Little Red (Twisted Dark, #4)

Chapter Seventeen: Pissed Off Witches

"Fuck you!" She shouted it out and threw out several more punches that actually had me gritting my teeth and grunting as I blocked the hits. She was actually driving me backwards and she let up for a second and I threw a grin at her.

"I wish ye would." I winked at her and she froze in place, her dark green eyes going darker and if she would have been a werewolf I would have said her hackles were raised.

"You're crossing the line between cute and me wanting to blow your fucking head off. Tread carefully, were." She ground the words out and I actually felt a bit of apprehension as I looked at her. The air close to her skin was warping with magick and she looked half a second from snapping and killing me. Which was not entirely what I wanted. Brawling was one thing, dealing with an aggressive and pissed off witch that wanted me dead was another thing entirely.

"I figure if ye wanted me dead, I'd be dead. You wouldn't be dancin' with me." I slowly let my arms lower before I looked at her carefully. "I ain't gunna say sorry. Keepin' Violet alive was my goal, I achieved that, not gunna apologize for it." I wouldn't apologize for it. I wouldn't. Violet and my niece and nephew were alive, that wasn't something I was going to apologize for. Sometimes in this life you had to push and push hard to get what you needed. "Figure someone like ye would understand that." I thought she would be one to understand that. She certainly fit the type, born and bred to never back down, to never sacrifice what you wanted or needed for anything else.

"You don't know a damned thing about me, were." She snapped it out and I was once again brought the image of snapping teeth and hackles. My Instinct swirled around my stomach, heating and scraping at my insides.

Test limits

Might reward you

Test and find out

"I know that despite how mad you are, ye still wanna fuck me." The words came out of me without a thought otherwise and she bared her teeth in response. Fuck, she looked like a damned werewolf like that and for some reason I found it sexy as hell.

"Thin. Line. Were." Each word came out sparking with magick and her entire body was tensed as if she wanted to take a run at me and my Instinct swirled faster through me, grabbing at my bones, making my stomach clench with unease.

Female dangerous

Female deadly

Tread carefully

Need to listen

Need to watch

Need to be careful

The Instinct rattled around inside of my skull but I shook it off, pushed it away. "What? Don't get mad at me for tellin' the truth." I shrugged lazily, keeping my eyes on her intently. My Instinct was screaming at me that I was in danger as magick flashed through her eyes and crackled in the air around her. "Come on, witchling. You could kill me or you can brawl but I sugges' you choose before I do." And I would choose the brawling because I knew for a fact that it would end up leading to sex. She stared at me, the magick swirling before her gaze darted off towards Violet and Jax's cabin. Without warning she shifted her feet, turned on her heels, and walked away.

I sputtered slightly, completely caught off guard by the reaction. Out of everything I had expected from her, simply walking away had not factored into that. "Where do you think you're going?" I called it out before I started after her.

"Away, were. You should do the same." She called it out over her shoulder. She stalked through the trees, her form strumming with heavy tension but she wasn't magicking herself away. I wondered if that meant anything. If she really want to leave she could but she stood on solid ground, no ripping herself through space and time. She stalked much like a werewolf. She wanted to put space between us with how fast she was stalking off but all I could think about was a female wolf escaping a pesky male she was irritated by and it made me grin.

"What if I decide no' to?" I said it, unable to keep the cockiness from my voice as I did so. She whirled around with a shout, a surge of magick slammed into me and sent me into a roll. I managed to get to my feet quickly and watched as her hands clenched into fists and flames literally surrounded her. They snapped at the air hungrily and her eyes were like two dark pools of poison that flashed and surged with her flaring magick.

Danger

Danger

Danger

My Instinct was screaming at me but it was like my brain has short circuited. "I knew ye had the hots for me, Red, jus' didn't think it was literal." At the words she gave another shout and threw her arm out, her fist connected with one of the red woods and the giant tree snapped like kindling, falling over with a cracking boom as shards of wood from her hit went flying. "If you wanted wood that much, ye should've just asked." I shrugged slightly even as my Instinct screamed at me to shut my fucking mouth and there was another part of my brain that also demanded I keep my mouth fucking closed.

She blinked at me, "You're fucking stupid." She blinked again, the flames receding. "Fucking insane." She gave a short and unamused laugh.

I smirked, "Well you kn-"

"Keep your goddamned mouth closed, you rank piece of shit." She said it evenly, holding one finger up. For some reason I found my brain re-engaging and I closed my mouth with a snap. I watched as she pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled and exhaled slowly for a few moments. She was calming down and for a brief moment I realized just how close I had come to literally dying and my stomach clenched heavily at it. She was a high level witch, so out of control with her magick she was literally on fire and I had essentially taunted her. Jaxton would have killed me himself if he ever heard I had done that.

However I was alive and she was calming down, so that was a win for me. There was no reason to be beat myself up about it. Everything worked out well, even if I had been saying stupid shit to a super pissed off witch. Things had worked out, I wasn't sure how, but they had. However Red super pissed off had been very attractive, in a very scary sort of way.

"You would've done it if Bam didn't listen, wouldn't you?" She looked at me, setting her jaw and I nodded. I didn't have any remorse for that, I wouldn't regret my thought process for the entire thing. The witch had listened and Violet and her babies were alive. My goal had been achieved. "Goddamn suicidal werewolves and having to talk about my problems like some sort of responsible person! For fuck's sake!" It burst out of her like a shout and she turned away from me slightly but I kept my mouth firmly closed. She told me to keep it shut, so I would at least listen to her for that.

She pinched her nose again before turning back to me, holding up a finger. "Okay, first of all, if you ever, and I mean ever, threaten my life when I'm clearly doing my best to resolve a situation because you want to fucking ham fist shit and make it worse. I will not hesitate to kill you and make it fucking painful." She lifted a second finger and I watched her intently. "Secondly, don't you ever be a cocky, taunting asshole when I walk away from you. The only reason you're not dead right now is because you clearly mean something to my blood sister and I'm not about to pound more trauma into her by offing your stupid ass. Anyone else would be buried fifty feet under the fucking bedrock if they had pulled that shit. Get it?" At the savagely asked question I gave her another nod. I wasn't going to lie, having her give me rules was more than sexy. As I said, I needed a female who would push me back when I went too far and beat me for my mistakes.

"And finally, and this is important so you better fucking listen. If you ever make me out to be the responsible party like this again. Setting out boundaries and shit. I will not hesitate to castrate you with a rusty spoon and hibatchi roast your balls and then shove them down your fucking throat so you can choke on them." She spat the words out and I fought the grin that kept wanting to climb onto my face. She was far too attractive at the moment and it was doing strange things to me that I wasn't all that adverse to. I doubted I would ever find a more perfect female for me no matter where I looked. The only issue was getting her on the same page as me. "Okay. Rules have been set. You wanted to dance. Let's fucking dance." She pulled off her jacket with jerky movements and I let the grin out.

That's what I was talking about.