The Bonds That Bind, page 1
The Bonds That Bind
LAST WITCH DUOLOGY
BOOK TWO
K. J. LAVALLEE
Illustrated by
LEIGH GRAPHIC DESIGNS
Copyright © 2024 by K. J. Lavallee
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.
Created with Vellum
Blurb
I beat Samuel Black, but that didn’t take away the threat the Black family poses.
With the threat of the Blacks hanging over my head, I call a meeting of the wiccans, hoping that the remaining bloodline of Samuel Black will show up. But the events that happen there change my life forever. I still have family members alive. Well, alive is pushing it, since they’re currently vampires, but they’re all that I have left. And then I meet her. The female from my visions. The female who calls out to me like I’m her lifeline and she is mine.
Each day brings more news and even more surprises. I find that the ties among my family grow to include more people than I ever thought I would have. And it makes me fight harder to protect them.
But if we can’t take out the last members of the Black family, everyone I have come to love and hold close to my heart will die. Because the brothers aren’t playing games. They’re sending cursed supernatural beings and creatures like the jinn after us.
With new alliances formed, I vow to take out this threat once and for all. Because I’ve lost too much to these witches already, and I refuse to lose anyone else to their greed.
Pronunciation guide
Carmella - Car mel la
Maverick - Mav rick
Gellevel - Gel level
Bohen - Bo en
Syravel - Sir ave el
Cerreth - Sear eth
Malvath - Mal vath
Certhalla- Kur thal la
Pertril - Per tril
Ceravella - Sara vella
Ravalamin - Rav a la min
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
About the Author
Also by K. J. Lavallee
Chapter One
CARMELLA
I bend backward as a sword is swung at my neck. Using my momentum to finish a backflip, I kick the weapon out of my attacker’s hand. I hear it clatter on the floor across the new training room we finished building a week ago.
Mav grumbles as he reluctantly gives in to defeat. That’s the second time this week that I’ve been able to kick his ass. Granted, we’ve been training nearly nonstop for a month and I’ve only won a handful of times, but it still fills me with joy every time I get the upper hand. I know Mav is proud of my progress even though he hates losing.
All of my new brothers help me train as well as my mate and Bohen. Mav’s parents assist me as well when they’re here. Even Mav’s uncle, Pertril, helps me when he’s here. Which isn’t that often since he’s a member of the elf council. Maverick’s family is very important in their community. If there was elf royalty, I swear they’d be the royals.
“You’re doing great, Carm,” Mav says, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into his chest.
I look up into his sparkling eyes. “I know. Soon I’d like to try to fight the four of you together.”
I hear Syravel snort. I glare at him. Gel whacks his brother upside the head in a signature Gibbs move. I used to spend all my spare time watching cop shows and supernatural type shows. Now? Now I train. Either my magic with my uncle Bohen, who lives with us in his weird half here half gone state, or combat or weapons training with these fuckers. I love it though.
The elf council members were reluctant to have Mav mated to a witch, but I made them see reason. First, we’re bound already, so there’s nothing to be done about that now. Second, get with the ages, people, we are in the twenty-first century after all. It helps that Maverick’s entire family was there to back us up. Even Pertril was standing on the opposite side of the council room, showing his support for his favorite niece; his words, not mine. I’m the only niece alive since Mav’s younger sister, Ceravella, died when she was very young, but it still warmed my heart to know he thought of me that way.
Third? I remember clearly what the pompous ass of a council member said. Councilor Durothil banged the mallet on the table when we were called back into the council meeting room. More like trial room. “We have made a decision.” He turned to look at the other men and one woman lined up with him. They all nodded. “Given your unique circumstances, we will allow you to live and remain a mated couple.” I sensed a but coming. “However,” and there it was. “You are not to rally the others to think these types of unions are acceptable.”
Despite my mind telling me to keep my mouth shut, I spoke out. “I don’t agree with that.”
Durothil’s face turned a bright shade of red; you would have thought he was sunburned so badly he should have had blisters. But nope, he was just that pissed that I had the balls to call him on his shit. “You don’t have a choice, young lady.”
I scoffed at his audacity. Seriously? I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I couldn’t kill him, even if I wanted to kill him at that precise moment. “Actually, I do. You see, as the last member of two of the founding families, I have all of the rights. I’m taking away that law with the witches. They can mate with whomever they wish. If that’s even something they still follow. I doubt it since times are different now. But still.” I let my statement sink in. The councilor’s eyes shone bright with his fury. I continued before he could. “You see. If you won’t accept your people mating others, they can come and stay with a group that will allow it. I’m bringing the supernaturals into the new era. We’re not barbarians. This law is foolish. What better way to ensure an ally than to have members of your species mate with members of another species?”
