“I’ll help you out,” I said, already heading toward the staircase, where my grandmother and Lucas were walking.
“No,” she said without turning back to me. “You have something else going on.”
“Something else?” I asked.
Grandma Winnie pointed to the front door. Just then, a knock came across it.
“Oh, you’re good, Old Woman,” I said, smiling and turning to the door.
“Yes. I know that,” Grandma Winnie said.
Heading toward the door, I pulled it open to find Riley standing there.
“Your house is in the wrong place,” he said.
“Yeah. I’ve heard,” I answered.
“It’s a big deal. I get it. But we don’t have time to talk about that right now,” he said. “Something else is going on.”
“Actually, my grandmother just told me that,” I said. “What is it?”
“It’s the vampires,” Riley said. “We have to go see the vampires.”
18
I shuffled nervously in the passenger seat of Riley’s squad car. It wasn’t my first time in a cop car, though if I were being honest, most of my other experiences had me in the backseat being chewed out by the officer up front. I hadn’t been a bad person, by any means. I was, like everyone else, a kid once though. And kids do undesirable things sometimes, even witch kids. Still, it was strange how much I wished I was back there, with folded arms and a racing heart, as some police officer drove me to my grandmother’s doorstep after catching me spray-painting graffiti on the wall of Town Hall or swiping a tube of lipstick from the pharmacy.
Sure, Grandma Winnie tanned my hide every time it happened, but an upset old woman wasn’t the same as a spell that had the power to destroy everything I held dear. This needed to be over with. I needed to find Crystal and now, Eloise as well. I needed to put an end to what was going on before someone I loved disappeared or before an overpowered Gayle tore through the town looking for some kind of misguided revenge. That was the only reason I was going where I was going tonight. It was the only reason I was heading toward a place I promised myself I’d never set foot in again.
“Are you okay?” Riley asked as we made a right out of town and headed down a long and winding road that I hadn’t been on in years. “I mean, you have reason to be nervous, but you look really nervous.”
My eyes shot over at the police officer. It was strange. I had spent almost my entire life with Riley Davis. He had been my best friend in the entire world, except, of course, my cousins. Still, I had never really been able to be completely open and honest with him. He didn’t know who I really was back then. He didn’t know what I was. Now he did, and having these frank and open conversations was something I was still getting used to.
“I am really nervous,” I said honestly. “I’m a witch.”
“I know that,” he answered. “We had this conversation already, remember?”
“Of course, I remember,” I said, shaking my head and waving off his question. “I’m just reminding you that I am a member of the supernatural community because the next thing I’m about to say is going to come off as very strange.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed at me. “Oh. Okay.”
“Vampires, as a whole, aren’t my favorite,” I said, swallowing hard.
“What?” he asked, his hands still planted firmly on the steering wheel. “What do you mean? Why would that be?”
“Because, as a group, they’re very cliquish,” I responded.
“Cliquish?” Riley asked. “You mean like girls in high school?”
“Not like girls. Guys can be cliquish too, or have you never heard of a football team?” I griped, my feminist roots rushing up to the forefront. “But yes, it’s all high school. There’s something of an elitism to them. The bottom line is that, for the most part, vampires think they’re better than just about everyone else, especially witches.”
Riley shook his head. “That’s weird,” he said. “Didn’t you date at least one?”
“Not at least one,” I huffed. “Exactly one. Just Wes, and of course, you’d remember that.”
“It’s a pretty memorable thing,” Riley mused, chuckling under his breath. “I’m just wondering why you would ever want to date someone who thought they were better than you.”
That was a good question. I would never tell my nephews to get in a relationship with a girl who looked down on witches and warlocks. So, why did I do it myself?
“I was a teenager,” I said as though it was an excuse, because it sort of was. We all did stuff when we were kids. That wasn’t the entirety of the story, though. “Wes wasn’t like most of them, though,” I continued. “Wes and his cousin, the vampire who dated Charlotte, didn’t think they were better than us. In fact, they seemed to like the idea that we were witches. I think that was part of what attracted them to us.” I sighed and shook my head. “But they are in the vast minority. For the most part, I’ll be greeted by these vampires with little more than disdain.”
“Maybe,” Riley answered. “But it’ll be cloaked disdain. The Order contacted Queen Rubix, the vampiress who rules over the other vamps in this territory.”
“I know who Queen Rubix is,” I answered. “She’s known my grandmother for decades. She even came to eat dinner with us once while we were brokering an uneasy alliance. She was civil, even if she had less than spectacular things to say about my grandma’s pot roast.”
“Vampires eat?” Riley asked, looking more confused than I had seen him in a long time, which was saying a lot.
“The Order really doesn’t teach you a lot, do they?” I asked, biting my lower lip and telling him to make the next right.
“They do work on a sort of need to know basis,” Riley admitted.
“I’d say knowing the ins and outs of how vampires work is pretty need to know in your line of business,” I answered as Riley took the right that would lead us into Nightshade, the gated community at the foot of a large hill that housed most of the vampires in the Smokies. It was a large, posh place filled with the sorts of mansions that could only be paid for by the money accumulated after lifetimes of working night jobs.
