Twice Bitten

by Diana Greenbird

  ‘There is one thread that the others connect to, holding on as if that is the only way to lay down its claim. Like your dreams, the threads around you are confused, layers upon layers.’

  I turned my head to Charlotte, hoping she would be able to translate the witch-talk. She wasn’t given a chance as Circe continued.

  ‘There are multiple spells working on you. Confusing entanglements, and from more than one coven.’

  ‘It’s more than just the enchanted ring?’ Charlotte asked.

  ‘Much more. I can see… at least three covens, perhaps more.’

  ‘Would these spells have anything to do with why she’s been experiencing moments of preternatural abilities?’ Charlotte asked.

  Circe shook her head, but not quite to answer Charlotte’s question. ‘I don’t know. I can’t read what the threads mean, I can only see where they are tied, and who tied them, unless I have a guide to be able to interpret them. Even then, I can only see the web of spells in partial intention.’

  I was starting to be on Grayson’s side that witches weren’t my cup of tea.

  ‘But if I were to hazard a guess…’ Circe abruptly grabbed my hand, the one which had my mom’s ring on. She held tight, supernaturally so, even when I tried to get free from her grasp.

  ‘Magic works a lot like fate. Many webs and pathways… Think of it like a circuit board in which the intention of a spell must travel through wires and networks to reach its goal.

  ‘If one path of the circuit closes, it must go down another route or wait until whatever has blocked its way has been removed. The energy itself never disappears until it finds its intended place.’

  My hand was starting to become uncomfortably hot in hers, like my ring was burning up in protest against the way she was looking through me into my sphaeram – whatever the hell that was.

  ‘From the outside, as I read a thread of a spell, it looks so simple. There are two ends, one inevitably reaches the other. But threads bend and twist, they are rarely a straight line. Just as the adventure a spell takes from its conception to its realised result has many turns.’

  I finally ripped my hand free from hers. She didn’t look put out in the slightest. I was starting to believe that “overly complex” was just Charlotte’s nice way of saying “insane”.

  ‘That’s made everything ever so clear,’ I said, sarcastically.

  Grayson smirked. Witches, he mouthed to me, shaking his head.

  ‘Every spell is connected,’ Charlotte said. ‘Your dreams, the preternatural abilities, Emerson’s dissociation. They might have separate spells behind them, but they’re all working towards one goal.’

  ‘You understood that nonsense?’ I asked. ‘No offence,’ I said to Circe.

  Once again, she seemed entirely nonplussed by my insult. She clearly wasn’t entirely all with it. One to many sphaeram’s and all that. Or donating a vast amount of blood to help Emerson had caused her to go a little too lightheaded for us to be taking advantage of her like this.

  ‘Your ring is spelled with retrocognition, but what you’re dreaming about is connected to the thread of magic that allows magic to even work on you in the first place,’ Charlotte explained. I had to repeat her words a few times in my mind for them to sink in. ‘Because magic shouldn’t work on you. Not if you’re immune.’

  I nodded. That’s exactly why I’d never considered being a hunter an option of what was going on with me. I’d seen through the glamour once, when I was a child, but I had never been able to see beyond it with any of the Sons, and Gi’s charisma clearly worked on me, otherwise I wouldn’t have been so easily won over and joined her and the AA Team.

  ‘Then how does it?’

  ‘We know why. You already found that out.’

  I looked to Grayson. Now Charlotte wasn’t making sense.

  ‘Your first dreams were about the birth of the immune hunters – your ancestors. The second explained why you’re not immune: Susanna and Gabriel.’

  I stared at her blankly.

  ‘Emerson’s coven spelled Susanna to go through two deaths, one to kill her immunity, one to kill her and transform her into a vampire. She was murdered before the spell reached its completion. But spells don’t die. It had to go somewhere.’

  ‘To me? Hundreds of years in the future?’ I scoffed.

  ‘No,’ Charlotte said, exasperated. ‘To Susanna’s bloodline. It would have worked its way to the nearest immune hunter so the spell criteria was still met, and would have continued to have been passed down until it eventually found you.’

