Epilogue

Epilogue

Ichecked out my fangs in Mum’s bathroom mirror, beautiful pointed and white. They looked perfect. I was still getting used to the fact they were so much more pronounced now. I was grinning at myself. No doubt the novelty would last a long time to come. Quite possibly for ever.

“They do really suit you,” Mum said.

“Thanks.”

She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and landed a kiss on my cheek.

“Such a shame I can’t make you any lovely jam sandwiches anymore.”

As it turns out, I wouldn’t want any jam sandwiches anymore. The very first moment I’d tasted blood, I was done for. The cravings were intense. Merlot had nothing on it, jam had nothing on it, and neither did rare steak; there wasn’t anything that could compare to the insane taste of rich red life, fresh from the vein.

Hans had been keeping us close to the blood house. I’d been sucking at Sarah’s neck so many times these past few weeks that I’d lost count. Hans and I had been having the time of our lives.

I wondered if he was taking a nip at Daniel while Edwin watched on, over at the manor, quenching his thirst a little as I embarked on my first ever Herefordshire coven adventure.

Maybe I’d take a nip of Daniel myself when I got back…

“It’s definitely at the Garway community hall tonight?” Mum asked me, interrupting my thoughts.

“Yeah, it is.”

“But you still don’t know who is going to be there?”

“Nope. I have no idea. I can’t wait for the surprises.”

It had been almost a full month since the night in Garway church when I’d become an immortal, and the full moon was glowing bright outside. It was time for the witches to be meeting, and I – Katherine Blakely, of the long line of Orcop witches – was about to reveal myself as the ninth of them. The spring was in full flow and I was the latest in the family tree, about to take my place amongst the coven.

“Almost time,” I said, and Mum took a breath.

“Are you ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I checked out my hair in the mirror, and smoothed down my dark green dress. I was paler now than ever as a vampire. My hair looked a lot, lot darker for it, and my eyes were hazel with a glow.

I was nervous as I walked down the stairs, the tension growing inside me as Mum got her car keys ready to drive me to Garway community hall. I felt like I was back to being a teenager driven around by a parental chauffeur, but it was nice these days. Our bond was growing stronger every day.

Just a shame Grandma didn’t want to be a part of it. She’d disappeared off down south to some kind of holy refuge centre, no doubt preaching about us being sinners. Oh, the joy of a disjointed family.

On that note, I shot Mum a glance as I slipped into the passenger seat.

“Have you heard from him today?”

She blushed like she was even younger than I was. Her cheeks were bright pink, even in the dark. I could feel the heat from them. I could hear her heart thumping fast.

“Who?” she asked, but I laughed at her.

“You know who!”

She shrugged. “Yeah, a little. We’ve been messaging.”

“A little? Right. Yeah, sure.”

I knew she was underplaying it. Her grin made it obvious, not to mention I could feel the joy coming off her.

Who’d have ever thought that my dad would be dating my mum again after eighteen years apart? They could play it cool all they wanted, but it was a facade. Both of them wanted to end up together. Mum couldn’t stop blushing as soon as Dad’s name was mentioned, and Dad lit up like a beacon at the word Serena every time I’d seen him in London. They were as much fated mates as me and Hans were.

I could only imagine the weirdness of going out on double dates.

Maybe one day…

“Are you still spending a lot of time with him?” Mum asked.

“Yeah. He’s nice.”

“You’d hope so. He’s your father.” She paused. “You look more like him now you have those fancy teeth, you know?”

I grinned to show them off. She was right. Everyone said it. I definitely looked like the daughter of the occult master of Britain, and I’d definitely inherited some traits from him. I was lucky to have been born of two bloodlines with such complementary talents.

Dad was quite a character, and I was still getting used to him. Serious, people called him, and they weren’t lying. He was a very stern man on the outside, but I could see through that to his tender heart. Literally. I could see it beating when he was in the same room. It was a strong one. If I wasn’t his daughter, I’d have probably wanted a shot of it.

Before I knew it, we were pulling into Garway community hall, the lights glowing out of the windows.

