Chapter Nine
Charlotte
I woke up alone, and surrounded by debris. Ripped sheets, gutted pillows, strewn goose feathers, and the remains of both bedside lamps smashed on the carpet. The only thing whole and intact was the phone lying on the ripped-up pillow beside me. Slowly, I picked it up... and nothing.
No hyper-charged, sensory reaction hit me. The potion was finally out of my system.
That aphrodisiac would make a killing earthside. Gone would be the days of women faking orgasms to get a boring bout of sex over with. With that stuff, their partner didn’t even have to be good at it, they’d just have to look at them too hard, and they’d be screaming their pleasure.
But unfortunately for me, Ronin was good at sex— No, he was fan-fucking-tastic at it.
The guy made me come so many times the night before, I stopped counting around the time I lost my voice, and stopped trying to fight him off when it became clear my back-scratching, hair-pulling, and spankings were sending the opposite message.
I wouldn’t lie, there were about half a dozen moments the night before when I thought about giving in and telling Ronin I belonged to him, just to get him to let me sleep. Too bad for me my voice was long gone by that point.
“Urghh...” I peeled myself off, wincing at the hickeys, bruises, and marks scattered all over my skin like a Jackson Pollock. Who the hell was I kidding? Ronin turned my body into his masterpiece and even signed his name. How much more his possession could I be?
“Could’ve at least used your face magic to heal me up before you took off, asshole.” I kept grumbling to myself as I trudged across the room, grabbed some clothes out of Ronin’s wardrobe, dressed, and then crossed over to my room.
Adora was in the middle of her bed, curled up and sleeping like a lamb.
I left her be while I picked out some real clothes, and headed for the shower. There was still an hour before class started. That would give me plenty of time to go down, grab our breakfast, and bring it back up for us to eat before Dora had to get ready.
That plan set, I stepped into the shower and let the hot water soothe my muscles. Focusing on getting the feeling in my limbs back distracted me from all the thoughts swirling around in my head—
—for all of three minutes.
“Ah, so this love isn’t even a love you chose?
It was forced on you by the death of your parents.
Would you even be here if your parents were still alive, Charlotte Hunter?
If little Adora was dragged to hell on their watch and not yours, wouldn’t you have expected them to be the ones risking vampire bites and burning stakes to rescue her, not you? Wouldn’t you reject love’s demands?”
Me and my loofah stilled as those words clanged around in my brain.
And it wasn’t because Ronin’s taunts stirred up the selfishness and resentment in me that he was hoping for.
No, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, because I couldn’t stop asking myself what would’ve happened if that accident hadn’t taken Mom and Dad?
What if when Dora was dragged to hell, she was at home with Mom and Dad, and I was off living my life in New York as had always been the plan. Would my parents... have gone after her?
Would my mother have? After telling me a horrific, heartbreaking story of a child she never loved and never wanted?
Wouldn’t she have waved “toodles!” to Dora as the demons dragged her away?
Wouldn’t she have feigned ignorance while Dad, the police, and I searched for her on a planet she was no longer on?
Ronin grilled me about the meaning of love and family, but he shouldn’t have. I knew so much less about that than I realized.
Now thoroughly depressed on top of everything else, I climbed out of the shower, dressed in a simple goddess-style, sapphire gown, and did my hair up in a bun. On the way to the mess hall, I searched again for Tristan’s contact but nothing came up on DeadDrop.
It would seem he blocked me.
A tear rolled down my cheek. I understood Tristan had his own problems to deal with, he couldn’t afford to take on mine, but I still didn’t get why he cut off all contact with me?
Couldn’t we still talk even if he didn’t help me protect Dora or track down the hallows? I mean, I thought... we were friends.
I snorted, roughly wiping my cheek. “Of course I was wrong about that. Hasn’t everyone been telling me the same thing since I came to this burnt-out husk? There is no such thing as a friend in hell.”
My phone went off.
“Morning, honey. What’s got you down?”
“Wait, Radu? Is that you?” I pulled back, staring at the phone. “I just got this phone and this number. How do you have it already?” His question penetrated. “And how do you know I’m down?”
“Your tears are a clue.”
I choked, spinning around. “How the—?! You undead stalker! Where are you?!”
