Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  Elizabeth was now debating the merits of hanging around to meet this Markus and teach him some respect for witches.

  What the hell had he done to put that look in Pan’s eyes?

  “If you will transform into a dragon and help me to transport these unconscious males as well, which I will promise to keep from harming you upon their waking, then I will arrange payment for your services,” Elizabeth offered.

  The girl was a thief, right? Money might buy her cooperation.

  Elizabeth should avoid confronting Markus and his gang, no matter how tempting, without knowing how dangerous they could be, and especially after her last disastrous encounter with dragons.

  Even this young, female dragon would be important not to underestimate.

  Pan looked a bit shaky, but she nodded her head in an affirmative.

  “I d-don’t need payment. When the males wake, I will drop you off, no matter how far we have travelled. You will be on your own if you insist they come,” she warned, turning to give Elizabeth her back. “Close your eyes,” Pan insisted.

  Well, if it wasn’t obvious already that Pan was a girl, this request ‘to not peek’ when she shifted, confirmed it.

  “I’ll give you my back, but with Markus coming, I don’t think any of us should willingly close our eyes,” Elizabeth pointed out.

  “Fine. When I transform, take my robe and secure it around my neck, so you can hold on during the flight. I will carry the males in my claws. Are their clothes sturdy enough?”

  “I think so. Can you fly low, just in case?”

  “Yes. We always fly low in the Wastes to decrease detection. There was rope in the bag. I thought it was to keep you captive,” Pan said, sounding unsure. “If you bind the males with the rope, it will give me a better grip. Do you think they would fight the binding when they wake?”

  “Possibly, but we should try it, anyway. Okay, get undressed. I’ll secure the males and I won’t look.”

  There was a working silence between them, only punctuated by the sound of clothing being removed and Elizabeth grunting as she tried to tie the ropes as securely as she could without knowing the Boy Scouts secret to it.

  She’d finished when she felt the ripple of Pan’s transformation magic from behind her.

  The sound of flapping wings and a roar came from in front of her.

  Uh, that was the wrong direction to be the girl.

  Pan had warned her they were running out of time!

  Elizabeth’s heart almost stopped upon hearing the dragons coming. Her mind flashed back to the cave and she suddenly felt claustrophobic, which was silly in the wide open desert.

  She looked up and saw at least three big dragons sweeping across the hills, coming hard.

  The lead one was a dull green and breathing fire although he was too far away to hit them. Another roar announced his imminent arrival and told them not to try to run.

  Even if they left now, these dragons would catch up to Pan, especially with the burden of three others to carry.

  The chase would only sharpen the dragons’ appetites.

  “Fly away, Pan!” Elizabeth shouted, shooing the beautiful silver dragon, standing frozen by her pile of rags.

  Elizabeth grabbed the chalk from her bag and started a big, simple circle around the sleeping, helpless males, so she could shield them.

  Dragon Pan nudged her in the butt, almost sending her tumbling over.

  “Get away. We’ll be fine on our own!” Elizabeth shouted. “Hurry, before they get close enough to catch you, too.”

  The circle lines were wobbly, but they met at the end, and that was all that mattered.

  “Back away,” Elizabeth warned.

  She slapped her hands down to set the circle on the outside with lightning, locking Daemon and George in her protection.

  The barrier was made up of white flashes, like a constant sheet of lightning. It shimmered in a mirage against the desert.

  She hoped it would prove more substantial than it looked.

  Pan’s wings flapped. Elizabeth felt the wind as Pan lifted into the air.

  The female dragon would really have to hurry if she was going to outfly the incoming dragons. They were so close that Elizabeth could almost feel the heat of their fire.

  Running into the transport circle and hoping it could still be used to amplify, Elizabeth sent a wave of magic out to test its barrier.

  Gratefully, she felt it bounce back.

  She looked up again to reassess the incoming threat with her eyes full of power.

  Pan’s dragon was a silvery wink in the sky, high above the rest of them.

  It was far enough.

  Time now, to call down the heavens.

  Daemon wasn’t the only one blessed with the power of gods.

  Love Like a Rock

  Jaeson

  Jaeson had waited twenty-five years to see Kaila again.

  Fate was rather cruel to let her walk right past him, without notice, when he had been on his way to the closest portal to fetch her from the human realm.

  He had planned the whole meeting out ahead of time, practicing an overdue lecture in his head.

  She’d earned it with all of those years spent hiding in the human realm, instead of asking for his help.

  He was going to sneak up on her to deliver his lecture, catching her by surprise by popping out of the shadows, like she had done to him so many times when they were younger.

  He should have known back then that Kaila’s personality was too stubborn and devious to let an overbearing husband get the better of her.

  His distracted thoughts lost him the advantage. She was the one to pop up, like it was yesterday.

  “Jaeson . . . ? Where’s my father? Is Jill with you? How about Princess Victoria? There was a dragon after her, and I know that—”

  “Slow down,” Jaeson said, holding his hand up to stop the flow of questions.

  She gave him no proper greeting or even a guilty confession for pretending to be dead and hiding for the last couple of decades.

