by Dyan Chick
This was going to be harder than I thought.
I finally found a station playing something that wasn't country and I turned it up as loud as my speakers could handle. I needed some loud rock to shut off the thoughts swimming in my mind. Yelling along to the music, I managed a good half hour of not thinking about Jason before the signal died.
Deciding it was a good time to stop for a break, anyway, I pulled off at a gas station attached to a truck stop. I was still about two hours away from any major city and even though I knew civilization was nearby, the truck stop screamed middle of nowhere more than the endless fields of grass.
Only one lone semi was parked in the expansive parking lot and no other cars were in sight. A strange itching sensation crawled up my spine, but I ignored it and parked the car.
Nobody here was looking for me. And nobody would be able to tell what was in my trunk. Even if a supe with extra sensory smell came by, they'd likely ignore it if they weren't a cop. And there were no signs of law enforcement here.
I stepped out of the car and stretched before closing my door and locking it behind me. My purse was across my chest and I held my keys in my hand. Another nagging feeling of dread skittered across my skin. I paused, staring at the glass door of the store. Why was I feeling so off here?
The bell on the door rang as a man in a baseball cap walked through. He pulled a cigarette out of a pack and lit up as soon as the door closed behind him.
The man barely paused to acknowledge me as he passed me. Keeping his attention focused ahead of him. I turned to watch him climb into his truck. He didn't seem to care who I was or why I was here.
Shaking off the feeling as paranoia due to the fact that a corpse was currently occupying my trunk, I walked forward. Cold air hit me like a blast of winter as I walked into the convenience store. Shivering, I looked over at the cashier.
He was hunched over his phone, tapping the screen. "Welcome to the Get 'en Lube." He didn't even look up when he spoke.
"Thanks," I said, feeling like I should respond. Quickly, I grabbed a bag of licorice and a bottle of water.
When I dropped them on the counter, the cashier tore his gaze away from his phone and I could see he was texting someone. Girlfriend, maybe?
He grabbed the two items and rang them up.
I held out a five dollar bill and he reached for it, showing the bare skin on his forearms. He had an unusual tattoo, a symbol that looked vaguely Egyptian. "Nice ink. What is it?"
He took the cash and quickly made change. "Just a cool design the guy at the shop had on his wall."
The creeping sensation returned. Time to go. Ignoring three warnings from your intuition was a bad idea. "Good choice."
Taking the change, I bolted to my car, not letting out a breath until I locked the door behind me.
There was something super odd about this place. And about that tattoo. But it wasn't my business and I was in no place to judge. Creepy tattoo. Creepy gas station. Girl with dead body in the trunk. Yeah, if anyone was the scary one here, it was probably me.
Six
Jason
My jaw tensed as I stopped at the gate. Draven and his minions knew I was coming, but they were going to make me stare into the video camera like a common thug.
"Draven, let me in," I said.
The camera whirred as it swiveled to focus on me. I frowned, not even attempting to show a polite expression. Draven and his cronies were not my favorite and they all knew it. Add in the fact that he demanded a meeting with me on his turf and I was ready to pummel the lot of them. The fucker knew I could take him. Especially in daylight. That was the only reason I agreed to the meeting. There was some sense of fair play being contributed since it was being held during the daytime, my time.
The gate opened and I pulled ahead slowly, still fuming about the idea of meeting with a group of bloodsuckers at all. If it weren't for the declining business and the dead hooker in the bathroom of my new casino, I would have turned them down. I knew a shakedown when I saw one. They were killing my business. Literally. Which meant they wanted something from me. I just didn't know what it was.
They knew my pack owned this town when they bought the castle-like mansion right outside the town line. And for the last two years, they'd stayed out of business. The dead tourists was a new trend and it needed to stop.
I parked the car in the driveway and grabbed the vial of liquid silver I'd brought from the cup holder. Silver was toxic to all supernatural creatures except the Fae. It could hurt me just as much as them, but I had no problem going down if I took some of those demon blood bags with me. God, I hated vampires.
My hair blew in the wind, whipping across my face. I tucked it behind my ears and quickened my pace up the long pathway that led to the oversized front doors.
Hands in fists, I took a deep breath in through my nose, trying to quell my already rising temper. Just like all werewolves, I had a tendency to go from zero to sixty in a second. If they meant well during this meeting, which I truly doubted, I had to keep my cool. If not, I wasn't above breaking our agreement and tossing some of the fanged fuckers out into the sunlight. With one more breath, I knocked on the door.
The wind blew through the pine trees, filling the silence with a quiet rattle that resembled rain. Something skittered across the ground, drawing my attention away from the door. Two fat rabbits raced through the underbrush, scurrying into a hole at the base of an ancient pine. My brow furrowed. I was used to seeing no life around vampire nests. Human or animal. The bastards were usually insatiable and would eat anything that crossed their paths. If there were still rodents living here after two years, it meant they might be going elsewhere for their dinner.
I frowned again, recalling the bloodless woman who'd been black bagged and rolled through my casino. The loss of business from the incident was making this month's mortgage payment difficult to scrape up.
