Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) Page 2

  One of the males grabbed Payne from behind, hauling him off the other witch. He snarled, quickly turned and caught the man with a hard right uppercut and then a left hook as the man dropped him. He kept dealing blows, driving the man away from the female.

  A bolt of something blue shot past Payne and sent the male he had been fighting flying through the air. The man smacked into the side of one of the buildings, rolled awkwardly down the emerald green canopy and landed hard on the cobbled street.

  The other man fled, helping one of the injured. The fourth man hobbled past Payne and he growled at him, allowing his eyes to blaze red and fangs to lengthen enough that the man got the hint.

  The four males looked back past him, to the female. They said something in fae. Payne caught a few words as his fangs receded and his eyes changed back to grey, enough to know they intended to tell on her to their coven. Had she done something wrong?

  Payne turned to face her.

  She stood in the middle of the narrow street, her silver eyes dark with determination, her breathing as rapid as her heartbeat. Payne took a step towards her and she lashed out at him with the rope. He easily caught the end of it before it could strike him.

  Payne stared at her. She struggled with the rope, trying to pull it free of his grip, her pretty face twisting in anger and her eyes bright with it too. Hay stuck out of her long chestnut hair in places, the tousled waves resembling more of a bush than the beautiful glossy locks they had been before her tumble in the baskets and beating with a broom. She looked like a wild animal, feral and vicious.

  Payne wanted to tame her.

  He held her attention. The sparks of silver in her striking eyes brightened. He took a step towards her, gathering the rope at the same time, keeping it taut between them. She raised her other hand and a golden orb glowed close to her palm. She didn’t want to let him near her. He got the message and ignored it too. He kept moving towards her, steady steps, his eyes constantly locked on hers. He could see she didn’t want to lower that magic or let him close to her, even as he worked to change it. He hated to use his natural talents on anyone but she was going to get herself killed if he didn’t get her off the street soon. Those males would come back with more like them.

  She blinked slowly. Payne lost focus as her long dark lashes shuttered her incredible eyes, stealing them from view. The distraction cost him. She smiled and yanked the rope. It slipped from his grasp and she lashed out with it, catching him hard across the cheek. He didn’t flinch, didn’t take his eyes off her. The smell of his blood mixed with the scents in the air.

  Payne kept slowly advancing, his eyes on hers, keeping them riveted on him. She wanted to give up her fight. She wanted him. He sent that feeling to her, filling her mind with thoughts of them together, trying to convince her to lower her guard.

  She drew her arm back to strike again.

  Payne teleported just as she let loose with the rope and appeared right in front of her. He caught her wrists, his eyes still on hers. She stared up at him, her sensual rosy lips parted in shock and her eyes dark with desire that swirled into him through the point where they touched, feeding his hunger. Her breathing quickened to short soft pants. He had never heard anything so erotic and alluring. He wanted to hear her panting like that into his ear as he thrust into her welcoming wet heat.

  “I won’t hurt you,” he whispered and her pupils dilated. “Give in to me.”

  He felt her relax. Her fingers opened and the rope fell from them.

  Her dark eyebrows drew together and her pupils narrowed. She yanked her right hand free of his grip and slammed her fist into his cheek, splitting open the gash there from the whip. Payne grabbed her wrist again and held them both in a bruising grip. It seemed she was a little immune to his charm.

  “I won’t hurt you,” he repeated and her struggling slowed until she was wriggling against him in a way that fired him up.

  He shoved her away and scowled at her. She blinked into his eyes and then dropped her gaze to his hands where they clutched her wrists. It rose to his cheek and she stilled.

  “You’re bleeding.” She spoke in English, her voice soft and light, full of warmth that curled through him, easing his tension.

  Was his charm offensive getting through to her now? He focused on her and his incubus side didn’t purr. Evidently not.

  She pulled her hand free of his and gently pressed the pads of her fingers to the skin below the cut on his cheek. Payne hissed in a sharp breath, heat flooding him, all stemming from the point where she touched him. He stared down into her silver-grey eyes, hungry thoughts spinning through his mind, his body reacting swiftly.

  She broke free of him, a soft gasp escaping her sinful mouth and her cheeks darkening. Had she sensed his thoughts? She smoothed her plain black dress, looking for all the world as if she was doing her best to smooth her feelings with it. Her heartbeat was all over the place and he could sense her desire.

  “Come with me.”

  She didn’t wait for a response. She turned her back, picked up the rope, and walked away, heading towards the crossroad he had come from. Payne raked his gaze over her, the oversized black dress hiding none of her from his imagination now. He had seen her shapely legs and crimson knickers, and he still burned from that brief glimpse. She plucked a piece of straw from her hair and glanced over her shoulder at him, her beautiful eyes immediately capturing his attention. He was supposed to have cast a spell on her to get her under his control.

  He felt as though she had cast one on him.

  Payne followed her, unable to resist his need to know her taste and her touch. He could never allow it to happen though.

  He couldn’t influence her.

  She was immune.

  Immunity to an incubus’s charms was a sign that she was their fated mate.

  The last woman who had been semi-immune to his charms had broken his heart.

