Chapter 0003

Evelina's POV

“Hey!” I exclaimed, turning to yell at the man who’d just groped my ass in the subway.

Fuc.king New York. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

“You pervert!” I yelled, watching the strange man disappear into the crowd.

“Temper Evie,” Robert intoned, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. “It’s late, we need to get home.”

Muttering expletives in Spanish that Robert couldn’t understand, I trudged along begrudgingly, emerging from the New York underground and allowing the winter night’s air to help cool my flushed face.

“This is why I always tell you to stick close to me,” Robert murmured impatiently once we got closer to home.

“You aren’t honestly trying to say it’s my fault?” I challenged, casting him a withering look.

“Of course not Evie,” Robert replied quickly. “It’s just that according to statistics, this usually happens to women who men think are alone on the subway. Sticking close to me is a deterrent.”

I raised an eyebrow challengingly. “I think ripping his hands off would be a good deterrent.”

“Now you’re just being volatile.” Robert unlocked the door to our tiny apartment in a not-so-nice part of the Bronx. It was a far cry from the huge L-shaped mansion I’d grown up in. But it was ours. A home we’d both worked hard to make.

“They fixed the leak!” Robert crowed gleefully, washing his hands in the sink. “I don’t know why our neighbors are always complaining about leaky faucets. The plumber for this place always services our apartment promptly. A perfect end to a perfect day.”

That was Robert all right. A fixed leak was the epitome of your life going just marvelously.

“Stop!” I rushed to grab my favorite pink towels with the hand-embroidered white floral patterns on them. Robert had tried drying his hands with my pretty towels. “How many times do I have to tell you that these are for decoration? You’re not supposed to actually use them!”

Robert rolled his eyes, muttering something about women’s logic. I stuck my tongue out at him when he wasn’t looking. O.K. so I was a little obsessive about the way things should be. It was my own personal way of claiming agency over a life that was literally one step away from spiraling out of control. If only this man knew the truth. But he didn’t. He was human and blissfully ignorant. Sometimes I was jealous of exactly how clueless Robert truly was.

“Sweetheart, we’re out of eggs. I’ve asked you three times already to grab them when you go to the grocery store, but you keep forgetting.” Robert looked at me, chuckling affectionately.

I cringed. Yeah. Actually…it wasn’t an accident that I kept forgetting. The truth was, I abhorred the scent of eggs cooking first thing in the morning without the tangy smell of salsa. It made me want to puke and totally ruined my appetite. I wisely withheld that bit of information from Robert, however. I could not begrudge him his fried eggs, sunny-side up.

“I’ll remember for tomorrow when I go out.” My hands flew over the sticky post-it notepad resting on my white tiled countertops.

I wrote down ‘eggs’ in my neat loopy handwriting.

“Perfect.” He gave me a perfunctory kiss on the forehead before going to sit on the couch to watch a docu-series on N*****x.

Like clockwork, I already knew, at some point he would get up to make a cup of green tea, drink it, rinse it off, put the mug in the dishwasher and then come to bed where he’d place a kiss on my shoulder before falling asleep. That was Robert. Perfectly predictable.

***

“Yes Kyle, I remembered to hook the pepper spray onto my keychain. It arrived earlier this morning,” I assured, talking to the man who had adopted me when I’d been seven years old.

It was the next day, and I’d just been getting ready to leave the apartment I lived in with Robert.

“All right Evie, I was just making sure.” Kyle’s reassuring voice wafted through the speakerphone as I cleaned up the kitchen. “Your mama was asking when you planned to come visit?”

I sighed. Not this again. I didn’t go home often. Ever really. Mama didn’t approve of me rushing into my marriage with Robert. In Robert, I found solace in the predictability of his character—a man whose actions were as consistent as the rising sun. Yet, for all his virtues, Robert lacked the spark of passion that ignited my soul. He was the embodiment of safety, a harbor in a stormy sea. Our relationship was based on practicality rather than passion. Which is just what I needed.

“I’ll think about it,” I hedged.

“Do you need any money? Should I transfer—”

“No Kyle,” I cut in brusquely. “I don’t need money.” I really didn’t. I made a comfortable amount working remotely in the I.T. field.

There was a pause as my stepfather took this in.

“All right well…I just want to make sure you’re all right. You know we don’t approve of the neighborhood you live in. “

I rolled my eyes. Our miniscule apartment in the Bronx might not be a mansion. But I was proud of what Robert and I had built together. Right down to the pretty pink towels we fought over, hanging from the oven railing.

“I know but that’s really not your decision to make for me,” I retorted evenly, crossing my arms in ire.

“I just worry about you, Evie,” Kyle’s gentle voice replied. “I wish you weren’t so far away. I remember when you were a little girl promising to always be here…with us. And now you’ve grown up and I know I’m supposed to let you find your own path in life. That’s my job as a parent. But I can’t help but worry,” he ended mournfully, helplessly even.

In many ways, my stepfather was more protective of me than even my own biological parents. Guilt pinged my heart. Thinking of Kyle as my stepfather really wasn’t right. He was more a father to me than my biological father. However, ever since my biological father told me that Kyle had purposefully used his money and influence to keep my papa away from me, I had become a little bitter.

For all my biological dad’s faults, he was still my papa. He was the man I had my first memories with. There were a few good memories. Happy memories of him before he became a raging alcoholic and the house became filled with mama's tears and his screams. I loved him, for all his faults. I knew he loved me too. So why did Kyle try to keep us apart? It hurt to find that out. I knew I should have just asked Kyle, but I also felt guilty stirring the pot. Kyle had done so much for my mama. For me. For my little sister Mia.

