was a fairy, not a man – even though you couldn’t convince my body of that.
Those thoughts completely distracted me until he brought me to a stop right in front of the counter. He cleared his throat. “We’re here to see Detective Coulson.”
There was a woman behind the counter, and though she was discreet, I could tell she was checking Max out. Any normal person wouldn’t be able to help checking out the fine Scottish specimen. Well, until he opened his mouth and revealed his fatal personality, that was.
I suddenly got the urge to turn to this lady, lean over the counter, and tell her he absolutely wasn’t worth it. Oh, and he was also a fairy. Rather than point that out, the woman muttered something to Max that I didn’t pick up.
Before I knew what was happening, he flattened a hand on my back, pushed me away from the counter, and led me towards the stairway to our left.
Several detectives walked past us. As soon as they were out of earshot, I twisted and faced Max. “I’m not doing this,” I said through a sharp breath. “There is absolutely no way I can do this. I’m not a freaking clairvoyant,” I snapped, suddenly lowering my tone so no one could pick it up.
He snorted. “You managed to get away from me, didn’t you?”
“That was different,” I snapped right back. I trailed off as a memory of that moment slammed into my mind.
For half a second, I swear his expression softened. Maybe a pang of guilt for almost killing me sliced through his heart. But Max did not soften for long. He leaned in and sneered once more. “I don’t really care if you think you can do this or not. You will find a way to access your power. I can’t tell you how to do it, because I don’t know. But you will figure it out on your own,” his voice bottomed out, hit the kind of pitching note that didn’t just shake through my stomach but threatened to completely destroy the building, let alone my precious little remaining nerve. And again, just for a flash, I saw his shadow elongate.
I turned from him sharply, wanting to hide the effect he had on me.
Before I knew it, we’d already mounted the stairs. Funnily enough, I’d never been to a police station, though I’d received plenty of parking fines. Still, I expected something more modern, something slightly more up-to-date. What I got was a building fresh out of the 60s that was all concrete, drab brown brick and seriously hideous carpet. I almost blanched as I focused on the truly awful pattern. It was some hideous mix of orange-brown and green faux-paisley. Maybe it was meant to distract criminals or have some psychedelic effect on their minds to trick them into telling the truth.
“Here we go,” Max muttered beside me, pointing towards a nondescript door to our left.
“How do you know this is the right place?” I said with a sneer. “Been to the police station a lot?” I snarled.
He twisted his head down and offered me a stiff smile that was about as far away from a smile as you could get. Though his lips were curled, there was zero mirth in the move, just a deep warning look flickering in his gaze. “Yeah, I’ve been to the police station a lot, but it’s not what you think. Us fairies know the difference between right and wrong,” he admonished.
“Then why have you been here so often?” I pushed.
“I came here with your grandmother, following her work as a seer,” he said. As he spoke, he looked right at me. He made zero attempt to hide the fact he was trying to gauge my reaction. And though I had a pretty darn good poker face, considering my job, his direct gaze undid me.
_preview.jpg)
