by Kaye Draper
I blinked at him. He sounded so sure. Like he'd been in control of the whole situation the entire time. "Am I missing something here?" I asked slowly. "I mean, I'd love to avoid your family coming thundering down on us with stakes, but…why are they taking so long to come get their baby boy?"
His stoic expression cracked for a second there, and a slow smile stretched his lips, transforming him from pain in the ass to young heartthrob in an instant. "They aren't coming for me," he said easily. "They never were."
I blinked at him. "They what?"
All that worry. All that fear. Thinking that we were about to have a bunch of killers rain down on us any moment…was that all for nothing?
Van's smile dimmed and he returned to his calm, unruffled self. "We have safeguards in place. Ways to communicate in dangerous situations. I didn't send an alarm to them." He sipped his coffee. "They got an all clear from me. An 'I'm fine, carry on.'"
I gaped at him. "But…why? You were kidnapped by vampires. How was that okay?"
He shrugged. "They didn't harm me. And they're young. I could have gotten free, if I was really motivated. I was…curious."
I scrubbed a hand over my face. "You were curious."
He sat down at the table and looked out the window at the snow that was painted pink by the rising sun. "Sure. They kidnapped me just to use me to make peace. What kind of self-respecting monster does a stupid thing like that? And then I met you and the others. You're all quite fascinating."
I glowered. "So, what? We're all just a little scientific observation for you? See how the other side lives? Maybe see if you can soak up any juicy secrets while you're at it?"
He sighed. "Do you know what it's like to be groomed for something, necromancer? You grew up not knowing what you were, not having a place. But what if you had a place forced on you? What if, your entire life, every second of every day you were told exactly who you were and what you were to be? It gets old. Really fucking fast."
Well, that certainly explained why he acted like a grumpy old man most of the time.
I went and pulled out a chair across from him and flopped down into it. "So, what are you going to do now? When you go home? Will you tell them where we are and the best way to murder us all?"
His dark blue eyes stared steadily into mine. "I should. But I probably won't." A shrug. A teeny, tiny little smirk. "Maybe I'll tell them we should make peace, like the stupid blond vampire wants me to."
I blinked at him. "You're just going to leave, and I'll still be worried about stakes flying at my lovers. That's not an answer."
He finished his coffee and stood. "Nope, it isn't. Because there isn't an answer. I'm one hunter. Sure, I'm an heir to the Helwing order. But I'm just a kid to them. Even if I go back there and try to change things, some rogue guild could just come rolling through town and decide to off you all."
I closed my eyes in a tired blink. "So, it's better to just be prepared." Was this his jackass way of saying he'd do what he could, but we should still keep on our toes?
He ran a hand through his auburn hair. "It's been an interesting visit," he said. "Maybe I'll see you again sometime, necromancer."
I watched as he pulled on his coat and shoes. "You're just leaving? Don't you need a ride or something? We can take you to a bus stop at least. The closest one is the next town over."
He gave me that small, know-it-all smile again. "I'll be fine."
Someone started pounding on the front door. I headed out there, Van trailing behind. When I pulled open the door, a stranger stood on my porch. He was stocky and muscular, decked out in a long duster and one of those stupid hats I'd seen on the cowboy vampire hunters when they attacked us at Halloween.
I tensed and took a step back. Van slipped around me and clapped a hand on the guy's shoulder. "Andy."
The thick guy gave me a look, then turned to gaze at the young hunter with a look perfected by tired keepers of wayward children the world over. "Master Van Helsing. Are you done now?"
Van nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets, turning to make his way down the steps toward the Jeep that idled in the road out front. "For now."
I just stared as the big guy followed Van Helsing to his car like a good chauffeur. Fuck my life.
Van opened the car door, but paused to look back before he slid inside. His cheeks were pink, and I didn't think it was all from the cold winter air. "Tell Ryan…I'll keep in touch."
Then he jumped into the Jeep and they sped away down the old dirt road.
