by Drew VanDyke
I snorted. “True blood. Lame.”
“I’m not joking.”
“Then suck on someone else!”
It was Shelby’s turn to snort at me. “You want me to go find the nearest mortal, coax him or her into inviting me in after midnight, and without their consent do unto them what you were yesterday calling despicable? Apparently your righteous outrage flies out the window in the face of necessity.”
“Something else is going to fly out the window if you don’t figure out a way to help him!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“I know how to help him, and it will require you to give up some of your vitae.”
“Can’t you just close his wounds?”
Shelby shrugged. “If that’s what you want. That won’t stop the internal bleeding. He has a perforated intestine. I can smell it. In hybrid form, he’s quite resilient, but silver bullets and lycanthropes are as bad a combination as the Fae and cold-worked iron. He won’t heal without help.”
“Silver bullets?”
He nodded.
“Then this wasn’t just some overzealous rancher on a wolf hunt.”
“Did you ever really think that?”
I shook my head. “I guess not.”
“Someone’s poaching on my demesne, Miss Scott, and I intend to find out who.” He ostentatiously checked his pocket watch. “Please decide. I have much to do.”
“Adam?”
Adam lowered his head, his hands on the improvised pressure bandages. “I can’t decide for you, Ash, but…”
“But?”
“But taking a little shouldn’t harm you.”
Ghost Mom abruptly fluttered down the stairs. One foot seemed to catch, and her leg stretched out impossibly as she floated forward. “Oh, dear. Oh, dear.”
“What should I do, Mom?”
“To whom are you speaking?” Shelby asked.
“Shut up, fang,” I replied.
“Wonderful, Mister Scott. You’ve taught her a vampophobic term.”
“Ashlee,” my mother said, “it’s all right.”
“You’re saying do it?”
“I’m saying there’s nothing to fear.”
My mother wasn’t really the best judge of such things, especially in her present state. I trusted her intentions, but not her reasoning. Still, what could I do? If Jackson died, I’d never forgive myself.
“All right, Mister Con-Man. Bite me.” I held out an arm. No way he was nuzzling my neck. “And if I see that smug smile, I swear I’ll bite you back.”
Shelby held up a forefending hand, and then reached for my wrist.
I have no idea what I expected, but hot surging pleasure wasn’t it. After the initial sting, my arm felt like it was getting laid by four wasps and loving it. I can’t really describe it better than that.
Holy shit-snacks, Archer! No wonder vampires got the girls so easily. Or guys, whatever. I wanted it to go on forever, and I tell you, for a solid minute I forgot all about Jackson. When he withdrew his mouth and licked my wrist, over and under, I just swayed there on my feet, stunned. Then I sneezed, which felt like an orgasm in my head.
At that point he did smile, but I was in no mood to complain. In fact, if he’d asked me, I’d probably have let him have some neck action. That must feel even better…
Shelby crouched by Jackson, bit his own left wrist, and drizzled blood into the wolf-man’s open mouth. I watched in fascination, waiting for some magical transformation, but it didn’t come by the time he’d finished.
Adam stood, though, and firmly grabbed my throbbing arm. Immediately all the weirdity went bye-bye, replaced by a tired and unpleasant clarity.
“Go get some juice, Ash, and take a couple vitamins with iron.”
“Did you have to do that?”
“Quit your bitching and go. You did good.”
I went upstairs to the kitchenette and did as Adam had commanded. Vegetable juice with a shot of Worcestershire seemed the thing, going down smooth like a room-temperature version of the blood Con had drunk. I drank the whole two-quart bottle in one long pull, ending up feeling like I had a lake in my guts, but still thirsty. Ignoring the sensation, I descended again.
“Where’s Con?” I asked.
“Out your bolt-hole. He said he’d backtrack the blood trail and see what he could.”
“We couldn’t scent who it was. Jackson said there was a spell of concealment.”
“A spell.” Adam’s brow furrowed. “I may have to talk to some witches today.”
