Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (14 page)

‘
No, not really about him. I mean,
what he said that day. I was thinking… I haven’t got anyone to
guide me now. The magic I performed today, I didn’t mean to. I
didn’t even think about hurting you. I was thinking about Harry
Potter…’

‘
Who?’

‘
Harry Potter. You know, the
books? The films? Even if you haven’t read the books, surely you’ve
seen the films? Please tell me you know who Harry Potter is?’ I
said, not quite believing that there was someone in the western
world who didn’t know who Harry Potter was, and more to the point,
that I was falling in love with him!

‘
Urm, that would be a no. Who is
he?’ he said, with a grin.

‘
Oh never mind, but next time
they’re on TV, you’re going to watch with me. He is a boy wizard,
and until the last book he goes to this magical school where they
learn spells. He does this one spell, called Wingardium Leviosa,
where they make things levitate through the air, and I was thinking
of that when I wanted the envelope. I just imagined the envelope
floating out of your hand and into mine,’ I said.

‘
Well, I guess you need a bit more
practice then, and I am not offering to be the guinea pig,’ he
said, looking down at his hand and flexing his fingers in and
out.

‘
That’s just it. I did dark magic,
without even trying. What if being a vampire has automatically
turned me into a dark witch?’ I said, blurting out my new
fear.

‘
Don’t be ridiculous Jess. You
just have to learn to control your magic, that’s all.’

‘
But that’s not everything. Franny
suspected that initiating me into their coven would quieten the
vampire within me, if not eradicate it. She mentioned me moving to
the States and even eating food like them,’ I said, knowing I had
to tell him everything.

‘
I knew it! Those conniving
bitches.’

‘
Don’t you mean
witches
?’ I said with a
smile.

‘
I bet Sebastian wasn’t aware of
that,’ he said.

‘
No, I don’t think so.’

‘
So that’s why you ate the steak
today, and the tea?’

‘
Eva told you about the steak?’ I
asked.

‘
I had smelt it when I came in the
house, so she told me about it when she was mending my hand,’ he
said, pulling a comical ‘injured party’ face.

‘
Okay, okay, and I suppose that
was part of the thinking behind the steak. I wanted to shock Eva,’
I said with a smile.

‘
You certainly did that, but she
said you threw it all up after. So you can’t eat human food then?
And if you knew that, why did you drink the tea?’

‘
No, I can’t. The steak tasted
alright, but it was
really
bloody. I think that’s the only reason I got it all down. The
tea was disgusting. I did it just to shock Luke.’

‘
Why do you care what he thinks,
Jessie? After how he’s treated you, how he talks to
you?’

‘
I don’t care. I really don’t. I
just wanted the upper hand, that’s all,’ I said with a shrug. ‘But
that’s not all of it. The witches thought I’d be able to eat food,
but I can’t.’

‘
And?’

‘
And I think the initiation has
not only made my magic dark, but made my vampire side stronger too.
Don’t freak out, right, and please don’t tell Eva, as she’ll race
straight over with Gavin again, and I
really
don’t want that, but I keep thinking about
biting people!’

‘
Ha! Jessie, sweet, sweet Jessie,
you are a
vampire
. You are
supposed to think about biting people. Is that all you’re worried
about?’ he said, the clouds of concern clearing from his features,
his gorgeous, full lips breaking into a wide smile.

‘
Look, they might say that men
think about sex every seven seconds or something similar…which we
don’t by the way, but when I go out into town, or the club, and am
surrounded by human scent, I probably
do
think about biting someone every seven
seconds. It doesn’t mean I act upon it,’ he added.

‘
Really? Wow! Hmm, but something
must have gone wrong with me. I have never been like that. The
initiation was supposed to quash my vampire appetite, not
strengthen it. The blood packs are alright I suppose, but all I can
think about is what it would be like to drink fresh
blood.’

‘
You’re appetite has certainly
improved. Although I suppose it is two weeks since you fed from
me,’ he said.

