Vampires & Vinca (Hawthorn Witches Book 4) (9 page)

Chapter 10

I made my mistletoe tea and drank it while I waited. By the time Vince knocked on my door, I had stomach cramps so bad that I was hardly able to drag myself to the door to let him in.

I ran to the bathroom to vomit.

“Annie?” he called from the other side of the bathroom door. “Are you okay?”

“No!” I bellowed.

He sounded alarmed. “Is there someone I should call? Where’s Charlie?”

I shook my head, fully aware that he couldn’t see me, but unable to answer otherwise. I continued to empty my stomach until the cramps began to wane and Vince started to mess with the door handle. I heard him try to shoulder it in once, and I flushed and crawled over to let him in.

My head was spinning as I sat back against the sink vanity and stared up at him.

“Charlie poisoned me,” I said, grabbing my towel from the bar on the wall and wiping my sweaty face. “He’s off with Kendra somewhere, and we’ll be exchanging words when he gets back.”

“Poisoned you?” Vince said with wide eyes.

I explained about the mistletoe, and then went back to the toilet for a second round of nausea. When I was done, I was shaking, and Vince helped me stand to brush my teeth and change into pajamas. He took me to the couch and let me lie back on him as I watched television. He started to frantically research mistletoe poisoning on his phone while I told him to stop. I was sure that if it was dire enough, Charlie would show up.

“Did you eat any of the berries?” he asked, staring at his screen.

“No,” I said. “Leaves only, in tea.”

“Never again.”

“Look, I can’t blame you for what happened,” I said. “I’m upset about it, but I know it wasn’t your fault. I want to be with you, and this is the way to make it work.”

“If you’re going to throw up every time I see you, and the internet seems to think that’s the case, then we’re breaking up. Mistletoe tea has been known to kill people. Are you sure Charlie doesn’t have it out for you?”

“Vince,” I turned around to look at him. “I trust him with my life. He wouldn’t do that.”

“He’s giving you poison so that you can keep risking your life with a werewolf,” he said bitterly. “Doesn’t sound like a positive influence to me. If this is the way it has to be, then I think we should end it.”

“No!” I scowled. “Fine. No tea. I’ll get Charlie to give me a tattoo somewhere discreet.”

He scoffed. “You picked poison over a tattoo?”

“I picked privacy over constant judgment,” I said.

He was slowly shaking his head and frowning.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “You said you needed to talk. What about?”

I was too fired up to stop the fight there. “Were you doing something with Blake when I called?”

“No.”

“Because it sounded like you were.”

He sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk.”

And we didn’t. We laid there on the couch, watching television and stewing, until I finally broke and told him about my mom and Draven, and how I was probably going to be dead before the year was out. He didn’t say anything, but he stroked my hair while I cried.

When the sun started to set a few hours later, I moved just a little and Vince startled. He had been sleeping.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

Vince looked around, confused. “I can get sandwiches if you want.”

We got up from the couch, and I made my way to the kitchen for a glass of water as he started to put on his coat.

“Were you actually doing something with Blake when I called?” I asked again. I didn’t want to fight again, but his non-answer from earlier still bothered me.

He looked at me frankly. “No. We were talking. That’s all.”

I nodded, looking down. I didn’t know why I let my paranoia get the better of me. Things in my life kept falling apart instead of getting better, and it was nice to have the reassurance.

Vince had just opened the door to leave when I heard him cuss. I looked up, and saw Lyssa walking in as Vince backed up. Lyssa looked from Vince to me, unsurprised.

She sighed. “You know, you really should just leave your door unlocked. Would have saved me the drive.”

“That door is staying locked,” I said, taking a drink of my water.

“I only came over because she was feeling sick and she wanted to talk,” Vince said quickly.

“Right. You’re totally busted,” Lyssa did a double take as she looked from Vince to me. “Annie, please tell me you’re not pregnant.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I said.

Lyssa didn’t look convinced.

“She drank some mistletoe tea,” Vince said gratingly.

“Oh,” Lyssa looked back at me. “Well, points for using protection. You know that stuff is poisonous, right?”

“I’m aware,” I said, failing to keep the agitation out of my voice. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah.” She gave me a look like it should have been obvious. “I need you back at the greenhouse getting ready for vampires to try and kill us.”

I let my head fall so that I was staring at the counter top. For a moment, accepting fate seemed more attractive than all the trouble ahead.

“Right.” I walked over and kissed Vince before he left, and when he only tepidly returned the affection, I tried to tell myself that he was put off by Lyssa being there.

As I closed the door behind him, Lyssa set in on me.

“It’s a really bad idea to keep that going, Annie.”

I rolled my eyes, turning to face her. “So, I’m seeing a pretty extreme double standard here, and I would really like someone to explain. Kendra goes off for like, a decade, and she still hasn’t told us where she was. She decides to keep a secret that’s about to get us all killed, and hey, that’s just Kendra being Kendra. She decides to get in bed with a truly twisted warlock,
and
his demon, and we’re all willing to let bygones be bygones. All I’m asking for is a damn lock on my door for privacy and to continue a relationship with my high school crush, and that’s a problem? I’m following in the family footsteps.”

“Yeah, and if Kendra hasn’t given you this talk yet, following in her footsteps is exactly the last thing she wants for you,” Lyssa said. She crossed her arms, regarding me like I was a child asking why I couldn’t have cookies and ice cream for dinner. “She loves you, Annie. She loves us both, and she wants us to do better than she did. She is worried about the wolves.”

“She doesn’t even know me,” I waved her off, going to put on clothes suited to the greenhouse. “But whatever. I’m not quitting school. I’m not breaking up with Vince, and I’m not leaving my door unlocked. I need some moments in my life that aren’t tainted by weirdness and threats. End of story.”

