Vulnerable: Book 1 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

44: Two Options

Ben was desperate now, turning to Lukas. "You're not bringing her near him. If you want to kill him then you go alone and you do not use her blood."

"Ben," I said loudly. "Let him explain it to me."

He crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from me, but kept his mouth closed.

"To be honest, I think the premise of my plan is very flawed now considering it involves a happy couple..." Lukas shook his head but continued speaking. "I was thinking that considering dear old Ben finally found his bonded partner, he will want to introduce you to his father."

"I can get him to come to London," Ben said. I shot him a glare, but he was avoiding my eye contact now, eyes fixated on Lukas with an expression that said he wanted to rip his head off.

"My parents would want to meet you too, Ollie. I know mum has been dying to meet my new best friend," Lukas continued.

My eyes went wide at the sudden proclamation, but Lukas didn't seem phased at all, like he had been calling me this for a long time already.

"Bringing you to Germany would give you a chance to meet Ben's dad and my parents in one place. But it would also give you an opportunity to tour the research facility and meet my uncle. It's your blood killing him so I figure you will want to meet the guy before relying on our words alone about whether he should die."

He was right there, so I nodded.

"Then, in celebration of the happy couple's bond, we could have a family dinner. Hold it at Ben's dad's house, invite my parents, invite my uncle, and then poison his food. If you decide you want to."

"If we bring her there," Ben interjected again through gritted teeth, "And he gets one inkling of what she is or recognises the smell of her blood in his food, then he will stop at nothing to kill her."

"If he survives," Lukas replied.

"If he knows the smell, he won't touch his food. So he will torture all of us to find out where we got Terra Fairy blood. And in torturing us, if he hadn't figured it out before, he will get zapped by Olivia and then it's game over. He knows what she is and kills her."

"It's been hundreds of years since the last Terra Fairy. How is he going to know the smell? But that's besides the point. Even if he does catch on, we then kill him through combat. Ollie pins him down with her zaps and we have extra blood reserves and forcefully feed it into his mouth. Simple."

"She's not going near him, Lukas. I can't lose her."

"Ollie is going to be stronger than any of us and you know it. She can electrocute a vampire and kill them with her blood. But on top of that she will have her best friend and boyfriend by her side to help her. We will train her in combat and her magic. And your dad will be there and he would definitely side with us. My dad might not, but my mum is one of the most powerful witches alive and she surely will defend us. She did not go through six years of pregnancy to see her brother-in-law harm her only son or her son's friends. And if she's on our side then dad will sit it out. Which means we would have five really powerful mutants against one powerful vampire. The odds would be in our favour."

"I'm not letting her⁠—"

"Ben," I spat, "Stop speaking for me. It's my turn to have a say."

Betrayal etched in his eyes, he looked at me, mad I was seemingly 'taking Lukas's side' over his. But how could he blame me?

Did Lukas's plan have flaws? Yes. But these were things we could iron out. Things we could work with.

"I agree that if my blood is going to be used to kill your uncle, Lukas, then I want to meet him. I want to see what he is up to. There are many weaknesses in the plan that I'm happy to talk through, but before we even think further about that, we have bigger hurdles ahead which is me controlling my magic and being able to defend myself. Then, and only then, would I feel comfortable going."