The Witch's Thirst

by Deborah LeBlanc

  He knew deep in his soul that they were meant to be together...always. Lucien wondered if there was a way to break the curse that refused to let a Triad marry or live intimately with a human. He wondered if the Triad had even explored the option.

  As he kissed the top of Evee’s head again, he made a mental note to himself. Besides completing the mission he and his cousins had been sent here to accomplish, Lucien would do everything in his power to find out if there was a way around the Triad curse. Someway to break it.

  For in his heart of hearts, Lucien knew he could not live without Evee beside him...ever.

  Chapter 22

  Evee didn’t quite know what to think. She felt slightly embarrassed, like some wanton slut. Not in a million years would she ever have considered having sex outside in the middle of a public venue, where anyone might happen by.

  Even though it was dark, and she’d not seen any other person even close to the docks, she could have, should have shown a bit more decorum. A little discretion at least.

  The simple fact was that the moment Lucien had put his arms around her, her body took over her brain. In that moment, there could have been a circus act going on ten feet away with twenty thousand spectators, and she still would have craved him, wanted him...taken him.

  Fortunately, there’d been no one around to see when she willingly gave up her privacy standards just to have Lucien inside her.

  With clothes straightened, she looked out onto the water, afraid to face him. She wondered if he thought her to be too loose, too needy. She felt Lucien’s hand rest on her shoulder and squeeze lightly. As if reading her mind, he leaned over and whispered in her ear.

  “It’s all right. No one saw us.” He turned her to face him. “Evee, you’re one of the most glorious women I’ve ever known. So open and honest in what you feel and the way you express it. Don’t feel bad about any of this, please.”

  Evee gave him a half smile. “I’m trying.”

  She smoothed some wrinkles in his shirt with a hand. At least nothing on either of them looked out of the ordinary. As if nothing had occurred at all. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to think about the fact that they’d just had sex, but she’d be facing her sisters soon. The less they knew or suspected, the better.

  In silence, Lucien and Evee stood side by side, looking over the water. Evee was waiting for Viv’s special signal, the loud howl and squawk, that the Nosferatu were ready to return city side.

  Evee stood with her arms folded against her chest. A cool night breeze washed over her, sending goose bumps up and down her arms. It might have been the breeze that sent a shiver through her or the fact that Lucien was still standing beside her.

  Where he was concerned, Evee always felt like she was dying of thirst and no amount of having him seemed to fully quench it. Even if he stayed inside her for a month, Evee felt it still wouldn’t be enough. In all her life, She had never needed anyone so desperately as she needed Lucien. And it wasn’t all about the sex, which frightened and excited her at the same time.

  Suddenly, Evee heard someone clear their throat behind them. She whirled about, her heart pounding in her chest. Lucien simply glanced over his shoulder.

  Gavril had made it to the docks and was walking toward them.

  When Evee saw him, she felt a slight flash of guilt. She’d just had sex with Lucien...again. Gavril’s appearance reminded her of Ronan. She’d known by the way Ronan had looked at her from time to time that he’d been interested in her, wanted a relationship with her. They’d never have the dinner she’d promised. But that had been all she’d promised. She would never have led Ronan down a deceptive path. Her interest was in Lucien, and that was all there was to it. Although Ronan had been as handsome as the rest of his cousins, he had a seriousness and quietness about him that didn’t quite call to Evee the way Lucien did.

  “What’s up?” Lucien asked Gavril.

  “Wanted to check out the ferry before we brought out the Chenilles. How’d it work for the Nosferatu?” Gavil asked.

  “So far so good, but we’ll have a better handle on how it worked as soon as the ferry returns,” Lucien said.

  “Why aren’t you with Gilly?” Evee asked, feeling her mood shift to angry and anxious.

  “She’s fine,” Gavril assured her. “I triple-checked the dome over the cemetery before we left, but I didn’t want to chance her getting hurt if the dome we set up over the ferry wasn’t working. That’s why I came to check on it.”

  Lucien narrowed his eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Huh?” Gavril said.

  “You know if anything had gone wrong with the dome on the ferry, we would’ve reached out to you with a warning.”

  Gavril shifted his eyes to Evee, then back to Lucien. “I hate when you’re right, you know that?”

  “What happened?” Evee asked. “Is Gilly really okay? You need to be back with her, watch over her.”

  “I will,” Gavril said. “I just wanted to warn the both of you that we had a Cartesian attack right off Rampart Street. It was only one, nothing I couldn’t handle, but there was something different about the way the Cartesian came through it.”

  “Different how?” Lucien asked.

  “One second it wasn’t there and the next, boom, there it was, hanging out of a rift by the waist. No warning at all. No scent of clove until the bastard shot out of the rift. Then it stank to high heaven with clove and sulfur. Their pattern is changing, and I don’t like it one damn bit. No preamble. Just BAM and there they are, rift already open.”

  “I noticed the changes,” Lucien said. “It happened the same way when Ronan...when Ronan and me fought them riverside.”

  “Hang on a minute, guys,” Evee said, and cocked an ear toward the river. Clear yet faint, she heard Viv’s whistle and caw, signaling that the Nosferatu had been fed and were heading back on the ferry.

