Amber- Shadow Witch Read online

  He looked doubtful, as if my string of logic or thought process was completely alien to him, and it was. I could see the wheels turning and my stomach tightened as I felt the violent intent suffuse the air around me. It was almost as if I sensed the violence to come.

  He shook his head, “There is only one way to know if your world is a threat,” and he exploded into a dragon.

  Perfect. If I understood him right if I died he would say we aren’t a threat and leave. I wasn’t about to just give up my life though, not for a maybe.

  I embraced my magic just a little too late, time slowed as the breath from his fire hit my shields. It wasn’t just flames, it was strong magic. I just had to hope my shields would hold long enough. I dodged while I built a quick nasty storm and dropped a tornado on top of him. A downpour started and I pulled all the water I could into the twister, before freezing it into sharp blades of ice.

  I heard the dragon’s roar of pain and the fire breath doubled in power, my first shield was blown away despite the fact I wasn’t in its direct path, and my second wouldn’t last very long. My ice twister was buffeting and ripping into his wings, they were almost torn off in short order, but the scales on his body seemed to protect him from serious damage there.

  I took a page from my sister’s book and called down lightning strikes. The dragon lunged toward me, he was moving so fast in real time I doubted I’d see a blur, but subjectively he was maybe at a quarter my speed. That was a lot faster than in my sister’s memories, but then she was on magic world at the time of her challenge, and the time dilation on this world wasn’t nearly as great.

  He swung a claw at me and I dodged as fast as I could. A human moving quarter speed would never have hit me, but I was dodging something the size of a large boulder. He caught me on my arm and I went flying away toward some trees. More lightning came down then, three, six, nine strikes. The lightning burnt his scales, and I saw the ice tornado start to cut through his damaged protections and rip into his body as I struck a tree.

  My physical protection shield overloaded. Apparently being batted by a dragon paw and hitting a tree was a lot worse than a sniper round, which the shield could easily stop. My brain felt rattled and I collapsed on the ground. It saved me from broken bones, but I knew I had a bad concussion, and I was burnt over much of my body as well.

  I managed to hold onto my magic and my consciousness long enough to watch the storm finish tearing the dragon apart. A fierce feeling of satisfaction ran through me, fucking dragon. Then I lost a hold of both and fell into darkness…

  I felt a wet tongue slobbering all over my face. Other than that I felt good. My body felt… normal. No burns, no concussion, and I was lying in a bed… somewhere. I opened my eyes a little and looked at the source of slobber, it was a wolf. Not a shifter, an honest to goodness wolf.

  “Hi there,” I said softly.

  The wolf’s tail started wagging almost violently and he chuffed in greeting.

  Then I heard a woman’s voice with an Irish accent, “Leave the poor girl alone would ya? She needs to be gettin’ some sleep.”

  It was jarring, where the hell was I?

  I turned my head and took my savior in. My first thought was she was gorgeous. She had cascading curly bright red hair, twinkling green eyes, generous lips, and beautiful eyelashes, I could see them from across the room. She looked to be a couple of inches taller than me at five foot six, and had a perfect hourglass figure. Her breasts were… generous to say the least.

  The strangest thing was I could feel her magic, she felt like an angel. I was still a little confused but none of this was making sense, all angels were blonde with blue eyes, it was a rule.

  “Where am I?”

  She grinned at me, “An aide station. Have you gotten a good look at me then? You really should get some more rest love.”

  I guess I’d been staring, “Sorry, just confused, who are you?”

  She frowned, “Name is Lia, I’m a forest ranger and vet. You put up quite a ruckus and Barry led me to you. Got you fixed up but let you sleep. So can you tell me why there’s a torn up dragon in my forest, especially see’in as there is no such thing as dragons?”

  I frowned, “It’s a long story.”

  She nodded, “Figured it would be love, let me get sometin’ for you to drink and you can tell me all about it, unless you want to sleep more?”

