Not wanting to startle any of them, Ethan slowly crept forward, cocking his head at Luke to go the other side. He didn't doubt that Eliza had tried to use magic to get free, but it seemed like that hadn't worked. However, this time, there'd be three of them using magic. Not to mention Ethan's determination to save the woman he loved. He wouldn’t fool himself into thinking that he was the strongest witch about, but he had something to fight for, and that would make all the difference.
He extinguished the ball of light, not wanting to tip off the two vampires that they were there. Though neither of them had even looked up at their approach; they were too engrossed in their plans for Eliza.
Ethan's heart was pounding, and his throat went dry. Too much was riding on the next few minutes, and that was what was keeping him going. It took a few moments, but when Eliza's frightened eyes locked on his, he saw relief flood over her face, quickly followed by determination.
Unnoticed by the two vampires, Eliza's hands began to spark blue, and Ethan's magic rose to join it. If he still doubted that they were meant to be together, then the multi-hued sparks covering his hands would have changed his mind. He'd never seen anything like it, even his parents' magic hadn't combined like this. Not taking his eyes off Eliza, not even to check that Luke was in position, he readied himself.
Without warning, she head butted the vampire in front of her, the shock of it making him reel back, despite the fact that he was no doubt much stronger than she was. Ethan rushed forward, desperate to help her get free of the thug. But Eliza had other ideas, and stamped her heel down on the instep of the man behind her, causing his grip to loosen and Eliza to wriggle free a little. She lifted her magic covered hand to the thug's chest. Pressing down, she sent a shock through him at the same time Luke attacked.
The thug collapsed before their eyes, the combined magic of two witches being too much for him. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be too much for the pair of them, and Ethan had to watch as his best friend, and the love of his life, collapsed into a heap.
He rushed forward, completely forgetting about the other vampire until his path was blocked. The vampire sneered, before lunging at Ethan. He ducked just in time, narrowly avoiding a punch to his face. While Ethan went to the gym pretty regularly, he wasn't exactly trained to be in a fight. If he survived this situation in one piece, then that was definitely something he was going to rectify. Maybe it was something that Eliza would do with him.
"Hey! You alright, mate?" A slurred voice shouted from the edge of the alley, causing both Ethan and the vampire to look towards the man. Ethan wanted to shout at the man to run away, but the vampire was quicker, his eyes flaring red and a hiss escaping his mouth. He lurched towards the man and it took Ethan a moment to realise what was happening. While all he wanted to do was check on Eliza, he knew that he couldn't leave the poor man to the mercy of an angry vampire, even if it meant putting himself back into danger.
In the few seconds it had taken him to decide, the vampire had reached the man, and bitten down on his neck, choking off a scream. Ethan reacted, but was pushed out of the way by a tall woman with shockingly pink hair.
"I'll deal with it," she muttered, followed by something that sounded suspiciously like, "bloody witches.”
Ethan watched as she strode up to the vampire and lifted him off the poor man with ease. She held him by his neck and slammed him against the wall, a menacing look in her eyes.
"Eden," the male vampire managed to choke out, despite the fact that she must be crushing his windpipe. Which confirmed Ethan’s suspicion that vampires didn't actually need to breathe.
"I thought we'd told you to stop, Todd?" Ethan frowned, unsure what to make of the fact that the vampire's name was so ordinary. It just seemed wrong. "I should finish you right now," she growled, teeth descending from her mouth.
"You can't do that without the Council's permission," Todd stuttered, his face revealing to Ethan that he really wasn't sure about whether that would happen. The pink-haired vampire laughed, leaving Ethan with a slightly uneasy feeling about what he was witnessing. He'd heard rumours that the Vampire Council tended to be ruthless when one of their kind went off the rails.
"And give you time to talk to Maurice again? Not a chance." She withdrew something from her long dark coat, but Ethan was distracted by a moan coming from nearby. He turned back to where Eliza and Luke were, glad to see that Luke, at least, seemed fully conscious again, though he was rubbing his forehead as if it was paining him. Eliza's eyes were still closed, though he could see her chest rising and falling, and breathed a sigh of relief. Collapsing beside her, he scooped her into his arms, artfully ignoring the sounds coming from down the alley.
"Is he dead?" He asked slowly, feeling slightly sick at the thought that he had something to do with it. Even if they'd had no other choice. Luke shuffled over to where the thug was lying, gingerly checking his pulse before pulling his hand away and frowning.
"How do you even know if a vampire's dead?" Luke asked. Ethan shrugged, not quite sure how they managed to get involved in this situation in the first place. Up until now, the only paranormals he'd met, apart from his family, were Luke and Eliza.
