Wicked blood's draught

I was busy fixing my hair when Jay arrived. My luscious black hair fell to my waist. Jay looked radiant.

“It’s my marriage, Popsicles,” he said. “With Myra. You know her.”

I looked away from the mirror (vampires can see themselves in a mirror – because you see, light doesn’t travel from *within* us right?) and said, “You mean your bewitching witch? Yes of course I know her, but that’s not why I am mad. I am mad at you because in the two years you turned me, you never told me Myra was not *just* your pet!” I pouted.

It was just then that Myra came in and laughed. Like her, her laughter was pretty too. Like tinkling chimes.

“You must forgive him, Poppy. It was because of my discretion that he did not mention it to you,” Myra said.

“And because you are too young to know too many things,” Jay said.

Jay kissed Myra on the cheek.

“Well you can make it upto me,” I said slowly, “Let me meet the warlocks in Myra’s club.”

Jay sighed.

“You’re too spirited. It’s not time for you to meet someone to hook up permanently with. You have to keep your thirst in control first.”

“Please, Jay. I’ll behave,” I pleaded. “And Myra can keep an eye on me.”

“It’s okay, love,” Myra said and touched Jay on his cheek, “I can look after her,” Myra purred.

Myra transfigured into a black cat and urged me to follow her.

“Talk only to the warlocks I show you to,” she seemed to say. I nod in affirmation.

She went back to the club she had shown us to previously, but this time led me into a secluded area.

She showed me up to a red haired boy who wore spectacles and transformed into the beautiful witch I was getting to know bit by bit.

“Wyatt,” Myra said, “this is our treasured guest, Poppy. Show her around and keep an eye on her. She’s a spirited one,” she said and laughed.

Wyatt did a double take when he saw me.

I don’t like to admit it, but I was pretty.

“You're a vampire,” he said instead.

I wasn’t going to admit defeat. So what if I was a vampire? I bared my fangs in a smile and said, “That I am.”

“Myra, you always had a penchant for weird things,” Wyatt said nervously. “But I –” he swallowed.

“Don’t worry, if she is a vampire, you’re a warlock too,” Myra’s eyes flashed. Yes, she was proud of being a witch.

“Not that you need to worry about that,” Myra concluded.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Myra said before gliding to another corner of the room.

I wondered if I should toy with him for a while. By toying, I mean flirting. But to a vampire, flirting seemed like an invitation to the beginning of a meal. Where the vampire drank and you just stood to witness that.

I smiled demurely at Wyatt, and said, “Let me cut to the chase.”

“By all means,” he said.

“I am here to buy a great present for my foster-father. I hear you warlocks and witches are good with that sort of thing,” I said.

“But,” I continued, “Myra and Jay think I am here to date a warlock, so you have to show me the ropes where I try you romantically.”

“Gift, cool,” he said, “dating, not so much.”

I laughed and touched his chin, “Why, you afraid?”

“A little, yes,” he said. He did a double take again, seeing my fangs.

“You’re young, and I am not ready to be dating the likes of you,” Wyatt said.

I huffed. “The likes of me?”

“I mean, you are too young,” he said, trying to avoid me.

‘That’s it,’ I thought mentally and took his hand and went into the dance floor.

“No, please,” he says.

“Five minutes,” I say.

“Not that you aren’t pretty,” he said sheepishly.

I sway my hips to the music, and rumple my hair to the beats and hum the music. My bloodlust is turned on as Wyatt awkwardly moves according to the music. But something tickles my throat and I realise I was laughing. And I am not so thirsty anymore.

The music changed from rock music to intimate romantic music.

I came closer to Wyatt and touch his shoulder and almost hold him in a hug.

“Too close,” Wyatt said, awkwardly again.

“You have no idea what it is like to give in to a bloodthirsty vampire,” I whispered. Then laughed. I was not making anyone my meal. I was growing up, after all.

“If anything – anything hap-happens to- to me,” Wyatt choked.

I broke the hug.

“Such a warlock you are. Nothing is going to happen to you, or for that matter, between us,” I say, a little impatiently.

Wyatt sighed in relief.

“Well, you don’t have to be so happy about it,” I say, annoyed.

I followed him into the darker parts of the club, near to where the bar was.

I wondered if he was so nervous that he needed a drink.

Wyatt looked at me curiously.

“Did I say that aloud?” I asked him.

“I can’t hear you when you talk in your mind,” he said, “not unless you direct it Very Loudly towards us.”

“But you staring at the drinks and then pitifully at me could only mean that – does he now want drinks?” he said.

I laughed.

Then I sobered.

“Us?”

“What?” he said.

“You said ‘towards *us*’,” I said.

“Yes, witches and warlocks in a single coven have their minds open to each other, unless they want to hide something private – which is allowed,” he said.

“Shit. So all of your people could hear the things I said and did just some time back?” I said.

