Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (8 page)

He was right. That was what I’d felt
being ripped from me. My magical bond with Daniel, which I’d had
ever since he’d made me, had vanished. I felt a strange emptiness.
I looked across at him and wondered what that meant.

‘
I’m still me though, right?’ I
asked. ‘Franny, am I still a vampire?’

Franny finished chanting and the spell
broke. Immediately, Eva shot across the room and had her by the
neck, her body dangling from her hand, her toes scraping the
floor.

‘
What have you done, Witch?’ She
said.

A second later, a lightning bolt erupted
from Franny’s hands and Eva was flung across the room and smashed
into the wall with a resounding crack, which being Eva she merely
rubbed her head a little and slunk into a defensive crouch, ready
to charge again, her fangs at the ready, snarling back.

‘
Don’t be silly dear, the coven
wouldn’t send an undefended witch into the middle of a vampire’s
lair now, would we? I’m one of the most powerful witches in our
coven, so don’t mess with me. Regardless, I’ve done nothing
Sebastian did not want. You saw for yourself, all I did was
initiate Jess into our coven. As you said, none of us knew what
would happen…and Jess is fine, aren’t you dearie?’ Franny
asked.

‘
Umm yeah, I think so,’ I said,
feeling just a little strange, lighter and glad to be back on my
feet. I nodded over to Daniel, ‘I’m alright, really.’

But I had to get a look at my eyes, so I
walked past them all, over to my new dressing table mirror, which
had been replaced after the previous night’s drama. I bent down and
stared at myself. Whoa, seriously! I mean, all my life I had had
grey blue eyes to match my dirty blonde hair, then the morning I
woke from the vampire sleep my eyes went electric blue and my hair
blonder, shinier. However, over the course of a few weeks of
vampire diet, my eyes lost their colour and became the two dark
pools of chocolate, with the slight reddish tint that all vampires
have in common. I dyed my hair dark to match, and to complete my
disguise. I looked in the mirror now and saw that once again my
eyes had changed colour. As Daniel said, they were a beautiful
eerie green, almost phosphorescent. They matched both Franny’s and
Suzanne’s. I had the eyes of a witch.

‘
That maybe the case, but I don’t
think Sebastian intended for you to break her bond and turn her
into a fully-fledged witch. Is she even still one of us?’ Eva
said.

‘
I have no more idea than you
dear, as you are well aware. Jessie, how do you feel?’ Franny
asked.

‘
Umm, fine. It feels weird and
lighter without, you know, the bond thing,’ I said, with a quick
apologetic smile at Daniel, ‘but…’

‘
Jess, are you still one of us?
Have you still got fangs?’ Eva interrupted.

‘
I don’t know, like I said I don’t
feel much different…’

‘
Can you still smell her?’ Eva
said, nodding her head towards Franny.

‘
I think so, maybe a bit less,
but…’

‘
Oh, for goodness sake,’ Eva
sighed and seconds later was standing right up in my face, tilting
my head back and pulling up my lips.

‘
Ahhh, gerr off!’ I said,
wriggling out of her grasp.

But she hung on, her nails digging into
my cheek as she tried to see better into my mouth. I’d had
enough.

‘
Get
off
!’ I shouted, and with a surge of frustration
and anger I felt a new power well up inside me. The power flowed
like red hot lava through my veins, along my arms and out of my
fingers. My mouth opened in an ‘O’ shape, as I saw a similar white
light to Franny’s flow out and Eva was flung back across the room.
Simultaneously, my fangs erupted and adrenaline surged through my
body, making me crouch into an offensive position.

‘
I think there is your answer, but
I think it may have been wiser to find it out another way,’ Franny
said to Eva, as she walked over to me.

‘
Jessie dear, you have more power
than you know how to handle for now. You need to be trained. The
vampire’s will only teach you war, but you are free to choose you
own path now, to come back to your family.’

I looked across the room at Daniel and
Eva. Daniel had remained silent. He looked devastated. Eva’s eyes
flashed and she looked ready to kill, but they were my family. They
were the ones who even now wanted only to protect me.

