Bone Lantern Witch

by Kat Simons

  He rubbed a hand over his hair, his gaze still on the cacti. “I was ordered to watch you. To make sure you didn’t start calling demons into this realm en masse.”

  She swallowed down her reaction because she wasn’t entirely sure what that reaction was yet. Only that it involved a lot of cuss words.

  “I tried to convince them you weren’t the type,” he said. “But your skill is so damned rare, and so dangerous, they didn’t trust you.”

  “What did Aidan say?” She’d been there first, at the very beginning. Did she know about all this? “Why didn’t they tell Aidan to monitor me?” She tried not to snarl the word “monitor” but failed.

  “She wanted them to leave you be as well,” he said quietly. “She assured them you were on a different path. You wouldn’t be a hunter. They didn’t believe her.” He finally met Angie’s gaze. “I didn’t stalk you, if you’re worried about that. I kept tabs, from a distance at first, after Aidan introduced us, to ensure you were safe. And that they left you alone. After that first time, that first fight Aidan brought you into, I knew…you weren’t on our path.” He nodded at her bracelet. Angie unconsciously rubbed the pentagram. “The council didn’t…accept that conclusion.”

  “Our relationship?” She had to ask. She had to know.

  He held her gaze steadily. “Not part of the plan. Not even a little bit. In fact, they…reprimanded me for it. I was to keep you from unleashing a demon apocalypse, not fall in love with you.”

  She swallowed hard, not sure if that made things better or not.

  “Even Aidan warned me against it. Complicated things.”

  “Yeah it did. While we worked together?”

  “The council hoped you’d choose hunting over magic. After their initial anger, they decided to encourage our work. Even our relationship. It…” He did flinch now. “Kept you in line.”

  “In line.” She pulled in a deep breath. Let it out slowly.

  “Not my intent. I fought back as much as I could. But…”

  “But?”

  “But I wanted you. I loved you. I didn’t want them trying to force us apart. Which they would have. So eventually, I…let them think I was going along with them.”

  “When I left?”

  “My feelings about that had nothing to do with the council and everything to do with losing you. I would have let you remain out of the demon world until you were ready for me to be in your life again. I would have handled the last two years…differently. I still love you, Ang. And I wanted all this to go very differently.”

  She felt the pain in her gut, felt the tears threaten. She held everything carefully at bay, buried deep so it didn’t overwhelm her yet. “What do they want from me?”

  “They want you to align with the hunters once and for all.”

  “Or what?”

  “They want me to train you properly. To bring you through the process that will finally make you a hunter.”

  “Or. What?”

  He leaned forward and set the tea mug on her coffee table. He didn’t face her for a long moment.

  “They’ll try to have you locked up somewhere. ‘For the good of the public.’”

  Angie shot off the couch, her hangover headache and rolling stomach forgotten—or more to the point, she was now nauseous for a very different reason.

  “No,” she snarled at him. “I will not be locked up by anyone. Who the hell, who the hell do they think they are?”

  Her voice deepened and she felt her magic rise in a way it rarely did these days. She had too much control for this. But the thought, the mere thought that these…strangers thinking they had some kind of control over what she did… Livid wasn’t a strong enough word. Her anger crackled in the air, and sparks actually ran over her fingertips before she controlled the reaction. Her apartment was too small to call any of the elements. She’d risk setting the whole building ablaze.

  That this council had been monitoring her for years. That all of this had been part of some scheme.

  And that Sebastian had been part of it…

  She wanted to scream. It was on the tip of her tongue to demand he leave.

  He would too. If she told him to go, he would go. He would leave and fight his council on his own, trying to keep her out of the world she didn’t want to be part of.

  How she knew that…the fact that she did know that, helped calm her rising anger. Enough she could rein in the crackle of magic rolling through her.

  “No,” she said again, more calmly this time. “I’m not a hunter, and I will not be commanded or manipulated by this council of yours. No.”

  “I’ve assured them of your position on this. They want another answer.”

  “They aren’t getting one.”

  He held her gaze for a long moment. The red deep inside the brown of his eyes banked and faint. “You know about them now.”

  She narrowed her own gaze. “What does that mean?”

  “No one outside the hunters knows they exist.”

  Hands on her hips, she glared. “If you don’t explain what you’re trying to say, right now, Sebastian, I’m going to throw you out of this apartment physically.”

  His lips twitched but he didn’t smile. Which was good because in her mood, she’d likely slap him with a shock spell if he did.

  “They’ve pulled you in, like it or not. Against my wishes,” he added. “Against Aidan’s warnings. They’ve pulled you in. And the only way out now is through.”

  “Through? Meaning?”

  He stood and very slowly approached her, watching, waiting for her to object. She surprised herself by not objecting. Not even when he settled his hands on her shoulders. Though she didn’t drop her hands from her hips.

  “I thought about this a lot, after to you left. They won’t let you go. I’ve tried. Aidan’s tried. They won’t let you go.”

  “They don’t have a choice,” she snarled.

  “They’ll make your life miserable. They’ll keep dragging you back. And they’ll find a way to keep me from being there to help you. They’ll force your hand, and I won’t be able to get between them and you anymore.”