  “The Nosferatu are heading back,” she told Lucien and Gavril. “The two of you need to leave before they get here.”

  “But we can’t leave you and your Originals alone,” Lucien said. “It’s too dangerous. The Cartesians have become unpredictable, even more than usual.”

  “Then what the hell is Gavril doing here?” Evee demanded.

  “He’s here to warn us,” Lucien said, his tone hardening.

  Evee turned to Gavril. “Appreciate the heads-up on the Cartesian, but please go to my sister and don’t leave her again.”

  “Ten-four,” Gavril said, then took off for the cemetery and Gilly.

  As soon as Gavril was out of sight, Lucien said, “He knows what he’s doing, Evee. I’d trust Gavril with my life. He won’t let anything happen to Gilly.”

  Evee wanted to say, Right, like Ronan knew what he was doing? But she didn’t say it. It would have been unnecessary and harsh.

  “There’s the ferry,” Evee said, pointing straight ahead at the calliope of lights floating in their direction.

  She turned to Lucien. “Why don’t you go and give Gavril a hand while I put the Nosferatu away?”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Lucien said firmly.

  “But there really isn’t much for you to do. They get off the ferry, and I’ve got only a couple hundred feet before I can stash them away. Gavril and Gilly have to lead the Chenilles much farther.”

  “I’ll gladly give them a hand,” Lucien said.

  Evee blew out a breath of relief. She didn’t know what to expect from the Nosferatu when they were off-loaded from the ferry. All she knew was she didn’t want danger to smack Lucien in the face.

  “I’ll give them a hand as soon as you’ve put the Nosferatu back in their hidey-hole,” Lucien said.

  Evee threw him a scowl. “I don’t have time to fight with you about this now. The ferry’s mooring. You need to be in the back of the cat
hedral. Not the side of it like last time when I loaded them onto the ferry. The back.”

  “But weren’t they just fed?” Lucien asked. “Shouldn’t they be satiated now?”

  “That’s the point of me sending them to the feeding ground, so they can drink until they’ve had their fill,” Evee said. “But you never can tell with a Nosferatu. One can see a human, and it might decide to make a pig of itself and go for more.”

  “We have a little time before they get here, don’t we?” Lucien asked.

  “A minute,” Evee said. “They’re already mooring.”

  In that moment, a crack of thunder sounded overhead. Since the night had been foggy, they’d had no warning of impending bad weather. Lucien and Evee immediately focused their attention on the sky.

  “Smell it?” Lucien asked.

  “Yeah, just the clove, though,” Evee said, her voice trembling. Nothing good ever followed the scent of clove.

  Evee looked out at the ferry. Pierre had already killed the motor and was headed for the back gate of the ferry.

  “Don’t let them out!” Evee shouted at Pierre. “Stay there. Stay!”

  Pierre looked over at her, cocked his head as if unsure of what she’d said.

  Evee ran halfway to the ferry and shouted again, “Don’t let them out yet! Looks like we’ve got problems.” She pointed up at the sky, in the same direction Lucien was focused.

  Pierre frowned and nodded, his expression one of extreme worry.

  Evee ran back to Lucien. “Where—”

  “Oh, Christ on a cracker,” Lucien said, pointing overhead and a bit to the left. “There.”

  Evee looked in the direction where Lucien pointed. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but suddenly smelled the rot of sulfur. Gagging, she covered her nose and mouth with a hand. “What the hell is that—”

  Another crack of thunder, and in that moment, Lucien pulled his scabior out of its sheath.

  That was when Evee saw it. A huge rift appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Its maw was blacker than any black Evee had ever seen. The sky could have been painted white for the contrast it created overhead. The rift couldn’t have been more obvious. It seemed to slice through the stars and part of the moon, and from it dangled three monstrous Cartesians. One actually had a leg sticking out of the rift, as if it planned to jump from the gap.

  With scabior in hand, Lucien gave a quick twist of his wrist, twirled the scabior between his fingers and took aim.

  He blasted the Cartesian who had the leg out of the rift, sending it tumbling back with a high-pitched screech.

  Then he took aim at the one next to it, a Cartesian with arms that seemed long enough to reach the ground from the rift it hung from.

  “Go to the catacombs!” Lucien shouted at Evee.

  “No way.”

  “Goddamn it, stop being so hardheaded and go!”

  “No fucking way.”

  And with that Evee held her hands out, palms up, aiming for the sky.

  “Double, thrice, by tens ye shall see.

  No longer one to be seen by thee.

  Thine eyes shall fully confuse thy mind.

  Making all evil intentions blind.

  Blunder thee, blunder now.

  I call upon Poseidon, Tiamat and Apsu, bring strength to my command.

  So it is said.

  So shall it be.”

  Just like the first time Evee had used that incantation for Lucien and Ronan, this time, too, her words produced the same results. The Cartesians started swinging blindly in all directions. Their snorts of fury sounded like thunder blasts.

  “I’m at three,” Lucien shouted, still aiming at one of the Cartesians.

  “Three what?” Evee asked, terrified by what hung overhead. She wanted to take the question back. She felt stupid for having asked it while Lucien was in the middle of fighting for their lives. Her life. The Originals’ lives.

