Anya Bast - Witch Heart

"Fine, so when we stop, I'll take over driving for a while and you can get some sleep."

His hands tightened a degree on the wheel. "I'm fine to drive a little longer."

"Adam, you are not. Don't fight me on this one, you'll lose."

"You can't even drive—"

She drew a thread of air and sent it under the hood. The whole car shuddered. "I don't want to hear another word about it, Adam."

He closed his mouth and said no more.

Of course he waited until the car was on fumes. They stopped at a gas station on top of an exit with plans to take as little time as possible refueling, going to the bathroom, and grabbing some food from the convenience store.

Claire got out of the car and stretched in the crisp, cool night air. It felt good to shed that steel skin for a while.

Peering down the overpass leading away from the gas station and into the country, she had an urge to run — feel the pound of the concrete under her shoes and allow the cool, night wind to fill her lungs and play in her loose hair. Freedom from the prison the Challenger made.

She glanced at Adam, who was filling up the car. His shoulders were hunched, his head down in the face of a strong wind. Stress sat clearly in the way he held his body, in the hunch of his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw. He was so incredibly worried for her.

For the first time in her life, apart from her mother, she had someone who cared for her. She stood for a long moment staring at Adam, a smile playing over her lips. In that moment, despite all that was happening to them, despite facing death that morning, Claire felt better than she ever had in her entire life.

"Adam."

He looked up at her, the wind blowing his hair across his forehead. Tension sat in the jut of his jaw and in the lines bracketing his mouth. Trouble clouded his eyes and laid bare in the rigid set of his lips.

Claire smiled.

Adam looked confused for a moment and then the storm clouds cleared. Heat replaced the hardness in his expression, chased away the grim set of his mouth. Love dwelt in the curve of his lips now, warmed his eyes to a darker blue.

They held each other's gazes for a moment longer and then she turned and walked into the store to use the bathroom. She felt Adam's gaze on her like a palpable stroke on her skin as she strolled away. When she turned at the door, he was still staring at her, a smile playing over his mouth. Pleasantness trilled through her body.

Houses, was this what love felt like? If it was, she liked it.

The lights of the store blinded her after driving in the dark for so long. She blinked in the fluorescents, her eyes gritty from lack of sleep.

The man behind the counter glanced at her, then went back to reading his magazine. She passed the Slurpee machine and the racks of packaged cakes and bags of chips, her stomach rumbling. After she used the bathroom she was going to buy out half the store. Junk food, she'd found, was golden.

After she'd used the bathroom (with great relief), she stood at the sink letting the warm water run over her hands. Adam had probably finished fueling the car. They could grab some food for the road and start off again, but she was driving. They needed to be partners in this, not—

"Claire."

She looked up and saw Tevan in the mirror's reflection. Her stomach clenched. She whirled, drawing power. He laid his hand on her shoulder just as she punched him with her fistful of magick.

She was too late.

The world imploded. Her body tore apart at a molecular level and scattered over the universe. When she came back together, she knelt on a cold, concrete floor, retching.

The toes of a pair of black boots were inches from her nose. Someone was groaning not far away — Tevan. At least she'd managed to hit the bastard before he'd jumped her. Still, she knew all too well that Kai's demon eyes gazed down upon her with satisfaction.

She'd been taken.

"CLAIRE?"

Adam pounded open each of the bathroom stall doors with rising fear. The back of his throat tasted bitter and his stomach was in a hot, tight knot. Adrenaline-fueled rage rushed through his veins. She'd been too long in the bathroom and he knew with an eerie psychic certainty that something had happened to her.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

The store clerk had seen her go in but not come out and every one of the bathroom stalls were empty. His throat constricted.

Claire was gone.

"Calm down, Adam."

Adam rounded on Thomas. "Calm down? I'm not fucking going to calm down anytime soon. Did you not hear me, Thomas? Tevan and Kai have Claire."

"I am aware."

Adam stood in the middle of Thomas's half-destroyed Coven library office trying to get a handle on his emotions.

The demons had hacked away at the Coven, destroying what they could and starting fires in some of the wings. The Coven witches had waged a war against the Atrika between these walls and had managed to drive the demons from the building.

Score point one for the witches; they'd been able to drive them back without any fatalities and they'd not needed the elium or Claire's odd elemental magick to do it. That was a win in a situation in which the Coven was always one step behind demon-kind.

But the cost had still been high.

Theo was in the infirmary, being treated by Doc Oliver. He'd live, but he had even more scars now than before. He'd caught some bad burns in the battle at the cabin along with the broken bones.

Thomas pressed his lips into a straight line. "You need to calm down so we can think clearly. Think clearly and act accordingly."

Adam pushed a hand through his hair. "Wouldn't it be great if we could act?" He snorted. "They could be anywhere in the world right now. We have no way to track them."

Thomas had no reply. He knew Adam was right.

Wild grief and fear rose up within Adam, making him feel half-crazy. He couldn't lose Claire. Not now. Not after he'd realized just how much she meant to him. Fuck.

And they'd fought. He'd been so stupid. Claire was alive and breathing — warm, sweet, and loving. How could he let his time with Claire be diminished by the memory of a woman long dead, cold, and in her grave?

"Fuck!" he yelled.

If he didn't act soon, there might be two ghosts to haunt him instead of one.

Adam shook his head. "I'm not giving her up." He turned and bellowed, "I won't let them have her!"

Thomas held out a hand like-Adam was a rabid dog he intended to stave off. "None of us intend to allow the demons to kill Claire."

Adam turned and paced across the room. "We need Micah. He's got to be able to do something, figure out the most likely place they'd take her to try and remove the elium or something. There's got to be something we can do."

"I've already got him on it."

"Can I help? I can't stay idle on this one, Thomas. I need to be doing something… anything."

Thomas nodded. "Yeah, you can help Micah by telling him all there is to know about the demons and Claire. Any bit of information that you haven't told him would help, even if it seems totally mundane."

Adam nodded, glancing away and rubbing a hand over his chin. He really did feel half-crazed. Uncontrolled fire jumped from finger to finger. He tamped it down and took a deep breath. "Okay. I can do that."

"Adam?"

He looked at Thomas, tried to focus. "Yeah?"

"You really care about Claire, don't you? This isn't just about losing your charge to the demons, is it?"

He rubbed his chin again, looked down at the ground. "I think I fell in love with her."

Thomas went silent.

"I've only done that one other time in my life, Thomas, and you know how that turned out."

"Yes." He paused. "I remember that night."