Nathan shook his head. “I will deal with that later. For now, I believe we should focus on trying to save your two friends.”
Lucy could see how pleased his answer made Jessica. A happy twinkle swam into her topaz eyes, and she beamed as she said, “Great!” She turned around to face the others. “Now that we’ve got Jason with us, we’ll need to take more than one vehicle.”
“I left my car here earlier,” Lucy reminded her. “I’ll take it back to my place now. Want to ride with me, Jess?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll stay in my truck if it’s all the same,” Kiefer said.
“I guess that leaves you two with me.” Dara glanced between Jason and Nathan.
Nathan still seemed dubious, but he agreed, and said, “Ladies, do not forget to bring all of your weapons along. We may need them.”
Jason, who’d been holding his mug in both hands and eyeing it with reluctance, looked up. “Weapons?”
“Jessica loaned us these big hunting knives,” Dara informed him, an excited spark to her voice as she held apart her hands to demonstrate the size. “And we made wooden stakes.” She mimed a stabbing motion.
“Ah,” Jason said, and Lucy noted that he didn’t look quite as surprised as she would’ve expected him to. Which led her to believe Dara hadn’t been kidding when she’d said her husband knew her better than anyone else. He seemed to take it for granted she could handle herself. And he trusted her judgment. Lucy felt another twinge of envy at how attuned to one another they seemed, and she couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever have a relationship even close to anything like that in her life.
“Come on Jason,” Jessica said, clapping her hands, “chop-chop. I know it’s gross, but get that platelet smoothie down the hatch and let’s see if it works, huh? We’re all dying of curiosity over here.”
Jason took a deep breath and nodded. “Here goes nothing.” He poured the foul drink down his throat. When he put the cup back down, everyone was leaning forward, staring intently at him. He smacked his lips a few times and darted out his tongue to sweep a stray drop from the corner of his mouth. “Huh. That actually wasn’t half bad,” he declared.
Kiefer’s face brightened. “I added a pinch of cinnamon and a dash of agave syrup to the recipe,” he offered with a flourish, “to take the edge off.”
“Nice.” Jason gave him a thumb up.
“So, how do you feel?” Dara’s hands were clasped together in front her chest, her eyes wide and questioning.
Jason shrugged. “Better, I guess. Like maybe it won’t be so hard for me to keep from nibbling on anybody for the rest of the night.” He quirked an eyebrow, drew her in close, and planted a kiss on her neck. “Except maybe for you, but that’s nothing new.”
She was laughing as she disentangled herself from him. “Okay, you guys, I think we can be pretty confident it worked,” she snickered. “He’s definitely acting like his usual self.”
“Awesome.” Jessica was already at the kitchen door, her legs moving restlessly. “Let’s get a move on, then. Lucy’s man might be wigging out back at her place as we speak!”
Chapter Thirteen
As it happened, Aaron wasn’t wigging out at all. In fact, an altogether different scene awaited Lucy and her friends at Lucy’s one-bedroom apartment than had greeted them at the Donovan residence. Instead of hurtling out of a closet, fangs bared, they found Aaron sitting silently, cross-legged on her balcony, his forehead resting against the bars. He was so still and calm, he almost looked like he was sleeping.
“Aaron?” Lucy stepped toward the sliding glass doors standing open behind him.
Aaron didn’t stir, but Nathan put a restraining hand on her arm. “Lucy, do you and this man share a bond as strong as that between Jason and Dara? One that could theoretically—and instantly—cut through any confusion he may be experiencing as a result of having been turned into a vampire?”
Lucy pushed up her glasses. “Ha,” she said. “I wish.”
The vampire smiled gently. “Then perhaps I should approach him first.”
Lucy acquiesced, and Nathan moved ahead of her, stepping out onto the balcony with quiet grace.
“I’m not confused,” Aaron called to them without moving. “And I wouldn’t hurt you, Lucy. You can come out here and talk to me if you want.”
Nathan stopped and looked back at her. He nodded and beckoned, and she went to join him. Everyone else hung back, watching from just inside the doors.
