Keep Me Close

by Elizabeth Cole

  Dom took it and got up from the table, heading to the side hutch, where the brothers had set up a permanent ofrenda. The shelf was covered with pictures of relatives and friends who’d passed away, along with dozens of little statues and candleholders. Most looked like traditional Mexican crafts, but there were other things mixed in too—the tall porcelain Kwan Yin statue with the broken-off hand, a Venetian carnival mask of Death, and some unexpected elephant figurines painted black and white. A pot of marigolds bloomed profusely.

  In the center of the shelf was a framed picture of his parents, dressed up for a Dia de los Muertos parade. His mom, beautiful as La Calavera Catrina, flowers in her hair and her face painted to resemble a colorful skull. His dad, dressed in a perfectly tailored Spanish-style suit in black and white, with a face also made up into a skull, though not with as much detail.

  He put the bowl in front of the picture. He didn’t remember when they started doing that. Probably only a few months after their parents died. But it was now an ingrained habit to not just light candles, but also to offer food when they had the chance.

  “Miss you,” he said quietly.

  When he walked back to the table, Lily stood up. “Let’s clear this table. Mal, you’re on kitchen duty.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because I’m not your maid,” Lily said with a deceptively sweet smile. “Not to mention that Lex and I are doing some very important research.”

  While Mal bitched about being forced to do actual chores, Dom wandered over to the living room and stretched out on the long, low, spectacularly ugly plaid couch that had come with the house. It was incredibly comfortable, which was the only reason they hadn’t burned it.

  The meal threw him into a food coma, and he stared into space while listening to Mal knocking around in the kitchen. The candles burning on the ofrenda flickered. When he was little, he told himself a story that when the candles flickered, it meant his parents were nearby. It was nicer to believe than the more prosaic truth that they always lived in drafty places.

  Dom directed his thoughts toward the ofrenda anyway, looking at the picture of his mom. He told her about Vinny, about how fucking scared he’d been when he thought the demon was about to take her soul. He didn’t tell Vinny that. He didn’t tell his brothers that. But he could tell his mom.

  I can’t watch someone else I love get taken, he thought. It almost killed me the first time. What if it happens again? He’d rather die.

  You’d better live.

  The words came to him so distinctly that he wondered if one of the cats was yelling at him. The candlelight grew brighter, obscuring his mother’s picture.

  Death comes to all. If you fail to live and fail to live with the one you love while you live, I will find you in the afterlife and beat you until you wished there was a death after death, and let me tell you, my Dominino, there’s no Child Protective Services in the Realm of the Dead.

  “Wake up.” Lex nudged Dom’s foot.

  He blinked and shifted to a sitting position. What the hell did he just dream? “Sorry. Didn’t realize I fell asleep.” He saw Lex and Lily standing in front of him. Behind them, the candles at the ofrenda were burning like perfectly normal candles. He shook his head to clear it. “What’s up?”

  Lex announced, “There are no documented cases of wereferrets.”

  Dom waited. “That’s all you got?”

  “We can’t prove a negative,” Lily said. “Theoretically, there could be. Ferrets are mammals, so physiologically, it could work. But there are no documented cases. At all. And yeah, they could be turned undead, but they’d have to exist first.”

  “Thanks.”

  “That’s it?” Lex looked annoyed. “We do a lookup on undead wereferrets and we get a thanks?”

  “Vinny asked about them. She’ll be relieved to know they’re not a big deal.”

  “Vinny. The girl.”

  “Yeah.”

  “The one you said you’d tell us about in exchange for your stupid lookup. What you said at dinner is insufficient.”

  Dom got the message. He explained about meeting Vinny on the side of the road, taking her along for a few days, fending off the vampire that went for her, and then discovering they had the same destination.

  “Fate reboot,” Lex said thoughtfully.

