Midnight Coven (Devil's Roses Book 7) (The Devil's Roses)

by Tara Brown

  “You said vampires can’t die.”

  My gaze turns serious. “The Roses can kill anything. I’ll find a way to find them and get them to deal with this situation here.”

  Em looks scared. “I don't want to leave you here.”

  “You have to. Get Tessa. Get out. I will find you. Don't kill anyone that doesn't smell real evil. You’ll know the smell the second your nose finds it.”

  Angie shakes. All her blood has come from a glass. She and Em haven’t had to eat from the vein yet.

  “RUN!”

  I look up at the sky. “Ramón, if you can hear me, go with them. Keep them safe.”

  I turn and walk back down into the dark, alone and scared.

  I’m only alone for a moment. The ghost of a girl, the one who was giggling and whispering to me before, meets me in the dark hallway. She quivers and twitches as she walks to me, floating and creepy as sin. “Are you Lorelei?” Her little voice fills the dark silence.

  “Yes.”

  She comes closer, eyeing me up with the pale-green glowing eyes. “You friends with Ramón?”

  I nod.

  “He has a message for you. He says you gotta run, Lorelei. Break the barrier and free the witches, and run as fast as you can. He was wrong about Whit.”

  I nod again. “I gathered that much.”

  “I don't think he should say mean things about Whit.” She smiles and points. “My ma is that way, wanna come?”

  Nothing is creepier than being lured by a dead child down a dark hallway to meet her mom. But I ignore my insides clenching and my brain, praying I have more sense than that, and walk after her.

  I make the same scuffing noise on the stone floor as we get back to the spot where the lady in white was. She’s there again, but she ain’t alone. She’s surrounded by her closest ghost friends, all hundred of them. Their pale faces turn, twitching and coming in and out of focus. A dark-haired one floats to me, smiling. “We hear you know the way out?”

  I shake my head. “I don't know it but I might be able to make it. My magic is working fine. If I have a minute I might be able to find a weak spot in the barrier or just destroy it.”

  She looks back at the others, the frothing sea of writhing pale beauties. When they see me, they freeze and smile but it don’t improve the spine-chilling effect they have.

  The little girl looks up at me. “The witches have been waiting on you a long time.”

  “What’s the midnight coven?”

  The little girl looks up at the stone ceiling. “When the moon is high and the time changes, the witches are strong enough to fight them. They never come down here at midnight—the witches can fight back.”

  “The vampires?”

  She nods. Her mother floats to me, drifting through—actually through—her friends. “The blood of a witch is a special thing. They can take it and use our magic.”

  “But they’re vampires.”

  The woman shakes her head. “Their mother was a powerful witch. Her blood flows through their veins. They can use the magical blood to make their own magic for a time and only small spells. But it fades away and they miss the feeling of the divine magic. Witches make vampires feel again. Make them feel human again. Make them strong if they have the magic in them already.”

  I wrinkle my nose. “That's just peachy. Well, let me add to the fun time of all this sharing we have going on. Me being a half vampire and full witch means they can drain my blood over and over and I won’t ever die. I’m an unlimited supply of magic for the crazy bastards.”

  Her eyes turn red. “You are of the Blackwater witches and a half vampire?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She screams into the ceiling, enraged suddenly. I turn to run away but she grabs my arm. “Wait!” She spins me back to face her. “Don't leave us here. Please, free us before my family comes. They’re full from the girls they just had. Their magic is at its peak! They won’t feed again for weeks.”

  I sigh. “You’re Whit’s momma?” He told me his momma was a vampire. I don't even know how I’m surprised he lied. The man is a liar. Not to mention, the woman wasn't at dinner. I shoulda known.

  “Aunt.” She shakes her head. I look down at the little girl as she points at her. “She’s his sister. His mother is gone back up to the house. She’s keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't come down here before you free us.”

