Chapter Twenty-Five: Stefanie Salvatore

Present day

The Hanging Fields, NC

"They're not here."

"Of all your heightened senses, Phoenix, I must say your observation skills are by far the best," Gabe commented dryly as they all came to a standstill at the edge of the field. "They'll be here soon enough."

They had parked their two cars on the dirt road leading off from the main road, giving them two routes of escape if they needed it. Running adjacent to the dirt road was a long grassy knoll where they took their positions, giving them a clearer view across the field.

"So, what's the plan?" Zara asked.

"Ideally? I convince Cristian to hand over Flick and we all leave with our organs intact," Stef replied. "Realistically? Things are going to get ugly and I'm going to have to use a cloaking spell on you all, and a protection spell on myself."

Gabe wasn't a fan of that plan. "You've not had any blood, that's going to severely restrict your powers to the point that you might as well be human," he pointed out.

"Then maybe I won't mention that to them," Stef said, stating the obvious.

"What if you fed on me?" Adam hypothetically offered.

Stef's eyes should have probably gone to Adam, but instead they shot to Raid, a slight smirk appearing on her lips seeing his persistent sulk suddenly turning into possessive displeasure. Obviously that was something he considered to be his job. "I'm afraid your blood would do nothing for my powers if you've still got vervain in your system."

"I can check that for you," Zara offered sadistically, stepping towards him.

"No, you just want an excuse to bite him," Stef reprimanded, holding her back.

Zara smirked. "Maybe he just needs to learn that I'm the one who does the eating," she said, flashing her fangs as she threw one of his previous comments back at him.

"So that's two ways I could pleasure you," Adam noted, grinning back at her with a flick of his eyebrows. "Any more? I might start keeping a list."

"Your vervain-ridden blood wouldn't be pleasurable," she scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Erm, not to kill the mood, but if any of you planned on feeding or fucking, you've just lost your chance," Phoenix cut in, looking across the field to the main road. "Cristian's here."

Cristian and most of the Coven stepped out of their cars parked along the main road and started walking onto the field, past a large lone oak tree. Winifred and Flick remained in one car. Two obscured figures remained in another. There were additional individuals among them, not part of the Coven, probably not even witches. From the way they confidently and obediently strode behind the witches, it was most likely that someone had provided them with more recently-turned vampires.

Stef turned to face her friends. "If I need to cloak you all, none of you must make any sudden movements. I won't be strong enough to hold the spell if you all start gallivanting about. Your movements will be detected." Stef swished a finger between Raid and Adam while instructing the others. "You might need to remind these two of that if anything happens to me."

As Stef turned around to head towards Cristian, Raid grabbed her arm, spinning her back around. "If anything happens to you?! Stef, I thought you said you could do a protection spell on yourself?"

"All that means is that they can't kill me," she clarified. "It doesn't mean there won't be fighting or... injury. But remember, I'm a vampire, I can heal."

Raid sighed. He didn't like this, but he had to trust she was doing the right thing to rescue her friend, Flick. He pulled her in for a hug. "If you get hurt, promise me you'll compel me to forget it," he muttered facetiously into her hair.

Stef laughed, relieved at the joke. "Too late. I'm already promising you I won't ever compel you again." She pulled herself out of the hug and smiled at him. "So suck it up, mister."

Stef began to descend the slope again, when she sensed her vampire friends about to follow. She whipped around. "Stay," she instructed, then pointed towards Raid and Adam. "Guard them."

"Stay? Guard? What are we? Dogs?" Zara complained.

"You do have the teeth for it," Adam mocked, earning himself a scornful look.

The Coven remained quite a few paces behind Cristian as he came to a stop in front of Stef, a huge smile on his face, his arms wide as though he was about to greet an old friend rather than attempt to murder hers. It was then that Stef noticed that they were all wearing dark clothing, whether out of respect for the dead witches of the Hanging Fields, or whether they intended to host funerals after their kills, she didn't dare guess.

"Apologies for being late. I know I shouldn't keep a lady waiting – not that I consider you a lady since you became this creature." Cristian waved a dismissive hand in her direction. "I had to deal with something urgently."

"Well then, I won't take up too much of your time," she stated. "Just give us Flick and we'll be on our way."

Cristian clapped his hands together, as if only just remembering why Stef had agreed to the meeting. "Felicity! Of course! What a lovely girl. It's just so tempting to keep her."

Stef snarled. "What do you want, Cristian?"

Cristian held a palm out behind him, indicating his father who stood apart from the rest of the Coven. "My father and I have come to a compromise. I have convinced him not to kill you..." Cristian cupped his ear as though waiting for a response. After a few seconds of silence, he dropped his hand. "I was expecting a thank you, but whatever. Anyway, in return for not killing you, I have to kill one of them." He pointed a finger towards Raid and Adam behind her. "I just need to know which one is the witch."

"If you kill the witch, I turn into a vampire," Stef said, confused.

