Witches Be Burned: A Magic & Mayhem Novel Read Free Page A

witches in the Otherworld dripped with bright blue light, pouring into the victim’s body as a gentle hum filled the room. Before his eyes, her wounds stitched back together. Instead of the fang marks littering her body, she now had a deep slit on her neck with a pool of blood beneath her.
    Cruel as it was that her loved ones would never know what had truly happened to her, it kept the Otherworld and the supernatural community safe. This magic was part of the reason the Earthworld agreed to the treaty—Otherworldly creatures possessed abilities that could cover up crimes, making them appear human in nature.
    “We off to hunt, then?” Alazar asked.
    Kyden stared with a heavy heart at the woman lying dead at his feet. He hungered for revenge for her. Two innocent lives were lost tonight, stirring the razor-sharp urgency to find the one responsible for creating the new vampire and leaving him with no help.
    The blood was on the sire’s hands.
    He nodded. “Let’s go.”
    —
    Hot irritation burned like a blast of Fire magic through Nexi as her feet connected with the grass below. She snapped her eyes open the split second the raw energy from the portal vanished. Dressed in her typical female guardian gear of a brown leather bra and kilt, with a scabbard across her shoulder that held her sword on her back, she nearly stepped forward but then noticed Haven approaching. Heady amusement nearly stole her irritation, but that emotion didn’t belong to her. It belonged to Haven.
    —
    More important, it belonged to their soul-bond.
    —
    A deep connection gifted these two witches belonging to the same coven. The link was a sensitive one, allowing for emotions to be shared, making them closer. Nexi often wondered if that’s why the bond existed—it made the ties to a coven that much tighter.
    As Nexi caught sight of Haven’s smile, she grumbled, “This is so
not
funny.”
    “Yeah, it kinda is.” The softness in her voice was just so Haven, as was the warmth in her stare. “I told Kyden he was dead for leaving you behind.”
    “
Dead
is an understatement.” Nexi shook her head in pure frustration, gazing around the tree-lined street. When silence greeted her, she added, “You think he’d know better than to piss a woman off who carries a sword and damn well knows how to use it.”
    Haven snorted a laugh. “Apparently not.”
    Nexi sighed, cooling the irritation inside. Anger would get her nowhere with Kyden, and would only put him on alert. “That caveman needs to get some sense smacked into him.”
    Haven gave a leveled look. “He’s just worried about you.”
    “I get that—and appreciate it,” Nexi replied with a bit of bite. “But being worried and shielding me completely are two totally different things.”
    Sadness reached Haven’s eyes, leaving Nexi wondering if her soul-sister agreed with Kyden. Maybe Haven wanted Nexi away from the danger as well. It’s not that Nexi didn’t understand why Kyden’s macho behavior had increased this past month, because, well, she did.
    While Kyden had a typical upbringing in his supernatural life, Nexi’s life had more of a dramatic flair. Twenty-five years ago, the power-hungry vampire, Lazarus, wanted to return Earth to the time when vampires were hunters instead of feeding off bagged blood or willing humans. To do this, he killed Nexi’s birth mother, Tillie, for the power within her blood—a task only obtained by drinking a witch to death. A large portion, or even half, of a witch’s blood wouldn’t have any effect, but to drain a witch to her last breath resulted in a transfer of powers.
    When the power wasn’t enough for him to succeed in his takeover of the Council to rule the Otherworld, he went into hiding to avoid being hunted by the Council for his crimes. It was at that time that Nexi’s birth father, Drake, sent her into the Earthworld to live among humans for protection.
    Then Lazarus devised his plan to return for Nexi to steal her unique