A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

A s I lay naked and blissfully asleep in Connor’s arms, I became aware of the fact because I saw my body. My disheveled hair. Sated smile spread across my lips. My mate holding me protectively. I looked down on us. Connor rolled into me, pressing a kiss to my neck without opening his eyes. I reached up to touch the spot and I couldn’t touch it because I had no arm to manipulate. No body to make contact with.

My body was in the bed. What’s going on? I silently asked the universe and a door opened up out of nowhere. Not a physical door on the ground, but ethereal, in the air, like me. The pull to move through proved too strong to resist. I glanced down at Connor one more time and gave in to the urgency. As soon as I passed through the door, it clicked shut but stayed floating, as if waiting for me when I was ready to return.

Jiminy Crickets! My heart slammed inside my chest, or it would have if I had a heart or a chest because I was in a dank, dark cave. Cold—so cold, I saw my breath, which again made no sense because one needed lungs to expel breath. I looked down and saw a man huddled against a woman. Their clothes were torn. He held a great deal of power, I definitely felt that, so then why wasn’t he using it? This made no sense.

Without a second thought, I drifted down to get a closer look at the couple, and seriously, nothing could’ve prepared me for this. I gasped. The man looked exactly like me, only in a man’s body. I knew without a doubt that this was Simeon, which meant, the woman he held was… She was…

“Simone?”

I whipped around to see energy shaped like the man sleeping on the ground.

“Simeon?” I asked hesitantly.

He let out a breath as he smiled. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if any of this was real.”

I outright laughed. “I’m still not sure any of this is real. What’s going on here?”

His energy shrugged. “My guess, astral projection? It’s all new to me.”

“Tell me about it. Is that—” I pointed to the woman with him. “Madigan Baghest?”

Simeon’s energy radiated warmth and love. “My mate .”

“Her brother is just through that door.” I gestured to the door still hanging midair.

“Her brother is your mated protector?”

“Crazy, right? Thanksgiving at our place this year?”

He shook his head. “If we live that long.”

That brought a damper on this little family reunion. “Why are you sleeping in a cave?”

“It all happened so fast. I was driving past a café and got the strangest urge to go inside. Madigan looked up the moment I stepped through the door and everything in the world made sense. She said, ‘Are you going to sit down?’ and that’s how it started.”

“Not exactly the first meeting for me and Connor. I kind of insulted him and kneed him in the balls.”

My brother laughed loudly, the sound resonating off the walls of the cave, though it didn’t wake the sleeping couple down below. “I take it there’s a story there.”

“You have no idea.”

Then he sobered. “I grew up alone. I knew I was a super, but I wasn’t a witch. It was Madigan who figured out that I’d been bound. A woman showed in my dream. She told me to find my sister, Simone. Clearly, I was taken aback. I mean, I had a sister? After being alone my whole life, I suddenly had a mate and a sister?”

“But you couldn’t find me?”

“I didn’t have the chance. Madi and I were confronted by some men who claimed to work for a man named?—”

“Beetle?” I asked.

Shock spread across his energy’s face. “We barely got away with our lives. More powers show up all the time, but I’m not in control of them. They track us everywhere I use magic, so we’ve had to resort to traveling without it. But our money ran out. We went to an ATM to get more and were ambushed. I have no idea how they’d tracked us. Madi was injured. I had to get us somewhere safe for her to heal.”

“Where are you?”

“Faroe Islands.”

“Can you get to Guilford, in Surrey—um, England?”

“I don’t know.”

“Our cousin lives in the country, outside Guilford. Lily Joy. She’ll help. She has power.”

“I think I’m too weak to carry her there. She’s too injured to shift or walk.”

Great. Think, Simone. Think. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my brother’s body sleeping down below. A slight shimmer moved over his pocket. Please, universe, let this have worked .

My energy started to fade. Not now. I wasn’t done. I wanted to stay with him. It felt wrong, too soon, to leave him behind. The floating door opened, drawing me to it again. “I have to go. Check your pocket. If it worked, I’ll see you soon.” Before the door shut on us completely, I shouted, “Remember, Guilford. Lily Joy.”

The door snapped shut and I felt myself being shaken violently. “Simone? Baby— goddammit , wake up.”

What? It felt as if every bit of energy had drained from my body. I ached. It was hard to open my eyes, but I managed. Connor leaned over me, fear coating his expression, emanating out of every pore.

His eyes glistened and when they landed on mine, he crushed me in a hug that made it hard to catch a breath. “What the fuck happened, Simone?” he sort of barked against my neck.

I lifted my hand weakly to brush loose hair from his forehead. “I’m here,” I whispered. “I’m here, Connor.”

He peppered my face with kisses. “Dammit… Don’t you ever do that to me again…” More kisses.

Lily Joy stood next to the bed wringing her hands and I sort of felt embarrassed, what with the way my mate wouldn’t let up on the PDA and I realized I was still as naked as a wee baby. “How do you feel?” she asked me.

“Tired. Weak.”

