Shiela Stewart - [Darkness 04]

by Charming the Darkness (epub)

“Technically, you weren’t harmed and I was doing it to protect myself.”

  “Yeah…right.”

  “You weren’t harmed. I fed you, made sure you were comfortable.”

  “And kept me against my will. I would have to say that would classify being harmful. But you believe whatever you like to get you by. So how do we do this spell?”

  She frowned at him as she went to the bags. “I’ve already asked the Goddess for forgiveness for holding you against your will.”

  “And that makes it all better. Okay.” He grinned slyly when she narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I’m not liking you very much right now.”

  Laughing, he took the cat from her and sat on the sofa while she gathered her things. “You sure it wouldn’t have been better to do this in the tunnel where Chaos stayed?”

  “As long as I have something of his, I’m good.”

  He watched her sprinkle a salty powder in a circle around her, then grab the candles and set them up just outside the ring. She took the shirt, laid it out on the floor inside the circle, and lit the candles before sitting on the floor, crossing her legs. She closed her eyes, and just sat there for what seemed like forever, just deep breathing. When she opened her eyes, she looked directly up as she spoke.

  “Goddess of discovery, I ask your charity, lend me your focus and your clarity., Bring me to Chaos at this time, restoring me that and my peace of mind. With harm to none, this spell be done. Let it be not reversed, or placed unto me as any curse. May all astrological correspondences be correct for this working. As I will it, so mote it be.”

  Like Danny, Killer sat in silence while Starla remained quiet in her spot, head up, hands on her bended knees. And like himself, Killer flinched when the flames on the candles shot up in the air once, then dimmed and burnt out.

  Starla tipped her head down at the shirt on the floor and that was when he noticed the lines and dots splattered on the material.

  “Thank you, Goddess, for granting me this wish.” She stood up, taking the shirt with her and turned to Danny. “This is where Chaos is being held.”

  ***

  “Checking your cell phone repeatedly will not make it ring,” Trinity stated rather sharply, annoyed with Dante for not paying closer attention to what she was saying. “It would be nice if you paid attention to me for more than two minutes at a time.”

  “I am paying attention to you. I can do both because I can multitask,” Dante responded with a clip to his voice.

  “Don’t get snotty with me, Dante, or I’ll—”

  “What? Freeze me to my spot…no, wait, maybe you’ll hang me up in mid air and leave me dangling for an hour,” he snapped back. “Stop making threats you have no intention of fulfilling.”

  “Okay!” Basil stepped in front of Trinity when he recognized that look on her face as potentially dangerous. “We’re all a little snippy these days because we’ve been cooped up together for so long. That is about to change.” He kissed her snarling lips and knew it did very little to calm her down. “We’ll be in our own home within days. But in the meantime, we need to not kill each other over little things. Instead, can we continue our discussion as to what we should do about Fritz taking humans out on the highway?”

  “I agree—and I can’t believe I am saying this—with Basil,” Jonah added, leaning against the wall, bracing himself with his cane. “Something has to be done about Fritz.”

  Trinity huffed, then waddled over to a chair and eased her large frame into it. “I’m up for suggestions and, damn it, Dante, she isn’t going to call.”

  Dante looked up from his cell phone, his eyes slanted. “What makes you so sure she won’t?”

  Basil stepped in behind Trinity and massaged her shoulders. She’d been overly tense the past day and a half and it was worrying him. This was the first time he’d seen her sit for more than a few seconds as well. She seemed to have ants in her pants lately. “Well, let’s see, Dante. The woman did slash your tires to prevent you from following them. I wouldn’t hold her to her word after that.” And if the woman was hanging with Danny, odds were she wasn’t going to be very reliable.

  “Back to our problem,” Trinity piped in, running circles over her belly. “Stopping Fritz from capturing more humans.”

  “Why don’t you just capture Fritz and throw him in your dungeon, Basil?” Gypsy questioned, taking Dante’s cell phone in her hand and his hand in her other one.

  “Sure, we’ll just knock on the compound door, ask to speak to Fritz, then nab him and cart him off.” Basil shook his head as he rubbed Trinity’s shoulders. If it was that simple, wouldn’t they have done it long ago?

  “It was just a suggestion,” Gypsy barked.

  “Perhaps doing highway patrols ourselves would help?” Cooper added casually while he dusted the many computer parts piled up near the back wall of Jonah’s office.

  “I’ve already considered that, but we need more manpower to keep it up on a daily basis.” As it was, more of his so called friends had deserted him to head to fresher ground where blood was still warm in the human’s bodies. He couldn’t really blame them. Even he was getting tired of drinking stale blood and never seeing daylight.

  “Oh!” Trinity winced, clutching her belly.

  “What?” Basil was right there at her feet, taking her hands in his. “Is it a contraction?”

  “Yeah. I’m okay.” She waved him off and stood. “I’ll just walk it off like I have the other ones.”

  “These Braxton Hicks contractions are becoming more frequent. I think your time is nearing.”

