Hellcat let out a hacking sound like he’d produce a hairball any second. But I’d known him too long to mistake is as anything other than indignance. “You still plan to attend after all of this?”

  Maverick walked into the room behind me and settled his sister very gently on the couch. He draped the throw blanket over her and pushed one of the decorative pillows under her head. She stirred fitfully before going still again. A moment later, I heard a light snore.

  “I’m going to… get some air,” Maverick said, and promptly exited the room. After watching him leave, I turned back to face Astrid and couldn’t take my eyes off the ring of bruises around her throat. They were darkening to a blue-purple that stood out starkly against her pale skin.

  “Mother is going to answer for this,” I said, turning to glower at Hellcat, who was staring at Astrid with a curious expression on his face—it almost looked like sympathy. “I don’t care what you think of me, but Mother tried to kill Maverick and Astrid. She’s probably traumatized Astrid for life.”

  “And the warlock?” Hellcat asked in a subdued voice.

  “Janeth managed to blood Maverick, which makes him a Blood Warlock.” I paused and watched as Hellcat dropped his head and nodded, seemingly sad. “You said it yourself,” I continued. “What Celestine is doing is wrong. No, it’s beyond wrong. It’s evil. And I’m not going to let her get away with it.”

  It was difficult to make a cat’s eyes look flat and cold, but Hellcat managed it routinely. His tail flicked once, and his words came out on a resigned sigh.

  “So, you worked out her secret, did you?”

  I wasn’t surprised by his change of subject—I could only imagine how difficult it was on Hellcat to view Celestine as anything but wonderful. Yet, it seemed that was the conclusion he was reaching and for that, I was surprised.

  “That William and Amos are my brothers?” I asked. “Yeah. I should have seen it sooner. They have the Depraysie eyes. William’s smile reminds me of Maverick’s, on the rare occasions I’ve actually seen Maverick smile. And Amos is taciturn like Mother.”

  “He was her favorite,” Hellcat said. “William has your temperament, or rather, you have his. Wild. Temperamental. An all-around troublemaker. I believe that’s why she bound us together.”

  “Wait… what?”

  He paused and then nodded up at me. “I was William’s familiar before I became yours.”

  I blinked. I’d known, logically, that Hellcat had been a hand-me-down familiar, but I hadn’t thought to ask who he’d been bound to before me. Or maybe I had, but Mother had never answered. Whatever the truth, it mattered little now.

  “Mother must have hated William too, if she forced you on him.” I was aiming for a bit of back and forth with Hellcat—to remind him how we used to be and thwart the sudden morose and forlorn aspect that had overcome him. But he didn’t rise to the bait. He simply just exhaled a long sigh.

  “William chose me,” Hellcat explained. “He said he liked my spirit.” He paused, and his tone turned a little wistful. “I do miss him at times.”

  “You do?” I repeated. “I didn’t think you capable of missing anyone other than Mother.”

  “You never forget your first master.”

  “And yet you’ve been Mother’s cheerleader this whole time,” I said.

  “Warlocks are unstable. Letting them come into their powers is dangerous. Celestine’s mother and grandmother passed on the clandestine duty of wiping them out after the incident that exposed their entire coven,” he answered in that persnickety way of his—a way I actually preferred to the dour and morose Hellcat. “At least your mother allowed them to live, after a fashion. She loved her sons too much to burn them, as she was supposed to do. I believe she’s done the same to all the others out of a misguided attempt to be merciful.”

  “Merciful?” Maverick snapped as he walked back into the room and glared at the cat. Then he reached up and tore at his bandages. Blood crusted the skin of his throat, and you could make out the impressions of Janeth’s teeth if you looked closely. Hellcat had the decency to look away.

  “You call this merciful?” Maverick demanded. “That vampire bitch tortured me, threatened my sister, and turned me into the first ever Blood Warlock. You want unstable? My power will definitely be unstable now.”

  “You might neglect to mention that in your speech at the Assembly this evening,” Hellcat said, voice dry. “It will not endear the other covens to you.”

