Tainted Waters: A Dark Paranormal Fantasy Novel (Paranormal Peacekeepers Book 1)

by Lucretia Stanhope

  “Those days, with the extra delay for our actual jaunt to the swamps, and our delayed success, will allow time to starve them. This way their death seems an unfortunate accident you were trying to prevent.” His fingers worked at the buttons on her blouse. “We all get what we want. Now I want you.”

  “They will want retribution, if the whole cave is exterminated.” Her shoulders shrugged, aiding him as he slipped her shirt off.

  “That was always the case. Stop fretting, it doesn’t suit you. They can’t take it out on you, not if you are part of the solution, sweetheart.” He fiddled with the clasp on her bra.

  “But you, they can, and will want you to pay for your part, even if you undo the spell.” Even though she’d been protesting, she slipped his shirt off, running her hands over his golden skin. “I don’t want them to punish you further. You’ve suffered enough.”

  “I can take care of myself.” A low growl followed his laugh. “They can’t find me, unless I want them to.”

  She let out a soft purr in response, almost beyond the point of caring about talking. “They can. You know they have elves, like you and like them in their employ. They will track you. You know what they do to fugitives. No tolerance. No chances given.”

  “That’s such ugly pillow talk. Let me worry about me, lover. Take off the rest of your clothes. I want to explore every inch of you. It’s been far too long.” His fingers pried at her waistband, rolling it down to expose her hip bone. “I’ve missed this. I need this.”

  “I…”

  “Need to do what I ask.” The blinking of his eyes slowed to a stop. “Everything will be just fine.”

  “Will it? What about Alice?” Her hands hesitated on the button of her pants. She flinched as he shoved into her mind.

  “Don’t make me hurt you. You know I only want pleasure between us. I love you to a fault.” He repeated, I love you, between kisses across her stomach.

  “I love you.” The words sounded wrong to her, but his touch felt right.

  CHESTER STOPPED IN his tracks. Impatience flashed in his eyes, as his lips set into a scowl. “Excuse me.”

  Samantha stood between him and the door. Her stance telling him, she wasn’t going to budge. “Davina said no one is to leave. The woods are not safe.”

  “I’m certain she didn’t mean me.” He took another step, invading her personal space, speaking with hot breath on her face. “Excuse me, please.” He drew out the word please, to make clear he wasn’t in the mood for coven politics.

  “Sorry. No.” Her fingers rubbed, producing a magic hum that said she was prepared to stop him with whatever force was needed. “I’m positive she meant everyone, most especially you.”

  “Very well.” He snatched her by the shoulder, resisting the urge to smack her. “Let’s ask her.”

  Samantha tugged her shoulder free. “She’s not here, and you’d do best to keep your hands off me.”

  Chester dropped his hand, swearing. He needed to do a million things. Now that Davina was aware, he wanted to get back a report to Maxwell.

  If the dark elves knew that the responsible witch was already dead, and that he had a cooperative witch on this end, it would go a long way to getting the opening assault delayed, while he hammered out the finer details.

  In the seconds that passed as they played chicken with their glares, he pondered if he should risk outing himself to another witch. The way Samantha seemed in the pocket of Gretchen made up his mind. He wasn’t even convinced Davina could trust her.

  STILL FEELING THE effects of Kheelan’s touch on her body and soul, Davina strolled up the path that led to the coven house at a leisurely pace. Even though it could take days or months to undo his effects, she would have seen him a million times in one day to protect her legacy.

  Her gaze travelled up the path, while her mind traipsed through the past. She’d run up the walk hundreds of times as a little girl, coming home dirty from playing in the woods.

  It always fascinated her how the stones vanished only appearing again if they needed it. When the older witches would travel to do shopping, Davina remembered sitting on the steps and watching the path appear and disappear. After they left, she would run the walk again and again, trying to figure out how it worked.

  “Our woods will always shelter us, sweetheart,” her mother had said.

