Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (30 page)

‘
I’m sorry Jess, my bond broke
with Eva several hours ago, and from the reports I have received
since of the Bite Club incident, I can only presume that if you
haven’t seen either of them, then they must have been caught up in
the effects of the null bomb.’

‘
No! They can’t. I mean, you seem
so… fine about it all! Surely, I don’t know, but surely they would
have heard the warning, they
would
have got out. How did you know about me and Luke otherwise?’
I said, feeling like once again everything was falling in and
collapsing around me.

‘
The last time Eva contacted me
was when they had just got to the club. They were going down the
cellar steps to find you just as I connected with her. I saw what
she saw, at the same time she did. I saw Daniel’s horror, I saw
your guilty face and I saw them turn away from you,’ he said
coolly.

‘
Then you too must have heard the
warning gong?’ I said.

‘
Yes, I did, and shortly after
that they ran into a couple of Cole’s vampires in the main hall. I
told Eva to get the hell out of there and I pulled out of her head
to give her more clarity. Minutes later the bond broke. She
disappeared.’

I looked down at the floor. The room
seemed to swirl about me. I felt sick. Luke’s hand pressed down
gently on my shoulder and led me across the room to the soft
chairs. I sank into them, not quite able to believe what Sebastian
had told me. Had one of Cole’s vampires killed them first, or left
them unable to flee in time? Once again I was on my own and my new
family had been stripped away. My emotions felt raw, but this time
the hurt was not as great. The pain was not as intense. Yes, I had
grown to care about Daniel very much, Eva too, but I had known them
only three months, and as seemed to be the case with everyone in my
life, they had both lied to me. It was time to grow-up, time to
take care of myself.

‘
Jess, I saw the same as Daniel
and Eva in that cellar, and the sight I saw lasted only a second,
but you say you were dying? Am I missing something?’ Sebastian
asked, in a gentler tone.

‘
If they’d taken time to look
around, or come back when I shouted them and pleaded them to listen
to me, then they would have understood,’ I said feeling bitterness
mix with my grief.

‘
Go on,’ he prompted.

‘
The only way I could fight Cole
in the end was fire. I set him ablaze with a magical curse, but
unfortunately for me he was on top of me at the time, so I ended up
in flames too,’ I said.

‘
Are you mad?’ Sebastian said, his
face clearly showing shock.

‘
It was my only option,’ I
said.

‘
And Luke found you… I see,’ he
said, his eyes flicking up to Luke who sat silently on the opposite
chair.

‘
Luke and Caoimhe arrived as we
were all dying. Caoimhe dispatched the remaining vampires and Luke
patted out the visible flames, but I was burning inside. I had no
energy left. I couldn’t self-heal. No-one else was
there.’

‘
So he let you feed from him?’
Sebastian said.

I nodded.

‘
I was going to let you die…again,
but I couldn’t,’ Luke said suddenly.

‘
I see,’ Sebastian said, going
quiet again.

‘
There is nothing going on between
us - we are just friends. It was Daniel I kept asking for, but he
wasn’t there,’ I said.

‘
Will you keep this to yourself?
If the angels find out what I did…’ Luke said, looking at
Sebastian.

Sebastian nodded. ‘So without Daniel,
you will need a new master…tutor, and without Eva I will need a new
employee. We also need to sort out your identity and bank account
and draw up your oath.’

I lifted my eyes from the floor and
pulled myself together. Did he think it was that easy to move on
and sign me up to his clan? I might have been struggling with my
emotions but I knew one thing, I wasn’t going to be signed up to
any vampire clan. I wasn’t going to repeat any oath. I was going to
follow Brittany and be independent.

‘
No!’

‘
I’m sorry? What?’ he
said.

‘
Sorry to be blunt. You’re
sometimes maddeningly archaic and frustratingly dictatorial, but I
think you’re one of the good guys…’

‘
Oh really, well that’s nice to
know,’ he said, his eyes crinkling with amusement.

