Page 49

A fresh burst of tears, this time happy ones, flooded her eyes. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed kisses to his neck. “I love you!”

There was a loud thump nearby.

Jeff and Samantha separated immediately, both tensing.

Beatrice stared at them from the center of the bed, then began to clean one paw.

They both burst into laughter.

Cassandra watched her girlfriend worriedly all the way to Jeff’s house. Aimee kept silent throughout the trip, but Cassandra could tell she was very upset. As soon as Jeff unlocked the front door of the Victorian house and let the group in, the witch immediately headed toward the pantry where the magic supplies were stored. Cassandra followed.

“Aimee?”

“The ward failed,” Aimee muttered. Grabbing her long hair, she twisted into a bun on top of her head, then placed her hands on her hips while glaring at the jars and bags lining the shelves.

Leaning against the doorjamb, Cassandra tried to formulate a good reply to Aimee’s comment, but couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t sound trite. The ward had failed. Epically. Aimee wasn’t used to failure, so Cassandra knew she was smarting. After a few tense beats ticked by, she decided to opt for

another approach.

“Amaliya landed on the ward and it held her out. I wonder what that means?”

The witch sighed and picked up a jar to study the contents. “It means I should have taken into account that necromancy is dark magic.”

“Huh?” Cassandra gave her girlfriend a startled look. “What?”

Aimee sniffed the contents of the jar, looked satisfied, and set it in a wicker basket at her feet. “Cass, we’re dealing with vampires, necromancers, and a phasmagus. All creatures of the darkness.”

“Like me,” Cassandra said, lowering her eyes.

“No, no. Dhamphirs are different. You’re more in the gray area of magic.”

“I sense the splitting of hairs here.” Cassandra frowned.

“Cass, you’re half human. The vampire side of your nature is muted by that fact. We’ve discussed this before.” Aimee touched her arm lightly.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s still really unnerving to see dear old dad vamp out and...” Cassandra had thought that her daddy issues were put behind her, but she realized that maybe she had been wrong. She was seeing a lot of herself in Cian and it made her uneasy.

“Yeah, but he’s a very old vampire. In that regard you two are very different.” Aimee tilted her head, drawing close enough that her warm breath was on Cassandra’s cheek. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course!”

“Then trust me when I tell you that you’re a fabulous shade of gray.”

Cassandra laughed. “Okay. Fine!”

After pressing a kiss to Cassandra’s cheek, Aimee resumed searching for ingredients. “Now, to answer your question about Amaliya...I think she passed through the ward the first time because she hadn’t activated her necromancy yet. She spills blood to make it work, so once she was wounded and bleeding, her magic kicked in...”

“And the ward attempted to kick her out.”

“Exactly. Death and blood magic are very dark magicks. The only thing darker is demonic magic, which the black witches use.”

Cassandra let out a puff of air. “Yoiks.”

“I don’t think Amaliya and Samantha are evil, but the magicks they wield can easily cross that line. I’ll have to adjust the ward.” Aimee selected another jar and placed it in the basket.

“How did Amaliya punch through the ward?”

“Honestly, I think she confused it. When I cast the spell, I infused it with the names of our cabal to allow everyone safe passage. The ward recognized her, but was also repulsing her because it read her as a threat.” Aimee lifted a shoulder. “I should have thought of that. From now on everything I do will have to take this into account.”