Witch Way to Turn Read online

  “Sorry. My hands were full so the door slammed.”

  “Why didn’t you just poof in?”

  “I did,” he said. “I went back out again.”

  “Why…” She stared at the empty spot by the door. “You took the recycling out?”

  “Guilty.” He shook his head with a sly grin on his face.

  “Uh, okay. Thanks.” No one had ever taken her trash out for her before. It was a small thing, she realized that, but the unexpected gesture made him seem almost too good to be true.

  “You’re welcome. May I come in?” he asked, even though he already had.

  “Sure.”

  He walked past her into the kitchen and dropped the bags on the counter.

  “So, why didn’t you just poof over to the recycle bin. Instead of using the door?”

  “A preternatural has to visit a place in person first in order to apparate there later.”

  “Oh.” Dang. What else didn’t she know?

  “I’m not much of a breakfast person, so I bought bananas and juice. Hope you like pomegranate.” He handed her the curvy bottle.

  She recognized the name immediately because she never bought the brand. Too expensive. Normally she drank the Crystal Light version. “I love POM. It’s my fave.”

  “Mine too.” Opening a couple of cabinet doors, he searched until he found whatever he was looking for. “Glass or mug?”

  “Mug.” She sat on the wobbly barstool to undress her banana. “So what did you do last night?”

  “Work stuff.” To the point.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d come back.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” His brows pinched together.

  Accepting the mug of sour-sweet juice, she glanced around the room. “Not exactly party central here.”

  “I’ve done the party scene. They’re only good for a fast meal.” He faced her and leaned across the counter. “I’d rather be here with you.”

  “Meal?” She shoved her free hand into the front pocket of her sweatshirt, suddenly feeling that chill creep over her again. “What exactly do preternaturals eat?”

  “Souls.” His voice had a how-do-you-not-know-this tone to it.

  She snorted. “Yeah, right.” She waited for him to laugh, but his expression didn’t change. “You eat souls?”

  “I eat souls.”

  Horror washed through her. “But…but that’s…”

  He waited.

  “You…you…” She got to her feet and took a deep breath. “Okay.” She took another. “Okay, but, like…what happens to the person? Do they die? Do they go to hell?”

  Omigod. Oh God.

  When he made no move to answer, she paced. “Do you eat the whole thing or is it just a nibble? Like, a leg of soul, or a rack of soul, or something?” She had a suspicion she might be getting a little hysterical. “How often do you have to eat? How do you eat? What’s a soul taste like? Do they all taste different?”

  When she stopped and looked over at him, his green eyes were sparkling and he had an amused look on his face.

  “What? What the hell is so funny?”

  “Not so much funny as entertaining.”

  She slumped down on the barstool and put her head in her hands. “I’ll be here all week.”

  He laughed and, an instant later, she felt his soft touch on her hair. “Breena.”

  She looked up, expecting answers.

  “Have I told you that you’re incredibly sexy?”

  “Uh…” Her cheeks heated. “Yeah. No. I… Don’t change the subject, Orin. I think I deserve some answers.”

  “You’ll see soon enough.”

  * * * *

  What the hell did that mean? Breena yanked the collar of her work polo straight.

  Does he think he can just brush me off? Like I’m a little kid?

  She stomped into the living room and snatched up her purse and keys. Halfway to the door, she remembered that Orin had driven her home.

  “Shit.”

  Reversing direction, she marched over to Orin. “Guess you’re taking me to work.”

  “I’d take you anywhere.” Orin made his way to her side.

  She rolled her eyes. “Cheesy.”

  “Still, true.” He reached down and twined his fingers with hers. “Listen, Breena, I want you…” His words hung in the air as he pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand. “…to go out with me tonight.”

  Butterfly wings tickled her throat. What had she been annoyed about? Did it matter? The feel of his lips on her skin made her tingle all over. “Okay.”

