Every Witch Demon but Mine (Maeren Series Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

  Jill stood up and the flames moved with her.

  “Try pulling in more. Think of the fire coating a stick that you removed from the coals. If you blow the flames out, all you have left is the red-hot glow of the stick, burning from within,” Daemon explained.

  He stood fearlessly close to Jill’s black flames while instructing her.

  What was this sorcery?

  Jill's hands flickered into view, completely encased in liquid black that moved thickly over her skin, like lava, but tighter. It created a very thin, concentrated armour.

  “Good,” Daemon praised her sister. “Try pulling even harder,” he advised.

  He walked behind Elizabeth, while she was distracted watching her sister's body slowly emerging from the flames into the armour.

  Elizabeth sucked in a surprised breath when Daemon started buttoning her gown.

  “Don't you usually undress me,” she muttered, too low for Jill to hear.

  “Don't tempt me, unless you want to be considerably later for breakfast,” Daemon whispered into her ear, pulling her back against the obvious beginning of his arousal, growing harder against her as he buttoned her up.

  Jill was nearly completely encased in the tighter black armour now. Only her head remained hidden by the loosely flickering flames.

  “Why are you teaching her this?” Elizabeth asked, trying to put some distance between her butt and Daemon.

  He still had her on a short leash, buttoning between her shoulder blades.

  “Stop wiggling,” he commanded. The deep voice he used froze her immediately. He finished with the buttons quickly. “She was afraid,” he answered.

  Daemon taught Jill to defend herself because she was afraid to be alone with him.

  It was brilliant and so thoughtful that Elizabeth was momentarily speechless. She didn’t know how he figured it out so quickly.

  Seeing Jill confidently coating her body in the black armour, which was admittedly a neat trick, instead of being stuck in another panic attack, made Elizabeth feel better than any apology Daemon could have given her.

  “Thanks,” Elizabeth said and stepped away, her gown buttoned.

  She needed distance, and not just due to the arousal that started as soon as he touched her.

  He may have thought that what he had done for Jill wasn’t a big deal, a simple way to pass the time while she had dressed.

  Elizabeth knew better, his kindness cracking the shield she had tried to fortify around her heart last night.

  Jill was looking out of her black armour, the helmet now as tight fitting as a neoprene ski-mask. Her eyes were two black pits hidden by shadows.

  The effect was a bit unsettling, even though Elizabeth knew it was her sister.

  “Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked Jill.

  “Have a little faith in me,” Daemon said, brushing her shoulder with one of his hands and letting a little magic warm her.

  She shivered, feeling the cracks in her heart’s shield multiply.

  No.

  “Can you see us?” Elizabeth asked her sister, trying to focus on anything else.

  She spared Daemon a glance. “Can she hear us?”

  “I can hear and see you fine,” Jill replied. Her voice was muffled.

  “Are you ready for the best part?” Daemon asked.

  “Okay,” Jill said.

  “Just like I promised, you’ll be lightning resistant.” He let his hand spark with lightning. “It’s not a complete defence against lightning, and a bolt is going to hurt, but it won’t kill you.”

  Like a bulletproof vest. Elizabeth eyed the black armour more closely.

  Daemon started walking towards Jill with his handful of lightning.

  “Whoa there, no need to test it out right now,” Elizabeth said, raising her hands defensively and trying to block Jill.

  She went to grab Daemon’s hand when he kept coming, but he was too fast.

  He moved as Jill did in the dojo, fluidly sliding down to the floor, so she missed him by a mile.

  Daemon put his thumb and middle finger together. He flicked Jill’s thigh with his lightning.

  There was a big spark. Jill shrieked, then her black armour seemed to melt off her, revealing Jill’s familiar face.

  “Wow, that stung, but it didn’t burn,” Jill said.

  “If you practice, the armour should last longer. You will be able to hold it against small amounts of lightning and no fire will be able to penetrate.” Daemon straightened back up.

