The Accidental Unicorn

by Dakota Cassidy

  “Something like that,” she mumbled, wishing she could, just this once, find her voice. If only to show Nina and Marty she appreciated their belief in her more than they’d ever understand. But instead, she looked down at her worn brown clogs and swallowed hard.

  Nina clucked her tongue as she stepped closer to Vinnie and loomed in Byron’s general direction—because she was great at that menacing, deranged stance where she said absolutely nothing, but you felt sure at any moment she might go ballistic on you and wipe you off the face of the planet—which made Byron blanch, but only for a second before he tried to stand up straight.

  “Who are you, beautiful?” he asked as he appraised Nina with a sly grin, his bleary green eyes roaming over every inch of her lean body with a lascivious gaze.

  Oh, God. This would end poorly for him, they’d be booted out on their keisters, and they’d never get the book at this rate.

  But the vampire simply yawned in his face as though she were bored, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a totally devoid-of-any-emotion stare. “A friend of Vinnie’s.”

  But he wasn’t at all deterred by Nina’s cool response. He continued to outwardly gawk at her, even with a woman at his side, his breath reeking of alcohol. Though honestly, Vinnie couldn’t blame him. Nina was so beautiful, it was almost surreal.

  He smoothed a hand over his tapered blue silk shirt. “Who knew Vinnie had friends that look like you?”

  “Who knew Vinnie had friends your age who still live with their mommy’s and smell like a Jersey dump?” Nina replied, narrowing her gaze until her eyes were but two charcoal slits in her head. She jammed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and waited.

  Now he leaned toward her, the confused blonde still clinging to his waist, clearly unfazed by his bold words and obvious attempts to come on to Nina.

  He shook a finger at her and smiled a crooked smile. “Ah. You’re salty, huh? I like ’em salty.”

  Nina clucked her tongue and cracked her knuckles as she stared at him until Vinnie squirmed uncomfortably. “And I like ’em when they pay their own rent. You know, like a big boy?”

  “Byron?” Dorinda called out, whisking into the room in a swirl of perfume with a maid dressed in full uniform following her in hot pursuit. She latched onto Byron’s arm and gave it an affectionate pat. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m welcoming your guests, Mom,” he said with a lascivious grin at Nina. “Where’ve you been hiding them all this time?”

  Dorinda cleared her throat and smiled briefly. “We were just about to sit down and have some tea, dear. I thought you were on your way out with… Sienna, is it?”

  “Ciara,” the blonde corrected, blowing a strand of her feathery hair from her round blue eyes. “It’s Ciara, and we are on our way out. We’re going to a new club.” She tugged at Byron’s arm and gave him a coy smile. “C’mon, Byron. Let’s go. We’re going to miss the new DJ if we don’t hurry.”

  He looked down at Ciara and tapped the end of her nose with a cheesy grin, flashing his perfectly white teeth. “Okey-doke.” Then he turned to Nina, giving her another lustful gaze. He grabbed her hand and winked before he let it go. “It was really nice meeting you. Hope we see each other again real soon.”

  Byron turned and headed for the door with his mother trailing after him and hissing, “Call an Uber. You’re in no shape to drive.”

  He waved a manicured hand at her and stumbled back out the door as Dorinda approached them again, her eyes a bit sheepish if Vinnie was reading them correctly.

  “Nice kid you got there, Dorinda. Got a bathroom I can use? I have a sudden urge to wash my hand,” Nina said, her words dripping blatant sarcasm as she held up the hand Byron had latched onto.

  Dorinda’s cheeks flushed pink, but she waved to her right and down a long, semi-lit hallway with a bunch of carved-out nooks in the wall that held various sculptures. “Of course. Down the hall and to your left.”

  “So, that tea?” Marty reminded pleasantly.

  “Of course,” Dorinda murmured. “Please, follow me.” She swept deeper into the parlor and pointed to a beautiful settee in teal green and gold chintz.

  As they settled in across from her, Vinnie fought the clammy sweat of her palms, crossing her legs as Mavis, a sweet, elderly woman with kind eyes, poured them tea Vinnie would never be able to drink because her stomach was in an uproar.

