VEX: Valley Enforcers, #1

by Walters, Abi

  “Acacia? Is that you?”

  I came to a dead stop in the hospital hallway. My shoes squeaked along the freshly polished linoleum. “Slug?”

  The person walking towards us sounded like Slug, my former best friend and co-founder of the Montana Supernatural Society, but he definitely didn’t look like him. Simon “Slug” Martin wore chained Tripp pants and ironic tee shirts. He had a terrible soul patch and dyed his blonde shoulder-length hair black every other weekend with my assistance. The man approaching us sported corn colored hair in a perfectly manicured crew cut. His face was freshly shaven. He wore some hipster looking getup composed of a light denim shirt tucked into crisp tan chinos. Some weird ass loafer completed the ensemble. Definitely not Slug of my universe.

  He grinned, revealing blindingly white pearls. “In the flesh. I go by Simon now, though. What are you doing here? I thought you were off in Mexico chasing a chupacabra or something?”

  “My dad is sick, and I wasn’t chasing anything. I went to the mountains to find myself. You know – that’s what all these new age folks are doing. I thought it would be a nice way to get over your betrayal. How’s my club going? And why the hell do you look like a frat boy?”

  “It was never your club, Acacia. Both of our names are on the charter. You abandoned me for three years. What was I supposed to do? You knew we were heading in different creative directions, anyway.” He tilted his head towards Vex. “Looks like you found something in the mountains.”

  “Keep talking, you little prick. It’s going to make punching you a hell of a lot easier,” Vex threatened with a tight voice. He crossed his arms as a warning and his muscles rippled.

  “I have a lawyer on retainer. It probably isn’t in your best interest to do that,” Slug clucked his tongue against his teeth in a disapproving fashion. His eyes were alive with amusement. “You know, the lawyer that was part of my deal with the Discovery Channel for a television show that follows my Supernatural Society as we purge innocent families around the world of evil spirits.” He spread his hands in the air as he spoke, as if he were imagining his name in lights. “Simon Martin: the golden boy ghost hunter.”

  “You always were bad at naming things. It’s funny because you never had trouble making up fucking stories about people’s houses being haunted. No wonder Discovery wants you. You’re a great actor. You’ll really sell all those fake hauntings to the viewers. You turned the society into a joke, Slug. It used to be about breaking into abandoned warehouses and getting real content. You sold yourself for what? A passport and a shirt from Urban Outfitters?”

  “It’s Simon,” He hissed. The lighthearted expression on his face turned to a pissed scowl. “You’re just jealous of my success. I knew all I had to do was cut the dead weight. You were nothing but a burden. I carried you, Acacia. While you were following bullshit news articles and looking for fucking crop circles I was busting my ass to keep our business running.” He laughed humorously. “Look at us now. I have an exclusive contract with a big name company, wealth, fame, and enough paranormal sluts to keep me entertained for the rest of my life. And you? You’re a washed up eco-fucking-terrorist who will never amount to anything –”

  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Vex’s curled fist raise. It was midway between him and Slug before I could lift my hands and cover his angry fist. “Don’t.”

  “Let me beat the shit out of the little douche,” Vex snapped fiercely.

  “That would be really nice to watch, and you know, I’m wearing my steel toes so I’d even love to join in. But if you hit him you’ll probably break his face and go to jail. You’d look hot in an orange jumpsuit, but I’d like to see you more frequently than four hours a month.”

  “I can’t just let him walk away,” Vex said with a pained expression. He looked torn, which only added to Slug’s jubilant aura.

  “Listen to the bitch,” Slug shrilled.

  I tightened my grip on Vex and turned to my former friend with narrow eyes. “Watch your mouth, asshole. I learned a thing or two in Waseca. You think it’s wise to threaten someone who was in federal prison? I can make it so your body is never found.” I lightened my voice and added on a more flippant note. “I also have a whole photo album of you with your pizza face, soul patch, and nasty ass goth kid clothes. I’m sure Discover would love to see those. Or maybe I’ll make a Tumblr and dedicate my blog to unflattering pictures of you.”