  “You let him hit you with lightning! Are you crazy?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Crazy cool, more like it. Did you see me?” Jill asked, looking at both of them with obvious excitement.

  “It was a little bit cool and a lot more frightening,” Elizabeth insisted.

  Elizabeth couldn’t deny Jill looked fine. Better, actually. She looked confident, beaming at Daemon.

  “By the way, you do realize you’ve been using lightning the whole time Daemon’s been in the room?” Jill reminded her along her thoughts.

  Elizabeth threw Daemon a panicked look.

  His hazel eyes gave away nothing, seeming to change colour right before her from the darker, demon black he’d had moments ago.

  It must be a trick of the light, or in reaction to the lightning he had used to test Jill’s shield.

  She fought the urge to check his mind to know for sure.

  “Uh, no. No, damn it. I didn’t think— It's a habit with you and me, and he caught me by surprise, but I don’t think he realizes anything. I could probably even read his thoughts, if I didn’t insert anything like a hallucination.”

  Daemon smiled at her, a heart-stopping, panty-melting grin that told her that his thoughts were on something much simpler than telepathic spies and lightning.

  Jill might be the only reason he hadn’t started right back from where they ended last night.

  In fact, his early visit, when Elizabeth was still expected to be asleep, was suspicious.

  “Okay, good. That was a close one, Wicked, because I didn’t think about it either, until you went to change, and then Daemon distracted me with the armour. It’s kind of like closing the barn door after the horse bolted, anyway. So, does Daemon think I did well?”

  “I’m not reading his thoughts to fish for compliments for you.”

  “Are you both ready to go have breakfast?” Daemon asked.

  They had been quiet too long during their telepathic conversation, leaving Daemon alone in the silence.

  “Breakfast, yes. I’ll just grab my slippers,” Elizabeth said.

  “Uh, maybe I should change first,” Jill said with a grimace.

  Jill was dressed in a light, white gown, with embroidered roses on the hem and skirt.

  It was ridiculously feminine and outdated, thus, it fit in perfectly with what everyone else wore. The more difficult it was to do anything other than sitting and looking pretty in a gown, the more likely it was to be considered fashionable here.

  “You look perfect, especially for a garden breakfast,” Elizabeth told her, putting on her court slippers.

  “It’s the magic she’s worried about,” Daemon commented.

  “You can smell it on my gown. It’s like burnt ozone or something.”

  “That was my lightning. Your magic absorbed it, and unfortunately, some of that got on your dress,” Daemon confessed.

  He offered Jill an arm. She took it after a moment’s hesitation.

  “Don’t worry, if Phillip can’t handle the smell of a blue witch’s power then he doesn’t deserve you,” Daemon told her sister.

  He offered Elizabeth his other arm.

  “I can walk on my own,” Elizabeth said. She softened her tone, “But I appreciate your escort.”

  “You do realize if Daemon shows up, there is no way Phillip will consider you for his harem,” Jill hurriedly advised her.

  It was too late, honestly, to change the situation. They would have to cope. Besides, she doubted Daemon was planning to le
t her join Phillips harem.

  His purpose for coming this morning was clear to her.

  There was no time like the present to let her sister know her secret. Jill wouldn’t be able to tell their mother until after breakfast.

  “Since Daemon has claimed me it’s kind of a moot point,” Elizabeth shared.

  Another punctuated text thought from her shocked sister followed.

  Elizabeth ignored it. Jill couldn’t throw any rocks when she’d allowed a claim behind their mother’s back, too.

  They were in hell. They may as well enjoy their sins to the fullest.

  Red Handed

  Daemon was acting as if she hadn’t thrown him out of her room last night in a fit of temper.

  His escort to breakfast did hinge on her cooperation. Maybe he was playing it safe, by staying on her good side.

  He’d apologized and she’d accepted. It would be boorish of her to push aside his attempt to be nicer.

  “Do you like your rooms?” he asked as they started down the hallway, toward the West wing.