“Witches? In Knightsbridge?”
“Of course. You know them. They meet at the White Rabbit twice a week for lunch.”
I held a hand to my mouth. “OMG. I thought they were just Wiccans. Pagans and stuff.”
“They are, but they’re more than that.”
“You think it was them?”
“Not really, but they know things.”
“Why should they tell you? And what was all that about your blood being worse than acid?”
Adam embraced me in a brotherly hug. I wished it was Will, but this wasn’t bad. My head fit nicely into his deep, muscular chest, making me feel safe. “Each of our family has powers, Ash. Mine are the kind that keep the rest of you honest.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He stroked my hair for a moment, and then held me at arms’ length to look in my eyes. “I’ve already said more than my oaths allow.”
“Bastard.” I said it kindly, though. I couldn’t be mad at my big brother for long. He’d always been our protector, sometimes our referee when things got out of hand…when he wasn’t off saving the world somewhere else, which was most of the time.
“Language!” Mom said from behind Adam.
I stuck my tongue out at her impishly and Adam followed my gaze over his shoulder with a questioning look. I smiled a secret smile of my own, singsonging, “Nothing!”
Even he didn’t know everything.
“How’s Jackson?”
Adam let me go. “He’ll make it now, I think. Are you okay with what happened?”
“What else could I do?”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
I crossed my arms and rubbed them. “I guess so. It wasn’t a big deal,” I lied.
“Let’s hope not.” He sat down on the downstairs day bed and stretched out, kicking off his shoes. “Wake me up when they get here.”
“Right.”
“Oh, and one more thing. You need to revoke Shelby’s invitation.”
“What?”
“Just say, ‘Constantine Andronicus Shelby, I revoke your invitation.’”
“Andronicus?”
“Say it.”
I said it.
“Now he can’t enter your abode again unless you let him.”
“Is there a manual for all this stuff? Some kind of wiki-app to the supernatural?”
“You’re the writer. Write one.”
Sigh.
The pack arrived just as I was hitting that good, deep REM sleep we all know and love, and I stayed groggy as I let them in to collect Jackson. They did some howling and chanting that Adam slept through while I went back to bed, telling them to let themselves out.
Chapter 11
The next day we were invited for a come-to-Jesus meeting at the rectory where Shelby lived; appointment: sundown. It appeared the vampire was going to force a decision on me, at least where Will and Peg were concerned. Add in Jackson, Sully and me…and my wolf, of course, who was actually pacing in my brain giving Dolby-enhanced visuals to my internal anxiety. I told her to lie down and she did, but I could feel her whine at the back of my throat.
I told Adam about it, even though he wasn’t invited. It appeared he was the only one who would really stand up to Shelby, so I considered him my insurance.
“What’s this all about?” Will asked as we drove there.
I kept silent. What could I say?
Peg answered for me. “Constantine asked us over for
drinks. I’m so excited! It’s the first time I’ve been there. Usually we spend time in our house.”
In my house, you mean, I snarled in my head. Okay, Will’s house, technically, but I’d grown up there. It felt like an invasion.
“I think he might have something to announce,” Peg went on, oblivious. God, sometimes the woman was like a child!
“So are you, dear,” Ghost Mom said from the truck bed behind me. Her head floated by my shoulder, sticking through the open back window. “The difference is, Peg is childlike, while you are merely being childish. Why can’t you be happy for her?”
“Happy?” I hissed.
“What?” asked Will.
“Ah, I’m happy for you, Peg, if you’re right,” I said more loudly, and waved my hand through Mom’s head as if to disperse a cloud.
“Right about what?” said Will.
There’s a downside to being the smart one in any relationship. Okay, emotionally hyper-aware. Will wasn’t really dumb, just not in tune with the ebb and flow of people’s lives.
“Sometimes that makes him the smart one,” Mother whispered. “He doesn’t get caught up in all the drama.”
I hate it when she’s right.
