by Lauren Dawes
“Not what,” my partner said, returning to my side but keeping his eyes glued to the old woman. “Who.”
“Who?”
“Baba Yaga.”
“Baba…” My voice trailed off with my thoughts as I tried to recall who that was. I knew the name. I snapped my fingers. “The witch from fairy tales?”
Sawyer’s expression was grim as he nodded. “The body of that child had been partially devoured.”
“Can you give a girl a little warning before you say stuff like that?” I told him hotly, resting a hand to my stomach. I was starting to feel a little queasy. That may have had something to do with the goddamn nightmare from children’s stories attacking me though.
He glanced back over at Baba Yaga, like he was waiting for her…or the Antichrist to rise. Hell, maybe they were the same thing.
“Is she dead?”
He shook his head. “Just stunned.”
My laughter, which I’d tried to contain, came out as a snort. “Yeah, that’s because she brained herself of the corner of a shipping container.”
“She isn’t known for her intelligence.” He looked down at my gun and frowned. “Those bullets should’ve stopped her though.”
“They didn’t.” I shrugged.
He studied me for a minute, then said, “Let’s go. I’ve collected as much evidence from the scene as I can.”
As we walked, Sawyer stayed close, his hand protectively on the small of my back, but the sensation of spiders crawling all over me came back, and I shivered. I felt Sawyer stare at me but chose not to look. Yup, I was brave like that. My ears were suddenly equalizing, and we stepped back into the pool of light. The cops were still there, but now there was an ambulance and the coroner too.
It all looked the same, except for the faintly lightening sky. It would be dawn soon. I glanced at my watch and was horrified to discover it was nearly four-thirty. I’d been with Baba Yaga for over an hour? How was that possible? It only felt like ten minutes had passed.
Sawyer said something to the cops standing by the tape, then guided me back to my truck. With each step, it felt like my body gained twenty pounds, weighing me down and sending a wave of lethargy over me. I couldn’t wait to crawl back into my bed again.
“You need to eat,” he said, opening up the passenger door and gesturing for me to get in.
“I need to sleep more.”
“Food first.” He slammed the door, then jogged around to the driver’s side. I snuggled down into the jacket and shut my eyes. Maybe I could get five minutes while we drove to wherever the hell we were going.
Eight
“Cat?” Sawyer murmured, his warm breath feathering over my skin.
“I don’t want to go to school today, Dad,” I said, squeezing my eyes more tightly.
He heaved a sigh, just like my dad would’ve done. “We’re here. I’m not carrying you in there.”
I peeled open one eye and looked at him. Fuck, he was hot. I frowned. “You could bring food to me out here. It would save you time, because I’m pretty comfortable right here.”
“Jesus,” he muttered under his breath, running a hand through his hair. His sexy hair. Fuck! What was wrong with me? I was suddenly all hot and heavy for teacher? Although, if I was being honest, I was secretly already crushing on him.
“Okay, okay,” I said reluctantly. I had to change the subject, otherwise my brain was liable to make me jump his bones and then things would be awkward at work. I slid from the car and would’ve collapsed onto the asphalt, if it weren’t for Sawyer’s arm on my elbow.
“Easy, pussy cat.” His words were soft, careful…caring maybe. “We’re just going to walk over to the door, then you can collapse all on your own again.”
Reaching up, I pinched his cheek. “Such a sweet talker.”
He jerked his head away with a snarl, and I smiled, leaning heavily on him. I felt like the energy was draining out of my feet, and all I wanted to do was sleep.
“Cat! Wake up!” Sawyer shouted. His grip on my arm tightened, and I realized I actually had fallen asleep on him. What the actual fuck was going on? I concentrated on getting through the door of the twenty-four-hour diner he’d brought us to, slumping down into the booth when we got there. Instead of taking the seat opposite, Sawyer sat beside me.
“Don’t get handsy,” I slurred, resting my head on the table.
