Queen of Night

by Emily Goodwin

  “Did you all forget you were in public?” Ruby’s voice comes from a few feet behind us, and I turn from Lucas, seeing her on the sidewalk with an amused look on her face. And then she notices the vampires awkwardly standing to the side, waiting for Lucas to untangle himself from me so they can go get that drink.

  “He has a way of doing that to me,” I laugh and force myself to let go of Lucas. “I though you left with the kids already.”

  “Their parents were able to come at the last minute,” she tells me, still eyeing the vampires. “I’ll get a ride back with Professor Brown…whenever he gets his butt out of the bar. Which, judging by the way he was double-fisting beers, might be a while.”

  Professor Brown has been teaching for years and was “going to retire in the upcoming years” back when I was a student at the Academy. He’s earned those beers.

  “I’m leaving here in just a minute or two,” I tell her. “You can get a ride with me. I’m going to my house to change and then will walk to the…place from my house.” Two baby vamps are standing within earshot. We can’t say anything about the coven or magic in front of them. “Want to come with me?”

  “Sure, as long as you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. Just give me a minute to put the table inside.”

  Ruby smiles. “I’ll text Professor Brown, though I think there’s a good chance his wife will pick him up from the bar in a few hours.”

  I laugh and Lucas kisses me goodbye once more. Ruby and I walk down the block to get to my Jeep.

  “He’s going out with those vampires?” she asks, knowing socializing isn’t really Lucas’s thing.

  “Yeah, I kind of forced his hand. Those are the only two vamps in Thorne Hill, and I thought it could do them some good to hear from another, older vampire who can kind of lay down the law.”

  “That’s a good idea, actually. Those two have been subject to many talks at the Academy.”

  “They have no idea they live in a town of witches, right?” I chuckle.

  “We don’t think so, but they’ve lived peacefully so we don’t want to raise any issues.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  I pull my phone from my purse, texting Kristy to let her know I’ll be at the Covenstead soon. If she’s already there, she won’t get my text, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she stepped out to check for messages.

  “Lucas didn’t seem too happy about going out with those vampires,” Ruby states as we cross the street. “So…vampires don’t always like other vampires?”

  “Not at all,” I tell her. “Just like people don’t necessarily like other people. And Lucas has always kept to himself. Before he turned Eliza into a vampire, I think he was on his own.”

  “He doesn’t talk about his past much?”

  “He will if I ask him, though he’s lived so long it would take quite a while to go over everything.”

  “Hah, good point.”

  We get into my Jeep and I toss my purse in the back. It’s heavier than normal because I might have shoved several handfuls of candy in there before we left.

  “He was captured as a prisoner of war when he was a human and forced to fight in the Colosseum,” I tell her as I start the engine. “And then was turned into a vampire against his will and forced to fight again until he was able to escape.”

  “Shit.” She slowly shakes her head. “I never really think about vampires before they were vampires.”

  “I didn’t either until I met Lucas.” I pull out of the parking spot and slowly go down the road. Now that most of the kids are done with trick-or-treating, the twenty-one and older crowd is coming out and it’s apparent they’ve already been drinking. “I didn’t want to fall in love with him, you know. I tried really hard not to.”

  “I couldn’t understand how you could even look at him without dry-heaving before,” she admits apologetically. “But now that I’ve gotten to know him, I know I’ve looked at all vampires with a jaded point of view.”

  “Overall, I don’t trust vampires,” I reaffirm. “But I see Lucas as so much more than just a vampire. And I won’t try to convince you he’s some innocent, only-drinks-animal-blood type of vampire. He’s done things in the past I don’t even want to think about, but then again, so have I.” I tighten my grip on the steering wheel and clench my jaw. I don’t have time for the guilt and anxiety to wind up inside of me.

  I did what I had to do, and now it’s over. It’s fine. Abby healed and I haven’t seen Lucifer since. It’s going to be fine. Totally fine. It fucking has to be.