‘
You’re right,’ I said, feeling my
fangs recede and my heartbeat quiet to its almost-dead rhythm. ‘I
can make my own choice now, and I’m going to. But I have no
intention of leaving Manchester, or you,’ I said, turning and
smiling at Daniel. ‘I want to see Sebastian… later, but now I want
all of you to get the hell out of my room, and leave me in
peace.’

‘
But dearie, I need
to…’

‘
And you too.
Especially
you!’ I said to Franny, as I saw Eva
break into a grin.

I didn’t care. I’d had enough of
the ‘dearies’ and there was something I didn’t quite trust about
her. Everyone had their own motives when it came to me – hell, even
Eva! I knew she’d do anything for Sebastian, but the difference was
I knew that and she never hid the truth from me. Daniel was pretty
much the only person I
could
trust, it seemed. My own father had lied to me about my birth
mother, and my very annoying ex-boyfriend had failed to mention
that he was
not
the human boy
I happened to fall in love with, but an angel placed near me to
monitor my magical DNA. Now there was Franny, who seemed all
welcoming and grandmotherly – something I deeply wanted in my life
right now. However, life had taught me not to trust anymore, and
she’d already admitted to pulling the wool over the vampires’ eyes
in order to fulfil this ceremony, at whatever cost. I was powerful,
and the coven wanted me. I’d have to find out why later.

All Daniel had ever wanted was me, to
protect me, to love me, and now with the bond gone, I could see if
we had true feelings for each other. I remembered our afternoon
together and smiled.

‘
You can stay,’ I said, looking
over at him.

‘
You heard the girl… and
you
are going to have some explaining
to do to Sebastian about this mess. Out now,’ Eva said, as she
indicated Franny should leave the room, although managing to keep a
healthy distance between the two of them.

‘
You’re gorgeous,’ Daniel said,
sitting down on my bed, staring at me.

‘
The eyes are cool, huh? I always
wanted green eyes,’ I said, with a grin.

‘
Are you sure you’re fine,
really?’ He asked.

‘
Yes, I think so. Are
you?’

‘
Yes, it was just a shock, when it
happened. It hurt…losing you,’ he said.

‘
I know. It feels hollow now, like
something’s missing.’

‘
We might be able to get it back,
if you feed from me again,’ he said.

I’d already thought the same, as it
seemed likely, but I didn’t know if I wanted our bondback. Yes, it
felt weird, but there was also a new lightness I could feel. First
I needed to understand what exactly had happened to me, what had
changed. I’d obviously had my powers released, going off the
lightning bolts that came from my fingers and I obviously still had
my fangs. So was I really both? Half vampire and half witch? Maybe
I could eat food now? But more than anything I needed to know what
my true feelings for Daniel were - whether my attraction was
natural, simply fate as he thought it was, or a product of our
bond, and something I had no control over.

‘
Maybe, but first I want to work
out who I am, without being bonded to you,’ I told him.

‘
You mean you want to see what
Luke thinks of you, now you don’t have a vampire’s eyes,’ he
challenged.

‘
No! Actually I hadn’t thought
about Luke, but it would be nice to find out whether my feelings
for you weren’t a by-product of our bond.

‘
Luke maybe interested in you, now
you’ve got witches’ eyes, but once he finds out you’ve still got
fangs, he won’t hang around.’

‘
I know, Dan, I know, and I meant
what I said. I hadn’t actually thought about him. What happened
earlier…I’m not just going to forget that you know, and anyway,
Luke was an ass!’

‘
Luke
is
an ass,’ Daniel said with a grin, as he pulled
me over and rolled on top of me on the bed.

‘
You
are
really sexy with those eyes though. I could
get used to that,’ he said, leaning in for a kiss, his lips
grinding against mine, as he slid a hand under my head and pulled
me ever closer.

There was a single knock on the door and
Eva popped her head round.

