Page 20 of Which Witch is Willing?
Lucy would make her suffer for that.
Bane was a favorite pet of hers, and if the earth witch no longer existed, he’d come crawling back to her all heartbroken and devastated. Just how she loved her men. It gave her the opportunity to build them up so she could shatter them again and again until they were no more than drones to do her bidding. The thought of Killian Bane as her personal slave sent shivers of delight through her.
This had to happen.
But first, she needed these damn witches and their destructive magic to repair her hideous face and body. Some might call her vain, but over the years she’d found that her beauty had the power to topple kings and destroy governments, while her nightmarish image caused her headaches, what with all the incessant screaming and all.
Lucy tottered from the trees wearing a black veil that reached her shoulders in an attempt to hide her grotesquely disfigured face. She reached her hands out in a pleading gesture and did her best to hide the contempt she felt for the de Moray witches. “Please, I need you to fix me. I have nowhere else to turn.” And didn’t that grate. She wasn’t above groveling to get what she wanted, and at least two of the witches had bleeding hearts and might fall for her sob story.
“I'll fix you...with a nuke,” Aerin sneered.
Though it certainly wouldn’t be Aerin.
A part of her missed possessing Aerin. It was…nice being part of a family, having sisters, not being alone all the time, but she sure didn’t miss Aerin’s insolence. How Julian put up with an attitude that was as pleasant as knuckles on a cheese grater, she’d never know? The world was certainly in the last of days, with the Horsemen falling all over themselves for such unsuitable mates.
Lucy didn’t spare Aerin a glance, focusing her attempts on Moira, the healer of the bunch, and Tierra, the earth mother. Anyone willing to birth Death’s baby had to have a heart the size of Alaska.
“I can’t go on living this way. I’ll do anything, if you will just reverse the spell.” Lucy tore off the veil with a dramatic, revealing her destroyed splendor. She knew how to best use shock and horror to her advantage.
“Jesus H. Christ on a crutch,” Moira said. “Ain’t no amount of concealer goin’ to cover that hole in your face.” She cocked her head to the slide. “Can you actually eat or does everything fall out of the new pie hole when you chew?”
Lucy narrowed her eyes, and then realized that wasn’t meek and miserable behavior. Quickly, she lowered her gaze to the ground and faked stifling a sob.
“How’d you get passed our wards?” Tierra asked, her tone suspicious and full of unease.
As well as she should.
“Not only did the spell disfigure me, it stripped me of most of my powers, including my regeneration abilities. I can’t even return home to Hades.” Not exactly truthful, but it did bite that she wasn’t powerful enough to be expelled by their significant wards. She gave another pathetic sniffle, this one not so fake. “Please, you can’t leave me like this. Either finish me off or allow me to live what days I have left as the beautiful woman I used to be.”
“So, if the spell did this to you, why isn’t Claire disfigured?” Tierra asked. “She swallowed enough of that cyanide brew to blow up a castle.”
“Uh…it might be that tablespoon of Cheeto’s spittle that I added to the mix,” Moira added with a shrug. “It seems to alter the nasty in one’s attitude.”
“You poisoned me withswinespit?” Lucy’s voice rose and she swiftly tried to disguise it with a pitiful wail.
“That’s a new twist on casting pearls before swine,” Claire muttered.
“Why come to us for help?” Tierra said. “There has to be others out there willing to come to your aid. The Sisters of the Serpent, or at the very least, your horde of Satan worshippers.”
“You think I haven’t tried? Nothing works.” She dried up the waterworks and got down to business. The pity thing didn’t seem to be working. Let’s see if they could refuse what she had to offer. “I’ll make you a deal, you reverse this pig spell, and I’ll guarantee you don’t birth the Antichrist.”
Tierra laid a protective hand over her belly.
“I call bullshit,” Aerin said with a sneer. “How can you offer that when you just said you have no powers? Besides, I highly doubt even at high octane thatyoucould deliver onthatpromise.”
“I still have my knowledge of magic and spells. I’ll share what knowledge I have with you.” She addressed Aerin with what she knew the lovesick, air witch wouldn’t be able to refuse. “I can also rescind the curse I bestowed on Julian. He will no longer infect others with the brush of his hand.”
Aerin sucked in a breath.
“Don’t do it, Aerin,” Claire said. “I’ve never heard of a deal with devil turning out to be a good thing. There’s always a loophole.”
“But…”
“No buts and no deals, bitch,” Claire said.
“Is that your final answer?” Lucy asked through clenched teeth.Feckin’ heartless hags.
“You bet your sulphuric ass,” Moira answered for them.
