No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2)

by Mercedes Jade

If her family knew Elizabeth had a dragon haunting her mind, she was sure they would have expressed concern. It was the kind of thing that got you pills in the human realm to fix the crazy.

  Witches would burn incense and blow ash all over you.

  Lightning couldn’t block Geer, so she didn’t see the point in worrying her family about his unwanted presence. He didn’t seem interested in tracking her down, as she had first worried.

  Nope, he was satisfied with just plaguing her thoughts.

  Not that he could read them—she was fairly certain. He hadn’t slipped up, at least, if he was pretending to be unable to read her mind.

  All he did was talk, talk, talk. Nag, to be honest. He gave her an older vibe. Someone who had seen everything and felt she should follow his advice since he knew what was best.

  She’d told him that what was good for him wasn’t necessarily good for her. He agreed to disagree.

  It was easier to just ignore him if he got too bossy.

  She’d never let him know how much she liked hearing his voice or taunting him by misbehaving and doing things on purpose to annoy him.

  It was a game.

  He’d been in her head every day since they had returned to the human realm. There was even a bit of predictability to his routine, times he usually showed up and how long he would stay.

  She determined it was about ten pokes of his fire and two to three glances at the sky.

  Geer was a pushy guy, not that surprising for a Maerenian male, and persistent.

  Sometimes he just watched through her eyes quietly, but whenever she did something he deemed dangerous, or stupid brave as he liked to call it, then she was subject to his spiel of opinions.

  Some people were indecisive, but Geer knew what he wanted. He would help make all the important decisions for her if she bothered to listen.

  Pizza, apparently, was important.

  “It is pizza, not my last meal. I can just pick off the toppings I don’t like and get out of here faster, with a hot lunch and five minutes of my time saved, instead of waiting for the Hawaiian.”

  People looked at her weirdly as she tried to speak under her breath.

  “Bad reception,” she muttered louder, covering up her ear.

  There wasn’t an earpiece, but nobody would have noticed such a common piece of technology, unless they were looking for it.

  Keeping hunched over and her ear covered, she snagged her hot slice of veggie everything, including broccoli, then tried to dash out the door.

  They had only been back to the human realm a few days but her neglected slayer duties were waiting to suck up every free moment.

  She needed the distraction, frankly. Stuck at home, with the tense ceasefire between her family and her Lasier, was something to be avoided at all costs.

  Exercise was good for the soul and her hips.

  “It is going to get stuck on your teeth, like little green weeds, plant eater. You need meat to put some weight on your bones. One snap of my teeth and you would—”

  “Go try to impress someone else with your fangs, lizard,” she said, cutting him off as she took a big bite of cheesy pizza.

  The sauce squished into her mouth with a burst of ripe, sweet tomato.

  Who could even taste the vegetables on top with all this delicious, gooey flavour, anyway?

  She moaned in appreciation.

  “That is a completely inappropriate noise to be making over broccoli, sparks.”

  She talked with her mouth full. “It is almost as good as Hawaiian, with the addition of artichoke and feta cheese making that salty—”

  He was gone. Something had ripped Geer right from her mind.

  As much as she was annoyed by his regular visits and unrequested opinions, the silence left her feeling empty.

  The pizza cooled. She tasted the slight bitterness of the broccoli as she finished off her slice, not groaning with pleasure any longer.

  A few hours later . . .

  The slayer had her stakes back.

  It was time to dust some vampires!

  She slipped her hand into the inside chest pocket of her newest leather jacket and gave the thick oak stake she had hidden a reassuring squeeze.

  It felt solid and reliable, resting right next to her heart. The kind of weapon she preferred to wield. There was no trickery to it, a simple, solid piece of wood.

  She didn’t need any finesse to get it between the ribs at the right angle, like the weaker birch stakes that could snap. Eight inches of oak could power through even the biggest chest, with enough air to aid her staking.

  Demon or vampire didn’t matter. They all turned to ash at the end of her stake.

  Tonight, it was going to be a demon.

  He was so close to their town’s hidden portal that she could just chase him down and force him back to Maeren at the point of her stake.

  She wasn't feeling that generous.

  Besides, the last thing she needed was for one of the never-ending stream of demons reporting back to his boss about her, again.

  Best to stake this demon through the back and not risk any further exposure.

  Things had only gotten worse around here.

  Word must have gone around that the slayer was taking a break when she went to Maeren. All of those fang happy criminals had been quick to take advantage of her absence.

  They might have even thought her dead!

  Some of them had gotten so bold as to feed with only minutes left until sunrise, risking a nasty sunburn and exposure of the Maerenian culture to the humans.

  The king had outlawed feeding on humans for exactly this reason.

  She used to think the king had other, more humanitarian reasons, but then she met him at court and had her delusions corrected.

  The old king of Maeren had not been the strong ruler she had envisioned, but rather weaker, older, and now, overthrown.

  She was partly responsible for the last, due to her failure to see the king’s eldest son for the true demon he had been born.

  Her mother had been the one to hand her the old stakes when they returned home, and gave her a push out the door, just like any chick from the nest.

