Sacred Spite

by Nadia Heaton

  “What are we going to tell them?” Fleur knew it was her decision, but she needed her sisters’ advice. Even Tristan, who hadn’t come of age yet, had a wisdom that belied her years.

  “Well, we can’t tell them the truth, that’s for sure.” Lisette bit her lip in that way she did when she was thinking hard.

  “We have to tell them part of the truth,” Tristan pointed out. “That’s why dad told us to call the meeting. Even if they don’t know everything, we need our coven to be safe.”

  “Agreed, but we also need Beth and Jermaine to be safe.” Both Lis and Tristan grimaced at the mention of Jermaine. None of them were happy about having a vampire in the house, but they all agreed to let Jermaine stay until he was healed.

  “We can’t tell anyone else about Jermaine.” Lis glanced over her shoulder, making sure no one was approaching. “Mirabelle would kill him instantly if she even suspected Beth might have feelings for him.”

  “Then we need to come up with some other reason for Savion’s visit.” It was so complicated, Fleur wished she could leave the decisions to Lis, but she also knew that she needed to get used to this. She was going to be coven leader someday, and Lisette already looked to her in matters like these, despite Fleur being the younger of the two.

  “Do we need a reason? We can warn them about the vampires, but let them draw what conclusions they will about why the vampires are here.”

  Tristan had a good point, but Fleur knew they would have to give Mirabelle a bit more than that. “No one will buy that vampires just turned up on our doorstep in the middle of the night without stating what they wanted from us. It’s not like vampires and witches socialize.”

  Lisette nodded her agreement. “We can tell the coven that Savion is looking for one of his coven. The question we’ll need to answer is why he thinks we know anything in the first place.”

  None of them spoke, all thinking hard. Fleur knew they needed to come up with a solution to this, and come up with it fast. “We could tell them about how Savion came to the store and saw you use your powers, Lis. Then, figuring out that we’re witches, he came to ask if we knew where his brother was. Considering the uneasy truce we have with guarding each other’s sources of power, I don’t think it’ll be unbelievable to say he expected us to cooperate if we knew anything.”

  “But why would he be looking for Jermaine here, if not for Bethany?” Tristan pointed out.

  It seemed Lisette had an answer for this. “We can say this was the last area he saw his brother in, and leave it at that.”

  Fleur considered this option. It wasn’t a perfect story, but she thought it would hold up. It wasn’t like their coven expected them to lie. “Ok, I’ll go with that, then. Thanks Lis, Tristan. What about Beth and Jermaine?”

  “I’ve moved them to the local pool where Bethany goes to practice when she needs something a bit bigger than what we have at home. It’s closed now, so there won’t be anyone around, and it wasn’t hard for Jermaine to get Beth in through the window. We should still try to stop the meeting from moving to our house, though.”

  Lisette was biting her lip again, no doubt thinking along the same lines as Fleur. Many of their coven mates were much older and more experienced than the three of them. Who knew what tricks they possessed? If the coven found out that a vampire had been living in their house, there would be hell to pay.

  “We’ll have them stay there until tomorrow,” Fleur decided. “Whatever you do, don’t either of you mention that broken vase.”

  Both of her sisters stared at her in frank surprise. “What?” Tristan glanced at Lis, who shrugged.

  “Why not, Fleur?”

  “The last thing we need is to make the vampires seem like more of a threat. We’ll already be lucky if Mirabelle agrees not to send a hunting party after Savion.”

  “Why do you care?” Tristan still looked confused, but Lis smiled smugly.

  “I knew it. You like him.”

  “I don’t even know him, Lis.”

  “Doesn’t mean you can’t like him.”

  “I’m not like you. I’m not a romantic person who falls in love. You know I’m not interested in that.”

  “You weren’t interested in that. I’ve seen more interest from you in Savion’s presence over the past day than I’ve seen every day of your life combined.”

