by Susan Illene
“Only to those who deserve it.”
He dropped his arm and moved closer, his gaze speculative. “Hmm, I do wonder what might have brought you here today.”
Cori stiffened, her mind flashing to the incident from last night. “None of your business.”
“If it will affect anyone in my home, it is.” He cocked his head, staring hard at her while she considered escaping to the house. “Your past has come back to haunt you, I see. It is wise of you to come to Melena for help if your ex-husband has truly returned.”
“How did you…?” She paused, at a loss for words. “Stay out of my head, asshole.” The damn guardian had the ability to read minds, which she’d forgotten since he rarely did it, or at least admitted to doing it. She should have tried harder to keep her thoughts empty of anything incriminating.
He lifted his chin. “You know, I would offer to help, but not if you’re going to act like that.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“Very well then.” He flashed away.
She would have been annoyed about his abrupt departure if she wasn’t relieved to see him gone. After taking a few calming breaths, Cori headed for the house with Sable keeping pace beside her. She hoped Kerbasi would keep his mouth shut. As of yet, he’d never revealed any secrets he’d gotten from her, but that could change at any moment.
Melena answered the door before Cori could knock. The woman had her long, auburn hair pulled back in a French braid and light makeup on her face. She also wore a black pantsuit, so she must have recently come home from her job with the Department of Homeland Security. The division that handled supernatural affairs had needed an expert to help them after finding out the things that went bump in the night were real, and since Melena had served in the military before becoming immortal, they’d figured she’d be a good fit.
“Sorry about the welcome committee,” she said, giving Cori an apologetic look. “No matter how many times I threaten to chop parts of Kerbasi off, he still has to bother our guests. And Sable, well, you know she does her own thing.”
“It’s okay,” Cori said, following Melena inside. “I’d be worried if I ever made it to your front door without any sort of reception.”
Melena laughed. “Emily says we’ve become a supernatural halfway house.”
“That sounds about right.”
They passed through the foyer where a central staircase was located, crossed the formal dining room, and entered the kitchen where everyone tended to hang out and talk. Melena offered her coffee, which she gratefully took. There was usually a hot pot ready to go in the early evenings since everyone who lived in the house was either immortal or something “extra.” Caffeine didn’t keep them up at night the way it did most people.
After they had settled on barstools across from each other, Melena gave Cori a concerned look. “Something is bothering you, and I suspect it has nothing to do with Kerbasi.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not this time.”
“Tell me.”
Melena was a sensor. Until last year, Cori hadn’t known such a race existed. Sensors were able to detect the emotions of others, tell truth from lies, and they were immune to magic. Normally, they were mortal and able to get sick and die just like humans, but Melena had fallen in love with a nephilim. Through a long and arduous process that took over a year, Lucas made her immortal. She was the first of her kind to survive being changed by a nephilim because angel blood—even from half-breeds like her husband—was usually too potent for normal people to handle.
Since then, she’d given a dose of her blood to two other sensors. It didn’t make them immortal, but it did make them stronger, healthier, and longer-lived. Apparently, Melena’s blood was diluted enough to be less harmful or potent, but they still weren’t sure how it worked or if it was safe to give to anyone aside from a sensor.
Cori cleared her throat, realizing she’d been quiet for a little too long. “Do you believe in ghosts?”
Surprise flickered in Melena’s gaze. “I know they exist, but for some reason, they’re the only paranormal beings I can’t see or detect. Druids apparently have the monopoly on that one. Why do you ask?”
“I think one might be haunting me.”
“Who?” she asked.
Cori dropped her gaze to the kitchen counter between them. “Is it really necessary to get into that?”
“If you want me to help you, it is.”
Cori had figured as much. She took a deep breath and looked up. “My ex-husband.”
Melena’s eyes rounded. “I thought your ex was in jail.”
“I do have an ex in jail, but I wasn’t married to that guy. Just dated him for a while.” Yeah, she had a screwed up love life and never went after normal men. “My former husband is dead, or at least, he should be.”
“You never mentioned him before,” the sensor said, her brows drawing together. “How did I miss that detail?”
Cori was relieved Melena had never run a background check on her like she did to some people, or she might have put the pieces together a long time ago. “It’s not something I like to talk about, and we’d been divorced for several years before he died. He’s firmly in the ‘ex’ column.”
Mel laid a hand on Cori’s. “What happened?”
Pain seized her chest as old memories surfaced from a very different time in her life when she hadn’t been as strong, and she’d made many bad decisions. It wasn’t easy to open up about it, but she had to tell someone if she wanted help. “I killed him.”
Melena blinked. “Huh, I’d always figured there was something dark in your past that you were hiding. That explains a lot.”
“You aren’t bothered by it?” Cori asked incredulously.
“If I’m bothered by anything, it’s the fact this man drove you to it.” Her blue eyes filled with sympathy. “I know you well enough by now to be certain you wouldn’t have done it without a good reason.”
