Jane The Nymph: The Boxed Set (The Circle Series Book 2)

by Naomi L Scudder

  “I don’t care!” screamed Jane between the sobs shuddering through her body.

  The Morrigan exited Jane’s mind and released the mojo locking their eyes. Jane fell to her knees, heaving and coughing, trying to regain her composure.

  “As I said. You are a noble girl-”

  Jane was done. She rose to her feet and interrupted The Garrison’s emissary. “Lady, that’s the third time you’ve called me a girl. And I get it, I’m small and cute but I’m twenty-four, I pay rent and taxes, and I house a motherfucking demon. I think that makes me a fully fledged woman. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Jane had just told her secret to the entire town and she couldn’t care less.

  The Morrigan closed her saucer eyes and laughed, a full, loud belly laugh that made each onlooker cover their ears. Her laughter shook the branches and bushes in the easement, but she cut it off just as suddenly as it started.

  “That was clever, Jane. I will not diminish you with the word again.”

  “Thank you.”

  “However. You will show the respect my position is due and you will obey my command. Or there will be swift and severe consequences. You are not to engage Droshin in any way whatsoever. Is that understood?”

  Jane nodded.

  “Speak up!”

  “Yes. I understand.”

  “Good.” And with a nod of her head, The Morrigan pulled Jane back into the crowd by her middle.

  Her attention back on Gunnar who’d been enjoying a reprieve, The Morrigan carried out her sentence.

  She said nothing and made no spellcraft motions, but Gunnar screamed as his magic was shorn from his being.

  Jane looked away. She’d spared his life, but Jane wasn’t certain this was any better. She wouldn’t want to live without magic.

  Gunnar convulsed where he stood, spit and blood hanging off his lip in long thin strands.

  When it was through, when The Morrigan had burned through every synapse and channel that held magic within Gunnar’s body, the man collapsed to the ground. A pile of platinum hair and rumpled suit.

  A gong sounded. “Thank you all for bearing witness to this sanction. Your sector will be given a new overseer in short order. Your service has been marked as complete.” The Morrigan bent the light around herself once more, lowered the ward and left.

  The crowd dispersed and Gunnar got off the ground. Vacant look in his steely eyes he started to say something to Jane, then thought better of it.

  “You should probably get yourself to the hospital,” said Jane.

  “Hospital, right.” Gunnar wandered off in the right direction.

  At least she didn’t scramble his brains, thought Jane.

  As the entire magical populace of The Circle left the center of town, Jane found herself encircled by nearly everyone she knew in the weird little city.

  “What are you gonna do?” Xan asked?

  Jane only had to look at her blue-haired friend. Xan nodded and smiled. It was a dumb question.

  “Why did you speak up for that monster?” asked Zora. “He killed Amari!”

  “I’m not sure living without magic is a better deal than death.”

  Zora looked at Jane with an iciness Jane had never seen in her before.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I had to do what I thought was right.”

  “Janey.” Theron took her hands in his, violet eyes smiling. “I’ll fight with you to the end, fuck The Garrison.”

  “Thank you, Theron.”

  “Here,” Jake said, pushing his apothecary box into her hands. “I can’t jeopardize the pack by going against The Garrison. I’m sorry.”

  “Jake. I was counting on your brawn.”

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated, sad eyes heavier with the weight of Jane’s disappointment. “The pack has to come first,” said Jake, and he walked away.

  Jane didn’t want to ask, not after sparing Gunnar’s life, but she was a man down and it wasn’t about her. It was about the girls she left behind. “Zora, what about you?”

  Jane didn’t even have to finish her question before Zora nodded. “It’s like you said, it’s the right thing to do. Fuck The Garrison.”

  10

  Jane surveyed her hodgepodge team as they all sat around Theron’s mahogany dining table. A gypsy, a fae, a vampire, and a witch with a side of demon. They just needed a bar to walk into.

  But it wasn’t a joke. These were the people who would help her save twelve lives. Twelve women trapped with a monster these magically talented, smart, resourceful people had no hopes of comprehending.

