Magic and Mayhem: The Lie, the Witch, and the Warlock (Kindle Worlds Novella)
Page 7
I rearranged the ink pad and pencil caddy on the counter. “Why don’t you just go ahead and go? There’s nothing going on here. I can handle it.”
She stood up straight, already reaching for her jacket. “You sure?”
I nodded, but she was already headed to the door.
“You’re the best. I have a hot date tonight. OK, so he’s not hot, but he’s a date, and I’ll take it.”
“Have fun.”
I looked around the library seating area for things to tidy up while Wendy trotted through the door. I straightened the latest copies of the Mystical Times scattered across the coffee table and then heard the slight whine of the front door hinges.
When I turned around, my heart started to race. It was her. The spider queen. Fuckity, fuck, fuck. She looked like she had aged fifty years. I returned my stare to the newspapers for a moment, trying to formulate my strategy. Maybe she didn’t know I was involved.
Slowly rounding the occasional table, I picked up my pace as soon as my shoes hit the carpet. But today I had no luck. I was almost to the desk when she grabbed me by the back of the throat, pinning me to the wall. My face smashed against the textured paint. That bitch was so strong, my feet dangled.
“You have something of mine,” she hissed. “I can smell him on you. He has a job to finish.”
“I don’t know where he is.” I rasped against the tips of her long fingers.
Just then, a terrible racket sounded from behind the door. “Dora, open the door. Let me help you. Dora.” More pounding.
She released my throat, and I tumbled to the floor. “Never mind, I don’t need you.” She laughed. “I didn’t think it would be this easy.” She walked to the door and grabbed the handle.
I stood and rounded the counter looking for anything I could use as a weapon.
Marcus screamed from behind the door. “Dora, now! I can feel your fear. Let me help you. Open the door.”
Spider bitch kept pulling on the handle, but it would not budge. She turned to face me, focusing all her rage on me. “Open the door.”
I grabbed the scissors from atop the desk. “Never.” I started to run toward the door that lead to the basement, but she was too fast. Before I could reach the door, she kicked me in the back, propelling me back toward the tower door.
“Fuck,” I cried out as my face impacted against the wood.
Marcus screamed, “Open the door, Dora.”
The spider queen hissed, “Yes, do as he says.” Her matted black hair made her look like a warrior, not the runway model that left on Marcus’s arm all those weeks ago.
“No,” I breathed. My only hope was to slip inside the door and close it behind me, but Marcus was in the way. I turned around to face her.
“What the hell happened to your face?”
The deep lines and wrinkles had not been there before. Her sunken, ghostly eyes narrowed even further. “He did. He needs to finish what he started. Now open the door.”
This was the moment of truth. We would either both die as originally planned or I’d outsmart this arachnid menace.
With my hand on the handle, I looked at her. “Fine, I’ll open it.” I said it loud enough for Marcus to hear hoping he’d take the hint.
No such luck. As soon as the latch clicked, he barreled through the door, knocking me to the ground and lunged at the spider queen while shouting, “Dora get inside.” The pink robe billowed out behind him like a flamboyant superhero cape.
I couldn’t leave him to fight her alone. She was strong enough to kill us both in our weakened states.
She knocked him backward into the door, but he righted himself a second later and bared his fangs. His ferocity was something to behold. Powerful. Frightening.
He bounded toward her.
She laughed. “Ahhh…foreplay. How nice.”
I stood feeling helpless. I looked down at the scissors in my hands. I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to her to strike.
Marcus groaned as his head slammed against the counter.
She cackled. “I do like it rough. Our babies are going to be beautiful.”
He sat up. “This is all against the rules. You can’t force me into it.”
“Do you think I care about your fucking rules? My children will give me the advantage. My colony will double in size overnight. Once they are grown, the araca people will rule all. And to think, I owe it all to you. Now come here love, and be a good boy.”
I clutched the scissors tighter in my hand. Scissors. Oh please, let this work. I grabbed my shirt and yanked it over my head, standing in the middle of combat in only my bra. I took the scissors and began shredding the shirt into strips.
Marcus leaped up onto the counter and then dived onto the spider queen. They were a tangle of arms and legs while they wrestled on the ground for control.
Meanwhile, I prayed, mumbling to myself, “Come on you pain in the ass witch. If you’re ever going to be pissed at me. Now’s the time. Come on.” I threw the fragments of shirt into the air like confetti, watching as each piece fell to the ground.
Marcus screamed.
Leticia guffawed, “Did you think you were the only one who could bite?”