“Aaron.” Lucy crouched and rested her hand on his shoulder. “So…you remember where you are, then? And what’s going on?”
He turned his head against the bars, looking at her with tired but lucid eyes. “I’m at your place. You brought me here the other night. You took care of me.” His lips tugged into an infinitesimal smile. “Thanks.”
She smiled back. “Yeah, of course.”
Aaron’s expression dimmed again. “As for what’s going on…a vampire bit me. I’m probably a vampire now, too, aren’t I? Just guessing, since I don’t seem to be breathing anymore. And I’ve lost my pulse.” He held up his wrist, a wince of dismay flickering across his face. “I can see a lot better now, too. Can hear practically everything.” His gaze locked on her neck. “I can hear the blood rushing through your veins. Pumping through your heart.” He licked his lips and stretched a hand toward her.
Nathan sprang forward, his hand outstretched to yank Lucy away from him.
“I won’t hurt her,” Aaron repeated, lifting his head and staring at the vampire. Squinting, he added, “Ugh, you’re another one. A monster. But not like the one who bit me.”
“No.” Nathan’s voice was low, his eyes glittering. “You were bitten by a master. As far as I know, they are the only ones who can turn human beings into what you and I now are. And even then, they can only do so if certain magic is employed. The one who bit you must have spoken the correct incantation over you, to complete the transformation.”
Aaron’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Lucky me,” he muttered. A shiver wracked his body and Lucy, whose hand still rested on his shoulder, felt him tremble violently. His skin felt cold and clammy even through his t-shirt.
“Hey, are you still feeling sick?” she asked.
He swallowed. “A little, yeah.”
Lucy noticed he had circles under his eyes, and that his lips were dry. He didn’t look as healthy as Jason did. She cast a worried glance Nathan’s way.
“As I told you, the bite is liable to affect different people in different ways,” he said. “We should get him inside and give him the elixir.”
She nodded, turning back to Aaron. “We brought some medicine for you. It’s not a cure, but it should help you feel better.”
He let her help him to his feet and back inside, past the others.
In the kitchen, Aaron sat down at the tiny table and watched as everyone else gathered around him. “Hey, Jessica,” he said, seeming pleased to recognize someone. His eyes fell on Jason, and he curled his lip. “Another vampire?” he said. “Just how many of us are there, anyway?”
“We think Jason was bitten by the same woman who got you,” Lucy explained. “We’re trying to help him turn back, too.”
“Turn back?” Aaron’s face lit up a degree. “Is that really possible?”
“It might be.” Lucy flashed a cautious smile. While Kiefer mixed some of the blood and elixir in a glass, she introduced everyone else and, with their help, tried to catch Aaron up on everything that had transpired while he’d been asleep.
“So, what are we going to do now?” Aaron asked when the others had finished their story. He’d drunk his blood/elixir cocktail without any fuss and now, to Lucy’s relief, was already regaining some of the color in his face. He’d stopped shaking and looked more alert.
“Our only hope for turning you and Jason back is to catch this master who attacked you and kill her,” Nathan said.
“You said it was next to impossible to kill a master,” Aaron pointed out d
ismally.
“Yes, but if it was Celia who bit you, she has been underground, starving, for nearly nine years. It is possible she is weak enough now that she can be harmed.”
“That’s how I killed my master,” Kiefer interjected. Along with Nathan and Jessica, he’d remained standing, and now he had one hand splayed out on the table, leaning his weight against it. Every sinewy muscle in his arm stood out. “Caught her and starved her for ten years, and then dug her up again and chopped off her head. Poof, she turned into a pile of ashes right in front of me, and I went back to normal.”
“That’s great!” Dara said. “Let’s do that to Celia.”
Nathan sent her a small smile. “First we must find her.”
“How did you track her the first time?” Jessica asked. “You told me masters don’t usually turn more than one person. They just bite and then move on.”
