Brush With Death: A Sadie Salt Urban Fantasy (Sadie Salt Series)

by Ware Wilkins

  “It means there’s a bone witch in Grimloch. I haven’t seen a witch hunt in over a hundred years, but they aren’t pretty. Damn it, I’m going to have to tell the local nest.”

  This is Benji’s other peculiarity. Most vampires want to be in a nest of their own. They have strict laws and a vampire King and Queen. Nests offer protection, they offer relationships and companionship for immortals, and they help the vampire governing body keep tabs on everyone. Benji, though, refuses to join any nests. He despises the local one, but hasn’t told me why.

  “Maybe you’re wrong. What if Alec comes over while you’re here and double checks?”

  “You just want me here when Alec comes so he won’t eat you.”

  Yes, yes I do. “Can you blame me?”

  “No. He’s a bite first, apologize later kind of leader, and he takes his pack protection seriously.” Benji presses a finger to his lips. “But I’m not wrong about the smell. You’re a human, so I don’t expect you to understand how serious this is. Bone witches were supposed to have been eliminated.”

  “From the area?”

  “From the earth.”

  Ah, well. I didn’t know that. Uncle Oliver has been withholding information and, while I understand that he thinks keeping me in the dark is keeping me in safety, I’m beginning to wonder if ignorance is about to get me killed. “It’s just magic,” I whisper, though I know it’s more. How could I not, with all the warnings? And there’s that delicious feeling that comes with the magic. How it pulses in me, feeling better than sex. It feels like power, like I’m invincible.

  He gives me this look that’s so “silly human” that I roll my eyes. “Okay, I get it. Big deal. So what now? I call Alec?”

  Benji frowns. “I want to look something up, first. I’m going to run home real quick and grab some things. I was joking about Alec eating you, but I do think I should be here.”

  My face feels cold as my blood turns to ice. “You really think he might hurt me?”

  “If Nash was a family member and you walked in on this, do you think you’d remain rational?”

  That’s the knife sliding in deep, for sure. I don’t have to imagine it. When I found my parent’s mutilated bodies I was far from rational. The heartbreak and disbelief had kept me numb for a little while, but later the fury... the fury had come close to consuming me. Even as he’s just trying to make a point, Benji’s words are stoking the fire of rage and revenge in me.

  “I’ll wait.” It’s all I can say.

  “Okay. I’ll be right back. Don’t do anything stupid,” he warns. Then he’s gone in less time than I could have snapped my fingers. I don’t know if he can teleport or if, when not concerned about my human sensibilities, he truly is faster than sight. All I know is I’m alone with a body, a ton of questions, and an awful feeling that this wasn’t rock bottom.

  Chapter Six

  “Oh, my.”

  The words send a tremor through me and I grip Nash’s arm and the chair to keep my legs from failing. The cold of his flesh revolts me, and I jerk my hand off. There’s a shimmer of power in the air and then Tee, in all her screwed up glory, steps up next to me.

  If only Tee looked like the pictures we make of the Tooth Fairy. You know, with cute curls, pink fluffy dress, and the wand. Unfortunately, she’s an old fae. Which means there’s none of the cute and all of the strange. Her skin is like old leather, cracked and mahogany. Her face is too narrow and her eyes black. Not just the pupil and iris—the whole eyeball. It’s like looking into a demon’s eyes. Tee has a lot of teeth that are quite sharp and she likes to remind you of this by smiling too wide and too often. She kept the fluffy pink dress because she thinks it’s funny.

  Tee’s leaning on the dentist’s chair and smiling now. “This is an unusual way to go about paying debts, Sadie. I like it.” She taps Nash’s head and I grit my teeth to keep from snarling at her.

  “I didn’t do this.”

  “No? I can feel your magic, though. It’s been too long. What’s the point of me giving you the magic to find your parents and the ability to seek revenge if you never use it?” Oh, Tee, always cutting straight to the chase. The deal we made so long ago delights her because it wasn’t a deal at all. A deal would have meant I got something out of it, too. Instead, all I got was a world of trouble and I’m still no closer to knowing who killed my parents and giving them a taste of what they did to my folks.

