Sorcerer: Witch's Woes: Power of Air (Book 3) by D. L. Harrison

air, and moved myself to
the back room of Tara’s store.
     
    I realized immediately there was something very wrong. 
Sierra was in wolf form and growled at me until she saw who it was.  Todd was growly
as well, but still in human form.  Tara wasn’t in range of my air magic and
when I reached for her location with my power, I was predictably blocked.  It
didn’t take a genius to realize they must have been watching the shop, and made
a move as soon as I left.
    “What happened?”
    Sierra whined and Todd growled, “Vampires.  They took us by
surprise and hit us with Tasers instead of magic.  Knocked us down, grabbed and
injected Tara with something that knocked her out, and ran out before we could recover. 
It happened seconds after you left.  Where’d you go?”
    I frowned at his accusing tone.  If he’d been here instead
of flirting with Aiya he’d know I where I was. 
    I said shortly, “To kill a vampire, and piss off a fire
sorcerer named Jaben.”
    It finally hit me that the magical attacks had stopped, they
must have cancelled the spell right after, which meant my only lead to track
down Tara was about to disappear.  Sierra changed and pulled on her dress and
looked angry as hell at failing.  Carrie and Gerald showed up right before we
were about to leave them behind.
    “No time to explain, don’t kill the witch if we run into
one, I need her alive.”
    I surrounded us all in air power and took us to the backyard
of the house with the basement.  They all looked pretty surprised, especially
since I hadn’t told anyone I knew where it was already.  I felt the connection
to air diminished inside the house, and bathed the ward in raw fire and air
magic, trying to break through the ward, eat through it actually, but not using
physical fire and air, so I didn’t damage the physical house.
    I grunted when it cracked in short order, I wish I’d known I
could do that before now.  I smiled as I felt the witch still in the basement,
through my fire power at least, she was closing down the circle.  I could no
longer detect the vampire, which probably meant he was dead.  Gerald kicked in
the back door and we all piled in.
    “Cellar,” I said as I pointed out the door, and rushed down
the stairs.  Luckily the cellar was only halfway underground in this split
level house, and I still had access to air magic from my chest up.  It was a
really weird sensation being half above and half below ground, but better than
being completely cut off from air.
    Sierra just grunted, already knowing about my weakness
underground, and ran ahead of me, taking out her frustrations with a lightning
fast right hook, knocking out the witch before she could get a spell off.  It
was ironic timing, because she’d just finished taking down the protections for
the site allowing Sierra an easy takedown.  We trooped back upstairs, Sierra
carrying the witch over her shoulder, and I spent the time burning and scouring
her personal protections from magic with both fire and air.
    Sierra asked, “What now?”
    The witch was completely unprotected now, and her life was
an open book to me now.  Amber, the witch who had lured the vampire, was very
attractive, and looked innocent while being unconscious, but she was an evil little
thing that cared only about her own power, to the exclusion of any other
considerations.  Such as the need to murder, sacrifice, or destroy others.
    Her death would also weaken the coven, maybe even enough for
Tara to fight back.
    “I have what we need, Tara’s been brought to a warehouse. 
They wanted the dark grimoire back for the other spells inside of it, but they
already have the knowledge Tara hoped to keep from them by stealing the book, and
they are all set to drain Tara’s power.” 
    I felt a little guilty about it, this wasn’t self-defense in
the middle of a fight, this was an execution, and I was naming myself judge. 
What gave me the right?  I could see her whole life, and the kind of