Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  He’d been right to be confident in his ability to make her crave his mouth over her fingers.

  Arrogant, seductive, and determined.

  She couldn’t resist, her pride forgotten as she tightened her grip on his hair and moaned for more.

  A finger tested her sheath, making her inner muscles clamp down. Then he rubbed at her walls, seeming to be searching for—

  She screamed, incoherently, everything tightening and her back arching.

  He pulled back before she came.

  She felt shocked as her body clenched around nothing, his finger gone and his mouth raised.

  He blew a cool, teasing breath against her pussy.

  “Not yet, dark seductress,” Victor said, then growled at her as she tried to shift her hips closer to his mouth.

  He used his water magic to cool her off, only to start his play all over again once she was clean and settled.

  It was no less stimulating on repeat. In fact, she was sure her need was even harder to bear the second time, then the third time that he denied her completion.

  She was a panting, sweaty mess by the time he released her thighs and shifted back up to stare down at her.

  Slowly, she let her hands on his head drift down to his shoulders.

  “Not even once?” she asked, tone begging.

  “My control only goes so far. Maeren, Jill, do you have any idea how close you are to getting my fangs and cock?” he harshly whispered, rolling off of her and lying down on his back.

  He reached a rough hand down to jerk himself once with another curse. She wasn’t the only one left wanting.

  “The only one holding you back is yourself, Vic. I might be muleheaded but you are a complete control freak!” she told him.

  “Do you want to see me lose control, Jill?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” she answered, rolling on her side and reaching for his aroused cock.

  He batted her hand away.

  “No, Jill. Playing with my dick isn’t for you yet. I will lose control, even if only for a few moments. The first time I do that with you watching, I want my fangs in your throat and my cock inside your virgin pussy.”

  “Why?” she asked, frustrated, but also curious.

  “I’ll only lose control when you trust me, Jill.”

  He had gotten up after that almost contradictory statement. He quickly left the room after yanking on his pants and a shirt.

  She tried to get off with her hand, frustrated that it was nowhere as good as when he’d touched her. It was too fast and too short.

  The resulting orgasm only made her primed state worse. She needed fangs to make her release complete.

  With misery, she tucked herself into her bed.

  The two of them slept separate that night, with Victor on the floor at her feet. She had been wrapped up in a lonely blanket on the cold bed.

  He got up in the morning and licked the fingers she had used to pleasure herself, his questing eyes staring down at her rebellious ones.

  “For playing with yourself without permission do you want me to spank your ass or tease you with the icy-finger again?” Victor asked, like there had never been a moment that their game had been paused.

  A short time, where he’d given her a glimpse at how good it could be between them if she followed his lead. Let him continue to play the dominant, until he felt she’d properly submitted to his alpha-tendencies.

  It was a frustrating, exciting, sexually driven game that she wouldn’t stop playing, even if she wished he just got around to finally claiming her properly.

  Her punishment couldn’t last forever.

  For now, she’d better enjoy it.

  “Make it an ice-cock,” she challenged.

  A Toast to Matchmaking

  Elizabeth

  “We’re mates, not lovebirds.”

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes while licking her fingers of delicious, juicy chicken yum.

  Dragons might find wings too bony and delicate to pick off, but she was more than happy to devour the delicacies all to herself.

  “Lovebirds mate for life,” she informed Raphael after using a napkin to wipe her mouth because she wasn’t completely without manners.

  "Gaisa, please do not compare his mate to the chicken you’re eating. It’s only an unfair rumour that we kidnapped witches to feed upon like beasts,” Geer corrected her in their heads.

  Nothing new, there.

  "Pan’s recollection of feedings with the light dragons sure seemed beastly,” Elizabeth retorted, popping the wing tip in her mouth to suck.

  Geer still wasn’t acknowledging their connection out loud. He’d treated her like the captured guest she’d appeared to be to all of the other dragons.

  Raphael knew who she was, but he too, acted indifferent.

