Chapter 19 #2
I shook my head. “Right after everything happened, yes. But not anymore. Just hungry at inopportune times.”
She grunted. “Alright. We might be able to help. If you’d stuck around, we could have done this earlier. Maybe even headed off some of these unfortunate side effects.”
“Considering I didn’t know why you’d taken me, and I woke up in a strange bed and house, I thought it best to get out first, ask questions later.”
Tiegan nudged Heather. “Told you we should have left a note or something.”
Heather rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we’re experienced in kidnapping blood-soaked, half-dead women in alleys.”
“The vampire who initially attacked me is still out there,” I interrupted. “How can I keep myself safe from him if he can track me by scent and if I’ve ingested his blood?”
Macy sat a little straighter. “You drank his blood?”
“Not on purpose. He forced me to.”
Heather winced. “That’s deeper magic than any of us can summon. We’ll have to call the coven and put our heads together to see if there’s a way to prevent you from answering his call.”
“He hasn’t called me at all. I haven’t seen him since the attack.” What I didn’t say was I knew the Prime’s blood was inside me as well, and he could definitely call me. But Alric had been suspiciously silent too.
Too much to hope he was dead in a coffin somewhere. Asshole.
“He’ll wait for the worst time,” Tiegan said. She shook her head. “You should not be experiencing any of these effects. There must be something in your genes that makes you susceptible to transformation.”
“Has to be her father,” Macy said. “Her mom was a hundred percent witch from what I could tell.”
“How would you know?” I snapped.
Heather spoke. “When someone requests to join a coven, we test their blood to ensure we only allow full-blooded witches to participate in our spells.”
At my look, she held up a hand. “It’s not what you’re thinking.
We do it to ensure our spells won’t go awry.
Mixed blood can cause interesting effects in magic, many of them negative.
Your mother’s blood was mixed, but she was only a witch.
Those are common. Not every green witch falls in love with another green witch.
Fae mixed with witch blood is more common than you’d think and that combo can lead to weird results.
Hence why we test beforehand.” Her lips twisted.
“Unfortunately, we do not know your father’s genetic makeup, and your mother was tight-lipped about his origins. ”
I resisted the urge to slump. Another dead end concerning my father. Was there anyone who knew what he was or where he’d gone?
“How would I get my blood tested?” I’d assumed my father was a witch, but everything they said made sense.
How else would I be able to perform high magic?
A normal witch might know the steps in the ritual, but they’d never be able to pull the spell off.
Mom had only walked me through the cord-cutting ritual.
She’d never stepped into the circle with me.
Thinking back, there were many moments where Mom had walked me through certain spells but never entered my circle.
Certain types of witches could use high magic, but Mom would have said something instead of being surprised by my abilities, wouldn’t she?
She mentioned maybe having a drop of elemental blood helped me channel the power needed for that type of magic, but never brought it up again.
Had she not known what my father was until later?
Or had she known all along and kept it quiet?
“We could do it,” Tiegan said quietly.
Mom had split from their coven. She’d stopped trusting them somewhere along the way—or had something else, possibly someone, forced her hand to leave?
A thought occurred to me. “Have you already done so?” Fear unfurled in my stomach. Did they know what I was and were dangling it like a carrot?
Heather looked horrified. “No. Never. Think of us what you may, but your clothing was destroyed the moment we finished caring for your wounds.”
Macy and Tiegan both nodded. “We would never violate a witch’s privacy in such a way.”
Their words settled my nerves somewhat, but I’d be a fool to take everything I heard at face value. “Thank you for the offer, but I’d like to handle this myself.”
“There is more than one ritual,” Tiegan said hesitantly. “But the second is not witch magic. Our spell requires an entire coven to cast. A solo witch cannot delve into a witch’s power so intimately, nor should they. The other requires the use of high magic.”
I tried not to let the excitement show on my face. Mom had only taught me one ritual and that one was a relatively simple spell taught to the youngest of practitioners. Even if I had a copy of the ritual, I might not have the juice to see it through.
“Do you know how I could find a copy of the ritual?”
Macy’s lips thinned. “You got an angel in your pocket?” Derision rode her voice. “There’s no way to perform that ritual without an angel or a demon, or an elemental witch. None are going to come riding to your rescue, that’s for sure.”
I blinked. “A demon?”
Tiegan gave Macy a warning look. “Some say demons and angels are the same.”
Heather scoffed. “Hardly.”
“Legend says they descend from the same source,” Tiegan said slowly, “but demons are vilified.”
“They sure are,” Macy snapped.
“Regardless, they can both use high magic. You should avoid both,” she warned. “Angels do not like being asked to involve themselves in the petty problems of supernaturals they consider lower than themselves.”
“And demons will ask for your firstborn. They are not inclined to help without requesting a cost so steep your initial problem would seem like peanuts.”
“Demons live in town?” I’d never seen any that I knew of.
Angels were few and far between, but I’d seen a few around.
Shifters and vamps were a dime a dozen, and I’d seen the occasional incubus and succubus.
High-powered supernaturals always flipped the Identify charm at the shop, but the spell was simple, warning us only that whoever walked in was dangerous, not what their genetic makeup was.
“Demons live everywhere,” Tiegan said. “They don’t advertise themselves, but they’re almost as prominent as witches.”
There was so much I still needed to learn.
As much as I longed to trust these witches and let them help me figure out who I was, Mom had left them.
She never told them what my father was or given them any other information about my heritage.
Using a high magic ritual, even if I could get it to work, was risky, but I’d be the only one to know once it was done. My secrets would stay with me.
“I’ll email you,” Tiegan promised. Her smile twisted into something sad.
“Be cautious, Alex, and consider whether you really need to know before you go down this road. We can help you with the consequences of your attack. If you entangle yourself with angels and demons, we cannot get involved. And there are certain elemental witches who are just as bad as them, all of them with the ability to do the type of magic you’re considering.
High magic can have unintended effects.”
Macy grinned. “I say let her go and see what happens.”
“Maybe I’ll hire one to pay you a visit,” I said and smiled sweetly.
Macy blinked and went pale. “Bitch,” she muttered.
Tiegan shook her head and pulled her cell out. “Give me your number so we can stay in touch, and I’ll take you back to the bar.”
I typed my number and email into her phone. She called my cell, ensuring I had her number, then held out her hand. “Ready?”
I nodded. We clasped hands, and a moment later, the world fell out from under my feet.