The mate finding spell business - book 1

ELSPETH’S POV

“Well, fuck, indeed,” Elspeth mumbled as she recalled today’s lunch events.

The kids spent the day at her house, enjoying the pool to its max while worrying about Oksana’s unconscious form lying in a bedroom on the second ground of the house.

The bear didn’t leave her side for a minute, not even when the heat got worse, and the pool was the most appealing place in the house. He simply got rid of his shirt and kept wiping her forehead softly with a rag and cold water.

At night, Angus had to come on his broom to pick them up because the bear was not steady enough to drive since all his attention was on Oksana, who did not wake up throughout the day.

’Dear father,

I hope this letter finds you well.

Today has been such a mess, dad. The truth of my daughters’ deaths came up today, and you were right to tell me I was blaming the wrong people all along. I should have listened to you.

I know I haven’t written to you, mother, and Arioch in a long time, and I have no excuse save for the days and, sometimes weeks, I spent nursing my granddaughter back to health/life. But I have so many things to tell and to ask you.′ Elspeth quickly finished writing her letter and attached an invite for Oksana’s marriage. Her sneaky granddaughter had already made some invites to show Dima if he agreed with the format. The bear found them in her bag when he went to store his shirt, and Elspeth had taken that opportunity to take one to send to hell.

“Alright, father, here it goes.” She said out loud and sealed the letter with red wax and the family’s crest mark, a skull with small, slightly curved horns, a dragon crawling over an empty eye socket, and a small flower arrangement across an eye, the last to appease her mother, of course. A nature expert witch like her mother could not support such a scary, violent thing, her father used to tell her in a mocking tone.

“To the underworld,” Elspeth whispered to her candle and burned her letter in the purple flame, watching as the paper disappeared right after the first corner was scorched.

~ Moments later, in the underworld ~

ERLIK’S POV

Erlik Morté was with his wife Aislinn at a party. The dark environment, mixed with the rich red tones of the sofas, the sensual music, and the hot moves of the different kinds of demons dancing ahead of them on the dance floor, made everything seem much more alluring and erotic.

His son had gone with a barely dressed succubus to a dark corner of the room. Away from them, thankfully. His hands roamed more than his wife would have enjoyed watching, but a glass of sweet dark wine had her mind cleansed of the scene and her own hands roaming inside Erlik’s dress shirt.

Now, if he hadn’t been there out of courtesy, he would left right that instant with his horny daring wife, but unless something really came up, he had to put up with the party for at least one more hour, otherwise, it would be seen as an insult to the host.

Just then, like a blessing, a letter materialized in front of him.

“It seems to me, my wife, that we will be able to leave this shit hole sooner than expected,” Erlik whispered in Aislinn’s ear, feeling her shudder on top of him and sign in delight against his neck as he stroked and teasingly pulled at the roots of her hair.

“Please do. I can’t wait to get out of these fishnets and fancy ass dress they itch.” His darling beloved whispered hoarsely after having spent the night moaning under him and the day screaming at their son’s screw-ups. “But who is the letter from?” She lifted her head from his neck and asked.

“I don’t know, my little witch, let me check the seal,” Erlik answered her, and they both turned to observe the still floating letter. Erlik plucked it from the air and watched the seal for a second before his wife gasped, and he got up with her in his arms abruptly.

The letter was sealed with their family’s crest. It came from their daughter.

The last time they had seen and spoken to her, tragedy had struck her family and taken away their two granddaughters. Could this letter contain more disgrace?

Erlik handed the letter to his wife and quickly left the party. As soon as they left the crowded room and found themselves in an empty hallway, he teleported them into their room where they could read their daughter’s letter in peace and privacy.

“What does it say, Erlik? Tell me that my baby is ok!” The lust immediately evaporated from his wife’s body, and dread filled them both.

