earliest pages in the book. Over time various generations of Adams witches had added their own variations of spells for everything from bee stings to love potions to hair loss, which accounted for the innumerable pages.
Zoe waited to make sure the spell was complete and this was the right page. Then she leaned forward to pull the heavy book onto her lap. “Don’t touch,” she reminded Damon as he leaned over the back of the couch.
“Don’t touch the book or you?”
“Either one,” she said.
She tried to read the old script, but she was no expert on this portion of the book.
“It’s in Latin,” Damon said.
“I know.”
She tugged on her left ear, and the words were translated into English. “A shortcut,” she said with a shrug. “We had to translate too many sections to do a spell each time, so we developed a faster way to translate Latin within this book to English.”
“What else do you have shortcuts for?” Damon asked.
“Never mind. Stay focused. It says here that Silas Milton had an evil soul.”
“That’s it?”
“You’re interrupting again,” Zoe told Damon.
“Then talk faster.”
“Or you could be a little more patient,” she said.
“Or you could talk faster.”
“Silas came to this country from England with a wave of Puritans. He ended up in Salem. Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh, what?” Damon demanded.
“He was one of the accusers of Rebekka Adams, my five-time great-aunt who was hung after being declared a witch.” She turned the page to read more but instead found an illustration of a man. “That’s him! That’s the demon I saw in the astral projection.”
“How could you not know that Silas was one of the accusers at the Salem witch trials? You memorized the date and not the names?”
“I don’t know everything. I can’t remember everything.” Zoe felt her control slipping. “I didn’t ask for any of this, you know! I didn’t practice magic for two years before coming here. And now look at me. I’m casting protection spells left and right!”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Damon said.
“I’m having to deal with demon astral projections.”
“Something new for you.”
“I don’t want something new. I want peace and quiet. That’s why I came here. To get away from…” Her voice trailed off.
“To get away from what?” he pressed.
“Everything.”
Zoe welcomed the knock on the front door that prevented her from having to answer further. She wasn’t about to admit that by telling her ex-fiance that she was a witch, she’d broken one of the main rules of their coven. If Damon found out, he might think that she wouldn’t be able to keep the fact that she was living among vampires a secret.
Pausing before opening the door, she asked Damon, “Is this another demon?”
“No, it’s a friend.” Damon reached around her to grab the doorknob. “This is Pat Heller, the owner of Pat’s Tats. You need to invite him in.”
Pat looked more like a hippie than a vampire. His silvery hair was held back in a ponytail and he was wearing jeans and a Rolling Stones T-shirt.
“Come on in,” Zoe said.
“Neville told me you asked him to check out the name Silas Milton.” Pat directed his comment to Damon.
“That right.”
“He said it was the name of one of the demons?”
“The head honcho demon if there is such a thing,” Zoe inserted.
“There is such a thing although the terminology may be different.” Returning his attention to Damon, Pat said, “Do you remember me telling you that there is a cosmic connection between you and Zoe?”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Zoe said.
“Neither did I,” Damon said.
“Is that why Damon has a tattoo that almost matches my talisman?” she asked.
Pat nodded. “Probably.”
“So what is the connection?” Zoe asked.
“That’s what we have to find out,” Pat said.
“Well, I checked our family’s Book of Spells and found that Silas was in Salem during the witch trials,” she said. “He made the accusation against one of my ancestors.”
“I feared as much,” Pat said.
“So they
“Not just the witches,” Pat said. “They are after you, too, Damon. And most likely me as well.”
“You?” Damon was clearly surprised. “What did you do to piss off a demon?”
“He wasn’t a demon at the time. Just an evil human being who got a thrill out of using fear and torture to wield power.”
“So you knew Silas?” Zoe said.
Pat nodded. “We fought on opposite sides of the Civil War.”
“On the Union or Confederate side?” Zoe asked.
“The Royalist side,” Pat said.
She frowned in confusion.
“It was the English Civil War, not the American one,” Pat explained.
“But that was way back—”
Pat interrupted her. “In the 1640s. From ’42 to ’46 to be exact. Silas was a Roundhead on the side of Cromwell. Our families were bitter enemies.”
“Were you turned on the battlefield?” she asked.
“No. I wish I had been,” Pat said. “Then maybe I could have saved my family. After Cromwell came into power, our land was confiscated. My sisters fled to France, and I was thrown in jail for crimes against the Protector.”
Zoe wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “A vampire?”
“Cromwell. He was known as the Protector but he sure as hell didn’t protect me. I managed to escape and was on the run for over a year before I was caught again and put in the Tower. As in the Tower of London. I hated those ravens.”
“Cromwell’s people?”
“No, the birds. I realize modern researchers say they weren’t there until Charles the Second was returned to the throne but I heard them. I was turned while in prison shortly before I was to be hanged.”
“Good timing,” Damon said.
“Damn right,” Pat said. “The transition wasn’t easy for me. I went to France and down to Italy. By the time I had my head on straight, the king had regained the throne and Silas had left England for the Colonies. When I arrived in Massachusetts, the trials were over and shortly afterward Silas was dead. Of natural causes they claimed. He was old by then.”
“So his grudge against you goes back to the English Civil War?” Damon asked. “When you were both human? It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you killed him?”
“What?” Zoe looked from one vampire to the other. “What did I miss? Pat didn’t say he killed Silas.”
“He didn’t have to say it. It’s written all over his hand.” Damon pointed to the tattoos on the back of each of Pat’s fingers.
“It is?” She looked closer.