  “You have been?”

  He nodded. “But they’re forcing my hand now, too.”

  “What did you mean by through?” She finally dropped her hands to her sides, but she didn’t otherwise relax her stance.

  “You allow yourself to be taken into the hunter fold,” he said quietly. “Trained as a hunter. Part of our world, not just peripherally like you were when we worked together. Fully integrated into the world.”

  Angie felt the tremble of denial rise through her, but she kept it in check. Sebastian’s gaze, intent, held more than the words he spoke aloud. There was something behind the faint glow of red, something more to his plan.

  Still, she asked, “And then? What? Give up my true calling to be one of you?”

  “Then…” He pulled her close, his gaze holding hers as his voice dropped to a murmur. “When the time comes. We bring it all down.”

  Thank You

  Thank you for reading BONE LANTERN WITCH! I hope you enjoyed the first book in this new urban fantasy series. If you haven’t read it already, don’t miss Moonlit Strange, the short story of the moment when Angie hit her breaking point and tried to quit demon hunting.

  If this is the first of my books that you’ve read, Angela Jordan was originally introduced as a secondary character in one of my other romantic urban fantasy series featuring Protector Cary Redmond. Angie is one of Cary’s best friends, and her past—the events of the Demon Witch series—are hinted at there, but never fully revealed. This series arose out of my desire to explore Angie’s past and see what really happened.

  If you’re interested in reading the Cary Redmond series, the first novel is The Trouble with Black Cats and Demons. Continue reading for an excerpt. There are also a lot of short stories around the series, including Cary and Angie’s first meeting in When Cary Met Angie, and a story where someone from Angie’s
past comes back to disturb her peace Cary and the Demon Witch.

  For more information on all my books, new releases, and occasional freebies, as well as ramblings about books, baking, and balcony gardening, join my newsletter. Subscribers receive a free, exclusive short story from my Tiger Shifters paranormal romance series, Mate Run, which is only available through the newsletter. The story is quite hot for such a short story. You’ve been warned. You can also check for new release updates at my website, or follow my author page at your favorite vendor.

  Thanks again for reading!

  ~Kat

  The Trouble with Black Cats and Demons

  A Cary Redmond Novel

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  “Not again.” Cary Redmond ducked as another fireball clipped over her head. “You don’t think fireballs are a bit over the top,” she shouted up at the ceiling then had to duck again as a dagger whispered past her ear.

  Close. Her heart pounded. Way too close.

  She needed to find the damned cat and get out of here. She scanned the apartment from her dubious cover behind a table piled high with unopened mail. Fireballs, daggers, gusts of preternatural wind, freezing hail, and the occasional lightning bolt dropped around her, roaring through the living room in a bright cacophony of magical mayhem.

  The lightning bolts flashing in the small confines were pretty spectacular. If they hadn’t been trying to fry her, she might have enjoyed the show.

  “Jaxer, I’m going to kill you for this.”

  Normally, this kind of thing was just a part of her job. She was a Protector and literally got paid to run around keeping people safe, mostly from magical bad guys. Not that she’d asked for the job, but that was another story. It was her job, so she faced off against dangerous stuff because the Nags—her bosses—told her to.

  Tonight, however, was not an official assignment. Tonight, she was just doing a favor for her demented faery mentor. The bastard knew exactly how to get to her. All he had to do was mention a defenseless little black kitty cat and she was done for. How could she refuse to help a kitty? People did rotten things to black cats on Halloween.

  Except Jaxer had forgotten to warn her about the fireballs.

  She screeched through her teeth and dove behind the couch as one of the aforementioned fireballs barreled toward her. She cursed Jaxer as she took a quick look under the couch for the cat. Where the hell was it?

  She’d called out to it when she’d first entered the apartment but hadn’t gotten any irate kitty responses. After her lurching hunt of the living room and kitchen, the only place left was the bedroom.

  She pulled in a deep breath as she contemplated the long space of unprotected ground between her hiding spot behind the couch and the bedroom door. Once she found the cat, this would be easier. When she was actively protecting something, very little of the magical dangers could get to her, and nothing deadly would touch her. She just had to find the cat first. And quickly. They had to be out of this cursed apartment before midnight. Before the wizard got home and all hell broke loose.

  Again.

  She ducked flying objects and ran to the bedroom, squealing when a lightning bolt hit the ground right behind her. Crossing her fingers that there were no nasty spells waiting for her, she lunged through the half-open door and cringed in anticipation of magical repercussions as she fell onto a red-carpeted floor. She held perfectly still, waiting. Nothing. She let out a breath and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, shaking her head. All this for a cat. That bastard Jaxer had a lot to answer for.

  She rose to a crouch, trying to calm her racing pulse, and froze.

  In front of her sat a huge bed, which she barely noticed because the naked man lying in the middle of the enormous mattress stopped her heart.

  Holy shit.

  He was absolutely magnificent. Tanned skin, well-defined muscles, thick, black hair hanging down over his forehead. He was lying against a giant headboard with his head hanging forward so she couldn’t get a good look at his face, but his golden eyes seemed to glow up at her from under his brows. Piercing and stunning and breath-stealing.

