Poisonous Temptation: Division 2 (The Berkano Vampire Collection)

by Isadora Brown

  “No,” he finally said. “I have to get home.”

  “If it’s easier, we can go to your place,” Olivia said.

  Thyos cut her a warning glare that sent ice through her veins. “I know you probably did not intend it, human,” he said slowly, “but the presumption that you would ever be allowed or invited into my home is ridiculous. It almost sounded like a threat, that you would somehow track me to where I am staying and plead your case to me there, hoping I will listen. The truth of the matter is, if that were to happen, I would rip you to shreds and leave your carcasses out for the birds. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Easy,” Carter said, stepping in front of Olivia as though to shield her from Thyos’s wrath. “She did not mean anything by it.” He sighed through his nose, continuing to look into Thyos’s eyes.

  Thyos knew the human was intimidated by him, but he did a good job of not showing it.

  “You are aware that both you and Aurelia are condemned for the emperor’s death, correct?” he asked. At Thyos’s nod, he continued. “And should you continue at the pace you’re running, you’ll never be able to slow down. Neither of you will. You’ll constantly be looking over your shoulders, wondering if today is the day you get caught. They know you both care about each other, so if they catch you, they will torture you in front of each other. They might rape her in front of you or bleed you out in front of her.”

  Thyos flashed his long fangs in warning about the mere mention of Aurelia being raped.

  “I’m not going to mince my words to please you,” Carter said. He glanced around, almost as though making sure no one noticed two humans talking to an obvious vampire. “You know I’m right.”

  “What do you want, human?” Thyos asked, not bothering to hide his frustration. He leaned down and picked up the brown bag of groceries next to him.

  “Just to talk,” Carter said quickly. “That’s it. At our place, away from the riots. Away from prying ears.”

  Thyos still looked unsure, but instead of fighting, he gave a quick nod. “Fine,” he said. “But let this be your only warning: if this is in any way a trap, I will not hesitate to slaughter you and paint your walls with your blood.”

  Chapter 21

  Aurelia decided to take the time by herself and practice casting spells. She decided it would be best if she was outside of the cabin, a good distance away. She did not want to be responsible for burning another couch, or worse.

  She dressed in one of Thyos’s old togas, making sure to tie it appropriately considering it was much too big for her frame. She slipped on her muddy sandals and reminded herself she needed to wash them before she wore them again. After that, she threw her hair up into a messy bun and walked out of the cabin and deeper into the grassy field.

  Her mind started to wander as she walked. Which spells should she try first? The protection spell had been incredibly helpful at the Colosseum, and it seemed to hold even with her three sisters—powerful witches in their own right—shooting disarming spells. Aurelia had a sneaking suspicion that Adela might have used a couple of power spells as well, just for good measure. But they’d all bounced off the barrier and fizzled out.

  Aurelia closed her eyes and took a breath. She rooted her feet in the soil and forced her body to relax, to trust the environment she was in, and if anything tried to threaten her, she would be protected. She needed to trust herself with this power that brimmed through her body. If she wanted to be successful, she needed to relax, to be completely sure of what she was capable of, and to know that she had the power at her fingertips.

  She began muttering a simple spell, one that every witch was first taught. The protection spell. Attacks were useful, but a witch could not attack if she were not protected.

  She saw a flicker shoot from her fingertips, but that was it. She breathed in again, trying not to overthink this. Somehow, she was able to draw up a protection shield for both Thyos and herself that had held against three powerful witches, and out in the wilderness where no one could harm her, where she had all the time in the world, she could only muster up a flicker of light.

  Okay, relax, she told herself. You’re fine. Don’t make this a bigger deal than it needs to be. You’ve got this.

  She tried again.

  Two flickers of light shot from her fingertips and hit the ground, sizzling as they did so.

  Better than nothing. Got better the second time.

  Aurelia would never be one of those witches whose power came naturally to her. She had to study and practice over and over through long durations of time in order to achieve something good and simple, not something great. But that was okay. She was okay.

  The fact that she had gotten to this level in the first place was a big deal. She would keep practicing for as long as it took until she got good. And then she would keep going until she was great.

  It was three hours later when Aurelia decided it was time to take a break and feed herself. She was starting to feel drained, starting to feel that if she didn’t get some kind of food in her, she was going to faint.

  She paused and took a moment to look out at the brush surrounding her. She didn’t like the strong scent surrounding the area, but she was surprised to find that she got used to it quickly.

  Or maybe she had been too distracted to really think about everything.

  Being swept up in Thyos’s embrace was something she could not have predicted. Even the witches with clairvoyance would not have been able to detect such a thing, in her opinion. A vampire and a witch?

  There was never such a pairing since the Rift. And look what had happened. Not much was known about what had happened there, but she knew a vampire and a witch had paired up to find a cure for vampirism. She wasn’t sure if a tryst between them actually occurred, but vampires said the witch beguiled the vampires, while the witches claimed that the vampire forced the witch to engage in illicit behavior. Either way, no side took responsibility for the Rift, and it seemed that no side would. And with that, no side would ever be caught in any kind of relationship with the other again.

