Tall, Dark & Fangsome ib-5

by Мишель Роуэн

  I smiled at him. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. Give me a hug?”

  He took a step back from me. “For a moment, despite your numerous flaws and issues, I think he was…” He cleared his throat. “Happy is much too large of a word, really. But perhaps… hmm, I’m not really sure. Perhaps not unhappy would be a better way to describe his mood of late.”

  “Please stop. All of these gushing compliments will go to my head. If I hear from Amy I’ll tell her you’re looking for her, okay?”

  He nodded stiffly. “Very well.”

  As I walked away from him, I touched the gold chain I wore—the Carastrand—and thought about what Veronique had said earlier. Maybe she was making it up. Maybe she’d heard wrong or had forgotten the details after so long. If she was right and the magic holding my nightwalker back was a fading thing, then I was going to be in bigger trouble than I already was.

  Gideon said the grimoire was mine if I handed over the Red Devil so he could have a challenging kill to keep his mind off his problems.

  Obviously that was out of the question. Thierry might have pissed me off a lot lately, but I wasn’t selling him out for an easy answer to my issues.

  The eradication wasn’t an option for me because of the memory issue. It was worst-case scenario only, and the kid who’d do it wouldn’t agree to go through with it even if I wanted him to.

  There had to be a third option. I hoped the strand would hold out long enough for me to figure out what it was.

  Too many eggs to juggle at the moment; it was inevitable that some of them would end up broken. The only question was, which ones?

  When I got back to George’s bungalow, there was something on my doorstep I hadn’t been expecting.

  It was pasty, stringy, greasy and it wore a “Death Suck” concert T-shirt.

  The Darkness was waiting for me.

  The Darkness did not look happy.

  Chapter 9

  The Darkness had somebody with him—a middle-aged woman with red hair who had him by his upper arm so tightly that even from a distance it looked painful.

  I walked up the driveway and gave them both a guarded but curious look. How did he even know where I lived?

  “Looking for me?” I asked.

  The woman shook the kid. “Tell her.”

  “Fine. Fine, okay? Geez, Mom, let go of me.”

  She unhanded him. “Don’t make me tell you twice.”

  The kid hissed out a breath and looked at me. “It was wrong of me to take your money yesterday. I’m really sorry. I’ve come to return it to you.”

  After another poke from his mother, the kid extended his hand, which held the thousand-

  dollar retainer from yesterday. I walked up to them, studied them to see if there were any catches or tricks, and then took the money.

  “Thank you.”

  “Whatever. I got another job that pays way better anyhow.”

  “Yippy for you.”

  The kid absently scratched at a pimple on his chin. His pasty gothboy skin was sickly looking under the cloudy skies. Terrific. This was the person I was relying on for my tenuous Plan B? It was a good reminder how desperate I was.

  “Okay, Steven, we need to get going.” His mother’s voice was firm.

  “I have to take a leak. I had that Big Gulp and I can’t make it all the way back home or

  I’m going to explode.”

  “Feel free to use my bathroom,” I said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  They followed me inside. George was sitting on the couch watching TV and he looked over at us.

  Steven’s mother frowned. “We rang the doorbell several times, you know.”

  “Yup, I heard you,” George said. “But your kid makes me jumpy.”

  Steven clutched his lower region, and he looked very uncomfortable. I pointed him in the right direction and he disappeared down the short hallway.

  “I’m very sorry about my son.” The woman extended her hand. “I’m Meredith Kendall.”

  I shook her hand. “It’s not a problem.”

  It was a problem, but I didn’t want to go into any further detail because I had no idea how much she knew about what her son was capable of. Finding out your son was a wizard who practiced black magic was a little higher on the parental panic scale than finding out he smoked cigarettes.

  “This isn’t the first time, you see,” she said. “And it doesn’t always turn out quite so well in the end. There have been… issues.”

  Yeah, I bet.

  “Really,” she continued, “I suppose it should be common sense not to hand over large sums of money to children, but vampires have different morals than the rest of us normal people.”

  Alrighty then. So she knew what I was and wasn’t screaming or whipping out a wooden stake. Except for the veiled insult, that was encouraging.

  “Obviously you’re very savvy about this sort of thing.” I decided to ignore her ignorance instead of educating her about what vampires actually were. There were only so many hours in the day. “How did you find out where I lived?”

  “Steven did a location spell. I allowed the small bit of magic because it is important that he learn his lesson.” She wrung her hands anxiously. “I thought that moving out of the country might curb his interest in the occult, but I don’t think it’s going to be as easy a solution as I’d hoped. He’s beginning to remind me a great deal of his father.”

  “He said his father had passed away,” I said.

  She let out a long, shaky sigh. “Vanquished is the correct term, actually.”

  That made George sit up straight and give us his full attention. “Vanquished? Are you trying to say that his father was a… a… demon?”

  She nodded gravely. “I’m afraid that’s where Steven is channeling magical ability from—

  the demonic energy that already exists within him. That’s why we’re moving.”

  “You’re moving out of the country so—”

  “So his father can’t find us again. He wants joint custody.” Her expression soured. “Over my dead body. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my darling son from that jerk.”