  It wasn’t Elizabeth’s first time hunting vampires and demons, but it still felt slightly awkward now. She might know them from her time in Maeren, or worse, the fanged males may recognize her.

  No matter, she knew how to hide her appearance.

  She used her lightning to keep her identity as a helpless human, until it was time to reveal her skills with a hard, sharpened stick.

  Backstabbing the enemy was honestly the safest. She was quick and dirty. Everything was muscle memory.

  She didn’t focus too much on judging the criminals she caught on the wrong side of the portal, handing out punishment without trial.

  The streets she used to patrol with familiarity were her refuge from the nightmares that plagued everyone else at the house. The shadows, humans didn’t look at too closely, were where she fought her monsters.

  Geer returned as suddenly as he had left. His timing left a lot to be desired.

  She hadn’t let him in on her ‘hunts’ yet. Witches weren’t supposed to fight.

  It would just be another thing for him to nag about, driving her crazy, if he found out.

  “You a ‘drop them and run’ kind of guy?” she asked, letting him hear her annoyance.

  He didn’t reply, which was really unusual. Normally, she couldn’t get him to shut up.

  “I didn’t even put out much before you disappeared. One little moan over hot cheese, with saucy accompaniment, and you’re making yourself scarce. Another girl might think you are shy.”

  “I thought you would be dreaming.”

  That sounded suspicious. He also didn’t usually pop into her head at night. Never in her dreams, as far as she recollected.

  Perhaps she had been too subtle in probing him for information. He’d just disappeared earlier. She’d been worried.

  “Where the fuck were
you?” she asked.

  “Look, if the broccoli gave you gas that isn’t my fault. I warned you. An air witch should be more careful about what she eats.”

  She yanked the stake that she had been fondling earlier, out of her jacket pocket.

  Feeling the solid wood provided some stress relief.

  Now, she needed a target for her feelings.

  “I’m a bit busy right now. Can you come back later, if you’re going to just blow hot air around? Flap your gums elsewhere, toothless,” she muttered, keeping her voice down.

  Demons didn’t have super hearing, but she was still trailing close enough to this one that she didn’t want him to hear any noise and turn around.

  There was no way he could make out her words, but at this time of night, creeping closer to dawn now, few people were walking the streets.

  Demons were even more paranoid than vampires. Most of them knew about betrayal first-hand. It was how they got their extra powers, drinking a witch ‘to the quick’ to steal every last drop of her magic.

  No witch would ever agree, if asked first.

  “I thought you were complimenting my fangs when last we talked. How did you come up with toothless?”

  Geer was somewhere dark, probably another of his caves. She couldn’t even see the flicker of a flame.

  “You’re all bark and no bite,” Elizabeth declared.

  She secretly suspected Geer had some sort of handicap, just like the Toothless from the children’s cartoon: How to Train Your Dragon.

  Geer hadn’t been in on the initial attack from the dragons, on the rest of them in the caves, although he had saved his friend from Victoria’s ice daggers.

  Ergo, Geer must have been hiding. He had to have been the one to take a nip from her that allowed his connection to her now.

  She’d been unconscious, easy prey.

  Maybe Geer had been left behind during the fight in the caves at first because of an injury or disability. Handicapped still didn’t mean helpless or harmless.

  It was more the conversations in her head over the last week and a half that convinced her Geer didn’t mean her any real harm.

  She still wouldn’t trust him with the safety of her family and their location, but he was okay to have around on her lonely hunts.

  Not like she knew how to get rid of him.

  “Why are you awake?” he asked her, sounding annoyed.

  It was the second time he’d mentioned it.

  “I like to see the sunrise,” she whispered. “Better close your eyes or they might get burned to raisins.”

  The sun from the human realm could be deadly to male elementals. She assumed dragons were no different. The sun rays burned unbound magic from the blood.

  That was a horrible way to die, boiling in blood.

  Luckily, witches didn’t have the same problem due to their natural excess of magic-binding proteins in their blood.

  “I would have preferred to seduce you in your dreams,” Geer said, his voice dropping to a soft whisper.

  “Fire lord afraid of a little sunburn? Come back in half an hour. I will be having a hot shower. A couple of sexy morning growls from you and my fingers will do the seducing for you, while we keep the fun squeaky clean.”

  It wasn’t the first time she propositioned him, although she never followed through.

  He had started it by mentioning oral sex when she’d been climbing that tree the first night he was in her head.

  They were realms apart, so it was all in her head, anyway.

  “You like my growls?” Geer asked.

  “Everybody’s voice is gruff in the morning,” she whispered. “I just like the thought of hearing you when you first wake up. Maybe a little less on guard, and a bit impatient, because I made you wait. Go away, even twenty-five minutes should be enough.”

  She wasn’t going to shower, while he was in her head, watching and hearing everything.

  They weren’t really in that kind of relationship. Didn’t have any relationship, but this magical connection between them.

  Lying to Geer about a sexy shower might tempt him to give her time. She need more privacy for this demon staking and to get back home.

