Read Vampires & Vinca (Hawthorn Witches Book 4) Online
Authors: A.L. Tyler
Preview
Necromancers & Nettles: Hawthorn Witches Novella #5
Coming May 2016
Chapter 1
“You will turn her back! Now!”
Kendra swallowed her hesitation and stood her ground. Standing next to her, I still questioned why I was brought along to this meeting. Being in Draven’s labyrinthine city mansion again made me anxious, and the fact that he was angry only made me more determined to throw myself from the first window if things went badly.
I was sure we were at least three stories up. But still.
A month earlier, Draven had kidnapped me, and Kendra had been forced to trade her own hostage—Draven’s sister, Martha—for my return. She hadn’t told him that Martha had been permanently turned into a cat when they traded, though. When we were summoned back to the mansion, Kendra had shaken her head as she explained.
House Luthor had fallen on hard times in the few decades since Draven had taken control. His uncle had been a wise and quiet ruler of their fiefdom in the vampire world, but with his sudden death, everything had passed hands to Draven, who had immediately bungled the operation by trying to weasel the Hawthorn family grimoire from Kendra through an arranged marriage. It had ended with the loss of Alice, his favored elder sister, and a public humiliation that led to a series of slights from other Houses.
House Luthor lost status. And in Draven’s anger following the incident, he had lost respect, and then followers, and then fortune, and, finally, most of his family. They had all died fighting the vendettas Draven had sworn against the Houses that had turned against him, or else turned coat and pledged their allegiances elsewhere.
Because the rules of inheritance in the vampire Houses followed the female line, this left Draven in a predicament. While the males were chosen leaders first above their sisters, their children could not inherit the title, which was why Draven—the first son of his uncle’s eldest sister—had inherited upon his death. In turn, Draven needed a child of one of his two sisters to inherit after him.
With Alice dead and her two daughters adamantly turned against the vampiric arts, and Martha now a childless feline, he had none. On his death, which seemed likely at the pace Draven was picking fights, House Luthor would be dissolved. Whatever scraps remained would be claimed by the strongest challenger to enter the arena.
I watched him pace around the grand receiving room. It seemed he had recovered from whatever malady had stricken him before our last meeting, because the color had returned to his auburn hair, though his complexion remained pallid. He eyed me like a trapped animal spying an escape, though we both knew I wasn’t his salvation.
After all, I was Alice’s younger daughter. Lyssa was the eldest, and she already had one child and another on the way. He couldn’t name me or my offspring as his heirs without causing more war over veracity of the lineage of the House.
“Easy, Thorn,” Charlie whispered in my right ear. He had made himself invisible, though I didn’t know why. Kendra would have been a fool to come to this meeting with her magical dunce of a niece and without her demon, and everyone knew it. Draven had said as much when we first arrived. He knew Charlie was here. “He’s not going to kill you. Not when you still have things he wants.”
Charlie meant the grimoire and Gates. Her connection to the book my family had been guarding for generations was the reason that I was here today instead of her, despite the fact that she had become at least a hundred times better at working my aunt’s spells in much less time.
“I made some bad decisions as a young man,” Draven spat at Kendra. “I am trying to undo them. I am trying to save my House, Kendra, and
you
are categorically denying me the ability to do so! Martha was betrothed, and if you will not give her back, then I have one more broken promise to face, and I
need
Alyssum or her child!”
We still didn’t know how his spies had found out about Lyssa’s husband and daughter. It didn’t matter, really, because they still hadn’t located them.
“You made bad decisions as a young man,” Kendra nodded. “But one bad deal with a witch didn’t bring down this House, Draven. You’ve continued making bad decisions. You’ve continued hunting me, and you’ve threatened me, and now you threaten my family in the same breath you ask for my help. Even if I could convince a mother to part with her child, I’m not going to hand you one to watch it assassinated for all of your wrongdoings. A child will fix nothing for you, and sending Martha to drag the Hawthorn family back into this mess was only one more bad decision that demonstrates your ineptitude to lead this House. She got what she deserved, and I could not reverse her curse if I wanted to. I am sorry.”
She left out the part where Charlie could reverse it, because what he had done to Martha was a part of the spell that would eventually turn him from a demon to a human. But he would never reverse it; to do so would mean starting the spell over, and he had already been kicked back to start too many times.
“You do them a disservice,” he said gravely. “Children of House Luthor are meant for greatness, and yet you’ve allowed them to wallow in mediocrity. That one,” he nodded at me, “bears the scars of dabbling in the darkness, and you should be ever in my debt for my offer to heal her.”