“I’m just making sure you don’t list sideways and fall on the floor. You’d be a trip hazard.”
“Mmmm,” I said, already drifting off again.
I jerked upright when Sawyer pinched my thigh under the table, and I frowned at him.
“What the fuck was that for?”
“You need to stay awake.”
“I am awake,” I replied indignantly.
“No, you’re drooling all over the table like it’s made of candy.”
“Try Channing Tatum.” Unfolding my arms, I placed them on the table and forced myself to sit upright. It was a struggle, because it felt like someone was literally sucking all the energy from me.
“The food will be here in a minute.” Sawyer’s soft murmur gave me some sort of peace, and I nodded.
“Food…”
He listened, rapt, like the next thing I was about to say would be gold. “Yes?”
“I like food.”
He snorted softly. “I already know this.”
Lifting my hand in front of me, I see-sawed it from side to side. “Why do I feel like I’ve been drugged?”
He pursed his lips. His gorgeous, sensual lips.
I blinked, then shuffled over a little.
“You, pitiful human,” he began, smiling, “waltzed into Wonderland tonight.”
I blinked again. It was like I’d just learned how to do it and wanted to practice it every freaking second. Wonderland? I’d gone into Wonderland? How was that even possible? How was I not dead right now?
“I resent that word.”
“Human?”
I growled. “Pitiful.”
“Ah, the food,” he announced, thanking the old-looking waitress with a nod. He shuffled the plate of pancakes over to me, dousing them in syrup. I grimaced.
“You need sugar.” Next came a plate of liver. Seriously, what kind of diner was this? “And you need iron.”
I shoved the liver away, my face scrunched up. “I’ll eat pancakes. Not liver. It is not war time and it is not 1950.”
He gave me an exasperated sigh but nodded. “Alright. You eat it all up like a good girl.”
“I hate you.” Picking up the knife and fork, I cut into the short stack angrily and stabbed a piece while picturing Sawyer’s face. Putting it into my mouth, I moaned a little at the taste. He was right, the bastard. I was hungry and I did need food. Sawyer sat back and watched me with a smug expression on his face, like the cat that got the cream. He sipped his coffee, never taking his eyes off me, until I placed the last slice of pancake into my mouth and swallowed. At this point, his eyes had taken on a predatory gleam I wasn’t sure I liked so much.
Pushing the plate gently across the table away from me, I lunged for the coffee cup and drank greedily. I felt possessed, like I wasn’t in control of my own body.
“It’s the aftereffects of Wonderland,” Sawyer said, narrowing his eyes on my face. “Humans aren’t supposed to be able to enter.”
Okaaaay, I didn’t like the way he was now looking at me like I was a science experiment. Twisting my body around, I placed my back against the wall of the diner and stretched my legs out.
Grinning, I said, “What can I say? I’m a special cupcake.”
If there was one thing I had going for me, it was bravado. I was used to acting—pretending I was taller, pretending I was stronger. I’d been doing it my whole life. The one thing I didn’t have to pretend was being human. Because I fucking was.
He shook his head and took another sip of coffee. “You are most definitely human, but what you did tonight…” He drifted off, clearly caught in the snar
e of his own mind, yet he didn’t take his eyes from me.
I finished the dregs of my coffee and nudged him with my foot. From the expression on his face, he was affronted that I’d touched him with my boot. Still, he slid from the booth with that preternatural grace all supes seemed to have—well, except for giants. Those fucks were as uncoordinated as new baby giraffes, or so I’d heard.
“And where are you going?”
“Bathroom.” I arched a brow. “Unless you think I need an escort? Are you volunteering for the job?”
He made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “By all means, go and use the bathroom. We’ll be leaving as soon as you get back.”
