by L.H. Cosway
“Honestly, I have no idea.”
She let out a long breath, a crease forming on her brow. “There must be an easier way of doing this. I don’t see why we can’t just find Theodore and kill him before he even releases the chaos.”
“Well, we don’t know where he is for a start,” Gabriel said. “He won’t have stayed in the house Roman found him in for long. It’s too risky.”
“I guess.”
Tegan clasped her hands together, and a thoughtful expression came over her, but she didn’t say anything. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was concocting something that was going to get her into trouble. But no, she wouldn’t be that stupid, not in her delicate condition.
I grabbed a quick bowl of cereal, then returned to bed, climbing in beside Alora. I wrapped my arms around her, making the most of the time we had left because, if Theodore got his way, we’d all be done for soon enough.
17.
Tegan
I couldn’t stop thinking about the All-Knowing Tome. It showed me how to kill a sorcerer. I had this innate feeling that I couldn’t seem to shake. What if the book told me how to kill Theodore because it was my responsibility to do it?
Cut off his head.
Burn his body.
I could do that, right? I had killed Eliza, after all. Theodore might be a little trickier, but it was still doable. There was the small obstacle of having to find him first, but I had a plan.
There was a scarf among my things that belonged to Rita. I borrowed it and forgot to return it, which was lucky because I could use it to cast a location spell. If I found out where Rita was, it went without saying that Theodore would be somewhere close by.
Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your Aunt.
Sure, I suspected it wasn’t going to be that simple, but I had to try.
Very early the next morning, when Ethan was out of the house, I got to work on the spell. I cut off a piece of the scarf and placed it under the glass on the map that was spread out on the floor. With bated breath, I watched as it moved along the paper and finally landed on a spot close to where Emilia’s barrier was. I recognised the area, but as far as I knew there was nothing there, no buildings to hide inside anyway.
With this information, I steeled myself to talk to Emilia. I’d been putting the conversation off since she was brought here, but now I really needed to get it over and done with. I found her sitting on the bed in her room, her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. Always so prim and proper.
She didn’t say anything to me as I entered and leaned back against a wall to study her. “So, I guess you know why I’m here.”
“You want to save yourself,” she answered evenly.
“I want to save myself and my baby, Emilia. Can you tell me how to do that?”
She glanced down at her hands and then back to me. “If I do this, will you instruct your vampire to set me free?”
“If you agree to leave Rebecca alone, yes. But not before then and not before I see that your method works.”
Her eyebrows shot up as she let out a hard laugh. “So, I will have to wait here, confined in this room, until you give birth?”
I sighed and slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor. The idea of keeping Emilia captive for the next however many months was exhausting. “I don’t see any other way right now.”
Her eyes narrowed as she watched me, a million thoughts flashing in her gaze. A couple of minutes of absolute quiet passed before she spoke, “Go and get a pen and paper. You’ll need to take down a list of ingredients.”
“For?”
“For the medicine that you’re going to take to make sure the child you’re carrying doesn’t die. There’s no sure-fire way of saving both of you, but there is a potion that will at least ensure the baby lives.”
“Fuck.”
“This is all I have to offer. Also, your language is unseemly.”
“Fine,” I said, gritting my teeth. If I couldn’t save myself, then I could at least save my baby. I couldn’t stand the idea of Ethan losing another child. I’d go to the ends of the earth to prevent it.
I left the room and returned with a pad and pen, taking down the ingredients as Emilia called them out. Once she was finished, she instructed, “You will drink this medicine every morning and every night for the duration of your pregnancy.”
“Right,” I replied, scanning down the list and trying to figure out where I was going to get a three-to-four-month supply of all this stuff. Then I remembered Rita’s RV back at Finn’s house and how it was jam-packed with spell ingredients.
“We never had to be enemies, you know,” I said, facing Emilia. “I could have been a granddaughter to you. Sometimes you just have to accept the imperfections in people to find the pearl inside the ugly oyster shell.”
She held her silence, so I gave up and thanked her for the list of ingredients. Just as I returned to my room and started packing away the location spell from earlier, there was a light tapping on the window. I turned and found Roman hovering in the air outside. What on earth? I hurried to the window and let him in.
“You can fly,” I gasped.
“Not naturally,” he answered as he casually climbed inside. “It’s a spell.”
“Ah, I see.”
Slipping off his coat, he walked over to the bed and sat down. I swallowed hard and glanced at the door. Ethan was out inspecting the wreckage at Crimson, but I still couldn’t help being nervous that he was going to walk in on us at any second. He wasn’t too fond of Roman, and I didn’t know how he’d react if he found him here with me in our room.
Roman clasped his hands together and smiled at me.
“So,” he began. “Have you had enough time to consider my proposition?”
His proposition? Oh, right. What with everything that had been happening, I’d completely forgotten about the whole sorceress thing. Since he’d retrieved Emilia and Rebecca from Theodore, I technically did owe him. Then again, he still hadn’t used Emilia to take down the barrier, nor had he gotten Rita back.
