Perhaps some would think that was an honorable trait, but it had become a serious pain in Kyden’s ass. He wanted the woman he cherished above all else to stay far away from danger, even if she disagreed with him on that point.
“Oh, look,” Haven mused with a beaming smile. “He’s lost in the shit-storm he knows is coming his way.”
Pulling back from his thoughts and realizing everyone was watching him, he nodded Haven on. “Yes, I’m well aware she’ll be pissed. Please show me what happened here.”
“On it.” In her cute, bouncy way, Haven settled over the body, her expression becoming pinched as she stared at the corpse.
Kyden folded his arms, torn by Haven’s appearance tonight. He cared for Haven deeply—feeling almost brotherly toward her—and she wasn’t cut out for the violence she saw working for the Council. Her soul was too sweet, too soft, and too gentle. Yet her abilities were an asset to the Otherworld. She helped them catch killers in record time. But more often than not, Haven closed her eyes when faced with gruesome deaths, which was exactly what she did now.
Eyes shut, she raised her hands high above her, calling on her Earth magic to reenact the crime. The witch’s raw energy brushed over Kyden’s flesh, raising goose bumps, as the vision from the past was brought into the present.
To those who didn’t know better, the vision appeared much like a replay on a sports channel, but this was more of a parallel reality. Haven’s magic tapped into a moment of time, bringing the horrific event back in front of them, almost as if they were now part of those minutes the death had unfolded.
The air became thicker and prickled at Kyden’s skin seconds before the vision solidified, the bodies in the room turning from apparitions to dimensional figures, like a 3-D movie. He hadn’t taken any guesses as to what had happened to the victim, though when the vampire appeared to stalk the woman, it surprised him that only one vamp had inflicted her wounds.
With fangs exposed, the vampire circled the young terrified woman. Then, with a feral growl, he lunged, attacking the woman with wicked wildness. Instant awareness settled deep into Kyden. “He’s newly awakened,” he offered.
“Appears so,” Myles agreed gruffly.
A vampire suffering bloodlust from rebirth was clear-cut—so crazed for blood the new vamp acted more animalistic than human. Typically when vampires awakened, their sires would give them the bagged blood in the amounts they needed to regain control. This vampire had been left alone with no idea of how to feed properly.
Kyden’s jaw tightened as the vamp bit the victim, trying to locate a vein, and missed many times in the process. Thrashing out in agony and fighting for her life, the woman shrieked, reflecting both shock and pain. Her attempt to free herself was useless. A hungry, uneducated vampire was the most dangerous of all.
Done with the disgusting scene, Kyden broke away from the mortal and scanned the room, noticing a witch standing near the staircase. She frowned at the vampire killing the woman, and then not a second later she exited the house.
“Alazar, track the witch,” Kyden ordered, snapping his focus back to the vampire. He didn’t know who the witch was, or if she had any involvement in this killing, but she needed to be questioned.
Kyden heard Alazar’s deep sniff behind him, as he was clearly catching the scents in the room, and then the front door opened. Kyden stayed focused on the killer brutally ending this poor woman’s life.
And soon the victim’s eyes went black and lifeless.
Then the vision froze.
Haven opened her eyes but didn’t look to the dead woman as she gestured toward the vamp with a flick of her hand. “He’s all yours.”
Kyden moved closer and studied the rabid vampire. This ability was why the Council cherished Haven, and why the secret of her gifts was highly protected. While the werewolf trackers could locate scents and follow them, identifying the killer right away made the investigation part of the job quicker. There weren’t any mistaken identities or long interrogations anymore.
He stared into the vampire’s young brown eyes, his adrenaline evaporating—nothing about hunting this kid appealed to him. Whoever sired him had abandoned him, leaving him with no understanding of how to control his bloodlust. Pushing away his disdain, Kyden memorized the vamp’s features for later and then said to Haven, “Done.”
She gave a tight smile and headed for the front door, and the vision instantly faded, returning to the quiet living room with the mortal still lying dead on the floor. “Be safe,” she called, right before the door slammed shut behind her.
