I didn’t see the witch again for a few more weeks, but, to my surprise, when she showed up for our next appointment, she had some baked goods with her.

“You want them?” She asked, before remembering. “Oh, right. Whatever.” She tossed them in the trash can, which I surveyed with one eyebrow raised. They were clearly fresh and unless someone had given them to her, I didn’t see the point in what she just did.

However, since she liked to talk, I also suspected I’d find out eventually.

“The coven told us that the fairy brat has been hanging out with some human. The dark soul decided to go and check him out, and found out that he’s the reason the Hunter attack failed.”

Oh, did it? Yet another of their planned “perfect” plans down the drain.

“Which just makes me angry,” she added, her jaw clenched. “I mean, it’s just some human kid and somehow he recognized one of the Hunters, I guess? I don’t know, but the dark soul said the human might be more dangerous than he looks. Not just because of the Hunters, but apparently he can see something off with the dark soul as well. I don’t get how, but he can.”

She huffed angrily as her blood started to flow down the tube. “So anyway, the dark soul decided to get rid of him, but then the fairies showed up and not only stopped him, but they had the audacity to hurt him, too! They gave him a pretty serious injury, I think, but he won’t really let any of us take a look or anything. He seems to be in a lot of pain, though. It just – it makes me so mad!” She ranted. “It’s just some human kid! They shouldn’t have cared that much!”

I was beginning to think maybe the witch and the dark soul were both idiots. “If the fairies protected him, obviously they cared whether someone harmed him,” I pointed out mildly.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s still just a human. I even went myself, today, to see what the big fuss was. He works at this bakery thing, so it’s easy enough to have a cover story and just buy some pastries. Not that I’d ever touch anything made by humans,” she added with a disdainful sniff.

Ah. That was why the poor baked goods ended up in the trash.

“And now we have to wait some more, for the dark soul to heal. We were supposed to be in control of the city by now! Yet everything keeps going wrong,” she looked like she was ready to murder anyone in that moment.

Probably not the best time to actually point out some flaws in her plan, but I was still kind of shocked they didn’t see the problem with it.

“So the human is friends with Adair Woodson’s son, and the dark soul is trying to avoid drawing Adair’s attention, yet he deliberately – on his own, not having anyone else do it for him – attacked the human?”

The witch did turn a little frosty at my obvious incredulity. “The dark soul said the human wasn’t protected! He is now, though, I could see the mark. But I’m not sure, he also said it seemed like there was a shield when he attacked him, so I don’t know, maybe they hid it somehow?” She sounded doubtful.

“Seems like a pretty stupid idea,” I told her bluntly, ignoring the rage flashing into her eyes. “He’s trying to avoid Adair’s attention, as the only person who might remember how to defeat him – according to yourself – yet he attacks someone connected to Adair and ended up bringing Adair’s family to the spot, to defend the human and attack him, and if Adair was one of those? Seems like it’s possible his memory could get triggered. He should have sent some of the coven, not handled it himself. It’s far too risky.”

“The coven’s useless,” the witch grumbled. “They can’t even catch a fairy, we can’t count on them to do anything right. If we want something done, it’s got to be done either by the dark soul or by me. We can’t even be sure Brisa will help.”

That still left herself, and, in my opinion, it was exceedingly dumb of the dark soul to attack someone so closely connected to Adair Woodson himself – if Adair wasn’t aware that the dark soul existed before, he definitely would now, even if he didn’t remember exactly what he was.

“Seems to me,” I observed out loud, “that your whole plan is about the unluckiest plan in existence. You’ve had a few successes, but none of the biggest steps in your plan, and instead things just somehow keep going wrong.”

She looked angry, but didn’t actually contradict me. Instead, her face smoothed into something more calculating.

“What if you joined us? I made you an offer before, but you never really answered – you’ve had time to think over it now. You could help us streamline plans. You have good points, you know. You’d make sure we didn’t fail any further plans, I’m sure of it.”

“Not interested,” I answered curtly. She was quite certain that I’d want to rule the world with them, but couldn’t seem to comprehend that for some of us, just controlling our own little corner of the world was more than enough. But then, she was a stereotypical witch. I didn’t expect her to understand not continually wanting more power.

