“Why have you come?”
Crystal gasped and turned her head to see Clover standing next to a table, watching her. She spun back and saw the others entering behind her and fanning out to either side. She clamped her mouth shut, grateful that Adrian or Guntar could explain things.
“We need your help,” Guntar said.
She smiled. “My help? Why would a pack of blooded hunters want my help?”
“This girl—”
“Crystal?” Clover interrupted.
Guntar nodded.
“Then use her name,” Clover snapped. She turned to Crystal and looked her up and down. “You haven’t changed yet. You aren’t of their pack.”
“No, I—”
“Yes, she is,” Guntar growled, reclaiming his right to speak. “We saved her from a Beast that marked her. He meant to claim her and breed her, but she helped us kill him.”
Clover looked Crystal up and down again. “No easy task. You have no need of me then.”
“Didn’t you hear me? She’s been marked by him. His bite and his poison!”
Clover shrugged. “You should know as well as I what must happen. Breed her or let her die.”
Crystal gasped and turned to look at Hank. She saw him stiffen and his fists clench.
“It’s not that simple,” Guntar growled.
Clover disagreed. “It is.”
“She’s been blooded, too,” Guntar said. “By us and by the Beast.”
Clover tilted her head and smiled at Crystal. “That must be interesting.”
Crystal grimaced.
“Speak, child.”
Crystal’s brow rose in surprise. Clover looked like she was only a few years older than her. A far cry from the wrinkled and nasty crone she’d expected her to be. And she called her a child. Did being a witch meant she aged slower than normal people did too? Or were the crazy stories she’d heard about sacrificing babies to stay young true?
“I’m sick,” Crystal answered. “Hot and cold flashes, and I couldn’t even stand on my own a few minutes ago. I’m getting hot again now. It starts in my stomach and makes me feel like I’m burning up. Then I throw up and it’s nothing but blood.”
“Show me.”
“Show you? Gross! I don’t want to do it again!”
“There’s still some on my jacket,” Hank offered. He slipped it off and remained standing in a clinging gray t-shirt that was stained from the swamp and her vomit. He stepped past Crystal and laid it on the table beside Clover.
The witch looked down at it, squinting one eye as she did so. She dragged a finger through the sticky remains and picked it up to touch it against her tongue. Crystal felt her stomach flip at the sight and was worried she might have a fresh sample ready to go. At least Clover’s fingernails weren’t long, curly messes like the image in her head had featured.
“The blood is fighting,” Clover said. She shrugged. “What loses is cast aside.”
“What?” Crystal gasped. Her stomach clenched and she shuddered. She whimpered through clenched teeth. “Please, not again.”
“What, not again?”
“I’m going to be sick,” she hissed and looked around for something to throw up in.
Clover moved across the floor and pulled out a large wooden bowl from a shelf behind her. She thrust it towards Crystal and said, “In here.”
Crystal took it, miserable enough to be beyond embarrassed. Her stomach twisted again and her face felt like it was on fire. She gagged and squeezed her eyes shut to stop the room from spinning. It didn’t work.
She bent forward and retched, her stomach and throat erupting in agony as the muscles contracted hard enough to tear tissue and force the bloody soup in her stomach up and out of her mouth and nose. It splattered back against her from the force. Crystal gasped and fell forward, colors spotting her vision as she hit the floor and spilled some of the contents of the bowl.
Hank was there holding her and keeping her steady while she sputtered and coughed. The gags turned to sobs before she found the strength to pick her head up. “Please,” she breathed. “Help me.”
Clover took the bowl and stared into it. Her nose twitched and she turned to fetch some powders and vials that were hidden among the vegetation growing on another shelf. She returned to the table and sprinkled some of the components in before she took a narrow stick and stirred it in. She nodded after a moment and turned back to Crystal, who hadn’t found the strength to rise from the floor.
“How long, three weeks?”
“Closer to one,” Guntar said.
Clover’s eyes widened for a brief moment and then relaxed. “Tell me more,” she said.
“More? What more is there?”
“This doesn’t happen in a week,” Clover said. “Someone is lying or there is more to it.”
Crystal shook her head. “No, before the Beast I was just a normal girl trying to get out of school and away to college.”
Ember moved up beside her and leaned her naked leg against Crystal’s shoulder. The flesh on flesh contact made Crystal glance at her and then look back as Ember said, “Tell her about Stephanie.”
Crystal frowned. “What, that she used to make fun of me?”
“No, what you did to her.”
Crystal’s face burned almost as hot as it did when she’d thrown up. “I just kissed her. It was to shut her up.”
Clover tilted her head. “Did it?”
“Ha!” Ember barked. Her hand went to her lips and she mumbled, “Sorry.”
Crystal sighed and wiped a fresh bit of bloody drool from her nose. “God, this is so gross. No, it didn’t. I mean it did, but now she’s being super nice to me.”
“Super nice?” Clover asked. The witch turned to Ember. “What does she mean?”
“Stephanie has the hots for her. She’s in love with her, and I’m trying to keep her distracted because she doesn’t realize it. I think it’s because the Beast put her in heat.”
