by Casey Lane
As I let the water run over me, images of Hattie risking her life to bring down that corpse flashed through my mind. She hated herself for loving me. Made sense. Vampires were not lovers by nature. But Hattie was more than a just a vampire.
She could tell me every day for eternity that she didn’t love me, but watching her climb up to get what was presumably my dead wife hanging from the ceiling was the most romantic thing she could do. I wasn’t happy to have her doing it. I didn’t feel nearly as confident in her climbing ability as I’d suggested to the infant Ben. And I absolutely could have done without her dressed as jailbait.
But none of those were options. That was who she was. She didn’t appreciate the tenderness of her own heart.
After a while I started feeling guilty about using so much water in the desert. Tom found his way into the bathroom and continued berating me. What’s next? I wondered as I turned off the faucet. I was sure the corpse wasn’t Tina. Where the hell was she? And what about the troll corpse I’d found?
I dried off to Tom’s protests echoing in the bathroom. His stinky cat breath made me shoo him out the door, but he ran right back in. His tail flicked from side to side in agitation. He was really put out. Maybe the whole kitchen freak-out incident had scared him. Tom usually seemed more chill than that. He was used to Tina’s moods. We both were.
I pulled on some clean briefs and jeans. I needed coffee. As I padded back to the kitchen, I smelled the fresh-brewed stuff percolating. I knew I was hung over, but I’d never hallucinated before.
Turning the corner, I discovered the good news: I wasn’t hallucinating. The bad news was that Tina was pouring coffee into my “Mr.” mug. She picked up her own “Mrs.” mug.
“I made it just the way you like it.” She handed me my mug.
I reached for it on autopilot. She looked exactly the same as the last time I’d seen her, days before. She wore jeans, cowboy boots, and a scoop-neck sweater. Her long blond hair was in two braids. Her face and neck were unmarred. She looked fine. Refreshed, even. No visible blood.
“Where the hell have you been?” I set the mug on the counter without touching the coffee.
“I went down to Albuquerque to do some shopping. Didn’t you get my note?” Her brown eyes widened. “Were you worried?”
“Tina, this isn’t a game. We thought you were dead. You left for a shopping trip in a snowstorm, leaving a trail of blood after trashing the kitchen?”
There was no way she’d have voluntarily missed the casino opening. Not on my life. Tina was up to something. I just had no idea what it was. Yet.
“All that happened in Nowhere in just a few days? Wow.”
“It’s not a joke. You have to call Leon. He’s been frantic. And then we have to talk.”
Tina ran her fingertip around the lip of her coffee mug. “I will. And I’m sorry to cause more worry.”
She came around the kitchen island toward me. I stopped her fingers sliding up my bare chest.
Tina stepped closer anyway, so that her breasts pressed against me. “Good thing I have an in with the sheriff.”
“Tina when you went missing as the wife of the sheriff, an outside investigator was called in.”
“I’ll go see this new inspector and straighten it out. Hopefully he’s married and know how it goes.”
“It’s not a he. Harriet Silverthorne is investigating.”
“There’s a blast from the past!” Tina took a step back, angling her head to study me. “What’s new with her?”
“It’s not a social call. She was here looking for you. When you disappeared it looked mighty suspicious, with me being the prime suspect.”
“Don’t be cross with me. I said I was sorry. Let’ start fresh, just you and me.” She slid her arms around my neck. “We could leave Nowhere.”
I removed her arms from me. It hadn’t felt like a hug. It felt like a stranglehold.
“Not to live among humans,” I said. “And you know how hard it is to be accepted in a new community. Plus, what about Leon? You’re so close.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “All he cares about is his casino. And all you care about is work. No one cares about me.”
“Have you heard anything about a drug called REAP?”
“What’s that?”
“Some drug in LA. Humans are using it, but it kills paranormals.”
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s in Nowhere. The missing troll I found dead the night you left had used it. And there was a dead shifter at the casino, wearing your dress, who also suffered from it.”
