Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  “What did I say about setting limits?” Her mother asked.

  She didn't have to shout to be heard across the distance. Her air ensured that her message was received.

  “Mom! This is not the place for that kind of discussion,” Jill whined.

  Victor kissed Jill. In front of everyone. Until Jill forgot about being embarrassed, or angry, or confused. He kept it soft and tender, slowly working down her temper with his kisses and caresses along her sides.

  All of the others were gone when Victor finally released her lips.

  Jill felt the barest warmth of her blush still heating her cheeks.

  This time it wasn’t embarrassment. She was primed, with her blood set afire to feed the vampire in front of her.

  “Was that the ‘five’ minutes?” she asked.

  “That was me kissing you. Not exactly what I described for the ‘five’ minutes, was it, Jill?”

  She shook her head. “Should still count. I don’t remember you asking my permission first.”

  Victor trailed his fingers over her neck, brushing against his bite marks.

  “You already granted me permission with the claim. As for Alexander, he isn’t a stronger dominant. He needed to know his position in our group, and I provided direction. Just as I have done for you. It’s your choice whether you want that boy. He’s not up to replacing me. I’ll have to collar him if you insist on letting him play with us. Big pups need to learn control as much as feisty witches.”

  “I d-don’t know,” Jill said, surprised.

  Did Victor really mean for her to have to deal with more than one vampire at once?

  It had been hard enough with both Phillip and William, and that was without any true attraction between them.

  “You don’t have to choose right now,” Victor said, letting his hand trail down to grab one of her hands. He tugged her to walk with him. “Let the pup wait. He’ll only be more fun to tame if you get him riled up with impatience. Go ahead and tease him.”

  Victor sounded mildly excited, which for him, was a great show of enthusiasm.

  Meddlesome Gifts

  Elizabeth

  “How much longer?” Elizabeth shouted as they flew higher towards the—no longer so distant—mountains.

  Pan kept flapping her wings, ignoring the query that every parent knew would only escalate.

  “Gotta pee!”

  Flap, flap, and flap.

  "Are we there yet?" Elizabeth asked, switching over to telepathy.

  The flight took a sudden dive at Elizabeth’s telepathic question. It was like their plane had sprung a leak and was gliding down to look for a safe landing.

  Every foot they dropped eased some of the tension in Elizabeth’s shoulders. She didn’t want to test the bounds of her air to hold her up at dragon flying height.

  "Splattered hostages don’t have much value,” Elizabeth cautioned.

  The reminder was a nervous afterthought.

  She had avoided looking down, but now that they were landing, she risked a look to check their surroundings.

  Trees and rocks were approaching at a dizzying pace.

  She squeezed her eyes shut.

  Pan released Elizabeth’s body from her taloned hold, right as Elizabeth had closed her eyes.

  Thankfully, they were only a couple of feet off of the ground. It would have been completely fine if those few feet weren’t on top of a rocky, hillside cliff, only a few snow caps shy of a mountain.

  Elizabeth’s air caught her, barely.

  Her hasty whoosh of magic hit Pan’s wings accidentally in an updraft, leading to some frantic flapping, and sending the dragoness dangerously bobbing into her landing.

  Pan crash landed in front of Elizabeth.

  Dust and magic swirled as Pan changed back to a slender female in witch form. She looked unhurt.

  Elizabeth coughed. She quickly dressed Pan using lightning. It was worth the use of her magic to be able to look Pan in the eyes without the awkwardness from the shifter’s nakedness, again.

  The dragon ought to be more immune to the cold than Elizabeth. Masking the discomfort of chills with lightning wouldn’t help the reality of frostbite once they reached the mountains.

  “Is this an illusion?” Pan asked, smoothing her hands down her pants.

  Elizabeth added the sensation of the cloth under Pan’s hands.

  “Kind of, although it’s only in your mind and mine. If another looked at you, without my magic influencing their senses, you would be naked.”

  “So, it’s a lie?”

