“Freely given and protected. Blood is magic and magic is life,” Elizabeth said, repeating the mantra all Maerenian children were taught from birth.
“Can you take them?” Victoria asked.
The princess had the chalk, which had caused all of this trouble, in her hand.
Please let that chalk be worth it.
“Yes. No. Maybe?” Elizabeth replied, trying to pay attention to the dragon overhead, the approaching horde of unwashed vampires, and the feel of Jill slipping on her black suit of magic under her lightning shield.
Elizabeth didn’t usually attack more than a pair of vampires at one, and that was extremely rare. Males coming over to the human realm for an illegal feed usually did so alone, rogues.
The greater number of males coming towards them now wouldn't give her too much pause, sickly as they looked, but she remembered the iron grip of the vampire that had fed from her wrist. Appearances could be false, as well she knew.
Victoria gave her an exasperated look.
Elizabeth would feel guilty about wavering, but her attention was already being pulled away. She could sense Daemon boosting his power, the magic encircling him. Somehow, he didn’t lock himself off from her, despite the circle.
She had to try to do something herself. It felt too much like giving up to let Daemon do all of the hard work.
An independent witch had to rely on her own strength.
“Yes, I can take them, if Daemon leaves anything for me,” Elizabeth told Victoria, more definitely. “Daemon is in some sort of circle. He’s still connected to me,” she added.
“It’s an amplification circle. Works differently,” Victoria explained. “Power is absorbed and pushed out. They aren’t as common because you can’t shield inside them. Purely offensive uses. Usually, an amplified soldier is surrounded by guards, while working magic, but it’s still suicide. Everyone will shoot for them. Rock slingers are amplified most often, mostly to take down walls.”
Victoria worked the chalk while explaining. They were on a dirt path, so it seemed pointless to use chalk, but she scraped the dirt with the chalk to make advanced glyphs that Elizabeth had never seen.
The lines might not look solid white, but she could already feel the potential for power radiating from them.
She took a moment to check in on Daemon.
Victoria’s explanation helped her see how his circle was different as she examined it using her lightning.
The chalk lines flashed as he absorbed power, but no wall shot up, leaving him open to the rest of the room.
It was somewhere in the castle still, the floor cleared, except for a few scraped marks at the edge of the circle.
Elizabeth slipped deeper into Daemon’s thoughts, shivering as his magic felt like it was in her own body.
Her skin was too tight with power, like the time he had fed her.
There was a bed shoved to the wall, which was what had made the scraping marks on the floor.
He was in a bedroom, maybe his own, which despite their intimacy, she had never seen before now.
“The dragon’s going to attack!” Jill warned.
Her voice was muffled by the black.
Elizabeth dropped Jill’s lightning shield, now that her sister was protected by her own power.
Daemon had control over his dragon familiar, once more, breaking it from flying the lazy circles overhead to dive towards the horde approaching them.
“Stay by your sister’s side, outside of the circle, and protect her,” Victoria ordered, finishing off the circle she’d been drawing. “Those idiots are going to attack us, no matter what, if they aren’t wise enough to run the other way from Daemon’s familiar. Even he won’t be able to finish them all off in time.”
There were a few dozen vampires, closing in fast. The first six had run over the hill with the vampire that had fed from Elizabeth.
They were the ones the dragon was going to hit first, but the majority of the vampires were behind them, flanking down both sides. There were so many of them.
Jill’s agreement to Victoria’s plan was swallowed by the sound of lightning striking as the dragon familiar flew right through three of the leading vampires.
The dragon’s mouth was wide open, as if to eat them, its wings flapping with thunder as a few beats carried it back, high into the sky.
The vampires froze where they had been swallowed, turning a bright white for an endless moment, then grey, formless ash that blew away in the wind from the dragon’s wings.
Daemon had killed those vampires from the comfort of his room.
He was merely warming up.
Elizabeth could feel him drawing more magic through his amplification circle, getting ready to attack again.
Each wave of power was a multiplication of the previous. He was levitating as she did before she used her lightning, his now shirtless body glowing and making glyphs on his arms stand out, ancient magic wrapped in black ink around his biceps.
He turned to stare at her, as if she was standing in the room with him.
“Vicky underestimates my familiar’s hunger. I don’t need your help, Elizabeth. Leave. That circle won’t protect you. It’s too risky,” he warned her.
He was straining, despite his confident words. There was sweat on his brow and his breathing was harsh.
“Get started,” Victoria demanded, pulling Elizabeth’s thoughts from Daemon’s show of power. “His dragon is going to grow in strength with every vampire he takes. You have to get it back on your body before it’s too strong to control.”
Oh, and he definitely hadn’t mentioned that important fact.
Perhaps Daemon was planning to use the dragon familiar against her, when he was finished with the vampires attacking them.
She couldn’t trust him. That lesson should have been learned the first time he betrayed her.
Jill formed twin swords made purely of the black fire as she paced outside of Elizabeth’s circle.
“Whatever you’re going to do, get it done fast. We are running out of time,” Jill shouted, nervously watching the approaching vampires.
