Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  Elizabeth really ought to be here to share the lecture that was building up in their mother’s glare.

  Had her grandfather suggested they come here to torment Jill?

  “I thought you said there were a few sickly vampires Elizabeth dealt with and that Rai had been overkill?” her mother asked, her tone turning the statement into a question.

  “Who’s Rai?” Torsten asked.

  “We used the term ‘horde,’ not a few,” Jill weakly replied.

  “I don’t remember hearing anything about a dragon,” her mother persisted.

  “That tree wasn’t torn in half when we left. Something else did it, afterwards,” Victoria said.

  “Something like a dragon?” Victor offered, sounding a touch upset himself.

  “Regulating where dragons fly really isn’t our job!” Jill snapped back.

  Victor smouldered.

  A fire-witch could detect hidden flames and he was blazing under his outwardly controlled expression.

  The giveaway was how he’d stopped looking around him at the destroyed field and focused an intense stare Jill’s way.

  “Rai is Elizabeth’s familiar,” her mother told Torsten, finally answering his question.

  Then, her mother focused back on Jill.

  Peachy.

  “Tell me exactly why Elizabeth needed her familiar to defeat a ‘horde’ of sickly vampires,” her mother ordered Jill.

  “They were like zombies. Something was really wrong with them. There were too many for Elizabeth to fight with, uh—” Jill broke off and looked at Torsten, “—her slayer powers.”

  “Elizabeth has an air familiar? This doesn’t really look like the damage from air magic,” Jaeson commented, kicking his foot into the dried mud. “In fact, the earth is full of—”

  “There’s no such thing as lightning witches,” her mother said, repeating the family motto.

  “Rai is short for Raiku, the Japanese God of thunder and lightning,” Victoria added.

  “I thought this damage was from Daemon’s familiar,” Victor admitted.

  “It was partly from Daemon’s magic,” Victoria said. “We pulled out Elizabeth’s familiar to control Daemon’s familiar, so we could escape.”

  “Prince Daemon’s familiar was manifested here?” Torsten queried. He sounded awfully calm about it all.

  “They were dating before we left court,” her mother said.

  “Is dating what they call claiming a witch in the human realm?” Jaeson asked.

  “Fine. Daemon claimed Elizabeth by placing his familiar on her, instead of a normal claiming tattoo,” her mother amended.

  “The first zombie-vampire’s bite activated the claim’s protection. Daemon pushed his familiar out to incinerate the ‘horde’ of zombie-vampires that appeared afterwards,” Victoria explained.

  There was silence for a moment as they all took in the substantial damage still showing in the destroyed field, surrounded by the skeletons of the trees.

  That Daemon had done this from the distance of the court was unnerving.

  “What’s a familiar?” Alexander asked.

  Victor pulled out his fire-sword. He swung it around. Blue flames had licked the blade before it had even cleared the scabbard.

  In moments, a blue tiger was circling Alexander, nipping at his feet.

  “Why is there an amplification circle?” Torsten asked, ignoring the familiar making Alexander sweat.

  The tiger dodged a heavy boulder.

  “Elizabeth never pulled out her familiar before,” Victoria answered. “Stop playing around,” she ordered her brother.

  Victor called his tiger back and sheathed his sword.

  “I thought you would’ve had a water familiar,” Torsten commented.

  “Who says I only have one familiar?” Victor parried.

  Now Torsten’s brows went up. “Interesting,” he said, then he turned to her mother. His tone said he wasn’t done yet.

  Oh, crap.

  They were well caught. Their mother was going to be in a mood after this interrogation had been botched in minutes.

  “Almost as interesting as a young lightning witch pulling her familiar out in an amplification circle—with no protection—to desperately fight off a ‘horde’ of zombie-vampires who wanted to drain her and her companions to soulless witches.”

  Put like that, it sounded very bad.

  “Daemon’s claim provided plenty of protection,” Jill protested before her mother could respond. “We didn’t want Daemon to track us, or transport here, so Elizabeth called Rai. It was easy.”

  “Easy?” Victor repeated. His tone was frigid.

  “. . . as pie,” Jill said, meeting his gaze without flinching at the fire flickering within.

  Victor smiled at her.

  “When I’m done training you, pulling your familiar out will be as simple as pulling a bunny from a hat, no amplification circle needed.”

  Why did that sound like a threat?

  “Does Jill really need that kind of protection?” Victoria asked, shaking her head at Jill to keep quiet.

  “Yes!” Victor and her mother replied at the same time.

  “If Jill is going to have any further dealings with dragons, then familiar training could come in handy,” Torsten said.

  He turned to face Victoria. “Do you plan on seeing your gais again, so soon?” he asked her.

  That must be the male appropriate term for a dragon mate.

  “No,” Victoria answered, shutting that conversation down.

  Her mother twisted a big ring on her left hand, around her index finger.

  “About that, I promised King Nicholas that I would talk to the dragons about supporting Daemon if he isn’t able to persuade them first,” her mother said, uncharacteristically sounding nervous and uncomfortable.

  Jaeson muttered a Maerenian curse that flamed even Victoria’s ears.