Cori couldn’t believe her ears. Sure, Melena had killed plenty of people in her life, but it had either been while she was overseas in the military fighting in a war or defending herself against supernaturals. She didn’t murder unarmed and unsuspecting people. The woman even had an evil family who’d done horrible things to her and others, and yet she’d managed to resist killing them. Cori had honestly expected judgment at her own less than noble actions.
“My situation was complicated, but that doesn’t justify what I did to Griff,” she said, swallowing hard. “It was pure revenge.”
Melena cocked her head. “What did he do to drive you to it?”
Cori took a few calming breaths before answering, “I met Griff during my second year of college. He was cute, sweet, and focused all of his attention on me. I fell in love with him despite the fact I could tell there was something not quite right about him. The first couple of years were great. I got pregnant and…” Cori paused and squeezed her eyes shut. “…and he was happy about it.”
Melena remained silent, but her gaze was full of compassion.
“Not long after Faith was born, things changed. Griff insisted I drop out of college to take care of our daughter full-time, and he was jealous of any man who came near me.” Cori took a shuddering breath. “We fought a lot and, well, he started hitting me. At first, it was just a smack in the face or arm, but it got worse each time until I was blacking out from the pain.”
“I’d kill him myself if he were still alive,” Melena swore.
It made Cori feel slightly better to hear her friend say that, but it still didn’t absolve her of what she’d done. “By the time Faith was two, I couldn’t take it anymore. I called my father in Anchorage, and he came to get us. While I was living with my parents, I filed for divorce.” Cori sighed. “I thought…I thought that would be the end of it.”
Melena grabbed their empty coffee mugs and headed across the kitchen to refill them. She had a knack for knowing exactly when a person needed a moment to get themselves together. Cori had never spoken
the whole story to anyone other than her father—not even her mother knew the full details about the next part of the story.
“So what happened after that?” Melena came back and slid the steaming mug across the counter.
Cori picked it up, catching the scent of something strong mixed in with the coffee. She sipped slowly, letting the touch of alcohol fortify her. “Nothing right away. He fought the divorce at first, but my sister’s husband is a big, strong guy. He and a couple of his friends came out to Fairbanks and put the fear of God into Griff. He signed the papers, and I didn’t hear from him for over a year.”
“But you had his daughter,” Melena said, lips thinning.
“Exactly.” Cori took a bigger drink of her coffee, hoping it would numb her a little. “He got his act together and fought me in the courts for visitation rights. Since I never reported all those beatings, I couldn’t prove he was violent—and he had no criminal record. I had to start sending my daughter to him for part of the summer and the holidays.”
“That must have been tough.”
Cori nodded. “It was, but it went okay until Faith was almost five years old. Griff got her for the week after Christmas. He flew out to Anchorage to pick her up and…and she was so happy to see her daddy. She truly loved him.”
Tears began to stream down Cori’s face, and it took a moment before she could speak again. “That day at the airport—it was the last time I saw my little girl alive. The next time,” she said, voice shuddering, “was when they asked me to identify her body.”
To this day, she’d never forget seeing Faith like that. Her still form bloody and broken almost beyond recognition on a cold, metal table. They’d said she’d been holding a doll when they pulled her out of the wreckage and showed it to Cori. It had been the one she gave her daughter for Christmas the week before, a doll that Faith had kept with her every moment afterward.
Melena leaped off of her stool and came around, wrapping Cori in her arms. “Shh, it’s okay. You can say anything you want, and I won’t judge.”
“My precious baby,” Cori croaked into Melena’s shoulder. “She had the prettiest little black curls and eyes just like mine, and she was so sweet and innocent. I felt like she was the one good thing I’d done in this world, but I managed to even ruin that by letting Griff take her. I should have fought against him harder and never let her out of my sight.”
“That doesn’t make you a bad person.” Melena rubbed her back.
“It does, Mel.” She pulled away and stared into the sensor’s eyes. “Because when I found out Griff had been drinking and driving, and it was our daughter who paid the price, I wanted that man dead. He’d taken Faith’s life and came out of it with only a few scratches and a broken leg. It wasn’t fair. Why her and not him?”
Melena was quiet for a moment. “I’m not saying revenge is right, or that everyone should do it, but I can understand what drove you to that point.”
Cori wished she had a cigarette. She’d never been a heavy smoker, but she’d decided to quit a month ago, and now she couldn’t think of anything else. It was all she could do to finish the story and not run out of Melena’s house to the nearest store where she could buy a pack. Or maybe she still wasn’t prepared to talk about this. It was a part of her past she’d worked hard to shut out.
“I found him at his house the next night,” Cori continued. “His father had bailed him out of jail. He was sitting in his recliner, drinking straight from a whiskey bottle with his broken leg propped up. I swear there wasn’t a hint of remorse in his eyes.”
“That bastard,” Melena cursed.
Cori’s jaw hardened. “I grabbed a poker iron from his fireplace and hit him over the head with it. Not once, but again and again until my arms got so tired I couldn’t do it anymore. It was like I couldn’t control myself. When I was fairly certain he was dead, I got a wheelbarrow from behind his house and used it to get him to my car. Then I drove to a remote area where I was sure no one went during the winter and buried his body in the snow.”