When we arrived, I stepped reluctantly out of Will’s truck and followed Peg past the cemetery up to the door of the rectory. A familiar odor hung around the gardens, but my sinuses immediately began reacting, which meant that whatever it was, there was magic or glamor about and I was going to need to be on my guard. I throttled a sneeze and my wolf covered its muzzle with its paws and whimpered.
I wished I could do the same, because my eyes were watering as we entered the vampire’s abode. When we stepped into the building, my sinuses cleared as if all magic had been swept away. All that remained were the smells of vampire and humanity.
Stolid intimates in formal servants’ dress seated us on a dais looking out over an expansive living room that held beautiful reproductions of turn of the century – twentieth century, that is – furniture, mostly aimed at a massive stone hearth. I couldn’t figure out where he was getting the space. Just like in the magic shop, this place hadn’t looked this big from the outside.
Amazing smells wafted from what must be the kitchen, and my wolf pricked up her ears and her nose.
“Rabbit stew,” I said to no one in particular.
Shelby smiled that gleaming white vampire grin and my sinus headache started to creep back. I growled at him under my breath until the glamor faded and I was pretty sure he was acting human. As human as he could be anyway.
He picked up a remote and poked it at the flat screen mounted on the wall behind us, and a head shot of Will’s sister Samantha appeared.
Peg looked at Shelby with a question in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, my dear. All will be revealed.” He turned to us and took center stage as if he were on TedTalks and we, his audience. “I’ve called you all here to invite you into the inner sanctum of power in Knightsbridge.”
Jackson stood as if concerned, but Shelby waived him down. “Oh relax. I just had to have my Joan Collins moment. Peg. The first thing that I need to do is to apologize to you. I’ve done things, involved you in my world and without your consent. I may have made some poor choices, but at the time I believed the end justified the means.”
Peg looked at him. “I’m sorry, Con. I don’t understand.”
“It’s true, Mom,” Sam’s gigantic face said from the screen. “The truth is, Con is keeping you alive.”
That made me realize the screen wasn’t merely a television, but a giant video chat setup.
“But…I’m sorry I don’t understand.”
“You’re dying Mom. The cancer’s not really in remission. Not on its own, anyway. Con is a vampire and it’s his blood that is staving it off. And it was my idea.”
“Sam? What the hell? This is a really stupid joke, and it’s nowhere near Halloween. Sorry, Mom, Ash. Let’s go.” Will stood up, clearly angry.
“Please, Will, hang on and listen,” I said.
Sam continued, “You can’t work the night shift at Knightsbridge General and not figure out there are things that go on in the dark that never see the light of day.”
Will stopped behind Peg and put his hands on her shoulders. “You’re trying to tell me Shelby’s really a vampire? Like, for real? That’s insane. There ain’t no such thing.”
“There is, there are, and he’s one.”
“A vampire?” Peg mulled this over.
I bottom-lined it. “Con is playing walking dialysis machine for you, Peg. He’s been draining you of diseased blood and feeding his own back to you.” Yeah, that’s me. Not much for beating around the bush.
“That’s sick!” Will said, staring at me. “You knew about this?”
“Only found out recently,” I replied, hunching my shoulders against the force of his ire.
“My dear.” Con knelt before Peg and took her hand, ignoring Will. “Those dreams you’ve been having?”
A rush of scarlet slid up Peg’s body. “You mean the ones where you…where we…like in a romance novel?”
“Mother!”
“Yes, Margaret. Those were visions I induced for us, because you weren’t strong enough for the real thing. I wanted you to be happy.”
“No wonder you’ve never made a big move on me.” Peg choked back a horrified laugh, her other hand to her mouth. “Why bother with the real thing when dreams will do?”
“I can only imagine how you might feel. And I want to make this right.” He pulled a jewel box out of his tailored jacket and I got a twinkle of a diamond in the corner of my eye. “I love you, Margaret. Marry me and let me take care of you.”