  Jane could not describe the kind of dangerous Droshin was. He couldn’t be distilled into a few adjectives.

  “I still can’t believe how well she kept her shit together while looking into its eyes,” Xan said and passed another one of her cakes to Zora, who promptly shoved it in its entirety into her mouth.

  “It’s because I’ve seen worse.” Jane’s quiet words filled the room with their weight. “Droshin is worse than Gunnar, worse than The Morrigan, worse The fucking Garrison. His magic is powerful and persuasive, and if he doesn’t trap you with that, he will with his words. He’s a silver-tongue, he can say the thing you want to hear the most and make you believe he means it. He’ll tell you anything, everything to make you believe you want to be with him. And you know what, you’ll start to believe him. He’s that good. He’s that powerful. He’s that beautiful.”

  Jane continued. “Protect yourselves. However you think is best, whatever magic is your strongest - use that. Because I’m leaving his compound with everyone I came with plus twelve others.”

  “Fortress,” said Zora with a mouth full of cake. She swallowed hard and continued. “It’s a fortress. When I cast for his location, I could tell. He’s in a fortified building.”

  Fuck. That made things exponentially harder. Jane got up from the table and paced the length of the dining room. “This isn’t going to be easy. Zora, quit shoveling cakes in your face.”

  “I’m hungry.”

  “She ate a Gluttony Cake. They’re good for business but, uh, bad for meetings. It’ll wear off in a few minutes.”

  Jane sighed but continued. “The odds aren’t on our side. He’ll have the home field advantage. So, Zora, I’ll need you to use your radar to-”

  “It’s more like a web, not radar.”

  Jane barreled on, ignoring the drunk-on-fae-charms remark. “Zora I need you to use your web to figure out where Droshin and the girls are inside the building. Can you do that?”

  She shrugged. “I’ve never done more than one at a time before.”

  “He always kept us together, in one room, so you’d only be finding two locations.”

  Zora nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Theron, I need you to use whatever juice you have to protect us from his vamp shit.” Jane wasn’t sure how vampire magic worked, but she assumed one vamp could cancel out another. “Can you do that?”

  “I’ll try my best, Little One.”

  “Good. When we reach the girls, protect them as well. If that means pulling juice away from our protection, so be it. I don’t know what kind of shape those girls are in and I can’t have them fighting us to try to stay there.”

  Theron nodded.

  “Xan. Bring your goddamn pearl.”

  “Got it,” she said and pulled the silver chain around her neck out from under her shirt. The necklace was not a pearl at all but a wire wrapped hunk of antique Fire Opal, also known as Dragon’s Breath Opal.

  One whisper from Xan and the stone would incinerate everything she aimed it at with actual dragon fire.

  There was a lot about her past Xan hadn’t shared with Jane, like how and why she had a Dragon Breath stone. But Jane didn’t mind. She was just as secretive.

  “Hopefully we won’t need that, so your main objective will be helping Theron get everyone to safety.”

  “Sure thing.”

  “And I will be in charge of killing Droshin.” Jane took
a breath, preparing herself to tell her friends what she knew they wouldn’t want to hear. “Guys, I don’t know if I can win this. But if it comes down to helping me or getting the girls out, swear to me you’ll pick the girls.”

  Nodding heads all around the table.

  “Swear it.”

  Everyone swore, and Jane sat back down.

  “We leave tonight. We’ve got one shot at this, so everyone eat, rest, fuck, do whatever you need to do to bring your fucking A-game. We’ll meet back here at sunset.” Jane grabbed one of Xan’s tiny cakes from the center of the table and popped it in her mouth. “Mmm, what is that? Butterscotch?”

  Xan couldn’t contain her smile. “And honey, with a little bit of...”

  Jane fanned her face as the cake’s charm took hold. Cheeks red, and heart racing, Jane leveled her gaze on Xandrie. “Is this a fucking sex charm?” But Jane knew the answer. The tattoo on her arm spun with delight - it was getting a meal ahead of schedule.

