Her Mind Games: A Dark and Erotic Paranormal Romance Read online

  We are witches. This is who we are. And this is what we do.

  I had heard of the witches Karolyna and Lavoya before but had never met them. Remember Talya? The older women who almost cracked my spine by trying to drop me on my head from thirty feet?

  Karolyna was worse.

  Shira called her for a meeting on the same day I had called Luke. She wanted to tell Karolyna about the war and get her involved.

  By the time I arrived at the house, it seemed their own little internal war had also begun.

  They were in Shira’s office. Karolyna had her hands on Shira’s desk, her hourglass butt pushed out under a pencil dress, screaming down at Shira who sat on her stately chair. Shira loved that chair. It made her feel like an executive.

  The argument was heated, passionate. Neither of the women had heard me enter and I decided to wait outside until the battle was over. I had my back turned already...

  ...when I heard the crack!

  It was the sound of a bomb, a terrible snap of wood and furniture. I turned suddenly, my heart at my knees. Shira’s huge mahogany desk had been split in two, a vicious crack down the center of it. Smoke poured from its tattered edges. Karolyna’s fingertips sparkled with tiny tendrils of blue and white lightning. She turned to look at me. “So...you are the fucking Wannabe Wonder this hag can’t stop talking about.” Karolyna said. “I warn you...child. There are those of us who are older, have been around longer, and who don’t take lightly to an usurper the likes of you.”

  I felt utterly confused, and completely petrified at the same time. Karolyna (who had a phenomenal set of wide hips), swayed toward me in her high heels. As she got to my side, I felt her tongue on my toes.

  ...She licks them deeply, and then her hand is up my inner thigh—

  “Get out of my head,” I warned.

  Karolyna laughed. “Such a child,” she said. She looked at my toes, and they burned. “Such a lovely, innocent”—her real hand slid over my shoulder—“child. Destroy the demons? And you are supposed to be the wonder child who does it? What makes you think we want to destroy them? They keep us on our toes, child; sift out the weak from the strong. And some of them—mmmm—oh, the sex you get with a demon is nothing compared to what this hag and Talya get on with. I’ll have no part of this game.” Before leaving, she turned to Shira. “Hunters. Hmpf. You crediting the strength of hunters? You know as I do they are dogs. Slaves who come in handy occasionally. Magicless. The child has gotten into your head, old woman. I remind you that you and I had an arrangement once. I was supposed to be taken under your wing and taught the skills you’ve wasted on this pleb.”

  “We had no such arrangement,” Shira thundered. She stood from her chair, looked down at her desk. “Your mind is...violent. It is—”

  “Violent! You haven’t seen violence, old woman.”

  Shira sniggered. She wasn’t old at all. “A war is coming, Karolyna. And witches will lose their force of will and become slaves themselves, slaves to a darker power.”

  “Fairy tales,” Karolyna said. “Although...” She put her finger to her lips and looked up pensively. “...Who’s to say witches don’t want to be slaves to a darker power? Think of it—all that parasitic strength. It would do me good to suck some of your”—Karloyna looked at Shira’s feet—“abilities...from you.”

  When Shira next spoke, the walls boomed and trembled. Her voice was the roar of thunder itself. “GET OUT!”

  Karolyna smiled wickedly, looked down at me lushly. Down my chest, my stomach, my knees...

  ...and her tongue is on my big toe again...

  “Stop it!” I cried.

  She cackled. “You? You’re the supposed hope for all witchkind? Your walls are flimsy, child. Shira’s time has been wasted on you.” Her hands sparkled. She turned to Shira. “You are lucky we are in this damn fortress of yours, Shira darling. When was the last time you stepped outside? Too afraid of other witches?” A snap of small blue lightning crackled from her fingers, and then smoked away... She frowned in frustration. “The moment you step outside those gates, little Shira. I’ll fry you on a spit.”

  Shira grinned. “Luck has nothing to do with it, Karolyna. It’s your inability to crack the protective walls I have erected around my home. You’re weak.”