  “I’m sure if I was over a thousand years old, I’d have made a mistake or two as well,” Ruby goes on, and it’s really saying something for her. “I don’t ever expect anyone to be perfect, ya know? Just…just don’t be a dick.”

  “That’s pretty much my life’s philosophy. Leave me alone and don’t be a dick and we won’t have any issues.”

  Ruby laughs and I press on the gas, actually going the speed limit now that we’re out of town and away from the drunk people stumbling about.

  “I’m going to run in and change really quick. Feel free to come inside with me,” I tell her when we pull onto my road. We’re still several miles from my house but being out in the country brings me peace right away. I love downtown Thorne Hill, full of quaint, Hallmark-movie vibes, as Abby pointed out just hours ago. But I need my space. My peace and quiet. My—

  “Fuck!” I slam on the brakes, but I’m too late. Whatever ran out in front of us crashes into the car.

  Chapter 15

  “Are you okay?” Ruby’s hand lands on my shoulder. The airbags didn’t go off, but I know I hit something.

  I feel an instant pain in my neck from whiplash, but other than that, I’m fine.

  But I hit something. Something that was tall, tan, and human-ish in shape.

  “Yeah. You?” I scramble to put the Jeep in park.

  “I’m fine. What the hell was that?” Ruby’s eyes are wide. “Shit, it’s coming back!”

  I look up just in time to see a scrapper demon racing toward the Jeep. Blood drips from his head, and its yellowed fangs are bared.

  “Oh, hell no!” Ruby braces herself for impact right as the scrapper hits her door.

  “You picked the wrong night to mess with me,” I say through gritted teeth, undoing my seatbelt. I open the door despite Ruby’s protests and conjure an energy ball. “Hey, fuckface!” I yell, tossing the energy ball up into the air. The scrapper demon lets out a gargled growl and takes off, jumping over my Jeep and denting my hood even more than it already is.

  “Fucker,” I say and throw the energy ball at its chest. It hits and sinks in, burning him from the inside out. The scrapper screeches in pain, stumbling backwards into the weeds on the shoulder of the road, collapsing into a pile of goo.

  Ruby gets out of the car, eyes still wide. “Was that…a…a…”

  “Scrapper demon,” I finish. “Yeah.” I let out a breath and look at the woods next to the road. “And where there’s one, they are usually more.”

  As well as another more powerful demon. Scrappers follow in the wake of higher-level demons, eating their leftovers, which is how they earned the nickname of “scrapper demon.” I do not have fucking time for this.

  The Feast of the Blood Moon is tonight and I’m leaving for Florida in a few days. If there are any fucking demons out there, they’ve got another thing com—

  “Help! Help!” A desperate scream comes from the woods.

  Dammit.

  Conjuring another energy ball, I take off without so much as a second thought. Ruby follows right behind, racing through the overgrown weeds and emerging into the woods. Another scrapper demon is bent over an injured human, and even I can smell the strong scent of blood in the air.

  I throw my hand out, telekinetically throwing the scrapper away from the injured human. It flies backwards, hitting a tree hard and smacking its head against the thick trunk. It falls to the ground, motionless.

  “Oh m
y god,” Ruby pants, seeing the human on the ground, two others are crouched behind him, hiding next to a fallen log. “Are you okay?” She shakes her head as soon as the words tumble out of her mouth, Obviously, this guy isn’t okay.

  “Phone,” I whisper-yell to Ruby. “Do you have your phone.”

  “Um, I, um, yeah.” She’s frazzled but, again, surprises me by how fast she’s able to act under pressure. She pulls her phone from her crossbody bag and turns on the light. She hurries over to the guy on the ground, and I take a quick look at the wound on his leg.

  It’s a bite wound, and it wasn’t the scrapper that did this.

  “We need to get you to a hospital,” Ruby tells him, and the two people hiding slowly lurch forward. “Is anyone else injured?”

  “I…I think we’re okay,” a girl says. Her hands are shaking, and she can’t be any older than sixteen. There are empty beer cans littering the forest floor. We’re not far from the estate, and I wonder if these kids came out here with the intention of sneaking into the abandoned house to party, not realizing it’s been under construction for a few months now.

