The Queen of Witches

by Brandi Elledge

  “What now?” I asked.

  “You haven’t lost your friend, sweetheart. She’s a quick study with a great outlook on life. I promise you, it won’t take her long to control her blood lust. You’ll be back with her before you know it.” He cradled me in his arms. “Your brother’s grown on me, but to be totally honest, I don’t really want to stay here another moment. We have the key, and with the Demon Prince’s infatuation with you, I would prefer not to wait around for his return. Why don’t we leave this place?”

  My heart pounded. He wanted me to go with him? He didn’t want to leave me here in this town? “Where will we go?”

  “Wherever you want. A Caribbean island? Somewhere warm and quiet. Or you can come back to my estate. Along the way, we can pop in and say hello to my brother. I would like for you to meet him.” He tilted my chin up, so he could look me in the eyes. “There is something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I didn’t want to scare you.”

  Anxiety piled high in my stomach. “What?”

  “Supernaturals have that one person that they are connected to. That person is called a mate. Most never find their mate; maybe they get impatient waiting for the ‘one,’ or maybe they don’t live long enough to find their mate. Who knows? Ariana sent me here because she wanted me to find you. You’re my mate.”

  Different emotions hit me all at once. I did my best to sort them out. I felt shocked, understanding, and… and relief. He was saying, “I know I should have told you as soon as I knew, but I was terrified I would lose you before I ever really had you, and—”

  I threw my arms around his neck and peppered his face with kisses before I claimed his lips. Wrapping my legs around his hips, I leaned back to see his face. “Yes, I wish you would have told me, but I know that it would have freaked me out, so I get it. Being someone’s mate is intense. I’m assuming it’s not like marriage, where you can bow out if you have a disagreement?”

  “Nope. Once we claim each other, it’s for eternity.”

  “And the mark?” I asked. “It was never removable, was it?”

  He winced a little. “The mark is the first step of three to claiming each other. It also allows me to find you wherever you go, and it tells other wolves that you belong to someone.” He cleared his throat. “And as far as I know, it’s not removable.”

  “What if I didn’t want to belong to you?”

  Hurt flashed across his face. “Then we would have asked Ariana if she knew of a way to remove the mark. Do you want it removed?”

  “No. It’s pleasant, and I have kind of grown attached to it, but that’s not the point. I knew all along that you were hiding something. From here on out there will be no secrets among us. Agreed?”

  “Of course.”

  I sighed in relief as his words rang true to my ears.

  He barked out a laugh, crushing my body to his as he nuzzled my neck.

  “We need to go. Get away from here. After I have you some place safe, I’ll hunt down the Demon Prince to make sure he never has the chance to act out on his threat.”

  “Safe? I’m coming with you. He had a hand in hurting my friend. In fact, he was the mastermind behind the attack. It’s my job to make him pay.”

  Jamison nuzzled my neck again. Must be a wolf thing. Whatever. I was digging it. “You’re so vindictive. I like it. Let’s leave now. I’ll buy you a suitcase full of clothes on the way to our destination.”

  “Oh, but I have to say goodbye to my brother, and I need to make sure that he is going to lay low somewhere, too.”

  Rolling his eyes, he placed me on my feet. “He’s the Undertaker. You don’t have to worry about him. Hurry. The sooner we get away from this place, the better.”

  Sammy would have to come with us. I mean, who else would he go with? But I decided to spring that tidbit of info on Jamison at the last minute. I ran up the stairs to my brother’s bedroom. The door was open, so I didn’t bother knocking. Wes was taking items out of a hidden safe and placing them in a small bag.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Packing my things. I just got off the phone with Ariana.” He let out a sigh as he shoved items into his worn-out duffel bag. “I have to go after this Zombie Queen. Besides, you’re leaving, aren’t you?”

  Feeling guilty, I said, “I had planned on it.”

  “I’m assuming he told you you’re his mate?”

  I was completely shocked. “How did you know?”

