Page 15 of Fighting for Her Heart

“Shall we join the others and propose a start to the experiment?” I ask.

“But what if they’re…”

“They are not currently fornicating,” I answer her unspoken question.

Evanora and I enter the house. The three are sitting on the sofa, Axel and Ryker on either side of Ember, their hands stroking her upper thighs as she squirms in an obvious state of arousal.

Evanora clears her throat.

Axe’s hand flies off Ember, but Ryker slides his fingers higher to stroke her genitals through her jeans. Ember grabs the pirate’s wrist, but she doesn’t try very hard to move his fingers away.

Evanora glances around the room. “I guess my bedroom is the only space you all can safely use during the day.”

“This place isn’t exactly vampire friendly,” Ryker says.

“If you like, I can easily make the entire house dark during daytime,” Evanora says.

I turn to her. “How do you propose to accomplish this?”

She shrugs. “I can cast a spell to block the light.”

“No,” Axe says gruffly. “Too much magic in this place already.”

“Okay.” Evanora nods. “I’ll find another way.”

I study the windows carefully, and then turn back toward her. “Are there window coverings hidden by spells, like the ones concealing the wooden stakes?”

“Wooden stakes?” Ryker leaps up from the sofa. “What fucking stakes?”

“What are you talking about?” Ember asks.

“Wooden stakes flashed on the bedroom wall when Evanora first arrived,” I inform her. They appeared when the witch felt threatened, but then they quickly disappeared.

“Those werereal?” Axe says, his eyes widening and muscles stiffening. Clearly he saw them too. Or thought he did.

“No need to panic.” Evanora holds up both hands, palms toward Ryker. “I can see now that none of you mean Ember harm. No need to use the stakes.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take your word on that.” Ryker takes an aggressive step toward her, but Ember jumps up and puts herself between them, rubbing Ryker’s arm.

She rises up on her toes to kiss Ryker’s cheek, and then turns toward her mother. “Can you remove the spell hiding the stakes? As a sign of good faith? At least then we’d all know where they are.”

Nora’s lips twist slightly, indicating an unwillingness to comply with her daughter’s wishes.

But Ember takes her mother’s hand. “Have there been stakes hidden here my whole life?”

Nora nods.

“How come I never saw them or felt them when I touched the walls?”

Nora leans close toward her. “Magic.” She winks.

“What else is hidden around here?” Ember scans the room. A faint light glows around her, and then her eyes widen. “Holy shit! That’s a lot of stakes.” She turns back toward Evanora. “Crossbows too?”

I look around the room, perceiving nothing new, but clearly Ember can now see through her mother’s magic.

“How…” Evanora shakes her head. “You can see through my spell? How are you doing that?”

“I don’t know.” Ember walks to the wall, sweeps her hand against it, and a wooden stake appears in her hand. Holding it, she turns back toward us. “You guys really can’t see these things?”