  His eyes turned to ice. “Whatever. Have fun with the rest of your life. Don’t cry too hard when you see me on TV living out our dream.”

  It was never our dream. I never wanted fame. Ghost and monster hunting was never about money. When we were young, there weren’t any reality television programs that followed crews around. Horror movies like The Conjuring didn’t exist. The adrenaline rush of hearing branches snap in the woods on a hunt for some unknown cryptid was what drove me. Snapping Polaroid pictures in abandoned mental institutions and gathering evidence of spirits drove me. Not fame or money. When the things that Slug and I had been made fun of for our whole lives hit mainstream we started having problems. I wanted to stick to what we did best, and he wanted to essentially scam people and ‘purge’ their homes of ghosts. So while what he was doing was his dream, it never was mine.

  Slug walked away before Vex could pull himself from my grasp. He yanked himself away from me with ease, leaving me to question if was ever even holding him back in the first place. There was a darkness clouding his obsidian eyes.

  “I wanted to break his jaw. Nobody talks about you that way.” The cords in his neck were visible and tense. Despite all the telltale signs that made Vex appear like he was going to lose control, he seemed relatively cool on the surface. “Rat bastard. God dammit, if we weren’t here to see your dad I’d follow him out there and kick his ass. I’d do more than kick his ass. I’d rip his fucking throat out.”

  I swallowed hard. Despite my appearance and demeanor, I wasn’t a fan of brutish displays. I didn’t actually know how to kill a person or dispose of their body, but I knew Slug was a jerk and would take the bait. Violence usually was a deterrent. So why was Vex’s growling threat such a turn on?

  His nostrils flared and I watched a lump slide down his throat. He took a step towards me. And then another. I was on my way to being corralled against a cold wall in the empty hospital corridor. “I don’t want to meet the rest of your family with a King Kong sized erection. It’s been too long since I’ve had you, Acacia, and I’m dying for another taste. The minute I get you to myself I’m going to do unspeakable things to your body.” He tilted his head down. His lips grazed my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. “But right now I need you to stop thinking naughty things, baby girl, because if you don’t stop I won’t be able to control myself.”

  I loved when he called me baby or sweetheart. The little pet names were rarely spoken and overall generic, but they made me feel so fucking special. Nobody had ever called me ‘baby girl’ before. And the only time a man called me sweetheart was when he was being condescending or forgot my name while we were fucking in an a motel room (the months after I left were dark, dirty, and something I’d like to forget). Vex had lied by omission, but he was never anything but honest with me… or he was just a really great actor. He made me feel like I was a diamond in the rough.

  “Broom closet sex is a no go then?” I joked awkwardly. Though Vex made me feel alive, I was upset about my encounter with Slug. And there was still the fear of losing my dad. He was two floors above me and I was trying to get some stress relieving hanky panky.

  “Don’t tempt me, woman.” He pulled back, but laced our fingers together. “The nurse said the ICU is on the fourth floor. Do you remember what room he’s in? 402?”

  “Something like that. I’m sure we’ll hear my mom.”

  We walked down the hall until we found the elevators and called for the cab. After clearing ourselves at the nurse’s station and finding out that my dad was in fact in room 402, we took the short trip down the
hall. The door was propped open, and I heard chatter the second we left the elevator.

  The room was packed. It took me off guard – almost like I walked into an unwanted surprise party. Instead of streamers and party hats I got to see my dad in a hospital gown, my mom fretting next to him, and all of my siblings leaning against various pieces of furniture.

  “Aiden! James!” I exclaimed at the sight of my brother. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas. He and his partner James didn’t get to visit Montana very often, and though we connected after I got out of Waseca, chatting over Skype or texting wasn’t the same as seeing them in person.

