Home / The Healing Souls
The Healing Souls
The Warlock’s Meeting
The Warlock’s Meeting1980words
Update Time2024-11-01 09:40:34
[Rock]When you’re expecting something, it can make time slow or speed up, depending on how much you’re dreading it. The time between when we arrived at work and ten o’clock crawled with all the speed of a snail on sedatives. Carmen was busy with other things, but I had completed most of my work. I was looking for anything to keep me from watching the clock. I pulled out other scheduled jobs and started planning for them and organizing the permits we’d already gotten. I distracted myself enough that I didn’t realize the pressure in the room had changed for a few moments. When I did, I looked up and saw Carmen frozen. Her face was turned to the couch. I looked over and saw Rhett sprawled on the couch. Viola turned to the couch and scowled. This was how fast confidence in your abilities could be dashed. She hadn’t even realized he was there for a few moments. “Now, now, don’t look at me like that. I have an appointment,” Rhett said. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared and reappeared in front of Viola. She looked up at him, but didn’t move or even flinch. I stood up. “You’re new. An earthen fae. What is under that glamour…?” He waved a hand and Viola’s glamour disappeared. Rhett looked her over in an assessing way. I would remember that. He could remove our glamour even if we were an earthen fae. It was important information. “My, my, aren’t you a lovely specimen of your race? Such a divine hair color and so short. I could just put you in my pocket. I wonder if there’s a middle ground between the towering beasts and the dainty warriors. That would be quite enticing,” Rhett purred, and moved even closer. “One more step and I nail you in the jewels, warlock,” Viola growled. “Rhett, please let Viola use her glamour so she can go out with Gemma and Forrest. You don’t want to waste your hour teasing everyone else, right?” Carmen asked. “Ah, my favorite blind wolf. I didn’t mean to neglect you. I’m sure you were missing my attention.” He walked around Viola and took Carmen’s hand before kissing it. Carmen controlled herself, but I walked over there and took her hand from him. I glared down at the warlock. “You can talk to her, but you don’t touch my mate,” I growled. Rhett smirked and went to the seats on the other side of Carmen’s desk. He sat and put his ankle on the opposite knee, leaning back and looking like he was bored. He waved a hand at us. “Come on. I don’t want to waste my time.” Viola glared at him, put on her glamour, and headed to the lobby. She closed the door behind her and I took Carmen to her seat. I pulled my chair over and sat next to her with my arm on the back of her chair. I let my glamour drop and glared at Rhett. “What do you want to know?” I asked. “I would actually like to know why you’re so interested in us. I know you gave Rock an answer on the phone, but I need more than the vague answer you gave,” Carmen said.“I like her question better,” Rhett answered with a leer at my mate. “I heard someone talking about you and got curious. It led me to more people talking about you. It made me even more curious. Then I went to see you and your friends. I thought you were adorable, and I needed more of you.” “More of me?” “Yes, I want to be your friend, but I’ve never been great at making friends. I have a hard time controlling myself around beautiful women. It’s a bit of a curse, but I live with it.” I narrowed my eyes at him. He winked at me and laughed. “Now, tell me, what did the fae healers have to say?” he asked. “They told me I was going to be able to have one child with Rock, but no others. The goddess has a plan to get us a second child,” Carmen said. Rhett frowned. “Was that all?” “What do you mean?” I asked. “I mean her parents are adamant that she not go to a fae healer. They don’t ever say why, but they say ‘if anyone finds out…’ and things like that. It made me think there was more to it.” He looked disappointed. Carmen nodded. I didn’t know how much she wanted to reveal. “I have a fae blessing. It was passed down from my grandparents. They used fae magic to conceive a Beta child then broke their promise to the fae to give them a child in return. My parents had a chance to make it right, but didn’t,” she answered. Rhett nodded and looked thoughtful. It was a pared-down version of what happened, but accurate. Carmen didn’t seem upset to share. “I see. So they’re afraid of Mike being fired for being a Beta against the will of the goddess. Or they may be afraid of being looked down on for a similar reason. Have you told Mike yet?” “No. We only just found out on Monday when the fae who helped my grandparents conceive came to the house. I’m being taught how to use the magic that comes with the blessing. They said it can help me almost see the world around me.” “I’m glad they can help you. You know, you remind me a little of myself when I was human. I was a sickly child and not a powerful man because of it. My family had to figure out what I could do and how I could be useful as a man because I couldn’t go into the family business. They didn’t really want me, but kept me when they saw the ways I could be useful to them,” Rhett told Carmen. His eyes turned completely black as he talked about his past. He closed them and took a deep breath, then opened them again. They had turned back to their normal color. “I don’t think my parents really wanted me either. I think they did in the beginning when my blindness didn’t change their lives, but once I could crawl, then walk, they saw the actual ways I was different. They were stubborn and instead of letting me have a life where I was like everyone else, they kept me.