  “Is there a time limit before we have to invade the Dragos or can we take care of a few bits of unfinished business here, first?” Torsten asked.

  He already sounded weary.

  “Daemon gets to offer a carrot first,” her mother said.

  “Are we done talking it all out now? I would really like to get around to fighting zombies, or dragons, or whoever the ladies want to pick first,” Alexander said.

  He heaved the battle axe he was holding, off of his shoulder, as he stretched one bulging, muscular arm up and down, behind his back.

  Then he moved it across his chest, like he was holding a five-pound dumbbell and getting a light work out in, while the rest of them talked.

  Jill smiled at him.

  She had missed not having to hide her power. Surrounded by family, she was now free to really be herself.

  “Can you wield that axe in battle? It’s double sided, so do you hold it more like a broadsword with both hands?” she asked Alexander.

  “One handed. You need to keep a hand free for magic,” Alexander replied, tossing the axe at her.

  Jill caught it one handed and tried moving it around, testing out the weight and feel while executing a kata.

  The axe was a very different weapon from a katana. It felt like something that would require definite strikes, and not parry, like most other bladed weapons.

  “We are not finished talking,” Victor said, twisting his body into Jill’s kata form.

  Victor disarmed her with timed blows to her elbow and wrist.

  He had to catch the battle axe two handed and heave it back to Alexander, not blessed with earth-strength.

  “Kaila, come talk with your father about this lightning magic Elizabeth doesn’t possess, so we can better understand what happened here. Victor and Jill can finish their talk,” Jaeson said, giving Victor an assessing look.

  “You’ll stay in sight,” her mother told Jill.

  Jill rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”

  “Tor?” Victor asked.

  “Hey, Xander, want to show me how your little wood splitter does a
gainst fire?” Victoria called over to Alexander.

  The princess took off to the middle of the ruined field before Alexander could answer, clearly set on distracting him from whatever her brother had planned.

  Jill sighed.

  “Well, we’re alone, your Highness, so what do you want?”

  A little muscle ticked in Victor’s jaw. He walked around, behind her.

  “Stand straight, feet together, and hands at your side,” Victor ordered. His tone didn’t welcome any questions.

  “We’re not alone enough to play dominance games,” Jill said, ignoring him.

  “If we were truly alone, you would be on your knees,” Victor whispered in her ear, coming up close behind her.

  She turned her head to twitch her ear away from his heated breath.

  Victor chuckled. “Such a display of propriety—while you told me exactly what kind of situation you and your reckless sister got yourselves into here—demonstrates that a witch accepts she has wronged and will be punished.”

  “Not your problem. It happened before the claim,” Jill said.

  He tucked the stray hair falling over her forehead behind her ear as she continued to examine her own feet.

  “Straighten up now, and pay attention—or I’ll show you exactly what kind of discipline a vampire may rightfully employ on a disobedient witch. One currently under his claim—the only thing that matters with respect to timing.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “You wouldn't dare. My mother nearly buried you for the audacity of even claiming me.”

  “If you act like a brat, I’ll treat you as such. I’ll put you over my knee no matter who is watching,” Victor warned her.

  He didn’t seem angry—his tone was calm and cool—but the firmness of his threat made her realize that he was serious about carrying it out.

  “Whatever,” she sassed, straightening up like he’d asked.

  “Eyes up,” he ordered, coming around to stand in front of her.

  She met his dark gaze again as she looked up.

  “Yes, Sir!” she mocked, biting her bottom lip as he stared silently at her.

  “That will be five, Jill.”

  “Five what?”

  Victor’s lips turned up at the corners in a little smile. He didn’t answer.

  She looked back down. It was either that or she was going to punch his smug smile right in the kisser.

  “Eyes up, Jill.”

  She raised her eyes, slower this time.

  “You agreed to the terms. I don’t expect you to welsh on them so soon,” Victor said. “Start by telling me where you met your attackers, and then explain everything that happened without leaving out the family secrets.”

  “Why do you care? It’s already happened and we dealt with it. The bigger problem is figuring out where these zombie-vampires came from and if there are more of them.”

  “Jill, do you trust me?”

  She couldn’t lie when he was looking at her right in the eyes.

  “Yes.”

  He crossed his arms. “You don’t show trust when you refuse to answer my questions. I want to know about where you found these abnormal vampires, and your interaction with them—including magic—so I can use my knowledge to help track down any further of their kind before they can harm other witches.”

  She looked down, guiltily. His earnest response shamed her.

  She knew Victor didn’t like to see witches hurt, often going out of his way to provide protection.

  “Eyes up,” came Victor’s soft reminder.

  She looked over his shoulder, refusing to meet his eyes. “We were shopping in town for chalk to reinforce wards against Daemon and Victoria’s dragon—”

  “Raphael,” Victor interrupted.

  “The big grey dragon that crossed into your sister’s dream with his magic and was trying to steal her,” Jill modified. “We didn’t have enough marks, so the seller suggested a blood trade. It was a bad idea, but we couldn’t give back the chalk once the vampire paid us so much gold. The buyer tore up Elizabeth’s wrist pretty bad, right in front of the seller.”

