25. Rina
TWENTY-FIVE
rina
Easing myself into the library, I headed towards the book that had been pulling me the other day before Ezra had interrupted me.
It felt… familiar. A magical signature that didn’t belong here, and yet, I knew it was hailing me.
The black leather-bound book was covered in symbols I found familiar, but upon closer inspection, the ones embossed into the cover weren’t witch symbols at all.
“Black magic,” I murmured, tracing my fingers over the inverted pentagram. A shiver ran down my spine. My grandmother had warned me not to dabble in it, but why was it here?
I opened the spell-book—because it was undoubtedly some witch’s forgotten grimoire, lost to the ages in this vampire’s library, like a time capsule to the past.
Blood Magick was printed on the first page, and I was pretty sure I knew exactly why it was here after all.
Page after page detailed sacrifices, rituals, and curses, all describing how to cast them—and what was needed.
So much devastation could be wrought with this magic.
There was information detailing how to deal with evil demons, how to trap shifters in their animal forms, and even theories about bringing people back from the dead.
“Gods.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Constance had the gift of necromancy, but she’d sworn a long time ago never to use the ability, believing it to be a curse, not a gift. Instead, she’d taken a job as the receptionist at the Pleasant Grove Gazette, the town paper.
But the idea of willingly bringing people back from the dead?
People who became… vampires.
There was a black vampire bat etched into the next page, its fangs dripping with blood. Creatures damned to an eternal, undead life, bloodthirsty and more powerful than imaginable. I was going to be sick.
Something didn’t make sense, though. If Ezra had read every book in this library like he’d said, why had he kept this? This book was dark—the very pages something that should have been lost to the world of magic users forever.
My mind was spinning. I flipped the page again. Breaking the Soul Bond sat at the top.
It was everything I’d hoped for, and yet my heart sank. I didn’t want to read the pages. Didn’t want to know how to destroy the bond that tied us together.
My thumb traced over my mark, even deeper now. More details had been added, like the vines and blooms of roses underneath the bat wings. I’d wanted to cry when they’d shown up, because it was the first moment everything had started to change for me.
The first moment I’d realized that the vampire meant something to me.
How could I throw all of this away? Even the gowns—the ones I’d hated at first, frilly and nothing like my usual wardrobe—had grown on me.
Even after Alfred had taken my laundry away to be washed and brought it all back, I’d continued wearing them.
They all fit me perfectly, like somehow, Ezra had known my exact size.
Like he’d picked them out for me. But that couldn’t be possible.
My mind whirled. A loud sound broke through the silence, and I jumped—before I realized where it was coming from. My phone.
I looked at the screen and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Wendy?” I said, addressing my best friend.
“Oh, thank gods.” That warm voice on the phone made me feel better instantly. “I was worried he’d actually kidnapped you and thrown you in his dungeon.”
“No. There’s no dungeon.” I frowned. “Or, if there is, I haven’t seen it yet.” He hadn’t shown me the greenhouse on the tour, and I really wouldn’t put it past him to find out there was actually one in the basement.
“Damn. Not even a freaky sex one?”
I groaned. “Wends.”
“What? Just checking. I was hoping at least one of us was getting laid.”
I blushed, ignoring the book in front of me. “Well, I didn’t say anything about that…”
“You totally are, aren’t you?”
I buried my head in my hands, mumbling out a, “maybe.”
“Wow. It was good, right? It has to be good. That tension between you two is insane.”
She was the best friend a witch could ask for, and I still wanted to strangle her a little. “Yes, it’s good.” I bit my lip. “Amazing, actually. Gods, the things he does to my body,” I admitted. “And when he bites me, I practically come just from—”
I could practically feel Wendy’s interest through the phone. “So, you’re staying with him?”
Frowning, I turned back to the book. “I didn’t say that either.” He hadn’t asked me to stay with him. Not really. Hadn’t told me he didn’t want to break this mate bond, so really, nothing had changed. We were just exchanging orgasms and blood. Enemies with benefits, that was all.
Even if that lie felt like ash on my tongue.
“Hm.” The line was silent for a few beats.
“Wendy.” It was the equivalent of me poking her forehead.
“What?”
I sighed. “Why did you call me?”
“Oh. Right. I have news.”
“Ominous,” I said, deadpan.