  She would find some way to make it up to him. Even talking to him about her day would probably be enough. Geer seemed as lonely as her, maybe even more.

  Maybe she could read Geer a chapter from a shifter romance before she went to sleep.

  One of the reverse-harems, with lots of hands and tongues to keep her randy dragon’s attention.

  Geer didn’t fall for her ploy and go away.

  She decided that pretending he wasn’t there would have to do. This demon wasn’t going to wait any longer.

  In fact, the demon had just turned into the alley, close to the portal, if her magic was tracking him right.

  She didn’t think the demon had time to have fed, but if he was turning back already, then she must have already missed his main course.

  Unfortunately, her lightning pinged a human mind in the alley, as well.

  Damn it! She never got any breaks.

  She broke into a run, gripping her stake hard and yanking her lightning with ferocity.

  Hurry!

  “Are you in danger?”

  Geer shot out his question, surprising her.

  He had been busy drawing glyphs on a cave wall—seriously, caveman—but he noticed when she started running like her life depended on swiftness and escape.

  It was the human’s life on which her speed mattered.

  Ignore, run, breathe.

  “Why do you have a stake?”

  Geer asked the question as she glanced to check her weapon. He wasn’t drawing on the cave wall anymore.

  “To slay,” she panted out. “Night job.” Huff. “Nice vacay in hell.” Huff. Huff. “Gotta work, now I’m back.”

  As she finally entered the alleyway, there was already a glow from magic being used.

  What was worse than a demon leaving his fang marks in a human was providing a magical light show, first.

  “I’m going to bind you from harm before someone snuffs your spark out.”

  Geer sounded angry. Very angry. He hadn’t made that threat since the first night.

  He was working his chalk again, grinding into the stones walls so hard, she was surprised the chalk didn’t snap as he drew glyphs.

  She still didn’t know what binding was, but she doubted he could do it in the next ninety seconds.

  After this staking, she would go straight home and tell her family and Victoria about the dragon on her shoulder that she had been keeping from them.

  Victoria had already had a week to recuperate, after the mad dash across the desert and her poisoning.

  The princess was still her Lasier and bound to protect her from harm, as well as being the best source Elizabeth knew on the arcane Maerenian arts.

  Somebody had to know a way to stuff cotton into her ears and get rid of the double vision with a spell, or maybe a curse.

  Geer wasn’t going to get his scaly hands on her.

  Illusions may be too late to prevent all of the damage the demon she’d been tracking had done, getting too far ahead of her, but Elizabeth figured late was better than never.

  She grabbed the human’s mind first, shocked when it wasn’t as easy as usual.

  Forcing her way in, she blacked out the human’s vision and imagined a hard blow to his head from a loose brick.

  She reinforced the suggestion that he had been knocked out with a powerful urge to lie down and rest.

  It wasn’t as strong as when she had tricked the dragons into sleeping because she had to avoid falling for the suggestion herself. That had been dangerous to fall asleep in the dragon caves.

  For a human, it should be like the snap of her fingers, sending him into a hypnotic command to sleep.

  The demon started to turn around, fire flickering on his wrist like a flaming rope that he had twisted around a few times for grip.

  The oth
er end was lassoed around the falling human, giving the demon a pull forward, so he didn’t get a good look at her before she slapped his mind with an illusion as well.

  Dark, complete blindness. Nothing to hear but his own breaths.

  The rope on his wrist tightened and burned, and he quickly released the magic to stop it from searing into his own arm.

  Her stake slid into his back with a little air-powered thrust, snapping a couple of ribs on the way in, but the breathtaking pain would be over in a moment.

  The pop of the chi around his heart came before he could scream, and then, she was breathing in dust.

  The demon could heal in transport back to Maeren, but she was stuck with the dusty remains that she’d just inhaled into her lungs.

  Ugh, that was so gross.

  The human got dusty as well. She would drop some more bricks around him, leaving his body peeking out of the alleyway, so somebody would be able to spot him.

  It would be better to make it look like an accident, falling bricks from the decrepit buildings around them.

  Ducking down quickly to check the human’s pulse, while covering her mouth with her other hand to minimize the ash she was inhaling, she was relieved to feel it was strong and steady.

  He was fast asleep and looked relatively unharmed, except for his mouth. There was a bit of blood there . . . as if the demon had gotten rough and bashed—

  “Well, this is more interesting than broccoli pizza. You go around saving humans?”

  Geer sounded less angry, although there was still some tightness to his voice.

  She dropped her hand back down from where it had hovered over the human’s bloody mouth. If he broke some teeth or something, she could just put him in the recovery position on his side, so he didn’t choke on any blood, while sleeping under her magic.

  A few minutes after she was away from here, she could drop her compulsion on him.

  He would wake up with an actual injury and surrounded by bricks, which made her job easier.

  Any thoughts about the demon and magic should be dismissed as delusions from the head injury.

  “I told you that I had this. Not my first rodeo, cowboy.”

  “Your staking was as good as any soldier’s swordplay, well practiced. Are you done now, or will you need to take the human you saved somewhere for medical attention?”