Tina touched her hand to her chest. “Surely you don’t think I had anything to do with that. I wasn’t even here.”
“We’ll need to verify where you were in Albuquerque.” I was ready to get my shirt on. Being near Tina left me feeling exposed. “Whoever he is, Silverthorne will track him down.”
Tina was playing the injured party. This was not the first time it had happened, although her exit this time had increased the drama. And brought Hattie back into my life.
But Tina was my wife. I would remain faithful to her no matter what her actions were. Maybe in time some peace could exist between us.
Tina set down her coffee cup and plucked up her jacket and purse. “Well, I gotta go.”
“Already? You just got home.” Although the thought of the drama level decreasing was attractive. “Silverthorne will want to talk to you.”
“I better go see Leon, like you said.” She blew me an air kiss on her way out. “And I’ll get it all straightened out with Silverthorne. You’ll see.”
I stared at the door after her exit. I knew I should be relieved that she was safe and I was no longer facing suspicion for her disappearance. Instead of relief, though, her absence filled me with a great unease. I didn’t trust my wife one bit.
Chapter Nine
Silverthorne
The night after I completed the autopsy in which I learned Jane Doe was not Tina, I awoke in my crypt to the smell of burning rubber.
For the record, waking up from the dead is something like when a scuba diver rises to the surface after a deep dive. I’ve never scuba dived, but based on what I’ve heard it seems to be the best analogy I can make, since it’s unlikely you’re going to experience it for yourself.
For all purposes, I’m dead for the daylight hours. I can’t be awakened. If I was transported outside, I would incinerate without even being aware. It’s a strange notion knowing you have no control over half your so-called life, especially when during the night hours you’re superhuman.
Waking up, my brain becomes aware of the heaviness in my arms and legs, which gradually lessens until I am fully conscious and able to control my body.
That night, as feeling returned to my body, my ankles and wrists tingled uncomfortably.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” Tina poked my side with some kind of wooden stake. “Talk about a sound sleeper.”
I turned my head to the side and blinked. My reflexes were still sluggish. But not so off that I couldn’t recognize serious shit.
Fuck. Tina Fang was in my crypt.
She peered closer—uncomfortably close. These damn shifters had no sense of personal space. She waggled my wooden hairpin in her fingers.
I was calm. I would remain calm.
Clearly she was batshit crazy. And I was bound by silver chains, which have a lethal effect on vampires. She’d done a damn good job too, making sure my wrists were tied to my waist. I was trussed up like a ham at Sunday dinner.
“Tina, what are you doing?” As conversation starters go it wasn’t great, but I knew screaming at her wouldn’t help. And I had to no way to snap her neck, which was the one thing I really wanted.
“I heard you wanted to talk to me.”
“I do. Untie me.” I tried not snarl, but I failed.
“Not yet.”
“Why not? Silver is not my look.”
Tina unzipped a toiletry bag and began filing her nails. “W
e’re waiting.”
“For what? It’s no longer daylight or I wouldn’t be awake. If you were going to take me outside, it’s too late. And if you don’t let me go, I’ll kill you before the night ends.”
Tina raised her perfectly arched brows. “Tough talk, but I don’t think so.”
“What is your problem?” I knew she was a nutjob, but now she’d just strapped on a jetpack and was headed for orbit.
“I’m so glad you asked.” Tina focused on filing the nails on her right hand, then pointed the emery board at me. “You are my problem.”
“Me?” My wrists were burning now. I tried not to move. My leggings were thick and provided a barrier, but it wasn’t going to be long before I was in serious trouble. I had issues with her, but what could she possibly want with me? “Leon asked me to find you. That’s why I returned to Nowhere.”
Tina produced a can of air freshener and sprayed it liberally over me. Great. Now I was going to burn and smell like a cheap piña colada.
“You stink.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Burning alive does that. Let me go.”
