Chapter 1
My mom owns a bookstore in the main square of our city. We sell all kinds of things though; from potion ingredients to best sellers. It has a nice homey feel with a couple of dark brown leather couches and floor to ceiling dark wooden bookshelves on both floors. My best friend, and coworker, Isabelle is currently stocking the upper level bookshelves. In the back stockroom is where we keep all of the cool stuff, the stuff we sell to the coven.
Mom usually puts Izzy and I on the same work schedule since we’re usually together anyways. Our moms are best friends and we were born within two weeks of each other. Naturally, we’re as thick as thieves, and are occasionally actually thieves. We have all of our classes together and hang out together most days after school.
Today, as usual, we split up the work we were assigned to do. Izzy’s upstairs stocking the much beloved teen fiction section, while I’m stocking the herbs mom sent to work with me. She and the other leaders had a meeting with the local vampire coven trying to get help with hunting a loose demon.
Tonight’s my first meeting with our coven and I’m really not looking forward to it, since it’ll be my first one. There’s a biweekly meeting between the coven leaders and a monthly meeting where the whole coven gets together. You get to start attending meetings at eighteen, which I just turned.
Maybe the stress from the meeting caused the weird dream. I wonder what the dream means. Maybe I’ll finally grow into my powers. I feel like magic will never be as easy for me as it is for my mom or grandma.
A man saunters in, probably about twenty five. At first glance he’s hot. Hair so dark, it’s almost black. Topaz blue eyes. Strong cheekbones. Tall and fit, but not too muscular and wearing a sexy suit. Then he gets closer and I realize he’s a vampire, and an old one at that. I can feel his energy across the room, it’s so strong. He’s definitely dangerous. Izzy leans over the balcony, gives me a look, and nods at me, confirming that she understands that we may have to fight him if he tries to overpower us, before she tosses her long raven hair over her shoulder and starts to descend the stairs.
I start to reach for my daggers that I keep in my combat boots, just as he reaches the counter. Topaz meets emerald. I freeze. He smiles at me with a weird look in his eyes.
“You won’t be needing those, I mean you no harm” he states, with a slight british accent, nodding to my daggers. I don’t know why but I believe him. “I’m in need of some of your products that you keep behind the counter”. He passes me a list.
“Half this list is for cooking and the other half is poisonous” I say to him with an eyebrow raised. What did he say this was for again?
“Sometimes my friend uses both in the same dish” he says with a slight smirk. Alrighty then. I go to the back room and gather his supplies. Turmeric, belladonna, thyme, pennyroyal, mistletoe, mandrake, rosemary, lavender, and lemon balm. I place each one in a separate baggie labeling them and putting a sticker on the poisonous one’s. Bringing the bags up to the front, I ring up the vampire.
“If there’s nothing else your total today will be $43.97” I say sweetly while bagging his items. He hands me a hundred dollar bill, grabs his bags and walks out without saying another word. Izzy comes up to the counter and starts freaking out.
“Dude, that was a vamp” she starts, “what did he want?” she asks. I give her the list that he left behind. Scrunches her face up “that’s such a weird combo of herbs” she states and I have to agree with her. Some are for protection and healing and some are for killing and death. It really is odd.
Looking up at the clock I curse, I’m running late for my meeting.
“Go” Izzy says, pushing me out of the door “I’ll close up”. I rush off to the hotel where the meeting is being held.
Fantastic. I’m royally fucked. I really don’t want to be noticed and I’m pretty sure showing up this late is going to do just that. Walking through the front doors of the hotel, I look for a sign that’ll point me to a conference room. I promised my mom that I wouldn’t be late today, she’s going to kill me. I see a sign for the conference rooms and I head towards them.
As I turn the corner, I hear my name being called in a very familiar, very annoyed tone. Great. I’ve been caught by my mother. I turn to face her. “Evangeline, where have you been? What are you wearing?” She asks in a rapid-fire fashion. Looking down at my ripped jeans, combat boots, and leather jacket, I can kinda see her point. I can’t believe the hot vampire saw me looking like this, wait no. He wasn’t hot, he was a vampire. They can’t be hot. That’d be weird. He was obviously old and powerful.
“Uh ” I stutter, not looking at her, feeling my ears heat up. I’m embarrassed, especially since I wasn’t actually listening to her question. I don’t know why he had such an effect on me. I don’t even know his name..
“Are you even paying any attention to me?” she sighs, shoves a bag at me, pushing me towards a nearby bathroom, and I know she wants me to make myself “presentable” as she says. My mom hates the jacket and my ripped jeans and combat boots. She’d rather me dress more like her, professional and polished. She’s in her mid forties but could easily pass for early thirties and is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. I really hope I get her genes. I mean I’ve never met my dad but he couldn’t have been that attractive, since I look like me.
I go into the bathroom and quickly change and throw my hair up into a messy, but cute, bun. The dark green sundress and nude heels look pretty against my pale skin and red hair, bringing out my emerald green eyes. I’ve always liked my hair and eyes, they make me look like my mother. I’d still rather be wearing my boots and leather jacket so I slip the jacket back on. It has a protection spell on it that makes it impenetrable, a gift from my grandmother when I turned sixteen.
I walk into the conference room, and everyone turns to look at me. My mother along with two others rule over all the witches in the area, Constance and James. All of us heirs are here too. The heirs are the oldest, or in my case the only, child of the three leaders. Liam is Constance’s son and Daniel is James’. They’re almost like brothers to me since we grew up together, and like all brothers, I find them incredibly annoying. Liam is blond haired and brown eyed and thinks he’s a god. Danny has brown hair and ice blue eyes, he’s the smartest out of all of us. I’m going to miss them when we all go off to college next year, but knowing us we’ll end up at the same school anyways. It’s our senior year and as we’ve all just turned eighteen in the past few months. Danny then Liam then me. The boys have both been to meetings before but this is my first.
I sit down in between my mom and Danny. It’s a circular table to promote “equality and communication” between all of us. Danny looks excited while Liam looks bored, like he’d rather be doing anything else, and I kind of agree with him. I’d rather be reading YA fiction or learning actual magic. Everyone’s talking among themselves, except for Liam who’s texting, probably his latest conquest.
I drift off staring at the plain grey walls and “abstract” artwork that looks like a seven year old got a hold of a paint brush. I’m not looking forward to taking over because I just want to run the bookshop. Reading is really my passion and I don’t even want to go to college. If I do, I want a degree in literature and not business like my mom wants. I started daydreaming about this book I was reading. It’s a different take on Beauty and the Beast and it’s wonderful.
Danny nudges me with his elbow. I come back to reality with a sigh. They’re talking about my mom’s meeting with the vampire coven.
“Lord Ashford wasn’t there” mom says like it’s weird for one vampire to not be there. She then explains that he’s the leader of the coven, so maybe it is a little strange for him not to be there. Why would you not show up to your own meeting? That’s kind of rude. We finish up the meeting and mom and I head back home, just in time for me to do my homework. Yay.
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