The Witch’s Regrets

Finding out.

Natasha stood there, staring at the door. Alexei hadn’t returned in several days, and it had been two days since Ivan had dropped off supplies. Natasha touched the door handle, then, as she met no resistance, opened the door. The door made no noise as it swung inward toward her body, though her heartbeat started to race. The open door revealed a long nondescript hallway, at the end, Nat could see an elevator. She saw one other door at the end of the hallway by the elevator. She stood there for a while and then ever so tentatively stretched out her hand to see if there was a magical barrier keeping her from leaving. Her hand met with no resistance, there was nothing, Natasha waved her hand back and forth. Up and down, in and out. Nothing was stopping her from leaving, so far. There could be other possible booby-traps to keep her in the loft.

Natasha hesitantly took a step out, past the apartment door, and waited to see if it set off some kind of silent alarm. She waited to see if Alexei would come teleporting back in, as if he would know she had left the room. He hadn’t. Natasha walked tentatively down the barren hallway in her bare feet to the elevator. Natasha’s head swiveled around looking for anyone or anything that might jump out at her. She had reached the elevator and slowly reached her hand out.

She was just about to push the button down when she had a flash of Alexei punching the wall directly next to her head. Natasha instinctively flinched at the memory and ran back inside to the apartment as quickly as her legs would carry her. She slammed the door shut and ran back into the bedroom breathing heavily.

It took several minutes before her body returned to normal, though she couldn’t help but a few tears from escaping. Natasha knew this wasn’t normal, that this wasn’t a healthy relationship. She honestly didn’t know what to do about it, she was scared and ashamed. The only person Nat had a good relationship with at the moment was Liliana and Lex took her one way to communicate with her best friend. She wished she could talk to her best friend.

Lili had a great relationship with her mates now, Natasha remembered when she first found her mate. When Liliana and Killian first recognized each other as mates in high school he was the school bully. Killian had taunted and made fun of both of them. It was strange to think to see that Killian turned out to be such a good alpha, mate, and father. Nat thought back to those first six months when Lili didn’t know if Killian would reject her or not. Lili was constantly sad and anxious, just waiting for him to reject her. The two of them spent so much time in her room binge-watching Supernatural and eating ice cream to get Lili to feel better. Natasha was so mad at him that he did it after he got her pregnant.

Anyway, if anyone knows how to help navigate a tricky bond situation, it’s Lili or her mother. She couldn’t reach out to her parents, they were mad at her after finding out Alexei was her wick. Her dad didn’t approve of the Patrovi family and her mom supported her dad despite everything. That made her so mad and upset.

Nat decided to do what she had been doing for the last several days and that was to read the book Ivan had given her. While it may seem silly, reading helped her to destress and cope with the situation surrounding her. Reading had always helped her escape her reality when she was in the academy.

She had also practiced several of the spells. It was the only thing keeping her sane at the moment. She had gotten through all basic spells, so she decided to go over the basics as she hadn’t practiced in such a long time. Nat was finally getting into intermediate-level spells in this book.

Memory spells

memory distortion/ memory removal

These spells require a high level of skill from the witch/ wizard. Any memory spell also must be maintained otherwise serious side effects will occur for the caster as well as the castee. The person under the influence of a memory distortion will experience severe headaches and if untreated the implanted memories will distort causing the castee to go insane.

What the f**k did she just read? No, it’s just not possible. He wouldn’t do that. Nat felt a pain right behind her eye and her hand tried to rub the pain away. Natasha started to read on in the book when she heard it. Nat heard the telltale whoosh of a teleportation, which meant someone had just entered the apartment. Natasha prayed to the moon goddess that it was her father or mother.

heard Lex call out,

“Honey! I’m home!”

Alexei pov

Good Goddess the past week had been a clusterfuck! Alexei went back to the vampire clan in Budapest to smooth things over only to find out that Luka had found them. That bastard vampire prince Stephan had called the coven.

Lex had gone back to his parents' house to ask for his parents for help only to find them gone. s**t where were they? Lex had to call Igor to find out that the bastard had taken his parents into custody. Alexei had been furious, but he should have expected it. Lex didn't care about his father, but he was worried about his mother. She didn’t deserve to be caught up in this mess. Lex then assigned Igor to keep an eye on the situation and left.

Lex spent the next several days having to cover his tracks to keep Luka from finding him. That meant he had to teleport literally all over the world. All witches had trace signatures they emitted when they teleported and only the most powerful witches like Luka could trace them. Luka was no doubt tracking him after coming so close to finding them.

Natasha had told him that when she disappeared several years ago she did a blood magic spell that made her virtually invisible to everyone, even her father. That type of magic was intricate and high-level magic. Lex decided to return to the apartment to see if Natasha could do the same spell for him. He teleported to the apartment in the living room. Lex didn’t see Nat anywhere in the apartment and decided to call out for her.

“Honey I’m home.” He knew that she was here as he didn’t get any alerts that she had left the building from Ivan who was watching the flat from across the street. Lex walked throughout the apartment and finally found her in the bedroom reading a book.

“Hey, what are you reading? Why didn’t you greet me when I called you by name?” He asked her. Natasha just looked at him warily. “Hello?”

“Can I have my phone?” Natasha asked and that immediately put him on edge.

“Why do you need your phone? Aren’t you excited to see me?” Lex asked defensively. Natasha seemed to be guarded as he couldn’t look into her thoughts. She had him blocked.

“I need to see my phone and call Liliana. Where is it?” Lex made a show of checking his pockets,

“Oh, I must have left your phone at the last vampire clan I went to. I’ll get it back later.” In reality, he smashed that phone the second he left her here.

“You're lying,” Nat said calling his bluff. Lex started to get mad,

“Excuse me?” Nat finally got off the bed and tossed the book on the bed.

“I said you are lying, Alexei! I’ve known you since you were five years old you don’t think I of all people know your tells? Your nose always flares out when you lie. You're lying, where is my phone?” Lex finally lost his temper,

“Fine! I destroyed it!”

“Why? Why would you do that?” Nat asked and before he could respond she grabbed her head and looked to be in intense pain. Lex felt the pull of the bond and went to help her when Nat pulled away and viciously screamed at him.

“Stay away from me! I know you did this to me!” s**t.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he immediately denied. Lex tried to approach her and started to get mad when she slapped his hand away.

“Natasha you are acting crazy! Stop it!” Lex yelled at her and Natasha started to laugh. Lex was shocked to see blood coming from her nose when she finally looked at him.

“Oh crazy am I?” Nat grabbed the book from the bed. “That’s weird it seems to be a side effect when memory distortion spells aren’t properly maintained. So tell me Alexei what memory did you alter? Huh, Alexei?” Natasha taunted him and it grated on his last nerves. When Natasha screamed, “f.ucking tell me, Alexei!” He started to see red and then she threw the book at him and he lost it. Lex lost it, he pushed her against the wall and got in her face screaming,

“All of them! I altered every memory since the academy you b***h!” The reality seemed to be too much for Natasha and she shrank into herself clearly afraid of him. The tiny pull of the wick bond was hurt that she was afraid of him. The rest of him that was determined to become coven leader relished in her fear.

“Are we even wicks?” Lex laughed humorously at that question,

“You know the answer to that Natasha, no magic on earth can simulate a bond. We are wick’s despite how much we both wish we weren’t.”

“Unless this is fake, I used to wish you were mine,” Natasha told him in a small voice. Alex looked at his wick and leaned in and gave her a deep kiss.

“No baby, this isn't fake despite how much I wish it was.”