The Witch Within

  The Witch Within

  Ancestor’s Enchantment Trilogy

  Book 1

  By Jacqueline Paige

  Nervous energy started to fill her when she went through the last set of doors leading to Leland’s office. The energy vanished when she saw him standing beside the water cooler with Celia. She laughed and reached out to touch his arm. She didn’t move it away, just continued to stand there smiling up at him with her red-clawed hand touching him.

  When the heat building inside her registered, it was too late to stop it, the water cooler burst, spraying water all over the place and conveniently enough, soaking Celia.

  Leland’s head snapped around, he zeroed in on her immediately. The look he sent her needed no translation; she was to make herself scarce.

  Now.

  Still vibrating with the energy flowing through her, she all but stumbled to Leland’s office and fell through the door. She didn’t even have the chance to catch her breath before he came in behind her and closed the door with a loud click.

  “I—I couldn’t stop it,” she gasped.

  “I know.” He toed off his wet shoes and came towards her. “What set you off?”

  Her eyes flicked to the arm Celia had touched. “I saw her, she was...” The heat moved in her again. Sending him a panicked look, she had her hand over her stomach trying to will it to stop. “Lee...” Something in her voice told him how urgent it was because he moved so fast towards her it he was a blur through her eyes.

  “Breathe it away, babe.” He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into his chest.

  “I don’t think I can,” she whispered, afraid to do anything more.

  “Divert it then. Give it to me.” Grasping her face between his hands, he crushed her mouth with his.

  Never had she been kissed with so much need. His mouth took over hers and she was helpless to do a thing but let him. The heat balled in her stomach began to spread through her whole body, changing rapidly into pure lust for him.

  Pulling her into his body, his hands stroked over her with a rough touch while his mouth burned a trail down her throat. She was powerless to do anything but let him, not that she wanted him to stop, this is what she’d been wanting since that first time he had kissed her.

  Growling, he lifted his head and looked down at her. His eyes were black with passion as if he was going to consume her right there and then. If he hadn’t been holding her tight against him she wasn’t sure if she would have remained standing on her own. The buzz from her magic was now mixed with the heat from wanting him.

  He started to move back towards the couch, making sure she came with him. She waited for him to say something, but the emotions swirling in his eyes told her he was beyond words right now and she knew he didn’t need to say a thing for her to agree. Teegan felt connected to him by more than just their bodies touching, it was like something inside held them together. It was powerful and unlike anything she’d ever felt before.

  Sitting down, Leland pulled her right along with him so she had no choice but to straddle him and climb right into his lap. Her breathing hitched when she felt his straining body under her own. She knew they were supposed to keep their distance, but she couldn’t help it if the pull was just more than she could back away from this time.

  Grasping her thighs, he pulled her tight against his body. With a satisfied look on his face, he ran his hands up her back until they were in her hair. His lips traveled up her throat and over her jaw. Losing patience with his sudden tenderness, Teegan grasped his hair and pulled his mouth back to her own.

  A loud knock on the door had them both pausing.

  Leland turned and glared at the door as he lifted a hand towards it. The lock clicked into place.

  Another knock, harder this time.

  Smashwords Edition

  Published by Exordium Books (FRP)

  Copyright © 2022 Roxane Kerr

  Excerpts from Heart book 1 in the Animal Senses Series, Mystic Perceptions Book 1 in the Mystic Gifts Trilogy by Jacqueline Paige, and The Huntress Book 1 The Alterealm Series by J. Risk copyright ©2015, 2016, 2021 Roxane Kerr

  All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without the author’s prior written consent, except for brief quotes for use in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Prologue

  The sun was long past setting as the six gathered deep in the darkness and began moving through the trees. Their only light was that of the luminescent moon at its fullest. The youngest of the six led the way, she may have been the least in years, yet the others knew she was the one that held all the strength.

  In her wake, each would turn and check their trail to be certain no one followed. If their parents were ever to know, it would be the end of them all. The power and gifts they held secret had been discovered quite by accident a few years before, since that time they had honed their great skills of true magic.

  Eden quickly caught up to her sister at the front, a sister of choice and not from blood. Ducking her head, she whispered as close to Alana’s ear as she possibly could. “Do you know of the reason for the summoning?”

  Alana shook her pitch-black hair back from her face. “I do not.” She turned towards the lake and increased the pace of her step. Peering back over her shoulder, she gauged the others closeness and then spoke as soft as a breeze. “A dark feeling has filled me for many days past, I fear it is not for good reasons we gather on this autumnal night.” She patted the bundle she carried from a cord at her side. “We must be wary and prepared.”

  Eden inhaled sharply and dropped back a pace. “I shall caution Bridget.”

  Alana only lifted her face to the moon’s rays and continued on. Turning to look quickly at the three that walked a ways behind, heads close together, she turned and gave Bridget a stare to bring her to hasten her movement forward. As soon as she was within hearing, she whispered to the ground. “Alana has dark feelings-yet again.”

