Doing It To Death

by Kaia Bennett

  “There. Now we can speak freely about why you’re here. Please, have a seat.” Masilda took up residence at the head of the table nearest the barn door.

  Vaughn and I took a seat on one side of the table, Evie on the other. Masilda assessed Evie for a moment as the younger witch peeled off her backpack and tried to find something to do with her hands. Evie bit her bottom lip and then raised her dark eyes to meet Masilda’s penetrating stare.

  “You’re here because a terrible thing happened to you, child. I see trauma bleeding like a wound into the air around you. Coming from here.”

  She leaned closer to place her hand over Evie’s heart, but the younger witch flinched and bared her fangs at being touched. Masilda seemed unfazed even when Evie covered her mouth.

  “Oh my God. I’m so sorry!” The witch’s hand muffled her apology.

  “You did this, yes?” The priestess cast her reproving gaze at me, and then Vaughn. Her voice didn’t hold venom, but a weight all the same settled around my shoulders.

  Vaughn squirmed beside me but said, “Yup,” giving the ‘p’ a defiant pop.

  Masilda nodded, after a long examination of the space over Vaughn’s heart, then turned to Evie. She still held a hand out in front of Evie’s chest, her fingers playing in the wind as if she plucked and measured invisible strings. She stopped when she isolated an unseen thread. Masilda sighed, her shoulders slumped, and her eyes glistened as she studied Evie. The younger witch winced in pain and blinked away tears.

  None of the timeless joy Masilda greeted us with remained in those blue pools. Her smile evaporated, and when her lips did curve again, the smile became muted as the overcast sky visible through the barn door. I felt a sharp twinge in my chest when Masilda made a tugging motion in front of Evie’s chest. An image exploded in my mind of gnarled rope made of bloody pulp and pus wound tight around my heart. When the priestess squeezed into a fist, I felt the ache of infection, as foreign to me as Evie’s emotions. She handled this strange link with care, but every motion dug hooks dig deeper into the tissue, as if the thread she manipulated existed in the flesh.

  “You’re bonded now, no question. He feels what you feel. You ache when he aches. I’ve never seen the like between our kind and a vampire.” Masilda dropped her hand and straightened in her chair. The pressure eased to a dull throb in my chest, but now that I knew what lurked in the ether, I couldn’t ignore the sensation. “But, it’s more than that. There’s a parasitic thread, an infection coursing through the bond. A curse. How long since you were turned?”

  Evie stared at her hands for a moment. I counted out the days in my head.

  Six days.

  “He k-k-killed me.” She inhaled so deeply, her breasts rose an inch, then she folded her hands together. “I drowned and woke up like this. That was nearly a week ago.”

  Masilda nodded. “Still fresh, then. And, you’ve only recently locked the bond in. Consummated it, I mean.”

  Vaughn snorted. “That’s a cute way of saying they fucked like animals on her daddy’s living room floor.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Vaughn grinned at Evie’s scream.

  I leaned forward, catching Masilda’s eye. “I’m gonna need you to stop talking like me and the witch just said ‘I do’ and start telling me how to undo it. We know all of this already.”

  Masilda rested her hands on the arms of the chair, a queen presiding over a quaint, hidden kingdom.

  “How old are you, Jesse? Two hundred human years. A little over?”

  I swallowed shock at the accuracy of her guess. “Two fifty, give or take a few years. Yeah, two fifty-three. I think.”

  Vaughn and Evie swiveled their heads in my direction. I raised an eyebrow “Relax. If I were human, I’d be in my twenties.”

  Masilda nodded. “Young men are never more stupid than when they think they’re finally grown. You come from an old line. Yet, you didn’t know what would happen when you bit this girl. You knew nothing of bond witches or how your own kind mates with others besides vampire females. Even as the heir of a mighty empire, you’re lost. So, hide from me if you must, try and make my job difficult and see what fresh Hell you find. Or reveal yourself, follow my instructions, and we may find a way out of the dark together.”

  She turned to Evie and then to me. “That is what you want isn’t it? To unbind yourselves? To no longer be mated?”

  Evie nodded.

