Page 65 of Twice Bitten

Heather rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we’re experienced in kidnapping blood-soaked, half-dead women in alleys.”

“The vampire who initially attacked me is still out there,” I interrupted. “How can I keep myself safe from him if he can track me by scent and if I’ve ingested his blood?”

Macy sat a little straighter. “You drank his blood?”

“Not on purpose. He forced me to.”

Heather winced. “That’s deeper magic than any of us can summon. We’ll have to call the coven and put our heads together to see if there’s a way to prevent you from answering his call.”

“He hasn’t called me at all. I haven’t seen him since the attack.” What I didn’t say was I knew the Prime’s blood wasinside me as well, and he could definitely call me. But Alric had been suspiciously silent too.

Too much to hope he was dead in a coffin somewhere. Asshole.

“He’ll wait for the worst time,” Tiegan said. She shook her head. “You should not be experiencing any of these effects. There must be something in your genes that makes you susceptible to transformation.”

“Has to be her father,” Macy said. “Her mom was a hundred percent witch from what I could tell.”

“How would you know?” I snapped.

Heather spoke. “When someone requests to join a coven, we test their blood to ensure we only allow full-blooded witches to participate in our spells.”

At my look, she held up a hand. “It’s not what you’re thinking. We do it to ensure our spells won’t go awry. Mixed blood can cause interesting effects in magic, many of them negative. Your mother’s blood was mixed, but she was only a witch. Those are common. Not every green witch falls in love with another green witch. Fae mixed with witch blood is more common than you’d think and that combo can lead to weird results. Hence why we test beforehand.” Her lips twisted. “Unfortunately, we do not know your father’s genetic makeup, and your mother was tight-lipped about his origins.”

I resisted the urge to slump. Another dead end concerning my father. Was thereanyonewho knew what he was or where he’d gone?

“How would I get my blood tested?” I’d assumed my father was a witch, but everything they said made sense. How else would I be able to perform high magic? A normal witch might know the steps in the ritual, but they’d never be able to pull the spell off. Mom had only walked me through the cord-cutting ritual. She’d never stepped into the circle with me. Thinkingback, there were many moments where Mom had walked me through certain spells but never entered my circle.

Certain types of witches could use high magic, but Mom would have said something instead of being surprised by my abilities, wouldn’t she? She mentioned maybe having a drop of elemental blood helped me channel the power needed for that type of magic, but never brought it up again. Had she not known what my father was until later? Or had she known all along and kept it quiet?

“We could do it,” Tiegan said quietly.

Mom had split from their coven. She’d stopped trusting them somewhere along the way—or had something else, possibly someone, forced her hand to leave?

A thought occurred to me. “Have you already done so?” Fear unfurled in my stomach. Did they know what I was and were dangling it like a carrot?

Heather looked horrified. “No.Never. Think of us what you may, but your clothing was destroyed the moment we finished caring for your wounds.”

Macy and Tiegan both nodded. “We would never violate a witch’s privacy in such a way.”

Their words settled my nerves somewhat, but I’d be a fool to take everything I heard at face value. “Thank you for the offer, but I’d like to handle this myself.”

“There is more than one ritual,” Tiegan said hesitantly. “But the second is not witch magic. Our spell requires an entire coven to cast. A solo witch cannot delve into a witch’s power so intimately, nor should they. The other requires the use of high magic.”

I tried not to let the excitement show on my face. Mom had only taught me one ritual and that one was a relatively simple spell taught to the youngest of practitioners. Even if I had a copy of the ritual, I might not have the juice to see it through.

“Do you know how I could find a copy of the ritual?”

Macy’s lips thinned. “You got an angel in your pocket?” Derision rode her voice. “There’s no way to perform that ritual without an angel or a demon, or an elemental witch. None are going to come riding to your rescue, that’s for sure.”

I blinked. “A demon?”

Tiegan gave Macy a warning look. “Some say demons and angels are the same.”

Heather scoffed. “Hardly.”

“Legend says they descend from the same source,” Tiegan said slowly, “but demons are vilified.”

“They sure are,” Macy snapped.