Chapter Eight #2
“I…don’t know.” She looked back at Duke.
At least the monster had done one good deed by retrieving her cat, not that it was out of the goodness of his bitter heart.
She was reminded that everything he did was for his own gain, believing she would break his curse.
So, she refused to feel any kind of gratitude toward him. Not that he cared enough to want any.
The light around him moved in shadows when he reached her and Duke. Her lashes flicked up when she met his stare, everything around him vignetting into darkness.
“I had to chase him,” he intoned, glancing between her and Duke, his eyes glinting with knowing. “He ran from me, and it took over an hour to find him.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Charlotte quipped. “I would have run from you too.”
His lips pulled into a hard line. “He shouldn’t have been able to evade me like that.”
She held Duke tighter, and his tail wrapped around her wrist. “He’s quick. It’s not the first time he’s been chased.”
“I am a vampire,” he said, stating the obvious. “It was only when I said your name that he appeared.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That your pet is likely a familiar. Your familiar.”
Her brows furrowed. She brushed her fingers over his fur, her arms aching from holding him. “I don’t think so. He’s not some demon shifter.”
“They don’t have to be.” The corner of his lip twitched, and he leaned over her, his shadow consuming her entirely. “They can be spirits, like a guardian acting as a go-between for the spiritual realm and you.”
“No, he’s not,” she spluttered, but the idea did cling to her. He’d come to her so many years ago, before she’d even considered using magic, and she’d never seen him shift or do anything out of the ordinary for a cat. Yes, he was intelligent and appeared when she was in danger, but didn’t all cats?
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “While you mull that over, I should tell you Katherine is waiting for you in the foyer. I gave her your grimoires.”
“Who?”
“The witch whom I asked to instruct you.”
A lump formed in her throat. The thought of being minded by another witch, especially one who kept company with vampires, made her shudder. “Will she be staying here?”
“Yes.”
She couldn’t hide her grimace as she placed Duke down when he finally let her. He stayed close to her feet, slinking between her legs.
“How many did you find?”
“Four.” He tilted his head, a wolfish grin curving his lips. “I also found the cursed mirror you keep in your attic. I thought you didn’t practice.”
She swallowed thickly. Did he know? No, he couldn’t see spirits. “I don’t.”
“Yet I found remnants of a spell.”
“You sure know a lot about my craft for a vampire.”
“I grew up with witches.”
Her brows rose. Men couldn’t be witches. It was passed through the female bloodline, but that didn’t mean he didn’t come from a family of them.
“My mother,” he said when she was stunned into silence. “She was a witch, as were her sisters.”
“What happened to them?”
He arched a brow. “It’s been hundreds of years. They’re all dead.”
She shook her head, whistling out a breath. Of course they were. “Right.”
“I discovered your uncle and cousin mysteriously died,” he added.
There was barely a few inches between them now, his smile widening, sending shudders down her spine.
“Yes, they did,” she whispered, but her voice was lost under his presence.
His muscles tensed under his saturated shirt, the smell of rain, musk, and sandalwood lingering around them.
She held his intrusive stare, deepening hers into the depths of his gray irises and dilating pupils.
A shockwave traveled from her head to her feet and she looked away first.
“Hmm.” He stepped back, looking pretty pleased with himself, which only made her hate him more. “Perhaps you are not as innocent as you pretend to be. What did you do to them?”
She held her breath, frozen in place. Goosebumps spread over her arms and neck, but she didn’t answer.
He leaned down, his lips a whisper from hers. Her lips tingled from his hot breath. “Allow me to rephrase. What did they do to force someone like you into murdering them?”
She swallowed hard, but it did little to remove the lump in her throat. He knew. Somehow, he knew what she did and by the glimmer in his eyes and stretching of his lips, he was enjoying every second.
Two sinners trapped together. It was almost poetic.
“You don’t need to tell me,” he said with a sigh when she stayed quiet, and lifted his finger under her chin, gliding it all the way to the part of her throat where he’d bitten her. “Perhaps now you can come down off your high horse and not judge me for my actions.”
That was enough. She stepped out of his shadow, which only made him chuckle darkly.
“What I did was out of necessity. William and Theodore were monsters. I did the world a favor.”
