A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “Just leave this to me,” Harris said. “I have the grail water.”

  Montague raised an eyebrow. “I can’t wait to see how you plan on getting the grail water into the demon.”

  “He doesn’t have to drink it, Monty. Just the touch of it burns. We just need enough distractions to get close to him.”

  “It’s that easy,” Montague said. “Why didn’t your family kill this demon a million years ago?”

  “Because there is only one vial,” Harris said. “That’s why using it will make me an enemy of the Hapsburgs. I just want to make it crystal clear that the two of you should stay back. The vampires can weaken a demon and I’ll deal the finishing blow.”

  “‘The vampires’,” Montague said. “What am I, then?”

  “You’re my best friend,” Harris growled. “I don’t give a shit about the other vampires. After all, if Rayner and his clan get taken out you don’t even have to worry about having a sire anymore.”

  Montague got quiet for a long moment. “Don’t ever say that again.”

  “Monty, if you start to care about your sire, you’ll become beholden to him,” Harris said. “You’re stronger than that. There is no reason to protect him. They are real vampires but you’re not that far gone yet. I’ve seen you waking up from nightmares about how they murdered Lisbeth’s family.”

  “Lisbeth might be in trouble, though,” Montague said. “And he protects her.”

  “You don’t even know Lisbeth.”

  “I sort of do,” Montague said. “At this point…I know all of them.”

  Harris made a sound of frustration. “It’s happening.”

  “What?”

  “We’re losing you. I knew we would lose you. We can’t fight vampirism.”

  “You’re not fucking losing me. I just don’t want Rayner to die.”

  “No good warlock would care if a murderous vampire gets killed fighting a demon.”

  “Guys!” I shouted, clapping my hands like I was breaking up a cat fight. “It’s so awesome to be in-fighting right before a big battle!”

  Ohmigod.

  For the rest of the drive I took charge by force. I turned on the radio and I wouldn’t let Montague keep “Welcome to the Jungle” on either. “We are listening to the bubbliest damn pop music I can find until y’all mellow out and if you don’t behave I am putting on those morning show guys who were talking about NASCAR!”

  By late afternoon we reached Savannah. Montague drove us to a truly impressive mansion right in the heart of the city, and in the real world—not the parallel.

  “This is where the vampires are?” I asked.

  “Yes. They’re staying with Ulf.” He put the car in park. “This is where I went the last time. I wasn’t getting my mom a birthday present. I went to visit one of the oldest vampires in America.”

  “Why? And why did you lie about it?”

  He stroked a hand over the top of my head, his brown eyes tender but a little distant. He didn’t seem to know what to say.

  But I got it. He was…becoming a vampire. When I first met him, he was trying to disregard the idea that he had a sire, but now…

  Eventually, would he come to love Lisbeth? Instead of me? Would he consider Rayner, Silvus, Jie and Thom his brothers instead of Alec and Harris?

  I wrapped my hand around his.

  “I’m all yours,” he said.

  Then he threw open the door. “Wait here,” he said. “I don’t know that this is a safe place for humans.”

  I watched him walk into the grand house. The door opened for him, and he stepped inside. I knew he’d be back in a minute, but I was disconcerted.

  “He can’t help it,” Harris said gently.

  In a few moments, Montague did return with the rest of his clan. He could fit in with them now. I saw it. He was changing, becoming more graceful and assured with every year. He seemed sexier than he ever had, when I saw him with the others, the predatory beauty that they shared. They fit together, but I wasn’t going to let them have him.

  Rayner walked up to Harris’ window. “Good day, little spawn of the vampire hunters,” he said. “This is truly a day for the history books. We would rather not step into your parallel, but we’ve rented two rooms at the Econ Lodge off of the I-95 highway, and we will prepare the gateway into Sinistral for you while you collect your friends.”

  “The Econ Lodge?” Harris said. “Did you blow all your budget on those suits?”

  “No one cares if you open the gates of hell at the Econ Lodge,” Jie said. “Yelp said ‘it was so bad I slept in my car’ ‘reeks of marijuana’ and ‘so many cockroaches’. That’s where we go for shenanigans, and a good meal.”

