In her videos online, and even in person, she appeared to be all bubble gum pink with a fairy-like demeanor, despite her obvious green aura typical of witches, but in this moment, none of that was present. Lexy made it clear with the heat in her eyes and the coolness of her tone that she was not one to be intimidated or forced into doing something she didn’t want to.
“I think that’s a risk my friend is willin’ to take,” Dex added. He was right, but his words still sent my heart into overdrive. Was I really going to risk my life to be rid of the wraith? On second thought, was it much of a gamble considering I was risking that same fate regardless?
My mouth grew dry when Lexy didn’t respond. I knew I should add something, but I still hadn’t gained my ability to speak. Biting down on my bottom lip, tightness seemed to constrict my chest. Tears were threatening to form and spill over.
“I know this is in the realm of your magic to fix.” Randal stepped forward. His words were still controlled and low, but I knew there was a crazed expression flaring within his eyes. I could tell by the way Lexy’s features softened. She knew he cared about me. “You hold the power to save her.”
“I don’t practice magic anymore. I’m sorry.” Her eyes shifted to the brown vial beside the diffuser, and she twisted the lid back on.
All the air left the room as I continued to stare at her. There was something there, a spark of guilt reflected in her features that I knew. It stemmed from despising what you could do. Hope flickered in my chest when I realized I could work with that emotion.
Swallowing hard, I placed a hand on Randal’s arm and shifted my gaze to Dex. “Can you two give us a minute, please?”
Dex nodded. “Sure thing, sweetheart. We’ll be right outside the door if you need us.” He slapped Randal on the shoulder and pulled him out the door with him.
“Thank you.” I shifted my gaze back to Lexy as soon as they exited the shop. She was still fixated on the bottle, flicking a peeling corner of the label with her thumbnail.
“How did you even find me?” she asked suddenly. “Did my brother tell you where I was?”
“Yeah, he did.” I stepped to the counter and smoothed a fingertip over one of the apples to see if it was made of wax or real. They were real. “He didn’t want to, but he felt bad for me, I think, so he did.”
“I doubt that.” The bitterness in her words surprised me. “A beautiful succubus comes to him asking for my whereabouts, and he just throws me under the damn bus. That’s so Luke, never thinking of anyone besides himself.”
“It wasn’t like that.” I wrapped my arms around my center as a chill seemed to sweep through me. I wasn’t sure if it was from the wraith or Lexy’s cold tone. She looked too sweet to hold a grudge with someone for long, let alone her twin brother. “He and I aren’t like that. I don’t even know him.”
“Even better.” Anger laced her words this time. She picked up the bottle of vanilla and placed it beneath the countertop.
“No, wait.” I sighed and smoothed my hand over my face. This conversation wasn’t happening the way I wanted it to. “I’m doing a really bad job of making an excuse for your brother. I don’t know why you stopped practicing magic, but I can respect your decision. Your brother made me promise that, and I intend to keep it. I just—”
“He did?” Skepticism played in her words.
“Yeah. He wouldn’t tell me what your reasons were for relinquishing your magic, but he made me promise to respect your decision, even if you chose not to help me.”
A small smile twisted at the corner of her lips, and I wondered if that simple knowledge would be enough to reconcile whatever spat they were locked in. “So…is he doing okay?”
A jolt passed through my body, and I licked my lips with cautious hope. If she was willing to forgive her brother, or at least feeling sentimental enough to ask about him, maybe her view on helping me had changed as well. “Like I said, I don’t know him, but from what I saw, he seems to be okay. He owns a club called Love Potion #9 that appears to do well.”
“Love Potion #9, seriously?” She flashed me a smirk.
“Yeah, I know.” I chuckled. “The place is a little much for me, but a lot of people were there when I went, so it must be doing fairly well.” I pressed forward, hoping for the best. “He did seem like he missed you though. It must have been a while since you two saw one another.”
“Five years.” Her brows pulled together as though she were pained by the length of time that had passed.
“I don’t know either of you personally, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that maybe the two of you should rekindle your relationship.” I swallowed hard, hoping my words didn’t piss her off.
An uneasy silence charged the air around us. The only sounds in the shop were that of the trickling water stemming from the diffuser, and the hustle of the little town outside.
“You didn’t come here to talk about my brother.” Her blue eyes locked on mine. Obviously, that hadn’t been the right way to steer the conversation.
“No.” I held her stare. “I came here to ask for your help.”
“I’ve already said I can’t help you with that.” She leaned against the counter, spreading her fingers wide and eyeing me still.
“You can’t, or you won’t?” I hadn’t come all this way to leave without putting up a fight.
“Won’t. I can offer you information about them though. What do you want to know about wraiths?”
I sank my teeth into the tip of my tongue. If I couldn’t sway her into helping me, then maybe I could at least gain some information that might. “Anything you’re willing to tell me.”
She rounded the counter. “Come and sit.” She motioned to a white bench seat near the window.
