1. One

One

Rainbow

Setting my bags down on the floor, I studied my living room. At first glance, everything looked normal. Yet something inside me screamed danger. Something was off.

Had that book been open on the coffee table? I was sure the mug was on the other end of the kitchen counter.

I walked around the small living space, letting my senses out. My familiar peeked his head out to sniff the air. Nothing was coming to him, either.

It was all very strange.

Brushing it off, I set Jinx down, plugged in my cell, and went for a long, hot shower. Everything felt better when you were clean.

Except the feeling that something was wrong stayed with me throughout my shower as I washed every crevice and gave up on itching at my face. The beard had to go. It took some time, but clean shaven and refreshed, I left the shower and dressed quickly. I paused in the locked bathroom to clean my glasses before putting them on. Color returned to the world with them firmly in place. All the while, I still felt unsettled.

Unplugging the now fully charged phone, I turned the stupid device on as I slumped into my favorite chair. I decided to put the feeling down to being overtired after a long trip. I towel dried my shaggy brown hair as I waited for it to start up. It took a few moments to connect to my Wi-Fi, then began buzzing furiously in my hand.

"What the hell?" I looked at the screen, seeing numerous calls and texts pop up. One after the other, they pinged in my hand, each one looking more frantic than the next.

My bearded dragon familiar, Jinx, nosed his way out of the hood of my hoodie to investigate. When he climbed in there, I didn't know. It was his favorite place to be. He made his way down my arm, pausing on my wrist, his needle-like claws digging in as he tried to look at the screen.

Of the dozens of missed calls and messages, the majority were from my cousin, August. He was not only my best friend, but was on the council for our coven in the small witch town we lived in.

Intuition was telling me something was going on. All these messages and the weird feeling in my house couldn't be a coincidence. I had thought it was quieter than it should have been for this time in the morning as I'd driven through town. I hadn't seen anyone. Not even a sign of my best friend or his wife at their shop.

The shop which had stood closed. It never closed.

A sinking feeling settled in my gut. Magic tingled along my fingers in readiness. I lifted my glasses to rub at my tired eyes, sure I wouldn't be getting any rest soon.

August was important to the town. He was supposed to be the leader of our coven, though I knew things were fractious within the council. He was married to Tabitha, who ran the spell shop. She was one of the strongest witches in the coven, but her younger brother, Toby, was a serious problem for a lot of the council thanks to his uncontrollable magic.

I liked Toby and even sympathized with him. Learning to control your magic, especially without a familiar by your side, was stupidly difficult. My family had thought I was going to be a dud because it took me three tries to get the spell right. Having a familiar was a condition of being a full witch in the coven. Toby was on his last chance to summon one.

Looking at the date on my phone, I realized it was almost a couple of weeks after Toby's twenty-first birthday. Meaning he'd just had his last chance to get a familiar.

What had he summoned?

There was no doubt in my mind that Toby was a capable witch. The spell should have worked for him many times before. August and I had talked about it many times over the years since plenty of others, even his own family, had dismissed him. Together, we had talked the situation through. Then he'd shown me proof of the tampering. We both had our theories, but I was so busy with my business, I'd not had a chance to help Toby or August with them.

I bypassed the messages from August, seeing messages from my sister, Sky.

Sky: DO NOT COME HOME!

Sky: Vampires in the coven. Stay away!

Sky: We are safe. Please stay away from there. We don't want you hurt.

Sky: Why aren't you answering your phone? Did you lose it again?

Sky: Dammit! Pick up your phone!

Sky: Me, Mom, and Dad got to a sanctuary town. Dad's sick. I'm sorry, Rainbow, they won't let you come here.

What the hell was going on? Were they okay?

My first instinct was just to call Sky, but I thought getting more information would be best. I needed to gather all the details I could and make a plan of action. We were a practical family, and I trusted their judgment implicitly. If they said I needed to leave, I would trust that. I just needed to know why.

Practically vibrating with worry, I checked the messages from August. He wasn't someone who liked texts, so having any from him was out of place.

Auggie: Don't go home.

Auggie: Call me as soon as you get this.

Auggie: Bow, I'm serious. Check your voicemail!