  “She’s not my fucking mate!” My roar echoed off the rafters.

  Masilda sighed. “We have a lot of work to do, us three.”

  “Three?” Vaughn scowled. “I ain’t bonded to shit.”

  “Your mark is all over her, Damaged.” Masilda quirked her lips up at the nickname she’d given Vaughn. “The pain you caused. The pain your maker inflicted on you. It bleeds like ink on parchment and the stain can be seen on the thread that binds them. You’re not bonded, no, but since you’re here, you’ll help me with the unraveling. You’ll help me make these two whole.”

  “You can do that?” Evie’s nails dug into the wood of the table. Her words whooshed past her lips like a held breath. “You can change me back to the way I was before?”

  Masilda averted her gaze for a moment. “I can try to undo the bond, love, but I can’t unmake you. You’re formed now, like clay heated in a kiln. You’ll always be part witch and part vampire. That doesn’t mean you can’t be good. You’re still you, Evie.”

  I watched Evie lower her head. A tear splashed against the wood and melted into the grain. I felt my chest wrench, but chomped down hard on the emotion that only my father had ever generated in me. I refused to be weak when I’d been born and bred for strength.

  “But, maybe, if I can,” Masilda wiped away Evie’s tears and lifted her face, “just maybe, I’ll be able to give you back the choice that was stolen from you. The choice of who to bind your heart thread to.”

  “How long will it take?” I’d had enough woo-woo witch shit for one lifetime.

  “I think we can be done in three weeks’ time. We need the full moon to complete the final rite and we’re in the new moon phase now. We’re actually fortunate you came when you did. It’s a good time to cleanse negative energy.”

  I swelled with hope despite the shitty timeline. I can undo my huge fuck up in time to meet my father in New York when he passes through next month.

  “I warn you, though, there’s much work ahead, much negative energy to clean up. You’ll learn that, in the old days, Jesse, what you did on an ignorant whim was a sacred rite. What you stole will have to be given back and a price besides. It’ll be painful, but it will be worth it in the end—if you do exactly as I say.”

  The shrill echo of children running in the background and a man barking orders for them to come wash up was the only sound in the barn, next to our heartbeats. I didn’t breathe for a spine chilling moment as the outside world filtered in once more. This coven had my senses all out of whack. I touched my chest, the dull thud of pain still present.

  “Well! Enough talk. It’s time to eat. Evie, you’re welcome to join us. If nothing else I can help you figure out the cycle of your hungers, when the witch is high and when the vampire needs to feed.” Masilda looked at me as she stood. “As for you and Damaged, I’ll see to it that we work out some donors after you put away your things. I’ll have to find some members of the pack to supervise your feeding first. Just blood for now. If your donors are willing, we can discuss sex later on, but I think you’ll find many of my witches aren’t interested in donating so much of their energy to your kind.”

  I left the barn, still reeling from the carnage of her knowledge bombs in my mind. Vaughn lit up another cigarette, chain-smoking his emotions since neither of us could hunt the agitation out. She led us away from the main community, into the woods some ten minutes east, where several guest caravans waited.

  “Let’s get you settled in your quarters, then, we’ll leave the vamps to their own devices while you join us for breakfast.”

  E
vie shook her head and gripped her baggage with more force than needed. “I… I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let you hurt anyone. If you’re not hungry for human food, we’ll find you a donor. With me as your chaperone, you can go where you like, and I hope you will. There’s so much to talk about, so much knowledge you’ve been denied as a lost witch. The rest of the time, you’ll stay out here. It’s closer to the circle where we’ll perform our rites. Letting anyone wander freely would become a disruption to the children.”

  “And a disruption to the witches who’re probably pissing their pants every time they see us.” Vaughn offered a fake, sweet smile that mimicked Masilda’s. “They should be.”

  Maslida’s sunny gaze became overcast and she took a step toward Vaughn. All around us, trees rustled. A hum, like the distant whispers of a thousand voices reached my ears.

  “You don’t need to tell me why my people should be wary of a vampire. I wasn’t always a priestess locked behind these walls. Some of my charges are afraid of you. Some find you curious. The rest hate you because they know what you’d do to them if given half the chance.”

