Chapter 2

"Where the heck was she?" Milly thought to herself as she practically stomped down the sidewalk, full of annoyance at her friend. Alex had agreed to go on a double date with her and two really hot guys they had met at a party a week before. But instead of showing up at the restaurant like they had all agreed upon, Alex blew it off. She didn't seem like the type of person to be so flaky, but then again, Milly knew she wasn't really looking forward to the date. Plus she hadn't really known Alex that long.

Milly's anger increased as she thought of the painfully awkward dinner. She felt weird and shy about being out on a date with two guys, albeit accidentally. After about ten minutes, Milly had tried, unsuccessfully, to call her friend. Alex hadn't answered her phone. Stuck there throughout the entire dinner out of forced politeness, on all three sides, they had parted ways as soon as possible.

"Alex!" Milly shouted as she banged on her friend's apartment door. "Are you in there?" No answer.

Milly had just assumed that Alex had blown her off, but what if something was really wrong? What should she do?

"Alex?" she called again, tentatively testing the doorknob. It was open. Milly's blood ran cold as the door slowly swung into the apartment. This was how curious neighbors found dead bodies. What if Alex was dead? What if the killer was still in there? Milly felt her legs jump in a sudden urge to turn around and run in the opposite direction.

Don't be such a scaredy cat, she scolded herself. Alex probably just left the door unlocked accidentally. It was completely irrational of her to jump to conclusions.

"Alex?" she called out again, stepping into the apartment. Everything seemed to be fine. Milly walked over to the notepad sitting on the kitchen counter, deciding to leave her friend a note.

Milly picked up a pen and leaned over the paper when she heard a noise behind her. Turning around, her knees almost buckled at what she saw in front of her. There was a man standing there, intimidating in all his height. Instantly, her earlier thoughts came rushing back to her.

"Wh-who are you?" she cautiously asked the stranger.

"You need to come with me," he said, stepping forward and grabbing her wrist. Before Milly could do anything, or even think about doing anything, she suddenly found that she was no longer in Alex's kitchen.

"What just happened? Where am I? Who are you?" the questions poured out of Milly as her head turned frantically back and forth, trying to recognize where she was. It was hopeless, though. She was in a room she had never seen before. The walls were dark, and there were heavy curtains and leather furniture. The walls were lined with bookshelves, filled with old books, and there was a fireplace in the corner.

Milly's brain scrambled to come up with an explanation of what was happening. She must be hallucinating, she thought. It didn't make any sense, no time had passed, but how had she come to be in this room with this man.

"Please," she begged, "What is going on?"

The man ignored her question, instead walking towards a table in the corner of the room. Milly glanced to where he was heading, and for the first time saw the ominous object sitting so peacefully there-waiting.

Milly automatically turned and ran for the heavy wood door, she shook it a few times, but it was no use, she was locked in the room. Tears came to her eyes as she turned to face the man again, the man who was now holding the gun, pointing directly at her.

"Please," her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. She shook her head in denial. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

The tears fell unheeded down her cheeks as she stared into the barrel of the gun. The man didn't answer her question though. Instead he just pulled the trigger.

Alex groggily opened her eyes. The first thing she realized was that she wasn't in her bed. Panic struck her for the few seconds before she realized where she was, then a new kind of panic came. It was all real. She looked down at Jasper, lying beside her. Was it really possible? Was she really a witch?

Alex looked turned her head to look into Jasper's face. It felt nice to be lying next to him, his arm wrapped around her waist. She didn't even know the guy, and he could very well be insane, but she found that she didn't want to move. What was wrong with her? She should have protested when he had carried her to bed last night, lying down next to her. She shouldn't have agreed to sleep in the same bed with him, especially after what he had done to her, stripping her naked like that. She hadn't really had time to think too much about it last night, after finding out she was a witch and all, but the more she thought about it now, the angrier she got. No matter the reason why he had done it, it was still humiliating. Still, even in her anger, she didn't move—didn't want to.

Jasper moaned a bit in his sleep and pulled her body more tightly against his.

"Good morning," he whispered huskily in her ear. Alex started and tried to make a move to pull away, he wouldn't let her though.

"You're awake."