  “Good lord, what a poor choice of words,” Silvus said. “Just to be clear, we are feeding on the humans, not the cockroaches.”

  Okay, so they looked sexy, but they still didn’t quite have a monopoly on suave.

  “I have given Montague the key. We’ll see you this evening,” Rayner said. “I hope you’re all ready for what you’re about to take on. I expect we’ll do most of the work, but we will need distractions.”

  “We’re ready,” Harris said. “And I was thinking the same thing about you. I have plans for this fight.”

  Rayner looked unimpressed, in the way that probably only a multi-centuries old being can look. “Well, we’ll discuss it at the hotel.”

  From there, we entered the parallel. I was nervous because I half-expected the council to have spies or to have murdered Professor McGuinness or something, but he answered the door right away, and this time Professor Adams was there too.

  “Come in,” he said. “I’m glad you made it here safely. Are you ready for this?”

  “You look great!” I said. “Like…I barely recognized you! Is this your demon battling outfit?”

  Professor McGuinness had gotten a tan and he was wearing linen pants and a pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up. “Oh—well,” he said. “I’ve been getting out, dear. After all that stuff you were saying about humans and that very enlightening trip to the mall…I thought, maybe I need to get away from the magical world now and then. In the Fixed Plane Savannah has this thing called a Pride Parade.”

  “They have those in a lot of places,” Firian said.

  “Don’t burst his bubble, Firian,” I said. “That’s great! So you went?”

  “Yes. It was very eye-opening. Now I really see what Samuel meant when he always wanted to get out and about with the humans. I was always more of a stickler for the rules. I thought warlocks were obviously superior. So I’ve been sprucing things up around here. No more black.”

  “It’s been good with me,” Professor Adams said. “I don’t know anything about decorating, but my lady has been appreciating the upgrade.”

  “Have you been to this place called World Market?” McGuinness asked.

  “Ohh…you redecorated too.”

  “I got this rattan set on clearance for the porch but they wouldn’t give me a credit card. Apparently I don’t exist in the computer.”

  “Are we killing a demon at a shitty motel or are we just talking about rattan?” Harris snapped. “This is our moment. Professor, I’m glad you’ve been enjoying life, but put on a cloak and let’s go.”

  “Are you with us, Professor Adams?” I asked.

  “Oh no no. I’m not fighting a demon,” he said. “I’m dating a demoness and I don’t want to tangle her up in any trouble with a high demon.”

  “Well, we are going to kill said demon,” Harris said. “But, do what you have to do.”

  Professor Adams shook his head. “You kids, I don’t know about this.”

  McGuinness grabbed his cloak off the coat hanger. “None of us do, but we have to try.”

  It was cloak time, baby. We’re talking wands out, fluttering velvet, smoke machine wizard action. We’re talking fashion for walking out of a building just before it blows up. This was the calm before the storm where we could show off, and nobody brought it like
Master Blair.

  We arrived at the motel and he showed up giving us Howl’s Moving Castle. Perfect hair, almost too much collar, some killer lace-up boots, and his wand. And then there was my demon stud in t-shirt and jeans. I ran into Alec’s arms.

  “So no one has heard from Stu?” Ignatius said. “The vampires said Daisy couldn’t come either. And I thought you were turning Firian back into a human.”

  “We ran out of time,” I said, shivering. “But…it’s enough, right? Harris has some holy magic from the Hapsburgs.”

  “Water of the Holy Grail,” he said. “Stuart has to hide. The council is looking for him. Did you hear what happened with Orson?”

  I could hear the girl at the check-in desk whispering on the phone to a manager about whether foxes were allowed inside, but the vampires were right. It seemed like anything could somehow blend in at a cheap roadside motel.

  “I see,” Ignatius said, as Harris told him the story.

  “I have something to show you,” Alec said, his arms around me.

  “Oh yeah? I feel that,” I said, grinding against him.

