Why give me the ring or spell at all? Unless he was setting me up to fail. Stubbornness rises up in my chest. There’s this constant need to prove myself, and I don’t like the idea of him having the upper hand on me.
Wait…
I open the book back up and re-read the page. It doesn’t need to be willingly given! I jump off the bench, startling Gus awake as I run back into my cottage and grab the dress from last night. There were just enough spots of vampire blood on the dress from when the vampire was staked. The vampire who got me into this whole fucking mess—that I absolutely did not kill.
When I’m back outside with the dress unscrewing the lid of moon water, Gus is rubbing over his eyes and snout.
“What’s this?”
“Vampire blood. It’s the last thing I needed,” I tell him, feeling almost manic as I drop the edges of my dress intothe moon-blessed water and watch as a small tendril of blood spreads throughout.
“Will it be enough?”Gus asks, and I give him a shrug as I put different patches of the dress in the water, trying to get as much blood as possible.
I take off the ring, and plop it into the now slightly pink tinted jar, and watch as the water makes it look larger than it actually is, until it finally settles on the bottom. Based on the witch's instructions, the jar needs to be in direct contact with the sun, so I scoop it up and make my way to the meadow until I reach an outcropping and place the jar on a stack of rocks and take a deep breath.
It’s serene in the meadow, quiet minus Gus’ panted breaths and the buzzing of the pollinators in the meadow.
My wand is firmly in my hand and I whisper the incantation to myself one last time before getting down on my knees and staring at the jar.
“Okay. Here goes nothing.” Deep breath. “Protect thee who wears this ring. Shield them from the demons of night. Strengthen their mind from evil delusions and protect them from an unwanted bite.”
I flick my wrist one last time, the end of my silver wand pointing at the jar and I watch in fascination as the jar turns a shade of deep red, nearly black, before shifting back to clear.
The exhale I let out is dramatic and Gus looks at me suspiciously as I unscrew the top and dig out the ring. It looks and feels the same. Even when I slide it back on my finger, nothing changes and I wonder if I fucked the spell up.
“Do you think it worked?” I ask Gus.
“Let’s fucking hope so. Judge Judy is on and I need lunch,”he complains, rushing back to the house.
The sun winks against my ring and hope fills me. Maybe I really did this right on the first try, all by myself. Or, I’ve made afool out of myself and I’ve disappointed the very witch who came up with the spell to ward herself against vampires.
I guess only time will tell.
Chapter 6
Me
How many days should I wait to reach out so I don’t seem desperate?
Samantha
Why pretend to be something you're not?
Igroan as I tap my fingers against the center console of the vehicle, sliding my phone into my pocket. Achille is driving us back from handling another possible slaying. I should contact the council, let them know one is in my area, but I don’t truly want to deal with those pompous fucks.
I’ll handle this all myself; the last thing I need is for them snooping around when I’m trying to get closer to Ember.
“I want to make a pit stop,” I say, realizing Samantha is right, might as well own how desperate I am.
“The witch’s cottage?” he asks. He was one of my men who picked her up that night, so I don’t immediately question how he knows this information.
Paranoid, I chant to myself. Outside of Samantha, he’s the only other vampire I would ever consider trusting with the truth.I knew Achille when he was human, he was Oz’s driver before he was turned and kept the same station in the nest.
He’s loyal, dependable, and if I’m not mistaken, he seems more at ease after Oz’s death as well.
“Yes.”
He doesn’t ask me any further questions like Conner does, and he doesn’t get on my case like Samantha. But he shocks me as we get closer to Ember’s home and he breaks our usual silence.