  “Dimensions,” Lucien said. “We push them back to the farthest dimension before the rift closes. The farther we send them, the longer it takes for them to make it back to our dimension.”

  “I’m at six,” Lucien said. “Rift’s closed.”

  He aimed at the second Cartesian, whose arms seemed to do nothing more than dangle from the rift, as if it were tired of aiming for ghosts. “Four on this one,” Lucien said. “Rift’s still open.”

  Evee watched in wonder as the brightest lightning bolts she’d ever witnessed shot from the scabior. She suddenly bumped into something and turned to see she had stumbled over the first step in front of St. John’s Cathedral. She’d never noticed she’d been moving backward as Lucien fought the Cartesians.

  “Five,” Lucien said. “Rift closed.” He took aim at the last Cartesian, got two good shots to the head before the rift closed.

  “Evee?”

  The sound of Lucien’s voice broke through Evee’s numbness. She looked over at him, slowly, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

  Lucien shoved his scabior in his sheath, then put an arm around her shoulder. Looked deep into her eyes.

  “You did it again,” Lucien said quietly.

  “What?”

  “Saved my life with your incantation.” He leaned down to kiss her, but Evee put a hand to his chest to hold him back.

  “Not with the Nosferatu watching. They might not understand and view you as a threat.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” Evee said. “Let’s just call it even. You saved me from a Cartesian and from drowning. I confused a few so you could work your magic. I’d say we’re about even, don’t you think?”

  “Not even close,” Lucien said with a grin. “But I’ll leave that discussion for another time. You’ve got Nosferatu to get back into the catacombs. I’ll be behind the cathedral if you need me. Just yell.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I will. Seems like I’ve become quite vocal these days.” With that, Evee turned away from Lucien and headed for the ferry.

  Even with the task ahead so uncertain, she couldn’t help smiling.

  Vocal indeed.

  Chapter 23

  This time Lucien did as he was told and remained behind the cathedral until all the Nosferatu were settled into the catacombs. He leaned against the massive building, chewed on a blade of grass and pondered all that had happened in the past few hours.

  Without question, this was one of the most unusual missions he’d ever been involved in. He tried keeping his mind from settling on two of the most frightening experiences he’d had to date. The first being Ronan’s death, and the second discovering Evee and how she affected him.

  If he was a philosophical man, it’d be easy to see a new life beginning as one ended. The beginning being Evee and the ending Ronan, of course. But a new life interpretation involving a Triad was questionable at best.

  So much for being philosophical.

  Keeping one ear tuned to the grumbling and shuffling of the Nosferatu as they made their way into the catacombs, he heard Evee’s soothing, lolling voice encouraging them inside. The sound of it made Lucien’s heart feel bigger, and he also felt guilt creeping in.

  So far the only thing they’d expressed between each other had to do with sex. Although Evee was sexually beyond any man’s dream, she had captured more of him than just an erection. But what he felt for her went way beyond sex. The sound of her voice enamored him, as did the different expressions on her face. Whether she wore no makeup and a haphazard ponytail or dressed for a ball, it didn’t matter. Lucien thought her to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

  As hard as he tried, he couldn’t help thinking of Ronan, how he had been interested in Evee. Lucien had honestly wanted to give him the opportunity to try to win her over despite what he felt
for her himself. But that chance was gone forever. This left Lucien with two choices. Run as far away from Evee as possible and try to forget her, just out of courtesy to Ronan, or pursue her, hoping to fill her heart the way she filled his.

  If he chose the first option, it meant building a steel cage inside himself that she couldn’t get through, then leave as soon as the mission was completed, or possibly change partners with Gavril. As far as he knew, nothing physical had happened between his cousin and Gilly, so switching shouldn’t make a difference.

  As logical a man as Lucien was, just the thought of switching Triad made his stomach roil. He had to stay true to himself, which meant being with her and somehow doing so while keeping it a secret from everyone else but Evee. He had to tell her how he felt so she would not start thinking that he only wanted her for sex.

  Even if he did run and hide behind one mission or another, how did a person reverse love? It wasn’t like he’d meant for it to turn out that way. It had simply happened, Triad curse or not. And falling in love was like falling into a deep hole. You couldn’t just fall out of love, like you couldn’t fall out of a deep hole. You had to be pushed or pulled out, and Evee had done neither.

  Lucien was in the middle of that thought when Evee appeared behind the cathedral. She gave him a soft smile.

  “I think that instead of just having Viv call Gilly and let her know it’s time for her Chenilles to go to the feeding ground, we go and meet with her and Gavril. That way if there are any problems with the Cartesians between the cemetery and the ferry, Gavril will have you for backup.”

  “Great idea,” Lucien said.

  Evee nodded. “Now that we have a dome over the ferry, the switchover at feeding time will be less stressful. But it doesn’t change anything where the missing Originals are concerned. We have to really put our heads together and come up with a plan on how to find them. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to protect the humans in this city.”

  “Another good point,” Lucien said.

  Evee cocked her head to one side and grinned at him. “Are you always this easy, Mr. Hyland?”