The door swung open and a petite girl with cropped pink hair and slightly pointed ears answered the door. "Hello, Mr. Clayton. We've been expecting you. Won't you please come in?"
I eyed her suspiciously as I entered the house. I was used to seeing humans used as daytime guards. Sometimes even the occasional werewolf or other shifter. A sprite wasn't typical. They didn't often leave the Fae realm.
I walked into a dark entryway, lit by candles that covered every flat surface. A tall table near the front door had about twenty flickering candles alone. It was very dramatic and also one hell of a fire hazard. I supposed they didn't worry about that. If the house burned down, they'd just hide in the rubble until the sun set and crawl out like the cockroaches they were.
On principal, I didn't trust any of the supes who were immortal. Shifters could live long lives, it wasn't unheard of to live two or three human lifetimes, but we had weaknesses. Vampires were already dead. I masked a shiver at the thought. They grossed me out to be honest.
Draven swept into the room, looking every bit the stereotypical vampire in a black suit with black shirt and tie. His light brown hair was slicked back into a tail on the back of his head. Someone told me he was turned in the early eighteenth century, which meant he was very out of his element here. "You're late, Mr. Clayton. I don't like to be kept waiting."
"And I don't like being forced into a meeting I didn't want in the first place," I shot back.
Draven cocked his head to the side and smiled enough for me to see his fangs. "Touché, Mr. Clayton. But I think you'll change your tune after you hear what I have to say."
"Don't count on it, Draven. You know how I feel about your lifestyle."
"Really, Mr. Clayton, Jason, may I call you Jason?" he asked.
"Call me what you like as long as we get this over with," I said.
"Well, Jason, I think you've been misinformed about my coven." Draven swept his arms toward a candlelit sitting room to the right of the entry way.
"What makes you different from the other murderous blood suckers I've met and disposed of?" I asked, letting
the words sink in.
Draven's lips tightened and I could tell I'd made him uncomfortable. Good. I wasn't here to make friends. With luck, he'd feel unwelcome enough to leave. Who ever heard of a vampire living so close to the sun? Our altitude and nearly year round sunshine were one of the reasons we lived here. Usually kept the blood suckers away. I resisted the urge to smile.
"We never kill our food, if that's what you're asking," Draven said. "I can introduce you to our willing donors if you'd like."
My upper lip curled in disgust. If there was anything I disliked more than vampires, it was the creatures that followed them around, worshiping them as if they were special. They weren't special. They were undead demons. Okay, well, technically not demons. I think I'd rather hang out with demons. At least those guys were upfront about their purpose. "No thanks."
He shrugged, then took a seat on a floral couch that looked like it belonged in someone's great aunt's house. "Suit yourself."
Begrudgingly, I took a seat on the love seat across from him. Another floral print that was part of a matched set. "Look, I am sure you want me here about as much as I want to be here. Can we just get this over with?"
"Whisky?" The perky sprite girl asked as she walked into the room with a decanter and a couple of glasses on a tray.
Draven nodded and she poured him a glass.
"No thanks," I said. "I don't drink while I'm working."
She flashed a toothy smile at me and batted her eyes. "Alright, big guy."
"Draven?" I asked, returning to the conversation at hand.
He took a sip of his whisky then leaned back in the seat, stretching his arm out on the armrest. He looked like a man who always got his way.
I kept my expression impassive, unimpressed by his facade, and waited for him to speak.
Draven took another sip of the whisky, the ice clinking in the glass as he lowered the drink. "I've asked you here because I need a favor."
"And is this how you usually go about asking favors? Demanding meetings with loosely veiled threats?" I asked.
"What threats?" he said, clearly amused. "I simply told you it would behoove you to come to a meeting at my house. And I stand by that. This favor will benefit both of us."
"So you're saying the dead girl in the bathroom at my casino the night before your call wasn't your handiwork?"
Draven's brow furrowed. "What dead girl?"
"Cops said she was a working girl from the city, not a local. But it was obvious she was emptied," I said.
The creases in Draven's brow deepened. "I can assure you, none of my coven would do such a thing. We don't kill our food. It's against vampire law and as a member of the high council, I am sworn to uphold the law."
"So there's a rouge vampire out there killing random women?" My resolve had weakened a bit at his reaction, but I still wasn't convinced it wasn't a member of his household. "Maybe you don't have as strong of a grasp on your guys as you think you do."
"The same could be said for you, my friend," Draven said.
"We're not friends." The words came out in a growl.
Draven put a hand up in mock surrender. "Fine, strictly business, then. But before we proceed, let me assure you, if any of my people are to blame, they will be punished."
"Good enough," I said. "For now. But if I find another vamp victim in my town, I'm going to come back with some of my brothers."
"That's fair," Draven said. "With your permission, and as a show of my good faith, I'd like to send a patrol to your town for the next few nights to keep an eye on things."
"Your kind are welcome in town as long as they don't feed, you know that," I said.
He nodded.
I glanced at the clock on my cell phone. "I've got ten more minutes, Draven. If you have business, get to it."
