by Kaia Bennett
When I looked down at my arms, the wounds were healed but, the lack of blood staining the skin shook me. Not a drop remained of the sacrifice made to the bowl. Instead, the offering parted the grass—like the Red Sea of Moses that humans spoke of—
and disappeared into the ground.
Movement drew my gaze away from the fertile grass. Masilda pulled the knife from the bowl. With the blade came every drop of blood we’d sacrificed for the vision. The knife drank in our ichor the way the earth did, leaving the obsidian blade clean and the water crystal clear. The reflections of stark tree limbs rippled on the surface. The sky faded from bleached winter blue to indigo to herald the setting sun.
I ventured a glance at Vaughn and Evie, both mirror images of my confusion and despair. All drained of the blood offering we’d made for the sake of this ritual, every arm whole and clean.
I hadn’t eaten in days. I’d been drained of blood several times, and now I’d traveled through space and time. Creepy witch shit. Vaughn had said as much that first night in the shower with Evie. Should’ve killed her then, just like he said.
I felt hollowed out, but I had enough energy to lift my hand to my face and wipe away my tears.
Masilda did the same, though she seemed better equipped to handle the journey. Perhaps she’d done this before, but I couldn’t imagine volunteering to live so many lives in one short time, in one body over and over again.
“You saw your people today.” Masilda’s voice struck the air with power. Despite the tears flowing unheeded down her cheeks to splatter against her bare breasts, she met our gazes. “You saw your lineage, the bloody roots that lead to the heart of us. Vampire. Witch. True born or turned. Coven or lost. Bonded and unbonded. Makes no difference. We’re all sprouted from the same seed, a seed planted so long ago that even this ancestral blade can’t recall when.”
She turned the knife over in her palms, swallowing down sobs. Her alabaster skin bore no scars.
“When you know this truth, you know that none of our kind were meant to subjugate another. We’re all blossoms falling from the same tree. Some fall early, like humans and witches. Some linger on till the last warm breath of spring has drifted away, like vampires and wolves. But we all fall. And when we land, it’s this earth,”—she ran a hand over the fertile ground of the circle— “that will call us home.”
“What—” I cleared my throat and croaked out my question. “What does this have to do with us? With breaking the bond?”
Evie leaned forward, appearing eager for the same answer. Vaughn stared into his lap, troubled and probably replaying things we were never meant to see. Feeling things he thought he’d never feel again as a vampire, maybe?
“The thread that binds a mated pair isn’t just one thread. It’s several wound together. In order to unravel something as embedded as your DNA, you need to first know what it is, where it came from. You were ignorant and in pain you couldn’t define. Today, you saw the first inkling of what you lose and gain in such a bond. And, perhaps you saw why this was once so sacred a bond. Perhaps you saw why you bit Evie. Perhaps Evie saw why she returned to life.”
I shot to my feet, swayed. Rage swelled like heat under my skin, flushing me from my toes to the roots of my hair.
I’m not weak. I’m not some witch’s whipping boy.
“The next time I come out here, it better be for more than a fucking history lesson, priestess.”
I took a step forward, towering over her with two parts malice for every part of me quaking with fear and heartbreak from the vision. “I’ve been kind up until this point. Diplomatic, even. But kindness and diplomacy, as you saw, are not common traits in my species. You may have more knowledge, but you don’t wanna test the patience of an Oldman.”
I grinned past the sour taste of a lifetime of memories and made my eyes shine with a promise she wouldn’t want me to keep.
Masilda put on a good face, but the speed of her heart made my mouth water. She watched me tilt my head and stare at her chest, counting the beats.
“Don’t worry, vampire,” she countered, forcing a smile of her own. “Tomorrow, the real fun begins.”
11
“Morning, sunshine.”
Vaughn’s voice broke through a haze of fatigue. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since he stomped off into the woods last night, angrily shuffling into his clothes with a “Taking a walk,” thrown over his shoulder for good measure.