Elizabeth levitated.
Daemon knew what she was going to do, but he couldn’t stop her.
The dragon familiar circled back overhead.
She knew it was for show. He wasn’t going to hurt them. He needed to gather his power before each attack.
The distance was bleeding him as surely as fangs would at his throat.
“Storm, do you plan on playing, too?” Daemon asked in a lazy drawl.
The nickname reminded her that he may have known all along about her magic and lied about it.
She had to harden her heart. See past the illusions she preferred to the reality she had to face.
“I thought it was ‘sweet’ storm. For a smooth liar, you do trip up on the little details,” Elizabeth said, taunting him.
“You may taste like honey but I won’t mistake you as sweet again,” Daemon quickly replied.
His comeback was distracted by the dragon swooping down closer, getting ready to attack once more.
Daemon was fast, quicker than she could even get started, and he had experience on his side.
She had to hope that Victoria’s knowledge would be able to match it.
“Push your magic out at the circle. It will bounce back until it’s amplified enough to at least double your limits, then I’ll tell you what to do next,” Victoria said.
The dragon took a swipe at the rear vampires, trying to break the flanks.
Another half dozen vampires were turned to ash, from the middle of the right flank, but it didn’t have effect Daemon had probably wanted.
Vampires continued right on coming, stepping over the ashes of the dead.
How could they proceed so fearlessly?
“Do you really think I will let you run from me again? Dragomir will guard you, once I finish off these foolish vampires. There’s nowhere in Maeren you can hide from me with the bond strengthened,” Dae
mon boldly declared, although his words were almost gritted out as he pushed himself to his limits.
Sweat was pouring from his body, drenching his pants and dripping down his chest.
Dragomir circled to come around for another pass.
No matter how strong consuming the vampires made his familiar, Daemon was burning the magic in his blood at a rapid pace to control the familiar.
Elizabeth still had a chance to snatch his control away.
Magic slapped Elizabeth as it rebounded off of Victoria’s circle. No longer did Daemon’s magic make her shiver. Instead, her own did, hotter than she’d ever built it, her chi filled to bursting.
“It’s time!” Elizabeth shouted. She had levitated higher with each wave of magic, now a dangerous height from the ground that necessitated yelling.
“Repeat after me!” Victoria shouted back.
Lyrical Maerenian followed, nonsensical to Elizabeth, but she’d learned enough of it from Kim to be able to mimic the sound and tones perfectly.
“Elizabeth, you will stop this immediately,” Daemon ordered, his sharp tone telling her he was done indulging his little witch.
Just wait until she showed him what she could do.
Phantom hands wrapped around her body, a warm chest to her back.
Fangs trailed down her neck as she instinctively leaned back, her neck tilting to Daemon’s demand.
No! She had to focus on her task. He was trying to distract her.
Dragomir swooped down and claimed three more vampires in the lead.
Elizabeth didn’t let Daemon’s distraction interfere with her spell, still speaking the Maerenian words Victoria wanted her to repeat without a hitch, even when he whispered into her ear.
Magic poured from her mouth, her head slamming back against Daemon’s phantom chest.
She didn’t speak any longer, a long, unearthly shout rushing out of her body, straight from her chi, as power was forced from her.
She couldn’t stop it even if she wanted. The loss of control over her own magic was scarier than the vampires attacking them.
The spell Victoria made her repeat had ripped something out of her.
Daemon whispered more soothing words in her ear, his hands rubbing her shoulders.
He had to know there was no stopping what was happening now. He helped her through it, comforting her.
Jill’s snakes hadn’t been cuddly and Daemon’s dragon was pure dread to behold.
She shouldn’t have expected her own familiar to be anything less fearsome.
Still!
A giant fox demon, with nine tails, red eyes, and tufts of lightning for paws!
It immediately ran through the air, towards the vampires. She felt no control over it, although they were connected through her magic.
The fox demon opened its great maw to eat three of the vampires, crunching bones and the males cries with satisfaction.
Why didn’t the vampires ash right away, like for Daemon’s dragon? She could feel the fox’s teeth shattering ribs and a femur, taste hot blood in her mouth, and then absorbed the power released as her familiar consumed them, body and soul.
Only once the fox swallowed her gruesome mouthful did something flash over her, presumably the magic from the vampires that had finally turned to ash.
It was a monstrous way to attack.
“A demon for a familiar? Aren’t you full of surprises?” Daemon asked, his tone light.
Despite stating surprise, Daemon’s words were matter of fact as he observed the carnage her familiar was wrecking.
The fox started stomping through the field, its thunderous footsteps each like a lightning strike, turning vampires to ash where they stood as she pounded over them.
When the murderous frolic became boring, it roared, generating a wind that blew the nearest vampires down the hill to tumble like children playing. The force of it smacked them against trees and rocks that broke bones in this deadly game.
Daemon cursed quietly in her ear.
“You have to name it,” Victoria shouted. “We need to pull your familiar back. The call should work on the dragon familiar as well, as long as Daemon isn’t here to usurp your claim.”
