Soph wasn't sure how Eli felt about her inviting herself to stay. His expression gave nothing away, but she wondered what he was thinking. She tried to remind herself that he wouldn't have told her any of this if he didn't want her around. She sat on a stool and watched as he moved through the kitchen, collecting wine and glasses. He set them on the granite bench between them but didn't move to uncork the wine and pour it. Instead, he set his hands on either side of the bottle and stared down at it.

"You regret telling me," Soph said in a low voice. He was hesitant, but eventually shook his head.

"I'm actually relieved. I've never told anyone before. Seven hundred years I've kept it to myself."

"Seven hundred years," Soph echoed. Far too many years to fathom. She reached between Eli's hands for the wine bottle and uncorked it herself. She poured them both a glass, the liquid sloshing in the silence that hung between them. She lifted her own glass and took a great gulp before setting it down.

"Can I ask more questions?" she requested and Eli, watching her, nodded. She cleared her throat.

"I'm confused about the lifetimes thing. Are you immortal? Witches normally aren't, though vampires are."

"I age like everyone else, but after I die, I'm reborn. I've lived eight lifetimes."

Soph wrinkled her nose and lifted her wineglass again. This time, Eli drank with her. She didn't want to think too much about the dying and rebirthing part. It was far outside her spiritual awareness to even contemplate how it worked.

"So you're actually a thirty-year-old man."

Finally, Eli cracked a smile. "Yes, with loving parents who live in Italy, and two sisters - both younger."

"Wow." Staring at him, Soph saw a completely different man to the one she'd assumed he was that morning. She drained her wineglass, and Eli took up the bottle to refill it for her.

"And the other witch Founders are like this too?"

Eli nodded. "That's right. We've been chasing each other through many lifetimes. The Light Witch will be getting old by now. I expect she'll contact me within the next decade to hold up her end of the bargain and give me her magic."

"Okay rewind a bit," Soph rocked back on the stool. Eli watched her and he seemed less reserved now, which she was grateful for. But she needed to keep digging to understand. "So you've already killed all the vampire Founders and taken their powers... how?"

"I took the Possessive first," he explained. "By sheer luck I managed to trick her in my first lifetime. Psychic was next. He foresaw something happening with Ethereal and gifted his powers. I was then able to use both those magics to take on the Predator. The witches are much harder. Because we all live and die as different people each time, it makes it difficult to find each other. Or in the case of the Black Witch, hide from us. She's killed me twice, the bitch, so I have to be careful."

Soph's eyes widened. "She's killed you?"

"My own fault. The first time I trusted her to do the right thing, and she stabbed me in the back. The second time she just got the lucky jump. Got me in the back again."

"What the fuck," Soph breathed and Eli let out a little chuckle, but he quickly sobered.

"It's why I have reservations about us, Soph. I'm so close to finishing this once and for all. Once I have the Light, all I have to do is hunt down the Black. But that's dangerous. She could kill me again. I wouldn't put it past her to be petty enough to kill the people I love."

Well, that was fucking sobering, though she didn't miss the round about why he'd declared his love for her. She twisted the stem of her wineglass and stared into the liquid. This was definitely beyond normal relationship boundary setting, like deciding whether or not to have a family. This was world altering, apocalyptic shit. And yet she still wasn't scared off by the things he'd told her.

"I'm not just some defenceless girl," she reminded him, not quite meeting his eye. "I'm a witch too, and a strong one, you said so yourself. I'm certain the Black Witch Founder is Adriana. Let me help you."

Eli pushed off the bench and came around it to stand by her stool. She turned to face him and he wrapped his arms round her waist.

"Thanks for offering," he whispered. "I don't know if I'll need your help or not, but we've got time before it comes to that. Perhaps even another whole lifetime for me. Why don't we talk about something not so doomsdayish."

"Oh yeah?" he was ready to change the subject, so she wracked her brain to think of something else to say. "Maybe you can help me with a predicament."

"Mmhmm," he murmured, leaning in to kiss her neck, the whisper of his breath sending shivers across her skin.

"You don't have any tips on how I can pass a drug test, do you?"

He rocked back. "You're failing drug tests?"

He looked sad for her, and she felt a lump catch in her throat. His expression said it all - there was no way to get the traces of vamp blood out of her system. She'd never get a job again. She looked away so he wouldn't see the tears that pricked her eyes, but he cupped her face in his hands and forced her gaze back to his. His thumb wiped away a tear that spilled over to track down her cheek.

"I might have an idea," he offered.

***

Soph closed her apartment door quietly behind her and dropped her bag on the lounge. Zita was on the balcony, bathed in the orange glow of the sunset and Soph joined her there.

"How did you go, Baby?" Zita asked, a cigarette pinched between her lips as she polished an array of crystals scattered on the table in front of her.

