Coffin Girls (Elegantly Undead: Book 1 of the Coffin Girls Witch Vampire Series) (14 page)

“You’ve heard of it even on Google,” interjected Sylvain
sending Conall into a mental rant at him for being an interfering busybody.

Anais laughed softly, joining Sylvain in the playful
teasing, “Sylvain, I’ll teach you the two-step if you show me how to do an
Irish jig.”

Sylvain grinned, “I’ll be happy to show you whatever jig you
want, Anais.”

“Go away Syl,” Conall jokingly shoved at his friend. Not to
be bested with corny lines, he leaned in towards Anais to deliver another
line…and watched her fall, eyes fraught with pain.

Anais woke up feeling as though she’d been run over by
something huge and metal. Sunlight streamed through the windows into her
bedroom, assaulting her already pounding head. Groaning in protest, she
squinted at Sophie, who rushed to draw the curtains. She didn’t recognize the
weak whimpers that escaped her throat at the relief offered by the darkness.
She didn’t know why her body seemed to automatically curl into a foetal
position, her mind wanting succumbing to the sleep that beckoned at its edges.
Anais vaguely recollected being wiped out on the sidewalk in the Quarter when
‘the feeling’ had slammed into her before darkness had swallowed her mind. She
wanted to know what had occurred but her energy seemed completely depleted.
Even moving her mouth to speak seemed a task beyond her current capabilities.
The need to close her eyes again and drift off into the oblivion beckoned her.
Hopefully that state of self-induced unconsciousness would take away the
throbbing pain that pulsed in every inch of her body. Her muscles felt like
battered jelly, her strong vampire bones were replaced with strung toffee and a
badly performing marching band had taken occupancy in her head.

“I know, Anais,” Sophie laid an empathetic hand on her
shoulder. Anais winced at the touch and Sophie quickly withdrew the torturous
appendage. With unshed tears, Sophie struggled under the pain Anais felt, her
empathic ability soaking it up more than was normal, courtesy of the connection
they shared. “I can feel your pain and your confusion. Don’t worry about that
now. Let me give you what you need. You’re thirsty. You need blood, so let’s
see to that first and then I’ll answer whatever questions you have.”

At the mention of blood, the burning thirst that had been
shadowed by her physical pain came to the fore. Nodding, Anais sat up, frail
and unsteady. She tried to reach for the glass that Sophie held but her hands
were shaking so badly, that as soon as she grasped it the blood sloshed all
over her treasured four hundred thread count white sheets. Taking the glass
back, Sophie held it up to her mouth gently and tilted the liquid in; slow
enough for her to feel the soothing substance slide down her throat, lessening
the burn a bit. She was so thirsty. Her body must have consumed much of what she
had in healing her to her current feeble state. She wanted to grab the glass
and guzzle the warm blood, feel it cool her parched, burning throat but her
energy deserted her for even that natural act of vampirism.

Trickle by trickle, as the blood entered her battered
system, she started to feel more able to tackle what was going on. She cast her
eyes to an anxious Sophie, “What happened to me?”

“You fainted in the Quarter and we brought you back home. Conall
thought you were under magickal attack and tried several things to bring you
around. When that didn’t work we hooked you up to a bag of blood,” Sophie
indicated the intravenous equipment with empty bags of blood hanging off of it.
“I’ve been linking with you to monitor your progress. I found incredible pain.”
At Anais’ incredulous look that said, ‘what’s changed?’ Sophie continued,
“Believe me. It was worse. I’m glad you’ve been unconscious. I could barely
stand to link with you to see what was going on. It,” Sophie’s voice broke,
breathing in, she continued, “…It felt like we were losing you.”

Anais looked at the bags of blood again.

“Yes, the blood worked. But it was blood and magick that did
the trick,” a male voice offered. “I gave you some of my blood, thinking the
magick in it would help and it did.”

Anais’s eyes widened in surprise, and then looked to Sophie
for clarification. What was Conall doing with them, knowing she was awake and
Sophie was awake during the day!