“Besides,” I added, “everything you’ve told me since the plan has started isn’t exactly likely to change my mind. As far as I can tell, your plan was unlikely to succeed to begin with,” which was being kind of generous – I was actually pretty sure it was doomed, “and now you’ve had failure after failure. Why would I ever want to join that?”

Her eyes narrowed and got murderously angry, but she said nothing as I finished drawing her blood.

As she got up, though, she turned at the door and fixed me with one last stare. “It’s a pity you won’t join us,” she said in a voice that was too calm for her. “I’ll remember that, though.”

Once she was gone, I considered my options. It was very likely she would genuinely do something. Maybe not now – she might plan to wait until, in her mind, their plan succeeded, and then use her power to torment me. But if it failed, like I was fairly certain it would, then she might go after me out of spite.

I wasn’t under any illusions. She was a particularly powerful witch and while I was an older vampire, I was still a vampire. Our magic didn’t come close to that of witches, not ones at her level, anyway. Even if I drew on older magics, I highly doubted I would be successful in a fight against her. She used forbidden magic, for one thing – I hadn’t missed that part of her conversations. Chances were, if she did decide to attack me, she would find a way to win.

Back in my rooms, I considered my options. Rallying the House against her? Possible, and in fact they were obligated to defend me, even if several of them would likely fall before she could be taken. That would likely work against her. But…I was old. I was tired. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to let her have her victory – or think she did, at least.

I looked out the window, considering. I’d sworn revenge on my husband, determined to see his precious House fall by my own hands, no matter how many centuries it took. The House still existed, but, in all fairness…I’d succeeded more than a century ago. The House now was filled with mostly empty magic and pointless rituals. These vampires, with a few exceptions, would be bowled over by the simplest of opponents. If I were to die, I could still consider my mission a success. This House would never rise to its former glory, I had already made sure of that.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to take some extra precautions. I sat down at my desk and began writing a few documents. A long letter to Dylan, a will, the proper paperwork to install Esther as House leader in the event of my death – that sort of thing. Making sure that the next leader would be one who, even if she decided to part from my desires for the House, wouldn’t turn it into something my husband would have been proud of, either. Esther might not decide to keep running it into the ground, but she also didn’t care much for my husband’s style of House. She might turn it into a supernatural nightclub, for all I knew, and honestly, that would be almost amusing to see. It’d make my husband seethe, at the very least.

