Page 4 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

My reasoning wasn’t any of his business.

“If you want me to trust you with my resort’s leaders, I need the full story,” the vampire insisted.

“If Liam genuinely needs a blood witch, you’re not going to risk turning me away. You don’t like me because of what I am, and I’m here because I have no other choice. You and I have nothing else to discuss,” I said calmly.

The man made a noise that resembled a growl. I couldn’t say I’d ever heard one in person before. “Everyone who lives here contributes their time and energy to keep it functioning. It belongs to all of us.”

“The magic that makes it a sanctuary belongs to Liam and a blood witch alone, actually.”

In a flash, Cecil was in front of me. I flinched, though I tried not to.

His hand gripped my chin, his eyes lit with warning as he bruised my skin.

Silently, I urged him to grip harder. To dig his nails or his teeth in. If my blood was on his skin or in his mouth, I would have control.

“You’re itching for a lesson in who has the most power here, aren’t you? With my fangs in your throat, you won’t be the strong one, little witch,” he practically purred.

“What the fuck are you doing, Cecil?” a gravelly male voice asked.

A shiver rolled down my spine.

Something about the voice was… different.

Important, somehow.

Cecil stiffened immediately. He didn’t step back or release me, though. “You’re here early, Liam.” He blocked my view of the man who apparently led the resort.

“I felt the witch’s magic as she reached the wards. Go ahead and bite her if you want to.”

Cecil’s forehead creased, slightly, and he finally looked over his shoulder. “You don’t mind?”

My suspicions rose.

Someone who had worked with a blood witch in the past would know exactly what was going to happen if a vampire bit me.

“No. She won’t either,” Liam said.

His response confirmed my suspicions.

Cecil looked back at me. “What happens if I bite you?”

I flashed him a humorless smile, the motion making my chin ache under his grip. “There’s an easy way to find out.”

A large hand landed on Cecil’s wrist, and it jerked the vampire’s hand off my skin. Cecil was immediately ripped away from me,and I came face-to-face with the man responsible for the wards around the Resort.

He was a few inches taller than Cecil, and much thicker. Tan skin stretched over his bare, expansive chest. With the pure amount of muscle on display, he looked more like a boulder than a man. Even the thick, dark hair on top of his head barely swayed my mind from the boulder category.

The look in his hazel eyes was dark in a way that made my breath catch.

He was stunning, but not in a conventionally attractive way. He looked more like a giant than a man.

But the magic radiating off his skin was a perfect match to the power that surrounded the Resort. Strangely warm and incredibly strong, though without a scent of its own.

I noticed steam coming off his body alongside the magic, which was strange. I didn’t know of any kinds of supernaturals thatsteamed, though there were a nauseatingly large number of different types. Far too many to know off the top of my head.

Someone in my coven had spent years researching so she could compile a full list of them, and she was still looking for more.

“You owe my witch a bag of your blood for marking her skin,” Liam said without looking away from me. “And you owe me a month’s work in the kitchen for letting you keep your life.”