Yule Be Magical (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 8) by Sara Bourgeois (popular novels TXT) 📗

to him while he’s in his cell. Stand back from the bars far enough that he can’t reach you. I’m serious about that. I’ll be able to see you on camera, and if you get too close, I can legally end the visit. Please remember that I’ll be able to see you but not hear you. If you need help, wave your hands. I’ll be watching. Come back to this door when you want out. Azriel is in the last cell.”

“Thank you,” I said and stepped through the holding room door when he opened it for me.

“Kinsley,” Azriel’s voice dripped with honey. He’d called out to me when I was about halfway to his cell, and I stopped. For the briefest second, I considered listening to Jeremy and going back.

“Azriel,” I countered and closed the distance between us. Well, as far as I could without Jeremy kicking me out.

“I was hoping you’d come see me,” he said and stood up from the bench in the cell. “They’re moving me soon, and I wasn’t sure I’d get to see you before.”

“Well, here I am,” I said.

“Can you come closer?” he asked as he stood at the bars gripping them.

“No,” I said flatly. “If I do that, Jeremy will kick me out. This is as far as I can go.”

“I’ve missed you,” Azriel said.

“I don’t know what you want me to say to that,” I retorted.

“Have you missed me?” he asked and sounded completely sincere.

“Honestly, I think there may have been a time at first, but how could I miss you? You abandoned me… It was like the second time too,” I said. “I don’t even know why I’m here. Except that maybe I want to know why you tried to have me killed. Did you really want me to die? Did I mean so little to you that you didn’t care if I died for money?”

“That’s ridiculous,” he spat. “Why do you think I tried to have you killed? For money? I have plenty of money, and you do too. If I wanted money, I would have had more than enough when we were together.”

“Thorn has the evidence that you put that man up to killing me. There’s evidence,” I said and felt my fingernails digging into my palms as I held my hands in tight fists.

“Does he?” Azriel asked.

The question hit me like a train. All the blood drained from my head and I felt myself swoon. Fortunately, Meri was in my bag, and I felt his little head bump against my hip. When it did, I felt better.

“I… I believe him,” I said, but I knew my voice betrayed my doubt.

“So, he didn’t show you the evidence?” Azriel asked.

“Well, no, but…”

“This all makes so much sense. I didn’t want to believe it, but it’s a good thing I came back when I did,” Azriel said. “It was so hard to get to you, but I did. Everything is going to be all right.”

I felt that magnetic pull to him again. Suddenly, everything in me wanted to cross the distance and take his hands in mine. Jeremy be damned. I had to touch Azriel again.

“Shake it off,” I whispered to myself.

Enough of Meri’s magic was lingering that I was able to see clearly. Well, sort of clearly. I hated to use magic, but I had to protect myself. I pushed the feelings that Azriel was inflicting on me away. I needed to leave and get away from him, but I had to know what he was talking about.

“What do you mean?” I demanded. “Tell me what you’re talking about. Tell me now, or I’m leaving. And stop trying to lure me in. It’s not going to work, Azriel. I’m onto your tricks.”

“I didn’t try to have you killed, Kinsley. I love you. I love you more than anything in this world,” he said, and I felt my stupid, traitorous heart skip a beat.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” I said.

“I never left you, baby. I would never leave you again. My men in the MC, they turned on me. They showed up and basically kidnapped me. They’ve been holding me captive. I couldn’t overpower them all, but I reached out to you.”

“I would have heard about something like that,” I said. “Where did they take you from? If it was here, everyone would have heard about it.”

“Not if the town sheriff was the one who organized it,” he said.

“How? How would he have done that?” I said and clenched my fists harder. “This is insane.”

“He’s always had someone on the inside of my club. I knew about it, and I let it go. It was useful for a time. He must have used his mole to turn my men against me.”

I knew about the mole in his club too. It was something I couldn’t immediately dismiss as a lie.

“What do you mean you reached out to me?” I asked.

“You don’t hang around witches as much as I have throughout the centuries without learning a thing or two. Vampires have always had a special relationship with mirrors. Not a good one, but with the right inversion spell, you could turn that on its head. They left me locked in a room with a mirror. No one was aware that I could use it to reach out, but I’m no witch. I did the best I could. At first I could only appear to where you could see me, and you were so scared. I’m sorry for that. But then, I got stronger and I could actually reach out. More with my emotions than physically, but it did the trick. You set me free.”

The thing I’d seen in the mirror. The tentacles that reached out to me. The sadness and rage I’d felt. It had been Azriel all along.

“How? How did me smashing a mirror set you free?”

“You opened a portal for the briefest moment. It was the culmination of the spell. You let me out, and I got