Anya Bast - Witch Heart

"I want to take Claire to the park," said Adam. "We need to get out of the house." He turned to her. "Wanna get out of here for a while?"

"You don't have to ask me twice."

Theo's grin had faded.

Adam noticed and held up a hand toward the earth witch. "Hey, man, you know the Atrika can come in here whenever they want. We could have Claire locked down in Gribben and the demons would tear through it like tinfoil. The wards mean nothing to them. They haven't attacked for four days, which means they don't know where we are. It's okay if we go out for a while. Claire needs some space and fresh air."

She did. Adam had nicely anticipated her needs… in that regard anyway.

"Like I said, I'm not the house mother." Theo glowered a moment longer, then disappeared back through the doorway.

Adam looked at her for a full moment, then grinned and held out his hand. "Let's ditch this place for a while."

A few minutes later they were out in the car. Neither of them bothered with coats, since they both had fire magick to call. The Charger vroomed to life and settled into a low purr, the vehicle humming beneath her with obvious leashed power.

Adam curled his hands around the steering wheel and closed his eyes for a moment. Bliss enveloped his features.

"You love this car," she said when he put it into drive and hit the gas pedal.

"It's a thing of beauty. What's not to love?"

She settled into her seat and watched the scenery pass by — huge, older homes that housed wealthy families. Perfectly trimmed lawns. Careful sidewalks. There were no cold, hard edges here. In this place, Claire felt a little more at ease. Or maybe it was the man beside her that put her at ease. Adam had an alternating effect on her. One minute he made her blind with need, the next she was comforted by his presence.

He turned down another of the pretty streets and they traveled out of the residential area and into a commercial one. Shops twinkled brightly in the early evening and couples walked hand-in-hand down the street.

Must be nice, she mused, to have someone all your own. Someone you could share yourself with, body and soul. Even though she'd learned to live without that, a part of her longed for it. Longed for a person to call her own in this world, or any of them.

"You know this place well," she said, distracting herself from the dangerous, self-indulgent path her thoughts were taking. "You know right where you're going."

"I have ties here. Family." He paused and drew a breath. "My wife's family, actually. They live around here. My wife and I were both born and raised in Chicago, but she had extended family up here, uncles and cousins. I used to come to the cities with her sometimes."

Claire really didn't hear much after the word wife. She'd turned and begun to study him with fierce attentiveness. "You're married?"

He glanced at her. "No. Not anymore." His voice had gone tight, as tight as his white hands gripping the steering wheel.

Claire searched her memory, as she so often did, for her mother's teachings. "You're divorced, then?"

"No, we never divorced."

She stared straight ahead, working it out. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Wasn't your fault." He cast her a sideways grin, but it didn't reach his eyes. Not even close. "Anyway, lots of the Coven witches have ties to Minnesota. Maybe there was a genetic pool here, some kind of witchy draw or something, I don't know. Ingrid is from around here. Jack McAllister, too. Thomas even keeps an apartment around the cities. Me, I just know it secondhand."

"Might be the water and trees."

"Excuse me?"

"The elements in this state are strong. Lots of water. I can feel it all calling to me."

"They don't call it the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes for nothing. There are a lot of water witches here, according to Micah." He took a left. "Here we are, Cherokee Park."

Adam slid the Charger into a spot. They got out and walked into the trees. It was a bit cold outside, so there was no one around. The residential street opposite the park was quiet.

Once they were well into the park, Claire felt more at ease. She stopped for a moment by a towering tree. Leaning against it, she splayed her hand on the rough bark and closed her eyes, soaking in the environment. The cool air kissed her cheek and rustled the branches of the tree overhead. The ground was soft beneath her feet and the scent of earth subtly reached her nose.

This was the earth she remembered from her childhood.

Green, growing, redolent with the scent of the raw element. All of the elements were here save fire, though the possibility of that one existed everywhere, all the time. Ah, yes, now the human part of her was home.. .finally.

"Thank you for bringing me here," she said, her eyes still closed. Emotion rocked through her, stimulating the water magick in her seat.

The heat of him wanned her, he stood so close. "I thought you might like a little nature in your diet. After I felt your magick, with all four elements combined, I figured you were probably dying for some of this."

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. "And I didn't even know I needed it."

He jerked his head. "Come on, I want to show you something."

She followed him, almost unconsciously locking step with his.

Adam glanced at her, shoving his hands into his pockets. "So what's with the Houses thing?"

Claire frowned, then realized he referred to the expression she used. "The Four Houses of the Universe. It's the primary religion of the daaeman. I was raised on it. There are four houses, each with a spiritual patron, one for each of the daaeman breeds. When daaeman die, they live between lifetimes in their respective house, awaiting rebirth." She pursed her lips. "Where they figure the aeamon go, I've no clue. I suspect they think we're soulless."

He missed a step. "Demon religion. That's wild."

"Why? They have a culture just like you. Religion, laws, art."

"Yeah, that's what Micah keeps saying. It's just strange. I mean, here demons are a part of our religion. They're the bad guys, the devil's pals. They're the ones responsible for all the evil in the world and are the creatures some people blame for their own bad behavior. Demons possess people, make them do malicious things."

Claire went silent, thinking on what he said. "The breeds once dwelt here, a very long time ago, during your biblical times and long before. They coexisted with humans, even had babies with them."

Adam nodded. "That's what created witches."

"Yes. Now, I don't know for certain, but I'd make a guess that because the daaeman were so otherworldly, so like gods, that they became a legend in your culture. Eventually perhaps they were made into these creatures that spread evil. I can see how they would be perceived that way by humans."

"But Atrika really are pure evil."

She nodded. "Yes. The Atrika are living weapons, created only to fight wars on a scale that has likely never been seen on Earth. The Ytrayi, Syari and Mandari lived with the humans in harmony. The Atrika hunted them and occasionally fathered children on the females, oftentimes through rape. The bridge was open to all the breeds back then, before the Ytrayi tried to rid Eudae of the Atrika."

"Too bad they weren't more successful."

"It's true the Atrika are bloodthirsty, every last one of them. They were designed to be that way. They're the most emotional of the breeds, too. The emotion makes them even more dangerous because they act from impulse and on selfish whim. Ever since the wars on Eudae ended, they've been bored. The other breeds — mostly — think of the greater good of their race before making decisions."