by Tamara White
“Well, yeah, but when we saw your fangs we knew something was up. After you explained you were part vampire, we just assumed you drank so much because you were hungry and healing. You nearly drained all three of us, Emerald,” Dev states, shocking me into silence.
Sierra gasps, “Oh my god, did she really? That shouldn’t be possible,” she exclaims looking at Axel, exchanging a confused glance.
My father stares at Dev, a serious expression on his face “What exactly happened when she was attacked? Tell me everything.”
“We got there and she was bleeding out. Her throat had been ripped out, though she was already healing. Talon thought offering blood would be the best way to heal her completely. She started draining him, so Nik volunteered himself until she started draining him too. I offered myself up, letting her take what she needed until she started to get aroused during the feeding. She seemed to snap out of it and threw herself off me, hissing at us. When she finally came to her senses, she didn’t know her eyes had gone red, or that she was exhibiting signs of being a vampire. Talon thought one of us had bit her during feeding,” Dev explains, his cheeks blushing as he goes over the arousal I experienced.
My parents’ eyes go wide, darting to my face to see me equally as ashamed. I don’t understand why he had to go into so much detail.
I glare at Dev, trying to make it clear with my eyes he's in trouble. “Sorry Em, I can’t not tell them when he uses his power to make me reveal everything. It’s one big downside to him being a wolf. Somehow his dominance has tied into the coven powers,” Dev explains, his embarrassment making my anger dissipate.
We sit in silence, my parents processing the new information, when a knock on Sierra’s door startles us. “That will be Macie and Brittany. Sorry, Emerald, we’ll talk about this soon, I promise. I just don’t even know where to start right now,” she mutters under her breath in exasperation and gets up to answer the door.
I’m left confused and frustrated for answers. I lean back, resting my head on Dev’s shoulder as voices filter in from the entryway, before a shocked gasp draws my attention.
“Mer? Is that you?”
Standing in the doorway are two women, who look exactly alike. A bronze skinned woman, with long auburn hair tied in a beautiful braid and wrapped into an elegant twist. High cheekbones, beautiful soft, pink lips and vibrant brown eyes complete the look making her seem like an Amazonian goddess. What has me speechless, is the younger woman on the right. Her auburn hair is straightened and tied up into a simple pony tail. She has a lighter tone of skin but just as Amazonian with soft blue eyes. It can’t be!
“Britt? Is that you? Oh my god,” I squeal, leaping from the couch and lunging for her. I wrap my arms around her in a fierce hug, shocked she’s here.
Brittany hugs me back just as tightly, “Emerald? Oh, thank god! I thought it was you! You look so different! What are you doing here?” she asks, pulling back to look over my face, studying every minute detail.
I frown at her, annoyed. “Me? Bitch, you up and left me with the pack. I wrote to you for a year and you never wrote back! Where were you?!” I demand, tears threatening to break free.
Tears spill down her cheeks, as she sees the pain in my eyes “Mer, I’m so sorry. My mother died the last week I was with you. Some evil bastard weaved a curse on her, which was why I was sent to your pack. Your pack was supposed to be able to save her, but there was nothing they could do to help her. After she died, I fell into a pit of despair, full of darkness. No one could get close to me without suffering my wrath.
“I’ve only recently been able to see the error of my ways with some help from my family. Please, forgive me for leaving you. You were my only true friend. I think about you every day when things get hard. I hoped we would find each other again.”
I watch her apologize for what happened after she left and feel for her loss. I remember that her mother was everything to her. She had no idea who her father was only that he abandoned her and her mother when she was only little.
Britt studies me, much the same way I’m studying her. We’ve each grown out of our awkward teenage phase.
Brittany was a gangly, dorky twig of a girl back then. Frizzy, orange hair, freckles smattered over the ridge of her cheeks and nose. Her eyes, like the blue of the deep sea. Now, she has grown into her looks. Dark auburn hair running down her back, her freckles look more like beauty spots than the awkward spots of a teenager and her body has filled out phenomenally. She’s at least six-foot-tall and looks like a human model.
