Page 6 of Warrior Witch
Shoving the device back in my pocket, I scanned the room for trouble.
This was what I did. No weird ass vision was going to send me on a wild goose chase across the state.
I’d probably just had a seizure, brought on by my increasingly unstable magic… or something.
That moon had been something else, though. I’d probably understand what it meant if I’d had a traditional coven upbringing. Instead, I watched as witches filled the club, freshly energized from their full moon rituals. High on the connection to their magic, rather than fighting daily to stay in control.
Maybe I should encourage Addie to find a youth coven or something. Could they help her unlock her magic?
A tap on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts, and music flooded my ears again. I blinked up at Lindsay’s glittering face as he motioned for me to follow him to the bar’s storeroom.
He hopped around some boxes to the back of the room, calling back to me, “You looked serious back there! Did something happen?”
I leaned against the door with a sigh. “I was just thinking. Do we need some witch friends?”
His head popped up, one sparkling eyebrow raised. “We have witch friends.”
“We have work friends who are witches. Huge difference.”
“What’s brought this on?” he asked as he started loading up my arms with bottles. “Got some full moon FOMO?”
“Something like that.” I shrugged, careful of the hoard of alcohol in my arms. “It’s probably nothing. Just been a long, weird night.”
“I think you could use a day off,” he said, picking up his own box of goodies for the bar. “Come on, help me restock, then we’ll grab a quick drink before we get back to it. In a few more hours, we’ll be back home without a care in the world.”
I followed him back to the bar, muttering under my breath, “That last part seems optimistic…”
Benji’s voice mumbled through my earpiece that we were now at capacity for the night, and it showed in the crowd surrounding the bar. Lindsay’s team were handling them with ease, ever the professionals, as they racked up their tips, and I did my best to stay out of their way while assisting my bestie.
As the music’s tempo picked up into the remix of some new supe band—I vaguely recognized it as something Addie had tried to get me into while driving her around—Lindsay pulled me over to the corner out of the view of security cameras. He shoved a shot glass into my hand and clinked it with his matching one.
“Just a quick one to get us through,” he yelled over the music, then knocked back his drink in a swift gulp.
I looked down into the shot, twisting the glass back and forth and watching the small ripples on the tequila’s surface. Maybe a little alcohol would pull me out of my head. A blinding green laser flashed over my vision, momentarily stunning me as the club’s lights morphed from yellow to red. The color seeped through the shot in my hand, and suddenly it wasn’t alcohol, but a blood red warning. Flinching hard, the glass dropped from my lax fingers and shattered at my feet, sending glass and tequila across the floorboards.
I cursed, trying half-heartedly to shake the liquid from the toe of my boot.
“Right, that’s it. Come with me.”
With a far steadier hand than mine, Lindsay steered me back into the storeroom and over to a keg to sit.
“You’ve been skittish for the last few hours, then the FOMO stuff, and now you’re wasting good alcohol? What gives?”
I smirked at him, ready to make a joke about wasted alcohol, but the look on his face made me pause. Genuine concern shone in his eyes as he lowered himself to a crouch.
“Talk to me, Harls. Something’s going on with you, and I know it’s more than getting jumped by those biker morons earlier.”
“How…? Kedron.” I should have been pissed about our boss getting into my personal business, but I could admit it was kind of his business, too, when it happened on his property. Plus, I’d been sharing my shit with Lindsay since I was old enough to be getting into it. He deserved an explanation.
“Look. This…whatever it is. Funk, maybe? That I’m in has nothing to do with the leathered stooges from earlier. They just happened to be present for the event.” I took a deep breath. “I had a vision tonight.”
The room vibrated to the bass of the music thumping through the club, but the storeroom remained silent as I waited for Lindsay to… laugh? Tell me I was losing my mind? I wasn’t sure what I expected, but as my opinionated bestie kept his mouth shut and waited for details I didn’t think he’d want, I wasn’t sure how to elaborate.
Power began to crawl beneath my skin, reacting to my discomfort as though it were a threat. Shit. That was the last thing I needed right now.
“Will you please say something?” I asked, lashing out with words to try to stem the tide of my power.
“I’m waiting to hear what has you so worked up. You had a vision. You’re a witch. It can come with the territory. So what about this vision has you looking ready to bolt outta here?”