Witchmate (Skeleton Key) Read online

  How could aliens not know about technology? Hah! Without hesitation, she texted Mike, “CAUGHT. UNSURE OF LOCATION. HELP.”

  The text kicked back as undeliverable. “Shit!” She had zero signal, just like when she’d been in the vault. She tucked the phone back into the bag. Her small brick of plastic explosive and the three detonator wires and blasting caps were still in the bag as well. Why would they have let her keep such a volatile substance? She couldn’t believe they wouldn’t have searched her belongings. Unless… this was a test?

  They might have replaced her items with fakes, trying to see if she would use it against them. You have a one-way ticket on the crazy train, girl. How had she gotten into this mess? Her captor was huge. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall. She was scrappy, but at a little over five feet tall, she was definitely no match for him. The only thing she knew for certain was he hadn’t tried to harm her…yet. Though, she still couldn’t shake the snarling image of the monster he’d become. I must’ve been really out of it. She’d been bug-zapped twice by the sheet of electricity. The pain would have made anyone a little crazy. She put the explosives back in the bag. No sense in poking the bear—uh, wolf.

  Speaking of the wolf, Keir came back into the room with another large man in tow. This guy was shorter than Keir, and he had long blond hair. He wore leather pants and boots, but instead of a leather vest, he donned a cream colored shirt that fit him snug across the shoulders. When he approached her, she could see several spots on his shirt that had been stitched by hand. Had she been kidnapped by a traveling show? She’d have guessed bikers, but there weren’t any patches on their clothing. Bikers had a tendency toward pride when it came to their affiliations.

  “Are you guys professional wrestlers? I haven’t seen this many long-haired, well-built men since watching professional wrestling on Friday nights with Mike.”

  “Who’s Mike?” Keir asked. His gaze held an intensity that made Emma uncomfortable as he waited for her answer.

  “None of your business.”

  “Your mate?” Keir persisted.

  “Mate? As in roommate?”

  “As in lover.”

  Emma felt her stomach lurch. “Ewww! Mike is a like a dad to me. I’d never. Yuck.”

  She didn’t understand the relief she saw in Keir’s face, but she certainly recognized it. “This is Lis, our healer. He tended your wounds while you were unconscious.”

  “So I can thank you for taking off my clothes?”

  Lis shrugged. “It was easier that way.”

  “Easier for who?” Emma gripped the edges of her T-shirt. “I’ll keep my clothes on this time if you don’t mind.”

  “If she’s fighting this hard, Keir, she’ll be fine.”

  “I think her mind is soft.”

  “My mind is hard,” she told him. She knocked on her temple with her knuckles. The movement added to the pounding headache. “Hard as a rock.”

  “Yes,” Keir said. “I agree. You may have rocks in your head.”

  “What? I don’t have—” She caught the mischievous look in his eye. “Oh. You’re messing with me. Fine. Have your fun at my expense, but when my lawyer gets here, we’ll see who’s laughing then.”

  “Lawyer?” Lis said.

  Keir shrugged. “I told you she was talking nonsense.”

  “I’ve had enough. If you’re a cop, charge me. If you’re a kidnapper, tell me what you want so I can arrange it. And if you’re some good Samaritan, thanks all the same, but you can point me the way out of here? Are we still in the St. Louis area?”

  “I didn’t understand any of that, did you?” Keir said to Lis.

  “I understood the part about her wanting to go.”

  Keir turned his gaze on Emma. Saint Louis was unfamiliar. Could it be she wanted to go to Sanlousis? The seat of the witch government? He shook his head. Surely, not. If she were aligned with the witches, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to expose herself. “Sleep tonight. Rest and heal. If you want to leave in the morning, you will be free to go.”

  Emma gave him a suspicious look. “Really?”

  “On my honor,” Keir said. “You are a guest, not a prisoner.”

  Lis gave him a side glance.

  “She’s not a witch, and she’s not one of us,” Keir said to him.