  “I put the pieces together. I like him. He’s a good fit. And he loves you. You can tell by the way he’s always tracking you with his eyes. Plus, Ariana mentioned that you both were a walking Hallmark card.” I had a feeling she didn’t use those words. That sounded like a Wes interpretation. “Listen, I hate goodbyes. That’s why I avoided going downstairs when Tandi was leaving. She’s like my little sis, too, you know?”

  “I know.” I felt a lump form in my throat. Everything was changing. Constantly. I wouldn’t be returning to school; my friend was going to be “adjusting” to her new self for a while, and now my brother was off on a mission. Part of me was sad, but the other part knew this was the way it was meant to be.

  “I don’t think the Demon Prince will come here, but I wouldn’t put it past him. I hope after he sits and thinks about it, he’ll come to the conclusion that no matter how many men he sends here, he’ll never be able to wrangle the key, or you, from Jamison. At this point, he’s probably going to go after the next key.” Zipping his bag, he took one last look around his room. “I have to go steal a Vampire Princess slash Zombie Queen before she gets married. The bad news is ever since her engagement, she’s been guarded by her mother’s—the Vampire Queen’s—army.”

  “Is there any good news?”

  “Word has it that our little princess has been rebelling at every turn. I plan on stealing her right before her wedding and—”

  “You’re not going to kill her, though, right? Unless she absolutely deserves it. Like she eats small children for breakfast or something.”

  Laughing, he gave me a hug. “I’ll let her live because you asked, but I’ll let her know that if her diet doesn’t meet your standards, I have permission to end her, which would be a hell of a lot easier for me.”

  “You never know, Brother, she might be a great person—an ally to our cause.”

  He gave me a look telling me he thought I was unbelievably naïve. “Yeah, and pigs fly.”

  “Maybe I’ll get to meet her.”

  “I’m kidnapping her, not playing board games with her.”

  “Well, I think I’ll still call you in a couple of weeks and see if I can come by to meet her.”

  Smiling, he gave me one final hug. “Only you would try and make a captive feel welcome. You’ll probably bring apple cake, won’t you?”

  I batted my eyelashes. “Well, it is my best cake.”

  He tilted back his head, chuckling. He rubbed a hand over my head like I was a good puppy. “See ya, sis,” he said, and tendrils of smoke wisped around him before he vanished completely.

  I sat on his bed, looking around his room. Old posters still hung on the walls. The quilt that Mom had made him years ago was lovingly draped over an armchair. This house had been so much a part of me for so long, and now I planned on packing up and leaving. In my heart, I knew that Mom and Dad would approve of me getting out of this town. Especially if it was no longer safe. I know they would have adored Jamison, too.

  Lost in thought, I didn’t even have time to scream as the Demon Prince appeared in front of me. “Honey, I’m home,” he snarled.

  He blew the familiar powder in my face right before he hit me on the temple. He didn’t bother trying to catch my limp form as it careened to the ground.

  My last conscious thought was this demon didn’t come back to this plane just to poison me. He was going to make me his slave, and I was ashamed that the coward in me wished that death would come for me first.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Numerous days later�
�

  Another day had come and gone, and I was still locked away in this hellhole. Literally. My mind was starting to slip. At first, I was so sure it was shadows that came into my cell to torment me, but then as the days passed, I thought maybe I had just envisioned them due to lack of sleep and hunger. The mind could play tricks on you if you allowed it to, and I was too tired to try and decipher what was real and what was just a figment of my imagination.

  As the days passed one into another, I had given up hope that I would be rescued. If it were a possibility, Jamison or my brother would have already done so. This feeling in the pit of my stomach was what it felt like when all hope was lost. There was a magical cuff on my leg that could not be clawed off. I knew because I had tried. The cuff suppressed all my powers and left me weak and useless. They couldn’t have me freezing time, now could they? To think that not long ago, I had wanted a cure. A cure for whatever was wrong with me, and now I would give anything to have my powers back.

