Page 35 of Curses and Cauldrons

“My retinas, mother effer.”

“Easy tiger, some of us need to walk out of here without help,” a man huffs.

The two speaking are brother and sister, and obviously have the same personality. They’re both standing, but my eyes drift to the figures on the ground. The redhead Piper is sitting cross-legged, close to, but not touching, Josephine. Josephineis resting back on her heels, her shoulders slumped, her hair forming a curtain around her face.

“Josephine?” I move in front of her, crouching to get to her level. That’s when I notice her whole body is shaking. “Are you cold?” I’m ready to whip off my coat, but Piper’s soft voice stops me.

“She’s exhausted. Completely drained.”

And her friends have all left her here to suffer?

“We can’t touch her, dipshit. We’ll make it worse,” Ava drawls, as if she’s read my thoughts. Bram sucks in a breath, and Ambrose hums. I haven’t told them what Josephine’s curse is, but I think they might have some suspicions after this. That’s if Ambrose doesn’t already know. The sneaky bastard overheard something that night in the library.

“That’s real fucking interesting,” Bram murmurs. I ignore him.

I know Josephine’s curse causes her pain when touched, but I didn’t realize it was this bad.

“You just had the new moon ceremony; she should be flush with power.”

“You think we don’t know that? Something is obviously very wrong.” Stellan has his arms crossed, glaring at me and my friends like he’s daring us to start throwing punches. It looks like I’m not the only one itching for a fight. Josephine doesn’t have time for that, though. I lean down to speak directly to her. “I’m going to loop your arm around my neck and pick you up.”

Josephine’s mouth parts, “Too heavy.”

“That was a waste of energy,” I say and scoop her up into my arms. Her head is tucked into the crook of my neck, but her arm is barely holding on. She inhales deeply, and my body reacts instantly. Shit. The last thing I need is a hard-on with all these people around. Not to mention, this is not at all the right time.

“Let’s go,” I bark out, turning back toward my car without waiting for the others to catch up. There’s enough light from flashlights behind me that the path is visible. I peer down at Josephine’s face. My heart seizes in my chest. She’s asleep. That should not make me feel so good.

There will be time for questions later, but for now, I need to get her home.

“Where are you parked?” Bram asks. Then he and Ava argue for the next five minutes about whose car we’re taking and what car Josephine will ride in.

“Leave it here or drive it back to her place. I don’t give a shit. I’m taking her home,” I snap, sick of the arguing. I toss my keys over my shoulder, and Bram catches them without fumbling. “Send me her address.”

“Okay, yeah, no. I mean, that’s great, but we aren’t just going to let you take off with Jo.” Ava sounds a lot less confident when she isn’t arguing with my brother.

“We’re parked in the lot just down there,” Stellan says. “I’ll ride with you, and someone can ride back with Ava. We’ll meet at Jo’s apartment.”

Ambrose agrees to ride with Ava and Piper, waggling his eyebrows as he drops an arm around each of their shoulders. Ava spins away from him with a growl, but Piper freezes. I get in the passenger seat with Josephine on my lap. There’s no way I’m setting her down. Stellan and Odie slide into the backseat with Bram in the driver’s seat.

Stellan gives us directions with very little else to say. By the time Bram pulls up in front of her building, Ava and the others are parking behind us. Josephine is still asleep in my arms. Is there something else wrong with her? What happened tonight?

“Let me know when you need a ride, brother,” Bram tells me as I open the door, carefully extracting myself and Josephine.

“It was a pleasure, ladies!” Ambrose calls out as he trots over to my car and slips into the passenger seat. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He winks at me.

“I didn’t think that list existed.” I give him a knowing look.

Ambrose grins, his whiskey-colored eyes twinkling. “Exactly.”

“I’ve got a spare key,” Ava says as we walk up a set of steps to the front door. The building is faintly pink and over a hundred years old. Frost covers the railing, and the bare trees creak as the wind blows.

Everyone is quiet as we traverse a short hallway and stop before another door. Ava unlocks it, and I follow her inside. Stellan and Piper are right behind me. Great, I guess we’re having a party.

“You can put her down on the couch. We can take it from here,” Stellan says.

“Can you, though? What if she needs help getting up? What if she doesn’t wake up and needs to go to a healer? Are you going to make it worse by carrying her? Why the fuck is that even a thing?” I murmur the last part to myself. I can’t bring myself to set her down. Instead, I round the couch and sink down with Josephine still in my arms. My instinct tells me to keep holding her. In fact, I’d really like to strip off some of our clothes and get more skin-to-skin contact.

“Can you help me get her coat off?” I ask reluctantly when I realize I can’t keep hold of her and do it by myself. “And her flannel.”

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