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  “Good day,” said the fae girl at the bar counter. “Have a seat. I’m sure you’re tired. You must be trying to get to Etheria. What can I get for you?”

  “Your meatiest sandwich,” I said. “Do you have anything in the way of a good dark beer?”

  “Ah, yes.” She poured me a mug of beer as dark as chocolate. “You’re a familiar,” she said. “Where is your witch or warlock trying to send you? If you have come here, it seems you are having trouble reaching Etheria.”

  “Do you mean someone is trying to keep me out?”

  “It could be thus.” She sliced some hearty pieces of bread. “I can guess that you are interfering in higher powers and they have many layers of protection to shield themselves from lesser beings. They might not even know you exist, but your intentions are running into their protections.”

  “So I’m hitting a magical security system.”

  “Yes.” She gave me a grin with a twinkle in her green eyes. “This town exists to give you a place to land so you don’t wander the forest in circles. You might be stuck here for a while, if you don’t give up and go home.”

  “Is there a way to get past the security?” I sensed that I was walking into one of those tricky dealings that always happened when you started talking to the fae.

  “I can get you past but I need a little magic to use,” she said.

  “What do you need?” I said, already suspicious.

  “I just want a human witch’s kiss,” she said. “I know you have one. The magic from your witch will give me the power I need to get you through the barrier.”

  I hardened, no longer friendly. I hardly even wanted the sandwich. “No. Not that. Something else.”

  She sighed, sliding the plate in front of me. “I know you probably don’t trust the fae, but I must get power from somewhere if I’m going to push you past the Symposium’s barriers… You can’t just get more kisses?”

  “I don’t want to forget…any of them,” I said.

  “Is she that precious to you?” When I didn’t answer, she laughed. “Poor familiar!”

  “You’re a faery,” I said. “You don’t know anything about the sort of love humans have.” I took a big bite of the sandwich and shook my head to show that this conversation was done. I shouldn’t be talking about Charlotte to a faery girl. I definitely wasn’t giving up a kiss. There weren’t enough of them yet. Every memory with Charlotte…

  Should I give up a kiss?

  I didn’t trust faeries. And I wasn’t giving a kiss to some stranger. End of story.

  “If you change your mind, you know where to find me,” she said, with a tinge of regret.

  Damn hungry faeries. Trying to leech the power of Charlotte’s love. I didn’t actually hang out with faeries, but it was always said the faeries didn’t feel ‘low’ emotions naturally, the way humans did. They were too controlled for that awkward mixture of love and lust that came so readily to humans. It was entertainment for them to steal a kiss from me.

  I wouldn’t give up Charlotte’s kiss for a faery to be amused by it.

  What sort of trick is this?

  How can I get there? I’ve been walking for days, or maybe even weeks…

  Time didn’t flow the same way in Etherium, so when I tried to use Earth measurements for it, my head spun. What I really needed was a more experienced familiar who knew how to navigate this world.

  Would Blair’s familiar talk to me?

  Before I could find out, I heard Charlotte’s call, and I couldn’t help the way her summons in my head brought me to life. Firian! Firian, the vampires are here!

  As I slipped back into the Fixed Plane, I saw the faery girl at the bar shake her head, like she was thinking about what a poor sucker I was, but I just didn’t care.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Charlotte

  It was soon the time of the winter ball. I didn’t have any time to shop for dresses, but I guess I didn’t need to worry because whether I liked it or not, I had been adopted by Daisy. She called me ten days before the ball and when I picked up the phone she said, “Don’t hate me but I picked you a dress for the ball. You don’t have to wear it. But like, you do have to wear it. You don’t have a dress this good.”

  “Are you sure I’m not your poor friend?”

  “Do you have a dress already?”

  “I don’t have time to shop for dresses. I’m in school on an isolated mountain.”

  “So you’re not my poor friend, you’re my isolated friend. Anyway, you should never have showed me Ebay. My grandma is like, Daisy, is this another one of those Ebay things? So I need to buy more things and ship them to other people as gifts because she doesn’t pay attention to my credit card bills.”

  “I can’t say I really mind,” I said.

  “Okay, so you got all these sexy guys around, right? You want to look sexy. But you don’t want to like, lay it all out. I found just the right dress.”

  “That’s definitely true,” I said. “I do not want to lay it all out. There are a lot of not-sexy guys around too and they don’t deserve that much of me.”

  She laughed. “Well, you’ll get it soon. It’s a surprise. And I’ll see you in it and we’re going to knock the boys dead.”

  I had to admit, I was waiting anxiously for the mail. It was like I signed up for the Bored Rich Girl Subscription Box.

  As it turned out, Daisy arrived before the dress did. As soon as she got out of the car, I came out to say hello, and she gave me a big hug. I was still intimidated by her, but I was a hugger too, and it was always a relief to see another girl. “Hey girl, how’s the dress look?” she asked.

  “I don’t have it yet.”

  “Oh…”

  “Did they ship it priority mail?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” She paused. “I think it was coming from Italy.”

  “Italy! It’s probably not going to get here on time!”