“I’m back in my bedroom, of course,” he said, chuckling. “I only popped over to catch a glimpse of you, amore. And you look positively ravished. I see the prince of sloth is slow and lazy everywhere except the bedroom.”
I flushed, face heating up. “Stuff it, Prof, I’m not in the mood.”
That only set him off laughing again. “Anything I can do to make you feel better?”
I heaved a sigh. Yeah, can you do another popover and find out why Tristan won’t talk to me?
But even as the thought crossed my mind, I knew that wouldn’t work. The demon wing wasn’t locked down from vampires because demon blood was fatal to them, but the werewolf wing wasn’t nearly so lax.
Santino couldn’t get over there to talk to Tristan, and even if he tried, the panic—and attempted vampire murder—would be horrendous. No need to kick off that kind of trouble when this was for me and Tristan to settle on our own.
Another thought popped into my head. “Actually, there is something you can help me with. Have you ever heard of the hallows or the All Hallows?”
“Yes,” he replied without skipping a beat. “I have. Why?”
“Wait, you have?”
“Indeed. I’ve been around for quite a long time, honey. I’ve heard all the legends there are to hear.”
“Wow.” I resumed my walk, rounding the corner out of the dorm wing.
“But if you’re calling it a legend, then I get to tell you something that you didn’t know.
The power of the All Hallows is real. The Avos coven used it to banish all the supernatural creatures to hell and slam the gates behind them. ”
A thick, pregnant pause birthed a mess of unsettling, white-eyed vampire babies in the time it took Radu to reply.
“I see,” he clipped. Gods, help me, but his voice gave nothing away. “That would explain... much.”
“Do you know what it is?” I asked. “This grand All Hallows power?”
“You’re asking me? You seem to know more about it than I do.”
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me— Or wait... maybe he could see me. “I only know that it’s real and that it was used by my ancestors to purge earth of everyone they hated.”
“Hold on a moment.” Emotion finally entered his voice. “But if the power was your ancestors, that means it’s yours. It’s in your blood! You can open the gates! You can free us—”
“Lucifer has the same idea,” I sliced in. “He put Dora under the pure soul curse to force me to find a way to activate whatever power is lying dormant in my blood. He’s going to steal the power from me the second I do, but he promised to return Dora’s life and soul after he does.”
He whistled. “Ahh. No wonder you were crying.”
I tipped my head. See? My life was crap. At least someone understood that.
“And you need me to help you wake the sleeping dragon?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, honey, but only your witch mothers can train you in how to tap into your magic.
Even if they did feel like sharing the secrets of witch magic with vampires, the goddesses they serve wouldn’t let us hold such knowledge in our heads without splitting it open with a lightning strike. ”
I cringed at the image. “That actually isn’t what I need.
I’ve been thinking about this, but what if this All Hallows power doesn’t play by the blood magic rules?
I’ve been told that blood magic is so powerful because it can be shared with the whole coven, and then passed down from generation to generation—making each one stronger than the one before it.
“But if this All Hallows power has been passed down for hundreds of years to my grandmother, then to my mother, and then to me, shouldn’t we be freaking superwomen?
Wouldn’t my mother have been able to stop my grandmother’s tyranny with a flick of her wrist?
Wouldn’t Grandmother have been able to track us down in a blink when Mother was on the run, hiding her family? ”
I took a deep breath. “What if they made a mistake the night that they banished everything supernatural from the world? They thought they were walking away from that spell circle as the new resident badasses, but instead, they used up every drop of the All Hallows power on closing the gates, and when they did so, they locked away all the ingredients they needed to bring the power back.”
“Now that...” His voice changed. “Is an intriguing idea.”
“It must be Lucifer’s idea too. That’s why he’s got me on the hunt for every item mentioned in the spell my foremothers chanted when they brought forth the power.
The hallows of the air, sea, wood, and flame.
That’s why I want to know if you know anything about what they might be.
I have nothing but theories about the possible hallows, but no way to narrow it down.
Finding out is the only way to end this. ”
He hummed. “I can help you, Charlotte.”
Charlotte, not honey. Seemed like Radu was out of hungry stalker mode and into professor mode.
“But first,” he continued, “you need to understand what you’re about to do. Mortals think that gods created them, but it’s the other way around.”
“What does that—?”