Calder Witch Boxset (Paranormal Vampire Romance): Books 1-4

by Martha Woods

She gave him yet another kiss, unable to contain herself. He didn’t seem to mind, kissing her back without hesitation and pulling her ever closer to him. Calla found herself wondering if anything would ever come of them. Was having sex a one-time thing? Would Jared only be interested in being so close while he was forced to watch her? Calla didn’t know but tried not to let those kinds of thoughts take over her mind. Even if it was only temporary, Calla wanted to enjoy it.

  Then, the door opened without warning. Jared and Calla ripped away from the kiss and glanced over to Tessa with wide eyes. Tessa gasped and then averted her eyes, looking directly up to the ceiling. “Sorry, I figured you guys were actually asleep…”

  Calla made sure the blankets were pulled up around her chest as she sat up, Jared moving with her. “What did you need?” she called over to Tessa in a soft tone. It wasn’t like Calla was embarrassed to have been seen in bed with Jared, but she knew it could potentially make things complicated. They could decide they didn’t trust Jared to watch her anymore and assign some other vampire to babysit her. Not to mention, Jared might not have wanted anyone to know he was sleeping with a witch. He could get distant from her just because they were caught.

  “We were hoping you could go ahead and reach out to the Firehavens. Ally called to say they were still on route and didn’t seem to be stopping. Time is of the essence…”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll call them now,” Calla assured Tessa, if not for anything other than to get her out of the room.

  “Let us know as soon as you find out what they say. We need to know as quickly as possible,” Tessa said. Before closing the door, she looked to Jared, letting out a sigh, “And don’t worry. I won’t tell Kristian about… this,” she gestured to the both of them. “I’ll let you decide if you want to.”

  “Thank you, Tessa,” Jared called to her.

  Once the door closed, Calla put her head in her hands. “That was terrible,” she muttered.

  “At least she isn’t going to run to Kristian and tattle. I’d rather tell him myself.”

  Calla immediately lifted her face, looking at him with a raised brow, “You’re actually going to tell him?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, an arm wrapping around her waist.

  Her eyes fell to the bedspread, shrugging, “I don’t know how you view what is going on. If it was like a one-night-stand to you, or just a fling, or…”

  Jared lifted her chin, tilting her face to get her to make eye contact with him, “Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on between us. You drive me crazy with that smart mouth of yours, but not exactly in a bad way. And… I don’t know. There’s something about you I can’t shake. I want to try and figure it out, and I don’t want to have to sneak around to do it.”

  Calla beamed at his words, unable to believe that he had said them. It felt like a dream. “I’m glad to hear you say that,” she admitted. “I really can’t believe you warmed up to me so fast… Just a few days ago, I was pretty convinced that you hated me.”

  “As I’ve said before, I never hated you. I found you attractive and knew I was going to be around you constantly. It was just easiest to keep myself at a distance and not risk getting attached. You had to sink your claws into me, wretched witch,” Jared teased, nipping at her neck.

  Calla was grinning ear to ear then, “So you kept chanting those thoughts in your head because you worried I was going to find out you think I’m attractive?” He nodded. “My, my. That’s some serious dedication, Jared. You’re sheer will-power, aren’t you?”

  “Pretty much. You definitely made my will-power buckle, though,” he purred to her. Jared gave her a gentle kiss before pulling back and looking her in the eye, “You need to go ahead and make that call, Calla.”

  “Way to kill the mood,” she grumbled.

  “Tessa already did that for me,” Jared joked, reaching to the floor and finding his pants. When he sat back up, he handed her his cell phone. Calla’s stomach plummeted just holding it. Making that call was the last thing she wanted to do. Chilly fingertips glided down her spine, “I’ll be right here while you call,” he promised her.

  Groaning, she buried her face in his shoulder. Her stomach was churning from the anxiety. Calla knew she needed to just hurry up and get it over with. The faster she called, the faster it would be over with. Sucking in a deep breath, she moved her face a bit to be able to peer down at the screen as she dialed Flora’s number. When she lifted the phone to her ear, both of Jared’s arms wrapped around her.

