Spiritbound (10 page)

Grace found her clothes and climbed into them, realising that Declan thought her family was weird. His parents had stayed together. She gave a mental shrug. Some chose to do that, particularly when there was love involved. Ernst and Elvira hadn’t loved one another. Not in the way that mattered. It was a pairing to produce a child. They had an arrangement and that ended by mutual agreement.

Declan left the room and went to the bathroom. Grace spelled the sheets clean and made the bed, while checking they had left nothing behind. She also killed any sperm. Declan had been pretty clear he wanted no entanglements.

After her turn in the bathroom, Declan cleared the house of any rubbish. It was like they hadn’t even been there, except for the sounds of their lovemaking soaking into the wood.

Back on the bike, Grace marvelled at how different it felt when she put her arms around him. When she touched him, ripples of pleasure sped through her skin. Closing her eyes, she rested her face on his back, liking the solid feel of him. They had shared something special the previous night. She’d been able to be herself with him, and he was not repulsed by her. She’d met his demand for intimacy with her own and he’d fronted up to that, no quibbles. The heat of his thoughts sent sizzles into her brain. Those were only leaked. What if they had met mind to mind? Was it even safe to do that? Nowhere to hide. No way to block. She had best not try it.

Unlike the trip up to the mountains, the trip back passed quickly. Declan dropped her back to her car at the school.

He parked the bike and drew her close, kissing the top of her head. ‘Thank you, Grace. That was an amazing experience.’

She hugged him. ‘Any time you want a platonic bed mate, check me out.’ She meant it.

He nodded and backed away, his brown eyes melting her to the core.
Oh dear, I’ve got it bad. That’s no good
.

With her butt leaning on her bonnet, she watched him drive away. Blowing air to dislodge her fringe, she shook her head. There were no regrets. She was glad she’d finally been laid and over the moon it had been with Declan. So he didn’t want a commitment—at least she didn’t feel unworthy as she had at first, when all those gorgeous bitch-witches had been chasing him down. It was their secret but she could hold her head high.

When she had gathered her wits, she slipped behind the wheel of her car and went home. Elena was sprawled on the couch and her mother was in the garden, sending good vibes to her basil, which was seriously threatening to die on her.

‘Grace? You’re back,’ Elena said, pushing hair drowsily out of her eyes.

Grace sniffed. ‘Obviously. Hey, move over. I need to snuggle.’

Elena made room for her, targeting her with her gaze. ‘Where have you been? Wait, something is different. Oh my god, you’ve been laid.’ Elena bounced around on the couch. ‘Grace has been laid. Grace has been laid,’ she shouted, her exuberance making Grace smile.

‘Easy. Quiet. Mother will hear you.’

Elvira walked in and plonked a sad-looking bunch of herbs on the bench. ‘Where have you been, young lady?’ She did a double take. ‘Who was it?’

Grace cradled a cushion against her chest and pretended to be absorbed in the sitcom Elena had blaring on the television.

The screen went blank. Elvira had killed it. ‘Speak, child.’

‘I’m not a child.’ Heat radiated from her cheeks. ‘It’s private.’

She looked to Elena for support. ‘No,’ her cousin scoffed. ‘What makes you think that anything is private in this family?’ Then she laughed at Grace’s shocked expression. ‘Come on, Grace, spill. You dragged the story of my first time out of me. Fair is fair.’

Elvira pulled out a stool and dragged it into the lounge room. ‘You were seen on a motorbike with Declan Mallory.’

Grace rolled her eyes at the ceiling. ‘Goddess. Is nothing sacred?’

‘There is a story circulating that he kissed you in front of the school.’

Grace coughed into her hand and coloured up.

Elena turned to Elvira. ‘She got laid.’

Elvira looked smug. ‘I can see that myself.’ She sat there thinking for a minute. ‘Was it Declan Mallory?’

Her guess was spot on. Grace had the grace to blush even more.

‘Tell us all about it,’ Elena said sitting up straighter.

‘No. I’m not. It’s our secret.’

Elena and Elvira burst out laughing. ‘You’re crazy to think that, Gracie,’ Elena said

‘Dearest. We know who and we know what. All we want is the details.’ Both Elvira and Elena laughed even harder. Grace chewed her cheek, not sure whether to laugh with them or smack their bottoms.

