Chapter Ten

Rolf took me home quickly and dropped me off in front of my building before racing back to see about the explosion. Neither of us said anything, though I had briefly thought about asking if I could accompany him. I decided I didn’t need to, really. I already knew, and it was nothing I wanted to see. I knew that it had been Leroy’s house that exploded and that both Willie and Leroy were dead. The sure knowledge of it had come to me the second I saw the plume of smoke and the knowledge now lay on me like a heavy blanket.

Knowing things like that had been the bane of my mother’s existence all her life. I had too, to some extent, but never with this sure knowledge. Had I awakened something inside me by doing that spell for Willie? By reading my mother’s little books?

I had told Rolf the truth about Willie Watusi, though I knew he didn’t believe that. Willie and I weren’t close and really never had been in the true sense of the word, even as kids, though we’d known each other all our lives. I could predict how he’d react to a lot of things just out of familiarity, but we were really different people in almost every way. Willie had become just plain mean over the years and a hard life had made him callous and unfeeling. Still, it hurt now to know that he was dead. And I did know it. As surely as if I’d been there to witness it. I was sure that Willie and Leroy were both gone.

Had it been the curse? I was sure it had been, though I couldn’t tell Rolf such a thing and make him believe me. He hadn’t grown up like I had, in a home and a neighborhood where things like simple folk magic were so natural and expected that it was practically taken for granted. We really were worlds apart.

He was a shifter though, and he lived at least temporarily in Valleywood, so he must know on some levels that magic existed. He was a supernatural being, just like I was. A strain of witchcraft ran in my family— though it was something we didn’t talk about. Not ever, but especially around outsiders like Rolf.

Maybe I would have been more open about my own abilities if my mother had lived longer.

Magic was like a fast-running stream with my mother’s side of the family, and sometimes, it ran wide and deep and other times it got shallower and narrower. My mother’s magic was like a steady, calm and beautiful pool. Her magic healed, and she had the power to just comfort you and make you feel better, no matter what. But she had told me stories about her grandmother too.

My great grandmother’s name had been Maybell, and she was well-known in her part of the world for being a witch, and what the old people called a Conjure. She could tell the future too, though that brought to mind ladies in a county fair, wearing scarves around their heads and big, jangly jewelry. She wasn’t at all like that. She just knew things that were going to happen.

In Maybell, the stream of magic ran not just deep, but a little dark too. She didn’t mean any harm to anyone and never hurt anybody or ill-wished anyone that my mother knew about. But she said that my grandmother knew not only future events, but most especially when bad things were going to happen to people around her.

She predicted some good things too, but mostly she was known for her kind of ominous predictions about the bad stuff coming, like droughts and floods and nasty storms and bad accidents to the people working in the fields and difficult childbirths. She knew when a death was coming too, which didn’t exactly endear her to her family, friends and neighbors. So after a while, she just stopped telling anyone her predictions. I always thought it must have been hard for her—to know something bad was coming, but to be afraid to warn anyone or even tell it, in case people blamed you for it and called you a witch. All you could do was sit there and watch as the bad things unfolded.

I had a little of my granny’s kind of magic—the darker kind where I sometimes knew bad things, even though I really didn’t want to know them. It had never been so clear before, though, and I’d always been able to dismiss it as just fanciful thinking. But not anymore. I knew that Leroy’s house and the Willie and Leroy were gone, for example, as surely as if I’d seen it with my own eyes. The spell I’d done hadn’t worked. The curse had come for him after all.

I wasn’t sure why it had been a failure—maybe because we didn’t follow it to the letter. I had been afraid that the stupid bag that had held the money wasn’t personal enough. I thought we probably needed different kinds of spicy herbs too. I felt guilty now for not insisting, because I should have made Willie listen to me. Maybe if I had, Willie and Leroy would still be alive. I had done something wrong or gotten the words of the spell wrong, and I felt crushing guilt about it. I sat down on my living room couch with my arms around Nugget, who licked my face and tried to comfort me by licking my face as I cried into his fur. But as I sat there, I sank into a dark depression anyway.

It was hours later that I heard a knock on my door. My grandmother had gone to her friend’s house for another card game, so the apartment had gotten dark and shadowy around me as I sat there, feeling guilty and gloomy and depressed. I really didn’t want to see anybody. I kept quiet when I heard the knock and hoped they’d go away. But no such luck.

