He blinked. “I-I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
Annette rose to her feet. “I’m a voodoo queen, just like my mother, like my grandmother, like my great-grandmother. Power flows through my blood and through me. I get that you use a witch to work spells for you, and that’s just grand for you. But I am Annette Benoit, and no one uses me.”
He held up his hands. “My apologies,” he said very formally. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
“You’d better not.” Her gaze cut to Jane. “What I’m doing…I’m protecting all of us. And Paris. The dirt from the dead will keep Paris enclosed within the circle I create. He won’t be able to get out and attack us. So we should have a chance to figure out what’s going on—how we can help him.”
“Dirt from the dead?” Jane repeated carefully.
“Dirt taken from a cemetery under the light of a full moon.” Annette rolled one shoulder in a delicate shrug. “You’d be surprised what things hold incredible power in this world.”
Jane thought she was looking at someone who held incredible power right then.
“I’ll stay with him,” Annette said, giving a quick nod. “Go talk to Aidan. Go…try to stop some of the chaos that’s taking over this town.”
Vincent had turned on his heel and stalked away. But Jane didn’t move to follow him. Because, to her, Paris turning into a vamp seemed like the biggest chaos right then. She should stay and—
Annette’s lips curled down in a sad smile. “Your world is going to rip apart, Jane. I hope you’re still standing when it’s all over.”
Great. More murky warnings from Annette. Must be Tuesday…or Wednesday…or Thursday. Or any day. “It would help me so much,” Jane told her quietly, “if you just said what I needed to avoid. You know, before I became a vampire, it would have been awesome if you just said, ‘Jane, don’t go to Tulane! Your ass will get messed up there!’”
Annette blinked at her. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“If you know something bad will happen, you should tell me! What good is having an all-seeing friend if she won’t tell me exactly what she sees?” Jane threw her hands into the air and turned away.
She’d only taken a few steps when Annette’s soft voice stopped her. “Are we really friends now?”
Jane glanced back at her. “Yes, I think we are.”
Annette licked her lips. “I can’t see things…as well as I used to. The future, I mean. My mirror shattered and…” Once more, she shoved her hand into her bag. This time, she pulled out a few chunks of black, broken glass. “This is all I have left. So when I look, I see bits and pieces.”
“You can still share those bits with me.”
Annette nodded, but she still hesitated. “You owe me, Jane. Do you remember that? Once, you promised that you would pay me back a favor. You’d give me something I wanted, no questions asked.”
She didn’t exactly remember the no questions asked part but…
“Help me save Paris,” Annette pleaded.
Tears stung Jane’s eyes again. “I did this to him. I was just trying to get him out of the fire—I never meant—”
Annette’s dark gaze held hers as Jane’s words tumbled to a halt. “Help me.”
“I will,” Jane promised. “But not as some favor I owe. But because Paris is my family, too. I want him back. I want to fix this.”
But inside she worried, she feared…
There are some things that can’t be fixed.
***
As Jane’s footsteps faded away, Annette knelt beside Paris once more. She brushed back his hair, and her fingers drifted over his cheek.
Paris Cole had been fighting darkness for most of his life. It didn’t seem right that the darkness should now try to claim him. No, not right at all.
How did a werewolf become a vampire?
Jane changed the rules, for all of them. Annette had known that truth, she just hadn’t wanted to face it. Now, there was no choice, not for any of them.
Carefully, she spread out the chunks of her precious black mirror. She would have to forge a new mirror soon, but building a mirror like that would drain her power, and with all the danger coming to their town, she couldn’t afford to be weak, not even for a moment.
So the new mirror had to wait.
Her fingers fluttered over the chunks of glass. When she’d touched Paris’s cheek, a drop of his blood had gotten onto her finger. Now, she smeared that blood on a chunk of the glass. She wanted to look into that mirror, and see Paris fighting the darkness. She wanted to see him surviving. Having his control back.
She stared into the glass and her heart chilled.
She could see Paris, an image shimmering in her mind’s eye. He was strong. He was whole. He was…
Sinking his teeth into Aidan. Drinking from the alpha, gorging on his blood.
Annette threw the chunks of glass against the wall. A sob broke from her. “I won’t let this be your end. I won’t.” Then she began to chant, low and fast.
Who said magic couldn’t change the world?