Cursebound (Magical Entanglements Book 2) Read online

  Kendrick wiped his fingers on his jacket. “Well, that might have been a little too easy. Not as much fun as I’d hoped,” he said, diminishing the death as nothing more than a snoozefest. “Let’s say we make it a little more interesting.” He swirled his finger in the air until Avery’s limp body rose high above the ground. Her legs hung on nothing but molecules, her body spinning in a twirl with Kendrick’s fingers. Delilah lunged at him as horror welled in her gut. But it was too late. Kendrick flicked his fingers and Avery crashed into the floor, her neck snapping on impact. Blood oozed from the smashed in side of her skull.

  Delilah let out a whimper so great, she was sure they could hear it all the way at the end of the strip. Avery! He was killing everyone she loved. Everyone who dared to help her. And the only thing she could do was watch it happen. Her body was starting to feel weaker and she had to grip a nearby table just to stay upright.

  The glamour witches grew louder in their spell and something in Delilah’s vision flickered, like a hologram coming in and out of focus. Kendrick glanced down at his arm as it shifted from defined, tanned muscles to pasty white without definition. His chiseled face suddenly winked out, replaced with one of beady eyes beneath wire rimmed glasses that went out of style a decade ago. His luscious hair receded into baldness with only a ring of sparse hair just below his ears. The lean, tall body that always seemed so strong and confident squashed into a stocky frame that met Delilah’s own five six height.

  Kendrick scrambled for the necklace hanging from his neck that kept his glamour in place, now turned from brilliant jade green to charred black. He let out a wail just as the glamour witches all collapsed from exhaustion. But they’d done it. They removed Kendrick’s glamour by magically burning through his geode, revealing his true appearance in the process.

  Kendrick’s dark eyes rimmed with red as he squinted at the women like a bull ready to charge. He whipped up a blast of glowing energy in the palm of his hand, ready to hurl it at the team that exposed his real self. But just as he catapulted it, it bounced right back on him like it hit an invisible force field.

  Britta grinned from her corner. They couldn’t directly attack Kendrick so they opted for defensive spells rather than offensive. Ones that would turn his own attacks right back on him. Kendrick let out a scream that made Delilah’s blood curl.

  Every nerve in Delilah’s body tingled as the energy inside each one snuffed out, one by one. Her vision swam, her breathing growing shallow. The spell was working, which meant it was killing Delilah. Quickly and efficiently. Delilah was willingly trading her own life to give the girls the power to save Cole.

  Kendrick charged after the girls and Delilah scrambled away to a far corner as quickly as she could despite the fact that she was losing consciousness by the second. But Kendrick wasn’t aiming for her or even Britta and Jewel. His eyes locked on Cole, lying helpless on the floor.

  “Your mistake, Delilah, was not trying to take me down. It was ever breaking up with me in the first place.” He unsheathed a sword from out of nowhere, invisible one second and in his hands the next. The sharp metal edge glinted in the light. “Now you’ll know what it feels like to live without the person you love.”

  He brandished the sword high in the air. Britta and Jewel finished their spell and fell backward, both without energy. Delilah collapsed to the ground as well.

  Kendrick drove the sword downward toward Cole. Delilah had just enough energy left to scream.

  But instead of driving straight through Cole’s flesh, the sword bent like rubber, exactly the same way the needle had bent when Delilah had tried to prick Kendrick with it. Delilah had traded her own energy for Cole’s, powering him up while every ounce drained from her own skin. It was the only way to protect him. The only way to save him.

  The only way to defeat Kendrick.

  Combined with the glamour reversal and the surge of power knocking back into Kendrick that Britta and Jewel were performing, it doubled the effects. Everything Kendrick put out bounced back to him. And so the sword bent inward and struck Kendrick’s flesh instead. With a howl, he hopped backward, but it was enough. Drops of blood trickled onto the floor. Kendrick thrust another surge of power in Delilah’s direction but it, too, reflected right back onto him.

  Delilah didn’t hesitate, with every last bit of energy she had, she crawled forward and wiped up the blood with a tissue from her pocket. She ripped it in two, depositing one into the hot pot beside Jewel and Britta and one into the mason jar a few feet away. The instant her blood merged with the pre-brewed potion in the mason jar, a rush of power tingled in her veins. Britta solidified the spell with the legalese jargon that bound it in nature. “In accordance with clause five point two of the contract, I hereby proclaim the contract terminated, effective immediately.” Delilah spun in a circle, facing the North, South, East, and West before adding, “This agreement releases Promisor from all terms in this contract. Promisor relinquishes all claims to Promisee, without any further obligation. What was done was done. Be it now undone. Harm no more. Magic restore. I hereby cast out this charm.”

  The power coursed through Delilah’s veins, filling her in a way that made her whole again. Her blood tingled, her skin shimmered, and her energy returned in one fell swoop.

  She stood, facing Kendrick in a fighting stance. He aimed another blow of power at her but it didn’t even penetrate her, just knocked him right backward. Delilah joined hands with Britta and Jewel, adding her power to the girls as they started to fade.