  ‘I’m not immune – despite being born from an immune bloodline – because of Emerson’s coven’s spell that was passed through the same bloodline?’ I asked trying to wrap my head around it.

  ‘The original thread,’ Circe said, motioning to something none of us could see but her. ‘It is how the other spells cling to you.’

  I let out a frustrated sigh. ‘What other spells are working on me beside the ring and Susanna’s spell?’

  I was starting to regret overlooking Emerson’s condition to find a witch who wasn’t “overly complex”. Their lamia speak was more frustrating and brought up more questions than any answers. Part of me wished I hadn’t even bothered trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

  ‘Your next dreams were about Emerson’s spell,’ Charlotte said, in an almost quiet voice. ‘The spell we tried to create to turn him back to a witch.’

  I collapsed on the sofa Circe had vacated. ‘I can see how that Susanna spell thing might connect to me. It at least explains how I can see the glamour is there, but am still affected by it, or why I might be experiencing small preternatural changes after dying and being brought back a second time. I guess that’s the second half of Susanna’s spell trying to work its way into completion, but how the hell are you going to try and pin that little bit of magic onto my crazy?’

  ‘You’re crazy…?’ Charlotte enquired.

  ‘My crazy everything!’

  ‘Emerson’s lack of dissociation around you,’ Charlotte said, simply. ‘You two have always felt a draw to one another.’

  ‘What you feel is the thread of magic,’ Circe said.

  It would be very rude of me to tell her to shut up. I should not tell her to shut up. But god, I wanted to tell her to shut up so god damn bad.

  ‘You said it was weird Emerson being recovered from the ground the same time you were born, but that’s what would have made you an appealing conduit for the spell. Already you had a spell woven by his coven into the fabric of your being.’

  ‘Your spell was supposed to turn Emerson back. I don’t know how to do that.’

  ‘The spell we were performing was never completed in its entirety,’ Charlotte admitted. ‘We sent the intention out, but we never got to the part of crafting the spell where we would give the directions to how that would be possible.’

  Grayson laughed. All three of us looked at him. He didn’t even bother to look remorseful as he apologised. ‘I’m sorry but come on. How classic “witch” is that? You start to tamper with immense power, with Death and Choice, and you didn’t even think it through.’

  ‘I was a little bit busy getting killed to finish the spell!’ Charlotte cried out.

  ‘Well, shit for us, because now there’s a half-arsed spell latched onto Liv drawing her to Emerson, along with some immunity blocking shit that’s slowly turning her into a vampire.’

  Once again, I was in the middle of a vampire-180. They’d gone from discussing theories and being all so involved in my past, right into a heated argument. Circe appeared to be well versed in the mental state of vampires as she just sat down in the spare armchair like she was waiting for two toddlers to finish their row.

  ‘And we don’t even know how it’s going to turn out for her because, let’s be honest, magic doesn’t give a shit who it screws over in the meantime until the intention is realised. For all we know, Death has been gunning for Liv all this time because it’s only when she dies th
at Emerson gets to live.’

  My heart thudded in my chest. ‘That’s… possible?’

  ‘Don’t you know?’ Grayson said, his voice devoid of any warmth. ‘Anything’s possible when it’s magic.’

  ‘So… I’m just supposed to wait around and see what exactly the spell decides to do with me?’

  ‘It’s much worse than that, I’m afraid,’ Emerson said. He was propped up, looking half-dead, against the doorframe of the living room.

  ‘Emerson!’ Charlotte said.

  He barely mustered her a half-hearted smile.

  ‘What do you mean it’s much worse than that?’ I asked.

  ‘The reason I knew you were a hunter,’ Emerson said. ‘The idea didn’t just pop into my mind from nowhere. It popped out in front of your bike from nowhere.’

  The appearance of the same figure who’d caused me to crash the first time came into my mind.

  ‘You know who that was?’

