Dino grimaced. ‘Like a monster. He could have been a Hunter, but even less human than the Hunters around here. He wanted me to join his coven. And I’m willing to bet that it wouldn’t be me who would benefit from that little merger.’
Blue glanced around the dark room, as though suddenly even the books were potential spies. ‘What did he want you for?’
Dino shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Recruiting, maybe?’
‘Did you t-tell Wendolyn?’
‘No,’ Dino confessed. ‘I was all the way out at the forest boundaries, and I’m not looking for a lecture. Know what I mean?’
Blue held his hands up impassively. ‘And now you think this g-guy is after Mia?’
‘I know it,’ Dino insisted. ‘But he’ll have to go through me first.’
Something about his final words was more ill-omened than even he could have comprehended.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, until at last the sun disappeared and night-time set in. Mia and Kizzy spent most of the evening lounging around Mia’s bedchamber, chatting and swapping stories.
Kizzy hopped up on to Mia’s bed. ‘And now,’ she was saying, ‘I can almost will a vision to come to me. They’re so clear and distinct, it’s like they’re real.’
‘Are they like the visions we get from the tea?’ Mia asked. She sat on the bed opposite Kizzy, her legs tucked underneath her.
‘Sort of,’ Kizzy answered. ‘But they’re much clearer, and sometimes I can watch them for almost an entire minute. It isn’t just a glimpse any more – it’s the whole picture.’
‘That sounds amazing,’ Mia breathed in awe. ‘What kind of things have you seen?’
‘Um…’ Kizzy pondered over it. ‘Yesterday morning I saw a fox, and then in the evening I saw the fox run through the garden.’
‘Cool! Have you seen any warning signs?’ Mia asked, half in jest.
Kizzy looked away. ‘Some,’ she replied, gazing up at the carved canopy of the four-poster bed.
‘Really?’ Mia’s slate-grey eyes sparkled. ‘What have you seen?’
‘I don’t know. Nothing major.’
Mia paused. ‘Is something wrong? Is there something you don’t want to tell me about the visions?’
Kizzy returned her focus to Mia. ‘It’s nothing. I don’t want to worry you.’
‘Worry me?’ Mia frowned. ‘Why would they worry me?’
Kizzy bit her lip.
‘Oh, my God!’ Mia gasped. ‘Are the visions about me?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe one of them might have involved you…’
‘What was it?’ Mia pressed.
‘I don’t want to frighten you.’ Kizzy chewed on her thumbnail.
‘I’m already frightened!’ Mia exclaimed. ‘Please, you have to tell me. Besides, don’t you get these visions for a reason? Maybe you’re supposed to warn me.’
‘And then perhaps you could avoid it,’ Kizzy added, brightening at the prospect.
‘Well, yeah, here’s hoping!’
‘Are you sure you want to know? No matter how bad it is? Not that it’s that bad,’ Kizzy was beginning to babble now. ‘In fact, it’s practically nothing. Nothing to worry about, at least.’
‘Go on,’ Mia agreed, bracing herself. ‘Tell me.’
With a reluctant sigh, Kizzy surrendered. ‘OK.’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘You remember the Hunter, Colt?’
‘Yes,’ said Mia, trying to sound indifferent. She certainly hadn’t expected Kizzy to bring up Colt.
‘Well,’ Kizzy continued as she toyed with a strand of blonde hair, twirling it around her index finger, ‘I saw him…with you.’
Mia began to relax. That wasn’t so bad.
‘And,’ Kizzy went on, ‘he was holding a…uh …knife.’
‘A knife?’ Mia mulled it over. ‘Maybe I bump into him when he’s carrying a knife. It happens. Not that I’m expecting to bump into him or anything,’ she put in hastily.
‘Sure,’ Kizzy agreed. ‘But…uh …he was holding the knife over you, and you were, um…what’s the word?’
‘Happy?’ Mia offered.
‘No, not happy. More like…dead.’
‘Dead!’ Mia cried. ‘You said it was nothing to worry about!’
‘Because I didn’t want to worry you! That’s what people say when they don’t want people to worry!’
Mia clutched at her heart. ‘I’m dead?’ she murmured.
‘Not yet,’ Kizzy smiled supportively. ‘I mean, not ever,’ she corrected herself quickly.
