CHAPTER FOUR
Ilet Nancy drag me inside. She didn’t stop to introduce me to anyone, but I tried to look around.
Nancy’s white hair was a sign of her age, along with a fair number of the other witches, but the younger generations let me see if there were any familiar looks to hopefully identify the families.
Sadly, that didn’t work out for me. I was whisked deep into a sitting room where there were couches to sit or relax on and finger foods set out for those who needed to eat.
There had been a variety of looks, from platinum blondes to jet black hair and nearly every shade between.
Except red. The closest hair to mine was a light strawberry blonde that leaned more to the blonde.
And none of them really looked alike in a way I could guess their relationships.
I couldn’t see a distinct nose or something as Nancy dragged me through.
I had noticed a distinct lack of men, only a handful compared to the near thirty witches.
“Sit, sit,” Nancy said, pointing to a comfortable armchair pair. I took one, and she took the other, facing the fireplace at an angle.
“This is a beautiful home,” I said politely.
“Isn’t it? Older than me by a long shot.
Original build. Savannah was spared from Sherman’s March.
All we’ve ever done is continue to reenergize the protection spells and tell people we maintain the home well.
We do upgrades, of course. Plumbing, electric, but only when it’s time for a major upgrade.
We try not to mess with the bones of the house.
It’s seen too much to be too desecrated by the modern world.
It has too many stories to tell and is home to too many ghosts.
” Nancy was looking up wistfully, as if the house could really hear her and recognized her praise.
There was no missing the reverence and protective tone she took as she spoke.
“It’s wonderful,” I said softly, not wanting to offend, but not sure how to talk about a house I had only just entered for the first time. I wasn’t sure what was the polite thing to ask about here.
“And I do mean real ghosts,” Nancy said with a grin. “Humans want them not to be real. Other supernaturals try to ignore them… normally. But we witches… ghosts are in our realm. Most of them used to be us.”
“Witches?”
“Yes. Or other supernaturals, though you’ll only find ghosts here who were witches or plain humans with a touch more magic in them than they ever knew.”
“Wow, okay.” I wasn’t expecting that. “I’ll… do my best not to offend any of them,” I said, tugging at my sleeve nervously.
“Well, if any give you a problem, you just tell him.” She nodded her head back to the other room. “He knew them by name. Not all, but many. There are some in the city that not even we could help you with, but they don’t target people who are respectful of the area. Do you understand what I mean?”
She was clearly testing me. Leading me into a moment to test my knowledge. Her face had turned deadly serious, broaching no argument or change of topic. She would have an answer from me.
“I understand,” I promised. “There were people here before the coven, before Alexius, before the Europeans who founded Savannah.”
“Then you understand. Those ghosts, if offended, will not care who or what you are. And it’s their right to be angry. I don’t care where you stand with anything, but to live here as a supernatural, you must acknowledge that.”
“It is,” I agreed softly.
“Good.” Nancy smiled once again. “It’s not all altruistic. The coven doesn’t want to lose members of our families dealing with a problem like that. So, let’s not cause one.”
“Of course.”
“Now, your story,” she said.
I heard a lift in the soft chatter I had ignored successfully until that point. There was something about the spot and the person I was with that had made it easy to turn them into background noise. Now, it picked up.
“Where…” Alexius’ voice cut through.
“Alexius! It’s good to see you. Looking good as ever,” a woman said, the tone in her voice making it sound like she was flirting.
My fingers bit into the fabric of my turtleneck, and Nancy seemed to notice there was some change.
“Would you rather keep it to yourself? Don’t hurt your poor sleeve. It didn’t do anything to you.” She reached out and actually slapped the top of my hand, and I released the sleeve.
“Oh, sorry. No, I got distracted by the noise.”
“He finally came inside,” Nancy said, with a huff. “Dragging his feet. He started up with that about ten years ago. Ignore all that. I need to know the new vampire who wants refuge and safety in our city. How did a young woman like you, so nervous and fidgety, become a creature of the night?”
Nervous and fidgety… I’ve been working so hard not to be like that, and this old witch undid it in a second. She’s thrown me off this whole time.
“It’s a longer story than someone might expect.
I grew up with vampires. I was related to one, several generations removed.
He became a vampire, and his sister’s family, her children and grandchildren, all worked for the nest. I’m from that line, part of the active family that remained and kept working there if we wanted the work. ”
“Fascinating.”
“It was mutually beneficial. They had humans who genuinely cared for them more than just the paycheck who could fulfill roles. In return, the family members were educated and well taken care of, unharmed by the vast majority of things that could happen to humans who work for supernaturals.”
“I’ve never heard of that… though I don’t spend much time around vampire nests.”
“It’s not that uncommon, but I think our family was one of the longest lasting. Over two hundred and fifty or so years.”