I made a study date with Vince for that Wednesday, but he canceled it for some vague reason having to do with werewolves and their moods. Lyssa found it in her heart not to tell Kendra, but continued to give me looks which were probably supposed to be guilt-inducing. They only made me angry.

We were too busy trying to prepare ourselves for Draven’s arrival. I didn’t even make it to school, and I had to have Charlie forge notes for me to prove to professors that I was sick. Again.

I had done so well that semester that most of them were okay with me missing lectures as long as I emailed the assignments in on time, and that was fine with me. Tristan offered to drop off my assignments, which I gratefully accepted, and he brought me soup when he came. Dressed in my pajamas and with my hair uncombed when I answered the door, I felt bad pretending to be sick, especially when Tristan was going so far out of his way.

“Here they are,” he said, handing me a folder and a bag with some scientific instruments. “It’s supposed to be a guided exercise, but you’re a goody two-shoes. I think we can work on the honor system.”

He winked. I smiled. Then I faked a cough.

“Thanks,” I said. “For the soup, too.”

He shrugged. “I know it’s hard when you don’t have much family around. I had the flu last spring, and I nearly starved because I didn’t have anyone to call to go to the grocery store for me. Hang in there, Hawthorn, and give me a call if you need anything. I mean it—anything. It’s not a problem.”

I smiled and coughed again, and thanked him. When he reached out a hand to touch me on the shoulder before he left, it brightened my whole day to know I still had a few normal friendships in my life.

Kendra didn’t make it easy to get the work done, but Charlie took pity and gave me extra hours on the Other Side to do what I needed.

The sleep deprivation started again, and with it came more nightmares. The vinca grew in around the greenhouse at a supernatural pace, surrounding us like a mess of snakes, and I couldn’t put in to words why the stuff freaked me out so bad.

It was only a foot deep at the thickest parts, but when I looked at it, it felt like I was viewing a rolling ocean of tangles and secrets. A person could disappear beneath the surface of that stuff and never be seen again.

It worried me, and unable to shake the feeling, I was forced to ask Kendra if I had taken after the wrong side of the family.

She laughed me off. “Even if you had, you haven’t been initiated. An uninitiated necromancer is a common witch, Annie. Stop freaking yourself out and get more sleep.”

It didn’t help. Every time I saw the vinca spilling over the path edges and reaching to cover the stepping stone paths, it looked menacing. The feel of the little tendrils and leaves rubbing my ankles and calves made me think it was about to grab me, and I stayed inside as much as I could. When the snow came that week and buried it, I was relieved beyond words, and I slept well for the first time in a week and a half.

The next day I performed my first spell on command. I made a healing salve out of thistles that made a cut on my finger heal in minutes instead of days. Kendra made a bigger deal out of it than it was probably worth, and Gates was already bringing plants and mice back from death’s door, but I was still thrilled. She told me to take a day off in celebration, and even under the condition that I wasn’t supposed to leave my apartment without asking, I was overjoyed.

I had Charlie supervise me while I made a satchel from ash, and he approved it. I had worked my second bit of magic, and as long as I kept the satchel on me, I should be protected from the werewolf affliction. Charlie warned me that I would need a new one every time it left my person, and that I should be aware that condition applied to losing it in a fight, too.

But I wasn’t worried about Vince attacking me.

I called him up, and despite being slammed with end-of-semester projects, he agreed to come and meet me that night. I was walking on air all day.

I ordered pizza to stay within the rules of my day off, and when Vince finally arrived, I practically jumped into his arms.

“That good of a day?” he asked, frowning.

It took me a moment to calculate the date and the lunar cycle, and I realized I had probably caught him at a bad time. But then, most times were bad for him. Lately, he always seemed sick or on edge.

“That good of a day.” I smiled and kissed him, hoping my optimism was contagious.

We ate, and talked about our classes, and he eventually started to warm to the conversation. At the end of the meal he showed me the movies he’d brought for us to watch. We picked a sci-fi from last year that neither of us had seen yet and settled on the couch.

But when I tried to kiss him again, he turned away.

“What are you doing?”

I was confused. “I’m trying to kiss my boyfriend. It’s been a while, and I thought you might like the opportunity.”

He sighed, looking down. Then he shook his head. “Not right now, Annie.”

“Is something wrong?” I didn’t like the way he wasn’t looking at me.

“Just… not right now. Why do you have to accuse me like that? I haven’t done anything.”

I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew the answer. He’d been slowly pulling away for weeks now.

“Is it Blake?” I asked.

Vince got up from the couch and started pacing. I had the ash satchel on a string around my neck with the sumac pendent that Charlie had made for me, and right then, I found them both clutched in the same hand.

“Vince?” I asked, quieter.

He stopped, taking a few more deep breaths, and looked back at me, squaring his shoulders.

“She doesn’t know we’re still together,” he said, clenching and unclenching his fists. “And she’s making it pretty hard to keep up the ruse, because she’s been laying it on thick since we broke up. I’m not tempted. But I think she knows we’re still together, and that’s a problem, Annie.”

“A problem?” I wanted to cry in relief. He wasn’t cheating on me.

“Adeline likes to talk about loyalty,” he said. “Loyalty to the pack, and how we look out for each other before anyone else. How I need to look out for her and Blake before you. She’s been asking me all of these questions about you, and it was kind of convenient when we had to fake break up, because she laid off a little. But with Blake walking around our place half-naked all the time and me not taking her up on the offer, they’re going to figure out I’m lying. And when they do, I don’t know what’s going to happen. It mocks everything they’ve done for me.”