Hooked On A Witch (Keepers of the Veil)

by Zoe Forward

  “My soul?” But you already have it. Looking into her pale eyes, he felt a jolt of something close to fear. From the first moment he’d met her so long ago she’d been the woman in the back of his mind. He couldn’t imagine a world without her and didn’t even want to know what it would be like. This must be the hell Brian was living through if he felt something like this for Shannon’s mother.

  Somehow Shannon had been roped into the game the gods played with his life. He couldn’t control that. He couldn’t predict the outcome. Yet he had to figure out how to keep her from being collateral damage.

  She nodded. “Everything.”

  “I give you everything and you’ll stay away when Owen and his friends arrive?” He cradled her head and claimed her mouth. She drew him in deeper, but he was still in command of the kiss, giving her everything he had until she clung to him and whimpered.

  He pulled away. “Well?”

  “You drive a hard bargain. I don’t think you’ll walk away from us right now if I say no.”

  “I might walk. This is important. They can’t know you’re here.” He leaned in as if to kiss her but didn’t make contact.

  She groaned in frustration. “Okay. Fine. I’ll go home after this.”

  He reached for the clasp at the top of the halter top. “I’ve been imagining this since the second you walked out the front door.” The yellow fabric collapsed to her waist. Coherent words failed him as he skimmed his fingers from her collarbones to her breasts. He bent his head and curled the tip of his tongue along one of the pebbled pink tips. She arched into him and grabbed on to his shoulders.

  “God, I want so much…” She trailed off.

  “Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ll give you everything you want. Just tell me how you feel.” His mind should be cluttered. He should be running through eventualities and preparing for today’s confrontations. Making plans fell into the background. Only she had the ability to stop his brain from analyzing and plotting. It felt pretty damned great.

  “So little time.” She moaned when he nipped at a nipple.

  “We’ll make it enough.”

  ***

  Shannon’s world tilted as he continued to kiss her breasts, curling his tongue against her skin. His breath teased her before he straightened and pulled away. She whimpered complaint. “Merck?”

  “Shh.” He cupped her face, then he stepped away and placed towels from a storage box on the floor of the bow. She would’ve thought her dress and panties disappeared by magic if she hadn’t felt him swipe them off. He lowered her to the boat floor.

  Merck teased her with his touch, sliding his fingers through her folds. Lightly at first but enough to make her squirm. When she tried to push closer, he moved his hand away, denying her. He caged her with his arms, his body not touching hers. “Tell me what you want.”

  “You without clothes is a start.” She plucked at his T-shirt.

  He didn’t make any motion to remove his clothes. “Then what?”

  “I need you to want me so much you can’t stand it.”

  He leaned in and whispered, “I already do.”

  “I want you wild. I want all that you keep caged.”

  “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

  “You don’t trust who you are. You keep yourself too much on lockdown. For me…” She intoned as if weaving a spell, “Let it go. You’ve got nothing to lose.”

  Merck’s mouth slanted over hers with intense kisses. It was hunger, pure and unadulterated. Unchecked, it spilled out of him without finesse. The trembling clench of his fingers on her drowned her in the truth of how much he wanted her. Good Lord, she needed this man.

  He trapped her arms above her head, caught one nipple in his mouth, and sucked hard, the edge of his teeth scraping her flesh. Everything about him surrounded her, overwhelmed her. When the world began to swim, he drew back. He said some compliment she barely heard. He released her hands. His fingers grazed through her sensitive folds, his fingers slicking back and forth in an intense rhythm until blood pounded in her ears. Her vision blurred.

  “Merck.” She rasped his name as his rhythm quickened. She scratched her nails across his back with a shiver.

  “Jason,” he corrected. “Out here. You and me. It’s Jason. Say it. Say it while you’re coming.”

  “Ja—” Her body exploded.

  “Shh,” he soothed, keeping her on edge with clever twists of his fingers. “My beautiful witch.”

