by J. S. Malcom
Realms of Spells & Vampires: Fae Witch Chronicles Book 5
J. S. Malcom
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
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Unless I want a vampire for a sister, I better learn to trust in one as a friend.
There I was thinking saving Faerie had been challenging. Compared to what I'm up against now, fighting with the rebels to topple the Seelie regime seems like a walk in the park. Who would have thought that realm-wide strife and the threat of supernatural invasion could sound like the good old days?
Everything can change in a day, as they say, and for me it sure as hell did. With my sister's life on the line for a magical crime she didn't commit, the clock is ticking loud and fast for me to save her. To clear her name, I need to unravel a mystery with so many knots that I'm not even sure where to start pulling. Do I choose the mysterious veil witch trying to kill us, the ruthless vampire seeking world domination, or the High Demon with the powers of a goddess? They're all involved somehow, and I'm willing to bet my old friend Vintain has a hand in this too. The problem being I don’t have the first idea what their game is. Still, it appears that what happens in Faerie, doesn’t stay in Faerie, or so I keep thinking. Then there’s the cherry on top of this little nightmare sundae: to sort this mess out I’ll have to partner up with a vampire. Just perfect, seeing as I'm magically predisposed to obliterate her and she has every reason to hate me. But I better make it work, because if I don’t turn things around soon I may end up with a vampire for a sister.
CHAPTER 1
My skin prickles, heat flaring out from my solar plexus as magic simmers within me. Not just any magic, veil witch magic, and it takes everything I have to fight against my instincts. I’ve never been this close to a vampire before without striking. In fact, I’ve never been this close to a vampire before at all.
She looks young, the girl, maybe nineteen or twenty, although her true age is impossible to guess. She has long dark hair, gray-blue eyes and pale white skin. Well, of course she’s pale. She’s a vampire.
The girl, Nora, watches me too, nervous and wary in this room lit by just one dim red bulb. Does she know what I am, or what it means to be a veil witch? I’m not sure yet what she knows, so I listen as she tells her story.
“I was just coming home when I saw it, this strange light out by the street. It blinded me at first and, for a moment, I thought I’d misgauged the time. Like maybe the sun was rising, but that didn’t make sense. I knew it was nowhere near morning yet.”
She speaks softly, as if afraid of being heard. Or maybe thinking of that moment brings back fear. After all, to a vampire, light can mean death. Nora’s eyes leave mine as she glances at Beatrice, but then her gaze returns to me. She can feel my magic somehow, I can tell. I’ve always wondered if they could.
As if to break the spell between us, Beatrice says, “Then what happened? We need to be sure of every detail.”
Nora nods. She swallows. This isn’t easy for her.
“The light, it… shimmered, I guess. It was sort of pulsing.” Her eyes flick between the two of us again. “At least it seemed that way to me. I’d never seen anything like it before, so I hid behind a car. I didn’t know what to do. I just—”
Nora blinks rapidly, her eyes glistening. She reaches up to wipe away a tear just in time, and I can’t help but notice that it’s tinged with red.
Beatrice reaches out to touch the back of her hand. “It’s okay, Nora. You’re safe now.”
Meanwhile, I stare, part of me shocked. I’ve never imagined seeing a vampire cry. I wasn’t sure they could.
Nora nods again, but she doesn’t speak.
“Then what happened?” Beatrice prompts her, slowly withdrawing her hand. Maybe because Nora’s skin is too cold?
“I saw two men. They stepped out of that light and then it closed behind them. Almost like a doorway. It got dark again, but I could still see them.”
“Because you’re a vampire.” I don’t mean to say it with an edge to my voice, but it just comes out that way. Like I resent that vampires can see in the dark.
Nora’s gaze cuts to me again. “Yes, because I’m a vampire.”
There’s no apology in her voice, but no arrogance either. It’s just a fact. She’s a vampire, so get over it.
Beatrice glances at me, just briefly, but enough to convey her annoyance. She’s right. I make a conscious effort to control myself, to withdraw my magic so I’m less agitated. Time to put the claws away.
Beatrice tries again. “The men,” she says. “Did you know them?”
Nora shakes her head. “No. I know who one might be, but I’m not sure. The other one, no idea.”
“What did they look like?”
“One was tall, with long dark hair. That one was a vampire, I could tell.” She doesn't say how she knows this. She doesn't have to. Vampires move differently than we do. More quickly, more fluidly, like they barely feel gravity. If you know what to watch for, it's hard to miss. “The other one was tall too,” Nora says, “but not as tall. He had strange hair. Gray, nearly white. Almost like he was—”
“Old,” I say, not realizing I was going to speak. But my heartbeat just kicked up three notches at remembering what Ian said before, back when he got that flash at Bethany’s apartment.
