Catalyst (A Tethered Novel) Read online

  “For years,” Admer said. “Everything is still the way it was when it was under her ownership. The only thing I added was the coffee and tea bar.”

  We lapsed into silence while I pondered this new bit of information, and Admer continued to gaze at me in a strange way, almost as though he enjoyed boggling my mind.

  The bell above the front door chimed, alerting us to a new customer, and Admer exited the office, leaving me to my thoughts.

  Come four o’clock I had so much to talk with Kace about, I couldn’t wait for him to get here. When he entered the store I felt it, even though I was in the back of the store gathering a few more packets of tea to replace the ones Admer had drank during the day. I bolted from the back room, eager to see him. The excitement must have been on my face, because as soon as I locked eyes with his, he grinned knowingly.

  I cleared my throat and smoothed my hair in an attempt to contain my emotions before I spoke. “Hey.” I went for indifferent, but it came out sounding strangled.

  Kace sauntered toward me. “Hey, sexy,” he whispered. “Thought you were getting off at four?”

  “I am. I just need to restock this before I go,” I said, ignoring the incredible sensation that coursed through me due to his presence as best I could while I stuffed the tea bags into their place. “Done.”

  “All right, let’s get out of here then.”

  “I’ll see you on Wednesday, Admer,” I called to the shelves at the right of the store where I’d seen him disappear last with a stack of books in his arms.

  “All right, thank you for coming in. Today went well, I think.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I replied, my eyes never wavering from Kace’s steady ones.

  Kace’s hand slipped into mine, and I sighed at the sensation his touch stirred within me. He flashed me a wicked grin in response to my sigh and pulled me toward the door. The warmth within me surged to life at the feel of his skin pressed against mine. All I could think of was what it would feel like to have every part of him pressed against me and not just the skin of his hand.

  We bypassed his car and my Jeep, heading down a sidewalk. I had no idea where he was taking me, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was that I was with him right now. We continued walking, my hand held firmly in his, the warmth from my Fire being flamed by his Air for a while.

  We came to a set of crumpled wooden steps made from old railroad ties. Kace led me down them, his grip tightening on my hand as he paused after each step and turned to help me due to the considerable distance etched between each. There was a grassy area at the bottom as well as a swampy marsh, which stretched out for as far as I could see.

  “This is another one of my favorite places,” Kace said, breaking the long, drawn-out silence that had encompassed us on our walk. “It’s quiet here. We can talk with no interruptions.” His eyebrows wiggled, and I slapped at his chest playfully due to his insinuation of what he thought we could do without being caught here.

  Standing at the bottom of the steps, I stared out at the land stretched before me. It was marshy, but also like a river. Water snaked and bent around itself surrounded by light and dark blades of grass. Some taller than me, some not. It was the short grassy area before us that Kace plopped down on with more elegance than I’d thought possible for a guy his size.

  “This is your favorite outdoor place?” I asked, scrunching up my nose.

  He glanced at me with a boyish gleam twinkling in his strangely blue eyes. “What, you don’t like it?” The one dimple that he had deepened and I smiled at him.

  I shook my head. “It’s not that I don’t like it—it’s gorgeous—I just figured the beach would be your favorite place.”

  “The beach is everyone’s favorite place, which means sometimes it can be a little crowded. No one ever comes here, though.” Reaching out, he took my hand and twined our fingers together, igniting the warmth within me once more.

  He tugged me down to sit beside him in the grass. Flopping down, I tucked my legs beneath me and enjoyed the sensation of his touch mixed with the beautiful surroundings. His other hand found my bare thigh and began tracing lazy patterns across the sensitive skin there.

  “I get that, I guess,” I said in response, but a tad too late.

  My blood warmed from his touch. It rushed through my veins and every cell in my body became more alert, more sensitive to him and his nearness the more his fingers traced over my skin.