The rest of the messages were reminders I had missed calls and voicemails to check. I clicked on my inbox and began to listen.

Mom's voice was tear filled. "Rainbow, I'm not worried about you. I know you're safer out in the wilderness than back home right now. As soon as you get this, you need to call. We're leaving, baby. The coven… oh, honey, it's bad! Stay safe and we'll see you soon, okay?"

Once that call ended, I picked up one of the calls from August.

"Hey, look, I didn't want to do this over the phone, but I guess you either left your phone at home, or it ran out of battery again. Long story short: I had to leave the coven. Me, Tabitha, Star, Toby and his husband, Zeph."

What the fuck? Toby was married? I'd only been gone a few weeks!

"We've all left. We're somewhere safe right now, but it's temporary, I think. I really don't know. Look, there's a lot happening with the coven and I don't think it's safe for you to stay there. I convinced your family to leave before anything could happen. My mom and dad… they decided not to come with us. We parted ways outside of town. They need peace and quiet, not all that's following Toby and Zeph. Just leave, please. Call me as soon as you do. Be safe, Bow." Then once more he repeated, "leave the coven as quickly as you can."

The call ended, leaving me in silence that stretched. A sudden wave of vulnerability washed over me.

A creepy feeling of being watched settled on the back of my neck. It took all of my willpower not to look over my shoulder. I was getting the hell out of dodge.

"Okay, Jinx, we need to pack."

My family, my closest friend, had left the coven, so there was nothing keeping me here. We'd talked about me branching out on my own before. My mom thought I was wasting my talents by just sourcing materials for spells. Maybe this was the sign I needed.

Being away from them would be hard, but I often spent weeks, months in the summer, away from them. I could handle doing this alone.

I hurried over to the vivarium I'd set up for him and put him under a heat lamp, since it was colder than I would have liked in my house. Despite being home long enough to shower, shave, and charge my phone, it still felt uninhabited. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone had been in my home while I was gone. My family wouldn't have invaded my space, since they knew how important it was to me.

Putting my phone on speaker, I tried to call August. It rang for such a long time I thought I was going to hit voicemail or have to give up.

"Bow! Where have you been?" August cried when he finally picked up.

"Auggie? What's going on? My family is freaking out!"

"Shit!" It was so rare to hear August curse. I nearly tripped over my own feet as I hastily bundled clothes into suitcases.

"Sky said there were vampires?" To my own ears my voice sounded thin.

If there was one thing in the world which scared me above anything else, it was vampires. Spiders and creepy crawlies I could handle. Vampires were a hell no. I blamed Sky for making me watch gory horror movies as a child. Learning vampires were real had done a number on me. My parents had to place wards on the windows and doors just to get me to sleep.

"Bow… I have no idea what happened."

"Was it Toby? What did he summon?"

August took me through the spell and the demon who appeared once it was complete. Zephyrin sounded sweet. Harmless even, despite where he came from. He was tied to Toby, and they were basically married. All sorts of shiitake had gone down with the coven, so August was exiled and the vampires had moved in.

I needed to leave. Like yesterday. I should have never come home.

My hands worked quicker, stuffing things haphazardly into the cases. Luckily, I wasn't much of a pack rat. Most of the time, I was out scouting for rare plants to use in potions. I didn't need much when I spent a lot of my time camping out.

Yet, my home was my peaceful sanctuary, a reprieve from a life always traveling. My safe space. I had been hoping to settle down, travel less. Find someone, especially now that August had Tabitha and a kid.

Being lonely was hard.

"I'd like to say you can come here…" August sounded distraught.

"No, I get it. You guys are new yourselves and you've got a lot going on."

"Maybe this is what you've been waiting for. You could go anywhere, do anything." Hope filled his voice. I knew my friend cared about me, wanted me to be happy.

"Set up my own shop?"

"Yes! Was that something you wanted to do?"

The sigh I let out was loud in the quiet room. "I was going to ask Tabitha about opening a franchise in another location. We could share potions since she is boss at the really powerful ones."

Frankly, she was a much more powerful witch than me, period. I wasn't ashamed to admit that. Day to day I used very little magic, preferring to use potions over spells so I could guarantee results. Not that I was powerless, just aware of my limitations, especially with my sight issues.

