Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (9 page)

‘
Well, I think there’s your answer
Daniel,’ Sebastian said.

‘
Don’t you tell me what my answer
is! You should be on my side and you should be more interested in
her being a part of our clan,’ Daniel stormed, as he leapt from the
chair and stood facing us both, fire raging in his eyes.

It was a strange feeling, because
I had grown used to the bond between us. I was used to feeling his
anger and hurt when I rejected him, just as I had felt his heart
leap when I finally accepted him, but now I felt nothing. I could
see the anger and hurt, plainly written on his face, yet I had
only
my
emotions in my head
and I felt free.

‘
Daniel you are hungry, and I can
only hope that it is the reason for this highly irregular
behaviour…’ Sebastian said, before I interrupted him.

‘
He only fed a few hours ago. He
was out when the ceremony was taking place.’

‘
Yes, but Jess, we are not all
like you. You may only need a minimum amount of nourishment, but
from the looks of it you nearly drained Daniel earlier and it will
take more than one meal to satisfy his needs,’ Sebastian
answered.

‘
It’s not her fault. I let her
feed a little longer than I should, but that is not the reason I…’
Daniel said, pausing as Eva walked in the room.

‘
Sebastian, I think it may be best
if I take Daniel out again, if you agree of course?’ she
said.

‘
Of course. You go, Daniel. Eva
will talk to you, but you need to understand the situation we are
in. I know this is not what you planned when you turned Jess, and
you are one of the youngest, yet it seems we have to accept certain
changes…for the time being at least,’ he said with a small
smile.

Once they had gone, Sebastian turned his
eyes back to me and said nothing, staring, so I felt like I was
suddenly falling down a black, bottomless wormhole in space, and
this time Daniel would never hear my thoughts…or even my
screams.

‘
You’re making me nervous,’ I
stated, breaking the silence.

‘
I hoped as much. It is always
imperative to have the upper hand when dealing with a witch, even a
young witch,’ he said with a smile. ‘And you certainly look like a
witch to me.’

‘
I’ve still got fangs,’ I replied,
with a half-smile.

‘
So I hear, but I have yet to see
them for myself. Your eyes are dazzling green, your skin is
flushed, pink…’

‘
That’s because of feeding from
Daniel earlier,’ I said, hoping to distract his strange, hollow
gaze.

‘
Maybe, but your scent has changed
too; the witch in you is much stronger now. It reminds me of…ahh
never mind. Let us move on,’ he said, abruptly giving his head a
very slight shake, and relaxing his shoulders.

Who was the other witch he had known,
years earlier? The same witch who had given him his powerful,
protective charm. The same charm that had destroyed his head
henchman, only a couple of weeks earlier when he was caught trying
to rape me and overthrow Sebastian’s position. Did my scent now
remind him of her?

I shouldn’t have paused, as his eyes
were once again glued to me, drawing me deep into their inky
depths.

‘
Sebastian, I am still a vampire.
I’m just a witch too, and that’s what you wanted, wasn’t
it?’

‘
Hmm,’ he sighed. ‘Your scent - I
can’t seem to get over it. Do you remember the first time Daniel
brought you to me? Do you remember how
useful
, and how pleasant my little experiment
was?’ he said.

Oh no! I wasn’t liking the sound of
this. I remembered only too well how he had insisted on tasting my
blood when he first took me into his clan. How Eva had said he had
the singular talent of gauging someone’s motives and personality
through their blood. How his fangs felt as they pierced my flesh,
and how hot certain parts of me had become during the brief second
he drank from me. And how Daniel had read my mind and jealously
stormed off down the corridor.

Oh Daniel!
But Daniel wouldn’t know what was going on this time, and yet
this time it would feel wrong. It had taken a long time for me to
accept that Luke was no longer a part of my life, and gradually my
feelings for Daniel had grown. We may have gone further this time
than the others, but this had not been a one-off. I did care about
Daniel, I was sure of it, even without our bond, and even if
he
was
acting like a
possessive idiot! I didn’t want to go messing it up, by getting hot
with Sebastian.

