by K. F. Breene
“On a hunch, I riffled through his file first. It was ballsy, given the time constraints, but I figured something would jump out at me. And it did. There was a magically sealed box in the file. I broke in easily, and in it, I found Italian letters like the one I found in Nicholas’s office. Same style, not signed, everything. One was dated two weeks before my brother was scheduled to leave on his trip. I checked the other barons’ files, and while they also had secret letters in their possession, they didn’t have the same style. Not quite.”
“But why didn’t Nicholas—the guy who actually carried out the orders—notice the style was different?” I asked.
“I’m not a genius, but I do have some intelligence. Nicholas does not. He’s a hired gun, nothing more. He does what he’s told, completely controlled, and they love him for it. There are a couple like him. Still, I wasn’t positive. The letters are in Italian, after all. Then I found a correspondence between the two other barons about the possibility of Conrad replacing Kempworth. Another nail in the coffin. And now there’s a hole in their organization.”
“Now there are a lot of holes,” my mother said. “It’ll take them a while to recoup. It gives us some time.”
“But not much—”
“Ah!” I jumped and moved to fling out my hands, but Emery caught them, keeping the spell contained.
Darius stood in the archway to the living room, wearing slacks and a pressed shirt, his hair perfectly in place. He looked like he’d just walked off a runway. How did the guy do it? Also, why hadn’t he learned to make more noise when creeping into a room with me in it?
He sauntered in, all confidence, with a manila envelope. “You don’t have much time. A couple of months for them to regroup, but they’ll be back. We’ll need to think about changing locations.”
“We”—my mother gestured between the two of us—“will need to think about changing locations. You”—she jabbed a finger at Darius—“will get some spells and a thank you and asked to be on your merry way.”
“Mother,” I said, trying to shush her.
“Don’t worry, Miss Bristol,” Darius said, handing the envelope to my mother. “Lately, I’ve grown used to that kind of talk from the magically inclined.” Darius turned to me as my mother gingerly opened the envelope, her eyes narrowing. It looked like she expected a snake to jump out. “You know, of course, that you have a standing invitation for training from the dual-mages in New Orleans. As I’ve mentioned, I know them personally, buy spells from them consistently, and can attest to their excellent standing and knowledge within the magical community. You couldn’t ask for better training, or pushier people.”
“I’m liking the sound of these people already,” my mother mumbled, pulling out a few sheets of paper.
“Yes. Given your excitement level when heavily armed, I’d say you’d get along with them just fine,” Darius said dryly. His gaze flicked to Emery. “If you can’t get training elsewhere, then they are always an option.”
Emery stiffened, and pain I didn’t want to acknowledge squeezed my heart.
“Thank you,” I said to Darius, hooking a hand around Emery’s forearm. “You saved the day. And it looked like you got a little burned doing it.”
“Some of the younger vampires, yes. It couldn’t be helped. I’m sure you likely know I wasn’t solely concerned with your interests.”
“Wow. That’s not something I thought you would admit,” I murmured. Emery chuckled.
Darius didn’t seem to hear me, which was impossible, given his preternatural hearing ability. “Naturals are so very rare, and a pair with gifts such as yours is rarer still. The magical community would be loath to lose you, not to mention there was a debt that my child needed to settle. I didn’t wish to lose either of you.”
“What now?” my mother asked, lowering the papers so she could look over them.
As if on cue, Marie sauntered into the room, all hips and breasts and super-fancy clothes. Just like Darius, she looked like a million dollars, freshly minted.
Her smoky gaze hit me. “You saved me from eternal death within the guild compound. I had not expected that from a pixie-like creature such as yourself. You intrigue me, Penelope.” Lust sparked in her eyes. Her gaze flicked to Emery, like Darius’s had earlier. “I would not keep you all to myself, Penelope. I am willing to share.”
“What the… That was not where I thought this was going.” I grabbed Emery’s arm with my other hand.
