My eyes snapped open as I realized something very important. Shit. What a terrible time to be in heat…Not only did I not have my mate by my side, but I was also in the horrible situation of being in an enemy’s clutches.
I curled in a tight ball, doing my best to hide the waves of heat now coursing through me. Sadly, I must have been unsuccessful, because Red inquired, “Perry? Are you all right?”
I didn’t reply, because if I would have, I might have let out a very undignified noise. Sadly, the witch was more perceptive than I had believed, because she appeared right in front of my cage.
“Aw,” she said, leaning close to the bars, “looks like you have a little problem. How sad. That vampire of yours doesn’t seem to care for you as much as I thought if he left you like this.”
She was giving voice to my worst fears, and it riled me up enough that I shot back, “It’s not true. Vlad loves me. You’ll see.”
“Well, I suppose we’ll find out,” the witch said with a smirk. And naturally, because she was evil, she passed a hand through my fur. Yes, I’d known it! A clear sign of wickedness was not respecting the “no petting” rule—especially when the pet-ee was in heat.
In the end, I resigned myself to not being able to prevent the fur abuse, so I just lay there, waiting. Mercifully, my passive aggressive attitude worked, and soon, she lost interest. Grimacing, she pulled away from the cage. “It looks like I should be getting ready,” she mused. “You’d better hope your mate complied with what I demanded. Otherwise, you might never get out of here.”
As she finally departed, I shared a look with Red, wondering exactly where the damn witch was going. My fellow captive had no reply for me, and I fell back into the cage, trembling as waves of heat continued to flow over me.
Chapter Four:
In Which the Witch Which Is a Bitch Is in a Pinch and the Heat Strikes Again
Light elves were apparently as fond of family as I remembered. As soon as Anelah explained the situation to Reluvethel, the elf elder agreed to come with us without much fuss. He was angry with Anelah for not being told about Rapunzel’s existence, but he didn’t dwell on it too long, obviously realizing we needed to make haste.
Holding onto them both, I willed us back into the grove in Arthuria. It had taken us more than the minute I had promised, but nonetheless, it had gone smoothly enough. I couldn’t ask for more.
The moment we ended up in the clearing, Reluvethel pulled away from me, already zeroing in on Rapunzel. Now that they were standing next to each other, I could see the similarities between them even more.
“You’re Rapunzel?” The elf elder stared at the blond young man with wide eyes. His shock was all the more telling, since, like my kind, elves were very keen on protocol. Reluvethel had paid no heed to it whatsoever. “How could I not know about you?”
“It’s a long story,” Rapunzel answered. “I wasn’t aware of my parentage either, until recently.”
Taking into account the situation, they were liable to fall into long-winded explanations and possibly more tearful reunion stories. I could empathize with that, but I had no patience for it. And so, I took it upon myself to make all the introductions. “Elder Dawnhorn, meet Rapunzel’s mate, Prince Medwin of Arthuria, and his brothers, Prince Leonard and Prince Kirril. Young Dineiro here is a Prince Kirril’s dragon mate, and a good friend of my Vesper. Everyone, this is Elder Reluvethel Dawnhorn.”
At my intervention, Reluvethel seemed to snap out of his shock. “It is an honor to meet you all,” he said, now sounding completely formal. “I was notified of your problem, and it would be my greatest pleasure to assist you.”
“Then you can help us come up with a spell to bind her?” Rapunzel asked, hope trickling in his voice.
Reluvethel nodded. “Don’t worry, child. I won’t let her take you.”
I would have been pretty convinced of our success had the magic users—myself excluded—not gathered in the center of the grove and started a peculiar brainstorming session. “What rhymes with witch?” Rumpel Stiltskin asked at one point.
“What?” I stared at him, almost thinking I’d heard wrong. “Now is not the time for poetry.”
“It’s not poetry,” Anelah answered, arching a brow. “We’re making a spell, or rather an incantation.”
