by Ava Benton
“I’m fairly sure I’m aware of the severity of the situation, Mariya. But thank you for underestimating me.” I glanced up at her. “Don’t make that mistake again.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. When you know as well as I that I could drop you like a bad habit with a flick of my wrist. Don’t test me and stop wasting time.”
She dove headfirst into the book, squinting as she read.
I had to give her credit; she gave as good as she got.
“Here’s a question I think we need to keep in mind,” I said as I rolled up the useless scroll. “Who would have the power to either scale the walls of the apartment building or transport themselves to the balcony? Because they couldn’t walk in with the intent to harm her. There are dozens of spells surrounding the building to protect her from that.”
She looked up. “That’s a good question. Maybe we’ve been approaching this the wrong way. Who has the power? And why would they want hers if they already have so much of their own?”
I snorted. “When you have power, you want more power. There’s never enough.”
“You speak as though you know.”
“Maybe I do,” I murmured.
She sighed, looking around the room. “When I think that I stood right here last night, in front of this podium, and said such nasty things to her.”
“She deserved it.”
Mariya’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t think you were allowed to speak against her.”
“Who told you that?” I asked with a raised brow.
Her mouth fell open, then she blushed. “My mother,” she blurted out before dissolving into a fit of laughter. “She always told us her Nightwarden wasn’t allowed to talk back. Maybe she just wanted him to keep his mouth shut—now that I think about it, she always shot him one of those looks when she said it.”
She imitated her mother’s cold glare, the imperious way she looked down her nose.
I had to admit, she had it down to a science. I even smiled for the first time in… well, for the first time in a long time.
But her laughter was a little too loud, a little too shrill. It ended in a strangled sob as she leaned her head on her palms and burst into tears.
I turned away, looking out the window—not that there was much to look at, even without the rain which had picked back up. The neighborhood was bad enough without adding water.
She wouldn’t stop crying.
I grimaced as I looked back at her.
She was helpless, heartbroken. All the abuse she had ever taken from her more gifted sister hadn’t done anything to make Mariya love her any less.
It was probably that love which kept her going without cracking under the strain.
“Don’t cry,” I said, going to her. “We’ll get her back.”
“If my last words to her were nasty ones…”
I took her by the shoulders and eased her up until she stood straight, then flinched when she fell against me.
My arms hung at my sides, and I wished like hell that I hadn’t touched her.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just hate myself so much right now. I was so mean.”
“You? Mean? No.” I reached up and awkwardly patted her shoulder. “If anything, you’ve taken too much of her bullshit for too many years. Unless this attitude of hers just started when she came into power.”
“No… no, she’s always been a real pain in the ass,” she admitted, half-laughing, half-crying.
“I thought so. But you’ve never been anything but good. Sometimes I wonder if she deserves a sister as good as you.”
She froze, then stood and looked up at me. “Really?” she sniffled, eyes wide.
Oh, great. She would think I liked her because of that. “Well, yeah. You never threw any spells at her or whatever it is you do.”
I patted her shoulder one more time before going back to the long, heavy desk I had been working at before she broke down.
It was better to pretend that had never happened. Just like she was nice enough not to mention my losing control when we first left the apartment building.
I remembered the sheer, unbridled lust which had raced through me and set my brain on fire with need. My mouth went dry when I recalled the scents moving all around me. Sweet, hot blood, pumping through the veins of so many clueless humans. Just waiting for me to sink my fangs in and drink deep, sating my thirst no matter how many lives it took.
And Mariya.
I had smelled her blood, too, and the scent reminded me of Vanessa. No matter what I thought of Vanessa, her blood kept me alive.
For a split second, I had tried to convince myself that drinking from her sister was the next best thing, that nobody would care and I would get away with it. That was how insane the blood lust made me. I wanted to rationalize all manner of stupidity.
And her body. She had been so warm and fresh. Another good reason for me not to return her hug. I didn’t need the reminder of how ripe she was. Soft and full.
“Hello?” Mariya said.
“What?” I had no idea how long she had been talking while my thoughts were a mile away.
What would she think if she knew I had been thinking about the firmness of her breasts against my chest, and the way her short, breathless gasps had gotten me hard?
“I asked if you think Kristoff or one of his friends would be capable of something like this. He’s the only sorcerer I’ve ever heard stories about, and they were all terrible ones.”
Just like that, I snapped back to reality. “I’m sure they were all true, too.”
“So, you knew him?”
“Of him, yes. I witnessed the results of a few of his schemes a long time ago.”
“What was he like? What did he do?”
“He enslaved witches,” I said without hesitation. “It was always his goal to increase his power.”
Our eyes met, and I knew the horror in hers was reflected in mine.
“You think?” she asked.