  I considered that for a second, I really was fine, “No, I think I’m good, thanks for saving me.”

  I sat up and petted Barry the wolf until she got back. She handed me a hot chocolate and I took a sip.

  She was curious and I couldn’t blame her, so after getting her agreement to be discreet I explained the problem. She was thoughtful and silent until I finished.

  “Well, that’s a problem. I’ll keep yer council, I have no wish to cause a panic.”

  I asked, “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  She just nodded so I went on, “You’re an angel, but I never met one that…”

  She snickered, “The red hair threw you off? I be half an angel. My mother let some tall blonde and blue eyed smooth talker tumble her when he passed through town. I got the healing power, the long life, but I got my mother’s hair and eyes.”

  I nodded and sipped the hot chocolate, it was good.

  “I suppose I should get going.”

  She seemed to weigh something then asked, “Would you be wantin’ to stay for dinner love? It’s getting close to dark and I needs to make my rounds, make sure as none are left in the park, but I’d like to share a meal.”

  She saved my life, she was gorgeous, and I loved her accent. I really couldn’t think of a good reason I had to go. I didn’t have work until Monday and it was only Saturday night.

  I smiled softly, “I think I’d enjoy that, thanks.”

  She snorted, “Don’t ye be thankin’ me, it was my pleasure to help you. Be back before you know it.”

  She got up and headed out, I just might have been staring at her leave. She was gone a full thirty seconds before I realized I was still staring at the door she went out of. I frowned, worried about the dragons. I packaged up my memories of the encounter and sent them to my family and Cat, again leaving out Dawn. I wasn’t sure if some kind of war was inevitable, but it looked like it may be.

  Cat sent, “Well, that wasn’t good. I’m happy you are safe. I’m calling a meeting tomorrow, we need to decide what can be and will be done. Come to your grandmother’s around lunch time. If you’re curious, Mr. Dunhurst has withdrawn from the race for the state senate.”

  I replied, “Okay, thanks. I’ll see you then.”

  Barry whined and I looked down at him. Barry was an odd name for a wolf, wasn’t it?

  “What is it boy?”

  He chuffed and walked around in a circle. I got up and looked down at myself. My clothes were charred in places, but mostly intact and still covering the important bits. I went to the front door and opened it, he raced out and stopped after twenty feet and turned around. I could sense his urgency and his trust in me, but of course I couldn’t talk to him.

  I started jogging and he took off. I had no idea where we were going, but eventually we wound up at the edge of a clearing. The problem quickly became clear. The state parks closed at sunset, but there were about twenty college aged kids. About half of them were carrying beers and they didn’t look twenty one to me. There was also a genius among the group, obviously, since they had decided a bonfire in the middle of the field would be a cool idea.

  Except that they hadn’t bothered to clear out the brush around the mountain of wood, luckily they hadn’t lit it yet. I could feel Barry tensed beside me, a low growl in his throat. It was also apparent they were arguing with Lia. I considered what to do, she seemed like a very strong independent woman, I doubted she would be thrilled if I ran in there to help.

  Still, Barry sensed something out there, why would he be growling at a bunch of stupid drunk college kids?

  I spun o
ut a web of magic on a whim and caught six auras that weren’t human. There were four male demons, a succubus, and an angel out there. Could a normal wolf pick that up? Obviously he thought Lia was in danger. Shit.

  I walked out onto the field, their words were so heated no one even noticed me at first. The three males arguing with her were demons. There were a couple of human women standing with them. The angel was just watching sitting on the ground with a group of others.

  The other demon and succubus weren’t a danger, she was using him for a meal right now. They were under a blanket for privacy a little away from the rest of the group, but it was obviously two people having sex as if completely oblivious to the yelling.

  “You canna’ be here after dark. The park is closing, and you most definitely shoudna’ have a fire, not here. You need a permit and to be in a different place.”

  One of the girls rolled their eyes, and a demon said, “Look honey, we’re just having a party, why don’t you get that stick out of your ass and join us,” he leered, “I bet we could show you a good time.”

