Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  He put his tail to good use, careful not to swipe at any of the Dogs.

  No killing the boys.

  They wouldn’t be satisfying prey. Even these other sickly smelling vampires were unworthy of a fight. He’d leave them to his soldiers.

  “Move slower around him, nothing sudden. And put your sword away, for Maeren’s sake, Sam!” a female advised.

  Pan. Family.

  The dragoness was going to ride on his back until he could get her somewhere safe to shift herself.

  He tolerated the riders—greater in number than he was used to carrying, although Pan was light as a child.

  The sickly vampires he snapped at or swung his tail. His riders were good with their boots.

  “Hang on tight!” Pan shouted as Raphael tensed his body.

  His wings snapped thick branches like they were twigs. The sickly vampires still clinging to his legs dropped at his sudden takeoff.

  There was cursing, but none of his passengers lost their seats completely.

  As soon as he cleared the top of the trees, he flapped towards the light caves.

  His castle had once been housed on top of them, spiralling up from the centre of the mountain like a ribbon of gold between the thick, craggy rocks.

  He was going home. It felt right.

  Too long had the dragons been split into petty clans.

  Raphael was king. He was going to reclaim his home, so he might bring his gaisa back and keep her safe.

  There was something foul afoot in Dragos.

  The stench of the sickly vampire blood all over his clawed feet, exemplifying the rot.

  His Gaisa couldn’t be allowed to wander unprotected even one day more.

  A Stand

  Geer

  Elizabeth was still as reckless and brave as Geer had witnessed in the human realm, when he’d visited her through the mate-bond.

  She would have charged the stampeding vampires attacking them without a thought of how overwhelming the odds were against her.

  Thank Maeren that he’d been close enough to stop her.

  Daemon immediately called his lighting-familiar and counter attacked without needing direction.

  George looked to Geer and the witch he held fast.

  “Come, take her, I have to organize our dragons!” Geer shouted.

  George nodded.

  He knew his Dogs were in the thick of it—with Pan—but he didn’t hesitate to go to Elizabeth, prioritizing their mate.

  Good soldiers made hard decisions on the fly. Elizabeth was here. The Dogs and Pan were unknown, possibly already casualties.

  Hopefully not, but Raphael would take responsibility for his torq.

  “I can bring out my familiar and fight from an amplification circle with Elizabeth,” George offered as he took possession of their mate, grabbing hold of one of her hands.

  “Do it. I don’t have the numbers of the attackers yet,” Geer said.

  “Roughly three hundred,” Elizabeth said.

  Geer gave her a probing look, already checking her mind.

  She managed to estimate the number of minds pinging her shields, separating the different signals from dragons and these zombie-vampires.

  “They’re the same as we faced outside of town, at that field. Something is wrong with their magic. It’s why I didn’t detect them earlier. They feel almost like humans, but this strange magic inside them is eating their bodies,” Elizabeth said.

  “How did you deal with them last time?” George asked, growling.

  George hadn’t known. He was in her head now and Elizabeth was too busy searching for Pan’s mind amongst hundreds to pay attention to her mind’s deeper barriers.

  “We will discuss Elizabeth’s reckless actions on that day and why she kept the incident from you later,” Geer said. “Get our mate in a circle. I must take charge before all of our dragons are lost to bloodlust.”

  As soon as George took Elizabeth away, chalk in hand, Geer turned to face the chaos of the fighting vampires and already shifted dragons.

  He opened his mouth and fought through the magic clamped around his neck to let out a dragon roar that shook the mountain.

  Human throats weren’t meant to make such a sound, forcing a partial shift of his cords—usually impossible for any dragon other than royalty.

  An old dragon picked up a few tricks.

  It was enough to get the attention of half of the mêlée.

  The sickly zombie-vampires were mindless, even to instincts that should have told them to run at that threatening roar.

  “Prepare to burn once Raphael and dragoness are clear!” Geer shouted.

  He signalled for unshifted soldiers to come to him.

  At least one had strong earth, thankfully. It still would be difficult for only that soldier to do what Geer needed.

  “Create a containment line around the fighting to limit the fire spread. Ask the earth-prince for help if he’s able,” Geer directed.

  He sent a telepathic request to George.

  "Yes, I can help. Elizabeth, you will need to pull your familiar to aid the fight if I use mine to shift the earth for a proper containment line. The trees are tall here. It’ll need to be wide, a lot of rocks and burnable fuel to move."

  "Dragomir will be constrained by having to limit the use of flammable lightning. Rai will also be restricted the same. We need that barrier or the mountain is going to burn. There are too many of them to handle,” Daemon said.

  Geer pointed out George to the other earth soldier.

  George was already in an amplification circle that he’d quickly drawn.

  He hadn’t started amplifying yet.

  Pulling out a huge dragon slayer earth-sword, he swung it and shouted an incantation, directing his familiar at the forest edge.