The door opened and Rolf’s voice called out to me from the doorway.

“Levi? Your door was open. Have you already gone to bed?”

“Hey,” I said from a few feet away and kind of enjoyed watching him jump. “I’m right here.”

“Why are you sitting there in the dark?”

I shrugged. “I just felt like it.”

He snapped on the light, and I blinked a few times at him as he came over to sit down by me. I held out my wrists toward him.

“Did you want to put the cuffs on me?”

He gave me a long look but didn’t respond. Instead, he gave a deep sigh.

“Watusi is deceased, along with an unknown male.”

“It’s Leroy, a friend of Willie’s. I don’t remember his last name. But that was his house.”

“Okay, I’ll let the investigating officers know.”

“It was Leroy’s red shirt that we used for our spell.”

He sighed. “The spell again.”

“Yes, the spell again. That’s why Willie kept coming after me. He wanted me to get rid of a curse that he said was on the money in a bag inside the casket. He wasn’t sure at first of which casket, but he had a list of names of people who had recently died, and he was working his way down the list. That’s why he was breaking into cemeteries and graveyards. He thought someone had buried money, and he wanted to find it for himself.”

“And had they buried the money?” he asked softly. “You’re saying this crazy story was actually true?”

“Apparently so. I thought it was crazy too when he first told me about it.”

“And I didn’t believe any of it.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Explain to me again what your part was in all this.”

I sighed and laid my head back on the sofa. I was so tired all of a sudden. “Willie knew my mother had been a Conjure woman—in other words, a person who did folk magic. Nothing big or flashy. Just simple little potions, mostly to help people with small ailments if they couldn’t afford to go to a doctor. Or do small spells to help them through their problems. Though she told me once that back home in Tennessee, she’d seen bigger things conjured. Like she saw her granny heal a young man who got caught in some farm machinery once. He was only a few years older than I am now. The lower half of his body was mangled so badly, the doctor in the little backwoods town said he’d done what he could for him. He was still in terrible pain, and they sent him home to die. Then somebody suggested calling in my great-grandma as a last resort.

“Go get Ms. Maybell,’ they said. ‘She can heal him.’ And they carried that poor man in my great-grandma’s house and laid him down. She was an old, old woman by then. But she put cold rags all over his legs even though he cried out in pain. Water is soothing but doesn’t have any healing properties, of course, but Grandma kept the compresses on his legs while she said the words.

“What words?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure what healers say. Some say it’s verses from the Bible. Some say it’s magic spells. But whatever she said, it worked. That man’s pain eased, and they carried him home. It took six months, but his wounds healed.”

“I don’t know if I believe all of that. I suppose the cold water helped the pain, but if he had injuries as extensive as all that, it might have killed him.”

“But it didn’t. And you do believe in magic. You must—because you’re here in Valleywood, and you’re a wolf shifter.”

“Yes, but…I don’t believe in that kind of magic, I guess.”

I shrugged again. “Why? Because it’s the kind poor people use? Does it matter? Magic can be all kinds—big or little, I think. That’s what my mother said. And believe it or not, she was the real thing. I saw it practically shining out of her. I remember seeing her cure a baby’s thrush. And she talked my warts off my hand.”

“Okay…I have no idea what that thrush thing is.”

“It’s like a yeast infection inside the mouth. Babies can get it from dirty bottle nipples or pacifiers.”

“Okay. And the warts?”

“She could talk warts right off, like I said. It’s true.” I said at his skeptical look. “Willie knew about it. He knew folk magic ran in my family, and he wanted me to try and take the curse off the money for him. I looked through my mother’s old books and found a spell to remove curses and hexes. I tried it, but I guess it didn’t work. Or I did it wrong. Or we didn’t have the right ingredients. I’m not sure, but I did try to warn him I didn’t know much about it.”

“Why would you help him do something illegal?”

“I didn’t want anything bad to happen to Willie. I’ve known him a long time. I wanted to help him end this thing.”

