My hackles rose. Everyone assumed the vampires were the bad guys, but from my knowledge of historical events involving the covens, the most power-hungry witches were rarely innocent.
“A fair assessment, Miss Porter, but the story is more nuanced than a powerful magical going on a murder spree, similar to what happened in the Vanyx case.” Zane’s eyes snapped open.
“Are you hoping for a repeat performance, Professor?” Dunton paled but stood firm behind his desk.Like that would save him.
“I was merely drawing parallels between what happened in the 1800s and your father’s unfortunate lapse into madness. If you care to listen, you may learn something.” The odious mage sniffed and turned his attention to the rest of us.
Zane said nothing else, but coiled fury leaked down our bond, causing my magic to heat in my chest.
“Fucking asshole mage,” my incubus muttered while stabbing the desk with a small, curved knife.
“He’s trying to wind you up,” I whispered. “Ignore him.” I covered his hand with mine and squeezed. If Zane lost his shit, he’d be playing into Dunton’s hands, and we both knew it. This was partly why letting Zane sit with me in this class was a bad idea.
But the incubus did what he wanted.
“Returning to the topic, please open your textbooks and go to page one hundred and fifty-two.”
A black and white illustration of screaming witches greeted me.Lovely.
Kenji popped into sight with a sausage poking out of his mouth. Several witches jumped in surprise, and a wolf shifter bared his teeth at my familiar. Kenji took no notice as usual.
“I thought you were busy.”
“I’m free now. Figured I’d come and annoy you for a bit.”
He was joking, of course. My familiar loved me really. Or so I deluded myself daily.
“Disgusting creature,” a wolf shifter sneered over his shoulder. Zane caught the comment and grinned like a psychopath.
“I heard a guard spotted a demon in the forest last night,” he said. “Demons love wolves. Their bones make nice crunchy sounds.” The wolf shifter gulped and lowered his gaze before the stench of urine made my nose twitch.
Kenji shook himself.“Weak wolves.”
“Did you make that wolf pee himself?”
“Me? How rude.”
Zane snorted before repeating, “Crunchy bones.”
I didn’t dare ask how he knew wolf bones crunched.
“Mr. Blaze, remove yourself from this classroom immediately!” Dunton quivered with outrage as several witches complained about the smell of wolf shifter pee. “Unless you have a verified medical problem that causes a weak bladder, urinating in my classroom isnotallowed. Please report to my office at five p.m. for detention.”
The wolf tried in vain to complain, but Dunton sealed his mouth with a silencing spell and used wind magic to expel him from the classroom. I thanked my lucky stars when the mage followed this up with a cleaning spell.
“Now, where were we? Oh yes. The Blood Wars.” I gazed down at the image of screaming witches and prayed this story had a happy ending.
“We’re extremely lucky to have access to diaries written by members of the Du Boix Coven from New Orleans. These contemporaneous accounts of the events that preceded the Blood Wars offer us a valuable insight into how vampires reacted to perceived threats against their power back in the day. Sadly, any accounts written by the vampire clans remain lost to us because of the very sad demise of the entire vampire race.”
Kenji snorted. “So this is a one-sided, and not at all biased, tale, then.” My familiar made a good point.
“Ramona Du Boix noted in a diary entry from August 1852 that her youngest sister, Ysabella Du Boix, barely eighteen years old, with her powers newly manifested, had been spotted in the company of Radimir Dvorak.” My pencil snapped in half at the mention of Rasmus’s family name.
“This should be interesting,” Zane commented, having given up pretending to nap.
“Did witches and vampires not mix back then?” Glynda asked, making me sit straighter in my chair, eager for Dunton’s reply.
“Not in a romantic sense, no.” Dunton ground his teeth. “Witches back then, as now, place great importance on keeping their bloodlines pure. Contaminating a coven’s bloodline, which would happen if a witch mated with a lesser magical, was considered highly undesirable.” He looked me in the eye as he said this. “Coven law forbade it.”