Nora waits to see if I’m going to say more. When I don’t, she continues. “Yes, but he was young. In his twenties, maybe mid-twenties. He looked to where I was hiding as they walked by, almost like he could feel me there. But then the other one, the vampire, spoke. He pointed at my house and said, ‘That’s where they live.’ After that, he kept walking, but the other one. He—”
She stops again to wipe her eyes. Then she stares straight ahead, as if she can’t look at us as she describes what happened next.
“He went into the house. I don’t know how he got in—magic, I guess—but the locks didn’t stop him. He just reached out and the door swung open. I saw flashes of light, and I knew something terrible was happening. But I didn’t do anything. I was too afraid. I just stayed hidden until after he was gone.”
She doesn’t try to stop the tears now as she relives that moment, in which her friends, those she thought of as her family, perished. I can't help but think about the fact that they died at the hands of someone like me.
A few moments pass before Nora resumes her story, her voice barely above a whisper. “When he finally left, I went inside, but it was too late. They were already… gone. I should have done something. I should have at least tried. Instead, I just—”
Her words cut off, her gaze still distant. She's no longer speaking to us as she admonishes herself for not taking action. Even though
she wouldn't have stood a chance. Not against a veil witch. Somehow, that part still seems impossible, although I have to accept that it's the only explanation. There's another veil witch out there, one who for some reason has set his sights on me and my sister. All of his actions point to that.
At the same time, I think we've gotten as much as we can from Nora. She looks tired, her skin even more pale than before. She has dark circles beneath red-rimmed eyes. Even as I feel bad for her, I can't help but wonder when she last fed. To still have that even slight blush of blood to her skin, it can't have been long.
Beatrice looks up to where the closed-circuit camera is mounted at the ceiling. She nods and the door at the back of the room clicks open. The man who enters is named Ellis, and he looks to be around thirty. He has dirty blonde hair and kind brown eyes. He’s also Vamanec P’yrin, one of those working with the Shadow Order. Beatrice told me that when he sensed the breach in the veil—something only the Vamanec P’yrin can do—he went to investigate. That’s how he ended up at the crime scene. There, he found Nora trying to hide and convinced her to come in.
Now he approaches her where she sits and places his hand on her shoulder. He speaks softly. “Come, get some rest.”
Nora rises from the table and I assume that’s it for now, but then she turns when she gets to the door, fixing her attention on me. “We need to prove who did this,” she says. “We need to make them pay.”
I nod slowly, keeping my eyes on hers. Then I utter words I never imagined speaking on behalf of dead vampires. “They’ll pay, believe me.”
A few seconds pass as Nora stares at me hard, as if wondering whether to trust me. I can’t say if she understands that I’m magically wired to annihilate threats, although I suspect she knows. Such are the rules of the supernatural world. Just as it’s her fate to live as a nocturnal parasite.
“Meet me at Capital Trail and Stancraft,” she says. “Ten o’clock.”
I have no idea where that is, but she says no more before following Ellis through the door. Somewhere in this building, there must be a dark room where someone who’s neither dead nor alive can be alone and feel safe. In other words, a room meant for a vampire.
CHAPTER 2
I run up the stairs to Autumn’s apartment, having come as soon as she called. I’ve been up since five and my nerves are jangly from anger, anxiety, fear and worry. And, of course, way too much caffeine, but it wasn’t like I could eat or go back to sleep after getting home. In other words, I’m a mess.
Autumn, on the other hand, seems calm as she lets me in. She closes the door and gives me a hug. “Hang on,” she says. “I need to feed Louie.”
I follow her into the kitchen, where her one-eyed cat waits by his bowl. There’s a dead bird beside him on the floor. Now I understand the urgency, since it’s part of their arrangement. Louie brings Autumn food in the form of dead animals, and she returns the favor by opening a can of Friskies. Strange, but who am I to comment on relationships?
Autumn fills Louie’s bowl and sets it on the floor. She runs her fingers down his back. “There you go, boy.”
She picks up the dead bird, wraps it in a paper towel and sets it aside. Sometimes, she brings those gifts back to life, or at least she has in the past. I haven’t thought to ask lately.
Louie makes no move toward his bowl. Instead, he glowers at me through his one eye.
Autumn surprises me again, this time by laughing. “Looks like he hasn’t forgotten your potion.”
Right, my failed attempt at an energy potion. I spilled a few drops, which Louie lapped up. Yes, he definitely got energy, made evident by the fact that he spent hours running in circles, and then the rest of the day humping the armrest on Autumn’s sofa.
“I made coffee,” Autumn says. “Want some?”
“God no.” I stare at her with my head cocked, wondering if Beatrice could have been wrong. Autumn seems so calm, like nothing even happened. “You said to wait until I got here. So, I’m here. What the hell happened, who did it, and how do we kill them?”
Autumn glances at Louie again, who still hasn’t moved. “Come on,” she says, and walks toward the living room.
Autumn flops down onto her sofa and gestures to the love seat. “Sit,” she says.
I stare at her for another moment, then do as I’m told. “Okay, so tell me.”