  Aurelia could not help but think the whole thing was romantic. She knew the consequences were serious, and they were currently suffering those consequences. She knew romanticizing something as terrible as the Rift did not give it the respect it deserved. But she could not help but feel that way.

  A vampire and a witch in any relationship was forbidden. Not even those who had strange desires would think to pair a witch and a vampire together, not after what happened. Fifty years had passed, and it was still too soon.

  But certainly, she and Thyos were not the first to have their own trust. There had to be others like them who had to hide their affection, their lust. She knew that most witches’ blood would kill the vampire. She did not know if she was an exception because of her mixed blood, but pure witches were difficult to come by nowadays, and their blood still protected them from vampires.

  Unless that had been a trick witches had pulled on the vampires to build a barrier between them. Aurelia could imagine that: witches claiming blood poisoned a vampire when, in fact, only a pure witch’s blood did such a thing. She clenched her teeth together. If that was true, such a thing could not be public knowledge. Witches would not hold the power they once had, and vampires would ravage them, pillaging their bodies and filling their own vessels with blood.

  Her gaze turned to the horizon. The storms, ever-present and terrifyingly beautiful, still raged on, even though the sun had been shining and bright.

  In fact, she should probably start to head in now that it was getting dark.

  “Aurelia.”

  The familiar voice stating her name made her jump. She hated that she showed something so vulnerable to her sister, after everything she had done a few days before.

  “Ashana.” Aurelia looked at her oldest sister, her entire body tense. “How did you find me?”

  Ashana looked glorious and terrifying all in one. Her long, auburn hair was pulled up into a high ponytail,
her curls bouncing in the slight breeze. She had a deep crimson gown with thick sleeves clasped with gold and a belt around her waist, just underneath her breasts. The skirt was long, drifting to her ankles, and her sandals were gold and wrapped around her foot seductively. She looked like a true warrior, beautiful and bold, fierce and unflinching.

  “I tracked you,” she replied. “I’m the only one in our family who has mastered tracking. Not even Mother and Father can do it the way I can.”

  Her hazel eyes flickered up and down Aurelia’s frame. “You look,” she said slowly, “different.”

  Aurelia was not sure how to respond to that. She knew she felt different. She felt powerful. She felt sensual. She felt worthy. And on top of all of that, she felt beautiful. She did not feel like that lost girl she used to be, when she didn’t have her powers, when she pushed and put herself down because she couldn’t get her powers out of her. Now she was her own witch, mighty and powerful—although she needed some more time to learn how to control her powers.

  “It’s a good look on you,” Ashana said, with one last sweep of her eyes. She shifted, almost uncomfortably. She was in different territory, terrain she wasn’t particularly familiar with. She wasn’t sure how to respond or what to do.

  Aurelia felt the power inside of her surge up at the thought. She pressed her lips together. “Are you here to harm me, Ashana?” she asked slowly. She did not want to give her sister any ideas, but she also wanted to be on the same page as she was. Ashana would respect her enough to at the very least be direct and honest.

  “Of course not,” she said quickly. “I would never come here to harm you.”

  Aurelia gave her a hesitant look. “You attacked me and Thyos,” she pointed out. “Back at the Colosseum, when we were trying to leave. You, Adela, and Augusta were trying to prevent me to leave.”

  “As I said,” Ashana said. “I would never harm you. I was trying to prevent you from leaving because that was what was required of me. I could not help you escape with everyone watching.”

  Aurelia shook her head. “I don’t understand,” she said. “What were you trying to do then?”

  “I was trying to detain you,” Ashana told her. “If you had the ability to control your powers, to really know them, I would have sent a message to your mind kinetically so you understood my true intentions.”

  “And what are your true intentions?” Aurelia asked, slowly arching a brow. She did not blink her eyes, did not remove them from Ashana’s golden gaze. “You speak of all the things you had to do, you must do, but why are you here, Ashana? What do you want?”

  Ashana sighed. “I want to discuss things with you,” she said. “Things I should have told you a while ago. Aurelia, I do not believe what I pretend to believe. I do not believe witches should remain with only witches. I do not believe in pure bloodlines. I believe in happiness and personal choice and freedom for all. It’s important for me to tell you that because I think you feel the same way. At least, I hope you do.”

  Aurelia pressed her lips together. “You know I believe that, Ashana,” she said. “Why keep your own truth from me? From everyone?”

  “Because in order to protect my secret, I needed to blend in,” Ashana said. She looked away from Aurelia. If Aurelia had to guess, Ashana looked almost ashamed, which did not make sense because Ashana was nothing if not bold.

  “Your secret?” Aurelia asked.

  “Aurelia, I am a witch who does not wish to procreate,” she said. “I find myself sexually attracted to other females. It does not matter which faction they belong to. I’ve been attracted to humans, to witches, and even to vampires. Of course, I would never admit this to anybody in our family. The thought of a woman loving another woman is not something anyone wants to hear, even though there are plenty of us. The law sees it as a betrayal of one’s family since their legacy cannot be passed down. And considering I am the oldest in a group of only females, I carry a heavy burden.