  Xan bit her lip. “Maybe next time I bring dessert I’ll choose more carefully.”

  “You do that.” Jane got up, yanking Theron up with her, and raced up the stairs.

  “It’ll wear off in a few minutes,” Xan called after her.

  “Remind me never to order those for The Laughing Cat.” Zora smiled, shoving yet another dessert in her mouth.

  “The gluttony charm had to have worn off by now,” Xan said.

  “Yeah, but they’re so good!”

  11

  Theron shut the door to their “feeding room”, picked Jane up and tossed her across the room onto the poster bed. Theron sauntered to the bed ripping off his shirt as he did.

  “How do you want it?” he asked.

  Jane couldn’t say anything. The unbearable pressure between her hips, thanks to Xandrie’s aphrodisiac cake made words impossible.

  Just... I can’t... please, Theron.

  Jane couldn’t even get her thoughts in order.

  Theron smiled with his gorgeous violet eyes, a trace of devilish excitement behind the gesture. He jumped on the bed, knees between her hips and tore Jane’s clothes off. Jane arched her body, begging for his touch. “Please,” she said panting and crazed with a desire she’d never experienced, not even with the demon amping up her sex drive.

  Theron didn’t need any more coaxing. He hitched her knee up over his shoulder, yanked his pants down, and ground into her

  Jane’s light green eyes went demon black as a wave a primal heat surged through her veins. She came as soon as Theron was inside her, letting the demon have all the energy it wanted. Another explosion tore through her and Jane clawed her way down Theron’s back, again letting the demon within have her fill.

  She needed the demon tonight more than ever, and Jane made sure the well overflowed with power.

  Theron repositioned, his hands now on either side of Jane’s face. “Come back to me, Janey,” he whispered and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

  And with his sweet request, Jane closed the metaphysical door between her and the demon. Theron smiled as her eyes cleared back to pale green and buried himself in her again, his knee nudging her legs even wider.

  Jane, now pinned beneath the vampire’s weight arched her hips to meet his. She twisted under him, tightening her inner muscles, trying to find that perfect spot that was so much easier to get to when the demon was around.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Xan’s aphrodisiac had worn off, the demon was gone, and Jane realized she wasn’t actually in the mood for sex in the least.

  Theron saw it on her face before she said anything. He hoped off so fast he blurred as he redressed.

  “I’m sorry,” said Jane.

  “You have nothing to apologize for, Little One.”

  “But you...” As much as Jane appreciated the vampire’s uncanny understanding, she did feel guilty about it. He was mid-thrust. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to feed on her.

  “Don’t worry about me, Janey. I’m still full from yesterday. Remember, I’m so old I don’t need to feed often. I do because you like it. You weren’t liking it, so I stopped.”

  Jane got off the bed and got a new shirt from the stash of clothes she kept at Theron’s place.

  Her eyes stung with tears and vision blurred as she refused to let them fall. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her wrist.

  “Why are you crying?” Theron’s soft, kind words broke her. She cried in earnest against his lean chest. “Jane, what’s wrong? Please, tell me.”

  “I don’t know.”

  She really didn’t.

  Theron’s action hit a wound Jane had buried long ago. Droshin’s abuse, the demon’s needs, they had all overridden Jane’s primary right to consent. Having it respected, mid-coitus no less, was overwhelming.

  “Thank you,” she said in his tear stained shirt.

  “You’re welcome?” Theron didn’t press the issue. He held Jane until her tears stopped and she felt more like herself. “Are you OK?” he asked when she pulled away.

  She nodded, wiping her mascara streaked face with the back of her hand. “Thank you.”

  “For what, Jane?”

  Jane sighed, a huge, heavy sound carrying more air than her lungs could hold. “I don’t know.”

  12

  Sunset.

  Hunting day.

  Last chance.

  If they failed tonight Droshin would never let himself be found again and The Garrison would - well, Jane didn’t actually know what The Garrison would do.

