Moondust (5 page)

Chapter
7

Valentine’s Day—barf.

I despise mushy holidays
like this one. It was overrated and another excuse to spend money on crap I didn’t need. But for Mystic Floral, it was a jackpot—the busiest freaking day of the year. And I got to work an eight-hour shift. Go me. Good thing I didn’t have any hot plans with my boyfriend.

My cheeks flushed as I leaned on the glass counter, daydreaming about the things he
had done with his hands last night. I think I spaced out because the next thing I knew, Aunt Clara was eyeing me over a banquet of long-stemmed roses, clearing her throat.

“Sorry?” I posed as a question, just in case I was in trouble.

She set the red buds aside, pulling out a pencil from behind her ear. “Bored?”

I shrugged. “Not really, just e
njoying the quiet before the storm of chaos strikes.”

“
Hmm. That reminds me. Only seven days to go. We need to take a quick inventory and make sure that we are fully stocked for next week.” The end of her pencil tapped on the counter.

I groaned. “Valentine’s
sucks.”

She smiled softly at me. “Well
, babe, the rest of the world adores love. And so do their wallets.”

I tucked my hair back. “Do you ever get sick of flowers?”

Running a finger along the sheen petals delicately, she got a wistful look. I guess I got my answer. “Honestly, I don’t. The running the business part, sure; it can be overwhelming at times. But the moment I shut myself in the back room and it’s just me and the sweet smell of freesia, tulips, and daffodils, I forget about everything else. It calms me,” she said.

“I need
something like that in my life,” I mumbled.

“We all do. Don’t worry. I have every confidence that you will find what makes you happy.”

Maybe I already had. Using magic—the ocean—they gave me a tranquility I’d never felt. I must have gotten a goofy look on my face.

Aunt Clara laughed. “And I am not talking about a boy. No matter how magnificent his butt looks in jeans.”

I made a face. “Are we talking about you or me now?”

“Umm. I’
m ninety percent sure we were talking about you,” she said.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked at her, really looked at her. S
omething was different. “Did you get your hair cut?”

“Maybe,
” she replied, a hand smoothing down her long hair.

It
also looked extra caramel-y. “And highlights? Geez, what’s the special occasion?”

She gave me a dry look even as her
eyes shined.

“
Oh. Is
Chad
taking you out for V-day?” I drew air-hearts when I said his name.

Aunt Clara giggled. She giggled!

Apparently someone had been struck by Cupid’s arrow—in a bad way. “Possibly,” she said, busying her hands with the roses.

I screwed up my face.

She shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulder. “How did I end up with such an anti-romantic niece?”

Leaning back
on the stool, I replied, “It just seems like such a gigantic waste for one day. I don’t need flowers, chocolates, or candles to feel loved. You should be able to feel it in the little things that cost nothing. Like a hug or a kiss…”

This earned me a grin. “I see. So I can
assume then that you and Gavin don’t have any romantic plans?”

I rolled my eyes. “I hope he saves
us both the embarrassment.”

She flicked the end of my nose
. “By the way, just so I know… have you and Gavin been doing a lot of, you know… kissing?”

My cheeks flamed an ungodly shade of red. “Ugh. We are not havi
ng this talk at work, are we?”

Grabbing a pair of she
ars from one of the drawers, she began to trim the stems off the roses. “Hmm. I guess not. So that is a yes?”

I dropped my head
into my hands.

She laughed
, turning around and leaning against the counter. “So I’ve been meaning to ask you how things are going with Gavin and Lukas?”

My heart pitter-pattered. “
Can I plead the fifth?”

“And here I was under the impression that you had that all squared away. You are dating Gavin, right?”

Technically, yes. But it is little more complex than that Aunt Clara. You see, I am sharing dreams with one and making out with the other, but my heart is conflicted. I am mixing up love for a friend with the real thing. Got any advice for that?
I smiled. “Yeah, Gavin and I are dating.”

“And you and Lukas are…?” she left the
sentence open for me to finish.

Somehow I knew before I even opened my
mouth, my answer was going to bite me in the butt. “Friends?” That was the most pathetic response. I cringed.

Concern flickered over her pretty face.
“You don’t need to convince me, Brianna. You need to convince yourself.”

I sighed heavily. She was right. Someday I was going to be able to make decisions without second
-guessing myself. I was going to have the confidence to make the right choices—possibly when my life wasn’t so complicated.

Who was I kidding?

My life was always going to be a mess. Unless, of course, I laced up my pointy boots, put on my black hat, and got this witch crap down pat.
Do I embrace it or hide from it?
I had been struggling with that decision all year.

The deeper I got in magic business, the scarier
I
became. It frightened me to think of the kind of person I might become if I fully accepted my fate as a witch. There was still this pinch of darkness inside me from when I had taken the tiniest bit of Gavin’s magic.

On the other hand
, if I turned away from my powers, would I risk losing Gavin? Would I lose a part of myself that I had only just found? Now that I have tapped into this part of me, I wasn’t sure I could just turn it off or walk away. I had unlocked a piece that was tied to my birthright. By refusing it, I felt like I would be rejecting my parents.

The door chimed
, and my aunt’s face lit up. I figured it was Chad, so I didn’t bother to look and kept twiddling with the pen in my hand. When I felt the undeniable tingles of a witch, my head snapped up. Gavin. I hadn’t expected to see him so soon, especially since we spent the night together.

My heart somersaulted and fireflies started to prance in my belly.