Oh. I supposed I should have known they’d do that. Grimoirian magic often required words to be channeled, especially when the spell to be cast was very powerful. “Itch?” I suggested. “Bitch? Pinch?” Well, pinch didn’t really rhyme, but maybe it was good enough.
“Keep going,” the elf elder said. “We have to wrap this up quickly. What rhymes with be?”
“Tree?” Rapunzel suggested. “Me? Sea? Bee? Knee?”
“Key?” Kirril offered. “Pee?”
I gave the Arthurian prince an ugly look. “Now is not the time for making jokes.”
“It’s all right,” the Fairy Godfather told me. “Every idea helps.”
I didn’t know if that was the case or not, but incantations weren’t my specialty, so we could only throw suggestions around while the magic users came up with a binding spell. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Rumpel Stiltskin released a victorious sound and revealed the results of their hard work, a parchment with the incantation. “All right. Here it is.”
I snatched the scroll to read the spell. Sadly, as I took in the words on the paper, I couldn’t say I was precisely impressed.
History forgot this soulless witch
In vines and briars she was lost
Chained and trapped at great cost
But, Goddess, we are in a pinch
She is back to steal our life
She brings lovers so much strife.
Free us from the blasted bitch
Cast her out into the sea
Bury her in much debris
As is my will, so mote it be.
“That sounds a little…strange,” I said. “Debris?” Surely they could come up with something better than that.
“Yes…Well, if you have any better ideas, I’m open to them,” the elf said. “I haven’t written incantations in forever, and we don’t have much time at our disposal.”
“Excuse me, but I have a question,” Leonard intervened. “Aren’t you supposed to be using her name in this ceremony?”
“Absolutely not,” Anelah, the Fairy God Father, Rumpel Stiltskin, Reluvethel, and I said at the same time.
The Arthurian prince blinked in surprise at our decisive attitude. It seemed that we wouldn’t get this show on the road without a million interruptions, so I rushed to explain, “Names are actually very powerful in the magical world. Usually, they work as a trigger to summon a certain creature or boost its abilities.”
“It is true that this is a double-edged sword, in that an incantation would be made potent by the use of this name,” Anelah continued, “but it is far too risky. Our last sealing spell used it, and it didn’t go over well.”
I refrained from pointing out that, to a certain extent, the previous enchantment had succeeded. However, they’d paid a great price for it. Anelah had lost her soul, and seemed to just now getting back. Their fathers were dead, having become pure consciousness. I could only hope that this time, the battle would go better.
“All right then,” I said. “If we’re all ready…”
There were nods all around. Dineiro hugged Kirril and they shared a brief kiss. The dragon would stay here in Arthuria, because it was too dangerous for him to join us. However, the three Arthurian princes had all decided to come. From what I knew, Arthurians were supposed to be quite resilient to magic. I hoped that would be enough.
We gathered together in a circle and I focused my magic on everyone that was supposed to come with me. I’d taken the location of our supposed meeting spot from Robin’s mind, but I didn’t direct us there, since I didn’t want the witch to notice I had backup. It was unlikely she would believe that I had come alone, but the elf elder was our secret weapon. He needed to rem
ain out of sight no matter what.
Using the memories I’d stolen from Robin and hoping they were at least half-accurate, I took us in a house, the one Robin shared with his brother. It was the destination that had been clearest in his mind, so it was safer for me to come here.
The place was clean and quaint, a cottage that smelled like herbs and freshly baked cookies. Distantly, I thought that my mate might have actually liked it here, but that idea only made me more aware of my task.
“Let’s go,” I told Rapunzel and Medwin.
The two men nodded and followed me out of the cottage. Together, we made our way down a dirt road that I knew should have been a little busier. It was quiet, too quiet, and my senses screamed at me, telling me that I was being watched. I hoped that the witch hadn’t thought to keep an eye on Robin’s cottage also, because otherwise, we could be in trouble.
She was waiting for us at a crossroads, where the dirt road veered off into a larger path that headed toward Merlinia. I was pretty sure that the dryad kingdom must have been close to the border between Merlinia and Grimoire, which made me wonder exactly how far the witch’s power extended if she was truly bound to its curse.