“He’s a criminal. And if what you say is true, he was after stolen money. Helping him in any way, shape or form is aiding and abetting. You could go to jail.” He sighed and pulled me over into his arms to comfort me—I guess I did look pretty sad. I felt that way too. I was still mad at Rolf for arresting me, but his arms felt wonderful wrapped around me. I sighed and snuggled in closer, because I couldn’t seem to stay mad at him. This mate business was seriously annoying.

“Levi,” he said, “Someone planted an explosive inside that house. The investigators found evidence of it. They’re still investigating, but they already know it was a deliberate murder. The so-called curse had nothing to do with it, honey. Someone wanted Willie or Leroy dead, and they didn’t care about any collateral damage.”

“But who? Willie ssid the man who helped rob the banks was still alive, but I don’t know anything about who he is or where he is now. I don’t think Willie knew either. The funeral director and his family are dead. Also, the man who worked at the funeral home and told Willie about it in the first place. All of them died suspiciously once they messed with that bag. I messed with it, too, Rolf. What if the curse comes after me?”

“It won’t. I don’t believe in curses, even if I do know about magic. I’ll never let anyone or anything hurt you, baby. Do you believe me?”

“I know you’ll try. But I don’t want you in the way of this thing either. I know you don’t believe in any of this curse, but people are dead. And the body count is growing. I tried to send the curse back to its source. What if it rebounds on me instead?”

“You’re talking as if this thing has a mind of it own. But someone had to put it all into effect. I know that much even if I don’t really believe in it. And according to what you say, everyone involved is dead.” He squeezed me tighter, and I allowed it. I needed the reassurance.

“Who was the man who first came to the funeral home anyway? His name. We need to search his home. The money is still missing, you know. It was nowhere at Willie’s house.” He peered down into my eyes. “Would you happen to know where it is now?”

“No,” I said, lying through my teeth. “I have no idea. I did the spell and Willie said he was going to bury the bag and the money somewhere he could dig it up later when the cops weren’t after him.”

More lies, of course, but I didn’t want Rolf anywhere near that damn bag. Whether or not he believed in it, that curse was real. The bag had had a greasy, damp feel to it that I’d felt once before. As a small child, an old man came into our house with a little doll that he’d made. It was mostly some cloth tied around twigs, but the cloth had that greasy feeling when I touched it. He and my mother had both yelled at me and told me to stay away from it when I picked it up. My mother told me later that it was used in the worship of the devil, to ask the devil to use black magic for revenge. My mother said the dolls weren’t Hoodoo, but they were dark magic and to stay away from them.

So I lied to Rolf about the bag of money. It was better for everyone involved if it just stayed buried.

“Willie said the man who was involved in the bank robbery was named Ben Bolagi. He said he was one of the people who got away from the robbery. He had the money, but I don’t know much more about him.”

“How did Willie know that?”

“No idea. He had contacts and friends in a lot of low places.”

“Let me look into it. See if it’s true. And in the meantime, you stop worrying and go lie down. You’ve had a hard day.”

I didn’t ask why he was suddenly being so nice and solicitous to me after wanting to put me in jail earlier. I was only glad that he was. I let him pull me to my feet and steer me toward the bedroom.

“Where am I going?”

“To bed with me.”

“I thought you were mad at me.”

“I was but…not so much anymore. You seem to have that effect on me for some reason.” He picked me up in his arms when we got in the bedroom and took me over to lay me on the bed and begin stripping off my clothes.

“I thought you said I’d had a hard day.”

“I’m hoping you’d want a hard night too.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, and I groaned at his bad joke but still pulled him closer, because he smelled so good. He nuzzled my neck and kissed down my throat.

“Tell me what you want, baby. Do you want to let me make love to you?”

“Yes. I’ve wanted you since the first time you walked into the café, and it seems to just get worse every time I see you.”

“For me too. I can’t seem to stay away from you or stop thinking about you.” He smiled and I kissed him again. “I’m not sure why.”

“Thanks a bunch.”

“No…you know what I mean.” He shrugged. “You’re really nice looking, but not exactly the best-looking omega I’ve ever seen.”

“Stop—you’ll make me blush.”

“Shut up, I’m not finished. You’re cute and sexy, but there’s still an innocence that you have. A sweetness. Makes Alphas like me want to dirty you up.”

“Oh...such poetry. Let me write that down.”

He grinned. “Seriously, stop it. You know I’m crazy about you.”

