“No need to thank me. Your training begins tomorrow.”
“So soon?”
“The sooner the better. If you’re going to stand at the side of a ruler you will need all the power you can get.”
“I guess you’re right.” I looked him dead in the eye now, and there was a sparkle of excitement in his gaze. He was really looking forward to this, and as I watched him, some of the excitement began to rub off on me, too. I had no idea what being a sorceress was going to entail, but the endless possibilities filled me with a thrilling sense of anticipation.
“Hey, Tegan, I was looking for you,” came Rita’s voice as she entered the room.
Roman turned to appraise her, and she stared at him coolly. “Oh, you again,” she said casually.
“Hello, little witch. It is a pleasure, as always.”
Rita cocked an eyebrow and snickered. “Whatever. Tegan, are you coming back out, or do you plan on staying in here all night?”
“Come and join us,” Roman said. “I think you might be interested in what we are discussing.”
“Oh, yeah?” She folded her arms and closed the door, walking deeper into the room and stopping a couple of feet in front of Roman.
Roman looked at Rita for a long moment, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he seemed to be undressing her with his eyes. Rita’s casual demeanour faltered a little as she cleared her throat. Then Roman turned to me, “Tegan, how would you feel about having a classmate?”
It took me a second to get what he was saying. “You mean you want to teach Rita, too?”
“Teach me what?”
“Teach you how to become a sorceress,” Roman explained.
“Oh,” Rita said, her eyes growing round. Gone was the sassy attitude as interest marked her features.
“I think it’s a great idea,” I put in. “It will be less scary than going it alone.”
“Yeah, it is a great idea, but how do we know he’s not up to something?”
“It’s always good to be suspicious.” Roman gave an approving nod. “But I assure you, I have no ulterior motives. I simply wish to pass my knowledge on. I’m not like other sorcerers, and I’m sick of keeping my powers all to myself. I feel it’s time for a change, and I want to share.”
There was a long stretch of silence as she mulled it over.
“I’ll give you a month. If I decide it’s not for me, then I can back out any time before the month is up,” Rita said. “Deal?”
Roman smiled widely and held out his hand for her to shake it. “Deal.”
Hesitantly, Rita stepped forward and took his hand. They shook for a moment, and then all of a sudden, Roman tugged Rita into him and captured her mouth in a passionate kiss.
Well, that was unexpected.
She struggled for a minute but then sighed and submitted. I knew I should probably turn away, but I couldn’t seem to stop watching them.
Finally, they broke their kiss, and Roman lifted her hand to place one last peck on the inside of her wrist. “I very much look forward to training you, little witch,” he said with hot, smoky eyes.
Rita looked from him to me as though this was the first time in her entire life she’d been completely speechless.
“Until tomorrow, my lovelies,” Roman bid us goodbye and vanished from the room.
Rita looked like she was still in shock as she slumped bonelessly down into a chair. After a minute or two passed, she said, “Did that really just happen?”
I chuckled. “Yes. Roman can be very, um … friendly.”
“You can say that again,” she said and groaned, throwing her hand over her face in annoyance.
“What’s wrong?”
“That man is going to be serious trouble, Tegan.”
“Serious trouble to your knickers, you mean,” I replied, still laughing.
“Yeah,” she said, exasperated. “That’s exactly what I meant.”
I walked to her and pulled her up from the chair, throwing my arm around her shoulders and leading her out of the room.
“Let him be trouble, Rita. You deserve a little fun.”
She scowled at me but there was the faintest hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “Yeah, maybe I do.”
***
Two and a half months later…
I never considered how much quicker vampires could build stuff compared to humans. In a matter of days, the bomb site at Crimson was cleared, the remains of the building knocked down, and a whole new and completely different structure was built in its place.
Now the spot where vampires and humans used to spend their time dancing and getting drunk had been transformed into a round, dome-like building. Ethan and Rita put their minds together and came up with The Hawthorn Centre, named after the river that once separated the city into two halves. It was where they would form their future council consisting of a representative from each supernatural species.
There had been surprisingly little resistance to this new plan, mostly because everyone was glad that the fighting had finally come to an end. Tonight vampires, magical family members, and all other varieties of supernatural creatures gathered at the river to throw white lotus flowers into the water as a symbol of peace.