My eyes popped open. I couldn’t see anything draped around me.
“Now you have a dome of protection over you. It’ll only last about twenty-four hours, so you’ll have to reinforce it every morning. In time, you’ll learn to see magic and other layers of protection. For now, you’ll probably only feel it.”
I just nodded as if this wasn’t some crazy shit. “And what is it protecting me from, exactly?”
She groaned. “Energy vampires! Cords. Ill will. Bad juju. All that stuff.”
Oh.Right.
“Now.” She reached out and picked up my mother’s grimoire. “We’re going to search through this for a small spell to start with.”
I frowned. “You said I shouldn’t let you touch it.”
She waved a hand nonchalantly. “I was just teaching you a lesson. But don’t let anyone else touch it. Hide it in the floorboards or something, and do a protection spell over this too.”
My head was already spinning, and we were only just getting started. Nothing like cramming a lifetime of magic lessons into mere days to bring on a headache.
* * *
Over the next few days, Tianna focused our training sessions on my witch magic. By the end of the week, she said, she’d be ready to delve into my kitsune magic. I was already proving to be pretty powerful—her words, not mine—but my kitsune magic was threading through into my witch magic at times, which complicated things.
Of course it did. Nothing was simple anymore.
Whenever I wasn’t with Tianna, I was with the warriors. Under Sabine or Brock’s watchful eye, they were training me to master my katana. Every time I held it, the blade glowed a bright purple. They said that wasn’t normal, not even for a kitsune, which made it all the cooler … and scary.
And whenever Tianna wasn’t busy training me, she was shacked up with Cass in his new apartment downtown…
Shudder.
I barely had any spare time to spend with Brock or to hang out with Cass and Molly, and it was starting to wear me down.
“I need a break,” I declared in the middle of my current katana lesson while brushing the hair from my face. I was due at Brock’s for a blood transfusion in an hour anyway, but I wouldn’t mind heading over early to get some lovin’. Other than some light sexting, we hadn’t had the chance to connect without observers, and my hormones were in overdrive. I needed some alpha. Now.
He had the property crawling with wolves in the event of a vampire attack, or in case Calista decided to stop by again, but despite his pleas to sleep at his house, I’d declined. I didn’t want to leave Molly alone with Haru and Reo, who insisted their place as my protectors was at the cabin.
Although Molly didn’t seem to mind. I’d caught her eyeing the hottie warriors more than once.
Haru was studying me. I was certain I put off the all-tired-out vibe. “Alright,” he finally said. “We’ll resume later this evening.”
I wanted to groan but thought better of it. I was grateful they were even helping me. We hadn’t even moved on to demons yet. They said I needed to master the katana first, and Tianna said my witch magic needed to be anchored—whatever that meant.
Turning, I prepared to start my trek up the hill to Brock’s when I got the nerve to ask Haru something that had been on my mind. “Do you think there’s a chance I could contact my father?” Anxiety swept through me once the question left my mouth.
Haru frowned. “I’m sorry, Evie, but that’s not possible right now.”
I wasn’t prepared for the pang of sadness that hit me. “Not even a letter?”
Reo shook his head. “We truly are sorry, but no contact can be made. For the safety of both of you. The Akuma are always watching him.”
“Well, then how did he tell you to find me?” I clenched my jaw, trying to calm myself. My whole life I’d believed my father was dead. And then I find out that not only is he a rare kitsune who passed his gift down to me, but that he’s alive—and I wasn’t allowed to see him.
Reo pointed to my blade. “He had your katana spelled. The moment you touched it for the first time, we knew it.”
Whoa.That was super smart. Gran hid the katana in the safety deposit box so I’d only receive it upon her death. Still, I wanted to speak with him. He was my father for fuck’s sake, the only other living kitsune on Earth, whether his powers worked or not.
I was about to press them further when my phone rang. Thinking it was probably Brock, I put it to my ear without even looking at who was calling.
“Hello?”