  Fire flashed in Victor’s eyes, an impossible tell of his temper for him to hide.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “The vampire was sick. Even without touching him, I could tell that something was wrong. He smelled like decay. His clothes hung off of him—the right length, but he looked like he had lost a lot of weight. When he bit my sister, the wound didn’t heal on its own.”

  There was that fire again.

  She was starting to figure Victor out. He may not reveal his anger, but he felt it, and it smouldered, right now.

  “What kind of magic did he have?”

  “No idea, he didn’t use any magic.”

  “What kind of magic did Elizabeth promise for the feeding?”

  “Air.”

  “Did he defend himself or attack with air at any time? Think about it. Air is a tricky magic to detect sometimes.”

  “Not a breeze,” she insisted. “Elizabeth said she used lightning on him. She said his mind felt strange to her. She didn’t really explain it, but she says that the dragon minds also feel strange to her.”

  “You think these abnormal vampires are related to dragons?”

  “I don’t know. They don’t feel the same to me.”

  “Tell me the rest,” he ordered.

  She complied, seeing another flash of anger when she told Victor that Daemon had rendered his sister and herself helpless with his lightning mind control. Daemon had forced them to sit out, while he pulled his familiar from Elizabeth to attack at a dangerous distance to maintain control.

  Victor wanted to know things more suited to the battlefield: numbers, positions, weapons, and magic. He asked a lot of questions about Rai.

  Jill tried her best, but she didn’t observe things the way Victor obviously would have done if he’d been in her position. His viewpoint was influenced by more actual fighting experience.

  “So, do you know if there are more zombie-vampires, and where?” Jill asked when she finished telling Victor everything she knew.

  “No. I’ve never heard of anything like your zombie-vampires,” he replied, adapting her term. “We should discuss them further with your grandfather, especially the way they felt to your earth and healing. I’ve never seen an illness that could change a vampire in the way you’ve described. Perhaps something magical, a curse or earth-poison could render the change you’ve described.”

  “Do you think they transformed from something else, like dragons? Maybe that’s why their minds felt strange to my sister’s lightning?”

  “Transformation?” Victor snagged her chin, making her look into his eyes again. “You’re brilliant, Jill. I’m sure nobody would purposefully transform into something that made them as ill as the vampires you described, but perhaps it was a failed attempt to become a demon or something else, and the magic left its mark on their minds and bodies?”

  “Tor might know something about the more esoteric spells and curses,” Jill suggested.

  “True, her knowledge is only eclipsed by William.”

  “Can I stop standing to attention and go talk to her about it?”

  “After I tell you about what I plan to do about the ‘five’ you owe me,” Victor answered.

  “But I thought I did what you wanted. I told you everything,” Jill protested.

  “You know you deserve this punishment, and if I forgot it, you wouldn’t be able to resolve your guilt for your behaviour earlier,” Victor responded. He didn’t look smug this time, but resolute.

  “Do I have be naked for it this time?” Jill asked, only half-joking.

  “Of course, Jill. I expect you will always be naked for your punishments when they are between us. I already told you the nature of your punishments with me.”

  “Fine, what is it?”

  “When we get back to the hotel, you and I will retire to your room. You will lock the door and then take off all of
your clothes, folding them neatly onto the foot of the bed. I will—”

  “So, pretty much exactly like last time?” Jill interrupted.

  The ice that he’d used to play with her had been interesting. She wasn’t opposed to another game of icy-tickle.

  Victor continued like she hadn’t interrupted.

  “I will sit at the head of the bed and wait for you to straddle me and then kiss me. I won’t touch you or help or hold you to me. The kiss has to last five minutes. I have a little sandglass perfect for that interval.”

  Jill swallowed thickly. “A kiss? You just want a kiss?” she asked, laughing nervously.

  “If your lips leave mine for even a moment during your five minutes, I will turn the glass over and make it run through twice. If I have to turn the glass to start over more than once, I will touch you, restrain you, and do everything I want as I take over the kiss.”

  Holy hotness batman.

  “I’ve kissed enough princes in my day to know they always remain frogs, no matter how long your lips meet,” Jill taunted. “I hope you’ll enjoy your five minutes, froggy. There won’t be a second more!”

  “Five minutes. It’ll be easy as pie,” Victor said with a smile.

  She glared at him.

  “Now go and talk to Tor about the zombie-vampires, while I discuss things with your mother and grandfather.”

  Jill didn’t waste time pivoting and giving Victor her back.

  He was such a teasing jerk! He knew that all she’d be able to focus on now was those five minutes that he’d planned for them once they’d returned to the inn.

  Froggy lips. That’s what she had to think about if she wanted to beat him. Nasty, slimy frogs. Maybe a warty toad, too.

  Fired Up

  Jill felt like she’d only put off the inevitable instead of making a real escape as she walked across the field to rejoin the rest of the group.

  Damn Victor for keeping track of every little infraction of his rules.

  If only she didn’t always feel the urge to push him.

  The adults were busy investigating the field, while the other two were pitting their strengths against each other.

  It looked like a good distraction.

  Victoria was throwing fire-coated ninja stars at Alexander in a flurry of rapid moves. She ran full out at the huge earth vampire.