Witch & Curse Read Online Free Page B

once been the Cahors, one of the noblest witchly houses in medieval France, and the bitterest enemies of the House of Deveraux.
    All the research and spying had been a test to see if Michael could learn the truth for himself. Michael had been embarrassed by his failure, but delighted to discover that Marie-Claire was a bona fide witch. That she had no idea of her powers was obvious, although she proved them time and again—by “knowing” who was going to call on the phone; by being in the right time and the right place in many instances. She found things people lost, and she had incredible magnetism toward money and good fortune. And she aged with extreme grace and beauty.
    It was said that warlocks and witches together could create astonishingly powerful magics—and though Laurent had warned Michael not to go near Marie-Claire, he had promised himself he would have her . . . when the time was right.
    I didn’t know then that he could spy on me. I thought he would never find out
.
    Michael had bided his time . . . for thirteen longyears. During those years he tried another tack—encouraging his two sons to get involved with the Anderson daughters. Marie-Claire’s girls were twins named Amanda and Nicole. Like her mother, Nicole possessed an interior, if unrecognized, spark of magical ability, but Amanda appeared to be a blank—as mousy and passive as her father, Richard Anderson.
    Eli had launched himself at Nicole, who, barely fourteen, had not been able to resist his allure. Eli was four years older than she, and when Marie-Claire demanded she put an end to their relationship, Nicole had taken it underground. Maybe the girl sensed the power that swirled just beneath the surface of Elias Alain Deveraux. Maybe being constantly expelled and jailed a couple of times made him exciting and forbidden. Back in the day, all his “crimes” would have been seen for what they were—high spirits and hot blood. But in these times, these overly civilized, unbelievably dull times, Eli had been classified as a “juvenile delinquent.”
    Now seventeen, Nicole still saw Eli every chance she got.
    Michael knew that his son’s dubious reputation only added to his own attractiveness—poor Michael Deveraux, a hot-looking, rich, single father whose wife had left him, now trying so hard to manage his careeras a very successful architect while providing a home for his boys. It was a challenge to women who imagined themselves becoming his angel of mercy, taking on those motherless kids and spending all that money. . . .
    So while he worked his way through the married women of Seattle and coveted the prize of Marie-Claire, mousy little Amanda had gotten the hots for Jeraud. Michael knew it from his constant spying, but Jer was oblivious to her pining. Jer had found passion elsewhere, with that nosy grad student Kari Hardwicke at the university. Michael couldn’t stand her. She wanted magical knowledge; she was after power. Besides, she was a slut.
    But Jeraud-Luc could not be told what to do, even when it was in his best interests to obey. So he stayed with his grad student while Eli continued to see Nicole, just as Michael wanted him to. Though Eli was far wilder than his little brother, at least he saw the wisdom in doing what Dad said, if it could get him what he wanted.
    And Michael saw to it that it always did get Eli what he wanted. Eli stayed controlled.
But Jer
. . .
    Et bien,
as Laurent likes to say. All that’ll be over as soon as Jer realizes I finally have the secret of the Black Fire. Then there’ll be no stopping the House of Deveraux
.
    The Cathers witch mother would die tonight, and the girls soon after. Michael’s experiment with uniting the two families was over, and the Cathers would soon prove more useful to him as sacrifices to the Dark Ones than as magical helpmates.
    So, it’s time
.
    He bent to put on his elaborate hunter-green robe, decorated with