And Sebastian!
I thought.

‘
I don’t want to keep taking blood
from you, but however much I might be thinking about feeding from
humans, I still can’t get my head around it.’

‘
Jessie, I think you’ve accepted
who you’ve become now. You are a vampire and you
do
need to drink blood. If you could
only try to feed as we do, I think you would soon realise it is not
as bad as you are making yourself believe. I think we should tell
Eva when she returns and between the three of us work towards
gently weaning you off the blood packs.’

‘
I know it’s something I have to
do, but I’m terrified I won’t be able to stop - that I’ll kill
someone.’

‘
You won’t Jessie, I know you. I
know you could stop. You’re stronger than you think, and Eva and I
will be there to stop you, if you want? There’s still time. We
could go out now, as it’s barely midnight?’

‘
No, not tonight. I need at least
another night to prepare. I want to drink plenty of packs before I
go, so I won’t be too hungry,’ I said.

‘
I can think of a more pleasant
way to stem your hunger,’ he said with a wicked grin.

‘
No Daniel. I took too much last
time, I made you weak…and hungry,’ I said, thinking of the drained
corpse that had turned up the following day. I one hundred percent
believed Daniel would never be capable of draining a human girl,
especially one he had a bond with, but the death had brought home
how easy it would be to take one pint too much; for dinner to turn
into murder. I didn’t want to prove Luke right and become a
murderer.

‘
So this time I’ll stop you
earlier,’ he said with a shrug. ‘You’ve fed from me before and not
taken too much. It was only last time it had an effect.’

‘
Maybe it was a cumulative
effect?’

‘
No Jessie, it will be fine. I was
planning to go out tomorrow anyway, and if you are going to lose
your vampire stabilisers and start feeding like the rest of us, we
won’t need to do this anymore… I’ll miss it. One last time? You
know you want to!’

‘
What about the bond? Are you
doing this to re-establish our bond?’ I asked, suddenly suspicious
that maybe he had planned this all along.

‘
No, I’m not. It hadn’t occurred
to me, but I won’t deny that if it does mend our bond I will be a
very happy man… or vampire.’

‘
I can’t take that risk,’ I
said.

‘
Why? What was so awful about
being bonded to me? It saved your life once before remember? You
wouldn’t have held Aaron in mid-air for long enough to escape being
raped and then, probably not so accidentally murdered. Without our
bond, Sebastian and I wouldn’t have got to you in time, and
Sebastian wouldn’t have been able to save you.’

‘
I know, but I like having my
thoughts kept private, I…’

‘
Jessie, you were already learning
how to shut me out of your head, before our bond broke. How else
would you have managed to get all the way to Didsbury and the
cricket club before your birthday? Now your magic is much more
powerful, you could easily learn how to block me, and I wouldn’t
stop you. It might not even work anyway. Magic broke the bond, so
magic may be needed to fix it,’ he said.

I nodded, evaluating the pros and cons.
I desperately wanted to feed from Daniel again. I wanted to taste
his blood, like the dark addiction it had become, have him set me
alight and feel his hands running the length of my body. My fangs
began to extend, and my pulse quickened. He slid his hand softly
down the side of my face, trailing a finger down my neck, lingering
for seconds over my artery which throbbed beneath his touch. His
hand slid lower, stroking the silky skin covering my collarbone,
sending tingles down my spine, and spreading heat between my legs.
I sucked air into my lungs, my breathing becoming jagged with
desire. What was the worst that could happen? So I ended up bonded
to him again? He was my saviour, my best friend, my lover. As he
said, I would just have to learn to block him, to shut him out of
my head, and I knew I could do that. If I could break all his
fingers, then I could definitely learn a simple blocking
technique.

