“Come on,” Stevie says, leading us into the house, and I can’t help it when I fall asleep against Dax’s perfect, warm chest. He feels so good, so safe. Who would have thought the most comforting place for me would be in between a demon’s arms.
Chapter 15
Itaketwostepsat a time as I hold Blair tightly against my chest. I’ve never truly experienced fear until today. While Blair isn’t as frail as a human, she isn’t fully immortal, either. Witches can live for an extremely long time; the oldest witch I met was around two millennia. While they can live an expansive life, they can also be killed fairly easily, at least in terms of other supernaturals.
She looks so fragile as I place her delicately on her bed. If that fucker was anything other than a golem, I would have made him suffer. But golems are nonfeeling—they’re made beings—their only motivation is the will of whatever being created them.
I was so focused on getting Blair the fuck out of there and getting rid of the golem, I didn’t even get to read the scroll. The scroll always has the name of the golem’s creator on it. It looked like Blair was able to read it before I set it aflame, but I won’t know more until she wakes up.
Her breaths are even, and her chest rises steadily, making me feel better. I push her dark, messy hair from her face and cup her cheek. A sound from the side of the room has me on high alert until I realize it’s her familiar sliding from his cage. He quickly slithers over the floor and onto the bed. His body gently constricts her arm, comforting her.
Her familiar narrows his eyes at me and hisses. “Don’t look at me like that,” I tell him, giving a glare back.
The snake’s tongue sticks out, but he rests his head on her palm. What I know of familiars is that they have a direct link to their magical counterpart. Almost like a telepathy of emotions, but I don’t think they can actually communicate. Knowing Blair, though, she can probably talk to the fucking thing. She has surprised me at every turn with what I know of stereotypical witches.
Stevie opens Blair’s bedroom door and gives me a tight smile. “Fez, calm down, she’s fine,” she coos at the snake. Her words comforting him as his tongue swipes between Blair’s thumb and pointer finger.
Stevie pets the snake, which I didn’t even know you could fucking pet a snake. She tilts Blair’s chin back with her thumb and pours a dark gray substance into her mouth. “Blood replenishing potion,” she tells me as she shuts Blair’s mouth and says something under her breath, causing her to swallow.
“For fuck’s sake, I’ve never seen Blair this weak in my life, now it’s twice in one week. I don’t like this.” Stevie looks flustered as she rubs soothing circles on Blair’s arm.
“I spoke to the witch who owns that shitty shop on Main Street.”
“Martha? What did she say?” Stevie asks, arching an eyebrow.
“She said that Blair’s mother is in hiding and something about how she’s,”—I nod toward Blair—“ strong enough.”
Stevie looks down at Blair’s sleeping body. “Clover said something about someone telling Josie that the sacrifice had to happen, that if they did it, the coven would be stronger.”
“Was the coven getting weaker?”
Stevie nods her head. “It’s actually kind of odd. Blair and I are really the only ones who haven’t noticed any kind of depletion. But in general, yeah, the coven is weaker. That’s why we have the moon rituals. Then slowly throughout the month, the other members of the coven feel weaker.”
“How does Blair feel after the ritual?”
Her brows furrow. “Weakened.”
“They must pull from her power. Is that bitch still in the basement?” I ask her.
“Clover? Yeah, why?”
“Let’s go have a little chat.”
Stevie doesn’t even question it. She looks down at Fez. “Let us know if she wakes up?”
The snake nods its freaky little head and makes me shiver. I give Blair one last concerned glance as I follow the red-headed witch down to the basement. She opens the door and as I go to enter, I’m blocked by an invisible wall, making me growl in frustration.
“Shit. Blair is so much better at wards than I am.”
“Blood?” I ask, just as a guess because that’s how I was allowed in the house.
“We can try,” Stevie says, conjuring a needle and pricking my finger and saying an incantation as the droplet splashes against the floor.
I can feel the wards open and we walk through the door. Clover looks disgusting, mousey, in the same clothes Blair and I took her in. It smells musty and stale in the room. I grimace at her, and she looks at me with wide eyes.
“You!” she shouts, pushing her body to the headboard. I guess Blair knew her wards were strong enough, and she didn’t need to be tied up. “You helped her kidnap me!”
“Actually, you’re an adult. It’s an abduction,” I say, planting my ass on the corner of the bed. “We have some questions for you, Clover.” I glare at her.
