Sorceress: Crossing the line

  Water Sorceress: Book Three

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2020. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  Green tinged with blue, was all I could see. Swirls, eddies, currents, whirlpools, great currents, and stillness. There was some light, the green and blue, but it looked to come from everywhere. It was diffuse. I wasn’t sure how safe what I was doing was, but the realm of water was a beautiful if alien place.

  Among the currents and all around I could get glimpses of water elementals, both big and small. Some in the shape of men or woman, like the human legends of sea sprites, mermaids, or water nymphs. Others beings were smaller like sea animals, and some so vast it made me feel small and insignificant. Ben had told me elementals were forbidden to mess with humanity, but I wondered if that was always so, and if these creatures weren’t truly the origin of all those legends. From water nymphs luring human men to their deaths in a pond, to large and terrifying sea monsters roaming our oceans.

  The power I felt there was addictive in nature. There was no need for water as a gateway, since my entire reach of magic was filled with the pure magical power of water. I’d never felt stronger. I didn’t want to leave, and I knew that was dangerous. I resisted the allure, even as my curiosity kept me there a little longer.

  The realm of water was what I travelled through, but I’d never really seen much. I’d moved through it quickly, everything a blur, while my magic propelled me to my destination. This visit to the realm that held the source of my power was a little different than that, since I wasn’t moving at all. I floated in an endless sea of water magic, and that’s all that there was. Even the elementals were comprised of it.

  The water shell that held the air I breathed was also extremely thin, and it enabled me to see.

  I’d modified my inner water bubble once again. The one that allowed me to breath during traveling. A discovery that I’d made just three months ago. The surrounding shell of water holding a small amount of atmosphere acted as a lung. Airtight, and slowly contracting and expanding, while thousands of microscopic gateways back to my world exchanged my used air for fresh air. I could stay indefinitely now, travel anywhere on the planet, or just pop over and take a look around. I couldn’t control air of course, but it acted like a lung, and the atmospheric differential as it expanded and contracted took care of the rest.

  I knew elementals were dangerous. That knowledge kept me from approaching them, but there was a wistfulness in my heart. A curiosity about the true nature of the universe that I’d never be able to quench, at least not without risking my soul and free will. There were however, some things to be learned by my exercise. I could see out into the real world, much like scrying, but see my current location to where I was in the corresponding location of this realm.

  That was a lot less limited. To scry I needed to have been there before, or to scry a person I’d have to have an object or place that person was connected to. This was different. I’d never been to Manhattan before, but I knew I could watch the real world from the window, and then zoom along interstate ninety-five at better than Mach speed, and then just pop back into the real world when I saw the skyline for New York City. I could travel anywhere that I wished now, not just where I’d been. It would just take more effort and I’d need to have some kind of visual aid to get me there, but I could do it.

  It put travelling more under my control, but obviously I’d use the old way if I had been there before. It was easier and faster to let the magic do it.

  I wasn’t one to spy, or steal. It wasn’t part of my personality and it was morally questionable to me. But if it ever came up, I was undetectable to all but another water sorcerer lurking in a different plane and staring out into the real world. One of the things I’d never have done with my power was use it to teleport into a bank vault, and then make off with some stacks of cash. With this new approach, I wouldn’t even have to leave the water realm. I could move into a vault’s corresponding location in this realm and use my magic to pull the cash into the bubble with me. No worries about cameras.

  The potential of use in a fight was rather obvious as well. Temporary retreat, while still monitoring the fight from a safe place. I could either fully retreat, or pop back out in a moment that was advantageous to me. Instead of popping around a battle instantly, I could pause, take stock, and strike at my whim. That could be very handy. Earth, fire, and air magics could not reach me in this place. Of course, there were limits. If my opponent couldn’t stop me from travelling out into the water realm, I probably wouldn’t need to do so, and if they were far more powerful then they could prevent my retreat, so it would fail when I needed it most. Point being, it didn’t guarantee a win or anything.

  But it could be useful if the fight was very even in power, or at least close. It’d be a good trick, but one that could kill me when it failed, if I depended on it too much in my tactics. In short, it was one more tool and layer in my magical arsenal, and not something that would make me untouchable. Arrogance was the greatest killer of sorcerers, and I’d have to keep that firmly in mind.

  The final practical use of such a thing was to lower the risk of exposure even further. My magic did what I wished, what my will and focus demanded. I could quick travel to a location, and have my magic take me there, but stay in the realm of water when I arrived. Sure, scrying a location before I started worked, but what if the trip took a minute or two? A normal person could’ve moved into the location, or some company could’ve put up a new surveillance camera since I’d been there last.

  It’d give me an opportunity to look out into the real world, and make sure I wouldn’t be seen when I transitioned back into our world.

