Page 76 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

“Unless…” Tinsley added hesitantly.

“Yes?”

She sighed and made a face like she didn’t know how to proceed. “Um, have you two, perhaps…” She raised a suggestive eyebrow. “You know?”

It took a second, but then it dawned on me what she was asking. I blushed. “Oh. Uh, yeah, actually. A couple nights ago.”

“Condom or no?”

Jeez, it was getting super-personal. “No condom. I’m on birth control, and, uh.” I shrugged helplessly. “It was pretty spur-of-the-moment. Didn’t really think about it.”

“Perfect!” She clapped her hands together. “His DNA will be in you. Your body will have absorbed anything that didn’t, you know, leak out.”

“Good God, there is a lot of talk about bodily fluids today,” I said in disgust.

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. I’ll just need a little blood from you. That should do it.”

We were really going to do this. It was happening. Fear swirled in my stomach. I wondered if it would hurt. She’d said it would drain me, but I wasn’t sure what all would happen.

“I’ll whip up this special tea potion for this Eren guy,” Tinsley said. “While I do that, do you want to go down the block and grab us some lunch? There’s a great Middle-Eastern place that makes the best falafel flatbread sandwiches you’ve ever had.”

“That sounds good,” I agreed. “And I could use the fresh air.”

I left, taking deep breaths as I walked to the restaurant. By the time I returned, Tinsley was finishing up, whispering some kind of words over a small pot of a dark green boiling liquid. We ate as it cooled, and then she bottled it in a glass jar, tightening the lid.

“From everything I’ve read this, stuff has a ninety-percent success rate,” she said. “Your problem guy should be shooting with full ammo soon as long as he uses this the right way. He needs to drink half of this at midnight and the other half at sunrise. The next day, he needs to sleep no more than seven hours but no less than six. I’m glad we have modern alarm clocks,” she added. “Makes that part much easier. After that, he’s good to go. It’s gonna taste like shit, so warn him first. If he spits it out, it won’t work.”

“Got it,” I said, tucking the sealed jar into my purse.

“The next part, for the curse, is going to be more difficult. I told you it was tough. It needs a ton of ingredients.” She gestured toward the door. “Go ahead and close up. This is gonna take some time.”

Once the door was locked and the “closed” sign put up, Tinsley pulled out a much larger pewter bowl and placed it on an electric burner. The first thing she placed in it was a few tablespoons of red wine, followed by the contents of a jar. It looked like clear liquid.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Sea water. Specifically, water from the Dead Sea. The high salt content will help bind the potion.”

“You just randomly have Dead Sea water lying around?”

Tinsley grinned at me. “Wait until you see what else goes in this thing.”

She was right. The number and breadth of ingredients were startling. Dried frog liver, powdered bone from a cobra’s skull, my hair and blood, of course, and what looked suspiciously like a desiccated human finger. The smell was, for want of a better description, fucking awful.

Once she’d put my blood and hair in the cauldron, it was as if an invisible string formed between me and the potion. Almost immediately, I could feel magic draining out of me. Tinsley was doing the heavy lifting when it came to the incantations and ingredients, but I was the one fueling the magic within.

“One final bit,” Tinsley said, pulling out a packet of white powder. “Don’t tell anyone about this. It’s only used for spells.”

“What is that?”

“Erm, well… this is gonna sound weird, so don’t freak. It’s pure cocaine.”

“What the fuck?”

“Relax. It’s the coca leaf. It was used in South America for magic and ceremonies for centuries before the drug dealers got involved. Powerful magical plant. It’s what will give this the strength to break down a curse as powerful as the one your great-grandmother created.”

“I guess,” I said, eyeing the powder as she sprinkled it into the cauldron.

As the magic drained out of me, I felt dizzy, almost like I’d gone a few days without eating. Across from me, Tinsley looked pretty green as well—the spell must have begun pulling magic out of her, too. It went on that way for another ten minutes.

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