Drake appeared by my side, startling the fuck out of me when he spoke. "Who was that? I smell hunters."
I sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
He slid an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close against his broad chest, taking a little sip of my energy and leaving me tingling. "Red, after all the shit we've been through, you're not even going to try me?"
So, I told him.
The energy vampire was crying with laughter by the time I finished. "Powers, Red," he wheezed between laughs. "How do you attract all this drama?"
I laughed with him, but secretly, my heart clenched. I was pretty sure I wasn't attracting this shit naturally. When Drake leaned in to brush a fond kiss across my lips, I leaned into him, wanting to cling, wanting to beg.
Because this spell that had brought them all to me…it couldn't last forever. None of it was real.
Pulling away, I went to the living room to talk to a fate mage about my fucked-up life.
Chapter 16
I found my dad in the living room, struggling into a borrowed T-shirt. The pajama pants he'd borrowed from Drake hung on his narrow hips and I could count his ribs before he finally managed to get the shirt on. Luna said he was suffering from exhaustion. He'd apparently been attempting to use his magic to indirectly foil the collector's attempts to find me and my murder, and between the overuse of magic and the resultant punishment from his captor, he'd been not just physically abused, but mentally and energetically worn down. I wanted to take him to the hospital, but he and the werewolf insisted she was capable of taking care of him here. Apparently, Luna's skills extended beyond veterinary medicine, since she'd grown up around a bunch of human animals and all.
"Hey," I said, as I entered the room. "So…good news. No more grumpy roommate for you."
He sank into one of the old, mismatched wingback chairs and sighed. "The hunter's gone? Or did the vampires kill him, then?"
I blinked at him. He was so matter of fact about murder. "Uh, no, he's alive. He just hitched a ride back to his family." I sank down onto the couch. "He helped us, you know. He's the reason you're here."
He had the decency to look embarrassed, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck while his face turned that same bright red color I often displayed. "I'm sorry, Esper. I've just…well, I've come to accept punishments and executions as par for the course these past years."
I swallowed around the sudden lump in my throat. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I wish I had known sooner."
He shrugged. "What could you have done? You wouldn't have stood a chance alone, sweetheart."
I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees. "Speaking of that," I said around the glass shards that seemed to have taken up residence in my throat. "How long will it last? How long will they…how long until they want to leave?"
"What?" His eyes, so like my own, studied me for a minute before comprehension sank in. "Oh, sweetheart!" He pushed up from his chair and came to sit next to me, pulling me close like he knew me. Like he wasn't a stranger, but a loving father. "Honey, I can't tell you whether they'll stay with you. The spell I cast brought you what you needed to be safe from the collector. Now that he's gone, the spell will fade."
I sucked in a breath, feeling like I'd been punched. I'd known that, somewhere inside. Even as weird as my life was, it was too good to be true. No one loved me for me. It was all because of a spell. On their side. On my side, it was real, and it was like my heart was shattering into a thousand
pieces. A ragged sob escaped before I could stamp it down and keep it inside.
"Oh Esper!" My dad said, brushing my hair back from my face with a knobby-knuckled hand. Even our hands were similar. I'd always known I was mannish. But this was ridiculous.
"I can't manufacture emotions, Esper," he whispered. "My magic can change circumstances, make little nudges along the way. But it's a magic of gently changing the flow of an already trickling stream. It changes places, timing. It doesn't change people's minds, their emotions." He huffed out a laugh. "If I could make people fall in love, my life as a teen would have been so much easier."
I blinked at him. "What are you saying?"
He leveled an honest look my way. "I can't tell you what will happen now with you and your murder. They won't feel magically compelled to stay here. But maybe they'll stay all the same. If there is love between you and any of them, I didn't create that. You did."
