Stone Cold Fox Read online

  Reese seconded his other half’s feelings in every way. He couldn’t let her go—he just couldn’t.

  “Wait! Jo, wait!” he shouted, rushing after her. But he didn’t have to run far—the little witch had stopped just at the edge of the forest. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide with fright. Terror was wafting from her in waves, almost covering her Juvie scent with its intensity.

  At the scent of fear on a female he wanted to keep safe, Reese felt a surge of protectiveness overcome him.

  Save her! We have to save her! his Fox howled.

  Yes, but save her from what?

  He came right up beside her but Jo didn’t even turn her head to acknowledge his presence. She had dropped her pack and her athame to the ground and her entire attention was fixed on something just inside the woods—but what?

  Reese skidded to a halt beside her and stared, following her gaze into the darkening trees. What was out there that had her so terrified? He couldn’t see anything but shadows. Nevertheless, whatever it was she saw was scaring Jo to death. The scent of her terror had almost completely overwhelmed her Juvie scent which dampened his own lust as well. When she smelled so frightened and looked so terrified, all he wanted to do was shelter and comfort her.

  “Darlin’,” he said in a low voice. “Go back in the house. Whatever it is, I’ll protect you from it. You’ll be safe inside.”

  “Yes.” She seemed to grasp his words like a lifeline. “Safe inside—it can’t come onto cultivated lands. Inside is safe.”

  Leaving her pack and athame on the ground, she fled back to the safety of his home, her hair flying out behind her like a flag made of flame.

  Reese heard the screen door bang but he didn’t make any immediate attempt to follow her. Instead he stayed where he was on the edge of the forest, staring into the trees. What was it that Jo could see and he couldn’t? What was frightening her so badly?

  He still couldn’t make out a thing in the forest. At last he stooped and picked up the pack and the silver dagger she’d dropped. As he touched it, he felt an almost electrical tingle run through him. He got a very strong sense that it didn’t want to be touched by him—or by anyone but Jo.

  Of course, it was stupid to assign emotions to inanimate objects but the feeling was too strong to ignore. Gingerly, Reese stowed the long ceremonial dagger in her pack and then made his way back to the house.

  The circle of salt was still evident on the grass and he felt another tingle as he stepped through it. Whatever the hell Jo was messing around with, it was real, he thought. Keller had been right—her powers of witchcraft were as real as his own powers of Shifting. He’d made a grave mistake thinking otherwise.

  Well, it was a mistake he didn’t intend to repeat.

  He opened the porch screen but just as he was about to step inside, something dark moved in the corner of his eye.

  Reese felt a chill go down his spine. He turned his head, looking back at the forest that edged his yard—the forest he’d run and hunted and Shifted in for as long as he could remember.

  In the darkness between the trees, there was nothing but shadows. But then as he watched, the shadows seemed to move. Roiling like malignant clouds they boiled through the trees, stopping just short of the neatly clipped edge of his lawn.

  “What the hell?” Reese muttered, staring. But as suddenly as he had seen it, the thing in the trees disappeared. Or else hid in plain sight. He blinked, wondering if he’d imagined it.

  Then he heard soft sounds of female distress coming from the other room and his attention was diverted. The thing in the trees—if there actually was a thing out there—would have to wait for later. Shutting and bolting the back door firmly behind him, he went in search of Jo.

  Chapter Six

  “Oh God, what have I done? What have I done?” Jo dug her fingers into her hair and pulled, trying to make sense of the wildly contradictory thoughts and feelings that were rushing through her like water over a flooded streambed. She was huddled on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chin, trying to piece together everything that had happened out there but somehow things just weren’t coming together.

  One thing was clear, at least—her spell had gone very, very wrong.

  “Jo?” Reese’s deep, quiet voice made her jerk her head up. He was standing in the doorway of the living room, holding her pack in one hand. There was a cautious look on his face and she noticed he wasn’t coming any closer, as though unsure if it was safe. “Jo?” he said again. “You all right, darlin’?”

  “I . . . I don’t know.” Jo shook her head, still feeling fuzzy and uncertain. “I’m just . . . trying to piece together what happened.”

  “You mean you don’t remember?” Reese asked incredulously.

  “Some . . .” She shook her head. “The last thing I really remember is saying, ‘So mote it be’ and then being pushed by this big, hot wind right out of the circle and into your arms. And then . . . I . . . you . . .” Her heart began to pound as the memories began to pour in. “Oh my God,” she whispered, her stomach clenching. “I threw myself at you!”

  Images of the two of them together flashed through her brain. The feel of his lips on hers—rough yet gentle at the same time . . . his mouth on her breasts, sucking her nipples, sending sparks of pleasure straight to the spot between her legs . . . and then his fingers opening her, stroking her, filling her . . . And then, worst of all, the memory of getting down on her hands and knees and begging him to fuck her . . . it all came flooding back.

  Jo could have cried from shame and fear and confusion. What was happening to her?

  “I . . . I begged you to take me,” she whispered, looking up at Reese.

  “Yeah.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “But I didn’t. Came damn close, though.”

  Jo shook her head. “Goddess, what possessed me to act like that? I don’t . . .” And then sudden realization hit her. “The spell! I never got a chance to reverse it!”

  “No,” Reese remarked. “I’m afraid you didn’t get that far before you, uh, jumped me.”

  “I didn’t jump—I was pushed!” Jo protested. “Don’t you see? There was something else going on out there tonight. Something that forced me to stop the spell before I was able to finish it—to reverse the effects.” She put her head in her hands. “I can’t believe this.”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” Reese came forward, dropping the pack at her feet, he crouched by the side of the couch and put a gentle hand on her knee. “It’s all right, Jo,” he said softly. “It did get kind of, uh, intense out there but we didn’t actually . . . you know. So . . . no harm done, right?”

  “No harm done?” Jo looked up at him. “No harm done?” she repeated incredulously. “Reese, do you realize what I’ve done? I just cast the strongest, most intense magic of my life—a sexual fidelity and desire spell—on both of us. And I have no way to reverse it!”

  “You don’t?” He frowned. “I thought you had everything you needed in your pack.” He nodded at the battered knapsack at her feet and Jo saw the handle of her athame sticking out of it.

  “You don’t understand,” she said dully. “A spell like this isn’t easily reversed—it’s for fidelity, and when you call for fidelity you’re calling for staying power—emotional stamina. It’s going to be like trying to dissolve super glue, getting this undone. Plus I’m going to need some special ingredients I’m pretty sure I don’t have with me.”

  “Okay, well . . .” Reese shook his head. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it tonight. I guess we’ll just have to live with it.”

  “Live with it?” Jo looked up at him. “You don’t understand,” she told him in a low, intense voice. “My chastity is vowed to the Goddess and I haven’t been with a man—or even wanted to be with a man—for over twenty years. I know it may be hard for you to believe, because I don’t look it right now, but I’m actually over forty.”

  “I know, darlin’” he said quietly. “I know you’re