  My eyes dart around and Tee laughs. “Your vampire friend won’t show up. I freeze time when I’m in your plane, of course. How else to get all those lovely baby teeth?”

  There’s a dull ache starting behind my left eye. A lot has happened and the stress has compounded with my already sleep-deprived body. I’m exhausted. At this point I’m sure even my cells are crying out for rest. “You stop time and you’re from another plane?”

  Tee waves her hand, her claw-tipped fingers looking more like deadly weapons than something to put me at ease. “Sure. After all, you summoned me all those years ago. To summon means to pull me from another plane.”

  “I always assumed I just summoned you from another place. On this plane. How many planes are there?”

  She gives me a pitying side-eye. “Sweet, sweet Sadie. The things I could tell you... But I won’t. I don’t have long here, so pay up.”

  “I’m kind of in the middle of something.” There’s a smidge of hope that she’ll understand that a dead werewolf has to be considered extenuating circumstance.

  “So give me his teeth.”

  “Someone already took them all.”

  If I wasn’t paying attention, I would have missed the worry that skated over her strange fae features. “That’s interesting,” is all she says, though. “And not my problem. You owe me two pounds of teeth.”

  “I’ve got three were molars, seventeen human teeth, and some cat’s teeth.” Ingrid’s in school part-time and her science class dissected cats. She was thoughtful enough to bring me a few of her test subject’s teeth.

  “That’s not promising. The were teeth may save your bacon, though. Pay up.” She holds out her hand, claws wriggling, her foot tapping a staccato rhythm on the floor.

  I go to the drawer of the desk in my office and pull it out. Then I pull up its false bottom and grab the teeth I’ve been hoarding for this month’s dues. Just before I hand them over, I grab the third molar from my pocket. It should have been four and now I’m seriously regretting burning one earlier, even though it was for a necessary cause. Tee looks on in wry amusement.

  Placing the teeth in her palm, I stand back and hold my breath.

  She weighs them with her own, unique magic. The best way my uncle explained it is magic has a push and a pull. Items which contain life essence, like herbs and, in this case, teeth, push magic out. Like pressure. So when Tee says I owe her two pounds of teeth, she doesn’t mean a literal two pounds. That would be crazy. She means two pounds of magic pressure. That could be forty or more human teeth, or a few young paranormals, or (if I am ever so lucky) just one tooth from a very old and powerful fae.

  “I thought you said you had three were teeth.”

  “I did. I pulled these three molars from this one,” I nod to Nash, “before he died.” I point to the ones in her palm.

  “They’re human.”

  So long for my hope that they’d count. But I guess I learned something valuable today. A paranormal’s wisdom teeth don’t obtain their essence, but remain the human teeth after their owner changes. Helpful later, but I’m screwed now.

  “So how short am I?”

  “You’re lucky, is what you are. These cat teeth have a lot of weight.”

  I frown. “It was just a cat.”

  Tee shrugs. “If you say so. It feels like fae, though.” Her fingers close around the teeth and her mouth moves with unspoken words. When her hand opens, the teeth are gone. “Well done, Sadie. See you next month.”

  “Wait!” I cry. “Do you know what killed Nash? If his teeth are missing—”
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  “I’d guess bone witch,” she says casually. “Not good for you. Too much competition for resources and you’re already having trouble making payments. Psht,” she tsks, “cat teeth. What will you think of next?”

  In a poof of dust and smoke, Tee is gone. Relief hits me hard and I sit where I am, on the floor right next to Nash’s body. I can see under the dentist’s chair from here and there’s a giant pool of blood. Paying Tee off is always nerve wracking. I have no way to measure the magic myself. Or I do, but it would require consuming some of the product as well as putting myself at major risk of death. Seeing Benji’s concerned reaction has told me Uncle Oliver wasn’t joking when he told me to hide this part of myself deep down.

  One more month down, who knew how many more to go? I’ve been paying her in teeth since I was eighteen. Six years, seventy two payments, three owed favors, and I have no idea how close I am to being square. Belatedly I remember Ingrid’s demand that I ask about it, but I obviously have other things on my mind.