Jasper opened his eyes, lifting his head slightly to look down at her. "Yes."

Alex didn't know what to say. What do you say to a warlock who kidnapped you to fight some renegades, who's seen you naked, and with whom you just spent the night with?

Jasper smiled tenderly down at her, a twinkle in his eye. Then, without any warning, he kissed her. Alex didn't move at first, so surprised, she didn't react at all.

"Mmm," she mumbled out of her smashed lips, pushing at his chest with her hands and turning her head to the side.

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, petting her hair.

"What's wrong?!" Alex couldn't believe he just asked her that question. "You can't just kiss me!"

Jasper chuckled softly. "Why not, sweetheart?" he said, nuzzling her cheek with his then kissing it softly.

"Because we just met yesterday. Because you kidnapped me! And you can't call me sweetheart!" Alex tried to push out from where he had her pinned to the bed beneath him, but Jasper wouldn't let her move, and she wasn't strong enough to move him.

"Just as well, Alex," he said as if humoring a petulant child, "It would be far too easy to get distracted by you. And we need to get to work."

He carefully rolled off of her and off the bed, before leaning over and lifting her easily up by the armpits to stand her on her feet. It wasn't until she saw Jasper staring down at her chest that she remembered her shirt was ripped down the middle. She gave an indignant humph while pulling the two ends of her shirt together and crossing her arms over her middle.

Seeing her modest reaction made Jasper grin from ear to ear. "It's not like it's anything I haven't seen before," he said, snaking his hand up her shirt and resting it on the skin of her back.

Alex angrily pulled away from him. She couldn't believe that he had the audacity to remind her of how horribly he had treated her. Alex glared at him before deliberately storming around him and walking out the bedroom door.

Jasper followed her down the stairs. Alex was standing angrily in the kitchen, having stormed off with no where to actually go.

"Come here," Jasper said when he followed her into the kitchen a few paces behind.

Alex glared at him. "No," she said defiantly.

Jasper held out his arms for her, and like last night, Alex found herself flying into them. "Hey!" she shouted, struggling against him, not liking how he was manhandling her.

"Behave," he told her gently, though she continued to struggle in his arms. Then all of a sudden she stopped, not because she wanted to, but because she found that she couldn't move.

"What are you doing?" she screeched, trying desperately to get her arms and legs to work, but to her horror, finding that they simply wouldn't move. "Let me go."

"I would if I thought that you would be a good girl and stop struggling, but since I know you won't, this is my only alternative solution." And with that, he proceeded to strip her torn shirt from her body.

"Stop!" Alex shouted, feeling betrayed at what he was doing. In a weird way, she had come to trust him, and if she was honest with herself, she was even starting to fall for him.

Jasper ran his fingers up the smooth flesh of her side, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind. Alex' s heart was pounding loudly in her chest. She was unnerved by the fact that this man she barely knew was touching her and looking at her so intimately, even more so by the fact that magic was preventing her from moving, and even more so because she felt a telltale twinge between her legs.

Then out of nowhere, a t-shirt appeared in Jaspers hand. Alex was surprised to recognize it as one of her own. "Where did you get that?"

"I picked up a few clothes from your apartment." He pulled the t-shirt over her head, then guided her arms through the sleeves. "There you go," he kissed the top of her head and drew her back into his arms.

Alex found that once again she could move. "Are you hungry?" he asked her, letting her go and walking over to the refrigerator.

Alex would have said no just to be stubborn, but she found that she was actually really hungry. "Yes," she grudgingly admitted.

"Good, I'll make us some breakfast, but then we really need to start your training. No one knows how much time we have."

"Jasper?" Alex asked softly.

"Hmm?" he glanced over at her, but then turned back to his task of pulling eggs and butter out of the fridge and setting them on the counter.

"What—" Alex trailed off, not really sure what she wanted to ask. "What's going on? What am I expected to do?"

Jasper could hear the gently worry and confusion in her voice, and he set the pan he had been holding down on the counter and walked over to her. "Alex, I know this all seems strange to you, but I promise everything is going to be okay. This, you being trained, is just more of a formality anyway. The council just wants to make sure they have all their bases covered." Jasper picked up her hands and stared intensely into her eyes, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay?"