  “I’m not interested in Savion,” Fleur said flatly, but that was an outright lie. She was interested in Savion, and it confused the heck out of her. She’d never been remotely interested in romance before; why in the world would she suddenly be so taken by a vampire?

  Perhaps it was Bethany and Jermaine. Fleur saw how happy they were together – blissfully so, despite the wide array of problems that they faced if they wanted to be together. She was probably just jealous of of her sister’s happiness and therefore jealous of their love. That’s all this was. It wasn’t even about Savion, just her own mind reaching for something.

  Fleur thought of herself as happy, but perhaps she needed to change her life, if she thought she needed to love a vampire to feel complete. Obviously, something was wrong. She’d never cared for the health or safety of a vampire before. She only protected Jermaine for Bethany’s sake.

  “Spit it out.” Lisette had a way of drawing such things out of people, but Fleur was determined not to play her game.

  “I’m fine, Lis.”

  “Tristan, please go back to the meeting point and tell Mirabelle that Fleur and I will be there shortly.”

  Tristan nodded and flitted off through the trees. Fleur started to follow her, but Lis grabbed her arm.

  “Oh, no you don’t. Talk to me, Fleur. You know this is what I do.”

  “I can’t have feelings for a vampire. It’s just my head playing tricks on me.”

  “No, it’s not. This is my specialty, remember? I can tell the difference between something genuine, and something made-up. This isn’t just your mind playing tricks on you.”

  “So what?” Fleur threw up her hands, a couple of sparks escaping from her fingertips. “Even if that were true, I couldn’t be with a vampire. It’s impossible enough for Beth, and she’s just an ordinary mortal. I’m a witch! It would mean a life on the run, always looking over my shoulder. Any coven would slay the pair of us in a heartbeat.

  “Besides, I’m not even sure I like Savion. I know you seem all convinced, and I guess I can’t hide that I’m drawn to him, but it could be simple curiosity. It could be something that burns out with time. It could be any number of things. Even you admit that matters of the heart are difficult to read, and always changing.”

  “I know, Fleur, I know. I just don’t want you hiding from your feelings. That never works, and it only serves to make things worse.”

  “You’re one to talk,” Fleur muttered, regretting the words the moment they were out of her mouth.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing.” Fleur knew that Lisette understood what she meant perfectly. Lis was good at what she did, and there was no way she didn’t realize she was falling out of love with Teo. Why she hadn’t broken off their engagement yet was anyone’s guess. It didn’t make sense to Fleur, but she supposed it was none of her business, unless Lis chose to tell her.

  She just wished Lis would take the same attitude with her feelings toward Savion. No matter how her sister may think she was helping, this whole conversation just left Fleur more confused than she had been before.

  “You go ahead, Lis. I’ll be there in a moment, I just need a minute to think.”

  Lisette squeezed her shoulder in gentle support before disappearing into the trees. Fleur didn’t know what she wanted. She might never see Savion again; maybe he’d just wait until Jermaine was healed, then disappear with him.

  Of course, Bethany and Jermaine weren’t going to be separated, but that didn’t mean Jermaine would want to stay anywhere near witches once he was healed. Fleur wasn’t gifted with the ability to glimpse visions of the future, which meant she could do n
othing but wait and see where fate led her.

  11

  Though they didn’t say anything, Savion could feel Vince’s and Zan’s disapproving eyes on his back as he returned. They hadn’t wanted him to follow the LeBlanc sisters when the three of them went for a quite chat in another part of the woods, but Savion couldn’t resist.

  He didn’t regret it in the slightest. Though Fleur had shown no outward sign of interest in him, the conversation he’d listened in on made it clear that she was more conflicted than she outwardly appeared. It gave him hope that… well, he didn’t know what to hope for. The one thing he knew for sure is that they couldn’t be together, but Savion pushed such thoughts aside for now.

  The last of the witches arrived, and he settled in his tree, making sure he was screened by leaves and branches, peeking out through the smallest gap.

