Page 68 of Hell to Slay

“But then we both distracted you,” I said, kissing the top of her head.

Mel winked. “A twin sandwich is definitely an effective distraction, if you ever find yourselves needing to keep me distracted again.”

I pulled her against me, letting her feel how much the thought of those times together got me going all over again. Maybe it was because of how worried I’d been over Mel, but I suddenly wanted her all over again. Sinking into her and seeing her eyes light up with pleasure would reassure me she was fine.

But Mel kept talking, and I refocused my attention on her words instead of my raging boner.

She spoke faster with her excitement. “So, I think if we all shared blood, and we did it all at once, with each of us biting each other, it might all click into place, and the dam will come down, and our magic will mingle like it wants to. It didn’t work earlier because it wasn’t all of us together at once.”

“Like it wants to?” Hudson asked.

“Our magic is already mingling, isn’t it?” I asked. “We’re a coven and covens share a pool of magic.”

The timer dinged, and I turned the casserole around in the oven to make sure it would reheat evenly.

“We are and we do,” Mel nodded. “When we were separated and the two of you were drawing from our reservoir to stay alive, you were definitely using magic that Nico and I had generated. But you still drew it through your own individual channel. I think we can join even more completely.”

“What exactly would that look like?” Hudson asked.

Mel shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. But I’m dying to find out. Aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Nico glanced over at me. “But let’s eat first, huntress.”

I instantly appreciated what he was trying to do. As always, he was protecting Mel in his own way.

He just needed someone else to put it into words, so I added, “You need your strength before any of us bite you again, kitten.”

“And we can test your theory once our reservoir is topped up,” Hudson added.

Once the casserole was ready, Mel devoured it like a woman possessed. I wasn’t offended that she barely seemed to taste it because I was just glad that she was okay, and that I could provide this for her. I helped her feel better.

At the time, I’d been annoyed at Hudson for taking me away from her while she slept, but this was totally worth it.

I always thought of him as my brother first and a coven-mate second, but this was proof of how well we worked in a coven together. As a teen and a young witch, I never would’ve imagined myself being in a coven with him. Not when I’d spent so much of my life trying to prove how different we were.

But Mel liked each of us for who we were. Other than that one disastrous time, she’d never gotten us confused for one another. And she never treated us like twins. She treated us like individuals. I loved that about her.

As soon as Mel cleaned her plate, she sat back and said, “I think we should each cut ourselves so that we can be sure that each of us has tasted the blood of all three of our other coven-mates.” She gestured at Hudson and Nico. “You two especially. I don’t think you’ve shared blood at all.”

“We’ll try it,” Hudson said, leading the way into the front room.

Tempest got up from the couch, her shadowy tail unfurling as lightning flickered through it.“Mel is wise. You should form a circle.”

“We’re doing this now?” I asked.

“You have somewhere you need to be?” Mel teased.

“In your bed, with you.”

“Later,” she promised. “This is important.”

She’d piqued my curiosity, and now I wanted to know if she was right, if this would change our magic somehow. I certainly didn’t see how it could hurt. So, I went to stand across from Hudson. Mel and Nico flanked me on either side.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, manifesting a blade. As the other three did the same, I realized how similar this felt to a coven ceremony. This was blood magic, powerful magic, and none of us could predict what might happen. There had never been a coven like ours before. We were witches, but we were also more than that. We were vampires, and blood magic was part of our very beings now.

Nico stared across the circle at Mel. “Remember what you promised.” Then he drew the blade across his wrist.

I narrowed my eyes, glancing between the two of them, wondering exactly what that meant.

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