by Sara Hubbard
“You need someone to show you. I can help you with that. I have a friend who owes me a favor.”
“Really?”
“I plan on taking you to see her today after you say good-bye to your sister.”
“That was the other thing you had planned for today?” I’m practically bouncing in my seat. Yes, today is definitely a good day.
He nods.
“Thank you.”
He hitches a shoulder like it’s no big deal. Finding out who I am is huge for me.
“So this tellurium...it’s magic?”
“Yes. That’s what’s toxic to vampires. Witch blood makes us sick, but a blood hunter’s will kill us. A very powerful coven of witches cast a spell hundreds of years ago to increase their magic’s potency to lethal doses.”
“And Penelope was part of that coven?”
He nods.
“Other than being a witch, who was she?”
He glances at me for the briefest moment, and then the car falls silent. I patiently wait for a response, and he takes his time. “She was the daughter of the coven leader who made the blood hunter spell. After several of the members died trying to take out elders, they considered abandoning their fight all together, but she persisted. She refused to walk away. In the end, it was only she who hunted—she was stubborn like that—and the rest of the coven transferred their magic to her to help her win the war they’d declared against vampires who preferred to kill rather than bleed.”
“How did she die?”
He makes a face and slides his hands over the wheel until they’re at ten and two. “She lived a very long life, her magic making her near immortal. She never aged a day after the spell was cast. And as she trained, she only grew stronger. In the end, all elders sought her out, and one ultimately ended her life with the help of his children. Hundreds against one, she never had a chance.”
“If she died hundreds of years ago, how were you able to compare my blood to hers?”
“When she died, they left her to be picked at by animals. The threat was gone—or so they thought. I buried her in an unmarked grave and cut a lock of her hair to keep with me.” His voice is soft, and though it doesn’t lend itself to sadness, his eyes do.
“How is it possible that Alexander doesn’t know this about you?”
“We were very secret about it, for obvious reasons.”
I would say. The vampires would likely have killed him too, and her kind would likely have disowned her.
“And he doesn’t know you compared my blood to hers?”
He slowly shakes his head, his eyes serious. “And he can’t know. He thinks I stole the hair from the grave of some random hunter as a souvenir. I did…kill some, after all.”
“You killed members of Penelope’s coven, and she still had a relationship with you?”
“She couldn’t resist me.” He flashes a devilish grin.
“Don’t do that. Don’t cheapen what you had with her. It had to be special for her to overlook that and for you to ignore what she was.”
He clears his throat and stares straight ahead. He rolls to a stop with the door to the bunker a few feet ahead of us. With his hand on the key, he hesitates and then turns off the car, but he doesn’t get out. I keep my hand on the door, anxious to see my sister, but follow his lead, curious about what he’s about to say. It seems as if it might be important.
“What is it?”
“She got the better of me,” he says softly. “And then she stopped with a stake inches over my heart.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. And she never said in the years that followed. One day, we were enemies, and the next I was protecting her. Over time, we became friends and then something more.”
“I’m sorry you lost her.”
“Hmm. Well, everyone dies in the end unless you’re immortal. And she wasn’t interested in that.”
“I don’t suppose she would have been.”
“But she was still fierce, and you will be too.”
At this, I chuckle softly. “Me? How could I possibly be?” But his words instill hope in me. “It’s funny. I would never know who I really am if I hadn’t seen those vampires in the alley the other night. And you’d still wonder if the woman you loved came back to life.”
“Life’s like that. As for whether or not you can live up to Penelope’s reputation, I guess we’ll soon find out.”
“How do you mean?”
“The witch. We’re not just going for a chat. She’s going to help you get your magic back.”
9
The angry vampire opens the metal door of my sister’s cell and stands aside. Kara sits inside on the thin mattress on her bed, facing the door. She glances up at me, her eyes red. A purple bruise blooms on her cheek. I glare at the vampire who holds up his hands and smiles, as if to say, “guilty.”
“Asshole,” I snap before rushing to my sister.
She stands, and we embrace. With her arms around my middle and her head on my shoulder, the tension in my body eases, and I heave a satisfied sigh. But it fades as I quickly remember why I’m here: to say good-bye. She’s always been my protector, my big sister. And now I have to protect her. I hope I’m as good at it as she is.
I lean back and stare at her colorful cheek. “What did he do to you?”
Her soft eyes turn cold. “He wanted to take a bite out of my neck, and I kicked him in the nuts. But even their nuts are as hard as stone.”
“They don’t call them stones for nothing, luv,” Michael says.
She glares at him before turning her attention back to me. “I swear to God, you should see the bruise on my knee.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My eyes lower to her neck. No marks of any kind, so whatever happened between them didn’t result in a bite. “You’re okay?”
“Yeah, no thanks to him. I’m going crazy in here. He wouldn’t even give me a book or a magazine.” She raises her voice so he can hear.
I hear him curse in the other room, while whispering some pretty nasty names under his breath. If I can hear, I suspect my sister can too. I step to the bed, and holding her hands, I pull her down to sit beside me. I want to tell her everything, but there is only so much I can say with Michael lurking behind us. He might be loyal to Alexander, but ultimately, he’s loyal to their elder master, the one I’m supposed to kill. It seems wrong to hide all I know from her, but I can’t risk my safety or hers, especially hers.
