34. Repartee with Moonlight
34
REPARTEE WITH MOONLIGHT
SAYAH
A s I open my eyes the following day, I see his right arm draped over my bare side. We fucked all night long last night. I came probably eight or nine times, and my pussy is raw and sore today. I almost forgot about the whole reason why we came here, but then I see the mark that looks like a brand on his arm. It’s bright white against the rest of his skin, which is a light olive color. I want to rouse him awake and get down to business to get that mark off him. Thoughts are pulsing from me like blood from an open wound, their immediacy sluicing through me.
How will Adaline remove it?
Can she break the bond?
What can we do to get him released?
What the hell are we up against?
He stirs as though the cage of protection around my thoughts is still down, and they are coming alive, escaping, and crawling into his mind.
“Morning,” he says, his breath hot and ticking to my shoulder blades.
“Morning,” I say in a lofty voice, the kind I use to cover up my real emotions.
The sun shines into the room, and I can now see the lake perfectly from my spot on the bed. It’s still early enough in the morning that there’s fog coming off the lake and sitting atop it like whipped cream on hot cocoa. The balcony outside looks to be a wraparound because I can’t see the beginning or end, just the two chairs that sit outside awaiting company.
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” he says, rising from the bed. His cheeky bubble butt flexes as he stretches and grabs some clothes from his suitcase on the floor. “Coming?” he asks as he enters the bathroom, his sexy figure semi-hiding behind the pocket door.
Thinking that a shower is just what I need to calm my aching thoughts, I pull myself out of the comfortable bed and skip to the bathroom, the chill from the air outside the blankets making me shiver.
The large double shower is nice and roomy; he turns the nozzle, and the water spray is still cold. He pulls me into his arms and holds me until the stream is scalding hot, easing the chill of my mind and body.
S hower sex and the calming water helped ease my thoughts, though they’re waiting for me as I dry off. After dressing, I check the phone for messages and see two from Gauge.
He had responded to my last message of the night prior, our nightly ‘Goodnight, I love you. Sweet dreams. Talk to you tomorrow.’ text we always send when we aren’t with each other, along with a different character making a kissy face.
Good morning, boo-boo; I love you and miss you. Have a great day!
I’m hitting send as Dom puts his head on my shoulder from behind, all dressed and clean and freshly smelling of that glorious cologne.
“Ready to get after it?” he asks.
“Yep,” I respond, nodding, and stow my phone in the back pocket of my capris.
He grabs me by the hand and pulls me gently toward the door and down the spiral stairs.
Downstairs, his mom makes some eggs at the large spider burner stove, his father holding her from behind and kissing her neck. She’s wearing a sweeping red and white blouse, the painterly drips of crimson making her pale skin stand out like a gleaming chaff.
“Good morning,” Adaline says as Everett lets her go and grabs the morning paper from the counter.
“Good morning, Mom, Dad,” Dom says, scooting a chair out for me at the twelve-person table underneath the crystal chandelier. The legs scraping against the marble floors echo in the large room.
Everett nods, taking a seat at the bar to read his paper.
Bright light saturates the room, covering everything in a shimmering glow of amber and saffron. As I settle into the seat and pull my phone out again, there’s a sudden rush of light. Another woman is suddenly at the table with us in an ephemeral movement. The displacement of air makes me look up.
I guess that vampires have beauty going for them, as it's pertinent to being a killer and luring prey.
Attracting someone to them helps them hunt more efficiently.
Hattie is no exception to this.
She’s shorter than Dom but has short brown hair shaved on the sides, spiked up into a faux hawk. Her white skin is as delicate as porcelain, her gray eyes are almost silver, and her lips are lush and painted a soft purple-pink. She has high cheekbones and a classical straight nose. Tattoos cover her, including on her neck and fingers.
“Sayah, this is Hattie.”
Hattie grins a little but says nothing.
“Nice to meet you,” I utter, but even I can hear the terror in my voice .
“Touch her and die,” Dom growls, his muscles flexing as his body tenses.
“Hattie, be nice,” Adaline says. “Is everyone hungry?”
“Not for eggs,” Hattie answers, her moon-silver eyes not lifting from mine. She reminds me of a rapturous bird or sleek carnivore; something large, frightening, and incapable of human emotion.
