Warlock's Angel - Marly Mathews Page 0,8

the hell did he think he was, talking to her like that?

Did he actually expect her to oblige him by willingly handing herself over into a life of slavery? Well, he could go straight to hell and burn there for an eternity.

She was sick and tired of being afraid of her own damn shadow. If she was going down, she was going down with a fight, and given the future the witch hunters had in store for her, she’d rather go down and sacrifice her life than to live a life of sheer misery. For without her freedom and her powers, she was better off dead. She’d promised her mother to safeguard the heavy burden they carried and she would not fail her. Her honor was the only thing she could really be proud of and she’d never broken a promise, so she wasn’t about to start now.

Standing up regally—well, as regally as she could while wearing a T-shirt nightgown and bunny slippers—she met his eagle-eyed stare. His eyes had little to no emotion in them and his hands glowed with an unearthly red hue.

“I think you’ve gotten the wrong impression of me, sir. I will not leave my ancestral home without one hell of a battle.” Sure, she’d engage him in combat but who was she kidding? It would be more of a monumental struggle on her side.

He would make mincemeat out of her, so all she had to do was accept her grim future with a bravado she’d never displayed before. She would force him to give her exactly what she wanted—her death. He could not feed off her abilities when life no longer flowed through her body. The Magical Authority hadn’t arrived yet, and she’d given up on them, so unless someone else came to her aid, she was dead meat.

Rather than looking as if he was troubled or intimidated by her reaction, he started to laugh—a laugh that sent shivers of dread coursing through her.

“I was hoping the next target would give me a bit of sport and you shall please me greatly, witch. Have it your way then, Mistress Hyde,” he said as he conjured a fireball and sent it hurtling toward her.

Life as she knew it was over. What was she going to do now?

Chapter Two

Oliver White drove through the quaint picturesque town where Anya had grown up. The beautiful harbor-side town had a charm unlike any he’d ever seen. It was as if he’d stepped back in time. They lived quite humbly and old-fashioned in this part of North America. While they had the most up-to-date technological advances, they didn’t seem to rely on them as heavily as other parts of Earth.

Tall, majestic ships still sat in the harbor, relics of an ancient past, and yet the awesomely simple beauty of them stirred something inside him. He would love a ship like that of his own one day to share with a family he someday hoped to have.

He was on his way to Anya’s ancestral home, Redgrave House, to visit with her cousin Dallas Hyde-Redgrave. Anya had insisted he not communicate with Dallas in advance to tell her he was coming. Instead, she wanted it to be a surprise. For a woman who hated surprises, she was awfully adept at throwing them for other victims of her choosing. Still, he wasn’t comfortable with showing up on Dallas’s doorstep unannounced, especially given the late hour.

He’d put a lot behind him in the months since he’d introduced himself to Anya. He’d quit the Triple Hexed Agency and officially turned his back on the Bloodbayne Coven, something he knew his former witches and warlocks in arms would not take well.

In fact, some of them would attempt to come for him. Those who were too cocky for their own good would try to take him down to earn the reputation of being bad-assed. They’d fail of course, but some were just too arrogant and needed to be knocked down a few pegs. Those who knew the breadth of his power would not pursue him. Instead, they’d pray he stayed as far away from them as he could.

After leaving the Triple Hexed Agency and making a point to distance himself from his father’s coven, he’d also been offered a new position by the Universal Magical Authority and felt certain his mother, Angelica, would be proud of him. After apprehending the notoriously psychotic Hyacinth Glory, he’d attracted the Universal Magical Authority’s attention and they’d told him they needed more