  Bridget sighed quite loudly. “I have been a feared of such since two days’ past, she walks about with that crease on her brow and my guts supposed it was to be brusquely that our scheme was at hand.”

  Eden nodded, but daren’t say more for fear of the others overhearing.

  Once reaching the lake, the six spread out the distance between their bodies, in habit, a circle was formed. Alana set her bundle upon the ground at her feet and turned to the eldest among them. “Having done as you stated, not one of us has uttered a query for this assembly you have called, Ella.” She looked around at her sisters of her choosing to see their rapt attention on the one she spoke to. “Do end our curiosity, sister, and share the meaning, if you please.” She kept her focus on the crimson-haired sister, watching for a sign she prayed would not be revealed. Ella flipped her long locks back as she let her eyes move over each girl present. The last she looked upon was Alana, as she knew to be common with her.

  “It is my right to call each of you–as only sisters of our circle apt to do.” Lenora and Jane were the only of the five that agreed readily. “The year is now one thousand, six hundred eighty-five. It has been five years past, since the night we found our way to one another, as we are. I have a wish to ensure the threats to our very lives are secure and to behold a power that we six are deserving of.”

  Alana shook her head when Eden inhaled raggedly. “Sister, Ella, have we not spoke of this to the point of tiring? The hunts have ceased, no more shall be accused nor sought. We are here, each one of us safe.” She glanced at the others and found the group w
as as she knew it to be, split into two groups of three. “Not once during the trials and fearsome times did even one come to think of us as a sort of betrayer to the word...”

  “Alana, child, you are what now? Ten and three years?” Ella smiled in that maddening way she had. “I, having five further years on yours can feel it in my bones, these outrageous happenings are not at a cease and we are very much in need of ensuring it does not come to pass again.”

  Alana dropped her head down and let her black hair cover her face whilst she sought out the vibrations of the others dear to her heart. Lifting her face, she beheld the moon hanging over the lake. “We are but children, Ella. As god-fearing as any that step in the arch of our church, we have nothing to fear.”

  “We have everything to fear!” Ella’s voice rose through the silence of the night. “I shall be a betrothed woman in a short time and then what will become of me when my husband discovers what I am?”

  Eden replied before Alana had the chance. “I am certain William will be ignorant of your habits, sister. How would he ever find a clue unless you told him you are a witch of magicks.”

  Lenora stepped forward and shook her head. “In less than the years we have been together, each of us shall be wives–then what shall we ever do?”

  “I agree,” Jane said quietly. “In one year’s time, I too will be set to marry.”

  Bridget lifted her head and glared at Jane. “Whoever shall marry you shall get what he has coming to him.”

  Tiring from the words they had all said to her many times before, Alana raised her hands in the air and sent a gust of wind through the circle. “I cannot bear to hear this again, sisters.” She turned and watched as Ella and Jane nodded to one another. “I am not taking part in your scheme of evil darkness.”

  Ella snorted in an unpleasant manner. “You would break your word to each present here?”

  Alana took a step back, bringing her close to the water’s edge. “I would not.” Her eyes quickly met that of Eden and Bridget before she finished. “I would choose to revoke all that I have been given than do unjust things to others that cannot defend themselves from your dark ways.”

  Lenora gasped. “You would not...”

  Alana raised her hands. “I would exactly.”

  Jane stepped in front of Ella. “For you to revoke your gifts, would you not be obliged to take all of ours?”

  Alana shrugged. “Mayhap it will take all, no one can be certain.”

  Ella shoved Jane out of her way. “You would not dare to try, young sister...”

  Eden bent down at Alana’s feet and opened the bundle. Alana opened her hands in front of her and bit her lip to stop from hissing as her sister placed a small score on each of her palms. Keeping her focus on the three opposed, she prayed they could not see. When Eden straightened and walked past Bridget, she knew the task was complete.

  Alana clasped a hand each of Eden and Bridget and raised their arms; the blood from the shallow scores upon their hands mixed and brought to her a heat of power that only she could have born.

  “Sister, Eden, stop them!” Lenora cried.

  Alana closed her eyes and felt the winds circle her with recognition. Beneath her feet the ground quivered, waiting for her to speak to it. As she opened her eyes and focused on the three sisters she did not now touch, she felt the spray from the water at her back cover her in small droplets. “I cannot be part of something that goes against all that I feel to be right, sisters.” Tilting her head, she looked at Jane. “Join us in protecting what is just.”

  Jane’s eyes widened and for the briefness of a heartbeat, Alana thought there was a small chance she might agree, but she shook her head and stepped beside Ella. Woefulness filled her insides, and even though she knew the outcome days before, her heart begged her to attempt. “Lenora?” Once more she waited even though she knew another sister was lost to her. Lenora backed further away and looked at the sand under her feet. “So shall it be,” Alana whispered.

  Inhaling slowly, she raised her eyes to the moon whose rays bound her to the sky above. “I call ...”