  Cary swallowed. Hard. Because even the captivating gold of his eyes wasn’t enough to keep her gaze from wandering over the breadth of his naked chest, the corded muscles of his shoulders and arms, the flat expanse of his stomach. It took a great deal of will power not to follow the line of dark hair arrowing down his abdomen…lower.

  The man straightened and Cary heard the clink of chains at the same time as she got a look at his neck—and the thick collar covering most of it.

  What the hell had Jaxer gotten her into?

  “Who’re you?” she asked, breathless and embarrassed.

  “Who are you?”

  His voice carried a deep reverberation that made her spine tingle. Oh boy.

  “I’m looking for a black cat,” she said, knowing the explanation sounded inane. Jaxer had told her about Sheldon the Wizard, but this? This was something else all together. What was this guy doing here? He wasn’t Sheldon, she was sure of it. But then who was he? And where was the cat?

  She blinked and a black leopard lay on the bed where the man had been. She sucked in a sharp breath, blinked again. And the man was back.

  “Whoa.” Cary swallowed. “You’re the black cat I came to rescue?”

  Oh, she really was going to kill Jaxer now. He hadn’t said anything about a fully grown man who happened to be a leopard shapeshifter. He’d made sure she thought she was after a little, harmless kitty cat, not a deadly dangerous big cat who shifted into a beautiful, naked, very large man.

  The faery was dead. Not that she knew how to kill him, but that was beside the point.

  “Jaxer sent you?” The man’s eyes narrowed and his features took on a dangerous edge. He hissed a curse under his breath and shook his head. “Stupid.”

  “Hey!” She stood, the better to face his gorgeous disgust. No one should look that good while insulting you. “You could have done worse, buddy.”

  She took a step toward the bed, wiping damp palms on her jeans. The chains she’d heard earlier linked the collar on his neck to the headboard, which was brass and made-up of a scrawl of symbols she didn’t recognize but looked like they might mean something if she stared at them long enough. He wasn’t bound anywhere else that she dared peek, and the chains appeared flimsy enough. So obviously the power keeping him confined was in the collar.

  “What is that?” She gestured with her head toward the thick band of metal.

  “A binding ring,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a child.

  She frowned, both at his tone and the news. “But you just shifted.”

  “It’s been designed to contain both my forms. Any other questions before you get me out of here?”

  “Yeah, what crawled up your butt and put you in such a pissy mood?”

  “Being held captive for sacrifice by a wizard and having a child sent to rescue me has dampened my day a bit,” he said.

  She grinned and enjoyed watching his eyes narrow suspiciously. “Child, huh? You know, at my age that’s a compliment.”

  “How old could you be? Twenty?”

  She shook her head. She’d actually turned thirty-one last April. But when she got tricked into becoming a Protector at twenty-five, she’d stopped aging at a normal rate. One of the few things about the job that didn’t irritate her.

  She took a quick moment to glance around the rest of the room. The red carpet wasn’t the only gaudy element. Lots of black leather covered the walls and an animal skinned rug, which she was afraid to think about too closely given the captive on the overlarge bed, was tossed across the floor in front of what she thought might be a closet. A wood and metal trunk sat against one wall, red silk drapes covered the single window, and the overhead light was covered by thick, dark metal chains which gave the room strange shadows.

  Fortunately, there were no nasty attack spells in here, which meant Sheldon the Wizard didn’t want
his captive accidentally hurt by a stray lightning bolt. That worked in her favor, giving her time to solve the binding ring problem without being pelted by hail.

  Though even if there had been spells in here, now that she was officially protecting someone, she could keep them both safe.

  She did wonder why Sheldon would care if his shape shifting captive got hurt before the midnight sacrifice. Obviously, he didn’t want him dead. You couldn’t sacrifice something that was already dead. But an additional warning spell in here probably wouldn’t have killed his prisoner. Maybe. If Sheldon had enough control.

  If he didn’t, and was as powerful as Jaxer claimed, they really needed to get out of here. Fast.

  She eased up to the bedside, still leery of traps, and leaned in close to the leopard man, trying to ignore the yummy, stomach-fluttering male scent of him as she studied the binding ring. It was a thick band of silver and copper intertwined in a complex pattern of twists and turns. Over the silver, tiny runic symbols danced and shimmered so they were nearly impossible to read.

  “Oh good,” she said, "a hard one.”

  The prisoner shivered, a low growl rising from his throat. The sound made Cary’s heartbeat jump.

  Speaking of hard ones.

  She could feel his glare on the side of her face, but she resisted looking. She had other things to worry about at the moment.

  Like how the hell she was going to get this damned magical containment brace off his neck without alerting the entire mystical neighborhood.

  “You did that on purpose,” the man snarled.

  “Huh?” She glanced at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t breathe on me again,” he said.

  She scowled. “What am I supposed to do? Hold my breath until I get your collar off? Just relax, big guy. You’ll be out of here in a minute.” To herself, she mumbled, “Wouldn’t have gotten this much grief from a proper black cat.”