“What happened? And how did that work out for so long?”
“They worked for Jacob’s nest,” he answered without announcing himself.
Her eyes went wide, and she turned in the chair, looking back to the archway leading into the sitting area. I looked back as well, not having to twist nearly as much. Alexius stood in the doorway, his eyes shadowed.
“I see…” she said softly. “And Jacob’s nest is no more.”
“It was passed to new leadership for transition after his murder, and that was its own disaster,” Alexius explained.
“A disaster that my mother and I paid the price of,” I added for Nancy. “She didn’t have anyone willing to Turn her when the… new leadership decided she was too annoying to keep around.”
“Oh, spirits have mercy,” the old witch exhaled. She looked at me, almost incredulous. “And you survived and decided to become a vampire?”
“No, I died. I died at the right time. He used another vampire’s blood to make sure I got back up.” I smiled, pointing a thumb back at Alexius. “Considering I helped him learn some really important stuff, he thought I deserved it. Now I work with him.”
“For me.”
“With you,” I corrected once again.
Nancy leaned back, crossing her hands over her lap.
“And here you are, a young vampire, no bloodline, a dangerous coworker—”
“Boss,” Alexius growled softly, clearly annoyed. A couple of women made noises. None of fear. More taunting, teasing, as they all listened in if they were close by behind him.
“A dangerous coworker,” Nancy continued, repeating her and smiling mischievously at me. “And you live in one of the strangest cities in the country… Certainly one of the most haunted.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“I like her,” Nancy said, slapping her hands on her knees, then getting up faster than one would expect of someone in their nineties. “She has my vote to enter the Shroud. She’s fun.”
“That’s not what you should be judging her for,” Alexius grumbled.
“Oh, please. We couldn’t deny her even if we wanted to.
You have never once raised a single objection to a single witch or even the odd fae we’ve added to the Shroud.
You have also never asked us to add anyone else, not even Jacob or Isaiah.
You want her.” Nancy reached him quickly, leaving me shocked in my seat at the words.
“Only her. An odd nervous little thing who used to work for your son and smiles when she brings up her own death, the moment her normal life was stolen from her by your kind. And she works for the first and best real vampire hunter. She woke up and decided killing her new fellows was the right choice. Aside from a fair word of warning she needed, because you wouldn’t think to give it, everyone here is only here for the principle of the matter.
For the party, even. No one is going to say no.
And we’ll gossip about this for generations.
You’re just going to have to live with that. ”
She raised her chin, and Alexius gave in, moving out of the archway to let her walk through it.
I was left alone with him, all the witches outside the room moving away politely from the archway where they had all listened in. He sighed heavily when he looked at me.
“An odd, nervous little thing,” I said, trying to make a joke out of it. “I thought I was getting better at the whole social anxiety thing.”
“You have been. Nancy was intentionally making you squirm to see the measure of you from her perspective. It’s a good thing, too. Reminds them that you’re human, fallible, safe. If you had been too put together, too closed off about how you really felt, they would have been suspicious of you.”
He got closer, moving to put his hand on the back of the chair where Nancy was just sitting.
I watched him, considering my next move.
There was something he wanted to say. It was all over his face.
Other people would read the dispassionate look as something else, but to me, he was itching to say something.
His fingers tapped the chair. A tiny sign of energy, the burning of whatever was on his mind.
His head was angled just right for the light of the fireplace to make the brown come out, lit up by the orange glow.
I saw the tic in his jaw. He was fighting the urge to speak.
And I had a really solid guess what the topic was.
“Do you want to ask about anything?” he finally asked, looking away as the words came out.
“Is there anything you want to explain?” I countered, not walking into a topic I knew he didn’t actually want to discuss, even though the words were flying unspoken around the room. It left me with a thousand thoughts, but I knew he wasn’t going to explain it clearly.
There really was no good explanation.
“I don’t know how,” he muttered.
“Then we leave it on the table for later,” I said, standing up.
There was nothing to consider at this moment, in public, or ever.
It was crazy. It was insane to consider the reasons why he was willing to do all of this for my protection when he never even offered it to Jacob.
Jacob, his son, and the person who pulled him out of a feral state of mind and gave him back his humanity.
Jacob, who became his family, who loved and admired him and was loved and admired in return.
He would have been the perfect recipient of this gift.
Or even Isaiah, a member of the Tribunal, who could really use a place where no one could find him and was important to the leadership and law of the vampires. A rational choice, to help a ruler and friend feel comfortable and safe in his city.
He didn’t give either of them protection.
He wanted it for me.
And he’s going to drive us both mad because of it.
“I can’t… do this tonight,” I finally said, walking out of the room to see the sea of witches, deciding this was easier than him.