  She eyed Cooper with a look that might make anyone back off. Cooper didn’t. “You make it sound like I’m dying,” Trinity snarled.

  “What I meant was—”

  “It’s okay, Cooper.” Basil rested a hand on his shoulder in a reassuring manner. “I think it’s best if we leave Trinity alone for a while and let her rest.”

  “I don’t need to rest,” she growled between her teeth.

  “Some alone time, then,” Basil suggested. She really was in a mood.

  “That I can handle. Let me know what you all decided to do about Fritz.”

  Basil waited until Trinity was gone and the office door closed before he turned to Cooper with worry in his voice. “I think you’re right. She’s getting close.”

  “It could be any day now,” Cooper said, now resting his hand on Basil’s shoulder. “We need to step up the progress on the repairs to our home.”

  “I agree.” Basil turned to Dante and Jonah. “For now, we put Fritz on the back burner and concentrate on fixing the house for Trinity’s return. I want someone with her all the time, but don’t crowd her. Jonah, you take the first watch.”

  “Sure, stick the cripple with the potentially volatile pregnant woman.” He gave a nod, smiling when Basil shot him a nasty glare. “Happy to do it!”

  “Great. The rest of us better get busy.”

  Chapter 21

  Danny found himself unable to move. His eyes were transfixed on Chaos’ shirt and the map that had been etched onto it. He knew practically nothing about magic but, having seen what just transpired before him, he was damn sure he wanted to know more.

  “If we get a map of the city I could mark it out and we could go from there.”

  He heard her voice like an echo in his mind but his brain was completely fixated on the shirt.

  Then she snapped her fingers in his face, drawing him back.

  “That was fucking cool!”

  Her face glowed with the smile lifting her lips. “Thanks. That’s a basic spell I can do in my sleep. Do you know where we could get a map?”

  He shook his thoughts clear and set Killer on the floor as he stood. “Might be one here. The phonebook has a map of the city in it but it’s not very in depth. An
y gas station will have one.” He drew his eyes away from the shirt. “I can’t believe how easy that was.”

  “I always feel a little high after performing spells. Juiced,” she giggled, giving her arms and shake. “That’s why so many witches end up overusing their powers. It gives them such a rush that they want to feel it all the time.”

  “But not you. Right?” She struck him as the by-the-books kind of witch, though he was still wondering how if she abided by her Wicca laws of not harming anyone for their own gain, could she have kept him frozen for days.

  “I’ve been tempted, but I always pull myself back. A friend of mine didn’t and she nearly got her family killed. That was enough of a wake-up call for me. Okay, let’s roll.”

  He’d never thought much about witches or the powers they held, even after Trinity had been granted a new life and new powers and Chaos was all freaked out about it. But hearing Starla talk about how deadly it could become, Danny wondered more about it. It was on his mind as they drove to the nearest gas station for a map and flashlights and it was on his mind as they looked on the map for the area etched into Chaos’ shirt. So when he sent them rolling again, he decided to just ask.

  “How did she almost kill her family?”

  “Huh?”

  He bit the nails on one hand while he drove casually with the other. “Your friend. How did she almost kill her family?”

  Starla shifted in her seat, pulling one leg up under her. “She let the magic control her.”

  “Specifically,” he insisted. “Did she attack them…what?”

  “No, she got drunk on the power, became a whole different person. Mean, greedy, vicious. When her parents threatened to send her to rehab she became angry and called upon the fire gods, setting the house in flames, preventing her parents from leaving. She stood outside while the house began to burn and did nothing even when the firemen showed up. They had to shoot her with tranquilizers from across the street in order to get her to back down so they could put the fire out. She was in rehab for nearly a year.”

  “Jesus,” he gasped, then instantly shoved a finger in his mouth to gnaw on the nail.

  “You shouldn’t bite your nails.”

  He dropped his hand. “Nervous habit. So…um…you ever go overboard with your powers?” She touched his arm and he actually flinched.

  “Oh my Goddess, are you worried I’ll do something to hurt you?”

  He shrugged, not really wanting to admit she scared him a little. “Just curious.”

  “I would never. I know how to control myself and my powers. I work with a spiritualist who helps me meditate and calm my inner self. I started doing that right after my friend was hospitalized.”

  “That’s reassuring. So, you ever make yourself win a lottery or anything like that?”

  “No,” she chortled. “That would be against the laws of the Wicca faith.”

  “Never once have you used it for your own gain?”

  “Never. And no, I will not help you get money that way either. I’m appalled you would even think to ask me that.”

  “I didn’t ask you anything,” he reminded her with a quick glance her way. “I can get my own money.”

  “How? By stealing it?”

  He shrugged again, glancing at the map laid out on the dashboard. “Whatever means necessary.”

  “Ever thought of finding a job and working for a living?”

  He snorted. “Vampire, remember? Not many people will hire my kind.” Not that he’d ever tried to get a job. He’d had no need when money wasn’t a priority for him. Whenever he wanted something, he took it.

  “You could wear contacts,” she suggested.

  “And the teeth?”

  “Um…some people have longer incisors than others.”

