Page 15 of Witch's Exile
6
SETH
As I opened my eyes, I pulled in a deep breath and released it slowly. With a wave of my hand, the candles circling around me snuffed out.
I rose to my feet and quickly adjusted the hard bulge in my jeans. Gods be damned, I hated how she had that effect on me without even trying. Especially when she just made it clear that she would never have me.
A pounding at my door rang out just as I pulled my shirt over my head. The knocking never let up, rapping insistently against the wood so I took my sweet ass time to pull on a pair of socks too.
"Seth, are you in there?" came Diana Quinn's shrill voice from the hall.
"Unfortunately," I muttered as I ambled over to pull the deadbolt.
My attempt to just crack the door was thwarted by her pushing past with surprising strength for an old lady. She stood in my barely furnished studio apartment, taking note of the circle of candles on the floor, their wicks still smoking gently from being extinguished.
Deja's psychotic grandmother promptly spun around to face me while I waited with arms crossed to hear why the fuck she barged into my place.
"Why were you just in Deja's shadows?" she snarled. "And why did you block me out? We agreed that I would be the one in her mind as long as you held the channel open."
I shrugged nonchalantly. "Figured I'd have a turn fucking with her mind too."
"That wasn't the deal we made!" she huffed. "I'm breaking her down not only mentally but physically. It's a delicate process that cannot afford to be interrupted--"
"I know all about shadow torture techniques, trust me." I waved my hand dismissively. "One night of shaking her up my own way won't tamper with your delicate process."
"We can't afford to let her find Air, Seth," she continued to wail. Her hand reached shakily to her throat, and I knew that sensation of drowning was still fresh in her mind. Damn, how I wished Deja had finished her off.
"I'm well aware of that." I kept my expression bored.
"If she's able to rest, to sleep peacefully for even a few hours, she could find the strength to find it and wield it," she continued as if she hadn't heard me. "Gods, I should have suffocated her as a toddler when I had the chance."
My fingers dug into my biceps but nothing that she could notice. As batshit insane as Diana was, I hadn't pegged her for being willing to kill a child.
But then again, she did try to kill Deja before she was born. Only she missed and killed her own daughter, Deja's mother, instead and didn't seem particularly remorseful about it.
Deidre Quinn's mysterious death was the first file I looked up when I made it into the hunter's guild. It had been given a preliminary investigation and then shut just as quickly when the evidence showed no human interference or demon magic involved. Her death was ruled accidental and the file left to collect dust on the shelves with thousands of other forgotten witch deaths.
Of course none of those assholes could ever fathom a witch harming one of its own kind. Hunters felt like goddamn heroes when they barged in on witches having consensual encounters with incubi and succubi. But if there wasn't a sniff of demon aura in the air, they were content to look the other way.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten that witch and demon lines drew so closely together and even overlapped in some areas. We were essentially cousins and this was how we treated them? This was how we treated the woman who gave birth to our race? We should have been honoring her as a saint.
"If you killed her as a toddler, she just would have come back in another body as a fully fledged adult," I pointed out. "You shouldn't have fucked it up the first time," I added with a sneer.
"I don't see you or any of your hunters trying to do blood magic," Diana sneered. "Too busy hiding in the shadows, huh? I'm three times your age and I was the only one with the balls to attempt it!"
"And look where that got you," I shot back. "Kicked out of your coven and the innocent blood of your own daughter on your hands. You're lucky Laurel was able to pull enough strings so that humans never noticed her death either." I couldn't resist a biting smile. "At least I know my strengths."
Diana scoffed as she raked a hand through her snowy white hair. "And what are those exactly? Aside from you letting me into my granddaughter's shadows, you and your whole force seem utterly useless."
"Yeah? Is finding their magical trail 'useless'? How about the fact that we'll be on them in two days, maybe less?"
Her amber eyes met mine, wide with surprise. For the first time since barging into my place, she was speechless.
"But hey, if I'm so useless," I pulled the front door open, inviting her to get the fuck out. "You're welcome to open your own channel into Deja's mind. For such an accomplished blood witch, that shouldn't be a problem at all," I sneered.
She gave me a cold stare right back but I saw her expression wobble. Good. The crazy cunt needed a good knock off of her high horse.
"Keep the channel open. Once we catch them, I'll make sure the guild rewards you generously." She glanced around at my meager belongings which barely filled the studio apartment. With as much travel as I did, I never cared to keep much stuff. She knew this and still curled her lip distastefully. "It seems you're in need of a housing upgrade, anyway."
I didn't rise to her bait, as much as I wanted to. I simply stood next to the door and waited for this psychotic bitch to leave before I had a migraine.
She stepped through and into the hall without another word but quickly turned on her heel.
"You'll let me know when they have--"
The door slamming in her face was my answer.
Sighing out a breath, I scrubbed my hands down over my face as I let my true emotions rise to the surface.
Fucking Hell, Deja. You better find your Air before they find you.
