Still of Night (Thorne Hill 4)

“Over a thousand years,” Abby muses. “Was Lucas in that war?”

“He said he wasn’t, and I believe him.” I tuck my windblown hair behind my ear. “Lucas does things that are…” I trail off, not sure how to say this without making Lucas sound bad. “…That are in his best interest. He had no issue with witches before and raging in the war wouldn’t have benefited him.”

“Any vampire worth their fangs knows to leave witches alone,” Kristy goes on. “We really don’t have many issues anymore. Our magic is stronger than they are, and they know it.”

“But the laws still stand?” Abby’s eyes are wide as saucers. It would be jarring to learn there is a whole other side of history you have no idea about.

“Right. They’re old-fashioned and just stupid,” I say through gritted teeth, and suddenly the stoplights above us start blinking. Dammit. We hurry across the street and cars honk and brakes screech. Kristy hooks her arm around me and gives me a hug.

“But we’ll figure it out,” she says again. “You have a habit of getting yourself into precarious situations and you’ve always come out alive.”

“Just barely,” I laugh.

“Hang on.” Abby comes to a sudden stop. My boots scuff on the sidewalk and someone almost walks into me. Abby looks me up and down and a half smile pulls up her lips. “You said it’s against your coven’s laws for a witch and vampire to be together, right?”

“Yes. It’s forbidden,” I repeat, and Abby’s half smile turns into a full-blown grin.

She strides forward, taking my hand. “And it’s very clearly written that way?”

“Yes, what are you getting at?” I ask, almost unsettled by the glee that’s now taking over my sister’s face.

“The law says witches and vampires can’t be together, but what about vampire and other creatures?”

I shake my head. “The coven wouldn’t care.”

“Callie,” Abby laughs, looking at me like I just missed the punch line to a joke. “You’re not a witch.”

8

I watch beads of condensation roll down my glass, pooling in a little ring on the bar top at Taproom. Eliza is working tonight, and Lucas is in the basement ripping Dina’a fangs out—again.

Abby went home after shopping, needing to get back to her family, and Kristy stayed a while longer, shopping and then going out to eat with me. Abby’s revelation weighed heavily on me all day, and Kristy thinks it’s worth bringing up to Tabatha.

The issue isn’t so much that I’m not a full witch, but I belong to the coven. By being a member of the coven, I’m agreeing to following the rules. Leaving the coven means severing ties with my friends, though we have a new angle to play now.

But, by telling the Grand Coven that my daddy is an angel, I’m risking being discovered, even more so than before. Not everyone in the Grand Coven can be trusted, obviously, since Grand Mage Ruth turned out to be a power-hungry, conniving bitch.

Though if I get caught planning a wedding with a vampire groom, my fate isn’t much better.

“Drinking alone?” A twenty-something-year-old guy slides into the bar stool next to me, and I choke on the overwhelming smell of his cologne.

“I haven’t done any drinking yet.” I sit up and turn to look at him, already annoyed. The whole drinking alone pickup line should be illegal. If you have eyes and can do basic math, then it’s obvious I’m sitting at the bar by myself, which I’m very well aware of.

“Why not?” the guy asks with a toothy grin. He’s not bad-looking but is a little too thin for my taste. He has a shock of chestnut hair and matching brown eyes.

“I’m trying to keep my guard up. Until I get home at least,” I say honestly and slide my mojito closer in front of me. “I have a lot on my mind and trying to sort through everything before my thoughts get hazy.”

He laughs. “I’m Wyatt.”

“Callie.”

“So tell me, Callie, what’s on your mind?”

I let out a heavy sigh and put the straw in my mouth, chewing it for a second before sucking down a mouthful of my drink. “Do you ever feel like your life is just so complicated you can’t make sense of anything? That you envy the people who feel insignificant, who feel lost in the sea of millions and billions of other people? Because in the end, they don’t matter. We like to say everyone matters, but we don’t. Maybe you matter to your mom, or your friends, but to the world? Doesn’t care about you. I could kill you right here and now and the world would still go on spinning just like it did before, because you, Wyatt, are an insignificant human being.”

Wyatt straightens up and looks at me, blinking. His eyes drop to my chest, and I know he’s mentally debating if I’m hot enough to keep talking to, or if my crazy overrides my looks.

“But I’m not insignificant,” I go on. “And I don’t want to be. Because who wants to be insignificant, or normal, or work nine to five and have three and a half children and a golden retriever and not wonder if people who come up to them at bars are trying to kill them. Are you plotting my demise, Wyatt?” I hike up my eyebrows. “Are you?”

Wyatt holds up his hands. “I…I just met you.”

“Exactly. Maybe you were sent from Heaven to kill me. Or from Hell to drag me back down with you.” I slap my hand down on the bar top. “Just go ahead and try it now if that was your plan all along. Let’s get it over with so I can get back home to my wine and my cats, okay, Wyatt?”

Wyatt looks at me, confusion taking over his face. His eyes dart to my chest and then back to my face. Deciding that I’m crazier than I am hot, he mutters something, gets up, and walks away.

I let out a heavy sign and suck down another mouthful of my drink.

Eliza, mixing a drink with vampire speed, comes over. Her blonde hair is down today in soft waves, and her dress matches her sky-blue eyes perfectly. She always looks so delicate and girly…until you find out she’s over three hundred years old and was trained to kill by Lucas himself.

“You know, sometimes I wonder how a girl as hot as you could have been single before my maker came into the picture. Now I’m starting to see why.” She pours the drink into a glass and speeds over to give it to the patron waiting. “Were you always so charming or did coming off as certifiable work for you?”

“It works. Well, until we get back to my place and I try to put them in the straitjacket.”

Eliza cracks the tiniest smile. “Though really, I’m surprised anyone would attempt to hit on you with that rock on your finger.”

I hold up my hand and smile. It’s the first time we’ve been able to talk all night. Taproom is always busy, even on weeknights.

“I wonder if people think it’s fake since it’s so big,” I laugh.

“That’s Lucas’s style.” Her small smile grows. “You make him happy. Very happy. So, I’m happy for you both.”

“Thanks, Eliza. That means a lot to me, and I think you know that Lucas makes me happy too—”

“Shut up,” she says harshly. “You need to go. Now.”

“What? Why, you can’t—”

“It’s the fucking VC.”

My blood runs cold. What is the Vampire Council doing here? “Lucas is in the basement with Dina.”

“I’m sure he sensed them come in before I did,” Eliza says quickly. “And I’ll handle it. Now go. You reek of magic, witch.” She turns, eyes meeting mine. She’s all hard and cold, but I know it’s a front. She’s worried I won’t make it out on time. The VC will rip me to shreds if they get the chance. My hand is still on the bar top, and she places hers over top. “The VC is already aware of increased magical activity, and are starting to get suspicious that witches are behind the recent vampire disappearances.”

Shit. I am behind one of them when I accidentally blew up a Council member.

“You have a legal right to be here, but it would be better if you left.”

I nod, letting her know she doesn’t need to say more. The VC can’t call out a witch for being in a publi

c establishment, even if it is vampire owned. There’s a good chance half the people in here don’t know this place is owned by a vampire anyway.

But Lucas was already questioned before, and has been ordered to kill any witches he comes across. There’s no way the VC would believe a vampire of Lucas’s age wouldn’t notice a witch in his bar.

I push my mojito away from me, grab my purse, and slip out the back. I can sense the dark energy of the vampires right as the door closes behind me, and I run down the alley, heading toward the busy street where I can hopefully get lost in a crowd.