“Not yet. You’re still on a slow bake now. I can pull your clothing away from your skin and speed things up at any time. Remember that.”
Yeah. Like I was going to forget the searing pain.
“Tina, I’m going to continue to burn. What’s the point? You want me to suffer? Fine. Then leave me alone. I’ll burn alone here but at least have some privacy,” I said.
She consulted her watch. “I wouldn’t let you burn alone. That’s not being a good friend.”
“We were never friends.”
Tina pointed her file at me accusingly again. “That is your fault. I tried to be friendly, but you vamps think you are so much better than everyone else. And you know what? You’re not.” She cocked her head toward the cave exterior, listening.
I lifted my head. The increased pressure intensified the silver’s burning through my clothes.
A massive gray wolf slipped under the rock-ledge entrance. He stopped. His massive head swung from me to Tina.
“Fangy!” Tina sang. “You got my note.”
Fangy?
This was Fang? What had happened to his black pelt? Wait a minute; I’d seen this wolf before. When I stopped at the casino sign by the side of road coming into Nowhere.
The fur along his spine rose.
“Don’t you be mad at me. You hear me out.” Tina’s voiced wavered. “You’ve got to change form. I want to talk to you.”
Fang’s wolf paced back and forth near the entrance. He kept glancing at me. He raised his head, smelling the air. No doubt Tina’s beach party in a can was not covering my burning scent.
The wolf whined.
Well, fuck. This was a mess.
Finally, Fang trotted deeper into the cave. I’d never seen him transform from humanoid to wolf or vice versa. Shifters were pretty private about this. But I knew it was a painful experience that never got easier, reinforcing how neither humanoid nor shifter was really comfortable in this world.
Fang’s anguished howls echoed off the cave walls.
Tina flinched. I shuddered.
Eventually all sound stopped.
Fang emerged from deep in the cave without any clothes.
“Fangy!” Tina sounded shocked. “You’re naked! No matter. Your devoted wife made sure to bring some clothes for you.” She tossed him a small backpack.
He caught it but made no move to do anything with it. He started toward me.
Tina crouched low over me as if she as guarding me, except that her stake was at my breast. “Do it now.” Her voice was steel.
Without a word, Fang opened the bag.
I watched the two of them, wondering how in the fuck I was going to get out of this not exactly alive but not more dead either.
“That’s enough gawking.” Tina pressed her stake against my skin. “Turn your head. You shouldn’t be ogling a married man.”
I turned my head to look Tina in the face. I couldn’t wait to kill her. It’d been a while since I’d killed. I imagined the feel of her neck muscles snapping under my fingers. The light in her crazy-ass eyes going slack with death. She was so much crazy in one package.
Barefoot in jeans, Fang stepped toward her, buttoning his shirt. I could feel the rage rolling off him. “What’s going on?” His voice sounded casual. He was trying.
Tina bared her teeth. His casual tone didn’t fool her. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”
“Let her go,” Fang said. “We can go home and talk about this.”
“I’m not letting her go. I’m the one who brought her here in the first place.”
“You asked Silverthorne to come here to investigate your own disappearance?” Fang was surprised. I couldn’t blame him. It was news to me too.
“I left a message. And I knew if I made you the bait, she’d come. No one is going anywhere. She’s always here between us. We’ll talk now.”
Fang folded his arms across his chest. His face hardened. “All right. Put the stake down and we’ll talk.”
“No.” Tina pressed harder. I winced. The burning smell of silver racing to reach my skin sickened me.
Still over my body, she removed the stake to point it at him. “You stay right there.”
If you’ve ever witnessed a marital dispute you know how, frankly, quite embarrassing it is to be privy to that much emotion.
Now I was literally lying between them.
“Why don’t you love me?” Tina asked. Immediately her eyes welled with tears. A few rolled slowly down her cheeks. They smeared her makeup, making her eyes look like a raccoon’s.