  I hate vampires. I hate how detached they can get. I hate how blood driven they are and how they manage to ruin all good things. “She ain’t trapped down here?” It dawns on me the little girl must not be trapped either. I saw her in the hallway after I froze Rydal.

  The aunt shakes her head. “They didn't die down here.”

  “Great!” I turn and snoop around the hallway, looking for other doors. The little girl comes with me. She reminds me of Tessa with all her talking and nattering on. “So you and my brother are engaged?”

  I shake my head, wondering if anyone else can hear her.

  “But he loves you! I can tell. I seen it in a mirror upstairs. You were kissing and hugging. I could see it in his eyes.” Her Scottish accent is quite thick.

  I shrug. “Boys are good at lying about their feelings to get certain things from girls.”

  “He can get that everywhere. All the ladies like him. Not as much as Rydal though. All the girls like him. But Whit’s my favorite.”

  I roll my eyes. “Look, kid, I get that you love him even though he murdered you and drank your blood, but stop okay? I don't want to know about his sex life and you shouldn't even know he has one.”

  She grins, exactly the same way he does. “He didn't murder me. The villagers came, burning Ma and me for being witches. That's when Da and Ma changed him, Gwen, and the boys. Ma lured a vampire here by possessing the body of a witch. The vampire followed her, excited because she said that she would trade him—his blood for hers. When he gave his blood to Ma, she killed him. Then Da, Gwen, and the boys all drank the vampire blood and Ma killed them too. She buried them in the graves out back, and when they rose she let them eat the body she had possessed. Ma and me can be real in the house. It’s our home and where we died. So we are normal there. But down here my aunt got stuck making the barrier. She died making it, not knowing what it was for. Da lied to her, said it was for an evil witch. But it weren’t. So my aunt died and my da saved the rest of the family from being killed by villagers. Now they’re strong enough to eat a whole village if they wants to.”

  It’s almost a sad story. Almost.

  Unfortunately for her and her family, my story is a lot sadder and my patience for bullshit vampires has gotten thinner. By a lot.

  There is one flaw in the tale. “Your momma is helping your aunt break down the barrier after she helped make your family what they are?”

  The little girl looks down, almost ashamed like. “Well, my da and them has all gotten addicted to killing the witches. That first girl they killed made them crazy. Suddenly they had powers, even though before they never. Apart from Gwen, she still doesn't. She’s just a regular vampire. Ma has tried to stop them but they won’t. So she sees now it has to end. They must be stopped at all costs. Even if it means they die, they have to be stopped. The boys torture the witches. Do things Ma won’t let me see but she cries sometimes afterward. She attacked Rydal once, almost killing him at midnight. The witches all got together and attacked. That's how they know not to come down here at midnight.”

  “Your family is a heaping mess of sin and hateful things.”

  She nods. “I know it.”

  “Are there any live witches here now?”

  She shakes her pale face. “Just you.”

  We turn and stalk through the tunnels, looking for a clue or a door to something else. I don't want to go back and be with the other ghosts, it’s too much.

  “Ma says we’ll go to heaven after you’re done breaking the binding spell. That's why she made Whit lure you here. She didn’t know you was a vampire though. That changes
things.”

  I sigh again. “Yup.”

  I just want her to stop talking. But she doesn't.

  When I get to the other doorway, the one I saw the bad thing through, I put a hand up. The little girl backs away. “I’m not supposed to go there.”

  “Okay, you wait here.” That’s a relief.

  When I get to the door it’s silent in the room, but that means nothing. They could be drinking a witch down quietly, instead of making a pornographic film.

  Perverts.

  I peek my head through the frame again but there is no one in the room. The two dead girls are drained and laying on the table naked still.

  I tiptoe inside and look around. It’s a large room with stone walls and a large metal table with ties at the corners. The floor has a drain in the middle of it where I can smell old blood.

  The girls are dead and I hate to guess who’s next to get tied to the fun-time table. But I can say with all kinds of confidence, it ain’t gonna be me.

  Hell to the no.

  No.

