Page 9 of Call of the Blood

“I want to see her. Girl.” Nancy looked at me, the air around her expecting my obedience. “Come here.”

“You won’t talk to my vampire like that,” Alexius warned softly. “I don’t speak to your witches that way.”

“She’s not your vampire, though, is she?” Nancy tilted her head to the side. “She’s an Orphan. Did you think we wouldn’t hear the rumors? She’s no one’s.” Nancy smiled as Alexius glowered, shifting to block me a little from her view.

“Alexius, I can⁠—”

“Unless you have some other claim on her outside of employer. I wouldn’t order your lover around, for example.”

It was hard to make a vampire blush. Thankfully.

“Nancy—” Alexius didn’t sound flustered like I felt.

“Alexius, I have known you since I was fourteen. In the near eighty years we’ve known each other, you have never allowed a vampire to walk the streets of this city outside of the two we couldn’t do anything about. Isaiah rarely leaves your home, and he outranks us and our deal, so he has brought others that not even you can stop, but so rarely and always ones he has full control over. Jacob was your son and present when my coven and you created this alliance. But suddenly, you have this tiny thing, and you are very clearly letting her walk free, only watching her from afar. I think I deserve the chance to inspect the girl you give such liberties to that not even the Tribunal vampires are allowed on most days. It’s not because I’m a cranky old witch. It’s because I’m a nosy old woman.” Nancy’s smile was endearing now, and I thought of a grandmother. “And I want to know about her before I let them know about her. That’s the privilege of being a nosy old woman in power.”

I felt Alexius relax, but I was already taken. She was having a laugh at our expense, but I was oddly not bothered by it. It was that grandmother energy and how she felt comfortable teasing Alexius.

I moved around Alexius and went up the stairs to her porch, stopping a few feet away. I also made sure to keep my speed very human.

I held out my hand, smiling.

“Everly Abbott. It’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Well met, Everly. Nancy Palmer.”

Her grip was still firm, even in her nineties.

“Everly Abbott… it feels odd to say, but it feels like the right name for a vampire,” she said, patting the back of my hand, not releasing it. “Maybe it’s your family name. There’s something fun, the dichotomy of a religious name and being a creature of the night.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever considered that.”

“Come, tell me your story. How you went from human to vampire and now trapped living with him as an immortal. The one thing I’m grateful about aging and dying. I’ll no longer have to think about how a gorgeous man stalks around our city and never came through my window at night.”

That got me. My heart was thumping, and the heat was spreading up my face. Alexius groaned loudly behind me.

“Ah, so I see you have similar thoughts,” Nancy said, the sparkle in her eye mischievous. “We’ll discuss that, too.”

Oh my God.

I couldn’t even look back at Alexius for help.

4

CHAPTER FOUR

Ilet Nancy drag me inside. She didn’t stop to introduce me to anyone, but I tried to look around. Nancy’s white hair was a sign of her age, along with a fair number of the other witches, but the younger generations let me see if there were any familiar looks to hopefully identify the families. Sadly, that didn’t work out for me. I was whisked deep into a sitting room where there were couches to sit or relax on and finger foods set out for those who needed to eat. There had been a variety of looks, from platinum blondes to jet black hair and nearly every shade between. Except red. The closest hair to mine was a light strawberry blonde that leaned more to the blonde. And none of them really looked alike in a way I could guess their relationships. I couldn’t see a distinct nose or something as Nancy dragged me through. I had noticed a distinct lack of men, only a handful compared to the near thirty witches.

“Sit, sit,” Nancy said, pointing to a comfortable armchair pair. I took one, and she took the other, facing the fireplace at an angle.

“This is a beautiful home,” I said politely.

“Isn’t it? Older than me by a long shot. Original build. Savannah was spared from Sherman’s March. All we’ve ever done is continue to reenergize the protection spells and tell people we maintain the home well. We do upgrades, of course. Plumbing, electric, but only when it’s time for a major upgrade. We try not to mess with the bones of the house. It’s seen too much to be too desecrated by the modern world. It has too many stories to tell and is home to too many ghosts.” Nancy was looking up wistfully, as if the house could really hear her and recognized her praise. There was no missing the reverence and protective tone she took as she spoke.

“It’s wonderful,” I said softly, not wanting to offend, but not sure how to talk about a house I had only just entered for the first time. I wasn’t sure what was the polite thing to ask about here.

“And I do mean real ghosts,” Nancy said with a grin. “Humans want them not to be real. Other supernaturals try to ignore them… normally. But we witches… ghosts are in our realm. Most of them used to be us.”

“Witches?”