“Ok… wha… gramp? Hear… me?”
She pushed against the circle and amplified again.
More magic. She needed more.
George shivered behind her as the lightning built, hitting his unshielded body over and over.
His chi was so bright, it almost reminded her of the dragons, although it was a more manageable size.
It was only marginally less bright to her as she circled her inner thoughts, giving her phone call a little more privacy than she had with George listening in on Victoria, earlier.
It improved her ability to communicate with Jill considerably, a bonus.
“The old man with the scythe is our mother’s father. He’s a general. Was. George told me,” Elizabeth said, figuring this was the most urgent thing to let Jill know.
“Oh, Vic said he had something to tell me. Um, I think Grampa knew who I was because he mentioned asking a lot of questions and seeing me again.”
Her poor sister must have been mortified. What a way to meet a long lost relative.
“Yeah, that sounds awkward. Where are you? Is Victoria okay?” Elizabeth asked.
“We’re at the town inn. Tor’s fine, she sent the dragon away with her spell.”
“What about Victor?”
“He still plans to take me back to the castle. I’ll have to escape him when we’re out of town. Or maybe I should try sooner, so I don’t have to face Grampa on my own?”
“Did gramps threaten you?”
“No. What do you think Mom would want me to do?” Jill asked, sounding quite nervous.
Elizabeth wished she could hug her sister. At least, Victoria was with her. Too bad, her twin had found them, too.
“Did Victor hurt you?”
“No, just my pride. I crashed his motorcycle, so I guess we’re even. Did George hurt you?”
It was like Jill to worry more over her sister than herself.
“No, George is just . . . it’s complicated. I’m fine, but I’m so far in the Wastes. Do you think you can escape to get back to Mom?”
“Not right away, the portal here is fried. I’ll have to go through another portal.”
Victoria must have destroyed the portal with her dragon transporting spell. They had discussed the possibility, but it really did bugger their plans. Getting back home was going to be more difficult.
Elizabeth wished her sister could run to safety. Until their mother got to Jill’s side, the best thing for her sister would be to stick with the others, even if they were on bad terms.
There were dangers at the edge. Jill was a capable witch, but alone, in a world full of monsters.
“I don’t want you to run into any more of those weird zombie-like vampires hanging around town. I’m not sure we got them all. It’s a ways to get back to court, so maybe you should stick with Vic and Tor a little longer. I’ll come for you before they get to the castle.”
“What about Grampa?”
“Do you want to meet him?”
“ . . . yes.”
Jill’s answer was more hesitant this time.
She didn’t want to override her mother’s wishes and she was embarrassed that when she met their grandfather earlier, she had cussed him out, angry about the dragon and the danger Victoria had been in.
Elizabeth tried to convey warmth and support in her thoughts.
“I think Mom would understand. Don’t tell him anything about where our mother is right now. We don’t know him yet. I think it’s okay to ask him questions instead.”
“I met another dragon, your mate.”
“Geer?”
“Oh, yeah, that was his name. He said I should go back for mom, but it could wait a day.”
Elizabeth quickly shuffled through her sister’s memory of the encounter, but it was jumbled and unclear, like the distance was interfering with her reading the memory, just like it caused their telepathic talk to be full of static.
Geer had said he was going to search for his prince. His running into Jill had to have been a coincidence.
What was her mysterious mate up to?
“Don’t trust Geer if you run into him again, but I would follow the advice on our mother.”
“Okay, Vic is going to be back soon. He was just getting us some new clothes. Can we talk again later?”
“What happened to your clothes?”
“Um, they’re really only suitable for the human realm and Vic had a little accident.”
Victor’s accident involved a vengeful witch that could crush rocks in her hands.
Elizabeth laughed, figuring Victoria’s brother had gotten away lucky if all Jill had done was give his clothing better ventilation.
The image of Victor walking his sister and Jill into town with his back pockets flapping in the wind was hilarious.
“Are you sure I’m the one that should be called wicked? I don’t know when I’ll be close enough to try talking again, but I promise, I’ll try, every day.”
“Hurry.”
That little plea squeezed Elizabeth’s chest.
Her sister never asked for help, but she needed it. They were stronger together; had shown before that they could stand against the worst monsters.
“I’m coming. If Victor tries anything, just run. I’ll find you.”
“Love you, wicked.”
“Peace out, Glinda.”
Elizabeth dropped the connection and felt some of the magic bounce back, hitting the circle boundary. Sweat was pouring off of her body.
“I don’t think I can last for another phone call,” George said. He didn’t complain that she had blocked him out.
She wanted to reach her mother, but it would be impossible if she was still in the human realm.
For a moment, she wondered about Daemon.
He would be in the castle. He hadn’t threatened her with more than another spanking the last time their minds connected, and he had the power to keep her family safe until she made it out of the Wastes.
Daemon had connected easily last time because of the familiar inked on her skin, so perhaps, he could do it again, especially with his own amplification circle.