  The phone rang, and rang. Calla found herself hoping that maybe Flora wouldn’t pick up, just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with it right at that moment. When she contemplated hanging up, the other end of the call picked up. “Hello?” her sister said.

  Tears instantly filled Calla’s eyes, having the worst time trying to get a single syllable out of her mouth. “Hey, Flora…” she whispered, trying her best to keep her emotions from showing in her voice.

  “Calla?” Flora breathed. “Is that really you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me…”

  “Where have you been?” her sister asked. Calla could hear as her sister already started to fight back her own tears.

  “It’s a long story… Deidre had asked me to go on a mission with her. She said the Calder were closing in on Theresa,” she explained, calling Tessa by the name the clan knew her by, “But Deidre was an imposter, Flora. She… She tricked all of us and landed me right in the middle of it. She was Calder, and she tried to kill Theresa…”

  “Wh… what? Deidre did all that? Oh, Calla… Why didn’t you reach out to me? I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me for weeks…”

  Calla nibbled her lip, “Because… Because I’m no longer apart of Firehaven.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She rubbed her face against Jared’s shoulder, trying her best not to get overwhelmed by her emotions. “Theresa, who by the way goes by Tessa now, is dating a vampire. When Deidre tracked her down, she was in a house filled with them. Of course, they weren’t going to just let me go…”

  “What did you do, Calla?” her sister demanded of her. Flora knew what was coming, and the fear of it strained her voice.

  “I did what I had to, Flora,” Calla croaked. “It was either take an oath with Tessa, or spend God knows how long being tortured before finally being put out of my misery. I spent hours on a fucking iron table. You think I wanted to risk anything else?”

  Flora was dead silent, the empty air paining Calla. Even though Tessa was the daughter of a High Priestess, she wasn’t trained to be one. Taking a blood oath with someone of Tessa’s skill level was blasphemy in the witch realm. She could never rejoin the Firehavens, or any other clan for that matter. “Is there a reason you called?” she asked calmly.

  Calla knew Flora wasn’t going to respond to it. She didn’t really blame her, Calla had no idea how she would react if the tables were turned. If they were human, it would be the equivalent of being forcibly adopted into another family and moving across country—never able to return home. The Firehaven clan would never accept her again. Tears started to fall from Calla’s olive eyes, but she did her best to keep her crying from bleeding into her voice, “Yes… The Calder actually is closing in on Tessa, and the vampires don’t have enough people to match their numbers. We need help.”

  “Well, you’re in luck,” Flora sighed. “We’re already on our way to you.”

  “What? How… How do you know where I am?”

  “I managed to poke around your thoughts when you were dreaming the other night, and found out you were in New York. I figured once we were close enough, I could try and reach out to you again to get an exact location. There are five others with me. Honest to God, I was preparing for the worse… But all this…”

  Calla’s brow knitted together, sitting straight up. “Wait, where are you heading from?”

  “We were at the compound in Minnesota. Why?”

  Calla was going to be sick. Was it po
ssible that the Calder had known about Calla somehow, and were following her sister to get to Calla, to get to Tessa? “The Calder was first spotted in Minnesota… Just hours after that dream, Flora. You need to be careful, but try and act like nothing is wrong. I don’t think they will attack you guys since they need you to lead them to us. Can you contact the others and try and get as many witches as you can?”

  “We’ll keep our eyes out for them. If I spot them, I’ll let you know. And I’ll call Mama and see if she can rally some witches. If they really are following us, I can try and buy us some time.”

  “Thank you, Flora… I love you.”

  “I love you too. I gotta go.”

  Calla put his phone to the side and finally let out a sob she had been holding back for most of the phone call. Jared pulled her to lay down, holding her tightly as she cried it out.

  * * *

  Tensions were high in the apartment. Needless to say, Kristian wasn’t taking it well that the Calder had possibly been following Flora to eventually get to Tessa. He blamed it on Calla, saying she should have known better than to think her family wouldn’t try and find her. With the Calder and Firehaven being mortal enemies, it was far too likely that they managed to figure out Calla was with Tessa. Calla couldn’t argue with his logic. She should have thought about it logically and for the safety of Tessa, rather than letting her emotions get in the way. At least the Firehaven were willing to help, it appeared to have calmed Kristian a bit.