  “So, what did you want to talk to me about?” he whispered, leaning closer, his voice as smooth as silk, his breath barely brushing my skin.

  It was the same tone he’d used on the phone with me earlier, but the effect it had on me this time, in person, was overwhelming.

  “I, umm…” I couldn’t think. Not with him touching me. Not with him staring at me like that.

  Kace gave me a mischievous look that was wickedly sexy on his handsome face, and I felt my bones begin to melt. He knew what he was doing to me. What the hell had I wanted to talk to him about? I couldn’t remember. This guy was like an all-consuming drug. He clouded my mind and forced away all reality.

  One of his eyebrows shot up and a sinful grin twisted his full lips. He leaned over and began brushing light kisses along my jawbone, making my eyes drift shut and my mind become completely delirious from the flowing of magick that swirled within me.

  “It’s all right. You can talk to me about it later. We have all the time in the world,” Kace whispered against my skin. “What you really want is revealing itself to me right now…”

  “Revealing itself to you…” The words flowed from my lips in a breathy whisper as they seemed to jog something from my memory.

  I jerked back and pushed Kace away with my palms at the same time, suddenly remembering what it was I was doing here and why I’d wanted to talk to him.

  Kace put his hands up between us and laughed. “What?”

  “Behave,” I said, faking an ill-tempered voice to get my point across that we needed to stop.

  For the time being, at least.

  His dimple deepened with his smile. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll try my best, but I didn’t hear you complain until just now.”

  “I’m not complaining,” I said as I straightened out my shirt and ran my fingers through my hair. “I just can’t get sidetracked by you again.”

  “I sidetrack you, do I?” Kace asked with a smirk, smoothing my hair away from my face.

  I glared at him from under my lashes as I batted his hand away. “You know you do.”

  “And the feeling’s mutual.”

  An involuntary shiver of pleasure crept up my spine at his admittance of how I made him feel.

  “What do you know about Spellbinding Reads?” I asked before I lost myself in him once more.

  He leaned back, tucking his arms beneath his head, and stared up at the sky. His light-colored eyes glittered like crystals in the catch of the sun.

  “What do I know about Spellbinding Reads…?” he repeated. “Nothing really. It’s a bookstore.”

  “Do you know who owned it before Admer?”

  “Mrs. Avery did.” He shifted his eyes to mine, catching where I was going with this and understanding what I was trying to learn more about. “He bought it from her when she didn’t want to run the place anymore. I’m sorry I didn’t think about that until now. It’s been so long since it happened.”

  “He didn’t mention anything to me about it either. Not even when I gave him the address of my grandmother’s house for the application,” I said, realizing how odd the situation really was. “Was he friends with her or something?”

  “I don’t know; I guess.” Kace shrugged one shoulder. He pulled a long strand of grass from the ground and began toying with it between his fingers.

  “Do you think he knew my mom too?”

  “Yeah, of course, he was part of their group.”

  Admer was an Elemental? Why hadn’t he said anything to me? He’d obviously known who I was—what I was—upon hiring me. Why keep a
ll that information to yourself?

  “I don’t understand why he didn’t say something to me about all this before,” I said.

  “He’s a little odd. At least that’s what my parents always say about him. He kind of keeps to himself, you know?”

  I could see that. It was the impression I got from him as well. Still, I began to think of reasons why he would keep this all to himself and nothing seemed to add up. I wondered if maybe he was just shy and didn’t know how to broach the subject? No, Admer definitely didn’t seem shy at all. In fact, he seemed sophisticated and put together—almost powerful in a sense.

  “Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about, or can we get back to what I’d rather be doing with you right now?” Kace’s hand stroked my bare arm, sending sparks of warmth shooting beneath my skin.

  I jerked my arm away with a smile. God, this guy really knew how to seduce a girl with his good looks and touch, especially this girl. “Actually, there is.”

