by Nadia Heaton
Rashid lost sight of the brothers for a moment when he had to dodge a wave of magic that sailed over his head. Humans didn’t have vampire reflexes, and wouldn’t be able to dodge witch magic that was conjured and cast in a split second.
He changed his course, heading for Teo and Luca. Whatever had passed between them, Teo was still a friend, and Rashid didn’t want him or his brother killed. He’d get them out of here, then make his way to Ariana and try to stop this madness.
A sizzling sound was all the warning Rashid got. His head whipped around, tracking the sound from three different directions. Three witches encircled him, casting what looked like liquid fire at him. Rashid knew that there was no way he could dodge all three streams at once. They were too tall for dropping to the ground or leaping up to make any difference; he would be burned regardless.
People say that when you’re about to die, your whole life flashes before you eyes. That didn’t happen for Rashid. All he saw was a mess of color and movement as the battle went on before him. Surprisingly, he wasn’t afraid. All he felt was an aching sadness and regret that he’d never managed to make things right with Mirabelle and Ariana.
The fire exploded against what appeared to be an invisible wall all around him. Rashid knew a shield when he saw one. He spun around and saw Mirabelle, her hands still cast out toward him as she maintained the shield.
She was stronger than the witches attacking him. The fire burned out, and Mirabelle ran forward. “Stop! Stop this!”
The witches who had attacked Rashid had already moved on to other targets. No one heard Mirabelle shouting any more than they had heard Rashid. They were side by side now, and both being unwillingly drawn into the fray.
Mirabelle cast shields around them whenever a spell came close, or when she didn’t spot it in time, Rashid grabbed her, pulling her aside. He leapt forward whenever a vampire came for her, shoving them roughly away. A couple of times, Mirabelle upended an attacking vampire with a spell, but Rashid could see she wasn’t killing them, just knocking them down.
The two of them actually worked well as a team, but there was no time to wonder at this fact. As much as Rashid didn’t want to fight, it was impossible not to get drawn in. He just wanted everyone to stop, but if stopping people one by one was all he could do, then that’s what he would do.
Vince and Zan were rallying the vampires, and Ariana wasn’t helping, leading her group deeper into the fray.
Rashid couldn’t tell who was leading the witches, or if anyone was leading them at this point. By the way spells were flying, he suspected they didn’t have any more idea what they were doing than the vampires did. It seemed that anything that moved was a target.
If he hadn’t been watching Ariana when it happened, Rashid would have missed it, with as fast as it happened. A dark streak zipped over to Ariana, moving way faster than even a vampire should have been able to.
The next moment, Ariana’s arms were pinned behind her back. Rashid recognized Lisette as the one holding her.
Ariana moved almost as fast as Lisette, twisting out of her grip. Lisette held up her hands, whipping up a tornado of flame encircling Ariana, who looked scared for the first time since Rashid had spotted her. She stopped moving, crouched on the balls of her feet, eyeing Lisette warily.
Lisette was scary. She looked like neither witch nor vampire. The way she moved, the way she cast magic, she looked more like some kind of supernatural demon. It was obvious to Rashid that she had mastered both her vampire and witch powers, turning her into something stronger and more powerful than anything he’d ever seen. But he also knew that she was not to be feared, not really. She was terrifying now, while she was fighting, but he knew she ultimately fought for peace, and those who shared her aims had nothing to fear from her.
Then Lisette opened her mouth and yelled, and her voice was magnified to a hundred times its normal volume. “STOP THIS, NOW, OR I SWEAR I WILL KILL EVERY WITCH AND VAMPIRE WHO KEEPS FIGHTING.”
That did it. For just a couple of seconds, everyone froze. The conflict balanced on the edge of a knife, and Rashid knew it could go either way. If the vampires and witches were allowed to fall back into battle, getting them to stop again would be near impossible.
If that happened, in all likelihood, everyone here would die.
