Page 5 of The Soulless Witch

The sound of barely audible steps made me turn with a snarl. The darkness around the vampire’s body seemed to grow thicker as he drew closer, wiping the blood dripping from his chin. His navy suit was wrinkled, with specks of red staining the pristine fabric.

Roman’s eyes trailed down the road, and I could swear I saw anger flash in them. But when he looked at me, an insufferable arrogance was all I could see.

“She is a slippery one, isn’t she?” he mused. I shifted, my bones contracting and the fur slipping from my muscles. I cracked my neck, trying not to wince at the tingling sensation that lingered over my skin as I shuddered in my human form. Roman’s eyes roamed down my body like I was some statue on display for his admiration. I had never been a shy person, but at that moment, I felt the urge to cover myself under his scrutinizing gaze.

When I noticed the edges of his lips twitching, I steeled my posture, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cower. He probably did it just to rile me up, even though I must admit, he was much better at it than I was. It wasn’t my fault he was an insufferable prick.

“Just what does she have of yours?” I demanded, taking a step toward him.

To his credit, Roman didn’t even blink. The cursed bloodsucker was as tall as me, and even though he didn’t pack that much muscle, I had seen him tear men twice his size in half. I had seen how he moved like he was a deadly panther on the prowl. I had heard the stories…

“My heart,” Roman replied in his all-too-serious tone, but then a smile tugged on his lips. His heart, my ass. Even that wicked witch wouldn’t have any use for something as dead and rotten. Not that it mattered. Whatever he wanted, he wasn’t getting it, because now that I had her fresh scent, she was marked for death.

“Well, it can’t be that big of a loss seeing how you don’t use it at all,” I snorted, looking down at his chest where the muscles stood perfectly still and quiet. Vampires didn’t breathe, they didn’t drink or eat human food, and their hearts didn’t beat. They were dead, kept alive by some ancient magic that nobody remembered anymore. “Unless you want to pry it from her corpse, of course. I don’t care what you do with her dead body.”

“You think you can kill her, boy?” Roman asked, cocking his head to the side. His expression was one of pity—of pity!—as he sized me up. And did he just call meboy? I wanted to tear his head off, but that single word spat with so much power and confidence reminded me how old that abomination was. The others hadn’t protested against me taking the Council seat, mainly because they didn’t want to deal with Roman. He was older than the oldest in our packs, and that scared them. Age meant power in the paranormal world, and he was…ancient.

Just like that witch. The oldest witch in history, with some saying that she was one of the first ones to ever be born. I could only imagine how much power she had accumulated over the centuries, and why the witches were so desperate to get her. But just as rumors said, she’d be weak after her awakening—the best time to strike.

“I don’t think.I know.” I smirked. “I will kill her or die trying.”

I expected Roman to get angry, seeing how his eyes hardened when I mentioned ending her existence. He hadn’t reacted to my other taunting, but threatening that witch’s life? Twice he had let his composure crack. Just what did she really have of his that he was so desperate to get back?

“Well, then.” Roman shrugged, his expression turning to one of complete disinterest while he picked off a piece of lint from his suit, only to realize there was a small tear on his upper arm. He eyed it with displeasure, as if disappointed by the fabric, then the obnoxious smirk returned to his face. He let his arms drop by his side—an image of immortal grace made flesh. “Good luck with that.” He moved to leave, but he stopped right before passing by my shoulder. It took everything in me not to pull away when he leaned closer. “A fair warning, from one man to another. She will eat you for breakfast and you will like it.”

He was gone before I could say anything back. I stepped onto the road, watching for any clues of where she might have gone and who might have helped her.

I had witnessed the most powerful witch in the world die helpless and alone at the hands of humans. Now she was awake again. The question was: who woke up from that grave—the weak woman who begged for death as they cut her to pieces, or the monster that bathed in the blood of my people while hell danced at her fingertips?

Chapter 4

Celeste

“Celeste,it’stimetowake up. Celeste!”

A hand gripped my shoulder, and my magic instinctively lashed out. Blinking the grogginess away, I watched as Kevin flew back, landing on the grass with a groan.

The car had stopped and the door on my side hung open—that’s where he had been standing when he touched me. We were parked in the driveway in front of a neat, two-story house. There was a garage door in front of the car and a small grass patch with a stone path crossing through the green. The building was painted reddish-brown, with big windows on the first floor spilling generous light outside.

Another groan made me look back at the human that was trying to get up. I moved to help him when the damn contraption—the seatbelt—yanked me back down. Searching for its latch, I fumbled with the plastic lock until it clicked free, almost hitting me in the face. I slipped out of the car with numb feet, taking a step toward Kevin just as he was dusting off his clothes.

His eyes remained on me the whole time, wide and shocked, but not afraid. He wasn’t going to be afraid even if I raised the car over my head and hurled it across the street. The spell suppressed that part of his brain—at least when it came to me. The last thing I needed was people screaming and running away from me. I had to blend in until enough of my magic was restored. I had to…

I slid a hand to my neck, suddenly feeling empty and cold. It wasn’t my nakedness that bothered me, not even as the wind almost blew Kevin’s jacket off my shoulders. It was the lightness around my throat, the lack of…it.

My medallion. It was gone. I’d forgotten about it, my mind too confused by all the new sensations and memories. It was supposed to return with me when I woke, but it must have slipped off when I was crawling out of the earth.

“Idiot!” I hissed, closing my eyes. Kevin cleared his throat, and I looked at him just as he was scratching the back of his neck. “I was talking about me, Kevin. I’m sorry about that.” I glanced toward where he had fallen, the flowers there squashed and broken. He followed my gaze, wincing as if he was more concerned about the damage to the garden than his own body.

“I shouldn’t have touched you so casually. The fault was mine,” he mumbled, glancing toward the house. “Let’s go inside.”

I followed Kevin to the house. My magic flared, eager and ready, but weak. I was in no condition to fight yet, definitely not trained witch hunters or whatever else my awakening might have brought to that forest. Confronting the Order was going to be inevitable at some point, but for now, I had to lie low. I had to get that medallion back before one of them got their hands on it. It was much better than waiting for my magic to accumulate the natural way.

“Celeste? Is everything alright?”

Nodding, I wrapped myself tighter in Kevin’s jacket. He was already waiting with a hand on the door handle. As we stepped inside, a wide smile blossomed on his face.

“I’m home!” he called, kicking his shoes off. A girl appeared from one of the doors—too young to be his wife, if I had judged him right—followed by a boy that couldn’t have been older than ten. They both ran to Kevin and threw their hands around him, their attention taken entirely by the man as he kissed their heads. I shifted awkwardly, and the movement must have caught the girl’s attention because she let go of her father and looked at me. Her eyes went up and down my naked legs before settling on Kevin’s jacket, which barely covered my ass.

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