Page 21 of The Fang Arrangement (Celestial Witches #2)

I tap a bloodstained hand on the arm of my chair as my other defiled hand wraps around my witch’s body.

I’ve shown them too much. Joyce is smug as she sits there, her abdomen stitching back together.

“Samantha, dear. Please fetch Joyce some more blood so she can heal faster,” Sebastian says.

Samantha nods, leaving the room. Achille hasn’t moved an inch, just watching the madness unfold from where he stands against the wall.

Sebastian was the oldest and most dangerous out of the five here.

Beatrix, I believe, was born in the forties, Joyce was turned before me, I think by a decade or so but I’m not entirely sure.

Justin was only turned a decade ago. Magnus may be a century or two old, but Sebastian, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is close to four hundred years old, nearly competing in age with Oz.

“Now is not the time for jealous petulance. It’s clear that his witch means a great deal to him.” He shifts his body, folding at the waist as he looks at Ember.

Fuck, I should have told her that she needs to answer all of his questions. If he tries to use his influence on her and it doesn’t work they will know she has some sort of protective magic on her.

“What is your name?” he asks Ember.

My hand tightens around her waist, her ass shifting further against my lap and I hope that the small adjustment of my body tells her everything she needs to know.

“Ember, sir.”

“Tell me, Ember, why would a witch want to be a vampire's pet?” he asks, a smirk spreading across his face.

Part of me thinks about picking up the coffee table leg and attempting to kill him, but I’d likely lose, and then I’d leave Ember unprotected.

“Are you blind?” Ember asks and I swear a squeak, a fucking squeak, almost leaves my chest.

“Pardon?” Sebastian says, just as surprised as he inches closer to Ember.

“Just look at him,” Ember says, her fingertip drawing against my jaw as her deep green eyes clash with mine.

“It’s hard to find a man who can keep up with me, you know?

” Her hand falls from my face, interlacing her fingers with the bloody ones spanning her waist. “I can’t deny that I’m not entirely susceptible to his money and charm. ”

She’s smooth as butter, but Sebastian’s been around for a long time.

I want to close my eyes and wince as I watch his pupils dilate. He’s putting Ember under his influence, but it won’t work with the ring. The one that only I can see, the one I convinced her to wear on her wedding finger.

“What about your coven, witch?” he asks.

“I’m a nomad,” she says quickly and evenly. If I didn’t know any better, I would assume she’s under his influence.

“Why?”

“I’m not a fan of their rules.”

Sebastian laughs. “Then I suppose this unlikely pairing makes more sense.”

He glares down at the mess of the blood on the floor before addressing everyone in the room. “No more bullshit. We’re here to discuss the Slayer, not petty quarrels between former lovers,” he says.

Ember stiffens on my lap, her hand falling from where it was interlaced with mine. Shit, and here I thought maybe we were getting somewhere the way she was melting against my body.

I should definitely kill Joyce.

“I can’t deny that it does wonders for my ego that one single night could still cause so much enviousness.” I say it for Ember’s benefit; she needs to know that Joyce is nothing, less than nothing to me.

“You motherfu—” Joyce hisses.

“I said enough,” Sebastian’s voice booms.

Ember’s breath hitches and she becomes more pliant in my lap again. Her body is warm, her hair is near my face, but I don’t dare sneaking a sniff as the council surrounds us.

Part of me wants this frivolous meeting to last all night so that she’ll stay perched against me. Yet, the deeper part of me wants her safe. That is the most important thing above all else.

“The Slayer is injured, last seen two nights ago. He’s lost a lot of blood.

He’s compressed inside of a human male who is likely around thirty.

Dark hair, brown eyes, above average height and build, black tattoos up and down the lengths of his arms.” I give them as much information I can reveal without putting Ember in harm’s way.

“How was he injured?” Justin questions.

I hate that prick so much. He was turned only a decade ago in his late forties and assumes because he appears physically older than all of us that he automatically deserves respect.

“I sunk my teeth in his neck.”

“Then why is he not dead, drained dry, the Slayer being dragged back to hell or wherever they preside until they’re summoned into another host?” Beatrix asks.

“Because I was staked.”

Ember wiggles her ass in my lap and I hope she doesn’t take offence at the fact that I’m not rock hard right now. If I wasn’t so starved, I know it would be rubbing against her backside. Perhaps it’s for the best.

Being hard and aching would likely be more embarrassing than anything else that happens this evening.

“Yet, you live to tell the tale?” Sebastian questions.

“In the stomach. Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” I say to Joyce.

Her lips purse, but Sebastian ignores it.

“He did not end you and you did not end him. I don’t understand.”

“His stakes, they're imbued with some sort of magic. A vampire can not remove their stakes. If it had been left in me, despite not being in the heart, I would have died,” I state.

“Who removed the stake?”

“Ember did,” I reply honestly.

He doesn’t need to know that we were at her cottage, that she didn’t really want to do it, but did it despite herself.

“Hmmm. I see. This Slayer is strong, a bigger problem than your nest can handle. We’ll bring in more vampires and mortal alliances to help with this issue. I assume you have enough space to accommodate the council while we assess this issue?”