  “We don’t have to do a damn thing, really,” I said to Maverick, sinking to the ground next to the couch. This close, I could feel Astrid’s breath on the back of my neck. The sound of her snore eased the tight knot of worry in my chest. She was going to be okay. Eventually.

  Maverick arched a brow. “We don’t?”

  “We will,” I clarified. “But we don’t have to. The binding broke this morning when I discovered the truth. Tabitha, Scarlett, and any of the other witches this affected are free to shout the truth from the rooftops if they want to. Someone is going to hoist Mother on her own petard. Scarlett, most likely, but she’ll have backup.”

  “I’d like to shove my foot up her tailored suit pants and—” Maverick began. He paused when his barn owl fluttered down from her perch on the china cabinet and settled on his shoulder.

  “Stop,” she said quietly.

  Her voice was soft, and almost maternal. In all the years I’d been around Maverick, I don’t think I’d ever heard Isis actually speak. I was beginning to wonder if she even could.

  “You’re hurt and I can feel that your magic is unstable,” she continued. “Rest. Wanda is right. You survived, Maverick. Thus, allow your mother to take care of this.”

  “I don’t trust her,” Maverick said, but he sounded a little calmer now.

  He stroked a finger idly over Isis’s wing. He sounded almost childlike. Had his familiar been the only friendly female influence in his life? If so, that was just... sad.

  “If you can’t trust Tabitha, then trust Wanda,” Isis said.

  Maverick glanced at me and some of the fury drained out of his face. He sank to his knees and took up a position on my other side, looking over at his sister. When I offered a hand, he took it.

  “She’s not going to get away with this,” I whispered to him. “When the truth comes out, Mother’s done. Best case scenario, she ends up trapped on the Isle of Banishment until she dies of old age. I doubt Scarlett is going to let her off that easily, though.”

  His hands shook.

  I was betting the terror of what he’d gone through was starting to sink in. He’d only just escaped what most witches and warlocks considered the worst sort of life event—becoming blooded.

  “Scarlett’s going to kill her if Mother doesn’t beat her to it,” Maverick pointed out. “Are you okay with that?”

  I took a sudden and intense interest in the china cabinet. Scarlett had fantastic taste. It was Wedgewood china. Vera Wang Lace Gold, maybe. I should ask her—at some point.

  “Wanda?” Maverick said.

  I sighed. “I don’t know. She’s my mother, but at the same time...”

  “She tried to kill Astrid and… me. And she took your brothers from you.”

  “Yes.”

  “So, what now?”

  My eyes drifted closed as my thoughts ran headlong into each other. There was so much going on, I didn’t even have the chance to fear what was happening within my own body. Janeth’s blood had healed my wounds, but was that the extent of it? Or was something terrible on the horizon?

  I was tired.

  “We should try to get some sleep,” I said with a yawn. “We’ll figure the rest out later.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  We must have slept on the floor for the next seven hours or so, because when we woke, the sun had sunk behind the horizon and we were surrounded by vampires.

  Our vampires, but still.

  As soon as Lorcan walked into the room, he was immediately beside me and seeing him was enough to cause tears to suddenly crop up into my eyes, though I wasn’t sure why. Regardless, his arms were wrapped around me in an instant, and he felt so good. It was all I could do to lean my head against his chest and breathe in his scent, which caused me to feel a little heady.

  Once we had some privacy, I needed to talk to him about everything that had happened with Janeth—how she’d given me her blood and yet I felt the same as I always had. I wasn’t going to bring this up with anyone before that, because I was fairly sure Lorcan was the only one who would know what to do.

  But that wasn’t the only thing I needed to discuss with him. I also needed to tell him the truth—the truth about my feelings for him. The truth was that I loved him just as much as he loved me and he needed to know that, whether the blood bond was responsible for those feelings or not.

  As soon as Astrid opened her eyes and realized we were surrounded by vampires, she yelped and drew in power without even consciously meaning to.