It seemed that I had spent too long in
my head, because suddenly I jolted back into the present to find
Sebastian leaning in close, his eyes shining brightly, his fangs
protruding and heading towards my neck.

Chapter Eight

‘
Sebastian!
Getthehelloffme…Gerroff…ugh!’ My words came out as a jumble, as his
full weight pinned me down and compressed my chest.

He pulled back a little, and I sucked
air back into my lungs and glared at him.

‘
Come on sweet Jessie, my little
witch. You know it won’t hurt and it’s the best option all round. I
get to trust you, and we’ll both know just how much vampire is left
in there.’

‘
It’s not that, and you know it.
Daniel will freak when he finds out, and this is hard enough for
him anyway,’ I said.

‘
Hmm. He let out almost a groan,
as he once again pushed against me. Why had I chosen to sit on the
only two seater sofa, and not the chair?

‘
Well, as I’m his master, I’ll
just have to force you, then you won’t be held accountable,’ he
said, and in one swift movement, quicker than a human could blink,
his hands gripped my head, both cradling and forcing it to the
side, exposing the thick artery running down my neck.

As his fangs pierced my skin, goosebumps
shivered up and down my spine and I heard myself let out a low moan
of desire. Damn! He heard it and was spurred on, pulling me
underneath him on the sofa, pinning me below his body as he too
groaned and dug his hand into my hair, crushing his mouth into my
neck.

The first time I’d met Sebastian he had
tasted me and turned me on simultaneously, which vexed Daniel as
much as it mortified me. But this time he set my body on fire. His
cool, hard skin felt delicious pressed against me and as he drank,
he ground against me. Everything seemed to happen so suddenly, and
it was only minutes before I realised he wasn’t going to stop, or
wasn’t able to stop. This was not the same Sebastian who had once
politely pulled away, leaving me panting, after only the briefest
bite. Something had changed the status quo – I was now a
fully-fledged witch, and he was addicted to my taste. Hadn’t he
mentioned a witch who was a ‘very good friend’, a powerful witch,
he spoke about with obvious affection…a witch who was now dead?

The heat coursing round my body stilled
and I felt cold. How much had he taken already? I pushed against
him, but it was like having a thousand year old lump of granite
pinning me down. I couldn’t budge, and every movement I made seemed
to spur him on. Shit! I needed magic. I tried to focus, as the book
had taught me. I needed to work fast because the very energy I
needed was being literally sucked out of me. I drew it to me, and
closing my eyes, focused on connecting to another energy source. I
tried the taproot meditation, imagined myself connecting to the
earth and drawing up her energy, taking it into my body, and
letting it flow up my spine and along my arms.

As the extra energy entered my body, he
obviously noticed the difference because he let out another, louder
moan and his fangs penetrated even deeper.

‘
GET OFF ME! GET OFF!’ I shouted,
concentrating all the energy into my hands, and not really worrying
about the consequences, I imagined it firing from my palms,
catapulting him across the room, sending him as far away from me as
possible.

It worked. In one swift movement his
body was whipped from mine and flung across the room, electrified
by an invisible current, where it slammed with an almighty crack
into the far wall. A human would be dead, but of course Sebastian
was a thousand year old vampire and not quite as easy to kill.

Seconds after the impact, the door burst
open revealing Troy and Isabelle, two of his bodyguards, who took
one glance at him and then launched themselves at me. I really
needed to take the time to learn a protection spell, and I
certainly didn’t have the time to conjure a circle, in fact by the
time I’d finished thinking about it, they were on me.

‘
YOU TWO, OUT! NOW!’ Sebastian was
on his feet, and with his command forcing them to retreat, they
dropped me, confusion dancing across their faces, as they backed up
and left the room.

It seemed I was the only one left round
here with any free will, and I wondered why he allowed it. I still
expected retribution. A very pissed off Sebastian stared at me from
across the room. Had I pushed him too far this time? Hell no! He
was about to drain me, and what about the other witch?

