“You remember me,” I said.
“Yes, I remember you,” she said—this time much quieter. “What are you doing here?” She walked toward me and grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the door. “You can’t be here. You have to leave! Go now.”
She pushed past Jasik and opened the door, stepping aside to give us room to leave, but I didn’t move.
“I can’t go. I need your help.”
She gawked and then shook her head. “No. No! There’s nothing I can do for you. Leave. Now.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Not until we talk.”
“You don’t understand!” she hissed. “My entire coven will be here any minute! Some have already arrived. You have to go!”
“Good. I need to speak to them, too.”
“They’ll kill you,” she said matter-of-factly.
“That’s of no surprise. You yourself seem to turn to murder, too,” Jasik said, and the girl’s cheeks flushed as she fiddled with her hands.
“I—I thought you were going to kill me, okay? I’m not sorry. I’d do it again. We’re not exactly friends,” she said, not meeting our eyes.
I nodded. “I know, but we can be.”
Her gaze lifted, and her brows furrowed. “What?”
“I’m different. You know I’m different. All I want to do is explain why I’m different.”
“That’s it? And then you’ll leave?”
“Yes. I just want to talk to you and your coven, and then I’ll leave if you want me to. And you’ll never have to see me again.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“Well, this time I mean it.”
“Didn’t you mean it last time?”
I chuckled. “Last time, I told you I wasn’t going to hurt you, and even after you fried me to a crisp, I didn’t hurt you. We’re not looking for a fight. We’re just looking to talk.”
“My coven will never allow this. They’ll kill you on the spot. And they’ll do worse to me!”
“Worse than death?” Jasik asked.
Her eyes widened as she quickly nodded.
“I know. The whole witch-befriending-vampire thing is taboo, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
I exhaled slowly. “What’s your name?”
“Meredith,” she said cautiously.
“Well, Meredith, I’m Avah—”
“I know. I mean, I remember.”
“Right, well, this is Jasik,” I said, hitching my thumb back toward the vampire who stood too close for comfort. I had to remind myself that he was just being protective. He was a lion ready to strike. I just wished his poker face was a teeny bit more readable. His no-nonsense glare reeked sociopath.
Meredith eyed him carefully. “He’s not the same one.”
I shook my head. “Sebastian isn’t here.” I wasn’t surprised she remembered Sebastian. The memory of that night was probably burned into her brain. I was sure she could pick him out of a lineup if need be.
“Good. I didn’t like him.”
“Well, you should like him.”
“He was rude.”
“He was saving my life.”
She shrugged. “I saw it both ways.”
Jasik tensed, and I grabbed his hand, squeezing it slightly. I didn’t need him to chime in anymore. This girl was young, frightened.
“It doesn’t matter. What happened is in the past, and I’d like to keep it there.”
She nodded. “Me too.”
“Good. So when can we meet your coven?” I asked, grinning.
“You’re a little too eager,” she said.
“Honestly, I am eager. I’m anticipating the initial introductions aren’t going to go well, so I’m eager to get them over with.”
“They’ll kill you, you know.”
“They’ll try, yes.”
“Are you that ready to die?”
“I’m not going to die. No one is going to die.”
“You really think two vampires can stand against an entire coven and survive? I mean, I’m still learning. I’m the weakest of them all. That’s the only reason you survived, and really, you almost didn’t. I was here. I saw you.”
“Meredith, the only reason it got that close is because I was stupid. I should have anticipated your reaction, your fear. I will never make that mistake again.”
She nodded. “Well, it’s your funeral.” She pushed past us and walked toward the back of the store. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder, and reluctantly, we followed.
“You’re sure about this?” Jasik asked as we walked past the empty cashier desk. Meredith disappeared through a corner door, and I followed.
I nodded. “They’re the only coven I know near Kat’s.” I shimmied past the overcrowded stock room, careful not to knock the stacked herbs, books, and crystals from the shelves.
“They’ll attack before you can explain,” he whispered. Briefly, I flashed back to my first encounter with Meredith. She may have felt like the student, but she had definitely mastered her craft. Had Sebastian not smothered her flames, she would have burned me alive. A shiver worked its way through me.
“Yes, they will.”
“And you’ll be able to fend them off.”
I nodded. “That day, the mistake I made was still thinking I could be seen as a witch. But I can’t. I’m not one of them anymore. These people won’t see me as the girl I once was. They see me for the monster they think I am. I won’t make that mistake again.”
Jasik rested his hands against my shoulders and squeezed, massaging, reassuring.
“Here,” Meredith said, pointing toward a descending staircase. She glanced at the watch on her wrist. “The meeting’s already begun. They’re all here.” She glanced up, her eyes meeting mine.
“After you,” I said, and she slowly walked down the stairs.
With each step, the voices grew louder. I swallowed the knot that formed in my throat and clenched my hands at my sides. We reached the landing and turned to face the room of witches. Their debate over an upcoming ritual grew more heated with each exchange, until they looked over and saw Meredith standing beside two vampires. The room fell silent, jaws agape, hearts sputtering, gasps echoing off the stone walls.
