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“For what?”
“Pain.”
I frowned. She was so close to me now. “Look, I don’t like this whole walk around. Why don’t you just tell me what it is you want? You lurk in the shadows, fucking with the people I care about, sending your creepy fucking moths and I’m losing my patience with all of this.”
The witch chuckled again, the sound hoarse and violent. “Of course, his mate would be like this. Cocky to a fault.”
“I’m not cocky, I’m pissed off.”
“Hmm.” Her lips pursed and her eyes flashed again as they met mine. “Anger will only get you so far. It does nothing but chip away without a target to aim it at.”
I didn’t need to ask who her target was. It was my husband. It wasn’t like I had many witches knocking on my door before I became his wife. Hell, I hadn’t even known they existed.
“Such a peculiar being.” She watched me and I felt like I suddenly knew what staring into the eyes of a shark was like.
I didn’t know if she meant me or my demon, and I didn’t care.
“You shudder under my gaze but suddenly you stand there as though you would be a worthy adversary. What has changed, I wonder.”
“You came into my grandmother’s house and almost killed my Abuela.” Muscles worked over my jaw as my teeth ground together.
“Abuela.” She worked the words around in her mouth, trying to taste its meaning. “Ah, the almost expired mortal female.”
My heart leapt in my chest and the humour on her face ignited something in me I knew would be dangerous for us both. This bitch was testing my nonexistent patience, and I may not be a witch, but I could whoop an ass no matter what kind it was. My feet drew me to my bedside table where a floor lamp sat next to it.
The witch’s eyes darkened as she laughed again. “This world has always been the most entertaining. You’re all so ignorant of everything and yet you walk around as though you command it all. Destroying the only world that can hold you. The only world where you’ll exist somewhere near the top… all the while killing one another too. And for what?” Her hand waved and at least fifty one hundred dollar bills were held in a fan as she waved them by her face. “Paper?”
“Actually, that’s polymer.” If she was going to make a point, she better make the right one.
Her smile faltered — just barely. “Greed.”
My back was to the lamp now and I wrapped my hand around the metal stand. “And I imagine you’re here out of the goodness of your heart?”
Her tongue moved along the front of her teeth as her eyes hardened. “You know nothing.”
“I know you’re greedy too. What is it you want from him?” I wasn’t about to have her stand there talking down to me when I knew she was no damn better. She wanted something. She was just as greedy as the people she claimed to despise.
She disappeared from where she stood and my back slammed against the wall. The lamp pressed into my spine as the shade teetered before it fell to the floor. Her nails sliced the skin beside my mouth as she held my face in her firm hold. Her breath smelled like heated coal, smoke blown into my face, as her hard eyes bore into me. Her chest bumped into mine as her teeth flashed. “I want to bring you to your knees and then when you are whimpering like the weak little thing you are, I’m going to use you to bring him to his.”
Where she touched me burned. Her touch was hot and the cuts in my face stung. My eyes glassed over as my frustration built. I was not about to be used by her or anyone. I stepped into her, tightened my hold on the lamp, and swung.
We fell.
Abandoning the lamp, I straddled the witch. My fists were balled before I had a thought and I slammed them into the sides of her face. Red coated my vision as I swung, rage building inside me.
This woman, witch or not, had come into my grandmother’s home and she had hurt them. She had hurt the women who had been my north star, often guiding me through the darkness. If this were a mortal woman, I would have beat her ass, and being a witch wasn’t about to make her any different.
Nope. Not in my house — or whatever this was.
My body whipped up. Something tightened around my throat and I gasped. My hands instinctively rose, clawing at my skin as my vision blurred and my breaths came in short bursts that didn’t meet my chest. The rage wouldn’t stop as I kicked out, making sure my toes hit her square in the chin before I was completely lifted.
Suspended, I was helpless to do anything but stare down at the witch.
Her brow was split and dark, almost black blood leaked down onto her cheek. Her tongue slid over the plump flesh of her bottom lip before the sigils on her skin lit and the wounds slowly closed.
“Interesting,” she whispered, the sound a harsh hiss as she got to her feet and walked toward me. Each step was an attack on my mental health. It filled my stomach with knots and butterflies and anything else that kept it from being still and calm. “And here I was beginning to worry I wasn’t going to have any fun.”
The urge to spit in her face filled me, but with my hands busy trying to keep the ghost of a noose from stealing my consciousness, I didn’t want to risk starting something I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish. I swallowed down whatever was in my mouth just in case I lost my head.
