“How the hell did he know my last name was Harcourt?” I whisper.
Maeve takes a deep breath. “I don’t know. I thought the tattoo would convince him you were magical, but I had no idea... Damien?”
“I don’t know either, and I’d prefer not to ask after the conversation I just had. Morpheus and I have a history, but his loyalties now lie with the triune he serves.” His warm hand lands on my waist. “Let’s get you out of here.”
But the Cruella mural behind the bar has my full attention now, the way the oversized eyes give the observer awindow into her dark soul, the bony protrusions of her shoulders, the lines in her neck that give her a simultaneous look of hunger and insanity. Bright colors. Light, delicate line work. An ethereal quality that adds a fantasy element. I wasn’t able to name the artist when I saw the evil queen or the sea witch, but I stride closer to the bar, intentionally studying the far right corner of the mural. There it is, a scrollwork D H.
“What’s wrong, Eloise? Breathe. Goddess, you look like you’re going to be sick.” Maeve wraps her arm around my shoulders.
I swallow the knot in my throat. “My mother painted this mural. She painted all of them.”
21
Temptation
ELOISE
Amillion questions plague me regarding my mother’s involvement with Bad Witches Club, but neither Maeve nor Damien seem to have any answers. Both are anxious to get me out of there, despite my newfound acceptance by the vampire Morpheus. Maeve claims she didn’t know anything about my mother’s involvement with the murals, but when I press her on the fact that she must have known something considering it was her idea to show Morpheus my tattoo, she promises we’ll talk later and escorts Damien and me to the exit. I don’t fight her and willingly climb into the passenger seat of my Jeep. My nerves are shot, and I’m too exhausted from trying to process everything to come up with more insightful questions or to fight Damien for the wheel.
For most of the drive home, I close my eyes and curl onto my side, revisiting everything that happened tonight. Maeve says I can’t trust Damien, but can I trust Maeve, considering she only told me she was a witch after elevenyears of friendship? My mother worked with the supernatural. Did my father know? Why didn’t either of them tell me? Tony ran a secret publishing company called Gold Weaver. At one point, I trusted him too. Does everyone in my life harbor some dark and mysterious secret? Will I wake up to learn my grandmother runs a gambling ring?
I must have fallen asleep thinking about it because the next thing I know, we’re pulling up the drive to Harcourt Manor. When Damien notices I’m awake, he says, “I found the other vampire I was looking for, Thaddeus. He knew about the warehouse but had never seen Tony there. He hadn’t heard of the magazine. Morpheus interrupted our conversation before I could tell you. Bad Witches Club was a dead end.”
“Did you know my mother?” I ask. He claims to have been on Earth almost four hundred years, which means he could have been around when the murals were painted.
“No. And before you ask, I’m not sure how she became involved with the Caspian Triune.”
“Caspian Triune?”
“That’s the group of supernaturals who run Bad Witches Club. They only recently completed the spell to bind to one another.”
“It’s not just Morpheus in charge?”
“No. A complete triune consists of a vampire, a witch, and a shifter.” When he can see that I have no idea what he is talking about, he explains. “Vampires are immortal.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“But they’re vulnerable during the day. Sunlight is lethal to all vampires.”
“At least some of the folklore is true.”
He laughs. “Much of it is. Shifters are innately powerful but mortal. And their power is incrediblyvolatile. They have normal human abilities during the new moon and supernatural strength, speed, senses, and healing capabilities around the full moon, but ironically that’s when their inner animal makes them prone to impulsivity. Many shifters lose their lives to hair-trigger tempers when they’re at their strongest.”
“Shifters are drunk frat-boys. Got it.”
The smile he shoots me lights up the cab.
“Witches aren’t physically powerful, but as you know, they are a force to be reckoned with due to their ability to wield elemental magic. But witches are mortal and surprisingly fragile. All that power in a pitifully human body.”
“I’ll try not to take that personally.” I lean my pitifully human body against the door.
He reaches over and brushes my cheek with his knuckle. “In a triune, a witch, a shifter, and a vampire are bound, and something remarkable happens. The vampire imparts their immortality on the shifter and the witch, and in return, the vampire receives the ability to walk in the sun. The shifter imparts supernatural strength, speed, senses, and healing on the witch and, in return, gains full control of his animal and an almost endless source of energy. The witch receives immortality, strength, speed, heightened senses, and accelerated healing from the shifter and vampire and, in return, is the source of the vampire’s ability to walk in the sun and the shifter’s dominion over their animal. Together, they are almost unstoppable. Morpheus is a shade like me but we’re close enough in an evolutionary sense to vampires for the magic to work. We were conjured here together but only I was bound to the Gowdies. He’s been a co-owner of Bad Witches Club for decades, but the triune is new. The witch he’s bound himself to is of the Caspian line, a water witch family. His shifter is a Davies. They draw power from theirtiger forms. Together, I predict they’ll rule the supernaturals of Richmond soon. It’s the first triune with the power of a shade in history, and Morpheus is a powerful warrior.”
Gooseflesh parades up my arms, and I hug my jacket around me. I’m just getting used to the idea that shades, vampires, and witches are real, and here I am, learning there are also shifters. Will the world ever look the same to me again? I suddenly miss the false certainty that humans are all there is. Never again will I experience the peace that comes with that misconception.
The notion should keep me from delving deeper, but my curiosity gets the better of me. “Maeve said her coven conjured you from a dark and dangerous world.”
“Her assessment of my world is misguided, as were her ancestor’s actions.”
