Page 48 of His Blazing Witch (The Silver City #3)

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

I chuckle. It does make me want to dress up just to see his reaction. I am not fond of makeup, though, nor am I good at it yet, but I do feel like I could always experiment more clothing-wise... I have to get Kelsi on it. I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a quick kiss.

"That's a deal then," I say. "We need to have a date night out, I want to see you dance..."

"Ugh. Don't expect too much."

"I promise I won't."

However, we'll have to save that for another time. Neither of us is dressed up to go to the club, it's late, and besides, our stomachs quickly make themselves remembered with loud grumblings.

"Alright," I say. "What do you want?"

"As long as there's meat," shrugs Liam, taking out his wallet. "Can you go get it? I'll watch the bike, and then we can find a nice spot to eat at."

"Deal."

I walk into the closest little shop, and quickly place an order. Now that I'm smelling all the greasy food from up close, I realize I'm literally starving. I do seem to have a big appetite after using magic... when it doesn't make me sick. I order the most meaty thing I can find on the menu for Liam, a cheeseburger for me, some fries for us to share, and two drinks. I pay and wait a couple of minutes for the food. I hope we can find somewhere nearby to eat, neither of us brought a bag to carry all of this...

Just when I'm about to leave, I glance up at Liam outside, who is... not alone anymore. I frown. What the heck? I was gone for less than five minutes but there's already two chicks standing next to him, giving him all smiles and acting way too clingy for my taste. Seriously? I step outside silently, a bit annoyed. Well, not just a bit.

"S-sorry, no..." he's saying, trying to take his arm back from the girl who's clinging to it.

"Oh, come on! Just a dance or two!"

"No, I want to go for a ride!" laughs her friend, giving him some extra winks.

"I told you, I have a girlfriend!" he growls, annoyed.

Neither of the girls are intimidated by his growling, or maybe they are too drunk. I cross my arms, waiting to see how this is going to turn out. I don't know whose ass I want to burn the most...

"She isn't here right now!"

"Isn't it just an excuse?" one of the girls giggles. "Oh, come on, hot stuff!"

"Hey, hands off the hot stuff," I call out.

The two girls turn around, alerted by my voice. They scowl and check me out from head to toe with annoyed expressions.

"Who is that?" asks one of them, still staring at me.

"The hot stuff's girlfriend," I smile.

Between them, Liam sighs, visibly annoyed.

"Mara, please don't get mad..."

"I'm not mad."

"You're mad."

"I'm not mad. Look, I'm smiling."

"Your smile is scary..."

"I'll keep the scary smile on until they take their hands off you, then."

The girls look confused by our exchange, and Liam tries to free his arm once more.

"Okay girls, you really better go now. This is my girlfriend and she can be scary when she's mad. Plus, she's got my food and I'm hungry, so please..."

"That's your girlfriend?" asks one of them with a smirk.

"Why don't you stay with us instead? Look, we're sexier, and you can come eat with us! You can get two instead of one!"

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm a one-gal type of guy. I just want my girlfriend and she is seriously going to fry your asses if you don't go. Now."

"Well you can fry my ass anytime!" giggles drunk girl number two.

Well, I can arrange that.

Liam must have read my mind, because he makes a grimace and shakes his head. He then moves to seriously get them off of him and steps aside, even away from his own bike. The girl that was clinging on to him pouts, but the other one suddenly lands her eyes on his bike.

"Hey! Look!"

She starts to climb on the bike.

Oh. Fuck. No.

"Get off my damn bike!" growls Liam.

"You get off the bike right now or I swear I'm frying your asses," I hiss too, shoving the bag of food into Liam's arms.

"Very funny, you can justAh!"

I light up my hand as a warning, and the flames dancing on my palm finally get their attention. The girl almost jumps off the bike, landing ungracefully on her knees, while the other makes a horrified expression.

"Y-you're the witch!"

"Told ya I could fry you. Now, get off the bike, away from the hot stuff, and go back inside."

One of the girls runs to her friend, grabbing her arm to pull her away.

"Come on, let's go. That bitch's just crazy..."

"I'm not scared of a witch!" yells the other. "Your magic can't hurt me!"

