shift happens 03 - no were to run (33 page)

Damien watched as Rory picked up his pace, but only barely. Finally, the kid stopped about two feet in front of her.

Jezibaba paced around him, turning her head. “Lift your chin,” she ordered, and Rory complied. “Ah, you have a nice long neck. Are you afraid of snakes, Rory?”

“No ma’am—I mean—no Jezibaba ma’am.”

“Good,” she declared and pulled a two foot gold and black snake out of one of her sleeves.

When it hissed at her, she hissed back and spoke to it in a tongue Damien had never heard leave a woman’s mouth. The witch was obviously well versed in reptilian languages. He found himself wondering if she spoke dragon.

Smiling she walked to Rory. “Hold out your arm, boy.”

When he did, she placed the snake’s head on his hand. The snake wound slowly around his arm, crawling until it had wrapped itself lightly around the boy’s neck. The snake hissed, its tongue flicking against Rory’s cheek making him giggle. He looked beyond delighted, which delighted her in return.

“After you trust him, get him to bite you. Then you two can share thoughts with each other. His name is Saigon. This is his normal form, but he has others. It costs him greatly to use his magic to shift to them, so he won’t change forms until there is dire need. You must care for Saigon as you would yourself, Rory. He will protect you with his very life. Be worthy of the sacrifice or no other familiars will have anything to do with you in the future.”

“Yes, ma’am—I mean, I will—Jezibaba ma’am. I like him. He’s really cool.”

“I know. Now take him back with you to your seat. He must stay with you at all times. You can wear him like a scarf, but sometimes he likes to sleep inside your clothes where it’s warm. He’ll most likely leave you at night to hunt, but he’ll always return by morning.”

Damien grinned when Rory looked up at Jezibaba in adoration, even as she turned him and gave him a shove to get him walking. He felt his giant dragon’s heart squeeze alarmingly within his chest. The woman was a legendary badass. It made her huge efforts to shield these innocents from her true nature all the more impressive.

“Hildy. Come forward,” she called, tucking her hands behind her back.

Braver now because of Rory, Hildy slid from her seat and walked to where she stood. Damien fought back a chuckle when the girl swallowed hard as Jezibaba looked down in her eyes.

“It is very difficult to choose a familiar for someone with your affinity for all Morgana’s creatures, but we’ll do the best we can. I believe I heard you asking Professor Smoke about some special kittens.”

Hildy nodded. “Yes. They come, but they don’t stay long. I see them all the time.”

“I bet they are asking permission to be your familiars—all three. It is very rare to get a group like that. Only special witches get those sorts of followings,” Jezibaba said sharply. “Have you asked them to stay with you?”

Damien snapped to attention when Jezibaba’s gaze darkened. It went across the room to Carol shifting in her seat and frowning. He went on alert when she chastised the girl.

“The kittens are Hildy’s. And they will see you again because you are Hildy’s best friend. So there was no lying in their statements. Get that unworthy thought out of your head before it turns to a darkness you can’t control. Am I being clear, Carol?”

Carol hung her head and nodded.

Jezibaba’s gaze lightened as it came back to Hildy. “Now I wish your future could be different, but it cannot. Natural healers bear a great burden, but they also have a capacity to appreciate joy in a way most creatures don’t. So you might as well have amusing familiars to keep your heart light and a smile on your face. Call them to you, child. Call them like you usually do.”

Damien heard Carol snort, but she sunk into the seat when Jezibaba glared at her for the noise she made. He turned back as Hildy made a face.

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”

Jezibaba snorted. “Do they actually come for that weak calling? No. Try again, Hildy. Forget all of us. Call them as if we were not present in the room. Do it, girl.”

Hildy frowned and stooped to the floor. She patted it three times, putting her concentration into her palm hitting the cool tile.

“Here. Kitty. Kitty. Kitty.”

Three kittens appeared out of thin air, materializing within reach of her hands. She laughed as she petted them.

