Page 80 of The Witch’s Daughter

Let me out. I can handle this.

No. I need to use my magic.

Pebbles and dirt swirled around me, blinding my field of vision, as dark clouds continued to gather above.

I need to rip his throat out.

We’ll never get close if you don’t calm down.

That’s when the rain started. Water beat down on my head and soaked the earth around me. The wind intensified, howling in my ears. Vincent wasn’t holding back. I was being beat down with the elements into the earth.

Fine. My wolf retreated. Your turn.

I fisted the dirt beneath me, drawing on the strength that ran through my veins, careful not to take too much. The ground rumbled, like calling to like, when it rose to answer me.

As always, I embraced the warmth of coming home while my magic thrummed through my body and fueled my soul. I pushed up to my feet.

The wind grew stronger, relentless in its torment as it tried to flatten me. But like an oak tree in a tempest, I held to the roots growing to steady my stance. I stood tall with their help, facing the warlock again. His face twisted with rage.

Then I called on the roots to move with me.

A drumming began as hail peppered the earth. The others ran for cover. Something sharp hit my eyebrow, sending a river of blood that ran down my cheek, but I took another step. Then another.

Vincent danced like a conductor, calling the sky as sweat dripped from his brow and his muscles convulsed. He was using all his power. I’d barely touched mine. I grinned to myself with that knowledge, even as more hail rained down, bruising my skin.

I’d heal. But when I got to Vincent, he wouldn’t. The warlock snarled. A flash of lightning shot down from the heavens, searing my skin with its electric pulse. The right side of my body burned with the impact. Agony unlike any I’d ever felt threatened to cripple me.

But I was no stranger to pain.

Flesh charring, still, my roots held strong as I took another step.

“How are you doing this?” Vincent screamed as he tore a frustrated hand through his hair.

We were close enough now I could almost touch him.

Finally. My claws extended.

I reached out and grabbed him by the throat. “Not as powerful as you think you are, huh?”

The storm dissipated just as fast as it came when I lifted Vincent off his feet by his neck, feeling his fingernails scratch at my raw flesh and seeing the true terror in his eyes.

Let me finish him. My beast roared, urging me to bathe in the bastard’s blood.

My fangs extended.

“Jaxon! Don’t hurt him!” Her shrill warning was followed by the howling of wolves.

Calla stood in the field, soaked from the earlier rain and shaking as her eyes rolled back into her head, revealing only the glowing whites. “Gods… The blood…”

She twitched. Blood poured from her nose.

I dropped Vincent in the dirt as the wolves at her side whined, pawing the ground and begging for help.

“Calla!” I raced to her, catching the witch before she fell.

Somehow, Vincent was right behind me. I growled as his hand touched my shoulder.

“Leave her to me, Alpha. I have what she needs,” he said.