I swallowed hard, my heart racing as I realized how close I was to jumping back into this place.
“You know, the last time I was here, I ran away crying,” I said, blinking and letting my mind rush back to my teenage years and a horrible night when I met Wes’s sire.
“Really?” Riley asked, looking over at me with concern filling his eyes. “You want to talk about it?”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “Wes invited me over for dinner at his house. I met his sire, the woman who turned him. It was supposed to be a big deal, a milestone in our new relationship.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t turn out so well, though?” Riley asked.
“No. It was great. I ran out crying because of how wonderful everything was. In fact, we’re still together,” I barked, anger rising in me for just a second before I had the self-control to push it back down. “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re right. I’m really nervous. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It wasn’t cool. The truth is, that was the night I realized Wes was using me to get back at his sire. She was a particularly stuck-up vampire, and seeing the closest thing she’d ever have to a son dating a witch was driving her crazy. I watched the way he rubbed it in and that’s when I realized I wasn’t his girlfriend. I was just a tool he was using to get under his sire’s skin.” I ran a hand through my hair. “It really hurt.”
Riley came to a stop in front of a black wrought-iron gate that separated Nightshade from the outside world. It wasn’t unlike the gate at the end of our driveway in Lockheart Estates, or what used to be Lockheart Estates, anyway. He looked over at me and grabbed my hand. “Not for nothing,” he said, “but anyone who would use you, anyone who couldn’t look at you and see you for the amazing person you are, is the stupidest person in the world, and you’re better off without him.”
I blinked at Riley, taking him in and letting his words heal a little of what had been broken before.
Before I could speak, the gates opened, allowing us entrance.
“You’re Izzy Lockheart,” he said. “You’re the strongest person I know. You’re the best person I know, always have been. And you don’t let the past dictate the future.” He turned forward, looking at the open gate and the community that lay beyond it. “Now, let’s get to work.”
19
We pulled into the gated community and I instantly regretted the decision. Though Riley’s pep talk was nice and certainly sweet, it did little to calm the torrent of nerves bunching up inside me. If what had been going on between the Mangrove coven and my family for generations was classified as a feud, what happened between vampires and witches was an all-out war.
I mean, sure, vampires and witches hadn’t really tussled since well before I was born, but I grew up on stories of the way vampires and witches used to go at each other’s throats. And when you’re talking about vampires, the phrase ‘going for the throat’ can take on a rather creepy and very literal connotation.
The fact that I was here now, alone and in the belly of a beast my grandmother had warned me about since I was knee-high to a bed bug, was enough to cause my stomach to do backflips.
“This place doesn’t look weird,” Riley said, looking around at the huge mansions and driveways that dotted either side of the road.
“Okay,” I said flippantly, trying to keep my nerves down and my voice calm and steady.
“It’s just when you think about vampires, you think about graveyards and coffins and all of that. It’s all really weird stuff. This place is just a community. It’s not weird at all.” He pointed forward. “They even have mailboxes.”
“Of course, they do. How else would they get their mail?”
“What kind of person would send a vampire mail?” he asked.
“The same kind of person who would date one, I’d imagine,” I answered.
“That’s not what I meant,” Riley answered, blinking hard. “I’m not saying you—”
“Vampires are, for the most part, very normal. They have jobs, they have families, and they get mail,” I said.
“And they drink the blood of humans,” Riley said, glaring at me. “Let’s not forget that part.”
“Not around here, they don’t,” I answered. “That’s part of the truce my grandmother came to with Queen Rubix. They can feed from deer, rabbits, even raccoons if they can catch them, but no humans. Feeding from humans is strictly prohibited in the Smokies. Any vampire who did so would garner the wrath of not only my grandmother and our coven, but all the covens in the Smokies as well as the Lycans.” I shook my head. “And if there’s one thing I know about werewolves, it’s that they are always itching for a reason to fight.”
“That’s good, I suppose,” Riley said. “The not feeding on humans part, not the itching for a fight part.”
“I figured,” I answered. Then, pointing to the left, I added, “Turn here. Queen Rubix lives at the end of this cul-de-sac. Are you sure she’s expecting us? It’s late tonight, and even though the gate opened, I don’t want to take any chances at waking her. The only thing less palatable than a snooty vampire is a tired, snooty vampire. Throw in a crown, and you’re basically asking for an earful.”
“Absolutely,” Riley said. “The Order talked to her themselves. They told me she wasn’t too keen on the idea of opening her doors for anyone, but when they reminded her about the laws The Order runs by and why they’re so important, she was more willing to listen.”
I didn’t really know what sort of laws The Order ran by. There had been little time since I got back home to get into that kind of thing with Riley. Still, I knew the man well enough to know that if these were laws he was comfortable with living by, then they must fall on the right side of the fence. Besides, whatever he said was enough to get Rubix to open the door, and that was a small miracle in itself. Regardless of the fact that I absolutely didn’t want to be here, I needed to be here. Wes was involved in what happened to Crystal, and if I had a chance at figuring any of that out, I needed to be able to get to him.