  “I bind you, Kendrick, from doing magic ever again.” Delilah pricked her own finger and deposited a drop of blood inside the hot pot. To bind Kendrick to her this time. “Under the discretion of Promisee, this spell terminates the Promisor’s ability to use magic in all scenarios, including but not limited to spells, curses, charms, glamours, siphons, hexes, harmful intent, acts of God, war, strikes, injury, death, or any other force majeure event. The term of this contract commences with this spell and continues in perpetuity unless Promisor performs a counter blood spell to sever the parties’ obligations under this contract.” She took a deep breath and recited a few last words for flavor. “Evil disperse. Magic reverse. I herby bind you, Kendrick, from doing magic.”

  The power that had been absent for far too long sang in her veins. She felt her magic storm through and until it knocked Kendrick out. He collapsed to the ground as limply as the others, his face pale as all his own magic drained from his system. As soon as his eyes shuddered, Cole’s popped open, his magical coma broken the moment Kendrick’s powers disappeared. Lindsey and the others stirred. The ones who were still alive, anyway.

  Delilah rushed to Cole, cradling him in her arms.

  “I feel…” he said in a groggy state, his eyes having trouble focusing on her. “Tingly.”

  “That’s the magic,” she whispered. Then she took a deep breath and told him the part he may not want to hear, the part he had to come to terms with. “It’s permanent.”

  Delilah had given Cole her energy, yes, but in doing so, she’d bound him to her life force. When her powers were restored, they surged into her but since he was still connected to her, they also surged into him. She’d only ever be half as powerful as she once was, but together, they’d be whole. It was the only way to revive him completely.

  Britta panted hard, nearly collapsing as she tried to grip to door. They were all weak, but with a little help, they could all get out of here the old fashioned way. Using the door. Kendrick would be out for days just like Delilah had been when he’d stripped her of her powers. But he wouldn’t be out for the count for long. Eventually, he’d come searching for her. After all, it was only her blood that would unlock his powers once again.

  Delilah strung one arm around Britta and another around Lindsey, who kept running her fingers through her hair in shock. Cole was slow but with his renewed magical energy, he was able to help Zach. Before Delilah pushed open the door, she glanced back at Jewel, feeling a weird mix of gratitude an
d fear at turning her loose on the wild. “You coming?”

  Jewel shook her head and walked casually over to the collapsed Kendrick. She kneeled beside him and stroked his face lovingly with her fingertips. “I’m staying right here.”

  Delilah’s throat closed at the sight. After all, Jewel still had a few drops of Delilah’s blood left in her vial. She could still use it against her.

  She could still restore Kendrick’s magic.

  “You promised not to stop me,” was all she said before the portal tornado whipped around Delilah’s two enemies and carried them away to somewhere unknown, to do something unknown.

  But if there was one thing Delilah knew, whatever Jewel had planned would take the form of revenge.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  COLE

  “Let me try it one more time.” Cole stood over Delilah, holding a flickering candle above her bare breasts. In his fantasies, dripping hot wax on a girl in the bedroom always meant something kinky was going on. And there was a part of him, a part that was usually covered by boxers, that wanted that to be the case tonight. But instead Cole held the candle steady as he traced it in the air above her naked body. His mouth moved in a way that seemed foreign to him. Silly. The only time he ever read contracts was when he wanted to make sure he could still return an item to Amazon if he didn’t like it. But now he not only had to read them, he had to speak them fluently. One wrong syllable and the entire spell would go awry. A few minutes ago a flub of one word had resulted in Cole nearly setting the entire house on fire when the candle flame surged.

  But this time he’d get it right.

  “The Supplier shall perform the work (“The Work”) described in the Statement of Work included under Attachment A, in compliance with all the technical specifications and drawings referenced therein and in accordance with the Supplier’s proposal, which is attached hereto as Attachment B.”

  Attachment A in this case included a handwritten list of all the requirements of the vigilante curse, which Cole lit with the candle flame. The paper shot up in sparks in the cast iron pan resting on the hotpot beside Delilah’s bed. Attachment B included photocopies of Delilah’s old Magical Bindings and Entanglements law notes, which also lit up in flame.

  Cole poured a few drops of Delilah’s blood from a vial onto the flaming papers. “Magic immerse. Heroism coerce. Reignite the vigilante curse!” He put his own spin on the last line, shouting the words as loud as he could.

  Delilah closed her eyes, squeezing real tight, as the flame drew patterns of ribbons in the air. With a douse of salt, Cole formed a line on Delilah’s belly. God, did Cole want to lick it off, but he had to focus. He had to complete this spell. He had to rescue Delilah the way she’d rescued him.

  She shook her head, growing visibly upset. Her teeth snagged her lower lip. “It’s not working.”

  “Give it a sec.” Cole glanced out the window. “The sky’s barely pink.”

  “If it was working, I’d know. I’d feel it writhing under my skin, an itch waiting to scratch.”

  Cole let out a breath. “Okay, let me try again then.”

