Free Seduced and Ensnared by Stephanie Julian

front window, she looked to see if a tree had fallen against the house.
    But what she saw made her think that maybe she had gone crazy overnight.
    * * * * *
    “You’re sure, Rio?”
    His brother sighed so loudly the phone line crackled. “Yes, I’m sure. Now, for the fifth time, get the hell off my back and go find your little woman. You do know you’re obsessed, right, bro?”
    Yeah, he knew that but he didn’t need his younger brother to point that out. “ Testa di minchia , saccente. I’ll call you later.”
    “Hey, Cam?”
    He sighed. “What?”
    “Be careful. You don’t sound too steady.”
    A “fuck you” was on the tip of his tongue when he realized his brother wasn’t joking. “I’ll be fine, Rio. And thanks.” He hung up before the kid could say anything else.
    Pulling a state map from his office desk, he pinpointed the location Rio had found for Stella’s parents’ cabin. It fit the profile for the area he’d seen in the moon bowl. Secluded, wooded. Perfect.
    Before he left, he gathered a few supplies and stuffed them in a backpack. He needed to be prepared if she tried to run away again. Then he began the chant that would take him to her.
    When his parents had discovered his unique ability to translocate himself and others to a place he’d never been, they’d had to get a tutor since neither of them had known how to help him control it. The stregone they’d found, Gregory Jozwiak, had been powerful and just this side of dead but he’d known more about this particular talent than anyone else.
    So transporting himself from his home to a specific place more than twenty miles away was child’s play for Cam. Hell, halfway around the world would be easy as long as he had a recent photo of the area and the latitude and longitude. Gotta love Google Earth.
    And being linchetto , Cam could do this being invisible. Stella would never see him coming.
    * * * * *
    The creature outside was human-shaped though it only stood about three feet from the ground. And probably male, if the scruffy beard was any indication.
    He wore dark sunglasses, just visible under long hanks of dirty brown hair, tattered blue jeans and an old flannel shirt. On his feet he had a pair of huge shit-kickers. No way could his feet be that big and no way was she opening the door. Luckily she hadn’t unlocked it when she’d arrived.
    Lifting his hand, the little man banged on the door again and she had to slap a hand over her mouth not to make any noise. She was hoping if he thought no one was home, he’d go away.
    There was something distinctly odd about this guy—from his huge feet to his huge hands to his… Wow, she must need sleep more than she’d thought, because the guy had a nose that looked like he’d been in some kind of freak accident. It was so long and pointed she could have sworn she saw it twitch side to side like an aardvark’s.
    Okay, now she really was losing it. Today was definitely the weirdest day she’d had in…well, ever. It was almost as if there was a whole world out there she knew nothing about.
    She didn’t know how long she stood there, waiting for that strange little man to leave. She barely took a breath until he finally wandered back into the woods surrounding the cabin.
    Leaning back against the wall facing the front window, she took a deep breath, trying to calm the terrified beating of her heart. Would this day never end? She wanted to go back to yesterday, before she’d met Cam, before he’d turned her life upside down.
    Shaking her head, she nearly missed the slight ripple in the air in the middle of the clearing in front of the house. It looked like heat rising from an asphalt road but since there was no asphalt anywhere on her property, she chalked it up to more unexplained weirdness—until Cam appeared out of thin air.
    Her mouth opened as he walked toward the cabin, disappeared and reappeared right in front of her in the room. She should have been shocked to see him. She