  Calla and Tessa stayed up through the morning and into the early hours of the afternoon, focusing on controlling Tessa’s mind-reading abilities. It was very likely that the witches would try and get inside her head to weaken her, so Tessa needed to learn how to block out thoughts. The first step was the same as firebending—meditation. It was becoming easier for Tessa to do so since they had practiced it so much in prior days. The challenging part was actually learning to put a wall up between herself and the flow of thoughts around her.

  Borrowing Jared’s phone, Calla used the internet to play white noise sounds, hoping that it would help Tessa tune the thoughts out. “I’m sure you’ve tried all your life just to ignore thoughts. It’s hard to master how to do it all the time without having to put effort into it, but I’m hoping we can get you to the point where you can forcefully block them out. So if a Calder witch gets near you, you can protect yourself mentally as well,” Calla explained. “You actually probably already know how, to an extent. It’s kind of like the equivalent of being so focused on something that you tune it out. Just more extreme to where you don’t hear it at all. So, listen to the white noise while you focus on everything but the guys’ thoughts.”

  “It’s a little hard, Kristian,” Tessa called over to her boyfriend, her eyes still closed. He was distracting her with his thoughts. Calla could tell when Kristian’s thought pattern changed by the look on Tessa’s face. She inhaled several deep breaths as she tried to obey Calla’s instructions.

  There was total silence for a solid hour while Tessa attempted it. As the minutes ticked by, Tessa was growing more and more frustrated. “This just isn’t going to work,” Tessa grumbled. “I’m starting to think I don’t have the capability of blocking out thoughts. I feel like I’ve tried everything over the years, and I’m getting nowhere with this.”

  “Every witch can, Tessa. Don’t get so disheartened. It took me five years of practice when I was a kid to master it. You have to remember what you’re accomplishing is no easy feat. Learning what you already have with firebending is more than impressive, believe me when I say that. Let’s try a couple of more things, and if it doesn’t work, then I can make you a charm that blocks thoughts.”

  “Wait, you can just make a charm?” Tessa questioned. “Why in the hell didn’t we just do that forever ago?”

  “Because they don’t last forever. Thought charms are only good for a few hours at a time before they wear off. You don’t want to become dependent on them because of that. It’s better for you to try and master the technique,” Calla explained.

  Tessa let out a dramatic sigh, “I understand… This is all just giving me a headache.”

  “Okay, okay. Let me try just one more thing, and then I’ll show you how to make a thought charm.”

  She nodded, “Alright. What do I need to do?”

  “Lay back,” Calla instructed. Once Tessa laid flat, Calla perched on the edge of the couch. “I’m going to try a spell. There’s no guarantee it will work, and there’s also the possibility that you won’t be able to read thoughts at all until I undo it. Are you willing to try it?” Tessa nodded at her. “Okay. Close your eyes and meditate. It won’t work if you don’t.”

  When she could visibly see Tessa relax, Calla began the spell. It was an old spell, to the point where it wasn’t in English, but a dead language unique to their clan. She muttered the words of it quietly, gently tracing shapes into Tessa’s forehead as the spell required. Once she was done, Calla thought: Can you hear me, Tessa? Calla waited a moment, noticing Tessa wasn’t replying.

  “Did you hear that?” Calla asked.

  “Hear what?”

  Her brows shot up, surprised that it had worked so easily. “Really? You didn’t hear my thought?”

  Tessa’s eyes popped open, staring up at Calla with a bewildered look. She then gazed around the room. Kristian was sat on the other couch, slumped over as he dozed; Jared was in his usual spot in the corner, his head leaned to the side as he slept as well. Must have been boring watching them meditate for hours on end. Tessa looked back to Calla, “Think more,” she said excitedly, wanting to test it more to be sure it worked.

  Calla then started an inner monologue, rambling mentally about nothing particularly important.

  “Are you actually thinking out loud? Are you sure you don’t still have your mental block up?” Tessa asked in a whisper, apparently shocked and in disbelief that she didn't hear anything.