  He frowned. His bottom lip poked out and all I could think about was how much I wanted to nibble at it with my teeth…just a little. “All right, fun time can’t begin yet. I get it, I’ll behave, but only until you tell me I can do otherwise.” He cocked an eyebrow at me and grinned sinfully.

  My heart pounded with want. I glanced out at the swampy marsh to distract myself before I gave in to him. “What do you know about revealing spells?”

  He sat up on his elbows. “Not much, why?”

  “Because I cast one last night.” Cast, was that even the right word? God, I sounded like an idiot.

  I could feel his eyes on one me now. I’d captured his full attention with my words. Finally.

  “That’s not possible.” He shook his head.

  “It is. I don’t know how, but it is.” I told him all about the attic with the red door, the book, the spell, the storm. Everything. Then, I continued on with what I saw hovering over my trash can this morning and everything that had happened after.

  “This isn’t good,” Kace said when I was finished.

  “What isn’t good?” I asked, wishing he would elaborate a little more.

  He sat up and rested his elbows against his knees. He scooped up another blade of grass and then dropped it, letting his hand dangle. “The only way you could have done magick is if Binks was there, which is fine…but, the other stuff…the symbols and what you saw…that’s Hoodoo, Addison. Someone used Hoodoo on you directly.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why would someone use Hoodoo on me?”

  Kace turned to look at me, his eyes somber. “Isn’t it obvious? You’re a threat.”

  I laughed, thinking he was joking, but when his serious stare didn’t lessen any, my stomach flipped. “You’re not joking, are you?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “A threat to what? Who would think that I was a threat?” I asked, astonished.

  Kace ran a hand through his dark blond hair. “Who wouldn’t, honestly? I mean you being here sets things in motion for us Elementals to gain our powers back. Someone could be upset you’re changing the balance of everything that’s been set in stone for so long now. Or, someone could be jealous our generation has the opportunity theirs no longer does. Take your pick.”

  I didn’t speak. Instead, I sat there replaying Kace’s reasons in my head. When he put it that way, I could completely understand someone’s motive to want me gone. My stomach became rock hard. Someone wanted me gone so badly that they’d resorted to paying the Van Rooyens to do creepy Hoodoo stuff on me. Either that, or it was the Van Rooyens themselves.

  I thought of how fast Vera had left, how completely blindsided she’d been with the thought of getting out of town. That spell had been meant for me, obviously, but who’d done it and for what reason? Clips from our first night in Soul Harbor flashed through my mind then, and I remembered everything Twila and Stina had said to me as well as the looks Theo had given me.

  A warm breeze blew, sending strands of my hair flying. I pulled the hair tie from my wrist and quickly twisted my hair up into a high bun, eager to get its thickness off my neck while I thought some more.

  “So, what was it exactly…the spell I mean, the one Vera stepped in?” I asked, staring at a bird of some sort as it swooped down and walked on its stick legs through the muddy section of the water’s edge in front of us.

  Kace looked at me. “I think from the way your friend bolted like a bat outta hell it was a Hotfoot spell.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Honestly though, I was sure I wouldn’t like the sound of any Hoodoo spell. Shakiness entered my limbs, and I hoped it didn’t find its way into my words when I spoke.

  “A Hotfoot spell?” I asked in a relatively low voice.

  “Yeah,” Kace said. His eyebrows drew together. “My parents used one once on some people who’d moved in next door to us when I was little. I remember waking up to their loud music in the middle of the night for weeks at a time. They threw wild parties every night. My parents had gone over there numerous times to ask them to tone it down. Hell, I even remember hearing them talking the next morning about how they’d called the cops and still, a few hours later, the noise and music would be even louder than before. Finally, they went to visit the Van Rooyens and came back with some kind of powder. Mom said it wouldn’t hurt them, just make them move on to torment someone else with their loud music and parties. I watched her sprinkle it at their front door and along the walkway in front of their house. The next day there was a U-Haul parked in their driveway and then they were gone.”

