Where A Witch Goeth

Chapter Forty-Seven: Fortune-Telling

Two weeks passed much like the first two nights after our "victory" over our enemies. About every other night, Ace and Dare would switch out with Abraham and Evander as Henry's caregivers, allowing Van and Bram a break. On his "free" nights, Van portioned off the early evening for me, and then the wee hours for Tavish, who was an early sleeper and early riser.

I visited Tavish during the day, and those visits were pleasant and cheerful. He told me stories of his life, and I told him stories of the future. But I rarely spent more than an occasional hour with him and Van together.

That time with all three of us was bittersweet and, to my shame, somewhat awkward. I felt like a third wheel—entirely unnecessary. For that reason, I was both sad and glad that Tavish had set clear boundaries around us becoming an intimate family of three.

"Give it time, lass," Evander said to me, but his words sounded hollow because we both knew Tavish's time grew shorter by the day.

Despite the slow start with Tavish, the resort evenings Evander and I spent in each other's company were more like a house on fire. More than ever before, he enjoyed the exuberant atmosphere of the resort. He coaxed me to dine, dance, and revel almost nightly. He accepted invitations to dine with parties of wealthy guests, proudly introducing me as "the future Mrs. Livingstone," with a wink. No one got the terrible pun but me.

"That's me, future girl," I would mutter into his shoulder as he held out my chair for me with an entirely composed face.

Meeting the wealthy and powerful Jazz Age patrons was entertaining, but I enjoyed the family nights more.

Evander included Minnie and the lads and several other Livingstone cousins in our revels more and more. He seemed to enjoy all his mundane family's company immensely, especially with the outrageous Abraham as a buffer. Abraham had a way about him of inspiring the lads to confidence and keeping Minnie's spirits upbeat during Henry's "purging"-though she had yet to be allowed to visit him.

Abraham kept her distracted, however, and Evander joined in the fun. He cheered and toasted when Abraham cajoled Minnie to dance on our family table in the Jazz club, and he cheerfully lost money when Abraham suggested the two of them and the lads throw some dice in the service hallway behind the kitchen.

As Evander laughed, enjoyed himself, and bonded with the youthful generation of his family,  I fell even more in love with him. He seemed less like the family patriarch and more like the dazzling, twenty-something sheik of the Jazz that he appeared to be.

After the music and the dancing and the laughing, he'd take me to bed, and he'd turn our nights into something more magical than I ever realized was possible. I had never felt more excited by a lover—or more connected to one. I'd resorted to repairing our bedroom with spells, because the more we made love, the less he held back from his feelings, and everything in the room that was breakable—except me—was taking the brunt of his enthusiasm.

He fed regularly and never once came close to biting me during sex, but nevertheless, I'd had to shamefacedly ask Minnie to help me order a dozen sets of identical black silk sheets, because of all the blood. I could magic a lot of things, but I was a modern girl who couldn't help but feel like the blood he spilled during sex needed to be laundered away, not spelled.

Minnie's eyes had gone round when I explained the messy nature of sex with a vampire. "You just wait, you'll be in the same boat someday, Sister," I told her as her shock disintegrated into laughter.

"Will I?" she said wistfully, and there was something behind her words that I didn't understand. I didn't pursue it, however, because I had no idea how long or steep Henry's control curve might be. Given what he'd told me about his own making, I suspected Evander would compel a ban on Henry's and Minnie's intimate life for an amount of time that was going to make Minnie unhappy.