  Amos held up his hands in surrender, half-smiling at her to take the sting out of his sudden appearance. It was odd to see him smiling because I couldn’t remember having seen it before—and the time when I was a child, the last time I’d seen him, was so far removed from my memories, I couldn’t bring it to mind at all.

  “Hold your fire, cousin,” Amos said to Astrid. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

  “C-cousin?” Astrid echoed as she looked up at me and her eyebrows bunched in the middle of her forehead. “I don’t understand.”

  Right.

  Astrid had been unconscious or so shocked when the topic came up in the squad car on the way over, I doubted she’d taken in a word of what I’d said to Maverick.

  I pushed to my feet with a groan, joints aching. Sleeping on the floor would have been uncomfortable at Astrid’s age. I was easily eight times that now, so contorting myself had been a very bad idea. Still, I snapped, crackled, and popped my way up and went to stand by William’s side.

  “Mother has been turning any warlocks she finds over to the vampires,” I explained as Astrid’s eyes went wide. “Apparently, there’s been an ancient conspiracy to stomp them out, and Celestine is the head of the crusade.”

  “What… what does that mean?” Astrid asked, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

  “There’s been one or two warlocks per century, and Maverick is the first to live past twenty. They’re usually turned as they start to come into their gifts.” I pointed at Vicente, and then my brothers. “That’s Vicente Velardi, Scarlett’s son, and these are my brothers and your cousins, William and Amos Depraysie.” I took a breath. “They all were warlocks at one point but now they’re vampires, as you know.”

  Astrid stared at them wide-eyed, her gaze flicking periodically between their faces and her brother’s. Now that Maverick’s hair ended at his shoulders instead of his waist, the resemblance between him, William, and Amos was uncanny. Their lips weren’t as full as Maverick’s, and their faces weren’t quite as chiseled and striking. But then, they hadn’t had time to grow into the men they could have been. The eyes, though—those were unmistakable when you really looked hard enough.

  Astrid’s cheeks flushed pink, and she buried her face in her hands. I belatedly realized she’d been eyeing both my brothers with interest the entire trip. Now she probably realized she’d been lusting after her cousins.

  “Oh, no,” she groaned, shaking her head. “I pulled a Maverick.”

  “Hey, I resent that,” the man in question answered.

  It was then I realized Astrid still didn’t know he was now a Blood Warlock. That was a conversation I figured could wait—for now, she was still too traumatized by everything that had happened—one more thing would probably be the straw that dropped the witch’s broom.

  Lorcan chuckled, peeling away from me to sit next to her on the couch. He patted her gently on the back, trying to look sympathetic, but mostly looking amused. She leaned into him like he was her favorite teddy bear and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in closer. It made something in my chest squeeze tight.

  He was so good with her. So good with everything in my life. It was hard to believe I’d been angry with him only a day ago.

  “You’re a teenager, love. We’re all just a bundle of screaming hormones until we get older and grow some sense. At your age, I chased anything in a skirt.”

  Not wanting to get into a long story about Lorcan and his womanizing past, I spoke up. “Besides, you had no idea you were related, Astrid,” I said with a laugh.

  “For the love of the goddess,” Hellcat intoned, glaring at Maverick, Astrid, and me. “You both should clean up. You smell of blood and sweat.”

  It was my turn to blush. We’d done a little cleanup at the scene, but it had largely been rushed first aid as we fled. Astrid had fallen unconscious before we’d even stepped inside the penthouse, but Maverick and I had stayed awake talking, if only for a little while. At least one of us should have thought to shower. Though, if I had to be honest with myself, I didn’t want to leave either of them alone, afraid they’d be kidnapped again by the time I got back. Maybe Maverick felt the same way.

  “Wanda,” a familiar voice said.

  I couldn’t help my smile when Poppy shouldered her way past the tight knot of vampires that blocked the door. She had several garment bags draped over one arm, but I only noticed as much in some cool, analytical part of my mind.

  Most of my focus was on the royal blue column gown she wore. It had an off-the-shoulder neckline and a ruched bodice. Poppy wasn’t quite the right dimensions for it, so her cleavage was a little daring in the tight bodice, but the gown was still lovely on her and echoed the beautiful blue of her eyes. It was also familiar because I’d made it last month.