My heart pumps hot and fast, and it shows in my cheeks.
To run or not to run?
This is a bad idea . And this is only four of them.
“Hattie,” Dom says, his green eyes glowing white instantly, the fangs protruding from his cuspids.
I don’t care if he’s murder-y right now; that shit is fucking sexy.
“I’m just playing. Relax,” Hattie says, grabbing the orange juice from the middle of the table.
“Want eggs?” Adaline asks, having flashed over with her pan.
“Yes, please,” Dom says, his eyes returning to normal and fangs retreating. “Where are Jasantha, Ollie, and Scar?”
“They’ll be over later for dinner,” Adaline replies, spooning eggs onto his plate and then to mine.
“Hattie lives here with us again,” Everett grumbles, walking to the table to join us. It’s like they cradle their tenderness for each other in harsh words and hide their love in the sharp edges of their villainous manners.
“Daddy loves that I am here.” Hattie giggles and plays with some of the eggs with her fork.
“So, what brings you here, Dom?” Adaline says, her emerald eyes passing over Dom with ridged seriousness as she sits down.
The look on his face is incredulous.
Vampires know things. He should know that.
“How’d you know?” he asks with a smirk. Adaline gives him a quelling look. “I’ve been marked,” he says quickly.
All the vampires in the room stop, and the air grows thick.
“What?” Adaline says, dropping her fork.
“I went to kill a bad person the other night, and he was marked. I didn’t know. So I killed him and then his mark appeared on me. I saw the warlock's face right when it happened.”
“Where’s your mark?” Hattie asks, peering over at her brother.
Dom lifts his sleeve and shows them the crescent moon brand mark.
Adaline stands in a blur of colors and a swirl of light as she speeds over to him and grabs his arm. “Oh, Dom,” she says, her green eyes growing sad.
“What do you know about this, Mom? Is there anything I can do to get away from this?”
Her eyes spill the answer that she does not want to say. Her head shakes solemnly. “I don’t know of anyone personally that has been marked.”
“That’s not true,” Hattie puts in.
Their glances dart over to Hattie, awaiting her response.
“This has nothing to do with what happened to Amanda, does it?” Everett asks.
“Who’s Amanda?” I query as Dom rolls down his shirt sleeve to cover the mark.
“Amanda was her girlfriend who was bitten by something that wasn’t a vampire and ran off,” Adaline says quite harshly.
“Amanda,” Hattie interjects querulously, extending the syllables of her name as though she’s a bratty teenager correcting her parents, “was bitten by a grimspawn, and I told you this. Mom and Dad think she ran off with another woman, but I?—”
“Because you have a history of falling for the wrong women, and things like this always happen to you, and each time they do, you run home heartbroken and mopey,” offers Everett as he drags his hawkish gaze to Hattie, which rings eye-rolls from her.
“She was marked, too, Dom,” Hattie continues, ignoring Everett and looking at Dominic, her unmerited annoyance with her parents obvious. “I’m telling you. A warlock chose her to be a grimspawn and she was bitten one night while we were out partying. I saw the mark. She began to do things that were not like her, and a few days later, she was gone. But a trail of bodies marked her path. I’ve been researching since it happened, and I think I can break the spell.”
“Was she a vampire?” I ask, my voice shaky.
“Not yet,” Hattie says. “She wanted me to turn her. I was going to after we were married. She’s my one,” she says, and her voice is suddenly sullen. The porcelain of her cheeks looks like they’ll shatter from sadness.
“How can you break the spell?” Dom inquires, playing with the eggs on his plate with a fork.
“There’s an artifact in the museum in New York City that holds the key to breaking the spell. I need to get it.”
“And how do you get it?” Dom asks, a hint of hope in his expression.
“A powerful witch and an even more powerful spell.” She pauses and looks at her mom. I hear her voice's optimism but see Adaline's doubt. “The druids were the ones that started the grimspawn spell,” Hattie continues, “so they have the key to breaking it. The museum has a key that can be used with the moon to break the spell. We only need her blood and the warlock's blood that marked her.”
“What is the key?” Dom questions.
“It’s an old rock with some writing on it,” Hattie offers. I don’t know her well, but I get the impression that she's only giving us bits and pieces. “But I need a witch to help me get into the museum and also to get the rock to ignite.”
