The Vampire & Her Witch

Even after Ollie spoke his oath, it took several minutes for him to finish drinking in the energy of the Blood Acorn. By the time he had, his body was slick with pinkish sweat, and his muscles trembled with exhaustion of a full day’s labor, even though he was only lying in bed.

”How do you feel, Ollie?” Ashlynn said, finally pulling her hand back from his chest as she rose from the bed to fetch a damp cloth from the washstand. There was a dull ache between her eyes, and her heartbeat had grown rapid and irregular after exerting herself so much, but she ignored both of these things to place her focus on Ollie.

”Tired, a bit,” Ollie said. ”But also... Energized,” he said, raising one arm to make a fist and flexing the muscles of his arm as he tested the feelings coming from his body. ”I feel like I could carry a whole hog for roasting, all by myself,” he said, imagining how cumbersome it usually was to place a large swine on a spit for roasting in one of Lothian Manor’s great hearths.

”But, that’s not, that’s not how I want to use my strength right now,” he said quietly as Ashlynn returned to his side and began wiping the sweat from his body with a cloth that felt blessedly cool. ”I, I want to punch something. Or, um, I really, really want to hit someone. To pummel Owain Lothian the way he hurt you,” Ollie said, clenching his fists as he looked at Ashlynn.

”I’m angry,” he said. ”And there’s all this power in me, and I want to use it to... to hurt someone,” he said, looking distinctly uncomfortable about it. He understood the anger. After glimpsing what Ashlynn had suffered, how could he be anything other than furious?

But the rage that burned in his chest was hotter than anything he’d ever known, and the impulse to lash out and hurt someone because he was angry... That wasn’t something that felt normal to him. He’d known that Ashlynn suffered at Owain’s hands for months, and he hated the Lothian Lord for it, or at least, he thought he had.

It was only now that he realized that what he’d felt before had been a very abstract sort of loathing for the man who had hurt the most important person in Ollie’s life after his own parents, but it still hadn’t been personal. It hadn’t been a visceral hatred that he felt in his bones. But it was now.

”That will fade,” Ashlynn said, sounding more confident than she felt. All witchcraft was shaped by the desires of the witch using it. The Blood Acorns had been formed as part of a promise to deliver vengeance. The emotions that shaped the energy contained within the seed were dark and violent. Pain, fury, grief, and hatred blended to create a source of power that could be used for healing, but only when the promise of violence followed.

”What else do you feel?” Ashlynn asked, hoping to shift the topic to something less emotionally charged. Much like Virve, Ollie would need to learn to deal with the rage that wasn’t his own. But unlike Virve, who would always be connected to the Ancient Oak, this intense anger should fade once Ashlynn obtained her vengeance. She only hoped that Ollie wasn’t permanently changed as a result of carrying it, even if it was only for a few days.

”Any aches or pains?” Ashlynn prompted. ”Are you able to feel the energy in your body?”

”I can feel it,” Ollie said, closing his eyes to focus on the sensations coming from within his body and the seed of witchcraft within his chest. ”I feel... Off balance,” he said as he slowly tested the energy coursing through the roots of his power. ”You told me that, aside from Wood, the power of the cypress tree was balanced across the remaining four elements.”

”But this power,” Ollie said, placing a hand on his chest and pressing down, poking at his skin as though it wasn’t entirely his own. ”I feel so much more Wood and Earth and Fire.” Wood that had strengthened his skin, leaving it as tough as the hide of a Tuscan or the bark of a tree. Earth that had seeped into his bones, making them feel as hard as stone.

And wrapped up around all of it, a Fire that burned in his muscles, granting him the power and strength to lash out with tremendous force. A Fire that left him feeling more aggressive than he ever had before.

There had been enough Water and Wind energy within the Blood Acorn to restore Ollie’s roots completely. He wasn’t lacking any of his former strength. The regenerative healing powers of the Cypress Tree were still there, as was the Dark Wind that had been shaped by the feather that Nyrielle bestowed on him when he became a witch. But those things hadn’t been strengthened by the Blood Acorn the way everything else had been.

”I thought,” Ollie said as he slowly tested each of his powers, feeling the changes in the energy flowing through him. ”I thought that, since Lady Nyrielle helped and she shaped my powers of Wind before, I’d at least gain more of that strength too,” he said, looking at Ashlynn in confusion. ”But it doesn’t feel that way.”

”I told you, didn’t I?” Ashlynn said with an amused smile. ”This power isn’t like Nyri’s ’Kiss of the Void.’ This was blood sorcery. It’s more predatory,” she explained. ”Vampires are the ultimate predator, and no predator is greater than a True Vampire.”

”You’ve only touched one part of Nyri’s power,” she said as her smile grew wider with pride in her lover. ”There’s so much more to her than the darkness of the Void.”

”As to the rest,” Ashlynn said, returning to the wash stand to wring out the cloth and fetching a small towel that Ollie could dry off with. ”The Oak isn’t a balanced tree, the way the Cypress is, and the Ancient Oak is even more extreme than most. It gave you the gifts it could, but it can’t strengthen you everywhere.”

”That makes sense, I guess,” Ollie said, nodding in understanding. ”So, this is what it’s like for Virve,” he reasoned.

”More or less,” Ashlynn agreed. She handed Ollie the towel and took a seat next to him on the small bed, watching him move as he finished cleaning himself up. Thankfully, while he looked a little tired and moved a bit slowly, it was the slowness of fatigue without the gingerness of pain, and even that fatigue was beginning to pass as the intensity of the ritual faded away.

”You can’t hold on to this much power for long,” Ashlynn warned him. ”Three or four days at most, even if you did nothing with your power,” she said. ”Then, the rest of it will fade away over the course of the next week or two. By the next new moon, you should be completely back to normal.”

”That’s fine,” Ollie said, smiling at Ashlynn as he realized how long the extra power would last. ”I’ll have all the strength I need to help you tear Owain down,” he said, looking surprisingly eager at the thought of it. ”And the power to protect your sister, too,” he promised.

”Yes, you will,” Ashlynn said as she scooted closer to him on the bed, leaning into his solid, muscular shoulder as though she were leaning against a tree for support. She hated how much she needed him to be strong right now, but she was glad that he was, and that she could rely on him when she needed him most.

”And, while you have all that power,” Ashlynn added, turning to look up into his eyes that still seemed a bit darker than usual. ”I have something I’d like you to use it for before we arrive in Lothian City...”