by L. T. Kelly
“Thank you.”
I squeezed her to me again. “So you’re sure you want to go back to this lot just for their blood? I can’t imagine you drinking blood. You look so innocent,” I told her, thinking out loud.
“It works both ways. I don’t drink it. I inject it,” she explained, as though she were teaching a toddler to tell the time.
“Ahh, that explains things. I guess you’re right. An exchange of sorts?” I couldn’t figure out if I reassured myself or her.
Pearl waited for us at the edge of the wood. Poor Jonah had become niggly now, and she rocked him, to no avail. “I think this little one wants his mother.”
We slowed our pace through the wood for Grace’s sake. She wouldn’t be able to keep up, and the last thing either Pearl or I wanted was the witches turning nasty, thinking we’d done something to her.
They heard us coming, standing in a strong line with Freya front and centre, awaiting our arrival. No children played hide-and-seek tonight or were present in the square.
“We apologise,” I began, making ourselves clear straight away. “I’m sorry,” I said to Jonah’s mother. Dark circles framed her red-rimmed eyes. Pearl handed the baby back to his mother, and she inspected her son’s face before pulling him close to her chest.
“I didn’t expect to find her here. It threw me off.” I gestured to Grace with my head. “I was looking for my fiancé, Bartholomew. Grace told me he visited almost two weeks ago at your request.”
Freya nodded, her lips pursed and her eyes trained on me. She wore the thin, white dress she had on the night before, her dark nipples displayed through the wool, along with a trail of darkness on her pubic bone. The woman clearly didn’t care for underwear. My vision of Bartholomew fornicating with her came back to haunt me with a force that passed through me like a bolt of lightning.
“He’s missing.” I urged her to speak to me. “Have you seen him?” My eyes fell on her neck. A silver locket rested on her breastbone, a blue, oval stone at the centre. The locket dangled from a dainty silver chain. Could it be the amulet Rose had been searching for?
I squirmed beneath Freya’s avid scrutiny, a sheer battle of wills. She had remained silent since our arrival, but I refused to leave without answers.
“Come this way.” She turned slowly and sashayed toward the house she exited the previous night.
I glanced at Pearl, her brows quirked up. She tried to kill us and now she invited us into her home? If I wanted the answers I came for, I could see little choice in the matter. Pearl and I gingerly followed. The clan witches stepped aside to let us pass over the cobbles, their eyes surveying us through mere slits.
Freya had left the door ajar for us to enter. The area was expansive. In the centre of the room sat a handcrafted oak desk, Freya perched on a leather Chesterfield chair behind it.
“He didn’t return.” She cut straight to the matter at hand, for which I was grateful. I didn’t come here to engage in idle chit-chat.
“He’d been certain the Malapropos killed my clan members.” Her lips twitched ever so slightly.
“You’re not convinced?”
“No. There was another vampire sniffing around here. I doubled up the spell to keep her out of the camp, but she just waited for my men to leave.”
I tipped my head to one side. “She?”
Freya pursed her lips. “I smelled expensive perfume on the men’s bodies. If I’m honest with you, they were randy young men. They’d have submitted to even a mildly attractive woman.”
My eyes fell back to the necklace. Standing there, I wished I told Pearl about Rose’s hunger to have a child and her plans to achieve it. If I had, the way I looked at her would’ve alerted her to my suspicions. Instead, she viewed my knowing glance with a blank stare.
“Have you had any prior dealings with the Malapropos?” Pearl questioned.
Freya shook her head. “If I’m completely honest, I don’t know who or what they are.”
Well, that made all of us.
“I think it’s time we went to see them.” I turned to Pearl, resigned to the fact it was time to move on from the Ancrum Clan.
We stepped back outside. I spotted Grace standing to one side with a girl around the same age as her. Tears dribbled over Grace’s flamed cheeks. I swished over to her, making her flinch.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, staring into the blue eyes of the blonde witch, though my question had been directed at Grace.
Grace sniffed, swiping at her face. “Nothing. I got something wrong, that’s all.”
