Page 66 of Wicked Bite
“Booyah, bitch! We going to see the vampires with the fangy fangs.”
“Ophelia.” This could go horribly wrong at any second.
She held two fingers up. “I will not stab anything. Scout’s honor.” She looked at her fingers. “This is how you do it?”
“How am I supposed to know?” I turned away from her and headed toward the mirror. I pressed my fingers to the surface and then looked at her over my shoulder. “Come along then.”
I pressed my way through the mirror, and it melted over my skin. I was beyond keeping my abilities a secret anymore. Piper needed a solution now, and I didn’t have time to waste. I stepped into the hallway and waited for them. Cross came through first and glanced around.
“This is nothing like a magical portal.”
He wasn’t wrong. Most magical portals created by witches or warlocks were just a pure magic that you would float through. Mirror travel was a form of blood magic, but it also spoke of how different our species were. Each time I went through, I stepped into the same long hallway. It was white, sterile, and freezing. Ophelia came through next. She shook her head and brushed her arms down her dress.
“That was slimy.” She wasn’t wrong. It didn’t stay sticky, but in the middle of the thing it felt bloody disgusting sometimes. “I’ll pass next time.”
My uncle was going to kill me. There was also a chance he wouldn’t be surprised at all. Either way, I was screwed. Like, up shit’s creek kind of screwed, but I might as well keep paddling. Piper was relying on me, and this time I wouldn’t let her down. “When we get through, don’t touch anything, got it?”
Ophelia wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “I’ll try.”
When we reached the end of the hall, I paused. “Don’t try. Do.”
I pressed my hand to the mirror and walked through into the lab. Cross jumped in behind me, then held his hand out for Ophelia. When she stepped next to me, her eyes went wide. “Are you serious?”
“What did you expect? Coffins lying about and blood dripping down the walls?”
“Well, yeah. I thought it’d be all cool and creepy. But this . . .” she looked at all the advanced technology, “. . . is so much better.”
I strolled out of the room and began making my way toward Piper. Ophelia sauntered beside me, and the technicians and doctors all froze at the sight of them. It wasn’t every day that a vampire saw a Queen Witch, and it wasn’t every day that they felt the kind of power that rolled off them. When I’d first gotten to Evermore, it took getting used to, but these were two of the most powerful of their kind. To a vampire who’d never felt it before, it would be both intoxicating and suffocating.
Ophelia turned to the room. “You got a problem?”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her along with me. “They’ve never seen a witch before.”
“So? Doesn’t mean they stare.” She raised her voice. “It’s rude.”
“As you were.” I waved for them to go back to work.
When they fluttered into action, Ophelia gave me the side-eye. “Exactly how powerful are you among the vampires?”
“Enough.” As I dragged her past the holding tanks, her mouth dropped open and she stopped. She froze in front of the vampire who stood in the corner talking to himself. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s older and is lost to the madness of the ages. It happens on rare occasion when an older vampire loses track of what age they’re in and the times all blend together.”
“Will he be okay?” She sounded genuinely concerned for him.
“Eventually.” I kept us moving past the girl playing with her own blood.
“But wait, she looks like we could be friends. You know I love to make friends.”
I didn’t even acknowledge that one. Only Ophelia would want to be friends with a crazed vampire addicted to their own blood. When we got to the man strapped to the bed with the red and black particles swirling around him, she planted her feet and yanked her wrist from my hand. She stepped in close to the glass and peeked up at Cross. “Do you feel that?”
He moved in closer and whispered. “Oh yeah. I feel it.”
“What? What do you feel?” When I looked at him and let my senses take over, I felt only chaos and nothing. “It’s only chaos.”
“Pure chaos.” She placed her hand on the glass.
He threw his head back and thrashed on the bed as the mist swirled around him even faster. It shot into his skin, then ripped back out again, forcing new wounds to appear all over his body. Drops of blood fell to the ground under his gurney and he wailed in agony. Black grains seeped up from those drops and flew right back into him. Alarms blared to life in his room, and the staff began to rush forward.
