“If it worked, yes,” I replied.
“Well, since Static and Rooster are holding them at gunpoint and they haven’t tried any voodoo magic shit or done anything to fight back, I’m guessing it worked.” Raptor explained.
“Hey now,” Voodoo chastised as he took exception to the “voodoo magic” comment. Or at least that’s what I assumed, but then the barest of a smile kicked up the corner of his mouth.
“End them,” Phoenix ground out as he stared Voodoo down. “They tried to kill her.”
“Gladly,” Voodoo piped in as he motioned to Jigsaw. The two of them headed toward the door.
“Wait!” I burst out, and they stopped to see what I wanted. “The two of them being mortal is a worse punishment to them than death. I don’t want you killing them on my behalf. That makes me no better than them. I’m not taking out people who go against me or my beliefs. This world is a big place, and if we don’t leave room for the good and the bad because we constantly need revenge, then where does the good go? Where does it end?”
The rage that had consumed me when I thought they’d killed Phoenix was frightening. For a moment, I’d lost the small piece of humanity fighting to stay on top. Though I would always do everything in my power to protect those I cared about, to lash out with sheer hatred left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“I get it, but how do you know for sure that it worked on them?” Phoenix asked in exasperation as he stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
My apologetic gaze hit my mom’s, but she framed my face with her hands. “I’m not upset with you. You did the right thing—the admirable thing.”
“What is she talking about?” Phoenix demanded. “What did you do?”
A heavy sigh left my shoulders drooping. “In order to take their powers from them, I had to maintain the balance.”
“Meaning?” Voodoo interjected.
“I gave up my powers again, too.” It hurt my heart. My whole life my mother had talked about how one day our family would have their powers reinstated. She had regaled me with bedtime stories about how our family had once been the most powerful and admired bloodline of our kind. When I was little, I was awed by the stories. As I’d gotten older, I had secretly scoffed at them and assumed they were fanciful fairy tales passed down by a family of witches whose unassisted powers consisted of basic housekeeping skills and intuitive card reading.
Sure, with the right spell, we were capable of other forms of magic, but nothing of the magnitude that the prophecy foretold. Hell, I hadn’t even had them long enough to really know how to use them, so in my mind I wasn’t missing out on anything.
“Sloane, I’m not upset,” my mother assured me. “You made me more proud by the insight you showed and the unselfish choice you made.”
“So what the hell do we do with them? They smell disgusting,” Evan said with a curl of his lip followed by a grimace.
It was my turn to smirk. “Lock them outside the gate and let them find their own way. I can assure you, no one will want to pick their asses up.”
Phoenix shook his head, but he didn’t argue with my decision.
And that’s exactly what they did.
For the next week and a half, Voodoo recuperated and went with a reluctant Raptor to the massive ranch his family owned. I finally found out Raptor’s dad’s name was Adriano, so I didn’t have to keep thinking of him as “Raptor’s Dad.” There was some seriously bad blood there, but I stayed out of it.
Raptor’s family said they watched over Belinda and Neville until they loaded up in their SUV and left town. Before they were shoved out of the gate, Voodoo and Phoenix insisted on having a word with them. They never said what it was about, but Niara said she heard them say something about ending them if they bothered us again.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” Phoenix asked and kissed the crown of my head that rested on his broad chest.
My heart ached, and I swallowed the lump in my throat the best I could. This was our last day together. Neither of us had been willing or able to budge on staying or going. He wanted me to pack up and go with him, but I couldn’t leave my mom and everything we had worked for. When I asked him to stay, his argument was much the same as mine.
Going into this with him, I’d never expected him to be the missing piece of my soul. Never in a million years would I have expected the supposed prophecy was real, nor would I have thought I could need him to the point of pain.
The thought of him leaving tomorrow sliced through me and left me bleeding out. But I understood that Voodoo wanted to get home in time to spend the night with his wife.
“I didn’t make any plans,” I admitted. We’d been to the stockyards, spent a day at Corky’s Gaming Bistro, gone to the Dallas Circus Center, hit the horse track to watch the races, and ridden his bike for miles and miles on end. “I kind of thought we could just stay here all day.”
He hooked me under my arms and dragged me to bring me eye level with him. When I braced myself on my hands, my hair hung around us, locking us in a dark cocoon. “I have no complaints,” he said before he raised himself to one elbow and kissed me long and slow. It was as if he didn’t want it to end, and neither did I.
He picked me up to straddle his lap. Damn, I really loved how he manhandled me like I weighed nothing. My lips curved seductively as I slid up and down along his length without allowing him access to my needy core.
“Dammit, woman, stop teasing me,” he grumbled, and I laughed. “You think that’s funny?” he mock threatened. He gripped my hips and moved me enough to get his cock lined up. “I’ll show you funny,” he growled, then nipped the underside of my breast. I couldn’t help but giggle. At least until he thrust up into my eager body.
Eyes rolled back, I groaned at the fullness of his shaft buried deep inside me. It was bordering on painful but in the absolute best way. A few slow strokes, and I was digging my nails into the curve of his shoulders.