“Pearl and I are leaving now. This is your last chance to come with us.” My eyes stayed on the blonde girl, her cheeks reddened in the same way as Grace’s, her gaze bouncing around the courtyard, looking anywhere but at us.
“I’ll come.”
I drew in a sharp breath. I had not been expecting that. Whatever had happened between the two young women had to be of significance since we only spent a short time away from the young wolf. Grace’s eyes inspected the cobbles beneath her ill-fitting, borrowed Wellington boots. Her trainers had been ruined from our traipse across the moors the previous night.
Curtains twitched around the courtyard as we left. I hoped to be able to say goodbye to Jonah, but understandably, the clan had all trailed away from the courtyard. No party there that evening. No getting high from Grace tonight.
Grace traipsed along behind us, seeming to be lost inside her own head.
“We need to find the caves,” Pearl stated.
I rolled my eyes. Despair had started to set in. I was no closer to finding Bartholomew than I had been when I began this venture. I hugged myself. We were meant to be getting married tomorrow. I should be lying in a lavender-scented bath with cucumbers over my eyes and sipping champagne. Instead, I trawled over boggy fields with another vampire and a teenage wolf who appeared more mixed up than a fruit smoothie. My body ached. Even if he didn’t want to marry me, I wished he were back with me, holding me in our bed. I missed him more than words could define. When I had woken that evening, a solid weight formed in my gut. It appeared to be connected directly to my brain, because each time I realised I wouldn’t be getting hitched tomorrow evening, it jolted and inflamed, the heat searing up and scorching my heart.
“We need to find Bartholomew. I can’t hide the fact I’m beginning to break, Pearl.” Releasing the words softened the pain inside. I was losing control of myself, unsure of where to turn to next.
“What about her?” Pearl nodded toward Grace. Her lips were downturned. Tears flowed freely down her face and dripped onto her hooded sweater.
“I would tell you to distract her, but she’s doing that all by herself.” I slipped my phone out of my pocket. “It’s for her own good,” I said, unsure if I were trying to convince Pearl or myself. Sure, she would be upset with me, but we could hardly drag her along with us without the faintest idea of what we were walking into. Besides, the path to the caves could be treacherous, and I refused to allow any harm to come to her. Convinced I was doing the right thing, I started off to the left, toward the parking lot, but from a distance. Geo answered in two rings, his voice edged with grit.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he demanded.
“Don’t start, Geo. Instead of dealing with my own problems, I’ve dealt with yours instead. My fiancé is still MIA, but I rescued your goddamn niece, so cut the shit,” I hissed down the phone, keeping my voice as low as I could. “Where are you?”
“We just made it to Ancrum.”
I heard Gabriella’s rushing voice asking if her daughter was okay.
“Tell her she’s fine. Well, physically anyway.”
My mind wandered back to the altercation with the pretty witch, and it dawned on my dumb brain why Grace had laughed so hard when I asked her if a boy kept her in the Ancrum Clan. I slapped a palm to my forehead, ignoring the intermingled questions flowing from the phone’s speaker.
“Shut up,” I barked. Their questions only served to fog
my brain further. I gave them directions to the parking lot and told them to hurry up.
Pearl and I needed to concentrate on finding Bartholomew and Bruno now. We did our good deed by finding Grace. I wasn’t so sure handing her back to her wittering mother would be the best course of action, but she couldn’t come with us.
We stepped off the muddy fields as Geo’s car pulled in. Grace’s eyes widened and she started backing up, a wild look flashing in her eyes. Pearl and I reached out in unison, each taking hold of one of her arms. I dipped my head to hers, forcing her to meet my gaze.
“Go back to school, Grace. You’re clever. You can be someone. You don’t want to get mixed up in this shitty world.” I referred to the supernatural world. She turned into wolf form once a month. The rest of the time, I wanted her to live a free and normal life. “I’m sure there are plenty of gorgeous little things at university that would knock the spots off her.” I jerked my head toward where the clan’s camp was. Grace’s eyes widened.
“You know?”
“I’m many things, Grace, but blind isn’t one of them.”
“I loved her,” Grace sobbed.