  She couldn’t think about that now. She could only hope whatever her punishment for defiance was, they would be more lenient than they had been with Gunnar.

  Xandrie drove, as always. “I see you used that charm I showed you.” Xan nodded at Jane’s hair.

  “Yeah.” Jane smoothed her hair around her face. “I want Droshin to know exactly who I am.” Newly restored, with the help of some fae magic to its natural pale blonde, Jane’s hair hung limp around her shoulders. Dark, smudgy makeup gone, piercings out, and in a plain white shirt and jeans, Jane looked nothing like herself.

  But exactly like who she’d been as Droshin’s prisoner.

  “It looks nice. Boring but nice.” Zora said without lifting her eyes from her laptop.

  Jane agreed with Zora’s backseat opinion, she looked like an average girl about to order a frappuccino. As uncomfy as blending in made her, it was far more important that Droshin recognized her.

  “It looks like we’re headed to a condemned town. See, right here it says it used to be a coal-mining community.” Zora tried showing Theron the article she’d found on Centralia, but the vamp waved her away, choosing instead to lean against the window and fall asleep.

  “That’s not very helpful,” she said.

  “That’s Theron,” Jane said. “Why was the town condemned?”

  “Hmm, there’s conflicting reports as to how it happened, but somehow the underground mines are on fire. Have been since the 1960’s.”

  Xan shook her head. “Now why the fuck would a vampire make a fortress in a burning town?”

  Jane smiled. “The better to burn him in, my dear.”

  For the rest of the two-and-a-half-hour road trip Zora continued her research on the abandoned town, Xan concentrated on not getting lulled to sleep by boring highway driving, and Jane warded herself.

  She refused to meet Droshin the same way she’d left him, terrified, naked, and weak. She wouldn’t have him working any of his magic on her. Not the crazy-making kind, not the sexy kind. None of it. Not this time.

  Add some of this. The demon whispered in her mind and showed her glowing alchemical shapes arranged in ways Jane had never thought of, never even considered before.

  They don’t look right. They aren’t balanced enough. Jane thought to the demon.

  For you they aren’t. I can compensate for any intrinsic imbalance.

  How?

  Don’t you worry about that, witch.

  Jane didn’t like it.
She didn’t like the demon’s smirking tone in her head, she didn’t like using magic she didn’t understand fully, and she didn’t like relying on the demon so much.

  But the demon within her was the only way she could ever hope to beat Droshin and save the girls. Jane could feel it in her bones. No magic was strong enough, not the katana painfully pressed into Jane’s back, not the ancient fae magic Xandrie brought, not the gypsy curses Zora conjured, and not the vamp magic Theron had. The only way to beat this big bad was with a bigger bad.

  The demon lived within her, knew Jane more intimately than anyone ever had, so the idea of prepping her as Jane had done with everyone else seemed ludicrous.

  She did it anyway.

  Help me. He’s the one who cursed you with this half-life, this caged existence. Help me end him.

  The demon said nothing.

  If I die you die.

  You think I don’t know that, witch?

  Then agree to help me.

  Haven’t I already agreed? Haven’t I helped you this far? Information, alchemy, haven’t you already used me as the tool you think I am?

  Say the words, demon. Agree to help me end the fucker that stuck us together.

  The demon paused.

  I agree, she said and Jane let out the breath she’d been holding.

  “We’re getting close,” said Xan, but all four of them felt the moment they entered the ghost town.

  Zora exchanged a look with Theron, woken by the chilling numbness rolling over his and everyone else’s skin. “What was that?” she asked.

  “That was a ward. He’s got this whole damn town protected from magic,” said Theron.

  Jane threw Xan a worried look.

  “Don’t worry. I could smell it a mile out. I shimmered us in right under his nose.”

  Jane nodded. “OK, everyone ward up. Theron, it’s go time. Counter any vamp magic in the area, if you can’t, direct Xan around it.”

  “Got it.”

  “Zora, do your web casting thing. Home in on exactly where his fortress is and tell Xan how to get there.”

  Zora closed her eyes and cast her web.