I waited, seconds passing like hours. Where was that fucking witch? It suddenly occurred to me that the last time I called for Baba Yaga, it was underwear I shredded. Perhaps miss high and mighty had a panty fetish. I reached under my skirt and worked my panties down my legs. I didn’t bother to step out of them; I used the scissors to slice through each side. In a fit of rage, I mutilated the undergarment to background noise filled with thuds, screams of pain and wicked laughter.
Balling up the tiny pieces of cloth in my fist, I waited. Nothing. “Motherfucking useless piece of shit witches.” I threw the scraps like a high-speed baseball only to see them abruptly stop and float to the ground.
Someone tapped on my shoulder.
I turned.
Baba Yaga stood inspecting her purple glittery fingernails. “You know it’s not very nice to call me names. You interrupted my nail appointment. What is it you have against my underwear choices?”
“Fuck your underwear. Help Marcus.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You want me to help Marcus? I thought you hated him.”
“I do. I mean… I did. Please stop fucking around, she’s going to kill him.”
“You mean you want me to save him so that you can kill him?”
“No.”
She shot me a mischievous smirk. “Well, you’re not mated to him yet. I can tell. Are you saying you’ve overcome your disdain for the vampire Casanova?”
“Yes. Now fucking help him.”
She winked at me. “Well…will wonders never cease.” She sauntered past me toward the whirling battle. She waved her hands in the air. “Now would you two please settle down?”
A blinding flash lit up the room and Marcus and the spider queen hung motionless as though Baba Yaga had somehow stopped time. She looked over her shoulder at me. “Care to come help untangle him from her? I don’t want to chip a nail.”
She admired the sparkling glittering tips of her fingers. I ran to Marcus and unwound his hand from the spider queen’s throat and hers from his.
I stood up and ran toward the counter. “I have an idea. One second.” I grabbed the spool of ribbon we used to wrap stacks of books to make them easier to carry. With piece after piece, I bound the spider queen’s wrists and ankles. I tied strong knots around her appendages many times, knowing the strength she possessed.
Baba Yaga whined, “Are you about done? Do you know how long it takes to get on my manicurist’s schedule, if she leaves—”
“There!” I stood. “That should slow her down.”
“Now Dora, when I release the spell. I want you to run with Marcus to the tower. I’ll take care of your arachnid infestation, but she is a leader and Marcus did cross the line. There is only one way to truly protect him. It’s illegal to interfere with someone’s mate.” She winked. “I
think you know what you need to do.”
My moment of relief was stifled by my abrupt realization. “You knew I could mate with him? You fucking knew and never said anything.”
“Dearest Dora, do you honestly think you would have listened to me? I had hoped me requiring him to visit the library often for his council project would allow one thing to lead to another. I thought for sure when he kept coming back even after his project was completed that things would have blossomed between you two. But you are exceptionally willful. Given more time, it may have worked, but Marcus’s eight-legged mistake and you cursing him complicated matters. Hard to kindle that romantic flame when your future wife smacks you with a death curse. You certainly are enterprising even without magic.” She glanced at her nails again. “Now get ready.”
She raised her hand into the air. “Oh and Dora, the underwear… We need to find a new way for you to call me. It pains me to see good clothing ruined.” She flicked her wrist and time in the sphere surrounding Marcus and Leticia resumed. In seconds, Marcus’s hands were around the spider queen’s throat again.
The spider queen screamed, “What the hell? Baba Yaga you’ll pay for this.” She pulled at her restraints.
I grabbed Marcus’s forearm. “Come on, Baba Yaga has this handled.”
He looked at me and squinted for a moment, comprehension finally penetrating his mind. He released her throat and stood.
Baba Yaga looked bored. She stared at her nails as she addressed the spider queen, “You have a few things to answer for.”
Leticia hissed, “I did nothing wrong. It was all him.” She glared at Marcus.
Baba Yaga glanced toward Marcus. “Well…he’s not getting out of this easily either.” She clasped her fingers together in front of her. “Oh and Marcus… Nice robe.”
I urged him to stand and ran, dragging him behind me before he could respond to Baba Yaga’s comment.
The door closed, the magical wards snapping into place, and I turned around, jumped into his arms, and crushed my mouth to his.
I peppered his face with kisses and trailed my lips down his neck.
“What are you—”
I bit his neck. Hard.
“Oh…now you’ve done it.”
I grinned.
He spun me and placed my hands and knees on the stairs.
He didn’t give me a second to breathe before he thrust into me. “Remember when you’re pissed at me about something like dirty dishes, or not hanging up my towels, or biting you in public, that you asked for this.”
“Shut up and fuck me.”
Smack.
“Ow…is that any way to treat your mate?”
He grabbed my hair in one fist. “Oh you’re right…I should have done it harder.” Crack.
“Fuck!”
Slap.
I bit my lip and groaned.