  Something rustles through the woods behind us, and the scrapper demon on the ground starts to stir.

  “Callie,” Ruby says in a hushed tone.

  “I hear it,” I tell her. “Don’t worry, I got this.” I close my eyes and call for Binx. He’s close enough he can easily hear me, and I’m going to need him to do a quick sweep of the woods. I whirl around, conjuring strings of magic around both my hands.

  The scrapper on the ground starts to get up, making a weird chortling sound, signaling something to the others.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I tell it and throw out my hand, sending a wave of energy to blast into its chest. Instead of sizzling through its thick flesh, the scrapper absorbs the magic, just like they did when the scrappers were getting power boosts from the crack in the Ley line. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. I thought we killed all of you hulked-up motherfuckers.”

  It bounds toward me, and I brace myself, fueling myself with my own powers. I kick it hard in the chest and then send a wave of telekinetic energy at it. It stumbles back and Binx slinks from the dark in shadow form, grabbing the scrapper and twisting its head clean around. The scrapper slumps to the floor and Binx drags it back, taking the body out of sight to be burned later.

  Two more barge forward. There’s only one way to know if they’ve been fueled with power from the Ley line. I throw an energy ball at one, burning the skin right off its shoulder.

  “Finally, something is going my way,” I huff and draw my hand back, conjuring another string of magic. I twirl it around my fingers, and the blue energy starts to take on a reddish hue. I flick both hands forward and fling the strings of energy at the scrappers, wrapping around their throats.

  “Burn,” I sneer, and the strings of energy ignite, burning bright blue. The fire laps around the scrappers, drowning out their screams. It’s over in only a few seconds, and there’s nothing but a pile of ash left in their wake.

  I let my hands fall to my side, heavily exhaling, and mentally communicate with my familiar. Binx doesn’t sense any more scrappers in the nearby woods.

  “They’re gone,” I tell the terrified nons. Ruby is staring at me with a similar look in her eyes, and it dawns on me that I used my angel powers again, somehow merging my energy into hellfire. It’s pretty fucking cool, if you ask me, though being able summon fire from the pits of Hell might not be a good thing.

  Though I stand by the fact I’m nothing like him.

  The girl stands, swaying on her feet. She’s drunk and in shock, which isn’t a good combination. Or maybe it is since being drunk is helping to dull her senses to what just happened.

  “We need to get him to a hospital,” Ruby says again and motions for the other guy to help his injured friend to his feet. “You guys come with us,” she adds quickly, and I’m so glad we’re friends now. She’s getting them away from the scene of the crime, giving us time to clean things up before they start running their mouths, though it’s not like anyone would believe them.

  “Those things,” the guy who didn’t get bitten starts.

  “They won’t attack you again,” I assure him. “They’re gone.”

  “That wasn’t what attacked us,” the girl says, voice shaking. “They…they came after.”

  I look at Ruby, lips parting as my breath leaves in a huff. “Something else attacked you?”

  “It was a werewolf,” the guy with the torn-up leg tells us.

  “There’s no such thing as werewolves,” Ruby spits out, but we all know it’s a weak-ass argument right now after they watched me vanquish scrapper demons with magic right before their eyes.

  “Maybe it was a coyote,” I try.

  “It was a big fucking coyote, then,” Bite Wound says.

  We make it just a few yards when red-and-blue flashing lights come racing down the road. Son of a fucking bitch.

  “Finally,” the girl pants.

  “You already called an ambulance?” Ruby asks.

  “Yeah,” the girl says. I eye Ruby, who’s thinking the same. We need time to question them and then alter their memories. A police car pulls over right by my Jeep and its freshly dented hood. How the hell are we going to get ourselves out of this one?

  The police officer gets out of the car and I recognize him as Officer Maxwell, the same cop who interviewed me after I rescued Danielle and several other people from having their organs harvested the day before my wedding. I’ve had my run-ins with the law before, always in situations I can’t fully explain. That’s what happens when you hunt demons, though.