  I jump as Benji’s hand touches my shoulder.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  When I look, he doesn’t have anything with him, but he’s changed his clothing. Before, when he’d first arrived, he’d been in a t-shirt and some skinny jeans. Now he was in black slacks and a tailored black button-down shirt, looking every inch lethal and typical vampire. They do tend to enjoy theatrics and presentation. At least the few vampires I’ve spoken with do. “Wait,” I say. “Did you seriously just go home to change clothes?”

  “Gotta look the part for Alec.”

  “I’m freaking out here, Nash is dead, and you change clothes?”

  “Sadie, darling,” Benji says as he holds out a hand and helps me to stand. “This isn’t my first dead-body rodeo. Go ahead and call Alec.”

  Hands trembling, I do. The phone barely rings once before the local packmaster has answered with a low, barking command. “What?” is all he says.

  “This is, um, Sadie Salt.” My throat is so tight that the words barely squeak out.

  “Who?”

  Clearing my voice, I try again. “Sadie. Sadie Salt, the dentis—”

  “I know who you are. How’s Nash?” Alec is always bossy and impatient. Unlike Benji, he is exactly what I think of when I think alpha werewolf.

  He’s dead, I think, but I can’t make myself say it. Benji’s face twists and then he grabs the phone from me. “Alec, it’s Benji Sutton here. Come to Sadie’s now, and bring your best tracker.” Then he hangs up and hands the phone back.

  “Why didn’t you tell him?”

  “He’s going to be in a fury when he gets here, but I don’t want him bringing a mob. The tracker request warns him enough that shit has gone down. He’ll probably think Nash has shifted and run off, if we’re lucky.”

  We wait in long, awkward silence. Wolves are fast in their animal form, but it still takes time for them to run. Knowing Alec, though, he’ll stick to a car. His wolves never shift around Grimloch, too afraid that the residents might see them. Instead, they head over to Pisgah National Forest and run wild as needed.

  Benji isn’t the kind of guy comfortable with silence because he begins to fidget. First by walking around my office and picking up tools to study them. Finally, though, he sits in my swivel chair. “Why’d you call me?”

  “Ingrid’s working and I doubt she could help me with the body. I don’t know who’s done this or if they’re after me, too, so I wanted someone strong and capable of fighting.” I shrug. “When we work together, you’re always so nice to me. I’m your dentist, you don’t have to be so nice.”

  Something flickers in his green eyes. “That’s true,” he says slowly. “But you aren’t just my dentist. Blood doesn’t stain teeth the same way the wine of my youth did, so I doubt I’ll need your services much.”

  “So why do you let me have your venom?”

  “Honestly?” I nod. Why wouldn’t I want honesty? “Because I think you’re funny. Who in their right mind thinks to become a dentist for creatures like me? It’s the most mundane, boring job in a world where things have a hard time being mundane or boring. You’re cute and nice and since I avoid the nest, I don’t have a lot of friends.”

  Something in my chest tugs a little. “So... we’re friends?”

  “Yeah, Sadie, Sweetheart, we are.”

  There is something so warm and reassuring about this proclamation that when a heavy fist knocks on my door like it’s trying to bust through, I almost feel prepared to face its owner. After all, my friend the old-ass vampire is here. Looking perfectly menacing, I might add.

  Alec doesn’t wait for me to get to the door. It swings open and he storms in, Henry, his second in the pack, close behind. I’ve only made it halfway down the hall toward them when they come stomping toward me. Their nostrils are flaring and their eyes are yellow and the snarls coming out of their mouths send my heart into my throat. Backing away is instinct, and it’s dumb—it’s something prey would do. Their gazes jerk to me, but then Benji’s behind me, his hands on my shoulders. A guard and a warning to them.

  “What happened here?” Alec demands, his voice almost a roar. He doesn’t wait for an answer, though. I know he smells Nash, and his rush past me confirms it. When he gets to the room, there’s a split-second pause and then a long, loud howl ripping through a still-human throat. It perverts it into something eerie and so pained that I shiver.