Clover’s nose twitched again as she considered Ember’s words. She beckoned for Crystal to rise and, with Hank on one side and Ember on the other, she made her way to her feet. “How did you feel?”
“What?”
“When you kissed Stephanie.”
“Oh my God.” Crystal groaned.
Clover turned and stepped to the cauldron. She reached out and cupped her hands into the steam rising out of it and raised them out. A swirling globe of smoke and mist circled in her palms as she turned back and then raised her hands up so she could blow it into Crystal’s face. “Now tell me, how did you feel?”
Crystal gasped as the wet heat burst against her lips and cheeks. The smell of jasmine and burnt metal overwhelmed her sinuses and cleared out the stink of blood and bile. She gasped and looked up at Clover. “I was hot. Not at first, just angry and determined. It made me want to convince her that she was playing with fire. That I was not someone to make fun of. That she should like me and want me. Desire me. As I kissed her, I felt that and I wanted her. It made me ache and feel like—like there was nothing more important in the world.”
Clover tilted her head to the right, lifting her hair on her left high enough to nearly expose her breast. “This is the first time you have dabbled in magic?”
“Magic?” Crystal blinked and shook her head. “Oh my God,” she mumbled. “What did I just say?”
“You said—” Hank started to say but Crystal ignored him.
“I didn’t even know I felt that way,” she said. “I mean, it was true and it explained it perfect. I just didn’t put that much thought into it.”
“The heart knows,” Clover explained.
“I don’t love her! I don’t even like her!”
Clover smiled for the first time. “The heart knows the truth. It knows emotion too, but it knows when the mind does not.”
“Oh, um, okay.”
“Does that tell you something?” Guntar asked.
Adrian stepped forward. “You mentioned magic. She’s not a witch; sh
e’s a girl tainted with the blood of the Beast and the hunter.”
“Legend tells that the hunter came from the beast,” the witch explained. Adrian nodded and caught Crystal’s eye. “The dominant blood wins, but for you it is different. Both came at the same time?”
Crystal nodded. “Um, I think so. It was a big fight.”
“You could be a witch too,” Clover said.
“A—what?” Crystal gasped.
“A strong one. To cast a spell without training is a sign of talent.”
“What spell?” Crystal asked. “I didn’t—I don’t—”
“The love spell.”
“Oh my God!”
Ember chuckled.
“I don’t want to be a witch,” Crystal said. “I didn’t want any of this. And I don’t want Stephanie being in love with me!”
“You don’t have a choice,” Adrian snapped at her. “Unless you want to die.”
“She still might,” Clover offered.
Crystal groaned and clutched at her belly. She could feel it filling with heat again. “Whatever it is, hurry up,” she whimpered.
Clover turned and grabbed one of the vines growing on the wall. She twisted it, broke it off and then picked at it until she peeled off a strip of the outer layer. She kept going until the outer layer was gone and then handed it to her. “Try this.”
Crystal grabbed it and shoved it in her mouth. She ignored the bitter taste and chewed it into pulp and swallowed it. She started to bite another piece off when Clover grabbed it out of her hand.
“Too much,” she warned.
Crystal licked her lips and swallowed the last of the bitter pulp down. It tasted terrible but it had a soothing effect. Her throat stopped burning and her stomach eased up. She straightened and dare to smile. “I feel better.”
“It’s temporary,” Clover said.
“I’ll take it.”
Clover smirked and placed the vine on the table. She turned and pointed to the corner of her hut where several vines grew with leaves and flowers. “When you’re ready, you can use that corner.”
“Ready? For—oh! Something’s not right!” Crystal grabbed her lower abdomen. She felt a different kind of cramping. She looked up, her eyes rounded and her lips parted in an O. She turned and yanked her arms out of Ember’s and Hank’s hands so she could rush over to the corner. Sure enough, there was a wreath of vines with a hole in the middle of it that was open all the way to the water beneath the hut.
Crystal ripped the button off her pants in her haste to push them down. She’d reached the point again where modesty no longer mattered. There was no stopping or even delaying what came next.
Chapter 9
Several agonizing minutes later, Crystal looked up from the weed-covered floor and found Ember standing only a few feet away from her. She had to lean to the side to see the others clearly. Other than Clover, they had their attention directed anywhere and everywhere but at her. Clover, on the other hand, was staring intently at her.
Crystal blushed and glanced around. She felt better, but she was worried for the well-being of the fish in the water beneath her. A chill crept down her spine as she realized there wasn’t any toilet paper. “Um…”
“Use the leaves,” Clover advised.
Crystal’s eyes nearly fell out of her head. She stared at the leafy vines growing all around her. “What? A leaf? That’s nasty. What if it’s poisonous or something?”
“They aren’t.”
Crystal frowned and heard somebody chuckle. She was pretty sure it was Adrian. She grumbled under her breath and plucked a couple of larger leaves before using them to clean herself. The texture felt weird, but cool against her sensitive flesh. After a few seconds passed, she sat up straighter when she felt the burning subside. “Oh!”
Ember glanced back over her shoulder. “You done yet?”