“I’m sorry about your mom.” I can see in her eyes, she has been through the ringer and really does regret not reaching out. I understand why she chose not to contact me especially if she went through a dark patch. Witches are extremely powerful so I could only imagine the devastation when one of them is going through something traumatic.
She smiles softly, “Thanks. So, why are you here? Aunty Mace says we’re here for Aunty Sie’s daughter. Aunty Sie practically saved me from destroying the city so I’m pretty nervous to meet her daughter. Apparently, she’s risen from the dead. I’m a bit sceptical on that one,” she rambles with an eye roll, pausing to take a breath before lowering her voice, “I wonder how much of a bitch she is. Sie’s got a temper you wouldn’t believe,” she whispers, pulling me close as if we’re united, she can fend off my mother’s daughter, who is me.
I can’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing at her, and she looks at me for a second before it dawns on her. “No way! Bitch, please, you can’t be the dead princess?! Holy Goddess!” she squeals, jumping up and down excitedly while I grin at her enjoying the show.
A chiding voice interrupts our excitement, “Girls! As funny as this is, can one of you please elaborate on how you know each other?” The stranger, who came in with Brittany asks. This must be her Aunty Mace.
Britt calms down enough to face the woman, “Sorry, Aunty Mace. This is Emerald. She’s the one I told you about, from when I stayed with the pack that summer. We were practically sisters. She’s Aunty Sie’s daughter.” She grins at me with that mischievous light in her eyes that I missed so much. “I still can’t believe it! I knew you this whole time and never did I think you were Aunty Sie’s daughter,” she huffs.
I laugh, punching her lightly in the arm in a playful gesture. “Well to be fair, I only found out a couple of days ago myself. Dad had to send me here after some stuff went down with the pack,” I explain.
“Oh wow, so, a busy week for you,” she smirks.
A loud clap resounds in the room and I look to see my mother holding her hands together, waiting for us to acknowledge her. “Girls, as lovely as it is to see you rekindling your friendship, it will need to wait. We have a gathering to plan. The reason I called you here Macie, is because obviously, my daughter is alive and home. Tonight, we’ll be having a party to celebrate her return and announce to the coven that she’s alive. I need the two of you to whip up a dress for Emerald. Something that shows her royalty but leaves it exposed for when we have to offer her blood to the chalice,” Sierra explains to Macie.
Macie nods as she takes in each word my mother says with a professionalism that Heather didn’t. It makes me wonder how close Macie and my mother are? “Hmm, I might leave Britt to do that one since she and Emerald obviously have a lot of catching up to do,” Macie grins at Brittany, laughing when her smile lights up the room.
Britt squeals rushing over to her aunt, “Yay, thank you, thank you, thank you! I won’t let you down,” she breathes, hugging her.
Dev chimes in, “You can use our room. I’ll kick Tal and Nik out, so we have the room to ourselves,” he says with a wink.
“Sure,” I agree, loving that I get a chance to catch up with her. As much as I love Britt though, the thought of not having Dev close by, saddens me. I know it’s pathetic to want to have someone I barely know attached to my hip but I can’t seem to want to process without him. He’s a part of me now.
Macie sobers and turns to fa
ce Brittany, “You have eight hours to get Emerald ready. You can draw on power from your husbands if you need and if you run out of energy, call for me and I’ll come help you,” Macie reminds her as she drags me from the room. Devin carries the blood bag they offered me earlier, and Brittany is gripping my hand, pulling me along with her. She knows exactly where to go which makes me wonder exactly how often she comes here?
As we take the short walk back to the rooms, I ask Brittany, “Did your aunt say husbands? As in more than one?” I ask, curious to know how her situation worked out. It would be nice to know my situation might have a happily ever after.
She grins a look of mischief in her eyes, “Oh yeah, I have four husbands. Well, not legally, but yeah. We were married about six months ago. They saved me,” she explains at the interested look on my face.
“Tell me everything,” I demand squeezing her hand for more information. She can’t just say she has four husbands and leave it at that!
