by Lauren Dawes
‘Your mother was hit by a car. She’s at Buxton General. They think she’s bleeding internally and they need you here to sign the paperwork so they can go ahead with the surgery.’
‘Why haven’t they just taken her in already if it’s life threatening?’
Mark cursed; something he rarely did and said, ‘Just come down here. She’s been asking for you.’
Jerry had been stunned into silence. She was asking for him? He hadn’t seen her in six months. Was he ready to come face to face with her again after what she did to him?
‘I’m leaving now,’ he replied in a hollow voice. He hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket. Just as he was untying his apron strings, Indi walked towards him with wide eyes.
She asked, ‘What’s wrong?’
All Jerry could do was stare at her as he tried to actually process what had happened.
‘Tell me Jer. What’s wrong?’ Indi pressed. He looked into her penetratingly beautiful eyes and pulled her into a bear hug.
‘My mother is in hospital,’ he whispered down into her ear. It was Indi who pulled out of the embrace.
‘What?’
He brushed a few stray hairs from her face. ‘She was in an accident. Hit and run. She’s going in for surgery. She’s asking for me.’ Jerry sighed and rested his large hands on Indi’s shoulders. ‘I know you opened this morning, and that I’m asking a lot of you, but could you stay back and close tonight? I can call Rhett in to help you if you want?’
‘No. It’s fine. I can handle this on my own. He needs today off anyway. I can close up.’
He kissed her on the top of her head. ‘I’ll call you when I know something.’
Chapter 12
When the last person had left the café, Indi shut the door and let out a deep breath. After doing a quick survey of the place, she began the final clean up––picking up the few scattered dirty plates before wiping down the tables. She hadn’t heard from Jerry yet, but wasn’t surprised. She couldn’t give a shit if his mother bit it, but she hated the idea of Jerry suffering. A loud knock on the glass front door startled her, making her drop one of the plates that she had balanced on her arms.
‘Fuck it,’ she hissed, putting the rest of the stack onto the closest flat surface. She jumped again when the door rattled violently with another knock.
‘Closed!’ she barked, still bent over the shards of porcelain on the ground at her feet.
‘Indi?’ A small voice came out through the darkness. She looked up, confused. That sounded like …
‘Beth? Is that you?’
‘Let me in,’ she begged, rattling the handle. ‘Please.’
Jumping up from her crouch, Indi ran to the door and flipped the lock. Beth pushed past her and into the café, shoving her back against the door to close it again. Beth’s breathing was coming out in ragged gasps like she’d been running and her hair was plastered to her forehead.
Taking her by the shoulders and turning her body away from the door, Indi asked, ‘Beth? What’s wrong?’ Her best friend’s eyes were wild and unfocused, scanning the swallowing darkness at her back. ‘Beth!’
‘I was being followed,’ she replied in a small voice.
Indi frowned. Where the hell was her car? ‘Did you walk here?’ she asked. But Indi couldn’t get an answer. Beth just kept on fidgeting, trying desperately to look into the pitch black behind her. Holding her steady with her palms on either side of her face, she repeated her question.
Beth’s blue eyes finally fixed on Indi’s before she took in a shuddering breath. ‘I left the car at your place,’ she gasped. Indi could feel her trembling under her hands as some form of shock set in. When she began swaying, Indi backed her towards one of the tables and forced her to sit down before she collapsed.
‘Why did you walk here?’
The answer was an incomprehensible garble of words that ended with a sob. Finally, she said, ‘I was being followed.’
If she was being followed, why in the hell didn’t she get back into the car? ‘Beth? Who’s following you?’
But Indi never got an answer. She got an outburst. ‘You were supposed to finish at two!’
‘Beth! Who is following you?’ she repeated a little more forcibly this time.
‘Some homeless man who wanted to rob me,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘He could be the rapist Indi. He could be. He was following me.’
The cool darkness of rage blossomed in Indi’s chest; a boiling storm within her. ‘It’s alright now Beth. You’re safe.’ She looked out into the blackness around the shop; the impulse to protect her best friend surging through her like her finger had been jammed into a power socket. The beast of her anger was awake now, ready to take action if it came to that.
Beth was suddenly standing again, shifting nervously from foot to foot. ‘He might try to get in here Indi. We have to get out of here. Now!’
‘Beth. It’s okay. We’re safe, see?’ Indi pointed at the deadbolt, hoping to God that it would be enough to calm Beth down.
‘No!’ she shouted suddenly. ‘Turn off the lights. He’ll know we’re in here if he sees the lights on. Please.’ Beth ran off behind the counter before she could stop her, the sound of the storeroom door slamming shut and the lock twisting a second later.
‘Beth, I’m not going to turn the lights off. I’ve still got to—’ the shop was suddenly plunged into darkness. ‘Clean up,’ she finished her thought. Sighing, Indi picked up the cloth and spray bottle and dumped it next to the back room door.
Just as she turned back to the empty café, another glass-rattling knock shook the front door.
‘We’re closed,’ Indi barked in the general direction of the noise.
‘Hello?’