“One of my mother’s sisters told my mother that she should have drowned me at birth. She said ‘broken wolves should all be drowned at birth’ and my mother laughed. No one knew I heard it. My mother laughed and said ‘you don’t understand’. At first, I thought she was defending me, but, as I got older, I realized she wasn’t.“My mother wasn’t trying to tell her older sister gently that she was wrong. Now I realize that if she’d killed me instead of keeping me, she might have made the fae mad. It would have been so easy to ‘lose’ me…,” she whispered. I moved my arm to her shoulders and held her tight. Thank the goddess, they were afraid of the wrath of the fae. Without my little wolf, I would have lost out on so much. I silently wished the wolves had turned her over to the fae. If Carmen were raised by the fae, she would have found me sooner. She would understand our people better. She wouldn’t have had her heart broken. Rhett had a stony expression on his face. He connected with her story. Something else reminded him of his life as a human because his eyes were black again. “You need to tell your brother. He doesn’t know why your father is against the fae either, but he needs to know. If this passed on to you, then what might pass on to his second child? What if the fae want his second child, too?” Rhett asked. “From what I understand, that won’t happen. The fae in question said the deaths of my grandparents repaid her. I repaid the debt to the goddess when I accepted Rock as my mate,” Carmen explained. He nodded. “I see. You should still tell him. This is something your Alpha needs to know as well. There’s nothing he can do about your grandparents and your brother deserves the title of Beta, so they shouldn’t take it away. He needs to know.” “I’ll tell my brother. I want to do it face-to-face, though. This isn’t something I should tell him over the phone.”“I will not tell your brother anything for one month. After that, I am telling him. It gives you plenty of time,” Rhett told her in a firm tone then he relaxed into his normal affect. “Now, Rock, where has your mother wandered off to? Your brothers already like Carmen. It’s time for mommy to meet her, don’t you think?” Carmen turned toward me. I looked at him, then down at her. “I do not know where my mother could be, but once I hear from her, I plan to introduce her to Carmen. My mother is a rolling stone. You can’t stop her and you can’t always tell where she’ll end up,” I replied honestly. “If you wanted, I could bring her here.” “I thought your magic didn’t work on earthen fae,” I said. “Oh, no. It likes earthen fae and chooses if it will work. The only reason it doesn’t work on you is because you’re human and earthen fae. I can easily pick up your mom and bring her here,” Rhett offered. I shook my head. “No. It needs to be her decision if she’s going to accept Carmen. Rhett, if you’re being honest about being friends with Carmen, I’m fine with it, but you need to promise to think things through and talk to her before you do them. Having someone as powerful as you to take care of her would help me a lot, but this can’t just be a way to entertain yourself.” He looked at us and nodded. “I can agree with that. Carmen is interesting enough to me that I would willingly take time and run things by her. I don’t want her to hurt further. Like me, her parents betrayed her, and she ran to another life because of that pain. I ended up happier and I think she should as well.” With that settled, I looked at the clock. He still had half an hour. Rhett stood up, though. “There’s still time if you wanted to talk about anything else,” I offered. “No. This is all the time I wanted to take up. You answered my questions honestly and extended an olive branch in peace. I will accept this as enough. If you need any help with your magic, let me know, Carmen. Just say my name and I will come as quickly as I can. In every possible meaning of the word.” His eyes raked over her as Carmen frowned at him. She didn’t blush as she might have if I’d said that and Rhett looked a little disappointed. I stood, towering over him, and glared down. To him, flirting might be like teasing was to trolls. I didn’t choose to give into my feelings about it. He stared for a moment before accepting my outstretched hand. I shook his hand, being careful not to crush it. He smiled at me and bowed slightly. Carmen stood and offered her hand. He took it and kissed it, as he did before, then disappeared in a swarm of shadows. Getting used to Rhett would take time. I knew it wouldn’t happen any time soon. He seemed to be entirely honest, though. Until he proved himself untrustworthy, I would allow him around my mate and me.