  The phantom’s words came back to him.

  Fated. Bond. Blood. Death.

  Sounded like a recipe for disaster to him, and this little witch was just the first ingredient.

  CHAPTER 2

  Payne used the walk to get his hunger back in check. He would go with the witch to wherever she was leading him, gain her trust and then get her to tell him the location of the place he sought. She could speak fae and others knew her here, so she clearly knew the area well. She would be able to lead him to his destination. Problem solved.

  He tried to keep his eyes off her backside.

  It was impossible.

  The image of saucy red knickers had been burned on his mind.

  He would never look at witches the same again. Who knew what they hid beneath that plain boring black dress? He had never imagined it would be naughty knickers.

  She turned down another street to her left, leading him through the rabbit warren of buildings. There were fewer stores in this neighbourhood. Most of the single storey buildings looked like residences, most of them painted in bright colours. Stalagmites rose from the flat roofs of many of them, reaching upwards towards their deadly counterparts on high.

  Payne stopped a few steps into the new narrow street and backtracked. He raised a single dark eyebrow at the wooden sign affixed to the painted black wall of the building nearest the crossroads. Well, what did’ya know. He took a piece of paper from his pocket and matched the symbols to those of the street name. Bingo. We have a winner.

  The witch had stopped and was staring at him, curiosity burning in her silvery eyes.

  He didn’t need her after all.

  He stalked past her, checking each door for the right symbol. Somewhere down here was the witch he had come to find. His eyes darted from the crumpled piece of paper in his hand to the painted purple wooden door of the pink stone building on his left. Match.

  He rapped his knuckles against the door.

  The female witch stopped beside him. He glanced at her. She was frowning now and it didn’t suit her. He didn’t like how she looked as thoug
h she was trying to see right through him to wheedle out his secrets.

  He opened his mouth to explain himself.

  She slid a brass key into the lock, twisted it and pushed the door open. She breezed into the dark building and lights came on, glowing warmly and illuminating the clutter in the small room.

  She lived here?

  She was the witch?

  She tossed the key and silver rope onto a messy wooden desk on the right of the room. A fire burst into life in the grate to his left, near two tattered armchairs. A dark threadbare rug spread across the stone floor between them, covered in haphazard piles of books.

  Payne closed the door behind him. The witch bustled through into an adjoining room and returned with a hairbrush that she put to good use, viciously dragging it through her tangled hair. She didn’t flinch when it caught on knots and pieces of hay. She grumbled in the fae language, dark things that had Payne remaining close to the exit. She was livid about something. He could feel her anger in her blood and hear it in her heartbeat, and sense it in other easier ways too. The fire on the grate roared like an inferno and the flames on the candles were six inches tall and blazing white, evidently a response to her rage.

  She paced, heeled black leather ankle boots loud on the stone floor.

  Whoever those males had been, she was pissed as hell at them.

  Payne leaned his back against the wall and breathed slowly. She wasn’t a threat to him. He focused on the calm ebbing and flowing through him, trying to instil that same feeling in her, and raised his hand to his face. He was still bleeding. He licked the blood from his fingers and then licked them again and dabbed his saliva across the cut.

  She stopped pacing then and tossed the brush onto one of the dark red armchairs. It bounced off the cushion and landed on the fire. She cursed, shrugged, and approached him. She looked different with all the tangles and twigs gone from her chestnut hair, but she still had a wildness about her, a wickedness that Payne found alluring.

  The witch stopped in front of him. He looked down at her. She was petite, a good nine inches shorter than he was.

  “Elissa.” She offered her hand. He didn’t take it. It had been hard enough dealing with skin contact in the street. If he touched her now, when they were alone, in private, he probably wouldn’t be able to stop his hunger from rising again. If that happened, he would have her on that bed he could see in the adjoining room and naked in under five seconds. She frowned into his eyes. “Thank you for helping me...”

  Clever ploy. She wanted his name.

  “Payne.”

  It seemed she wasn’t satisfied with his aloof air and refusal to place her at risk by touching her. She tiptoed and touched the cut on his cheek.

  Payne felt that same intense gut-tugging jolt as he had the first time they had made skin contact.

  Warmth crept outwards from where she touched, turning him hazy, drugging him with how good it felt. His very nature said to go with the flow because the flow felt divine. The little witch could give him what he needed. Not just the method of freeing Chica from her bond. She could give him bliss.

  He could feed on both her energy and her blood.

  His incubus side and his vampire one purred at the prospect.

  His cut stung and he could almost feel his flesh knitting back together. Magic.

  “Witch,” he growled, a low warning that he didn’t like her meddling with his body.

  She didn’t heed it but she did eventually withdraw her hand. She smiled up at him. “Sort of.”

  “Sort of?” He frowned at her. How could you be sort of a witch?

  “I don’t have much power yet. I’m still learning.” Her sweet voice was a melody in his ear, curling around him, petting him and feeding his desire.

  She stepped back, distancing herself. His eyes must have changed again, swirling blue and gold. Payne lifted his hand and grazed the backs of his fingers across her soft cheek, his breath shuddering in his chest over how exquisite she felt. He wanted her.