"Only way of knowing for sure, is to stab one through the heart." Both Luke and Ethan turned to look at the pink-haired vampire, who was now standing over them, a serious look on her face and a drop of blood at the corner of her mouth. Ethan didn't want to think about where it had come from. "Decapitation works just as well, but it’s much messier," she added after a few moments silence.
"Do you have something to stab him with?" Luke asked, plenty of hesitation in his voice. Ethan imagined that his friend was feeling much as he did; a little disgusted, but knowing that it was for the best. The vampire frowned.
"I'll do it. Just get her out of here." She nodded at Eliza, who was still unconscious in Ethan's arms.
"What about the human?" Ethan asked, slowly staggering to his feet, doing his best to hold Eliza steady. To his surprise, Luke jumped to his feet, and helped him support her.
"It's too late for him," she said sadly and glanced back at where the man was lying. He wasn't moving at all, and there was a small pool of blood near his neck. "You need to be gone before he wakes up, there's never any telling how a new vampire will act."
"You turned him?" Luke asked. Ethan couldn't decide whether his friend was disgusted or just shocked.
"Considering the other option was letting him die, then yes. I turned him," she snapped back, clearly annoyed at the situation.
"Ethan?" Eliza's weak voice broke through the tension, and the three of them looked at her.
"Hey, Liza. It’s all okay now," he soothed, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"What happened?" She asked, blinking rapidly, not fully aware of where she was yet.
"I'll explain later, we need to get you home and safe first." She nodded, and snuggled into him, surprising him. Eliza had never been one for admitting weakness, and that showed how taxing the experience had been for her. "Thank you," he said to the other woman. He wasn't sure what would've happened if she hadn't shown up when she had.
"Don't mention it," she waved it off. "But, I'd ask that you keep what happened tonight to yourselves, it'll cause all kinds of trouble if you don't." Ethan nodded. He didn't need to be told twice. He didn't like to think about the kind of things that could happen to him if the vampires got involved.
Chapter 11
Eliza felt like she'd spent all night drinking, and then a brass band had then moved in next door. She blinked a few times, trying to work out exactly what had happened last night, but as far as she could remember, she'd only had two drinks. And she'd not even finished the second one when she'd run into Todd. There was something odd about the run in, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what.
"Morning, Liza. How're you feeling today?" A gentle hand stroked her hair, smoothing it away from her face and making her feel a lot calmer.
"Ethan?" She was fairly certain that
it was Ethan who was with her, but that raised as many questions as it answered. She hadn't even known that he was in the same club last night.
It was then that the events of the night came flooding back to her. She sat bolt upright, sending a wave of dizziness through her, and Ethan to begin fussing.
"Liza, you need to lie down. You did a lot of magic last night, it took a lot out of you." He pushed her back down, and she didn't resist.
"Is Delilah alright? The other people? And what magic did I do?" She frowned in confusion, hating all the questions that she didn't have answers for.
"They're all fine, Delilah text you this morning. I know I shouldn't have read it, but I wanted her to know that you were okay. I don't think they remember anything." He handed her phone to her, with the text screen open at the message stream from Delilah. She scanned the messages, and was relieved to see that, as far as the others were concerned, they'd just had a crazy night and couldn't remember some of it. She also saw Ethan's reply, which he'd signed as himself, telling Delilah that they'd run into each other unexpectedly and she'd gone back with him. She knew she should be mad at him for doing it without her permission, but she just couldn't summon the emotion; she'd clearly been in trouble last night, and he'd clearly saved her. She didn’t really have the grounds to be mad at him.
"And the magic?"
Ethan looked unsure, but raised his hand between them, a look of concentration on his face. She watched in awe as the sparks lit around his fingers. Instead of the red sparks that normally came from him, they were mixed with blue sparks like hers. Hesitantly, Eliza lifted her own hand and summoned magic, not sure what she was expecting. Like Ethan's, her hand was covered in a mixture of blue and red sparks.
"How?" She asked in awe.
"I've no idea, I've never heard of anything like it." He shrugged. "Luke's seeing if he can find out anything for us," he added, a nervous look on his face.
"Luke from school?" She shifted uncomfortably. They'd got on well until she'd started to date Ethan. After that it had been as if he couldn't stand being in the same room as her. Ethan nodded.
"He was there was last night,” Ethan said. Eliza had a brief recollection of someone helping her take down the thug. That must have been Luke.
"What about Bluebird and Flame? Are they okay?" She asked, frantically looking around the room for them. Every morning since she'd started seeing Ethan again, the two familiars had always been around when she’d woken up.
