The Sorceress Screams Read Free

menswear catalogue model in the flesh.
    He nodded his
head in deference. Maximo’s trademark Augustus Caesar lock of hair swayed in
the movement before settling into its usual wave over his forehead. His dusky
pink lips were both wide and full in a neutral expression. Maybe it was the
deep-set chocolate brown eyes beneath low eyebrows and the slight bump on his nose, that made me think he looked like a hotter, taller
version of Tom Cruise. Whatever it was, I didn’t like the attraction. His
girlfriend had briefly enthralled me. I had no interest in repeating the
experience with him.
    “Miss Walsh,”
he said in an amiable tone that belied the fact he was a walking, talking
corpse. “I’m glad to see you’re up and about. How are you feeling?”
    I nodded in
return and then dropped my gaze to his hands. My mother’s ring was snug around
his left pinky. I needed that ring back. But he knew it allowed a vampire to
access Fire magic. He wasn’t going to simply hand it over.
    “I’m better
without the concussions or burnt face,” I said. “Thank you for having someone
Heal me.” I wouldn’t dare thank him for what he’d done to Ascencion even if she had been trying to kill
me.
    “It was the
least I could do.” A soft smile formed on his lips. “You wouldn’t have been in
the situation if it weren’t for me.”
    He was
partially right about that. His girlfriend’s jealousy and wish to impress him
had prompted her to steal my ring. But vengeance had made her set me on fire.
That part was my fault.
    In any case,
it was time to get the ring back. I gave him a feigned smile. “You kept my ring
safe.”
    His lips
curved a little higher. “Yes.”
    “May I have it
back?”
    Maximo drew in
a soft breath. “I enjoy having something of yours near at hand.”
    I couldn’t
rightly become angry about a flirtatious answer like that, even if it were pure
bullshit. Nevertheless I was angry.
The ring could prove disastrous in the wrong hands. And the only reason it
hadn’t already was because Maximo didn’t know how to invoke it. I was desperate
to get it back before that changed.
    I stretched
out my awareness until I sensed the magical energy swirling around me in the aether . Within it I silently called on Water. The cool
energy drawn directly from the Earth rushed up my feet, flooding the seed
beneath my heart that held my magical ability.
    I drew out a
small tendril of power from my cache. Then I directed it toward the vampire
while also willing it to be undetectable. I sensed caution through the empathic
link, Maximo’s caution. He must truly believe I didn’t need the ring to access
Fire.
    “How
flattering,” I said. The words were a distraction while I drew in more energy.
Something told me I’d need all the help I could get to impose my will on him
and have any hope of it working.
    I didn’t sense
so much as a twitch. He hadn’t noted my invasion? Maybe this would be easier
than I’d thought.
    I took a quick
breath and then sent everything I had at him. “I’d really like my ring back,” I
said, verbalizing my will. “Give it to me, please.”
    Maximo stared
at me without blinking.
    That wasn’t
right. He should have reached for his pinky. I frantically drew in more power,
directing it toward him with the silent request for the ring.
    His resonant
voice dipped into a sensually low register. “I could be persuaded to part with
it were something more substantial to
replace it.”
    I stared at
him in absolute shock for several seconds before my brain worked out that I’d failed.
    Charon, take
it! Water manipulation always worked.
Had the ring provided him with defense, or was Maximo unaffected by Water
magic? Were vampires unaffected?
    I should know
these things! But it wasn’t as if I could search the Internet for it. Unlike
the undead, true witches were still creatures of myth. And my mother wanted it
to stay that way.
    I dropped my
link to Water. An uneasy lump formed in my throat. I forced myself