“This just got weird,” my mother said, shaking her head as she bent over the papers. Emery was shaking with chuckles now. I had no idea what he thought was so funny.
“That’ll be all, Miss Beauchene,” Darius said, his eyes now on Emery. Marie made a soft sound, almost like a purr, before turning with so much hip she looked double-jointed and stalking out. “Mr. Westbrook, we need to discuss finances.”
Emery sobered. “We do. The inventory is significantly decreased. We had to use some of the spells.”
“That is no harm. They can be redone.”
Emery’s jaw tightened, but he nodded.
“Well, then.” Darius looked us over before glancing at my mother and turning. “I have business to attend to. Rooms have been made up for all of you. My assistant, Mr. LaRay, will make sure you’re comfortable. Please feel free to stay as long as you would like. Should you be willing to allow me to assist you in a future move, I hope you’ll let me know.”
“We’ll manage,” my mother said.
“Mother!” I said through my teeth. I’d never heard her be so rude to a host. It was embarrassing.
With a nod, he strode away, leaving us to ourselves.
My mother shook the pages she’d been reading, and I realized her eyes were glistening. “He was shot in the back by another Sheriff,” she said in a rough voice. “The other Sheriff tried to make it look like an accident. I remember him. Meuler. Your dad and Meuler hated each other. They were always at odds.” She shook her head, looking at the pages again. “I’d thought it was a larger conspiracy, like with Emery’s brother, but no, it was blind hatred. Meuler probably thought he could get away with it, so he went for it.”
“So they did investigate,” Emery said.
“Yes.” She shook the pages again, indicating that she was reading the file itself. “And they executed Meuler. Why didn’t they tell me?”
“The guild would keep something like that under wraps. They wouldn’t want it to give them a bad name.” Emery sighed. “It’s terrible, what happened.”
My mother nodded, flipping to the last page. “If I had known…I’m not sure I would’ve kept my daughter under lock and key. The guild did the right thing, in the end.”
“Then it’s a good thing you never found out,” Emery said.
My mother looked at him for a moment before nodding. “Yes. It certainly seems so. The guild was going in the same direction then as it is now. My husband saw it, even if his death didn’t prove it.”
“It did prove it, in a subtler way. There’s plenty of poison in the guild. Has been for a while.”
She took a big, shuddering breath. “I suppose you’re right.” She lowered the pages to her lap, looking at nothing for a second. “It feels good to know.”
“Closure,” Emery said. “I have yet to completely get mine.”
“Will you go after Nicholas now?” I asked quietly, my heart aching for my father. It didn’t feel like closure to me. The loss still felt raw, like a hole in my life, and knowing more about his death didn’t change that.
“No,” Emery said. “I want him to live for a while longer, knowing I’ll come for him eventually. I want him jumping at shadows. Seeing my face in passing strangers. Haunting his dreams. He deserves that, after all the people he’s hunted down in cold blood.”
I turned my lips downward, because that was intense, and let it go. Nicholas probably did deserve such a fate…and Emery probably wanted a break, knowing he’d finally gotten to the root of the problem.
“I need a bath
, then sleep,” I said, struggling to get up. Emery stood quickly and helped me.
“Do not think, for one second, you will be sleeping in the same room, young lady. Not under my borrowed roof.” There were tears in her eyes from reading about my father, and still my mother was a ball buster.
I rolled my eyes and pulled Emery with me. I wasn’t too old to sneak around like a coward, and neither was Emery. Not when it concerned a woman who happily fired rounds into a group of evil mages.
“My life has taken a very strange turn,” I said as we walked down the hall.
He slipped his arm around my waist. “Can I speak to you for a second, Penny?”
Shivers washed over me. His tone was regretful and contained not one ounce of teasing.
“What’s up?” I asked, sitting on the bed.
