The Witch's Thirst

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Now it was Evee and Gilly’s turn to stare at their older sister.

“Except we went all the way. Nikoli didn’t just touch me.”

“You mean like the real deal?” Evee asked, feeling a bit envious.

“Yeah.” Viv nodded, and a small grin spread across her face. “And more than one time.”

Gilly placed a hand on her forehead and groaned.

“What?” Viv said to her. “You mean nothing’s happened between you and Gavril?”

“No,” Gilly said gruffly. “Nothing.”

Viv looked over at Evee. “Why Lucien? Why not Ronan? Convenience?”

“Not really,” Evee said, feeling slightly offended that her sister had made the question sound like she screwed everything in sight every chance she got. “I mean Ronan is a really nice guy. Good-looking, too. But there’s something about Lucien that...well, draws me to him. I couldn’t have stopped that first kiss even if I’d have wanted to. Couldn’t have stopped him touching me.”

Gilly slapped her hands on the table. “Maybe that’s why your and Viv’s absolutus infinitus turned gray. Because of what happened between you and Lucien, Viv and Nikoli. You know the curse says we can’t marry or live intimately with any human.”

Evee and Viv looked at Gilly simultaneously before Evee said, “I didn’t marry Lucien.”

“And I’m not living intimately with Nikoli,” Viv shot back. “We simply had sex.”

Gilly sat back in her chair. “I think the both of you are working with semantics here. It’s all in the interpretation of what the curse actually meant. Do we know that for sure? I mean, we’re talking the 1500s here, when the curse was cast. What if the original Elders considered living intimately together to mean just having plain old sex? Back in that day and age, the only women who screwed just to screw were harlots in bordellos. If that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean that just having sex without being married was part of the curse, as well? What if the two of you having sexual encounters with those Benders caused all this chaos to happen? The missing Originals, the attacks on humans?”

Viv scowled at her. “Man, oh, man, you really stretched that one out of your butt. Regardless, it’s not like I can take it back now, right? We didn’t oppose the curse. We didn’t defy it by marrying those men, and we’re not living intimately with them. Period.”

“As I said,” Gilly said. “Semantics.”

Despite the reprimand coming out of Gilly’s mouth, Evee could’ve sworn she saw envy and longing in her sister’s eyes. Had she had the chance, she’d have slept with Gavril. Evee knew it as well as she knew her own name.

“Not,” Viv retorted.

Evee put the tips of her fingers from her right hand against the palm of her left, calling for a time-out. Viv and Gilly stared at her, anger still popping in their eyes.

“Who did what, when and where is not what’s important right now. Dying humans are. We’ve got to find our missing Originals and get them confined, and the ones who are confined need to be protected from the Cartesians.”

“That’s all we’ve been trying to do,” Viv said. “With not much success, I might add.”

“Maybe once we fill the Elders in, they’ll have some ideas. Especially about why our spells are weakening. Hell, we can’t track our own behinds, much less our own broods. We need backup. Serious backup.”

“No way on the Elders,” Evee said. “The sex part with the Benders will come out, and that’s the last thing we need.”

Elvis, Gilly’s familiar, suddenly raced into the kitchen, tittered, then let out a short screech as if in agreement.

“Hush,” Gilly told him, then turned to Viv. “I don’t think it’s going to do us any good to go back to the Elders. They were supposed to contact the others from the Circle of Sisters to help with spells from different locations. If they did, I certainly haven’t seen any evidence of it. Have you?”

Viv and Evee shook their heads.

“Look,” Evee said, “we have to keep our heads and hands about us, and no more panty play with the Benders.” Even to her own ear, the last part of what she’d just said sounded flat, unconvincing and regretful. “I think one of the biggest challenges we’ve got coming up is feeding time. It’ll be here before we know it, and I have a feeling that the Cartesians are going to attempt a strike while we’re transporting our broods to the North Compound.” She turned to Viv. “Your Loup Garous are already there, but I don’t know how we’re going to get the Nosferatu and Chenilles out there without a Cartesian attack.”

“Maybe there’s a different way for us to set up the feedings,” Viv said. “What if I had my ranch hands drain the cattle’s blood and then we can pick it up and bring it to the Nosferatu instead of bringing the Nosferatu to the compound? The corpses will be there for the Loup Garous, who are already in the compound to eat. When they’re done, I can have my ranch hands, Charlie, Bootstrap and Kale, gather up the bones...damn, never mind. I’ve never allowed the ranch hands to go into the North Compound, and I can’t have them go there now. Too big a risk. Can’t chance a Loup attacking any one of them.”