  The stare she pinned Vaughn with gave the practiced sadist a run for his money, as hard gazes went. “Do your best not to tempt me, child. You don’t want to see the kind of pain a learned witch can cause to someone as damaged as you. I think you’ve already gotten a taste of that bad medicine, thanks to Evie. I see torment in your past, and sharp lessons written in your blood about the price of cruelty. I’d rather not give you another.”

  The subtle bob of Vaughn’s Adam’s apple gave him away, but he still leaned into his bravado with a wink. “Don’t tease me now, Masilda, that sounds like my kinda party. You wanna play teacher and student, you know where to find me, baby.”

  “That I do, Damaged. Don’t mistake my laid-back disposition for weakness. You’re in my house now.”

  With those parting words and a sharp gust of brittle wind, the priestess turned and led Evie to her separate caravan. The women entered and set all of her things inside, then walked to the inner sanctum, arm in arm and talking in low whispers about the cycles of the moon, and the cycles of a witch’s womb.

  I plopped down on the steps leading into my temporary home and buried my forehead in my hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Vaughn, stomping the few feet to his caravan. He tore open the door and shook the whole structure with the force of his bag connecting with a wall inside with a wrathful roar. Didn’t take a mind-reading witch bond to show me, the only thing stopping him from dragging Masilda into the woods and carving her into screaming pieces was the chill warning still lingering in the air.

  Fear. I could taste his fear. Outnumbered, surrounded by witches. At least two of them had intimate knowledge of his weaknesses. At least one of them had rendered me weak with starvation and pathetic human feelings.

  He flicked his dying cigarette away and stared at me from his tiny stoop. “I think we just landed in vampire Hell.”

  Spontaneous laughter bubbled out of my lips like blood at his words.

  Evie knows how to keep a promise. I’ll give her that.

  8

  Vaughn seized Blondie by her tan arms and dragged her close. Fright made the pink pebbles capping her naked breasts rake Vaughn’s bare chest. Her azure eyes widened at the swiftness of his pull, the tightness of his grip. I swept brown hair away from the neck of my own panting donor, but my gaze stayed on Vaughn’s ice blue eyes. The pupils consumed the irises and sharp fangs slid free of his malicious grin.

  “You getting wet for me, little witch?” he whispered.

  One inhale from me confirmed the rich, earthy scent of wet pussy. Blondie shivered with that sweet cocktail of fear and arousal, goosebumps prickling over her bare torso. Blondie’s shy smile faded and her cheeks turned a fierce rose pink. My dick throbbed in answer and I pumped my hips against my own prey’s ass.

  “That’s good, that’s real good.” My brother grinned and licked the startled girl’s bottom lip. “Because I’m getting hard as a fucking rock for you. Touch it. Put your hand on my cock. Mmm. That’s it, baby. You feel how hard I am for you?”

  “Y-yes.”

  The soft gasps of prey and the groans of Vaughn made me turn my attention to the brunette in my arms. Her spine grazed my chest. She grasped a towel to her breasts, but over her shoulder I saw her nipples tent the terrycloth.

  In another life I’d have taunted her, rubbed her cunt while she watched Vaughn tease her sister. When the screams started, I’d have held her down and fucked her, forcing her to watch Vaughn work. The fantasy gave my body a dull throb, but something had to be better than nothing. I licked the long, pulsing artery in the brunette’s throat and relished her shiver when I hummed against the fragile skin.

  Vaughn released one of Blondie’s arms to grab a fistful of hair. The sharp jerk of his fist stretched her throat taut and she cried out in terror.

  Three changed wolves snarled, one snapping his jaws at the air in warning. A long tongue snaked across the beast’s canine teeth. Just like that, our chaperones killed the mood.

  Fuck that cunt priestess and her little dogs, too.

  Of course, thinking of the priestess made me think of the witch I couldn’t have. She should’ve been here, trapped in my embrace. Evie’s throat, and not this anonymous witch’s throat, should be at the mercy of my fangs.

