Page 3 of Her Blood Revenge

The spell Leo cast around our perimeter makes it so that no witch except those invited by the three of us can enter this land. Not without a gale-force wind striking them away so hard, the force of it collapses their lungs, and they suffocate to death.

‘And we can’t just stay hidden away like this,’ Dorian continues. ‘Neve is out there doing fuck knows what, along with that sadistic little fucker Cole who we owe a hell of a lot of pain. And we’re just sat here babysitting a thoroughly pissed off witch who refuses to even speak to us, let alone allow us to feed from her. We need blood if we’re to stand a chance. We can’t go on like this. It’s making usweak.’

I agree with what he’s saying. I know we need her blood and that we can’t continue to wait around for our enemies to come for us as she works through her anger.

But the need to gain her forgiveness and to have her back outweighs any logic or reason. We could take her blood. We need it. But she will only add that to the list of reasons why she tells herself to hate us.

‘Two days,’ I decide, speaking it aloud so I will be held to my word.

‘Two days?’ he repeats.

‘Two days to let us feed from her willingly, and to say something to us. Anything. A simple “Fuck off” will do.’

‘And if she doesn’t?’

‘We broke her once,’ I shrug. ‘We can do it again. Remind her that we can play nice and she can be happy. Or we can play dirty, and she can be miserable. See which version of us she prefers.’

She suddenly yelps in victory and throws her hands in the air with a laugh. Looking over, I fill with pride.

She’s created a structure in the dirt, and I just burst out laughing at the giant hand with a middle finger sticking up in our direction.

‘All that… to flip us the bird?’ Dorian mutters. ‘Does that count as communication?’

She walks towards us with the sweetest and most satisfied little grin and barges between the two of us. Her wrist flicks and a tree branch slaps us both around the face, drawing blood with its vicious snap.

‘Yeah,’ I groan, wiping away the bead of blood. ‘I think there’s definite communicationgoing on.’

Shoulder to shoulder, we watch her return to the castle. She leaves us in the devastation she’s created. The ground is churned up. The trees are obliterated.

But there, in the centre, is her pristine sculpture, four times the size of us.

A giant fuck you.

Strange that I’m proud of her.

I’d rather bend her over and make her scream for me. But for now, this will do.

Chapter two

The Wolf

My arse. Shitting hell, my fucking arse.

Next time, one of them can ride a damned horse for six hours each way to interrogate an old hag that smells of piss and mould.

And I will stay here in the nice castle to play house with Pix.

What a waste of time.

If I’d shifted and travelled as a wolf, I would have been back hours ago. But no. We’re not feeding from Pix to respect her“boundaries”.Or whatever. So, I’m stuck in this useless human form so I can save up the small amount of blood I do have in my system, just in case of an emergency.

I pick at my teeth. That witch’s skin was so old and leathery, she’s really sticking in there. Powerful blood, though. She was a strong healer. Even as I fed from her, she kept healing herself, so I had to keep tearing at that wrinkled old throat of hers.

Took hours.

I couldn’t let her live. Not with Neve back and knowing what I was asking.

As soon as I walk into the entrance hall, I hear Pix. The moon is high, and the night always brings this same vile sound. Part of me wants to turn around and leave, but another part of me, a much bigger part, wants togo to her and make sure she’s okay.

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