Irritation flashed in me, but I pushed it away. I didn’t own Lizzie, we weren’t in a relationship, and it was none of my business who she dated. “That’s not something I talk to Miss Ashton about. If you’d like to wait a moment, she’ll be back and you can ask her yourself.”
The gas pump clicked off, and I pulled it out, rehousing it.
“She’s so intimidating, though. Would you please talk to her about it for me?”
Lizzie? Intimidating? Hardly. “No, I won’t.”
“Please? Maybe I have something I can do for you in exchange.”
I scowled at the restaurant. Still empty. What was taking her so long? “I doubt you have anything that could interest me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to join Miss Ashton.”
I started toward the doors, but the woman put a hand on my arm. “I have a daughter. She’s engaged, but I don’t like her boyfriend. Maybe you could break them up?”
What was this woman’s deal? I knew I was bad with social conventions, but she was on a completely different level of awful. “Not interested.”
“Here, let me show you a picture.” She stood in front of me, pulling a wallet out of her purse.
I glanced up at the restaurant again, this time really looking. No one was at the counter or tables, and I couldn’t see anyone but the attendant in the gas station.
An urgent feeling hit me at the pit of my stomach.
Lizzie was in danger.
16
The woman’s hand was still on my arm as she fumbled through her wallet with the other.
“Let go of me, or I’ll kill you,” I said.
She looked at me in fear, and a small squeak escaped her lips.
“I said, let go of me, or I’ll kill you.”
New expressions crossed the woman’s face. Triumph. Excitement. Glee.
“Distracting me?” I asked. “Is that what you’re doing?”
The woman chuckled. “She’ll be dead by now.”
I’d already pulled my knife out. Rather than making a scene in front of a van full of kids that had just pulled into the lot, I pressed the tip of the blade against her ribcage and looped an arm through hers, walking her toward the store with a grin on my face.
For some reason, the woman played along. Maybe she didn’t want to die in front of regular humans. Maybe dying—even if you’re immortal—was painful.
As I’d noticed earlier, the store was empty. The cashier was stocking shelves near the register.
The moment we were inside, I pulled out another knife and slit the woman’s throat before she could scream. I dumped her behind a shelf near the front door. Her body was visible from the parking lot, but the van had pulled around to the drive-through, and the pumps were empty.
I rushed to where I could see into the Wendy’s. Lizzie wasn’t there. She must have gone to the bathroom. Spotting the sign for the restrooms, I ran that way, slamming the door open.
A woman stood up against the mirrors, panic written all over her features. Lizzie was on the floor next to a dead dog and a man, blood streaming from her nose.
The relief that hit me took my breath away. My heart jumped into my throat, and I gritted my teeth, trying to overcome the resulting emotions.
Control yourself. She’s alive.
I dropped down next to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Her voice was surprisingly strong. I would have been more flustered had the roles been reversed.
“Good. Shall we go through the drive-through?”
Lizzie nodded, then turned to the woman. “Tell the cops Lizzie was here. They’ll know what happened and will give me a call.”
The woman blinked. “L—Lizzie?”
“Yes. Lizzie Ashton. I have to go now.”
We didn’t have time to stay and answer questions, file reports, and get bothered by news media, which would probably come once word got out that a woman had been attacked in the gas station bathroom.
Lizzie grabbed a wad of toilet paper, shoved it to her nose, then held her hand over it as she and I left the gas station. She didn’t notice the woman on the floor—no one had yet. Thank goodness.
The relief at finding Lizzie alive struck me yet again. This had been a planned attack. They must have been following us.
I’d almost lost her.
I refused to think about that. Refused to think that later, I’d be the cause of her death.
A moment of peace hit me when I realized something. Not once had I worried about her magical essence. If she’d died, I would have lost it, and my mother’s life would have been forfeit. But instead of worrying about it, I’d only been concerned for her life.
For some reason, rather than distressing me, that brought me a great deal of peace. My mom would understand—she’d be proud of me, in fact.
“Are you okay?” Lizzie asked as I pulled around the corner of the building and got into the drive-through line.
It wasn’t until then I’d realized I hadn’t said anything about what had happened. She probably thought I was mad at her.
“I wish you would have let me know you needed to go to the bathroom. Because that was close.” Way too close.
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t help it—I had to know. “Why are you asking me if I’m okay? You’re the one who was attacked.” The woman had only tried distracting me.
“Because you look upset.”
I let out a sigh. “I’m not. Just stressed about the whole situation. If anything had happened to you . . . Lizzie, you could have died. And there wouldn’t have been anything I could’ve done.”
Lizzie sighed. “I know. And I’m really sorry. They must’ve been waiting for me to be alone.”
I glanced over at her with a smile, tapping on the steering wheel as we waited in line. “You did well, by the way. Two hounds? And obviously they’re of the stronger variety if they came while the effects of the effigy haven’t fully worn off.”
“I killed the man first, then got the dog by surprise the moment it came through the corner. And the effigy’s effects have probably worn off by now. Hopefully, the other hounds were watching and now realize that coming after me is a bad idea.”