  He lifted his head, giving her the full impact of his blissed-out eyes. She skated her fingers around his rib cage and down to the bulge in his pants. With a gentle tug, the zipper of his fly opened. His body tensed beneath her touch when she freed him. He groaned.

  No more teasing. With one hand holding her down and the other angling her hips upward, he pushed into her. He felt huge. Her head spun.

  “Does it scare you to know you’re stuck with me for however long that may be?” He pushed a little deeper, a little harder.

  “No.” Pleasure spiraled as she sought that edge again.

  He angled her pelvis to hit all the right spots. “It should.” Every thrust got a little harder, a little rougher as if his self-control was fraying.

  The sparkles in her sightline multiplied.

  “Is this what you wanted?” he rasped out.

  Yes. The word didn’t come, but she did. His entire body shook. Rumbling started in his chest, giving way to a string of words bitten off between fast jerks of his hips. His forehead dropped to rest on her chest as he panted.

  She tried to soothe him, but her arms felt too heavy to move.

  His lips brushed over her forehead before he rolled the two of them to the side. “You okay?”

  “I can’t move.”

  “Me neither,” he said, even though he did.

  His hands were gentle as he eased her panties back into place and pulled her dress closed.

  “You won’t die. You can’t,” she whispered.

  “Too many reasons say I will.”

  “None of this means anything if you’re not here.”

  He cradled the back of her head. “I wish I could promise what you want to hear, but maybe all I can give you is me right now. If we’re destined, that means maybe I’m just supposed to give you whatever kid you need and that’s it.”

  “That’s not what I want. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

  He shuddered where her hands touched him.

  She said, “If you can’t be here, then neither can I. I need you.” She fanned his face with her hands and kissed him. “You’re not an evil person. The gods will see that.”

  “You name a sin, any sin, darlin’, and I’ve done it. I’ve lied, stolen, and cheated. I’ve treated women and men like shit. I’ve killed so many I can’t even keep count anymore. With those deaths came collateral damage. I’ve caused too many to die, which was my fault especially in the beginning when I first became the Enforcer.”

  “Are you trying to scare me away or convince yourself you deserve to die?”

  He gazed upward. Birds flew in lazy circles above them, looking for a meal on the exposed sandbar. The wind carried the sound of the sea as the boat rocked with the small waves. “I’ve been rationalizing my impending death for a long time. Me dying makes sense. Your dying doesn’t. You haven’t done anything to deserve this kind of end.”

  His aura swirled with sadness. “I think you being forced to find the Trident is about me.”

  “You think it’s your fault someone a continent away shoved a bespelled sword in my stomach which somehow linked me to the Trident?”

  “I’m beginning to think it probably was.”

  “Whether or not it does, right now, this feels right.” She snuggled closer to him.

  He slid his hand over her nape to twine his fingers in her hair. “It is. This is where we belong. If I could give you every day like this, I would.”

  She fell back against the boat with a grin. “You’re so stubborn.”


  “What?” His forehead wrinkled, confused.

  She rolled back toward him, smiling. “Those three little words won’t kill you.”

  He grinned.

  “God, you’re annoying.” She punched his shoulder.

  “I’m not sure we’re at a three-little-words point in our relationship. We haven’t known each other like this long enough.”

  They rested in silence for a while.

  He suggested, “Let’s walk on the sandbar before the tide comes in.”

  She hopped off the boat, her feet landing in the soft sand and knew deep warm water. As they walked in silence, the warm, dark sand squished through her toes.

  “I might not be here tomorrow. This is as real as it gets.”

  She didn’t reply. Couldn’t. No Merck. For her. For anyone, anymore.

  Him gone? Her palms sweated. Her heart beat so hard she thought it’d bounce right out of her rib cage. A world in which he didn’t breathe or laugh or fight…

  This was worse than someone showing up on her doorstep to inform her he’d died. At least there was finality with that, even though no less devastating. This was letting him go like sending a soldier into war, only the outcome seemed certain to be a coffin coming back.