  “I can’t imagine having a demon for a dad would be a good thing,” George said. “For one thing, the commute between Toronto and hell during rush hour would be… well, hell.”

  “It’s got nothing to do with his being a demon. The creep cheated on me when we were together and I want him to suffer eternally.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “Sending him back to hell wasn’t a good enough punishment, in my opinion.”

  I heard the toilet flush, and a few moments later, Steven rejoined us. I looked at him a bit differently now.

  Demon spawn.

  I was seriously going back to church. ASAP. And not just for Easter and Christmas.

  “Steven, let’s go,” his mother said sharply. “We have more packing to do.”

  I opened the door for them. Meredith went out first with barely a glance at me. Steven paused and extended his hand.

  That seemed rather polite, considering how ornery he’d been in the past. I took it to be a good sign and hoped very much that he’d washed up after using the facilities.

  I shook his hand. I wouldn’t have minded talking to him in private about my eradication options, demonic or otherwise. “When did you say you were leaving for Germany, again?”

  He didn’t answer me. His hand was cool to the touch and his grip tightened so much that it hurt.

  I grimaced. “Hey, you can let go of me now.”

  Steven raised his gaze to mine, and I couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. His eyes had turned red again—dark red with no whites showing.

  “Let go of the nice vampire lady,” his mother snapped. “Now.”

  “We’re close to the end now,” Steven said. “And if you don’t step aside when the blood begins to flow it will devour you whole.”

  His voice didn’t sound like a teenager’s at that moment; it was deeper and raspier and f
illed with darkness.

  “Let go of me,” I managed. My fingers were turning white.

  But he didn’t let go. He grasped my other wrist, his gaze fixed on my own. “You should have died long ago—immediately after you were sired. But fate shifted that night.”

  I didn’t think it was Steven who was doing the talking anymore—it was a demon. Just an educated guess. Cold fear slithered through me.

  “Uh,” George approached us. “What exactly is going on here?”

  Steven narrowed his red eyes at George, who staggered out of the door as if he had been shoved by a large, invisible hand. He now stood beside Steven’s mother on the front step.

  Then the door slammed shut.

  “Okay—” My heart rate was going twice as fast as normal. “Party’s over. You can leave now and there won’t be any problems.”

  The demon currently hanging out inside Steven tilted his head to the side as he studied me with those freaky eyeballs. “You cause nothing but problems, vampire. The fact that you still exist is a problem.”

  “You’re actually not the first one to say that. You don’t know somebody named Barry by any chance, do you?” I tried to keep the tremor from my voice but was failing miserably.

  The demon brought his face close to mine, and he sniffed along my neck. “Your blood runs thick with power. I don’t think I like that.”

  “You and me both.”

  “A witch has touched you. She left a trace of her magic on your skin.”

  “You make it sound way sexier than it was.”

  His red eyes went to my gold chain. “Such a tentative hold you have on the eternal darkness inside you. Perhaps it would be easier for you if you simply embraced your true nature.”

  I tried my damnedest to pull away from him but he was, not surprisingly, supernaturally strong. “My true nature isn’t being a nightwalker, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Then, in the end, this flimsy object you wear will mean nothing.” He smiled and I felt it chill my insides. “We shall see if darkness or light will be the stronger force for you.”

  “Who are you?” I gasped.

  “Someone with a great interest in the choices you will make.”

  “How about a little hint about what I should do? Pretty please with fire and brimstone on top?”

  “Very well.” The cold smile widened. “He who kills your kind, but gives you diamonds, holds a clue in his hand—a glimpse of a betrayal you would never expect. One has already stepped too close to the flames and your choices will decide if they will burn.”

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, then lowered my voice. “Are you talking about Gideon? Something he holds in his hands? He was burned by hellfire.”

  A smile twisted up the side of his mouth. “His and your destinies are now bound together.”

  “I’m not in love with him. I love Thierry.”

  The demon’s eyes brightened with intensity, and I could have sworn I saw the flicker of flames inside. “Love is not enough to save you.”

  Before I could respond to that, the smile fell away from his pimply face and in the blink of an eye his hands shifted to my throat. He squeezed hard.

  The door pounded as George tried to get back in. I heard Steven’s mother yelling his name.

  I clawed at his hands, trying to get away from him. This wasn’t the grip of somebody who just wanted to give a friendly squeeze. I was strong enough to peel a few of his fingers back until he finally released me completely and I gasped for breath.

  I held a hand to my tender throat. “What are you trying to do?”

  “I’m trying to help.”

  He backhanded me so hard that I spun around and smacked my head against the wall.

  Everything went black.

  The fact that it was only a dream didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy myself.

  After all, the wedding gown I wore was stunning Vera Wang. The full-length shard—an expensive mirror especially meant for vampires—I stood before reflected me from head to designer stiletto.

  “You look gorgeous,” a familiar voice said. I looked to my left to see George. “I didn’t think white was for you, but color me wrong.”

  “It’s off-white. Just like my virtue. And I’m wearing a black bra just to keep everything balanced.”

