“Hey, babe.” He sets his gym bag down and my heart flutters at the sight of him.
“Hey,” I reply. “Guess what. Don’t guess. I’ll just tell you. Ruby called and she’s taking me to the Covenstead!” I’m still smiling as I look into Ethan’s beautiful hazel eyes, but he doesn’t mirror my excitement. Instead, concern turns down his handsome face.
“Today?”
“Yeah. She said she’ll pick me up around six.”
“Oh.”
I look at Nik to see if he’s as stunned as I am by Ethan’s lack of enthusiasm. Nik meets my eyes and shrugs.
“What?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow. “You don’t want me to go?”
“No, it’s not that. I want you to go and get answers. I don’t like that you’re going somewhere I can’t go.” He closes his eyes, realizing that the words came out wrong. “Not because I need to keep tabs on you, but I can’t help you if something goes wrong.” He frowns. “And we know the spell your aunt used to bind a lot of demons is weakening.”
Ethan strides over and wraps one of his strong arms around my waist, pulling me up against him. My heart flutters again and I get a rush of desire. I know Ethan can protect me, probably better than anyone, but I’m not exactly helpless.
“From what Estelle told me,” Nik starts, getting up to put more sugar on his food. “The Covenstead is the safest place. Particularly Grim Gate Academy. It has many protection spells and is staffed with very experienced witches and warlocks. And your High Priestess resides there,” he adds.
I’m still new to how the coven works, but I think it is safe to assume the leader of the coven would be the best and most powerful of us all.
“I’ll be fine.” I place my hands on Ethan’s chest, feeling the desire turn into a desperate need to have him inside me. “But if it makes you feel better, we can go over some self-defense moves before I head out.”
Ethan splays his long fingers against my back and brings me closer to him. “That would make me feel better.” He lets his gaze linger on me for a moment and then we break apart.
“And I’m taking Hunter.”
“You could have led with that.” Ethan opens the fridge and pulls out leftovers.
“Next time.” Yawning, I pick up my coffee and take a big drink, thinking that it’s kinda crazy this is my life. Never in a million years would I think this is how things would end up, but I can’t see myself living any other way.
“Ohh,” Nik exclaims, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I got another match!”
“Did you sign up for a dating site?” Ethan asks. “We just got you that phone like a week ago.”
“I’m on several dating sites,” Nik replies and all I can do is shake my head. “If I knew it was this easy, I would have gotten a phone as soon as I stepped back into the human realm.”
“Online dating isn’t that easy,” I warn. “Trust me. People aren’t what they seem. I have a lot of horror stories about guys who were only looking for a hookup.”
“These sites are just for hookups,” Nik says casually. “Can I borrow your car? Cindi6969 can meet me in an hour.”
I open my mouth to say something only to snap it shut, at a loss for words.
“I think you’re at risk of being played—and not in a good way,” Ethan says. “Let me see this Cindi chick.” He comes over and looks at the phone. “Yep. Being played. That’s Erin O’Brien. Someone is using her pictures.”
“Who’s that?” Nik tips his head, looking at the phone.
“She’s, uh, an actress,” Ethan says with a slight wince. “In the adult entertainment industry.”
I raise my eyebrows. “No wonder I didn’t know the name.”
“If you want to meet women, I’ll take you out sometime,” Ethan offers, and Nik gives him an incredulous look.
“I’ve been picking up women—and men—for over a century. You think you’re better at it than me?”
Ethan lets out a snort of laughter. “I’m the best. If you knew how many—” He catches my eye and stops mid-sentence.
“Go on,” I encourage. “No judgement and now I’m curious. After you tell me how successful you were in the dating world, I’ll remind you of the guy who asked me to put ice cubes up his butt.” I shudder. “He wanted to put them up mine too.”
“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it,” Ethan says, and I laugh. He gets his food from the microwave and sits at the island. His phone—which is still in his gym bag—rings. I just got up to put my coffee mug in the sink, so I grab it. “It’s Sam.”
Ethan says something indiscernible with his mouth full, and motions for me to answer instead.
“Hey, Sam,” I say and put the phone to my ear.
“Oh, Anora. Hi. Is Ethan around?”
“Yeah, he’s right here. He’s eating so I answered. I’ll get him.”
“It’s okay. Just, uh, I know he’ll tell you anyway so pass this along,” she says.
“Sure.”
Sam hesitates a second before speaking. “They found the hunter’s body in Lake Michigan. Looks like he died in some sort of ritual.”
“Like a demonic one?”
“No. Like a witchcraft ritual.”
Chapter
Seven
“Hang on,” I say and extend the phone toward Ethan, giving him a You better take this look. He shovels another forkful of pasta into his mouth and takes the phone, putting the call on speaker.
“Hey, what’s up?” he says with his mouthful, earning a glare from Nik.
“They found that hunter,” Sam repeats. “His body was half-frozen in the lake this morning.”
“Shit,” Ethan replies and stabs his fork into his bowl.
Perching on a barstool, I lean in toward Ethan. “You said he was killed in a witchcraft ritual. What makes you think that?”
“He had an upside-down pentagram etched into his forehead and an athame was found nearby. It also had an upside-down pentagram on the handle. I didn’t examine the body myself, but he had lacerations on his wrists like he was tied up, and remnants of herbs were found in his throat, like it was shoved down before he was sacrificed,” Sam answers and Ethan looks at me, slowly shaking his head.
“That doesn’t mean he was killed by witches,” Ethan goes on.
“Well, it seems pretty ritualistic to me, doesn’t it?” Sam spits back. She doesn’t trust me because I’m a witch, but I thought we had gotten past a lot of her issues. I guess not.
“It seems like someone wants you to think it was a ritual and watched too many cheap horror movies,” Ethan retorts.
“Why are you defending the murderer?”
“I’m not,” Ethan snaps back. “But accusing a witch of killing a hunter isn’t something to take lightly.” He eyes me again. “And witches don’t use the upside-down pentagram.”
“We don’t,” I go on, having just re-read a page in my book about it this morning. “The pentagram represents elements, and each point of the star is significant. If you invert it, it loses its meaning and power. The upside-down pentagram is used by non-magical Satanists who actually don’t worship the devil like you think. It’s supposed to be a representation of rebellion or whatever and has no magical meaning. And we call the five-pointed star a pentacle, not a pentagram.”