The Witches of the Glass Castle (The Witches of the Glass Castle Series Book 1) (12 page)

The girls held their breath as the heavy door creaked open.

The sound of Wendolyn’s motherly voice floated into the bedroom.

‘Girls,’ the older woman sang out jovially, ‘time for bed. Kizzy, dear, off to your own room, please.’

Kizzy shrugged helplessly at Mia. ‘Bye,’ she mouthed.

Mia gave a look of dismay as she watched her friend depart from the bedchamber.

Wendolyn, however, hovered in the doorway. ‘Mi
a,’ she said in a smooth voice, ‘where is your brother?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mia answered. The truth was she had spent the day deliberately avoiding Dino. ‘I saw him this morning, but he hasn’t been back to the room this evening.’ She didn’t bother telling Wendolyn that she and Dino were at loggerheads, and that the reason why he wasn’t there most likely had to do with the fact that Mia
was
there.

Wendolyn’s
lined face crumpled into a perturbed expression. ‘I see,’ she said slowly.

Mia wondered for a moment if Wendolyn had
read her thoughts. She quickly changed the subject. ‘Wendolyn,’ she ventured, ‘I’ve been meaning to ask – did you find the Hunter coven? I mean, the intruders that you told me about last week?’

Wendolyn shook her head. ‘No. But it’s been some time since I last sensed them, so perhaps they have moved on.’

‘Good,’ Mia responded quietly. That was one less thing to fret about.

Wendolyn smiled kindly. ‘No need for alarm,’ she assured her. She turned to leave the room. ‘Would you like me to switch off the light?’ she asked.

‘Yes, please,’ Mia replied. She crawled under the sheets and drew the gold curtains around the bed. The light in the bedchamber disappeared and the door clicked shut.

It didn’t take long for Mia to drift off to sleep – after all, she had had an unusually early start. She slept soundly for at least an hour or so before the bedroom door creaked open once again.

A dark figure strode into the room, as light-footed as if he was gliding on air. He hesitated, breathing in fervently and licking his lips. Moving silently, he approached Mia’s bed and slowly eased the curtains apart.

There she slept, so peacefully.
Her pretty face serene and innocent.

For several long seconds Colt stood over her, watching her curiously. He tilted his head, seemingly uncertain. But that uncertainty soon vanished, and in one fluid motion he withdrew a dagger from the sheath on his belt.

A moonbeam came through the open window, catching the blade with a deadly glint. And then, Colt struck.

Colt stood over Mia as she slept. He gripped the dagger in his hand, his knuckles white from the force of his grasp. Then swiftly he brought the blade down, piercing the flesh and dragging its point along the delicate skin of an arm.

But it was not Mia’s skin that he had severed; it was his own.

A trickle of
blood dripped from the incision on his forearm. Without wasting a second, he pressed the wound to Mia’s lips.

Her
eyes shot open. She struggled, frantically trying to push Colt’s arm away, but he held it to her mouth unwaveringly. In the darkness of the bedchamber, his eyes locked on hers with a strange brightness. His forest-green iris paled and glistened like ice.

‘Drink,
’ he told her in a husky voice.

Mia’s protests were muffled beneath his arm. She pursed her lips, refusing to
ingest his blood. Fighting back, she dug her fingernails into the wound on his arm.

Colt winced. ‘Trust me,’ he said through gritted teeth.

But trusting him was an unthinkable request. He was her assailant – how could she trust him? Desperately, she fought to resist, yet much to her dismay she began to taste the coppery tang of blood.

Colt let out a sigh of relief as he felt the exchange take place.

At first, Mia retched and lashed out at him, but steadily she slipped into a numb, trancelike state. Within moments she was willingly feeding off his blood, rapt in a hypnotic compulsion. Gradually she withdrew her nails from the wound and repositioned her fingers to his skin, clinging to his arm as though she were attaching herself to him.

Colt closed his eyes and let it happen
. ‘That’s enough,’ he said at last.

His words were wasted. By now, all of
Mia’s rational thinking had been overshadowed. The ritual had taken hold of her, turning her into an animal, thriving off the feed.

‘That’s enough!’ Colt commanded again. His body began to feel limp and his head whirled. He too was beginning to lose himself to the ritual.

Mia gripped his arm tighter, unable to break the action.

With his last ounce of strength
, Colt focused on summoning his power. He raised his free hand and charged a gust of air to throw him backwards. The sheer force of the air sent him hurtling away from Mia. His head cracked sharply against one of the oak pillars on the four-poster bed. Dazed, he shook off the blow and began licking the incision on his arm, aiding its recovery.

Mia collapsed on to her bed, motionless. It was as though breaking the connection with Colt had taken away her life force. She lay perfectly still, with blood smeared over her lips and a stray droplet dibbling down her chin.