I wiped her tears away with the flat of my hand. “I hear you.” My words caught in my throat. I’d been that way about her father, convinced I’d never make it through life without him. But with each day, the pain lessened, if only a little. “I swear to you, you can get through this.”
“What have you done to her?” Gabriella shouted from behind me.
I rolled my eyes and turned my head, extending my fangs. This bitch pissed me off. Pearl and I had been through hell saving her daughter’s ass, and she had the cheek to storm over to us. I viewed her accusatory stare and hissed.
“Perhaps if you’d bothered to care for her emotional needs, none of us would be here.”
I turned back and pulled Grace into a hug. “Hey. I’m here whenever you need to talk about anything. Geo can give you my number.” I stroked my palm over her thick, curly locks and planted a kiss on her forehead.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” My brow furrowed. I worked hard to ignore Gabriella’s hot breath on my neck, surprised she didn’t try to yank me away from Grace.
“For forcing me to see sense.”
“You did that all yourself. You had a choice, and it happens that I think you made the right one.”
Her big brown eyes bored into mine. “Me, too.” Her lip quirked in the corner in as much of a smile as she could probably muster given the circumstances.
I stepped aside and glowered at Gabriella’s lined face. Geo hung back by the car, and I glanced between them.
“Look after her, yeah?” I didn’t wait around for their responses, grabbing Pearl’s hand and running into the night in search of answers I hoped I’d find at the caves of Ancrum.
Nine
When I’m Sixty-four
The stream rushed by us over rocks and pebbles, the moon reflecting a blue glow from above and below lighting the dirt path beside the water. Drizzle soaked our hair and caused Pearl’s mascara to streak down her face as we inspected the mossy rock faces across the water from where we walked.
“They have to be around here somewhere.” I slowed a little. My stomach clenched. The thought of walking into yet another unknown situation frayed my nerves.
“There.” Pearl stopped and pointed up to two oval-shaped openings. I inspected the wilderness surrounding us. Were whoever was up there horrible enough to warrant being banished to this place? I studied the area for a way in. There would be no way for a human to gain access. The caves were set in a sheer cliff face. I looked to Pearl, busy grimacing up at the openings.
“And you’re sure you haven’t got a clue what we should expect when we reach the cave?”
She shook her head and chewed her lip. My body tensed with a shiver running down my spine. “Come on,” I urged Pearl, stepping forward. There didn’t seem much point on delaying the inevitable. We had to go up there if we were to discover what had happened to Bartholomew and Bruno.
We sped over the water like a pebble being cast from the muddy bank, launching ourselves upward and clinging to the rocks jutting out oddly from the cliff face. I took a deep breath and peered upward. Whoever lived in the cave would easily be aware of our presence by now. My arms and legs moved like a spider, Pearl only a head length below me, to the right. The rainfall intensified, drops spattering my face as I stared up, prompting my next move to grab the rocks. A whoosh of warm air hit my cheeks as my head became level with the opening.
“Well, well, well… What do we ‘ave ‘ere then.” A jovial voice with a cockney accent rang out from the entrance to the cave.
Brown leather brogues positioned themselves in my line of sight and liver-spotted, spindly fingers fell into my vision.
“Need a ‘and?” he offered politely.
I tilted my head back to see an elderly gentleman, possibly around eighty, wearing worn but clean tweed trousers and a brown-checked shirt.
“Come on, love. I ain’t got all night.” He rolled his eyes at me, the whites of them yellowed with age.
I took his outstretched hand, almost recoiling at how papery thin the skin was, loosening my grip for fear of hurting him. He heaved me up to the ledge with a groan. I stood at the entrance of the cave as he pulled Pearl up, too, with one hand at his back and a wince darkening his face.
He dusted Pearl off like a father would before sending a child to school, looking her up and down and squinting at her face. “Ooh, you’re a pretty one, aren’t you?” He beamed at her, and Pearl dipped her head shyly. He shook his head. “Honestly, don’t get visitors for years, then it’s been like bloody Piccadilly Circus the last few weeks.” His eyes twinkled in the moonlight as he fussed his white beard with his index finger and thumb. “I’m David, by the way. Come on in.” He turned his back to us and limped deeper into the darkness.
