16. Natalia

The minutewe're in the great room, Lucianna closes the door. "I feel like I have been in the fog of my life. I swear, I'll never be able to repay you and Devora for getting that spell reversed." She walks over to the decanter on the bar, turns over a wine glass, and pours herself a drink. "Anyone else?" she asks, and all hands go up.

Lucianna smiles, a genuine friendly smile before pouring each of us a glass and settling into the soft, buttery leather of the black sectional that sits atop a black and red patterned rug. "I'm really sorry if I've been distant lately. This spell, and then the Lucas and Embry thing. Not being able to tell for certain whether she was part of this or not was tearing me apart. You know she was the first person I met when I came to Club Descallia? She took me under her wing, made me feel comfortable, and we have been best friends ever since."

Willow puts her glass on the black marble tabletop. "It must be so hard knowing she's downstairs, but if it makes you feel any better, she knows that you will do everything in your power to get her out. She believes that wholeheartedly."

Lucianna's eyes brighten with unshed tears. "I hope that she does. I have to know for certain. I have a huge responsibility to the vampires as Descallia's mate. But more than that, I owe them for what my sister has tried to do to them. The betrayals have been too deep to leave anything to chance. We have to be certain."

Raven pats her hand. "This is not your wrong to bear. Isala deceived everyone for years the way I heard it."

Lucianna sighs. "Sometimes, I think maybe if I hadn't returned. If destiny had not sent me back to be by Descallia's side that she would have remained happy, and the unrest would not have occurred."

Willow shakes her head. "Nope, Descallia was never going to make her his queen. That's what the power-hungry bitch wanted. That's why she was in bed with the syndicate and the rogues, and not one of these things is your fault, nor is there anything that you can do about it. We bested the shifters, and we'll find the filthy rogues." Willow holds up the stone around her neck, rubbing it between two fingers. It begins to glow a bright amber color and sets off a chain reaction with the ones around Raven and Madria's necks too.

I look to Madria. "You have a stone, and what Embry said earlier, are you really a witch?" I ask. She nods her head. "I believe that I am, but there's no confirmation, really, except that these ladies believe it, and that's good enough for me."

I suck in a deep breath. "I didn't know it before I arrived, but I might be a witch. At least, Embry and the ladies think so. Will I be considered a possible traitor to the vampires?" I ask Lucianna.

Lucianna shakes her head. "Of course not. The witches have helped us so much"

Raven and Willow look to me with a grin, and Lucianna's eyes glow. I put out my hands. "I don't have electricity coming from my fingertips when I get mad or excited, but there's this energy that I just can't explain. And it's not just that. I can communicate with all the witches. I know exactly what they're thinking, and we can communicate back and forth as clear as if we were having a conversation. Same thing with Master Oradea. I can feel what he's thinking and hear it. It's the strangest but most comfortable thing in the world. And my gramma could have been a witch." I stop talking, realizing the bubbly has made me more than a little tipsy. "Sorry, can't hold my liquor; lightweight."

Raven smiles. "Your powers will come when you least expect it. At least, that's what happened to me. Not everyone is the same, and some people go all their lives without ever fully realizing their capabilities as a witch or even acknowledging that they are. Consider yourself lucky; you live in both worlds. Well, three actually, I mean as long as you plan to be with Master Oradea."

I take another long drink, deciding this is all too much for one person to deal with without a little alcohol courage. "I don't think being with Master Oradea is in the cards, after all."

Lucianna's eyes glow. "Why not?" she asks gently.

"I don't think he and some of the other masters have really accepted the witches or even want to for that matter. It's going to be hard enough learning about my new life without constantly being scrutinized or feeling less about myself because I'm a witch and he's a vampire. Why couldn't I be a vampire and not a witch?"

Lucianna narrows her eyes at me. "Why would you want to be a vampire at all?"

My heart expands. "For so many reasons. I could help the vampires in so many ways; my family would always side with the vampires. Just like Angel. She's a vampire now, and her brother Roman always sides with the vampires."

The ladies' eyebrows go up all at the same time. Willow smiles at me. "It's not always as easy as they make it seem. They have to work hard at keeping the balance and loyalties while remaining true to each other, but it does work for them and can be done. But that's not the only reason?"

I smile, my cheeks heating from embarrassment and the wine. "Then I could be with Master Oradea, all the time, all the way, like vampires are."

Raven laughs. "Say no more. If Embry were here, she'd make some crack about finding him and climbing that tree." She turns to Lucianna. "Can't we just go bust Embry out?"

Lucianna's eyes sadden, and she shakes her head. "Not yet. Not until we put all the pieces together and make sure the rogues are no longer a threat to the vampires across the globe. I'm certain she is not, in my heart, but that's not good enough reason to risk our vampires as a future queen. We have to be one hundred percent sure."