  She was waiting for an explanation.

  Geer had ignored her requests to hear the reason for his behaviour, other than to say it was for her safety.

  Pan popped the chicken leg she was sucking out of her mouth, with a loud smack of licking, good pleasure. Pan had actually growled at everyone and stolen the first whole chicken for herself, demanding another two, and perhaps one for her friend, overcooked.

  “So, you agree she is my gaisa?” Raphael asked, handing Pan a cloth napkin.

  “That’s not edible,” Pan said, dismissing his offer.

  “Try a lemon water bowl,” Elizabeth suggested. “Do you think the new clothes could come with a bath for Pan?”

  “Dirt makes me harder to see,” Pan insisted, tearing into a tender chicken thigh.

  “You’re silver. No amount of dirt can cover up your shine,” Elizabeth insisted. “A diamond in the rough,” she added, sincerely.

  “The jewel of my uncle’s eyes,” Pan agreed, slurping very pink chicken juice that Elizabeth refused to acknowledge as blood.

  “Can we get back to my gaisa?” Raphael asked with less patience than the last few times.

  “Her name is Tor,” Elizabeth said. “That’s your first problem, you refuse to shorten your name.”

  Raphael gave that statement the flummoxed look that it deserved.

  “I already told you that Raphy is ridiculous.”

  Geer tried to clear away some of the bones from Pan’s plate and nearly lost a hand.

  “You should learn to compromise. I told you Tor would only call you that when the two of you were private,” Elizabeth said, offering Pan one of her chicken wings.

  “It sounds like something you could call a pet,” Raphael said, again.

  “Hence the compromise,” Elizabeth explained. “You’re missing the point here.”

  Raphael cleared his throat loudly. He looked like he was trying to choke back something he wanted to say.

  “And what point would that be, sparks?” Geer asked.

  Sneaking in her nickname? He’d barely talked to her.

  “A dragon is a completely unsuitable mate—” Elizabeth paused for effect, catching Geer’s sharp look, then continued, “—for Princess Victoria.”

  Pan choked on a bone. Geer smacked her on the back rather hard.

  “I’m trying to help you, Raphy, but without cooperation, I’m afraid the only thing you’re fated for is a cold and lonely bed.”

  “You’re trying to help?” Geer asked, incredulous. “Assaulting Raphael and taking him hostage is helping?”

  "Cease your help. Raphael has been torn from his gaisa’s side—rejected. Do you comprehend how he feels right now? Your sass may be well intended, but it’s ill timed."

  Elizabeth pushed her plate of chicken away. This was going to require focus. Bargaining meant she had to take the high ground.

  Geer—regrettably—was right.

  She was going to have to stop poking the dragons.

  “I rescued Pan from a life of larceny and brought her right to your doorstep in excellent—” She cut off as Raphael’s eyebrows rose and modified that last bit, saying instead, “—fair condition, after taking part in a little dust-up
over clan rights—and possession really is everything that matters—with her more unsavoury cousin.”

  “Yes, you brought a child along with you on your criminal attempt to steal into my room,” Raphael said.

  “I’m not a child!” Pan protested.

  “It wasn’t an attempt. We’re here,” Elizabeth said.

  Geer leaned forward and tore a strip of chicken off a half eaten breast on Elizabeth’s plate that she’d pushed away. He held it up to her mouth.

  She opened her mouth and took it to be polite. Maybe she was still a bit hungry, too.

  “Yes, you’ve accepted our hospitality. How nice of you to join our clan,” Geer said.

  "You left me no choice, gaisa. Raphael needs you under our protection. There are many underfed dragon males in these caves, and unlike rumoured, we don’t kidnap witches here to meet our feeding needs. All dark clan dragons travel to towns in disguise to beg a bite from willing witches. It’s the light clan dragons who steal."

  Elizabeth felt like the bite of chicken she’d swallowed had gotten stuck in her throat.

  What had she gotten herself into now?

  “Your hospitality?” she asked.

