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“What happened?”

His fingers gently moved her chin to one side so he could get a better look at the wound. Being this close to him wasn't good. Her head spun but she wasn't sure if it was from the wound or his closeness.

             
She sneaked a look at Jack whilst he was focused on her wound. She could see the day old stubble along his chin and jaw which added a rough, unkempt look to his already handsome face. His lips teased her as he moved closer to her face. He touched the wound making her hiss in pain. Right, she'd almost forgotten that he'd had asked her a question.

“I guess I smacked myself with a rock.” She felt like an idiot but it stung to high heaven.

“I'm sorry if this hurts.”

He moved strands of her hair; a sigh escaped her mouth as each finger gently tickled her skin. He stopped and leaned back to look at her.

             
She felt her skin tingle as his thumb kissed her cheekbone and continued caressing her skin until it came to a rest in the dip of her chin. His warm breath tickled her skin as his soft lips planted tiny kisses along the line of her jaw. Dear God, this was going to kill her. His lips moved tracing kisses along her cheek, moving ever closer to her lips. She felt the overpowering urge to just grab him and feel his lips against hers. She bit the bullet.

             
Pushing her hand through his hair she found it was softer than she'd expected. He obviously styled it but the gel didn't affect the feel. She went in for the kill and softly brushed her lips against his. She felt his need spike and he took charge as he pulled her bobble free and pushed his fingers through her hair. Pulling her closer, he deepened the kiss making her head spin. She could taste him, every little bit of him and with that she lost the ability to breathe. Before she lost consciousness the kiss slowed and he pulled away, his lips brushing the tip of her nose.

“I've wanted to do that for a while,” he admitted.

“Me too.”

He pushed some of her hair behind her ear and closed the small gap between them. His lips were back on hers. She closed her eyes as he deepened the kiss, his hand entwined with hers.

“So, I guess training's over?”

The voice made them jump. Their lips broke apart but Jack still held her, his hands securing her close to his body. The burning in her cheeks intensified when she looked at Clay. She pushed against Jack and he let his hands slide down her waist, his fingers holding her possessively. She couldn't find her voice.

“Cora hurt her head but why is it any of your business?” His warm hand filled hers.

Clay's eyes moved from her head down to their joined hands. “Just a bit of advice, what with you being so
young
and everything, but that wound needs an antiseptic wipe not your tongue.” Clay cocked his head daring Jack to bite.

She held Jack’s hand tighter in an attempt to hold him back. This was going to turn ugly.

“Listen, let’s not be stupid,” she pleaded.

“Oh, let's not be
stupid
,” he mocked her. “So, I just stand back whilst you have the best of both worlds and continue to lead me on.”

She jerked Jack’s hand trying to hold him back as he stepped forward. She pushed her anger aside; she could understand why Clay was hurt, but she hadn't led him on. She'd barely spoken to him. Their last conversation had been interrupted by Ayden and she clearly remembered telling Clay to stop with his advances.

“You want to give us marks out of ten,
High Priestess
?” Clay bowed mockingly.

She felt the painful slap of hurt.

“How dare you speak to me like that? I haven't spoken to you in weeks, I told you the night Ayden interrupted us that we weren't going anywhere but you refused to listen!”

“Well, how am I meant to know what you want when you’ve obviously mastered the seductive eyes and the sweet little girl routine? You give me those eyes like you want me but-”

“I do not! I haven’t got a clue what bloody eye look you mean!”

“I was just someone to keep you from growing bored, is that it, Cora? Well, you've run out of men. Is Eli going to be next? I doubt he would, his dead wife might come and haunt you. Perhaps your mother won’t take it so kindly when you seduce Ayden!”

She gasped shocked by his words and barely registered Jack’s hand leaving hers. Everything seemed to slow down as Jack launched himself at Clay. She heard the dull thud as Jack's fist connected heavily with Clay's face and saw the bright red blood spurt out of Clay’s mouth as they went down on to the floor and wrestled angrily. Coming to her senses, she charged towards them hoping to pull them apart.

“Stop it, Jack! Clay, stop it!”

She tried dragging both of them off each other but neither wanted to let go. Jack pulled back for momentum and then pushed his fist into Clay's cheek. The crunch of bone against bone was sickening. Jack stood and kicked Clay in the stomach. Clay doubled over coughing and spitting out blood. Jack wiped his hand onto his jeans and took hers.

“Don’t you ever disrespect her again! Do you hear me?! Because next time you’ll get more than a bloody nose you worthless piece of shit.”

             
Jack kissed the side of her head and pulled her to walk with him. What was she going to do about this mess? The Corenthio Coven was coming and they were fighting amongst themselves. At this rate the Corenthio Coven wouldn't have anyone to 'meet'. They were doing such a great job of hurting each other.

FOUR FACES OF DEATH

As they entered her house, her first thought was Jack's hand. She would eventually deal with the fallout from everything else. Her heart clenched in fear just thinking about Tabitha and her reaction. Of all the people, she feared her reaction the most. She stopped when she heard voices coming from the kitchen and looked back at Jack to see if he wanted to play this a different way but he gave her a curt nod. That was her go ahead. They were going to deal with this head on.

             
Opening the kitchen door, she found Tabitha and Ember stood leaning over the kitchen table looking at papers. Ayden and her mother were stood with their backs to them.

“Hey.”

Her mother turned around with a smile on her face. “Hello, love.”

Cora patted her mother's belly greeting her sibling as she walked by.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“We need your coven here, Jack. Contact Eli, where’s Clay and Clio?”

