Noctifer soul noctifer w.., p.1
Noctifer Soul: Noctifer Witch, #2, page 1
NOCTIFER SOUL
A WITCH’S TALE OF MERMEN, DEMONS, AND MONSTERS
THE NOCTIFER WITCH SERIES
BOOK TWO
G.R. LOREWEAVER
Copyright © 2022 by G.R. Loreweaver
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This work is intended as adult entertainment. It contains material of an adult, explicit, sexual nature. The author does not necessarily condone or endorse any of the activities described.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Published by Saucy Pineapple Publishing 2022
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
* * *
Visit our website for updates and new releases:
SaucyPineapple.com
For anyone who is clumsy as fuck.
You can still be a badass hero. You just have to pick yourself up more.
And maybe watch where you point your sword…
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. The Noctifer Witch
2. Forsythia Grimshaw
3. The Watcher
4. Forsythia
5. Blake Coakley
6. Lucian Holt
7. Forsythia
8. Lucian
9. Forsythia
10. Lucian
11. Forsythia
12. Forsythia
13. Blake
14. Lucian
15. Blake
16. Forsythia
17. Forsythia
18. Lucian
19. Blake
20. Forsythia
21. Blake
22. Forsythia
23. Lucian
24. Forsythia
25. Blake
26. Forsythia
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by G.R. Loreweaver
INTRODUCTION
This is a slow-burn paranormal menage romance. This book contains themes intended for readers 18yrs+ including but not limited to: adult language, sexual situations, violence, and death.
This is book two in a series, which means the characters will not have an HEA… yet.
Just be patient.
They will get there.
Eventually.
1
THE NOCTIFER WITCH
Two heartbeats.
I hesitate. Listening for any sound that could indicate where they are.
There were nine when I started my hunt. The first two were easy to find. The third and fourth worked together, which ultimately led to their dual elimination. The fifth was tricky, and had me going in circles for a little while, but a minor slip and I got them easily. The sixth and seventh were working against each other, which confused me at first, but I was able to take them out when their tactics became verbal bickering.
The eighth and ninth have been sneaky. Their tricks with evasion have had them just outside of my reach for nearly two hours now.
I reach out again with my senses, and still only pick up on their heartbeats. Steady, but elevated. Close, and yet just outside of my reach.
Where could they be?
I pick up a brief trace of magick to my right and push out with a pulse of air in that direction. It doesn’t connect with my target, but when I hear the crunch of dead leaves on the deserted forest floor to my left, I adjust my trajectory and send out another small gust of wind.
THUMP!
I hear my target hit the ground and rush to assess the situation.
I pull down my blindfold and see Taryn, an eleven-year-old merfolk boy, sitting on a mossy space with his arms crossed his chest and a scowl firmly in place. To be fair, I don’t think I have actually seen the kid smile, but his frown and the wetness pooling in his eyes says that he may have landed a little harder on his butt than he had hoped.
I crouch down and offer a small smile.
“Are you okay?” I ask, even though I know he wouldn't tell me if he wasn’t. While the children from the merfolk village were more than willing to help me with my training practice today, they are still afraid of me. So are their parents.
Not that I would ever bring them any harm. I have grown to love these people, almost as much as I love their primary healer. I’m just a wee bit of a klutz. Combine that with some Goddess level powers and… well let’s just say that people have been known to lose their eyebrows around me from time to time. Ok, just one time. But the whole village heard and won’t let me forget it.
Picking on me has become their favorite pastime the last few days. Although, I suspect that is just their coping mechanism, trying to make light of the wounds they are still healing from. The battle took a lot out of them, when they weren't a bunch of warriors to begin with.
“You peeked,” Taryn accuses, drawing my attention back to my successful capture of my eighth training partner. His accusation raises my hackles for a minute before I remind myself that he is only a kid. Of course he’s a sore loser.
I hold my hands out in a defensive position. “I didn’t look once, I swear. I think it was these big trompy feet I heard that gave away your location.” I smile and reach down to tickle the bottom of his foot. Like all of us, he is barefooted. Unlike me, the kid has no ticklish bones in his body and continues giving me a death glare while I unsuccessfully try to tickle him.
Well, this is awkward as fuck.
Do I stop or do I keep trying to make him laugh? Do I help him up, or just leave him to find my last target?
Finally my brain catches up with my movements, and I decide to pull my hand away before I continue to make an ass of myself. I guess I am not the greatest around kids. I mean, I was never really around many before, and I have never even held a baby, so I guess it’s to be expected.