  He grinned. “Are you ready for your big day?”

  I nodded, finding it hard to not smile. “I’ve been ready for a long time.”

  “Come on, you’ve kept him waiting for a very long time.” George held his arm out for me and I took it. He led me out to a hallway where there was a railing that looked over into the church itself.

  At the front of the church stood Thierry, wearing a tuxedo, and he looked mouth-

  wateringly delicious.

  “Shouldn’t I be down there? I’m going to miss it.”

  George shook his head. “Trust me, it’s way safer up here.”

  Someone was making her way down the aisle—a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a beautiful white gown that matched the one I wore. She glanced over her shoulder and I realized it was… me.

  An odd sensation of dread filled me.

  The other me looked up at where I stood on the balcony. Her eyes were pitch black. Her neck was bare—she wasn’t wearing the gold chain.

  Then the nightwalker dropped her bouquet and grabbed hold of Thierry so she could sink her fangs deeply into his throat. He didn’t even try to fight her. I screamed but no sound came out.

  The masked Red Devil now stood beside me.

  “Why didn’t you try to stop this?” His angry voice was low and raspy. He shook his head with disappointment.

  A glance downstairs showed the nightwalker-me letting Thierry drop heavily to the ground, where his body immediately disintegrated.

  Another groom stepped into his place—it was Gideon. The nightwalker hooked her arm through his and she and Gideon began to recite their vows. I stared down with horror as Gideon kissed nightwalker-me after we were proclaimed husband and wife. He glanced at the balcony and winked at me, smiling wide enough so I could see his brand-new set of fangs.

  “Thank you for everything, Sarah,” he said. “I’m sorry about the mess we made. It couldn’t be helped. But we’re together now. Forever.”

  “I love you, Gideon,” the nightwalker said.

  He kissed his bride and I realized he was now kissing me and I wasn’t doing anything to stop him—in fact, I had my arms around him and was pulling him closer to me.

  Next to where I now stood at the altar with Gideon, the Red Devil was gone as well, the red mask the only sign that he had ever existed. It lay next to the dead bodies of all of my friends.

  I began to scream.

  Chapter 10

  T here was something cold and wet on my head. I slowly opened my eyes to a blast of pain and realized that George held a cool cloth against my forehead. He looked worried.

  “The Darkness totally knocked you out,” he informed me, as if I didn’t already know that tidbit of information.

  I blinked painfully and noticed I was sprawled out on the sofa. “Where did he go?”

  “After he put out your lights he let us back in. He seemed majorly freaked about the whole situation. Him and Mommy Dearest left. Are you okay?”

  I guessed the demon had gone back where he came from. His message, cryptic though it was, had been successfully delivered. I wondered if I should tell George, but decided to say nothing for now. I didn’t know what it meant. Besides, saying anything would mean a bigger explanation about Gideon was required, and I wasn’t prepared to go there.

  George was still dabbing the cold cloth against my forehead, and I pushed his hand away.

  “I had a disturbing dream that you gave me away at my wedding, but my nightwalker killed Thierry and instead married Gi—” I bit my tongue. “Married somebody. I couldn’t see his face.”

  “What was I wearing?” he asked very seriously.

  I tried
to focus on his face. “For a dream, you looked great. Fabulous suit. I’m thinking

  Armani. Dream George has good taste.”

  He nodded. “Nice.”

  I tried to shake off my episode of Touched by a Demon and the subsequent nightmare it launched me into. “I have a lot of dreams about Thierry dying. However, I’m not usually the one to kill him. I hope it wasn’t a prophetic glimpse of the future.”

  He stood up and tossed the soggy cloth on an old newspaper on the coffee table. “Since it was a dream about you two getting married, it was obviously just a figment of your imagination. You two are history, after all. Right?”

  Right. He didn’t know about me and Thierry and I’d prefer to keep it that way. For his own good.

  “By the way,” he continued, “I can’t believe you’re back with Quinn and you never told me a thing. Amy sent me the photographic evidence of your tongue-twister match at the café yesterday. How could you keep this sort of juice from me?”

  “Sorry.” I shrugged. “It’s pretty new news. And you’ve been busy.”

  “I forgive you. Barely.” His bottom lip actually wobbled. “But only because you’re currently nursing a concussion.”

  I studied him for a long moment, trying to ignore the pulsing throb of my rattled brain.

  “Are you actually upset about this or are you just having an emotional day?”

  He sniffed. “I’m fine. Just fine.”

  “You’re acting kind of funny.”

  “Funny strange or funny ha-ha?”

  “Strange.” I touched his arm. “I’m sorry I’ve been obsessed with my own issues, but if there’s something wrong you can tell me. We’re friends.”

  He glanced at me, then moved away from the couch to stand in front of the window. “It’s nothing you have to worry your pretty little brunette head about.”

  I propped myself up on the couch with my elbows. A small wave of dizziness came over me but passed quickly. “I think I know what it is.”

  “You do?”

  I nodded. “It’s me living here. I’ve been mooching off you for far too long and I’m sorry.