Bound by Magic Chapter 4

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CHAPTER 4

Kayla

GARRICK MUST’VE DESPISED HER. He was silent on the walk back to the room and a downright tomb by the time Pellan locked them back in. He didn’t look at her either when he turned down the bed. Her magic still surrounded him in gentle waves, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Or didn’t want to.

Here she was, raw and aching to be touched by him, and he didn’t want anything to do with her.

Of course, he didn’t. He was only there because they’d made him.

Because my magic is out of freaking control and he’s the only one who can keep it from destroying the entire world. Although, the world part was probably an exaggeration.

It didn’t matter. The mages upstairs would keep it contained. Meanwhile, she needed to coax it away from Garrick before it made this night even more awkward.

“I’m going to get in the shower,” she whispered. In the silence, she might as well had shouted it.

He nodded as he built a wall of pillows in the center of the bed. If that wasn’t symbolism, she wasn’t sure what was.

“It’s for privacy,” he said when her eyes lingered on the pillow stack.

And separation. He was putting as much distance between them as possible. The thought plucked at a sensitive spot inside of her chest. She brushed it off on her way to the shower and set the temperature to boiling.

It took until the shower water ran cold for her magic to untether itself from Garrick and come crawling back. By the time she was out in their room, the light had been dimmed and Garrick looked fast asleep.

She sighed and slid into bed on her side of the wall and tried her hardest to fight the ache budding inside of her.

—

Morning was filled with darkness. No, that wasn’t true. Morning was filled with the insatiable need to jump Garrick’s bones.

Kayla took another deep breath and stared at the sliver of a window twenty feet above her head.

What’s happening to me?

Last night, she could barely keep her shame off the ground. Now, all bets were off. Her only godsend was that Garrick was in the shower or she might’ve made a lame attempt to seduce him.

It’s probably just my magic. It’s off-kilter.

She should be useful and make the bed. With that thought, she untangled herself from the blankets, but as soon as her feet were on the floor, an inexplicable pull drew her to the bathroom door.

Stop being a horndog. He’s not interested.

However, a compulsion tugged her toward it. With every step, her body pulsed. The closer she stepped, the stronger the raw needing-to-be-touched feeling became. Foremages, this close, her girly parts had no shame.

He had been in there for an obscenely long time. She should check in on him.

“Hey, is everything okay in there?”

She was met with a garble of indiscernible words, guttural and deep, followed by several loud bangs like he’d tripped in the shower. Garrick groaned. Her panic hiked.

“Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer.

“Garrick?”

She twisted the door handle.

“I am fine,” he said, sounding pained.

She stopped, but the damage was already done. Her magic ripped the handle from her hands and shoved the door open with a bang.

Understandably, he was startled. But boy oh boy, what greeted her was a feast she couldn’t unglue her eyes from. Her jaw slackened.

“I’m sorry, I… Wow.” Nothing in her tone nor the way she leered at him was apologetic. In fact, she was the furthest thing from sorry. She’d seen him shirtless, but this… Whoa. Every part of him was thick, and she meant every part.

He cleared his throat, and after meeting his intense gaze, she found enough of her remaining sanity to turn her back on the glorious work of art in front of her.

What the hell is wrong with me?

“Sorry, I thought you hurt yourself.”

“No, I am well.”

“Oh.” A super awkward silence stretched out between them. “I’ll… I’ll leave now.”

Embarrassment wreaked havoc on her cheeks as her numb feet carried her out of the bathroom. A second later, Garrick’s shadow slowly closed the door with a soft thud.

By the foremages, her magic was a menace for bursting in on a naked vampire like that. But when she reached the bed, her magic didn’t spiral again. It’d done something it’d never done before.

She glanced down at her hands. Something strange happened the moment Pellan tried to command her magic to obey him.

It didn’t want to.

It resisted until he finally released it. And when it skittered across the floor in search of Garrick to wrap around him, she felt an odd feeling akin to dragging her fingers through honey, thick yet pliable, tether deep inside her as it engulfed him. It was as though someone had tied a string to one end to her magic and the other to her spine as it reached out to him, tying them together.

