“Then why do you want to be rid of us so badly?”
Issie pushed him away from her and went to sit back down on the chair. Nashoba was completely immobilized, and she made it clear that she didn’t fear him one little bit. Crossing one leg over the other, she leaned back and shrugged.
“That’s a story that goes back to before you were even a twinkle in your father’s eye.” She said. “And it’s no longer relevant. What is relevant is that I no longer wish to have you filthy beasts polluting my ancestral homeland with your degenerate blood. My people were here long before yours and I’m sick of smelling you all over town.”
“We have no quarrel with you or your family,” said Nashoba. “If you agree to free my people from your spell, we might even be able to come to some arrangement so that we don’t come into any areas you or your family wish to keep to yourselves.”
“A charming and noble gesture, Nashoba Half-Light, but it’s too late for that.” Issie looked off into a distant corner of the room. “My family is long dead, and don’t trust that the next generation of mangy mutts will uphold any bargain we might strike. Besides, it’s more fun for me to watch you suffer this way.”
“So what?” Nashoba strained against his magical bonds. “You’re just going to keep me here?”
Issie smirked and made a painful looking gesture with her fingers. Nashoba clenches his fingers into a tight fist and thought about leaping across the short gap to end this witch’s life once and for all.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” She said, as if hearing his thoughts. “My spells run independent of me, and you wouldn’t make it to me anyway.”
Nashoba shook his head and stood up, his legs feeling shaky and weak after fighting against her hold on him. He couldn’t believe how exhausted he was. The feeling was close to waking up after a long night of heavy drinking, and he knew he had to get himself away from the witch before he did anything rash. There was clearly nothing he could do to fight against her power in his current state, and so he turned his back on her and walked for the door as calmly as he could. He knew where to find her now, and he also knew that Akala was lying in bed counting on him to fix this for her.
This would be the last time he faced Issie, he promised himself. The next time he’d be better prepared and he wouldn’t leave until he’d destroyed the spells she used to attack those he held most dear.
***
A fierce headache had set in by the time Nashoba pulled his truck back into the driveway of his home. He was happy to see that Haley and the healer were still there to keep an eye on Akala, although he didn’t like the looks he saw on their faces when they turned from the kitchen table to look up at him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is Akala okay?”
“Akala is as good as can be expected.” replied Haley.
“I’ve been with her for the last two hours trying to discern the source of her troubles,” said the healer. “Her case is not like the others. At first glance, it appears to be the same. The symptoms are presenting in exactly the same fashion, and she’s suffering the same way as they have.”
“But?” asked Nashoba.
“But there is a darker aura about her. She hasn’t healed as quickly as the others had. There was a moment with our girls where they felt ill and suffered an amount of bleeding, but they recovered as one would if they had a bout of severe food poisoning. The symptoms are intense, but they fade quickly.”
“And Akala is different? Is she getting worse?”
“Not worse,” said Haley, putting a hand on her brother’s arm. “But she’s not getting better either.”
“Akala seems to be held under the influence of some additional spell. I can’t entirely discern the nature of it, but I can sense the separate layers. It’s as though this witch wants her to suffer more than the others.” The healer frowned and sighed. “I can see from the look on your face that your meeting with Issie did not go well.”
“No,” said Nashoba, shaking his head. “Not well at all. The witch bears an ancient hate for our kind, and she used her power to hold me at bay. I was powerless against her, and I don’t know what to do to help Akala.”
“Well, there might be something.” said the healer. “It’s risky, but it’s the only option I can think of. I’m not even one hundred percent sure that it will work.”
“Tell me what it is, and I’ll do it,” said Nashoba, his lips set in a firm line of determination.
“For a spell like this to be as powerful and persistent as it is, something must have been taken from Akala when she was held by Herbert Johnson. We need to get it back from Issie.”
“That won’t be easy,” said Nashoba, “but I can do it if it needs to be done.”
“The second part will be even more difficult.” the healer continued. “You’ll need to recover something personal from the witch.”
“You mean like a lock of hair or something?” asked Nashoba, his mind returning to his complete inability to get near the woman.
“Nothing so specific.” explained the healer. “Any personal item will do. A piece of jewelery or even a recently held item like a favorite book will suffice.”
“Fine.” he grumbled. “I’ll figure something out. Can I see Akala before I go back there?”
“She’s resting but I don’t see the harm in it,” replied Haley.
Nashoba walked silently down the hall and up the stairs to his room. He pushed the door open as gently as he could and stared down at the sleeping form of the woman he’d invited into all of this trouble. There was no escaping the fact that he was entirely to blame for her current condition, and that tore at him almost as much as seeing her lying there so fragile and helpless.
