Violette Dubrinsky Read Online Free PDF

shows.”
    “Reality-TV shows? Like what?” Her mother thought all reality TV was trash, but Azaleigh had always enjoyed The Housewives when she had time to watch it, and the Real World/Road Rules Challenges.
    “The Housewives of Atlanta, Jersey, and Beverly Hills, and she was fascinated with Mob Wives.”
    Laughter spilled from Azaleigh’s lips as she imaged the woman, at eighty-seven, hooting at the antics of Nene and Teresa, and Victor, all close to seven feet of him, looking on in confusion, and some amusement. She genuinely wished she’d spent more time with Antoinette.
    “How are the spells?”
    “I memorized the first one.” There were three he wanted her to know: a protection spell, a charm spell, and a reinforcement spell. He’d explained their meanings briefly, and had promised to go over them in more detail later.
    “Good. Are you ready to recite it?”
    “Now?” The digital clock on her end-table told her it was close to four in the morning.
    He nodded. “Night Walkers travel from dusk to dawn. Ten minutes could mean the difference between one thousand dead bodies, and none.”
    “Well, when you put it like that...” Pulling the book against her chest, Azaleigh stood and nodded. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
    ***
     
    The rush of adrenaline was unlike anything she’d felt before. Blood pounded through her veins and arteries, and before it could move, more was pushing against it, like a tidal wave just before it crested. Her hair whipped around her head with the fury of the wind. At any moment, she felt as if she’d topple backward, but still she continued, chanting the words, basking in the power radiating from them, letting it take her.
    If she’d been doubtful of anything, being in the circle cleared it up. She was definitely a witch.
    Believe in yourself , Victor had advised, and he’d been right. It had seemed comical to think she’d recite from a book, granted, an old one that smelled of pine, and things would just…happen, but that was exactly what occurred. She spoke the words in cadence, the winds picked up, she made her voice stronger and electrical currents seemed to leap and fission around her.
    Azaleigh continued until the winds died down, and the dark woods behind the house quieted. She felt drained, sapped off strength. Her knees buckled, legs turning to jelly, and she braced herself for impact. It didn’t come. Strong arms lifted her, slipping beneath her back and thighs. The clean, earthy smell and hard body told her it was Victor, and Azaleigh wrapped her arms around his thick neck and closed her eyes.
    ***
     
    “Why Hallows Brook?”
    Victor didn’t hear her come awake. He’d been too busy staring at the flap in her thin pajama bottoms, wishing his vision were acute enough to see through the material to the thin strip of hair that covered her mons.
    When she’d removed her clothes and he’d glimpsed shapely brown buttocks and that thatch, Victor had been speechless. He’d never seen a real woman’s private area in his thirty-nine years of existence. The closest he’d come was an adult video Antoinette purchased in the eighties, and the women had been bushy and untrimmed.
    “What?”
    “Why are the Night Walkers so set on this town, and what’s your obsession with my crotch?”
    Her voice was thick and low, her scent—sunshine and warmth—high on the air, and Victor felt an uncomfortable twitch in his penis. It had happened before, when he’d watched the vintage movie. Antoinette had left it out, on purpose, no doubt. She’d treated him like a human companion, wanting him to live a good life and find a ‘special girl.’ She never seemed to realize or accept that his sole purpose was her protection.
    “Hallows Brook, and a handful of other small towns, was founded by witches in the early 1900s. It’s one of the few territories Night Walkers are unable to penetrate, at least for long. Witches have stood as Guardians for over a century.”
    “Oh, so