by Martha Woods
And then he was on her again. This time, she straddled him, bracing herself against his strong shoulders as she rode him. He sat up with her in his arms, one hand against the side of her neck, and bit her.
He had bitten her before. Usually, it was one gentle bite, and then he licked the blood away with his tongue, like drops of ice cream from a cone. This time, he drank from her as though she were the fountain of youth and he were a dying man. For a moment, she felt her head spin, and there was nothing but mindless animal pleasure, his fangs piercing her neck as his manhood moved inside her.
Kristian let go of her neck, licking her wound to heal the place where he penetrated her. He put her back down on the bed and he laid her on her side. She enjoyed every bit of his body, which he gave her again and again…
* * *
When Tessa woke, she was aware of the emptiness of the bed. Smiling, she stretched and got up. The scent of food called to her from the kitchen.
“You didn’t have to cook,” she feigned surprise. “But thank you.”
“You’ve had nothing since yesterday,” Kristian said, pushing a plate towards her. “Eat.”
He’d made her a full breakfast: cheese omelet, toast, and sausage. She took a bite of the meal and groaned. “Damn. That’s good.”
Kristian shrugged. “You need to keep your strength up.”
He took his travel mug from the refrigerator and took a long sip. They took their meal together in companionable silence. When she was done, he looked up at her with a serious expression. “We never finished our talk from before,” he said.
“If you want me to tell you this story,” she said, “you should probably get comfortable. Is it too early for wine?”
“Never,” he said, and grabbed a bottle from the cabinet.
Tessa sat down on the couch with her legs folded beneath her. Kristian sat across from her. As she began to speak, she felt his attention on her, his eyes on hers.
“There’s a lot to my own life I don’t understand. I don’t know why there are so many years of my childhood which I can’t remember. And it’s not like I had the money or the inclination to get therapy to find out. It occurred to me that maybe something traumatic happened before my parents died, but it doesn’t really make sense. I went through a lot of awful things when I lived with the Forresters, and I remember every moment of it. I have read that people react differently to bad things. And that sometimes people who forget large chunks of their memory never remember all of it.
“When I finally got old enough to leave, I was happy. I didn’t need much to live on. And you’re right, I did keep moving because I was a minor and I didn’t want anyone to know. I was a truant, after all. That alone was enough to get my ass busted. I didn’t think the Forresters cared enough to make a big deal about me being gone, but I knew child services would find out at some point, and then the authorities would do whatever they were supposed to when it came to a runaway teen.
“The plan was to get a part-time job that would give me money on paper as soon as I was eighteen and save up for an apartment. A cheap studio would have been fine. And of course, I would continue to tell fortunes. It was a scam, but it was money, and I wasn’t ashamed of it. I figured it was their loss for being stupid enough to fall for the game.”
Tessa paused, trying to gauge his reaction. He nodded to urge her to continue.
“Here’s the thing. I know it’s not exactly normal that I can read minds, but until recently, I never believed in the occult. To me, mind reading was just a fucked-up glitch. Maybe I use some portion of my brain other people don’t. But whatever.
“My eighteenth birthday came and went. I had a waitress job, and I was living in Florida at the time. It was a little backwater town not many people came through, and I found an apartment easily enough. It was small enough that people also knew I told fortunes. At that time I would invite people into my home for the readings as long as they didn’t look questionable. A lot of the people there were older, and I didn’t feel weird about inviting them up. You find the ones who have some pain behind them, a dead spouse, an argument with a child, something, and you reinforce what it is they want to hear. Give them some comfort, and they shell out the cash. I know it sounds horribly callous, but you wanted honesty.”
* * *
“There’s nothing you’ve done that would shock me,” Kristian replied. “Or make me not want to be with you.”
Tessa licked her lips.
“There was a woman. She had this long, silver hair, and I think on the day I met her, she had it in a ponytail down her back. She came up to the apartment for a reading. I noticed there was a presence about her, something different. She sat down across from me, and I remember a chill passed through me. For the first time, I heard nothing. I’ve never come across anyone who could block me from reading them.
“She smiled at me, and her eyes turned black. And then I heard a stream of thoughts. She was asking me about my life. And she told me that I didn’t know who I really was because I didn’t want to, but there was a way for me to know who I was. She called me a traitor. I got up and told that bitch she had to leave. She laughed at me, and she said we would meet again.”
“Did you?” Kristian asked.
“Not exactly. I still have nightmares about her every now and again. And she’s usually carrying a red book with my name on it. Once she gives sit to me, I can’t be rid of it. I shouldn’t be terrified of a book, but I am. Freaky, right?”
“I’ve heard stranger things,” he replied. “Though not anything this strange from a human.”
