Lexi closed her eyes and leaned against the fireplace as she tried to calm the anger coursing through her veins. That asshole!
How could he do this to her when she’d put herself on the line to save him?
Because he’s a damn dark fae, and I should have known better than to trust him.
It was true, but it didn’t matter now. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t change what she’d done. She’d put herself in this position, and the best she could hope for was to somehow crawl out of this mess without getting anyone killed.
She stepped away from the fireplace and strode over to sit in one of the chairs. She sank into the inviting cushion and stared at the fireplace as she tried not to think about how long Orin would hold her hostage.
“Lexi?”
She almost squealed and jumped out of the chair when Sahira said her name. She spun in the chair to discover her aunt standing in the doorway. Sahira had been in the garden when she slipped into the tunnels; she often spent a couple of hours there a day, but she’d apparently finished early today.
Thankfully, she hadn’t caught Lexi coming out of the tunnel. From now on, she’d have to use a different entrance into the tunnels.
“Yes?” she croaked.
Sahira didn’t seem to notice anything off as she smiled at her. “Would you like some tea?”
Lexi glanced at the clock and was amazed to see it was already their normal teatime. Where had the day gone?
“Yes, of course,” she said as she rose from the chair and walked toward her aunt.
Should she tell Sahira about Orin? Her aunt might know what to do about him, but then Lexi would have to involve her in this mess.
Right now, Sahira could claim ignorance about Lexi’s actions, and it could save her life. Or at least Lexi hoped it could. However, if she told Sahira, she would be pissed at Orin for his threats, and things could get ugly. Sahira was a strong witch, but she wasn’t strong enough to take on a dark fae.
No, she couldn’t tell her aunt about what she’d done. She’d already put her in danger by allowing Orin into the tunnels; keeping her in the dark was the best way to keep Sahira safe. Lexi had dug herself into this hole, and she would get herself out without endangering her aunt.
She stepped aside as Sahira entered the room with two cups of tea. Lexi’s mouth watered as a sweet scent wafted from the delicate cups. For as long as she could remember, the two of them sat down every day to enjoy a cup of tea together.
When she was little, they would sit around her small table and fill plastic cups with tea. They’d pretend to be queens while they sipped their tea and dreamed of magical worlds far from the human realm.
As part witch, Sahira had traveled to the land of witches a few times and several other Shadow Realms, but as part vampire, she rarely felt welcome in those realms. However, when she was younger, Sahira loved to regale Lexi with those stories as she poured tea and lifted a dainty pinky finger while sipping her drink.
As she grew, they stopped sitting around her little pink table and drinking out of plastic cups, but they always sat together every day. When she got older, she also learned Sahira’s stories, though wondrous, were tinged with sadness and adversity.
Sahira traveled to those realms, but they never welcomed her with open arms because she was part vampire and part witch. She learned more about how her aunt never felt welcome in the witches’ realm and the intolerance she faced there.
The witches’ hatred for vampires hadn’t lessened over the eight hundred years that had passed since a vampire killed the witch queen in a fit of jealousy. The two had been lovers, but the queen had decided to take another to her bed, and the vampire was not happy about it.
In retaliation for her death, all the witch covens joined together. Not only did they slaughter the vampire who killed their queen, but they also unleashed their wrath on the vampire realm.
They leveled that realm, making it uninhabitable for vampires and driving them out. When they fled to other realms, the witches’ wrath followed them, and they were evicted from those realms by the witches and the immortals who resided there.
No one wanted to incur the witches’ wrath by harboring the vampires. Besides, known for their arrogance, vampires weren’t well-liked before they killed the witch queen, so not many other immortals wanted them around.
They could have fled to the far outer Shadow Realms, but many of those realms were inhospitable or inhabited by terrifying creatures, so that left them with Earth. When the vampires fled to the mortal realm, the witches, drained from the destruction of their realm, could not continue their attack on them.
The vampires were getting ready to go back after the witches, who wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fight, when the Lord at that time put an end to it before the two immortals destroyed each other.
Neither the vampires nor witches were happy when the Lord intervened, but they both relented. They either accepted the decision or ended up being hunted by the Lord, and none of them would ever know peace.
However, the witches did succeed in forcing the arrogant vamps out of the Shadow Realms. They contented themselves with this knowledge, though their hatred for the vamps remained, and the vamps’ hatred for them was just as intense.
With no place else to go, the vampires remained in the human realm. They’d traveled to Earth before to feed, but it became their home after the witches’ attack.
Lexi had no idea how Sahira’s father managed to sweet talk a witch into his bed, but somehow, he did it. And Sahira was the one who paid the price.
Her mother left after Sahira was born, and she didn’t take her baby with her. Sahira grew up in the human realm with her father and Del, who was only four years older. Del’s mother, a vampire, was killed by a warlock shortly after his birth, and Sahira’s mother was still alive, but she had nothing to do with her.
Ashamed of her weakness at having not only slept with but conceived a child with a vampire, Sahira’s mother left her baby behind so she could return to the witch realm. Sahira rarely mentioned her, but Lexi knew they’d met.
The loss of both their mothers and their close ages bound Sahira and Del together; they grew up as thick as thieves. Their deep loyalty and love for each other continued until the day he died.
Over time, Sahira stopped traveling to the Shadow Realms and remained on Earth. It was easier for her that way. She was as caught in the middle as Lexi, but at least Lexi wasn’t torn between two species who despised each other.
Although, that had probably changed now. Before, the humans had never known she existed. Vampires had always been a thing of legends born from real encounters with vamps, but they were still fantastical and believed to be fake.
However, humans knew they were real now, and she doubted that knowledge made them happy. Yes, she was sure the humans probably hated vamps as much as the witches did.
She followed Sahira over to the two overstuffed chairs, but she stopped before taking a seat. She couldn’t spend the next hour staring at the fireplace while knowing what lay beyond it.