  One of the girls looked at him disgusted, but the other two demons agreed. I wasn’t sure I could blame where his thoughts went, Lia was absolutely beautiful, and he was just a bag of male hormones at eighteen years old. Still, I could only excuse the thoughts, the comment was a little crass and way over the line.

  “Aye know yer just havin’ some fun lad, do na make me arrest you for it. Clear out, move the party somewhere else.”

  One of the other demons sneered. Really? I thought that was literary license, like it only happened in the movies and only the bad guys. He obviously had trouble with authority and I guess the mixture of anger and contempt did match his expression. He put up his hand, and I felt him reach for his fire.

  Only some demons could control fire. But his fire was nothing compared to the dragons. I reached out with my magic and leeched the heat and transmuted it easily, so quickly that the fire never really even got lit. My succubus side purred at the power hit as I absorbed it.

  “Now be nice. No fire.”

  They all looked over at me in surprise, like I’d just suddenly appeared. He growled and tried again but I just pulled his power again.

  I gave him a bored look and said, “Sleep puppy,” while hitting him with a sleep enchantment.

  Okay, I really didn’t have to talk to do it, but there was a certain flair for doing it that way, I also didn’t want the kids to mistake what happened or which of us was doing it.

  I shrugged, “Sorry Lia, I wasn’t going to interrupt. Barry led me out here, seemed awful upset. That idiot just tried to summon demon fire,” I smiled, “I think I’ve seen enough fire today.”

  Lia smiled and nodded, apparently she didn’t mind at all. Add confident to independent, it made her even more attractive.

  Lia said, “Listen up, you need to go now, or I’ll call it in. Find somewhere else to party, you can’t do it here.”

  The other two demons didn’t look quite so confident anymore, I got the idea the sleeping boy was the only one of them with fire, and was the main instigator. It didn’t take them long to clear out and before I knew it we were heading back to the cabin.

  I asked, “Lia, where did you come up with the name Barry?”

  She grinned at me, “Seems a strange name for a wolf does it not? The wolf came to me a pup that was abandoned, underweight, scraggly, and a hurt paw. When I healed the wee pup, he decided to stick around. I hadn’t gotten around to namin’ him yet, one night I was listening to an oldies station pretty loud when Copacabana started playing. By the second bridge he joined in, yowling right along with the tune.”

  I giggled which was bad. I mentioned before I never giggle, it’s because I look barely legal, how can I be taken seriously as a spy when I look barely eighteen and most assume I must be an airheaded model. I love being a young beautiful woman, but there is always a down side, it was hard to get taken seriously. No, giggling certainly doesn’t help that perception.

  Still, my giggle grew into a laugh and I had a wide smile on my face, I wasn’t worried about Lia judging me, she’d seen the aftermath of me kicking a dragon’s ass.

  “So… short for Barry Manilow?”

  She giggled back, “You got it.”

  She cooked a pretty good meal for an aide station. It wasn’t her house of course, but she lived here for days at a time when she was on duty. Kind of like a fireman I guess, living at the station house during their forty eight hour shifts.

  After dinner she asked, “I’m not one to normally play it fast, but I really like you. Sometimes I get a feeling for people, and your one of the good ones. Would you…”

  I’m pretty sure I knew what she was going to ask, but she’d looked so beautiful, sexy, and vulnerable just then, that I interrupted her with a kiss. I was hoping this would even be more than a one night stand, Lia impressed me. Maybe finding lovers wouldn’t be so hard after all.

  A part of my mind told me I was being stupid, that real life doesn’t work that way, but I ignored it, or at least, I hoped that part of me was wrong. I was done accepting the leftover crumbs of life, I wanted more in my personal life. I’d come to the conclusion even if this turned out to be simply one night, I wasn’t any worse off than five minutes ago.

  Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t love at first sight. But she did feel like an old friend after just a few hours of being with her. I’m at the point though where my usual bathroom exit after an encounter will not be happening, and I’ll be hoping she’ll trade numbers and I’ll see her again, to see how it goes.

  Her lips were so soft. We shared a sigh of pleasure as our bodies melted together, our tongues teased each other’s as our kiss deepened. I felt a shiver of pleasure go down my back as she ran her fingers through my hair and caressed the back of my neck. I returned the favor, her hair was soft and silky, her skin perfectly smooth.

  We kissed for a long time, slowly exploring each other with our hands, there was no rush or urgency and I felt blessed to savor every moment, every touch, every breath, and every heartbeat. We broke our kiss and smiled in knowing pleasure at each other, it was a joyful thing and not a little silly, like we were both kids with a new toy that amazed us.

  We went to the bedroom, touching and staring at each other on the way as clothes got loosened and then left forgotten behind us on the floor. Every few feet brought on a new round of kissing and exploration. Lia’s body was breathtaking, so soft and yielding. My body was leaking pheromones, sex magic, and I was very wet when we finally reached the bed and collapsed into it holding each other.

  We went slow, each taking turns exploring the other’s body. I lost count of the amount of orgasms Lia and I reached. I just know it was hours later when we were both covered in sweat, liquid silken pleasure, and breathing heavily in each other’s arms, our legs entwined.

  Lia said breathily, “I think I may just keep ya love.”

  She sounded a bit tired too, my inner succubus was very satisfied.

  I smiled and kissed her shoulder, “I’d love to see you again, I guess you don’t have a problem with what I am.”

  She made a scoffing noise, “Yer a wonderful woman Amber, I’d be honored to share ya. You more than make up for it, plus you know, total mind blowing sex,” she giggled, “Can’t find a better lover than a succubus. It’s rare to find one not selfish and with such a big heart.”

  I nodded and felt her falling asleep. I’d definitely be leaving my number. I felt something odd about her, different from earlier, but I couldn’t figure it out. Sleep sounded good, and I was extremely comfortable in her arms, so I allowed it to take me…

  Chapter 7

  When I woke up, I could feel Lia freaking out about something. There was something different and I knew what it was, but my mind was still clogged and it just wasn’t clicking. I got up and slipped into the shower, when I came out and dressed I found Lia in the kitchen making breakfast.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.
/>   Lia looked at me, “I don’t know, I feel different, what did ye do to me love?”

  “Different?”

  She sighed, “I can feel Barry, he’s out front snoozing, dreaming about running through the forest or something like that. I can feel you too, you’re concerned about me, and a little confused.”

  “Oh.” Oh shit, “By any chance, do you have a witch in your bloodline? I think you may be half angel, half witch.”

  She froze while turning the eggs and turned to me.

  “I’m na sure, but that don’ make no sense. Why wouldn’t I already know it? I had no empathy before this morning.”

  I blew out a breath, “Witches have a ritual that activates their powers, it’s done from mother to daughter. Sometimes, if the mother dies, or the child is orphaned for one reason or another, that never happens. In that case a witch can go her whole life with no real powers, except those feelings you get you told me about, and the fact that animals love you. But having sex with a succubus, a large release of power, can have a similar effect.

  “The same thing actually happened to my grandmother, she was in her late twenties when she was awoken, had no clue what she was. Witches love nature too, so it’s not a big surprise you love your job.”

  Lia looked angry, “But I know me mother!”

  I shrugged, “Maybe she wasn’t flipped either, it could go back generations. Maybe one of your ancestors from who knows how far back became an orphan. Your whole line could have been this way for centuries.”

  Lia seemed to calm down a little at this and her anger deflated.

  I smiled a little, redheads…

  “Sorry I jumped down ye throat love, it’s just… weird.”

  I nodded, “You’ll have to learn to use the gift. Maybe my mother or grandmother could train you? I’m not sure if I’d be the best one for it, it’s… frustrating at times.”

  She pulled the eggs off the grill, “You scared of me or sometin’?”