Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

IZZY

I don’t know what comes over me.

One second I’m standing there, watching the exchange, and the next I’m across the room. Anger thrums through me like a live wire, zapping anyone who gets too close.

And when that bitch slaps Reid and calls him ugly? I lose it.

“You stupid cunt!” Michelle screams, cradling her rapidly reddening cheek. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try,” I snarl, lunging towards her again.

An arm bands around my waist and pulls me back. I struggle against the embrace, kicking out my legs, but Reid refuses to release me.

“Izzy!” he hisses in my ear.

Is he really defending her?

Shock arrows through me, momentarily stilling my movements, before that emotion is replaced by another wave of white-hot anger.

“She hit you!”

“And you hit her, so we’re even.” Reid’s tone is tight with something I can’t quite place. Panic, maybe?

“Reid! She hit me!” Michelle’s lower lip begins to wobble, and tears glimmer in her brown eyes, lightening the color to a woodsy brown.

“Michelle! Leave! Now!” Reid snarls.

The change happens instantly.

The tears dry from her eyes as if they never existed to begin with, and her lips curve into a demented scowl. Unfettered hatred radiates from her in almost palpable waves, contaminating the air just as prominently as the scent of buttery popcorn.

“I’m going to kill you,” she tells me, her voice eerily impassive.

“Michelle!” Reid roars.

Blue sparks dance across Michelle’s skin. At first, I don’t understand what I’m seeing. They seem to skitter across her arms like electrical currents, congregating in her hands. There, it grows and grows and grows, until it resembles two blue flames resting in her palms.

“What the hell?” I whisper in shock.

Michelle…is supernatural.

What the fuck is she?

“No!” Reid roars, and then he’s tugging me to the ground and throwing his body over mine.

I stay perfectly frozen, unable to compute what the fuck is happening. My brain seems to be broken. It keeps repeating random words over and over again.

Power.

Magic.

Michelle.

Reid.

“Get out!”

The roar doesn’t come from Reid—who still lies on top of me, protecting me with the length of his body—but it’s still familiar.

Silas.

“But…” Michelle begins, her voice wobbling, once again reverting to her tearful, weepy act.

“You know the rules about magic in my theater,” he snaps.

Magic?

Silas knows about magic as well?

“But—”

“Get out, Michelle. Now.”

“Fine! But I’ll be back. My brother will have a few words to say to our little friend.”

I hear the sound of footsteps. A door shutting and closing.

And then Silas leans down beside us, his mouth pressed in a taut line and his good eye unreadable. “She’s gone.”

Reid doesn’t immediately move. Tremors run through his body.

Driven by some impulse I don’t entirely understand, I reach up and run my fingers through his red hair. It’s damp with sweat, but I don’t feel disgusted the way I might’ve before. This is…Reid. Reid, who confuses the shit out of me but just protected me from his psycho ex. All I want to do is comfort him and dissipate some of the rigid tension in his shoulders.

The words fall from my mouth without conscious thought. “I’m okay. Everything is okay. She’s gone.”

“Good.” Silas’s voice is soft, but it still elicits a growl from Reid. I don’t understand why. Silas isn’t a threat. “Keep it up. Keep talking to him. Remind him that you’re safe.”

Is this some kind of wolf thing? Now isn’t the time to ask one of the many questions percolating in my head.

Reaching up, I run my hand up and down his back. “I’m safe. I’m okay. You’re okay. Everything is okay.”

Shivers continue to reverberate through Reid’s body, but he no longer holds himself so rigid above me. The arms encircling my waist loosen slightly, and he pushes himself up to peer down at me.

His eyes…

A gasp lodges in my throat.

His eyes are amber, glowing with their own personal light.

“I’m okay,” I repeat, cupping his cheek. “I’m okay.”

Slowly, gradually, the yellow of his eyes transitions into a familiar shade of hazel. His breathing evens out, no longer sounding choppy and ragged, and his muscles relax.

Reid is back.

“Hey.” I offer him an awkward smile.

“Hi,” he says gruffly.

“All right. Get up now. Your fat ass is crushing her.” Silas’s words seem to shake Reid out of whatever trance he was in.

Quick as a whip, he jumps to his feet, ducking his head and scowling at the ground. I remain on my back for a moment longer, staring up at the ceiling and the circulating fans.

A large, calloused hand comes into my field of view.

“Up, kid,” Silas grunts.

I take the offered hand and allow the other man to pull me to my feet. He doesn’t immediately release me. His one good eye—currently as hard as granite—surveys me from head to toe. Not in a lewd or perverted way, but in a way that suggests he’s checking me for injuries. Seemingly satisfied, he releases me and steps back.

“Does anyone want to explain to me what the hell happened? Why was the wit— Why was she here?” Silas folds his muscular arms over his chest and scowls.

Witch?

He was about to say witch, wasn’t he?

At first, I think he’s insulting Michelle, but the more I think about it, the more the pieces begin to click together.

She’s a witch.

An actual, honest-to-god witch.

A cold chill skitters down my spine.

“Reid, come to my office,” Silas instructs, casting me an inconspicuous look.

Reid scrubs a hand down his face. “She knows.”

The older man’s brows draw together. “Huh?”

“She knows,” Reid repeats with a pointed nod in my direction.

“I know,” I agree.

Silas gapes at us in disbelief, seemingly unable to understand what we mean. But then that disbelief turns to shock, the shock transitions into anger, and the anger shifts into grim understanding. He absently scratches at the eyepatch on his face.

“Fuck,” he mutters.

I turn towards Reid expectantly. “So your ex is a witch?”

“She’s not my ex,” Reid snaps, scowling.

“Tell that to her,” Silas murmurs.

Reid tosses him a frosty look before returning his attention to me. “Look, what happened with Michelle is a long story, but the gist of it is—you don’t want to get on her bad side. And you especially don’t want to meet her brother.”

“It appears to me as if Izzy is already on her bad side,” Silas interjects. He narrows his eyes on Reid. “How did you allow that to happen?”

Reid’s hands fist by his sides. “I didn’t allow anything to happen.”

“I don’t know what went down between you and Michelle?—”

“Nothing!”

“But I won’t allow her to?—”

“I’ll handle it.”

“You can’t just?—”

“I said I’ll handle it.”

As the two of them continue to bicker, I allow my mind to drift.

Michelle is a witch, apparently, and a dangerous one.

Somehow, I made an enemy out of her.

A smile unfurls on my lips before I can suppress it.

I may have made her hate me, but I don’t regret what I did. If I see her lift her hands to Reid one more time, I won’t just punch her in the face.

I’ll bury the bitch.