“Iris said that the Enchanted Cauldron is going up for sale. They’re selling it, Reens. Can you believe that?”
“The old man is actually selling it?” I couldn’t hold back my gasp.
I loved the place—it was our perfect escape from everyday life.
Halloween was just around the corner, and I couldn’t imagine spending All Hallow’s Eve night without the festivities at the bar.
While the Clarke annual Halloween party was a tradition for the coven, this was our tradition. “What are we going to do?”
“Well, they’re hoping to find a buyer who will keep the bar as is. So, all hope isn’t lost yet.”
“Keep me updated,” I said, staring at the book.
“Do you think you’ll make it home for Halloween?” I knew that was the real reason she called.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Things are…” How did I even explain this thing between Ezra and I? It had grown too big to even understand what was happening anymore. What did I want?
Her voice was soft. “That good, huh?”
“Fuck, Wendy. I wasn’t supposed to actually like him. And I think I finally found a way to break the mate bond, but now I just don’t know…” I stared at the book. Was it worth it? To choose my own fate?
“There’s a risk involved, isn’t there?” She saw right through me—she always did.
“Magic comes with a price,” I reminded her—words our elders had always drilled into us in school growing up. We’d had the usual curriculum, of course: English, Science, Math, History, but we also learned Spells, Potions, Magic... everything you’d expect from witches.
Wendy’s tone grew serious. “Rina. Tell me you didn’t find a black magic spell book.”
I made a face. Of course, she couldn’t see it. “I can’t tell you that, Wendy.”
“Fuck. You can’t actually be considering dabbling in that?”
My jaw tightened. Was I? I didn’t know. “I don’t even understand how this ended up here.
These spells are… intense. Sacrifices, rituals that require blood.
It’s nothing like the magic we performed on the full moon.
Something dark and sinister. But why does Ezra have a dark magic grimoire in the first place? ” I sighed.
“Unfortunately, I think there’s only one way to find out,” Wendy said.
I knew that. And yet, I didn’t want to. I was hesitating—because I was terrified.
Because this book held every secret that we’d been looking for.
Most of all… it meant that everything here was going to come to an end.
And I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.
My knuckles rapped on Ezra’s office door hours later.
I’d spent the entire time after hanging up with Wendy pouring through the book, but I just kept coming up with more questions instead of answers.
I’d thought he had been honest about everything with me, but clearly, he was still hiding something.
Did he not know about this book, hidden in plain sight in his library? This was his home. He was a vampire lord—vampire royalty. Archer had even implied that he knew more than he’d been letting on. I’d just been too blind to see it before.
Taking a deep breath—and willing my traitorous body not to react—I turned the doorknob, letting myself inside.
The room smelled like him. Musky and spicy, and I resisted taking a deep pull of the scent into my lungs. If you could bottle it up, I was pretty sure it would sell candles by the caseload.
His office was empty. I frowned, not finding in his usual hiding spots. Until I remembered the offhanded comment that he’d made to me when showing me the greenhouse—about how he liked to work in the garage. I’d never even seen it, but I wouldn’t let that stop me.
It only took a few suggestions to the maids to find my way to the door, and I wasn’t sure what I’d imagined, but it wasn’t this.
The garage looked more like an aircraft hangar, filled with sports cars and vintage models that looked like they’d cost a fortune.
There was the Mustang we’d driven here in, as well as one parked next to it that looked brand new—probably this year’s model—plus a Porsche, a Ferrari, and dozens of others I didn’t recognize.
Ezra was leaning over the hood of an older looking model, dressed more casually than I’d ever seen him: jeans, a white tank, with a towel draped across his shoulder.
He turned to look at me, his lips curling up into a smile.
“Rina,” came his deep voice, one I liked way more than I should—especially when he was saying my name.
“Damn. You really do like cars,” I said.
“My mother hates it. Insists it’s not a good hobby for a vampire. I think it makes me feel less like a monster.” He shrugged, and I could see that wound deep in him.
“You’re not a monster,” I told him. “And your mother sounds like she sucks, to be frank.”
He chuckled. “Wait until you meet her.” Ezra’s eyes widened as they met mine, like he hadn’t even realized what he’d said.
That he wanted me to meet his mother. When had this become something serious.
“Forget I said that.” His eyes trailed down, seeming to notice the book in my arms. “Did you find something?”
