Page 24 of The Soulless Witch

A snarl escaped my lips at the mention of witches, bringing their attention to me.

“What about your end, Isaac?” Daniel asked, reaching for his tea.

“Four reported missing in the last week alone,” I said, balling my hands into fists to stifle the urge to punch something. “This can’t be a coincidence. Our people are getting taken, but there are no traces or witnesses, not even scents. Someone went through a lot of trouble to cover their tracks. And there is only one creature that can do that.” I looked at each of them, their expressions hardening as understanding flickered in their eyes. “Witches. It has to be.”

“We don’t have proof.” Daniel shook his head. “If we take actions without proof, there will be an outright war, and Regina has a lot of witches at her disposal. And with that old hag waking up a few days back—”

“She’s not old,” I said without thinking, and Daniel raised an eyebrow. “That witch that just woke up—she doesn’t look old. And for once, I don’t think she was the one doing the kidnapping. Some of my people went missing long before she woke up.” I shifted uncomfortably under their gazes, feeling like a fool. Why was I even defending her? Even if she was innocent of this, there are plenty of other things she was guilty of. Like mass murder.

“What I’m trying to say is…” Daniel cleared his throat. “As much as I’d like to rid the world of a few witches, it will be wiser to wait. First, we don’t have proof, and acting without proof will mean the breaking of the accords. That will put our packs in even more danger, not just from the witches. And second, the witches are not the only ones that can hide their tracks. The hunters can too. Some of them can wield magical devices and potions as well as any witch, and it makes more sense for the Order to go after us. What I suggest is hiring investigators and watchers and—”

“Unless…” Kai put his hands on the table, leaning so close his face was right in front of the camera. “The witches are stealing people to sacrifice them to that monster that just awoke. She is the one from the legends, right? The one that has lived for almost two thousand years? Maybe she drinks blood like them vampires to live that long?”

I rubbed my forehead, trying to hold back an exasperated sigh.

“She doesn’t drink blood.” Daniel sighed dramatically. “She sold her soul to a demon in return for immortality, and that deal keeps bringing her back to life every time she dies. My family has an entire section of our library dedicated to her. She is a real menace, and she always leaves death in her wake. Speaking of her, did you track her?” Kai, who was opening his mouth to speak, closed it and sat back in his chair. Daniel waited until I nodded. “And?”

Taking a deep breath, I told them about following her to that magic shop, then losing her, then tracking her again to that dance club. I omitted the scene in that bathroom, trying to erase it from my mind, but the image of her grinding herself against me, her eyes rolling back in pleasure, made me lose my train of thought a couple of times. When I finished telling them about the hunters’ attack and how that vampire snatched her away, I grew silent, studying their reactions.

Daniel was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, deep shadows dancing over his pale face, while Kai stared at his fists as they clenched and unclenched. They hadn’t met her before, not even in her past life, but they had heard rumors about her. They all knew what she did to my pack.

“So the vampire is protecting her? Interesting,” Daniel said in the end, raising a hand to sleek his hair. “If he has taken her into his lair, it will be hard to get to her. It might be best to stay away for now.” His mouth curved into a bitter smile, eyes narrowing. “You are not going to stay away from her, are you, Isaac?”

“No.”

“Not even if they kill you?”

“Some things are worth dying for,” I replied while my blood roared in my ears.

Daniel scoffed. “It’s your life, so do what you must. However, do not expect my pack to come running if you turn all those witches against your people. I like you, Isaac, despite your fanatic obsession with that witch, but my pack comes first.”

“Same here, boy.” Kai nodded, his eyes dark with a warning. “Nothing good will come from going after the witches.”

“I’m not asking you to,” I replied, trying not to sound defensive. “All I’m asking you is to work with me to figure out who is taking our people. I swore that the killer of my pack would fall by my hand, and I would fulfill my oath before I die. But if it’s the witches that are taking our people…will you two still do nothing?”

Both men tensed at the challenge. Kai even bared his teeth.

“If you can prove it’s the witches that have been putting their hands on my pack,” Daniel said, dusting his shoulder, “I will fight beside you to get our people back. But I will not risk their lives for your personal vendetta.”

Kai nodded in agreement.

“Very well.” I slid my hand to the keyboard, eager to be over with this conversation. “Daniel, please, reach out to your connections in the other packs and check if any of their people have gone missing, too.” Daniel narrowed his eyes, but nodded. “Kai, send us a message when your people are home, and keep an eye out for those witches that are entering your territory.” Kai nodded, although he looked equally unhappy to be getting orders from me. “I’ll reach out to my connections to the Fae. Maybe they had people missing, too. Catching a dragon unaware is close to impossible, and I have no connections among the vampires, so we’ll have to make do with that. We’ll arrange for another call once we have something to report. Agreed?”

The other two nodded, and Daniel’s connection cut off almost immediately. Kai was just mumbling something about which button was to turn the damn thing off when I ended the call and closed the laptop.

I felt even more drained as I looked at the window facing my bed, where the sun was already peeking over the horizon. Getting up, I pulled the curtains closed before falling face-first on the bed. Only then did I realize that her scent was still clinging to me, pushing forward images of a woman both beautiful and revolting, making my insides curl and twist in the most disturbing of ways.

I tried to push myself up so I could go scrub off the traces of her, but my mind was already drifting, so I crashed back into the bed just as sleep dragged me under.

Chapter 14

Celeste

Romanwas…crazy.

That was my final conclusion after I spent the last hour walking around a mansion that was an exact replica of the home we shared over two hundred years ago. The burns and the damage to the furniture from my experimental spells and our wild nights together were still there. There was even a portrait of the two of us that I convinced Roman to sit for. Before that, there hadn’t been a single painting of him in existence, which, with a face like his, was a sheer travesty.

My heart raced as I stared at the giant canvas hanging above the unlit fireplace. My face, so familiar after looking at it for hundreds of years, was flushed and full of life, a too-wide smile running from ear to ear. Roman’s lips were slightly curved upward, his eyes staring sideways instead of forward. I had tried to convince the painter to just paint him facing ahead, but he had said it was too hard since Roman was constantly looking at me.

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