Kushim, feeling his master’s trepidation, went in search of him. He didn’t need to search long, and soon he found both his master and the good-for-nothing witch sitting on the love seat of their room. A letter was clutched in his master’s hands and Aislinn was crying. The dragon rolled his eyes at the sign and climbed the seat to perch himself on his master’s shoulders and see what was distressing them so strongly.

The letter was sealed in red wax, and the crest engraved in it was the Morté’s family crest. Kushim knew then that something was terribly wrong with his young mistress Elspeth.

‘Hell forbid another child dead.’ The dragon prayed and surveilled his master’s movements.

Erlik tore the letter open after feeling the silent support Kushim was giving him and started reading the letter out loud.

" ’Dear father,

I hope this letter finds you well.

Today has been such a mess, dad. The truth of my daughters’ deaths came up today, and you were right to tell me I was blaming the wrong people all along. I should have listened to you.

I know I haven’t written to you, mother, and Arioch in a long time, and I have no excuse save for the days and, sometimes weeks, I spent nursing my granddaughter back to health/life. But I have so many things to tell and to ask you.

Twenty-five years ago, my son Angus committed the mistake of falling in love with a human. The woman was greedy and blinded by the power and immortality he possessed, and when two years later, she gave birth to their daughter and noticed how our little Oksana had powers of her own, she went mad. Never have I seen such cruelty, father, and you have taken me to hell before, you know what I speak of, but this human surpassed all the evil things I’ve ever seen down there.

The human got involved with dark magic wielders and got hold of a cursed crystal that she used to suck the magic out of Oksana’s body.′ " Aislinn let loose a loud sob. Kushim cringed from the repulsive contents of the letter, and Erlik started letting his inner demons come forth from the uncontrollable rage and pain he felt for this baby, his great-granddaughter. Another one lost to the dark magic.

Horns sprouted from his head, his eyes turned a vivid amber color with his sclera’s turning dark grey and his veins black. Fire lit up his hair, his face turned skeleton-like, showing the flower arrangement marked on his bones, a mark his little nature witch had unknowingly left on him when they consumed their bond, and the rest of his body turned into a volcanic orange brownish mess with his dark veins still very much prominent and his charred melted skin dripping down his body.

The little dragon feeling his master’s rage, roared with the demon to help him get rid of some of his fury through their bond, allowing him to read the rest of the letter.

Erlik patted the small dragon on the head as a way of thanking him and took a deep breath to read the rest of the letter.

" ’Thankfully, Angus arrived home in time and saved Oksana. As you know, the magic of a witch is connected to her soul, and Oksana was left with little over half of her soul, but surprisingly, she survived, and she’s still very much alive. Her immunity system is very weak, and she has had many close calls with your grim reapers before, but she has been holding on with my help.

A few days ago, she met her mate. A hybrid bear shifter with witch blood in his veins and a small connection to his powers, but weird things have been happening, father, and I don’t know if I should be scared or not.

Close to ten or eleven years ago, we found out that when Oksana gets mad or very upset, her veins turn black, and I remembered you telling us that was a tell-tale sign of an active inner demon, so I kept a close eye on her, but that happened so rarely that over the years I stopped worrying, until this week. Since her mate arrived, she has turned her veins black three or four times, maybe more, but today she was different.

Oksana is a very calm, peaceful person like mom, but today she was acting weird. She was particularly possessive over her mate and tremendously aggressive towards her siblings and my husband.

I think her demon is trying to take control, but I fear that could be dangerous to her. Could her body handle a shift in her condition?

I invited the kids to stay at my house today. But in the morning, the three eldest pissed off Oksana and something happened. Her mate stayed with her to calm her down, however, she started shaking in his arms, and her body heat burned Dima (her mate). Her amber eyes turned dark brown, and from there, they turned white with grey scleras and the common black veins. Dima had to ask my two youngest grandkids to get me because he could not even take his lips from her skin without her starting to burn up. When I got to them, she was hypnotizing Dima to mark her, and she had a smirk on her lips. It was sinister! As if with his mark, the demon could be set free. Is this normal?