“I do. We’ve approached this from the wrong direction. We have to find him, or someone who knows him. We have to get to the heart of what he’s plotting.”
We raced out of the mansion and down the broken brick stairs.
Mariya was right about one thing. It was strange, thinking about how different everything was less than a day earlier.
Kristoff.
A name I had hoped I’d never hear again.
Mariya didn’t need to know the specifics of what he could do when he set his mind to it, but I couldn’t hold back the flood of memories.
The way an entire coven had almost disappeared from the world because of his plotting. Picking them off, one by one, sapping their powers before killing them and tossing their bodies aside like garbage.
The police had called it a rash of murders, perhaps a serial killing. That wasn’t a common term back in the early days of the 1900s, but Kristoff had made it a household one.
Women were terrified to walk the streets back then, no matter the time of day or night. They didn’t know that the murders were all very specific, poor things.
That the only requirement for one’s body to be found washed up on the pilings along the river, half-eaten by fish, or face-up in the middle of Central Park with its skin peeled off was to be in possession of magical powers.
My fingers lengthened into claws when I remembered those days, and all the witches he had mutilated.
I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.
9
Mariya
I could feel their presence—my mother and the other witches—before we reached the top floor of the building.
So could Elias.
“Witches.” The word seemed to drop out of his mouth with a thud.
“You don’t care very much for us, do you?” It hurt more than a little to know what he thought of us. Of me. Just because of who we were.
“I thought the feeling was mutual.” He looked at me without turning his head, his eyes like slits in his handso
me face.
“Not everything is black-and-white,” I murmured, turning my face away.
“Why would Cressida bring them here?”
Oh, the disdain in his voice and the way it set my nerves on edge.
“I’ve had just about enough of this,” I snapped, turning to him.
It took a lot to push me too far, but he had gone there. Or maybe it was the sting of knowing how he saw me. “First thing’s first. She’s my mother, and the former High Sorceress. You need to speak of her with a little more respect.”
“Excuse me?”
I ignored that, along with the expression of mixed anger and amusement on his face.
“Second, you’re doing this in service of my sister, who leads our coven. When you protect her, you protect them. So I’d like to hear a little respect in your voice when you refer to them, thank you very much.”
“And if I refuse?” he asked with disdain.
“Then, I show you that my sister isn’t the only one who knows how to cast a spell.”
Not that I would. Not that I was even sure I could against him. But there was no way of knowing for sure, so a threat was as good as I could do.
I didn’t let my doubts change the way I looked him straight in the eye, though.
He tilted his head to the side, like he was sizing me up. “Understood,” he muttered.
Simple as that.
I almost sagged against the wall of the elevator car in relief.
The doors opened in time to save me from that humiliation.
The fact was, I was just as irritated as he was when I felt the presence of my coven sisters.
I couldn’t put my finger on why—they deserved to know that Vanessa’s disappearance might be much more sinister than we first thought, of course. It might affect them somehow, too.
It was the lack of time that bothered me. I couldn’t wait around and listen as my mother tried to take control of the situation.
“Will we tell them what we think?” I asked as we approached the front door.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Let’s see what we find in there.”
What we found was nearly two dozen witches standing in a circle, chanting.
I recognized it immediately—a protection spell for Vanessa. Calling on wards to wrap her in protection against any threat which might befall her. It couldn’t hurt. I wondered what they’d do if they knew just how much danger she might be in.
Our arrival was an interruption, and my mother caught my eye from across the room. She was at the head of the circle, of course, with her back to the window. She raised her arms in greeting.
“You’re just in time—your presence is sure to strengthen our spell,” she said in a low, melodic voice.
Candles flickered in the draft caused by our opening the door.
Elias slammed it shut.
I silently cursed him for being such an idiot.
A few of the candles sputtered, and several heads turned in our direction.
We had ruined the moment.
“We’re sorry,” I said, blushing furiously.
“I’m not,” he whispered.
I glared at him.
“Join us,” Diana encouraged, standing at my mother’s right hand.
I told myself it wasn’t right to feel a little flash of irritation toward her. She was my coven sister. We were all part of something bigger than ourselves.
That didn’t stop me from thinking she was a little too much at times.
“They all know,” my mother stated, matter of factly.
“Yes, so I gathered.” I looked at Elias, who went off to the kitchen to fetch some of the synthetic blood Vanessa kept on hand.
If he wasn’t thirsty, the need for blood wouldn’t be so strong.
At least, I hoped so. I turned back to my mother. “I thought you were going to my apartment.”
“I thought it would be best to perform the spell here, where she lives,” my mother explained, lowering the hood of her robe.
The only light in the room came from the candles lit throughout, and her hair and eyes glistened in the flickering glow.
“I wish I could join you. I truly do. But Elias and I only stopped in for a minute.”
“Did you find anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing concrete.”