You could say that again. A little smile stole across my face once more. This woman continued to surprise me, and I couldn’t help but feel proud of her for how things had gone.
I was paying for our food when the first cop car raced into the parking lot. Lizzie ducked down, pretending to be grabbing something from her purse, and I chuckled inwardly. So much for her willingness to work with local law enforcement.
Of course, this was a different situation, and I realized that. But still, it amused me.
I ate as I drove, letting my mind relax so I’d be prepared to find and study the vampires.
Just as we were entering Alpine, Lizzie’s phone beeped.
“It’s Detective Evans,” she said. “He’s thanking me for the mess in the bathroom. Says not to worry about paperwork. Good.” She put her phone away. “What’s our plan? We can’t exactly waltz up the canyon.”
“No, but luckily, vampires don’t like sunlight.”
“I know the owners of the house at the mouth of the canyon. I’ve helped keep a few wildfires from burning their place down. Let’s go talk to them and find out if they would be willing to let us hike up their property. We might be able to get a good view into the canyon without actually taking the trail.”
I agreed, and she directed me to the house.
When Margo, the owner of the house, opened the door, Lizzie explained what was going on, using the same story she’d been using at the storage facilities. People hiding out in the canyon, storing explosives they planned to use at the masquerade ball that weekend, and would she be okay with us trekking through her property to investigate?
She was definitely fine with it, and even supplied us with some camo netting her husband used when he went hunting.
It didn’t take long to get the netting on. I was in
the process of making sure I could still easily access my weapons when I noticed Lizzie glaring at me as she adjusted her own gun.
“What?” I asked, double-checking the placement of my mini NAA revolver. I loved that little thing—small as my palm, it had saved my life twice.
“Never mind.” She sounded annoyed.
I did a double take when I saw how she looked. At first, it was comical—the netting dragged when she walked, and she’d tied it into pantaloons of sorts. The overall effect was one of a holey puke-green burlap bag.
Definitely comical.
But also sexy. And I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the fact that she wasn’t afraid of guns—seeing mine just now hadn’t bothered her. Maybe it was me imagining her wearing only the netting. Maybe it was how self-conscious she acted in it.
Either way, I had an urge to take her in my arms and kiss her until she knew just how attractive I found her.
Knowing I’d regret it later, I stepped to her and brushed a finger down her face before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She froze, and I knew she’d had a physical reaction to me as well.
This woman found me attractive.
17
I couldn’t believe how wonderful—how liberating—that knowledge was. I knew for sure now that she was attracted to me too.
I stepped even closer, resting my hand behind her neck, rubbing circles on the sensitive skin below her ear with my thumb.
“I never would’ve thought camo could be hot,” I whispered, my eyes not leaving hers.
She cleared her throat. “Because it’s not.”
How would she respond to me kissing her? My gaze strayed to her lips, but before I could do anything about it, she took a step back.
“Let’s get going.”
My emotional response to her rejection surprised me. Instead of the pain I should have felt, I experienced peace. It flooded my entire system, releasing dopamine and activating parts of my brain that hadn’t been touched in a long time. My heart warmed toward her, especially knowing she was attracted to me, but didn’t let me put moves on her. First, she really had changed, and second, I knew I’d be able to win her over eventually.
If I didn’t kill her first.
I closed my eyes at that thought. No—no. I wouldn’t let any of that spoil my happiness and peace. I could address that later. For now, I would allow myself to revel in the calm joy.
With my heart still warm and content, I grabbed my duffel, pulling out several wooden stakes which we then strapped to our upper arms and thighs before hiking up Margo’s backyard. Hopefully, we wouldn’t need the stakes.
The tall pines kept us protected from the trail. We hadn’t gone far before I realized how silly we’d been. We could’ve acted like hikers, and the vampires wouldn’t have known any different. Oh, well. It was worth seeing Lizzie in camo netting.
Every few minutes, I motioned for us to pause, and we took turns looking at the landscape through my binoculars. If Lizzie had known about my tracker tattoo, she probably would have asked why I wasn’t using it. There were limitations to all of the tattoos. This one in particular couldn’t actively track more than one thing at a time. So, if I used it to hunt anything other than the demon, it would lose the scent of the demon, and I’d need to start over from scratch. I really didn’t want to do that.
The going was slow, and I knew Lizzie had to be getting impatient. I wasn’t willing to let us walk because we’d be too much out in the open, so we spent a lot of time on our hands and knees, hiding behind boulders and climbing over oaks that clung to the side of the mountain. It got pretty steep a couple of times. To her credit, she didn’t complain once.
I tried to keep my eyes to myself, but again found it difficult. I was having a hard time justifying why I wasn’t killing her then and there. We were alone. I could make it look like an accident. Not even the prophecy about the hounds seemed like reason enough not to go through with it. Surely someone else would come along who could take care of them.
Lizzie caught me staring at her, and a worried expression crossed her face. She cleared her throat. “Are you okay?”