  “When I was a teenager, I was in love with a human, a woman. She taught me many things about myself even though she did not know how I felt. When she did find out, she was kind. She did not feel the same way about me, about women, but that is all right. When you love, you open yourself up for rejection. I find love is always worth the risk.”

  Aurelia smiled. “I agree,” she murmured. She reached across the table to take her sister’s hand. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Ashana.”

  “You needed to hear it, Aurelia,” Ashana murmured, her face somber. “I needed you to know.” She paused, taking a drink of her tea. “There is something else we need to discuss.”

  Chapter 22

  The humans took Thyos to a secluded part of West Babylon. It was not as affluent as where Aurelia was from, but it was enough to hide them in plain sight. No one would think to question a group of humans in a large house in West Babylon. They bought land rather than property and built up, which meant their neighbors were half a mile away. Unless these humans were lying, he was safe. No one would know he was here.

  “When we saw what happened at the Colosseum,” the one called Carter said, turning to look over his shoulder at Thyos, “we knew we had to meet. We had to plan what was going to happen next.”

  “I do not understand,” Thyos muttered, not bothering to hide the impatience in his tone. “What does that have to do with me? What does that have to do with Aurelia?”

  The one called Olivia beamed at him. “Everything,” she said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The two have you set off an important chain of events that will affect the Citta di Paludi from this point on.”

  Thyos did not bother to hide his rolling eyes. These children reeked of hope and sincerity and everything he tried to stay away from. They also seemed like they had the same sort of naiveté that plagued Aurelia.

  All three factions working together? That would never happen. Each faction wanted power. The fact that the vampires realized they could now roam over the city and take what they wanted wasn’t all that surprising to Thyos. In fact, he could not blame them. They had been treated a certain way for the past fifty years, and it was time for them to take their power back.

  Although Thyos knew if Aurelia was privy to this information, she would be worried. She wouldn’t disregard the vampires and their feelings because she was smart enough to know that if vampires were treated like beasts for this long, they would act like beasts.

  But Aurelia wanted everyone to get along for the good of all, while respecting society’s rightful feelings about the last fifty years.

  “Is this where you burn me with holy water and stake my heart?” Thyos asked.

  Olivia and Carter shook their heads. Carter grabbed a set of keys from his pockets and opened the door to the house.

  The house looked like a typical human house. Wooden floors, a couch, a fireplace. There was a coffee table with books and magazines, a staircase that led upstairs, and a hallway that led to the back of the house, probably to a bedroom and a bathroom. There was also an entranceway to the dining room and kitchen, and a sliding glass food to a large backyard.

  Thyos did not feel discomfort at being here. He did not think these humans were luring him to his demise. They seemed to have decent heads on their shoulders, even if those heads seemed more filled with air rather than actual substance. If they were planning to attack, he was at his full strength and would be able to defend himself without hesitation.

  Truth be told, Thyos had no idea why he was here. He did not believe in alliances, in peace. He did not think it was possible. Even before the Rift, he had seen the stronger factions take advantage of the weaker ones. No one lent a helping hand then; why would it be any different now? Yet he had followed these humans to their home so they could speak to him freely about the future of Citta di Paludi. He was here, present, and that was something he’d never expected to be.

  It was Aurelia’s fault. She was changing him completely and so quickly that he did not have time to think about
it, let alone do anything about it. It was not something he was fully able to comprehend because part of him still felt as though this was all a dream. That this was not possible.

  His groceries felt heavy in his hands. He knew if he did not get back to the cabin in a few hours, the milk would spoil. He also did not want to leave Aurelia alone for too long. For some strange reason, she would worry about him, and he did not like the thought of her worrying about someone like him.

  “Why are we here?” he demanded.

  “Thyos,” Carter said, turning to look at Thyos with a smile, clapping his hands together. “I wanted to thank you for humoring us. We are a small sect of people—humans, vampire, and a couple of witches—who believe that the factions should unite together and work toward bridging the gap between our kind.”

  Thyos looked between both the male and female. “What?” he asked, his tone flat.

  “After Aurelia killed the emperor,” the one named Olivia said as she led them up the creaky wooden stairs, painted white, “it was chaos. Witches tried to control the situation, but they couldn’t. Some ran, some fought. Of those who fought, two more managed to get killed because the vampire harem decided now was the time to break free and claim their independence.”

  “The arena was as bloody as it had ever been,” Carter said, his olive skin ashen as the memory came back to him.

  “What does that have anything to do with me?” he asked. He glanced down at his bag of groceries, hoping the milk was still good.

  “Everything,” Olivia said.

  “Stop using vagueness and explain,” Thyos snapped. He refused to tolerate their incompetence. He was wasting precious time. He needed to get back to Aurelia.

  “Our group sees the emperor’s death as an opportunity to put our values into practice,” Carter continued, his dark eyes sparkling.