The panic eased a little, though the fear still swirled beneath the surface. I still didn't quite believe him. And he'd said they could choose to leave. I thought what I had with my murder was a strong connection, but it could still be one-sided. I didn't have much experience with love and romance. Maybe I was being naive to believe they all loved me the way I loved them. And whatever was between Luna and I…maybe even between Awan and I…it was so new and tentative. It could fade, easily.
My dad squeezed my shoulder and pulled away. "Buck up, Esper. You're an amazing girl. You've grown so strong and independent. Who wouldn't love you?"
Now that was complete bullshit. But I let it slide. "Thanks."
He grinned at me. "So, speaking of love. Do you think I could get a ride into town today? I'd like to see my wife."
I grimaced. "I'm not sure why you'd want that. Sherry is a complete hag. You must have been shitfaced drunk when I was conceived."
He pulled back like I'd said something awful, rather than stating the cold, hard facts. "Esper! Your mother is a wonderful woman. Even after all these years, I still miss her. And what we could have had, what that madman stole from us." His eyes softened. "From you."
I raised an eyebrow. "Dad. She's a drunk, a junkie, and a waste of oxygen. She neglects and abuses her children—and she got those children by sleeping with every lowlife in the county."
His expression shut down, and he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his tangled red curls. "You're not making a joke, are you?"
At my frown, he rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth, like he might be sick. "The curse. I knew it would bring a cloud down on her. But…I never imagined it would be so serious. The woman I knew…she was so vibrant, nothing could dampen her light."
I just stared at him. "Whoever you just described, that is not my mother."
He sighed, his shoulders slumped and weary. "Isn't your vampire going to work today? Do you think he'd drop me off at your mom's house for the day? This might take a while."
I stood and squeezed his shoulder in sympathy. "I'll ask, but you know he won't mind. I think you should have some coffee and breakfast first, though. Because you're about to go through hell all over again, old man."
He shook his head and his eyes took on a determined glint. "Things might not be perfect right now, Esper, but at least I have my freedom. You don't realize how much you take that for granted, until it's gone."
All of the angst inside me congealed at that moment. Freedom. Being able to live your life. All the normal family moments my dad and I had missed out on as I grew up with him the prisoner of an unknown madman.
Everything was a jumble. But for some reason, the look on Awan's face rose up to the surface, the longing I'd seen there for simple human contact. His joy at something so trivial as someone knowing how the skinwalker liked their coffee.
I grabbed my dad's arm. "Before you go. I need you to promise you'll come back and teach me about my power. How to use it. I need…I need to bind a soul to a body permanently."
He blinked at me in surprise. "That's…Esper that sounds dark."
I sighed. "Yeah, it really does. But I promise you, it's for a good cause. For a good person. Can I do it? Is it even possible?"
He gripped my shoulders and looked into my eyes, his expression gravely serious. "I'm not a necromancer, Esper. I can't teach you how to access your powers or what you might be able to do. But there's someone who can."
I stared up at him, fear skittering down my spine at how serious he looked. "Who?"
He closed his eyes in a long blink, then opened them, drawing in a shuddering breath, as if what he had to say was the most repulsive thing he could think of uttering.
"You need your crazy aunt Juanita."
Chapter 17
By the next night, things had settled down a little. While the others shared my reservations over whether or not the hunters would eventually show up and try to murder us, they seemed guardedly optimistic. And the collector was dead. There was still the supernatural council to deal with, but that was a battle for another day. For the moment, we were lying low, so they were likely to leave us alone. I wasn't stupid enough to think that would last, but I was desperate enough to take the breather while the opportunity presented itself.
The sun was setting, and no new trouble had showed up on my doorstep. It had been one whole glorious day without fear and stress. Closing the bathroom door behind me, I turned on the shower as hot as I could stand it and stripped out of my worn jeans and faded, holey reindeer sweater. Somehow, it was nearly Christmas. Maybe if I tried really, really hard, I'd be able to muster up some sort of festive spirit this year.
After all, I actually had a family I wanted to spend time with, if they stayed around for the holiday.