  Orin dropped her off but, before he left, he asked to sit in her car. She thought it an odd request at first, until she remembered he had to be somewhere first or he couldn’t poof there. He sat down for all of two seconds before he appeared back in the white sedan and drove away.

  Breena crossed her arms and stared at the brick building in front of her. She was alone. With her thoughts. Never a good thing. They all seemed to assault her at once.

  Oh God!

  She’d left Jenny with those bitches. How could she? But what choice had they given her? Stay and watch them hurt her, or go and pray they didn’t.

  Near the rear exit of the building she saw movement, almost a blur then the door slammed shut. Could it have been Myles?

  Oh shit… Myles.

  She took a deep breath before she walked in through the employees’ side entrance. How would she explain a date with another guy? More importantly, why did she feel like she had to?

  “Hello, Bree.” Normally the sound of his voice took her to a happy place. This morning his tone put her on edge.

  “Hi Myles.” She turned her head in an attempt to avoid his gaze.

  “How’s Jenny?” His steely blue eyes found hers.

  Breena swallowed. Hard. Jenny had sounded like her chipper self on the phone last night but that didn’t mean anything. Her little sister was nearly as good as she was at masking emotions. Guilt swept over her. She’d had a great night while her sister dealt with Evil One and Two all alone. Still, it wasn’t like she’d planned for it to happen. She’d been looking for Myles. She sighed.

  He must’ve read shame on her face. “Are you okay?”

  She almost laughed. She could’ve listed every single way in which she wasn’t okay, but it would’ve eaten up her whole day. So she did the first thing that popped into her mind.

  Doing a quick one-eighty, she made a bee-line for the break room. A blur of black curls zipped by her. He stood in front of her before she’d even taken two steps.

  Damn, Speedy Gonzalez.

  “Bree, tell me.”

  Her pain tumbled out at once. “Norma hit Jenny. She threatened to do worse if I didn’t leave.”

  “God damn them.” He rubbed his face with his hand. “How is she?”

  Breena bit her lip. “She sounded okay last night. I haven’t called yet this morning.”

  “Why not?” His gaze seemed to be probing.

  Frankly she was afraid. She didn’t want to find out Evil One and Two had done more damage while she’d been…been what? Living her life? Letting herself feel like a normal teen with a crush on a hot boy. Damn. Everything was so messed up. “I’ve been busy.”

  His lips flattened into a thin line. “Busy? Your sister was hurting and–”

  “You think I don’t know that?” She could scowl just as good as the next person. “It would’ve been worse if I’d stayed. I needed to talk to someone–”

  “Did you find someone?” he asked, stepping back.

  Breena had never heard jealousy in Myles’s voice before, but she could’ve sworn she heard it now. “So what if I did?”

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  Ah, shit. She’d done it now. Of course he’d be upset. Myles had offered them a safe haven. He cared about them. But damn if she was about to defend herself when she’d done nothing wrong. She sidestepped to the right to go around Mr. Broody. But he blocked her, towering over her.

&n
bsp; “Where’d you stay last night?” Why would he ask that? Unless he’d seen her getting out of Orin’s car. Although, come to think of it, he wouldn’t have had to. Her car had still been in the lot this morning. There’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed.

  “None of your damn business, Myles Young.” How could she throw such a horrible cliche in his face? She wanted to apologize the second the words left her lips. But, for crying out loud, why shouldn’t she go out with someone else? She wanted to be with someone, to be part of something bigger than herself.

  “I care about you...” He looked as if he wanted to touch her, but instead laced his fingers together on top of his head. “...and Jenny.” Had he wanted to hug her? It kind of seemed that way. Before today, she’d have wanted him to.

  He dropped his arms back to his sides and stared at her.

  “I know.” Breena knew without a shadow of a doubt that Myles would bring up Orin. Whether he knew any specifics or not was beyond her, but somehow she could feel it…his jealousy. Her gaze darted around the room. She really didn’t want to have this discussion with him. Her love life was truly not his concern.

  Please don’t go there, she prayed.