  I don't see a single thing in the room that speaks of a way out until I smell something the room has none of—fresh air. I follow it to the corner, running my fingers along the rocky stone edge. Cool air tickles at me.

  I push on the corner, moving the wall a little.

  So this is the way they left. They never did come to the stairs where Em and Angie left from! When I get the door open I see a long corridor with a light at the end. Hurrying along, my feet hardly make a sound on the damp stone floor. The light is a door made of what looks like an iron gate. Like it’s shaped to be a door and the moon is shining through the bars. There is a lock on it with a chain.

  “Spooky,” I mutter.

  “What do we have here?”

  I spin, almost relieved when I see Whit but the clothes make my stomach ache. It’s Rydal. I remind myself Whit isn’t a better option at this point.

  Rydal grins, making my skin hurt, and struts over toward me. His steps are slow, like he’s got me cornered. I reach my hands behind me, gripping to the lock on the door through the bars. It stings my skin—the barrier is here too.

  He walks to me, towering over me the way his brother does but with far more zeal in his eyes. He lifts his finger in the dark, running it down my cheek, making me tense.

  “Easy, little bunny. Don't go getting frightened. You taste so much sweeter when you’re excited.”

  That statement makes my stomach hurt. That's why Whit drinks my blood when we have sex. Lord, I’m a fool.

  His hand runs down my neck as I chant things in my head, trying to break the lock and the spell. My sex pulsates when he touches even my neck, it makes for a terrible distraction. His finger runs down between my breasts, slipping a hand into my shirt. He maneuvers his fingers into my bra, squeezing gently and cupping.

  I let him.

  If he is distracted he might not notice I’m desperately trying to undo the spell his aunt did.

  He pulls his hand out, grips either side of my neckline and tears my shirt in half, leaving me bare in my bra.

  He nods. “I knew you’d be beautiful.”

  I’m shaking like a leaf but my brain won’t let me focus on the problem I have.

  Rydal snaps my bra, tearing it too, and making my breasts fall from their safety. He cups them both like he’s weighing them, lifting slightly. He rolls my nipples, both at the same time. My hands grip to the lock. I don't even know what to do or say, my body is paused and waiting for his command.

  He leans forward, still massaging my breasts and licks my throat. He lifts his gaze to mine. “You will let me fuck you and have your blood.”

  I nod, feeling the pull of his compulsion. But like when Marcus did it, I can bend my will against it. His is even easier than Marcus’ but I need to break the binding spell so I play along.

  “No shocking me with magic then, aye?”

  I nod again.

  “You are easier than I imagined.” He smiles.

  I grin back. “Maybe I’m just waiting to trick you.”

  “Aye, I know you are.” He lifts my breasts, kissing the tops of them and then dropping to his knees, to be at a better height. He suckles one of my nipples, biting down with his fangs and dragging my blood from it slowly. His flicking of his tongue as he sucks is enough to drive me insane. His other hand undoes his pants, dropping them to his knees. His belt hitting the stone floor is the only sound I hear beyond my own moaning.

  My eyes are rolling in the back of my head when one of his fingers is sliding up inside of me. I didn't even notice him removing my pants but my underwear are shoved to the side and his long, thick finger is rubbing the right spot inside of me. I feel something rubbing against my inner thigh, realizing he’s rubbing his erection on me as he fingers me.

  I lean into him, holding the gate for dear life.

  He tears my underwear the way he did my shirt and lifts me up into his embrace, wrapping my legs around him. He drives his cock up inside of me as his fangs come down on my throat. He draws a large pull of my blood and bounces me off his balls.

  My whole body is convulsing but I manage to use the orgasm to my advantage, muttering, “Spells of sacrifice and betrayal old, lift and free the ones trapped below. Take the hearts of those you’ve wronged, fill them with hope and powers bestowed.”

  I come all over his cock just as he fills me with his seed. I bite into his neck and whisper, “Give me back what you stole, bring with it the blood of the cold!” I suck his neck, making him moan into the orgasm and my neck.

