Page 18 of Exes, Hexes, and Strategy
Tears welled in her eyes and she sniffled, her heart feeling so full she thought it might burst. “Forever,” she agreed.
A moment of melancholy settled around her. Rafe meant what he said, she knew that without a doubt, but it always made her sad knowing that he would remain by her side even when she was old and gray, that he would watch her die someday, that he would grieve for her, and when he finally moved on, he’d walk the world alone, with nothing but her memory to sustain him. Forever, for her, was a single mortal lifetime while forever for Rafe was an eternity. There was no way around that. Turning a witch was forbidden among the Born. It was one of his race’s only taboos and one that, if broken, would be punished with lethal force.
Gentle fingertips touched her chin. “Don’t be sad, Nina. We’ll figure this out. Your friends and family will be safe. I promise.”
Nina shook herself, banishing her sad thoughts back to the darkest recesses of her mind, and smiled. “We will figure it out. I know we will.”
“Logan and I have been discussing strategies on how I could get you back,” he said, surprising her with the admission. He shrugged, “We’ll just change it to how we can be stealthy.”
“Sneaky,” Nina corrected with a grin. “Mel and I termed it Operation Super Sneak.”
His lips lifted in a smile that caused Nina’s heart to flutter. “Operation Super Sneak,” he repeated, nodding his head. “I like it.”
He motioned to the door. “I’ll take a peek and see if the coast is clear.”
The hallway was empty except for Mel who was posing as she took pictures of herself with her phone with varying looks of surprise on her face. She had earbuds in her ears and the music she was listening to was loud enough where both Nina and Rafe could hear it, so chances were good that Mel hadn’t heard what she and Rafe had been doing in the closet.
That should relieve Rafe’s mind, Nina thought with a smile.
Approaching Mel from behind, Nina yanked an earbud out of her friend’s ear which made Mel jump and let out a sharp squeal of fright. A hand to her heart, Mel sagged in relief as she realized it was just Nina. “Shit, you scared me. I think I may have peed a little.”
Nina let out a bark of laughter before scrunching up her face. “Ew.”
“Yup. Now we both have to change our panties,” Mel said with a smirk.
Shaking her head at her incorrigible friend, Nina asked, “Any problems?”
“Nope. Quiet as a church.” Mel shrugged. “Not surprising since this section is classrooms for the witches, and we still have a while yet before anyone will be up and around. But,” she continued, drawing out the word, “I did get a few new followers on Insta.”
Turning to Rafe, Mel eyed him speculatively for a moment before she held up her phone and asked, “So tell me, which of these pictures should I send to your roommate?”
The look on Rafe’s face was priceless, and he blinked several times before finally uttering in the driest tone Nina had ever heard, “I’m sure I have no idea.”
“You didn’t even look,” Mel complained. Moving closer, she held the phone right up to his face. “See? In this one, I’m going for shy. He’s shy, right? So, he’ll like this one?”
“As he’s met you,” Rafe pointed out, “I highly doubt he’ll believe it.”
Mel nodded. “Right. You’re right. How about this one?”
Rafe shot Nina a pleading look and she had to bite back her laughter before she could say, “Mel, Rafe needs to get some sleep.”
Mel shot her a look of surprise before it morphed into one of realization. “Oh, right, the post-coital male exhaustion syndrome. Gotcha.” She added an exaggerated wink for good measure.
Nina and Rafe both shook their heads and sighed, the action causing Mel to exclaim, “Oh, my God! That’s so cute, you both match. Next thing you know, you’ll be finishing each other’s sentences.”
“And on that note,” Rafe stated wryly only for Nina to finish with, “we better get going.”
“Ha!” Mel exclaimed, grinning widely. “Told you so.”
∞∞∞
The next week or so was a blur of activity. Classes, of course, took up the bulk of the time, but Nina and Rafe managed to spend as much private time as possible together. Mel and Logan were willing accomplices in finding even more creative venues for Rafe’s and Nina’s clandestine trysts. Janitor’s closets, a utility room that housed pool supplies, a gardener’s shed on the grounds – not always ideal and definitely not the most romantic – some of them had even proved a bit dangerous. One time, Rafe was almost brained by a jug of chemicals that came tumbling off a shelf when he and Nina leaned too much of their weight on the shelving. He avoided the blow with a quick side-step, only to trip over a coiled length of hose to smack his head against the wall. While another time, Nina almost twisted her ankle when she stepped back into an uncovered floor drain. Still, neither one of them would have changed a thing, not when it meant they could be together.
It was Logan that had found them their latest spot, and Rafe and Nina both agreed it was a keeper. A man-made cave in the shifter’s section of the facility that, with the addition of a sleeping bag, a lantern, and a picnic basket of food snuck in by his resourceful roommate, created a cozy nest for them to while away the hours in each other’s arms.
During this time, the witches and shifters transitioned over to a nocturnal schedule alongside the vampires and while the change provided more time for Nina and Rafe to be together during the day, it presented its own challenges. They now shared several classes and keeping his eyes off of her, and the love he felt for her off his face, was difficult. Also difficult was keeping himself from killing certain people when it became clear that many of the vampires had little tolerance for witches.
He came close to ripping one vampire’s head off when the man slammed into Nina, knocking her to the ground – a supposed accident that could have easily been avoided with vampire reflexes, so it had to have been intentional.
