with me, but I don’t need one. Releasing my dick, I open my palm and form an energy ball in it. I’m not only an assassin but also part witch, on my mother’s side, although I prefer to use knives rather than spells. It’s more painful when you peel skin from a body with a blade.
All the Reapers have something magical about them. I’m one of two witches. We also have a lion shifter, a wolf shifter, and a vampire who doesn’t enjoy human blood unless it belongs to a pedophile—even then, it’s not to drink but to color the floor red as the perpetrator dies. Dominic, I swear, is the devil himself. His powers are incredible. I’ve never seen anything like him before.
At the sight of my energy ball, I’m certain I see the stag’s eyes go wide with shock. He snorts and then scrapes his hooves on the ground. It seems he’s about to charge, but he doesn’t. Instead, he comes slowly toward me, sniffing the air as he approaches.
“Are you a shifter?” I ask but don’t get any response. “Change back to human if you are. I warn you I will throw this if you try to attack me.” I hold the energy ball up higher.
The stag is directly in front of me now, but something tells me not to throw the ball. When he lowers his head to me as a sign of submission, I realize he’s been assessing me the entire time and knows I won’t hurt him unless he charges at me. “Can’t you change?” I ask.
He shakes his head ‘no’.
I extinguish the energy ball and reach out to touch the stag’s coat. He allows me to stroke him. The magnificent creature’s aura is all wrong. He’s not a deer by nature. His soul is completely human.
“Have you been placed under a curse?”
This time his head nods to indicate ‘yes’.
He looks behind him, deeper into the woods, then he looks back to me. His brown eyes are filled with sorrow, almost pleading with me.
“Do you want me to follow you?”
Another positive nod.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have time. I’ve got to get back on the road.”
The stag slumps his shoulders in defeat. He starts to turn away, but I stop him by running my hand over his coat. Everything is wrong here. The stag’s sadness is overwhelming. There’s no malevolence or hatred emanating from him. All I can sense is love and a need to save…but to save what, I can’t figure out.
“Ok, I’ll follow you. Let me just get some weapons from my car.”
He shakes his head and then nudges at the hand that’d held the energy ball.
“Are you saying I’ll only need my magic?” I question.
He snorts a ‘yes’.
“Ok.”
The stag turns, and I follow him through the forest. It’s wet underfoot, and I need to be careful of my step. The magnificent beast clears a path for me as best he can. His large antlers swiping aside the branches. The deeper I get into the forest, the more magic I begin to sense. Something wicked is at work here. It’s cold and calculating and causing pain to those around it. Overwhelming melancholy emanates from the stag and hits me in the chest. It’s so strong my legs weaken, and I need to take a moment to compose myself.
“What the hell has happened to you?”
My magic isn’t as strong as my mother’s, but she and my grandmother taught me how to protect myself if needed, and Dominic has guided me also.
I take a few deep breaths, suppressing the mixture of emotions cascading through my body. Sensory perception was an essential part of my education at the hands of my mother. She wanted me to always be in tune with the type of magic I encountered. It’s the reason why I can now sense that the suffering in this place is almost unbearable. Whoever has used magic on the stag has not done so with any good intention.
Strengthened, I continue to follow until we reach the edge of the forest. In front of us stands the entrance to a Gothic style house. It’s overbearing, built in dark stone with small windows and gargoyles watching as security. I can feel there’s never been any happiness here…only sorrow and death.
“Who lives there?” I question, wishing the stag could speak to me. I try to remember a spell for telepathy, but it doesn’t come.
While we stand hidden in the shadows of the trees, the front door opens, and