I cracked open one eye and tried to form a response with parched lips. My body felt like a stone sinking in endless water when I attempted to sit up. I should’ve been able to scent the time, to sense the heat of the sun, but could barely feel my face.
The shift and give of the bed by my hip revealed where Vaughn sat, but I couldn’t make sense of why I’d weakened so that opening my eyes became a challenge.
A cool hand touched my forehead. I shivered at the abrupt caress. My heat penetrated the cold, sweat slicking the flesh before the hand retreated. I clamped down on my molars and managed to swipe away the sticky length of hair clinging to my cheek before I let my arm flop to the covers.
“Your body’s turning on itself.” After a long pause, Vaughn sighed. “I told her you haven’t eaten. I told her that bitch won’t let you feed and that if you die, shit’s gonna get real around here.”
I managed a weak croak for a laugh. Two vampires trapped in the hidden mists protecting a coven weren’t much of a threat. Still, sometimes I forgot how sentimental humans and witches were. Ripping out the throats of a few adorable children might spring some doors to this death trap.
The thought left a bad taste in my mouth. My delirium had gotten the best of me for a moment.
We don’t treat children as prey. That’s human shit.
It wasn’t sentiment, but common sense. Why would my kind go hunting for a snack? Children weren’t ripe and they cried if they tripped on a shoelace. Waste of time.
“I’m pretty sure I’m dying. Like she did in the lake.” I shuddered from a chill, awed by the new sensation and terrified all at once. “Maybe that was the plan all along. I was coming to kill her and she beat me to it. She’s only half vampire, she can outlast me.”
Thwarted by witch pussy. Again. Dad’ll be so disappointed.
If the first rite could be trusted, Dad had killed his own younger brother. If he could see me now, I’d probably suffer the same fate. Maybe I was lucky the witch was gonna beat him to the punch.
Vaughn drooped like a July dandelion deprived of rain, rubbing his fingers through the white blond fluff of his hair.
“I’m not equipped to lose another brother right now, Jesse. Even if he is true born scum. I’ll go homicidal, and we’ll both die here, practically vegan.”
I exhaled deeply, my attempt at a laugh dying in my throat. Immediately, I regretted the disturbance. The tightening of my stomach muscles revealed the constant churning within.
As I fantasized about all the ways I wished I could’ve killed that bitch—burn her at the stake, maybe?—Masilda opened the caravan door. A reluctant Evie followed her inside, blotting out the noonday sun.
“We need the room, please, Vaughn.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
With a great effort I tried to conceal, I hauled myself up to a sitting position. The mattress squeaked with my strain, making me recall the rhythmic pulse of my thrusts into Evie’s treacherous mouth days ago.
How my cock had the nerve to stir when she’d nearly bitten the damn thing off made no sense. I’m probably one nap away from never waking up and I still wanna fuck her.
“We’re not in the business of harming our charges, Damaged. You harm yourself well enough on your own. Besides,”—Masilda approached me and lay a hand on my forehead—“there’s someone waiting for you outside.”
Vaughn stood and trudged to the window. A lascivious growl even a virgin nun could understand hit the air. “Blondie’s waiting for me? Why?”
Masilda closed her eyes, her hand stil
l resting on my forehead. She tossed Vaughn a reproving glance.
“Because, even intelligent youth are seldom wise when choosing the subject of their infatuation. Hannah is exceptionally bright, inquisitive. This makes her more foolish than most at times, but sexuality is primal and we embrace our primal natures. She wants to try pain, to understand it. I wish she’d have chosen a less advanced tutor, but…”
The priestess gave a forlorn sigh.
“In any event, the same rules apply. You do not kill. You do not harm without consent. If she consents, and you do harm her, you’ll heal her. Or I’ll gut you with your own knife, child.”
Vaughn met Masilda’s gaze for a long moment and then lifted his chin. A sign he’d been impressed by the older witch’s gumption. He shocked me by hesitating when he looked at me. He could’ve played baseball with the hard-on swelling against his thigh, but he didn’t want to leave me. I had the oddest feeling, as if I’d become a mother on some human sitcom whose son had asked if he could go out and play.