  Dorinda looked expectantly down her nose at Vinnie, folding her hands in her lap. “So what can I help you with, Vincenza? I think I told Alice everything I know about unicorns, and that nonsense story I heard at a party so long ago. What more is there?”

  It was obvious Dorinda was agitated. Marty and Nina had called her out and Byron had only doubled down on the idea she wasn’t who she pretended to be. But Vinnie was taking no pleasure in revealing the empress without her clothes, despite her past cruelties.

  Vinnie went into great detail about what she knew of the origins of unicorns, and reminded Dorinda it was a very small amount indeed, asking questions and hoping to take up as much time as she could to stall.

  When Nina appeared at the entryway and held up her phone, an indication she’d gotten what they needed, Vinnie nodded her head and pretended to listen to Dorinda’s answers.

  “Are you sure there’s no truth to it? I’d…I’d like to have at least something a little more detailed to share with my students. Can you remember who was telling the story? It might be fun to have a name to attach to the folklore.”

  “I’m sure there’s no truth to it,” she replied curtly. “I only overheard bits and pieces of the story and it was some time ago. And I don’t remember whom I heard it from. For all I know, they’d had too much to drink and were just carrying on, the way drunks often do.”

  “But you do remember them claiming a unicorn had lost his powers to a troll at the end of a rainbow?”

  She barked a sardonic laugh. “I do, but come now, do you really think it happened? It sounds like something out of a children’s book. I’ve been around for some time, Vincenza, at least as long as your mother. Does she ever remember hearing a story like that?”

  “Well, probably not. I mean, how often was she invited to a party you all attended without horning her way in?” Vinnie blurted out, then fought not to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from showing Dorinda how anxious speaking up had left her.

  Instead, she straightened her spine, hearing Nina’s voice in her head.

  The Goddess squirmed on her throne in clear discomfort. Marty, on the other hand, fought laughter with an obvious snicker.

  Dorinda sucked in her cheeks and sighed. “I still don’t understand why you thought coming here was going to change what I told Alice on the phone, Vincenza.”

  Vinnie shrugged, but for the first time, she smiled. “I guess I hoped something I said might jar your memory, but then, maybe not. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

  Nina entered the room on catlike feet, despite her heavy work boots. “Would ya look at the time? We gotta blow this mausoleum, girlies. Vinnie’s got more friends we’re meeting up with for the rest of girls’ night.”

  Marty instantly rose and stuck her hand out to Dorinda. “It was lovely to meet you, Dorinda. I do hope we run across one another at a function somewhere along the way. In fact, I’m launching a new skin care line at the completion of my company’s merger with my husband’s. I’ll pop an invitation in the mail. It’s perfect for women of a certain age.”

  Dorinda took her hand, but remained silent with a smile that never reached her eyes.

  Vinnie took one last sip of her tea, because Dorinda might be awful, but Mavis made a helluva cup of tea. She tilted the delicate cup in Mavis’s direction, smiling at her sweet round face. “Thanks for the tea and your time, ladies, but Nina’s right. We have to get going. G’night!”

  As they headed toward the door, Vinnie could have sworn she heard Mavis chuckle under her breath.

  Once they’d closed the doors, as the f
rosty wind whipped their hair about their faces and leaves scattered across the driveway, Vinnie was about to turn to them and thank them for making that experience as painless as possible—but what greeted them stopped her cold.

  “What the fuck?” Nina yelled into the wind as Vinnie’s eyes landed on the focus of the vampire’s rage. “Hey! Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  A man—a big man in nothing but a T-shirt, jeans and what looked like a miner’s hat—was in the process of dragging a lifeless Oliver down the driveway toward a dark sedan.

  Chapter 11

  As they all began to run toward him, the man looked up, his eyes filled with fear, Vinnie managed to catch a glimpse of his T-shirt in the lights around the driveway. It read, “I Believe.”

  Her mouth fell open in shock as she tried to keep up with the women, but man, Dorinda’s driveway was long and these women were insanely fast.

  Just as the thump of Nina’s boots almost hit the spot where the man had stopped with poor Oliver, he dropped him and fled on foot down the road.

  “You go after him, Nina!” Marty yelled. “I got Oliver!”

