Chapter 104: Witch Blood

I stepped into the hallway of the bar, then entered the office room. I had just sat in the chair when Cherry popped her head in.
"Hey, boss," she said.
"Hey."
"Why does Liam looked so pissed?"
I shrugged.
"Well, he's pacing outside your door looking like he's going to rip someone's head off."
I sighed. "I think it has something to do about witch blood."
She sat in the leather armchair across the desk and set her chin in her hands. "Ooh, who has witch blood? The new girl? Is she awesome?"
I grimaced.
"No, wait. You have witch blood? What?! So cool!"
"Shh... not so loud."
"I know, but it super rare. Like, most witches die as children because they are so sot after. How'd you live this long? Is it the twin thing?"
I rubbed my face with my hands. "I really don't like it when you read my mind."
"What? I don't read minds." Her eyes flickered to the ceiling. She totally read minds or something of the sort.
"Well, then I don't have witch blood."
She eyed me skeptically. "What can you do with it? I mean, witches that live long enough to actually use their power can do just about anything they put their mind to, but what can you do?"
"I can't do anything. I'm not a witch. I'm just a little succubus that's pretending to be the leader of a faction."
"Right... Okay, I believe you." She said it like she was going to play along with my lie.
She stood and came around the desk. I swiveled the chair to watch her.
"So, just in case you wanted to know more about them, Matei used to keep a secret stash of magic books." She tipped a book on the shelf behind me. The bookcase swung in. Stairs descended into the dark.
"Whoa." I stood and crowded in behind her to look.
"He had a habit of collecting all things witchy for a long time. I think witches scared him more than anything else."
"I'm not surprised." I thought back to the memory of my mother and Matei when she was pregnant. She stole his power. He must have found a way to get it back; otherwise, he would have lost his position a long time ago.
"Want to take the tour?" Cherry asked.
"Definitely."
I followed her down the staircase. She flipped a light on. The metal stairs echoed under my feet with every step. When we reached the bottom, I looked out into the soft yellow-orange light. The walls were lined with bookshelves full of dusty old tomes. Comfortable chairs and a table dotted the library. There was a small fridge and a microwave in the corner. It seemed Matei had spent a lot of time down here.
"Do you know what he was looking for?" I asked.
"I think he wanted to become a witch."
"Do you think he was successful?"
She shook her head. "As far as I can tell, you need to be born with witch blood to do it. Otherwise, you can only do basic spells and warding. Well, and use whatever power you are born with. But witches have the ability to transform any magic into what they want. That makes sense, actually. You took the energy from the brothers and changed it to heal them. People can't do that."
I turned to her. "Do you think they suspect me?"
She shook her head. "I don't think anyone has put it together yet, well except Liam. He's looking really worried. Now I can see why."
"Well, I don't see why." I ran my finger across the dusty table.
"You really are new to this world. As I said, witches don't make it past childhood. When they do, they usually do some really nasty things. People hunt them down and kill them. Otherwise, they take over multiple factions. People practically worship them."
"When was the last one?"
"One pops up every ten years or so. You hear about them taking over entire states and in Europe, whole countries. Actually, I think a few of them are still in power over there. We've been cut off from that magical community for a long time. The last one I heard of close by here was in Utah. Four states full of factions were following this woman. I don't know how it ended, but she just up and vanished. The factions were in chaos for years. I feel like they finally just settled down."
I slid heavily into a chair at the table. That sounded a lot like Isabell. I knew what happened to her. Juno took her out because of me. I could see why people would come after someone like that. That was way too much power for one person.
"Are you okay?" Cherry asked.
I nodded absently. "I'm fine, just... trying to figure out how to keep you all safe. I don't want people to know about me. I don't want to take over factions and rule the world or anything. I don't really want to take over this faction."
"Well, it's not that. But, if you have power, you can protect us from the bad things. The magical world is so full of monsters. We need powerful people like you to protect us. Please don't leave us. We need you as our leader. Liam is doing his best, but he doesn't have power. He's just a placeholder."
"He's doing such a good job of it."
"And that doesn't have to change, but you have the power to back him up. That is what will keep us safe."
I nodded. I was slowly starting to see the bigger picture.
"How's Kezia?" Cherry asked.
"She's scared. She's still in the Veil. She has no idea what is going on our why The Grange wants her."
"Do you?"
"Well, she comes from my mom's side. Maybe they think since I have witch blood, she might too? Can they do something with that?"
Cherry shrugged. "It's so rare. I don't know what people do when they get it. But maybe it can turn them into a witch or something? Or they can use it for spells that only witches can cast?"
I looked at the shelves. "Maybe the answer is in these books?"
Cherry turned her head sideways as she looked at the hundreds of books. "Maybe..."
"Well... I need to protect Kezia. They could have just been using her as a bargaining chip for all I know. Mr. Kline wants me and so does... well the darkness, I guess."
"The darkness?"
I nodded. "It's one of the monsters you were talking about. I thought it was gone, but... I was wrong. It's still after me for some reason. Maybe for the blood? Maybe for revenge? I don't know."
Cherry leveled a long look at me. "Your life is way more complicated than you made it out to be. I thought you were just some boring cashier. That's what you told me."
I sighed. "I swear. That's all I used to be."