Uncle Pertril had a pleased smile on his face, and the other members of the council nodded their heads as if they agreed with me.
But Councilor Durothil remained set in his ways. “I will not allow it. If you wish to leave your family and spend your life with your mate and the witches, by all means do it. But I will not tolerate that.”
The female council member raised her hand. “Councilor Durothil, you realize, if you banish them, everyone who follows the Ravalamins will flee with them?” She paused for a moment then pushed forward. “Besides, you need a majority vote, and I will not side with you. I agree with the witch. These laws were set in a time long before we ever walked this earth, and I believe they need to be reevaluated.” I liked her instantly.
“Councilor Nueleth, you do not speak out of turn,” Councilor Durothil snapped.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “And what makes you think you can speak to me this way? We are equals. I have earned my place in this council. I get a voice just like everyone else.” The venom that laced her words promised violence if Councilor Durothil pushed her. I wished he would.
He ignored her completely. “Who agrees with me?”
Not a single one of the members raised their hands. The anger radiating off of him was humorous. He thought he had us. But his team members didn’t agree with him and his desire to either kill my mate—and with that, me—or banish us. Banishment is all good since ninety percent of the elf population would have come with us. As I said, the Ravalamins are basically their royal leaders.
“Fine. It’s settled. We will reevaluate the laws. You are free to go.” Durothil slammed the mallet on the table so hard it’s a wonder it didn’t snap in half. Then he got up and left the hall.
As I stand in the center of the room looking around at my brothers and Mav, I remember what Gellevel said to me right before I opened a portal large enough to fit all of us. This is something that still sticks with me. The first reason it’s stuck with me is because it was my first time opening a portal that large. I’ve managed to get them to open for me to slip through and then Mav along with me. But with Bohen’s help, we managed to open one large enough and hold it ajar long enough for all of us to go through. I can do them with no problem now, but that was a huge accomplishment for me. Gel said, “I’ve seen you in action. You may not be ready, but I know you’ll stand up for what you believe, and I know you will stand up for my brother. You two are in love and happy. That’s all that should matter in the end. Just because you are two different beings shouldn’t diminish what you have. And if the council tries to kill you, we’ll kill them.”
I smiled at him and thanked him, telling him I was scared shitless but I was ready to kick some ass. All of them chuckled at me. Except for Gel. He smiled and winked. He knew I was struggling with everything. And I’m glad I had him there to help ease my worries a little.
Cerreth comes into the room and heads straight toward me. He has me wrenched out of Maverick’s arms and in his before I can even blink.
“Sear, you’re such an asshole,” I screech as he flings me over his shoulder.
“You love it,” he says, putting me down and rubbing the top of my head like I’m a child.
“I don’t.” I punch him in the gut and he grunts. I do love it, but I like the bickering we do, too. I’ve never had siblings, and now that I do it means I get to join in on the family fights. Though I don’t see what the boys fight about so much. Picking on one another and calling each other names is one thing, but I swear these guys take it to the next level and literally fight. But if one of them were in trouble, no matter the fights that happen, they’d all be there to help. That’s family. That’s love.
“Ouch,” Cerreth grumbles, hunching over as if I really did hurt him.
I grin. “Liar.”
He smirks in response.
“How’d it go?” Mav asks Sear, pulling me back to him.
“Nothing. We have absolutely nothing.”
“Why?” Mav asks just as I ask, “How?”
Sear shrugs in response to our questions. “Either they never recorded their births or they have a very talented computer geek in their midst, because there is not a single trace of them anywhere. Even Samuel’s older properties have been placed under false names with no way of tracking who they actually belong to.”
I groan. “So we’re back at square one?” I ask them.
Pulling free from Mav, I start to pace the room. Something needs to happen. I need to get answers. How. What do I need to do?
“You know where we have to go, right?” Syravel asks.
Mav arches an eyebrow in question.
“To get information,” Cerreth adds.
“Um. No. I have no idea,” I say to them.
“We need to head back to The Diner.”
I stop pacing and focus on Sear. It’s not that I dislike that establishment. It’s just that I have strong feelings revolving around it. It’s where I learned who I was, what I was, and what happened to my family and killed the man responsible.
“What else can we do besides that?” I ask.
“Well, you have that spell to find a lost witch,” Mav starts, and all three of his brothers perk up. “But you need blood from someone in the same family for it to work.”