  ‘Fate and spells are alike,’ Emerson said, sounding oddly like Circe. I had no doubt he’d been listening in whilst he gathered the energy to be able to make it into the room with us. ‘They pull as many threads and connections together as possible. Your dreams weren’t just trying to explain the history of the spells that are working on you. They were a warning.’

  ‘A warning for what?’

  ‘Months ago, you told me that the vampires who murdered your parents were a couple. You only saw their true visage – you wouldn’t have been able to recognise them if they were glamoured. Even if every night you dreamed, something was trying to show you – warn you – who you needed to watch out for in the future to keep safe.’

  ‘I still don’t get-’

  Grayson swore. Charlotte’s blank expression turned to something bordering on distress. Whatever Emerson was trying to tell me, they were already there.

  ‘Eliza and John – the two vampires who hunted with Gabriel, and turned Charlotte and I, were never found. They’ve never been caught in the past hundred years. That was one of the first things we asked the Order to check when we recovered.’

  I thought about what that would mean: for the last remaining Mors Exercitus to be alive in today’s modern world. Whilst everything around them would have changed, the vampires themselves would remain as committed as ever to the oath they took to rid this world of immune hunters.

  ‘Immunity is hereditary. One of your parents would have been immune for you to be, too. And they’re coming after you now, as they did them.’

  ‘The Mors killed-? The vampires who turned you were the ones who killed my parents?’

  ‘If they weren’t, then it’s one massive coincidence as John was the vampire who stepped into our path and tried to kill you tonight.’

  21

  Grayson had taken charge almost immediately as Circe left. ‘The first thing that we need to do is alert the Order. Get Liv into protective custody-’

  Emerson, whose colour had returned to him finally, interrupted. ‘No offence, mate, but the Order can do shite all to protect us. They didn’t stop the Mors from killing my family and turning me-’

  ‘That was a long time ago,’ Grayson said.

  ‘Or from killing my family,’ Charlotte butted in. ‘And turning me.’

  ‘They really had an M.O. down, didn’t they?’ I muttered to myself.

  The three of them gave me a sharp stare. It was hard for me to turn off my snarky wit. That was kind of my go-to coping mechanism that didn’t lead to me hiding out in a bathroom having a panic attack. Because right now, all I wanted to do was run. My heartbeat was wild in my chest and I was shaking. Physically shaking everywhere.

  This was madness. But the words coming from Emerson had seemed saner than anything Circe had tried to explain about tangled webs and spells using me as their conduit or whatever shit she’d been trying to say. The vampires who had haunted my dreams since I was five being the same ones from my visions? Seemed plausible to me. I mean, it explained why there’d been two of them to kill my parents when Ali had always assured me that rogue vampires were an anomaly who broke the Code. For them, they had been following the Code. Their Code. To rid the world of those immune.

  Exasperated, Grayson clenched and unclenched his fists. ‘Then what do you suggest we do?’

  ‘We go to Hollydale.’

  ‘Where’s Hollydale?’ I asked.

  ‘England, but it’s not a “where” it’s a “who” – the coven I stayed with when I was recuperating after… everything.’

  ‘Do you honestly think that’s a better idea than getting the Order-’

  Charlotte interrupted Grayson. ‘No, Emerson’s right. Blaise is an obscura; she’ll be able to hide Liv better than anyone.’

  ‘The kid?’ Grayson asked, confused.

  ‘She’ll have grown up by now,’ Charlotte reminded him.

  ‘Fine. I’ll call ahead and see if Blaise is there. But it won’t be just Liv,’ Grayson said. ‘All three of you will be going.’

  ‘Is that really necessary?’ Charlotte asked.

  ‘If that’s the plan you want to go for instead of allowing the Order to find you their own protection, then yes. We’re talking about the vampires who turned you against your will. They let Emerson go because they dissociated enough to allow it. The same with you. But now you’re both involved with a hunter. It doesn’t seem to me like they’re going to be lenient again. They hunt anyone who aids the immune.’

  ‘I was going with her anyway,’ Emerson said, shrugging like it was no big deal – him leaving everything behind. His friendship with Gi, the mission he’d been given by the Order, the small normal life he’d built at NRHS.

