Otherworldly Discipline: A Witch's Lesson (3 page)

He had finally decided he was going to change his tactic and become more firm with her and enforce some measure of discipline… About the same time she had seemed to decide she’d had enough of him altogether.

As if that was her decision to make! She
and her guardians had
signed a contract, and the contract was binding.

And she was the last of her
kind
, for
g
od sakes! The last remnant of a proud rac
e;
one that nearly didn’t exist. Her kind was mostly killed off by Merlin
’s War
and outside enemies
centuries ago. Charlotte, to his knowledge, was purposely bred by a mother and father that couldn’t even stand each other
, but slept with each other
just to further the
ir
race. Soon, Charlotte’s father and mother were found
and
both killed off one after the other, although they had
both
been in hiding for centuries.

Miraculously, Charlotte’s foster parents
,
simple herb wizards who had been watching over her mother in secrecy, arrived on the murder scene in time to rescue the child growing in the Byndian witch’s belly, ready to be born, and raised her as their own.

Ashcroft was the only wizard left outside the Byndian faction that knew any of their spells and was able to use them. The task of teaching the
last
Byndian the spells most powerfully harnessed by her race was a task that befell his shoulders alone…  And she acted like a surly little girl who didn’t want to go to school.

The first week with her had been promising, simply because she had been in good spirits and
had
a good attitude
; but it didn’t last.

She was a funny girl—she was constantly singing, dancing, humming, and playing around with simple spells like an excited two-year-old when she thought he wasn’t paying attention. Just God save the man who tried to make her challenge herself.

He walked over to the desk to dictate a letter that he’d been meaning to write; to hire some trackers to find her and bring her home
,
which was now
his
tower
abode
. Obviously, he wasn’t going to allow her to abide on Earthside any longer; she’d just runaway again at the very next sign of upset.

He’d
done
enough waiting. There had been no sign of her, no contact, and she hadn’t come around to so much as claim her things. Something horrible had probably happened to her by now.

He had been entrusted with her safety, her life, her education
…
a
nd now she was probably lying dead in a ditch somewhere. He had failed himself, failed her parents, failed her
race
, and failed
her
. And frankly, before her, his record of failing at anything was very slight.

Just as he
pooled
wax and
was
pressing his seal into the letter of parchment, he could hear a distant sound coming from the window.

“You’re cutting off my circulation! This is just unnecessary!” a female voice huffed angrily.

Charlotte? It couldn’t be. Ashcroft walked to the window to see a dark figure come up the path and into the gardens.

“You hit me in the damn mouth, I chase you down, and then you try to kick me in the crotch? Oh, it’s
necessary,” Moriarty seethed in return. “I’m close to strangling you.”

Now that the figure was coming more into the light, it was clear that it was Moriarty hauling a floundering Charlotte by a tight arm slung around her waist, carrying her weight on his hip. Ashcroft’s eyes widened with amazement as he pushed away from the window and rushed towards the main foyer.

“This isn’t comfortable!” Ashcroft could still hear a frustrated yell chime outside.

“Good! I hope it’s painful, too!” was Moriarty’s teeth
gritted reply as he opened up the doorway into the foyer, just when Ashcroft was finally at the bottom of the stairs, trying to look
serious and not too
excited. But when he took his first good look, his jaw nearly dropped out of his mouth. Her skirt was so short it crawled halfway up her ass in the back, exposing her black panties for his eyes to feast upon.

And then Moriarty dropped her
un
ceremoniously onto the stone
floor
of the foyer in a heap. She rolled over and sat on the ground, panting, her eyes slitted with fury. She leaned over to try to hit the back of Moriarty’s knee, but he stepped easily away from her, dabbing his
bleeding
lip with his shirt sleeve
at the same time
. “I found her for you,” Moriarty informed Ashcroft, waving at Charlotte and not looking at all happy about his discovery. “And she’s as charming as always.”

“Go fuck yourself, Moriarty,” she hissed, apparently looking for a fight. “I hope your balls shrivel up and die.”

“Charlotte!” Ashcroft barked, and silenced her. He
had n
ever yelled at her, but he was swirling with emotion and agitation. She looked up at him, her eyes round, but her posture extremely pouty. He bent down and grabbed her upper arm, pulling her to her feet. “Where
ha
ve you been
, Girl
?” he demanded.

“Away,” she snipped.

Moriarty was happy to answer for her.
“She was playing in some band for cigarette money. I doubt she has a dime to her name. She’s been sleeping the dressing room of the singles’ clubs I go to.”

Ashcroft looked down at her, his eyes wide with distress. Her face flushed from Moriarty’s words, validating them. “I told you—I was doing fine.”

“She hasn’t even eaten
today,” Moriarty snapped, looking accusingly at her. “Tell him!”

Ashcroft didn’t want to hear it—an angry guilt seared through him as he watched alarm and humiliation glint through her eyes.  “Moriarty, that
i
s enough,” he decreed, and then dismissed him. “Thank you
for your services
. Goodnight.”

Moriarty dabbed at his lip again, looking like he was still angry from being assaulted, but forced himself to bow to Ashcroft slightly, saying
,
“Goodnight, Master.” With that, he lifted his chin and walked up the stairs to retire for the evening.

