Safe Hex With a Vampire

by Cassandra Lawson

Chapter Three

  I spent the next three days stalking Claudia. Vampires, like most predators, take great pleasure in stalking. She was very skilled at avoiding me, which made it even more exciting. At least, it was exciting in the beginning. By the end of the second day, I was more than a little frustrated.

  Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

  Tempest pulled out her cell phone as she studied the man on the ground. It was sad how evil could come in such an attractive package. His neighbors would probably describe him as a very nice man. Sociopaths wore a mask of humanity to hide their grotesque nature from the world. Shaking her head in disgust, she turned away and called her cousin.

  Her call was answered on the first ring. “I’ve got him. Hurry, he has a nasty head wound I need to stitch quickly.” Her own cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She wasn’t normally this clumsy.

  Tempest studied him again, experiencing her first inkling of doubt. His victims had described him as attractive in an almost feminine way. This man was attractive, but feminine wasn’t a word she’d use to describe him. He’d stalked her for several blocks and had definitely been putting off some predatory vibes.

  When the van with her cousins, Rose and Willow, pulled up to the front of the alley, they quickly loaded the man into the back. He was heavy, so Tempest opted to move him the easy way. She reached out with her mind and lifted his weight. Willow opened the side door and helped her settle him in while Rose drove. Rose and Willow were sisters and helped her run a center for abused women, along with her own sister, Ivy.

  Her cousins sounded like ditsy teens and looked like librarians. They both had straight brown hair which they kept in severe buns most of the time. This skill for securing hair was quite useful when Tempest needed to secure her own long blonde hair under the black wig. They both wore large round glasses over their deep blue eyes. Neither wore makeup, and they tended to dress in clothing resembling parochial school uniforms.

  “He totally doesn’t look like I thought he would,” Rose remarked as she took a moment to study the man from the driver’s seat before she drove off.

  Willow nodded her agreement. “Totally not what I expected.”

  That only added to Tempest’s sense of unease. “Give me my kit so I can stitch the head wound. He won’t be any good if he bleeds out in the back of the van.” He was resting on his side, so she pushed him onto his stomach to make it easier to get to the head wound. “Where the hell is Ivy?”

  Ivy always stayed close to her when they hunted because she was the one with the talent for identifying their target. She could also communicate with Tempest mentally if they were close enough. Normally, Tempest wouldn’t have continued with their plan without Ivy, but she couldn’t risk letting this guy get away. His violence had escalated in the past month. Besides, he’d already been pursuing her by the time she’d realized Ivy wasn’t close by. At that point, it had been too late to abandon the trap.

  “She got penned in trying to get off the train and couldn’t exit at the same station as you did. I’m on my way to pick her up before we head back,” Rose explained.

  Tempest filled the syringe with a sedative and injected her patient. It was risky to give him a sedative with the head wound, but it would be riskier to have him wake up in the van. This guy was dangerous and, like any animal, being injured could make him more dangerous. In order to stitch his head wound, she needed to shave a small patch of hair, which made her wonder why his hair wasn’t covered. The victims had all said he kept his hair covered so they couldn’t identify the color. At least, his eyes were masked by dark sunglasses like she’d expected. It was possible he’d forgotten to put his hat on.

  When Willow finished checking him for weapons, she seemed confused. “O M G! This guy only has a pocket knife on him. Didn’t you tell me he carries a really big knife?”

  Tempest’s brow furrowed. This was not good.

  The van pulled to the side of the road, and Ivy slipped into the passenger’s seat. “Sorry about the mix up.”

  “Can you please help her?” Willow whined. “I’m getting a little carsick.”

  Tempest knew the truth. Willow was squeamish, but they all pretended not to know.

  “Sure,” Ivy agreed as she scooted into the back. When she looked down at the man she nearly screeched. “That’s Aiden!”

  “Who?” Tempest asked as she finished the stitches. She was having trouble processing what she was seeing, which made it hard to focus on Ivy’s words.

  “Tempest, look at me!” Ivy nearly shouted.

  Tempest looked up at her, still distracted by the head wound. “What is it?”

  Ivy was waving her arms wildly. “This isn’t the man we’ve been hunting. I met this guy right before I got on the train, and he projects his thoughts pretty well. From his thoughts I could tell he was looking for sex but only with a willing partner. You injured and kidnapped the wrong guy. We need to find a way to drop him at a hospital.”

  Tempest shook her head as she studied the head wound with a sense of disbelief. “I don’t think he’d appreciate being dropped off at the hospital.”

  “Are you insane?” Ivy asked. “The man needs a doctor, and we need to cut our losses.”

  “Ivy.” Tempest began in a patient voice. “First of all, I am a doctor. Second, his head wound is already healing over the stitches I just put in.”

  Ivy’s eyes widened with shock. “That’s not possible.”

  Tempest cut off the stitches she’d already made and grabbed gauze pads to apply pressure to the wound so he wouldn’t lose too much blood while it healed. “Most people would say the stuff we can do isn’t possible. I’m not sure what he is, but I’m sure he doesn’t want to end up in the hospital. I’ll treat him at the center.”

  “Oh, I so do not think so,” Rose argued. “We can’t keep him at the center.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” Tempest insisted. “I injured him. The least I can do is make sure he’s okay. He’s got his own secrets, so I doubt he’ll reveal ours. Plus, I really want to find out how his body is doing this. It could be useful.”

  “You can’t experiment on the poor man,” Ivy told her.

  Tempest sighed. “I’m not planning to experiment on him. I’m just going to take a little blood and ask him a few questions when he wakes up.”

  “This is a very bad idea, Tempest,” Ivy argued. “He may haves an emergency contact on his phone.”

  “Ivy,” Tempest began with an edge to her voice, “we don’t know what he is. His emergency contact could be like him. They might be dangerous.”

  “I totally agree with Ivy,” Willow added from the front seat. “If that thing might be dangerous, we should leave it somewhere. There was a huge dumpster in the alley. We should leave it in there.”

  “I don’t think he’s dangerous,” Ivy insisted as she glared at the back of Willow’s head, “and I never suggested we leave him in a dumpster!”

  “No offense, Ivy,” Rose began, “but you’ve been wrong before. I don’t think we should risk our safety or the safety of the other women in our care.”

  “I’m done arguing,” Tempest told them. “He goes back with us.”

  Ivy nodded, but she didn’t look happy with the situation.

  “And where do you expect to keep that thing?” Willow asked.

  “In a containment area until we know if he’s dangerous,” Tempest replied.

  “You’re going to put him in a cage?” Ivy gasped. When she saw the expression on Tempest’s face she put her hands up. “Fine, I guess we don’t really have much choice.”

  It was a relief when the van fell silent. No one seemed happy with her decision, but at least they’d stopped arguing about it.