  One of the witches took control of the meeting, and Savion assumed she was the coven leader. The others called her Mirabelle. Mirabelle started the meeting off with some chanting. No one seemed surprised by this. They all stood in a circle and linked hands, speaking in words Savion didn’t understand, but were haunting nonetheless.

  His eyes were inevitably drawn to Fleur. He could almost see the power radiating from her. At some signal he didn’t see, the circle broke. Mirabelle remained where she was, but the others started dancing around her. Savion didn’t know what kind of magic this was; no vampire did.

  He wondered if any vampire before him had gotten a glimpse of a witch coven’s inner workings. His natural distaste for witches had led him to believe it would be ugly and evil.

  This was neither ugly nor evil. It was beautiful and powerful and alluring. Savion glanced to either side to see that Vince and Zan were similarly entranced. Unlike him, though, their eyes flitted between the witches. Savion had eyes only for Fleur.

  Perhaps if he’d been paying more attention to the danger this position put him in and less to the way Fleur’s body moved under her flowing dress, Savion would have been able to react faster.

  At a word from Mirabelle, something seemed to sweep through the clearing. It felt like a wave of cold that went right through Savion’s bones.

  All at once, the witches stopped dancing. Mirabelle stopped chanting. They looked as one in Savion’s direction. He knew they couldn’t see him, but the spell had obviously told them of his presence.

  He exchanged a panicked glance with Vince and Zan. What should they do? If they tried to run, they would make their presence obvious. Would it be better to hide and hope they weren’t discovered? It was too risky to try to use magic of their own to hide themselves further; witches were masters of magic and would sense it in an instant.

  “I will take a look,” Fleur said firmly. “It could just be an animal.”

  “That wasn’t an animal,” Mirabelle said darkly.

  “It wasn’t a mortal, either, we all felt that much. We know vampires have been in the area. Their magic might be getting our lines crossed, making the spell read the wrong things. I’ll take a look.”

  She didn’t wait for Mirabelle’s agreement, but started striding purposefully toward Savion. He froze, unsure what to do. If it came to a fight, he wouldn’t hurt Fleur. But how badly would she hurt him, and would he be able to walk away from it?

  Fleur stopped just short of the cluster of trees he was hiding in with Vince and Zan. Savion held a hand out to the two of them, gesturing that they should wait it out and see. Somehow, he didn’t feel a sense of danger with Fleur so close, even though by all rights he should have.

  She spoke again, and Savion felt another wave rushing past him, but this time it didn’t go through him. This one was hot rather than cold, almost comforting.

  His ears gave him only a moment’s warning as three deer burst through the trees. Savion was sure they hadn’t been there before; he would have sensed them from miles off. Apparently, his senses were jumbled, just as Fleur had said her magic was, because the deer were clearly here now.

  There were a couple of exclamations from the rest of the coven, and they quickly moved aside to let the animals through. Fleur turned back to them, and Savion saw some of the tension in her shoulders relax.

  “See, just animals. We’re good.”

  “We should redo the spell –”

  “It’s fine, Amanda. We don’t want to use more of our power than we have to. We may need it. Mirabelle?”

  “I will take your judgement on this, Fleur, since you have more information than me. Let’s continue.”

  The witches went back to the circle, and Mirabelle restarted her chanting. This time, when the rest of the coven spread out to dance, it was different. At least, Fleur was different.

  Her movements had been graceful before, but now they were almost… seductive. Was she looking in Savion’s direction more often than was natural? Surely, he was imagining it. Fleur’s body bent and rippled under her dress, making Savion’s breath quicken. Zan gave him a warning look, and he struggled to control himself.

  Savion sighed in relief when the dancing stopped. He didn’t know how much more of that he could have taken. The witches were back in the circle, but this time, they sang instead of chanted. Fleur’s voice rose above the rest as she stepped into the middle. A flat stone that Savion swore hadn’t been more than a few inches tall was suddenly growing.