Kendra cocked an eyebrow. “Your offer derives from your own desperation for family blood. If you had a third sister, you would have killed Martha already for having suffered such a curse. It taints the blood. That’s what you always said. The only reason Martha and Annie still have value to you is that you haven’t secured an heir from one of them yet. Once that happens, I fear you’ll be much less merciful when it comes to pruning the rot from your family tree. Annie would never accept your offer now that she knows the cost.”
“You’ve raised them with poor morals,” Draven nearly laughed. “That’s not my fault.”
“I didn’t raise them at all,” Kendra said with a touch of anger. “And that may be for the best, as I’ve made some bad decisions, myself. Alice raised them, and we both know how she felt about necromancers, let alone vampires. That’s the only reason she went along with your arranged marriage initially. It let her escape the human sacrifices. We all loved that in her, Draven, and especially you. Alice wouldn’t hurt a fly, and Annie would never let you kill a child in her name. Not even to be rid of the scars demonhood has left on her.”
I had spent most of my free time since leaving school studying the vampiric arts. I discovered very quickly what the cure Draven offered me required, and it still sickened me. He had offered to find a child and kill it, and have me drink its blood, and he had done so with all the care of offering me a cough drop. My disgust must have shown on my face.
Draven swore at her. He gave me one chilling glare, and then swept from the room. Kendra raised her eyebrows as she looked down at the floor.
This wasn’t over. Even in his diminished state, Draven still commanded a healthy following, and despite his temper, he was a gifted sorcerer. If his life and line were ending, he was going to try to take us down with him.
Kendra gave me a sidelong look, and then spoke into the emptiness.
“There’s nothing left for us to do here. Charlie, let’s go home.”
He snapped his fingers, and it was so. Kendra walked away down the hallway in the greenhouse, heading toward her bedroom, as she brought a hand to her forehead. I stared after her, feeling relief and apprehension as I wondered how long it would be until Draven approached us again. It could be days or months.
When one was immortal, matters lacked urgency.
“What happened?” Gates asked as she walked toward me, stripping off her elbow-length leather gardening gloves and pulling down the sleeves of her sweater. It was warmer inside the greenhouse than out, but it was still January.
“Nothing,” I said bleakly. “He’s still going to kill us.”
“But Kendra said he’s weak,” she insisted. “He’s lost his money, and his followers…”
“If he’s poor, then I want to try it,” I said. “His butlers have butlers and he lives in Buckingham freaking Palace. I thinks she means he’s down and out,
for a vampire prince
. And trust me, neither side is going to compromise this one down. He’s asking way too much. He wants Martha turned back, or else he wants Lyssa to give him Rosie. And you and the book. And Kendra’s pretty sure he’ll still try to kill the rest of us once one of those demands is met.”
“Oh,” Gates’ mood deflated. She chucked her gloves on the workbench and adjusted her long ponytail behind her shoulder. “Did you figure out how he knows about me and the book or Lyssa’s family?”
“No,” I shook my head. It was the most troubling aspect of the whole ordeal.
It was like he had spies in the walls, and with Kendra continually suspicious that I had somehow been the leak, I had shut off communications with anyone I didn’t already know. I didn’t even talk to Vince anymore, though he still sent me the occasional email asking to get together. I couldn’t. Not with all the threats we had from Draven and the interest the werewolves had in the grimoire, and not with Tristan still trying in his humorous way to coax a date out of me. He accepted my refusals in stride, but he kept writing me, and my heart still gave a little leap when I saw his emails in my inbox.
God, what I would have given for my only problem in life to be choosing between two boys.
We both went back to my apartment for lunch, using the magical gateway that Charlie had built between the work shed on the greenhouse grounds and my kitchen. Gates cracked a joke about how I needed to spend more hours learning magic and fewer taking lunch, or else I would eat us into an early grave. We both laughed.
A little.
That was when a knock came at my door, and I answered it without even checking the peephole. With a shock, I found myself face to face with Tristan.
“Annie,” he said, looking grim. “May I come in?”
“Tristan!” I nearly gasped, looking over my shoulder at Gates. He had been my secret, because I already had enough guilt over Vince, and my relief when I needed to feel normal. I hadn’t told anyone about him. “Now isn’t really a good time—”
In my panic, I tried to shut the door in his face, but his foot was faster. Drawing closer to me, he gave me a knowing nod.
“Draven sends his regards,” he said. “He killed Martha just after you left, and you really need to speak with me now.”
End of Preview: Preview
Necromancers & Nettles: Hawthorn Witches Novella #5
Coming May 2016
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I grew up in Broomfield, Colorado, reading and creating art. (But mostly reading.) I am a second generation trekkie, a fan of obscure anime and most science fiction and fantasy on television today, and I have dressed up to attend the conventions. I proudly have a time turner and a tribble sitting next to the VHS copies of Star Wars on my shelf at home--still seeking a sonic screwdriver to add to the mix.
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