Indi stopped dead, her head swivelling in the direction of the strangely familiar voice. She’d heard it before. The silhouette of a man emerged from the darkness as a car drove past, and her heart started pounding in her chest. She knelt down to make sure her knife was just where it should be. She pulled it out of its sheath, drew it up along her leg and held it against her thigh as she took a small step towards the door.
‘Who is it?’ she asked, calling loud enough for him to hear, but not loud enough for Beth to hear. She didn’t want her coming out if things got messy.
‘It’s Sam … from the other night. I was just across the street when I saw a girl banging on the door and the lights went out suddenly. Is everything okay?’
She narrowed her eyes at him even though he couldn’t see her through the door since there was no light out on the street outside the café. ‘Why were you across the street?’
He laughed. ‘Are you always this suspicious?’
‘Are you always this evasive?’ she snapped back.
He laughed again. ‘Sometimes. So, is everything okay?’
She rubbed her temples like they were burning and sighed before opening the door a crack to see him properly. ‘Not really. No.’
‘Would you like some help?’
‘No. I’m just going to call a friend to come and pick us up,’ she said swinging the door closed in his face. It stopped suddenly and when she looked down, Sam had his hand on the handle on his side.
‘You weren’t going to call Rhett were you?’ he asked.
Indi started. ‘How do you know Rhett?’
‘He’s a buddy of mine. He works here, right? Rhett Wilson? I went to school with him.’
‘Good for you,’ she snapped, pulling on the door to break free from his grip.
‘Maybe I can help you out? Rhett lives out of town. It would take him at least half an hour to get here and you probably want to get out of here now, right?’
Indi didn’t know whether he was lying or not. She’d never asked Rhett where he lived; just assumed that he lived in some Buxton suburb like everybody else. ‘If you went to school with Rhett, you’d know what colour his eyes were, right?’ Sam nodded. ‘So?’
‘One is blue and one is green.’
‘Alrig
ht,’ she submitted, ‘just for my friend’s peace of mind, could you walk us back to her car?’ She was taking a risk, but this Sam guy was right. She wanted to get out of here as soon as she could if the rapist was circling—waiting for them to leave unprotected—then she would take the risk.
‘Of course.’
With a sigh, she opened the door. ‘I guess you’d better come in then.’ Sam stepped over the threshold, stopping in front of Indi. He was dressed all in black, looking more like a thief than the knight in shining armour he was playing. She could see he had a tattoo along his neck; the inked skin disappearing into the neck of his tight black tee. It looked like the tail of a snake.
‘I don’t know your name.’
Her eyes shifted back to his face. ‘Indi,’ she replied curtly. ‘Sit down,’ she demanded. He nodded and sat on the closest chair. At least he was obedient. If she had control of the situation, she would feel much better. As she stared at him, he crossed his ankle over his knee and rested an arm on the tabletop.
‘What’s the tattoo of?’ she asked.
Sam’s eyes found hers and burned into her soul. He tapped the top of the table with one hand and looked at her pointedly. ‘It’s nothing, just something dumb I did when I was a kid.’
Alright, so that was guy code for none of your damn business. She could respect that. ‘Okay. I’ll go and get my friend so we can leave.’ It could have been a gang tattoo, but it wasn’t a gang tattoo she’d ever seen before. She kept a wary eye on him as she moved around the counter to the storeroom door, knocking gently and calling Beth’s name to let her know it was time to go.
*
Gaining the half blood’s trust had been too easy. She projected so loudly and clearly that Nox barely had to dig for the information he had used to manipulate her into letting him into the café. He had hoped that she was going to be alone, but when he saw the human female run into the store, he knew that he had to change his plans.
Nox may have been an assassin, but at least he had some morals. Before he was changed, he’d had a wife and a daughter. The one thing he would not do under any circumstances was kill a human female. It reminded him too much of what he had given up.
As he waited at the café table, he turned over ideas in his head on how to kill the half blood once the human had been removed from the equation. Like vampires, half bloods could only truly die when their hearts and heads were taken. Perhaps he could lead her towards one of the alleyways, or ask to be invited up to her apartment and kill her there. He’d killed plenty in the past doing exactly that.
His distracted thoughts of assassination were interrupted when he heard muffled female voices.
‘Come on. We’re going home,’ Indi said.
‘What about the rapist? What if he’s still out there?’ the second female voice said in a panic.
‘Forget about the rapist. I’ll protect you.’
‘Who was knocking on the door?’
A long pause. ‘A friend.’
‘Who-who is it?’
‘He’s just this guy I met yesterday,’ she replied, sounding less than impressed with admitting it.
‘A guy, huh?’
‘Yeah,’ the half blood replied impatiently. ‘Let’s just go already.’
‘But who––’
‘No one. Please Beth. Let’s just go.’
The door opened after the light from under it disappeared. The human followed Indi out of the storeroom, not straying more than a foot from her back. He could smell her blood, so warm, just under the surface of her skin. The half blood came to a stop about two feet away from him. With a quick sidestep, she revealed the human.
