Page 36 of A Vampire Bewitched
Chapter 20
“Did I leave out that part?” Nik asked as Emma’s mouth fell open. He chewed the inside of his cheek. He could’ve sworn he’d told her.
“She told you this? When? Did she say anything about my sister?”
“No. She just told us she has Luukas.”
“She didn’t mention anything at all about Keira?” A note of desperation flavored her voice.
He shook his head.
“Then tell me again why you think Keira is even with her,” she said indignantly.
Sitting forward to rest his elbows on his knees, he admitted, “Actually, as I told you before, we don’t know for sure…”
Emma sat up straight in her seat and folded her arms over her chest
“Don’t go all ballistic on me. A few months after she claimed to have Luuk, one of the guys heard about your sister going missing. We knew of your family heritage already, and we put two and two together.”
“That still doesn’t explain to me why you think she’s there,” she insisted.
“Like I told you, we think she’s there because the only way Leeha would be able to hold Luuk anywhere he didn’t want to be, is by having some way of keeping him weakened enough he couldn’t escape. There are only two ways of doing that. She can starve him, obviously, but that takes time. Older vampires only need to feed a few times a month, so how would she hold him there long enough to get him so malnourished his power would be weakened to the point where he couldn’t escape?”
“I know, I know.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “A witch.”
“Exactly. A witch. Having a powerful witch on her side would give Leeha the upper hand. There are spells that can weaken even a Master Vampire like my brother. And your sister, is the only witch we know of who can’t be accounted for during the past seven years.
“I just can’t believe my sister would have kept a secret like that from me,” Emma muttered, “Or that she would ever do something like this. She’d never purposely hurt anyone. She just wouldn’t.”
The hurt he could hear in her voice tugged at his insides. “I’m sure she had a very good reason for doing it.”
“Yeah, I guess.” After a breath, she asked, “How did you know about my family? Is there some kind of supernatural online community I don’t know about or something?”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah! Allsupes.com - Meet other supernatural beings in your area! Vamps! Find your favorite blood type in our human donor database! Wolves! Looking for that perfect bitch? Just answer our questionnaire…”
Emma squinted at him in annoyance as he threw his head back and laughed. “I’m so glad you can amuse yourself at my expense. Wait, did you say ‘wolves’?”
He nodded as he wiped at his eyes and tried to get it together. “Yeah, wolves. Like werewolves, you know?”
“There are werewolves?” Emma’s face was so shocked, Nik started laughing all over again.
“Nikulas! Would youpleasestop!” Emma had to shout to be heard over all the noise.
“Sorry. I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes again, fighting to control himself. “Okay. Sorry. Um…no, there isn’t a website. At least not that I’m aware of. And yes, there are werewolves. You may meet some of them in Seattle. They like the colder climates. They run kind of hot. I’m surprised you’ve never run into any living out in the country where you do.”
“I don’t get out very much,” she said.
Sitting back in her seat, she looked bewildered as she tried to absorb the fact that everything she’d thought she’d known about the world was false.
“Vampires, and witches, and wolves. Are faeries real too? Magical elves? Dragons?” She waved away his answer with a muttered, “I really don’t want to know.” After a moment, she turned her head to look at him. “So, my family? How did you know about us?”
“I’ve never met your mom or sister, but vampires and witches have worked together throughout the years for the ‘greater good’, so to speak. And the Moss family has always played a prominent role in that association with us, up until recently.” He smiled at her. “You witches agree to help us, and we agree not to feed on you. Unless it’s by mutual consent, of course.”
Ignoring that last comment, she asked, “Helped you how?”
“Witches from the family in our area have helped us control the Legion. And before that, there were different reasons. Vampires are notoriously territorial, so fights spring up all the time between each other or between us and another species. As witches are the only ones who can really hurt us, it was in our best interest to form an alliance with them right from the start.”
“So what you’re admitting to me, is that I’m the only one on this plane who could hurt you?”
