Rina
EIGHT
There may be a way to break the bond between us, my sweet belladonna. Words that seemed to break through my psyche.
“How?” I was desperate. Desperate not to be mated to him, to be tied down to someone I didn’t even like for the rest of time.
Desperate enough to ignore the nickname he’d called me. I was trying not to look too deeply into it. Was he calling me poisonous by comparing me to deadly nightshade—an ingredient our elders had made us promise never to use? It was used in dark magic—something none of my coven had ever dabbled in.
“I have a friend.” He glowered. “More of an acquaintance, really.”
“Let me guess, you don’t do friends?”
That expression turned into a scowl. “No. Friends are a liability I cannot afford.”
“Oh, goddess. You really are a giant stick in the mud, you know that?”
Ezra grumbled in response. “Do you want to rid ourselves of this, or what?”
I groaned. “Fine. I’ll stop. Sorry. How do we find this… not friend?”
He glared at me. “I’m not sure where he’s at currently. The last time I heard from him, he was somewhere in the Midwest.”
“Can’t you just, I don’t know, call him?” The vampire looked at me like I’d just grown three heads. “What?” I threw my hands up. “I didn’t know that was such a crazy suggestion.”
“You are…” Ezra shook his head.
“What? I’m what?”
He let out a long breath. “Never mind.”
Looking down at my wrist, I rubbed the red mark. It almost resembled a moon, right where he’d bit me… but that would be crazy, wouldn’t it? “Why does it burn so badly?” I frowned.
He ran his thumb over it, the action somehow soothing. “Because it’s not fully formed yet.”
“Well, that’s… good, right? If it isn’t fully formed, that means we can get rid of it.”
His eyes met mine. “Yes.”
Suddenly, I was feeling much more optimistic about the whole thing. For now, I was stuck with him, but maybe I wasn’t doomed to an entire eternity at his side. I could do this.
Maybe.
“If we can’t call him, how do we find him?”
He smirked. “We don’t. We let him find us.”
Somehow… I didn’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.
“When you said we let him find us, this is not what I thought you meant,” I said, standing in front of the old red Mustang convertible. He’d pulled up with it in front of my house, driving it up with no prior announcement.
Ezra got out of the car, sunglasses on his face, wearing a three piece black suit. He looked impeccable. In fact, he’d looked impeccable since the first time I’d met him. Gods, I hated that. Hated how good he looked all the time.
It had only been a few hours since he’d left me at my house to pack and get my affairs in order—yes, he’d actually said that—before we left to find his so-called friend.
I’d hardly had time to text my coven, let alone pack for an indeterminate amount of time.
I didn’t even know where we were going, let alone what climate I was packing for.
The result was a haphazard bag full of the most eclectic combination from my closet—and every pair of matching underwear I owned.
A girl’s gotta be prepared.
He looked at me, the question obvious on his face. Right. We were talking. More specifically, I’d been talking. “I just assumed we’d be like… I don’t know. Teleporting places? Can’t you do that?”
“No.”
“Oh. Lame. Damien and his brother can. That’s how he takes Willow back and forth to the demon realm all the time. Seems useful. You do have actual, useful powers, right?” I gave him a questioning look.
One I could tell he did not appreciate, because he shot back, “What about you, hm? You don’t even know how to defend yourself.”
I shut my mouth because he was… right. Dammit, I hated that he was right. “It’s not like I asked for my magic,” I answered sullenly. “Everyone in my coven has a unique ability. Mine is… worthless.”
“I highly doubt that.”
I snorted. “When you learn how to turn seeing colors into offensive magic, you let me know.”
“Seeing colors?” Ezra pushed his sunglasses off his eyes. Those red irises seemed to hold me hostage.
His dark aura pulsed around him, though it didn’t seem to be as sinister as when I’d first met him.
Then, it had almost seemed like black and red swirling together, versus now it was brighter.
Still angry, and it still felt… destructive, but it didn’t feel like it was going to open up and swallow me whole anymore.
“Oh. I…” I bit my lip. I’d hardly even shared this information with Wendy and Eryne before this week. “I can see auras. It’s really not that useful.”
There was no hiding the shock on his face. “You’re an aura witch?”
“I mean… yeah, I guess? But, like I said, it’s not very helpful.”
“Sabrina.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Stop calling me that.”
He grinned, every bit the lethal predator I knew him to be. “No.”
“Ugh,” I let out a long groan. “How are you even out in the sun right now?” I asked, the thought suddenly occurring to me. “I thought vampires couldn’t be.”
“A myth,” he said, waving his hand in the air. “One that humans created a long time ago to make themselves feel safer. Though we are creatures of the night, the sun only weakens us.” He pursed his lips. “Sorry, can we go back to the aura thing?”
I shrugged. “There’s nothing more to talk about. I can see them. Not very useful to know who’s got a pink aura versus green or orange,” I muttered, more to myself than him. They all had meaning, but I really wasn’t sure how seeing into people’s souls was helpful in the long run.
Ezra gave me a look that said, we’re going to talk more about this later. I really was not looking forward to that.
I looked at the car. “So we’re actually doing this, huh? A road trip? When we can’t stand each other?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You do want to get rid of this bond, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Of course I did. How could he even question that?
“Considering we’re stuck together for the time being, this is our only option, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes. “If we don’t kill each other first.”