  I felt Katie’s anxiety rise slightly, and I forsook the hypnotically alluring view of the endless realm of water to look back into the hotel suite we’d been sharing the last three months. Katie was my best friend, and my family by choice before I’d known she actually was my cousin by blood. She had gorgeous dark brown hair, instead of my light blonde, but otherwise looked almost exactly like me. Bright blue eyes, lithe and athletic body, and a soft beauty around the face with full lips and high but soft cheekbones.

  There was also a maid in our room, or at our door, with breakfast. The surge of anxiety was probably her worrying I’d pop out and appear with the maid there. Not too big a deal, but we’d have to call Dana, our vampire liaison to fix it.

  I snickered, and then waited until the maid left before popping back out.

  “Surprise!”

  Katie gasped, jumped, and then glared as she covered her chest with her hand.

  I giggled, “Hi.”

  Katie accused, “I hate you.”

  I laughed, “No you don’t.”

  Katie glared, “You were in there for a while, I was getting a little nervous.”

  I nodded, “It’s safe enough, I think. As long as I don’t approach an elemental, they’ll leave me alone. It’s a rule.”

  That was mostly true, but I wondered if there were unknown natural dangers in that world. I’d do my best to avoid moving through the more active magic, like those huge whirlpools. A little prudence never hurt, and magic was dangerous enough without being pointlessly reckless.

  We sat down and started on dinner.

  “How’s Jeremy. I didn’t hear you come in last night.”

  She’d been dating Jeremy for just over three months, a human electrician in his mid-twenties, who was quite attractive and was obviously besotted by my cousin.

  Katie blushed, “He’s good. How’s Mark?”

  Mark and I’d been dating for about the same amount of time. Once I’d gotten past those initial misunderstandings, things had been going well. He was attentive, intense, and very focused on me when we were together, but we only saw each other a few times a week. On dates where I usually spent the night and the dates only ended after a warm and delicious breakfast. He was very busy otherwise, running the largest vampire coven in the world.

  I was two minds about that. I liked that he wasn’t nosy, controlling, or around so much I felt suffocated. I trusted him and he trusted me, and that was enough. I did wish he was around more sometimes however, but I think I’d have to join his world in order to get that. I wasn’t quite ready for that, living at a vampire mansion I mean, not being a vampire.

  I was also his only blood source, of which he needed a bite around once a week. I was nervous
the first time, but when I discovered just how sensual and pleasure inducing it was for both of us, I’d demanded he never drink from another woman, and he was more than happy to acquiesce.

  Otherwise my life had been pretty calm the last three months. Cases at work, spending time with friends, and with my vampire. Katie had been around a lot more, and the store was a success and she’d taken to working normal hours while having someone watching the store the evenings until closing time. She also did all of her magic there, during the day, for those kinds of sales. I suspected that wouldn’t change, even when we moved back into a house. The only magic she’d do there was laying down layers of protective wards.

  We still weren’t official allies of the pack, but we’d been to more than a few barbeques despite the weather turning frigid and it being mid-January. I’d noticed a significant change to the new smaller pack, and Maria and Joseph supported and ran it as a team. I suspected it wouldn’t be much longer though. The shifters hardly even tensed up when the sorceress dropped by anymore. I guess they decided I wasn’t going to go crazy and make them all my slaves or victims.

  Oh, and watching our new house get built. We’d gone to check on their progress at least once a week. It was almost done, and we’d already picked out all the furniture going into it. Houses could go up very fast, if you threw enough money at it for labor costs. It would look nothing like the old one, it was more modern looking, a three-level split level. Lots of space at six thousand square feet, but a lot cozier than the ancient mansion had been.

  We’d be moving into it sometime this week, and already had a housewarming party set up for next weekend. I was more than glad of that. I was tired of living out of a hotel.

  There’d been no threats at all from our past, or new ones the last three months. The only sorcerers I’d seen since Cade had been my allies and friends.

  “He’s good. You and Jeremy getting serious?”

  Katie sighed, “Yes.”

  I tilted my head in question, “And that’s a problem?”

  Katie bit her lip, “I’ve been thinking of telling him. What I am.”

  I asked in mock confusion, “A storeowner? He already knows.”

  Katie giggled, “A witch, damned sorceress.”

  Humans could be told the truth of our world, if they were also compelled not to share it with anyone that didn’t know already, thus ensuring the secret. Humanity as a whole could never know the truth, but a single human could handle the truth, most of the time. In truth, most humans could, it was the governments and small paranoid part of the population that could never learn, or there’d be a damned war. A single human was intelligent, governments and mobs were paranoid, reactive, and violent.

