by M. L. Briers
Cat and mouse. Tease and see what bobbed to the surface. It was his way, and a way that annoyed her so.
“Dream and on,” she said; turning back towards him at the doorway, and raising her eyebrows once more.
“We’ll put a pin in it,” Nathaniel offered back with the kind of smirk that she was tempted to zap right off of his face.
“Put a damn sledgehammer through it for all I care…”
“My, so feisty and fiery today. Did someone push you out of bed the wrong side this morning?” He couldn’t help but hate the thought of that. Morgana sharing time with another man.
It felt … wrong. Especially when he could have given her everything that she could ever want or need, and yet she resisted his attempts to charm her at every turn, until he’d changed tactics and decided that riling her up was much more productive…
“How attached to your fangs are you?” She asked with a no-nonsense raise of her perfect eyebrows again.
He liked that she talked with her eyebrows – it was like a roadmap to her feelings, and he knew them well.
“Witches – no sense of humour.”
“Vampires – allergic to sharp pointy wooden things.” She tossed back, determined not to take any of his BS.
“Alright – fine!” He tossed up a hand and gave her a point for that comeback line. He pointed down to his hard length again and her eyes followed. “You really can’t help but look, can you?”
“Lead a horse to water, Nathaniel.” She shrugged her shoulders.
The man was tall, dark, and extremely handsome. Apart from the whole vampire thing – which kind of ruined it for her – she might well have been interested in him.
But it was what it was – the man was a bloodsucker, a leech, and once he got a taste of her Fae blood – he’d be a stalker too.
It was bad enough that he was in her life and she was at his beck and call – she wasn’t about to be his booty call as well. She had her pride and a desperate need to keep her damn sanity and messing with Nathaniel was a sure fire way to lose both.
The man was nothing if not sarcastic, narcissistic, and a butthole of epic proportions when he wanted to be. Like parading his latest bed bunny in front of her…
“Strangely, that summoned up a few images in my mind of you on your knees, and I…”
“Give me the reason that you summoned me here.” She bit back.
She didn’t want to entertain that image…
“I’ll give you two.” He offered back to her as he flicked off the shower and pushed open the screen, stepping out, and dripping water all over the floor; as he reached for a towel, but didn’t cover himself with it.
He took a slow stroll towards her and she straightened her body to its full height, pulling her magical shields tighter around her, and using the glamour spell to make sure that she projected perfection and serenity, well, as serene as she could be considering the company that she was keeping, and his lack of attire.
Definitely his lack of attire.
“Firstly,” he said as he stopped right in front of her like temptation personified for her eyes. She looked straight back at his, determined not to look down at everything that he had to offer. “I was locked inside of a cellar for the last two days…”
Morgana’s lips parted in surprise. He watched her heartbeat quicken at the pulse in her neck, and he was happily satisfied that she had nothing to do with it.
Even more satisfied that the thought affected her in some way other than to cheer…
“I guess you satisfied your thirst,” she said.
Morgana’s eyes flicked sideways for just a second towards the bedroom where the human slept, and then back to him again.
She understood.
“Jealousy, and from you. Who’d have thought it?” He offered with something of a devilish grin.
“Don’t make the mistake of taking understanding for jealousy,” she offered back…
Good. All is forgiven with the human female, sort of ... that makes life easier.
“I want you to go to Maxi and see if she knows anything…” he grimaced just a little at the thought of the seer.
The woman hated him, and with good reason – he’d killed her brother, and in his defence; the man had been a Warlock … and it had been in self-defence.
“Maxi hates you. If she had a hand in it she won’t say, and if she didn’t but knows something, she won’t say either – she’d rather see you dead than help you.”
“We’ve had this talk before…” he offered back to her and she sighed.
“I can’t get blood out of a stone, Nathaniel. She knows I …” she waved a hand towards him. “Work for you at times when I can’t avoid it.” Morgana bit back.
“You make me sound like a tyrant…” he drew back in mock horror.
“Trust me when I say that you really don’t want to know what I think of you…” Morgana bit out.
He never would either – not with the spell that she’d woven and kept locked about her body; thanks to the pendant that hung between her breasts at all times. The man had no need to delve between her cleavage and no chance to read her mind…
“You know that’s like tempting the devilish little beast within me to find out…” When he wiggled his dark eyebrows at her; she rolled her eyes in her head.
“Give it your best shot, vampire,” she hissed back; with a big emphasis on his species, and made sure that it sounded like a dirty word.
“I might just…” his crooked smile enticed her.
Even she wasn’t immune to all the ways that a vampire had of getting inside a person’s mind and screwing with it…
“Nathaniel…” she bit out in frustration at trying – and failing – to be able to drag her eyes from his face.
“It’s like being dragged into a black hole against your will, don’t you think?” His voice was teasing, playful, and she knew that he enjoyed making her squirm…
Morgana let loose a magically crafted electric shock that ripped through his flesh and made his muscles lock up hard, and every hair on his body stood to attention.
