Vampires & Vinca (Hawthorn Witches Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

fighting vampires, but mine aren’t. I’m not dragging them through that again. And this is an amazing opportunity. Someone just showed up and offered to teach you magic. You’re really going to turn that down?”
    I stared at her in awe. After everything that had happened to us, I couldn’t believe she was still mooning over witchcraft like it was the antidote to all of our problems instead of the cause.
    “Someone already showed up and offered to teach me magic,” I said. “And then he put Jennifer Wilmot in the hospital and turned you into a cat. He cursed my niece, ripped apart my sister’s family, and brought werewolves and vampires into my life, and apparently cursed me to be a bad luck charm until I’m dead. And now I’ve got this other person, my aunt, who keeps saying that I screwed up and caused all of this, but it was her book, and her demon, and her ex who came after me!”
    Gates wasn’t impressed. “And if you had known magic, you would have been able to prevent all of that.”
    “You paint a very dire picture of the time we spent together, Thorn,” Charlie said lightly. “You don’t recall me setting up your dad with Janet? Or when I helped your werewolf boyfriend? Or the time I saved your life? That feels a little unfair.”
    Gates pointed at Charlie. Frowning, Kendra turned back to me.
    “I can’t force you to do anything,” she said. “But I don’t want to watch you die because you didn’t know how to defend yourself. You’re still a little girl in my mind. The vampires are coming, and if you won’t do it for me, at least do it for Charlie. I can help you break the bridge with him now, but that would mean his life hangs on me, and believe me, Draven isn’t likely to just walk away when I refuse to give up that book— and your friend, as she’s the only one who can read all of it now. Without a second bridge, if I die, Charlie does too. Before you walk away, I want you to ask yourself if you owe this to him for saving your life.”
    I closed my eyes. She had hit on the one sore spot that could change my mind, and I saw the rest of my free time that semester going up in smoke. But if Charlie could still take me to the Other Side when I needed more time for my assignments, I might still have a chance.
    “Fine,” I said stiffly. “But I need to be back to campus by noon, and I have plans tonight. Tomorrow is better, I only have one class.”
    Kendra shook her head, confused. “Annie, you can’t be serious. You’re dropping out.”
    I opened my mouth to protest, but to my utter shock, Lyssa was already on her feet.
    “No,” she said, and suddenly all the mothering authority she possessed was in her voice. “She’s going to school. She’s worked too hard, and I’ve worked too hard, and she’s going to school!”
    Kendra looked to Charlie. He held up his hands.
    “I’m not choosing sides in a fight between two bridges,” he said. “That gets ugly for all of us very quickly. Your fights are your own.”
    Kendra narrowed her eyes. “Fine. Trial basis. But if it causes a problem, school gets the ax.”
    I furrowed my brow. “You’re not my mother!”
    Kendra started to say something, and from the look on her face, it wasn’t something nice, but Gates spoke over her as she hugged the book to her chest.
    “Annie, let’s just go look at our rooms, okay?” she said. She started walking toward Charlie, and he immediately took the lead.
    With a final glare at Kendra, I left her and Lyssa standing alone in the greenhouse as I followed Gates and Charlie.
    The silence was unbearable and the tension nearly strangled me, so I spoke.
    “You knew about all of this?” I asked Charlie. “The book, and Gates, and that this was going to happen?”
    He gave me a glance, but kept walking. A cold fall breeze blew a scatter of cottonwood leaves across the grounds around us as we approached the old shed where we stored the outdoor gardening tools.
    “I suspected,” he said. “But I