“I can do it,” I answer, thinking this may be my chance to get the murder-y vampire to like me.
I can’t help it. I’m a chronic people-pleaser.
And vampire-pleaser now, too, apparently.
Adaline looks at me crossly. “So can I,” she adds.
“The more witches, the more powerful the spell,” answers Hattie.
“How long from when she was marked to when she was doing strange things?” Dom asks, no doubt weighing his own infliction against that of Hattie’s girlfriend.
“A few days,” Hattie answers .
“It could be different for you, son,” Everett says, picking up on Dominic’s concern. “You’re a vampire. She wasn’t.”
“Which makes his bond with the warlock even thicker,” Adaline says gravely. “She’s not going to give him up easily.”
“Which means we have to act fast. Tonight,” Dom says sternly.
Hattie gives him a hard stare. “We’ll have to get her blood somehow, though, Dom. It won’t work without it.”
“I’ll work on figuring that out,” says Adaline.
“Sayah can help with that too, Mom,” Dom offers. The look that spreads across Adaline’s face is doubtful. “She made me this talisman,” he adds, pulling the chain from under his shirt.
Adaline makes no motion that she’s the least bit impressed.
“It’s spelled. I can go in the sunlight.”
Now, her face shifts.
Eyeing the Lapis Lazuli with rapt fascination, as though it’s a piece of long-forgotten jewelry she hasn’t seen in a millennium, she pulls up the chair next to him. She sits down slowly, takes the trinket between her finger and thumb, and caresses it softly. “This . . . makes it so you can be in sunlight?”
“It does,” he murmurs and then nods at me.
My heart swells. “I can make one for you if you’d like.”
“Why did it work for her and not Scarlet? Or Mom?” Hattie asks defensively, her tone skeptical.
“I think it’s because the moon rules Scarlet and Mom. They have the same curse, so it wouldn’t work. Sayah’s not the same. She’s ruled by light. That’s why her spell works.”
“You’d make one of these for us?” Adaline asks, and in that moment, her hardness shatters.
The look on Dom’s face tells me I’ve done it.
I’ve won his mom over.
“I will. For all of you.”
I know what this moment has cost Adaline, her letting her warrior fa?ade splinter even a fraction. I know what it means to the creatures of the dark to be reintroduced to the light. Witnessing Dom meet the light again was one of my defining magickal moments. There’s a great pleasure within me to help my boyfriend’s mom, and the urge to giggle bubbles inside me.
Choking it back down, I look to Everett.
He seems unimpressed.
It’ll be more challenging to win him over.
A fter breakfast, Adaline stands at the sink, rinsing the dishes. Dom and Everett are whispering amongst themselves, reviewing the situation and what has happened to bring Dom to where he is now.
“May I help?” I offer Adaline, handing her the plate.
“Sure,” she says coldly and lets me take over, the soft sliver from before all gone.
As Adaline disappears down a hallway, I place the black dishes in the sleek dishwasher one by one until they’re all nicely stacked within it. Upon shutting the door, the woosh of air signifies someone is standing next to me, and the hairs on the back of my neck prick up.
Slowly, I turn to see Hattie glaring at me.
Terror coils around my stomach, and I hold my breath.
“Follow me,” Hattie demands, and by my frozen limbs, I can tell I’d been ordered to.
Robotically, I follow Hattie down the stone hallway toward the stairs that lead to the basement. Even if I tried to resist, it wouldn’t sway the veilweaving of my feet to keep carrying me forward.
Damn, I should have kept the Nightshade on me .
Entering a cozy and brilliant room, the vellichor of the room floors me. It’s lined with ceiling-to-floor bookshelves—the kind where you need a ladder on rolling casters to get to the books at the top. Books of all ages, colors, and sizes are tucked into them, not a single space wasted, and my bookish heart swells at the sight, immediately wanting to climb that ladder and investigate them. Amongst the other shelves are jars and vials filled with herbs and other substances, canisters, and tins, bundles of dried sage, and other flowers hanging from the walls and the ceiling. It immediately feels like home.