“Who needs Viagra when you have a witch handy…?” He looked away from her first, breaking his bond of her, and she let her magic pull back from his body.
She couldn’t not look down to where his eyes were appreciating the fact that her magic had made him exceptionally hard – all over.
CHAPTER THREE
~
“Get over yourself,” Morgana bit out.
She folded her arms and offered him something of a sneer. She wasn’t falling for that one again…
“Luckily, I have a female in my bed that can take care of this for me…” he leaned in closer and she pulled her head back on her neck a little. “Unless you would like the pleasure…”
“I will hurt you this time,” she hissed the warning like a snake about to strike.
Nathaniel snapped his body straight once more. He knew just how far he could push Morgana’s buttons, he’d been doing it for a while, and it felt as if he was getting to the edge of the abyss.
“Second thing is … the tethered’s…”
“Don’t call them that.”
“What would you like me to call them? Boring, sub-species, mundane, fodder, food…?”
“Humans.” She offered him a blank expression of her own. She wasn’t playing his game, and she wouldn’t satisfy him with getting a rise from her that time.
“Fine. Humans have been disappearing, males, and the last was a female. I know; because I was following her when it happened.”
Nathaniel offered her that snip of information and watched as the wheels turned inside of her mind. He could practically taste her appetite to get involved right then and there.
If Morgana was anything; she was protective of humans – especially females.
“Why were you following her?”
Nathaniel hated it when she asked the questions that he didn’t want her to ask, but she always seemed to manage it anyway�
�
“Ahh…” he considered lying. “Personal tastes…”
“As in?”
“She looked tasty…” he offered back and watched her eyes roll back into her head once more… “But, someone got there before me…”
“Sorry I asked,” she grumbled.
“Yes, well. I was sorry that I ended up in a cold, dark, drab, bloodless cellar shortly after that.” He grumbled back and watched her eyebrows try to meet over her nose.
She likes that idea about as much as I enjoyed it. At least she has some sympathy for my plight.
A good sign, I think.
“Who was she?”
“No idea. I spotted her in a bar and…”
“Followed her like a stalky, bloodsucking, vampire leech?” Morgana offered up to him with a look of smug glee within her eyes.
So, not entirely sympathetic to me then…
“Point remains…” he offered, holding up that one index finger again. “She was taken.”
“Fine. I’ll go see Maxi for the innocent, not for you…” she offered with a little acidic tone to her voice.
“A little for me,” he pouted and she sighed.
“We’re done here.” She turned away from him and started for the door.
“Just a tiny bit for me?” He called after, a smirk on his lips.
“I’ll call you,” she shot back over her shoulder.
“I might be in the middle of a sinfully debauched session of…”
“Bye, Nathaniel.” She shot back, cutting him off in mid flow and slamming the front door behind her as she made a quick exit.
“What was I…?” He looked down at his hard length and grinned. “I’ll take care of this first…”
~
~
~
Morgana stepped into the parlour. It was a cliché in every respect of the word.
The scent of vanilla and sage hung in the air – furniture polish and a cleansing ritual in one heady mix that tickled her nose. She rolled her eyes at the décor.
A round wooden table sat in the middle of the room with three chairs, one on the far side, and two on the paying customer’s side. A large crystal ball sat in the middle on a black cloth with which to catch and keep the excess energy and essence of any aura that might be summoned.
The mood lighting and candles were a nice touch, and the crystals that hung from the ceiling and caught the light of the dancing flames, even more so. It was everything that someone outside of the craft expected when they visited a psychic for a reading, or more, and one thing about Maxi was that she always gave them more.
The difference between Maxi and most psychics was that Maxi truly had the gift. The rest was just dressing…
“I could say I was expecting you …” Maxi offered as she came through the hidden gap between the draped curtains at the back of the room and eyed Morgana with a quick appraisal of her aura. “But that would be a lie and we’d both know it.”
Maxi motioned for Morgana to take a seat, and the witch knew that there was little point in refusing the woman. The conversation that she needed to have with her would be quickly over if she did.
Morgana sat in the offered chair and Maxi settled herself on the opposite side of the table. It was weird how just being in the seer’s presence always made the hairs on Morgana’s body stand to attention.
It was as if her own magic was reacting to that of the seer’s.
“I see by your aura that you are still connected to the vampire.” Maxi let loose the first shot between them.
Morgana knew that there was no point in denying it. She tipped her head and acknowledged the seer’s words.
“The darkness that stains your aura, and the red that surrounds it is very telling.”
Maxi’s eyes locked on Morgana’s and the witch knew that she was supposed to blink first. That was how things worked.
“I still owe him a debt,” Morgana conceded with a small nod of her head.
“One that he’ll never let you repay,” Maxi warned.
“One that was worth it.”
