Parker helped me to my feet and set the breastplate aside on one of the kitchen counters.“Did he, though? When’s the last time you tried to use it?”
“I haven’t tried, because I knew I didn’t have it anymore.” I glanced around the kitchen, eyeing Vanessa and the four other members of her coven with hesitation. They may have been frozen in place, but they were still very much alive and angrier than ever.
“Try to use it now,” Parker urged, focusing only on me.
I glared down at my hands. Could they still cast magic? Spells?
He raced across the kitchen, eyes still on me.“Here, we can stuff the chefs in this cooler and magically seal it until we’re ready to take them in to HQ.”
“You want me to do all that?” I balked.
“No, just open the door. One little thing. Now that you’re not wearing the dampener you can do it. Tawny, look at me.”
He waited until my eyes met his.
“I believe in you,” he said, and that was all I needed to hear to believe that his ridiculous assertion might actually be true. That somehow I was a witch and a vampire and me all at the same time.
I took a deep breath and raised my arms…
19
The door swung open with unexpected force, banging hard against the wall. I stared into the walk-in cooler with complete amazement. I did that?
“Told you,” Parker said, running toward me and then taking me in his arms. “You’re not a normie, Tawny.”
“Then what am I?” I choked out, still unable to believe that I’d kept my temporary witch magic this whole time without knowing it.
“I don’t know,” Parker murmured into my hair.
“But Fluffikins does.” Every muscle in my body tensed. Fluffikins knew what I was and had chosen to keep it from me. Even if not knowing got me killed. He would have to answer for that. I’d make sure of it.
“If he kept it from you, he had his reasons,” Parker said, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “Whatever you are, you’re not a full vampire. Which means the curse doesn’t affect you in the same way.”
“Which means I can still love?” I asked, not certain how I even felt about that anymore. I wanted to want people, but I’d been so focused on getting a handle on my vampire magic and stopping the new coven that I hadn’t given much thought to what might happen next for me and Parker.
“Maybe not love.” He squeezed my hand and took a slow breath before continuing. “If you kept the witch magic, you might keep the vampire’s, too. I don’t know what that means, how they’ll react to each other long-term. What I do know is, the rules don’t apply to you. You’re different.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” I bit my lip, wishing so badly I could feel pain in my current form. But no. At least not yet. “So what now?” I asked, afraid of all the answers he might give.
“We take the Bollyweird vampires captive. Figure out why they targeted us. Complete your job. Make Fluffikins tell you the truth.” His words trailed off.
“And then?” My voice hitched.
“I don’t know,” he answered with a small shake of his head.
We embraced for a few moments longer. It didn’t light me up from the inside as it once had, but I found comfort there as I readied myself for what I knew must happen next.
Whether we chose to kill all the members of the outsider coven, hold them captive forever, or simply wipe their memories, a reckoning was coming. Somehow I just knew it deep within my bones.
First the deadly battle for town witch. Then the field agents, Fluffikins, and Melony being kidnapped by a magical mafia in Maine. And now this? Too much was happening too quickly in too small of a rural Georgia town for these events to be isolated coincidences.
Fluffikins knew I was different. Might others, too?
Or were they after something else, and I simply had the dumb luck to get caught up in it all?
I wished I knew…
“Help me round these guys up and jam them in there,” Parker said, letting me go with a beleaguered sigh.
I watched as he wrapped a magical tendril around the first vampire chef and lifted him into the cooler. He then grabbed for another, picking his way through the crew.
I walked over to Vanessa, not far from where I’d left her. She stood with that same chef’s knife raised in her hand, head twisted to the side. If Parker had been even a few seconds later, that knife would have found its target.Me.
“Why are you here?” I asked her immobile form. “Did you come for me?”
I watched for any sign of recognition, but she was nothing more than a statue while Parker’s magic held on to her. He continued to round up the others, I raised my fingers to Vanessa’s mouth and let my magic pour from their tips into her lips.
“Why are you here?” I asked our captured foe again.
Vanessa’s lips flexed, but her mouth remained closed.
I waved my hand in a circle over her face and neck. Could I use my vampire and witch magic at the same time? There was only one way to find out.
“Tell me,” I demanded, attempting my compulsion trick from earlier.
“Why should I tell you anything?” she snarled, then spat at me.
“I can take your life, or I can save it. The choice is yours.”
“There are more of us than you can possibly imagine. Killing me will change nothing.”
“Do you really value your cause above your own life?”
“What life?” she growled. “You think we enjoy this waifish existence, stuck between life and death? There is nothing for us. No love. No purpose. Nothing but the cause. It gives us purpose. A reason to continue to exist. Anything I tell you could lead you to destroying it. My life is but a small price to pay to protect what so many of us have worked so long for.”
“I don’t understand,” I said with a frown. “None of what you’re saying makes sense.”
“I don’t owe you anything.” She laughed viciously. “Silly girl. You don’t even know who you are. Do you?”
“Tell me. I need to know,” I begged. I didn’t care if it made me look weak. In the moment, I was weak. I didn’t even know the truth about who I was.
Vanessa opened her mouth to say something but then let out a guttural groan. I watched in horror as a wooden stake emerged from her chest.
“Well, that’s one less thing to worry about,” Connie remarked before pulling the stake back out of Vanessa and twirling it in her hand. “Let’s get the others back to HQ so we can interrogate them.”
20
“Connie!” I roared in frustration. “I had her right where I wanted her!”
“And now I have her right where I want her. Dead at my feet.”
“What was she going to tell me?” I demanded, cursing the poor timing.
“Like I know or care,” the vampire responded, shoving her stake into an ankle holster, then popping back up to her full height. “How did you immobilize them all?” she asked me instead.
“P-Parker,” I sputtered, searching the kitchen for him.
He let himself out of the cooler, then turned and sealed the door with a bright line of glowing magic. When he finished creating the seal, he blew on his finger and pretended to tuck it into his waistband.
“Good work, witch,” Connie said with an almost-smile.
“Thanks, vampire,” he answered back, coming to stand at my side.
“Where are the others?” I asked Connie desperately. Something wasn’t right, and it wasn’t just the unfortunate timing. “How did you know to come?”
“You made a huge ruckus back here. It took everything the rest of us had to keep the normies from catching wise. Next time, use a little more discretion, huh?”
“The food,” I shouted, just now remembering. “They tampered with it somehow.”
“Yes, Buckley passed that little bit of news on, too. Next time you need to report directly to your superior.”
“You’re not my superior,” I said, surprising even myself.
Connie’s eyes widened so far I thought they might pop out of her head. “What did you just say to me?”