Page 2 of Bite of Passage
“Fine.”She fiddled with a miniature caldron.“Maybe I should use the dating app again.I haven’t hooked up in a long time.”
“I thought you quit online stuff after the time you bribed the waiter to spill wine on you so you could leave early?”Val cast her a side glance with compressed lips as if trying not to laugh.“That was the guy whose wife called him in the middle of your date, wasn’t it?”
“Dating sucks.”She sagged against the counter and took a delicate sip of her drink.“Have you got any friends you can hook me up with?”
“You’re too much for them.”
“How is that possible if they’re into all this?”She waved her plastic cup toward the shelves that housed glass jars of herbs and supplies for “spiritual bathing.”
“The few witchy guys I know are too gentle, more into tantric stuff.You need someone a bit more hardcore.”
“I’m not into BDSM.”
“Ever tried?”
Her face flashed hot.She recalled her accidental foray into a frat party in college with a BDSM theme.She might’ve had too many beers before she discovered it wasn’t her thing.
“I think I need some details on whatever's going on in your head.But no, I didn’t mean that extreme.I meant someone confident in the bedroom.You want the full package—romance, love, and hot sex.You’ll never find the kind of connection you read about in your romance books without a little help.”
“I don’t want magical help.I’m realistic.I’m okay finding part of the package so long as he’s not a psycho.Confident in the bedroom works.I can rely on fiction to fulfill my dream of the whole package.”She grinned.“Tell me you have the second DVD with you, so I can watch it tonight.”Val had lent her the first DVD of theLegacy of Magicfantasy series yesterday.No one used DVDs anymore, but Gemma was lucky to find an old external disc player at a thrift store that would hook into her computer.Apparently, this series wasn’t available any other way.It couldn’t be found streaming or on any resale market.She tried to find it everywhere.After the few episodes she already saw, she needed to watch all eight episodes.
“Is Skarde Blackmann your type?A vampire?”Val made a sucking sound with her teeth.In a poorly executed Scottish accent she said, “He’ll want to drink ye blood, wee lassie.”
“That was the worst impersonation of his accent.”She put a hand across her heart dramatically.“I’d die happy if his low, accented voice was the last thing I heard.”
“It might be the last thing you ever hear if you let him bite you.”Val’s sharp tone sounded more like a warning than sarcastic.
Gemma shrugged it off.“I might let him bite…in bed.”
Skarde, a loner and emotionally remote vampire, roamed his medievalesque fantasy world as a sword-for-hire to fight monsters even when he himself was considered one.The vampire was a brutal killer who never hesitated to do the tough thing, whether it was killing someone infected by evil or fighting dirty to survive.If someone needed a necromancer destroyed or a demon-possessed priestess dispatched, or a mage terrorist executed, people paid Skarde to fix the problem.He claimed he did it for the money, but she thought he liked killing.
“Stop staring at me like I’m nuts to crush on the monster hunter.”Gemma hid behind a big sip of margarita.“He’s hot.At least, the actor that plays him is.I’m not into being bitten—in the bedroom.I was kidding.”
“I knew you’d like that show, even if it isn’t the least bit romantic.You know the symbol they use for the logo for the series is a rune that means chaos.”
“It should be a romance.Skarde needs love.The guy hooks up a lot, but he’s so alone.”She picked up the black salt Val gave her.“I need the next disc in the series.I need to know what happens to him.”
Val leaned across the counter, waving a disc case in the air.“I never watched these four episodes.The show wasn’t my thing, and I quit after the first disc.My aunt said this last disc of episodes is unique—it’ll make you believe in magic.Maybe even help you find your own.”
“It’s a fantasy TV series that never made it to prime time.Does the show pause in the middle for a magic infomercial?”
Val shrugged.“Promise me you’ll only watch one episode a day—the series ends after these four, so you’ve got to savor them.”
Note to self: return the DVD in five days.Binge watching would happen tonight.
“I wonder why the show only made eight episodes.Maybe it didn’t make it big because of its documentary filming style.The budget to make it so realistic must’ve been huge.”
“There’s no chance for more.”Val seemed to watch her carefully.
“That’s too bad.”
“How badly do you want soul deep love?”She lit a smoking stick and waved it in her direction.The witch wannabe scared Gemma a little when she got like this.
“Where’s this coming from?I want to watch the TV show and hear more of the hot guy’s accent.Maybe I'll get a glimpse of his naked ass again.It’ll be the thrill of my week.”She waved smelly smoke away from her face.“What're you doing?If you’re casting something on me, stop it.”
Val continued a circular motion with the smoking stick.“Strong love, eternal love, will rock you to your bones, but it comes at a cost.When it finds you, you must pay its price or lose it.”
ChapterTwo
