by Renea Mason
“Or what?” Eli leaned closer to the witch.
“Or you can find a witch strong enough and old enough to weave a fate ribbon. But even if you were so lucky, you’d need to get close enough to the witch who cast the curse. Fate magic can only travel short distances.” She pulled a book from her bag she had sitting on the seat beside her. “Here in case you decide on option three, you’ll need this. I marked the incantation you’ll need.” She handed Eli an old leather-bound book. “Baron has surprised me over the years in what he’s been able to procure. He found and married the Vessel for Goddess’s sake. But it won’t be easy, witches schooled in fate magic are rare, and those that are, keep it a closely guarded secret. Can you imagine what it would be like to have everyone know you have the power to control fate? Killing our adversary won’t be easy either. She’s powerful. Engaging her long enough to unweave the ribbon and perform the incantation, could prove deadly. So, good luck with that. If you weren’t the one who bungled the witch’s capture in the first place, I might feel bad about sending you on this suicide mission.”
“Gee, Sophia, you paint such a hopeful picture,” I said contempt dripping from my words.
Eli squeezed my hand, no doubt feeling my tension. “Who do you think is responsible?”
“There were whispers on the wind about a rogue coven up north. They believe we allowed vampires to subjugate the Romanian coven. They have been a thorn in our side for years, but a powerful witch has recently joined their ranks.”
I hoped my expression didn’t give me away. My mother. Her coven. Oh, God.
Sophia glared over the rim of her glasses. “I’ll tell you what, vampire, you take out those rogue witches and reverse the curse, and I’ll revoke my petition to have you held accountable for failing to live up to your contract.”
Eli snorted. “I don’t give a damn about your petition. Do you think the Vampire Council or your coven mean anything to me? I work for Baron McCaffrey. Perhaps you forgot about what the Council does to people who do business with him. Besides, I found a witch from the rogue coven that night, but it was your intelligence that led to my failure.”
Sophia sat up on the bench. “And where is this witch? Bring her to us.”
“She was dealt with, but since the curse still happened, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take out this coven for you and reverse the curse, and you’ll stow your idle threats, and prepare to show your appreciation when I deliver.”
She ran her finger along the edge of her glass. “And exactly how will I be expected to show appreciation?”
“I’ll tell you after I’ve delivered on my end of the bargain.”
“If you can fix this, vampire. You have a deal.”
Eli held out his hand to shake hers.
Her long red nails scratched over the surface of his skin before taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. “Don’t let me down again, vampire. It would be a shame to have your mate watch me drive a stake through your heart.”
I wanted to kill her for threatening him. The suffocation spell lingered on the tip of my tongue. How dare she threaten him? He was mine.
Mine?
9
Push
Eli put the address Sophia had given us into the GPS. It would take us several days to reach the small town in Northern Michigan traveling by car, especially since we could only travel at night.
“Are you sure you don’t want to fly?” I asked from the passenger seat.
He laughed. “No, we need time to form a strategy and driving helps me think.”
“OK.” I settled in for the journey, stretching my legs out under the dash.
“We’ll get a hotel before daybreak. Most blackout curtains are enough to keep me safe.” He reached over and placed his hand on my thigh.
I stared out at the passing landscape and thought about all the things Sophia said. Witches driven to madness, suicide, even murder; their greatest fear manifest.
Eli squeezed my knee, and a shiver coursed through me. Days ago, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in a car with a vampire, but today I couldn’t imagine my life without him. So much had changed so fast—as though someone had flipped a switch. Or… cast a spell. My thoughts came to a screeching halt. I gripped the car door handle trying not to hyperventilate. It couldn’t be. If anyone were to ask me a week ago what my greatest fear would be… Mated to a vampire. Betrayed by my mother. Vampires and the New Orleans Covens forgiven.
My God… I hadn’t avoided the curse with my sleep spell. I was living it.
I tried to slow my breathing, but the panic expanded in my chest, leaving a heavy ache. I’d had sex with a vampire and was on my way to battle the very people my mother had allied herself with to protect us from the demons. My people. My mission. Beyond all the feelings and lust I had for Eli, there was a nagging sensation that this all happened too fast. I should have known.
Eli must have felt my muscles tense. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I pulled my knee away from him and stared out the door to avoid his gaze.
I heard the screech before my seatbelt snapped me back against the headrest. The car came to a dead stop. “What the hell, Eli?”
His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t trust myself not to fall back into his arms. I had to fight this.
He unbuckled his seat belt and turned toward me. “I drank from you. I can feel your emotions. Please, don’t lie to me.”
Another surge of anxiety rushed through me. I couldn’t let him get close. What I felt physically and my recent revelation were at war inside me. The turmoil knotted my gut. I wanted him so badly, but if this was some horrible trick… I needed to focus on the rage. “Isn’t that convenient? You feel my emotions? Can you control me too? Didn’t think to clue me in?”