“Yourself too. It seems you benefited most from their absence. Your staff were surprised to know you are alive. They assumed whoever killed your cousin, came back for his fiancée.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief. Her staff were okay. She was too until she spotted Nathaniel’s building smirk.
The words rattled in her chest. “We were not betrothed by my desire.”
“I do not judge you, little lamb.” He stepped closer again, backing her into the wall. “In fact, you just became far more interesting.”
She slid out from between him and the wall, hating how her body responded to his closeness.
“We should not keep your guest waiting,” she stated.
He tilted his head, his usual stoicism returning to his sharp features. “She is our guest, Miss Lovett. This is your home now too.”
Sallow Manor would never be her home, but she’d argued enough with the vampire for one night and was too tired to think of a witty comment.
She followed him down the staircase, her knees popping as they descended.
Even the smallest muscles in her ankles were tight.
All she could think about was how she longed for a hot bath later to relieve at least some of the aches.
The pressure was building in her bones, but she didn’t dare tell Nathaniel.
He would just use her pain against her, and she refused to show him any more weakness that he might take advantage of.
The woman standing in the foyer was beautiful.
A dark blue ribbon hung from the back of the witch’s golden-blonde hair, which was tied up into an elaborate updo, with coils poking out from under her navy hat.
Silk covered the wide curving brim, and the headpiece was finished with a bow and three feathers at the front.
She was well-bred. No one but those she knew in high society wore such elaborate silk gowns or headwear.
The woman looked at Nathaniel first. Her smile widened when he approached her. Beside her on the half-moon table were the four grimoires, all aged with brittle pages and brown leather covers.
Katherine grinned when she looked at Charlotte, but the smile did not quite reach her eyes. “Nathaniel, you never told me your witch was so beautiful.”
She didn’t appreciate being called his anything.
“It’s good to meet you,” Charlotte said, offering her the kindest smile she could manage considering how she felt.
A slight inhale parted the woman’s bow-shaped painted lips, and her fingers tightened around her vesicular bag until her knuckles were white. “I’m Katherine.”
“Charlotte.”
“I know who you are. You are infamous among the witches, and in society.”
Nathaniel interjected, fortunately, because Charlotte had a bad feeling the conversation was edging toward her survival of the massacre. “Miss Ellenwood will stay until after the ball. She’ll teach you everything you need to know.”
“Ellenwood, as in Baron Ellenwood?”
“You know my brother.”
Her jaw clenched. “In passing.”
Duke darted between her legs and hissed at Katherine, who raised her brow in response.
“Well, Charlotte,” Katherine said, somehow making her name sound dull. “You and I are going to have lots of fun together.”
Wait, ball. Her brain caught up with her. “What ball? Nothing was mentioned to me.”
A languid, sultry smile curved her lips.
“Did you not tell her, Nathaniel?” She placed a hand on his biceps, and Charlotte’s stomach knotted in response.
She turned back to look at her, smiling.
“He and Alexander are holding a party to lure the witches here. They’re going to drug them, and you and I are going to ensure they cannot use magic while here.
If we’re lucky, we can get them all in one place and kill them before they kill you. ”
“What makes you think they will come?” Charlotte rebuked, her pointed stare landing on Katherine’s well-manicured fingers, which were resting so casually on the vampire.
Nathaniel gently brushed her arm away and turned fully to face Charlotte, his eyes darkening. “Because they know we have you, and they’re arrogant and desperate enough to knowingly walk into a trap. They know you are not practiced and are unaware of Katherine’s involvement.”
“When is the ball?”
“In five days.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s not enough time for me to learn.”
“Katherine’s an excellent teacher.”
His muted expression remained unmoving, regardless of how much Katherine beamed at him.
“We can get started now,” Katherine said, but Charlotte’s eyes closed in response.
She rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck lightly and fought through the pain pulsing in her legs and feet.
“Tomorrow,” Nathaniel announced, his tone clipped.
Charlotte opened her eyes in surprise. Did he sense her exhaustion or pain, or more likely, did he want Katherine to himself tonight?
Either way, she had time now to come up with a plan.
In less than one week the witches would likely be dead, and that was far less time than she thought she had to get out of doing the ritual.
If she didn’t escape soon, she was going to die and everything she’d done to survive would have been for nothing.