Mack took a few steps into the kitchen. “If the aufhockers are hunting us, then we need to draw them away from town.”
Jude nodded. He wasn’t ready to think about being hunted by aufhockers. He hadn’t even had coffee yet. He wanted to pretend this was a normal morning for a little longer. “Do you want scrambled eggs?”
“Yeah.” Mack moved around the kitchen then appeared at Jude’s side with a loaf of bread and a packet of sausages. “I’m starving.”
Jude glanced at him. Clearly, they weren’t talking about what had happened after their visitors left. Even now the tension thrummed between him. Jude was too aware of Mack’s proximity. In silence, they made breakfast and then sat at the table with a pile of bacon, sausages, toast, and eggs between them. There was enough breakfast for four people.
“Are you expecting your parents to walk in?” That would be extremely awkward.
Mack frowned. “No. They bought a caravan two years ago and headed off on the vacation they could never take while Dad was running the business. I get to house sit and run the garage my way.” Then he started loading up his plate like he hadn’t eaten for a week. He took a few mouthfuls, then stopped. “There’s no coffee.”
“You don’t have a machine.” That had been one of the first things Jude had looked for.
Mack rolled his eyes and got up and boiled the kettle. “Do you want one?”
“Okay.” He regretted that when Mack placed a mug of instant black coffee in front of him.
While Mack put sugar and milk on the table, he didn’t add either to his.
Jude added both hoping to make the coffee drinkable. “We need to make a plan.”
They couldn’t wait around for the creatures to close in and catch them out, nor did he want to be staying with Mack. Well, he did, but in the same bed. Being this close but not being able to touch was torture. His magic had never felt so bruised, and he’d never needed anything the way he wanted to pull Mack to him. Last night he’d been very tempted to do just that, but Mack had drawn a line, and Jude couldn’t step over it without being a dick. Despite their best efforts to ignore what was happening, the magic between them was wild and dangerous. To use it, they needed to tame it. There were other ways to do it besides having sex and giving in to the attraction. Those witches who’d treated their familiars as pets and kept them trapped in animal form had managed. Maybe something platonic could work for them, though it would be less fun.
Jude took a sip of the coffee. It was as bad as he’d expected, but at least it was caffeine.
“I have a plan. We’re going camping.”
“Camping?” Jude almost choked on his coffee.
Mack lifted his gaze and put sausage on his fork like this was just a regular day. “They’ll follow us.”
That was what was wrong with the plan, not a selling point in Jude’s mind. “And kill us.”
Mack shook his head. “You can do your circle thing, and we can find a way to kill them.” He ate as though success was a sure thing and was completely untroubled about being hunted by aufhockers.
“That doesn’t sound like a plan.” It sounded dangerous and vaguely suicidal. “Which part of ‘are hard to kill’ did you mishear?”
“You said hard to kill, not impossible. People must have killed them in the past.”
“People also left town and let them have it in the past.” The people of North had left the town to the breeding pair even though they’d found a way to bind them.
“They’ll have a weakness. Changing size takes energy.” Mack put another two sausages on his plate and then put them between two pieces of bread with more of the scrambled egg.
If Jude ate like that, he’d be the size of this house in under a week. “How much energy does shifting take?”
Mack ate his sausage sandwich and considered him. “It depends.”
That wasn’t really an answer, but Jude didn’t press. There wasn’t much of breakfast left. Jude took the last piece of bacon because it looked lonely sitting there. He rarely went back for more, mostly because he didn’t want to have to run or go to the gym. The lack of dinner had left him with extra room in his stomach, though.
“We’ll go into town, and you can throw the rest of your stuff in my truck and check out of the motel.”
That meant Mack expected him to stay until the mission was done. “Do you really want me here?”
Did he really want to be here? He did, but only because he still had hope there could be more between them. He hated that weakness but at the same time wanted to see if it could be a strength. If it wasn’t, witches in the past wouldn’t have sought out familiars.
“Better we’re together.”
But they weren’t together. They weren’t even talking about what was between them or what they would do with the attraction and magic.
Usually Mack loved heading out to the woods. Usually he was alone. He enjoyed being alone. Jude was silent and grim in the passenger seat—he didn’t want to go camping. Hell, he’d probably never even been camping. He’d argued that leaving the town and the house was a bad idea. Mack didn’t want to risk human lives. Jude wanted the safety of four walls, but the safety they provided was an illusion.
Mack was pretty sure the aufhocker could break down the door, or shatter glass, when at full size. Anything, magical
