Chapter Nine #2
“Hmm.” The fingers stroking the back of my neck were highly distracting. “Too vague. Give me some examples of what friends do together in the land of the moon.”
“Um, they...” My mouth was suddenly dry.
“Spend time together with other friends but also a-alone too. Sometimes. And they eat—food. Together.” What the hell was wrong with me?
What was I rambling about! “And some friends even have...” Oh yeah, my mouth was straight sandpaper. “Arrangements,” I rasped out.
“Arrangements?”
“Yeah, arrangements to do more i-intimate things than just eating and hanging out.”
Tristan’s smirk was too panty-melting for someone who couldn’t look at me without blushing an hour before. “And what kind of arrangements will we have, friend?” His hand traveled down to the small of my back, drawing me closer still.
“Well, you know,” I squeaked out—heart racing a marathon. “There’re lots of things we can do together, but what exactly did you have in mind?”
“Hmm. What things do I want to do with you?” He cocked his head, flashing his grin at the ceiling. “Something I’ve never done with a woman before. Actually, all of the things I’ve never done with a woman before.”
My knees clapped together—leaning on each other to share the strength needed to keep me upright.
This man had freely admitted that the only women he’d known to this point were blood relatives, and homicidal maniacs, so the list of things he’d never done with a woman was pretty long...
and it had all the sexual things that were on my list of the stuff I wanted to do with Tristan Sweetbottom.
Hey, if his pack won’t let him have a last name, then we should stick with verifiable facts in making up another one, because that bottom is sweet.
“Why don’t you give me a hint?” I whispered, rising up on tiptoe. “Because something tells me I want to do those things with you too.”
The air charged with snapping, crackling electricity.
I felt that giddy rush of nerves and excitement that came with my first kiss, and my first time.
The feeling that I was about to create a memory that would stay with me forever, and instead of the awkward, unsatisfying fumble that was my first time, I knew that what I was about to do with Tristan... I would enjoy.
Closing the distance, our lips—
“Ow!” I hollered, ripping away. A vicious, sharp pain bloomed in my ankle and rocketed up my leg.
“What happened?” Tristan cried, stumbling over his feet as he shot away from me. “Did I hurt you?”
“I told you to stop that caterwauling,” Sabrina snapped—her fangs glistening with my blood. “I’m not venomous!”
“Sabrina!” I fell over grabbing my ankle. I would’ve broken something hitting the ground if Tristan hadn’t moved in a flash to catch me. “I’m so sorry, Tristan. It wasn’t you. It was this evil reptile who—”
“I will not hear your insults, human,” Sabrina sliced in. “Not when it is you who tried to mate with an enemy just because he wooed you with your human words! Knock some sense into your head, you geriatric cow! He only tempts you to keep you close!”
“—lie? Charlie?” Tristan called. “Are you okay? Do you want me to kill that rabid snake?”
“No,” I gritted, even though the only thing that tempted me right then was the urge to say yes.
“It’s fine. She was just reminding me to feed her.
She gets pretty testy when I drag my feet during mealtime.
” I tried to give him a smile and winced.
That bite really hurt! “Why don’t you go back to the mess hall and grab something to eat while there’s still time?
I’ll take care of Sabrina, and then be right there. ”
“Oh, uh... are you sure? Because we...” The blush suddenly returned to his cheeks. “I mean, yes, of course. I’ll save you something, so take your time.”
“Thanks.”
My pained smile held until the door closed.
“Dammit, Sabrina, what is your problem! I told you I’m going to trust my judgement, and my judgement says that Tristan is a good guy!”
“Your judgement is worthless. It evaporated with your youth.” She turned her back on me with a soundless harrumph. “You just spoke of a world where males use emotional manipulation to bend females to their will, and then you throw yourself at a suspicious man you’ve known for less than a week.”
“But—”
“If you will not exercise caution for yourself, do it for your nestmate!”
I fell silent—choking on my heated reply.
“I told you that werewolves live an even harder life down here. They are separated from their own kind, but even if they weren’t, mating and offspring are a struggle. As such, only the strongest and most worthy alphas are even allowed to attempt it.
“And because of his failure, Tristan No-Name is no longer either. His entire life he has never known the touch of a woman, and now that he’s been thrown out of the pack, he never will.