“We miss you.” Kyle’s voice was full of the love he had for me.

I loved him too.

“I miss you too,” I assured. “I’ll talk to Robert and we can plan a visit. But no Aunt Mel,” I warned.

“Deal. I’ll be waiting to hear back from you. Your mama will be so happy when I tell her you’re coming home,” Kyle responded enthusiastically before we mutually ended the call.

Home. Where mama would bug me about my decision to marry Robert and Aunt Mel would constantly drop in to remind me that I was supposed to take over her coven. I was a witch. And not just any witch. I was a powerful elemental witch, able to store vast amounts of energy within my body. There were only 13 of us registered within the entire world. We went by many names. In America, we were called Earth Witches. In Spanish speaking countries, we were called Tierranians. In Europe, people referred to us as Elementairias. However, no matter what we were called, we were special. Stronger than the average witch. I almost died when my powers unleashed at the age of 7. Since then, I’d learned to control them. My Aunt Mel had trained me well.

My existence was kept a secret. Nobody expected the daughter of a human woman to be born an immensely powerful witch. It was all thanks to my grandmother, the Dark Witch Sybl, Tia Mel’s mother. She’d been an evil woman and had been hell bent on Tia Mel joining the Dark Coven. But Tia Mel refused and went up against Sybl when she tried to summon a demon.

My mama was the product of Sybl’s experiments to create an army of powerful witches. Mama was carried by a surrogate, my Abuelita who’d helped raise me, but was the product of Sybl’s eggs and a random sperm donor. However, the balance demanded an Earth Witch, always the first born daughter of a first born daughter, in the next generation of the bloodline. Tia Mel only had sons. Magic always found a way to keep the balance. And that balance was found in me

But I never asked for this. I didn’t want to be in charge of a coven of witches. I wanted to be normal. My childhood had been filled with enough complications. Up until I was 7, I’d watched my father constantly screaming at my mama that she was a worthless good for nothing. She’d cry herself to sleep most nights. What neither of them had realized was that he might be calling my mama useless…but I was the one absorbing those words, the feeling that they had always been directed at me was something I’d never been able to completely shake off. Mama told me papa was sick. And I constantly prayed for him to get better because he was the only father figure I had known.

Not to mention the fact that when I’d been an idiotic three-year-old, I’d been too clue less to let my mother leave papa. Instead, I’d begged her to stay with him because he promised me we’d be a happy family. A person like me, didn’t deserve to lead anyone. Nop. A perfectly normal life was the best way to keep myself from screwing more shit up. I still loved my papa, and I wanted him to be a better person. I wanted him to be part of my life. I could still love Papa but accept the fact that my mama was happier with Kyle. But at time…I felt completely caught in the middle. Especially with the way Papa always talked bad about Kyle. And I couldn’t blame him when Kyle had bullied him into staying away from his children. Both were at fault and I didn’t want to pick sides. So the best recourse was to just minus myself from the equation entirely and live this mundane life.

My phone went off. It was Robert. He wanted to remind me to grab the eggs from the grocery store since we were out.

“This is the fifth day in a row that I haven’t had two fried eggs with buttered toast.” Robert’s voice was tinged with borderline panic.

For a man who stuck to a routine, I could see how this might be an existential crisis. The hustle and bustle of his office in the background reached my ears. He was probably sitting in his cubicle, about to have a panic attack over eggs.

“I’ll get them today on my way home from yoga class.” I really didn’t want to. But five days was a big deal for this man.

My eyes flickered to the clock. It was time for some yoga. As I left my apartment, the maintenance man greeted me with a cordial smile. He was always hanging out in this hallway, fixing one thing or another. The apartment complex really was quite old. Something always needed repair.

A sudden prickle of awareness shot through me as I stepped outside. Turning to look around, I discovered no one was there. The last time I’d felt this way was when Gabriel Rossi showed up at my university when I was a junior. I’d been 20, he’d been 25.

I shivered, recalling the event. He’d stood there beneath a tree, a cigar clamped between his teeth. Waiting for me…

Flashback

“You look different,” his eyes trailed my form.

I had never been so grateful for the crush of students on campus than I was today. He couldn’t kill me in front of everyone in broad daylight.

RIGHT?

“Little Evelina is all grown up,” Gabriel sneered. “Make no mistake Bella-”

My heart thudded against my ribcage, the word spoken so carelessly impacted me in more ways than he could ever imagine.

“-you are mine. One day…I will come for you,” he ended resolutely before turning to leave.

I sank into the grass, breathing erratically, willing myself to believe it was just a mere coincidence this dangerous man had shown up today of all days. The very day after I’d lost my virginity to Robert. Sweet kind Robert who Gabriel would not think twice about skewering.

It suddenly struck me that last night, when we’d made love, I had taken off my arm bangle and had forgotten to put it back on. Son.of.a.b.i.t.ch had tracked me. I knew he had some witch. And he was my mate. I’d done enough training with Aunt Mel to know that without the talisman, this man could track me. I had to get better at hiding my tracks. I had to keep running from this man.

End of flashback

Up until now, I was firmly confident in the fact that Gabriel Rossi had no clue where I was.

There was no way the formidable Alpha Don could have found me. Not here. Pulling the hood of my jacket more firmly around my head, I strode forward towards the subway, trying to ignore the biting chill of the November air. Eggs. I had to remember the eggs. Robert would get home before me, so I shot him a message as a reminder that he couldn’t touch my damn kitchen towels. Robert always forgot and soiled them. One of the few pet peeves of his that annoyed me. With a resigned sigh, I tried to reassure myself that at least Robert didn’t kill people left and right like a certain mate of mine.