In this perfect moment, with our hands clasped together and our bodies leaning close to each other’s, Thompson was important enough for me to say, “I could lose my soul.”
“Isn’t that dying?”
I had to laugh. “Luckily, I have two.”
“Two what?”
“Two souls,” I explained.
“I think you lost me,” Thompson said.
I smiled at him. I had to give him credit for having gotten this far in the conversation, though I could see his brow beginning to furrow. “Never mind,” I said. “How about a kiss for luck?”
Our first kiss had been nice, but not earth-shattering. This one started out warm and grew hotter. By the time our lips parted, I was breathing hard and tingly in all the right places.
It was hard to let go, but the sky was turning pink. I saw my mom coming out to the porch to look for us. I looked deep into the soft denim of Thompson’s eyes and thought maybe sparks came with time, after careful tending of the embers.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I have to go.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, with another light kiss on my lips. “I had a great time. I’m looking forward to doing this again, so you’d better stay safe.”
Mom waited as I made my way slowly up the sidewalk to where she sat on the front porch swing. I sat down next to her. Together we waved good-bye to Thompson.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked.
Thompson had put me in an honest mood, so I said, “Not really. And I’m going to be super pissed off if this doesn’t work and we end up having to do something else.”
“Well,” Mom said gently, putting a hand on my shoulder, “it’s hard to know what will happen. I’ll tell you one thing, though. No matter what, I’ll be damned if I’ll let your father hurt you.”
“What makes you think he would?” Dad had been acting so nice lately that I was actually surprised by her accusation.
“I found your jeans in the garbage. I nearly had a heart attack until I realized there was no way the blood could be yours.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. A shiver raced down my spine at the memory of the ghastly, barfing vampire. “I managed to forget about that.”
“Were you ever planning on telling me about what happened?”
I shook my head. Heck, I didn’t like thinking about it now. “No.”
Mom stared at me with her mouth open for a moment, and then laughed. “I guess that’s honest.”
“If it’s any consolation, Dad seems to regret giving that order.” As soon as it was out of my mouth, I knew I shouldn’t have said anything more about it—especially not something light and flip.
Mom’s eyebrows knitted into a tight frown. All traces of the easy smile she’d worn a moment ago vanished. She shook her head. The words she spoke came out between thinly pressed lips. “I’m going to kill that man.”
The light of the sun had faded to gray. In the grass, crickets started their nightly chorus. I wondered how long Mom planned to sit here, fuming about Dad.
Nikolai’s Toyota came rattling down the street, and Mom stood up. Clearly, some arrangements had been made while I was out. I followed her to the boulevard. Nikolai leaned across the seats and rolled down the window. “Are you ready?”
“I guess,” I said. I looked at Mom, but she opened the door and gestured for me to get in.
“I’ll meet you there,” she said.
“Okay,” I replied, and impulsively gave her a great big hug. She seemed surprised, but she returned the hug and added a motherly kiss to the cheek when we parted. She waited until I was seated with my buckle on before shutting the door.
“See you soon,” she said to me, and then admonished Nikolai, “Drive safe.”
It was strange, almost as if we knew what we were doing. After we pulled away, I turned to Nikolai. “We need to swing around to the back. I have to pick something up.”
He shot me a suspicious look. “What?”
“Extra insurance,” I said. “Oh, and do you have duct tape?”
“Don’t look,” I told Nikolai as I pulled my dress off in the backseat. He’d found a roll of grimy duct tape in the trunk. The pints of blood were cold and awkward to handle as I strapped them over my chest like a suit of armor. I could tell he was having a hard time not checking the rearview as I struggled with the slippery bags and sticky tape. Getting my sundress back over the lumpy mess was pretty entertaining, but I thought the bags would hold.
Still, I had two extra bags I hadn’t found a place for.
Nikolai, who had clearly been watching despite my protests, smiled and said, “You could stick them to your butt.”
I ran my hand down the twin bumps over my breasts. “I guess I’d finally have curves, huh?”
“Oh, you have plenty now.”
I whacked him playfully on the top of his head with one of the extra bags. “You’re a dirty old man. I told you not to look.”
“You were duct taping blood bags to your body. How was I supposed to ignore that?”
Grabbing what was left of the roll of tape, I carefully crawled into the front passenger seat. My sundress hung funny now, but it covered me well enough. “I feel kind of stupid,” I admitted, poking at the bags again.
Nikolai did laugh a little, but he said, “I think it’s actually kind of smart. I just hope they go for it, when there’s plenty of warm, exposed skin to choose from.” He ran a finger lightly along my bare arms, causing goose pimples to rise.
My heart jumped. “What if they don’t go for it?”
Nik turned his attention to the empty alley and considered. “They’re repulsed by magic. We can put a spell on your skin.”
“Like vampire bug spray? Does that even exist?”
He shrugged. “I’m sure your mom knows something.”
I hoped he was right.
The drive out to the covenstead was a long one. At some point in the 1960s, our coven bought land about an hour or so out of the Cities. What had been completely undeveloped then had become an outer-ring suburb over the intervening years. Our property was now a conspicuous clump of woods surrounded on all sides by developed farmland.