  Elizabeth didn’t protest the simplified explanation.

  “Yes, my greatest magic is lying and usually getting away with it.”

  Pan was eyeing her warily.

  Perhaps she was afraid Elizabeth would retaliate for the kidnapping and strike her down with a lightning-bolt.

  Elizabeth was going to have to approach the wary dragoness carefully.

  Pan was brave, but she was still awfully young to be up to the kind of mischief that she’d created so far, especially in a place as unforgiving as the Wastes.

  “So, you wanted to fly me to a big rock?” Elizabeth led.

  Pan ignored the question, her mind obviously still occupied by Elizabeth’s use of her lightning magic as she asked her own question.

  “The dark clan talked about a wicked witch in the tunnels. Did you really kill those dragons?” Pan asked.

  Lie or truth, which would get her Pan’s trust?

  “They attacked me first,” Elizabeth hedged.

  “Why did you only kill the exiles? Why didn’t you kill Prince Raphael or the other guard?”

  What did Pan mean by exiles?

  “I didn’t mean to kill anyone.”

  That was almost a lie.

  Jill and the twins had been at risk. Elizabeth had known her lightning could be deadly.

  She’d just never killed with it prior to that first dragon in the caves.

  “How strong are you?” Pan asked, looking Elizabeth’s petite body up and down.

  If Elizabeth was a horse, she was sure that Pan would have asked to check her hooves and teeth.

  “Depends on what you need,” Elizabeth hedged again.

  “Free the light clan dragonesses!”

  It wasn’t said like a plea, more of an order.

  Pan had no idea how Elizabeth’s magic worked if she thought it could be forced.

  The hostages that could have swayed Elizabeth to even try were far from here.

  “I thought you wanted Dae and George to come save your clan?” Elizabeth asked, guessing that Pan knew exactly who Dae was—or rather, who he was not.

  Pan shivered as a cool wind blew over her naked body.

  Elizabeth could block the wind, but the only way for Pan’s body to warm itself would be for her muscles to shiver or for her to find some real clothes.

  “Would Prince Daemon care about imprisoned dragons?” Pan asked, sounding doubtful.

  At least, they had stopped pretending Dae wasn’t Daemon.

  “I don’t believe Daemon knew until you brought it up,” Elizabeth answered. “Both princes seemed surprised when you told them what’s been going on with the dragon clans.”

  “They’ll come for you, though?” Pan asked.

  Elizabeth sighed. “Yes. I think they’ll be coming for you, as well, especially George. He tends to get obsessed with any females he heals.”

  Elizabeth stripped off her pants as she talked, handing them over to Pan. Her drawers, underneath, were modest enough to keep her covered up without the pants.

  Pan started to put the pants on, but Elizabeth stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

  “Uh, do dragons have extra strength like with earth-magic?”

  “Mostly in familiar form, but I guess we’re stronger than the average elemental without earth.”

  “If you rip the bottoms of the pants from the knee down, it should provide enough material for a shirt, in a bandeau-style,” Elizabeth su
ggested.

  Pan quickly did just that, ripping a few more pieces from the one half leg to make strips of cloth she tied together in a belt to hold the bandeau in place over her breasts.

  It covered the essentials—although the wide expanse exposed of Pan’s trim, lightly-muscled tummy and the hint of her hips that barely held up the pants probably would drive the average Marenian male wild.

  This was not the proper garb for court.

  Hopefully, the dragons were more lenient.

  “Let’s sit and talk,” Elizabeth said once they were both somewhat dressed. “Where are we?”

  “Dragos.”

  “Do you suppose two witches can free all of the light clan?”

  Pan looked shocked. It lasted about ten seconds and then she hardened right before Elizabeth’s eyes. She seemed to remember that she was a powerful witch in her own right.

  Elizabeth doubted this was Pan’s first rodeo.

  The girl might be young, but she had the look of someone experienced by trauma rather than years.

  “Storm the caves and kill King Rael with your magic. I’ll take care of the rest,” Pan said.