On the west side of this room is an outdoor patio with a little greenhouse in which Adaline grows her herbs. The lovely little space is complete with those rounded tapered glass windows so she can go in there and use it during the day and not burn up. The room has a massive stone fireplace with comfy chairs surrounding it. The room is cozy and quaint, and I am jealous of not having a room for my spells like this one, instead of a little cabinet.
The beautiful and lithe Adaline is already there, peering into her bookcase and pulling down a few of her oldest and most tattered-looking ones. Hattie takes a seat by the fireplace and pulls out her phone.
“So, tell me about you, Sayah,” Adaline says, blowing the dust off the green book she chose and taking a seat on one of the chairs by the fireplace.
Mimicking Adaline and sitting down too, nervousness spills up my insides at being alone with her and Hattie. There’s a strong urge to get Adaline to like me, to win her over, but it’s hard to tell if she already does.
“What would you like to know?”
Her eyes do not look up from scanning the grimoires. “Anything you feel pertinent to tell me, I guess.”
“Well. I’m divorced. I have a ten-year-old who’s my world. He’s in a wheelchair and has diabetes. I’m in college, I work full time, I write, I beat cancer, and my parents just died.”
Figuring I’d throw it all out there and let Adaline choose what she wanted to know next, I laid my heart bare before this vampire.
Adaline’s eyes draw up to mine, and her face softens, if not entirely but slightly.
“Wow,” she says. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“I have.”
“But you didn’t mention the witch part at all. ”
Of all the things I mentioned, I’d forgotten the only thing Adaline wanted to know about.
“I guess I didn’t.” I play with the fringe on the blanket on the chair’s edge.
“I’m sorry about your parents.”
“Thank you.”
“Was your mom a witch, too?”
“She was. My aunts and grandma were too.”
“Did they teach you much?”
“No. They didn’t. My mom let me pick my own path, and she was happy when I picked hers by utter luck. But I had to learn a lot of it on my own. She would buy me things, like candles and crystals and everything. But for the most part, I forged my own path.”
“What can you do? Besides spell necklaces to help vampires walk in daylight?”
“Um.” The fringe is all I can concentrate on. I feel Adaline take the measure of me with every breath and every word I speak. “I can do protection charms. I can spell storms. Make things float. I’m honestly just learning as I go.”
“Well, I can teach you a few things if you’d like.”
The tension depletes a little bit. “I would love that.”
“Okay, here’s something,” Adaline says, sitting up and changing the subject instantly. “This one here is for lycanthropes to break the curse of the moon. I think it’ll work in the same way. We can use the artifact that Hattie wants in addition to the crystal it calls for here.”
“I remember something from one of my mom’s or grandma’s grimoires, too, that had how to glamour someone. We can glamour Hattie to be invisible, and then she can get in that way.”
“There’ll probably be a sensor that the artifact is sitting on. She’ll have to put something in its place. I’ll keep looking for a glamour spell.”
“While you do that, if I could have a piece of your jewelry you wear all the time, or you wouldn’t mind wearing all the time. One from Everett and Hattie too, I can get the sun spell on them for you guys. ”
“Yes. Here,” she says, handing me her wedding ring. It’s a giant stone set in golden bands with many diamonds around a larger one.
I’m hesitant to touch it.
“Take it,” she says, a little short. “I wear it every day. If it’s spelled, I can walk in the sun always. I’ll get Everett’s in a bit.”
“I will need the Lapis Lazuli stone.”
“Over there. I keep all my stones in the second drawer to the right.”
I stand and take stock of the room around me. I find the drawer Adaline had said and dip into it, grabbing the stone.
Lookingback, Hattie and Adaline have already forgotten my existence. I scan the room for the nearest exit, as I need to be out in the elements to conduct my spell. I need to make damn sure I do this right. I don’t want to kill my boyfriend’s mom the first day I meet her.
That would be awkward as hell.
Seeing a door to the outside through the windows of the greenhouse, I open the door to it and softly close it behind me.
The smell of beautiful wet soil and glorious humidity greet me. I long to peek around at all the plants and herbs that Adaline has within here, but time is of the essence, so instead I make my way to the door that leads outside. Clutching the diamonds, I pull the handle and let myself out, tracking to the lake’s edge.
At home doing this, I’d been comfortable. I’m nervous now, being in this strange place, not knowing if his mom likes me, and not knowing if the spell would work this time because I don’t have the same passion for Adaline as I do for Dom.