She’d been too frazzled the night before to think on it, but now that she’d used her magic again, she felt the same tethering.

Kayla knelt on the bed as she focused on the same thickness. Now that her magic was back to her, it settled behind her stomach, close to her vertebrae like she could dip into it and touch it. But she didn’t dare. It might destabilize too soon.

This temporary peace she had with her magic would end any minute.

Like it always did.

Ever since her magic presented, it was unpredictable. And being unable to control it meant withdrawing from school and having round the clock protection from it. It was safer for everyone that way. It had taken her until her senior year of high school to finally be able to prevent her hands from becoming purple swirls of doom whenever she so much as coughed.

She’d even thought she could keep it at bay enough to go to college and stay on campus.

How naïve that was.

She should’ve known she wasn’t ready to take on the outside world. Her first semester was a fluke. Halfway through her second semester, everything spiraled.

Her pulse quickened.

She could still see the terrified eyes of the group of boys who saw her magic blip during class.

Her jaw tightened against her teeth that were furiously grinding into dust. The air in the room became too dense to breathe.

She hadn’t meant to start the fire.

Hot tears trailed down her cheeks. It was an accident.

Her hands burned hot. Fire-hot. One glance showed her palms glowing. The uneasy alliance she’d had with her magic shattered.

Oh no, it’s happening again.

“Garrick!” she cried, looking at her hands glow orangey-red.

After several thuds inside their bathroom, the door swung open. Wrapped in a thick white towel, soaking wet from head to toe, Garrick’s alarmed expression met hers.

“It’s happening again.” She held out her shaking hands for him to see. Small swirls of her essence circled her palms. Hysteria clogged her throat as she jumped from the bed to keep it from catching fire. Garrick’s firm gaze locked on her. “It won’t stop.”

“What were you thinking before it happened?”

“What?”

Recounting her second year at college wasn’t going to help them now. He sensed her hesitation because he explained. “I believe the mages have said magic is tied to emotions. You are frantic, so your magic is frantic.”

“How can I not be frantic when it’s going to destroy—”

“Don’t think of that,” he cut her off. “As a youngling, once my vampire came out, it was hard trying to control the two halves living inside of me. What I learned is that if I controlled the triggers, I controlled the bloodlust. Think of something else. Think of what calms you.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” His deep voice was calm and reassuring. “You have this in hand.”

“No, I don’t.” She held her hands out.

“Don’t look at your hands. Look at me.”

She did—right into his dark brown eyes. Droplets from his wet hair left trails of water running down his chiseled face.

“Listen to my voice and only focus on that. Can you do that?”

She nodded, even though she was pretty sure it was going to be impossible.

“Close your eyes and only focus on my words.”

She closed her eyes and did has he asked. He grabbed her arms and pulled her closer to him, then rested his large hands on the tops of her shoulders. When he touched her, her anxiety instantly dissolved. Every nerve ending she had shot to attention.

“Calmness comes at your will,” he said to her. “It relaxes our shoulders.”

He methodically rubbed her shoulders. He kept his voice low and soothing as he worked down to her arms.

“It stills our arms.”

His large hands moved down to her arms and worked the muscles there. Goosebumps spread across her skin.

“And it remains centered at the core.”

He settled on her waist. She kept her eyes closed even though her body started to heat. Even when he thudded at her feet and his voice came lower, she kept her lashes tight against her cheeks. His hands moved to her hips, and she nearly moaned.

“Calmness allows us to stand sturdy and strong.”

His hands moved to her legs, then down to her shins.

“We breathe it into our lungs.”

She took a deep breath in, trying to steady herself.

“It is everything we are and everything we want to be. Calmness is at your call. When you need it, it will arrive. When you don’t, it will float away gently.”

It was as if his voice hypnotized her. He made a second pass, this time working from her legs up to her shoulders. All the while, she tried to focus on his voice, even though his touch made delicious shivers run down her spine.

Her magic split from her and ran up his arms and around him, caressing his entire body. A low rumble, almost like a purr, erupted from deep in his chest. His breathing turned ragged as she finally opened her eyes to stare into his.

The air around them sparked with a new energy. One that sent her lips colliding with his.