Page 111 of Twice Bitten

Thank the gods. I nodded. Cat jerked her head over to a small electric car. “Ya gotta drop the flames before you get in. It’s a rental.” She clicked her tongue and hissed when she saw my chest. “I have a healing potion in my purse, but you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. Want to stop by the hospital?”

I shook my head. By some unholy power I couldn’t name, I felt myself healing from the inside, a little at a time. Not enough to decrease the agony I was in, but enough to keep some blood inside my body. Small mercies.

I tilted my palm to show Cat what I carried. “Give the potion to Quinn.”

Her eyes widened, and she swore. “Is she alive?”

“I’m not sure.” Gods, I hoped so.

Cat hurried over and opened the passenger door. A moment later, I was settled in Cat’s car, covered with a hand-knitted blanket I’d have to find some way to replace, and we were away.

THIRTY

Several days later, after a grueling police interrogation and a forced vacation from Addy, I was recovering at home, mainly by becoming a total snack-hoarding, binge-watching couch gremlin.

Quinn was alive, but she hadn’t woken up yet. I kept her in a small basket I’d lined with a silk nightgown and a tiny doll pillow Edmund had produced out of thin air.

I didn’t ask where it came from or how he’d gotten it to me. There was more to Edmund than met the eye, but since I was in the same boat, I figured I couldn’t press him for answers when I wasn’t willing to give any about myself. At least not yet.

The healer couldn’t say for sure if Quinn would wake up. She’d taken a lot of damage when she struck the wall, and pixies weren’t a hardy species to begin with. Nor were they badass warriors who got between a deadly vampire and a witch fighting for her life, so I could only hope Quinn kept defying the odds.

I’d had several visitors, mostly nosy reporters and supernaturals who suddenly wanted to become BFFs, but I only allowed Cat and a trusted healer she’d hired to come inside.

She’d been a rock, a steady source of both information andreprieve. She knew when to talk and when to let me wallow, but she could also make a mean martini, and she always brought snacks.

She was already the best friend I’d ever had, and that made me sad. Cat did way more than the bare minimum, but her constant presence made me realize I’d been alone for so long. Too long.

I needed people in my life. Good people like her.

Unfortunately, Cat hadn’t been lying when she said I’d gone viral.

Me and my girls were still prominent on the front page of Tock, even a week after the debacle at the coffee shop. All the takedown notices worked, only for someone else to repost the video five minutes later.

Fortunately, the app now required blurring, but that didn’t stop the rest of the internet from posting the uncensored video. I had no choice but to accept that my boobs and more were forever immortalized online.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. I could handle a little public nudity if it meant people left me alone, and witches were notorious about practicing magic skyclad aka in the buff. Most witches weren’t bothered by someone seeing them naked, and while it was annoying and a little embarrassing, it wasn’t the end of the world. My main annoyance was with Silas and Alric showing up to my house several times.

I flat out refused to answer the door, and Edmund had a field day figuring out creative ways to throw them off the property. By now, everyone and their mother knew my house wasn’t normal.

Both of those men had done this to me. Maybe not directly, but the moment I came into a vampire’s orbit, my life had changed forever. I had zero desire to see either one of them for the foreseeable future. Maybe forever.

Silas held less blame, but his presence still reminded me ofBeckett looming over me, blood dripping from his face, his eyes burning with madness. I hadn’t slept well since my attack, and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever feel rested again.

The Shifter King had sent over another pendant and a note asking me to call when I was ready.

I wore the pendant but had no plans to call him or anyone else for the foreseeable future.

The best news to come out of my life being thrown into massive chaos was Beckett’s death had freed all the infected. As soon as Beckett had died, every single one of the vampires in our city woke up, no worse for wear. Zero aggression, zero personality issues. All had reverted to their former normal vampiric states.

Silas had slipped a letter under my door thanking me. He was also cured.

So, at least things were back to normal in the supernatural world, or as normal as they could be when the threat of certain death had been vanquished by a naked, angry witch who could apparently summon deadly blue flames when she was really pissed off.

Good times.

Alric was a little more circumspect in his pursuit. He’d sent a couple of letters asking to meet, but when I ignored him, he’d stepped up his game by sending food deliveries every single night.

I could have turned them away, but he knew how much I loved food.