  “Weak,” she scoffed. “It’s all about power, isn’t it? And you share it with this urchin.” She rolled her eyes disgustedly at me. “Does she suck your cunt nice and deeply, Shira? Does she? Oh, her fingernails aren’t trimmed. Has she not put out for you yet? Is that why her mania has affected you? Is that why you go around telling yourself these lies—so that you can pamper to her and get her to finally fuck you?”

  Shira seethed, her fists clenching. But she said nothing more.

  “Fine,” Karolyna said, “I get the point. I was on my way out anyway.”

  The curvaceous woman looked down at me again. She had an imposing figure, seductive and curvy. She inhaled deeply, looked down at my toes one more time. They were sticking out of the sandals I was wearing. She grinned. “I’d like a piece of you myself,” she said. “For kicks.” She looked over at Shira. “A child. Nothing but a child. With a mind so weak it would take me a day to crack it open.”

  “I dare you to try,” Shira said, venom spouting from her lips.

  I heard the sparkle again from the busty woman’s fingers. “One day... One day... You will regret this.”

  She stormed out.

  My toes were suddenly cold, and I saw her saliva on them. She really had been in my head. And she really did...

  The thought made me ill. I felt almost violated. And what if she had done more?

  Shira looked down at me disappointedly. “One more to go before we leave LA,” she said. “But I don’t think Lavoya will be any better, albeit perhaps a little more...polite.” (We had decided not to ask Talya for help.)

  The witch called Lavoya “arrived” a few hours later.

  She didn’t arrive at all. She materialized.

  I heard the moaning outside by the pool and went to check on it. I saw a redhead with eyes like a cat and knew instantly it was her. Lavoya made no effort to hide herself. She took Ronald and Jackson together just beyond the pool’s edge. Jackson tasted her, her legs spread wide, while Ronald felt her breasts and pushed himself inside her mouth, back and forth, her fiery hair playing behind her as he pumped into her, her pale skin glowing like the moon. There was a tremor under my feet as they did it, an actual vibration.

  Lavoya frowned. Ronald moved his cock out of her mouth. Zombie, completely under her control. She turned and saw me standing there. When she spoke, it was like the voice of a million bats, a screech so loud that I dropped the glass I’d been holding and blocked my ears. And the earth rocked beneath me at the same time. It was a three-point-two quake, no major damage anywhere. Maybe you remember that one; there was a small mention of it on national news. There was a high alert for a few days that a six-plus quake might arrive later, but there never was one. Most quakes do happen because of faults, but many occur because of witches.

  I went upstairs and called Shira, told her I thought Lavoya was here. (Who else could the woman be?)

  Shira didn’t need to read my mind, she could see on my face something was wrong. And from her reaction, I could see this sort of thing had happened before.

  She stormed down the stairs in a flowing gown, burst outside to the pool area and screamed, “They’re my slaves. How many times must I—”

  The earth rocked.

  Lavoya kept sucking Ronald off as if he were the last ice cream in a drought, her moans and groans vibrating in rhythm to the trembling earth underneath us.

  Plaster fell in lines of dust from the exterior wall.

  “RONALD! JACKSON!” Shira screamed.

  They kept going at it, more furiously, Jackson licking away like some glowing black god and Ronald’s abs bursting as Lavoya pumped over his shaft.

  Ronald began to groan, every muscle tightening and bursting.r />
  I lost my footing as the quake grew larger. Jackson played with himself while his tongue stayed between the woman’s legs.

  I felt the fury from Shira next to me like an angel of darkness.

  And that’s when she flipped.

  The full force of Shira’s power came down on Lavoya’s antics like lightning. Literally. It fired down against Lavoya’s body from some high place up in the sky and left the woman reeling, dazed, gasping—but not hurt or burnt. Jackson and Ronald had been thrust aside by the electromagnetic force and seemed to be coming out of their zombified daze. Ronald rubbed the back of his neck, his cock still hard. Jackson was in the pool now, unconscious, and I thought he was going to die. As soon as I had that thought, Ronald dived into the pool and pulled the dark man out. I put that thought into his head, I realized.