  The magic boomed.

  Elizabeth slapped her hands over her ears, staring in shock as a giant rock troll formed out of boulders and lava veins appeared in an area of flattened trees.

  Dragons paused and looked as well.

  George’s rock troll was one of the most impressive offensive type familiars that most of them would have ever seen.

  It could literally plow through a squadron like they were toy soldiers.

  George directed it to clear-cut the forest of fuel for a wide boundary line.

  The familiar tore up the ground, uprooting trees and tossing the burnable wood like they were mere sticks as he cleared the path.

  Raphael had already left with a number of passengers on his back during the commotion. He had to be carrying Pan and all of the Dogs out of danger.

  They were headed to the light clan caves, strangely enough.

  Hopefully, the direction was unimportant, Raphael planning to circle back around and just trying to fly them free of the fighting for now.

  Geer couldn’t spare even one dragon to chase after them.

  It was shifting time for all but him, everything he could do to organize the fight completed.

  He would have to join Elizabeth and George in their amplification circle.

  Geer let out another roar, this one even more aggressive than his first.

  "Fall back towards the amplification circle, Daemon,” Geer directed.

  "I will need a couple more minutes to complete the boundary for the fire,” George said.

  "The dragons won’t burn until I roar again. The rest of the soldiers will shift, however, and it will become hazardous out here to be small and easily trampled,” Geer explained.

  Elizabeth was amplifying.

  George had left the circle, so he could direct his familiar without worrying that the earth-power would snap back and shatter her bones.

  "I’m almost done. Are you going to join her?" George asked, trying to keep a nervous eye on their mate.

  "Yes, I need to stay in this form,” Geer said.

  "I will come as well," Daemon said.

  All three of them worked their way through the field of combat towards Elizabeth.

 
; George took care of any of the sickly vampires that got too close. He was the last one to shift inside of the circle, after Daemon put a hand on his brother and dragged him along.

  Lightning hit all three of them, stealing some of Elizabeth’s amplified power. They began to glow.

  “I’m going to pull out Dragomir now, if burning is a go,” Daemon said.

  Geer nodded.

  “I need a fire-sword or the words,” Elizabeth said.

  “First Dragomir, then Rai!” Daemon shouted up to her, where she was levitating.

  He had the fire-sword in his hand and wasted no time pointing it to the sky, calling on Dragomir.

  The roar of his familiar blended with Geer’s own last roar for the shifted dragons to start burning.

  Orion immediately tugged at Geer’s chest, eager to be freed, so he could greet the lightning familiar flying overhead.

  A ripple of scales shifted over Geer’s hands as he fought Orion back.

  This was not the right time for a meet between their familiars!

  It only got worse as Daemon tossed his fire-sword up to Elizabeth—who caught it expertly.

  —Rai!—

  Geer growled at Orion’s intrusion into his thoughts. The familiar had gotten bolder.

  —Orion, our mate needs all of her mates. She doesn’t wear our torq yet. Shifting will be a distraction from what her other mates do to protect her.—

  —Put our torq around her neck and I will submit to your judgement on this, Geer.—

  It wasn’t much of a choice. He was losing the battle against a shift, so much more difficult with a mate to defend and a true battle to be fought.

  He’d not seen a good fight for decades. The torq wasn’t going to be able to bind his shift in this state of high alert.

  Levitating up to Elizabeth while her other mates were busy directing their familiars to their defence, Geer acted quickly.

  He floated in front of her, blocking her sight of the battle, and grabbed onto her fire-sword to stop her from using it.

  “My familiar wants you to wear our torq, or else he’s threatened to force my shift. There’s not enough room in here for my dragon,” Geer said.

  Elizabeth tried to jerk the fire-sword free, but he had a good grip on the handle and used his dragon strength.

  “Why?” she asked, looking at him with an accusing gaze.

  “He wants Rai. The torq will allow them to communicate.”

  She’d worn Raphael’s torq once, so she had an idea of how it worked. Although, things were also different between mates.

  He saw as her indecision cleared from her eyes. She blinked and nodded.

  “Take it off and put it on your own neck,” Geer said, leaning to give her better access.

  She reached for the ends of the tor, where it could be twisted properly.

  “I trust that we can readdress this decision after the battle?” she asked him, hesitating a moment.

  He slumped forward, a vision overtaking his eyesight and his ability to respond.

  ~ Dragons fighting—female warriors who weren’t shifted and the scarred hides of a few older males. The light clan. They fought an earth battalion at the foothills of the Wastes.

  One dragon could take ten of each of the earth soldiers. The other side was losing badly, looking as if they’d been caught unprepared. More earth-soldiers were spilling out from a weakly glowing portal.

  Suddenly, Elizabeth’s sister yelled her name, standing in a chalked circle. ~

  Warm hands came around to catch Geer, air boosting his mate’s hold from under his feet.

