Page 15 of Black Willow Witch
Kerr glanced at the witches stood near their cars talking rapidly while jerkily gesticulating. ‘If their shock is anything to go by, Emberlyn hasn’t shown them exactly what she’s capable of before now. Either that or they were sure “the benevolent path” would prevail,’ he added with an eye roll.
Ripper hummed, sliding his gaze back to the manor. ‘They underestimated her. And she let them until now.’ It was cunning, really. And an indication that she’d felt absolutely no need to prove herself to them.
‘Which sets her apart from Millicent. That woman made sure everyone knew exactly what she had in her magickal arsenal. Emberlyn showed the coven just enough to make them wary of crossing her.’
And they had been wary. Yet, her family had tossed a lot of shit at her today. She hadn’t flinched under the weight of their disapproval, insults or accusations – not here, not at Reena’s house. In fact, Emberlyn hadn’t appeared in the least bit fazed. She’d regarded them with a bored disappointment, as a teacherwould unruly children. And when they’d thought to attack her, she’d fucking laughed.
It had almost made Ripper smile. Almost. Not much did that.
‘Makes you wonder if she even showed the full extent of what she can do just now,’ said Kerr.
It did. Especially when Ripper took into account something that Millicent had once said to him when he’d purchased a potion from her . . .
‘The coven talks like my Emberlyn is evil.Pfft.She’s no angel – I couldn’t have abided an angel; I would have drowned her at some point. Truth is that girl has the ability to commit every magickal heinous act you can imagine. But she has a code; lines she won’t cross.Unlessyou push or corner her – then she has few limits. That doesn’t make her evil, it makes her ruthless.’
You would never imagine, at a glance, that such ruthlessness existed within Emberlyn. She was elegance and poise and style. Friendly but slightly aloof, like a cat. Forever dressed in silk or cashmere or satin or other refined clothing, she looked like she belonged in a goddamn fashion magazine. She never had a hair out of place or a slump in her shoulders.
But if you got close enough, you could sense that there was more to her. Emberlyn’s presence hummed with a charged, quietly fierce warning. Like the air a dominant wolf gave off that calmly asserted its power. It had caught his attention from their first up-close encounter.
Not that he hadn’t noticed her before then. A guy didn’tnotnotice a woman who looked like her.
Emberlyn Vautier was . . . unusual. Unearthly. Hauntingly beautiful.
Slender and average height, she had glossy iridescent hair that made him think of a raven’s wing. Her facial features were as delicate as her curves. Except for her mouth – it wasn’tdelicate, it was carnal. Her eyes were an ethereally pale hazel that he’d heard some describe as eerie.
They weren’t spooky. They were fucking bewitching.
There was a little scratch in her voice that tickled your awareness and dug in hooks to keep your attention.Everythingabout her snared a man’s attention.
Compelling. In a word, she was compelling. And it galled the ever-loving shit out of him that he couldn’t be immune to it.
For a while, he’d been able to combat it by holding the image of her in his mind as a one-dimensional wicked witch. But that had become impossible after Michael vanished – she’d been lost back then, her eyes shadowed by pain and panic.
She wasn’t lost anymore.
She was also his new neighbor. And now that Millicent was gone, he might have to visit Emberlyn often. Because, according to the old woman, her granddaughter was the only living witch who could create the elixir he needed.
Whether she’dagreeto create it, he didn’t know. Nor could he know what kind of price tag she’d put on it if she was willing to help him.
A howl rang out somewhere in the distance – one filled with turmoil.
Ripper sighed. ‘Seems like Logan took my advice to shift and go for a run.’ He’d recognize his brother’s howl anywhere. ‘I didn’t think he would.’ Logan had been entirely too pissed.
‘Stop being a selfish fucking asshole – or do you want to have to watch CeCe one day get claimed by another wolf? Because that’s what’ll happen if we don’t do it first, Rip.’
‘Instead of getting calmer as the weeks have gone on, he’s gotten more wound up,’ Kerr remarked. ‘It’s a good sign.’
Ripper frowned. ‘Is it?’
‘Yeah. He’s getting angrier because he’s finally facing that you’re not going to change your mind. He feels CeCe slippingaway. And hey, I sympathize with him. But the sooner he accepts reality the better.’
Ripper rubbed at the back of his head. ‘I should never have agreed to share her with Logan that night.’
‘You couldn’t have known what would happen.’
‘No, but it’s fucked everything up.’ It was never good for two brothers to want the same woman. Neither he nor Logan had said it out loud; neither wanting to do something that might lead to a situation that hurt the other.
Three weeks ago, they’d been drinking heavily and – influenced by the beer he’d downed and the call of the full moon – Ripper had agreed to share her with his brother just once.