  But what mostly grabbed my attention was that she seemed fully healed from the vampire attack. The wound on her head was completely gone, and she seemed to be full of vitality. Yep, Lorcan must have fed her his blood.

  She caught me looking and gave me a sheepish smile. “Scarlett explained that she paid for all of these outfits, but she used the names of some of her lesser witches so you wouldn’t catch on.”

  That made a certain amount of sense, I supposed, but it didn’t answer the pressing question. “That doesn’t explain why she gave them to you?” I asked. “We brought our own outfits for the Assembly tonight.”

  In answer, Poppy unzipped the top bag.

  It contained a barely there dress. Of the five Scarlett had commissioned, this one had been the most difficult to sew. It was an asymmetric crimson, charmeuse dress that gathered at one hip, exposing most of one leg to view. It was largely backless, and sported cutouts along the flanks. Overall, a tasteful tease. I’d been proud of it. Poppy lifted the hem so I could see that something had been added to the underside.

  It was subtle, at first, just a shade or two lighter than the original shade, so I had to lift the fabric up to the light to inspect it properly. But sure enough, there was new stitching added on the underside. Inexpert sewing, at that. I’d have been offended if I hadn’t spotted the pattern.

  “It’s a spell,” I said, too surprised to keep the observation to myself. “That’s...”

  Incredible really.

  I’d have never thought to enchant clothing this way. Written spell work was time-consuming but incredibly accurate. On the whole, though, witches tended to be a lazy bunch, passing along our secrets through demonstration and word of mouth, saving only the most coveted of our spell work for our Book of Shadows.

  Even Astrid hadn’t learned many written spells or magical theory, though that was mostly because I had limited access to that sort of thing. I’d never considered working spell craft into the detailing of a piece. Mostly because there was only one of me, and I didn’t have time to waste on that kind of thing.

  But if we emerged from this victorious, Maverick would be doing his time in my shop. Maybe he could do the detailing after I put the pieces together. Or vice versa. Hmm. It had possibilities.

  “What does it say?” Poppy asked.

  “It’s an ancient European spell designed to ward off witches,” I answered as I recognized the old verse. “Who are thou, Oh Witch, who seekest me? Thou hast taken the road, thou hast come after me. Thou hast sought me for my destruction, thou hast plotted evil against me. Thou hast encompassed me, thou hast sought me out. But I, by the command of the Queen Ishtar, am clothed in terror, am armed in fierceness, am arrayed with might and the sword. I make thee—”

  “Tremble,” Olga finished for me as she and Betanya walked into the room. “I make zee run afraid.”

  I nodded and gave them both a smile as the three of us began to repeat the spell: “I drive thee out, I spy thee out.”

  At the next part, I heard my own voice increase in volume as I realized how perfectly it applied to Mother. “I cause thy name to be known among men. I cause thy house to be seen among men. I cause thy spells to be heard among men. I cause thy evil perfumes to be smelt among men. I unclothe thy wickedness and evil and bring your sorceries to naught!”

  At the end of the spell, everyone was quiet for a few seconds as smiles and nods could be seen around the group of us.

  “A wise precaution,” Lorcan commented, watching as Hellcat leaped down from his perch so he could wind around William’s legs. My brother glanced down and actually smiled at the pest.

  “Abaddon, I’ve missed you, my friend,” William said.

  He had to have been the one who gave Hellcat his ridiculous name. Abaddon Pompington. Ugh. It was something a teenage warlock would think sounded impressive.

  Lorcan’s eyes went wide as he watched the interaction between William and Hellcat—he was clearly as shocked as I was.

  “Your mother will be on full alert,” Hellcat said as he faced me. “She will be waiting for you, Wanda.” I nodded as Hellcat continued. “Bindings usually take preparation far in advance, but your mother is nothing if not resourceful. I imagine she’s had a binding spell on standby this entire time, waiting to use it on you.”

  “She’ll be on guard at the Assembly tonight,” Maverick added with a nod.