  “Oh my god, I did not even think of that.” She snapped her fingers. “Well, you know, that’s fine. I brought a lot of clothes and we’ll just find you something.” Her driver was opening the large trunk of the car and bringing out an old luggage set in powder blue, the kind where none of it had wheels so the poor guy had to haul everything and it looked heavy.

  It was a busy day around campus, because just like last year, other witches were arriving in their own fancy cars. I recognized most of them now, and their little dogs. Daisy scoffed when she saw me looking at them. “Witches should not have dogs,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s rude to your familiar.” She took the smaller round bag from her driver and draped it on her shoulder, then took my arm and started strolling to the visitor housing. Her long, even, blue-tipped fingernails were impressive. I felt like a hick again. Gol darn, is that what a manny-cure looks like? “Cash would kill me if I had a dog. Where is your fox?”

  “Well, um—you know. I’m better with magic this year so he doesn’t need to be around as much.”

  “Ohh. Too bad. That little red fox didn’t need a fire spell to light the place up.” She nudged me.

  I so wanted to tell her how much I agreed with this.

  But I had this feeling that she was saying this stuff, but if I told her I had actually slept with him, the conversation would come to a screeching halt. I think she expected me to be like, He’s my familiar! Daisy! You’re so audacious!

  Instead I awkwardly went quiet for a second.

  Luckily, I guess, at that moment Harris came over and said, “What did you do to your nails?”

  “My friend did it,” Daisy said.

  “Isn’t that a bit bourgeois?”

  “Are you telling me what to do now?” Daisy’s expression turned to steel. “If we’re getting married, you are getting my magic in your family, and I will paste fucking diamonds on my nails if I want.”

  Harris shrugged one shoulder slightly. “Fine. Go ahead.”

  “I will.”

  Now a big silver Cadi
llac was coming through the gates just behind one of the witches and there was an immediate commotion among the security guards. “Stop! You are not authorized!”

  The car stopped. The door opened. A tall, fair-haired, Nordic god of a man stepped out of the passenger side. “I am here to see Montague Xarra and Harrison Nicolescu.”

  The security guys had pulled out guns. I guess that made sense; we were still sort of in the real world, so they would use guns before wands. That way if regular humans tried to intrude they wouldn’t see anything too strange.

  “State your names! You’re Sinistrals! You are not permitted on school grounds!”

  Professor Adams came hurrying over. By this time Daisy and I were joining the rest of the students in walking toward the commotion because clearly curiosity was much more important to the entire student body than danger.

  “My name is Rayner. I don’t want any trouble.”

  The other doors were opening.

  “It’s the vampires,” I breathed.

  “The vampires?” Daisy asked. “The ones who are going to help us with him?” She and Harris started walking toward the vampires.

  No thank you. I did not trust this at all. I started running for Lancelot House to warn Montague, as I called Firian back to my side.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Montague

  I looked out the window, but too many people had gathered around the car, plus a tree was in the way.

  They’re here.

  I shouldn’t feel at all ready to confront the men who had been in my visions, and I was pissed at Harris for agreeing to this. But I already knew him, and a part of me wanted to meet the man in person. I grabbed my favorite jacket and whipped my arms through the sleeves as I stormed toward the stairs.

  “You’re going to talk to them?” Charlotte sounded a little frantic. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if you look into their eyes and suddenly—like—you—”

  “It’s too late to worry over it,” I said, snapping the jacket straight. “I’m not leaving you, Char. But…he is my sire and…” I shook my head.

  Outside, everyone looked at me suspiciously and I felt a very clear sense of not belonging here anymore. Professor Adams was trying to calm everyone down while Professor McGuinness was yelling at Harris. “You invited these vampires to Merlin College!? You, of all people, are the last student who should do such a thing.”

  “I’ll explain,” Harris said. “In private.”

  Daisy was standing next to Harris but checking out the vampires over her shoulder.

  Rayner. I knew his face, I knew his name, and most of all, I knew his obsession.

  Still, in person, he was…intimidating.

  In appearance, all four vampires in Rayner’s clan looked young. I would guess Rayner had been about twenty-two when he died. Dark-haired warlock Silvus was the oldest, I was pretty sure, although Jie had been out in the sun more and he had some squint lines around his eyes. The fourth man, Thom, hadn’t really appeared in my memories yet, but Harris told me his name. I’m not sure Thom was any older than I was. There was still a hint of boyishness in him. What is it going to be like to look nineteen forever? I wondered. A thought I usually tried to avoid.

  But they were vampires. Their youthful faces couldn’t hide the years. No vampire lived to be five hundred without being clever and ruthless, and by now, looking at Rayner was like meeting eyes with a demon. He gave me the smallest of knowing smiles when I noticed him, and I was nearly frozen in my tracks.

  You could leave all this behind. The smile spoke to me. You could stop going to college, playing by their rules. You could see the world with us. We chose you.

  Master Blair and Stuart arrived on the scene now. “All right!” Master Blair waved a decorative walking stick around, forcing people out of the way. “Party’s over, back to your dorms or whatever. Go have fun with the witches. I’m taking care of this, gentlemen.”

  “So you’re the headmaster of this establishment?” Rayner said, as the other professors were now forcing the other students back.