Victoria’s dragon had even been able to cross dimensions to reach her in her dreams in the human realm due to their blood bond.
“Okay, let’s rest,” Elizabeth said, decided.
She would try to contact Daemon through the bond, hoping it would be less strenuous than this.
George let her arms lower slowly down to her sides and then wrapped her in his embrace from behind as she used her air to float them down to the ground.
When their feet touched, they slumped together bonelessly in the centre of the circle, both too tired to try moving further.
“Last time I did this, I was glowing with so much extra power,” Elizabeth complained.
This time felt like the morning after a flu, when the fever had broken but she still hadn’t been able to keep anything down for twenty-four hours, completely drained.
“If you tell me what you did in the amplification circle last time, I may be able to explain the difference,” George offered.
Elizabeth tensed up as she realized her mistake.
Last time she had resorbed the familiars of both herself and Daemon after they had fed on a field of zombie vampires.
That wasn’t something she really wanted to share yet with George.
Even Daemon had seemed a little leery of her demon familiar.
“I just didn’t use the magic for much,” Elizabeth lied.
“You can build up the magic in the circle but whatever you don’t use is usually released back to Maeren,” George said.
He rubbed the gooseflesh from her outside arm as her sweaty body cooled down.
Elizabeth shivered, going from hot to cold to hot again.
“How does it work?” she asked.
He didn’t answer right away, obviously thinking about it, and when he finally did answer, she was surprised by the amount of detail he gave her.
“
It’s like boiling water with a lid. As soon as you take the lid off, the steam escapes, and if you remove the pot from heat source building it, then the heat dissipates. It stops boiling almost immediately. The amplification circle provides both the lid and the heat source. You take the lid off when you use magic in the circle and it’s boiling hot, so it’s hard to control. I helped you with the lid today by absorbing some of your lightning, temporarily. When you stopped pushing magic back and forth in the circle, then you removed the pot from the heat. Now, we’re just two kettles out of steam.”
Elizabeth turned in George’s arms, so she was facing him.
His explanation was long-winded but simple and helped her understand so much more about the amplification circle than Victoria’s more technical explanations.
“I reached Jill,” she said. “My sister is with Tor and Vic. They said the portal is ruined and my mother is trapped in the human realm and doesn’t know what has happened to us.”
“I didn’t intend to worry your mother. My orders were to bring all of you in, along with Victor. Your unique magic necessitated the separation. Your mother was simply meant to follow after Jill and Victoria.”
George sounded like he regretted the outcome but he wouldn’t have done things differently.
She preferred that he didn’t prevaricate about it. She was an unknown danger, ergo, George had treated her potential threat seriously.
Also, no matter how many times he used his vampire wiles on her to feed, he still wasn’t going to totally trust her.
Elizabeth realized it was more than just her and George involved in that decision.
There was a kingdom at stake.
Touch Me
Elizabeth let George rest a few minutes.
He’d been helpful. She needed more from him, something he’d probably object to just because it involved his older brother.
George was competitive.
Geer had been right about his unwillingness to share. Elizabeth hadn’t even accepted George’s claim yet, only a bite, yet he acted as if this mate thing superseded all other claims.
She would do well to remember how quickly George had tried to steal Jill away once he saw her blue fire. He hadn’t cared about claims then, either.
Why had he wanted Jill? He certainly had stopped pursuing her after his loss, although he hadn’t been given much opportunity.
It was a question for when he was in a better mood and she wasn’t in need of buttering him up for a favour.
He really wasn’t going to like this request.
“I have an idea,” she said.
She hoped George wouldn’t shut it down before listening to her. She couldn’t wait the days it might take to get out of the Wastes to do something.
George blew out a noisy breath. “Yes?”
“Daemon still has a blood bond to me through his tattoo, which I should be able to use to connect to him easier, probably even without using your amplification circle.”
“I’m sorry to inform you that connecting that far will require even Daemon use an amplification circle. He’s powerful, not all-powerful,” George replied.
He didn’t sound interested in helping her talk to his brother. Not a surprise.
“Daemon has an amplification circle in the castle. He already used it to connect with me,” she admitted.
“He never mentioned that when he sent me after you,” George said, not sounding so relaxed any longer. “Did he not bother to warn you about me, either?”
“No,” she answered, sticking to a one-word response.
It could mean that Daemon either trusted George a great deal, and didn’t think a warning was necessary, or he didn’t trust George to know about the amplification circle and she had just spilled the beans.
“You will have to connect to the circle, and not just him, if you want it to work,” George said, after a long moment when she wondered if her big mouth had gotten her into more trouble.
George was willing to help!
She better not waste this chance.
“I don’t know how to do that. Daemon did all the work last time,” she said.
“Just picture the circle, the place it was located. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
Of course, the image she had in her mind involved Daemon bending her over the end of his bed.
George suddenly sat up and gave her a funny look, kind of puzzled.