I have to try.
Walking down to the water’s edge, the morning sun kisses the still water, illuminating it with an amber coat. Little ripples spill up from the wind’s touch, branches of trees bending to the wind. Bright yellow, green, orange, and gold colors pierce through the view, early summer air touching everything in sight.
The last time I’d done this spell, the moon was out, and I had used that as energy to imbue in the jewelry to protect Dom from the sun. Here, the sun’s in its early ascent into the sky, and I will have to come up with something different .
Sparing glances down the way, early morning fishermen are setting out on their kayaks, and a few people are taking their sunrise walks along the banks of Lake George.
Behind me, Dom is out on the balcony, eyeing me and basking in the morning sun. I beckon him down to me, as the jewelry on his neck may help me.
“Hey,” he says when he arrives, whisking his hand around my waist. “What you up to?”
“I need to spell these,” I say, holding out the ring and stone in the palm of my hand. “But when I did yours, I used the moon’s energy to protect you. The moon is not out right now. What if I fail?”
“You can do this. The moon is out right now, just in another part of the world. Where is it midnight right now?”
Dom pulls out his phone and Googles what time it is across the world.
“It’s midnight in Fiji right now. Put yourself there.”
Taking a deep breath, I nod and face the lake. Closing my eyes, I envision myself standing on a beach in Fiji. The ocean blue color of the sky at night is peppered with silver and gold clusters of stars, the sleeping water still bright aqua in the moon’s pearly glow. The white sand is soft between my toes and still warm from the afternoon sun, the sound of the waves lulling me into my trance. I have my repartee with moonlight, exchanging secrets and gossip like old friends, and once again ask a favor of the moon.
“Please, Luna,” I begin, finishing my silent plea, “I need his mom to like me.”
As if in response, the moon twinkles a bit and melts.
I hold the wedding ring and Lapis Lazuli up to the heavens and witness the moon melting again, flowing down the trail of stars to the water, turning the whole ocean silver. This time, I bend down and dip the ring and stone into the silver water like melted dimes, and when I pull my hand away, my entire fist is coated with silver.
It drips onto the sand, where it freezes like metallic tears. When I open my palm, the Lapis Lazuli is glowing like a firefly, melting, swirling around the diamond ring, and slowly entering it .
The smell of briny air swells as the wind picks up, swirling my hair around my face in the tropical island atmosphere.
I close my hand over the ring again and shut my eyes, and lightning lights up the sky as the moon returns to normal.
The soft feeling of the sun on my skin causes me to open my eyes, and once again, I’m standing on the lake’s edge with Dom, ring in hand, burning my skin with its newfound power.
When I open it, the ring is red-hot, like metal tempered in fire to forge a sword, but my hand is unharmed.
“That’s crazy,” Dom murmurs, attempting to touch the ring in my hand.
“Don’t!” I warn. “It may burn you.”
“I heal fast,” he quips, smirking.
He grabs the ring, and the red glow dies before returning to normal.
“Do you think it worked?” I ask as he examines the now normal color ring.
“I do. It feels powerful. Like it’s heavy and hot, and it doesn’t make sense for how light you think it should be.”
“All right, I’m going to go give it to her. Wanna come?”
“Yeah, this I gotta see,” he says, laughing as I clench my jaw, biting back an annoyed retort.
It’s annoying that he’s sitting back, letting me try to win over his mother alone.
His fucking vampire mother.
Upon reentering the spell room, Adaline’s still sitting in her chair, eyes laser-focused on the text within the book that’s sprawled out on the table before her.
“It’s done,” I say hesitantly, not wanting to interrupt her concentration. “I’d like for you to stick a hand out first, to make sure, before . . .”
“Before I burst into flames?” Her cold eyes fall on me, and I’m unsure if this is Adaline’s attempt at her son’s dry humor.
“Well . . . yeah,” I stammer.
Adaline saunters over to me and holds out her hand. “You need to have more confidence in yourself, girl.”
I drop the ring into her open palm. “It worked.”
“Then you won’t begrudge me walking directly into the sunlight?”
“No, ma’am.” My voice is even.
She flashes her white teeth, fangs not barred, but I can see where they should be. My heart races.
Adaline’s scary.
