My eyebrows raise in surprise.
“You found something in the grimoires?” I ask him.
“Worse. We need to pay Sarephine Fontenot a little visit.”
“Sarephine?” I question.
“The psycho witch that specializes in familiar magic. She sent me to you, Walter to Violet, Scarlett to Iris. She’s in charge of bringing our souls into these forms and connecting us with the right witch. She’s straight up crazy, but good at what she does.”
“What’s he saying?” he asks.
“Tell him he owes me a life of luxury for what I’m about to do,” Gus says, and I put my hands on my hips, not answering Warin.
“Why would the familiar witch have anything to do with Warin being a vampire and me a witch? And why now are you telling me where you came from?” I ask Gus.
“Sarephine is…unhinged. But the magic is strong and would work for the situation. As long as you are alive, I’m tethered to you, never aging, never changing. What if she could do the same for you and my rich, slightly annoying step daddy? Plus, I can’t have you turning into a vampire or else I’ll get reassigned to a new witch.”
I sigh at him and then I really think about it. What if instead of me being a vampire we could link our lives together?
“What am I missing?” Warin says.
“Gus thinks that this nomadic, psycho swamp witch might help us. Maybe instead of me becoming a vampire, she could tie us together like witches are to familiars.”
“My job here is done,”Gus says, scurrying to the couch.“No way am I going to that place again,”he sighs.
“Oh, you’re absolutely coming with us,” I say back and he lets out a pained groan.
“Why would this witch help us?” Warin says.
“She’s broke as a joke. Make her an offer she can’t refuse,”Gus says.
“Gus says she needs money,” I relay to Warin, and he nods his head, like that’s a simple solution.
“Then let’s go. Right now,” Warin says, ready to make this connection between us official.
We haven’t even said the words yet, and here we are ready to beg a swamp witch to tether us together forever. Totally normal.
I grab Gus, he claws into the couch but eventually I get him free and we get back into the SUV.
Against his will, Gus tells us how to get to Sarephine Fontenot’s swamp.
It takes us hours, and I’m not even sure what we’re on is considered a road. It’s the dead of the night, and I wonder if she’ll even see us.
As we pull up, there are bright eyes everywhere. Raccoons, cats, foxes, and alligators?
Gus groans next to me, like being back here is horrific. When we pull up to the house, lights immediately turn on, and a witch with braided gray-white hair, wearing a blue muumuu, and holding a mangy cat, comes to the front porch. The wood is cracked and worn, and she holds her wand tightly in her spindly fist.
She doesn’t immediately acknowledge us, instead she zeroes in on Gus.
“My Augustus, have you come back to me?” she asks.
Gus curses under his breath and the old woman laughs.
“You always were a little shit. What does your witch and her vampire want?” she asks, again to Gus, not us, the talking people right in front of her.
“They want their lives tethered together like a familiar is to their witch,”Gus says.
The old crone laughs, the cat in her arms trying to get free, but unable.
