Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  Harper,

  I have given these men orders to complete the renovations on your house in the span of three weeks. I wish they could fix things faster, but it appears Isaac did a vast amount of damage. I’m sure you will be very pleased with the repairs and a few new additions they will install for you. And if you’re ever tired of Nathaniel’s company, there’s always a room for you here in D.C. I hope you will accept an invitation to visit one day soon. I have a proposition for you that I think you might find appealing.

  Sincerely,

  Tobias Vallas

  “Renovations? Additions? What the hell is he doing to my house?”

  “Improving it,” said Ryan with a wave of his hand toward my study.

  I took a step inside and saw that not only had they already fixed the flooring and the walls, they had installed expensive wooden floors. My study directly to the right was completely fixed. Only my bookcases that originally came from a second-hand store were now wood with a nice glossy finish. My books were back in order along the shelves. There was a larger reading table with all my cards in an ornate box decorated with all sorts of stones that I had never been rich enough to even pretend I could afford to touch in a store. It almost looked like something Fabregé had designed. I recognized the style the second my hand touched it. And for all I knew, it might be an original. Then there was the expensive desk sitting in the corner with two sides. One with an iMac that I certainly didn’t buy and a collection of leather-bound notebooks. Ones that looked similar to gran’s grimoire. Ones that witchlings kept throughout the centuries for their potions and spells but I had been too lazy to keep up.

  “My pictures,” I said. “Where are all the pictures I had here?” I asked Brian. The pictures of me and Caleb were missing. They weren’t on the bookshelf where I had turned them over months ago.

  “In the desk drawer there,” said Ryan pointing to the left side of the desk. “We haven’t gotten rid of any of your belongings. Most of the things we didn’t know what to do with are either in the guest bedroom or the dining room.”

  I walked over to my dining room to see that the table was covered with a large white sheet to protect it. I lifted it up to see most of my stuff was there. I reached for the pictures of me and Caleb. I didn’t have the guts to tell Nathaniel but that was the real reason I wanted to come home. I wanted Caleb’s pictures with me. There was a part of me that knew I was still grieving and that I was vulnerable. That I missed being loved. Being touched. Being wanted. And I wasn’t about to let myself do something I might regret just because I wanted to remember what it felt like to receive affection again. The way Nathaniel held my hands and rested his forehead on mine at the cabin hadn’t left my memory. And I wasn’t about to let myself forget Caleb that quickly.

  “Please tell Tobias that I can’t accept some of the things he’s given me. The computer, the desk… it’s all a bit too much.” I didn’t bother mentioning the ornate Fabregé box. That I was definitely going to keep. A girl has got to have a few nice things.

  Ryan shrugged. “Take it up with him. My job is just to rebuild things.” He walked back into the house and started working with a hammer in the back, presumably fixing my kitchen counter that had practically exploded.

  “What?” I asked Nathaniel who was standing in my study with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning into my wall the same way he did when he first invaded my house.

  He shook his head. “Prepare yourself,” he said with a hint of irritation.

  “For what?”

  “Tobias is courting you. And he’s accustomed to getting what he wants.”

  “Well, he’s the one who should be prepared,” I snorted. “For disappointment. Especially if he thinks buying me things will gain my affection.”

  I tossed and turned in Madison’s guest bed that night. Even so, I was determined not to ask Nathaniel to work some of his luring again just to get a few more hours of sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about Emily. The way her veins were turning black around her eyes. The pain she must have gone through. The events that led to her being committed. Her sister being killed. Her father using her as a pawn for only god knows what reason. Power? Ambition?

  I thought back to the Congressman’s evening party. The way he had known Nathaniel and they excused themselves to talk in private out on the terrace.

  What was said? What did Nathaniel know? What did the Congressman know?

  I was beyond caring about decorum. I threw the covers off of me and nearly knocked over one of Caleb’s pictures on the bedside table as I did. I took one hard look at the picture of us at the Dilton carnival two years ago. I was in my usual psychic gypsy style costume for my tarot readings. He was dressed up in a similar style to match me. His arm was around me, holding me close. My arms were wrapped around his waist as I smiled at the camera and he struck a pose like he was going to hypnotize the person behind the camera. Another reminder that I was married once. I was happy once. My life had a sense of normality. Would I ever have that again?

  The similar stirring of frustration sparked inside of me. I marched out of the guest bedroom and down the hall to Madison’s room where Nathaniel was resting. Or so I thought.

  I quietly opened the door and peered inside. He was sitting up on the bed, writing in a notebook.

  No. Not just any notebook. The notebook that Eli gave to me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, standing there in my long sleeve pajamas with matching blue bottoms.

  “Detailing what’s happened to Eli,” he said calmly. “He’s not best pleased with you.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I doubt Emily is pleased that she was poisoned with vixra blood and might die at any moment. I doubt she’s pleased that she’s in an asylum. I doubt the Congressman is pleased that his eldest daughter is dead.”

  He seemed to get my point and closed the notebook, setting a pen down next to Ted’s latest Clive Cussler novel sitting on the bedside table.

