“You brought us here on false pretenses,” I said through gritted teeth.
“No, I did not. I may have had hopes you’d agree to stay as teachers though.” He flashed his fangs as he smiled.
“We’ll think about it,” Isabel said. “I have my pets back at home to consider. Maximus will only pet sit for so long.”
I wanted to laugh at the notion of Maximus pet-sitting those two creatures that had tried to kill me, and Isabel. At least they were no longer under Silas’s curse.
A loud thud sounded behind us and we all turned to find the driver had set Asher’s coffin on the ground. I rushed over and flipped the heavy wooden lid open. Asher lay inside. Eyes closed. Shallow breaths, but still alive. My shoulders sagged with the weight of relief that I still had a chance to save him.
I wanted Isabel to have Asher as her family too.
“Come,” Ludwig said. “I’ll take you to the private wing.”
I hauled Asher’s body over my shoulder, keeping him in the coffin was no longer necessary and I couldn’t bear the sight of it any longer. His weight was heavy on myshoulder but comforting at the same time to have him close again. My little brother. It was my duty to protect him and he was in this state because he’d protected me instead.
We walked under an archway toward a part of the school building that appeared to be connected but separated as though the students weren’t allowed in this section. The heavy door clicked open as Ludwig turned the carved face of a monster on the doorknob. The eyes seemed to watch me as I entered the building.
“This is the professor’s quarters. You’ll be safe here,” Ludwig said as the door swung shut sealing us inside a long corridor.
“Safe from what?” I glanced left and then right but there was nothing but dark timber doors along the hallway. All were shut.
“This change will take time. We won’t stop centuries of hatred in one day.”
“Are you saying vampires will try to kill Dante?” Isabel asked, a note of steel and death in her voice.
Ludwig nodded as he walked down the hallway and stopped at a door. I hadn’t noticed until now that each door held a different tiny carved monster face on the doorknob. His hand turned the knob and pushed it open. He ushered us inside. The air was icy like walking into an arctic tomb. A ginger cat sauntered forward, lifted its chin, tail high in the air, and eyed us like we were intruders in its home. I hadn’t thought the vampire would be a cat person. Ludwig closed the door and locked it then crouched on the floor.
“Elise, I’ve brought people to talk to you.”
The air shimmered with orange, yellow, and red around the cat. The shimmering grew higher into the air as though a flame of magic extended from the animal. But then the animal morphed into a floating cat head,then disappeared entirely and a woman stood before us. My brain struggled to make sense of what I’d seen.
A woman with long ginger hair in the same matching cloak as Ludwig stood before us.
“Elise,” Ludwig said. “We need your help with a Constantine curse.”
Her cat green eyes narrowed to slits. “And what makes you think I can help?” She lifted her angular chin.
Ludwig lifted his lip in return. “Don’t forget my dear who has kept you hidden all these years.”
“How could I ever forget that?” Elise asked, her gaze dragging over me and then Isabel.
“They’re mated.”
Her eyebrows rose high on her freckle-spattered forehead. “A vampire and a werewolf!”
“Can you help?” Isabel asked, facing the vampire.
“Get the Constantine who put the curse on him to remove it,” Elise said taking a step back as the air shimmered again like she’d shift back into a cat. “I want nothing to do with my family.”
“We can’t. He’s dead. He somehow connected himself to Asher with a curse,” I said.
She stepped forward and eyed the slumped body of Asher over my shoulder.
“He’s the last Constantine warlock, Elise,” Ludwig said. “You can end this by helping now.”
“The last?” Her nose twitched side to side.
“I’m Isabel,” my mate said, offering her hand to the witch. “And that’s Dante holding his brother, Asher. Please, help him. If it wasn’t for me, Silas wouldn’t have cursed him.”
“Nonsense,” I said, “It’s not your fault Silas tried using you to make him a vampire.”
“Still up to his old tricks I see.” The witch placed her hand in Isabel’s. “I’m Elise Constantine. The original Constantine witch who made vampires andwerewolves.” She lifted her lips revealing a set of shiny white vampire fangs. “Welcome to my home.”