  “They’re comfortable,” she answered.

  “Fit for a princess,” Jill said with a good deal of humour. “Mine’s pink.”

  “Most of the rooms for the ladies are in pastel,” Daemon said. He turned his head to face Elizabeth. “Do you prefer more dramatic colours, Elizabeth?”

  “I like neutral colours,” she answered honestly. “What about your room?” she asked, the question popping out before she could think of how intimate it was to ask him that.

  She may as well inquire as to the direction of his room next.

  “I like yellow, and bright colours, overall. Things that remind me of the sun,” he answered, seemingly as honest as he had been with his unexpected response.

  He liked to be reminded of the sun.

  It was a little sad, knowing he’d been born a demon. Did he have to shun the sun even in Maeren or could he tolerate it?

  She was too embarrassed to ask. It seemed rude to question him over a disability that kept him from a freedom she’d always taken for granted.

  Jill was more comfortable asking about it. She worked with people that had varying disabilities in her health care job, more comfortable discussing their limitations and accommodations.

  “Will you be okay to have breakfast with us in the garden with the sun up?” Jill asked.

  “Yes. I’m well fed and enough of my magic bound. The sun here is not as harsh as the human realm,” he answered, after a moment’s pause. “I suppose you just have gone over there, living so close, on the edge.”

  They lived in the human realm, but she could see where he made that assumption from and why he’d brought up the brighter sun in the human realm.

  “It’s beautiful, the sun in the human realm,” Elizabeth said. “I like it best at sunset, when it isn’t too bright to watch.”

  They had reached the West wing. Daemon slowed down his pace. He reached back for her, casually linking his arm with hers.

  “I want to watch it with you someday,” he softly told her.

  That sounded like a promise.

  Her heart fluttered.

  “That would be nice,” she said. Not a promise, but a maybe.

  “I know you prefer honesty, Elizabeth, so I’m going to tell you about my business with Phillip before we go out to the balcony, although I’m sure you already guessed.”

  “Does it have to do with the covered shoulders on my gown?” she asked.

  Jill stayed quiet, although her thoughts were racing. Her sister was learning just how serious things had gotten between Elizabeth and Daemon.

  “You realize that I can’t let there be any misunderstandings with Phillip?” Daemon asked.

  This was it. Daemon wasn’t going to let her join Phillip’s harem. He wasn’t sharing her.

  Daemon was asking her to choose.

  “Prince Phillip has already seen your claim and he didn’t seem to misunderstand anything. I thought all of you princes shared on occasion?” Elizabeth asked, sending Jill into a fluster of more thoughts, these ones focused on that threesome last night.

  Perhaps, Jill wasn’t as comfortable with her two princes as she had implicated earlier.

  Thankfully the hallways were deserted for this revealing conversation. Reverse harems weren’t really that common in Maeren.

  “You can keep your shoulders covered, but you will sit on my lap for breakfast,” Daemon answered, not denying what she had said about sharing her with Phillip, but setting his conditions for breakfast.

  “You want me to sit on your lap in public?” Elizabeth clarified, shocked.

  Jill’s own shocked thoughts were not making things easier.

  “Phillip will have cleared the gardens and balcony for his breakfast with Jill. She is a blue witch from the Norwood family. He wants to impress.”

  Daemon was making a statement for Phillip. It was a step above leaving his fang marks in her neck for his brother to see, since she was hiding Daemon’s claim in public.

  “I will accept feeding from your wrist instead, sweetheart, but I didn’t think you would prefer that option.”

  Her first time feeding Daemon was not happening in front of others, especially with the way he primed her.

  “Fine, I will sit in your lap,” Elizabeth said. “If you follow all the rules,” she added.

  “What rules? Did you guys sign a contract?” Jill nosily asked.

  “I may have forgotten some of the rules. Please remind me which rules still apply,” Daemon said, being difficult.