  “Fate’s not a thing,” Lily countered, her voice very firm. “Pattern reboot. The fabric of the universe reweaves itself in similar ways if possible. So Dom meets a woman he’s interested in, like before, and faces a similar enemy in a vampire, like before. And their paths are literally, physically aligned for awhile.”

  “Not permanently,” Dom insisted.

  “Nothing’s permanent,” Lex agreed. “You made a choice to leave her. Why, again?”

  “To get back here. Mal said I needed to get back here.” And he rebooted another pattern when he left, because he’d basically told Vinny that his job was more important than her. That she was second place. And then he left. Yup, he torched any chance she’d want him now.

  Lex was still talking. “He didn’t say to abandon anyone.”

  “I didn’t abandon anyone. Vinny is the most independent person I’ve ever met. You guys, though, need help.”

  “Yeah, but not instantly. The hellhole across the street isn’t open now.”

  “It could open tomorrow.”

  “It won’t,” said Lily. “And there are other people we could call if needed. The whole Salem clan knows about this place.”

  “It’s not the same,” Dom insisted, his words sounding hollow to him. “At the end of the day, this is my house. My job. I can’t let anything get in the way of that.” Not after I fucked everything up with Vin.

  “Being happy isn’t going to get in the way of anything.” Lex was looking at him with an intensity that was starting to make Dom really uncomfortable. Lex was far too good at sussing out things people would rather keep under wraps. “If this chica is so independent, she’ll totally get that.”

  “I don’t want her to get that. I have enough to worry about with you.”

  “Me?” Lex raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh, boy,” Lily muttered.

  Dom clarified, “You and Mal.”

  “What about me?” Malachy walked up and stood next to Lex.

  “Oh, Christ. Is this an intervention?”

  “Yeah,” Mal said. “We’re intervening on you being a dumbass. You’ve been miserable and all stone-faced since Rachel. And while that was serious shit and worth being miserable about, it is time to move on. You found a girl who knows you hunt vampires and she stuck around. That’s rare.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “And you love her,” Lily said. “It’s obvious.”

  “I barely know her.”

  Lex crossed his arms. “By definition, a person you discuss undead wereferrets with is a person you know well. That’s just science.”

  “I’ve got too much going on to think about me,” Dom said. “I need to be here for you guys.”

  “Dude,” Lex said heatedly, “I don’t actually need you to sign my permission slips any more. I’m a grown up. And so are you. Don’t use us as an excuse for why you’re afraid to live your own life.”

  “It’s not up to me.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that if I do tell her that I want her in my life, she’s the one who has to choose whether she wants to deal with the crazy that is our family.”

  Lex frowned. “Wait. You put it all on her? That’s a dick move.”

  “I was trying to be mature.”

  “Fuck that. Did you even tell her what you want? That you’re stupid in love with her?”

  Dom’s expression was enough to answer that.

  “You didn’t,” Lex said. “Why the hell not?”

  “Because that would…affect her decision?” Yeah, that sounded dumb out loud.

  His brother looked like he wanted to throttle him. “News flash. You want to affect her decision.
You want her to know you love her. Otherwise, she’s going to think you don’t and guess what. That will affect her decision.”

  Dom looked sullenly over to Mal. “Is that what you were going to say, too?”

  “Basically. Though Lex punched you less than I would have.”

  “It’s too late now,” Dom said. “I already messed it up.” God, and how.

  Lily held up his phone and wiggled it at him. “If only there were some sort of magical device that could allow you to reach out over thousands of miles to speak to her.”

  “Shut up. I get it.” He took the phone, though he couldn’t imagine what he could say to make it up to her.

  “Don’t recite a sonnet,” Mal added. “Just talk to her.”

  “Dom can talk,” Dom grunted.

  “And don’t go caveman.”

  “Dom not stupid.”

  Chapter 29

  Since the morning Dom took off, Vinny put her mind to helping Emma as much as she could. Anything that distracted her from the hollow bit in her heart. Still, nearly every fifteen minutes, she thought of Dom. And she still couldn’t hate him. Fuck.