Abandoning any chance of inciting laughter, I take the mature route and stick my tongue out at Taryn as I stand up and turn away from his everlasting frown. I pull my blindfold back in place and taking a few centering breaths.
I feel Taryn’s energy pulsate slightly as he stands. He doesn’t move for a minute, and I don’t have to be able to see right now to know that he is probably sticking his tongue out at my back. Or maybe he’s giving me the finger? I could have sworn he did that to me yesterday when I won our chess game, but he pulled out some wicked sweet eyelash batting and I checked my accusation real quick. That kid is a genius.
When I finally hear Taryn stomping away–I am pretty sure he is putting extra effort into those trompy feet of his–I readjust my focus. It’s time to just get back to my training anyways. I have one last kiddo I have to find in this weird version of hide-n-seek.
Cordelia designed the game and enlisted the help of a few of her village's tweens. She pulled the nine that were strongest at shielding magick to help exercise my tracking skills. She has been my rock these last few days. Between the late night talks when the pain in my chest becomes uncomfortable, to helping me get my magick in shape fast, we have grown a tight bond. She makes me feel safe when she soothes, but strong when she pushes me. She sees my potential, and not just because of what I could mean for her and her people, but for what I could become myself. I truly am grateful that she has been pushing my training and designing so many exercises, because I need to track down my man.
Well, not my man. Just a man. I mean he is technically my soul-bond mate, but he’s still his own person. You know what? Let’s just find this kid already.
I take a deep centering breath and let it out slowly. The smell of the trees, dirt, and tiny hint of ocean fill my senses with calm. I truly do love this area and could see myself living here for the rest of my days happily with Blake.
What?! Where did that thought come from? Is that really what I want?
Relaxing my face from the frown I seem to have stuck in place, I realize that I don’t need to think about that right now. I just need to focus on one thing at a time, and right now I need to focus on finding my last victim–er… target.
I breathe in again and immerse myself in the scents of the living and dying cycle of the forest we are training in. I flex my toes in the dirt and moss-packed ground beneath me and centering my focus on the task at hand. When the sounds of the fauna around me begin to fade with my continued focus, I feel it. It’s like a small tap on my arm and I instinctively move in that direction.
I keep my steps light to avoid being heard, while weaving through the thick trees. I can hear the birds chirping endlessly around me and have to focus harder to drown out their songs. After a few feet, that tapping sensation encourages me to turn right. I continue on like this for about five minutes, turning and weaving, slowly being pulled like a moth to a flame, when my entire body erupts into goosebumps. Again, acting on instinct, I reach my right hand out and grasp air, then pull it to me.
The startled screech from Len lets me know that I have won the game. A huge smile takes over my face as I pull down the blindfold, only to be met with an angry twelve-year-old girl. I open my mouth, but before I can get a single word out, she is striding past me and yelling over her shoulder.
“Yes, well done oh mighty Noctifer
I can’t even respond as Len is trying to get away from me as fast as possible.
I sigh and scrub my hands down my face as the old hurt bubbles up. Kids didn't even want to play with me when I was a kid. Why should they feel any different now? Were the kids from my childhood village afraid of me because of my strange eyes, or could they feel my immense power bubbling just under the surface?
My power begins to swirl on the breeze and I know that I need to get it reined in immediately. I lift my hands straight into the air on a deep inhale and then bend forward at the waist until I’m touching the ground in front of me on the exhale. I stand up slowly and bounce on my toes while shaking out my arms. I repeat the motions a few times, feeling more at ease with each set. The process helps to clear my focus instantly and I’m even more grateful to Cordelia for teaching me the trick.
Feeling much more grounded, I begin walking back towards the merfolk village. I have been here for three days now since I woke-up from my near-death experience. Although I did die, so I guess it was an un-dead experience? No, that implies I’m a zombie and we have established that those are sadly just a myth made-up by humans. No brain eating, flesh-decaying reanimated corpses here. Nope, I am a super badass and pulled myself back from the Ether.
So as I was saying, it’s been three days since I died, and Cordelia has spent every moment she can spare teaching me everything that she can. There are two big reasons why I know that our time together is getting short though.
Reason number one, is Blake. He is my supposed soul-bond mate, total asshole half-breed, super sexy hunk, and Cordelia’s grandson, who was taken captive. Who snagged him from us? A group of corrupt magickals that are working for–or with, we aren’t clear on that yet–the very creature that I have spent the last three years of my life guarding, and Blake has spent his entire adult life hunting.
The Creatori..
Thinking of the creature's name makes me stop for a moment and clench my fists.