  Lis shrugged. “You’re the alpha.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  As the healer left, Emma assessed Keir. “What is this place?”

  “You are in the Korridan Forest, my territory.”

  “Territory?” There were several forested areas like Meremac State Park and Katie Trail near St. Louis, but she’d never heard of Korridan Forest.

  He quirked a brow. “Where are you from?”

  “Columbia, Missouri, but I’m in St. Louis on business.” She looked around the sparsely furnished room without any modern conveniences. It was lit with oil lamps and candles, no electricity. Maybe this was a campsite. It certainly wasn’t an alien base on another planet. Too much of this place reminded her of home. Sorta. She’d never been a nature girl, and right now, she felt as if she were in a Robin Hood movie. Regardless, she was going to assume she was still on Earth and that she’d walked through a door manifested by the vault. It had probably been a built in exit in case the owner accidentally locked herself inside, and it opened into the forested backyard area because … well, who knew with rich people? They were eccentric. I bet I’m not that far from the mansion.

  “Do you know where the Mowry house is?”

  Keir gave her a blank look.

  Okay. Does not know Lucinda Mowry. “How close are we to the city?”

  “There have been no cities since the fall of Luer D’San in the Battle of Surrock. That’s when my people took to the woods.”

  Emma eyed him suspiciously. “The last I checked I was in Missouri. And there are several cities. St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia, Springfield. You get the picture.”

  He narrowed his gaze. “I’ve never heard of this Missouri. Is that across the sea? Did you travel by boat? If so, where are your companions? A skinny girl like you couldn’t have survived a trip like that on your own.”

  “First,” Emma said, her indignation rising. “I’m not skinny. I’m wiry and agile. Second, I think I’m not the only one who hit my head. And what’s all this talk about werewolves and witches? Oh, Jesus. You’re one of those cos-play LARPers or something, aren’t you? Is this one of those medieval fairs?”

  “I don’t understand these terms.” He peered at her, his expression concerned. “Perhaps Toland was right. You suffer from a birth defect—one that affects your eyes and your brain.”

  “Sheesh. You guys really take the whole role playing shtick to the extreme.” The monsters she’d seen last night or hallucinated, had reminded her of her favorite horror films. But, hel-lo, those were not real. “Look. Just admit that you like pretending to be a werewolf, and we can move on to some reality, please.”

  Keir’s gaze intensified. “What do you know about werewolves?”

  “Oh, the usual. Full moon, silver bullets, get turned with a bite or a scratch, blah, blah. C’mon dude. I don’t believe in this shit.” The motto Mike had drilled into her at an early age popped out of her mouth. “It’s not real until you can see and touch it.”

  He smiled again and spread his hands in a gesture of openness. “See and feel as much as you want.”

  The bulge in Keir’s leather pants was hard to ignore, and Emma’s line of sight kept drifting south. Her skin warmed. Why was she so drawn to this guy? She was sure it had nothing to do with his piercing amber eyes, the masculine square jaw, his wide kissable mouth, and a body that would make a Greek god jealous. Nope. None of that.

  He chuckled as if knowing the effect he had on her, and her mouth went dry. “Stop that,” she said.

  “I have never truly wanted, Emma Watson, until today. For the first time in my life, I know what it is to hope for something that may be beyond my reach.”r />
  Emma gulped, the tension in her winding to the point of snapping. “And what do you want for?”

  Keir took her hand and leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on her fingertips. Her belly flip-flopped. He shifted his eyes up and met her stare. “You are the most beautiful, exotic creature I have ever seen. From the moment I picked you up in the forest, I have had but one thought on my mind.”

  Her eyes widened. “What’s that?”

  “I want to bathe in your scent, caress your skin, feel your nakedness pressed against my flesh. I want to warm you with my heat until your passion kindles, igniting a fire in you that matches my own. I want to kiss your mouth.” His gaze drifted to her lips. “Your breasts.” His eyes pivoted southward. “And your sacred vessel.”