“You know I’m pregnant, right?” I said, trying to distract him and buy myself more time.
“I do. I would say congratulations are in order, but that would probably be in bad taste.”
A shiver ran through me as I tried to push vivid thoughts of dying in childbirth out of my head.
“I also know that you’re planning on going after Theodore by yourself,” he continued. “Tut tut, Tegan. That’s a very bad idea. You have no chance of defeating him.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
He tapped his temple. “I know a lot. Too much, really.”
I exhaled and slumped down onto the bed beside him. “I’m just panicking, okay? If I survive my pregnancy, then I want to know that I’m bringing my child into a world that’s stable. In order to do that, Theodore has to die.”
“Well, I could help you with that, if you agree to my offer. There’s also something else I could add to the bargain. Something I’m sure you’d find very valuable given you’re in a romantic relationship with a vampire.”
My curiosity piqued. “Oh?”
“There’s a spell that would allow him to feed from you and only you. He’d no longer have to find random humans to take blood from, and you wouldn’t have to suffer the jealousy of thinking about him sinking his fangs into anyone else.”
Okay, so I was definitely interested. Practically, I knew Ethan had to feed, but personally, I didn’t enjoy the thought of him feeding from other people, other women in particular. I peered at Roman. “How does it work?”
“Since he is transformed, your blood doesn’t pose any further harm to him. In fact, drinking your blood is now the same as him drinking any other human’s blood. The power contained within has already been transferred. However, it is still unhealthy for you to be bitten so often, given your human half can become addicted to his bite. It also isn’t advisable to lose blood on such a regular basis. However, if I were to teach you t
his spell, it would allow you to use your magic to regenerate the blood you’ve lost, while also warding off the possibility of addiction.”
I stared at him. What he was offering was certainly appealing. If I was the only one Ethan fed from it would bring us even closer together, strengthen our already strong bond while allowing me to avoid the jealousy of him feeding from other women. But becoming a sorceress? I still wasn’t sure if I was powerful or clever enough for such an endeavour.
Pursing my lips, I stared down at my hands, searching for answers that weren’t there. “If I become a sorceress, would I still be me?”
Roman laughed. “Of course you would. The possession of magic comes with a choice. Take Theodore and me as an example. Theodore made the choice to use his magic for bad, while I chose to use mine to do good.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Most things are when it comes down to it.”
A million thoughts rushed through my head. Finally, I came to a decision. I mean, I was already in dire straits, all things considered. What else did I have to lose? I turned and held my hand out to Roman.
“Alright, Granddad, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
He took my hand into his immediately, and we shook on it, a beatific smile spreading across his face. “Marvellous.”
Standing up, I walked over to the closet and pulled out the backpack I’d stashed there last night. It contained a very sharp sword, which I took from Ethan’s weapons room hidden in the back of the basement, several litres of petrol, and a good old-fashioned packet of matches. Oh, yeah, and a zippo lighter just in case the matches happened to get wet. The sword was too big for the backpack and stuck out awkwardly at the top, so I took it out and strapped it across my back instead.
Hitching the bag over my shoulder, I faced Roman again, and he was grinning at me.
“I see you’re prepared.”
“Absolutely. Now, let’s go kill ourselves a sorcerer.”
“It would be my pleasure.”
In a matter of seconds, Roman had transported us to an empty meadow, quite close to the spot where Finn brought me to call my dad. The purple barrier hovered in the air and shot up into the sky just a short distance away.
“Come, we’ll walk from here.”
“Where are we going? There are no houses for miles.”
“Correction, no visible houses.”
“Right,” I replied, not entirely sure what he meant by that.
Roman strode ahead of me, and when he reached the barrier, he walked directly through it. I followed him, but when I reached the other side there were still no houses in sight.
“Theodore’s been staying on the other side of the barrier?” I questioned.
“After what happened the other day, I presume that he decided remaining just outside of Tribane was the safer option.”
He swept his hand through the air and gold shone from his palm. It was like he was using an eraser to wipe away the glamour because each time he swiped his hand a new piece of a hidden picture started to emerge. Theodore hadn’t just hidden any old house here in the middle of nowhere, he’d hidden his mansion. The very same mansion that I saw crumble to the ground with my own two eyes on Ridley Island almost a year ago.
To be able to recreate a house that’d been destroyed was just mind-boggling to me.
When Roman was done and the entire mansion was revealed to us, I instinctively took a step back. I had a bad feeling about this and that bad feeling was confirmed when the door opened and a small, dark figure emerged.
Rita.
We were a short distance from the building, so she began to walk towards us. I looked to Roman for guidance on what we should do, but he was staring at Rita like the very sight of her enthralled him. Well, okay then.
“Um, what’s happening?” I asked.
“It appears that Theodore has decided to send his protégé to come and face us instead of doing it himself.”
I snorted. “Scaredy cat.”
“More like a clever cat. He knows you love her like a sister and that no matter what happens you won’t kill her.”
“Well, that’s just cheating,” I replied, annoyed now.
“Little witch, what a pleasure,” Roman called out. “I’ve been hoping we’d meet again.”