  Elizabeth yelled at him as if from far away. Shook him.

  He could sense her as his vision faded, but the magic still monopolized his eyes and muscles, slowly releasing him from its grip. Even his breathing was attuned to what he was seeing instead of under his body’s control.

  His torq twisted open again between Elizabeth’s fingers—feeling as if he was doing it himself—and then wrapped around her neck.

  The heat from her magic fired into it instantly.

  He finally broke free from the vision. He dropped to the ground and shifted.

  Orion apologized, but it wasn’t his familiar’s demands that had forced this shift.

  He hoped the torq would allow him to communicate, as well as the blood bonds he’d taken from George, Daemon, and Phillip.

  The vision demanded immediate action.

  "Gaisa, your family needs us!"

  The End.

  In Witch Hell Reigns

  Yes, this was the worst cliffhanger of the series. This is also the longest book (so far) for Maeren. I think I can beat it with the finale!

  In Witch Hell Reigns is my sole writing project to complete at this time. Join my readers group on FB for the latest updates.

  Mercedes Jade Readers

  I would love to hear from you. It’s been a tough year, to be frank. Your support means the world to me.

  Elemental Magic Classifications

  FIRE - Hottest to coldest fire for classification. Total destructive potential also used. Highly divisive class due to competition for nobility and military placement.

  Lightning

  White Hot

  Blue

  Green

  Red

  Orange

  Black (defensive only/can withstand lightning)

  WATER - Energy to form/Distance dispersed of water determines strength of power. Some forms only possible with paired fire.

  AIR - Speed of air/destructive potential used for classification. Consideration also given to stability when flying/levitation. Speciality sub-forms include storms.

  EARTH - Mainly split into healing arts and physical strength by amount of rock that can be shifted for classification. Can possess both types of earth, but usually one prevails as stronger. Blood witches are a rare subtype that may be able to heal lost chi.

  Glossary of Terms

  Maeren - Alternate dimension that is home to magic wielding elementals such as witches, vampires, and dragon shifters.

  Elemental - a species that is born with the ability to absorb magic to bind in their blood and can wield the power.

  Magic - Power divided into four elemental types: fire, water, air, & earth—with multiple subtypes and divisions.

  Chi - Magic storage in an elemental’s body that works like the lymph system in humans. Chi pools with the blood vessels to allow magic and magic-binding proteins to interact. The chi centers around the heart.

  Chi Incineration - The power stored in the chi can be released by physical penetration, such as by staking. This will release all the magic from the individual immediately, even pulling it from the protein bound magic, and transform the body shell into pure energy for transport between realms.

  Soul - Elementals have two souls. The first is similar to the soul of humans. The second is their magical soul, which also refers to the chi.

  Drinking ‘to the quick’ - Draining the chi of an elemental completely through blood drinking—taking a feed too far. Drinking ‘to the quick’ will destroy the drained elemental’s power forever, although it does not always result in death. Demons are known to drink a witch ‘to the quick’ to steal a new power.

  Witches - Female elementals. Can be dragon shifters as well. Possess one to two elemental affinities; generally weaker in power than male elementals. Produce more magic-binding protein than male elementals. Often feed male elementals their blood to provide them with the excess magic-binding protein.

  Vampires - Male elementals. Can be dragon shifters as well. Possess one to two elemental affinities; generally stronger in power than female elementals. All male elementals do not produce enough magic-binding protein on their own to access their full power, and therefore, feed upon females to make up the deficit.

  Demons - Male elementals who have stolen extra power from the act of feeding on a witch until her chi is drained completely, transferring all her magic, along with her chi. Demons either increase their primar
y elemental affinity or develop a new one from the stolen chi. Can have all four affinities, technically, but often have two to three. The extra chi makes them chronically low on magic-binding protein as they have such high power demands to meet.

  Magic-binding proteins - A protein that binds free magic in the blood so that it can be activated and used. Free magic cannot be wielded. The proteins are specific to an elemental affinity.

  Tasting - The act of ingesting blood to detect its magic affinity. Typically done by male elementals to females they wish to feed upon to check compatibility.

  Feeding - The act of ingesting blood to absorb the magic-binding proteins; most often male elementals upon females. The male will prime the witch first with his own magic to cause the binding protein to saturate her blood near the pulse points, where he will penetrate with his fangs.

  Prime - The act of an elemental using magic on a potential feeder; most often male elementals upon females. The witch will react with sexual arousal when properly primed, an instinctual response to a potential mate - thought to be a vestigial biological drive to procreate. Priming can occur even without attraction, although this isn’t common.

  Blood memory - As unique as a fingerprint, a blood memory is formed from the magic in the blood an elemental ingests when tasting or feeding. This memory allows the elemental to temporarily track whoever he/she has bitten. The distance this works over is a well guarded secret by male elementals, but it is believed to work through pheromones produced by the witch, of which the scent may dissipate over time.