She walked over to the freezer and grabbed the nearest bag of peas. Handing it to Jack, he placed it on his hand. Ayden looked at Jack's hand and she saw something register.

“What’s happened?” Tabitha asked.

“Well...” Jack began but trailed off looking down at his bag of peas.

“What have you done to your head?” Ayden asked.

Now that Ayden mentioned her head, it throbbed with a new lease of life.  She looked at Jack, something on her face must have told him what she was going to do, his lips curved. She kissed him right there in front of everyone. When she pulled away the grin that spread across his face was all Jack- smug, cocky and irresistible. His arm remained around her waist as she turned to face them all.

             
Ayden looked disgusted; she fought the urge to laugh at him. It was okay for Ayden to be disgusted about her kissing Jack but her reaction toward him and her mother was always uncalled for.  She looked at Tabitha who appeared unsure; the main give away was the nibbling of her lip. Ember was smiling. She risked a glance at her mother. The smile on her face helped Cora relax a little more. Cora looked back at Tabitha. She was glad her mother approved but Tabitha’s opinion was also important to her.

“Okay,” Tabitha spoke.

Cora didn't relax, that wasn't an okay, fine. It was an acknowledgement of what she'd just done.

“But that doesn’t answer why you are bleeding from the head.”

“I hit myself with some rocks whilst I was training. It happened before...” She looked at Jack which made him look at her. Wave after wave of pure lust hit her. Jack leant closer brushing his lips over her ear.

“
It could have major repercussions if it went wrong, are you sure about this?” Ember asked.

“I've fallen for her,” he said pulling her closer to him. “I wouldn't do anything to hurt her, you have my word.”

“We are sure.” Her heart did little happy dances even though the whole situation was messed up.

“So, what happened to Clay? I'm guessing something happened?” Ayden asked, suddenly interested when there may be talk of fighting.

“Well, he caught us kissing after Cora hit her head-”

“Well, I've heard of kissing it better, but you take the phrase to a whole new level,” her mother teased.

“Thank you,” Jack laughed. “Anyway, the whole situation escalated, so I punched him.”

“What did he say? He must have said something for you to punch him. You don't just punch someone for no apparent reason,” Tabitha reasoned.

“Well, he said that Cora was a...” He stopped and looked at her. She nodded. “Okay, he called Cora a tart. He said that she had been through all the men. He mentioned my sister and Eli and... then he said that her mother should watch out because she would take Ayden next.”

Her face felt like it was on fire. Ayden’s face looked like it was on fire. In all the time she'd spent with Ayden she had seen him look mad, but this, this was beyond mad. 

“He said bloody what?!” Ayden rammed past them storming towards the front door.

“Wait! Ayden!”

“Cora, let him go,” Tabitha said.

“I can’t believe he said that. How very silly of him,” Ember sighed.

“How good was the punch?” her mother asked.

Cora looked at her mother in shock. That wasn't the right question to ask.

“I split his lip and his nose was bleeding by the end of it,” Jack grinned.

“Good.” Her mother nodded her head.

“Maybe someone should go get Ayden?” she asked, feeling like she should be the sensible one here.

Surely they should be trying to sort this out?

“There’s no point, he probably duplicated himself,” Tabitha replied. “Jack, ring Eli and tell him to come here.”

Jack left the room with his phone to his ear. He'd barely left the room when Tabitha invaded her personal space.

“Cora, are you sure?” Tabitha asked her.

“Tab, I really like him. I’ve liked him for a while now but I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. I just feel so right when I'm with him. I get goose bumps when he touches me. I feel butterflies when I see him,” she confessed. “I'm falling for him pretty fast.”

“Very well, if you’re sure, then I’m happy for you. I can’t believe your mother was right.”

“What?” she asked as she looked at her mother and then at Tabitha.

“Alizon. She predicted the two of you. She knew that you would be together. She'd predicted it back then. I never thought it would happen now.”

If she believed in signs, in fate, this was a great big whopping one.

“I do request one thing.”

“What?”

“Do not do anymore more kissing in front of me. It wasn't a pleasant sight to behold.”

Cora laughed loudly making her mother giggle.

“Eli's on his way over,” Jack confirmed as he entered the room.

Jack moved some of her hair around her ear, kissing her cheek. That simple act nearly made her sigh. Tabitha said no kissing but if he started it then she wasn’t going to say no.

             
They waited and explained everything to Eli when he arrived. He sat with a shocked expression on his face as he listened. Once Jack had finished she could see that the shock had turn to heated anger. He very nearly went out looking for Clay but Jack managed to restrain him. Clio arrived moments after Eli and, having missed some of the story, she quickly caught up on the events. Her face had remained impassive. Clio reminded Cora of Ember, they were very similar in their mannerisms.

             
They waited another twenty minutes until Ayden returned, by which time her mother had worn a patch in the carpet from her constant pacing. He didn’t look battered or bruised. He simply took her mother’s hand and nodded. What had Ayden done to Clay?

“Right, we’ve nearly mastered our skills and we will continue to work on them before the time comes. But for now we need to focus on our enemy.”

Ember bent down, picked up a large piece of card and stuck it to the wall. Cora’s heart sunk to the pit of her stomach as she focused on the faces.

“This is the Corenthio Coven.”

Ember pointed to a picture of a woman of Asian descent. Her cheekbones stuck out rather fiercely, the angles making her green eyes appear smaller. Her lips were set in a severe pout but the thing that caught her attention was the orange, spiky hair. It was so bright Cora wondered how she could sleep at night.