Footsteps on the marble alert us to the masters' arrival. I watch each of them as they interact with their mates. It's clear all of them love their mates, but I wonder what will happen when Oradea finds out I'm a witch. Will he cast me away, or maybe worse—toss me in a dungeon like he did Embry, keep me locked away from everyone, and have my family thinking I'm a traitor to his cause?

Image after image runs through my mind, all jumbled with the mixture of strong wine. The group breaks up to go their separate ways, get some rest and regroup for tomorrow. By now, I'm freaking the fuck out.

Oradea takes my hand and leads me toward the stairs as some others head to the kitchen for one last little snack. "I'm sorry you've had such a long day. I never should have exposed you to so much violence, bloodshed, and everything else that you went through today. I just couldn't trust not having you at my side. These shifters and rogues are tricky, and they will do anything to get even with those who side against them. I'm not going to let that be you, okay?" Oradea says, pulling me into his arms and kissing me gently on the lips.

The door slams behind us, causing us both to spin toward the sound. "What the fuck is going on here?" Michael growls. "I leave my sister in your protection, and you have the balls to maul her like some fucking toy?" I feel the color and energy sucked right out from under me. My brother is in a rage that I have not seen since the day my father was killed and he wasn't able to stop the killer. "Get your shit!" he says to me. "I said get your shit!" he yells when I don't move.

My heart beats fast, and my mind reels with everything that has happened, and all that Oradea has said today. I don't know what or who to believe; I don't even know what or who I am anymore. Am I me, a syndicate princess, a vampire toy, or a witch who will soon be an enemy to the same vampire who professed to making me his just hours ago.

Oradea growls. "She's staying here. You can't protect her like I can."

"You call that fucking protection? Get your shit, Natalia! I'm not telling you again."

My feet don't move, my heart caught between the indecision of two worlds, one I know that I belong in and one where Oradea learns that I'm a witch and not the psychic he believes me to be. Michael takes me by the arm. "Stay away from my sister." I let him lead me out of the house, my belongings long forgotten in my brother's wrath about catching the two of us together. My mind is still swirling with indecision and the voice of Oradea saying he would run like hell from a relationship with a witch.

The back door of the car slams, closing me in as Michael and Marcus get in the front seat and tear out down the long, winding driveway toward the guard at the gate. "Fucking punch through it if it doesn't open," Marcus growls, but in plenty of time it lifts as though with that single gesture Oradea has allowed us to leave and said goodbye.

I press my face against the window, the coolness of the glass drawing some of the heat from my body, cooling me as I try to get my breathing under control. But I already know I will never be the same. I will never forget the man I'm leaving, the one who drew me into his world of darkness with those soulful eyes, protected me at every turn, tried to do the right thing and keep me safe and pure, even tried to safeguard me from myself.

All the pain and despair I'm feeling works as a fuel raging to combust. An energy sizzles through my very being, tingling from the bottom of my spine out toward the end of my fingertips. I gasp, watching sparks sizzle from the end of my pink painted fingernails.

I am a witch…

There is no denying it now. No matter how much I try, the proof sparkles in front of my face, sizzling out with no climatic burst. Michael catches my eyes in the rearview. "What is wrong with you, Natalia? What would Mom and Dad think if they saw you cozying up to that brute?"

My rage heats internally while I keep my hands out if his view. "Pretty hard to say. They're not here, just two asshole brothers who think they can tell me what to do and say. I am an adult, or have you forgotten that little fact?"

His jaw locks tight. "We're looking out for your welfare whether that's how you want to see it or not."

I scoff, "Seriously, from what? That vampire has protected me in ways that you could not even begin to believe, taken me under his physical wing to ensure the enemies you made did not come for me or capture me if they did. That's what he's done to deserve your hate?"

Michael slams his palm against the wheel, something so out of character for him that it catches my undivided attention. "He's a vampire!"

I turn away. "I know exactly what he is and what I am. You don't seem to like either of the two very much, do you?"

"Calm the fuck down," Marcus growls. "We just want what's best for you, and it's not that bloodsucking vampire." I grab the front of the seat and pull myself into the middle so he can see my face. "You have no fucking idea what you're talking about. The vampires who are protecting me are fighting the bloodsucking vampires you talk about, trying to ensure they do not take over again and begin snacking on humans like me as we're walking down the street at night!"

He snaps his head around and stares out the front window. "Vampires, they're all vampires, and at one point or another they're going to want to suck your blood. It's just a fucking matter of time, and we're not letting our baby sister get caught up in that shit. Count on it!"

I sit back in my seat, sullen and disheartened because at the end of the day, it doesn't make a bit of difference if I stand up for myself. He's never going to accept me for who I really am, and I'm never going to be a vampire no matter how much I may wish it to be. Leaving with Michael was the right thing to do. A clean break, end it before it becomes more than it was, before my heart is absolutely shattered, instead of this dull, painful ache that weighs heavy in my chest, and already I fear will never go away.