  I had grown accustomed to the pain. Every day I was tortured—sometimes with fists and sometimes with whips—before being dragged out of my cell and thrown at the feet of the Demon Prince. And every day, he asked me the same question.

  “Have you decided to accept your fate today and become mine?” He wanted me to rule by his side, and his fascination with the Queen of Witches and Warlocks was the only thing keeping him from killing me. He had already given up hope on the key and had explained to me his focus would now be on the other keys. They were easier to obtain, and, well, with me by his side…

  But my answer was always the same. “No.”

  Someone came into my cell once a day with a small portion of food and water, and that was the only time I was allowed to eat or drink. My bones poked through my skin, and yet I could not bring myself to say yes.

  Yesterday or the day before—I couldn’t remember, as all the days seemed to run together—one of the guards had tried to get overly friendly with me and when he stepped close enough, I pulled his knife from its sheath and made a weak attempt at stabbing him. He laughed at my poor attempt, but not before he turned the knife on me, slitting my side. The wound was deep, and I prayed that it would get infected and kill me quickly, but I wasn’t even blessed with so much as a fever. I also had a feeling that the Demon Prince would heal my wound before it killed me. Nonetheless, I didn’t see the same guard again. There was a rumor that the Demon Prince had disposed of him. They could harm the mortal girl, but not fatally so. Apparently, the guard had made a mistake.

  My cell door opened, and I cringed as I saw the whip dangling from my new guard’s hand. The first time I had been whipped, I bit back the screams. They would not see me cry, but by the fourth day, the tears had flowed down my cheeks like a wet balm to my soul. They tried to break me, but I would not say yes.

  The guard barked an order for me to stand. The hell with him. If he wanted to beat me, he could do it with me lying on the floor. I didn’t have the energy and without my power, the only thing I had going for me was my stubbornness.

  That’s exactly what he did—beat me where I lay. I covered my face just in the nick of time. The whip hit me on my wrist. I pulled my knees up to my chest and made a tight ball, praying I was protecting all the important parts. If the guards hit me in the face, a healer would be sent in but anything else would have to heal on its own. The second hit of the whip stole my breath. My ribs felt like they cracked under the sting of the whip. By the third hit, my vision began to blur. I didn’t remember anything after the fourth crack. I had blissfully passed out. Losing consciousness seemed to be my saving grace recently.

  The hunger pains woke me. When those hit, I thought of Tandi and how she might be adjusting to her new life, hoping her own hunger pains were not too much for her.

  More days passed. I was on a hamster wheel. Unable to get off. It was the same thing every day. Torture and denying the prince of demons. Night was different. At night when the shadows danced against the wall, I imagined my brother had won the heart of the vampire princess, and she had been drafted to our side… the Lux’s side, and every new person brought to our side was one more gift to turn the tide in our favor. A big “screw you” to the Demon Princes of the world. When I felt like my mind was going to break, I daydreamed that Jamison searched everywhere for me, missing me with every beat of his heart. My mark no longer heated up. No longer brought me any joy and because of that, I knew my dreams were false. Did Jamison try to find me? Maybe and maybe he died for it.

  The Demon Prince grew more impatient as I maintained my stubbornness. He was no longer overly concerned with my mistreatment. He requested that my next beating be in front of all of his council and underlings. They laughed and cheered at every crack of the whip. I wished, not for the first time, that death would claim me. After that beating, they had to drag me by my ankles back to my cell. My wet back left a trail of blood on the cold floor. I couldn’t help but smile. My chances for infection grew every day, and maybe soon this would all be over.

  That night they came for me again, which was rare. I was released from my cell once a day, to give the demon prince my answer and then for my nightly whipping. If the guards were feeling extremely lazy, they would let me remain in my cell while they tortured me. That way they didn’t have to carry me back. Lazy asses.

