The Vampire & Her Witch

By the time Ashlynn had finished explaining her visit with Samira, she felt steadier. Soaking in the warmth of the bath, she no longer clung to Nyrielle but instead rested up against her, feeling the softness of her lover’s skin in the water and allowing Nyrielle’s slow, steady heartbeat to anchor her in the midst of the emotions that swirled within her heart.

”I stayed there for an hour after she gave me an answer,” Ashlynn added, pulling back from Nyrielle and turning to the silver tray of soaps and oils to fetch one of the lavender-scented soaps. ”We talked about Jocey’s time at the Summer Villa...”

”You need to be careful when you do that, my darling,” Nyrielle cautioned, turning her back toward Ashlynn and pulling her hair forward over her shoulder to reveal the narrow, sculpted expanse of her shoulders while Ashlynn started working up a soapy, sudsy lather.

”I told you there would be time to consider your sister’s matter once you’ve dealt with Owain,” she added, even though she knew it was some of the hardest advice she’d ever given Ashlynn. ”You’re very close to claiming your vengeance. Now is not the time to lose your focus.”

”I know, but...” Ashlynn started as her fingers began to glide across Nyrielle’s flawless, alabaster skin, leaving a faint sheen of soap and a handful of bubbles in their wake. ”I can’t deny that Jocey is tangled up in this. Whatever she and I need to do to make things right,” Ashlynn continued, biting her lower lip as she tried to find the words to express herself.

”Whatever comes next for the two of us, I can’t let her suffer at Owain’s hands,” Ashlynn said firmly. ”Even if I’m going to, I don’t know, lock her up in one of the castle’s towers for the next twenty years so she can learn that some secrets have to be kept,” Ashlynn said, tossing out a wild and senseless idea as her hands slid from Nyrielle’s shoulder to her left arm and began working her way toward her lover’s slender, delicate fingers.

”Even if she needs to be punished for what she did,” Ashlynn said in a softer tone. ”I still need to keep her safe from Owain. I’m still worried about her, and I always will be.”

”She’s your little sister,” Nyrielle said with a slight smile, turning in the water to face Ashlynn and pulling her into a close embrace. ”You know that if you need the time to figure out how to live together with her, I’m willing to take her as one of my progeny for you. It took many years for me to forgive Ignatious, and time needed to wear away the hurt of what he’d done.”

”Jocelynn doesn’t need to suffer the way he did,” Nyrielle added as she saw a look of concern flickering across Ashlynn’s face. ”You may just need time apart to heal, and I can give you all the time in the world.”

”Thank you,” Ashlynn said, pausing with the soap in her hand to pull Nyrielle into a tight embrace.

Nyrielle’s offer wasn’t casual. It took as much out of her to make someone into one of her progeny as it did out of Ashlynn to turn someone into a witch, if not more. And if Nyrielle formed a bond with Jocelynn while the two sisters were still steeped in ... in whatever they felt for each other, then Nyrielle would become caught directly in the middle of it.

But if it gave her darling a better chance of finding happiness in the end, then she was willing to do whatever it took, even if that meant binding herself to a treacherous, jealous little sister for the next hundred years while time wore away at the wounds Jocelunn had inflicted on Ashlynn’s heart.

”I still haven’t decided,” Ashlynn said, pulling back slightly from the embrace to look into Nyrielle’s worried, midnight eyes. ”I know that I need to talk to her. And... If I can face her, and if she’s willing to face what happened,” Ashlynn said softly. ”Then I think I have my own way to bring us back together,” she said, tracing her fingers lightly over the scar nestled between her breasts, where she’d grown seeds of witchcraft for each member of her coven.

”But even if I can grow a seed for her, and even if she takes it, there’s no guarantee that she’ll come out the other side of the trials to become a witch,” Ashlynn said. ”Especially when my feelings toward her are so... so tangled. So, I won’t know if I should make the offer at all until we meet. The things that Samira had to say, and the things Isabell told me about her time with Jocelynn, they give me hope.”

”But none of it matters until Owain is dead,” Ashlynn concluded. ”That much, nothing has changed. So I haven’t lost my focus. If anything, I’m sharper than ever.”

”You’re more determined,” Nyrielle acknowledged, reaching out with her delicate hand to caress Ashlynn’s cheek. The two things weren’t the same, but Nyrielle didn’t press the point. Ashlynn had selected her path forward, and she was prepared to walk it to the end, despite the dangers, and Nyrielle had no intention of forcing her lover’s hand as she walked that path.

At the same time, she was keenly aware of how delicate the balance was between Ashlynn’s determination to see Owain dead and her desire to rescue her sister from his clutches. The former didn’t concern Nyrielle very much, but the latter was fraught with peril.

So, while Nyrielle had promised to let Ashlynn claim her own vengeance against and that she wouldn’t interfere unless Ashlynn’s life was in danger, she very carefully made no promises about whether or not she would interfere with matters relating to Jocelynn. If need be, she was willing to whisk the young woman away herself, taking her as one of her progeny in order to give Ashlynn the time she needed to heal from her wounds.

Ashlynn might hate her for it for a time, but she knew her lover well. If Jocelynn died in the attempt to become a witch, Ashlynn would never forgive herself. It was better, Nyrielle thought, to provoke her lover’s resentment for a few decades or a century than to see Ashlynn hating herself for the rest of her life.

She hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. That everything would work out the way Ashlynn wanted it to. But if it didn’t, if the young witch stumbled and fell while she was trying to piece back together the fragments of the life she’d lost when Owain nearly murdered her, then Nyrielle would be there to catch her, one way or another...