I leant forward and kissed him, smushing
my lips against his, clawing my fingers along the back of his neck,
and winding his shoulder-length waves around my finger-tips, as I
climbed onto his lap. My other hand dropped lower and slid beneath
his t-shirt, feeling his abs tight and hard, his skin smooth, like
alabaster. He let out a gentle moan and I pushed his hair away from
his neck, pulling back from his kiss. The vein in his neck stood
proud, my fangs were ready and saliva gushed into my mouth as I
sank into him, a fast, flurry of emotion following, re-opening our
bond, a second soul connected to mine. All his thoughts, fears and
emotions streamed past, accessible to me, his slow, steady
heart-beat connecting to and aligning with mine.

Chapter Twelve

‘
So, Daniel says that not only
have you restored your bond with him, but you’ve attached yourself
to the cat as well. I thought you didn’t want to be bonded?’ Eva
asked me the following evening, once we were settled in our girlie
den, feet on the table and the credits for Project Runway
rolling.

‘
I hadn’t wanted it back
initially, but I guess over the last few days I’ve missed it, and
as he said, I can always learn how to block him. I can already
filter him out on a normal level. Now I just want to use my powers
to choose whether to block him completely on demand or not. I just
wanted some privacy, that’s all,’ I said, pausing before mentioning
my surreal experience with Murphy.

‘
Like you said, you learn pretty
fast to filter them out. I’d go insane if I had Sebastian in my
head 24/7, and Daniel too don’t forget, but I guess I’ve got used
to the lack of privacy. If I had the choice though…’ Eva smiled at
me and gave a shrug. ‘So, what’s with the cat?’

‘
I don’t really know what
happened. Daniel thinks it’s because I’m a witch, and he’s my
familiar or something. It was weird, I was just stroking him last
night, and he did this weird kind of shudder, and then suddenly I
could hear him in my head,’ I said, giving a little
shrug.

‘
What? He speaks to you?’ Eva
said, her eyebrows disappearing into her hair.

‘
I guess. It’s not that simple
though, not like specific words. It’s more like I get a feeling
from him. I knew he was telling me he was happy he found me, and he
likes the name Murphy,’ I said grinning.

‘
Weird!’ Eva said. ‘Do you think
you could persuade him to like
me
? As cats always hate vampires, I’ve not had a
cuddle since I was fourteen and lost my Persian when we fled from
Paris.’

I would never had guessed Eva had a soft
spot for cats, and made it my mission to convince Murphy of Eva’s
cat-loving qualities. For now though I let him hiss at her and
leave the room, his tail stuck up like a lightning rod.

‘
So after Daniel had stopped
raving about your bond being back, he mentioned you might have
something to tell me?’ she ventured.

Daniel had gone out to the club, and I
was fairly confident I hadn’t left him too hungry after our
previous night’s exertions, but with my renewed energy, glossy hair
and skin, I was reminded that fresh blood was indeed what I now
required, no matter how the change had occurred. I needed to tell
Eva that I was coming off the bottled blood, and I looked forward
to seeing her reaction.

‘
Um, yeah... You know how I tried
eating steak the other day?’ I said.

‘
Yes, and how violently it made
you vomit afterwards…please don’t tell me you are going to try
something else. You tried drinking tea, and admitted
that
tasted disgusting. You’re a
vampire Jess, and I know you’re also a witch and you desperately
don’t want to drink blood like the rest of us, but if your body
can’t manage raw, bloody steak then it’s not going to cope with
anything else,’ she said, a frown clouding her features.

‘
Well there was one other thing I
wanted to try,’ I said, enjoying dragging it out a
little.

‘
Oh God! What? I can’t think of
anything else. Jess you’ve got to stop this and accept who you are,
and you can’t keep feeding from Daniel. It’s not fair.’

‘
I know, you’re right,’ I said,
looking her straight in the eye and smiling.

‘
Uh…what?’

‘
You’re right, about everything. I
can’t rely on Daniel for food, I don’t like the taste of the
processed blood anymore, and as I said to Daniel last night I think
the initiation made the vampire part of me stronger. I think it’s
time to try and feed properly.’