been lying to herself. She’d known the truth as soon as she’d touched that woman’s hand.
She was a witch. She sat for a moment, her eyes closed, her fingers digging into her thighs. The thought was boggling. Her body swayed slightly to the side; Risk’s hand on her chin was all that kept her from toppling over.
She was a witch — what did that mean? Had her parents been witches, led a life she’d never suspected? How long had Kelly known? Had she been hiding it from Kara? So many questions and no time to sort them out now.
She pressed her lips together, opened her eyes and stared into Risk’s. His gaze held hers, steady but filled with silent urgency.
He was right — she had to find Kelly. There was no time to wallow in what any of this meant to her future or how it colored her past. She had to live in the now. Deal with the moment. Determination surged over her. With Risk’s help, she could do this.
Locking onto the thought, she placed her hand on his. “I think I know who she was — the woman.”
Afraid if she hesitated, then the reality of what she was accepting as truth would hit her, Kara hopped up and hurried to the basement where she’d left the notebook earlier. After grabbing it, she raced back up the stairs. Risk sat where she’d left him.
“Here. The list of names. I think she’s one of them.” Trying to appear more sure than she was, she held out the pad. “I didn’t say anything, but when I touched her, I saw things. Things from her life. Kelly was there with her. She was working on a computer and Kelly was taking notes — in this notebook.
“Look at the last name. It’s written in red ink. All the rest are in blue. That name was added last. I think Kelly and that woman were looking for all the others and then…she disappeared, too.”
Or was taken. Kara thought back to the last thing she’d seen after touching the woman — before the pain had sliced into her, breaking the connection.
She glanced at him, hope making her smile. They were getting closer. “Do you think someone took these people—” she pointed at the list he held in his hand “—because they are witches? Would someone do that?”
A short laugh escaped Risk’s lips. “Yes, I most certainly do.”
They talked for the next hour, Risk explaining to Kara that she had somehow closed a circle the night before when she’d knocked herself out. That while she didn’t realize it, she actually had power — and that combined, she and Kelly might have a greater power capacity than any normal witch.
It was a lot for Kara to take in, to accept. She had never been more than average at anything, her fear always stopping her from trying all the things Kelly seemed to excel at naturally.
“And the dogs, they were real — I mean the eyes, the disappearing? Do you think they were sent by whoever took Kelly?”
Risk picked up an empty whiskey glass and twirled it around on his leg. Staring at a droplet that stubbornly clung to the glass wall, he replied, “No, I don’t.”
Kara frowned. “You mean they weren’t real? Or they weren’t part of Kelly’s disappearance?”
His eyes flicked upward. “They were real, but they had nothing to do with Kelly.”
“How can you be so sure? They were certainly threatening. Who’s to say whoever took these witches didn’t switch tactics and decide to use dogs instead?” She’d told him about the knife, and her belief that whoever wielded it had abducted the dead witch they’d seen at the morgue.
“I’m sure.” He set the glass down on the chest beside him with a bang. “This is getting us nowhere. We need to concentrate on who did take those witches. Where’s the last place you saw Kelly?”
Kara watched him, her brows lowered. There were still a lot of things she didn’t understand. “Here at the house. She was going out. She was wearing all black. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, even though she normally wears some color. Now, I think maybe it was because she was spying on someone…”
“Or hunting them,” Risk finished.
“Yeah. That.” Kara’s mind flicked back to the bottles she’d seen Kelly tuck into her fanny pack. “I think she might have been armed — in a way.”
Risk nodded, tension seeming to leak out of him as he considered her comments. “Anything else?”
“Well…” Kara twisted her mouth to the side. “There were the matches — but that was silly.”
“What matches?”
She huffed out a breath, embarrassed. “It’s nothing. I found some matches in Kelly’s stuff. They had the name of a bar on them — the Guardian’s Keep. That’s why I went there — the night of the dogs. But I realize now, they were just matches. Kelly needed something to light those candles — for whatever.” Kara still wasn’t comfortable with the image of her sister going around lighting candles, chanting and who knew what else. “She’d probably had them for ages.”
“No, she didn’t.”
Kara frowned at him. How could he possibly know how long Kelly had had a packet of matches?
“She’s a witch,” he continued.
Kara let her face go blank.
He sighed. “Witches store power. That’s what they do. They collect it from around them and then channel it and release it when they need it. Even the weakest witch can light a candle without bothering with a match.”
“I can store power? And release it — you mean like balls of fire?”
His lips thinned. “Depends on the witch. How the energy comes out’s different from one to the other.”
“But I’ve never—”
“I don’t know how witches work. I don’t want to know.” He stood up, the chest he’d been sitting on creaking from the sudden loss of his weight.
Something shifted in the air around them, making the tiny hairs on the back of Kara’s neck rise. She ignored it. “Could I be pulling energy from this room right now and not know it? And…” She held her closed hands out toward Risk, then flicked them open.
He moved to the side, so quickly it seemed almost instinctive. His eyes flashed, a spark there for a second then gone.
“Risk?” Suddenly wary, she edged sideways, placing her feet solidly on the floor. “You…you’ve never told me what you are. How you found me and how you know so much about witches. Are you…?”
Risk turned on his heel, strode to the front window and pulled back the drape, his hand clenched around the navy twill. “I…work for a witch. I was at the bar because she sent me to retrieve something for her. I walked out into the parking lot and found you. That’s all there is to it.”
Kara sat straighter. “You work for a witch? Can I meet her? Can she help us?”
He dropped the material, the floor-length drape catching on itself, wrinkled from his tight grip. “No.”
Kara watched him, unsure where to go from here. “But surely, she could tell us something. Even if it was to just help me learn how to do things myself — maybe she’d have a book, or something.”
“No.” The terseness of his voice pushed Kara back against the sofa cushion. Her eyes widened.
He spun back toward the window and slapped his hand against the glass. He stood there, the muscles of his back flaring out with his breaths. A few seconds later, he turned back.
“Witches don’t work together. They’re like cats, territorial and possessive. You do not want to meet Lusse.”
“But…” He made witches sound evil. Kelly wasn’t territorial or possessive, and if Kara’s vision was accurate, Kelly was actually working with a witch to find other witches. He had to be mistaken. “I don’t think—” He strode across the room until he towered over her. “You will not search out Lusse.”
Kara stared up at him, something inside of her snapping in response. She jumped to her feet. “You make witches sound evil. Kelly is not evil. I’m not evil. Maybe you’re wrong about Lusse, too.”
The vein at the base of his throat began to pulse, and he fisted and unfisted one hand. Inhaling deeply, he stepped closer, wove his fingers deep into her hair.
Using her hair to hold her, he tilted her face up to his. “No, temptation. I am not wrong about Lusse. Just like I pray I am not wrong about you.” Then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss so fiery, heat surged through her, burning away every inhibition her sane side tried to push forward.