There were five other cars there…

Five. Hmm. Ok.

I took a breath, staring at the doorway. There were people already in there, I could feel them. But there were eight of them, not five.

I could hear all eight beating hearts.

“Wish me luck,” I said to Mum, grabbing my bag from the back seat.

“You won’t need luck,” she said. “They’ll be so pleased to meet you. But have some good luck, just in case.”

“Thanks, Mum.”

“Ping me a thought when you need a lift back.”

I will, thanks, I thought as I walked away, knowing full well she could hear me. It was another great thing about being a witch with a witch for a mother. Mobile phones could get stuffed.

I arrived at the entrance to the hall and took another deep breath.

So, here goes nothing…

I pushed open the doors as Mum drove away, and my undead heart was pounding like crazy. I felt like I was stepping into some kind of trial – a newbie schoolgirl entering a schoolyard, with no idea who I’d meet. I was probably the most skittish vampire in the world right then.

I tried to be a psychic about the group and who was a part of it, but I had no chance. Even with my skills, the walls had been wrapped up tight with not an inkling in sight. I guessed these witches were good at it.

I didn’t bother calling out a hello before I entered the main hall, somehow summoning up the courage to walk on in tall.

Sure enough, there were a circle of chairs laid out in the middle of the social room.

Nine seats in total, with one empty one right in front of me. The other eight were filled, and eight smiling faces looked right at me, without so much as a hint of shock.

They’d been expecting me.

I took my seat on the plastic chair like it was a crochet club meeting and cast my eyes around the group, trying to get a measure of them. And of course… I laughed out loud, honestly, because it was too obvious to be true.

My stupid guesses about local witches hadn’t been stupid guesses at all.

There was Edna who walked her old Labrador every morning through Orcop village, and the goth girl who lived at the old pub in Garway, with the faded sun tarot card as a tavern sign. And there too was Amy, who everyone knew as the crystal healing lady.

There was Jenny from the post office, and her cousin Jacqueline who lived with her at Hillside Farm, and the very elderly woman, Geraldine, from the apartment above the egg farm, who sometimes drove through the village in her electric wheelchair, even though she must have been going on 90.

And there were another two I couldn’t place. They must have been sisters. Identical twins with long blonde hair down to their waists. New to the area, as far as I knew.

In the middle of the circle of chairs was an altar draped in a cloth of squares, and on the top stood a burning candle, a dagger, a wand and a pentagram. The beautiful smell of musk incense felt like a powerhouse.

“Hi,” I said to them all, and they all grinned along with me. “How long have you known it was me? How long have you known I was the ninth witch?”

It was elderly Geraldine who answered me with a lovely deep shaky voice, her face lit up with wrinkles.

“Ooh, a long time now,” she told me. “A lot longer than you have. So, how about we get started with the pleased to meet yous?”

I put my bag down on the floor, and began to make introductions. I learnt about Geraldine’s first foray into witchcraft when she used to toss stones into Garway spring and make wishes, and I learnt about Amy’s first experience with rose quartz where she felt the energy right through her toes, and I learnt about Edna’s dog, Mollie, who was a spirit guide – and could talk to the other animals around her. Yep, my amazement went to a whole new level.

And then, once the initial introductions were done and we were well into the night, I took the hand of Jacqueline on my left, and Amy on my right, as we all locked hands for the ceremony.

I already knew the ritual in my vampire, psychic, witchy, ghost whispering soul.

I could picture my father casting pentagrams in the air and calling to the angels. I could feel the forces of the elements balancing all around him.

But then came more… ritual robes of white, and all-seeing eyes… and white roses… and… salt… I saw salt.

Edna grabbed my attention back by breaking up the hand holding and getting to her feet. She walked around us, speaking the holy names and drawing symbols in the air.

The room changed. The atmosphere shifted and we were in a space of pure magic, connected to the energies above. The rest of the world blurred and there was only us, the nine witches, at the boundaries of our own sphere. The centre of our combined energies and auras.

Edna sat back down when she’d finished casting, and she looked across at me with a smile.

