Page 63 of Blood and Hexes

Chloe ignored them all. All she could see was Ruby. Ruby, her dirty gray-white dress stained red, and open in two across her midriff. She’d been slashed, and someone had carved out her insides. She was dead. Long past dead. The smell of her corpse was making Chloe feel sick.

Almost as sick as the sight of Greer at their enemy’s mercy.

Chloe walked into the hall, her eyes purposely fixed on Aveka Primerius. Not on Greer, lying on the floor, passed out. And certainly not on Ruby. What was left of Ruby.

Aveka’s hands were stained red up to the elbows. She must have mutilated Ruby herself, rather than letting her minions do the dirty work.

She must have liked it.

She couldn’t see how, outmanned and outnumbered, but Chloe was going to destroy her, if it was the last thing she did.

“Don’t look at me like that. I take no pleasure in digging around a corpse, trust me,” Aveka said pleasantly. “It was necessary for the spell.”

Which spell? But Aveka wanted her to ask, so Chloe didn’t. “Did you have to make a mess on the floor?” she asked, blithely. “Think about the poor cleaning crew.”

Aveka chuckled like a delighted child. “You’re funny. I knew you’d be funny, Chloe. Why, otherwise, would you even think you can stand against me?”

Aveka was the picture of confidence and arrogance. And she was right to be. She had millions of followers ready to die for her.

“How do you do it?” Chloe asked. “How do you get so many idiots to follow you to the end?”

Aveka shrugged her delicate shoulders. She wore a sleeveless dress that would have befitted a fairy queen, right down to the bloodstains. At her right, one of the two ancients stood, bow at the ready, trained on Chloe. Though he was clearly a vampire—and a strong one at that—Chloe might have passed him in the street without realizing it. He was too plain, unremarkable. At first glance, she would have taken him for an average middle-aged banker.

“I give them what they want.” Aveka was smug as always. “A vision of a world where they stand where they belong. A world they’re ready to fight for and die for.”

That couldn’t be it. “Come on, spill. Is it a spell? You can’t very well whisper to that many people.” Chloe tilted her head. “Or are you sleeping with all of them? No judgement here. I’m just curious.”

Curious, and eager to anger her.

It didn’t work. Aveka was indifferent to any attempt at scorn. “Only the most useful ones. Like my friend, here. Vlad’s connection to the witches has been invaluable in tonight’s effort.”

So this was Vlad, Eirikr’s old friend.

“What do you want?” Chloe asked directly. “You’re obviously still up to something. I doubt your plan was just to take this dusty old place. What is this about?”

Aveka smirked. “I’m supposed to reveal all my plans to you now?”

She shrugged. “Why not? You’re about to have me killed, right? With the magic arrows that never miss.”

She pondered for a moment. “True. Well, child, what I want is to lead your race. Without rebellions, without protest. And the easiest way to achieve that is to kiss your kind’s free will away.”

Chloe lifted a brow. “You can do that?” Clearly, she believed it was in her abilities. She gestured to Vlad, and the three other sycophants. “And you’re all okay with becoming mindless drones?”

The young boy’s smile was downright nasty. “Aveka has no need to hex us. We’re her willing servants.”

Chloe huffed. The kid couldn’t seriously be dumb enough to think she wouldn’t enslave him all the same, right? Why rely on compliance when you could have unwavering loyalty and servitude? “Right. I’d totally trust her.”

“And we should trust you?” the second ancient, a white-haired woman next to the child, snarled. “We thrived during the Age of Blood. Finally, we were ruling the world, and drinking as much blood as we could stomach. Then, those fools on the hill call it off, and we’re supposed to return to feeding on scraps? Let humans mess up this planet more than they already have?” She shook her head. “The clans of Night Hill might have been the first, but you are weak. You’re too scared to take our race into the light.”

She truly seemed to believe that humans weren’t anything more than cattle she should get access to. “I pity you.”

Aveka’s laughter rang like a church bell, high-pitched and irksome. “Don’t waste your pity on anyone else, Chloe. Save it for yourself. See, there’s a reason why you were allowed to join me tonight. This is Samhain. I have Ariadne’s hair, the first of her kind. I have the liver of a true warrior, the blood of a pure witch, but there’s something else my spell requires.” Her teeth flashed. “The still-beating heart of my greatest enemy.”

---