The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga by Taliesin Govannon (important books to read .txt) 📕

course, I knew that the walls around the compound weren’t enchanted or anything… they were just walls.  Walls could be climbed over.  It would require an extraordinarily stupid person to breach these walls… there were a lot of wealthy people with homes in the area, and most of them had armed security.

                We've got a hyper-dedicated Fae ready to take out anyone who threatened me.

                Gaia had refused a room in the house, preferring to camp out in the tropical forest.  I had no idea where her camp was, and I didn’t see her for the bulk of the days.

                Yep, it would take a real idiot…

                My thought was cut off by a gunshot.  I dropped to the ground out of a combination of instinct and training and scanned around me.

                It hadn't hit anywhere near me, so I doubted that I was the target.  But why else would someone bring a gun in…

                Another shot broke me out of my thoughts again, and I saw a rustling in the underbrush farther ahead of me. Another rustle, and then a medium-sized dark shape darted across the path.

                OK, so is the wild boar running from the…

                A larger shape charged across the path.  It was a man.  He raised his gun again and tried to find the boar in the thicket.

                Poachers I thought, shaking my head.  They really ARE that stupid!

                I had to stop them. They were shooting blind into the vegetation, not caring what they hit.

                That pissed me off.

                I thought about sending bees after him, but decided that was too slow.  Instead, I pulled out my other favorite trick.

                I reached out my hand and reached out with my mind.  Gimme that! I thought, and suddenly his rifle was torn from his hands and sailed across the space between us, coming to rest gently in my hand.

                The man looked at his empty hands with shock for a moment, then turned and looked at me.

                I stood up.  Holding the gun in what I hoped to be an easy and confident manner… I had never liked guns, and tried to avoid them when I could… I looked at him and said “Didn’t your mama ever teach you about not trespassing on someone else’s land?”

                He looked totally lost for a minute, but finally found his voice.  “I don’t know how you did that,” he began, “but you’d better just put that gun down on the ground and raise your hands.”

                “And why would I want to do that?” I asked defiantly.

                “Because my buddy’s in the woods behind me and he has you in his sights.” he replied, a grin slowly growing on his face.

                I heard the audible click of a rifle being cocked not five feet away from me, and I quickly found his friend, their gun indeed pointed at me.

                I was lost for a moment, but then heard the sound of the wind whistling by an object running very, very fast.

                I turned back to the guy farther away from me, my own grin growing.  “Too late.”

                The guy with the gun by me grunted and was quickly yanked up into the tree canopy above.  Various sounds of rustling, violence, and pain echoed through the woods, until the second poacher, gun wrapped around his ankles like ribbon, hit the path ahead of me with a thud!  The shape didn’t move, but it breathed… he was out cold.

                I locked eyes with the unarmed man and grinned again.  “Run.” I said.

                He did, but he didn't get far.  He was soon yanked up into the trees and joined his friend unconscious on the ground.

                Gaia walked out of the forest, smiling.  “That was easy.” she said.

                “Thanks for not killing them.” I said.  “It makes it easier to turn them over to the local authorities if they’re in one piece.”

                “I read the guy who had a bead on you,” she said, “and he was never going to pull that trigger against another human. Pigs? Yes.  Humans? No way.  So I let him live.”

                “Nice!”

                Just then, Raina came barreling out of the woods.  She ran up, breathing heavily.

                “I heard gunshots...” she started to say, but then saw our poacher guests out cold on the forest floor.  “These two?” she asked us.

                “Yep, poachers.” I replied.

                “Seriously?" she said, shaking her head.  "Fifteen-foot walls not enough to tell these guys 'stay the fuck out'?"

                “There’s a space where the wall meets the shore where it’s easy to go around it.” Gaia said with a jerk of her head towards the beach.  “I’ll call Vincent and have a crew out here to shore that up asap.”

                “You know,” I said, stress showing in my voice, “I really need to learn some more magick.  People tell me that I’m supposed to be some bad-ass magickal chick, but all I can do right now is act as celestial miracle grow or do lame Jedi levitation tricks!”

                “Don’t let Jack hear you diss the Jedi.” Raina said quietly, eyebrows raised.

                “I’m just saying that I should have been able to do more.” I continued.  “I mean, why couldn’t I make his gun disintegrate in his hands? Or turn his buddy’s gun into peanut butter?”

                “Or blast their guns and leave them with some nice hand burns to teach them a lesson?” Raina added.

                “Right, that!” I replied.

                “Well, I’ve been wanting to work on my magick too.” Raina said.  “I don’t really want to go back to Ohio to do it… Jack’s looking forward to heading back to spend time with Katsu, and I don’t want exploding walls in the room next door to spoil the mood, you know?”

                “This place is too well known.” I said.  “Vincent and Angelique the some truly legendary parties here a few years ago, and the staff tells me that people have been stopping my all week.”

                “We can go back to the Twilight Fae realm.” Gaia said