‘
Ooops! Sorry to interrupt, but
Sebastian says he wants to see you tonight and the club’s just
closing up, so now’s a good time.’

‘
Eva, it’s nearly three in the
morning. I’m knackered,’ I said, pushing Daniel off me.

‘
I bet you are,’ she replied with
a wicked smile. ‘Still, get your ass in gear, we’re leaving in two
minutes.’

‘
Ughh! Come on then. Better not
aggravate her wickedness! After all there’s only so many times a
vampire can take being disobeyed…or thrown against a wall,’ Daniel
said with a smirk.

‘
Very funny! You didn’t look so
clever yourself as you went sailing across the room and into the
wall,’ Eva replied, as she stalked out.

Half an hour later, I was sitting in one
of Sebastian’s expensive leather armchairs in his office, waiting
for him to finish a phone call. Eva had gone to find some poor,
besotted boy to have dinner with, or rather from, and as Daniel had
fed earlier in the evening, he was sitting with me, waiting.

‘
So, I hear the initiation had
surprising consequences?’ Sebastian said, as he wandered over.
‘What we need to find out is how surprising they seemed to
Francesca.’

‘
I think she knew what she was
doing. She set up a magic circle to keep Eva and I out’, Daniel
replied. ‘Once the ceremony was taking place, there was nothing we
could do but watch.’

‘
A protective circle would be set
up, regardless of any consequences that may or may not have been
anticipated. It’s what they do. It protects their magic from things
worse than angry vampires, Daniel.’

‘
Yes, but it’s also a happy
coincidence, isn’t it?’ Daniel sneered.

‘
What? That you weren’t able to
stop her? Would we have wanted her to be stopped?’

‘
What do you mean? You knew too?
You knew this would rip Jess away from me? I should have known!’
Daniel’s eyes began to darken, and a low growl burst from his lips,
as he hunched his shoulders into an offensive position.

‘
Daniel, remember your place, or
will I need to remind you? Neither you nor I knew for sure what the
effects would be on Jess. How could we? Francesca certainly didn’t
discuss it with me, but I suspect they were banking on it, and as I
am rather more intelligent than they think I am, I considered it as
a possibility. It was a chance worth taking.’

‘
How can you say that? Jess was
mine, not yours to experiment upon.’

‘
Umm guys…hello? I am here, you
know. And for God’s sake Daniel, I am
not
yours, okay? You know that pisses me off!’ I
said.

‘
You know what I mean,’ Daniel
muttered, not taking his eyes from Sebastian.

‘
Yeah, I do know what you mean,
and I’ve had enough of it! I don’t belong to you, just because you
made me. I’m different, deal with it!’

‘
Fine, so you want to be
Sebastian’s little lap dog instead?’

‘
No, I belong to no-one, not you
and not Sebastian,’ I said, hoping that Sebastian wouldn’t take it
the wrong way and bang me up in one of his cells again. But
Sebastian only laughed, loudly.

‘
I think the best we can hope to
get from our little vampire witch here is loyalty born from
respect, and Jess you do still have to respect me, as the others
do, if you stay on in Manchester. You don’t have a free ticket to
do as you please,’ he said.

‘
I want the bond reinstated. I
believe it will be mended if Jessie drinks from me once again,’
Daniel interrupted, his eyes bright.

‘
And what does Jess say about
this?’ Sebastian answered.

‘
What does it matter? I am her
maker, we should have a bond,’ he replied, refusing to look me in
the eye.

‘
You have got to be kidding me?
Daniel, what did I say before? I don’t want it reinstated yet. I
want to know my true feelings, our true feelings. Don’t do this,
please,’ I said.

‘
Our feelings were fine
with
the bond intact. You knew
perfectly well who you were. We were good together,’ he
said.

‘
You’re scared. You’re scared I’ll
go back to Luke or not choose you, and I guess there’s a chance of
that happening, especially if you keep acting like a jerk, but if
you force this I
will
leave.
I
will
go with Franny, to
America, and never come back.’