Read Online Colin: Her Warlock Protector Book 4 by Hazel Hunter - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Hazel Hunter
Ads: Link
gaze softened just a little bit, but there was still raw fury there. Instead of speaking, he nodded tightly, and they disappeared together.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TO SELENE'S SURPRISE, they appeared not at a Corps holding cell, but at her own comfortable apartment. She blinked, looking around, but Bitsy, pleased to be back in familiar surroundings, immediately zipped out and headed straight for her food bowl. When she found it empty, she chittered with such misery that Selene immediately went to fill it.
Colin didn't stop her. Instead, he stood in the center of her living room, watching her like a lowering thundercloud. When she had fed and watered her familiar, she finally turned to him.
“What?” she said, and the weariness in her voice made even Bitsy look up from her bowl for a moment.
“I'm here on formal business,” he said, and there was such a note of gravity to his voice that she was certain he was going to execute her. It was his right under Corps law, and under the oaths she had sworn so long ago to her coven. In this matter, his word and his judgment were absolute. She sat slowly onto the couch, watching him with wide eyes.
“I have spoken with the commandant with whom your coven master's charges were filed. I spoke with him, and I asked him to make a judgment based on what you told me and my own findings. Your coven master's claims have been dismissed, and as soon as a member of the Corps catches up to him, he will be speaking with one of our finest truthtellers, someone who can read intent, memory and thoughts as if they were printed text.”
“What does that mean?” she asked shakily.
“It means that you are a free woman,” he said, his voice falling like sparks from a flint. “It means that you have the freedom to go where you will and do as you like. You are free to join another coven, or to seek work with the Corps. My only suggestion is that you leave helpless girls alone with whatever grief or crime they are going to report.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked angrily, rising to her feet.
She couldn't fathom the idea of being free from the hunt, not after she had been on her own for so very long. Instead, she struck at the far more easily-recognized hurt, glaring at Colin.
“What do you think I did?” she said. “Why not tell me exactly what you think?”
“That girl is Elsa Mayberry, and she's a key witness in a case against one of the biggest industrial complexes in this part of the city. I didn't know where you were, so I came here. What should I find but an address you left on your computer when you were looking for directions to a club. I find you, and where are you but cozying yourself up to a woman who is due to testify in less than forty-eight hours. You have an apartment that no waitress could afford, and when I catch up with you, you're rising from her limp body like some kind of goddamn vampire.”
Selene's laugh was bitter, and there was nothing but contempt in her eyes when she stepped up to Colin. She hoped that her anger hid the hurt that was eating through her heart.
“Of course that's what the rogue must be doing, isn't it? I need to be doing the absolute worst thing that you can think of because that's what rogues do. Of course I must be someone who would rob a good person of their memories all in the name of big business and keeping myself comfortable.”
“Tell me what you were doing then. Lie if you have to. Tell me what you were doing in that bathroom with Elsa Mayberry.”
The words came out a challenge, but in his face Selene was shocked to see hope.
“You really do want to know,” she said, the anger seeping out of her.
“Of course.” Colin's words held a hint of defeat, and it took the rest of the fight from her.
“I helped her, Colin,” she said softly. “I didn't take her memories. I didn't take a single thing that she needed, I swear. I took away the edge of fear that was covering everything, just like I
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TO SELENE'S SURPRISE, they appeared not at a Corps holding cell, but at her own comfortable apartment. She blinked, looking around, but Bitsy, pleased to be back in familiar surroundings, immediately zipped out and headed straight for her food bowl. When she found it empty, she chittered with such misery that Selene immediately went to fill it.
Colin didn't stop her. Instead, he stood in the center of her living room, watching her like a lowering thundercloud. When she had fed and watered her familiar, she finally turned to him.
“What?” she said, and the weariness in her voice made even Bitsy look up from her bowl for a moment.
“I'm here on formal business,” he said, and there was such a note of gravity to his voice that she was certain he was going to execute her. It was his right under Corps law, and under the oaths she had sworn so long ago to her coven. In this matter, his word and his judgment were absolute. She sat slowly onto the couch, watching him with wide eyes.
“I have spoken with the commandant with whom your coven master's charges were filed. I spoke with him, and I asked him to make a judgment based on what you told me and my own findings. Your coven master's claims have been dismissed, and as soon as a member of the Corps catches up to him, he will be speaking with one of our finest truthtellers, someone who can read intent, memory and thoughts as if they were printed text.”
“What does that mean?” she asked shakily.
“It means that you are a free woman,” he said, his voice falling like sparks from a flint. “It means that you have the freedom to go where you will and do as you like. You are free to join another coven, or to seek work with the Corps. My only suggestion is that you leave helpless girls alone with whatever grief or crime they are going to report.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked angrily, rising to her feet.
She couldn't fathom the idea of being free from the hunt, not after she had been on her own for so very long. Instead, she struck at the far more easily-recognized hurt, glaring at Colin.
“What do you think I did?” she said. “Why not tell me exactly what you think?”
“That girl is Elsa Mayberry, and she's a key witness in a case against one of the biggest industrial complexes in this part of the city. I didn't know where you were, so I came here. What should I find but an address you left on your computer when you were looking for directions to a club. I find you, and where are you but cozying yourself up to a woman who is due to testify in less than forty-eight hours. You have an apartment that no waitress could afford, and when I catch up with you, you're rising from her limp body like some kind of goddamn vampire.”
Selene's laugh was bitter, and there was nothing but contempt in her eyes when she stepped up to Colin. She hoped that her anger hid the hurt that was eating through her heart.
“Of course that's what the rogue must be doing, isn't it? I need to be doing the absolute worst thing that you can think of because that's what rogues do. Of course I must be someone who would rob a good person of their memories all in the name of big business and keeping myself comfortable.”
“Tell me what you were doing then. Lie if you have to. Tell me what you were doing in that bathroom with Elsa Mayberry.”
The words came out a challenge, but in his face Selene was shocked to see hope.
“You really do want to know,” she said, the anger seeping out of her.
“Of course.” Colin's words held a hint of defeat, and it took the rest of the fight from her.
“I helped her, Colin,” she said softly. “I didn't take her memories. I didn't take a single thing that she needed, I swear. I took away the edge of fear that was covering everything, just like I
Similar Books