Thankfully, Connor had the presence of mind to pull the covers up over my exposed skin, and the way he positioned himself, shield me from Lily Joy’s view.

“I’ll bring you some tea.”

I didn’t see her leave, but I heard the door click shut.

“Where’d you go?” Connor asked. I shivered, even though I wasn’t cold. Connor’s body heat saw to that. Still, I couldn’t stop.

Connor held me like he never planned to let me go. About ten minutes later, Lily Joy showed back up with an American mug full of tea—not a dainty English teacup. Connor helped me hold it because I lacked the strength. The tea smelled of peppermint along with other fragrant herbs.

As the tea started to take effect, I was able to talk without my teeth chattering. “What happened?” I asked Connor.

“I was sleeping. Then I sat up in bed, ripped from my dream by this horrible pain. It felt like half of me died. Then I turn to you and you’re hardly breathing. You won’t wake up. With all the things that have happened to us, I have never felt that level of fear. You were just gone, Simone. I couldn’t feel the connection.”

“The door,” I mumbled. “It had to have been…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, it looks like I’ve unlocked a new power. Astral projection.”

“Astral what?” Connor snapped.

“Could you reach for your T-shirt? I’m feeling a little exposed here.”

He sighed the kind of suffering sigh that could only come from a man unlucky enough to have been mated to me. But he still reached his long arm down to the floor to where I’d thrown his shirt after ripping it from his body in the heat of passion. The taut muscles straining along his ribs turned me on— no . Bad Simone. It’s not time to get turned on by your mate . In my defense, the universe did this to me. Jeffery and I had a wonderful sex life, but I’d never felt the need to ravish him anytime he got close to me, so it wasn’t like I was some crazed nympho who couldn’t keep her sexual urges in check.

The universe made me do it.

Once my little talk with myself ended and the T-shirt covered me, I went on to explain. “I was dreaming, or I thought I was dreaming. I saw us sleeping in bed. You’re such a cuddler,” I threw in for good measure.

“Simone,” he admonished.

“Okay. Keep your—” I pulled up on the blanket to check if he wore any drawers and nope. I smiled. “We’ll change that to hold your horses.” The poor man rubbed his hand along the back of his neck while he looked to the heavens. “Right,” I went on. “A door appeared, just floating in the air. It opened and pulled me through it. I didn’t really have control. When I got to the other side, it snapped shut.”

“So you were no longer here with me.”

“You won’t believe where I was, Connor. I saw…” How did one go about telling their mate that they saw their missing sister? I guess the way I did everything. Right to the point. “I ended up in a cave. Babe, I saw your sister.”

His whole body went rigid. “You what ?”

I shook my head. “And I met my brother. He looks just like me, but you know, manly… and without my awesome lavender locks.”

“You talked to him?” he asked.

“Yes. He didn’t know that we were mated.”

“Where are they?”

“Hiding out on the Faroe Islands. He said they were attacked by Beetle’s men and went on the run. He’s too tired and injured to use magic. Your sister was injured.” I placed my hand on his chest to calm his rapidly beating heart. “She was sleeping. My brother is taking care of her.” Then I turned to Lily Joy. “Lily Joy, if a manly version of me and a girly version of Connor show up, it’s Simeon and Madigan. I told them to come here.”

“You don’t think they will?” she asked.

“Well, he couldn’t use magic so they were using cash, but they ran out and tried to get to an ATM but were ambushed. Somehow, they ended up in a cave on the Faroe Islands. I started to fade, getting drawn back through the door. But I tried a spell. If it worked, then he’ll have money to get them here.”

“I pulled you back through the door when I shook you,” Connor said.

“Seems like it. Please don’t look sad. This is good. My brother and I have met. Your sister is in good hands.”

“It’s not that I’m sad…” He ran a hand over his face, presumably organizing his thoughts. “I’m glad my sister is in good hands. This sounds low in my head, so I know it’ll make me sound like a dick when I say it out loud, but she’s no longer my main concern. She has a mate for that. You, though, Simone, you traveled out of your body thousands of miles away without me there to protect you.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I know that, baby. But you can’t know how I feel. You feel our mated bond—but every part of who I used to be is overwritten by the bond and my need to protect you.”

“That sounds highly unpleasant,” I said softly. While I’d said it to lighten the moment, I also meant it. Poor Connor. Tears actually rimmed my eyes.

Connor lifted me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me, and he bent in to kiss the side of my head. “It’s not so bad.”

“Maybe—do we think there’s a way to bring Connor with you during your astral projections?” Lily Joy asked and in truth, I’d forgotten she was in the room with us.

“I don’t know. This was the first time it happened.”

“We could practice while you’re here.”

“That’s a great idea, Lily Joy,” Connor agreed and I smiled. He really had the sweetness down when he wanted to use it.

“Since I’m up,” she said, “I’m going to dress and get breakfast going. We’ve got a lot to do and it appears, not much time in which to do it.”

I felt the invisible noose tightening around my neck. I only hoped we were prepared for the fall.