  “Okay?” He squeezed her hand. His bright blue eyes trapped hers. The hard expression that tightened his face reminded her he wasn’t just Merck the man, but he was the Enforcer. Tough. Stubborn. And totally ready to face whatever manner of weird magic might be thrown his way.

  “Okay.”

  No, not okay. Not even close.

  Why couldn’t she have a normal life? Two people love each other, get married, and then everything was all roses, puppies, and happy days.

  This was real life. It sucked.

  “Before I go, I’m going to try to negotiate about the Trident for you with whomever presents my judgment.” Birds squawked overhead. He glanced upward. “It’s time. We have to return to shore.”

  The ride in was quiet. The closer they got to land, the more her nerves drummed up. She held his hand tighter, although she wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let go.

  Merck tied the boat to his dock, smooth and efficient. Not a wasted movement. He helped her onto the dock. Her arms wound around his neck to kiss him as if it were the last time she’d get the chance.

  “I love you,” she said, getting lost in the deep blue of his eyes.

  “I won’t forget it.” His mouth turned into that annoying grin. He enjoyed torturing her. She’d get the words out of him eventually.

  He turned toward the house but held out his hand to halt her.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  His sudden stillness sent her natural alarms shrieking.

  “Run for the trees. Go as fast as you can. Don’t look back. Get across the creek. If it’s too high where you end up, then run toward the ocean and it’ll get shallower.” He glanced down at her. “Hurry. You promised.”

  Her heart beat hard as she gauged the distance to the trees. “What’s here?”

  “Something evil.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Shannon charged for the tree line. She’d promised to go home. Maybe she should she pop away to her alternate dimension.

  No. It was a crapshoot she’d end up somewhere familiar and then be able to travel back to South Carolina. With her luck, she’d end up in another country when she returned.

  She’d already made up her mind not to allow Merck to face whatever came with Owen Campbell and his necromancer fiancée alone. The druids would help. That meant getting across the creek or… She plucked her cell phone out of the pocket in her dress, halting next to an ancient oak tree in order to text Eli.

  Something flew by her ear and hit the tree. Black and purples swirled in the air, heralding an evil aura nearby. Texting could wait.

  She ran flat-out in the direction of the creek and then along its edge, searching for where it looked shallow. Her lungs burned, and her legs ached from stumbling on uneven ground and tripping over branches, but she didn’t stop. She batted sweat out of her eyes and off her forehead. The canopy overhead darkened as the forest became dense with old trees. And maybe not just from canopy but whatever approached from behind.

  Something slammed into her back, thrusting her forward and to the ground. She landed hard. The world around her settled until there was only the sound of the creek, the narrows within sight about a hundred yards ahead. Over the creek’s roar came footsteps crunching leaves and sticks. She struggled to breathe through the pain ripping through her. Another knife? A gunshot? Something worse?

  She got to her knees and stood slowly while rotating to face whatever was coming. Alone and trapped—bad odds. Time to pop away. She closed her eyes to concentrate, willing herself back to the Hawaiian beach. Nothing happened. She willed harder.

  Whatever she’d been hit with must dull her magic or prevent interdimensional travel.

  A medium-height man with stringy brown hair sauntered her way. His aura swirled with the worst colors possible. Dangerous evil.

  “Perfect shot, wasn’t it? Hot damn. You’re coming with me.” He laughed out a low, raspy sound filled with arrogance. Power buzzed off him. Not godlike abilities, nor anything on the right side of nice, but something slithery.

  She glanced up at the trees her mother always loved. Her mother’s words slid through her mind, “No harm will come to you in this forest. Trust the elements.”

  “What do you want?” Her voice came out far calmer than expected, given the oh-shit going on in her mind.

  “You. Shannon Randolph. I can’t believe I’m the one who found you. She’s going to be so pleased.” He rubbed his hands together.