He sat on the edge of the bed and took Akala’s hand, sandwiching it between both of his own. She murmured in her sleep and shifted a little, but he was relieved when she did not wake. He didn’t know what to say to her, and he didn’t want to have to leave again. It would only be harder if she were awake to watch him leave.
Nashoba kissed her brow and slipped from the room. He had an idea of how he might get what he needed from Issie’s shop but it would be a thing best left to the darkness of night.
FIVE
From where he sat parked on the street, Nashoba could clearly see the front door of the witch woman’s shop. He watched as she locked up and turned to walk out to the main street. Nashoba pulled his cap down over his face a little and sank deeper into the shadows of his vehicle, hiding himself from her sight as she turned and walked down the street, oblivious to his presence.
When he was sure that she’d had enough time to get far enough away to notice anything suspicious, Nashoba slipped out of his truck and hurried to the front of the store. It was locked, as he’d suspected it would be, but the tire iron in his hand served as an excellent key when he slotted it into the tight gap between the door and the frame. He pushed hard on it, the crack of splintering wood sounding like a gunshot in the night to his own ears but a quick glance over his shoulder told him that no one else seemed to have noticed.
A few wiggling movements with the pry bar later, and Nashoba was able to pull the door free of its single lock. He hadn’t noticed any alarm wires when he’d been in the store earlier that day but he didn’t imagine that Issie would leave her store completely unguarded. Most likely she had a magical seal on the shop that would let her know someone had broken in, but if all went according to plan, Nashoba would be in and out before she returned.
Not entirely sure of where to start his quest for the items he was looking for, Nashoba went to inspect the area behind the cash register first. He scanned the shelves and drawers behind the counter, looking for something that might have had prolonged contact with Issie’s hands. The area was unusually tidy, and he was shocked to find not even a pen or a coffee mug that might be what the healer had told him to bring back.
The more he searched the store, the more certain he became that the spells and their component parts weren’t being ke
pt in the main area of the shop. He scoured every corner looking for hidden compartments or secret passageways, but nothing revealed themselves. The place might have been run by a ghost for how spotlessly clean of personal items it was, and although it held plenty of herbs and powerful looking talismans, none of them seemed to have any active magic emanating from them. Before he’d left that night, the healer had told him that he’d know the important items when he saw them, that he’d feel their power vibrating like a tuning fork, but he felt nothing even remotely matching that description in the main room of the shop. When he’d done the quickest search he could manage, he went to the very back of the store where a large bookcase stood alone in the middle of the wall. It seemed slightly out of place standing alone as it was, and it wasn’t until he bent down to inspect the ground that he saw the scuff marks inscribing a wide arc that perfectly matched the book case’s width.
Nashoba jammed his fingers into the gap behind the bookcase and the wall where it should have pulled open, but it wouldn’t budge an inch. He ran to the front of the store to pick up the tire iron he’d dropped there but even this did nothing to help him pull the door open. Try as he might, he just couldn’t seem to pull the bookshelf away from the wall. Stepping back from the problem, Nashoba eyed the books and figured that there must be some sort of hidden mechanism to unlock whatever was holding it in place. Given that Issie was a magic user and not a normal person, it most likely wouldn’t be a physical trigger, and so Nashoba had no chance of opening it. He swept the books off the shelves and onto the floor, and then jammed the pointy end of the tire iron into the thin wooden backing of the shelf.
The tire iron broke through into empty space, and after only a minute or two of work, Nashoba had managed to tear out the shelves and destroy the whole bookshelf until he had an opening that he could step right through.
The room beyond was dark and musty, as though no air came circulated anywhere except from the main room. He struggled against the feeling of tightness in his chest, and fumbled around for a light switch, finally finding one and flipping it on. What he saw was a storeroom full of the kinds of things no one would ever get away with selling in a shop. One wall was lined with jars that held a variety of murky liquids with disgusting looking things floating inside. Another area was covered with a glass door and Nashoba recognized more than a few of the spread out plants and fungi as deadly poisonous. This was Issie’s private storeroom but even this place held no obviously running spells.
It was tight and cramped, and there was a sickening lack of energy that made Nashoba want to run outside so he could shift into his wolf form and run through the trees breathing clean air and drinking from cool clear streams, but he knew he needed to fight that urge. If he didn’t find what he was looking for in this place, he knew he wouldn’t find it anywhere.
Inspecting the small storeroom even more thoroughly than he had the main room, Nashoba raced against time to find what he needed. Not entirely sure of what would be of any real value, he snatched two of the small leather bound books he found on a workbench and hoped that Issie had spent some time holding them recently.
He was just stepping through the broken bookshelf when he heard the scuff of footsteps approaching in the darkened store. A flare of sparking magical light lit up the room, and Issie stood before him with a clenched jaw and a look of hatred in her eyes.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked.
“I came to destroy your spells but you can relax, I didn’t find anything.”