  My brother was a few years younger than me, but when we were younger people always thought we were twins. He didn’t have a body full of tattoos or crazy hair and instead opted for a stylish hairdo and a wardrobe full of tailored pants and fancy shirts; but we still had a striking resemblance. James, whom he had met his first year of graduate school, was tall and thin with perfectly mocha skin and a profile fit for a high fashion runway model. James was only a year away from taking his bar exam. He always had funky socks, and Aiden told me he made the best risotto. He loved vampire dramas, and never missed an opportunity to text me about Vampire Diaries or True Blood. We’d only met a few times in person, but I felt more of a connection to him than I did to Jade’s husband who I’d known nearly a decade.

  “Hey, Cia.” My brother gave me a tight hug. He looked and sounded exhausted. They took a flight from DC to Missoula and then drove the four and a half hours to Miles City. I embraced James next.

  And then I brushed Jade aside and sat on the bed next to my dad. I was expecting him to be hooked up to a thousand machines and be on his deathbed, but besides an IV and a little device on his finger he looked normal. He was smiling, even. I didn’t want to cry, but I felt myself tearing up with relief.

  “None of that. Your mom has cried enough for everyone. Come here, Acacia, and introduce me to your friend.”

  I had completely forgotten about Vex. He was there in the back of my mind, feeding me strength and comfort, but his physical presence slipped my mind. I blushed and looked over at him. He seemed completely out of place in the hospital room, but somehow, he fit into the hodge podge that was my family.

  “This is my boyfriend, Vex,” I announced.

  And he wants me forever. Can you believe it?

  “Boyfriend, huh?” My dad motioned for him to come over. He joked while Vex approached. “You think you can keep up with Acacia? Has she talked your ear off about Bigfoot yet?”

  “I love listening to her talk, sir. I don’t care if it’s about a Sasquatch or if she’s reading me the phonebook,” Vex said with sincerity.

  My dad’s lips curved. Vex had passed some mysterious father test. I never brought boys home, and though I was twenty seven and he was in the hospital after having a serious heart attack, my dad seemed to want to break out the interrogation routine. “Call me Mike, not sir.”

  “I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” Vex commented. He placed a hand on my lower back. “Acacia talks about you a lot. I live on a chunk of land along the Kootenai, and she has told me a lot stories about your hiking and camping trips.”

  “They’re just making a fuss about me,” My dad dismissed, waving his hand in front of his face.

  “You nearly died, Mike!” My mom drew back and gave him an angry look.

  “We nearly die every day and just don’t know about it,” My dad countered with a witty smirk. “Besides, I haven’t seen that new Terminator movie yet. You think I’d kick the bucket before I had a chance to take you out for a fancy meal and then a kickass dose of Arnold?”

  My dad was still my dad. I didn’t understate the seriousness of what happened, but he was sitting up in bed acting like himself. I noticed that if he moved a certain way he’d get a little pinched expression, but for the most part it was the same game he always played.

  There was a quick knock at the open door. A woman in an embroidered lab coat walked in holding a slim file. She looked to be my parent’s age, and unlike most doctors I had encountered, she had kind eyes and a genuine smile. The healthcare field wasn’t muddied or unmotivated, but the professionals were stretched beyond their limits. The doctor could have just started her shift or be a new resident, but she didn’t look drained from long hours and too little coffee.

  There were too many of us in the room, but she didn’t seem to mind the way we bent the rules of visitation. She greeted us with a smile and introduced herself before the medical jargon started flying from her lips.

  “I notice a few new faces here, so I’ll go over what happened again so you can ask me any questions. There are three main arteries in your heart that supply blood and oxygen and all the essential stuff you need to stay alive. One is to the right, and there are two to the left. The left anterior descending artery, or the LAD, is the main artery that supplies the entire front wall of the heart and much of the side with blood. Your father had 99% blockage in his mid-LAD.