So, just in case, I set my affairs in order, made sure the documents were safely kept at the bank – which Esther had access to – and then decided to sit back and see how this unfolded. If the witch ended my long life out of revenge, she had no idea yet, but she wouldn’t be walking away unscathed. Even if she thought she would.

~~~~~

I was in my quarters late one night when a knock sounded at the door.

“My lady?” The tentative voice of one of the younger vampires came through. “There’s a witch here, she – ”

“Get out of my way,” the familiar voice of my blood donor snapped, before the door was shoved open and she came marching inside, looking beyond angry.

I set aside my book and glanced at the nervous vampire at the door. “It’s fine,” I informed him. “You may go.”

The witch started pacing, her expression one I couldn’t quite make out. Anger, fury, rage – the normal emotions for her, yes, they were present. But there was something more, too.

“They killed him!” She finally spat out. “Those stupid fairies killed the dark soul! I got there too late to do anything, just in time to see – they destroyed the most perfect form of dark magic that has ever existed! And our plans – well, they’re lost without him. They captured several of the others, too, and I’m under no illusions that Rufus wouldn’t blab it all the moment he saw the inside of a prison cell.” She was still pacing, looking like if anyone so much as looked at her, she’d burst them into flames.

“That human brat, he was involved. I managed to overhear that much – he was the one who got the dark soul to follow him, directly into a trap. Adair and his fairies then killed the dark soul and some naga and light magic witches helped them take out Rufus and the others.”

I wasn’t particularly surprised to hear that naga had helped the fairies, even if they normally weren’t allies. The naga had been targeted by the dark soul and the witch, through Hunters, and had been saved from that fate by the fairies’ human friend. I’d actually have been more surprised if the naga hadn’t helped them.

The witch was still pacing, but suddenly she turned to face me, her eyes angry and pained and wild all in one.

“Join me,” she demanded abruptly. “Help me destroy them all for what they did.”

I raised one eyebrow. “I already turned you down. My answer hasn’t changed.”

“You’d betray me?” She seethed. “After all our years together?”

“We only have a business relationship, Ramona. I paid you for your blood. That was as far as our transactions ever went. If you imagined more, that was all in your own head.” I looked back at her, unafraid, as I saw her anger rise even more.

But she turned away, clenching her hands. “I’m going to kill them all. Everyone involved in making him die. It should be easy enough – I already know where the naga construct is,” she announced, much to my surprise. “I was looking for the fairy one, before all this, just as a backup, you know. There were some records in there, forgotten, I suspect – but they confirmed that your husband and you were involved in making the fairy construct. And there was a mention that you’d been consulted as to where it should be hidden.” She turned, her eyes narrow and filled with fury. “Tell me where it is, and I’ll allow your betrayal to go unpunished. I’ll turn them both invisible and silent, then set them loose, and they’ll kill all the naga and fairies if they have to, to get my revenge.”

I looked at her for a long moment, then stood to my feet. If I were about to die, at least I wouldn’t take the killing blow sitting down.

“I won’t tell you,” I stated calmly. “I have no doubt that you have forbidden magic ways of getting the information for yourself anyway, but I’d advise you against using it. It might not have the ending you expect.”

Her face screwed up in rage, and then, as I’d expected, her magic crashed into me.

I’d been in combat before, even in fights that involved magic, but this witch’s attack was particularly painful. I could feel the magic crushing my lungs, grasping around every internal organ and slowly but surely crushing the life out of me from the inside.

I wasn’t afraid to die. In some ways, my death was overdue. This wasn’t a particularly enjoyable way to die, but I was still focused on the other part.

The witch stepped forward as I gripped the table tightly, then slowly dropped back into my chair. She was smiling darkly as her hands readied for another spell.

“You should be careful with forbidden magic,” I murmured. “You really don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Oh, fuck off,” she snapped. “That’s always what people say – ‘it’s forbidden for safety reasons,’” she said in a mocking voice. “No, it’s not. It’s forbidden because people know witches would be too powerful if they had that magic, and they want to keep witches in check. But I will not be contained.”

She reached out and her spell danced in front of my eyes as I started to feel prickling in my head.

“Just one question,” she murmured, “but one is all I need.” Her eyes were gleaming with delight. “Where is the fairy construct?” She demanded.

The magic forced me to answer, giving her the location she so desperately wanted. I saw the delight in her eyes, but she had no idea she’d taken something else from me when she got her answer.

I smiled, satisfied, as she stepped back. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted that, clearly confused.

“What are you so happy about? You’re about to die, and I took the answer from you.”

“I’m smiling because you’ve doomed yourself,” I answered, my voice even more tired than normal. “I wish I could see it, but – I’m satisfied knowing it will happen nonetheless.”

I had no doubt what would happen. The witch would use cursed invisibility – a forbidden magic – on the constructs. But inevitably, the constructs would be destroyed. Whether or not she liked it, all supernaturals would balk at the worldwide destruction of fairies. Fairies themselves might not be able to stop the construct, but eventually, there would be other supernaturals who would step in and destroy it. Knowing fairies, too, they’d step in to help stop the naga construct as well.

The witch had forgotten one crucial detail when she’d attacked me. I’d had her blood. I knew how it flowed, I knew what it was made of. Vampires didn’t usually curse people, but it wasn’t impossible, and when I’d had her blood for years? It was easy to give her a curse with the forbidden magic she used on me.

And when the constructs fell, as the broken curses on them rebounded back to her, my curse would take effect. The broken curses would do more than just cause her pain – they would permanently take away her magic itself. With two constructs and two curses, she’d be left with barely more magic than a human.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” I warned her.

And then her spell squeezed the last bit of life from me and darkness claimed me once and for all.