Chapter 4 Alaric
Alaric
Fucking irritating incubus. I stomped down the trail toward the cabin where the bear shifter lived while on campus. Thunder rumbled overhead, lightning flashing at intervals. In truth, I should have thanked him for stealing my phone. It gave me a legitimate reason to delay going home.
Dad expected me back by tomorrow evening. Just for one night, thankfully. Most likely to get me in the same room as Petronella, even though Kinara was barely cold in her grave.
Assuming Brianna hadn’t dug her up already.
Black magic required sacrifice, and a fresh corpse was essential for some spells. Don’t ask me how I knew this. My stomach still curdled at the memory of Rink carving up a recently deceased servant girl. The sickly sweet stench of rotten flesh had lingered for days.
Knowing what I did about black magic, I had to wonder whether the abduction of lesser magicals was linked to Brianna’s evil experiments.
If I got the chance tomorrow, I would visit the dungeons to see if she had anyone imprisoned down there other than my mother. And if she did, maybe I could figure out what my father and his evil witch wife were up to.
The wind roared through the thick trees, so cold I could feel the kiss of ice in my bone marrow despite my thick down-filled jacket. I could have cast a heat spell, but the frigid temperatures helped distract me from all that was wrong in my world.
The closer I got to Maverick’s cabin, the more I wondered why the incubus had been so insistent that I come. Surely if the witch had a headache or whatever, she could visit the healers, right?
There’d been nothing wrong with her when I left Thornville. Had she sustained some kind of sex injury? Or maybe the vampire asshole had sucked her dry?
It was a distinct possibility. Vampires on the brink of starvation were feral creatures, ruled by their bloodlust. Sure, the vampire prince was older than dirt, but it didn’t mean he was immune to bloodlust.
A shiver of disquiet ran through me. I sped up before realizing it couldn’t be that serious or Zane would have teleported me directly to her.
The trees thinned. Snow floated down from the sky in fat, wet flakes, obscuring the path. By the time I reached the covered deck outside the bear shifter’s cabin, my lips were blue.
As I lifted my hand to knock, the door swung open to reveal the grinning incubus.
“Vanilla popsicle. So glad you could make it.”
I threw a punch at him, but the fucker blinked out of view before I could connect with his jaw. The momentum threw me forward, and I stumbled through the doorway, nearly falling over the damned kitsune.
The fucking thing growled and sank its teeth into my leg. When I howled and kicked out, it blinked out of sight, reappearing on the kitchen table, baring its teeth at me.
“For a powerful mage, you’re not very graceful,” the vampire commented with dry amusement.
“Fuck off.” Brushing the snow from my shoulders, I scanned the room. “Where is she?”
“Aww, he cares after all.” The incubus smirked before pointing to the couch. “There.”
The witch lay in the bear’s arms, her skin almost gray in the muted light from a small lamp. Goddess. The last time I’d seen her, she’d sparkled so bright it had hurt my eyes. And also my heart because no matter what bullshit I told myself, my stupid heart wanted her.
So fucking badly.
“Did the vamp take too much blood?” The thought of the bloodsucker drinking from her veins made me want to fry him, but I reined in the compulsion to let my storm magic loose.
It didn’t prevent an ominous rumble of thunder above the cabin, so loud and ferocious the entire structure trembled on its foundations.
“No. He’s not fed from her since we took her into the club.” Maverick’s nails lengthened into claws. He rumbled softly, his eyes glowing amber as the witch whimpered but still didn’t wake.
I reached out and touched her wrist, being careful not to get too close to the bear. I didn’t feel like being disemboweled tonight.
Ignoring his low growls, I pushed my magic into the witch. The rush of power that hit me almost knocked me over. I’d massively underestimated her.
We all had.
And if my father discovered her, he would lock her up and drain every last bit of that power.