20
Teo had heard the noises of a fight as he and Luca sped toward Rashid’s chateau. He had mentally prepared himself to step into some kind of fight.
Whatever preparation he’d done hadn’t been enough. When Teo’s sources had tipped him off that Lisette was here, he’d come at once. He knew what she was… but somehow, he still hadn’t understood, not really, not until this moment.
The shock of seeing vampires battling witches was nothing compared to seeing Lisette. In her anger, she looked less human than any of the rest of the others.
When she shouted, Teo and Luca froze like everyone else. Luca let the bike fall to the ground. Teo didn’t look back at his brother. His eyes were fixed on Lisette. He hadn’t seen her since she’d run out on him at their wedding, though he’d certainly heard news. When a friend had tipped him off that they’d seen her heading toward Rashid’s estate, he hadn’t hesitated.
Now that he was here, Teo wasn’t entirely sure what he’d been thinking. He had loved Lisette once, but no longer, not after what she’d done to him. However, he’d never meant for his attempt at vengeance to get her killed and turned into a vampire.
If there had been time for Luca to ask, Teo didn’t know what he’d have answered, whether he was coming here to apologize, or to hear her apologize. To hurt her, or to beg her forgiveness. He supposed it didn’t matter now. Luca had a hand on his arm, holding him back, but Teo was just as paralyzed by Lisette’s suddenly booming, threatening voice as everyone else was.
Before the shock could wear off, while everyone was still frozen, Rashid and Mirabelle sprang into action, telling both sides to stop fighting. Their words were backed up by Lisette’s stern glare on anyone who looked like they may be thinking of disobeying. The tornado of flame that she kept around Ariana served as a deterrent to any who might be thinking of fighting her.
In a matter of minutes, the fighting had stopped. The witches and vampires were herded to separate corners of the garden, while a couple of volunteers worked on the wounded and helped put out fires. Teo barely registered any of this. His narrowed eyes were fixed on Lisette.
Lisette moved the flame tunnel, forcing Ariana to move too, eventually depositing her in front of Rashid and Mirabelle, who were standing close together in the center between the two groups. She stood tall and spoke in a magnified but less terrifying voice.
“Fighting isn’t going to solve anything. I hope that you have all learned at least that much from what happened here. I am going to call a council meeting to discuss the way forward. All groups of witches and vampires will send representatives to the meeting if they wish to be heard. Let me make one thing clear: I will not allow you to kill each other anymore.
“I have tried playing nice. I have tried to talk you out of hacking each other apart. All that’s gotten me is an underground war that my own people thought to hide from me. From now on, anyone causing violence will be taken to a magical prison and left there until they have thought better of their actions.”
No one protested, but many looked like they would like to.
“She’s right.” A couple of jaws dropped at Mirabelle’s words. “Killing each other isn’t the way. I will lead the peace talks with Lisette for my coven.”
“And I will lead them for the vampires under my command.” Rashid smiled at Mirabelle, holding out his hand, which she took.
Teo thought that the world had surely gone mad. There was one thing that stood out to him above all else. Lisette was there, more beautiful than ever… and she was undoubtedly an abomination. Teo wasn’t entirely sure what she had become, but he knew he couldn’t allow her to live.
The words she was speaking might be re
asonable, but he’d seen the flames she’d used to control Ariana. Anyone that dangerous was too big a risk to leave alive, especially someone like Lisette, who had proven herself fickle and morally inferior when she left him at the altar.
“Teo!” Luca tried to tackle him, but Teo dodged out of his grip. He launched himself forward, hurling the two daggers he’d brought with at Lisette. His aim was true… but the daggers never hit. Midway through the air, they swerved as though hitting an invisible wall.
Before Teo could see where they had landed, he was blasted off his feet by two streaks of light, one coming from Mirabelle and the other from Ariana. Teo’s back hit something hard. There was a blinding pain in his head, and everything went black.