  I pull not just his blood, but also his powers that he has lifted. I grip to the top of the gate, exploding my wealth of powers and pleasure all at once.

  The intensity of the gate blasting away from the tunnel pulls me with it, making me scream as the force dislodges my shoulders with the impact. They snap as I land with Rydal on top of me. He’s panting and laughing, unaware of the fact I’ve just freed everyone.

  I’m shaking from the pain as my shoulders snap back into place. He kisses my cheek. “Marry me, lass. Marry me. I need that every day. No wonder he kept you to himself like that. Jesus. I don't even know if I can walk yet. I feel powerless suddenly. How peculiar is that?”

  I look at the moon and watch as it turns blood red.

  “You might want to run.”

  He pulls back, wiping the blood from his lips. “What?”

  I nod up at the sky above us swirling with the ghosts of the witches.

  “Lord thundering fuck, what is that?”

  “Your prior victims, I would imagine. I’ve freed the witches.”

  He looks at the gate under me and back at the hole where the door used to be. “You stupid bitch.”

  I roll my eyes. “I’m the stupid one? You just got played and made me come—twice—while I freed the witches and broke the barrier in front of your very eyes.”

  “Touché! But this isn’t over.” He laughs, getting up and running, so fast I can’t even see him.

  I lie there for a minute, waiting for my body to recover. “Did my sister get out?”

  I hear a whisper on the wind from the swirling vortex of angry women above me. “YESSSSSSS!” It’s a hissing sound and far scarier than anything else.

  When I look back at the hole I made, I see the little girl. She waves, standing next to a dark-haired lady. They both smile. God I hope they didn't just see all that.

  I get up and sneak along the castle wall, naked and wondering what to do about that. The girl is suddenly there beside me, pointing off to the right. “A cottage lies just that way. There was a man and his daughter there last time I was alive. Maybe they have clothes.”

  I don't remind her she’s been dead five hundred years and scurry that way, streaking across the grass, naked as the day my mother/aunt birthed me.

  Chapter Three

  The plan was simple enough. They were to escape with Tessa while no one was looking and I could free the witches and escape, following the tracks they make.<
br />
  But no.

  I have to go and have reckless sex with Rydal, who I can’t stop thinking about now, thanks to the blood swap, and run through the fields naked as a jay bird.

  Sometimes I’m an idiot.

  It feels an awful lot like the first night I ran from Whit. I’m running from him, leaving him with a broken heart all over again. I just wish I had my lucky dress like last time. I don't mind running from him but naked is not my preferred way to do it.

  And again, I have a great reason for never wanting to see him again.

  He has blood all over his hands from the witches.

  I can’t help but wonder how many nights he’s slept next to me, being my warmth against the icy whispers and sucked my blood. If he’s cold enough to screw a witch and suck her life force, he’s cold enough for anything, and I just plain ol’ don't know him at all.

  I feel like something that got drug out from under the porch when I get to the cottage in the woods. I’m tired in my heart and the sun is coming. She’s always coming. At least the sun will protect me from him.

  The cottage is old and scary and there is a familiar smell to it. I open the door carefully, hoping not to wake whoever might be inside. I listen for the telltale heartbeat but there ain’t one. No one is there. I hope they have some clothes.

  “Don't scream.”

  I open my mouth to scream when I see Gwen, but she is holding a stack of clothes. I close my lips and take them. My dignity is worth a lot more than I care to discuss. When you get told how fat you are your whole life, clothes are your friend, even when someone is always checking the sizes.

  She looks upset but doesn't say anything.

  “You okay?” I ask, not sure why I’m even asking.

  She shakes her head. “I’ve betrayed them. Me, Ma, and Sara, our little sister you met. We betrayed the men.”

  I scoff. “Sugar, you ain’t got nothing to worry about. Your brothers could depress the devil himself.” I stop myself and hold a hand out to her. “Just come with me.”