  “You let a dragon give you food by his hand. Didn’t Pan explain any dragon traditions to you?” Raphael asked.

  “No, because I’m not a dragon,” Elizabeth said.

  Geer snorted a laugh. “Witch, we are well aware of that fact. Dragoness or not, you’re still bound to Maeren. Dragon laws are not all that different from those you learned as a child. A witch needs protection. She accepts it, willingly, when she takes food from a male’s hand.”

  “Like a claiming tattoo?” Elizabeth asked, shocked.

  "You fucking asshole! First, you stole that mate-bond from me with your taste in the caves while I was unconscious. Then, you do this, knowing I am unaware of the rules in Dragos!" Elizabeth yelled along their connection.

  “Shifters use torqs.” Raphael brought his hand up to touch the thick golden band encircling his neck. It had glyphs carved into it that she didn’t recognize.

  “Pan doesn’t have a torq!” Elizabeth pointed out.

  “She’s too young for a mate or feeding males,” Geer said.

  "What a foul mouth you have, gaisa. Remind me to teach you the names I prefer to be called when I bring you to my bed,” Geer admonished in their heads.

  “I’m only too young by weeks,” Pan said. “Remember Markus?”

  “Her unsavoury cousin? I’ve met him,” Geer said. “You can’t mean you’re to bond with Markus? He’s not suitable for a prin—”

  “Pan’s a princess. I know. But honestly, she’d rather be called a boy. I think I know why now, too. Markus and I met in the Wastes,” Elizabeth explained.

  Raphael exhaled, smoke coming from his mouth.

  Oh, shit.

  “There will be no bonding. Pan has to choose, willingly, according to our laws. I will overtake her guardianship until she makes such a choice,” Raphael said.

  “Shouldn’t you ask Pan first?” Elizabeth prompted.

  Dragon manners were the worst.

  “She drank the lemon water you told me to offer her,” Raphael said, smirking.

  “Wha—?” Pan asked. “Technically, that wasn’t food. I drank it.”

  Raphael sighed. “Do you accept my guardianship? It will mean living with the dark clan until we get things sorted out with your clan.”

  “As long as I can be treated as a boy,” Pan said.

  Geer turned to give Elizabeth a dirty look.

  “You put these ideas in her head with your radical behaviour!”

  “Thank goodness somebody did!” Elizabeth retorted.

  “This is the appreciation we get in return for our forgiveness of your trespasses?” Geer asked.

  “What have I really gotten from the dark clan but aggravated assault—with dragon—on three occasions? The last time was also in violation of a failure to remain at the scene of a collision, interference with the lawful staking of demons feeding on humans, and an attempted biting with the intent to maul and possibly ingest my person. That was also illegal, by the way.”

  Raphael sighed. Geer stubbornly kept glaring at her.

  "You attacked us first. Most of those incidents were unintended. You’re also exaggerating, sparks,” Geer said in an exasperated tone.

  “Oh, I forgot this blanket sized shirt Geer gave me, which can only double as a dress if I wrap the piece of rope Geer provided three times around my waist—and which I also believe he only gave me with the intent to leash or otherwise make me easier to capture, so I declined.”

  "You need to be tied up just to keep you out of trouble!"

  Pan finally pushed her plate of bones away.

  “Wow, you survived three attacks from Raphael? I knew the rumours about you weren’t exaggerated.”

  Pan looked over at her cousin. “That would be embarrassing if it got out.”

  “The witch has to be alive to talk,” Geer threatened.

  "I won’t hesitate to gag you!" Geer added in her head.

  “Add cheesy threats to your list of offences, via your bargaining representative—and the cost of the door should come out of his pay while we’re tallying up transgressions. The bar was necessary to slice in order to enter the room, but the hinges were unreasonable force.”

  “Are you done?” Raphael asked.

  Elizabeth tried to arch one brow at him with the same withering look her mother gave her to say Elizabeth had screwed up and was going to hear it.