She double checked her mental blocks.
“I thought you were running away from Daemon? Why the sudden urge to make up?” he asked.
“There is a misunderstanding that I need to straighten out before I see him,” Elizabeth offered as a partial explanation.
George wasn’t fooled.
“What do you want, little one?”
“Noth—”
George rolled on top of her, cutting off her false denial. He kept his weight off her after squashing her lie, holding himself up on his elbows, and kneeling, with his legs outside hers.
It had more in common with a wrestling position than anything romantic. This was getting to be a regular occurrence.
She glared up at him, defiant and wary, her cutting look ruined by sweaty blonde hair clinging to her forehead and flushed cheeks.
“What I want is for you to poke the dragon,” she told George, refusing to justify wanting to talk to Daemon.
“What dragon? You need to clarify since you seem to attract so many of them,” George said, being deliberately obtuse. He smirked at her.
“I believe Daemon called him Dragomir,” she said, watching George’s smirk drop.
Perhaps, he hadn’t really believed that was a familiar inked onto her skin until right now.
“Would this sudden change in heart about disturbing the dragon’s slumber have something to do with Jill? Are you hoping to talk to Daemon before she arrives at the castle?” George asked.
She shrugged. It was okay if he believed that, although her reasons were more than assuring her sister’s safety.
George brushed the damp hair off her forehead, his blue eyes travelling over her face to try to get a read from her.
“Victor isn’t just going to drop Jill off in the throne room and leave her in Daemon’s clutches. He wants her in his harem. A much safer one for your sister than William had provided. Victor will keep her safe from all threats.”
George talked about her sister’s safety as if he cared, although he had handed the responsibility for it over to Victor. It seemed incongruous, given George had once tried to claim her sister.
Maybe he wasn’t taking this serious enough? Her sister was supposed to stand trial at court. Where did they keep the prisoners? It sure wouldn’t be inside of a prince’s harem.
“What about the dungeon?” Elizabeth asked, sounding a little more worried than she wanted George to know.
“We don’t have a dungeon, kerashemeria,” George explained. He didn’t say why not.
He was using that pet name again and it felt a little too much like he was coddling her.
She needed action, not platitudes.
“If you’re afraid of Daemon, just get off of me, and I’ll try on my own,” she muttered.
“You’re the one hiding the dragon under so many layers that a vampire could dull his fangs trying to take a bite,” George responded.
He started unbuttoning her pants, one-handed, by tugging the buttons free.
If she hadn’t known George was a virgin, she would have figured undressing witches was a habit by his practiced moves.
She grabbed his nimble fingered hand on her pants and squeezed. He stopped.
“I don’t need my clothes off to poke the dragon. The last time, I took a nasty bite to the wrist and Daemon felt it,” she said.
George looked down at her dainty hand holding him back and then back to her eyes. His gaze was glacier blue.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said and the answer was firm.
She knew his next question was going
to be about the vampire that had dared to bite her so viciously.
Geer had already said too much. She wasn’t going to get into the details of the attack.
“Daemon took care of the wrist nipper, of course, but it was really an effective way to pull his chain. It was literally seconds between the bite and Daemon in my head,” she argued, cutting George off before he could ask more questions.
“Explain more about this nip,” George said, forestalling a decision.
He pulled his hand up from her pants, with her still holding onto him, so her hand was brought up with his. He put his lips to her wrist and inhaled, gently sniffing her skin, as if he could scent the memory of the attack.
Given his earth, maybe he could.
There was absolutely nothing about the zombie attack she wanted to tell George.
How about that she’d illegally traded her blood for premium chalk? He’d probably already guessed that from what Geer had said.
Maybe that she had followed a strange vampire outside of town after he’d already attacked her once? That had been incredibly foolish.
Even better, she had nearly fainted from blood loss from the wound when it didn’t properly coagulate without Jill’s healing.
“It hurt,” Elizabeth deadpanned.
“What did you think I would do to rouse the dragon?” George asked.
He trailed his fangs along the underside of her wrist, teasing the sensitive skin and the memories of that bite.
She couldn’t suppress a little shiver.
“Maybe you could use fire and give me a little burn,” Elizabeth said, almost whispering her reply.
She knew she was skating on thin ice mentioning burning a witch, after what had happened with Victoria, although before the last few hours, she wouldn’t have thought it would give George pause to hurt a witch.
“You can heal me afterward. I’ve burned myself plenty of times practicing with lightning, no biggie,” she added.
George’s eyes flicked from her wrist to her neck.
“Like Victoria accidentally got burned during practice?” he asked.
Elizabeth instinctively covered her throat with her free hand.
George didn’t wait for her answer.
“Have you ever done something terrible?” he asked. He pulled her hand gently from her neck. “Did you ever hurt someone by trying to do the right thing?” he asked. “What would you sacrifice to save someone? A strange girl with the taste of lightning and secrets in her blood . . .”
No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2) Page 37