Kiss Me Deadly: Tales of a Paranormal Romance

still feel his grief—the grief of a boy I barely knew but felt a deep magical bond with whether I liked it or not.

My heart ached for him.

* * *

“Morning.”

I pried my eyes open the next day to be greeted with a total déjà vu. There was a tawny-striped cat looking at me. A larger, older version of the kitten from yesterday.

“You,” I said.

“In the fur.”

“Where did you go yesterday? I thought you were going to catch up to me but you never did.”

“Sorry. Had a couple things I needed to take care of after talking to my brother.”

“That’s vague.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“I got more clothes for you.” I nodded over at a stack of folded clothes on a chair I’d grabbed from my brother’s closet.

“Cool. Thanks. Your mom already left. It’s Saturday so she said she was letting you sleep in. She talks to herself a lot?”

“All the time. It’s bizarre.” Although, not as bizarre as having a conversation with a cat. Luckily Mom had barely been around yesterday after school so I didn’t have to explain what had happened to my familiar that seemingly had vanished into thin air.

He was back. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“I’m going to change and, uh, get changed,” Owen said. “Consider yourself warned.”

I quickly turned over and sat up so my back was to him. Through our connection, I could actually sense when he shifted form back to human. Then I heard the soft sound of rustling material as he grabbed something to wear off the pile and got dressed.

“So we’re all alone,” he said after a moment. “No mommy to barge in on us and find out the little secret you’ve been hiding from her.”

I stood up and finally turned around. He stood on the other side of my small peach-colored bedroom wearing a new pair of jeans. He hadn’t put on a shirt yet. His skin was tanned as if he’d just come back from vacation in the sunny south. He pulled a white T-shirt on over his head, covering up everything I was gawking at.

“Your brother is a jerk,” I said.

He looked at me with confusion before his dark blue eyes narrowed. “You were listening? What is that, some kind of a witch trick?”

“A simple one, actually, which is the only reason why I could do it since I suck at magic. If it’s your pack you should be allowed to go back without having to jump through hoops.”

“I don’t do hoops.”

“It’s just an expression.”

“Like ‘none of my beeswax’ was just an expression?”

“Sort of.” I looked at him sharply and realized he was smiling. “What’s so funny?”

“You are. Why the hell do you care about me?”

I frowned. “It’s probably because of the bonding spell.”

“So you’re admitting that you care about me.”

I just looked at him, afraid to answer that. What was I admitting? I didn’t want to admit anything, but the truth was kind of obvious. I did care about Owen. I cared about what happened to him, and I felt the pain he felt when he was rejected by his brother.

And it wasn’t just because he was inarguably gorgeous. I just ... liked him.

I blamed the bonding spell entirely. I never fell for a guy after only knowing him only a day.

Well, hardly ever.

“I guess I just don’t want you to get hurt,” I said honestly.

He drew closer and brushed my long dark hair back over my shoulder. I suddenly felt very aware that I was wearing a pair of pajamas that had tiny smiley faces all over them. I felt like a little girl even though I was only a month away from my seventeenth birthday.

But I wasn’t a little girl. Despite the PJs.

“Thank you,” he said simply. “And I’m sorry I had to kiss you like that yesterday. I needed Jeremy to believe you were my girlfriend. I don’t think he’d understand if I told him I was actually your familiar. I don’t even understand that.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t mind.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t?”

My cheeks warmed. “Let’s just forget it happened, okay?”

“Not so sure I can.”

“Why not?”

“Because I want to kiss you again.”

He drew me closer to him. His hands were on my shoulders, and my hands were pressed against his firm chest so that I could feel his rapid heartbeat. His warm breath glanced against my cheek as he lowered his mouth to mine.

The phone rang. I jerked away from Owen, pulled out of whatever spell I’d just sank into and grabbed for the phone on my nightstand.

“What? I mean, hello?”

“You. Me. Shopping. Noon. Yes or no?”

My best friend Sandy often spoke in bullet points.

I glanced at the clock. It was a little after nine. I flicked a glance at Owen and realized I wished Sandy hadn’t called to interrupt our potential second kiss.

Dangerous kitty-cat.

I quickly calculated what had to be done. Owen wanted his bracelet. Then he wanted to deliver it to Stan, his stepfather, as payment for letting him back into the pack, even though his brother was still a major obstacle there. I assumed that whatever Stan said was gospel for the pack. If he agreed that Owen was back in, then all was well with the world.

Then we needed to have our bonding spell removed. I had no idea what I was going to say to Mrs. Timmons, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

“Noon sounds doable.”

“I need new socks,” Sandy said. “Are you up for the challenge?”

I turned away from Owen. The sight of him was very distracting. “Socks. Exciting stuff.”

“They disappear. And I can’t even blame magic for it.”

“Socks are obviously the source of all evil.”

“We’ll have lunch in the food court first. Then sock hunting. Mike’s joining us. Is that okay?”

“Totally fine with me.”

Mike was Sandy’s new boyfriend. A senior. She’d introduced us the other day. Nice guy. Now he was automatically part of our little group of misfits through his association with my best friend.

Sandy was also a witch-in-training with two overbearing magic-using parents. It was nice to have something in common that we could complain to each other about. Didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun, too.

I wondered what she’s think of my current situation with Owen. She probably wouldn’t believe that he was technically my witch’s familiar at the moment. Nothing interesting usually happened to me. And Owen—well, he was very interesting.

After ending the call, I looked at Owen. He waited patiently over by the door.

“I need a minute to get ready,” I said. “ Alone.”

“No problem.”

“Um, Owen? Do you want some breakfast or something?”

A smile stretched his face, making him better looking if that was even possible. “Breakfast sounds really