21
Luca ran to where Teo had hit the wall of the chateau. Where his brother’s head had made impact, a large stain of blood and brain matter was left splattered on the wall as Teo fell down to the ground. Mirabelle didn’t need to examine him to know that he was dead.
She’d meant only to get him away from Lisette, and she was sure Ariana had meant to do the same, but the two combined spells were too powerful for a mortal’s body. Teo was dead. Luca threw himself across Teo’s body, shaking with sobs. Mirabelle couldn’t work up any pity for someone who had tried to kill her niece, but she couldn’t help but feel for Luca. He’d tried to stop Teo, and it was clear he’d loved his brother.
“You see?” She turned to the witches, and saw tears on more than one face as they watched the senseless tragedy before them. “Violence and death, and for what?”
“What’s wrong with you, Mirabelle?” Amanda was glaring at her. “A week ago, you were telling us that all vampires were abominations and needed to be wiped out. What happened to you?”
Mirabelle didn’t flinch from the question. “I saw how foolish I have been,” she replied quietly. “I understand if you don’t want to follow me anymore; I wouldn’t blame you for that. But whoever you elect as a new leader, if you want a future for our people, choose someone who is willing to work with Lisette and Rashid to make peace between us.”
Unlike before, there was no mutinous muttering. Most eyes were fixed on Luca and Teo. Teo’s death seemed to have shocked everyone out of their bloodlust. Luca’s grief for his brother brought home the true consequences of war between witches and vampires.
“Right, let’s start getting the wounded inside. Mirabelle, select your top healers and have them start tending to people – vampires and witches.” Lisette glanced around to see if there would be any protests, but to Mirabelle’s surprise, there were none.
She knew that it would take more than this to mend a rift that had been centuries in the making, but here and now, at least this was a start. She gathered four other witches around her and helped carry some of the injured to Rashid’s lounge.
Mirabelle’s specialty wasn’t healing, but she participated as best she could, to set a good example, pleased to see that Lisette did the same. Rashid and Ariana stayed in the background, watching and assuring nervous vampires who were reluctant to let witches lay hands on them.
To everyone’s relief, there were no mishaps. Everyone who had been injured were still resting peacefully, and the vampires and witches were looking at each other with slightly less apprehension. Healing vampires just brought home once more to Mirabelle that they really weren’t all that different to witches. They were people, just like everyone else.
When the work was done, she gave Rashid and Ariana a tremulous smile. Despite the tragedy of what had happened, Mirabelle was happier than she’d been in a long time. For the first time, she truly accepted that Rashid was still alive, that she hadn’t lost him all those years ago like she’d thought. And Ariana was with them. Mirabelle had yet to see if her daughter would forgive her, but just having her here was a gift.
“Can we… can we talk?” she asked hesitantly.
Ariana nodded, turning to lead the way. Rashid and Mirabelle followed as she led them to one of Rashid’s private libraries. They all settled themselves down in comfortable chairs in the reading area.
There was a moment of awkward silence. Mirabelle decided to be the one to break it. She had so much to say to Ariana and Rashid, and she was worried she’d mess it up again, but there was nothing for it other than to spit it out.
“Ariana, please believe me when I tell you how sorry I am at how I reacted when I found out you are my daughter. I was shocked and distraught, and I didn’t know how to deal with the fact that you’re part vampire. Since then, I’ve come to the realization that I was wrong about vampires. I don’t expect you to trust me at once, but I hope you’ll stick around to allow me to earn your trust.”
For a few moments, Mirabelle thought everything was going to go horribly wrong. Ariana’s face was a cold mask. The silence stretched horribly… then Ariana took a deep breath and gave her a shaky smile. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear that until now. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll stick around long enough to give you another chance, if you’ll do the same for me. I’ve hardly been a saint in all this. I’m very lucky there was only one casualty caused by my attack…”
“That’s not just on you,” Rashid said firmly. “The fight would have happened with or without you. Mirabelle and I both bear some responsibility for it getting to the stage that it did.”
