Lovesick - Legacies (The Hunter Book 3)

Chapter 28 - 'Mother Of The Fucking Year.'

The blood flowed into Wolfgang's mouth and down his throat as all he could focus on was the intoxicating taste of it and his unquenchable thirst for more.

He pulled back quickly as his head erupted in pain. Wolfgang's victim dropped to the ground, bleeding out from the wound in her neck as Wolfgang fell, clutching at his head desperately as the aneurysm took charge.

"It's unnatural, child. That should be a vampire you feed from and kill. Not an innocent human." A familiar voice reprimanded, filled with ice and malice. Wolfgang rose slowly to his feet as the spell ended and the pain stopped. The vampire's eyes widened as he took in the woman standing in front of him.

Her hair was, unlike the generations of ancestors before her, dark, coming down around her shoulders in waves. Her eyes were a mirror of Wolfgang's, light brown with green splattered throughout, sharp grey bleeding through closer to her pupils to form an entrancing hazel. But, Antoinette Raske had an advantage over Wolfgang when it came to their eyes. The ice and emotionless composure that Wolfgang had spent centuries practicing came perfectly to Antoinette, so that her eyes had an almost avian quality, reminding Wolfgang of a vulture.

Wolfgang inhaled sharply as he remained watching Antoinette, the brand of Der Zerkel Der Sieben Shwestern burning on his chest as the scars upon his back ached. The monstrous grip of pure, overwhelming terror rose in Wolfgang as he struggled to form a coherent thought. Of all the creatures and monsters he had met, Mikael, Lucien and Silas included, none had caused the sheer magnitude of fear that consumed Wolfgang as he faced his mother, none except Nachtstern.

That's impossible, Wolfgang thought as he struggled to believe his eyes. His mother had been dead for over four hundred years, Wolfgang himself had torn her heart out. Eventually, the dumbfounded vampire managed to let out a single question.

"Mother?" Wolfgang asked and the woman nodded, her lips twisting into a perverse smile that held no warmth or love. Wolfgang let out a sigh before he sped over to Antoinette and snapped her neck without a second thought. When the hunter looked down at where the corpse should be, he was surprised to see that there was nothing there, just the dead body of the girl he was feeding off before.

Wolfgang ran a hand through his dark hair before he frowned, looking down at his arm. A black tracery of veins was beginning to weave their way around his arm like the limbs of a deadly spider. And Wolfgang had an inkling of an idea of what that meant.

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Lucille Beauchamp was a powerful witch, defined by her ruthlessness and penchant for exploiting even the smallest of magical loopholes to her advantage. It was no wonder then, that she had attracted the attention of Wolfgang Nachtstern, who notoriously collected witches for his own use through a system of favours. Lucille had pledged fifty years of servitude in exchange for Wolfgang to use his blood to save her son's life, and the witch didn't regret her decision, even after her child had died anyways.

In more recent times, Lucille had risen the ranks of the Nachstern Coven, she had broken the cloaking spell on Der Zerkel Der Sieben Shwestern by herself, and taken Harold Norman's place as coven leader. Perhaps, Lucille mused, that explained why the most feared person in the supernatural community was sat opposite her, sipping casually on a cup of tea. The witch took a seat opposite Wolfgang, as the hunter placed his teacup back on the saucer, setting them down on the glass coffee table as his eyes returned to Lucille.

"Madame Beauchamp." Wolfgang greeted, the perfection of his pronunciation overpowering the lilt of his accent. Lucille inclined her head towards him respectfully, unsure of how to deal with Wolfgang, or indeed, unsure of why her employer was sat in her living room, a tall, dark-haired man stood behind him.