Page 27 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Four

I’m in the thickness of the woods where the night is still clinging to the shadows. The boughs of the hardwoods creak above me as the wind shifts. We’re not far off from autumn now and the air already smells crisper as the leaves start their change and the ground grows colder night by night.

And thinking of autumn has me thinking of the Autumn Court.

My little mouse will be hunted by them before too long, if they get their way.

I am reminded of Damian’s warning on that desolate country road just a few days ago.

If the gate were to be opened again... Here, we’re kings. But standing against one of the princes from the Unseelie Court? We would not measure up.

I wanted to help Mouse identify her origins. There is no way to embrace your power when you don’t even know who you are.

But this...this was never on the list of possibilities. How the fuck am I to protect Mouse from the entire Unseelie Court?

Before the fear takes over, I push it away. Another problem for another time.

“Renshaw border spell?” Bianca guesses, pulling me from my reverie.

I pace in a circle beneath the canopy of an oak tree. “Yes.”

“They’ll have perimeter markers holding the spell in place. Trees or rocks. Look for carvings or paintings of symbols. Renshaws tend to grip the darker side of magic so you’ll likely see primitive runes.”

I dart back to the property line where the air shifts again, sensing an intrusion, and I start a path along the perimeter. When I find a carving in an old maple, I relay the rune to Bianca—intertwined V’s with a circle in the center.

“Okay...”

I hear her hesitation. “What is it?”

“Well...that’s an easy one to undo, is all. How old is the cut?”

I can smell the tang of fresh wood on the air. “Hours maybe.”

“Hmmm.”

“Spit it out, witch.”

“This might be a trap.”

“And?”

“And I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t warn you of it.”

“Just tell me how to undo it.”

“You’ll need to break it. Anything will do, but you’ll not want to touch it.”

I scan the forest floor and find a stone about the size of a grapefruit. Picking it up, I pace back several yards and set the phone on a fallen log.

“You’ll want to be sure the entire symbol is destroyed,” Bianca goes on.

I toss the rock up and catch it again, testing its weight.

“I wouldn’t try a knife,” Bianca says, “because you’ll still be connected to it through metal—”

I cock my arm back and throw the rock like a baseball.

It’s flying so fast, the air whistles and when it hits the mark, a loud crack echoes through the forest as the tree trunk explodes.

The canopy shudders overhead and the tree wavers, no longer able to support its weight with half the trunk missing.

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