“Go on.” I took a deep breath and rolled my head in Evie’s direction. “At least one of us should get laid.” Evie sneered. But her nipples peaking beneath her shirt made my mouth water.
“I’ll come right back.”
The strange spark between Vaughn and Evie as Vaughn passed didn’t look like the animosity I expected. Those two hated each other with singular focus from the moment I ordered Liam to put her in the car. But they didn’t meet each other’s eyes now. No taunts or sneers. Just silent recognition of some crazy shit we’d witnessed.
That vision of the past has really fucked us all up.
No shit.
Evie’s voice in my head came unbidden. I stared at the source of my torment, then at Masilda.
“Well.” Masilda waited.
I looked at Evie, frowning as she watched my chest rise and fall with shallow breaths.
“I’m not doing it.” Evie shook her head. “I don’t want to hurt you, and if he can’t feed, that’s his problem. Unless that vision caused him to grow a conscience, we’re all better off if he’s dead.” Evie shrugged and leaned against the far wall by the door.
Masilda turned to face Evie and planted herself on the bed. The vein in the elder witch’s throat pulsed. My dry veins screamed for me to grab her and sink my fangs in. So what if I couldn’t taste a drop? At this point I’d lick my fingers clean, wincing the whole time at the bitterness. But the witch pressed her hand to my chest, halting my attack.
“You have to eat, Evie. Your food is blood now, it’s natural and not something to be ashamed of.”
“Oh, you think?” The younger witch spat, folding her arms across those perky nipples I wanted to pierce with my fangs. “Did we have the same vision? Unlike him, I don’t have to feed on blood. I’m still part witch, I still crave human food.”
“For half the month. What will you do for the other half, Evie? Starve? Suffer? Who’ll be in danger if you strangle your hungers, your lust, but can’t kill them? A stranger? A fellow witch? Your family?”
Evie’s gaze wavered before descending to the floor. Her face crumbled, just for a moment, but the stone mask settled on her features again. The cracks were easy for me to spot. I’d put those fissures there, after all.
“I don’t fault you for your anger. It’s justified, love. It deserves time to work its way through you, and you’ve had precious little time. But the truth is, if he dies now, the bond won’t be severed. You’ll not only suffer the pain of your turning, you’ll mourn the loss of a mate as if you loved him. You’ll wither for want of him and never be free even in death. That’s why these bonds are so sacred. They’re eternal. They’re a force of nature, a force against nature. From the first union, to this last one. You’ll both need strength if we’re to continue unraveling the diseased knots—”
“Then can’t we just wring some blood out in a glass or something?” I closed my eyes at the tenor of desperation in Evie’s voice. In my mind, I gulped water as I screamed, dying while my own hand held me under, ignoring the cries that I’d do anything if only I could live.
Even love a monster.
“Vampires don’t drink cold blood, the same way wolves don’t eat carrion.” Masilda opened then shut her mouth, as if weighing her words carefully.
“Evie. You’re predators, and the hunt for warmth and life is as vital as the taste of blood or flesh. You’ll learn that as your vampire side takes over closer to the fullness of the moon. Warmth. Life. You can’t get that from a glass, but you can get that from me. I’m offering it to you as your friend. I can be the conduit between you both that helps set the balance for your hungers.”
Evie scoffed, shaking her head and pacing furiously. I couldn’t help but smile at my impending victory and I didn’t try to hide my enjoyment.
I’m dying. Fuck your feelings, witch.
“I shouldn’t have to do this. I shouldn’t have to feed on my friends, or strangers. I shouldn’t be forced to want him because I can’t help wanting to fuck after feeding. You don’t know what it’s like to not be able to control myself, to be this gluttonous beast who just wants to silence a hunger that will never go away! I just want the bloodlust to go away!”
I caught, and held, her gaze as tears streamed down her face. She’d conjured my want by admitting her own. Her firm breasts taunted me, my palms itching to squeeze them. The first hints of musk inside the confines of denim, spiraled under my nostrils like perfume. Gooseflesh prickled the smoothness of her brown skin wherever my gaze touched her. I touched her everywhere and my cock jerked against my thigh with the urge to do more than look.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re okay with it, Masilda. It doesn’t matter if you choose a thousand donors who are. I’m not okay with it. I didn’t choose any of this.”