“Well, you’re half right,” Kiefer said. “Masters don’t usually turn anybody. Or if they do, it’s only one person. But, if what we’ve heard from other hunters is true, vampires in general do like to feed on people. And Celia’s sure got an appetite like I’ve never heard of, even among vampire-kind. I speculate she’d been underground for a while before she showed up here nine years ago, either by choice or because someone else had captured her before we did. Either way, she was super hungry when she popped up, and she bit at least half a dozen people. Nathan and I hung around the places where she’d attacked, and eventually she showed up nearby. Then we did what I’d done with my master: threw an enchanted bag over her head and used more magic to put her to sleep. After that, we took her out to the middle of nowhere and buried her in concrete.”
“Well that doesn’t sound so hard,” Jessica said, looking hopeful. “The tracking part, anyway.”
Lucy had to agree. Thank goodness this vampire, Celia, had already been underground for almost a decade. Assuming he still wanted her to, Lucy wouldn’t necessarily balk at waiting ten years for Aaron to recover from vampirism before she hung out with him again. And she had no doubt that Dara would stay with her husband no matter what ended up happening to him. But she was glad it was at least possible neither man would have to suffer as an undead creature for that long. Speaking of which…
“How long were you a vampire, Kiefer?” she asked him. “What happened to you?”
His caramel gaze settled on her. “Me?” he said. “Oh, I was turned back in 1996. Just a kid, barely eighteen years old.” His face hardened. “Yeah, I know. I’d just started getting used to the idea that Cobain was really gone for good, and then this happened. But I’ll tell you what. My master picked the wrong ‘dumb teenager’ to mess with. I’d been studying magic and the occult for years by that point, and I knew a thing or two about vampires. It took me a few years to track her down, but when I found my master, I took care of her pretty quick. In the meantime, while I waited for her to tap out, I spent thirteen years undead.” He glanced at Nathan. “I met Nathan about a year after I turned human again. That’s a different story, but he wound up helping me find Celia, and we took care of her, too. We’ve been watching each other’s backs ever since.”
Lucy did the math in her head. Chronologically, Kiefer was around forty-one years old, but he looked the same age as Nathan, close to thirty. That made sense, since he’d started to age normally again, from the age of eighteen, only a decade ago.
“Do we know of any other places Celia has attacked this time, other than at the Red Palm and the Holmwood Hotel?” Dara asked Kiefer, steering the conversation back on track.
“Yeah, actually,” he said. “I’ve got some laptops at home. I’m linked into every hospital in the Houston metro—so I can keep an eye on admissions and check for anything wonky. I ran a quick search before coming over here. Within the past few days there’ve been a few people who came in with wounds on their necks. I cross-referenced with recent police reports and found a couple places where these people said they’d been ‘attacked.’ No one mentioned fangs or anything, so it’s possible, of course, that they were just mugged or something, but it’s also possible at least some of ’em were vampire vics, and the details were just omitted.”
“Should we just go to some of these places?” Jessica asked. “Watch and see what’s going on? See if any vampires show up?”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Kiefer said, “but there’s something else I think we might want to try first, and that’s figuring out who dug up Celia in the first place.”
Nathan looked at his friend with interest. “You have a lead?”
Kiefer’s eyes glinted. “I might. See, when those Snacks were kicking the crap out of me, I managed to slip a token into one of their jacket pockets.”
Now Nathan looked excited, standing up straighter next to the kitchen counter.
“What’s a token?” Jessica asked.
“Just a little circle of metal,” Kiefer said, “but it’s enchanted. If I cast a certain spell, whoever’s got the disc on them will be compelled to come straight back to me. They’ll have no choice about it. No passing Go, and no collecting two hundred dollars. Not unless someone else takes the coin off them and breaks the spell.”
“We can restrain this person when he arrives,” Nathan added, “ask him if he and his companion were the ones who went to Celia’s grave and, if so, question him about who sent them there and why. Whoever ordered her release may very well have the master vampire with them now.”
Jessica looked at Kiefer. “You can do that?” she gasped, sounding impressed.
“I can do all sorts of things,” Kiefer told her, flashing his dimple. “But Nathan here’s not a big fan of magic.”
