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"I think he's just like magic," I say with a newfound understanding. "He's not good or evil. He did what he came to do and left when his job was done. Now it's up to us to decide how to use the things we've learned from him."
"You know, you really are the smartest of us," Isla says playfully. "I like to see this side of you, all confident and unique."
"Me too." I smile.
The very next day, Lucian helps me to migrate my rooftop garden onto the pack territory. We host a mating ceremony right there beneath the shade of the trees. Everyone from every faction is invited, even the new vampire clan leader, who seems to look over at Blair alot.
And as for the big, buttery yellow flower that Lucian retrieved from the bottom of the lake in the public garden, I find a very special place for it in a glass jar on the shelf of my new apothecary in Back Bay. After hearing the story of all that Lucian went through to get it, I know I will eventually need its special magic—maybe not now, and not to relieve me of my newly acquired dark magic, but someday a reagent as powerful as that might come in handy.
For now, it will serve as a beautiful reminder of how love saved both Lucian and me from a life without each other, and how our strength and sacrifices pulled us out of darkness and into this wondrous new life that we are about to create together.
THE END
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Note from Haley Weir:Thank you for reading the second book in the Paranormal Protectors Series, Snips, Snails & Werewolf Tails! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review — reviews are the lifeblood for authors like me :)
Keep reading for a sneak preview of Book 3!
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BOOK 3: FANGS WITH BENEFITS
1
BLAIR
Planet, sign, house. Those three things are key to the interpretation of the vampire clan leader's birth chart, something that I have been working on in this dark room for over an hour now.
Being a cosmic witch means that, in addition to interpreting the stars, I have the added benefit of being able to create my own light source in the palm of my hand whenever I wish, a trick I learned in my younger years when my mother taught me how to harness the luminous power of starlight. But as I sit here in the quiet darkness with nothing but the small glow emanating from the palm of my hand—enough to see the celestial birth chart—I can't concentrate on what I'm doing.
My secret meeting here with my informant in the vampire clan is nothing more than a guise. I may be here inside the bowels of the vampire den under the premise of doing a favor, but in truth, I'm here for other reasons. And I'm nervous,for all the wrong reasons. A smarter witch would be nervous to be inside this place at all—this place that reeks of blood and death, whose inhabitants wouldn't blink twice at the thought of sucking me dry. But my pounding heart comes more from exhilaration rather than fear.
I look back down at the paper laid out on the table in front of me and try to stay focused on the birth chart. This chart is a gift from my informant to his clan leader, though I'm sure there are political motivations behind it too. But it's not my place to question why he wants it or what leverage he seeks to gain from it. It's my job to oblige him in return for all the secret information he has given me, and to enchant the chart with the kind of magic that only a witch with strong planetary connections can wield.
But the harder I try to concentrate, the less I'm able to. I shift in my seat, nearly spilling the small bottle of indigo ink on the chart.Thatwould be a disaster. I've already put so much work into it. Creating a birth chart is no small task. It involves intricate knowledge and meticulous drawing. The rising sign creates the architecture of the whole birth chart, and if the placement of the planets in the houses is off, then the whole chart is rendered irrelevant. Concentration is vital, and yet I am struggling to maintain it, thanks to the nerves that are making me feel like I have beetles crawling beneath my skin.
I fidget with the necklace that hangs around my neck, running my fingers across the flat silver words carved into its pendant.
"We are all made of stardust,"the inscription reads.
When the door to the dark room opens, I nearly jump out of my skin. A small amount of dim light pours into the room, and I reactively close my palm to stifle my own light source. My eyes adjust enough to see someone standing in the doorway, and my heart pounds so strongly I can feel each beat like a thump against the bottom of my throat.
It doesn't help that there is a lunar eclipse approaching. The moon cycles affect the power of all witches, but cosmic witches are disproportionately influenced. All of my energies and emotions are feeling particularly strong and easily triggered right now.
Again, a smarter witch wouldn't have come here.
But when the figure in the doorway walks toward me, letting the door fall closed behind him, I open my palm to release the glow of light to create enough illumination to see him.
And when I see him, it's all I can do to keep my breaths steady.
Treyton is more than just my inside connection to the vampire den. He is also the most intoxicatingly handsome vampire I have ever set eyes on. He's the only man I've met in my thirty-seven years who makes me feel like I am having an out of body experience every time I rest my eyes on him.He'sthe reason I'm here—screw the birth chart.
What started out not that long ago as a mutually beneficial "business" relationship between the two of us that allowed us to keep our fingers on the pulse with each other's supernatural factions has quickly turned into more. Angst hangs in the air every time we are in the same room together. This particular room is very small, and very dark. It's the kind of room where one could easily hear the breathing, and maybe even lips parting, of another person.