  God! Emma’s “sacred vessel” throbbed with traitorous desire. She didn’t know if she’d be able to take much more of his “wants” without moaning. Fuck, this man was sexy as hell.

  “I want to make love to you, Emma Watson fe Columbia, Missouri, until your body blazes with pleasure. I want to hear you beg me for more as I thrust myself deep inside you. I want to hear you scream my name as I plant my seed in your womb.” He reached out and plucked a stray hair from her face. “I want,” he said, his voice breathless and hoarse. “You.”

  “This is so crazy,” Emma whispered. Her nipples were hard nubs of excitement. Holy crap, this man did caveman sooo well. “You’re nuts.” But maybe she was too because she was actually considering letting this Robin Hood wannabe dude ravish her right here in his cabana in the woods.

  “I’m not crazy,” Keir said. He leaned close, and Emma shivered as his breath warmed her skin. “I’m Domiscin fe San, leader of the San fe Sang, blood wolves of the Korridan Forest, and I am asking you, Emma Watson, to be my mate.”

  “Uhm…” He dipped his face to hers, his lips skimming the surface of her mouth, and setting her brain on fire with lust. She dropped the blanket, but before she could get her arms around his neck. Keir broke the gentle kiss and stood up. “You can decide in the morning if you want to stay or go.”

  And as unexpected as his declaration of his intentions to do horribly wicked and naughty deeds, his departure from the room was just as blunt.

  Emma whistled, her skin buzzing, as she pulled up the blanket and curled up in the bed. “Get your shit together,” she told herself, exasperated by the fact that she’d almost forgotten who she was—an independent woman, a thief, and a rogue. In a moment of supreme weakness, she’d nearly said, “yes,” to a man she barely knew. A man she had no intention of getting to know. Tonight she would escape from the camp, and that would be the end to Keir and his mating nonsense.

  So, why couldn’t she stop thinking about how much she wanted all the sexy things his words and his lips had promised?

  Chapter Four

  “Tia!” Aerina Lockside yelled. High sister of all orders and queen of the witches, Aerina’s call was immediately answered.

  Draped in wispy light green robes, Tia strolled into the Queen’s lushly appointed chambers. “I’m here, Rina,” she said, her tone overly familiar.

  The queen ignored the lack of formality as Tia joined her on the balcony. The Queen had the best view in all of the kingdom. Everywhere she looked she found only beauty, from the massive forests to the snow-capped mountains. “What news have you?”

  “Nothing. If you would tell me what you’re expecting, I can better advise my scouts.” Tia bowed her head, showing respect for the elder witch. Aerina’s dark green robe with its gold filigree revealed her as a grand schema. Their kind was not born with magic, their powers only developed with the onset of their second selves, the stage of maturity where they were capable of breeding. There were five levels of power—novice, whisaphore, malaphore, grand schema, and then, of course, there was the queen. She was a grand schema in all three types of magic, a master of spiritual, elemental, and psychic magic. It made her a power unmatched and unchallenged.

  Tia, had mastered elemental magic, and she was close to mastering spiritual, but as of yet, psychic magic had been difficult for her even at a novice level. Still, she was the land’s second most powerful witch. Aerina had taken Tia under her wing when she’d first mastered elemental magic. She coveted her place by her queen’s side, but she knew the queen was soft about the war between the witches and the wolves. Since her father’s death a year ago, she forbade the scouts from entering wolfkind territory. Tia thought it foolish and told her, “You can’t win a war you’re not willing to fight.”

  Aerina had responded, “There are other kinds of victory than that taken by force.”

  Tia worried the death of the king had broken something in the queen’s head, though not because she grieved him. No, it seemed just the opposite. His death had awakened a spark in Aerina that Tia had never seen before.

  She took the queen’s hand and kissed her palm, allowing the spark of electricity to tingle along her mistress’s skin. “Will you finally tell me your plan for the wolf-people?”

  Aerina’s gaze held wariness, then her eyes softened with sadness. “No, Tia. In this, I can’t. Not yet, but let me assure you, we will finally know freedom from a lifetime of war.”