The sword at Kyden’s back rested heavy against his skin, nearly calling for the blood of the vampire who had killed an innocent. Not yet. “Why would a vampire turn a kid this young?” he asked Myles. “Then leave him to fend for himself?”
“Offering immortality is a gift,” Myles replied in a disgusted voice. “A vampire is proud of those who share his bloodline. Turning a mortal, then walking away”—he shook his head slowly—“something isn’t right about all this.”
Kyden’s instincts agreed.
Before he could say as much, Alazar reentered the room and said, “The witch’s scent vanished.”
Puzzled by what he saw here tonight, and now even more perplexed by Alazar’s statement, Kyden asked, “What do you mean ‘vanished’?”
Alazar shrugged, his raised brows reflecting his deep-rooted surprise. “The second I hit outside, the scent was just gone. But I’ve caught the vamp’s trail.”
Scents didn’t simply vanish—there had to be more behind that—but Kyden also knew that without knowing who the witch was or being able to track her, she would be impossible to find.
He ran a hand across the back of his neck, easing the tension in his taut muscles, and replied, “Not much we can do there, so let’s go with what we’ve got.” He drew his sword from his back, slamming the blade down into the woman’s stomach.
The magic conjured on his sword by the witches in the Otherworld dripped with bright blue light, pouring into the victim’s body as a gentle hum filled the room. Before his eyes, her wounds stitched back together. Instead of the fang marks littering her body, she now had a deep slit on her neck with a pool of blood beneath her.
Cruel as it was that her loved ones would never know what had truly happened to her, it kept the Otherworld and the supernatural community safe. This magic was part of the reason the Earthworld agreed to the treaty—Otherworldly creatures possessed abilities that could cover up crimes, making them appear human in nature.
“We off to hunt, then?” Alazar asked.
Kyden stared with a heavy heart at the woman lying dead at his feet. He hungered for revenge for her. Two innocent lives were lost tonight, stirring the razor-sharp urgency to find the one responsible for creating the new vampire and leaving him with no help.
The blood was on the sire’s hands.
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
—
Hot irritation burned like a blast of Fire magic through Nexi as her feet connected with the grass below. She snapped her eyes open the split second the raw energy from the portal vanished. Dressed in her typical female guardian gear of a brown leather bra and kilt, with a scabbard across her shoulder that held her sword on her back, she nearly stepped forward but then noticed Haven approaching. Heady amusement nearly stole her irritation, but that emotion didn’t belong to her. It belonged to Haven.
—
More important, it belonged to their soul-bond.
—
A deep connection gifted these two witches belonging to the same coven. The link was a sensitive one, allowing for emotions to be shared, making them closer. Nexi often wondered if that’s why the bond existed—it made the ties to a coven that much tighter.
As Nexi caught sight of Haven’s smile, she grumbled, “This is so not funny.”
“Yeah, it kinda is.” The softness in her voice was just so Haven, as was the warmth in her stare. “I told Kyden he was dead for leaving you behi
nd.”
“Dead is an understatement.” Nexi shook her head in pure frustration, gazing around the tree-lined street. When silence greeted her, she added, “You think he’d know better than to piss a woman off who carries a sword and damn well knows how to use it.”
Haven snorted a laugh. “Apparently not.”
Nexi sighed, cooling the irritation inside. Anger would get her nowhere with Kyden, and would only put him on alert. “That caveman needs to get some sense smacked into him.”
Haven gave a leveled look. “He’s just worried about you.”
“I get that—and appreciate it,” Nexi replied with a bit of bite. “But being worried and shielding me completely are two totally different things.”
Sadness reached Haven’s eyes, leaving Nexi wondering if her soul-sister agreed with Kyden. Maybe Haven wanted Nexi away from the danger as well. It’s not that Nexi didn’t understand why Kyden’s macho behavior had increased this past month, because, well, she did.