Stepping under the hot spray, I let it wash over my head, plastering my hair to my face and drowning out the world. I exhaled and let my stress flow away with the water. We were okay. We were all okay.
And I was going to get stronger. So next time my loved ones were threatened, there would be hell to pay. We'd sent a letter to my mysterious, reclusive, crazy aunt this morning inviting her here to meet and talk about training me. It was all going to be okay.
"Esper?"
Luna's soft, husky voice nearly made me jump out of my skin. With my head under the water, I hadn't heard her come in. Spluttering, I scraped my wet hair back out of my eyes and peeked around the shower curtain. "Did you need something? I almost drowned!"
The curvy blond leaned against the sink with her arms crossed under her generous chest and gave me a smile that was all wolf. "Did I sneak up on you?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes. Great stalking. Good job, girl."
She huffed a laugh and straightened. "I realized you were alone, for once, and I wanted to talk to you." Her green eyes glinted with something predatory that made a weird chill ripple up my spine.
"Okay…you couldn't wait until I was clean and dry?" I groaned. "If this is some new problem I need to deal with, can you just keep it to yourself for like…twenty, thirty minutes?"
She prowled closer to the shower. "No, no problems." Her hands lifted and she started unbuttoning her floral-print flannel shirt. "But we're all alone, Esper. For once in your damned life, you aren't surrounded by men."
I blinked at her, water continuing to sluice down my body, which was suddenly even more flushed with heat. "Um."
She slipped her shirt off, revealing a lacy black bra that barely contained her massive breasts. "Awan is outside on patrol, as usual." Her fingers moved to unbutton her jeans. "Drake went to work. Your dad is gone." Her smile widened as she pulled off her pants. "Toma went shopping, so we know he'll be gone for hours. I sent the pack out to do patrols around the town." She reached behind her to unclasp her bra and drop it to the floor. "The vampires are apartment hunting."
All I could do was gape as she stepped out of her cute, girly little panties. "And I bribed Jet with brownies."
She stood before me, hands relaxed at her side, her beautiful body on full display, all lush curves and hidden stre
ngth. "So, it's just you and me, E. What do you say? Is there room in that shower for one more?"
I swallowed hard. I'd never done anything intimate with a woman. Sure, I'd looked. I'd wondered. But that was about it. In a place like Hellsfork, there wasn't a lot of room for experimentation. And here stood perfection in front of me, just begging me to push my boundaries.
I met Luna's gem-bright eyes, the green so deep it was unreal. She might be all external confidence and strength, but I knew she was vulnerable. Did I want this? Did I want her? She'd told me before that she wouldn't stop being my friend if I didn't want a romantic relationship, so I wasn't afraid of losing her.
What I was afraid of was losing one more chunk of my heart, and the inevitable pain that would come when the fate spell faded and she and the others drifted away, their feelings not quite so strong as I'd thought.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for the pain. I opened my mouth to tell her this wasn't a good idea. "I think I can make room," I blurted instead, pulling the shower curtain aside to let her in.
The werewolf smiled, showing pointed canines and a whole lot of wickedness. Then she slipped into the shower behind me and pulled the curtain closed. Her arms wrapped around me from behind, and she pressed her soft curves to my back, leaning up to press her lips to the slick skin of my shoulder. I shuddered at the sensation, and one of her hands slicked over my hip, up across my stomach and higher, to caress my small breasts, teasing the nipples to hard peaks. "You won't regret this, Esper, I promise," she whispered.
I closed my eyes, leaning back into her slightly as her hand ghosted over my body, leaving a delicious wave of heat behind, water sluicing over us both. She turned me, stepping under the shower spray and cupping my cheek to angle my face toward her. Her lips on mine were soft, but demanding. Luna wasn't some fainting flower. She was an alpha werewolf. There was power and domination in everything she did, even this. I opened to her, her tongue tangling with mine, tasting faintly of brownies and that fresh, woodsy essence that was all Luna.