‘Are you sure it was me?’
‘Look,’ said Kizzy, tactfully dodging the question, ‘it doesn’t mean anything. It was probably just a warning, to scare us away from the forest. It’ll be fine.’
‘That’s easy for you to say,’ Mia grumbled. ‘You’re not dead!’
‘Neither are you,’ Kizzy reasoned.
Mia flopped backwards on to her bed and buried her face into a pillow.
‘There, there,’ Kizzy consoled her rather unhelpfully. She patted her friend on the head. ‘You’ve had a good life.’
Mia groaned into her pillow.
There was a loud knock on the bedroom door.
The girls gasped and looked at one another wide-eyed.
‘Colt,’ Mia whispered. She sat bolt upright and clung on to Kizzy for dear life.
The girls held their breath as the heavy door creaked open.
The sound of Wendolyn’s motherly voice floated into the bedroom.
‘Girls,’ the older woman sang out jovially, ‘time for bed. Kizzy, dear, off to your own room, please.’
Kizzy shrugged helplessly at Mia. ‘Bye,’ she mouthed.
Mia gave a look of dismay as she watched her friend depart from the bedchamber.
Wendolyn, however, hovered in the doorway. ‘Mia,’ she said in a smooth voice, ‘where is your brother?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mia answered. The truth was she had spent the day deliberately avoiding Dino. ‘I saw him this morning, but he hasn’t been back to the room this evening.’ She didn’t bother telling Wendolyn that she and Dino were at loggerheads, and that the reason why he wasn’t there most likely had to do with the fact that Mia was there.
Wendolyn’s lined face crumpled into a perturbed expression. ‘I see,’ she said slowly.
Mia wondered for a moment if Wendolyn had read her thoughts. She quickly changed the subject. ‘Wendolyn,’ she ventured, ‘I’ve been meaning to ask – did you find the Hunter coven? I mean, the intruders that you told me about last week?’
Wendolyn shook her head. ‘No. But it’s been some time since I last sensed them, so perhaps they have moved on.’
‘Good,’ Mia responded quietly. That was one less thing to fret about.
Wendolyn smiled kindly. ‘No need for alarm,’ she assured her. She turned to leave the room. ‘Would you like me to switch off the light?’ she asked.
‘Yes, please,’ Mia replied. She crawled under the sheets and drew the gold curtains around the bed. The light in the bedchamber disappeared and the door clicked shut.
It didn’t take long for Mia to drift off to sleep – after all, she had had an unusually early start. She slept soundly for at least an hour or so before the bedroom door creaked open once again.
A dark figure strode into the room, as light-footed as if he was gliding on air. He hesitated, breathing in fervently and licking his lips. Moving silently, he approached Mia’s bed and slowly eased the curtains apart.
There she slept, so peacefully. Her pretty face serene and innocent.
For several long seconds Colt stood over her, watching her curiously. He tilted his head, seemingly uncertain. But that uncertainty soon vanished, and in one fluid motion he withdrew a dagger from the sheath on his belt.
A moonbeam came through the open window, catching the blade with a deadly glint. And then, Colt struck.
Chapter Eight
Blood of the Coven
Colt stood over Mia as she slept. He gripped th
e dagger in his hand, his knuckles white from the force of his grasp. Then swiftly he brought the blade down, piercing the flesh and dragging its point along the delicate skin of an arm.
But it was not Mia’s skin that he had severed; it was his own.
A trickle of blood dripped from the incision on his forearm. Without wasting a second, he pressed the wound to Mia’s lips.
Her eyes shot open. She struggled, frantically trying to push Colt’s arm away, but he held it to her mouth unwaveringly. In the darkness of the bedchamber, his eyes locked on hers with a strange brightness. His forest-green iris paled and glistened like ice.
‘Drink,’ he told her in a husky voice.
Mia’s protests were muffled beneath his arm. She pursed her lips, refusing to ingest his blood. Fighting back, she dug her fingernails into the wound on his arm.
Colt winced. ‘Trust me,’ he said through gritted teeth.
But trusting him was an unthinkable request. He was her assailant – how could she trust him? Desperately, she fought to resist, yet much to her dismay she began to taste the coppery tang of blood.
Colt let out a sigh of relief as he felt the exchange take place.