“They’re going to let you go,” I say softly.
Her eyes light up, and she almost lets out a squeal. She wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes me hard. When I don’t return the embrace, her mood dampens. “What am I missing? They’re letting us go?” She pauses a beat. “Wait. Why are they letting us go?”
I inhale and let it go slowly while I build up steam. She’s not going to like what I have to say, and she’s not going to leave me without putting up one hell of a fight. I’m prepared for it and for what I have to do to make this happen.
“Not us, Kara. Just you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I need to help them first.”
“Fuck them.”
I laugh without humor. “You’ve seen how strong they are, right? We don’t have a lot of bargaining power here.”
“I don’t care. I’d rather go down swinging together than leave you here with those bloodsuckers. Who knows what they’ll do to you if you stay or if they’ll ever let you go?”
I share the same concerns. The intense need to learn more about who I am and where I came from grows stronger every minute I spend with the vampires. She’ll want to understand, but I don’t think she really can.
Feeling choked up, I clear my throat and commit to keeping my voice even. “We made a deal. They’ll let me go when I help them.”
“They’re liars. Monsters! All of them. You can’t trust them.”
“Maybe not. But I have to do this. There is more that…” I lower my voice. “There is
more to this than you and me—things I need to find out. Only they can help me with that.”
“Emily, don’t do this. They don’t know anything about your birth family.”
I pull her in for another hug and squeeze her harder than I ever have, even harder than the night we found out our parents had been killed. Tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back, needing to be strong enough for the both of us.
“Emily, no.”
“I’m sorry. I love you.”
I pull away, and she grips my hand, refusing to let go. I knew this would be hard, but now I’m in the moment, I know I never could have prepared myself for this heartache. She doesn’t want to leave me here alone, and I love her for that, but this is for her.
“It’s my turn to protect you for a change,” I say softly.
“Don’t do this.”
I uncurl her fingers from mine while she begs me to reconsider.
“Emily!” she screams at my back as I hold my head up and walk away. Sebastian meets me in the room, and he raises an eyebrow in question. I give him a little nod. As she runs for me, to hold me again, and convince me to change my mind, Michael steps between us and wraps his strong, muscular arms around her, trapping her. She fights against him. Tears materialize and streak down her cheeks. I don’t look away no matter how much it hurts. Lumps build in my throat, making it impossible to swallow. I can’t even choke down my guilt; it’s too damn big.
Sebastian stalks toward her, and his eyes flash crimson. “You’re going to sleep when I tell you to,” he says to her. “And you’re not going to wake up until Michael says so.” Her struggling weakens. She shakes her head, tries to look anywhere but in his eyes, but he holds her cheeks, and his eyes bore right into hers.
“You’ve never seen a vampire. They don’t exist. You were never captured and neither was your sister. You’ve been ill and in bed for days, and when you wake, you’ll feel better. You’ll remember your sister won a trip to Europe, and she’s always wanted to go, but it was only one ticket, and you made her go because you want her to be happy. She’ll be gone for weeks, and you won’t worry. You won’t try to call her. She’s too busy for that. You won’t worry about her at all. Do you understand?”
She stops struggling, her eyes lock open, and her arms hang limp at her sides as Michael lowers his arms and steps away from her.
“Now sleep.”
Her eyes flutter closed, and her legs give out as she falls into Michael’s waiting arms.
* * *
It’s colder in Sebastian’s SUV than it is outside. Since he’s a vampire and I doubt he notices the cold, he doesn’t turn on the heat so I sit bunched up while I stare out the window. My eyes burn, and stray tears slide down my cheeks, but I refuse to bat them away for fear he’ll know what I’m doing. Tears would likely seem weak, and that’s the last thing I want. When I clear my throat to disguise a sniffle he says, “I don’t understand why humans cry. I don’t think I ever cried as a human.”
“Then I guess being cold comes natural to you,” I say, not appreciating him adding to how wretched I feel. I wipe my tears away with the sleeve of my borrowed leather jacket.
“I don’t see why you’re so upset. Your sister is in one piece, and she’ll go about her merry life, blissfully ignorant of vampires and all this bullshit she was never meant to be a part of.”
There’s truth to what he says, but it doesn’t make it any easier. No matter the justification, I allowed them to mess with her mind. I feel sick about that. And she’ll never know about them and what I am. There will always be a part of me I keep from her—a wedge. We’ve never had anything between us before, and I’m not sure how to handle that going forward when she’s the only person I’ll ever want to talk to about my surprising new life. So, mingled with my guilt, I feel intense loneliness. For her safety, I’ll never be able to fix what I’ve just done. Sebastian can’t understand, not when his relationship with his brother is as weak as it is.
We say no more words for the next hour. Although the next time a shiver runs through me, he reaches out and turns up the heat on the dash and then on the seat. Before long, my whole body is nice and toasty, including my butt.
It pains me to thank him, but I do. Quietly.
