Page 118 of The Slayer Seduction

I head up the stairs first, and Iris and Scarlett follow me. The piece is covered and I just hope that they both like it.

“The guy is a collector of realistic animal art. His wife is working on decorating her library and her favorite animal is a fox,” I explain.

“I already like this woman. She sounds like she has great taste.”

I smile at Scarlett as I remove the tarp and turn around the piece. It’s her perched on a log, with butterflies around her, not so dissimilar from the puzzle Iris worked on with the Slayer, except there’s no doubt this fox is absolutely Scarlett.

“Adam, it’s wonderful.”

“Wonderful? It’s a masterpiece,” Scarlett says, bounding up to me and jumping into my arms.

I may or may not be on a mission to get her to love me as much as she loves the Slayer, and I think this may have swayed her ever so slightly.

Iris comes up behind me, grabbing my arm and resting her cheek on my biceps as she inspects the art.

“I was thinking after I’m done I could do a portrait of us with me and the Slayer both in it so it’s like we’re both in charge of the body at the same time.”

“Oh you smooth motherfucker,” the Slayer complains.

“I’d love that,” Iris says gently. “There’s something else I want to show you. I just don’t want to upset you.”

I glance down at my witch, thinking the worst as she pulls out her phone, giving it to me and showing me the article. I read it and I can’t help but boast in laughter.

The headline reads: Lottery Winners Fall From Grace.

The Landry’s are a family who came from a hard life. Winning the Powerball suddenly took them into a new world they never could have dreamed of until that world was ripped from under their feet.

Why? Because the lottery ticket was fraudulent. Police have been investigating the family since their win and have suddenly come into a plethora of evidence against the family. The judge is not allowing bail, and it appears each member will sit in prison while they await their trials.

“The curse came to bite them back in the ass,” I say with a snort.

“I’d still kill them for you, you know?” the Slayer says and honestly, it’s kind of heartwarming.

“What they did was wrong, but I’m right where I want to be,” I tell Iris, leaning down and giving her a kiss. “I’m pretty sure this was always my fate, too.”

“Yeah, I think it was,” Iris agrees, looking at me in a way I never fathomed possible.

“We need to get a copy of this painting before you give it away,” Scarlett interrupts and I pet her fur the way she likes.

“Absolutely.”

I hold Iris tighter against me and realize I have everything I didn’t know I needed. A family, a real one, and I’d never say this to the Slayer, but I’m pretty fucking lucky he chose me to be his vessel.

For the first time in my life, I’m happy. A paint brush in my hand, the love of my life at my side, our furry familiar, and even a demented, socially inept vampire slayer that I share a body with.

All my life needed was a little magic, and now that I’ve found it, I’m certainly not going to waste it.

Iris Epilogue

It takes a long time for the coven to feel whole again. The High Priestess and Violet have come to terms with what happened to Aster. My grandmother and I have both been working through what happened to my mother.

I didn’t want to know all the details and I’m glad the Slayer shielded me from that.

Even if it hasn’t been easy, without the Slayer, Adam, Scarlett, and my coven, I wouldn’t have survived all this. If you asked me a few months ago, there’s no way that my coven would be responsible for bringing another slayer into the world. I would have thought you were crazy, but here I am on a full moon, my hand interlaced with my coven members ready to perform the spell.

Balam had found a willing human to become a vessel, and it had taken me months to agree to finally attempt to bring the slayer to the mortal lands. The human man, Louis, didn’t have much going for him and he was hopelessly infatuated with Balam. In agreement to being the vessel to his lover, he has also promised that his lover would share the body with him, just like Adam and the Slayer do.

I’ve hounded Louis, making sure that this is something he truly wants, and it is. So we chant, wondering if this will even work. I’ve reworked the spell to be used by witches and have used the given name that Balam gave me to summon him.