‘
You drained her didn’t you? You
killed her,’ I said, wondering if I was in my right mind. ‘You
would have drained
me
, if I
hadn’t done something,’ I added.

My words seemed to have a strange effect
on him. His anger dissipated, and crumpled. I didn’t quite believe
it could be true, from the mighty Sebastian, but was that a single
dark tear, hanging on the edge of his eyelid? He turned his back on
me, walked swiftly back to his desk and sank down. He looked at me
briefly, nodded and stared towards a small high window.

‘
Her name was Alba, she was only
fifteen when I smuggled her out of Italy, in 1647. She was to be
tried for heresy and sorcery. Her mother had already been beheaded
and burned at the stake a week before.’

‘
Oh God! I… but she was only
fifteen, you say?’ I asked.

‘
Do not begin to judge me,
Jessica. You are only two years older than her, and as it happens I
was in love with her mother. It was Caterina who cast the spell
which protects me still, knowing she was going to die, and to help
me get Alba out of the country.’

‘
Oh!’ I said. ‘But I thought you
killed her? I thought that was what was going on here?’

‘
I did. Not Caterina. I killed
Alba. You are right of course. I drained her, and she died later in
my arms.’

‘
But how? I don’t understand. If
you loved her mother…you wouldn’t have done that. Why would you
have done that?’ I was rambling now, afraid of the answer, yet also
sure I needed to hear it. Sebastian was scary as hell, sure, but
he’d always been fair to me. He was not the monster I was picturing
in my mind.

‘
We made it out of Italy, all the
way to France, but in the sixteen hundreds the Inquisition was all
over Europe. It was the opposite of today -
everybody
readily believed in demons, vampires
and witches. We were ambushed just outside Paris, not by witch
hunters this time, but vampire hunters. They knew what I was, but
the first we knew of it was my head being half-severed from my
body. Luckily for me they had a blunt axe, and I had the shield.
Jessica, you look very pale, can I get you something?’

‘
No, I’m fine. I’m sure Daniel
will be back soon. What happened then?’

‘
The shield fried two of them, and
the others ran away. They could see I wouldn’t last the night,’ he
shrugged, his face etched with memories. I said nothing, and
waited.

‘
I told her to run, to leave me
and go back to the city, but she refused. She stayed with me for
the hours it took for my neck to heal, by which time I had no blood
left and no energy to even rise to my feet. Again I told her to
leave me, as dawn was fast approaching, and with it a new army of
hunters would arrive to finish the job.’

‘
But she didn’t go did she? She
let you feed from her instead?’ I asked, knowing the answer to be
true. He nodded.

‘
She lay in my blood, next to me
and told me to drink. I was weak. I had no control. I told myself I
would take just enough for me to get us both to safety, but she
tasted so pure, so sweet. I could not stop. I failed Caterina, I
murdered her daughter, and I fled France and came to
England.’

‘
But if you were in love with her
mother, presumably you had tasted her? Then why were you not able
to stop with me? I am not pure, not like Alba would have been,’ I
said.

‘
You
are
special Jessica, maybe not in the same way
that Alba was, and yes I was used to the taste of Caterina, but I
have not tasted witchblood for five hundred years. Yes I had a
taste when you were first brought here by Daniel, but his blood was
strong in you then, and I purposely only took the tiniest bite.
Your blood was merely laced with witch-blood…now you are an
initiated witch, and any vampire who comes across you will want a
taste.’

‘
Fantastic! But what about the
rest? Could you still detect vampire blood?’ I asked.

‘
Yes, the blood bond maybe broken,
but I could still taste Daniel’s blood within yours. You are a
vampire Jessica, but we will have to wait to find out which one is
stronger. In the meantime, thank you for stopping me. It would have
been most unfortunate to lose your exuberant will from our clan,
but I think we will tell Troy and Isabelle you were practising
defence magic, yes?’ he said.