“So, you’re here for the vampire?” Maxi reached out her hand and flicked the lid on the lodestone box, reaching inside to take out her Tarot deck, and Morgana stiffened just a little…
“Yes, and I don’t need a reading…”
Morgana didn’t want to know what the future held for her. She’d rather not see trouble coming if it was something that she couldn’t walk away from. That was the only nod that she gave to the human side of herself – she didn’t want to know her future or variations of it.
“What kind of witch would I be if I wasn’t curious?” Maxi’s steel blue eyes locked with Morgana’s and held in place.
“The kind that respects that I don’t want to know.” Morgana offered back.
“You want to pretend you’re a mundane?”
Maxi kept her voice level, but there was an accusing look in her eyes that matched the amusement on her lips. Just like the vampire; Maxi was playing with her.
Morgana drew in a long, calming breath to even her temper, not that it worked – the vampire was right, she’d got out of bed on the wrong side that morning.
“We both know that humans only want to hear the good things. I don’t want to hear either way.”
Maxi turned over the first card and Morgana averted her eyes from the deck. It was one thing for the reader to interpret the reading – another entirely for the one being read to try and do it.
There was the sound of another card, then another, one more before Maxi snatched them back up and placed them back into the box. Morgana knew that wasn’t a good sign.
“You know the vampire clouds your magic with darkness?” Maxi offered, and Morgana felt the itch to know what she’d seen within the cards clawing inside of her, like it was tapping on her soul.
“I know I try to keep an even keel.”
“He’ll ask you to do something you’re not comfortable with. He’ll take from you…” Maxi warned.
“No more, Maxi,” Morgana shook her head.
She didn’t want to hear it; not when she could do little about the outcome. She owed the man, and she paid her debts.
“He’ll be your downfall, Morgana…” Maxi warned as she reached out and locked her fingers around Morgana’s hand.
Her first instinct was to pull away, and she would have if the woman didn’t have some kind of a damn death grip on her. She felt the rush of heat flood her body as a fight or flight instinct took a hold of her.
The thing was; she could do neither.
Maxi’s eyes locked on hers and pierced into her very soul. Right then and there, and without Morgana being able to do a damn thing about it; the seer stole what she needed…
CHAPTER FOUR
~
“He’ll be your saviour as well…” The seer said.
Maxi let go of her hand just as suddenly as she had gripped it, and Morgana snatched it back and bit down on the need that she had to curse and tell the woman a few home truths about her people skills.
“Maxi…” She warned, breathing hard in annoyance…
“You’ll lose that which you hold dearest, but in ways that you don’t expect…”
Morgana pushed up to her feet and bit down on the anger that rushed through her.
“Damn it, Maxi. Stop!” Morgana bit out. “I came about the…”
“Disappearances.” Maxi tossed up a hand. “Sit.”
Morgana was at a disadvantage and she knew it. Maxi had tossed out the one bit of relevant information that she did want to know about, and she couldn’t walk away.
Morgana sat back down.
“Why do you always have to…?”
Morgana bit off the words and tried to stow her annoyance. It wouldn’t work in her favour, not with Maxine. But the woman always made it so damn hard to not want to kill her, or at least; play witch zap for a few hours…
Maxi smiled then. The woman looked less witch and more she-demon as she gave a small chuc
kle.
“I do like to mess with you, Morgana…” Maxi offered back.
“I get that you don’t like Nathaniel…”
“Hate.” Maxi corrected her. “With the power of a thousand white hot suns…”
“White hot?” Morgana shot back and Maxi shrugged her shoulders.
“It conveys my feelings about your friend.”
“Not a friend, Maxi…” Morgana offered back, and she felt a little rush of guilt inside her for Nathaniel.
“And yet, deep down inside of you, Morgana, you can’t help but like him.” Maxi said it like an accusation. Like she was reading her mind.
“He has his moments.”
“Like the moment when he ripped my brother’s heart clean out of his chest?” Maxi leaned forward and placed her palms down on the table to show the witch that she meant her no ill will.
“Regrettable…”
“Avoidable.”
“Not for the vampire. Kill or be killed was what I was told. Do we have to rehash this every time I come to you?” Morgana frowned.
“Every time you come to me with that aura around you it brings back the pain of losing my kin.”
“I am sorry.” Morgana sighed inwardly and pulled her upper body back a little.
“Which is why you are still allowed over the threshold,” Maxi offered back.
“The disappeared…”
“Are as good as dead.” Maxi shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s supernatural by design?” Morgana asked, hoping, and yet knowing that fate wouldn’t be so kind as to deliver her a relatively normal human psycho serial killer that she could dismiss, and the witch nodded. “Can you see what or who it is?”
“He is surrounded by the darkness, Morgana. Dark magic is protecting him, and trust me when I say that it’s a magic that will burn your light.”
“Do you always have to be so damn cryptic, Maxi?” Morgana sighed outwardly this time.
“It’s how it comes to me. I’m sorry I can’t draw you a pretty picture wrapped up in a bright coloured bow.” Maxi grinned then.