I swallow hard and shift on my feet. “Uh?—”
“You’re not in trouble,” Briar says and hands the list back to me.
I take the sheet immediately, crinkling the paper in my grasp. “I’m not?”
Briar brings the red cane up and places it on the counter. Then she hobbles over to the spice wall and mumbles something under her breath. One by one, each glass container from different cubbies along the wall float out of their spots and toward the counter. My eyes widen in surprise.
“You’re a—” I still have trouble getting the words out.
Briar turns to me, arching a gray eyebrow. “But you are not. A mage, perhaps?”
I slowly nod. “Human, actually. But I’m learning.”
“I gathered that much.” Briar shuffles back to behind the cash register and the glass jars hover on the counter before making little clink sounds as they land. “Truly a shame you’re not an actual witch. It’s been decades since one has awakened.”
“Are you familiar with hexes?” I blurt the question.
She stops tapping on the register, but doesn’t meet my gaze. “If you’re speaking about the one on your forehead, then yes, I am.”
I reach up to rub the center of my forehead. “Then you can break it?”
“Of course!” Briar exclaims. “Any witch can.”
A smile curves my lips.
“But all magic comes at a price. And this one is very high indeed.”
My smile turns into a frown. “Please, I’ll do anything to be rid of this.”
Briar gives me an odd look then. “Are you sure you know what you ask for, child?”
I reach out to grasp one of her frail hands in mine. “Please.”
Briar withdraws her hand and sighs softly. “We better get started then.”
Max
Solitude can be both a blessing and a curse. A reluctant pastime where one can count each breath, each steady thrum of a heartbeat. Except for my own. For my heart has not beat in many decades. Time seems to stop altogether, eludes me. In the dreaming world, whilst my body slumbers in an unnatural state of being, my subconscious takes root deep in my Blood Bond’s nighttime activities.
For each passing day of the hex placed upon Dakota’s forehead, it is another waking day that is becoming pure torture. I’ve endured much over the course of the years, however, being away from the only woman that can sate my thirst and my growing desire, has become a curse in itself.
I’ve had to relinquish teaching over the course of the past few weeks. My thirst has grown impeccably strong to the point it even frightens me. Unable to be near her, yet craving more than just her blood, I needed a confined space to breathe and just…be.
The chapel is the last place one would expect a vampire to be, but it’s within such a grandeur place, where I find the solace. All I need is a dark corner to quietly brood and a simple breathevery now and then to remind myself that I am supposed to be blending in with the humans.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
My heartbeat keeps time every few seconds, then quickly skips a beat.
Wait.
I snap open my eyes and peer around the darkened chapel. My heart isn’t the one that’s beating.
If not mine, then whose?
Uncrossing my arms, I straighten from the corner where I’d been leaning against a wall, and step forward.