I raise an eyebrow. Seriously? I have literal fire in my hands and she's still acting arrogant? I guess it's true when they say alcohol makes people feel invincible However, before I can say a word, she suddenly raises her top, showing off a weird tattoo on her belly. What the heck?

"See? I have a protection spell on me!"

"...Mara?"

I feel hesitation in Liam's voice, and I know why. He's seen enough magic to recognize a genuine spell, even tattooed on a drunk human girl. My expression must be a dead give away too. ...This is so wrong. Why the hell is there a real magic spell tattooed on her skin?

"...Where did you get that done?" I ask.

"Ha!" she exclaims with a victorious smile. "See? You can't do anything to me! I've got protection!"

"You don't even know what this is, you idiot!" I yell at her.

I approach her, grab her wrist, and look at her stomach from up close, but her friend freaks out.

"Hey! Let her go, you crazy witch! Don't touch us!" she yells.

"I wouldn't be touching her if you didn't play with witchcraft yourselves, you idiots!" I shout back. "Answer me! Where did you get this?!"

The one whose wrist I'm holding just keeps complaining and trying to free herself from my grip, but she's too drunk to do anything for real. Liam steps up next to me, just as concerned. Her friend, probably not as intoxicated, is getting whiter and whiter, realizing I'm dead serious.

"I-I don't know," she mumbles. "She said a lot of our friends just got the same thing... I-it's popular..."

"What do you mean, they got it too? From where?"

"Is this dangerous?" she asks, starting to tear up. "I didn't think that was real! Is it dangerous? She won't die, will she?"

"You idiots got stuff tattooed and you didn't know what it was?" growls Liam.

"I just thought it was a joke! Like those stupid challenges we always do..."

She keeps trying to explain herself, but she doesn't seem to know much more, and her friend just keeps trying to free herself from my grasp. I let her go, and she swears, but it's more a weird mumbling than anything very insulting. Her friend grabs her arm.

"I-is it dangerous?"

"I'm not sure," I answer. "How many people have this tattooed? Who started it?"

"I don't know! I think it came from some post on the university blog... No one took it seriously, but because there's... I mean, since you're a real witch, it just became the next cool thing to do..."

"You idiots got tattoos for a challenge?" frowns Liam.

"Not all are real tattoos! Most are just temporary ones... but... I-I think since some people did it for real, it became like the next step to get it... a-and since it is pretty..."

Moon Goddess, I just want to gather those people and smack some sense into them. How many of them have this on them now? And most importantly, who the hell cast that spell on the humans? Why? I have a really, really bad feeling the more I think about this...

"Mara?" asks Liam.

"I don't know what this is," I admit. "That's a symbol I've never seen before. I... I think it's a new spell, made by someone else. It would be the only reason I can't recognize it, if it's... custom. I recognize some bits, but... it's too complex."

The more I stare, the less I like this. This isn't just some random spell the next idiot could come up with from a book about witches or some internet research. This one is so complex, even for me, it would take hours to come up with that sort of thing...

"Hold her," I suddenly decide.

Her friend hesitates, but Liam goes to grab the girl's wrists, and he's stronger when it comes to holding her where she is.

"W-what are you doing?"

"I'm going to take this off her. Unless you want your friend to keep showing off this spell not knowing what it is or what it'll do to her?"

"N-no..."

"Then help us hold her."

She nods, a bit hesitant, and tries to calm her friend down while I light up my fire very carefully.

"H-hey! You're not seriously going to burn her, are you?"

"No, just the spell, don't worry."

"Don't worry? You burned down buildings just two days ago! Why should we trust you?!"

I glare at her.

"If I planned to hurt you, I wouldn't need my boyfriend to hold your stupid friend who can't make one smart decision for herself!"

The girl glares back, but she has nothing to say. I better make this quick, the other one keeps wriggling and protesting, and I don't want to cause a scene here. I very carefully approach with my fire, and it turns a somber blue as soon as it reaches her belly.

"It stings! Stop it!"

"It will do a lot more than sting if I leave it there," I retort, focusing on this.

The spell doesn't like me trying to rip it off that girl's body. I insist and it slowly disappears, but not without a fight. Damn it... it comes off because a witch didn't personally put it there, but it's still strong enough to resist me. Holy shit, I didn't think that kind of crap could happen...

After a few more seconds of struggling, the spell is finally off of her body and the girl starts crying out of the blue.

