Page 65 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Three

I undo the clasp and the chain tickles my skin as it slides off my neck. When I hold it out, the charm spins from the end.

Rita takes it and then pops off the lid of the jar, placing the necklace inside. “I’ll need some blood. Not a lot.”

“All right.”

She sets the jar on her desk and pulls a jeweled dagger from a drawer. I hold out my hand for her and she drags the blade over the palm of my hand, biting into my flesh.

I hiss and instinctively want to pull away but hold my hand steady in her warm grip.

Once blood wells in the wound, she turns my hand over to the mouth of the jar and several drops patter into the herbs and stones and covers the binding charm.

“That should be good,” Rita says and nods at a box of tissue on the filing cabinet.

I pull a few out and press them to the wound as Rita whispers to herself, holding the jar in her grip.

A flame immediately ignites inside, tendrils of smoke and fire dancing over the rim.

Rita whispers one final word, then clamps the lid on, snuffing the flame.

My skin tingles.

A shiver creeps across my shoulders.

I lick my lips, still tasting the bite of Rita’s magic on the air.

“Is that it?” I ask as blood soaks through the tissue.

“That’s it.”

“Did it work?”

“I don’t know. Only you will.”

“I don’t feel different.”

Though I do feel naked without the necklace. I’ve rarely taken it off since I was a kid.

“I should go,” I say. “Bran will be wondering where I am soon.”

Rita nods. “I’ll be at your Pledging, just in case. You have me and the support of the entire Bowen house. Just so you know, sugar.”

“Thank you, Rita.”

I hurry to her side and wrap her in a hug. Beyond the magic, she smells like coffee and tea and warmth and familiarity.

“I really, really appreciate you.”

When I pull back, her eyes are glistening. “That’s very sweet of you. Now go on. Before I have a cantankerous vampire breathing down my neck.”

I laugh as I leave. “I’m definitely going to use that someday. Bran’s going to love it.”

I keep checking my phone all the way back to Duval House, half expecting to find a barrage of texts from Bran admonishing me for leaving.

But there are none.

I think he’s distracted. I think he and Damien are probably trying to plot for every contingency.

When I get back, I hurry in through a side door and avoid looking any of the vampires in the face as I pick up the pace for the Anneliese.