  “Not that. Well—maybe that too. We have a minute, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “What we don’t have is a clean surface, but…”

  “That’s okay,” he whispered in my ear.

  Rayner and the rest of the clan had shown up, and it seemed like the adults were talking, so Alec pulled me aside into his motel room and picked me up by the legs. One thrust of his cock inside me and I almost forgot how much it really did smell like both pot smoke and cigarette smoke and also Raid, but he was strong enough to hold me so that I barely touched anything. The sex could have seemed as routine as needing to pee, but Alec always made me feel like I was the center of the universe. He made sure I was as satisfied as he was; half the time his incubus length could get right at my G spot, and luckily this was one of those times because I didn’t want to linger too long here.

  He grinned at me as I panted. “It hasn’t really been that long,” he said.

  “Yeah, right, don’t play cool,” I said. “What are you going to show me?”

  He handed me a locket. “I made this for you…”

  I opened it, and inside I found a miniature portrait of my mom. Like all of Alec’s art, it wasn’t an exact likeness, nor was it trying to be. He captured her essence.

  “I saw her in Sinistral,” he said. “I wanted to see if I could paint her. So I’ve been trying, and trying, but I think I finally got it. So take this, and…it will help you.”

  “Alec…”

  “You helped me find out what happened to my mom,” he said.

  “Yeah, and that didn’t work out very well…”

  “It did,” he said. “I needed to know that side of me. And even if she had a terrible way of showing it, her motherly advice wasn’t wrong. I needed to embrace my incubus side and stop trying to just be a warlock. Things will work out better with your mom, Char. I promise.”

  I wrapped my arms around him. I felt like we could go for a second round, so I forced myself to keep the kiss quick. “Thank you so much, Alec.” I tucked my hair behind my ears. “I should also tell you…”

  “You slept with Harris?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course you would know somehow.”

  “I feel like I smell him on you…”

  “Don’t say it that way. God, it just sounds skeevy.”

  “Was it good?”

  “It was…Harris. Like—we couldn’t stop bickering. But it was hot.”

  “That’s how Harris shows affection,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it…”

  “To…”

  “Seeing all of us inside you at once…” He brushed a hand under my skirt, teasing me through my panties with his fingertips.

  I clamped my thighs around his hand, trying to shut him out. “If we make it out alive!”

  “Spread those legs, princess…”

  Aw, crap, okay, second round in a crappy motel.

  Might as well live while I can.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Charlotte

  “The moment is at hand,” Ignatius said. “We will open the gate and summon the Withered Lord. We will be drawn into Sinistral to wage the battle. It will be a dangerous place for Ethereal wizards, so you’ll have to be strong.”

  “The Withered Lord has an unknown number of Sinistrals enslaved to him, willing to fight for him. We have to get through them quickly. They won’t stay loyal to him if he’s killed. They are prisoners,” Silvus said.

  “Harris has the water from the holy grail,” Ignatius said. “All we really need to do is make contact.”

  Anyway, I can sum this strategy meeting:

  1. They talked for two hours.

  2. They went around in circles.

  3. No one knew for sure how to battle a high demon, but they sure had a lot of confidence anyway. You want egos? Throw a bunch of old vampires in with warlocks who are competitive with the vampires.

  There was talk of tricks, battle formations, etcetera, but basically everyone was just going to do what they did best. The warlocks would cast spells while the vampires were going to do vampire stuff with this cache of weapons they had unfolded from a big wool blanket, swords and daggers for the older vampires and pistols for Thom.

  My job was to save Mom.

  I kept looking at Alec’s painting, and wondering how it would be enough this time if it wasn’t enough last time. What was I missing? Why wasn’t I good enough? Why didn’t the mere mention of Dad and me and how much we loved her make her want to come back?

  “Enough,” Rayner said. “I’m tired of talk. I’ve walked this earth for five hundred years. I won’t die today. Let’s meet this demon today and tomorrow I’ll have Lisbeth in my arms, God willing.”

  “I’m ready,” Ignatius said. “Ready to plead my case to the faery queen. I’ve always lived between worlds. Wyrd is where I belong.”

