Twice Bitten (Love, Lust & Magic #1)

Griff

“Wh-why do you want to hurt me?” asked as he struggled to break free from Ada’s hold.

“Oh, dear, sweet in,” began Ada. “You’re new to the coven, so let me be the first to say it: our magic is dark. We are not like others that call themselves witches. But don’t worry. I’ll protect you from them by doing this .”

In anticipation of her next move, swung his legs to kick at Ada. He used his hands to scratch the tops of her wrist in hopes of release. While Odessa seemed to possess her magical strength, it appeared her shell in this world was still as fragile as Ada’s human body. Mortal , he thought to himself as she reacted with a painful moan.

“Stop it,” she demanded. “You’re damaging my pretty new body!”

“It’s not yours for long,” spat back. “I know a spell that will banish you from it.” But I don’t have what I need to do it , he thought to himself as Ada dropped him to the ground and keeled over in agony. used the opportunity to make a run for it.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Ada grabbed at ’s ankles and yanked him to the ground.

“Hands off, bitch!” howled.

“Original Witch! You heard him. Away! ” came a voice familiar to .

Suddenly, Ada collapsed in pain once more.

A shocked looked up to see Quinn. “P-professor?”

Acting fast, Ada jumped to her feet. “One sec, ,” said Quinn as he swung his right arm in the air as though to hit Ada, despite being at least fifteen feet away. Ada reacted, her body hurtling into the railing overlooking the field.

“Quinn,” gasped. “I-I-I can explain.”

“Hey, kid,” Quinn said with an outstretched hand to help him up. “It seems we’ve got more in common than we both thought.”

“I am not sure if we’re talking about the same thing, but I’m a witch,” said as he was pulled to his feet. Oh, shit. Maybe I shouldn’t just tell everybody that.

“Clearly,” said Quinn without the blink of an eye, looking up and down. “I don’t want to say that my plan was to get tenure in the last known resting spot of the most vicious of immortal witches, but let’s just say our lineages have a history.” An awkward pause, and then Quinn continued, “Wait, what else did you think we might have in common?”

gave Quinn a weak smile before looking back at Ada’s motionless body. A witch? Wow. And I just thought he was gay, the freshman thought to himself. “Never mind. But, uh, that was a lot of important information to process and I’m going to want to come back to some of it later,” he said as he looked himself up and down. “Wait, what did you mean about clearly?”

“Well, I…”

’s jaw dropped as time suddenly slowed to a halt before his very eyes. Quinn stood there, mouth open and mid-sentence. Trying to think of how to talk his way out of that one, clearly , thought to himself. But his arms and legs became heavy, too, and he soon realized he was stuck.

“I thought I smelled dirty magic,” came the voice of Ada from behind them. With the flick of her arm, Quinn went flying a dozen rows above them. shuddered as he heard his professor’s bones break. He could feel his mouth finally closing as time resumed around him.

“Quinn!” a horrified shouted.

“How many men are you juggling, boy?” Ada laughed. “A man-eater just like me, eh?”

was infuriated. Fed up, even. He turned to face the possessed cheerleader, his teeth gritted. “What is it you want from me, anyway, bitch ?”

“At first, it was nothing personal. All I ever wanted was to be free to practice magic again. As a young witch, I’m sure you can understand. That’s why I willed for you to come home—home to where your bloodline begins.”

“What do you mean?” took in his surroundings, searching for a possible escape route or weapon. Although he could see him in the distance, Uriah was too far to call.

“Just that your entire life story has been carefully plotted out and planned by yours truly,” mused Ada. “Even down to your roommate selection.”

“Darcy’s an inexperienced witch, too, and you used him, huh?”

“Why yes, I did, but there’s still so much you don’t know, young one,” Ada laughed. “But soon it won’t matter.”

“What are you planning on doing to me?”

“Don’t play stupid. I know you visited the other witch in town,” began Ada as she put her hands on her hips. “In order to regain my full strength in this world, I must drain the power from every witch remaining in my bloodline. Lucky for me, looks like you’re the only one left. It can be quick and painless really, except for the part where, you know, you inevitably die.”

“Why would a witch like you—The First Witch—need to steal power, anyway?” understood why, but was throwing out anything to distract his egomaniac ancestor.

“It’s not stealing if it’s mine. You and your little lovers are the only ones who have taken what isn’t yours.”

“You mean Uriah and Pruitt?”

“Silly child,” Ada took a seat at the nearest bench. “If anything, I’m saving you from a life of misery. They’ll do to you what they did to me.”

“And what’s that?” asked pointedly.

“They betrayed me,” she hissed. “I gave them all the power in the world—supernatural gifts that no mortal has ever experienced—and they left me for each other. I gave part of my magic to them as a gift, and this is how they repay me? To think if I had been around to take credit for the creation of vampires and werewolves, . Do you know how much of an absolute cash cow I missed out on?”

rolled his eyes. “Pruitt and Uriah both told me they barely even remember that.”

“Hm, perhaps not. My memory spells tend to be a bitch, really. In fact, I’ve been messing with their minds for some years now, even while locked away. Tell me, do you like vengeance as much as your great-great grand-witch?”

“So, you wiped their memories as revenge?”

“Ah, I did. Made it so the two lovebirds didn’t even remember themselves. But kept them around here long enough to lure you to me.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but it’s the twenty-first century now,” replied . “We don’t get even with our ex-boyfriends by casting spells on them anymore. We just go to therapy.”

Pulling the crown from her head, Ada moved it from hand to hand as she studied and admired it. “Therapy? What’s that?”

“Something they clearly didn’t have enough of back in your day.” As he entertained Ada’s villainous monologue, ’s eyes traced the nearby stands for a weapon, a friend, or something that could help him. It was then he realized the next step in his impromptu plan.

“Back in my day, crowns like these were reserved for royalty,” Ada said absent-mindedly as she traced her fingers across the homecoming tiara she held in her hands. With a grin, she placed it back on her head. “How does it look?”

As Ada turned to model her garb to , she realized he was no longer entertaining her banter. Instead, he was running towards Uriah and Darcy.

“Uriah!” shouted .

“Not so fast,” Ada called after him. Before her words even registered, felt a forceful gust lift him into the air. “Like I said, , I can make your death painless. But why would I ever do such a thing to the witch who took what’s mine?”

It felt as though an invisible hand was squeezing tight. He let out a whimper as he realized he could no longer breathe. The fact that he was now at least five feet in the air and climbing? Just the icing on my fucking cake, thought to himself. Fuck!

“Put him down, Odessa!” As ’s vision went blurry, the sound of Uriah’s voice gave him a glimmer of hope.

Below, Ada came face-to-face with her vampire ex-lover. “ Anything for you, my beautiful, evil creation,” she said as she let come tumbling down.

The freshman was fortunate enough to fall right into Uriah’s arms. “Th-thanks,” a dazed whispered as the vampire helped him to his feet.

“Who would have thought that vampires could get—what is it you call those again? Tattoos?” Ada said as she leapt forward and embraced Uriah. “Still the same darkness on the inside, I hope.”

stepped back, watching in surprise as Odessa caressed her former lover.

“A lot has changed,” Uriah said as he made eye contact with . Even though he couldn’t hear his thoughts, he knew what to do. In silent acknowledgement, made his way to the nearest row and ran in the direction of the felled Pruitt.