At first, Mia retched and lashed out at him, but steadily she slipped into a numb, trancelike state. Within moments she was willingly feeding off his blood, rapt in a hypnotic compulsion. Gradually she withdrew her nails from the wound and repositioned her fingers to his skin, clinging to his arm as though she were attaching herself to him.
Colt closed his eyes and let it happen. ‘That’s enough,’ he said at last.
His words were wasted. By now, all of Mia’s rational thinking had been overshadowed. The ritual had taken hold of her, turning her into an animal, thriving off the feed.
‘That’s enough!’ Colt commanded again. His body began to feel limp and his head whirled. He too was beginning to lose himself to the ritual.
Mia gripped his arm tighter, unable to break the action.
With his last ounce of strength, Colt focused on summoning his power. He raised his free hand and charged a gust of air to throw him backwards. The sheer force of the air sent him hurtling away from Mia. His head cracked sharply against one of the oak pillars on the four-poster bed. Dazed, he shook off the blow and began licking the incision on his arm, aiding its recovery.
Mia collapsed on to her bed, motionless. It was as though breaking the connection with Colt had taken away her life force. She lay perfectly still, with blood smeared over her lips and a stray droplet dibbling down her chin.
Colt took a deep breath, regaining himself. Once composed, he returned to Mia. He perched on the edge of her bed and licked the rogue trickle of blood from her face.
The strange sensation awoke her from her unconsciousness. Her eyes fluttered open. The first thing she saw was Colt, sitting faithfully at her bedside. Disoriented, she reached out to him, and in a search for comfort she coiled her fingers around the material of his black T-shirt. Their eyes met in a moment of union.
Colt flinched. ‘Don’t do that,’ he whispered. He cleared his throat, remembering himself. ‘Don’t,’ he said again, briskly this time, and he pried her hand from his T-shirt.
The jolt brought Mia back to reality. All of a sudden she felt sober again and a wave of panic flooded over her. ‘What did you do to me?’ she choked. She pushed Colt away and took a swipe at him.
Colt effortlessly dodged each swing of her flailing arms. He smiled.
‘Answer me!’ Mia yelled, short of breath. ‘What did you do to me?’
‘I thought you’d at least thank me,’ Colt replied evenly. ‘I don’t get a lot of thanks in my line of work, and I feel I deserve it at times.’
Mia gawped at him. ‘Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of the word!’ she spluttered. The aftertaste of blood was still rife in her mouth.
Colt laughed whimsically.
Mortified, Mia wiped at her mouth. ‘You’re sick!’ she spat. ‘You’re…warped!’
‘So dramatic.’
‘Dramatic!’ Mia exclaimed. ‘You’re evil! You’re a vile monster!’
Colt smirked. ‘I’m flattered.’
Mia struck out at him again, but smoothly he ducked aside.
‘Is this how you repay me for saving your life?’ Colt asked with a snide smile.
‘Yeah, right!’ Mia shouted at him. ‘You’re not saving my life – you’re trying to turn me into one of your kind!’
‘Ha!’ Colt snorted. ‘Darling, you could never be one of my kind.’
‘Then why did you make me drink your blood?’ Simply saying it aloud sickened her to the pit of her stomach.
‘Certainly not to change you into my kind,’ Colt scoffed. His eyes, now restored to their usual pine green, twinkled playfully.
‘So why did you do it? You’re disgusting! That was disgusting!’
Colt gave her a wry smile. ‘I didn’t hear you complaining at the time,’ he teased. ‘From where I was standing, you seemed to quite enjoy it.’
Mia flung her hand forward and successfully clipped him on the nose. ‘You put me under a spell!’ she accused.
Colt grinned and rubbed the affected area on his nose. ‘Did I?’ he challenged. ‘Or maybe you just liked it. It’s a good thing I managed to separate myself from you when I did,’ he added cryptically.
‘Why?’ she asked fearfully. ‘What would have happened?’
‘I suppose we’ll never know. But I must admit, I was beginning to enjoy myself, too.’
Mia stared at him, horrified.
‘It felt good,’ Colt said unashamedly. ‘It’s powerful. The trade of one’s life force. What greater exhilaration could there be? The only disgusting part about it is the unspeakable selflessness on my part.’
