Page 47 of The Vampire's Seduction

Her heart jumped to her throat as a vampire flew past her window, so close she felt she might reach out and touch it. If she tilted her face the right way, she caught the reflective, almost invisible sheen of the electromagnetic field that allowed vampires out in the sun, but only in Vegas.

As a peacekeeping measure, it was rumored the vampires had agreed to use this technology only in Vegas.

Someone knocked, with Tristan announcing, “Andrea is here.”

“Let her in.”

Her door slid open with a whoosh. Andrea sauntered in with a smile, her braid swinging over one shoulder, a tote bag on the other. It looked heavy, and Olivia swore she sensed a force vibrating inside.

“Hello. You look better today,” Andrea said.

Olivia returned her smile. “Thanks. How was your day?”

“Meh.” Andrea shrugged. “Too many vampires for my taste.”

“Well, thank you for coming to Vegas with me.” Olivia nodded at the bag. “Is that the book?”

“Yep. I assume that’s why you called me? You wanted the spell?”

“Yes. I’d like to find it as soon as possible.”

“Let’s get started then.”

Andrea strode to the sofa and pulled out the thick book. Three inches thick, with crumbling yellow pages bound together with a metal clasp, it thudded loudly as she dropped it onto the coffee table. The edges were raised with twisted rose vines. The symbol on the center hasn’t changed, with the ruby atop a staff wrapped in twisty vines carved in gold.

The tug on her strengthened, and Olivia swallowed. She reached out, unable to resist. The moment her fingers brushed the raised edge, a sense of belonging, of homecoming, flooded her, along with a sense of inexplicable rightness, like she’d been waiting for it her whole life.

She lifted her hand and hesitated. What was she doing? She’d dedicated her life to science, yet here she was, about to open a mysterious book some stranger gave her.

“What’re you waiting for? Open it,” Andrea urged, her eyes alight with excitement of discovery.

“What is it?” Olivia asked, keeping her hand on her knee with effort.

“It’s a witch’s grimoire. A book of spells.”

Swallowing, Olivia flicked the metal clasp, which clicked open without resistance. When her gaze met Andrea’s, the woman gave her an encouraging nod. She gingerly lifted the thick cover.

On the first page, drawn in vivid color, was the same symbol, with green leaves on the vines and blood-red roses. Beneath it were three words written in mahogany brown ink, or they might be words. The square, stocky, straight lines that didn’t look like any language she knew.

Olivia flipped to the next page. It was blank. Confused, she thumbed through a few more. All blank. There was nothing else in the entire spellbook.

“Where’s the spell?” she asked, accusation tainting her voice.

“Hmm, let me see.” Andrea lifted the book and evaluated it from all angles with pursed lips. She finally returned to the first page with the staff symbol and muttered, “I wonder…”

“What?” Olivia asked. “What is it?”

“I think there’s another spell protecting its contents,” Andrea said, her fingers running over the foreign words.

“Do you know what it says?”

“No, but let’s check.” Andrea grabbed her phone out of her back pocket and snapped a picture of the page with her camera. The camera clicked, but the photo showed an empty page.

“That’s weird,” Andrea mumbled. “Maybe something’s wrong with my phone. Try yours?”

Olivia grabbed her phone off the charging station to take the picture. The same thing happened. They glanced at one another, brows furrowed.

“You know,” Andrea said thoughtfully. “Witch families are protective of their grimoires, so they wouldn’t want anyone to be able to copy the contents. I bet you that’s why we can’t take pictures.”

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