Tessa smiled. “You know how to make a girl feel better,” she teased. “Anyway, I packed up and I left town that night. I got on the road and never looked back. I made a practice of never staying in any one town for more than a few weeks. I frequented street fairs and any other local gatherings. I’d show up once or twice and be on my way again. Every once in a while, if I stayed in one place long enough, I would hear locals telling stories about vampires and shapeshifters, and other supernatural things. It scared me. So I just kept moving.”
* * *
“Do you think the woman with the silver hair has been behind you all of this time?”
“I don’t know,” Tessa said. “Do you think she’s a Calder?”
“Possibly. There are many things that have black eyes, not only witches,” Kristian said. “All sorts of demons and other creatures do. She could be a shapeshifter. Either way, she might be in league with the Calder. Or maybe she enlisted them to kill you. I’m curious that she didn’t harm you when she was alone in your apartment. Relieved she didn’t,” Kristian said, reaching out to touch her if only to reassure himself she was still there. “You may not have had a belief in the occult at that time but you did exactly the right thing—run and not look back.”
“Would the Calder do that? Take a job from someone else?”
“The Calder don’t do anything that doesn’t directly serve their purposes. They were on the move maybe a week or so before you and I met. Veronica and I had already been in contact with Ally about them. They’d happily take on a contract from someone else if they believed it would help them kill a few vampires in the process.”
“Shit,” Tessa sighed.
“It’s something we’ll have to find out.”
Tessa shrugged. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
* * *
The next few days were spent handling the massive repairs needed for the house. Kristian cleaned the blood spatter from the walls himself before allowing anyone to come out to complete the other work. They didn’t need to raise more alarm than needed. Every window on the bottom floor was gone. The vampires had done a good job of putting out several fires before they spread, but there were still spots of charred flooring or walls. One bedroom was missing its door, which had been reduced to ashes. Tessa noticed some strange stares and whispers between the workmen. She laughed. Did they think the house was occupied by a bunch of rowdy partiers? That was the mos
t tame reasoning she could think up to explain the widespread damage.
Though all of the other guards left the morning after the four witches were killed, Morgan remained. He claimed he was sticking around for a bit to make sure there was no other threat. Morgan and Kristian were both in daily contact with Ally by phone. She informed them that the track had gone cold for her and the other trackers under her employ. It was like nothing she’d seen before. Usually, there were some rumblings in the underworld about the movement of the Calder, but so far, there was nothing. Charley had been working with her to turn over other demons, but so far, no luck.
One week after the attack, everything in the house had been repaired. New security systems were installed, and the house was protected with new warding spells. Tessa and Kristian sat together with Veronica and Morgan. The fire was roaring. The vampires drank their evening blood, while Tessa had a glass of red wine. She smiled to herself. It reminded her of being at the dinner table as a kid, drinking apple cider on New Year’s while the adults had champagne.
A memory, she thought. A childhood memory I didn’t have before.
“We can expect the Calder will want comeuppance for their four sisters who were killed. It might not be today or tomorrow. They are known for striking when one least expects it,” Morgan said. “This was an embarrassing defeat for them. I can’t remember the last time anyone killed four Calder during an attack. I’m sure they are off licking their wounds and plotting their revenge.”
“Great,” Tessa said. “We’ve been successful in pissing them off.”
“In a way it’s a good thing,” Kristian said. “It will keep them away for a while. If we had been less successful in fending off an attack, they would have been back already to finish the job.”
“My guess is if they were working with a seer before, they’re still under the Calder’s employ. Maybe they’ve received some advice.”
“Where does one find a seer?” Tessa asked. “I could use one.”
All eyes turned to her.
“Isn’t that ironic, given your profession?” Veronica said.
“My former profession. I don’t tell fortunes anymore,” she said haughtily. “I mean, really, if they’re trying to get the jump on us, I don’t see why we shouldn’t use their same tactics.”
“They’re not the easiest people to procure,” Kristian said. “But given enough time it could be done.”
“Ally won’t like that,” Morgan said.
“Baby, she doesn’t have to know everything,” Veronica said.
Morgan grinned despite himself. “Yeah. That’s true.”
Tessa and Kristian took that as their cue to give the newly reconciled couple some time alone. They went out to the back deck and watched the waves lap over the beach, the glow of moonlight on the ocean. They kissed. His mouth was salty sweet against hers.
Kristian’s arms went around her. “I don’t know exactly what comes next,” he whispered against her ear.
“It’s okay,” Tessa said, staring into his eyes. “We’ll handle it together.”
The Witches’ Prophecy
(Book Two of the Calder Witches Series)
Martha Woods
© 2017 Martha Woods
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
* * *
For permissions contact: [email protected]
Part One
Toes in the sand, Veronica leaned back on the woven chair and raised the paperback book in front of her face. The steamy romance happening between the pages was doing nothing to distract her from Morgan’s smoldering presence.
His gaze burned into her skin, the first heat she’d felt in nearly a century. Memories rose to the surface. The feeling of his hands on her skin, of his manhood inside her.