“As long as we both shall live? But how long will that be?”
“You’ve got to be joking,” I said, and sneezed.
Peg said, “This is incredibly flattering Con, but...”
“But it’s overwhelming. I understand.” Shelby stood, snapping the ring box shut before any of us could get a good look at it. He kissed her hand, and then sat down at the head of the table, giving me a look as if to say, I tried.
And to be fair, he did. I almost felt sympathetic to the bloodsucker right then.
Will broke the lingering silence. “So, I suppose if vampires are real, then werewolves are too?” Will turned to Jackson and me, accusation in his eyes.
What could we say to that one? Guilty as charged.
“This is too much, Ashlee. I can’t do this! I imagined you and me with a simple life in a simple town where I could do an honest day’s work and come home to a wife and a family who made it seem all worthwhile. But this? This is…” his voice trailed off.
“Will,” I began.
“Argh!” He shoved himself back from Peg’s high-backed chair and stomped out the front door.
I started to follow, but Peg stopped me. “Let him go Ashlee. Give him some room.”
The next thing we heard was him yelling, accompanied by the loud sound of wood on stone. I ran to the nearest window to see Will with a tree branch, beating the shit out of one of the moss-covered crypts.
My heart squirmed inside. He was using a modification of a coping mechanism I’d learned from my mom. I usually did it by taking a tennis racket to a mattress or a stack of pillows. “When you feel the rage coming on,” she’d say, “don’t give it power by making someone else the enemy; instead, let it rise up in a safe place where you can let it pass through you.”
I hadn’t used the technique in quite a while, even though I had plenty of reason to. It looked like Will was processing some serious anger.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He’ll be fine.”
The wails of anguish and the noise of branches smacking on stone stopped, replaced by something sharper. He must have found a rake or shovel to continue with.
“I knew we shouldn’t have designated the cemetery a local landmark,” Con said with a sigh. “Jackson, I suppose I’ll have some work for your crew.”
&
nbsp; “We’ll make sure he doesn’t get too hurt.” Jackson and Sully walked out the door, letting the echoes of Will’s anguish bounce among the rafters.
I wanted to go to him, but there wasn’t anything I could do about this. And it hurt like hell. Sometimes love is pain. I put my hands over my ears and my head between my knees as my stomach threatened to spill its contents.
I don’t know how much time passed, but the next thing I knew Jackson and Sully were leading a staggering Will inside. They led him to his seat at the table. I smelled the blood.
Shelby walked over to Will. “May I?” he asked, reaching for Will’s blistered and bleeding hands, turning them palms up. When Will didn’t object, the vampire knelt and put his mouth to the skin.
Will tried to jerk away, but Shelby held him with irresistible strength, staring into his eyes.
“Hey!” I said, feeling a sneeze coming on again.
Will relaxed as if mesmerized – which I guess he was – while Shelby ran his lips and tongue over the mass of hamburgered flesh. In other circumstances it might have been weird, but right now I could only think of a wolf licking a paw.
And I just sat there. What was I supposed to do? I guess I’d just given my boyfriend his first taste of PTSD.
Jackson drove us back to town in Will’s truck, with Sully following in a work vehicle. Will stared out the window the whole way, not looking at me or saying anything until we pulled up in front of his house.
“Bye, Ash,” he mumbled before getting out.
I made as if to go with him, but Jackson grabbed my shoulder. “Leave him alone. Let him process it on his own.”
“That’s stupid,” I replied, jerking myself free of his grip. “He needs me.”
“Right now, you’re part of what’s freaking him out.”
Reluctantly I sat back down and watched Will trudge up the front walk as if carrying a heavy load…which I suppose he was. When the door closed behind him, Jackson drove me home.
Chapter 12
“What’s up with the kennel in the basement?” Amber’s voice startled me out of my woolgathering as I cleaned the leaves out of the pool, letting my mind wander. “You’ve managed all your MoonFalls so far without any killings.”