  “Eli will be here in the morning. You can explain your own reasons for abusing the vixra tunnels to him once he arrives.”

  “I had strong reasons. You know I did.”

  He looked at me in silence for a few seconds, making me wonder if my reasons were really all that strong. Making me doubt my resolve. Could I really explain what I had done to a vixra? To witchling royalty? Would I be punished?

  “The vixra keep track of the tunnels, Harper. They know when they’re used by someone who isn’t a vixra. They don’t always know who they are, but they know when they’re opened by someone who isn’t one of them. The only reason I got away with it was because I had Eli’s blood in my system. It masked who I was and what I am.”

  “So am I in trouble?” I snapped.

  “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  He got up from the bed and walked by me into the hall.

  “What did you and the Congressman discuss at the evening party?” I blurted out. I guess I never possessed the gift of subtlety. But name a kruxa that has.

  He stopped in his tracks, as though the question caught him completely off guard. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Don’t pull that on me, Nathaniel. Emily is as good as dead. He’s going to lose both his daughters because of his meddling. Don’t you think I ought to know why? What was it all for?”

  Nathaniel stiffened. Then he stepped closer to me, making my posture match his. He had a way of making every hair on my body stand at attention. Even the way I stood changed.

  “He didn’t know me until that night, Harper,” he said. “I lured him. I lured the doorman too. I had no choice.”

  That took me by surprise. “But why?” I asked.

  “I wanted to know if the Congressman had willingly gotten involved in matters that were beyond his understanding. As far as I could tell, he didn’t offer up his daughters to Tobias. Someone else did. Someone with stronger luring powers than me. Someone older.”

  Older? Older as in Tobias? Why would Tobias want to lure a Con
gressman?

  Nathaniel must have known where my mind immediately went because he started shaking his head. “I thought so too at first. But it wasn’t him. I have a few people I suspect, but the bottom line is that someone else got the Congressman’s daughters involved with the Catach-Brayin and probably convinced him to go along for the ride.”

  “Who would have a motive to do something like that? Did the Congressman have enemies?”

  “Only the voters. From what the polls suggest he was close to losing his job.”

  None of it made sense. “Tobias said he and the Congressman were of like minds. He made it sound like the Congressman was in the loop about something.”

  Nathaniel gave a small shrug of his shoulders. “Maybe he was. But if so, it was between him and Tobias. Not me. He never met me until that night. And the little information I could get out of him suggested that an older and stronger vampire lured him to keep his mouth shut. It was half the reason why I suspected Tobias in the first place. Now I’m not sure anymore.”

  Nathaniel took a step closer to me. A little too close. His hand came up to touch my hair. To cup around the back of my head and stroke it down my back.

  I shrugged him off. “I’m not Georgeanna,” I said stiffly. Maybe the pictures I grabbed of Caleb were working. It took me no time at all to come to my senses. To remember who Nathaniel was. And what he was.

  He didn’t say anything. He simply looked down at me. He wasn’t luring me. I didn’t feel a thing like what he had shown me in the hospital. And even so, I could feel something else drawing me closer to him.

  Maybe in another life, when he wasn’t a vampire and I wasn’t a kruxa, there could have been something there. In a life where I didn’t remind him of someone he had lost. This wasn’t that life.

  Or so I told myself. He let his hand curl around my cheek, brushing my skin with the coolness of his touch. I didn’t find it nearly as icy as I did before. Nor did I try to stop him this time. There was something calming about it. Soothing. A comfort I had been missing.

  ‘No! This is just you being vulnerable. Don’t let him do that to you!’

  “Come lay down,” he said, leading me into Madison’s bedroom.

  ‘Ah, hell no!’

  “I…I can’t do that,” I stammered.

  “I’m not going to seduce you, Harper. I just want you to rest.”

  “You were headed downstairs for something.”

  “It can wait until morning.”

  Nathaniel brought his hand down to mine and folded it inside of his, with trust and a reassurance that he wouldn’t try to do anything dishonorable. Or forward. He simply took me to the bed, opened up the sheets, and urged me to lay down. Then he came around to the other side of the bed and wrapped me in his arms. I let myself lay into his chest and brought the comforter up my body to keep me warm against the coolness of his skin through his clothes. It was a strange mixture. My right side was cold while my left was burning up from Madison’s heavy comforter. But I didn’t move. I let him hold me. I let him comfort me. I let myself fall asleep once more, knowing he was right there until I was at ease again.

  Chapter 14

  I was stirred awake by the smell of fresh coffee permeating my senses. For the briefest moment, I thought Caleb was in the kitchen making my favorite hazelnut blend. Then I opened my eyes. I realized where I was. And the world felt bleak again.

  I forced my body upright, only to see that Nathaniel wasn’t in bed with me anymore. He was the one downstairs making coffee.

  I got up and walked out of the bedroom only to hear two voices coming from downstairs. I recognized the other one right away. It was Eli. He was in my sister’s house. Again. And he was about to see me in nothing but my pajamas and a bathrobe. Again.

