The glass bowl filled with a mixture of herbs and other unsavory objects as Fiona began concocting the spell. She held her hand out, palm side up, and I gave her my hand. She grabbed a pearl handled knife and held it to my finger before stabbing the tip inside. I shrieked and tried to tear my hand away, but she held it over the mixture.

“We need your blood to bind the spell to you,” she said.

Crimson droplets dripped into the bowl and sizzled in the herbs. I looked up at Fiona with wide eyes, but the smile on her face said everything was all right. Spell casting was always fascinating, but I never had an urge to practice it because every spell called for blood. Call me crazy, but I preferred my blood to stay in my body. “What do we do now?”

Fiona chanted words I couldn’t understand and lit the mixture on fire. A whoosh of flames erupted within the bowl and dissipated just as quickly. Dark red smoke curled upward and traveled towards me. I sat rigid as the tendrils coiled around my body. The smoke appeared to be fading, but the more I watched it dance around my body, I realized it wasn’t vanishing; it was soaking into my skin.

“Fiona, what’s going on?” I held out my trembling arms and swallowed back the horror as my skin absorbed the smoke.

“It’s working!” Fiona squealed as a huge smile appeared on her face.

“Why do you sound surprised?”

Fiona was quiet for a moment as she bit her bottom lip and looked at me through her eyelashes. “I’m a beginner, Gwen. Sometimes, not all the time…” her voice trailed off and her face twisted slightly.

“Get on with it, Fiona.”

“Some of my spells haven’t worked, but this one is.”

My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath. The last thing I needed was to be used as Fiona’s guinea pig. I hoped she was right and that the smoke from the spell was supposed to absorb into my skin. “Okay, so what is the spell supposed to do?”

She picked up the supplies. “It’ll block Ian from entering your dreams, cool, right?”

A surge of energy rushed through my body like I overdosed on caffeine. I couldn’t stop from pacing around my bedroom and fidgeting.

“Um, Fiona?”

“Yeah?” She looked up.

“I think you did something wrong, I’m energized like the Duracell bunny.” My voice was excited yet panicked. I began jumping up and down, unable to control the hyperness and needing an outlet. I wanted to do a million things at once, but my mind couldn’t figure out which one to do first.

Fiona watched me and then looked back down at the ingredients. “I don’t know what happened; I did exactly what the book said. Stay here, I’ll go get Ethan.” She rushed out of room.

I rolled my neck to try to ease the tension, but the action did nothing to calm me down. I couldn’t just stand and wait, my body wanted to move. Heading downstairs, I made my way towards the gym. A few people gave me strange looks as I ran through the castle laughing like a crazed woman. I’m sure they thought I’d lost my mind, maybe I had, who knows what spell Fiona accidently concocted.

I darted through the gym door and pausing a moment to take a breath, I rushed a practice dummy. “You want a piece of me?” I bounced on my feet like a boxer and held my hands in front of my face ready to strike the dummy. My fist connected with the plastic face. “Take that biatch!” I laughed as I punched again. My leg kicked at the mannequin’s stomach, but before I could make contact a voice disrupted my concentration, and I fell backwards.

“Way to go, ninja,” Dorian said from behind me. Tilting my head backwards, I saw Dorian standing a few feet away with a grin plastered on his face. My laughter rose as I watched him upside down.

“You drunk?” Dorian asked.

Rolling onto my side, I bounced to my feet. “No, I’m mad at you, Mr. Death Boy.”

“Mr. Death Boy? What are you like five years old?” Dorian chuckled.

“Ha ha very funny. You’re the one who left me on the side of the street, so don’t talk about maturity to me, bucko.”

He shrugged out of his leather jacket and laid it off to the side and then chucked his sunglasses on top of his coat

“I did, and I apologize for leaving you. You are very irritating sometimes. Looks like you made it back in one piece though, so no harm no foul.”

My lip lifted on one side as I sneered. He didn’t know what happened to me, and I wasn’t planning on telling him. I was done playing the victim.

“Wanna practice on something real?”

“No,” I bit out and turned back to the dummy. My annoyance drove my energy over the edge. I punched the dummy again and it rocked back and forth from the force.

“Afraid I’ll hit back?” Dorian teased from behind me.