Autumn nods, but starts with a question. “How did you know?”
Shit, when she called I didn’t even think about faking it. But she hadn’t said anything, had she? She called, I flipped out and here I am, after breaking every speed limit in town. I sigh and say, “Beatrice told me.”
“Beatrice,” Autumn says. “Who’s Beatrice?”
Her gaze is cool, her tone a little hard. Fair enough. I’ve held out on her so many times that I’m starting to forget which parts I omit.
So, I just say it. “She works at the Shadow Order. She knew Grayson. I’ve sort of been working with her.” None of which makes sense, of course.
Autumn perches forward. “You mean Grayson who wasn’t Grayson?”
I nod and say, “Right, that Grayson.”
“What the hell is the Shadow Order?”
At any other time, I’d probably laugh. Even now, I could swear a smile tugs at Autumn’s lips at that name.
I sigh again. “It’s an organization. Secret, I guess. They’re witches who investigate magical crimes. Well, not just witches. There are vampires and werewolves too. And some Vamanec P’yrin, apparently.”
Autumn’s eyebrows shoot up to her hairline. “And you’ve been working with them? What does that mean, ex—”
“Not so much working with them as trying to find stuff out. To help Bethany. At least that’s where it started. Then I ended up on this team. Sort of. At least, we’re training together.”
Autumn appears at a loss for words. She just keeps blinking at me.
I let out yet another sigh, sounding exactly like what I am sometimes. An idiot kid sister who keeps jumping in blindly. “Sorry, I probably should have told you. I just figured I would when—”
“When, what?” Autumn says, this time cutting me off. “When you get poisoned with belladonna again?”
Okay, so I sort of forgot about that time, which would have been the end of me if Autumn hadn’t installed that tracking app on my phone. All the same, we still had words about that.
“Or when you end up imprisoned in some other realm again?”
She has a point again, actually. When I finally told her about Esras—well, most of it—I sort of had to tell her about meeting his parents too. As in, serving as Raakel’s slave for a week. Again, I find myself struggling for a response. After all, I deserve this for lying to her so many times. “Sorry, I’ll try to be more transparent going forward.”
Autumn stares at me, making me squirm.
“I promise,” I say.
Crap, I really didn’t want to make that promise. I just don’t operate that way. At least I didn’t until now.
“Okay, good,” Autumn says. “We’ll get back to Beatrice and the Shadow Order thing later.” She frowns at me and adds, “Really? The Shadow Order?”
I shrug. “For real.”
“Damn,” Autumn says. “That’s like something out of a cheesy movie. You didn’t just make that up?”
I unzip my jacket, only now realizing that I’m starting to roast. Probably due to guilt, but still. “I don’t think I even could make that up.”
“Yeah, probably not.” Autumn relaxes back into the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. She glances toward the kitchen, where behind me I hear Louie chomping away. A soft smile spreads across her face as she watches her damned cat. God, I love my sister.
Autumn shifts her attention back to me. “So, here’s the deal. Remember when we last spoke?” Her cheeks flush a little, and I get why. At the time, she had a pretty good buzz going. “After that, I went to bed. I woke up somewhere else entirely. At first, I thought it had to be a nightmare.”
> This time it’s me who perches forward. “Where?”
Autumn shakes her head. “I’m not sure.”
I keep my eyes on hers to be sure she’s not still trying to keep me from marching out there and killing someone. She’s not lying, I can tell.
Autumn continues. “All I know is that it was dark, my hands and legs were tied, and—”
“What the hell?” I nearly jump out of my seat.
“Please,” Autumn says. “Let me finish.”
I suck in a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Okay.”
“It was dark, and I was in some room with just a few candles burning. Well, I guess they were candles. They were flames, floating at the ceiling. Like I said, at first I thought I was dreaming. And then—”
“That bitch!” I meant to let Autumn keep speaking, but it just comes out. Yeah, I know where she was. Or at least who she was with. But then I already knew that, didn’t I? Still, it’s got Sarah Wellingsford written all over it.
“Can it wait?” Autumn says.
This time, I see how hard this is for her. We’re past the point where it’s about me, and Autumn was clearly humiliated. Right now, I need to keep my thoughts to myself. I nod and say nothing.
Autumn takes a deep breath too. “So, there were others there. Witches, obviously, but they wore Venetian masks.” Seeing my confusion, she adds, “The kind that just cover your eyes. They took some blood and—”
I jump to my feet. “They took your fucking blood?”
Autumn glares and I drop back down.
“They took blood, enacted some sort of spell, and then it happened.” She looks away. “They took my magic. They call it a binding.”
It takes everything I have to contain my rage, which I just barely manage. It must be killing her, what they did. I can’t even imagine. “I know. I wasn’t sure if it was really a thing.”
“It’s definitely a thing,” Autumn says. “Then they told me what I’d been accused of, they blew some powder in my face, and…” She gestures to our surroundings. “I woke up back here again.”