  Delilah sat up, the salt running down her body. “No, we need another spell. Another angle.”

  For days they’d tried every spell in her binder. Every one they could find on the Internet or in the contracts office. She even looked up her old professor, the one who originally administered the vigilante curse, but he died two years ago. The last time all she needed to do was walk in a room and the curse adhered to her. But they’d tried that and it didn’t work so they were resorting to extreme measures. Better measures, Cole thought. Any spell that required him to continually gaze at her naked body was one he would practice for as long as possible.

  What he really needed was training. He needed to learn the basics. But they didn’t have time for that. Jewel was out there, in cahoots with Kendrick. She’d texted Cole once with a simple: this is a preemptive apology and left it at that. Whatever she planned to do, she was already feeling guilty about it. And as much as it pained him, Cole instructed his mom to move away, to a secret location, and take his nephews with her until he declared it safe. It wasn’t that Cole worried Jewel would harm them. It was that he couldn’t say the same for Kendrick.

  So Cole and Delilah worked to power themselves up. To prepare. And to make up for lost times.

  He’d never admit this to her, but this was his favorite part. When his spell failed and he dazzled her with a different kind of magic.

  He nudged her right back down on the bed and climbed on top of her. It was an unspoken rule that whenever she had to be naked for a spell, so would he. What’s fair is fair, after all. Plus this didn’t waste any time. He simply plucked a condom from the drawer next to her bed and slid it on.

  He ran his fingers down the length of her body without touching her skin. Magic fled his fingertips, alighting her skin with a shimmer. She squirmed beneath the sensation, gasping out. She did the same to him, running her hands and fingers and lips but never actually touching him. The sensation felt amazing, a mixture of hot and cold then hot again. Tingles that never stopped. Pleasure that could never be recreated from only sex.

  Cole seized her mouth with his own, nibbling on her lower lip until she let out a gasp. His fingers tangled in her long, silky hair. Picturing it was one of the only things that helped him remain alert in captivity.

  She dropped her hand to his hard length and stroked. Every nerve ending came alive to her touch. His own fingers searched inside her for her sweet spot, the one that made her writhe and scream with just a quirk of his finger. Their breaths came in heavy pants, in league with the sensation building inside Cole. He let out a gasp laced with magic that expelled from his lungs in a whoosh of energy.

  Delilah grinned as the magic washed over her, the one from his mouth as well as the one from his fingers. She let go of his manhood, and he settled his weight on top of her, squeezing his eyes shut in pleasure as he entered her. As he surged inside her, he released magic little by little through quick incantations that required nothing more than a few words and some of that leftover salt. His own skin tingled as if someone was running a feather over every pore. Delilah gasped, her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as the sensation spread to her.

  Cole grinned. “Who says magic is just for helping people?”

  “Pretty sure this counts,” she panted between breaths. “You’re certainly helping me.” And with that, her body convulsed in a fit, her back arching into him. She let out a scream that probably woke the neighbors, but he didn’t care. The pleasure inside him was building to a crescendo until it exploded. His groan ceased the magic flowing across his skin and he collapsed onto Delilah, the tingles still causing aftershocks of pleasure.

  “We should definitely practice that one again,” he breathed.

  “But first, we should really get out of here.”

  Cole swallowed hard. He hadn’t wanted to face the truth—that his sister was evil, had run off with an even more evil witch, and was likely coming after them. They’d stayed behind in a futile attempt to fool them, let them think they were hunkering down in place. But they both knew their time was fleeting. They had to run. They had to hide.

  They had to rid the world of all magic.

  It was the only way to truly stop Kendrick and Jewel forever.

  ***Turn the page to read the first chapter of the prequel novella, which chronicles how Delilah and Cole met, how and why Cole was cursed, and how Jewel went from loving sister to evil witch. GRAVE BOUND is exclusively available in the UNDER YOUR SPELL boxset!

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  GRAVEBOUND BLURB

  Delilah York is a witch lawyer on the Las Vegas Strip who breaks up marriages by day and breaks curses…also by day. When a sexy gambler barges into her office claiming he’s cursed to bury himself alive, she bets everything to try to save him, even though it means putting her own life on the line. Together they must figure out who cursed Cole, all while trying not to fall for each other.

  GRAVEBOUND - CHAPTER ONE

  DELILAH

  With a wave of her palm, Delilah York’s chic law office descended into darkness. Curtains zoomed closed without strings to pull them, overhead lights winked out of existence, and a chill settled throughout the room like a winter fog. The candles that had seemed like staged knick-knacks worthy of a centerfold in an interior decorating magazine suddenly flickered on, their flames dancing in the dim light. Magic crackled in the air, an electric sizzle that made her skin tingle.

  She heaved the large dorm-style hot pot she kept in her closet and set it on her desk, pushing aside a stack of legal papers to make room.

  “What are—” Her client Lindsey Marbury cleared her throat to stop her voice from shaking. “What are you going to do?” Lindsey ran her finger lovingly over a simple black picture frame, tracing the too-large chin of the balding man captured inside.