Page 18 of Warlocks Don't Win
Chapter
Seven
When we got inside the house, Winston carried me to the front parlor, where he used to come when we were courting.
He stopped in the doorway abruptly, clutching me to his chest with all those muscles so I couldn’t breathe and my ribs creaked.
I gasped and struggled, but he didn’t seem to notice that he was crushing me, not when he was glaring across the room at the warlock lounging on the green velvet couch, a dust-free spot in the otherwise web-shrouded mausoleum.
“Cousin,” the handsome warlock with a tidy goatee said, standing and giving me a look that made my stomach twist. “And in the arms of your old lover. Seems as though he’s crushing you. Would you like me to throw him out for you?”
Winston immediately loosened his grasp on me, but he didn’t put me down. “You, the Snake of Salem, dare enter Sage House uninvited?”
It took me a long time to link this smooth and sophisticated individual with Silas the Snake, who was a very distant cousin,probably not at all blood related to me, and had been hitting on me since I was eleven.
“Oh. Silas. You’ve gotten much better looking,” I said, still out of breath from being squeezed by Winston. I subtly elbowed him, but he didn’t put me down.
Silas smiled, serpentine and oily as he gave me a raised brow. “Have I? And you have only grown in beauty as well.”
Yeah, nothing said beauty like random hair stripes and black sweats. Winston growled, the rumbling in his chest going through me like an earthquake. “You were supposed to be responsible for getting her legal representative. You didn’t hire anyone. She was left with an intern public servant who never passed the bar.” Ah. Good old Sarah J who ‘represented me’ so well. Then again, the fact that I’d had an unlicensed lawyer was part of why I was pardoned.
Silas shrugged, giving Winston a smirk. “Unlike you, who testified against her. It was so cowardly the way you did it, having them record your witness but not showing up so anyone could cross-examine you.”
It was Winston’s first public performance on the screen. And all for me. Be still my heart. And now I wanted to bite him. Again.
He growled. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I was there. Her lawyer didn’t cross-examine anyone, including her.” He held me closer while I held very still and tried not to kill everyone. During the case I wasn’t capable of defending myself or even talking. I’d been in such deep shock from the magic transfer, it was a surprise that I hadn’t been unconscious.
“Silas,” I said, sweet and cheerful, sounding like my mother as I summoned all the strength in my body to deal with him when I wanted nothing more than to collapse forever.
He immediately stiffened and looked more alarmed. “Yes, Clary?”
“It’s time for you to leave. We’ll be in touch. You’re still at the Reptile House?”
He nodded and absently stroked his goatee. Apparently, that was his nervous tick. He did look good, strong, healthy, like he’d been draining the life force from something like, I don’t know, my house. Could he have shot at me and then hurried to the house before I got there? I guess it was possible, but how would he have known I was back so soon?
I smiled so hard my teeth creaked. “I’ll let you know what I need from you. Right this moment, Winston is going to draw me a bath and massage my feet. He’s such a good friend.”
I gazed up at the warlock I was going to strangle, and ran my hand up the side of his cheek. His skin was rough under my palm. He needed to shave every five minutes or grow in a manly beard.
Silas gagged and then forced an oily smile. “Of course, Clary. I just want you to know that you have my full support. Welcome back.”
He gave me one last look then turned and slithered out, leaving me to wriggle out of Winston’s grasp and land on the floor in a puff of dust.
I reeled and almost fell over, but somehow managed to stay on my feet. Being connected so deeply to an entity like Sage House when it was drained wasn’t healthy for me. Obviously. I had to cut off whoever did it now. But I was too weak on my own. I’d need the help of my Singsong coven to break those bindings.
And someone had tried to kill me.
I winced and held up a hand when Winston moved closer, like I needed him to carry me away again. “You should go,” I said.
He nodded. “Yes. We can go to the nice bed and breakfast on Comfrey Corner until this house is up to health code standards.”He pursed his lips. “Not that it isn’t marvelously charming,” he added for the sake of its self-confidence.
I sighed heavily. “Not we, you. You keep picking me up. The next time you do that, I really am going to murder you. Your grandmother would be sad.”
“You’d rather I let you fall over? You’d probably have rolled back down the hill. That time, Paulo wouldn’t have broken your fall.”
And he knew the names of the people running around in my yard, but hadn’t bothered to mention it. I swung around to glare at him. “You didn’t tell me that they were using my woods for their show. Why not?”
He frowned back at me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was relevant. You’re hungry. Let me take you out to dinner.”