"Yeah," pride filled his voice. "There's a reason for that. A story for another time. Are you nearly packed?"

"Done!" I said with a shaky smile. Terrified didn't cover it. My car was outside, still filled with the remains of the provisions and equipment I needed for camping. I spent a moment looking for my backup's backup pair of glasses. I was sure they were in my room somewhere. Without finding them, I knew I had to go. The more I delayed, the more chance of something happening.

"Call me as soon as you get somewhere safe, okay?"

"Will do," I vowed.

Getting the cases into the car was easier than I thought. Not a curtain twitched nor a person walked by. The street was still.

Eerily so.

Still, I felt like I was being watched. Hunted.

I made a last pass over my house. Certain I had packed everything I absolutely didn't want to leave behind, aside from the missing glasses, I looked at the vivarium Jinx lived in at home.

At four feet long and nearly three feet high, it was pretty bulky. My Jeep was fairly roomy, and I'd learned some handy spells to make the space work better. There was a roof box which held my tent, sleeping bag, and other camping supplies. The suitcases fit in the trunk okay. I would just have to secure the vivarium in the backseat.

Taking a couple of crystals, I spelled one for heat since I couldn't use the heat lamp in the car. There was a battery powered heating pad for travel use, except it needed to be charged. Really, I was useless with tech. If I'd had more time, I would have recharged everything. As it was, I had to resort to spells. Hopefully, I wouldn't be pulled over.

Another crystal powered his UVB light. Sure, he was a magical familiar, but it was a drain on my magic to heal his poor health when I could just look after him properly. As a reptile, he needed heat and UVB light to maintain his little body.

Jinx gave me the impression he was rolling his eyes as I used a spell to stick his bed and climbing frame into place. I gave him some mealworms, dusted with his vitamin powder, then some leafy greens from my greenhouse.

A sick feeling came over me at the thought of leaving some of those precious plants behind. Determined not to lose years of work, I grabbed as many pots as would fit in my car. Once I was settled, I could rehab them, make them flourish again.

Powering down the spells which kept everything running in the house nearly broke me. So much work wasted.

This was it. There was nothing to come back here for.

My familiar packed and plants secured in the car, I gave one last glance at my house, before turning to walk away from my home.

There, on my corkboard by the door, was a note. It hadn't been there before. On the simple piece of notebook paper, torn from one of my books, was a crude drawing. What I thought was a sun and a rainbow. My heart lurched to my feet. What the fudge was this? Then I noticed the heart with the letters R and S inside it.

Nope. This was too weird.

I leaped into my car and tried not to look back.

The drive through the town was creepy. Every second I expected a creature to drop down in front of me, ready to attack.

It felt like eyes were constantly on me. My body hurt from how tensely I held myself, refusing to turn even an inch from the road.

People were wandering the streets, yet they seemed to be shells of themselves. Not the vibrant witches they had been. Some looked longingly at the car, others barely noticed me driving by.

Halfway through, my fingers cramped so badly, I had to loosen my white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel to get the blood flowing back through them.

Nearly there, almost free.

Then I saw them.

Vampires.

There were three of them, two males and a female. All impossibly stunning, with pale skin and dark eyes. To the average person, they probably looked like models. Rail thin, all sharp angles and stark beauty.

Predators.

To a human, or even a lesser powered witch, they wouldn't appear as anything other than uncommonly pretty people. That was part of their power, their ability to almost blend in. Their beauty was a lure. Drawing their prey closer, making them feel safe.

They made my skin crawl. All of my senses went on alert to the danger they represented. I shook as I pressed on the gas, willing my Jeep to move faster even if it took me over the speed limit. They'd already seen me. There was no need to hide now.

All they did was watch me as I reached the end of the street. They didn't even move, which felt like more of a threat than if they chased me.

Just as I was clearing the town boundaries, another vampire rushed up to them and held an animated conversation with them. They seemed like they were holding him back.

He lurched towards my car, his face full of an emotion I didn't understand, making me press harder on the gas.

I pushed my car as hard as it would go, as soon as I was clear of the town I'd grown up in, knowing one thing for sure: I was never going back there.