I forced a smile and silently prayed to whatever gods and goddesses were listening that it looked sincere.
“Meredith!” a woman hissed, and the shop girl hurried over to her side, leaving us to fend for ourselves.
Oh, great. Thanks a lot.
I raised my arms before me in submission. “We’re not here to hurt you. I promise. We just want to—”
The woman threw her hands before her, shouting several Latin incantations, and a spray of fire danced before us.
“Aqua,” I said. The wave of water rippled through my body, seeping from my pores. The fire extinguished, and the looks on their faces were priceless. The shock quickly turned to confusion, which then was muffled by their anger. After all, I was a vampire calling a witch’s power.
“You need to leave!” the woman said.
“Momma, they just wanted to talk. She’s not like the others. She’s—”
“Quiet! I can’t even begin to express how angry I am, Meredith. You brought these fiends into our home. You’ve cornered our coven! We will talk about this later.” Although she spoke to the girl, her eyes never left me.
“We are not going to hurt you,” I said calmly. “My name is Avah Taylor, and I’m of the Taylor coven.”
The woman gasped, stepping back, and it occurred to me that she may have been aware of who the members of my coven were—and what had happened to them. The wall I had built to protect my emotions trembled as the pain of their loss stung deep. I shook my head, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill, and put my game face back on. Now was not the time to mourn their deaths.
“I had nothing to do with that,” I whispered, my voice cracking. Her eyes narrowed as they assessed my since
rity.
“It was a massacre.”
I nodded. “It was.”
“You weren’t there? How do you know?”
“My mother, she called to me. I went to her aide. I was just too late.”
“I knew Tatiana. She was a good woman.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“She didn’t deserve to die that way.”
“No, she didn’t, and I didn’t deserve my fate, either.”
The woman’s eyes widened, and I knew I had her. She was clearly the priestess of this coven, and I knew all her dark secrets.
She shook her head and spoke slowly, carefully, “There is no spirit user in this coven.”
I nodded. I’d recently learned that there wasn’t just one chosen one per generation. So long as a witch was a spirit user, she could be infected. Covens limited themselves to one at a time, though. I guessed that helped with the mystique.
“We had no part in your birth rite.”
I chuckled, my confidence growing, my anger rising. “On the contrary, you had every part in it. You were well aware of what was happening to these witches, yet you said nothing. You stopped nothing.”
Jasik’s hand found mine and held it tightly. I tore my eyes from the witches before me and met his. He silently pleaded with me, and he was right: this wasn’t the time. I was angry at what had happened, but I couldn’t change the past. I could only change the future.
The air in the room sizzled; mist coated my skin. In my momentary lapse of judgment, the priestess had launched her attack, but since I still waited for her warm welcome, I had anticipated this. Fire users were temperamental by birth, and being a high priestess, it was her job to protect her coven. The only thing she could do was give it her best shot and hope the fire spread. Just before the flames licked my skin, my shield sprang to life, enveloping both Jasik and me as it bounced toward the woman and slammed into her. She lost her balance and was tossed back into the crowd of witches behind her.
I slowly walked toward her, crossing my arms. “Now, I told you I wasn’t here to hurt you, and I meant it. I’m asking that you trust that. Trust my word. You know of my family. You were acquaintances with my mother. You must’ve seen my home, but you didn’t find the bodies, did you? That’s because I buried them. I gave every single member of my former coven the burial they deserved. Their souls will live on because of what I did. Why on earth would I do that if I was just a killer?” Taking a leap of faith, I lowered my shield, ignoring Jasik’s objections, and offered my hand to the woman. “I’m well aware that your power can resonate from your hand, but I’m asking for peace. No one has to die today.” She placed her hand in mine, and I helped her to her feet. “I’m sorry about that.”
She nodded and pulled her hand free. “Tell me what you’re doing here.”
“I’ve just come from the witch council in London. They’ve been murdered.”
She gasped, and whispers broke out among the others. “How many?”
I swallowed. “Everyone. She killed everyone.”
“What? How? Who?”
“Eloise Taylor, my grandmother.”
Her eyes widened as her jaw nearly hit the floor. “Eloise,” she said breathlessly. “But I know her. She’s a powerful witch, a good witch.”
I shook my head. “Not anymore. She’s a vampire now. And she’s chosen to be one of the worst ones.”
“I—I don’t understand. I can’t believe this. You’re lying!”
“Call them,” I said, pulling a mobile phone from my pocket and handing it to the woman. “I’m sure you’ve memorized the number, being a high priestess and all.”
She snatched the phone and quickly typed the number. She pressed send and put the call on speaker. After just a few rings, someone answered.
“H—Hello?” Cameron said.
“Yes, hello, I need to speak with—”
“No one’s here. They’re—they’re all gone, all dead.”
The woman gasped again, as if I hadn’t just told her the same information. “Who is this?”
“C—Cameron Webster. I’m… records. Level three.” I smiled. Cameron was seriously proud of his job.
