A Little Dark Magic (The Little Coven Series Book 2)

by Isabel Wroth

  Maksim struggled to find the right word that wouldn’t completely terrify Kerrigan, but she reached up and pressed her hand over his heart.

  “Second only to the shifter clans in violence, and the top of the food chain when it comes to scheming, conniving, feudal brutality. I know.”

  It warmed his heart to hear her say that without a hint of fear, and it saddened him because she couldn’t know.

  She thought she did, but until she lived it, there was no way for Kerrigan to truly understand. Vampires fed on blood in more ways than one, and the shifter community had nothing on the violence vampires were capable of.

  Shifters were primal creatures who fought for survival. Their instincts based purely on the simple needs of their animal counterparts.

  They didn’t fight for power or money or status; they fought amongst themselves to feed their young, protect their territories, and to fuck their mates.

  Vampires were a combination of humans and predators, with the worst traits in both. Vampires were very much part of a feudal system, constantly working to increase their holdings, to be more powerful than the clan two towns over, seeking to always be top of the heap.

  Having seen the rise and fall of a hundred empires, Austmathr had been uniquely clever. He created a clan of warriors so strong, other clans came to them for aid when fighting for land or blood.

  They remained unaffiliated or allied with any one clan, offering their services to others in exchange for gold or land until the clan of Austmathr quietly became the richest among the vampire nation.

  What Florence had been to the Medicis, the Austmathrs’ had been to vampires, and they hadn’t gotten to that position of power without spilling oceans of blood.

  “Back to my mistake.” Kerrigan sighed, hugging her knees to her chest with one arm, propping her chin up in her other hand. She looked both faraway and confused, her brow knotted with tension.

  “I’ve collected three fragments of the female spirit I’m after before finding you. This was my fourth dive, and it never occurred to me that Austmathr would be aware inside the diamond, or that sharing blood with you would give him power. He was there waiting this time with an offer—”

  “Whatever it is, whatever he’s asked, the cost isn’t worth it.” Maksim couldn’t stress that enough. “Austmathr always has some angle, some prize at the end he’ll claim for his own, and I will not allow it to be you.”

  Kerrigan shot a quick smile his way, again, not understanding the consequences of playing a game of any sort with Austmathr.

  “Well, after I told him I was dedicated to finishing my contract with Etienne Rodolpho, your maker called me a whore, then I called him a whore because he based his whole business on hiring himself and you out to the highest bidder.”

  Maksim was stunned speechless. No one in a thousand years would have dared call Austmathr Attlaus a whore. Austmathr had been the progeny of one of the finest strategists in Alexander the Great’s army.

  Kerrigan seemed to find Maksim’s inability to form words laughable and shocked him even further.

  “After a brief moment, Austmathr agreed we’re both whores, and we moved on. In exchange for his assistance in gathering the fragments of the spirit I’m after, he demanded I tell you the particulars of the job I’m working because at the end of it, your maker wants you to have the treasure.”

  “Alright. Tell me everything.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Kerrigan felt the chances for another amorous evening spent with her mate quickly evaporate as Maksim leaped up from the coffee table and furiously began to pace back and forth.

  She told him about her meeting with Etienne, about what he’d revealed, and the insatiable rage she’d felt upon seeing the rubies she’d given Maksim on their birthday that night at the opera.

  He seemed to take everything up to that point with a nod and another round of pacing. As soon as she mentioned the tie bar and cuff-links, Maksim went as stiff and still as a statue. The only part of him that moved was the tick above his right eyebrow.

  Menace rolled off him in waves, filling the basement with an energy that made the lizard part of her brain come online and scream at her to run and hide. She pitied whoever he was thinking about right now.

  “You’re certain the tie bar and cuff-links were mine?” Maksim finally asked, turning to face her with that physical push of energy rolling off him.

  It reminded her of what it felt like to stand in the path of an oncoming thunderstorm. The pressure in the air that promised a wild show of light and sound.

  “I summoned the ruby out of the ground and imprinted my energy into the stones. Even if you put them in a pile of five thousand identical tie bars and cuff-links, I would recognize the real ones from the fakes in five seconds flat.”

  Maksim hissed under his breath, his lips peeling back from his fangs in a feral grimace as he resumed his pacing.

  “And this daywalking potion, do you believe it exists?”

  “Honestly? I’m not sure. But Etienne believes in it so strongly he paid me a truly ludicrous amount of money to summon a spirit who might not even tell him where it is.”

  Maksim grunted, turning on his heel to work the floor in a clockwise circle now.

  “How much is a truly ludicrous amount?”

  “Thirty-five million.” Her casual response made her graceful mate trip over the corner of the rug and stare at her like she’d grown a second head. Kerrigan shrugged. “What? He said money was no object, so I aimed high.”

  “I would classify that as an obscene amount of money, love.” Maks finally said.

  Kerrigan liked the emphasis he put on the word ‘obscene.’ She was ready for more obscene things in her life, especially if they involved a bed.

  “Etienne said he searched the world over for someone who can do what I do, and that amount of money would be the perks of accomplishing something no one else has been able to.”

  “Such as creating a daywalking potion for vampires?” Maksim countered dryly, his disbelief plain in his droll tone.