  Lavoya hissed like a hungry vampire, saliva dripping in streams from her mouth, her cat eyes appearing like those of a heroin addict—dulled and one-track minded. Her shaved pussy gleamed with wetness from both her own arousal and from Jackson’s mouth. She looked up at Shira with revulsion, the muscles on her skinny body tightening and relaxing spasmodically in reaction to the freakin lightning bolt that just hit her.

  “They were mine,” the redhead growled. “Mine!”

  “You used them. Their minds couldn’t take the pressure you put on them. They were zombies when you had them.”

  Aren’t they still zombies? I wondered.

  “They came to me by choice and you agreed to the terms,” Shira shouted. “You have no right to take them now.”

  “I have as much right as I can get into their heads. It’s survival of the most powerful, my dear.”

  Jackson and Roland were on the other side of the pool, looking dazed, seemingly unaware of what was happening. She has walls around us. The men don’t see what’s happening.

  It began to strike me how powerful Shira really was. She never flaunted her power, but it was always there. Ready for action.

  Lavoya struggled to get up. She was almost a bag of bones, but her breasts were naturally massive, the nipples large and puckered. Her deep breaths only seemed to make them larger.

  She looked at me, wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. “This is the child?”

  Child. I was getting a little sick of hearing that word all day. I was nearly nineteen goddamnit.

  “She is no child,” Shira said. “And her power runs deep. I’d watch your step around her.”

  I felt Lavoya’s cat eyes on me like daggers. “Your house,” Lavoya scorned, talking to Shira but looking at me. “Damn your house.”

  “We must talk,” Shira said. “Put this madness aside and come inside. There is something afoot. Something terrible. Something bad...for us.”

  “Us?” the redhead scoffed. “Us! There is no us. There never was. You know the ways of witches, Shira. There is no unity. We’ve tried, and look at us. Cackling hags who hate each other’s guts and who would kill each other if we had the chance.”

  “It’s not true,” Shira said sadly. “We can do it this time. I believe it is possible.” I heard the regret in her voice, as if she had tried this before.

  “Pft. The girl has gotten to you, hasn’t she? You and your idealisms.” Lavoya looked at me. “A sweet little delicacy, I confess.” She looked between my legs, but at least she didn’t force any thoughts into my head like Karolyna had done earlier. “Don’t worry, little child. I like men. But I see Shira’s interest in you.”

  “Come inside,” Shira said soothingly. “Let us forget this madness. There is something vital we must tell you.”

  “Young Shira, always the dreamer. I thought you left those days behind, woman.”

  “I—I—” It was the first time I had seen Shira at a lack for words. “Please,” she begged.

  Lavoya’s face stayed stern. She looked at me. Looked back at Shira, the redhead’s eyes remaining firm and angry.

  And then she dropped it on us like a bomb.

  “No,” she said.

  And she was gone.

  Poof.

  Nothing.

  Disappeared.

  I felt the invisible wall disappearing around us. Jackson and Ronald were at the side of the pool, feet inside the water, looking more alive. They were still naked, but this was a normal occurrence in Shira’s presence. “Did you feel that quake, Shira?” Ronald asked, almost excited about it. He doesn’t remember, I realized.

  “Yes, Ronald. I did. Get some clothes on, please. You know Crystal doesn’t like to see you both flaunting your junk around.”

  She turned abruptly and glided into the house.

  -16-

  In the parlor, Shira lay defeated on the two-seater, the back of her hand on her forehead.

  Standing at the entrance, I said, “We don’t need demons to take us apart, do we?”

  She shook her head.

  “We do it ourselves,” I said.

  She just lay there.

  “You’ve tried before, haven’t you?” I asked.

  Quietly, she said, “For other reasons, yes. I tried to form a coven. Witches are more powerful when they are together. It’s why these women can use powers in my house. If they were alone here, the walls I have up would stop them exercising those powers. But I am always here. And...you are, too.” She sat up, leaned her elbows on her knees, shoulders drooped. “Sit,” she said, and gestured to the seat across the table. “Crystal, I believe in you. Power is not how much lightning you can muster or the size of the earthquake you can generate. It’s not getting into someone’s head or building inner worlds that people can walk into. These are skills, not power. You can do all those things, I know it. And they will come to you.