“And we torched Samuel,” Cerreth says, sounding defeated.
“Exactly.” Mav scrubs his hand down his face. “But Bohen says there’s another spell in the book that should help with that. We just haven’t been able to find the one he’s referring to. It’s a rather large book, and Carm says she recalls reading it during her first run-through of the book.”
Syravel’s gaze is far away. He always gets this look when he’s thinking of something we haven’t thought of. I let him think while I pace.
“How about we put a cork in this for now and go join our parents for dinner? We can bring up ideas for getting blood from the Black family line tomorrow over breakfast.”
Syravel grins. “Sounds good. I love talking blood and gore over eggs and bacon.”
I shake my head at Syravel. “Something is wrong with you.” He just grins at me.
“Listen, Ella. We discussed a lot last night.” Gellevel holds his hands up as if to hold back my retort. “The first thing was that we need to go to The Diner and start searching there. I know you don’t want to go, I know you were there for that, too. Another thing that came up after you went to bed was for you to ask the book for help.”
I shake my head and blink a few times. “I’m sorry, what?” I ask him. Positive I heard him wrong. “You want me to talk to the book? An inanimate object?”
Gel snorts. “When you put it like that it sounds stupid. But it’s a thing. Most witches have that ability. You’re no exception. I know you can do that.”
“And she should try it.” I turn to find Bohen standing at the entrance to the kitchen. “I completely forgot that we can do that. I don’t know how I forgot, but I did.” He shakes his head as if he’s trying to clear the fog from his mind.
“Okay. We can try that,” I concede. Hearing Bohen say I should be able to talk to my book makes it sound less crazy.
“What else did you discuss? Sorry if I’m having you repeat yourself. I’m sure I can help.” All four boys nod at my uncle.
“Just that we thought Ella should call a meeting of the wiccan community,” Gel says.
“That’s a good idea. But the call goes out to all wiccans,” Bohen replies.
Gel nods. “We discussed this as well.” He looks at Mav.
“Don’t give me that look. You all thought this crap up.”
I cringe. “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”
Cerreth shakes his head. “Not at all.” He finishes his coffee in one gulp. He’s speaking before he places the cup back on the table. “We think you need to create a device with a spell within it. One that will take a sample of everyone’s blood and scan their magical essence. This way we know which members arrived, and we can track the Blacks if they do come.”
I think over his words for a moment. “That sounds great and all, but how will we know which ones are theirs?”
“Their signatures will be similar. When you scan their essence, it essentially is their magic. It will be stored in a database that I can access from my phone. We can sort them by coven or family as they’re entered.” Syravel pauses for a moment. “In fact, I think it would be beneficial for you to stand at the scanner asking name and coven.”
I tap my chin thinking about it. “Okay. Let’s say I do this. What does asking this have to do with anything?”
Syravel grins. “Because I’ll be wearing a headset with my phone handy, listening to you and their answers, so I can divide them up as they come in.”
I nod. “I think I like that.” I pause, looking around the room. “But how does that help if the boys show up and give a different coven name or another family name?”
“We haven’t worked that out yet, but they share a mother and a father. Their blood will be different from the rest, but I won’t know until after analyzing it when we get back home,” Syravel says.
I nod. “Okay. That sounds good. Now onto my next dilemma. I don’t know how to call the meeting.”
“No. But I do,” Bohen says from beside me. “It’s something that was due to come up in our training soon anyway. Might as well learn it now. There’s a spell in the beginning of your mother’s book and the end of your father’s. They are the same thing. They will tell you everything you need to know to call a meeting. And the precautions you need to take when you need to.”
“Oh, so it’s not just a meeting?”
Bohen shakes his head. “No. You will need to select a place of neutral ground. You cannot call them all here. I mean, you can, but then your enemies will know where you are and that kind of defeats the purpose of this meeting. You have to say the spell from the place you want the meeting to happen and include the date and time you want it to occur. It cannot be more than three days after you cast the spell.”
“So, basically, I need to be ready when I call them?”
Bohen nods. “Yes.”
“Okay. So, this device they want me to make, can you help me with that as well?”
“Oh, sister, I’ve got you there.” I meet Syravel’s gaze. He is the tech geek in this family.
“Okay,” I start. “So, I’ll head up to the book with Bohen, and then later I will meet with Ave and Sear, to go over plans for that device, then I will meet Gel and Mav to discuss a place?”
“Ave?” Syravel asks.
I shrug. “It works, get over it.” He chuckles.