The monster who can make any magickal nearly wet themselves in fear because it feeds on their magickal life-force. The monster that can only be put in stasis by a spell that inevitably kills the caster. Last time, that was my own mother.
I begin walking again, and a sad smile lights my face like it always does when I think about my mother.
She didn’t exactly go into the Ether. A small part of her life essence was able to hold on and went into the body of a dragonfly. She met me in the Between and guided me back to my body, filling me in on a few details I may have been missing, before she passed on to the Ether. The pain of losing her again is still there, but witnessing her passing into the Ether soothed something inside my soul.
Which was a good thing because I had quite the task list ahead of me. Finally finding peace with losing my mother has given me a newfound strength that I know I will need for what’s to come.
My strides start to take on a more determined pace. I could have easily used my transport magick to take me back to the village instantly, or even stretched my wings with some flying practice. But I am grateful for the walk and the time it has given me to sift through my thoughts.
I enter the village and head straight for Cordelia’s house. I need a shower and food. When my stomach grumbles, I decide that I’m not picky about the order of those things.
Unfortunately, I just barely make it past the merfolk village healer commorancy, where Cordelia is the head healer, when a deep voice tickles across my spine.
“You must be Forsythia.”
The cold voice leaves a trail of goosebumps across my skin.
I know that I shouldn’t turn around and a tiny part of me says to run away, but I’m a glutton for punishment apparently, because what do I do? Well, I turn around, of course.
He’s tall, and I actually find myself looking up at him a little to meet his face. His body is built like a warrior and his skin is like the color of my favorite caramels. When I see his face, I understand where his son got his good looks, except for his eyes that have a much greener hue to their bold blue. He doesn’t need an introduction because I already know exactly who this is. He’s the merfolk clan leader.
Dagon Coakley.
Also known as Blake’s father.
From what I have learned from Cordelia, he’s not the best father to Blake and is fueled by pure rage at any mention of the Creatori. Like Blake, she also seemed to feel that it was best he didn’t know too much about me, as he would find my mere existence an insult from the Gods.
He was the second reason I needed to be leaving soon. But it looks like ‘soon’ up and left without me. I just hope we have managed to keep my true identity a secret. I can feel his aura, and while I believe that he is a good man at his core and a wonderful leader for his people, he would also see no problem taking any weapon that he feels would do greater good in his control. And I am the biggest weapon in existence.
Taking a calming breath, I give him a slight nod and smile. After all, maybe I can sneak away as soon as he dismisses me.
“So the rumors are true. The Noctifer Witch has arrived.”
The smile falls from my face with his words.
Well, fuck…
2
FORSYTHIA GRIMSHAW
Instead of freaking out, I opt for an awkward introduction.
Thrusting my hand in his direction with a not at all crazy smile on my face, I greet the merfolk clan leader. Now if someone would remind my mouth that I don’t want to sound like a complete idiot, that would be great.
“It’s a pleasure to muscle your dragon.”
Wait…
What the fuck did I just say?
I don’t even bother waiting for him to clasp my hand, or save myself by keeping the face palm to an internal gesture. I take a breath and rub my hand down my face. Once again pasting a smile on my face for the stoic leader. I hear a faint snicker from behind him and take notice of a younger copy of the man, who is turning slight shades of red as he attempts to hold in his laughter.
I don’t bother with the hand this time, and instead use a slight head tip.
I really hope that didn’t look as awkward as it felt.
“Sorry. It has been a long day of training. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Dagon. I’m Forsythia Grimshaw.”
If I expected a response, I was shit out of luck. The man just continues to stare at me. I’m actually not quite sure if he is breathing, but he hasn’t fallen over yet so I will just assume he’s good.
After an agonizing thirty seconds of stretched silence where I am actually beginning to sweat at my failed attempt to remain still, he finally speaks again.
“I feel that you have been training inadequately. Perhaps this is a task that I should personally see to. That way I can ensure the proper elimination of the threat once and for all.”
I flick my gaze to Cordelia and try hard to hide the panic that is bubbling in my stomach. The last thing I want is for Dagon to assume that I’m his personal weapon to train and wield. But dealing in the world of faction leaders is foreign territory for me, and I have no clue how to respond in a way that he doesn’t take to high offense. I truly hate politics.
Ever my savior, Cordelia jumps in with a quick response.
“I’m sorry Dagon. I didn’t realize that Forsythia hadn’t quite left yet. She actually has a lead on the monster's trail and is leaving immediately.” She addresses me quickly before Dagon can interject. “I’m so glad that you got to meet our beloved Dagon and apologize for keeping you Forsythia. I have already prepared some foods for you and added them to your pack.”