  “As in, the rest of the dragons? How exactly do you propose to keep us from being killed once we commit regicide?” Elizabeth asked.

  It was a bit like playing the devil’s advocate, getting Pan to see why they would have to wait for George and Daemon to have any chance of defeating so many dragons.

  “Can you hide us with your magic, like the fake wall you used in the tunnels?”

  Elizabeth could hide them without needing a fake wall. Depending on how many dragon minds she had to control, however, such intensive magic might not last long.

  It was also more difficult if the dragons were in their familiar form, which made their minds feel different to her magic.

  Such vulnerable details about how her magic worked were more than she wanted to share with her new friend.

  “My last wall was taken down with dragon fire,” Elizabeth answered, sure she wasn’t telling Pan something new to her.

  Pan seemed to know everything that happened in the tunnels that night.

  “Do you think if we go back for Daemon and George, it will make a difference?” Elizabeth casually prompted.

  “Of course, but what if Prince Daemon only rescues you and leaves the rest of us still imprisoned?” Pan asked, sounding fearful again.

  There could be no going back if Pan arranged the murder of her own king.

  “What if we got more help? Ensured there would be others to stay and help the light clan to adjust afterwards,” Elizabeth suggested, easing Pan into another idea that has formed in her head.

  She knew Daemon needed the cooperation of the dragons to take back his castle.

  Helping Pan could be a roundabout way to securing that help from both of the dragon clans.

  “Everyone else hates dragons,” Pan said with a sigh.

  Elizabeth met Pan’s gaze, giving her a levelling look.

  “Dragons terrorize Maerenian citizens. They steal witches and none have ever been returned. They burn, pillage, and rob unwary travellers,” she said to Pan, giving some emphasis to the last bit.

  “Dark clan dragons do most of those things,” Pan excused.

  “Why overthrow King Rael if dragons are going to continue to harass everyone else?”

  “We won’t,” Pan insisted. “The next in line for the light clan is a female, and she will swear fealty to Prince Daemon.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I swear it.”

  Elizabeth looked at Pan’s thin body and thought about the abuse Pan had witnessed.

  What kind of treatment was that by the light clan to their own princess—if Elizabeth had guessed right?

  “What if we used Prince Raphael to help us overthrow King Rael?”

  “No,” Pan said, shaking her head. “The dark clan cannot be trusted. They are wild, starving monsters that Prince Raphael barely keeps in check.”

  Elizabeth could certainly understand that impression after being inside the dragon minds in the tunnels. They had been bloodthirsty and desperate.

  Geer had never seemed all that bad. He’d almost become a companion—of sorts, in her head at the times she was alone and in need of a friend.

  He had to be from the dark clan if he was Raphael’s friend.

  Raphael had almost killed Elizabeth and he’d nearly kidnapped Victoria.

  Perhaps the dark clan was too much for her to handle?

  “You said the dragons that were killed in the tunnels were exiles? What did you mean by exiles?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Prince Raphael sends the worst offenders of his clan out of Dragos, through the portals in the tunnel—banned against ever returning. The male warriors are difficult to control. They’re impatient to find their mates, and riding the edge of their hunger most of the time with no females in their clan to meet their needs. They fly far to find willing witches for a night. When a male dragon goes too long without feeding, his familiar’s beast can take over. Some of them never change back from their familiar form. That’s when Prince Raphael takes them on the long walk.”

  Elizabeth summed it up. “The dark clan is pulling their loosely held leash. The light clan is chained by the old ways. Neither dragon clan seems ready to offer Daemon the help he needs to secure his own throne. Why should he risk himself for the dragons?”

  “Of course the light clan can help Prince Daemon,” Pan insisted. “The female warriors are loyal, well trained, and as deadly as the males. Release them from King Rael. They will offer their services without question. Light dragons want to be free again.”

  “Look, as powerful as you think the three of us are, it’s still too few to forcefully take over the light clan.”

  “Four of us,” Pan said.