He blushed. “No, I kept my mind closed from them.”

“Aww. I mean, thank you.”

I was touched.

“Now for the gift I want to get for Jay,” I said.

“Yes, I have been thinking, potions might be a great suit and so would be enchantments,” Wyatt said…

I nodded and hurried to see whatever he had. But, yes, what I took for Jay as a present is a secret for now.

After two hours, Myra escorted me safely to home.

To home, under the graveyard. Under the empty coffin that bore my name.

…………..

The wedding

The wedding was to be held at night. And what a stormy night it was. The gale stormed the graveyard, the trees swayed, the leaves made swishing sounds. Thunder rumbled, cold wind gushed and swept the fallen leaves to the other side. It was a new moon.

A marvelous night for enchantments.

Myra and Jay stood in front of the witch priestess, looking remarkably happy.

After they had read their wedding vows, the priestess cut a mark on Myra’s palm, then on Jay’s palm and intermingled the two – palm to palm. Myra took her palm in front of Jay’s mouth and Jay took his palm to Myra’s mouth. They each took a sip. Then they kissed each other and were declared married.

What happened next was such that no one was ready for.

Myra collapsed and Jay stood helplessly next to her.

The witch priestess hurried and shouted at some other witches.

The warlocks and witches lined protectively next to Jay and Myra.

At this point, only I and the relatively younger vampires (Bertha and Bertie) did not know what was happening.

Hurry!

Someone screamed.

Wyatt saw me and I saw him.

Something like a huge boulder hit Wyatt, and blood trickled from his head.

He quickly got me near Jay and Myra and I shouted, “Wyatt, what’s wrong?”

Wyatt made a face and said, “The Other coven wants to kill them.”

“The one where Danny belonged to,” he provided in explanation.

Oh shit.

I became paler.

How was it that they could affect Myra?

I remembered her being latched to Danny’s throat before he died.

So…through blood?

“Through blood and then through the mind,” Wyatt said, an answer to my confused face.

10 warlocks of the Other coven were in the graveyard and fighting with Myra’s coven.

Wyatt was trying to find out what was wrong with Myra.

‘She just fainted,’ he said to Jay, who was standing there, motionless.

An idea struck me.

I took the potion I was going to gift them.

The potion was called “Wicked blood’s draught.”

When a person drank the potion with a little amount of blood of a particular person in it, they *felt* the bloodlust of a vampire and could drain large amounts of blood from that particular person without needing to bite them. Such was the enchantment.

I had made this for Myra so that they could both enjoy each other on their wedding night. Remember the thing about vampire sex? Latching at throats and having the time of their lives?

I told Wyatt what I wanted to do.

He said he understood.

He spread the message in his coven through his mind when each one in his coven targeted a single warlock in the Other coven.

They managed to withdraw a little blood from each of them.

And I took the The Wicked blood’s draught and added a speck of blood from each of those warlocks before they had a chance to know what was happening.

And I fed a drop of it to Myra.

When she woke up, in the next moment, her eyes were red.

She took the rest of the potion slowly.

A wild rancour shook the Other coven.

Each warlock was losing blood. And they didn’t know how.

Myra was now drinking eagerly.

Eight of the warlocks collapsed. Two managed to escape.

The vampires took the eight warlocks hostage.

After the potion was empty, Myra looked shocked herself.

She was looking for answers when I explained what Wyatt and I did.

I told her of the potion that could suck the blood out of the host whose blood was added to it, and the drink would stimulate the blood thirst of the one who drank the potion.

Her face crippled.

How many…?

Eight.

“So this is how it feels?” Myra croaked to Jay.

He nodded and gently said, “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Myra said.

Then she got up. “I have a lot to do,” she said.

The coven met and discussed amongst each other what to do next.

Myra specially congratulated me and came to know how I had intended to use the potion as.

“You and your brain,” she chuckled.

“But now, we must find out the offenders (witch and warlock covens were not supposed to fight amongst one another) and try them in The Court!” she said.

Jay came and listened to everything.

Thankfully, Jay seemed calm.

When Myra was gone, Jay said to me, “Thank you, Poppy. I don’t know what I would have done right that moment. You saved us. Literally.”

I was pleased but I didn’t show it.

“I am glad you’re both alive,” I said somberly.

The eight warlocks were put in single rooms where they were twitching, pale and bloodless. Jay, Myra and the covens would look into the matter and find a solution.

I went to look for Wyatt. The place where the boulder hit was blotchy. I wiped the blood from his head with my hand into his handkerchief.

“So, Poppy?” he said uncertainly.

“Yeah?” I said.

“Go out with me?” he said, shyly.

“You sure it’s not because you hit your head today? The things that change in a day!” I laughed.

“That a yes?” he asked, with a little smile on his serious face.

“Yes, maybe,” I smiled.