I held it up, the embossed symbols staring out at him. “I think so. Have you ever seen this before?”
Ezra squinted like he was inspecting the book. “Maybe, but there are a lot of books in there. It’s possible I could have and forgot.”
“Look closer,” I grit out as I stood in front of his workbench, dropping it onto the table in front of him.
He ran a hand through his blond hair. “What is this, Rina?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. What is it, and why do you have a black magic grimoire in your library? What business do vampires have with a witch’s blood magic spell book?”
He paled. “How—” Ezra looked like he knew exactly what it was. “Fuck,” he cursed, pinching the bridge of his nose, not elaborating.
“What’s worse,” I started as I flipped it open in front of him with a wave of my magic, letting it land on the page I’d found earlier. Breaking the Soul Bond. “—is that I found an answer. This is it, isn’t it? Only you didn’t want me to find this, did you?”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “No. Your coven isn’t the first I’ve ever met,” Ezra admitted. His red eyes blinked open, dark and full of concern. “The Ravens Hollow witches aren’t like you, Rina. They’re… not right.”
Ravens Hollow. Even the name sounded ominous, a bad feeling sinking into me. I gestured at the grimoire. “That seems like the understatement of a century.”
“Black magic—blood magic like this—it isn’t a joking matter, Rina. This isn’t an option.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, not caring if it pushed my cleavage out in a way that caught his attention. “It seems like it’s our only option, vampire.”
He looked angry. “You want to do this? Actually?” Ezra jabbed his finger at the page. “Even I don’t want to fuck with this kind of power.”
“No. I don’t.” My voice was resigned. Subdued.
“But I want to know why you’re holding back from me, even still.
Even with everything that’s happened, I thought I could trust you enough to tell me the truth.
” My heart ached. I wasn’t angry—not like I imagined I would be in this situation. I was just disappointed.
“Do you?” Ezra asked, standing from the bench, his hand cupping my cheek.
“What?”
His thumb brushed my cheekbone. “Do you trust me?”
I blinked. Of course. I didn’t even have to think twice about that. “Yes.”
He nodded. “Okay. Then trust me when I tell you, this—they—are not the answer.”
I breathed out my frustration, trying to ignore the way his hand was still on my face, and how I made no move to make him take it off. “Why do you have it?” I asked again.
“Because it was better off with me than its original owner. I hid it in the library—where it was never supposed to be found again, woven with charms—to protect the world from the evil that lies within.”
That sounded like the truth, so I nodded. “How did you meet them?”
“They’ve been allies of the vampires for a long time. I had very little contact with them, but after there was an incident with an undead—”
I shivered. “They practice necromancy?”
“There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to get what they want.
That’s why I want you to stay far, far away from them, Sabrina.
I know I haven’t told you everything, for your own protection.
Believe me, Vic, Raven and Scarlet like to remind me regularly how I need to tell you all of it.
And I will, I promise. But you have to believe when I say I just want to keep you safe. ”
“I do,” I whispered. “I feel safe with you.”
He brushed hair back from my cheek. “Good.” Ezra wrapped an arm around me, tugging me tight against his body. Hugging me, I realized. We’d never really hugged before.
We’d done so much together, but even after sex, he’d only laid with me for a few moments before cleaning up. This was different. He stroked his hands through my hair, holding me tight as I buried my nose in his shirt, letting his scent fill me.
“You’re so—” he murmured, hand cupping my jaw as we stood a breath apart, simply staring at each other.
“So what?” Annoying? Frustrating? Difficult? Any of those words might have applied. But what Ezra said next was the most surprising of all.
“Beautiful,” he breathed.
“Oh.” It came out as a squeak more than anything, but I couldn’t hide the blush that spread across my cheeks or divert my eyes from his—from the way he was looking at me.
Like he cared about me.
Like the gold shimmering around his aura—increasingly brightened—meant more.
Ezra buried his nose in my hair, inhaling deeply. “Can I drink from you, Sabrina? Not because I’m going to pass out without your blood, and not because I’m inside you, but despite all of it?”
I looked up at him for a moment—at those blood-red eyes. At his face, cheekbones sharp and jaw sure. “Yes.” I murmured the words. “Yes, Ezra. You can drink from me.” I tilted my head to the side.
Somehow, I knew I’d never deny him anything.
That even after he told me all of his truths, I’d still want to be here…
Right by his side.