“The ground would have been too frozen to dig,” Melena surmised.
“Yeah, though I tried at first.” Unfortunately, the ground was almost like cement during the winter in Alaska.
“Did you go back in the spring to check on the body?” Melena asked.
Cori nodded. “I tried, but I couldn’t find the spot. I’d been so out of my mind with grief that I couldn’t remember exactly where I put him. The cops questioned me about his disappearance, especially because he was wanted for manslaughter, but when his body never turned up everyone just assumed he ran away to get out of being punished for his crimes.”
“What about the blood and stuff at his house and in your car?”
“I got help removing all the evidence.” Cori shrugged. “My dad put me in touch with a guy who wasn’t the type to ask questions.”
She had a few acquaintances like that thanks to her father’s connections. He hadn’t been a criminal himself, but he knew a lot of people and helped more than a few when they were in jams, so they owed him favors. Her parents had grown up in Fairbanks, and they’d continued to live there until Cori was sixteen when her dad got a job offer in Anchorage. After he passed away a couple of years ago, her mother decided to stay there with her sister and her family. Cori couldn’t live near them again. The guilt from killing Griff ate at her, so she decided to settle in Fairbanks where the memories might have been uncomfortable, but at least people wouldn’t ask questions the way her family did.
Melena’s forehead creased. “How sure are you that Griff was dead when you left him?”
“He wasn’t moving, and he didn’t appear to be breathing,” Cori said, though now she wished she had checked his pulse.
“What was the general area where you put his body?”
“Do you have a map?” Cori asked.
“Yeah, I do.” Melena left the kitchen, returning a minute later with it. She unfolded the map across the counter. “Where?”
Cori pointed to a remote area east of Fairbanks where she’d left Griff’s body. “Somewhere in there.”
“How long ago was this?”
She considered it. “Almost four years ago.”
“Damn.” Melena rubbed her face. “You aren’t the only person who was using that spot back then.”
Cori’s gut clenched. “What do you mean?”
“You remember that vampire-witch I told you about who used to run this area?”
“Wasn’t her name…Variola or something?” Cori remembered hearing about the vampire who’d been master of the Fairbanks area before Melena and others had taken her out. They said Variola had been evil and taken countless human lives during her reign. No one outside the supernatural community had a clue, though, since she’d covered her tracks well.
“That’s the one.” Melena glanced at the map. “And I think you put your ex-husband’s body right next to her dumping ground. They could have found him, and if he wasn’t dead yet…”
Cori gasped. “You don’t think they would have saved him, do you?”
Melena’s lips thinned. “I wouldn’t put anything past that woman or her minions.”
“So he might not be a ghost, and he could be alive?”
“It’s possible.” She started folding the map back up. “But if he was near death they would have had to turn him, and there’s only a fifty-fifty chance of survival when someone is transitioning into a vampire. What exactly happened when you saw him? Did he seem solid?”
Cori relayed the full story for her, leaving no detail out. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed plausible that Griff had been real and maybe not a ghost.
“Dark eyes, moves fast, and probably able take a bullet?” Melena shook her head. “It sounds like there’s a greater chance he was turned.”
“But I thought you killed all of Variola’s people except Emily’s mom,” Cori argued.
“We killed the ones who were here. If he wasn’t in town, he might have just dec
ided to stay away until now.” Melena knitted her brows. “But it’s surprising he didn’t go after you right after turning.”
Cori stared into her coffee mug. “That’s what I’m wondering, too.”
“Variola could have had a tight leash on him, or maybe she sent him away. There’s no telling what that woman was up to back then.” Melena straightened her shoulders. “But we’ll figure it out.”
“I’m not trying to get you involved in this,” Cori said, though she was relieved to finally tell someone the story. A weight had lifted off her shoulders by finally sharing it with another person, and it hadn’t been quite as horrible as she’d expected. “It’s my problem to handle. I just wanted to figure out what I was dealing with so I’d know how to proceed.”
Melena rolled her eyes. “You’ve helped me plenty of times, and if this guy is a vampire, you can’t fight him by yourself. He’ll be too strong. I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason you aren’t dead already is because he’s toying with you.”
“And Bartol showed up.”
“You’re assuming Griff saw him,” Melena pointed out. “But from the sounds of it, your ex may have already been long gone by then. This was just his first attempt to get at you.”
“Actually, it’s sort of his second.”
Melena frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He left a note on my door a few days ago, too. I thought it was some kind of prank, but now I know it was him.” Cori ran a hand through her hair. “He’s definitely dragging this out to make me crazy.”
“He’s not going to be easy to find, either. A lot of supernaturals have been moving into the area recently because they’re tolerated here better than most other places. I’ve been picking up all kinds of new guys on my radar,” Melena said, grimacing.
The sensor’s other ability was that she could detect any supernatural within a half-mile radius. According to her, they each had their own signature or aura or something, so she could even recognize one she’d met before. If Griff was the only newcomer, they might be able to track him down just by having Melena drive around the area until she picked him up, but not with a lot of other newbies in the mix.