I followed her, glancing out the front window as I passed it. Randal and Dex were standing with their backs to the shop, staring at the busy little street. I couldn’t tell if they were having a conversation. When I sat, I reached for one of the decorative pillows lining the bench and placed it in my lap.
“You have to at least give me a starting point,” Lexy insisted.
A starting point? Where the hell would that be? There was so much I wanted to know. I ran my finger along the trim on the pillow in my lap. My mind raced with questions, but I decided to start with something basic. “What is a wraith, exactly?”
My thoughts were, if I knew what I was dealing with, then maybe I could figure out a way to get rid of it on my own.
“Wraiths are twisted souls. When they were alive as a human, they were either horrible, vile people, or they were murdered in the most gruesome of ways that the pain and fear surrounding their death tainted their soul and corrupted it.” She tucked one of her long legs beneath her. “They inhabit humans or supernaturals, and feed off their life energy because it gives them strength to continue being here in this plane. If they were to stop feeding, for whatever reason, then they would finally pass over and vanquish to the other side.”
My mind was churning with ideas. Even though I knew better, I found myself wondering if this was how I could be saved. Could it really be as simple as fasting for a few days until the wraith decided to leave me and find a more stable host, someone willing to feed it to stay alive? Ideas of how to go about this flickered through my mind—some involved restraints while others involved locking myself in a room somehow. Maybe I could kill the thing myself by starving it to death.
Chapter 26
“I see the wheels turning in your head,” Lexy muttered. “You can’t starve yourself to kill off the wraith, so don’t even try it.”
“But what about starving myself long enough for it to decide I’m no longer a viable host and move on to find someone else?”
She shook her head. “It won’t leave you. You’re a succubus. There’s no way it would ever chose to leave you willingly. The desire to feed for you would get the best of you; it knows that. Either that, or else you would become so weak from the need to feed, it would be able to take you ov
er completely and force you to.”
Sam and the janitor flashed through my mind. What had I been thinking? Of course it would do that. Restraints might not even work. It would most likely find a way out of them. The wraith was strong. Besides, hadn’t it already showed me how weak I was? My mind was cleared of ideas in an instant.
“So then, how can I get rid of it?” Lexy squirmed in her seat and my stomach rolled. A sour taste filled the back of my throat as I waited for her answer, fearful it was one I wouldn’t like. “I know you said you wouldn’t help me, but there must be something you can tell me that would be of use.”
Her blue eyes flashed with sympathy. “It wouldn’t do you any good to know how to get rid of it if I’m not offering to help you.”
I blinked, taken aback by her words, or lack thereof. “But couldn’t I tell another witch whatever you were planning to do, and have him or her replicate it?” She couldn’t be the only witch in the entire world who was able to get rid of this thing. Could she?
“You could, but I can’t guarantee it would work. My powers are…special.” Her words trailed off, and I got the impression using the term special wasn’t one she thought fit.
“You said you didn’t guarantee you could do it either though,” I snapped. “I’m willing to risk that chance.” My patience was wearing thin. I wanted to know how to get rid of this thing, whether she planned on being the one to do it or not.
Her eyes narrowed, and I knew I had probably pressed my luck with my tone.
“I did say that and it is true, but I’ll tell you one thing, you have a better chance of surviving it working with me, considering vanquishing things is my specialty, than you do with anyone else.”
“Then why don’t you agree to do it?” My words were a plea. “Please, you’re my only hope of getting rid of this thing.”
Lexy’s eyes softened before they dropped from mine. I wondered if I was wearing her down, or if it would backfire and she would toss me out of her shop on my ass.
“It’s growing more powerful. I can feel it,” I added. “On the trip here, it took over and I basically attacked a guy, nearly killing him because I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t break the grip I had on him.”
Something in her face changed. There was a flicker of emotion, a war waging within her mind. “You’re not like the other succubi, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” She wasn’t the first to say this to me, so I decided it must be true and went with it.
“Getting rid of the wraith isn’t easy. It’s something vile and dirty, something stubborn and strong.” She wrung her hands in her lap. “You won’t like what will have to happen in order for you to be rid of it for good, and that’s the one thing that has to be done. It has to be gotten rid of for good, or else it will find its way back to you, because it knows the taste of your soul.”
Chills swept along my spine from her words. I hated the sound of the wraith knowing the taste of my soul. “Okay, tell me what we have to do.” My heartbeat drummed in my chest as hope that maybe, just maybe, this was her reconsidering helping me filled me.
“I’m sure you’re well aware that this situation is time sensitive, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Why did everyone continue to remind me of this? It wasn’t as if I wasn’t aware something horrible had taken up residency inside me, and the longer it stayed, the more difficult it would be to get it out. Randal had reminded me a dozen times since I was first infected.
“We have to get it out of you before it takes you over completely and savors your soul.” Shock rippled through me. No one had mentioned that it would savor my soul. Just the thought was enough to make tingles of panic slip through my mind and have me on the verge of a panic attack. “The only problem is, the summoning spell I would need to use has to be done during a waning moon.”
