AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The scent of blood mingles with the acrid tang of magic and fills the crypt as I focus on my task. Egan may attack with lethal force, but our goal is to capture and contain.
Just as I summon my magic and call on Mother Gaia, the ground quakes beneath my feet.
“Uh, Josie?” Rune calls as he picks himself up from the ground. “Is that you?”
“No.”
Definitely not. My spell hasn’t even taken hold yet. I’m certainly not powerful enough to cause an earthquake.
The trembling spreads and travels up the walls of the crypt and shakes the ceiling, sending dust and dirt raining down on us. With a terrible crack, the earthen floor splits open as thick vines erupt from the ground, writhing like a crisscrossing mound of snakes and shooting in every direction.
They wrap around my limbs, yanking me in different directions, and I’m trapped in the worst game of Twister ever.
The vines wrap and grip around me and something sharp pricks my flesh. Spikes—about an inch long—adorn the vines and dig in. While not needle sharp, they are sharp enough to break skin with enough pressure.
I don’t want to find out how much.
I glance around the crypt and find my three bound vampires are suffering the same struggles. Adelaide is wicked powerful and has tied all four of us down.
But why don’t the vampires just break through her hold? Surely they can snap their way free of these vines.
Adelaide walks down the steps into the mausoleum, the thick wall of flowering vines parting to allow her entrance. “I see you boys recognize the dangers of bougainvillea.”
She casts a superior grin at the three of them, and I want to rip her face off.
“It’s as beautiful as it is deadly—to vampires, that is. One prick from this and your insides will swell until they burst. It’s a nasty way to go, really. And worse to clean up afterwards, believe me.”
“Adelaide?”
What the hell is she doing here? Why is she helping Egan?
When he said he had backup, the High Priestess of the Sun Witches is not who I expected.
“Adelaide,” Rune growls her name, muscles tensing where he’s trapped beneath the barbed vines. “I knew something was off with you.”
“And ye didn’t say anything?” Finn asks incredulously.
I grunt, fighting against the vines. “From now on, if there are any weird heebie-jeebie feelings, we mention it. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Adelaide is giving me the heebs right now,” Rune says.
Finn and I groan in unison.
“You don’t admit that to the people who currently have the upper hand.”
Rune shrugs at my admonishment. “Not like they don’t already know it.”
“That’s not the point.”
The vines tighten around me and the needles poke into my skin. They don’t pierce, but it’s sharp—a warning.
No—a show of power. They constrict again, and I hiss in pain as it slices through my shirt and scratches my arm.
“Don’t worry, dear,” Adelaide says, stepping close. “It’s not toxic to witches.”
I search her face, my mind stumbling on the betrayal. “Why are you working for the werewolves?”