  “Wow, instantaneous,” I said, shocked.

  “Exactly.”

  “That must have been what happened to Vera then, and I’m positive it was meant for me.” I drew my knees up against my chest as a sudden thought filled my mind. “Do you think whoever it is that wanted to use that spell on me will do something else to me now that it didn’t work? They have to know by now that they sent the wrong person away. I mean, I’m still here.”

  “I’d say there’s a good chance,” Kace whispered as he glanced at me, cocking his head to the side, and I noticed how his entire body seemed to stiffen at his own words.

  Great. I hadn’t even been here for an entire week and I’d already managed to piss off either a witch with a jealous streak or the Hoodoo family who lived in town. Possibly even both.

  “So, what do I do now? Sit and wait?” I asked, pressing my knee to my cheek as I turned my head to get a better look at Kace.

  He shrugged and dropped his gaze to the grass. “Pray you didn’t tap all your cat’s magick out last night and attempt to cast a protection spell.”

  “Huh?” I questioned. My nose crinkled as I tried to make since of what he’d just said.

  I’d been so wrapped up in figuring out who was trying to get me to leave that I’d completely forgotten what Kace had said about Binks and magick.

  Kace raised his eyes to meet mine and grinned at me. “You’re hot when you’re confused, anybody ever tell you that before?”

  I ignored his question. “How can Binks have magick? He’s just a cat, isn’t he?”

  My heart pounded as I thought of all the crazy things I’d read in books and seen on TV. Was Binks some sort of shape-shifter human? God, I hoped not. If so, then he’d seen more of me than Kace had, that was for sure.

  “He’s your family’s familiar,” Kace answered simply.

  “Which means?”

  “Which means, he’s your family’s magickal companion. Any natural magick your family does with him in the room, he soaks up the remnants and stores it. Your grandmother must have never tapped into it, even after she lost her powers once her group separated.”

  Huh, so Binks did know what I was doing the other night. He knew more than me probably. That was why he wanted me to get downstairs this morning. Smart cat.

  I stood up and dusted my butt off. “Well, let’s go.”

  “Go? And where is it we’re going?” Kace asked, sliding his eyes up the length o
f me from where he sat looking deliciously handsome.

  “To my house so I can see if there’s anything about protection spells in that big-ass book I found. Then, we’re gonna see if Binks has anymore magick. Sound all right with you?” I asked with a hand firmly placed on my hip.

  Kace grinned. “Any time I can get to work magick with you, I’m down for.”

  The innuendo in his words was not lost on me, but I didn’t have time to think like that right now. I had to figure out a way to protect myself before whoever it was that wanted me gone decided to strike again.

  I was cautious of where I stepped when I started up the stairs that led to my front door, searching for any dirt that could possibly be another Hotfoot spell. Kace was in front of me, acting as my self-appointed bodyguard. I let us into the house and headed straight for the kitchen. Now that I knew what was in my trash can, I wanted it out of the house. Immediately.

  “What are you doing?” Kace asked as he watched me struggle with getting the bag out of the can without touching anything besides the drawstrings. It wasn’t working so well.

  “Trying to get this crap out of my house,” I said through gritted teeth as I pulled hard and only managed to stretch the drawstrings out, but not release the bag from the can.

  He chuckled and came over to help. “Here, let me.” He reached out and gripped the sides of the can as I continued to pull with all my might. “You know you can touch the bag now. The spell already worked on someone; it has no power anymore.”

  “I don’t care. I’m still not touching it just in case you’re wrong,” I said as I quickly tied the strings into a bow and headed for the back door.

  “One thing you’ll soon come to realize about me, I’m never wrong.”

  I brushed my hands off on my shorts and slammed the back door shut once more. “Whatever. Let’s go see what we can find in that book.”

  I headed upstairs with Kace right on my heels.

  “Go upstairs with you, sure.” He grinned.

  God, he was such a damn horn dog. Problem was…I liked it.