Enchant the Night. Amanda Ashley
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dinner. It wasn’t until they were in the car again that Quill brought up the subject that had been nagging at him. “Tell me about your family.”
Startled, Callie stared at him. “My family? Why?”
“I’m just curious about you,” he said with a negligent shrug. “About your past.”
“Oh. Well . . . my parents died when I was six and I went to live with my Grandma Ava. She’s really the only family I had.”
“What about your other grandparents? Didn’t you ever see them?”
“No.” She shifted uncomfortably, remembering how hurt she’d been when they cut her out of their life. “My Grandpa Henry thought I was a changeling because I’m left-handed. He was always looking at me strangely, as if he was waiting for me to put a curse on him or turn into some kind of . . . I don’t know what. It got to be an obsession with him. After my parents died, he refused to have anything to do with me and wouldn’t let Grandma Martha visit me, either. She sent me money in birthday cards and Christmas cards for a few years, and then they stopped.” Callie blinked rapidly to stay her tears. “I guess she passed away.”
“But you were close to your other grandparents.”
Callie smiled. “Grandma Ava’s husband passed away before I was born. But I loved living with her. She was so good to me, although I have to say she was a little eccentric. When I was a little girl, I was sure she was a witch.”
Ava. Quill frowned. Was it a coincidence that her grandmother’s name was the same as that of the witch he had known so long ago? He shot her a quick glance. “What made you think that?”
“Oh, she and her friends used to dance in the backyard on nights when the moon was full. Sometimes I watched them from my window and I could hear them chanting, though I couldn’t understand the words. She used to sing and make weird signs over me at night when I went to bed. She said it would protect me, but she didn’t say from what. I asked her a couple of times, but all she said was that someday I’d understand.” Stifling a grin, Callie glanced at Quill. “Maybe she was protecting me from vampires.”
“Maybe she was.” There was no humor in his tone. Or his expression.
Callie stared at him. She had spoken the words in jest, but suddenly they didn’t seem so funny.
There was an abrupt shift in the atmosphere when Quill said, “I think she was a witch.”
An icy shiver skated down Callie’s spine. “Why would you say that?”
“You said she cast a spell of protection on you.”
“Yes.”
“It worked.”
“What do you mean?”
“That first night when I bit you, I wiped the memory from your mind. And still you remembered. There’s no one living, except for my own kind and the Knights of the Dark Wood, who know of my existence. I had intended to silence you. Permanently.”
Callie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You were going to . . . to kill me.”
He didn’t deny it. “But I couldn’t. Now I know why. Whatever protective spell your grandmother cast on you all those years ago very likely saved your life.”
She shook her head. “It isn’t possible. None of this is possible.”
“Whether you believe it or not, I know witches exist. I’ve met a few.” And he was more certain now than ever that Callie’s grandmother was the witch he had known decades ago. They looked the same. They tasted the same.
“Why didn’t she tell me? Maybe not when I was little for fear I might tell someone else. But why she didn’t she tell me later, when I was old enough to understand?”
Quill shook his head as he pulled up in front of her house. “I have no idea.”
Callie stared at him. If vampires were real, then why not witches? It was all too much to take in. Vampires. Witches. Knights of the Dark Wood. What next? Werewolves? Zombies? Little green men from Mars?
“I’ve got to go,” Callie said, anxious to be alone with her thoughts.
“We aren’t finished, you and I,” he said as she opened the car door.
Heart pounding, she grabbed her handbag, stepped out of the Jaguar, and ran up the porch steps. Key in hand, she tried to unlock the door, but she was shaking so badly, she couldn’t fit the key into the lock.
And then Quill was standing behind her, taking the key from her hand.
She felt his breath against her cheek as he leaned past her to open the door, the brush of his fingers against hers as he handed her the key. When she stepped over the threshold, he closed the door behind her.
She stood there a moment, his last words whispering in the back of her mind.
We aren’t finished, you and I.
Suddenly weak in the knees, Callie sank down on the sofa, wondering if those last words had been a threat or a promise.
* * *
Brow furrowed, Quill left his car parked in front of Callie’s house and strolled down the street. He could understand her confusion and dismay as she tried to come to terms with the fact that her grandmother had been a witch. He had met Ava over a hundred years ago. He had known when he drank from her that she was a witch. It had added a certain spice to their friendship. He had met the members of her coven, as well. Betty, Hilda, and Maxine. Being a vampire had its own kind of magic and the five of them had spent many an evening trying to out-magic each other, but Ava had clearly out-classed all of them.
What he hadn’t realized until now was just how powerful Ava had been. She had apparently known that her granddaughter would meet one of his kind. To that end, she had cast a protection spell on Callie, he mused, perhaps even before Callie had been born.
Ava had not only been a powerful witch, but she had possessed the Sight. Quill frowned. When he had made love to Ava all those years ago, had she somehow foreseen that one day in the future, Callie would meet him? If so, it would explain why Ava had refused to bed him again after that first time.
Either way, he had met Callie—and Ava’s incantation had done its job and protected her vulnerable granddaughter from the big, bad vampire.
Or had it? Sure, he had been certain the only way to ensure that Callie kept his secret was to take her life, but once he had talked to her, found out a little about her, all he’d wanted to do was get to know her better. She was enchanting, vibrant, and beautiful. And she had a kind and generous heart. What man wouldn’t want her?
For the first time since he’d met Ava, he had met a woman who intrigued him, one who had captured his heart and soul. One who knew him for what he was and hadn’t run screaming from his presence.
He wasn’t about to let her go without a fight.
Chapter 8
Callie met Vivian for drinks the next night. Now, sitting at a table by the back window of their favorite nightclub, she said, “I’m so glad you called.” She had spent the day by turns missing Quill and grateful that she hadn’t heard from him. “I really needed to get out of the house. Although I was surprised to hear from you. I thought you’d have a date with Greg, it being Sunday night and all.”
“Don’t mention that man to me!”
“What happened? I thought you had high hopes for him.”
“I did. Until I found out he’s married with two kids and one on the way!”
“Oh, Viv, I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too. I really liked him.” Sniffling, she reached for a napkin and wiped her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m crying. He’s not worth it, the lousy two-timing cheat. So, how are you?”