  Raphael smiled toothily. Clearly the eyebrow arching thing wasn’t effective on him.

  “You electrocuted me,” Raphael pointed out. Her list of crimes against him was small but serious. “And electrocuted others . . . but they were more deserving of attack.”

  “You hit me so hard midair that you concussed me. Then you left me lying helplessly on the ground with bloodthirsty demons around,” Elizabeth retorted, repeating his worst crime.

  Pan gasped. Even Geer looked a bit uncomfortable.

  Raphael cleared his throat, much quieter this time.

  “I didn’t see you,” he admitted.

  “What? Was I a fly that you swatted accidentally with your tail?”

  “It was dark and I was focused on my mate and the danger surrounding her. I forgot you were there.”

  “I-I . . .” Elizabeth stammered. She felt all the righteous anger deflate with her planned speech. “Really?” she finally asked.

  “I know you stopped the deathblow meant for me,” Raphael added.

  George had sliced Raphael’s dragon form in half, missing the heart of Raphael’s magic and soul that would have resulted in true death instead of merely wounding his familiar.

  It had been because Elizabeth had used her lightning to manipulate George’s mind enough to mess up his intended strike.

  She didn’t know how Raphael had realized it.

  Why wasn’t he making this more difficult?

  It was like he was saying he owed her and all she had to do was ask.

  “We need warriors,” Elizabeth blurted out.

  “How many, what for?” Geer asked, all business and no hesitation or looking for permission from Raphael.

  Well, being forthright was working so far.

  “Daemon needs to take over Maeren, likely forcibly, and put his brother, William, to trial for attempted regicide.”

  “Dragons should not get involved in the Maerenian court politics. Dragos has been separate from the rest of Maeren since the clan wars,” Raphael stated.

  Her disappointment must have showed because Geer cleared his throat and gruffly told her to choose something else.

  “I don’t want anything else,” she said, giving Geer a pointed look and then Raphael. “We’re talking about the attempted murder of your potential father-in-law. Can’t you make an exception for family? How about old alliances, made anew?”

  Geer handed her a small cup of tea he had poured.

&
nbsp; “If it’s between family, then why are you involved?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to mention her relationship with Daemon, but she hesitated, taking a sip of tea instead.

  What was her relationship with Daemon exactly?

  She couldn’t respond as his fiancée or his claimed witch or anything, really.

  Mates wasn’t something she wanted to discuss in front of so many others. Geer knew already, anyway.

  “I’m blood-bonded to Princess Victoria. That makes me kind of family,” Elizabeth said. “She’s my Lasier, or at least she was, I’m not sure how long that lasts,” she mumbled into the cup.

  This got two very interested looks from the males in the room.

  “What did you say your family name was, sparks?” Geer asked.

  “I didn’t mention,” she said.

  “Well, sister-in-law, I suppose I can support the dragons getting involved in Maerenian politics for family reasons. We will need to discuss the particulars with Prince Daemon directly, and I can’t promise anything more than to consider it at this point. Our help for the light dragons is a separate bargain with my cousin. Which prince in particular are you engaged to that made Victoria your Lasier?”

  Raphael had snuck that last bit in, surprising her after he had already thrown her off by the in-law reference.

  “Uh,” she said, then mumbled, “It’s complicated.”

  “George, Phillip, William, Daemon, and Victor are all rather easy to say, so which one is it?” Geer insisted.

  Jerk! He knew the answer. Did that mean he kept it from Raphael? That was the only reason she wasn’t going over there and socking him in the nose.

  “I really couldn’t say one,” she evaded.

  “Without a guardian named or present, I will have to let Geer assume the responsibility for you since you accepted his hospitality,” Raphael announced.

  Oh, he was sly.

  “My mother is waiting for me. You just missed her on your kidnapping attempt,” Elizabeth said as she refused to be so easily trapped.

  “How can we confirm your safety without a name?” Geer asked, seemingly all kind concern.