Gift

21

"So you're saying, the Gemini coven is diseased?"

"Every coven that exists has its own cancer to fight. There are covens which exist to find the perfect sacrifice to feed the cancer. That is why the Gemini's annihilate their kin."

The light bulb finally went off over Bonnie's head. "They sacrifice a twin so they can keep their power."

"Exactly."

"Then I'm no different than they are. What I did last night...I don't ever want to do again."

Bonnie swallowed hard at the memory of what she did to that witch. Goosebumps rippled across her skin like scales, and she barely refrained from flinching. It had been gruesome, but that wasn't exactly what frightened her the most.

No.

It was what she felt after and even now that she was grappling with.

Exhilaration. A high so potent it felt better than desiccating a thousand-year-old vampire, of getting revenge on a two thousand-year-old witch-vampire.

Dahlia tsked reproachfully. She was growing quite tired of this song and dance. "Fact one, you are nothing like that coven. Fact two, you're not afraid to kill when a life that matters to you is at stake, but you're afraid to kill if it means saving your life. Why do you suppose that is, witchling?"

Bonnie mutinously kept her lips sealed. Dahlia figured she would.

"You have taken a life." Dahlia stepped down from her dais, her voice lowering and oozing with censure. "The first night..."

"I-I don't...I don't remember that." Bonnie squirmed, feeling her body blush with mortification.

"Oh, so since you don't remember then it doesn't count, is that it? If you don't want to think of it as murder then think of it as a gift. My acolyte's gift—"

"A gift? Lady, you are sick if you think I'm supposed to accept someone's death as a gift."

"—to you to opening yourself up to your true potential you've always held back," Dahlia finished despite Bonnie's protest. "Potential you didn't develop out of respect for what your grandmother and foremothers taught you. Then again, they didn't teach you much."

"My foremothers were enslaved."

Dahlia nodded. "An unfortunate circumstance...Still they could have guided you. Unless they did and you ignored their guidance."

"Look," Bonnie cut her off sharply feeling her impatience rise. Her body, unbeknownst to her, reacted. Her veins were beginning to glow, and her eyes became as bright as lava. "I just need to know how to stop feeling...wrong."

"You feel wrong?"

"Yes!"

The angrier Bonnie grew the hotter it got. Dahlia spied her flowers wilting, some of the petals and leaves withering to ash. For a second the wizened old witch almost beckoned it to come to her, to engulf her. A delicious spring to quench one's thirst. It was thrilling to see the fruits of her tuition so overtly it brought to mind another witch she had taken under her wing, but had rebuked her lessons at every turn.

She would not have that with Bonnie.

"Feel you've gone over to the dark side?" The question may have been asked with more than a hint of derision.

"I just wanted to become powerful enough to protect myself against the siphoner who hurt me. But each day I feel like I'm twisting into someone I won't be able to control or recognize." Bonnie finally caught on to what was happening with her physically, and stared at herself in horror. She held up her arms for Dahlia to, "See! This is what I'm talking about! I'm glowing like a fucking mutant."