Rashid was being generous. Mirabelle knew that the responsibility for pushing this war fell largely to her, but she didn’t contest the point. There was plenty of blame to go around. She wasn’t really interested in deciding who was the most guilty. She just wanted to fix things with Rashid and her daughter.
Ariana shifted a little on her seat. “Look, could we all just… start again?”
That was the best idea Mirabelle had heard in a long time. She glanced at Rashid, who smiled and nodded.
“If we’re starting again, then this is the first thing I want to correct.” Mirabelle remembered how Ariana had reached for her when finding out she was her daughter. Cringing away had been one of the biggest mistakes on a hefty list of huge errors.
Mirabelle moved to sit beside Ariana and opened her arms. The two of them hugged for a long time. Rashid joined them, on the other side of Ariana, and the three of them stayed there, content just to be together.
A few tears escaped down Mirabelle’s cheeks, but these were tears of joy.
“I want us to be a family.” Rashid pulled away from the embrace enough to look both Mirabelle and Ariana in the eye. “I know we’re all adults, and we can’t gain back the years we’ve lost, but at least for a little while, I would like for the three of us to live together, to reconnect as a family.”
Her throat too tight to speak, Mirabelle nodded.
“Agreed.” Ariana glanced around at the chateau. “Maybe somewhere more neutral, though. This place has too many old memories.”
Mirabelle’s home had too many memories for her too, memories of hating vampires and trying to stamp them out. “There are a couple of places for sale in town. I’ll look into it. Until we find a more permanent place, I’m happy to switch between locations.”
“If we’re doing this, we need to make sure there’s plenty of room…” Ariana seemed suddenly nervous.
“For Julio?” Mirabelle remembered the man Ariana loved. That was another thing she had to apologize for. “I never should have cursed him, Ariana. It was rash and cruel of me –”
“It’s in the past. We’re looking to the future, now. Yes, where I go, Julio will go, but I mean more than that. I’m… I’m pregnant.”
For a split second, all Mirabelle felt was shock, but that quickly melted as she pulled Ariana into another hug. “I’m going to be a grandmother?”
“You are,” Ariana told her shyly.
Rashid’s grin matched Mirabelle’s, which felt like it might break her face. He lifted Ariana up and twirled her around, laughing. When he let her down, Mirabelle pressed her hand to Ariana’s stomach.
“I can feel it,” she murmured
. “It’s faint, but it’s there – a new life.”
“You must teach me how to do that.”
“I will,” Mirabelle promised. “If you want to learn, I’ll teach you everything I know about magic. You can join our coven. I’m hoping Lisette will come back too.”
“You know, I was thinking about that. If we’re serious about making a lasting peace, I think we should start having combined witch and vampire covens. If our kinds hadn’t been so segregated, we never would have ended up thinking the other was evil. We’re a good match, really – vampires and witches cover each other’s weaknesses.”
Mirabelle was taken aback by Rashid’s idea, but she had to admit, it had merit. “It’s something to look into. Having Lisette and Ariana as both vampires and witches will certainly help things.”
“It’s perfect, really.” Ariana smiled at her parents’ overjoyed reactions. “After all this violence, new life is what we all need to cement the new era between our people. I’ll talk to me people about the covens idea, I bet I can convince some of them.”
Ariana got up, sighing. “I should get back to Julio, he’s probably worried sick by now. I’ll drop by in a few days to help organize things.”
Mirabelle didn’t want her daughter to go, but she understood. Ariana had her own love to get to. She glanced at Rashid from under her eyelids, to find him already looking at her.
“I’ll see you soon.” Mirabelle gave Ariana a warm hug, which Rashid joined in on. Then Ariana was waving over her shoulder as she zipped out of the chateau at what Mirabelle was coming to recognize as standard vampire speed.
Rashid put an arm around her. “She’ll be back.”
“I know.” Mirabelle smiled up at him, scarcely able to believe that they were really here, that the fighting might actually be over.