  Unlike Katie, I’d never have to worry about having that talk with a lover. Sure, Mark and I were exclusive, but past that human men got unnerved around me. They loved to look and enjoy the view, like they had in college, but they must’ve been able to sense my power on a subconscious level and that usually made them leave tracks. Only if they even had the guts to start a conversation with me in the first place. I’d accepted it, plus I was at a place I was fairly committed to Mark anyway, to the point we’d have to have the conversation soon.

  “Worried he’ll freak out, and you’ll have to remove that memory and break up with him?”

  Katie glared, “A little, yes. I should’ve done it sooner, before we grew quite so… close. I’m more worried he’ll be mad that I hid it for so long than freak out about the fact I can mix potions and cast spells.”

  “He’d be an idiot not to get past it.”

  Katie grinned, “I am pretty awesome.”

  I laughed, “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”

  That was a total lie, Katie was the best, a much better person than I was, and just as beautiful despite her insistence I was more attractive.

  She glared.

  I giggled, “Plus, you’ll be your own younger woman in twenty years.”

  Witches didn’t have the four hundred years I’d have, if nothing killed me sooner that is, but they lived a lot longer than normal humans. Like me, Katie still looked to be in her late teens, instead of our true age of twenty-one, though twenty-two was coming up. That wouldn’t change anytime soon. Still, it wasn’t a problem that couldn’t be overcome, what man wouldn’t want a woman that looked barely thirty, when they were seventy?

  Katie sighed, “Yeah, that too.”

  “Well, if it counts, I like him, and I don’t think he’ll run.”

  I took a sip of coffee, the nectar of the gods, and continued to demolish the omelet we’d ordered. I’d have to get moving soon, since it was a Monday morning. I was already dressed for work, after my normal workout and shower. A black women’s suit, skirt and blazer, with a creamy white blouse and light gray shoes. I thought I looked good, and I’d gotten used to wearing the professional clothes for my business’s sake, but sometimes I still missed showing up to work in bathing suit, short shorts, and a halter top.

  Katie said deadpan, “It doesn’t.”

  It was my turn to glare, and she snickered.

  “Are we doing anything tonight?” I changed the subject.

  Katie shrugged, “Sharon’s coming to visit, I think. She has some new magic to show me. We could go out after?”

  Sharon was the solitary witch we’d saved from the fire sorcerer almost right after I’d discovered I’d had magic. She still resisted the idea of joining our little coven, but she was definitely an ally and close friend.

  I nodded, “Sounds good. I’m not seeing Mark again until tomorrow.”

  We finished up breakfast, and I headed down to the parking lot. The corvette stingray I drove was another leftover from my first fight with a sorcerer, the fire sorcerer serial killer. The one who'd traded witch’s lives to dark covens for evil potions. My new world was dark at times. Still, I loved the car. I’d debated using magic to get around, but it was best just to drive. At least, when it came to work, or my timelines would get skewed too much and someone would notice my life was impossible, and magical.

  Cops and lawyers were obsessed with timelines, and if I was in several places around town just seconds apart, it would cause issues.

  Chapter Two

  “Morning, boss.”

  Dana was my liaison to the vampires for our alliance. That hadn’t changed, despite me seriously dating the head of the coven. She was also my administrative assistant, and she seemed to flourish in the chaos of the phone ringing off the hook and in turning all things chaos neat and orderly. The calls had slowed way down, the ones requesting interviews and stuff like that, but our caseload had been pretty consistent the last three months.

  Perhaps her love of chaos had something to do with her being a two-hundred-year-old vampire, and her need to keep busy and make a difference. I wasn’t sure, she was my friend, not something to be analyzed. She was also cheekier than Katie, if that was possible, which was something I enjoyed, because it meant she didn’t fear me.

  Dana was a beautiful woman. I knew I was no slouch in that department. I’d attracted men since I’d matured, but Dana was the kind of woman that defined the top end of the beauty scale. She had lustrous raven hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a lush sumptuous body only rivaled by the beauty of her face. I’d have gotten a serious complex working with her, if I’d been the jealous type, and wasn’t so secure and happy with my own appearance.

  In fact, I was attractive enough to know being as beautiful as Dana was would cause more problems than be a true advantage.

  “Morning, Dana. Anything new?”

  Dana shook her head, “Not yet, still early in the day. I haven’t gotten through all the weekend messages and emails yet though.”

  I nodded, and then topped off the coffee in my travel mug before going into my office.

  The early mornings was when I tried to get my daily practice in on the subtle aspects of my power, while the evenings, if I had time, I did the more overt practice far out in the ocean, in the dark. Over the last three months I’d gotten very used to all the noise and input into my brain for my enhanced magical senses. Multiple layers and gradations of emotions from all the humans in my power’s reach, as well as the emotions and links from those people to hundreds of objects and locations, all of which had multiple connections of their own.