The Vampire & Her Witch

”She can stay by his side, until death comes for them both!”

Ashlynn’s frigid proclamation came with a surge of power, as if the entire forest surrounding the ancient fortress responded to the pain and grief of the Mother of Trees, lending her strength and support in her moment of fury. The air became so thick and oppressive with the weight of Ashlynn’s power that Isabell struggled to draw breath.

The fire in the hearth flared brighter as the flames gorged themselves on the dense, woody energy that flooded the room. Hanging above the flames, the forgotten tea kettle that Ashlynn had hung at the start of her conversation with Isabell hissed and whistled, sputtering madly as it boiled over and spitting out a cloud of steam.

”Ashlynn!” Isabell cried, pushing herself up off the sofa and struggling against the surge of energy that filled the room. Until now, she’d only seen the gentle, nurturing side of Ashlynn’s witchcraft, but now that she stood in the presence of a witch’s fury, she finally understood why the Church was so terrified of witches.

But no matter how terrifying Ashlynn’s power was, Isabell refused to retreat from it. Somewhere deep in her heart, the older woman felt that this might be the only moment she had to help Ashlynn understand her sister.

If she ran from this tempest, if she showed Ashlynn that she was afraid of her, then Isabell feared that the young noblewoman would never let her come close as a confidant again. And if she turned into an outsider, she would never have a chance to share the rest of what she knew.

”Ashlynn, please, listen to me,” Isabell said, dropping to one knee as the pressure emanating from Ashlynn increased to a point that made it impossible to remain standing, much less approach any closer. ”Please, you don’t know what Owain has done to your sister, what he’s still doing to her! Please, just, just listen. Just for a few minutes,” she pleaded, looking up at Ashlynn with tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.

The Ashlynn she saw standing over her barely felt human. Even though the energy flooding into the room was invisible to Isabell’s eyes, Ashlynn’s hair danced wildly in a breeze that only affected the young witch.

Her eyes glowed a brilliant, emerald green that was so bright, Isabell couldn’t see the whites of her eyes or the dark spots of her pupils through the glow. Even her skin seemed to have transformed, with faint patterns emerging on her arms and chest that resembled the loops and whorls of woodgrain.

Isabell hadn’t understood what it meant when Heila called Ashlynn the ’Mother of Trees’, but as she gazed on the transcendent being before her, she felt like she was starting to understand now. She understood why the Eldritch people could accept a witch as one of their own instead of seeing her as a human invader and she also understood why the Church considered witches to be no different than demons.

But... but this was still Ashlynn! This was still the woman who had become her friend despite the wide gap in their age and the equally wide gap in their social standings. And if the two of them could become friends despite those differences, then whether Ashlynn was a witch or a demon didn’t matter to Isabell in the slightest.

”What Owain is doing to Jocey?” Ashlynn repeated in a voice that wrapped around Isabell, seeming to come from all directions at once. ”He hasn’t,” she started to say, only to falter and stagger a step forward as her grasp of the forest’s energy faltered. ”He hasn’t forced himself on her, has he?”

This time, when Ashlynn spoke, the fire in the hearth roared even hotter, flames leaping toward the ceiling and sending a shower of sparks onto the stone hearth as the logs cracked and popped under the intense heat. Isabell flinched, instinctively scooting sideways as the heat pouring out of the hearth resembled a furnace. Still, she refused to back away from Ashlynn even as sweat beaded on her forehead and her skin felt flush from the intense heat of the flames.

”I’ll tear him in two if he’s laid a hand on her!” Ashlynn shouted as her body crackled with nature’s energy and reason left her mind entirely.

Jocelynn had betrayed her. Her sister had wounded her more deeply than even Owain’s beating had, and she would die for that. She had to die for that! But that didn’t mean she wanted to see her suffer... and certainly not at Owain’s hands. It would be enough to make a swift end of things, just as she had with Darragh... Wouldn’t it?

The power in the room rippled again, wavering like heat shimmer as Ashlynn’s conflicting emotions tore at her concentration. The brilliant glow faded from her eyes as she staggered, and this time, Ashlynn dropped to her knees, no longer able to maintain her connection to the power of the forest as her love for her sister warred with her hatred of betrayal. The power of the world would answer a witch’s call and take the form of their desires, but right now, Ashlynn wasn’t sure what she desired.

She wanted revenge! She wanted the person who betrayed her to know how she’d suffered. She wanted them to regret until their last breath what they’d done to her. But she loved her sister more than almost anyone. In Ashlynn’s heart, perhaps only Nyrielle meant more to her than the little sister she’d watched over since she was a babe. She wanted revenge, but part of her wanted to protect her sister even more.

At the same time, if there was anyone in Ashlynn’s heart that she truly hated, then no one could compare to Owain. The fury and hatred that Ashlynn felt for Darragh’s betrayal, or even Elder Paulus’s betrayal that resulted in Andrus’s death, were like candle flames next to a forest-consuming inferno of hatred that she felt for Owain.

So the feeling that Owain, the man she hated more than anyone, was harming the sister she loved more than almost anyone, should have produced the clearest surge of murderous intent a human soul was capable of. But, like a chain wrapped around her heart, the knowledge that Jocelynn had been the one to betray her choked her fury, yanking her back like a chain wrapped around a hunting dog’s neck.

As the oppressive energy dissipated, Isabell sagged with relief, her shoulders dropping as the crushing weight lifted. She immediately started to rise, reaching toward Ashlynn, only to freeze a moment later when she heard heavy footsteps thundering toward Ashlynn’s chambers.

”Mother Ashlynn!” Virve shouted as the bearish woman charged into the room, slamming the door open with such force that the wood splintered and it tore free from one of its hinges.

Isabell’s head snapped toward the doorway as the heavy oak door crashed against the stone wall. Her heart, already racing from the magical tempest, lurched at the sight of the towering bearish woman with claws extended.

Here in the coven’s own tower, there shouldn’t have been a need for Virve to stand guard over her lady, and even less need to protect her from an aging human engineer. Still, the habits Virve acquired in her years as a member of Nyrielle’s personal guard were hard to let go of, so despite every rational argument saying she wouldn’t be needed, Virve had remained close, staying in the large room at the top of the tower in case she was needed.

Ashlynn should have been safe here, and yet, the pain Ashlynn felt at this moment was so great that it rippled outward to every member of her coven, like a warning cry that their common root was in great danger. Now, the closest member of the coven arrived with her claws bared, ready to tear into anything that threatened the woman she was sworn to protect.

Only, when she looked across the sitting room, she found Ashlynn kneeling on the soft carpet as tears streamed from her eyes and blood trickled from the fists she’d clenched so tightly that her fingernails had pierced her flesh. And the only other person in the room was the gray-haired human engineer who was kneeling on the ground herself and looking physically shaken, as though she’d just come in from a terrible storm.

”What, what happened here?” Virve asked as she strode hesitantly into the room, positioning herself at Ashlynn’s side and glaring at Isabell with eyes that held deep-seated distrust. ”Did you do this to her?”

”No, I,” Isabell started as her gray eyes slid from the anguished Ashlynn to the protective soldier and back again. ”Please, let me explain...”