“Old lover?” I question, bracing my hands on the doorframe. “I think you’ve gotten your words a little mixed up. We were never lovers, Stasha. You were just there to pass time when I was bored and I’m pretty sure you knew that.”
Her fake frown deepens as she slowly strolls around Aislin’s room covered with bags of herbs, candles, vials of powder and other Wicca ingredients. She’s pretending to simply glance around at everything, but I know Stasha well enough to know that everything she does is calculated and she has to be looking for something.
“You know, I’d say I was hurt by what you just said.” She runs her finger along the desk, pausing to look at Aislin’s open spell book. “But you know me well enough to know I don’t get hurt.” She cocks her head to the side, reading something on one of the pages. It makes me nervous. Stasha’s not a Witch, so I know she can’t actually cast a spell, yet I do know her well enough to know it’s not good for her to be interested in magic. Besides, if she does get a witch to cast a spell for her—which she easily could—it will be for her own benefit. And Stasha never wants anything good. Everything she does is based solely on greed.
I cross my arms and lean against the doorway. “Why are you here?”
She wavers, and then turns around with an innocent look on her face. “Who says I’m not just here to see you?”
“Why are you here?” I repeat, giving her a blank expression.
She rolls her eyes as she lets out a sigh, slumping back against the desk. “Oh, fine. Pretend to be annoyed that I’m here, but deep down I know you miss me,” she replies and I can’t help it, I laugh at her. She scowls at me, losing her cool.
If I’m not careful, then she could very easily take off the gloves and drain my life simply by touching me. At the same time, though, I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of letting her think she has the upper hand.
“I’m sorry,” I retort without any real sincerity. “Did I hurt your feelings?”
She narrows her eyes at me and seconds later she’s slipping off her gloves, taking out one finger at a time, attempting to torment me. “Need I remind you what I am, Alex?” She takes a few steps forward, holding the gloves in one hand. “What I can do?”
Despite how much I want to stand here and push her as much as I can, I also want to get her the hell out of the house. The last thing I need is a crazy ex-girlfriend of mine running around while my current girlfriend is possessed by what seems like the devil. It seems like that could be a disaster in the making.
“Tell me what you want,” I say, irritated.
She gives me a conniving grin, stopping just a few steps away from me. “Not without a price. You know that.”
“And why would I give you anything?” I ask, standing up straight. “Especially when I don’t even know if you’re here for a good reason or not.”
dpg is the wtg
She stretches her hands out in front of her, pretending to examine her nails. Blackish vines appear beneath her skin, curving all the way up her forearm. She’s channeling her energy to make it appear as if she’s about to kill me, but I still have some time before we get to that point… I think.
“Tell me something,” she asks, wiggling her fingers and making the vines spread up to her shoulders, her power amplifying. “Have you by chance lost something over the last few hours?”
My muscles tighten. Shit. Does she know about Gemma? Does she have something to do with what’s happened to her?
“What did you do?” I step forward, reducing the space between us as anger begins to burn under my skin. At the moment, I don’t care if she canreach forward and kill me. I’m too f**king pissed at the idea that she’d be vindictive enough to do something to Gemma, though I’m really not at all surprised.
“Hey, I didn’t do anything,” she says, trying to be offended. “He came to me, okay?”
“He?” I’m confused. “Who the hell are you talking about?”
She gapes at me. “Um, the super tall, sexy vampire that I’m pretty sure belongs to you… or, well, belongs to Aislin.” She pauses, a malicious look rising on her face. “Or maybe it’s that star girl you’ve always secretly been in love with. Gamma or whatever. He did talk about her a lot.” She scrunches her nose at the thought. “It would be pretty funny. The girl that you could never let go, falling in love with your best friend. Or ex-best friend anyway.”
I’m not even sure what comes over me. I’m usually good with insults—especially Stasha’s—yet something about Gemma and Laylen and her accusations makes me lose control of my anger. Something snaps inside me, and before I can shut it down, I’m charging toward her outstretched hands of death.
“I’d watch it if I were you,” she warns, waggling her fingers, the movement just enough to cause me to freeze just inches away from them.
Composing myself, I back away from her, telling myself to settle down because I’m not going to get anywhere with any of this if I’m dead. “Either you can put the gloves back on or leave,” I tell her calmly.
She rolls her eyes, but starts to put her gloves back on. “What’s gotten into you?” She gets her fingers snuggly into one glove and then moves to the other hand. “You used to be so much stronger and had it together more than this while we were dating. “ Once she gets the gloves on, she lowers her arms to her sides. “But you’re acting so erratic.”
I hate to admit it, but she’s right; although I’m not going to tell her that. Just like I’ve never admitted anything to her during the four years I dated her.
Our relationship was built solely on one thing—sex. I got bored and went to her to fill up my time, and she was a cold enough person that she didn’t mind.
In fact, sometimes I think she’s as dead inside as me, but that might be because she actually has death in her.
“We haven’t dated in a couple of years,” I say blankly. “Things change.”
She eyes me over with disgust. “And not for the better. Jesus, look at you.” She crosses her arms, her face pinched. “All worked up over some girl.”
“How do you know about Gemma?” I wonder. “Is it just from Laylen or has word been traveling?”