She squinted
at Ashcroft. “Nice of you to sic
the dogs on me,” she snapped angrily. “Or whatever he is… your lover.”

Ashcroft forced himself to breathe, because
his lungs didn’t seem to do it on their own at the moment
. His relief was over, and he was realizing, with a bit of fear, that
he had strangled people to death with his bare hands without reaching the level of anger he had with Charlotte right now.
He felt like he had to literally push himself to keep from slapping her; every bit of frustration he had ever had with her boiled quickly back to the surface. “Charlotte,” he growled. “You are deep in trouble already. Stop digging.” His hand tightened around her arm as he turned and led her up to his study.

“In trouble?” she balked as she was pulled along. “Why? Because I won’t get down on one knee and worship you?” She obviously had no idea how angry he was. “Well, think again, Buster! That’s never been me. You can take all this magical voodoo shit and all that ‘this is your destiny’ crap and shove it right up your ass for all I care!”

He didn’t respond; just hauled her up the stairs and propelled her into the study before shutting the heavy oak door behind him. “What I think is absolutely astounding,” he began, “is how completely selfish you are.”

She tensed and cocked her head to the side as if he was a spider she needed to squash. “Say what?” she replied, putting her fingers across her chest. “I—
I’m
selfish?”

“Yes,” he said surely.

“I’m selfish?” she echoed again. “Well, like, excuse me for living! In case I haven’t made it very, very clear to you, let me attempt to make it
crystal.” She slowed down her voice to say as pedantically as possible, “
I don’t want to be your stupid apprentice!
I don’t care about anything you do. I don’t want to learn what you have to teach me. You’re a bully, Moriarty’s an ass, and my paren
ts are, like, complete morons
—”

“I don’t know how you can even begin to disrespect your parents after doing all that they’ve done for you. They’ve never raised a hand to you or let you know a moment of grief,” he lectured. All he could remember from when her
foster
parents had taken her on is how
worried
they were that
the
evil forces that had killed her parents would come after them as well. Yet they raised her, anyway. “If you—”

“—and all of you are living in the wrong century. You’re all so damn backwards that you think you can keep me here like an indentured servant—”

“—had the slightest measure of respect, you would thank them. They saved your life, and they only want the best for you. Now I’m the only one that can provide what you need. You have powers that nobody will be able to
wield
with the power you can develop! I’m the only person that can teach them to you, but you’re so cocky you’d rather throw it all away so that you don’t have to answer to anyone.”

“—that you have the nerve to threaten like I’m some child! Your arrogance is so legendary that you could do reality TV. And no,” she replied when she saw his mouth open again, surely to repeat what he’d ju
st been arguing,
“I’m
not
cocky. You’re the damn cocky one. You’re so stubborn you don’t even know what to do with yourself when someone dares not to kiss your ass—
!
”

Ashcroft was very much used to being the most important person in the room wherever he went. The sensation of being
talked over
was not one he had ever gotten used to, nor did he care to ever become used to it.

The lights in the room flickered and darkened, and then the room shook slightly, causing her to jump back with confusion before she closed her mouth, silent.

“I think we need to start over,” he said with a low, gravelly voice. “Either you stop this childish squabbling and take a seat so that we may have a discussion, or you continue to harangue me whereas you will end up listening to me while over my knee.”

She opened her mouth, horrified, and then closed it
again
. She swallowed deeply and then seemed to again find her courage enough to speak. “We’re not discussing anything
;
you’re attempting to lecture me,” she clarified. “If you were listening, you’d know I don’t appreciate being threatened by you.”

He ground his teeth. Yes—she was attractive even as a blonde—her turquoise eyes always seemed to glisten all the bluer when she was angry. But he didn’t let her put him off this time. He had argued with great Kings of Elves and Men and
had earned
their respect, and damn it; he would
get
it
from a
teenage girl. “I’m not threatening you, I’m promising you
!
Things are going to change around here, young lady. I mean it—I deserve and demand your respect.”

“Well, all you’re gonna get from me is the bird,” she assured, and flipped him off as she turned heel to properly storm out of the room. And there was a long moment where she didn’t even hear him move; as if he was going to just stand there like always, fuming and annoyed.

But when he did move, just about the same time as she had approached the door, he moved
fast
.

He grabbed her upper arm tightly in his hand before he yanked her over towards an armless chair in his study. She let her shoes dig into the
floor
until he turned and wrapped an arm tightly across her chest and continued to drag her so that her toes couldn’t even reach the ground at all. Her little feet kicked around violently. “Ashcroft! What—you can’t—you won’t—I won’t—”

He sat down and threw her over his lap like she was a ragdoll who wasn’t even trying to fight him
;
even though she was trying her damnedest to get up onto her feet. It wasn’t working—he crimped her legs underneath one of his own, hampering her kicks, and then put her scratching hands behind her back until she was pinned. “No!” she cried. “You can’t! I’ll bite you!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. This could always get worse,” he replied between gritted teeth. Her lily-white, smooth little bottom squirmed back and forth before he even brought his hand down. The edge of her skirt stopped mid-bottom in this position.

What was she wearing and
why
? He’d never seen anyone dressed so scantily, and in truth he didn’t even believe Moriarty when he was telling him about girls dressing like this! Maybe it wasn’t just in his mind—maybe Charlotte was a damn
ed
tease.