No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2)

by Mercedes Jade

  “You really are full of hot air,” Victor said. “If you watched your friend get caught in a spell by a witch and did nothing to save him, you’re a coward and a terrible friend.”

  “I’m not allowed to fight,” Geer whispered.

  It sent shivers up Victoria’s spine. Was that a can’t fight or more a won’t fight?

  Victor snorted a response but didn’t mock Geer with anything else. Her twin must have heard the dark implication in Geer’s whispered reply as well.

  “Is your mouth always so slow, Jill? Best learn to speak up and snap the hesitancy out of your spine. Don’t want any foolish vampires mistaking caution for fear, else you’ll never be allowed the freedom you need to grow into your potential. Too much pruning will stunt the roses, don’t you know?”

  What the hell? Victoria couldn’t make heads nor tails of Geer’s confusing speech of advice.

  Was he talking about flowers because of Jill’s earth magic?

  “My mother is safe,” Jill said.

  “So, she isn’t in Maeren. Unfortunately, the human realm isn’t as safe as it used to be, you know. I saw Elizabeth staking a rather unsavoury vampire in a dark part of town. She almost got brained by a brick. Not that Maeren is that much safer. Seems the dark enforcer is too busy chasing after my mate to be much use regulating the borders as well as he used to do.”

  Victor cleared his throat. “Jill, is there something you need to tell me?”

  “My sister is a vampire slayer. Well, demons, too. She isn’t choosy,” Jill answered.

  Victoria groaned.

  “Hush, they’re having a moment. This is called communication. I wish Jill would try to explain the concept to her sister,” Geer said.

  “Next question,” Jill spat out.

  “Will you go back for your mother? I’m sure it can wait until you wash up and rest, but no more than a day. You will need her,” Geer said, or more like, ordered.

  “For what purpose?” Victor said.

  “You don’t get to ask questions,” Geer said.

  “Then, I guess we’re done. We answered your questions and you never said how many we had to answer before you freed us. Honour your bargain now,” Victoria demanded.

  Geer laughed. “Oh, I see you are the clever twin. Raphael will be pleased.”

  “Please, let us go. If we really need to go back home for my mother, I’ll leave now. She has to be worried for us,” Jill said.

  “It can wait one night,” Geer said. “You need to talk with the earth lords. In fact, your mother would insist upon it, if she was here. Well, I presume. Perhaps, too much. I’ve not met her yet, so you need to allow for that in my predictions. Things have been put off too long, despite what the twins think is in your best interests.”

  “Don’t you dare say it, dragon,” Victor warned.

  “Then, practice your communication,” Geer replied. “I can’t figure out everything and the longer you delay, the more likely you will screw up my plans, and that I can’t abide.”

  “Yes, I am the precog, princess. Your brother hasn’t figured it out, but he has his mind on other things right now. It will be our little secret. Well, at least for the duration of this conversation. You’ll forget about it as soon as I leave. Those are the magic breaks.”

  “Stay out of my head, lizard.”

  “Soon. Elizabeth likes to think she’s in charge of her fate and to be honest, the whole seeing the future thing isn’t that reliable or useful as you would think. Raphael certainly can attest to that after today.”

  Victoria dry swallowed. “Geer, is Raphael going to come back for me?”

  “Some things are completely certain.”

  Geer didn’t say another word, even when her twin started trying to argue with him about something . . . She wasn’t paying attention.

  Geer had already said plenty, and what he left unsaid . . . Victoria hoped he really had a window into the future and it was bright.

  She was going to need a whole hell of a lot of sunshine if she was moving into a cave.

  Honey or Vinegar

  Elizabeth

  “Don’t worry, Victor will take care of them.”

  Elizabeth frowned as George released her shoulders and laid back. She was still seated between his thighs, but no longer needed him to protect her, while she focused her mind on Victoria’s distant battle.

  She could have told George that she was used to focusing on multiple realities at once, but it hadn’t been worth arguing with him at the time, especially when he agreed to pause their trek out of the Wastes, so she could focus.

  Elizabeth took care of her family and her problems on her own, so it was difficult to just lie back and assume Victor was going to take care of everything for her.

  Even harder, was finding herself cut off from Jill before she could see her sister was clear of all of the big, brutal earth lords that had been aiming at the same dragon her sister had been targeting.

  “Relax,” George told her, trying to pull her down on top of him.

  She resisted. “They were in the middle of a fight with a dragon and some heavy hitters with earth magic,” she reminded him, admitting her biggest worry. “I should have been there.”

  The heavy hitters had included her maternal grandfather, something she didn’t feel like exploring further with George.

  She’d only figured it out by reading George’s mind—accidentally leaked thoughts when George had focused on the fight more than his mental guards.

  George wasn’t ready to face the reality of his unprotected thoughts, although his biggest secrets were still safe.

  Her mother was going to have a conniption fit when she found out about Torsten Ansulf.

  Grampa Bloodstone?

  There was a lot their mother hadn’t told them about her family.

