“Well,” said Stan. He shrugged, his lips curving into a grin. “Libby’s mother always said she was half alien.”
“Look, Mom and Dad experimented with peyote that night,” I said before Stan could launch into Mom’s well-known account of her abduction. “Dad woke up in a tree. After he climbed out of it, he found Mom wandering in the New Mexico desert, naked and delirious.”
“You don’t believe your mother’s story?” asked Patsy.
All eyes turned to me. I hesitated. Mom was the definition of eccentric, but she wasn’t stupid or insane. I refused to let these people believe she was a crackpot.
“Of course I believe her. She said vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and fairies were real. Why not aliens?”
Patsy’s steady blue gaze made me squirm.
“How could I be an alien?” I said, feeling defensive. “I was born the same as all human babies.” Not in a hospital, mind you, but by a midwife in a shaman’s hut in New Mexico. Still, I came out from my mother’s womb.
“Relax, hon. Nobody believes you’re an alien,” said Patsy. “Is there any way to prove our dragon theory?”
“More tests, specifically with Libby’s DNA. It would also be helpful to have actual dragon DNA for comparison.”
“I know someone who can help with that,” said a dark-haired man sitting next to Lorcan. They looked a lot alike, but he seemed a little older than Lorcan and his eyes weren’t as shadowed by suspicion.
“What monkey are we asking to join our circus now, Ruadan?” Patsy rubbed her belly.
“Her name is Ash.”
“The soul shifter?” said Zerina. “Are you insane?”
“Like Stan said, dragons are rare, and those who hunt them rarer still. If anyone can help us, it’s her.”
“Okay,” said Patsy. “Let’s get her here. What about the tests, Stan?”
“No,” I said. I pointed a finger at Stan. “And if I wake up on a table being carved up like a Thanks-giving turkey again, I’ll kill you.”
A chair scooted back and Linda popped up, her death stare aimed at me. Her mouth opened, but before she could utter a word Patsy held up a hand.
“Sit down and stick a cork in it.” She pointed at Stan and Linda. Stan looked embarrassed, but Linda’s expression was pure pissed-off. They both sat down. “Libby is our reluctant guest, and I don’t blame her for not wanting to get poked and prodded.
“Problem is, we drained Patrick dry as dust and refilled him with fresh donor blood. He’s still not doing well, which means neither is Jess. If Libby’s blood is poisonous to vampires, we need to know for sure. Then we need to figure out how to counteract it.”
Murmurs of agreement rumbled from the others. I hated the idea that my blood might be poisonous. It was a terrible thing to know that trying to make up for one mistake only made everything worse.
Ralph squeezed my hand and I looked into his reassuring gaze. He was boyishly handsome, his blue eyes as warm as a spring day. I drew strength from him. He smiled and the mere curve of his lips sent my pulse racing.
“Libby, my name is Eva O’Halloran. I’m the schoolteacher,” said a soft female voice. The woman was pretty, with dark hair and kind eyes. She sat close to Lorcan, whose arm was around her shoulders. His silver eyes regarded me with suspicion.
She asked, “Is your mother Theodora Maribelle Monroe?”
“Yes,” I said. “How did you know that?” My stomach clenched. How did they know my parents? Were they in jeopardy?
“My husband and I run the library, too. Is your mother the one who wrote Werewolves Are Real!”
Ah. They knew Mom was an author. I relaxed a little.
“Yes, and she also wrote Vampires Are Real! Ghosts Are Real! Bigfoot Is Real! and so on,” I said. My mother owned and operated Liberty Press (yes, named after me, ack!), so she published her work whenever she liked. She employed professional editors, printers, and cover artists. Her books had even hit a few independent bookstores’ bestseller lists. She had a cult following in some parts of the country.
“Don’t forget Aliens Are Real!” said Stan.
“Ah,” said Eva. “I haven’t read that one.” She turned to Patsy. “Maybe we should invite Mr. and Mrs. Monroe to Broken Heart. They may be a valuable resource.”