"He forgave me," she replied, reaching out to pick up an unpolished black Onyx that was the size of her palm. Zita surveyed her with a frank look.

"Then why do you look so despondent? I thought you wanted this."

"I do," Soph sighed and set the crystal back on the table. "It's not even about him. It's me." she finally met her mother's eye. "I need to tell you something, mum. And I think I'm going to have to tell Nona too."

Zita sat back in her chair, pulling the cigarette from her mouth and extinguishing it in the ashtray. "You're scaring me, Baby. What's happened?"

Soph stared over the balcony to the city, watching the orange light reflect off the other buildings. Her jaw worked. She knew she needed to tell her mother - she would need her family's support.

"I'm a black witch."

Zita blinked, then flung back her chair. "You're a what?"

Soph cringed. If laid back Zita was taking this badly, then how would Nona react.

"How long have you known?"

"Well, earlier this year I found out when a coven of black witches recruited me. Of course, I didn't know they were black witches until..."

But Zita wasn't listening. She whirled away, hands pressed to her temples. "Fuck!" she hissed. "How does this happen?"

Soph swallowed, but forced the next question out. "Is it possible I'm not yours?"

Zita spun back, an accusing finger jabbing in Soph's direction. "Oh no, Baby. I distinctly remember pushing your fat head out of my vagina. You're definitely mine."

Well, that was a relief, Soph supposed. "Should we tell Nona?"

"Fuck no!" Zita scooped up her cigarette and relit it. "Not until your cousin's married. I won't be responsible for killing the old bat before the wedding of the century."

Agitated, she dragged on her cigarette then extinguished it once more. "I need to sage the apartment," she muttered, heading for the balcony door. She paused by Soph's chair though, her expression softening slightly. "I love you, Baby, however you align, remember that."

Soph smiled, feeling the weight on her shoulders lift a little. "Thanks mum."

***

Soph knocked nervously, then stood back and waited for Luie to answer the door. She and Zita, who was down on the drive finishing her cigarette, had agreed not to tell anyone that Soph was a black witch until after the wedding, but Soph still had some news to break. She still had to tell them about Marco.

Luie flung the door open, Soph could tell by the look on her face that the family already knew she'd broken up with Marco.

"Nona is fucking pissed, Soph!" Luie hissed. "And I am too! Marco's whole family is coming to the wedding! Do you know how awkward it will be now?"

Soph opened her mouth to apologise, but Zita appeared at her side. "Leave her alone, Luie, she loves who she loves."

Luie looked between them. "Loves who she loves? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sophia?" Nona's voice was like thunder rolling down the hallway and both Soph and Luie cringed. Zita patted Soph's shoulder, then brushed past Luie to go inside.

"Charge your crystals, ladies, it's going to be a rough night."

Soph trailed after her mother and cousin to the kitchen. Raw, angry power crackled in the air as she peeked meekly around the doorframe to find Nona sitting at the dining table, wineglass in hand.

"Sophia," Nona said again, and Soph crept towards her.

"How are you, Nona?" she asked lightly, kissing each of her grandmother's cheeks. Nona didn't answer, instead pointing to the chair in front of her. Soph sank down on it while Zita and Luie went to join Stefan by the kitchen bench.

"Marco is a good boy," Nona told Soph, and she was shocked to hear her grandmother's voice wavering. Anger she'd expected. And disappointment. But not sadness.

"I know he is, Nona," she assured her, taking her old, weathered hands in her own. "And I'm sorry I've hurt him."

"Then you take him back?"

Soph stilled. Had Marco put Nona up to this? "No," she said slowly and watched the anger creep into her Nona's expression. "I've met someone else, Nona."

The entire room was quiet enough that a pin could have dropped and they all would have heard it. Over Nona's shoulder, Soph saw Luie exchange a confused glance with her fiance, and Zita smiled.

"I'm disappointed, Sophia," Nona told her, frowning. "Marco is a good Italian boy."

"This man is Italian too," Soph said quickly. "In fact, he was born in Italy. His parents still live there!"

Nona's eyebrows rose and for once, she was speechless.

"He's rich too, Ma," Zita said from the kitchen bench with a smirk while Soph shook her head profusely, trying to shut her mother up. "He'll look after our little Soph."

Soph cringed. She didn't want her family to focus on Eli's money. She never intended to ever rely on it, but Nona's interest was piqued.

"What his name, Sophia?"

"Eli," she whispered.

"Eli? Eli Damiani?" Luie blurted, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Soph shot her a scathing look.

Nona smiled, however. "I want to meet your Eli Damiani. Bring him to the wedding."

"What?" Soph and Luie said in unison. Soph shook her head. "No, Nona. I think it's too soon for that. We've only just started seeing each other and Marco's family will be there. It might create drama."

Nona continued to smile, though her ferocious witch energy crackled about them, a warning. "Bring him, Sophia, or he is dead to me."