  “Tell me you didn’t stay with the guy in the white Accord.”

  Damn. He’d gone there.

  Chapter 9

  What the hell difference did it make? No, Breena hadn’t spent the night with Orin–he’d stayed somewhere else last night, not with her, and appeared at her place this morning–but so what if she had? It’s not like she was with Myles or anything. “Let me by, Myles.”

  “How long have you known him, Breena?”

  Breena?

  He never called her by her given name. Only Bree. Always. She’d been right about the jealousy thing. “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ugh!” Myles wasn’t her boyfriend. He had no rights here. “Don’t you dare judge me.” She shook her head.

  Concern filled his eyes. It nearly sent Breena over the edge. “I’m no judge, Bree. I’m worried about you.”

  “Well you shouldn’t be. I can take care of myself.”

  “I don’t doubt it. I just want–”

  “And for your information, I didn’t spend the night with anyone last night.” She cut him off to say what he wanted to hear. She cared what Myles thought about her, though she didn’t have to, but she’d made sure she’d laced her words with attitude.

  Larry rounded the corner from the entrance to the stockroom to find Myles looming over Breena. “Everything okay back here?”

  “Yeah, uh, hey, Larry. Myles was about to move.”

  Myles stepped to the side.

  “If you say so.” Larry grabbed the box of cellphone chargers he’d apparently come back there for and walked away.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, she started down the hallway to the break room to clock-in then quickly changed her mind. She knew Myles wasn’t actually trying to judge her. And maybe if she apologized for jumping to conclusions, he’d admit he liked her. Worth a shot.

  When she turned around, Myles had vanished.

  * * * *

  The day seemed to drag by, despite Breena doing two people’s jobs. Tammy had called in sick. The pregnancy didn’t seem to be going very well. Which meant Breena holding down the fort in the main part of the store. No big deal. She’d handle it. Down side, the homework assignment she’d planned to read would have to wait. Good thing she’d decided to take only one class during the second summer session.

  From her perch at the cash registers, she snuck bites of a honey bun between customers. The hunger was still there. For some reason she just couldn’t seem to satisfy it. If she kept eating like this she’d weigh two hundred pounds by the end of the week.

  She could see straight back to Myles in his white lab coat as he worked behind the prescription counter. Usually, he’d dart his head up and look her direction more often than she could count, but today he avoided her glances.

  At lunchtime, she called back to the film development section to ask one of the ladies to run the register for her so she could take a break. Her stomach kept flip-flopping, which meant keeping the sticky treat down would be difficult. She hated fighting with Myles. Of course, they’d never fought before today. On her way to the break room, she went through Radio Shack instead of her normal path through the pharmacy, figuring avoidance was still a good tactic. When she overheard Larry telling a customer about the different phone plans, it pinged her memory about a cell for Jenny.

  A dark shiny purple one caught her eye. The flip phone had very few amenities but all the basics. Purple was Jenny’s favorite color, so Breena figured she’d love it. Larry added Breena’s selection to her current Verizon plan–only $9.99 more per month. A good thing too. She didn’t need a ton of extra expenses.

  As Larry put her purchase on the counter, she asked about his sure-thing date from the other night.

  “Not as crazy as yours, apparently.”

  “What?” Breena’s knees buckled.

  “Morgan said he saw you with three guys at the college the other night.” Larry’s voice always seemed to get louder, depending on the juiciness of the gossip. And Breena hanging with a guy topped the charts. Seeing her with anyone other than Jenny, or occasionally Myles, would seem out of place.

  Hell’s bells, she’d forgotten about the rent-a-cop.

  Damn this gossiping town.

  “Well, it wasn’t what it looked like.”

  “You don’t have to explain to me. I’m glad somebody had some fun.” Larry grinned and winked.

  Truly, she had no idea how to respond, but she wished Larry would keep his voice down. She’d rather not have the entire store apprised of her business, especially not Myles. She’d already hurt him enough today without even trying.

