Page 78 of The Royal Street Witch
“What’d you do? Put a love spell on him? Make your pussy call his name?”
It happens before I can stop it—I spit on his face. Cassius is seething with rage now, but Franklin only laughs. A leathery finger wipes the bubbles of saliva from his cheek, placing it on his tongue.
“Yummy,” he chortles, turning around, screaming, “I HATE THE GARDEN FUCKING DISTRICT!”
And then he’s gone. And all that’s left is Nicola’s rage. A smack lands across Bastian’s cheek, so hard his whole face turns from the blow.
“You knew about this?” she screams at Cassius, and he just crosses his arms.
“Unfortunately.”
“Get out!” Nicola screams at me, and if she touches me…
Bastian turns to me, grabbing both of my hands and bringing them to his lips, and I hear Nicola’s voice. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she cries, but I keep my eyes on Bastian’s.
“Go up to my room. Let me speak to my mother.”
That’s not a conversation I want to take part in, so I nod, purposely avoiding Cassius’s and Nicola’s glares. I dart up the stairs.
THE DOOR SLAMS BEHIND MEand I just lean against it, taking deep, deep breaths, my lungs filling with cement, my feet sliding from under me. Franklin’s going to tell everyone. My mother, Chantal, Aunt Violetta and Rosemary—every witch alive that I’ve consorted with the enemy. I can lie, I can say it’s not true. And they don’t know about the potion, please don’t let them know about the potion. Hopefully I can be forgiven for sleeping with a vampire, but creating a potion is unforgiveable. They don’t have to know it’s more than just sex, that it’s the wildest love I have ever known, and I want to weep in my hands but Mercury fills them instead, meowing repeatedly as if to comfort me, to tell me it will be okay.
It hits me that I’ve lost my job, my most major source of income, and how will I explain to my mother that it will be okay? That my home is paid off? That I don’t have to worry about that income? I hated it anyway, I hated it and I could for a moment feel hope but I’m cloaked in worry and I can only hope that Bastian is okay downstairs with his brother and mother.
But Aunt Violetta’s cut; oh God she’s going to kill me. What am I going to do? I’m one of the most powerful creatures on earth yet still bend to the will of vampires and old witches. And even though they cannot drink from me, they are sucking the life out of me.
I pace, praying that it will be okay. I consider eavesdropping, listening in on the conversation, but I don’t want to hear it, so I walk into the bathroom and fill the bath with steaming water and lavender and that’s where I stay until my fingers are wrinkled.
Finally, the door creaks open, and there he is.
He moves slowly, so very slowly for a vampire, and I sit up quickly, water swooshing over the tub. He sits on the edge, raising a knee up in front of me, his black sweats sopping up the water. The silence attacks my ears and I look for signs that he’s been hurt or crying, but instead his mouth curls into a grin and he leans down and grabs both sides of my face.
“We are free.”
I grab his wrists and let his head fall on mine, a relief taking over him.
“How? In what way?”
He pulls his head off mine, aventurines meeting my eyes, and contentedly shakes his head. “My mother worked out a deal with Franklin. I am excommunicated and you don’t have to make potions anymore. We can do as we please. We don’t have to abide by any ancient agreement.”
I stand, a rush filling me, a fire blazing at my feet. Stepping out of the tub, I grab my towel and wrap it around my body. “What does excommunication mean for vampires?” I sit next to him, hair slicked back, water dripping down my chest.
“I can’t work at the bar anymore. I can’t take part in any vampire activities. I am supposed to be shunned, go into hiding, live my life in seclusion for the rest of my days. But my mother will never seclude me, and I don’t have a big circle. I just started working at the bar again. I do collect from the family earnings and that is supposed to cease, but I have my own fucking money, I don’t need it. Since this is a family home, I will have to walk away from it.”
“Okay, I guess that’s not so bad,” I say, clutching my towel.
“There’s one more thing, what will hurt the most.”
“What?” I ask, my breathing frozen.
“I have to leave New Orleans.”
And that’s when my jaw drops and my hand falls to my lap.
“Bastian,” is all I can say.
He grabs my hand, rubbing his thumb along my skin. “I know. But there’s a beautiful world out there and I can show it to you.”
I shake my head. So many changes in a matter of hours. I was just sitting on the porch, thinking about going back to my life, and now it’s all flipped upside down.