"It's about your casino. I know you're falling behind in payments and I have a business proposal that will help us both. You keep your business afloat, probably even make enough to pay it off in full. Owner, a free man, debt beholden to none."
"I'm listening," I said.
Seven
Angie
My eyes burned from exhaustion as I turned into the sleepy town of Crescent Falls. It was the middle of summer, which meant tourist season, and even though it was after eight at night, the parking lots were packed.
I slowed down, taking my time down the main road, eyes peeled for drunken idiots who might stumble into the road. An uncomfortable weight rested in the pit of my stomach as all the familiar scenes took me right back to what it had been like to live here. I'd only stayed for a year. It was the shortest time I'd ever lived somewhere, yet, it felt like a homecoming. It was an odd sensation, feeling comfort in the place and dread at seeing the people. The people who lived here made it what it was. They were intertwined with the place. But I'd abandoned all of them when I left.
I swallowed a lump in my throat and turned off of Main into the neighborhood of old Victorian houses that dotted the mountainside. In the height of the gold rush, this town had been thriving. When I'd left, there were only two hundred full time residents and they were in the middle of fighting developers who wanted to build condos and a strip mall on the other end of town. I wondered who had won that battle.
On autopilot, I stopped in front of a green and pink two-story Victorian. The decorative shutters and bright trim were meticulously cared for, though the lawn looked a bit overgrown. I frowned, wondering if that meant that Mason, Jason's dad was in trouble. He’d babied this house, yard and all. It was startling to see it in need of some TLC.
I tapped the steering wheel, fighting the urge to turn the car around and drive until I reached the coast. I could probably drag the body into the ocean, right? And what were the chances a mage would find it and use a spell to link it to me? I mean, the ocean was huge. I'd have a pretty good shot of getting out of this if I did that, right?
Movement caught my eye and I looked in the rearview mirror. My heart raced as I watched the figure move in the near darkness of the residential street. I would know the movement of that body anywhere.
I gripped the wheel and held my breath as I continued to stare at Jason. Was he walking straight to the house or was he coming to investigate the car he didn't recognize?
He paused in front of the door and I could feel the blood rushing from my face. I forgot just how much of an affect he had on me.
Jason tapped on the window. "You going to come in or sit there all night?"
I licked my lips and forced myself to lift my chin and breathe. I had to stay strong. I couldn't let him get to me. No matter how handsome he looked in the moonlight.
As I unbuckled my seatbelt, I reminded myself that I was here on business. Nothing was going to happen between the two of us. It couldn't.
Jason opened the door and I stepped out and found myself standing inches away from him. I could smell the scent of pine and axel grease that was deliciously Jason. I squeezed my thighs together in an attempt to ease the pressure I already felt between my legs. Fuck. Just the smell of him was enough to make me want to forget everything and rip his clothes off right now.
A breeze blew past us, bringing with it a different scent. The unmistakable stench of death coming from the Magnus burrito in my car. I wrinkled my nose.
Jason turned toward the trunk of my car, his lips moving into a frown. "I take it this isn't a social call."
"No," I said. "I'm in trouble."
"And you thought you'd bring your trouble to me?" he said.
"Look, if I had anywhere else to go, I'd be there. But you once told me I could count on you for anything. Does that still stand or were they empty words?" I asked.
He raised his eyebrows. "You want to talk about empty words?"
"Don't start, Jason," I said. "I'm not here to rehash the past. I really just had nowhere else to go."
"Funny, you'd think you had friends lined up to help you after the way you treat them," he said.
The dig hurt. "I deserve that."
&
nbsp; Jason's eyebrows knitted together. "You're not going to argue with me?"
"Not now," I said.
He walked toward the trunk then stopped in front of it. "Then it must be bad. Come on, show me what trouble you brought to my town."
I stood my ground in front of the driver's side door, but I clicked the button to unlock the trunk.
Jason opened it, the light in the back illuminating his face.
I bit down on my lip. He was even more handsome than I remembered. My heart ached to touch him, to ease his pain. But I knew that wasn't going to end well for either of us. We couldn't be together, mating bond or not. It was a miracle that we managed to resist having sex all those months while I lived here. I knew if I let myself get close to him, I wasn't going to be able to resist.
"What the fuck, Angie?" Jason looked up at me. "I mean, I could smell the body, but I didn't really believe it."
And mood gone. "It was an accident."
"Then why didn't you call the cops like a normal person?" He slammed the trunk closed.
"Because he's a member of the Shadow Club and there's no way they'll believe it was an accident."
"You knocked off a Shadow Club mage?" he asked.
"It just sort of happened," I said. "I didn't kill him. Well, not exactly. And I didn't know he was a member of the Shadow Club until it was done."
"Fuck, Angie. This is serious. If they find this, it's not just going to cost you, they'll come after the whole damn town."
My throat tightened and I struggled to find the words to speak. He was right. How had I not thought of that? I pulled my keys out of the pocket I'd shoved them in. "I'll go. I'm sorry I tried to drag you into this."
Jason was next to me, his large hand gripping my upper arm, before I even got my car door open. "Oh no you don't. You don't come back here like this and then run off again. You don't get to do that to me again."