  It elongated upward, with Fleur balancing on top of it. In mere seconds, it had become a podium, raising her above all the rest. Savion had never seen anything like it. Despite his long life, he hadn’t seen much witch magic, and what he had seen was usually aimed at him or his coven with hostile intent.

  This wasn’t violent or ugly. It was beautiful – an art form. Vampires had some basic command of magic, but their powers were mostly focused on their senses and bodily abilities. The things they could do were functional.

  Witches took it to another level. Savion had always seen it as another level of destruction before now, but watching this, he realized it could equally be another level of creation. Maybe if more vampires saw this side of witch magic, there wouldn’t be so much tension between their two species.

  Savion suppressed a sad sigh. Things had been stable for hundreds of years, but now, everything was being stirred up again.

  Witches and vampires had long stood by an agreement. Vampires couldn’t withstand freezing temperatures, which left the source of their power, the eternal flame in the north, vulnerable to human interference and destruction.

  The witches guarded it for them, in exchange for the vampires guarding the underwater volcano that was the source of all witches’ power. Witches couldn’t survive in salt water, and were unable to do it themselves.

  Now, apparently, the witches were making a move to change things. The attack on their own volcano had barely been thwarted by Savion’s coven. If the volcano was destroyed, it would cause a surge of magical power and a chain reaction that would destroy magic everywhere.

  Witches would simply lose their powers and become human. Vampires everywhere would die. Their entire species would become extinct.

  They had been fighting for so long that Savion couldn’t even remember what had started the conflict between witches and vampires. Before now, he’d never questioned what he had been taught – that, on principle, witches were evil and should be hated.

  Now that he’d met Fleur, he found that he didn’t have it in him to hate her. So what if she was a witch? Savion wondered how much of the fighting between their species could be avoided if they simply got to know each other?

  Of course, Fleur may not feel the same way. Maybe she would also trade her power in for the death of all vampires. The thought was a depressing one, but Savion didn’t have long to dwell on it. Fleur started addressing the rest of her coven.

  “I have called this emergency meeting because it has come to light that there might be a great source of danger facing us. Just a few hours ago, two vampires came to my family’s house, looking for a third. Though they did not appear to be agg
ressive toward us, but they are still vampires, and we should all be very cautious until we are sure that they have left the area for good.”

  Her words caused a stir, and a couple of the witches muttered worriedly to each other. Savion stared at Fleur, feeling unaccountably betrayed. Somehow, even though she’d called the meeting, he hadn’t expected her to rat him out like that.

  It was ridiculous, of course. Fleur barely knew him. She had no reason to be loyal to him. In fact, she’d made it clear from their brief interactions that she wasn’t interested in him. She hadn’t been actively hostile, but that was all he could truly say.

  What if her sister, Lisette, was wrong about Fleur’s feelings? All witches hated vampires; everyone knew that. They were ancient vampires. If his coven knew that he felt anything for Fleur other than hatred, they would be disgusted. He could trust Vince and Zan – and Jermaine, obviously – but the rest? They’d never understand.

  His stupid heart set to aching, despite his harsh reprimands. Fleur would never see him as a potential lover, and he’d always known that. He felt foolish for getting all upset about it, reality smacked him in the face for being so immature and foolish.

  Savion gritted his teeth, forcing himself to focus. He was here to spy on the witches and find out where Jermaine was. It didn’t matter what Fleur thought of him. He just needed to get his brother and get out of here.

  12

  Savion watched as Fleur stepped down from the podium. The moment her feet touched the ground, she was being questioned by the other witches.

  Mirabelle made her voice heard above all the others. “What did you tell them, Fleur?”

  “We said we had no idea where his brother was. After that, they both left.”

  “Well, they’re obviously lying. Did you get any idea of why they were really there?”

  “I don’t think they were lying, Mirabelle. One of them – Savion – he submitted to a truth spell. He told us under its influence that he really was only looking for his brother.”