The vampire chuckled. “You’ll be disappointed to hear, I’m sure, but we can’t harm each other. The bond...” He gripped his chest, like it was a physical, tangible thing he could feel. “It prevents us from doing bodily harm to our mates.”
“Oh.”
His eyes were hollow, and I wondered if there was something more there.
“Let me just grab my things,” I said, suddenly feeling awkward, “and then we can head on our way.”
He nodded, not following me back into the house—giving me a minute to breathe and collect my thoughts.
A minute before I had to be alone with him for gods knew how long.
“Rina?” My grandmother called out as I slung my duffel bag over my shoulder.
“Are you leaving now?” She padded into the room, still looking much younger than her seventy-six years.
A perk of being a witch—we had longer lifespans than normal humans and aged slower.
Still, she dressed like she was from a different time, wearing floral patterns that reminded me so much of her warm personality.
“Yeah, Nana,” I said, giving her a soft smile. “I am.”
She ushered me over—making me drop the bags I was carrying—and opened her arms. “I’m going to miss you so much, my sweet girl.” Her lips pressed against the crown of my head, and I took a deep inhale of her familiar floral scent.
“I know.” I was going to miss her.
She’d practically raised me in this house. Everything I knew, everything I had—it was all because of her. Her aura was a beautiful shade of violet, one that spoke to her magical prowess and how wise she was.
She pulled back, keeping me in her arms as she held my gaze, her eyes like a reflection of my own. “Be safe. And remember what I told you.”
“Eat my vegetables?” I joked, walking to the door.
Grandma followed behind me, looking cross. “Sabrina Margot Hallow,” she scolded.
“Not to dabble in black magic,” I murmured, remembering every word of what she’d told me earlier.
I hadn’t told her exactly what I was doing, or why, but I think she had a feeling that what I was doing wasn’t exactly the safest.
I didn’t need her worrying about me if I told her that my soulmate had turned up, especially since he was an egotistical vampire whose face was very punchable, and the only way I could get rid of him was some mystery trip that had no end date in sight.
That would have her worrying every moment I was gone.
She peeked out the window, no doubt seeing Ezra leaning against the car. “Do you need me to tell your young man to be a gentleman?”
“He’s not my man, Nana.” I scrunched up my nose. Not to mention he was probably older than her. I realized with a start that I didn’t have a clue how old Ezra was, which was a sobering thought.
What did I really know about him? Besides the way he helped Barrett save the town, nothing. While he’d helped with the wraiths, was that enough? Especially since he’d gotten injured—which had led to all of this.
“I’ll be fine, I promise. I love you.”
She cupped my face in her palms, whispering a few words over me—a protection spell, no doubt—before giving me another tight hug.
Then, before I could watch the tears pool in her eyes, I floated my bags in the air with magic, letting them glide behind me outside. My wheeled suitcase rolled itself down to the mustang, stopping right in front of the trunk.
Ezra turned to look at me, amused.
I didn’t say a word as I dumped my bags in myself.
He didn’t offer help, and I didn’t ask for it.
What I didn’t need was a man swooping in, thinking he was going to solve all of my problems by being all big and strong and masculine.
I was perfectly capable of carrying my own things—of being my own, independent self.
Even if Ezra seemed to have an incredible physique hidden under those stuffy suits.
I’d barely gotten a peek, but I was confident there was a lot more to him than met the eye.
Which was a problem—because as insufferable and aggravating as I found him, I also couldn’t deny how intriguing he was.
I’d never met a vampire before. There was so much I didn’t know—so much I was curious about.
And if he was easy on the eyes, well… at least I had some eye candy to look at on this road trip of indeterminate length.
“How old are you, anyway?” I’d avoided asking before, mainly because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
He raised an eyebrow, like he could read my mind.
“Yes,” I said, waving my hand in the air. “I’m aware I could have asked before. Just put me out of my misery and tell me, vampire.”
“If you must know, I was born in the early nineteen hundreds.”
“Oh.” That meant he was… well over one hundred years old. “So am I, like… an infant to you?”
He pursed his lips. “No.”
I probably should have found relief in that.
“Okay, so how old are you… physically?” He looked like he was in his late twenties, maybe early thirties. Witches aged slower than humans, but not that slowly.
Ezra gave me a look. “What?” I frowned. “I don’t know how vampires work.”
“Sometimes I forget how sheltered you are.”
Rolling my eyes, I bit back what I actually wanted to say. “I wasn’t sheltered.” It hadn’t been my fault, or even my mother’s or grandmother’s fault that I didn’t know about vampires or the outside world.
The only people I had to blame were the town founders, who’d put us in this situation in the first place by disconnecting us from the rest of the paranormal world—one we’d had no clue even existed.
“Really? Then what do you call it?”
I crossed my arms over my chest, staring out the window of the car—anywhere but at him. “Fuck you, asshole.” My grandmother was probably watching us from inside, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
When I looked over at him next, he was chuckling. Godsdamn, but I hated that arrogant sound. It felt like he was saying you’d like that, wouldn’t you?
“Are you ready?” He asked, sliding his sunglasses back over his eyes as he turned to me, the trunk slamming shut.
I looked around us—at the town I loved, the orange leaves decorating the landscape, at my home. Was I ready for this? No.
But this was what I had to do in order to choose my own path. To live the life I wanted.
“Yep. Let’s go.”
Somehow, it felt like I’d just signed my fate away.
Only time would tell if it would be good—or the biggest mistake of my life.