I missed the days when that didn’t matter. When I’d been able to pin her down and take everything I wanted from her. When I’d made her crave the loss of control. When I’d made her fear me. That didn’t mean she wanted me any less. I had a vivid vision of her pulling the sweat-soaked sheets away from my naked waist, her jeans disappearing, and her inner thighs like a hot brand against my hips. She settled the furnace of her desire over my shaft. Slick, petal soft, her flesh clinging to mine as she teased, fingers rubbing her clit while she cranked her hips.
I sighed, my mind toying with me as I closed my eyes. Evie, in my vision, threw her head back, her moan shook the room, shook the world. When my eyes refocused, her pacing became frantic.
“I should kill you now.” The shock of her words, so like my own a few weeks ago, made me raise my brows. “Reach in and pull your fucking spine out through your throat and end this—”
She swiveled and faced me, tensing to strike. I bared my fangs, weak as a sickly human, but ready to fight.
“Evie. Wait.” Masilda stood and held her hands up in front of her, imploring.
“Why?” Evie’s death stare lingered over Masilda. “You gonna stop me? Is he really worth that much to you, Masilda?”
“You are, child. You’re worth it to me and this isn’t what you want.”
Evie emitted a low rumble, the beginnings of a growl, as Masilda drew closer. The priestess still held her hands up. I searched for something nearby that could even the odds, but the tiny ass caravan had more blankets than weapons.
“I know you didn’t choose this. None of this is your fault, you deserved to have a mate bound to you with love instead of pain. We all do. I know you’re hurting and I’m doing my best to heal the wounds while they’re still fresh. You have to let me clean them first, Evie. You have to let yourself feed. Not for him, but for you. The next part of the ritual requires strength and openness, and you can’t be strong or open when you’re using all of your energy to hate who you are and what you’ve become.”
“Don’t come any closer. This is just part of your ‘all life is sacred’ bullshit! What about the lives he took, the lives I’ll save if I kill him while he’s weak enough to kill?”
“Please, Evie. There’s been enough bloodshed between our people. This isn’t you talking, this is the hunger and your fear—”
“You think so, huh?” Evie visibly trembled with rage. I tilted my head. Despite the danger, I became spellbound. The witch had power. Death gave her a spine. My venom gave her strength. I made that beautiful creature. It’d be a shame to kill her again before I taste her one last time.
“Ask this motherfucker how many times he raped me!”
“Evie—”
Her words were a speeding train. She inched toward the priestess, and I didn’t know if Masilda would be able to stop her.
“Ask him about how he passed me around like a party gift to his friends. How he murdered innocent people in front of me and made me kill! I begged him—begged him—not to hurt me and that’s all he did. He forced me to do horrible, horrible things and he liked it.”
Tears rained down her cheeks. I wondered if she even noticed them dripping off her chin. I wondered if Masilda would let those tears sway her to step aside.
“He murdered me because that’s what he is. A murderer, an unrepentant monster. Now, I’m supposed to just accept that I’m like him? I’m supposed to throw up my hands and say, ‘fuck it! Time for dinner!’. I said, don’t come any fucking closer!”
With a soul-shattering scream, she spun and tossed the dresser behind her into the wall. The broken furniture left a crater in the wood’s wake, forcing Masilda to flinch out of the way of splintered shards and keep her distance.
Evie stared down in horror at the wreckage caused by her newfound strength, gaping at her own hands, shaking with vigor only a vampire could have. For a long moment only Masilda’s gasps and Evie’s ragged breaths penetrated the silence.
Irony. Her outburst left sharp pieces in her wake. My only possible weapon sat on the floor by the bed, a stake I could reach before she lunged for me.
I flexed my fingers involuntarily, the instinct to survive muted by Evie’s broken stare at her trembling hands.