Page 53 of Cocktails & Cauldrons

“I miss you, too, my darling girl.”

Fearful of losing control of her bladder, Brenna crossed her legs and inched her head around to the right to see the spirit of her gran sitting serenely in a chair by the main door.

“I’ve lost my fucking mind,” Brenna whispered.

“Don’t swear, Brenna Marie!”Gran scolded with a narrowed-eyed glare.

Frozen to the spot, Brenna could only stare. Only Gran could affect that look and tone. “You’re really here, aren’t you? How is that possible?”

A warm smile lit Gran’s face, and her eyes crinkled with amusement.“You conjured me, darling.”

“But how?”

“You wished for me. And like Damian said and I informed you in my journal, you have the power to call your ancestors to you at any time.”

“I can always talk to you this way?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose if I have to give up Eoin, having you again is the next best thing,” Brenna said on a soft sob.

“Why would you have to give him up, darling?”

“Aunt Odessa cursed us, and even if she hadn’t, according to you”—she held up the journal—“the men we love have extremely short lives.”

“That’s not a reason to shun love, Brenna Marie. It’s a reason to embrace it.”

“He deserves to have a long, happy life, Gran. To create his incredible art and fall in love and have children if he wants to. To see those children grow to adulthood.”

The compassion on her grandmother’s face nearly broke Brenna.“So do you, my darling girl.”

“But I won’t, will I? I could give in to the darkness, and any child of mine runs the risk of turning into a Succubus like nearly all the women in our family before her.” She inhaled a shuddering breath. “Should I give my power over to the Aether, end all this here and now? I thought I might want to keep it, but I’m unsure now.”

“Only you can decide, but as you now know, your mother didn’t survive the process. You will need to weigh that into your decision-making.”By her tone, Gran relayed she didn’t believe it was a wise idea, and Brenna had to wonder if it was the worry of her death or that she wanted Brenna to continue as she was, magical powers intact.

“Aunt Odessa really is an evil bi—uh, witch, isn’t she?”

“In this case, I’ll allow bitch. And yes, she is. Or rather, the monster inside her is.”Gran sighed and rose to her feet to cross and look out over the expanse of manicured lawn.“I helped her maintain her youthful vitality, feeding her small bits of my magic to keep her Succubus happy. I didn’t know she was trying to syphon off your power and was still taking the lives of others at the same time. A little was never going to be enough for her.”

“You wrote that you intended to confront her and that you worried she’d try to kill you so she could continue as she was. That was your last entry.” Brenna swallowed hard. “She did, didn’t she?”

“Yes. I woke with a feeling that I needed to check on you, and I caught her performing an enchantment over your bed. Even as a young girl, your abilities were great, and that power called to her monster.”Gran turned and faced her.“She was stronger than I was, both physically and magically, because I’d let her bleed me almost dry that morning.”

“Oh, Gran!” Pressing her palm to her breast, Brenna shook her head and swallowed down her grief. “Why didn’t she kill me, too?”

“You are her battery, darling. To kill you would be to slowly kill herself.”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t she just continue to seduce...” A lightbulb went off in Brenna’s head, and with it came understanding. “Ah, I get it now. She’s aging. As a woman of her advanced years, she can’t lure the same quantity of people to her bed.”

“Smart girl.”

“It’s why she snuck into Eoin’s hotel room, isn’t it? To sing and steal while he was in a dream state.”

“Yes. A tactic she employed many times, I discovered… after our purchase of the hotel chains.”

“And the dream I had of you that night. That was really you waking me and urging me to save Eoin from herseduction. You knew how I felt about him.”

“Yes.”

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