Devils Roses 04 - Witch

guess but I cants die. I’s like you. Miss Lydia protected me always when we was girls. Blacks was hated and treated badly. Miss Lydia always lied and said I was her slave.” She turned and smiled, “But I was always her friend.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Two hundred and forty six I thinks. Me and Miss Lydia was born same year under the same summer moon. Same moon as you. I be the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter too. My magic was always stronger than Miss Lydia’s. We lived in Georgia and spent our days learning the magic from my gran. We had to take Miss Lydia from her family. They was not the good kind. They was teaching her the bad magic. We moved from Georgia to here. We fled the hunters.”
    O felt lost in the story, “Hunters?”
    “Bad magic witches. They’s hunt our kind to take our magic. Good magic’s always stronger than bad magic. Always. But they’s steal the magic from us and they’s become strong like us.”
    “That’s sick.”
    Annabelle nodded looking out the window again, “I knows it. Me and Miss Lydia we come here and she find herself a proper husband and we’s build this house.”
    Her ghostly face looked distressed as she continued, “They did find us though. They come in the night. The hunters, they find us out. I make my circle nice and big before I died.”
    Ophelia gasped, “You died doing the magic circle?”
    Annabelle nodded slowly, “I aint never heard of no witch living through making a guard circle like mine.”
    “You knew you would die?”
    She turned sharply, “Miss Lydia had the baby in her belly. She saved me too many times for me’s to not give it back. I’s told you I can’t die. I just changed. My body died but my magic is alive. It’s stronger without the body to make it weak.”
    “Lydia had a baby?” Ophelia felt as if something in the story was about to go very wrong. Something besides the death of the most loyal person she had ever met.
    Annabelle looked sickened, “No.”
    Ophelia left it alone. She knew the hardships the people of the house had faced and couldn’t even comprehend what it was like for them all.
    “Why are the vampires here?”
    “They be here for Miss Giselle. She gone and died as the only heir to the vampire throne. Marcus kept them in balance. He was the ruler. Never too many vampires or killing people in the streets. Keep the secret was his law. He wasn’t no good but he wasn’t too bad either. Now he's gone they could just kill everyone. They needs a ruler. The one with Marcus’s blood is the strongest. Their blood calls to her and hers to them.”
    Ophelia frowned, “Why do they look angry?”
    Annabelle laughed bitterly, “You imagine if some five year old girl be your queen. She gets to tell you what to do? She aint got no experience as a vampire and now she be the queen.”
    Ophelia sighed, “Ohhhhhh. Yikes.” She watched Annabelle for another second, “Why do you hate me?”
    Annabelle looked at her sharply, “Baby girl I don’t hates you. I love yous just like I loved your momma. All witches loves you and yours. I hates what you gotta do. I hates that your life is cursed with his dirty blood. Aint no angel got no right to take from a witch the way Jonathan takes from your momma.” She looked back out the window and sighed, “We all cursed. Ever since Miss Lillith been raped in the garden we been cursed.”
    Ophelia stood up and walked through the long wide hallways until she got to the front door. She opened it hesitantly. She had never seen so many people in her life let alone vampires. One vampire was more than she had ever seen. The whole thing wasn’t a dream, she was coming to that conclusion.
    She could see everyone in slow motion, as she walked out onto the front steps.
    Lorri was watching everyone with a stone face, but somehow Ophelia knew she was scared for Giselle.
    One of the guys was letting off some kind of perfume Ophelia had smelled before. When she smelled him she wanted to take her shirt off and let him wrap his arms around her. She could feel the warmth of his skin against her. It made tingles everywhere.
    The dark haired man who had been at her door with the snow globe smirked at her from beside the red haired lady. He leaned in and whispered, “Try to ignore him. He could drive you mad.”
    “You again.”
    He grinned harder, “Yes love, I did try to tell you.”
    She couldn’t pull her eyes away from his strong shoulders and biceps. She wanted so badly to just touch