“Jezibaba said you can stay with me and be my familiars. I would like that. Please stay.”

Damien’s eyebrows rose when the kittens froze in place and turned their heads to stare at Jezibaba. He smelled large amounts of fear radiating off all three of them. She was glaring at the kittens, one eyebrow raised in question.

“Did you think I didn’t know you keep sneaking out of your confinement? Your vile personal habits best not ever be a part of this child’s life—and I mean ever—or you will all three spend the other seven of your lives living as toads instead of cats. Now promise to serve Hildy during this life you now lead. In exchange, I will lift the remainder of your punishment and restore your powers.”

Damien stood transfixed as the kittens trotted over to the Jezibaba, wound themselves around her ankles one at a time, and then trotted back to Hildy and did the same to her.

“Good. It is done then,” Jezibaba declared. “Hildy, you don’t have to pat the ground anymore. They’ll come for any call you make. Kittens are a little more distracting than a snake or a grown cat though during school hours. I would suggest you let them blink out and come to you only when you want them around.”

Hildy’s head bobbed fiercely. “Yes, Jezibaba. Thank you. They’re wonderful. I will take the best of care of them.”

“I know you will. You are welcome, child. Now say goodbye to them and return to your seat.”

Hildy finger waved and said bye. She nearly skipped to her seat when the kittens disappeared. Her smile was radiant. It was the happiest Damien had ever seen her be.

Jezibaba called up a girl named Faith and gave her an older cat with one green eye and one blue. The cat trotted back to the seat with the girl and crawled under the desk to curl into a ball.

Then Jezibaba fisted her hands on her hips. “Carol—get up here. Don’t dawdle. I need to be somewhere else shortly.”

Looking anything but happy to be summoned so sternly, Carol trudged up to stand in front of Jezibaba lifting her chin and glaring back. Damien covered his mouth, this time to hide a grimace at the girl’s show of disrespect. He was amazed when Jezibaba favored the girl with a wicked, beaming smile. To him, it was far more frightening, and Carol seemed to know it, but the kid was holding her own.

“Professor Smoke, please open the window. I need to call Carol’s familiar to her,” Jezibaba ordered.

She turned and smiled down at the girl as she gave a long suffering sigh.

“You like using your power against people. It makes you feel strong and I think you revel too much in that feeling. By the laws of the Goddess, I could lock you away for a hundred years even at your young age, but you’d just grow into a bitter martyr for evil. I can’t allow that to happen to you because you’re far too powerful a witch to not be serving the magical community.”

Jezibaba wrestled her gaze away and walked in a circle around the child, chanting to constrain the girl from reacting when her familiar arrived. There was absolute silence in the room, but she could feel Hildy’s worried gaze on them both. Jezibaba couldn’t afford to comfort the other of her prospects, so she didn’t bother to even glance her way. What was most important was that this mirror of her know she always meant exactly what she said.

“Carol, I’m assigning you a special guardian who will teach you right and wrong. He will judge your abuses, and if he finds you guilty, your familiar will mirror your spell back to you. Empathy is a very effective teaching tool. I can guarantee you will learn your lessons… just like I did under his tutelage. After you have sufficiently progressed in a few years, then you will be free to choose your own familiar. In the meantime, you will use
mine
.”

Carol looked to the window in fear.

Jezibaba leaned down. “What kind of beast do you think my familiar is, child?” she whispered in her most stern voice, raising goosebumps on the girl’s arms. “He is a powerful creature of many forms. Let’s see what he chooses to show you first, shall we?”

Jezibaba stood tall and held out her arms. She put all the power she had into her voice, mostly for dramatic effect in this instance, but she knew her familiar would understand her reasons.

“
Great Emeritus, come to me. As I will, so mote it be
.”

Damien winced as an ear shattering “Caw” filled the room as a giant black raven flew in the window and landed on Jezibaba’s arm.

“I have a new pupil I would like you to consider,” she said to the raven.