“We’ve been compromised enough. Bringing paranormal investigators to the town is unwise,” advised Gabriel.
No kidding. I needed to know if my parents were all right and I desperately wanted to let them know I was okay, too.
Patsy leaned toward Gabriel. They had a whispered conversation. Everyone else tried not to look at me. I wanted to click my heels three times and wish myself out of here. There’s no place like home, there’s no place like—
“Libby,” Patsy finally said. I looked up, my heart kicking into overdrive. Ralph squeezed my hand again. “Would you please consider giving the samples Stan needs to conduct further testing? The lives of our two friends may well depend on the results.”
“I have a choice?” I asked suspiciously.
She nodded.
“And if I say no?”
“Then no one will touch you.” She gave Stan a significant look. He flinched.
Naturally, all eyes were drawn to me again, and I felt the weight of those stares. I looked at Ralph, wishing I could to talk to him. He really was my only ally; I wondered if he could be more than that. Ralph waited patiently, his gaze telling me what his lips couldn’t. He supported me. He thought I was worthwhile. He wanted what was best for me.
Well, at least that’s what I imagined he was thinking. He kept a firm grip on my hand, and nodded at me. He was still smiling, and just knowing he was in my corner made me feel like everything was going to be okay.
“I hurt Patrick unintentionally,” I said carefully. “I didn’t think about my actions, and for that I’m sorry. I don’t know if I am responsible for Patrick’s condition. I mean, the whole thing is hard to believe.” I inhaled a deep breath and nearly squeezed Ralph’s hand right off. “If the key to saving Patrick and Jessica is locked inside my DNA, then yes, I’ll submit to more tests.”
Patsy smiled, and I felt like a student who’d gotten the teacher’s approval.
“I have only two conditions,” I said, regretting that my words made her smile disappear. I really wanted to stay on the good side of the queen.
“All right,” said Patsy. Her tone was cautious. “What do you want?”
“I want to call my parents. They need to know I’m all right.”
Patsy nodded. “I’ll allow it, but you can’t tell them about us. And you have to make sure they don’t come to Broken Heart.”
God. What would they do if they knew my parents had already been wandering around? I didn’t want to think about it.
“And the second condition?”
“I want an advocate. Someone who will look out for my interests. And I want this person to stay with me during the testing.”
“You’re telling us you want a lawyer?” drawled Patsy. She was amused by my request. Well, my request might be funny to her, but she was sitting at the head of the table, loved, protected, and honored. I was the bug crawling under everyone else’s raised shoes. I knew very well what my fate might be once my usefulness had ended.
“I don’t care what his or her profession is,” I countered. “I want someone who gives a damn about what happens to me.”
Patsy looked as though she’d been slapped, and I was glad. I cast my gaze around the table. “I’m not important to any of you. I’m just a . . . a nuisance. Everyone here could swat me like a buzzing fly and think no more about it.”
“I see your point,” said Patsy, her voice quieting the murmurs of protest. “We value life, Libby, though we may have infringed on yours. I assure we have no intention of killing you.”
I guess I should’ve felt relieved, but words were not actions. I didn’t trust them. “Can I have an advocate?”
“I’m reluctant to bring in outsiders,” she said. “I
s there no one here you would consider your advocate?”
My gaze went immediately to Ralph. I wanted him to be my champion. In so many ways, he already was. I didn’t want to think of him as my warden anymore.
He looked at me for a long time, his gaze offering me no clue to his thoughts. Then he turned to Patsy and said, “I’ll do it. I’ll be Libby’s advocate.”
Chapter 13
Ralph took me into the foyer and handed me a cell phone. “It’s disposable. And untraceable.”
“You guys are really paranoid.”
“For good reason.”
I took the phone and flipped it open.
“Keep it short,” he reminded me.
“I know,” I said. It wasn’t like I hadn’t just been told the forty-two or so rules about making this call. “I only tell them I’m okay and I’ll be in touch soon.” I glanced at him. “I will, won’t I?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll make sure of it.”