  Officer Maxwell’s eyes meet mine, and I know he knows who I am right away. Then he sees the bleeding kid and rushes over. Right as he’s about to ask what happened, the lights of the ambulance flash through the night. The ambulance parks next to the cop car, and the EMTs get out, get their gear, and hurry to the kid.

  I step to the side, looking at my poor Jeep. One of the headlights is cracked, the hood is dented, and there’s a smear of blood from where the scrapper hit its head. Shit. I need to come up with a lie and come up with one fast.

  “Ms. Martin?”

  Shit.

  “It’s Mrs. King, now,” I tell Officer Maxwell with a smile.

  “Right. You did say you were getting married the last time I saw you.”

  “The kid’s gonna be okay, right?” I look over at the ambulance. “We’ll just get out of here and let you do your job.”

  “I’m going to need you to stay so I can take a statement.”

  “Of course,” I sigh. Something rustles in the weeds on the side of the road. Officer Maxwell’s hand goes to his gun, and the teenage girl whimpers, clinging to her friend. Binx emerges from the tall grass and trots over, meowing and rubbing his head against my legs.

  “Hi, baby,” I say, picking him up. I lean against the front of my Jeep, trying to surreptitiously wipe the blood off my Jeep.

  “You seem familiar with that cop,” Ruby whispers, coming over.

  “I’ve inconveniently been involved with the aftermath of some weird crimes before. Most recently a high-level demon who had a minion kidnapping and cutting open people.”

  “I heard about that. You saved a bunch of people and put an end to a demon who’d been terrorizing the town for decades.”

  “All in a day’s work,” I say with a shrug.

  “It actually is for you.”

  “Right?” I say with a snort of laughter.

  “You should take a break,” she says and eyes my stomach. “For a few months, at least.”

  “I would if I could,” I tell her. “And I want to, though I have this…this need to go out and fight the things other people can’t. I never understood it before, but knowing who my father is, how he’s God’s warrior or whatever Julian called him…it makes sense now.”

  “It does. He’s the embodiment of good fighting evil, and he’s your dad. I still
can’t wrap my head around—oh shit.”

  The boy who didn’t get bitten is being questioned by Officer Maxwell right now, and he’s pointing at me.

  “And then this thing came out of nowhere! It looked like a person but wasn’t and it didn’t have any clothes on, and Wonder Woman kicked its ass!”

  I almost forgot I’m still in my Halloween costume.

  “What are we going to tell them?” Ruby whispers.

  “We hit a deer. Stopped to look for it. Heard the screams and went to check things out and found the kids drunk with one bleeding. There were no scrappers.”

  “All three saw, and you know how kids are with their phones. Do you think they recorded anything?”

  “I’m hoping no. They got attacked by something before the scrappers. Though I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the kid pulled out his phone while he was being bitten.”

  “Hah. Live-streamed it to Facebook.” She lets out a breath. “We should go check on him.”

  “Okay.” I run my hand over the blood, smearing it instead of wiping it away. Scrapper blood doesn’t look remotely human, at least.

  “Hey,” I say to Bite Wound. “How are you doing?”

  The EMTs are still cleaning and bandaging his wound. He’s definitely going to need stitches.

  “I’ve been better,” the kid answers, eyes glossy.

  “You’re lucky,” I tell him and catch the eye of one of the EMTs. “Coyotes can be brutal.”

  “It was a werewolf. I’m telling you.” Bite Wound winces as his leg is wrapped. “They even said it looks like a dog bite, but a big dog.”

  One of the EMTs—Holly, by her name tag—nods. “It does look like dog bites we’ve seen before. Big dogs.”

  “Have there been any reports of coyotes attacking humans recently?” the other EMT muses. “I haven’t heard of any.”

  That’s because there haven’t been any. Though we can’t rule out a desperate coyote or even a scared dog. But a coyote or dog wouldn’t have eyes that glow yellow.

  “It was a werewolf,” Bite Wound presses. “Maybe even a hellhound.”