"Thank you for stating the obvious." Cristian locked his hands behind his back, swaying back on his heels, as though he was dealing with a child and slowly losing his patience. "You won't tell me who the vampire is. I know it's not 'baby fangs' Phoenix, since he turned the same night you did. As for your other two vampire friends, Winifred has assured me it isn't either of them..."

Stef turned her head to where Winifred remained in the car. She was protecting Gabe? Perhaps that was understandable given their history, but why would she protect Zara too?

Cristian suddenly clicked his fingers in Stef's direction, regaining her attention. "That's better. So, as I was saying, I only have the witch and the human at my disposal. If I kill the witch now, you lose your witch powers, you lose the ability to compel witches, and this will satisfy the Coven. I can always continue my hunt to find and kill the vampire. Both deaths will turn you human. It's not ideal, but this was the best my father was prepared to offer."

Stef laughed. "Sorry to inform you, Cristian, but the witch I fed on during the ritual isn't here. I lied to you. I fed on Lyle."

Cristian's expression was briefly suspended in time, scrutinising, his reaction to this news unreadable. Finally, his shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh. "Ah, then that's very inconvenient."

Stef was instantly suspicious. He took her word for it, no questions. That was too easy.

Cristian flexed his fingers in the direction of a nearby lackey vampire, who came closer to him. "Run and get Stef's human out of the car." Following his orders, the vampire immediately cut between the Coven members and sped towards the car.

It wasn't going to be that easy, was it? He wasn't going to give her Flick? She tried to peer towards the vehicle, but the Coven were in the way. She had to be patient. This had to be a trap. But if Flick was nearby, could there be any way of compelling Cristian to hand her over without the rest of the Coven becoming suspicious? Could she rescue her and run away in time before they attacked? Without Winifred amongst them, her powers might match theirs. It was possible.

Stef's heart sank when she saw who had been taken from the car and brought to her.

Lyle.

The vampire handed him over to Cristian, who threw an arm around his shoulder like he was glad to be reunited with his old friend. The bruises on Lyle's face suggested otherwise.

Cristian's voice took on a playful tone and he ruffled Lyle's hair. "This is Lyle. Lyle's a human, aren't you Lyle?"

Lyle's eyes were fixed on Stef. "You promised you wouldn't tell him!" he spat at her.

"Oh, you knew, Stefanie?!" Cristian feigned shock, slapping his hand over his gaping mouth with an exaggerated laugh. "What gave it away? Was it that the ritual didn't complete? Or were you just disappointed that humans don't taste as good as witches?"

Stef tried to maintain a cool composure. "I absorbed Lyle's magic after the ritual completed, didn't I, Lyle?" She fixed Lyle with a hard stare, urging him to agree with her.

Luckily he wasn't as dumb as he looked. He clung onto that reason with both hands. "Yeah! Yeah! That's right! My magic disappeared the moment she fed on me! She took my magic!"

Cristian strolled around to face Lyle head-on. "Really? Well, that is very unlucky," he said, his sympathetic tone lacking sincerity. "You could have just come back and told me and all would have been forgiven."

"I'm sorry," Lyle sputtered.

"Stefanie led me to believe that the witch was one of her friends over there." Cristian looked over his shoulder at Raid and Adam, giving them a pseudo-friendly wave that was, unsurprisingly, not returned. "That annoyed me at first, but when I thought about it, it was actually a much better solution. For me, it was essential that the witch in the ritual not die at the hands of anything supernatural. If you're a witch and you end up overdosing on your own supply of drugs, would that count as dying by your own supernatural hands?" Cristian shrugged, the answer remaining a mystery that he was no longer interested in. "I don't know, I don't have the rulebook. But now I learn that it was you that she fed from, and you just unfortunately lost your powers as a result. That's such a shame."

"So can I go now?" Lyle asked hopefully.

"Oh, no," Cristian informed him. "Unfortunately for you, I've changed my mind. I now want to kill the witch."

Lyle instantly screamed, "I'm not a witch! I'm not a witch! I'm human! She fed on me, but I'm human!"

Shit! The last thing Stef needed was Cristian believing that Lyle was the human in the ritual. He could end up killing both Raid and Adam if he believed that.

"Oh, I know," Cristian said. "The question is, were you the first and only human she fed on?" Cristian curled a finger against his chin, pacing in front of Lyle, deep in thought. "Now there's two humans and one witch in the equation, and I've got to eliminate it down to one witch and one human." Cristian stopped pacing. "You took a few risky gambles, Lyle. You infiltrated your way into my inner circle. You lied to me. You ran from me. You lied to me again. But I can forgive that because I've become a bit of a gambling man myself." Cristian gave a sharp nodding signal to the nearby vampire. "And you've just become my biggest risk."

"Wha–?" Lyle turned his head to the vampire marching towards him.

Before he could utter another sound, the vampire clasped Lyle's head between his hands, twisted, and snapped his neck.

Lyle fell down to the ground, dead.