  “Let’s do this,” Harris said.

  “Join hands,” Silvus said.

  “I’m opening the gate,” Rayner said. “We don’t need to join hands.”

  “If you won’t do this my way, at least indulge me,” Silvus said. “Love and connection is anathema to demons. We might be unlikely allies, but we are allies all the same. Some of us love each other, and we all can find something to respect.” He held out a hand to Rayner. “Come on, my old adversary. You know it’s true.”

  Rayner slowly held out a hand to Silvus, grumbling. He took Ignatius’ hand in his other, while Harris held out a hand to me readily, surprising me with the purpose of his touch. Montague gripped my other hand, and Montague and Alec took Firian’s paws, a subtle show of solidarity. Firian wasn’t just mine anymore. He was a part of what had become Us.

  “I summon to me the demon of winter’s chill, the demon who snaps hearts like brittle twigs. I summon to me the demon who collects children like butterflies on pins, to suck the magic from their bones. I summon the high demon known as the Withered Lord,” Rayner said.

  Personally, I could have done without all that. Maybe it was part of the process.

  A crack appeared in the fabric of space ahead of us, and then it tore open, and darkness seeped out. The room turned cold, and the crack kept opening wider, becoming a portal that started tugging us in with suction.

  Oh, shit. This was happening. I managed not to pee myself during this part, and that was worth bragging about.

  The portals opened to what must have been Sinistral. We dropped into a frigid forest, bare trees dusted in a bleak, dry snow—and as soon as we landed, a bunch of demonic creatures raced out to attack us. Like, no talk, no preamble. Pretty rude. The vampires got to work without blinking. Rayner’s sword slashed outward as he grunted angrily, blood splaying on the snow. Thom shot some ravens out of the sky, crumpled black feathers falling.

  Almost immediately, I could feel the forest turning colder. It was angry. I could just feel it. I hadn’t dressed properly for cold we
ather but I could tell it wouldn’t even matter. This cold wouldn’t be held back by clothes.

  Ignatius threw up a protective bubble around us. It shimmered briefly and then a voice spoke as if from the trees in some dark tongue, maybe that language they speak in Mordor. Whatever it was, it ate away the protective bubble. One minute we held onto a fragile safety, and the next minute I felt completely exposed again.

  Ignatius was driven back a step, nearly crashing into me before he switched to a fire spell. I was, at this point, huddled around Firian while fire leapt around me, driving back the wolves enough to keep us safe.

  “Kili Forest, Charlotte,” he said. “You’re good at fire spells.”

  That was the region of Fortune’s Favor where you were always getting attacked by wolves and if you stayed there too long, your charisma would drop out of sadness, but everything in the forest was weak against fire.

  “Right.” I cast a quick fire spell, the flames bursting around my wand. The vampires had killed a couple of wolves already. It wasn’t a pretty scene and the battle had hardly begun.

  “Aren’t these wolves captives of the Withered Lord like my grandfathers?” I cried.

  “Probably. Doesn’t matter,” Rayner said. “They have to work for him, so we have to kill them.”

  “Careful—” Harris yanked me out of the way just in time before an arrow landed at my feet.

  Archers? Yeah, now we had archers. Professor McGuinness let out a sudden yell of pain and I thought he was hit, but instead a snake was biting his ankle.

  The vampires charged the trees to bring down the archers, who were these pale, wiry, dark elf looking girls. We turned our magic toward the trees, flushing a few more out to be dispatched by the vampires, but the vampires were killing them too. Like, without even blinking. Pointy-eared girls with dark hair and blue-hued skin collapsed around us with lifeless eyes.

  We really could die too.

  It was hard not to feel completely rattled.

  “Behind us!” Montague said, pulling my attention in other directions—too many directions. While the vampires were duking it out with the girls, the temperature seemed to get even colder. The forest was misty behind us, and as I was watching, the mist half-formed into phantoms. Every phantom had the same face, white skin stretched against the bones of their faces, their eyes glowing blue in a hollow way. They drifted toward us.