~

 

“It’s not working…” Morgana bit out as all of the frustration of not being able to find her friend swept through her.

It had been back building for a while, and it seemed that the harder she tried to reach out for Claudia; the more that anxiety grew inside of her that something bad was happening to her friend that she couldn’t stop…

“We need a third for balance…” Daniella bit out.

She could feel the frustration within Morgana and it wasn’t helping her concentrate on the task at hand, but the one thing that she knew was that they didn’t have enough juice between them to break through the dark magic that was cloaking the human.

Morgana thought of Maxi, but dismissed it just as easily … better to be someone without such a dominant personality as the seer and a giant chip on her shoulder where Nathaniel was concerned, and yet they needed a powerful witch in her own right…

“Jessica Rabbit!” Morgana said…

“Cartoon characters won’t help…” Daniella raised just one eyebrow back at her.

“I call her that because she’s got red hair and big boobs … never mind … she can help us.” Morgana said.

“Will she?” Nathaniel asked.

“If there’s something in it for her, she will…” Morgana said.

“Let’s go get her…” Nathaniel wasn’t about to sit around and hope that they’d come up with a breakthrough.  

Obviously Morgana was attached to Claudia and she was hurting – Nathaniel wanted to make that pain go away, and he felt responsible. If he hadn’t dragged Morgana into the whole mess in the first place none of it would be happening, at least, not to her friend.

“You’ll be here…?” Morgana levelled that concern towards the professor, even if Daniella had become a little less snotty and up her own backside since they’d gotten there, she still trusted the professor more than she trusted the young witch to keep her word.

“We will…” Harold assured her.

 

~

~

~

 

“You trust him, don’t you?” Nathaniel asked as they drove at break neck speed through the deserted city streets towards Jessica’s house on the lower east side.

“The professor?” Morgana turned to see him nod. “I guess. I don’t know why, so don’t ask. He just seems …”

“Too stuffy to be lying?”

“Something like that.” Morgana said, frowning hard. “It’s in his eyes – I guess that sounds stupid, but I’ve learned to follow my instincts over the years and there’s a connection there…”

“Like he’s your destiny?” Nathaniel didn’t like the sound of that…

“I hope that’s not a sexual reference…” Morgana bit back.

“Not,” Nathaniel didn’t know what it was, but he wasn’t certain that he liked the thought of it either.

If the man was some kind of a witch guru then he didn’t want to lose Morgana to the cult of Professor Harold…

“That’s a first,” Morgana muttered.

“Yes, well, contrary to popular belief, sometimes a leopard can change its spots…”

“And become what? A jaguar? Still the same deadly beast under the skin, no?” She asked and Nathaniel stayed silent.

He knew that he couldn’t catch a break with Morgana. He knew that she viewed him as the antichrist in so many ways that he probably couldn’t count that high.

He also knew that he didn’t want to be the monster that she probably thought he was, deep down under the layers that he presented her with. He didn’t know how to behave around her … she unsettled him deep within his very soul – if he still had a soul…

He’d found her lost and alone on a rooftop one night when she’d needed someone the most. He’d caught her Fae scent in the air and had decided that a tasty witch might have been on the menu … but then he’d looked at her – really, looked at her sitting there – lost. Not in her physical location but in herself, and something had shifted within him.

It hadn’t been the last time that he’d wanted to taste her blood upon his tongue, but each and every time he’d resisted that fire within his veins to take what he needed from her.

She’d made a pact with the devil – not that he was – not anymore – and he’d done her bidding in an attempt to lock her into his life.

He’d killed for her.

He’d rescued her sister, for which Morgana had got no thanks from the sour and ungrateful witch – only a disappearing act, and she hadn’t heard anything from her since – killed the man that was abusing her and asked only one thing from Morgana in return – that she work for him for the foreseeable future.

Morgana had seen it as a debt that could never be repaid any other way. He could think of some … some that she would never go for, had been resistant to accept, but he was biding his time – he certainly had plenty of it.

“Damn it to hell…” Nathaniel bit out…

“O-k-a-y…”

“Your sister. I never put two and two together at the scent of the werewolves…” Nathaniel said and snatched a look at the witch as her mouth fell open…

“You think Marley had something to do with this?” Morgana said, horrified at the thought…

“Maybe not Marley …”

“Tom Deaton…” Morgana got there with a thud of her heart against her ribs… “Werewolf – bastard…”

“And an alpha…” Nathaniel ground out. “I should have hunted him down and ended the bloodline…”

He tasted the regret on his tongue of not doing just that. Of not killing Paul’s brother, when he had the chance – but he had been intent on rescuing Morgana’s reluctant sister from the clutches of that werewolf, and getting on with enjoying the witch in his life…

Now that decision might have come back to haunt him.

There was a reason that the mob bosses wiped out a bloodline – no future retaliation from the kin. He’d killed Paul and hadn’t given a thought to his brother. Now as surely as night followed day – Tom would be an alpha…

“Marley…” Morgana had to wonder.

Her sister had been missing in action since the day that Nathaniel had rescued her from the brothers…

“She was Paul’s woman…” Nathaniel didn’t want to think of Morgana’s own sister having anything to do with what was happening, but if she’d gone to the dark side…

“I’ll kill her myself if she’s…” Morgana bit that thought off. “Let’s just get Jessica and then I know what to look for if it is Marley.”

Morgana knew that she could reach out a lot easier for the connection to her sister’s magic than she could to a complete stranger. Even if that magic had turned dark.

They’d spent their childhoods and early teens working spells together and she knew the nuances to look for. Light or dark – there would still be the signature of the witch behind the magic.

If it was Marley behind the disappearances with Deaton then she’d kill them both without hesitation...

“What the hell is…?” Morgana bit out at the sight of Jessica running through the garden of her house and down towards the back street.

She felt the g-force take her forward in her seat as Nathaniel stomped on the brakes at the sight of the muscle bound goon that was following hard on her heels…

“That’s Lochlin …” Nathaniel bit out, but he was already out of the car and racing after them by the time that Morgana had managed to pop off her seatbelt…

“Damn bear shifters…” She bit out. She wanted to kill someone, and nobody was going to miss Lochlin MacCree in a hurry…