The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Taliesin Govannon (best free ereader .txt) 📖

                So I did.  I told her about everything… my past disinterest in sex, my body’s awakening when Vincent showed up, and all of the past incarnations we had spent together.  I told her about how Angelique and I were starting to explore our past lives together, and the carnal turn the recollections had taken.  I finally told her about the sessions today, and how it had been vexing me ever since.

                When I was done, Evelyn lit another joint and took a deep hit off of it.  “Shiite on a demon’s cock, that’s a lot.” she sighed.

                “Ya know?” I chuckled sardonically.  “Here I was, imaging that I had left relationship drama behind when I graduated, only to be up to my neck in it!”

                “Forgive me for being potentially clueless, but what drama?” she asked me, passing the joint.  “I mean, sure the whole situation seems a bit… love-triangle-y when looking at the whole of your history, but you seem to be solidly on ‘Team Vincent’ this time around, right?”

                “True.” I exhaled.  “I’m just… kinda worried about hurting Angelique.  I mean, what if I’m not ready to, or even able to, love her back in the way that she wants?  I know that I would hate to wait a century or more for someone to show up only for them to say ‘Sorry, wrong sexuality this go-around.’  It sucks.”

                “That's why I stay away from past-life recall." she said firmly.  "It's fun and all, but it can fuck some things right up!”

                “I take it you speak from experience.”

                “Right you are.  The one time I did so, it was in this past-life regression class at Atlantis bookshop in London.  I saw this old flame of mine… you know, past-life flame?  Anyway, she was a knockout!  Then the teacher tells me that this person is in the class!”

                “Sounds thrilling.”

                “It was, until… until I saw them.”

                “Oh no…” I said, a grin creeping across my face.

                “Yep! It was a dude.  And a hairy one at that!”  She shook her head as she laughed.

                “How did he take your lack of interest?”

                “Very understanding, seeing that he was flamingly gay himself.”

                We laughed again, and then I grew quiet.  “What if Angelique gets hurt?” I asked finally.

                “I wouldn’t worry yourself.” she answered.  “Angelique knows about soul mates… which is what you, Angelique, and Vincent are.  She knows that every relationship isn’t going to be a romantic one.  Sometimes it’s as lovers, sure, but it’s also just as often one of a more platonic nature… best friends, siblings, even parent-child.”

                That’s right! I thought.  “There was that one life where Vincent was our child.” I offered.

                “Exactly!” she said, smiling.  “Angelique loves you with a force that transcends mere sexuality.  Just love her back, the way you can best, and I’m positive that everything will be all right.”

                I smiled, feeling much better.  This calls for another joint!

*                                *                                *

                Vincent must have gotten in after I finally fell asleep, because I found him the next morning in ‘the reliquary”, which was his name for his magickal object room.  He was wiping a wicked-looking blade with a cloth dipped in a red liquid, but I didn’t notice that at first.

                While Evelyn had eased my mind the night before, I was still feeling restless.  I had awoken with a possible solution in my mind, and wanted to act on it asap.

                “Hey there handsome!” I said as I breezed in.

                “Hey there yourself.” he replied with a grin.

                “So, I…”  I stopped, suddenly noticing what he was doing.  “What are you doing?”

                “Just doing some regular maintenance.” he replied without stopping.

                “Is that blood?” I said, pointing to the red liquid.

                “Sure is.”

                “Why are you wiping that blade down with blood?”

                “It’s a demon blade.  It can control and banish certain demons.”

                “And the blood?”

                He shrugged.  “To work, it needs to be anointed with virgin blood every moon cycle.”

                “Where do you find virgin blood?”  Vincent just looked at me with an expression that said really?  I rolled my eyes.”  Okay, I know how to get virgin blood, but what about your ethics?  I can’t imagine that too many virgins are predators.”

                My question was well founded.  Vincent and Angelique hunted humans, sure, but they kept their ‘dinner choices’ limited to humans who preyed on others.  Since vampire lore said that they were created to teach humans how to be more conscientious predators, it seemed a natural fit for the vampire who still loved those in humanity. They had a preternatural ability to see someone’s inner nature, and those who were too far gone in the role of predator to ever choose another path.

                It’s how Vincent often knew a ‘bad guy’ just by looking at them, unless they were sociopaths. Vincent and Angelique can smell guilt, and it’s how they picked their prey.

                “Ah, now here is a great loophole!" he replied, answering my question.  "It really doesn't matter if the person is actually a virgin or not, it's just that you don't want to use blood from a sexually active person for this blade.  When someone is celibate,  hormones concentrate in the blood in a way that pleases whatever dark spirit lives in the blade."

                “So it’s more the blood of the celibate, not of a virgin.”  I surmised.

                “It’s even better.  Most virgins I’ve known masturbate frequently, which this blade doesn’t like.”

                “And it’s easy to find predators who are celibate?” I asked.

                “Just visit the ‘red pill’ subreddit sometime.” he replied.

                “So anyway… “ I said, getting back on track.  “We need a vacation.”

                He put the blade back in the display case and looked at me.  “What, like Disney-world?”

                “I wouldn’t say no to that,” I replied, “But it doesn’t have to be anything tourist-trap-ish.  It just needs to be away… away from this house, away from the mystery lake, away