She laughs, and slings an arm over my shoulders as we walk, “Well, after Mom died, I went dark, and I don’t mean in that cutsie goth way. I mean dark magic. I’m a witch, as you now know, but I’m a white witch. My mother was one of the strongest witches to have ever been born. When she was cursed, they sent me to your pack, while they tried to unravel the curse placed on her by a dark witch.”
She takes a stuttered breath, the pain of repeating it back to me showing in the tense lines of her shoulders and the dulled light in her eyes. “It failed and my mother killed herself to save the rest of our coven from being drained of our powers. As you can imagine, it killed me to lose my mother. So typical me, I swore revenge. I ran away from our coven in the hopes of finding the dark witch responsible. Along the way, I didn’t realize how dark I was going until my powers started to change. They went from being all light and bright to darkness and death.”
She pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing her story, “I was close to ending my own life to save myself the dignity of being shamed by the coven, when I met Blaine, Meron, Kellan and Torie. They saved my life and promised to help me get my revenge. They eventually all fell in love with my sparkling personality,” she shoots me a wink at this, “and I couldn’t bring myself to choose just one. So I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, we had our moments when we nearly killed each other, but we work better together than apart.”
Britt smirks, a mischievous grin on her face, “And that’s how I ended up with four hot smexy husbands!” she announces proudly. “Now it’s your turn. What’s with the soul-ties? I saw the markings on your neck when you got up. Is it two names or three? How exciting!” she squeals with enthusiasm not giving me a chance to answer.
Dev chuckles behind us. I look back at him with a wink before going into what I’ve discovered so far. “Yeah, I only just found out what they were. There are three names, Devin, Talon and Nikoli. Dev is the only one who is committed to the soul-tie at this stage,” I tell her, gesturing at Dev following behind us. “Talon and Nikoli both have girlfriends, so Axel told them to think about it before making a choice, which totally sucks, but I get it.”
Walking into the room, I freeze seeing Talon and Nik holding bags. Shit, did they hear me? Oh god they must have!
Dev walks past me, frozen in the doorway, “Oh, hey, guys. Sorry about this, but I’m kicking you out for the next few days,” he says pretending as if two of my soul-ties haven’t packed their bags to leave me right now.
Talon scowls looking from me and back to Devin. “That’s fine. We were leaving anyway,” Talon says, hiking the bag over his shoulder, ready to leave.
Britt saunters past my frozen form, “Well, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine, Tal. Meron wants to see you tonight by the way. He said he has something for you. Some information you wanted, or something like that,” Britt informs him. The way she speaks to him, it’s like there’s a familiarity between them. Maybe they’ve met before?
Talon nods, “Good, tell him to meet me before the ball. Talk to you later, Dev.” He stalks by me without a word. Our arms brush and I feel a warm shiver through my body, making me feel faint. He pauses, breathing in deep, a soft groan uttered before he makes a mad dash down the hall. Goddamn hormones!
Nik stops at my side, placing a soft kiss on my cheek, sending a spark of electricity through me. “I’ll see you later, Em.”
I turn and watch him leave, surprised at his tender gesture. He made it seem he was uninterested in me earlier but that wasn’t something someone who didn’t care would do. Am I overthinking a simple gesture? God! Why does this have to be so difficult?!
Britt’s staring at me confused, “Well, that was a lot of hostility from Tal. What’s his deal?” she asks.
Sighing, I plop down on the chair closest to me, “He doesn’t want a soul-tie with me. He’s made that extremely clear,” I tell her, leaning back and closing my eyes sadly.
“And you, what do you want?”
I look up at Dev, who seems to get that I want privacy for this talk. “Why don’t you girls go into the bedroom for a little catch up? I’ll be out here watching TV or something. But Em, you need to eat something so please, take this with you,” he begs, holding out the blood bag.
I walk over to him, taking it gingerly, not looking forward to drinking it, but knowing I’ll need to sooner or later. I mean now that I’ve had blood once, surely my vampire side is going to make itself more known? Who knows? At least if I keep it near me, then I can have it if the urge to drink it arises. Until then, the thought of a cheeseburger is still appealing. Us girls go into the bedroom, closing the door behind us.