  When she looked at those steps, remembering sitting there, she saw them through her inner child. There were only two small steps, but to her they led home.

  Her home. Even as the priestess, when her eyes scanned the expansive two-story structure, estate came to mind. Gothic lines, a pointed arch, and a rose window made it look more like a school than a home. She liked that. It had been her school. The school that turned her from a precocious little girl with dreams of power to a fierce priestess with the help of her divine lover.

  This was hers and she couldn’t lose it, none of it. Not the home, not the coven it protected, and not the power she discovered there. “I will make you proud, momma.”

  Her promise moved her forward.

  Even if Alice was a shame and the end of their line, she would do proud by her mother. The coven would not be taken down by the PPK or anyone else. Certainly not her own daughter.

  As she walked the path it vanished behind her sure steps. Each step grew more purposeful. Thoughts of what needed done arranged themselves in order in her mind.

  Before she hit the steps a wave of agitation raced from inside, warning her that some drama was unfolding behind the door. She quickened her pace.

  “Is there a problem?” Davina opened the door and pushed past Chester and Samantha. The cloud of agitation she walked through, layered her skin.

  Chester gave Samantha a last glare before turning to Davina. “Yes. Samantha has appointed herself my keeper. I was explaining to her that surely you didn’t mean to pin me in.”

  “Excuse us.” Davina nodded at Samantha, dismissing her, and turned back to Chester. “Don’t presume to explain to anyone how to interpret my orders. Regardless of what shared secret we presently keep, you have no such familiarity with me or authority with my witches. I appointed her as your guardian. I don’t want elf-spies plundering my things while I am out doing your job.”

  The tone and stance, punctuated by her determined eyes told him to play it safe. She might fear the PPK, but she was still a proficient witch who could curse him without him even knowing it.

  “I’m on your side. Trust me, I am.” A loud sigh escaped his pursed lips. “Did you find the elf? I smell something light and sweet.”

  Davina brushed her blouse straight, a flush coming unwelcome to her cheeks. “Yes. The loss of Gretchen distressed him, and he asked time to mourn. I was assured he will meet with you and is inclined to help, before fighting ensues.”

  “We don’t have time.” Chester followed her as she made her way down the hall. “How much time did he ask for?”

  “Two days. It’s not long, considering he seems to have cared for her. We are all mourning. I’m sure even those who’ve abandoned their cultures and sacred beliefs to join the para-military understand mourning.” She paused at the kitchen, making herself a snack.

  “I’m not part of that branch. It’s my purpose and always my desire to see that they are not needed.” He stood in the doorway, watching her. “Priestess, if I can help it, no armed forces will enter your woods. To do that I need your help.”

  She pinned him with her glare, while she chewed. “I am helping. Quite graciously, given the circumstances. You should be in a pyre for infiltrating my witches. Yet here you stand in my kitchen, looking at me with judgmental eyes.”

  “I don’t judge you. No… Gretchen, she, I don’t blame you. Regardless of what the elves ask for, I won’t let them punish you for the sins of your sister witch.” He stepped toward her.

  She stiffened, stopping him in his tracks. “First, she was my responsibility. Second, your job is to judge. Now, where were you running off to, spy?”

&nbs
p; “I understand and admire you wanting to take responsibility.” He closed his eyes a beat before continuing. “In two days, then. How will that work?”

  She brushed her hands, and sat her plate in the sink. “I will take you into the woods in two days, and he will make himself available to talk about what he did, and how we might undo it.”

  “We?”

  Davina pulled a glass from the cupboard and opened the fridge. Her fingers tapped the door while she debated, before pouring herself a glass of juice. “Yes, he asked and I agreed to help. I will do what is needed to have you out of my house and keep those elves from killing witches.”

  “Of course. I need to report, while we wait. That was where I was hoping to go when Samantha stopped me.” He paused, watching her sip her drink. “It will settle the tempers, if they know we are making progress.”