Colt took a deep breath, regaining himself. Once composed, he returned to Mia. He perched on the edge of her bed and licked the rogue trickle of blood from her face.

The strange sensation
awoke her from her unconsciousness. Her eyes fluttered open. The first thing she saw was Colt, sitting faithfully at her bedside. Disoriented, she reached out to him, and in a search for comfort she coiled her fingers around the material of his black T-shirt. Their eyes met in a moment of union.

Colt flinched. ‘Don’t do that,’ he
whispered. He cleared his throat, remembering himself. ‘Don’t,’ he said again, briskly this time, and he pried her hand from his T-shirt.

The jolt brought Mia back to reality. All of a sudden she felt sober again and a wave of panic flooded over her. ‘Wha
t did you do to me?’ she choked. She pushed Colt away and took a swipe at him.

Colt effortlessly dodged each swing of her flail
ing arms. He smiled.

‘Answer me!’ Mia yelled, short of breath. ‘What did you do to me?’

‘I thought you’d at least thank me,’ Colt replied evenly. ‘I don’t get a lot of thanks in my line of work, and I feel I deserve it at times.’

Mia gawped at him. ‘Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of the word!’ she spluttered. The aftertaste of blood was still rife in her mouth.

Colt laughed whimsically.

Mortified, Mia wiped at her mouth. ‘You’re sick!’ she spat. ‘You’re…warped!’

‘So dramatic.’

‘Dramatic!’ Mia exclaimed. ‘You’re evil! You’re a vile monster!’

Colt smirked. ‘I’m flattered.’

Mia struck out at him again, but smoothly he ducked aside.

‘Is this how you repay me for saving your life?’ Colt asked with a snide smile.

‘Yeah, right!’ Mia shouted at him. ‘You’re not saving my life – you’re trying to turn me into one of you
r kind!’

‘Ha!’ Colt snorted
. ‘Darling, you could never be one of my kind.’

‘Then why did you make me
drink your blood?’ Simply saying it aloud sickened her to the pit of her stomach.

‘Certainly not to change you into
my kind
,’ Colt scoffed. His eyes, now restored to their usual pine green, twinkled playfully.

‘So why did
you do it? You’re disgusting! That was disgusting!’

Colt gave her a wry smile. ‘I didn’t hear you complaining at
the time,’ he teased. ‘From where I was standing, you seemed to quite enjoy it.’

Mia flung her hand forward and successfully clipped him on the nose. ‘You put me under a spell!’ she accused.

Colt grinned and rubbed the affected area on his nose. ‘Did I?’ he challenged. ‘Or maybe you just liked it. It’s a good thing I managed to separate myself from you when I did,’ he added cryptically.

‘Why?’ she asked fearfully. ‘What would have happened?’

‘I suppose we’ll never know. But I must admit, I was beginning to enjoy myself, too.’

Mia stared at him,
horrified.

‘It felt good,’ Colt said
unashamedly. ‘It’s powerful. The trade of one’s life force. What greater exhilaration could there be? The only disgusting part about it is the unspeakable selflessness on my part.’

‘S-
selflessness?’ Mia stuttered at the absurdity.

‘Believe me,’ he said, shuddering melodramatically. ‘I tried to justify what I was doing as something that served my own ends. But I fear I must accept it as a selfless deed. My last, I hope. Although,’ he added
as an afterthought, ‘the exchange did prove to be quite gratifying for me. So I suppose it wasn’t
all
bad.’

‘How did this benefit me?’ Mia cried
.

‘Think of my blood as the antidote,’ he explained vaguely.

‘The antidote to what?’ Mia cowered under her bedcovers, leaving only her ashen face on show.

‘Enticement.’

‘Which is?’ she pressed.

Colt rolled his eyes. ‘Have you learned nothing since you’ve been at the Glass Castle?’

‘Nobody will tell me anything!’

‘There’s a library full of books!’ Colt exclaimed. ‘I suggest you open one once in a while.’

Mia blinked up at him from her cocoon of bedding.

‘Enticement,’ Colt went on, ‘is a form a possessio
n. If a Hunter manages to take your blood, then effectively he will have a hold on you. He can call out to you, whenever and wherever he chooses, and you will go to him.’

‘Was a Hunter trying to take my blood?’ Mia asked, drawing the bed sheets even further up.

Colt laughed. ‘A Hunter already
has
your blood.’

‘What?’ Mia gasped. ‘You?’

Colt pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. ‘No. Lotan. The night you took the Athame, your head was bleeding…’

‘Yes,’ Mia interrupted, ‘because you threw me against the candlestick.’

‘Right,’ he replied. ‘Lotan advanced upon you and tasted your blood. Do you remember?’