While Kyden had a typical upbringing in his supernatural life, Nexi’s life had more of a dramatic flair. Twenty-five years ago, the power-hungry vampire, Lazarus, wanted to return Earth to the time when vampires were hunters instead of feeding off bagged blood or willing humans. To do this, he killed Nexi’s birth mother, Tillie, for the power within her blood—a task only obtained by drinking a witch to death. A large portion, or even half, of a witch’s blood wouldn’t have any effect, but to drain a witch to her last breath resulted in a transfer of powers.
When the power wasn’t enough for him to succeed in his takeover of the Council to rule the Otherworld, he went into hiding to avoid being hunted by the Council for his crimes. It was at that time that Nexi’s birth father, Drake, sent her into the Earthworld to live among humans for protection.
Then Lazarus devised his plan to return for Nexi to steal her unique power.
He and his pack of werewolves almost killed Nexi and Kyden in the process.
Yet there was one thing Lazarus never counted on: Nexi.
He certainly didn’t see it coming when she ended his life—since her magic, as both guardian and witch, proved stronger than the vampire jacked up on Tillie’s magic.
She sighed at her thoughts and added to Haven, “I get that Kyden’s…sensitive… about it all, but he needs to stop protecting me.” Since that night with Lazarus, she hadn’t looked back. Of course, Kyden wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with her on that point. With her witch magic now centered in soul, and with six months of guardian fighting behind her, she’d never been stronger—something that Kyden was choosing to ignore, and the reason why he hadn’t taken her out on an assignment yet.
Haven placed a comforting hand on Nexi’s arm and a dose of balmy love seeped into the bond. “Perhaps the problem is you’re both just guardians who want to protect what they feel is most important to them.”
Nexi pondered the thought and realized that Haven wasn’t wrong—Nexi felt obligated now to protect innocent lives. Kyden, while holding the same type of duty, likely wanted only to protect her. Maybe that was the problem in itself—was it too much to ask to have Kyden’s support of her and her capabilities as a warrior? “Perhaps,” she agreed, when a sudden meow snapped her head down. A familiar furry face looked up to her. “Not you again,” she muttered.
Twice now, the black fluffy kitten with the orange-tipped tail had found her in the Earthworld. Both times had been when Nexi went shopping. She began to think the kitty was following her.
Another loud—very impatient—meow had Nexi picking her up. She stared into the kitten’s bright green eyes. “Why won’t you leave me alone?” The kitten purred as Nexi scratched under the kitten’s chin. “And how in the hell are you able to find me all the time?”
Each time the kitten showed up Nexi had been in different cities. She wondered if the magical energy she sensed oozing from the kitten had something to do with it. Maybe she was a werecat with tracking abilities, but that didn’t explain why the kitten kept wanting to find her.
“No wonder she won’t leave you alone,” Haven said, patting the kitten on the head. “She’s a familiar.”
Nexi scrunched her nose, never having heard that term before, but not surprised she hadn’t, either. Until six months ago she never knew supernaturals were real and weren’t just characters in scary stories told to children around a campfire.
She’d parted her lips to ask more about the familiar when the front door of the house opened, revealing her luscious, sexy guardian—all male and muscles. Dressed in the guardian gear of a brown leather kilt and scabbard across his bare chest, her heart fluttered in the way it always did when he drew near. The raw heat between them called her forward.
Intent not to lose her chance to join the assignment, she placed the kitten in Haven’s arms. “Take her home for me, ’kay? She is clearly never going to leave me alone, so I better accept she’s mine. I’ll come get her later.”
Haven’s eyes widened, a sense of horror roaring through their bond. “But if you bring her into the Otherworld, that means you’re keeping her, and if you leave her, she’ll—”
“I’ll be back soon. Promise.” Nexi dropped a peck on Haven’s cheek, then spun on her heels and ran—her sword banging on her back with each step as she made it across the street.
