Gwen

  Gwen was now sulking in her favorite living room chair, Jane Austen’s Persuasion sitting in her lap. She was really only pretending to read as her mind ran a million miles a second. Was feeling sorry for herself over a roll a bit ridiculous? Of course it was, but they were her favorite, and she always let the rest of the house get theirs first. Why couldn’t things ever seem to workout?

  She’d been taught better than this. She could hear her mother’s reaction to her pity party and wow would she be disappointed.

  “Honestly Gwendolyn, it is a piece of bread.”

  “There are going to be disappointments in life, a bread roll is the least of your worries.”

  “A real worry is dying in the noble work you were trained for and should be doing.”

  “Get over it.”

  Her mother could be loving, but only if she knew she’d really gotten Gwen down. And even then, Gwen was sure it was just to get her out of her funk and back to training. Not exactly love at the center of that reasoning she guessed.

  As she was sitting, lost in her own world, miles away, a roll was placed on her lap forcing her back to the present. She expected to see Suz, Eruan, or hell, even Euryale, but when her gaze lifted to find who gave her the bread, she was shocked to see Brent.

  “I didn’t know they were your favorite, or that you hadn’t even had one yet,” He said softly, not meeting her eyes. She looked from him to the roll then back at him.

  She was speechless, which seemed to only make him feel worse as he began to shift from side to side, looking anywhere but at her.

  “It’s not a huge deal you know?” She said quickly. “You didn’t know I waited till the end for them, and you aren’t the first to take the last one.”

  He studied her after the last part and she began to fidget. Being under his stare was a new feeling she wasn’t sure she could handle. His chocolate eyes seemed to pierce parts of her soul she wasn’t sure existed anymore, yet he found them.

  He tossed himself on the couch, draping his legs and arms over both sides. It really wasn’t built for such a tall man.

  “Why wait then?” He asked. His bright blonde hair was down in his eyes as he began studying her again. “If they’re your favorite and others have taken the last one before, why wait?”

  “I don’t know, I guess I just want the others to get them if they want them.”

  “But you want them.”

  He said it like it was so simple, but it wasn’t for her. She could handle the disappointment if she didn’t get something, but watching others miss out on things they wished for caused an uncomfortable heat to warm up the center of her chest as if it was a molten lava ball.

  Her heart would hurt for them. “I’m okay not getting things I want but don’t need. If I needed it, I would have it.”

  He just continued to watch her, seeming lost in thought. She looked down at the roll once more, still sitting in her lap and began to tear it in half. She rose from the chair and held out one of the halves to Brent, her stare finding the floor.

  “I gave that to you for you to have,” He said calmly. “They’re your favorite.”

  She simply shrugged, “I like sharing more than keeping things for myself.”

  She went to sit back down in her chair, tearing a piece of the roll off, still watching Brent. When she popped the piece in her mouth, Brent finally relented and took a bite of the roll himself.

  “Alex shouldn’t have hopped on to our argument,” Brent said, breaking the silence. “I’m sorry. You and I may argue but you shouldn’t have the two of us ganging up on you.”

  Gwen looked at him amused, curious why he was apologizing, “There’s more of us than there are of you two. It’d be weirder if she wasn’t always on your side.”

  “But it’s you and me fighting. Not you and us. I’m not here to be unfair with numbers when you never have.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “That’s just called fighting the smart way. You do what you have to in order to survive,” his face stayed the same as she said that, giving nothing away. “Why are you here?” She asked. “There aren’t many humans within monster safe houses. You two are two of like twenty. Why?”

  He tensed at her question and she mentally kicked herself, “That’s incredibly personal, ignore me,” Her hollow laugh echoing in discomfort.

  He sat there for a minute, then took in a breath, “It’s not an unfair question I guess.” He spent a minute or two deep in thought then continued. “My brother married a vampire, Marsaili. She’s a member of the presence and he joined for her. Now he’s working with covens for intel.”

  Her eyes found the floor again knowing her coven had worked with his brother Declan.

  “A coven meetup went wrong in august, and he and Marsaili’s group were nearly caught.”

  “He was the group Hattie was working with when she died,” Gwen guessed.

  “A girl died, yes. I didn’t know her name. Or her at all, for that matter.”

  “She was my coven leader's kid sister,” She explained. The memories that came with explaining hurt, she could vividly remember how hard Jorah was hit by her loss. She was only 17, and he had raised her. “It hit the coven pretty hard.”

