Belong To The Night. Cynthia Eden

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      “Why?”

      “Wanda…she was wearing that”—Jamie shuddered—“patchouli oil.”

      “Lord, woman, what is your thing about that?”

      “I hate it! It’s my kryptonite. As are women like Wanda.”

      “Women like Wanda?”

      “Yeah. Those hippie, dippy, New Age females I always want to stab in the face. The truth is if I hadn’t met my coven in junior high, I would have been a solitary practitioner. So would Mac. I swear nothing gets on my nerves faster than those Artemis-worshipping, Patchouli-wearing, need-a-goddamn-haircut, shave-your-pits-once-in-a-while, still-driving-a-love-bus, insists-on-calling-me-sister, pains in the ass.”

      Tully stared at her. “But not like you have any strong opinions on the subject or anything.”

      “Maybe a little one. But it’s because of those types that my coven is banned for life from the Green Man Festival.”

      “And I’m sure it had nothing to do with what you were probably up to at the time.”

      “Maybe a little,” she shook her head, “but I still say they were being irrational. I mean they’re all so busy saying they’re drawing down the moon, but they get completely freaked out when someone actually does it.”

      Tully blinked. “You moved the moon out of orbit?”

      She snorted. “Of course not.”

      “Oh.”

      “I just moved the earth a little closer to it.”

      Tully’s arms dropped to his side. “You did what?”

      “Don’t get hysterical. I moved it back.”

      Tully didn’t think it would be possible. Didn’t think anyone was capable of doing it. But Jamie Meacham had managed the impossible. She’d gotten him to think about something other than his father.

      “You’re crazy,” he accused, which was something he didn’t toss around lightly considering his own family history.

      “Not crazy. Just a bit of a show-off. I get so tired of them talking, talking, talking, but not doing. Don’t talk about drawing down the moon. Fucking do it. If that doesn’t work, move the earth closer. Not brain surgery, people.”

      “Did it ever occur to you that moving any planet out of its orbit could cause huge ramifications globally?”

      “I was never really into science,” she said dismissively.

      “Oh. Well then…”

      “Besides, I moved everything back and stopped most of the tsunamis, tornados, and spouting volcanoes before I lost consciousness.”

      Lord, now she had him laughing. Laughing so hard he couldn’t even stand up straight. He didn’t think it was possible. Not until his father was long gone and all was right in the town he loved. But somehow one full-human witch had managed to do the impossible yet again.

      “Yeah, sure…laugh. But let me tell ya, all those hippie-dippy witches with their ‘love solves all’ platitudes and their ‘make love not war’ philosophies are at their very core—totally Stalin.”

      And ten minutes later, when the Elders had finally tracked them down, desperately concerned about what they’d heard through the town rumor mill and wanting some answers from Tully and Jamie on what they were planning—they seemed really concerned when they found Tully rolling around on his back laughing and Jamie snarling at him, “It’s not funny. They were really mean to me!”

      Chapter Six

      “Tell me again,” Jamie murmured softly near his ear, her gaze examining the County Hall boardroom with its fine cherrywood furniture and board table, “why the Elders insist on meeting at the junior high when you have boardrooms like this one?”

      “Because if they use it too often, it won’t still look so shiny and pretty,” he whispered back. “Duh.”

      They both chuckled, their gazes briefly locking, and Tully couldn’t explain what passed between them, but he’d felt it as surely as if she’d touched him with her hand.

      “Are you two done?” Jack Treharne snarled. Of course, he snarled most things but until this was all settled, until his mate and the town he loved was safe from Buck Smith, the man would be damn intolerable. But Tully didn’t mind because they both felt the same way about the town and about his momma. “Because that bastard wolf is a problem that needs to be dealt with.”

      “I understand that,” Jamie told him calmly, “but I’m not sure what you expect us to do.”

      Jack pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning on and came up to Jamie. “Why the hell not? What’s your purpose here if you can’t do what we tell you to?”

      “I don’t work for you, Jack. I’m more like…free-range protection.”

      “Can’t you set up those wards or whatever you call ’em?”

      “We already have those in place,” Mac cut in from her place across the room. “And we renew them each full moon, but it still doesn’t help with your particular problem.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because the boundaries we’ve created are to keep full-humans away and pure evil out.” Jamie shrugged. “They won’t keep out or harm animals and that pretty much includes you.”

      “We’re still human. Mostly.”

      “True. But shifters are protected by the same gods who’ve empowered us to create those boundaries. That includes Buck Smith.”

      “So there’s nothing you can do?”

      “I didn’t say that. We can do lots of things. Some of which will leave nothing but charred remains and fond memories. But if he hasn’t done anything to warrant such an attack from me or my coven, I’m only putting our powers at risk.” And Tully knew she’d never do that.

      “Which is what I told you, Daddy,” Tully reminded him.

      “You want him here, don’t you?” And if it sounded like Jack was accusing Tully…he was. “So you can talk through all your bullshit like you’re in a goddarn therapy session.”

      “Old man, I can think of a thousand tortures I’d rather endure than dealing with Buck Smith, but it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t stop him from coming here with his Pack for a vacation.” Which was what Wanda Pykes had told Seneca at check-in but Tully would never be stupid enough to believe it.

      “And if they decide to stay?” Gwen McMahon asked.

      “That I won’t allow,” Tully said simply.

      “And how are you going to stop him?” Jack demanded.

      And СКАЧАТЬ