He sat down next to me. “I was stalling earlier, when I asked you to stay alive. To not avenge my death. If we’d acted, either one of us, one or both of us would’ve died. I needed to give the vampires a chance to get in position. But your answer…” His thumb moved along the line of my lips, slowly back and forth. Pain blossomed in his eyes. “I just… You shouldn’t—” Frustration warred with sorrow in his expression. “I’m sorry. But I’m not the man for you. Not for you. You need someone with the world at his fingertips. Someone who’s not broken.”
“Emery, you don’t get to tell me what I need. I have my mother for that.” I smiled, reaching out to rest my palm on his chest. “I know that you are hurting, and you need to punish yourself for your brother a little more. So that’s fine. Do what you need to do. Then come back.”
The pain in his eyes increased. They dripped with it. That and regret. He shook his head slowly. “I have to leave. I don’t know if I’ll ever be back. Find someone else. Please.”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I nodded for his benefit.
He kissed me, hard at first, his lips smashed into mine, but then pulling away slightly until the contact was soft and lingering. My heart ached. I knew he was saying goodbye. Knew that I had to let him. He was a man of the wind. A gypsy. I couldn’t make him stay if he didn’t want to. I just had to hope what I knew he felt in his heart ate away at him until he decided to end his suffering.
“Will you lie down with me until I fall asleep?” I asked.
“I am so glad I can see when death is coming,” he murmured, glancing at the closed door.
Chapter Forty-Two
When her breathing slowed to deep and even, Emery slid out from under her and cocooned her body in the covers the way she liked. He stared down at her for a long while, memorizing her beautiful face, playing through all her hilarious anecdotes and funny musings. Remembering the way she’d looked at him as she stood within that press of enemies and vowed not to let him die.
She was so much woman. Brave, strong, yet sweet. A breath of life. The very essence of nature.
He blew out a breath and turned, but it was impossible to walk away like this. He couldn’t do that to her.
Faltering, he found a piece of paper and scratched out a quick goodbye note. He wished he could do more.
He closed the door softly and turned, hiding his surprise when he saw Darius waiting down the hall. The vampire’s face was impassive, but his eyes were knowing.
“The most powerful of the spells that Penny and I did are still in our utility belts. They didn’t fit the situation.”
“Lucky for me.” Darius walked closer. “I assume you are headed out.”
“Yes. We’ll have to settle up for what we have. Or what I have. I’m not sure what she wants to do with hers.”
“She’ll give them to me and insist you get paid for it. Her mother will agree, because she doesn’t trust my kind. Would you like to go through the spells now, or…”
“No.” Emery looked in the direction of the door. “It’s best that I leave now.”
“You don’t have to. I can easily hide you, if that is your fear. You can help with Penny’s training, if you want. The dual-mages would take you in, or you could stay at any number of my properties. Your life a month ago doesn’t have to be your life tomorrow.”
Emery shook his head, the desire to give in and stay almost buckling him. But he had an obligation to his brother to fulfill, and he meant what he’d said to Penny. She was an angel. She deserved the absolute best, and in his absence, hopefully she’d find it.
The memory of her body pressed against his as she asked him to be her first burned through his brain. He bowed with regret, stabilizing himself with a hand on the wall. Refusing her had taken more strength than he’d known he possessed.
“I have the location of my brother’s death,” Emery said. “I need to visit the site and say goodbye properly. I need to apologize in person. Then I need to disappear.”
“Well.” Darius walked Emery toward the door. “Whenever you need money, you know where to come. I am most often in New Orleans of late. I have an interest there. Should you want to speak with me directly, that is the best place to find me. That is, of course, assuming you lose your phone.”
Not this time. Emery wouldn’t be losing this phone like he had lost all the others. He had Penny’s number stored in it. One day, if he could ever figure out how to change his stars, he’d contact her again. Just to see how her life was turning out. Just to hear her voice.
“Do me a favor,” Emery said, knowing he was putting himself at the debt of a vampire, a very bad place to be. For her, though, it was worth it. “Watch out for Penny. Keep an eye on her. Make sure she stays safe. I will exclusively sell magic to you if you agree.”
