Twice Bitten (Love, Lust & Magic #1)

Pruitt

Just like that, the men were back in the present.

“Take him!?” howled Uriah as he snapped out of the recollection. The shock and surprise of everything sent him flying backwards and into the water. An equally flustered maintained his grip on the vampire and attempted to break the fall, but toppled over, as well. At first, they landed together in a wet pile of muscle and confused hormones.

The two men panicked to distance themselves from each other and found themselves sopping wet in the process.

“What?!” scoffed as he pulled himself to his feet in a fit of splashes. He could sense Uriah’s accusatory look as he moved back to dry land. “You asked what I saw. I figured a visual was my best bet at getting you to believe me.”

“That was some visual,” exclaimed Uriah as he stumbled back to shore.

You can say that again, thought to himself. He couldn’t help but to think there was something in the other man’s tone to suggest that he liked what he saw.

“So, what?” Uriah asked, throwing his arms up in the air. “Now we know that some sexual enchantress turned us into a werewolf and vampire and apparently commanded us to have wild threesomes with her—all in this very spot. And we’re both a little gay. Right? ”

“Thank god the water is cold, huh ?” said dryly as Uriah carefully removed his coat.

pulled off his jacket, then his boots, and tapped them upside down as he looked up at Uriah.

Uriah scoffed. ?You handsome asshole . ?

shrugged. ?You liked it. Don’t lie.?

“Didn’t think I would, but—I don’t know—I must have. Fuck,” cursed Uriah as he continued to undress.

“So, maybe that’s the reason we have this ridiculous psychic connection,” said . “We’ve had sex.”

“Most definitely,” Uriah grinned as he pulled off his jeans and laid them out. Although a little wet and slightly sand-covered, the vampire’s muscular physique was undeniably distracting. He wore a pair of bright red Calvin Klein briefs, which, of course, only accentuated some of his greatest assets. “I thought it was something only your kind had. Don’t think I know another vampire who has it besides me. Plus, I can’t read other people’s thoughts, but something tells me you can.”

focused on keeping his mind from wandering, but couldn’t keep his tongue tied for long. “You know, I was going to ask you not to strip in front of me, but?—”

“You’ve apparently seen it all before, so what’s there to be shy about?” Uriah asked with a chuckle. “At least so says Cruella deWitch’s little enchantment, right?”

cracked a smile. “True.”

Uriah’s voice echoed through ’s head. ?That’s a first . ?

?You making me smile, or me okaying the idea of you getting naked?? asked as he finally stripped down to just a pair of boxer briefs.

“Both, actually,” replied Uriah. ?Actually, since it appears we have some unaccounted time in our past lives together, I guess I can’t say that in complete certainty.? The vampire gave ’s equally impressive physique a once-over. He also noticed that despite the cool temperature of the water, his acquaintance’s underwear left little to the imagination. ?But remember, no homo, right??

chuckled, but immediately put on his game face. “So, it appears our favorite local bartender—sick of you trying to compel her out of her entire stash of rum without so much as a tip—in fact released us from a spell that cloaked our true origins, including our roots in Mystic Hollow.”

“And our romantic relationship with the original spell-caster,” added Uriah as he pulled his smartphone out of his jeans. His eyes wandered back to , searching him up and down as though he were racking his memory to recall something. “Oh, and, well, apparently, our romantic relationship with each?—”

“Among many other previously hidden revelations,” interrupted with the clearing of his throat. “Originally, it appeared we were only given a sneak preview. However, after some trial and error, it seems our ability to recall whatever cloaked memories exist is strengthened by physical contact. But the pain, the flashing, the whole theatrics? It seems almost like a safeguard Odessa—or whoever—put on the original memory loss spell. Something to keep us apart.”

Uriah winked. “Oh, and we found out this is literally where it all happened. Right here at this very teen romance gang-bang hotspot. I’m talking me bent over probably five feet from where you’re standing now, and because the nice witch lady asked, you just shoved the full length of your cock right in?—”

“Ahem!” interrupted .

“I’d give you the flask if I could, mate,” Uriah said with a smile and an exaggerated shrug.

By now, the water’s surface had once again settled. The two men couldn’t quite figure out how to digest what was going on, so they instead stood solemnly with their eyes concentrated on the reflection of the moon off of the lake.

“You said all the witches you’ve met are dead, right?” asked.

At first, Uriah didn’t reply. “Sure are,” he finally said. ?Tasted great, too.?

“ Really ?”

“Oh, come on, lighten up. And it was just the one.”

