Witch Heart by Anya Bast

Claire has been a servant of the Daaeman ever since her mother crossed over to Eudae when she was just a little girl. Ever since, she's been tied to a Daaeman named Rue, a Ytrayi who has spent time experimenting on her, experimenting with her magic and adding to it and changing it. But a rebellion by the Warlike Atrika made Rue send her to Earth to protect the Elium, a ball of energy sought after by the Atrika, and put in Claire's body by Rue to keep it safe.

But she hasn't been on Earth in almost 20 years, and with no money or means to escape, she cannot shake off the two Atrika who came through the portal to follow her. Her clothing practically in rags, Claire stumbles into a man who tries to help her. But her statements about Daaemans following her- or "Demons" which is what other humans hear, get her imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for being delusional.

Just when Claire thinks she will die in the hospital, a group of Witches break her out including the fire witch Adam Tyrell. Adam is something of a player- ever since the death of his wife, which he secretly blames himself for not preventing, he's blazed his way through the bodies and beds of the female witches at the coven- willing to be caught, but only for a little while.

When he first meets Anya, he thinks she's beautiful, and is instantly attracted to her. The coven attempts to keep her safe, but when they learn about the Elium and the two Atrika on her trail, they send her away with Adam and another witch, earth witch Theo, to try and protect her while Claire attempts to separate the Elium from her own magic.

Originally, Claire was a water witch, but Rue's experiments and tinkering have given her links to all the elements, and though even trying to "touch" the Elium magically makes her feel nauseous, she knows that she must separate it from her magic if she ever wants to remove it from her, and keep herself and the coven safe from the Atrika.

But the moment she finally manages it, with the help of Adam's healing fire magic, his attraction to her drastically increases, because now her most powerful element is air, and air and fire are drawn to each other. Adam wants her... a bit too much, it often seems to him, and Claire is also drawn to him. She wants to be loved by someone, and for Adam to touch her, but he tries to be noble, giving her pleasure without taking any of his own- except for the pleasure of touching her.

She feels rejected when Adam gives her pleasure and then pushes her away, feeling that he doesn't actually want her after all. But Adam is also running scared- the only woman he's felt this way about was his wife, and she's dead because he was unable to save her. He's scared of falling in love with her and then losing her like his wife. It was bad enough to live through that once... but can he stand living through it twice?

But it's not just Claire, Theo and Adam who are at risk from the runaway Atrika. Thomas, the leader of the Coven, sent out a group of witches of all elements to meet them, and now the witches are missing. Worse, when the Atrika track them down, they are driving the car that was carrying one of the female witches. One that Theo cared for.

And despite everything, Claire is unable to wield the Elium magic that is still inside her. There might be a way to remove it- but doing so would remove all of her magical talent. It seems that the only thing to do is to ask Rue to remove it. Rue, the daaeman who put it inside her in the first place. But she was Rue's human pet. Is he willing to give her up to allow her back among her people, to live and love Adam and live a human life on Earth? Or will it really not be that easy?

It seems I've been reading a lot of books with people who use some sort of Elemental Magic lately. This series, The House of Night series... It's been very interesting. In this series, there are only four elements- fire, earth, water and air. No spirit. But in this series, there is the ancient attraction and repulsion of element for element- air and fire attract, as do water and earth. Fire and water repel, and so do air and earth. But witches of these affinities can still fall in love- it's just that the attraction aspect adds a little extra spice- attraction can become overwhelming.

And this is what quickly happens with Adam and Claire after she frees her magic. He already wanted her- now he's waking up with massive boners and taking lots of cold showers. But his heart was already engaged before then, and reading of his struggle to be noble, while she thinks he is rejecting her by pushing her away after giving her pleasure, was interesting without being annoying, or worse, boring. Reading this book was good: the sex was hot, and the danger was palpable- you never quite forget that they are being chased by daaemans, and the Atrika are almost impossible to kill.

I like this series, but since I already read the sequel: Witch Fury, it seems like the series has come to an end. And that's sad, because I do want to read more. Perhaps there might be more, and I do hope so. In the meantime, I recommend this series as a good, solid paranormal romance.