  Sighing, she grabbed the plastic bag, turned around and walked smack-dab into a white coat.

  Today couldn’t possibly get any worse.

  “Larry, your prescription is ready,” Myles said over the top of her head, keeping his gaze set straight ahead.

  Why hadn’t he paged Larry?

  Ugh, she grunted to herself. She was starting to sound like a caveman.

  “Thanks, man.” Larry darted over to grab his meds.

  She bit her bottom lip until she tasted blood. Myles’s wide-eyed expression made Breena think he might actually explode. But he just kept staring, his gaze zoned in on the drop of liquid on her lip. With his mouth set in an unyielding line, his anger–or whatever-the-hell he felt–forced her emotions to the brink.

  Breena was pissed, and the silence freaked her the hell out. Tell me not to see him. Tell me you want me for yourself. Tell me never to speak to you again. Anything!

  He didn’t say a word. As far as she could tell, he didn’t even breathe.

  “Alrighty then.” She stepped around the stone-like figure.

  His jet-black curls still stuck out above the aisle of batteries when she looked back. As she kicked the door to the warehouse open, she wished things could be different with Myles. Easy. Like with Orin.

  Fat chance.

  If wishes came true, she’d have custody of Jenny.

  She tried her best not to think about the boys. Instead, she focused on how best to get Jenny’s cellphone to her. At least she had some control over that.

  * * * *

  Breena pulled into the two-pump gas station at the end of Dogwood Drive. While the almost empty Beetle gurgled away her hard-earned money, she called the house. To her relief, Jenny answered on the second ring and said she was alone.

  Once Breena had filled up, she left the CITGO. At Norma’s, she parked behind the shed so she could make an undetected escape if Evil One and Two came home.

  “Hi, sis!” Jenny jumped into her sister’s arms, wrapped her legs around her and nearly knocked her down as Breena met her on the steps.

  Returning the hug, Breena breathed in the fruity smell of Jenny’s shampoo. It’d only been a day, but
she hated the separation.

  The swelling from her bruised eye had already gone away and it wasn’t black anymore. Although the yellowish color didn’t look the best, at least it proved Jenny was healing. As Jenny hopped down, she landed a little shaky on her left leg.

  Breena held her sister’s hand. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” Jenny poked at her eye to show it didn’t hurt.

  My little trooper.

  Then she noticed why Jenny favored her left leg–a huge red welt on her shin. “Jenny, what’s this? They did this?”

  Jenny looked down at the weathered porch.

  Breena got down on her knees and lifted Jenny’s chin, forcing her to look her in the eye. “This isn’t your fault, Jenny. Norma and Susan are bad people.”

  Damn bitches.

  She’d gotten used to taking their shit. She’d taken it for Jenny too, when she could. And now she had gone and made things worse. At least before, she’d been able to stop by. Granted, she’d been treated the same during her visits as she had when she’d lived there, but she’d managed to buffer more than a few beatings.

  Somehow, some way, she’d get Jenny out of this mess. Breena didn’t care how fast her sister healed, the mental scars would last a lot longer. She was proof of that.

  “Bea, don’t worry. Doesn’t really hurt.” Big saucer eyes peered up at Breena.

  She wanted to scream or cry. Maybe both. But not here. Not in front of Jenny. Breena would be her rock. Miss Dependable.

  “You’re strong, Jenny.”

  Jenny grinned while she mock-flexed her scrawny arm. Breena couldn’t help but relax a little and let loose a smile.

  It won’t always be like this, Breena promised her sister silently.

  She needed to take both their minds off the abuse, or she might do something that would land her in jail. Then she really wouldn’t be any use.

  “Hang on a sec.” Breena raced to her car and came back with the Radio Shack bag. “Got ya something.” She panted. Maybe a run might be a good idea from time to time, especially with the way she’d been eating lately.

  “A present?”

  “Yup.”

  Jenny beamed.

  Breena motioned her sister inside. “Come on, you can open it while I do some of your chores, then I’ve got to head out.”