Mia nodded her head.

‘Well, that was all he needed,’ Colt told her. ‘One small taste and you are his. He can call on you at any given time and you must come to him. Eventually, he will lure you in and kill you.’

‘Kill me?’ Mia whimpered.

‘Not always,’ Colt revised, his voice softening a little. ‘Sometimes he’ll settle for torture…But I imagine that’s probably worse.’

Mia’s
stomach flipped. ‘He
did
call me!’ she realised, recalling the night that she had been awoken by the sound of Lotan’s voice beckoning her to him. She had walked in a stupor towards the forest, but something inside the mist had thrown her back, snapping her out of the trance…

‘You,
’ Mia murmured, gazing up at Colt. ‘Last week…’

He offered her a patronizing smile. ‘You’re working something out for yourself? Good girl.’

‘Lotan called for me, but you stopped me before I walked into the forest. You saved me.’

Colt’s expression hardened. ‘Don’t get too excited,’ he scowled. ‘It wasn’t a chivalrous act.’

‘Why did you save me?’ she asked in a tender voice.

‘I didn’t save you!’ he snapped, affronted by the remark. ‘I saved Lotan. I knew that his plan was to kill you. But Wendolyn was near, and she
probably wouldn’t have been pleased.’

Mia sat up in bed with the covers still tucked around her. ‘But that was a week ago,’ she pointed out. ‘Why hasn’t Lotan tried again?’

‘Because, up until recently, I’d convinced him that you were no bother to us. Little did I know!’ Colt joked.

‘Up until recently?
What changed?’

‘Turns out that you are a bother!’

Mia frowned. ‘I haven’t seen Lotan since the night with the Athame. How can I have bothered him when I haven’t even seen him?’

‘You’ve seen me,’ Colt explained. ‘You’re on my skin and he sensed you. You have a very distinctive scent.’

‘So you keep telling me,’ Mia muttered under her breath.

‘Yes. It’s
annoying.’

‘And Lotan doesn’t like it,’ she guessed.

Colt shrugged. ‘It’s not that. I’m sure he likes the scent. I’m sure they all do. It’s addictive in some ways. But he doesn’t want you near us. And he especially doesn’t want you near
me
. I’m far too valuable.’

Now it was Mia’s turn to roll her eyes. ‘I bet you are,’ she said sarcastically.

Colt grinned. ‘I am.’

‘So, can I stop him?’ Mia asked, steering the conversation back to Lotan.

Colt extended his arm, displaying the wound. ‘Done,’ he confirmed.

With some reservation, Mia peered at the cut. A look of revulsion formed on her face. She could see the imprints of teeth marks around the lesion. Had she really been so fervent?

Colt continued, ‘To break the enticement hold, you need to drain the blood of your possessor. In other words, you need to slaughter him. Alternatively, you can feed off the blood of his coven. An eye for an eye, of sorts. It levels out the playing field.’

Grudgingly, Mia began to piece the information together. ‘And you’re part of his coven?’

‘Yes. Myself, Lotan, Roc and Siren.’

‘In other words, by drinking your blood, I’m now immune to Lotan’s enticement?’

‘Yes.’

Mia swallowed nervously. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure!’

There was a long pause while Colt’s admission truly sank in.

Eventually Mia spoke again. ‘Why did you do it?’ she asked in a small voice.

‘I don’t know.’ Colt absent-mindedly licked at the wound on his arm. ‘I’m extremely ashamed of myself. I suppose I wanted to give you a fighting chance. After all, it was I who sought you to end the rain. Perhaps in doing so, I led you to believe that you were permitted to approach me.’ He frowned. ‘Which you’re not, by the way.’

‘Then go,’ she retorted, unable to hide the tremor in her words.

‘Besides
,’ Colt added with a lazy smirk, ‘I like to think that if anyone gets to kill you, it’ll be me.’

‘Maybe I’ll kill
you
,’ Mia shot back, feigning courage.

The corner of Colt’s mouth curved upwards slowly. ‘I doubt that very much
, darling.’ He lowered his voice to a murmur, ‘But I would
love
to see you try.’

His statement
sent a chill down Mia’s spine.

‘And on that very exciting note,’ Colt announced brightly, ‘I will leave you. Sweet dreams,’ he added menacingly. In the blink of an eye, he vanished.

Mia lay in bed, her heart pounding wildly. Once she was certain that Colt was gone, she scrambled out of bed.

‘Dino!’ she cried, stumbling in the darkness.

She yanked his bed curtains apart, but her brother was still not there.

The call
of an owl echoed throughout the night sky. Somewhere below it, Dino paced along the grass embankment. He paused at the new sound and stood like a statue, his dark hair painted with a silvery moonlit streak.