Page 42 of Witch's Betrayal
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DEJA
Iran straight into Ash when we hit the bottom of the stairwell. He slumped with relief and let out a string of curses as he pulled me tightly against his chest.
"Thank fucking Lucifer," he murmured into my hair before pulling away and stroking a hand across my cheek, his icy eyes wide with concern for me.
"Raum relayed everything to me while you were in there. I'm so sorry about your mother."
His words should have made me feel something, anything. Physically I felt fine, just tired. But emotionally, I felt completely numb. It was like my heart could no longer handle anymore betrayal, it closed itself off to feeling love and kindness too.
"Where were you?" I asked.
"Setting up an anchor at our safe house," he replied, tugging on my hand as we walked hurriedly to their Victorian down the street from my-- no-- Nona's, shop.
"What?"
"Sorry I forgot you don't ah, teleport like we do." He pulled me against him again and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "We can only instantly travel somewhere if we have an anchor at that location, which is a spelled object to pull us there. We have a house way up north near the Oregon border in the middle of nowhere. I went to make sure it's absolutely foolproof. Once we get everything we need, we'll be there instantly and the demon hunt will go nowhere."
"But I can't teleport?"
"You can if you're holding onto one of us." He dropped a quick kiss to my lips. "And we're never letting go of you."
The four of us practically crashed our way through the Victorian house and split off determinedly in different directions. We grabbed clothes, bedding, and towels to use in the new house and filled suitcases full of them.
I took a large canvas shopping bag into the kitchen and grabbed all the canned and dried food I could find. Who knew how long we'd have to stay holed up in the middle of nowhere before the hunters let up their search?
Two metal tins on the kitchen counter made me pause. I picked up one and examined the label before allowing myself to smile. Ash brought two tins of loose tea for me. It was just this morning but felt so long ago that he asked me to move in, and we happily parted ways before this whole shit show went to Hell in a handbasket.
"How'd I do?" came his voice along with the rough nuzzle of his beard against the back of my neck. "Think those twigs and leaves will do it for you?" he teased.
"Are you kidding?" I turned both tins over in my hands as the first clear emotions finally came through my numbed senses. Love. Appreciation. Support. "This is genuine silver needle tea! I could never get it in the shop because the suppliers were always backordered." I turned to face him, a smile daring to creep across my face. "You must have worked some magic to get this. Thank you, angel."
"Maybe just a little." His arms encircled my back protectively and only then did the exhaustion seemed to fully hit me. I slumped against him with a weary sigh, leaning all my weight against his hard torso as his hands moved soothingly across my back.
"I'm really sorry my love, about everything," he murmured into my hair. "I hate to see you hurt. I know you wanted family and kinship with these people."
"Did you know?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shirt.
"No."
"Did Raum?"
He hesitated. "That's something you need to ask him."
I lifted my head and looked at him. "I used fire and water magic to stop her blood spell. I found the knowledge in my shadows. Once I found them it was so easy to cast, like breathing. How is that possible?"
"Because you'reyou," he answered lightheartedly, seemingly unsurprised. "I'll explain later, love, but we really need to get going. I'd rather not deal with a small army of hunters at our doorstep."
As if right on cue, we heard a crash coming from the foyer and the distinct sound of a mountain lion roaring.
Ash and I exchanged a glance for a split second before we dashed out of the kitchen and into the next room. Sal in his feline form had his ears pressed back against his skull, belly low to the ground, claws out, and fearsome teeth bared in a terrifying snarl. The moment I saw who he was growling at, my own aura flared up in a rage that could only rival Sal's.
A wide-eyed Seth sat on the floor, his hands raised in a surrendered motion as the mountain lion slunk closer to its prey. Raum stood near the door, arms crossed and looking bored.
"Let Sal eat him, I say," he offered.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed.