“What?” His brow furrowed. “No, of course not. I didn’t think I had to. I thought you knew. Shared emotions after feeding is vampire 101. You’re a witch, didn’t they teach you anything? Clancy, I would never control you. What is wrong?”
“Don’t you see? Before the curse, you… us… it’s my greatest nightmare.”
He touched my arm. “No. We are not a nightmare. How can you even say that?”
I pressed myself harder against the door, pulling my arm across my chest. “They said the curse brought out one’s greatest fear. I tried to protect myself with the sleep spell, I thought it worked, but now I’m not so sure. You’re a vampire and we…”
“No. It’s not possible. My life has been anything but a curse since meeting you. I was there that night.” He reached out his hand to touch me but thought better of it.
“Yes, but maybe since you’re a vampire it didn’t apply, or…” I covered my mouth and stared at him with wide eyes.
He slammed his hand against the dash.“Or what?”
I closed my eyes forcing the tears that welled from the corners of them. “You’re just now experiencing it. Everything else between us had to happen for your greatest fear to be realized.”
There was silence for longer than was comfortable and then he inhaled a shaky breath. “You mean, like finally finding someone who makes me feel whole again, my mate an exact match, a witch who shouldn’t even be able to be a mate, and then only to lose her because she hates my kind. Because she’d rather believe she’s cursed than love me. You’re right, that would be my greatest fear.” His voice trailed off as he stared straight out the window into the night that surrounded us. He inhaled a deep breath and slipped the car into drive.
Not sure what I expected him to say, but I needed to know. “What are we going to do now?”
His words were harsh and distant. “We will find the witch, and remove the curse, so you’ll no longer be burdened with me.”
“Eli…” In a moment of weakness, I turned to look at him.
The pain in his eyes was evident in their red rims. His fingers clutched th
e steering wheel while he stared straight ahead.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” He pressed the accelerator to the floor and reached for the radio.
Before he could turn up the music to avoid talking to me, I asked, “How do you suppose we get the witch to remove the curse?”
His hand pulled back my shirtsleeve, revealing the bracelet Nasha had given me. “I say we leave it to fate.” He spun the circle around my wrist and cranked the volume so loud it would be impossible to speak.
That sneaky witch. The words were written on each interwoven strand. Lies, Truth, and Hope. How did she know? Was she a fate witch? Did Eli know? I hoped we lived to find out.
10
Truth
Several days later, I stared out over the grounds leading to an early twentieth-century Victorian house. Peeling purple paint covered the wood siding. “Are you sure this is the right place?” I ask Eli, who held the infrared binoculars up to his eyes.
“Yes. Why, is something wrong?” There was still leftover irritation in his voice. He hadn’t really spoken much since my revelation.
“It’s just that we’re usually a bit more… discreet. That house looks like cartoon witches live there.”
He laughed. “Well, this witch walked into a gathering full of witches and cursed them. I’m thinking she has no problem being noticed. Let’s park the car here and head around back.”
Eli’s hand gripped my shoulder just before we rounded the back of the house. “I can hear chanting.”
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the light breeze. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Vampire hearing is especially sensitive.”
“Of course, it is.” I took a deep breath trying to cast away the irritation I had about realizing how little I knew about vampires. Once upon a time, all I needed to know was a stake to the heart solved all problems, and now, everything was complicated.
Eli’s voice pulled me from my murderous musings. “Why don’t you check for spells that might get in our way? Most witches protect their property.”
I looked up at him. “Right… I should have done that before we even approached the house. What the hell is wrong with me?”
He cupped my cheek, and it was as though he could read my mind. Maybe he could for all I knew. “You’re under a lot of stress. Your life has been turned upside down. Either you’re cursed and sullied yourself with me or you’re not and the same is true.” Sadness laced his features.
Everything inside me begged me to comfort him, but it was cruel to give in. He deserved better. Right? But I couldn’t help myself. “Eli… For what it’s worth, what I felt for you was real, at the time. Besides, if I had to be cursed to love a vampire, I’m glad it was you.” I lifted on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss beside his mouth, but he didn’t respond.
I pulled the packet of ashes from my pocket and threw a pinch into the air. A floating, smoky lens formed in front of me. The haze allowed me to see magical auras. “Only the house is warded.”
Eli’s gaze drifted to something in the distance. “Look, over there in the field.” His hand on my shoulder urged me to turn to see the shadowed outlines of three people, highlighted by the fires in the braziers that ignited as soon as Eli identified them.
The witches stood in formation, hands lifted to the heavens, eyes fixed on the stars.
Eli whispered in my ear, “We need to move closer.” His eyes canvassed the landscape. “Over there.” He pointed to an old shed. “Once we’re within range, you can begin the incantation and start unbraiding the ribbon. I’ll distract them.”