Please, father, help me. This can not be normal. Answer me as soon as you can.

None of the other three (they are six in total, though only Oksana and the three youngest are Angus’s biological children) present any kind of symptoms like this. Axton can control fire and easily cure any burn wounds. Akir hasn’t shown any symptoms at all. And Dania is a fiery little thing who once managed to get into an argument so heated with Angus that I found them both on fire in the middle of their living room.

I’m anxiously waiting for your answer.

With love,

Elspeth’ ” After reading the letter, Elrik let it fall to the ground and started massaging his bony forehead. Aislinn, who had calmed down after learning that Oksana was still alive, hugged her husband and rubbed his back to help him reign in his inner demons, Vex, Sor, Arden, and Hamza.

Vex is the angry one responsible for his body’s lava-like state. Sor is responsible for the skull face. He’s the one that comes out when Erlik is sad, mourning, or simply wants/needs to frighten someone. Arden is the one responsible for the horns. He resembles a more animalistic part of Erlik, lust, and basic primal instincts. And lastly, Hamza, the demon responsible for the black veins and the brightening of Erlik’s eyes. He can change his physical appearance, for example, turning his skin, hair, and eyes darker or brighter. He is also the principal demon and can have any kind of temperament. He, too, has horns.

“So my sister’s in trouble again, huh. And she thought that living up there would be safer than hell!” Arioch sarcastically commented and creeped out from a dark corner of his parent’s room.

“What are you doing here, Arioch? Weren’t you having fun with that succubus?” Aislinn asked him, startled by his sudden presence inside hers and Erlik’s room.

“I was, but I happened to look at you right when the letter arrived. My sister is the only one who still uses red wax to seal the letters, so I came to see what happened. When are we going up?” He asked, trying to appear careless, but both his parents saw the worry in his eyes.

“We’ll go as soon as I get everything settled down here.” Erlik answered and started returning to his ‘humanoid/normal’ shape.

“Well, you better check out that paper that fell. It could be something important,” Arioch noted and grabbed the paper from the ground, taking the invitation from inside the small white envelope.

“It’s an invitation.” Arioch declared with a smile, and as soon as he pulled the invite from inside the envelope, a picture appeared inside of it with a puff.

“It’s a wedding invitation and a picture.” He mumbled, carefully analyzing the picture. He handed the invitation to his mother, and Erlik watched them both, not knowing who to turn first.

“There’s Elspeth and Douglas in a corner, and... That’s Ivy! They found each other again. That’s awesome! There’s a man with his arm wrapped around Ivy, and then there’s... Is that... Angus!? Holy hell, he’s a grown-ass man! He’s kissing a curly-haired smoking hot witch, and they have six kids surrounding them. SIX freaking kids! Looks like my nephew has been busy. There’s also another guy beside the hot mama, but he must be her brother. They have the same eyes, nose, and curly hair.” By then, Erlik and Aislinn were both surrounding Arioch. Kushim was with them, as well, perched on his master’s shoulder, observing the picture.

“Look, dear, that girl looks like you.” Aislinn pointed at Oksana unknowingly, but the nanosecond Erlik looked at her, he saw more than anyone else could see on that enchanted picture.

Her amber eyes were her demon’s eyes shining through, spying on the world around her. Her hair was the mix of the human and the demon, and the only reason she was holding on was because of this partial fusion between the human and the demon.

Basically, Oksana’s inner demon was providing her energy to Oksana, but because she had no way of feeding, Oksana would get sick very quickly. During the time Oksana was sick the demon would regain some of her energy, and the cycle would start all over again. Meaning, that if she managed to get their mate to mark her, she would get a stable source to feed from their mate bond, and she could get enough energy to, one day, take full control and shift and not take partial control like she has been doing for the past years.

“That’s what’s been going on!” Erlik suddenly exclaimed and summoned the black goose enchanted feather his wife had gifted him, and the feather started writing his whole reasoning on paper.