  They cleaned up the mess in the house that Jonas, and Jonas’s demon, left behind. Emma took frequent breaks, blaming her recurring migraines. Vinny suspected that her friend just needed to curl up under a blanket, but didn’t want to say so. Emma hated to be seen as anything less than tough. Just another reason why the two were best friends.

  While Emma was sleeping, Vinny picked up her phone, having seen a familiar name.

  “Hey, Brennan. It’s Vinny.”

  Brennan sounded astonished. “Jesus, Vinny, how’d you get there so fast?”

  “I just happened to be here when it went down,” she said.

  “Oh, no. I mean, I’m glad Emma wasn’t on her own, but I’m sorry you had to see it. Wow. Sounds like Jonas’s inner demons finally caught up to him.”

  “Um.” Metaphorical. Brennan’s speaking metaphorically. Calm down. “You got it exactly right.”

  “You doing okay?”

  “I’ll survive, just like always,” Vinny said. “Did you want to talk to Emma? She’s taking a nap.”

  “Oh, don’t wake her. I just wanted to call and let her know if there’s anything I can do… just ask. Seriously. Anything.”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  “And tell her don’t worry about the article she’s working on. I’ll push the deadline back to the next issue, or whenever. She needs to think about herself now.”

  “Yeah. It’ll take a while.”

  Brennan said, “It’s really lucky you’re there. I can’t think of a better person to help Emma right now.”

  “Her family?” Vinny suggested.

  “Sure, but there’s nothing like a true friend. And that’s you.”

  “You too,” she said. “In fact, you should find a reason for Emma to come out to New York soon. It would be good for her.”

  “Oh. Um.”

  Vinny could practically hear him shuffling his feet. She grinned. “Just something to think about. I’ll let her know you called.”

  Putting the phone down, she smiled. It would be nice for Emma to get a change of scenery. Even if it turned out to be just a fling.

  Emma looked a little stronger every time Vinny saw her. They packed up Jonas’s things for a moving company to pick up. They disconnected the surveillance cameras. “I’ll get a guard dog,” Emma declared. They watched old movies and ate popcorn. Emma chose The Philadelphia Story, and Vinny chose Dark Carnival.

  They sometimes talked, and sometimes not. Occasionally, Vinny heard Emma singing, so she figured Emma would be all right, eventually. Learning that your lying, cheating husband was willing to consort with the underworld to enable his lying and cheating would take a while to work through.

  Vinny should be happy she was single.

  She was not.

  Two weeks ago, she’d been perfectly content to be single. Also, she had no idea vampires and demons and who the hell knew what else even existed. Also, she hadn’t met Dominic Salem.

  “I really, really, really should not have got on that bike,” she muttered.

  As if to stick the knife in farther, Vinny scrolled through the photos on her phone, stopping at the one she took of Dom when he first picked her up on the side of the road. The one she’d threatened to send to the cops if anything happened to her.

  Dom was looking directly at the camera, not smiling. But the smoking hot image he presented was throughly photobombed by Piewicket, who was poking her little face out from behind his back, her eyes round and interested, her fur glowing from the sunlight.

  Vinny laughed at the picture, then sighed. If only she’d known then just how tangled up she’d be by Dominic Salem. God damn.

  “What’re you looking at?” Emma asked, coming out onto the patio where Vinny was sitting.

  Vinny showed her the picture. Emma smiled at it. “They’re both cute. When are you going to see them again?”

  “On the twenty-first of never.”

  “What?” Emma asked. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. When he left, it was a permanent sort of thing.”

  “But…no.” Emma seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the reality of Vin’s situation. “That can’t be right. Right?”

  “It was good while it lasted, I have to admit,” Vinny said. “I just wish it lasted a little longer.”

  “Wait. Did he really break it off with you cold?”

  “Pretty much. He said it nicer, but he’s got priorities, and a long-term relationship isn’t one of them. Family first. And fighting evil second.”

