“Now.”
I released my power into the bubbling potion again. The deep blue magic poured into it. I gasped as it sucked more and more out of me.
“Hold on,” Lydia said, her voice tight.
Despite shaking legs and blurry vision, I kept going. I thought about the dead body. I needed this spell, needed to know what creature was trying to expose me.
“Done!” Lydia said.
I turned off my power and tried to smile, but the world spun out of control and everything faded to black.
“Wickham, are you all right?” Lydia knelt in front of me, hands on my face, eyes filled with worry.
“Sorry, I guess that took more than I could handle.” My body ached, and my head throbbed. There was soreness in the back of my throat that grew worse when I tried to swallow. “I’m afraid I’ll need to eat before we can continue.” I watched as her expression fell. “There’s not enough time for that, is there?”
She shook her head. “We have to do another round in the next twenty minutes or the potion won’t take, and we’re almost out of ground unicorn hair, and I’m not sure when I can get more.” She frowned, looking down at her arms, her gazetracing the veins under her skin. “What… what if you fed from me?”
My head reared back in shock. “What? No.”
But Lydia was already nodding to herself in the way she did. “If you fed from me, then you’d have the energy you require, and we could do the next set of spell casting that we need within the time limit. It’s the only way.”
As a vampire, I avoided taking blood from people. Both because it was an easy way to get caught and because I didn’t want to go down that path. But even now, her rosy scent and her soft pulse called to me. “No, give me a second. I can do the last one.” I pushed myself up into a sitting position, wobbling.
“If you don’t feed, you’ll pass out again,” she said, brushing my hair from my forehead.
I shook my head. “I won’t take that from you.”
She offered her wrist, her pulse fluttering like a bird under porcelain skin. “You’re not taking. I’m giving.”
I released a slow breath. I’d said she could help, and if I wanted to find this killer and protect her, then we needed this potion to move forward—for both our sakes. Reaching out, I gingerly took her arm at the elbow and positioned it closer. My fangs brushed her skin so lightly it felt like a whisper. When Ifinally bit, I did it as gently as possible, my lips gliding over her like a gentle kiss.
Lydia let out a soft giggle. “That… doesn’t feel bad.” Her shoulders relaxed, and she sat on her heels.
Part of it was the effect of my vampire venom. One bite and I would be able to compel a human just as easily as my sire compelled me. And Lydia was a half-human witch, so she’d definitely be experiencing the effects.
When I sat back, I looked up at her, and she smiled at me, her eyes a swirl of diamond blue. She sat in my lap. “You can tell me what to do now,” she whispered.
The warmth of her nearness washed over me. “I would never.”
“Then can I tell you what to do?”
I hesitated, unsure how much was her and how much was my venom still coursing through her veins. “Depends on what it is.”
“It’s this.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine.
The softness of her kiss was all I could feel. Then her scent as it fell around me was gentle like an embrace. I breathed her in, responding to the soft movement of her lips. This woman. I rested my hand on the back of her hair, deepening the kiss between us. I tugged her closer, loving her nearness, her mintywintery-green taste, and the hurried beat of her heart. This wild, crazy, unapologetic woman was the most beautiful creature I’d ever met.
She pulled back. “Are you feeling better?”
“Better?” I muttered, still trapped in the magic her kiss had on me.
“You know, for the spell? I think we may be running low on time.”
Oh yes. The spell. “Let’s finish it,” I said.
I stood, invigorated. Lydia’s blood had worked wonders.
“Ready?” Lydia said, looking at her phone again. “Now.”