  “I swear I’m thinking out loud. If you can’t hear it, then it’s definitely working,” Calla smiled to her.

  “This… this is unreal,” Tessa breathed, sitting up. “I’ve tried everything I can think of to block out thoughts. Just with one spell… it’s gone?”

  “You had to be open to it for the spell to work. Thankfully, witches can’t just use it against you. I’m surprised it only took one attempt too, though. Normally the mind has some reservations about having all thoughts blocked out. You must have seriously wanted them gone.”

  “Definitely. I didn’t want to hear Jared’s stupid chanting anymore,” Tessa grumbled.

  Calla couldn’t help but laugh, “I understand that entirely. He’s pretty adamant about his mind not being read.”

  “Very,” Tessa sighed.

  “Just know that this is the equivalent of a band-aid. This is by no means the way you should stay. Reading minds is extremely helpful and almost vital for the survival of witches. You need to just continuously practice the exercise we were doing, and hopefully in time, you’ll start to get the hang of it. Over time, it’ll be so easy that you’ll do it without thinking. Then you’ll have to actively try to read someone’s thoughts,” Calla explained as simply as she could. She felt as though she were just reciting things she had heard in class. “Also keep in mind that it can also wear off. Magic can be very arbitrary and finicky at times. Let me know if it does, and we will do it again. I’ll also make you a charm before the Calder get here, just to be on the safe side.”

  Then, unexpectedly, Tessa threw her arms around Calla and pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank you so much, Calla. You don’t know what this means to me,” she whispered.

  A sweet, genuine smile curled Calla’s lips, “You’re welcome. I’m happy to help.” She hugged Tessa back, patting her back in a comforting manner.

  Tessa pulled back and sat back. “I guess that’s about it for the night, huh?”

  Calla’s gaze shifted to Jared sleeping in his chair, “I suppose so.” She started to stand, “Have a good—”
<
br />   Catching Calla by the hand, Tessa whispered, “Could… could I actually ask you about something?”

  She hedged, wondering what exactly it could be that Tessa wanted to know. Calla hoped it wasn’t about her and Jared. That wasn’t a conversation she was willing to have, especially when Kristian was sleeping just a few feet away. Reluctantly, Calla sat back down and said, “Sure. What is it you want to know?”

  Tessa nibbled nervously on her lip. Calla could sense her anxiety over whatever it was she was trying to say. “Earlier, when we were in the basement, you said my mother would have been proud… Did you know my parents?”

  Calla frowned. She should have guessed that would be what Tessa wanted to talk about. “Well, I’m just a few years older than you. I was three when you were born. So I don’t recall a whole lot of first-hand knowledge, but I know stories. Our mothers were best friends. One of the only memories I have of your mom was her bringing you over right after you were born.”

  “Really?” Tessa breathed.

  She nodded, “It wasn’t exactly a joyous occasion. My mom sent me to my room to play, not wanting me to overhear what they were saying… Your mother, Esmeralda, was terrified of the Calder being able to find you. My parents were the ones your mom asked to place you in a human family.”

  “Esmeralda…” Tessa repeated, as though to see how it felt in her mouth. She shook her head, refocusing. “What else can you tell me? Did you know my father?”

  Calla paused to find the words to explain it, knowing that if she didn’t explain it properly, it would just confuse the poor woman. The last thing Calla wanted to do was confuse Tessa about her own past. “Like the prophecy said, you were born of two clans. Firehaven and Calder. Your mother was being formally courted by a man from another clan, the Wyrde. As I’m sure you know, there are no male witches. However, sons of witches are married off to other witches daughters to keep them full-blooded.

  “Anyways, the only reason Esmeralda was letting the man from Wyrde court her, was because she was secretly seeing the son of a Calder witch. Your dad’s name was Cedric, I believe, and the other man was Julian. She knew it was dangerous, but I suppose love is a crazy thing. When she got pregnant, she made it appear as though Julian was your father. Your birth was basically fulfilling that prophecy, and she didn’t want people to know that the Calder was the other half of your lineage. Our own clan could have potentially turned against you.”