  “Touché.” Kerrigan sighed.

  “Where is your necklace?” Maksim suddenly asked, his gaze bouncing around the room wildly, as though expecting his maker to come waltzing out into their temporary bedroom at any moment.

  Kerrigan couldn’t help the wicked grin that curved her lips and enjoyed the wary look that crossed her mate’s face.

  “What? What’s that smile for?”

  “Now that I know what Austmathr’s up to, I put my necklace in a zip-lock and stuck it inside the toilet tank for a time out.”

  “A time… a time out? In the toilet?” Maks guffawed incredulously.

  “The water and the porcelain will act as a barrier to keep him from eavesdropping or sipping at my energy. And it seemed like the worst place I could put him, so, yeah.”

  Maks stood there, blinking owlishly for a few seconds before throwing his head back to laugh. It was a beautiful sight to see, but all too soon, the humor was gone and the lines between his eyes were back.

  Maks crouched down in front of her and took her hands, pressing kisses to her knuckles before giving her a gentle squeeze. His gaze bored into hers, steady and grave.

  “Did you tell Etienne you were the only witch in the world who could summon the spirit who knows where his potion is?”

  The question sent alarm jangling along her nerves. “No. He already knew I’d managed to summon Austmathr when he made the appointment—I bought supplies from a witch with a big mouth, and she must have told him about me. I said was I was capable. I didn’t make him promises that Cecilie would tell him anything. In fact, I told him all I could do was get her here, and what happened after that wasn’t up to me.”

  “But you told me in summoning my maker, you’d achieved something no other has. Yes?”

  “Yes. If you’re going to ask me not to go through with this, I can’t. I took his money, gave my word, and signed a confidentiality agreement. No one else knows about what I�
�m doing—”

  “Unfortunately, love, I am almost certain someone else knows.”

  Kerrigan gave a roll of her eyes. “Okay, well, Charani probably knows—the witch who told Etienne about me—but she won’t talk. I made sure of it.”

  “How?” Maksim asked with a lift of his brow.

  “I sent her a letter coated in a special potion I cooked up,” Kerrigan confessed, feeling zero remorse for what she’d done. “I told her to mind her goddamn business, and if she wants to keep breathing, she’ll keep her mouth shut.”

  Maksim’s lips gave a quirk. “A cursed letter. You didn’t use to have this streak of vengeance before.”

  “Yeah, well, one too many people have fucked with me and the people I love,” she told him tartly, searching his expression for any sign to say he disapproved.

  “You’re not worried she’ll try and curse you back?”

  Kerrigan had a good laugh about that. “I’m sure she’ll try, but to curse, me she’d have to speak, write, or think my name. It’s all her choice, but it’ll be kinda hard to do if she’s choking to death.”

  A full-on grin split his face. “Shall I start calling you my wicked little witch?”

  “You can call me whatever you like,” Kerrigan answered with a smirk, but it faded soon enough. “Maks, aside from the obvious problems a single dose of a daywalking potion could cause, why are you so worried about Etienne? We signed an NDA.”

  Maks brought her hands to his chest and held them there with one hand using the other to reach up and cup her cheek.

  “Wicked, I say this with all the love in my heart: don’t be naive. If there is a potion out there capable of allowing a vampire to walk in the light, every faction in the world will be after it, and nothing so flimsy as a piece of paper will stop them from getting answers out of you or Etienne.

  “What little I know of Etienne is that he couldn’t possibly have thirty-five million dollars lying around to pay for your services, so he must have a partner. Or more than one partner. Which means our problems have greatly increased.”

  “We have problems other than your maker having found a way to make demands on us from beyond the grave?”

  She was attempting to make a joke of it, but Maksim wasn’t laughing.

  “Oh, yes, Wicked. We have problems. The night I came for you, I was preparing to meet the vampire council at a gentleman’s club in Manhattan. It’s required that every member who enters the doors wear a tuxedo.”

  Confused how that had anything to do with the ghost of his maker or the problems they apparently had, Kerrigan searched his penetrating stare.

  “How very traditional.”

  He agreed with a mirthless laugh. “They are, that. You don’t wear tie bars or cufflinks with a tux, Kerrigan. The rubies were in the safe at my apartment.”

  “How could Etienne have gotten them then?”

  Maksim tipped his head to the side, a muscle in his cheek ticking as he clenched his jaw angrily.

  “Experience and a healthy dose of suspicion says it’s one of my brothers.”

  “One of your brothers?” she repeated skeptically. “Why? They want the potion?”

  “It’s highly likely. You said my maker wishes me to have it; did he say why?”

  Kerrigan nodded, tugging on his shirt to get him to come up and sit on the couch with her. She threw her leg over his hips, feeling the muscles in her inner thighs scream in protest.

  She didn’t care. In fact, she smiled at the reminder of everything that had happened in the big bed behind them. Kerrigan twisted her fingers in the hair at his nape and stared into his pale green eyes.

  “There was a lot of bluster and insults, but the gist of it was that you’re better than all your brothers because you have a conscience, and you should have the potion because you don’t want it.”