  Nothing so lowering from little Lady Kai!

  She had started demanding answers from him like he had been sent as her personal servant to provide whatever she wanted, without questions himself.

  Kaila was greatly mistaken if she thought the general had appointed Jaeson to be the equivalent of a childhood companion and protector that he’d once served.

  Anything that happened now was between a grown witch and a vampire lord. Her father would not interfere.

  Jaeson made Kaila wait, slowly appraising her body for injuries and then the changes in the decades since he’d last laid eyes on her.

  Her hair had a sprinkling of grey, lightening the rich mahogany of a shorter bob.

  She wore heels, which looked absolutely ridiculous on the dusty Maerenian roads.

  Her face was a little too thin.

  She held her left ankle differently than her right, possibly strained by her inappropriate footwear.

  Kaila still looked beautiful to him. Her skin was as dew-fresh as when she was sixteen—without cosmetics.

  She was dressed in clothes from the human realm, perfect in their manufactured lines and folds. They hugged curves that he couldn’t miss.

  It was quite the contrast from the borrowed breeches and mud-greyed shirts she used to wear when terrorizing the countryside.

  She got tired of waiting for him.

  “Have you suffered too many rocks to the head? You weren’t always this simple. I’ll start with one question. Where is my father?”

  She hadn’t outgrown her motor mouth or the tendency to insult him.

  He crossed his arms and glared at her.

  Thankfully, she was still shorter.

  “What are you wearing, hen-wit?” he asked.

  The shoes would have to go. He could wrap her feet in cloth until they got back to town.

  The general would purchase her sturdier footwear.

  “Get out of the way,” she said, giving
him back a glare as good as she got. “Father…?” she shouted.

  She tried to get around him, stomping her pointy heel into his boot when he dared block her path.

  She called him an ‘odious bully.’

  Stomping on him only managed to break her heel, for which she cursed him and some guy named ‘Louboutin.’

  He stood there and let her pound his chest and rant at him, waiting until she made a noise that sounded more like a sob before wrapping his arms around her in a hug.

  “I missed you, wren,” he whispered against the top of her head.

  He gave up on handling her gently and crushed her to him when she fought, firmly enough that she knew he wasn’t giving up.

  This was a ritual he remembered well.

  “You broke my shoe,” she complained to his chest.

  “A boulder cannot be blamed for sinking the ship that refuses to flow around it like the sea.”

  The sob turned into a snort. “Earth magic metaphors. Oh Maeren, I’m truly home now,” she muttered.

  “No, you are in the middle of the road. Your father bade me to fetch you out of hiding and bring you to him.”

  “I was coming on my own,” she said.

  He didn’t justify that with a response. It was much too late for her to claim that she was finally returning home. He had been prepared to drag her out of hiding.

  She tapped him on the shoulder after a few moments, their old signal that she was ready to be released.

  He did so, carefully. He didn't back up, deciding it wasn't sensible to give her more freedom.

  Kaila had always been fleet of foot despite her earth. It was doubtful that she would be slowed down much due to her new limp.

  She would've healed it otherwise if it had gotten in her way.

  Bending over without regard to the tight fit of her pants, she put a hand on his hip for support, then slipped her broken shoe and the other one off of her feet. She carried them in one hand as she straightened.

  Her bare feet were decorated with pretty, pink toenails.

  His own pants got rather tight.

  “Did my father give you handcuffs? Rope? Maybe a leash?” she asked with the tone of an impending royal snit.

  Kaila deserved a turn over his knee. She’d better not start with him. His control over his body was already strained as evidenced by his rising cock.

  Deep breath. He was too old for this adolescent reaction.

  “Here, cuff me!” she demanded, holding out her wrists, one hand still clutching her shoes.

  Jaeson rolled his eyes. He had lasted less than five minutes before resorting to the silent condemnation.

  “I believed that a witch your age could be led without a childish fight.”

  “That was your mistake,” she said, side-stepping him.

  Heedless of the rocky road under her bare feet, she started marching to town.

  She was more graceful without the heels. Those fitted pants pulled tight against her generously rounded bottom as she sashayed down the road.

  “I didn’t rule out putting you over my shoulder,” he retorted, his bigger strides quickly catching up to put him just behind her.

  Close enough to smack that bottom.

  “Well, I guess that putting me over your shoulder is all that’s left to do in order for you to manhandle me with proper earth savagery. My hair’s too short for you to knock me over the head with a club and drag me by it,” she said. “In case you didn’t realize, that’s another rock headed, caveman metaphor for you.”

  “That is not the meaning of a metaphor,” he said, keeping his tone even.

  Kaila was still limping, although it was less noticeable without the heels. Her pants rode up a little with her mad pace, revealing glimpses of her bad ankle.

  That was new.

  There was a mass of scar tissue snaking around her otherwise flawless skin in an insidious, pale rope that choked her freedom of movement.

  He was staring at it, when Kaila suddenly stopped walking.

  He ran into her like the hulking caveman she'd accused him of being.

  Kaila’s own earth strength was the only thing that kept her upright.