“Cameron?” I said, ignoring the woman’s scowl when I interrupted her. “It’s Avah. Tell them who I am.”
“Avah Taylor, the granddaughter. She’s going to kill her and the vampires. She’s… nice.”
“Right now, you’re probably telling yourself that this isn’t happening, that I somehow did something that’s just making it seem like the council has been destroyed. But trust me, I don’t have the time, energy, or power to waste on something that ridiculous. She killed my family. She killed the coven. And she left Cameron the sole survivor,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m a level three!” Cameron said, cutting in. “I know—I know everything. I work records. I know it all, but Avah knows nothing. She left me here, told me to wait here, right here, until Avah arrived. I did. I waited here. I told Avah. And now, now Avah is going to stop her.”
“I have a plan,” I said. “And it will work, but it’s going to require us to work together.”
“Why should I trust you?” she asked.
“Because you have no choice.”
“On the contrary, I have every choice. If this was true, then I can’t deny the fact that she’s not after me or my coven. She’s after you. If I align myself with you, she’ll come for us, too.”
“What do you think she’s going to do anyway? If she kills me, she’s not going to stop there. She is creating an army of Rogue vampires, the worst of the worst. These vampires are what your nightmares are made of. They are the exact reason The Power was created. And now, they’re starting to think with their brains instead of their fangs. I can only win with backup. I need your help to save the world. You’re not seriously considering walking away from this, are you?”
“I can’t put these people at risk. They count on me, trust me, to keep them safe!”
“You can’t keep them safe if Eloise and her army take over the world. They are an evil plague, and they will wipe out anything and everything that stands in their way, and she’ll do it with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. You stand no chance against her. Not without us.”
“What exactly would we have to do?”
I released the breath I’d been holding and told her my plan. When I’d finished, I’d expected her to argue, to tell me I was crazy, to do anything other than what she did: she laughed. Her laugh echoed off the stone walls of the small basement, and the other witches joined her.
“You can’t be serious. Don’t you think we’ve tried that before? It can’t be done.”
“The spell is risky, sure—”
“Let’s pretend we could do this. Do you know how much power it’d take? We haven’t that kind of power.”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t. Not alone, anyway. But I’m not asking you to do this alone. I’m asking you to do this together.”
She exhaled slowly. “You want more witches to join you.”
I nodded. “Witches, hybrids, and vampires.”
“How many?”
“Whoever will help us. We have friends reaching out to the vampire community. Others are contacting hybrids, like me.”
“So you want us to help bring in more witches?”
I nodded. “We need three covens. 39 witches in total. One coven for each side of the triangle.”
“Yes, I know how the spell works. But do you?”
I arched an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.
“Aside from power, we need time and protection. This is a quick spell, but not quicker than the speed of a vampire.”
“I have that handled. Some of the hybrids will sit aside to protect you. You’ll be within a, um, barrier.” I wasn’t sure how much she wanted to know. She hadn’t asked about the hybrids, so I wasn’t sure if she wanted to know vampires, like witches, could have affinities, too.
“And what a
bout this army? Who’s to fight them?”
“The remaining vampires and hybrids who join us.”
“And you believe they’ll be enough?” she asked.
“Enough until the spell kicks in, yes.”
“And the vessel? If we create this power, it needs somewhere to go. I don’t suppose you have volunteers.”
I nodded. “I have someone in mind.”
“Who?”
I swallowed, glancing at Jasik. I felt oddly vulnerable under her stare, but her accusatory questions weren’t what had my pulse racing. I hadn’t exactly told Jasik that I was reconsidering the original plan. We’d agreed that a hybrid would be the vessel. After all, they were the strongest species, and they had the best chance of survival. We hadn’t named names, though, but I knew it would come down to Sebastian or me. We were the only two willing to face this power and let the witches cast their spell. We were also the only two who felt a personal connection to this battle since we were the reasons behind my grandmother’s transition.
It started with us. It’ll end the same way.
“A hybrid will be volunteering.”
“The sunlight aspect?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Won’t be an issue.”
She exhaled slowly, her eyes scanning the room.
“So… 39 witches?”
I nodded.
“How do I ask these people to risk death?”
“By asking them to fight for life.”
THE DOOR TO the foyer slammed shut behind us. Once again, we made it back just before the sun rose. I took the stairs two at a time and knocked twice on Kat’s office door before walking in. She sat at her desk, her coven’s Hunters surrounding her. She smiled as I entered, but my eyes fell to the vampires beside her. Their neon irises trailed the length of my body, and I felt uncomfortable under their stare. I knew their resentment was only because of the rumors: it was no secret that we had left Amicia’s coven and were considering staying with Kat. While our decision to leave wasn’t necessarily taboo, it was uncommon. And now, her Hunters felt threatened. What they didn’t know is while we were interested in residing in Kat’s manor, we had no intention of replacing her Hunters. In fact, if my plan worked, we’d be out of work. So really, there was no reason we all couldn’t get along.
Blood Promise (Blood Books Book 3) Page 10
