“As you know, I never met your mother. I came to you after she passed.”
“Yes. So?”
“So I didn’t know about this necklace until today. You never showed it to me even though you showed it to Damon.”
“I didn’t show him the necklace. I only showed him her talisman.”
“Well, that explains it then,” Bella said.
“Explains what?”
“Why the Demon Hunter didn’t tell you about the power of this. Look.” She nudged it closer to Zoe. “Look carefully at the carving on the pendant part of the necklace.”
“It’s some sort of animal. A cat?”
“A bear. Carved in amethyst. It’s a protection amulet said to put demons to flight,” Bella said.
“Wait a second. How do you know this?”
“I Googled it.” Bella lifted her head with pride.
“So you’re saying if I put on the necklace, the demons will disappear?”
“It could happen.”
“Or maybe it’s a trap. If my mother had a protection amulet, she would have told me about it.”
“Maybe she never got the chance to.”
“The necklace didn’t protect her from death.” Zoe’s voice cracked.
“I never said it would protect you from death. Only from demons. Was she wearing this when she died?”
Zoe nodded.
“Then her death wasn’t caused by demons,” Bella said.
“Or it was, and the necklace didn’t work,” Zoe said. She took several deep breaths, trying to regain her control and keep the tears at bay. She didn’t know how much more she could take. Part of her just wanted to curl up in a little ball and pull the covers over her head. But her inner witch wasn’t having any of that.
No guts, no glory. What if black magic was the only way to get rid of the demons? If they’d killed her mother, she’d be willing to jam Damon’s dagger into Silas’s throat herself.
“What are you girls doing up here?” Gram asked, joining them on the bed.
“I thought you were going to take a nap,” Zoe said.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Did you know that Mom’s amethyst necklace had a bear carved into the pendant?”
Gram studied the necklace. “A protection amulet.”
“I don’t remember it having a bear carved into it,” Zoe said.
Gram held the necklace in her hands and closed her eyes. “I don’t sense any evil or black magic. I sense your mother’s aura.”
“You didn’t sense that the spell book was evil,” Zoe felt compelled to point out.
“Boy, one little mistake and no one trusts you anymore.” Seeing the look on Zoe’s face, Gram sighed. “Okay, that demon spell book thing was a big mistake and we knew that the instant I opened it.”
“What did you mean when you said earlier that you may have seen the Book of Darkness when you were a child?”
“I can’t be sure. I felt no sense of recognition when I saw the book here the other day. Maybe I just heard stories about it.”
“Do you remember the stories?”
Gram shook her head. “I was very, very young. I didn’t hear stories about the demon book when I got older or I would have remembered. This entire thing is a mystery.”
“Do you think it’s tied to the Salem witch trials?”
“I have the feeling it goes back much further than that,” Gram said. “But speaking of the witch trials, I had the strangest experience in front of the Vamptown Council.”
“Me too,” Zoe said. “When I closed my eyes, I saw the two of us in black dresses dating back to that period.”
Gram nodded. “And I heard sobs and smelled sweat. And someone was putting nooses around our necks.”
“I thought maybe it was just me,” Zoe said.
“No, I had the vision, too. Perhaps it was collective memory from our ancestor. Or a warning of what the vampires wanted to do to us.”
“Not all the vampires.”
“I’m so sorry I got you into this mess,” Gram said. “Maybe we should never have left Boston.”
“We didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Then maybe I shouldn’t have gone to hear Martin Powers speak,” Gram said. “But I didn’t go there looking for trouble. Witch’s honor. I saw a brief interview on the TV and there was something strange about his aura. Still, I kept an open mind at the motivational seminar until he started talking about how he could solve everyone’s problems and how he had the secret to happiness but would only share it if paid a large sum of money. Even the most powerful of witches can’t guarantee someone’s happiness. But Powers was doing that, teasing the people there with promises he couldn’t keep. Even so, I should have walked away. I shouldn’t have created a scene. If I’d just kept my mouth shut then that mass exodus wouldn’t have occurred. I didn’t use any magic to cause that,” Gram said. “I just spoke the truth.”
“I know.”
“I’m sure there are other motivational speakers out there who help people with self-awareness and confidence and that sort of thing. Martin Powers just wasn’t one of them.”
“Tristin thought Powers has a thing against witches because one of his ancestors was involved as a judge in the Salem witch trials. He admitted that he might have told Powers that we have special powers.”
“That’s not possible. I cast a spell to remove your confession of being a witch from Tristin’s memory,” Gram said.
“Which lasted until recently, when he found the file he’d put on his computer just in case we did something to make him forget.”
“When did you learn all this?”
“Tristin was here yesterday.”
“What? Why am I just hearing this now?” Gram demanded.
“Because it’s been crazy around here. The bottom line is that Damon took care of Tristin.”
“He killed him?”
“No, he compelled him and sent him packing. He also had Tristin’s computer files destroyed. I think we’ve heard the last of him,” Zoe said.
“What about Powers?”
“Damon also sent Bob back to Boston after compelling him to forget about finding us.”
“But if Powers thinks we are witches—”
“We don’t know that that is the case. Maybe he ignored Tristin’s comments.”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Let’s hope what?” Damon said, strolling into Zoe’s bedroom as if he owned the place.
Zoe pointed to the surveillance camera on the crown molding. “Read the transcript or watch the recording.”
“Look, I know you’re stressed out—”
“Damn right, I mean
“Zoe just informed me that you took care of Tristin for her,” Gram said.
“For her and for Vamptown.”
“Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary,” Damon said.
“Then will you accept my thanks for sticking up for us at the trial?” Gram said.
Damon shook his head. “Again, no thanks necessary.”