Maybe she still loved him. Maybe she always would.
But it hadn’t worked out.
She reached for her phone in the tote bag near her hip and plugged the buds into her ears. Crooning voices and heavy beats met her ear the instant she tapped the screen. She smiled, glad that she got to live to experience the twenty first century. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. The night was cool, but so was she.
When she opened her eyes, it wasn’t Morgan sitting in the chair across from her. It was Tessa. The human’s brows knit together as she looked at her. Veronica narrowed her eyes, trying to seem intimidating. Tessa wasn’t easily cowed anymore. The human had survived a demon attack and decapitated a Calder witch. It was hard to be afraid of your boyfriend’s vampire sister at that point.
Agitated, Veronica yanked a bud from her ear. “What do you need?”
“You’d have better luck avoiding Morgan if you took the daylight medication. Then that ridiculous bikini would be appropriate,” Tessa said. “Or, are you trying to tease the poor man?”
That was exactly what Veronica thought as she slipped into the tiny bits of fabric. The black straps crisscrossed over her hips, revealing slices of white skin. Two straps arched over her breasts to frame them perfectly. His look as she walked by had been worth it. The debriefing Ally was forcing upon him fell on deaf ears as she strutted by.
“That’s what I thought,” Tessa grumbled. Veronica wanted to hiss at her. The human felt like a violation at times, but it wasn’t her fault that the human picked up on the strong thoughts she was throwing out. Veronica pinched her nose, debating if she needed a cigarette.
It was the human’s fault that their house was trashed. The Calder had been tracking Kristian and Veronica, but when they caught scent of Tessa, they went for her. Had they left her right where they found her, they would be in the free and clear. The house would be in one piece. Morgan would be off working some other job.
But she was rare. Humans didn’t come along with gifts like hers very often. If Kristian would hurry up and turn the human, Tessa, then they might have a powerful weapon on their side. It didn’t help that her brother had fallen head over heels the moment he smelled Tessa.
Love wasn’t that easy for his baby sister.
“Go ahead and smoke,” Tessa waved her on. “Why are you avoiding him? Morgan, I mean.”
Veronica dug into her bag for the new pack of clove cigarillos she had picked up. Tugging one out with her long fingers, she flicked the flint on a cheap gas station lighter. She hadn’t been able to resist the cute designs.
“I have a habit for liking things that are bad for me, if you haven’t noticed. Morgan is… he is special to me, but I believe that he loves his job more than could he love me.”
“I would say that isn’t what I picked up from him, but a lot of what I picked up felt...pornographic.” Tessa rubbed her face, exhaustion setting in. “I need someone who can teach me to put a lid on this. I’m sick of funneling every little thought that runs through your minds.”
“I don’t like it very much myself,” Veronica told her. “Kristian spoke of uncovering the reason that witches would be searching for you.”
The human squirmed in her seat. Did she not want to be the center of attention or did she want to keep her past a secret?
“Ally said that we should split up. She has a tracker in Europe that said there was a lot of outrage over what happened here. There are demands for revenge among the Calder. Ally said that we’re too big of a target altogether and Kristian agreed. He doesn’t want to risk everyone.”
Veronica took a long drag on her clove cigarette. She would trust her brother, no matter what he decided. It was hard for her not to mistrust the human girl. She thought of her own marriage so long
ago, of Serena. Look how well either of those had ended.
Veronica had visited her husband not long after Kristian turned her. There had been such power running through her, inhuman strength and a hunger that seemed to eat her from the inside out. He hadn’t been her first kill, but he was her last. He had raised his hand to her, angry that she had not returned to him sooner. It had taken so little force to snap the bones in his arm.
She drank him dry and the revulsion of what she had done quickly set in. It did not help that the maid had walked in on the aftermath. She had taken one look into the room and saw Kristian and Veronica for what they were, monsters. Her actions had made them have to run.
It felt like they hadn’t stopped running since then. They ran from one mess right into another.
Veronica didn’t want to think about the things that were tumbling through her mind, the images that she must be feeding Tessa. Those were memories best left tightly locked and tucked away in a dusty corner. She took the last drag off her clove cigarette and tossed it into the sand. Without saying another word to Tessa, she plugged the bud back into her ear and turned back to the paperback novel in her lap.
At least the couples in those kinds of books could overcome their problems. They had a happy ending each time.
After a long while, Kristian appeared beside Tessa. He smiled down at his sister before reaching for Tessa’s hand. He was lost in that woman, Veronica thought. Good for him. She hoped that they got the kind of happy ending that happened in the books. Her brother deserved it.
If not, she would have a third victim.
* * *
Morgan stalked down the dark hall. It wasn’t hard to follow the smell of cinnamon and cloves. She was a holiday cookie that he wanted to devour. Oh, he would take his time with her. He would savor every inch of her ivory skin.