I gave him a salute, sauntering through the small diner that used to be an old dining car and down the short hallway that housed the single male and female bathrooms. After relieving myself, I took extra time scrubbing my hands, trying to get the stickiness of the syrup off. It felt like I’d just shoveled the food into my mouth with my hands.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, I only managed three steps before I stopped. It happened just as the door to the diner opened and shut, letting in a crisp breeze. The opal around my neck began to heat up with steady warmth. Wrapping my palm around it, I took a cautious step out of the hallway and into the diner proper. Sawyer was still seated at the booth, head bent over his phone. Everyone else was just eating or chatting. Even the waitress hadn’t noticed the small girl who had wandered in.
Her clothes were torn and dirty. She had no shoes on her feet, and her long, dark hair was matted and stringy, falling over her face and shielding her eyes…
Eyes which were trained on me. I could feel them like a second skin.
Or like daggers aimed at my heart.
To test my awesome theory, I sidestepped to the left, and the little girl mirrored me. I stepped to the other side. She followed. I stepped back, and she advanced. I kept my arms loose by my side but let my gaze find Sawyer, who was finally paying attention to what was going on. He frowned, looked at the girl, and then turned back to me.
Kill her, he mouthed.
WTF? He wanted me to kill the elementary school kid? I couldn’t do that. I was still getting flashbacks from when I’d run that other kid through with Reaver in the principal’s office. If I had to commit filicide again, I was going to get a complex.
Plus, how was I supposed to commit said murder? The clip in my gun was empty, thanks to Baba Yaga, and Reaver wasn’t even here. Man, I wished I had that sword though. It felt so good against my palm, so right. It was an extension of my arm, even though I’d never picked up, let alone used a sword before. Guns had always been my preference. I suddenly felt something in my palm, and when I looked down, I saw Reaver there.
My eyes widened and then darted to Sawyer. His expression was unreadable, but he nodded to me like he knew what I had to do. I lunged for the kid, who didn’t actually move like a kid. She was fast. She leaped above my head and landed behind me. I swung around to face her once more, just in time to see her throw herself at me. She crashed into me with more strength than should’ve been possible and took me down. Reaver was knocked from my hand, and I watched helplessly as it skidded across the linoleum tiles.
I turned my attention back to the kid-slash-fucking-freak-of-nature and yelped when she smiled at me with dainty little fangs peeking out from her top lip. She was a vampire? It was an assumption, given that Faline also had fangs, but come on! What were the chances that she wasn’t a vampire?
“Sawyer,” I called desperately, shoving my forearm against her throat and pushing, hoping to dislodge her. On anyone else, the move would’ve cut off the windpipe and air supply. It was too bad for me vamps didn’t breathe.
She snapped her teeth at me, her fetid, dead-for-a-couple-of-days breath feathering over me. I shoved her back again, barely gaining an inch. As we grappled for advantage on the floor, I heard Sawyer herding everyone out of the diner, making sure no humans got caught in the crossfire. What was it about me that made me a vampire magnet?
My arm began to shake as my muscles, still weak from my jaunt into Wonderland, began to fail.
“Sawyer,” I breathed. “I can’t hold her much longer.”
A heart beat later, the weight of the small child was lifted from me, and I blinked at Sawyer standing above me, his front to the back of the baby vamp, his arm wrapped around her throat, holding her. The bitch was still struggling to break free. A strange hissing sound escaped the vamp’s infant throat, and I shivered at how wrong that was.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice strained with the effort.
Standing up, I brushed myself off and stared at the vampire, being careful not to look in her eyes. They could control someone like that, right?
“Where did she come from?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to get some answers. We’ll take her back to PD and put her in the holding cell—Fuck!”
I was suddenly on my back again, the vamp on top of me with her mouth open over my throat. It had been barely a second, then Sawyer was there, heaving her off me.
“Do you have those cuffs?” he asked as he wrestled the girl back into a standing position. I breathed heavily through my mouth, then slapped a hand to the sting on the side of my neck. It came back red.
“She bit me,” I told Sawyer indignantly. I glared at the girl-vampire-whatever. “Bad vampire!”
“You’ll live,” he barked back. “Open the diner door. We’ll cuff her at the car.”