‘S-selflessness?’ Mia stuttered at the absurdity.
‘Believe me,’ he said, shuddering melodramatically. ‘I tried to justify what I was doing as something that served my own ends. But I fear I must accept it as a selfless deed. My last, I hope. Although,’ he added as an afterthought, ‘the exchange did prove to be quite gratifying for me. So I suppose it wasn’t all bad.’
‘How did this benefit me?’ Mia cried.
‘Think of my blood as the antidote,’ he explained vaguely.
‘The antidote to what?’ Mia cowered under her bedcovers, leaving only her ashen face on show.
‘Enticement.’
‘Which is?’ she pressed.
Colt rolled his eyes. ‘Have you learned nothing since you’ve been at the Glass Castle?’
‘Nobody will tell me anything!’
‘There’s a library full of books!’ Colt exclaimed. ‘I suggest you open one once in a while.’
Mia blinked up at him from her cocoon of bedding.
‘Enticement,’ Colt went on, ‘is a form a possession. If a Hunter manages to take your blood, then effectively he will have a hold on you. He can call out to you, whenever and wherever he chooses, and you will go to him.’
‘Was a Hunter trying to take my blood?’ Mia asked, drawing the bed sheets even further up.
Colt laughed. ‘A Hunter already has your blood.’
‘What?’ Mia gasped. ‘You?’
Colt pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. ‘No. Lotan. The night you took the Athame, your head was bleeding…’
‘Yes,’ Mia interrupted, ‘because you threw me against the candlestick.’
‘Right,’ he replied. ‘Lotan advanced upon you and tasted your blood. Do you remember?’
Mia nodded her head.
‘Well, that was all he needed,’ Colt told her. ‘One small taste and you are his. He can call on you at any given time and you must come to him. Eventually, he will lure you in and kill you.’
‘Kill me?’ Mia whimpered.
‘Not always,’ Colt revised, his voice softening a little. ‘Sometimes he’ll settle for torture…But I imagine that’s probably worse.’
Mia’s stomach flipped. ‘He did call me!’ she realised, re
calling the night that she had been awoken by the sound of Lotan’s voice beckoning her to him. She had walked in a stupor towards the forest, but something inside the mist had thrown her back, snapping her out of the trance…
‘You,’ Mia murmured, gazing up at Colt. ‘Last week…’
He offered her a patronizing smile. ‘You’re working something out for yourself? Good girl.’
‘Lotan called for me, but you stopped me before I walked into the forest. You saved me.’
Colt’s expression hardened. ‘Don’t get too excited,’ he scowled. ‘It wasn’t a chivalrous act.’
‘Why did you save me?’ she asked in a tender voice.
‘I didn’t save you!’ he snapped, affronted by the remark. ‘I saved Lotan. I knew that his plan was to kill you. But Wendolyn was near, and she probably wouldn’t have been pleased.’
Mia sat up in bed with the covers still tucked around her. ‘But that was a week ago,’ she pointed out. ‘Why hasn’t Lotan tried again?’
‘Because, up until recently, I’d convinced him that you were no bother to us. Little did I know!’ Colt joked.
‘Up until recently? What changed?’
‘Turns out that you are a bother!’
Mia frowned. ‘I haven’t seen Lotan since the night with the Athame. How can I have bothered him when I haven’t even seen him?’
‘You’ve seen me,’ Colt explained. ‘You’re on my skin and he sensed you. You have a very distinctive scent.’
‘So you keep telling me,’ Mia muttered under her breath.
‘Yes. It’s annoying.’
‘And Lotan doesn’t like it,’ she guessed.
Colt shrugged. ‘It’s not that. I’m sure he likes the scent. I’m sure they all do. It’s addictive in some ways. But he doesn’t want you near us. And he especially doesn’t want you near me. I’m far too valuable.’
Now it was Mia’s turn to roll her eyes. ‘I bet you are,’ she said sarcastically.
Colt grinned. ‘I am.’
‘So, can I stop him?’ Mia asked, steering the conversation back to Lotan.
Colt extended his arm, displaying the wound. ‘Done,’ he confirmed.
With some reservation, Mia peered at the cut. A look of revulsion formed on her face. She could see the imprints of teeth marks around the lesion. Had she really been so fervent?