  “I’ve known since you arrived that you are tremendously powerful. None of these women have ever been able to manifest their strengths within the walls of this home. It is you that brings this about in them. When you are in the presence of another witch, you expand her own powers. And me—I’m also no weakling. So you and I combined are a force to be reckoned with.

  “They sense it. Witches are distrustful. It is in our nature. And we have never been able to form a group, to agree. So now that you come along, they are afraid.

  “The demons suck our power and turn us into will-less creatures of darkness only because that seed is already inside us. It is the seed of our own destruction.

  “I wanted to unite witches when I was younger, wanted to bring us all together and make people aware of the magic, that it exists. I wanted to form organizations, bring us out of the closet. Heck, even sports contests, but instead of tennis we’d be flinging lightning bolts across a chasm. Dreams. Dreams. Idealistic dreams. I’m talking like I was nineteen myself again.

  “It all failed.

  “Lavoya and Karolyna and Talya were the three I got closest to. We ate each other up. Feuds were formed. Old bitternesses come up every time we see each other. I was the most powerful of the three and they ganged up on me. I never have the three of them here at the same time. And the walls I have up prevent them from entering unless they are invited.

  “I fell...” She wiped her nose. “Get me a brandy, would you?” I got up and fetched the brandy, poured her a glass. “I fell in love with Talya, but the relationship became difficult. Too much inner conniving inside us. Too much witch inside us. I decided I would not get involved with another witch. I went for a human. Vera. And there were others as well.”

  She sipped her brandy, downed it. Poured another, drained that glass as well.

  “We shall go to Florida,” she said. “Let’s meet this hunter of yours, Crystal. Let’s meet this Aasiyah as well. I’m with you.” She poured another drink. “But now I must be alone. Leave me alone for now. Too many memories. Too much sadness.

  “Keep your walls up, Crystal. Those witches cannot harm you outside these walls anymore. You have grown too strong. They were just trying to scare you. But they are the ones who are scared. They cannot harm you outside the walls. Me? Yes. But no
t you. Go now. Please. Go. I must be alone. I must.”

  I left, having no clue that by doing so, things would turn irreversibly bad between us that evening.

  Forever.

  -17-

  Shira and I had long since built a channel between us. We didn’t need to use phones anymore. It was a tunnel between the walls of our minds, itself protected by walling. We could communicate from a distance through this channel in the form of concepts and ideas.

  I felt her pull toward me that evening, a desperate cry for help. An urgency like I had never felt before.

  They must have her, I thought. Lavoya and the others, they have her.

  I caught a taxi and rushed over to her place, fighting with the door as I slid in the key. I felt the evil the moment I entered the house. “Shira!” I screamed. “Shira, where are you?”

  I raced upstairs, opened every door, the office, the guest bedroom—

  And then I heard the scream.

  From her bedroom.

  I slammed inside the room and—

  The shock of what I saw struck me blind.

  —the door slammed shut behind me.

  Despair coiled around me like a boa. “No,” I moaned. It was the sound of a rat trapped in the jaws of a giant lion. “Oh, gods, no, Shira. You...promised.” I felt the tears well up in my eyes as I understood her betrayal of me.

  We are witches. This is what we do.

  She was on all fours on the bed, facing me, her majestic bronze tits dangling violently while Jackson pushed himself inside her from behind. He was so dark and muscular and lovely, his face set into a desirous growl, his eyes clenched tight as he slammed into her.

  I screamed, put my hands to my ears and howled. “You promised. You promised!”

  “I promised you—Oh—I’d never force—Oh, yes—myself upon—Oh, gods, that’s deep. Keep it comin, baby—upon you, Crystal. I never promised—Oh, gods, yes. Oh, yes—I never promised I wouldn’t try and tempt you. Now watch. Watch! Oh, yes. Oh, dear gods.”

  She was deep into his head. He was even more zombified than he’d been with Lavoya earlier that day.