  “The death of a child is hard on everyone,” Brent said, then paused, “Or should be I guess.”

  Unfortunately she knew that those who killed Hattie saw it as a public service. Ridding the world of their magic ilk.

  Brent continued, “My brother and his intel group managed to get out of there, and now have people tracking them.”

  “So the whole family got put on lockdown, huh?”

  “So the whole family got put on lockdown,” He confirmed, sighing the sentence out. “I don’t know where my parents are, or where my sister is, and I don’t have a single clue where Declan and Marsaili are, and they’re so protected I couldn’t even begin to guess .”

  “Well we have that in common,” She said. “All I want is to know where my coven is.”

  “And your blood family?

  She paused at his question, starting to feel uneasy, “I’m sure they can handle themselves.”

  His face was shocked as she said that.

  Brent

  They can handle themselves? What does that even mean? He knew they were a part of the coven of presence, but did she have no concern for her parents?

  “You seem shocked by my stance,” She guessed correctly.

  “No love lost I’m guessing,” He laughed.

  “Love was lost a long time ago.”

  “And what got you here?” He asked, watching her closely. He hadn’t seen her eyes leave the floor for awhile now, her head downcast. He found himself drawn to his Witch’s eyes being on him. Not something he was comfortable with, but he couldn’t deny he wanted them on him any less.

  “My coven was attacked and Hattie died,” She stated simply. Then her eyes met his and she seemed to reconsider her answer, taking in a huge sigh before starting again.

  “My coven was attacked and Hattie died and the ones who did it tracked us down,” Gwen took in a huge breath. “They tracked us down and we were attacked again and we had to scatter, ‘Like rats’”

  “Like rats?” He noticed her tone shift as she seemed to be repeating something she’s been told. As he looked at her, waiting for her to explain, she only shrugged.

  He just kept looking at her, knowing that even getting this much out of her was an incredible feat. “And now you’re here.”

  “And now I’m here.”

  “And it’s been made worse by this super annoying human, stealing bread and all that, huh?”

  His Witch started laughing at his joke, and a lump of pride began to swell in his chest. Making the melancholy people pleasing Witch laugh and smile actually felt good.

  That wasn’t an unwanted surprise at all, no. Did it cause a panic to run through him? No, not at all.

  He noticed she hadn’t had her book, but was now reaching for it again. And with that a pit began to form in his stomach. “How bout a movie?”

  She followed his eyeline to the old dvd player that was hooked to the tv. “Oh, none of us grew up with those, we can’t work it.”

  “Even Sam? Its his house”

  “One of his kids set it up, he’s had this house forever so he leaves what he can of them,” She explained.

  “Kids?” Brent asked. “I didn’t know Bodachs could have children.”

  She smirked at him, amused by what he didn’t seem to know he guessed.

  “He adopts the children of presence members who either work too much, are on missions and need family, or I guess kids adopt him really. Some of us need him, and he’s better than what we’ve left.”

  He watched her as she explained, knowing it was big for her to offer up the information that she thought of Sam as a dad, even with her gaze finding every spot but him.

  “And the kid who left the dvd player? Who were they?” He asked.

  The world around them shifted colder, her stare still on the dvd player, but her amusement was gone.

  “Guinevere Jones.”

  ~~~~~~~~~

  Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was playing in the background, Ferris and Cameron staring down at the wrecked car, Brent staring across the living room to his Witch out like a light.

  Her book had fallen from her lap and was now forgotten on the floor, and he watched her chest rise and fall, counting her breaths.

  The credits were starting to roll, when Sam walked in to start the next watch shift, when he paused.

  He didn’t say a word and neither did the Bodach. Sam just simply looked down at Gwen with surprise and said, “She can't sleep here,” was all he said, still looking down at his Witch. “I can get Eruan to move her.”

  Sam barely got that sentence out before Brent was up and making his way to the sleeping Witch. He glanced at Sam, but the Bodach was already making his way to the kitchen.

  When he got to her, he picked up her book and set it on the end table for her to come back to, then scooped her up. Likening her to a koala is almost too vague.

  He didn’t know what to expect, but her clinging to him like he was the safest place in the world made him feel like a god, and with that pride, he grabbed a blanket from the couch, draped it over her, and made his way up the stairs.

  Having her so close without anger, her arms around him, her breath on his neck. He was a goner.

  He was smitten with her.

  He was smitten with the Witch.

  He was smitten with His Witch.