I hadn’t been back to the covenstead since my failed Initiation, even though I’d learned to swim in the swampy pond at the edge of the land and had spent most summers of my youth playing in the ferns, wildflowers, and pine trees.
We passed neatly planted rows of corn. The phrase “knee high by the Fourth of July” flitted through my mind as I looked out at the tall stalks. The moon cast the broad leaves in ghostly silver light.
I turned to look at Nikolai. He hadn’t said much since we’d left my house. Shortly after we merged onto the highway, he’d switched on the radio to fill the silence.
I broke it now. “Is your dad coming?”
He coughed a surprised laugh. “Are you kidding me?”
I guessed not. “What about Bea? Or her family?”
“It’s going to be just us, baby,” he said with a sad shake of his head. “You, me, your mom, and a whole shitload of crazy-hungry vampires; it should be awesome.”
I understood his sarcasm, but Nik had never called me any kind of pet name before. Since when was I his “baby”? I gave him a sidelong glance. Was he still under the impression that our relationship was back on? I’d told him I was dating someone else after our kiss.
I opened my mouth to clarify the situation with Thompson for him, but then I shrugged. If I lived through the next few hours, I’d let him down gently. If not … well, he and Thompson could fight it out with the new me. Maybe she’d be the sort to more successfully string several boys along. I seemed to be doing it now—just not very well.
I didn’t want to think about that, so I turned my attention to the problem at hand. “I wish I knew more about the Initiation ritual,” I said mostly to myself.
“Me too,” Nikolai said. We had gotten to a Stop sign in the middle of nowhere. Nikolai came to a complete stop and took the opportunit
y to turn and look directly into my face. “You realize we’re going to have to trust your dad completely. Your life, well, your soul, anyway, is literally going to be in his hands. Are you sure about this? About him?”
Given our history, even, say, twenty-four hours ago, I shouldn’t be. I nodded anyway. I couldn’t explain it in a way that would ever satisfy Nikolai, but I believed my dad when he said that nearly allowing me to be killed had shocked some sense into him.
Nik started back down the road. He shook his head. “I’m not sure I trust my dad that much.”
I kept my opinion of his dad to myself.
It would be easy to drive past the entrance to the covenstead if you didn’t know what to look for. There was little more than a mailbox and a tire track trail leading deep into the woods. Nikolai slowed as we bumped along the uneven road. I kept my eyes out for critters. Last time I’d been here, a deer had bounded out of the underbrush. Probably because it was the last natural wooded spot for miles, the place was overrun with rabbits, squirrels, and even the occasional coyote and red-tailed fox.
We made it to the empty field used as a parking lot for big events without crushing any major wildlife. Nikolai parked his car beside the recycling and trash cans next to the cabin’s back door.
There were no outside electric lights, and I stepped out into a deep velvety darkness. The vast sky above shone with an infinite number of stars. I could even see the silky trails of the Milky Way.
Inside the shelter of the woods, the air felt cooler and smelled of pine needles and rotting leaves.
Nikolai was already at the back door, rattling keys. He held each one up to the light of his cell phone, trying to find the one that fit. Finally, I heard the latch click, and he swung the door open. He flicked on the interior light. Soft yellow illuminated squares of mosquito-filled grass. Brown bats swooped overhead as I made my way into the mudroom. Automatically, I slipped out of my shoes and stowed them under the bench that lined the wall.
In the great room, Nikolai knelt beside the stone fireplace and stared at the empty grate as if trying to decide whether to light a fire. Since the windows had been closed by the last occupant and the air was stuffy and humid, it was certainly warm enough not to, but I could understand his hesitation. It seemed there was always a fire going at the covenstead. It was a tradition.
I looked around the huge, empty room. The kind of bar that was popular in houses in the 1950s and early 1960s took up the far end. I noted a minifridge and a wine rack, a polished Formica countertop, and cracked vinyl-covered stools. When I was a kid, Bea and I loved to sit on those and spin around or play pretend-bartender with Kool-Aid.
There were no other features in the room, except the giant row of windows that looked out to a pine deck and the forest beyond. Chairs had been stacked along the paneled walls, and there was a whiteboard tucked off to the side that still had notes for someone’s spell-working ritual written in purple dry-erase marker. There were two interior doors. One near the kitchenette/bar led to a bathroom. From experience, I knew that the other revealed a cramped bedroom with two single beds, a rickety end table, and a chest of drawers that contained a treasure trove of the weird things the coven members had abandoned over the decades. I hated the one time Bea’s mom had made us sleep over; the room always smelled a bit musty no matter how many times spring-cleaning rituals were performed on it.
When I turned around, Nikolai stood up and dusted off his jeans. Instead of a fire, he’d conjured a tall votive in the center of the fireplace. Its fire flickered and wavered against the walls.
I knew Nikolai could do that kind of magic, but I was still surprised by the candle’s sudden appearance.
When he saw the look on my face, he shrugged. “No point in holding anything back.”
I nodded, wondering just how powerful a witch Nikolai could be when he put his mind to it.
The grumble of an engine announced the arrival of another car. I took in a deep, steadying breath. It would be my mom, and it meant the time had come.