  Maksim scoffed incredulously. “Austmathr would never say I’m better than my brothers.”

  “Okay, fine. He called you his greatest disappointment because you were nothing like him and weren’t the type to indiscriminately hurt people.” Maks grunted, his hands finding their place on her butt.

  “Apparently, you see very few shades of gray. You like right and wrong, and as that was so offensive to Aussie, I read between the lines and took that to mean you still have a soul and are a good person.”

  He gave her a slow, sexy smirk, his fingers slipping beneath her tunic to trace circles on her skin.

  “Is that why you want me to have the potion? Because you think I’m a good person?”

  “No.” His eyebrow slid up, and Kerrigan hurried to explain. “I do think you’re a good person, but that’s not why I want you to have the potion. I want you to have it because I’m selfish. If there’s something out there that will allow us to have all the hours in a day and a night together, I want them.”

  “That’s not selfish,” Maksim murmured, leaning in to kiss her.

  Kerrigan melted into him, feeling heat sweep up from her toes, pooling low in her belly, spreading up through her breasts, making every part of her hum and sing with need.

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to summon the spirit of the witch who created the spell and the potion?”

  Head spinning from his kiss, all Kerrigan could say was, “What?”

  “Etienne paid you thirty-five million dollars to summon the spirit of his dead lover, who may or may not tell him where this potion is. Considering he murdered her, I can’t imagine Cecilie would want to tell him anything, and if it were me, I’d make sure he got a potion guaranteed to kill him. So, why not summon the witch who created the potion in the first place?”

  Kerrigan wondered if she should be worried that he didn’t seem as affected by their kisses, but what he asked was important.

  “That’s… that’s an extremely valid point. I don’t know. I mean, he’d have to have something of hers—”

  “Such as her book of spells?” Maks interrupted softly.

  Her belly twisted with an uneasy sensation, heat creeping up her cheeks as his expression went from soft and sexy to grim and serious. Why hadn’t it ever occurred to her to ask about the witch?

  Well, actually, it wasn’t that difficult to imagine why. She’d been so focused on the rubies, on Maksim’s rubies, she hadn’t thought of anything else.

  “I’d need her name, too.”

  Maks rubbed and squeezed at her backside, and the grim look he continued to maintain was starting to get to her.

  “My sire was not known for choosing stupid men. All of us were chosen for our skill as warriors, our battle strategy, and our ice-cold logic.”

  “I know that.”

  “I’m confident Etienne knows the name of the witch who created the potion, and whichever of my brothers he thinks he’s conning knows it too. There’s something I haven’t told you about my stay in Vivica’s dungeon, and to be perfectly honest with you, I wasn’t going to.”

  Kerrigan looked back and forth between his eyes, her stomach flipping with uncertainty.

  “Maks, you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you or think less of you if Vivica did more than just put her hands on you.”

  Adoration and amusement warred in his expression, and though his green eyes positively sparkled, his tone was gravely serious.

  “My virtue is intact, love. I promise. I wasn’t going to tell you because I didn’t want to frighten you. Or upset you.”

  “Okay.”

  “I had many opportunities to escape,” he admitted slowly, holding steady even when Kerrigan stiffened in disbelief. “Knowing this, Vivica ensured I wouldn’t want to. That I would choose to stay.”

  “Why would you choose to…” Horrified, Kerrigan felt as though she couldn’t take a full breath. “Me. You chose to stay because she threatened to do something to me.”

  “She needed my cooperation to an extent, and the reports she gave me weekly on where you were—along with surveillance photos of you going about your day, completely unaware—convinced me she could get to
you anytime, anywhere.

  “The last time I attempted to escape, she cut out my eyes so I couldn’t use my thrall to coerce one of the others to help me and to ensure I wouldn’t ever see your beautiful face again. I thought perhaps she’d simply hired an excellent private investigator, but now I think there’s more to how we ended up in that dungeon than simply your parents’ involvement.”

  Kerrigan shook her head in disbelief, unable to form actual words. Maksim stayed in that dungeon. He chose to stay and sacrificed his eyes, to protect her.

  “I kept you a secret, too. I worried for your safety. My brothers are like sharks, constantly circling, waiting for the smallest scent of blood in the water to suggest a weakness to be exploited. I didn’t dare reveal your existence to them until I was certain I could keep you safe, but I suspect now that one of them was the architect of this whole plot.

  “That he was the person your father spoke to and outed your secret, who manipulated your parents into going to the Silver Wives. Through her, he tormented me with photos and reports of your whereabouts. He’s researched you and knows everything about you, reveling in your pain.

  “He knows what you studied in school; he’s studied your coven, your business, their business, their secrets, who you follow on social media, what you’ve spent his money on, the offshore account you moved it all into. And, it’s very likely, he knows about Ilex and the Fae destroying the Wives.”

  Strangely, Kerrigan didn’t feel frightened by the fact that one of Maksim’s brothers had essentially been stalking her. She felt angry.

  Angry to have so blindly agreed to do this job.

  Angry for having been so focused on her obsession with finding anything to do with Maksim that she’d put her family in danger.

  Angry, she’d been dumb enough to look at what was right in front of her and not see the trick for what it was or sense someone was following her.