  Even when I thought of Evie, and my heartbeat spiked with desire, even when the brunette squirmed against my erection, and her throat sang under my tongue with pumping blood, I couldn’t bite. She hissed in pain at the frustrated gnashing of my canines against her shoulder. What pooled on her broken skin looked like blood, but I only tasted ashes, bitter and wet. I swallowed because I was starving, but I couldn’t stop my grimace—or my gag reflex.

  In front of me, Vaughn dragged his prey to her knees. I thought he’d force her to suck his cock, but a quick glance at the circling wolves halted his fingers on his zipper. Instead, he kneeled in front of the girl and sank his fangs into her throat.

  Blondie’s squeal of pain quickened my blood. Vaughn’s too, judging by the way he grunted and dry-humped his gasping prey.

  I’d never felt so impotent in my fucking life.

  He came up for air with a sharp gasp before tossing the girl to her back. Golden curls splayed over moss-covered ground splattered with scarlet drops from her wounded throat. She’d have made a pretty picture, dying like the autumn leaves she’d tumbled on. If only we both could truly feed.

  Vaughn settled on top of Blondie with a hand around her throat and his bloody lips on hers. “You want me inside you, don’t you, witch? You want me to fuck you while I bleed you dry?”

  Blondie’s soft moan dueled with the whispering trees. His free hand squeezed the girl’s breast. I echoed the movement with my donor. At least one of us was getting some pleasure out of the show. I tried again to lick the splatter of blood on her tan throat and had to stifle the urge to vomit. Still, my cock hardened to painful proportions, mocking my inability to feed.

  A sharp inhalation of pain drew my eye. The small breast held captive in Vaughn’s broad palm turned pink with a rush of blood as he mauled her flesh. His nails skittered across her pale skin before digging in deep.

  “Tell me you want this dick.” Vaughn crooned like I’d taught him, but impatience laced his voice. “Say it so your babysitters can hear. C’mon.”

  Vaughn whispered something dirty in the girl’s ear that made her whimper. A bark sounded, a guardian signaling our time had run out. Vaughn ignored the warning and shoved a hand down her jeans. If Blondie agreed to fuck and he got her alone, I knew my brother would skirt the edges of Masilda’s edict. But the girl squeaked, “Wait, stop!” and the first wail of terror hit the cool air like the aroma of blood.

  The wolves leaped. A massive gray beast used his snout to thrust Vaughn into the air before slamming him onto his back. Sharp teeth snapped, mere inches from Vaughn�
�s feral expression. One giant paw stamped his chest, driving his spine into the dirt. The remaining wolves circled the girl for protection. Vaughn’s growl and the tension in his body made my sluggish heart pound.

  If he fights, he might kill one or two, but not all three. This will end in death.

  “Vaughn.” I spoke his name with more power than I felt, but old lessons die hard. I’d taught him over the years that his survival meant he’d damn well better listen to me.

  The frayed edges of his control snapped into place at my command. Barely. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a mask of acquiescence cloaked his features. He swiveled his head in Blondie’s direction as a rope of wolf spit splattered his cheek.

  “My bad, baby. You got me so excited, I forgot my manners,” Vaughn cajoled with a pretty boy pout. He showed his hands, high in surrender. The wolf relinquished his dominant position. Vaughn slid into an easy crouch, rolling his shoulders. He shot me a look that said ‘I’m this close to getting us both killed out of spite’.

  “You taste so good, did you know that?” Vaughn turned blazing black eyes to the young witch. “All that blonde hair drives me wild. Call off the dogs. I just wanna be a gentleman and help you up.”

  When he gave Blondie a smile, seductive in spite of the blood glittering on his lips, I had to wipe away a grin.

  My donor gathered up her towel and shirt. She stared down at me, leaning on my hands in the grass, and winced. “The least you could do is offer me some of your blood so I can heal this.”

  I ignored her and got to my feet with a swipe of my mouth. My cock hurt watching Vaughn pull Blondie close. The wolves circled them, teeth bared, while the girl shivered in Vaughn’s arms. She still glanced at him from the corner of her eye, entranced as a mouse caught in the sights of a viper. “I-It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it. You can’t help how you’re made.”