“Particularly the sort that involves compulsion,” Nathan admitted. “But in this case, I concede that it may be necessary.”
“Wait,” Lucy held up her hands. “The, uh, Snack would come here? To my apartment? He’s not going to trash the place like he did Kiefer’s office, is he?” Again, she thought about her rent deposit.
“We wouldn’t let him do that, ma’am,” Kiefer assured her.
“Maybe not,” Aaron hooked his arm over the back of Lucy’s chair, “but then he’ll know where Lucy lives. Which means he’ll be able to come back here and hurt her later if he wants. That is, assuming you’re not going to kill this thug once you’re done interrogating him-?”
“Absolutely not,” Nathan said. “This minion may be in thrall to a vampire, but he is still human. We do not kill people.”
“We could erase the guy’s memory after we’re done,” Kiefer said to Lucy. “Make sure he doesn’t remember where you live. Although Nathan doesn’t like that spell, either.” He cast a glance at his vampire friend. “He gets twitchy about anything that involves messing around with people’s minds. Which, unfortunately, is just about every form of magic I know.”
“I don’t like it, either,” Jason said. He was sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. “The plan to bring this guy here, I mean. Aaron’s right that it’s too dangerous for a thug like that to know where Lucy lives. What if the mind-erasing spell doesn’t work, and he does come back for her later?” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t let you summon him to my apartment, I can tell you that much.”
Lucy looked at Jason in surprise. He didn’t know her at all, and yet he sounded deeply concerned about her safety. He looked worried, too, his brows gathered darkly over his eyes. And it wasn’t only him, she noticed. Dara, Jessica, Nathan, and of course Aaron, who’d brought up the issue in the first place, were also all nodding in agreement. Lucy couldn’t help but feel touched by their collective concern. It made her feel better—safer and more confident—to know everyone here had her best interests at heart.
Kiefer looked at Jason. “My spells always work,” he said, but without acrimony. “But I understand your misgivings. Maybe we should all just go somewhere else to do this magic, then?”
“How about the donut shop?” Dara suggested. “These people already know where that is, anyway.”
“True,” Nathan said, “but there is another place I think might be safer.” He and Kiefer exchanged a glance, and Kiefer flinched.
“I’m not sure, man,” he said. “No offense to your new friends here, but…the safehouse? We’ve never let anyone know where that is. That’s what makes it, you know, safe.”
Lucy watched the former vampire with interest. Obviously, he didn’t share her trust in the group, but she could understand why. He’d seen and experienced a lot more weirdness in his life than any of the rest of them, with the possible exception of Nathan. It wasn’t surprising he’d be wary of a group of strangers, no matter who they were.
“You shouldn’t feel pressured to show us anything you don’t want to, Kiefer,” she told him. “I vote for the donut shop, too.”
“Yeah,” Jason said, “I agree. After all, we’re just a bunch of random ladies and two strange vampires you just met. I probably wouldn’t trust us either. Let’s go to this donut shop.” He glanced at Dara. “Although, why a donut place is involved in this at all, I can’t begin to guess.”
“‘The donuts are but a front,’” Jessica said, echoing Nathan’s earlier statement. “And it didn’t look like there were any in stock when we were there before, anyway. Which is kind of ironic, when you consider the place is called Endless Donuts.”
“Yeah, and it’s too bad, too,” Dara sighed, “because I’m starting to get really hungry.”
“Ooh, I’ve got some snacks I can bring with us,” Lucy volunteered, and stood up. Then, with a wavering smile, “That is regular snacks. With a lowercase ‘s.’ Dara, do you want to help me?”
Dara got up and joined her by the kitchen cabinets. Together, they packed grocery sacks with crackers, granola bars, and drinks, while Aaron, who’d still been wearing his sweatpants, went into the bedroom to change into jeans. After that, the group split up again, climbing into separate vehicles and returning, caravan fashion, to the Endless Donuts storefront—this time to summon the violent minion of a vampire and interrogate him until he cracked. Lucy guessed she’d gotten over the absurdity of her current situation, because she didn’t feel like giggling about it anymore.
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