“It’s a Raiju,” Jill said.
The Japanese word was unfamiliar to Elizabeth but Jill knew plenty about mythology from Kim, especially the things that weren’t really a myth.
“A thunder demon,” Jill explained.
Well, that made sense, even if it wasn’t comforting. A demon was still tied to her, while another had inked his claim on her soul.
Daemon bit her ear, pulling her thoughts. His phantom fangs felt all too real.
Tremors shook down her overstimulated body, slowly primed by his touch earlier, although he’d probably meant his touches to be soothing.
He wasn’t there, couldn’t feed on her, or take some of the magic and blood she’d built up that needed release.
What was happening to her?
“Name it. Vicky is too clever for her own good, pulling your familiar to control mine, but you witches better not have bitten off more than you can chew. I swear that the spanking I gave you before was only a little tap on the wrist compared to the paddling I’ll give your bottom if you don’t pull your magic under control,” Daemon threatened her.
It was as good as a slap to knock sense into her. Outrage helped her push through her fear.
“Rai!” Elizabeth shouted, shortening the demon name Jill had given her.
The simple name felt right.
“Good!” Victoria shouted back. “Say it again and call her to you. Picture your chi when you say her name.”
Her chi was full to bursting again, but she called the fox demon, anyway.
Red eyes snapped up to her from the vampires the fox demon had been chasing like a ball of yarn, batted across the field.
Rai wasn’t done playing yet.
The dragon swooped down to eat the vampire balls distracting her fox demon.
“Rai!”
She pictured the threads of Daemon’s tattoo flying out of her chi to leash her familiar as she shouted its name.
“Dragomir,” Daemon called.
He was calling his dragon through her. Both familiars now had their undivided attention on her.
They had decimated the vampire horde, but there were still a few unlucky stragglers left.
Jill eyed the leftovers with delight.
“Tor, can you bind them, if I knock them out?” Jill asked, heading towards the right flank.
“Of course, but why?” Victoria asked, heading towards the left flank.
“For the soldiers to pick them up later,” Jill explained. “Superheroes are supposed to tie up the bad guys and leave them for the police.”
Victoria scoffed. “Dead vampires don’t talk,” she said, pointing to the two familiars making their way to Elizabeth. “Can you handle calling the familiars back on your own?” she asked Elizabeth.
Daemon was going to help, whether she wanted it or not.
Elizabeth nodded.
“Don’t worry about our prisoners talking,” Jill said. “A little earth can bind their tongues long enough to make our escape. Besides, this lightning show will have already drawn notice from the town.”
None of the town’s residents had been brave enough to venture close enough to explore the disturbance they were making, but it was definitely going to be talked about by the gossips.
“Fine, I’ll bind them, but don’t expect me to hold back,” Victoria muttered, barely audible as she drew closer to the first straggler.
Her companions bickering over the fate of the rest of the vampires who had attacked them was a too brief distraction from the familiars.
Dragomir reached her first, swooping down from the sky, without ceremony, to dive right into her chest.
It burned over her heart and then the entire left side of her body, as the tattoo settled into her skin. This time the tattoo seemed to cover her from the top of her left foot to the ba
ck of her neck.
“He’s well fed,” Daemon smugly commented.
“Size always matters to males,” Elizabeth said, reminding him that she was rather petite, so his big dragon wasn’t all that tall when inked on her body.
Rai wasn’t as eager to fly inside her chi. The fox demon hesitated just a couple of feet away, standing outside the amplification circle and pawing the ground.
Elizabeth stopped levitating, letting her feet gently touch the grass inside the circle.
She had burned her shoes off again with the lightning. The power was always searching for the ground, making it difficult to keep it inside, even when levitating.
Her focus had been elsewhere.
“Do not step outside of the circle!” Deamon snapped at her.
“Why? Jill and Victoria are out there with Rai,” Elizabeth pointed out, feeling nervous.
Would her fox demon harm her sister and friend? She wasn’t going to stand by and watch that happen.
“Your familiar will not touch them, while you control her, but until you are more practiced, you cannot try to control Rai without amplification. Actually, you won’t be calling Rai again without me by your side unless you want—”
“My ass tanned? Peppered? Blistered? Thrashed? Or maybe just warmed up? Toasty buns?” Elizabeth snidely suggested, relieved that Rai couldn’t hurt anyone.
It seemed Daemon was still underestimating her strength, however, sure that she needed the amplification of the circle to keep her familiar under control.
If it wasn’t her first time handling a familiar, she might have defied him. As it was, she better pay attention, so she would never be reliant on him again.
He poked her, but not with his fangs. Her bottom, in question, felt the hard evidence of what her teasing was doing to him.
“I will have you bent over the end of my bed, while I teach you not to treat your safety so carelessly,” Daemon said in a dark whisper into her ear.
She suddenly felt the carved wood of the beam at the foot of his bed hit the top of her naked thighs.
His big, heavy hand covered the small of her back as he guided her down.
No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2) Page 15