“Yes. I could tell by that cute little way you had of reading me my rights, cuffing me and throwing me in the back of your police car.”

“I wouldn’t have taken you to jail. Not really. I was just so angry and jealous because you were with Watusi.”

“I tried to explain that he kidnapped me.”

“I know, but…to tell the truth, I still had doubts.”

“Do you have them now?”

“Not about that. Not about you. Not now that you’ve explained, but you must admit, it looked bad. We’re just so different. I wonder all the time why I can’t just walk away from you.”

“Seriously, you need to consider writing romance books.”

“But I do want you to be happy,” he said, ignoring me and my remarks. “And I don’t like the idea of you with any other man. I’d hate it, in fact.”

****

Rolf

“Well,” Levi said, looking up at me flirtatiously. “You did give me that showy mating bite. Other Alphas might object to that a little bit, so I guess there isn’t much chance of another Alpha ever getting interested.”

And I knew that—it was why my wolf insisted on marking him. I just couldn’t seem to walk away from him, though I knew we weren’t right for each other. My family would never accept him. I couldn’t have him and my family too. I had no idea what I was going to do about that. Maybe by being here with him like this, I could get this crazy need of him out of my system and stop wasting both our time.

I caressed him, and he arched up into me. So, I leaned down to run my tongue over his nipples. I gently bit one of them, imagining it swollen with pregnancy.

He groaned and tried to thrust against me again, but I held him down and wouldn’t let him move without permission. He was noisy, making whimpers and moaning and begging me a little. At one point, he said, “I thought you didn’t want or need an omega.”

“Yeah, I think maybe I was wrong about that.”

“When will you know for sure?” he said and launched himself at me again as if to punish me. My hands closed on his hips, and I put him on his back and whispered in his ear.

“You wanted to make love to me again, I think you said.”

“Oh gods, yes.” I smiled and exchanged places with him and lay down on my back for him. He quickly slid down to position himself. He took my cock into his mouth and the wet, warm heat took my breath away. I literally saw stars. He sucked it with a lot of tongue action, paying exquisite attention to detail. Soft at first, building up gradually to tight and hot and hard, using every bit of his considerable skill. If he was trying to make it so I couldn’t forget him, he was succeeding admirably. I felt my breathing get harsher and faster and the orgasm seemed to swell from the base of my spine. I pulled away and pushed his arms down as he tried to pull me back.

“No, I want you to enjoy this too.”

I flipped him over and positioned myself behind him, leaning over him to thoroughly lick and taste his sweet, hot little pucker. He shuddered and began to make air raid noises, so loud I had to cover his mouth with my hand. When he’d calmed down a little, I reached for the lube and worked it in nicely, really taking my time, while he went crazy beneath me. I pushed my hand underneath him and gave his cock a few thrusts at the same time. He squirmed and begged and tried to push back against my fingers and began talking in tongues. The lube was slippery on my fingers as I massaged his prostate, and I bent down to plant a kiss on each cheek of his sweet, little ass. It was all I could do to calm myself enough to go slowly.

I pulled my hand away and pressed some kisses on his back and he turned his head blindly for a real kiss. I obliged him and my cock was rock hard as I eased inside him and felt that velvety tightness. It was so good, and I thrust into him mindlessly, again and again, until I could feel the orgasm come barreling toward me. I wanted an even deeper connection, and I tried to push in even deeper and harder, until the climax hit me like a freight train, crashing into me and dragging Levi right along with me. Neither of us moved when it was over, but just lay there, trying to breathe after the waves of a mind shattering, soul searing orgasm. I had to admit I was a little shaken by the unexpectedness of it. Again, my wolf was making little self-satisfied sounds in my head.

Afterward, I lay beside him, and he threw a leg over mine, cuddling against me. I held him through all the little aftershocks, until his body relaxed.

I realized I didn’t want this to end. How would I ever let him go?

Even more pressing, what would I do if he were already pregnant with my child? Maybe…maybe I could take him with me when I left Valleywood after all and keep him on the side? I could get a small apartment for him and the baby and keep my life with him separate from the rest of it. I could find a way to make it work. I would make it work—and on that thought, I was finally able to relax and stop worrying. I turned over, closed my eyes and was almost instantly asleep.