  Pan had only met George, but she didn’t exclude him. He must have made an impression.

  “How did you even know to come to us? Few knew we were in the Wastes,” Elizabeth said, asking what had been bothering her since she woke up to Pan pelting her with rocks.

  Was this a trap? It felt like a hasty but still structured plan.

  “I overheard earth soldiers in the Wastes talking about Prince George, as well as the problems in the Maerenian King’s court with poisonings and traitors. Apparently, the three earth soldiers are part of a group called the ‘Dogs’ and Prince George usually gives them their orders. The Dogs talked a lot—they were even helpful enough to discuss what direction they were headed, based on their tracking. Then, you made the magic go boom, so finding you first was easy. If you were trying to hide, it was terribly done.”

  Elizabeth fought a blush. Pan had made a hasty plan, born of the opportunity they had provided.

  Pan must have been robbing the Dogs when she eavesdropped.

  Elizabeth had wondered if the Dogs were the three earth-lords who had attacked when Pan kidnapped her and flew away.

  She’d heard about the Dogs at court, although she’d never met them.

  Jill had been dying to get a glimpse of them, given they were an elite earth-magic unit.

  While in the midst of her burglary of the Dogs, Pan must have realized that she had stumbled upon the solution to free her fellow dragonesses.

  Pan would have figured that she had Daemon over the barrel, knowing his own court was going to drag him in for questioning and a trumped up trial.

  Stealing Elizabeth didn’t quite make sense, especially as Elizabeth was supposed to be George’s prisoner and a traitor herself.

  While Daemon might be expected to make an effort to rescue Elizabeth, it wasn’t a straight logic to assume he would also fight the light clan as Pan wanted.

  “Why did you take me?” Elizabeth asked, studying Pan’s face. Pan lowered her eyes, no doubt trying to think up a lie. “You wanted me to leave with you before George and Daemon even woke,” Elizabeth reminded her.

  Pan looked up. “Witches shouldn’t be imprisoned just because of their
magic.”

  Things were making more sense.

  Pan hadn’t been able to help herself from the impulse to rescue Elizabeth, although she had intended a more blackmail-type of approach.

  Perhaps seeing two powerful princes, instead of only one, had made Pan think twice about trying to twist Daemon’s arm into aiding the light Dragons.

  George’s reputation made him dangerous, even while sleeping peacefully beside Elizabeth.

  “You’re right,” Elizabeth agreed. “Nobody should be imprisoned because of having magic. Judgement should be rendered on how that magic is used.”

  “Are you going to help?”

  “I’m going to assist you in securing the help you need,” Elizabeth said.

  Pan nodded. It probably wasn’t what she wanted, but Elizabeth had Daemon and George counting on her, and a kingdom to rescue.

  She took a deep breath and revealed a plan that was almost as ballsy as the one Pan had presented.

  “You and I are going to approach Prince Raphael and demand his aid.”

  Pan coughed. “Demand?” she squeaked out.

  “It was your idea. If you think Daemon is going to agree to help you—because you stole me from him—wouldn’t Prince Raphael agree to similar terms if I threatened to keep him apart from his life-mate?”

  Pan’s eyes rounded. “A dragon’s gaisa? Are you crazy? He’ll kill you for threatening to harm one hair on her head.”

  Elizabeth smiled. “Who said I was going to threaten his life-mate? We’re besties, and better yet, she’s bound to me by a blood-bond. I could put a good word in for his royal darkness, if he proves himself to be a helpful guy.”

  “You’re going to trade her for his help?” Pan asked, sounding unhappy.

  She had to want the help, but the cost was not something a soft hearted girl like Pan could make someone else pay.

  “Nope,” Elizabeth reassured her. “I’ll discuss arranging a meeting on neutral ground, but lover boy has to do his own courting. This life-mate thing, is it serious?”

  “The magic in Maeren sometimes ties two souls together, making them life-mates. It’s impossible to break once the souls confirm the bond. If one dies, then the other half will fade away.”