I’ve been scared of people before, but never like this. She has an air about her that reaches in and grips my stomach like a vice. The strength in her body is evident in the way her muscles are fine-tuned, not massive like a bodybuilder, but just enough that they're accentuated when she’s not flexing. Reminding me of a shield maiden that stepped off the battlefield, I can tell she’s stabby as fuck even when she’s nowhere near a knife.
Placing the ring back on her finger, she walks to the greenhouse and throws the doors open.
My heart stops.
What if it hadn’t worked, and I’m about to kill Dominic’s mother?
Adaline looks back one final time before emerging through the doors into the greenhouse and then out into the outside world.
Nothing happens.
Not only does she not burn, but she also doesn’t seem to care that she’s out in daylight again for the first time in more than 200 years.
It must be that she can enjoy the light in her house with windows that protect her.
Either that, or she’s hard and cold.
The woman gives me whiplash with her reactions to things. One second, she’s deep in awe at the trinket I’d spelled for Dom; the next, she’s not impressed she had stepped outside in sunlight for the first time in hundreds of years. Maybe it’s to cover her earlier slip of letting me see a softer side of her at all.
Who knows?
Entering back into the house, she stops in front of me.
“Thank you,” she says, no emotion is present in her words.
“You’re welcome.”
Adaline grabs my hand unexpectedly. The steel of her eyes burns into mine, and I look to Dom for assistance. He gives me a smile that disarms me.
“Do you feel that?” she asks, her voice like the rush of a river, cold and calculating.
Other than her cold hands on my forearm, I feel nothing. I shake my head.
“I’ve given you a bit of my power. I want you to try it on Dom. It’ll hurt him a bit, but the pain isn’t real. What you’re doing is making them believe their worst fear is happening to them. You’ll soon find out what Dom’s worst fear is. Being around this many vampires and being as powerful a witch as you are, you need something defensive to use against us. Because you are ruled by the three-fold law—whatever you do comes back at you three-fold, it won’t affect that because you’re not doing any damage.”
Adaline is helping me even though she doesn’t seem to like me in the slightest, which confuses me. Somewhere in Adaline’s dark heart sparks an affinity for me, I’m sure of it.
“What do I do?”
“Imagine him experiencing his worst fear. Whatever their fear is, it will take over their mind, which will be all they can see. It may cause temporary paralysis or unbearable pain, depending on what that fear is. It may be useful, especially since we must lure this warlock here to get her blood. I don’t wanna take any chances.”
“And I have to try it on Dom?” I can’t hide the hesitation swelling in my voice.
“He’ll be fine, I promise.”
I look over to my man leaning against a bookshelf, one eyebrow quirked up in a mocking ‘come and get me’ manner. His dapper demeanor is dripping with confidence, teasing me to try it.
As much as I don’t want to hurt him, I have to try my new power on someone before luring a powerful warlock here. He changes his stance, squaring his shoulders, steeling himself for what I’m about to do .
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and search my mind for my newfound power. Envisioning myself swimming through my blood, I canal through networks of veins and arteries, searching for anything that seems to be newly placed. Deep in between my shoulder blades is where it’s located, a bright orange and delicate new power. It’s a soft, sizzling sensation that reminds me of being electrocuted, but just slightly. Pulling it to the front of my mind, I push it out from myself and picture it like a net draping over him.
His hazel eyes grow wide; an invisible force we can’t see is crawling up his sleeves as he bats at it convulsively like he’s on fire. Screaming, the imaginary flames grow worse, and he falls to the floor, trying to snuff out the flames that are engulfing his pants now. I keep my eyes locked on him, and he wails.
Before I can let him go, the displacement of hot air steals my concentration, and Hattie stands before me. Her ivory fangs are barred, her eyes white and cat-shaped, the dexterity with which she arrives at me unbridled. The glacial stare and hiss she emanates at me cause me to almost lose consciousness, but Adaline’s sparring grace steps in and shoves Hattie back. Hattie flies and lands on the beam, crashing down to the floor.
“It’s an exercise, Hattie,” Adaline scolds her as she peels herself off the floor and gives Adaline a mocking stare.
My breath returning to me, I notice I let Dom go in the upheaval, and the make-believe fire has diminished.
He stands and brushes off his pants, looking embarrassed. “All right, not bad,” he says in exultation, an embarrassed inflection in his voice.