“Well, well,” she said with a wide smile. “If it isn’t Count Dracula. I see you’ve fulfilled my task, although you also brought a friend. I’m disappointed in you.”
“No, you aren’t,” I replied without missing a beat. “You can’t have thought that Prince Medwin would allow Rapunzel to come see you on his own?”
“Well, no,” the witch admitted, “but you’re a vampire. They don’t actually have to agree to anything, now do they?”
She shook her head and glanced toward Rapunzel. “My daughter’s spawn. Do you know what a mess you created simply through your existence?”
Rapunzel winced, but held his ground. “I haven’t really been told all the details,” he replied. “Anyway, I came here to break that famous curse. That’s what you wanted, right? So free Vesper.”
The witch chuckled and waved a hand. A small cage appeared in front of us, and in it was a tiny white rabbit. My mate. “Vlad,” he cried out, his voice small and pained. “Be careful.”
“You don’t really think it’ll be that easy?” the witch asked. “Come to me, Rapunzel. You and I will take a little trip. Once we are gone, the vampire can have his rabbit.”
“Over my dead body,” Medwin snapped at her, retrieving his sword.
“That can be arranged,” the witch answered, not seeming put out in the slightest. The air around her started to blur as she gathered her magic. The ground shook and a ball of energy formed in front of her. Rapunzel cried out as she launched it straight in Medwin’s direction.
I’d actually been ready for it, and got in the way, quickly casting a spell to block hers. I grunted as her power struck me, but I withstood it far better than Medwin would have.
The witch growled at me. “Stay out of it, vampire,” she said. “You’ve already fulfilled your role.”
As she spoke, the cage holding Vesper started to float. It opened and my mate got pulled from inside by an invisible force. He released a choked sound as that same power seemed to cut off his breathing. “It would be very easy for me to squash this creature,” the witch threatened. “Now, get out of the way.”
What could I do? I complied. Even if I was powerful, my magic wouldn’t reach her in time to save Vesper if she decided to hurt him. I stepped aside, abandoning Rapunzel and Medwin to their fate.
The witch smirked. She started to whisper something under her breath, although even with my advanced hearing I couldn’t distinguish what she’d said. Of course, the incantation itself seemed irrelevant, because I found out what it meant mere moments later.
A strange whirlpool appeared right in front of us, seemingly sucking out all the air around it. A powerful wind began to blow, threatening to send the three of us flying back. Oddly enough, the witch’s hair wasn’t even ruffled, although Vesper’s fur was all over the place and he’d started to make agitated noises.
Rapunzel was now beginning to be pulled forward toward the odd portal. Medwin held onto him, trying to steady him, and Rapunzel’s hair clung to nearby vegetation in an attempt to anchor its owner.
The spell was very powerful, far more than even I had expected. However, Rumpel Stiltskin used this opportunity to make his appearance. He emerged out of nowhere, stepping in front of Rapunzel to block the witch’s view of him. The Fairy Godfather was with him. “Nothing has changed, Mother,” Rumpel Stiltskin said. “We won’t let you harm him.”
“You might have corrupted Anelah, but we’re still here for Rapunzel and we always will be,” the Fairy Godfather added.
“As I thought,” the witch commented with a sneer, “you simply couldn’t keep yourself from trying to deceive me. Remember, Count, that this was your choice.”
Without further ado, she tossed my poor mate straight into the whirlpool of energy. A thousand different things happened at the same time. I leapt forward, intending to follow my mate into the portal. Before I could achieve my goal, the witch cast a bolt of magic straight at me. I narrowly dodged it, but she was still in my way, keeping me from my goal.
I lunged at her, fangs ready to be sunk in her flesh. Sadly, I’d forgotten one very important thing. Like Anelah had said, the witch didn’t have a physical body, so I couldn’t attack her, at least not like this. In the blink of an eye, I adapted my plan and sent a bolt of psychic energy her way.