When the door opened to admit my dad, I nearly fell over in shock, especially when the next person in was my mom.
Of course, it made sense. We needed my dad to teach me the right of passage ritual and to call the hunt, but I couldn’t imagine my parents actually spending the hour together it would take to drive up there.
Elias was the last to walk in, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Maybe he’d driven. Weirdly, I had an easier time imagining Mom sulking in the backseat of Elias’s car than her blithely picking up two vampires on the way to the covenstead.
“What is under your shirt?” Mom asked.
“Blood bags,” I said, holding up the extra pair I’d brought in. “I have two more.”
Nikolai pulled her aside to explain his idea about the vampire repellent, and I was left staring at my dad.
“Are you ready, Ana?” Dad asked. I noticed he was a bit shaky. He tried to act casual as he grabbed for a stack of chairs to steady himself. The hunger must be devastating him. I wondered if he’d be able to keep sane. I remembered what Elias had said about how the hunger had eaten at his mind.
I swallowed and nodded, trying to muster up more courage than I felt. “No time like the present.”
As the others headed out the door, I dashed to fetch my shoes from where I’d left them in the mudroom. Elias hung back to wait for me. Standing beside the bench, he watched as I tied the laces. He seemed to be searching for the right words.
“It was my greatest pleasure to serve Your Highness,” he said.
“Oh, Elias!” I blurted, though I didn’t have other words for my feelings either. Standing up, I wrapped him in a hug.
His arms wound themselves around me easily, fitting comfortably, as if we were two pieces of the same thing. When I looked up into his face to ask him if I was doing the right thing after all and if he was planning to ditch the stupid political alliance/marriage thingy to the creepy Southern captain after punching him … he kissed me.
Elias and I had never kissed before. Not like this.
There wasn’t so much a spark as the fire of unrestrained passion. Elias, usually so restrained and proper, pressed against me in a way I could describe only as sinful.
When he released me, I had to struggle for breath. He’d taken it away from me. I clung to him, panting.
“You tempt me to treason,” he whispered hotly in my ear. “I would have you escape to the South with me and leave behind the kingdom I’ve served so faithfully. But I know you’re too honorable to accept.”
Was I? Actually, at that moment, Elias could have convinced me that jumping off a bridge was an excellent idea as long as he kissed me like that again.
His passion took me by surprise. We’d never kissed before, and he would have to wait until I finally had an official boyfriend to do it. God, if I didn’t turn into alternate-me, I’d have a lot to confess to Thompson—although I had managed to avoid mentioning Nikolai’s kiss so far.
I pushed those conflicting thoughts aside. Searching for a safe topic, my mind went to a question, which I asked him: “Have you kissed a lot of boys like that?”
Okay. It wasn’t exactly a safe thing to ask. I think his passion made me stupid.
“I’ve never kissed anyone like that except you, my lady.” His smile was wolfish. He nibbled at my ear. Each little bite raised gooseflesh on my arms.
“I mean, have you had boyfriends?”
Elias pulled back to look me in the eye. He was frowning. “Even though we use the male form of the word, an animus is a genderless thing. When a witch pulls one over into this world, she cares little if it goes into the body of a male or a female human. Let’s just say I’ve loved a lot of souls. And, knowing this as an undeniable fact, vampires care a lot less about what body a soul inhabits.”
Oh, Bea would love this answer.
“This matters at this moment because … ?” he asked.
It didn’t, really. That was Bea’s t
hing more than mine, anyway. What I wanted to know was the answer to a different question: “Are you seriously still going to marry that creep? You punched his lights out last night.”
“We were establishing a hierarchy,” he said with a slight smirk. “My ‘intended’ now understands that if any pushing around gets done, it will be by me.”
“Uh, gross.”
“Is it?” Elias said. “I’ll be going into an enemy’s camp, living among them. It is important, as they say, to make a good first impression.”
I was pretty sure the Southern Kingdom was already impressed with him; otherwise they wouldn’t have made the political trade. “Do you have to go through with this?”
“I do if we want to avoid war. Even if the hunt is satisfied, our kingdom will need time to regroup. You saw the prince. He’s barely holding on. It will take time for him to be the ruler he once was. My going south will buy time.”
“Time? You’re not thinking of this as forever?”
He snorted a derisive laugh. “Confarreatio is an unbreakable contract, except, of course, by death.”
Whoa.
“I will always serve my prince,” he said darkly, emphasizing the pronoun in a way to make it clear that the prince he meant was my father. Then he stepped back and took my hand in his. He kissed my knuckles lightly. Looking up from his deep bow, he added, “And my lady.”
It was too intense. I broke his gaze and muttered, “Uh, we should get going.”
He let my hand drop, and the heat between us evaporated so suddenly that I felt a chill. “Yes. The others are waiting,” he said.
“Right,” I said, finding my voice finally. I could still feel the ghost of his lips on mine as I headed for the door.
Last time I walked down the path that led to the sacred oak grove, the entire coven had had a hand in lighting tiny floating tea candles in beautiful containers and placing them along the way. It had created a lovely effect. I desperately missed even the feeble light they provided as I stumbled over tree roots and stones.
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