  “In public? All of them,” Elizabeth replied, refusing to be pushed further.

  She told Jill telepathically that she was not sharing the rules.

  “Agreed,” Daemon said. “As long as none of them apply when we’re alone.”

  Elizabeth ignored that unfair bargain, unlinking their arms and taking a few angry strides ahead. She pushed the balcony doors open with her air.

  Phillip was arranging a small bouquet of roses on the table. He looked up in surprise.

  That’s right, she had her air back and she was storming the defences.

  Oh, and she was bringing along that pesky demon claim that Phillip had said wasn’t an issue for him in bed.

  Daemon may not feel the same.

  “William, they’re here,” Phillip called over to the back of the balcony.

  William stepped out of the far corner of the balcony as Jill and Daemon stepped through the doors Elizabeth had blown open.

  “Daemon?” both Phillip and William said.

  “Good morning,” Daemon greeted, brushing past Elizabeth to head over to the table.

  He had a smug smile in place. The smile only widened as he pulled out a chair and sat on it, waiting for Elizabeth.

  He patted his lap.

  Couldn’t he have waited until the greetings were over, at least?

  She stomped over to the table.

  “Good morning, Prince Phillip. Good morning, Prince William,” Elizabeth greeted.

  She boldly plopped herself on Daemon’s lap.

  Possessive.

  Drat, if she didn’t like it a little, though.

  She reached for a chocolate-covered strawberry. Jill was not getting all the tasty treats to herself today.

  “Good morning,” both princes murmured to her.

  They didn’t keep their shocked eyes on her long, whipping their gazes over to Jill as she followed Elizabeth to the table.

  Even sitting on Daemon’s lap and surrounded by his strength, Elizabeth could feel what he had meant earlier about Jill’s power.

  It wasn’t only the scent of burnt ozone, fairly faint. Jill’s skin seemed to glow with confidence from the strong magic she had used.

  A witch of power strode out onto the balcony and it seemed to shrink around her.

  The vampires could also sense the change in her.

  “Good morning,” Jill greeted, taking the seat William pulled out for her. “Daemon asked to come along
for breakfast.”

  “The more the merrier,” Phillip said, taking a seat himself.

  He gave Elizabeth an amused look.

  William sat down as well, placing a white cloth napkin on his lap.

  “We can call for another chair,” William offered.

  “No,” Daemon declined.

  His dark voice sent shivers down Elizabeth’s back and she reached for the teapot.

  “There has been no announcement,” Phillip remarked. “Jill told me that Elizabeth was still looking for a harem.”

  He already knew about the claim but was playing innocent. She’d bet that he hadn’t breathed a word to anyone about their kiss outside of the library.

  Why hide it when he was a well known libertine, free with his affections?

  Her hands shook a little on the teapot. It was heavy.

  Daemon took it from her and poured.

  “I can count on your discretion,” Daemon said.

  It sounded like a threat and order all wrapped up in one little sentence. He wasn’t putting up with Phillip’s nonsense.

  “Of course,” William immediately answered.

  She looked up.

  Phillip had a chocolate-covered strawberry held out for her mouth.

  Not seeing any way to refuse without appearing needlessly rude, she opened.

  He fed it to her, hanging onto the stem for her bite off the succulent, darkly coated berry.

  He smiled at her and she caught sight of adorable dimples that softened his beastly side.

  Phillip wasn’t giving up on her so easily.

  She quickly chewed and swallowed her strawberry, then blew on her tea to cool it faster, so she could gulp it down.

  Jill reached for the yogurt and put some in her bowl.

  There were blueberries still glistening with water and walnuts half-shelled, close to her plate.

  Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as her sister started piling all her favourites into the bowl. There wasn’t a decadent pastry in sight.

  The dipped strawberries were obviously for Elizabeth, but otherwise, the vampires had learned quickly about Jill’s likes.

  It seemed a lot of effort for just another addition to the harem Phillip would ignore, especially given William had claimed her.