We pulled to the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, a large white thing with blood-red shutters and a matching door. It was a striking thing, even when compared with all the huge houses surrounding it. In the front yard sat a fountain almost as big as the B&B I grew up in. It was luminous as water spouted out of it.
“Wow,” Riley muttered, his mouth dropping open as he leaned into his steering wheel. “That really is something. What do they do in the daytime? How do they get around?”
“There’s a spell,” I said. “An old one that makes it always nighttime here. It’s pretty rad when you stop to think about it.”
“Not as rad as these houses,” Riley answered. “These are so fancy.”
“Don’t let the elegance fool you,” I said, staring at the blood-red door and dreading what was on the other side. “I might not have a lot of experience with Queen Rubix personally, but the stories I’ve heard lead me to believe that she’s always got a reason for everything she does. If she’s allowing us in here—”
“It’s because The Order has flexed their muscles, Izzy,” Riley said.
“She’s five hundred years old, Riley,” I said, opening the door and stepping out of it. “I’m sure The Order has some mighty fine muscles, but I assure you Queen Rubix isn’t impressed by the way they’re flexed.”
“You’re quite right, Izzy Lockheart,” a strange, light voice said from behind me.
With my body tensing, I yelped and spun around with all the grace of a dog that’s been scared by a car horn. Looking back, I saw a tall, slender woman with long black hair, bright red lips, and a body that would have belonged in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, assuming they had a nocturnal variation.
I remembered her features from when I was a child. I remembered them because they were striking, but mostly, I remembered them because they hadn’t changed a bit. Queen Rubix, as all vampires, hadn’t aged a day.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she said. “I’m lighter on my feet than most humans. Perhaps I should start wearing a bell when lesser beings are around.”
And there it was. I had been here all of three seconds, and she was already starting with the whole ‘lesser beings’ stuff. I took a deep breath and steadied myself. I needed to be polite long enough to get the information I wanted from her. After that, I would tell her just where she could stick her bell.
“I was expecting you to be inside,” I answered, clearing my throat. “It’s kind of late.”
“Haven’t you ever heard sleep is for the weak, Izzy?” she asked, smiling at me and revealing a pair of fangs that glistened in the moonlight.
“That doesn’t sound like sound doctor’s advice,” Riley said, slamming his squad car door shut and walking over to settle beside me.
“The last time I went to a doctor, they were still using leeches to cure swelling,” she answered.
“Ew,” Riley said instinctively.
“It was a different time,” Queen Rubix said. “In a hundred or so years, I’m sure people will be saying ‘ew’ to all the things you do today.” She eyed him up and down. “Like that haircut.”
Riley bristled. “Haircut aside, we need to talk. As you know, I’m with The Order.”
“I could not care less about that group of overblown windbags,” Rubix said. “Izzy was right. I didn’t allow you here because of The Order.”
“You didn’t?” Riley asked, obviously a little taken aback. “Then why?”
“Because I needed to talk to you,” Queen Rubix said, her eyes settling on me in the most disturbing way possible. “Izzy Lockheart, you and I have a matter to discuss.”
20
“Would either of you like something to drink?” Queen Rubix asked, moving toward her industrial fridge in a fluid, graceful motion that would have put a supermodel walking
down the runway to shame. The house she’d invited us into was even more deliciously ornate inside than it was outside. Crystal chandeliers hung in nearly every room, and expansive marble floors covered every inch of the kitchen and living area.
I looked at Riley as he considered her offer, weighing the choice in his mind. I knew what he was thinking. Still, I really hoped the man didn’t put his concerns into words.
“When you say, ‘something to drink,’ does the ‘something’ you have in mind have a pulse?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Well, so much for hoping.
Rubix smiled a devilish smile. “If it did, it doesn’t anymore,” she answered. I cringed as she moved toward the fridge, pulled the door of the silver thing open, pulled out a bottle, and tossed it to Riley. He panicked as he caught the bottle, tossing it up in the air as the bottle hit his hands.
As he did, the bottle glistening against the light made by both (yes, I said both) kitchen chandeliers, I saw that it was sweet tea and not what Riley had probably assumed Rubix was going to offer him.
I twisted my hand, magically taking ahold of the bottle and lowering it into Riley’s hands.
“I’m not a huge fan of pre-bottled tea either, but there’s no need for that reaction,” I answered, giving Riley a half-smile and turning back to Rubix.
“And you?” Rubix asked, holding another bottle of tea in her hand.
“I’m okay,” I answered, nerves still knocking around inside me.
“Are you?” Rubix asked, placing the bottle back in the fridge and closing the door. “Because the beating of your heart tells a different story. It’s practically slamming against your ribcage. I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t broken free, what with the sheer amount of force it seems to have behind it.”
I paled. I hated vampire hearing. It afforded you, like, absolutely no privacy when you were around them. As if it wasn’t bad enough that they could hear the things you whispered under your breath around them, they could also hear the beating of your heart and deduce your mental condition that way too.
Valleys, Vittles, and Vanishings Page 8