His confidence made me feel better. I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out here, but at least the Consortium wanted to keep me alive. We had that goal in common.
I dialed my mother’s cell phone number. It went immediately to voice mail. Not good. Mom always answered her phone. She never wanted to miss the one tip that might bag us something supernatural. I didn’t leave a message because I didn’t want it to count as my phone call.
“She’s not picking up. I’ll try my father.”
I had a choice. Dial my dad’s cell and hope he answered. Or call Braddock Hayes, PRIS team leader, who was in Texas on another case. He’d joined us about ten years ago, not long after we lost Stan at the nightwalker farm. Brady was a former employee of a government agency he never named. He brought with him black-bag skills and technology that seemed plucked from the latest science fiction novels. He usually ran things from the command center, but he also had created and trained an elite team of investigators who took on the more covert operations. Truth be told, he intimidated the hell out of me.
The pit of my stomach felt hollow. What if Mom and Dad weren’t all right? Worry gnawed at me, but I was still reluctant to tell Ralph or his friends that my parents might be in trouble.
“Everything okay?” asked Ralph.
“Yeah.” I punched numbers into the phone. “I’m going to try one more time.” The phone started ringing. I scowled at Ralph. “Do you mind?”
Regret passed over his face. “Sorry, Libby.”
“I get it. You have to make sure I don’t violate Patsy’s rules.” I was disappointed, though. Not only because he didn’t trust me, but also because he had good reason not to. I wanted someone at PRIS to know where I was and rescue me. But mostly, I wanted confirmation my parents were alive and well.
“Hayes.” My eyes welled up upon my hearing a familiar voice. It wasn’t Mom or Dad, but I’d take what I could get.
“Hi, Dad,” I said, turning away from Ralph. I tried to keep my breathing even while I concentrated on keeping my heart rate steady. I didn’t need my human reactions giving away my deception to the vampire.
“Liberty. Stats,” he said.
That was Brady for you, all business. I knew he’d go with the lie immediately and would also know something wasn’t on the up and up. We had member-protection protocols, which had been developed and implemented by Brady. Mom and Dad’s loose style of running PRIS had tightened up considerably thanks to Brady. No one wanted to lose another member of our team, not like we had lost Stan.
“Is Mom around?” I asked. “I couldn’t get her on the phone.”
“Your mother’s out shopping. Her cell’s been acting up.” He was saying my parents hadn’t checked in or returned. Same as me. “When are you coming back, pumpkin?”
Oh, please. Brady trying to be affectionate was like Simon Cowell trying to give a compliment.
“I’m doing research and decided to hang out for a while.” I swallowed the knot in my throat.
“In Broken Heart?”
“Claremore. Broken Heart was a bust.” We used this phrase to confirm the opposite. Now Brady knew where I was and that there was lots of interesting stuff here.
“Your mom will probably want to call you back. Is your cell still giving you problems?”
“Yeah. Reception out here is really bad. Had to use a pay phone.” I’d just told him my communication options were limited.
“I see.” He paused. “Do you need anything?”
Despite my efforts to stay calm, my heart skipped a beat and my stomach squeezed. He’d asked the question we used as code for: Do you need help? Here was the part when I let him know my status.
“I’d love some chocolate.”
“You and your truffles,” he said, laughing. God, he was good at deception. “Dark, milk, or white?”
More code words. Dark meant I needed immediate assistance. Milk indicated I was safe for now, but I wanted backup. If I said white, then he would know I wasn’t in danger, just being cautious, and would be in touch in twenty-four hours.
“You know milk chocolate is my favorite,” I responded. He was in Houston, about ten hours away. I knew Brady would drive because getting his gizmos through airport security was impossible. Plus, he was strangely paranoid about the Transportation Security Administration.