  The general was badass for his age.

  “Jill and Victoria have Victor to fight for them. You shouldn’t be doing anything more strenuous than this hike,” George said.

  This again?

  George had wanted to carry her when they left the cave. She didn’t want to slow them down, insisting on walking on her own two feet.

  “I told you that you’re being ridiculous. I am capable of fighting if I have to,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve already absorbed plenty of magic to make up for the transport drain.”

  George murmured some sort of assent, it was more of a series of sounds than actual words.

  He sounded like he was half asleep.

  “What is wrong with you?” she asked.

  She turned around to see George lying down with his arms relaxed at his sides, soaking in the moonlight like he was sunbathing.

  Perhaps this was the vampire equivalent.

  “I fed too much,” he admitted, giving her a sated look that was wrapped in seduction.

  He was the cat that had the cream and was already thinking about his next bowl.

  Nobody had forced him to drink so deeply, although she definitely had encouraged it. If they had to do it all again, she was sure he wouldn’t have changed a thing. George had glutted happily.

  “A tummy ache doesn’t explain why you are taking this so casually,” Elizabeth complained. “We need to get back to my family as soon as possible. There was a dragon trying to steal your sister, Princess Victoria. Ring any alarm bells?”

  George pulled her down on top of him, using his earth strength this time to overcome any resistance.

  It was like lying down on a rock that had been warmed in the sun all afternoon.

  Her hip dug into his side as she wiggled and elbowed him to get up. They didn’t have time for this. She needed to go.

  A heavy hand kept her from rising, George crunched his abdominals against her elbow as he curled up to bring his mouth closer to her ear.

  “I don’t have a tummy ache, little one,” he whispered.

  He was so hard everywhere that she hadn’t even noticed, but his words made her reconsider the thick firmness pressing against her thigh.r />
  They had been hiking along just fine until he decided to cuddle her from behind while Victoria was in her head.

  The spell the witches had both prepped at Kim’s dojo had called to Elizabeth as soon as Victoria lit the first glyph.

  The connection had been so clear, despite the distance, but she had been afraid of losing it, and then George had connected with his lightning and helped without complaint.

  His use of magic must have had other consequences.

  “Think of icy cold showers,” Elizabeth suggested, turning her head to nip at the arm trying to keep her down.

  George swore in Maerenian more eloquently than she could have in English, teaching her a few more words in the process.

  He released her with a groan, only after she dared nip him again, adding a lick of apology.

  She stood up.

  The cold night air attacked her as soon as she was clear of his body heat. It was good for clearing her mind, too.

  With a shiver, she looked out at the dark landscape.

  She heard some desert beast howling in the distance. Her myopia wasn’t so bad out here, despite the dark. Everything was so distant that the blurred outlines seemed natural, or perhaps, it was because she had a guard she could trust to keep her safe.

  “You are so untutored, Elizabeth Norwood, I would think your mother did it on purpose to drive the males of the nobility wild,” George said as he rose behind her.

  She gave him a moment to adjust himself.

  “Not mere nobility, princes,” she teased.

  Truthfully, they wouldn’t have sought harems at all, if they could have stayed hidden in the human realm. The demons had made the first move.

  George pulled her back into his embrace, cradling her hips in his hands and resting his chin on her shoulder while he ground against her ass.

  He was not going to be able to turn this thing between them on and off like flicking a switch.

  Neither could she, but telling him that would only get her flat on her back.

  Did George forget that they were barely past enemies?

  He needed to back off, and feeding was no longer a legitimate excuse. She had done that for him already, made up for the magic she had staked out of him to get here.

  “Normally, if I took a witch like you into my harem, we would spend a week in my bedroom. Servants would bring us sustenance and leave it outside the door,” he said, scraping his fangs along his bite on her neck.

  It almost made her moan.

  “The food would be for you to keep up your energy and build back your blood. I would taste you everywhere, make you forget about everything other than my hands and fangs and—”

  She ground back against him and he shut up.

  “Basically, you would fuck me brainless?” she sweetly asked. “There are some problems with that plan.”

  She turned in his arms. His bedroom eyes were losing their sleepiness as he caught her furious look.

  “I am not in your harem,” she said, taking a step forward.

  He took half a step back.

  “I’m not ever going to be in your bedroom,” she added, shrugging off his slack hands at her hips.

  She put a hand on his scarred shoulder, giving it a squeeze as she walked around him.

  “I don’t like what you did to Victoria, and when you laid hands on Jill, I wanted you,” she paused, behind him now and grabbing his other shoulder, “Wanted very badly to make you kneel.”

  The big vampire knelt.

  Elizabeth clambered onto his back. He reached back and grabbed generous handfuls of her ass in the pretence of helping her up.

  “I’ll go on my knees for you, kerashemeria, if you part your sweet thighs.”

  “Did you hear anything I said?”

  “I heard something about fucking you brainless. You will have to wait until we find a bed, not all of us earth vampires are barbarians.’”

