Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) Read Free Page B

deserted me when I was
attacked by a girl gang and left to die. The same angel who had
called me vermin, because I’d been made into a vampire,
because he had left me. I
needed to know his story, his reasons. I needed to know why he was
here now, but most of all I needed to know if I loved him
still.
    ‘ Be ready for the diversion,’ I
whispered, my lips barely making a sound, as I turned back to face
the witch.
    ‘ And if I was to go with you?
Daniel would track me down with Sebastian and Eva. They wouldn’t
let you take me,’ I said, taking a step towards the witch and away
from Luke.
    ‘ We can protect you better than
anyone else. Your vampires cannot help you learn our ways. They
don’t see the things you do. Give me the book Jessie. I can protect
it better than you.’
    ‘ But you need me to read the book,
don’t you? Only I can see the leaves move, because it’s my birth
right. You can’t, can you?’ I asked, taking another step towards
her, my hands fiddling with the book still tucked into my jeans,
jutting uncomfortably into my hip bone.
    A swift look of anger washed across her
features as her eyes darted to Susannah, and I realised that my
gamble had paid off and Susannah had indeed imparted too much
information.
    ‘ And yet you cannot make sense of
it on your own. We need each other Jessie. Come, let me be your
mother,’ she answered, as she tucked her wand into her belt and
held her hands out to me.
    It was the moment I was waiting for and
I jumped at it, literally. My feet left the floor and instantly I
knocked my quarry over and rolled her onto her front, burying her
face in the hard earth, as she struggled to wriggle her wand out
from her belt.
    Within seconds the witches were crowding
round chanting and pointing their wands at me.
    ‘ Do or say anything and I will
break her neck,’ I shouted at them, as I straddled the witch’s
back, pinning her to the ground and grabbing her hair with my free
hand.
    The coven took a step back and I thought
for a second that I’d won, until I heard the slow chant begin
underneath me and saw the dark thunderous clouds suddenly begin to
clear. The sunlight broke through and radiated down upon us.
    I squinted through the bright luminous
rays to find Luke. Where was he? I felt the sunlight heating up
with every chanted line from the tall sorceress. The sun shone down
brightly and I imagined a thermometer rising steadily from a nice
eighteen degrees to twenty, twenty one, twenty five and up higher
and higher, hotter and hotter until I would burn, and slowly but
surely turn to ash. I felt a sweat break out on my skin. Now
vampires supposedly don’t sweat, but I certainly was. I could feel
the skin on my neck starting to tingle. How long had the Italian
vampire lasted under direct sun torture? I recalled Daniel’s famous
tale from the early days when he was teaching me about my new life.
Six hours, that’s right. It had taken six hours before he had
burned to death. A slow six hours of torture. I shook with fear and
felt a trickle of sweat run down under my t-shirt.
    ‘ Luke? Luke, where are you?’ I
shouted.
    ‘ Are you looking for someone? An
eye for an eye, an angel for a witch,’ Susannah said, suddenly
appearing by my side. Luke was standing by her side, seemingly
unbound, but his eyes were glassy and his face seemed dead,
paralysed.
    ‘ What have you done to him?’ I
shouted. Panic flooded my senses as I squinted through the light at
them, trying to ignore the pain now throbbing across my
back.
    ‘ Oh he’ll be fine, he’s just a
little spellbound at the minute. You see now Jessie, why you need
training. You can never beat us until you master your powers, and
by the time you have mastered them, you’ll want to join us anyway,
so you may as well save yourself the pain and join us now,’ she
said, smiling. ‘I really am your cousin, Jessie. I’m family. It
would be fun.’ She held out her hand, extending it towards me again
and as the sun beat