Page 87 of Black Willow Witch
He wondered if she would have grown up to be quite so vengeful and ruthless if the coven hadn’t targeted her the way they had since she was a small child. Probably not. Even as he wished that she hadn’t suffered such persecution, he still wouldn’t want her to be any other version of herself than the pitiless witch in front of him.
Having finished her food, she set her cutlery down on her plate and lifted her glass of water. Sipping at it, she eyed him. ‘You swore you’d stop being mad if I stayed for dinner. You’re not living up to your end of the bargain.’
‘It’s hard to not be pissed.’ He nudged her foot with his own beneath the table. ‘You’re mine to protect now. He hurt you. I want to beat the shit out of him.’
‘His current fate is far worse than anything you or I could have put him through.’ She set down her glass, her expression turning . . . inscrutable. ‘You haven’t asked if the rumor is true,’ she said, her tone careless.
‘What rumor?’
‘That I used magick to make him turn Rabid. Knowing he betrayed me, you must be wondering if in fact I did do that to punish him.’
Ripper felt his brow furrow. ‘The thought didn’t even enter my head.’ He leaned forward, planting his lower arms on the table. ‘You’re many things, Emberlyn, but you’re not callous.’
A hint of warmth blotted her eyes. ‘Watch it, Rip. I might start thinking you like me.’
He hiked up a brow. ‘That’s not already obvious?’
Snorting, she carefully slid her plate aside. ‘On another note, who taught you to cook?’
‘My aunt Yvette.’ She ran their clan’s diner, and she kept nagging him to take Emberlyn there for dinner.
‘That explains why you’re good at it.’
‘You’re not so bad in the kitchen yourself. Millicent gave you lessons?’
‘Very early on so I could feed myself. She spent a lot of time refining her craft.’
He felt his lips thin. Honestly, the more he learned about Emberlyn’s childhood, the more he disagreed with the general consensus that she was ‘raised’ by Millicent. Her grandmother had been too self-focused to truly raise anyone. ‘What made her so power-hungry?’
Running one finger down the stem of her glass, Emberlyn gave a delicate shrug. ‘Kage will tell you it was because she was a sociopath. Maybe that’s true. With Millicent, it seemed to be all about the rush. She was always trying to beat the initial high she’d felt on gathering more power the very first time. She kept chasing it, kept telling herself that the next thrill wouldfinallybe so much better. Only it never was.’
‘Like with a serial killer who keeps trying to beat the high of their first murder.’
‘Yes. I think she believed that once she beat it, she’d never crave it again; that the empty spots inside her would be filled. Those cold voids . . . they allowed her to cross lines others wouldn’t, but they denied her any real sense of fulfilment.’
‘She cared for you, though.’
‘In the only way someone like that can care for another,’ Emberlyn conceded with a nod. ‘I think she also cared for all three of her children. She just couldn’t give anything of herself to them. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t try to learn.’
Ripper cocked his head. ‘How are you . . . you? You had no real role model.’ Her mother hadn’t been in her life long enough to have a true influence on her.
She twisted her mouth. ‘I looked up to Lilith.’
‘Lilith?’
‘I know it’s rumored that she had an “in” with Satan – I can’t comment on that, as I’m not sure if it’s true or not – but she was always real nice to me. Very dignified and stylish.’
His brows drawing together, he leaned further forward. ‘You’ve met Lilith?’
‘The spirits of many Vautiers roam the manor. Not my mother, though. I never saw her. Not all spirits are strong enough to cross realms. Avery wasn’t strong.’
So he’d heard. ‘Your mother really died of heartbreak?’
‘In a sense. She loved with her entire being, and she thought that the sperm donor was her forever. When he left, it wrecked her. She checked out. Stopped using magick. A witch who can’t or who doesn’t use their magick can fade away and die.’
‘Like Rosemary did.’ He was about to speak again, but then the distant purring of a car engine reached his ears. ‘I have a visitor.’ Annoyed at the interruption, he pushed to his feet with an aggrieved sigh. ‘Don’t do that thing again.’
‘What thing?’