“Tina, you’re my wife.”
“But you don’t love me.” She jabbed the stake toward him again. “You love her.” She spat the last word. “A vampire! She’s a skanky, coldhearted bitch who left you. She left you, remember, years ago? But that doesn’t matter. You still love her!”
“Tina.” Fang pressed his lips together but remained still otherwise, as though he was carved in stone. “You are my wife. I have never betrayed you.”
“Fuck that. You never loved me. After all I did for you. All that care I lavished upon you. You never loved me, not even a little bit, did you?”
He ran one hand through his hair. “You don’t understand. It’s not what you think.”
“I really doubt that, but why don’t you try me? I bet Silverthorne here is just as interested in the answer as I am.”
“Actually, I’m not,” I volunteered.
“Shut up.” Tina’s voice was savage. “Or I’ll cut your lying tongue out.”
“Touch me again and I’ll kill you,” I said. It wasn’t a threat; I really meant it. I just hadn’t yet figured out how. I didn’t care if she was Fang’s wife. The bitch was going to die.
“Tough talk from a vamp on slow bake in silver.”
“Stop. Stop.” Fang sounded weary. “Tina, you are my wife. I honor those vows. I’ve never been unfaithful to you.”
I felt a curious turning over in my chest. Thankfully, it wasn’t Tina’s stake. It was the twin razors of pain and opportunity.
“But . . .” Fang continued.
No. No. No. Stop talking. Please.
“I love Silverthorne. I always have. I always will.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Believe me, God knows I don’t want to. But you don’t choose your soulmate in this life. Fate chooses for you.”
Fuck. This wasn’t going to be well received.
Tina’s shoulders deflated. She looked down.
“I tried to start a new life with you,” Fang was saying. “I wanted that so much. Believe me.”
“No.” Tina shook her head wildly, as if she was waking up from a bad dream. “You haven’t tried, not really. Because you knew she was alive. Even LA wasn’t far enough. But if she’s dead, really dead, it’ll just be us. Like it should be.”
“No, Tina.” Fang’s voice was quiet. “I’m so sorry to have hurt you. That is my
fault. But I will never stop loving Silverthorne. It doesn’t matter where she is. I’ll always love her.”
“Well, fuck.” Tina wiped at her wet face. “What a mess.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I tried to start over. I really did.”
“You think this is my fault?” Tina’s voice rose to a wail.
“No—” he began.
“Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. I’m sick of you. Your voice. Everything about you.” Tina stood up. She shook her head. “You’re sorry? You did this to me.”
She started pacing next to me, striking her head with her fists. “This is all your fault.”
Don’t get me wrong. I hated this bitch. But this was disturbing. Goddamn these drama-filled shifters.
“You still love him, don’t you?” She spun on me, pointing my own hairpin at me. Great, she planned to stake me with my own hairpin. I was going to shove that thing up her ass if it was last thing I did.
Which, as things were shaking out here, it just might be.
“Don’t you?” she asked again. “Answer me or I stake you right now.”
“I don’t even like Fang most of the time.”
“That’s not what I asked.” Her eyes were wild. “Do you love him?”
Oh, fuck. Here went nothing.
“Yes.” It came out as a hiss.
“Thank you.” Tina calmed slightly. “I’m seriously sick of being lied to. I appreciate your honesty. I’m still going to have to stake you, though. There’s no other way. Unless . . .” She sounded thoughtful. “Why don’t we let Fang choose?”
WTF?
“Obviously we can’t go on like this, the three of us. One of us is not leaving this cave tonight. I assumed it would be you because I hate you. But maybe I was too hasty. Fang can kill his true love, his faithful wife, or himself. “
“I’m not playing your sick game, Tina,” Fang growled.
“Then I’ll stake her right here and now. I know you’ll never love me, but you’ll never be together. You’ll pine for her forever.”
I was trying to stay still, but the pain made me writhe.