"They're about somewhere. And they're their normal colours too. It’s just our magic itself that's acting weird. But, how can I complain, when it’s just more proof that we should be together."
She smiled at that, loving how affectionate Ethan was. He'd been that way for as long as she could remember, but it meant so much more now that they were older. She still didn't quite understand what was going on with that. Hopefully Luke would have some answers for them soon, but she'd do some digging of her own at some point.
"So, I take it you have nowhere to be today," she said with a wink. Lying back down had cleared the dizzy feeling, and she was feeling a lot better already.
"Not unless you do."
"Good." She propped herself up, and reached out for him, pulling him down onto the bed. Ethan perched over her, his toned physique taking her breath away. She still wasn't used to his new look. Not that she was complaining. She trailed her hand down his chest, grateful that he hadn't felt the need to cover up with a shirt. And that the shirt he wasn't wearing, was all that she was.
"Are you sure, Liza? Last night took a lot out of you, I understand if you're not up to it." He kissed her cheek softly, but Eliza was having none of it, and trailed her hand further done, pushing it beneath the elastic of his boxers.
"More than sure." She smiled up at him, and a surge of satisfaction went through her as his breath caught and his face flushed with pleasure. She leaned in and nipped his neck playfully. Ethan groaned, and she released him, using magic to make their clothes and the bed sheet disappear; times like this, she loved being a witch.
"Liza, I'm not going to be able to wait long," he said through baited breath.
"Fine by me," she panted back, taking him in her hand and guiding him into her. She arched her back and let out a long-satisfied moan. There was something about being together with him that put the rest of her experiences to shame. He was her one, and moments like this made that crystal clear.
Epilogue
Ten years later...
Ethan walked through the door of their suburban home, smiling to himself as he looked at the newly painted blue front door, and the window boxes that Eliza had been tending to since they'd moved in four years ago. Up until then, she hadn't realised that she had such a gift with, and as it had coincided with her starting maternity leave, she'd started her own plant nursery in the greenhouse at the back. Once the twins had been born, the two of them had talked it through, and decided that she should concentrate on that instead of going back to work.
"Gemma, don't do that," he heard his wife say, and he wondered what his daughter was doing now. He turned into the living room to find his dark-haired twins giggling in the corner, and their poor cat hiding behind the sofa. Eliza was stood in the doorway, mixing something in a bowl. Purple sparks came to life by the cat, making it hiss and slink further back behind the sofa. Ethan strode over to his children and scooped them both up in his arms.
"Gemma, don't do that," he said sternly, though secretly he was kind of proud of her. He'd pulled very similar pranks when he was her age.
"Daddy, it was Derrick," she said in her childlike voice, slurring her rs so that they sounded like ws.
"Gemma," he drew out her name. "Your brother can't do magic yet, we know it was you." She giggled slightly as she tried to look sorry.
"Sorry, Daddy."
"And?"
"Sorry, Mummy." Eliza smiled and came over to the three of them, after setting down her mixing bowl. She took Gemma from him, allowing Ethan to slip his arm around her waist and draw her to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, making Ethan feel like the luckiest man in the world. Sure, there were still some mysteries in their lives; namely that they still had no idea what happened with their magic that night, but every time he used it, it made him smile to know just how destined they were.
Mysteries aside, he had a beautiful wife, and two children he adored. And with them, he had everything that he’d ever needed.
THE END!
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Spellbound! If you’ve enjoyed it, could I please ask you to drop a quick review on amazon – just one line is enough!
If you want more paranormal romance from me, you can start the Paranormal Council series! Spellbound is a spin-off novella from the main series! The next book, The Vampire’s Bite will be released in June, and will tell Eden and her mystery man’s story. Luke will also appear in the main series, and his book will be released later in the year. You can sign up to my mailing list below to keep up to date with new releases!
Paranormal Council books: The Dryad’s Pawprint (available in In the Shadows), The Vixen’s Bark and The Necromancer’s Prey. You can sign up to my newsletter (see below) to keep up to date with new releases!
About the Author
Laura is a Romance & Speculative Fiction Author...often mixed together! Whether it's shifters, princesses or just normal people, I write the stories that just won't get out of my head!
When I'm not writing, I love reading (probably where my odd mix of genres comes from!), baking, cooking (I'm particularly good at curries!) and I'm a Brownie Guide (Girl Scouts in the US) Leader!
You can keep up to date with any of my writing progress by signing up to my Newsletter here: https://goo.gl/A3tI1s .
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Spellbound: A Second Chance Paranormal Romance Page 5