2 Witch and Famous Read Online Free Page B

to take you to lunch,” Niall answered, his arms still around me. He looked me up and down. “You still haven’t told me about the festival. Did something…strange happen?”
    “It wasn’t anything important.” I knew he was still worried about the idea that the coven might come after us. My former friend, Rebecca, had supposedly fixed it so that they wouldn’t, but since she had already tried to kill me once, we couldn’t take that as a given.
    “What happened at the Fringe?” Niall asked again.
    “I just had to stop a couple of goblins from stealing some tourist’s phone.”
    “You had to do it?” Niall looked over at Fergie through the open door. “Mr. Black, is there any law in this country that requires someone to hunt down thieves?”
    Fergie shrugged. “Well, there used to be the old hue and cry laws, but those haven’t been in force for—”
    “We get the idea, Fergie.” I shook my head in exasperation. “Niall, I’m in a job that involves helping people.”
    “For money, in certain specified circumstances. You investigate insurance claims. That isn’t the same as getting into all-out brawls with goblins.”
    “It wasn’t an all-out brawl,” I insisted. “Besides, Siobhan was there. I wanted to keep her out of trouble. Especially when keeping her out of trouble means that we give the coven fewer reasons to come to Edinburgh. If goblins are causing trouble, what do you think they’ll do?”
    Niall had to acknowledge that point, surely? Even so, he still seemed put out that I’d been involved in something like this. I knew that most of it was probably just his concern for my safety, but I was fine. I could have taken on half a dozen goblins. Probably.
    “How much power did you have to use to catch them?” Niall asked.
    “Not much.” I shrugged. “It all came out of the crowd, anyway.”
    Niall shook his head, stepping back from me. “No, Elle. I have told you, it doesn’t work like that. Crowds are good for magic and for boosting your body, but you still burn your reserves. I know you still aren’t feeding. Not the right way.”
    Ah, so that was why he was here. He wanted to have this conversation. Well, if he thought I was just going to give in on this, he needed to think again.
    “I know I skipped Marie yesterday, but she was looking too tired,” I offered, by way of an explanation. A way not to fight, at least.
    “Which is why I have said all along that your current ways of feeding can be no more than temporary,” Niall shot back.
    My current ways of feeding. They involved either taking energy secondhand from Niall as he chose to give it to me, or taking energy through small, pinprick wounds on people we knew who didn’t mind, like Niall’s employees. Neither method was the way that Niall thought I ought to feed. He’d been very clear on that.
    “So, when you came here to offer to ‘take me to lunch’…” I prompted.
    “I meant that I would take you to lunch. Food that is cooked and prepared.” Niall looked slightly affronted. “I have reservations.”
    “Not as many as I think I have right now.” I gave him a stern look. This being Niall, he looked back inscrutably. “You really aren’t about to push some unsuspecting human my way?”
    “I simply intended lunch. However, if on the way, you should happen to find a suitable energy donor, would that be such a bad thing?”
    “Is it a bad thing?” I echoed. “Just grabbing some random man or woman, using my powers to seduce them, and then stealing their energy with a kiss? You don’t see anything wrong with that? Even when you are the one in an intimate relationship with me?”
    Niall frowned. Of course, he frowned. He seemed to be frowning a lot these days. “It is how I have fed for almost my whole life. It is the safest way to feed, Elle. No one realizes what we are doing. We can stay safe. We can stay secret.”
    Because secrets were so important to him. I didn’t say what I was thinking. When we had