Chapter 5

5

L averna hated fucking witches. She wouldn't argue that there were some good ones out there. She loved Circe for a start. But when it came to witches in Rome, Laverna had only ever had problems.

Last time, there had been years of grave desecration, poisonings, torture, and kidnappings. It was one of the few times in history that Romulus and Laverna had worked together to drive out the offenders from Rome.

Now they had some kind of a monster to control, and it had been sent after her people.

The tension in the car was heavy and silent except for the engine and the rain for most of the drive back into the city. Romulus's eyes stayed their normal amber and not the glowing gold of his wolf side.

Laverna's neck itched from where he had run his stubble over it. She needed to be alone to think through all of the feelings that sensation evoked in her. She hadn't stopped him from doing it. The dark part of her chthonic side woke up and purred with desires that she hadn't felt in centuries. Laverna leaned further into the warmth of the seat and tried not to think about it.

"Maybe we should have killed all the witches instead of exiling them," Romulus said finally.

Laverna nibbled on some of the remaining trail mix. "We don't even know if they are the same ones."

"If they aren't the same, they were taught by them. The scent of their magic is the same, so they must have some kind of connection," Romulus replied. "I've been feeling off for a few weeks now. I thought it was Bellona's fiasco with the mafia, but it hasn't gone away."

Laverna tried to hide her shock that he had admitted that much to her. He usually kept all of his secrets to himself. There was more power in knowledge. He never talked about his connection to the city either.

"Does it feel like it's threatened?" she asked, not wanting him to stop talking when he was in such an open mood.

Romulus pulled into a gas station and left the car running. "Stay here." He looked upset and distracted as he headed for the café, so Laverna decided to do as he said and not to start a fight with him.

They were both disturbed by what they had found at the reservation. The killings felt like a 'fuck you' to Laverna.

If they were dealing with the older witch clan, then it would make sense. Not only had Laverna helped run them out of Rome, but she had also been behind a spectacular slur campaign against their stunningly beautiful leader, Canidia.

History now knew her as a terrifyingly ugly hag thanks to Laverna's patronage of Horace. Maybe if the witch hadn't boasted about trying to fuck Romulus every chance she got, and implying her magic succeeded in bringing him to her bed, perhaps Laverna wouldn't have gone out of her way to make her into a horror legend. That wasn't even taking into account the time that Canidia and her hags had tried to capture Laverna to harvest her divine organs for their spells. Only with Romulus's help did she escape their traps.

She scowled at the dashboard. She really didn't need the reminder about Romulus fucking anyone, speculation or not. She really didn't need to think about the one and only time he had saved her ass. It meant nothing because after the witches had gone, he had gone back to hating her.

Needing to do something, Laverna messed with his sound system, adding a few magical programmings along the way just in case he annoyed her.

Romulus emerged from the café, carrying paper bags and drinks. He opened her door and passed her a hot coffee and a bag of something that smelled delicious before going back to his side of the car and getting in.

"Thanks," she said, sipping the coffee. It was a latte with two sugars, the way she liked it.

"You were shivering, which was distracting me. I always need calories after I let the wolf come to the surface," he replied. He had a mouthful of the coffee and pulled a face. "This is terrible, but it will do."

Laverna smiled and refrained from teasing him about being a spoiled rich boy. "All this 'terrible' is food of the gods when you've been driving for hours. What are you thinking?"

Romulus turned a little in his seat to face her. The rain was coming down heavily again and they were trapped in a warm little pocket amongst the storm. Laverna's heart skipped a beat, but she blamed it on the caffeine rush.

"You need to reach out to your networks in the city. The witches might be keeping a low profile, but they can't be leaving no trace at all. They can't hide what they are, so there will be signs of them," Romulus said, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. "They targeted you first. I don't like that."

Laverna opened the paper bag and made a happy sound at the toasted panini inside. "They are bullies, so they go after who they perceive as the weakest. They fucked up thinking that hitting either one of us was a good idea."

"I don't suppose I could convince you to stay at one of my safe houses while we deal with this?" Romulus asked. His amber eyes skimmed over her face, and her neck heated.

Laverna stopped chewing. "No. I have safe houses of my own. I don't need yours."

"You can't blame me for asking," he said. "Either way, we need to work together on this."

"That might be tough, seeing how we hate each other." Laverna quickly bit into her panini to stop herself from talking.

"I don't hate you, goddess." Romulus smiled a little and watched her eat. "I just can't control you."

"And that thought just keeps you up at night, doesn't it?" she couldn't resist teasing.

Romulus's eyes dropped to her lips, and the air charged between them. "Amongst other things." He looked away from her and winced through another mouthful of coffee.

Laverna cleared her throat. "If it's really witches, we need to act fast. No matter what our personal shit is, Rome will suffer longer if we don't deal with the hags. Your alarms are already going off which means they must be planning something. We aren't that far from a full moon, and we all know they love it just as much as the wolves," she said, trying to overcome the jittery feelings inside of her. She didn't know how to deal with this new Romulus who talked about things, bought her food when she was cold, and admitted that he didn't hate her.

"So we have a truce? You tell me what you find, and I'll do the same?" he asked and held out his hand.

"Truce," she replied and put her hand in his. It was so big and warm that her cooler palm fit perfectly in it.

Romulus shook it once and let her go. She had accidentally smeared melted cheese on his thumb, but he only licked it off without complaint. Heat pooled low in her core, and she swallowed hard.

No, she really had no idea how to handle this new side of Romulus at all.