Sophie placated her, “It’s okay. He knows.” Anais’ brows
hadn’t quite lowered so she carried on with her explanation, “When he gave you
his blood, it linked with you – not the way vampires link with prey,” she
spelled out, “you linked magickally – the way only witches can.”

Sophie sent Conall a mental message to tread carefully, her
face stoic so Anais could not pick up on the interaction in her agitated state.
“Anais doesn’t trust being different and others knowing of it. She’s learnt the
hard way, not to stick out – but that’s her story to tell you. Trust me when I
say that it wasn’t pretty.”

Disgust made his lips tighten and his blood churn. The
Vampire Council and its power-hungry leader, Yves, had a lot to answer for. He
believed that being magickal, embracing that gift, should be liberating. He
couldn’t understand the pain that someone would have to be subjected to so that
you felt you had to hide it. He re-established the mental connection with
Sophie and conveyed his strategy, “She doesn’t trust me, so there’s no point addressing
those fears now. For now, I’m sticking to the facts. You know her, will that
do?” When Sophie nodded her ascent, he faced Anais and said out loud, “I tried
to detect the source of the magick, to read the spell that I thought had been
cast against you.”

Crossing the room, Conall sat on the side of the bed next to
Sophie, Anais’ legs brushing against his. Dragging his hand through his hair in
remembered frustration, he further explained, “I should’ve been able to detect
not only the spell but the caster too. As Prince I have that in my power. But I
couldn’t pick up a thing. Because of the link created between you and I with
the blood transfusion, Niul suggested that maybe it wasn’t a magickal attack
but something happening inside you, something magickal. You had to – have to,”
he corrected, “be a witch.” 

Bells clanged in alarm in Anais’ mind. Still linked to her,
Sophie picked up on that and hurried to continue the re-telling of the previous
night’s events. “You were so close to death,
cher
.” Sophie took Anais’
limp hand in hers, gently squeezing it in reassurance. “We couldn’t risk losing
you. You’re more than our maker; you’re our friend, our sister and though your
humility does not acknowledge it, you’re the glue that binds us as a family.
Our secret means nothing without all of us present and without you, we’d all be
at odds with nothing to hold us together. The others all agreed and we divulged
our secrets to them. We had to choose - do that or watch you die.” 

Anais had a million questions running through her mind but
her blasted mouth was staying fucking shut! She let herself mentally scream in
frustration and drank the blood Sophie continued to feed her, resolve that her
energy and strength would return soon enough for her to have her answers.

“It was the right thing to do, Anais.” Conall came closer to
her and looked at her squarely, openly, guessing at the frustration she must be
feeling. “The information that Sophie related cleared the confusion we had from
observing you. We debated and the theory that became more plausible was that
you were being over-taken by your powers.”

Still drinking, Anais had no choice but to let him continue
drone on about what happened. He did seem to be sincerely worried about her.
Odd, she thought, that the arrogant witch was now a caring and peculiarly
protective one. Gulping down the last of the blood in the third glass offered
by Sophie, she felt less feeble.

Pain still gnawed incessantly at her but her confusion
compelled her to speak, “But my vampire powers have been with me for nearly two
hundred years. What could possibly be over-taking me in that?” Pondering the
conundrum, she looked at Sophie for confirmation of the insensibility of the
situation and found none. Sophie was looking at Conall to rescue her from the
clarification Anais sought from her, so Anais did the same and cast her gaze at
the handsome witch.

Anais forced herself to speak through the pain. “My second
century anniversary is pending and I know that vampire powers increase every
century, a magickal birthday gift of sorts but I’ve never heard of anything
like this happening to an older vampire before. So, I don’t understand.”

Conall winced at the rawness in her voice – it was devoid of
the husky sexiness that characterized her natural tone of voice. She was in a
lot of pain and far from strong enough for this. Being a leader though, she’d
want answers and he could respect that. He could also understand her
incredulity. Goddess knew he was stumped by it too!