We said good-bye. I shouldn’t have felt guilty for telling Brady to come to Broken Heart. But I was scared. I didn’t know what was happening to me—all the weird stuff with fire and the near obsessive attraction to Ralph. I didn’t know how long the queen and her cronies planned to keep me. But most of all, I didn’t know what had happened to my parents. I needed to know they were okay.
PRIS was my family. And they were coming to rescue me.
In Ralph’s Honda, we followed Stan’s minivan to a big, white RV parked in a vacant, well-lit parking lot. An old basketball court was a few yards away from a razed area. Soccer goals occupied the far end of the field.
“Used to be the high school,” said Ralph as we got out of the car. He took my hand, which so gave me the warm fuzzies, as he led me to the edge of the blacktop. We stared at the place where the building once stood. “It got blown up last summer.”
“Seems to be a lot of that going around.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m not sure how safe it is for the grown-ups, much less our kids. The children attend school in the compound now, which is at least semisafe.”
“Eva’s their only teacher?” I asked.
“Yes. We don’t have a lot of students. The Consortium built the compound for its headquarters, but it turned out to be the only secure place in town. Patsy’s been dismantling the wall around it and trying to get the residents to use the businesses and homes again.
“That was the whole reason the Consortium came here, to create a community for parakind to live and work. It would be nice to live in a town where the other residents understood each other’s natures.”
“I think that’s the hope in every town,” I said. “It’s a great idea, though. I never thought about how difficult it would be for paranormal beings to hide in the world of humans.”
“Yeah. If only the bad guys didn’t drop by every couple of months to cause hell for us.” He sighed as he turned to look at me. “I think I’d give almost anything to be human again. I want to have a normal life. I never thought that taking my boys to the park on a sunny day would be something I’d never do again.”
My heart panged for him. I brought his knuckles to my lips and kissed them. He gathered me into his arms and looked down at me. Oh, he was so cute. My whole body seemed to cry, “He’s the one.” I believed it. Sigh. Wasn’t it just my luck that the guy who finally made me tingle in all the right places was dead?
“How did it happen?” I asked. “How did you become a vampire?”
I felt his shudder. He dropped his arms and moved back, his gaze on the field before us. “I had tucked the boys into bed and gone into the living room to study. I was still taking my course
s to become a paramedic. After a while, I needed a breather, so I stepped outside.
“Michael and Stephen had left toys in the front yard. I started picking them up, tossing them on the porch. I heard this noise and turned around. I thought it was Bigfoot. I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing, and it was too late to run. He slammed me against my front door and tore open my neck.
“I remember a lot of pain and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was a vampire.”
“Wait a minute. Bigfoot turned you into a vampire?”
Ralph laughed. “No. The creature was a vampire, but one suffering the side effects of a radical cure for the Taint. He was cured, but he attacked eleven of us, all single parents. Then the Consortium saved us, packed up all the other human residents, and just . . . took over.”
He sounded resentful. I didn’t blame him. I touched his arm, and he took my hand again. His eyes were filled with turmoil. “For the second time in my life, my choice had been taken from me.”
“What was the first time?”
“When I lost Therese. She got a headache. I gave her some Advil, rubbed her shoulders. She went to lie down and never woke up.” His voice was tender and I realized he must’ve loved her very much. “An aneurysm. She was gone before the ambulance arrived. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was tell my sons their mother was never coming home.”
I hadn’t yet faced a moment when someone else’s decision had fundamentally affected my life.
I froze.
What was I thinking? That’s exactly what had happened to me. The dragon had kissed me and gave me fire magic. Patsy and her minions had taken away my choices, too. And I had been affected deeply. But something wonderful had come out of it: Ralph.
“Libby?” called Stan.
We turned around. Stan waited by the door of the RV. He had asked his wife not to accompany us, probably thinking she’d figure out a way to claw out my eyes. I didn’t really expect her to be grateful I’d dug her husband out of the rocks, but still, you’d think she wouldn’t be so . . . ferocious. In an odd way, I admired her loyalty; I wondered what it would be like to be loved by someone that much.
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