Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,44
have plans for the rest of the afternoon. She needs to redo the dark magic spellwork on me.”
My lips twitched. Malcolm laughed.
Zachary scowled. “This is no laughing matter.” He too avoided Sean’s gaze. I started to wonder whether their antagonism was more due to Sean’s rising dominance than Nan or me. “I hear you met with the Hayes brothers last night. At this rate, you’ll have no reputation left.”
“On the contrary, I think we’ll have a reputation we can be proud of.” Sean gestured at my wolf. “Return home,” he commanded.
She bounded across the pavement to me, turned to golden magic, and spiraled up my arm and into my chest. Contented and self-satisfied, she retreated back into the shadows. I let my eyes continue to glow with shifter magic, however, just to make a point.
“Freak,” Sarah muttered.
Sean’s eyes blazed. “Never speak to Alice that way again, Sarah—not unless you’re ready to fight. The same goes for the rest of the Council. I won’t tolerate your abuse of any member of my pack, especially Alice.”
“This isn’t over,” Matthew warned.
“It is,” Sean countered. “Now, either name a time and place for us to fight, or get the hell out of here.”
Matthew took a step toward Sean. Shifter magic rose. Sean braced himself, and I spooled magic, ready for an attack.
Zachary put his hand on his brother’s shoulder to hold him back. “Not here. Another day.”
Matthew snarled and shrugged Zachary’s hand off his arm. “Another day,” he said, his voice edged with a growl.
All three got into their vehicle. Sean joined me beside the Maclin Security SUV. We watched them back out of their parking spot and leave the lot, turning into traffic with a screech of tires.
When they were gone, Sean kissed my temple. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? That the Council is four-sevenths troglodytes and assholes?” I smiled up at him. “Thanks for riding to the rescue.”
“You don’t need rescuing.” He squeezed my hand. “Let’s get to your house so you can pack and still have some time to ourselves.” He waved at the windows of the coffee shop. Carly waved back. She must have been watching our scene in the parking lot.
I gave her a little wave, then climbed into my borrowed SUV. Sean went to his Mercedes.
In the passenger seat area, Malcolm crossed his arms. “What a couple of jerks. You okay?”
“Yeah, just concerned about what the Council’s going to do next, since I won’t be here to help Sean deal with it.” I backed out of my spot and followed Sean toward my house.
“Between Sean and Nan and everyone else, I think they’ll have it covered. We’re going to have our hands full tracking down Mariela in the Broken World. This is not going to be easy, Alice.”
“It wouldn’t be any fun if it was.”
“Our definitions of fun are vastly different, apparently.”
“Not that different. Remember how much fun you had helping me with Irene Miller’s poltergeist problem?”
He grinned. “Oh, yeah—that was fun. Point taken. I still don’t think the Broken World sounds fun, though.”
“Adam says there are trolls. Trolls sound fun.”
“Have you never read a fairy tale, Alice? Trolls are never fun.”
“Maybe these trolls are.”
“We could never be that lucky,” he muttered. “Whatever, Alice. Just drive.”
Despite everything, I chuckled most of the way home.
Later that evening, with my packing done and Malcolm at the bordello saying goodbye to Liam, I lay on top of Sean with my head on his chest as we both caught our breath.
“As going-away presents go, that was pretty good,” I said when I could talk.
He kissed the top of my head. “Pretty good? You nearly screamed the house down. I’m surprised the neighbors didn’t call the police. One wonders what I’d need to do to be rated higher than ‘pretty good.’”
“Okay, that was better than pretty good,” I admitted. “Bordering on great, really.”
He chuckled and rubbed his chin on my head. “Glad to hear it. After all, I take pride in my work.”
“Is that an alpha thing?”
“It’s a Sean thing.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I believe you’ll come back to me. I believe you’ll beat whatever you’re going to face. It’s still killing me to let you go.”
I raised my head to meet his golden gaze. “I know. If the situation were reversed, I don’t know how I’d handle it. At least I’ve got Malcolm and my wolf. That’s a pretty good team, really.”
“It is a good team.” He tucked some hair behind my ear. “You wrote me a letter?”