  She was terrified, but stillness, almost an acceptance of what needed to be done, settled over her. No more running. No more being afraid of what she was. The gods may deserve her fear, but a human with pumped-up evil skills? Not so much. A sharp buildup of energy surrounded her as if an electrical current flickered through the ground. The trees swayed when the wind picked up, heralding an approaching storm.

  The guy glanced around. “What are you doing?”

  The wind increased, twirling into a spinning wind funnel.

  Shock, horror, and utter terror spread over her attacker’s face. He stood frozen as the tornado sped toward him. With a scream he ran. The miniature tornado increased speed and sucked up its target. The funnel disappeared upward into nothing, leaving behind a gentle breeze. Where the evil man had gone, Shannon didn’t know. She didn’t see him, but sensed him gone. As in forever gone.

  She’d done that. Her. No one else. Her.

  In the aftermath, the steady motion of running water of the creek calmed her.

  There was also pain. She touched her back, her hand coming away with blood. No knife, but it might’ve fallen out. Or was it a bullet? The guy hadn’t been carrying a gun. Either way, she was hit.

  She glanced toward the narrows of the creek and then back in the direction of Merck. Wiped out from the energy output required to build the tornado, she stumbled against a tree. She wasn’t going to make it across alone. Even if she did somehow cross the stream, she’d collapse on the opposite shore.

  A body pushed her from behind into the tree. Her hands were gripped behind her and cuffed.

  “No disappearing. Let’s take a walk.” The man leaning into her gripped the back of her neck, spun, and propelled her forward.

  She butted her head backward, intent on his nose, but he ducked. He punched the side of her head. Dazed, she fell to her knees.

  One glance up and she froze. The familiar blue gaze of the host of Extreme Survivor glared a command of compliance. Owen. Everything about the buff, blond man was angular and beautiful as one would expect for the host of several popular reality TV series.

  “Behave, Shannon, or I’ll knock you out. Then we’ll have to cut the Trident out of you. No one here’s a surgeon. So your chances of surviving aren’t good.”

  “You’
re saying my chances of living are higher if I go with you willingly?”

  He yanked her to her feet. “Can’t say it looks good for you either way.”

  She wobbled, light-headed from the punch.

  “Move.” Owen pushed her forward.

  She stumbled, catching herself on a low-slung tree branch whose bark burned her palm. Her legs buckled.

  He wrenched her back up by an arm, slung her body over a shoulder, and trudged up the hill back toward Merck’s house. Each jarring step shuttled pain through her body.

  She focused on breathing to ignore the faintness in her brain. Breath in. Breath out. Slam. She whacked against Owen’s back and gasped. New breaths. Slam.

  Owen dropped her to the ground in the backyard. She blinked through tripling vision, relieved to no longer be moving. A scan of the yard for Merck found him statue still on his dock as if he hadn’t moved from where he had told her to run. He didn’t glance her way or deviate from his fixation on the stunning woman with a kid-in-the-candy-store grin. The grin was directed at Shannon.

  Anaïs. The necromancer.

  “Good job, sweetheart,” Anaïs said to Owen. “Where’s Reevo?”

  “Don’t know. He got a direct hit on her, though.”

  “Reevo died in Savannah,” Merck said.

  “Oh, did he die? Haven’t you heard of fake-death pills? Azalea-induced coma?” Anaïs shot Merck a condescending smile.

  “He’s dead now,” Shannon said, but it came out slurred.

  Anaïs tugged Shannon to her feet, gripped her neck, and pulled her head backward. “Does it hurt, Shannon? Do you feel the black poison’s spread as Deus Mortem destroys your body and works its way to your mind?”

  “Go to hell.” She struggled against the necromancer’s abnormally strong grip.

  Anaïs dragged her closer to Merck, throwing her onto the dock at Merck’s feet. “Get the Trident out of her and give it to me. If you don’t, she’ll die.”

  “What’d they do to you?” Merck’s gaze darted down to meet hers. This was the Enforcer again. No warmth lit his eyes. Stone-cold scary. This was good. She needed him focused on business, and deadly.