  “Fine. That suits me. Visit with your band of misfits. Stay away the whole two days.” Davina liked the idea of two days to plant the evidence and get her coven back in order. “When you return, I will have gone through her things. Hopefully there will be something definitive to go along with the elf’s story.”

  “I agree. Trust is not easy to come by without hard proof.” He stopped in the doorway. “I am on your side. Nothing will happen to your coven. You won’t lose territory. I will see to that.”

  She saw sincerity in his hard eyes. It couldn’t be easy being a male witch. They were rare, since power usually passed to the first-born female. It was a bad omen and sign the family line was cursed, if the fates gave the magic to a male. That could be the reason he joined the PPK. Perhaps his family and coven didn’t welcome him. Not her problem. She had her own bad omen in Alice. “Do that.”

  Davina continued to sip her drink, listening and waiting for Chester to leave. Once she felt his presence flick away, she went to her room. There were journal entries to write.

  Before she started, she decided on the way she wanted to lay out the crime. It would be easy to ascribe the emotions and motivations, because she knew them personally.

  She drew in a deep breath, sat at her desk, and pulled out a paper and pen. While she wrote, her mind drifted back to those early days when it was hard to tell memories from manipulations.

  Davina never ask Kheelan how long he watched her before showing himself. Was he there when she was a little witch? It was possible, she was never alone in the woods as she always felt. Maybe as the house always felt like hers, she was meant to rule and always meant to love him.

  Love? “That’s not relevant,” she chided, trying to refocus.

  She wrote in long flowing letters:

  His hatred for the elves surpasses my own. We’ve only been inconvenienced and I want the woods for my own when I am priestess. Kheelan has lost his whole way of life. They’ve sent him off the mountain. Softened his light. He is as broken a soul as I have ever seen. A long exile made him something he should never be. He blames it all on the cave elf clan leader and that clouds his good reason. I can use that to my own ends. Use his hate to rid myself of the dirty cave dwellers.

  Most of the words were true. At first, she aligned with him for her own reasons, because he offered her the power and plan to rise through the ranks and become priestess.

  Long before they decided to hex the water, she’d stopped using him, and started loving him. The alteration in the storyline would serve to lift blame from him and place it squarely on Gretchen.

  Even though Davina knew in her heart, he planted her love for him in her mind, it caused her to want to protect him from the wrath of the PPK. With her eyes closed, thoughts of their stolen time together came again.

  She wrote another entry:

  After our last visit, I’m certain he will be the answer to all my problems. Touches and promises of power make it hard to separate my desires from his. I can judge by his willingness to conspire with me, that my touch has the same effect on him.

  Today we started work on a spell to be rid of the cave inhabitants. If all goes well, we will make it so that no elves will repopulate it. Gone will be the days of the nasty thieves taking all the good roots, and plants, or stalking my precious shadows, spying on our rituals.

  She stopped, not wanting to sink too far in the past. With his touch still on her skin, it was easy to fall into a nostalgic frame of mind. While she’d done everything not to paint him as the instigator, he had been for the last step.

  Tried to be.

  The water spell was tiring but successful. The woods have grown more tense now that the elves must come to the edges of the swamps for drinkable water. The last step weighs heavy on my heart, but Kheelan has done so much for me.

  Davina scratched the last line. This was about burying blame with Gretchen, not clearing her own mind of truths.

  She rewrote:

  The last step weighs heavy on his heart, but I have provided him so much pleasure and been the only creature who has shown him light and love since his exile. He will do as I wish.

  The pen trembled in Davina’s hand as her memories crashed against his most recent manipulations. She wanted to end it. He pressed for the toxic air.

  She only wanted them out of her cave and woods, but he wanted nothing less than the death of them all.

  If she stayed with him he would have his way.

  I left him.

  I love him.

  The two ideas wrestled. Tears fell as she quickly finished her entries.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ALICE HELD THE spell that Jasper wrote in one hand. Her other hand remained on his back, while she waited for him to seal the cave behind them.

