~

 

Nancy might just have figured out her mind after all. She was almost certain that she wanted to kill her mate.

There he stood; right in front of her with a look on his face that practically begged her to put him out of his earthly misery and kill him. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have the means – just one little flick of her wrist with a little magic behind it and … snap.

What annoyed her more than anything else was that she just couldn’t do it. But, ooohhh, how she wished that she could.

The man is more than annoying, he’s … I don’t know what he is, but it’s damn well way more than bloody annoying. She thought, seething inwardly just as the sight of him.

Jerk.

Moron.

Butthead of epic proportions with an ego to match and an attitude to die for.

That’s him die – literally.

If only I didn’t have a guilty gene inside my body.

Better yet, if I had a guilty gene that I could just switch off.

Then … snap … no more problems.

No more guilt.

No more mate.

Simple.

I wish it was.

“Well, don’t just stand there, say something,” Jeff demanded.

Oh boy, say something … is he for real?

I have a whole list of things to say that’ll put me on Santa’s naughty list with a lifetime membership.

“I mean why didn’t you just let the fairies do it — what — did you want just to do it yourself?” Jeff asked. “You could have done it and blamed it on the faeries.” He reached up and ran a hand through his hair.

Nancy folded her arms and just stared back at him.

“Would you really have killed me?” He asked.

“What do you think?”

“I have no idea.”

“Give it a shot.”

“You are a witch, but you also defended me against the faeries — was that just the mating pull kicking in?”

“Maybe I just don’t like fairies,” Nancy gave a small shrug of her shoulders. She wasn’t about to admit to anything.

When backed into a corner; she preferred to come out fighting. But somehow, she didn’t feel like fighting at the moment.

If anything, she felt kind of bad – bad for him.

“Maybe you just don’t like me.”

“Maybe I don’t.” Nancy shrugged once more. She didn’t know what to say to him, but it didn’t matter, she didn’t get another chance.

Jeff gave just one nod of his head and slowly backed away from her. Then he turned on his heels and left the room.

“Damn it,” Nancy muttered.

Maybe Ashley was right after all.

Maybe I should have just left.

What do I know about mates? I couldn’t even keep a goldfish alive when I was younger.

When a howl went up that rattled everything in the room, Nancy almost jumped out of her skin. She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and sighed, tossing up her hand and letting it fall back to her side.

“Of course you did – perfect.” She muttered to herself as she turned on her heels and started toward the nearest sofa. She was just about to toss her backside down onto one of the cushions when Ashley raced into the room and caught her attention.

“It wasn’t you?” Ashley looked confused.

“Why would you think it was me?” Nancy felt aggrieved at her friend’s assumption, especially, after the way things had gone with Jeff moments earlier.

“You didn’t want to leave with me,” Ashley shrugged.

“Yeah, maybe I got that one wrong,” Nancy muttered.

“You want to leave?” Ashley looked confused again.

“I don’t …” she tossed her hands up in frustration. She might have come out fighting when her back was against the wall — but, she never ran away from a flight either.

The trouble was she didn’t know whether this was a fight or not.

“What’s wrong with you?” Ashley had never seen Nancy so up in the air before.

“I’m … conflicted.” Nancy collapsed onto the seat behind her. She tipped her head back against the cushion and stared up at the ceiling as if it had all the answers that she needed.

“You’re conflicted — Eliza just mated — I’m … meh!”

“They grow on you, right?” Nancy said as she lifted her head and watched her friend stomp over to the sofa until she plonked down beside her.

“Right,” Ashley said as she stared at the poor, downed, sorrowful-looking Christmas tree on the floor.

“We’re doooomed!” Nancy groaned.

“Big time.” Ashley sighed.

They sat in silence for a long moment just staring at the sad looking Christmas tree.

“On the plus side…” Nancy started, and Ashley groaned.

“I’m not Eliza. I’m not falling for that one.”

“There really is a plus side,” Nancy offered back.

“Really?” Ashley asked with a dry tone that said that her friend had better not be messing with her.

“On the plus side,” Nancy started again, and Ashley offered her a warning look. “Our mates are as sexy as all hell.” Nancy chuckled.

“I hear that.” Ashley sniggered.

“I heard that too,” Arthur offered from somewhere unseen.

“Ashley, are walking medicine chests supposed to talk?”

“I don’t think so, and perhaps we should spell that medicine chest to keep it quiet.”

“What a good idea.”

“Consider me as silent as a mouse,” Arthur offered back.

Heaven forbid that he should suffer the wrath of witch mates for the next sixty years or so. He knew which side his bread was buttered, and the two witches were already as good as mates in the pack. Getting on the wrong side of them now would just be counter-intuitive.

“Not even a squeak,” Nancy warned.

The sound of silence came back to them.

“That sounds good to me.” Ashley smile in victory at Nancy.

Then the sound of a mouse like squeak pierced the air and made both witches chuckle.