“In all history,” he began, “there is nothing to indicate
that what happened to you is the result of your pending birthday. If you look
at the picture, it seems that he witch’s magick that you’d been banished from
France for is still evident. Unlike the others, whose powers were released when
they turned, yours is still bound. Bound magick has to find a way out or eat at
the person it is locked inside of. Yours has been locked inside you for two
centuries, so it’s killing you from inside.”

“Why would such powers try to break free now?”

“We’re unsure why. It’s perplexing for me too. As prince, I
should know all there is to witch magick.” Anais and Sophie sent him eye-rolls.
He waved the assumption of arrogance that they made away with a shake of his
head and offered, “When a royal witch becomes of age, the witch not only
matures in their powers but matures in their knowledge of the witching
community. Witches serve humanity through healing, knowledge and serving the
Goddess to maintain the balance of the elements. Above all we live by the tenant,
‘First Harm None’. When royal witches form links to other witches we come in
contact with or know of, we automatically gain the knowledge of their history
and magickal abilities. We develop the ability to use our powers for other
witches to protect and guide them and against rouge witches so that we may
correct them and persecute them if required. It is our Goddess-given gift and
responsibility to ensure that the witch community remains vital and adheres to
our code of ethics.”

“But you can’t link with us?” Anais sat up a bit more,
fortified by further blood. “And in your believe that not only they, but I,
have witch magick confounds you?”

“Well, yes, but only because this situation is unique. But
we’ll figure it out.”

“But you had your suspicions?” Anais probed. 

“We noticed that you were all different. We are trained to
identify vampires so that we can be on guard in case we need to protect
ourselves. We sensed the vampire in you but there was something different that
we couldn’t detect. We considered that it was perhaps linked to Miss Suzette
with her voodoo magick and that you all could be slightly altered by her
integration into your household. You do eat her food, live with her and from
the voodoo charms we’ve sensed around the property, you accept her craft.”

“I’m impressed by your deductive skills, Conall. We’ve lived
amongst many creatures, human and other, over the decades that had no idea what
secrets we held.” Anais commented. She was also chagrined that they’d picked up
so much even with all the precautions she’d taken. 

“Now we know that there is witch magick in your sisters, we
need to explore the magick in you to seek answers to what is troubling you.
With the permission of your sisters, I’ve asked for assistance from my sisters
who’ve agreed to make the trip here from our home in Ireland. They’re very
powerful witches and have added to our Goddess-given knowledge through
dedicated and continuous study of our magick. If anyone can help then it is
them.”

Anais’ lips twisted wryly in grudged appreciation – she
still didn’t know how she felt about them knowing their secrets. “What does
your knowledge of us mean for your alliance with Yves?”

“It’s quite ironic. You are the alliance. You and your
sisters are physical manifestations of the alliance – proof that witch and
vampire can get along and co-exist. Because of your witch half and because I am
Prince of Witches, I’m at least half responsible for all of you. So, to answer
your unasked question… No, I won’t divulge your secret to Yves. We’ve already
made an agreement to keep each other informed of the situation with Yves and
the alliance so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that I don’t trust him.
Divulging your secrets wouldn’t benefit you or I.”

Conall got up from the bed and moved towards the door. He
noticed that Anais’ curiosity was over-riding her apprehension - he could all
but see her mental synapses working furiously as they formed new speculations –
and it wasn’t going to heal her any quicker.

Time for her to rest, he mentally agreed with Sophie and
stated, “That’s enough of the vampire witch alliance and theories on your witch
abilities for now. We have a more urgent need to get you to full strength so
that you can explore your magickal ability. As I said, my sisters will be arriving
shortly. They’re being inconspicuous, so they’re teleporting in to a location
close-by. Sylvain and I will go and meet them and bring them here. Rose has
kindly offered to prepare rooms for them.”

He smiled grimly, and even in his tired state and her
weakened one, it did things to her insides. “Speaking of sisters, yours are
anxious to see you. Sophie also needs to give you more blood so you can build
your strength. When my sisters arrive, you’ll need it.”

His expression was serious and made Anais wary, “Anais, my
sisters will be able to help but the work will be yours to do. It will be one
of the hardest things you’ll need to do in your lifetime. Don’t underestimate
the strength you’ll need to do this.”