  She knocked his hand away. “Don’t turn on the charm. I don’t like it.”

  That brought Payne back to earth with a bump. “You can tell when I’m using my ability?”

  She nodded and moved back another step. “I don’t like it. It feels as though I’m seeing myself do things, feel things, that aren’t really anything to do with me.”

  Strange. Was it a witch thing? He hadn’t heard that immune females could sense an incubus attempting to use his ability on her. It had to be a witch thing.

  “Normally people can’t tell it isn’t their natural feelings.” His gaze tracked her across the room.

  “I’m not normal now, am I?” She stared into the fire and sighed at her melting hairbrush. At least the flames had died down. Her heartbeat was level again too and he couldn’t feel any anger in her.

  She looked back over her shoulder at him, her eyes locking with his, their dazzling silver depths enchanting him once more. Her lips parted and her pupils dilated. Desire. He could get drunk on the way she felt whenever she looked at him. How would she feel if he took things further?

  “I don’t like it,” she said in a breathless voice. “I don’t know why you feel the need to use it... so stop it.”

  Payne smiled. “I’m not right now.”

  Her eyes widened and she blinked. “You aren’t?”

  He shook his head. “Whatever you’re feeling, it’s one hundred percent yours, and I’m flattered.”

  She turned her nose up at him. “Get over yourself.”

  His smile widened into a grin when her heart skipped a beat and her cheeks turned rosy.

  She disappeared into the bedroom again and slammed the door behind her. Payne listened to her stomping around the room and muttering about him. He cast a glance around the messy room, studying the piles of books, the vials and beakers, and bottles of coloured liquids and jars of herbs and other more questionable things. A witch’s home was disappointingly close to what he had imagined.

  Elissa emerged from the bedroom.

  The witch however, was nothing like he had pictured.

  She had changed into a pair of tight black jeans and a sexy purple halter-top that gathered beneath her breasts, and by god, she wasn’t wearing a bra. He could see the soft buds of her nipples pressing against the material. The chestnut waves of her long hair curled around her milky shoulders and a black choker with a silver star in the centre ringed her throat. Payne swallowed, desire surging through him, hot and heavy, burning up his blood.

  Was she trying to kill him?

  “I thought witches wore those dull black dresses?” he said and was that his voice that had sounded squeaky and tight?

  He cleared his throat.

  She smiled wickedly, her lips a glossy pink now, enticing him more than ever. “I was on duty... now I’m off duty.”

  “I need you on duty.” And not just because off-duty Elissa was hotter than Hell on a summer’s day and had all his blood rushing to his cock.

  “Why?” She twirled the ends of her hair and stared at him, her silvery eyes bright with curiosity again.

  “I came to this place to speak to you. I need an item for a friend of mine. She’s a fae and was accidentally bound to a theatre. I heard you can help us.”

  “Sounds like a real problem.” Elissa thoughtfully tapped her finger against her chin, drawing his gaze to those glossy tempting lips. Would they taste sweet if he kissed her? She shook her head. “But I’m only covering for the witch who normally lives here. Sort of like house sitting.”

  Payne’s insides dropped a few inches. Not good. He was shit out of luck just as he had feared and the witch she was covering for had been his last lead. It was back to the books and the research. He hated the thought of returning to Vampirerotique empty handed. He wouldn’t be able to bear the look of disappointment on Chica and Andreu’s faces when they discovered he had failed them again, and god only knew how long it would be before he turned up more leads and more potential fixes for
their problem.

  He heaved a sigh and scrubbed his hand through his blond hair. “Thanks for your time.”

  He grabbed the door handle and pushed down, letting the door swing open. It was probably for the best anyway. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could last around Elissa without pouncing on her and getting that taste he hungered for.

  “You’re in luck.” Those words stopped him dead and he turned back to her.

  “I am?”

  She nodded, looking very bright and cheerful. It set him on edge. He didn’t like that she was smiling at him. It made him feel as though she was up to something, was plotting behind those beautiful eyes. He could almost see the wheels in her mind turning.

  “I can help you better than Verity could have... but I have a price.”

  He knew it. She was up to something. “What?”

  She nibbled her lower lip and crossed the room to him, moving so close that personal space became an issue and he had to take a step back to avoid her body pressing into his. She looked up into his eyes, hers surrounded by sinful black kohl that highlighted how silver they were and enhanced the devastating power they held over him. He couldn’t look away, even when his gut instinct was to run before she answered because he already knew he wasn’t going to like her reply.

  “I want a taste of you, Incubus.”

  “No fucking way.” The only way he could distance himself was to back out into the street.

  Elissa didn’t look pleased. Her expression darkened and then lightened again in the space of a heartbeat. She shrugged.

  “It was worth a try.” Those words gave him the distinct impression that she really needed his help with a different matter and had been trying to sweeten the deal by getting a taste of him. His incubus side kicked off at that, disgustingly pleased by the fact that she wanted him. Desire surged through him, hunger to taste her too and see if she was as sweet as she looked. Payne tamped it down, unwilling to surrender to that urge.