With a slight tremor in my hand, I picked up my sword, which shouldn’t have been here, then did as Sawyer asked and opened the door, following him out into the pre-dawn.
“We only have maybe thirty minutes to get her back to the station before she poofs into ash.”
“You’re cleaning my backseat if we don’t make it in time,” I grumbled, touching my ravaged throat again. I glanced around then and saw all the staff and customers of the diner standing in the parking lot, staring at us with wide eyes.
I held out my badge and said, “Buxton PIG. Go about your business.”
I wasn’t sure whether they would listen to me, since I looked like an extra from The Walking Dead, but I was relieved to see them all walk away. Jogging to catch up to my partner, I opened up the rear door of my truck for him first, then dropped Reaver onto the passenger seat. Snagging the cuffs from the center console, I snapped them onto the vamp’s wrists. She immediately stopped snarling and hissing. Sawyer eased her onto the back seat, where she sat calmly and stared ahead.
“I like these cuffs,” I told Sawyer. He grunted and shut the door.
“Are you alright?”
I touched my neck. “How bad does it look?”
“Let me see.” He slid his fingers onto either side of my jaw, tipping my head this way and that. “You’ll live. It’ll be sore for a while though.”
I shrugged. “Pain. My old friend.”
He looked up at the sky. “We need to go.”
I let him drive on account of the stiffness already setting in to the muscles around my neck and shoulders. Vampire bites were a bitch. I took the twenty-minute drive to replay the whole fight, as well as the whole fucking night. How my sword had appeared in my hand with a thought, I didn’t know.
“How did the sword come to me? I locked it back into the arms room when I left last night.”
He glanced over at me, the instruments casting a soft glow across his sharp cheekbones, but the darkness hid the other half of his features. “It’s magic. And like I said, it likes you.”
I stroked the steel. “Are you telling me it’s sentient? It has thoughts and feelings?”
He shook his head, flipping on the directional signal like he was driving at noon rather than six a.m. “Sentient isn’t the right word.”
“Well, what is the right word? If I have a magical object following me around, I want to know the details of why.”
He shrugged and said helpfully, “It’s magic. Magic doesn�
�t play to the rules of the world as we know it. It has its own. All I know is to respect the hell out of it because if you don’t, it’ll screw you over.”
“So, it just likes me?”
His mouth flexed into a soft smile. “Something like that.”
I stroked the hilt again. Well, as far as friends went, having a bloodthirsty blade at my disposal wasn’t so bad. “Will it ever leave me?”
“If it does, it won’t be something you can change. Magic is like the wind. It’s in flux, and its more mercurial than most women I know.”
“You’re hanging out with the wrong women,” I muttered.
“And how would you know—”
Sawyer’s words were cut off suddenly as we went from driving in a straight line to flipping through the air. I tried to keep count of the revolutions, but it was like being on a demon rollercoaster and the brakes were broken. The windshield buckled and shattered with each revolution, eventually shattering on the third spin. Glass sliced my face and neck, but it was all a drop in the ocean compared to the pain in my shoulder. I think I screamed…
Then it all went to black.
Nine
Intermittent light flickered somewhere close to my face as I regained consciousness. It only took a second for the pain to make itself known, forcing me to suck in a low moan that would’ve sounded porny and hot if it weren’t for the blood… or the broken glass. In front of me, all I could see was asphalt. Tiny flecks of glass congealed in my own blood sat in puddles around me. I shifted my eyes over to the right when I heard a shuffle. Sawyer was there, stirring slightly.
Opening my mouth to talk, I found my voice suddenly gone. I swallowed and tried again. “Sawyer? Are you okay?”
“Hmmm?” He had a thin coat of dust on him, covering the shoulders of his shirt.
“Sawyer?” I hissed. I didn’t know how long either of us had been unconscious for, but the sky outside had already gone from the cool gray of dawn to a bright orangey-pink. The sun had risen. I couldn’t hear any sirens yet, but they would come.