‘
After seeing how Cole ran his
clan, I guess it doesn’t take much to make you look
good…’

‘
Of course, and yet you still
said
no
?’ he asked.

‘
Yes, I mean no, well I do
mean,
no
I don’t want you to
be my boss. I’m going to be free Sebastian, independent. I don’t
fit here, and I don’t fit with the witches either.’

‘
But you need an income, and you
need documents Jess,’ he said, raising an eyebrow as if humouring a
wayward child.

‘
I want to work for you, if that’s
okay? But I will not be tied to you with a ridiculous hundred year
loan…’

‘
But that is what it costs to have
my protection, use my resources, and be given a whole new identity,
along with the documents and bank accounts that go with
it.’

‘
I’ve been thinking about that,
and I reckon the Council will have to sort that out, seeing as I’m
not one hundred per cent vampire nor witch. I’m going to tell them
that I don’t fit in anywhere and I want to be independent. They’ll
be forced to arrange an identity for me and the legal documents
that go with it, and if they don’t, I’m sure there are people I can
find who can fake a passport for me,’ I said, with a small shrug.
‘All I need is a salary, and I know you could use a
witch…’

‘
You have changed Jessie,
grown-up,’ he said.

‘
Not really, I’ve just found
myself again,’ I said.

‘
Well we shall give it a go, on a
trial basis, but there are other issues we need to discuss, like
your feeding requirements for example.’

‘
I understand, but I
am
safe, and I
am
in control, so you need have no worries
there.’

‘
We shall see, but I shall feel
better if you come to Exodus on the evenings you need to feed and
check in with me, at least until we know each other a little
better.’

‘
Deal,’ I said, secretly thankful
that there would be someone looking out for me, in an activity
which remained a frightening prospect.

Epilogue

The girl lay frozen in bed, her
heartbeat hammering in her chest and tears leaking from her eyes as
she awoke with a start and gazed with mixed relief at the hospital
ceiling. The nightmare replayed over and over again, every night.
She didn’t understand it, certainly didn’t believe it and
desperately waited for it to fade away with the encroaching light
of dawn.

Luke had visited her daily, and listened
to her frightened ramble of nightmares and dreams, without making
her feel like she should be institutionalised. He brought her
favourite books and flowers. He sneaked chocolate and cakes into
her room and made her laugh again.

For some reason, neither she nor the
doctors could fathom out, she was extremely anaemic, but it was put
down to an unhealthy college diet and so she was ordered another
week of bed rest. She looked at the sunbeams beginning to sneak in
under her blind and listened out for the noise of the breakfast
trolleys, which came just after the shift change. Her clock read
five to six, so the day staff had yet to arrive. She settled back
and closed her eyes, willing the nightmares not to return.

A quiet knock sounded at her door, which
seconds later swung open to reveal a pretty young nurse, her light
brown hair swinging in a cute ponytail.

‘
Hi! I thought I heard you stir.
How are you, Alex?’ she said, walking over to the bed.

Alex looked at the nurse. There was
something familiar about her, and yet she didn’t think this was a
nurse she had seen at all over the past few days. She was certain
she would recognise her if she had been, because she had beautiful,
striking violet contact lenses in.

‘
Yes, it was just another
nightmare. I’m okay now, thanks,’ Alex said.

‘
Oh good, because that makes my
job all the more fun,’ the nurse said, closing the door quietly
behind her and suddenly appearing at Alex’s side so unbelievably
fast, it made her jump.

A memory was beginning to surface, a
memory of one of the creatures from her nightmares, a creature with
violet eyes. Alex shrank back into her bed and opened her mouth to
scream, but a cold hand was clamped down upon it, nails digging
into her cheeks.

‘
Shhhhhhhhh, it will all be over
soon,’ said the nurse with the violet eyes, as she bent over Alex
and bit hard into her neck. Several minutes later the nurse stood
up, wiped her mouth, and smiled down at the still, cold girl who
would never have another nightmare again, and left the
room.

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