“What? Oh, yes.” Crystal pulled her pants up and stood up. She tried to fasten them, only to realize she’d ripped the button off and ruined them. All she could do was zip them up. With her recent weight loss, it didn’t do any good; she had to hold onto them to keep them from falling. “Jesus, I’m a wreck.”
Ember smirked and stepped aside. “Stop worrying,” the redhead advised. “We’re all friends and for us, clothes are an inconvenience.”
Crystal glanced at Ember and the others. Only Hank still had his clothes on, but they were wet and muddy and he only wore them because he’d carried her instead of changing into a wolf. “Yeah, well, I’m not ready for that.”
Ember looked her up and down. “Oh yeah? I didn’t know shredded jeans and a filthy bra was the current fashion trend.”
Crystal glanced down at herself and saw that Ember was right. She had her sneakers on too, but they were filthy and scuffed up from the wreck earlier. Crystal rolled her eyes and turned back to Clover. “Anyhow, I’m sorry about that. Is that what you meant by the unwanted blood being cast out? Is that why I’ve been puking and, um, stuff?”
“Yes,” Clover said.
“Is it going to stop? I mean, do I have that much blood in me?”
Clover tilted her head for a long moment and then turned to glance around her hut. “I can help you, but there is risk and you still might die.”
“Anything is better than this!”
“Crystal, wait,” Hank argued.
Clover shot him a look and then turned back to Crystal. “There is a price.”
“Oh, um, what is it?”
Clover shook her head. “The price depends on how much help you will need.”
“What do I have that you could need? You don’t need money out here, and it looks like you have plenty of food and, um, other stuff.”
“My needs are mine alone. Just as you have needs. You must decide if your needs are great enough that you will barter with me. A chance at life is a worthy thing, yes?”
Crystal’s voice caught in her throat for a moment. When she could speak, it was barely above a whisper. “Will I die without your help?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know that!” Adrian growled.
Clover snapped her head around to look at him. “Do you know how to help her? Are you sure of her strength and vitality?”
Adrian’s lip was curled up in a snarl but he shook his head after a long moment. “Nobody’s seen this before,” he said.
“This is true,” Clover agreed. “But it has always been a rare possibility.”
Crystal took a deep breath and stepped forward. “What do I need to do?”
“You agree to my price?”
“Um, you’re not going to make me give you my firstborn or anything, are you?”
Clover’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “No.”
Crystal nodded. She glanced at Hank and saw the concern in his eyes. Her heart warmed in her chest and she smiled at him before turning back to Clover with her business face on. “All right, I agree.”
Clover nodded. “Make yourself comfortable. I have preparations to make.”
“Preparations for what?”
“For helping you,” Clover said.
“Um, what does that mean?”
“You will stay here tonight. That is when I will have everything ready. I must brew a soup for you and gather the right herbs to smoke.”
Crystal’s brow furrowed. “Smoke?”
“Incense, not like cigarettes.”
“Oh. Um, okay, then what?”
“Then we will call on the blood. The Hunter, the Beast, and the Witch will be made to understand that fighting will only kill you. One must prevail.”
Crystal clamped her mouth shut and glanced at the others. Guntar was frowning and Adrian looked irritated. Ember was leaning against the tree in the middle of the hut with her arms crossed and her fingernail repeatedly scratching her other arm. Hank seemed like he wanted to say or do something, but he remained stiff and silent.
“Um, so which will it be?”
“That’s up to the blood and up to you.”
>
“Up to me?”
Clover nodded. “It’s your body; you have some say in it.”
“Fine, then, um, I want to be—”
Clover laughed, stopping her. “Don’t speak on things you do not understand.”
“But you just said—” Crystal stopped herself and groaned. “Okay, I know what happens if I become a beast. Not what I want. What about being a witch? I, um, I mean no offense but living like you are isn’t what I really want.”
“We are few and far apart, but we live in different places and in different ways,” Clover said. “After you were trained, you would need to move on and find your own place. The coven does not permit us to gather together in numbers for long.”
Clover’s words confused Crystal and filled her with questions. She was going to ask more when she glanced at Hank again and saw the strange look in his eyes. Her questions were flushed in the realization that if she was a witch, she’d be forced to be away from Hank. She shook her head. “I’ve decided.”
“It’s not for you to decide.”
“What?” Crystal blurted. “You just said—”
“Your heart has a say in it, but the blood will be what it will be.”
“I’m so confused,” Crystal muttered. She turned to glance back at the primitive toilet. “What about me getting sick? It’s been every what, twenty, thirty minutes?”
“You should be okay until tonight,” Clover said.
“Thank God!” Crystal gushed. “Okay, so, uh, we just wait?”
Clover nodded. “Wait and get ready.”
“What’s the difference?”
Clover began gathering items hidden behind flowers and leaves on shelves and put them on the table. She continued working, collecting jars and cutting or snapping off pieces of vegetation from the walls of her hut. As she gathered the items, she said, “When the time comes, you will need to take off all of your clothes, drink what I give you, and then let your friends tie you up outside my hut while I light the herbs beneath you.”
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