“Fuck you,” she spat. “Neither of you should be here.”
“Rita …” I began but trailed off when her eyes cut to me, and my heart chilled to its very core at the look she gave me. Pure hatred. “Oh, don’t start this shit again, Tegan. I’m not your Rita, so stop giving me those bloody puppy dog eyes and thinking I’m going to come back to you.”
This was the most she’d said to me since she went to join Theodore, so despite her venom, I took hope from the fact that she was actually talking to me.
“I’m not going to give up on you,” I shot back. “Even if you have turned into a massive bitch.”
Roman chuckled. Something flickered behind Rita’s eyes, but she quickly disguised it.
“Say whatever you want. I think I’ll kill you now so that I can be done with you turning up all the time trying to save me.”
“You’d really do that?” I asked, unable to help the wobble in my voice. “You’d kill me?”
Her mouth tightened. “Why not? You’re nothing to me, nothing but an irritation.”
Roman was still laughing like he knew a secret, and I wished he’d stop. This wasn’t a laughing matter. He shot Rita a seductive look, and I suddenly realised that he had the hots for her. Great. That was all we needed to add to an already complicated situation.
“Tegan, do you think you can handle her on your own?” he asked. “I want to go and find Theodore.”
“No!” I screeched. “She just said she’s going to kill me and you want to leave me alone with her! What the fuck?”
“I wouldn’t be leaving if I didn’t think you’d be safe,” Roman replied like he hadn’t a worry in the world.
“I don’t care what you think. You’re not leaving me.”
He took a step closer and stared deeply into my eyes. “You can do this. I believe in you.”
And with that, he disappeared.
Several very loud expletives erupted from my mouth.
Rita grinned viciously.
Before I had the chance to do a thing, she threw a bolt of magic at me, knocking me to the ground. I yelped, feeling the pain shoot right up my back.
“Christ, Rita!” I snapped. A sharp sting shot through my middle, and fear clutched at me. I pressed my hand to my stomach, hoping the baby was okay. Rita’s gaze followed the movement, and her eyes narrowed in something close to disgust.
“You’re pregnant with a vampire abomination,” she said, while tiny flecks of magic dripped from her fingertips like water.
“You and your daddy really are fond of that word, aren’t you?”
She turned her head and looked off into the distance like she was pondering something. “I should cut the thing out of you.”
“Why bother?” I retorted, even though my gut churned at the thought of it. “The birth will more than likely kill the both of us.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
“Look, Rita, I know a vampire killed Noreen, but things don’t need to be this way. You can come back to us.”
“Don’t you dare say her name. You have no right!”
“Alvie really misses you,” I went on, and I might’ve been mistaken, but I thought I saw her hard façade waver a little. “Everybody misses you. Come on, it must be awful living with old clown face in there.”
I startled in fright when she lashed her magic at me again. It missed by the barest fraction of an inch, and it singed the grass where I’d landed flat on my arse just moments ago. My hands shook as I lifted them in front of me.
“Please, just calm down, okay? I’m sorry I called your dad a clown face. If anything, he’s more like one of those marionette dolls.”
The old Rita would have laughed at this, but not this Rit
a. This Rita simply stared at me without emotion. She started to pace, muttering to herself. I took the opportunity to summon my sparks and have them ready to attack if needed.
I was determined to find some trace of her old humanity, so I continued talking. “What’s it like living with him anyway? Must be kind of weird. Does he use the bathroom like normal people, or does he just magic that stuff away? I mean, I’ve often wondered if sorcerers even have to sleep. Like, they’re immortal and all, so maybe they don’t.”
Rita’s eyes cut to me. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t seem too happy about me prattling on about Theodore either.
“These are important questions, you see, because Roman’s going to train me to become a sorceress, so I should probably know this stuff before I really commit. I think it might be weird not going to the bathroom anymore. And I really like to sleep. Finn says it’s my favourite pastime.”
“You, a sorceress?” Rita scoffed, and I felt a rush of triumph that I got her to react. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re so clueless about even the basics of magic.”
Well, that was nice and bitchy. Still, I’d take ‘bitchy Rita’ over ‘I’m going to kill you and cut out your baby Rita’ any day of the week.
“I might be clueless, but I have power. That’s the most important thing. The other bits I can learn as I go along.”
“Your only power is the ability to spread your legs for vampires and let them feed on you,” she replied derisively.
“I only let that happen once,” I pointed out. “Once doesn’t make me a slut. Well, the feeding thing happened once. The spreading of the legs happened a few times. But you should try it, you know. It’s a lot of fun.”
Purple started to swirl in her eyes now. “You’re vile.”
“Am I? Don’t say I said anything, but I think Roman might have a bit of a thing for you. Pretty sure I saw you blush when he gave you his come-to-bed eyes, too. You should take the opportunity to get some action. You do seem very tense these days.”
“I did not blush!” she shouted, and I dove out of the way when she flung her magic at me again. I didn’t emerge entirely unscathed this time. The sleeve of my jacket got singed.