Elvira staggered to her feet, still laughing uproariously, and went to the fridge. Three champagne flutes appeared on the coffee table. ‘This calls for a celebration,’ Elvira said from the open fridge. ‘I have some Bollinger here I was saving for a special occasion.

‘But it’s too early to drink.’ Grace folded her arms, and pouted. It had been her secret for about five minutes.

‘Who says?’ Elena asked and then nudged her.

Elvira brought the wine over and popped it open, making the cork materialise in Grace’s lap. ‘Oh?’

Elvira poured them a drink each. Grace took a long draft of hers.

For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, they sat there listening raptly as Grace gave them a blow-by-blow account of her first sexual encounter with a real, flesh man. They were on the second bottle and rolling on the floor laughing by the time she’d finished. They loved her description of being impaled on Declan and not being able to move.

‘Classic,’ Elena said.

Elvira wiped her eyes. ‘I’m glad you had a good first time, my darling girl. It makes so much difference to your life. Declan is a good man. A good choice.’

Grace’s smile dropped. ‘Ah, don’t get ideas, Mother. It was strictly a one-night, no-commitment thing.’

Elvira stood up on unsteady legs. ‘He’ll be back. Mark my words.’ She lurched a bit. ‘One taste of a Denholm witch and he’s a lost warlock.’

She stood straighter, holding the back of the chair. Her hand went to her forehead. ‘Oh, that’s not good.’ She laid her gaze on them and then nodded. ‘I best take myself off. Good night.’

Grace watched as her mother wobbled down the hall to her bedroom. She glanced at Elena, who was covering a large yawn with her hand. ‘I might go to bed too.’

‘Right. I’ll just pop off to bed then too. I’ll shower first.’

***

Declan parked his bike and chained it to the carport. He sent a mental hello to his parents, and, with a sigh, detected their relief. They were not adjusting well to his need to have a private life. It was like they wanted to live their lives vicariously through his. As much as he loved and cared for them, he wasn’t up for that. He was grateful to them for being the loving and caring parents that they were. He was thankful for their support and for their unflinching pride in all his achievements. But he needed and wanted to live his own life and make his own choices. He was not going to settle down with a witch of their choice and produce grandchildren at their behest. Negotiating this position was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.

When he opened the front door both his parents appeared at the end of the hallway, their expressions full of worry. A stab of guilt punctured him deep in the gut. Definitely the hardest thing he’d ever done.

‘Hello. How are you both?’ he asked as he sauntered down the hall to the kitchen. He gave his mother a peck on her cheek and she lifted tear-stained eyes in his direction. ‘Dad?’

‘You were gone all night. We were worried.’

‘I told you I’d be out and not to worry.’

‘But we do worry. Please don’t do that again.’

Declan scanned the clean kitchen, the place setting still there for himself. ‘I can’t promise you that I won’t go out again without telling you specifically where I’ll be. Come on, Dad. I need space, freedom.

‘You have a duty to the coven, to us. Don’t you respect that? Have you so little—’

‘Dad. It’s got nothing to do with duty or love. It’s about respecting me as an adult, letting me make my own decisions.’

‘Like being with that woman?’

Declan stilled. ‘What woman?’

‘You were seen with that Riordon woman.’

‘Her name is Grace, Dad. You know that. She and I were close when we were young.’

‘I know who and what she is. I forbid you to see her again. She will never be welcome here in this family.’

Declan threw his head back and laughed. ‘Don’t worry about that. I’m not going to settle down with anyone. If you listened to me, you’d know that. I don’t want to settle down. I want to make my own way, make my own choices.’

‘Declan. You can’t mean that,’ his mother said in her soft tones. ‘The coven needs children. You must procreate.’

‘I can do that without settling down if I must, but I won’t. I wouldn’t abandon a child of mine.’

Declan’s father rubbed his forehead. ‘Please, Son, listen to you mother. I don’t care who you father a child with, but stay away from that woman. She’s trouble. Her family is trouble.’

Declan stood up, squeezing his fists together. ‘Dad, I said leave it alone. Grace is a beautiful person, full of light and love. She doesn’t deserve any of this mud you fling her way or the bad treatment meted out by the rest of the coven. She’s a powerful witch, too. You should see her—’

‘I don’t need to. I’ve seen enough from her family.’