I whirled around and stalked towards him, fully ready to take him down a few notches. Magic rushed through my veins like a wild river driven by the spell. My arm lashed out and a smile spread across my face at the notion of landing a blow to his pretty face, but I celebrated too soon. Dorian blocked my arm and with a flat palm, pushed me backwards with more force than I expected. A whoosh of air tore through my lungs and left me gasping. My body raced with adrenaline, so I recovered quickly. My emotions were just as amped as my body and my anger roared to life. I charged at Dorian like a bull attacking a matador, I think I even grunted.

Once I got close enough, I dropped to the floor and swung my leg out, sweeping his legs. He went down with a thud. I laughed in victory but was cut short when Dorian jumped up and came at me. The smile on his face made it evident he enjoyed sparring with me, which ticked me off more. We circled around each other, his cloudy eyes calculating my every move. Occasionally, one of us would strike, but the blow would either be blocked or dodged. He was a lot more fun to practice with than the dummy, but I wouldn’t let him know that.

Footsteps sounded in the doorway, and he looked away. I used the distraction to my advantage and charged. I landed on top of him, my hips pinning his waist while my hands held onto his arms.

“Um, am I interrupting something?” Fiona asked from the doorway.

I recognized the way Dorian and I were positioned and realized it most likely looked intimate. I scurried to my feet after noticing the look of desire in his gray eyes.

“No, we were just sparring.” I squealed. Ethan stood behind Fiona and snickered. Dorian climbed to his feet and smoothed his shirt, throwing an amused look my way.

“Well, I have the remedy,” Fiona said, motioning with her head to follow her and Ethan. Without another look at Dorian, I walked away.

“Gwen?”

“What?” I turned around and faced Dorian. I kept my eyes down, not sure why I couldn’t make eye contact with the angel of death or, at least, not willing to acknowledge the reason.

“Meet me in the graveyard when you’re done.” He walked over and picked up his jacket.

I chewed on my lip. “Why?” It was 9:00pm, so I couldn’t use the late hour as an excuse not to meet him. At the moment, I didn’t feel comfortable being alone with him.

“We have training to do. You’ll be practicing with the witches tomorrow, so we need to use tonight to continue with our project.”

I laughed. Project, that’s what he called summoning pissed off spirits? The events of the day made me forget all about the vials of vampire blood that waited for my attention. Holly ordered me to do it and I gave my word I would; whether I wanted to be alone with Dorian or not, I had to.

“Fine.” I coated my words with irritation.

When I left the gym, Fiona and Ethan were waiting for me in the large entry way. The fighting helped dissolve some of the extra energy, but I was still jittery. We went to the library and sat behind a large bookshelf, obscured from anyone who might wander in.

“What’s going on with you and that guy?” Fiona waggled her eyebrows. She loved juicy gossip.

Ethan shook his head and kept his attention on mixing a new spell.

“Nothing. He’s training me for my part in the war.”

Her smile didn’t falter with my explanation; she wasn’t buying my explanation.

“You don’t waste any time, do you?” Ethan scoffed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

“You just broke up with the leech, and you’re already throwing yourself at a new guy. Don’t get me wrong, I hate vampires, but you could show a little decorum.”

My eyebrows arched in surprise, it was the most Ethan had said to me since I met him. I was also surprised Fiona didn’t tell him I was still with said leech. I was already a social pariah because I dated a vampire and sympathized with the innocent vamps, if they knew I was still dating one, I’d be outcast whether I helped in the war or not.

“What is your problem?” I glared at Ethan. “You don’t even know me.”

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t add thistle,” Fiona interjected. “That’s what I did wrong.” I could tell she didn’t want Ethan and I to fight, but I was tired of the nasty looks he threw me and wanted to get to the bottom of his annoyance, despite Fiona’s unease.

“You’re right, I don’t, but you let a vampire feed from you, and that’s all I need to know.” He continued to add herbs to the mixing bowl. I couldn’t be mad on principle, I was against vampires feeding off of witches, but the situation with Aiden was a special circumstance.

“Yes, I did, but not for the fun of it. There was reason behind my decision. Don’t judge things you don’t understand.” My hands fisted and magic tingled within as my anger rose.

Ethan began to say something, but Fiona cut him off.

“Both of you need to stop! Ethan, Gwen is a good person, and you shouldn’t hate her because of one decision she made.” I smiled at my best friend, but then she turned her attention towards me and the ire in her eyes made the smile disappear. “And, Gwen, don’t be so quick to judge Ethan, he has his own reasons for hating the vampires. Both of you are important to me, and I don’t wanna hear any more about it, understand?”