  Nope. Not this time. I edged over to the guest bedroom, knowing full and well that Nathaniel could hear my footsteps with his freakish vampire hearing. His hunting skills may have been heightened, but he couldn’t expect me to waltz down there looking like I crawled out of bed. If he was any sort of gentleman deep down or in the past, he would be okay with my need for an outfit change.

  I quickly got into some of the clothes I packed from my house, trying not to think about the construction workers there having gone through my stuff, touching it, and setting it all aside. I didn’t care how much money Tobias had to throw around. It felt like such an invasion. An unnecessary one.

  ‘He better get used to the word no really quick. Because he’s not going to get a yes out of me. Not after what’s happened to Samantha and Emily.’

  Once I was dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I walked downstairs. I could hear their chatter stop the second I started descending down the steps, anticipating my arrival. Intruding on their conversation.

  Eli didn’t wait to reveal himself like he did the last time. He got up from the table and walked directly into the foyer where the staircase ended.

  His irritation was written all over his face before he even spoke. “Care to explain yourself?”

  It wasn’t really a question. More like an order.

  I took a deep breath before speaking. Regardless of how I felt, he was still witchling royalty. And he had to be treated as such. I couldn’t sass him. Even though the temptation was strong.

  “Emily was in danger,” I confessed. “I had a few drinks and I was desperate to get to her. I did so just in time. She was going to burn her father alive. She almost succeeded.”

  Eli’s agitation didn’t budge. Whatever my reasons were, they weren’t good enough for him.

  “You told me to find out who had been committing these murders,” I continued when he didn’t say anything. “In order to do that I had to try protecting Emily. Whoever gave her vixra blood is probably responsible for the other girls who died as well.”

  There was silence. Nathaniel stood up from the table and came up to stand behind Eli, his head down and subservient. Not too different from how his manners changed around Tobias. There was nothing he could do to defend me in front of Eli. I had to do it myself.

  “Nathaniel informed me last night that he’s told you about the prophecy regarding your birth. I gathered by our brief conversation through the notebook that you knew a few details. Enough to keep you in line,” he said. Judging by his tone, he didn’t see my reasons for using the vixra blood to be particularly sufficient.

  ‘Wait. Did Nathaniel tell me about the prophecy to coax me into staying quiet?’

  Eli took a step closer to me. I knew a stern warning was coming. “When you used the vixra tunnel you revealed yourself to the other vixra. Your recklessness left little doubt that a kruxa had been meddling with them. They know you’re alive. They know the prophecy has been fulfilled and they want to see you for themselves. I convinced my father that this was a bad idea and that you would be better off staying here in Dilton. He could change his mind at any moment but for the time being, I’m commanding you to stay in this house until he decides what to do with you.”

  To do with me? What the hell did that mean?

  I opened my mouth to protest only to see Nathaniel warn me with a single shake of his head. I closed it and remained quiet, reminding myself silently of who Eli was. And who I was. There was no argument to be had.

  “I’m going to place a spell on this house until my father has made up his mind. Nathaniel will come with me to plead your case to him and see if there’s any real reason to require your presence. But until that time, you are to stay here. You are to keep quiet. You are to know your place and never so much as even think of using vixra blood again unless I will it and provide it to you for a very specific purpose. Do you understand?”

  The way he spoke was so calm. Collected. Even in his anger, he was well-mannered. He didn’t need to raise his voice to sound intimidating.

  I hung my head as I spoke, a little too frightened to look him in the eyes. “Yes,” I muttered quietly.

  He walked over to Madison’s front door and Nathaniel followed him. Eli
took out a small pocket knife, opened it, then pricked his finger. He took the blood from the small cut and spread a single horizontal line across the wood door. “If you try leaving this house before I return, I’ll know. You will have broken vixra law handed down by a higher echelon witchling. And you will be punished accordingly. Do you understand?”

  ‘Blood magic? He’s using blood magic?’

  This wasn’t just any spell. It was one of the most powerful types of spells known to witchlings. A spell most witchlings weren’t even capable of performing because their magic was too diluted. In other words, I had really, really pissed him off. Or I created a massive inconvenience for him. Probably both.

  “Yes,” I muttered again. I was not at all happy, but I was also not in any good standing to argue against him. His word was binding. It was done.

  Eli opened the door to leave.

  Nathaniel followed him and turned around to shut the door. “I convinced Eli to do you a favor on the condition that you would put it away and not touch it again unless he wills it,” he said.

  “Wills what? Put what away?” I asked.

  “It’s on the kitchen counter. I called Madison. She’s on her way into town to look after you until I return.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” I spat. I couldn’t sass Eli, but I could certainly sass Nathaniel. If anything it had become a routine banter between us.

  “After the stunt you pulled, yes you do.”

  “You could have picked a less annoying jailer.”

  “I didn’t cause this mess. You did. And as usual, I have to go clean it up now.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who came to my house that day, you ass-”

  “You defended me in front of Tobias,” he deepened his voice to let me know the conversation was over and he wasn’t interested in hearing what else I had to say. “Now I’m doing this for you. Don’t make me regret it.”

  And with that, he shut the door and walked down the front steps. I moved aside the fabric covering the window with decorative lace to watch them as they left. But by the time I was at the door, they had already disappeared.