  “Rock-headed is the definition of a caveman. Also, you are the most perverted virgin I know.”

  “Do you want me to tell you I was waiting for you? Oh, and the pleasuring of all of those witches was definitely to train my tongue to—”

  “Ew. Seriously stop. I don’t need to hear how you ace at oral or how many times you took the exam. Also, we are getting totally off track. I’m letting you carry me for one reason only.’”

  “I can carry you all night long.”

  “Yeah, I know. Mother and sister with earth, remember?”

  “I don’t need to use magic.”

  “Yes, you’re big and strong. I get it. I also would like to try to talk to Jill, so instead of stopping again, I’ll take a lift.”

  “Fine. Do you want me to completely leave you to your thoughts or just to stay in the . . .”

  “Outer thoughts, conscious thoughts, surface thoughts . . . whatever you want to call them. It means not to dive deeper, and for a newbie like you, I recommend you keep to floating shallow unless you want to risk being drowned in someone’s subconsciousness.”

  “Like you did with that cave full of dragons, sleeping helplessly on the floor a few feet from five fire lords that would have eaten a tasty witch like you for breakfast after their nap . . .”

  “Are all dragons fire lords?”

  “I believe you are missing the point.”

  He had already lectured her about dragons.

  Geer had been the cause of most of that lecture, mostly because it was entirely her fault that a dragon got his fangs into her—while unconscious, she had reminded George—and she wasn’t allowed anywhere near that voyeuristic prick, even if he claimed he was also her mate.

  Dragons stole witches all the time.

  Mates had been a lie and George hoped she didn’t fall for such an obvious ploy like Geer pretending he was her fated heart mate or whatever nonsense witches like to read about in their romantic books.

  She would do better to study up on texts of the clan wars, learn about the violent, backstabbing takeover of the dragon—

  Thankfully, Victoria’s unexpected call when she lit up their shared spell had saved Elizabeth the rest of the lecture.

  She hoped if she kept her mouth shut now, George would focus more on walking faster instead of burning energy on a telepathic speech.

  She got enough reprimands from her mother, albeit sometimes unintended, in her mother’s thoughts.

  The sanctity of one’s mind for a little peace and self-reflection ought to be respected.

  Who knew George was such a talker?

  A hand smacked her vulnerable ass.

  “I can hear you thinking, too,” George reminded her.

  “Duh.” She pinched his butt using lightning. “Remember, doing this longer than you. Chicken, squawk.”

  “I didn’t use magic to spank you.”

  “Just because you can’t, doesn’t mean I won’t.”

  “That can go two ways.”

  “Can you just behave while mommy’s on the phone?”

  “What?”

  “Seriously, caveman. I want you to think quietly while I try to contact my family.”

  “I can be quiet, but in return, you agree to talk to me about what you were doing playing with so many rogue vampires in the park with Victoria. It didn’t look like the first time you put yourself in that kind of danger.”

  George made stubborn look lazy. New topic, but the same complaint—her not playing it safe.

  He reminded her of her other mates with his protectiveness. Daemon had spanked her to get his point across last time.

  “Just talk, right? You’re not planning on trying to teach me a lesson or anything?” she nervously asked.

  With George’s earth strength, any spanking would be less sexy and more like the punishment intended.

  “Daemon spanked you?”

  She blocked George. Damn it. Even she was subject to the rule that they always think about what they don’t want you to know.

  “I don’t think that spanking really qualifies as punish
ment, little one,” George said, undeterred by her mental block. “I won’t administer another spanking even if you deserve it. Clearly, such punishments are ineffective with you,” he added. “I can see why Daemon did it with the reckless way you expose yourself to danger.”

  “I will discuss my job with you after the phone calls,” Elizabeth deferred.

  Surprisingly, George finally let it go.

  Elizabeth tried Jill first. She always could connect with her family whenever she accidentally used too much magic and ended up naked in Maeren.

  It had been years since it happened and she never had been staked personally, but the biggest difference this time seemed to be distance.

  She was in the Wastes, purposefully placed far away from everyone else by George, just so she couldn’t use her magic. If only he had underestimated her range.

  Giving up on Jill for the moment, she tried Victoria. She found a faded thread in her mind that tied their chi together, but without Victoria doing the active spell any longer, the thread seemed to fade in the distance.

  She cursed in English.

  “Too far?” George guessed.

  “Tor was just in my head. It had to be the spell that connected us more strongly. She used an amplification spell with a transportation spell layered inside of it.”

  George pondered it for a second.

  Elizabeth wanted to open up her thoughts again, so she could see how his mind was working through the problem. A vampire of George’s status would have had extensive magic training.

  Her dignity kept her mind closed. George didn’t need to be getting any more ideas from his older brother.

  “I remember feeling the spell, but I didn’t see the circle,” George commented, sounding puzzled.

  He had connected during the spell, through Elizabeth’s thoughts, to see what she had when Victoria was working her magic.

  She and Victoria has prepped the spell together with lightning, which was probably the kindling she needed now to connect with Victoria’s mind.