Chapter 10 Raven
Raven
Male voices arguing penetrated the thick, sludgy darkness that smothered me. Was this a dream? If so, it was a painful one.
I sifted through my memories, but everything was murky. First, the club, where my bear and my incubus had… no. Not thinking about that.
Then something…bad.
Oh, goddess save us all, was my merman still alive?
My magic churned inside my chest as I focused inward, searching for the tether that linked me to Kai.
It was still there, still intact, but a faint recollection of a cave beneath the ocean, where Kai screamed in agony as an ugly old woman forced him to drink a potion, made my head pound.
I reached out. Was I still in the cave? Or was that just a nightmare?
My fingers brushed against a thick blanket, and from the pine-fresh smell mixed with wood smoke, we were in Maverick’s cabin in the forest. My mates must have brought me back here after I collapsed.
“Drink,” I whispered. The room fell silent.
“You should probably intervene,” Kenji deadpanned. “Or you might have one less mate to worry about.”
“Yes, we need to save Kai!”
“Um, I was talking about the storm mage. The incubus is about to stab him to death.”
That got my attention.
“Little mate?” My bear scooped me up, blanket and all. “Do you need food? A drink? A bath? Tell me.”
I cracked open my eyes to see the incubus pinning Alaric to the wall with a vicious-looking blade while Adam slumped in a chair, with deep mauve shadows beneath bloodshot eyes.
“Why are you here?”
His chin jerked up. “Oh, thank the goddess, my sweet girl. I wasn’t sure whether the spell had worked. The brimstone powder was old, and the demon blood was contaminated with impurities.”
“Demon blood?” Dear goddess, I hoped nobody had forced that down my throat.
“Your life force was being eroded by a powerful dark-magic spell cast by the sea witch. Your guardian needed demon blood, among other things, to cast a counterspell,” Maverick explained.
Zane shoved Alaric away and rushed over to snatch me away from Maverick, who roared in anger. My possessive bear lunged toward us, claws out, but Zane blinked me from one side of the room to the other.
“We don’t need the storm mage, pet. Please let me kill him. It would be my honor, little witch.”
Goddess, save me. Being unconscious solved so many problems.
Adam muttered something rude that I didn’t catch before he stood.
“I should go before anyone sees me here. Raven, I want you to reconsider coming back to the farm. It’s safer there. Dark magic spells are deadly.” He swallowed hard. “It took all I had to nullify the spell the sea witch cast. I might not be successful next time.”
“I have questions,” I said, ignoring his plea for me to return home. Questions about my heritage. Lots of questions. “Can’t you stick around a bit longer?”
“Sadly, no. I can’t leave the witches unprotected with demon attacks on the rise. Willow and the others are not strong enough to fight demons.”
I poked Zane’s chest, and he rather reluctantly released me, letting me go to Adam on shaky legs.
When was the last time I ate something?
“Now you know how I feel when the kitchen runs out of bacon,” Kenji muttered in a woeful attempt at empathy.
“Not the same thing at all,” I pointed out. Had he even cared when I collapsed?
“Of course I cared. If you die, it will make me very sick, and sick kitsunes can’t eat bacon.”
I almost rolled my eyes at his lack of compassion. I bet Professor Oakman’s cat, Angelica, was way more loving than Kenji.
“Thank you for helping me.” I wrapped my arms around Adam’s waist. He stiffened for a second before relaxing and returning my hug. Adam had never been much of a hugger. Not since my mother died. Or so Willow had once told me when I complained he never showed me much physical affection.
“I’ll always be there for you, Raven. I made a promise to your mother when she passed that I’d do whatever it took to keep you safe.”
“About that…I’d like to talk about Mom,” I said before a loud banging on the door distracted me.
“Hellloooo? Anyone in? I can see the lights, so don’t pretend to be out!”
Glynda?! Goddess, I’d missed my witch friend.
“Who is it?” Adam barked. “I can’t be seen here.”
“Glynda, my best friend. She’s a witch.” I went to open the door, but my incubus beat me to it.
The minute the door cracked open, Glynda swept in on a cloud of snowflakes. She shook her newly dyed pink hair and then squeaked with excitement when she saw me.
“Raven! Oh my goddess, you’re safe! I was soooo worried about you over the holidays. I pictured all kinds of awful things happening to you, like demon attacks, feral wolf attacks, mage attacks, and worse. Goddess, please tell me you found the vampire.”
The room fell silent.
I hadn’t told Adam about my vampire mate, and from the way his jaw dropped in shock, vampires were not on today’s bingo card for him.
“Vampire?”
Glynda’s eyes widened in panic. “Um, I meant vampire book. It’s a super smutty book on WitchReads.
I recommended it to Raven before the holidays.
” Her voice trailed off as she stared at the fireplace, probably praying someone would set fire to Maverick’s cabin and save her from a raging case of foot-in-mouth disease.
Adam folded his arms across his chest and skewered me with a hard look.
“Vampire smut? Am I expected to believe this?”
I sighed. Adam always knew when I was lying, so there was no point in making up some nonsensical explanation.
“It’s okay, Glynda. Adam’s my guardian. I trust him, so it’s fine that he knows about Rasmus.”
“Do tell, Raven.” Ugh, from his frosty tone, now he was mad at me. So much for a free pass given I nearly died recently. I lifted my chin and stiffened my spine. To Adam, I was still a naive witch with zero life skills, but I’d grown up a lot since being at Starfall Academy.
It was about time he saw me as I really was: a mature, independent witch with five soul-bonded mates and an irritating kitsune familiar.