“So, you exaggerate to make yourself look better even in your own head, huh?”

“Well, now that I know you’re in there,” teased Uriah. “Honestly, it was one time. A male witch tried to telekinetically impale me with a wooden coat hanger, so I did him in. But if the old gal at Witch’s Brew is also a witch, I should get brownie points for not eating her.”

“So, what? You ate the other one?”

Uriah nodded. “There’s something sweet about them, almost like this supernatural scent. Something that draws you in…”

“Supernatural scent?” asked. “Interesting. Anything else?”

Uriah shook his head. “Just like you, I’ve got a bad memory. But, you know, I suppose I fed a bit on Rasputin, too, even though he ended up turning. Tasted like apple pie. Haven’t seen him for like fifty years, but I hear he’s on social media these days. Oh! And then there was?—”

“Uriah, concentrate,” sighed .

“Oh, fine,” huffed Uriah. “Like I said, I saw on some vampire forum that most of them died off, magic went underground, the whole deal. And wasn’t there some drama about?—”

“All magic completely disappearing?” —as though suddenly recalling the same strange occurrence—finished the question.

“You saw that, too?” Uriah asked excitedly. “No way! You must have read the same Gawker article I did.”

sighed as Uriah derailed again, but his source wasn’t much better. “Um, I think I actually saw something on BuzzFeed… Anyway, that’s besides the point. Since the new millennium, the only things I’ve heard of that might fall under the ‘affront to god and all mankind’ category are vampires, werewolves, fae, and—well—those fucking terrible Twilight movies.”

“First off, fae are just little pretty do-nothing demon wannabes. Second off, I’m a Twilight superfan, but I guess we’re all entitled to our opinions,” replied Uriah as he cleared his throat. “In any event, the woman at the bar—she seems different than those other witches.”

“What do you mean by different?”

“Even though I’m sure she’s a tasty treat, she doesn’t give off that same scent. It’s hard to explain, but vampires are almost drawn to it.”

“Drawn to what?”

“I don’t know what. The smell of a witch’s power, I guess?” Uriah seemed to question himself. “I found this subreddit once that said witches were all descendants of this set of families tracing way back, even further back than the Salem Witch Trials. Something like the great almighty five founding families—maybe it’s more, I don’t know—who all apparently had their own specific powers and power sources, and each one of them gave off?—”

“A very specific, yet unique scent?” finished Uriah’s sentence. His question was met with a nod. “Like those god-awful Glade plug-ins my girlfriend loves so much.”

“Told you, man, women are the devil ,” Uriah said, catching himself just short of putting a friendly arm on ’s shoulder. “Like, literally. My girlfriend might be Satan, if not in cahoots with him.”

“Wait, hold on. It’s funny you mention that—the whole supernatural magnetism thing—because I feel like I had the same reaction when…” ’s voice trailed off, his mind returning to Griff as he retraced his steps. “Must be the wolf snout. Maybe he’s a part of the puzzle after all.”

“What’s that mean, Pru?” asked Uriah. “Oh, wait! You mean to say you think the Gryffindor gay is behind this?”

“You mean Griff?” rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. “And yeah, maybe.”

“Come on,” Uriah chuckled. “Even I’ve seen enough television to tell you he looks way too Danny Noriega to be a witch.”

considered Uriah’s reasoning—regardless of how needlessly pop culture-laden it might be. Actually, Griff’s pretty cute in a boyish way , he thought to himself, completely forgetting that Uriah could peek in on his thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah,” chuckled Uriah in response. “If you’re gay.”

After the realization that his accomplice could still read his mind, ’s face immediately flushed red. Defeated, he sighed. “Well, Uriah, apparently it’s been known to happen.”

“Yeah,” Uriah’s laughter quickly dissipated as he realized the weight of his words. “You, too, huh?”

The two exchanged a look.

It was clear to that whatever was happening between him and Uriah was currently out of their control. Instead, he aimed to figure out who was behind it. “What did the boy in the alley smell like?” he asked with a furrowed brow.

“Well, um, I guess I would have to say, uh…” Uriah choked, his eyes widening. “Think I said lilacs, right?” Whether Uriah meant to share his thoughts or not, heard them echo through his head. ?Damn, I guess there was something different about that silly little twink.?

Instead of reacting to Uriah’s internal but not so private revelation, reached out and grasped the vampire’s wrists in his palms.

Hot white light engulfed them both.

This time, the flashes acted more like physical seizures. With every involuntary twist of their bodies, the images of them together—naked, sweaty—with Odessa flashed on a screen somewhere in their hippocampus.