“Then you should stay back,” Indra spoke, his voice lighter and kinder than the other two. He met my gaze and smiled amicably. “We can handle Gavin’s clade.” His voice was softer than both Cian’s and Akiva’s, and he seemed content to let them do most of the talking.
He also wasn’t a vampire, so I didn’t have to worry about him invading my mind through my eyes. “I’m not defenseless. I won’t stand back and let you do all the work getting my cousin back.”
“Watch out Indra,” Akiva’s lips spread into a chuckle as he nudged Indra. “The little witch looks like she’s going to growl at you and show you a pair of puppy fangs herself.”
His words made me falter, and I self-consciously ran my tongue over my teeth. My fangs weren’t showing, were they? No. All I found against my tongue were my flat, human teeth.
The fact that my hybrid ass was trying to remain a secret with a vampire, a shifter, and an as-yet-unidentified jerk was not lost on me. It wouldn’t do me any favors to announce to them that I did in fact have fangs as well.
I doubted they’d believe me without me showing them my partially shifted state that was akin to Indra’s. It was rare for a hybrid to make it to adulthood, so for me to be standing here at all was almost a miracle. Our immune systems were like china shops before puberty, while everything and everyone around us were bulls looking to break shit. But as hybrids matured, they grew stronger and more resilient. It wasn’t a radical change exactly, but I noticed when I stopped needing to go to the emergency room so much after I’d turned fifteen.
My mom had never wavered in her love for me, even though parents of hybrids weren’t well looked upon. A lot of people accused her of wanting a powerful child, since hybrids were born of two magical heritages and carried the genes of both. But that wasn’t the case. She loved my father, and I’d been a happy accident.
I threw my first punch at some kid in elementary school who’d told me I was wrong, that she’d lied to me to spare my feelings. He took it back. I got suspended. Mom had taken me for ice cream and a gentle lecture.
“We’ll stop for you to throw some protections on us before we get there,” Akiva’s voice broke into my thoughts and I pushed my glasses up my nose as I looked at him. “I don’t know what exactly you do, but you can at least do that, yes?” he asked impatiently.
“He isn’t usually this unfriendly,” Cian spoke before I could cobble together a reply, turning to me with a smile that reached his eyes. My own eyes seemed to find his like a magnet, and for a split second I forgot about my cousin. His eyes were gorgeous. Frankly, all of him was gorgeous. That thought was dashed when I remembered that vampires could invade a person’s mind through eye contact. I had a plethora of secrets I didn’t need him digging for in my head.
I looked away as quickly as I could, but Cian shook his head.
“I won’t spin your thoughts or your perception,” he promised. “I have no need to, and if I wanted to, I could’ve done it seven times by now.”
I could feel my eyes crinkle and my lips pursed together. Oh, I wanted to say. So you mean you’ve thought about invading my mind. That’s cool and all. Not. I schooled my expression into one of pure nonchalance when I noticed Cian watching me, feeling slightly remorseful for the thought. But I didn’t have much practice with vampires. How was one supposed to resist staring in appreciation at a face like Cian’s?
“I can ward you,” I said finally, then dug into my fake leather thigh bag for a couple of glass vials, my fingers brushing my tarot deck as I did so. “And I have these.” I pulled the three vials free, the red liquid within splashing about.
Akiva snatched one from my fingers, observing it with wide, yellow-green eyes.
“They’re–“
“Not very well made,” Akiva interrupted, handing them back just as quickly and carefully not letting his fingers touch mine. “Useless against vampires.”
My eyebrows rose. “Well excuse me for not being a dust riddled, undead creature of the night like some people.”
“Dust riddled I will give you,” Akiva said after a brief contemplation. “And I’ll allow creature of the night, as my schedule is very in sync with Cian’s.” The vampire flashed him a smirk and chuckled under his breath. “However, I am not undead.“
“Well,” Cian looked back at me. “He might not be technically undead, but I’d still give it to you.”
My eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Ghoul?”
Akiva scoffed. “I am not grey or withered.”
“Particularly well preserved zombie?”
He didn’t grace me with an answer, only scowled.
“He’s a lich,” Indra murmured, smiling.
The lich in question scowled harder.
“A lich?” My eyes widened in surprise and my voice came out higher than I had intended. “That’s almost as rare as a…“ I swallowed the words hybrid and summoner before speaking again. “Loa,” I said at last, having to cast around for a suitable replacement. We were in New Orleans, after all. This was the only place one could reasonably meet a Loa, but it was still almost unheard of.
“Do you even know what a lich is?” Akiva asked haughtily.
I looked at him, eyes wide and innocent. “I believe if I read correctly, you are a particularly well preserved zombie, yes?”
His eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak, only for Cian to cut him off with a laugh. “You’re working very hard to irritate him for a hedge witch,” he said. “It’s a pity I won’t even know your name before he slices