  “Hard to argue with that, I guess,” Emma said quietly. “But maybe he just needs some time to realize how amazing you are.”

  Vinny hung her head. “That’s the worst part. He actually said that. I’m amazing. And it’s still not enough.” She leaned into Emma, feeling her friend’s arm tighten over her shoulder. “This is nuts,” she said. “I should be comforting you.”

  Emma said, “Eh. My soon-to-be-ex-husband nearly died because he was a selfish dumbass who let a demon talk him into making a really bad deal. I’d have negotiated way better perks per soul.”

  “Stop that,” Vinny said, stifling a laugh.

  “What else can I do besides joke? I’ll lose my mind if I think about it too much. I just want to forget it. Don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Vinny said. But she didn’t actually agree. She didn’t want to forget any of it. It was like going back to black and white after seeing color for the first time. She wanted to know so much more.

  But she also didn’t want to worry Emma, who had plenty to worry about already, as she started to reassemble a life she’d put on hold for too long. So the two women just stayed there, huddled together while the sun set over the low mountain ridge to the west, the water in the bay turning as red and purple as the sky.

  Hours later, Vinny’s phone buzzed.

  Emma, who was closer, picked it up. She frowned at the screen, then said, “Undead wereferrets minimal threat. Also I miss you. What is an undead wereferret?”

  “Aw. He remembered.” Vinny tried to stay cool, but a little shiver of hope ran through her body. He missed her?

  “Explain.”

  Vinny shrugged. “It was just a thing we were talking about one time, and he said he’d look into it for me. It’s not something we have to talk about now, because they’re a minimal threat.”

  “He said he misses you,” Emma pointed out. “Which is macho guy speak for he loves you.”

  “Don’t make a text message into a declaration of love. If he meant that, he would have said it.”

  Emma snorted. “Like hell. He loves you but he’s too afraid to say it.”

  “He fights vampires and demons. He’s not scared of anything.”

  “Except being rejected by the woman he researched wereferret threat levels for. What are you going to reply?”

  Vinny grabbed the phone. “Nothi
ng!”

  “Vin, you have to put yourself out there.”

  “That’s exactly what I did! And he didn’t want me.”

  “He made a mistake. You’re about to make one too, if you don’t give this thing with him another chance.”

  “He made himself really clear, Emma. You weren’t there, but trust me. He very kindly told me that he had a great time, but I wasn’t a long-term investment.”

  “Shut up with your one-percent speak. I know he didn’t say those words. That’s the sort of thing your parents would say.”

  That’s exactly what her parents had said.

  Emma was watching her intently. “Vin, not everyone is like your parents, seeing people as things. They messed up your childhood, but don’t let their twisted mindset make your adult life miserable. You are worthy of love.”

  Vinny felt hot tears stinging her eyes. “I know.”

  “You agree, but I don’t think you believe it yet. Say it.”

  “What are you, my therapist?”

  “I’m your friend, which is like a therapist but with more wine. I love you. You came all the way out here to help me, and now I’m going to help you.” Emma squeezed her tight. “Say it, bitch.”

  Vinny swallowed. “I’m worthy of love.”

  “Now say it like you believe it.”

  “I am worthy of love.” The words felt odd to hear in her voice.

  “He doesn’t care if you’re a musical prodigy,” Emma told her. “He doesn’t care about your last name or who you grew up with or how much money you’ve got in your Swiss bank account. Maybe a relationship with him won’t work out, but you need to give it a shot. You listening?”

  “Yes.”

  “So what are you going to do about it? Is there a ferret emoji?” Emma made a grab for the phone again.

  “I’m not emoji-ing my way into a relationship!” Vinny held the phone out of reach. “Give me a minute to think.”

  She spent more than a minute, gazing at the night-blanketed valley scattered with tiny lights of other homes. Emma kept quiet.

  Finally, Vinny took a deep breath. “Can I borrow a car? I have to do a thing.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “If I’m lucky, the rest of my life.”