  She pushed him back. “I’m calling you uncivilized,” she explained.

  He thought she may have winced as she shifted her weight onto the other ankle. She made him feel overly large, despite not being a frail female herself. He only had about a head over her in height.

  “Marenian civility is more brutal than the humans you hid among—our bigger threats make it a necessity.”

  He reached over and snatched her shoes and stuffed them into his cloak before she could do more than say a few words of protest.

  Pretty heels were for court, not the wild edge.

  “I’ll give these back when we are in front of your father.”

  She stomped her foot, so the pathway cracked, and clenched her fists. Her spoiled temper was also familiar.

  “How I’ve missed you, Jaeson. Why don’t you lead the way and answer the questions I asked you earlier?”

  He sighed and moved ahead, giving her his back as she had dared him.

  Let her try to run. He would enjoy the chase.

  It was hard not to deliver a taunting challenge back. He had to think of a more mature way to deal with Kaila.

  She wanted answers. He could provide some and perhaps gain her cooperation. They weren't accomplishing anything by throwing barbs at each other, only pricking shallow wounds.

  “Your father is waiting with your daughter, Jill. The princess, Victoria, and her brother, Victor, are with them. A dragon did indeed try to kidnap Princess Victoria, but she escaped him by using a transport spell in a circle that I’ve never seen before to vanish it. Jill helped. Prince Victor was a bit too late.”

  “That seems rather summarized,” she commented with suspicion instead of thanking him.

  “I’m sure your father would be happy to enlighten you further,” he told her.

  The claim between Prince Victor and Jill could be left to the general to explain.

  Jaeson had something rather more unsettling to discuss. The timing of it had to be right. Kaila needed to trust him to open up.

  He wanted to ask Kaila more about what had happened two decades ago, when she had run after destroying her own castle and home.

  Jill had been convinced that there should've been at least two bodies. Jill didn't dare give them more detail, clearly still hiding something about her past from her grandfather.

  Kaila had many secrets that Jaeson was determined to bare. Of course, she seemed determined not to let him get a word in edgewise. It made her a very difficult subject to interrogate.

  Anyone personal to the interrogator was always toughest to question. Emotions overrode sensibilities and led to errors in logic.

  “Why did you even come for me?” she asked.

  It was a reasonable question, but that didn’t mean he had to answer it honestly.

  “You know I am loyal to your father.”

  “He hardly needs you to come fetch me,” she said, using his word for the task.

  “After the visit from the other prince, the general thought it prudent to be prepared for obstacles.”

  “Which prince?”

  “Earth magic,” he replied, dismissively. The general had already sent a spy to keep an eye on that troublemaker.

  “There’s more than one with earth,” she curtly reminded him.

  “William,” Jaeson responded, dropping the royal title.

  “He wants Jill,” Kaila said.

  She sounded furious. Seems as if father and daughter both hated Prince William.

  “Your father would sooner spit polish the shoes of a fire-demon than give Jill to that pompous dust devil,” Jaeson admitted, not sugar coating his treasonous opinion.

  It was bad enough that they had to allow the fire-water prince’s claim to give him hold over Jill for now.

  Perhaps Kaila could talk some sense into her youngest daught
er. A nice earth lord, with an even temperament, would be a better match for a girl as high-strung as Jill. She didn’t need any more fuel added to the fire.

  “Is Jill hurt?” Kaila asked, a little quieter.

  “No.”

  The panic attack Jill had in the pub earlier, when they’d talked about the dead body at the Norwood castle ruins, had probably been harder on the general than Jill.

  Kaila shot him her next question. “Have you heard anything about Elizabeth, my oldest daughter?”

  He knew who Elizabeth was now, but he didn’t react in a way that let Kaila know this was newer information to him.

  Let her think that Jill had spilled the beans already on their secrets. Kaila was more apt to say something if she thought he already knew about it.

  “Elizabeth isn’t with us,” he said, deferring this conversation for the general, too.

  “Did you look? She was kidnapped by another vampire. One of the princes, the other one with earth, actually. It was over a small misunderstanding.”

  She spoke the truth, but still tried not to tell him much at all. A failed attempt to hide the significance of what she’d revealed to ask her worried question.

  For Prince George to have kidnapped Elizabeth personally meant that the little misunderstanding was a big deal.

  Important enough that the leader of the Dogs had left the castle—and the security detail that he was in charge of handling—in order to complete a task that seemed like something any grunt could have been assigned.

  “Jill and Princess Victoria were the ones to tell us about Elizabeth. Prince George is in charge of her protection. Had you forgotten his name? He’s much more worthy an earth prince than William, and more than capable of keeping Elizabeth safe,” Jaeson said.

  He hadn’t really gotten all of those details from the young witches. It was a regurgitation of what Kaila had just told him, though he had added on the bit about protection.

  If George was a threat to Elizabeth, he’d expect Kaila to refute it.

  “I hope Daemon made it,” she muttered to herself.

  That wasn't the answer he had expected from her. He should have ignored it out of politeness, as she had been speaking under her breath.