The vampire standing on the porch with Kyden noticed Nexi first. She’d never met him before, but that wasn’t a shock, either. The Council’s Guard was made up of hundreds of supernaturals. Though she recognized the tracker next to the vampire: Alazar. They’d worked together when they were hunting down Lazarus.
Kyden still hadn’t spotted her and said to the vampire, “I’ll get in touch if anything develops and I need you further on this case.”
The vampire nodded, taking his cellphone out from his pocket and then striding down the street, presumably to call in the murder to the human police so they could arrive and process the crime in the mortal way.
Arms crossed, and with a glare firmly fixed on her face, Nexi said, “We. You do mean if we need him on the case, right?”
Kyden stiffened before he turned around. His light brown hair hung messily over his forehead, and his tanned skin gleamed under the light coming from the porch light. Standing a good two heads above her, he pressed all her on buttons. This man was gorgeous—perhaps not classically beautiful, but rougher and edgier. Honed cheekbones, perfect lips, squared chin, he had that charm that bedazzled women. His light emerald eyes that always sent heat through her blazed in a way that might scare a weaker guardian. “You don’t need to be here. Go home.”
“Wow. Aren’t I the luckiest gal in the world?” she retorted with a loud snort. “You are such a romantic.”
Alazar laughed.
Kyden didn’t.
His frown was fierce as he crossed his arms over his squared chest. Nexi boldly inspected his delicious high pecs, noting how she wouldn’t mind tracing her tongue over them. She slowly lifted her eyes when he added in a steely voice, “We’ve got this handled. There is no reason for you to be here.” One determined brow lifted. “Besides, as the Elite Guardian, it is in my right to force you to go home.”
Nexi sighed, refusing to lose the staring contest. This issue between them wouldn’t go away. She knew that, and she also knew she had to lay the smack down soon. Yes, only three months had passed since Lazarus had nearly killed them, but enough was enough. If the Council thought she was ready to return to her job, then she was.
’Nuff said.
Ignoring Kyden’s dismay, she turned to Alazar. “What do we have?”
“Newly made vampire gone rogue,” Alazar replied, glancing between her and Kyden.
She responded to his clear unease with a smirk. “Well, now, don’t you know, rogue vampires are my specialty.”
A specialty she suspected Kyden wished she didn’t have. He might want her safe and protected in the Otherworld, but she needed a damn purpose to keep moving forward. Most of all, she needed to stop thinking of everyone she l
ost at the hands of an evil vampire and wishing she could somehow bring them back.
Six months ago, after her mortal family had been murdered, she’d left her human life behind to work for the Council’s Guard—which was fine and she accepted it. But Kyden needed to accept it, too.
“Are we going, then?” Alazar asked tightly, staring solely at the guardian in front of Nexi, exuding irritation.
She’d had enough of Kyden’s protectiveness. “Which way?” Alazar pointed to the left, and Nexi started walking. “See, this is us going.”
Kyden cursed.
She held back her chuckle and then embraced the silence that fell between them as they strode along Salt Lake City’s dark and dreary streets. Alazar eventually punched forward, leading the way, still in human form, sniffing the air. The only time a werewolf tracker shifted into his fur was when the scent was weak. Since Alazar hadn’t, that meant there was a good chance they’d find this vampire.
This part of the city was likely full of activity during daylight hours, but being two in the morning, the roads were almost empty, with only a few cars passing. Nexi decided then and there that she preferred the quiet. It meant innocent humans were safe. Though if a mortal were to pass by them right now, the human’s eye wouldn’t see the leather kilts and swords on their backs, they’d see typical earthly clothes. Only supernaturals saw their true forms due to a magical glamour placed on their clothing.
With each and every step, she shoved the rest of the annoyance away. Kyden might object to her being there, but he wasn’t stopping it, either. And she knew part of his objection was because she was so new to his world. She had been living as a human just a short time ago. Nexi had already had one vampire targeting her because of her uniqueness and the rich power in her blood. And it was more than likely she’d probably have to face that all over again.
Witches Be Burned: A Magic & Mayhem Novel Page 2