  “I don’t understand why you don’t trust me.”

  “Did I ever tell you about…my sister?”

  “I…I didn’t know you had a sister. I thought you were an only child.”

  “I’m more than one hundred years old, Tia. Do you think you know all there is to know about me?”

  “Of course not, Rina.”

  “I remember our world before the war. Yes, there was turmoil and treachery. Those things are bound to go hand in hand in a civilized world. My father was high brother in the time of peace.”

  “You mean, we weren’t always fighting the wolfkind?”

  “I forget how history has reshaped itself. There is no one alive anymore to remember or pass down the truths. My father had wanted it this way. He didn’t want our people to know.”

  “Know what?” When Aerina didn’t answer right away, Tia cupped her hand under the queen’s chin. “Know what, Rina?”

  “That he destroyed the fragile alliance between our two kinds out of petty anger and jealousy.” Aerina shook her head. “So much harm for such a small thing.”

  “What happened to your sister?”

  “My father had already betrothed her to a witch of noble blood. The marriage would’ve increased his own power and wealth. Instead, she went against his wishes and mated with an ambassador for the wolves. ”

  “You’re sister took one of them as a lover?” Tia’s voice was filled with contempt. “She was a traitor.”

  Aerina waved off Tia’s declaration. “Not then. Witches and wolves were friends. I always thought my sister was brave for following her heart. But Father thought only of himself. The next day, he gathered an army and destroyed many small wolfkind villages and their capital city of Surrock.” Her expression turned grim. “When he murdered their alpha and his mate, he set us on this path of eternal battle and destruction. He rewrote our history and ushered us into a violent future.”

  “I didn’t know.” Tia shook her head. “I’m sorry about your sister.”

  “There is nothing to be sorry for, my darling. You are young, yet. Besides, you were never meant to know such things. I must right the wrongs of our past. I just hope the day doesn’t come too late. Report any news, Tia. No matter the significance.”

  “Yes, Rina.”

  The weary queen rubbed her temples and then returned to gazing at the land spread out before her.

  As Tia withdrew from the Queen, she overheard Aerina mutter, “Where are you, child?”

  ****

  Keir D’San crossed his arms as he stared at the cowering prisoner. The cell, a four-foot box structure, had been crafted by witchvine, effectively preventing the male witch from accessing his power. It had taken more than five years to find enough of the plant to build the contraption. His people rarely took priso
ners, so this was the first time they’d had a chance to use it. Mika and Thadeus guarded the door.

  Keir put a chair in front of the cell and sat down. He cracked his knuckles. “What is your name, witch?”

  The man, his right eye purple and swollen shut, glowered with his left. His lips thinned in refusal to speak.

  “Your name costs you nothing,” Keir said.

  “Everything costs,” the witch told him. His voice was raspy as if his vocal cords were swollen, and the bruising on his neck betrayed the strangling Toland had given him.

  “I’ll go first. I’m Keir D’San.”

  The man’s good eye bugged, and the non-injured parts of his skin blanched.

  “Good,” Keir said. “You’ve heard of me. My visit to Wildenwood. How did you find out about it? Who gave you the information?”

  “I have nothing to tell you.”

  “Stubborn,” Keir said. “Have you ever seen what long term exposure to witchvine does to one of your kind? You are probably already feeling a hollow emptiness inside as if you are being scooped of your essence. Did you know that a witch can be deprived of magic long enough to lose it? Or at least, never completely regain the power they once had.”

  The witch threw himself back, the witchvine box rattling against his struggle.

  “I wouldn’t move too much if I were you.” He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, and leaned closer to the pen. “Tell me your name, and I will ask no more. At least not to tonight.”

  The prisoner’s skin beaded with sweat, his whole body trembled. “Osgard,” he hissed. “Osgard Demron.”

  “Thank you, Osgard. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” Keir stood up and motioned to Thadeus. “Send for food and water for Osgard. See that he is cared for while in our custody.”