  Benji’s strong hands guide me back into the room. Alec and Henry are standing on either side of Nash’s body, their shoulders hunched and heaving as they war to control themselves. But they’re older, head of the pack for a reason, and soon human eyes, no longer wolf-yellow, are pinned on me.

  “I hope you have a good explanation for why you’re covered in Nash’s blood and he’s still strapped to your chair,” Alec grits out. I’m honestly impressed that he’s asking a question instead of trying to rip my throat out.

  “You know I had to pull his two teeth tonight,” I state, my voice trembling. “I pulled his teeth, but he was starting to shift, so I left the room. I had a visitor, and when I came back,” my eyes dart to the large, open rip in his chest, “that’s how I found Nash.”

  “What visitor?” Benji asks, and I realize I left that detail out.

  “Abe Murray. The sheriff.”

  The paranormals all exchange glances. Vamps and werewolves aren’t friends, but they tend to not be mortal enemies anymore. Vampire venom is so painful to a were it can incapacitate them, and wolves are fast and their pack telepathy makes it easy for them to strategically attack vampires. But times change and my understanding is that as soon as the industrial revolution occurred, they set aside most of their differences in an effort to stay hidden.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Did he see anything?” Benji asks, too soft and nice.

  “No!” They are wondering if they need to kill Abe. “No, of course I didn’t let him see anything. We talked and then he left without coming inside. When I came back here to my office, Nash was already dead.”

  Benji spoke first. “I trust her.” Her, meaning me, like I’m not standing right here.

  “Fine,” Alec replies, focusing on Henry instead. “Do a search.”

  Henry begins to strip out of his clothing and I cast my gaze to Benji, surprise written on my features. He’s watching Henry, though, with a delighted hunger that makes me blush. Alec growls at Benji.

  “You can’t blame a man for looking,” he teases back. “I’ve always admired what fine specimens you werewolves are. Lycanthropy is better than six days a week at the gym and a no-carb diet.”

  “A pup is dead and you’re making jokes,” Alec snaps.

  “My apologies,” Benji offers, though I can’t tell if he’s sincere. Either way, it seems that Alec decides it’s enough and focuses on Henry, who’s now fully shifted. I’ve never actually seen a fully shifted wolf and the sight is startling. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end as I take in th
e enormous paws, barrel of a chest, lean, long limbs, and the snout and jaws that were large enough to bite off my entire head. Werewolves are substantially larger than their animal counterparts. Seeing one in person begs the question of how they’d stayed secret for so long.

  Then Henry is on the move. His nose goes first to Nash, sliding up and down the body. He lingers around the mouth, enough so that Alec grabs Nash’s jaw and squeezes it open. He isn’t pleased with what he finds. “Where are his teeth?” His voice is barely human.

  “They were gone when I found him,” I squeak.

  His lip curls up, revealing strong teeth that I’ve only worked on once. Alec isn’t fond of my business, nor do I think he believes it’s necessary. He did have a chip from gnawing on a tibia (I didn’t ask what kind of tibia) that I was able to repair, and a decayed tooth no amount of wolfy healing was going to repair. That one I kept and it went toward my debt. There are plenty of fae and other paranormals I could point him to that I’ve helped, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of person to change his mind, whatever the facts. “Hard to believe, Sadie, when I know you collect our teeth.”

  “I don’t collect them,” I grumble.

  “What other reason do you have to need them?”

  “I’ve told you before, they’re insurance—”

  Alec’s hackles are rising and I wonder just how in control he is. After all, the full moon is imminent and he’s emotional right now. “If you don’t do anything wrong, then you don’t need insurance.”

  That’s just insulting. The only reason Nash is on my table is that I’d been willing to risk my life to help save his. I don’t know who did this to him, but it scares the shit out of me that they have. His poor girlfriend, his parents, his pack—they’re all going to suffer his loss. I was going to suffer it. So Alec’s accusations are slamming home in a nasty way, and I’m probably a little too brave with Benji’s support. “Wrong. You’re already in here accusing me without proof. If I didn’t have a friend here, I’d probably be kibble by now. So yes, Alec, I do need insurance, because you’re a big, bad wolf who likes to huff and puff instead of listen!”