Declan walked forward, and his father and mother had to step back to give him room. ‘I’m going to bed.’ He turned away and then paused. ‘No. Wait,’ he said, facing them. ‘I want you to tell me what it is about Grace’s family that’s got you so uptight.’

His parents shared a look. His mother tilted her head as if to say go ahead.

‘Declan, please. Sit down,’ his father said

Suppressing a groan, Declan tugged out a chair at the kitchen table and took a seat. His parents sat either side of him. His mother took his hand and squeezed it. He returned the pressure.

‘You know Elvira’s sister, the one who caused a few “issues” before she left?’

Declan shrugged. ‘Yes, I’ve heard the rumours.’

‘Well, what is not widely known is that Elvira had a brother. A younger brother.’

Declan sat back, surprised. ‘I haven’t heard of him.’

‘Elroy. He—’

Declan’s gaze switched between his parents. His mother chewed her bottom lip and she sniffed loudly. ‘He killed my brother,’ she said in a voice so quiet Declan thought he’d heard it wrong.

‘He did more than that. He killed a number of warlocks,’ his father added. ‘One was my cousin.’

‘How come people don’t talk about this? I don’t get it, and I still don’t get what this has got to do with Grace. She hasn’t killed anyone. She has the opposite problem.’

‘This is no joke, Son. For years after, witches selectively stopped giving birth to males. That’s why there is a shortage or warlocks. It wasn’t planned, it just happened.’

‘It was an instinctive reaction,’ his mother added, watching him closely. ‘I didn’t abide by it myself.’

‘Elroy Denholm was ten years old, Declan. Samuel was four.’

A leaden feeling grew in his gut. ‘How many other boys did he kill before he was stopped?’

‘Three,’ his mother said.

‘Three warlocks. We don’t know how many humans he might have killed.’ His father slapped his hand down on the table.

‘Grace doesn’t know this, does she?’

His mother’s eyes narrowed. ‘Who cares if she does or not? The whole family is tainted.’

Declan sat back, astounded. ‘No, they aren’t. What if I did something wrong? Would you like to be tarred with the same brush, shunned and blamed for something you didn’t do? You raised me the best you could but I’m responsible for my own life, my own decisions.

‘Goddess. That’s it. That’s why you are clinging so hard, trying to direct me, control my life. You don’t want me to do anything that shames you, anything that deviates from your view of the world. You’re worried what the coven would say, what other people think.’

‘No, Son.’ His father reached up, grabbed him by the shoulder. ‘That’s not true. You could never shame us.’

His mother wiped her eyes. ‘No. You are my pride and my heart. Nothing you could do to change that but…we want you to stay away from Grace Riordon. There are plenty of other witches to choose from. I don’t understand why you would even think of her.’

Declan stood up, shaking with helpless rage. ‘Because it’s my choice, Mother. I sleep with a woman or the women I choose. Not one chosen for me or thrust in my way.’

‘Yes, but you must make sure you have all the facts,’ added his mother. ‘You cannot mix your seed with that family. I won’t have it.’ She started heaving in large breaths, her face going pale. His father leaned over and rubbed her back. ‘It’s all right, Del. Relax.’ To Declan he said, ‘We are just trying to understand you, guide you.’

‘Really? Then stay out of my life choices. If I ask for advice feel free to give it, but don’t ever comment about Grace or any other woman I take to my bed.’

His mother gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

‘You slept with Grace Riordon?’ His father gaped at him.

Declan was beyond angry now. He had a lot to process. ‘Yes, and I was her first. Her first lover at twenty-two because this coven has isolated her so much no decent warlock will go near her. That’s what your hate and distrust have done.’

‘It’s not as simple as that. You forget what happened before we left, why we left.’

‘I’ve not forgotten anything. I was there, remember? What she did was an innocent mistake. It wasn’t evil. I wish you’d damn well get that. Grace has the lightest and loveliest spirit of anyone I have ever met. She’s no dark witch.’

His mother began to cry, but Declan was over it. He’d comforted his mother often when she’d cried, done what she’d asked so as not to upset her. It was time he hardened up. He turned away.

The bloody coven with their secrets and rules had him fuming. They’d made a mess of everything and then left the younger generation to deal with it. Well, he’d had enough of that. He stomped down the hall and took a long shower. Later, as he tried to sleep, he realised he couldn’t. He needed a balm for the hurt inside; he needed something soft and gentle to soothe his mind. He needed Grace.