Fuck.

If I tell them to leave, it will make everything more suspicious. If I let them stay, then Ember will be in danger. As soon as the Slayer is dead, they’ll leave.

Something clicks at that moment.

“How exactly did you hear about the Slayer’s presence?” I ask Sebastian.

“That, of course, is private information,” Sebastian replies.

Conner.

When I get my hands on that lying fuck, I’m going to chain him to a pole and watch as the sunrise licks at his feet, turning him to ash.

My grip on Ember must be too tight as she whispers.

“I’m tired.”

Her green eyes meet mine, and I wish I could understand what she was trying to convey.

“Samantha, why don’t you get everyone another round while I get Ember settled and we will discuss our plans further?”

Sebastian nods, and none of them question me as I usher Ember out of the room and up the stairs. We head to her room and as soon as the door is shut she looks at me, waving her hands in a haphazard sort of way.

Anything we say could be heard downstairs and I lick my lips, going to her nightstand and grabbing a pen and paper.

Grab the raccoon and anything else you need, you’re moving to my room and you’ll ward it.

Her brows furrow as she grabs the pen from my hand.

I can’t stay here!!! They all looked like they wanted to kill me.

The exclamation points are excessive, I think as I take the pen from her.

I will keep you safe. There is no other option. You will be safe as soon as we ward the bedroom.

She looks pissed off, and it might be the most beautiful she’s ever looked as her cheeks redden and her breasts bounce as she snatches the pen out of my hand.

I’m not your fucking pet.

The underlining of the word pet is superfluous, yet cute. There’s no way I’d let her leave this house with the Slayer out here, and there’s absolutely no way that I’d let her out of my sight with the council here either.

Instead of communicating via scribbled messages, I just stare at her, hoping that my gaze tells her everything that she needs to know.

There’s no arguing the matter, not when they can hear.

A slight growling noise slips from her throat as she grabs her raccoon like an oversized infant in her arms.

“Have one of your goons move my shit,” she says, not caring if the council can hear or not.

There’s a chance they are chatting amongst themselves and not paying attention to the rest of the house, but either way, they can’t suspect she speaks to me like that.

“Go to our room and do as you’re told, pet,” I tell her, her eyes narrowing as she finally makes her way to my— our —bedroom.

The thought of her being in my chambers has me softening up to the council ever so slightly, forcing our hand in the matter.

I grab as many of her belongings as I can carry and follow her to the room.

She places her familiar on the lounge chair in the corner and I place her things near the closet door.

I pull the pen and paper from earlier out of my pocket.

A sound proofing spell? I’m assuming your warding of the bedroom is still intact?

“Of course it is,” she snarks, a hushed whisper falling out of her as she moves her wand. “ There. They won’t be able to hear us now. What the actual fuck, Warin?”

She storms away from me, pacing the room, tugging at the wild pink strands of her hair.

Her dress swishes with the motion, momentarily rendering me unable to focus as I catalog the way she moves.

I’m not unfamiliar with watching Ember, I’ve been doing it for years.

But watching her move in my bedroom? Hearing her say my name?

These were things I thought I’d never have. I’d denied myself, thinking I was keeping her safe, I probably was. Staying far away from me was the safest thing for Ember.

Yet, the sick satisfaction of having her in my space outweighs anything right now.

I’ll keep her safe. It will just be more work.

“This is just fucking awesome. Fantastic really. Not only is there a vampire slayer who has a vendetta against me because I’ve accidentally been around vampires at the wrong time.

I get kidnapped by one, and one of his lackeys wants to make a human juice box out of me.

Now, some version of the vampire government strolled up, one of them you apparently used to fuck and wants to rip my head off?—”

“It was one time. Many years ago, before I even knew you,” I immediately add in.

I don’t tell her that it was in 1932 or that I haven’t been with another female since I learned what I did in 1933.

“Like that matters. They’re staying here in your house, and now for my protection, I can’t even leave your room. It’s the full moon in three days. If I’m not there with my coven, they’ll come looking for me and the last thing I want to do is put my coven in danger.”

“We will figure something out. With the help of the council, we should be able to take the Slayer out and they will leave. None of this will fall back on your coven.”

She pauses her pacing and stares at me.

“And then what, Warin? What happens after the Slayer is gone and the council leaves?”

“Then we continue our arrangement as we originally vowed.”

She takes two steps toward me, her wand at my chest as she looks up at me without an ounce of fear.

She’s gorgeous, and I’m not sure she knows how perfect she is. I’ll have to work on telling her more often.

“The arrangement? The one we had to protect me against the vampire council?” she seethes. “All of this from the beginning has been a trick, getting me to agree to the six months, giving me these old spells. What is it that you want from me?”

My hand comes up to her face, the pad of my thumb caressing the warmth of her pink cheek.

“Everything, Ember Hollow. I want everything.”

She blinks wildly as I drop my hand from her face and turn on my heel, leaving the room to deal with the council and before I slip and tell Ember everything.