Damien saw the raven look down at Carol who stared up at him in great fear. The raven turned to Jezibaba and nodded his head, cawing again.

Then the bird lifted from her arm and transformed into a large black dog with hellhound teeth and red eyes. He landed lightly on the floor and paced around the girl, looking like he was going to eat her. Instead, the creature leaned in and licked the side of Carol’s face with a large tongue.

“Oh, good. Emeritus has agreed to take you on,” Jezibaba declared, clapping her hands once in great pleasure. “Now pet him. Go on. He’s waiting for a sign of your agreement.”

Carol looked at Jezibaba and back to the dog thing. “Do I have to pet him?”

“You were so brave earlier, Carol. Are you now afraid?” Jezibaba challenged.

“No,” Carol protested, looking back at the waiting animal. She reached out a trembling hand and ran it down the dog’s neck, shivering herself when it shivered under her touch. Whimpering, it turned to look at the Jezibaba.

“Yes, I know. I told you she was strong,” Jezibaba said, speaking to the hellhound.

Damien watched the hellhound turn to look at Jezibaba, transforming once more, this time into a large white owl who jumped onto the edge of his lecturing podium.

Jezibaba bowed her head to the animal and went down to one knee. “Thank you, Great Emeritus. I do realize what I am asking, old friend. If Morgana favors me in my plans, this is the last pupil I will ask you to train.”

Damien swallowed tightly at the sight they made. The Jezibaba never bowed to anyone—she didn’t have to. The owl bobbed his head to her, then lifted into the air, becoming the giant black raven again before he flew back out of the window.

Jezibaba rose to her feet. She looked at Damien’s shocked expression before moving to the girl’s equally shocked one.

“A witch, no matter how powerful, is no match for a creature like Emeritus. He is a guardian of old and you should feel lucky he finds you worthy enough to serve, Child. You have been blessed this day in ways you will not understand until a hundred years from now. I hope you are good to him. Otherwise, Emeritus could bring about your death. He is a stronger believer in balance than I am.”

Carol turned without prompting and returned to her seat. Damien saw her staring straight ahead. Jezibaba showed no remorse for terrifying the girl beyond anything he’d witnessed done to a student.

“Now I must go, but I will return soon. Professor—if you will show the warlocks to my room, they will see to it that my things are brought along. Until tomorrow…”

And just like that, she and Nathaniel were gone from the room. Damien looked around the class at the stunned faces. Their expressions probably mirrored his.

“Okay. Let’s take a break. Pick a flying spell book from the bookshelves and we’ll try it on one of the brooms later.”

As the children scrambled, he walked to the window and closed it, sighing with relief that the school day was almost over, but also that Jezibaba said she was returning. She was the first female in the seventy-five years he’d been without a mate to stir in him an urge to seek a physical connection. Since he couldn’t leave the school, it would be a lot easier to explore that strange urge she prompted if the powerful woman remained nearby.

And he certainly wasn’t sure how he was going to explain to his pure dragon family he was falling for a witch, but he’d figure that one out once he knew if their connection held what their attraction promised.

Jezibaba or not, the witch was the first female he’d wanted in too long of a damn time. The magic of a dragon’s desire for his female was far stronger than any spell a witch could ever weave. He’d been alone far too long. He would not risk turning away such a gift, even if the female had come into his life through the wicked Goddess, Morgana The Red.

Chapter 3

Jezibaba stood before her Goddess appointed employers and crossed her arms to keep from zapping all of them. Killing everyone on the existing Council of Witches would be one sure way of making sure the traitor was taken care of. Only the hassle of having to search for new politicians, rule makers, and money keepers kept her from it. She had faith that she would root out the weed eventually. It was the time required to do so that irritated her.

Their elected spokesman, an elderly neo-Druid, stood to address her. “Your time is far too valuable to be their guardian, Great One. What if something more important came up and you couldn’t be reached?”