“Your ears must be ringing. Brianna and I were just talking about you,” Aunt Clara said as Gavin walked further into the shop.

He had a cat-caught-the-mouse grin on his lips.
“Should I be worried?” he teased.

I steadied my hand on the counter. It was all I could do
to keep from falling out of my chair. His dark hair was windblown and utterly sexy, and he made jeans look sinful.

Aunt Clara gathered her newly
-cut roses in her arms. “Good luck with this one, Gavin. She’s a cynic.” Then she disappeared to her workroom to do what she did best.

I
faced Gavin, sapphire eyes twinkling at me. Propping a hip against the counter, his fingers danced over my open palm, drawing circles. “So I was thinking for Valentine’s D—”

I let out a long, loud groan before he even finished the word.

His brows rose. “I am guessing by the ghastly look on your face, you hate all things Valentine’s.”

I stood up from my seat.
“See, you totally get me.”

“Bri,” he sighed.

I rolled my eyes. “If it makes you feel any better. I have to work all day. I promised Aunt Clara that I would close that night. She and
Chad
are going to paint the town red. She deserves it.”

He twirled his lip ring with his teeth.
It was dangerously hot… and distracting as hell.

Unable to resist, I walked around the counter and pressed my lips to his
in a kiss that ended far too soon. “Did you just come to talk about the
V-word
or did you have something else on your mind?” I let my gaze roam to his lips.

His head dipped and
—

The door chimed again.
Slightly annoyed by the interruption, I looked over Gavin’s shoulder slowly letting my arms fall from around his neck. I sucked in a breath.

God hates me.
That was my first thought as I watched Lukas saunter in through the door. Feeling the surge of another witch’s energy signature, Gavin stiffened. Spinning around, he gave a quick jerk of his chin. I bit my lip trying to decide how best to handle this situation. There was way too much male witch-osterone suddenly filling the small shop.

“What is
he
doing here?” Gavin asked under clenched teeth.

“How should I know?”
I whispered.

“Bri,” he growled.

Lukas had a carefree attitude and an air of confidence about him as he walked toward us, but he had nothing on Gavin’s lethal, domineering presence.

This was going to
be bad--epically bad.

Gavin’s hand rested on the small of my bac
k. The marking-my-territory move wasn’t lost on any of us.

Lukas snickered.
“Hey, Brianna.” His emerald eyes slid to mine. “Sorry. Am I interrupting?” He didn’t look all that remorseful or intimidated.

Just freaking Yankee-dandy-do
o.

The last time the three of us were under the same roof, the
two of them had decided to declare war on each other. I didn’t want a repeat of that. Placing a hand on Gavin’s arm, I felt his muscles bunch. Before I could mediate, a current of power coursed through Gavin’s fingers and shot across the room, striking Lukas.

Lukas
jerked back, scowling. “Cheap shot. I knew you were a tool.”

And the name-calling has ensued.

I blinked, and that was all it took for Lukas to send an electric spark of his own. Gavin stepped out in front of me, making sure he was the only target. It hit him on the forearm.

Gavin hissed, shaking
his arm. He cracked his neck. “I’m just glad you are finally showing your true colors so Bri can see what a douchebag you really are.” His voice was full of contempt.

The two of them could not be in the same
building, let alone the same room. I stepped out from behind Gavin and put myself between them. Maybe not the smartest move, but they left me with very few choices. “Look, hotheads. My aunt is the next room, and I really don’t need her to come out and see the two of you throwing around spells, destroying her shop, so knock it off. I don’t want to have to play nasty.”

Lukas
snorted.

I gave him a dry look. “Lukas, why are you here?”

His eyes were glaring over my head at Gavin. “I can see that my timing was bad.” Then his gaze dropped to me, again. “I’ll catch up with you later. It can wait. Maybe, tonight… while you’re sleeping?”

That was low. And sneaky. I didn’t like it
, and neither did Gavin.

His lips thinned.
“You go anywhere near her dreams and you’ll be having nightmares about what I’ll do to your face.”

Now that we got the threatening part out of the way, I figured I needed to defuse the situation
, stat. “Lukas, I think you should go.”

A flash of anger jumped behind his green eyes before he smothered it with cockiness and a smirk. “
I’ll talk to you later.”

Gavin shove a hand through his hair
after Lukas left the same way he had come—without a care in the world. “I really dislike that guy. There is something about him, something in his eyes when he looks at you.”

He had made
his contempt for Lukas abundantly clear. “You think he is dangerous,” I supplied. Truthfully, the same could be said about Gavin. There was a purely predatory vibe about him.

His eyes softened a tad.
“Just promise me you’ll be careful?”

I nodded.

***

Last night I
had sleep like crap, and for once it wasn’t because I was dreamscaping, so I couldn’t even blame Lukas. I had a nightmare.

The screwed up part
is that
I
was the nightmare—my magic-stealing powers and me. I was still trying to convince myself it hadn’t been real. In the dream, I had been a monster with a black heart, fueled by greed, blackness, and a hunger for power I never felt before. I didn’t recognize myself. As I was right on the brink of consciousness, I heard a laugh—sinister, spine–chilling, and familiar.

W
hen I woke up, I lay there, staring at the ceiling, beating myself up about letting my insecurities get to me. I hated that I let something so stupid upset me. My dreams weren’t prophetic—that I knew. I didn’t have to become that person. I wasn’t doomed to be a bad witch.