  “Wait!” Ella’s voice was filled with panic. “We can speak more of this and draw an end that pleases each one of us together.”

  The fear jolted into her from the hands she held. Without looking at Ella, she sought to feel what was in her soul. Pain enveloped her heart as the truth coursed into her. “Why speak of falseness, eldest sister? I know what lurks in your heart and I must protect the innocent you wish to cause sufferance to.”

  Raising her hands higher she spoke to the night. “I call upon the night and all of her energy, come to me and abet me with this, my last task.” The winds swirled colored leaves around her, she smiled and let the magic wash over, feeling the warm welcome of it just once more. Lightning streaked through the clear sky above, she inhaled the power. “I seek to bind this three and three from doing any harm.” A circle of flames burst around them, flicking as long tongues of three feet high, blocking the outside from entering and the six from leaving. “I send for safe keeping all that we have, the gifts that you gave, to our furthest ancestors to keep within until there is a dire need of them.”

  A stinging traveled along her flesh as the energies gathered, waiting for her leave go of. “When a time comes that this three and three be together once more, awaken and come again...” So much power was collecting inside her that she had no choice but to cry a single tear, knowing that this was the last time she would feel it in this body. “Collect inside the generations and carry us forward to a time long from now.” She could hear crying but was not to take a chance to see which sister or sisters it came from. “Select the one that bears goodwill, hold an honest heart, and make her remember. Remember the times of this six and behold the gifts we pass to her.” A clap of thunder sounded across the sky, its cry echoing over the lake until it faded back into the night. “I thank you from deep within and now set you free...”

  A strong tunnel of wind gusted through the circle, stealing any more she had to speak. Opening her eyes wider she watched as each sister dropped to the ground, leaving her the last one standing. A burning washed over her, pulling at her until she thought she could bear it no longer, and then it was gone. Emptiness filled her as the flames swallowed into the ground. Behind her, the water was now lying calmly as it had been when they had arrived. The earth was now silent, as it had been. The rays of the moon seemed no more than a light in the darkness, without power and purpose.

  A draining feeling passed through her, causing her legs to weaken under her until she dropped onto the sand and panted to seek to breathe once again. Looking around, the others didn’t move, they just lay where they had fallen without a word. When she glanced upon Ella, the hatred was clearly on her face.

  “I will have vengeance.” Ella hissed at her.

  Alana rolled onto her back and looked at the sky, feeling like nothing more than a child again. “You may seek to strive for such.” She answered softly. “My will shall fall to my kin far from now and we shall see if you find triumph.” To feel nothing but commonness once more—it was wondrous to feel.

  1

  Was she floating? See seemed weightless enough to be. Squeezing her eyes shut, she counted to ten before opening them again.

  Hovering above a lake, she could see her own shadow cast on the water from the moon above her.

  A dream, it had to be a dream. The last time she checked none of her life skills involved floating.

  Glancing around, she didn’t recognize the area below her. People were walking through trees, or maybe those were just children...

  Where was she?

  A void feeling came over her like she was fading...

  What was that ringing noise?

  Bolting up, Teegan looked around to realize she was in her own living room.

  Dropping her head down, she heaved out a loud breath. The dreams were just getting weirder and weirder. She froze—why was she sleeping on her couch? She remembered climbing
into bed the night before, didn’t she? Her pills were the only solution her groggy mind gave her. She must have forgotten to take one sometime yesterday. It had happened before, one day blurred with another and she lost track.

  Sighing, she reached for the bottle of water. It fell to the floor. Either she was still half asleep or she had just managed to knock a bottle to the floor without even touching it. It was going to be one of those days...

  The phone ringing jolted her back to reality. Scrambling across the room, she grabbed it.

  “Took you long enough to answer. Come on, we’re going to be late!”

  Turning to the clock she gasped. “Cripes! Give me five minutes, Kat.” Hanging up the phone she spun around trying to decide what she needed. “I can’t believe this is happening again!” Running into the bathroom, she quickly brushed her teeth and hair.

  Surveying her reflection in the mirror, she stopped and held her breath. When exactly had she put on her long sundress? Turning, she peeked into the bedroom to see the clothes she had taken off the night before sitting on the chair. On the floor beside the bed were the pj’s. What was going on? Was she blacking out now as well as having messed up dreams? Shaking her head, she spun back to the mirror and made the call that the dress stayed, she didn’t have time to find something else to wear. What day was it? Please don’t be Wednesday, she couldn’t handle a meeting today. Tossing the brush onto the counter, she grabbed her makeup bag and the bottle of pills and shook them as she bolted out of the room. “Why aren’t you working?”

  Black shoes or white? Hitting the hallway at a jog, she grabbed folders off the table and stuffed them into her bag along with her cell phone. Keys, where are they this time? Shoving a foot into her black pumps as she looked around the room for the ever-elusive keys, spotting them, on the counter, she quickly put on the other shoe and darted over to get them.