Not with a werewolf woman at least,” she hissed.
“So what is a young, virile wolf facing a lifetime of forced celibacy to do? Mate with the red-eyed demonesses who disgusts him just as much as he disgusts them? Or does he partake in the sweet, supple flesh of a weak and captured mortal maiden?”
“Stop.”
“How many times do you think your Tristan has shoved her screams back down her throat with his tongue? Or do you think he doesn’t bother with such frivolities? It’s much easier to choke her throat—strangling the screams where they lie as he forces her legs apart and—”
“Stop it!” I screamed. “Just stop it, Sabrina!”
She hissed, staring me down with slitted eyes that held nothing close to remorse.
“I was sent to you to be your guide, but you will not listen to me, so what exactly is it that you wish me to cease doing, human? Do you wish me to stop warning you when you’re walking headlong into danger? Or do you wish me to leave altogether?”
I took a deep breath, willing my body to stop shaking.
The images Sabrina planted in my head were so horrible, I felt my mind would break under their weight.
“Neither,” I croaked when I trusted myself to speak.
“You don’t need to leave, Sabrina. You made your point.
I need to hold my cards much closer to my chest, but not for my sake. For Dora’s.”
Rising to my feet, I held my hand out for her to slither up. “Forget Tristan for now. You stayed in the vampire wing after I was escorted—forced—out by Professor Santino. What were they saying after I left?”
“They said much after you left,” she confessed as we settled into an uneasy truce.
Sabrina wove around my shoulders—which she always refused to do—giving me a break from her strangle-grip on my abdomen.
“They had even more to say than the gossip and titters among the others. Unsurprisingly, for the knowledge of the vampires stretches far beyond hell.”
“Really?” Latching on to this topic helped me put all thoughts of Tristan, and the desire still lingering in my chest, aside. “What did they say?”
“They spoke of the crest left at the scenes of slaughter. It means that mark is not a general mark used by all witches. It is in actually, the mark of one coven in particular. The most fearsome and deadly of all the witches. The one the supernatural feared most.”
“What?” I hissed, stopping short with my hand on the knob. Lunch was almost over. The gong would sound any second summoning me to class, but those words stopped me in my tracks. “What coven is that?”
“The Avos coven.”
“Avos?”
“Yes.” I don’t know if Sabrina noticed that she lowered her voice, matching my whisper.
“I do not know much about the history of witches myself.
Your vampire professor was quite right that the history has been distorted and misrepresented here in hell.
I can only tell you what they spoke of last night, but among them they told the tale of witches blessed with the most coveted power.
“Blood magic.”
“Blood magic?” I whispered. “Why is it the best?”
“They say it is a form of ancestral magic, but even more powerful. As long as that person—dead or alive—is of your blood, you can draw upon their power. Think of it, human. As the generationsss march on, as the bloodlines mingle, as new power comes into the fold, the power at a young witch’s fingertips only accumulates.
“But they say the witches did not stop there,” she said. “The Avos coven gathered witches far and wide with all powers and blessings that could be named, and bound their sisters together with this blood magic so forbidden, it is banned in hell itself.”
My brows rose. “Blood magic that not even demons would touch?”
“Oh yes.” Her soft, hissy voice raised the hairs on my neck.
“Blood magic is not and cannot be one-sided.
Once you bind someone by blood—they are tied to you just as strongly as you are tied to them.
You can draw on their power without restraint, but they can also draw on yours.
Imagine if a lowly demon used blood magic to bind himself to my lord Lucifer.
“Their power would be shared, their lives would be shared, their fates would be shared.”
It took a second for understanding to dawn. “You mean if one died, the other would die too?!”
She dipped her head. “Just so. They become one in every way.”
“But—but—” My head spun. “But you said they could draw upon the power of witches that were already dead, as long as they were related by blood. How does it work if they’re already dead?”
“If they are already dead, fate will correct this unbalance by draining your life each time you use their power, until you’ve finally joined them in the afterlife.”
My jaw dropped. “Were these Avos witches nuts? Either one of the sisters trips down the stairs one day and they all drop dead? Or they use great-great-granny’s power until it kills one of them... and they still all die!”