Page 55 of Midlife Witch Unexpected

Everything on the back of Branson’s neck bristled and his alpha expansion happened so suddenly, I wasn't ready. It was like he was sucking the air out of the space around us.

But Joachim wasn’t just anyone; he had lived three hundred years and knew a thing or two about being the alpha. He didn’t even look at Branson. He kept his gaze trained softly on me.

“You are magnificent,” he said. “You have great power. All the power of your ancestors resides in you. And I can see it.” His voice purred seductively in my ear and suddenly visions of me in the red room of The Estate, with him by my side, welcoming various dignitaries from various supernatural regions began to pour through my head.

“How are you doing that?” I brushed my hand at the air. “Stop doing it!” The visions were startling in their clarity of supernatural beings I had never even seen before. Elementals. Beastials. Monsters. Demigods. Fae. They were playing out in scenes so realistic they couldn’t be denied, but terrifying for the very same reason. I wasn’t being manipulated; I was being hit over the head with the vampire’s power over me. I could feel it wearing at my resolve. He showed me what a child I was as he exerted his force on me.

It was also clear he wasn’t going to leave without me.

“You can only have one,” I said. “Give me the girl and I’ll go with you.”

“What are you talking about?” Branson spun on me. “You can’t go to him.”

“I can’t leave her alone with him,” I insisted.

“We can’t replace you.” Branson’s face was creased in worry.

“I cannot replace someone’s daughter,” I said. I turned back to Joachim. “Return her and I will come.” Purple and green light swirling around my hands.

“You will come in peace?” Joachim said.

“I will be peaceful as long as you are,” I said. “But I do not belong to you. I’m not married to you.”

“I will own you,” Joachim chuckled.

“Nope,” I said. “That’s not the deal. I’m offering to go with you of my own free will. I can leave you just as easily. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”

“What the hell are you saying to him?” Branson said.

“Leave me,” I said to Branson.

There was no way I was going to have this conversation with him while the vampire was in earshot. I didn’t know if he could hear my beating heart, but I was pretty sure that he could hear my whispered words. I walked directly to Joachim.

“Let her go.”

He stared at me solemnly. "Your word is your bond magic-user," he said.

“I understand.”

He waited a moment longer as if sizing up something inside me, then he let Anita go and she ran past me crying and into Branson’s arms.

I turned over my shoulder and looked at Branson. “Make sure she gets home. And don’t come looking for me.”

He was staring at me strangely but holding Anita. He knew he had no choice but to take her to Trina.

I felt the grip of the vampire’s cape as he wrapped his transformative black cloud around me. We were caught in a whooshing of air and a sickeningly spin. Suddenly I was carved into a million pieces, ripped apart, then all my bits were reunited, and we were in a cabin.

“What the fuck?” I held my stomach as bile rose in my throat. “I’m going to be sick.”

In a split second, I was brought to the sink and unceremoniously positioned over it just in time for me to puke.

“It’s not unusual the first time you do that," Joachim said, his accented language sliding over my skin seductively.

“I don’t plan on doing it again,” I said slowly, steadying my breath.

“You will have to if you’re traveling with me.” Joachim smiled as if it was a given.

“I don’t plan on traveling with you,” I said. “I don’t plan on doing anything with you.”

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