  “The term ‘widow maker‘ is often tossed around when people discuss LAD heart attacks because they are so serious. It’s true. The survival rate for blockage in that area is extremely low. The symptoms are like most other heart attacks. Some are severe, others go completely unnoticed. It may seem like a cliché, but if Mike’s secretary hadn’t called an ambulance when she did, he would have died within the hour – if not within a few minutes. We had a crash team waiting when he arrived and we got him straight into the cath lab for an angioplasty and stent placement. Coronary artery stents are little mesh tubes that expand in your artery, and it keeps the artery from closing up again and hopefully it will prevent this from happening again.

  “It will still take us another day or so until we get a full picture of your heart, Mike, and what we really were dealing with. What I can tell you is that it seems that you are more vascular than a lot of men your age, meaning you have more blood carrying capillaries per unit volume of cardiac muscle. You also lead a relatively healthy lifestyle and have no pre-existing medical conditions. All of these are great in terms of recovery.”

  “See, Erin? I told you I’ll be fine,” My dad gripped.

  The doctor looked between my parents. “We’ll be keeping him for a little longer to make sure he’s recovering from the surgery and the attack. Depending on the final reports, he’ll have cardiac rehab for at least two weeks and will undergo a special heart conditioning program we have here at Rosary for heart attack survivors.”

  The doctor, who had introduced herself as Dr. Dane, stayed for a few minutes answering our questions. I learned that there was no reason that he had the heart attack or why he had the blockage. Sometimes a heart attack is brought on by high cholesterol or obesity, and sometimes the universe doesn’t give any explanation or plausible cause. Regardless of why it happened, Dr. Dane seemed confident that my dad would make a steady recovery. She left after that note, having installed enough faith in all of us to allow us to rest easily.

  We listened to my mom drone on about my dad’s dietary habits and exercise patterns for a few minutes. Vex’s arm had been curled around my side the entire time like a security blanket I never knew I needed. It was strange. I had never felt closer to my family than I did in that tiny, sterile hospital room after hearing my dad was going to be okay.

  Vex’s phone started playing a familiar tune and he momentarily stiffened before excusing himself to the hall. I was too wrapped up in a story Aiden was telling to even really pay attention to Vex’s absence; but when he returned moments later with a grave look on his face, my stomach did summersaults.

  “There was another breech. We have to go – I have to go. I’m sorry.”

  “Breech?”

  I looked over at Jade and easily worked my way around the explanation. “Vex works security for a classified group.” I directed my furrowed brows at Vex. “I can’t leave. I just got here. How uh… how serious is it?”

  He nodded towards the hall before giving a rueful goodbye
to my family. “I’m sorry I have to leave like this. It was nice to meet you.” I followed him to the hall and watched as he took his hair down raked through his tangled locks. “Are you staying?”

  “Of course I’m staying,” I huffed.

  Abruptly, he pulled me into his arms and buried his nose in my hair. There was a soft whining noise that didn’t entirely sound human, and when he pulled back, I was struck with the impassioned look he was giving me. “It hurts to think about leaving you here, but I can’t stay. It’s bad, Acacia. There’s footage.” The severity of his words sunk in as he kissed me roughly. Almost like he’d never see me again. His voice grated against my skin. “Promise me you’ll come home. I have so much I need to tell you, and there is never enough fucking time. Just promise me, okay?”

  Home. It sounded right when it came from his lips. There were so many unspoken words between us. In that moment something clicked and I understood what it meant to be Vex’s mate. We shared something that was bigger than the both of us. I nodded my head somberly.

  He kissed me one more time before he disappeared down the hall. I swear, part of my soul went with him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Acacia

  Cradling the paper cup to my chest like a precious gemstone, I watched my feet sway back and forth until they were a blur. Two days had passed since Vex left, and other than a quick text letting me know he made it back to the Valley, I hadn’t heard from him. The first day I was busy catching up with my family and dodging as many Vex related questions that I could. It kept my mind off his absence – off the strange ache in my chest. But sitting alone in a dark hospital room while my dad slept gave me too much time to reflect.