Darius nodded. “Done. As I said, my interest in her has many facets. As does my interest in you.”
“I know. But you’d be surprised at how much harder she’s going to be to manage.”
“Oh, I doubt it. Not compared to…” He paused, and his face softened before a confused scowl crossed his visage.
Emery didn’t want to know. Whatever gave a vampire pause was not something he wanted any part of.
“Anyway.” Emery stepped away. “I’ll be off. I’ll stay with a friend tonight and meet you tomorrow night for the handoff. You have my number?”
“I do.” Darius looked at him for a long moment before shifting. “Keep your head down.”
“Don’t I always?” Emery smirked and turned, then strode for the door.
He didn’t get very far when someone much scarier than a vampire could ever be stepped into his path.
He threw up his hands. “I’m leaving. I told her goodbye. I told you I’d leave, and I am. Penny is safe from me. She’s free to find someone with some worth, like you said.”
Penny’s mom, whose first name she still hadn’t divulged, stared him down with all the fire he occasionally saw spark in Penny’s eyes right before she did something crazy. “She found someone with worth. She just needs that someone to express it.”
Emery stared at her stupidly, gobsmacked. That had not been what he’d expected.
“Listen.” Ms. Bristol shifted and gingerly switched the hand still holding the envelope from earlier. “My daughter is a lot like her father was. She always sees the best in people. She can be timid, and she can wreak havoc, but she is true to herself. When it comes to her principles, or matters of the heart, she is immovable. Stubborn as all get out. She believes in you. She trusts you. And I would have to agree with her sentiments. Now it’s just you who has to believe in yourself. You who has to trust yourself. If you could do that, then you would be deserving of her, and her of you. It all comes down to you.”
All he could do was stare and blink. Of all the unexpected things these last few days, this was probably the most surreal.
“Now that that’s out of the way.” She glanced around him and lowered her voice. “Where did the vampire get this?” She indicated the envelope.
“Stole it, and a lot of other records, out of the guild’s records room. They are surely sorting through everything and scanning like mad.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Can’t be a coincidence that they picked out a random Sheriff’s file.”
“I suspect not. He wants to know more about Penny.”
Her lips tightened. “Well, if he thinks getting one over on her is going to be easy, he doesn’t know very much about me.”
He couldn’t help a wry grin. “I suspect not.”
She harrumphed. “Well, then.” She patted his shoulder. “Take care, Emery. Don’t forget about us.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He waited for her to disappear into the hallway before he headed for the door.
Chapter Forty-Three
“Ready to police the neighborhood?” Veronica asked, standing on my porch with a red pen in hand.
“Go get ’em all, ladies.” My mother handed me a black pen and nodded seriously. “There’s a lot of work to be done.” Her pat was more like a shove.
With an annoyed scowl, since my mother was still very much herself, I followed Veronica down the walk of my new neighborhood. Two weeks after the magical battle involving guns, hostages, colorful robes, and naked people (which somehow didn’t appear in any newspapers or result in an extended police investigation), we were squared away in a temporary home near Duval. It was a pretty small rental, but thanks to the new identities that Darius had arranged for us, no one knew who we were. The guild wasn’t actively looking for me yet (more like licking their wounds and rebuilding their compound), so for the moment, we could just breathe.
The lull also gave me time to work up the courage to tell my mother I’d be leaving for New Orleans as soon as she was safely settled somewhere.
“Here’s one already!” Veronica jogged toward a missing cat sign featuring a shocking lack of commas. “Oh, I keep forgetting to tell you. My dad says you’re banned from our new home.”
Veronica’s family had also needed to move. They were in the witness protection program, vampire-style. Which meant they thought they were dealing with the cops, but were actually dealing with walking corpses.
“I can’t really blame the guy. You and your parents went through hell on my behalf.” I walked beside her as we moved on.