“Here we are to welcome our ninth, Katherine Blakely, to our circle. Katherine, please take your place amongst us, and commit yourself to our coven.”

It felt like an honour to stand in the centre by the altar.

Edna asked me the questions.

“Katherine, do you feel the connection to the spirits through us? Do you feel the force of the ritual within our group?”

I nodded emphatically with a smile on my face, because, yeah I felt it. I could feel it tingling through my vampire veins.

“Yes, I do.”

“Katherine, do you vow to respect the privacy of the Garway lodge, and share no secrets with outsiders?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And do you vow to explore the mysteries alongside us, bringing the forces of goodwill into the world around us?”

“Yes,” I said. “I do.”

“Do you truly want to walk the path of know thyself along with the rest of us? Do you vow to give your trust over to the higher powers to guide your way?”

“Yes, I do.”

She took her hands in mine and gripped them tight.

“Then we welcome you to our circle, Katherine. You are now a member of the Garway coven.”

The other witches clapped as I took my seat, and I was so happy to be amongst them that my soul soared sky high.

“Have you ever learnt the art of skyring?” Amy the crystal lady asked me.

“No,” I said. “I haven’t got a clue.”

“How about we get started, then?” She handed me a clear quartz sphere.

Since I saw the patterns swirling inside it and scenes coming to life inside my mind the very moment it touched, I could somehow believe I’d be quite good at this witchy thing…

Having sex with a vampire literally is, out of this world. Making love with a vampire, even more so. But making love with a vampire when you’re a vampire yourself is – mind-blowing? Sure. Seriously there aren’t the words.

We were in the aftermath of our first session of the evening when Hans looked over at me with a smirk.

“So, how about you tell me again about the coven?”

I shook my head and poked my tongue out.

“Try to snare me into revealing secrets all you like, Hans, but it’s not going to work. Not even in the afterglow.”

He huffed. “Fine. I know, I know.”

It was all in good humour. It made me laugh inside.

“Come,” he said, “let me show you something really special.”

“What the hell can be left to see?”

“Plenty,” he replied, and lifted me from the sofa with a sparkle in his eyes.

This was my first night in his Edinburgh home. I loved the tartan fabrics he had everywhere, like he was living in a regal version of Braveheart.

“Holy fucking wow!” I said as Hans showed me into a room beyond his study for the first time.

It was quite a sight. A room full of taxidermy and artefacts from all over the world. So many animals, impalas, a tiger, a lion, a beautiful old zebra head up on the wall. So many birds of prey on plinths, all eyes on me. Some I didn’t even recognise, like snapshots on the path of evolution.

He had stones, and fossils, and a sculpture of a winged bull on his dresser, and there were old tiles framed in gold up over the fireplace.

“Whoa,” I said, doing a spin to take it all in.

“I like to preserve time,” he told me. “Maybe one day this will be a museum of the true past. Quite a relic in the making.”

“Sure looks like it.”

“It’s not just the spirits of humans who stay alive in the essence of the world,” he said. “It’s nature, too. Our world has so many kinds of life, none of them more valid than another.”

I felt that. I felt it all through my new vampire senses.

It was like a whole new ritual when he laid me down in the centre of the room, spreadeagled. He teased me and licked me and gave me the dirty bite. Those souls of past times came back to life around me, so many hearts thumping, and it was bliss, only adding to my fascination with my vampire lover and all the time ahead.

I bit him right back, took his cock into my mouth and pierced it ever so gently with my fangs, sucking both his dick and his blood at the same time.

We were both a bloody mess when he fucked me after. A writhing tangle of limbs as the heat of the room pulsed along with us. And that’s what it was, when two vampires made love – a pulse, as one, in perfect harmony, an orgasm of the heart and soul, go figure.

It was beautiful.

Hewas beautiful. My vampire lover.

“We are beautiful,” Hans offered, his green eyes dancing with desire, my blood dripping from his chin.

He was right, of course.

He held me close, there on that rug, and our mouths met in a blood-red kiss.

Something I’d never, ever get tired of.