LITMIR.BIZ

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      “No,” she said with an easy roll of her shoulders that told him she wasn’t lying. “Don’t want any of that.”

      “Well, that’s the thing about power, beautiful. Once you have it, you’ve gotta do something with it.”

      She smiled, showing all those perfectly aligned, “my daddy is an orthodontist” teeth. “And I’m sure I will.”

      Jamie had no idea when she fell asleep, but she knew when Tully took her to bed. He easily lifted her off the couch and walked through the dark house to the back bedroom. He pulled off the quilt before covering her up with the sheet and comforter.

      “You’re leaving?” she heard herself ask.

      “In a bit.”

      “Okay.” She rolled over to her other side and tucked her hands under her cheek. Lips brushed against her forehead and then he was gone. He didn’t make a sound, but she still knew he’d left the room and then the house from the amazing energy that went with him.

      And with his energy gone, theirs returned. She could hear them scratching at the walls, the doors, the windows, trying to get in. Always trying to get in. It had been getting worse every night. At first, a simple spell could send them away, but now she had to use more than that. Even worse, it was getting to the point where she had to manage it constantly. One simple spell no longer covered her from moon to moon, or even day to day. Of course, they did have help, didn’t they? They had the one who’d sent them.

      She grabbed another pillow and put it over her head in the hopes of blocking out the sounds while Rico settled on her headboard, watching over her for the night.

      Yet there was only so much her familiar could do. Once they broke through the barriers she’d created, Jamie doubted anyone would be able to protect her.

      Chapter Five

      Jamie was mid-yawn when she heard the knock on her office door. Once Tully had left, she’d gotten no sleep and had spent the rest of the night watching bad television until dawn when she had to get to work and whip out some pastries for a Daughters of the Confederate Bears meeting. Even worse, her cousin had been an annoying heifer since she’d rolled into work later that morning. If Jamie didn’t know better, she’d swear Mac was trying to pick a fight with her. Or maybe she was just being her usual nosey self. Whatever her damage was, Jamie had avoided her cousin by hiding in her office.

      Hoping her cousin wasn’t back to push her, Jamie wiped her tired eyes and said, “Come in.”

      Emma stuck her head in. “Hey.”

      “Hey. What’s up?” When Emma hesitated Jamie motioned her in. “What’s going on?”

      Emma closed the door and sat down in the leather office chair across from her. “I was going to ask you that.”

      “Nothing.”

      “Jamie.” Emma gave an exasperated laugh. “Look at you.”

      “Hey. I was spitting up fire last night. I deserve to look this tired.”

      “You don’t think we feel it? Every night? Them coming for you? And I’m not talking about what you’re doing to become Morrighan’s champion.”

      Jamie relaxed back in her chair. Of course her coven felt it. Soon they might be able to hear it too. The demands for entry getting louder, more angry, more desperate. “Let it go, Em.”

      “Let us help you.”

      “There’s nothing to help.”

      “You’re lying!”

      Emma winced at the voice coming through the door. “Would you let me handle this?”

      Mac pushed the door open. “You’re not handling it right.”

      Exhausted, worn down, and just plain raw, Jamie warned her cousin, “You need to back off this, Mac, and you need to back off this now.”

      Her cousin snorted. “No.”

      Around early afternoon, Tully ambled on over to the Smithville Arms to check on Jamie. True, she wasn’t his responsibility but he’d felt a kinship to her after talking for so long the night before. She was a sweet thing, if a bit misguided. Misguided because he couldn’t understand how she didn’t see the beauty of this place. Smithville wasn’t just some town to him. He knew there was no place else in the world where he could go and be as happy and, more importantly, content as he was here. If she only bothered to open up her eyes and see what had been bestowed upon her, he knew she could find her place here. She could find something better than the hoarding of power.

      And, as always, his mother had been right. Trying to force anything down Jamie’s throat or even trying to smooth talk her would never work. She was way too smart for her to buy that move from him. So being her friend would have to be the way to go and he couldn’t say that he minded. He liked her.

      Hated her bird, though.

      Tully ambled on up the great porch stairs of the hotel and opened the screen door, stopping right in the doorway. He watched Emma and Seneca, their arms wrapped around Jamie’s waist, trying to pull her back. Across from them was poor Kenny, her arms around Mac’s waist, trying to hold Mac back. The cousins had a healthy hold on each other’s hair and didn’t seem in the mood to let the other go while they yelled obscenities he was glad his momma wasn’t around to hear because she’d have dealt with that right quick.

      Deciding Jamie seemed basically fine and figuring he could talk to her later while she was cleaning up those bruises her cousin would give her, Tully turned back around, headed down the stairs, and got back onto the road. He needed to make peace between one of the Prides and one of the Clans again anyway.

      He’d walked about a half-mile when he stopped and lifted his head, his nostrils flaring as he cast for a scent. When he finally latched on to it, when he finally remembered it, he spun around, and stared down at the wolf watching him.

      Bracing himself, Tully said the first thing that came to mind. “And all this time I was really hoping you were dead.”

      Jamie finally had Mac on her back and was about to start spitting in her face when a strong hand grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her off.

      She looked up expecting to see Kyle or Bear—they really hated when the witches fought—but instead she saw Tully.

      “I need to talk to you,” he growled out as he yanked her to her feet.

      “Hey,” Emma said, jumping forward and then scrambling right back again with the rest of the coven when Tully barked and snapped at them all. Besides being kind of disgusted at her easily startled coven, Jamie was also shocked at Tully. He never yelled at Emma. Or, as in this case, barked at her. He treated her like she was spun glass. “Sweet little Emma,” he always called her which, until this moment, never bothered Jamie before.

      Although why that was going through her mind now as he manhandled her right through the dining room, through the kitchen, and out the back porch, she had no idea.

      “Why is Buck Smith here?” he demanded once they were on the lawn behind the hotel.

      Jamie stared up at him. “Who?”

      It was fascinating to watch the way his expression completely changed. She’d never seen him look like that. So angry. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him miffed, much less homicidal. Even when she’d set the forest on fire and poisoned the lake, he’d never appeared this angry.

      And, boy, did he look angry.

      “You’re supposed to protect this town,” he bit out.

      “Right. And I do…when I’m aware of a problem.”

      “How could you not be aware? He’s staying at your goddamn hotel!”

      Whoa. He was yelling at her. Normally,

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