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“Zippy,” Sean replied.

“Zippy? I-I have no idea what that means.”

“Zippy like full of energy.”

Moon shook his head. He was gonna need to use that with Chen later. “The spell I cast is to cloak your vampire magic so that if we get too close to the witches, they won’t be able to sense that you’re a vampire. You should feel like a normal human to them.” He dipped his fingers into the blood and repeated the process on his own left wrist. Most witches couldn’t recognize blood magic and shouldn’t be able to spot his spell.

There were always exceptions, though. He was still hoping they could sneak close enough to figure out what these women were doing in the woods.

“All right, let’s try this.” As Moon stood, he rubbed his right fingers across the cut on his palm while pushing a bit of energy into it so that it immediately healed.

They continued through the forest, more cautious with their steps now as they tried not to catch the attention of the witches. With each step, the surrounding forest grew silent. No bird calls. No insects buzzing. Not even the wind rustling the leaves. It was like stepping into a dead zone. And that was just wrong, considering they faced a bunch of earth witches. The natural world should have been happy to greet them, but life had drawn back to a safe distance from this spot.

After descending the hill to the valley where they’d spotted the witches, they found a clear path where someone had cut the brush away. Numerous feet had tromped through, compacting the dirt and flattening the grass. For a heartbeat, Moon considered putting up one of his notification wards, but his magic would be too easily detected with the presence of all these witches. Magic crackled in the air. They were casting spells. Lots of fucking spells.

But what kind? What the hell were they doing here?

They needed to get closer. The chatter of the witches was too low to hear what they were saying.

Moon looked over at Sean and flashed him a crooked smile. “Follow my lead?”

“Let’s do it,” Sean agreed with a thumbs-up.

Grabbing Sean’s right hand, Moon threaded their fingers together and pulled the surprised vampire along the path.

After a few dozen steps, the voices got louder. There was someone shouting orders about how to set things up. Other people were bickering about how some people refused to help. Lots of grumbling. All these witches couldn’t be in the same coven. No one agreed with each other, and there was a general sense of disharmony.

But that was okay. Even if they hated each other, they could work together if they had a single purpose. Such as helping the fae.

Sean and Moon stepped through the last of the brush, branches scraping along their jeans. They moved into a clearing under the canopy of several enormous oak trees that were not native to this region. Fuck. Had the fae door opened here before?

Moon pasted a huge fake smile on his face while his heart raced in his chest. His eyes darted around the area, taking in everything he could. A giant iron cauldron hung over a flicking fire. Two folding tables stood to the side, covered in spell ingredients. Along the opposite edge of the meadow, a scattering of colorful pop-up tents proudly announced that they were planning to be there for a while. He took a quick mental inventory of what he saw so he could ask Maddox and Redstone later.

Assuming he lived long enough to make it to later.

“Hi!” Moon called out in a singsong voice as he waved his free hand over his head. “Sorry to interrupt you! My boyfriend and I popped out for a hike, and I swore I saw someone else out on the path ahead of us.” As he said “boyfriend,” he squeezed Sean’s hand and leaned into him, briefly resting his head on his shoulder. Yes, he was laying it on thick, but the point was to appear utterly harmless and clueless. “It looks like you’re all setting up for one great camping party.”

A woman with short, steely gray hair stood in the center of the clearing with her arms folded over her chest and a sour expression on her face. For a second, no one moved. No one seemed to even breathe.

“Kill them,” the woman ordered in a cold, dead voice.

“Fuck.” Sean sighed.

So much for faking their way into the campsite and figuring out what they were doing.

Magical energy saturated the air, the tingle so sharp it was like a knife slicing through their skin. Moon released Sean and grabbed the knife off his hip. With a quick slash across his left palm, he threw his bloody hand out in front of him. He cast a protective ward with only a few words. Thank God, because he barely got it up in time to stop the fireballs launched at them.