  I noticed the twinge in his shoulders with the movement. He might have healed, but he was still weak.

  ‘We’re running off to England?’ I asked.

  ‘Ever been to Europe?’ Emerson said, trying to infuse some light-heartedness into the situation. I weakly smiled at him through the under-the-surface panic I had going on.

  ‘I’d be down for a jaunt,’ I said, trying to keep up with his fake easy-going attitude. ‘When would we go?’ I said, a little bit more worry seeping in. ‘And for how long? Do I tell Maybelle, or…?’

  ‘As soon as possible,’ Grayson said. ‘And until the Order catches the Mors – you won’t be safe until then.’

  They wouldn’t stop. I knew that. I’d seen it in my visions. It wasn’t even a leap to connect the monsters of my childhood to the monsters I’d seen decimate entire families in the Plague.

  I looked to Emerson, he nodded, like he agreed with Grayson, but there was something else working on behind his mind.

  ‘It’s been a long day,’ Emerson said. ‘I should take you home-’

  ‘Is that safe? If that… John-’ It felt wrong giving the monster a name, ‘-is trying to kill me, wouldn’t I just be putting Maybelle and Ken in danger?’

  ‘The past couple times he’s tried taking your life by making it look like an accident. Unless they become enraged in some way, Eliza and John take the lives of the immune in ways that can’t be traced by the Order back to them. It’s how Gabriel taught them to stay off the radar,’ Emerson said.

  My parents had been murdered in our house. It hadn’t been made to look like an accident, and I had been left behind, just like Charlotte and Emerson had been the only ones left after they had dissociated from their rage.

  ‘So, unless I piss them off, they’ll just keep trying to get me to kill myself?’

  ‘You’d think they would have had an easier job of it considering how much Death loves you,’ Grayson muttered. I hadn’t realised Emerson had shared with him my theories on Death.

  ‘Come on,’ Emerson said, nodding his head towards the door.

  ‘You just got into an accident. You’re not driving her home,’ Charlotte said. ‘I’ll take her. You plan with Grayson about getting us to England.’

  Though we weren’t hostile with each other, after all that had been revealed tonight, I didn’t e
nvision the car journey would be pleasant.

  ‘Emerson doesn’t believe that the Order will ever catch the Mors Exercitus, does he?’ I asked Charlotte once we were away from the boys in the car.

  Charlotte didn’t look at me. Her eyes were focused on the road in front of her. I had to wonder if she was thinking about the male vampire – whether he would appear on this road, too.

  ‘No. They’ve had since the sixteenth century to do so and they’ve been unsuccessful. There have been successes, I don’t deny that. The number was taken down from twenty to the two that remain now, but Eliza and John have had centuries to evade detection and continue their mission.

  ‘Just because we know you’re their next target doesn’t mean the Order will be any more likely to catch them. Even if they did their power is… they’re stronger than the average vampire.’

  The aftermath from the first nightmares I’d had whilst wearing my mom’s ring had literally taken away the colour of my skin, drawn dark circles under my eyes and made me feel unwell for every night I’d dreamt of them. Screams of Emerson’s coven. Eliza and John ending Gabriel as easily as any other defenceless lamia. They did seem stronger. Survival of the fittest – and they were the last survivors.

  ‘So, we’re not just running away for now, are we?’

  ‘No. You’ll be like us: on the run forever.’

  ‘Or at least until they catch me,’ I said, morbidly.

  ‘Emerson won’t let them catch you.’

  ‘Not to offend your first love or anything, but you two don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to them. They’re sort of winning on the leader board two-oh.’

  ‘He’ll try. For you, he’ll try,’ Charlotte said.

  And that’s what I was worried about. I’d questioned what awful thing might happen so that Death could finally get his hands on Emerson, and I had now been given my answer.

  The plan was to run the night of the Winter Showcase. I’d been planning on leaving and never coming back weeks ago. It wasn’t like this plan was something new for me. I’d run away a lot. But it was different this time; I was running away for the last time, at least the last time as Olivia Morgan.