She had expected this, however, and she cast a counter spell of her own. As our powers clashed, we became locked in a mental battle that appeared to take her by surprise. She was definitely strong, but I had experience in psychic combat and the advantage of despair on my side.
Even if my goal was to push past her so that I could reach Vesper, the end result was that both of us were immobilized. As this happened, Anelah, Leonard, Kirril, and Reluvethel also appeared and created a circle around us. Everyone else joined them, and they all began to chant the incantation.
I might have deemed the spell strange and maybe a little ridiculous, but as it turned out, it worked. Or at least, it started to work. After the first two lines, the witch’s power began to grow. She writhed and snarled, and her attack on me intensified. My vision began to grow red and my fangs emerged as I could no longer keep my true nature in check. A million memories flashed through my mind, recollections of my old life in my former homeland, and my new Merlinian existence. There were images of my sisters, of our parents and our coven, and most importantly, of Vesper. The occasional alien memory strayed into my brain, probably coming from the witch.
Yes, the spell was working, but it also made her very angry. In the end, I could no longer fight that. My hold on her snapped, and I found myself flying through the air like a toy discarded by its puppeteer.
In an unexpected development, the witch seemed to have lost control of her power, too, because instead of being pushed back, my body was slung forward. In fact, the whirlpool of magic appeared to grow more and more as she became angrier, and when I stopped being able to hold my own against her, it sucked me in.
That was actually a good thing for me, although to be true, I had no idea where it would take me. For the millionth time, I wished I had claimed Vesper, because if we’d had our bond, this problem would have never existed.
I thought of Vesper, of his lovely white fur and his gorgeous, so very expressive black eyes. I thought of the beauty of his human form, of all that silken skin that had felt so soft when I’d touched it. I remembered the way he melted in my arms when I kissed him, the arousing moans he made.
I half dreaded what would happen when I emerged on the other side of the portal, but as it turned out, I should have trusted the natural connection between Vesper and me more. When the whirlpool of magic spat me out on what seemed to be a field of grass, the first thing I caught sight of was a cute white rabbit fidgeting in agitation as he leapt away from a now broken cage.
“Vlad!” he cried ou
t as soon as he saw me.
Mere moments later, I had an armful of white bunny crawling all over me, sniffing my hair and occasionally biting down on my flesh. “You’re really here,” he said, panting. “I knew you’d come. I can’t believe it.”
Those latter statements kind of contradicted each other, and for the first time, I realized something was truly not right with my bunny. Had the witch hurt him, maybe cast some sort of peculiar spell? Goddess, if she had, she was going to regret it.
The thought reminded me that the battle hadn’t been over when I’d been thrust into the portal, but I couldn’t focus on that now. Even as I registered the whirlpool of magic dissipating behind me, I could only think of my mate and the pain he seemed to be in.
“Vesper? What’s wrong, my sweet?”
Vesper tensed but didn’t stop rubbing against me. It was in that moment that I realized something very important. The scent of his arousal filled the air, heady and thick. I had no idea how I’d missed it the first time, but I could only blame it on the fact that I’d been so very worried for him.
My mate had once confessed to me that his kind had very healthy libidos. Of course, he’d also assured me that he understood my reasons for taking my time, and that he agreed with me. He’d laughed under his breath and admitted that, should he enter his heat period, he would stop being so reasonable.
I’d felt quite guilty that I was putting Vesper under such strain, even if I’d done it for a good reason—to protect him and get him accustomed to life as a vampire’s mate. I had foolishly thought that there was still time until I had to worry about him being in heat. Yet again, I’d been wrong.
“Sweet, are you in heat?” I asked him.
I already knew the answer, but for some reason, it still jarred me when he nodded. It was so impossibly cute to see since he remained in his rabbit form. “I’m sorry, Vlad,” he answered, his large ears slumping dejectedly. His whiskers trembled as he stared at me. “I know this is hardly the time for something like that. We have to go back to help, don’t we? Or did you defeat the witch?”
Undead Have Bunnies, Too [A Tail Like No Other: Book Four] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 5