Hank and Ben watched Lila agitatedly pace the porch of the lab building.
“Jasper has been locked in that room with Cerie for two days,” she complained. “What are they doing?”
Ben looked at Hank and pursed his lips as he said to her, “I think you know.”
“Why?” she jealously whimpered. “Why her? First Freya and now Cerie. I don’t get it. What’s so special about them?”
“I couldn’t say,” Ben muttered with sincerity.
“What is this nonsense about them being queens, anyway?” she pouted. “Queens of who? Maybe they ruled in the realm they came from, but not here. I saw no indication of Freya governing the wolves when we were there. The only ones who answered to her were Marc and Jasper. The pack looked to Marc for everything; even permission to follow her instructions on the rare occasions that she appeared to give a damn and decided to play ruler. In fact, when she showed up out of nowhere to announce herself, no one knew who she was. What kind of a queen is that?” Wiping at a few beads of perspiration that had worked their way onto her forehead with the back of her hand she continued with, “Then there’s this Cerie witch. I’m a witch and I’ve never seen her until now. I’ve heard of her, but it wasn’t favorable. Who does she rule?”
“She’s anti half-breeds,” Ben snarled.
“What’s a half-breed?” Lila asked with confusion.
“It is a witch who was born of both witch and something else. They’re considered impure,” Hank explained.
Lila’s eyes widened. “I’m a half-breed?”
Ben shook his head. “No, I’m a half-breed. You’re even less since your mother was half-breed and your father human.”
“I’m not a witch, then?” she stuttered with dismay. “Is that why I can’t keep up with the others?”
“Of course you are,” Ben cooed. “It’s because you have less genetics in you than most of the coven that you have to work harder on building your magic, but you are most definitely a witch. The vampires took from you just like they did the others, didn’t they? Don’t let that bitch, Cerie, get to you.”
Turning to Hank, she said, “She is a bitch, isn’t she?”
“I am not fond of her,” Hank replied.
Lila looked from Ben to Hank and asked, “If neither of you like her, why does Jasper?”
Ben raised a brow and asked, “Who said he liked her?”
“He’s kept her in bed for two days,” Lila pouted. “That’s a pretty good indication.”
Looking about to make sure that there were no ears listening in, Ben said with a harsh whisper, “Come with me.”
She gave him no resistance as he took her by the elbow and gently guided her off the porch.
When he was confident that they were far enough away from the house that he could speak comfortably without the risk of Cerie hearing him, he softly explained, “Jasper has vampire in him, remember?” When Lila nodded, he continued with, “We fear Cerie is going to kill the babies. Normally, she’s too much of a magical opponent for any of us to handle. Jasper’s using his vampire self to syphon her magic so that it’s reduced enough for me to go up against her should the need arise. He’s taken so long because it’s not only dangerous for him to absorb it too fast, but he needs to do it without her realizing what he’s up to.”
Lila knit her brows together as she said, “She insisted that she was here to help the witches. She’s already helped those who brought her here.”
“That was a ruse,” Ben grumbled. “She was very clear about her stance on half-breed witches. The vampire is no friend of hers; especially after what they did to her. If she finds half-breeds from humans to be an abomination, do you really think she’ll tolerate half-breeds from vampires?”
Lila sucked in air while she thought of her own son. “She’ll kill them.”
“Not if we have our way,” Hank said as he sauntered up to where they were standing.
Just then, Cerie’s voice permeated the air as she screamed, “Bastard!”
Hank smiled and nodded while Ben closed his eyes to allow his mind to get a vision of what was occurring behind the closed door of the room where Jasper and Cerie were.
“He’s biting her,” Ben said with satisfaction. “She’s fighting him, but she’s too weak.”
“It worked, then,” Hank said with a smile and a sigh.
“We’ll have to keep her down until we can figure out what to do with her,” Ben offered. “When she gets her full magic back, none of us will be safe.”
“You don’t expect Jasper to stay in bed with her forever, do you?” Lila whined.
“Now that he’s drained her of her magic enough to be able to drink her blood, he won’t have to have sex with her again,” Hank said.
“Unless he wants to, of course,” Ben interjected. When Lila gave him the look of death, he added, “It’s just that, from what I understand, the sensation of the magic being absorbed through sex is different than through blood drinking. I believe they do both so that they get the complete benefit and absorption. I imagine we’ll have to wait and see just how he tolerates the magic and how long it lasts in him to see if he needs to continue to mount her or can simply drain her with blood ingestion only.”
“Tolerate the magic?” Hank said. “I hadn’t thought of that. What will happen to him now that he has magic in him?”
“I’m not really sure,” Ben replied. “If he didn’t have vampire, wolf, and zombie in him, I’d say I’d just teach him how to use it while it lasted. I don’t know how the magic will come into play with such complex genetics or how long his body will retain it. I’ve never heard of a wolf or zombie having magic. As for the vampires, they don’t really absorb it enough to use it. They’ get a high from it that only lasts a day or so. It’s an addictive drug for them.”
“Jasper’s going to get addicted to it?” Lila screeched with disgust.
Hank held his hands in the air and motioned for her to quiet down.
“This is not something that needs to be known,” he urged. “Please keep your voice down.”
“Which is more important?” Ben snipped. “The life of your son and the other innocent babies or whether Jasper becomes addicted to magic?” When Lila stared at him with a look that resembled a deer blinded by a car’s headlights, he continued with, “He’s doing this for you. Sleeping with Cerie was a sacrifice on his part. Be thankful he had the where-with-all to go through with it. I’m not sure I could.”
“Jasper firmly believes that, given time, he can find a way to remove the vampire genes from those babies,” Hank offered. “If not remove, at least bind them. None of us want to see those innocents killed and you know very well that’s what Cerie wants to do.”
“As does that filthy she-wolf, Freya,” Lila hissed. “Jasper told me he overheard her giving Marcus the orders when he slipped back into the camp.”
“I question if the real threat just might be the wolves,” Ben mused. “We can’t weaken them by syphoning their magic like we can with Cerie.”
“Magic can hold them at bay,” Lila insisted.
“If the coven was all whole and united, then I’d agree,” Ben replied. “As it is now, there are too few of us able to cast a spell strong enough to hold back an entire wolf pack; especially if they decide to attack during the full moon. I had hoped that Cerie would remedy that, but after hearing her stance on half-breed witches, I have lost all hope of that happening.”
“We need to come up with a backup plan,” Hank said. “This should not all be on Jasper’s shoulders. There must be something we can do to help the situation. I will call a meeting of my people and we will put our heads together.”
“There are a good deal of you who have had their faculties returned enough to think and communicate clearly,” Lila said with an encouraging tone.
“Yes,” Hank agreed with a nod. “We will come up with some way to help. I promise you.”
Lila gave a sigh of relief as she watched Hank casually walk off into the night. Although his gait was improved, he still noticeably lacked speed. With his calm demeanor and absence of ability to increase his walk to something that exceeded a stroll, had she not known better, she would have thought him simply out enjoying the night air.
“You have a friend and ally in him,” Ben mused as he too watched Hank walk away.
“Yes,” she softly said as her eyes left the zombie leader and moved back to the building from where Cerie’s rants could still be heard.