"You okay?" asks her friend.

"No... I think I'm going to puke..."

She gives us a sorry nod, and pulls her friend toward whichever street she's going to throw up in. Ugh... I roll my eyes and turn to Liam, shaking the fire off my hand.

"...It's not good, is it?" he sighs, grabbing our bag of food he had left on the ground.

"Nope... but there isn't much I can do now," I sigh. "I don't know what the heck that spell was, where she got it from, or what it was for..."

"She mentioned the university blog. Let's get out of here before someone gets nosey, find a place to eat, and you can check my phone."

I nod to that, and we get back on the bike, riding away from there. Luckily, I don't think anyone noticed what I did back there. It's still late enough that there aren't many people outside. Liam rides only a few streets away, and we settle for a spot by the river that splits Silver City. He secures his bike, and we sit on the grass. He's so hungry, he jumps on the food first, but I want to check online before I get my hands all greasy...

It takes me a few minutes, and I'm starving, but I finally find it. I want to roll my eyes.

"Found it?"

"Yeah... Moon Goddess, this is just plain stupid. Someone posted this symbol online, saying it's an efficient way to protect one against a witch's magic... Well, my magic, I guess. It was posted a few days ago. There are a bunch of stupid answers, people joking, and then the idiots who did get it posted pictures online."

"Damn, people are really that stupid."

"...I think it boomed because of what happened yester-... I mean, two days ago. Damn, there are pictures of me too."

"Wait, what?"

I give him back his phone. It's nothing big, but I don't like it. People took pictures and videos from afar of me setting fire to the buildings... no, the Dark Witch doing this. It wasn't even me! I grab my cheeseburger, too hungry to care anymore. This isn't even on the top of my shit pile...

"What the heck," growls Liam. "Who posted that shit?"

"Students in need of something interesting in their life," I grumble, my mouth half-full.

"Mara, it's not okay! I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

"Liam, I'll settle my privacy issue later," I sigh. "I'm sure Amy and her army of lawyers can do something about this. For now, I want to know who put that spell online and how. The original creator of the post used an anonymous account, but they also posted some of the videos. That wasn't innocent at all."

"You think they are working with one of the witches? Or the curse?"

"Probably," I sigh.

Liam growls a bit, but I just eat some fries mindlessly. Why does this feel like the calm before the storm? We really can't catch a break... I hope Kelsi can help me on this one, she's much better at technology than I am, and probably more familiar with the university blog too. After a little while, I take Liam's phone away so he can focus on his food, as he keeps grumbling about the pictures of me. His sandwich is soon gone, though, and I realize another one wouldn't have been too much for him. Note to self: never underestimate a werewolfˇs appetite. Even Iˇm left unsatisfied after that cheeseburger, somehow...

"Damn..." suddenly sighs Liam. "Sometimes I really wish you weren't a witch."

"It's okay," I shrug.

"It's not, Mara. I read some of those posts. You don't deserve that crap... "

"I'm fine, Liam. For real. I don't care, honestly. I'm fine with being the freak of the town, as long as I got the people I need by my side, okay? I've got my family, my friends... and my hot stuff too."

He suddenly blushes slightly.

"...Oh Moon Goddess, you're not going to forget that one, are you?"

"Certainly not!" I laugh.

He rolls his eyes, but after watching me mock him for a minute, he takes me by surprise and leans in for a quick kiss. I stop laughing, and now I'm the one blushing.

"Damn it," he whispers. "You're so cute when you laugh like this. Now I want my hot stuff too."

Oh... the way he said that doesn't leave much room for interpretation. I lick the mayo off my fingers, and give him another quick kiss back.

"Hm... Now that we're... sated, shall we go back?" I suggest, with a little smile.

"...Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Plus, there is something else we need to settle."

"What's that?" he asks.

"Well, I didn't think it would be an issue if I didn't mark you right away, but it looks like I can't leave my boyfriend alone for five minutes before he attracts chicks like moths to a flame, so..."

Liam opens his mouth, but then he closes it.

"To be honest, I was going to protest, but I'll attract all the drunk girls you need if that convinces you to finally mark me."

"...I don't know if I want to mark you, smack you, or kiss you right now."

"You can do all three if you want," he chuckles. "Come on, let's go."

Oh, Moon Goddess...