The real Oksana, the independent human form separated from the demon, had dark brown eyes, and light red hair with porcelain skin and plump lips.

“Reveal yourself!” Erlik yelled at the picture and used his powers to make them obey. His dark-shadowed powers left his hands and involved the picture. But unlike the human pictures, the picture his daughter sent him was like the ones in the Harry Potter movies, and so everyone saw the demons reveal themselves.

Aislinn gasped in surprise, and Arioch and Kushim watched, attentively as everything unfolded.

Oksana’s demon was the most prominent one, but Erlik’s spell didn’t just show her demon. It showed more.

Oksana’s demon had two sets of black horns, one pair bigger than the other. Her skin was pale, her ears were pointy, her lips were a dark shade, and her eyes were an amber color with grey scleras and black veins. She smiled provocatively at Erlik, and fake saluted him.

“I can see why Elspeth noted her behavior. If Oksana is a calm, sweet thing, then this sassy little shit saluting me is the very contrast of the girl.” Arioch laughed at his father’s grumpiness and mock saluted his great-niece’s demon, who answered him with a smile and her middle fingers.

“She’s feisty,” Aislinn noted with an amused giggle, and the little demon sent her a kiss.

The next most prominent demon belonged to a teenage boy, if they followed Elspeth’s list, the boy would be Axton, but they couldn’t be sure.

The demon was pale with one set of black horns like his sister, extremely pointed ears, the same eye shape as Oksana’s demon but light grey, almost white iris. One big particularity about this demon was his wings full of black feathers, something that came from his mother’s side of the family.

Ivy’s bloodline was blessed by the Moon Goddess a couple of centuries ago, and now that blessing expressed itself through a mix of a silver/whitish aura surrounding the person and a light silver moon mark on their forehead only seen by the supernatural.

It was obvious that the gift was different with the boy demon genes and all. The moon mark was still present on his forehead and on his demon as well, only hidden by his hair, but the big difference was definitely his black wings.

All of the children except for Oksana had the Goddess’s mark, Ivy, Angus’s wife, and brother-in-law included.

There were four more demons revealed in the picture. Two were barely visible, belonging to Elspeth and a little boy, and the other two were half translucent, meaning they could come out one day or, simply, stay hidden forever. These two demons belonged to Angus and a little girl, Dania, both very explosive characters, indeed.

“We’ll need to be more attentive to this two,” Erlik said, pointing at Oksana’s and Axton’s forms. “They will shift soon, but I can’t be sure when.”

“Well, we will start watching them in two weeks. Oksana’s wedding will be in two weeks, as stated by the invite, and we can start reconnecting with the family through that event.” Aislinn commented and handed the invite to Erlik, letting him read it.

“Arioch, get the troops ready to accompany us to the wedding. With a crazy human bitch on the loose you never know what could happen. Kushim, get Viriato to investigate the coven she’s in and find out what demon is supporting their dark magic. I want the bastard dealt with.” Erlik said after a few seconds, and everyone went to do as ordered.

Arioch and Kushim left the couple’s room and left the quarters, separating into different directions once the door closed behind them, each one going to finish the task they were given.

“What do we do now?” Erlik heard his wife ask him.

He looked at the papers and picture in his hands one last time, caressing the faces of his family, and with a flick of his wrist, they were sent to the other side of the bedroom and attached to Aislinn’s vanity mirror.

“Now, my little witch, we go back to what we were supposed to be doing before the letter drama came, and tomorrow I got work to do.” He mumbled huskily, and in a swift move, he grabbed her in his arms and trowed her to the middle of their bed, earning a fit of giggles from her before he pounced on her.

« Hey, guys! I have some pictures of the things I referred to in this chapter. Would you’d like it if I posted them on my Instagram?

Answer in the comments below, please.

Hugs and kisses to everyone ❤️😘 See ya in the next update! »