  Vinnie flew to his side, gathering him up as Nina went after the perpetrator who’d abandoned his car in favor of running away. Obviously a poor choice, because if he was human, he’d never get away from Nina and her super-speed.

  But Vinnie was too worried about Oliver and his apparent unconscious condition to fret long over Nina. She patted his cheek, pulling his head to her lap. “Oliver! Oliver, wake up!”

  As the wind tore through her light sweater and stung her cheeks, she tried to haul him upward, to no avail, but then Marty was there in a swirl of perfume and blonde hair.

  She grabbed one of his big arms and in one fell swoop, she hauled his enormous body over her shoulder like a weight lifter hefted a barbell.

  And she did it all in heels.

  Wow.

  “Help me get him in the car, Vinnie!” she yelled on a grunt as Vinnie ran for the SUV’s back door and yanked it open.

  She ran around to the other side and opened the other door to climb in so Marty could lay him across her lap. Marty dropped him like a sack of potatoes and flew to the driver’s side, hopping in and revving the engine.

  Caressing his face with her palm, running her fingers over his smooth skin and trying to avoid his horn, Vinnie tried to jar him. “Oliver, wake up!” she cried—and that’s when she saw the half-filled needle.

  She gasped as she looked at the syringe. Her eyes went wide in horror. “He has a needle in his neck, Marty!” Vinnie grabbed it and held it up, catching Marty’s eyes in the SUV’s rearview mirror. “It’s still got something in it. It doesn’t look like he used the full dose.”

  “Shit! That maniac must have tranquilized him. Hang on, Vinnie, I’m going to try to catch up with Nina!”

  But it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. Nina banged her knuckles on the passenger-side window, motioning to Marty to open it.

  “What’s the hell’s going on?” Marty roared to her friend, her face angry.

  Vinnie’s heart slammed against her ribs, fear for Oliver’s health her first concern, but then he groaned and stirred. “Oliver,” she whispered. “Are you all right?”

  As the wind blew into the car, Nina held up the man she’d chased down by the scruff of his neck—and by no means was he diminutive in size—with one freakin’ hand. She gave him a shake, his head falling back on his neck from the motion. “This is what’s going on. This motherfucker is from one of those crazy-ass groups who chase down shit like Bigfoot and the Lochness Monster.”

  Vinnie inhaled sharply as Oliver tried to sit up, but she patted his jaw. “Stay put,” she whispered, pulling her sweater over his forehead.

  “How do you know?” Marty asked in disgust.

  Nina used her other hand to dig a phone from her hoodie and hold it up. “Because his home screen says so.”

  Vinni squinted to read the phone with a colorful picture of an alien on it. The site was called Hit or Myth, and it claimed to be in pursuit of the truth of all mythical creatures.

  Oh, Jesus. Her stomach dropped to the floor.

  “So what do we do with him?” Marty asked.

  “Pop the back. I’ll throw him in there and sit with him until we can take him somewhere to find out how he fucking found us. He’s passed out for now. I tackled him about a quarter of the way down the road, knocked his loser ass out cold. I don’t think anyone saw me, but he won’t stay this way for long, Marty. Either way…goddammit. Goddammit. God-fucking-dammit! I want to choke this freak out for making me do this, but I had no choice. He wouldn’t slow his fucking roll—even with a damn warning.”

  Marty popped the back of the SUV. The thump of a body and Nina’s pale face as she climbed in beside him made Vinnie’s heart skip a beat.

  What other reason could he have shown up here than he was hunting Oliver? Had he seen Oliver’s horn? How had he found out about him? They’d all been so careful. Had Dorinda said something to someone about unicorns? And if she did, how could anyone have possibly known it had to do with a real unicorn? Shit, this was horrible.

  Panic seized her gut, her mouth going dry, her hands clammy. A panic attack was sure to follow, but Oliver must have sensed something, because he grabbed her hand as he fought to sit up, his words groggy.

  “It’s okay, Vinnie. We’ll figure this out,” he soothed as he settled beside her. “Don’t think about this; think about finding the calm in you. Take deep breaths and listen to me. This feeling won’t last forever. It’s just for now. I promise.”