The girl presented to him was beautiful by modern day standards. Her hair hung like a curtain of black satin down her back, her cobalt eyes were cautious as they fixed on his face. The strange thing about her was that she was a mirror image of the half blood, like they could have been sisters.
‘Sam, this is Beth. Beth, Sam,’ Indi said quickly.
‘Hello Beth,’ Nox purred, causing the human to blush, sending a rush of blood to her cheeks. He’d forgotten how fun it could be having a human around when they weren’t for desperation snacking purposes.
‘Hi,’ Beth replied shyly, not taking her eyes off his face. He smiled at her and offered her his hand. The half blood’s spine straightened as she glared at him, gripping the handle of the knife she didn’t think he’d seen behind her thigh. Beth looked at her first before extending her own hand.
Cautiously restrained fingers slid across his skin until their palms met. Curling his fingers around hers, he squeezed gently and shook. Within half a second, the radiant smile he’d managed to caress from her turned into something fearful.
It was only then he realised that his hand would have been icy to touch. When he didn’t feed properly, he didn’t feel ‘human’ to the humans. His skin would feel reptilian; cold and smooth. Playing human was making him sloppy … and twitchy.
Beth released his hand, took a step away from him and hugged herself tightly. The half blood growled so low that the human wouldn’t have been able to hear it, but to Nox the threat was there.
‘We should go, no?’ Nox asked Indi over Beth’s shoulder, hoping the human wouldn’t question what she’d just felt.
‘Yeah. We should,’ she replied. ‘Come on Beth.’ Indi took her friend’s arm and dragged her next to her side as she stood next to the door. She gestured for him to leave first.
‘I think I should walk behind you, to keep your backs,’ he said.
‘And I need to lock up before we leave. So …’ she gestured for him to leave again.
‘Of course.’ He stepped through the door, standing to one side. Indi didn’t take her eyes off him once which either meant that she knew what he was, or she was always this leery of men. After watching her keep her body between Beth and him, he decided on the latter. Deciding to test his theory, he took a small step to his right. Indi compensated for the new position by shifting a little to the right too as she worked the key in the lock.
When everything was locked up, he directed them to walk in front of him. The footpath simply wasn’t wide enough to accommodate all three of them.
‘No, we walk at the back,’ the half blood protested.
‘But how am I supposed to keep you safe when I can’t see you?’ he asked smoothly.
She seemed to think about that for a while before cursing under her breath and taking Beth by the arm. ‘Fine,’ she snapped, walking past him to take her position. He smirked. He was going to like this challenge.
Indi began walking at a slightly faster than relaxed pace; Beth hurrying to keep up with her.
‘How do you know him?’ Beth asked her softly.
‘I met him yesterday. I had an accident and he helped me out, that’s all.’
‘So, you don’t really know much about him then?’
‘I know his name is Sam. Look, I didn’t ask him to come round tonight. He was across the road when he saw you run in. He says he’s a friend of Rhett’s though.’
‘I’m afraid of him,’ she whispered, looking back to stare at Nox. He smiled at her, making her whip her head back around quickly.
‘What scares you about him?’ Indi asked gently.
‘After I touched his hand …’
‘What?’
‘Have you touched his skin? It feels weird.’
‘Weird how?’
‘I don’t know. Like slimy almost, but not wet.’
Indi nodded and took half a step closer to her friend’s body, protectively shielding her from Nox.
They had reached the half blood’s apartment building without so much as a rat scurrying in their direction. Nox wasn’t surprised. He was leaking menace and anticipation. The girls embraced and the best friend hopped into a late model Mercedes that was parked in front of Indi’s shambolic bricks-and-mortar apartment building.
‘I’ve got to meet Jason in half an hour. Call me later?’ Beth asked hopefully from
the rolled-down window. Indi’s arms crossed tightly across her chest. Her displeasure was coming off her body in rolling waves.
Beth bit her lip and nodded once before the auto lock button was hit and the engine started. Indi watched her friend drive off, Nox seeing his opportunity presented to him. He took a step closer to her, but before he could take another, she ran up the stairs of her apartment building and opened the glass door. With one foot in and one foot out of the building, she said, ‘Thanks for walking us back.’ With the tone of her voice, he very much doubted that she was thankful—driven by desperation maybe, but definitely not thankful.
Working hard to keep the glower off his face, he nodded. ‘A pleasure,’ he replied coolly. He couldn’t enter a building where humans lived without an invitation. And even though she was straddling the threshold, it was enough to stop him, to plant his feet like they were buried in cement. ‘Would it be okay if I come up and use your phone?’ he asked pleasantly. ‘I need to call a taxi.’
Indi frowned. ‘There’s a phone box right there,’ she replied pointing just over his shoulder.
‘I know, but they’re always out of order. I won’t be long,’ he pushed, smiling carefully to not reveal fang.
‘Sorry,’ she said in an icily-cold voice. She took the final step into the building, letting the door slam behind her. Maybe he’d been wrong about her not knowing what he was. He hadn’t encountered her Guardian while he’d been watching her come closer to her transition though, so his theory was holey. With a growl in his throat, he stalked into the shadows to wait for his next opportunity.