Blood Witch_ Book Three - Cate Tiernan [28]
Robbie leaned closer and breathed into my ear. “Do you think they’re gonna do it?”
I grimaced. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s freezing out here.”
Robbie let out a muffled snort. Then I started giggling. For several seconds we crouched low and chewed on our coat sleeves, choking with laughter. Finally Robbie had to look. He eased his head around the boulder into the woods. “I can’t see much,” he complained in a whisper. “It’s too dark in the trees.”
I didn’t want to look myself, though I knew I could have seen everything clearly. My night vision had improved dramatically; I could see easily in the darkness now, as if everything was illuminated slightly from within. I’d even found a reference to that power in a witchcraft book: it was called magesight.
“I don’t think they’re doing it,” Robbie whispered, squinting. “It looks more like heavy making out. They’re still standing.”
“Thank the God and Goddess,” I muttered.
I heard Matt’s voice: “We have to stop. Jenna . . .”
“Forget Jenna,” Raven murmured beguilingly. “I want you. You want me. You want to be with me, in our coven.”
“No, I—”
“Matt, please. Quit fighting it. Just give in and you can have me. Don’t you want me?”
He gave a strangled moan. Now it was my turn to cover my face with my hands. I wished I could stop Matt somehow. Of course, I was also thinking he was a total jerk.
“You do want me,” Raven coaxed. “And I can give you what you want. What Jenna can’t do for you. We can be together, and we can make magick, strong magick, in my coven. You don’t want to be with Cal anymore. He’s a control freak.”
I stiffened and frowned. What the hell did she know about Cal?
“In our circle you can do what you want,” Raven continued. “No one will hold you back. And you can be with me. Come on....”
Raven’s voice had never sounded so sweet and pleading. A shiver went down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
“I can’t,” Matt answered. His voice was tortured. We could hear their footsteps in the fallen leaves. Luckily they were moving away from us.
“My ass is frozen,” Robbie whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”
I nodded and stood. As quietly and swiftly as we could, we hurried back down the path to Das Boot. Without a word I dumped my basket of decorations in the trunk, and we hopped into the car.
“That was weird,” Robbie finally muttered, blowing on his hands.
I nodded and jammed my key into the ignition. “Now we know why he’s being strange,” I said as I cranked the heater. I grinned. “Raven’s totally hot for him.”
Robbie didn’t smile, and my own smile faded quickly. This wasn’t funny. Not in the least. People could get hurt. I pulled Das Boot out of the parking lot and onto the road.
“Do we do anything about it?” I asked. “I feel sorry for Jenna. I even sort of feel sorry for Matt. He’s just . . . lost.”
“Do you think Raven’s working a spell on him?” Robbie asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I mean, she isn’t a blood witch. It would be different if she had been doing Wicca for years and was more in touch with her natural power. I don’t really see it. Unless Sky did something to her that made her able to do something to Matt . . .”
“I guess it’s enough to use the spell of sex,” said Robbie dryly.
I thought back to how Cal had made me feel, to the few times we had been close and making out—how swept away
I had been, how almost everything faded away except him.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “So what do we do?”
Robbie thought. “I don’t know. I can’t see confronting either of them about it. In a way, it isn’t our business. What if you told Cal? I mean, it’s his coven they’re trying to split up. Tell him the stuff you overheard at school.”
I sighed, then nodded. “Good idea.” I bit my lip. “Robbie—thanks