“Excuse me?! I’m not irritating!”
“You need to eat, little mate. This conversation can wait.” My bear’s voice rumbled in my head as he glared at Adam.
“And I need to recharge my magic…” Zane smirked while Maverick’s nostrils flared when he picked up on my interest in recharging Zane’s magic. But we didn’t have time to eat or have sex.
My merman was dying.
“My fifth mate is a vampire. Rasmus Dvorak.”
Adam shook his head dismissively. “That’s not possible. The bloodborne virus killed all the vampires.”
“No it didn’t.” A seductive voice floated down from the landing. We all looked up to see my vampire mate. His eyes locked onto me, and I shivered. Goddess, I’d forgotten how sexy Rasmus was. How much I craved his touch.
How much I craved them all.
“Keep thinking about how much you crave us, pet. It does wonders for me.” Zane’s purr in my ear helped flush my lustful musings away. I couldn’t afford to let my mates distract me. Not with Kai in so much danger.
“I don’t understand,” Adam said as Rasmus glided downstairs. “How did you survive?”
Stars above, we didn’t have time for this.
“Enough!” I yelled before Rasmus could reply. “Save the Cliff Notes version for later. Kai’s in trouble, and I need to save him!”
“Raven, sweetheart, if the sea witch has him, it’s already too late.” Adam reached out with a sympathetic arm pat, which pissed me the fuck off. He might believe Kai was as good as dead, but that was bullshit. No way was I about to abandon my sweet merman.
“And besides,” he added. “There’s no way for you to reach him in the mer kingdom.”
“Actually,” Zane said, his arms still locked around my waist. “There is a way into the mer kingdom for those of us without gills.”
Before I could respond, Rasmus blinked over to me and tore me from the incubus’s arms.
“She’s not going anywhere near the Mer Queen. That bitch will kill her on sight,” he growled.
Maverick agreed with Rasmus’s assessment, while Alaric kept his pretty mouth shut.
“Hey, I wasn’t suggesting we actually use the fae portal,” Zane muttered. “I was merely pointing out its existence. The fae use it to do deals with the Mer Queen. Fae like Farris.”
“Farris? The creepy guy from the club?” I remembered him.
“That’s the one.”
“Wait a hot minute,” Glynda piped up, having kept out of the conversation since revealing Rasmus’s presence to Adam. “You met a fae? An actual fae?”
“Yes. I’d like to hear more about that,” Adam said. “As well as all the other things you’ve been keeping from me!” From his scowl, he wasn’t happy about my poor communication, which made me cringe a little until I reminded myself I was an independent witch with shit-hot magic and five sexy mates.
Kenji got up from his pile of blankets and stretched.
“Since nobody has remembered to feed me in, like, forever, I’m off to find some snacks.” Something glimmered under the blankets, and my eyes narrowed, but before I could quiz him, he disappeared, along with the shiny object.
A wave of exhaustion hit me hard. Even though I’d only just woken up, my body craved more sleep. It must be a side effect of the dark magic curse, or maybe the cure. Who knew?
“I don’t want to talk about the fae, I just want to go find my merman before he dies,” I whispered, mostly to myself because nobody else was listening. They were all too busy trying to talk over one another. Aside from Alaric, who seemed intent on leaving.
The door opened and slammed shut as he slipped out into the night. A cold blast of snow and wind swept in, sending the flames in the hearth roaring up the chimney.
Goddess, it must be several degrees below freezing out there. I hoped he didn’t freeze to death on his way back to the dorms. That would be truly tragic.
My vampire picked me up and moved us closer to the fire, even though fire was lethal to vampires.
He sat down on the soft couch, and I snuggled into him, enjoying his cool, metallic scent.
Since Zane couldn’t be left out of the snuggle-fest, he joined us.
Surprisingly, Rasmus didn’t complain. Thank the goddess at least two of my mates had no issues with sharing.
“Everyone, sit down,” Maverick said in a resigned tone. “Raven needs rest and food. We can talk after she’s eaten.”
Adam looked torn. He’d been about to leave when Glynda showed up, but after some hesitation, he sighed and took a seat in the armchair near the window.
“Will Willow and the others be okay?” I asked, feeling guilty that he’d had to leave them to help me.
“They should be for now. I strengthened all the wards around the farm before I left. Nothing will get through, and if it does, I’ll know immediately.”
I pushed my plate away. Maverick had made eggs and sausages with stacks of toast and given me way more than I could eat. Not even a polar bear shifter would have finished the mountain of food my mate had insisted I needed to recuperate.
“One more bite,” he cajoled, forking up some eggs.
“Said the vampire to the human,” Zane joked.
Rasmus hissed with displeasure, his arm tightening around my waist. “I never fed from humans. Only consenting magical blood donors. At least until I had no choice.”
I shivered at the memory of my vampire mate’s fangs penetrating my neck and other parts of him penetrating me in equally pleasurable ways.
“Hold that thought, little queen,” he whispered in my ear as sharp fangs grazed the skin above my throbbing vein.
Stars above, I was getting distracted again. Forcing my libido to quit before I behaved inappropriately in front of my guardian, I sucked in a calming breath and prayed for some self-control.
My bear’s eyes glowed amber when he stared at me. Damn it. He’d smelled my arousal. Of course he had. Glynda’s gaze flipped between me and Rasmus like she had a million and one questions. Which, knowing her, she probably did.
“Um, we need to talk about, um, blood stuff,” she whispered when Rasmus finally let me up so I could use the bathroom.