With one word, he sealed our fate. “Mine.” His fangs bit into my shoulder and at the same time, his bleeding wrist pressed against my mouth, inviting me to suck.
Pleasure, beyond any pleasure I had ever known, coursed through me as we consumed each other and Marcus sealed our future with his release. Magic surged through us as we embraced our destiny.
My euphoric haze was interrupted by the clanking of something metal falling to the floor.
Marcus released my hair and apologized, “I’m sorry, I wanted to buy you flowers, have candlelight and all that lovey-dovey nonsense.” He pulled out of me and stood.
I turned, rested my ass on the stairs, and gazed up at him. “It was perfect. It was unplanned, raw, and chaotic, just like us.”
He bent to kiss me but paused. “Dora, your collar.” He picked it up from the stairs.
I immediately brought my hand to my throat. “That cryptic fucking witch. I remember asking her years after they bound me if there was ever a chance for me to lose the collar and she said, ‘Well, there might be a way someday, if you’re open to it, but let’s just say, it would really suck.’” I smacked him. “She meant you. You suck.”
“Is that anyway to treat your mate?”
I adjusted the feather collar of his pink satin robe and considered my promise to make him wear it and serve me breakfast sans food. “Sorry. But what if I told you I wanted breakfast, would you forgive me?”
He grinned, bent, and scooped me up in his arms. “I think I have just what you ordered.”
I shot him a wicked smile. “I can’t fucking wait.”
He stopped mid stride, cradled me with one arm, and swatted my ass. Adjusting me again in his arm, he continued to climb.
“Hey!”
Chapter 11
Feathers
“You know for a bloodsucker, you’re not a bad cook.” I stuffed another one of the succulent shrimp into my mouth and turned to stare at Marcus from my stool at the breakfast nook.
He strode to my side, the pink robe flowing behind him, and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. “From you, little one, that’s high praise.” Rubbing his hands up and down my arms he said, “Sorry, I haven’t been able to get you to Louisiana so you can get your favorite jambalaya.”
“Well…since I asked for it to be my last meal, if you had taken me to Ted’s I’d be a little suspicious.” I smiled, and it amazed me how often I had been doing just that since the night we had the showdown with Leticia in the library and more importantly, the moment I decided to live.
“I’m going to take you there someday. In fact, I’d like to retrace all of the steps in your life and do everything again, so that it’s new…ours.”
As I stared up into his eyes, I couldn’t help but give my thanks to good ol’ Baba Yaga. Her batshit crazy plan worked. I still wasn’t allowed to use my magic until I received the proper training, but I was free. As soon as Baba Yaga finished smoothing over things for Marcus, we could leave the tower.
“When Baba Yaga gives us the all clear, will you come back to visit?”
He leaned back and gave me the most bewildered look. “Visit? Why would I visit?”
Something in my chest tightened as my heart fell, proof that I had fallen in love with him. “I’m sorry… I just…”
His gaze intensified, brow furrowing. “Do you not want to live with me? In my home, as my mate? My wife? I’m sorry, I had assumed you’d be coming with me.”
I tried to hide the surprise and relief from my face. “Oh…of course, I do. It’s just—”
His mouth closed over mine before I could finish the sentence. The kiss was a completion, a vow, an oath to always be what each other needed. “I’m glad, because I think it would be really difficult to raise our children here. Could you imagine lugging strollers up twenty-seven flights of stairs?”
“Children?” I tried not to hyperventilate. “You’re a vampire. I didn’t… I mean… I didn’t think we could have children.”
“But you’re not a vampire. It will take a little magic, but it’s entirely possible. Why do you look so frightened?” He smoothed his hands up and down my arms.
“I guess since everything happened so fast I hadn’t considered all the ramifications.”
He grinned. “Just you wait. You also haven’t considered all the benefits. There’s this thing I can do with my tongue—”
“Not another word. How many times have we had sex today?”
He nuzzled my neck, inhaling deeply. “Not nearly enough, little one. Not nearly enough.”
“You’re going to kill me.”
In a flash, he had me off the stool and landing on my back in the middle of the bed. He pressed his pelvis tight against mine as he loomed over me. “Isn’t that exactly what you asked me to do?” He bent and kissed me. “Only this time, I’ll do it slowly. I’ll fulfill my oath by taking forever to deliver your demise—one torturous pleasure at a time. How does that sound?”
I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Smack.
“Hey!”
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Tight
Chapter 2 Sticky
Chapter 3 Naked
Chapter 4 Twitch
Chapter 5 Lace
Chapter 6 Spanking
Chapter 7 Confessions
Chapter 8 Tease
Chapter 9 Indulgence
Chapter 10 Naughty
Chapter 11 Feathers