I grabbed his arm. “Wait…” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pinch of salt and whispered the ancient syllables so softly that only I could hear it. I placed several of the granules in the palm of Eli’s hand. “Close your eyes and your hand.” I pressed his fingers against his palm. “Novem cantu insu.” The mild tickle ran through him and into me was the unmistakable sensation of magic.
He stared at me with wild surprised eyes. “What did you do?”
“It’s an invisibility spell with a twist.”
“A twist?”
“Well, if I simply made us each invisible we wouldn’t be able to see each other. This spell allows us to see each other, but no one else can see us.”
He eyed me suspiciously. “If I remember correctly, that spell can only be shared by lovers.”
I stared at the ground. “Right.”
“I guess there was at least one upside to sleeping with me.” He turned and headed toward the shed.
His words and hurt tone crushed me. “Eli…” I fought the urge to comfort him. It took everything I had to hold back.
“Don’t, Clancy.” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “It will all be over soon enough.”
We made our way closer to the witches, creeping behind shrubs, lawn ornaments and benches just in case the spell wore off without our knowledge.
From the short distance, words fell from the tallest woman’s mouth. “Those born of dark shadows and blood.”
I grabbed Eli’s arm. “Whatever spell that is, it’s targeting vampires, I have to stop them now. We don’t have time to unravel the ribbon without them knowing. We can’t risk whatever it is they are doing to take effect.”
He grabbed my upper arms and stared directly into my eyes. “While I appreciate your willingness to protect me, the curse is more important.”
“No, it’s destruction magic. I have to act now. Or you could…”
“Or I could what? Die? Again? Focus on what’s important, Clancy.”
I was. Curse or no curse, he was important at this moment in time. I couldn’t let anything happen to him. Without further debate, I stretched my arms into the air and called forth the wind and extinguished the brazier fire that surrounded the witches. With my next breath set the field ablaze in the center of the circle of women.
Their chant stopped and their attention focused in our direction. “Vampire, I can smell you from here. Think you’re powerful because you’ve mastered a cantrip,” the tall witch with the dark hair shouted. She pulled a mirror from her pocket and a blade from her boot. She flashed the mirror at Eli stripping the cloaking spell I had cast on him.
He mumbled, “Shit,” under his breath as the three women all focused on him. On a whisper he commanded. “I can’t see you, Clancy. Hide, hurry.”
He was insane if he thought I’d leave him alone. I stood just behind the shed at an angle so I could keep an eye on him. Opened and sat the book containing the incantation Sophia gave us, in my lap. I needed time to unravel the fate ribbon.
The three women approached and fixated on Eli. Even within feet, they had not detected me.
“Ladies, easy now. There’s enough of me to go around. I’m sure you’ve all heard about vampire stamina”
I recognized the tall commanding woman as the one who cursed everyone. She stood face to face with Eli. The other two fell behind, indicating their lesser stature. My fingers trembled and my chest tightened when the other witches came into view. My mother and another woman stood to form a triangle, so they could funnel more power to the leader. It can’t be. She was responsible. It was one thing to cause a little chaos, but another to be responsible for the deaths and terror the New Orleans witches suffered. She was also responsible for the turmoil I felt inside, but I couldn’t allow her to distract me. I had to break the curse before they killed Eli.
The leader’s deep soulful laugh echoed in the crisp night air. “Don’t flatter yourself, vampire. You’re just in time, we needed a sacrifice to make the spell stronger.”
Eli squared his shoulders. “Sorry, I’m not feeling very giving. But taking, well… that’s an entirely different story.”
The witch pulled a talisman from her pocket and commanded, “I’d rather nourish the ground with your blood. Meri, attack him.”
Before the young witch with the long flowing, blonde locks could speak the first syllable of her spell, Eli was on her, his
teeth buried in her neck and clasped a hand over her mouth, silencing her.
The witch struggled in Eli’s arms until her body went limp. He dropped her to the ground and faced the other women. “Who’s next?”
The woman who called herself my mother rolled a summoning stone between her fingers. The long lost demonic words on her lips. We were all fucked if she completed the spell without a pentagram to contain the creature. Thankfully summoning spells took time.
“Undo the curse,” Eli commanded.
I needed Eli to keep the eldest witch distracted. Once I pulled the braided cord from my pocket and began to weave the spell, I could become the focus of their attention.
“I’m sorry, vampire, I can’t do that.”
“Well, then I’m just going to kill you.”
I had to hurry. I unhooked the bracelet from my wrist and rested it in the book's crease. There were exactly nine crossings of the strands in the bracelet, each corresponding with a line of the incantation. The hard part was that I couldn’t make a mistake. Each line had to be recited exactly as written. Keeping myself from focused would be key.
My finger pinched the end of the first ribbon. "The lie spoken to captive hearts.”
The second ribbon. “Will now be broken, the truth impart.”
The third. "Now and evermore.”
The sounds of battle fractured my attention. Whirling objects and shattering glass accompanied Eli’s groans of pain. Screams and flashes of light surrounded me, but I couldn’t look up from the text. At least not yet.