  Just as her heart had begun to race—and it felt more like she was having a heart attack than a panic attack—it slowed at Oliver’s words. Logically, she knew she wasn’t having a heart attack, her therapist had taught her that, but hearing his soothing words made her cling to the notion.

  “What are we going to do about this joker’s car?” Marty asked as she looked at the end of the driveway in her rearview mirror, preparing to leave.

  “Leave it. Let the fucking neighborhood association have it towed. Maybe that fuck Byron, whose soul smells like rotting dead bodies under the Texas sun in July, can take care of it. Or I’ll send Darnell out to deal with it. We’ll find out who the fuck he is and how he found out about us, and then I’ll wipe his fucking memory. I’ll drop him somewhere safe like a hospital or a police station.”

  Oliver blinked as Marty hauled ass out of the driveway. “You can wipe someone’s memory?”

  Nina thumped him on the shoulder and grinned her beautiful grin. “If I need to. We don’t do it often because dumb-ass vampire rules and all that shit, but it can be done.”

  Oliver craned his head around and looked at Nina. “I think I said this earlier, but I maintain, you’re one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met.”

  The vampire’s nostrils flared. “Yeah. I hear that a lot.”

  “It’s usually just before she hears what a bitch she is, but she does hear it a lot,” Marty said on a chuckle.

  Oliver laughed with a nod. “I’m shocked anyone would say that about you, Nina,” he teased, his voice husky. “Positively, utterly shocked.”

  Vinnie held up the syringe she’d pulled from Oliver’s neck. “So what happened while we were in there? And what is this?”

  His hand flew to his neck, his eyes wide. “Did he sedate me?”

  Vinnie eyed the syringe, still half full. “That’s what it looks like, because you were passed out cold and he was dragging you down the driveway. But it doesn’t look like he used it all. It does mean he came prepared. So what happened?”

  “You guys were in talking to that Dorinda, and I was hunkered down here in the car waiting. I heard someone pull up, thought it might be the guy who was here earlier with the blonde. I looked out the window and the next thing I know, this guy’s pulling the door open and jabbing something sharp in my neck. No warning, no how do ya do, just bam. That’s the last thing I remember. But that aside, do we kno
w who he is and what he wanted with me?”

  Nina rasped a sigh. “Never should have let you talk us into bringing you.”

  “You’re sure you’ve never seen him before?” Marty asked.

  Oliver shook his head. “Never in my life.”

  Nina held up the man’s phone and tapped it with a finger. “His name’s Mikey Stillman, and he runs a website called Hit or Myth, for people who hunt mythical fucking creatures. He’s one of those GD nuts who’s always calling OOPS, talking about exposing us to the world.”

  “Except, he’s not nuts. If he only knew how close he is to the truth,” Marty commented as they flew through the streets of Buffalo toward Oliver’s.

  Oliver dragged a hand through his hair, his face worried. “How the hell did he find out about me?”

  “I dunno,” Nina replied. “But I’m gonna fucking find out.”

  “You won’t hurt him, will you?” Oliver asked, his face full of concern.

  “Do you mean like torture the shit out of him the way he was probably going to torture the shit out of you? Nah. But I will fucking knock him around to get info from his nosy ass if I have to. You’re one of us now, Ollie. None of us can afford to have this motherfucker out there telling people he found a dude with a GD sparkly horn. So I’ll do what I have to in order to protect us and our families.”

  Vinnie gazed at Oliver, her eyes full of worry. “Do you know if he even saw your horn? Your hoodie was still on when he was dragging you down the driveway.”

  Oliver shrugged his wide shoulders. “I have no idea. I had the hoodie on when he knocked on the window. I can’t believe I forgot to lock the damn door, but that’s all I remember.”

  “It doesn’t fucking matter if he saw your horn, dude. I’ll wipe his memory.”

  Yet, as they passed through a small suburb, the lamppost lights whizzing by, Vinnie couldn’t help but wonder out loud.

  “But what if he wrote something down somewhere, Nina? What if he has notes on his computer or wherever?” Vinnie asked, the worry she’d been feeling earlier creeping back into her words. “You can wipe his memory all you like, but if he’s got other research somewhere, or he told someone about what he was going to do tonight, we’re in trouble.”