“I know you didn’t find anything, you imbecile. Did you really think you could sneak in here and undo everything I’ve been working towards? Stupid mutt.”
Nashoba’s fingers clenched involuntarily and for the second time that day he had to hold himself back from attacking her. He seethed with rage but he knew there was nothing he could do. His helplessness only served to anger him more, and it was all he could do to not shift into a wolf and go for her with his teeth. There was a chance he could make it. He’d most likely die in the process, but wouldn’t Akala and his people gain something if he took her out of the equation?
“You really should consider my offer.” said Issie. “I can see you fuming with hatred for me, but just think of the power we could wield.”
“I thought you had no use for my kind.”
“I don’t really, but I am a woman with certain needs. It would be nice to have a handsome specimen like you around to keep me satisfied in ways only a big stud like you really could.”
Her smile was knife at his throat. She had all the power here and he knew it.
“There’s not a chance I would partner with you against my own people. Kill me if you must but I’ll never submit to you.”
Issie sighed and stepped to the side. “You don’t know what you’re missing but it’s your funeral if you continue to fight against me. I’m in no rush to end your delicious suffering, but if you persist in coming after me and my business like this, I might have to put a little more pressure on your girlfriend. How is she doing, by the way?”
Nashoba could hold back no longer and he sprang forward. To his surprise, she made no outward motion to resist him, but before he knew what was happening, he felt himself spinning around her to land flat on his back. Issie stood over him, lifting her leg to place the spiked heel of her shoes on his chest. She pushed down slightly, sending a stabbing pain through his stomach.
“Oh my little wolf pup,” she cooed. “So brave and so strong, yet so helpless.”
Nashoba thrashed against his bonds, but as before, he was completely unable to move his body. He was trapped and at her mercy, having given into his temptation to fight her and having lost as he feared he would.
“What does that bitch give you that I can’t?” asked Issie. She moved her knee slightly and her slinky black dress ride up on her thighs, exposing her bright red panties to him. Nashoba couldn’t turn away or even close his eyes, and soon they began to water for lack of blinking. Still, she teased him with a view of her most intimate places, licking her lips and repeating her earlier offer.
“I could fuck you so good and hard you’d forget her name in a heartbeat. Don’t you want that?” she purred.
Her eyes drifted towards his pants as though she expected to see a physical response to her advances, but Nashoba felt nothing for her, and there was absolutely no attraction on his part despite the tantalizing things she offered him. Everything about this woman’s soul repulsed him, and no matter how perfect of a body she had, or how beautiful her features were, she would be as ugly as the devil himself to him for what she’d done.
Issie seemed to sense his feelings towards her and she muttered something under her breath that Nashoba couldn’t quite make out before stepping back away from him and releasing her magical hold on his body. She seemed confused and thrown off her game but Nashoba wasn’t going to stick around to find out why. He saw his opening, and he took it, running for the front door without even stopping to pick up the books he’d stolen from the back room.
The trip had been a complete waste of time and Nashoba cursed himself throughout the drive back to his house. Not only had he not found the source of the spells but he’d not retrieved either of the things the healer had asked him to. He was failing Akala more and more with each attempt to save her, and it was affecting him to the point that by the time he pulled into his driveway, he had begun to wonder if he was remotely worthy to continue as alpha for his people.
Head held low in shame, he entered the house to report his failure for the second time that day.
SIX
Nashoba didn’t sleep at all that night. He spent most of his time sitting beside Akala’s bed, fetching water when she woke and whispering soothing words until she fell back asleep again. He spent a lot of time just watching her and contemplating how suddenly she’d come to mean everything to him. A few days earlier he might have said that his tribe meant everything to him and that nothing would come before his people, but know he knew
in his heart that Akala was the one thing that came above all else. He hated himself for putting her in this position. It was especially heartwrenching to think that even if she could not bear his pups, she would be unable to have children even should she choose to leave this place and be with someone else.
That was, if she ever rose from bed again.
Her fever had stabilized at a tolerable temperature, but she had very little strength to do much more than sit up and sip at water or a thin broth now and then. Haley and the healer took turns with her as well, and on one of these breaks when they implored him to lie down and rest, he instead shifted to wolf and ran the forests behind his house. As he ran, he came to the conclusion that he needed to tell the healer the one part of his encounters that he’d left out when he’d related his stories. It was a horrible enough thing for him to even think about, but there might be something to Issie’s repeated sexual advances towards him and her seeming inability to make him her slave as she wanted to do.
He waited until Haley had gone up to sit with Akala and then pulled the healer aside to tell her about Issie’s sexual teasing. He left out no detail, his face flushing full crimson with embarrassment and shame as he told her the things the witch had said and done to get him to take her bait.
The Alpha's Mail Order Bride- The Complete Series Page 16