“But it’s been hours. The sun has set, and there still isn’t any sign of her?”
Another head shake. “No. It’s looking more and more like this isn’t a case of running away or even wandering off. I guess it’s better that we all know the truth.”
“There’s more to it than that.” Elias strode in.
I could smell the blood on his breath.
I was glad he hadn’t drank in front of me. I had already seen how he changed when it came to getting his blood and it wasn’t something I wanted to see again.
“More?” my mother asked, one eyebrow cocked.
A murmur rose over the room.
I wondered how easily the rest of my coven would accept the word of a vampire. Nightwarden or not, his kind wasn’t exactly trusted.
My stomach clenched, and my palms went sweaty. “I think we should all find seats. There isn’t much time, but you might be able to help us.” I was looking at my mother when I said it.
“What is this all about?” But she sat.
So did the others after they blew out their candles.
Elias switched on the lights.
Without the mystical glow of the candles, my sisters looked less magical and much more vulnerable as they stared at me with their wide, apprehensive eyes.
How should I tell her? There was no way to do it that wouldn’t alarm her too much.
I looked over their heads and into Elias’s eyes.
He nodded ever so slightly, encouraging me.
That was enough to get me started. “Mother, have you ever heard of a blood magic spell which allows the witch who performs it to absorb the powers of the witch they choose to perform the spell upon?”
Her mouth fell open.
A terrible silence spread over the room at her reaction.
She didn’t speak for a long time—when she did, it was to Elias.
“You think it’s happening again?” she asked with a tremor in her voice.
“It’s a strong possibility,” he replied.
“I don’t understand. What does this all mean?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
I never would’ve expected them to have a common ground, something only the two of them seemed to be aware of.
She clasped her shaking hands together and looked at the floor. “It’s happened before—a sorcerer kidnapping witches and draining their power. Over a hundred years ago, well before your time or anyone else’s here. Only Elias and I were around then. I can’t believe it. I thought… I don’t know. I thought he was gone, dead.”
“Who? Kristoff?” I asked.
Gasps filled my ears. His name was a curse to us, a word we never used.
She nodded slowly, like someone who was trying to recover from a great shock. “I was very young then, younger than Vanessa is now. My sister, Marissa, had only just been accepted to Cascade Circle Coven. She’s now their High Sorceress, but at the time it was—Charlotte.” Only her eyes moved, and they rested on Elias’s face.
“I was her Nightwarden,” he muttered through clenched teeth.
His entire body was like a coiled spring, he was so tense.
I realized it gave him pain to think or talk about her, though I was sure he would rather die than admit it.
Why?
“It was that coven which Kristoff chose to attack. He didn’t go after Charlotte, but rather many of the coven’s members. It was a very dark, terrible time. I’ll never forget the terror we all experienced then. I wanted Marissa to leave the coven, to join us, but she refused. We had a terrible fight over it and never reconciled, even after Kristoff went into hiding.”
“He was stealing power fro
m witches?” I prompted, trying to get my mother back on track. The more she said, the more panicked I felt.
“Yes. Always around the full moon. A witch would disappear, and no matter the efforts made to reclaim her, it was always pointless. Her body would be found within the month. In the river, in the park, along the shoreline.” My mother shuddered as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Mutilated. Oh, so terribly mutilated. Eyes gouged, tongue removed. One of the girls was flayed—probably while she was still alive.”
The sound of soft sobbing filled the room. They weren’t the only ones overcome. Tears filled my eyes and spilled over onto my cheeks. What if Vanessa became one of them?
My mother looked at Elias. “He’s going after the High Sorceress now, rather than bothering with the witches under her.”
He cleared his throat. “We’ve heard rumors of a chosen one, someone with sacred blood. It does seem like he’s stepped up his plans quite a bit. He’s had long enough to plot for something like this.”
“He was waiting for someone like Vanessa. Oh, I should’ve known. I should’ve seen it coming!” My mother held her head in her hands and wailed. “I warned her against living here! I warned her against making herself visible! I wanted her to live near me, where she would be safer! She never listened!”
Instantly, a half-dozen witches surrounded her and begged her to be calm, not to blame herself. That she couldn’t have known.
Not that I disagreed with them per se, but there wasn’t any time for this. We could console each other after the fact—whatever the outcome was.
“You said it always took place around the full moon, this ritual?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard.
She nodded in the middle of all the pats on the back and gentle hugs. “Yes. Within three days of the full moon. And the body was generally discovered by the new moon.”
“We don’t have much time.” I looked to Elias.
He nodded. “I would imagine this is the time when a witch’s powers are at their most vital.”
“That’s right.” What did I know of rituals like that? Think, think, damn it. “He would want some time to cleanse her first. Make sure her blood is pure enough to ensure the ritual’s success. He might not have started yet.”