Page 29 of Unhinged Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #2)

Wesley

(Two months later)

Regret tumbled through every inch of me, a not-so-discrete beast attempting to unhinge my already fucked up head. Good luck with that. It could park its clenched fist where the sun didn’t shine and still wouldn’t come close to making me feel more guilty than I already was.

I had done the unthinkable, the unfathomable , and with minimal planning.

I fucked up. Bad. But I had no choice. There was no time to consider my options.

Every act had consequences. But this one, I wasn’t sure I could come back from.

The back of my head connected with the wall behind me, my ass sinking to the cold cement of a back lane. I lifted the bottle of liquor to my lips, wincing as it burned its way down my throat, welcoming the dark void behind my eyelids.

A bone-chilling gust swept my hair into my face. I didn’t bother swiping it away.

I was nothing more than a snake. A slimy, deceitful thing dragging through the moments between dusk and dawn. I didn’t deserve to be alive.

Days molded into nights, liquor and cigarettes my faithful friends. Anything to rid me of the guilt crushing my chest. The thoughts contaminating my mind.

I’d left Cutters Cove. There was no other option. I couldn’t stay after kidnapping the woman Ty loved, then handing her straight into the arms of danger. They didn’t deserve that, not at all.

Turned out the woman from the cafe that left the note for me was Morgan’s mother, and somehow, she knew my biggest secret: that, not only could I sense magic, but siphon it.

She had done her homework. Asked the right people the right questions, namely an elder.

Because it was a given that elders knew of every kind of magic in a bloodline.

If you were caught with a stem of magic not disclosed to them, there were harsh penalties.

Information like that wasn’t something an elder would hand out to just anyone though. This woman had been calculated, and I imagined she had resorted to extremes to put her plan into action. I doubted we would ever truly know the extent of it.

I had kept the fact I could siphon magic from my closest friends, more to protect them than anything. Because anyone with my gift was a target for this very reason.

Able to be threatened, just as I had been.

But loves makes people do strange things.

I hadn’t realized the power Morgan held. To be fair, I don’t think she knew herself.

But when I siphoned her magic from her, I felt it all, and fuck if it wasn’t the single most addictive thing in the world, even when my hand was being forced.

I could barely contain it, but as it slipped out of my hands and back into her when my concentration was broken, I was thankful for Ty’s perfectly-timed arrival. My out.

The aftereffects, however, would be everlasting.

My friendships. The love of my life. Skye.

I hated not seeing her. Not knowing she was okay. I knew in my heart she wasn’t, and that she wouldn’t understand any of it. But I couldn’t forewarn her of this. It was her own life at stake, and the slightest glitch could have cost us the rest of our lives.

I didn’t expect her forgiveness but hoped one day she could see my actions for what they were. A man caught between a rock and hard place, fighting for love.

I craned my neck as the back door of a seedy bar swung open.

A couple stumbled outside into the back lane close to where I sat.

The woman’s light laugh echoed into the empty lane as a guy walked her back against the opposite wall.

I watched as he pushed himself against her.

Something stirred inside me, the desire to hold Skye again making me want to palm my dick and watch.

I rested my elbows on my bent knees, taking another drink from the liquor bottle, my gaze traveling back to them.

There was something about watching desire take hold of two people and bend them to its will. You can deny chemistry all you want, but fighting it is like trying to hold off a fucking orgasm.

He was taller than her, but not by much, his build wider than hers by another half.

I reached out with my magic and found nothing.

Humans. What a joke. They would never experience the touch of a fated mate, and yet still I watched as the light-haired frat boy groped the poor girl’s tits, plastering his face on hers.

She didn’t seem to mind as she kissed him back, until his hands travelled south, trying to pull up her dress.

She swiped his hand away, a nervous laugh coming from her this time, a few notes higher than before.

He tried again, and she told him to stop, but his persistence didn’t wane.

A flare of anger brought me to my feet, my fingers wrapped tightly around the bottle of liquor. “Hey!” I called out. “The woman said stop.”

The piece of scum side-eyed me, his scrutiny moving over my form which I knew looked like shit.

“Fuck off man, we’re having a good time,” frat guy said, turning his attention back to the woman who fumbled with the hem of her dress.

My eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t look like a good time for her.”

“She wouldn’t be out here if she didn’t want it,” the sleaze sneered.

I saw red.

He shouldn’t assume just because she was there he had the green light. He had no right to think that. Her body. Her decision.

Taking the final swig from my empty bottle, I dumped it in the nearby trash, moving toward them. “The woman said stop,” I repeated.

The fucking prick laughed.

An uncomfortable coil wound itself inside me. I wanted to teach this guy a lesson in ways I had taught no one before. I sauntered closer, unsteady confidence filling my alcohol-fueled steps.

“Your vision,” I drawled, pausing to inspect him closer. I cocked my head to the side, my magic preening at the thoughts spilling through my mind. “How much is it worth to you? Because if you don’t leave the woman alone, I’ll leave you blind as a bat.”

“Bats aren’t blind,” the creep retorted.

I cracked my thumb before clenching my hand into a tight fist. “But you will be.”

Frat boy’s demeanor faltered for a moment, before he collected himself again. “Fuck off, freak show.”

A smirk crept over my face as I zeroed in on frat boy, imagined my hands sinking into his scalp and glazing his vision until a permanent void filled them instead. A piece of me wanted to leave the guy permanently blind, and a delirious shiver wracked me at the thought.

In the wardrobe in the manor, I had hidden myself and Skye from the vampire’s sight with my magic. But here, I wanted to rid this piece of shit of his vision entirely.

As frat boy lost his sight, his hands slapped his sockets, pushing over them as if the movement could somehow bring it back.

I grinned as the girl’s attention flew between me and the clouded orbs of the predator in front of her, something in between gratitude and horror blowing them wide.

Glassy, ice-blue eyes landed on mine, her voice barely audible. “Thank you.”

I stumbled closer, my fingers flicking into a running man gesture. “You’re welcome.”

Without another word she got my hint, hightailing it back into the bar, the door slamming shut behind her.

My feet edged sideways, my palm connecting with the wall as my vision blurred momentarily.

“Fucking jack,” I mumbled, pushing off the wall to right myself again.

I stumbled past the frat boy still furiously rubbing his eyes, one hand held out in front of him.

“What the fuck did you do to me, you freak!” He turned his head in every direction.

I should have left him. He deserved it. Instead, I took great pleasure in closing the gap between us, not bothering to quiet my footsteps.

He couldn’t see me, anyway. Flying incognito had its perks.

He jumped at least a foot at my voice so close to him.

“Next time, when a lady says stop, I suggest you fucking listen.” Sliding passed him, I headed to the end of the back lane.

I flicked my wrist, returning his sight, then disappeared into the night.