Belong To The Night. Cynthia Eden

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      Tully felt his body go tight. “You were married?”

      “You didn’t know?”

      “No.”

      “Yeah. Seven years of my life I’ll never get back.”

      “What happened?”

      “Nothing.”

      “It must have been something. Unless you’re still married.”

      “Oh, no, no, no,” she said quickly. “So not still married.”

      “Then what was it.”

      “Like I said. Nothing. That was the problem. When we’d argue, I felt nothing. When he yelled at me over something ridiculous, I felt nothing. When he threatened to out me to the Department as a witch and a kook, still nothing. And when I found him fucking a pseudo-friend of mine in my bed…more than nothing. In fact, I felt bad for him, because God knew he was doing it all for me. And I felt nothing.”

      “You never loved him.”

      “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I really never did.”

      “So why—”

      “I went through this really weird phase where I wanted to be normal. Marriage is considered normal. My parents were happy. The people I pretended were my friends were happy. I was happy. Everyone was happy…but my coven. They were not happy.”

      “They knew it was wrong for you.”

      “Yeah. They did. And tried to tell me. Guess I should have listened.”

      Although curious why anyone would be with someone they didn’t care about for seven long years, Tully decided to stick with their current topic of conversation.

      “So, you get all that power,” he said. “You scoop it up like my momma’s key lime pie at the church social. Then what? What are you going to do with all that power once you have it?”

      “Use it.”

      “To do what? Destroy the world? Become the almighty empress of the universe?”

      “No,” she said with an easy roll of her shoulders that told him she wasn’t lying. “Don’t want any of that.”

      “Well, that’s the thing about power, beautiful. Once you have it, you’ve gotta do something with it.”

      She smiled, showing all those perfectly aligned, “my daddy is an orthodontist” teeth. “And I’m sure I will.”

      Jamie had no idea when she fell asleep, but she knew when Tully took her to bed. He easily lifted her off the couch and walked through the dark house to the back bedroom. He pulled off the quilt before covering her up with the sheet and comforter.

      “You’re leaving?” she heard herself ask.

      “In a bit.”

      “Okay.” She rolled over to her other side and tucked her hands under her cheek. Lips brushed against her forehead and then he was gone. He didn’t make a sound, but she still knew he’d left the room and then the house from the amazing energy that went with him.

      And with his energy gone, theirs returned. She could hear them scratching at the walls, the doors, the windows, trying to get in. Always trying to get in. It had been getting worse every night. At first, a simple spell could send them away, but now she had to use more than that. Even worse, it was getting to the point where she had to manage it constantly. One simple spell no longer covered her from moon to moon, or even day to day. Of course, they did have help, didn’t they? They had the one who’d sent them.

      She grabbed another pillow and put it over her head in the hopes of blocking out the sounds while Rico settled on her headboard, watching over her for the night.

      Yet there was only so much her familiar could do. Once they broke through the barriers she’d created, Jamie doubted anyone would be able to protect her.

      Chapter Five

      Jamie was mid-yawn when she heard the knock on her office door. Once Tully had left, she’d gotten no sleep and had spent the rest of the night watching bad television until dawn when she had to get to work and whip out some pastries for a Daughters of the Confederate Bears meeting. Even worse, her cousin had been an annoying heifer since she’d rolled into work later that morning. If Jamie didn’t know better, she’d swear Mac was trying to pick a fight with her. Or maybe she was just being her usual nosey self. Whatever her damage was, Jamie had avoided her cousin by hiding in her office.

      Hoping her cousin wasn’t back to push her, Jamie wiped her tired eyes and said, “Come in.”

      Emma stuck her head in. “Hey.”

      “Hey. What’s up?” When Emma hesitated Jamie motioned her in. “What’s going on?”

      Emma closed the door and sat down in the leather office chair across from her. “I was going to ask you that.”

      “Nothing.”

      “Jamie.” Emma gave an exasperated laugh. “Look at you.”

      “Hey. I was spitting up fire last night. I deserve to look this tired.”

      “You don’t think we feel it? Every night? Them coming for you? And I’m not talking about what you’re doing to become Morrighan’s champion.”

      Jamie relaxed back in her chair. Of course her coven felt it. Soon they might be able to hear it too. The demands for entry getting louder, more angry, more desperate. “Let it go, Em.”

      “Let us help you.”

      “There’s nothing to help.”

      “You’re lying!”

      Emma winced at the voice coming through the door. “Would you let me handle this?”

      Mac pushed the door open. “You’re not handling it right.”

      Exhausted, worn down, and just plain raw, Jamie warned her cousin, “You need to back off this, Mac, and you need to back off this now.”

      Her cousin snorted. “No.”

      Around early afternoon, Tully ambled on over to the Smithville Arms to check on Jamie. True, she wasn’t his responsibility but he’d felt a kinship to her after talking for so long the night before. She was a sweet thing, if a bit misguided. Misguided because he couldn’t understand how she didn’t see the beauty of this place. Smithville wasn’t just some town to him. He knew there was no place else in the world where he could go and be as happy and, more importantly, content as he was here. If she only bothered to open up her eyes and see what had been bestowed upon her, he knew she could find her place here. She could find something better than the hoarding of power.

      And, as always, his mother had been right. Trying to force anything down Jamie’s throat or even trying СКАЧАТЬ