Warrior Fae Trapped (Warrior Fae 1)

It still hurt to chuckle. “Making love to you is going to have to wait, but…you’re more…than a duty to me, Charity. I care about you.” Talking about his feelings hadn’t gotten any easier, or less awkward, but in this he would listen to Roger. “So much. I want you to know that. That I have feelings for you.”

Her eyes were large and open, inviting him all the way down to her soul.

“I like you too. A lot.”

Her smile was just for him, wrapping around his heart and squeezing.

She had a hold on his vitals, and he didn’t ever want her to let go.Chapter Forty-FourCharity heaved a sigh as she lugged her backpack higher on her shoulders. The thing felt like it was full of bricks. She paused in between the buildings, angling her face up toward the blessed sunshine.

It had been two weeks since the battle, and no one had seen hide nor hair of her BFF. In fact, the vampires in the area had made themselves scarce. Word was that they didn’t trust a woman who could rain down sunshine on them in the middle of the night.

Charity would take it. She wasn’t totally sure how to control her power, but if she had them running scared for the moment, she’d count her blessings.

“What’s up, Charity?” Andy walked toward her with a welcoming smile, Rod at his side.

“What’s for dinner?” Rod asked by way of hello.

“Really, dude?” Andy put out his hands and frowned at Rod. “It’s the middle of the day, you haven’t seen her since last night, and the first thing you do is try to get something out of her?”

Rod gestured at Charity angrily as they stopped next to her. “She likes cooking! I’m discussing one of her hobbies.”

“Oh sure, yeah. That was your master plan. Discussing hobbies.” Andy rolled his eyes for Charity’s benefit. “That big blockhead on your shoulders must be hard to lug around.”

“Shut up, dick. She knows I’m always around to help.” Rod pulled Charity in for a one-armed hug. “Hi. Good to see you again.”

Andy stared at him.

“What?” Rod asked.

“I was waiting for you to double down and ask what was for dinner again.”

“Shut up.” Rod stepped away. “Like you don’t want to know.”

Charity laughed at their antics, starting forward. “Roger is staying for dinner, I think. He’s bringing that crew to fix the ward and read our fortunes or something. I don’t know; I stopped listening when Devon started to fuss. Anyway, I’d planned to do a—”

“Ah crap.” Andy blew out his breath and stared at Rod for a moment, who stared back. He shook his head. “I forgot all that was happening tonight. I’m out, bro. The joy of eating Charity’s food will be totally sucked out of the room with Roger lording over everything. Then there’s Alder. Whenever he looks at me, I get the feeling he wants to cut my ear off.”

“What?” Charity asked, unexpectedly spitting out laughter. “Why—”

“Yeah, I see that,” Rod said, nodding seriously. “Or some other extremity.”

“You guys are crazy.” Charity pulled her backpack strap a little higher, trying to stop it from digging into her shoulder.

“Here.” Rod grabbed the top strap and peeled it off her back. “I got that.”

“First useful thing you’ve done all day,” Andy said.

“You’re going to get a thump if you keep it up,” Rod shot back.

They took a turn around the path, and the area opened up. Charity spied Devon off to the side, sitting on a bench with his head down over his phone. Her stomach flipped before it filled with butterflies. Her core pooled with heat. Two weeks since they’d told each other they had feelings, and still she got nervous when she saw him. Nervous, and desperate for his touch.

Her chest constricted as they got closer and he looked up. A smile flashed across his handsome face, and two passing gals slowed to gawk their approval.

A rush of jealousy filled Charity with fire. She took a deep breath to quell her raging magic.

Devon’s smile burned brighter. He thought her possessiveness was hilarious, mostly because she thought his jealousy absurd. Logically, she knew jealousy stemmed from trust issues, and she didn’t have those. At all. But she couldn’t control herself. If a girl flirted with Devon, stared too hard, or even stood too close, magic dumped into Charity’s body and she wanted to cut a bitch. Then burn her house down. Then pull up her flower bed and plant cactuses. It was ludicrous. Absolutely nuts.

And yet it would not go away.

It wasn’t the only thing that wouldn’t go away. She flew off the handle a lot. Something triggered her, or nothing triggered her, and suddenly magic flooded her, urging her to reach for the closest sharp thing. It couldn’t be natural, something she kept trying to tell Roger. She could regain control with effort, but it was getting harder, the magical surges stronger. Sometimes, the only outlet that helped was sparring with Devon. The furniture had all been broken and glued back together by now. Thankfully, the bed was sturdy, or that would’ve broken in the naked aftermath of her magic-fueled temper.