I place the blood bag beside me, as we sit on Dev’s bed. It wouldn’t feel right to claim the other guy’s beds with how everything is going down at the moment. They need to decide that they want me before I will ever warm either of their sheets again.
Once we’re comfortable, I pour out my soul, “Britt, I don’t know what to do. I only just met them, but my wolf is set on having them all as mates. Dev is brilliant, and his kisses are so amazing! But there is something missing without Nikoli and Talon if that makes sense? Ugh! How horrible am I?!” I groan dropping my face in my hands in frustration, “Here I am with an amazing guy but I want his friends too. I’m a total bitch!”
“Oh, honey no you’re not, and I know exactly what you mean. I tried being with just Meron at the start, though it felt off. Like it wasn’t complete with just him. When we all got together, it was if something clicked inside of me. I think from the start, we were all meant to be together as one unit. Even if Tal and Nik don’t realize it yet, you’re all destined to be together. You’re just going to have to help them see it, sooner rather than later,” she smirks mischievously.
I frown, confused on how I’m supposed to achieve that when they have girlfriends. “How? I know I’m ok looking, but have you seen Heather? She’s a goddess compared to me. I haven’t even met Felicia yet, but I imagine she is just as gorgeous, knowing my luck,” I sigh. Not having met Felicia yet, I’m not sure what to expect but if Heather is anything to go by, then I’m doomed.
A mischievous twinkle in Britt’s eyes, has me apprehensive. “Oh, yeah, Felicia is just as stunning, so we just have to show them how gorgeous you are. Time for some magic,” she grins, jumping off the bed and holding her hands out to pull me up. I place my hands in hers, feeling like I’m putting my future there as well.
“What are you going to do?” I ask curiously.
She smirks, her eyes full of light. “You’ve seen Cinderella, right? Well, I’m your fairy freaking godmother,” she winks, swirling her hands in the air.
Oh, my, god! She’s making objects move around the room, with her hands. I swear, if any of the furniture starts dancing, I’ll faint.
Dev knocks on the door, grabbing our attention. “Girls? Can I come in?”
Britt mustn’t have heard the knock with all of her magic floating around, because his voice makes her jump and drop everything that was levitating around the room. Thankfull
y only one lamp breaks. I hope the guys weren’t in love with it.
“Yeah, we’re decent,” Britt responds, laughing her ass off when I send her a glare. It looks like using her magic makes her a little loopy.
He pushes the door open, playfully peeking in, with one hand covering his eyes with a slight slit between his fingers. It reminds me of a child playing hide and seek, but catching a peek as the others run off and hide. It’s charming. “You need to have the blood bag, Em. Your parents sent word that you were to have it before Britt starts, just in case your beast gets frightened by Britt using magic on you. We want her to be calm during the process and not attack anyone,” he explains, pulling his hand away from his face, pointedly looking at the bag I had put on the side table.
Sighing, I give in. “Fine! Britt, do you mind leaving for a bit?” I ask, not wanting to offend her. It’s just the thought of drinking blood in front of her is weird. The thought of drinking blood at all is a foreign concept but with an audience is even more uncomfortable.
She nods, not even slightly offended. “Sure thing hun, I’ll just be in the lounge making a coffee. You want one?” she offers pausing at the door.
“God yes,” I grin. That girl knows me well, although it makes sense for her to offer one since she was the one who got me addicted in the first place.
“Alright,” she nods before facing Dev pointing her finger threateningly at him. “You have five minutes Prince Charming, before I storm back in, got it?” she stares down Dev until he nods, hiding a smirk.
Once the door closes, I look to Dev, a feeling of panic overtaking me. He comes straight to me, crouching down in front of me, “I’m sorry Em but you need to drink. We have no idea what will happen if the vampire side of you goes hungry for too long. Just give it a try and if you can’t stomach it, you can stop,” he reassures me, giving my knee a gentle squeeze.
I take a deep breath comforted he’s here and rip the bag open, gulping down the sweet, metallic liquid. I’ve been starving since I got up, but I thought I just needed food. In under a minute, the bag is drained and a feeling of contentment washes over me.