  But tonight was different. The way my luck had been going, different was probably a bad thing. The guards graced me with their presence again as they escorted me out of my cell. They took me in a different direction than I had ever been before. Maybe I could escape. All hopes of dying left me when numerous sirens surrounded me with yards of fabric and tools of the trade. The sirens were beautiful, their hair long and shiny. Obviously, they hadn’t been beaten in a while. Snitches. Their ample bodies moved with grace and confidence. None of them would make eye contact with me. I begged them for help and they ignored me. They forced me into a bath, scrubbing every inch of me.

  I almost vomited when their hands touched my wounds. Somehow, I managed to keep the bile down. There was no humility left for me to give them. After I was spotless, they dressed me in the finest fabric I had ever seen. A siren draped it over my bony frame in a Grecian style and clipped the fabric into place at my shoulders with rare jewels. Someone pushed me into a seat and started decorating my eyes with a heavy hand while another pulled and tugged on my hair. My arms were adorned with golden cuffs, and my fingers were weighed down with numerous rings. A ruby ring was placed on my left ring finger, and then I was shoved in front of a full-length mirror.

  The girl reflected before me was not just beautiful, but striking as well, with her dainty features and violet eyes. She looked like a princess, even if she was too thin, but she wasn’t me. The girl in the mirror died weeks ago and whatever fate they had planned for me, I was sure to sabotage because it would be a cold day down here in Hell before I said yes to the Demon Prince.

  As soon as I was deemed perfect, I was led through a hall and into a room fit for a king. Inside the onyx tiled room, I was ordered to stand in the circle and wait for the Demon Prince to appear.

  Demons of all sizes stood along the walls of the room. Torches hung from the walls. The flame cast dancing shadows of tiny demons. Thirty minutes I stood there, ignoring the smirks sent my way and the looks of pure hatred. I stood on weakened legs with my chin held high until the Demon Prince swooped into the room in his human form. Bile rose in my throat as he turned to me. Oh, Lord, no! It was Jamison’s face looking back at me, but the man didn’t have any of Jamison’s swagger as he claimed his throne.

  No. Oh, please, no.

  Jamison’s face smiled at me. “Want to take a guess at how I got this body, my little dove?” My mouth opened, but no words came out. “Have I rendered you speechless? Let me enlighten you. Your lover broke into my realm and killed several of my best demons. Demons that are not hard to replace, but still. When he was finally captured, I made him a deal. Would you like to know what it was?”

  No, I didn’t
want to know. I wanted my heart to stop beating and for me to not take another breath, but that was not in the fates. Hands clenched, I said, “Why don’t you do us both a favor and cut to the chase? I’m dying to get back to my cell.”

  He stroked a hand down his velvet jacket, something so unlike what Jamison would do. I wanted to cry. “After showing him that you were on death’s door, he practically begged me to overtake his body on the condition that I give you a life of luxury from here on out.”

  My lips trembled at the thought of what Jamison had done. He’d sacrificed himself just so that I could live. Didn’t he know that I would rather die a thousand deaths than live a grand life here, married to the Prince of Demons? There was no spell that could reverse what he had done. If I ever got a chance to kill the Demon Prince, I would be inadvertently killing Jamison, as well.

  “So, I’ve brought you here tonight to ask you the same question that I did this morning—”

  “No.”

  It might have been Jamison’s eyes, but it was the Demon Prince staring at me in shock. “Aren’t you at least going to let me finish asking the question?”

  With jerky motions, I took the ring off my finger and slung it across the marble floor, where it skidded to a stop at his feet. “No. My answer is no. Tonight. Tomorrow. A year from now. No.” I took off each piece of jewelry and smiled as they hit the floor with a clanging sound. “Kill me now, Prince of Demons, because I will never marry you. I will never rule by your side. I prefer death over waking up next to you every morning.”

  He knew something I didn’t. I could tell by the way his eyes twinkled, and his mouth fought a smile. For some reason, I believed I just played into the palm of his hand.