Page 51 of The Powerless Witch

“The…video feed was cut off, sir. We are working on getting the backup generators to…work. It should be up any second now,” one of the men replied. The soft clicking of keyboards and the murmurs of several voices made me tense. A moment later, all screens came back on, showing every key location around the property. I studied them all, searching for any sign of an intruder, but found none.

“Anything?” I asked, circling the table without looking away from the feed. Something didn’t feel right. While animals could damage the equipment, I made sure it was installed in a way that such ‘accidents’ couldn’t happen. At least the other alarms and traps hadn’t been triggered, so that meant nobody had tried to approach the mansion.

“We can’t see anything on the feed, sir,” the same human replied. “The damage originated in the west quadrant, furthest from the house. There is no sign of people or even machines there, although we did catch a flock of birds flying away, but they could have just been spooked by another animal.”

I gritted my teeth. The animals in that forest—those who remained when I first settled here—had learned to live with their fear of the predator ruling these lands. They didn’t spook that easily. If they’d gone, it had to be something big—or powerful.

“Do you want us to send a team to check the perimeter while the others fix the damage?”

“No, just send me the coordinates,” I replied, hanging up on him. The last thing I needed was more bodies to get rid of.

My phone buzzed with a message from the monitoring team and I checked the coordinates it pointed to before slipping the device into my pocket. I was just descending the main staircase when two figures appeared from the first-floor library, stopping in their tracks when they saw me.

“Going somewhere?” Lily asked, pulling her cardigan tighter around her body. Witnessing the attack on the nest and meeting her mate must have taken a toll on her because she looked positively green. I wasn’t sure if it was because I wouldn’t let the wolf girl come to meet her, but Lily seemed to be getting worse. I had tried to raise the subject the last time we spoke, but she turned beet red and gave me some lame excuse before fleeing the room. I had never heard of the mating bond making people sick, but humans were certainly capable of worrying themselves to death over the silliest of things.

Nym seemed to think the same because the look he gave Lily was as close as a cat could look concerned.

“I need to do a perimeter check,” I said, the lie rolling easily out of my mouth. “Is your father back?” She nodded. “Go to bed. I’ll have Chester bring you something for…” I searched for the right words, but nothing came to mind. “...your cold.” Lily opened her mouth as if to protest, but I pointed my finger at her and she gulped. “Do not argue with me.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she nodded, dragging her feet toward the staircase. She was already halfway up when she turned, looking at the familiar.

“Are you coming, Nym?” she asked.

“Get some rest,” he replied, taking a step toward me. “You look like you’re turning into a vampire.”

Her eyes flared in panic, and she gawked at me. Sighing, I glared at the cat.

“That is not funny, you wretched creature,” I told him and he just swished his tail in response. Turning to Lily, I added, “You are not turning into a vampire, I assure you. Just a regular cold. Now, off you go, or I’m telling your mother.”

Lily grimaced. I waited until she was gone before looking at the familiar again.

“Do you want to tell me what that was all about?” I raised an eyebrow and his tail swished in frustration again. He turned around, striding toward the door with the arrogance of a monster who didn’t care about exposing his back to a vampire.

“What was that alarm for earlier?”

I didn’t ask how he had heard it from the other side of the house, just opened the door, waiting for him to exit before following. We descended the steps side by side and exchanged a look before dashing between the trees. In three jumps, the cat was gone in favor of another feline—not exactly his true form, but not the small, cute fur ball he pretended to be either. If it wasn’t for the glowing red eyes, he could have passed for a panther on the prowl.

I pushed the annoyance I felt while he kept up with me with laughable ease, jumping over roots and soaring over ditches as if he knew the place like the back of his hand.

“Intruder,” I replied to his question and his eyes flickered to mine.

Nym just nodded, his form growing larger as if he expected to be needing the extra muscles. It felt like forever since we teamed up to face danger together—since that dragon shifter tried to take over our territory, along with Celeste and our home. She had chased him away well enough, but we didn’t want to take any risks, and for once, we agreed on the method. We hadn’t been able to finish him off entirely, but he never came back, so it was definitely our victory.

A familiar smell caught my attention, and I dug my heels in. A soft rustle ahead told me Nym had done the same, but he said nothing as I sniffed the air. The smell of blood and death, paired with the distinctive tinge of something not quite alive, made me tense in anticipation.

A vampire.

It had passed through here so quickly that the scent was extremely thin. On top of that, they seemed to be wearing some kind of perfume—or a pouch of weeds and aromatic flowers—which made it hard to lock on a singular scent.

“Do you recognize it?” I asked Nym, just as he was wrinkling his nose.

“No, those damn flowers mess with my nose,” he said with a snarl. “But it’s definitely a vampire and definitely someone who doesn’t want to be known. Have you pissed someone off lately?”

“Vampires have a long memory,” I murmured, heading in the direction the scent had gone. Nym followed.

We moved slower this time, checking for any signs that the intruder was still around. The trail moved closer to the house, almost up to the magical ward I had commissioned decades ago, then back toward the outer perimeter.

My first thought was that it might be the Elder who had visited the nest, but I dismissed the notion. An Elder wouldneverlower themselves to sneaking around. They’d show up right at my door and demand to be invited in even if they were planning to have me nailed outside, waiting for the sunrise to end my existence.

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