“I think it’s good for her to have a defensive power,” Adaline concurs. “Considering we have to get that warlock’s blood somehow, and she’s a human in a house full of vampires.”
“I agree.”
The feelings bite at me, not wanting to hurt my love. I stroll up to him and slip my arm into his crook, laying my head on his shoulder as he kisses the top of my head. It’s good that Adaline gave me a new power, invigorating even. Seeing Hattie in her full vamp mode scared the shit out of me but also drew a feeling of dangerous excitement as well.
It takes the rest of the afternoon for me to calm down. My nerves are on edge, and I am absolutely terrified. Being here with them isn’t supposed to be the vacation of my dreams, but I don’t know if Everett and Adaline like me and his sister tried to kill me.
And that isn’t even the rest of them.
As Dom and I are outside on the patio, enjoying the setting sun, he sits close to me on the porch swing and strokes my hand.
“So, you did some good bonding with my mom.”
“She hates me,” I say.
“She doesn’t hate you. She’s hard to get to sometimes.”
“I made her a ring and didn’t know if it was gonna work, and she waltzed into the sunlight like it was nothing. She didn’t care that it was the first time she’d been in the light in two hundred years. I expected more.”
“That’s just my mom, Say. She is a hardened warrior woman. She doesn’t show a lot of emotions. But when she does, she does that fiercely, too.”
“I wish I knew if she liked me or not.”
“She shared a gift with you to protect you. She likes you.”
“Well, that’s good, I guess.”
“You’ll grow on her, Sayah. I promise.”
“Do I make the talismans for the others then, too?”
“Yes. When the time comes. Ollie and Scar will be here soon. Just do all of theirs at once. Make it easier on yourself.”
“What about Hattie?”
“Let her suffer,” he jokes.
“Dom—” I scold.
“She’s a bitch. Always has been.”
“You are the one that said she was murder-y.” I laugh. “I’m making her a ring. She’s going to help us break this curse on you.”
“We hope.”
“Please stay optimistic. Your mom found a spell that helps break the curse of the lycanthrope. We’re gonna go with that, and that should work the same.”
“Well. Let’s hope that I don’t turn all murder-y til then.”
His head cocks sideways, again like he hears something.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Scar is here.”
Glancing through the windows, I can see around five new people entering the house.
“Which one is Scarlet?” I ask as we stand, preparing to go into the house.
“She’s the one, right there,” he says, pointing to her. She’s not quite as tall as he and has long, wavy, bright blonde hair. Her eyes are green, her lips are full, her body curvy, and She. Is. Stunning. The sculpted angles of her face make her seem like she should be on posters for fantasy lovers, as she looks like a vampire. She’s too stunning to be a human. She looks photoshopped.
“And I’m assuming the redhead is the siren?” I ghost the sentence out, feeling an uneasy grace seep about me.
It’s nerve-racking.
“Yep. Don’t worry, babe, you got this. They’re gonna love you.”
The wind picks up and blows loose strands of hair into my eyes, which I pull away as Dom interlocks his hand with mine and tugs me toward the door.
I’m not sure which of the creatures I’m more afraid of, but the siren is one of them that makes chills of apprehension skim the surface of me. Not to mention the twin, Scarlet. If it isn’t going well with Adaline, Everette, or Hattie, I’m sure it’s going to hell in a handbasket with Scarlet and Jasantha.
Taking a deep and calming breath to soothe me, I fortify myself as we again enter the house.
“Domie!” Scarlet squeals as he drops my hand and flashes over to his sister. He picks her up and spins her around, her lengthy hair whipping through the air fast enough to make a sound.
“Scar-bar!” he answers as he sits her down .
The breeze from the open door thrashes my hair around again, and when I remove it, I see Jasantha whip her gaze at me like she found my scent on the breeze. She has beautiful dark midnight skin, her eyes are green and cat-like, her lipstick matches her nails, and her hair is a beautiful red-almost-purple color. Her arm candy is human, from what I can tell, a tall, unnaturally muscular man with a short beard.
“Everyone, this is Sayah. Sayah, this is my twin sister, Scarlet; this is Jasantha and her fiancé Joe; my little brother, Ollie, and his girlfriend, Allison.”
