“Okay, I’ll help if you need me to,” I conceded. “What can I do?”
I helped Vail finish setting up the wards around the house. We lit candles in every room, poured salt, and made witches’ circles in the windows. We closed all the curtains, and for the windows without curtains, she placed bowls of water underneath.
Once we had finished warding the house, we sat in the living room. I told Vail about drinks with Connor, Donovan, and Diana. Vail chuckled when I told her about vomiting up the tequila in the toilet with Diana there.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she laughed, her amusement infectious.
“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same,” I retorted, sharing in the laughter.
Vail’s amusement echoed through the room, but her eyes betrayed a fleeting shadow of uncertainty. Despite her grin, tension lingered in the corners of her lips. “Fair point,” she said, her gaze momentarily dimmed by an unspoken worry.
Her smile faded, and the atmosphere in the room began to shift as the tension returned. “I know you’re hesitant about acknowledging the threat these Slayers pose, but I need you to understand, they are relentless. If they discover our true nature, we both will be in danger.”
I nodded. “I get it, Vail. I do—” But before I could finish my thoughts, a noise came from outside. It sounded like a crashing of metal trash cans.
“The wards,” Vail whispered, more to herself than to me. “They’ll work. Don’t worry.” But she looked nervous. Vail’s magic was reliable and rarely failed. Being a Vampire made her immortal, which meant she’d lived more lifetimes than most witches.
We sat on the couch in silence as we listened to someone trying to break through the wards and enter the property. Vail’s unease was justified. Someone was determined to get in.
I didn’t dare look through the windows. We just sat there, listening. I breathed in deeply, trying to catch scents in the air. I couldn’t smell Ivy or Sam. All I smelled was a subtle burnt smell, something I hadn’t encountered before.
We waited, and a horrible screaming noise came from outside. It sounded like the air was being sucked out of something. I stared at Vail, then another ear-piercing screech rang through the air.
We sat there still on the couch until morning. The curtains were glowing from the sunrise, and no more noises came from outside. Vail gave the nod, signaling that it was safe enough to sleep for a while.
“You have to come see this.” The echoes of those haunting screams still vibrated in my ears when Vail woke me from my sleep. Rubbing my eyes, I followed her, outside into the twilight.
Strewn across the grass were the lifeless forms of crows, mice, rats, and squirrels, their bellies gruesomely torn open. The stench of burnt plastic hung heavy in the air, mingling with the metallic tang of blood.
“Someone tried using blood magic to get through the wards last night,” Vail said grimly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“A witch was here?”
“Looks like it.”
“What’s that smell?”
"That’s the smell of dark magic," Vail explained solemnly. The realization was sinking in that we were facing something far more sinister than we had anticipated.
Rain began to fall as I cleaned up the yard. Vail didn’t want to touch the animals, so she remained inside. As I put them in a garbage bag, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, the hairs on my neck raising to every small noise or movement I saw.
I disposed of the garbage in someone else’s bin down the back alley.
On my walk back to the house, I came to a halt. An expressionless woman stood before me. Her blunt hair was black as night in the dim light of the alley. For a moment she stood motionless, her breath coming in ragged gasps, herchest rising and falling. Then, without warning, she surged forward with startling speed as she ran toward me.
I lunged at the woman, my kick connecting with her gut and causing her to stumble backward momentarily. But she quickly regained her footing, launching into a frenzied onslaught of punches. With every blow, I blocked and dodged. Seizing an opportunity, I pushed her back, sending her falling to the ground.
“What the fuck is happening?” Vail asked as she appeared in the alley before us. I looked away for too long, a mistake that allowed the woman to seize me by the hair and yank me backward. Reacting on instinct, I spun around, grabbing hold of her arm just in time to prevent the sharp wooden stake from piercing my flesh.
I twisted her arm, digging my nails into her skin, and she dropped the stake. To my astonishment, she made no sound of pain or protest as her skin broke under my fingernails, blood welling from the cuts. Her eyes stared back at me; they were pure white.
As I stared into the woman’s unnaturally white eyes, trying to unravel the mystery of her presence, she suddenly lunged at me with ferocious speed, knocking me off my feet and sending me sprawling to the ground. I rolled away to evade her, but she pounced, landing on my back, my stomach flat to the ground.
An invisible force surged from Vail, propelling the woman backward with tremendous force. The woman’s body collided into the brick wall with a sickening thud and fell to the ground.
A sharp crack echoed through the alley as Vail broke the woman’s neck with a swift, decisive force.
“She would have killed us,” Vail replied, her voice firm as she bent down to flip over the woman’s coat, revealing more wooden stakes hidden within its folds.