I had no idea what the hell a waning moon was. When she didn’t elaborate, I asked. “Okay, so when is a waning moon?”
“The next one isn’t for two more weeks.”
My heart stopped. There was no way I could keep this thing at bay for another two weeks. It had only been inside of me for a few days and already it was taking control and sucking me into horribly real nightmares. “That’s too long. I can’t wait that long. Isn’t there anything else you can do?”
She shook her head, her blond curls flying around her shoulders. “It has to be done then; it’s the only time. My power is attached to the waning moon. It’s the only point when I can do something of this magnitude.”
“What if it takes me over by then? I mean, it’s already done so once. I can’t even sleep because of it. It sucks me into some hellish nightmare where it toys with me and threatens me each time I close my eyes.” Panic rose in my voice.
“It’s a powerful wraith to begin with then, old.” Worry lines creased her brows. “I’ll have to get you some oils and teas so that you can keep it at bay for the time being, just until the moon shifts to where I need it to be in its cycle.” She was up and scouring the shelves, pulling down vials of various oils while she mumbled to herself.
I stayed seated, watching her while my mind continued to work full speed ahead, processing everything she had said. Questions tumbled through my mind. I needed details, something.
“Will it hurt to summon the wraith from me? You haven’t given me many details about the actual spell.” I smoothed my hands along my jeans, wiping away the clamminess off them.
Lexy paused in browsing through her oils and turned to look at me. “I’m not going to lie to you; it will be painful. Not only for you, but for me as well.”
“Oh.” That last part I hadn’t been expecting.
“That’s the main reason I stopped practicing magic, because when I use it, I take on some of whatever I’m banishing for others.”
“You’ll take in some of the wraith, then?” If that was the case, then I could completely understand why she didn’t want to do the spell for me to begin with. Who would willingly take in a piece of a wraith, no matter how small it was?
“A tiny portion my body will work out like a sickness after a day or so. I hope.” She sighed. “I know banishing things and breaking hexes seems like I would be making the world a better place, but what about when there’s a cost, like my health? Does that take away any type of obligation you think I should submit to? Or does it make me seem selfish to you? That I would put myself above others and that I would turn my back on a gift the Goddess and God thought I could handle, one that they bestowed on me themselves.”
This was why she had left. People must have thought she was being selfish when she decided taking on others pain, sickness, and whatever the hell else, was too much for her. My throat closed as sadness swept through me. All she wanted was never to have to jeopardize her health to help someone. She had created Bloom’s Garden to continue helping others, only in a way that didn’t affect her.
“I don’t think any of those things about you,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Most don’t.” She shrugged. “And if they do, they think what they’re going through is more important than the amount of pain I’ll be put through when I take their aliment away. They don’t think about me. They don’t care about what I’ll feel for days, sometimes even weeks after.”
“I do. I care.” I stood. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’m not pressuring you. I’ll find another way, another witch, and take my chances.”
A smile twisted her lips. “And this is why I’m agreeing, because you’re different. You’re a succubus with a heart, which is rare.”
She went back to gathering what she needed to create the concoctions she mentioned. I struggled to find the right words to thank her, my mind having gone completely blank at hearing her agree to help me. When the words finally came it seemed as though too much time had passed for me to say them. I chose to propel the conversation regarding the spell forward instead.
“Tell me more about the spell.” Th
e old adage of knowledge is power always rang true to me. I wanted to know what I was up against; I wanted to prepare as best I could mentally. “Have you ever done this spell before?”
“No, I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what needs to be done. There are a few things I’ll have to gather, so it’s actually a good thing the moon isn’t where we need it to be, because those things will take me some time to find.” She set the armful of vials she had retrieved onto the counter, and then headed toward the area where all the loose-leaf teas seemed to be stored. “The pain will be excruciating for both of us, I presume. You have to think of it in terms of something being ripped from you, because that is what I’ll be doing to you. It’s what I always do to people. There is no gentle way to take things of this nature from another.”
I swallowed hard. Dealing with pain for a short length of time would be better than having this thing inside of me forever, until it finally savored my soul and killed me.
“But that’s not going to be the hardest part for you, I don’t think,” she continued.
I released my breath slowly. “What is, then?”
Lexy paused in what she was doing to look at me. “You’re going to have to find someone who is willing to die for you.”
Chapter 27
Lexy’s words hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to find someone to die for me? What the hell was that all about?
“I don’t understand.” I shook my head, as though it would force the words she’d said to line up in my mind, so I could understand them better.
“Think of it as a balance.” Lexy said. “If I summon the wraith from you, he has to go somewhere.”
“Can’t you just make him pass over?”
“No.” She shook her head. “You can’t force a wraith to the other side, not like you’re thinking.”
The bell on the door jingled. I flinched from the sudden noise and turned to see who was entering the little shop. Randal and Dex came stalking through the door. At the look on my face, Randal was at my side in an instant.
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