Ollie is a pretty vampire, shorter than Dom. Still, they’re similar in looks, except Ollie has no visible tattoos. He wears his hair a little longer, wavy, dirty-blond, and has green eyes. Allison looks unnaturally beautiful as well. She has a pixie haircut and brown hair, her eyes are blue, and her face is a little rounder and bright with an aquiline nose.
All eyes are on me, and I’m frozen in my steps. Thinking about being in a room full of killers and actually being in a room full of killers are two totally different things. The acquiescence of such only abates minutely with the thought that at least there’s one more human in the room with me.
Joe.
I can tell by the normalcy of his looks, demeanor, and stature.
“Nice to meet you all,” I manage, but my voice betrays me, coming out quiet and shaky.
“Pleased to meet you, Sayah,” Ollie says, and is here in a wisp to kiss my hand.
At least one of them is pleasant to me.
“So,” Scarlet says, ignoring me, “tell us why you’re here, Dom.”
“I’m gonna start dinner,” Adaline announces. She and Everett have been standing in the kitchen prepping the food, Everett handing her things that she asks of him. It’s sweet.
The kitchen table is set with elegant black plates atop the giant wooden table, the candlelight gleaming, delicate silverware resting on black serviettes. Thin yet tall wine glasses are resting by every plate—set for ten people—and bottles of unopened wine are lined in the middle, along with a few wine keys. There are also bottles of what I assume can only be blood among them. They're opened and unlabeled, the clear glass showing the thick, dark crimson liquid within.
Dom tugs me with him to the table and pulls out a chair for me to sit, the rest of the group following our lead.
“He was marked,” offers Hattie flippantly, scooting a chair out and sitting.
Scarlet turns a lighter shade of pale. “What?” she breathes, taking the chair next to Dom.
The velocity with which he pulls up his sleeve is disarming—like he wants to get this particular part of the visit out of the way. The brand is white and gleaming, still the obdurate mark it’s intended to be.
“Oh my god, how did this happen?”
“I killed the wrong person,” he culls.
“We’re figuring out a way to break the curse,” interjects Hattie.
“How are you gonna do that?” asks Ollie.
Hattie rolls her eyes. “I’ve been researching. There’s an artifact I’m gonna steal that will help Mom and Sayah here break his curse. If it works, I’m gonna use it on Amanda.”
“ If it works?” asks Dom, his eyes shading the emotions he wears on his face.
“Well, yeah.” Jasantha’s fingernail elongates like fangs do, and she uses it to open a bottle of wine, the popping sound of the cork making me jump. “Dom, this is dealing with a warlock. Those things are half-demon. They’re impossible to kill.”
“We’re not killing her,” Dom says defensively, “we’re breaking the curse that bonds me to her.”
“Have you seen her yet?” Jasantha asks, pouring herself a glass of wine, the lug of the liquid entering the glass like a lullaby in the intense conversation.
“I saw her when I first got the mark. But nothing yet.”
“How are you gonna break the curse?” asks Allison.
“Using a lycanthrope spell breaker,” Adaline says from the stove .
“Using her help?” Scarlet says derisively, nodding her head toward me.
“She’s a witch,” Hattie remarks.
“A good one, too,” Dom adds, defending me.
“What makes this normal-looking woman a good witch?” Jasantha asks, and my heart faints; the ineffable feeling of running traps me beneath the surface of something, and the air is thin in my lungs. I look to Dom for comfort.
What if I faint right here in front of all these vampires?
What kind of witch would that make me?
“She spelled us jewelry that lets us walk in daylight,” Adaline says genially, and I’m surprised it’s her that comes to my rescue.
Throwing the gauntlet was a good call, though. Because all eyes are on me again, but they’re curious now, searching.
“You can do that?” Scarlet asks, her cold, incredulous eyes now apprise me.
I give her the sweetest smile I can muster. “I can. I’ll make you all one if you want. I need a piece of jewelry you wear all the time. Or that you wouldn’t mind wearing all the time.”
Dom smiles at me.
The sound of the front door slamming shut causes everyone in the room to look over at who entered.
My heart takes a running leap out of my chest, and I’m pretty sure my jaw also hits the floor. For walking in that door is none other than my midnight mystery vampire.
Sebastian.