Bewitched (Betwixt & Between #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,50

myself between him and the porch steps. I couldn’t tell if I was shaking from the cold or the massive adrenaline dump.

He stopped and frowned at me. “Who are you?” He looked around, suspicion coloring his face. narrowing his lids. He clearly hadn’t heard the knock. “And what the hell are you doing in my back yard?”

I rubbed my hands together, trying to stop the shaking. But my teeth chattering when I spoke couldn’t be helped. “I’m going door-to-door, talking to people about their car’s extended warranty.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked me up and down. “You look more like a drowned rat than a door-to-door salesman. And it’s almost midnight.”

“We’re trying to accommodate people’s schedules.”

“Yeah?” He eased closer.

Another knock sounded. That one he heard.

He grabbed my hair, and not in a sexy way, and jerked me toward him until we were nose-to-nose. “What the fuck is going on?”

Just then a male voice shouted, “Police! Open up!”

Great timing.

He jerked my head to the side, throwing me to the ground face-first.

I slid across the freezing earth a total of two feet as he took the stairs in one jump.

Without thought, I threw out my hand and drew the symbol that was the exact opposite of the one I’d tried earlier.

It happened faster than my eyes could see. Then spell blinded me, and by the time his hand was on the knob, the door was locked up tight. He couldn’t get have gotten through that door with a wrecking ball. Not until I released it.

He tried it again. Shook the handle. Kicked the bottom. Threw his shoulder against the door. “What the fuck?” he said, pounding on it. “Clara! Clara let me in!”

“Isn’t she locked in the basement?” I said sweetly.

He whipped around, turned to me, his face living and breathing the picture of rage.

I heard the policemen in the front breaking down the door and someone running down the side of the house toward us. Either the chief had told the police them I was back here, or it was the man himself.

Clara’s dad heard him, too, and stalked forward until he towered over me. And the man really liked my hair. He grabbed a handful and ripped me off the ground.

“Bernard Thomas!” the chief shouted.

We turned.

The chief had a gun pointed at Clara’s father. Except there was one little problem. The man used me as a shield, pulled a knife from his pocket, and held it to the back of my neck while keeping his head ducked down.

The tip dug into my skin, and I felt a tiny trickle of blood. Yet it didn’t hurt. My head should’ve ached as well, his grip was so tight on my hair, but the adrenaline must’ve been doing its job. I was no longer cold. My scalp didn’t hurt. I was no longer afraid, which was odd considering the knife.

A uniformed officer ran up behind the chief, his gun drawn too. “We got them out.”

A beautiful, sparkly kind of relief flooded my body. My knees almost gave. In fact, they would’ve had Bernard Thomas not been holding me up by the roots of my hair. It had been through so much lately.

“Stay the fuck back!” Clara’s dad shouted, as he backed me toward the woods. “You are dead, bitch. No matter how this goes, you are fucking dead.” He said the last bit for my ears only.

Hold a grudge much?

“Let her go, Thomas,” the chief said, advancing slowly.

“One thrust.” He pushed the tip of the knife farther into my skin. “I’ll sever your spinal column and disappear into these woods.” He kept backing me closer to the woods.

We were still thirty feet from them, and the knife went a little deeper with each step he took. He bobbed and weaved, keeping me in between him and the gun. “I know this forest better than anyone alive. They’ll never find me.”

A warmth came over me as I watched the chief. He was worried. Worried what this would do to Ruthie. Worried what Roane would do to him. Worried he would be the one to get a charmling killed. And still, a warmth covered me like an electric blanket.

Either I was either going into shock—

No way.

—Roane was nearby.

A low rumble cut across the chill in the air. Then another. And another. They came from all sides.

Thomas stopped. He glanced around, his breaths coming in quick, panicked gasps. “What the fuck?”

I risked a glance to the side and saw a wolf. One of