Pearl and I exchanged glances, her frown deepening. I shrugged, and we followed the man inside. A noisy generator hummed in the distance, powering a gold standing lamp with a white shade illuminating a wing-backed armchair where another man sat, his head dipped to a green leather-bound book cradled in his hands.
“More visitors, Dougie boy.” David swaggered toward the unoccupied armchair beside Doug’s.
“What?” Doug shouted back, although in easy hearing range, even for a human.
Pearl and I lingered by the entrance. The place was set out like a worn old studio apartment with two large armchairs beside a lamp. A huge, red-and-beige floral-pattern rug was positioned in front of them. Deeper inside the cave were two wooden beds, neatly made up with sheets and blankets tightly tucked over the mattresses.
Doug scrutinised us, his eyes crinkling into a squint. “Who are they?” he asked David with a raised voice.
I began to think we got the wrong place. It seemed more like a retirement home than the banishing place of feral vampires.
“Sorry,” Pearl began, stepping forward, her head cocked. “Are you what they call the Malapropos?” She directed her question at David, it being obvious the other suffered some sort of hearing loss.
Nothing made sense at all. My head ached and weariness attacked me.
“Well, that’s kinda rude, don’t ya think?” David’s face creased up for a moment.
“I suppose it is.” She tipped her head and flashed him her award-winning smile. “I’m Pearl.” David struggled from his seat and took Pearl’s outstretched hand, raising it to his lips and planting a chaste kiss upon it, inspiring a girly giggle from her.
“Teagan,” I said as he turned to me to shake my hand, again kissing it. “We’re sorry.” I couldn’t meet his gaze. “But we sort of expected some sort of evil monsters, not…” I paused, wanting to say a couple of geriatrics, but not wishing to offend.
David chuckled, shaking his head and hobbling back over to his seat. “Ah, that’s what they’d ‘ave you believe. Makes it easier for ‘em to ‘ide us away up ‘ere, don’t it?
” He jutted his chin toward us.
I shifted awkwardly. I guess it did. Hanging my head, I figured he meant Bartholomew and Bruno.
“Excuse me.” I pressed a palm to my chest. “But are you vampires?” I glanced from Doug to David. Doug went back to his book, his halo of wiry, grey hair jutted out at bizarre angles, clearly not enthralled by our arrival.
David nodded, his mouth downturned. “Of sorts, but without the good bits.”
Pearl cocked her head, offering him a gentle smile. “Good bits?”
“Yeah. We age. I got turned when I was twenty-five. It transpired a few years later that I aged like everyone else. I’m eighty-five now, and Dougie boy ‘ere is cracking on ninety-five.”
Doug raised his head at the sound of his name. His frown deepened. “Who’s this?” he barked, as if he just met us for the first time.
David rolled his eyes. “Just read your book, Dougie.”
Doug shook his head. “No, I don’t need you to cook. We can’t eat food, remember?”
David sighed heavily, groaning as he reached over and tapped the book in held in Doug’s gnarled hands. “Read your ruddy book,” he bellowed, his voice echoing around the cave. Doug’s brows raised as though to say, No need to shout, but he followed the order regardless.
Doug answered my next question for me, confirming they didn’t eat food like humans, but as soon as one had been answered, another popped into my brain. “How do you feed? It must be a struggle for you to venture in and out of this place.” I looked around the expansive cave, eerily lit up by the single lamp.
“You bet ya it is,” David said. “I suppose that was the point of that fella putting us in ‘ere, weren’t it?” He sighed, his head falling to one side. I cringed, unable to withstand that the man I loved treated these men so cruelly.
“I still manage to go out and about once a week, but it’s getting harder. I like to nip to the shops and buy the newspaper. Always loved the old rag.” He grinned, a faraway look in his eyes. “Dougie boy ‘ere went out about five years ago. Almost died trying to scramble back up those rocks. He spent an entire month in bed after that. Couldn’t bloody well move. Of course, we are a little better off than the ‘umans, but not much, mind you.”