“What?” My brows knit together but they were walking again.
“Come or don’t,” Akiva didn’t look back. The third looked back to me curiously. When I found his gaze again, black canine ears sat twitching on his head, bases concealed in his black hair, and a fluffy tail curled around his thigh.
He was no wolf, but past that I could not tell unless I, too, wanted to partially shift.
“Well fuck,” I said to the sidewalk, jamming my hands into the pockets of my black hoodie.
My hoodie wasn’t very cinema-quality ‘save your cousin’ clothing, in the scope of things, but I hadn’t had much time to prepare.
Thinking of Aveline brought me to my current conundrum. The three men, one of whom was a vampire and the other some kind of shifter, were getting further and further away. And what the hell was Akiva?
They didn’t seem to care whether I followed or not, and I had to make a choice. Should I follow them and possibly have to fight my way out if something went wrong, or keep walking around New Orleans like an idiot?
“You’re such an idiot, George,” I muttered to myself. Hesitantly I picked up the pace, catching up to the strangers with deliberate slowness.
Once I was close enough to hear their hushed conversation, they slowed and let me join them, rather than allowing me to trail behind. I sort of appreciated it. The vampire was still leading the way with long, confident strides, and I didn’t need to question whether he was the leader of this small group or not.
“The disagreement between the witches and the vampires is well known around here,” Akiva explained, lips curled into a sneer. “The coven must be desperate, to send such a new witch into a place she did not even know existed.”
A disagreement between witches and vampires? What in the world had my cousin gotten herself into?
“I….umm.” I stumbled over my words. “I just…support the…New Orleans Coven,” I shrugged, trying not to give them anything to harp on.
Akiva scoffed while the shifter stayed quiet, eyes fixed on the blonde. “You witches are all the same; you are dedicated to any cause your covens beg you to help with.”
“Enough, Akiva,” the vampire called back, voice infinitely patient and empty of any kind of irritation.
Akiva scowled, eyes never leaving mine. As if it was my fault he was being scolded. My stomach turned and I looked away, as if to escape his scrutiny.
“Here.” The still-unnamed man on my right spoke suddenly, pointing to a name over the wrought iron gate above us. It cut the tension, and drew Akiva’s attention away from me. “This is Sombre Oak.”
“What?” I gaped, stopping in my tracks. Trepidation danced with the relief I felt at finding my destination so quickly. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the place to be a cemetery. How fucking cliche that I would be led to a graveyard by a technically-dead guy. Still, I could feel the bond between my magic and Aveline’s tugging at that place between my ribs, regardless of my reluctance.
Cian stopped before we could enter the gate, frowning. I tried to follow his gaze, squinting my eyes to see what he was glaring at.
Three women came into view, seemingly appearing out of thin air between two mausoleums. They approached us, strides confident and air demanding. My stomach clenched and I gripped the hem of my hoodie, worrying the well worn fabric between my fingers.
“Cian,” the oldest woman, her hair silver and her red eyes bright, grinned humorlessly at the vampire. “You came. I had thought you would not.”
“ I came to stop your problematic disagreement,” the dark-eyed vampire snapped, showing fang. “As I told you I would.”
The old witch stared at him, gaze inscrutable. “So you did. But why should we believe that you’d be any different than Gavin, should you convince him to step down.” She sounded unbelieving, at best. Mocking, at worst.
The conversation was going right over my head, and before Cian could speak again, I broke in. “Sorry…who’s Gavin?”
All six preternaturals turned to look at me in varying degrees of confusion.
“You brought in a visiting witch without even telling her his name?” Akiva laughed scornfully. “You really are pathetic, Colette.”
The silver haired witch looked at him sharply. “Brought her? I had thought she was with you, as she is not one of mine. Nor have I called in any witches not of my coven.”
“Sorry, not really, but I’m not with your coven. But I’m not with the vampire here either. I came for my cousin. She’s in trouble, and I’m going to take her home.”
“Your cousin?” The black-haired witch who stood at the coven leader’s left spoke for the first time, her voice low and naturally harsh to my ears.
“Actually,” I shoved my black framed glasses up my nose nervously. “My cousin Aveline Levasseur.” I wrung the fabric of my hoodie between my fingers once more, my heavily bitten-nails rubbing against the fabric. “If she’s here, she’s coming home with me.” I hesitated, then added hastily. “Please.”
“Keeping witches as hostages now, Colette?” Akiva was not afraid to step into the cemetery and did so before the blonde could grab him to jump into the verbal fray. “How lowly Gavin has made you fall-“
“We’ll let her go,” Colette ignored him, her eyes on mine. “After tonight, she is free to leave us.”
I looked between the groups. “Okay well, forgive my confusion but what’s happening tonight?”
When the witches didn’t answer, Cian did. “They’ve thrown down the gauntlet for the vampires in New Orleans,” he explained, gaze locked on Colette’s which she met unflinchingly. “They intend to kill their leader and drive out the Clade of New Orleans.”
My brows shot upward. “What? That’s really stupid. My cousin would never agree to that-“ It dawned on me, then. “Air has powerful protection properties,” I mumbled, mostly to myself. The puzzle pieces locked together slowly, as nobody wanted to explain what