“You’re no use to me if you’re a block of ice.”
He can’t just say you’re welcome and clear the air. No, he decides to push my buttons instead. I narrow my eyes at him. Play it cool, Sebastian. I don’t buy it anymore. Now I know he thinks I’m his long-lost love.
We turn off the highway some time after seeing a sign that reads “Valley Stone.” The path he follows isn’t a road, much less a path. Good thing we’re in an SUV or we’d never get through these patches of muck. At one point, the tires spin, and I’m sure we’re stuck, but he rocks the car with the gentle application and removal of pressure from the accelerator, and we make it out—barely.
“Where the hell are we?”
“Seafoam.”
“Never heard of it.”
We continue off road a good ten minutes, through muck and overgrown grass and trees. When we reach a clearing, we come upon a run-down community with homes that could use a fresh coat of paint and cars that should be labeled antiques. But apart from that, there are rows upon rows of vegetable and fruit crops that are brown and dormant, ready for spring. They line the single curved gravel street between the houses. Some kids run around with sticks and a ball. A couple of older ladies with white hair sit rocking on the veranda of a faded blue bungalow. They watch us with wary eyes.
“This is where your witch friend lives?”
He wobbles his head to the side. “I wouldn’t exactly call her a friend.”
“You said—”
“I said a witch owed me a favor. There’s a big difference.”
In front of us stands a small yellow bungalow with white shutters and planters at the base of the windows with old, wilting flowers inside. In the white house to its left, a tall woman comes out carrying a rug. Her long black hair flows with the wind, and she ties her brown knitted sweater around her slim waist and beats a rug against the metal bannister of her front steps. She narrows her dark eyes to watch us, though I think it’s to avoid the glare from the sun behind us until I see her frown and yank the rug forcibly under her arm. She goes back into her house and slams the door.
“Something tells me she might not be ready for you to collect.”
He nods. “You might be right about that.”
Sebastian throws the car into park in front of her home and turns off the engine. We linger as he stares at the front door, thrumming his fingers along the steering wheel. I’m not sure what he’s waiting for. If it’s an invitation, I don’t think he’s going to get it.
“What’s the worst she can do? Turn us away?”
“Turn us into toads.” He considers this a moment. “It wouldn’t work on me, but you… I’d watch my tongue.”
He thinks he’s frightening me, and maybe I am a little scared, but I’m also excited. Real witches in front of me, a whole community of them—and I’m just like them.
“Why are you grinning like an idiot?”
I grimace at him. “Nothing.” I wasn’t grinning, exactly. It was more of a soft smile. He’s taken me here to get my magic back and maybe get some real answers about my blood family. I can’t help feeling excited about that—not that it completely overshadows my apprehension. What if something goes wrong? What if we all realize this is a big mistake, and I’m truly not who they thought I am? Blood tests can be wrong, sometimes. Why not the one that compared me to Penelope? Then what? I go back to my normal life at the bookstore? Wow. That was just a few days ago, and it feels like years, like that life was a dream, and I’ve finally awakened.
“Let me do the talking. She might try to befriend you, make you believe you’re the same and you share similar goals. I promise you that you are nothing like these witches. They won’t want to help you when they find out what you are. And they won’t keep
you safe, no matter how much they promise they can.”
I didn’t think we’d bond like old friends, but knowing people who are like me won’t want anything to do with me is upsetting. “Do any supernaturals like me?”
He flashes me a wink. “I know one.”
Sigh. “Why do witches hate people like me?”
“Witches are fairly solitary. They mind their business and keep their noses down. Someone like you…well, you bring them an awful lot of unwanted attention from some very dangerous people.”
“Vampires.”
He nods solemnly. Then he takes a deep breath as if mentally preparing himself before he opens the door and gets out. The old women on the rockers continue to glare. I slide out of my seat and jog up the stairs after him. He knocks forcefully, three times. I hear life inside, but no one comes to the door. He knocks again—harder.
“I know you’re in there, Justine. I need your help.”
The door swings open, and she stands on the inside with a red face and slitted eyes. She folds her arms across her chest, and her gaze shifts to me and then back to him. “New toy?”
He sighs and holds up his hands. “I come in peace.”
She focuses on me. “I bet he promised to make you a vampire, didn’t he? Told you how you’d live together forever like Romeo and Juliet.”
I bite my tongue as I decide it’s unwise to tell her that her comment doesn’t make sense because Romeo and Juliet died at the end of their story. That’s not important right now. What’s important is information. I’m not sure why I thought this would be easy. He thinks I like the hard way? Seems he enjoys it a little himself.
“Is this another woman who helped you get over Penelope?” I lean toward his shoulder and whisper behind one of my hands. I face the witch. “Trust me when I say the last thing I want is to spend five minutes with this vampire, let alone forever.”
Her posture eases, and a small smile curves up along her full lips. She’s a little old for him, maybe in her late forties with faint wrinkles beginning around her eyes and mouth. Sebastian’s body’s age doesn’t look like it’s aged a day over twenty-five. Maybe twenty-six. Does he like older women? Or was their romance long ago, when they were closer in physical age? Not that I care. I really don’t.