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

smiled. She gestured back at the table as she swayed on her feet.
    “I’ve got raspberry-filled doughnuts,” she said. “They’re your favorite.”
    I cocked an eyebrow. I didn’t know if Lyssa had told her, or if Charlie had dug the detail out of my mind, but one of them was going to get an earful later.
    “Do you want something?” I asked.
    Kendra laughed. “I’m not a demon, Annie! I can’t have a coming home party with my nieces? You saved the day, and I want to thank you for—”
    “Charlie said you wanted to talk,” I said bitterly.
    Lyssa sighed and shook her head. “She wants to apprentice you. Both of you. Which is ridiculous.”
    My eyes wandered from Lyssa’s bitter scowl to Kendra’s hopeful smile. She wrung her hands.
    “Thanks,” I said, a little relieved. “But no, thanks. I’ve had all the magic I can handle, and as I said, I have classes.”
    Kendra’s smile fell a little, and her eyes grew a little sharper. “Gates?”
    Gates looked stunned. “Oh, I’m not a witch.”
    “I’m aware,” Kendra looked sad for a moment. “But we can make do. Not all warlocks are bad. You don’t have the blood, but you can learn it from the book.”
    Gates looked at me, and then at the floor, and she slowly shook her head. Kendra’s eyes grew more focused, and she turned away from us, putting her hands on her hips.
    “I told you so…” Charlie said in a sing-song voice.
    Kendra spun back around. She forced both of her hands to her sides, and looked at Gates before turning her authoritative gaze on me.
    “Anise Hawthorn, you’ve caused me a great deal of trouble, and while I’m willing to forgive it because you’ve helped Charlie, no amount of good deeds can undo what you’ve done. And that’s part of the reason you need to be educated, and part of the reason that you will be accepting this apprenticeship. Both of you.”
    I stared at her. She was a few inches taller than me, but she was thinner, and the presence of jelly doughnuts underscored exactly how threatening she really was.
    “No,” I said without blinking.
    She picked up a book from the corner of the workbench and turned back to face me.
    “Recognize it?” she asked. Her voice grated, and this time she sounded more serious.
    “The book!” Gates said, running forward and taking it from her hands. Lyssa almost stood to stop her, but a glance from Kendra stopped her.
    “The book,” Kendra repeated. “ The book.”
    I glared at Charlie. “I asked you for that book. You wouldn’t give it to me. You gave it to her?”
    “It’s her book,” he said lightly.
    “I was your bridge,” I said sharply. “And you said it was your book.”
    “She’s my bridge too. And it is my book. The way to summon me is in it, therefore, my book.”
    “ Our book,” Kendra clarified. She was still staring at me and not blinking. “That grimoire has been passed down for generations. It’s one of the oldest anyone has ever seen, and the contents of its pages were meant for Hawthorns’ eyes only.”
    I watched as Gates looked up from the pages she was reading. She started to close it.
    “You’re fine, honey,” Kendra said without looking over at her. “You wouldn’t be able to read it if Annie hadn’t screwed up.”
    My jaw fell open a little, and I looked to Lyssa for support, but she looked straight at the ground.
    “Screwed up?” I asked. “I didn’t do anything!”
    “I left that book sitting beneath Althaea’s skull because she was the original scribe and protector of those spells. Only a Hawthorn could have taken the book out from under it. No one else would have even been able to see it, and Lyssa didn’t do it, which means it was you.”
    I looked to Gates, dumbfounded. “You said that skull was fake!”
    “Looked fake to me,” she shrugged, still reading the grimoire. “Who the hell keeps a human skull hidden in a hole in the wall?”
    “Annie, that book was protected for a reason,” Kendra said. “The spells in