  “Yes,” Master Blair said. “Ignatius Blair.”

  Jie chuckled. “That is such a warlock name.”

  “What do you want?” Master Blair asked. “Montague Xarra is one of us. He is under our protection.”

  “I’m looking for my girl,” Rayner said. “That’s all I really want. I might even be persuaded to let Montague stay here, if I can find her. Although it is a shame. I think Lisbeth would have liked you.” He looked at me.

  “I already have a girl,” I said.

  “You didn’t have a girl when you were turned,” Silvus said.

  Rayner waved his hand like it didn’t matter. “I think this demon called the Withered Lord might be hiding Lisbeth from me, just to toy with me. Harris, here, said he and his fiancee also have business with the same demon. He said he would help us with the demon if we left Montague alone. I’m pretty amenable as long as I get what I want.”

  “You made a deal with vampires?” Master Blair asked Harris. “That seems…unwise.”

  “It wasn’t ‘unwise’,” Daisy said. “He did it for me.”

  I was pretty sure he actually did it for Charlotte, but…

  “I would team up with anyone to defeat the demon who murdered my parents for fun,” Daisy said. She looked over the vampires again with a little nod and twirled her hair around her finger. “I would definitely team up with this lot.”

  “How do you plan to team up to defeat a high demon?” Master Blair asked.

  “Well, we would need to discuss it, now, wouldn’t we?” Silvus said. “But Rayner is one of the oldest vampires around. That should be proof enough that we won’t do anything stupid. Our weakness, if we have one, is that we can’t perform holy spells, and this boy here is perfect. And Miss Pendleton, being a diviner… Well, they already made the offer. What is Harris to you? A student at your…establishment?” He glanced around.

  “We don’t really want to hurt any of you,” Jie said. “We just want to kill our enemies and find our woman. If we have to let Montague go to get there, it’s fine with me.” I got the feeling Jie didn’t care if I joined Team Rayner.

  Well, then. I didn’t like him either.

  “Your parents don’t know about this,” Master Blair said to Harris.

  “No, and I’d rather they didn’t. I’m an adult.”

  “They’re paying your tuition.”

  “You can’t tell them,” Daisy said. “They’ll stop him. But the council let my parents down when they decided not to avenge their deaths, Master Blair, and Harris is trying to help me while saving his friend’s ass. You can teach him to do magic here, but this shit right here is building his character.”

  “Smart witch,” Rayner said.

  Charlotte said in a softer voice, “I want to take out the Withered Lord too. I know I’m not ready, but…my mom.”

  “I understand that, Charlotte, but this is serious. Very serious. You are just young witches and warlocks. You can’t kill a demon. These vampires are exploiting you.”

  “All right, then,” Rayner said. “In that case, we are taking Montague. Because if I don’t release him from my control, you know it won’t matter anyway.” His eyes moved to mine again. Blue and so compelling. They said vampires could seduce the pants off anyone, and right now I believed it. I wanted to do whatever he said. “You are drawn to me. You’ve been seeing my memories. You’ve been seeing Lisbeth. And if I don’t release you…your future is quite pleasurable. It has nothing to do with this place or these children. It is with us.”

  Charlotte gripped my hand and gave it a little shake. I tore my eyes from Rayner.

  “The Withered Lord does have Emily,” Stuart said.

  “Stuart! We’re supposed to be taking care of our students!” Master Blair frowned. “Talk,” he said. “I won’t stop you.”

  Rayner glanced over my friends like they were amusing pets he was briefly brushing by during his long existence. Then he
looked at me again, his eyes luring me just like before. Every fiber of my being seemed to sense that this man was my lord.

  I didn’t like it. I didn’t have a fucking lord. But no matter how I tried to shake it off, the feeling persisted. It felt sort of like falling in love, but with someone you know is absolutely terrible for you.

  “Let’s talk,” Rayner said.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Charlotte

  No one had prepared me for how scary really old vampires could be.

  Well, okay, maybe like, TV had tried. There’s always a part where first you meet the hottie vampires, and they seem dangerous, but they’re really just hot, and then the older vampires show up and then it’s like, oh damn, here are the really dangerous vampires.

  But in the end usually they’re also just hot.

  Maybe this was why Daisy didn’t seem intimidated by them. If I passed Rayner on the street, I would still notice him. I would wonder if he was a model and then I would wonder if he was a serial killer. He just had that look. Intense pale eyes. A smile that sucked you in and made you wary at the same time.

  “So you’re Monty’s sire?” Daisy asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So that means you’re the oldest vampire in the line?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened to the vampire who turned you?”

  “I killed him,” Rayner said. “I didn’t like being under someone else’s control. That’s why I am a good master. I’m not giving these fine gentlemen any reason to want to kill me. I don’t want to give Montague any reason either.”

  “Hm. I have considered killing him more times than I can count,” Silvus said.

  “But you haven’t done it yet,” Rayner said.

  “Let’s talk at the Excalibur Theater,” Harris said. “We’ll have privacy. Unfortunately, we don’t have a proper meeting room for student usage, as the classrooms are all occupied.”