If I broke her neck, I could dump her body over the side of one of the cliffs, and no one would know she hadn’t died in her fall. Those sorts of accidents were frequent. And Margo’s “backyard” was steep enough and included plenty of cliffs to make it even probable in our case.
I’d need to make sure I did it in such a way as to prevent bruising from my hands or arms. That would take some finesse. I would also need to scuff up the earth a bit—make it look like she’d scrambled for purchase while I tried to pull her to safety.
“Abel?”
It took a moment for me to compute that she’d asked a question, and another moment to take from my brain what she’d asked. I blinked. Rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m fine.”
She didn’t look convinced.
Were there other ways that could be pulled off as a hiking accident?
Was it possible to do the job and not get caught for it?
Yes. Yes, it was. I knew my skills were good enough to make a murder look natural in almost any setting. An outdoor one such as this was probably the best scenario. And I didn’t even need to break her neck. I could sever any of her arteries, take her magical essence, then run back to Margo in a panic, claiming Lizzie had snagged some scrub oak in her fall.
A broken neck would be more believable.
Regardless of how I killed her, I needed to talk to her about my contract and what I’d been through first. I needed to beg her forgiveness before killing her instead of after, as was my usual M.O.
“Lizzie?” I started.
“Yes?”
Another option popped into my mind. I had poison in my wallet. The kind that didn’t hurt the person who took it. It simply made the heart stop and the brain shut down at around the same time, preventing the individual from feeling pain.
What excuse would I give for that, though? That she’d hiked herself to death? Not likely—she was in excellent condition.
There was always the option of dumping her body and making a run for it—no excuse needed.
But that would defeat the purpose of having a Croent take over for her.
I blinked. Croent. He or she needed Lizzie to die in a place they could easily access. And the side of a mountain definitely was not that.
I couldn’t kill her now. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill part of my contract.
18
Relief so strong I could practically taste it flooded over me, and I slumped against a large rock. Thank goodness.
I hated how easy it was to imagine murdering someone, and I’d never been so grateful to have an excuse not to do it as I did now.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lizzie asked again. “Are you going to pass out?”
“I might. I’m experiencing a bit of low blood sugar.” Definitely the truth. I felt so lightheaded, I might just pass out.
Lizzie pulled a granola bar from her purse and handed it to me. “Eat up. Then we’ll continue.”
I smiled my thanks, putting my hand on her arm for a brief moment, then opened the bar and downed it in two bites. I barely tasted it.
She raised an eyebrow, and I grinned in response.
“Let’s keep going,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
I shrugged. “I’ll be fine. I want to make as much progress as possible.”
She agreed, and we started out again.
After another ten minutes, we found what we were looking for. Well, Lizzie did.
Bumping my shoulder, she whispered, “Look,” before handing me the binoculars and pointing at a large boulder near the trail below us. “Just to the right of that. Can you see it?”
I scanned slowly, then nodded. “Yes. They’re asleep.”
There were at least twenty of them. I could feel a pull on my magic, indicating that they were keeping themselves hidden from the average person.
“You sense the
ir powers?” she asked.
I nodded. “It’s strong.”
I handed the binoculars back to her, and she lifted them to her eyes again. “Everything is red.”
“Yes. I’d guess these vampires use blood to mark their territory.”
“That’s disgusting.” She grimaced. “Besides, it defeats the purpose. They’re using magic to hide, right? So why put blood everywhere?”
“It’s probably invisible to the average eye.”
She scoffed. “Almost a fourth of the population is magical.”
An exaggeration—for over a hundred years, most people could only have one or two kids, and with the fourth child of a family being the one who gained magic, Aretes were fairly rare.
I gave her a smile. “But you know as well as I do that most Aretes don’t develop their powers enough to even sense magic.”
She nodded, handing me my binoculars. “Let’s go now. We’ve got lots to do.”
“That’s all you wanted to do here?” I asked.
“I don’t see what else we can do right now. We’ve gathered information on them like we were supposed to—how many there are, where they’re staying, and the fact that they’re using blood and magic.”
“But what are they doing?” I asked. “Why don’t we try to figure that out?”
She raised an eyebrow. “How? It’s not like we can go and ask them.”
I met her gaze. “Why not?”
Lizzie rolled her eyes. “If that’s what you want to do, be my guest. I’m going back to searching the storage units.”
And there was the juvenile streak. I grumbled under my breath, but followed her back to Margo’s house anyway. On the way down, we discussed the pros and cons of alerting the authorities to the fire vampires’ presence.
“I just don’t want to have unsuspecting cops running into the situation and getting destroyed,” Lizzie said.
“But vampires are practically dead during the day, if not completely.”
“Good point. So, call Detective Cole and see what he thinks?”
I nodded. “That’s the best we can do. They need to be aware of the hive just in case anything happens. Even though there’s not a lot they can do themselves to get rid of the vampires, they can always put out a warning to people who are in the area or who hike up there. Maybe they can string a story about suspected gang activity.”
Evening Storm (Midnight Chronicles Book 2) Page 6