A witch.
One that could see my connection to Locheran. She saw through Mira’s shields and protection spells.
There’s no telling what else the witch has done for my father.
I worry by the time I find out, it will be too late, and my mate will be dead.
Chapter 27 – Locheran
The witch who created vampires.
That’s who’s helping the hunters. All these years, Rorik said he couldn’t remember how he became a vampire. He always believed it was a witch and spent years searching.
He knows it’s her based on the smells I described.
But it’s all he knows.
He can’t remember her name or what she looks like. He can’t recall the details of the curse she placed to make him crave blood.
But he said he’d never forget her scent.
The smell of black magic.
This isn’t good. We’re up against a witch who’s lost her humanity. Who has likely been using black magic for centuries. What she can do to help the hunters is endless.
Witches. We need witches. Dozens of them to fight magic with magic.
And that’s what we’ve been doing for the past twenty-four hours.
We put out a call to local covens. Some of the strongest witches reside in New York City and they didn’t hesitate to help. The witch who created vampires has always been a legend. Now that we know she exists, and is still alive, the witches will do everything in their power to take her down. Because using black magic is against the rules of witchcraft.
When the sun sets, I emerge from the bedroom in the apartment Xander owns. It’s in a building in Prospect Park, which is where the scent of the witch brought us. Rorik was the only one able to track it.
I can also sense my mate now. She’s close. I can feel her within my body, but the connection is still too weak for me to be able to pinpoint her exact location.
After showering and forcing myself to eat something, I head downstairs to the building’s common area where we’ve set up a command center.
Everyone’s here: Xander, Evangeline, Thorne, Vara, Layla, Millie, Teddy, and Rorik.
Anticipation and rage pour off the first vampire’s body. He’s yet to retract his fangs and his eyes remain pitch black—a defensive response since learning the witch who cursed him is still alive.
He paces the room.
“Send me in,” he growls. “I can distract her.”
“She’ll be anticipating that,” Xander explains.
Rorik shakes his head. “She doesn’t know I’m here. She won’t know I’m helping you.”
“She likely knows everything,” Vara says, sighing. “Rory, please calm down. You are too fired up. You’re not thinking straight.”
Millie approaches him with a human at her side. He’s a tall man with light brown skin and brown hair. He’s built but not as muscular as Rorik. The human smiles at the vampire, lust filling his eyes. Many humans who volunteer to be donors find pleasure in doing so. This man is no different.
“A meal?” Millie asks. Rorik shakes his head.
“Eat, Rory,” Layla says.
It’s an order from the vampire queen, and despite Rorik being older than Layla, she has precedent over any vampire who lives in the five boroughs.
