I knew they were working on something for Colt. As a dhampir, half vampire and half human, they’d found a way to stop the progression before it killed him, keeping him human.
But what were the odds this would do anything for us?
“Is it for the moonlock?” I ask.
Aimee is quick to correct me. “For the madness. It’s not a cure. I mean, we’re not miracle workersorsnake oil salesmen.”
“We’re just two bomb ass, awesome witches who kinda know our business because we have to.” RJ rubs her hands together. “It slows the progression. Like a yellow light for the symptoms. If it works.”
“At least we hope it will. I’m not sure. It’s too soon to tell and we haven’t tested it on anyone yet.” Aimee glares at her sister.
Once again, RJ pretends not to notice.
“But there’s a chance?” Grayson growls, settling himself across the room, far enough away for me to notice the distance. “It might work? Help give us more time to track down the shaman?”
I startle at the word,us. He hasn’t damned me completely yet.
“We’re hopeful. The arcane spell we found had to be translated out of ancient Greek, but we’ve got a guy.”
RJ puffs out her chest.
It’s always good to have a guy and for me, the witchesaremy guys. There’s no one else I trust in this world and they’ve been nothing but good to me.
“I’m willing to try it. I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again.”
“What if it kills you?” I turn to Grayson, swallowing down my hurt when he looks away instead of meeting my gaze. “What if it makes your symptoms worse?”
“Thanks for the show of faith, Mandi,” RJ gripes. “It’s almost like you don’t trust us to know what we’re doing.”
At this point in life, trust is something I can’t afford.
I suck in a breath when Grayson holds out his hand for the jar. Aimee wings it his way, Grayson making the catch and unscrewing the bottle.
“Don’t do anything rash?—”
It’s too late. My warning disintegrates into nothing as he swallows the entirety of the potion. It goes down in a few gulps. He lets nothing show on his face before he finishes it and swipes his hand across his mouth.
“Thank you.”
Nothing happens and I’m holding my breath for it.Fuck.
“Now, about this shaman?” Grayson is all business.
Aimee watches him, her knowing gaze marking the minuscule changes the rest of us might miss. But she doesn’t seem overly concerned with what she sees.
I’m too spooked to look directly at Grayson.
Too weak to face his anger at me. Moonlocked and the one person who could have told him flat-out what he was dealing with, but didn’t.
“Okay, so research led to nothing, so we followed gossip. Not with the packs, they don’t want to talk to outsiders.” RJ smirks. “So we went deeper. Goblins. Trolls. Whoever we could find who might have heard about the madness or a way to cure it. We had to work a little magic.”
“Oh no.” I groan. “What did you do?”
“Seriously, it’s fine. We strong-armed another shifter, wouldn’t say what kind he was, and he spilled. A friend of a friend of a friend had contacts with a shaman who deals with themadness directly. And cures whoever comes to him, as long as they can pay.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” I say.
Aimee shrugs. “Of course you wouldn’t. Legit or not, it’s the kind of thing people don’t talk about.”