  The cave entrance glowed bright with the haze that filled it from top to bottom. Even though it billowed outside, it clung to the air inside, as if it had its own sentient purpose to stay there and kill.

  “Quick as we can.” There was an urgency in Jasper’s voice as his eyes watered. “It’s reacting to you. You are glowing.”

  Alice watched as his blinks grew longer. “Close your eyes, I will lead you to the water.”

  He shut his eyes and put both hands on her back at the waist. “After we cast the new barrier, I may need to go outside for air.”

  “You can’t, it’s daytime.” Alice took slow, carefully placed steps, remembering it was steep.

  “I’ll let you be my eyes. The smell is coming through this mask. It’s already making me queasy.” He pressed against her, when she stopped walking. “I’m fine. We have to do this.”

  Alice continued toward the water. “You just had my blood. Isn’t that why Decker didn’t get as sick as the other men?”

  “It’s why he didn’t die, and likely why he is getting better. Let’s hope.” His grip remained firm. “You and I have a lot to explore after this is over.”

  “I thought the sun made you weak.” Alice kept her eyes on the ground, even though the mist made it hard to see.

  “If I stay in it, the sun will make me very sick. I think this air is worse for me though.” His breaths remained shallow. “I’m still smelling this through the mask.”

  “You won’t die. I won’t let you.” She put a hand over one of his at her waist to offer support. “I’m the cure, remember?”

  Alice stumbled a few times on the uneven terrain, but Jasper helped keep her upright. She led him to the entrance of the room where the water dripped down, where her whole ordeal started. Had it really only been days? “Thank you.”

  “Thank me?”

  She ran her fingers over the rough paper rolled in her hand. “Yes, this is where you saved my life, when your guards wanted to throw me over the edge. I think Decker was leaning toward chopping me up too. I kind of owe you.”

  “I’ll let you save me, if I get sick from this.” He rubbed a finger at her waist. “I won’t let Decker chop you up. Not until we find out what power there is between us.”

  Was that the only reason? He had a use for her now. Her soulmate would use her like everyone else had. It didn’t matter. Fix the water and g
et out of there as intact as possible. “Ready?” Alice unrolled the spell and gave it one more read, even though she memorized it before they left.

  Jasper open his eyes and spun her around. “From your soul. Feel it in your core, like we practiced.”

  “Do you need to read it?” Alice held the page toward him.

  “No. You lead with the first line. Then me, and the rest together.” He dropped his hands from her, moving directly to her side.

  Alice rolled the spell up, and slipped it in her pocket. She looked over to see Jasper had his eyes closed again. Before she started, she reached down and twined her fingers in his.

  It wasn’t a long spell, a modified illusion barrier, reinforced to hold in the haze. They both recited the lines, neither fumbling at any point. It was the first spell Alice worked with enough power to notice the way things she wasn’t manipulating around her, also responded to her as she commanded the other strings in the web that connected everything.

  The air vibrated and grew thick. The power it harbored became tangible. Their combined energies changed everything around them, filling them both with a sense of limitless possibilities, and confidence that served to increase the impact of their words.

  With the last line, both used such strong intentions the air filled with their mingled scents, sweet earth was the resulting aroma.

  Alice breathed in the strange odor, and opened her eyes to see a solid wall. There would be no way to tell how effectively it held in the fumes until she cleared the air from the entrance.

  Jasper also opened his eyes. “You ready for the next part? I need to get out of this air soon.”

  Alice squeezed his hand. “Maybe you should go inside, behind the other barrier while I clear the air. Even your voice sounds strangled. This whole spell is me.”

  He shook his head and spoke in a firm tone. “No. Witches could stroll in here and take you to be burned. There is still a light elf in the woods, and they are always active in the sun.”

  “Dead heroes save no one.” She took out the other spell after seeing his jaw set in defiance. “I will work as fast as I can.”