  He laughed, starling her. “That’s stretching it. What about daylight? Kinda hard to do a day job when the sunlight boils my skin.”

  “Okay, so it would be hard for you to get a job, but there are things you could do for a living.”

  “Like?” He checked the map again, then turned to the left and continued driving. He knew the location was past the city limits but he’d never been to the area before.

  “I don’t know. Gravedigger?”

  “Sure…I could use a snack while I work.” Her jaw dropped and he couldn’t help laughing.

  “That’s sick.”

  “I just said it for shock value. There’s no blood left in a human when they’re buried.”

  She slugged his arm. “That wasn’t very nice.”

  Laughing, he asked, “Got anything else?”

  “I’m thinking.”

  They sat in silence while they drove.

  “What does your brother do for a living?”

  “He’s a private investigator. Has his own company.”

  “Really?” She turned to face him, her face it with excitement. “That’s so cool.”

  He shrugged. “He’s always been interested in police work. Even when we were kids. He used to be the cop and I was the robber,” he laughed. “Funny how life works out.” Dante was the cop now and Danny had become a thief in the night.

  “Do you ever wonder what you’re life would have been like if Chaos hadn’t turned you into a vampire?”

  Danny headed out onto the highway, glancing to the right as they passed Chaos’ compound. Fritz’s compound now, he supposed. “Sometimes. More so when I was younger than now.”

  “What did you picture?”

  Danny rolled his window all the way down, loving the feel of the fresh breeze in his hair. “Mostly fighting with my parents. Being held down. Not being allowed to be myself. I didn’t like it much so I rarely pictured it.”

  “And you never once thought that maybe you might have been better off not being a vampire?”

  He shook his head as he turned onto the dirt road. “Never. This is who I was meant to be.”

  “Interesting. Okay, here’s another one for you.”

  “What is this? Analyze Danny Vega time?”

  Starla laughed and continued on. “If Chaos hadn’t told you your family didn’t want you and that they were glad you were gone, do you think you would have went to them and told them what you’d become?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that came out fast. Explain?”

  He’s never had anyone to talk to about his feelings or his life before. It felt kind of nice. “These past few months away from Chaos and my kind has given me plenty of thinking time. And seeing my brother more often makes me feel…hm…”

  “Homesick?”

  He angled his head to her, nodding. “I guess so. My first instinct after waking up as a vampire was to cry for my mother and beg to be allowed to go home. Had they let me, I would have run straight home and blubbered my brains out about what had happened to me.”

  “But Chaos kept you locked up, knowing that would be exactly what you would do.”

  “Yeah.” He slowed them down, enjoying the conversation. “But spending twenty years believing your family didn’t want you does a number on your brain. So when I was finally released, I didn’t go home.”

  “Did you check up on them?”

  “Oh yeah. Throughout the years, and I saw how happy they were, how they carried on with their lives. Without me.”

  “Which only reinforced what Chaos had told you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Do you think your family would have accepted you? As a vampire?”

  “They never understood why I was the way I was when I was human. I doubt they’d have accepted me.”

  “You talk as if you have no intention of seeing them and letting them know you’re alive.”

  “I don’t.”

  “I would want to know.” She shifted i
n her seat, facing forward now. “I would want to at least let my family know I was alive.”

  “Well, that’s what makes us different. We’re here.” He slowed even more, glancing at the area and saw only trees. “Are you sure this is right?”

  Starla lifted the shirt, examined the map, and nodded. “According to the map on the shirt, he should be in this area.”

  “Well,” Danny shut off the car, “I guess we start walking.”

  “It’s kind of spooky out here.”

  He took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll protect you.” Her eyes took on that dreamy look again and went straight to his heart.

  “I love it when you’re romantic.”

  Baffled, he tilted his head. “Yeah? This is romantic to you?” He lifted her hand and kissed it again.

  “Oh yeah.” She grinned from ear to ear.

  “Well…” Now he had fuel. “Shall we?”

  “After you.”

  “Chicken.” Laughing, he slipped out of the truck and walked to her door, opening, it. Then he held his hand out to her, experimenting. She took it and, sure enough, she got that dreamy look again. Oh yeah, he was going to work this for all it was worth.

  Linking Starla’s fingers with his, Danny walked with her through the open field.

  “I think you need to talk to your parents.”

  “Think you could do a little spell and find out what we’re looking for, specifically?” He avoided her question.

  “No. What harm would it be to just talk to them?”

  “Leave it alone, Starla.”

  “You talk to your brother. Maybe he told them.”

  “We already discussed this and, no, he hasn’t. You look left, I’ll look right.” He wished he’d fed off of Chaos more often, but he hadn’t since those first few months after being turned. At least if he had fed off of him recently he would be able to detect him. Chaos’ blood would call to him.

  “Have you asked your brother why he hasn’t?”

  “I really don’t think this is the time for a discussion. It might be a good idea to stay quiet in case Fritz has guards set up.” Not that he believed that was the case. He’d heard enough rumors on the streets to believe no one but Fritz knew where Chaos was.