Page 25 of Resurrecting the Witch
I hoped they weren’t truly here just to ogle at us. Humans in our world were rare enough as it was, they often made the easiest victims. If they were smart, they paid attention to the lessons in addition to admiring our bodies.
We were nearing the end of the class which meant we were about to take the same short trail run through the woods that Dom and I ran earlier.
“If you are ever caught off guard by an opponent, your best defense is sometimes running the fuck away.”
Gioia was the only one who laughed since Dom told the same line every class. He almost looked like he was about to smile at her before he caught himself.
“Let’s go,” I told the group and led the way through the trail, trusting everyone would follow.
I kept a slower pace, more of a light jog since everyone had different running abilities. I glanced back and saw Cliona keeping pace next to Lennox, both of them giggling at whatever the other had said. I was glad my mate had such a good friend. It made me happy. And Lennox seemed to support my courting Cliona, or at the very least, seeing to her pleasure.
I needed all the allies I could get, so I would lean on my female’s friend in the future for help.
I realized in my perusal of my mate that Warren wasn’t in the group. Had he not joined us from the start? I thought I saw him, but I was leading and hadn’t paid attention to who was at the rear. I told Lina to keep leading the way and slowed to where Dom brought up the end of our group.
“Where’s Warren?”
“He said running was a waste of his time and left. He’s an idiot.”
I scoffed. “Good riddance.”
“I’m glad he showed up.”
I was caught off guard by his words and gave Dom a questioning look, silently telling him to continue. The dragon sighed and stayed back from the others so we wouldn’t be as easily heard.
“He doesn’t have any friends and hasn’t been integrating well. We all have baggage before we come here. I just can’t figure why he’s been staying away from everyone. He’s probably just dealing with his shit. And his application to the town had to be legit, or Cliona and Guillermo wouldn’t have let him in.”
I nodded and felt like an arse. Maybe the fae I had been around wasn’t a true bastard, but I simply hadn’t given him the chance. Normally I gave everyone a chance, as no one was really a threat to me. I couldn’t figure out why my base instincts were telling me Warren wasn’t good news.
We continued the rest of the run in silence as we looped through the dirt trail. It was only a few weeks until Samhain, an entire year since I’d been awakened, and I still forgot to stop and treasure these small moments. The breath coming in and out of my lungs, the sound of crunching leaves beneath my feet from those that had already fallen for the season, even the bright green of the moss still made me pause.
Life was beautiful, and I was ajammybastard to get this second chance at it.
I wouldn’t mess it up like last time.
Ten minutes later, we walked to our things that were still in a circle in the middle of the park. There were some kids on the playground that were too young for school with their parents on the other side of the park, and residents were already milling about walking toward town for their day’s activities. Everyone was catching their breath and chugging their water when I felt my pulse racket and couldn’t figure out why.
Something was wrong. I felt uneasy.
Tommy and Lina were laughing and stretching their arms and legs, Tonya and her groupies were gossiping about something I didn’t care enough about to listen to, and Gioia and Merrick were already packed up and talking to Dom.
Then I looked at Cliona, and my breath caught at the sight of her again. She was so lovely in the early morning light, a slight gleam of sweat on her brow from the run. She had her head back, cackling at something Lennox had said, and then lifted her bottle of water to squeeze into her mouth. She took several big gulps, and I couldn’t help but get distracted by the way the muscles in her throat moved.
She finished swallowing, nearly draining the bottle that had a pink crystal at the bottom of it, and then looked at me. Her eyes narrowed at my perusal as she cleared her throat. “You like what you see, Patrick?”
“Of course he does. You’re a hot piece of ass if I ever saw one.” Lennox slapped her arse for emphasis, and Cliona shoved at her.
“You are so out of contr—” Cliona’s words were cut off, and her skin went taut.
“Cliona?” Lennox asked immediately, noting something was wrong.
“Witchling,” I exhaled the endearment gently despite the ratcheting in my heart. I rushed to her side as her body acted as if her bones stopped working. She started to collapse to the ground, but I lifted her in my arms instead.
“Take her to Dr. Borisyuk,” Dom commanded, and I knew where the doctor was, thankfully right by Town Hall and only a five-minute walk away.
“Grab her water bottle,” I told no one in particular and charged away with my mate in my arms. “Hold on,mo grá,” I muttered into her ear over and over as I ran the fastest I’d ever run in my entire lives to the doctor and hoped I was fast enough for my mate.
Chapter 7
